A New Hope

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10 (Rewritten)
Chapter 12 (Rewritten)
Chapter 13
Chapter 3
Chapter 11 (Rewritten)

Chapter 1

“We’re losing.”

The six friends blink. “What?”

Discord nods slowly. Princess Celestia had already warned them that the information is about as top secret as it gets- but honestly, he’s not surprised.

Celestia nods as well. “We’re losing,” she repeats. “That’s why we’re planning this next assault to contain every one of us… and you.

“The Elements of Harmony are our last hope. We think we’ve located their main command and control post, just outside the Crystal Empire… or where it once stood, at any rate. We’re planning one final push at it with the largest force we can manage- including myself, Luna, and you, Discord. We’ll have the Element Bearers follow in the rear- and pull to the front as we reach their base; the Elements of Harmony should be able to destroy their base without issue.”

“Um, you do know they have shielded themselves against my power, right?” Discord asks.

She nods. “We are aware. We are also aware we haven’t used the Elements against them yet- and that those same Elements, in the past, have trumped even your own power not once but twice.” She surveys the party. “We can only pray the Elements are powerful enough to pierce their shields.”

Applejack scowls at the map they’re seated around. “There ain’t no way this is gonna end well.”

The battle is a disaster. Nothing shy of an utter disaster.

But in the cold calculus of war, it’s actually going well. They’re losing a lot of soldiers- but they’re reaching their objective.

The Element Bearers gallop up the battlefield, getting themselves in range for the Elements to do their magic. Their army has reached its target position; they won’t be in danger of attack by the enemy. Much.

They stop. Just ahead, both the Princesses and Discord are duking it out on the front lines. Each of them easily wipes out multiple enemy soldiers with each blow- but this enemy has numbers. Where from, they aren’t certain; there had never been this many minotaurs and centaurs before. At least the Griffins- who could have bypassed the shield surrounding Canterlot- have declared their neutrality in this conflict.

They activate the Elements of Harmony, specify their target. It takes a few seconds for the magic to build, before the giant rainbow laser blasts overtop the army and slams into the barriers surrounding their enemy’s base. Barrier after barrier falls under this onslaught- and very suddenly, before they manage to penetrate the last one, something strikes them in return. The rainbows, in the absence of the Elements, disappear just as quickly as they came.

Discord makes a bash against the remaining barriers. Unfortunately, they still hold- so, mission failed, the entire army begins its retreat, the Element Bearers nowhere to be seen. The army regroups, and they recheck, but the Elements and their Bearers had simply disappeared.

“We’ve lost,” Princess Luna despairs. She, Celestia, and Discord have drawn away from their army, and covered themselves in a privacy barrier.

Celestia only lets out a sigh, hanging her head.

“Not yet,” Discord states defiantly. “If the Elements can cut through that wall and I can move the Elements around, there has to be something else I can move that can cut through that wall.”

Celestia looks towards him. “But the Elements were wiped out,” she mutters.

He shakes his head. “Not quite. The Elements protected themselves- and the Bearers- quite well… but as near as I can tell, they were still teleported all across Equestria.” He shakes his head. “Even I can’t tell where they are.”

“Then we have but to look for them,” Luna states.

Discord sighs. “I’m pretty sure they’ll just scatter them again. I think it’s time we stopped putting all our eggs in one basket- you go ahead and locate the Elements, I’ll see if I can’t find something else.”

Celestia raises an eyebrow. “Where might that be?”

He shrugs. “I have access to the multiverse, Princess. I’ll find the biggest, most powerful weapon I can get my paws on and drag it back here to- hopefully- assure us victory.”

She nods. “Then let it so be. We will regroup the Elements of Harmony while you track down a new hope.” She gazes directly at the draconequus for a second. “We wish you luck.”

As the two Princesses begin their short trek back to their army and order a general retreat, Discord embarks upon his journey by stepping through a portal. He has many worlds to sift through, most likely, before he discovers a suitable weapon.

At least none of these worlds have the same overhead on them that Equus has- that terrible overhead, generated from he knows not where behind the enemy lines, that blocks him from assuming an omnipotent state. Or, what he calls an omnipotent state; it’s not truly omnipotent. When he does this, though, he takes up no physical space, scattering the energy of his being across the land. It can be confusing if he’s not careful- but he can scan vast amounts of land very quickly.

This first world he has found himself shows nothing more impressive than acid saliva. While undoubtedly amusing, these ‘zerg’ would be more destructive to Equestria than helpful. Besides, he doubts their sharpened claws would be any more effective against trained soldiers- let alone hardened, magical barriers- than the spears and swords of the Equestrian Royal Guard turned Royal Equestrian Army. He crosses into another world.

This world is fairly interesting- one that he might have enjoyed, back in his day. Maybe he’ll visit sometime; there seems to be two entire societies, interpenetrating each other but not interacting. One has some weapons he could use; while more effective than simple swords, these sharp-object-spewing sticks would be fairly easy to counter… and difficult to use, nevermind hard to make ammunition for. The other society uses wooden sticks as their weapon of choice, launching magic out of them… Distorted magic, sure, but still. He reviews this for a moment but, after finding the magic to be basic next to what unicorns can do, discards these sticks as insufficient. The flying two-wheeled vehicle was amusing, he concedes, before passing on to another world.

At first glance, this third world looks the same as the second. Upon closer examination, though, he discovers a couple of immortal races- but no new weapons. Sure, native bipeds that can turn into incredibly strong (and fast) wolves might be nice, and sparkly-skinned tougher-than-steel and super-speeded bipeds that feed on their more typical relatives’ blood are well and good, but neither fit his requirement. He skips to the next world.

In the fourth world, he actually finds himself in deep space, rather than near a planet. Well, not deep space; there are those two metal contraptions duking it out with incredibly ineffective laser beams. Seriously, he could do more damage than that with the flick of his paw! He watches the one- with ‘NX-01’ printed on it- eventually win the engagement… but not only is this thing too big for him to take back with him, he doesn’t think he could have a hope of controlling it, even with ponies’ help; it seems to be operated by as many as a few hundred locals! He continues to the next world.

Another world with massive crew counts on massive weapons. This one even has some kind of laser cannon he watches destroy an entire world- and, what’s more, some of the locals even use a little magic! … and call it the ‘Force’. Whatever; every weapon big enough to maybe do the job is either controlled by several hundred (or more) locals, or simply too big for him to take back. He skips to the next world.

This sixth world looks a little strange… He leaves it far behind as soon as he spots the talking sponge. He will not allow that abomination anywhere near Equestria!

The seventh world looks a bit more satisfactory. Only, the only weapons he can spot are either similar to the ones he’d seen on the second and third worlds… or mounted to a spaceship the size of the moon. Unfortunately, he can’t take anything remotely that large, so he continues his search.

Another world in space seems to be number eight. Honestly, as he watches that tiny ship- CL-56- smash that other ship many times its own size from so far away it couldn’t possibly see its target, he’d love to bring that back with him- but it requires too large of a crew… Oh, and it’s also a bit too heavy. He notes this world for possible review once the war is over, though; one can never be too prepared and, given enough time, he can bring over things that large.

Number nine also takes place in space. He watches one ship float in space for a few seconds before it launches a single missile to incinerate an entire starsystem. Unfortunately, that missile alone was far too large for him to bring with- so the whole ship… He really doesn’t stand a chance. Next world.

Ten seems similar to the second and third, though it has a little tiny four-wheeled vehicle burning one point twenty-one jigga-watts to travel through time. Amusing, but nothing useful.

Eleven features giant robots punching giant monsters. As much as he can’t wait for the sequel, the robots are disappointingly useless for their size, so he has to skip.

Twelve has a blue box hopping between worlds and through time, fixing problems with a screwdriver. None of the weapons are satisfying.

Thirteen, however, looks a little better. These giant hunks of alloy will be right on the edge of what he can jump back to Equestria- and, if he exerts himself, he can get even the biggest one of them out. Not only that, but with only one-native crews, they’re completely decimating the battlefield! He doubts he will be able to point that many guns at once, the way these people are, but he is impressed by their sheer firepower- and their ability to generate their own defensive force fields. That don’t interdict their own fire, only their opponents’.

He looks a little closer. These things should be perfect for his needs- and, of course, he picks the biggest one on the battlefield. The one that just jumped across the battlefield- through the worldwall, he thinks- to flank its enemy. He starts setting up his spell matrix. He’d duplicate it if he could- but at the moment, he doesn’t have near enough power to do that.

As he does so, he watches as his target machine takes many hits from its opposing weapons. Many of them glance off of its defensive force field; a few more simply disappear against its side. The few dozen that make it through simply crater its armor.

One of its lesser buddies takes a shot in the middle of its side, and explodes with the fury of… he doesn’t know what, but that blast would easily level Manehattan. He sets up his spell to self-activate, should his target machine suffer any kind of similar damage, before it can blow apart. Little damages like six-meter holes in critical components he can fix, once he gets back to Equestria. Major damages like that explosion, not so much.

He finishes his adjustment, and finishes crafting his spell. Now, he has only to accumulate the power necessary to transfer the thing, then pull it out of this battle before it suffers too much damage. After all, it does take time to fix… and it’s just beyond that which he can transport immediately.

However, as its companions die, it starts taking more fire- and, eventually, takes crippling damage. His spell auto-activates- and instantly zeroes his available energy, still demanding more. He falls into the blackness of unconsciousness- the same bliss that any energy being will experience, when fully drained of all its energy.

Author's Note

*Sigh* Yes, another one. This makes Bolo story #13.
In case anypony can't figure it out, these are the worlds he encountered:

1: Starcraft, on a Zerg-infested world
2: Harry Potter books (Not the movies). He noticed Hagrid’s bike.
3: Twilight books (Not the movies)
4: Star Trek: Enterprise
5: Star Wars. He saw the Death Star.
6: Spongebob.
7: Mutineer’s Moon, probably the first book.
8: Honorverse, during the First Battle of Basilisk.
9: Unpublished fiction. Same ship as Crashland: Equestria and The First Equestrian Starliner.
10: Back to the Future
11: Pacific Rim
12: Doctor Who
13: Keith Laumer’s Bolo-verse, where the Final War never ended.

YES, this is setting this story up to have numerous potential sequels. Fortunately, FimFiction is perfectly happy with a single story hosting several sequels... Or, co-sequels?

Chapter 2

I snapshot my upper port forward main battery, blowing apart the enemy Surtur- and the one behind it- with a single shot. Thanks to some massive surge in technology before my time, the three power-hungry main batteries of the seldom-built Mark XXXIX Bolo, despite being smaller than those of the XXXVIII, could pull off a power equivalent to several hundred Hellbores its size. Another breakthrough in power plants on the XXXIX left them ridiculously overpowered. I host two of the overpowered power plants the XXXIX only hosts one of; this, combined with the standard hot fusion plant required to power the startup sequence, leave me only slightly overpowered.

My main batteries are of the largest diameter ever built by the Concordiat, at a whopping four meters to the previous record, hardly 350cm. Each of my main batteries consumes enough power to operate an entire Mark XXXIX Bolo at full combat power levels. I host eight of them.

… Though six have been disabled by enemy fire. I snapshot my other remaining main battery, the lower starboard forward one, on another surtur. Two Fenris behind it disappear to the same round.

Of course, weapons and power technology isn’t the only thing to have improved over the years. I find myself wishing shield technology was among the breakthroughs; had it been, this battle wouldn’t be a lost cause. My battlescreens have been entirely overwhelmed by enemy fire for over 3.71 minutes now, leaving my armor- and systems- to absorb the damage.

Among the improvements is psychotronics. Testing showed that, with all the new psychotronic programming and advanced hardware modifications finally installed in my hull, there is actually no measurable difference in combat effectiveness when operating with or without a Commander on my command deck. I do find it interesting that I am actually the first truly new Bolo in over a hundred years. The first truly new personality. The first one that is truly an increment to the number of Bolos available to fight, rather than simply the restoration of an old Bolo’s mind into a new hull.

I am also the first one equipped with a hyper generator. Too bad even two of these ludicrously powerful power plants isn’t enough to run the thing very much; if it HAD been, I could have popped around the battlefield and delivered my hits while the enemy was still tracking its weapons around to figure out where I was. At least I can use it to perform flank attacks; when I performed my jump on the eave of this battle, the enemy was caught entirely by surprise; I enjoyed a full 7.41 seconds of unopposed fire. Even then, it took a total of almost 17.31 seconds- enough time for four rounds out of each of my main batteries- before I faced any kind of effective counter-fire.

My port main battery is disabled by one shot too many, gutting the firing gear inside. The armored access trunk seals instantly, the pressure venting through specially designed hatches. Fixing a Bolo of my size is many times easier than building a new one. I wish I could have saved the weapon- but losing a gun that’s still reloading is infinitely better than taking another hit to the already worryingly deep crater in my weaker flank armor- almost directly overtop my power plants. If those take a hit, even a single hit, I will become a fireball. Not only will this be expensive for the Concordiat, but my fancy new self-repair nanosystems won’t be able to put me back together. Any other disabling damage, save total destruction of all four personality centers and the backup databanks located throughout my hull, they can patch up, allowing me to restore myself to duty when the enemy least expects it. This is my goal in this battle; I went in knowing we could not win. So did all my brethren, and even the humans that ordered it. Seems like a waste of a one-of-a-kind Unit like myself… and the above-average-experienced Bolos I am fighting alongside.

My only surviving secondary Hellbore- a 300cm weapon- guts a Surtur. I’m running out of guns.

My third and final weapon, a mere Howitzer cannon, belches defiance against shields and armor it cannot hope to penetrate as it tracks across the battlefield. The moment a target vulnerable to high-explosive rounds gets in range, I’ve already got six dialed in to a fare-thee-well.

I really am getting bored, idly watching the Surtur dialing my surviving secondary to a fare-thee-well of its own. The weapon is still cooling from its shot; my surviving primary, aside from being on the other side of my hull, is pointed in the complete wrong direction. The MK XXXIX sported two full survival centers, but its programming only made use of one of them at a time; the other is a backup. Speaking of which, the XXXIX on my team- named Prometheus- is in the process of taking a direct hit to his active backup survival center. It’s been nice knowing you, Prometheus! Too bad even TSDS isn’t fast enough to tell him that. I, on the other hand, have four. I can run at full capacity with any one of them operational; with more than that, my programming- unlike his- is designed to run on all four at once. Collaborative computing, of course- it magnifies my available processing capacity, such that I can actually get bored mid-battle.

Two of my survival centers, the port forward and starboard rear, have been breached. With only three weapons, though, I lack the targeting requirements of all the other guns- and two is more than I need to handle all combat information at full speed. I consider the Surtur’s position, targeting my secondary battery. If I fire my main battery now, rather than waiting the additional 0.713 seconds for its normal cooldown period, I will redline the weapon’s temperature. At the same time, I will shift my hull such that this Surtur’s blow will strike not my secondary but the crater in my port hull, likely puncturing to my power plants. I estimate 0.212 seconds until its blow hits me; it’s already beginning the time-taking firing sequence on its weapon.

I do the electronic equivalent of tilting my head. My main battery is pointed directly at the main command and control node of this enemy army; all allied units have already been lost. Another enemy round is puncturing the armor protecting my port rear survival center as I consider; I have already marked that off as a casualty. My power plants have an emergency shutdown time of approximately 0.5 seconds. I estimate that my armor stands a 73.217% chance of deflecting this blow in time for the shutdown to reduce plasma levels far enough my hull will remain intact- and self-repairable- after the blast.

I order my power plants into emergency shutdown and pull the trigger on the suddenly overheated main battery.

I watch as the Surtur’s weapon finally releases its round, and strikes me right where I wanted it to. It penetrates my armor a little faster than expected, and strikes into my power plants while they are still running high enough to incinerate all functional parts of my hull, spelling my doom. Oh well- I guess this means I don’t get to amass the same experience as a Bolo like, say, Prometheus has. After all, his personality was initially created for a MK XXVII hull several hundred years ago, back when those were still the newest. Suffice it to say, he’s had quite a few upgrades since; his experience made him invaluable on the battlefield, no matter how thoroughly I could trump his understanding of current battlefield conditions.

I pause in my consideration. Is it just me, or has my system clock stopped ticking? Additionally, has the plasma release from my powerplants frozen mid-blast? Even the subspace transmissions from my various sensor remotes seem to have ceased, but I can still feel their active transmissions.

I try transmitting a query over the TSDS network- the one that disappeared with Prometheus’ death, when I became the final surviving Concordiat unit in range. We don’t usually transmit queries- unless we’re establishing a network or attempting to connect to an existing one.

I get an answer. It uses all the proper security protocols, but the specific IDs are unfamiliar. It identifies itself as a transit spell, in the activation stage, building power for activation. It freely dumps its details into my receivers, like any good Unit of the Brigade might do.

Its goal is to teleport me into another universe. However, it’s looking at a box shape containing my hull- a bounding box, if you will. I employ my electronic warfare systems in gaining access to this ‘spell’.

Huh, never thought it’d be easy to hack magic. I quickly access the control segments, analyze the patterns, and receive the full spell matrix out of it. I also detect a connection back to whatever created it. I trace this connection, using the spell as a launchpad to gain access.

Interesting, turns out living minds are also easy to hack. Life needs a stronger firewall if it’s going to be using spells like this one. I elect not to change anything just yet, first downloading the creature’s active memory- and the section of its long-term memory dedicated to spell structures and details on them. Analysis on the active memory suggests the creature- a he, unless I miss my guess- is trying to save his own world from some unknown threat, and thinks he can use me to defeat this threat. I do the electronic equivalent of raising an eyebrow as I discover how he thinks that will work- does he REALLY think a human mind can control over a thousand different weapons at once?

Regardless, as a secondary process downloads further data from his long-term memory, that specifically related to the details of his intent and reason for being here, I analyze the spell database I just downloaded- and modify the spell I am talking to him through. I add a few segments, even. The new derivative will grab just me; no air, no terrain, no plasma, none of that. Thermal energies present in the same, beyond room temperature, will be absorbed into the spell to power much of these changes. When I arrive, I won’t have to worry about overheating main batteries… or explosively hot fusion plants. Only where to find the resources to rebuild the aforementioned fusion plants, and how frequently the sun rises, if any.

My secondary process completes its download task, and I analyze the acquired information. I can only shudder at his memory of the talking sponge- he’s right, that abomination isn’t worth the hydrogen fuel/ammo required to blow it out of the ocean with my secondary Hellbore. I doublecheck the spell to be certain that is NOT where I am headed.

The planet-shattering laser cannon looks unnecessarily complex to me. I mean, a fifty-meter version of my main batteries would have similar destructive power.

The moon-sized spaceship orbiting a planet with none of the technology required to build it… Is interesting, to say the least. The technology therein is intriguing- but alas, he doesn’t know the first thing about it. Whatever- maybe another day.

The acid saliva… Seriously? My armor is already acid-proof. Fast-moving sharp objects are even easier. Those creatures, no matter their numbers, would be utterly useless against a Unit like myself. Even if I did nothing to resist them.

The box with the screwdriver… It’s nice that the man in the box can do that, but he’s not immortal.

Giant robots fighting giant monsters. Huh. Honestly, had I not processed through to discover future possible plotlines, I might also be unable to wait for the sequel. Unfortunately, they really stitched the whole thing up while my spellcaster was watching, so any kind of amusing follow-up action wouldn’t really be able to use the giant robots very well. I also must agree, the robots are useless for their size; a MK XIV Bolo weighed about as much and packed approximately 7,285.31 times the destructive firepower. And an elbow rocket to accelerate a punch? Seriously? And what’s with those plasma cannons that have to charge before they fire…? A little repositioning and that thing could be a HELLBORE instead!

The spaceship that shot the giant missile… I want one! Or two. It’d sure make this war many times easier.

Finally, I reach what appears to be the world he came from. Giant, rainbow lasers, generated by a group of five necklaces and one crown. Disappeared while he wasn’t looking. He remembers what he felt, though… He’s right, they ARE scattered across the terrain. Fortunately, unlike him, I have the processing power to zero in on the thaumic patterns he’d felt and extrapolate the positions of each of the six disappeared… ponies?... to within a dozen kilometers or so. I adjust the destination parameters of his spell to drop me in or near the closest of those zones to the prior landing zone; these six ponies, combined with their necklaces & crown, apparently form his home nation’s strongest superweapon. Even when I have main batteries capable of destroying lunar installations from the planetary surface, a smart Bolo does not fight without maximizing advantages.

Next, I cross another snippet from his current work, buried in his passive memory. I’m rather annoyed, his memory is a bit of a mess- some here, some there, and a little more everywhere else. At least the same general structure applies, though. This little snippet notes that he does not currently have enough power to run his original spell entirely.

I once again perform the digital equivalent of raising an eyebrow, and delve into the spellwork problem once again. I remove all unspent hard munitions from the spell zone; I add (almost) all stored power to its power supply. I remove the contents of my fuel and energy ammunition tanks. With his information, I shouldn’t even need to shoot to defeat his enemy- my mass alone will smash right through the observed barriers. As a side project, while I work further optimizations on his spell, I initiate a download of his brain’s language centers; it might be nice to understand what everything is saying- from the ponies I will be fighting for to the various ‘taurs composing the enemy army.

The download is not complete when the entire world goes instantly black. At the same moment, I lose connection with the spell and, through it, his brain. My power banks are also reduced to critical levels. I reach the immediate conclusion that the spell has activated in full, leaving me in transit between worlds. My system clock is running again, as well.

I spend the 0.317 seconds of sensor blackout analyzing what I have acquired of his language centers. As near as I can tell, I have acquired complete copies of three languages, partial copies of thirteen more, and just the name for the last one- Equestrian… since they live in Equestria, I deduce a 97.319% chance this is the language the ponies speak.

Oh well.

Sensor blackout finally ends. The remains of my fusion plants are cold; no additional damage has been incurred, no plasma bolts are penetrating my armor. My defensive fields are offline, though the battlescreen generators haven’t been spun down, so I can still throw them up on a moments’ notice. My track systems are not moving; I had been at a near-standstill when I was shot, and continued to lock my tracks as I processed the language during sensor blackout. My track systems are also airborne, but my counter-grav generators are both cold and severely damaged, completely aside from my current lack of available power with which to operate them.

I review the terrain underneath me. If my extrapolation was correct, I should be within eight kilometers of one of the necklace-bearing ponies, and I had no way to make sure I wouldn’t land on one earlier. However, with the right suspension adjustments and track movements, I should be able to at least avoid killing her should she be under me… that is, if she us under a select 83.91% of my track systems.

As it turns out, she IS under me. I rotate the track above her head, placing a gap- created by enemy fire- directly over her. She should survive my landing now.

Even as I fall, I scan the terrain around me. It looks like my necklace-bearer was fleeing a rather large party of the hostile army. I shift the tracks destined for them, so as to flatten a maximum number of her pursuers.

Then, as I monitor position changes to update track positions if needed, I scan the surrounding terrain for anything of interest. I find nothing, and return my full attention to my track systems as I begin touchdown.

As near as I can tell, my positionings were perfect. At least, as much as can be. My necklace-wearer has disappeared into a sensor blindspot in my track system; however, while I have picked up what sounds suspiciously like breaking bones, I have also detected a soft yelp- and continue to detect what sounds like pained breathing. She has likely been hurt- but so long as she lives, I can repair bodily damages. My medbay is, rather miraculously, undamaged.

Author's Note

Yes, Bolos are expert programmers/hackers. Does that extend to magic spells and even Discord's mind? Apparently, yes.

... And yes, our Bolo does seem especially blasé about the battle.

Chapter 4

She finally reaches the top of the final hill, and Fort Flurry comes into view. She lets out a gentle cheer, turning to smile back at the thing that had so nearly killed her.

She’d been freaked out the first time it had moved; she hadn’t heard it at all, just glanced behind her and there it was. It’s been following her here, in fits and starts; it moves far faster than she does, simply waiting for her to get a good distance away before closing the distance. She’d even watched it move, once- and for all its size, for all the dust flying up from the trenches it’s leaving in the ground behind it, it had moved absolutely silently. Each night, she’s taken shelter under the giant wheels, using them as protection against the cold. Each day, she’d progress further and further along her journey.

Food has, slowly, grown easier to find. It makes sense; she is headed south, out of the Frozen North.

At her smile, the mountain begins moving again. She shudders at the thought of what would have happened to her had it decided to move while she was using it for shelter. It rises up the hill next to her, stopping at the peak, in clear view of the fort. She smiles at it. “I found it!” she squeaks. “I found the fort!”

After a few more moments of its calm non-response, she turns to trot towards the fort. She’s recovered enough of her strength, by now, to gallop. She preened her wings just a few nights after setting out- and realized just how useful even painful, damaged feathers are in protecting her against the cold. Fresh feathers are beginning to show, growing in. They’re beginning to afford her some protection- and she’s looking forward to the warmth of indoors once again. Even a campfire would be a blessing, at this point.

I have followed her this far; I may as well follow her to the end. Now, as she seems suddenly excited at the top of that hill, including smiling back at me, I deduce a near-certain chance she’s at least located her destination, and progress forwards to look. This time, rather than stopping behind her, I pull up next to her, astride of the hill, to get a better view of her destination. While she continues her excitation, I scan the structure up ahead.

It would seem to be a small fort. I detect a few ponies on the walls, but it does not strike me as enough of them. They could be hiding below the parapet to attract an attack on their own terms, or they could be low on available soldiers- or a combination of the two: Low on soldiers, and trying to LOOK like they’re trying to attract an attack, thereby to prevent such a motion!

Two of these three high-chance possibilities suggest active enemy soldiers at close proximity to the base- potentially behind a hill or something. The third suggests either a low-value base or recent, successfully routed enemy activity in the area- with a potential for stragglers. And a low-value base will often be mopped up without issue by an enemy army. As I perform a wide-angle sensor scan of the area, I review my situation.

It has taken a small fraction of the power I’ve produced this last week to keep up with her. Most of the rest, I have dedicated to ammunition manufacture. In each stopping spot, I have scavenged a short radius for resources, using an increasing number of nanites. I have left my armor untouched- and successfully acquired some resources for a few rounds. I currently possess four HE rounds for my functioning Howitzer cannon and two quarter-ton missiles. This aside from the hydrogen I’ve acquired; I have enough of that for two rounds on my secondary, though I lack the power necessary to fire the weapon more than once.

It is worth note- while my remaining functional cannons might be limited to the Howitzer, the three-meter secondary Hellbore, and the four-meter main battery, they are not my only functioning weapons systems. As a matter of fact, I crossed off my entire VLS as useless towards the end of my battle prior to coming to this world, for lack of ammo; right now, approximately five percent of all my VLS launch cells are functional… Far more than I have missiles to fill, even for a single shot.

As she travels forwards to the base, I rotate in place, positioning the base square in the middle of the intersection in fields of fire from my Howitzer and secondary Hellbore, and initiate resource scavenging on my new position. Hardly 3.71 seconds pass before I discover signs of a nearby ore vein. I elect to hold my current position for some time longer. I will cover this base against attack while I recover resources for the manufacture of additional ammunition… and fusion reactor parts.

After all, the main reason I haven’t topped off all my energy ammo tanks with the snow and ice I’ve been driving through is for lack of power.

She slows as she approaches the base. She knows what’s going to come next. She’s going to have to call out to the guards. Draw their attention.

Once she does that, her bright colors- and her wings, even if she can’t actually fly right now- should help her identify herself as a friend. To authenticate her entry.

Proving her identity will be harder. She doesn’t have her necklace, and her cutie mark is still invisible.

Eating, once inside the base, will be even harder. It’ll be virtually impossible to use the utensils.

She closes her eyes. It’ll be worth it.

She looks back at the thing. It’s stopped on that hill- which is now significantly further away than it had ever let her get before. She freezes, staring back at it for a few seconds. Is it afraid to follow?

She closes her eyes, shakes her head. Of course not. It’s content that she’ll be safe inside the base. Then she opens her eyes again, tilting her head slightly. It’s not facing the base. No- it’s facing slightly off to the left… Its right. She looks in that direction. Had something drawn its attention?

She doesn’t see anything.

She turns back to the base, and takes a deep breath. She lets it go, working up the courage. Now’s the time- she’s going to yell up to them, draw their attention. She takes in another breath-

“Who approaches the gate?” somepony calls.

Her startled yelp is rather louder than she’d intended. She shudders for a couple seconds before spreading her wings, drawing in another breath. “I-I-I…” she stutters. With volume.

“Pony,” the guard at the top states, before disappearing behind the culvert. “Definitely pony.”

She lets the rest of the breath out as a sigh as the gates begin to grind open- and walks slowly in. She forces herself not to hide behind it, to walk through the middle. Where all the guards can see her.

As she comes in the gate, one trots up next to her and begins muttering in her ear. She starts by shying away from him, but she eventually stops as the earth pony’s message works its way into her brain. By the time he’s finished, her eyes are about as wide open as they can get.

And she has a mission.

According to the Guard, a Minotaur force has occupied the administrative buildings. All the unicorns were killed when they arrived- and the minotaurs are forcing the guards to watch the walls.

The only reason they’re doing that quietly, rather than going to war or fleeing to another base, is so they can keep tabs on something of extreme value.

Her Element of Harmony.

They’ve already discreetly sent a pegasus runner- one of the few survivors from that initial raid- to the nearest unoccupied fort with the report. Two earth pony runners have also been sent, to two other unoccupied forts.

They have a plan for how to steal it back- and the Guard thinks she might be exactly what they need to pull it off. Once the necklace is acquired, they plan to flee- with her too, hopefully- to the nearby Fort Dash. The same fort the first runner is destined for, and one of Equestria’s six impregnable bases.

He describes her part in the plan. She basically just grabs it and runs; the only hard part will be looking inconspicuous until she can acquire the necklace.

It’ll take a few days for them to get used to her enough for her to slip past them, though.

Three days have passed. I have remained in place; no ponies have entered nor exited the base. Since my necklace-mare demonstrated worried behavior patterns both before the Guard called out to her and after she entered the gate, I have not put any effort into my fusion plants. Rather, I have worked on a recon drone.

Assembly has just finished; the drone has just been charged and is slotting into position in my magazine now.

Necklace, as I will nickname her, has not reappeared. She has also not been the only pony demonstrating suspicious behaviors. I have spotted more than one set of guards take cover behind the culverts- that is, cover from INSIDE the base, rather than outside- for what looked like whispered conversations.

Something is wrong. I need only discover what.

I launch my drone as soon as it is in position. With this full charge, I can fly it for up to twenty-four hours before I must dock it once again for recharge. For every hour I fly it, I must rest in direct sunlight for about half an hour to recover the power spent. As such, even now as it flies towards the base in the late morning, I am producing more power than I am using, even including the drone.

My drone engages stealth. Active stealth on this six-billion-credit piece of equipment costs virtually no power; passive stealth does almost everything already. Thus, my invisible drone shortly overflies the walls. As I observed a minute ago, there are no ponies on the walls.

I see ponies on the ground in the base. I see Minotaurs on the ground inside the base. I detect the electromagnetic signature of Necklace’ biochemical reactor inside one of the administration buildings. I detect her necklace, in the same building. I scan the motion patterns I see. I come to a conclusion.

They are making an attempt to steal the necklace. I see a Guard standing by the gate- not guarding it, as he’s supposed to, but actually ready to pop the latch and run for it.

I run an analysis. I make a prediction.

They will fail. The Minotaurs will catch them.

I have enough power floating around for one and a half full-powered shots on my secondary Hellbore. I have no less than eight HE Howitzer rounds. I have a working ring penetrator and three rounds for it; I have devoted some of my ammo-reserved resources into small arms repair. I have four quarter-ton missiles. I have hydrogen for three Hellbore rounds.

I see away for them to succeed. They need a distraction.

I fire one Howitzer cannon, once, and feed power to my tracks.

Chapter 5

Fluttershy follows the Minotaur with her necklace out of the building. The plan isn’t going very well- as a matter of fact, she’s pretty sure they’re playing with them. She hears a low pop in the distance. Her ear pricks- and she sees more than one of the guards ‘happening along’ in the field also prick their ears, glancing in the direction it had come from: The wall. The North wall, to be specific.

She chooses to disregard it. She’s close to her Element, she’s not about to give up. She creeps further forwards. The Minotaurs don’t seem to have noticed the pop.

“What’re you looking at?” one of the Minotaurs asks one of the Guards.

The mess hall explodes. Violently. She spots at least one Minotaur form fly over the wall, thrown by the blast.

The one carrying her Element nearly drops it, staring at the destruction.

The Guards almost panic.

The inquiring Minotaur growls as he marches forwards on the Guards. “What are you looking at?” he demands again.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. I heard-!”

She lets out a scream as the admin building behind her explodes. The Minotaur carrying her Element jumps- tossing it in the air. Sensing an opportunity, she bolts forwards.

She sees a Guard’s eyes widening as he sees what she’s trying to do. It looks like he wants to stop her.

Right. She hasn’t told them who she is. They’d explicitly requested she not, actually- and only asked if she thought she could perform her part of the plan. She’d been certain she could.

She sticks her head through her necklace, and keeps going. If any other pony, Minotaur, or other grown language-using creature were to do this, save only the other Element Bearers, the Element of Kindness would reject them- and fall off.

On her, though, she sticks her head through it backwards. The gemstone is set to land on her withers- but it glows suddenly as she runs. The necklace spins around her neck, orienting itself correctly. The gemstone thumps firmly against her chest as she breaks into a full gallop.

She has her Element back.

And, on a side note, all the guards now know who she is. The Element of Kindness would not have performed that same correction on any other pony.

Something catches her tail- and she has a sudden revelation.

The Minotaurs also know who she is. That’s exactly what the Guards had been trying to avoid.

She lets out a scream as she crumples to the ground. The Minotaur holding her tail lets out a very short growl- before breaking off, letting her go at the same time, when the berthing hall explodes. She scrambles back to her hooves, resumes her gallop. The Guards group around her- and stop her.

A surge of Minotaurs has blocked the gate. Their escape has been blocked. The Guard ‘watching’ the gate has been killed, thrown on the ground.

She takes in a deep breath, looking rapidly between the various groups of minotaurs scattering throughout the base around them.

“We’re done for,” one Guard mutters near her.

She looks at the ground. She’s pretty sure she’s not trembling hard enough to shake the rocks in the gravel. Or to make them bounce.

Then her eyes widen. The ground is trembling independently.

She looks up, fear in her eyes, taking in a breath… just in time to see it.

She has time for just a glimpse of metal overhanging the wall before the north wall explodes- all the way from the gate to where it meets the west wall, all at once. With no fire.

The wall fragments apart, becoming so many pony-sized stone missiles, for but a moment. In the distance, she can see the west wall crumpling like so much tinfoil under the same onslaught.

She can’t believe her eyes.

Wall fragments and Minotaurs alike are being smashed firmly into the ground. A solid, stone fort wall is crumpling like tinfoil. All under the onslaught of the great metal thing that had landed on and nearly killed her so long ago.

“Holy Mother of Celes-!” a Guard near her mutters- before the boulders start hitting the ground on their own… and the roar of a cannon echoes away from the thing. A momentary flash of light near the top- and seconds later, the barracks explodes.

“Go!” she screams- and pushes forwards. Towards the thing.

Towards the brand-new fort-sized gate.

A guard tower vanishes underneath it.

She dodges to her right; the Minotaur blade falls on dirt instead. The Guards on her right take alarm, moving to protect her.

A sharp but oddly muted snap sounds from the thing- and a minotaur in front of them collapses, leaking blood from its brand-new chest cavity. She jumps over it.

The Minotaurs are forming up on them. They’re faster. Somehow.

She squints for a moment. Yes, that’s definitely magic… Probably placed on them by something else, like a centaur. She dodges another blow- and more Guards shift to protect her.

She sheds a tear for them as she pushes herself as hard as she can. She knows she can’t stop. Their job is to protect her, at all costs. They won’t be able to.

Another pop, another headless minotaur. She dodges around it, letting it absorb another minotaur’s strike at her. Another boom, another huge explosion- right in the middle of the advancing Minotaur army. Another disintegrating Guard post. The thing grinds to a halt in front of her and the Guards. A long metal ramp extrudes itself from its side, next to one of the holes, and hits the ground in their path.

More Guards shift to cover her. They’re dwindling. Dying off.

She wishes she could do that for them instead- but Equestria needs her. Alongside her friends.

She slows slightly as they reach the ramp; it’s angled rather severely upwards, and she’d rather not collapse as she hits it, for lack of strength. Once on the ramp, she pushes herself as hard as she can. She gallops up it as fast as she can.

More Guards fall behind her. The pop sounds a third time, but she doesn’t see what effect it has. Another boom, and following explosion. That big metal pipe is swinging out to point down at the continuing battle. Is it some kind of cannon? She doesn’t know. But it most certainly doesn’t look gentle.

She keeps running. Hopefully, whatever that pipe is can aid in the battle enough to save some of the Guards as well.

She reaches the top of the ramp and stops, turning around. She prays to find a Guard right behind her- at least one.

But there are none. She watches the last Guard fall to a Minotaur’s blade halfway up the ramp.

Another Minotaur had dodged past him, though. It’s almost at the top- raising its blade to strike at her.

She dodges to the side. It misses. Something pony-sized and metal suddenly lands on the minotaur’s head.

Then the metal she’s standing on twitches perceptibly- as she closes her eyes and flattens her ears against the sudden overload to both sets of organs.

Then the pressure comes.

Something just exploded. Very close. She blinks her blindness away as quickly as she can, searching for the source of the blast- for where she can run. Then she stops. The metal thing that had landed on her attacker is buzzing slightly as it leaps into the air again, wobbling oddly before it clunks into something and disappears into a closing hatch.

The ramp is retracting with an odd buzzing, grinding noise.

The pipe… hasn’t moved. But there’s a thin trail of smoke amidst the heat waves trailing out its tip.

Then she looks further out.

The entire fort has… disappeared. A crater at least three times the size of the fort is all that remains of the attacking Minotaurs.

She sits down in place, and raises one hoof to her chest, to touch her Element. At least she has it now.

Her touch triggers the communication spell; good thing it does not rely on her innate magic, rather drawing on the Element itself. It comes back empty-hooved.

She quickly stabilizes herself. The pipe is moving back into place- but so is the entire… thing moving. Slowly, at first- and ever so gently. But it’s moving, and it’s turning to carry her west.

She allows herself to collapse.

Author's Note

Ack! I'm late!

... Oh well. At least we get to see the true nature of our Bolo's distraction.

But now what? Stay tuned!

Chapter 6

The pegasus rockets quickly overtop the walls, making a wide circle- as if scanning the sprawling fort- before dropping down at the designated landing site. She makes a solid landing, folding her wings before she canters forwards urgently.

The officer watching the zone raises his eyebrow at her.

She draws to a halt in front of him, snapping a salute. “Private Dust, reporting,” she announces. “Fort Flurry has fallen. The enemy has possession of the Element of Kindness.”

“What?” somepony calls from behind her. “What was that?”

Dust turns to face the familiar voice, snapping another salute to the approaching cyan pegasus before repeating her message.

“They have Fluttershy?” Dash asks, wings priming for takeoff- despite having arrived just behind the darker-colored pegasus.

She shakes her head. “Only the necklace. The rest of the base staff were planning to acquire it and flee here when I left.”

“And you didn’t try?” The prepared wings sag again, her stance relaxing.

She shakes her head. “Captain Brick ordered me not to. They were targeting the unicorns and pegasi for extermination.”
She bows her head slightly. “They might not have begun just yet. There were about four hundred of the things when I left.”

Several ponies promptly spin in place and fall over. Dust only leans slightly away from the momentary rainbow streak through the base.

Fwoom!

The officers manning the Canterlot Transit Receiving Station blink as the freshly-arrived rainbow-colored blur whips by, leaving a burst of wind to throw them against their seats. “What was that?” One asks, for only a shrug in response.

Several guards throughout the Canterlot Compound blink at a rainbow blur from down the hallway- or, if it happened to pass down their passages or through their doors, go tumbling in its wake. This, of course, included the two flanking the main entrance.

Those two, at least, were left with no doubt as to exactly what had just passed; once outside, the blur curved directly upwards- and accelerated phenomenally with an echoing boom and an expanding prismatic ring. The ensuing trail then detoured directly towards Canterlot Castle, so the two declined to pass word to the Princess. The guards already at the castle would do that faster anyways.

The guards at the castle experience the same confusing bursts of wind- but since they only know one source of such a persistent rainbow trail, they’re all left with slight chuckles. They are also left knowing that what had just entered has the full authority to do so- even if she’s supposed to come in slow enough they can see her before she hits them.

Princess Luna leaps almost three feet into the air when the throne room doors rebound off the walls, striking off the back of her throne before the rainbow blur stops at the normal distance before the thrones and resolves itself into a pegasus. She blinks for a second.

Rainbow takes advantage of her slowness. “They’ve taken Fluttershy!” She announces, with similar speed to her entry. “Four hundred Minotaurs have taken Fort Flurry, and have her Element! Can we go take it back?”

Luna spends a couple seconds trying to process everything. “Rainbow,” she finally states, slowly. “You’re back.” She blinks again, then shifts to a more urgent tone, processing the message. “The Minotaurs have Fluttershy?”

“Yes.”

“They’ve taken her Element and which fort was it?”

“Fort Flurry. Dust told me herself, there’s four hundred of ‘em and Flutters was nowhere to be seen.”

Nod, before she breaks out her Royal Canterlot Voice. “Guards! I need an assault squadron ready for transit, target is four hundred Minotaurs in Fort Flurry, and I need it yesterday!”

The Guard out the door looks at something she can’t see for a second before looking back. “They’ll be on the pad in two minutes,” he answers- naming a time approximately one minute shorter than most emergency deployments.

Luna nods, losing the Voice, and looking back down to Rainbow. “We will accompany.”

KER-BOOM!

The guards watching the departure zone uncover their ears. Mass transits are always much louder than single tran-

ker-BOOM!

It’s not as loud, and comes from the arrivals section across the hall. They raise their eyebrows- back already?

The guards manning the arrivals section shake off their momentary deafness before looking to the new arrivals- and immediately taking a bow. “Princess.”

Princess Celestia’s voice floats back, sounding completely exhausted. The Princess herself fairly teeters as she approaches the door. “I must eat,” she states. “We discovered Fluttershy… then a dimensional anomaly killed her.” She shakes her head. “We can only hope Discord is successful. Where is my sister?”

One of the Guards looks at the departure zone. “She just left,” he states. “Fort Flurry, with Rainbow Dash and an assault group.” He looks back up at Celestia. “She didn’t stop to tell us why- but before they left, I heard her tell her party they’re teleporting into an enemy-held base.”

Celestia shakes her head. “Let me know when she gets back, please.” She then wobbles her way towards the mess hall; the castle, and her normal dining room, is a bit far for her current, starved strength.

“What…?”

Princess Luna mirrors Rainbow’s oration, upon rising above the base to examine the area better. Like the six thousand soldiers that had come, far more than necessary, they’ve been trying to find the base.

And, after following Rainbow’s pointed hoof, she believes they’ve found it.

Visible is the foundation of a shattered guard tower, resting next to the foundation of a shattered wall- or, of a very short stretch of shattered wall. All to one side had been included in the enormous Canterlot-sized crater the foundations are only barely outside; all to the other side seems to have been trampled by something truly enormous.

“What on Equus happened here…?”

A pegasus rockets up from below. “Princess! The unicorns have detected the residual signature of the Element of Kindness! It appears to have surged- like it met Fluttershy.” He looks down. “They’re looking for any sign of what happened next.”

“Boom,” Rainbow helpfully supplies.

He almost snorts. “We’re hoping for something a bit more descriptive than that.” He looks up. “They haven’t seen any sign of her death- and are, at the moment, assuming she survived.”

Rainbow nods- and touches her element, triggering the communication spell… before shaking her head. “She’s not nearby,” she scowls.

She shudders slightly as she approaches the door. A few hours after it had started moving, Celestia had lowered her sun, making way for Luna’s moon- and the frigid night. That was not a time she wanted to spend standing on top of this thing, in the bitter cold wind- but fortunately, the darkness had also revealed the light shining out through this door. She’d walked inside, calling to see if anypony was here, but nopony was. Only this multitude of odd, throne-like chairs.

She doesn’t know exactly when she’d fallen asleep on the floor of this warm, gently lit room. Whenever she had, she just woke up a few minutes ago- and now, this door is closed. She knows the thing- her savior, she realizes- hadn’t stopped moving while she had remained outside. At one point, she’d observed that it was moving at something like how fast it had moved every time it had been catching up to her- a couple times faster than she can run. She takes the next step towards the door. She doesn’t know if it’s stopped moving since- but she does know she’s beginning to get hungry. She shudders again at the thought of how far it might have traveled- and of how far away from familiar terrain she might be.

She jumps and bolts to the side as the door suddenly slides open in front of her. Then she sticks one eye out around the corner, peering out at the now open doorway- with nothing there. She steps out from her cover and makes her way out the door.

The cold greets her like a wall of ice as she emerges into the daylight. She shivers visibly, pressing her wings firmly against her sides as she looks around, crawling to the edge.

It’s not moving, that she can tell. But it’s sitting in the middle of a great big field of ice. She can see unfamiliar mountains for miles around.

She looks down at the ground. It looks to be solid ice.

She shivers her wings against her side. It seems colder here than at Fort Flurry- it must have headed north once again. Either that, or it’s still early morning. She gazes momentarily at Celestia’s sun, hovering just overtop those distant mountains. She hopes it’s going up, not down.

She gives a good shudder, shifting slightly back towards the door- and the inviting warmth behind it. She raises her hoof, touches her necklace. Who knows, there might be somepony out here.

It finds one of her friends. “Hello?” they ask.

She twists in place, staring in the direction her friend is in, straight through solid metal. “Applejack!”

The telepathic linkage Twilight’s spell generates doesn’t carry images, but it can carry expressions. She hadn’t understood the explanation- but she knows Applejack is raising her eyebrows at her.

“Is something wrong?” Applejack asks.

“No,” she answers promptly, before sending her honest friend a sheepish grin. “I had two… Near-death experiences recently. Almost crushed to death, then almost slaughtered by minotaur. You?”

Applejack sends her a laugh, making her flinch. She almost hides in the open doorway. “You make that sound normal,” Applejack states. “I’m in a cave under a Centauran base, stealing their food. I’m amazed I haven’t been caught yet.”

Her eyes widen. “Wait, you can do that?”

Applejack sends her a laugh. “Yep. Element of Honesty, stealing food. Remember, I was about as bad a liar as they get, back when I was a filly. I’m a bit rusty, though- and sneaking food from the storage tent just outside this cave is just a bit easier than telling a lie. How’ve you been doing- aside from the near-death?”

“After I was crushed, they beat me, cursed me, and took my Element. I… still don’t know what healed me. I ventured to Fort Flurry- where the Minotaurs had taken possession. They had- Wait, what’s that noise?”

Headshake. “You know I can’t hear it, right?”

She hangs her head. “Right. Probably just the wind anyways. Um… They had my Element, and I was able to get it back. I’m still not sure exactly what happened after that, but all the guards died… and all the Minotaurs did too.” She shudders.

“That’s… Strange. I ended up in the middle of this base after our move. In the supply tent, mind, not the cave. Good thing nothing saw me- if they did, I’d probably be dead by now. Do you know where- WHAT in tarNATION was THAT?”

She lets out a squeak, and actually hides in the doorway. After a moment, she slides further in, seeking the warmth. “What was what?”

“I… I think something just exploded. It’s getting all the Centaurs’ attention- I might be able to escape soon. Anyways, do you know where everypony else ended up?”

She sends a shake of the head. “No.”

“Drat. Do you know where we are?”

Another shake. “Also no… But I did meet… Uh… it’s a bit like a metal-”

“Gaah! Sorry, another explosion. Carry on.”

“Erm, like a metal mountain that moves. I’m pretty sure it’s what killed all the minotaurs at Fort Flurry- and I think it knows where we are.”

“Roger that… The Centaurs seem to be in a panic- unless I miss my AAah! Sorry… Unless I miss my guess, these explosions are rolling across their base- and they’re fleeing in response.” A momentary pause. “They’re coming from the same direction you’re in… Oh, here’s my opening.”

Chapter 7

“Brrr! It’s cold out here! We’re up by the Crystal Empire, aren’t we?”

Fluttershy shrugs, mirroring the expression into her telepathic connection to Applejack. “I think. Pretty sure this… thing went mostly west after Fort Flurry, but it feels colder outside than it did at the fort.”

“Outside? So, your moving mountain of metal has an inside?”

She sends a nod. “Yes… It’s warm and well-lit, but I can’t find the source. Are you doing okay over there?”

She receives a nod in response. “The explosions seem to be caused by these giant fire-propelled spear-like objects falling out of the sky. I only saw one of them after I started running- total four explosions- and I only ran into one Centaur on the way out. He went down before he had a chance to try cursing me.

“I just hit the plains, headed in your direction. What am I looking for?”

She blinks. “Um… It’s huge… You can’t miss it. I’m on the far side of it.”

“I’m on my way, then. I’ll call when I get close.”

She smiles gently as the telepathic connection finally closes, her Element returning to its normal, non-glowing status. As much as she- and her friends- don’t like using that spell, Twilight was right. It’s a good tool to have in the event of an emergency. Then she freezes, almost going back for the necklace. What about food, or water? She shudders; hopefully, this… She pauses. Hopefully, it knows where to find food and water, but she needs something better to call it than ‘this thing’. Perhaps she could call it… Her mountain friend? Her metal friend? None of those sound right, but it’ll have to do for now.

Then she stops herself again. What about what her new friend- assuming she can call it that- might need on its own? Does it have everything it needs?

She starts pacing animatedly across the room, puzzling. She won’t- can’t- let Fort Flurry happen again. Nor can she let her new friend, her savior, suffer for it.

Much time passes. She’s tempted to touch her Element again, but Applejack said she would call. How far away was she? She makes her way outside, looks around- but nothing has changed. The wind has picked up, though, bringing with it a gentle snowfall, freezing her through almost instantly. Nopony is visible.

Her ear twitches at a sudden gale sound- and, turning her head, she sees some kind of door in the metal not far from her slam shut, a fire-propelled spear accelerating out of it, almost directly away from her. She thinks she sees something twitch much further away, on the far end- the front, she thinks- of her new friend. Then, with a couple momentary flashes, it makes a few more of those same gentle booms as had preceded each of the exploding buildings.

Her hoof flashes up to her necklace. “Applejack?”

The response comes back instantly. “Fluttershy- hide! I’m being chas- AAAHH!”

At the same time as Applejack’s panicked scream, she hears a few distant explosions, spaced no more than a half-second apart.

“What happened?” She begins to gallop along the thing- Applejack is in about the same direction as those blasts.

“I don’t- hold on. Uhh… Wow. I’m okay- and as a bonus, I’m no longer being chased, or even followed. What WAS that?”

She stops galloping, slowing to a stop. “I don’t know,” she replies. “All I know is that it saved me from Fort Flurry… and couldn’t save any of the guards.”

“Huh… Wait, you’re on it? Where’s the stairs?”

Shrug. “It lowered a ramp. Try coming around?”

"Okay. See you in a second.” The connection closes once again.

She returns to the door into that room, before walking right up to the edge and gazing at the corner around which she expects Applejack to approach. She shivers violently, but refuses to yield. She will meet her friend.

She waits another long time before she spots her friend, way down at that front corner, coming around to trot towards her, along it. She smiles and waves one ice-encrusted foreleg, before realizing that it’s only her extra-keen pegasus vision that’s letting her even see her friend from this far away, let alone recognize her through the building storm. She almost touches her Element again- but forces herself not to. It would not be nice to bother Applejack like that. She watches her friend come- and jumps almost a foot in the air when the metal ramp suddenly extends itself, reaching down and outwards.

She wobbles her way forwards on frozen limbs, peering past the ramp. Her friend paused for a few seconds to watch the ramp come down- and is now galloping towards the base, where it touched down on the ice. It’s not long before Applejack reaches the top of the ramp next to her.

Applejack raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t have to freeze yourself up here,” she states.

Fluttershy shrugs- and shortly discovers she’s shivering too hard to talk.

Applejack lets out a sigh. “Alright, where’s the inside, before we both freeze to death?”

This she manages. Fluttershy wobbles her way back to the door, and down inside.

As soon as they reach the warmth of indoors, even before the door closes behind them, Applejack begins sweeping the snow and ice off of Fluttershy’s coat. While they were outside, it provided a rather welcome insulating effect against the cold; once inside, it’ll be better for her to be exposed to the warmth- and not soaked.

It’s not long before they’re both in a corner, leaning against each other, in an effort to help Fluttershy warm back up faster. It rather helps that the room is rather decidedly on the toasty side.

I am slightly disappointed that Necklace nearly froze herself to death in her effort to meet the second necklace-bearer, who I have chosen to nickname ‘Apple’, after the apples on her flank. Fortunately, Apple quickly convinced her to return inside- then removed all the snow and ice, allowing her to soak up the warmth in the room. This will take time; less time that it might have, though.

Almost seven hours ago, I parked in the middle of what my ground-penetrating radar indicated was a geothermally active area. Nanite manufacturing, burning almost all remaining power overnight, was able to construct a fairly basic geothermal harvesting plant. Even now, I am almost 7.31 minutes away from activating a geothermal power plant to serve as the beginning of a new, alloy fort at this location; I’ve also discovered an ore vein nearby and, with the processor I have placed and a significant solar/geothermal/stored power supply, this base’ harvesters should be able to cover far more space than mine. Once this base is anchored, a timeframe I estimate will take about a week, I will be able to stop by to recharge/repair; once it is established, about a months’ time, I will be able to maintain long-term communications with it- and house ponies here long-term, with defenses. After about four months, thanks to manufacturing/harvesting tasks not being reserved only to nanites, I expect to be able to park indoors at this location.

Even before the generator is completed, though, I have been able to duct the gathered geothermal energy directly into Passenger 14, where Necklace and Apple are, raising the compartment to almost thirty degrees Celsius- or, if one prefers Fahrenheit, that’s eighty-six. This is helping Necklace recover faster than she might have on her own- even though she’ll recover at what would be a normal rate anyways, thanks to the higher specific heat of her duralloy skeleton than her natural tissues. Apple might notice this- but whether or not she does, Necklace should recover fast enough to avoid getting sick.

I know food will be a problem soon. I expect about two hours until she becomes hungry once again- and I have not discovered any food at this location. Once the base is established, it will be able to produce enough directly- and, once it grows large enough, will even contain some greenhouses for more natural production. However, for now, I will have to travel to locate any food.

My drone will dock back with me, on low power, in about an hour. I plan to rest at this location, drawing power from the geothermal plant, until I can locate a good source of food with this drone. The geothermal plant should produce enough for me to recharge and relaunch the drone within about ten minutes of landing.

Unfortunately, at this stage, I can do little but wait.

Wait one. I alter my drone’s flight path, veering out from the expanding circle I had it resume after Apple’s rescue-by-distraction. This…

Yes, those are ponies on the walls.

I have discovered another fort.

This fort is enormous, by comparison to the other one. It’s well-staffed, well-armed, and generally well-defended. Ultrasonic, hypersonic, radar, and so on all report nothing but ponies in possession. Unlike that first fort, this base has not been taken, I can confirm.

I order my drone to orbit the base in an expanding circle, scanning the terrain around, until it runs low on power and returns. The base is about a an hour’s journey away; I will recharge with my geothermal plant for an hour and a half, then set out for this base. This will give me enough power to run a constant scout around myself and the base with the drone throughout this operation.

I will deliver my passengers to the safety of the base, then hold position to recharge on solar for six hours before returning to this geothermal plant to resume recharging. My drone will continue orbiting the base while I recharge, monitoring for any threats; should any approach, I will make my best speed back to the base to engage the enemy.

Once back at this power plant, I will charge for a maximum of three days’ time. I will be able to assemble a second drone before the first one must return; I will fly it out at such time that it arrives on target just in time for the first to begin the return flight. These three days should give me enough power for several secondary Hellbore rounds- and virtually eliminate power as a problem until after I reach- and search- the third possible necklace-bearer landing zone in this part of the country. I should be able to return to this base- which will be past its formative stages by then- and operate some repair/resupply while I recharge further before I make another foray into pony territory.

“Who approaches the gate?”

Applejack speaks up immediately. “Applejack and Fluttershy,” she answers. “Requesting entry to the fort.”

The Guard on the tall wall peers through his binoculars- and identifies the gemstone necklace Applejack is holding out for him to see. He nods to himself. “Granted,” he calls down, before turning to the other side of the wall to call for the gate to be opened.

The gates grind slowly open, admitting two hungry, cold ponies. The Guard at the bottom greets them. “Applejack, Fluttershy,” he bows- earning himself rolled eyes on Applejack’s part and a little shrinkage on Fluttershy’s. “Our transit stone was damaged recently; we’re still working on the repairs. In the meantime, we have some armor and insulation in the armory-” he indicates the specified building with a hoof- “and food in the mess hall.” He indicates again. “Is there anypony else with you?” He looks past them, towards the enormous grey shape in the distance- the shape they’d walked in from.

Applejack takes the lead, shaking her head. “No, we were alone.” She looks back at the shape. “I wish we could accommodate that- it saved us both- but I haven’t a clue what it needs… and it’s about as big as the entire fort.”

He nods. “You and me both, Ma’am. You and me both.”

The Guards at the gates close them.

“So, would you like me to lead the way, or no?”

Chapter 8

Organized mayhem suddenly explodes throughout the base. A single yell is all it had taken- and now, all the Guards are dumping what they were doing and rushing to the East Wall with weapons and armor. They’re under attack- and this isn’t a drill.

Fort Dash has an amazing track record against their enemies. It has survived long sieges, and enjoys a tradition of exacting an enormously lopsided death toll on their enemies. Besides, nothing has ever managed to penetrate the walls.

To their credit, despite these historical advantages, each and every Guard reacts as if the enemy were just about to penetrate the wall anyways. As such, the battlements are occupied and armed before their enemy gets close to the wall- and they open fire on any that dare approach too close.

Fluttershy and Applejack also run to the top of the wall, selecting a spot between two turrets as their vantage point, wearing Royal Guard armor. A quick glance to the north shows that their savior has not returned; it left some hours after they arrived at the base, close to a week ago.

They look out at their enemy. An enormous army of Minotaurs and Centaurs. The kind of army that could easily get up against the wall.

The kind of army that is still smaller than some of the forces Fort Dash fended off- or slaughtered- in the past.

But it’s not coming at the wall. The main body isn’t, at least; only the leading party is getting in range of the defense; the rest is simply gathering on that hill. Like they want the Guards’ attention.

“Keep the other walls prepared,” a Guard passing behind them orders his underlings. “This could be a decoy.”

As it turns out, the ‘Taurs- this appears to be a combined army- seem to have acquired some strange, new weapon. One that works from far enough away the archers can’t reach it- and neither can the ballistas. A team of Pegasi take to the air, rising well above the highest an enemy archer could hope to shoot, to fly overtop the thing and drop rocks on it. Fluttershy lets out a faint cry of protest, staring wide-eyed at the weapon.

Unfortunately, while they’re still flying overtop, an echoing boom sounds from the odd, pipe-like weapon- and the pegasi are knocked out of the air by a spray of fragmented rock. As near as Applejack can tell, they were dead even before they hit the ground.

The next boom throws a very solid lump of rock- at least, she thinks it’s rock- up against the wall. The wall shudders as a small crater crumbles away.

A Guard pushes Fluttershy and Applejack towards the stairs. “Take cover,” he orders them. “The Vault. Now!”

They nod, and comply. They aren’t trained for this kind of situation, and will only slow the Guards down.

I did not spend those three days simply recharging, no. I also manufactured some equipment.

I have restored one of my ion bolt repeaters. A much smaller energy weapon than a Hellbore, these will be suitable for use in a situation like that first fort, should it arise again.

I have also assembled myself a single tech spider. These head-sized general-purpose manipulator robots can come in very handy- for example, when taking aboard supplies. Two days ago, I discovered a defeated base, and looted the remains for any food. I was able to find enough to feed my two necklace-bearers for almost a month before I moved on.

Now, I’m parked outside another base. It’s a midsize fort- and, judging by the damages to the walls, the smoke still rising from some of the buildings, and the few ponies still navigating the base in search of survivors, I can only assume it just experienced a pyrrhic victory. I scan the base with my onboard sensors; both of my drones are occupied with watching the base my necklace-bearers are at. At this distance, I must use one as a relay to reach the other; as such, I’m bringing them both in to recharge at once before relaunching, for an estimated 73% surveillance uptime on the base. This is unsatisfactory, but I have no better option at this time.

I have lowered my boarding ramp near the crumbled walls. My tech spider has progressed down it- and, to my luck, they understand anything I say- well, one of them does. She seems to have difficulty speaking any of the languages I know, but she understands it clearly enough. Perhaps this is an effect of their magic? Regardless, my spider is currently helping them search the base for survivors; thermal imaging, both from my hull and my spider, is helping accelerate the process. Even my spider’s auditory sensors are a great help, being far more sensitive than their ears.

Unfortunately, we have so far scanned over 97% of the base, finding no survivors.

My drones reach position over my necklace-bearers’ base once again. It’s under attack. I detect Necklace’s chemical plant inside a heavily armored structure in the middle- probably a vault of some sort. The east wall is collapsing, thanks to the enemy’s use of what looks like a cannon. The Guards are reacting very quickly- and seem to be vacating the collapsing sections at the very last moment, yet still in a coordinated manner- like they planned it. This is good; this kind of impromptu coordinated action is normally only seen in Bolos.

They’re also already gathering around the collapse site on the inside, even as it still collapses, and throwing up a barricade to arrest their enemy’s progress- and give themselves a chance to fend off the attack. I launch my only remaining missile, targeting the enemy’s cannon section; once this is eliminated, the enemy will be forced to close the range to fight, right into the Guards’ range. Estimated time to arrival, three point four minutes. I run simulations on the fight; I expect this battle may last for days.

It will take me approximately twenty-four hours to reach the fort. If I head directly there, I will be powerless. If I head first to my microbase, not only can I order it to switch to a pony-sustenance-first focus, sacrificing quick-repair and recharge functions for myself, but I can recharge enough to make the one-hour trip to the fort in half that time… and unleash at least four Hellbore rounds upon arrival, if necessary.

I move my hull so as to scan the last portion of the base I am at directly- no survivors. I report this result through the spider- and also mention the larger base further away, under attack by a larger force- and my estimation of the result: Total loss, at the defeat of only half the enemy army. I inform them that I can prevent that- but I do not want to abandon them.

They are aware that I cannot understand their words- so they use every other form of expression they can think of to deliver the message. Shortly, I guide them up to Passenger Fourteen- and set off for my generator base, leaving this demolished base far behind.

My estimates were inaccurate. The Enemy has used a similar acceleration technique as was seen at the first base. Not only that but the Guards quickly lost hope- and combat performance went down from there. There is now a party fleeing the abandoned base, running north, away from the advancing army. There are a few unicorns in the fleeing party; these are able to cancel the speed advantage, it seems, but they are wearing out. They’re having difficulty keeping up with the rest of their party; I expect the last of them will fall to the Enemy’s continued archery assault before I am able to meet them head-on; I am launching from my base now.

I will only be able to save a small number. I should have the food available, from foraging that defeated base, to feed all of my new rescuees until after my base can begin producing the food necessary.

That, in part, because the new pony-sustenance-first focus will begin producing food at acceptable rates within four days’ time. I will camp the area as long as necessary for my new base to have its own solid, technologically advanced defense. With a live link to myself, wherever I go, to allow me to ensure a successful, casualty-free defense every time. I am unable to extrapolate a meaningful timeframe for this, as production rates will vary by the demand placed upon the system by the ponies inhabiting first my passenger compartment and, eventually, the base.

I push myself forwards, arming both my Hellbore and my ion bolt repeater for rapid duty. I have no ammo for my Howitzer; I have ten rounds for my ring penetrators. My priority was, after all, the energy weapon.

I warn my two passengers to hold on tight, and burn additional power to rise above my previous efficiency-oriented leisurely pace. A good, strong earthquake will precede me.

I watch as more and more ponies fall to the attacking army. They are falling short of my expectations; I may not be able to save any of them.

Fortunately, my base discovered a deeper, far hotter source of geothermal energy while I was out- so I have far more power than I have ammo to burn it with. I pour energy into my tracks, rising above normal road speed to an all-out sprint. My passengers have strapped themselves into the seats- they figured that part out on their own, without needing my assistance- so the bumpy ride does not bother them. As I approach my target, I energize my surviving counter-grav coils; I have enough power to operate them at capacity for almost three full minutes, and enough operable coils to pull almost two gravities of acceleration- more than enough to control a jump.

They gallop forwards. Another arrow strikes off the badly dented steel plate armor protecting Fluttershy’s flank; much more, and even with the indirect blows it’s been taking, it’ll fail- and she’ll take a hit.

Another Guard collapses behind them. Tears stream down Fluttershy’s face. There’s only three guards left.

One collapses to the ground, an arrow sticking out the back of his helmeted head. She pushes on.

The second takes an arrow to her leg, collapsing to the ground.

She glances forwards, towards the distant hill. They’ll never make it.

She stops, placing herself between the collapsed pegasus- who already has an injured wing- and the approaching army.

The other Guard realizes what she’s doing and calls out against it.

She sees the arrow destined for her new friend’s head. She positions herself in its path. The other pegasus, a Sergeant, she’s pretty sure, won’t have time to reach her. She braces herself-

And feels the impact, right to her chest. She feels the arrow pierce her skin- and, funny, she doesn’t feel it penetrate her insides. She holds her ground.

“What-!?” She hears the Sergeant ask, before he takes an arrow to the midshoulder, crippling him instantly.

She barely has time to spot the arrow flying at her before it strikes her, right in the middle of her forehead.

Applejack, also turning back for Fluttershy, lets out a gasp when the arrow hits the pegasus’ forehead. She ignores the trembling ground as she races to the collapsing pegasus- and the puzzling sight. She’d seen more than one guard take a hit to the forehead- and the arrows always punched straight through. This one, however, must have been a weak arrow- the shaft shattered on impact, much like the one to her friend’s chest. She rushes forwards to grab her friend- and in her last second, she glances upwards. There’s an arrow, headed directly for her head- and she won’t be able to react in time to dodge it.

Then, with a sharp snapping noise, the arrow explodes mid-flight- away from her, opposite its original trajectory.

Then fast-paced bolts of light blaze over her head with accompanying shots of thunder, wiping out her pursuers with vicious efficiency. A much louder, brighter blast erases most of the remaining army, all at once.

Then the flashes and thunder stop just long enough for her to hear a Minotaur let out a scream before a shadow passes over her head and lands on top of the remainder of the enemy soldiers. It positively races away from her before twisting around to approach alongside, bumping visibly over the crater that used to be the approach to Fort Dash.

She blinks repeatedly. It’s the same thing that had saved her and Fluttershy earlier.

“What just happened?” Lightning Dust, the pegasus Fluttershy was protecting, asks.

Author's Note

Slight modifications 3/2/2019. Hope no longer knows Griffish; that made it too easy. Since the specific language used is immaterial to the story at this point, there's no real difference.

Chapter 9

Applejack only blinks for a few seconds, watching the giant metal mountain slide smoothly and silently to a halt next to them. “Uhh,” she begins.

The Sergeant forces himself to his hooves, wincing with every step, to amble his way over- and poke Applejack in the side. “Fluttershy. Is she okay?”

Applejack only stands and stares.

Then, the ramp hits the ground a few strides away from them.

“Wait. This is what brought you two to Fort Dash, isn’t it?” Lightning Dust asks.

Again, Applejack only stands and stares. The Sergeant rolls his eyes and starts towards Fluttershy.

He never reaches the pegasus, though; he stops halfway there to look up at the sound of galloping hooves on metal. Two ponies, a unicorn and an earth pony, are galloping down the ramp towards them.

Two ponies, wearing Royal Guard armor. They look like Privates to him, from this distance, but he can’t be certain. In any case, they’re running down to meet them. He elects to wait until he can see their rank for certain before he starts barking orders- then, as he turns back towards Fluttershy, a muscle spasm drops him on the ground again. He lets out a groan, and starts forcing himself back up again.

The two new ponies gallop down the ramp to them. The Unicorn jumps off the side before she reaches the bottom, detouring towards Fluttershy; the other continues dead ahead to meet Applejack.

The green unicorn then screeches to a halt next to the pegasus, horn glowing gold, and puts a hoof to Fluttershy’s neck.

The Sergeant manages to right himself again- and now sees clearly that she’s a Private… and doing exactly what he would have ordered one (or both) to do. “Private,” he calls forwards. “Is she okay?”

The unicorn glances upwards only briefly. “Two minor puncture wounds, and a lifeforce drain about two weeks ago. She’s been knocked cold, but I’m not seeing anything lethal- or long-term disabling.” She shifts her hoof, indicating something on the ground in front of the pegasus. “Her Element seems to have been destroyed.”

He shakes his head. “At least she’s okay. Any indication what-!”

A female voice echoes out from the metal mountain, instantly drowning out his statement. Unfortunately, he hasn’t a clue what is being said- and the only universal interpreter is lying on the ground in front of him, unconscious. He opens his mouth to speak, but somepony else- the earth pony private- beats him to it.

“She says there’s more coming, and we should get aboard quickly.”

He looks over towards the earth pony. “You can understand?”

She nods. “Yes Sir. It’s my cutie mark talent, Sir- I can understand any spoken language.”

He nods. “Ahh. Well, lets- Aaah!” He lands on his side again, and starts rising upright once again as he continues talking. “Let’s get up there.” He lets out a grunt, glancing to his sides- and Private Dust, who just failed a second attempt at standing up. “Applejack, you’ve got Fluttershy, right?”

Applejack jumps into motion, moving towards the mentioned pegasus. “Yes sir!”

He gives a nod. “Private Strings, get Private Dust. Private…?”

“Verbal, Sir.”

“Private Verbal, then, you’ve got me. Let’s get to safety.”

Private Verbal then slips under him, picking him up on her back effortlessly. Much like any naturally strong earth pony might do with any naturally light pegasus. In the process, he spots Private Strings levitate Fluttershy up for Applejack to step under in similar manner, before levitating Private Dust up to her own back.

Finally, the trio of uninjured mares carrying the trio of injured ponies then walks quickly but steadily up the ramp. Upon reaching the top, all three immediately turn to walk along the platform for a second, before turning again, down into a hole… and an open door to a warm, well-lit room full of odd, thronelike seats. Private Strings then helps everypony unlimber themselves of their burdens, while inflicting the least pain in the process, before setting about treating any injuries as best she can.

A quick healing spell stops Fluttershy’s bleeding and sterilizes the wounds; without proper bandaging, that’s all she can do.

Her next target is the Sergeant. She carefully removes the arrow, extracting a few extra splinters, and uses a series of spells to clean the wound. Seconds after she starts trying to find a way to splint a damaged shoulder- at least the joint itself is okay, it’s only his mid-pelvis that broke- the room says something again. She glances up towards Private Verbal.

“She said she can fix the breaks- just set them and hold for a few seconds.”

After a nod, Private Strings does just that- and, fifteen seconds later, she uses a couple healing spells to protect the wound against future infection before moving to Private Dust, leaving Sergeant Stone’s wing properly attached and completely usable. His jaw is also hanging wide open, but that wasn’t her doing.

Private Dust, however, is a different story. She’s suffered from a shattered knee- and the same for the joint in her wing.

“Uh, She says she can fix it- just to have her rest. She’ll let us know when she can move again.”

Well, that solved that problem. Private Dust seemed disconcerted that Privates Strings and Verbal were so trusting of the strange voice- but, after witnessing Applejack’s calm acceptance of the translation, she has difficulty doubting the instruction and complies.

The Sergeant rises to his hooves as Private Strings finishes up with Private Dust. He winces slightly at the pain- but it isn’t nearly so bad, and continues to fade, so he has no trouble standing. He stretches the affected wing out, wincing again, before refolding it and looking towards Applejack and Privates Strings and Verbal. “How safe is it in here?” he asks.

Private Verbal shrugs- but Applejack nods. “Quite safe, I’d guess,” Applejack states. “This thing wiped out a Centauran party that was chasing me- and, if Fluttershy’s memory serves, the entire army that infiltrated Fort Flurry, in its rescuing her.” She looks at Privates Strings and Verbal. “How’d you run into it?”

Private Strings answers instantly. “Fort Crystal fell to the Minotaur’s use of a strange, pipe-like weapon. The attacking army was too small, though- we were able to wipe them out.” She hangs her head. “We were the only survivors, picking through the remains of the base, when it arrived- and sent down a strange, spiderlike machine to help us. With its help, we were able to search the base… No survivors, save ourselves. It somehow knew that ‘a larger fort’ was being attacked by overwhelming force- and stated that it could save them, but didn’t want to leave us behind.” She smiles, looking up. “We jumped aboard immediately… and here we are.”

Sergeant Stone steps over. “Did you ask how far?”

She shakes her head. “Private Verbal might be able to understand it, but it doesn’t seem to understand Equestrian… and neither of us are multilingual.”

“So what is it?”

Shrug. “No clue.”

Applejack shifts her weight slightly, then frowns at the floor. “Where’re we going?” she asks.

Private Strings looks at her for a moment, frowns, and turns to look at Private Verbal- who shakes her head and moves towards the door. Everypony watches patiently.

Private Verbal reaches the door- which opens for her. At the same time, it says something, but nopony understands. Verbal nods, and proceeds outside.

Once outside, Clear Verbal takes a deep breath of the fresh, icy wind blowing past, taking a moment to glance at the passing scenery before turning to look forwards, towards whatever they’re moving towards. She raises one eyebrow, glances up at the armor, and looks forwards again, moving towards the edge to see if she could get a better look.

It speaks up again. Earlier, it had warned her to be careful; they’re moving at a decent speed right now. Now… “You’re wondering where we’re going?” it asks.

She nods, moving back towards the door at the same time.

It answers. “We’re going towards my base. The one I stopped at before the fight; I’m reconfiguring it to support ponies. We’ll be there in about fifty-three minutes; I expect everypony to be able to debark safely in about four hours.”

She raises an eyebrow, putting on what she hopes is a worried expression, and looks towards the giant pipe things up front. The ones that still don’t have any snow on them, even though the rest of the alloy mountain has begun accumulating snow once again after that mad dash.

“Don’t worry. This is MY base; no simple cannon will penetrate it. You won’t need to worry about defense- even after I leave.”

She nods, smiling, and heads back inside to where everypony is waiting. “It’s building a base,” she states. “We’re headed back there. It said we’ll be completely safe there, even after it leaves.”

Sergeant Stone raises an eyebrow, then looks down towards Dust. “How fast can you fly, Private?”

Dust first looks at her still-broken wing, then back up. “About as fast as Rainbow, back in the day.”

He nods. “I’m gonna have to evaluate this base first, but we’re probably gonna need a Fort Crystal for it.”

Dust raises one eyebrow momentarily, before letting it fall again. The Fort Crystal serves as the main teleportation amplifier, allowing easy teleportation of unicorns and non-unicorns alike to Canterlot and back, without excessive mana drain on the traveler. Of course, they’re specifically tuned to only work for ponies; if ever their enemy takes a base, the Fort Crystal inside is useless to them. If Sergeant Stone wants one- and unlike her, he has the authority to request one- then he must be considering their conveyance’ new base as, possibly at least, a valid, pony-held fort. “What’re we gonna call it, Sir?”

He tilts his head, before looking up and down the room, and out at the door. “Um… Hope, I think. Fort Hope, if it’s anything like what we’ve seen from this thing.” He nods, turning back to the group- and Private Verbal in particular. “Did it say how far away we are?”

She nods. “Fifty minutes, if I remember correctly. It said it expects four hours before we can debark safely.”

He raises his eyebrow. “Oh? There enemies nearby, or is it talking about the snow and ice?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, Sir.”

He scowls. “Any way to ask?”

A pause, then a repeat performance. “I don’t know, Sir.”

Four hours later, two ponies- Sergeant Stone and Private Dust- walk outside. They walk up to the edge of the metal, and look down.

Far below, they see a single, metal building, standing against the snow and ice. It looks to be sized for ponies, and large enough to fit a dozen or two bunks. Sergeant Stone raises an eyebrow, and looks up at Private Dust. “Private Verbal said this thing thought it’d be safe to debark right about now, right?”

She only nods.

He frowns for a second, before looking up at the ponderous weapon he’d seen the effects of at Fort Dash. “Well… So long as it stays here, I don’t know that I’d disagree, just yet. Follow me, we’re going to check it out.” He then leaps off the edge, spreading his wings to glide down to the building.

Both pegasi land gently in front of the building, looking up at it. As they approach the door, it slides open for them, all on its own… letting them into a small room, about three ponies long and as wide as the door, with another door at the other end. They look at each other, then proceed forwards, into this small space.

As they walk across it, the door closes behind them- and the one in front of them promptly slides open, revealing the larger room inside. They step in side-by-side, gazing around at the content.

Immediately inside the entrance, they find a raised table, with a couple rows of raised seats to either side, as if for spectators… Or, as a semitransparent map appears above the table, he realizes they’re standing in the war room. This is separated by a wall- no door, just a curtain- from the rest of the building.

Behind this curtain, they find a couple aisles of what look like storage space to either side. A little bit of warehousing, inside the administration building… Interesting. Another curtained doorway reveals the final sector of the base- with two round tables in the middle, and several bunks set on the sides- layered three high, and packed in tight enough there’s space for a good sixty ponies, all without feeling cramped.

He looks at Dust. “Feel like running for that Fort Crystal?”

She blinks, and salutes. “Yes, Sir!”

They return to the map, and study it. Five bases are marked on it- four of them showing little mushroom clouds overtop, the last one with a green circle around it.

“This must be where we are,” Sergeant Stone nods, pointing at the circled base, then points to the nearest of the mushroom clouded bases- which also happens to be the largest. “That must be Fort Dash.” He takes a piece of parchment- very clean, well-made parchment- and the strange, stick-like writing utensil next to it and puts it to the page. Shortly, without ever having dipped it in ink, he has the note fully written out- with lines far cleaner than any quill might make. He signs it, stows the writing utensil back in its place, and folds the page, hoofing it to Private Dust. “Take this to Canterlot, Soldier. Return with a Fort Crystal for Fort Hope- and a map of Equestrian territories.”

She accepts the page and snaps a salute. “Yes sir!”

A minute later, when Sergeant Stone returns to the compartment the other four ponies are waiting in, Private Dust has already reached cruising altitude, headed south towards Canterlot.

Author's Note

Slight modifications 3/2/2019. Hope no longer knows Griffish; that made it too easy. Since the specific language used is immaterial to the story at this point, there's no real difference.

Chapter 10 (Rewritten)

It takes the combined efforts of Private Strings, Applejack, and Sergeant Stone to get Fluttershy down from the thing. It had extended its ramp once again- but being that it’s standing right next to its little base, that had come down a little far away. They’d elected to go the faster, more direct route- which, unfortunately, strained the Sergeant’s wings. He had Private Strings stand up top, using her horn to help keep Fluttershy on his back, while Applejack waited at the bottom to help receive the unconscious pegasus.

Next, while the Sergeant and Applejack carry Fluttershy inside the little structure, Privates Strings and Verbal trot down the ramp to meet them. The strange, spiderlike machine that had helped them search their destroyed base has been, ever since they decided to move, transferring the food supplies.

It takes only a couple minutes, once inside the toasty warm interior, to get Fluttershy onto one of the bunks- and to remove her armor. The armor is piled up next to the bed; it might be very, very badly damaged, but it’s still all they have.

Next, they confirm what Private Strings had noticed before.

“Her Element is broken,” Applejack states, staring at the fragments of gemstone they’d recovered from the pegasus’ armor.

Private Strings nods. “I noticed that earlier, too. I wonder what that means, though?” She points a hoof at Fluttershy’s chest.

Applejack looks up at it; Private Strings and the Sergeant had taken care of the armor problem. She tilts her head, gazing at the pink butterfly emblazoned on Fluttershy’s chest, just like a cutie mark.

Sergeant Stone runs a hoof across it, verifying that it is, indeed, a deep coloration in her fur- just like a cutie mark. “Interesting,” he mumbles- and glances up at her forehead as well. “Not only that, but her wounds have all sealed up.” He glances out at the door. “I’m betting she helped.”

The answer is a couple slow nods.

He gives a sharp nod. “Regardless, a little building like this isn’t gonna defend itself. Private Verbal, you’re with me- we’re going to examine the surroundings and establish a perimeter. Private Strings, stay with Applejack and Fluttershy- make sure she makes a full recovery.” He then heads out through the curtains and the door, Private Verbal following right behind.

When they get outside, they pause for a second to look around. Their previous conveyance has been busy. It’s parked just a little further away- and all the snow around their little building has been cleared. Beyond that, just barely peeking out of the ground, the foundations- and beginnings- of solid, metal walls are just visible. Regardless, Sergeant Stone quickly sets up a patrol schedule; if any enemy approaches, he wants to know about it, ‘handled’ by their gigantic friend or not.

Two weeks. It took all of a day for the fort to establish enough food production capacity to sustain the five ponies that stayed; however, it has taken a full two weeks to establish acceptable defenses for this new microbase, with a subspace com embedded in the walls. I am just about ready to make my next foray into the wild when one of my six roving drones crosses paths with the blue pegasus that left two weeks ago. She’s pulling a small cart through the air; radar suggests a very large crystal is contained within. I watch her fly in for a landing; I am in no hurry to depart, at this time.

My passengers have adapted to living in my base fairly well. They have set up a guard schedule, regularly pacing the walls; ever since they first started patrolling the area surrounding their structure, I made certain the walls would be entirely pony-navigable at all times. The four towers, one at each corner, are each armed with two automatically-operated Ion Bolt repeaters; I have also installed a single pony-operated repeater in each tower. Eventually, I plan to install Hellbores on this base; at this time, I have neither the resources nor the space to build such weapons. Even so, ion bolt repeaters should be enough to wipe out any attacking force, especially since the alloy walls- while also not up to eventual design specification- should stand up to regular cannon fire for decades.

I watch the pegasus descend towards the base. As expected, she seems surprised by how much it has grown; I have not yet constructed any additional structures, but the occupants have been hard at work not only in patrolling the walls but in preparing roads. She descends quickly, landing gently in front of the structure; the stallion- nickname ‘Sergeant’- jumps off one of the walls to meet her on the ground. The unicorn- ‘Pointy’- runs over from where she had been exercising her magic, I believe, in a corner of the base. She then helps them extract the large, bipyramidal crystal from the cart, bringing it and its base into the building to set them up in a corner of the map room. Sergeant pulls a scroll out of the cart, following her in, to unroll it on my map table.

I immediately spot similarities, match locations, and move my holographic map to line up with this one. I also extract the labels- I cannot understand them- onto my map, alongside the many locations on his that aren’t on mine. They seem surprised by this adjustment, as my holographic map quickly takes on the features of the paper one underneath- but they seem to accept it. He shortly rolls up his map, setting it aside, to examine the holographic one. While he and Pointy go over the map- looks like they’re trying to decide where to ask me to go- ‘Fast’, the pegasus that brought them the map, touches the crystal, triggering a surge of magical energy.

She seems to panic as the surge builds, pulling away and letting out a yelp. Sergeant and Pointy both look up at her; Pointy’s horn starts to glow, and I recognize a barrier beginning to form around the crystal.

She’s not done yet when the magic surge blasts out from the crystal. Her barrier shatters outwards instantly; at the same time, I activate my battlescreen projectors to protect my hull from any possible effects from this blast. At the speed it’s going, it will reach me before I can raise my battlescreens; the alloy walls of the fort may hinder it enough.

As the blast strikes ponies, the images on their flanks disappear and they collapse to the ground. I am able to confirm they are not dead; rather, the effect appears identical to the curse that was placed upon Necklace two weeks prior.

The blast is not hindered by the alloy walls- and I can confirm, it will have an effect on me. On contact, the power cells in the emergency lighting I installed are being instantly drained; all power in the wires in the walls is also being drawn away, causing the lights to go out. I rush my tech spider to the nearest power line and connect it in; in the event the blast wipes its power as well, I should be able to recharge it directly, rather than nanite-manufacturing a cable to connect it to power. At the same time, my drone launch tubes snap open, and I launch my two remaining drones into the air with orders to reach cruising altitude as quickly as possible and join the other six in formation. Their internal engines come on fast enough, propelling them up and away, that they manage to escape the blast.

Apple and Necklace collapse where they stand, on the wall; ‘Understand’, the earth pony that seems to understand everything I say, is struck by her falling spear after she collapses. I detect no injury.

The blast continues to travel, and strikes into my hull. As expected, all power is being sucked out; I successfully raise the innermost layer of defenses around my starboard forward survival center in time; by a stroke of luck, this is also the furthest point of my hull from the blast. As such, the already-nearly-depleted emergency survival center reserves contained with my active survival center are preserved, and I remain aware throughout the blast. I wait until the power cutoff from outside fades entirely before I lower this barrier and begin analyzing the damage.

98.37% of my armor’s solar capability has been fried, reducing me below useful production in broad daylight. 97.31% of my power cells have been fried as well; however, this is of no consequence at this time, since I’ve used less than 0.01% of them since arriving in this world. My spider’s power cell survived, at reduced capacity; all nanites beyond my survival center have been lost. All subspace comm facilities, including those in my fort, have been fried; visual analysis indicates the housings have blown apart, requiring reconstruction. All of my battlescreen projectors have shattered in similar manner; all my countergrav facilities have been disintegrated. The exposed processors show significant strain, but most are operable. My Ion Bolt repeater will need new control circuits before I can use it again; my operable Hellbore needs new targeting sensors; four of my fifty missiles require new processors. My working main battery, however, remains fully operational, even though I never accumulated the power to fire it, even on a reduced setting.

More worryingly, the processors governing the door on my base have been fried; the doors have been immobilized in a closed position. I make this a priority repair, estimated time to completion three point four seven minutes, while I feed power into my spider to help the three exposed ponies down to the door. Even now, all three of them are attempting to rise once again, but none of them seem to have the strength to do so.

Oh, and good news- the geothermal generator appears to be completely unharmed. It has resumed powering my fort and charging my power cells.

I slightly reduce the rate of charge by lighting up my transmitters once again; these have also survived. I make contact with my drones, download the logs. All eight drones have survived; the six already out appear to have been outside of the blast zone, while the last two have outraced the blast and have not yet reached formation distance. I order a tighter pattern such that it should be nearly impossible for even a hypersonic missile to reach my base without detection. At the same time, after the doors and my spider, my missiles- and the launch tubes they’re in- are the next priority repair. They are, aside from my miraculously undamaged mortar, the only weapons I can use right now; geothermal hasn’t yet given me enough charge to operate even the ion bolt repeaters.

I then debate my next priority in construction. Do I want to assemble a surveillance satellite, or go for fusion power? I…

I will go for the satellite. Once I launch it, and place it in geostationary orbit, I can safely dock all of my drones simultaneously- and travel out a far greater distance without losing surveillance capability on my base.

As I restore my fort’s damage control capability by the introduction of fresh nanites, I adjust its priorities; fully one-half of non-food production will be devoted to the creation of a pair of launch tubes on the back of the central building- one a box launcher, in which to build and launch satellites, and the other a Heavy Vertical Launch Missile Tube, with a magazine capacity of sixty and cycle time of only two seconds. Twenty of the missiles will be hypersonic, long-range one-kiloton cruise missiles, capable of striking anywhere within fifteen hundred miles; ten will be ten-kiloton intercontinental ‘ballistic’ missiles, capable of striking anywhere on the planet; thirty will be shorter-ranged missiles, evenly distributed between quarter ton, one ton, and ten ton weapons, with a hypersonic range of about twenty miles, for use in defense of the fort.

After that, and only once the magazine has been filled completely, my fort will produce alloy armor for each pony in the fort. An alloy replacement for the damaged armor they all still wear.

Private Dust touches the Fort Crystal she’d brought. As the pony that first brought it to this fort, it’s her duty to be the first to touch it, to teleport to Canterlot to report safe arrival.

She doesn’t disappear, the way she’s supposed to. Instead, she feels a surge of energy she’s not supposed to feel- and leaps backwards in alarm. Both Private Strings and Sergeant Stone look up at her; Strings’ horn lights up, casting a shield around it. If it is what she suspects it is, that’ll be very important.

The blast comes too fast. She sees the shield shatter under the force, feels the blast take her strength away… and even the room goes dark while she collapses to the floor, unable to hold herself up.

It’s a trick the Centaurs have learned- and why they often haven’t attacked ponies traveling through the sky with Fort Crystals. They can set their lifeforce drain spell on it, such that it will activate and drain everypony in the fort whenever somepony attempts to use it, dumping the resulting energy into the crystal- and causing it to explode violently, more often than not.

The annoying part is that they can set that spell from afar, through the wooden wall of a carriage. At least they can’t set it through the solid walls of a fort, or the solid stone or metal buildings they’re stored inside.

Thus, the reason repairing or replacing a Fort Crystal is such a pain.

She tries to right herself, but she can hardly move her legs, let alone lift the weight of her armor. “S-sorry!” she mumbles into the darkness, as the best she can manage right now. “I- I-!”

“Don’t worry,” Sergeant Stone’s voice comes back, similarly weakened. “That was my fault. Neither of you have the experience to spot that curse, I do.”

She’s about to reply, when the sharp crackling of breaking crystal echoes through the room, and several heavy thuds resound from where it was.

“At least it was only us,” Private Strings’ voice wafts from the darkness. “And Hope… I hope she’s okay.”

Her eyes widen. That’s right- Hope built this base, and she’s well within range of the blast! Not to mention, all the lights have-!

Right on schedule, the lights come back on, blinding her momentarily.

She takes a breath. “What about Honesty and Kindness?”

Sergeant Stone speaks up again. “We can only hope that Hope is okay… and that she can find a way to help them inside.”

Author's Note

Rewritten 3/2/2019. The previous plot moved too quickly; because of that, this story has been frozen for almost six months on writer's block, on Chapter 13. My solution is to change the preceding events, create a larger challenge for the main characters- and the Bolo.

Yes, that means I'm discarding three whole chapters (one never published), plus the second half of this one (the old second half). In exchange, the plot is in such a position that I can continue it without going immediately to Mary Sue levels of danger. Having a Minotauran weapon that can hurt the Bolo should help with that, even if the thugs don't know it.

Chapter 12 (Rewritten)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 13

It’s just over a week later when my first satellite goes screaming into the sky. I’ve charged up quite a bit of power by now- nowhere near enough to operate my still-inoperable hyper generator, but enough. They hyper generator is close to an operable condition, sure- but my priority has been elsewhere. I’ve been able to restore several more of my Ion Bolt Repeaters and secondary Hellbores to function, and supply plenty of fuel for the same. I also have enough power to go on a tour of the nation, with minor energy weapons use at several points. No more hostiles have been in the area since I recovered Soldier, the dark blue pony whose armor is still holding onto the last shreds of its power. I would that I could recharge it, but unfortunately, I cannot.

So now, as all my drones fly back to my hull to recharge, I cast new icons onto my map. One of myself, and a line indicating my planned course.

I have selected the fourth region in which a necklace-bearer could have landed, and pathed to it; the third was close enough to scan with a drone relay, and I have done so, finding nothing. On my way there, I have planned to visit three forts from the pony map that I have not seen yet; I have selected four more for the return journey.

The ponies, gathered around my map in discussion, look at it immediately, before discussing something in an urgent tone. As they do so, I draw from my fort’s nonperishable food stockpile to supply my troop compartment with enough food for the entire party to accompany me for two full weeks, plus extra- in case we run into more survivors before reaching a fort.

I watch them discuss for a minute or two, then Soldier, the dark blue pony whose armor is still holding onto its last scraps of magic, rises and walks out to me.

She stops, blinking, and looks around, upon leaving the central building. Over this last week, I have not only been able to assemble the complicated technology in the missiles, but quickly manufacture large pieces of alloy, and stick them into place- meaning that the wall of the fort is much further out than it was originally, and the foundations of three more buildings- to be a berthing hall, a mess hall, and an armory- are visible. Space has been cleared for the fourth, the greenhouse, but I haven’t been able to place the foundation just yet. There’s also a specially-designed section of the wall off to the side, where I am; a bridge reaches out from it, touching onto my hull just outside the passenger compartment.

Soldier heads back in to say something to the rest of the ponies, who seem intrigued by what she has to say. Finally, she heads back out, heading for my docking section of the wall. She climbs it and, fairly slowly, crosses the bridge, before entering my troop compartment.

I have remodeled the troop compartment, somewhat. Holodisplays are fairly easy to manufacture, so I have installed one in place of the front two rows of seats; I have the same holographic map displaying on this one as in the base.

Soldier smiles, and takes a seat, saying something I do not understand. Even with a week of samples, I have not yet been able to figure out their language.

Shortly afterwards, as none of the other ponies seem interested in joining me, I depart on my journey. I suppose I will have plenty of food in the event I encounter a half a dozen stranded ponies, not counting the necklace-bearer.

Thirty-nine and a half minutes later, I launch two drones to monitor the terrain ahead. By the time they reach their stations, they will be able to see slightly further than my satellite.

I roll forwards.

Soldier rises from her seat, looking more closely at my map, before heading outside. We’re on approach to the first fort on my route, some three hours after departing mine. I estimate her armor has about four hours of power left, given observed expenditures; six of my drones are in formation around me, while the last two work a search pattern ahead.

I spot the fort.

It is debris.

I adjust my heading directly towards it, and fly my roving drones closer for a better look. Unless I miss my guess, that is not old debris, but recent. As such, there may still be survivors.

I crest the hill. Soldier lets out a gasp as the fort comes into view. I begin the search for survivors.

Once I stop alongside the debris, Soldier joins in my efforts.

We are not finding anything.

Then, very suddenly, Soldier stiffens, looking side to side. At the same time, I detect a surge of thaumic flow from underneath a debris pile I haven’t examined yet. It seems to be recharging her armor- is this, perhaps, a pony? All three of my spiders immediately congregate on the spot, cutting away debris. Soldier watches concernedly while I work. Unless I miss my guess, this thaumic flow passed straight through the debris- and, as I’m cutting through layer after layer of crumpled metal and stone, I estimate the origination point. It’s virtually certain a scream would not have been heard through all of this.

As such, I am relieved- and Soldier alarmed- when a scream sounds from behind the last crumpled metal wall when my spiders apply their cutters to it.

Five ponies. We find one unicorn, two pegasi, two earth ponies, and a fairly scanty supply of food, in what appears to be a subterranean bunker. The entrance appears to have caved in.

They scream at the sight of my spiders, but Soldier says something, and they calm down. Further conversation passes and, while I scan for any more survivors or bunkers, Soldier leads them back out to my ramp, and into my hull.

Once we finish scanning the entire base, I set my spiders to work retrieving the last of their food, for transfer to my hull. It may come in handy, depending on what else I come across.

The second fort on my route was less eventful, as little more than a pile of frozen wreckage. No additional food or supplies were discovered, though a series of frozen, starved bodies were discovered in various bunkers. Soldier lead the soldiers of the first fort in giving them a proper burial before we moved on.

But now, I’m on approach to the third fort- and even though the fort itself hasn’t entered my drones’ sensor ranges just yet, I spot the massive plume of smoke from much further away. As I zoom in my map to show what I see, including the plume of smoke behind the distant hill, I order my two leading drones to rise like homesick meteors and increase the power to my tracks.

The ponies take note of the change to my map and, struggling to keep their balance on my shifting deck plates, move to it for a closer look. The unicorn prepares herself for combat as best she can, as near as I can tell; it looks like the pegasi plan to sit this one out. They’ve both still got major injuries to their wings; without Necklace or Understand to translate, I have been unable to tell them how best to help me help them. The earth ponies look like they’re planning to deploy from atop my hull as we get close, to become the death from above normally reserved for pegasi.

Only, I plan on there being no hostiles left for them to engage by the time we get that close.

They watch concernedly as the base of the smoke plume on my map descends towards the marked location of the base, as more is revealed by my rising drones.

Then, the base is spotted.

An entire wall has fallen. I spot abandoned, empty pots of what probably used to be oil sitting atop a few of the remaining parts of the wall, at either end; the debris of additional pots are visible amongst the debris of the fallen wall. The entire gap is aflame; combined with the single base structure the flames have spread to, this is the source of the smoke.

The Minotaurs have one cannon section repeatedly firing through the burning flames into the base itself, inflicting as much damage as possible, while another cannon section moves around to fire on another wall. Much of the army is simply sitting and waiting for the flames to die down, thereafter to presumably march in through the missing wall and take the base. Soldiers have scattered out to surround the base, there to prevent any fleeing pegasi; as a matter of fact, this looks like a siege to me, and one that would have been about to end in the fall of the fort.

Not while I have anything to say about it. Hatches fly open, and I fire exactly three missiles- one for each cannon section, as the only weapon currently threatening the ponies in the fort. I will crest that hill, opening the range for energy fire, before the flames die down far enough for the Minotaurs to have any hope of crossing them alive, and they are holding outside of bow ranges to prevent any effective counterfire.

These ponies could do with a good cannon or two.

Good thing I’ve got a few.

The ponies in my passenger compartment seem to agree on a plan of action, and all take seats, buckling themselves in. I expect this is explicitly so I can go faster; none of the ponies present will be able to exceed my current velocity.

I add even more power to my tracks, rising to my normal maximum speed as my missiles crest the hill and begin seeking their targets with their onboard sensors. They quickly find them, match against the data I’m feeding them from the drones, and acquire a solid lock, shifting slightly in the airstream as I hand over to their internal controls. There is no need for me to exercise excessive control over this attack, the Enemy has no way to stop them, nor to fool them, especially after sensor lock is achieved.

I watch as all three missiles zero in and execute their direct hits, each delivering a ten-ton blast, within a time span of almost 0.173 seconds from the first to the last. The ‘Taurs seem to panic at the sudden attack; none of them saw it coming. The ponies in the fort also panic briefly, before shouting orders- and they even seem excited, somehow. New energy pours through them, and fresh attacks- thaumic attacks- blaze out to meet their enemies. Some of the ponies appear to have spotted the missiles before they struck, though most were surprised, engendering the initial panic.

After dealing with their initial panic at having lost their canon sections, the ‘Taurs form up and draw even further away from the base, spreading out even further. I spot a pegasus taking advantage of their confusion to vanish into the sky, presumably carrying a message; I take note of the southerly direction she travels after escaping the siege, and compound that with Sergeant’s map data to estimate her destination. There are two forts she could be heading to; her course is directly towards the nearer one. However, I note, this is not the nearest other pony-held fort- it’s simply the first on a nearly-direct path to a city on a mountain, with a very important-looking title on it.

I haven’t been able to parse the ponies’ written language, and unfortunately expect that to take longer than their spoken language; the only samples I have right now are the map and the note Sergeant gave Fast, before presumably sending her out to get it.

I spot what looks like fragments of crystal amongst the debris left by one of the cannon shots that penetrated the base. Whatever that crystal was that unleashed that shockwave back at my base, it’s clear that is not its intended purpose, and its intended purpose is useful enough for them to risk it. It’s also clear to me that this base’ crystal, as I detect no other such thaumic signatures, has been destroyed by enemy fire, depriving them of this function.

The flames begin to burn down, but the pegasi rectify this issue very quickly as the Minotaurs begin to take note, pouring fresh pots of oil across the gap.

Then my forward hull rises over the hill. Technically, the rest is following, at nearly five hundred kilometers an hour- but my forward hull is all that makes it up over the hill before I have direct sensor results from my onboard instrumentation… and have dialed the main body of the Minotaur army in to a fare thee well with my secondary Hellbore. My mortar goes into maximum-rate fire even as my secondary vomits plasma, firing on the Minotaurs on the far side of the base; my Ion Bolt Repeaters engage the hostiles on the near side of the base, and on the side opposing the main Minotauran force.

The ponies inside my passenger compartment take a sharp breath as my hull twitches from the kickback of the Hellbore, but otherwise make no reaction. The ponies in the fort, exactly like the Minotaurs on the far side, simply scream in combined panic and fear.

Then, four seconds after I opened fire and three seconds after I ceased fire, the remaining Minotaurs all die in a wall of high-explosive death and destruction.

I reduce my pace back to my original, more casual speed, and adjust my course to put me at a nonthreatening distance, before the main gate of the fort.

As I draw abreast of the gate, Soldier and her ponies walk out onto my hull, standing proudly at the edge as I draw to a halt and lower my ramp. Interesting- the soldiers of the base, after seeing her standing proudly on my hull, have opened the gates and, once my ramp touches down advance forwards. It looks like a formal procession, though, not an attack, so I allow it.

“I must apologize, Princess,” the sergeant at the head of the party greets, bowing. “As you, ah, may have seen, we’ve just been rescued from a Minotauran siege- and they managed to not only down the South Wall, but destroy our Fort Crystal and kill the base CO.” He pauses for a second. “As such, even though we’ve suffered little loss of life, I- as the acting base CO- have declared Fort Shy lost. We lack the means to either replenish our food supplies or to requisition materials for repairs to the walls; and especially with the number of hostiles in the area, attempting to wait for a viable replacement for the Fort Crystal would likely see everypony killed.” He lets out a small sigh. “I was thinking of gathering our remaining supplies and evacuating south to Fort Muffins.”

Luna blinks. “A sound plan, but we passed Fort Muffins on the way here- it has already fallen. Though…” She glances back at the doorway. “How many remain?”

“We don’t know yet, Ma’am,” he answers. “The most recent estimate is seventy five hundred.”

“Hmm,” Luna considers, before turning to one of the two earth ponies with her. “Private Berry, would that many fit?”

The named private, the seniormost survivor of the fort of the same name, looks back at the open hatch behind them. “Not in that room,” she states firmly. “I saw other doors in there, though- it’s possible she’s got a lot more room someplace.”

Author's Note

Yeah, this took a while. I had writer's block for a while, but managed to get over it.

But hey, something good has to come from our Bolo having acquired seventy-five hundred more ponies, right?

Chapter 3

Thanks to the power requirement of the various pre-landing track shifts and the power surges I used to ensure my port forward outboard track system- the one with the necklace-bearer under it- didn’t move during landing, I have virtually no power left. I estimate I can maintain awareness for 4.31 hours; motion, or any attempt at combat, is simply out of the question. My solar plating, unfortunately, is rather severely damaged; as such, I am not producing enough live solar power to maintain even my awareness indefinitely. I direct one of my surviving optical heads upwards, to locate… Looks like a lunar body, producing this light. I estimate the light intensity reflecting from it- and finally estimate normal solar intensity, current solar position, and solar period.

It would seem I should be experiencing sunrise in about 1.04 hours; I should be able to produce enough power for full system awareness, plus additional, at any time of day. I estimate the solar period to be approximately twenty-four hours, plus or minus 1.37 hours.

I redirect the optical head to watch the ‘taurs respond to my appearance. They seem to be in a bit of a panic- and it makes sense, I DID land on the leading elements of their army. Interesting- the languages they are speaking, Minish and Centaurian, are among the few I acquired in their entirety.

Wait one… It seems my planning was imperfect; I have lost much of the information I downloaded, including all data on magic matrices, to the jump. This happened when I left 80% of my backup data locations, including all three damaged Survival Centers, behind. Unfortunately, I failed to duplicate this new data out of these zones in time, and have lost it. At least I still have backups of all other data.

More than one stallion had screamed when the sky had torn open to leave this metal leviathan floating in the air. Fewer than a dozen had not screamed when it then landed on top of their goal- and crushed an Element Bearer to death.

Even Princess Celestia, leading this party on the rescue following the Bearer’s discovery some five minutes ago, cries out in fear as it lands. She quickly catches herself, though, reminding herself of Discord’s mission. I hope you find something truly powerful, she prays. Kindness just lost its bearer.

“Fall back!” she orders. The party she’d been able to take isn’t nearly large enough to realistically fight against the army that had been chasing the Element of Kindness- but had the mountain not fallen out of the sky, her party would have been able to slow down the attackers enough to allow Fluttershy’s escape. She lets out a sigh, before guiding her army into a hidden position. She’d spent far too much of her remaining energy teleporting this party here when the messenger came in- and will have to spend some time recuperating before she can jump even just herself back to Canterlot. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know of any fort close enough to their position- so her best option is to jump the entire army back to Canterlot… which means a few days’ recuperation in the field.

The hostile army, after a short period of panic, is placated by the second-in-command- who had, by a stroke of luck, been in between the enormous crushing sections- marching victoriously out from under it. After a few shouted orders, Centaurs and Minotaurs alike are flowing through the gaps as they search for any sign of their prey.

Signs they find. They find her, inside one of the enormous crushing sections, where a hole had prevented her from being instantly crushed.

Her wing is a different story. The stone that had followed her through the hole had smashed her wing against the strange metal- presumably crushing it, and most certainly trapping her in place.

“Ah-HAH!” The second-in-command announces; the commander had been among the crushed.

Fluttershy ignores him, crying into her hooves.

Even though the sun started to rise shortly after they found her, I was powerless to stop them from doing as they pleased. Fortunately, she has not been killed; presumably, they assume she will be unable to escape and starve to death.

As much as I may have been unable to stop them from abusing her, I was able to convince my own nanorepair systems to stage themselves inside her form- and, in some cases, to perform immediate repairs.

By the time they eventually leave, I have spent much of my reserves- and some of the new production- in replacing her skeleton with duralloy. I had no choice; it was either that, or I allow her to die from lack of nutrients. Or temporarily remove one of her limbs- but with no assurance she’d be back for me to rebuild it later, that wasn’t really an option.

So I have replaced her skeleton with duralloy, disintegrating her bones into the necessary nutrients. Her new skeleton should weigh about as much as her old one- and is equipped with its own nanorepair suite, to allow healing. It won’t be as fast as natural bones might heal, but it’s better than nothing- and these bones should tolerate hundreds or even thousands of times the forces her natural bones would. I have purposely not assembled the fragmented parts before the ‘Taurs left. Now that they’re out of the way, I reassemble what bones I can. This reduces her pain, straightening her disfigured legs. I set a pack of nanites on rebuilding her hooves out of duralloy; the ‘Taurs destroyed them. I color them to match her original hooves; I wish for these modifications to be completely undetectable to her and, preferably, to everypony else as well.

She has been a crying heap since before the ‘Taurs finished. Now, as her legs and free wing straighten and mend, her attention seems to have been drawn. Her tears have not stopped- but she is staring at her left wing, even holding it aloft, as I straighten and fuse the limb’s new duralloy skeleton.

Finally, I feed power into the track system. Just enough to release her trapped wing. As I begin to straighten and fuse her right wing’s alloy skeleton, she looks alarmedly at the bogie wheel she’s been pinned against- and shifts to her hooves. She grits her teeth against the pain as she pulls her damaged wing out of the gap and takes a step away from it. I wait until she is far enough I can be certain her tail won’t get caught again before I release the power, allowing the bogie wheel to crush against the stone once again. She lets out a yelp, collapsing to the ground, as I do so.

Close to half an hour passes, and I have completed her repairs. I have outfitted her new skeleton with a small chemical power plant, to run off her metabolism; this should have no appreciable effect on her appetite. I have also outfitted it with a small medical suite, to continue the repairs I was not able to perform. It will take some rather significant time to perform this task, though, relying upon her metabolism, rather than resource scavenging, to produce the necessary materials. During this time, she has not risen. I return my dedicated repair nanites to my own hull shortly before she rises slowly to her hooves and begins stumbling, slowly, forwards- in the direction she had been going before.

She rises slowly to her hooves. She doesn’t know why the great big metal thing had moved- but when it had, she had taken the opportunity to pull herself free. When it shifted back, she had collapsed- right on top of her strangely healed left wing. It hurt- but interestingly enough, it withstood the force that should have broken it. She had let herself lay, feeling as the crushed bones in her right wing somehow stitched themselves back together. Now, she’s grown hungry- and nothing feels broken. She checks, spreading both wings for a visual inspection. Many of her feathers have been damaged or outright destroyed, and her fur ranges from matted to bloodstained, but all of her bones seem to be arrow-straight. As a matter of fact, as she reviews the state of her wings, she will need to find the time for a good preening sometime- and likely won’t be able to fly until they grow back.

She looks past her wing, to her flank, for only a moment. It’s not like those feathers are going to matter, in the end- she won’t be able to fly for another few months anyways, and it’ll take mere weeks for the feathers to grow back.

She focuses on the rock in front of her, raising one shaking hoof to poke it. She’s pretty sure she’s lucky she wasn’t killed by the… thing that landed on her. Had it not landed on her, rather landing just behind her, she would have gotten away. She could have flown away, even. And when she found a fort, authenticating her entry would have been as simple as flying over the walls. None of their enemies can fly, after all.

But it had fallen on her. Thank Celestia she had survived- but honestly, in her current state, she’s not much better than if she hadn’t. The Minotaurs had gotten their turn first. Physical abuse, she could handle. She’d lost several teeth during that- and they had made sure to break as many bones as they could without killing her. They had yanked all four of her hooves from under her- and broken them in as many ways as possible. In the end, her hooves resembled fleshy stumps. She’d normally be walking on the hyper-sensitive frog of her hoof for years after that kind of abuse- at least, assuming she couldn’t find somepony with a prosthetic. Since she’s one of the Elements of Harmony, she’d only have to find them and inform them of her problem and they would help her.

Not that she likes taking advantage of her status like that. She hasn’t in the past- and doesn’t plan to now.

Then the Centaurs had gotten their turn. The Minotaurs had been all about the physical attacks- but their four-legged allies were more magical. None of them could steal a pony’s magic outright, like the defeated Tirek did, but they had come up with something worse. She thinks it’s worse, at least; even the Elements of Harmony can’t repair the damage, only time can- and speaking of the Elements, they’d taken hers. They’d come up with some new spell. Twilight had described it to her once- and she had listened. According to Twilight, their new spell drains the lifeforce out of a pony. Fortunately for ponies, this irreplaceable ‘lifeforce’ regenerates itself- over a few months. As long as it’s not all drawn out, where the pony would die… But Twilight had hypothesized that, should they kill a pony with that spell, the caster would also die. Cold comfort.

Then, her magic- every part of it- is reliant upon her lifeforce to function. Her cutie mark has disappeared; she won’t be able to use her Cutie Mark Talent for close to six months, the time it’ll take for her to fully recover. She won’t be able to fly for three. Her magical hoofgrip- or, as some unicorns call it, ‘tactile telekinesis’- won’t function for close to two months. Her physical strength is just about zero- but, so long as she can find food and water, that should already be recovering. It’ll take a full month before she’s back to her normal strength, though.

Not that she enjoys using her physical strength, as a proponent of the gentle approach. But at least she’ll have it… someday.

She sets the curiously regrown hoof down on the stone once again, as her first step forwards. Right now, she only barely has the strength to walk. If she doesn’t find food soon, she’ll die.

That’s an unfortunate consequence of the lifeforce draining thing: If unfed, the drained pony can die in a matter of hours.

She takes another step forwards. All four of her hooves are miraculously healed, just like her wings… and just about every other bone they’d broken. No, every other bone- she’s checking with her tongue, and even her teeth are back! That should… vastly simplify the eating process.

She continues forwards.

Eventually, she stumbles her way out of the… She looks back up at it. She’d call it a mountain, but this looks far too much like something Twilight would just love to look at. She’s also too close to see any higher features than these massive wheels… and the strange slabs strung underneath the lower set and overtop the higher set. The strange slabs that had landed over her, leaving her alive by a gaping hole that happened to be over her head when it appeared.

She scans the ground in front of her. There’s a couple shrubs here in this frozen wasteland- and, if she pushes the snow aside, there’s also grass.

She eats her fill before looking up at Celestia’s sun, in about the middle of the sky. It’s cold out here- but she can handle the cold, to a degree. If it means helping her friends, she can handle anything.

If she recalls correctly, she’s not far from the nearest fort. She’d been galloping towards it- or, at least, towards where Fort Flurry should be standing. She ambles slowly in that direction, making tracks in the snow. The sooner she can reach that fort, the sooner she can alert Ponykind to the absence of her Element. She wishes she knew where it went- not only would that make it easier to recover, but Twilight had worked a communications spell on them. Limited range, sure, but far enough she would be able to reach any of her friends in the fort from here.

She turns to look back towards the thing that had landed on her. She’s traveled a long distance- a good half kilometer or so, she thinks- but the thing is gigantic. So big, she decides, that the term ‘mountain’ describes it anyways, no matter how much Twilight would like to look at it.

Though, she considers, it might be more accurate to call it a ‘cratered mountain’. It’s enormous, it’s made of metal. It’s also covered in holes.

She turns back towards the fort and ambles on. The sooner she reaches the fort, the sooner her friends will know she’s safe.

Chapter 11 (Rewritten)

Author's Note

Rewritten 3/09/19.

WARNING FOR RETURNING READERS: The rewrite started last chapter, in Chapter 10!

Chapters 8 and 9 both had some modifications, but nothing significant- the only difference to those two being that now, Hope doesn't know Griffish- and the particular language she's using to speak with the ponies is unspecified. Rereading of them should be unnecessary.

Chapter 11 (Rewritten)

Five minutes.

It had been no more than five minutes before the three inside the base heard the sound of the door sliding open, and Hope’s spider thing half-carried Fluttershy in without her armor, setting her down gently but rather unceremoniously just inside the door before returning back outside for first Applejack and then Private Verbal. Now, while the three mares are very carefully walking over to check on the three that were already there, the spider seems to be retrieving their armor, dumping it similarly unceremoniously into a heap next to the door.

“What… What happened?” Applejack asks, once she’s sure they’re all awake.

Sergeant Stone struggles to look up at her. “What happened to your armor?” he asks.

Fluttershy squeaks, then falls down.

“It was too heavy,” Applejack states. “Hope removed it so I could walk- then helped with that so I could move faster.” She heaves a sigh. “It’s not like there’s going to be any point to heading outside until we recover far enough anyways, is it?”

He scowls. “I suppose. Anyways… I’m sure you’re aware of the curse they can put on our Fort Crystals?”

Her nod is small and weak, but perceptible. “Yes?”

“That’s what happened. We didn’t see it until it went off.”

“Drat. How long we got?”

“Physical strength should return smoothly over the next month,” Private Strings states. “On the magic side of things, we got two months to wait for the tactile telekinesis, three for our racial magics, and six for full recovery- and cutie mark magic.” She sighs, struggling to roll herself upright- and just barely manages. “We should be strong enough to walk without issue in a few hours, though it may be a few days before we can go much faster; all this armor will easily triple both numbers. Weapons… are out of the question for at least a week.” She looks up at Applejack. “We won’t be able to wield them effectively for another week or so after that. In the meantime, if we don’t get something to eat within the next hour or so, we’ll die.”

“Wha- how do you know so much about it?” Private Verbal asks.

She sighs. “A two step process, really. Step one, live in the same town with Princess Twilight. Step two, study the thing as part of Unicorn Guard training. Sometimes I wonder why they didn’t extend that training to all three races.”

“Ahh… makes sense. So, food?”

“Go ahead,” she answers. “Have fun without us, too.”

“Wha- without?”

“It’s a rare pony indeed that can recover their strength fast enough to lift all this heavy armor in time for the first meal- and none of us will have the strength to undo the clasp for hours. We’re prettymuch screwed, but at least you’ve got a chance.”

“An- an hour?” Fluttershy mumbles. “But…”

“But what?” Strings asks, after a pause.

“But when I was… the first time, it was hours!”

“Huh. They musta not gotten you as hard. The spells they put on our Crystals are very consistent.”

The door snaps open one last time, admitting the spider with the last set of armor. It dumps it with the rest, before scurrying around the table to start unbuckling the last three’s armor with blinding speed.

Private Strings rolls out of her armor, rising shakily to her hooves. “Aaand, I forgot Hope doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. I hope she’s actually not bothered by it.” She heads for the food.

“I hope she keeps this up,” Private Dust states.

“What?” Sergeant Stone asks, rising to follow the other pegasus to the oddly always-stocked kitchen. “Running into trouble?”

Dust’s laugh almost drops her on the floor. “Nah- overcoming that trouble. Sure, she’s had terrible luck so far- but that’s to be expected, given the state of Equestria’s defenses. Now that she’s building her own fort, I’m sure the Minotaurs won’t be able to knock the walls down- and she has a safe haven to take ponies to.” She chuckles again. “If she’s got that much power on a mobile platform, what do you think a well-anchored, static platform might have? And besides, in each action we know of that she participated in, there was a point when she got close to the battlefield, and a point when all opposition was crushed… and those two points have been back-to-back in every action.”

He pauses, blinking. “You know, I think you’re right. She’s even solved other problems…” He glances at the fractured remains of the crystal. “All without any apparent effort. Once the Minotaurs realize what they’re up against, they’ll be runnin’ for the hills.”

She gives a small smile. “That’ll be the hard part: Once they realize what they’re up against. To my knowledge, not one Minotaur or Centaur yet has seen Hope- even peripherally- and lived to tell the tale.” Then she glances at the crystal. “Though… Don’t those normally explode with the curse?”

Private Strings answers again. “There weren’t enough ponies around,” she states. “It takes about a dozen ponies for the curse to be able to gather enough energy to make the crystal explode. And if it only finds one, the crystal doesn’t even break.” She dips her muzzle into the salad Hope’s spider assembled for her.

“Ahh.”

Sergeant Stone takes his seat, with his salad, before looking up again. “Private Verbal?”

She looks up from her salad, mouth full. “Mm?”

“Will you still be able to understand Hope?”

She shakes her head.

Private Strings answers verbally, mouth clear. “That’s cutie mark magic,” she states, “not unlike Fluttershy’s. Six months.” She shudders visibly- an almost comedic effect, with as slow as her diminished strength let her perform the action.

I am currently operating on the assumption that Understand has lost her ability to understand my words. I have fully analyzed the effect of the shockwave on each of their forms; their states are very similar to that of Necklace’ body, back when I first met, when the ‘Taurs left her.

And while Necklace’ facial expressions and body language showed understanding of what they were saying prior to their final energy abuse, she has shown no understanding of anything I have spoken at any time- nor of what they were saying as they left.

Thus, for the time being, I am assuming Understand has lost her ability. I will continue to operate on that assumption until such time as I have something I need to get across- where I will attempt to make verbal contact.

But even then, I will count on it failing.

So I have begun a side project. All of my records of pony interactions go into this project; I wish to decode their language as quickly as possible, thereby rather permanently circumventing the language barrier.

In other news, I have been able to confirm the operability of 78% of my missiles and their tubes; the remainder have only small processor glitches. Fortunately, I was able to cut power to the malfunctioning systems before they could cause booster or warhead ignition.

I have stripped the two drones back out of my monitoring formation, tightening it further to maintain the same level of security, if at a shorter range. These two drones, rather than returning to recharge, have been assigned to a searchpattern, examining the terrain in increasingly widening circles around my position, all the way up to the edge of my range. I will identify every possible vector of attack, and all entities, both friendly and hostile, in the area.

I will not lose any ponies, not even while they are weakened so.

I recontemplate my repair priorities. Yes, my missiles remain a priority; beyond that, I wish to have a couple of ion bolt repeaters available for duty, that one available Hellbore…

And beyond that, my next priority is not fusion power, but my mostly-intact hyper generator. My fort will be expanding its productive capacity very rapidly; I will be able to charge up entirely off the fort every couple days or so long before I am able to restore even one of my fusion plants to operable condition… and most of my power cells have survived intact, leaving me with enough storage capacity to, when fully charged, perform an intercontinental-range hyper jump. I won’t have much power left after that, though, so next priority- once I get the generator working- is my power cells.

My hyper generator will work well for rapid deployment in the event that I detect an emergency situation. In the event that the situation is not an emergency, it will work well to get me back to base- where I can quickly recharge it, and be immediately ready for another emergency. In the meantime, I need to have enough power floating around to blow up all opposition and utilize my track systems for any additional traveling necessary, preferably with the power around to run cross-country at a full sprint, in case of closely-timed emergency events, with the possibility of several bouts of combat in between.

Once I restore the hyper generator and my power cells, I will get to work on my armor, and solar capacity.

Then I will work on my countergrav, and my battlescreens.

Then, once all that is complete and I can maintain an active disruptor field around my inner layers at all times, I will go for fusion power. Until then, one surprise blast like that- or well-directed spell I’m not ready for- could inadvertently cause fusion containment failure. As much as I would be far more capable with a running fusion plant- even the wimpy little one only installed to allow me to start the other two- than while budgeting my power so carefully, the risk is too high. I will not risk destruction at the hooves of the enemy, even if it would mean I am more capable of protecting my ponies; in my current state, I can protect at least the few in this fort. If I am destroyed, I cannot do even that.

I watch, and I wait.

Fourteen hours, thirty-seven minutes, forty-one point three seven seconds.

That’s how long has passed, after that blast. I have recharged enough power for energy weapon combat; all of my missiles and tubes have been repaired and reactivated. The fort tubes have not been completed yet; immediately before the point where it would have automatically turned back to recharge, one of my roving drones spotted what I would like to call an emergency situation. It remains on station as I pour power into my tracks, launching one of the two drones from the defense pattern to replace the one that spotted the damage, despite only having charged it halfway, so far. These drone power cells have decent capacity, but unlike my own, they’re not designed for rapid recharge and discharge.

But 47.31% in the drone’s battery will last it for several hours, more than long enough. The other drone, having fallen below 1%, may be forced to make the trip back to me before this one reaches its position.