Twilight Sparkle and the Stupid Original Pony

Back at camp we took a light breakfast and spent the next few hours deploying some of the gear bear had acquired. Pumps and hose to irrigate our garden with water from the crick were part of our long term plan – eventually our retreat might become self sufficient. An automated telescope and more radio gear were good clean sciency fun. A few more security nodes extended Bear’s surveillance reach for watching our perimeter further out. But the multi-megawatt S.S.H.E.I.R. and a compact Qedar unit? If Bear was a little paranoid, I guess he was just doing his job. Two more totes remained on the wagon Isha had pulled. An unknown courier had delivered them outside my domicile in the early hours before our departure and I had no idea what was inside.

“Hey, Bear, what’s in these?”

Flipping one of the totes open revealed a box full of tangible darkness, a pit of quantum black.

Bear’s voice took on the tinny quality that told me he was tight-beaming the audio directly to me.

“Industrial nano paste.” If Isha was listening to our conversion I could only assume that she heard a different reply to my question. “I’ll build some servitors so I don’t need you to be my hands.”

Nanos, for Frig’s sake. But, I’d grown up protected by Bear, I wasn’t going to start doubting him now.

“Where d’ya want them?”

“Just put the totes by the shed, I will program them from there. In a few months I will have the beginnings of a real foothold on this planet. We are still extremely vulnerable here.”

I dragged the heavy totes to the side of the shed, wondering how Bear was sourcing and funding such technologies.

—

In the heat of the afternoon we paused from our work to rest. Gloam had trotted off towards the crick again, leaving me alone with Isha.

She lay face down on a blanket and I approached from behind for the best angle of access. From a tube, I moistened my fingertips with the slippery gel.

“Oooo,” Isha cooed, wriggling as the coolness touched her. With a series of feather light strokes I rubbed carefully on sensitive nerve endings. Slick and glistening—

“Mom, whatcha doin’ to Isha?”

I hadn’t heard Gloam’s hooves approaching on the mossy ground.

“Oh, um, Isha has owies on her bum-bum.”

My lashing tail had raised painful welts on an otherwise perfect bottom. Gloam took off for a gallop while I continued applying first-aid ointment to the wounds. As the mild analgesic took effect, I rubbed harder, firmly kneading until magic healed the damaged skin.

“It was worth it,” my patient said, “what a horsie ride!”

Still kneeling between her legs, I paused to inspect my handiwork, my heart pounding from more than just the startle Gloam had given me.

—

After the warmth moderated a bit, Isha and I completed setting up more of Bear’s equipment. The ranging unit and weapons module, we hoisted onto the flat roof of the shack. A thick tangle of cables led to an integrated controller inside. Isha sealed the new hole in the roof with the same adhesive foam that held the gear down, while I plugged everything in.

Indicators lit up as I finished and Bear announced, “Looking good, you’ve got the plugs in the right holes now.”

“What’s next?” Isha asked from the roof. I heard movement above me and then her legs swung over the edge, windmilling as she sought a step. I stared up as her foot found the windowsill beside me. Using it as a step she clambered down before I could divert my rapt gaze.

Unsure if I had been caught, suddenly I was focused very intently on double-checking my cables.

“Can you two finish assembling the telescope, please?” Bear suggested before Isha could say anything.

The steps were easy enough for anyone who’s ever merged two different brands of flat-pack furniture together, but many of the pieces were heavy and difficult to maneuver. Shoulder to shoulder we hoisted the largest section –the optical tube– into position on its articulated mount.

Stepping back from the sweaty task, we watched as Bear began exercising the various servos. A filter clicked into position and the scope swiveled to point directly into the light.

“Well?” I asked.

“I am satisfied,” he said.

“With our work or with Hoof?”

“I meant with the star; it looks stable. Doctor Myrtle, would you like a look? I can put it up on the screen in the shed.”

“Oooh! Lemme see!” Isha was more excited than Gloam on her birthday as she hurried to look.

I had to lean in to peer around her and get a glimpse of the screen. Sure enough, to my inexpert eye, Hoof looked very much like a star.

“Obviously, we will get a better view of the inner workings once I have something in orbit with an x-ray telescope. Mean time, allow me to point out some interesting emission lines…”

I let Bear and Isha geek out on astronomy and went to check on how Gloam was getting on with digging the trench for a water line down to the crick.

—

Gloam and I worked on the trench together. The plan was to run power cable and a heavy hose down to a pump at the waterside to supply irrigation and drinking needs. Bear had vetoed our initial plan to put the garden right next to water. We had no idea what the risk of flooding might be, he said. We had the pump, a filtration unit and even a tank. But nothing more than a shovel for digging, so we took turns.

Eventually Isha joined us and we all jumped back into the crick to clean up. Washing each other’s backs in simple camaraderie, the grime of our work and the residual tension from the awkward moments of the day were swept away in the crystal water.

—

After the evening meal we sat around the campfire and toasted marshmallows.

“How did you find this place?” Isha asked, gazing into the fire.

“Magic, of course. But without an artifact I couldn't have done it. How would I open a portal to somewhere I’ve never been? But one night I walked an empty world in a dream and I awoke holding the key.”

I didn't know whether I should try to explain the old man who had given it to me.