Chapter 16:
Research...

It had taken an hour or two of instructions from Dash but by then I had the beak-kissing reasonably well down. It still felt a bit awkward but it was better than nothing. After we'd done that the two of us had fallen asleep together, huddling up close under the sheets. The next morning we slept well after sunrise, Twilight eventually knocking to ask if I was coming out for breakfast.

“Jack, are you awake? Spike is ready with breakfast,” the unicorn called from the other end of the door.

My eyes blinked open, as I'd only been semi-awake before, and yawned. “Yeah, we’ll be right down!” I called back groggily, Poking Dash until she was awake as well.

“Five more minutes...” She groaned, clinging on to me.

“Are you really going to skip one of Spike’s breakfasts then?” I smirked, tickling her side. She yelped, letting go to flail a bit and allowing me to get loose of her grip.

“Cheater,” she mumbled, pushing the bedsheets away. I stuck out my tongue at her teasingly, she narrowed her eyes as a response and jumped at me. With Dash’s speed and the distance between us getting out of the way was pretty much impossible as she latched onto my back.

“So, what are you planning to do back there?” I smirked as Rainbow laid on my back with her hooves wrapped around my neck and barrel..

“I… Shut up and bring me down to breakfast,” she mumbled, burying her face in my feathers.

“As you wish, my lady.” Carrying Dash down was easier than expected as she didn’t weigh as much as a pony her size would suggest. Spike paused for a moment as he saw me and Rainbow enter the kitchen, looking puzzled at the sight.

“Weren’t you two having a fight or something?” He asked bluntly.

“We made up,” Dash answered from her position with her nose in my feathers, her hind legs lazily hanging across my flanks.

“That’s good to hear, though I remember you leaving out the front door last night,” Twilight pointed out with a mildly amused smirk.

“I uhh, may have used the window?” Rainbow blushed, sliding off my back onto a seat. Twilight passed one of her sandwiches to Rainbow as she shook her head.

“Nothing I need to replace I hope?”

“Just one time! I crashed into this place one time!” Rainbow exclaimed, “Am I ever going to hear the end of that?!”

“Hey, I’m just looking out for the wellbeing of my library and its books.”

Both me and spike snickered at the teasing from Twilight, Rainbow huffing as I wrapped my wing around her back. “Oh come Dashie, I’m sure you understand that… huh, I hadn’t thought of it that way.” My train of thought was completely disrupted as I had a moment of clarity.

“What is it, Jack?” Twilight asked, leaning forward curiously.

“Are we just going to ignore that he called Rainbow ‘Dashie’?” Spike asked but was hushed by Twilight, Rainbow’s cheeks going red completely being missed by the unicorn though not the dragon.

“If books are destroyed that might very well mean the destruction of a particular piece of knowledge around here, doesn’t it?” I asked Twilight who looked confused that the question even needed to be asked.

“Well yes, though Ponyville’s books mostly have copies in places like Canterlot Library. If something happened there it might be far more disastrous. Why do you ask? Is it not how that works where you came from?” Twilight inquired.

“Seriously, nothing about Dashie here?” Spike tried again, Rainbow shooting him a glare which he stuck his tongue at. “Mushie,” he smirked.

Ignoring the two of them I shrugged. “I guess it is, but when everyone has a device that can fit in my claw and can pretty much backup an entire library it isn’t exactly at the forefront of your mind.”

Twilight nearly choked on her sandwich after hearing that.

“YOU COULD CARRY AN ENTIRE LIBRARY WITH YOU?!” She shouted after getting rid of the bit of food lodged in her throat.

“Well...”

Shit, how am I going to explain advanced electronics.

“Imagine having a worldwide network of devices that can instantly send information from one side of the planet to the other. And that network would have places where you could draw information from like you would from libraries only from nearly anywhere you are.”

Twilight was salivating on her plate from hearing that.

“Wow. Careful there Jack, you’re making Twilight horny… and I’m not referring to that spike on her head.” Rainbow smirked, poking me in my side.

“Rainbow!” Twilight snapped with reddened cheeks while Spike rolled over in laughter.

“Let the poor unicorn have her fetishes, Rainbow, or should we start talking about yours?” I glanced at the pegasus and gave her a smirk of my own, thinking back to the little tidbit of information I'd figured out after first meeting her.

“I-I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about!” Dash immediately said, trying to hide her face by taking a bite from her sandwich.

“Alright, what in the world is going on here?” Twilight asked. “Yesterday you couldn’t even look Jack in the eyes, Rainbow, and now this.”

“Yes, Dashie what’s going on here?” Spike asked with an amused glint in his eyes.

I coughed. “You see-”

“Shut up Jack,” Rainbow commanded.

“Dash-”

“Shut up and do that thing I taught you.”

“Yes ma’am,” I chuckled, leaning down and kissing Dash. Both Twilight’s and Spike’s mouths fell open.

“You know, I just remembered I was going to see Rarity. Bye!” Spike bolted out of the kitchen at record speed and out of the front door which he slammed shut behind him.

“This news is going to spread fast, isn't it?” I chuckled after breaking the kiss.

“Oh Rarity will try to get as much gossip as she can from Spike but you really should be scared of Pinkie,” Rainbow snickered. “Nothing quite gets the attention of the entire village as a massive banner saying ‘Rainbow and Jack are a couple party’.”

I snorted a laugh and shook my head. Twilight meanwhile was at the tail end of her recovery from the shock. “I, uhh, congratulations?” she settled on.

“Thank you Twilight,” I smiled as I held Rainbow pulled close to me.

Twilight shook her head and smiled. “So, what are the two of you going to do today?”

I looked down at Rainbow dash and sighed before moving my sight back over to Twilight. “We need to talk, Twilight. Something relating to the Princesses.”

“What about?” the unicorn asked curiously as she finished up her sandwich.

“Weapons, armour, and medical equipment.”

Twilight stared at me for a moment, a frown forming on her face. “You aren’t going to give them away, right?”

“Princess Celestia asked me about them back in Manehattan again. I’ve considered it but my mind is not made up about it yet,” I told her honestly. They of course wouldn’t be able to manufacture anything as complicated as my Colt or as accurate as the AWM but even the smallest advancement would be a massive leap for you ponies.

“But… you were going to help us out, right?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Helping out and giving technology half a millenia more advanced than what is currently available are two different things,” I replied. “Though I fear that I’ve made a critical mistake already to make part of that point moot.”

“Explain?” Twilight urged me.

“Rainbow, could you get my rifle and armour from upstairs?” I asked the pegasus who swiftly went up and got the two items. I took the rifle and pulled out the magazine, getting a single round from it. “This is my critical mistake.”

“Your bullets?” Twilight asked as she didn’t see what was so important.

“No, the casings.” I answered. “They get ejected when I fire off a round and I haven’t exactly been picking them up and taking them with me. You can be sure the griffins have been picking them up and trying to figure out how my weapon works.”

“They can do that from just studying those?” Rainbow questioned while frowning.

“Most likely not, that’s a pretty large leap of logic to make, but if they figure out how to make rounds instead of loose blackpowder and balls they’ll be able to increase their fire rate so significantly that your won't be able to counter it at all..”

“So why are you hesitating about helping us then?” Rainbow’s question was valid of course, Twilight nodded in agreement from the other side of the table as well.

“Because I can probably design weapons that would be horrendously effective.” I picked up the armour from the ground and placed it on the table. “I’d rather not have that blood staining my claws. What I can do is help out with this.” I pulled out the armour plate from the vest and placed it in front of me. A squashed musket ball was still embedded on its surface, a little dent where it had hit.

“Jack! What the buck?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock as I peeled the squashed lead ball out of the armour plate.

“Got lucky but it’s also a good example of what I want to achieve. I want to see if we can produce something equivalent to this here.” Twilight picked up the plate in her magic inspected it.

“You don’t want to give us weapons so instead you want to give us something to make them unable to harm us,” Twilight said with a smile though it fell a little immediately. “But if you want to give me this thing to study I won’t be able to continue looking for a way to get you home.”

I let out a sigh. “This takes priority. I’m sure the Princess will be here again in the coming days to ask for my weapons and I want to be able to give her an alternative.”

“I see…can you tell me what you know how this thing is made?” Twilight asked as she tapped the thing.

“The strike face is made out of a layer of boron carbide, the layers behind it are most likely kevlar to spread out the shock over a wider area. The idea is to let a bullet smack and deform against a really hard outer layer and then have composites behind that spread out the force.”

“Right, I have no idea what this ‘boron carbide’ is but I can think of a few materials that can emulate it,” Twilight murmured as she started sinking into thought.

“Cut this thing open if you need to Twilight, just be careful about it. I’m not joking when I say that boron carbide is tough as nails, it has to stop shots from my rifle after all.”

“Wait, you’re telling Twi to destroy your protection?!” Rainbow exclaimed, pushing away from me to look me in the eyes.

“I have a second one placed on the back portion of the armour, I’ll put it in front instead,” I told her and wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her close for a kiss which she reciprocated.

“Good. Don’t you dare get killed,” she warned me.

“No ma’am,” I chuckled.

“Well, I’ve got my work cut out for me. You take a day off Jack, I can handle some of this on my own for a while.”

“Alright, though I’ll probably help you out in the evening.” I ruffled Rainbow's hair which made her squirm a bit. “What do you say about getting some more flight lessons done with me and Scootaloo?”

“Oh yeah! That’s a great idea, rookie,” she poked my belly with a wing as she teased. “You head out to the field while I go look for her, alright?”

“Sounds good to me, I’ll see you there.”

It took a while for Rainbow Dash to arrive at the grass field as well so by the time she did I was already doing some of the warming up exercises we’d done on previous occasions. Scootaloo was short on her tail, her scooter rushing towards me at high speeds. Right before she was about to crash into me she pushed the vehicle to the side and lept, keeping her momentum and crashing into me with it. “Don’t you dare disappear like that again!” she exclaimed.

“Sorry about that, I had some things I wanted to help the princesses with,” I smiled as I hugged her tightly. “You have been keeping up with your homework, right?”

Scootaloo blushed and looked away. “Not really...”

“No more excuses then, after the flight lesson we’re going to work on that. Can’t have a filly as smart as you slacking off.” Scootaloo huffed but smiled as I ruffled her mane.

“Enough sappy, now get to warming up those wings of yours!” Rainbow cut in between the two of us. Both Scootaloo and me went on to finish the warm-up and ran through the flight lesson, I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be long before I'd be able to do sustained flights. My wings didn't hurt as much after the lesson as they did when I first started, muscles having strengthened significantly.

Just as I had promised at the start of the training, after we were done we went over to a quiet spot in the park to work on Scootaloo's homework assignments. Rainbow, of course, used this time to nap while I explained things.

“...do you understand?”

“I think I do.” Scootaloo scribbled down the answers to the various math questions we were working through. “Hey, Jack… can I ask something?”

“That’s what I'm here for, aren't I?” I smiled though already feeling where this was headed.

“Where did you and Rainbow go last week? I know you went to help the princess but no-one would tell me anything else, and with all the news in the papers, and that red moon…” Scootaloo rattled off.

“We went to get some information on what the griffins were doing for the princess, something that we needed to take our time for,” I carefully explained. “Couldn’t rush it and put ourselves at risk.”

“Oh…”

“Don't worry about it too much, squirt, it'll get worked out one way or another.” I ruffled her already rough hair a bit, closing her math book after as I deemed that we'd done enough for now. “Hey Scootaloo, do you want to sleepover with me and Dash if we can convince Twilight? You know, to make up for last week?”

A massive smile formed on the little pegasus’ face. “Yes, of course! I’ll have to ask at home but for sure!”

“Well, you go ask permission then, I’ll go see if Twi’s okay with it,” I chuckled, looking up at the low hanging cloud with rainbow hair hanging over the edge. “And I’m taking her with me.”

Bracing my legs and unfurling my wings I made a mighty leap, my claws piercing the cloud and wrapping around Rainbow’s barrel, pulling her through the white cumulus. The sky blue pegasus woke with a yelp as I pulled her close before rolling across the grass.

“Gotcha!”

“J-Jack! What was that about?!” Rainbow’s cheeks turned this adorable shade of pink as she lay below me.

“I’m gonna ask Twilight if the ‘squirt’ can sleep over for the night,” I chuckled, leaning down for a quick kiss. After releasing it and helping Dash up we turned to see Scootaloo with her jaw wide open, staring at the two of us. “And you are going to explain that kiss to Scoots here while she goes to ask permission on her end. Have fun!”

Author's Note

I've been really out of the flow when it comes to writing pretty much anything, I'll still be rather busy the coming week, maybe weeks, but I want to get my stories back on track.

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.