The Mark of Duty

Sunset returned shortly after my musings on the past, out of breath and frazzled. I nodded towards her. "So the prodigal one returns. What news do you bring young one? Have your doubts been sated?"

She looked on the verge of tears and hiccuped. It seems that whatever talk she shared with Celestia went poorly. I crouched low and scooped her up in a big armored hug. She sobbed a little. "M-M-Mo-" She cut herself off, taking a few sobbing breaths as I lightly patted her on the back. "Princess Celestia said I was being foalish. She said that if I kept trying to research it I'd get banished! What'd I do to make her so mad at me?!?"

I lightly tapped her on the back some more. "Peace young mare. Your spirit has taken a blow, but now is not the time for grief. Now you plan." I sat her down on the soft grass of the gardens. She looked up at me with tear-stains marring her fiery fur. I flicked the tears from her face with an armored finger. "Tears are only meant for when the trials have passed. We must work on what you will do. Do you wish to risk everything to follow a dream, or allow your dream to flee, and stay as you are now?"

She sniffled once and thought hard. And then I saw something familiar. It was in my eyes when I looked into a mirror after a good scheme or a vicious battle. I saw her eyes harden, and the fires of will behind them turn into a blazing inferno. "Buck the princess. I'm gonna go through that mirror, and ascend. Then, when I'm an alicorn I'll trot right through the front gates and show her what I can be." She stood tall, not even bothering to wipe the remaining tears from her coat. I smiled under my helmet.

"That is the only option I could respect. Your duty to your ideals is far greater than your duty to any other." I stood beside her. "Then you will need a guide. One to defend you as you charge into the breach." I rested a hand on my bolt-pistol. "I humbly offer you my hand, if you'll have it."

She looked to me, skeptical. "What it would it cost me?"

I removed my helmet. "Nothing at all young one. Just maybe an hour of time as I retrieve one of my items from the castle."

She looked me over. "Alright, I help you with that, and you'll go with me. Deal?" She stuck out a hoof.

I gladly shook it. "Deal." I activated the marker for my bolter and looked at the distance marking. "It is a few hundred meters to the north, and fifty meters down."

Sunset thought on that for a moment before she slammed her hoof. "It's in the Princess' lab. I know it's empty right now, and I'm allowed inside. Just a few simple spells to hide you and we should be in and out quick as a flash." I smiled down at her and ruffled her mane. I was happy when she didn't flinch away, her fear dissolving to be replaced by her newfound determination. That was respectable, despite any errors she was destined to make on her path.

I nodded and reattached my helmet. "Very well, do your witchery. We shall work quickly and leave as thieves in the night. Until you may return in glory." Her horn glowed in a soft light as I looked over the path. She said nothing as she began walking forward, and I followed. I nearly paused as my foot set down as silently as the movement of a shadow. I could feel Sunset's smirk as I moved to follow her. For a witch, she was certainly clever.

We made it through the castle with almost no fuss. The guards avoided Sunset, which meant I never did something stupid. Like, walk into them. Or smash them underfoot. Both of those options seemed unlikely to go well. I busied myself by looking at the architecture. It was by far some of the most beautiful I had seen. Gold melded into marble so finely you couldn't see the paths they used, with no welds on the metal. Truly masterful work the likes of which I had never seen. I really didn't care. Being stuck in stone for a few spare millennia makes you a bit less awe-struck by the beautiful architecture. Especially when you've had to stare at it for way too long.

Sunset held he head high as she trod through the castle grounds. I was happy looking over the guards that patrolled nearby. My armors upgraded sensors could detect some level of spellwork bound into the golden armor they wore, but I was never adept at decoding what the readings meant. After all, a witch was a witch, The only thing you needed to know was where they were, and what adjustments to make on your scope. I looked down at Sunset Shimmer, before changing my mind. You needed to know that for most witches. Pony heretics weren't all bad.

It wasn't long before we reached our first destination. My marker for the bolter was on the other side of perhaps the plainest door I had seen in this castle. The readings from my helmet suggested an absolute frak-load of spells woven into the wooden door. The only ornamentation that graced the aged entry was a small mark at the top in the shape of Celestia's cutie-mark. Sunset barely paused, moving through the door as if it was a passage into her own room. As soon as I entered the room I had several notifications pop up all over my HUD. So much warpcraft had been worked into this room that it seemed swarmed in various energies. As I glanced through them I took note of the room. It was large and sanitary, many tables and desks sitting clean and filled with scientific tools. I began dismissing the warpcraft notifications and paused towards the end of the list. There was one reading I recognized. One that I don't think I'd ever forgotten. I glanced at where the reading was coming from and found only an empty corner of the room. I kept my eyes on it for a moment longer before Sunset spoke up. "I have to grab a few things of my own from my corner of the lab." She paused a moment. "And leave a note. M- Princess Celestia deserves that much."

I nodded and slowly tore my gaze away from the corner, following my marker to tell me where my Stalker-pattern was. I found a small locker in the corner. No spells graced the metal box, and a simple pull revealed my bolter, sitting calmly in place. I stared in horror. She was dirty. No. She was filthy. The remnants of warpcraft stank in the air around her, with various marks and etches defiling her. I wrenched her free from the stand she was on and rapidly moved to a cleared off table. I put her down and spoke to Sunset. "Young one, I need oil and incense. Quickly."

She looked ready to argue until she saw me doing preparations for a cleanse and repair ritual at my table. Either my tone of voice or simple curiosity powered her towards my request. I began the first chant the litany of repair that I needed. "01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00101100 00100000 01100010 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010" By the time I was done Sunset had delivered the oil and incense from somewhere in the lab. I didn't acknowledge her as I lit the incense and began the ritual.

Rituals like the cleansing and repair one are not timely things. I worked at the table for almost an hour. Slow movements and lost prayers guiding my hands as I pulled apart the bolter, gently placing oil in key locations. I was having to consecrate it myself, which was less than ideal. However I finished, reassembling my bolter with a smile. When I finished I dug into one of the storage compartments of my armor and pulled out a magazine. Checking the rounds sitting in it I smiled and loaded it. Five rounds in my baby. I chuckled as I looked down the scope, making sure all the optics were functional. "And now Amberly is back up." I tapped her happily and nodded at Sunset. "Thank you Sunset, I needed to get that done as quickly as possible."

Sunset was staring at my bolter in awe. I forgot for a moment that she was still from a world that didn't have such complex machinery. Being honest I didn't know how it worked, just how to keep it working. I was still angry about that. I had rough analogs of a few weapons made here, my bolt-pistol and Godwyn-pattern bolter prime examples. But even those were unknown, needing the skills of griffons, ponies, and sea-ponies to create. If I hadn't been able to make my own private force in the past the designs never would have seen the light of day. I sighed at the memory as Sunset blabbered something about her note and moved quickly about the room. I let my mind wander until we began leaving the room. And as we moved through the halls I let the memories wash over me.

***

I smiled at my squad. Brothers and sister in battle as they argued. Silverwing was holding up a trigger assembly. "Look Flash. This is the only setup that can get the damn thing to fire. You need to find some way to make the feeding system work with it."

Flash Bangs rolled his eyes. "Yes I heard you, you excitable fur-bird. But my feeder needs another centimeter of metal at the lip. You can just weld that on, no issue. And I can't add anything to this or else the whole rune assembly will fail."

A small splash turned everyone's attention to the stream nearby, as a bright green seapony popped out of the water. "Honestly you two, this is the whole reason I'm here. Pass me the bits, and someone pull Jack out of the forge, I'll need the barrel for this."

Flash sighed and floated the feeder to the seapony, before shaking his head, making his bright white mane ruffle against his murky yellow fur. "Got it Tsunami, but be careful. Last time you tried to meld them all together you nearly blew up our camp."

Tsunami shrugged as Silverwing moved his trigger assembly in front of her. He laid down in front of her, his dark brown coloring and speckled body making him hard to see in the grass and dirt. I smiled and looked back down to my own project. My chainsword was filthy, and I had taken a rag to it in hopes of cleaning it. Unfortunately, whatever the red liquid daemons had for blood was amazingly difficult to clean off. I took a small portion of minor acid from my alchemy kit and dabbed it on the sword. I had started with polish, it hadn't worked. "Well," I said, beginning to scrub down my well-used tool. "If she does blow us up at least we'll have excellent seating."

Silverwing moved his head in the way that showed he was rolling his eyes. "Well, then I got the best seat." He paused. "Mostly 'cause I'd prefer just to die quickly if Tsu's theory on her magic only affecting non-living material is wrong ."

I rolled my own eyes at this as water sloshed from their area. I saw the bright flash of Tsunami's magic, and a loud cheer. I looked and saw the cause of their cheer. Though it had no barrel or grip, a bolter sat on the ground. I smiled wide, taking off my helmet. "Well, folks. Looks like we struck gold.