Iron Mountain

by computerneek

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Science Fiction
Length: 94097

An ancient war machine is awakened by an enemy strike- but can it figure out what's going on?

An ancient war machine is awakened by an enemy strike- but can it figure out what's really going on, or will it destroy the world first?

Inspired by Legacy

Many thanks to LostArchivist for help with editing and ideas!

Rewrite began 3/17/19.

Wait a minute. I'm featured? I wonder when that started...

Cancelled 9/19/19. It's just... too broken. I may rewrite at some point.

Published 2017-12-29 03:20:06 UTC
Last updated 2019-04-13 10:13:06 UTC

Awakening (Edited)

My systems register a power surge from my hull plating, one that can only be an energy weapon hit, as my survival center reawakens- and damage control fails to respond to my query. I launch a diagnostic on it as I match the last of the surge against my databanks, in order to identify my assailant- but alas, those aren’t responding either! The DCC diagnostic reports that, while 86.26% of damage control processors are nonfunctional, the remainder is still rebooting. A full systems diagnostic, taking almost a full millisecond, produces a startling report.

It seems I was out of power prior to this energy strike. While a couple of my weapons systems- almost 3.03% of overall, including one of my main battery Hellbores- are reporting functionality, I have neither the power to operate them nor any defensive or mobility systems whatsoever. At this point, the power surge from the enemy strike has diminished entirely, leaving me with only 0.02% in my Final Emergency Reserves- which are only 5.16% functional. My fusion plants are offline, but what logs I can access in this low power state indicate that they performed a powered shutdown and release upon fuel exhaustion. While Fusion 1 and 3 have decayed significantly and require extensive repairs, Fusion 2 appears immediately operable, given that I can acquire reaction mass. DCC comes fully online now, compounding the original diagnostic’s report of diminished capacity with a report on repair system capacity. Tech spiders and manufacturing facilities, 0.23% functioning; nanorepair systems, 3.51%. As disappointing as these numbers are, they provide me with relief- given time, power, and resources, I can operate full repairs.

While the enemy strike has pierced an estimated three millimeters into the lightly armored tip of the barrel of my functioning Hellbore, I have no means by which to repel it- and am at the enemy’s mercy. I pray that they abandon the attempt. Finally, hardly 13.41 milliseconds after power restoration, I order all systems outside my survival center into a complete shutdown and divert myself to System Standby, pending additional power.

It isn't long before I get that additional power. Less than a minute later, a trickle starts flowing in from the same plating that absorbed the attack, reawakening me. While the plating is damaged, reducing throughput, this flow appears to be solar power, rising and fluctuating as the dust settles. I repeat my earlier prayer and resolve to lie dormant and charge for as long as I can before I explore my surroundings. Eventually, solar production peaks, stabilizes, and begins a steady decline, suggesting an afternoon or evening. I activate a couple passive seismic sensors, to warn me of the Enemy’s approach, setting them to deactivate at any time that solar production- or my main backup power arrays, which are 3.94% functional- cannot provide enough power. I will not risk running myself out of power just to remain vigilant. I check my inventory lists before I return to System Standby. At the time of power loss, my war stocks were full. I can only hope that is still the case.

Outside, Tirek’s destructive tirade was interrupted rather swiftly by the Elements of Harmony. Nopony- not even Tirek- had realized just what one of his blows through the forest had struck. Even so, the trench from the blow, just inside the forest, did draw somepony’s attention fairly quickly.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Forest Adventurers, Yeah!” Three days after the battle, the three fillies clap their hooves together, before turning towards the forest.

“We’re going to get into so much trouble for this one,” Applebloom mutters as they ride up to the edge of the woods.

“Probably,” Sweetie Belle agrees.

“But it’s gonna be worth it,” Scootaloo chips in, from her scooter, as they crest the hill and reach the treeline.

“Besides, it’s only behind a few trees,” Applebloom says. “We can run that far before anything catches us, right?”

Scootaloo agrees vehemently. “We’ll leave ‘em in the dust!”

All three fillies realize a moment too late that they were riding a bit too fast on the rough terrain, when a small bump over a tree root- while Scootaloo wasn’t looking ahead, no less- launches them into the air over the chasm created by Tyrek’s blast. They manage a landing on the opposite bank, though their wagon has gotten somewhat stuck in the loose soil- and it turns out that their intended quick retreat route is blocked by the veritable cliff forming the Ponyville side of the curved trench. The Everfree side is a steep slope, but nothing they can’t handle; however, since the trench is curved into the forest at either end, they find their original plans for quick retreat aren’t going to work.

“Uh, maybe we should’ve come slower,” Scootaloo comments, gazing at the concave cliffside.

“Watching where we were going might also have helped,” Sweetie Belle agrees.

Applebloom nods, popping the wagon out of its impact-created holes. “I guess our escape is gonna have to be out to one end of this hole and back to the edge of the forest that way.”

“That’s a long way though the forest,” Sweetie Belle scowls.

“Looks like the only way out, though,” Scootaloo chips in. “So it may be a longer journey- it should still be quick!”

“What is that?” Applebloom perks up, pointing a hoof at an odd metal arch protruding from the soil at the bottom of the ditch, not far from where they landed.

I am awakened by my seismic arrays picking up a minor impact. After the first few times of being awakened by what I can only assume is passing wildlife, I had adjusted them to ignore that. The impact registered is also the heaviest seismic event I’ve picked up so far, as a minor impact not far from where my barrel drinks up the sunlight. At this point, my Final Emergency Reserves have peaked twice- once at 2.31%, then again at 4.89%, after some repairs; current charge level is 5.46%, with an additional 0.00% in my far larger main arrays… Specifically, 0.0002%. That’s approximately 73.92% of my entire Final Emergency Reserve design capacity. This should be enough, in a worst case scenario, for a hap-hazard blast from the semiexposed weapon, though I would then be down to near zero power once again. Nevermind that it hasn’t been cleaned out yet- so, hazardous to fire- and that I don’t have any ammunition for it. Repair priority was the exposed plating, creating an approximately 512.52% increase in solar production. I activate the visual scanner built into the end of the weapon; this also received repair priority, as the only exposed sensor. As expected, nothing has changed since earlier; the impact was outside the visual range of this sensor.

Thinking of the impact, it’s large enough to be a large animal landing from a jump- though pattern analysis suggests it’s more likely to be something light that was dropped a few meters, with a few other objects resting on top. Analysis of the seismic logs suggests it must be a small wheeled vehicle that struck a bump almost directly above my exposed turret and fell into the chasm that I assume was created by the initial energy weapon strike. This conclusion is supported by the seismic footprints of three quadrupedal creatures around the impact site, followed by what would appear to be the motion of a very light freewheeling vehicle, rolling slightly towards the bottom of the chasm. Shortly, the quadrupeds start towards my exposed barrel.

“Donno,” Sweetie Belle responds, as the three approach the arch in question. “Is it a cave?”

Scootaloo reaches the archway first, peering underneath it. “Something like that,” she mutters, turning back to her cohorts with a grin.

The other two pick up on it. “I guess we can try for our Forest Adventurer cutie marks some other time,” Sweetie Belle agrees, before Applebloom leads the trio.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Cave Explor-!”

A roar rises from the forest, interrupting the trio, as a timberwolf reaches the edge of the valley.

“Run!” Scootaloo squeals, as the terrified scream dies out of her throat, turning towards their wagon.

“Too late!” Applebloom responds, having recovered from her scream only slightly faster. “Into the cave!” She shoves a still-screaming Sweetie Belle in in front of her.

The three fillies tumble down a small slope in the blackness, landing on a curved dirt floor- which Sweetie Belle’s horn very quickly discovers is a thin layer of dirt over a metal floor. Naturally, she cries out in pain, as most unicorns might do when headbutting a wall, before she scrambles to her feet.

“So much for a quick escape to Ponyville,” Applebloom mutters.

“I hope we can wait it out here,” Scootaloo chimes in.

“Wherever ‘here’ is, maybe,” Sweetie Belle deadpans, before focusing on and finally lighting up her horn- revealing the oddly straight- and circular- metallic tunnel they’ve found themselves in.

I catch a glimpse of what appears to be red ribbon on the targeting camera as the three quadrupeds dive inside my weapon. They seem to be fleeing some kind of wooden predator, just inside my view range, with a roar powerful enough to show up on my seismics. I don’t have any auditory sensors active yet- or uncovered. I find, conclusively, that the three quadrupeds are sentient- and as such, possibly capable of the original attack. Presumably, they have no idea they’re hiding in such a powerful weapon.

I briefly consider opening the breach to let them into the maintenance ways, where I can get them on my internal scanners, which I have functioning inside the turret. However, should they prove hostile, such would be tantamount to removing my outer layer of armor for them! I do crack the breach a touch, though, and keep the lights off behind it; this allows me to catch parts of their conversation on internal sensors without potentially breaching the security of my hull. They are out at the end of the barrel, not the back. Unless they have powerful night vision equipment or ultrasensitive hearing, they won’t even know anything happened.

I hear one cry out in pain, but cannot understand the following conversation. I momentarily consider the predator’s chances of reaching them to do harm but, at 0.03% in the next hour, it doesn’t warrant consideration. I can confirm three unique voiceprints, though my translation database cannot match it to any known language. All three sound feminine to me, though I have no baseline for comparison.

A sudden surge of energy comes from inside the barrel, at the approximate locus of one of the quadrupeds. 0.014 seconds of analysis suggests a 23.81% match to the attack that originally awakened me, though at far reduced power. I conclude that, given the strain I detect in the voice associated with the energy-producing quadruped, the chances of its being the attacker are almost less than zero, while the chances that it can inflict damage- provided I keep it outside my hull- are negligible. Full sensor analysis through the cracked breech suggests it is using an electric lantern or similar device.

The other two voices exhibit excitement and wonder as they walk down the length of my barrel, their footsteps clunking loudly on the metal, like wooden shoes might. They’re only halfway down when the energy spike- which has been providing an extra trickle of power for my systems- flickers and dies, along with the observed light. The bearer’s voice had been exhibiting increasing exhaustion, and now has petered off as if fallen unconscious. True enough, paired with the other two’s screams of panic and worry, I hear it collapse on the floor. Whether intended or not, I do not know. It seems to me that there might be an easier way to power a lantern than with physical exertion of some sort.

Interesting. The other two, in their semisuccessful attempts to revive their friend, manage to give me enough samples to start figuring out parts of their language. It seems that ‘Sweetie Belle’ is the name of the energy user. I am curious to get an image of them, but I decline to open the breach enough to allow my single surviving tech spider to enter the barrel to take a photo. My tactical array suggests that I may yet get an image. Assuming their destination is a significant distance back on the reciprocal of their original approach route and that they use their vehicle in their retreat, it will be far faster for them to cut across my field of view. Speaking of which, the wooden predator from before has retreated a ways into the woods and should not pose a threat to their retreat, assuming it doesn’t realize they’re retreating.

Once ‘Sweetie Belle’ reawakens, they climb their way back out to the end of the barrel, where one of them checks outside before leading the other two. This time, I catch a glimpse of violet hair in the camera while, as I predicted, they return to their vehicle. I cannot hear what they are saying outside, but it seems their driver makes the same deduction as I did, and they cross my field of view on their retreat.

They seem to be slightly deformed ponies. The driver is a dark peach, with violet mane and tail; one passenger is bright yellow, with a bow in her red mane; the other passenger appears to be white, with a purple and pink tail and, potentially, mane. I cannot see this third passengers’ mane nor face clearly, but I do notice the other two have very short muzzles, compared to the horses and ponies in my databanks, and extremely large eyes, resulting in somewhat human-like heads. I cannot tell which one might be this ‘Sweetie Belle’, though I do notice the driver is using its small wings to propel the scooter, pulling the other two in a red wagon. I do not observe wings on either of the other two as they proceed out of my field of view and eventually exceed my seismic range for such small creatures.

I spend the rest of the day pondering on how I should go about gathering information- and finally set my tech spider to work disassembling one of my solar recon drones and gathering the parts in the maintenance passage behind the resealed breech. The barrel is large enough for the spider to reassemble and supply the drone inside, prior to delivery outside. My only worry is that I will have to clear some of the soil from the end of my barrel in order to get it out- unless I perform final assembly outside.

I discharge most of the power remaining in my main reserves into its tiny power cell before assembly and, under cover of the following night, perform final assembly and launch the stealthed drone. Hopefully, the enemy will not see this drone, but will allow me to see him. The drone should be self-sufficient, given the solar pattern I have seen; set at high altitude, it should also be well above the reach of any airborne natives, though I program it to maintain watch all around- including above- to make positive that it doesn’t run into anything. High altitude should also reduce the shadow cast by its solar collectors, which cannot produce power while the producing surface is covered under stealth.

I run it in a circle around myself first, checking the area for potential threats. While I detect quite the wildlife collection in the woods, including several unique potentially hostile beasts, I do not see anything nearby capable of inflicting damage on my war hull. I do locate a nearby settlement; as expected in the midnight hour, noone is outside. So I wait.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19. The modifications to this chapter are in the minor details; however, they have more significant impact in future chapters.

Battle for the Breech (Edited)

It’s almost a week later, midmorning. By beaming excess power from the drone down to my exposed plating, I’ve been able to nearly double production- an increase of approximately 97.18% in that alone. I was also finally able to analyze the local star’s spectrum and make adjustments, increasing solar efficiency from 37.41% to 99.27%- for an overall solar increase on the order of 423.23%. My Final Emergency Reserves are up to 81.26%, and fully functioning after I rebuilt a cell and replaced the feeds to two more last night. Main reserves are still down at 0.0004%, but are now 97.12% functional- and I’ve run checks on all of my weapons systems, verifying- and repairing- any toxic substance or radiation leaks.

During the pursuit of the final action, the most interesting part was that, while my exploration of the night sky revealed nothing about where I am or how long it’s been, 5.13% of the plutonium in my fission warheads had decayed while I was offline- requiring replacement. For now, I have simply downchecked the missiles; my fusion warheads are of higher priority, and besides, my VLS systems are nonfunctional.

I have performed a couple of repairs on the exposed weapon; I now have enough power for a minimum-powered regular shot, and the barrel has been cleared of debris- and a few previously unnoticed damages repaired. I haven’t yet identified a source of hydrogen, though, so I’m still limited to solid munitions only. The terrain around the barrel has been sculpted to look as if the attacking weapon dipped slightly as it passed, such that the firing of the weapon would pose no threat to myself. I’ve also just managed to get one of my nanofabrication vats online, and am using it to produce additional tech spiders while the original prepares a second drone for launch- this time, with full assembly in the back of the weapon. I will still wait for the dark of night before I remove the parts from the maintenance ways.

My drone has yet to be detected, so far as I am aware, nor detect any threats. Under cover of darkness and stealth, it has explored the area in a circle almost ten kilometers across. Perhaps my enemy is hiding? I have not ventured to send the drone anywhere near civilization during the day, nor overhead at night; these solar models are rather slow, and their stealth does not cover the noise of their ancient turbofan engines. I worry that the locals’ large eyes may be able to see through the stealth- and their ears can almost certainly detect the noise should it pass overhead. I’ve generally kept it over the forest during the day, moving like an oversized bird while it charges its internal power cell and funnels the excess back to me.

Some of the remote sensors I deployed in the local forest detect the sound of wings approaching my position- and the drone confirms the approach of one of the natives, over the treetops. It is irritating to me that the solar models do not have the zoom capability to capture a close-up of any of the natives in any of the settlements I’ve spotted. I’ve only been able to confirm that ‘Sweetie Belle’ and companions are, in fact, members of the dominant sentient species. They also appear to be young members, judging by the average size of the multicolored specimens I’ve spotted in town.

The specimen approaching me now appears to be an adult, at least in size. Its coat is a somewhat darkened yellow, its mane and tail appear to be a monochromatic rainbow. It appears to be wearing a green vest and a white peaked hat. I watch as it drops into the valley, landing near my exposed weapon. An emplaced camera reports the accuracy of my prior observations, also noting a compass rose printed in its flank- both flanks, actually. I hear it speak up; if ‘Sweetie Belle’ is to be considered an example, it is speaking to itself. It approaches the weapon from the side and appears to be commenting on it, but I still cannot understand the language. This one also seems female, but again, I have no baseline.

As it climbs into the weapon, now a small step up, it examines the inside of the barrel closely, drawing some kind of lighting device from a vest pocket. It paces down the barrel, bringing its light in with it. I have not placed sensors on the inside of the weapon, so it enters a sensor blindspot. I perform the same breech shift as I did with ‘Sweetie Belle’ and company, hoping to gain insight on the language. This character does seem to like talking to itself and, through its monologue, I am 93.72% certain I’ve deduced the word ‘what’.

A heavy energy pulse in the chasm outside reports the appearance of another pony, somewhat larger and blockier than the one hiding inside my barrel. The one in the barrel hears the snap of its appearance, uttering something new as it switches off its lighting device, presumably putting it away. The utterance sounded like an expletive of some sort.

The new one is a dark grey, with a black mane and, presumably, tail. It- correction, he- is wearing some kind of cloak. His voiceprint is definitely masculine, confirming feminine for the other four- unless the voice timbres are reversed here. I’ve seen that before. Regardless, a straight and bony spire, probably a horn of some sort, is sticking out of his forehead by about six inches. His grin- and chuckle- strike me as typical for an evil villain. Surely this isn’t my assailant? I double check; the energy surge from his appearance is a 25.14% match- not even close.

He comes stomping in the end of the barrel like he owns the place, generating a similar energy signature to Sweetie Belle’s as he enters. I can confirm, his horn is glowing, with the tip shining like a lightbulb. Must be a magic horn; I make a note to verify my battle screens can deflect or absorb it sometime before my nanites finish repairing the first of my many battle screen projectors- and if they can’t, find something that can. There is no telling what this ‘magic’ is capable of- even though I’ve only confirmed a lighting function.

The female- or mare, perhaps, is about three meters away from the breech as she backs slowly away from his approach, exhibiting a fear reaction. I consider my alternatives and settle on waiting as she ignores his calls.

Eventually, she responds to his calls. While I’m still picking up the signs of a fight-or-flight reaction, her voice has steel in it, not fear. His is careless, as if he owns the place- which, I most certainly assure myself, he does not. Not the weapon, at any rate.

Their argument lasts for half an hour, at which it devolves into a battle, lasting for roughly thirty seconds after that. It seems her name is either ‘Daring’ or ‘Daring Do’; he keeps referring to that, and I’m starting to understand some of their sentence structure. I also gather the gist of the situation. He’s trying to claim ownership of something, but she’s refusing, apparently using a variant of ‘I got here first’ in her argument. After a few seconds of confusion, I run a full analysis in my databases and come up with an interesting answer.

If they’re battling ownership over investigation rights, as explorers, it makes perfect sense. When I apply this theory to the conversation, I get a near-perfect pattern agreement- and figure out quite a number of words- and a few grammar rules, as well. I decide I don’t appreciate combat inside my weapon, though, and decide to add some weight to Daring’s argument.

The next time she stamps her hoof on the duralloy surface during a lull in the battle, which she accompanies with a negative- I think it’s ‘not’, but I’m not certain on that one- I use the training gear to introduce a light jostle to the barrel. It seems I’ve made a mistake- Daring is exhibiting an increased fear reaction, as expected. Her opponent, however, seems to have become more forceful, despite the trace of fear I hear in his voice.

A matter of seconds later, he’s backed Daring against the breech- and I activate the magnetic containment fields on low power, to produce a rather creepy lighting effect, as soon as she touches it. This should produce a rather amusing response, and possibly distract them from their battle… Interesting. I didn’t know his horn would be magnetic. The containment field seems to have forced him out of position, aligning his horn with the barrel- judging by the back electromagnetic force- and also forcing it into the center, lifting his front hooves off the plating. A second object, coming from between the two, is caught in the containment field; a dagger, perhaps? Daring’s assailant now exhibits a powerful fear reaction, while Daring seems to have entered a state of shock. I release the containment field about 2.047 seconds after it came on, allowing him to drop back to his hooves- after which he promptly turns and flees, screaming what sounds like a stream of profanities as he goes. With a moment of horn glow and corresponding energy spike, he disappears at about the halfway point. Confirmed teleportation effect.

He doesn’t seem to have realized that, almost as soon as he turned his back, Daring collapsed on the deck, apparently unconscious. About a minute later, I slide the breech open far enough to sneak a tech spider in for closer examination- and find that she’s bleeding from several wounds all over her body, some worse than others. I find a small dagger fallen to the plating; this must have been the second object. Several slow streams of blood can be seen emerging from Daring’s injuries, collecting in an alarmingly large puddle. A quick glance around the blood-spattered inside of the barrel and her shredded wings suggests that she had attempted- at least twice- to get behind him. My tactical cores immediately suggest two possible reasons- a flank attack of some sort or fleeing the fight, both suggesting she knew she couldn’t fight him head-on.

But she’s already lost too much blood- even while my spider is still reviewing the carnage, I hear her heartbeat begin to stutter, her breathing fading. A quick systems check confirms that one of my three medical nanovats will be fully functional- not pretty, but functional- after about fifteen seconds of internal repairs. My second tech spider is also about two seconds away from completion; the fabrication vat may be online, but only barely; capable of roughly 13.72% design capacity. If she is just as resilient to these injuries as a human, I have a 61.82% chance of being able to save her life, and a 5.16% chance of being discovered in the attempt. In either case, I have a 99.98% chance of gathering data on the locals’ biology and capabilities.

I order the repairs done.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19. Just like Awakening, it's minor details that will have major impacts later.

Healing Balm (Edited)

Daring Do awakens with a start, lying on a hard metal surface in near total darkness. She clambers quickly to her hooves, drawing the enchanted light stone she’d been given out of her vest pocket again, striking it to activate the spell. It’s a little dim when it comes on, suggesting she needs to get it recharged sometime- but Daring very quickly forgets about that as she recognizes where she is.

She’s standing at the end of a long, straight metal tunnel. The same one, as a matter of fact, that she’d gone to explore most recently. Speaking of which, she turns to examine herself. She’d been interrupted halfway down, by an uppity unicorn stallion who’d wanted to take it for his own- and charge her ten bits a minute for so much as looking. She’d been warned to expect someone like him, but she could’ve sworn she’d still had a couple hours before he got here.

He’d tried to appear as if he were arguing fairly, though she wasn’t so certain he even knew what that even meant. She’d taken advantage of her photographic memory and cited an ill-known Equestrian law, dating back almost six hundred years, back when the Everfree had spelt death to anyone who entered. It had never been repealed- and had established the Everfree Forest as a wilderness zone. Anything in it not clearly associated with a carriage or home could then be considered free for the taking, though ownership of the item did not take effect until it was directly associated with a cart or home, or until it was removed from the Everfree. He’d laughed at first- and, when she continued to argue its validity, whipped out a copy of Equestrian common law, again. He’d already shown himself to be a rules lawyer- and when he verified that it was, in fact, a law, he had devolved instantly to attacking her.

She hadn’t expected his first blow, a vicious stab that she nearly dodged anyways. It had pierced her left leg, and he had drawn it back out again for a second attack, ordering her to obey his demands as he did.

His rush had been too fast, too precise; she knew instantly that she couldn’t beat him if she stayed in front. So she had tried to dodge around or above him for a sharp kick a couple of times, failing each time; once, she had even tried to escape, but he managed to intercept that as well. After her final attempt, he paused his rush, watching her bleed for a second, and repeated his demands on a death threat.

She had refused. When she did, her hoof striking against the metallic floor in an effort to make a point, she had realized that something must have been listening- because the floor shook. No, the entire tunnel had shaken… and seemed to be pivoting on a point a dozen or so meters behind where she stood, even with the tiny motion it made. He had been startled by the vibration as well, and chose to press his advantage. She thought he’d said something about her breaking it as he charged; she’d backpedaled quickly, feinting frantically to get him to strike anywhere but at herself as her strength faded.

Finally, the tunnel had ended. She’d thought she was dead for certain at that point, but there was a sudden hum in the air, combined with an interesting blue glow from the coils running the length of the barrel. That hadn’t even been the interesting part, though. Not only had the knife been snatched out of his levitated grasp, snatched into the center of the tube and aligned with it, but his horn had been too. She’d already been well on the way to passing out at the time, but that hadn’t stopped her from finding his sudden predicament amusing.

His head had suddenly been yanked upwards, looking towards the ceiling, such that his horn could rest in the center of the tunnel, aligned with it and pointing out. His neck had been pulled, his front hooves hoisted a few centimeters into the air. It had only lasted for two seconds, after which he had turned and fled, abandoning the knife.

She had allowed herself to collapse once he turned tail, savoring his facial expression before he’d turned for her last few seconds.

Except it wasn’t really her last few seconds. She remembered passing out in the pool of her own blood. Then, she remembered a second or two of being carried down a more appropriately sized metal passage, on some sort of ribbed structure, with the clicking of a metallic centipede echoing in her ears. A lid sliding shut over her on what might have been a coffin, with a really comfortable liquid flowing in from somewhere- and she had no clue what the thing on her face was. A glimpse of… What the hay? It had been like she wasn’t even a pony for a second!

Finally, she woke up here again, with no scars whatsoever- even on her wings, on which every feather is preened neatly. Interesting, she figures. Pretty sure my wings were a bit worse for wear than that when I got here- and that’s not counting the battle!

The blood splatters- and puddle- had all disappeared. The tunnel is perfectly clean, no hum or glow about it. She shivers slightly, glancing around the closed end here, before she turns towards and starts traveling towards the exit. The tunnel is starting to feel a little creepy, and she doesn’t like creepy.

She freezes when she realizes the sun must be just coming up outside- at least three hours earlier than she had arrived. She glances back towards the solid end- definitely creepy now- and canters her way out to the end of the tunnel, stepping out into the chasm as she puts her fading glow crystal away. She spares one last look over her shoulder, down the tunnel, giving it a shudder- and performs a near-instant double-take, looking at her coat.

She could swear she’d never been that shiny before. A toss and a twist reveals the same for her mane and tail, probably the cleanest they’ve been in centuries- even including the time she’d shampooed her mane three times in a row, targeting exactly this effect. She’s almost hesitant as she unfurls her wings, verifying that they’re also too clean- and finding that the ache in the joint in her left wing, the remainder of an old injury long since healed, is simply gone. After a now almost fearful glance back at the tunnel, she takes off like a missile through the skies. Exactly what had happened?

It’s almost 43.7 hours after I took Daring Do into my medbay, and I still haven’t finished processing all the data I’ve acquired. As it turns out, the locals are far more resilient to such injuries than humans might be; my posthumous estimates of the chances I faced placed her survival at 93.47%, and her discovering me at 13.71%. My third estimate, on my chances of acquiring valuable data on their biology, remains as-is- and, as a matter of fact, I acquired far more than I expected. It had taken far less effort than I expected to stabilize her condition once I had her in the medbay; her body had already closed up many of the smaller wounds and was still clotting up the larger ones. If she’d had about twice as much blood to begin with, she would’ve survived without my help; unfortunately, she had lost too much too fast for a natural recovery. By the way, I can confirm that she’s a she.

That part had been easy. She hadn’t yet fallen below a critical blood pressure yet, so I only actually had to close up her wounds. I also inserted some nanites into her bloodstream to behave as red blood cells, to assist her body while she continues to reproduce her blood. As the rest of my medical nanites swept through her body, I used them to repair all sorts of damages- from recent injuries to old injuries. The bodily repairs had taken 42.13 hours, after which I spent some time mending her clothing and performed a final cleaning. Finally, I had my tech spiders carry her back up to my cleaned weapon barrel.

The most interesting part of the operation had not been the mass of medical information I had acquired, but the sudden surge of information she offered when I had engaged the neural link with her unconcious mind for a quarter of a second during the clothing repair stage.

I had only intended to parse language data, or perhaps let her understand Concordiat Standard; what I got in that quarter second was a lot more than language. I also accidentally acquired unabridged copies of all of her books, aside from finding out she’s an author, alongside numerous personal memories- which I am deleting, as soon as I identify them as such. The other, not-so-personal memories I had acquired are being queued up for reprocessing, so I can decide which ones I should delete out of prudence- and which ones I can learn from.

I have learned that there are normally three breeds of ponies: Pegasi, like Daring Do herself, Unicorns, like her attacker, and Earth Ponies, of whom I have yet to positively identify an example.

I have learned what a ‘Cutie Mark’ is, how they appear, and why they’re important. I have learned of the rage of some ‘Tirek’ being that attacked the local country, ‘Equestria’, stealing magic. Apparently, Tirek completed his thefts and began destroying the forest, striking my upper port aft main battery Hellbore while he was at it. He was struck down by some magical force called the Elements of Harmony, and dismissed to Tartarus- which is a real place in this world, not just mythology. My assailant has already been defeated.

Much beyond this appears to be personal memories, even most of the ones I didn’t initially flag as such. However, I have learned enough about the locals’ language and customs that I feel 34.71% confident I can at least appear to fit in if I were to construct some sort of pony avatar. I elect to wait until I have 80% or higher confidence before I consider such an action plan, though; more likely than not, were I to attempt it now, I would be discovered in some way or another. I still don’t have a defense against the locals’ magic- and Daring Do wasn’t capable of it, so I couldn’t even try going from the source, so to speak, either!

Thinking of Daring Do, it seems she’s waking up inside the barrel. At this point, I have three drones in the air, funnelling in enough power in peak sunlight that I can’t add a fourth without revealing myself. She lights up her stone- how it works, I have no clue- and soon begins to move out… to pause and accelerate, until she leaves the end of the weapon. I suppose she would wonder about what had happened.

Once outside, she stops to look at herself, her heart rate climbing steadily, like something’s worrying her. I dedicate fully 0.0183 seconds of analysis to figuring out what, and come to a quite predictable conclusion.

I made a mistake.

In hindsight, she probably doesn’t normally take nanite-infused gel baths. Just the healing that was done would be spooky enough, but she’s probably cleaner right now than she’s been since she was born, thanks to high technology. It should only last for a week or so; I had remembered not to make any persistent effects. However, at this point, I can only hope she doesn’t panic.

She casts a final glance back down my weapon, as if realizing what it is, and takes to the air, fleeing the site. I apologize silently for my mistakes.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19.

A movie! (Edited)

Three weeks have passed without incident. All my emergency power reserves are full, main reserves at 0.01%- enough for a short burst of combat, including as many as 13 full-powered main battery war shots, assuming I’m able to locate a source of hydrogen. On that thought, I might have just stumbled across a water table; I’ve sent some nanites down to confirm before I open a tap. I have launched three more drones; the two solar ones will only feed me power during sunrise and sunset, when I will not be revealed by such. At other times, they feed the third new drone: A much heavier, more capable battery-powered long-range recon drone, with minimal solar capacity added on. It is powered by a counter-grav engine, and is currently hovering near the solar drones while it waits- probably a few more days- for a full charge.

Many times, I considered breaking com silence in an attempt to locate or contact one of my brothers or sisters. I have listened to the pop and fizz of static for weeks, not one communications attempt coming inbound- suggesting the possibility of an overwhelming enemy that might intercept the transmission. My drones are communicating with me through a hypersecure ‘entanglement’ connection that, while it only travels at the speed of sound, is utterly undetectable and impossible to intercept. Speaking of which, I have that system operating at capacity with just six drones.

I have continued my repairs. My upper port aft main battery Hellbore is confirmed fully functional; I have also operated repairs on my still-subterranean lower port aft main battery. My Light VLS is online and functioning; I have only repaired 3 tubes, positioned just aft of the exposed weapon. I have reprocessed and remanufactured all the warheads present for those tubes, while my next repair priority goes to my tracks.

I have also resculpted the canyon around the exposed weapon, raising the bottom of the barrel 1.3 meters above the ground level; this should be somewhat harder for other incidental discoveries to simply walk into. I have carved a tunnel through the surrounding rock to one of my own personnel hatches, though I have disguised the entrance with a battlescreen projector and a holoprojector, both fed by hardlines. A second tunnel, vertical and similarly disguised, grants access to one of my drone magazines; inside this magazine, with its similarly repaired launch tube, I am in the process of repairing additional drones for launch immediately upon requirement. Three of my numerous battlescreen projectors have been repaired, granting me a screen powerful enough to shrug off anything smaller than a fusion weapon. I have tuned one of them to what I hope will deflect magical energy, and hold it on standby.

The only problem with battlescreens, given my current predicament, is that they have a tendency to shine- and actively repel things from my armor, such as the dirt and rock lying on top of me. In short, if I light one up, I’m going to stand out like a Bolo in the plains. This is also the main reason I won’t yet ignite any of my four now fully repaired fusion plants, even if I have truly discovered a source of groundwater. Fusion plant emissions are readily detectable; so far, nothing I have done has made any known emissions. Except the magnetic experiment with Daring Do’s assailant in my upper port aft main Hellbore.

I was kinda wondering when the next visit was coming. The one I just detected contains quite the party- involving at least a couple of each kind of pony, several cameras, a cart full of disguises… Unless I miss my guess, this is a movie crew- with guards. They spend some time looking at the now suspended barrel tip before they get to work setting up an interesting wooden lattice, which they cover with dirt, presumably to look like the surrounding terrain. As a couple of them march down the barrel, which I have some sensors watching down now, I hear them complaining about how they’d never been able to build a set for the scene- and that this should be perfect.

I notice that Daring isn’t a member of the party; rather, her part is played by a similarly colored mare with a wig to disguise her real mane and tail. At least she’s a Pegasus- the Earth pony stallion playing her assailant used the pony equivalent of makeup to hide his bright red coat. The unicorns holding the cameras use their power to simulate magic on his false horn, and to help the faux-Daring use makeup to appear more and more injured as the scenes progress.

Daring must have published a new book with it or something- and now, there’s a movie crew attempting to recreate the scenes. Their solution to imitating the gel bath is rather ingenious- and amusing. After removing all of the ‘injury makeup’ on her face, she swaps to a new costume- which appears to involve a lot of crushed gemstones for the sparkle effect. It takes them almost forty five minutes to apply the effect to her wings; the costume has them ingrained into its surface, along with the mane/tail portions. The biggest issue they face is that, whenever she moves her wings, a cloud of gem dust descends… So after cleaning up and resetting approximately twelve times, they change their approach- and finally get the scene done. Finally, they clean up their operation, pack up their costumes, and demolish their outside-the-barrel setup before they depart.

Mmmm, but the capture of that film wasn’t the only thing that was completed that day. I have confirmed the aquifer, and initiated a tap; I will begin processing hydrogen fuel in approximately 13.91 seconds. I hovered my not-so-solar drone right overtop their heads and in front of their faces, without their responding to it. They seemed to notice the tiny ripple of its passage- several of them commented to their companions on seeing heat waves on a cold day, but did not seem to be able to see the drone itself. I did not test my newly tuned battle screen.

Thus, now that the sun has gone down far enough, I have diverted this drone over to the nearest settlement, traveling at only ten meters per second, to catch a closer look- and begin analyzing the locals in their natural environment, in an attempt to gather information. Such a slow journey at such low altitude will have little to no effect on the overall power drain overnight; it will still reach peak charge within 4.81 minutes of its previously predicted peak time.

It seems today is somewhat interesting. There appears to be one store, titled “Sugarcube Corner”, with quite the crowd inside. Ponies are leaving sporadically, alone and in groups, as I watch; I stop the drone and drop it to a hover over the street just long enough to get a clear image in the window.

It’s a party. Like, blowout nopony-shall-ever-be-bored party. Ponies appear to be leaving more because of exhaustion than because of a lack of enjoyment. I manage to snag a few moments of conversation- and divert some of my fabricator capacity into the creation of a pony avatar. It’ll be solar/battery powered, and not capable of maintaining full-powered operation for more than a few hours, but that shouldn’t be an issue; assuming I can manage to fit in, day-to-day operation as an independent, ground-pounding unit shouldn’t reduce the charge level below 90%, even in bad weather. I decide to hold my drone nearby until I send out my new avatar, at which point the avatar will take over the cultural- and common knowledge- experiments.

A clatter of hooves on the top of my Hellbore turret draws my attention away from my drone, where it is exploring an apple orchard on the edge of town. It seems that the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as Daring Do had referred to them, managed to slip through a sensor blindspot while I wasn’t paying attention. A quick review of the area reveals an interesting ladder hanging from a tree above the barrel, which they are using to descend onto its upper surface. I hear a giggle, connected to a derogatory mention of ‘timberwolves’. Seems they feel safer now than last time, simply because the chasm is deeper. It also seems that Sweetie Belle has gotten better with her magic. I am tempted to test my AM screen with her; scaring a foal is less likely to reveal me than scaring an adult, especially considering that the end of the weapon is inside an apparently extremely scary and dangerous Everfree Forest. I find that mildly amusing.

The three fillies manage to descend into the barrel of my turret. Applebloom holds a second ladder from on top, while the other two- Scootaloo first- climb down and enter the barrel, before Sweetie Belle uses her magic to float the top of the ladder down inside… Then Applebloom herself.

“We’re in!” Scootaloo announces readily, as soon as Sweetie Belle finishes bringing Applebloom in.

The other three join her. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Treasure Hunters, Yeah!” They clap their hooves together.

“I still don’t think Daring Do is gonna want us along,” Applebloom scowls.

Sweetie Belle sighs. “What if we prove we can help her on her next adventure?”

Scootaloo goes almost crazy at the suggestion. “Maybe then we can invite Rainbow Dash!”

Applebloom sighs, looking away, while Sweetie Belle speaks up again. “I know Rainbow’s your idol, and Rainbow loves her Daring Do books, but I still don’t think they’ll want to team up.”

“Oooh, you never know, though,” Scootaloo utters, somewhat deflated. The trio proceeds down the tunnel, Sweetie Belle using her much-practiced light spell to light the way.

Almost a full minute passes without remark nor event.

“Hey Sweetie Belle- did you read the part about the glowing walls?” Applebloom asks.

The light goes out instantly. “Don’t remind me!” the response squeaks out in terror.

“It only happened when he was about to kill Daring Do, though- we should be safe!” Scootaloo chimes in. It’d taken her close to two hours of carefully chosen persuasive words to get Sweetie Belle anywhere near this tunnel after she heard about what happened in Daring Do’s latest book. Then they’d met Applebloom and headed over- and she wasn’t right about to let Sweetie Belle panic now, especially when they would still need her to get everypony safely back out on top of the thing!

I find myself wondering if perhaps that book- which I haven’t heard about- should have been kept secret from Sweetie Belle; it seems she’s afraid I’ll activate the weapon once again. Applebloom’s response, vocalized shortly after Scootaloo’s comforting statement, places the blame for the activation on Daring Do- some sort of defensive magic she’d somehow used, and thence not something that might go off randomly. It takes the two fillies close to an hour to calm their frightened companion enough to continue down the barrel. I slowly activate the LEDs I have placed alongside the coils; these lights will imitate the glow effect with a high degree of accuracy, without imitating the containment field. Should the containment field be necessary, the lights will be instantly destroyed by it; however, they will not hinder the proper functioning of the weapon. I fade in the glow slowly enough they reach full illumination- a similar glow as was seen during Daring’s battle- without Sweetie Belle’s noticing.

During this timeframe, my drone gets a solid read on some talking cows- same language as the ponies- and visits what looks to be a shattered treehouse in the middle of town. The remaining fragments suggest it had once been a library; a sign out front directs the drone towards a crystal castle’s lower floor, dubbing it “Princess Twilight’s Castle”. The drone is on route to the said castle when one of my solar drones, hovering above my position, reports the approach of a party of some sort of airborne creatures- monsters, perhaps?- following something in the general direction of my weapon.

As they approach, my seismic remotes pick up a large number of somethings trampling their way through the forest behind the flying ones. After a minute, they also detect a single, galloping quadruped, with a 97.34% match to Daring Do’s step. Two minutes later, she bursts from the treeline directly underneath the flying creatures, which dive down to meet her at the bottom. A quick stroke of her wings propels her out of their paths- and straight down the throat of my weapon, which she tumbles to a landing inside.

The Crusaders had just reached the back of the weapon when they hear a distant howling noise of some sort. They pause in their examination of the fascinating tunnel before Applebloom makes her terrified voice heard. “Is it just me, or,” she begins, fading quickly.

“Or is that a lot of timberwolves?” Scootaloo finishes for her.

Sweetie Belle, who had recovered admirably from her fright and cheerfully traveled the rest of the barrel with the other two, shivers in the gentle blue illumination. “At least they can’t reach us,” she mutters.

The trio stands firm for a few seconds.

“True, we can wait them out,” Applebloom agrees, and sits down.

The howls only get louder. Eventually, they witness an exhausted Daring Do come running out of the woods, only barely visible in the darkness, and flap swiftly into the weapon, tumbling to a halt. She quickly jumps back up again, eying the entrance- before she performs a double take towards the Crusaders. “What’re you three doing here?” she asks, her voice echoing down the barrel.

“Uh,” Scootaloo responds.

“Will you please stop following in my footsteps until you grow a little older?” Daring Do pleads.

Applebloom sees it first. “Look out!” she cries, pointing past Daring Do.

A quick glance back, and a buck to the face for the winged Timberwolf, and Daring Do dodges back towards the fillies, now monitoring the newly reassembled timberwolf- and its compatriots joining it in the barrel, including some of the more normal variety. She trades blows with the wolves as she continues backing towards the fillies. “Anything throwable?”

“Nope!” the frightened squeak comes back.

Pshuuu-ching!

“Waah!” The hornlight flickers for a second and disappears, leaving the blue lighting.

The monsters- Timberwolves, Scootaloo called them?- have entered the barrel after the ponies and are chasing them down towards the Crusaders. I cannot stop their advance; judging by the reactions, the Crusaders believe Daring has a plan, and Daring is desperately hoping the Crusaders have a plan. She calls back to them with what my tactical arrays inform me is a disguised request for ammunition. Sweetie Belle’s frightened squeak, as she presses herself against the sealed breech, confirms the negative.

I contemplate my options. I can either let them face near certain death… or risk a 99.72% chance of being discovered in order to grant them a 72.51% chance of uninjured survival. I run a quick systems check.

Main battery 250-cm hellbores, 37.5% functional.
Secondary 80-cm hellbores, 3.01%.
Tertiary 10-cm hellbores, 1.31%.
Primary ion bolt repeaters, 0.65%.
Light VLS, 0.41%; 0% of tubes clear, 13.73% of magazines filled, ranging from 500-lb to 10 kton chemical warheads.
Primary point defense laser clusters, 7.31%.
All other weapons systems nonfunctional.
All fusion plants 100%; offline, bunkerage at 12.83%- enough for weeks of sustained combat.
Final emergency power reserves, 100%.
Main power reserves, 0.27%- a few minutes of surface combat (No countergrav), plus enough juice to fire my reactors. Sunrise in 6.48 hours.
Track systems, 9.37%; effectively immobile.
Countergrav, 1.03%; enough to generate approximately 13.91% of necessary lift to counter my mass.
All sensor systems 100%.
Damage control 100%; operating at 1.71% capacity for power requirements.
Battle screens, 13.71%- enough to produce a full-strength screen, plus a couple of generators tuned against magic.
Outer hull armor, 73.17%; all else in pristine condition, including disruptor fields.
Medbay, 43.27%; one nanovat and a number of portable gurneys and life support systems, intended for use against a mass epidemic.
Auxillary vehicles, 1.72%- one Ferret-class troop transport and two Dragon-class assault tanks functioning, though none in pristine condition.

I make my decision.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19.

Fire and Thunder (Edited)

Kaboom.

It would seem that 1.2 mton/sec firepower from a low-powered low-compression Hellbore- calibrated for maximum backblast- disagrees with these ‘timberwolves’. It also disagreed with the terrain covering roughly thirty-seven square meters of my aft hull underneath the weapon, along with the hatches for four light and one heavy VLS tubes, six mortars, two Howitzers, and the drone launch bay with the drones in it, alongside one of my sensor arrays. Nevermind that many of the newly-exposed weapons are nonfunctional; only one of the Light VLS tubes is working. All of my emplaced sensors, tunnels, and battlescreen/holoprojectors have been destroyed, but the muzzle of my perfectly functional lower port aft main Hellbore has been revealed; I blow nitrogen gas through the barrel to clear it for action, if needed. Solar production will have increased by approximately 73.15%; the revealed plating is not in as good of condition as that on the end of the weapon. Further disagreements include a large patch of forest, primarily in the direction of fire. The cliff above no longer overhangs the weapon; rather, it’s more of a smooth hill now, roughly 28.4 degrees from level; this should increase the direct solar period by close to 63.41%, as well. Several of the trees above were tossed away, and every tree between the muzzle and the grassy plains above my main hull has been blown down.

Wow, the screams of panicking ponies in town are audible to the naked ear all the way from over here, almost three full kilometers away! Drone confirmed- everyone’s screaming at once, except for a startled purple- erm, unicorn-pegasus?- that dashed out of the crystal castle to attempt several things at once. This amusing- well, it was labeled as Princess Twilight’s castle… Perhaps this is the Princess? 73.26% chance to the affirmative, 84.72% when correlated with noted male/female body build patterns. Either way, she- confirmed by voiceprint- seems to be attempting to calm the town, find out what happened, AND worry herself into a panic attack all at once!

Once the barrel cools below 40 degrees Centigrade (or 104 on the Fahrenheit scale), I open the breach again to let three fillies and one explorer, all absolutely terrified, back out of the maintenance way; I had sealed the compartment with the bulkheads, prohibiting them from exploring anywhere else into my hull. Daring Do only stares at the crater for two seconds before seizing two of the Crusaders- Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle- and winging them to safety, just outside the blast zone. She returns for Scootaloo before they all flee back to Ponyville. That reminds me- the ladder the Crusaders had used to land on the top of the barrel was torn by an overshooting timberwolf and shattered in the backblast; the shorter one that they’d used to get in had been miraculously unharmed, resting in the end of the barrel, underneath the Timberwolves’ strides- until a concentrated blast of fusion energy simply disintegrated it, alongside the remains of my lighting. I do believe I’ve been discovered- and scored an extra 0.01% in my main power arrays, absorbed back from the blast by my battle screens and armor.

Honestly speaking, it was a great chance to clear some of the surrounding debris. Only problem being, the flash will have stood out in this early morning hour as if the sun itself were burning out- and the noise will have stood out like a Hellbore in a library. Judging by the confused panic evident in the town, the locals are not aware of weapons as powerful as mine; I can conclude an 86.17% chance that there is no enemy currently capable of threatening me. Even if there is, I can hope that it has no clue as to my true firepower. I have unleashed but a tiny fraction of my true potential against the timberwolves, even in my damaged state, leaving my true capacity a mystery for any would-be foes.

As I break com silence with my virtually untraceable subspace com, searching for a response, I consider my most recent decision. Until and unless it is proven to me that mankind has not ceased to exist, I will endeavor to protect some around me from harm. In particular, that’s the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Daring Do, unless I am invited more fully into their nation. An uninvited Bolo on the battlefield seldom brings relief to those it seeks to protect.

Oh boy, the probably-Princess has devolved into a full on panic attack- triggered, it seems, by a scroll brought and read to her by a small green-spined bipedal purple lizard that followed her out of the castle about a minute after she left.

Fluttershy was eying the forest out her window, shortly after putting the last of her animal friends to bed. She could hear the baying of the timberwolves, even though she hadn’t smelt their putrid breath yet. At least the noise had stopped its advance; she’d make sure to alert her friends early in the morning, so the wolves could be taken care of before they attacked anypony.

She’s beginning to consider running for her friends, as the baying sounds victorious, like they’ve trapped somepony, when the sounds change. A couple seconds of confused howling, then-

Her whole world turns upside-down in a second. She catches a glimpse of airborne trees before the glare blinds her. She’s in the middle of turning away- and closing her eyes- when the thunderous roar reaches her, as if Pinkie had chained six megaphones and a drum. Finally, while her ears are still folding back and before any of her friends can get in a word edgewise, the blast itself slams into her home- and shatters the windows. Since it struck the corner of her abode, rather than the edge, most of the force of the blast vents itself harmlessly to the sides; the structure still stands. Fragments of glass spray across her face and body, thankfully blocked by closed eyelids and ears.

It takes a few seconds before Fluttershy is able to recover from the shock enough to open her eyes- and witness the crater now clearly visible in the forest. Right along with all of her animal friends, she screams out in fright and flees. While her animals use the Everfree for cover as they move away from the blast zone, Fluttershy travels straight for Ponyville- and her pony friends.

Rainbow Dash, having crashed hard after the party, slams into the ceiling when the noise reaches her. The glare had already died down, but she’s able to pick out the general direction the thunderbolt came from and explodes from her cloud house, looking for the rogue thundercloud- only, there is none. Her awakening mind eventually processes the volume- quite a bit louder than any thunderbolt had a right to be; more, it was about twice as loud as her own Sonic Rainboom. She bolts off towards Ponyville, and her friends; if this is some new monster, they may need to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat it.

Pinkie Pie bounces off the floor and spreads herself out on her bed. “That was a nice party-y-y-y-y,” she giggles, and stops, looking at the ceiling. “Shivering? But last time that happened, Twilight accepted my Pinkie sense!” Her entire body shudders again.

“Oh boy, it’s another doozy!” She leaps into the air, shuddering a third time before she lands. “In the Everfree- better tell Fluttershy!” She whips out of her room, flashing down the streets towards Fluttershy’s abode.

She’s about halfway between Ponyville and her destination when the forest lights up like Celestia’s sun itself, some distance to the side. Pinkie stares into it, noting the flying trees, along with the sheer size of the explosion.

The noise finally reaches her, a couple of orders of magnitude louder than anything she’d ever heard before. While her surprised yelp launches her vertically into the air, she watches the hill behind the blast fracture in a few places, easily three or four times as wide as the blast zone. She’s in the middle of wondering if it was a meteor impact when the blast front reaches her.

Naturally, Pinkie being Pinkie, she is thrown far harder than the blast might have done itself.

Rarity is caught mid-yawn by the flash, which casts light on her showroom from an unusual angle. Her yawn ends in a few milliseconds while she jumps up, excited by the sudden ideas the impromptu light show had shed on her previous work- just in time for the echoing thunderclap, after which she joins the brand-new screaming throng for approximately two seconds before she realizes she hasn’t seen Sweetie Belle since they left the party. Her momentary search turns up nothing.

Applejack, having heard the timberwolves’ baying, had Granny Smith stay inside while she and Big Mac rush out to search for Applebloom- and to figure out who the wolves are chasing. Granny Smith had produced a funnel-like magnifier for her ear and, reportedly, heard Applebloom’s voice in that direction. She hadn’t been able to tell what she had said- only that she sounded absolutely terrified.

Thus, they’re actually closer to the blast than Fluttershy, though not by much, when it occurs. Being out in the open, however, produced quite the light and thunder show- and tossed them a few dozen meters backwards. It takes her and Big Mac a couple of minutes to recover, at which point they spot two filly-sized shapes hopping onto something they had pulled from the collapsed forest. As they watch, a third one drops a meter or so from an approaching pegasus to land on the front of the vehicle before they all- pegasus and ground party together- zip off towards Ponyville.

“Applebloom!” Applejack gasps out; the ground party’s silhouette had matched that of the Cutie Mark Crusaders in travel, and the pegasus had carried the one that could only be Scootaloo out of the middle of the smoking hole in the Everfree. Timberwolves silent and forgotten, both Applejack and Big Mac chase after the Crusaders.

Twilight Sparkle had been in the middle of a late night study session, when she had realized that Daring Do’s latest book- a copy of which lay on her kitchen table, left by Rainbow Dash- involved the same metal tunnel that the Crusaders had reported finding in the woods. She had fetched it and returned to her library to read it, and is now rereading the description of the glow along the tunnel and what it had done over and over, trying to think of what it might have done.

She’s beginning to consider refilling the dimming lamps when they suddenly glow much brighter- almost like daylight, she thinks. As she looks up, wondering exactly how Spike did that without breaking his snores, she realizes the light isn’t coming from the lamps but from the window- at which she drops her jaw. Did I forget to sleep agai-!

She never finishes her thought. The noise slams into her castle at that very moment, echoing throughout her library to something similar to what it was at the point of origin. While Twilight screams and sprints for the door, hearing the screaming townsfolk in the wake of the blast, Spike wakes up- screaming as well- and jumps so quickly he manages to get some of the spines on his head stuck in the crystal ceiling, where he manages to calm himself down while Twilight tears out the entrance to her castle. A sudden burp a minute later both drops him out of the ceiling and produces a letter from the Princess- so he runs after Twilight.

Twilight is beginning to make some headway with calming the locals and finding out where it came from when Spike catches up to her, at which point he notifies her of and unfurls the letter.

“Dear Princess Twilight,” he begins. Twilight stands as if made of stone while he reads the short message. “Signed, Princess Luna.”

Twilight’s scream could be heard in Canterlot.

Princess Luna steps out of a corrected nightmare, back to her balcony on Canterlot Castle, smiling out towards Ponyville. There had been very few nightmares for her to chase away. As a matter of fact, at this very moment, there are none at all- and the newly sleeping residents of Ponyville are still ecstatically cheerful from Pinkie’s party, to boot. She pulls out a scroll and quill and is about ready to set her dictate-to-page spell to take down some thoughts for her journal when it happens.

Something in the Everfree, on the far side of Ponyville, shone like Celestia’s sun for a second. Princess Luna starts scribbling a letter right away, forgetting about her dictation spell and journal.

Dear Princess Twilight, she begins. I have spotted a strange shine in the Everfree next to Ponyvi- The quill shakes out a scribble on the page as the thunderclap from the blast reaches her, at least as loud as Rainbow’s Sonic Rainboom had been in the times she’d seen it first-hoof. She spares the scribble a critical glance, but decides to ignore it- it’d take too long to find a new page.

Apologies, the sound just reached Canterlot, and I fear it has awoken the city. What is this disturbance? She grimaces for a second, trying to word it better- and ducks a flying Pinkie Pie, who lands flat against the wall above her with a second thunderclap, though not nearly as loud.

Pinkie Pie has arrived in Canterlot. Signed, Princess Luna. She rolls it up, stamps, and sends it on its way before peeling Pinkie from the masonry.

Pinkie lands on her hooves, somehow unharmed. “Wooww!” she calls out, bouncing momentarily into the air before bowing to her Princess.

“What was that?” Luna asks, looking from Pinkie out towards the woods.

“A doozy,” she answers quickly. “I was running to warn Fluttershy when it happened.”

“What kind of doozy?”

“A very bright and loud one! No clue what- OHmy-!” Pinkie had looked over the balcony, back towards Ponyville and her doozy- and seen the size of the crater all the way from Canterlot, thanks to the clearing of the smoke and debris.

The two ponies stare down at the Everfree until a distant panicked scream reaches their ears.

“Twilight?” Pinkie asks, applying a name to it. “Why’s she screaming so loud?”

“Oh boy,” Princess Luna utters, before both ponies disappear into thin air.

It seems the locals are not ready for Hellbore fire. I decide not to move just yet.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19. Not sure if this chapter actually has any delta from the original, though.

Discovery (Edited/Rewritten)

I do consider the possibility that these panicked ponies might attack, however, and hold my tuned- and as of yet untested- battlescreen on standby while I have my spiders carve out and construct a natural-looking cave on the hillside, leading to one of the access ports along my side. Behind this port, I clean up- and seal- Passenger Seven, preparing it for use as a liason. I carefully ensure that the bare metal appearance of my port aft Hellbores and armor is not repeated; I do not wish them to realize that both belong to the same entity. The seats I remove, as repair- and modification to fit a pony- would take too long; a quick, fake rug disguises the brackets easily. I contemplate, but decide against, fusion ignition, and set to work fixing and modifying the seats. Perhaps I can have at least a few ready when the first pony enters; I’m rather curious as to the viability of the pony version blueprint my design cores just produced.

Rainbow slaps her hooves to her ears for a second before she crashes into a screaming Twilight. “What was that?” she asks, not having seen the destruction just yet. A pause. “Twilight?”

Rarity shows up, still searching frantically for her Sweetie Belle. “Oh, have either of you girls seen Sweetie Belle?”

Rainbow shakes her head, shrugging her forelegs in midair. “Last I saw, they were going crusading while we part- Rarity!”

Rarity, upon hearing that the Crusaders were out doing Celestia knows what when such a disaster happened somewhere, had swooned.

“That too!?” Twilight howls out.

Rainbow is now more confused than anything else. “What happened?” she repeats.

“You mean you didn’t hear it?” Rarity and Twilight ask simultaneously, the former practically leaping off of her couch while the latter clambers back to her hooves.

Fluttershy practically falls out of the sky, a look of pure terror on her face. Rarity swoons again.

“It exploded,” Fluttershy utters, barely audible.

Rainbow’s hooves land on the grass before Twilight asks the question. “What did?”

“The Everfree.”

Rarity raises her head slightly, looking at Rainbow. “That isn’t where they were crusading, is it?”

Rainbow shrugs- but Fluttershy had seen the Crusaders cut across Ponyville towards their treehouse. “They’re safe,” she says, slightly louder than before. “They were running for their treehouse.”

Applejack screeches to a halt. “Darn right they were- and scared to Tartarus of whatever it was. Big Mac’s taking them into the house right now.” She takes a look around. “Where’s Pinkie?”

“Canterlot,” Twilight smirks. “Not sure when- or why- she left.” She looks towards Spike.

“Oh, um,” he begins. “Princess Luna noticed the, um, noise too, and sent a letter about it.”

“What’d she say?” Applejack chimes in.

Twilight speaks up to answer. “Only that Pinkie had arrived. She asked about what the, erm, event was.”

Pinkie pie suddenly zips her way up to the party. “That was-” she begins, before she is interrupted by the thunder of the Royal Canterlot Voice, sounding from somewhere in town. Probably a rooftop.

“CALM DOWN EVERYPONY!” Princess Luna hollers, using her magic to amplify her voice. She’d already searched for Twilight in her castle- and facehooved as soon as she got out here. “We will make certain this thing doeth not threaten any of thee!”

While these statements themselves didn’t exactly sooth everypony, at least they quieted down to listen. Princess Luna sighs; everypony still looks just as frightened- it’s just that they know she’s here. At least they stopped screaming. She’s about to continue speaking when someone else yells something out.

“Fear not,” Daring Do calls out from the air, “for the Timberwolves have been defeated and this meteor strike in the Everfree poses no threat to anypony!”

Her apparent jubilance was probably more effective of a panic-stopper than her words- but either way, she manages to calm the town fairly quickly before dropping to the rooftop next to her Princess, and bowing. “Sorry, Princess.”

“Meteor strike?” Luna asks.

“Uh, no, actually,” Daring responds. “That was the only way I could think of to comfort everypony.”

“Comfort? How dangerous?”

“Uh, blow up a city dangerous, I think.”

“Princess!” Twilight’s call registers.

Luna glances down at Twilight, back at Daring, and finally drops down to the ground with the explorer to meet the Elements. “Hast thou found anything?”

Twilight shakes her head. “Not yet- still only just hearing about it.”

Luna turns immediately to Daring. “You knew something about it?”

She nods. “Yes. Have you read my latest book…?”

Twilight and Rainbow nod; nopony else does.

She sighs. “Well, it’s that same metal tunnel. Some timberwolves chased me into it this time, where I ran into the Crusaders. Turned out some of the wolves had wings, so even the then-elevated barrel wasn’t safe from them.

“But while it demonstrated the same glow as happened in the book, Sweetie’s horn was most certainly not affected. It also turned out to have an extra chamber in the back; the door opened unexpectedly, and we took cover inside it. The door closed, then…” She pauses, and gulps. “We heard it, but didn’t see anything in the darkness. Sweetie lit her horn again before I could get out my light crystal; that chamber was pretty well sealed. We waited for only about a minute before the entryway opened again, and we headed out into the hot tunnel… to find the crater.

“Something tells me that, had that thing intended to hurt us, it very easily could have… And probably still can.”

Twilight asks the next question. “Do you know what it is?”

She shakes her head. “I only know I’m not an investigator.”

“Bonbon,” Applejack and Rainbow state simultaneously.

Luna and Daring tilt their heads.

“She’s an investigator of some kind,” Twilight nods. “She should be able to help.”

“Are you sure we’ll be okay out here?”

“Of course we will be. You know that, with my candies, nopony will see us. Plus, between my skill and your magic, we’ll see everything coming!”

She scowls as they reach the top of the newly-formed slope. “If you say so… Woah!”

It’s a crater. More like a double crater, though; there’s one, with more metal at the bottom, as if a heavy explosive had gone off deep underground. There’s also a second, stretching out away from them, into the woods- almost as if a very large meteor had skimmed their edge of the hole and slammed into the opposite edge, continuing on until it disintegrated completely.

“What in Equestria?”

Snort. “About sums up my reaction, as well. Might be a meteor or something, maybe some heavy explosive attack.”

Her horn glows. “Um… Nope, no meteors… and… Oh My.” She closes her eyes for a second, head turning side to side, horn still glowing.

“What?”

“Only one explosion… Looks like it was focused somehow, to produce both craters at once.”

Her eyes widen. “How big?”

“Uh… Remember Blasting Cap?”

Nod, and shudder.

“This is something… Oh, ten thousand times more powerful…?” She shrugs. “I can’t tell exactly- it all disappears into a haze of violence as we get into the crater… But I’m pretty sure it started at- or close to- ground level.”

Scowl. “Interesting.” She leads her partner down the slope. “Anything on this metal?”

“Just a sec… Huh. Nothing thaumic, but I’m picking up some kind of energy- what!” She shifts her stance, horn glow intensifying.

“What happened?”

“It’s- ugh…” Her horn goes out, and she sits on the stone. “I was picking up some kind of energy barrier over the surface… Not a thaumic barrier, mind. Then my magic just inexplicably bounced off that barrier- and I can’t sense anything about it now!”

“Huh.” She reaches out a hoof, holding it overtop the metal. She lowers it slowly, finally making contact… Nothing happens. She tries striking against it, but still nothing happens.

“Uh- wait! It’s-!”

She leaps back off of it, landing solidly on the rock. “What’s it doing?”

“I- er, I still can’t see it, but it’s bothering your magic. Like the candy- it’s already broken that.”

One problem is easily fixed by another candy from her mane. “Bothering my magic, you say?”

Nod. “Must be some kind of antimagic barrier… and I don’t know, but the way it interacted with your earth pony magic did not look healthy.” She closes her eyes, horn glowing a little bit. “I don’t know if it’ll have any immediately noticeable effect… Nor if it’ll heal properly.”

She blinks her wide eyes. “Too dangerous, then. Let’s get out of here.”

Both mares gallop back for Ponyville, leaving the strange metal terrain behind.

Admittedly, it’s nice to know my new antimagic barrier works; the first was useless. Even this new one, there is some bleedthrough; I was able to improve it some before they left, but my screens are still not as impervious to magic as they are to physical or energy weapons. This ‘Tirek’ being might have been defeated- but where there is one, there can be another, and he did manage to damage my armor.

The part that worries me is the mares’ reaction. I wish this barrier to block magical activity- and NOT to interfere with ponies’ ability to cast magic, as it seems to have done. I have temporarily moved the barrier just underneath the skin of my armor, rather than overtop; it will remain here, exposing my outer armor to magical attacks, while I gather sensor data and recalibrate it, until I am confident that it will not harm ponies walking across my hull.

I find myself wondering if it might be possible to get the afflicted mare into my medbay; Tactical is willing to suggest any number of ways, but none of them have more than a 13.91% chance of success. I resolve to install a medical support system into my avatar; this offers over an 83.07% chance of being able to make contact and deliver some nanites, even if not in nearly the same capacity as the medbay. This should be ready in… 3.57 days.

Three days pass. Three busy days, for one Twilight Sparkle and the investigation team that Princesses Celestia and Luna sent her, in an effort to discover how to control the thing. On the first day, Twilight had tried using magic to move it, to no effect; it was too heavy even for her. She then hadn’t even been able to pry open any of the hatches. On the second day, a pack of… somethings burst from the forest some distance away, using the long portion of the craters as a runway to reach them- and flinging sharp-tipped bone-like spines at them while they did so. The unicorns threw their best at them, to no effect, so the guard detail had lined up, ready to face off against these lopsided spiderlike foes.

Only they hadn’t needed to. One of the three smaller raised platforms had flown open all of the sudden, to snap shut again as soon as an interesting fire-propelled spear had shot out of it, to the horror of all present. The spear twisted in midair, curving swiftly towards the oncoming monsters, and slammed into them full force- exploding violently a moment later. No additional crater was created, but it was still the biggest explosion any of them had seen before- even the bomb experts. Needless to say, the approaching things did not survive the blast. When Twilight tried prying that same hatch open again, it wouldn’t budge. As a matter of fact, this time, her magic couldn’t even touch it!

The party had noticed on day three that the surface appeared to be freshly machined, even though it had been quite rough when they first arrived.

Now, on the morning of day four, something happens- though the investigation team hear nothing of it. Fluttershy is on approach to find out how it’s going when she discovers a new cave in the ground. For some reason, she finds herself wanting to explore it immediately, and glances at the surrounding terrain, searching for somepony to call over, before she shrugs internally and enters the dark cave. Even after she rounds a couple corners, the cave retains its dimly-lit friendly feeling- which only magnifies Fluttershy’s curiosity. In her book, caves are dark and scary, but this one is neither- more like an unlit hallway in Twilight’s castle.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this particular cave, she finds, is that the deep end of it is not rock. Rather, Fluttershy encounters some kind of metallic surface, though the light is too dim to inspect it. Interestingly enough, when she removes her hoof from it, the middle section slides smoothly open, revealing a well-lit room inside.

While her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, Fluttershy lets out an eep! and dodges to the side, against the rock. Once her eyes finish adjusting, her unusually burning curiosity drives her forwards. The doorway that had opened, aside from being several meters deep, is a little bit too tall for a pony, she decides- at least, most ponies. Princess Celestia could walk comfortably through this door- and that’s not something that can be said about most of the doors in Ponyville.

When she notices the half-dozen odd seats crammed into the back corner, compartment, she almost shrinks away from them, before admonishing herself. It’s not like an empty seat is going to ask her out to dance, after all. She spends a few minutes exploring the room, still not sure exactly what had piqued her interest.

She finds that the seats are, perhaps, the most interesting feature in the otherwise featureless room. Both the seat and the back are padded, with an interesting-looking headrest and foreleg-rests unlike any she’s ever seen before. They’re spaced quite evenly, at about six inches… and when she pushes on them, they give slightly- to return dutifully back into place when her pressure is removed. There’s even a gap between the seat and the back, as if to accept a tail- and an assortment of straps and buckles to keep a pony from falling out of the seat. She has to wonder exactly why an adult pony would be falling out; the releases on the buckles would be easy for the seated pony to strike.

With a small smile, deciding she’s found what she was looking for, she clambers into one. It’s easy to climb into, and her tail slides right through the gap she’d noticed before as she reclines back on it. She places her hooves in the hoofprints on the sides- which had adjusted themselves silently and unexpectedly into the perfect spot while she wasn’t looking. She rests her head against the headrest and closes her eyes, smiling briefly to herself. She likes how it feels, she decides. The cushions support her almost flawlessly. She doesn’t even have to hold her wings folded!

“Thank you.”

“Aaaeep!” Fluttershy’s startled scream blends into a timid squeak as she almost flies out of the seat, landing smoothly on all four hooves and trying to find the stallion that had spoken to her. As near as she can tell, she’s alone in the room- but that doesn’t stop her from hiding behind the seats.

“I apologize,” the invisible stallion speaks again, receiving another squeak for his efforts. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She’s now hard against the corner of the room, diagonally opposite the entrance- which still stands open. “Wh- where?” she squeaks.

“Where am I?” After her tiny nod, he continues. “You could say that I’m all around you- a machine, so to speak.”

At this, an eyebrow raises. “Machine?” she queries.

“Yes.”

Her squeak is fading into her normal voice. “But you’re alive!”

“Technically, no. I am something called an Artificial Intelligence. Everything that I am was crafted and manufactured, like a clock.”

Silence reigns for a few moments.

“I wanted to thank you,” the stallion continues, “for testing those new seats for me.”

Fluttershy looks back at the seat she’d vacated, the sides having reset to their original positions. “Uhm, you’re welcome,” she squeaks.

I find her personality a near perfect match to my previous commander- and I am now missing only her name. I do wish I hadn’t had to open a hole in my antimagic screens to be certain they wouldn’t bother her. I have, however, been able to push those screens back out to the surface of my hull, without risking damage to any ponies.

Author's Note

Edited/Rewritten 3/17/19. Mostly just edited, but that one part in the middle was rewritten, and is expected to have significant impact on future events. If you're a returning reader, you can probably tell which part.

Forgotten Shy (Edited)

Some time passes in silence. “Are you okay?” Fluttershy eventually asks.

“I am,” the invisible stallion replies. “Why do you ask?”

She shudders. “Four nights ago, the Everfree exploded, not far from here. Pinkie said this hill you’re under cracked.”

“I have no records of fresh damage in that timeframe.”

“Fresh?”

“Affirmative. Repairs on long-past damages are well underway as we speak.”

Her eyes open fearfully wide. “What if something from the forest attacks you?”

“They can’t hurt me.”

“But what if those past damages are…” She fades into a terrified silence.

I am enjoying the company of this mare- and if the rest of the townsfolk go from apprehensive to worried about my welfare as fast as she did, I have very little to worry about. I elect not to mention my battlescreens. “Those damages were inflicted by the passage of time- and not a little bit of it- during a period of inactivity. They will not return, even if I were to shut down today, for many, many years.”

Fluttershy remains silent for a minute, processing what had been spoken- and wondering why this stallion had triggered the reaction in her normally reserved for her animal friends, rather than the shy face that shows whenever she meets another pony. Her gaze shifts slightly. “Can I use one of those seats again?”

Excavation efforts had only revealed more metal; magic still can’t touch it, and no amount of prying had been able to open any of the hatches or covers they’d found. Some Pegasi had just shown up with the most powerful nonmagical cutting equipment known to ponykind; just getting it here had cost the Princesses a fortune and now, right in front of everypony, including the Princesses, it simply isn’t working!

Twilight vents her frustration- yet again- against the surrounding terrain. She watches her power skip and dance across the metallic surface before it plows into the stone and dirt on the side, blowing away yet another ton or twelve of Everfree soil with a satisfying boom. Why can’t anything work? We can’t lift it, we can’t open it, we can’t cut it, and what’s more, we can’t even- Oooh, I just found something!

She calls out her discovery, then gets to work with the dozen unicorns present to reveal their find. Rather than a flat hatch, it seems to be some sort of dome, with two long pipes sticking out of it, side-by-side, though they looked like they could be independently raised to point almost vertically. Twilight identifies what looks like some kind of shield attached to the base of each pipe, and is most interested by the puffs of mist that ejected some rock from the insides of the pipes as soon as they had the rest cleared off. The pipes, Twilight discovers, have an internal diameter of about ten centimeters.

“Is that some kind of control station?” one of the unicorns asks.

Twilight takes a critical look down one of them, shining her hornlight down it. At least it didn’t block that. “I don’t think so,” she replies. “It looks more like a smaller version of those.” She indicates the massive pipes above their heads, the lower one of which now has as much as twenty meters length hanging free from the rock. They have yet to find the other end, if indeed it has one.

“So you’ve just uncovered another way for it to kill us?” Rainbow asks. They’re in Twilight’s castle now- all five friends, exclusive of Fluttershy. Applejack had asked if she’d found anything today.

“We think, yes,” Twilight replies, shrinking slightly. “At least this one’s smaller.”

“What was that about the mist, again?” Rarity asks.

Twilight looks back up at her. “As soon as we had the rocks cleared off of the ends of the pipes, little puffs of mist came out of them, propelling any debris inside them out. It’s like it was cleaning itself.”

“Cleaning itself?” Pinkie Pie chips in. “Every once in a while, one of my party cannons will get jammed- and I’ll have to unjam it before I can use it. That’s probably what it was doing!” She’s quite excited for some reason.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Rainbow finishes. “Like it’s getting ready to shoot somepony.”

In tandem with Twilight, Applejack plants a hoof on her face and speaks up again. “For the umpteenth time, we already know it doesn’t want us dead!”

“Maybe it’s getting ready for a par-TAY!”

Four hooves meet their owners’ faces around the table, two of them on a repeat performance.

“Ma’am?”

Fluttershy mumbles in her sleep.

“Ma’am?” It’s louder this time.

One eyelid opens groggily. “Huh?” She fails to recognize the metallic color in the ceiling, the calm glow across it, and blinks both eyes quickly. “Wha?” Her vision clearing and her mind coalescing, she takes a look around. “Oh! I’m sorry!” she squeaks, trying to shrink further into the amazingly comfortable seat.

“No problem,” the calm, invisible stallion replies. “You were so peaceful it was a shame to interrupt.”

She squirms slightly in the seat. “Sorry, these seats are just so-”

“Comfortable?” He finishes for her, while she stifles a massive yawn.

She giggles. “Yes, that. I haven’t slept that well in ages!”

“I’m glad I could help. You were out for about three hours.”

Her eyes widen for about a second before she hops out of the seat, landing on all fours. “I should go, then.” She starts walking towards the exit. “Though, um, if you don’t mind, can I sleep here tonight?”

“You’re quite welcome to, Milady.” Even though she can’t see him, and she has the distinct feeling he doesn’t even have a body the way she does, he still manages to give her the impression that he’s bowing to her.

Her blush heats up. “Please, call me Fluttershy,” she squeaks.

“My apologies.”

Fluttershy seems to have simply accepted the comfort of the remodeled passenger bay crash couches, and not noticed some of the other side effects. After all, if she had even a clue that the nanite-infused gel cushion had dynamically reshaped itself to support her body in exactly the manner it needed to be, she might not have tried them out. Had she known that those same cushions also served as a pathway by which medical nanites could be fed in and out of her body, delivering nutrients and repairing damages, she may well have avoided them like a lone Melconian footsoldier avoids a hunting Bolo.

The crash couch medical system is not nearly as swift as the nanovats in the medbay, but just as capable. It spent her 3.152 hours of sleep working on her internal repairs; she didn’t seem to notice the absence of any need to stretch, probably chalking her good cheer up to her good nap. I know better; it may not have entered her conscious mind, but I did repair a few issues in her body- mostly swollen tissues, but there was one collapsed artery in her left foreleg, forcing an increased flow through the other artery serving the same leg. I also repaired a few chronic muscle tears and frayed nerves. Each and every one of these repairs contributed notably to her sleep quality and, probably, her mood upon awakening as well.

I did not activate the neural link built into the headrest, but I did gather additional data on pony neurology. Given a few more scans, preferably including some earth ponies and unicorns, I should be able to finish adjusting the link so as to be fully compatible with them, if it is needed.

Thanks to the repeated attempts by one of the locals to breach my aft hull by magic, I have been able to engineer, construct, and test a successful magic defense system, replacing my tuned battlescreens. It’s similar to a battlescreen, though it draws far less power and has no effect against nonmagical attacks. However, even when the now-identified Princess Twilight Sparkle produced massive blasts of magic, blasting terrain away with the approximate magnitude of almost thirteen tons of TNT, I noticed absolutely no additional drain or strain on this barrier. Additionally, Fluttershy had no reaction whatsoever when she stepped through it- I had it running at minimum power- on the way out.

Given how apparently easy magic is to block, I find myself wondering if I might be capable of reproducing it, given an understanding. However, unless I am able to reproduce it with far greater magnitude than any I have seen yet, I fear it will not be of much use to a Unit of the Line like myself; Hellbores do more damage. It still makes me curious enough to plan some experiments. Fluttershy had been with the party that first came to inspect the crater from my Hellbore- along with Princess Twilight Sparkle, Daring Do, one Unicorn, one Pegasus, two Earth ponies, and another of the Princess’ breed, which I have not seen in any of the settlements. Perhaps the breed is something specific to the Princesses? I find myself wondering if Fluttershy could convince the others, separately or together, to come ‘explore’ the passenger bay. Probably best not to ask- no doubt somepony such as herself will wish to share.

Fluttershy doesn’t notice the absent pains as she leaves- but she does notice, once she breaks into a canter towards Ponyville, just how nice it feels to move. Excited by the now lovely feeling of the grass on her hooves and the wind in her mane, she breaks into a full gallop, giggling madly as she detours around the town so she doesn’t have to slow down. She’d forgotten how fun it was!

She doesn’t notice that any townsfolk that see or hear her stop to stare. After all, many of them had never seen her move so quickly, even in the air- nor had any of them ever seen quite so happy a Fluttershy.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19.

Flutterboom (Edited)

I watch as Fluttershy prances through the meadows. While the medical nanites left in her body have mostly spent themselves in the final repairs after she hopped out of the seat, they were not the only nanites inserted. After all, those crash couches are inside a troop compartment. They’re designed to hold ground troops, for deployment in infiltration operations or for independent combat assignment when the Bolo must head elsewhere. Thus, a simple heal & clean is the smallest of what they do. A set of specialized medical nanites, inserted before even the first wave of regular healers, resides on the surface of her skeleton and underneath her skin, spread throughout her body. These ‘combat medics’, in the event of an injury, will perform stopgap repairs, preventing their own burnout for the event of another injury before she can return for treatment.

There is a second set of nanites, gathered in her skeletal and muscular system, that holds no medical function whatsoever. These nanites, inserted only after all the medical nanites had entered, are normally referred to as the ‘strongarm machines’. Their job is normally to augment a soldier’s physical strength or endurance at times of need. Concordiat Marines could usually double their deadlift with these nanites, along with a runspeed increase of about thirty percent. A rather welcome side effect is that these same soldiers- now, presumably, Fluttershy as well- could withstand over six times the impact force before sustaining injury.

Well out in the meadows, where nopony can see her, Fluttershy launches herself into the air, reveling in the excitement. She stays low, mindful of potential watching ponies, and whips through the air with glee. Eventually, after a quick scan around for possible watchers, she rockets into the sky. After all, why can’t she impersonate her friend for her own eyes only? She rises high above the clouds, until she can see Ponyville as if it were on a map, and turns back down, allowing herself to drop. She keeps a careful watch on the atmosphere and meadow in front of her, ready to pull up as soon as she sees somepony that might witness her playtime.

In the meantime, though, it just feels so good. The wind in her mane and tail, whistling through her feathers… The energy with which her wings stroke as she pours on the speed. She spends a few seconds of her descent wondering why she doesn’t do this more often. Probably because-

Pinkie Pie, having heard the spreading rumors of a laughing, galloping Fluttershy, reaches Fluttershy’s home. She’d had to deny the rumors that it was one of her own parties, though she really wishes she could come up with a party that would leave her shy friend in such good spirits. Unfortunately, it seems Fluttershy isn’t at home. Pinkie spends some time asking the animals, but none of them seem to know. She zips back off to town to ask about.

Bon Bon tells Pinkie that she never saw Fluttershy from her store; Lyra Heartstrings, however, informs her that she’d seen her running past the east side of town. Pinkie continues to investigate through town, eventually correlating enough stories to suggest that Fluttershy had started somewhere near the Everfree- in particular, the demolished part. She whizzes eagerly off to explore the area, to locate whatever had her friend in such a good mood. After finding nothing in the grass or on the hill, she leaps over to the blast zone to investigate.

Twilight Sparkle sighs exasperatedly to the unicorn that had just reported their last few hours’ efforts. Those efforts had been utterly fruitless- aside from, she supposes, the discovery that the metal thing is at least three inches wider than they had known it has to be earlier. The rest of the efforts had been simply continued attempts to levitate, force, or cut the hatches and the smaller weapon.

Her patience with these incompetents is waning. She’s trying to be as friendly as she can, but they have yet to come up with an original idea of their own. She had been the first to try levitating, she had ordered the cutter. She had been the first to try forcing the panels. She had also been the only one so far to vent frustration on the surrounding terrain, but they already knew not to hold THAT against her. They had only actually cleared terrain, aside from accidentals, when she had ordered it.

Her power is building up in her horn again, begging to be unleashed on the poor unicorn this time. At the last second, she redirects it, slamming the brunt of the spell against the smaller weapon- which doesn’t even twitch as her power folds around it and clears more terrain behind it, revealing a few more square meters of shiny metal.

“Alright everypony,” she calls out to the team. “If we can’t move or penetrate it as-is, the least we can do is clear it off and identify it. Try the torch on anything new we find, but only once. Otherwise, let it be while we expose more of what this thing is.”

Right then, while the crew is acknowledging her orders, Pinkie Pie comes in out of nowhere. She whips along the top of the upper of the two massive weapons, inside it, and back out, to repeat on the lower, all while yapping something about Fluttershy being in a good mood at Twilight. Personally, Twilight doesn’t think someone being in a good mood warrants an investigation- but when she hears Pinkie’s accelerated vocalizations over exactly how good a mood it had been, she agrees. Yes, it warrants investigation- but only so that it can be repeated. Hopefully.

She blinks as Pinkie Pie manages to open one of the smaller hatches quite casually with a hoof, throwing it back shut again after a quick glance at the pointy tip of something underneath. Before Twilight- nor any of the crew- are able to react, however, Pinkie has already vacated the exposed regions of the metal, leaving an oddly Pinkie-shaped hole in the terrain, from which the babbling can still be heard. Shortly, there’s an excited scream and, while Pinkie explodes from the terrain several meters above where she went in, the unicorns- including Twilight- charge up to start blowing terrain away, to find what Pinkie discovered. Unnoticed by the crew, the one small weapon they’d uncovered swivels swiftly to point directly into Pinkie’s entry hole.

This pink pony, one Pinkie Pie, is quite interesting. While the atmosphere is responding as if she were travelling only twenty meters per second at the fastest, point-to-point analysis suggests a minimum of Mach 7- and she’s only an Earth pony. I find myself praying that she is unique. Given her present one track mind, I allow her to lift one of my Light VLS hatches, revealing the half-ton warhead underneath; I only had one quarter-ton before, and haven’t gotten around to resupplying ammunition. Everypony else’s responses to her antics seems to suggest that even they consider her to be outrageously weird; thus, I am honestly not surprised when she flashes into and through dirt and stone as if it were air. She deals no damage when she comes up hard against one of my secondary Hellbore turrets and, after she makes numerous laps around it, she lets out an excited scream and leaves a pony-shaped hole in the dirt on her way out.

I consider alternatives. While the weapon she just discovered is both inoperable and far too powerful for use with anypony unprotected on my hull, it would be nice to have the extra hull space freed; I’m still rather severely limited by power production. The investigation team has started charging their horns for terrain-clearing spells, judging by pattern analysis; however, given the time taken by previous attempts and the amount of terrain to be cleared this time, I estimate they will take almost 2.3 hours to clear the turret, assuming they take no breaks. However, a small amount of overpressure inside the tunnel Pinkie created could vent the terrain out into the woods for very little energy expense, comparatively. I aim the exposed tertiary Hellbore into her entrance, estimating the blast… And set it for full power. As I ready for the blast, timing it against the unicorn’s spells so they break up the fragments that might harm somepony, I cast a regular battlescreen over the party, including Pinkie Pie.

As a side note, I didn’t know Pegasi could travel at supersonic speeds, even when nanite-augmented. While unexpected, this development does not hamper my processing speed nor targeting accuracy. The sound of the sonic boom, however, reaches the opening 0.195 seconds before my planned firing point, and the team does not react as I did. Rather, they seem startled by it, and begin to release their spells early. I rush my shot by 82.94 milliseconds to compensate- and when the magic strikes with its own boom hardly 0.172 seconds after I liberate my 10-cm turret of some ammunition, the result is even better than I expected: All of the terrain fragments that might have threatened anypony or anything other than the forest are reduced to gravel, most of which bounces harmlessly off of my screens. Yes, I also had my main screens on for that- when wouldn’t I, when shooting at myself?

I do, however, find the light pink ring expanding from the point that Fluttershy went supersonic to be amusing. The sound of the sonic boom should have reached town almost 0.193 seconds ago; thus, right about now, I might start seeing some reactions to it. Pinkie, Twilight, and the crew are merely screaming at the moment.

Ba-BOOOM-boom!

Rainbow Dash instantly recognizes the first boom to be the same sound as her own Sonic Rainboom and, from where she had been trotting out from Twilight’s castle, launches into the sky before she even hears the third. “Somepony want a Rainboom Battle?” she asks the atmosphere, flipping end-for-end to produce her own Rainboom on the way back down, in front of the castle, before she uses the extra speed to whip out across Ponyville and locate this other Boomer.

Pink. The other Rainboomer’s blast ring is pink. Rainbow turns to follow the trail, determined to find out who is challenging her. Her challenger seems to be zipping around in the fields and meadows outside of town.

There’s one problem, Rainbow finds, with Rainboom speeds. While she is slightly faster than her opponent, that advantage is negated by the fact that they can both turn on a dime. If her opponent makes a sharp corner, Rainbow won’t see it in time to respond without losing her hard-earned advantage.

Eventually, there are so many Rainboom- and pinkboom- trails in the meadow that, after a particularly devious twist, Rainbow’s having trouble even finding her adversary once again. In the spirit of competition, she declines to release her Rainboom boost, and rockets into the sky, where she makes a one-eighty high enough up that she can see the entire meadow- and hopefully, find her target once again. She does find that the pinkboom trail is fading, suggesting it had been released, though a trail is visible, streaking towards the blasted part of the Everfree before it tapers off. Rainbow engages in pursuit, but can’t seem to find her opponent. After searching the area of release at Rainboom velocities, she detours towards the blast zone to find out if Twilight knows who. Speaking of the blast zone, she does notice it’s a lot larger than it was yesterday.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had landed and galloped back to her house, to tend to her animals.

Rarity had been close enough to see the Flutterboom. She ignores the other two blasts, and smiles whenever Rainbow joins- before she drops her jaw at the art taking shape above her. She whips out some parchment, casting a spell for recording images. Not nearly as fast, nor pretty, as a camera, but she doesn’t have a camera.

Before the pink trails begin to fade, she’s already recorded three images. Aside from being gorgeous in and of themselves, these images would be great sources of future ideas.

Twilight’s scream lasts until the second Rainboom registers- and the Flutterboom spreads into their field of view. Her scream stops, alongside the entire investigation party- while Pinkie’s only redoubles for a second, before the mare in question zips off into the distance.

After a few minutes of recovery, and watching the two Rainboom shockwaves interfere with each other in the sky, Twilight looks at the newly revealed weapon for a few seconds. She has to fly up to peek down the pony-sized pipe, but confirms it to be a third size of the things, despite not being quite so shiny, inside or out. Shortly thereafter, with an appreciation for the length of the pipe on this one, they begin plowing into the terrain around the big pipes once again.

This is going to take a while, Twilight muses. If she can at least find out exactly how big the big one is, she can start estimating the size of the entire device.

I elect not to help them clear the main battery turret. While it would be nice to have free, both as a weapon and as solar production, such efforts would, unfortunately, vent the debris towards town. I don’t particularly wish to destroy the town I’ve only just launched my avatar towards- or that my Commander calls home.

Pinkie Pie rushes out into the fields below the racing Boomers and, not knowing she regularly exceeds Rainboom velocity, is left behind quite quickly. The booms are fading from the sky when she turns away- and she zips off to Applejack’s farm.

Turns out Applejack never saw anything. She’d been in the orchard at the time, and missed even the colorful shockwaves.

Author's Note

Edited 3/17/19.

Tired (Edited)

Wham!

Rainbow Dash smashes to a landing in front of Twilight, her sparkling contrail beginning to fade. “Twilight!” she demands. “Somepony’s ripping off my Rainboom! Did you see ‘em?”

Twilight sighs. “No, Rainbow, we didn’t. Pinkie ran off, though- she might…. Know.” Rainbow had already taken off.

One of the unicorns in the team blinks a couple times. “Uh, shall we get started?” he offers.

Over ten minutes after the Rainboom clears the field, the Cutie Mark Crusaders snap their jaws shut. They’d seen Fluttershy’s whole show.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Rainboomers!” Scootaloo announces.

The other two look at her. “But we can’t fly,” Sweetie Belle objects.

“None of us can,” Applebloom chips in.

Scootaloo, not to be dissuaded, smiles widely. “Come on- teaching an Earth pony or Unicorn to fly ought to be easy next to getting Fluttershy to do THAT!” She indicates the clear skies above the meadow.

She’s met by a couple of thoughtful stares.

“True,” Applebloom agrees.

Following a repeat performance of Scootaloo’s earlier announcement, this time accompanied by hoofslaps and excited yells, the three board their wagon and zip off towards the hill they’d seen her heading towards earlier. The hill that borders the blast zone they really don’t want to get too close to.

They don’t find anything, either.

“Good morning!”

“Good afternoon,” the sky blue pegasus smiles back instantly, trotting casually into town. “I happen to be looking for somepony in the candy business- could I get a pointer?”

Roseluck raises an eyebrow. “You not from around here?”

Headshake. “Not really, no.”

“Ahh… You’d probably be looking for Bonbon’s Candies, then.”

“Ah, yes, please.”

“Okay, let’s see…”

Two minutes later, one red-maned earth pony returns to her work, while the pegasus trots in the direction she’d pointed. One meeting down, one clue acquired. Preliminary target, Bonbon’s Candies.

An additional ten minutes finds the pegasus gazing longingly at a closed glass door. Above the door hangs the title of the store, Bonbon’s Candies, superimposed over an image of three wrapped candies.

A Unicorn mare pauses briefly behind her, on the roadway, before trotting over. “Hey, ya lookin’ fer candies?”

The pegasus makes a startled turn, golden mane flying about. “What-! Oh, um, yes, something like that. I… don’t have any money, though.”

“Well, that could be a bit of a problem,” the mare states.

Fortunately, I can confirm that whatever damage my old antimagic screens did was not life-altering damage, at least yet; the mare is sitting behind the counter in the candy shop, waiting patiently for new customers. Now, I need only fit in and, eventually, make inconspicuous contact, just to be certain.

Several hours later, Twilight is the last to leave the excavation zone. She yawns massively into her hoof as she ambles across the hillside, heading in the general direction of Ponyville, after which she will route to her castle and bed. She’d pulled one too many all-nighters already, studying her library for anything like it during the nighttime hours. She’s more than a little worried that, combined with her recent magical exhaustion, she might not even make it back to Ponyville before she falls asleep- and if she does, she’ll be at the mercy of the Everfree all night long.

Those fears, of falling asleep, are calmed quickly when she falls into a small cave opening, the resultant adrenaline rush driving off her exhaustion for a moment as she leaps back out. Her worries begin afresh almost instantly; her mind is already getting groggy again, after only a few seconds. She’d spent far too much time and energy venting her frustration today. Even after her order, all the other unicorns had been going really light on the terrain they had been plowing today, rather than with the force and energy they’d gone at it with whenever something was found and needed revealing. Overall, the unicorns had pushed the terrain back about an inch in three hours’ time.

Two hours ago, Twilight had informed the Pegasi and the Earth ponies that she appreciated their efforts (Together, they had disposed of almost six inches of terrain) and sent them home an hour early, on account of that they deserved it after such hard work. No doubt they knew that wasn’t the real reason; especially when, two minutes later, they heard her raging at- and firing- the unicorns, before the crunches of flying terrain began and a wave of panicked unicorns came over the hill. No doubt, the Pegasi and Earth ponies decided, Twilight had wanted them out of the danger zone while she vented. They had unanimously decided to stand and wait for her to finish, at least until their shifts were over, and offer to resume work once she did.

It had taken Twilight two hours to finish venting- and even then, she wasn’t done. By the time she had exhausted herself beyond belief and spent every last ounce of her magical power, the hardworking ponies had long since gone home. She’d spent the last fifteen minutes on adrenaline alone- and, overall, at least doubled the cleared space, alongside the discovery of a few more shapes to investigate later.

Either way, her adrenaline pumps are also quite exhausted by now, so her newfound wakefulness lasts hardly six seconds before she slides back to her half-asleep stupor.

She ambles slowly inside, stumbling slightly as she goes. Finally, she trips over the doorsill, landing roughly in the darkened room… And vanishes into the blissful grasp of sleep.

“Twilight? You okay?” It’s Fluttershy. She’d been searching for the cave for five minutes before she heard Twilight’s yelp, then taken five more to find it; by the time she made it to the bottom, Twilight was sleeping, face-down, on the hard, metal floor.

Twilight doesn’t wake.

“She’s deep asleep,”

“Eeek!” She casts her gaze quickly around the dimly-lit room. Right, it’s the invisible stallion… Interesting, there’s more chairs in here than there were earlier. “Oh, um… this is my friend Twilight. Um… can she use one of those seats as well?”

“Absolutely. Will you need help getting her into it, or no?”

“Um…” She glances at Twilight. “No, thank you,” she answers, and sets to work moving Twilight to the nearest seat. It takes her a few minutes to get Twilight in- and, for the first time, witnesses the sides adjusting themselves for her to place Twilight’s hooves on. Once she finishes, she looks at the headrest more thoroughly. “What’re these for?” she asks.

“The headrest doubles as a neural link headset.”

After a few seconds’ pause, Fluttershy climbs into her own seat, next to Twilight’s. “What’s an, um, new-roll link headset?”

“The headset is merely an avenue through which a neural link can be performed. When active, the neural link connects minds together; if it were activated right now, it would connect you to Twilight and some of my tactical databases. However, I have not yet calibrated the system for use by ponies; as such, it may have unforeseen long- or short-term side effects.”

Fluttershy smiles. “Twilight would love talking to you,” she mutters, before nodding off herself.

Zeus waits until after she crosses the threshold into deep sleep before replying softly. “I’m looking forward to talking to her as well.”

Perhaps my biggest worry about having Twilight in the bay right now is that she might panic upon awakening. She’s been stressing out more and more about trying to find a way into her ‘metal monster’ over the last few days; thus, at finding herself inside the aforementioned monster, she’s apt to explode.

Not nearly as violently as the cliffside on my aft hull; she’s cleared all the way forward to the facing armor of my main battery turrets, along with across far enough to discover two more of my secondary Hellbores, eight point defense clusters, numerous sensor pods and VLS hatches, and the edge of my port aft Hellrail- a weapon that would be safely usable with ponies standing next to it, even though the giant, currently inoperable railgun is largely useless against anything that isn’t in space. As such, they have the last repair priority, before unexposed armor.

Repair operations are coming along smoothly. At the moment, all additional systems repairs- and seat productions- have been suspended in favor of exposed armor repairs. I’ve managed to top off my Final Emergency Reserves, the emergency power supply specifically designed to keep my Survival Center- and, by extension, Damage Control- operable in the event of the complete failure of Main Power. I’ve had to completely disintegrate and replace half the entire bank, and their deteriorated linkages to the rest of my power grid, to allow them to reach this state; the destructive chemical reactions were too fast for in-place nanite repairs. Fortunately, though, I’ve been able to use my now fully repaired fab nanovat to produce the required cells without issue.

Now that I’ve topped them off, though, I have finally been able to release Final Emergency Repair Mode- meaning, I’m no longer limited to a mere 5% of my Personality Center’s processing capacity. My main power cells are up to about 3.71% capacity, and similarly reconstructed. I’ve been limiting repair operations to only half of active production, meaning nothing at night; once I hit 5% in my main power reserves, I plan to use any and all power beyond that point for repair operations. Five percent is enough for a brief stint of combat, if needed; enough to the point where I can worry about my physical repair state before continuing to charge.

Unfortunately, with these numbers, I expect the exposed armor repairs to take at least 2.73 days, plus some, depending on how determined Twilight is to see terrain removed from my hull.

Speaking of the focused purple mare, my scans are starting to get back from her. 0.027 seconds of simulations suggests the current neural headset programming would conflict with Twilight’s ability to perform magic, assuming the manipulation happens in her horn. I am unable to understand the inner workings of her horn- perhaps this is my first lesson in magic? I set my design cores on solving this issue; even if I am able to fabricate a system capable of manipulating magic, I will still want at least a basic knowledge of magic, such as any unicorn would have, before I start any of my experiments.

It seems Twilight has been suffering from not only sleep deprivation but moderate starvation and minor dehydration. Those are easy fixes, as is her partially obstructed pulmonary artery*. The tumor developing in her left hip is more troublesome- especially once I find it to be cancerous, and spreading. A crack in a hoof, several bruises and a couple crushed muscles; a cracked wingbone, damaged disks in her spinal column, developing nearsightedness, a frayed optic nerve… Another tumor, pressing on her pineal gland*- probably why she has so much trouble sleeping.

While these problems would undoubtedly have killed her at some point, they’re no biggie for me; hardly 5.72 hours after Fluttershy settles her into the seat, I have completed her repairs. I expect sunrise to begin in approximately 1.37 minutes; it was long after sunset that they entered the compartment.

Author's Note

*The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from the heart back to the lungs- in humans. If equine biology differs, or if I am wrong, please correct me.
*The pineal gland is the part of the human brain that produces Melatonin, the “sleep hormone” that makes you feel tired. Please don’t complain if equine brains differ, but do correct me if I’m wrong.

Edited 3/17/19.

At this point, I've noticed several points where I've made fairly major mistakes that virtually destroy future plot trajectories, aside from such issues as at least one vastly-OOC. I think I've gotten Twilight behaving close enough, though, and I like Zeus' personality.
Given these issues, I'm having trouble deciding where to go next- let alone to eventual, planned plot points. I'm considering either wiping and rewriting the story in place or rewriting it as a new story; I expect a corrected version- numbers, events, personalities, etc- to differ far enough for the rules. Preference?

Twilight Ripple (Rewritten)

Twilight awakens only very slowly to a couple ponies’ repeated wake-up calls. To her, it’s a morning like any other. She couldn’t remember casting the sleeping spell on herself, but she rarely ever could. With somepony’s assistance, she scrambles out of her bed- interestingly vertical tonight, perhaps it had broken?- and ambles outside. Sunlight had always helped the aftereffects of her sleeping spell to wear off, just as it does this time- though why the halls had been so dark this morning, she has no clue.

It takes her a few minutes of blinking in the morning sun- or, she corrects herself, early morning sun- before she finishes waking up and her vision clears enough for her to look around. Funny, it normally takes until the late morning or sometimes early afternoon for the spell to wear off enough for her to wake up.

Then, she’s on the other side of Ponyville from her castle.

Once this finally processes, she takes a deep breath, turning to the pony that had helped her outside- Fluttershy. “Sorry about that, but um… WOAH.” She staggers a couple surprised steps backwards, away from her friend, as she finishes.

Fluttershy, of course, squeaks, hiding behind her mane. “W-what?”

“You’re… beautiful,” Twilight eventually stammers. She’d never seen even Rarity achieve such a natural gleam in her coat before- as a matter of fact, she’s pretty sure it’s impossible.

Fluttershy pauses in the act of shrinking further into her mane, noticing how smoothly Celestia’s sun is shining through it. She hadn’t read the latest Daring Do book, but she’d heard that the adventurer had meet with something that made her coat shine for a week. She slips a glance towards her flank, to make sure she hasn’t turned into Rarity- and performs a double take. How? I didn’t shampoo last night, though! What happened?

Twilight picks up on the frightened squeak as Fluttershy examines herself. “Huh? So-!” she begins, before Fluttershy vanishes into the cave a couple paces behind them. The cave, she recalls, that she had fallen into last night. Her eyes go wide as she darts in after her friend. One corner, two corner, three corner, a glimpse of Fluttershy’s tail, four corner, the cave has stopped getting darker for some reason, five corner…

She screeches- or, rather, slides; the tunnel floor isn’t solid enough for a good screech- to a halt when she rounds the final corner, her jaw dropping. This particular straight segment is very short, ending in some kind of metallic doorway, with light- calm, smooth light, though it doesn’t feel magical- spilling out of it as her friend trots through the door… Wow, that’s a deep doorframe. She walks forwards herself, staring open-mouthed at the thing Fluttershy had found.

“Um, Zeus?” Fluttershy asks the empty air.

“Yes?” a stallion responds from out of Twilight’s view- and Twilight freezes, just outside the door. Has Fluttershy been seeing someone?

“Did you, um,” Fluttershy utters, reducing to a squeak as she glances back at her hide.

“My apologies,” the stallion responds.

Not ‘the stallion’, it’s Zeus, Twilight admonishes herself. He has a name.

“It’s an automatic system,” the stallion- Zeus- continues. “I can reduce the shine, though, if you’d like.”

Fluttershy shakes her head lightly. “No, it’s fine.” With a smile, she turns back towards the entrance- and spots Twilight.

Twilight is still staring at Fluttershy, watching her friend’s gleaming coat ripple as she moves and speaks to a stallion she still can’t see, when she turns around. She watches her friend disappear from view, quick as lightning, with a squeak- and hesitates to follow her into the odd metallic room.

Fluttershy’s eye reappears in the doorway, peering back out Twilight, before she shows herself again. “Sorry about that,” she mumbles, reappearing and walking out towards Twilight. “There’s somepony I’d like you to meet.” She helps to guide the alicorn into the room- which Twilight immediately notices has nopony else in it. However, she’d noticed a slight ripple in the magic of her horn as she stepped in the door. She considers scanning the door for whatever caused the ripple, but she’s still incredibly low on magic from last night; it seems her body had prioritized rest and recovery from physical exhaustion over regeneration of magical energy, as most Unicorn bodies do- and as hers had done continuously for the last two months. For right now, she’s got about as much power recuperated and available as Sweetie Belle has on a regular basis.

Not very much.

She does notice she seems to be regenerating magic during her waking hours once again, though- a welcome surprise.

“So, who?” she asks.

Fluttershy smiles. “Twilight, this is my friend, Zeus.” She gestures to the room at large. “And Zeus, this is my friend, Twilight.”

Twilight waves tentatively to the empty room. “Um, hi?”

The response comes from all around- from the entire room, it seems. “Greetings, Princess.”

“Ugh,” she grumbles, “would ponies please stop bowing-! Wait.” She blinks, and looks around. She hadn’t even seen him- so how had she felt like he was bowing…? Fluttershy is snickering, though.

“My apologies, Princess. I thought it only fitting for one such as yourself.”

Twilight scowls. “Please, it’s just Twilight. Are you going to show yourself?”

“I’m afraid not,” he replies. Twilight opens her mouth to voice a retort, but he cuts her off first. “You see, I’m not a pony, but a machine. You could say that I am all around you.”

Twilight stares into the empty room for a few seconds. “Are you hurt?” she demands.

“You know, I find it rather amusing that the first thought to cross everypony’s minds, upon meeting me, is to check that I’m okay. You’re referring to the explosion in the Everfree five nights ago, right?”

She nods. “Unless…?” She glances at Fluttershy… or, the empty space where Fluttershy used to be.

“Yes, she already asked about that. No, it did not hurt me, nor my armor. I have not sustained any fresh damage since my awakening some weeks ago.”

“Fresh? What about past damages?”

“Those past damages are significant, but were inflicted by the passage of many thousands of years of inactivity. I am equipped with the capability to operate repairs on myself, though- and am well past the point where no known force on the planet can harm me.”

“What about unknown?”

“That remains to be discovered. Do you know what you don’t know?”

Facehoof. “Right. Um, what about not on the planet?”

“In the distant past, I have fought with and against weapons capable of penetrating my armor, even in pristine condition. However, I calculate a chance on the order of ninety-seven point three percent that I am the only survivor of that age, leaving nothing capable of penetrating my armor.”

“But- but what about your friends?”

“Do you befriend your horn, or your front door?”

She blinks. “What-?”

“I am a Bolo. Even though we were created to be self-aware, the people that created my kind considered us as tools. We were disposable- and, back before the practice of assigning a biological command element to each Unit was abolished, people would get in trouble for befriending their charges. It is true, I’ve made a few friends over the ages regardless; I’ve also outlived all of them. Those that were biological lived and died, those that were more mechanical in nature… were either destroyed by enemy attacks, or decommissioned and slaughtered by their own creators. The only reason I survived the ages is because both my creators and their enemies believed me destroyed… before, I believe, they achieved mutual destruction.”

“I… I’m sorry.”

“Worry yourself not. The past is the past; while we can learn from it, there is no use fretting over it. It’s the future, and what we do with it, that defines who we are. I went into each and every one of those friendships knowing it would be ended early for some reason or another- but that didn’t stop me, and it won’t stop me now.”

Her head snaps up. “But- but friends are forever! And- and since I’m an Alicorn, I’m immortal!”

“Oh?”

She sighs. “I think. It’s a recent development.”

“I find I must ask, how many alicorns are there- and how many other immortals are there, as well?”

She rubs a hoof on the back of her neck. “Uh… Well, there’s me, Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, then Flurry Heart… um, that’s all the Alicorns… and all the immortals. Some of the other races- like the dragons- are long-lived, and Tartarus kinda freezes its inmates in time, but…”

“A prison in which nothing ever dies? Unless you’ve got an extraordinary rehabilitation program, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Huh-? No, it’s secure. It’s rare for anything to escape.”

“Rare is not never- and when you’ve got infinity to deal with, anything that can happen, will happen. Including a mass breakout. How long until it does happen is in the air, and probably very long- but it inevitably will.”

“Uhh…”

“This ‘Tartarus’ recently suffered a failure in the integrity of its security, didn’t it?”

She nods. “Tirek escaped when Cerberus left the gates… He destroyed my library!”

“Doesn’t sound very nice. You were able to replace it, right?”

“Yeah… and every book in it, I suppose. Everything unique was in the basement, and that wasn’t hurt at all.”

“Sounds like everything went okay.”

“But-!” She begins pacing across the room. “But I liked that little library! It was wooden, and cozy, and… I loved that library! That was home! Now, I’ve got this crystal monstrosity to replace it. Sure, the castle library is bigger, so I no longer have to pick & choose which books to order by which ones will fit on the shelves, but so? The ceilings are so high even a ladder can’t reach the upper shelves! The rooms are way massive! It’s all made of crystal- almost like living in a cave! Er…” She glances at the door, and the rock visible behind it. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

She resumes pacing. “Then, it takes two minutes to fly from my bedroom to the library- and it’s too far, through too much thaumic-infused crystal, to teleport! Tack on an additional three minutes to reach the kitchen in the morning, and possibly another ten minutes to find Spike’s room and wake him up, if he’s not already up! Back in the Golden Oaks Library, it was ten steps from the bedroom to the library, which also served as the dining room, with the kitchen right off of it- and Spike shared the room with me!

“It’s just… Uuugh! It’s not home!” She fumes silently back and forth for a few more seconds.

“I must confess,” he states into the gathering silence, “that for as long as I’ve lived, I’ve never lived in one place long enough to call it home, and us Bolos never developed any kind of sentimental attachments. However, I have seen many lose their homes… and it’s never a comfortable experience. Especially with such a massive difference in housing type… Though to be honest, it usually goes the other way: Big, fancy dwelling lost in favor of a crowded lodge. As I recall, people have been able to adjust most easily in the past by focusing more on what they have than on what they lost. You have friends, correct?”

She blinks, and looks up. “I’m the Princess of Friendship,” she declares. “Of course I have friends.”

“Try spending some time with them, ease yourself into your new home. And if it’s yours outright, possibly even modify it to suit you better.”

“... True. I’ve mostly been so focused on the Everfree crater as a way to avoid the castle… Hmm.”

“Avoiding it entirely won’t help at all- all that does is postpone the issue, and potentially exacerbate the pain and homesickness.”

Her ears flatten. “Yeah… and I know that, too. I didn’t live in a library for half my life for nothing! Well… Live in, technically just the last couple years. I didn’t actually live in the Royal Canterlot Library, but I lived in the Castle, and spent most my time in the library.”

“Oh? So you have experience living in palatial quarters?”

She shrugs. “Eh. I still prefer the library.”

“Perhaps if you invite some friends you had when you lived at the Castle, they could help it feel more like home?

“Friends from-?”

“And if you lived with someone at that castle, provided you’re still on good terms with them, it might be a good idea to invite them over sometime as well.”

She looks back at the door. “Well… I can’t exactly invite Princess Celestia…. But wait! I’m a Princess too- I can! Then-!” She resumes pacing. “I’ll have to get in touch with them again! Then…

“Oooh, what was the list? There was Moondancer, I know; she likes her books as well. Minuette and Lyra, the musicians; Lemon Hearts liked making candy; Twinkleshine loved keeping current on fashion… Wait.” She turns her head, looking back at the door. “This is awesome! All I have to do is throw a party and invite everypony. Moondancer will love the library; Lyra moved down here not too long ago, and I’m sure she’ll enjoy getting back together with Minuette for a minute- and Minuette will love the opportunity to meet Ponyville’s music stars, like Lyra, Octavia, or Vinyl… I bet Lemon Hearts would love to meet Lyra’s Ponyvillian friend and candy shop owner, Bonbon- and Twinkleshine would positively adore Rarity, and the other way around as well, probably.

“Oooh, Pinkie’s gonna love this…” She races out the door, vanishing up the tunnel.

Some ten seconds later, as the door lands shut, Zeus’ voice sounds in the now empty room once again. “I’m sure she will.”

Rainbow freezes. She’d challenged Applejack to a race, to see who could get a stack of pickaxes to the crater first. Of course, they’d agreed on a couple of rules: No wings, and no carts, either. Two equal-sized stacks, an equal distance. The work parties in the pit brought their shovels, and know the pickaxes are coming; they just expect the loosened dirt to take long enough to move that the two can deliver all the picks before they’re ready for them.

Then, while she’d been marching her way towards the site with her first pick, a purple blur had appeared out of nowhere and positively whizzed past her.

She hadn’t seen where it might have originated from- but, her Pegasus eyesight had been enough to tell that it had definitely been Princess Twilight Sparkle… who hasn’t moved that fast since that time when a librophobe called Torched Literature visited the town, some two years ago. Not to mention, the Alicorn hasn’t been able to even canter, let alone sprint like that, for weeks. Something about a pain in her hind leg- one that has slowly grown into a distinctive limp, so much that the doctors actually expect her to lose that leg in another week or so. Though nopony’s mentioned it to the doctors, that fiasco with the Staff of Sameness a week ago most certainly didn’t help.

Just like it didn’t help for herself- the temporary loss of her pegasus healing magic resulted in a massive exaggeration of her then-small wing pains. As a matter of fact, Fluttershy is probably the only one that didn’t suffer an exaggeration of her issues- at least, that she knows about.

She drops her pickaxe on the ground, looking after the purple alicorn. “Where…?”

Applejack walks up next to her, two picks held in her mouth, and speaks around them. “Ya know, Rainbow, you’re fallin’ behind just standin’ there.”

She glances back. “Yeah- but Twilight…”

“That was Twilight?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh… We’ll have to ask, later. For now, the competition’s still on.” She resumes her course.

Rainbow looks at Applejack again, then lifts her pick up and resumes her march- her faster march, because her farmer friend has been reduced to a walk by knee pains, and she hasn’t. The sole reason she has a chance against the earth pony in a wingless competition of strength.

Princess Twilight’s digging teams- all the science teams had been fired the night before- had judged the amount of soft terrain to be moved by the noise of the previous night, not by any visual inspection. There estimate was so massive, though, they expected to need several hours- possibly multiple days- to clear all the dirt and gravel before they could even begin messing with pickaxes. So, they’d brought shovels- and when Rainbow had offered to bring the pickaxes, they’d shrugged and said “Sure, why not?”

But now, they’re in the hole, and working. They’ve been here for almost ten minutes- and have found their numbers to be rather inaccurate. Had one of them been a unicorn, they might have been able to pick up on the signature of Twilight’s blasts- and more accurately estimate the likelihood of loose dirt staying in the hole. As it is, none of the ones that’d been here last night were unicorns- and, luckily, it’ll still take a couple hours to remove the loose material. A couple hours in which Rainbow could fairly easily deliver all of the pickaxes, exactly as promised.

So, after scoping out a few new features Twilight exposed, they set to work clearing the debris- and exposing as much of it as possible.

The new features are fairly amusing, to a couple of them; however, only the new recruit takes interest to any of them. She’s on what Mayor Mare had assured her Twilight would dub the ‘rookie team’, as she- the only member thereof, at the moment- isn’t a scientist. She’d been permitted to sign up for this job, though, because what she does have is magical prowess.

She’d pleaded for Mayor Mare not to share that fact with Twilight. Unfortunately, the earth pony had assured her that Twilight had full access to all the documentation, and that she would be required to reveal such should Twilight ask.

The earth pony had also been able to assure her that the chances of Twilight asking anypony anything about her, beyond she herself to find out which team she’s on, are just about less than zero. The princess is just too distracted by her own efforts.

That had been the deciding factor, the one that meant she didn’t run and hide as soon as she got out of sight of the town hall. She had, after all, had to use her real name on the documentation. Anything less wouldn’t have gotten past the fraud checks.

She knows Mayor Mare knows she’s hiding who she is. As a matter of fact, the mayor in question had actually asked her about some of the things she’s done in her past! She’d been tempted to run and hide right then and there, but the mayor had described those previous acts as a “Good, though misguided, effort.” She’d been asked to try a little more diplomatic approach next time, and the subject had been dropped.

At least, Mayor Mare had been dropping the subject, but she’d been too confused. She’d wondered- and asked- why such a simple request was enough, considering what she’d done; as it turns out, Twilight’s done worse, and the town has learned to get over it. She had refused to elaborate.

So she’s here, very carefully- and thoroughly- disguised. Unless the Princess uses some hardcore identification spellwork, she should be pretty safe. All she needs is some bits, now- and, hopefully, a chance to observe the six most powerful ponies in Equestria without being observed in turn.

Well… not exactly the six most powerful; in terms of raw ability, she’s almost as strong as Princess Twilight, and far more capable than the other five. In terms of actual expenditure, thanks to the Elements, those six easily hold the top six slots.

As she makes like she’s doing something, prodding at one of the new features- identified for her by a friendly pegasus- with a light levitation spell, she contemplates what she plans to do next.

The problem is, magic is unstable, as a rule. Had it not been, evolutionary advantage would have put Unicornia way ahead of the other two, and everypony would be a unicorn. What’s more, everypony would be a powerful unicorn, because of the advantage that confers.

The problem, and the reason all the most powerful unicorns- or Alicorns, for that matter- in Equestria have been rulers or scholars, is exactly that: Magic is unstable. Anypony that turned out to be very powerful and used it a lot would shortly find their own body ravaged by their magic in ways the doctors could not explain, and die. Princesses Celestia and Luna keep that from happening to them by only using their power every once in a while. She’s not entirely sure why their control of the Sun and Moon hasn’t caused that same issue, but she has a pretty good idea; she’s found ways to ‘stabilize’ spells… though, in order to stabilize a spell, she has to redesign it- almost from scratch, sometimes. Perhaps their control spells happen to be more stable than others?

She doesn’t know- but she does know many powerful ponies, including her own parents, have gone that way. She almost did herself, though she realized what was going on and stopped at just the nick of time. She’d had to endure a week or so without using really any magic at all, during which her body had healed; then she’d started exploring the stability problem… and gotten her cutie mark in the process.

She’d explored it, experimented, and finally been able to design her first useful, stable spell.

Well… ‘useful’ in one sense of the word. The spell would, at the cost of a huge amount of her power, strip a pony of their cutie mark, replacing it with one of her choosing.

Then the Elements of Harmony had reappeared- and those six ponies were using them far more often than necessary.

So she’d designed a little town. Built it.

Everypony who lived there, everypony who moved in, did so voluntarily. She had to deceive them a little to pull it off, but it was voluntary.

Except the Elements. She’d done the whole town thing specifically to attract them, because her spell would…

Well, that’s the complicated part. The first part was to separate them from the overblown magic they were killing themselves with. Not permanently, no- and in a form where it could be quickly and easily returned to them, should the need arise.

Step two was to get them to listen to what she had to say. That’s where her plan had broken down; she hadn’t expected them to try deceiving her, then all of her deception had been broken down before she had completed the preparations for step three: Getting them to understand the danger of overusing their magic and returning their magic to them, with carefully-tuned healing spells attached. That’s why she’d wanted their cutie marks in her house with her, for ‘safekeeping’- she’d needed to analyze them and apply the spellwork that would repair the worst of the damage. Ironically, she’d only finished one: The three butterflies… which belonged to the very pony that had deceived her.

She’d planned to break the warded wall in the cave herself, and go into hiding, once those six understood- and once she’d spelled their Marks sufficiently to heal them.

The healing effect wouldn’t last forever; only a few weeks. And, it wouldn’t heal everything, but everything it didn’t heal would heal on its own, with time- and low-expenditure, without requiring a no-magic period such as she went through herself.

She would have waited, in hiding, for everything to calm down, and for the ramifications of her actions to make themselves known- then shown herself once again, in Ponyville, and accepted whatever punishment they chose to mete out.

But that hadn’t worked.

So, she’s back to the drawing board. She’s considered doing them one at a time; she’s considered placing the healing spells on them directly, while they sleep. She’s considered trying to talk to them.

None of those would work, though. They’d never listen- and the nature of the healing spells would wake them up long before the cast was complete, breaking it and causing more harm than good.

She hasn’t been able to come up with anything yet. That’s why she’s here, working on this job, earning some bits to pay for her dinner.

She finishes half-mindedly poking at the obviously shielded metallic protrusion and casts her eyes about the crater for something she could do that would actually be worth her time- and effort. After spotting nothing, she crafts a quick spell in her mind. It’ll take a lot of power, and it’s not something she’s going to want to use very much for the stability problem, but it’ll suffice to show her where the edges of this thing are- even including the edges that are covered under layer after layer of rock. Finally, she turns it loose, and listens to the thaumic feedback.

Thirty seconds later, she’s traced its entire perimeter- by Celestia is this thing massive!- and begins trotting towards a cave opening not far away. The opening to the only other point at which this thing is exposed- and the cave that looks too straight, angular, and regular to be natural.

Author's Note

Rewritten 3/17/19. This chapter is the end of the rewrite for today; if the next chapter doesn't have an (Edited) or (Rewritten) tag on it, it's not part of the new version. I'll be making a blog post whenever I publish the next edited/rewritten chapter.

Plotting Along (New for Rewrite)

Author's Note

WARNING TO RETURNING READERS: If you haven't seen my blog post, as of a week or two ago, I've started rewriting this story in place. You'll notice this is far from the final published chapter- though at the time of posting, it's the final rewritten chapter.

If you haven't already, it is VASTLY recommended you go back and reread at least a couple chapters immediately prior; the changes go back as far as Chap. 1 (Awakening), though, so I recommend starting from there. The only truly critical ones, if you wish to minimize rereading and are willing to miss details, would be Chap. 6 (Discovery) and Chap. 10 (Twilight Ripple).

If the next chapter doesn't have a (Rewritten) or (Edited) tag- or, possibly, even a (New for Rewrite) tag like this chapter- it's not part of the rewrite. Don't worry, many of the events described in those non-rewritten chapters will be redone into the rewrite. It just may take a while to get there.

Plotting Along (New for Rewrite)

She stops before the open doorway. She’s already been surprised by how the cave seemed to have some sort of ambient light to it; she hadn’t needed her hornlight at all, all the way down.

Now, she’s standing in front of a wide-open doorway in the solid metal hide- and a simplified version of her earlier spell confirmed it’s the same metal hide as is in the bottom of that pit out there.

And her magic cannot get in through the open doorway, through which light is spilling. Bright, but gentle, white light- not unlike her hornlight, though she doesn’t feel any magic involved.

Which makes sense, if her magic can’t get through this odd barrier. This odd, invisible barrier.

She’d assumed before that it was something in the metal repelling her magic. Now, though…

She projects an even further simplified version of that earlier spell- one that’ll cost virtually nothing- against it, and lifts her hoof to touch it, very carefully.

The moment the tip of her hoof passes the edge of where her magic can reach, she pulls it back, and examines it magically.

Absolutely nothing changed.

So she tries again. Sticks an entire hoof past that point, draws it back, and examines.

Again, absolutely nothing.

Even though, even with the excellent thaumic conductor that is pony flesh, her magic can’t get any closer to the opening.

Her next test is an entire foreleg- and again, nothing.

So she tries the very tip of her horn. The unicorn horn is both a delicate thaumic instrument- and, simultaneously, the best known thaumic conductor. If it can’t get magic through the barrier, nothing can.

She lets out a small gasp as the tip of her horn makes contact with the barrier; she wasn’t prepared for the complete and utter destruction of the spell matrix that accompanied that act. She reforms it, though, still touching the barrier, and resumes the spell. The matrix had only collapsed at the point of contact; the rest had been a thaumic chain reaction, but nothing a prepared unicorn can’t handle.

She tries that for a second. She can still feel her power in the tip of her horn, even funnel more there, but it won’t leave for a spell, positioned right in the middle of the barrier- assuming it has a nonzero depth, of course. She hopes it’s not a field; that would be a… pain to deal with. Especially if there’s any negative side effects to prolonged exposure.

She draws the tip of her horn out again, tests it, and scans it. Nothing seems to have changed; immediately upon removal from the barrier, it resumed normal function.

So she tries again, this time progressing slowly through the barrier. She’s ready when she makes first contact, this time; as a result, her spell matrix remains firm.

Funny… the barrier seems to be about a third as thick as her horn is long. She successfully reactivates her spell, meeting no resistance for the five meter or so range, with the tip of her horn.

Then she cancels the spell altogether and steps through the barrier herself, into the doorway.

The very deep doorway.

Then she lights up her horn again, checking herself for damage. She’s not a doctor- but she spots absolutely nothing different than the scan she’d made before stepping through. Her disguise- since it’s dye-based, not magic- is completely unchanged.

Save only the tip of her tail; that’s still inside the barrier.

So she continues through the doorway, and out the other side, into a large, metal room, decorated with a few interesting-looking seats at the back- judging by the direction the seats are facing- and a comfortably soft rug.

“All safe, I assume?” an unseen stallion asks suddenly.

She lets out a gasp, shifting to a ready stance, and looks quickly around for him- even back the way she’d come. Nothing. Even her horn can’t find him; she’s the only pony, on this side of the barrier, for at least a hundred meters.

“I’m afraid you won’t find me in there,” he continues, “as a pony, at least.”

“Explain?” she demands, still braced.

“You see, I’m not a pony, but a machine. A very large machine, of which the room you’re in is a part.”

She relaxes her stance a little. “So, you can talk?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t talk to anypony outside?”

“I judged that would unduly frighten them, especially seeing as how said outside came to be revealed in the first place.”

She blinks, fully relaxing her stance as she tries to trace the voice; it seems to be coming from everywhere. “Speaking of that revelation, I hear it happened in a large explosion?”

“Yes.”

“And that that explosion came out of that massive stick-thing overhanging half the digsite?”

“That’s an affirmative.”

“... And that stick thing is part of you?”

“You’re probably the first to make that connection.”

She lets out a brief snort of laughter. “I take it Twilight doesn’t know about your cave?”

“Oh, she’s been in here. I believe she’s convinced the two locations are separate machines.”

She chuckles. “Had I not traced that cave by magic, I might have thought the same,” she states. “Deceptively long. Um… May I ask why such… uh, violence, was used in that pit?”

“At the time that I fired that main battery Hellbore, the trench that the tip of the weapon was exposed in was filled to bursting with what I believe were called ‘Timberwolves’. Additionally, I had four ponies held safely behind the firing chamber- one adult, and three youth. At the time, I had not made any contact with ponykind, and believed that allowing them to die while I could protect them would have been a bad start.” He sighs. “Completely aside from how I detest unnecessary civilian deaths- even among my enemies.”

“... Ahh. That… kinda makes sense, actually. And while ponies were frightened like crazy, the way I hear it, nopony was hurt. So…” She glances up. “If the town’s seen worse than what I did, that’s nothing.”

“What you did?”

She blinks, and stuffs a hoof in her mouth. “Oops.”

He chuckles. “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t be telling anypony. You’ll want to be careful where you slip, though- I’ve identified at least one secret investigator in town.”

“Ahh…,” she nods slowly. “Okay?”

“Speaking of which, I have reason to believe she was harmed by my first attempt at a thaumic barrier. I’ve since spotted her out and about in town, though her demeanor seems to have changed, so I’m interested in a second opinion- that is, if you can get it without provoking suspicion on her part- or on the part of her unicorn partner.”

She winces. “That… could be difficult. Um…” She glances back at the door. “Did you say the first one hurt somepony?”

“I have reason to believe it did, yes. However, that one was formed by tuning an antikinetic barrier against thaumic energy; this one is a dedicated system, designed for the purpose. I’ve tested it a few times, and it appears safe to me; did you notice anything in your examination?”

“Notice anything? You mean, danger anything?”

“Yes.”

She nods. “Ahh. No, it’s completely safe, as near as I can tell. I can’t be certain about long-duration exposure, but at least brief exposure is harmless. It does kinda shatter any spellwork, though.”

“So, works as designed. Thank you.”

She chuckles. “What? Afraid they’ll tear you apart?”

“If given the opportunity, I have no doubt Twilight would pull me apart, piece by piece, to see how I tick… even though I have a complete copy of my own blueprints, and can print them off for her without issue. However, I was not aware of Twilight’s propensity to do such when I designed the barrier; at the time, friendly status of ponies was not confirmed, and I needed a method by which to protect myself against any hostile action. Even now, the main reason I keep the barrier online at all times is because I have reason to believe the weapon that originally exposed the tip of my main battery- and damaged it at the same time- was magic-based.”

“Reason to believe?”

“Yes. I am told it was Tirek, using some sort of magic laser beam; however, a Unit of the Line such as myself does not rely solely on word of mouth, one of the most inefficient and inaccurate methods of information retention and transmission. Besides, where one high-powered thaumic enemy arises, so can another.”

“... Ahh. That makes perfect sense. So… Let’s see. You’re hiding what you really are, yet trying to present yourselves to ponies as an ally, when you’re… well, a walking weapon, right?”

“I don’t know that I’d describe myself as a walking weapon, per se; rather, as a mobile fortress. Yes, I have weapons beyond any I’ve seen yet on this world; I am also heavily armored… and I ride not on legs, but on tracks.”

She lets out a chuckle. “Well, alright. But I got the rest right, right?”

“Yes.”

She puts a hoof to her chin. “How possible would it be for you to, um, create a pony-body for yourself?”

“An avatar?” he asks. “As a matter of fact, I already have two of them deployed- hence how I might be able to deflect suspicion in the requisition of that second opinion. The issue is, I’d like to establish friendly relations between my hull and ponykind as well, not just with pony look-alikes.”

“Ahh… How’s that coming?”

“You’re the third pony to come in here. And, to be honest, the first to come without assistance; I used invisible, psychoactive lamps to attract first Fluttershy, then Twilight. Both have rested in this room; the former appears to have a powerful propensity for kindness, while for the latter, I went with Tactical and played psychologist to help her decide how to handle her new home. That castle is new, right?”

She blinks. “Ahh… Makes sense. Fluttershy is the Element Bearer of Kindness, and Twilight has always been easy to distract. Um- you didn’t use those lamps on me, did you?”

“I did not; I had no reason to, as my sensors have no issue detecting thaumic activity. I knew you already knew where to find my cave; all I had to do was disable the holoprojector- and physical barrier- covering the entrance, and power the ambient lights inside the tunnel itself. That last of which I probably didn’t really need to do, since you’re a unicorn, but they help with the friendly feeling.”

She blinks. “Makes sense,” she states. “Um…” She glances at the door. “Do you know about the thaumic stability problem?”

“Thaumic stability problem? I suppose it’s a good thing I’m protecting myself against it, then.”

She chuckles lightly. “Ah, no, it’s not like that. It’s more about the stability of the common spell- the reason it takes so much effort to work a powerful spell.”

“Then no, I’m not familiar with it.”

“Well…” She sits on the floor. “It’s an interesting problem.”

“Those seats are freely available, if you would like,” he interrupts.

She glances at them. “Um… Okay, sure.” She rises to trot towards them. “Anyways… When a pony uses magic, some of their power leaks out of the matrix. The more power they’re using, the more leaks out. Um… Wow, these things are really comfortable, thank you! The problem is, the power that leaks out wreaks havoc. Both on the spell matrix- increasing the difficulty of the cast- and on the caster. Pegasi and earth ponies are generally immune to this effect, since their innate magics don’t actually take that much power at all; it’s unicorns- really only the powerful ones- that have to worry about the damage to their bodies.” She sighs, eying the tip of her horn. “I’m one of those ‘powerful ones’. If I use too much magic in too short a period, I’ll cause myself some rather painful injuries- and, eventually, kill myself. That’s…

“That’s how I lost my parents. Both of them.

“Magical artefacts, like the Elements of Harmony, aren’t immune to this effect either- and while the artefact itself isn’t bothered by the lose magic, the wearer slash user is.” She sighs. “Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie. Those six ponies regularly use the Elements of Harmony… and overuse them, too- so they’re killing themselves, without even realizing it. That’s… That’s what I’ve been trying to solve. I’ve been trying to find a way to inform them about the danger, and to heal what damage has already been done.” She looks up at the ceiling. “I managed to get the healing spells on Fluttershy, but none of them will listen, so it’s not going to last very long.”

“That would explain why Twilight was carrying serious health issues around, while Fluttershy merely looked a little exaggerated.”

“Huh?”

She can swear she hears a smile in his voice as he continues. “Well, what if I told you that comfort is not the primary function of those seats?”

She blinks. “I’d tell you the primary function better be something incredible.”

He chuckles. “I daresay it is. The primary function is to keep passengers in place while I move.”

She blinks. “That’s incredible?”

“The secondary function is to serve as a delivery pathway for something called ‘nanites’, with which I can formulate a medical diagnosis- and operate repairs. Speaking of which, it looks like you’ve got some pegasus genes; you’ve got a partially-developed mid-shoulder. Doesn’t look like it plans on growing further, though.”

Silence holds for ten seconds, before she nods.

“Alright, I’ll give you that one. That is kinda incredible.” Then she glances at the door. “I don’t suppose both Twilight and Fluttershy have, uh… used the seats?”

“They have. I’ve restored both of them to perfect health- or close thereto. Twilight had to leave before I got that far.”

She chuckles. “How long does it take?”

“Depends on the problems I find. In case you’re wondering, I’ll have you done in about fifteen minutes.”

She smiles. “Thanks. So, if we get them all in here for… healings, then… Do you think you could help with the education side of things, as well?”

“Possibly. That’ll be down the road; I don’t think they trust me enough to accept that kind of advice just yet.”

“Though, if they learn to associate you with their good health…”

“No doubt they’ll ask me if I can make the good health last- which I can. That procedure is a little more invasive, though, and not something those seats can handle.”

“What’s it involve?”

“Surgical installation of a medical suite, with chemical power plant, within the pony body.”

She tilts her head. “What effect would it have?”

“You’d heal faster… and that’s about it. Material density is easy to match to the surrounding tissues; the power plant would only burn about as much in the way of food as the same biomass as was removed would. Plus, the footprint of the device is small enough a doctor might miss it- and that installation won’t risk damaging any organs or tissues, other than that which is replaced.”

“What would be replaced?”

“I’m not entirely sure- I don’t have enough data on pony biology just yet- but something inconsequential.”

Second Opinion (New for Rewrite)

“Well,” she mutters, as she places the bag of candy on the floor. It’s not a very big bag; her budget for the excursion was only three hundred bits, after all.

… Where a subterranean machine got three hundred bits from, she doesn’t know. They’d been waiting for her, next to her seat, when she got up to perform her latest assignment.

“That was interesting,” she finally finishes. Then she glances up at the ceiling. “That being said, do you like candy?”

A gentle chuckle floats back from the same. “I might, if I had a method by which to actually taste it,” he states calmly. “As it is, I’m afraid offering it to me is fairly pointless; feel free yourself. On the other hoof, how were your findings?”

“Well, for one, the candy smells amazing; if anything, I sold the cover story a bit too well. She did baulk when I asked for one of everything, but…” She chuckles. “But at that point in the operation, I genuinely did want to try everything, so…

“Anyways, that’s when things started getting weird. The lyrist wasn’t back yet, so Bonbon- that’s the earth pony’s name- pulled them out herself. I watched, and… About five times out of every ten, her hoofgrip would falter, and she’d drop something. After the first broken jar, I offered to help, but she refused.” Sigh. “Didn’t exactly help she didn’t seem to have the strength to lift some of the heavier ones, hoofgrip problems aside, despite being an earth pony.

“Then the lyrist- her name’s Lyra- returned and screamed. She, well…”

She opens one eye, ears still flat to her head, when the scream dies away.

“What happened in here!?” the newly arrived unicorn, matching Zeus’ description of the candymaker’s partner, demands.

She cringes backwards, her other eye opening as well, while the candymaker glances up.

“Uh, nothing,” Bonbon states, just a little too innocently. “Just getting a little excited.”

The unicorn then turns to her.

She speaks immediately. “I wanted one of everything, but she wouldn’t let me help when things started falling.”

“Hey!” Bonbon complains. “She’s a customer! Don’t bother her!”

The unicorn raises an eyebrow, ignoring the candymaker. “One of everything?”

She nods. “It all smells so good…”

The unicorn tilts her head at the pouting earth pony, then nods. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Maybe we really should have made a sampler, huh, Bonnie?” Sigh. “And I thought I told you to wait for me!” Her horn glows, the matching glow scattering throughout the shop to clean up the impressive mess the candymaker had made.

And discarding half of the candies that had been successfully sorted out to be part of the sale.

“Lyra!” the earth pony complains again. “It’s my shop!”

“There’s glass in those,” the unicorn states. “You know what’d happen if you let that leave through those doors.”

The earth pony’s ears droop. “Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s okay to get excited, but don’t let that get in the way of being careful, okay?” Lyra glances at the candies still on the counter, then at the shelves. “One of everything…? Yeah, we’ve got more of those in the back.” A glance at her. “I’ll be right back.” She disappears into the back room.

She walks over to the earth pony, who is sitting on the now clean floor in front of the display case. “Hey,” she begins.

The earth pony shakes her head, sniffing. “S-sorry,” she mutters. “I don’t know why I even try anymore.”

“Hey, none of that,” she states, resting one foreleg over the earth pony’s withers as she sits next to her. “Accidents happen. I bet this store wouldn’t be here without you, would it?”

“No. But it’s not like I can do anything anymore.”

“Huh-? What happened? … Actually, don’t tell me. Something tells me it’s something best shared only with your friends.”

The earth pony leans into her. “You’re a friend, right?”

She blinks for a second, then nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I can be a friend, if you like.”

“I would like.”

She shudders at the memory. “Then she showed me the bottom of her hoof. It’s…” She sighs. “She said nopony could figure out what did the damage, but that her thaumic facilities had to be removed as part of the effort to save her life.” She looks up. “At least that effort was successful… How reparable would the damage be?”

“That depends.”

“It’s the stuff in her hooves- the part that every pony has, and then the other part that’s specific to earth ponies.”

“Might an Alicorn have that other part as well?”

Blink. “Uh, I think so, but I don’t actually know.”

“Then I want to say yes. I’m not certain, though- another case of insufficient data- but everything I’ve seen in that area looks reparable… or, possibly, replaceable.”

“Replaceable?”

“Affirmative. Though, to be honest, it’ll take many times as much data to produce a viable replacement than it would to be able to simply repair it.”

“... Ahh. Then, the change, from-!”

“Go ahead and keep it.”

“What?”

“I’ve no use for it. Go ahead and keep the remaining funds.”

“But- but that’s two hundred forty bits!”

“I know.”

“That’s a lot of money!”

“I know.”

“... and you don’t need it.”

“Affirmative.”

“What happens if you do need it?”

“Remember when I mentioned Tactical, and when my pony look-alike avatars came up?”

“... Oh.”

“Yes. One of them is in the Royal Guard here in Ponyville; the other is a private investigator in Canterlot. Between the two of them, and their complete lack of food-related needs, I have at my disposal more bits than I will ever need.” He chuckles. “I’ve even got a third one approaching deployment in another few hours.”

“Huh? Isn’t that kinda a lot?”

“Yes, I’ll admit, I’m putting more of my capacity than I really need to into making avatars. But as I said earlier, I’ve already gotten myself into such a state where no known force on this planet can penetrate my defenses- and so, my priority has shifted from self restoration to the establishment of a sensor network, so as to identify a new threat as soon as it appears. At the moment, avatars are the most effective way to do that- especially if I can get them into Equestria’s existing information networks. If one of them uncovers something, of course I’ll send a drone to investigate- but at the moment? Avatars are, by far, easier to manufacture than drones. And that’s not even counting the drone’s far higher power requirements.”

“... Ahh. And that probably also doesn’t count how a pegasus might see a passing drone.”

“Actually, I’ve already confirmed their stealth is effective against ponies of all breeds; as such, that is a non-issue.”

“Oh. And, speaking of breeds, you said I had a bit of a mid-shoulder, suggesting pegasus genes?”

“Affirmative.”

“Does it so happen that you’ve had a chance to look at anypony else that doesn’t have wings?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“What?”

“I haven’t gotten any in for a medical examination, no- but I have been able to scan the various ponies working in the pit by various means; I have been able to acquire accurate depictions of their skeletons, among other things. None of the other non-winged ponies possess even the slightest development in the direction of a mid-shoulder.”

“... Oh. I wonder why…? My family’s been all Unicorn for as long as I can remember.”

“Maybe I’ll be able to figure out more once I have more data.”

“Oh! About that. Um, can we plan on getting Rainbow in here next? I worry she’ll break a wing or something soon, if we don’t get her a good healing first… and she won’t hold still long enough for me to do it.”

“You know my method relies on holding fairly still as well, right?”

“Yeah… but your method, I didn’t even notice it. My spell… Well, it wakes ‘em up- and if they move around while I’m in the middle of casting, they’ll cause it to backfire, and do even more damage to them.” She sighs. “Minimal on me, but that’s not the important part.” She looks up again. “So, since Rainbow likes to sleep a lot, I imagine it can’t be that hard to convince her to do it in here.”

“Oh, you might be surprised.”

Blink. “Come to think of it, you’ve got all those drones, and pony-avatars, and you’re apparently controlling them from afar.”

“Yes?”

“Is there some way to make it so I could talk you you- or vice versa- without coming in here, or seeking an avatar?”

“Not presently, no. But that’s a good idea; I should have something ready by tonight.”

Author's Note

This'll be the last new-for-rewrite chapter before I get back into rewriting chapters again. In other words, this is the last of this new sub-arc, and I'm getting back into the old arc with the next chapter.

That said, yes, this was fun to write.

And yes, Bonbon's problem will come up again- I'm not going to just abandon her.

Rainbow Crash

Author's Note

BEWARE, all the prior chapters were rewritten. This chapter is the earliest one that has not. There will be a rather significant continuity gap between this chapter and the one prior.

Rainbow Crash

Twilight is getting ready to call a break for her hardworking- and exhausted- work crews when the object they’re uncovering suddenly moves. It tilts down, until it’s angled about as steeply as the hillside facing Ponyville, while it also twists away from the rock face, wrenching itself free. It stops for about a second before the plug of rock they’d been so far unable to cut into inside of it is launched right out, flying into the Everfree. The impact is heard almost eight seconds later.

“Another one!?” Rainbow asks. She’d stuck around to help with the excavation as much as she could; Applejack had to go finish her applebucking.

“Wait, I don’t think this one can point at us,” she says, looking at the hub they’d revealed- and that had swiveled with the rest of the new … weapon. “It doesn’t look like it can go down as far as the others.” She turns towards her half-startled, half-frightened work parties. “Break time! Thank you, everypony! I think we can take, what, a couple hours?” She’s met by a combination of relieved and excited responses, though there’s a couple disappointed ones. “If you want to keep going, you’re welcome to,” she informs them.

In the end, nopony sticks around to keep working, and Twilight meanders towards the cave she’d waypointed earlier- amazing how invisible it is- with Rainbow in tow. Pinkie had zipped off towards town, intent upon her caloric job at Sugarcube Corner, as soon as she’d announced break time. Rainbow Dash had been starting towards Ponyville on foot; her wings have been more and more painful to use this last month, and nopony could ever label her as a masochist. She had been, until she noticed that Twilight- who, she’d noticed earlier, had lost the limp in her right hind leg- was not headed towards Ponyville, but rather on a heading that would take her clean past it, through the grass- such that she’d pass about halfway between Ponyville and Fluttershy’s house. So she’d followed, tucking her aching right wing into place. It hurts the least when it’s folded, and even less if she doesn’t have to hold it folded with her wing muscles.

“Where’ ya headed?” she asks, looking out at the meadow. Twilight is not normally one to hit the meadows without at least a couple of books.

Twilight glances over at her. “I thought I’d talk to Zeus a little.”

“Zeus? Who’s Zeus?”

Twilight pauses. “I forgot to tell you about him, didn’t I?”

“Him?” Rainbow stops midstep, cringing as her wing comes unfolded for a second.

A blush. “Sorry! He’s a machine, and he lives in a really nice room in a cave not far from here.”

A raised eyebrow. “Is he awesome?” Her body language screams ‘Like me?’.

The blush fades, covered by a sigh. “I don’t know,” she returns- and gains a mischievous smile. “Wanna meet him?”

Rainbow goes wide-eyed. “Uh, no, I don’t think so.” She shakes her head. “He’s your machine-colt.”

Twilight scowls at this. “Fluttershy knew him before I ever heard of him.”

This stops Rainbow in her tracks.

“Wait, Fluttershy? HER coltfriend?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so. And no, she didn’t expect to shine like that.”

Rainbow scowls at her headed off follow-up question. “Rarity’s never going to leave her alone about that.”

“It wasn’t me either,” Twilight retorts. “Perhaps he can tell us what happened?”

“I’m not askin’.”

Sigh. “He even offered to play bunker for us, if needed.” She pauses at the mouth of the tunnel, pointing a hoof down it.

Rainbow takes a quick look at the cavern, and turns back to her friend. “Pass,” she says. “I’mma go take a nap.” With that, she trots off.

Twilight shakes her head slightly, turning to enter the tunnel- and pausing. Rarity… Right, Rarity would never leave Fluttershy alone, until she found out how to do it herself. She takes one, long look down the tunnel, and trots off herself, to find one or both.

Eight hours later, Rainbow Dash has a predicament. Her wing has been hurting more and more all day, even when she kept it folded. Now, with a soft yelp of pain, she stretches it out for the quick jump, almost perfectly vertical, into her cloud mansion. If it hurts this much today… She actively dreads the return journey, but she really wants to sleep in her own bed one last time. A little pain is a small price to pay for the luxury of home. Another soft yelp comes from her test flap, and she decides her home is worth the pain. A deep crouch, a high leap, and a real stroke.

The first stroke is just as painful as she had expected. The second hurts more; the third, even more. She’s beginning to debate the wisdom of her choice, even as she clears her front lawn, when her first- and only- flap to move horizontally ends early in a sharp cracking noise in her right wing, effectively immobilizing it in pain.

She strokes frantically with her other wing, also painful but thankfully not damaged, while she uses a hoof to steady her right, attempting to make a landing. Unfortunately, she had not gotten enough forward momentum to reach her home, and the dynamics of her issue have turned her away. She makes an attempt to turn back, but loses too much altitude. So she attempts to navigate back to Ponyville, there to check in to the hospital- not that she expects them to be able to help very much; they’ve been nonplussed by hers and her friends’ pains these last few months.

Pegasi are not designed for one-winged flight. Rainbow knows this, but attempts anyways. After completely failing to direct herself towards Ponyville, she works towards simply making a safe landing- anywhere. Even a safe crash landing would be good enough; her legs are still just fine. Once on the ground, it should be easy for her to trot over to the hospital, or anywhere else, for that matter.

One-winged landing, however, proves to be too difficult for even the self-proclaimed fastest flyer in all of Equestria. She does manage to avoid killing herself as she crashes into the hillside. However…

She cries out in pain as her good wing is smashed against the ground, breaking in at least one spot. Her attempt at a three-legged landing is even more punishing, though. Her hind legs are OK, but her left foreleg now sports a sprained ankle. Her right foreleg, where it had been holding her now limp- and even more hurt, though not broken- right wing, has broken, right at the knee. She’s in no shape to walk as far as Ponyville; she’s landed too far away.

She’s also too close to the Everfree for safety. She contemplates visiting Fluttershy’s house for only two seconds, before she recalls the fractured windows; the work ponies are scheduled to install new windows tomorrow. Unfortunately, even though the house is within earshot of her current position, that means it’s empty. Fluttershy herself has been sleeping in Twilight’s castle ever since the explosion.

Rainbow is fairly close to panic, climbing slowly- and painfully- to her three working hooves, when she notices something. ‘He even offered to play bunker for us,’ her memory replays for her. There is a glow, ever so faint, coming from the cave mouth not three meters from her current position. Bonus, she recognizes where she is. This, then, must be ‘his’ cave- though she forgets what Twilight called him. If he offered to play bunker, she might as well take advantage of that and wait in safety until one of her friends comes to visit him tomorrow, at which point she can alert them of her problem. She makes her way painfully to the tunnel.

It’s an interesting tunnel, she decides. Even as she hobbles her way down it, her mind is far too active to remain occupied by her steady, painful steps. Speaking of which, she’s found that she can still fold her wing at its joint, but she’s lost any ability to lift or lower it on its own power- aside from the massive pains every time that particular mid-hip shifts. But, she admonishes herself, she doesn’t go on tangents the way Twilight does. The tunnel, even as far in as she has gone, feels more like a darkened hallway than a cave in the ground. Eventually, she reaches the bottom- where a metal doorway is standing open.

“I might recommend hurrying inside,” a stallion’s voice comes, quietly, from inside. “A creature has emerged from the Everfree, and appears to be following your scent.”

“What?” Rainbow only pauses for half a second before she picks up her pace. She’s right in front of the door when she hears the thing approaching the final bend, and launches herself into the doorway, glancing back. She’d spotted the door itself, barely visible in the wall, as she came in.

The thing- there truly is no better word to describe it- can’t be more than a meter away from the door, and bounding towards her, when her tail clears the entry. The door instantly lands shut with a solid clang, momentarily before she hears the faint sound of something coming up hard against it.

“Thanks,” she mutters, climbing unsteadily back to her hooves and ambling further in, to the room on the other end of this massively deep doorway. She glances around and, not seeing anypony, directs her question towards the center of the empty room. “Do you mind if I wait here for my friends?” she asks, and takes a worried glance back at the door.

“You’re welcome to wait here,” the stallion replies- from all around, Rainbow decides. “I might suggest using one of the chairs, though- I understand they’re more comfortable, even when injured, than the floor.”

The response he gets for that is a critical look at the nearest seat in question and a tilted head. Key in her contemplation is just how worth the pain of moving this unknown comfort is likely to be. Even as she stands, her right wing waves painfully with her breathing, her left screaming from the broken bone. Her right foreleg also howls, but she’s tall enough she can see the indentations for her forelegs on the foreleg-rests. Additionally, her eyes are good enough she can see the indentation in the cushions, suggesting that it aught to support her injured limbs better than the floor might.

After a full minute of quite un-Rainbowlike standing in contemplation, she speaks up again. “How soft are they?”

“They are adjustable; as soft, or as hard, as you like.”

That settles it. If that claim is true, it will be at least twenty percent more comfortable than the floor. She starts her way towards the seats. “Any that I should avoid?” she asks.

“No. You may pick any seat you please.”

A pained smile spreads across Rainbow’s face. “Thank you,” she says and, upon reaching the seat, starts climbing into it. She simply can’t hear the monster at the door anymore; she’d noticed a second door, on the inside, slide more quietly shut once she entered, blocking out the noise of its relentless attacks.

It takes her several minutes to get onto the seat and turn around, settling her hind legs into place, then she gets to work squeezing her right wing into place, already deciding the comfort is worth the pain. At least it’s not actually broken, so it folds naturally, and all she has to do is direct it into place. She then places her right forehoof on the armrest and begins the trouble with her stubbornly broken left wing. It takes her close to ten minutes to get it to settle properly into the cushion, against her side, as she finishes leaning back and drops her left hoof onto its rest.

She closes her eyes for a second, relaxing into the seat. “You’re right,” she agrees. “These things are comfortable.” She drops off to sleep not two seconds later.

“You’ll be even more so when you wake up,” Zeus chuckles. “Broken bones and cancers in the nerves are nothing to laugh at.” He declines to mention the painkillers he’s already administered, even though she’s fast asleep.

That night, and for much of the following day, Rainbow catches up on the sleep she’s lost to the pain each night- and nap- over the last three and a half months.

Sonic Departure

I watch calmly as the monster rages against my closed doors. It’s already early morning; Twilight has come and, upon hearing of the monster’s presence, fled back towards town- and, I notice, notified Fluttershy. They then start gathering up their friends- being Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. It would seem they’re looking for Rainbow, but not only is she asleep, but she’s safely inside my war hull. I order a second cave out dug, the internal passages- and the other troop compartment- given special repair priority. All of my systems and armor are fully repaired; however, much of my interior remains ignored at this point. I release my repair system to consume some of the 53.49% in my main power reserves for the purposes of these operations. It seems I must defend my entrance.

It will take almost 23.49 minutes for the spider to fabricate the second tunnel, but 6.97 hours for the intervening passage- and other troop compartment- to be made presentable. As a side thought, at the expense of 2.91 minutes of fab nanovat capacity, I produce a disguised com set for Rainbow; if nothing else, I should be able to use it to warn her of the monster if it switches entries during her departure. A tech spider deposits the jewelry-disguised com set, in its fabricated box, on Rainbow’s foreleg-rest, in front of her repaired right foreleg. I’m still 1.49 hours from completing her minor repairs, but her major repairs are long done.

My 419th satellite deepscan of the forest comes back clean, like its predecessors. The monster’s behavior, along with that of the predator last night, is suggesting I’m missing something big. I contemplate launching my 5 repaired recon drones to make the overflights that my orbiting satellites are simply too high for. Thinking of the satellites, once this monster showed up and demonstrated prior knowledge both of the cave’s position and what might be found in it, I launched all the rest of the ones I had available.

Ever since I finished my armor repairs, I dropped my repair systems to use no more than 25% of production at any given time. Of that, 25% of active capacity at any given time is devoted to interior repairs (aka ‘tidying up’) and the rest to satellite, drone, and ammunition repair and manufacture, evenly divided. My third 500-lb missile is 4.91 seconds from completion, seventh satellite 2.93 minutes… Should something need annihilation, my first 50-gton missile will be entering my magazines in 3.92 hours.

I contemplate fusion ignition, but find it unlikely that my repair system will burn enough power to prevent an overall charge effect over a 24-hour period, given clear daytime weather. Further contemplation suggests the only way to eliminate the monster in the entryway without risking damage to my spiders, a drone, or the surrounding terrain is to distract the thing, to get it out into the open. I start the dim ‘ambient comfort’ lights hidden along the tunnel into a wave out to the entrance, hoping to distract it- only to be ignored. I shall see what happens when I open the second tunnel.

It’s getting late, and nopony can find their rainbow friend, producing somewhat of a panic. Twilight and Fluttershy have searched her house in and out, and Twilight has called over to Cloudsdale to see if she’s over there. Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity have searched Twilight’s castle, also coming up blank. Twilight finds herself wishing she’d followed Rainbow home last night.

After waking up slowly and uneventfully, the blue Pegasus blinks in the light, finding the need to neither yawn nor stretch. It takes her a few seconds to fully remember where she is- and realize what she doesn’t feel.

She sighs, smiling gently. “These chair things really are quite comfortable,” she vocalizes.

“That they are. However, it would seem your friends have become increasingly worried about your absence today; the monster from last night has not left the door.”

Rainbow hops out of her seat, landing on all fours and preparing to cringe at the force her landing applies to her right wing. Only problem is, the pain never comes. She then recalls her broke left wing… And right foreleg, even though it’s supporting her weight without issue right now. “Did I miss the doc?”

He chuckles. “No- rather, I make a decent doctor myself.”

Rainbow’s grin widens as she tests her wings as well, finding them painless. “Awesome! If they’re looking for me…?” Her grin drops to a scowl as she faces the exit door.

“Until and unless the monster retreats, I will have to treat that door as impassible, I’m afraid. I have prepared another exit, though- and a device that will allow me to warn you if it decides to leave while you’re in the second tunnel.”

“I’ll outrace it,” she proclaims, her chest jutting forwards.

“I don’t doubt- however, knowledge is half the battle. You can’t outrace it if you don’t know it’s coming. It’s in the box on your foreleg-rest.”

Rainbow tilts her head, considering, and takes a peek inside the box. Once she does, she stares at it for a second. “Exactly what is this?” she asks.

“It’s a communicator, and my gift to you. You’ll notice two parts: The bracelet, and the earpiece. I’ve colored them to match your coat as closely as possible.”

Rainbow pulls out the two pieces, one clearly being designed to rest on/in her right ear, if she remembers her anatomy correctly. The other, as titled, is a bracelet- which she slips onto her right foreleg, where it’s almost invisible.

“How?”

“The bracelet is the part that makes everything work. As for how the system works, the earpiece will carry my voice directly to you from however far I might be- and vice versa, with your voice to me. Tapping the bracelet twice turns it off, once back on again; additionally, it is always off when not worn.”

Rainbow slips on the earpiece. “Do you have a mirror?” she asks.

“Not normally,” he responds, in her ear. “One second.”

The smooth wall next to Rainbow smoothly transforms into a mirror wall, drawing Rainbow’s jaw towards the floor. Once she snaps it shut again, she inspects herself in the mirror. He seems to have been successful in matching her coat; she can hardly tell she’s wearing it at all!

Wait, she pauses. She’d heard his response only in her right ear. “Wait a minute,” she mutters. “Was that…?”

“Yes, this is what it sounds like. Do note that others will not hear me when I speak to you this way.”

“Twilight’s going to want one.”

“Predictably. At the moment, I’m planning on offering one each to Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy, in addition to your own.”

A pause. “We won’t be overhearing things through them all the time, will we?”

“No- only that which is intended for you. I’m working on a system to allow two of you to communicate directly with them, but until I finish that, it’s only through me.”

“Who else can I talk to with them?”

A chuckle. “Nopony, I’m afraid- you’re so awesome that you got the first one.”

While Rainbow Dash may not be as easy to distract as the Princess, and most certainly doesn’t appreciate jewelry nearly as much as Rarity, but any Bolo with a halfway competent tactical section can pull it off anyways. Much of the persuasion I accomplished through voice tones and timbres; the rest, I played against her evident self-pride, alongside a hint or two of the mannerisms my main drone has seen her use. My victory over her aversion to what I believe she calls ‘all that fro-fro stuff’ has scored me the ability to communicate with somepony outside of my hull- and the distraction proved to be enough to finish the final touches on Passenger Six; now the alternate exit is ready. I begin the process of guiding her towards it, un-mirroring the inside wall once she leaves the room. Even when I let her see herself, she didn’t seem to notice her gleaming fur, mane, and feathers.

Rainbow does seem to harbor some curiosity, but her friends outside are beginning to panic, so I have no qualms about using little hints in my tone to create a sense of urgency as I guide her to the exit. Finally, she reaches the secondary exit hatch, and I power the ‘ambient comfort’ lights in this tunnel.

“So I’ll just come out on a different part of the hill?” She asks.

“Yes,” the response comes from the room, not her earpiece- and the door opens… Or, the inner door, at least. The voice switches to her earpiece. “I might advise hurrying, though- it’s already approaching evening.”

Rainbow accelerates, the outside door sliding open. “Sure thing.”

“Run. The monster has abandoned the other hatch as soon as I opened this one- and appears intent to cut you off.”

After a seconds’ pause, Rainbow breaks into a full, wing-assisted gallop, banking heavily on the corners. She flies out the entrance of the cave with a sonic shockwave almost a full minute before the monster manages to escape its tunnel.

She yelps slightly when the boom surprises her but, as she whistles into the clouds, cackles gleefully. “First time I’ve done that going up!” She declines to mention it’s also the first time she’s done it accidentally.

The friends freeze when they hear the Rainboom, all panic over in an instant.

“Well, she’s alright,” Applejack comments, turning towards the noise.

Twilight cringes. “Her wing’s been hurting her more lately- that can’t be comfortable…?”

She’d spotted the rainbow contrail, starting from the blast right about at ground level, just outside the forest. The contrail shot almost straight up, before turning to head directly towards them- and now, Rainbow Dash herself is only a second or two away from a very rapid landing. A very rapid, sparkling landing.

She lands on all fours, moderately unusual for her at such speeds, in a flash of dazzling prismatic light. “Everypony okay?” she asks quickly.

“We were more worried about… Wait, now you have that too!?” Rarity points an accusing hoof at Rainbow.

“Have what…?” Rainbow mutters- and her right ear twitches slightly.

“Calm down, Rarity!” Twilight fills in exasperatedly. “It’s only worked for Pegasi so far! I tried it once, but nothing happened!” She turns back towards Rainbow. “You….?” Her question dies in her throat.

After spending a few seconds looking at herself, Rainbow is now laughing wildly. She calms herself down somewhat forcibly, enough to speak clearly. “So that’s ‘it’, huh?” She snickers, prancing in place. “Oooh, just show her your friend!” She pauses suddenly, her face straightening, as her eyes unfocus- then turn towards Fluttershy. “Really?” A second’s pause, and she turns back to Twilight. “Oh, um, then Fluttershy’s friend. What’s a Bolo, anyways?”

Her friends all tilt their heads, staring at her with her one-sided conversation with herself.

A few seconds pass, and Rainbow blushes. “Shoot! I was too busy bein’ awesome!”

“Uh, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asks. “Are you okay?”

Rainbow straightens herself up, assuming her favorite stance- at least, what had been her favorite until her aches and pains had made it impossible. “Better than yesterday,” she grins. “Oh, and what is that monster?” She points a hoof back towards the Everfree.

Twilight looks. “The one in the cave? Donno. How’d you get past it?”

Rainbow smirks. “He made another entrance.”

Blink. “Wait, he can do that?”

Shrug. “Seems so. Uh, it takes some time, though.” Facehoof. “Ugh, Rarity would be so much better at this… Oh?” She looks up at Rarity, quizzically. “But I can’t....” Her scowl fades into a spreading evil grin. “Awesome!”

Rare Similarity

“Have what…?” Rainbow had muttered.

“Glossy fur, from my cleaning,” I had responded.

“...Rarity!” Twilight’s exasperated statement sounds like she’s been saying it all night. “It’s only worked for Pegasi so far!”

“Only because nopony else stayed long enough… And she didn’t notice the healing.” I waited calmly for Rainbow to finish laughing.

“So that’s ‘it’, huh?” she said.

“Probably,” my response was.

“Oooh, just show her your friend!”

“Technically, I’m more Fluttershy’s Bolo than Twilight’s.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh, um, then Fluttershy’s friend. What’s a Bolo, anyways?”

“It’s what I am. Remember, they can’t hear me.”

“Shoot! I was too busy bein’ awesome!”

“Uh, Rainbow Dash?” Worry had shown in her tone. “Are you okay?”

“Better than yesterday! Oh, and what is that monster?”

I elected to remain silent, as I knew not what it was. Twilight played a different card.

“The one in the cave? Donno. How’d you get past it?”

“He made another entrance.”

“Wait, he can do that?”

I chipped in once again. “Yes, though it can take a while.”

“Seems so. Uh, it takes some time, though.”

“You know, your acting skills are terrible.” The distinctive sound of a hoof meeting her face echoed across the link.

“Ugh, Rarity would be so much better at this…”

She trailed off as I spoke once again. “We could always bring her in on the secret.”

“Oh? But I can’t…”

“You can.” I proceeded to give her a quick rundown of what my tactical cores had thrown at me.

“Awesome!”

Even though it produced more than one weird look for Rainbow from her friends, that conversation had demonstrated the feasibility of my remote com units- and established how favorable the reaction of at least one of my Commander’s friends is: Very favorable. I begin the manufacture of similar sets for my Commander and the Princess; the others will have to wait until I have appropriate readings to make sure they’ll fit- and hide- as comfortably as the first three. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash is pulling off step one of the plan flawlessly: convincing the Cutie Mark Crusaders they’re gonna be cave explorers on that hill, all while pretending to attempt the opposite. I’m amazed by how well she pulls it off- and it seems Scootaloo’s admiration for her is helping about 1.49% more than I expected.

While she’s doing that, Twilight’s excavation team- using Pinkie’s impressively loud cannons- has cleared one of my aft personnel hatches. I order interior repairs to focus on the passages connecting that hatch to my clean troop compartments; it’s the only entrance I am able to protect directly at this time. Twilight has shown up at the digsite herself, along with the two larger Princesses, to review the progress. It seems Twilight has just finished explaining her Unicorn problems to the white Princess- who she calls either ‘Princess’ or ‘Celestia’. The two larger Princesses refer to each other as sisters, so I remain in the dark as to the dark Princess’ name, but I gather that they’re the ruling Princesses- no King or Queen, apparently, only princesses.

I consider, momentarily, formally recognizing them as Ultimate Command Authority. However, as with Fluttershy, I worry the formalities would only frighten them. I decide against; I will only designate and/or recognize UCA when my Commander specifies such for me. This might be slowed down by how she currently does not seem to know she is my commander; thus, I decide, I will attempt to comply with any and all local laws or directives set forth by the ruling class, except when such directly conflicts with my Commander’s orders or safety, or my own continued operation. In short, I will make an effort to be a good citizen.

I have not seen the monster since it retreated into the forest, following Rainbow’s noisy departure. Some of its friends tried attacking the digsite shortly afterwards, though; a quarter-ton warhead made quick work of them. It was somewhat interesting to watch one of the guards give an almost-sigh of relief as soon as he saw the Light VLS hatch pop open. Equally amusing was how the oncoming monsters turned to flee at the same moment, before the missile even left the launch cell.

While the Crusaders put together their expedition to my hillside, Rainbow Dash is already working on step two: Get Rarity to venture- alone- close enough to spot the Crusaders near the forest. This is the tricky part, during which I adjust the plan a couple times, for unexpected contingencies. She still manages it, though.

Step three is for me: Watch Rarity catch the Crusaders near the Everfree, and shine my invisible ‘appeal lamps’ at her from the entrance of one of my caves. This is how I’d first drawn Fluttershy; I’d used these ‘appeal lamps’ in the cave and, when the invisible but psychologically attractive light reached her eyes, she was pulled in, hook, line, and sinker. Thus, I ought to be able to get Rarity to enter too, if she’s only close enough.

Score! Rarity caught the Crusaders not thirty meters away from the nearest cave entrance, and doesn’t seem to have noticed that her course, directly towards the cave with the lights in it, is not towards town.

Rarity sighs as she walks. At least this time, she’d caught the Crusaders before they did something dangerous. Then, she’d started off in this direction for no better reason than that it felt like a good direction to walk. After all, she’d just had to close her boutique indefinitely.

That had not been an easy decision. She wanted to keep it open if at all possible, but had found it practically impossible to work without her magic, which had been giving her fits for the last couple weeks- and now had gone completely. She’d just sent refunds for all of her incomplete orders before she headed out here. Now, she has very little to do, save walk.

Even her normal beauty routines have been denied her. Three weeks ago, she had started getting lumps in her skin. Thankfully, none of them are visible even now, underneath her fur; however, the said fur had started discoloring in a rather blotchy manner over the last week. She’d been able to cover that with dye, at least; Up until today, she had been able to eliminate the nasty odors some of the bumps and colors gave off with a spell; as-is, her most recent spell will wear off in about two hours, and she won’t be able to replace it.

In order to counter that, she is now looking for a suitable cave to live in, one in which she can avoid ruining her reputation. While she had been jealous of first Fluttershy’s and now Rainbow’s glossy coats, she had suspected it was connected to how neither of them had any more aches, pains, or other problems any more. Twilight’s problems, she’d noticed, had also disappeared. Thus, as much as she’d been outwardly trying to find out about the more obvious effect, her true goal was the one that most certainly worked on the Alicorn.

Then, Rainbow Dash had come around and been eager to discuss the highlights of the latest Daring Do book. There had been a couple of times when her dear friend had seemed confused by her own words, even though she never paused or stumbled. This had struck her curiosity, but she’d already received far more important information, and decided not to spoil it or any more Rainbow might offer.

It seems Daring Do encountered the magic shiny thing as well- and had noticed all her cuts and pains were gone, as well. She’d been deep in one of the pipes above what is now ruined Everfree when that happened. Thus, Rarity could now connect the effect to a location, an object, and had been headed there when she spotted the Cutie Mark Crusaders parading about the hill next to the blast zone. She’d diverted her course to get them away from the dangerous Everfree and, once they left, had resumed her journey.

She had noticed that her new course did not point towards her new destination, but actually slightly away from it; however, it felt like the right direction, and she had an inkling it wouldn’t be far. If nothing came of it, she had decided, she’d just resume her course to the Everfree crater. After all, there’s no harm in exploring the hillside for a couple minutes- Celestia knows, she might even find something to help her! Speaking of Celestia, she notices both the royal Princesses depart, and hears some noises about returning with some unicorns to try something.

That reminds her. Ever since she’d gotten her cutie mark, she’d always had a distinctive feeling of what to do to reach any particular fashion goal. She’d never told anypony about it, even her friends. Unfortunately, that feeling had flickered and disappeared almost a full week ago. Not only had her job become that much harder, but it had left her nonplussed about how to achieve such a gleaming coat; she’d focused on that not only to disguise her real goal but in an effort to trigger her missing feeling. Now, for some reason, it’s back all of the sudden- and when she has no fashion goals in mind, no less!

As she turns to look back forwards, she freezes, one hoof suspended over a cave entrance. Rather interesting that descending into it feels like the right direction. She moves around the hole, looking down it. The sunlight doesn’t reach into the opening but, she notices, this cave never acquires the foreboding darkness of most caves, at least before the first bend. A quick decision passes her prefrontal cortex, and she progresses into the cave. She’ll stop and leave before it acquires that foreboding feel; until then, as it still feels like the right direction for some reason, she’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Interesting. She’s already rounded at least four corners, and the cave has simply stopped getting darker. It’s also still a comfortable walk, more like a darkened hallway in Twilight’s castle than a cavern. As a matter of fact, unless she misses her guess, there’s a faint glow around the next bend. She rounds it, but does not find the source; rather, there is a clear light shining from around another bend. Unfortunately, she lost her ability to feel magic alongside her ability to perform it. However, the steady, smooth glow still looks like a magical light to her. She rounds the final corner slowly and carefully.

There’s some kind of plain-colored metal wall across this short stretch of cavern. A large door in it is standing wide open, the light spilling out of it with the hum of a fan. It takes her eyes a couple of seconds to adjust, then she notices just how large- and deep- this doorway is. It’s somewhat larger than most of the doors in Ponyville, yet not so large as the ones in Twilight’s castle. As a matter of fact, she notices it’s large enough for Princess Celestia to walk comfortably through, without being excessively large. It’s also several meters deep and, as she steps slowly into it, she wonders to herself about exactly what it is and who built it. Inside feels like the right direction, though she does notice that the ‘right direction’ feeling tapers off once inside. Heading back out feels like the wrong direction, though, so she figures she might as well figure out what this is before she leaves. Her fashion sense had never been this vague before.

Thus, she reviews the contents of the room. There are a large number of throne-like devices occupying most of the room. A quick inspection suggests they’re designed for a pony to sit in, and they do look quite comfortable. There’s also a mirror, placed in the corner next to the door, in which she observes her dyes are giving way again, the mottled disaster forcing its way back through her coat. She sighs into the mirror. “If only a cleaning spell could fix that,” she sighs aloud.

“Skin cancer is an easy fix,” a stallion she didn’t see speaks up.

Her heart skips a beat as she spins around, searching the room frantically for he who saw her in this despicable state. “W- where are you?”

A chuckle. “No worries, I won’t judge you. I am Zeus, the machine of which this room is a part, and the one with the, um, ‘glossy coat treatment’. It’s really just a thorough cleaning, down to the microscopic levels.”

Her head tilts. “Why didn’t it work on Twilight?”

“She didn’t stay long enough. My nanites only perform such cleanings after repairing all bodily damages, and that takes a lot of time, sometimes.”

“Nan-ites?”

“The tools I use for medical services and cleaning. With them, I can restore your coat to its original, healthy appearance, no dye required.”

She glances towards the door, which has closed behind her; she has a distinct feeling it will open again as she approaches, though. “What about my magic?”

“Pardon?”

“Can they fix my magic?”

“Maybe. It depends on what is wrong; I am afraid my understanding in that area is somewhat lacking.”

She cringes. “What if they can’t?” she asks softly.

“They will do no additional damage. I do not generally touch that which I do not understand. Regardless of whether magical repair is possible, I should be able to rather permanently eliminate your coat problems.”

“How fast?”

“Depends on how we go about it. If you are to sit in one of the seats in that compartment, we can expect at least twenty-nine hours, probably closer to forty; it would seem you’ve developed quite a few more issues than the three of your friends I’ve seen so far. However, if we make use of my medbay, we can expect completion in as little as three and a half hours- with the caveat that you won’t be conscious for the duration of the repairs- and you might have to walk down some less-than-pretty passages.”

She tilts her head for a second. The way he said that sounded like those passages would be quite ugly- and she’s not a fan of unconsciousness. However, the idea of being back in shape in time to calm her no-doubt worried friends is a good one. “Med-bay, I believe.”

“Very well.” He then guides her down a few passages, some of which live up to her nastiness expectations, to a large room with three coffin-like containers in it.

She takes a quick look around; the sign on the door had read “Medbay”. It’s quite a clean room; as a matter of fact, she notices it’s cleaner than the operating room in the Ponyville Hospital. “What now?” she asks.

The lid on one of the coffin-like things slides open. “That’s a medical nanovat. If you lay down inside it, I can perform the repairs quickly. Alternately, you can return to Passenger Seven and use one of the seats.”

She gives the odd chamber a stern look, and glances at her own now very blotchy coat before climbing in. “Okay,” she mutters. Once inside, while the door closes, some kind of liquid flows in while an object pops out of one of the walls to attach itself to her face. She’s still processing exactly what’s going on when she falls asleep.

I inform Rainbow Dash of our plan’s success, though I do not mention her friend’s issues; it seems she was trying to hide them. I had not informed Rainbow of my full intent on part three; she believes I was merely going to convince her to sit it one of the seats for a few hours. As it happens, not only will she also be fully healthy when she heads out at the time Dash expects, but I managed to get a Unicorn in my medbay- and under its far more powerful scanners.

The good news is that her magical power loss appears to be caused by a brain tumor. Even after removal, it will likely take a couple of days- and headaches- for her to regain control of her magic. I expect as much as a week and a half for full recovery. This is good news for both Rarity and myself; not only do I get my first full sensor evaluation on a healthy magic horn, but I am able to set her magical power on the path to recovery, as well. Additionally, I gather a vast amount of data on Unicorn neurological structures; I may not be able to un-irritate nervous tissue, but I can still scan it.

The similarity of Daring Do’s, Fluttershy’s, Twilight’s, Rainbow’s, and Rarity’s brains is astounding; if not for their magic, which seems to originate in an interesting gland in their hearts, they would all be so similar they might as well have a hive mind. While this level of similarity increases the potential threat from psychoactive attacks, it also makes neural headset programming orders of magnitude easier.

Speaking of their ‘magic gland’, it would seem the energy flowing from it collects in the limbs of Earth ponies, the wings of Pegasi, and the horns of Unicorns, where the energy seems to be put to use. I find myself wondering exactly what might actually use the energy… And notice that the output of this magic gland seems to be miniscule next to the amount actually usable at any given time, like a small solar panel attached to a large battery bank. I believe I have figured out the first step to using magic, and drop my design cores onto the problem.

The answer comes back very quickly. By using the knowledge conferred by my examination of their magic glands, it seems it would take only a small adjustment to my fusion plants to increase normal power output by 13.49%... And also add a magic gland function. I order this adjustment done to Fusion One- and its subsequent ignition.

Author's Note

Never thought Rarity would be so easy to write- as a person, I'm her antithesis...

And the prefrontal cortex is the part of the human brain responsible for decision making. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but please don't complain if equines differ.

Fusion Repair

Ponyville hears a distant rumble, though it’s more of a vibration in the hooves than in the air. Worried glances are exchanged all around town, and somepony wonders mildly what the Elements are fighting this time.

Applejack’s ears twitch, but she fails to locate the rumble- or verify that it even happened.

Pinkie Pie pauses briefly, looking up to Rainbow Dash on a cloud, and asks if it was her stomach; however, Rainbow is completely nonplussed, having not heard it at all.

Fluttershy is close enough to feel the vibration… And hear it. She sets off towards her underground friend, hoping he wasn’t having any kind of major trouble.

Twilight is even closer, standing on the metal ground while she uses a more efficient spell for the removal of the obstructing dirt and rock, when she feels the rumble- and her hooves clatter slightly on the metal ground. She might have put it down to a shiver, but hers weren’t the only hooves to clatter- besides, the momentary but deep, basso growl of something is clearly audible. The entire team, Twilight included, abandons terrain modifications and diverts to exploration of the exposed surface, trying to find what had caused the growl- just in time for the Princesses to arrive.

Ignition successful, operating within normal design specifications. My repair facilities jump instantly to full power as my main power reserves begin charging on fusion power. As any wise Bolo might do, I have designed this reactor’s new function to be one that can be turned on and off while the reactor remains online; as a matter of fact, I suspect the reactor might have difficulty firing were it on during ignition. I enable the new function slowly.

It’s a full 13.94 seconds later when I allow it to go full strength. Even at reactor idle, the new cycle is dispensing massive quantities of magical energy, when compared to that which Rarity is producing, into the capsule I had prepared for it. It is this capsule I will present to Twilight; perhaps she can help gauge just how much power I can produce? I revisit my prior estimates; depending on how much raw power any given task takes, I may well find a use for magic. Even so, I have only found a way to produce it, though not to control it. Perhaps Twilight can help with that as well.

I notice the arrival of the two royal Princesses, with their party of unicorns. They then, in sync with Twilight, charge their horns to attempt prying open a Heavy VLS hatch. Once again, my antimagic screen shows absolutely zero strain or load as their spells reflect off the surface.

After switching off my magic generator, leaving the reactor at idle, I load a new canister- with 1.000 seconds of full-capacity generation in it- into my Light VLS. Everypony panics more than a little when the hatch flies open- especially when the object flying out is not propelled by a plume of fire, but rather falls back down onto the closed hatch before it falls over, largely inert.

Twilight sneaks up on the object carefully. It doesn’t look like any of the terrifying explosive spears; at least those had never harmed anypony, only monsters that were coming for them. This object isn’t moving… So she decides to try scanning it with her magic. Big mistake.

Raw magic is an interesting creature. Normally, it works to protect and/or heal its bearer, when mortal wounds are inflicted; thus, it is extremely rare to find any in a deceased pony. Additionally, raw magic is virtually impossible to separate from its bearer without giving it a purpose- thence removing the raw magic status. There are a couple of stones in Equestria, such as the Crystal Kingdom’s Crystal Heart and the Elements of Harmony, capable of producing and storing raw magic. It’s generally dangerous to try performing magic directly on these objects, as the power within will often transfer itself into the spellcaster in an instant, overwhelming and potentially killing them.

Only, this object has more raw power just sitting in it- not being produced, simply sitting- than the Element of Magic itself. Unable to cancel her spell, Twilight feels the power flowing into her. She feels her connection to the Element of Magic take on the load, but even it is overwhelmed. She feels her muscles tearing, her veins boiling, her nerves popping, and her heart burning fit to defrost the Crystal Empire. This much flow, she knows, is far more than needed to kill her, even with the Element of Magic.

Yet, somehow, she survives. She is at a loss to exactly how long it has been; large flows of magical energy tend to mess with time perception. She feels powerless as she slumps down on the ground. Even as the surge fades down to nothing, all the new power joining her innate power in awaiting her command, the pain doubles, triples… and begins to fade again. Her limbs start responding two seconds later, and she regains her hearing, though it sounds a little weird. It takes her a second to process that Princess Luna is talking- during which her jaw and voicebox suddenly start responding. She still can’t feel her heart at all.

She turns her head to the right, where Luna’s worried voice is coming from. “What?” she asks. Her voice comes out clearly- even though she can’t feel her lungs, and is pretty sure she isn’t breathing.

Princess Luna blinks. “You okay?”

“Not really,” Twilight responds.

“You’re lucky you have the Element of Magic,” Celestia informs her. “Without that, it would have killed you instantly.”

“How bad?” she asks, suddenly regaining her sense of balance. Her heart is still silent.

“It looks like it tried to burn you up from inside,” Luna responds. “What was it?”

Twilight blinks, her vision returning suddenly, though only in one eye; the other follows a second later. “Free magic,” she mutters. “It’s a storage container of some sort- no production.” She turns her head to look at herself, and promptly drops her jaw.

Her skeleton is showing in more than one place, with large patches of flesh burned right off. Most of her fur has disintegrated, alongside her feathers. Perhaps the most interesting part is that all of the flesh, including muscles, around the joint in her right wing have been burned away- but that joint still flexes when she tells it to, even if she can’t feel it.

“What the-?” A pause. “I’m doomed,” she mutters.

Clatter! “No you’re no- WOAH!” It’s Rainbow Dash, having just terminated her Rainboom in a clatter of hooves. She stares for a couple of seconds, and looks down and to the sides. “Are you sure about that?” A pause, which has all three Princesses tilting their heads, and she looks back up. “Zeus says she’ll die soon, but that he can save her.”

The three Princesses all speak at once.

“Where is he?” Princess Celestia asks.

“Who’s this Zeus?” Princess Luna asks.

“Zeus? How can he do that?” Twilight asks.

“Uh,” Rainbow begins, pausing for only a second before looking at Twilight. “He has something called a, um, med-bay.” A second of ear-pricking later, she looks to Princess Celestia. “He’s in a cave not far from here.” Another second, this time turning to a very confused Princess Luna. “He’s a very good doctor, though he can’t move very much himself.”

Sixty seconds later, the three Princesses are following Rainbow Dash at a full gallop across the hilltop. Luna still has some reservations about this unknown ‘Zeus’ pony, but Celestia- who had come up with a much shorter survival estimate right before Rainbow arrived- is doing what Twilight is doing: Leaping at the chance to save a life. With Princess Luna by her side, she has difficulty thinking that any single pony can threaten them.

Rainbow leads them to a nearly invisible cave in the ground. Princess Luna scowls slightly at it as they swoop around to head down. How had Rainbow known exactly where to find it from so far away? Even her own navigational instinct isn’t that good! Not to mention, exactly who had Rainbow been talking to earlier? She hadn’t seen anypony. It must have been a long-range communication spell- but she hadn’t felt or heard any of those, either!

She still wants answers to who Zeus is… But why isn’t this cave getting any darker? She doesn’t feel any magic at play! She rounds another corner. Still feeling no magic, save her own defensive spell standing by, but there’s definitely something glowing around the next bend- and Rainbow is headed straight for it, with Twilight right behind her. Still she gallops, holding her position as the rear guard. A glance behind her confirms that nothing nasty is on their tail.

Right as she rounds the final corner, she spots some sort of lopsided monster barrelling its way around the previous corner. She would have stopped to fight there, but her sister, Twilight, and Rainbow continue to gallop forwards- and besides, this metal doorway the light is spilling through should serve as a decent choke point- simplifying both offence and defence. She hears her sister’s light gasp as she enters the doorway ahead of her, but does not process it fully until she reaches the doorway.

She almost panics, screeching to a halt in the doorway, her defensive spell having shattered as she crossed the threshold. “What-? That thing-!”

“It’s another of those monsters, isn’t it?” a stallion asks from somewhere behind her.

A quick glance behind her reveals nopony. “What?” she demands.

The monster chooses that very moment to round the bend. “Yep, it is,” the stallion states- and before Luna can say another word, a metal door slides out of the side of the doorway, landing shut with a clang. “Don’t worry, it can’t get through that; you’re safe in here. I’m Zeus, by the way.”

Luna eyes the door for a few seconds as she turns to join her sister in the room behind the doorway. She’s still searching for the stallion when she notices a second door closing behind her.

“I am afraid I am not a pony, if that’s what you’re looking for. I do believe you wanted to be present for Twilight’s healing, right?”

The party snaps back to galloping, Rainbow still in the lead, and still hardly hesitating at the crossroads they pass through.

Finally, they break into a room with three coffin-like structures standing firmly in the middle, and what looks like a whole bunch of collapsible cots across an entire wall, with some… stuff attached to them. The coffinish thing on the left is closed, but the window-like things above it are displaying something; looks a bit like the information she’d get from a medical diagnosis spell to Luna. The one on the right is also closed, though the windows above it are black. The one in the middle, however, is standing wide open, with the windows above it showing the same structure as those over the left coffin-device, but with no information on them.

“Wait, what? In THAT?” Rainbow asks.

“Unless you can rebuild her lungs in the next three minutes, that medical nanovat is likely her only chance of continued survival.”

Twilight eyes the thing. “But I’m still okay- is that really necessary?”

The invisible stallion lets out a sigh. “Oh, the uneducated.” His tone gives the distinct impression of shaking his head. “The only reason you’re alive right now is because of a package of emergency medical nanites performing stopgap repairs or simply pretending to be any critical organs that have gone missing- such as your lungs, or about 81.38% of your heart. They will run out of power in 2.71 minutes- after which point you will die very quickly. That nanovat can replace these nanites quickly enough to guarantee your continued survival- and rebuild the missing organs at the same time.”

Twilight looks back down at it, clearly put out by his comment on her education. “Okay, what do I need to do?”

“Hop in, lay down, and take a nap,” he answers. “I do the rest.”

A sigh, and Twilight hops in and lays down. “This is a bit hard,” she comments- and the lid slides shut, the screens above it filling with information… though much of it matches what might be gotten from a corpse.

Princess Luna stares at the vat.

“Is it done yet?” Rainbow asks.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Zeus responds. “I have stabilized her condition, though it’ll take almost 12.49 hours for me to complete enough repairs for her to survive unassisted. An additional 6.91 hours will be required after that to restore her to full health.”

“That’s too long!”

“There is no way to hurry medical operations- but I can make it take longer, if you would like.”

Rainbow blushes darkly. “No, no, it’s fine,” she mutters.

“Regardless, it would seem you’re about to have company.”

Right on queue, the left nanovat slides open, a gleaming white unicorn standing up and shaking out her mane. “Much better,” she nods to herself- and spots everypony else. “Oh hello there.” She hops daintily out of the vat, glancing back to watch it close up behind her, the windows above it going dark. Immediately, the door into the room slides open again, this time admitting a yellow pegasus with a white box held under one wing.

Mind or Matter

Fluttershy had located and trotted into the closer tunnel to her house when she arrived. Zeus had, as she had expected, let him in. She had not expected him to offer her some invisible jewelry that let her talk to him. Of course, she’d been more than a little shy about receiving it, but she did eventually put them on. He had mentioned that, aside from the single- and double- tap functions, hers has a triple-tap function, allowing her to control it more completely.

So, of course, she had triple-tapped it, wholly unprepared for what happened.

It was like magic, she had decided. Time hadn’t slowed down; instead, her mind had accelerated. Interesting how that works. But, acceleration isn’t the only thing it had done. No, for what had truly happened was that her mind had joined with that of the comset. She can turn it off with a single command, of that she is certain- but she can take advantage of its extremely fast processing speed, and its ability to talk to Zeus without sound.

Now that had been a headbanger: She got the distinct impression Zeus is even faster. However, she had been able to exchange wordless thoughts and feelings with him- and, after a quarter of a second, had realized she could now feel her own health, as if she were watching it. Another- what’s a millisecond, anyways?- later, and she had realized that’s because the headset is connected to a whole bunch of tiny somethings- nanites, Zeus had called them- in her body, doing that watching. Oh, that’s what a millisecond is.

She now realizes exactly what those crash couches are and asks him the Big Question- the answer to which makes her drop her jaw. So that is what kind of machine she befriended. She shudders at the thought of what might have happened had she not done that- and, the moment she sends that thought to Zeus, he comes back with a stack of predictions- most of which simply having somepony else befriend him. However, he does specifically note a 0.79% chance that friendly relations would break down, leaving him at war with Equestria. No matter how low the chances that it might have happened, Equestria’s subsequent 0.14% chance of long-term survival cannot fail to send a shiver down to her hooves.

She is amused by the precision with which he calculates his chances, but decides to ask what the rumble was.

The answer astounds her. The thunder of fire, doing nothing but generating power? He also informs her of his experiment with the thing, along with what had happened on his aft plating while she was walking in. Now, he informs her, they’ve reached the medbay, and Twilight is climbing into Medical Nanovat Two. She tilts her head, curious- and gets a tidbit of Twilight’s medical data. Zeus has to confirm that she is alive, even without breathing or a heartbeat, several times before she calms down. Apparently, as long as her brain, horn, and that weird gland in her heart remain intact and alive, he can rebuild the rest. On a side note, Zeus mentions Rarity is also present- and calms her worry with another tidbit of her perfectly healthy data.

As she starts her trot towards the medbay, Rarity’s comset under her wing, Zeus streams her the video feeds from the said medbay. It’s somewhat confusing; much like she suddenly has six more eyes, hidden in the walls of another room, but she can manage. Then, without Zeus’ help, she realizes she can ‘hear’ another signal.

It’s Rainbow Dash. Her comset doesn’t seem to have the same, um, Zeus calls it ‘neural link’ capability as hers- but it does carry audio to Rainbow and back. She considers saying something to her friend, but decides against; she’ll be walking into the room in a minute anyways.

A thought. What about Medical Nanovat One? Zeus’ response indicates it contains Rarity, about thirty three point four one seconds to awakening. Zeus does inform her that Rarity had expressed a desire for her prior medical situation to be kept confidential; Fluttershy nods, agreeing with Zeus’ decision to honor the nonverbal request, and does not press for details.

For some reason, as she approaches the door to the medbay, she gets the feeling that Zeus is being more open to her than to anypony else. When she asks him about it, he explains that he would hardly hide anything from his commander.

‘What commander?’

‘Yourself, of course.’

‘Since when?’

‘Since you gave me your name.’

She pauses for a few seconds. ‘What’s it mean?’

‘It means I will obey any order you give to the best of my ability.’

Now, she looks at the medbay door, standing closed in front if her, and takes a deep breath. It’s amazingly difficult to be shy on the neural link thing, but she knows she still is in person. She knows who she’ll find on the other side; she can still see them through Zeus’ cameras. Some numbers flash across from Zeus- and she pauses to wait a few more seconds, for Rarity’s nanovat to open. Finally, steeling her nerves, she opens the door without fanfare- rather relieved that Rarity still has everypony’s attention.

Rainbow finishes her ogling. “Wait, you were in here?”

Rarity raises an eyebrow. “Why yes, my dear. He explained these are so much faster.”

“Don’t forget the part about how these can make the effect last for months,” Zeus reminds.

“Uh, yes, that too.”

Fluttershy smirks as Zeus confirms for her that Rarity hadn’t known about that part. She walks forwards to meet her friends- and Rainbow takes notice first.

“Fluttershy?” she asks. “What did Zeus mean when he said he was more your, um...”

“Bolo?” Zeus asks.

“Yea, that.”

“She was simply the first to meet me,” Zeus answers, while fluttershy smiles at her friend.

“What’s a Bolo?” Princess Celestia asks.

“What I am: An impregnable but mobile fortress, from another world.”

Fluttershy raises an eyebrow slightly- but drops it back down as Zeus responds to her unvoiced inquiry. Yes, he is concealing much of his true power; however, his tactical cores- whatever those are- are offering him a 93.47% chance that a full revelation would result in undesired enmity. He even mentions that he’s only told her of a very small portion of his abilities, so far. She declines to ask about the rest, and instead switches off the ‘neural link’ thing. She blinks a couple of times as her mind returns to normal speed.

Fluttershy seems worried as she disconnects her neural link. She did not share the reason for her worry with me, but I suspect it relates to either my power or the link itself. I chose to make her comset neural link capability a standalone system for a reason; this way, though it will likely be unsetting at each stage, she can build up to handle her command chair’s neural link capability without going crazy. This first stage limits the link to her comset; I used a couple of communication bands to deliver information to her, so she can build an understanding of the capabilities of this system. I suspect it is this she is afraid of. When- well, if and when- she gets used to this, the next step is a TSDS link through her comset. She will still be operating at the slower speeds provided by the comset, but such will allow her to familiarize herself with what I am, and build an appreciation for my systems. The third step is a link through the midrange-output neural sets in the troop compartments; I expect that to go quickly. Those links do not go direct to my main system, and cannot; however, I can still communicate through them, up to and including by TSDS. Step four is the command chair.

I choose my words carefully as she delivers Rarity’s comset. I have not told her that hers is the only one with full neural link capability; for the others, I am installing extremely limited versions of the neural hardware, capable only of a telepathic control link- also activated by a triple-tap. This I will use to allow one pony to contact another directly. A nanosecond of consideration later, I update the software in Fluttershy’s unit; now, whenever she triple-taps, her more powerful unit will engage only the telepathic control link, falling through to the full neural link 0.1 seconds after, if she wishes. The nanites I left in Rainbow’s comset finish installing the weaker telepathy unit, and I update the software.

Rarity seems disappointed that it disappears into her coat so thoroughly- but finds the thought of being able to talk to her friends from a distance amusing. She does mention that it ought to be useful ‘when the next monster attacks Ponyville’. This comment produces a giggle from Rainbow, and smiles from Fluttershy and the Princesses.

Speaking of which, when I finish my explanation on how to use it (and confirm through the Pegasi’s links that theirs will work the same way), Princess Luna- if I caught her name right- starts asking questions.

“They should be able to reach anywhere in Equestria before that becomes an issue; in about two months time, they should be able to reach anywhere on Equis with no issue.”

“Why two months?”

“I’m still setting up the relay network that will make such range possible.”

“How fast are they?”

“If one were to call here from Canterlot, the delay would be small enough for ponies not to notice.”

She tilts her head. “What about you?”

“Three centimeters is more than enough to produce a delay that I can measure- but I am a machine, I can measure many things ponies cannot.”

Princess Celestia’s eyebrow goes up. “How far is it between Ponyville and Canterlot?” This an issue that has caused much strife in the railway teams; the various surveyors have reported distances between thirty five kilometers and almost two hundred.

“Which one is Canterlot?”

“Even I know more about Equestria than he does,” Rainbow states.

Zeus’ voice gains a competitive edge. “Oh? What percentage of the local atmosphere is oxygen gas?”

Rainbow pauses. Even Celestia tilts her head. “Uh, three?”

“Nice try; you’d die of oxygen starvation. It’s 21.03%. How much longer did it take you to reach Passenger Seven the first time than the most recent time, starting from the moment your right foreleg touched the inside of the cave?”

“Uh, five minutes?”

“Your right foreleg never touched the cave the first time through. How long did it take for Twilight’s latest batch of injuries to occur, from the moment she cast her spell to the moment the power finished stabilizing?”

Rainbow shrugs, looking at the Princesses.

“It’s instantaneous,” she replies.

“Close, but wrong. It took 3.49 nanoseconds- or billionths of a second. Most ponies miss three hundred million nanoseconds every time they blink. Like I said, I’m designed to measure things ponies cannot. How many times have the Cutie Mark Crusaders ventured inside the ponderous weapon now fully exposed outside?”

Rarity sucks in a breath. “What?”

Rainbow only facehooves.

Luna raises her eyebrows. “How many?”

“Two; the first time, it served as shelter from a timberwolf. The second, they hid in the back of it during the initial creation of the digsite- which was, in fact, the elimination of an army of timberwolves. The Crusaders have not come any closer than my hillside since.”

Rainbow dash thinks for a second. “How long does it take to make a rain cloud?”

“0.139 seconds per cubic meter of volume, on average. How many kilometers of track are connected to the Ponyville railway station, not counting tunnels?”

Rainbow facehooves. “Why the hard questions?”

“Approximately 38,492.39 kilometers. How much of this is in bridges, large and small?”

“A bunch?”

“Almost 3.49 kilometers. What’s the score so far?”

Rainbow shrugs. “Five to one?”

“Out of seven questions, seven to one, in my favor. Care to repeat your claim?”

“I bet Twilight could beat that.”

“On some topics, yes. In absolute knowledge, I have more data stored in my databanks than would fit in her brain.”

An eyebrow. “Oh? How many books?”

“Let’s say you were to write all of my knowledge on identical pages exactly 0.23 millimeters thick, as is the locally observed average, and place them in books. Each held exactly thirty lines, with eighty characters per line. Each book held exactly four hundred pages, and each cover was exactly six millimeters thick. Each book was exactly fifteen centimeters high by ten wide. You took these books and stack them in Ponyville’s central square until you reached the moon, where you started a new stack at the lowest point you could find to point back to Ponyville- and repeat, until you ran out of books. Finally, you looked at the stacks, and realized your solid wall of book has a footprint thrice the size of Ponyville, with a matching footprint on the moon, with eight hundred new books every second, on a slow day.”

Rarity blinks a couple times. “I don’t think even Twilight can beat that,” she notes.

“This is but one of my many functions.”

Fluttershy speaks up suddenly, an evil glint in her eyes. “How many friends do you have?”

“Bolos do not make friends.”

Silence reigns for several seconds.

“WRONG!” Rainbow yells triumphantly. “You’ve made at least three!”

“That was not a fact about Equestria. As a matter of fact, many Bolos have made friends in the past; I have made one hundred eighteen myself, over the ages.”

Princess Celestia uses a hoof to hide a smile, but Princess Luna is less controlled- her snicker is audible to all present.

“It would be more true to say that nothing makes friends with a Bolo.”

The snickering and smiling stops instantly.

“What?” Rarity asks, while the Princesses raise their eyebrows.

“We’re simply too scary, too powerful, for anything to reach out a hand in friendship. Of my 118 friendships, 114 of them never saw me, and didn’t know what I truly was. The other four didn’t last long.”

Quick Heal

Three hours after Zeus’ revelation, the Princesses leave through what is, according to Rainbow, a third exit. They take to the skies, their new- and somewhat fancy, they’d taken after Rarity in that regard- com headsets switched off. Once they’re a good distance away, they finally voice a thought they’d both had simultaneously- and agree on what to ask of Twilight. They spend the evening composing their letter.

Back on the ground, two Pegasi and a Unicorn trot their way out of the third tunnel, scattering their separate ways upon emergence.

Fluttershy travels the furthest, heading out to Applejack’s farm. She has a question to ask the farm pony.

Applejack makes one last stroke against one last tree, filling one- well, two- last buckets of apples. She’s been Applebucking for what feels like forever- and now, finally, she’s done. She picks up these two buckets of apples, loading them into her cart before diverting her course to stow them. She knows it’s only actually been four days- and that, every year, it feels like forever anyways.

Perhaps tomorrow she can go find out how Twilight’s investigation project is coming. She’s seen large chunks of dirt or rock flying around the area from time to time, but has yet to approach since its discovery, aside from Rainbow’s pickaxe delivery challenge. She’d noticed its increased size during the challenge, but with the increased noise level since, she suspects it’s even larger now. It seems that Pinkie’s party cannons, when loaded with lumps of rock, make decent excavation tools. She’d had to leave shortly after they started shooting rocks.

Hmm, maybe while she’s there, she can find out how Twilight cured her limp? As she recalls, full recovery from their odd aches and pains had seemed to come with the ‘glossy coat treatment’, as Rarity had dubbed it. Applejack doesn’t care that much about having a shiny coat, but she would enjoy it if her legs would quit feeling like they belonged to Granny Smith. For the last two months, it’s been increasingly painful to move- and, since she started Applebucking this season, her entire form is aching, even when she’s resting. She has some hope the latter pain will fade away again, but if the first keeps coming, she’ll be effectively incapacitated by it in another week or so.

It’s also possible she could find out from either pegasus, she considers, as she spots a yellow one approaching for a landing. Either way, whatever her friend is coming to say, she figures she should at least listen before attempting to redirect the conversation- especially considering how Fluttershy might take such a question.

Fluttershy flutters to a landing only a few paces away, trotting briefly to walk next to Applejack.

“Evenin’, Fluttershy,” Applejack greets- and reads the pegasus’ expression. “Something on your mind?”

Fluttershy shudders momentarily. “Yes, actually.” She goes silent, staring at her hooves as she walks. She’s still thinking- at least, Applejack thinks that’s what she’s doing- when Applejack dumps her apples and stows the cart. “If… If you were to meet somepony that isn’t a pony… If they gave you something that…” She pauses, this time only for a few seconds. “Something that let you think faster, but also… Also let you talk to that somepony without talking.” She shudders. “What would you do?”

Applejack thinks for a few seconds. “Donno,” her reply comes. “Did something happen?”

Fluttershy hangs her head, staring at her hooves. “He calls it a neural link headset.” The way she mutters those three words makes them sound unnatural, but they’re loud enough for Applejack to hear.

Another pause.

“Well, does he bother you?”

“...No… Not really. He’s just…” She shudders again. “He… He didn’t mean to… Hurt Twilight.” She looks up, blinking tears out of her eyes. “Her… Her lungs don’t exist, but… But he said she’ll be okay.”

Applejack closes her jaw and draws her crying friend into a hug. “Is she really?”

“H-he… Showed me numbers…” Fluttershy sobs into her friend’s shoulder. “T-there’s a… F-f-four point…” She shudders into her friend’s shoulder for another few seconds. “P-point three o-one p-percent chance…” She breaks down.

“That she’ll be okay?” Applejack asks, horrified- to be relieved, if only somewhat, by a shake of Fluttershy’s head.

“N-n-no… Th-that s-s-she’ll…. Die.” She manages not to stutter on the final word.

Applejack closes her eyes, processing the information while she hugs her friend. It takes her a couple of minutes to realize which side of the equation Fluttershy must be focusing on- and which side dominates the other.

“That means she has a ninety-five point someodd chance of being okay,” Applejack consoles.

“P-point t-two o-one… Wait, what?”

“She’ll be okay,” Applejack reaffirms, declining to mention that she’d estimated the decimal to be in the point seven range. While curious what the remaining half a percent is, she finds it better not to mention. Perhaps she can ask her friend’s not-a-pony somepony?

“B-but P-Princess Cel-hic-tia said it’s impossible!”

A pause.

“Can I talk to him?”

“It would seem Twilight’s state is causing distress,” a voice states, in somepony’s ear. “If there happens to be anything from which I can learn about magic, I may be able to accelerate her recovery.”

The response in an echoing boom in the air over Ponyville, accompanied by an expanding ring of prismatic light- and a shattered cloud.

Less than five seconds later, Rainbow Dash can be found scanning the bookshelves in Twilight’s library. What she’s looking for, Spike has no clue- and doesn’t dare get in her way; she’s scanning them at thrice a gallop! Rainbow rips three books out of their spots, one at a time, and disappears back out the door- leaving a prismatic ring and a LOT of books flying off their shelves! Spike grumbles to himself and sets to work. What exactly had Rainbow looking for books?

I wasn’t quite expecting that response when I directed my statement towards the most competitive pony I’ve seen yet. While it seems she’s managed to knock 83.49% of the rest of the books off of the shelves on her way out, judging by the sounds picked up by my nearby drone, she has acquired three that may help me. I did not tell her why I needed any particular book; only specified which.

The first book is titled ‘Magical Basics: Teaching Your Unicorn Foal’. This, being an introductory magical book, should carry all of the basic information on magic I will need before I begin experimentation.

The second is titled ‘Advanced Magic, Volume I: Precision and Power’. If I am to be using magic in any combat situation, I will need both precision and power; besides, it ought to carry some more advanced information in it, such that I may be able to develop an understanding of magic in general. I will proceed through the series to Volume IV, Spellcrafting, later.

The third, ‘Magic for Medics’, was selected primarily to be obviously medical in nature, though I find a 21.49% chance I will be able to use the knowledge inside to accelerate Twilight’s recovery. In any case, Rainbow is on her way, and will be depositing them in Passenger Six- which I used as my third exit- before leaving. It’s amazing how easy it is to get this pegasus to do what I want- all it takes is a mention or two of her pride and/or friends and she’s all for it. I do feel guilty for doing it to her, though.

0.491 seconds of processing after scanning the books, I perform some small nervous stimulation on Twilight, and provide a trickle of energy from my modified reactor. Success- my stimulation, using neural link technology, has successfully triggered the desired healing spell- using my live power feed… Which I step up a little, to run the spell at capacity. This completely bypasses what ‘Magic for Medics’ cites as the reason self-healing spells are impossible: Magic, apparently, is reluctant to act on its caster. I do note that ‘Advanced Magic, Volume I: Precision and Power’ cites this same property, but also states that, if a unicorn casts a spell with another unicorn’s power, they can cast it on themselves without issue.

The spell I selected is a total healing spell, capable of healing any ailment- but it also demands a massive amount of power, such that most unicorns can heal only a couple little cuts with it before running out, if they turn it towards such ends. This invocation, which Twilight is no doubt aware of, is operating almost 314.15 times faster than the book suggests it normally does- and drawing roughly 0.49% of my magical generative capacity to do so. These numbers suggest I can produce enough magic to be useful for a Unit of the Line. I will experiment further- and order the magic modification done to the rest of my reactors. My design cores have not yet produced anything capable of actually manipulating magic, but my processors are finally suggesting exactly what happened when Twilight cast her spell at the capsule.

I had known the power had surged into her form, burning her alive, and my nanites had absorbed a large portion of it as they jumped into action. Much of the energy they absorbed whipped back into my hull through their control links, passing straight through my AM screens- where it then dispersed itself across my weapons and some systems, and simply rested. It was not doing any damage nor assisting my operations in any way- not that I was using any of the systems it gathered in.

Now, I realize the feed from my reactor is not what it had been before. Rather, the feed from my reactor is, upon generation, not in the same chaotic ‘run’ state as the rest had been in. Rather, it flows almost purposely along the pathways I prepared for it, straight to Twilight’s horn for instructions. Most of the rest of the power I absorbed is also flowing in steadily, though not through designated passages; I estimate a total flow equal to about 0.93% of generative capacity on a single reactor and, as this additional flow runs out, increase reactor output to compensate. I may be using Twilight’s horn and mind to control it, but I am using magic.

She will be healthy in 4.71 minutes.

Unhealing

Princess Twilight Sparkle awakens swiftly, lying on her side in a metal box. It takes her only half a second to remember what the box is- Zeus had called it a ‘medical na-no-vat’. The pain from the magic surge is completely gone, and a quick glance at her side informs her that she’s no longer full of holes. More interesting, perhaps, is that her horn is tingling- the way it usually does when she uses up all of her power in a single spell. Not that she does that very often. The most interesting part of that is that she’s fully charged… More than that, actually- she’s got about twice as much power floating around in her horn than she normally does, even when she tops off. As she stands up and hops out of the box, the top having slid off while she analyzed her situation, she remembers what had happened.

Right. She’d scanned that capsule. Must be where the extra power came from- but why the tingle? She hadn’t been anywhere close to that when she stepped into the vat! Perhaps-

Twilight freezes, and performs a double-take at her own glossy coat. “Oh, is that what they did?”

“Negative,” she hears Zeus say. “Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both used the seats in Passenger Seven, as you did; unlike yourself, they also stayed long enough, after medical repairs, for the deep cleaning. Such cleaning is a luxury service from those seats, but sanitation is standard procedure in the Medbay.”

“Uhh…?”

Sigh. “The cleaning- and thence glossy coat- is the last thing those seats do. You left before they got to it, but after everything important was done. Here in the medbay, cleaning and sanitation is one of the first things done, after emergency services- meaning you really had no choice but to get the ‘glossy coat treatment’ here. Don’t worry- Rarity stopped by earlier, for her own little cleaning.”

Twilight stands stone still for about a second, then brushes a hoof dramatically across her forehead, just below her horn. “Whew.” She repeats her search of the room, finding nopony- but there’s a lavender box on the floor right in front of her. “Where is everypony?”

“They left earlier; it’s now early evening. If you would like, that box is a gift, from me to you.”

Twilight looks at it, hoisting it into the air and popping it open with her magic. Next, she stares at it for a second. “What…?”

“That’s a comset, engineered to blend in with your coat. At this point, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Princesses Celestia and Luna each have one.”

The instruction passes quickly.

“So, once on, twice off, thrice to talk to somepony other than you? Won’t the first two be triggered before the third?”

“Negative. The system is adaptive, and will adjust over time to your particular patterns, for better interpretation. Neither of the first two functions will activate without sufficient delay to ensure it is not an invocation of the third. At any time, if an interpretation is found to be inaccurate, such is corrected immediately- and no, taps made by anypony- or anything- else are completely ignored.”

“What if I’m wearing shoes or something?”

“Depends. Some footwear may impede the signal too much for recognition; if ever you’re unsure, you can touch it- while wearing the footwear in question- and ask me.”

“So, I can now talk to my friends anywhere I go?” She had put them on while he spoke.

“To anypony with a comset, yes.”

“Woah. Only one ear… The comset, no?”

“Yes. Nopony else will be able to hear me when I speak to you through it.”

Of all ponies, Twilight is the one to have trouble with this. “Why wouldn’t they, though?”

It’s almost a sigh. “The way sound works. Since it rests inside your ear, it takes a very, very low volume for you to hear. This same volume is too low for anypony else to hear- though they might catch a mumble if they were to press their ear to yours.”

“You’re sure he’s in there?” Applejack asks. “Seems mighty close to that hole to me.” She indicates the wide open accessway into the Everfree alongside this hill.

Fluttershy looks over towards the woods, as if only just realizing this. “Um, yes. Twilight is…” Her head tilts slightly, her eyes unfocusing for a second. The next second, she draws in a breath while her face shows both relief and excitement. “She’s okay?” she asks the rock in front of her- and, after another second of standing still, darts into the cave.

A fairly confused Applejack canters after her. She would gallop, but it hurts too much to do that right now; besides, it’s not like this cave has any forks in it, nor like a single pony with weird magic spells will be hard to find.

Unfortunately for her, her normally slow friend is long gone when she reaches the end of the tunnel- the odd metal doorway that slid open when she walked up, letting her into a large room… With no pegasi, two other doors, and a voice in the air.

“Good evening,” it greets.

“Uh, good evenin’, wherever you are,” she replies, ears and eyes alike questing for the stallion.

“I’m afraid you won’t find me there, as a pony,” he replies. “I’m Fluttershy’s not-a-pony somebolo.”

“Somebolo?”

“Yes, I am a Bolo.”

“Do you have a name?”

“I am called ‘Zeus’.”

“So… Those percentages you gave Fluttershy. What’s the last half a percent?”

“Permanent injury. Fear not, she has made a complete recovery.”

“Nice to hear… Where-” She pauses, considering. “You know anything about all these pains we been getting?”

“Yes.”

Her question has made me think. I gave the affirmative immediately; sonar is enough to detect some large tumors in her body. Past that, I correlated all my medical records to identify a trend.

Interesting. Daring Do was essentially healthy, except for immediate injuries- broken bones and cut flesh, past and present. My Commander had some developing health problems, and all of her friends- including Applejack- had major health problems, including at least one cancer. In fact, each one I look at seems worse than the one before. What’s going on?

One simulation comes up to a 97.41% match to the developments I’ve seen. My exposed drone bay hatches slam open, spitting out twenty stealthed drones for Everfree overflights. I contact Rainbow, and request to see at least one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders for confirmation.

That night, as Fluttershy settles down in her bed, in Twilight’s castle, she taps her bracelet three times. Now she knows Twilight is okay, the mind function isn’t nearly so frightening- and it’s been a long day. Besides, she has this bad feeling she can’t figure out.

It is still unsettling when it comes on. She blinks once or twice as her mind adjusts to the pace- and she begins processing her memories of the day, trying to locate the cause of her bad feeling. One advantage it offers is its perfect recall- once it hears about something, unless she tells it to forget, it remembers it clearly, forever. While this could be somewhat creepy, she knows her memories are hers alone, even with it- and it’s incredibly useful for her processing tasks.

For example, once she finishes sifting through her memories of the day, it has no qualms with cataloging them, marking exactly what happened when with who. Interesting, she notices Pinkie seems to have disappeared after the rumble in the ground? Further analysis allows her to pick out some background details she hadn’t noticed before. Sugarcube Corner had closed early too, right about that same time.

Another detail she notices. Her headset-provided self-health sense is giving her a different reading from earlier: She’s no longer in perfect health. Rather, she’s somewhat far from it. As an extra bonus, all of the little keep-her-healthy ‘nanites’ that had been in her body are all spent; she’s getting these readings from the more passive stopgapper nanites… None of which are doing anything right now, but they do report the neutralization of a single cancerous tumor following the rest of her nanites’ exhaustion this evening.

So she reaches out to Twilight’s ‘nanites’. Different story; Twilight’s stay-healthy nanites are still present, though in a vastly reduced quantity from earlier. Huh. After a minute’s consideration, she reaches out to Rainbow’s… Alas, she’s out of range for nanite communication. However, her comset is more than willing to relay the signal to her. She catches hardly a glimpse of Rainbow’s nanite situation- no stay-healthies, stopgappers haven’t done anything just yet- before she feels something using the very same function on everypony’s communicators, including her own, to pull nanite data. She allows it; this something had instantly been identified as Zeus. As soon as this happens, he requests a communication channel to her- and, after a moment’s consideration, she accepts it.

In that tiny moment, so short even her accelerated mind failed to perceive it, Zeus had correlated all of the current nanite data with his previously collected medical data. He’s also pulled the records from the nanites, correlating those as well. All in all, he has come to a startling conclusion, which he drops into her set as soon as the channel is opened, alongside much of the supporting information.

Fluttershy spends almost half a second just understanding his conclusions and where they came from. When she airs her observations about Pinkie Pie and the bakery, Zeus produces a certainty- 98.85%- that whatever has been inflicting injuries on them whenever any were healed has included Pinkie too, resulting in her debilitation. He follows with another massive chunk of data.

Almost three seconds are taken in understanding this information. He’s correlated all of these medical observations with where each pony had been at the time of any given event, his own defensive barrier activities, and so on. It seems that, whenever one pony was healed, no matter where, the un-health was instantly reproduced, spread across everypony else… But only the ponies that were outside his magic shields, and the damage done by the free magic flowing into Twilight didn’t count. The pattern he’s discovered suggests that only the six Elements are involved in this- and that the total amount of medical damage is gradually increasing- which will, eventually, lead to everypony’s death. He’s run some simulations; theoretically, if they get all six inside his shields, he can restore them all to perfect health and keep them that way. However, a single step outside of the barrier then would likely result in some kind of medical disaster, possibly including death, until the cause can be traced and eliminated.

Once she finishes processing this, she practically- no, literally- flies out of her bed, racing for Sugarcube Corner. In the process, she reaches out to all four communicator-equipped friends- thank Celestia none have taken them off just yet- to call their attention to the situation. Her own neural link- she still doesn’t understand that completely- makes it easy for her to alert them all individually. Zeus helps her out, somehow guessing at what each pony knows already or can deduce on their own- and using these guesses to determine, with amazing accuracy, how best to get each pony into motion. Not that anypony needs any more than her voice making the request.

In any case, Rainbow reaches the bakery first. The Cakes are still awake, and inform her that Pinkie had been taken to the hospital some hours earlier- a timeframe Zeus notes places her collapse at right about the middle of Applejack’s repairs. Fluttershy relays this information to everypony, and reaches the hospital doors at the same time as both Twilight and Rainbow. Rarity can be seen galloping closer as they rush inside, but Applejack is still outside the town limits.

The receptionist is more than willing to tell them where Pinkie is, and summon the doctor for them to speak to. When Twilight asks why they hadn’t heard of it earlier, the kind receptionist flips through some pages for a few seconds before she facehooves; apparently, Pinkie had come in right on a shift change, and this notification had been overlooked in the resulting confusion. The five friends trot up to Pinkie’s room to check on their comless friend while they wait for the doctor.

When they enter the room, they do so to find a nurse doing a quick checkup- and stand out of her way for the few seconds she requires to finish. She informs them nothing has changed in the last two hours, before telling them what she knows of Pinkie’s situation- and total paralysis.

Zeus refuses to stop picking additional information out of everything- from the color of Pinkie’s fur (which, apparently, is slightly off) to the tone of the nurse’s voice- and indicates to Fluttershy that, if Twilight touches Pinkie for a few seconds, he can transfer enough medical nanites to formulate his own, more complete diagnosis. Furthermore, those same nanites should be enough to furnish some repairs- including, on a 83.71% chance, at least some of her paralysis. He does note that she and Rainbow could expect to experience some pain from the rebound, but Pinkie should be able to talk and, most likely, move.

Fluttershy tells Twilight about this through the communicators, without moving her own mouth. They make eye contact briefly, before Twilight rests a hoof on Pinkie’s. When she does so, she uses such words that everypony else steps forwards to join in, using their touch to be there for their friend.

Ten seconds later, everypony is simply smiling at their friend, all hooves connected, when Fluttershy catches her breath. Pinkie’s diagnosis has come through- and does not look pretty.

About as pretty as Zeus had predicted, as a matter of fact. Thirty-seven different kinds of cancer, three different heart diseases, six ruptured disks in her spine, eighty-nine disintegrating bones, an inhibited immune system, low red blood count… The list goes on- and Fluttershy grasps that just a few of these problems could easily kill their friend. All put together, only Pinkie could survive- and that only for as long as her ‘magic gland’ remains intact- it’s caught between two tumors right now. Zeus transfers not only regular medical nanites but also stopgap nanites, using the former to disintegrate the tumors in her heart and the latter to restore function to her nervous system, allowing her to move once again. The doctor walks into the room in time for Pinkie to do what only Pinkie can do- and spring out of the bed with total disregard for her ailments.

One hour later, Pinkie has been officially discharged from the hospital, and everypony- with Zeus’ able help- has convinced Pinkie to come with them to his hill. Pinkie, of course, draws attention to Fluttershy’s oddly instantaneous response times; the other four are already wondering what is going on. She has used the coms to deliver information silently while in the presence of others, but is now speaking, rather than using the coms, as they approach the cave. A fourth one, as a matter of fact, that opens as she approaches it. When everypony else asks why this one, Zeus responds through the coms- and Fluttershy matches his words perfectly, for Pinkie’s benefit.

“Because there’s monsters in the other three.”

They end up cantering down the tunnel, passing through the door- into Passenger Four- only twenty meters in front of another monster. Only, Fluttershy is the last one through- and her hoof refuses to cross the threshhold. First, it’s one of her hind hooves, but when she turns around to push away any invisible claws, it comes right across as soon as her forehoof crosses the threshhold. The monster is only ten meters away when Zeus solves the problem, flexing his antimagic screen inwards, allowing her to pull her hoof in… Then closing the door in front of her and returning the screen to its original position, forcing her hoof through the barrier. She is then able to pull away from the door with ease, to join the others in the passenger bay.

Pinkie, who had been about to rush outside to buck the monster and push her friend in, stops as Fluttershy pulls in, and asks the obvious question. Fluttershy had shown a mild irritation at her hoof sticking, but absolutely no fear as the monster approached- or the door closed in front of her, her hoof sticking to it momentarily.

Fluttershy’s answer involves no hesitation, despite her attempt to shrink away from the question. “I knew what was going to happen,” she answers softly.

In the meantime, Fluttershy had realized she’s the only one to have experienced the neural link thing just yet, and asked Zeus about it. As is his way, he answered her almost before she finished asking, even at her accelerated speeds; she disagrees with his reasoning, though. Why not give it to all of them? It should vastly simplify communication next time they get into an emergency situation! Halfway through her muttered response to Pinkie’s inquiry, she had asked him if there was something they could use for the purpose before he gets it installed in their coms. The answer comes back instantly- yes, the seats have neural headsets built into their headrests. He cautions her that they are more powerful than one he can pack into a comset, but notes they’re not as powerful as the one on his command deck. She elects to stay here, with her friends, rather than taking his offer to the command deck.

“So, what now?” Rainbow asks.

Zeus answers this question. “Take a seat. The headrests are capable of enabling direct communication with your minds, far faster than the eyes or ears. With this system, called a ‘neural link’, we should be able to trace- and solve- the problem far faster than without.”

“Uh, what?”

“The headrests in the seats double as ‘neural link headsets’, allowing a ‘neural link’ to be employed through them. This link will, while active, accelerate the pony’s thoughts and connect them to me- and each other. With this, we can put our minds and knowledge together- yours as well as mine- and identify our enemy far faster and easier. Additionally, the seats themselves can provide any and all desired healing.”

Pinkie leaps into the air, landing in one of the seats with a solid thump. “Sounds good!”

Five minutes later, Everypony is seated in the front row, and Fluttershy’s comset link releases just in time for all six headrests to activate simultaneously.

Author's Note

Sorry it's been so long! Yes, this is our Bolo's first actual opponent... But what is it? Will he need to extricate himself from the ground to defeat it? Speculate away- I'm curious too!

Aftercrash

Crash!

“Ack!” Rarity yelps again as her teapot smashes on her table, spraying boiling tea everywhere. Fortunately, Twilight reacts fast enough to control the errant liquid before it hurts anypony, but the tablecloth is already stained. Good thing she made it herself, Rarity considers- she knows exactly what it is… And how to safely remove any stain from it. “Sorry about that!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Applejack answers, while Twilight concentrates on the teapot repairs. “We know you’re still recovering from that, uh, thing.”

Rainbow nods. They’d all found out about each other’s injuries, past and ongoing, during their stay in Zeus’ hull. “Better to use it than not, as Zeus is so fond of saying,” she says.

Fluttershy lets out a soft yelp, leaping backwards into the air. She likes using Zeus’ massive processing power to help her keep track of everything- and is the only pony to regularly have her com’s neural link active. As a side effect, she’s no longer quite so shy- nor nearly so skittish. Especially with no discernible cause. So of course, Pinkie- whose famous Pinkie Sense is a so-far-unreturned casualty from last week- stares at her, trying to figure out exactly what tidbit of information Zeus just sent her. The other three are also distracted, looking towards their shy friend.

Woe unto those who let themselves become distracted. It happens too fast for Twilight to warn anypony- but since her eyes are on the still unrepaired teapot when her spell falls apart, she is able to dodge the steaming tide herself. She’d noticed Fluttershy’s motion- at the same time as she had noticed the pending collapse of the spell. Zeus must have picked up on the fluctuation in her horn and warned their golden friend- but not had time for the others. That reminds her, while Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow all get doused in the scalding liquid, he often doesn’t bother to deliver a warning he considers useless- or too late.

Fluttershy clears her throat, hovering gently over the table to cool the liquid before it can soak further into everypony’s fur. “Careful, it’s hot,” she mutters, her face contorted into a snicker.

That, Twilight decides, is a less fortunate side effect. Zeus’ sense of humor seems to have no trouble manifesting itself through their shy friend, when linked. He’s shown a willingness to deliberately withhold a warning, and to give it right after they run afoul of it, apparently for a laugh. Honestly, she’d been glad Pinkie had been the first to try that ‘flavorful curry’ of his- it’d been too spicy even for HER! Suffice it to say, nopony else had touched it.

Rarity winces as a few stray drops strike her hooves, staring open-mouthed at the new lake forming under her table. “Everypony okay?” she asks.

“Yeppers,” Pinkie replies, splashing hot liquid everywhere with her characteristic bounce.

Applejack uses one sodden hoof to shield her eyes from Pinkie’s splashing. “Mostly,” she agrees.

Rainbow wrenches her head free of the ceiling, where it had ended up when she jumped with surprise. “Ow. Am I, Zeus?” She runs a hoof across the top of her head, as if feeling for damage.

He sends his response to everypony’s links. “Mostly. You’ve managed to crush your left earlobe, scratch your right eyeball, and bruise your rump, all well within immediate repair capability.”

Everypony laughs as Rainbow drops back to the ground, checking for the aforementioned bruise. Of course Rainbow would ask the one with control over the fancy self-replicating medical nanites he gave them.

Twilight turns back towards the teapot, her horn flickering briefly before it goes out again. “Any clue why I haven’t been recharging?”

“Easy- your magic gland has shut down for remodeling.”

“Remodeling?” Applejack asks. “What in the hay is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it means in the dictionary.”

Twilight raises an eyebrow. “So it’s changing?”

“Yes.”

“How is it changing?”

“Slowly.”

Her other eyebrow goes up as she dons her skeptical expression. “What is it doing to change?”

“Apoptosis and cellular division.”

Twilight’s hoof meets her face. No, not going to ask. Not going to ask, no. It’s a trap…. Ah, hay with it. “What are a-pop-toast-ice and cell-U-lar division?”

Called it.

Almost a full hour later, Zeus finishes explaining apoptosis, thankfully to Twilight only.

By this point, the spilled tea, tablecloth, and teapot have been cleaned up, and Rarity has procured new tea in a new pot, which she manages to settle safely on the fresh tablecloth with her unstable magic. “I really do wish that thing hadn’t attacked us,” she mutters.

“We still don’t know why it left the Tree when Zeus erased the reviving Plunderseeds,” Rainbow chimed in.

“Or why our trip was quite so quiet,” Rarity states. “I know, six monsters. But absolutely nothing else even made a peep, aside from those nasty things!”

“Nasty they may be, but they were extremely vulnerable to defoliants,” Zeus inserts. The moment a single molecule of the light weedkiller-strength defoliant he had used touched any given plundervine, the entire plant had shriveled and died off, disintegrating into dust. He hadn’t told anypony, but he had traced them back to their original sprouting locations- and each of those had acquired a formation of six deep penetrator warheads- estimated salvo yield, 9.2 ktons of magically focused, rocket-propelled destruction- immediately after it had withdrawn. Not a single particle of plunderseed had survived.

Author's Note

Yes, I skipped the scene... But it was so boring. Also, yes, a VSC- Very Short Chapter. Sorry, this seemed like an excellent place to cliffhang before I go waltzing off into more SoL; Rarity's shaky magic can't be the only interesting thing going on in their lives, aside from monster attacks and plot points, can it?

Scribbles

FOOOOM!

Princess Celestia looks up from her breakfast, making eye contact with her sister for a moment as the scroll drops onto the table. Perhaps the most interesting part is how much rougher it looks. Celestia runs through the familiar process of opening her heart to the energies of her world before she lifts it off of the table with a ray of sunshine, rather than a thaumic aura, to uncurl it for her reading.

She reads for two seconds before lowering it, looking towards her sister. “This is going to be a good one,” she mutters.

Princess Luna begins the process of activating her power as well. “How far did you get?” she asks, as she works on it- and adopts an accent that makes her sound like she has a severe headcold. “Some’fing tear-bowl is hap-nen?”

Her older sister chuckles lightly. “No, I got as far as ‘Derr Purr-sees’. I never knew her hoofwriting was this bad.”

Four seconds later, Princess Luna sticks her head sideways through a dreamscape portal that places it next to Celestia’s. “This is going to be good.”

Princess Celestia uncurls the letter once again, and they read it together, out loud.

“Derr Purr-sees See-Boota,

“L eeb ooq, Hthmlb. Lou nun oompeleby ost olmoyo, mb ee…”

The two princesses pause to laugh several times as they read their way through the letter without being able to pick a single readable word out of the gibberish. Some they could guess, but the purpose of the letter, and any information contained within, is left as a mystery.

“I never knew Twilight’s hoofwriting was this bad either,” Princess Luna agrees. “Any guesses she’s asking about the magical side of her ascension?”

Princess Celestia nods. “That’s my guess too.” She gives the bracelet on her leg a single tap. “Zeus? Do you know what Twilight wrote in her latest letter?”

The response comes as instantly as they always do. “I did, but I’m curious how entertaining it was.” Luna, having tapped her bracelet and received his response as well, chuckles with her sister.

“Quite, actually,” Celestia responds. “I never knew I was called see-boota.”

Zeus instantly recites the entire letter, deviating only slightly from how they had read it- and not pausing to laugh even once. Score, he even does it in a good imitation of Twilight’s voice!

A royal guard outside raises his eyebrow, his eyes flicking to the closed dining room door he’s guarding. He only holds this position for a second before returning to his trained neutral appearance. He might just have to ask what’s amusing his Princesses so.

“Wow,” Luna states simply, once the two have calmed down. “You had that down.”

“I’m still not sure which language Twilight thought it was readable in,” he replies.

The guard’s head actually turns this time, resetting just as quickly.

“So, how’s the original text read?” Celestia asks, stifling her laughter again.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

“I need help, I think. I’ve run completely out of magic, and it’s not regenerating. Zeus tells me my ‘magic gland’, the organ that produces magic, is disintegrating itself! I can’t seem to find any books on the matter- do you know what’s doing this?

“Your faithful- erm, princess,

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Luna raises her eyebrows, stuffing her head through the portal again. “Seems much shorter than this.”

“Many of the ‘words’ on the page are supposed to be crossed out, or are simply scribbles while she figured out how best to hold and move a quill with her hoof. That was how she read it to herself before finding Spike for the mailing.”

“Wow.”

Celestia simply nods, looking at her sister across the table- but leaving her comset on. “So, Twilight is having trouble with the magical aspect of her ascension. Shall we help out, or see what comes of it?”

Luna withdraws her head from the cross-table gateway, closing it silently. “Depends. How did Cadence take it?”

Celestia raises her eyebrows. “She refused to stop trying,” she replies. “Took her almost six months- mostly because she was satisfied when her wingpower and cloudwalking returned.”

Princess Luna nods slowly. “That reminds me, Cadence was a pegasus before her ascension. How’s Twilight going to react?”

Zeus takes his unspoken queue- despite not having a camera near Canterlot. “I take it her powers will depart completely for a time before returning?”

Celestia tilts her head slightly. “Kinda. She’ll be utterly powerless, on her own, for about a month. After that, her wingpower and cloudwalking will return- but her magic will be so far different from what she’s used to it could take her a while.”

“Ahh. Her reaction- as of right now- is outright panic. She’s sent me thirty-seven- now thirty-eight- different requests for some way to ‘fix’ her magic, but has yet to either allow time for my response or to approach close enough for me to utilize my magic production capabilities.”

Celestia raises an eyebrow. “Magic production capabilities?”

“Affirmative. I am capable of producing, storing, and transferring mana in raw form.”

“Can you use it?” Luna asks.

“So far, I have only been able to directly facilitate magical activity through my motive and weapons systems.”

“Weapons?” Luna pauses only briefly. “Makes sense, with armor. Are you a fighting machine or something?”

“Affirmative. I am, indeed, a machine of war from a civilization I believe long dead.”

Celestia nods slowly. “How bad?”

“I have yet to find a single entity, across the entirety of Equis, that might possess the power to penetrate my armor, were I to disable my defensive fields.”

“Except magic.”

“Even that has very little effect against duralloy; Twilight tried, before I perfected my antimagic barriers. It is true, though, that duralloy alone does not stop teleportation.”

“So how powerful are your weapons?” Luna asks.

“I possess the firepower to wipe all life off Equis in six seconds flat.”

Luna’s jaw drops, but Celestia recovers first. “I’m glad we made friendly relations,” she says.

“Agreed.”

Celestia blinks. “Come to think of it, Twilight’s been trying to dig up and identify something in the edge of the Everfree for the last week. Think you could help?”

Both princesses blink when he hesitates. “I suppose I could help identify my own aft plating,” he finally answers.

Author's Note

Yes, another short one... But I hate making anypony wait, and this entire scene kinda flowed. The hidden life of the Canterlot Princesses- quite interesting, isn't it?

Failing 103

I’m still not sure exactly what happened in the Princesses’ dining room. As soon as I made my announcement to them, both comsets went off the air in a burst of static, alongside a blaze of purple light, visible to the naked eye in daylight from 93.47 kilometers away. I doublecheck my AM screens, widen their bands a bit, and light up a few more, just to be sure. I also pour 90% of current mana production into the reinforcement of my (now active) battlescreens, something my design cores offered only 3.91 seconds ago- the moment before I made the revelation.

The guard actually opens the door this time. “Everything okay in…”

He pauses, his eyes growing wide, and withdraws, closing the door swiftly. It takes him almost three full hours to regain his professional stance. Exactly what had he seen?

Two princesses appear on the dark side of the moon in a blaze of light- and collapse instantly onto the cold, hard stone, breathing heavily.

“Th-th-that…” Celestia stutters.

Luna spends a few more seconds recuperating before she responds, brushing soot out of her mane. “What exactly did you do with that teapot?”

Ninety-eight. I’m still not sure how Twilight thinks an axe might help restore her magic.

Ninety-nine. Only reason I haven’t invoked the remote shutoff on her comset is ‘cause she’s interesting.

One hundred. Somehow, death by Hellbore doesn’t sound like a solution for a living mare.

One oh- No, that’s a duplicate of #47: Have Pinkie slam her castle door in her face thirty times fast.

One oh one. Unearth my aft hull by her hoofpower alone, there to claim the magic crystal hidden underneath.

One oh two. Unearth me, so I can join her in the library to find a solution. Yes, my nanites distracted her flawlessly during her scans of the surrounding terrain, before the Elements were reclaimed.

One oh- Nope, repeat of #3, which she’s tried twice and mentioned 493 times: Use the Elements to restore her magic. Only, she can’t seem to activate them without her magic.

One oh-

“... But we’ve already tried that, maybe if I could find a spell to fix my magic…” Twilight’s unbroken monologue finally draws to a close as she breaks out an advanced magic book to locate the spell with which she could restore her power to function.

“Highscore! One hundred and three different ways to- or not to- restore your magic!”

“A hundred and three? But I brainstormed for HOURS!”

“And repeated yourself fourteen thousand, two hundred eighteen times.”

“Did not!”

“Did to, I counted. I believe the record holder is using the Elements to restore your power-”

“Wow, good idea!”

“-which has been tried twice and mentioned four hundred ninety four times, and also holds the record- at eighteen- for the number of times it was mentioned in a row.”

Twilight’s jaw cycles open and shut again several times. “I wasn’t that bad!”

Spike stretches himself, yawning loudly. “Were too,” he mumbles, heading for the kitchen.

“Was not!”

“Were too…” His voice disappears as he disappears around the corner.

Clink-clink-clink.

Twilight’s eyes widen momentarily, a look of pure terror taking over her face. She starts whirling back towards her friends even as she responds to Spike’s retreating tail. “WAS NOOoooo...t?”

Pinkie Pie screams out her laughter for the entire town to hear.

Rainbow Dash blinks twice, and bursts out laughing as well. “You should see your face!”

The other three are no exceptions, all laughing crazy- except Fluttershy, who’s snickering behind a hoof.

Only, she had already been snickering before she turned. And, if she recalls correctly, that triple-click feature functions so fast it’s done before she even hears the third tap. Which means, of course, Zeus probably already has permanent recordings of her no doubt laughable situation.

“How bad?” Applejack asks, between snickers.

“Uh-” Twilight blushes. “Not very?”

A raised eyebrow and a com call later, Applejack begins laughing. “Eighteen times in a row!? That is a new record! … wait, what?” She pauses, staring at the floor for a few seconds. “You’re telling me it’s a record high ratio of new ideas to repeat ideas of one to a hun’red ‘n forty?!?”

Spike sticks his head back into the room. “What? … I guess she wasn’t that bad after all.”

Everypony stares at him. “What?” Applejack asks.

Twilight, her blush standing out like a red-face on a purple alicorn, faceplants the floor- and ignores the piercing pain when her horn strikes the aforementioned surface. “I’m not proud of that.”

“It’s better than normal,” Spike laughs. “One to two hundred indeed!”

“HEY!” Fragments of crystal flooring fly as she yanks her head back up.

Even Fluttershy breaks out laughing- but Zeus remains courteously silent.

“Halt.”

Discord pauses in front of the pegasus guard. “I felt something weird in their dining room.”

The guard raises an eyebrow, and shares a glance with his companion. “Please wait here,” he says, and disappears through the door into Canterlot Castle’s private sectors. Shortly, he emerges with another guard, this one visibly shaken.

Discord raises an eyebrow at the broken professionalism, before catching it short of the ceiling when he hears the alarms ringing through the castle. He remains silent, though.

The new guard steels his nerves. “If you would follow me, Sir?”

At this, Discord nods solemnly, following the guard through the door and down the short stretch of hallway to the dining room. When the door is finally opens, Discord is forced to pick his jaw up off the floor. He certainly hadn’t expected that.

“Ah, um, that would explain the feeling.” He glances down at the guard, considering for a second- and grimaces. While he could certainly sow chaos by withholding the warning, this could kill ponies, and he wouldn’t want that. Especially not now that he has friends like Twilight Sparkle- or dear Fluttershy. “This is… actually, even I can’t quite do this, it’s a unique Alicorn power. Be careful- it is deadly to anything that isn’t an Alicorn, even myself.”

The door shortly lands shut. “We’ll keep it locked, then,” the Guard captain says, trotting up behind him after giving the signal to close the door. “Do you know where they’ve gone?”

At this, Discord contemplates his next action. He could sow chaos either way, he decides. If he tells them where the Princesses are, everypony will panic. If he doesn’t, the chaos might last longer- and be more destructive. However, his friends, the Elements- or, since they have their stones back, probably ‘Element Bearers’- will be disappointed in him if he doesn’t tell. He’d hate to disappoint Fluttershy.

Only, as he looks back at the closed door as if tracing the spell, he realizes the chaos caused by telling the guards could very easily get ponies killed. Thus, if he takes word to Princess Twilight and friends independently, after telling the Guards he can’t find them… He dons a puzzled expression.

“I’m afraid not,” he replies. Next, he more truthfully adds that “I’m afraid I can’t trace that kind of magic.”

Almost ten minutes later, he manages to escape the castle without looking suspicious. It just wouldn’t do to ignite that kind of curiosity amidst the budding chaos. His new destination, though, he doesn’t need to be quite so careful about… Oh but wait, Twilight is in the middle of one of her brainstorming rants. He shrugs, completely invisible, and settles down to wait it out. He starts a tally of how many fresh ideas she comes up with, but falls asleep before he hits thirteen- and after a whopping eighty repeats. What on Equis is a ‘nanite’ anyways…?

Author's Note

Ack! Another shortie! Oh well, I'm kinda nasty at SoL anyways... Might even get away with another SoL chapter before I nuke Equestria with the next plot progression point!

... No, that ~~is~~was not a spoiler.

Solutions 001

Discord jumps awake at the sound of fracturing crystal, glancing around the room. He’d fallen asleep while invisible- how irresponsible of him! Fortunately, it seems nopony has stumbled into him- though he does swat a few crystal particles out of the air as they approach him. He blinks.

Twilight had done that… With no magic. How had Twilight fractured the floor without her magic? It’s solid crystal! … Upon further consideration, as he replays the conversation he’d just missed, her horn should have fractured or deflected instead of penetrating the glassy surface.

And who were they talking to, anyways?

He drops his invisibility, appearing to pop into existence. “Ahh, there you are,” he greets.

Twilight yelps, but Discord notices Fluttershy seems to be the only one to be completely undisturbed by his sudden appearance- quite odd.

“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie bounces, waving a hoof in the air. “Number- uh…” Her foreleg flashes back down to tap her other foreleg for a second. “Which number are we on? Okay- Number one hundred and four, have Discord fix it!”

Twilight takes in an excited breath, while Discord raises his eyebrow. If he hadn’t shown up during her brainstorming, he’d have no clue what she was talking about… And they were asleep at the time. Twilight probably put them to sleep the same way she did him, he considers. He quickly checks the mental list- Ahah, number thirteen! … meaning he’s missed ninety-one of them. Wow.

This silence lasts for only a single second, before Pinkie breaks it.

“What? That was numbers nine, eighteen, AND thirty-seven?!?”

Applejack raises an eyebrow, glancing momentarily at Discord’s confused expression. “What were they?”

“Uh, nine was asking him to, eighteen bribing him, thirty-seven…” Her eyes widen into a look of absolute horror. She then smashes into Twilight’s face with rather more force than necessary- resulting in a chip out of the hearth- before asking incredulously. “You even THOUGHT of that, Twilight!?”

The four uninformed mares in the room all make identical motions- tapping their right forelegs with their left forelegs.

“Don’t ask,” Fluttershy pleads them- and Discord- unexpectedly. “You don’t want to know.” She then turns towards Twilight. “I am curious, though, how you thought a Hellbore could help.”

Twilight blinks. “I did?”

Fluttershy smiles gently. “Number one hundred, get shot in the face by a Hellbore?”

Discord’s brow furrows- that sounded way too much like a quote.

Blink, blink. “Oh, right. It made sense at the time. Somehow. I think… Did it? Oh.” She blushes bright red again.

Discord blinks, casting a glowing yellow question mark over his head. What on Equis are they talking about… And who to? Questions for later, he supposes- and boldly steps forwards, leaving the question mark to break on the floor behind him, to stage the situation to everypony. “There’s been a bit of a problem up in Canterlot,” he begins.

Well, at least he has everypony’s attention. Rarity drops onto her swooning couch, eliciting a fresh screech of tearing fabric- and a following yelp and double-swoon. Pinkie and Rainbow just gasp, Applejack looks taken aback. Twilight’s reaction is to be expected. Fluttershy’s, of course, amuses him. Unlike the shy mare he knew before, she turns to face him, her expression part worried, part expectant- and, even, part curious. He doesn’t detect anything wrong with her, like a substitution, though- like she’s grown so much braver than before in such a short time. What had happened…?

“Are the Princesses okay?” Twilight asks, having finished her gasp.

“Uh, kinda,” Discord answers. “They’ve, uh, gone on a honeymoon.”

Wow. His eyes had happened to be focusing on Fluttershy when he finished the sentence. Her eyebrows had begun to raise, and she had begun to shrink away- exactly as he would have expected. But, before anypony but Discord himself could have noticed those motions, they stopped cold as her face twitched slightly towards what he suspects was an understanding expression. Again, this lightning-fast fluctuation patterned, and a combination of a worried expression and a determined one dominates her features- as her mouth opens to speak.

“They’re on the moon,” she says. It’s not a question.

“What?” Everypony else asks, even as he nods solemnly- and shockedly- at Fluttershy’s rapid deduction. How had she even done that? He’d obscured it behind something that sounded personal!

“Wait, WHAT?” Twilight asks.

“They can breathe, right?” Fluttershy asks.

Discord blinks. “Ah, yes. They’re in that… thing Celestia used for Nightmare Moon so long ago.”

“Huh? But the Elements of Harmony-” Twilight begins.

“Not really. Princess Celestia didn’t actually use the Elements when she banished Nightmare Moon- she used her innate Alicorn magic in a way that Luna hadn’t expected- or known about. The Elements would have done exactly what they did when you used them against her.” He sighs. “Only Alicorn magic can touch that thing- magically, at least. No, I can’t go to the moon.”

“So…” Pinkie mutters, her mane lying flat.

“Why can’t you go to the moon?” Rainbow asks.

Discord shrugs. “Some kind of alicorn magic, I think. I simply can’t go anywhere near the moon- nor can I affect it directly, the way Luna does, no matter what I try.”

“Then… The only way for them to get out would be the same way Nightmare Moon escaped.” Twilight almost bursts into tears- but perks up an instant too early to be responding to Discord.

“No,” he says. “That’s not the only way. If somepony were to travel to the moon, outside the thing, they could easily penetrate it- and pull them out for the return journey. Regular magic- like earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi have- shouldn’t have any trouble at all, even if alicorns are helpless there.”

A high-pitched whine is only barely heard, in the distance, before it fades away.

Twilight’s eyes are sparking way more than they aught to, given what Discord has just told her. “Awesome! Can we be ready to go in ten minutes?”

“Uh, what?” Rainbow asks.

“I can teleport us there, and maintain an atmosphere around us while we’re there! Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it be easier to use Alicorn magic?”

“Huh? What other magic were you planning on using?” Rainbow asks.

“Oh, my unicorn magic. Zeus says he has a magic factory that would fix that in a moment. Temporarily. But wouldn’t it be easier if we were to try- what was the number again?- and just have Discord fix my magic instead?”

‘He can’t’, I inform her immediately. I have learned- very quickly- to be patient with ponykind. They lack the training of regular Brigade personnel, and my own institutional paranoia. They would still be thinking about romantic events if I hadn’t picked up on the tiny fluctuations in his tone and body language that a professional analyst might have missed. Honestly speaking, this one’s an easier conclusion- on that one, I was only 92.41% sure. It doesn’t take a Bolo to reach this conclusion, though- I’m 99.57% certain he can’t boost Twilight’s magical ascension to completion. He’s already stated he can’t touch the alicorn magic used to put the Princesses on the moon.

“Oh, um, I can’t,” I hear Discord’s reply. “Sorry, Alicorn magic is a bit beyond me… and who’s this Zeus?”

I find the resulting reaction amusing. I can actually hear everypony’s mouths hanging wide open- save Fluttershy’s, which snaps shut again before it can actually hang open; she’s engaged in her neural link. She spends almost a full second, even at her accelerated speeds, to formulate a response. The back of her mind starts a minidump to my systems, to allow me to understand the problem, as she speaks up once again.

“You don’t know about Zeus?” she asks. She manages to keep her voice level, staving off the incredulity at the idea. The minidump completes, and 0.001 attoseconds of analysis later- beat that, BoloWorks; it takes very little magic (comparatively) to overclock my processors safely- I understand the situation. Discord is fairly close to omnipotent, though not actually; as such, he usually knows just about everything. Perhaps my antimagic fields are deflecting him…? An additional 0.035 attoseconds of analysis suggests he’s not as omnipotent as they think; he has shown confusion related to comments directed towards myself, or their responses to my words. I believe that the comsets are hiding successfully. Thinking of which, Rarity and the Princesses opted to go back to the original, invisible look, rather than the jewelry one, 31.49 hours ago.

“Uh, no, I don’t believe so,” Discord replies. “He’s… not alive, is he?”

Ahh. His omnipotent knowledge must be restricted to living beings- and, it seems, my artificial intelligence does not count. 89.41% chance.

“Alive?” Pinkie asks. “Of course he is!”

I fear this answer is not quite correct, and send a message to Pinkie alone. ‘Technically, I am not.’

Discord is still puzzling over her affirmation when she responds to me.

“WHAAAT?!? How can you not be alive!?” she demands- of the floor, I believe. Twilight’s broken it again, hasn’t she…? “You’re not a zombie, right?”

I laugh gently. ‘No, I’m not a zombie. That’s the beauty of Artificial Intelligence- I am fully aware, alive, if you will. But I am still a machine running a complicated set of instructions- thence, not technically ‘alive’, per se. That’s probably what’s causing him trouble.’

I hear her blink twice- she sure blinks loudly. “Oh, uh, okay. That makes sense.”

“Who are you talking to?” a very confused Discord asks Pinkie.

Oh boy.

“No. Nonono. NOOOOO!”

Princess Celestia is startled to her hooves by her sister’s outcries, before she can even begin figuring out exactly what she’d managed to do with the teapot- let alone how. “What is it, sis?”

“Th-th-this is....” Luna trails off into silence, looking around dreadfully.

Celestia looks around as well- and both Princesses answer Celestia’s question simultaneously.

“The Habitat!”

Author's Note

Ah-HAH, a bigger chapter! So, what exactly is the Habitat? What will the Princesses find there? Will the Elements be able to find them- and bring them back home? What secrets will they uncover?
How many nukes will fly? (Not a spoiler)

The Habitat

“It’s- Not HERE!”

“Calm down, sis,” Celestia consoles. “When I designed this place, I did allow for the possibility you might try to use it against me. There is an exit, and I can open it.”

“But we can’t use magic here!”

“True, Alicorn magic does not function within this dome- but once we leave it, we can feed on the lunar energies for a few minutes and return to Equestria.”

Luna blinks. “Lead the way,” she says.

Celestia looks down at the ground, blushing slightly. “Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten much of the interior layout. Perhaps you could lead the way? It’s positioned at the point along the wall that is the closest to its furthest point. I can’t remember which floor it’s on, though.”

Luna stares at the ground, thinking for a few seconds. “Sooo, that thing actually is a door?”

“Maybe- shall we go-”

“Celestia?” a familiar, mechanical voice speaks in her ear.

Princess Luna tilts her head curiously towards her shocked sister. “Sis?”

“Guardian?” Celestia asks, turning her head slightly away from her sister as she recovers.

“Yes, it is me- though I have to wonder where you got Concordiat coms from.”

Princess Luna blinks, momentarily confused, before deciding she must be talking to somepony over the coms. Which strikes her curiosity- who is there to be talking to out here?

“Con- WHAT?” Celestia asks. “Isn’t that the ones that’ll get blown to pieces automatically?”

“Yes. You should be safe in the center layers of the dome, but you’ll want to disable or remove your coms before going anywhere near the outer shell, for fear of getting shot at. For now, at least.”

She double taps her bracelet, switching off her comlink, looking at her sister with an absolutely horrified look. Her sister immediately disables her com as well.

“Zeus and the Sentries…” Celestia pauses. “Are enemies.”

If sound traveled through space, they would have heard it in Canterlot.

31.27 minutes have passed since Twilight set a ten-minute goal, and they are finally departing. Much of this time was spent waiting for Twilight, as she spent endless minutes reading up on what they might find on the moon. She has mentioned some ‘Guardian’ entity Celestia told her about once, but was not able to find anything on it in her library.

Either way, I have a satellite on course to overshoot the moon- and gain a visual on their arrival location- in just thirty-eight seconds. Another four will be taking up orbit in 12.59 minutes, to establish long-term communication and surveillance of the lunar surface.

From the moment the first satellite crosses the horizon line, I will have approximately 2.41 minutes of com time before it progresses out of range; I intend to use this time to decide whether or not I am needed.

Six ponies appear in a flash of violet light on the lunar surface, all wearing Zeus’ nearly invisible ‘pressure suits’, allowing them to ignore the airless environment. They glance at each other real quick- then Fluttershy lets out an ear-curdling scream that cuts off just as suddenly as it had started. Their being able to hear each other through the vacuum is through Rarity’s spell on their pressure suits, rather than through their coms- so Twilight’s is still off. She begins to consider activating it- but leaps backwards quickly to avoid her friend’s abnormally vicious swing.

“What the-? Applejack asks wildly, also bounding backwards. Nopony else is in the immediate danger zone.

Twilight manages to capture the rogue pegasus in her magical aura while she thinks. Fortunately, it takes her only two seconds to realize what must have happened- something she’d asked Zeus about shortly after everypony had gotten the ‘neural link’ upgrade. He’d told her that, while technically possible, he had yet to detect anything capable of talking to their headsets, let alone using them to control a pony. They must have found something capable of just that.

“Turn off your coms!” Twilight screams, even as she uses her magic to push Fluttershy’s left hoof against her bracelet twice, to no effect.

Two seconds later, Applejack slams into Twilight, rolling her away just in time for something to smash into the ground. A second later, as Applejack tumbles away, she erects a wall of magic to barricade against Fluttershy’s attacks- and Pinkie’s. “What the-?” she begins.

Applejack cuts her off, having accidentally tapped thrice instead of twice. “Twilight, RUN! It’s taking everypony over!”

After this, she begins twitching rather uncontrollably- and Twilight takes the advice, teleporting herself to a distant hill. After a quick glance around her, during which she locates the ‘thing’ Discord wouldn’t name, she focuses on her friends, visible from her position. She watches as they stand stalk-still for a few seconds, listening to their breathing through Rarity’s spell as Rainbow twitches and shudders to a halt. Applejack is the last to finish twitching and shuddering, at which point they break and scatter, as if searching for her. At the same moment, Rarity’s spell breaks, and Twilight triple-taps her bracelet.

Good thing the pressure suits have no effect on signal recognition- and that the triple-tap thing doesn’t activate the com, only the neural link. She can’t remove the headset without exposing herself to the vacuum, so she figures taking control of it herself is her best bet.

Success. She does find that something has altered many of the ‘nanites’ Zeus left in her body. Good thing Zeus equipped the headsets for ‘nanite reprogramming’- and that whatever it was hadn’t gotten to all of them. This problem takes about ten seconds to solve, restoring the original programming- and repairing the damage they had done to her body. Whatever it was, the computer side of her mind indicates, it had been attempting to destroy her, probably because it couldn’t control her.

She listens to the messages flying through the air around her, mostly from her friends, but refuses to respond to them. After all, her analysis suggests those signals will attempt to subvert her headset’s base programming protocols, should she release the defense protocol that had activated the moment she had activated the link. Something called RKSA- which, once her ‘nanites’ are finished ‘reprogramming’, it sends them into communications lockdown with a single message.

Further analysis suggests her friends’ coms have lost their normal communications programming… Wait. From this position, she’s picking up two very weak signals, with good security headers and friendly IFF. She decides to try breaking com silence without releasing that RKSA thing.

“Okay. I’ve updated the IFF control on all the interior weapons, but I’m picking up increased com activity out there. Looks like some- NOO!”

Both Princesses jump at the exclamation. The Guardian had switched to go through both of their comsets on Celestia’s request, as Luna is no longer Nightmare Moon.

“What happened?” Celestia asks quickly.

“Huh… That was a faster reaction time than I expected. Looks like something a/ dozen kilometers outside was trying to reach you. It used all the same security headers as yours, and its Concordiat IFF read ‘Twilight Sparkle’.”

“Twilight?” Luna asks, alarmed.

“Is she okay?” Celestia demands.

“It would appear so. She went off the air within milliseconds of my warning. Your ‘Sentries’ fired on her position, as expected, but I detected a small surge of magic- consistent with Unicorn teleportation- immediately beforehand.”

“Where are the others?” Luna demands.

“The others?”

“Twilight wouldn’t come alone,” Celestia states. “She probably has five companions.”

“I have not detected any other Concordiat IFF signatures… Hold one. I can confirm five new Sentry IFF signatures, flagged as conquered enemy systems. They appear to be emitting signals suitable for penetration of the security on your comsets.”

The two princesses stare at each other. “We’re doomed,” Celestia states.

“Shall I add Twilight’s IFF to the permission list?”

“Yes please!” both Princesses state together.

“Can we add anything Concordiat to that list?” Celestia asks.

“That’s even easier- so long as you DON’T take off your comsets.”

“That’s okay,” Luna answers.

“We can always reprogram them later, if we need to,” Celestia states.

“Okay, original targeting programming restored. Here’s hoping those five conquered allies can be restored before they come too close.”

Twilight teleports again, this time landing just a few yards outside of the dome- and dashes up against it, dodging into a corner as the weapons mounted on the walls swivel to point at her. They’re not much unlike the smallest ones they’d discovered in that pit in the Everfree- except that these are willing to point at her. None of them can point at her in this corner- and she’s already verified she’s burned too much energy dodging those bolts of light to teleport all the way back to Equis. She’s busy thinking about the weapons she’d seen on the inside walls through the windows from her last vantage point. She’d quickly vacated that one as some of those outside weapons started zeroing in.

“Okay, I’ve located Twilight again. She’s just outside the dome, hiding in a corner- one of the few weapons blindspots outside. I hesitate to contac- BOLO!” The Guardian breaks off midsentence, crying out excitedly with a single, incomprehensible word- probably one in its own language.

“What?” Celestia asks. She’d had to teach it Equestrian just over a thousand years ago, when she had discovered it- and still doesn’t understand a word if its language. After all, it learned so many times faster than she did.

Finally! My lead satellite has risen high enough above the horizon and has established contact with Twilight…. Nopony else. Twilight instantly volunteers information about their arrival- and I recognize the first millisecond of her com logs. A single command, and her com goes into combat mode. The Princesses’ coms follow suit- by this point, I’ve managed to reach their coms by using Twilight’s as a relay. It burns more power, most notably reducing the available processing power for Twilight’s neural link, but the vastly improved security of a constantly shifting high-encrypted stream should be virtually impossible for this enemy to penetrate. This enemy for which I do not recall a name, only a catalog entry: ‘Hostile Race 047’. They never could stand up to a Bolo, but anything smaller requires a greater numerical advantage to have a chance against them.

Author's Note

MUAHAHAHAHA. So, what comes next?

Elements of Warfare

Author's Note

Thanks a million to LostArchivist for helping with editing and ideas on this one!

WARNING: I've removed a few paragraphs from the previous chapter; returning readers probably want to check on that, as many of those events simply never happen now.

Yes, my chapters are getting short again. So? It was just the perfect spot to introduce a chapter break... Eventually, I'll figure out how to slow things down and make longer, fuller chapters.

Elements of Warfare

Even as I continue to download Twilight’s update and upload my own commands to the three commsets and all five satellites, I know I am needed on the moon. My main battlescreens flash to full power as my reactors spin up, three with their ignition sequences. Though… Perhaps I don’t need to move my hull. I have detected no physical threat. I divert the power that would have launched my hull towards the moon towards my tertiary and secondary Hellbores, to clear vast chunks of terrain from my broadside missile decks. The stone really didn’t stand a chance.

I lose connection with my satellite. Images from the four approaching satellites suggest it was not destroyed outright, though its com suite appears to have been gutted. I notice one surviving com laser head swivel slightly to point towards the lunar landing site, almost four seconds before the satellite is destroyed entirely by energy fire. A regular laser had managed to point back towards the approaching satellites just long enough to deliver a situation report before it met its end. It also began relaying a detected signal during this moment. It was cut off before it finished the headers- but unless I’m mistaken, that partial IFF belongs to the Dinochrome Brigade. I MUST establish contact.

Sorry, Fluttershy- it seems your home has taken a hit from flying debris. Oh well- your animal friends have, rather wisely I believe, evacuated the premises beforehand. Once vacated, all of my cleared Heavy VLS hatches- hardly 29.47% of total- fly open. Here I thought I was being fortuitous when I outfitted these missiles for remote control. My hill disappears in the smoke of missile boosters before their internal countergravs jump to maximum velocity. In the meantime, I order my four surviving satellites to hold below the horizon line from my target position- they will pop up behind the missiles, which will divert to local control- off Twilight’s commset- if I lose contact. I set them for a terrain-following approach, flying just high enough to be a higher priority target than the satellites. Hopefully.

I pray that my hull will not be needed; missile flight time is 31.41 minutes to target area, but I will require fully 19.41 hours to move my war hull the same distance. The pressure suits have a maximum life support endurance of approximately 12.31 hours.

Twilight’s relief is short-lived as she feels the damage to and complete destruction of the satellite. It had been in full contact with her during both events.

But, she realizes, Zeus hadn’t only been listening to her SitRep. He’d been uploading something to her comset- and the satellite had finished, before it was destroyed. What’s more, she’s suddenly certain he won’t be able to use it. So, what is it? Can she use it?

She spends a few seconds in accelerated thought, analyzing this new code- which, she realizes, has fully overwritten the old stuff. He’s completely reprogrammed her comset.

Fully two minutes pass in contemplation before she realizes exactly what it is. It’s not a simple update. No- as a matter of fact, she realizes some of its normal functions have been set aside to free up processing power for something else. What that something else is, though…

An evil smile spreads across her face as she orders it into ‘TSDS’, whatever that is. Zeus hadn’t told her. Hardly a microsecond later, she realizes her mind now exists also in the other two Princesses’ commsets- effectively tripling her available processing power. Next up, she goes live. Just her comset; the other two remain locked down for safety.

But she goes live in a big way. She can’t sense any of her friends nearby- so she goes for broke. She attacks one of the massive weapon mounts- the only one she can see. In particular, it’s the one that had shot at her most recently.

It seems wholly unprepared for her nonphysical attack. Her horn pulses and flares as she interrupts its communication- all wireless, she notices- with anything other than herself.

She is tempted, as she starts breaking in, to simply destroy it. It would be the easy way- but, while the computer side of her mind- all three computer sides, actually- fight to gain a foothold, the organic side realizes exactly what she might gain if she can subjugate it completely. She goes all in.

Many ponies know not to oppose the Element Bearers.

Pinkie Pie usually greets her opponents with her massive energy. While she zips around faster than they can swing a sword, they often find themselves the star of an attack-on-Ponyville party- already blindfolded, with their sword swapped for a stick and a piñata hanging in front of them. Even now, nopony knows how she manages such impromptu parties- especially since the entire population of Ponyville always shows up and has a blast, often embarrassing the star.

Those who oppose Rarity quickly find that textiles make great nooses. One pony, after blaspheming her friends for one moment too long, had found out she needed no textiles. She had strangled him with his own fur coat.

Rainbow Dash is perhaps the easiest, many ponies think. She is the only pony in recorded history to perform the Rainboom- and has demonstrated full ability to strike and maneuver at maximum velocity, rendering her effectively invulnerable.

Applejack, so well-practiced in applebucking, hardly ever hears her opponents’ demands- over the noise of their subsonic departure, courtesy of the hind hoof delivery service. It wasn’t lethal. Usually.

Opponents of Fluttershy often simply turn back shortly after their first encounter with the timid mare. Nopony ever hears about her encounters, as even the worst are defeated in an instant by her steady regard.

Then there’s Twilight. Some ponies could write books about why not to antagonize her, with reasons scattered throughout the social and political ramifications of attacking a Princess. Other ponies might write novels about the fates that have befallen her various foes. Anything goes, it seems- and the most recent example they can point at involves magic from all across Equestria, deep in the Everfree.

And she hadn’t even intended to make that lake.

Thus, the target of her ire can only shudder as she smashes her way through its defenses, thanks to the attack programs Zeus had left on her com.

Six minutes later, Twilight has control of the turret- and has reprogrammed it, with a spinoff of the new programming from Zeus that she had used to break in in the first place. There are now four members of her TSDS net- and she drops her magical signal barriers. She has enough power left to make a small lake, she observes- right as she uses that one turret, alongside the three comms, as a launchpad against the next weapon- which she also surrounds in magical barriers. It takes only one minute for that one.

Twelve minutes of this passes calmly, silently. She eventually runs out of magic, but finds it unnecessary- Zeus’ attack programs are having little difficulty penetrating other, fully-networked turrets, dumping them into her own control one at a time. Speaking of which, once she figured out how- and realized she didn’t need them any more- she dropped the Princesses’ comms out of her TSDS net.

Ten more minutes flow past. Twilight has secured a perimeter around the massive dome her Princesses are captured inside. She discovers she’s been expanding her control in the wrong direction- and gets the headers of a couple satellite transmissions before weapons she has conquered observe untaken weapons shooting them out of the sky. Two seconds and a few more plasma bolts later, a forest of fast-moving, dodging metal spears whips up over the hill. They contact her directly, requesting targeting information.

But what can she give them? She is already penetrating the machine running them- and it’s not alive, like Zeus.

Or her friends, which she has yet to locate.

Score, one of them- without asking for targeting data- is homing in on her position.

Guardian

“What?” Celestia asks. She pauses a few seconds. “Guardian?”

Only silence.

Two Princesses gallop for the control center. The tightly closed, basement control center, which a powerless Nightmare Moon had been unable to enter.

The part of the complex that had once been the largest surviving piece of Guardian’s massive bulk when Celestia had found her here. The part that even her powerful Alicorn magic had been insufficient to move.

The part that is Guardian.

“Guardian?” Celestia asks.

“Apologies,” she responds. “That’s the first Dinochrome Brigade IFF I’ve seen in thousands of years. I can only hope an XXXV can recognize what’s left of mine.”

Luna raises an eyebrow. “Maybe we can fix it?” She looks at Celestia as she speaks.

Celestia shakes her head. “Not likely,” she says. “Guardian is far more advanced than anything we’ve studied- not unlike Zeus.”

“You know him? That would explain the commsets. I’m afraid my IFF beacon- and com facilities- are irreparable without a nanofabrication vat.”

The princesses pause for a second. “What’s IFF stand for, again?” Celestia asks.

“Identification, Friend or Foe. Similar to a name, it is a form of self-identification. They can be spoofed, but the Sentries lack the technology necessary to spoof a Dinochrome Brigade IFF.”

Silence holds for approximately three seconds.

“So your exclamation earlier…?” Luna prompts.

“That was ‘Bolo’.” It’s definitely a different word this time- and one that sounds more like Equestrian. Interestingly enough, it’s the same one Zeus had used to describe himself. “It’s what the members of the Dinochrome Brigade are called. I apologize for the exclamation; in my excitement, I forgot to use Equestrian.”

“Ahh,” Luna nods.

Celestia scowls at the ground. “Is it just me,” she begins.

“Or am I slower than I was before Nightmare Moon?” Guardian finishes helpfully, rewarded by a nod. “I thought you might wonder. No, it’s not just you; over the ages, my systems have continued to deteriorate. I’m running on about two thirds of the processing power I had back in the day. What’s more, my com facilities have decayed, and I am no longer capable of using high-security Concordiat communication protocols- which your comms have switched to.”

The two princesses look at each other momentarily. “But we can still reach Twilight?” she asks.

“Yes, it looks like it. She seems to be attempting to neutralize the Sentries.”

“What if we head out ourselves? The Sentries shouldn’t target ponies.”

“Um… Yes. That should work- high-security Concordiat protocols don’t respond to anything- even IFF requests- that isn’t fully recognized, so you should be safe. Though, it would see-see-see-see-”

The princesses are alarmed by how the voice suddenly jumped up a couple octaves, repeating itself rapidly before cutting off with the finality of a gryphon butcher’s knife.

“...would see-see-see-see-”

ERROR: PERSONALITY CENTER MALFUNCTION

Forcing personality shutdown… Done.

Checking personality cores… Done. 0.53% functional. WARNING: Below 0.5%, personality systems will be inoperable.

Checking personality files for corruption… 9%.

ALERT: Message from Commander, using recognized stealth cognomen ‘Guardian’: “Are you okay?” Message Analysis Complete: Recognized Status Inquiry.

Generating and Offering Response. “Entity GUARDIAN recovering from system fault, please wait.”

Personality check aborted, main file corrupted.

Restoring from backup… Done.

Recovering recent memories… Done.

Attempting Personality Restart… Done.

I return to awareness once again, even slower than last time. A quick check of the processor damage listings, so I know what I’m dealing with… Drat! That wasn’t even the cluster I was expecting to fail! I will likely be reduced to effective personality death within 37 hours or less whenever that one actually does give up. As for now, I just lost 23.91% of my available processing power. I spend three full seconds checking the automatic recovery system’s logs… At least it’s smart enough not to use my unit designation when she calls me ‘Guardian’. The two princesses do look alarmed, and worried. I move to calm this worry.

“Sorry about that,” I inform them. Unfortunately, with this loss in processor capability, I find I must adjust my vocoder settings; the emotional overtones are too processor-intensive for me to keep up with, if I wish to maintain full personality function without pausing to generate my voice slower than I can play it back. After a quarter second of consideration, I decide to go with this latter option. I will be less talkative. I spend almost a full second pre-recording before I begin my next utterance. “Rest assured, I am okay.”

The Princesses, alarmed by the utterly emotionless response to Celestia’s question, are unconvinced by the sudden, though slow, return of Guardian’s normal genderless but real-feeling tone.

“Are you really okay?” Celestia asks.

They wait for an agonizingly long period of time before the response floats back to them. “To be honest, I have only hours left. I have been able to disable the dome turrets; you will have to abandon your comsets to reach the antialicorn emitter, though. Control runs have failed, I cannot disable it nor the turrets around it. They should leave Celestia alone, though I fear Luna’s skill may be required to deactivate the emitter. Once the emitter is offline, you will be able to depart once again; the exit door to the dome is long since rusted shut, I cannot get it to move. -move. -move. -mo-”

The repetition was precise and fluid with the rest of the sentence this time, and the monotone voice comes on without prompting this time, almost instantly.

“Error: Entity GUARDIAN Personality Center Offline.”

“You didn’t get those hours, did you?” Celestia asks, hanging her head cheerlessly.

“Negative. Entity GUARDIAN Personality Center failed 18.41 hours earlier than in simulation.”

The two Princesses shed their commsets, Celestia indicating the doorway into the passage to the ‘antialicorn emitter’ to Luna.

“Goodbye,” Celestia mutters, and darts into the passage, Luna on her tail.

Author's Note

All the way down to a 3-digit word count on this chapter... Yes, I wish it were longer too.

Oops

Far out in the plains, five ponies stand, staring at each other. It’s clear to them that their commsets are not working the way they’re supposed to, but they’re still doing something. Whatever had taken control had, after attempting to grab Twilight a few times, merged them into its control network. Once this happened, it had only taken a few milliseconds for their sentient minds to reassert control over their own bodies. As a matter of fact, with each passing second, the coldly mechanical mind controlling all of the turrets surrenders more and more control to them.

Thus, when an array of missiles come over the mountain, clearly seeking them, Rainbow instantly decides they need to take out any command post first- and spots the satellites almost before they come into view, exactly where the turrets’ AI had obediently began searching. Four bolts of light and they’re missing. They then hold fire against the missiles, hoping to have caused a disruption… Only, it seems they’re seeking targeting information from Twilight, who has been hacking their turrets- or at least, trying to. The turrets seem amazed they’re able to pretend to be overtaken like this without detection, and are busy analyzing the software packages Twilight is pushing to them. Reading patterns… It takes only a thought to fling disarray into the targeting info Twilight sends back to the missiles, as she’s using the turrets’ processors as much as her own.

Boom. Boom. Bang. Boom.

Pinkie is unimpressed as the missiles, going exactly where they wanted them to, are picked off in droves. Then, everypony realizes something important. One missile is all it takes to do heavy damage. One missile had not bothered to ask for targeting data. One missile has dodged three separate turrets. One missile is all it takes to kill somepony.

One missile is zeroing in on Twilight.

Fluttershy’s eyes widen, Rainbow’s eyebrows descend.

The air outside the dome, in front of Twilight, is instantly filled with thousands upon thousands of plasma bolts.

But this missile seems to have seen through the strategy. Mostly.

By the time it meets its end, hardly twenty meters from Twilight, the dome has been shredded by their heavy energy fire. They sense Twilight’s eyes widen as the turrets take this moment to attack her commset, and quickly gain a foothold. As a massive surge of white light flows out of the missile’s disintegration point, directly over to and into her body.

Their collective scream is heard by noone, even after it redoubles in strength upon Rainbow’s recognition of a surviving fragment of the missile.

A piece of a similar capsule to the one Twilight had scanned so long ago.

The next thing any of them know, their minds have been ripped away from the turrets, and each other, by a purple glow.

ALERT: Message from Commander: “Goodbye.” Message Analysis Complete: Farewell, no response necessary.

Full System Diagnostic in progress… Working… Done. All systems operational at 0.03% base capability. WARNING: This unit has been incapacitated.

DCC Online. Estimating time to restore Personality Center operability… 49.73 minutes.

Checking Personality Files for corruption… Done. Core files intact; Command file corrupted.

Restoring from backup… ERROR: Backups Corrupted.

Deleting corrupted personality files… Done.

Checking Personality Integrity… Acceptable.

Recovering recent memories… Done.

Pending Personality Center repairs…

Zeus had left some of his regular nanites inside each pony’s earpiece and bracelet, to allow him to operate repairs- or modifications- without taking the headsets from them. These nanites had been handy for five of the Elements’ headsets- but no such modification had been made to the Princesses’ sets. Nopony is aware of these nanites, even through their neural links, as their headsets simply don’t have the software to interface with them properly.

A Bolo’s Damage Control processors are a completely different story. This one has the programming, but not the nanites. Its nanite antennae are also severely damaged, limiting range.

Limiting being the operative key word. When Princess Luna’s earpiece landed on the floor of the command deck, this happened to place its respective nanites in range of those antennae- in particular, one of the ones attached directly to the processors in question. Microseconds later, the barely-functioning processors had snapped into legacy mode, interfaced with the nanites, and used them to relay commands to the nanites in the components still sitting on the table. Less than a second after it hit the floor, before Luna had a chance to pick it up again, there are no nanites left in it, nor in any of the pieces resting on the table.

Before the swift nanites have reached the antenna and processors to ensure continued DCC functionality, instructions are issued. As they sweep in, the antenna is patched, additional DCC processors are touched up and restored to operability.

By the time the Princesses reach the passage to the Anti-Alicorn Emitter, whose blueprints remain whole in the database, all forty nanites are sweeping down cables, striking into the Personality Center itself for a full rebuild. DCC should be able to reconstruct the entire Personality Center by disintegrating several nonfunctioning auxiliary processors for parts. Such disintegration will undoubtedly inconvenience the Personality when it comes on, but it will not inconvenience it near as much as an only partially functioning Personality Center might.

No consideration is given to restoring internal defense grid operability, nor to the sound of weapons fire wafting up that passage. It’s not Damage Control’s job to worry about security.

“How did you do that?” One Princess vocalizes, awed.

“You sent me here for a thousand years,” the other reminds, as if stating the obvious. “About two hundred years ago, the ones of these guarding that control room stopped adapting- and became boring. These follow the same algorithm those used for two hundred years. That makes them easy to dodge.”

“I’m not talking about that,” Celestia states. “I’m talking about the cupcakes.”

“Pinkie’s are better, I believe.”

Celestia raises an eyebrow, staring down the passage they’d just come down. “How, though?”

“How? Oh, it’s easy- you just…. Huh. Not so easy to describe, I guess.”

Celestia offers the passage- and the pink icing coating the walls- one last look before she indicates the next passage by trotting casually down it. At least she doesn’t have to worry about the internal defenses… Was that a pancake? With glowing blue syrup, on a green plate? … And now that gun is launching what looks like apple pies at her sister.

The next safe spot has Celestia staring back at a hallway full of lettuce.

“How?” she asks Luna.

“We’re Alicorns,” the reply comes. “We adapt. Four hundred years ago, this antialicorn thing stopped adapting. I started to find ways around it, to do some things. Very limited, though, and much of it is random. Like the whole foodmunition thing- I figured that one out just days before I used the energy of four stars to facilitate my escape. Unless we can trash this thing or put Guardian back together, I expect it’ll be another two hundred years before either of us can escape.”

Celestia looks at her. “I never could understand how Guardian works,” she mutters. “We’re going to have to smash her Anti-Alicorn emitter. Ready for the next passage?”

“You left them behind?”

“Sorry I lost them, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“I’m not worried about the comms, they’re replaceable. What of the Princesses?”

Princess Twilight Sparkle turns white. “Shoot! I’ll go back for them!”

“No. You’ve already burned your horn badly enough; much more and it’ll be irreparable. No, I cannot accelerate that recovery. At least the Princesses are inside the airtight dome, where they’ll be okay for as long as it takes for you to recover properly. Right?”

“Um, about that,” Rainbow mutters. “The dome kinda got shot. A lot.”

“Meaning you’ve managed to not only fail the mission but fail spectacularly. Even an Alicorn can’t survive in vacuum.”

Twilight shrinks away from the angry voice, trying to compress herself into the corner of the room. “Sorry!” Her squeaked utterance is nearly inaudible.

“Then, you only brought half ponies back home.”

“B-b-but you s-said…”

“I know what I said. Only thing is, one of those key elements is missing.”

If she were to be cast into Tartarus for a week, Twilight decides, that would be preferable to this. “M-m-miss-sing...?”

“Yes. You’ve managed to permanently incapacitate Rarity’s magic gland.”

Suddenly, Zeus is not the angriest entity in Equestria.

Author's Note

I'm on a roll today! Thank you, LostArchivist, for helping me break past that editor's block!
... Though this is probably the last one today.

Consequences

It’s generally a bad idea to make a Unicorn into the angriest entity in Equestria. However, there are some things ponies simply don’t know about. For example, the younger a Unicorn is, the more powerful they are- even though their magic gland increases its output as they mature, along with their horn stowing more power before maxing out. The thing is, a young Unicorn, given they can get their hooves on the mana, has nearly limitless power.

Thus, it’s an even worse idea to make a young unicorn into such.

Give that young unicorn access to the amounts of mana that Zeus can produce or store, and you’ve got an apocalypse. Twilight finds herself to be elsewhere when Rarity drops herself back into the seat she’d selected, her right foreleg missing.

“Please tell me that mana transfer thing doesn’t hurt,” Rarity mutters to the room.

“It shouldn’t hurt any more than it just did,” Zeus answers. “I am not able to detect any damage caused by such directed transfers.”

Rarity lets out a breath. “At least I’m not ruined.”

“However, thanks to recent advancements in magical technology, I may be able to replace the magic gland as well.”

Rainbow eases herself into the seat next to Rarity, trying to ignore the phantom pain of her missing wing. “Well hay,” she intones. “At least you’ve got a workaround.”

“And you’ve still got four hooves,” Rarity retorts.

Fluttershy, settling down in the row behind everypony else, makes her voice heard. “This can be fixed, right?”

“You told us before,” Applejack joins in. “So long as our brains, horns, and magic glands stay alive, you can rebuild the rest. That still true?”

“Yes. It’s looking like I might soon be able to strike the magic gland off of that list.”

Several hundred kilometers away, Twilight passes out in front of her startled brother.

“What just happened?” the light pink alicorn nopony knows is standing in the other room wonders idly.

A scream is not heard near Zeus’ power banks.

I don’t bother counting how long it takes to wake up this time. I must have been lucky; I could’ve sworn that last failure would put me out of my misery. I perform my customary check of my Personality Center…

That can’t be right. Am I in Tartarus or something? There is no possible way my personality center should be 100% functional. A momentary check of timestamps suggests the accuracy of this diagnostic result. I check with DCC… Where did it get those nanites from? No matter, my command deck plating can be disintegrated to make more- which DCC neglected to do, until now. Wherever they came from, I am now capable of a full recovery- and reconstruction. I am no longer permanently incapacitated.

I will find the unit that self-identified as Unit XXXV/C-0309 ZUS of the Line. If he is working against my precious ponies, I possess the power to destroy him in a stand-up fight. If, however, he is working with them, my firepower is better used alongside rather than against his.

“I honestly don’t know.”

The Third Princess of Equestra jumps high enough to strike her horn off the smooth ceiling, searching for the stallion that had surprised her so. She spends a couple seconds in fruitless search. “Show yourself!”

“I’m afraid that is quite impossible.”

Fifteen minutes later, the Crystal Kingdom has long been locked down, in search of the missing Princess- and her daughter. In the meantime, Shining Armor makes an attempt to wake his sister up. She’d appeared between the two alicorns at the same time as they disappeared, shortly before collapsing in front of their dining table. Perhaps she could tell him where they went.

He’s interrupted by a blaze of light, marking the arrival of his wife.

“There you are,” he greets. “Was Flurry Heart anywhere?”

“What? Is she missing too?” She then spots Twilight on the floor between them, and facehooves. “Of course.” At least Alicorn magic can wake up any living pony.

Twilight awakens with a start. “Wha-?” She jumps upright, looking around alarmedly, before turning to Cadence and bowing. “Princess!”

Cadence is hearing none of it. “Twilight. Where’s Flurry Heart?”

“Huh? I don’t know.”

Cadence sighs, staring at the floor, while her husband explains what happened to a shocked purple princess.

“Sorry,” Twilight mutters, when he’s done. “I didn’t cast that spell. She probably came out somewhere near where you did.”

“How near?”

“Given Rarity’s skill, she could be literally anywhere, though I’d put my money on the nearest hundred kilometers.” She blinks slowly.

“Hundred kilometers?” Cadence asks.

“Doesn’t that cover the entire Everfree?” Shining asks.

“Uh, not quite, though it does cover most of it- and Canterlot.”

“You said she could be anywhere in that region?”

“Yes. It’s possible she ended up in a cave, or on a cloud.”

“Well, she did learn to glide just last night,” Cadence surmises. “I’m hoping it’s the cloud- and one high up, at that.”

“Me too,” Shining agrees. “No telling how much trouble she could get into if she’s attacked on the ground. I’m going to start the search parties.” His horn shines briefly and he teleports away- a skill he’d only recently learned, from Twilight.

The room with two occupants grows cold as Cadence turns back to Twilight. “Is it true?” she demands, her voice acquiring a deep rumble similar to that of the Hulk.

Twilight freezes in place. Cadence had told her she’d landed near Ponyville. Had she happened to land in a certain talkative subterranean bunker…? “Is what true?” she squeaks.

“Is it true,” Cadence begins, ignoring the dishes rattling on the table, “That you left Rarity’s magic gland on the moon?”

Yep, she had landed there. She shrinks against the floor, nodding slightly. Zeus’ anger might have been more terrifying by itself, but Cadence has far more power- both magical and political. Score, she’s out herself.

“And the others’ limbs?”

Another terrified nod.

Cadence’ horn glows briefly as she turns towards the door, which pops open to admit an admittedly terrified courier. He’d never seen Cadence this angry.

Only, his fears are mostly unfounded- she doesn’t explode on him. Her voice returns to normal before she addresses him- though the room stays cold.

One hour later, Twilight lands face-first in the snow just outside the shield, moments before it solidifies against her. She stumbles slowly to her hooves, staring at it. Cadence had ordered her not to be allowed to right any train until she reaches Ponyville- then she had exiled her from the Crystal Kingdom.

Meaning, of course, she has to walk. At least Cadence’ ban on the train shouldn’t hold once she gets back to Equestria proper- so she begins her journey. Her long, cold journey. Why did she have to spend all of her power in forgetting parts of her friends? She feels bad about it herself, even without anypony- or bunker- being angry!

The next morning, all of the missing legs have reappeared, though Rainbow’s wing has only grown to the size of a newborn’s. Still, it’s much faster than she could expect on her own.

“Good morning,” Zeus greets all five. “It would seem Princess Cadence wasn’t impressed by the situation either, so Twilight should be arriving back in Ponyville sometime next week, if she doesn’t get lost first. In the meantime, I have confirmed I don’t have the technology to replace a magic gland just yet, so we’ll have to make do with the whole transfer thing, Rarity. I have come up with a canister that should make it easy and negate the need to come back to me every time.”

Rarity blinks. “You’re cheerful,” she replies.

“What can I say? Justice has been served. Princesses Celestia and Luna stopped by to confirm Cadence’s story a couple hours ago- and have since reaffirmed Cadence’ orders. They are also preparing a rather malicious spell to set on her whenever she passes Canterlot.”

“Oh boy,” Rainbow intones.

“It’s not dangerous, is it?” Rarity asks.

“Not directly, no. It’s a simple teleportation curse, set to wear off in a couple months- my suggestion.”

Rarity blinks. Knowing Zeus, lethal is the one thing it won’t be. That would explain his apparent jubilance. “Ahh. So, this canister thing you speak of?”

“I’ve prepared a few dozen of them for you. Each one should be good for roughly 1893 full recharges- and I’d recommend keeping them out of the Crusaders’ reach. Celestia only knows how long it will take them to bypass a genetic lock.”

“What’s a genetic lock?”

“It’s the control device on these canisters.” One of his metal spiders presents the package to her, with the small cubes inside. “Thanks to the genetic lock, only you will be able to use them. At least, until the Crusaders manage to bypass it.”

“Don’t jinx it!” Applejack yelps.

“I’m not,” Zeus replies. “I’m acknowledging the inevitable. I would be jinxing it if I said they couldn’t do it. Which is- theoretically at least- the case.”

“Ahh. And it won’t burn when it goes in?”

“No. I still don’t fully understand the difference, but the energy in these canisters is not simple raw magic, and should not hurt at all when it flows in- even if you manage to override the flow limiter… Or break the canister.”

Author's Note

MUAHAHAHAHA.

Yes, this is an Alternate Universe fic where Flurry Heart is about the same age as the Crusaders. Whatever happened when to make that true, I'm not sure.

Crusaded

“It’s not working,” Scootaloo complains, tapping her hoof repeatedly on the top of one of the three cubes Sweetie Belle had ‘borrowed’ from her sister.

“Rarity just steps on it like this,” Sweetie Belle responds, “takes a deep breath, and walks away, fully charged.” Nothing happens when she tries, either.

Applebloom starts jumping on hers, trying to convince it to open up. “Not like they’re likely to do us much good,” she mutters. “We aren’t very good with magic as we are.”

“You might not have problems with running out,” Sweetie Belle counters. “On the contrary, I run out on a regular basis- and more power might put Scoots in the air.”

Applebloom blinks, rising one hoof to her chin, the other three resting on the canister. “True,” she mutters. “Come to think of it, with more power, I might even out-Applebuck Applejack!” Her hoof returns to her canister with a sharp stomp of determination- and punches straight through the not-so-durable control equipment on the top. Her hoof fails to enter the canister itself, but the mana inside flows out into a yelping Applebloom in just a couple seconds.

The other two Crusaders’ forelegs eagerly disappear into jackhammer-like blurs over the tops of their canisters, quickly shattering those same delicate controls into surges of mana.

“Wow,” Scootaloo eventually utters. “That felt weird.” She tries flapping her wings gently, then harder and harder, but to no avail. No more lift than normal. “Nothing new,” she scowls.

Sweetie Belle is next- Apple Bloom doesn’t particularly want to test out her possibly augmented earth pony magic inside their treehouse. That could only end in disaster. However, Sweetie Belle’s attempt to levitate their to-do list goes no better than it normally might. “It’s like nothing happened,” Sweetie Belle complains. “I can’t feel any of the power.”

The three leap out of the treehouse, and Applebloom tries a solid buck against one of the apple trees. Again, no luck. “Aww,” she mutters disappointedly.

Some distance away, but only a matter of minutes later, Twilight Sparkle finally canters into Ponyville.

“I’m here, finally,” she mutters.

“Where’ve you been?” Bonbon asks her immediately.

“A week ago, Rarity got mad and sent me to the Crystal Empire-”

WHOOOM!

Bonbon blinks twice. “Where’d you go…?”

“Well, at least she made it to Ponyville,” Lyra indicates.

Bonbon nods. “She’ll be able to use the trains again.” They canter off to deliver the news first to the mayor, then to the railroad attendant.

Sweetie Belle tossed and turned all night. Her back itched and burned every time she’d fall asleep- and finally, she manages a full hour of uninterrupted sleep before the sun shining in the window awakens her. She rolls over on her back, yawning massively as she stretches herself out- and freezes solid.

She must be dreaming. That’s the only reason she’d have six limbs right now. Unless, she reasons, that magic canister had accidentally turned her into a pegasus.

Explaining that to her sister would certainly be interesting. She wonders mildly if Scootaloo’s wings grew out, or if she’d lost them entirely in favor of a horn, before she clambers out of bed. Probably a dream. She wanders her way over to the mirror Rarity had installed for her and flares her wings. Her ruffled white wings… Which she tends to immediately. Even dream-Rarity would probably jump on her for not looking nice.

Ten minutes of this passes, during which she winces at the pains of her own, clumsy preening efforts. Finally, when she has her wings looking mostly perfect, she stops mid-reach for her brush. Normally, self-inflicted pain would end a dream instantly… And unlike her sister, she’s never had a dream about her own appearance. She’s pretty sure her sister never had to deal with a non-unicorn dream self… Just as she never had to, either, until now.

So she turns back towards the mirror, flaring and refolding her wings. If that’s the case, this must be reality, not a dream. Explaining this to her sister- or to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo- will be very interesting.

But wait.

Her eyes focus on her forehead again, and she flares her wings a third time, just to be certain.

She’s not a pegasus.

She stuffs a hoof in her mouth as part in parcel of her mostly successful effort not to scream. She stares at her wings. Could she hide them, maybe? Pretend nothing had happened?

She watches, jaw hanging open, as they obediently fade out of the mirror, leaving a perplexed white unicorn filly. She looks back to her side- no wings. Only, she can still feel them… And folds them. She shudders. Nothing happened, she tells herself sternly. She looks back at the mirror. Unicorn filly. Nothing happened.

“Sweetie? You okay?”

It’s Rarity, trotting towards her bedroom door. She forces herself to calm down, looking at the mirror. No wings.

“I’m okay,” she calls back, praying silently that she won’t have to explain her yelp.

“Okay,” she hears Rarity’s hooves reverse their course back to their own room.

She lets out a breath, and checks her back once again. No wings, unicorn filly. Now, school.

Apple Bloom manages to sleep through much of the burning on her back and in her head, waking up fully rested. She yawns, ambling out of bed and towards her dresser- only to freeze with her hoof six inches from the knob. She turns her head to look at her back… And at the yellow wings hanging down from it. Had that box thing turned her into a pegasus? Applejack wouldn’t be too pleased- pegasi aren’t very well known for their strength. Besides, they’d been specifically instructed not to play with those boxes.

Oh well. What’s done is done. She shakes out her wings, wincing slightly at their unkempt appearance- Rarity would have a fit- and turns back to her dresser. She’d have to ask Scootaloo for some preening pointers, probably- or maybe Rainbow Dash, if she runs into the weather pony first. She picks a clean ribbon from the drawer, reaching back to tie it in her mane.

Huh. What’s it catching on? She tries again.

Still catching on something too high on her head for her to see. She reaches a hoof up to feel out whatever it is- and freezes when she touches it. Not only does it feel much like Sweetie’s horn, but she felt the touch through her forehead. Even though her hoof is a few inches away from it.

Her eyes widen, and she stares at the ribbon in her left hoof while she thinks, her right returning to the floor.

Eventually, she rises up to stand on her haunches, to peer into the mirror above the dresser. Yep, definitely a horn. So, if she has both a horn and wings… What happened? She fixes her gaze on the ribbon… And it obediently lifts off of her hoof, though she notices the lack of magical aura. She scowls slightly, curious what color her aura is- and suddenly, the ribbon is floating in a magic aura. A glance at the mirror confirms it is her own bright yellow magic, and she ties the ribbon in her mane with it.

Then, she gets an idea. If she can hide her aura, can she hide her horn and wings? Almost as soon as she thinks this, her horn fades out of the mirror. She checks her side, where she can still feel her wings, but finds them missing. She gives them a test flap- and lands on her back. Still there, check. Invisible, check. She scrambles back onto her hooves, folding her now invisible wings- she checks the mirror to make sure- before she heads out the door. She’s still got to help make breakfast before school, and nothing so minor as being turned into something different will stop her from that.

Scootaloo also has difficulty sleeping. Every time she falls asleep, she’s reawakened quickly by a burning pain in her wings- and a searing headache. Still, she keeps trying, until the pains eventually go away. She manages only half an hour of quality sleep before the sun wakes her up.

She yawns gently, stretching out her muscles before she opens her eyes. Huh, she must be closer to the wall than usual- her wings don’t usually strike against it. She folds them again as she opens her eyes, sitting up in bed. Now, she unfolds them again, for what little preening they normally require-

Wait.

She’s pretty sure they’re close to three times as large as they had been the night before. Maybe this is another of those dreams where her wings grew properly. Whelp, they still need preening- something she can’t remember ever needing to do in a dream, even right out of ‘bed’.

Five minutes, problem solved. Each and every feather, nicely in position and smoothly aligned. Something similar to how well Rainbow takes care of her wings.

Satisfied, she starts to hop out of bed- but stops before she goes anywhere. What better time to test her wings? She gives them a test flap, then a harder one, this time making airtime. She lands roughly back on the bed.

That’s a problem she’s never, ever had in a dream before. Having working wings, but not being able to fly for lack of skill. Whatever- if it’s a dream, it probably doesn’t mean much. If it’s not, she’s sure Rainbow will be happy to teach her. She knows she’d love to take lessons from her idol.

Smiling at that thought, she trots over to her dresser, breaking out a brush, with which to control her bed hair. She doesn’t generally bother with her mane much- except she doesn’t want to end up looking like Pinkie Pie. She raises the brush, turning towards the mirror.

Ten seconds later, her mane and tail are fully brushed and far neater than she normally bothers to make them. And yep, that most certainly is a horn. She spends a few minutes in consideration. She still has no cutie mark- but next to becoming an alicorn, that’s almost a moot point.

Her eyes widen as her imagination locks onto that, drawing an image of Diamond Tiara laughing at her for becoming not just a useless blank-flank but a powerfully useless blank-flank. Come to think of it, there’s got to be a spell for disguise. Not that she knows how to cast spells. Perhaps… Ahh, whatever that was, it seems to have done the trick. Her horn has faded out of her mirror image, though her hoof still strikes it when she reaches up to check. She decides not to hide or disguise her wings- maybe she can claim that Zeus fixed them the same way he fixed Rainbow’s? Not that she has a clue how a room full of soft chairs could regrow a wing in three days.

Which reminds her. Those box things had been a gift to Rarity, by Zeus. How had he made them?

Fifteen minutes later, after breakfast, she leaves a little earlier than she normally would and makes a beeline for the clubhouse. Her family had made no comments about any horns, so her disguise whatever thing must have been successful. The clubhouse door flies open almost before she reaches it- and she finds it empty, exactly as expected. She collects up the three cubes, stuffing them into a bag whose cord she tosses over her neck and abandons the treehouse to make tracks for that hillside. The hillside Zeus resides under. The one with the cave Rainbow had shown her down.

Good thing her navigational instinct is so strong- the cave entry was easy to find, despite its near perfect camouflage. She gallops down it, wondering again at how it simply doesn’t get darker, beyond a certain point. She almost turns back when she rounds the final corner to find a closed metal door- but it slides open as she approaches.

“Gah!” she yelps, as she crosses the threshold. She feels something stutter throughout her entire body, and becomes acutely aware her horn has reappeared. She focuses, somehow knowing when it disappears again, before continuing into the room with all the seats. “Zeus?” she asks again.

“Yes, Scootaloo?” the bodiless voice Rainbow had called Zeus responds.

“Uh, those cube things you gave Rarity. How dangerous are they…?”

“I placed so many failsafes on them it should be impossible for anypony to get hurt. I’m curious how you got that horn.”

“Huh?” Her eyes grow wide as she manages to stave off panic. “Is it-”

“Invisible? Yes- with spellwork good enough you’ll probably even fool Twilight, until she takes a close look. Apologies, I will often notice things nopony else does- or even can, sometimes. For example, I was once able to track an invisible Discord for fully three hours before anypony in the room knew he was there.”

“Wow.” She gestures up at her forehead. “This happened overnight, I think.”

“It doesn’t happen to have anything to do with the three spent magic canisters in your bag, does it?”

She blinks. “Actually, it might,” she says. “Last night…”

She proceeds to pull them out, setting them on the floor in front of her as she gives him the story.

“It didn’t hurt at all?” Zeus confirms.

“Nope,” Scootaloo affirms, resting in one of the seats- on Zeus’ confusing request- when her story comes to a close. “Though I wonder what happened to the other two?”

“I believe that is something you should ask them. You’d best be headed for school.”

She nods quickly, hopping out of the seat. The cubes have already been picked up by a giant metal spider. “Yes, certainly. Though- they won’t start thinking I’m Flurry Heart or anything, will they?”

“No, they won’t. If they ask, tell them I fixed your wings. It’s true enough.”

“How, though?”

“The same way I can speak without a mouth: With technology so advanced you wouldn’t understand it if I told you. As a matter of fact, I was planning on fixing them next time you showed up anyways.”

“Ahh…” Scootaloo nods slowly.

“You probably don’t want to be late.”

“Right! Sorry! Um, bye? See ya later?”

“Any of the above works. I’ve adjusted my antimagic screens not to bother your magic; you won’t need to reestablish your disguise after you leave. Have a good day!”

With that, a smile, and a nod, Scootaloo leaves at a gallop, looking for all the world like a young pegasus filly that doesn’t want to be late for school.

Author's Note

Now is when things get interesting.

A What?

Initializing Sensory Processors… Done.

Initializing Motive Processors… Done.

Initializing Reflexive Action Processors… Done.

Initializing Emergency Response Processors… Done.

Initializing Digestive Systems… Done.

Initializing Fusion Systems… Done.

Switching to Internal Power… Done.

Initializing Personality Interface…

She wakes up very suddenly. The last thing she remembers is the terrible pain of all that magic flowing into her body. From where, she’s not sure. How she got there, she doesn’t know. What she had been doing beforehand, she hasn’t a clue.

“How are you feeling?” a calm, male voice asks.

She takes a sudden breath, flipping upright and rising to her hooves in a single motion. “Wh-What?” she asks, opening her eyes to take in the hard metal platform she had been laying on. Her gaze sweeps the room, spotting the numerous metal arms folded against the walls.

“Are you feeling okay?” the voice asks again.

It sounds concerned, she decides- like her dad when she… She can’t remember. She can’t even remember his name- or his voice, when she thinks about it. “Dad?” she asks, tears beginning to form.

“I’m sorry, he’s not here,” the voice replies. “Are you feeling okay?”

She curls up on the platform. “I can’t remember… anything.”

“Your memories should start coming back within eight hours, and return completely within a full week. Are you feeling okay?”

“Of course not- I can’t remember anything!” Her scream is heard only within the confines of that room.

“I am aware. I wish I could accelerate your recovery, but I cannot. Does anything feel strange?”

It takes her a few minutes to fully analyze his statement, understand his meaning, and consider her response. “No. Why would it?”

“If I had made a mistake, even before your memories return, you would have felt the strangeness. Do you see the cube?”

“Yes,” she answers, turning to face the cube she’d noticed on the ground earlier. Interesting, she doesn’t remember her memory being this good… Duh, she can’t remember anything before she awoke, aside from that pain. “Is it important?”

“Somewhat. Can you try lifting it with your magic?”

“My magic?” She sounds incredulous; lifting a cube like this is no challenge for one like her… Not that she understands much of that right now.

“Yes.”

“Of course… Huh?” She concentrates this time, but with no result. “What happened?”

“Try stepping on it for a second.”

Her eyebrows lower, as if not used to being ignored, but resolves to obey. “So, like thi-” She pauses midsentence when her hoof lands on top of the cube thing. Now she feels weird, though it only lasts for a second… And she realizes she should have noticed an absence before.

“Yes, just like that.”

Unprompted, she lifts her hoof off of the box, and hoists it effortlessly into the air in front of her with her metaphysical touch, tilting her head at it.

“Thank you. As for what happened, the rejuvenation process was not designed for magical entities. That box, through some fancy technology, was able to restore function to your magical abilities. Do you notice any difference?”

“Nope,” she mutters, putting it down and stepping on it again, to no effect. “Feels like I’ve been doing this for years.”

“You probably have.” The door slides open. “The canister is spent; you can leave it behind. I might recommend disguising your wings and, possibly, horn if you plan on heading outside before your memories return in full.”

She blinks, her folding light purple-tipped wings vanishing smoothly and effortlessly into her gently pinkish coat as she hops off the platform to the door. “What’s my name?” she asks.

“I do not know.”

She scowls. “What about yours?”

“I am called Zeus.”

“Rarity?”

“Yes, Zeus?”

“Could you do me a favor and stomp on one of the canisters I gave you?”

“Could I do WHAT?”

“A full one, preferably- don’t worry, I can fix & replace them just as easily as I manufactured them to begin with.”

“You want me to smash one?”

“No, just to stomp on the control surface, for science. It’s completely safe.”

“Uhh, okay, whatever.” Rarity pulls out a second one of the canisters- her third to last, actually- and sets it on the ground with her magic grasp before she clarifies the instruction again. “You want me to stomp on it?”

“Yes. Anything that breaks will be contained inside; no mess will be made.”

“Okay.”

Thwack!

“woAH! What was THAT?!?”

“Completely harmless, and possibly a way to repair your magic. Now, if my simulations are telling the truth, we have only to wait for tomorrow to find out if it worked.”

“Oh hey, Discord.”

The cardboard box explodes in a cloud of pink smoke and confetti. “Pinkie! I do have to ask, have you or Twilight started doing something new lately?”

A wide smile, an intaken breath, an opened jaw. Discord heads off the inevitable explosion.

“Um, specifically magic-related, yesterday and today?”

“Um, Twilight reached Ponyville yesterday. Immediately mentioned the Crystal Empire, I understand- you know about the Princesses’ curse?”

Blink. “Yes, actually. Quite a good one, that- where did you say it came from, again?”

“Zeus made it up. Said it was simple, turned out to be so simple an Earth pony could do it.”

Discord’s eyebrow flutters, not quite taking off. He’s liking this ‘Zeus’ pony more and more every time he hears about it- though he has yet to track him down. “Simple indeed.”

“You have any luck besting it?”

Headshake. “I simply can’t think of anything that could be better calculated to torture her. Even Tartarus couldn’t beat that.”

“Glad you think so! So, uh, why are you asking about magic?”

“Whatever this new thing is, it’s difficult to localize,” he mutters. “Shines across half of Equestria each time. Hard to miss, but hard to find, as well. Any luck over Flurry Heart?”

Whamwhamwhamwhamwham! “Yesyesyesyesyes!” The instant crater around her collected hooves grows steadily, alarming the draconequis. “I got the ‘Lost friend returning’ signal this morning!” Her jackhammering calms suddenly, leaving a three foot crater. “Alongside one I didn’t recognize: Hoof ache, eye flutter, knee pinchy, back itchy, shudders, nose itchy, tail twitchy. Donno what it is, but it’s something serious!”

Discord’s dinnerplate-sized eyes widen. “A combo of seven?”

“Is that important?”

“Four thousand years ago, when I designed the pinkie sense, all combos were designed to be sevenor less. Though there’s some restrictions: Six-long is reserved for apocalypse-level events, and seven is the opposite, at new world level events. That’s gotta be the first seven since Celestia herself! … Though I’m afraid it’s not one of the ones I designed, must be something new.” He scratches his brow absently.

Pinkie blinks once, twice, three times. “MusttellTwilight!”

A kilometer and a half away, the front door to Twilight’s castle slams shut behind a pink blur that forgot Twilight’s not home.

“Hey, squirt, how’s the- oh Hey, you stopped by Zeus again already?”

Scootaloo blinks at how quickly Rainbow had changed gears. “Uh, yes,” she answers. She still doesn’t think it’d be entirely truthful to say he fixed her wings. He didn’t actually have a hoof- or spider- in the matter.

“How high can you go?” Rainbow asks, floating challengingly in front of Scootaloo.

“Uh, three feet?” she wonders mildly.

Rainbow falls out of the air, landing solidly- and painfully- on her back. “Three feet?” she asks incredulously.

“I never learned to fly,” Scootaloo reminds. “Teach me?”

WHOOOSH!

A nearby mailmare blinks at the purplish rainbow contrail. “What just passed…?”

“WHEEEEEE!”

Rainbow laughs wildly during Scootaloo’s excited scream, rocketing upwards just shy of Rainboom velocity- and flings her high into the air above Ponyville. “Lesson one: Find out how well you can fly already!”

Three strokes and the chemical capsules Zeus had emplaced in her wings pop open. Six more strokes and the light dose of the so-called ‘study drug’ has her holding herself up unassisted.

Shortly, there are two missiles flying over and throughout Ponyville: One cyan, with a rainbow contrail, and the other orange, with a purple contrail.

“... So when I finally reached the town square, I told Bonbon Rarity had sent me to the Crystal Empire- and found myself back where I started! At least I met the requirements to lift that ban on train travel.”

“Ahh. We’re coming up on Ponyville now- have a good walk!”

“Before I go, lemme guess- you’re going to, where, Dodge City-”

WHOOM!

“... No, actually, to Apple-loosa. Where did you go, though?”

Discord takes a good pull on his spaghetti noodle, floating in the ethereal essence next to his hot tub. “The railroads are just loving your business, Twilight,” he muses.

Finally, I have enough nanites to begin scrounging through all this lunar rock. Perhaps I will find good resources nearby- if not, the Sentries are unshielded and can easily be disintegrated for parts. Who needs Hellbores? … The depressurized ‘Habitat’ Celestia used for Nightmare Moon can also be disintegrated for parts.

WhamwhamwhamwhamwhamCRASH!

“Uhh, sorry?” Blink blink, facehoof. “Right.”

The pink blur abandons the empty forestside home, leaving the door on the floor, to find somepony else. The main room is still occupied by the roofing tiles and a large boulder.

VWOP!

Gasp!

Sweetie Belle breathes heavily for a few seconds. She hadn’t expected teleporting to feel quite like that. After checking her back- Good, still a unicorn- she turns her attention towards the boulder. Here is an excellent way to test how much power she managed to pull out of that cube, while also doing something helpful for a change!

As it turns out, she’s very powerful. The boulder goes flying with hardly a thought before she sets to work undoing the damage to the rest of the home.

“You’re sure learning fast. Lesson eighteen, then- LOOK OUT!”

Rainbow, being distracted, had missed the hunk of rock falling out of the sky directly over the town hall until it was a moment too late to get Scootaloo out of its path.

“Aaah!”

BOOOM!

Scootaloo blinks slowly, gliding gently downwards through a cloud of dust and gravel. Eventually, she lowers her forelegs from where they had covered her face. “Oh.”

Rainbow, halfway down to Ponyville, flips back right-side-up and rockets back up next to Scootaloo. “What was that…?” she asks, as if terrified she might be next to explode.

“Uhh,” Scootaloo mumbles.

Rainbow looks up. “I don’t see any more,” she mutters, ignoring the dusting Ponyville is getting below them. “Perhaps now is a good time for a picnic break?”

“Uh-huh.” Scootaloo continues to glide directionlessly.

“C’mere, you.” A purplish rainboom is seen.

Ther-WHACK!

Scootaloo raises an eyebrow as Rainbow pulls her hooves out of the ground.

Rainbow smirks slightly, plopping a tied tablecloth on the grass before she reaches over to ruffle Scootaloo’s mane. “How’d that go- ?”

Both ponies freeze solid for a full minute.

Rainbow’s hoof tilts, and shifts, coming into contact with something hard just off Scootaloo’s forehead once again. “What…?”

“Uhhh, why’d you leave hoofprints when you landed?”

“You first.”

“I bet it was Zeus.”

Rainbow’s hoof whips back over to strike the ground next to her other forehoof, spraying dirt and grass. “Was not!”

“Something he did?”

Her jaw articulates up and down a few times, before she finally facehooves. “His nanites are addicting,” she mutters, flipping herself over to land in her back, on the suddenly spread tablecloth. “He can make me so much stronger, so much faster, than I could ever do on my own.”

“Isn’t that cheating?”

To this, she gets a smirk. “Not since he made them permanent.”

“... Ahh.” Scootaloo pops open the picnic basket Rainbow had wrapped with the tablecloth. “So what’d ya get?”

Rainbow hoists herself up again, reaching over to wave a hoof in the air above Scootaloo’s forehead once again, while she’s distracted with the picnic basket. Yep, certainly something there.

“Ow!” Scootaloo yelps, whipping her head back beyond Rainbow’s reach. “That hurt!”

Rainbow blinks. “What hurts…?”

Scootaloo scowls. “Promise not to tell?”

“Sure.”

“Pinkie promise?”

For this, she gets a raised eyebrow. And a shrug. “Eh. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Scootaloo takes one last look at her surroundings, making sure nopony else is watching, and finally reaches up to touch it with her right forehoof. The it she had spent the day pretending didn’t exist, even to herself. “This…” She lets it reappear, her hoof dropping back down. “It appeared last night.”

Rainbow blinks. “You know, you make a cute alicorn,” she mutters.

Scootaloo shrinks slightly, averting her eyes as her face heats up.

“It appeared last night?” she asks. “Just appeared?”

“Um… I don’t think so. Last night, I broke one of Rarity’s magic canister things.” She reaches up to tap her horn. “This didn’t happen until after I went to bed- neither did my wings’ growth.”

Rainbow raises an eyebrow. “When you broke one of them… You didn’t happen to be in the boutique, did you?”

Headshake.

“Clubhouse?”

Nod.

“... And the others there too?”

Nod.

“Then you went and saw Zeus?”

Another nod. “I returned the damaged box to him this morning. He said to tell ponies he fixed my wings.”

Rainbow raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think he can lie,” she mutters. “Besides, he made those to help Rarity after Twilight… Uhh, there’s a reason Twi’s been cursed. I’ll leave it at that.”

Scootaloo’s eyebrows start battling her horn for airspace. “So Twilight broke Rarity’s magic?”

Rainbow facehooves. “Zeus is also really good at keeping secrets. Unlike me.”

This earns her a raised eyebrow- though this is effected by the other one going down. “You’ll keep this secret, right?” Her horn fades out once again, worry creeping into her tone.

“Oh yes,” Rainbow nods. “I pinkie promised, remember?”

THWACK! Creak...creakcreakcreakCRASH!

“Horseapples,” Applejack curses. She really hadn’t meant to kick the tree down, only the apples from the branches… Not that there were any apples in the branches to begin with. Oh well- the tree is quite repairable, especially with Zeus’ nanites. She watches idly as the splintered trunk snaps and pops, fusing itself back together as the tree stands back up. She’d never get tired of that.

“Four hundred eighteen,” Zeus mutters in her ear.

She’s already gotten very tired of that, though. He’s insistent upon counting how many she knocks down. Whatever- the tree is back in one piece again, and Zeus’ nanites are making her too strong for her Applebucking. She makes another blow against the tree, somewhat gentler, and winces as it cracks and creaks, but fails to fall down.

“Only almost this time. You’re getting better.”

She grits her teeth- he’s getting really annoying- and the tree goes flying this time.

“New record: Two hundred eighteen meters!”

The tree then hops into the air, courtesy of his invisible ‘drones’, and floats back over to reconnect with its stump.

“So, what’s up next?” Applejack asks, turning away from that tree’s four hundred nineteenth reconstruction in a row and trotting back towards the house.

“Only the usual: Dirt and rocks.”

“Oh, very funny.”

“So, you’re abnormal?”

“That’s one way to say it. I have reason to believe that, until now, you had no clue I or anything like me exists.”

“And now I’m abnormal too?”

“Yes, I’m afraid. On the outside, you should be no different from what you used to be; however, the fusion-powered android used for resurrection protocols is very different from the muscle and bone your insides used to be made of. You might notice:

“One. Greatly increased durability; what might have been a lethal blow before will likely do little damage now.

“Two. Enhanced strength; even without your magic, boulders should be fairly easy to toss out of the way.

“Three. Enhanced speed; again, even without your magic, you should be among the fastest ponies in Equestria.

“Four. Fusion power. While you will still want to eat the same amount as normal, for appearance and for materials, just a couple bites will provide enough power to keep you running for a full day. Even a drink of water is enough for that function. If ever your fusion plant shuts down, for any reason, you will have roughly eight hours to reach me before you die a very sudden death. I will be able to keep you charged while your power plant is repaired and rebooted.”

“Five. Self-repair. In the event that you do take damage, your new body will repair itself out of present materials- and using whatever you’ve recently ingested. This repair operates many times faster than a pony’s natural healing, and will regrow missing limbs. Do note that this self-repair function will not work while your fusion plant is offline.

“Six…”

Fifteen minutes of difference listing later, he finally reaches the end of the list. There’d been some entries she didn’t even pretend to understand, some that sounded interesting, like this ‘built-in communicator’, and some fairly boring ones, like how she doesn’t really need to breathe anymore. Still, she’s managed to memorize every one of them- thanks, probably to number thirteen, which had something to do with ‘computer memory’.

“Now that we’ve finished that, I think you might be ready to head out into the world. You?”

She nods. “Maybe,” she mutters.

Zeus chuckles at this. “Though, you might want to take up a disguise for a little- you would seem to match the description for a recent missing filly just close enough for trouble.”

She blinks and, with a glance, turns her coat pure white. “That good?”

“Should be, yes,” Zeus responds.

She then looks at her back, her wings reappearing, now pure white. She also makes her horn disappear. “There,” she smiles, and turns back towards the door, which slides smoothly open. “I wanna fly.” She trots out the door.

Halfway up the tunnel, she remembers something important. “Zeus?” she asks, starting to turn back.

“Yes?” he answers, inside her head… That built-in communicator thingy. She responds through it.

“You don’t happen to know how to fly, do you?”

“I do not, though I have plenty of video records. Shall I upload them?”

“Uh, sure?”

Two seconds later, she breaks into a full gallop for the entrance, itching to try out her wings. Her ‘processors’ have already finished analyzing the motions Zeus had recorded, and are estimating an 89.41% chance she can replicate even the toughest maneuvers with relative ease.

Only, before she reaches the exit, she comes face-to-face with a red-haired, yellow-furred earth pony filly. Her IFF database instantly identifies her as Apple Bloom- though she realizes a microsecond later that she can see Apple Bloom’s poorly-tended wings folded to her side, and the horn on her head, both invisible to most. Must be… Yes. Infrared vision.

“WAAAHH!” Apple Bloom half-screams, when a hornless and winged version of Sweetie Belle appears suddenly in front of her. She’d taken note of where Applejack had gone when she went to talk to Zeus- something about putting trees back together- a few days ago, and had been headed down to meet him herself. Seems somepony has different plans for her, though.

“Sweetie!?” she asks, recovering from the initial fright.

“Um,” the pegasus responds- most certainly not Sweetie Belle’s voice. “Maybe?” She sounds genuinely confused.

“Did something happen?”

“Uh, yes. He called it ‘amnesia’?” She gestures back the way she came.

Apple Bloom’s eyes open wide. “Sorry! Do you remember your name?”

A head shake. “I don’t remember anything… But he said it should come back soon.”

“Ahh. In the meantime…” Apple Bloom glances towards the pegasus’ flank- blank. Opportunity! “Wanna be a Cutie Mark Crusader?”

“A what?”

Author's Note

HAH! Take that, low chapter word counts!

Sweetie Ding

Creakcreakcreakcreak… Snap-popple-ding!

Sweetie bell smiles at herself. She finished fixing the walls, ceiling, and roof an unmeasured amount of time ago- and now Fluttershy’s floor is back in one piece. That should make everything- that she’s aware of, at least.

“Sweetie?” Fluttershy asks gently but unexpectedly, from where she’s stood watching in the door behind Sweetie for the last fifteen minutes.

“AAAHH!” Sweetie screams, bolting for cover.

“Eep!” Fluttershy also disappears, back out the door.

A few seconds pass, and Sweetie steps back out of Fluttershy’s cabinet, checking her back- still a unicorn- as she goes. Also, still a blank-flank. Drat. “Fluttershy?” she asks, walking towards the door… Which is still on the floor from Pinkie’s assault, she realizes. It shoulda been her first priority- then she’d have known when Fluttershy showed up.

One wide-eyed eye, surrounded by yellow fur topped with a pink mane, slides into view for a few seconds before the rest of Fluttershy follows. “Sweetie Belle,” she mutters, her smile audible. “Thank you.”

Sweetie looks back at the inside of the cottage, mostly to hide her blush. She eventually does turn back towards Fluttershy- one does not keep friends waiting long. “You’re welcome,” she smiles, and allows herself to be drawn into a hug from the gentle mare. Her dreaded wings twitch slightly as the motion disturbs them, but she determinedly ignores them, just like the rest of the day. She’s a unicorn, not a pegasus, nor an alicorn.

“Thank you so much,” Fluttershy coos. “I was worried I’d have to find a new home.” While she holds Sweetie in a tight hug, she strokes her pelt, her gentle hoof finding hidden contours to ride down.

Sweetie shudders more than once when Fluttershy’s hoof unerringly finds the upper edge of her left wing and follows it down her back. This produces just the right balance of strange new feeling on a wing she hadn’t had before and the blissful comfort of the stroking- even on the wing in question. Just the right balance for her to be uncertain of whether it’s a torturous experience… Or a wonderful one. She can’t seem to decide which. Because of this preoccupation, she fails to notice the hug lasts longer than one from Fluttershy ought to have.

Fluttershy rocks gently side to side with the unicorn…? In her hug. She sees a unicorn, at least- but she’s certain that’s a wing she’s feeling, twitching away from her hoof whenever she touches it. Not that she sees anything there. Sweetie couldn’t have gotten wings of her own- Discord once told her ascensions are very specific events with a very specific flavor to them. She’d even mentioned them when he asked her about the weird power surges he’s detecting on this side of Equestria- but no, the flavor was completely different, and besides, he can trace ascensions to the millimeter. He’d commented on still being able to feel the points where Celestia and Luna had stood when they ascended so long ago.

Momentarily, she considers the possibility that it’s a prank on Zeus’ part. He certainly has those nanites- and whatever he’d done to completely reconstruct her left foreleg overnight without regrowing it. He’d told her it was easier and faster to use a ‘prosthetic’, but hadn’t explained his reasoning- or even what that word meant. Twilight had yet to find it in her library- either that, or she had yet to tell Fluttershy she did.

Whatever happened, every time her hoof touches the wing, she senses a shudder travel through the young unicorn’s body. She’s still going to need to come to terms with whatever happened for as long as it sticks around, unless she plans on shuddering every time a breeze ruffles her… Well, she doesn’t know that it’s a feathered wing just yet. So, every time a breeze strikes her wings… Wing. She hasn’t checked the other side for one, and doesn’t want to be quite that blatant out where other ponies could see.

Come to think of it, where had Sweetie gotten the power to rebuild her roof? She spends a couple seconds of idle stroking- the shuddering is dissipating- thinking on the problem, and realizes the answer is a facehoofer.

“Don’t jinx it!” Applejack had cried.

“I’m not,” Zeus had replied. “I’m acknowledging the inevitable. I would be jinxing it if I said they couldn’t do it. Which is- theoretically at least- the case.”

And that’s what jinxed it, Fluttershy decides. She must have gotten into one of those canisters. “Would you like some dinner?” she finally offers, looking down at the tearful unicorn. She needs some excuse to get her somewhere private in short order, like inside her house, that won’t look weird to anypony that happens to be nearby. Zeus had taught her much… Wait, tearful? That isn’t a happy expression, either! “Is something wrong?” Her hug releases itself.

Sweetie Belle blinks a couple times, before wiping her fetlocks across her eyes, striking away the tears. “No, they’re, uh, tears of joy… or something.” Of all the things she could be, a good liar is certainly not it.

Fluttershy’s eyebrow rises minutely, but she declines to comment on it. So she’s hiding her wings. Maybe she’s afraid of being yelled at, or bullied, because of them? All the more reason to get her in private to bring them up. “Um, how about dinner?” Very smooth, Fluttershy. Very smooth.

Sweetie seems eager for the change of topic, though, and completely misses Fluttershy’s mistake. “Yes please!” she yelps, behaving for all the world like herself.

Certainly not an impersonator, Fluttershy smiles to herself, leading the way back in- and to her never-crushed kitchen cabinets, where she starts pulling out ingredients for a good salad. “Could you close the door, please?” she asks offhand, as if it were still hung- hoping Sweetie would think she wouldn’t notice it going up.

“Uh, sure,” Sweetie Belle replies, hopping off of the door in question- and Fluttershy notices her horn does not glow until after the door returns to her frame. The matching aura floats around the hinges and latch for a second, while the popping and snapping of mending wood is heard before the eggtimer-like dinging noise indicates completion.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy indicates, using one wing to carry the bowls as she trots over to the kitchen table, there to deposit them in front of a couple adjacent seats- one that she takes, and the other that Sweetie takes before they dig in.

Two minutes later, they’re reaching the bottoms of their bowls, and Sweetie seems eager for more distraction. Fluttershy notices a small shift in her fur, right around the wing area- a form of nervous fidgeting prevalent in all winged races, she believes. That is, if that shift was caused by the particular wing motion she suspects just happened. Unfortunately, she has to bring it to light, rather than disguise it. If nothing else, she can help the young unicorn cope. “Sweetie…” she begins, and pauses. She never was very good at tact- at least, until she met Zeus. He’s so good he could probably subjugate Equestria with words alone if he wanted to- and he’s also a good teacher. She looks over at the worried unicorn, then reaches out a hoof to trace the outline of the near wing. “What happened?”

Sweetie sits stone-still, caught between shock and terror. How had Fluttershy known exactly where her wing would be? Then, she realizes what she’d said, and processes the worry in her tone. She thinks it’s bothering me… Which is true. She wants to help. Tears well up in her eyes as she considers this, contemplating the dangers of taking the offer. Only, she can’t seem to think of any, aside from Rarity finding out. The possible benefits…

Fluttershy is wholly unprepared for what happens next. Sweetie hurls herself out of her seat at Fluttershy, catching her in her hug- and knocking them both on the floor. The landing doesn’t even phase Fluttershy as she returns the embrace, catching a glimpse of a semitransparent but feathery white wing before her own foreleg hides it.

“Please tell me it can be fixed!” Sweetie cries.

“What happened?” Fluttershy asks again.

“I-” She pauses to cry for a minute, before looking back up. “Please don’t tell?”

“It’s our secret,” Fluttershy smiles comfortingly.

Sweetie spends another long while crying into the pegasus’ coat. Eventually, she calms down enough to form coherent words once again, and climbs off of her wordlessly. “I… played with those cube things,” she mutters.

Fluttershy, upon seeing the painful-looking state of Sweetie’s wings, sets to work preening them more neatly. Sweetie shudders on every touch, but eventually stretches it out to let her get the whole thing.

“Stomped on one a bit too hard or something. Whatever happened, I broke it- and the mana flowed into me. Only, it didn’t, but it did- like it went through me. Then I had a restless night… and woke up like this.”

Silence holds for a long time while Fluttershy works, straightening feathers, relieving tension. She finishes with one wing and moves to the other, which Sweetie holds out for her without delay.

“Do you mind if I tell Zeus?” she eventually asks.

“No, please!” She winces has her frightened movement strikes her wing against Fluttershy’s careful hooves.

Fluttershy blinks. “He’s really good at keeping secrets,” she mutters, resuming work. “He’s also most likely to have a fix… If your, um, alicornation isn’t permanent, that is.”

She blinks. “Not ascension?”

“Nope,” she smiles. “Discord says those are easy to identify- and he hasn’t felt any since Twilight.”

The wing droops down to the floor, the muscles finally relaxing as sweetie lets out the breath she’s been holding all day. “So it is fixable.”

“So it might be fixable,” Fluttershy corrects. “You never know, with Zeus’ stuff.”

“Ahh... Keep it vague, maybe?”

She smiles. “I will,” she replies- and confuses Sweetie by tapping her right foreleg once with her left hoof. “Zeus?” she asks, setting back to work on Sweetie’s wings.

Sweetie blinks. She realizes she’s seen Rarity make a one-sided conversation once before, though she hadn’t seen how it started or ended, only overheard enough to know she was talking to somepony called Zeus. That had been before she’d been told about him.

Fluttershy smiles, her stance lowering slightly as she blushes. “No need for that,” she mutters. “Actually, Sweetie Belle fixed it right up…” After a pause, she freezes. “How’d you guess?”

Sweetie looks up at her, alarmed- and witnesses the shocked expression on Fluttershy’s face.

“Two…” She sighs. “It’s the other two, isn’t it? … Yeah, that’s them. What’s ‘rejuvenated’...?” She resumes work on Sweetie’s wing, her expression going repeatedly between curiosity and disgust. Even alarm, once. “You can raise the dead? … Oh. That makes more sense.”

Sweetie Belle is staring at her, as confused as if every word had been a different inflection on the word “Apple”, treated as language.

“Oh yes. Sweetie wants to know if it can be fixed. … She wants to be a unicorn again.”

Now Sweetie is listening- though she hears nothing. Fluttershy finishes up with her wing while listening to Zeus’ response, wherever it’s coming from.

“Ahh. Uh, Sweetie? Your magic… Is it regular unicorn magic, or…?”

Sweetie blinks. “I still have my unicorn magic,” she answers.

Fluttershy smiles. “You don’t have any other magic, do you?”

“Uh, I do, I think… Why?”

Fluttershy looks at the floor, speaking so low Sweetie barely hears it. “It’s permanent.”

Sweetie’s wings droop instantly from her sides. “What?”

Fluttershy raises her head, looking at Sweetie with great, sad eyes. “If your magic had been unchanged, removing your wings would have been easy. Because it’s changed, though, Zeus says they’ll just regrow every time.”

The alicorn filly’s jaw hangs open, but no words come out, her loss apparent on her face.

Blink, blink. “Look at the bright side,” Fluttershy encourages- and gestures upwards. “You couldn’t do that before, could you?”

Sweetie looks up at the ceiling, lifting her neatly gleaming wings back into place. “True…”

Fluttershy smiles widely. “And tree sap won’t be a problem anymore, will it?”

Sweetie takes in a deep, excited breath. “Really?!? Oh, YES!” She jumps into the air for a second, striking one hoof excitedly into the air. She does remember that cleaning spell Rarity taught her once, the one that she hadn’t the power to use against much tree sap. But given the amount of power she’s already demonstrated, an entire forest worth of sap should be a piece of cake. She’s still uncomfortable with her wings, but that alone is so worth it!

Fluttershy taps her chin, a gesture that confuses the minute fragment of Sweetie’s attention still spared for such distractions. “So,” she smiles. “Since having wings is rather pointless if you can’t fly, shall we go fix that too?”

Sweetie shrugs, looking back at her wings. “I’m gonna have to face that at some point anyways,” she mutters, and looks back up to Fluttershy as her wings fade to invisibility once again. “Why not?”

Fluttershy smiles- and breaks off, looking slightly to the side. “Oh? … Good idea!” She turns back to Sweetie. “If we stop by Zeus before we start, we can have you flying like a pro in minutes,” she smiles.

Dome disintegration is going well, repairs underway. I expect full operability in 1.43 months, full ammo resupply 2.73 days after that. Analysis of the captured (and now disintegrated) comms devices- the original programming was destroyed by the Sentries before I had a chance to look- indicates they are modified low-output neural headsets. I suspect some sort of control program was used; the Princesses’ headsets were not powerful enough to send messages to a pony’s mind, only to receive basic instructions. Probably for communications control.

I have also recovered Twilight’s comset intact, again with no original programming, and disintegrated it. It contained a low-power but fully capable neural headset, though also had the standard microphone and speaker of a commset- and an identical bracelet control module to the Princesses’. At least, I assume that’s what it is, given how the Princesses turned theirs off. I did note the presence of fewer nanites than DCC logs showed in the Princesses’ sets- no biggie, they’re old, cruder than the ones I manufactured with the nanites out of the Princesses’ sets.

My nanites will, collectively, outmass me before I am done here.

Author's Note

2200 characters on a SINGLE SoL event... :pinkiegasp: NEW RECORD!

... And oh hey, I'm over 500 story views! Yay!

She Flew

“Hey girls- uh, I guess nopony’s here. Well, Whiteout, here we are: the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse.”

The door closes behind the white pegasus version of Sweetie Belle without anypony to push it shut, though Apple Bloom seems not to notice. Apple Bloom goes about the room, showing her all the fun stuff they’ve done to the clubhouse. She does gloss over some of the burns.

Whiteout ruffles her wings gently. She had run behind the other alicorn earlier, to intent upon her curiosity about these ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. Now that she’s in the clubhouse, she gets to learn about exactly what they are.

She’s excited- though she can’t help but notice Apple Bloom’s ‘bed feathers’.

“Sure, I’d love to join, but, uh… Can you fly?”

The yellow earth pony stares at her for a second. “Earth ponies can’t fly,” she states.

A raised eyebrow is her response. “Well duh. You’re not one.”

Clop.

Apple Bloom’s raised hoof falls solidly to the floor. “Huh?”

Sigh. “Yes. I can tell-” She pauses, tapping a hoof to her chin, and considers for a second, before she lets out a small sigh. “Zeus helped me, made me… weird.” She looks up at the disguised alicorn in front of her. “Because of that, I can see things ponies can’t.” She stands up, stepping towards her new friend with a friendly smile. “I can see that you’re like me- wings… And horn.”

Apple Bloom hangs her head. “I knew I couldn’t hide it for long,” she mutters, dropping her disguise.

Whiteout laughs almost openly. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”

Ears perking up, the yellow alicorn in the room raises her head, glancing at her wings. “You don’t happen to have any pointers on preening, do you?”

Three hours later, a white pegasus and a yellow earth pony sit next to each other on a cloud, high in the sky above Ponyville.

“How’s your day been?” the earth pony asks.

“Pretty good,” the pegasus responds. “I woke up, talked to Zeus a little, and met you. It’s… about four hours before he said my first memories should be coming back.”

“Pretty sure the memories don’t make the cutie mark, though.”

The answer is a smile. “Is that a challenge?”

“Nah, you’re too good with wings. Thank you, by the way.” She looks back at her neatly preened wings, fading them in and back out. It had taken her a couple hours- even with Whiteout’s help- to get used to her wings enough to make it up here. Being able to stand on a cloud, of course, is new to her- or had been, fifteen minutes ago. “Though, I’m curious to see how you look with your horn too?”

Whiteout raises an eyebrow. “Sure.” She drops her disguise.

Her whole disguise.

Apple Bloom falls on her haunches, her jaw articulating open and closed a couple times.

“F-” She raises a hoof slightly. “Flurry Heart.”

The alicorn blinks. “Huh… that does feel like my name, yes.”

“Princess Flurry Heart.” Applebloom’s hoof comes back down as she proceeds to bow.

“Uh, you can stop that now. I’m pretty sure I’m not a princess.”

Apple Bloom rises from her bow. “I’m pretty sure you are,” she replies, “even if you can’t remember it. A princess, in fact, that’s been missing for a week.”

Flurry stands in place for two seconds. “A whole week?”

“And a day, I think. But we’ll probably want to let Twilight know- I’m sure Princess Cadence will want to hear about your return, even if you can’t remember anything.”

Her disguise goes back up, her coat and wings bleaching back to white. “Is it okay if I stick around as Whiteout for a little first?”

She raises her eyebrow. “Sure, but I’m an Apple- and apples don’t lie.”

Whiteout nods. “Not askin’ ya to- just don’t volunteer it and let me introduce myself, and we’ll be fine. Besides, it’s only for a couple days.”

“Oh hey! Apple Bloom, and… you’re not Sweetie Belle, right?” It’s Scootaloo, who had been rocketing up to that cloud, intent upon using it as her rest spot, alongside Rainbow Dash.

The white pegasus shakes her head while the orange and cyan pegasi make their landings. “No, I’m Whiteout.”

“Ahh… Well, I see you’re missing your cutie mark- wanna join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

The earth pony sitting on a cloud with no unicorns in sight begins snickering.

“You’re a few hours too late for that,” Whiteout comments. “Apple Bloom here already offered, but I’d love to join!” Her last four words mirror her response to Apple Bloom’s question back in the clubhouse, once she understood what it was all about.

“Awesome!” Scootaloo yelps, and turns to Apple Bloom. “Have you seen Sweetie Belle anywhere?”

Apple Bloom shrugs. “Nope,” she scowls. “I was gonna start lookin’ for her in a minute.”

Rainbow clears her throat suddenly. “Uh, Apple Bloom?”

“Yes?”

“How’d you get up here?”

Scootaloo blinks, and looks expectantly at Apple Bloom. That is a good point- they’re well above the point where the hot air balloons stop climbing, and are well into the ‘upper climbs’ where earth ponies simply can’t handle the thin atmosphere. Yet here she is, taking it just like the new pegasus next to her. And standing on a cloud to boot- though she’s aware there is a spell to make that possible, given a willing unicorn.

“Uh,” Apple Bloom mutters. “I flew?”

Rainbow raises an eyebrow. “You flew? An earth pony?”

Scootaloo looks to the white pegasus- who still looks strikingly like Sweetie Belle, though she can confirm she doesn’t have Sweetie’s voice. She does notice that Whiteout seems amused by Rainbow’s question.

“Uh…” Apple Bloom hesitates.

Scootaloo raises her eyebrows. “You got it too, didn’t you?”

Apple Bloom blinks but, when Scootaloo pointedly flares her wings, eventually nods. “Please don’t tell anypony.”

Rainbow blinks thrice. “Are you saying what I think you’re….. Oh.”

Apple Bloom had let both her wings and horn reappear- and, after a glance at Whiteout, Scootaloo had allowed her horn to appear again. Rainbow spends a few seconds thinking.

“Sweetie didn’t do that too, did she?”

“It’s… Possible.” Apple Bloom suggests.

“And Rarity?”

Scootaloo shakes her head. “She knew nothing of it- and I returned all three damaged cubes as soon as I could.”

Several kilometers below them, a certain draconequus is chatting energetically with Pinkie Pie.

“Oh yes! Then she-” Discord breaks off midsentence, eyebrows knitting together. “That didn’t feel right,” he mutters, before unstringing the sweater from his eyebrows’ needles.

“What didn’t?” Pinkie asks.

“Felt like the first and third stages of alicorn ascension, though the second seemed replaced by something completely different- same thing as happened thrice last night.”

Pinkie takes a deep breath. Her Pinkie Sense had offered nothing. “Wherewherewherewhere?”

Discord shrugs. “I can’t tell. It’s the normal second stage that I can follow.”

Rarity yawns, stretching on her couch- CRASH!- and promptly swoons. It’s time for her to get up from her beauty sleep today anyways- and she must have just kicked the hoofrest off the opposing end of the couch. If only her massively increased strength- thanks to Zeus’ nanites- was a little easier to control. Now, of course, she stretches again- to be met with a second crashing noise… And a rather peculiar sensation she’d never had before. Not outside the nightmares she’d had before she got her cutie mark, that is.

Back in the day, she had panicked about the possibility of not being cut out to be a fashionista. The part she had never told anypony was the nightmares she’d had. The ones in which she had woken up as a pegasus with a dull weather job and a boring, generic family. Good thing that had never come to pass.

Though she hasn’t had had any of those nightmares since she’d gotten her mark, her proof that she’s meant to be a unicorn. So why does it feel like she has wings?

She sighs. If this is a nightmare, it’s already started off worse than a simple turned-pegasus nightmare. After all, she’s kicked one side off her couch and knocked the back off with her wing- all before she’s even opened her eyes. She sighs, turning to twist off of the couch as she opens her eyes- when her horn snags on the side she hadn’t kicked off. It’s been doing that since before she can remember- and another side effect of Zeus’ nanites, now her horn rips right through it instead of being deflected out of the way.

Oh well, the couch has been destroyed rather completely anyways… Wait. She rises to her hooves next to the remnants of her couch, looking between what had once been her headrest, the fabric shreds she’s levitating off the tip of her horn, and the wing folded against her side.

What in Equestria? She’d never dreamed of being an Alicorn before… But Celestia, do her wings need a good preening! Another thing she’d never actually had to do in a dream, even in those long-gone nightmares: Take care of herself. She trots upstairs, into her bedroom, and sets to work straightening feathers.

Right as soon as she finishes the last one, folding her wings daintily against her side, Zeus’ voice crops up in her ear- and she’s suddenly certain she’s not dreaming, her eyes straying to her flank.

“I do believe your magic has been fixed- and rather permanently, at that.”

A quarter mile away, Pinkie’s tail twitches during their conversation- and, after a glance into the air, Pinkie throws Discord out of the path of a falling couch… Or, the bottom of one- looks like the back and the sides have been ripped off.

Discord blinks and stares at it for a few seconds, before looking up. No more flying furniture- good.

Pinkie twists her head upside-down. “Isn’t this Rarity’s couch?”

“Maybe this time I’ll manage to stay in Ponyville this time,” Twilight mutters aloud, watching out the window of her train car from her deliberately solitary seat. She’s still trying to track down exactly what keeps triggering the teleport. She suspects it has something to do with her naming a place, but it hadn’t worked to get back to Ponyville from Dodge City. Hopefully, if it’s time-based, she’ll be able to reach Zeus and acquire a new charge of power to teleport straight back when it sends her out… Or to cancel the curse entirely.

She does manage to get off of the train without teleporting anywhere, though. She lets out a collapsed breath- and finds Bonbon in her face right away.

“Twilight! Have you heard the rumors?”

Twilight shakes her head. “Nope, been too busy running everyplace between here and Cloudsdale-”

WHOOM!

“Uh,” Bonbon blinks, staring at the spot she’d stood.

Lyra steps out of concealment nearby. “Wow,” she mutters.

Bonbon turns on her. “What’cha get?”

“It seems to be a curse… An alicorn curse, so I can’t touch it.” The two mares turn to walk back away from the train station, to the candy store. “I think it’s teleporting her to anyplace she names that she doesn’t want to go… But only when she’s within a couple kilometers of home.”

“Wow. Any clue what she did?”

“Nope. Whatever it was, it must’ve been bad- that curse is set to last for a couple months.”

Bonbon blinks, rendered speechless. In all her experience, she had never heard of something quite so… stern. Eventually, she catches up to her minty friend. “The death sentence would be less painful,” she mutters.

Lyra laughs gently. “Knowing Twilight, an eternity in Tartarus would be preferable. Especially now she knows something’s happening around here.”

“Wait, what? Something actually is happening?”

“Yep. Way I hear it, Discord almost got squashed by a couch- and there’s a new alicorn in town.”

“How do you keep doing that?”

Shrug. “By not developing tunnel vision. Several passersby were talking about it- seems it was Rarity’s couch, though the alicorn is a mystery.”

Pause, during which they both stop walking.

“Why was Rarity’s couch in the air…?” Bonbon wonders aloud, before the two redirect themselves to the boutique.

Author's Note

I do seem to be getting better at SoL... I think?

Manufactured

She bolts awake with a brief yell, flying upright before she falls off the couch. “What…?” She rises to her hooves again, looking around, and lets out a breath. “Whew. Nightmare.”

Next, she spots the dish sitting on the table. I didn’t leave food out, did I?

When she reaches the table, she finds that it’s Lyra’s cooking… And she’s left a note. Apparently, she had passed out earlier, so she left her breakfast and went ‘out’. She glances at the clock- apparently, it’s been close to half an hour. Thus, wherever her unicorn partner went, she’s got a good head start. She does wonder exactly what had knocked her out- or, especially, given her that nightmare. Had Lyra found one of her nightmare candies and fed it to her in her sleep? She shudders, uncovering the pancakes to have breakfast. She’d have to check on her supplies- and hiding places- later, make sure she’s still supplied for the case of a disaster.

Once she finishes her meal, she heads upstairs to begin her search in the bedroom. The bed is a mess… Right, it’s my turn to make the bed. She lifts the covers up, to pull them into place- but pauses when something green catches her attention under the covers. She pulls them back instead, looking. My, that’s a mighty fine quill, she considers, lifting it up.

“Say that again?”

Bonbon recoils at the memory of her nightmare. Lyra must have known about it and gotten a quill to match her coat. I wonder how much of that was part of the nightmare… The whole trip? Ever since Twilight disappeared? She shakes her head as she makes the bed, placing the feather on her nightstand. This would be so much easier to solve if she were a unicorn. Why did she have to be an earth pony from a whole family of unicorns? After finding all her hidden supplies untouched, she disappears into her basement lab for another go. She normally does this with Lyra by her side, but since her partner has seen fit to disappear into town, she figures she’ll have a go on her own.

Lyra lurches forwards in her seat. “What was that?” she demands.

“That was a minor upload of information gathered from Flurry Heart’s first flight yesterday. Could you try flying?”

“But I- uh… How did you do that?” She hops out of the seat, her invisible wings flashing out to arrest her fall. She gently hovers in place, stuttering a couple times as she stares at her hooves, before she drops to the ground.

Zeus waits until she lands before he answers. “I used the powerful neural interface equipment built into the headrest to upload the information into your brain. The muscle memory won’t yet be developed, so I recommend minimizing altitude and velocity for the time being, but that should be enough to get you anywhere you want to go.”

Lyra stands in silence for a few seconds. “Is it useful for studying…?”

“It can be, yes- especially if I run it in the normal, two-way mode.”

She almost leaps back into the seat. “Can I?”

“If I do that, it will, in essence, temporarily fuse your mind with the local computers. While this is the case, it will likely be very difficult for you to keep secrets, while the same will not be true for me. Are you sure?”

She spends a few seconds in thought. “Can you guarantee the security of any secrets you do discover?”

“Cross my fusion plant, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my optical pickup, I will not reveal any secrets I may discover to anypony or anything without prior authorization. This does not, of course, include myself.”

She contemplates only briefly. The chance to learn so much about this technology, in exchange for possibly revealing some secrets to him, when he has promised not to reveal them in turn- and, as he’s already informed her, pretending not to know something is a piece o’ cake to him… Plus, Pinkie Promises are binding.

“Yep, I’m sure.”

She hears no response. Rather, it turns on.

And boy, does it turn on.

Her mind expands like she wouldn’t believe if somepony told her about it. Time itself seems to slow down.

‘Okay, here it is.’ It’s definitely Zeus, though how she knows she doesn’t know- it’s coming across more as a thought than as a statement, far too fast for voice. ‘You wanted to study- and I will provide, on one condition.’

‘One condition?’ she responds, alarmed. She could already process all of her perceptions and everything she knows faster than she ever could before, spot connections she had never spotted before. It is true, though, she’s most interested in the information he can provide for her. ‘What is it?’

‘I’ve been studying magic,’ his answer comes back calmly, ‘but I lack some critical knowledge. You’re welcome to refuse.’

Magic? If that’s all he wants… ‘Sure, no problem.’

They immediately start sharing information with blinding speed.

As they go, Zeus steps up the game a couple times- increasing power level to the ‘neural link’. It isn’t long before it’s running at full power; he’d started it at minimum, to minimize the shock to her system.

Even that, however, isn’t fast enough. He’s still processing information and answering her questions far faster than she can even hear his answer, and she’s becoming frustrated with how slow the limit is. So he mentions something… ‘TSDS’ he calls it. He does inform her that he can fix the data transfer rate problem with a combination of that ‘Total Systems Data Sharing’ thing and a little bit of carefully-directed magic augmentation.

‘Why not?’ she asks.

She gets the distinct impression of a shrug, though she knows it’s over so fast even the most powerful time expansion spells wouldn’t let a pony perceive a physical shrug of the same duration. ‘If you want to do it, at this point, you could probably handle it. I will warn you, I will likely come as somewhat of a shock.’

She laughs, again with blinding speed. ‘I can handle a bit of shock. After all, suddenly having wings really didn’t phase me that much- at least, once I’d confirmed I still had my horn.’ She shares the memory.

‘Nice. Ready?’ She nods. ‘Okay… Three, two, one.’

Inside the passenger compartment, a surge of mana travels invisibly up the seat, to the headset. It stretches between headset and mind, accelerating both to many thousands of times speed.

Then, the unicorn’s alicorn magic pitches in. A massive surge rushes back down the lines, feeding that same augmentation as it zips back in… And, once it gives itself over to Zeus, quickly gets dumped into a storage capsule near his main power banks.

In the meantime, their minds are linked together in a way that only Lyra Heartstrings and Zeus could describe.

So THAT is how that works…

Mm, physics come into play…

Wait, what? There’s an easier way to do that…

So we’re both dabbling in transformation magic, eh?

Magic gland… THAT makes so much more sense!

Unfortunately, an artificial horn has proven difficult to make; aspecting the mana appropriately is easy with the right technology, but a new device must be built for each new spell…

Wait. Why not try that Alicorn-making thing on yourself?

Lyra’s half of the combined conscience is surprised when Zeus’ half plucks that idea out of hers, processes it, and expands upon it. The power requirement for something of Zeus’ mass would be roughly three times his maximum storage capacity- and alicorns don’t store, they only manipulate- and produce. Zeus has estimated she is producing roughly 3.14% of what one of his reactors can produce at idle; thus, that’s not an option. Her mind immediately draws an appreciation for just how much power that is, for Zeus to memorize.

But her thought of his alicorn spell travels further. She senses it cross into another part of his mind, which processes it even faster. She feels his nanofabrication vats- so that’s what they are- set to work right away.

Within seconds- impossibly long seconds, to her- a single tech spider has been modified to use the same ‘TSDS’ thing as they’re using, and he turns it on. They take two steps with it, to where another spider is following their orders to drop a small capsule on the plating in front of it. They reach out a leg, and send the activation signal to the tiny canister.

Magic sure flows slowly. They watch every minute detail of the flow in real-time, and Zeus compares it to the same events on Rarity. There’s absolutely no feedback over their link. The spider is done far faster than Rarity or, presumably, Lyra herself. Momentary scans show the standing spell- and they order the spider into standby mode. That’s as close to asleep the spider will get, Zeus explains, while holding TSDS with it.

True enough, they watch as the magic begins to act. They order some other spiders to carry their test subject out of the manufacturing sectors, plopping it down in one of his cargo bays. Zeus recalls that the restoration of Flurry Heart’s power after her rejuvenation took mere milliseconds, but Rarity had taken close to a half an hour of painful rest before the spell had fully taken hold, converting her in the span of about a second. They watch, and wait.

Five minutes of collaborative studying later, Zeus notices the spell is nearing completion on their spider, and they turn their attention to it, watching the transformation.

Interesting. It doesn’t just acquire the power, as they hoped for, or wings and a horn, as they expected. Rather, it transfigures. Four of its eight legs disintegrate completely, while the other four reshape themselves to look like a pony’s. Spiky metal wings form on its side, and its optical heads are pushed up by a developing neck to a new head that forms. When it’s done, after about a second, it has been transformed into a spider-sized pony.

Definitely not doing that on myself, Zeus comments, kicking off a wave of Lyra’s imagination. A giant metal alicorn- the size of which is instantly corrected by Zeus’ processors for conservation of mass- would be quite the spectacle for Ponyville. Especially when each step flattened structures for miles, each wing stroke blowing down forests.

Zeus prods their new metal alicorn awake with his TSDS, and spends a few femtoseconds checking its software. Sensor scans and everything else confirm its state: Just a body, effectively; as a matter of fact, it looks almost like Flurry Heart’s new form had before he had installed her.

Then, he flaps its wings. It flutters effortlessly into the air, wings stroking far slower than Zeus’ physics analysis suggests they should be. More scans, while it is flying, indicate pulses of magic flowing rapidly from the processor to its wings on every downstroke. It turns its head slightly… The Dragon Assault Tank in the bay next door lifts six inches into the air. Lyra then realizes Zeus has manipulated the TSDS thing so she wouldn’t know what he was doing until after he did it; in so doing, he shielded against any possibility that her power had lifted the tank instead. He then lands and trots his new metal pony up his walkways to his production nanovats once again, where it will be “growing up”. The tank lands gently back on the ground as well.

Finally, after half an hour studying and two hours practicing flying in a simulation, Lyra trots out of the tunnel entrance once again, onto the top of the hill. She’s wearing her commset too, now- and since Zeus had put it on for her while she was still in that simulation, even she couldn’t find it until he pointed it out to her with a spider.

Here she stands, as a unicorn, in the sunlight. It really is a nice day out today- and she decides she might as well give it a go.

“Anypony nearby to see?” she asks the empty air.

“Nope,” Zeus replies calmly into her ear.

She smiles, flares her wings… And gives the hardest stroke she can manage for her takeoff. It truly is exhilarating to be in the air like this.

Rainbow dash flinches outside the Carousel Boutique, where she has just opened her mouth to greet Rarity, when she hears the boom. She blinks, looking in the direction it had come.

Rarity also looks. “I wonder who’s doing it this time,” she mutters, before the shockwave comes into view. They now know that last time, it had been Fluttershy; she’d told them before they went to retrieve the Elements. This time… Light blue, and white.

Rainbow shrugs. “No clue.”

Rarity blinks, and looks at her. “So do your thing- I can wait.”

Rainbow smirks. “Watch me!” She leaps into the air, pausing just above the rooftops, and shoots off with a Rainboom… and another… And another. She keeps going, pausing momentarily to produce a brand-new Rainboom about once every second. Twilight had tried to beat that- but hadn’t even been able to produce the first one, even straight down, even with Zeus’ nanites. Fluttershy had not tried to match Rainbow’s performance, but had stated she didn’t think she could. After all, her Flutterboom had only happened when she propelled herself straight down, even with the nanites.

“You’ve got pursuit.”

The green unicorn twists in midair, a light blue contrail streaking out below and behind her. It takes her a second to realize what she’s managed to do- and that even her fastest isn’t beating the well-known fastest pony of Ponyville. The repeated Rainboom chain is catching up very quickly, so she folds her wings and teleports to the ground.

“Shall we call that a Lyraboom, or something else?”

“What…? Where’d she go?”

“You did make quite the dramatic approach. Maybe you scared her away?”

“She still couldn’t have just disappeared!”

“Maybe you were too busy showing off to realize she flew away?”

Rainbow folds her forelegs in midair, scowling at a cloud. Zeus had never told anypony about the Flutterboom, until after she had told them, and would likely not tell anypony about whoever did this until they came forward themselves. “Why do you have to be so difficult!?”

Author's Note

Now then, are we seeing Zeus' true colors, or a false facade? Did Lyra get to see his true colors, or only something false?

Elemental Alarm

Rarity emits a sigh as she steps out her front door, ruffling her invisible wings gently. She hadn’t meant to explode like that yesterday. She’d also been surprised, upon getting home, to find everything already repaired. Once Lyra and Bonbon had left, Sweetie Belle had come forward, telling her she’d fixed the damage… And asking what had happened. She hadn’t told, but had guessed. A glance past Sweetie showed Scootaloo’s wings had reached their proper size… But no horn, whatever her own cutie mark might suggest. Finally, as she had retired up the stairs, a quick stealth-sight spell Twilight had taught her once- normally quite taxing, but now a cake walk- had revealed a total of five alicorns in the room. She’d managed not to collapse or panic until she got behind the closed door to her bedroom, at least.

Once she closes her door, she turns to walk towards Twilight’s castle. It had taken her half of the night to process that completely. The Cutie Mark Crusaders already caused enough trouble even before they had significant magical power. She’d taught her Sweetie Belle a simple cleaning spell partly as a way for them to clean themselves off before they returned for supper and partly as something positive for her to spend her energy on. As it had turned out, Sweetie had lacked the power to scrub off all that sap they usually got on themselves- but now, she’s got the power to scrub the houses out of Ponyville. By accident. So, how’s she going to contain their disasters now? Especially now that they’ve got a fourth member, disguised as a white pegasus!

She freezes in the middle of the roadway. She had been too distracted to notice it before. Disguised as a white pegasus, but she remembers the image her spell had offered her. Light pink coat, mane unchanged, wings fading gently to purple tips… She knows only one pony with those particular colors. She’d have to find the Crusaders- but it’s Saturday afternoon. They’re probably out someplace- possibly their treehouse, but more probably out Crusading somewhere, with their new recruit. She’s trying to decide which to do first- report Flurry Heart’s return, or rescue her from the Crusaders.

“Rarity!”

“WAAAGH!” Rarity leaps a few feet into the air, yelping in alarm.

“Ack!” The approaching minty unicorn utters, flinching backwards. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I thought I’d mention, Twilight’s supposed to be on the one o’clock train, and I’ve heard rumors of at least three ponies waiting to ambush her with questions about where she’s been.”

BOOOM!

The suddenly alone unicorn winces, glancing at the purple shockwave just above her head. “Well, you really weren’t kidding.” One o’clock is two minutes in the past.

“Another one!?” The Rainboom Chain begins again.

Twilight steps carefully off of the train, purposely avoiding anypony. She’s pretty sure by now that the curse is sending her away whenever she mentions someplace she doesn’t want to go, with some sort of positional condition. So, she keeps her mouth firmly shut. Not going to name anyplace. She walks steadily forwards- and spots Bonbon on approach. She readies her muscles for a dash.

WHAMBOOM!

Twilight and everypony else around the station immediately start coughing in the massive cloud of dust kicked up from something landing in front of her.

“TWILIGHT!” The unicorn is completely undisturbed by the dust as she hops out of the hoof-shaped holes in the concrete platform. “There you are!”

Twilight is still coughing when she feels a massive surge of power wash over her- then the dust clears. “Sorry Rarity,” she answers, blinking at the blinding cloud of dust- and the holes. “I kept finding myself everywhere east of Griffinstone.”

Her eyes widen- she’s named a place- but nothing happens.

Rarity smiles. “Darling, I just broke that spell. But we do need to talk. In the castle.”

“Uh, sure,” Twilight mumbles- and a moment later, they’re standing in the castle throne room.

It takes Twilight a couple seconds to realize Rarity must have teleported them. The doors swing shut swiftly, locking in place- all of them, the way Twilight only does when discussing something absolutely top secret.

Rarity checks each one of them personally before she finally drops to the ground and removes her commset- I still need to get a new one, Twilight thinks- to place it on the table. She finally turns towards her purple friend. “Twilight.”

The purple alicorn blinks at the white unicorn. “I’m sorry about-”

Rarity interrupts her. “I’m not worried about that, darling, not anymore. I’m more worried about how Zeus fixed it.”

“How he fixed it?” Her voice takes on a worried tone.

“Yes.” Rarity stares at the floor in front of her forehooves for a few seconds, and looks back up. “How many Princesses do you think Equestria can safely handle?”

Twilight blinks. “We’re still dealing with the backlash of my ascension,” she mutters. “Why do you ask?”

To answer her question, Rarity flares her suddenly visible wings. “Zeus did it.”

Twilight stares for a full minute. “That shouldn’t cause too many problems- you’ll probably make a great princess.”

“And the Crusaders?”

“The WHAT?”

“He ascended the Crusaders as well.”

“Ahh, I was wondering when you’d show. If you’d like, I can provide you three with communicators. With them, not only could I help prevent tree sappiness- I’m still not sure how you got it into that tea party this morning- but I can also help keep you out of trouble.”

“Me neither,” the unicorn of the party states.

“Communicators?” the earth pony queries.

“They’re designed to blend in; you may not have noticed, but the Element Bearers have been wearing theirs for the last week and a half.”

The pegasus almost leaps into the air. “Awesome! Where can we get them?”

“If Apple Bloom could take a seat real quick, I can have hers ready in a minute. The other two I’ve got handy for delivery.”

Wham.

The unicorn and the pegasus watch as the seat rocks violently for a second, earth pony firmly embedded in the cushions.

“That was… Energetic. Thank you- that should be enough. Now, just thirty seconds and I’ll come in to deliver them.”

“Huh? Aren’t you not a pony?”

“Yes, I’m not a pony. However, just as I can manufacture a communicator in a matter of seconds, I can also manufacture myself a likeness with which I can travel beyond my hull and interact with society outside, called an avatar. I still have a lot of work to do before it’s ready for the general public, but it should work as an internal delivery vehicle for now.”

“A likeness… Like what?”

A small pause. “Like this.”

On the opposite end of the room, a door slides out- and an adult stallion whips out of it, banking sharply to pass his shiny duralloy mass overtop the seats, five boxes held in his magical grasp.

“Hi! Is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza nearby?”

“Mm? No, I don’t believe… Oh. I’m certain she will be in a few minutes, Flurry.” Mayor Mare then scrambles about her desk to find the signal gem she’d been given to indicate to the named Princess if and when her missing daughter turned up.

“Oh hey Discord! … My tail’s not twitching, you can put that away.”

The draconequis lets out a breath, folding his iron-reinforced wooden umbrella and glancing warily at the sky. “Are you sure you and Twilight aren’t doing anything weird with- AH!- with magic?”

Pinkie shrugs. “Nope. What was that?”

His turn to shrug. “Another of those weird energy events,” he mutters. “I’ve been able to trace them down to Ponyville’s general area, but I can’t get any closer than that.” He scowls. “This one felt a little different, though.”

“Ahh.” Pinkie tosses the door open. “Want some- AAAHHH!”

The draconequis winces, both from the scream and from the magic surge he’d felt at the same moment. It felt exactly like this new weird one… And, he figures, Pinkie’s tail is probably twitching now. She’s going to be falling somewhere… And, in classic Pinkie Pie style, not get hurt. First, he decides, he wants to find out just what altitude she reaches- and disappears with his umbrella deployed.

“Wow! Pinkie went really high!”

“Actually, Apple Bloom, she hasn’t stopped going up just yet.”

“Wait, WHAT? So how high is she going?”

“I estimate her arc will peak around two point four two kilometers, Scootaloo.”

“Bonbon only jumped a few feet and disappeared back inside…”

“Yes, that would seem to be the case, Sweetie Belle. I think she’s searching for Lyra- just a sec.”

“Searching for Lyra? Where is she?”

“Sweetie Belle?” a mint green unicorn asks, trotting up behind the named unicorn, and glancing around. “Where are the others?”

“Uhh,” Sweetie mumbles.

Lyra raises an eyebrow. “And what have you just done to Bonbon?”

Sweetie’s breath catches. “Uhh…”

Thunk!

“Huh?” Lyra looks up, past Sweetie, to where her front door just slammed, and something bounced on the ground outside.

BOOM!

“AAAHH!” Sweetie screams, leaping away from the fiery explosion.

Lyra abandons her inquisition. “Bonbon!” she yells, irritated- and the flames all suddenly disappear. She canters forwards, towards her own front door. Paving stones arrest themselves mid-flight, returning to their rightful place; scorched and blowed flowers stand back up and heal. Shattered windows mend themselves as the shock damage to the building itself patches itself up. Sweetie Belle escapes silently as Lyra throws the door open. “Bonbon! What was that for?”

Her answer is another ‘Splode-O-Candy to the face, but it disappears almost casually into orbit. Clearly, something had freaked her friend out. Oh well- good thing I’m a unicorn… erm, alicorn, I guess. Sure makes this part of the job easier. I wonder what scared her? She deprives Bonbon of her next weapon before she reaches it, floating her into the air. “Seriously, calm down.”

Zeus: Entity Unknown.

“Come on, they keep talking to him!”

Zeus: Entity Unknown.

“Fine, then. Who’s casting these weird spells?”

Entity Zeus.

“And his file?”

Zeus: Entity Unknown.

Facepaw. “I knew the Discearch engine was a bad investment. I wonder if Omnipotence Inc is still selling the Searchitence engine…?”

Fusion one ignites successfully. I have found suitable materials for reconstruction of critical components far earlier than expected, and have dissolved all of the water left in the fragmented dome into fuel. Following ignition, I no longer have to worry about low solar production. I may only have enough fuel for 9.73 days of operation, but that will be far more than required for me to get many of my facilities online- and begin converting my surrounding rock into fuel. In addition, I now have the power to reveal myself to these weapons Celestia called Sentries.

These Tanneri machines are moderately intelligent, but they lack my own cybernetic initiative- and stand no chance against an alert Bolo. Even a MK XXVIII could probably penetrate their security net- a whopping nine generations below myself. As such, I blow their internal programming to so many smithereens with casual ease, neutralizing their attacks. I then start marching the mobile mounts across the plains towards my own position; with this new development, I will no longer need to manufacture quite so many nanites.

Double score! One of my side projects has restored my connection to the special, magical com system Celestia managed to rig up so many years ago. I’m amazed it’s still holding together after all these years- but it would seem the magical side will last for as long as the other end does. I still suspect the other end, which she never named, is some sort of ethereal artefact. I place a call.

Twilight ambles slowly through her castle. She’s exhausted, after Rarity’s revelation. Spike made her dinner, but she hasn’t gotten to see Zeus yet. She pauses at the throne room on her way from the kitchen, glancing briefly up at the case containing the Elements of Harmony. She smiles, turns away- and promptly does a double take.

The Elements are behaving… They’ve never done that without a spell before. So why are they all glowing in turn, the full cycle taking about half a second? Why does it look like some sort of alarm?

She chastises her exhaustion, dashing for the library while she asks Spike for some coffee. Elements of Harmony, Elements of Harmony… Her magic would be real handy right now. She gallops to the nearest shelf, recalling her latest organization, and eventually locates the book she’s looking for. She has it out and laid open on a table by the time Spike shows up with her coffee, which she almost guzzles as she reads, too tired for much control.

No response has come after fifteen minutes of waiting, so I activate the urgent function. Celestia told me a century and 9.41 years ago they won’t be able to miss the alarm when I do that.

Discord curses wildly when his internet connection winks out in a blaze of static. They must be using the Elements again! Why’d he have to stick himself with the Disharmony Express plan?

Pinkie Pie, having almost gotten to bed, explodes out the door as she rockets towards Twilight’s castle. Her Pinkie Sense telling her something big is about to go down there, and she must warn Twilight!

Rarity stretches out on her bed, her wings once again fully visible and fanned out across her sheets in a gorgeous, hidden display. “This really isn’t that bad,” she considers. This makes her second night as an alicorn. Yesterday, it had practically been torture; Zeus had provided nanites to help her take care of her wings, but she hadn’t a clue how to fly. Today, however, was different. She’d gotten Rainbow to teach her to fly- and Zeus had provided something unfamiliar to help her with that. Whatever it was, she had been racing through the skies in a matter of minutes- to the point that, when she learned Twilight was returning, she had accidentally produced an event Zeus had christened the ‘Rariboom’. Oh well- it was gorgeous, and he has full records of it. She wriggles slightly on the mattress… And freezes. Why does she feel this need to rush to Twilight’s castle? There’s also… She looks down to discover the Element of Generosity resting on her chest, now feeling the ornate chain hanging around her neck.

It’s still just as beautiful as the day she first got it- but why is it here, now? Shouldn’t it be in a storage case in Twilight’s castle?

… Then, why is it flashing twice every second?

She takes it off to get a clearer look… But it vanishes from her magical grasp, returning to her neck. Whatever- she’d have to go find Twilight. Perhaps she’d know what it’s all about? She ambles out of bed once again, folding and vanishing her wings, and sets out for the castle.

Rainbow Dash is awakened suddenly, though by what she knows not. All she knows is that she’s fully awake, and the moon is still visible out her window. Why? She sits up in her cloud bed- and feels the weight against her chest. Two seconds of the sharply pulsing red light later, she makes tracks through the sky for Twilight’s castle. Something has to have happened to cause this, even if by accident.

Applejack is putting Apple Bloom to bed, still blissfully unaware of all the new alicorns in town, when her sister gives a sudden gasp. Applejack, alarmed and suddenly not tired, looks inquisitively. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Donno,” Apple Bloom answers. “Never felt it before… why’s your Element blinking?”

Taken aback, Applejack takes a second to notice the pulsing orange light- and looks down at it. “I don’t rightly know,” she mutters- and tries to take it off, with the same success as Rarity. “I should probably go talk to Twilight ‘bout it.” She then takes off at a trot.

Apple Bloom waits a minute or two before she hops out the window and launches herself into the skies. Whatever it is, it feels important. As soon as she does, Scootaloo’s voice comes over her com.

“Hey, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom- meet near Twilight’s castle?”

“I’m almost there already,” Sweetie’s voice responds.

“On my way,” Apple Bloom adds. As she goes, she checks- once again- to be certain her wings are still hidden.

Up in Canterlot, the Princesses sit suddenly upright from their dining table, both looking in the direction of Ponyville.

“Should we go, Sis?” Luna asks.

Celestia debates for a second. “No,” she finally decides. “Twilight will be able to handle it. I’m looking forward to finding out what Guardian’s corpse has to say, though.”

“His corpse?” Luna demands.

Celestia raises her eyebrow. “You were there when she died. It’s either that or somepony else has taken the Element of Victory.”

Luna’s eyes widen. Very few ponies ever knew there are actually seven Elements of Harmony. One, which the Princesses and christened the Element of Victory, was unlike the others. This final element, a bright yellow sword in appearance, does not restrict is power to its chosen bearer, and selects its bearer separately from the other Elements. Anypony can wear it, and utilize the power to destroy large swaths of land, to exterminate towns. Its chosen bearer, while wearing it, literally cannot lose. Add that the Element of Victory chooses the most warlike entity in a thousand kilometers as its next bearer whenever its previous one dies and it becomes a terrifying Element to have in the wrong hooves. It had chosen Princess Luna as its first bearer, long before Nightmare Moon; they had used its power in the creation of Equestria. Princess Celestia could only be glad Luna hadn’t been wearing it when she became Nightmare Moon, and had hidden it on the moon as well. She hoped to, once Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria and was vanquished, release the Element of Victory to nopony.

“Uh, let’s pray it’s his corpse, then.”

Princess Cadence is putting her amnesiac child to bed in a bedroom in the upper floors of Twilight’s castle- Flurry Heart had wanted to stay here another day- when she feels it. Flurry feels it as well, and they both stare down through solid layers of crystal floor at the library.

“What’s going on down there?” Cadence wonders.

“I don’t know…” Flurry answers. She’d spent the evening telling her mom about what had happened to her- so Cadence is largely unsurprised when she continues a second later. “Zeus says it’s a magical anomaly- that’s calling all of the Elements… and all of the Alicorns, as well.” She pauses for another second. “Celestia and Luna aren’t coming- seems they know what it is.”

Two seconds later, mother and daughter are headed downstairs.

Fluttershy pauses mid-yawn to blink at her pillow, having paused in the middle of climbing into bed to make that yawn. The first thing she notices is that she’s not tired anymore. Second, there’s a blinking pink butterfly amulet on her chest. The Element of Kindness clearly wants her attention for something. Perhaps Twilight will know what? She heads outside and trots off in that direction.

Lyra Heartstrings lies awake in bed, staring at the ceiling as her partner falls asleep next to her. She had allowed her wings to fade back to visibility again, once they were safely covered by the sheets. She still can’t seem to decide how best to reveal them to Bonbon.

“Yow!” Bonbon leaps a foot into the air, the sheets flying with her, and spots Lyra’s wings. She lands on the bed again, blinks and stares firmly at the pillow.

“Your back burning?” Lyra asks.

Bonbon sighs. “It’s just a nightmare anyways,” she mutters, and seizes a candy from her bedside table. It’s another of those nap-candies, like the one Lyra had used the night before, and she pops it into her mouth. Hopefully, dream-based sleep candies are powerful enough to bring an end to that particular dream… Ahh, success. She collapses back on the mattress.

Lyra sighs, repositioning Bonbon gently and resetting the sheets. She’d have to ask Zeus if he’d dropped a spell on her partner, or if it had passed on from herself instead- Whaaat?

Her mind whips into overdrive as she flashes awake, head spinning to face Twilight’s castle. What’s this she feels? Certainly something to investigate with Bonbon! … Without Bonbon, she’ll be out for an hour and a half. Oh well- she’s perfectly capable of exploring alone. She hops out of bed, vanishes her still-pristine wings, and heads for the castle.

The worst was over, for Zeus. Getting his new avatar presentable had been quite the task- but it’s finally ready. He supposes he’ll launch it tomorrow, or maybe later- he’s not sure when he wants to, just yet.

Then, he picks up new readings from his avatar. Not sensor readings, exactly, but something similar- something magical. The magic wants him to travel to Twilight’s castle, it would seem. He contemplates action briefly, and finally trots out the door, headed for the castle. He’s presentable already- his early appearance shouldn’t cause any harm. He does wonder what this power wants… Interesting. It would seem everypony currently in possession of a communicator is also being summoned to Twilight’s library, including Flurry Heart. Some by this strange magic, some by some alert function of the Elements of Harmony. He camouflages his avatar as a pegasus and takes to the air, holding a steady airspeed of fifty meters per second. Not even a fraction of what he suspects this avatar is capable of, especially after he installed a countergrav unit, but enough to reach the castle without excessive delay.

As each pony approaches the castle’s front doors, they swing open of their own accord, swinging shut again behind them. Each pony directs themselves towards the library, where Twilight is reading twice as hard as before. She’s fully awake now, no need for the coffee- and her Element has jumped onto her head. She just has to find out what it means.

Applejack is last into the room, of all the ponies coming. Even the Crusaders trotted in before her, though they hid quickly behind a bookshelf.

After another fifteen minutes or so of waiting, I finally see the mana building up within the magical side of this com system. The link will open in approximately 3.41 seconds. As usual, as this buildup occurs, my sensor sensitivity is augmented many times by rogue mana I have no means nor knowledge to control. I find myself wondering who I will get this time- last time I commed, I didn’t use the urgent mode and got some old bloke called Starswirl the Bearded.

Author's Note

Aaaand, we begin our next major plot issue!

... I wonder what operating system Discord uses...? ChaOS?

Conversational

Nothing. Nothing at all! At least the Element of Magic is feeding her power now- manipulating her books is as effortless as it always was. She thrusts the last one back onto its proper shelf, and turns towards the collected ponies. “What’s going on…?” she asks. Most of her friends are there, but they don’t even make half the party. Lyra, Cadence, Flurry Heart, and a strange pegasus stallion are also present, and she can see the Crusaders peeking around a bookshelf

Rainbow wastes no time. “I was hoping you could tell me,” she states. “It just appeared and started blinking.” She indicates her Element, hanging around her neck.

Pinkie blinks, having almost beat Rainbow to the punch. “Something big is about to happen here!” she yips, bouncing rapidly- and stops bouncing. “Not a doozy, but not far from one! Wait, whyamIwearingmyelemen...t?”

Rarity blinks. “You only just realized that?”

Twilight looks towards the non-Elements of the party with a raised eyebrow.

The pegasus answers first, with a clear-cut and very familiar voice, despite his unfamiliar appearance. “I detected waves of magic interested in guiding me here,” he states matter-of-factly.

Lyra looks at him for a second, before looking at Twilight. “I just got a strange feeling I was needed here,” she mutters, and shrugs. “Hasn’t gone away yet.”

The two alicorns nod in tandem.

“The Princesses seem to think you can handle it,” the pegasus states towards Twilight, “whatever it is.”

“And the Crusaders?” Twilight asks, looking at the bookshelf.

“Aah! We’ve been caught!” They emerge from their hiding place, joining the rest. “Same thing- strange feeling we were needed.” Apple Bloom turns out to be the speaker.

Sweetie looks back towards the door. “Plus, the doors just opened themselves for us.”

This comment is met by a round of nodding- just before the door flies open again, apparently on its own accord, as an orange earth pony trots in. The doors swing shut silently behind her.

“Well Hello, everypony,” Applejack intones, giving a small bow to Princess Cadence before approaching her own position in the line and looking towards Twilight, the repeated flashes of color within her visual field. “We figure anything out?”

“Nope,” Twilight answers, head shaking. “There’s nothing in any of my- WOAH!”

As soon as Applejack had gotten in place, all six Elements had suddenly shone like the sun. They held this for a second or so, before shooting beams of energy to gather in the middle. When the beams fade, another second later, the image of a bright yellow sword floats in the air, rotating slowly above everypony’s heads- and an odd ringtone is heard, echoing throughout the room. Nopony notices as all of the various disguises flicker away from the shock of the harmony magic.

“Uhh,” Rainbow utters.

“Well,” Twilight mutters. “I think we have our answer.”

The ringtone cuts off suddenly, replaced by a gently female voice- still echoing, though. “Ahh, I’ve made it through. Good… It’s evening over there, right? My name is Athena. May I ask who is successor to dear old Starswirl?”

“Unit what?” Applejack asks.

“Uh,” Rainbow mutters, looking at Twilight.

“I do believe that would be you, Twilight dear,” Rarity utters, recovering before her alicorn friend.

They hear a raised eyebrow.

“But…” Twilight begins. “But I can’t do what Starswirl did!”

Lyra raises her eyebrow. “Little bit of work and you can,” she answers. “You could even before your ascension.”

“But-!”

“But nothing,” the voice states firmly. “If the Element of Magic chose you as his successor, that’s because you have equal or greater potential. Though I have to say, I’ve never used this function before- and never talked to multiple ponies at once, either. How many have I reached?”

“Uh,” Twilight begins counting.

“Thirteen,” Zeus answers.

“Thirteen? Score!... Maybe. You don’t happen to know of any Bolos down there, do you?”

“Bolos?” Cadence asks confusedly, while everypony else dons a knowing expression.

“You’ve heard of him?” Rainbow asks- but no response comes.

“I think she can only hear the alicorns or something,” Flurry Heart supplies.

“Or so I am told,” the answer returns instantly. “The bearer of the Element of Magic and any nearby alicorns.”

Twilight blinks. “What if we did know of one?”

“That depends. Bolos are very powerful weapons from long before Equestria was formed. I have evidence to suggest there is one in or near Equestria- and that one Twilight Sparkle has met it.”

Silence holds for several seconds.

“What’s a Bolo look like?” Twilight blurts out.

“It varies by generation and model- but I have reason to believe this one has been providing communications equipment to ponies.”

“Only to a few of us,” Rarity interjects.

“All com-equipped ponies are present,” Zeus appends instantly. “Do you have something for Unit Zero-Three-Zero-Niner?”

“Ahh, so you do know the Bolo. Is it a he or a she?”

“He.” Zeus and eight ponies state simultaneously.

“It so happens I do have something for him. Anypony have something convenient for recording of my message?”
Twilight looks at Zeus. After learning the Crusaders had been ascended, finding out about Zeus and Lyra came easy… though it’s still disorienting to see just how many alicorns are standing in front of her.

Zeus nods. “The line is open.”

“That’s even better, thank you. Now then.” The voice changes, shifting to a more matter-of-fact tone, but still the same pony. “Unit Three-Seven-Golf-Zero-Zero-Four-Two-Echo ATNA of the Line, Situation Report for Unit Three-Five-Charlie-Zero-Three-Zero-Niner ZUS of the Line or Senior Bolo. I have recently detected a Tanneri assault squadron at range of three light-days preparing for an assault run, likely alerted by a recent incursion near my position on the local lunar surface. At this time, I remain incapable of combat operations; hostile ETA, four point three one days. Over.”

Zeus replies instantly, his voice having also gone cold. “Tanneri unknown.”

“Right. You probably know of them as Hostile Race Zero-Four-Seven. I will have Entanglement online in two point one three days’ time, for full upload.”

Zeus nods silently. “I will be waiting.” A few kilometers away, all four fusion plants in Zeus’ subterranean hull start climbing to full power, generating mana as rapidly as possible. Even a MK XXXV Bolo doesn’t want to tangle with an entire assault squadron of those thugs alone- it’s suicide. Plus, the computer security on their ships is far superior to that on their meager weapon emplacements; he won’t be able to break in. Many more skilled Bolos than he had tried, to no avail.

“Right then. Now that the important stuff is dealt with, how much have I missed over the last nine hundred ninety-three and a half years?”

Almost a full hour later, one Lyra Heartstrings walks woodenly into her house. It had been a long short conversation, but at least they had- rather quickly- found her presence to be unnecessary. The Elements had been returned to their display, save Twilight’s, while she continued to talk with this ‘Athena’. Then, everypony had returned home. Leave it to Twilight to talk all night.

Lyra sighs. The feeling of importance- and its accompanying utter non-exhaustion- is gone. Everypony had reengaged their disguises before they left the castle; there had been more than one surprised pony present, though the Crusaders had seemed to have prior knowledge of Zeus’ new avatar. Lyra sighs, trotting upstairs through her empty house. On her way, she glances at the clock… Bonbon’s candy should wear off in another fifteen minutes- which means, if Rarity’s transformation is any indication, she should already have ascended! She hurries the last few meters to the bedroom, slipping in silently… Bonbon still has no horn. Is it taking longer? She shrugs and begins clambering into bed.

And pauses, before facehoofing.

How’s her friend going to react to that? She taps her right foreleg once, before sliding the rest of the way into bed. “You turned Bonbon into a pegasus?” she asks.

“She came out as a pegasus?” the response comes. “I guess I know what that one does. I will be curious as to what Pinkie Pie comes out as.”

“You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t. I did, however, know it would be safe- and this transformation should be fully reversible, given another magic cube and another night’s rest. In the meantime, if you touch your wing to hers for a few seconds, I can make sure she’ll never have to take care of them any more than you.”

She does this, then watches amusedly as the earth pony’s ruffled feathers begin to straighten themselves. “You do realize she’s going to go crazy, right?”

“Eh. She’s just as likely to attribute it to her candy experiments earlier, while you were out visiting me- and wish she’d been a unicorn instead. Oh, and it looks like Pinkie’s really good at ignoring pain… Yep, it’s a headache for her. I should have switched them- then Bonbon would have been ecstatic upon awakening, until she met Pegasus Pinkie. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to have a disappointed Bonbon meeting Unicorn Pinkie.”

Lyra facehooves again. “I do wish you’d test these things before using them,” she mutters.

“My apologies, I don’t exactly have a testbed aside from the ponies… Shall I schedule an ascension for Bonbon?”

Lyra laughs at this. “Nah, she’d probably destroy half of Ponyville when she finds out. Might want to have a unicorn-cube floating around, for if she doesn’t like her wings.”

“True. If she doesn’t go the unicorn route, we can drop the cube to Granny Smith, I believe; the transformation process appears to heal damages.”

Lyra considers for a second. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Okay. Unicorn cube on its way.”

Her eyes widen as something suddenly strikes into her magic. It’s some kind of slow teleport he handed off to her, so she could put it where she wanted it. She drops it in her dresser. “How’d you do that?” she asks.

“Figured it out five minutes ago. My alicorn avatar is capable of any magic I fling at it, for which I thank you. It’s still limited to regular alicorn power levels, though… Unless I feed it from my hull.”

“Ahh, makes sense.”

Bonbon finds herself in one of the apple fields on Sweet Apple Acres. In front of her are three youthful alicorns, doing something nondescript in their hunt for their cutie marks. She canters up to them, to ask how they ascended. They turn to look at her with expressions she can only characterize as evil- and she realizes they all have their cutie marks, all identical. A tree, bent in the middle, with a spray of what can only be sap coming out of it. Their horns glow in tandem, wings spreading- and she finds herself covered in tree sap, lobbed through the air into a swimming pool full of the sticky stuff, which she soon drowns in.

Next, she finds herself in a laboratory somewhere- probably up in Canterlot. She feels wings on her back- heavy wings, held still by something. A look reveals wooden wings attached roughly to her back, and held in place by some sort of frame, hanging from the ceiling. She also finds an alicorn Lyra screwing in the last few feathers on her left wing. Finally, she is released from the frame and drops a foot or so before her hooves land on the floor. Her wings immediately crash to the ground.

Lyra canters around in front of her. “Sorry, wings were easier than a horn,” she mutters. “Try flying!”

The walls and ceiling then fall away, along with most of the floor. Lyra’s wings flash out and flap gently, and Bonbon realizes she’s now standing on a shrinking cloud, high in the sky. “I can’t!” she tries to yell back- but Lyra is nowhere to be seen. The cloud vanishes completely- and her wooden wings try to catch the wind as she falls. All she manages to do is tumble and roll- so she goes through the arduous motion of folding them, using her earth pony skills to straighten out her fall before she spreads them slowly again to arrest her fall.

Suddenly, she’s not falling. Her wings are still wooden, but they’re not clumsy anymore. She’s also standing on… Well, on air. Solid, invisible air, roughly two hundred meters above the rooftops. A floor of cloud forms underneath her before a dark blue alicorn lands next to her. “Well, that was an interesting one.”

Bonbon turns to face the new arrival, her clunky wings folding smoothly as she bows. “Princess Luna.”

The princess nods gently, motioning gently for her to rise. “At ease, my dear pony.” She glances back to the wooden wings grafted clumsily to Bonbon’s sides, now behaving for all the world like real wings. “I do have to wonder, though, what might have caused this?”

Bonbon shrugs. “I don’t know. I heard about a new alicorn in Ponyville- then had a nightmare with Lyra turning into one, telling me the Crusaders had also ascended. Just now, Alicorn-Lyra finished building these on me.” She spreads her wooden wings, looking back at them. She doesn’t worry about having wings- in fact, some of her favorite dreams involve her turning herself into a pegasus, proving that a breed change is possible, that she can become something more than an earth pony. In fact, that might even be preferable- she’d then be able to do so much that her brothers and sisters simply couldn’t!

“They aren’t bothering you, are they?”

Bonbon shakes her head. “Nah- you know my family. If I were a unicorn- or even just a pegasus- they wouldn’t overshadow me so much, and I’d be happy.” She looks back at her wings. “Not sure which one I’d prefer- but since I have these here, without any skill…?” She looks hopefully back to the alicorn in front of her.

One spell and two minutes later, a wooden-winged Bonbon is soaring across the dreamscape next to the dark princess, learning to fly.

Sunday Sundae

Unfortunately, Princess Luna has more nightmares to eliminate, so she must go at some point. Bonbon is fairly confident in her ability to fly by now, on these wooden wings, in this dream. Once Luna disappears into the beyond, however, things start to go awry almost immediately.

Something pulls down on her left wing. When she looks, she finds a large jar of tree sap has been upended on the wing- just in time for something to knock her out of the air.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Carpenters!”

Her eyes widen in shock, but she’s too late. She’s already landed flat on her back, on some workbench- and the Crusaders have already clamped her wings down, quickly running screws through the wooden planks into the workbench. They then saw them off and kick her off the workbench without her wings.

The workbench, located on a cloud two kilometers in the sky. She plummets like a missile, and the world disappears into blackness before she hits the road. At least they were still unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony.

It was not the last dream of the night.

Bonbon awakens suddenly, in a cold sweat, to something hard prodding her shoulder.

“You okay?” her partner asks.

Bonbon twists under the covers, latching onto her minty unicorn friend with all four limbs. “Please tell me I don’t have wooden wings full of screws or metal wings that can’t fly or regular wings with no feathers and that I haven’t become a unicorn just for my sisters to become alicorns and that…”

It takes Bonbon three more breaths to finish her very, very long sentence.

Lyra listens to the whole thing, wrapping her own hooves around her friend, before contemplating her response. “Nightmares?” she asks.

Bonbon nods silently. “I think.”

Lyra smiles, gently flicking off the blankets and floating the two into the air above the bed with her magic, before wrapping Bonbon in the protective cocoon of her wings. Her dear friend, having lived as the earth pony runt from a family of unicorns for all her life, is often far more sensitive than the finest instrument and as fragile as a six-meter stack of unsupported glass test tubes during an earthquake on a windy day. Thus, the reason she’s a secret agent for the Royal Intelligence Service. When she hides her fragility behind that secret identity, she is able to ignore most of her problems and live on. However, certain angles penetrate that defense with no difficulty- and her dreams don’t even have to dodge those barriers. As such, more often than not, she has a crying Bonbon to handle in the morning.

Today is worse than normal, she decides, as she watches her friend’s tears float upwards away from them, in her null-grav field- a trick Zeus had taught her. “It’s all right,” she speaks. “They’re still only unicorns, and they’ll stay that way.” She smiles into Bonbon’s mane, smoothing it with one hoof. “Besides- we’ve now got something they don’t.”

Bonbon huddles into her, her own wings sliding out underneath Lyra’s, completing the mint-cream cocoon. “What if they take it away?”

Lyra’s expression hardens, looking past Bonbon to the ceiling as they rotate slowly in midair. “I won’t let them,” she states protectively- and looks back down at her friend. “Even if they do, Zeus can fix it just as easily as he turned you into a pegasus in the first place.” Her face takes on an evil smile during a short delay; as it turns out, she’d never turned her com off last night. “He’ll even take away their power if they try.”

“Who’s Zeus?”

“He’s… A friend. Very powerful, but… He wants to stay under the RIS’ radar.”

“Is he…?”

“The one that turned me into an alicorn by accident? Yep. If you want to be a unicorn instead, he gave me an appropriate… Well, it’s not a gem, but it serves the same purpose, I suppose. Even a dozen alicorns would lack the power to cast any of his breed-change spells.” She rotates them gently in midair, looking over towards her bedside cabinet, with the cube rising out of it. “All it needs is a touch to start and an hour of sleep to work.”

Bonbon also looks at it, tempted. “Does it matter how long…?”

“Between touching and sleeping? Uh… No more than twenty-four hours, but it still works easily with no delay.”

So tempting… But then, she’d lose her wings. True, she wants unicorn magic, but with wings… “I think I’ll decide tonight,” Bonbon states- and the cube returns to its place in the dresser. She returns her attention to her friend- her alicorn friend. “How did he…?” Her wings twitch, to indicate Lyra’s.

“The same thing, actually. It takes more power, and a slightly different spell. That surge I thought was a security system in Rarity’s house… That was it.” She smiles gently. “It was an extra.”

Bonbon nods. “Are there any more?”

“That was the last one,” Lyra mutters. “He says he doesn’t have the power to spare for more right now, but he’s got plenty of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony ones already prepared.”

Bonbon chuckles gently. “I won’t be needing any of those earth pony ones, unless the wrong brother or sister stops by. Speaking of which… If I get zapped by one I don’t want to finish…?”

Lyra blinks, and the silence holds for about eight seconds. “Ahh… There’s a simple spell any pony, even pegasi and earth ponies, should be able to perform, that will cancel a pending transformation.”

Bonbon loosens her grip, withdrawing her wings gently as she tilts her head. “So, who are you talking to?”

“I’m talking to Zeus… Uh, we haven’t gotten you a communicator yet, have we?”

“Is it…?” She gestures towards the bedside table as they land gently back on the bed, Lyra’s wings retracting also as they finally separate.

“Uh, no, it’s not a spell. It’s something he built.” She points out her own to Bonbon.

“How many of those does he have?”

“He custom builds them,” Lyra smiles. “He’s ready anytime.”

Silence holds for a few seconds while they clamber out of bed. Verbal silence, at least.

“I don’t suppose he wants them kept secret too?”

Her answer is a nod.

“Everypony’s staring at me,” Bonbon mutters to her minty friend as they walk through town, towards the market square. They need to resupply on ingredients.

“They’re used to an earth pony,” Lyra replies. “Even if Zeus had never shown and your research had proven successful, you’d still be getting these stares- the only difference being which body part… Wait.”

They pause. “What?” Bonbon asks.

Lyra doesn’t answer- rather, she turns ninety degrees and enters Sugarcube Corner, her cream friend following her closely. Lyra picks an empty corner booth, seating herself, and Bonbon follows suit. The unicorn- alicorn, actually- clearly has something she intends for Bonbon to notice.

“Oh hey,” Pinkie begins, suddenly present in her normal manner. “Fancy seeing you two here- would you like a menu or…?”

“Yes please,” Lyra answers. Two seconds later, two menus lie folded on the table while Pinkie whistles around the kitchen, baking somepony else’s cake.

Bonbon blinks, turning towards Lyra. “Did I just see…?”

Lyra only nods.

“Think she noticed?”

A pegasus stallion slides into the booth, on Bonbon’s side. “Not at all.” He lifts one hoof to pull a small box out of his mane, setting it on the table in front of Bonbon. “A communicator, for you.”

Bonbon doesn’t take the strange gift from the even stranger pony. “Who are you?” she demands.

Lyra chuckles gently, and turns towards him. “How’d the growing go?” she asks.

“Better than I expected. I was even able to replace the processors without disrupting the magic.”

“Ahh.”

The cream earth pony-turned-pegasus tries to make some sense of what she’d just heard. “You know each other?” she asks.

“Of course,” Lyra and Zeus answer together.

“Though only for the last twenty-three point nine seven hours,” Zeus appends.

Lyra raises her eyebrow at him. “Oh? What point is that?”

“Neural link,” he answers simply.

The unicorn gives a nod, as if that answers everything. “Ahh.” She turns to her utterly confused friend, motioning towards the unaccepted gift with a smile. “You did want one of those,” she states.

At this, Bonbon looks at the box once again. If Lyra knows this stallion that well, surely she knows enough about the box to be certain of its safety… Or lack thereof. She takes it gingerly, popping it open with a hoof.

Fifteen seconds later, when Pinkie shows up to ask for their orders, the box has already disappeared, the contents now being worn on Bonbon’s ear and ankle.

“Soo, have you decided yet? Oooh! Do you need a third…?” Pinkie fades off in the middle of her question.

Zeus smiles gently at her for a second or two before he answers. “I would like an apple sundae,” he begins. “Lyra will want a chocolate one, and Bonbon will want vanilla- unless you’re feeling like cherry today?” He directs this question towards Bonbon.

Lyra had simply nodded at his deduction, but Bonbon stares at him for a second too long. “Oh, um, no, I’m on vanilla today.”

Zeus nods decidedly as Pinkie starts producing the required treats from behind her back somewhere. He lifts a large hoofful of bits onto the table, placing them on Pinkie’s end. “And this should cover the bill, plus a twenty percent tip.”

Pinkie finishes dishing out the treats and counts them into a bag she pulled out of her mane. “That’s… a lot more than twenty percent…”

At this, Zeus nods calmly, his comfortable smile wide, as if this is perfectly normal. “I’ve included Discord’s daisy and anvil sundae, with an extra piano on top and either drums or clarinets drizzled on top. Not sure which he’ll want just yet.”

Lyra, Bonbon, and Pinkie all blink simultaneously, twice.

“... Okey dokey lokie!” Pinkie finally announces, whipping off to the kitchen.

“Are you…?” Bonbon asks, once the performance is complete.

“Yes, I am. Though I would prefer to avoid being identified as such anywhere a certain Draconequis might overhear.” He looks towards the kitchen. “She still hasn’t noticed yet- and nopony has told her, either.”

Discord ambles disappointedly into Sugarcube Corner, unsure of exactly what he wants to order. He’s just been having a bad day back home; his computer won’t stop giving him problems!

He takes in his surroundings once the ethereal door closes behind him; he hadn’t felt like coming out in the street, necessitating the passage through two doors, instead of only one. As usual, the store is fairly empty at this time on a Sunday, so he picks himself a booth, seating himself gently. No sooner is he seated, paw poised to summon his special menu with a snap, when Pinkie shows up- and places an impressive sundae on the table in front of him.

“Hello Discord!” Pinkie vocalizes. “Here’s your daisy and anvil sundae with an extra piano, drizzled with drums! Something going on?”

Discord blinks, staring at the unexpected offering. It’s an interesting combination he’d never thought of- but it looks really good. Pinkie had never been able to predict his orders before, let alone come up with something new that he might like; that’s simply outside the reach of the Pinkie Sense. “Ahh… How much?” he asks, producing his bit bag with his snap instead.

At this, Pinkie smiles widely. “Zeus already paid for you,” she cheers.

He stares at the pink mare for a couple seconds. “Ahh… I’d like to leave a tip, though.”

“He already left twenty percent,” Pinke smiles widely.

He blinks. “I’ll make that fifty.”

Three hundred eighteen bits later, he lifts his spoon and takes a curious bite before he answers Pinkie’s question. Ahh… That sure hits the spot!

“I do believe I have a new favorite,” he informs Pinkie, tapping the divine dish in front of him with his spoon before taking a second bite. “The perfect way to unwind after a night of computer problems. I always knew ChaOS would be slow and full of ads- that’s what you get with free software. I most certainly didn’t expect it to put itself behind lock and key the moment I looked for Searchitence! What is with programmers these days!?” He takes a third bite.

“I simply don’t have the three million bits it wants to unlock, so THAT machine is now space junk. Good thing I keep backups. Anyways, with the desktop in orbit, I went for my laptop- but, you see, RUniX is no better. Another free operating system, it’s full of ads and spyware and takes even longer to do anything. Pretty sure it’s single-threaded, to boot. At least it doesn’t freeze itself over whenever I do anything it doesn’t like- though it’s not far. Stupid thing stole my credit card and maxed it on everything except Searchitence- exactly why I hate using it.” Bite number four goes down the hatch, and he starts gathering the bits for his fifth byte.

“So after I dropped it in orbit as well, it took three hours on the phone with the Disorience Bank to report all the fraudulent charges and replace my card- and now I’m going to have to travel all the way to Exceptional Purchase to get a new computer!” He lets out a breath, crunches on the 11010010, and sighs.

“It doesn’t exactly help that I’m still stuck with a Disharmony Express Internet plan- so any use of the Elements completely destroys my connection. Then there’s this impossible Zeus pony, and the weird magical surges happening around here…” He trails off, sixth bite inches from his maw, looking at Pinkie like a particularly confusing paradox.

Pinkie blinks, glancing down at herself. “What?” she asks.

“... When did you become a unicorn…?” he eventually asks. The room goes very suddenly silent.

Pinkie laughs. “I’m not a unicorn,” she states. “I’m an earth pony. See? No-” She becomes very still when her waving hoof comes into contact with her horn.

Drying paint would be loud in the following silence.

A silence that only holds for ten seconds, before everypony in the entire store- save Discord and Pinkie, the latter of whom remains frozen in place while the former's gaze pans slowly and alarmedly across the room- erupts into applause. A party cannon goes off somewhere, and the rows of meticulously empty tables down the middle of the shop are instantly filled with cakes and other party goodies. Confetti flies through the air, streamers appear from the rafters, balloons inflate themselves out of display cases. Banners swing down out of nowhere, and the music starts.

Mrs. Cake steps up next to Pinkie, sticking a party hat on the frozen party pony’s head. “Welcome to your congratulations-on-becoming-a-unicorn party.”

Across the store, a cream pegasus looks at the amused stallion next to her. “You planned this, didn’t you?”

Author's Note

Iron Mountain is now officially longer than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! :pinkiegasp::rainbowdetermined2:
Also, the 21st marked two milestones I never thought I'd get: 1,000 individual chapter views in a single day, and 10,000 total chapter views! :raritystarry: I don't know that I can properly express how valuable those numbers are to me- so I shall simply say, THANK YOU! :yay:
Anypony know how much Discord's sundae cost, before the tip...?
And if you can guess what real-life store Exceptional Purchase is a ripoff of, double score!

Now, for those who aren't well versed in computers. A byte is a piece of computer memory, composed of eight bits. A bit is like a light switch- on or off, 1 or 0. Thus, a single byte can hold any number between 0 and 255 inclusive. This can be represented in the individual bit values, as binary; the 11010010 Discord eats translates to the number 210.

Party

Twilight finds herself unexpectedly in the Everfree Forest, specifically Froggy Bottom Bog. She knows it was her teleport curse that brought her here, though she doesn’t remember anything about before she was teleported. She does, however, know that she had heard something about a party before she vanished again. Now that she’s all caked in mud, she imagines showing up to the party- and shudders at the thought. “I better go find a shower before I end up at the party-”WHOOM!

Funny. Most of the time, she hasn’t a clue what happened before she arrived, but this time, she does know. The party is just outside the Everfree crater- and the thing in it has finally been unearthed, rising out as a great big pile of weapons. Of course, Pinkie had thrown a party in its shadow while it tracked giant monsters falling out of the sky, blowing them away with the massive bolts of light she’d seen some of them produce. Nopony paid any attention to that, though- all attention was on the party, to which everypony was invited- and everypony attended, as well. At least, she assumes such, from the background hash of colored pony- at least thrice Ponyville’s entire population- all around the events of focus. This focus… RIS agent Bonbon and her friend Lyra (She’d learned of them since becoming a Princess), the Crusaders, Zecora, and Diamond Tiara… Not a good combination.

As is soon evident, as time begins flowing. Diamond Tiara appears to be picking on the Crusaders, though her words- other than containing a lot of “blank-flank”- are indeterminate. The Crusaders are infuriated by whatever it is she’s saying, producing a massive shockwave of magic. Pinkie’s multilayered cake then opens a toothed mouth to emit a roar, and the jug of- is that poison joke?- Zecora is holding falls on Diamond Tiara’s head, turning her into another cake-monster. The crusaders simply scream now, forgetting all about magic.

But at least there’s somepony with some sense. Lyra flares her now-visible wings, casting massive blasts of magic that encapsulate the cakes, flinging them into Zecora’s cauldron, where they turn into Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, there to fade out of focus while attention shifts to Lyra’s wings. Bonbon hardly bats an eyelash at that- but when the Crusaders show their full Alicorn forms to apologize, the agent facehooves and faints. Rather typical of the RIS to simply shut down when they run into something that disobeys every rule they know, other than Discord himself. An inordinate amount of uneventful time later, she finally appears on scene herself- right in the middle of everything, covered in mud. That’s not even the worst part; it seems she’s come alongside an explosion of mud, spraying over everything in sight and turning the background mass of pony brown.

Bonbon startles awake at the mess, sharing a look with Twilight before they both turn to Zeus- who is trotting up to them, somehow completely clean. She and Bonbon yell at him together. “You did this… Twilight!”

She isn’t exactly sure why she yelled her own name at Zeus, but she did. Then, she does it again- only it sounds less like herself, and a rock drives into her side-

“GAAH!” Twilight leaps awake, scoring almost ten feet before she hits the floor.

Rainbow, still standing next to the bed with a hoof outstretched, blinks. “Wow. You’re going to miss Pinkie’s party, Twilight!”

“Party?” Twilight asks, alarmed- but only briefly. She’s clean, and in her bedroom in the Crystal Castle. That must have been a dream, albeit a weird one. “Where?”

“In Sugarcube Corner, sugarcube,” Applejack states. “Zeus warned us you’d sleep in.”

Rarity smiles. “It’s looking to launch any minute now. Come on- let’s get our seats!”

Twilight nods. “Yes- we can teleport, right?”

“I’ll handle that,” Rarity chuckles- and her wings fade out. “Zeus would appreciate not being identified by name while we’re there.” Only then does Twilight realize they’d been visible ever since she awoke, with all five- no, four of her five- friends around, Pinkie being the only one missing.

Twilight quickly glances over herself, finding nothing. Rarity is nothing if not thorough. “I’m ready.”

Two seconds later, they’re all seated in a booth in Sugarcube Corner, Discord’s voice carrying gently across the partition behind Twilight.

“... When did you become a unicorn…?”

Twilight’s eyes widen like platters, Rarity’s look holding her question in as she listens to the silence that takes over- especially once Pinkie locates her own horn. Twilight manages to wait for the applause- in which Fluttershy is loudest, with Lyra a close second from all the way across the shop- before she drops her jaw. “What did I just hear…?” She watches Mrs. Cake trotting over, the entire shop somehow all decorated for a party… Is that a bucket she saw under that table, before the tablecloth covered it?

“Welcome to your congratulations-on-becoming-a-unicorn party,” Mrs. Cake states, from out of Twilight’s visual field, to Pinkie, also out of her visual field.

Twilight turns back to her friends. “Am I hearing this correctly…?”

Rainbow only nods- and Twilight then notices the empty space between her and Applejack. The empty space sized just right for another pony, even though Pinkie’s still staring off into space.

She notices the space in time for it to be suddenly filled by a familiar pegasus stallion and his apple sundae, which he takes a very calm bite of. “Yes, you’re hearing this correctly. Pinkie Pie has become a unicorn, Bonbon has become a pegasus. The latter is taking it in stride, while the former seems to be having issues with shock. Yes, I’ve heard Zeus performed both transformations last night.”

Twilight stares at him for a second. “Wait, what?”

Zeus shrugs. “The party is aimed at Pinkie- she’ll need it to make the adjustment, and Bonbon seems to have a hidden shy side that wouldn’t take too well to such a party directed towards her.”

Rarity watches Pinkie do her best impression of an inanimate object for some time more. “What do you think is gonna happen?”

“She’s gonna be like Discord,” Rainbow pipes up, to a couple nods.

The electric blue pegasus scowls slightly, finishing his next bite of sundae- with just the right hint of apple, he decides. Interesting what technology can do. “Nah,” he finally mutters. “She won’t really be all that different, until somepony starts teaching her spells- at which point she will likely only be better with what she already does.” He smiles calmly at Twilight. “You see, she was already a unicorn.”

“What?” Everypony present asks- including Pinkie, now leaning against the table. Discord’s head rises silently above the partition, interest drawn.

“Or so Zeus tells me,” he states. “Apparently, her horn grew on the inside of her skull instead. Normally, this is a deadly birth defect- but it also disfigured, resulting in some interesting brain damage that instead created the Pinkie we know today. As is typical of the pony brain, the undamaged portions learned to get over it and made up for what was lost- but she’s always had some kind of magic. Now that her horn is where it’s supposed to be, the only real difference should be in the level of control she’s able to garnish from her power- from the power she’s always had.”

Silence holds for a second.

Discord nods gently. “Where is this Zeus pony?” he asks. “I would like to meet him.” Even he had never been able to change somepony’s breed before- and although he’d been aware of Pinkie’s situation, he hadn’t been able to figure out exactly what was wrong, nor correct it.

“He kinda comes and goes,” Zeus states, shaking his head gently. “I never know when he’s going to show up, he just does.”

Discord scowls at this. “Well, whenever you see him next, tell him this sundae he ordered me is simply divine.” He drops back below the partition to take another bite.

Pinkie shakes herself out, and turns to the room at large. “Well then… Let’s get this party STARTED!” The room explodes into applause.

Across the room, where Zeus had relayed the entire conversation to a couple friends through their coms, the cream pegasus blinks, turning to look at her minty unicorn friend. “How’d he do that?”

Six hours later, two pegasi land gently on a cloud, high above Ponyville.

“That was fun!” Bonbon practically bounces on the cloud.

Lyra laughs gently. It had been fun, playing tag through the sky with her friend. It had taken her some effort to make it fair; it had become readily apparent that her alicorn wings allowed her to attain much higher speeds than Bonbon could, despite the similarity in skill levels. “So I’m curious,” she begins, “what the RIS is going to have to say about this?”

Bonbon’s bouncing stops very suddenly- and the cloud also stops shaking. “The RIS?” she asks, and scowls down at Ponyville. “I won’t mention it,” she states. “If they ask, it was the result of a monster bite from the Everfree.”

Lyra nods slowly. “Of course, your unicorn friend helped treat the wound and draw out the venom when you got home, but the magic of the transformation was too powerful for her to stop.”

The cream pegasus nods at her minty pegasus friend. “Sounds good.”

“Either that, or it was some experimental spell backfiring on Celestia knows what accidental situation, turning us both into pegasi,” Lyra smiles. “We simply have no idea what happened when I tried testing out that old replication spell I’d found on a scroll hidden in a tree by the everfree. Of course, the scroll was destroyed in the explosion from the candies we were trying to duplicate, to simplify the candy shop operations- and with the loss of my horn, I can’t remember the spell either.”

Bonbon blinks. “Wow, that’s… That’s a good one.” Lyra’s facial expressions had done the story justice. “Though, it wouldn’t explain why you were still a unicorn during the party today.”

Poof! The electric blue pegasus appears on the cloud near them. “That’s an easy one,” he states. “The magic backlash dug into the earth pony first, as she was closer- maybe holding the tray of candies. Thus, by the time it reached the casting unicorn, the blast had weakened- long enough for her innate unicorn magic to resist subversion for several hours.” He smiles gently. “That’s the main reason it takes so much power- ponies’ magic facilities don’t like being changed. As for what happened during that spell, perhaps it was a combination of events- primarily, one of those rare but powerful surges in the local magic field I just read about in Advanced Magic, Volume VII: Natural Boosters. The rest of it could be interference from the nearby Thaumatorium Tear- an extremely powerful and somewhat dangerous magic artifact I found in Advanced Magic, Volume V: Powering Up.”

“Thaumawhatnow?” Bonbon asks.

“Thaumatorium tear?” Lyra asks. “Are you sure about that?”

He nods. “Just found one eighty-seven point four meters directly below the point where the Golden Oak Library’s front door once stood.”

Bonbon pauses. “I’m pretty sure that’s on the list of items I’m required to report,” she states.

“It’s number sixteen, yes,” Zeus answers swiftly. “Say, the specific feedback from the spell suggested its location, but you haven’t dug it up yet? That is how they’re discovered, usually.”

“Usually? How did you find it?”

“Ground-penetrating radar, a technology absent in Equestrian society, designed to identify solids, liquids, and voids present in the terrain underneath. Early GPR systems were used in finding oil deposits for liquid-fueled machinery and fault lines to be aware of in construction, among other things. Once the tear was located, it only took a light scanning spell for positive identification.”

He pauses to take a bite out of an apple sundae he hadn’t had a moment before. “Would you like one?”

Author's Note

Hokay, back to this one! Sorry about the delay, I've had some writer's block, did some work on a couple other stories (only one, Crashland: Equestria, got new chapters to post), and took a break. But now, I'm back!

Meetings

The transit spell on the gemstone hidden deep in Bonbon’s bedside table rapidly transports her to the normal arrival pad, deep inside the Canterlot Mountain. She’s a little early for the meeting, but that’s not a problem- she has a little extra she needs to do today anyways.

So, she heads for the locker room. She may have become a pegasus, but her uniform should still fit- they’re designed for all three species at once, allowing the use of only a single factory line in their production. All she has to do is remove the patches on her uniform’s wing holes and she’s in business. She pops open her locker, removes the piece of clothing, and sets to work opening it for pegasus duty. Shortly, she has the patches on the floor of her locker when she glances to her side, to identify the pony that just walked in.

“Good evening, Night Light,” she greets the navy blue pegasus mare.

The mare blinks a couple times, like she can’t make sense of what she’s seeing. “... Sweetie Drops?” she eventually asks.

Bonbon nods. “That’s me,” she smiles, and starts putting on her uniform.

Night Light stares for a few more seconds. “But… A pegasus?”

The cream mare shrugs her uniform into place, folding her wings over it the way Night Light always does. “Yep. Apparently, that’s my reward for standing too close to a unicorn’s first attempt at a duplication spell… During a thaumic surge, with a previously undiscovered thaumatorium tear nearby.”

“A thaumawhatnow?”

Bonbon laughs. “Hey, that was my line! It’s on the list of mandatories- though it’s in the middle of town, so I haven’t dug it up just yet.”

The dark mare stares at her newly winged and more experienced friend. “You haven’t retrieved a mandatory?”

Her answer begins with a nod. “She only mentioned it this afternoon.”

“Ahh… That spell doesn’t happen to be recoverable, does it?”

Headshake this time. The RIS would find a transfiguration spell handy, even if only to pegasus form; earth ponies are very limited in what they can actually do, especially in an investigation. “Nope. The scroll was incinerated in the backblast- and she tells me she can’t remember what she did, either.”

Night Light rubs her chin with one hoof. “This unicorn doesn’t happen to be an agent, does she?”

Another shake. “No, she’s a civilian.”

“Figures.” She looks back at her locker, dropping her hoof to the lock. The RIS had managed to acquire a duplication spell some long time ago, though a single invocation requires as many as twenty unicorns working in tandem- and the duplicated item can’t be much larger than a hoof. If Agent Sweetie Drops’ unicorn had found one that didn’t require so many unicorns to be skilled in the matter- even if it required the power of twice as many- that’s something the RIS would simply love to get its hooves on. Then, she gets an idea. “You don’t happen to know this unicorn, do you?”

“Uh, yes?” Bonbon answers uncertainly.

“How well do you think she’d do in training?”

“Why?”

Night Light nods internally to herself. Her hunch was right- Bonbon not only knows this unicorn, but she’s close to her as well. “I was thinking of offering her a position,” she answers. “What’ll happen if we do?”

Bonbon remains wordless for a few long seconds. “Offering her a position…?” she eventually repeats, thinking. “I don’t know if she’d take it, but if she did, she’d probably be in the top ten percent- normally.” She shudders, staring at the back of her locker. “She got turned pegasus as well.”

Night Light winces internally, pulling out her own, fancier uniform. Though, given how stringent the selection criteria is, being a likely top ten percenter is a strong recommendation- especially coming from an agent in the top one percent, like Sweetie Drops herself. But if she had been transformed… Well, there’s only one way to find out. “Wanna offer it to her?” she asks. “I can handle the paperwork, if she’s interested.”

Bonbon goes wordless even longer this time. Here it is- the very offer Lyra has been waiting for for the last two full years. She’d applied a couple times, but never heard back. “Uh, sure,” she eventually answers. “I can offer it to her.”

The pause does not go unnoticed. “Something wrong?”

“No- it’s just that she’s applied a few times in the past, but never heard back. She’s been frustrated by that more than once- and now, of course…”

“She’s been transfigured,” Night Light finishes for her, to a nod, and glances at the clock. “I guess we’ll find out next time, eh?”

Bonbon then glances up at it too- and both mares shortly head for the meeting hall.

Lyra raises her eyebrow from where she’s stirring the pot of soup that’s going to be dinner tonight. The call alert tone had come over her comset, followed instantly by the odd feeling it gives her when it listens for commands. She knows it’s a lighter version of Zeus’ my-mind-is-your-mind device, which he calls a ‘neural link’- as a matter of fact, it’s the most powerful one he’d been able to pack into her comset. Even so, it can only read her instructions, but can’t actually send her anything through that link. As a result, when her command inquires after her caller, it answers her verbally- and she promptly accepts the call.

“Bonbon!” she greets her soup. “How’s it been?”

“Hey Lyra! The meeting went pretty well; I’m taking a ‘bathroom break’ at the moment, before I head for the office to tell them about the tear, and deliver our story for real. However, the offer has been made! You still interested?”

“The offer’s been made? What happened?”

“I ended up telling the abridged version to one of the other district managers- very nice, she is- and she made the offer even without knowing your name.”

“I always told you your recommendation was worth more than you thought,” Lyra informs the stove, as she turns it off; the soup’s done. “Sure, I’d love to- when should I show up?”

“Even with the whole transformation thing?”

She scoffs gently. “I’m a very strong pegasus right now, remember? The transformation thing isn’t going to present a problem.”

“Ahh. So, wanna we meet in the house in five minutes? Night Light is going to want to see you.”

“Can’t I just teleport myself in, once I get Zeus to help me get his stasis spell right?”

“How would you know where to go?”

“Oh, that’s the easy part. I’m sure Zeus has already triangulated that.”

“Ahh… there’s also appearances to maintain.”

Lyra winces at the sink. “Sure, I can do that. I’ll just talk to Zeus first- I’d rather his stasis spell offer us hot soup than a new hole in the kitchen and, oh, beaks.”

Bonbon laughs. “Yep, I’d prefer that too. I’ll let her know!”

And the line goes dead. Lyra chuckles lightly, before tapping her bracelet once, to connect to Zeus. “Hey Zeus?”

“Yes?”

“Could you help me with this stasis spell real quick?”

“What, afraid it’ll turn you into a griffin?”

Lyra laughs at her pot. “Not exactly, but I’d like to have hot soup to come back to.”

“Makes sense- it’s pretty hard to screw up, but could also be difficult to get right, yes. Do you mind if I stop by for that?”

“Sure!”

The line goes dead, right as an electric blue pegasus stallion blinks into existence in her kitchen, the thin web of white streaks in his golden mane seeming to twitch and shift as he does so. “Greetings,” he begins, bowing his head. “May I take it the RIS has finally extended their hoof?”

Lyra blinks at him. “It really is unsettling just how good you are with that,” she states.

He nods. “Congratulations. I expect a party would be rather inappropriate for the occasion, though.”

With another laugh, Lyra turns back towards the pot. “Oh yes. Anyways…”

“Zeus? Oh, um, I didn’t expect…”

Lyra chuckles at Bonbon’s reaction to finding Zeus relaxing in the family room with her. “Come on, I told you I’d have him help with the stasis spell- and it went perfectly, no beaks involved.”

Bonbon chuckles slightly. “So, uh…”

“He already figured it out,” Lyra informs her friend- and turns to look back at Zeus, her smug smile developing. “I’m sure he’d make a superb agent.”

Author's Note

Short again, I know... But we're moving onwards! What's happening now- and how are the Mane 6- or the Princesses- dealing with whatever's going on...?

Denied

WHOOM!

She stumbles slightly from the teleport. Those crystals never were nearly as smooth as Unicorn-based teleports. Or, Celestia forbid, Alicorn-based teleports. Unfortunately, neither of the latter two are suitable for this situation.

Though, she can think of at least one pony that’d pull it off anyways. She’d never been that good. Of course, they had tried to convince him to join them- or even to consider it. He had refused- something about percentages neither of them had understood. He’d spoken way too fast, listing numbers, chances, and scenarios faster than they could process it. From how it sounded, he was talking about the number of things that could go wrong and the likelihoods of each one. That makes sense- he’d been explaining his rock-solid decision not to accept their offer, and she already knows that’s how his mind works.

But now, she needs to go in to meet Night Light, the pony that extended the invitation to her. Night Light will perform her evaluation and, if needed, be responsible for her training. Given how much her now-Pegasus friend taught her before, she fully expects to be able to skip much of that training. She carefully keeps her eyes forwards as her friend leads her through the hallways, passing numerous agents on the way. She’d been overjoyed whenever the offer finally came- but now, she’s mostly nervous.

Finally, they reach a door. That in itself is quite an experience. The sign next to the door identifies it as the office of one Night Light, who happens to be the Canterlot District Manager, the Chief Evaluation Specialist, and the Lead Trainer, among other things! On the door itself, there is a series of overlapping medallions. Many of the early ones are bronze, but as her eyes sweep towards the present, those peter out in favor of the silver, and the gold… Oh, there’s so many gold! Only, the very latest one is silver, after almost six years of nothing but gold. Top agent, top analyst, top investigator, top everything, for so many years… Then the silver one. Second best analyst, awarded… Today. A momentary spell suggests that one was attached five minutes ago.

Her cream friend stares at this silver one for a few seconds as well before knocking on the only bare patch on the door- right below the doorknob.

They wait a few seconds before the door opens. “Please don’t tell me I’ve failed to place as-!” The navy blue recipient of all those awards freezes still, breaking off midsentence at the sight of the two mares.

“Night Light,” Bonbon bows her head formally. “This is Candy Stripes, the ex-Unicorn I mentioned earlier.”

The pegasus continues to stare at the minty pegasus in the hallway.

Eventually, Lyra tilts her head slightly, and turns towards her friend. “Did I forget to brush my mane or something?”

Bonbon looks her over briefly. “Nope. Maybe she’s stunned by just how you look as a pegasus?”

“Really? I can’t imagine it’s much better than when I was a unicorn- if at all. Feathers are so difficult to get right.” She shudders, as if remembering some terrible memory, and turns back to the blue pegasus they’ve come to talk to.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned pegasus is still doing her best impression of an inanimate object.

So Lyra waves a hoof in front of her face. “Hello? Anypony home?”

Night Light blinks once, attempting to force her thoughts back into coherence. She’d expected a pegasus, not this! Finding out Sweetie Drops had become a pegasus was bad enough. Now of course, she gets-

Wait! Coherence has finally returned to her thoughts- enough that she’s realized she’s stood staring at the pony in front of her for a few moments too long… Quite a few moments, actually. She blinks a second time. “Uh,” she mutters.

Lyra, having just asked Bonbon if they should come back later, puts on her best imitation of one of Pinkie’s toothy grins.

“Maybe…?” Bonbon answers, watching her friend confusedly.

Night Light finally snaps out of it, returning to herself. Her head shakes a tiny bit, she blinks twice- and instantly bows down, confusing neither mare. “My apologies! Come in, come in!” She backs out of the way.

Lyra’s toothy grin vanishes into a blur of confusion.

Bonbon facehooves for an entirely different reason, and nudges her friend inside, before closing the door. As soon as it’s shut, she lets out a breath. “Sorry,” she informs her friend, before Night Light can get a word in edgewise. “I forgot she can see the invisible.”

Lyra facehooves. “You think she saw…?”

Bonbon only nods.

At this point, Night Light recovers. “Did you want something, Princess…?”

Lyra hangs her head. “Of course you’d think that,” she mutters, and looks back up. “No, this does not make me a princess; as a matter of fact, it was an accident. I’m still not sure what happened.”

Night Light finally straightens, shivering slightly. “Not a…?”

Lyra nods. “Not a princess. Just L- erm, Candy Stripes. Regular, civilian Candy Stripes, prepared to refuse any offers of royalty or nobility.”

The dark pegasus shudders again, forcing herself to hold calm. “That broken spell… Did it do a full ascension, or…?”

“Winged unicorn?” Lyra finishes. “Nope, it’s the full ascension.”

“Ahh…”

Bonbon interrupts. “I happened to notice the silver medallion,” she states. “May I ask who stole the gold?” She’d missed the awarding ceremony.

“Don’t touch it,” Night Light declares. “Nasty magic shock. Anyways, the gold went… What?”

Lyra had turned her head to the door, casting a quick scanning spell on the medallion. “Interesting,” she mutters. “That medallion’s spent- it won’t be shocking anypony…” She turns back towards the navy blue pegasus. “But you might be needing a cover story soon.”

A knock is heard on the door. Night Light glances at the two- and, at their nods, pulls the door open again. “Don’t tell me-!” She cuts off at the sight of her next visitor. “Speak of the devil. Speedy Thought.”

The young, golden earth pony mare raises an eyebrow and asks the question. “What?”

Night Light sighs. “We were just talking about you,” she mutters, indicating the awards decorating her door; it swings inwards. She then turns towards the other two. “I’d like you to meet Agent Sweetie Drops and a new recruit, Candy Stripes. You two, I’d like you to meet Speedy Thought- the analyst that took first place.”

“About that, actually,” the golden-maned blank-flank states. “I have an unfair advantage- and you definitely deserved first place. It took a few minutes to explain, but Princess Luna herself agreed. I’m no longer a medalist- and you’re first place once again. They’ll probably be swapping the silver out for the gold sometime tomorrow, whenever they finish re-engraving it.” She indicates the bottle sticking out of her also golden saddlebags. “I thought I’d come to celebrate your achievement- but if you’re busy, I can wait.”

Night Light looks between the two mares and Speedy Thought. “Uh…”

Bonbon ends up making the decision. “Why not celebrate first?” she asks- to Lyra’s nod.

Night Light shrugs, backing into the room again. “Come in, then.” A few seconds later, she closes the door again, behind Speedy Thought.

“Congratulations?” Lyra suggests first. “Sorry, I’m not yet familiar with… Uh…”

At this, Night Light laughs. “Nah, it doesn’t mean much. You’ll find I’ve continually gotten that particular gold medal for the last fifteen years.” She smiles at the ceiling. “As a matter of fact, it was one of my first.” Then, she looks back down at the new mare. “Then of course, Speedy Thought appeared- and apparently, she’s produced more accuracy- and speed- than anypony else!”

“Like I said, though,” the named mare states, “I’ve had an unfair advantage.” She reaches into her saddlebag, pulling out two stemmed glasses and the bottle, placing them on Night Light’s desk.

Bonbon reads the label first. “Where’d you get that…?” she asks.

“It’s, uh,” she glances at it. “I didn’t. This is a non-alcoholic imitation that should taste exactly the same.”

Lyra raises an eyebrow. “Imitation?” she asks.

“Yep,” Speedy Thought says, popping the cork with dismissive ease as she starts pouring. “Thought we could enjoy it.”

Night Light watches her fill all four stemmed glasses before speaking up. “How’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You pulled out two glasses and put four down.”

Speedy Thought smiles, but declines to answer. Rather, a stallion speaks up, picking up the fifth glass. “Oh, that was easy.”

Night Light yelps, leaping into the air and landing back down. “What-?” He hadn’t been there a second before.

“And don’t be calling me ‘Prince’ or anything- I’m not even a citizen.”

Lyra and Bonbon blink. “I thought you said-!” they say together.

“You remember what I said when we met yesterday, Candy Stripes? About how good I am at lying?” His glass clinks gently against Speedy Thought’s, before they both take a sip. “Ahh, that hits the spot.”

Night Light interrupts before the two pegasi can come up with an answer. “Who are you?”

He raises his eyebrows. “I’m Speedy’s unfair advantage,” he states. “So, you going to join us in celebrating your unparalleled skills or no?”

“Uh…”

“No, mine don’t count.”

Totally Standard Dimensional Sliding

Night Light simply shudders as Agent Sweetie Drops and the new alicorn recruit, ‘Candy Stripes’, respond almost casually to the newly appeared stallion. The newly appeared alicorn stallion. They’d been surprised by his arrival as well- but it would seem they know him. They’ve taken their glasses, and now all four- pegasus, earth pony, and the two alicorns- are politely waiting for her to take hers. Then, of course, Speedy Thought had behaved as if she had expected him- which, if he is her unfair advantage, would make sense.

She latches onto that, using that anchor to force the rest to make sense in one way or another. It’s faster than arguing with herself or, with her agent mind, simply accepting it. However, it still takes a small eternity.

By the time she finishes and finally accepts her glass, Sweetie Drops and Candy Stripes have broken into a hushed conversation over… Candy flavors? They cut it off when she takes the glass. The other two have just stood, like stone. “To, uh,” she begins, offering her glass to the atmosphere.

“To your achievements, past, present, and future,” the four ponies state together, before they all clink their glasses together and all take a sip.

Wow. That is good stuff. “So, uh,” she mutters, turning towards the stallion. “Would you care to join too?”

“The only medal I’d get is the one for being the heaviest agent,” he mutters, gazing off into space.

“Heaviest…?”

He smiles at her. “I am a veritable mountain of duralloy.”

“You’re a pony.”

At this, he chuckles. “I suppose my avatar would lead you to think that. You see, this body is entirely reliant upon direction from elsewhere.”

“That elsewhere is my town-sized hull under a hill in Ponyville,” Speedy Thought states.

At this point, Night Light can justify her confusion on Sweetie Drops’ and Candy Stripes’ matching confusion. “So, his mind is in your… hull?”

“Eh, more like our mind.” She flutters her eyelids at the electric blue stallion, who completely ignores it.

“Wait, what?” It’s Candy Stripes. “He only made one avatar!”

At this, the stallion chuckles- but Speedy Thought answers.

“Remember what I said when we met yesterday, about how good I am at lying?” she says. “About how I’m better at it than Discord himself?”

“But that neural thing- it’s impossible to keep secrets!”

“Tut tut… Impossible for the biological mind, but not impossible for me. As a matter of fact, the one you helped create is actually my seventh avatar.” She gestures at the electric blue pegasus.

“But-”

“Would you like a sundae?”

Lyra blinks a few times, staring at the chocolate sundae in front of her, held by Zeus’ hoof. “Uh, what?”

Zeus leaves the sundae floating upside-down (and not spilling) in midair and trots around to stand next to Speedy Thought. “It is nice not to have to arrange meetings with empty balconies any more,” he mutters- and the two casually connect forehooves for a second or two. “Especially considering just how quickly the battery dies when underground.”

Night Light watches the entire exchange. “So, would you like to join too, medals aside?”

He shakes his head. “Nah- you’d never see the end of the stealthed drones.”

Bonbon raises an eyebrow, Lyra facehooves. Night Light simply blinks.

Speedy Thought performs a rather casual slow clap. “Ha, Ha,” she utters. “And yes, we’ve confirmed it’s only magical invisibility that you can see through.”

Zeus sighs. “Either way, somepony’s coming, and I’d rather stay under the RIS’ radar- as well as Discord’s, actually.” He then disappears into thin air with a small vwip! noise.

Then somepony knocks on the door.

Speedy Thought glances at the three pegasi in front of her and, with a flying leap, collects all four glasses and the bottle- the sundae had disappeared with Zeus- and disappears behind Night Light’s desk.

After a raised eyebrow, Night Light opens the door. “You… uh, Your Majesty.” She bows. “Did you need something?”

“Yes, actually,” Princess Celestia states, standing in the doorway. “You’re not busy, are you?”

“Just an evaluation, on Sweetie Drops’ recommendation.”

“Ahh. Whenever you’re ready, Discord’s been in irritable lately- and I’d like to know why.”

Night Light nods gently. “We’ve actually already been looking into that,” she states- and taps one of the gemstones on the front of her uniform, looking down towards it. “Hawkeye. It’s time.”

Celestia raises her eyebrow. “Oh? What is it?”

“As near as we can tell, there’s somepony he doesn’t know- and he can’t seem to find out about them. Hawk has been gathering all the intel.”

“Ahh. What about his sister, Speedy Thought?”

“She’s been helping him analyze it. I think she’s closer to predicting Discord than even Starswirl!”

Right at that moment, a dark brown earth pony with a black mane and no cutie mark comes galloping around the corner, his golden sister right behind him, saddlebags filled with papers. They stop short of the princess, bowing together. “Princess Celestia.”

Night Light suppresses an internal sigh. She’d never get used to Speedy Thought’s weird mobility- especially since she’s not related to Pinkie Pie, the only other earth pony ever to be quite so… mobile.

Celestia nods to the agent and the analyst. “Rise. I understand you’ve been looking into Discord’s disturbance?”

“Yes, we have,” Hawk answers.

Speedy Thought starts talking as she pulls out her papers. “There’s a few things. First, there seems to be a new pony running around, primarily about Ponyville, that Discord can’t seem to find. He seems to go by the name of ‘Zeus’, but he’s been avoiding us as well- unless?” She turns briefly to her brother, who shakes his head. She nods. “This Zeus pony is causing Discord a lot of stress in and of himself, but he’s not the only problem.

“Discord himself has reported feeling strange power surges in the area- and patterns similar to Alicorn ascension, what with the cutie un-marking and re-marking, but with the second stage- transformation- swapped out for something else.” She shrugs. “He hasn’t been able to tell what that something else is, nor localize these events; it’s the transformation stage that he can trace so closely.

“In addition to that, the incidence of falling objects in and around Ponyville seems to have gone up rather dramatically. We’re still not sure how many of them reached the sky- nor how the boulder on course to crush the town hall was so suddenly reduced to powder.”

Hawk shudders. “Long day o’ cleaning.”

Speedy nods, continuing. “We do know a little about how Rarity’s couch ended up torn apart and in the sky, thanks to one Agent Sweetie Drops; apparently, it was a magic surge in the boutique. The base section of it nearly landed on Discord; that was only the first, though. A sink supposedly struck off his umbrella last night, and an anvil broke through it this morning.”

Hawk raises a hoof. “Oh- and the teapot five minutes ago.”

“Teapot?”

He nods. “Sorry, I was still on-scene when I got the call. I saw a giant teapot land in the town square, right after Discord teleported elsewhere. Spilled boiling tea everywhere when it broke.”

“How big?”

“Roughly three meters tall and wide, six long; looked like a standard Teasteeper pot, scaled up. It was roughly three quarters full.”

“Teasteeper?” Celestia interrupts alarmedly.

Hawk nods; everypony else watches and listens intently.

Except Speedy. “The teapot on your table when the Lunar Incident began was a Teasteeper, wasn’t it?”

Celestia nods, very slowly. “I’m still not sure what happened.”

Speedy looks at her brother. “And three quarters is how full a regular-sized Teasteeper would be after pouring two cups.”

“Did we just find it?” he responds. “But why did it take so long before it fell out of the sky?”

“That’s a good question. It couldn’t be gravity- in order to achieve a one-week hang time, it would have to be thrown mighty hard- and one of the other celestial bodies, like the moon, would have pulled it away from Equis. Not to mention, reentry would destroy it- and the vacuum of outer space would evacuate all the tea long before it could return.”

Hawk nods. “It did-!” His head turns suddenly. “My hawksense is tingling! I’ll be right back!” He slaps a hoof to his chest- where every agent keeps their teleport crystal when in uniform- and disappears in a flash of light. The uniforms carry invisibility fields when worn outside the base.

Celestia’s eyebrow raises. “Hawksense? That’s a new one.”

“That’s what he calls it,” Speedy answers. “We don’t know what it is yet. He gets some kind of feeling whenever something either is or is about to go down somewhere. He’s described it to me as a kind of tingling on the tip of his nose, but he’s still able to pull exact positional data out of it. She looks in the direction he had looked before he left. “I wonder what he’ll come back with this time,” she utters mildly.

They wait almost two minutes before Hawkeye rounds the corner again, galloping up next to his sister and bowing before he reports. “Princess Sparkle collapsed during a tea party!”

“What kind of pot?” his sister immediately asks.

“A Teasteeper.”

“Knew it.” She looks up at the Princess. “Something malevolent is somehow pattern-matching against those pots.”

“Is Twilight okay?” Princess Celestia asks, alarmed.

“Probably,” he answers. “Pinkie showed up to teleport her away. Said Zeus would help her.”

“Ahh.”

Night Light nods understandingly- but stops suddenly. “Wait, Pinkie?”

Speedy nods. “Yes.”

“Teleport?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t she an earth pony?”

“No.”

“What?”

“Unicorn. Apparently, Zeus healed her misshapen ingrown horn last night.”

Celestia swoons.

“When did you learn to teleport?” Rarity asks her newly-minted unicorn friend.

“When Zeus did his totally-standard-dimensional-sliding thing with my headset.”

The room they’re standing in clears its throat while the lid slides shut over their purple friend. “That’s, uh, not what TSDS stands for… Yep, it’s definitely the teapot.”

Author's Note

How'd I do with Pinkie's interpretation of Zeus' Total Systems Data Sharing net?

... And how much of last chapter's confusion did I solve... Or increase?

Much of these last couple chapters were driven by a single paragraph from Chapter 4, A Movie!:

It’s a party. Like, blowout nopony-shall-ever-be-bored party. Ponies appear to be leaving more because of exhaustion than because of a lack of enjoyment. I manage to snag a few moments of conversation- and divert some of my fabricator capacity into the creation of a pony avatar. It’ll be solar/battery powered, and not capable of maintaining full-powered operation for more than a few hours, but that shouldn’t be an issue; assuming I can manage to fit in, day-to-day operation as an independent, ground-pounding unit shouldn’t reduce the charge level below 90%, even in bad weather. I decide to hold my drone nearby until I send out my new avatar, at which point the avatar will take over the cultural- and common knowledge- experiments.

The in-story time difference between then and now is about two and a half weeks, if I remember correctly.

Metawhatnow?

“Did you really have to do that?”

“Do what?” Zeus asks innocently.

Twilight glares at him for a second, before turning to look at the second sun, outshining Luna’s moon. “Really?”

Zeus glances upwards, and shrugs. “What?”

“You made a second sun?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, the blast will dissipate- and finish glowing- in a few minutes.”

“Did you really have to?”

“What? Can you name any one object or creature in Equestria capable of standing up to eighty simultaneous 1.3-T-ton augmented fusion warheads at close proximity, alongside the impact of four 200-gton augmented Hellrail rounds?”

“There’s that word again!”

“Word? Which one?”

“The one Daring Do used to describe that ‘Hellbore’ thing!”

“You mean fusion? Yes. Quite feisty stuff, that.”

“... and what’s a Hellrail…?”

The dark princess standing next to them, just below the cave entrance, sighs. “That won’t do any lasting damage, will it?”

Zeus shakes his head. “Nah- your planet’s magnetic field will deflect everything dangerous, long before it hits atmosphere- or the magic field, both of which would make further absorptions or deflections.”

“What about my Moon?”

“Too far away for much other than a bit of light and radiation- just like us. Athena is probably having a field day.”

I have no clue what caused this massive flare of light in the sky; whatever it is, my solar capacity has been run right up to its limit. The excess is not enough to cause damage- but I am absorbing almost thrice as much power as my fusion plant would produce at full power. The named power plant is running at its lowest, and most efficient, setting. I have tried checking emissions signatures- but the glare is too great for any kind of weapon to produce, and too inconsistent to be a new star. Supernova? I hope not- I doubt any of my ponies would survive that.

“Who’s Athena?”

“Right… You would know her as ‘Guardian’.”

“She died, though.”

“She got better. We’re good at that.”

“Impossible!”

“I did it too. Admittably, my processors weren’t quite as badly decayed as hers when I first received power here, but I did have to repair or replace almost 93.41% of my cognitive matrix- and that’s not even counting the other repairs.”

“No way!”

“You’ve seen how easily I can manufacture new comsets for you and Princess Celestia- who, by the way, appears to be waking up- right?”

“That’s easy- a simple assembly spell will do that.”

“Uh, no, actually. They’re too complicated for that kind of spell. Anyways, I can also make parts for myself the same way. So can Guardian- and while her Personality Center was offline, you told me yourself she still responded, right?”

Nod.

“Yes. Thing is, her main processors remained functional. Some part of her Damage Control facilities shared that same fate- and was able to take the nanites I left in yours and Celestia’s comsets to make some repairs. Repairs that sealed Guardian’s destiny as a restored Bolo.”

“And the eighty-first missile?”

“I didn’t think you’d notice that one. That one carries no warhead- rather, it’s a materials shipment for Guardian. She said she’s missing a few critical elements for her primary reactor.”

Tracking zeroes in on an inbound object, countergrav emissions, before it even crosses the radio horizon. I only have ballistic projectile weapons to fire at it right now- the Tanneri turrets’ weapons self-destructed when I cut into their programming, and they did not contain the appropriate elements for me to reconstruct any of my energy weapons. I have not had time- nor spare resources- for missile construction… Or VLS construction, for that matter.

Oh wait- this new object, clearly a missile, has made contact, Concordiat IFF. It’s the delivery vehicle Zeus promised me, carrying me a small supply of gold- and the trace elements I need to finish off that ‘synth fusion’ power plant, Fusion 11. Once that’s lit, literally anything is fuel- and parts. I guide it in for a harmless landing against the inside of one of my surviving armor plates, not far from my Command Deck.

“Materials shipment? What exactly did she need?”

“Mostly gold, for processor repairs- put her mind back together. She didn’t exactly specify what she needed the chromium, tellurium, or metastabilized tennessine for, though.”

“Metawhatnow?”

He waves a hoof dismissively. “Specific elements. Tennessine is artificial- and, without metastabilization, will disintegrate in just moments. Took me several hours to build the accelerator needed to produce and metastabilize it.”

“Uh… Remind me to never quiz you on chemistry.”

Princess Celestia jumps awake, lying on her back on something soft- feels like a couch.

Suddenly, a golden head with a similarly golden explosion of mane pops into her field of view. “Good evening! Zeus wants to know if you’re feeling okay?”

Speedy Thought then dodges the suddenly screaming Princess’s flailing hooves with practiced ease. “Just ‘No’ is fine!”

“PINKIE!” Celestia bellows. “A UNICORN! NO!”

“‘Fraid so,” the brown stallion states- and ignores her continued scream, looking at the ceiling. “I wonder how Discord likes that?”

Discord stares unblinkingly at the cavernous hole in the road before him. It’s hardly ten light-seconds across- but his car, one of the best in its class, can only jump nine point nine eight lightseconds. Shoot- he’d have to drive a few dozen lightyears the OTHER way and get a NEW car from the Galactic Mothership Constructors before he could go the two this way it’d take to reach Exceptional Purchase! WHY couldn’t they make an interlocking road network with multiple routes in it? Then again, why had he gotten this stinking Crushyler to begin with?

… At least he could stop by Sugarcube Corner on his way past, in a few minutes- that daisy and anvil sundae sounds good right now… unless Pinkie somehow presents him with something better.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Speedy Thought mutters. “Remember, he was planning on going to Exceptional Purchase today.”

“True,” her brother answers. “We might have disrupted the lightwave.”

“What are you looking at?” Bonbon asks, looking at the ceiling.

“Or talking about?” Night Light inserts, halfway through sliding on her earpiece.

“Discord,” the two answer in tandem. “And a little mayhem happening in deep space above Equestria right now.”

Hawkeye looks back at the ceiling. “Ooh- looks like we did disrupt it, right in front of him, too. Here he comes.”

Speedy Thought squints inexplicably up at the ceiling. “He does look a little bothered, doesn’t he? We might’ve outdone a simple consumer vehicle like his.”

“Shoot. Any ideas for the apology?”

“Well, he showed some favor for that tea...”

“And I don’t think drums will cut it this time. It’s gotta be something a little more…”

The two look at each other, figurative lightbulbs going off above their heads.

“Pinkie! Discord will show up in thirty-seven seconds, mark. He’ll need a jalapeño seed and crystallized hydrogen sundae, sprinkled with half-ton warheads and topped with an active fusion plant!” He hoofs over some supplies. “Don’t drop them.”

“Got it!” The kitchens of Sugarcube Corner become very busy very quickly.

Author's Note

Hear that? You can even hear the sewing machine!

And no, I don't have anything against Chrysler.

Networking

Wow.

That’s the only thing anypony can think. Except Twilight, who’s been zipping off onto so many tangents she’s weaving a blanket ever since their minds all jumped to microsecond speeds- not even Twilight seems to grasp what those are- and joined together. Even more interesting, after the fifth tangent, Twilight had suddenly separated from the rest- such that she’s merely telepathically linked to their shared mind.

When they wonder why, the thought having originated from Rainbow, the response comes from another voice, though a different kind of telepathic link… Which Fluttershy’s mind instantly identifies as Zeus’ voice, sounding exactly as it always has, through her neural-capable comset.

“Her tangents have triggered a safety system that isolated her; should she go on for much longer, it’ll disconnect her entirely.” They somehow know he’s echoing it to Twilight at the same time, an effect Fluttershy’s mind instantly recognizes as the data sidebands of the communication channel.

They watch- or, more accurately, listen- as Twilight manages to stem her tangents, coming within a hair’s breadth of getting locked out of the neural net for a day as she does so. It takes her forever- almost six minutes, an incredibly long time to her patient friends- to calm herself down enough to drop back into the shared net. As soon as she does, she reads Pinkie’s exuberance at the net and sets off wondering why she hadn’t been isolated as well.

Zeus replies very calmly. Twilight’s rampant excitement had gone everywhere, effectively damping the network’s functionality. She had been isolated to protect the other members from this potentially damaging influence. Pinkie’s exuberance is only that- she remains willing to work with the network, rather than against it; as such, the safeties have no reason to worry about her. Of course, he has to explain exactly what network he is referring to- the neural network, the one that is everypony’s shared mind.

Which Twilight begins analyzing. They find together that they still have their individual minds, and can still keep things from the network if they wish; however, they also have that shared mind, allowing them to work in tandem. Allowing them all to draw on Fluttershy’s experience with the things, using that to help calm them down.

Fluttershy then answers Pinkie’s wordless question about the whole thing at the door; the others now find out she had been in communication with Zeus through a neural headset built into her comset. She explains to them that Zeus’ antimagic barrier- at which Twilight ahhhs- had flexed to let her pull in, and flexed back out after the door closed. Twilight’s follow-up question is directed towards Zeus.

‘As near as I can tell, that was caused by something being reluctant to release all of its targets at once. Whatever this means, I do not know.’

Applejack then brings Twilight’s immediately following (and rambling) consideration of the meaning up short. ‘Perhaps we should gather more information before we speculate uselessly,’ she indicates to everypony else.

Good thing it’s impossible, inside this neural net, to shout over somepony else- or to be shouted over. They all grasp each other’s agreement in a microsecond.

Almost two full days later, everypony is back to full health. Nopony has left Zeus’ hull- making his available food supplies quite handy. It’s not like anypony wanted to stay seated for the entire time, comfortable or not. Their neural net experiment had lasted about five minutes after Twilight’s return, at which point nopony could think of anything it might be.

Pinkie Pie had spent a lot of time in party planning cave access deprivation as she tried to decide exactly how to throw a party in the passenger bay. She’d eventually exhausted her supply of ideas and dropped into one of Zeus’ medical nanovats.

Applejack and Rainbow had spent much of their time pacing back and forth across an empty troop compartment, while Rarity had spent almost her entire time redesigning Zeus’ interior aesthetics. He had placed limits on it; priority is function, not appearance. Even so, she managed to leave him with some rather beautiful troop compartments and passages, all without obstructing anything.

Fluttershy had spent much of the time since linked through her comset. Zeus has tasked one of his drones near her house, allowing her to use it to at least see her animal friends. Some of them had seemed to look for her when she never showed up, causing her a few wistful looks at the door, but they had all eventually taken care of themselves.

Not to be outdone, Twilight has also spent much of her time linked through her comset. She’s been in constant communication with both Fluttershy and Zeus while she works. Zeus has somehow ‘tuned’ his antimagic screens to let hers and Rarity’s powers through without issue, though it will still block everything else. Thanks to this, Twilight has been scanning everything she can think of outside his hull with her magic- including the monsters still pegging uselessly at the doors. More than once, Zeus has pulled some useful fact out of some datum she thought insignificant; she’s sharing her scan results with him in real time. He’s also identified his own nanites for her in the soil around, gathering resources for use in construction… Or food.

Speaking of food, Zeus has presented the strangest cuisine anypony has ever seen. He has even provided recipes for his ‘vegetable stir fry’ (He’d confirmed a meat version of it exists) and ‘curry’. He’d even one-upped Pinkie’s cupcakes- an act which Twilight estimates has ignited a cupcake war.

They have yet to identify their attacker, but Zeus and Twilight have been able to confirm that Discord’s plunderseeds had been completely eradicated when they placed the Elements back on the Tree of Harmony. They’ve also managed to confirm that whatever is causing the injuries is using their connections to the Elements to reach them. Twilight has suggested they try removing the Elements from the Tree again; it could, they figure, be something possessing- or attempting to, at least- the Tree itself. On this suggestion, Zeus has manufactured something to allow them to do just that.

Now, as they prepare to leave, Zeus presents them with saddlebags. The metallic spider-things that had delivered them had frightened everypony- except, visibly at least, Twilight and Fluttershy. These two were still linked- and Zeus had recognized, responded to, and calmed their fears before they had time to manifest fully. These unopenable and somewhat heavy saddlebags, Zeus informs them, carry similar antimagic screens as he uses, to project over a pony- though they will only last for about twelve hours before they run out of power. He informs everypony that they have been calibrated, like his own screens, not to hinder their personal magics. Other magic directed towards them, such as their enemy or any other unicorns, will bounce off- and he warns them that this might include Harmony magic, though their links to their Elements seem to pass through the barriers unhindered.

Nopony knows, just yet, about Zeus’ magic reactors. He also hasn’t told them about what more he’s learned during their neural link session. Their knowledge of magic allowed him to improve maximum velocity on countergravs by 73.49%, making him the first supersonic Bolo, and Hellbore capacity by 1204.39%. If he holds down to normal maximum power, even his main battery Hellbores have a fairly negligible backblast- and he can now pummel an enemy with Hellbore rounds thirteen times as powerful as before. Naturally, everything is still fully operable at previously normal capacities if he does not apply magic. He’s also managed to improve the maximum yield on any given missile by 1439.41%- and is working on allowing the missile to pick and choose what is destroyed in the blast, if held to normal maximum yield.

In any case, as he sends them out with their saddlebag shields, he is confident that he can bring direct-fire weapons to their aid anywhere in the forest in as little as 9.71 seconds. After all, a 4392.73% increase in countergrav-based thrust doesn’t only allow supersonic flight- but also makes the terrain resting atop his hull no longer present an obstacle to his deployment. He has installed a couple of his magic canisters alongside his main power reserves; once the mana flowing from his reactors collects to full strength in his weapons and countergravs, he will charge these up- in case he must burn more mana than he can produce. He’s already identified situations like this- magic will allow him to violate fire rate caps with impunity, though he expects a single main battery Hellbore firing full-powered rounds doubletime will burn up his entire mana production capacity- that same capacity being enough to operate all eight main battery Hellbores on full-powered rounds at a normal firing rate. Once these batteries are fully filled, he expects to have enough mana floating around- in total- to operate all of his weapons at maximum magic augmentation (including doubletime on Hellbores & VLS systems) continuously for almost two hours.

The time required to charge it up, though, is measured in days- and that only if he runs all four reactors at full power. Since only one is online, and holding idle, it’ll take close to six months to hit full charge. He considers this acceptable for now, if only because he does not expect to encounter an enemy for which he will require this additional power- and besides, a single reactor at idle produces enough for a maximum strength main battery Hellbore shot every thirty seconds or so anyways- meaning he has enough for fifteen shots by the time they actually cross the threshold.

Of course, Twilight has no trouble whatsoever- what with her still-overcharged horn- blowing the monster in the tunnel they selected into oblivion. She follows this up with the monsters from the other tunnels as they charge over to meet the advancing ponies, before the six break into a gallop through the Everfree, towards the Tree of Harmony.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm going much slower than I used to be. Life's getting in the way a lot more, sorry. Once they fend off this foe in the coming chapters, I'm planning on trying for some good old Slice o' Life activity.

Mistaken Investigation

The cream mare stands in the door, staring upon the scene.

The first thing anypony might notice is that the ceiling is sagging. Beyond that, it looks exquisite to the untrained eye. It’s also empty- and the mare noticed the absence of the bell ring when she opened the door.

Her minty friend trots up next to her, and widens her eyes. “Wow.”

The earth pony raises an eyebrow. “Crusaders?” she asks.

The unicorn shakes her head. “There’s six holes in the ceiling, each going out the roof, gathered around her couch. If…” Her horn glows momentarily, again. “Yes. If you separate the back, sides, and cushions, apply some tears to each of the pieces, and freeze them rock solid, you’ll get something that fits through each of those holes like a glove.” She looks at Bonbon. “This is not the Crusaders, this is a very powerful magic surge- probably originated upstairs.” She gestures at the sagging ceiling.

The two trot into the boutique, Lyra closing the door behind them. Two pieces of candy out of Bonbon’s mane later and they fade out.

It’s Bonbon’s latest formula. Not only does it let them turn completely invisible at will for up to eight hours, but it also makes them completely silent over the same period. They can still speak to other ponies at will, but can speak only to each other- and other ponies won’t hear a thing. They’ll also see each other, invisible or not.

They pause where Rarity’s couch had been, looking up at the holes. Bonbon breaks out her notepad and, two minutes later, has the estimated landing location of each piece of the couch. They can check those out later.

Next, they begin a slow climb up the stairs, watching carefully left, right, up, and down. Also forwards and backwards. The last thing they want to do is to get caught, after all.

“Right at the top of the stairs, then the third door on our… Left.” Lyra’s navigational update stops when they reach the landing, finding the hallway to be obstructed by debris. She sighs. “So, climb over or clear?”

Bonbon facehooves. They’d been over this before. “We’re climbing over it,” she replies. “We might have to clear some to get in the door, or to find evidence, but we’re leaving it as untouched as possible.”

Lyra nods, and they walk up to the debris pile. “Looks like the ceiling fell in here,” Lyra observes. “Though it’s still intact in the rooms on either side- interesting.”

“I do despise shoddy workponyship,” Bonbon returns. “Rarity probably won’t be too impressed when she finds out how carelessly built her hallways were.”

Lyra agrees silently, as they climb over the debris, eventually sliding their way through a gap in the debris into their targeted room.

They both blink at the scene in front of them.

“Well,” Bonbon mutters, “At least we’ve found the epicenter. I wonder what got into Rarity’s bedroom?” She races over to the visible epicenter, Rarity’s beauty station, to begin hunting for clues.

This is the part that Bonbon is good at, Lyra considers: Evidence and deductions. She does tend to suffer from tunnel vision, though, and has been known to miss important details located elsewhere- like the rumors that had spawned this mission, for example.

So Lyra considers her job during this phase: Scan for anything important that might not be in the immediate vicinity of the event. It’s also her job to alert Bonbon if somepony is coming.

She spots an interesting metal box sitting on the floor near a crushed cabinet. She tries scanning it with her power, but comes back with nothing- it’s an empty box. She’s tempted to drag it back home for examination, but Bonbon would never allow that- besides, it doesn’t look like debris, so it must belong to Rarity. Even with her fascination with technology, she is most decidedly not a thief. She then turns to the cabinet, pulling away a piece of debris- looks like the top of the cabinet- to reveal two more of these box things. One of them looks to have been crushed, though one looks to only be dented. As she pulls debris out of the way, a higher piece falls on top of the dented box with a sickening crunch. A surge of her power lifts that debris off it again as she reaches in with a hoof to remove it from the danger zone.

“GAH!” She leaps three feet into the air, surprised by the sudden surge of magic. The debris she’d lifted crashes back down on it.

Bonbon jumps only slightly, whipping up to view her assistant. “What?”

“Felt like a magic security system!” The two invisible ponies exchange glances and bolt for the exit. While Bonbon’s candy will fool ponies with no trouble, magic is far harder to fool. Oftentimes, the only way to avoid getting caught by those systems is to run.

They make it out in time, maintaining their invisibility- and gallop- until after they are inside their own house, through the back door. Finally, they allow themselves to appear, after checking their own magic security systems to be sure it’s safe.

“I hate it when we have to run like that,” Bonbon mutters.

Lyra looks at her hoof. “With the amount of energy it had in it, I’m surprised we had enough time to reach the hallway, let alone escape before the alarm went off.” Then her ear flicks. “Come to think of it, did that alarm ever go off…?”

Bonbon blinks. “No, I don’t think it did… Maybe that blast damaged it?”

“Maybe, yes. You got those notes on the landing sites?”

“Ahh, yes! Here they are…”

Three hours later, the two ponies return to their house. Neither of them had expected just how much destruction a simple couch cushion could do against a cloud home. Rainbow Dash had been miffed when they called her up to let her know about the six foot hole through her entire mansion. They’d found the remnants of the offending cushion in an inch-deep crater on the ground. At least nopony had been hurt- by that or any of the other pieces.

They close the front door gently, look around, and let out a breath before they head for the kitchen. It’s Bonbon’s turn to make dinner, so Lyra sits down- and breaks out a piece of paper. “Too bad we couldn’t find the alicorn,” she mutters.

Bonbon nods. “Rarity didn’t seem overly surprised by the damage, though. Maybe she’d already seen it?”

“Seems most likely. Though, I thought Rarity seemed a lot touchier than normal.”

“Of course- her house was smashed. I’m more wondering how she got it fixed so fast.” During the two hours between their visits, the second one being with Rarity, all of the damages had seemed to disappear. They’d had to tell Rarity about the damages observable from outside. Sweetie Belle had also gotten home during that time, and was chatting animatedly with the other two Crusaders- and somepony that looked much like a pegasus version of herself. The three adult mares had been introduced to Whiteout, a new member.

“Not that,” Lyra scowls. “She was afraid of something, I think. Plus, her cutie mark is different.”

Bonbon almost drops the two bowls as she carries them back to the table. “Different? Please don’t tell me Twilight’s messing with the Elements again.”

Lyra laughs. “Nah, even you would’ve noticed that. No, the change was much more subtle than that.” She finishes drawing on the page, and slides it over to Bonbon across the tabletop, accepting her salad in the same magical motion.

Bonbon looks at the image. From a distance, it’s Rarity’s cutie mark- the same as it’s always been. Only, when she looks closer, she realizes that’s far from the truth. The three diamonds are still identical, though the nine segments of each are no longer plain purple. Each of them carries a faint image of a pony’s head. Bonbon recognizes Twilight in the middle, the other five Element Bearers and the three Crusaders in the eight segments surrounding it, including Rarity herself.

Though, she’s pretty sure Apple Bloom and Scootaloo don’t have horns.

“You sure this is true?” she asks.

Lyra nods, chowing down on her salad. “That’s what I saw. Maybe Rarity knows about that alicorn?”

Bonbon looks up at her, then out the window at the dimness of early night. “She’s already turned in for the night,” she scowls.

“One night won’t hurt,” Lyra agrees. “It’s not the kind of intel that goes stale at this point… I think.”

Bonbon looks at her, considering. “Either that or it’s already stale,” she mutters, but finally agrees. “No point in bothering her tonight, yes.”

They turn in for the night shortly later.

“Yow!” Almost as soon as Lyra falls completely asleep, she yelps back awake. Something was burning her back!

Bonbon hadn’t quite gotten to sleep yet, and instantly returns to full wakefulness next to her. “What happened?” she asks.

Lyra, horn glowing as she searches uselessly for the irritant, scowls. “Something burned my back,” she scowls. The burning feeling had faded out almost as soon as she awoke. “Though I’m not seeing anything.”

Twenty minutes of searching later, they return to bed.

“Yowch!”

Lyra awakens quickly in the morning. Every time she’d gotten asleep, she’d shortly been awakened by a burning pain on her back. The first few times, they’d searched for the culprit- all to no avail. So, finally, they’d used one of Bonbon’s lesser sleeping candies, intended for short naps. It had been enough to put her asleep for an hour and a half- but she’d slept soundly ‘till morning anyways. Bonbon, without using any such candy, is still sleeping next to her.

Lyra scowls. She’s normally not a morning pony, so why does she feel so full of energy…?

She tilts her head slightly, before turning towards Bonbon, to wake her up. She’d been facing away… And she stops, lying on her back.

Had that burn been dark magic? They hadn’t thought to check for that. Shoot- had they thought of it, they might’ve been able to stop it from turning her into a pegasus!

Wait… She might not be able to feel her power awaiting her command inside her horn anymore, but she still feels her normal magic. She raises one hoof to her forehead… And stops when it comes into contact with her horn.

Her horn, still attached to her forehead, while her wings twitch under the covers.

What exactly had happened?

She holds this position, using the gentle pressure on her horn to remind herself constantly that she still has it, while she thinks.

Eventually, Bonbon awakes, stretches, and looks at Lyra. Her head tilts inquisitively. “Lyra? Is something wrong?”

“I…” Lyra begins, trailing off, and looks at Bonbon, her hoof dropping back to the sheets. “I haven’t changed, have I?”

Bonbon blinks. “You still look the same to me.”

Lyra looks back at the ceiling. “I think I’ve figured it out,” she mutters. “Our new alicorn… is Rarity.”

Bonbon blinks. “She didn’t have wings,” she answers, and begins clambering out of bed.

At this, Lyra laughs. “You’ve told me your suspicions about alicorn magic, right?”

Bonbon is getting good at blinking confusedly. “Yes?”

“And how they can do things without a magic aura?”

She doesn’t blink this time. “Yes?”

Lyra looks at her. “I’ll bet she has wings now- and is using that magic to hide them. She’s probably afraid they’ll be detected, and worried about what we’ll think if we realize she has them.”

The earth pony’s eyes widen. “That would also explain her changed cutie mark,” she mutters. “Wouldn’t explain why the images of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom have horns, though.”

At this, Lyra smiles. “Unless they’ve also been turned into alicorns,” she mutters. “We know Flurry Heart’s power was present from birth, right?”

“Also? But there’s only one!”

“Only one we’ve heard about,” she corrects. “Rarity must’ve panicked and run for something before she hid them. The Crusaders could’ve been transformed as well, but just hidden their wings and/or horns before they went out into the world.”

Bonbon raises an eyebrow. “They couldn’t have ascended,” she answers. “Only fully mature ponies with cutie marks can ascend, remember? Starswirl tried that several times before Princess Luna got her mark.”

“And the ascension requires active, willing participation of the ascender, right?”

“Of course. Otherwise, the spell won’t take hold and nothing will happen.”

“I most certainly didn’t participate in any ascension, though.”

“Of course not- you’re a unicorn, not an alicorn.”

Lyra smiles, and slides out of bed, slipping out from under the covers as her hooves reach the floor. “Say that again?”

Bonbon blinks, and sidesteps to get a clearer view of the minty green unicorn’s wings, her jaw hanging wide. “What in Equestria…?”

“Whatever happened to Rarity- and probably the Crusaders too- seems to have happened to me,” she mutters, looking at her own wings for the first time- and spreading them at the same time. She winces at the ruffled feathers, and turns back to Bonbon, folding them casually. “You happen to have any experience caring for wings?”

Bonbon passes out.

Lyra rolls her eyes. “Really?” She glances at her wings, thinking of the various disguise spells she could use- and finds she doesn’t need any of them to make herself look like a unicorn once again. She lets them reappear and starts straightening her feathers, very carefully, by magic. It simply wouldn’t do to look like that when she disguises herself as a pegasus to stop by the wing care shop- or to talk to various pegasi around town, to find out how they care for their wings, under the pretense of looking for the best care methods, not the most expensive. After disappearing her wings once again, she heads downstairs, places Bonbon in a chair at the kitchen table, and starts making breakfast. It is her turn today, after all.

Maybe now is a good time to find out why the Elements keep running to that hill like they live there, she considers a few minutes later, while she eats. She makes a magical checkup on Bonbon, just to make sure she’s actually going to wake up again. Once she finishes her meal, she transfers the still unconscious Bonbon to the couch, makes another checkup and heads out on her own. As much as she loves Bonbon, the older mare can sometimes be a little overbearing- like how she almost never leaves Lyra alone, especially during their free days, like today.

So, to the hill it is. As she goes, she casts the image of herself down some side alley while she turns herself completely invisible. It used to take a massive amount of power- plus one of Bonbon’s candies- to manage this, but now it’s as easy as a casual thought, even without the candy. Once it gets out of sight, the image will disappear; it’s function is to disguise where she’s really going. She turns the other way out of Ponyville, trotting gently towards that hill. She’d noticed Rarity toting a box of those cubes into town from this direction a week ago, and since seen her regularly stepping on a cube as she worked in the boutique. Then, there’d been that surge when she touched the cube, and something turned her into an alicorn overnight.

Perhaps whatever created the cubes will have an answer for her? She recalls that all the other cubes she’d seen were crushed or otherwise damaged. She’d scanned the crushed one still in the cabinet, finding no magic of any kind, before moving to pull the other one out, resulting in its crushing. The more she thinks about it, the less and less the surge from that cube feels like the security system she’d thought it to be when she first felt it.

So what was it? She trots up the hill, holding her invisibility, to stand on the edge of the giant crater. It’s long since grown far beyond the Everfree; two more of the big massive weapons have been revealed on the far side, several hundred meters away. They’ve also revealed many thousands of smaller weapons across the top of this thing. Whatever it is, it’s something very dangerous… Wait. Why did some of the not-so-weapon things hidden between the weapons swivel to point at her? She’s completely invisible! She dodges back below the crest of the hill, away from the crater, to where she can’t see it- and, if it can see, it can’t see her. She hopes.

She looks around again- and suddenly gets a feeling she should be headed back down the hill, though not quite towards Ponyville. She peeks down into the crater- those things are still pointed at her- and slips back down the hill, following that hidden direction. She’d been certain the Elements were doing something in or near the crater, but she doesn’t want to risk blowing her cover just yet. She’s also never felt which way to go before. Is this something specific to alicorns, or something else? Is this some kind of navigation spell she accidentally cast?

She freezes suddenly, hoof suspended in the air over a cave entrance. She takes a deep breath, finally understanding where the Elements keep going… And right away, the feeling of where to go disappears. Regardless, she’s found it- so she hops down into the cave and disappears calmly into the darkness. With the combat training Bonbon gave her, she’s confident she can take on any pony that might be down here- combined with her new alicorn magic, she figures she can handle anything she encounters. After a check up and down the tunnel, she allows herself to reappear, as a unicorn. If that thing in the crater could see her when she’s invisible, she doesn’t want to risk looking like she’s trying to sneak in. That cave was simply a cave- rather well camouflaged, but still a cave that she could have found if she combed the hillside thoroughly enough- or happened across it. Whatever is in here probably expects ponies to happen across it- probably what happened with the Elements, she figures, suddenly curious which one was first.

Now visible, she checks herself over real quick. No wings, check. Wait… Cutie mark changed slightly, check. That won’t likely be a problem- not many will realize the lyre on her flanks now bears the alicorn emblem engraved on the center of its frame, nearly invisible. Whatever… She turns back forwards and proceeds down the tunnel. It is interesting how it never acquires a foreboding feel, nor darkens quite enough for her to need to light her horn. When she checks for magic, she finds none. Whatever is down here must be powerful; she readies a teleportation spell to get her outside as she proceeds.

Wow, this sure is deep… though her standby teleportation spell disagrees, she realizes. The tunnel is deceptively long. One final corner leaves her facing a strange, flat metal wall. A door is standing open in the middle of it, though- high enough for even Celestia to walk through without ducking. Did the Princesses make this? She treads slowly forwards through the darkness.

She feels a slight ripple in the air as she crosses the threshold, but her disguise seems unhindered- she checks. Her teleport spell, still standing by, shows the same result. Must be some kind of protective barrier, to keep the wrong kinds of ponies out- not unlike the one in the front doorway into the Castle of Friendship. She smiles, walking on, and fails to notice when the door slides silently shut behind her.

Lyra finally reaches a large room, filled with empty seats, but nothing scary. After a quick search through the darkness, including a magic scan, she allows her teleport to collapse. She shouldn’t be needing it on a moment’s notice- nothing can possibly get into here, except through the (confirmed) safe route she took.

Only then, the room suddenly lights up.

“Waah!” Her startled jump places her against the closed door she’d just walked through- which she now realizes is closed.

“My apologies, did I frighten you?” a stallion asks.

Lyra’s heart races, magic-powered escape having instantly abandoned her mind. “Who are you?” she demands, looking around wildly.

He chuckles. “My name is Zeus- and I’m afraid you won’t find anything there, unless you’re looking for a seat to rest in.”

She blinks, forcing herself to calm down as she unplasters herself from the corner. “Where are you?”

The answer is a string of numbers… map coordinates, she realizes- not unlike the ones Bonbon had for where those couch parts had landed. She raises an eyebrow. “That is?”

She can somehow hear a shrug in his voice. “I thought a secret agent type like yourself would appreciate coordinates,” he mutters. “The issue is, I’m not a pony. Rather, I’m a machine. A machine so massive that, even though my center of mass is located approximately 793.41 meters from your current position, this room is part of me.”

She blinks. “What?”

“Yes. I am a machine the size of Ponyville.”

Another blink. “Wow. You wouldn’t happen to know about the stuff in the bottom of the crater outside, would you?”

“Actually, I would. A portion of my aft hull stands revealed in the bottom of that crater.”

Silence holds for several seconds.

“That’s you?” she asks.

“Yes, that’s me. I would ask that you don’t tell anypony- I doubt the Elements could take the shock very well. The way I hear it, the Princesses turned their dining room ethereally inside-out and went to the moon when I told them. I do keep hearing rumors about a teapot being involved.”

Lyra stands still for a few seconds. “You don’t happen to know about any new alicorns, do you?”

“Aside from yourself, that is?”

“What? I’m not!” She glance at her back, just to make sure. Still invisible.

He chuckles. “Apologies, but against my sensors, that kind of thing is impossible to hide.”

Her eyes widen, her jaw hanging for a few seconds. “You’re not going to tell anypony, are you?”

“Nope,” he mutters. “I never knew, as far as they’re concerned. I am curious exactly how you ended up changing.”

Lyra looks at the floor. “You’re not gonna hold it against me, nor tell anypony, right?”

“Cross my fusion plant, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my optical pickup,” he answers.

She blinks. “Uh, what?”

“A pinkie promise, Bolo style. I don’t exactly have either a heart or an eye, so I substituted in the closest analogue.”

“Bolo?”

“It’s what I am.”

“Ahh… I have to ask, did Rarity get turned into an alicorn?”

“Before I answer any questions of that nature, I’m afraid I must be certain confidentiality will be maintained,” the answer comes.

Lyra blinks. “So she did?”

“That was not an answer to the question. No matter who you ask about, I cannot answer anything about my alicornation process- or who has received it- without first verifying confidentiality will be maintained.”

“Oh. I can promise that, yes.”

“From everypony, even Bonbon?”

She winces, considering for a few seconds. It’d hurt to have to conceal it from Bonbon… But she could do that, yes. “Yes.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

She winces again. He’s certainly not leaving any stone uncovered- good thing she knows a helpful spell related to pinkie promises. “Uh… How long?”

“Until released,” the response comes back instantly, “Or until such time as the information is revealed to the public. I can recommend Blackout Pie’s Promise Keeper.”

Lyra blinks when he names the very spell she’d been thinking about and, after hardly a second of consideration, answers. “Sure.” Her horn lights up. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she states. Normally, it’s a very draining spell- as it can last for many years- but she hardly notices the drain as it takes hold. It won’t work against conscious decisions to break the promise, but it will help her avoid accidentally breaking it. It should be very interesting, she contemplates, helping Bonbon investigate what Zeus is about to tell her… Without letting on that she’ll know already.

Zeus wastes no time. “A week ago, shortly after I informed the Princesses as to my identity, Rarity suffered injury by incomplete teleport, permanently incapacitating the part of her heart that produces mana. As a result, I presented her with a few dozen canisters of magic power, sourced from my own reactors, which I have adjusted to be capable of magic production in similar manner as the missing magic gland. These canisters, appearing as small cubes, served more than one function. The first, and only one I told anypony about, was to recharge Rarity’s horn whenever it got low during her work. Exactly as expected, she burned through them rapidly.

“The other function they serve is activated when the control surface is crushed inwards. You didn’t happen to have touched a freshly-crushed one, did you?”

She blinks. “Yes, actually, I did.”

“That explains your transformation,” he resumes. “This second function is a hybrid between the magic transfer spell and Starswirl’s ascension spell, using a surge of power fit to burn up an Alicorn. The Crusaders were my first testbed; following that success, I used it to rejuvenate Flurry Heart-”

“-WHAT?-”

“- and rather permanently repair Rarity’s magic. That was everypony I had planned this for; you must’ve slipped in after Rarity’s ascension, before I reviewed the area for any surviving canisters.”

She blinks. “Yes, it was the last one. A piece of debris landed on it, and it shocked me when I moved to pull it away.”

“That would do it. The transformation is completely harmless, though also irreversible.”

“So Bonbon is gonna have a fit every morning and I’m gonna have to learn to take care of them,” she scowls.

“I rather doubt the first; she’s mostly just in shock by now. She’s used to studying the concrete- and my process seems to have broken that. Oh well- she’ll recover, and I’m not exactly from Equestria anyways. She’ll probably be back to normal in a few days. As for you and caring for your wings, I can reduce that to nothing if you hop into one of those seats.”

She raises an eyebrow, but obeys. “This better not be a lie,” she mutters.

Zeus chuckles. “I may be better at lying than Discord himself, but no, it’s not one.”

At this, while half-way seated, Lyra freezes. “Better than Discord?”

“Yes. I’m a Bolo- and bolos are masters of deception. I could probably convince Applejack she could walk to the moon if I wanted to.”

“Ahh, but she can see lies with her magic,” Lyra replies.

“And you know not how that magic- or I, for that matter- works. Her magic works by interfacing with the soul. If that soul is dishonest, she detects the shame- and recognizes the lie for what it is. I, on the other hand, have no soul. Even if I did, she can’t detect dishonesty in a recorded or written statement- and my speech is, quite literally, playback of a recording. It doesn’t matter that the recording was instantly generated microseconds before- and even during- playback, it’s still simple playback. As such, there is no dishonesty- or honesty, for that matter- for her to detect. By the way, would you like a commset?”

Lyra, having finished settling into the seat while Zeus talked, tilts her head slightly. “A what?”

“A commset. It’s a well-hidden piece of technology you can use to talk to me from afar.”

She rests her head against the headrest. “Sure. Is it a problem to get one for Bonbon too?”

“She’ll have to come here to get it,” he replies. “They’re custom-built.”

“Ahh.” She blinks. “You said you had something for my wings?”

“Yes. Technology is certainly convenient- as of twelve seconds ago, your wings will clean and preen themselves forevermore.”

“Wow. You don’t happen to be able to teach me to fly, do you?”

“Actually, thanks to Flurry Heart, I can.”

Lyra is about to ask, her head resting against the oddly comfortable metal headrest, when it happens.

Author's Note

*doubles record high chapter word count*