Bionic Titan: A New Dawn

by KorenCZ11

Rating: teen
Tags: Thriller, Drama, Original Character, Science Fiction, Violence, Profanity, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 47296

A young stallion has a life changing opportunity dropped him like a crushing giant's hoof.

In the year 2279, the world is controlled by the four conglomerates: Alicorn Electronics, Chemical Language Industrial Front, Glorious Iron Industries, and Sea Air and Space Technologies. The globe and the space colonies are divided between the four colonies, but AE, once Equestria, controls the moon, retaining the upper hoof on all the others. This, however, doesn't mean there is no conflict.

Little sparks have broken out all over the place as technology advances. The first Bionic Titan ever created was a CLIF machine that went 'rogue' and headed straight to AE's capital, only falling to CEO Luna herself. On that day of the Summer Sun Celebration, June 22nd of 2222, the world had changed. An arms race began between the four conglomerates, and four generations of titans have come in its wake from all over the world. AE holds the crown for now, but the others are always advancing and gunning for it. Titans can now overpower an alicorn, and that means, something is about to change.

On the winds of a new era, two ponies in the poverty of the poorest island of SAST's Cavalisa Archipellago receive word about a job from an unusual employer. He asked for a pilot, so they went to the best around: a young stallion who goes by the name Zap Flash.

Published 2023-04-02 13:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-04-02 13:20:01 UTC

I believe the world is burning to the ground

Comet

The Meteorite hovered high above the atmosphere, a few thousand feet above SAST’s detection capabilities. I’d warped my guards and I back to the ship into my office, but all the sudden, I had a very bad feeling. I took a seat at my desk, then opened my personal terminal.

“Sleuth Hoof,” I called.

My earth pony guard had removed his headset and stood attention. “Sir?”

“I want everything, and I mean everything you can find about this ‘Blackrow’ company.”

Lowering his brows and using his implant, he took out his secure terminal with magic and began looking through the information we already had. “Deeper parameters, sir?”

“The crew. Histories, records, everything. All of them. Emphasis on our two ponies. Delegate whoever you need to it, but I want it done before the operation.”

“Sir!” And slinking away like the shadow he was, Sleuth left my office.

I didn’t have an immediate task for White Noise, but my feeling told me I needed to make something up and get him out of here fast. “Noise, take some personal time. I need to be alone for a moment.”

Naturally, he was very against the idea. “Is… that a good idea, Sir?”

I chuckled. “No, but it is an order. Go on.”

Reluctantly, Noise saluted, “Sir,” then left my office.

While I waited for the feeling to pass, I decided that I should look into our little ponies myself. He looked so startlingly like her. But there was more to it. There were too many people watching for me to do a check then, but he must be related somehow, isn’t he? And the mare, too. I can’t put my hoof on it, but she also strikes me familiar, but in what way I don’t know.

Before I could start working at my terminal, the bad feeling arrived. A flash of blue so bright it filled the room passed before my eyes, only to leave her in its place.

“Oxford.”

I cringed. Ten years, twenty years, a hundred, two hundred, she will never lose sway over me. Straightening up, I dismissed my terminal and pressed my hooves together. “Mother.”

She scanned the room, probably for the second time, and then approached my desk. “I’ve heard strange rumors.”

Whew, boy, this is going to be a rough interview. “Have you? Perhaps you’d enlighten me.”

She narrowed an eye at me, but then turned her attention to the moon outside my window. “Dusk has been seen on Miyako.”

You jackass! Of all the things you had to not do, that was one of them! Not letting my mask break, I brought a hoof to my mouth. “Has he? What’s he doing there?”

She shrugged, her starry mane waving in an intangible wind. “Generally, so long as he isn’t expanding our population, I do not concern myself with his affairs. However, his appearance coincides with another rumor that has me much more concerned.” Raising her snout with all the dignity her position had to offer, Mother looked down on me. “There is talk that a second has been developed.”

I relaxed. She doesn’t know. She’d kill us both if she knew. “Strange. Have you any leads?”

“Only a spy and a capture of the thing. I would know Celestia’s hoofwork anywhere. What is this new model she’s created? And more importantly, why is it currently in a border facility a week before the Summer Sun Celebration?”

Well, she doesn’t know, but she is making connections and this could end poorly for everyone if she figures it out before the day. “Mother, would Dusk or Twilight not be better candidates to question on this subject? My aunt and I have not been in contact for some moons. Why, Sunday would be the next time I’d see her.”

Sighing, she dropped her haunches and sat in front of my desk. She leaned over, putting an elbow on it, and let go of some of her authority for a moment. “Oxford, my darling, be honest with me. What are you planning? The Forerunner was bad enough, and CLIF is already on the trail of her next project. What are you two planning? I know Celestia’s distaste for the current state of affairs, but I am not ready to endure another world wide shakeup.”

Oh, my heart. Oh mother, how I would tell you all. And yet, in this case you are an obstacle. I cannot bring you into the scheme, for I know you’d oppose it. I took her tender hoof in mine and held it. “We’re nearly to the holiday, please try to relax. Father would hate to have seen you like this.”

“Ah, my son.” She came around the desk and draped her wings around me, pulling me in. “Why must you seek to change things so rapidly? You have all the time the universe has to offer, and yet you push and push and push, and now…” she motioned to the ship. “If I did not know better, I would think sister designed this craft. Not only can it escape the atmosphere whenever it pleases, but this is capable of venturing even to our celestial neighbors, is it not?”

Where did she find that out? The specifications for the Meteorite shouldn’t be available to anyone, let alone Mother. I’ve either underestimated her, or there’s a rat on my ship…

I cleared my throat. “It is merely a prototype vessel. In theory, yes, it can go all the way to Mars and back.”

She took my face and held it in her hooves, trapping me to her gaze. How she likes to imitate my step mother. “And for what purpose? Do you plan to colonize that planet too? Would you try to make a heaven of hell as well?”

If I continue this conversation, she will manipulate me into telling her what she wants. I cannot fight her. Instead, I turned away and pulled up my terminal again. I opened a capture of my meeting earlier and displayed the two ponies I met there.

“Mother, do these children remind you of anyone?”

“Oxford,” she chided.

I waved my hoof. “No, really. Look, please.”

Reluctantly, she turned her eyes to the capture. Then, she craned her neck to get a closer look. “Oh my. I believe I see many familiar faces in these.”

That confirms it. “The cutiemark doesn’t match, but everything else does.”

She raised a brow. “For the boy or the girl? Because I do believe they both match fairly well.”

I frowned. “Both? Not just the boy?”

“Indeed.” She expanded the capture and closed in on their faces in two different windows. “The boy could not be more obviously related to your family, between his colors, his freckles, and his stature, this is true. Seven, possibly eight generations out, but he may even be descendant of your father, if not his father.

“The mare on the other hoof…” she dismissed the boy and got a better view of the mare. Baby blue in coat and a mane that started lavender, faded to pink and then white, with matching tail and wings. She studied her cutiemark as well, a pink heart-shaped balloon with a helium atom on top of it. “Yes, I’m certain of it. You might bring this up with your elder cousin. I know how she likes to keep track of their descendants. If he’s related to you, she’s related to the other set of Twilight’s friends. Though…” she looked at the background of the capture, which I’d carefully limited to just the subjects. “Where was this taken? This style of conference room is common to GII territories.” Then she eyed me. “This is your capture, is it not? Where were you?”

Crap. “Uh, Ah was on business.” Double crap! Control your accent!

“Oxford Apple!”

I clasped my hooves together and bowed. “Mother!”

She ground her teeth for a moment, then huffed and stood. “I do not like it when you hide things from me. You had better not let me find out you are doing something disreputable, my son.”

Oh, thank the Goddess.

Shaking her head, Mother moved to the center of my office. “You had better know what you are doing. We have been at peace for nearly seventy years and I smell unrest in the wind. It comes like clockwork and technology these days is reaching levels I cannot compete with anymore. You, Celestia and Dusk ought not to be the cause of it, you understand me?”

I held my breath. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“This conversation is not over. When I have you all in my clutches Sunday, you all will include me on your plans, otherwise, I will put a stop to it. And if not me, then I will send Twilight after you.”

“I understand.”

She let go of a bit of her wrath, then returned to my side. “I love you. Goodnight, Oxford.” She kissed my head, and then just as she’d come, she disappeared.

I made sweep for any more familiar magic, expecting the worst. The clock ticked down, and after a minute, it felt safe to breathe again. Mother is one thing. If she sets Twilight on us, the game is up entirely.

And yet… given her observations about these two ponies, I’m even more interested in finding out where they came from. The Harbinger is made to function using a low level of magical input from the cockpit, but at best, we’ve never been able to get it running in a way a single solder could use it. It has always taken two, but if these ponies are related to former elements, that may change the equation entirely. Could they, perhaps, achieve resonance?

Still, putting Twilight on their trail might give me some insight. The daughter will find out their heritage, and the mother can run simulations. They always did work better together. It’s such a shame all they can ever seem to do these days is fight.

I stood from my chair and observed the moon from my window. Its face had been greatly altered in the last hundred years. It was little more than a pimple on the surface, but a small blue-green bubble could be seen in the mare’s eye of the moon. She’d never speak to me if I tried to call her. But she couldn’t ignore me if I showed up at her doorstep.

I tapped my terminal and called White Noise.

“Sir?”

“Tell the bridge to set course for Luna city. I have a personal visit I need to pay.”

Noise saluted. “Sir, yes sir.”

A few moments passed and the Meteorite began to rise. On the other side of the world, the sun was beginning to peak out from the horizon. In minutes, we would be in full view of the bright star overhead. Mother, you are absolutely right. Unrest is certainly on the wind, and like clockwork, it will come. But unlike the last great war, we will be prepared this time. And this Sunday, you will see just how prepared we are.

The Terra Dome was the one true innovation that made something like Luna City possible. A little like a balloon in structure, it was a plastic film reinforced with magic fiber that had the sole purposes of holding gasses in one spot and deflecting space debris. Originally, it was developed to capture valuable elements found within asteroids during the mining process, but was later repurposed to use as a sort of ‘net’ for the airspace of Luna city.

When she was not so opposed to expanding Equestria’s territory to the stars and beyond, this little invention would’ve been used to start cities on the far off Mars. However, after the cataclysm that unleashed old monsters of Earth’s past in the first great beam technology revolution, she decided that one planet full of dangerous ancient things was enough, and the moon would be barred from doing too much fighting or excavating, in the event something else lurked within her own territory.

Still, in the long hundred fifty years since then, the population has bounced back and more thanks to the advances in technology, which never truly stopped. It has yet to become a problem, but as we stand still within slowly advancing space colony technology and the hoofful of cities on the moon, I fear the world begins to grow restless again.

So long as there was always a new frontier to discover, we’d raced for it without pause, always moving, always growing, always expanding. New discoveries, new territory, new horizons. With the ban and enforcement of local planetary travel, the other conglomerates are gunning for us, and they’re not about to do so in a nice way. For every explorer we halt, turn around, or even engage in the worst case, we gain another new enemy.

We can only hold onto our power so long as we can continue to out gun our opponents, but even then, I feel this is wrong. Or, at least, my aunt convinced me so. And yet, if I was forced to choose who to follow into the future, it would surely be the dawn. I could never leave Mother behind, but Aunt Celestia… I suppose she’d already done so once.

The door to my office opened and Noise stepped in. “We’ve arrived, sir.”

“Very good.” I stood and moved to my chambers. After discarding my uniform, I made sure to comb myself down and assume a few concealment spells. Of the very useful things we’ve taken from the changelings over time, it is their magic that I find most helpful. With enough power, you can go pretty much anywhere without being detected. That is, so long as you care to master it.

“What are your plans, sir?” Noise asked.

I eyed him for a moment, then continued my dress. “Nothing too sinister. I’m afraid Mother may bring our little operation to Twilight’s attention, so I’m going to divert it before she gets a chance. If these ponies are as familiar as she seems to think, I figure she’ll be more than happy to make their acquaintance.”

I could tell there was more on his lips, but he didn’t want to overstep his bounds. Noise was a relatively new admission to the royal guard, and became more than uncomfortable when he was let in on the plan. Finished with my grooming, I turned and said, “Go on.”

Relieved, he stepped forward. “I don’t like this, Sir.” Again, he hesitated.

“Speak your mind, you know I’m not one to punish you for it.”

Noise sighed. “Did Mistress Twilight not move to Luna after a recent loss? This move you’re making, it… I cannot see how this does not either reflect negatively on the royal family, or on Mistress Twilight personally.”

I put a hoof on his shoulder. “Oh, no, there’s very little that would be more negative to her person than continuing on like she is. On the other hoof, ‘recent’ is a relative term for us. The loss you speak of occurred over a century ago.” Though, it was no less a blow for me than it was for her. I sniffed.

“Is something the matter, Sir?”

“No, no.” I straightened up and started to summon my magic. “She lost the last of her childhood friends, who happened to be my step mother and the mother of my siblings. I think, when the war came, it gave her a chance to vent the anger of her losses, but once peace had been reestablished, she was left empty. She escaped here and only leaves every summer to see us on the big holiday.”

“Oh.”

I nodded grimly. “Yes. She buries herself in work for the company, she has a different philosophy in nearly everything from her mother, and though aunt Celestia worries, she tries not to see her too much because they tend to butt heads. Twilight is her weakness, the only pony in the world aunt Celestia will bend to, and nearly two centuries later, she’s still stuck in grief and theory.”

“Theory, sir?”

“Well.” There’s a can of worms. “Twilight was raised on ideas that were popular at the time. Ideas that the war disproved, but ones she will not let go. I won’t go into the details, but you may do research about the turn of the second millennium. She published a paper or two, but under a pen name. I’m sure the archives have them somewhere.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “Her mother is not the only one I suspect argues with her over this.”

“She is not.” I cleared my throat. “And that is the end of this conversation. It may take an hour or so. Have the ship await further orders in low orbit.”

“Are you… going alone, sir?” He asked, anxiously.

Sometimes, royal guards acted like lost puppies. “Yes. Goodbye.”

Luna city was a very bright place, or a very dark place, and there was no gradual shift about it either. Every twenty seven days on earth is one ‘day’ on the moon, which leaves the city in total darkness for about thirteen and a half days. To make the place feel a bit more normal, a ‘cloudy day’ system was put in place to make nights during the two weeks of sun, and bright lights all around the crater that houses Luna City shine down on the same cloudy sky during the two weeks of night. Earth can always be seen from the city, and if one ever spends a few months here, the blue planet in the sky becomes a regular sight.

The whole crater has been terraformed into something that more resembles home down below, and there are a few parks here and there with small plots of greenery all around to make the white rock walls of the crater not feel so alien, despite their true nature. Unsurprisingly, changelings have the easiest time adapting to the moon and space generally, but hippogriffs struggle the most. Survivors of the endangered species tend to live in space too, either from scars of the last war, or the general atmosphere of ‘safety first’ that cuts back every day carelessness found in easier places to live.

You could find the rarest creatures here in Luna because it was exclusively controlled by Alicorn Electronics, and we have a little cutout to help those endangered species find new life. The only living community of Diamond Dogs can be found here, and are even thriving. Of the eight million who live in Luna, 0.1% are diamond dogs, which is the largest the population has ever been since the war. After being reduced to a few bloodlines in total, they’ve come back strong.

However I was here for the rarest creature of all: the very first hybrid alicorn, my own dear cousin.

In spite of not wanting to be bothered, she was incredibly easy to find. At seven hundred hours, earth time, she wakes up and takes a lap around the city, using the famous ‘crater skyway’ to circumnavigate the place and keep her wings in shape. This usually takes an hour. From there, she goes to her favorite cafe, a little place owned by one of my father’s descendants called Papillon de Luna. She spends an hour here reading the news and checking up on current events across the web, and if she’s tired with or disappointed in the world at the time, she decides to forgo that for a book. It’s rare to find her looking at the news.

At eight hundred thirty she quits the cafe and goes home to take a shower. At nine hundred hours, she arrives at AE Luna City and begins work. She, like her mother, can’t find it in herself to get away from tinkering with the latest advancements in tech and magic, and this often leads to her own new discovery. A good deal of Twilight’s own devices find their way into Bionic Titans, including a certain development that was just put into use on the Harbinger, which she would find utterly infuriating. She would also know who to blame too, for that matter.

After working on some project for however many hours she can stand, she then heads out for dinner. She has about three places she likes to go to and each one is owned by one branch of the apples or another. No matter the meal or time of day, she always orders an apple fritter and a cider alongside her meal. Generally, she eats alone.

If it is still early, she will go back to AE and continue working until seventeen hundred, and if not, she goes home or to the store—all depending on how much alcohol she has available in her apartment. From eighteen hundred to twenty hundred, she reads or watches TV. Typically, she flips between the two day to day, but sometimes, she doesn’t finish her book and decides to keep going, however, variation is rare. If she took a late lunch, at twenty hundred, she goes to bed. If it was early, she might go out to a bar.

In this case, one of two things happens: she either becomes very sad, or very touchy after a small meal and a great deal of alcohol. It only happens once a year or so, but Twilight will have to be carried home by one of her guards, the names and faces of whom she does not know. She sleeps for the night, almost never home later than twenty three hundred (as she’s quite a light weight), and the routines repeats.

She takes days off to visit her dear friend’s graves on their birthdays, sometimes she will visit the descendants that can’t be found in Luna once a year, and every year, she comes down to see her brother, cousin, mother and aunt on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration which serves as a family reunion for us.

For the last hundred and four years, this has been Twilight’s routine. She’s seen not so much as a house cat in that time, and in my own heart, I believe seeing the rest of us just brings back unhappy memories for her. It was early morning when we arrived in the moon’s air space, and without really trying, one could see a relatively large lavender body moving at a good pace around Luna city’s skyway.

It was a major highway that led to many of the various large AE centers, schools, hospitals, factories, outer tunnels, and mines within Luna. The skyway was the easiest way to travel between moon cities, and a few of the heavy industry sites on the surface. From it, one could see outside the crater and every detail of the city within, so long as it wasn’t overcast out. Today, the sun was shining on Luna city which meant cloud cover would be just now dissipating, bringing in an artificial sunrise to the little metropolis. Usually, I choose my cover as a unicorn or earth pony because my stature is incredibly rare for pegasi, so I decided to wait where I knew she would stop.

After about ten minutes, she came within distance to see me. Her pace slowed dramatically and she frowned all the way to the end of her track. Twilight has been a fixture of Luna city for so long that she doesn’t even bother to hide any aspects of her appearance anymore.

Her mane and tail were mid length, only coming down to about her shoulders and ankles, and her innate magic was beginning to blow that ‘ethereal wind’ in it like our mothers. With that came a few extra colors in her coat, solidifying her position as the magic hour of the sunset sky. Yellow, orange, red, violet, indigo all the way to the top of her head, where the old pink and purple stripes of her youth persisted in her bangs. She still keeps them ruler straight. Twilight was a little smaller than mother, her head coming up to about the two meter mark. She was shapely, toned, and quite attractive all things considered, if only she wasn’t so…

“Why are you here?”

Prickly. “Mornin’ cuz. How’ve ya been?”

She rolled her eyes and ignored me. Instead, she trotted along the sky way, starting down the road to the residential district where Papillon de Luna was located. I followed but didn’t comment. I spotted no less than three royal guards as we walked in silence through the steel city, which meant one was doing his job better than the others. I gave them a signal to back off and kept close behind.

Ponies, Changelings, the odd Griffon here and there, a Hippogriff or two, a pair of Dragons and exactly one Diamond Dog passed us as we went down the road. I only ever visit Luna when I need to see my cousin here, so the latter two creatures were an unusual sight for me. A strong male on his way to the mines, and a couple talking about a hatchling. No matter how time passes, it always pleases me to see new life.

As per usual, she didn’t say a word to me the whole trip.

“Mornin’ Twi!” The young mare said as we walked in. She was the usual sight, and I was the unusual. “And is that uncle Ox? What are y’all doin’ up here?”

Buttercup Blossom was about eight generations out from my sister. Seventeen, working in the cafe before school where she plans to graduate and move to Earth near the orchard back in Equestria proper. The only thing in the world that hasn’t really changed. I became ‘Uncle Ox’ when I was about twenty five, and I’ve been him for more than two centuries now.

“Oh, not much. Ah found somethin’ awful interestin’ back on the blue and thought princess would like ta hear about it. Ain’t had her coffee yet though.”

She gave a sad look to ‘princess’ who huffed and shook her head. “I’ll have the pancakes and a mocha.”

Buttercup sighed, then reached behind her to the counter where that exact order was waiting. “Oh, come now Miss Twi, ya don’t need ta tell me that. Here ya go.”

Twilight sighed in return. “I’m sorry, Buttercup.” she glared at me. “Somepony has been stalking me this morning and I’m a little irritated about it.” Twilight paid her tab and took her food to the same table she always sits at. It’s a wonder her cutiemarks aren’t imprinted in that chair.

Buttercup motioned me close and whispered, “She’s been in a funk the last couple weeks. Seems like it’s more than the usual July haze. Ah hope ya got somethin’ ta get her in a better mood. Ma says Twi’d been fightin’ with her Ma somethin’ fierce last time she was here.”

I nodded. “Don’t be too down, Ah think Ah can get her off the moon early with what Ah’ve found.”

She tilted her head in surprise. “Really? Must be somethin’ special fer that.”

“Ma sure seems ta think they are.” And then, I scratched at my beard. “Y’all uh… don’t happen ta have…”

“Don’t’cha worry uncle Ox, Ah can get it made.”

I let out a breath. It was enough to let my accent free in disguise, if I had to ask for that out loud, I’d be ashamed to show my face back on the ship. “Thanks, sugarcube. Ah’ll bring ya somethin’ special when Ah see ya in October.”

Her little face lit up, she hugged my neck, and then went to put in my order.

When I turned, her eyes were boring through my head like a laser drill. In one part, she was pissed off because, when is she not, and in the other, she was very interested in what I’d just said. Mother’s approval is one of the few things that can awaken positive emotions in Twilight these days. Well, that and Dusk, but Dusk can never have a serious conversation with her. He’s not even a stallion in her eyes, let alone his actual age.

I took a big arm chair that had to have been made back at the orchard, and planted myself in front of her little coffee table by the window. I smiled, she frowned.

“So? What is it?”

“Ah’m doin’ well, thanks cuz, nice ta see ya too.”

She glared at me. “Don’t give me that. You didn’t come here for no reason, and I have other things to do.”

I scoffed. “Ya do not. Ya don’t even have the scraps of an idea for yer next project. You’re in a funk, ya refuse ta make up with yer mother, and you’re dreadin’ next Sunday like death at yer door.”

A less bitter frown took over and she stared into her pancakes. They weren’t the ones she wanted, but they were as close as she could get. Though, she would never admit that. “What, did she send you here? I’ll be there whether I like it or not. I made a promise.”

“Oh, Ah know very well ya did. Perhaps ya forget, but Ah grew up with ya. Ah know who ya are. Or rather, who ya were.”

She bit her lip and held her tongue. Buttercup returned with my special order, and I tipped her generously for it. Twilight looked up at it and in spite of herself, she nearly cracked a smirk. “You are such a mare.”

I picked up my latte and drank in the wonderful aroma. Centuries later, it still smelled like home. “Oh, y’all ain’t any better. Pineapple pancakes from an apple family cafe. Somepony likes ta make those every now and again.”

She picked up a fork full and stared at it for a moment. “And I’m sure she will Sunday, just like she always does.” Twilight took the bite, savored it sadly, then let her face droop. Oh, how it kills me to see her so depressed. “Why are you doing this to me, Ox? Don’t I get enough of this once a year? It’s only a week away anyways.”

I sipped at my caramel apple butterfly mocha, then set it down gingerly on the table. “Ah found somethin’, as Ah’m sure ya overheard.”

Interest brought her snout up. “And what exactly would that be?”

“Ta be honest, Ah’m not too sure.” Tapping my terminal, I pulled up the capture.

Just like Mother, Twilight’s breath was taken away. “W-who…?” She reached out, separated the screen, and checked the two ponies from every angle. “Who are these ponies?”

“Well, that’s why Ah’m here.” I dismissed my capture and showed a map of the Cavalisa Archipelago, with Cavalria island highlighted. “This is where Ah found them.”

Carefully, she studied the map, then expanded outward until she could see it in relation to AE territory. “What were you doing in a SAST border town?”

“Workin’ on a new project.” I dismissed that and returned the capture of the two ponies. “Their names are Zap Flash and Helium Delight. However, I haven’t turned up any records on them at all. No history, no medical records, no blood relatives, either of them.”

She brought the capture closer and scanned their faces. “I suppose that makes sense, with them being in SAST and all, but… My Goddess. This mare could’ve been Pinkie’s daughter.” She tapped her own terminal and pulled up a very old picture of her friend. They didn’t have capture technology back then, so several pictures were composited to get a proper model of Miss Pie, but they were not all taken at the same age, and she went through a few transformations over time. From quite overweight and sickly when young, to thin and more healthy in her teens, to a solid heft after she got married and began having foals. All the same, the face of this Helium Delight and Pinkie Pie lined up almost exactly. A slight difference in muscle texture that said something of unicorn descent, but otherwise, she was a Pie, through and through.

Then, she focused on the boy. She stared at him for a moment, then put his face next to mine. Next, she pulled up a picture of my father to compare, and then both my aunts. She matched each face, until finally, she settled on Aunt Applejack. “This cannot be a coincidence.”

“Ya might think so, but it certainly is. Ah thought Ah knew him when I first saw him. Only, he’s a little bit lighter built than he should be fer my family. He’s got a lot of pegasus blood in him.”

Twilight frowned. Just as Buttercup was about to leave, she caught her by the uniform. “Hey, come here for a minute.”

“Oh! Well, sure Miss Twi. What can Ah do fer ya?”

“Stand still.” Buttercup did as she was bade, and then Twilight matched up the capture of Zap to her. Unsatisfied, she expanded the capture til it was actual size and compared the two ponies. She was a little bigger than him, which said a lot about the pegasus that must’ve been one of his parents. Very small for a male from my family.

“Do Ah know him?” Buttercup asked, “Ah feel like Ah’ve seen him at one of the reunions.”

“You don’t.” She dismissed the capture and sat back down. “Thanks. Can I send you somewhere since I took up your time?”

“Ah’m headed ta school if ya don’t mind.”

Twilight nodded, lit her horn, and in a flash of violet, Buttercup disappeared.

“So?” I asked, “What do ya think?”

“Definitely not your immediately family,” she mused. “He’s too small. There’s been several pegasi in his bloodline, which is generally more than yours or even Applebloom’s. It’s almost like he was the recent introduction of earth pony blood into a pure pegasus line.”

She tapped her lips and reopened the capture. Then she pulled up a picture of Rainbow Dash. Far more than when she lined him up with my family, these faces lined up identically. “How in the world…?” Dispelling the holograms from her airspace, she went into deep thought, completely forgetting about her breakfast. “When would that have happened? Those lines never crossed as far as I know, but this kid…”

When Twilight started to chew on her hoof, I knew she was too far gone. “Ya know, Ah can get ya the location of their apartment.”

She broke out immediately. “You can!?” Then, coming back to herself, she glared at me. “Why? What other reason is motivating you? Did she put you up to this?”

I held my hooves up in defense. “As far as Ah know, she doesn’t have this information. Besides, Twi, this kid is family. Lost family. One way or another, Ah’d planned on reestablishin’ contact. Y’all are just a better source fer this stuff than my network is.”

Again, she bit her hoof in thought. She eyed me a few times, but finally, she relented. She, too, was curious. “Alright, I’ll go find out. You met them, right? What are they like?”

“Hmm.” Opening my mouth will get me in trouble. Instead, I shook my head. “Can’t say. Our interview was brief.”

“Damn.” She looked down, then worked on shoveling her pancakes in. That completed, she downed her coffee. A new fire had been lit in my cousin’s heart. For the first time in many years, she’d obtained a purpose. “You’ve got a ship here, don’t you?”

I smiled. “Would ya like ta see it?”

“I believe I would.”

I downed the last of my latte and stood. “Then y’all are about ta get a tour of the best damn thing Alicorn Electronics has ever built fer movin’ people.”

She scanned the cafe, noting a table of four stallions shooting the breeze over a card game. “Should you be saying that in public?”

“No. But we ain’t in public.” I pointed out the one I didn’t recognize. “You’re with us. Rest of y’all are on standby until further notice.”

They stood and saluted. “Sir!”

A young stallion of unicorn make with an aristocratic appearance strolled up to us. “Name?”

“Crystal Shade, Sir.”

Twilight covered her mouth. “Four? Four of them and I never saw any of them? Where in the world does Mother keep finding these ponies?”

“Well, you never saw them,” I commented. “Ah didn’t see him though, so he’ll be with ya when ya go down. Ain’t home field, so try not ta draw too much attention.” I turned to the stallion. Young, sort of thin for the Royal Guard, but not unlike a fine model in his face and proportions. Sharp eyes, a serious demeanor, dark blue in color with a violet and white striped mane. Suspiciously, I got the sense that I knew his face too. “How long ya been on this detail, son?”

“Two years, sir.”

I whistled. “If that ain’t a record. Good deal. Accompany my cousin here at all times in foreign soil, but don’t make yourself a nuisance.”

“Yes sir.” He turned and offered a hoof to Twilight. “It’s nice to finally meet you, ma’am.”

“Likewise.” She shook the hoof, lingered on his face for a bit, then turned back to me. “Are we ready?”

“We are.” I tapped my terminal. “Noise, Ah’m comin’ back with Twilight and one of her detail. Stand by fer arrival.”

He coughed on the other end. “Accent, sir.”

I bit my cheek. Damn it. “Right. I will see you in a moment.”

“Yes sir.”

I started running, but there's nowhere to run to

Helium Delight

The boat swayed gently. The cruise ship had gone out from somewhere with some destination in mind, I didn’t know where exactly. My parents and my little sister had been all excited about it in the days before, but something about the water made me uneasy.

Of the three of us, I was the only one who could fly in the family. But, that was no surprise as we were all pretty mixed. Dad was a unicorn with feathers, mom was an earth pony with feathers, little sister was a unicorn with feathers, and supposedly, feathers were common in mom’s side.

I never really knew where we came from. They’d met in a foreign land, and we traveled from year to year wherever the wind would blow us. Something about an adventurous life that spoke to them both. I remember being in cold places, icy places, starry places, warm places, and then… there was always water around.

Sandy and green and shiny in the day, but at night, there was always that dark water outside the window. They would always try to get me to come play with them. The sound of the waves washing in, the beach slowly being taken away little by little. I hated the water.

It was outside my window. Another dark night, another view underneath the surf. I could never sleep well on a boat, so I’d been sitting there watching the shifting swirl beyond.

A dark thing came closer. It was like a shadow, a monster that grew and grew the longer I watched. I wanted to run, but it stared at me. A big, glowing red eye.

The world fell to pieces. The dark water came rushing in. It spun and tossed, thrashing me from side to side, dragging me deeper like claws on my ankles. I struggled for air, struggled for anything, but the surface kept getting further and further away.

“Help, help, help! The water, the water!”

“Hey, relax! Quit kicking me!”

I opened my eyes. There was no water. No boat, no ponies, no monster. Only Zap.

It was late morning. The early sun was streaming into our little apartment window, the waves outside were beckoning softly, and the heat was tolerable for the moment. And yet, I could feel myself covered in sweat. I shivered.

Zap didn’t say anything. He sat himself on the side of my bed and waited, watching out the window. Part of me was relieved, and the other embarrassed. Twelve years and I still dream about it. So long have the waves called for me to join them, and he’s always been there to keep them at bay. Twelve long years.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” I said, getting up.

“Make it quick. We need to be at the dock at nine.”

‘The dock.’ He could just say Blackrow, but he was so ardently against this that I wonder why he didn’t just go without me. But, it’s Zap. He made me a promise, and I don’t know what there was in the world that could make him break it. Nothing we’ve encountered so far at least.

“Okay. Did you already eat? How long have you been up?”

“Not long. We’ll eat on the way. Just get ready.”

He’s not even here right now. I know better than to try when he gets like this, so I just went on. In Cavalria, there are few things that work correctly. To get the shower on, you had to start the water and flush the toilet twice for the pump to act. After a few minutes of uncomfortable gurgling, the shower would start. More minutes and it might even bless you with hot water. We didn’t have time for that though, so today was another cold shower.

Sometimes, Cavalria got so hot that the cold shower was welcome, but I never felt that way. Even in the heat, I’d rather have hot water. Cold feels too much like ice stabbing into my skin. Like if it were just a little stronger, it might drag me down the drain.

Today, however, I didn’t have time to be bothered by that. Training starts today, which means I get to fulfill one of my long held dreams: to fly a titan! Well, that’s a relative word. The titan I get to be in doesn’t have that capability, and more than anything, I’ll just be trying to get it to walk.

Zap says it’s easy, anypony could do it. Everyone else on the other hoof, has a different opinion. Since the meeting yesterday, I’ve been reading up on it with all the files doctor Ligament gave me to study. ‘Plugging in’ to a titan for the first time is an entire ordeal, or at least, that’s what I’ve read.

The system uses a magic neural link to connect your brain directly into the machine. From there, you get a surge of information like you suddenly have a second body outside your real body. Some people can’t handle that at all. The more limbs one has, the more dangerous it is to use the system as, not only are you gaining at minimum four more, every little movement requires you to process that much more information at a much greater scale.

Sometimes, you plug in too many appendages and the pilot can’t handle it. Overload causes hemorrhages in the brain, leading to death. The original titan designs were much more complex than what actually made it to production due to this important factor.

As if that weren’t enough, the gel system was also something implemented in later designs. Your body can only handle so many gravities before your internals start bouncing around inside. Even the original Mercury had the potential to kill a pilot just by reaching its top speed and coming to a sudden halt. The gel mitigates this a lot, but only to a certain degree, just like Zap said.

That big stallion, mister Comet, said we both had to be in the cockpit; it’s the whole point of the job, so I have to be able to use a titan in the event I need to or whatever we’re supposed to do. He didn’t exactly explain that, but supposedly, we’ll see him again on the day.

My body clean, I turned off the water and shook myself dry. I combed my mane and tail as best I could, and once that was done, I made my way out to the living room. Well, I say that, but the bed was really only separated by a curtain from the rest of the apartment, and the bathroom took up a quarter of the total space here. Somehow, we’d survived in much smaller places before this one.

To think, all of this could change so drastically in just under a week. My own room, working plumbing, never having to worry about food, or dangerous work, or water ever again…

The waves pulled my eyes their direction. I shivered.

“HD.”

He was at the door, our bag in hoof, waiting for me.

“Coming.”

Ten months worth of money to live on had suddenly tripled. I guess Mister Comet didn’t consider us a package deal like Gaston did, and that meant I had more money to my own name than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I couldn’t leave Cavalisa on this, but I could find a life on a nicer island than Cavalria. Preferably, a bigger one closer to an inland city. I could get a job in a safer area and finally help Zap for once. Anything to make our lives a little easier.

But, there was even more to be gained from doing this. All we had to do was get in and get out. One titan. Zap can pilot anything, and I’ll hopefully just be along for the ride. And if I’m not, well that’s what we’re going to Blackrow every day for. To get me—

“Are you ready for this?”

I swear, sometimes it’s like he’s in my head. “Yes, Zap. I read everything the doctor sent me.”

He clicked his tongue. “Ligma isn’t a doctor.”

Lightly, I punched his shoulder. “Hey, don’t say that! He doesn’t like that name, remember?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you even know what it means?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. “Come on, Zap.”

“Color me surprised.” He tapped the tram terminal and ordered himself another real apple and a burger. “Ought to eat something. Being plugged in is hell on your body. Little movements in muscles you don’t really use much in everyday life will bruise you in places you never knew you had. Gotta prepare for the recovery.”

This first class cabin was nicer and bigger than four of our apartments, and again, we had it to ourselves. People didn’t generally work on the south side of Cavalria either, so this run didn’t have a lot of use in the first place. Taking that to heart, I decided I’d try something fancy and expensive too.

“Is that why you’re bruised all the time? Because… you do this all the time?” I suppose, now that I’m involved, he might finally tell me about ‘work.’

Zap gave me a side eye, then turned his attention to the window. So broody. “Yes. It’s rough sometimes. Suffice to say, I’m pretty intimate with the CLIF titans.”

I picked out a few things, then submitted my order. “Why those in particular? Aren’t we in SAST territory?”

Zap shrugged. “Yeah, but nobody wants to drive SAST. They don’t excel in any particular area, and if you want something more geared toward general use, then you go for CLIF since every SAST model is basically last year’s CLIF model. On top of that, SAST titans are more expensive than CLIF and GII models. GIIs are heavy and slow, but they’re also cheap comparatively. CLIF usually runs for around the same price, but again, they’re just better machines.”

“Is this your personal opinion, or something you picked up elsewhere?”

He frowned. “What you mean like an opinion somebody fed to me? No, I’ve driven a similar model from all three companies. I guess… if SAST does anything well, its comfort. Their titans are easier to use and not so hard on the body compared to the others. GII units are like driving a brick, and CLIF units tend to have the worst backlash on the pilot.”

A concierge bot rolled through the walkway to present us with our food. He took his, then raised a brow at mine. “What is that? A bunch of sugar?”

Yes, it was. “Don’t athletes or whatever eat a bunch of it before a big event? It’s my first time in a titan, I figured I need it.” None of which was true, I just wanted the ice cream and the cupcake because I’d not had either in a very long time. It was certainly fabricated and not the quality a real person could make, but it was more than the usual.

“Uh-huh. Get something else that’s actually substantial, alright? You can’t puke in a life suit.”

“Ugh, Zap! I’m trying to eat!”

He pointed a hoof in my face. “Yeah, sure, but you’re gonna be sorry if it ends up in your helmet. The suit can take care of one end, but the helmet doesn’t have that kinda function. In a real situation, i.e. the job coming up, you wouldn’t be able to get out and fix it whenever you want either.”

Sighing, I gave the cupcake back and asked for a grilled cheese and tomato soup. He gave me a look, but I stuck a spoon in my parfait. “I’m keeping it.”

“Fine. But you’re gonna have a bad time.”

It was so sweet. So creamy. There was a moderate chemically aftertaste like there was with every fabricated food, but it was worth it. Oh, ice cream, how I’ve missed you.

“It’s real Helium, go on, try it.” My first time on an island. The last time I remember seeing them. Some summery day with a cake and candles and a sweet breeze on the wind near the shore. I wish I could remember their faces.

“HD?”

I shook the memory away. “Hmm?”

“You, uh…” for as often as I found him in my head, sometimes, he didn’t know what to say. “You enjoying that?”

“It’s alright.” I took another spoon full as the bot came back with the rest of my food. I’m sure the cupcake had been deconstructed and reconstructed back into that sandwhich. If I’m lucky, I’ll get the right chemical after taste with the re-order. If not, I’ll get melty cheese and fried bread, followed by sugary frosting, sweet yellow cake, and rubbing alcohol. Let’s hope first class has a better fabricator than we do at the apartment.

I dipped the corner in my soup and my worst fears were confirmed. “Bleh.”

“Wrong after taste?”

“Yes.” I sighed and kept at it. The nutritional value was the same, the taste was just awful. And still, this wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever forced down. To get my mind off my tongue, I asked, “What about AE titans? You never said anything about those.”

“Well, that’s because I don’t know anything about them. I’ve never been in one.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

Zap sized me up for a moment, then turned his attention to his burger. “You don’t see them a lot out here. Blackrow is the nicest of the companies who have work for somebody like me. The truth is, when I ‘run parts’ I’m doing something in a titan for somebody. I find them all really easy to control which I guess isn’t the same with everybody else. So I just hop in whatever they have and do whatever they ask and that feeds us for a while. There are only so many jobs I’m willing to take, and when I have to take something, sometimes I end up doing things I don’t like.”

Hold on. Has he been lying to me all this time? “Then… what gets you so bruised up all the time? If you’re only working every now and again, I…”

He put a hoof on mine. “Look. Sometimes, I have to fight. And if I get out of practice, it could mean my life. So when I’m not working, I’m practicing.”

I pulled my hoof away. “Are you still going to bars!?”

Zap looked away. “Yes and no.”

“Zap Flash!”

“I’m not there for no reason! I’m not doing anything I shouldn’t be, I just guard the door for a few places every now and again.”

“You are not! Do you still hang around that guy? What was his name…”

He crossed his hooves. “No.” he coughed. “I mean, I see him sometimes, but it’s not like we’re on good terms anymore.”

“Zap!” I covered my face. Oh, Goddess, he is still hanging around those thugs by the port. “Didn’t he get busted by an Enforcer a year ago? Why would you keep hanging around a guy like that?”

“I don’t!” He slammed a hoof on the table. “You know where I got my last bruise? It was in a fight with him. He blamed me for tipping off the enforcers, and I told him to shove it. We don’t hang out, and he is not allowed in the bar anymore.”

I gave him a dark look. “Yeah, but the rest of them are, aren’t they? I bet they still pass that candy around too.”

Offended, he put a hoof on his chest. “I made you a promise, alright? Don’t you trust me? He’s the one who brought it in, and the rest of us never touched the stuff.”

“You swear?”

“I swear.”

I tried to see through him, stare straight through his magenta eyes and into his soul, but I never got a conclusive shake.

Nanite candy. It’s more illegal because of how many people it kills in a year than because of what it does. The machines come in and alter your body chemistry. It turns any inhibitor off, it elevates every pleasure to something divine, and it’s incurably addictive. You can’t feel negatively before they dissolve in the blood, but once they do, the fall is like nothing else. The more you take it the weaker your neurons and blood vessels get. Take it enough times, and you’ll either stop thinking, or start bleeding. Whichever kills you first: forgetting to breathe, or bursting a blood vessel.

“I don’t want you going there anymore.”

Zap scoffed. “It’s not like I have a reason to go now. Couldn’t spend what we have in a week if I tried.”

“You could if you wanted to, and you know exactly on what!”

“I do not,” He crossed his throat. “I do not put that stuff in my body.” He shook his orange, red and green mane. “It’s not like I could ever stop if I did. Seen too many go out like that.”

We’d probably still be stuck in the port if the hippogriff who’d been feeding us didn’t OD on it. A phantom touch ran up my spine. Fear and anger shot through my chest, and rather than vent it on Zap, I turned it toward my food. He knows me too well to say anything, so he just finished his own meal. A few minutes after we were done, the tram stopped in south Cavalria. Time to learn a new skill.

After following my yellow companion through the dark, steamy swamp, we made our way past a different guard into Blackrow. On the one hoof, this place looked like an old sci-fi movie. On the other hoof, old sci-fi movies didn’t get a lot right. Clean was the last thing I’d call it. You could see rust on every other panel and not all the lights were as bright as each other. Some seemed to be on their last legs entirely. Hooves and boots and claws and paws had passed up and down these walkways so many times that they were beginning to erode the floor. For every smooth, clean white surface in your old movie, reality had all the years of dirt, grime and use to accompany it.

Back down at the dock, Another ship was being prepared. The big Grimgarde was alive and walking up a ramp and into another boat like the Mimic. A Mercury and another titan I didn’t recognize were following close behind, presumably on another job.

“What’s that one, Zap?”

He tilted his head. “I think that’s a SAST Heat Hawk.”

It, like the Grimgarde, had no horn, but physical wings with feathers and everything, all made of polished shiny steel or something similar. It was armored lightly at the joints, and rather than four hooves, it had two front claws that also looked very sharp, even for their giant size. Behind each leg, there was some sort of case with a big coil behind it. On its back, it was carrying a box that almost looked like a refrigerator. Relative to the other two, it didn’t have much wear.

“Is it new?”

Zap nodded, stepping a bit closer as it walked along the dock. Each step created a little tremor as the multi-ton machines trotted up the ramp and into the fake freight boxes. “Kinda. It’s a recent SAST model, made for CQC, er, close quarters combat. Rather than use a magic generator to enhance the pilot’s spells, SAST models usually program a few spells into the machine that can be activated by voice command. The boxes on its legs hide big blades that can get super hot, and the claws and wings can do the same thing.”

I wasn’t very versed in any of this at all, but that struck me as odd. “Why use real blades when they could just have beams? And individual feathers too?”

He shook his head. “Far as blades go, sometimes, just hitting a thing with blunt force can be better. If you’re planning to go into combat and just want to kill the pilot and take the suit back with you, beating them to death is a good way to do it, where beams could find gaps in the armor, disrupt the generators and cause an explosion. The feathers though? I’m not sure. Could just be an art piece, but these things are too expensive for that I think. But, it is SAST, and if you want an art house titan, that’s where you’d get it.”

For as violent as its purpose was, it had to be the nicest looking titan I’d seen out of Blackrow’s units. No evil eye, no mean face, a sort of big lens where the eyes would be on the head like it was wearing sunglasses. Maybe it’d be scarier to see in action.

“There you two are.” A familiar voice called from behind us. “We got a rush job from ‘the government’ about busting a cartel this morning on one of the far south islands. Apparently, there’s sensitive cargo we need to recover and we have to keep noise low.”

“Good morning Doctor,” I said.

“Sup, Lig.” Zap pointed to the newer machine. “When did you guys get that thing anyways?”

The changeling pushed up his glasses. “It’s an advance for the job. Long as we succeed, we get to keep it.”

The new titan stepped under the boat’s door, and after it closed, one couldn’t tell it wasn’t just a pile of freight boxes. A tingle ran up my spine. There was an uncomfortable thought in the back of my head that refused to voice itself, but made its presence known all the same.

“Will we be doing the same thing on Sunday?” I asked.

Ligament shook his head. “Not quite. You saw the backpack the Heat Hawk had, didn’t you? It’s a personnel container. We’ll drop you two and a few guys off at the Miyako base where you get in, grab the thing, and get out. I heard something about expecting Wonderbolt III’s, which means we are not going to have time to fuck around.”

“Are they really that dangerous?”

Zap put a hoof on my shoulder. “They are as fast as the Mercury series, and they have as much firepower as a Grimgarde. They can’t just blast through a modern beam shield, but that’s about the only thing that can stop it.” Sighing, he shook his head. “We don’t have a beam shield, HD. Nobody does.”

“Oh.”

Ligament coughed into his hoof. “However, with a literal billion poured into the company, we could get a spaceship that does have one, and this alone would raise our value as a company to astronomical levels, literally. Now then, for you, we have an old Swift Wind I that we use for training new pilots. It can’t really keep up with the other first generation titans, but it’s not so hard on the body as anything else from that era.”

Given the naming conventions I’d heard, this too must’ve been a SAST suit. “Okay! What do I need to do to start?”

Ligament turned and pointed to the furthest machine bay on the southwest side of the dock. “I’ve prepared it over there. You and Zap get life suits on and then we’ll get started.”

“We’re… both getting in?” As much as I didn’t want to show it, that dropped my spirits a bit.

The doctor looked confused. “Well, yes, of course. We can’t have a totally untrained pony strapping into a multi-million credit machine without a co-pilot.”

Zap bumped his flank against mine. “Relax, I’ll just be there with you in case something goes wrong. You’re still gonna be the one driving the thing. Shared control just isn’t a thing with titans anyways.”

“Oh, alright.” They had good points and I couldn’t argue with either of them, but it was a bit of a let down.

“Come on. Life suits are a pain to get used to, and you’re gonna need help.”

I have known Zap Flash for as long as I can remember, literally. There’s a big portion of my childhood that just isn’t there anymore, all I get is flashes of memories from time to time. From when I woke up on Cavalria to now, Zap has been with me. We’ve survived a long time together, and there’s little between us.

Except this. This was too much. “I understand this is hard and important, but for the love of the Goddess, do not help me!”

Red as a beet, Zap grunted in frustration. “Ugh, you aren’t gonna get it on right if you try to do it alone! Your body gets numb, HD, you aren’t gonna realize anything has happened till you come out of the suit, and if you got it on wrong, it’s gonna be a bad time. You think puking in your helmet is bad, just wait till you put the extractor on wrong.”

I took a deep breath. “I would literally rather something go wrong than you, or anyone else for that matter, touch me there. I’ll figure it out. You did, didn’t you?”

He coughed into his hoof, even redder. “HD, I cannot be the one to tell Lig you put the suit on wrong.”

Oh my Goddess. “Okay, I’ll compromise. Find me a mare, another female, and I will take help.”

He let out a shuddering breath. “Whatever. I’ll go see if Heron is here.” And with that, Zap left the changing room.

The life suit was an ingenious device. It could conserve and recycle everything one’s body produces. However, the process of getting it on is very involved and extremely uncomfortable. You basically had to stick a pair of suction cups to your rear end for the right holes so that the right things go to the right recyclers. Add on to this, being inside a titan numbs your senses, so you cannot feel any ‘unnecessary’ processes while connected to the machine.

With practice, one can get it on without help, but I was struggling, and the last thing I wanted was anyone touching me. Of course, the consequences of getting it on incorrectly were as bad if not worse than vomiting inside one’s helmet, and supposedly, the smell is impossible to get out. After about five more minutes of fiddling with it and failing to stick it on right, I gave up.

Then, Heron walked in. She was an older white hippogriff with purple tipped feathers on her head and at the fringes of her coat and wings. Heron took one glance at me and nodded her head in sympathy. “Ah, I understand.”

I sighed. “Thank you.” Standing up, I got the legs tight around my rear hooves and waited for Heron to do her part.

Her claws were cold, her touch was nearly enough to make me jump out of my skin, but just like that, she was done. “Okay, you can pull the rest of it on now.”

Carefully, I slid my wings into the suit and used my hooves to pull it up and over my back. Once that was done, I slid my forelegs into the attached gloves, then pulled the zipper. Once it hit the top of the neck, the whole suit compressed, shrink-wrapping itself to my skin, making those recyclers even more uncomfortable.

“Oh, Goddess, how do people do this?”

“Because they have to,” Heron said. She circled me to inspect the suit, pulling it this way and that to get it to compress further. “It’s not fun, but you get used to it. Better than shitting yourself in a titan, I can tell ya that much.” Satisfied with her work, she came around front to inspect my face. “So, what’s the deal with you two, anyways? I figured you were like a couple or something.”

“Ah, no, no, no. It’s… complicated.” Which was the understatement of the century.

“Really? Who is it complicated for? Seems to me like he’d do anything for you.”

I scratched at my cheek. The hard rubber of the glove really irritated my coat. “Both of us.” At least, I think so. He’s been taking care of me all this time, and there was the one time I tried to, but… “I’m sorry. Thanks for helping me with this, but I need to get to the dock.”

She held a claw up. “Alright, alright.” She turned to go, but stopped half way. “He’s a weird kid, ya know? Just shows up one day saying he can fly anything, and he means it. He takes money, disappears for a while, and comes back when he needs it again. There’s a lot of other ways he could get the cash to keep himself alive, but I never understood why he came for work here. Bringing you into the picture just makes things even more murky, especially if you guys aren’t an item.”

I bit my lip. You and me both. “It’s complicated.”

“Okay. You need help with this again, just call for me from the terminal anywhere. I should be around.”

“Thank you.”

“Alright miss Helium—”

“HD is fine, Doctor.” He seemed to appreciate me calling him doctor.

“Very well then. The external entrances to any titan are located on the small of the back, and at the navel. Depending on circumstances, you enter based on which side is facing away from the ground. The gel, while viscous and difficult to drain, can be drained, and opening the wrong side of course will create a spill. Once in the cockpit, you must let yourself sink into the gel for a bit before attaching the harness inside. This has a robotic arm that will attempt to keep you in the center of the cockpit for the most shock absorption possible during use. From here, the arm will attach your sensory cables, and then the cockpit will pressurize. As most titans are password protected, you must then say the password aloud, and the titan will come online.”

I raised a hoof.

“Yes?”

“If titans generally have passwords, how do we steal the one that we’re stealing?”

Ligament buzzed his wings. “Prototypes generally do not have one for ease of testing or in the event of resetting the operating system due to a failure of some kind. If it does have one, then I figure Mister Comet will tell us about it before we launch on Sunday.”

I frowned. “Would he have it though? How would he have it? This is a little suspect, isn’t it?”

“HD,” Zap intruded, “Sometimes we get jobs like this and we have to just roll with it. Blackrow doesn’t ask unnecessary questions. Those are unnecessary questions.”

“Indeed.” Ligament did something on his terminal, then the titan hatch beside us opened up. “Go ahead and plug in.”

The Swift Wind I was a light SAST suit designed for speed, but generally out paced by other suits of similar class. Its reaction time, maximum output, and limited capability for spell casting made it mediocre in the market, but it did carve out a small niche for itself as the cheapest and most comfortable BT at the time. The lack of magic capability takes a lot of stress off the pilot in the first place, and SAST is known for solid programming that keeps necessary information fed to the pilot to a minimum. This in turn means one can’t take full control of every capability the titan has, but for the sake of training and construction, it makes them nearly the best. AE seems to just do everything better than everybody else, which, if I’m honest, just seems unfair.

Zap hopped onto the machine’s back and offered me a hoof.

It’s weird to not be able to use my wings at all, but not too terrible. We climbed down a few feet past armor, semi-organic muscles, and frame, then on top of a big pool of clear gel. Space was tight in the hatch, so Zap and I were practically pressed against each other. Without warning, the gel around my hooves started to give way and we sank in. Zap dove beneath and positioned the harness so that my legs would just slide on in. Once the harness caught me and I was completely submerged, the arm activated and pushed me down further til all the straps were just taught. And then, the cable was plugged in.

“Blackrow Shipping.”

The world opened up before me. I was suddenly very tall. I couldn’t feel my wings at all, though I knew they should be there. I wanted to look around as my view was several feet high in the air, but it was like my neck was stuck in place. It was so, so heavy.

“Zap? Are you still there?”

His voice came through my ears. “I’m here. How do you feel?”

And that was a good question. In the strangest way possible, I felt very big, very heavy, and like my skin had been turned off somehow. I had no sensation of touch at all. Well, that isn’t quite right either. I could feel my hooves, but there was also something wrong about it. “Weird, big, and heavy.”

“Well, that’s good. Everything is working right then. Go ahead and try to take a step forward. It should feel normal, so don’t stomp or kick or anything crazy.”

As if anything could feel normal like this. Looking ahead, there was a little path laid out with some sort of neon lights. I’m not sure if they were really there on the ground, or part of a heads-up display. Of course, when a hoof print appeared where I was supposed to step, I figured it out.

Just… walk.

Lightning shot through my body. A simple motion I perform every day thousands of times a day was suddenly one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Heavy and slow, I raised my right foreleg, and heavy and slow, I set it down on the glowing spot. My whole right foreleg was tingling like I’d just lifted a huge weight. And yet, at the same time, I wasn’t out of breath or tired.

“Is it supposed to feel this strange? I’m so… tingly.”

“Uh,” Zap cleared his throat. “I think so? My first time in one of these was a long, long time ago. Keep on the path. Right now, all you need to do is walk across the dock and back.”

Makes me wonder how long ago that really was. Since we’ve been together, or even longer? “Okay.”

And so, one slow, heavy, tingly step at a time, I did just that. It was like each movement forced my muscles to flex as hard as they could for a second, then relax just as quickly. After my little tour of the dock which I remember being much bigger than just a little hallway like the walk suggested it was, my legs had almost gotten comfortable with this. Or, so I think. The feeling wasn’t so alien, but the tingling for each movement remained. I get the feeling that once my nerves come back, I’m going to be in a lot of pain.

A very small Ligament buzzed up to my face holding some kind of tablet. “You’ve done very well, HD. The first walk is never usually this smooth. Next thing I’d like you to do is turn on your hover plates. Say the voice command ‘float’ and they should come on. It will feel strange at first, but if you move slowly and controlled like you just did, nothing should go too awry.”

He drifted out of the way, and then I said the word. “Float.”

The heaviness shifted. My weight was all located in my belly now, and my legs were almost pushing against the air. “Wow. This is weird too. It’s a little like gliding, but with my hooves.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Zap said, “but I guess that makes sense. If you think about it like that, lean forward a little. You should move in whatever direction you lean in this state. But don’t lean too hard, or you’re gonna pickup speed.”

Hmm. Maybe it is just like gliding. Following instructions, I leaned just the slightest bit with my hooves. My body started to slide forward. Even quicker than the first tour, I got to the eastern wall. Feeling it more in my wings than my hooves, I twisted to bank just like I normally would, and my body reacted just how I expected it to. A slow stop, a push with my wings to turn, and then back to my starting position.

“That was pretty easy!”

Ligament flew back into my line of sight. “I suppose, but this time, try to keep the wings folded.”

Looking at my back, sure enough, there were a pair of metal wings that had been extended at some point. Thrusters at each tip had been extended and recently used, which I suppose explains why I felt the change there. “I see. I’m sorry.”

The doctor waved his little tablet at me. “Don’t be, this is a common issue with winged creatures. I suppose, as one with muscular wings, the feeling from this particular titan is totally natural to you. Changelings tend to have a much harder time adjusting to non-CLIF flight systems, and everyone else has a hard time adapting to those.” He thought about that for a moment. “Well, unless you’re Zap. Anyways, go ahead and do that again, but try to turn without the wings.”

How odd. Wouldn’t he have a harder time with flight systems in the first place? Especially if they feel like this and totally normal. There’s not even the extra ‘weight’ to these wings like the rest of my body. They just feel completely right. All the same, I folded them in like I would the ones on my back and watched as they telescoped down to the length of the machine’s barrel, then simply folded down. My eyes were having a hard time registering it because it felt so normal to me.

Now that I could see I wasn’t really gliding, I had a much harder time getting across the dock. Less than being in flight, more like being on ice. I slid across the dock, clumsily came to a stop, slowly turned around by turning one hoof and keeping the others still, then slid right back.

“Okay, that seems good to me.” Ligament commented from somewhere else. A hangar door opened to my left. “Head outside. You might rock over the water a bit, so be wary of that. Once you’re beyond the door, you may use the wings.”

“The… water?” this tingle, I felt in my chest.

“Hey, relax.” Zap whispered. “You’ll be fine. The water can’t touch you in here, even if you went under. You will not drown no matter what with this suit on, okay?”

The feeling was muted, but air moved in and out of my lungs. He’s right. It’ll be fine. It’s like being on ice that I can’t fall through. Just float across.

“HD? Are you there?” Ligament called.

“I’m here! Moving now.” Hooves angled, my body slid again toward the edge of the dock. There it rocked, shifting beneath me, swirling like it was being blown away. I swallowed, took another breath, and carefully put a hoof over.

And absolutely nothing changed. It was like I was still above solid ground, sliding just like I had been. Two hooves, four hooves, I was completely above the blue. A wave of ease came over me, and confidence surged within. I can do this.

The bright surf outside glimmered with the sun. White capped waves rocked in every direction, deep blue and cyan sea green. The sky was clear, sunshine filled the world, and all around me was freedom.

Ligament’s voice came through my ears. “Extend the wings and fly for thirty minutes. You may go as fast and as far as you feel comfortable, just stay away from Cavalria.”

“Yes, sir!”

My feathers spread. The wings of the machine unfolded and telescoped out, the thrusters at the ends angling just like my primaries would. A whine grew at my hooves, and at once, all the muscles on my back arched. A massive push, and the ocean grew small beneath me.

The air raced by, and Cavalria shrank second by second as I climbed higher and higher. Up and up and up, the blue of the noonday shifted darker and darker. Stars appeared just above. I wanted to keep going, but my wings felt like they didn’t have any more to give. In the strangest way possible, I felt like I simply couldn’t flap anymore, though the tiredness that usually comes with that wasn’t there at all.

I looked down and around, and I could see the curve of the horizon. I stuck a hoof out and Cavalria was completely out of view. Every little island of Cavalisa’s archipelago shaped themselves up like a little swirl of beige and green spots amid the blues of the ocean. The lighter and greener the color was, the closer it was to the islands.

“Zap, where should we go?”

“Anywhere it’s real blue, HD. Pick a direction and fly as much as you want.”

A little holographic compass was pointing south where it was most deep blue, so that’s where I went. I was so high up, I couldn’t even see the dark waves. Here, the water could never get me. Here, I wouldn’t get tired, I wouldn’t suddenly fall, and most of all, Zap was right there with me.

It’d been a long time since I felt comfortable playing in the air, so this time, I did just that. Every aerial maneuver I could think of I performed with ease. Spinning and twisting, stalling and free falling, swooping and diving, and never once did I come close to the water. It was all so easy, so natural. I could do this forever.

“Alright HD, that’s enough for today.” Just like that, forever came to an end. “Follow the markers and head back to Blackrow.”

Back at the dock, the first real trial showed itself: getting out of the titan. After turning off all the systems, the back hatch opened and Zap got himself out. Then, the cables disconnected.

Slowly, fire crept up my muscles. Everything burned, everything ached. I wasn’t sure if I’d gotten hit by a train or not. “Oh, Goddess, is it supposed to feel like this?” The mechanical arm and Zap pulled me out of the mass of clear sludge around me. My legs felt like noodles, there was no way I could get out of this thing on my own.

“Yeah, that’s the other problem with these. No matter how new the model, the backlash is gonna suck, at least the first few times. At least you’re not in a CLIF titan. Those don’t have slow release numbing agents. They just turn off.”

I tried to help myself as much as I could, but my body was just worthless. I’m not sure how it worked, but as Zap pulled me, none of the gel got caught on the suit or anything, it slid right off and back into the cockpit. On top of the machine and using my own legs now, I could hardly stand. And then I couldn’t. “Oh, Goddess. What is this?”

A much bigger Ligament than before buzzed his way over to us. He checked a few things off on his tablet, then turned his attention to me. “Standard procedure. Titan backlash is what happens when your muscles are activated and not really ‘used’ for a long period of time. Your body ‘thinks’ it’s working very hard and flexes in reaction to the movements the titan performs. Sometimes, this can go far in tearing your muscles and produce similar effects to a very hard workout. With the way the neural link works, every attempt to mitigate it results in poorer titan performance, so the best they’ve come up with is to lower the functions you can perform. The worst backlash comes from using magic in a titan as it affects your brain more than anything. Unicorns and Changelings tend to have headaches for days after extended use of a titan.”

“Well, if you use spells,” Zap added. “You can get away with not doing it, but sometimes, you’ve gotta. Especially if you have to move something delicate. Claws and hooves can’t beat a good levitate spell.”

Ligament coughed into his hoof. “And Zap. Be sure to remove the recycler pack on the suit and connect it to the wall outlet. It won’t be done doing its work for a while, and the suit on its own won’t have enough power to let it finish.”

“Recycler?” and then, it hit me. “Oh! Did… is… is it normal to…?”

“Yes,” they said together. Zap continued, “And imagine if you’d ignored me and put the thing on wrong, huh? It’d all be down in the boots of the suit, and you would need to go bathe for about three days to finally feel clean.”

I gagged. “Oh, Goddess! Can you not?”

Ligament shook his head. “No, this really does need to be stressed in excruciating detail. Life suits aren’t really meant to be taken apart or turned inside out, so cleaning the inner layer is very difficult. If you suspect there are any problems with the recyclers when putting a life suit on, ask for assistance. Soiled life suits are more often thrown away than cleaned, and these things are not cheap.”

“Gross.” I went to get up, but my legs collapsed the moment I did. I’m sure my coat was a nice shade of violet right about now. “P-please call Heron for me.”

“Of course.”

It took a good while to get out of that suit. I managed to recover enough to walk, but using my wings was totally out of the question and every little movement put a huge strain on my already tired body. To say the least, Zap carried me home.

All said and done, I was only in the titan for about an hour. I wasn’t fighting for my life or working the machine hard, or really doing anything that these are normally used for. Collapsing in the first class tram seat made me realize what people put themselves through just to operate these.

“Goddess, I feel so worthless.”

Zap chuckled. “Checks out. Lots of people go through this on their first time. With all the crap you did in the air, I’m surprised you can walk at all right now. Bet you won’t be flying much this week.”

The aching went all the way to my feather tips. I didn’t even know I could feel that far. “Talk about a surefire bet.” I rolled over and got my head up on the table so I could at least see his face. Sometimes, I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that. I don’t understand how he feels or why we’re like this, but when he makes a face like that, I wish I did. Just another part of me to set aching. “So, when did you first drive one of those things?”

And just like that, the sweet face vanished. No smile, no loving eyes, but regret. He covered it up quickly, but it was clear that this was a deep one. “A long time ago. I was just a kid.”

Sitting up, I pressed further. “A kid? You don’t remember how old you were? What kind was it?”

“I mean, it’s not like I really know how old I am now. I say 25 because that’s what everybody else seems to think. It could be years one way or another.” He shook his head. “little. Young. They threw me in a Mercury because they were desperate.” Immediately, he covered his mouth.

“And… who were they?”

We were in the nice, air conditioned part of the tram, but Zap was starting to sweat. “I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.” He swallowed. “Didn’t you want a cupcake? Why don’t you order it?”

Sighing, I did order that cupcake. There was so much I wanted to know, so much I wish I understood, but I just don’t understand where to start. I’d already pushed him into taking this job in the first place and I didn’t feel right taking things any further. But, at the same time, he could be right about this. There could only be six days left in our lives. I was just playing in a big toy and it left my body a wreck. To fight in something like that…

As much as I wanted to bring up more, I decided against it. Maybe there isn’t much, but there’s still time left. After I rest and recover, and maybe after I get used to flying this thing, he’ll open up more. Being passive about it like I have been, though, isn’t going to get me anywhere. A little at a time…

For the first time since we started riding the tram like this, the first class door opened at a stop other than our stop on the west side. Of course, there are other stops on the way home, it does take about an hour to get totally around the island, but usually it’s just economy that gets on and off. And in walked the biggest mare I’d ever seen. A unicorn who was very tall, with long straight hair, a gorgeous figure, and the most beautiful sparkly eyes.

They focused on me and held me in their grasp. Violet but with little flecks of gold around the irises. She was pretty to a degree that it seemed almost other worldly. And, weirdly, reminded me a lot of Mister Comet. His eyes weren’t so big, but they were green and had silver sparkles like hers.

“Um…” she coughed into her hoof. “Can I help you?”

“Hey, quit staring!” Zap whispered.

“Oh!” I sat up quick and lightning flashed through my core. “Ow, ow!”

“Are you hurt?” the big mare asked. She sure did close the distance real quick.

I had to shake myself to keep from staring at her again. “Um, no, just very sore.”

“We were training today,” Zap covered. “Big competition coming up and today was her first time doing anything like it.”

And then, like I stared at her, she stared at Zap. I couldn’t tell if she was about to cry or laugh. The two emotions fought for purchase, but eventually, the laughter won. “Haha, of course you were.” If they looked even remotely similar, I might accuse her of being his long lost mother with a tone like that. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”

Zap and I shared a glance. What a strange encounter. “I don’t see why not. Are you… a tourist?”

She didn’t bother looking for a chair or anything, she was so big that just sitting down on the floor put us all at even height. “Something like that. My cousin told me this was an interesting little island, so I decided to check it out.”

Zap snorted. “What, you hooked on candy or something? Cavalria doesn’t have anything for anybody who can just walk into a first class tram.”

“Zap!”

The big mare stared at him in wonder. “Candy? Like, sweets?” It certainly says a lot that she doesn’t seem to have any idea what he’s talking about.

He felt bad about it. “Uh, no, it’s… just a joke.” He coughed into his hoof. “How long you been here?”

She had a bag with her, and the strangest thing I’d ever seen happened. She took a little pad of paper out, and then wrote something down on it with, like, a pencil. Who does that? If she’s taking notes, why not just add it to a terminal? Or… oh, Goddess, she isn’t even wearing one! How in the world did she get on here without one? There’s no way she has, like, a real physical credit card, right? She doesn’t look very old at all. What kind of person under seventy uses a credit card these days?

“Just a few hours. I was told the tram circumnavigates the whole island, so I figured I’d get off at each station to see what there is to see.” She paused for a moment. “Is a thousand credits a lot to you?”

She can’t be real. “That’s, um…” I was struggling for the words.

“If you’re really in need here, you can live a month on that kinda money. Cavalisa isn’t exactly an expensive place to be.” Thank the Goddess for Zap. Maybe it seems weirder that we’re in first class than some foreign mare on vacation.

“Oh, I see.” And again, she took a note. “Normally, I do more research before going places, but this was a spur of the moment kind of thing for me. My family has been trying to get me out of the house for a while and this is the first time I’ve really caved. Do you two live here?”

This mare clearly has no idea where she is. This has got to be some rich AE tourist. If she gets caught out at night… “We do. But, um, this really isn’t the place to be walking around out late.” I checked the sky. The sun was going down, but only just so. “Where are you staying?”

She paused for a moment to think about that. “I… haven’t decided yet. I wanted to look around more. Do you have any recommendations?”

“Stay away from the north side.” Zap said immediately. “West side too. Honestly, if you can stay on one of the bigger islands, do that. The Enforcers are pretty lax here, and the local government isn’t something remotely reliable.”

She frowned. “Oh.” Then made another note. “This is a little embarrassing, but as you can see, I’m out of my element here. I feel like I can trust you two though, so would you mind showing me around for a few days?” Coloring a little, she covered her mouth. “My mother would be laughing at me if I ran back home just after a day here and I’d really hate to give her that satisfaction.”

“Uh, one second,” Zap said.

“Of course.”

He turned his back and opened up his terminal. “Is this chick crazy?”

“She can’t be anything else. What kind of mother would send a naive little girl out here on her own?” I messaged back.

“Little is about the opposite of what she is.”

“Well, what do you want to do? I’d feel bad leaving her alone, but like, what would we do with her?”

He thought about that for a moment. He glanced back at her, and she gave what could possibly be the goofiest smile I’d ever seen. She’s adorable.

“We can’t leave her alone. Some gang is gonna find her and do Goddess knows what with her.”

Goddess and us. I shivered. “Okay, but do we take her home, or what? And don’t we have to go back to Blackrow every day?”

He paused and looked at the sky. “She’s rich if she doesn’t think anything of a thousand credits. If we take her to the east side and rent out a suite, she can go play around and do whatever while we’re at work, and we can keep an eye out for her when we get back. Long as we go early, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Do we have the money for that? I know we just got 20K, but…”

“It’s enough, alright? We might as well. Clock’s ticking for us. Why not have a nice place with AC and working plumbing for once?”

I could take a warm shower every day for potentially the rest of my life? “Yes, let’s do that.”

“Uh, we’ve got work in the mornings, but I think we could do that.” Zap offered.

She absolutely lit up. “Wonderful! My name is Twilight.” And she held out a hoof.

“I’m Zap, and that’s Helium, but she goes by HD.” He shook the hoof, and clearly, was very surprised by it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” She sent the hoof my way, and just like him, I was astounded by the strength behind it. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since she’s such a big mare, but that was something closer to a male griffon than a unicorn mare.

“Likewise.” I massaged my poor sore hoof. “We need to run by a place on the west side, but we live on the east side. Is there something you wanted to see over here, or do you want to just go back?”

She tapped her lips. “I could follow along for an errand if you don’t mind. I really don’t have any particular plans or needs. Is there something good to eat around here?”

Zap and I shared a look. We really need to get this sweet, clueless mare out of this place as fast as possible.

“Honestly?” he began, “No, not really. Unless you just want hay and oats, pretty much everything on the west side is fabricated. And they aren’t very good fabricators either.”

More notes. “Hmm. Alright, I suppose. What do you need to do?” Good question. Zap?

“A friend of mine is holding onto some stuff for us. He’s out of town though, so I’m just gonna run by his place to get it. Since HD was training all day, you two can just hang out by the platform til I get back.”

Good call. The big mare smiled, stifling a laugh. “I see, I see.” she shook her weird humor off and stretched her back out a little strangely. Her muscles were awfully big back there for a unicorn, and the way she arched it was the same way I do it when I stretch my wings. It kind of felt like being in the titan again like what I saw and what I felt weren’t lining up. “I suppose everypony has things they must do after all.”

Then, the tram had reached our stop. Quickly, Zap took off toward the apartment to get everything we were going to need for the week, and I led her to a table next to a little fabricator vending machine just to the side of the platform. You could get everything they served on the train from this, save the real food. It was still expensive compared to what we’re used to, but it’s probably better that we didn’t appear as poor as we really were.

“Do you want a drink? They’re not great, but if you get one with enough sugar, it papers over the chemical taste. Unless you like that. In which case, the energy drinks are pretty spot on.”

“Here.” as I feared, she took a little plastic card out of her bag and gave it to me. “Get whatever you think is good. And if you need to purchase anything else, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.”

I swallowed. “S-sure…” This wasn’t just an AE card, it was a Luna City card. Not only does she work for the most powerful conglomerate in the world, she normally lives on the moon. If SAST would ever pull their desperate claws out of it, she could probably buy Cavalria.

A real credit card, physical notes, a rich AE moon employee on vacation to spite her mother. Who in the world did we just pick up? The least awful thing vending machines had to offer were lemon drinks and diet sodas. One was acidic enough to not taste too chemically wrong, and the other was so chemically wrong in the first place that it didn’t taste out of the ordinary when fabricated. I picked out lemonades and returned as soon as it dispensed the can.

She stared at it like some foreign object. “Interesting. Does the machine make the can too? Or are these loaded into it somehow?”

“I believe they collect the trash and fill the machines back up with it. There’s some kinda magic that renders it down to atoms and then remakes it into whatever you asked the machine for. It’s really not something you want to spend too much time thinking about.”

I’m pretty sure she got what I meant because she looked at the can suspiciously before finally opening it and taking a sip. Then she made a confused face, and then finally one of disgust. “What is…?”

“Don’t worry, that’s normal. You kinda get used to it after drinking them for a while.”

She scowled at the can, but then took a longer swallow. “Well, it’s not that bad.” She raised a brow at me. “Drinking them for a while, huh? Have you lived on this island for a long time?”

I sighed. “At least twelve years. I have trouble remembering much more than that.”

“Twelve years…” she studied my face. “And how old are you now? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

I shook my head. “Oh, no, I don’t mind. I’m 22. Probably. At least, I think so.”

“You think so? How did you end up on this island? Were you born here?”

“I don’t think so, and I’m really not too sure.” The dream from this morning filled my head. Water, three ponies, a big eye. “I woke up on this island at one point. Zap said he found me on the beach. And we’ve been together since. Any memory of before is sort of muddy and unclear.”

“Muddy and unclear…” she reached a hoof out, but stopped herself before touching my face. “I’m pretty handy with magic. Would you mind if I scanned you? It’d only take a second. I could give you some insight, if you wanted it.”

Some insight? It would be nice if I had concrete proof of my identity, but I’m not sure I would know what to do with that information. But, then again, if we survive this operation, maybe I can learn who those ponies were, or how I got here. “Go for it. I could use some insight, I think.”

A weird sense of deja vu came over me. She took hold of my chin and inspected my face from every angle, turning it this way and that to get a better look. I felt a little tingle run across my skin for an instant, and just like that, she let go. From there, a terminal screen appeared before her, but it was unlike anything I was used to. Then I noticed her horn glowing. It wasn’t a terminal at all, she was straight up accessing the web with her magic. Who is this mare?

“Well, one thing you can be sure of, you were born on March fourteenth, 2057.” She scanned down the page, reading things so fast I wasn’t sure if she was really processing what the page said, but the more she read, the more she frowned. There seemed to be a lot there.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

She dismissed the screen and put her hooves together on the table. “Nothing I think will help you. At least, not right now. You have a personal terminal, right? Give me your contact info. I’ll look more into this when I get back home and have more information available to me. When I know something, I’ll tell you about it.”

“Uh, sure.” I gave her what she wanted, and after she was satisfied with that, she checked the time. “Do you think he’ll be gone much longer? I think I’d like to eat soon, but, um…” she glanced at the vending machine. “Maybe not here.”

That’s fair. Anybody who can afford to eat non-fabricated things usually does. Hunger isn’t so much a problem anywhere in the world, but that’s not to say that what can be eaten tastes good. “Not too much longer. He didn’t need to go that far.” Which was the truth. I’m sure he’d already made it to the apartment, he just had to pack us a bag. It’d only been about twenty minutes. “Regardless, the next tram will be here in ten, so he should be back before then.”

“Okay.” Miss Twilight let her eyes drift to the horizon where the sun continued to lower. “What would you consider your relationship?”

“With Zap?”

“Yes.”

Twice in one day from two different women I don’t know, alright. “Complicated? I don’t really get it, to be honest. I’m not sure how he feels about me or how I feel about him, but he’s also the only stallion I’ve ever known, really. It’s very confusing.”

She focused on me intently. She’s definitely not telling me something. There was a lot on that page and I’m wondering if she sped through it for my sake for some reason. She let go of her hard stare and went back to wistfully gazing at the sun. “Sometimes it is. If you’ve been together for so long, you may think that he’s perfect and nothing he could do would be wrong. But, one day, you might get time away from him and begin to reflect. Distance may make things clearer to you.”

I snorted. “Perfect? Nothing about him is perfect! He comes home late, he doesn’t listen to me, sometimes he treats me like a sister, and others…” even on the tram earlier. I felt exposed, like some kind of warmth was going to spill out of me. “I don’t know. I wish I did, but I just don’t.”

She started chewing on her hoof. “Complicated indeed.”

A few moments later, Zap came trotting back with our bag filled up with a bunch of stuff. I could guess toiletries were in there, but the bag was awfully full. I’m not sure what all could be in it, but I knew one thing for sure: I don’t want any kind of distance between me and him. If it had to be complicated the whole time, but we could stay together, I’d be okay with it.

“Alright, we should be set,” he said as he approached the table. He took a look at our faces. “Is something wrong?” Without warning, she grabbed his face, flashed her horn, then let him go just as fast. Blindsided, Zap staggered. “What in the hell was that?”

She pulled up a screen and sped through it. Her eyes were wide and she looked very pale. She cleared her throat. “Sorry, I just…” she licked her lips like they were dry. “I can’t stay here. Forget I was ever here. I’m sorry, Zap, Helium, I… I’m sorry.”

Her horn glowed bright. It was bright, then brighter, and in a flash of violet, the big mare was gone.

Silence.

In the distance, the tram whistle sounded.

My eyes fell on the table. When I gave her her can, I put her card on the table. She never picked it back up.

He swallowed. “Is that what I think it is?”

I nodded.

“Think she’ll come back for it?”

I shook my head.

The tram pulled onto the platform. Griffons and hippogriffs and changelings all got off on one side, and boarded from ours. I picked up the card, and slid it behind my ear. He was thinking what I was thinking, and she did tell me to ask and she’d take care of it. “How long do you think we have til this gets canceled?”

“Couple hours to a day. I was gonna try and get her to pay for the suite anyways, so…”

I stood up and put my wing around Zap. “You’re my favorite, you know that? Let’s go have a nice last week, one way or another.”

He threw a hoof around my shoulders, and we walked into the tram, side by side. “That sounds like a great idea. No more fake food, no more AC-less rooms, and no more cold showers. One way or another.”

Say your goodbyes if you've got someone to say goodbye to

Zap Flash

When I woke up, I was in the suite. HD was sleeping softly beside me, and the sun was rising outside the window. I’d beaten my alarm. Not too unusual, all things considered. I’m always antsy before a big job like this one. Today was the day.

Over the course of the week, we found out that HD was something of a natural when it came to titans. I’ve never believed, for my entire career piloting, that it was very hard. She said that somethings were difficult, but just like I thought, it was easy for her too. Who knows, maybe that says something about us, or something about everyone else.

Flying was her favorite part. After two days, she practically mastered the Swift Wind. She even said that it was starting to feel a little sluggish. She was up for it, so we tried putting her in a winged Mercury II. The upgrade was tremendous, and HD loved it. She flew and flew til she went all the way to the border. Her time getting there and back was almost half what it’d taken in the Swift Wind, and she was totally jazzed to go faster. That is, till she unplugged and got CLIF’s famous backlash. If she’d really been working out, she would’ve blown her back out doing the stunts she did. Luckily, it was just backlash, and after a day of rest, she recovered and was ready to get back at it again. Nothing can turn off a junkie, I guess.

She tried out the Grimgarde and didn’t like it. Since the other team had come back successful and Gaston liked what he saw with the Heat Hawk, he ordered a second one and we received it the day before yesterday, using the funds he got from the job in the first place. That one was her favorite. She even played with the blades. I never thought HD could look remotely scary, but when she was in that titan, she had a glint in her eye that I didn’t like. She reminded me of the old boss after he’d taken a shot of candy. He could, and would, do anything to anybody like that. He’d come on to her like that once. I nearly beat him to death. I never wanted to put HD in a titan because I feared she might get hurt or worse in one. Now, I think my fears have turned the other way.

The big lady never canceled her card, so we lived like executives for these last six days. If all things went well, this could be our every day from now on. And if they didn’t, I’d at least be okay in saying that we went out living well. To escape poverty and fighting for a little while was nice. We were still on Cavalria, and maybe I wanted to see what else was out there, but that was okay. As much as she was the one crying about being left alone the other day, I didn’t want to be left alone either.

A vague memory of somepony I knew telling me to run away flashed before my eyes. A black burning heap. The smell of rosemary. The odor permeated my nostrils and made me sick. Rubbing at my eyes, I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. It was clean, the water worked, and it smelled nice in here. There was even a little sprayer thingy in the toilet that cleaned you out when you were done. How I would’ve wished for one of those when our fabricator wasn’t working right.

As I went to wash my hooves and had the water running over them, another memory showed up. Big claws, a little pegasus. A broken boat, bodies all around. She coughed and hacked up water. Her vitals were okay. I scrubbed and scrubbed, and finally, the memory went away.

It wasn’t just her attitude that made me uncomfortable the other day, it was that place. We’d flown right over it. To anyone else, it was just another spot on the vast ocean. But I knew what was down below the surf. I’d put it there.

I moved to the living room and opened the room terminal. This place was as high class as one could get in Cavalria, and we’d been eating real food every day. There was only one more real object on the menu we hadn’t tried yet, and since this was the last time, I went ahead and called in an order.

She wasn’t up yet, and I didn’t think she would be for a while. I’d wake her up when the food came, but until then, I decide I’d watch her sleep. It could be the last time I get to do it.

Sometimes, she slept peacefully, like this. Her chest rising slowly, her soft body breathing calmly. Her mane was always so curly, but not quite wild. There were common shapes, rings it liked to form like somepony had brushed it that way, but that was just how it fell. She used to be just another kid, but after a while, she became… this.

A feeling would burn me alive looking at her. My imagination sometimes ran wild. There were things I wanted to do to her, things that make me disgusted and ashamed of myself, but things that would never go away. But sometimes, that burning feeling turned in a softer direction. I’d simply want to hold her, to be beside her, to feel her warmth.

But that too, was wrong. I’d taken something from her before I even knew who she was. Her memory, her family, her life before. If not for me, where would she be? Would she have lived in a world like this all the time? Never sickly and hungry, never desperate or homeless like we were back then.

I tried my best. Keeping her safe and alive felt like my mission in life. I could only do what I could do. I didn’t know what I was doing. But it was still my fault. And at the same time, it was all I could do. How many other HD’s are out there, by my hoof? Perhaps it’s better that I’ve become more thorough. Then again, maybe it’s worse. My world, at least, is certainly brighter for having an HD in it.

Maybe there’s a greater world out there where things can be changed. But, that doesn’t feel right either. It’s just a fantasy.

If this goes through, and we really get all that money, then I can let her go. Tell her what I did and why she’s here. It’s fine if she hates me. Maybe she’ll want to punish me for it. I’d be okay with that too. I just want to see her well off for once. Living like this has been nice.

She rolled a bit, and some of her mane had fallen into her mouth. I moved it away, but just as I did, she took hold of my hoof. She didn’t wake or stir, but she held it, kept it close. I wouldn’t dare move like this. It, too, was nice.

Twenty minutes later, the room service arrived. I leaned down and shook her gently. “Hey, breakfast is here.”

“Breakfast?” her snout twitched. Her eyes opened wide and she sat up straight. “What is that?” Then, feeling the strain from yesterday’s launch, she felt her back. “Oh, geez.”

I got up and got the door. A bot with a tray was waiting there. Two hot plates of pineapple pancakes covered in syrup and sugar and a mountain of whipped cream with all kinds of berries and two bananas. I set one on my back and picked the other up with my free hoof. “Go brush your teeth and all that.”

“Okay, okay.” She got out of bed and stretched. I had to look away. On the one hoof, maybe today was our last day alive. Maybe she would say yes if I asked. On the other hoof, if I brought it up, things would change irreversibly. And if we survived, things would never be the same. I wouldn’t do it.

Once she was done, she came to the table in our little suite and turned on the wall terminal. Here, you didn’t have to do some janky setup to get a main terminal to display on a flat surface to watch a show or a movie, it was just made to do that. A world where everything just works and it’s easy. I could get used to that.

“What is this, anyways?” she asked, unfamiliar with the items on the plate.

I wasn’t any better, but I’d at least read the description. “Pineapple pancakes with powdered sugar, whipped cream, syrup, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. It comes with coffee, cream, and sugar too, which is what the drinks and those little cups are I guess.”

“It smells good, but isn’t coffee supposed to be bitter? Well, maybe that’s what the sugar is for, but I’ve never seen it like this. How do they get it in little boxes like that?” She picked up one of the little white crystal cubes and studied it.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know any more than you do.” At times, it was embarrassing to be like this. The hotel staff didn’t believe we really had the money to be here. The other people gave us odd looks like they knew we were part of another class. And when we were confused by things that were common place to them, like a pool, a sauna, a tennis court, and beach volleyball, I could feel them laughing at us in their heads. That was a different kind of burning.

Most of the food had been familiar until this point. Real hay burgers, real soup and curry, real rice and eggs, real vegetables and dairy. Fruits, berries, and deserts were not something we knew anything about, so we’d avoided them for the most part. It certainly smelled sweet.

“Well, here goes nothing.” She cut a piece out with her fork and ate it. Her eyes lit up and I could see the sparks going off.

“I figure it’s good, huh?”

“it’s sooooo sweet! It’s like, all kinds of things from ice cream to hot cake, but they sort of blend together, and there’s a kinda sour part to it, and it’s creamy and, and… oh, I don’t know, just eat it!”

To her credit, she had more words to describe this than I did. So many new tastes and flavors. It was a lot of sugar, I could tell that, but the berries and the yellow fruits inside the cakes added another element to it to balance it out. It wasn’t too much in any direction, and it was kinda mellow compared to something like chocolate ice cream. With more of the little berries, there was more sour and different kinds of sour to add to it, and if you added the other yellow thing to it, it got sweeter and softer. And then all together, it was something else completely. And maybe a little too sweet.

Sipping at the hot drink, it was so bitter, but warm and sort of jittery. “You know, this is kinda nice too.”

HD took a swallow of her coffee. “Ick! Is this what coffee tastes like? Here, you can have it.”

Shocker. “You could put some of the other stuff in it. I think people drink this with all kinds of stuff usually. Though, I’m kinda liking it the way it is.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, other people can do whatever they want. I’m going to order a juice again.”

Wasting real food would be a tragedy, so I took it instead. “Alright, suit yourself.” I made my way through all the items on my plate, taking drinks of coffee in between bites. The bitter washed out the sweet and sour, which I think made them both taste better. Something about the constant switching of flavors on my tongue made it all come together in a way I just can’t describe. This was the correct sequence of things.

With that out of the way, I had the terminal pull up the local news, then the Miyako news. Cavalisa’s news was being presented by a group of hippogriffs talking about whatever the conglomerate was doing this week to compete with the others. They always had high praise for SAST and all its doings, but everybody knew that the news corporations were also owned by SAST and simply there to spread propaganda. Of course it’s a great thing SAST is closing off development into aquatic research and selling all of its aquatic facilities to CLIF to focus on space. It’s not like all of our greatest resources are found on the ocean floor and much more could be accomplished with deep sea mining than it ever could by venturing out beyond AE territory into the stars. It’s not as if CLIF, the most aggressive conglomerate out there, has been encroaching on SAST waters for the last twenty years with newer and better aquatic titans this whole time. Nothing to be worried about, please direct your attention away from the hippogriffs behind the curtain.

They finally got to the local weather, which as far as I was concerned, was all they were good for. We didn’t really have the pegasi to manipulate the weather like AE did, so ours ran a natural cycle that could be predicted with relative accuracy. Cavalisa was in the beginning of our typhoon season, and today was not the day to have one. Luckily, there were only a few storms brewing out in the ocean, and not along our path.

On the Miyako side, they were all about the festivities of today’s Summer Sun Celebration. Twelve hundred and seventy nine years ago, the Equestrian sun queen disappeared, and today is the day the former head of Equestria and the current CEO of AE, Luna, celebrates her memory. Families gathered and feasted, and today was to be a day of rest for all within AE’s umbrella. For company and family, as both were one. This flavor of propaganda, as all news was just propaganda in this day and age, was a bit nicer in that it at least encouraged unity too. Everywhere wants you to be a die hard patriot, but the griffons have their warrior spirit on display during their holidays, the changelings call for martialing of arms on theirs, and SAST calls for praise of the company. A gaggle of oligarchs, a company of dictators, and a circus of fools.

One of these days, a war is going to break out. And I don’t want HD to be here when it does.

“Seems like it’s all clear,” she commented.

“So it does.”

We sat as the news anchors went on about the forecast for the week.

“Hey, Zap?”

“Yeah?”

She moved a bit of mane off her face. “Do you think, if things go well after this that we could…” HD paused, looking for the words. My heart raced. She looked deep into my eyes, those thoughts from earlier finding their way into my head. “F-find somewhere to… to go to school together?”

My pulse eased. “Well, sure. I’ve always wanted to give you the chance to go to school, I don’t—”

She leaned in and put her hoof on mine. “Not just me. Us. Together.” and back it was to racing. “I’ve been thinking a lot this past week.” She scooted a little closer. “I never really understood why I didn’t like the older brother routine you would have sometimes, but after talking about it, I think I do now.” She brought her other hoof around and held mine between them. “I don’t want you to look at me like a sister. And if things go alright and we suddenly have money, I don’t want you to leave me either.” she swallowed and broke eye contact, her face getting redder. “I don’t ever want you to leave me. Because I—”

I jumped out of my chair and hopped away. The burning and the fear fought within me like raging beasts. She can’t say that. She doesn’t know. She wouldn’t say that if she knew. But I can’t tell her now. We have to do this together. There’s more people than us involved in this mission, and if things are… I can’t, I can’t.

“What’s wrong?”

Those big golden eyes. How my heart aches. “Let’s… talk about this after. After it’s over.”

She’d worked up her courage and wouldn’t be denied. “No.” Stepping out of her chair, she cornered me. “Zap Flash, I love you. And no matter what happens from here on out, we’ll be together, forever.”

I hated that I was so small. HD was just as tall as I was, but she was so much more. My heart was ready to burst, my body was shaking. The burning would take over if she went any further. She was inches from my face, her nose just about touching mine. I could taste her breath.

“Don’t you love me, Zap?”

“I do!”

Time evaporated. I’d come to realize that it wasn’t just me who felt the burning. It’d always been there, hidden beneath the surface. Once upon a time, after I’d saved her from our old boss, she’d tried to thank me like this. It didn’t feel right. I’d just saved her from this, why would she just give herself to me? It wasn’t right. We were too young. It didn’t make sense.

But things are different now. By every standard, she was an adult. I was an adult. We’d been through everything together, and we were still together. And now… we’d always be together.

“What is it you wanted to say, earlier?” She asked.

I pulled her close and drank in her scent. There was nothing in this world so close to my heart. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. “There’s some stuff I haven’t told you. But… it’s hard to say. And I know it’ll upset you. We’ve got other people counting on us today, and I don’t wanna rock the boat right before all this, ya know? It’s why I… it’s why I backed away at first.”

She kissed me and nestled herself against me. “I understand. You can tell me later. There’s a lot I don’t know about you. I’ve always wanted to know everything about you, but I didn’t understand what I wanted either. Things are changing all over. It feels like we’re living at the edge of a cup about to overflow, and it’ll either kill us or bring us to new heights. We’re walking on a tightrope, and we’ll either reach the end or fall off.” She brought her hoof up and pressed my cheek to hers. “This week just showed me that all I really want is you.”

“I love you, HD.”

Another hour lost. When my alarm rang signaling the time to get ready and go, we got up and showered together. Tail in tail, we checked out of the suite and took our bag to the tram and down to the south side. Beyond today, a new life awaited us, one way or another. And through it, we’d be together.

If ever people know a couple, they’re sensitive to changes. Blackrow had seen us come in together for a week. HD being who she is quickly acquainted herself with everyone, and everyone knew HD. ‘The Girlie’ wasn’t used by anyone anymore, and Gaston was talking behind my back about getting her on as a regular member of the crew.

The easiest tell were the changelings. When we walked by, you could see their ears standing on end. They could taste the change in the air. Some of them would fall into a little trance and chase us a bit like a hungry cartoon character following a scent. Others would give us funny looks, not necessarily knowing anything had happened, but that there was a different air around us. Maybe more due to the horde of changelings than anything else.

It wasn’t mentioned until we’d reached the hangar and met with Ligament for the final checkup.

He turned the moment we entered the room. He raised his snout, he sniffed the air, and just like the others, his ears stood on end. Alert and energized, the good doctor made his way to us. “So… what happened here?”

A status like this isn’t something you can hide from changelings, so I didn’t bother. “We made peace with our impending deaths.” HD blushed a little, but didn’t deny anything. Weird, considering she’s the one who made the move in the first place.

Ligament hummed. “Hmm? Well, it’s about time I suppose. Being around you two before today has been rather obnoxious. We can smell it, you know, and it’s always annoying when the feeling is mutual, but not acknowledged. Like this, it’s like candy to us and hard to focus around, but at least pleasant. Otherwise, it’s like taking a hit, but the high is weak and unsatisfying.”

She blushed harder. “Oh! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to distract…”

He waved her away. “No, no, it’s better this way. And fairly normal at that. People die in our business relatively frequently. If you don’t live fast, there’s a good chance you live unfulfilled. This is better, for everyone. It certainly boosts morale among us, anyways.” Then, he addressed the hoard. “Go on, all of you! You have work to do, we are two hours out from launch! If you want them back, make sure you do your jobs!”

The hoard, about seven other changelings, snapped out of their trance and dispersed back into the facility. Ligament took one deep breath and exhaled heavily. “Ah, that’s the good stuff.” Rubbing his snout like he’d just snorted a line, he went back into business mode. “Anyways, Mister Comet is supposed to be here at ten thirty to give us our final protocols before the mission. I’d like to have you both hop into your life suits and give me a few laps before you move out.”

He eyed both of us, then returned to his tablet. “Your mental states seem well, so we just need to make sure there are no mechanical or physical impediments. You’ll be in those suits for a while, so better get ready for it.”

Since that was mostly for her, HD nodded. “Got it!” Then she rubbed her rear. “Ugh, it’s one thing being plugged in, but to wear it for so long…”

I patted her shoulder. “Hey, you wanted to do this, remember? It’s part of the job.”

“I know.” she grabbed the hoof, leaned over and nuzzled my neck. “I still want to do this, so I won’t complain anymore.”

Ligament’s whole body buzzed into the air like he’d just been electrocuted. He zipped around and jabbed a hoof at her. “Okay, you cannot do that. Or anything like it. Being around you? Pleasant. That? Utterly intoxicating. Half the staff will be drunk and useless if there is any more of that. Stop it.”

“S-sorry.” And now she was really red.

“Go on, shoo!” Ligament shouted behind us. Again, a group of changelings dispersed. I’d never considered how bad this kind of thing really affects them. No wonder people talk about affairs that happen in the dock all the time. If you’re an addict, you’d never be able to let it go until the next one comes along.

There was only one operation today, and since we were going to be stealing a prototype AE suit, Gaston had been loaned the most modern AE suits he could find for use in the docks: the AE 011 Terra Maestro I. This machine was a ground use titan made in the second generation of titans as one of the first land combat units. It has limited aquatic capabilities, but is overall more resistant to weather conditions across the board than other suits of its generation. Heavy for an AE suit, but that weight was mostly contained in the weapons and armor. Hundreds of years ago, there was a vehicle weapon called a tank. It was big, heavy, and had the most powerful mobile artillery the world could produce sitting on top of it. In the modern age, the TM line of AE suits would be the equivalent. Grimgardes only wish they could reach this level of defense in their own suits, but even the third generation GII suits don’t come close to this, and the TMII is even stronger than this one.

However, also like GII titans, they tend to be beam sponges because they’re slow moving targets with big guns. After two goes at it, AE discontinued the Terra Maestro line in favor of developing faster and more agile ground units. Of the few AE suits you could find on the market, this one was available for that very reason.

Because AE’s design philosophy is high performance, modulation, and low production costs, they tend to have large fleets with titans that can generally be outfitted for anything. Of the things that are valuable on an AE suit, the interior frame and muscle layer are the most important. I’d never been in one of these, but now that I had, I was a little sad this might be my last time in one.

It was a quality piece of machinery. It was of course slow, heavy, and limited to the ground, but this thing was powerful. Properly equipped, I’d say even this model was enough to go toe to toe with stuff from the fourth generation. You’d have to be really, really good to actually land a hit like that, but one hit is all it would take. And if it came down to CQC… I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of this thing at all.

Another bonus was the high capacity magic generator. You could power all kinds of spells with this without even trying. I thought it would be fun, so I even managed to get the titan to fly for a little while, though it was incredibly taxing on me and the machine.

I got yelled at for that, but it was worth it just to see how far I could push it. And considering all that, it was a thirty-five year old model. The cutting edge, the bleeding edge of Bionic Titan tech was going to be right at our hooftips, and this was just a taste of what it would be capable of.

Over the week, I’d seen the face of that machine in my dreams. It was obviously something special, but why, I couldn’t say. I dreamed of the cockpit, the finished machine with all its armor in strangely complete detail. The power, the magic, the flight. Things still had to go right, but if we could just get in there… I can’t imagine what we’d be capable of.

But then comes the other problem. When we got out of our TMIs, HD said she had a headache. She attempted to use magic a bit, but she just felt overwhelmed and sickly afterward. She said she hated the feeling of being trapped to the ground and like her wings had been torn off. Everything about the titan was wrong to her, and that had me worried. What is this thing going to require of us? A titan that needs two ponies, specifically? Why? I could fly anything you put me in, but what about her? She isn’t just HD anymore, she is my Helium Delight. I don’t know what I would do if she got hurt without me. We’ll be together, but what am I about to put her through?

I had questions, and when 10:30 arrived, so did our employer.

Today, we had everyone who was going on the mission in the conference room with us to hear Mister Comet speak. Gaston, his brother Gallant; the other pilots Tendon and Sinew; our ground escorts Garrod and Elise; our mechanics Heron and Geffery; and our helmsman Gerund. With HD and I, that made eleven total. Every non-pilot would be helping run the ship up until the mission began, and the pilots would be servicing their own machines. It was going to be hard just to get there. But, the Mimic was fast and capable. It’d run more distance in less time before, and gotten away just as quickly. So long as everything went well with the machine, it would all be alright.

When the clock struck 1030, the conference room flashed green. A second blind, and right where we’d last seen them, Comet and his entourage appeared. He took his hat off, sat at the head of the table, and let out a breath. “You would not believe the day I’ve had. It’s always so busy this time of year. Holidays simply aren’t sacred anymore. Everyone is scheming, and sometimes I just can’t understand why the higher ups don’t keep people on staff for days like this.”

What are we, his friends?

Gaston coughed into his claw. “Eh, yes, suppose so. Mister Comet said had new information for us, yes?”

The giant violet stallion straightened. “Right, I did say that.” He wasn’t wearing his gloves this time around, and when he stroked his beard, you could see his hooves were red, but his coat had a sock pattern to it with a very dark blue covering his wrist. That particular color reminded me of something, but I couldn’t say what. The word royal comes to mind.

Comet scanned the room and again, he stared at me for a long time before moving on. “There is a password. However, our spy only recovered a list of them and we don’t know which one it is. They’ve been changing it every day, however we do have assurance that the password is selected from this list and not some randomly generated series.”

HD groaned. “I knew it sounded too easy. Of course there was a password, what kind of idiot would leave something this precious unprotected?”

Mister Comet laughed. “You’d be surprised, Miss Delight. It’s more common than you think.”

Something in me was extremely agitated by that. Why does he remember her name? Or no, it was the tone. How casual he was about it.

“Well,” Gaston asked, “you have list, yes?”

The big stallion scratched at his beard. “Unfortunately, our spy was slain in the process of getting it to us. I have a list, yes, but I do not know if it is the full list.”

I had to stop and take a breath. “So, you come in here slinging money around like it’s water, you tell us this should be simple, and then all the sudden you don’t know if we can even get the machine out? What happens if you don’t have the password on your list? Are we just fucked or what?”

I was angrier about this than I should be. Between putting HD at risk and how much I wanted to plug into this machine, I couldn’t decide which was worse. And that was very concerning.

“Mister Flash, that is why I’ve come to see you all today. There is now added risk. I won’t be upping your pay for success, but I will pay for a failure. If after trying every password and not starting the machine, you may retreat and receive half of our initial agreement. And if you wish to back out, I will find something else for you to do for ten percent and your silence.”

The reactions were mixed. The mercenaries seemed unphased. They came and they might just leave with no work put in and a nice wad of credits. The crew members looked unhappy, but like they could move on. HD was disappointed, but she took hold of my hoof, and maybe things would be just fine. One percent of two B was still twenty million. We’d have to find jobs, but we could still move to AE or space, get a place of our own, and enroll in a school somewhere. Maybe we could work for a while and buy our own titan to start a company with. I’m not exactly a learned mechanic, but I can maintain one well enough. Another job, a safer job, and one HD doesn’t have to come along for. That… would be better.

“We take job regardless.” Gaston announced.

“Hey, what!? No way!” at least half of us shouted.

He shot claws at the employees. “You like shiny new toys? You find hundred million to pay for! Blackrow cannot afford to not take job!”

And all of the sudden, the mercs and I were in the minority. If we backed out, we’d probably be in a lot of debt. SAST could buy us and turn us into whatever they wanted with guns pointed at our heads in the event we had our own opinions. Worse than being poor and living in poverty would be enslaved to debt. And if I backed out now, I would be just as screwed as everybody else. Gaston is plenty spiteful enough to ruin my reputation all over Cavalisa and I’d never find work again.

He even glared at me, daring me to say what was on my mind. I knew the old bastard too well to do it. Goddess condemn me for keeping my promises.

Again, Mister Comet scanned the room. “So… there are no issues?”

Squeezing my hoof tighter, HD answered for everyone. “No issues, Mister Comet.” And not a soul made a sound to the contrary.

The violet stallion smoothed his mane back. “Indeed.” He opened his terminal, then sent something to everyone. “As promised, your first payment. And for you two, the list.” Nodded our direction.

There was nothing quite like seeing a new set of zeros at the end of your account balance. If things didn’t work out, maybe we just escape deeper into Miyako and disappear. We didn’t have paperwork, sure, but we could just claim we were stranded and be brought under AE’s umbrella. With this kind of money, we could buy citizenship and everything. All right there in my account, only accessible by my unique magical frequency.

But then, there was the list. A series of words that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Wisdom, Truth, New, Dawn, Harbinger.

“Is this… really it?” HD asked.

“That is what my Spy repeated to me.” Comet answered. “It may be incomplete, broken, or missing words. I figure you try it all and see what sticks.”

“It just seems so random. Why these words in particular?” I asked.

And then, Mister Comet took on a thousand yard stare. “Perhaps it means something to the designer. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it myself when I first heard it, but the more I thought about it, the more it reminded me of an incantation. It could mean nothing of course, but then again, maybe it was a hope for the future. All I do know is that, whatever the password is, you must say it in unison, together.”

With that, a wrist terminal the big stallion was wearing beeped. He clapped a hoof over it to stop it, then picked up his hat. “Ladies, Gentlemen; that is the signal for the end of our time together. I wish you the best of luck, and hope to hear a good report within the next two hours. Until then.” He took a bow, and in another blinding flash of green, he left the way he came.

“What a weird guy.”

Gaston tapped a claw on the table. “Weird, very wealthy guy.” Then he clapped his claws. “Time to move out. Everyone to stations. We depart to Miyako, now.”

Oxford

The day had finally arrived. After a quick brief to my hired thieves, I made all the necessary preparations with my other teams. With all the pieces in place and every precaution taken, today would be a Summer Sun Celebration to remember, for everypony.

And yet… there is still one thing that unnerves me. Twilight knows something about that boy, something that terrifies her to her core. She feels guilty about it. But why would that be? He’s not one of us, so it’s not as if she created a miracle or something which she neglected to tell the rest of us about. Perhaps, in the future when we expand to the point it becomes necessary, it will be our generation’s turn to have families. When more observers need to be created to stand watch over the universe. But this isn’t that time, and that’s Twilight’s whole philosophy. Then again, considering her mother, it could be that she’s beginning to play with toys she shouldn’t. Or rather, she already has?

That would be the most logical reason, but I know my cousin too well. She wouldn’t have the heart to play with life or something so blasphemous. I wouldn’t put it past her to toy with the idea though. Still, I never turned up anything too outlandish in my research through our archives, so it could be anything. Maybe even something Aunt Celestia created, which there are no limits to.

As the Meteorite found itself above Equestria and then the dragon spine mountain range where Canterlot castle was situated, the clock struck 1100. In an hour and twenty, the fireworks would start. Moving to the bridge, I addressed my crew one last time before descending to the surface. It has been 49 years since the attack of the first titan. On that day, a new era started. Today, that era closes as we advance to the next stage. Extending our reach to the stars above, we take new frontiers into our sights. The next generation of titan and space ship are the future for all sapient life on earth.

And today, we remind the world who leads them.

The castle was as it always is on the Summer Sun Celebration: bustling with life. Royal guards, hidden guards, local security, armed forces; every government employee was here with their families to celebrate the holiday. The one day of the year when nearly every room in the castle was full.

Before Mother catches me, my first task was to see Dusk. No doubt she knows I’m here, the castle has already detected and made note of the Meteorite’s presence. However, in her own domain, I become harder for her to detect.

The best place to hide from your own mother is the place she’s least likely to look: her own room. When I teleported in, Dusk was already here, waiting for me. He was as close as one could get to a living brother for me. A grown stallion with a short cut black beard kept in immaculate condition, and a mane to match with something of a superhero quaff and a dangling ringlet. Without making things weird, he was as pretty as a stallion could be for all the reasons stallions could be. He never beats me in the weight lifting competitions, but he always has a mare on his shoulder, or under his wing, and sometimes both. He could, would, and has seduced just about every creature out there, and the scary part of that is not the looks he has naturally, but the mind his mother cultivated in him.

For as white and bright as his coat is, a pinkish color with red, orange and yellow hues closer to his hooves and feathers to match, he has a very dark personality. Growing up in the world and with his mother’s near undivided attention, he’d seen and was told to look for all the things wrong with society. How best to use and manipulate them to his advantage, how the mind of the sentient creature thinks. Just decades of that would create a capable spy in the right hooves. Centuries with his mother has created the greatest information gatherer in the world. The only two creatures out there Dusk can’t outwit are his own mother and his full blood older sister. The horrifying thought is that he may one day surpass them too.

He turned his head the moment I landed in Mother’s room and smiled. He had a few of them he wore like party suits, but this one was genuine. “Ah, my green-eyed brother, welcome home.” He hugged me, we fought for supremacy in a short contest of strength, and eventually, he tapped out. “Alright, alright.”

“I won’t have you beating me. My physique is all I have on you.” I put a hoof on his shoulder. “How are you?”

He motioned forward to a table set up in mother’s chambers in front of her fireplace. It was one of the most secure rooms in the castle, and only the five of us can actually warp in here. “I am well, but anxious, Ox. I found something.”

He sat down and poured out some of mother’s favorite liquor. Dusk doesn’t exactly like alcohol, so this must be something nasty. I followed suit. “I see that. What’s the subject?”

Dusk sipped at the drink, frowned, then downed it. “It’s sis. She made something.”

Royal reserve was one of the strongest liquors in the world that ponies could still drink. It was so bad, that it could even do a number on us before our bodies caught up and repaired the damage. Alicorns can only be intoxicated for so long before that ‘near-immortality’ thing kicks in. My record is about a few hours and I have the strongest resistance to the stuff.

I sipped at the lighter fluid. Disgusting, as always. “What did she make exactly?”

He pulled up his terminal and sent me a file. “She’s been playing with toys she shouldn’t.”

The title read: Unique Replication—Theory and Practice Regarding Generation of Unique Specimens For Specific Utility, by Enlightenment S.T.

First, that is a Twilight title if I’ve ever read one. Second, the one word in this that already has me worried is ‘generation.’ That boy’s face came to mind. If it weren’t for his smallness and higher cheek bones, he would be the spitting image of cousin Whiskey.

“What is this, Dusk?”

My brother rubbed at his snout. “An idea. You ever hear the story of how Twi was born?”

I didn’t like where this was going. “More than a few times. Her mother was playing with dark magic, cast a fatal spell on her father to give him the ability to… well, you know, and then she was born, and cursed for many years. After a decade of searching for a solution, Aunt Celestia found it and came back to Underhoof to clear the effects from her and everybody else, including my father.”

He let his eyes fall to the table. “Do you ever wonder if that’s true, Ox?”

“Is it not!?”

He gave me a side eye and put a hoof over his lips. “No.” Dusk poured and downed another shot. “There was a third party involved. Dad was totally innocent and totally normal. Mom was in love and desperate. And there was one creature who lived among them that had the power to make her dream a reality. And unbeknownst to her, he did it.”

A third party? “Wait, when did this happen?”

Nodding, Dusk sipped at his glass. “There was once an entity named Discord. They called him the god of chaos, and as it happens, he had the hots for mom. However, their relationship never panned out, and he was a bit upset about it. Around the same time, Dad joined the royal guard. Take a guess when that was.”

The answer was obvious. “June, a thousand and two hundred years ago.”

“Correct. They’d been fighting over her conduct with stallions, and also what they might do with Discord now that he was making a ruckus. After they dealt with him, she’d planned on running away with dad to who knows where, which caused a real fight. And Dad tried to stop it.”

“So… I don’t understand, the timing doesn’t make sense.” If that happened so long ago, where do we come in?

“And you’re right, it doesn’t. The story starts up again after Mom spent about a thousand years searching for Dad’s lost soul out in space. Discord’s curse kept it trapped to this realm, which made it possible for her to not only recover it, but restore Dad to life. She catches it, brings him home, and from there, she starts working on a project to deal with your mom. After gathering all but one of the elements of harmony—”

“She had them all? On her own? How did she manage that?”

Dusk clapped his hooves. “If you’ll shut up and listen, I’ll tell ya.” Continuing, he went on, “She’d found a way to draw them out of ponies. Sort of… distilling the nature of the element within them, forcing them to resonate with her own element, and tearing it out of their soul, causing it to manifest. It was a technique she had developed with Discord.”

“That sounds awful. What happens to the rest of their nature when distilled to the element? Do ponies remain themselves after such a process?”

Dusk crossed his forelegs. “Yes and no. When this process is completed, the inversion of nature manifests itself as a raging beast. The elements were supposedly used to combat this, but this is Mom we’re talking about. No doubt there were failures at one point. The report says something about using children to get manageable distillations, which means adults were tested at one point, and the results were unsuccessful.”

I sucked air in through my teeth. “Yes, I really can’t see her hurting a child if she couldn’t protect it.”

“She does have a soft spot for kids, that’s for sure.” Then, Dusk poured more liquor.

“Do you really need more of that?”

He locked eyes with me and gave me a hard stare. I didn’t comment any further. “Seeing that children were her best option, she traveled the world with Dad to find the right children. It took most of a year, and she loved Dad. They did what lovers do, and with his curse intact, Twi was conceived.

Mom was just about ready to go get her last element to solidify her plan, when Twi decided to grace the world with her presence. She needed help, so to her sister she went. Twi was born, and then, Dad’s stability failed. His body and soul broke back into its pieces, and that is why she left her behind with my step dad, ya know, after ruining his life.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, that was totally his fault for the most part. Uncle Nighty wasn’t a bad guy, but he was a dumb teenager once in his life.”

He tapped a hoof on the table. “You know who Mom is. That poor stallion might never have lost everything if she didn’t show up.”

I rolled my eyes. “What, do you regret being born now?”

He looked at his full glass. “Not too much, I suppose, but some awful shit happened to get me here, and Twi’s got it in her head she can do it better. I don’t like seeing history repeat itself, Ox, I didn’t think I was old enough for it yet.”

“Okay, back up. Explain.”

He sucked down his lighter fluid. “Upon finding Dad, she also found Discord. He’d been cast into space and found himself a comet. Now, with Dad and Discord’s souls stuck to it, Discord was steering that comet straight for home. Whatever he intended to do once he got there is unknown, but he had a grudge to scratch, and Mom now had a weakness. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she sought desperately to save Dad and Twi. Her solution was to gather the elements again, completely destroy the flow of time, and take a small town into her custody to restart life on earth with.”

“Huh?”

“Aunt Luna had been working on Luna city at the time. There was an old working habitat already built by then. One small town, specifically located in South Dartmoor, had just enough of a gene pool to reset the world. Once she’d saved all those she’d chosen, she’d let things return and not stop the comet.”

That was harder to swallow than this royal reserve. “Aunt Celestia?”

“I confronted Mom about this.” He ran a hoof through his mane. “The report wasn’t as detailed as what she told me.”

“Goddess among us.”

“I know, Ox. I knew she was capable if pushed far enough, but to just…” he shook his head. “Regardless, she got pretty far, but along the way, a bunch of ponies wormed their way into her heart. And when Twi and Dad pleaded with her to stop and let him go to save the world, she gave in. Using all six elements that were keeping Dad alive, Twi destroyed the comet, and with it, Discord.”

“And how do we figure in?”

Dusk held a hoof out. “Dad was alive again for a while there. Your story is still true. The only thing about it that wasn’t true is where the curse came from. He, just like many of Twi’s childhood friends, all got it but didn’t suffer any consequences from it for very long. When Discord was destroyed, so was it.”

I scratched at my cheek. “Ugh. It still bothers me to know my father was fifteen at the time.”

“You have seen pictures, there isn’t a pony alive who would call that boy any less than twenty at the time. Her real sin was being a slut and not bothering to ask how old he was.”

“Fair.” I sighed. “And what about Twilight? Why is all that relevant?”

“A few decades ago, it seems sis had a similar idea. She wanted to have her own kids, but you know all about her ‘we are the observers’ shtick, and though she had the baby fever, she wanted to find a way to do so without creating a new alicorn. Turns out, tech has advanced to the point where, in theory, she could’ve.”

Uncomfortable. “And that’s what this paper is about? Organic generation?”

“Of any creature, Ox.” He looked up to the dark ceiling in mother’s chambers. “Using what’s printed in Twi’s paper, one could take an empty egg of just about anything, strip it of DNA, refill it, and then incubate it in an artificial womb. From there, you take a blank sperm cell, fill it with whatever you want, and then let nature work inside a test tube. Monitored, you can edit the genetics as the baby is forming. You could create somebody made for whatever you wanted them to be.”

And then, it struck me. That kid’s cutiemark. It’s a neural link overload sign. I swallowed. “Did… did she?”

Dusk shook his head. “Nah, Twi’s too right and proper for that. However, this archive had been accessed three times before she felt her guilty conscience and buried it within mom’s archives.” He held out a wing and curled his feathers. “Mom found it first. However, she is the only known entity to have accessed this paper. i.e. not only has somebody else found this thing, but your boy? He’s the result of it.”

How could that be? What is he doing on that island then? If someone used Twi’s paper to make him, how did they lose him? “There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make sense. When you say known entity, does that mean you’re totally in the dark or chasing a lead?”

Leaning over the table, Dusk tented his hooves. “Both. One was done with a text-book CLIF snow walker. The other, however, had a signal with magic I don’t recognize. Mom’s looking into it, but this was done over two decades ago, and magic is harder to trace. Regardless, the outlook is not good. Today is the day, right?”

“Correct. However, given this information, provided he and that mare he almost certainly loves are in sync, they could very well be the ones to start it.”

Dusk’s ears perked up. “Oh?”

I nodded. “His mark, remember? It’s a neural link warning. He’s got genes from my family, and Twilight seems to think they found and recreated Rainbow Dash for the female set. If you were going to make the ultimate titan pilot, a small earth pony stallion with the stamina of an apple and the endurance of the greatest wonderbolt who ever lived, you’d certainly be on the right track.”

He tapped his lips. “Well now. Maybe there’s hope for this kid yet. I heard the mare is one of Pinkie's descendants.”

I huffed. “Her and all of Twi’s other friends. My step mother included. Every other generation introduced another one, and her father was of Rarity’s descent, giving her the last piece. The boy was created, but she’s some kind of bloodline miracle.”

Dusk turned his snout like he smelled something rank. “Awkward. If he loves her like you said…”

I waved him away. “Oh, she’s seven generations out from anywhere near what his blood is made of. They’re so far apart you wouldn’t even find them in the same parts of the world.”

Dusk shrugged. “If you say so.” Then his ears stood on end and he sat up straight. “Mom’s coming.”

I hardly had time to sit up before the room lit up with a golden flash. Aunt Celestia, in golden regalia of old, alabaster splendor, and dawn horizon mane appeared beside us. She leaned down and kissed each of our heads in turn, then put her wings around us. “Hello, boys. And what might you be scheming up in here? Luna is quite vexed that she can’t find you right now, Oxford.”

Powerful as Dusk and I are, two hundred is nowhere close to two thousand two hundred. This mare is one of two who can still deal with a titan with her own power. One of the last old entities on the planet.

Ever the charmer, Dusk kissed his mother back. “Just talking about today’s activities, Mom. Ever figure out that signature?”

She sighed. “Let’s talk about ugly things in an uglier place. Be done with this and come up to the party room. My darling Twilight has arrived, and she’s quite upset about her lack of progress into where this boy came from. I’m not ready to invite her or Luna into the loop just yet, however.”

“Yes Ma’am.” We both stood and began charging for the warp.

Before we cast, she held up a golden feather. “Oh, and do be kind to those children when you ‘surprise adopt’ them. Whether they get the Harbinger running or not, they’re about to go through a life changing spectacle, and it wouldn’t be good to traumatize them further with something awful like the truth of who they are.”

Again, we assented. “Of course.”

And then, the world flashed golden.

Let's see how far we've come

Zap Flash

As we approached the island, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Already, something wasn’t right about this, but I had no reason to feel this way. HD noticed it immediately, even inside the life suit.

“What’s wrong?”

I let out a controlled breath. “I don’t know. I’ve got a bad vibe about this.”

She rolled her eyes. “Any more so than usual?”

I shook my head and looked her in the eyes. “Much more. Stick close when we start moving, alright? Chances are, the safest place to be is going to be inside that new titan.”

“Alright.” she leaned in and pressed her cheek to mine. Her soft skin, her sweet smell, and her warmth all helped me to relax a bit.

“Hey! Didn’t Doc. Ligma tell you not to do that shit!?” Inside the hangar of the Mimic with us was Tendon and Sinew, both of our changeling pilots. The former had a bad temper.

“You know he doesn’t like that name.” HD reprimanded.

The redish changeling flew down to us at the bottom of the hangar. “Well, he deserves it, the creep. I don’t like getting high before a mission, and you guys doing that shit is going to force it on me. Stop it. Put your helmets on, no more physical contact.”

And then, he used his magic to put our helmets on for us. Rough but precise. That’s Tendon alright. He’d already donned his own life suit and helmet and was ready to go. He tapped the terminal on his suit and asked, “Gaston, how much longer before we start?”

Over the loudspeaker, he replied, “Fifteen minutes to arrival. People board personnel container now. Go time.”

Tendon nodded. “Good. Now I won’t have to smell you.”

I shrugged. “Whatever you say man.” He was still butthurt about the best pilot comment. He knows I’m better and it eats him alive inside. It doesn’t help that I’m about twenty years younger than him too. He’s been a titan pilot since the first generation was in its prime, and if not for me, he would be the best pilot Blackrow has access to. I don’t think he’d shoot me in the back, but I’m always cautious of it. He really doesn’t like me. “Let’s head up, HD.”

“Sure.”

It’d been difficult to keep separate since we got to Blackrow today. Any time we could be next to each other we were, and it wasn’t so noticeable before, but the little gestures and simple movements all seemed more precious now. It’s hard to not touch her when I can, and she’s been even worse about it. Maybe after being together for so long, this was just the natural progression, but it feels like a wall has been broken or a door has been opened. Things I never would’ve done, things I refrained from doing before are simply what I should be doing.

What a terrible day to be marching to our deaths.

Once we were in the container, we were joined by Garrod, Gallant, and Elise. The box was made to fit about a whole platoon, with fifteen seats on either side. Essentially, it was a tram car with an ambulance in the back. Sinew’s job was just to get us to the island and drop off. As soon as HD and I were in the suit, they’d wait for ten minutes before pulling out. We’d either get it up and running, or we’d be left to fend for ourselves. Of course, I wasn’t going to take that long to get it moving.

“Are you guys ready?” Garrod asked, slapping a claw to my shoulder.

“As we’ll ever be, I guess.”

“Aww, come on Zap, have some enthusiasm! This is a brand new AE titan we’re talking about! And think about the sights on Miyako, the weather there is supposed to be ten times better than what we get in Cavalisa.”

“Eh.” Elise commented. “Miyako is overrated. Sure, it’s nice if you like being outside, but the place is super expensive, and locals of the right species are treated way better than anybody else.”

HD tilted her head. “Oh, are you from there or something?”

Elise nodded. “I was born in Miyako, but I’m not a pegasus, see? They don’t take too kindly to non-pegasi. Even other ponies tend to get the short end more often than not.”

“Yeah,” Garrod answered, “But it’s like that everywhere. You’re a second class citizen anywhere you aren’t part of the group. Just regular in-group out-group stuff.”

Elise turned on him. “But not in the AE!” she formed a fist. “It wasn’t supposed to be like that there. My parents always talked about how great the place was and how nice the people were, but they didn’t grow up in a place where they don’t belong. It’s different for a kid like that.”

HD tilted her head. “But, couldn’t you say the same thing about Cavalisa?”

Elise frowned. “What, that island of leftovers? There’s no one group—”

I raised a hoof “Hippogriffs get priority from the government, and all the government positions are filled by hippogriffs. And on the island itself? There’s a majority in the less poor parts, and a different majority in the poor parts. Both have minorities, and neither side treats them any better. What are you even complaining about? The world being itself?”

She clenched her beak. “Yes!” Turning away, she ran a claw through her feathers. “It was supposed to be different there. AE was special in their minds. And when it came my turn, it was just the same as everywhere else I went.” She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “I hate this planet. You guys need to get that thing running and out of here so I can go to space.”

Garrod laughed. “It’s cute you think anywhere else is going to be different.”

She’d clearly had her feathers ruffled, but didn’t see any allies anywhere else in the personnel carrier. She went so far as to send a pleading look to Gallant, but he said something in Griffan with a confused look on his face. Elise let her head fall.

Garrod and I have known each other for a long time, and HD and I have survived together in Cavalisa for twelve years. It must be nice to be able to grow up thinking there’s somewhere better out there. When you’re stuck to the ground or trapped by an endless ocean, you learn to deal with what you have. And even if you were somewhere else, you’d still only have your own life.

The loud speaker came alive, “Get ready, people. Launch in T-minus fifteen.”

Buckling the seat belts, the mercenaries and Garrod gathered their gear. HD and I did ours, and then the titan came to life. A screen up front showed us the titan’s eyes. In front was Tendon in the other Heat Hawk, the sleek silver frame underneath reflective sky blue armor with glistening silver blades hiding just behind the forelegs. It wasn’t exactly what I’d call ‘stealthy’ but it’d be hard to see from the ground, and even harder from the sea. As long as we didn’t run into anti-air titans, this thing should be able to outrun anything. But what to expect otherwise was anybody’s guess.

The Mimic’s hangar door opened and Tendon moved his Heat Hawk to the launch deck.

“Five, four, three, two, one! Launch!”

Like being jettisoned out of a cannon, the Heat Hawks took off one after another, hopping into the air with magnet assisted thrusters and spreading those feathery blades at their sides. Gravity compressed us horrendously, forcing poor HD’s head down into her lap and the rest of us trying desperately to stay sitting up straight. The sky rushed by, the sea grew further and further below. The clouds flew closer, and further above, the blue darkened.

We reached a coasting altitude and both titans flew along at breakneck speed. In the distance, a mountain rose above the ocean. Even this high in the sky, the massive mound reached closer and closer like it might try to grab us if we got too far. With the reflective coating on the Heat Hawks the AE observatory there shouldn’t ping us, but there was still a chance. A flap of the massive metal wings, we soared even higher. The huge mountain fell away as we took a turn and headed south. Finally, our destination was in view.

A little speck of sand and jungle in the sea, far, far away from the rest of the island chain. In a high speed boat, it might take half an hour just to get there from the nearest coast. Sinew dove after Tendon, both Heat Hawks fell out of the sky like bricks from an air balloon.

Clouds rushed by, one threatened to block our path, but Tendon tore a hole in it and shot on by. Pressed into our seats, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. HD had passed out. Our descent slowed as the island came close enough to tell the trees apart.

HD snapped awake. “Ah! What happened?”

“They’re pushing it with a personnel carrier, that’s what,” Garrod grumbled.

Elise yelled at the screen, “Are you guys trying to kill us before we even get started!?”

“I know what I’m doing, you’re fine,” Sinew answered. “Landing in thirty seconds. Get your shit together.”

She rolled her eyes, but started to undo her seat belts anyways.

I followed suit, and then helped my dizzy HD do the same. She wobbled for a bit, but was back on her hooves in a moment. “Woah… that was a lot.” HD brought a foreleg to still her head. “I guess this is what it feels like without the gel, huh?”

“And these aren’t made to be super fast either.” I shivered. “You definitely can kill yourself in a Mercury III like that, and that’s with gel.”

“Ick.”

“Lovebirds, on me!” Elise shouted.

“Ten!” Sinew called.

Elise shot her eye at us both. “Stick close, do not fall behind!”

“Seven!”

“We find the machine, you get in, we bail!”

“Four!”

“We wait ten minutes before Sinew takes off! Any longer, you find your own way home!”

“One!”

“Move!”

The carrier’s door opened and slid down the laying titan’s back. The tail created a path into the sand, and Elise launched forward. HD and I followed close behind, Garrod and Gallant bringing up the rear. The hot sun, the sand, and the perspiring jungle were oppressive, but there was no time to mind it. Our Hippogriff mercenary led us into the forest and down a clearly marked path a few meters into the trees. Dark soil, soggy forest floor, but reflective tape along the trees. The seconds ticked away on the life suit’s HUD. We had three minutes before noon. We’re cutting it real close.

At 1159, we hit the base. Just like the pictures, it was mostly concealed from the air, but the driveway from the undersea channel had to come out somewhere. Trees were planted all over on top of the building, so from the air, it didn’t look like there was anything here at all. As we were told, there were no guards anywhere. Totally deserted.

“They sure do take their holidays seriously in the AE.” HD whispered.

“Well, if we make it out of this, we might see that ourselves.”

Elise gave a halt signal from the edge of the forest. We stopped. She darted forward, rifle at the ready, flapping quick and short to keep just above the ground. She scanned the door, and once she was satisfied, she waved us over. We bolted.

The HUD flashed green, 1200 hours.

Elise slapped an explosive to the corners of the door, pulled back behind the wall with us, then popped it. The big metal slab fell inward with a loud clang, but no alarms went off. After a second of waiting, we proceeded onward.

Inside, this place was like a space age tech center. Mirror walls, a white ceiling casting soft light, and a black floor so dark you couldn’t see a reflection anywhere. No alarm, lights are on. Something is wrong, even more so than I thought. There was a tingle at the back of my neck. I felt like I was being watched, but no matter where I looked while we ran, there was no sign of life. We followed Elise close behind, stopping once to avoid an automaton. It looked only as big as a cart you might serve food with, but it was filled with death. Barrels poked out of little windows at the base, and there were five on the long sides, and two on the short ones. It turned a corner, and then we went down where it’d come from. The hall opened up into a much larger one, trading mirrors for stainless steel plates to decorate the walls. A huge door with ‘Hangar 2’ written on it was slammed shut in front of us. To the side was a more conventional one, but with no apparent way to open it. We held by the small door, and after Elise touched it, it simply slid away into the wall.

This place has been awfully cooperative so far. And then I felt those eyes on me. I turned back to find them, but the hall behind us was empty.

“Zap? What’s wrong?” HD asked.

I looked at her for a moment. Whatever is going on, that titan is going to be the safest place to be. “Nothing, let’s keep moving.”

Elise charged ahead, and the rest of us followed, scanning and casing as we went, but now, we were in a large open space. A Wonderbolt IV, a Kelpie II, some variant of the TM series, and even an Arcane III. This was not just some random facility, they had every new titan of AE’s main lines here. And yet, nothing had been set off yet. Why? The automatons are on a schedule and haven’t detected any irregularities. That door should have set something off when we blasted it. Why hasn’t it happened yet?

Or, has it already happened and we just don’t know about it? We passed all the suits I recognized till we hit another hangar door. A staircase led up to a cat walk where the personnel door was. We raced up to it and passed through again without issue.

And then, I laid my eyes on it.

It took my breath away. In the time we took to prepare for this mission, they’d completely armored it. Like an ancient Equestrian royal guard with a razor sharp tri horn and golden edges with white paneling. A golden warrior. It was clearly completely armored and had vents for thrusters on its back and legs, but there were no wings. It wouldn’t make sense to build a titan that can’t fly, so how does this one do it?

Zap.

I turned to HD. “Yeah?”

“What?” She asked, hardly able to tear her eyes away from the idol of a titan.

Huh? “Didn’t you call me?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“You two!” Elise whispered, “There’s the hatch dock, get going!”

Just above the titan’s back was a catwalk with a ramp leading to the machine. HD took the lead and I followed close behind. What in the world? I can’t be hearing things, can I? I’m the one who needs to focus. It’s right there. We say all the words together, and it will take to the sky unlike anything before it.

“What’s up?” HD asked as we hit the edge of the ramp.

“What do you mean?”

She blinked. “You called my name, didn’t you?”

Did I? I know I needed to tell her something. “The password. We say it together.”

She nodded. “Right. Together.”

On the back of the golden machine were two slots for hooves. Together, we both pressed them, one hoof each, and then, it slid down and into the rest of the armor. I helped HD in, and then hopped down myself. This gel was a bit easier to maneuver in than most, and from what I could tell, this cockpit was an unusual size and shape. It was less a sphere and more like a hoofball. There were two harnesses, and four plug in cables.

But that was right too. It needed two pilots. Something about the password. A word that makes the titan start, but not just anyone can start it.

As if we’d done this a million times, I helped HD plug into her harness on the left, then I found mine on the right. They were already adjusted to our size. The monitor didn’t come up, nor did my senses enlarge themselves to match the titan like normal. There was one more piece.

We reached out for each other’s hooves. Somehow, I could feel her pulse. Our hearts were beating in tandem.

“Loyalty, Honesty.”

“Laughter, Kindness.”

“Generosity, Wisdom.”

Like missing puzzle pieces, words filled my head that I knew HD would say right along with me.

“In the face of truth, the world once again faces a new dawn. To bring in the new age, together, we resonate.”

“Harbinger.”

And then, all was white. I found myself in a void, together, with HD. She looked around, floating a little to the side. “What happened?”

“There’s still a blockage.” A voice said. It wasn’t hers, and it wasn’t mine. Save us, however, there was nothing here but white space.

“Who are you?” I called.

“Hmm…” it was something like a sing-songy voice. A woman’s voice, but an older one. “You might call me your grandmother, with a few unusual circumstances here and there. However, that point is meaningless if you two don’t resolve this issue. It’s you, Zap. There’s something you haven’t told your beloved.”

I swallowed. I knew what it was.

“Is… this about this morning?” HD asked.

I felt a weight on my shoulders. “Y-yes…”

She moved closer, putting a wing over me. “You know, Zap, there’s something I’ve been thinking about.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s just that… the dream I always had… there’s an eye in it. And after this week of training, I think I know what kind of eye it is.”

My mouth was dry. “I-I didn’t know!”

She put a hoof on my lips. “I was on a ship of some kind. Somebody had it attacked. I was a victim. And whoever did the job was a tool. And if…” she tilted her head to the side. “that tool just so happened to be a boy with a particular skill who didn’t know any better, then I think I could forgive him.”

Oh, Goddess, she’s too good for me. “HD, you know I wouldn’t—”

“And if he suddenly found somebody still alive and tried to save her… then maybe I could even love him. And if he then devoted his life to her? Then I’d stay with him. Forever.”

HD brought her snout inches from mine and stole my eyes. “Was it… you?”

“It was me.”

“Zap! Helium! Are you alright!? Respond!”

My senses returned to me. And so did HD’s. We turned to Elise, her little hippogriff self on the catwalk yelling into her terminal to get our attention when she suddenly stopped.

“We’re okay. Get out of here, we’ve got control.”

She looked very confused, but didn’t argue. The ground team all fell back into the facility and headed out. The time was 1210, they still had enough to get out without being detected.

In front of us was the exterior hangar door. To exit, all we had to do was think about it. A magic aura lifted the door from the bottom up, completely smooth and controlled. We couldn’t think back to a time where magic was this easy to use. There was no strain on us at all. Like raising a hoof, it was the most natural thing in the world. One hoof after the other, the machine moved, we moved, as a cohesive unit.

Alarms flashed all over the building. Red lights, blaring sirens. Concern flooded us. “Elise? Garrod? What happened?”

No response. We waited for a minute, and then behind us, something tickled our hooves. A little box like a serving tray had barrels extended all over, firing at us. More and more filled in from behind. They all lined up and fired continuously, nothing more than a light touch to the skin. One had rolled in, trailing blood with its wheels. In a surge of anger, we raised a hoof and slammed as many as we could in one stomp. Crushed machines sparked and whined, leaking fluid caught fire.

“Zap, HD!” It was Sinew. “Are you guys alright? I lost contact with Garrod’s group!”

“They’re dead, fall back.” We answered.

“Dead!?” The comm paused for a moment. “Damn it! Alright, whatever. Meet up with us at the beach in two.”

And then, we felt it. Magic generators. A swarm of them. From Cavalria, we’d come north east. These were heading right for our location from south east. If it was AE, it’d be west.

“Don’t bother, get out now!” We ordered.

“What? Why? Are you guys alright? Why do you keep talking together?”

We took to the air. The wings we’d always known unfolded from our back. Long thin bars of gold emitted feathers of light that extended out and away in a wide arc. Just like our wings apart, these would bend and fold just like in a bird. Together, in the sky like this, we were free from everything.

Sinew whistled. “Is that it? Not very conspic—bogeys, west-southwest! High output generators, coming in hot!”

“We know! You and Tendon get back to the ship and haul ass! This isn’t just some random force!”

“What!?” Tendon shouted. “You’re the cargo, you get to the ship!”

We turned and looked at him in his Heat Hawk, through the machine and into the soul. “If you stay, you will not survive. We can deal with this. We’ll meet you back out at sea.”

“Sinew, is this creepy or what? You guys quit talking like that, and get the hell over here! That can’t be AE, it’s gotta be CLIF! We need to go, now!”

Raising a hoof to the side, we extended the blade hidden beneath the foreleg. There was nothing this sword wouldn’t cut. It glowed and shimmered in the daylight like a second sun. Like a white void in the sky, this would put these invaders to rest.

“You will not outrun a Mercury IV, and neither will the Mimic. But we can. Go.”

“Look, Tendon, this is weird and all, but I’m not about to sit here and get blasted away. My cargo is dead, I’m heading back.” Sinew’s Heat Hawk rose into the air and the opposite direction of the opposing force.

“Screw all of you! I’m supposed to protect the cargo! Get the hell to the ship!” Tendon flew up beside us, both of the heat hawk’s swords unsheathed and on, glowing with energy and vibrating at supersonic speeds.

We knew Tendon too well. But leaving now would endanger the ship and everyone else on it. Our power was far more than anything these titans could muster. There might be a chance we could protect him, but this was a large advancing force with a titan carrier not far behind. Sitting at the edge of the border, just beyond where these CLIF titans had launched was someone waiting for a pickup.

Now the cameras were picking up the incoming titans. There were fifteen of them. Five Mercury IV’s in front, two Jupiter II’s, three Venus III’s, four Mars III’s, and one titan we didn’t recognize. The Heat Hawk might be able to deal with the general titans, but the mercury’s would outpace it, and it has no anti magic coating for the Jupiters.

“Tendon, if you run now, there’s still a chance. This force will kill you, and we cannot protect you! Go, please!”

“It’s too late! They’ve seen me. If I go back to the ship… Goddess damn it, why didn’t you guys run!?”

“Stay behind us, watch our back. Don’t do anything stupid. We can take care of this, just don’t get shot.” We flexed our wings and moved to meet the hostile front, leaving Tendon in the dust.

The Mercury’s all locked their cyclops eyes on us and spread out. The closest one to Tendon was our first target. We darted after it, and it darted up at full speed. We shot through the air even faster, catching, passing, and finally slashing through the machine. Neck and torso parted, a bright orange glow through the clean cut, the titan still flying upward, not realizing it’d been slain just yet. We turned and flew back to the group, two other Mercurys had engaged Tendon.

The slower machines in the CLIF group were closing in fast, but there was chaos in their formation. We’d just out paced their fastest machine.

The two Mercury pilots harassing Tendon were good. They never got in range of him and kept firing small bursts of beam energy toward his thrusters. One of his legs had been shot and damaged. We saw he was about to catch one with his own skill and aimed for the other.

The poor CLIF soldier never saw us coming. The eye froze, stared at us. It blinked once as we pressed the beam through the torso and out the tail end. The eye closed as the ocean came to greet it.

“Damn it!” Turning back, Tendon had finally caught the Mercury, but the pilot had drawn a beam saber and was holding him off with little success. He caught the Mercury’s shoulder, but none of the major propulsion systems to slow it down. The Mercury pulled back and shot one of his wings.

Before it could do any more damage, we intercepted it. The pilot hadn’t seen us. There was no resistance, like a spoon into pudding. The Mercury had been bisected. The head section turned to look at us before its eye went dark. Another cyclops down.

“What are you guys?” Tendon asked, his damaged Heat Hawk keeping afloat as best it could.

“We are the Harbinger. Hide on the island. You’re just in the way here.” That was the wrong choice of words, and if he survived this, he’d reckon with us later about it, but for now, he knew better. Tendon fell back to the island and we remained in the sky, facing the enemy.

The two Mercurys still remaining had fallen back to their formation. Again they had spread out, the close combat Mars titans moving to the front with the unique one still in the rear. We couldn’t stay on defense, they’d overwhelm us like that, even in this machine.

Extending the blade on the other forehoof, we darted after the unknown. The Mercurys closed in from the sides, but couldn’t keep up with us. The Jupiters formed a wall in front of the unknown, then cast a large shield before them. That might pose a problem.

We halted right in front of the shield, then the Venus units opened fire. We protected ourself with our own shield, but let them spray the Jupiter shields as much as they liked. The damage would rack up on the pilot, and after a few moments, their shields would fail.

The commander called them to halt and sent the Mars and Mercurys after us. Beam blades all around, the mars units came in quick succession like a well oiled machine. Each one took a different angle of attack, but we were more than any one of them. Twisting and falling, we went under the closest Mars and jammed our wing into it. Pierced through like a kebab, we used the lifeless body of the mars to take attacks from two other Mars suits and caught a Mercury through the chest with our blades. Split wide open, the cockpit vaporized, it sank into the blue.

Fear took hold of a Venus unit. It broke rank and we chased and cut it down. In three pieces, the broken machine hit the water steaming.

Turning back, one jupiter had repositioned while the other retained its shield. Aligned, the heavy weapons CLIF machine began charging a cannon aimed at Tendon. We charged for it, but the Mars suits formed another wall and tried to keep us at bay. As we blocked saber after saber, the Jupiter charged its cannon.

“Tendon, get out of there!”

An opening presented itself in the form of the other Venus taking position to fire. We disabled one of our beam sabers, grabbed the closest mars and used it as a body shield. The Venus peppered its comrade, putting holes in the chest before it could stop. We kicked the dead Mars into the other machine and flew up and around the shielding Jupiter to get to the one behind it.

Light had formed at the edge of its hooves. We have to make it!

Pushing the wings as hard as we could, we slammed into it with both beam sabers extended. Even with glowing holes through its heavily armored barrel, the Jupiter fired.

The island went up in flame. All the flora burned. The wreckage of Tendon’s Heat Hawk was just outside the epicenter of the blast. Char and flame covered the beach.

“Damn you!”

We went after the shielding Jupiter, but before we could get there, we were intercepted by the unknown. It was fast. Maybe not as fast as we were, but this titan was some kind of custom.

The contact link started up. “Good Afternoon, mister AE pilot. My name is Chitin. Would you care to have a dance?”

The overflowing confidence, the absolute certainty, the sheer arrogance. And after everything we’ve done? What is this guy piloting?

We backed off. This isn’t just some useless commander. The other titans headed north west. Good Goddess, they found the Mimic!

We moved to out pace them, but the unknown caught us. He wasn’t fast enough to meet us, but his magic was strong enough to hold us back. “It’s quite rude to ignore your partner!”

Yanked down and out of the air, we were brought back eyes to eye with the unknown. He aimed a beam saber right for the cockpit, but we parried and went right for his head. A wall of green magic collided with our saber and pushed the enemy machine back out of reach.

If he’s using magic as a shield, we can use it as a weapon. We started to charge the horn. The unknown figured us out immediately and flew after us. We blocked one slash after another just managing to keep focus enough on the horn to continue the charge.

Getting desperate, he took his saber and tried to skewer us. We let it fly right beside us and used the opportunity to slice the foreleg off and kick the titan away. Free of him for a moment, our blast was at full charge.

Blinding light turned the sky white. A massive beam of concentrated light burned the very air on its way to the enemy formation. The lone Jupiter managed to bring his shield online to block, but it only lasted for a moment. His magic shattered, and his titan was consumed in daylight. We managed to tag half of a Mars before foreign magic gripped our neck. It was just strong enough to push the beam off course and into space.

“Aren’t you a little monster! Perhaps I can’t measure up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take you down with me!”

A suicidal zealot. We broke from him and he went on full offense. Using his last remaining foreleg and all the magic at his disposal, he shot and slashed at us with every capable maneuver he could muster. We overpowered and pressed him, but then, a ring flew off from the chest of the unit. It divided into six pieces that flew individually. They darted in every direction circling us like a whole other troupe. Each one had a cannon attached to the end and fired high output beams at us from every direction. We chased one down to catch and destroy it, but then the unknown caught us again.

“The party’s only starting! Where could be better than here!?”

This isn’t going to work if we stick to one type of weapon. We can focus on two things at once. You fire, I’ll deal with him.

Splitting our attention, I went on offense as HD charged our horn. I came down for a slash and Chitin dodged. This, however, put his drone in the line of fire and HD shot. The blast of sunlight vaporized the little machine, taking one more weapon out of the sky.

The unknown machine backed off and recalled his drones. “Well. It seems I really am out classed here. Perhaps we’ll dance again some time?”

We charged to put an end to him, but just as we launched, his whole titan glowed with magic. Brighter and brighter, it flashed! And just like that, we were alone in the sky.

The ship!

We darted through the air toward the Mimic. Only, once the horizon had become wide enough for us to see, a cloud of smoke was burning on the ocean. The personnel container was floating just on top of the water, half intact. And those remaining CLIF titans were nowhere to be seen.

We… we were too late.

Warning alarms rang inside our heads. New dots appeared all around us, thirteen titans. Friendly codes, four AE Wonderbolt IV’s, two of that new TM line we saw in the hangar with the code TMX-I, four Arcane III’s, and another two titans I didn’t recognize labeled RG-I. And finally, one that was like a looking into a mirror. A sterling warrior. And whoever was inside it knew it well better than we did this Harbinger.

The leader came over the friendly comm system. “I suggest you stand down and follow me. From the looks of it,” The titan nodded its head to the burning sea below, “You have nowhere left to return to.”

Maybe the Chitin guy could’ve come close, but someone in a similar titan with more experience would certainly kill us. We’d just found life together, and we weren’t about to give it up. We disengaged the sabers and raised our hooves.

“Very good.” From above us, a shadow suddenly appeared. The sky filled more and more as a spaceship materialized. A hatch opened and the silver titan flew inside, then turned and motioned for us to follow. “Welcome to the Meteorite, children of the new age.”

It was a hard thing, the loneliness of being one individual again. Separated from the Harbinger, HD and I were no longer connected in the same way. If that morning, we’d been one in body and soul, the machine made us one in mind and body. Though, I can’t say I minded it too much. We could do a lot as a unit in some fancy titan, but there was so much more we could do together.

Perhaps I already knew it, but today, I learned about the aggressive streak in her. Normally, she’s just my little HD, but given power, she can be something else. Between the instincts to protect, the anger to lose comrades, and the threat of an enemy, the latter is what really drove us to kill all those CLIF soldiers. There was some desire to protect the home mixed in there too that I didn’t quite understand.

However, we didn’t have time to talk to each other. Removed from the titan by some huge soldiers, we were driven through this massive vessel to a chamber apart from the rest of the ship. It, like the facility we entered, was a high-tech marvel with a whole fleet of the latest in AE titans. There was something very different about the Harbinger’s silver twin, but what exactly I couldn’t tell. It was an older model that had clearly seen combat before, but other than a bit of regular wear from use, it didn’t have a scratch.

Much like that strange CLIF model, this was something AE had hidden up their sleeve. I’m still not sure how the CLIF titan managed to warp away, or how it was controlling those drones in the middle of combat. Quite literally, the two of us sort of split off from our oneness to take separate roles and deal with him and the drones. How he managed to do both at once is another mystery.

The guards dropped us off, then stepped outside. “Sir will be with you in a moment.” And then the door closed.

“What do you think happens now?” HD asked. She was taking the losses a lot harder than I was. I’ve seen allies go down before and that’s just the nature of the job. I closed the gap between us and nuzzled her neck. Nowhere in this ship was really going to be safe to talk in, so I figured we might as well.

“I don’t know, HD. I really don’t.”

She sniffled. “They’re all gone, huh?”

“They are. We did our best.”

“Which, for all intents and purposes, was quite a feat.” A familiar voice came from the room beside us. The huge pony who’d given us this job in the first place appeared from behind a door beside us. The most interesting note about him now were the wings and the cutiemark. The former indicated he was something else, and the latter resembled AE’s current CEO to a familial degree. It was a comet in the shape of an apple burning through the night sky with three stars around it. I thought he was big before, but now that you could see all of him, he really was like some kind of massive bodybuilder. He flashed his horn and a pair of chairs appeared in front of his desk. “Please, take a seat.”

Comet was still wearing a towel around his neck and drying his mane off with it when he reached the chair in front of us. He crashed into it, stretched his wings, his forelegs, and popped his neck. Dude was a moving sculpture.

“What… are you, exactly, Mister Comet?” HD asked.

He waved her away. “Oh, people like to call me a momma’s boy. I take after her quite a lot.” He flicked his feathers out. “As you might could tell.”

“L-like AE’s CEO?”

“So you know her!” Crossing his forelegs, he nodded. “Good, good, that makes this easier.” Comet cleared his throat and continued. “Now, here’s what happens next. I promised to pay you for a job, and you two have done splendidly. I will pay you of course, but there is a bit of a catch.”

I frowned. “The kind of catch that says we’re not allowed to leave, right?”

“Sort of.” he nodded his head up. “You can leave, yes, but the place you’d be going isn’t exactly a comfortable one. You can have the money and move to a remote space colony which is in a developmental stage near Mars, but I wouldn’t call those accommodations great. And then there’s that… other problem.”

“What other problem?”

He sucked in air through his teeth. “You spoke with the CLIF soldier piloting their prototype Saturn unit. They have your voices on record. And now, they will be looking for you.”

No way. From two words? Could they really track us down from that small of a sample? I looked to HD, and she looked back to me, concern covering her face. We’re not dead. We made it through. There could be a tomorrow for us, but what’s worse? Being hunted and hiding in a remote colony, or… “And what are you offering us?”

The big stallion’s face brightened. “A career!” He stood from his chair and motioned toward the window. Down below, one could see the north Equestrian continental coast coming into view, or maybe we were ascending. It was difficult to tell how the ship was moving since there was hardly any inertia pulling us any one direction. “That machine you piloted was developed by… a unique individual. This individual believes that the world is on the brink of change. And to help facilitate that change, the Harbinger was developed. However, until you two found yourselves inside of it, we’d not had very successful test runs of it.”

“What about the silver one?”

“Oh, that’s my Forerunner. It takes a certain kind of pilot. And though it has tried, it just can’t seem to kill me. It’s a mean machine, but my family is notoriously hard to slay.”

And if he’s telling the truth, his own mother took down a titan on her own. The worst part is, I don’t think he’s lying either.

Comet went on, “Think of it like the brute force version of the Harbinger. It’s too much on any normal living creature, but a few of us in the world can fly them and live to tell the tale. It’s stronger, faster, and more capable than any other titan, but that doesn’t make it practical. Years of training to train pilots, years of development to create titans, and instants to destroy it all. We wanted something a bit more durable, and this is what that individual came up with. However, a few of these won’t protect AE’s interests alone. As you learned today, one impressive machine can’t save the world.”

HD’s ears fell. I put my foreleg around her and brought her close. “So why us? Did you send us there knowing that base was going to be attacked?”

“Again, sort of. As I told you a week ago, the picture you saw was from a CLIF spy. As much as I dislike it, Mother is insistent on keeping the Summer Sun Celebration more or less a military holiday, and that means most of our installations are undefended. There are treaties in place and all that, but those are just words on paper, nothing to really stop anyone from doing anything. Mother has a number of beliefs I’ve come to think need to update with the times. However, she’s fairly slow to do that. To bring her on board, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone. Do you know what your cutiemark is, son?”

I looked down at my flanks. For the longest time, I never really even noticed the marks there. They were just a part of me like any other. I didn’t feel any different when I got them or ever understood why they showed up in the first place. “Not really.”

Nodding, he stroked his beard. “It’s a neural link warning. Your body is perfect for piloting titans. It’s almost as if you were made for it.” Comet came back and sat down in his chair. “However, that didn’t solve the issue of the Harbinger’s unique system. It creates so much strain and backlash on one mind that it will kill a single pilot trying to operate it. It can be used by us of course, but what would the point be if normal ponies couldn’t use it? Then, this individual came up with the dual pilot system. By synchronizing the magical frequency of two ponies, this could split the difference and create a stable link to the system without killing the pilots. With these specs and all the money we poured into it, it could become the most powerful titan the world over for a generation. However, that synchronizing part was the issue. Our best couldn’t perform. They made the best use of their talents separately rather than together, like two different tools on the same belt you might say.”

He pointed a hoof at me. “Then, I heard about you. A stray who’d sometimes work as a pilot around Cavalisa. You could fly anything, and they had the records to back it up too. An earth pony perfectly fine using magic in a titan is a very, very rare thing, you know? So I wanted to find a way to get you in that machine. Those arrangements were made, and when I saw the two of you together, well… to those who’ve seen it, love is fairly obvious.”

HD and I colored a little. We’re going to have to get used to that but at least we have the chance to. He made the arrangements, huh? “So, what, did you have the other guys killed as soon as you saw we started the titan?”

Comet shook his head. “No, the automated systems are automated. We left the doors unlocked, all you had to do was open it. Did you really think that blowing a shutter off wouldn’t alarm the automatons?”

HD sighed. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyways. They got the island, then the ship.” She turned to Comet, “Who were those other people anyways?”

He pulled up a shot of the CLIF force we fought before we engaged it. “This is a long range capture we took from above the atmosphere. Before you accuse me of anything heinous, we didn’t expect this kind of advance force from them. They didn’t just send a few scouts to try and blow up or steal the machine, they sent a whole company after it. Until today, I’d never seen the Saturn, just heard rumors about it. It’s why I say what you did was a feat. Even I would’ve had a difficult time with those drones. I don’t know what kind of biological abomination they’ve come up with to do that. Maybe that’s their own answer to our synchro system. Regardless, you took down half a company on your own, and defeated an experimental unit with a new kind of weapon. I’d say that earns you high marks.”

“What about that Chitin guy?” I asked. “You have the audio records, don’t you?”

Comet pulled up another screen with some high profile CLIF operator on it. White suit, red tie, A very dark violet changeling with a shit eating grin. Just the picture is enough to make me hate this guy. “Charming, isn’t he? A loud mouthed CLIF ace who, unfortunately, has the bite to back up his bark. He’s a younger changeling who started making a name for himself during their SAST ‘purchases.’ They harass and slay main force units for a few months until SAST caves and sells territory. If you ever wonder why the oceanic conglomerate wants into space and out of earth, that’s why. They’ve been doing this for decades.”

“That explains a lot, honestly.” I suppose it’s not good for morale to have the news say they’re being pushed out and can’t afford or don’t have the strength to fight back.

“If they could, they would do it to all of us. Only, GII tends to have better pilots than machines, and CLIF doesn’t have the information network we do to surprise us. However, as today would show, we don’t know everything either.”

“So…” HD began, “What exactly are you offering us? We… we won’t be separated, will we?”

He created two terminal screens and passed them to us. It was a contract. “Like I said, a career. Under my direct supervision, you two will continue to pilot the Harbinger and do whatever I tell you to. You give me two years of your lives, and after that, we’ll see. Provided we figure out how to lower the requirements for synchronization, or perhaps perfect the system, you will be free to live in a highly protected area of the AE where CLIF could only dream of getting to you. My father’s family lives there, and they have done so for thousands of years.”

I sized up the huge stallion. “Your dad? How old are you?”

“Not a day over two hundred and sixty six. I feel like my looks have held up over the years, don’t you? But not to worry, I’m a special case, and I said my last goodbyes to him centuries ago. I had siblings, but not full blood ones.” He pointed out HD. “You’re in the bloodline somewhere out in the far reaches.”

“I am? You… you know who my parents are?”

“And their parents, and their parents, and so on and so on. We believed you dead, miss…” he pulled up another screen. “Helium Delight. I owe you some documents and there are a few legal things we need to settle later.”

“Oh, I… you know who I am? I get to know who I am?”

He reached across and put a hoof on her shoulder. “That’s right. There are ponies who’ve been holding out hope for all these years. They’ve been waiting for you. You’d still have to give your lives to me for a while, but we will reunite you with your family.”

“F-family?” She covered her mouth and tears filled her eyes.

So there’s someone still out there for her. That’s great. And yet I… The feeling didn’t have time to hit me. She wrapped herself around me and pressed her face into my chest. “Zap, they’re still out there somewhere! We can meet somebody who knows me! You’ll come with me, won’t you?”

“Of course. Forever, right?”

“Forever.” I held her in my forelegs, and would never let go. Together forever. I turned back to Comet. “And… what about me?”

He looked away. “Your circumstances are unusual. We can discuss that another time. For now, sign these contracts, pledge yourselves to me, and then you can go rest. You’ve had a long day. I believe you’ve earned it.”

Still holding me, HD took the terminal, pressed her snout to it, and then gave it back. “I don’t care what happens as long as we get to stay together. Everything else is just a bonus, right?”

“Right.” I followed suit.

With our biological records confirmed, Comet dismissed the terminal. “With that done, my guards will take you to your room.” He coughed into his hoof. “It’s not necessarily against the rules or anything, but ‘wrap it up’ if you will. We don’t want any extra life signatures messing with the system while we test the Harbinger.”

Oh. That’s, uh. Okay. “Yes, Mister Comet.”

“Ah, right.” He shook his head. “That’s an alias. Oxford is my real name. But, as my employees, I expect you to refer to me as ‘sir’ from now on. Understood?”

“Sir,” we said together.

“Very good. Sleuth, Noise, you may take them to their room.”

The door behind us opened, and the two guards from the meeting last week stepped inside. “This way.”

Oxford

Moments after the children left, Aunt Celesta walked in from the other room where she’d been listening. “Unique individual, hmm?”

“You don’t exist and mother is a legend. That poor girl was having a hard time just with the things she’s done today. They can get a more comprehensive understanding when they’ve had some time to themselves.”

She sat next to me and looked out the window. “Yes, it should be good for them. You know, they both knew about the shipwreck.”

“What, really? And they still managed to synchronize?”

“Mmhmm. There’s no obstruction between them at all. With a few months of testing, provided we don’t find a third heart beat too soon, I should have all the data I need to work the system down to something manageable.” For the most part, she looked pleased with herself, but she wasn’t smiling in any genuine way.

“What’s wrong?”

She let go of the mask and bit her hoof. Like mother, like daughter. “It’s that Saturn. I don’t understand how they managed to make a working drone system. It’s obvious that CLIF stole Twilight’s project, but what they’ve done with it since I don’t know. And the boy? He doesn’t have any CLIF signatures on him. Rather, it’s the other signature I found in him.”

“And… do you know what that other signature is yet?”

She wrapped her forelegs around her barrel. “No. It’s familiar, but I can’t find anything on it. She’ll be very upset with me, but I’ll need to set Twilight on this.”

“In particular? She’s already looking into the boy as it is.”

Aunt Celestia nodded. “I know, she came to me about it a few days ago.”

That took me aback. “She did?”

A real smile filled her lips. “Oh, yes, and she felt oh so very guilty about what she’d done that she needed her mother’s love to console her for the first time in decades.” Then she sighed and let her shoulders sink. “But she hasn’t found what I’ve found yet. Her talent for magic is simply unmatched, but her mind likes to wander down too many avenues at once to focus. She needs to be pointed in the right direction, and that will take an invitation.”

“Why not have Dusk do it?”

“He’s still upset with me over the whole Underhoof incident. He would, but Twilight might be able to figure out who put him up to it, and at that point, it will only deteriorate our relationship more. I’d rather just take the hit.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” However, something about today was bothering me. I couldn’t help but ask. “Did you really have those other mercenaries killed?”

She sent me a cold glance. “Only so many people should be allowed to know about the Harbinger. They were not.”

“Right.” Too close to the sun. “What would you like to be done about the base?”

“Recover my toys and have the island replanted. Put up a hologram for a while to fool the onlookers. It’s not as if CLIF is about to broadcast what they’ve done. That would be an act of war, and give me an excuse to finally rid the world of them. Today’s little warning should give them something to think about for a decade or two.” She got up and came over to my desk. “Speaking of, are my diagnostics in yet?”

I passed her my terminal and she opened the file herself. “Those little flies pack quite the punch. The beam output on the Saturn itself doesn’t seem to be all that high though. It couldn’t properly grasp my titan either time it tried, but I suppose pushing it was enough. The anti-magic coating is working, but not enough to stop all disruptions. So long as we can get the synchronization system under control, we could lower the specifications and pump out a few of these for our commanders. Maybe she’d agree if I could show her we could do it…”

A chill ran up my spine. As warm as Aunt Celestia is personally, when it comes to her approach to politics, she’s ruthless, and even a bit of a war hawk. I suppose Twilight is there to keep her from going too far, but my fear is that this new guilt in Twilight’s heart might sway her to her mother’s side.

“A new era is coming, Oxford. And this time, we’ll be running right beside it instead of dragged into it. You’ve done well.” She kissed my head and then went to leave the room. “I’ll be in the titan bay. Keep me posted on any new developments with your new kids.”

I bowed. “Yes, ma’am.”

Left alone to myself, I finally relaxed. One charges headlong into the future. The other wishes to cling to the past. Their divider keeps them both from pulling too far one way or another. And we, the new generation, are forced to choose a path right as the lines begin to blur.

I pray to the Goddess that the path I’ve chosen is the right one.

Waking up at the start of the end of the world

Zap Flash

I remember something going wrong. There was a fire and an explosion. The nurse told me to run so I followed orders, just like I always did.

I arrived in a hangar, where the ‘toy’ I played with always was. It was much bigger than I thought it was. It even looked a little scary. Another blast went off further back. It’d be the quickest way out.

After so many times, the life suit was easy to get into. Not even a minute passed and I was climbing up the outside. The fire was getting closer, smoke was billowing out of the hall and into the hangar. A burning figure ran out of the hall, only to collapse a little further down. The blaze flamed and whatever it had been was just a black mass of burnt rosemary.

Seeing that made my skin feel itchy, but another boom pushed me onward. I hopped down into the pool and slid into the harness like usual. I plugged the cable in, and all was as it should be. I don’t remember having wings or whatever was on my shoulders, but today I did.

The door was closed. I looked around for someone’s signal to depart, but no one was around. Still, my last order was to run, so I had to fulfill that. My shoulders felt like they could get me out of the door, so I traced the mechanism in my head and used it. A flash of light shot out from them. Fire so bright it could’ve been lightning burned through the hangar door. The hole was big enough that I could step through it, but I’d have to crush it a little.

Leaving the melted metal behind me, for the first time, I saw the outside.

It was some kind of green place with big sticks and green clumps on top of them. There were clouds on the ground, white ones that didn’t seem to belong there. The ceiling was gray everywhere, and billowy like smoke. It looked like it went on forever.

I knew I could go up there. She never told me how far or where I was supposed to go, so I guess I should just keep going. The wings opened up and like I’d done this every day of my life, I jumped and launched into the air. It felt right for me to be here.

Looking back down, it wasn’t just where I’d been that was on fire, but everything. A little network of roads went to five or six places, one spot had already been burned so badly that it was nothing but a pile of black under a cloud of smoke. Where should I go?

There was an edge to the ground all around me. Blue crept up to it, but then went everywhere. There was no end to the gray ceiling or the blue floor. Both moved in a way that unnerved me. There was nothing solid around.

Something popped up on my HUD. New directions: fly west. Only blue and gray that way too, but that was the order. I flew west.

I kept flying and the strangest thing happened. The colors of everything changed. The gray and the blue got darker. The further I kept flying, the more the gray receded. There was an edge to it, and behind it, the ceiling seemed to open up forever. Little sparkles appeared as the color got even darker. From blue to yellow to orange and red then purple with little sparkles above.

Would I find anything going on like this? My directive was west. It was all I had, so I followed it. Eventually, the colors started changing again. My purple ceiling became violet. Red, then orange, and somewhere behind me, a big shiny ball was rising above the blue below.

So many strange things were here. But I was beginning to run low. A tiredness I’d never felt inside a titan was creeping at my back. I’d been using so much energy that my battery was depleted and I was running on generator power alone. In an hour or two, I would run out of power for at least twenty-four hours before it could recharge again.

Where would I be, then? There’d only been blue one way and the color changing ceiling the other. Why this way? Would I find something solid in that time? I hope so. I was always so hungry when I got out of one of these. Would there be food waiting for me?

As the titan lost power, I got sleepy. Endless blue one way and another. I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

The Miyako Islands are beautiful all year round. It’s never too hot, it’s never too cold, the sun shines softly, the storms are never too crazy, and life moves at a slow, easy pace.

We, however, were not so fortunate as to be born on the Miyako Islands. Instead, HD and I had our lots cast in the SAST, or Sea Air and Space Technologies, controlled territory of the Cavalisa Archipelago. It’s what tourists like to call a governmental gray zone. At the edge of SAST, or really any conglomerate’s airspace, you tend to be the test subjects, false flag targets, or straight up meat shields in the inter-political ‘not really’ war between the four mega companies. Because SAST is the bottom of the four and always playing catch-up with last year’s advancements by the time next year’s prototypes make it to production for the rest of the world, they’re generally seen as a non-threat to the others, and that makes them furious.

Further spit in the eye, the Miyako Islands belong to Alicorn Electronics, the undisputed king of the conglomerate war, and they have a not so secret base there where most of their prototypes do their test launches. When their pilots get too close in whatever new machine they’re playing with that day, sometimes, the witnesses get a little ‘foreign aid’ to keep their mouths shut. And if there’s one thing AE does that SAST doesn’t, it’s support its people.

Bottom dwellers like us out here in this hot, sticky place tend to be forgotten more often than not, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Enforcers are lax or totally non-present, black markets are basically out in the open, and rather than us getting punished if somebody in the inner circle gets caught out here, we usually get paid to do something for them instead.

Today, a scorching day in the Cavalisa summer of 2279, happened to be one of those days.

“Hey, Zap!” HD popped her blue head out from behind the kitchen counter the moment I walked in.

“Hey, HD!” I mirrored.

She hopped up into the air and over the counter, fluttering her multi-colored pastel wings as she did to meet me by the apartment door. “Gaston sent us an invite!”

The hell he did! “Gaston did?”

“He did!” Way too overzealous, she hopped back into the air and dove for the terminal pad on the coffee table. “He says this one is big. The kinda money we’re talking about could move us to anywhere we want in the AE! We could even go to a space colony!”

I frowned.

Her face fell. Ears folded, big golden eyes glittering, she asked, “You… you don’t wanna take it?”

I bit my hoof. Sweat rolled down my forehead. Rather than address the subject, I moved to the kitchen and set my bag down on the table. “Did you make anything for lunch?”

“Zap.”

Putting on the most neutral face I could, I stared right back at her. “Helium.”

She let out a breath and shook her head. “No. I need to go to the market. We’re out of rice and oats.”

I tapped the personal terminal hanging off my neck and had it send her about a thousand credits. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get us through the month. “You are now perfectly capable of doing the only thing I ask of you.”

She drew a circle on the ground. “I… guess I am.” HD gave me one last sad little look, then moved for the door. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Thank you.”

Sighing, she spread her wings and took off into the pre-noon sun.

“That asshole! How many fucking times do I have to tell him not to call here!? Fuck!” I wanted to kick something, but our place had enough dents in the walls as it is. Apartment is too nice a word for this shack. Just a metal box papered over with organic synthetics to make it feel like painted walls and carpeted floors with just enough put into the life support to make it bearable. When it works.

A one bedroom with the cheapest bed you can find, a built in terminal from fifty years ago on its last legs, a couch we found in a dump, a kitchen from centuries ago, and unless I put my life on the line again with this asshole griffon, it’s the best I can do for us too.

Instead of taking my anger out on what little I had, I figured I’d do better yelling at Gaston. No way he would send HD details. He just wanted to get her hopes up to drag me into whatever bullshit he has lined up. The bastard.

Finding a water bottle in the fridge and sucking half of it down, I trotted over to the couch and opened up the main terminal. Holographic screens filed out of a little projector like an ancient computer setup. This one was so old it still had a keyboard. It’s a miracle this thing still connects to the web. Can’t be long before they discontinue support for devices from the last age. Then we’ll really be screwed.

After a few minutes of searching, I found the original recording and then ordered a call from there. As soon as I get done yelling in his face, I’m scrubbing the terminal and blocking every number of his I know of.

A moment passed, it picked up. “Ey, if isn’t little Zap Flash. You know, I thought—”

“Shut the fuck up! Who told you you could call here? Because I remember telling you not to!”

The griffon on the screen stepped back and threw his claws up. “Woah, woah, relax, little pony.”

“The hell I will! Next time HD sees your face, I will make sure it’s the last time. You’re getting real close to the edge of ‘fuck around and find out,’ Gaston.”

He knows better than to belittle me, so he relaxed his posture and straightened up. “Look, I remember, but is important. We not dealing with usual clientele, you know? This one is bourgeois.”

Again, I bit my hoof. To use that word… I turned my eye at him. “You serious?”

He put a claw over his fat brown chest. “By the Goddess as witness.” Then he snapped and pulled up a list of recent transactions for me to see. I’m sure my eyes looked like dinner plates. Gaston smiled. “And that, my boy, is just advance. A little something to help us make decision over. Even if we don’t take, ten percent is going to everybody. Even you.”

And just like that, I watched as ten K disappeared from his account and reappeared in mine. Ain’t dumb enough to send it back, but this had bad news written all over it. Gaston isn’t exactly known for having consistent partners. And not because they leave him.

“What kinda guy was this?”

Gaston stroked the double chin under his beak. “Big fellow. Definitely pony, but biggest pony I ever saw. Like you, but, you know, odd. I like to think my security is pretty good, but I could swear he was using magic in my face.”

I’m on the small side as far as earth ponies go. We’re bigger than unicorns and pegasi like HD in general, but only as far as normal trends will take it. In SAST territory, you mostly find Griffons, Pegasi, Changelings, and Hippogriffs. The air fairing kind. Anything that can fly usually does pretty well here since most of SAST is just islands out in the eastern seas. Earth Ponies and Unicorns are almost strictly found in the AE and Glorious Iron Industries areas. More so in AE than GII though. And magic? Could’ve had an implant, but Gaston has some of the best disablers GII produces. Either this guy had one hell of an implant, or he was one hell of a unicorn.

“What’d he look like? Got a capture?”

Gaston chuckled. “What, do you know somebody in inner circle, Zap? Can’t be holding out on me.”

“You know better, ya dick. Come on.”

He pointed to the side of his box for another screen to appear. It was a short video capture of a huge pony in knock-off military digs, but garbled when it came to the details of his actual appearance. He had a beard, but other than that, you couldn’t make out much of anything.

“Everything looks like this, by the way.” Gaston shrugged. “Even my own memory. Might recognize if I see, but capture is impossible. Could be magic, could be implant. Pretty well layered up in this Cavalisa heat.”

I stared at him as their conversation played, also garbled, but only when the guy was speaking.

“And… you say we get more just for taking job?”

The big pony nodded. He said more, and Gaston’s wings nearly flared out.

“How much!?”

A noise covered screen, a screen next to Gaston, and then all those credits flowed into his account.

“I will consult my men. How should I contact you again?”

More was said, and then Gaston bowed.

“Of course, sir. We will be ready.”

The capture disappeared and I turned back to the present Gaston. “So? How much?”

“Two B.”

“The fuck it is.”

“It is fuck!” Panting, Gaston ran a claw through gold feathers on his head. “And we get half for taking job! We could leave this shithole, Zap! But I need pilot. He was specific. Has to be good pilot. Best pilot. Has to be Zap Flash.”

My pulse was drumming in my ears. “What, like specifically me? Did he use my name?”

Gaston rolled his eyes. “Of course he did not! I use your name because I know you are pony for job! Just for taking job, you could get your little girlie off this rock and set her up for life! Hundred million for accept, two hundred for complete! Say yes, and I send you credit the moment he gives.”

Goddess damn it, why in the world are you even considering this, Zap? This is a trap. It’s so obviously a trap you can see the teeth on the floor. You even think about touching it and you’re getting swallowed. And yet…

“Fucking hell.” I scratched at my mane. “Why a pilot? What are we doing, Gaston?”

The fat griffon flashed his teeth. Oh, Zap, what have you just gotten yourself into? “Baited hook is tasty bite, no? There is catch, though, catch you not like.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to see through him. The holographic screen was solid enough that he might as well be standing in front of me instead of on his titan dock on the water. He didn’t call here for no reason… “No.”

He shook his head. “Is non-negotiable. Need two pony. Part of deal.”

“I will not!”

“B-but Zap!”

I froze. How long have I been on call? She can’t be done shopping already. How long has she been here? What all did she hear? Shit, shit, shit!

“If… if it’s true, we’d never have to work again!”

I turned away from the screen. “I don’t give a damn if it’s true, you are not coming!”

“You can’t do this forever!” Teary-eyed, feathers ruffled, HD took a step closer. “You barely make anything running parts for those thugs, you always come home tired and beaten, and one of these days, you aren’t going to be so lucky!” She rubbed at her eyes and made another advance. “You could run a thousand jobs for ten years and never see a hundredth of this kind of money!”

I stomped my hoof. “And you could die! What’s the point if something goes wrong!?”

She closed the gap and tried her best to get level with me. “Yeah, what is the point, Zap? What happens when you don’t come back one morning? What happens when the enforcers come and find me asking for you? What happens if we get caught in an attack and you’re out and I’m here alone?”

HD shivered, her strength failed, and she sank to the floor at my hooves. “I can’t do this alone. I can’t be alone again. You can’t leave me alone.” She gasped for air. “At least… if we’re together… I-I wouldn’t have to be alone.”

My haunches sank. Why did you have to be here? Why did you come in now? Didn’t I tell you to go do the shopping? You could’ve been anywhere, but you had to be here.

She sniveled, “You promised, Zap. You promised.”

“Damn it all!” Whatever was to my left felt the full force of everything my hoof could muster. Another dent to add to the collection. The sting was so dull now that I barely felt it.

“When are we meeting!?” I shouted at Gaston.

I’d never seen the griffon embarrassed, but he was right now. Redder in the face than ever and trying his hardest not to pant like an overworked dog. “Eh… job is on Sunday. We start preparations tonight. I go over details at ten.”

“Fuck you, and see you tonight!” I dismissed the terminal to then turn my wrath at HD. “Why are you here!?”

“I forgot the bags!” she cried.

“Fuck!” Another new dent. I grabbed the bags. “Let’s go! I need air, damn it!”

HD gave me a weak and weepy, “Okay.” and we headed off to the market. What a fucking day.

It was late. I couldn’t bring myself to apologize to HD, but I know I should. The night air was cool and wet, and I was pissed off. Some big dick comes in wagging his giant credit-cock around, and now we’re caught up in it. And you know what? I’m practically drooling on my knees for it!

Why am I so fucking stupid? This is going to get us killed. Running parts isn’t ‘safe’ by any standard, but it’s enough to get us by and it’s not like I’m ever running anything I could get caught with. You need something moved? You call Zap because he’ll get it there. No questions asked, no delays, on time or early. I’m the best in Cavalisa, that’s why they come to me. I work for scraps because scraps are safe to handle. Somebody always ends up dead when we work for real money and that’s why I stopped doing it.

And here I am on the way to Gaston’s harbor, begging to get reamed by some giant stallion, and I’m bringing HD along for the ride too! We’ll do it together, just for a taste of that hot wad of cash! Goddess damn me for being this thirsty.

Still, we’re already acting like we’ve got this thing in the bag. We just got ten K in the bank, we’re taking a first class hover tram like we’re hot shit and eating a good meal for once. It doesn’t matter one way or another, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Might as well enjoy it before we all go up in smoke.

“This is stupid.” I took a bite of the fresh apple I bought and it nearly brought me to tears. Sweet, crisp, cold, juicy, delicious. “If this is gonna be the last thing I eat before I die, then whatever, it’s fine.”

HD put a hoof on my shoulder. “Quit talking like that! It’ll be fine, okay? He said you’re the best, and you are, aren’t you? You can do this. And I’m sure he doesn’t need me to do much anyways. I’ll stay out of the way and where it’s safe so you don’t have to worry.”

Dead inside, I swallowed and turned to her. “You are not that naive.”

Blushing, HD fidgeted with her little blue hooves. “Well…”

We were the only ones in first class. Plush seats, brand new terminals, at least ten years ago anyways, on demand service, food fabricators, anything you could want to eat or drink. Even a limited selection of real food. Grown food, artisan stuff you just can’t get if you’re not in the big cities. That apple was probably one of the few in SAST, let alone Cavalisa. Somehow, it felt nostalgic. And if this goes off, we can go somewhere where real apples are grown in abundance. We could afford it. HD can go to school again. Don’t know how much good it would do me, but I could learn modern mechanics. Maybe even prosthetics. Finally get a chance to really design my own titan. I always feel like they put too much emphasis on nuclear generators when magic generators can be integrated with the pilot and bring the reaction speed of the machine up that much faster. Something easy on us that can make life better in places like this.

We watched as the sea sparkled under Luna’s light. Makes you wonder what kind of power the CEO of AE has over the world. If they didn’t literally have possession of the moon, somebody like Chemical Language Industrial Front could really make a move for the world. So much magic, so much chaos in this planet. What I wouldn’t give to leave it all behind. And there she is, sitting right next to me. The bane of my existence and all there is in the world.

“What’s wrong, Zap?”

I must’ve been staring at her. “Everything.”

She rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh. Try to focus on something else then. Um…” she tapped her lips. “What are we gonna be doing, anyways?”

I thought about it. “Almost certainly stealing a titan.”

Her ears shot up. She scanned the car and looked at me with a worried face. “Is… can you say that out loud here?”

I motioned toward the empty seats. “Who’s gonna hear us? You think they monitor first class? Here? In back-ass Cavalria Island?” I tilted my head at her. “Hell, maybe you are that naive.”

HD groaned. “Okay, okay. I get it. Come on, Zap, lighten up, please?”

“I’m light, alright. Ready to blow my goddess-blessed fuse! You should not be here. We should not be here! This is stupid!”

She took a deep breath and clasped her hooves. “I get it already. You’ve only said it a billion times. So we’re doing that. Any idea why? Who for? What does this entail?” She paused and studied me carefully. I could see my reflection in her big eyes. I sure do look like hell. No way I’m getting a decent night’s sleep until this is all over. “Have you… have you done this before?”

I turned back to the window and the sea. A hoofful of clouds, the deep night sky, the last embers of sunset fading on the horizon, the turbulent waves. It was windy. Gonna be a storm here soon, and I would put down every last credit from this it’ll be here whenever we set out for this stupid, dumb, asinine job.

“Gaston is gonna tell you everything you need to know here in a bit. Order something. Get something stupid expensive, just for the hell of it. We’re gonna be rich or dead in a week, so it doesn’t matter what.”

Pouting, HD crossed her forelegs. “This protective older brother crap is getting real old, you know that?”

“Doubt it. Ninety/ten, we die in this. Twenty five is hardly the average lifespan for an earth pony these days.”

She punched my shoulder. “Work with me, please? Come on, if we’re going to live through this so you can keep this crap up for more than a week, I need to know what to expect! Straighten your panties out and quit being a baby!”

I shrugged, not bothering to look away from the sea. “Why? Falling all over myself and crying on the floor seems to get ponies what they want.” I stared her down. “Right?”

“Zap!”

Moving my half-eaten apple to the center of our table, I laid my hooves on it and tried to act out the future. “First, Gaston gathers his crew, probably ten of us including you, and we set out on a small frigate. Two, maybe three titans aboard. Can’t have too many, and they can’t be active either. If we’re getting paid this much, security is going to be top shelf.”

She perked up. “Titans? Are we riding them? Do I get to ride in a titan?”

“Good goddess, I hope not.” A shiver came over me. Having nice air conditioning is weird. Bet I could get used to it, though. “First person that gets shot when things go sideways is whoever is in the nearest titan. It’s not like Gaston has access to the top of the line suits from AE. We’re working with ancient Mercurys from the original Jupiter project. We’re talking fifty-year-old Bionic Titans. It’s a miracle they’ve lasted as long as they have.”

“A… Mercury?”

Rolling my eyes, I tapped the personal terminal around my neck and pulled up a picture of the old thing. Ten meters tall, ten meters long, three and a half wide, CLIF’s original Mercury I Bionic Titan, circa 2222. The progenitor of all those that came after it. And what a mean looking thing it is. Black elastic nanite steel coating, semi-organic fiber muscles on top of a titanium bone structure, shaped like the changelings that made it, save the single ‘eye’ filled with advanced sensors at the head. A horn for focusing magic, two more ‘ears’ to help it ram and demolish structures, foil wings that folded in like a betel. A giant, shiny black pony, the harbinger of the modern era.

“This is your Mercury I, the original BT. The story goes that the guy who designed this thing was high out of his mind. He believed the goddess herself came down and gave him the design. It was two hundred years later, long after he was dead, did they finally manage to construct it. Made to the original specs, this thing was a monster the moment it showed up. By then, the conglomerates had taken over the globe, but no one had developed a weapon like this yet. Something so fast, destructive, and small (relatively speaking), was unheard of before. It was so powerful that it almost made it to AE HQ before CEO Luna stopped it. Hard to beat an alicorn in practice, but this was the closest anybody had ever gotten.”

I expanded the image and moved to the semi see-through diagram showing the inner workings. “The CLIF-BTM1 has condensed plasma blades all over, but carries two guns that are incredibly low output, again, comparatively. When it was new, this was the thing to beat and it took the rest of the world a decade to catch up. These days, it might as well be a paper tiger. Anything can put a hole in it with relative ease, and most BTs can keep up with it. Others in its class can out pace it with ease. But because it was the first one and most standardized parts are based on it, they’re fairly cheap and easy to maintain. Again, relatively.”

HD frowned and put her hoof to the screen to move the picture around. Like a 3D model, she checked it from every angle. “It sure is mean looking. When you say ‘cheap,’ what kind of money are you talking about?”

“Twenty-million credits. Exponentially more when it was new. As far as BTs go, this thing is worth dirt.”

Her big yellow eyes got even bigger. “T-twenty… million?”

I nodded. “You need mechanics and parts too, so you can basically double that if you want to keep the thing running for a while. You find them in space construction nowadays. The only reason Gaston has his is because of their one competitive quality: speed.”

“Oh. Did titans not get much faster than this for some reason?”

I thought back to the first time I drove a Mercury III. Newest suit I was ever in and the only suit I never want to get back in. “Too fast. Kills the pilot after a certain point. It’s impossible to remote control something like this as well, since the time lag pretty much makes them a sitting duck in front of a live titan. And because magic is also light, we’re limited by how fast we can send information. Even with an advanced particle satellite, the signal can be lost easily, and broadcasting with anything slower basically renders it useless. Lots of money wasted on a big target for somebody else to shoot.

“Instead, they focused on making the ones with the big guns faster and stronger. There’s rumor of an AE titan in the works that’s as fast as the Merc IV and doesn’t kill the pilot nearly as often. For reference, the Merc IV is the fastest production model out there, and putting the thing at full speed for more than ten minutes kills the pilot 100% of the time. Forced CLIF to put a governor on the thing just to keep adrenaline junkies from smashing their insides inside one.”

“Eww.” She had a staring contest with the digital Merc I. Eventually, she lost and fell back into her seat. “How do you get in one of these things?”

I dismissed the static screen and found a video of the universal hatch system. “There’s two ways in. One hatch on the back, and another on the belly. Depending on gravity, you get in whichever side is away from the ground. You’ve got to put on a life suit, and then you hook up to a harness that sits inside a cockpit full of motion gel.”

The original cockpit was a big ball of monitors filled with clear gel so the pilot could see in the event of an input cable failure. Modern titans have several redundancy systems that don’t require any monitors, but the more experimental ones still have them for extra testing. I’ve had cables fail on me, so I prefer the monitor cockpits. Anything that can go wrong, will. It’ll be a miracle and a half if we make it to next week.

“Wait a minute…” HD grabbed and spun the cockpit model too. “Where are the controls?”

I frowned. “What do you mean? It’s the harness.”

“The harness?”

I pulled up a video from inside a cockpit of a modern GII suit prototype test. An average size griffon bulked out to hell and back, probably with enhancers, was performing a variety of close quarters combat techniques. The view from inside was just a griffon sort of still and twitching slightly, but the machine itself was basically doing acrobatics while sinking in and crushing the terrain where it landed. GII tends to make the heaviest suits on the market.

HD blinked. “I don’t understand. What’s happening here?”

“The life suit was also designed by the CLIF engineer. On top of taking care of your bodily functions and recycling everything you output so you can input what can be salvaged again, it also tracks your motor neurons. Your body is stuck in the gel because it keeps you in place and stops you from feeling most forces, like say going too fast and splatting yourself inside the cockpit when you come to a sudden stop—within limits, of course. The life suit, while plugged into the titan, will transmit your actions at light speed to the outer frame and it will act accordingly. To some degree, even an untrained idiot can pilot a titan. Since it takes over your vision and numbs your senses, your body doesn’t realize it isn’t moving, and because the titan is performing the way you imagine it, it all translates naturally.”

“What about flying for ponies that can’t? Or, using magic, or even shooting a gun! Ponies don’t have guns on their bodies.” She thought about that. “Sometimes.”

Miniaturized bionics have recently become a thing in the last decade. Prosthetics using titan technology are beginning to circulate around the earth sphere, but they’re mostly limited to the upper class. We’ve only seen it once because a bodyguard working for a high security facility on Cavalria had one. If it weren’t for the mini gun on an arm poking out of his shoulder, you might not think anything of it.

“Using weapons requires training. Using weapons on titans requires even more training. Sure, anybody can drive one, but to fight in one, you’ve got to already know how to fight. You can only control it as well as you can control yourself. It can be done, though, and it doesn’t take more than thirty hours to get the hang of it on average. Some people can just hop in and go, but they’re freaks who are made for this kind of thing.”

“Zap?”

I turned. “Yeah?”

She looked deep into my eyes. Past them, into my very soul. Like she was piercing straight through me. “Why do you know so much about this?”

Putting my terminal in sleep mode, I grabbed the apple and ate the rest of it, core and all. Real food tasted so good. It’s a crime that fabricated oats and hay are what most people eat these days. “Get your stuff, we’re here.”

Sighing, she put her bag back on and stood up. “Alright.”

HD led, and I followed after. Five minutes to ten, the Tram stopped for passengers to get off at the southern harbor. Stepping onto the platform, HD and I surveyed the area. The closest thing to middle class Cavalria has lives here, but off in a dark corner by the swampy edge of the island covered in trees and vines lies Gaston’s place; Blackrow Transit HQ. We ship everything and anything, no questions asked.

As long as you’ve got the cash, Blackrow Transit is for you.

There was a little dirt road that led from town all the way to Blackrow. Well, ‘town’ and ‘road’ are strong words for this place, but all the same, HD and I made our way from the tram out to the swamp. The trees, the heat, the steam that rises in the summer, everything went its way to help conceal the hangar dock over here, which is likely why Gaston bought the old abandoned building in the first place. Hiding BTs isn’t exactly a crime, but it would definitely make the local government look at you funny, which might end up as a report on some SAST officer’s desk, i.e. the last thing you want.

Of the four conglomerates, SAST holds the least overall territory and has the lowest immigration rates across the board. Agriculture is low because the total landmass is small, fabrication is in high demand, and much of SAST’s developments are aimed at space for some reason when oceanic tech would do wonders to boost their power over what they already have instead of trying to compete where they can’t. AE, CLIF, and GII can all fight over space. We’d do well if we actually focused on the right thing, but big corporate bodies always end up shooting themselves in the foot one way or another. In the global dick-measuring contest, it’s all about space and firepower, and SAST only has a little bit of both and far too much pride for introspection.

On the one hoof, that’s part of what I like about this place: no official with his head up his ass comes to bother you here. On the other hoof, we’re so often forgotten that it takes them a minute to realize we took a typhoon to the face or something and then consider if it’s worth sending help. Cavalisa brings in enough money to remain useful, so sometimes, we get it.

“Zap, are we going the right way?” HD asked.

I looked around. In the night with the dark trees, the low fog, the slowly dampening ground, the vines and the bugs, I checked for the markers I knew. I spotted one in the moonlight and then continued on. “Yeah. I’m sure if we wave, Gaston can see us too.” I had the terminal pull up a 3D claw so I could flip off the camera with it.

My traveling companion frowned, but moved a little closer to me without a word. The cicadas were loud this time of year. We went on in silence relative to the little jungle’s active night until, finally, we started to see floodlights. The wet mud path gave way to gravel, and then we were out of the trees and in a small clearing leading to a cave.

Just beside the cave was a little bush, and a suspicious clump of grass and vines. I’d rather not scare HD tonight, so I stopped and called out to it. “Garrod? Is that you?”

HD looked at me like I was crazy, but sure enough, the clump of grass got up and pulled a hood down to reveal a raven-headed griffon. “Well, shit. Guess I’m gonna have to find a better spot to hide.” He turned his head sideways at HD. “Who’s the dame?”

“She’s with me.”

“I’m Helium Delight, but most people just call me HD. Nice to meet you.”

I slapped a hoof to my face. “Don’t be telling people your name, alright?”

Garrod made a slow nod of his beak. “Oh… You’re the girlie.” He stepped closer with a curve in his beak, letting the outline of his rifle show itself through the ghillie suit. “What’s a pretty little thing like you doing with a gear jockey like him?”

Rather than him, her attention was on the gun. “Oh, well, Zap and I have been together for a long time.”

Garrod snorted. “Course you have.” He turned to me and asked, “Why you gotta be flipping off the cameras? He’s gonna make me move that shit now.”

I shrugged. “If they were less obvious, then I’d have a harder time finding them in the dark and the fog. Sounds like a skill issue to me.”

“Can you believe this guy?” he said, turning back to her. “Every time I see his ugly mug, my life gets harder.”

HD touched a feather to my shoulder. “Be in a better mood, please? One week and we can put this behind us.”

I rolled my eyes. “One way or another.” I stuck a hoof out for Garrod to shake. “You in on this, or are you just security tonight?”

A dark gray claw appeared from under the vines and shook my hoof. “Yes and yes. We all are for that matter, but yeah, I’m on security tonight too. Soon as we get paid, Blackrow is moving back to GII, and maybe headed to space. But, uh, you didn’t hear that from me.”

We broke and I pointed HD to him. “See that? That’s what a big mouth looks like. Try not to have one.”

Garrod shrugged. “Relatively speaking, my beak ain’t that big. You see Gaston’s friggin’ schnoz and you know what a big beak is.”

I nodded my assent. “The terminal really doesn’t do him justice.”

Not knowing what to make of us, HD sort of straightened up and nodded. “Um, sure, I’ll keep that in mind.” She blinked a few times. “So… are you guys friends?”

Garrod and I shared a look. “Does that sound right?” I asked.

He sucked air in through his teeth. “Yeah, I don’t know about that. I don’t hate his guts or nothin’, but if he was on the wrong side of a job…”

“Yeah… if he was down, I wouldn’t go back for him either.”

Together we said, “Business acquaintances.”

“I see.” HD frowned again. Not knowing what else to do, she looked toward the moon. “Should we get going? We didn’t have a whole lot of time left…”

“Sure, go on in. Zap knows the way. Couple of these assholes are late anyways, including the boss himself.” The griffon activated his terminal and disarmed the tunnel entrance.

“Figures.” I muttered. “Come on. Gaston has never been the punctual sort anyways.”

“Would that not reflect poorly on his business record?” HD asked.

Shaking my head, I started in. “This isn’t that kind of business.”

Deep in, the cave gave way to a big blast door, and from beyond that point, we’d entered another world. Steel panels coated the walls, lights lined the corners of the halls, and our little tunnel widened out to a three griffon-wide walking space. Climate-controlled, filled with the sounds of life, bright as daylight, Blackrow was alive and well.

We took the main path all the way until the hangar bay. It was about the size of a big warehouse, and if you tried really hard and filled every inch, you could probably fit about thirty BTs in here, with the average BT being about ten by five by ten meters, length-width-height. Course, building this place wouldn’t cost anywhere near as much as something like forty Mercury Is would, and most of the time, the docks were lined with goods ready to be moved out to their next location.

The back opened up to the sea with ten docks behind hangar doors. There were a hoofful of boats around, but the one we were going to use was on the bigger side. A shipping vessel loaded with freight boxes, or at least the appearance of it, all with official SAST tags and everything, dubbed, The Mimic. In reality, those freight boxes were just a shell with an anti-magic and anti-EM coating inside and out to hide BTs. It could fit up to six, but that was pushing the load bearing capacity of the ship. Even the old Mercurys weighed about twenty tons each.

I pointed it out to HD, “This is what we’ll be taking for the job.”

She took to a hover and floated over to inspect the ship. “The Mimic?”

“Open it up and you find teeth inside.”

“Teeth?”

I pointed over to the other side of the hangar where a few flying creatures were working on a BT. “Teeth.”

HD’s eyes went all big and she flew over to get a closer look at the machine. “What is this one?”

A changeling, black as night, shiny, and a little on the yellow side with a pair of glasses, stopped what he was doing to address her. “Hey, who is this?” He looked around til he spotted me, then reassessed HD. “Zap, who is this?”

I deferred to HD, and she introduced herself.

“I see. You must be the ‘second pony’ our gentleman requested. In that case, I’m Ligament, Blackrow’s chief mechanic. People call me Doc, Lig, or a combination of the two.” The changeling gave her a hoof and she shook it.

“It’s nice to meet you! I’ve never actually seen a titan in person and I’ve always been curious.”

Lig frowned. “Uh…” He turned to me as I caught up to the airborne creatures. “Is this a good idea?”

“No. But we don’t have another choice.” And that was the truth. Once upon a time, the Cavalisa Archipelago was owned by Equestria. However, after some kind of fallout between the royalty of the old country, Equestria shrank in size to cover what territory it reasonably could. In that time, pirates became the primary owners of Cavalisa, and that gave rise to crime and diversity within the archipelago. Ponies became less and less as pegasi began to leave while things got worse, and so only a few families of mostly unicorns and earth ponies remained here, if only because they couldn’t leave. Of the ponies who can pilot BTs around here, I am one of few. And even fewer who are of the type to work for Blackrow. To get somepony else, we’d have to import, and you can’t trust outsiders with money like this on the line. So HD it is.

Lig shook his head, then turned back to his machine. “This is a GII BT L-59 Grimgarde III. Though, as far as I know, we’re not using it for this mission.”

She looked it up and down. “It sure does look grim. What’s all the code stand for?”

“Manufacturer, type, model, name, generation.” I answered. “Glorious Iron Industries, Bionic Titan, Legion 59, Grimgarde third generation.”

And it was a big, tricked up piece of machinery. Heavy armor, heavy weaponry, this thing could stand up to most suits of its age, sponge beams like nobody’s business, and then return fire with excellent accuracy. GII titans always have a distinct ‘line sensor’ type eye in the head and a huge hooked beak that usually had a hidden weapon or two in it just for extra flare. Thanks to implants, most creatures can use their own innate magic like a unicorn could and then have it exponentially increased so that a BT could use it with a focusing horn, but GII always forgoes the magic advancements for conventional ones. Save for a low output magic generator, this thing ran almost entirely on nuclear power. The magic generator might as well be a spark plug, or a battery for the controls. It’s one thing GII still hasn’t found a way around just yet. If they actually invested into the magical side of things, they might beat out CLIF for second place, but they’re awful stubborn too.

“Why isn’t it coming?” HD asked.

“Weight, speed.” Lig sighed. “Of course, the boss is partial to his home country’s titans, but the reason they are never in the top brackets of the global marketplace is because they’re all so heavy and slow. While your average titan weighs about twenty-five tons, your average GII titan weighs about forty. This one is about forty-three tons, and because of how little magic is integrated into the system, the semi-organic muscles of the machine have a long repair time. If the muscles are damaged, just like how your body has to heal slowly after extensive use, so does a titan. And this one took a lot of damage in its last outing, so it will be a few weeks before its back in service again.”

HD furrowed her brows and looked harder and closer at the machine. For the most part it was covered in armor, but in a few places, the armor had been removed to reveal a very large muscle-like structure beneath, a hole here and there in the shoulder where the usually still shiny silver muscle fibers were ‘wiggling’. “So these things sort of… grow, I guess?”

Lig and I looked to each other. “Yes and no,” I answered. “They’re called semi-organic because they’re machines that imitate life using real organic processes. In a basic sense, each strand of muscle is a string of tiny machines that use energy to move and replicate themselves. The more advanced the machine, the better it can do these things. With billions of them all over, it becomes very sturdy as a unit, but if you were to cut it away or destroy pieces, the other machines would devote themselves to replication and repair instead of movement, like, say, if you broke a leg or something. They won’t ‘grow’ beyond their specified programming, so to speak.”

“Oh, okay. I guess nature really is our best subject to model from, huh?”

Becoming more animated, Lig hovered next to her to admire the machine. “Truly. It takes years to develop the muscle nanites that make up a titan’s body, but one day, technology will advance to a point where we can recreate these things in days! And with the growing prosthetics field, we may be able to replace our bodies with these things too. Ah, what it would be to live without hunger ever again. So many doors we could open if we weren’t so tied to flesh.”

HD tilted her head. “But, if we weren’t part of our bodies, would we still be the same?”

And for once in his life, Ligament donned a confused look. “Would we… be the same?” he buzzed hither and thither muttering those words over and over again.

“Doctor Ligma!” Somebody called.

Snapped out, the changeling fumed. “Call me that again and you’re dead! What do you want!?”

“I wouldn’t have if you weren’t lost in your own head! We’ve got a problem with the spine, I need you!”

Ligament sounded his irritation, but turned back to HD in earnest before he went. “You’ll be back here again, won’t you? I think I’d like to discuss that topic more another time.”

Startled, HD hovered back a bit. “Oh. I think so? Um, sure.”

He bowed, pushed up his glasses, and then moved behind the head of the titan with the other engineer.

“Zap, my boy!”

I groaned.

The big bumbling brown griffon flew heavily down the entryway hall, and nearly crashed into me. “You’re late, Gaston.”

He landed with a crash and panted for a moment before he caught his breath. “Yes, urgent business, you know? If Gunter not got shot today, meeting would be going now.”

I shook my head. “You keep buying these slow ass GII titans, and you’re gonna keep getting shot.”

Gaston huffed. “What you have me do? Buy SAST? No chance on life. Magic is expensive, and we have few pilots as is. Who going to use combat magic, huh? You? You never come when I call anyways.”

Gaston’s terminal beeped. After tapping it, Garrod appeared beside us. “Last VIP is in, Boss.”

“Very good. Continue watch. We need no interruption tonight.”

“Yessir.”

Garrod disappeared in a shimmer, and Gaston turned to us and motioned with his fat head. “Let’s go. You will want to see this.”

I sighed. “If we must.”

When the three of us entered the conference room, there were seven other creatures already seated. I knew the names of most of these guys, but there were two I didn’t. One griffon who had a ‘schnoz’ identical to Gaston’s but probably a hundred pounds lighter, and a hippogriff mare with an orange-red complexion. HD and I were the only ponies in the room, and I was the only flightless creature at all.

“Good evening, my fine friends,” Gaston addressed the room.

A changeling, much more red than Doc. Ligament, who went by the name Tendon, shouted, “It’s about damn time! You griffons and your sorry excuse for punctuality. You were supposed to be here half an hour ago! What gives?”

Taking a seat, not at the head of the table but right next to it, Gaston raised a claw of apology. “I very sorry, Tendon, there was complication. Eh, you see why soon enough.”

That’s weird. Something is off, but what? I looked around until it hit me—there was an extra chair. Unless Garrod was going to come in and lead the meeting, we had another guest.

The sound of marching hooves came from the metal floors outside the conference room. The door slid open to reveal Ligament leading a giant behind him.

“Right here, sir.”

“Thank ya, kindly.” It was a big, deep, booming voice. He took a step in and at once, I knew his dress. The phony military clothes, the long captain's coat and hat, the gigantic stature. It was the stallion from the capture. Our employer.

The massive pony ducked his horn to get into the room, probably used to more accommodating doorways. He was as wide as the obese Gaston, but there was no fat to be found on him. Though his long coat obscured much, his legs were covered in a tight suit down to military boots on his rear hooves. Crushing power in each step, the swagger of an authority figure.

As if his presence wasn’t enough, behind him were a pair of body guards that could both give Garrod a run for his money. One unicorn, one earth pony, both as muscly as an unarmored titan in black suits with black ties, and eye terminals to hide their faces. He bade them to stand in the corners behind him, then stood in at the head of the table, moving the chair out of the way because there was no chance he could fit in it.

He took his hat off, revealing a bright red mane that faded to orange and then yellow as it got longer, and a beard to match. His coat was purple, his eyes were green, and of all the strange things about this stallion, were the freckles under his eyes. As far as I could tell, everything else about him was a genetic jackpot. Freckles were typically seen as a flaw, and it felt so odd for somebody like this to have them.

The massive stallion stared each one of us down until, finally, he came to HD and I. He studied her for a long while like he was summing her up somehow. And when he got to me, he raised a brow.

“And what do we have here?” Not giving me the slightest chance to react, he caught my face in his magic and held my chin up in a massive gloved hoof. Forced to stare into his eyes, there was some hint of recognition in there. And, weirdly, on my part too. It felt like I knew this stallion’s face from somewhere, but I couldn’t place it. After a moment, he released me, then let his haunches crash to the floor. “I find your choices satisfactory, Gaston. I assume this is the pilot you told me about?”

Rubbing his claws together like a miser, Gaston nodded. “He is, sir. The very best.”

Tendon stamped his hoof on the table. “The hell he is! Am I not even here?”

Gaston glared death at the changeling. “The best pony pilot Cavalisa has to offer!”

Tendon crossed his forelegs in defiance, but didn’t comment further.

“Please, do not mind Tendon. He is prideful, but very good pilot too.”

The big stallion smirked. “He had better be. The task I am about to give you is no easy one, after all. Deep pockets are being emptied for this, I hope you all know that.”

Another griffon, our helmsman, Gerund, raised a question. “I have heard so. Gaston has offered a very large sum simply for taking the job. Is this true?”

In response, the stallion flicked his hoof and a screen appeared with the originally described amount of credits with 100K missing from the total. 1.9 billion credits“I assume the advance has already been distributed. You’ll receive your next payment when you launch, and your last payment when the job is complete.” He caught all the eyes in the room. “Do we… understand each other?”

Those who could retain their composure simply weren’t frothing at the mouth. For just an instant, I could swear I caught an approving glance at me from the big stallion.

As one of those frothing ponies, HD asked, “And, so, um… mister…”

“You may call me Comet, little one.”

She colored a little, if only because she hates it when people think she’s a filly. In truth, we figure she’s about 22. However, the press of money at her back made her ignore it. “Well, Mister Comet, what are we going to be doing exactly? I’ve heard a few things, but I don’t quite understand what two ponies were specifically necessary for.”

Comet popped his neck to one side. “As far as that is concerned—” Crack, he popped the other side, “—it is for me to know, and you to find out. For now, you should know that you will be in the cockpit with your boy here when you attain the object of your outing.”

He pointed up with a hoof, and another, larger screen appeared behind him for everyone to see. It was a capture of an AE base on Miyako or somewhere nearby. One of the Miyako islands volcanoes could be seen in the distance, but I wasn’t familiar enough with them to know which one it was. The view was from far out at sea looking in. It zoomed further and further until it was like we were standing in front of a base hidden behind a jungle. A titan flatbed was hauling something into a hangar. Normally, this wouldn’t be anything unusual, but then, one of the tie-downs came off and revealed the head of the thing.

My jaw dropped.

There were rumors out in the wild about this. The next stage in the evolution of the Bionic Titan was just around the corner, and Alicorn Electronics was developing it. The fastest neural link system ever created, the lightest frame of any titan ever made, and an entirely new series of muscle nanites that can replicate in minutes. Fast as a Mercury IV, but AE had done something to make that speed usable—or so they say. It was nearly unarmored, but the helmet of the machine had already been attached before they decided to move it.

A golden warrior. The armor of a relic long past, reminiscent of the ancient equestrian sun princess who disappeared over a thousand years ago. Even modern AE titans didn’t have the craftsmanship this did. Whatever it was, it was something entirely new. And yet… all the same, I felt like it was calling to me. Deep inside, I wanted to know it. Or maybe, I already did somehow.

Everybody here who knows anything about titans practically had their eyes pop out of their skulls. Tendon was the first to ask. “Is… is that what I think it is?”

Comet paused the capture and zoomed in more on the machine. “Yes, we believe it is. This is a capture by CLIF spies off the coast of a Miyako base on a small island out of the way from the rest of the chain. What is rumored to be the birthplace of AE’s prototypes had this new titan moved here and many of us are still scratching our heads as to what it could possibly be.

“As many of your looks noted, this is a craft of unique and original construction. The semi-organic muscle fibers alone have double the strands of a modern CLIF or AE titan, but by the compression of the tires on what appears to be a normal flatbed, it seems to be lighter than an unarmored modern titan from either conglomerate. That’s to say nothing of the art-piece helm it has going on. We believe this could be the Project Celestial.”

The hippogriff I didn’t know whistled. “So that’s the real thing, huh? Who are you working for, anyways? You a SAST guy?”

Comet shrugged. “Perhaps. What’s it to you?”

“I like to know who my money is coming from. I owe Gaston a big favor, and I’ll put my neck out for him, but I’m not about to paint a target on my head for some CLIF enforcer to come find later because I was involved with this.”

“A valid concern,” Comet assented, “But there’s nothing for you to worry about in that regard. So long as you complete your task—which, if it wasn’t obvious: to get these two ponies here inside the cockpit of that titan—then my power can protect and relocate every last one of you if the need arises.”

Another hippogriff, Heron, asked, “Alright, so we go, we get this thing, and we bring it back here. I figure if this is an AE prototype facility, we’re dealing with the tightest security money can buy, right? Any chance we can get in and out clean?”

Comet pulled up another screen with an emblem of the sun above an alicorn. “Normally, you’d be correct. However, the reason you’re scheduled for this operation next Sunday is because that day is, of course, an AE corporate holiday. Not a soul will be working on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration. The facility will be shut and locked, but quite empty.”

Geffery, our ship mechanic, clicked his tongue. “I don’t like it. AE is just gonna up and leave this place empty with something so precious in it? What else is in there guarding it?”

Another new screen, this time an image of a four legged machine on hover discs strapped with a few guns and beam blades on a box above a series of cameras. “Living staff will of course be off site, but the automatons will not. Our CLIF spy has obtained the routes of these automatons and there is a small gap in which the hangar we’ve pinned the Project Celestial titan is located. From 1200 to 1215, there are no automatons in hangar two. In that time, you must enter undetected, get these two inside, and from there, you simply have to walk the machine out. You will trigger the alarms of course, but I am told you have a ship with a protected hangar that can return to cover very quickly. Though it is a holiday, AE will have security on you in half an hour at most. While the rumors say that Project Celestial is in a class of its own, an AE Wonderbolt III will have you caught and blown to smithereens in ten seconds flat. You’d better be out of sight by then.”

The griffon I didn’t know yelled at Gaston in their language. Gaston yelled right back, probably saying something about money, and that calmed him down a bit. Surprisingly, Comet himself replied to the upset griffon in his own language. They went back and forth a bit, and that put the uneasy griffon in better spirits. Our third pilot, the changeling Sinue, asked what was just said.

Gaston answered, “My young brother Gallant here is concerned about time we have to do job. Three quarter hour is not lot of time, you know. Worse yet, Zap is necessary to get into facility while also one of best pilots. Will be running skeleton crew as is to keep lips tight, so chance of thing go wrong is high.”

“And I assured him,” Comet continued, “that a fast ship should be capable of making it to cover from outer Miyako without much trouble. The little intelligence CLIF has managed to gather on the Celestial is that it has built in hover plates on the hooves just like the Mercury line. Unarmed, the thing should be able to move at a rapid pace, land or sea. How fast has yet to be determined, but given what else we know about it, it’s said to be capable of speeds similar to or better than a Mercury IV.”

“On hover plates?” I muttered. “What kinda magic generator does this thing have? To make that kind of speed… I wonder if they finally found a way to go without nuclear…”

Comet cleared his throat. “As my time is running short, speak now or forever hold your peace. Y’all will take the job, correct?”

I had to double take for a moment. Everything else he’s said has been in perfect Equestrian, which, for better or worse, was practically the world language. That, however, told of a local dialect. Who is this guy?

There was a quiet murmuring, but it all died down quickly. Everyone had made their decision. And as stupid as it was, I’d been roped in too. Something about this stallion, something about this titan… it speaks to me in a way I can’t understand. I can’t place it, but I feel like I know him. And the machine… oh, what I wouldn’t give to meet the designer. It was art. It was beautiful. It was the future. HD could have all the money she wanted. As long as I could set her up and keep her safe, I don’t know what I wouldn’t do to find a way to keep in contact with this machine.

Gaston stood. “I believe company is all in agreement. We will gladly take job, Mister Comet.”

Comet stood, his giant frame nearly bringing his horn to the ceiling. He offered a massive hoof. “Then we have an agreement.” They shook, then Comet pulled up his credit account. One by one terminals around the room all had their accounts opened and another ten K was deposited in each. “Consider this your second advance, unrelated to the total originally agreed upon. I believe your man outside is part of the expedition, no?”

Practically drooling over the new balance in his account, Gaston absently said, “He is Garrod, yes.”

“Very good.” The massive stallion picked up his hat with his magic and put it back on, shading his eyes. Under the dark of his brim, they gleamed, specifically on HD and I. “Then I will see you again next week around 1030 hours. Until next time.” As he sang his last words, the green magic of his horn flared blindingly bright.

When we could see again, Comet and his two guards were nowhere to be found.

Unsure what to do next, Gaston searched around until he settled on me. “I guess this answer morning’s question. One hell of unicorn.”