Twilight had all the things she needed. She wasn’t entirely sure why the Princess had called her out to the Crystal Empire. She had told her she would get the second part of her assignment when she arrived. The only thing she knew at the moment was it was a ‘check-in’ but that wasn’t very specific. She sighed, the uncertainty could make her go haywire. If it was anything like the first time she had been sent out there she was better off taking nothing extra with her.
Twilight however doubted that it would be a similar situation or anything comparable to the first time they had visited the Crystal Empire. The only weird part of the message, aside from not being specific about what she had to do when she got there, was that she was specifically told to take Spike with her.
Her saddlebags weren’t nearly as filled to the brim as they were last time, but they were rather heavy regardless. Anything that fell out as they were walking Spike caught.
The list she had made to keep track of what she wanted was nearly complete. Spike as struck most of the items off the list. There was only two things left.
“Alright.” Spike read from the list, “Two extra ink bottles and... something to keep Spike busy? Huh? What’s that about?”
“Well, this trip could be pretty uneventful, I didn’t want you getting bored.”
“When has ANY of these expeditions we’ve had been uneventful? And aren’t you forgetting something?”
“No, I don’t believe so.”
Spike simply said, “Whoo... Whoo.”
“Ohhhhh. Riiight. Fluttershy can handle him for the week.”
“You don’t wanna bring him with us?”
“No, there’s restrictions on what we can take with us on the train.”
“Pets aren’t one of them?”
“They don’t particularly approve... and by that I mean they charge you a leg and a hoof for it.”
Spike didn’t understand, most of her expenses were paid for... well royally funded. Literally, Twilight could have anything she wanted as her original assignment in Ponyville didn’t say anything specific about budget, or expenses, or however much it cost to keep them in the library. Speaking of which, she made a few of bits from working at the library, but she generally put that aside for her own spending leisure. It wasn’t like she hadn’t spent a lot and charged it to the vaults in the past, like six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala.
“You’re paying for the entire trip aren’t you?” Spike deadpanned.
“I’m trying to show the Princess I can be totally independant from her.”
“Buy paying for the trip yourself? Twilight, I’m sure there’s a million other ways to show her that you don’t need her babysitting you. And for that matter, she doesn’t even do that anymore or ever for that fact.”
Twilight gave Spike a stare, she clearly didn’t approve of what he had said.
“But!!! I’m sure she’ll appreciate it, honest. But another question.”
“Yes?” Twilight said bluntly.
“Would you be bring me along if that letter hadn’t told you to?”
Twilight paused, she hadn’t really thought about it. “I would have had no problem if you didn’t want to come along.” That was a nice answer.
“And because I am here?”
Twilight sighed.
“Spike, if you’re looking to test whether I would have left you behind, you’re only succeeding in testing my patience.” She deadpanned.
“Alright, alright. Sorry, I didn’t. I mean, I.” Spike let his frustrations out with a growl. “It was an honest question.” He crossed his front claws and looked away from her.
Twilight had been very frustrating lately; she had either been up to her ears in books studying, not that that wasn’t unusual, or off planning other events in on her calendar. Now they were going on a trip and that last item on the didn’t even so much as hint she wanted to spend some time with him.
“Spike, are you... alright?” Twilight asked, as if nothing had been wrong to begin with.
“It’s nothing.”
“Who are you really trying to fool here?”
“I’m not trying to fool anypony.” Spike held his head high
“Don’t say I didn’t ask later then.” She said then she waited a moment, “We’ll have some us time later, at the Crystal Empire, if it makes you feel any better.”
Was it that easy to tell what he wanted? Maybe she had became conscious about her lack of time she had spent with him lately? Maybe she just thought it would cheer him up?
“That would be awesome.” Spike said.
Admitting her shortcomings was a challenge, more to herself than anypony else. Twilight enjoyed the idea of perfect, and wanted to push as closely as she could to it, despite it not being possible the closer she was to being perfect the less likely she was to not be able to deal with something unexpected. Even the Princess had been wrong, on more than one occasion in the past, not even she was infallible.
Trying to be perfect would only drive her OCD habits through the roof, which usually ended up in Spike getting upset. And seeing as he was the only one who had actually tried to reason with her during that fateful week that she hadn’t had anything to send to the Princess, he served so many roles as assistant, from mundane tasks like cleaning, to well, saving the day like he did at the Crystal Empire, his own opinion had been a serious help on more than one occasion. She still remembered clear as day how he said “Snap out of it!!!”.
She’d look at her schedule for this week, the second part of her assignment could wait a day. It wasn’t going to hurt anything, have some fun and relax with him before she got to work. If it was that urgent Celestia would have told her what she was supposed to be doing prior to the trip.
They left tomorrow morning, 7:00 AM train to Canterlot and then the 10:00 AM from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire. Before that she needed to make a stop at Quills and Sofa’s and then take Owlicious to Fluttershy’s, as Spike had reminded her. It would be an early night tonight. At least for Spike, he wasn’t a morning guy by any sense of the word. She trotted along, it was after 3:30 now. Spike had jumped up on her back, making the heavy load from the saddlebags even heavier.
“Spike, could you not? These bags are heavy enough as is.” Twilight requested.
“Oh... sorry!” He hopped down and kept walking.
“Thank you.”
They approached city hall, and Scootaloo went zooming right by them, she had a camera around her neck, which caused some ponies to flinch.
“No worries, not gossiping today!” She called out. Some ponies let out sighs of relief.
“Hmm, wonder what she’s up to today?” Spike didn’t see Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle with her.
“Yeah... me too. I gave her a book this morning, I hoped she’d be reading it. Probably another failed attempt at getting her Cutie-Mark. I hope the book’s alright.”
“I’m more worried about what she’s doing, because the last time she had a camera...” Spike trailed off.
“I think she, and the other crusaders, learned their lesson.” Twilight reasoned, thought that tiny bit of doubt came into existence at the back of her mind. She didn’t like what-ifs.
Come on Twilight, have a bit of faith. She thought to herself.
“Lets hope for everypony’s sake, you’re right Twilight.” Spike replied.
The two continued over to Quill’s and Sofa’s
Twilight giggled, “Oh Spike.”
“Yeah, this town falls apart when you’re not around, Twilight... But I’m sure it’ll be here when we come back... Whenever that’ll be.”
Spike turned around looking in the direction of the library. Homesick anticipation, he fought it down. Wherever Twilight went he’d follow, that’s always how it was. Whether she would have brought him along or not...
---
The sun would be up in a couple hours, so she couldn’t stay here. If by some miracle she had evaded detection during her descent, she’d stick out like a sore thumb is she stuck around until daylight. Samantha had to move.
First objective would be find friendly forces, that would be difficult. Long range radio wasn’t reliable here. Her radar showed no friendly forces with active IFF’s on radar, or anything on radar for that matter. Everything was dark, the sky, her radar, IFF’s, the radio, and the cockpit. Lighting on the display had to be nearly non-existent to see where you were going at night; ships did the same thing.
It didn’t matter where she went, just not here. No one was in the area to start with, other then that city and she didn’t want to find out if they were friendly or not.. Her compass said she was facing east, might as well go north, far north. Go far enough north any you’ll come right back around to where you started. At least this way she was ‘searching’ for friendlies.
Samantha plotted a course, north it was. But the reality was she would have to set down at some point, to pick up supplies, scavenging for them or otherwise. She’d stop at day break and set the bird down, bunker down for the day and then wait for nightfall. She had a survival kit, but no extra supplies, not even a change of clothes. All hidden beyond the co-pilot seat behind her; Although it was technically against flight regulations, she had bypassed the pre-flight check because they weren’t actually Kuritan forces, just hired guns, they didn’t give a damn. They were given an objective and as long as it was completed they (The person signing their pay-cheques) couldn’t have cared less.
Not that it mattered much now, as much as she could tell, the only dropship docked at the time of the jump was the Cascade; Envrio, the dropship their flight group had been redeployed from had left a few hours earlier.
Unlike the Cascade, they hadn’t been given bad intel. They were supposed to have launched a joint operation with another jumpship, the Geddes, to resupply the lines east of where Delta and Echo had dropped. Unfortunately, the dropship from the Geddes that they were supposed to link up with, a Union class dropship called District, got taken out by aerospace fighters during the drop, no survivors. Kurita pulled the op immediately until they could clear the way for dropships in that sector. What a mess of a battle, sure the supposed ‘last’ of the succession wars were over, but history had a really bad habit of repeating itself, especially in the Inner Sphere.
Samantha tried to sort it out in her head. 2786, Star League under the Terran Hegemony collapses, first Succession War to see who takes over leading the Star League. Houses Kurtia, Marik, Steiner, Davion, and Liao are left ripping each other’s throat out. Everyone targeted infrastructure, widespread use of WMD’s, billions dead, which in the end crippled most of the Inner Sphere’s technological capability, communications network blackout no one can talk to each other, and ended in 2821, not because there was peace or a cease fire, because of exhaustion of resources, if that ends a war you know there’s another one coming... SOON.
Second Succession War, 2830 the same damn thing as the first war, as if everyone wasn’t crippled enough, but you know, just because his legs are broken doesn’t mean his arms don’t work, lets break those this time, and that of his doctor so he can’t patch him up either that’s a great idea! Yeah, that pretty much summed up the second Succession War. Maybe someone should have realized that all of our knowledge was just going down the drain after that, NONE of the Successor States bothered to keep a catalog of anything. We say it ended in 2864
Third Succession War... 2866 to 3025, two centuries of people throwing stones at each other because no one had any idea how to make ‘Mechs or Jumpships, or K-F drives anymore, and we basically forgot how hyperjumping worked, but you know that’s okay, so long as we have a single jumpship left we can still go attack the other guy.
Fourth Succession War, 3028, Steiner and Davion merged to become the biggest superpower ever seen. It wasn’t surprising that every other house suddenly agreed to stop pointing their guns at everyone simultaneously and deal with this new threat. This new faction... this “Federated Commonwealth” say what you will, Steiner had control of it and Davion was just a formality though the two’s military forces were managed independently. Liao and Marik were suddenly surrounded on both sides, though Liao took the worst of it. The raids would never stop everyone trying to gloat the other into taking the first punch. Mercenary groups were torn between siding with The Federated Commonwealth or the Concord of Kaypten; a loose agreement between Marik, Kurita, and Liao. This conflict ‘officially’ ended in 3030.
And here we are now, a raid that was clearly done by Steiner, or at least paid for by them on Northwind when they, The Highlanders, chose to contract themselves out to the Kuritans. Steiner broke the Geneva Convention, by attacking their Jumpship, those were listed as non-combatants. Not that anyone really paid attention to that anymore, medics were high priority targets, the Geneva Convention was a set of good ideas that nobody bothered to follow anymore. Warships, weren’t covered under the Convention, but the Atlantis was an Invader Class Jumpship, a civilian model. A crash later, and they were here. On a planet that was clearly inhabited but never had never fully recovered from the Succession Wars, seeing as they didn’t even have Radar to pick her VTOL up, there were hundreds of planets like this after the wars.
One thing was sure after 3, now 4 wars, over the last few hundred years. Humanity was very, very, VERY, skilled at wrecking a planet. Healing... not so much... Outreach being a prime example... nuked from orbit.
Would the fighting ever end? Sam wondered, how the clans managed to fund such massive operations was completely above her. But then again, it didn’t matter as much, because unlike the Lances they were assigned to work with, her flight group was employed to the Highlanders, not the Kuritians, who had offered to lend a hand at throwing the Steiner beachhead of Northwind.
It was the least Kurita could do after most Highlander Mercs agreed to do work for them, which was Northwind basically telling the Federated Commonwealth, ‘yeah, go fuck yourself.’ . With the cease fire in place... for the moment, the most the clans could do was throw pebbles from a distance at each other.
Turning north, or what this planet called ‘north’ Sam throttled up and flew off.
---
“What’s his condition?” Red Heart asked.
“Stable, for now. He’s suffered a lot of internal injury. Both of his lungs were collapsed, seven broken ribs, four fractured, three bruised. Worst I’ve seen in awhile, he shouldn’t even have been conscious.” Doctor Cross said, “But he’s out like a light now. What happened?”
“I’m not entirely sure, I was on my way back from the Black and Blue Medical Convention when we saw him on the road. We stopped.” Red Heart explained, “He’s lucky he’s even here, it could have been disastrous if he had been left there until morning.”
Doctor Red Cross shook his head, best physician in the country. He had taken Red Heart as an intern years ago while she was in college. They would share pleasantries later, for the moment there was a more pressing issue.
“Did he say anything before he went into intensive care?” He asked.
“Yes, his name. And he could barely say that.”
“What is his name exactly?”
“Night Watcher.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, he said he’d been jumped.”
“As in mugged?” Cross asked, Red Heart nodded, “So it was an attack. I’m not surprised at his injuries then, I’ll have a officer called in. Your friends are going to have to stick around, this is a legal case now.”
Red Heart yawned, she’d been up all night. Cross had been up all night as well. They walked down the hallway, Cavalry General Hospital had the same paint scheme on the walls everywhere, sterile white with a different coloured stripe depending on the section you were in. It was going on 5:00 when Doctor Cross and herself had finally made it out of the intensive care unit, Night Watcher he had a respirator breathing for him and because of that they couldn’t put a cast on him yet. So for the moment he was pumped up on morphine.
“Before you go, was there anything else?” Cross asked.
“Yes, there was this ‘crater’ by the end of his hooves. I didn’t get a look at it, but one of the driving ponies did.” Red Heart replied.
“Could I please see it?”
“Uhh, sure I guess.”
The two medicine practitioners made it to the waiting room. All of the ponies that had helped Night were present. Red Heart’s father, who she was visiting while she was in town, both of the driving ponies for their cab, the superintendent pegasus and the pony that had accompanied him with the stretcher.
Cross spoke as he entered the waiting room, it was a relatively ‘slow’ night. Which in this case was good. The only the ponies present were affiliated with Night Watcher. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I expect him to make a full recovery, the bad news is I’ve been informed this was an attack, and you’ll have to stay because a constable has been called in to investigate the matter further. Lastly, I was told one of you took a photo, may I please see it?”
One of the driving ponies stood up, he handed the photo over. Cross stared at the photo. “Hmm.”
“Mean anything to you?” Red Heart asked.
“No. Maybe. I’m not sure. Anyways, please stay here. The constable will be here shortly.” Cross replied.
Red Heart took a seat beside her father, he pushed the glasses up his muzzle and yawned.
“I’m tired.” He said.
“Yeah. So am I.”
“When is that cop going to be here?”
“I have no idea.” Red Heart set her head tilted to the side against her father’s shoulder. After closing her eyes for a second she fell asleep.
...
“Hey wake up!”
“Ahaa, what?!” Red Heart shook her head violently, it was her father.
“You’re drooling on me...”
“Oh... Sorry.”
...
“Hey wake up, Red.”
Red Heart sat up before she cracked her neck by tilting her head both ways.
“Bah...” She groaned, “What time is it?”
“Come on, the officer is here.” It was the Superintendent, you’re next.
Red Heart rubbed her eyes with her hooves, the officer was indeed here. Wait, did the Superintendent call me Red?
“Thanks... and don’t call me Red! It’s Red Heart, Nurse Red Heart.” She snapped before, that was a sign she was tired getting up there was a clock in the waiting room, it was 5:45, and the pony that had helped them other than the superintendent was gone, he must have been interviewed already.. The officer was a unicorn and had a notepad with him, he was standing in the doorway of the waiting lounge
She got up and followed the officer out, they were just off to the side of the waiting room.
“Hello, Ms. Red Heart, I am Officer Blueshift. I have understanding you were one of the witnesses that helped a Mr. Watcher after an assault on him?”
“Yes that’s correct.”
“May I ask what you were doing out that late at night?”
“Uhh, I was attending the Black and Blue Medical convention here in Manehatten. I’m actually from out of town, I’m staying with my father.”
“Where are you from?”
“I was born here in Manehatten, this hospital actually. But I live In Ponyville. I’m a Nurse at PVG.”
“Did you see the attack happen?”
“No. We found Night Watcher; myself, my father, and our drivers off to the side of the road.”
“Did you notice anything weird about the attack, anything out of place?”
“Well, for Manehatten no... Wait, yes. There was a hole on the road at the base of his hooves closer to the alleyway.”
“A hole? In the road. Are you sure it wasn’t a pothole?”
“No, It was blown out, recently too, it was still hot. The rocks around it were still red.”
“Hmm. Alright, so magic?”
“I’d say yes. Watcher might be able to tell you more, but he’s going to be out for the next while. At least a day, probably more.”
“Can you think of anything else that might help find the pony that did this too him?”
“No. Sorry.”
“Alright, thank you for your time. I’ll interview your father next and then your driver then you can leave.”
“Which driver?”
“The one with the camera.”
Red Heart gasped, and Blueshift looked at her weirdly.
“Uhh, he took a photo of the hole in the ground.”
“Thank you, Ms. Red Heart.”
Blueshift finished writing something down on the notepad, then walked around her and simply motioned at the one with the camera, he got up and walked over, Red Heart went back beside her father. She was so tired, she might have to take the rest of tomorrow off, she could hear Blueshift talking to the driver in the hall.
“Hello, I am Officer Blueshift. Can I ask your name?”
“Padlock.”
“Hmm. Weird name for a driver.”
“I work driving as a second job.”
“Ah, I see. Where do you work?”
“Pad’s Locks, my own business.”
“From my understanding you witnessed the attack on Mr. Watcher, is that correct?”
“Well, yes, sorta.”
“Could you please explain further?”
“I didn’t really see it exactly, I was just taxiing Red Heart and her Father, Scope, back from the convention hall here. He was out in the road, near an alley way.”
“Who noticed he was there?”
“The other driver, I think his name is Pathfinder.”
“Alright, so from my understanding, you took a photo of this ‘hole’ that was by Mr. Watcher.”
“Umm. Yeah.”
“May I please see the photo?”
Lock took the photo out, he had gotten it back from Red Heart earlier after she had given it too Dr. Cross, for whatever reason he had wanted to look at it for.
Blueshift stared at the photo, the rocks were red, slightly around the rim, they were very hot, and the bottom of the hole was glossy black. He was scribbling stuff down on his notepad using his magic.
“Hmm. I am going to keep this as evidence alright?”
“Sure go ahead.”
Blueshift pulled a plastic zipper lock bag out of a pocket and put the photo inside of it before pocketing it again.
“Is there anything else?” Padlock asked.
“Yes, what is your current residence.”
“Here, in Manehatten. I live in Bucklyn.”
“Are you from around here?”
“No, I was born in Fillydelphia. I moved here five years ago looking for work, and ended up starting my own business.”
“And how’s that been going for you?”
“Oh, it’s been great lately, I got a contract recently with Safe’n’Sound Storage. It’s going to be a good business relationship.”
“Thank you for your time. That’ll be all.”
Blueshift walked back into the waiting room with Padlock, Red Heart’s father, Scope was still sleeping, he pointed at him. Red Heart nudged him a few times, and he woke up. He noticed the officer and got up without a word.
“Hello, Mr. Scope is it?” Blueshift asked.
“Yes, that’s is I, Dr. Scope.”
“The same Scope that helped write the Gryphena Convention?”
“Uhhuh. That’s would be me.”
“Pleased to meet you, Doctor. I’m Officer Blueshift, I am looking into the assault of Mr. Watcher. Can I ask you some questions?”
“How did you end up finding Mr. Watcher?”
“I uh, we were, uh. Well I didn’t find him, our drivers did.”
“And where did you find him?”
“On the side of the road, near an alleyway in Queens. It was uhh, it was just after... just after 4:00 AM, I was on the way back with my daughter from the Medical Convention they’re running right now. It’s here in Manehatten at the convention hall in....”
“Please stay on topic Doctor Scope, this could help us find his attacker.”
“I live in Queens, so we were on our way through there, when we found him. This was the closest hospital so we brought him here.”
“Alright, did you see anything unordinary about the attack.”
“No, just that hole in the ground. Did Paddy mention that too you, we found this hole near the curb by him. It was still fresh when we got there, so the attack had happened pretty recently, I’d say within the last, oh, half and hour before we got there give or take.”
“Alright, thank you.”
“Was there anything else?”
“Not that I can think of... but I’d recommend searching that alley, it was the one between, oh where is it? I think it was between those two apartments that look the same. That Superintendent fellow could tell you which one.”
“Thanks for the tip. You’re free to go. If you can think of anything else, please let us know.”
Scope walked back into the waiting room, Red Heart was snoozing on the chair.
“Hey, Red, wake up.”
She jerked awake, “I thought I said to not call... Oh sorry Dad.” She glared over at the Superintendent who was still awake.
Red Heart looked over, Blueshift had called out their second driver pony, he was questioning him.
“Just a few more minutes?” She asked, she shook her head a few times.
“Yes dear. Then we can go home and finally get to sleep.”
“I’m not going to the rest of the convention tomorrow, I mean today! Look, I don’t care if it’s 6:00 it’s not tomorrow until I wake up, and to do that I need to be sleeping. Whatever, it’s a Saturday I’m sleeping in ‘till Monday.”
“Any other time, I would take you up on that offer. But I’ve got a meeting in the morning.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“That’s today you mean, and cut it out! You know what I mean.”
“Cut what out?”
“Urggggg, You know what? Forget it.” Redheart groaned.
---
“Did you see that?” Ardent yelled out, howling wind muffling his voice, the visibility might have been low, be he wasn’t blind.
“Yeah, I did!” Ivory yelled back, his scarf flapping in the wind. Snow came halfway up his legs, the area labeled ‘The Frozen North’ wasn’t an exaggeration on the maps they had received after the Crystal Empire returned. Not much had changed in the landscape, but they still wanted to see the ‘new world’ that they had missed out a thousand years on. It only felt like it was a few days for them, Sombra’s magic was head and shoulders above anything they had ever seen before, “Lets go check it out!”
To Ivory, this wasn’t any time to be straying from mapping project they had been given. There wasn’t much to go on, they had a world map and were told, along with 9 other teams, to go start mapping the Northern Mountains, it wasn’t an ideal job, but not much was known about anything this far north. It was barely even hospitable. Ardent wanting to run off on some wild goose chase didn’t make Ivory want to go any more willing then he had this Celestia damned expedition.
“What was that thing?!” Ivory shouted, the weather here had changed in an instant, within 15 minutes of it just being cold, it was overcast, windy and was snowing like there was no tomorrow. What had been a three day hike for them to get out here would be at least a five day return trip, from where they were, if not longer. They weren’t even at the coast yet, that was at least another week away.
“I don’t know, lets go check it out!” Ardent’s voice was starting to crack from all the hollering they were doing. The weather here needed to be fixed, or at least, the Pegasi hadn’t figured out how to control it within the last millennia. A thousand years? It felt like it wasn’t anymore than a week ago they had disappeared.
The two had been one of the dozens of teams sent out to start mapping the Northern Mountains, this wasn’t his, nor Ivory’s idea of fun on a Friday but they had a lot of work to do. The Empire was a military power at its prime, but everything they had was obsolete now, so much to be done. Before they had left, there was rumors they were getting an administrator to oversee the catch-up project, but that was just what was going around... and it was wishful thinking, Cadence wasn’t the best at keeping tabs on a dozen different programs going at once, there was no way she could micromanage leading and updating an entire empire at the same time, it just wasn’t feasible for her.
It was at least past Midnight, could have been going on two in the morning, they had lanterns so they could see, and they had a compass to keep them heading ever further north. Ivory carried all the survival supplies, while Ardent had all the mapping equipment.
They were crossing between two peaks and the wind and snow were starting to pick up again, then the sky lit up like it was day for a few seconds. They managed to catch sight of the fiery object, it went over to the north east before disappearing behind another mountain. This place was treacherous. What could possibly survive out here for more than a week, even with ample supplies, it wasn’t an easy task; navigating was proving difficult enough.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?!” Ivory questioned, He wasn’t sure.
“It’s not too far, and it’s a step in the right direction, sorta. Lets go!”
“I’m not too sure...”
The weather was changing again, the wind was still strong but the snow was starting to die down, visibility started to return to normal again. Ardent could finally see a hoof in front of his face. The two set off north east, crossing between the mountains, it was exhausting but they had started late today, both of the had been out for the last three days they needed to cover the extra ground, in which ever direction it took them.
“Isn’t this the direction that Map Team 6 went?!” Ivory asked, the wind still refused ease and all the yelling was making his voice hoarse.
“Yes, it is, they should be about five miles east. Maybe they saw it too!”
“Well, if we’re already behind does it matter if we don’t get there today?” Ardent argued.
“Yes!”
“That’s not the answer I was hoping for. Besides, you’re obligated to follow me in which ever direction we go. We’re not supposed to split up, and I’m going to go check it out. It’s not like this is the first needle in a haystack we’ve gotten on this expedition!”
Ardent had Ivory in a corner, and Ardent was a very stubborn character if he was going north east, Ardent was going north east, and nothing would change that.
“Errrah, FINE. We can go check it out.” Ivory said.
“Yes! I knew you would...”
Ivory cut Ardent off mid-sentence, “Until daybreak, then I’m going North whether you’re coming with me or not! I’m carrying all the food remember?!”
“Well, let’s not waste anymore time then, lets go!” Ardent took off at a gallop, even though they were advised not to do anything more than a serious canter for extended periods in this environment.
Ivory sighed, before he took a deep breath in and took off after him, if only to make him realize that it was probably just a falling star, those weren’t uncommon around these parts. Ivory remembered from one of the catch-up classes he had taken after the empire had returned that it was estimated that 100 metric tonnes of space debris fell to Equis every day. So much had changed, all the crystal ponies had gotten a ‘free’ ticket into the future. Not that any of them would have chosen this, it was forced upon them, the question Ivory was asking himself now, was it worth it?
He bounded through the snow, it was crunchy, and supported the majority of their weight. He tried to run in the tracks left by Ardent as well as he could, but realized it was just simply easier to run in the untouched snow. The lamps they had dangled back and forth while they ran, Ardent’s flame went out and he skidded to a hault.
“Bucking... the door latch broke.” He said while he examined it.
Ivory stopped beside him, he was rummaging through his pack, “Here try some of this stuff.”
Ivory had pulled out a silvery grey roll, Ardent was confused at whatever it was.
“What is it?” Ardent asked.
“They call it ‘Duct Tape’, I’ve tried using it, I swear this has magical properties imbued into it.” Ivory explained, “ It’s one of the few things that makes me happy we were gone for a thousand years.”
The words sent chills down Ardent’s spine, he found it best just not to think about it.
Ivory yanked on the roll giving that satisfying Ftzeerrrr sound, before he teared a piece off with his teeth. Ardent had already reignited the lamp, it’s flame was being thrown about in the wind, Ivory closed the hatch and taped it shut. Ivory was concerned that the cold would stop the, oh what was the fancy word for sticky glue stuff on the backside of the tape? Uhhh... Uhhh... It was... Adhesive! That was what they called it, would prevent the tape from sticking, but the flame had kept the majority of the lamp warm, not hot just warm. Sure it would be a pain to add more oil later, but they had been given an ENTIRE roll of the stuff.
The two started off again, Ardent leading, he had directly seen where the fireball had gone off to. An hour spent and they crossed two peaks and three ridges, now going up one more peak if they had this ethic earlier they wouldn’t have been behind mapping the area they were given.
That’s when Ivory saw that faint glimmer in the distance, Map Team 6! It was them! They looked like they were on the move to. The snow had started to pick up again for the millionth time, Ivory slid through the snow, when he stopped he noticed Ardent still going, a few seconds later he realized Ivory wasn’t following him.
“Something up?” Ardent asked when he got over to Ivory.
“Yeah, over there.” Ivory gestured over to the east.
Ardent could see the light flickering but getting dimmer, being obstructed by the increase in snowfall.
“We should probably meet up with them. They shouldn’t be out this late.” Ardent proposed.
“And we should be out this late?” Ivory retorted.
“Well... yeah.” Ardent said with a smirk on his face, Ivory huffed in protest, being able to see his breath furthered his expressed frustrations to Ardent.
“Come on, lets just get moving.” Ivory took off towards the other light in the distance, Ardent following this time.
“So what’s the story when they ask why we diverted from our path?” Ardent asked.
“I thought you would have had one thought of by now.”
“No.”
“Celestia dammit, fine, just leave the talking to me then.”
Ardent got quiet after that. This was probably a stupid idea. He was like a dog chasing a carriage, he wasn’t sure what he’d do if he caught one. They were getting closer, the light was just starting to flick out because of the snow when they were upon it.
Ardent wasn’t sure what to think. They had found a pack belonging to Map Team 6. Nopony around to be found though. What was going on here?
Ivory tapped the pack, it shook before it stood up out of the snow. There was the missing pony. It was... Night Knight, where was his partner?
“What’s going on here?” Somepony called from the distance.
Ardent turned to the south, it was Zirconic. He approached the group.
“Excuse me, Gentlecourts. Why are you here?” Zirconic eyed them both.
“I was about to ask the same thing.” Knight replied.
“I think you both know why we’re here.” Ivory responded.
“Well that was cryptic.” Ardent commented.
“You saw it too?” Knight asked, “We were bunkering down for the night, even though we’re behind. They can’t expect us to keep the scheduled pace they requested in this weather. It’s too random. When the sky lit up only for a few seconds, we couldn’t see it clearly, it was mostly obstructed by the mountain range in front of us, we decided we needed to catch up and we’ve been heading north for over an hour now.
“I concur, I thought it would be best to give up, but if you’re here then it must have been more than just some random event.” Zirconic explained, “I suggest we keep moving and keep this off the record. You gentlecourts are welcome to join us.”
“You guys didn’t happen to see where it landed did you?” Knight asked.
Ivory thought about it for a moment, he remembered the peaks that the fireball had traveled behind. He looked north from where they were. This wasn’t it.
“Past the next mountain. Not this one the next one.” Ivory said, though he wasn’t entirely confident in his response.
“Then lets get moving chaps.” Zirconic looked up in the sky, there wasn’t any indication of where the moon was, beyond the snowfall were clouds that had refused to disperse since they had passed into the Frozen North. The Empire might have been cool, but they only got snow five months a year, but that was changed now, what was that place? Cloudsdale had covered them in this year’s weather budget; this weather here though was ridiculous.
Ivory sighed, “Alright lets go.”
Knight, Ardent, and Zirconic all took off at a gallop. Ivory followed behind at a mild canter. This didn’t feel right. He wasn’t entirely sure why. Space rocks, what were they going to do with it if they found it? He was sure somepony else had already done some serious research on one, in the last thousand years they probably found a couple of them. Plus the laypony’s terms, their explanation later would be that they stopped mapping to go chase a falling rock. That wasn’t a very solid foundation for a defense for either. Eventually, after a few minutes Ivory realized he was falling behind and following the first rule: Do not break up with your partner, picked up the pace to catch up. They had made it up another mountain side, this was the worst one so far, a 60 degree incline angle was nasty enough as it, throw snow on top of it and wind going in the opposite direction and you had the formula for slipping and going right back down, resetting your progress. This was one of the taller peaks, maybe 70 meters up from their last position.
Metric and Imperial, two very different systems. Ivory couldn’t figure out what he liked better, sure metric was base 10, easy to count, and their units almost aligned with each other, 30 cm to a foot, the difference between a meter - 39 inches, and a yard, three feet, was 3 inches. Rounding was pretty generous, but imperial was what he learned as a foal, they were redoing signs in the empire, and changing the speed limits for carriages... they traded one nightmare for another, when would the chaos end, when would he be able to sit down and look at the empire and say ‘damn, that’s a mighty fine empire’ and not ‘damn, that’s a mighty fine empire... IN PROGRESS.’
And another thing, these new weapons they had developed, who would have thought that instead of bigger swords, somepony thought of the idea to ignite a combination of charcoal, potassium nitrate, and sulfur and use the expanding gasses from those to shoot a iron ball out the end of a cast iron pipe, and then turn that into a weapon. Cannons. And automatic crossbows that don’t even shoot arrows; but instead bronze or steel darts called ‘bolts’. And all one had to do was wait for the spring loader to push the bow string back, that was now made out of a material called polymer plastic instead of whipcord from cotton or worsted.
All this new stuff absolutely fascinated Ivory, there was so much to catch up on. Was it still worth it? Being trapped up for a thousand years, weather control, medicine advancements, weapons technology, new magic. Celestia even managed to get the Zebras, Equines, and Gryphons to call a truce. This new world was fantastic.
You did nothing to contribute to that, none of you did, all this work was built upon the effort of millions of individuals, and here you are reaping the benefits of their work. Their LEGACY.
Ivory wasn’t sure if their imprisonment was a gift or a curse. Maybe it was both, but when you’re dealt a hand of cards and get a mixed bag, you make the best of it. And who knows, maybe this will turn out for the better.
The blizzard started to pick up again, even worse this time. What was with the weather in this region? Even if they mapped it out, what if this place was just another Everfree? Would the mapping really matter then?
Ivory caught up to the group. They had crossed the peak. Even with the snow picking up, they could still see the ridge they had to cross to get to the next mountain, another half click at least.
This whole mapping project was a mess, and so was the empire. Everything was just so disorganized, out of place. With all the work that needed doing Ivory was amazed they even had time to send out the three or so dozen mapping teams. And here they were adding to the chaos, how much had they missed, and when was the last time anyone bothered to right down coordinates to these peaks? This entire operation was going to tartarus.
A whiteout reached its climax so that if you were lucky, you could spot the lantern of the pony in front of you, with the exception of Ardent who had taken the lead awhile back. Ivory hoped he had a good sense of direction, else they could be running in circles.
200 Meters to go, then they had to climb another damn mountain to its crest and make it over the top. Everything was going as smoothly as one could imagine for a group running in a blizzard, while it was -30 degrees below zero.
Celsius, that was another new system, as it coincided with zero being the freezing point of water. What else was there? All these new ideas and ways of doing things started to pile up. The empire still used imperial simply because it was what they knew how to use. That was changing though, there was so much change going on he wasn’t sure he could adapt. But as they say, Adapt or Perish. Pick one.
Ardent came slipping to a stop as he smashed into a solid chunk of ice.
“Ooooowww” Ardent shook his head violently he had collided head on.
“Glacier on this mountain, mark that down would you Zirconic?” Knight asked.
“Give me a moment.” Zirconic replied.
“Now what?!” Ardent asked, “What the hay are we supposed to do now?”
“We go around genius.” Ivory said flatly.
Ardent looked down the glacier outcrop, it went pretty far. At least that’s what it looked like, the snow wasn’t as bad up against a flat surface.
“This could take awhile.” Ardent commented, it had been at least three hours since they started chasing this, this... whatever it was.
Curiosity. What could be the best and worst trait of any pony that had ever lived in the history of forever.
---
Of all the places she had to land, landing in the middle of another fucking snow storm had to happen to Lauren. Apparently being on Northwind, which a huge majority of the planet was snow, wasn’t punishment enough.
Her ‘Mech, a stolen Blood Asp from one of the merc clans, Star Adder, had too much forward delta v, and although she had managed to keep the 90 tonne behemoth upright during the ‘crash’, she skidded no less than 70 meters. She had smashed into a huge face of ice.
All of her ‘Mech systems were offline, and the fusion reactor was refusing to turn over. It just kept on making that annoying sputtering noise. Frost has formed on the outside of the cabin window within minutes of the smack down.
“Come on, come on!” She begged the ‘Mech to power up. The dashboard flickered slightly before dying out again.
“Dammit.” She thought as she smacked the dash in frustration, “I did not survive an Atlas just to freeze to death.”
Her cabin was well insulated, to protect the pilots from the radiation from the reactor, but it could still get toasty in the cab if the reactor was trying to provide too much energy to weapons. She pushed the button down to ignite the fusion reaction. The thing with these large ‘Mechs is that a cold startup was incredibly strenuous on the core, maybe too many systems were asking for energy?
Lauren unhooked from the harness that held her down to the seat. You could break the individual circuits to weapons from the co-pilot seat, instead of just shutting them down from the pilot seat.
‘Mech systems could be weird. Since ‘Mechs were designed to be piloted by just one person, but had too many systems to manage or micromanage by just a pilot alone, the pilot was given a streamlined set of control functions available to them for simplicity. As it was assumed, if you were in a ‘Mech you were going into a combat zone. The co-pilot display also had the options to turn over all functions to the pilot seat, which is what she was after. There was also the backup electrical generator to power electrical systems behind the co-pilot seat, incase the reactor ever went offline, that was what it was looking like here.
Lauren climbed up to the co-pilot seat, it was elevated above the pilot seat because they needed to fit more display boards to the dash for the co-pilot to use. But first, she needed power. The electrical generator concealed behind the co-pilot’s seat was nothing more than a bunch of batteries. Pulling the CP’s seat back revealed the switch to the generator. Lauren flicked it up into on position.
Lights in the cabin came back on immediately, as well as the vents, warm air started pumping into the cabin. Lauren pushed the seat back before sitting in it. She sighed, the seat reclined a bit before clicking back into it’s locked position. Power management normally wasn’t a problem, Fusion reactors could supply a near infinite amount of current, if they weren’t damaged.
Unfortunately, from the looks of it some part of the reactor was damaged in the crash. She wasn’t entirely sure which, because she couldn’t run a diagnostic of her ‘Mech’s systems until main power was restored.
Looking at the consoles available to her in the co-pilot’s seat. They looked similar enough to the pilot seat to use, but not familiar enough to know what she was looking for.
Missile guidance systems, finite mechanical movements, drone settings, that weird console that she had no idea what it did. Ah, power control.
Lauren looked at the console. Touch screen, that makes it simple. Break circuits to all non-essential systems. All medium lasers, and missile launchers. Both of the heavy laser batteries in the arms would remain functional, and all the machine gun arrays. Missile guidance wasn’t that essential so she broke the circuits as well. Firing without the guidance computers or a lock-on simply made the missiles go straight. So with some good aim, you could still hit something.
Jumping back in the pilot’s seat she flicked the switch to prime the ignition. The button labeled ‘Ready to Start’ lit up green, which was further then it got last time. There was something wrong in power regulation for sure now. Pressing the button made the dash display flicker while the not so appetizing noise of the fusion engine trying to turn over flooded the cabin. Lauren noticed the activity setting was still in it’s ‘run’ position instead of ‘stand-by’, resetting back to stand-by made the flicking lights on the dash glow brighter before the fusion engine decided to cooperate.
Lauren shook her head, “Oh thank god.”
She had never thought that the annoying hum would be the most welcome noise she had heard all night. She sat back in the pilot’s seat before putting her helmet back on, which made the artificial HUD that looked like it was projected in front of you, but was on the visor instead, turn back on. Damage report.
Both legs were yellow, not surprising, 90 tonnes hitting the ground and remaining upright while skidding... it was to be expected.
“ ‘Mech, run full diagnostic.” Lauren spoke.
“Running full diagnostic, please wait.” The computer voice chimmed.
The center field of view on the HUD was replaced with a schematical readout of the ‘Mech. While the computer was checking systems, it lit up the area it was checking. When it got to the rear torso, it was flagged red, the report appeared a moment later.
Central Power Regulator Damaged.
Cause: High velocity impact.
Effect: Systems may be unresponsive
Recommendation: Replacement.
Power regulation controlled which areas of the ‘Mech got energy and when. If it was damaged, all systems asking for energy would get it on startup, with reactor not being able to supply that much current on startup, everything browned out, and nothing started.
Lauren thought that was it until it pinged again, this time the center between the torso and the legs.
Torso Bearing Possible Damage
Cause: High Velocity Impact
Effect: Projecting difficulty moving torso separate from leg assembly.
Recommendation: Replacement
That... could be a problem. Great. Lauren sighed. One of the most basic strategies was circle strafing, now it looked like she couldn’t do that. Still, one problem at a time.
Lauren moved the activity setting from stand-by to run. The fusion plant didn’t wince. Moment of truth. Ever so slightly pulling the throttle into reverse the lights in the cabin flickered then went back to normal, she held her breath. The sensation of the ‘Mech moving went to her head as the giant red behemoth took a step back from the ice wall she had crashed into, then another step, and another. That impact sound of ‘Mech’s feet hitting the ground started to become familiar again.
Having backed at least 100 meters from the iceface she had plowed into, Lauren moved the joystick that controlled torso movement to the left. A horrible grinding noise vibrated the entire ‘Mech, Lauren pushed the stick even further. The Blood Asp refused to budge. Pushing the joystick over as far it would go the Blood Asp relented to the pressure and started to spin. Yeah, damaged bearing wasn’t even the start of it.
At least the ‘Mech would move now. Pushing the stick to the opposite side the ‘Mech stopped and turned the otherway, albeit slowly. It was likely that one of the motors that moved the ‘Mech’s upper portion free of the bottom had ceased to function entirely. Fortunately, a ‘Mech this size needed no less than 3 for the torso and 3 for the legs, as they could also rotate in either direction, free of eachother.
Her surroundings where just as depressing as Northwind. Snow, wind and cold. For someone from Epsilon Indi, where the temperature around the equator used to be around 40 degrees celsius, all year round, all this snow and cold weather was getting aggravating.
Why must snow suck? Non-stop? All the time? For the last however many years she had left Epsilon Indi.
The wind was blowing, but no clouds, yet it was snowing? Maybe it was white out from the high winds. But that didn’t matter, now that the ‘Mech was working again, what mattered was trying to find help. Lauren wasn’t sure how long the Blood Asp would hold together in this condition. At least the compass would work properly, sorta. Assuming that this planet had the same magnetic pole orientation as Northwind did.
Looking at the electronic compass, ‘North’ showed that it was swiveling all over the place. Dammit, magnetic rocks in the mountains. That could be another problem. Heading would still work through,
Heading 0 being set to where ‘Mechs torso was facing right now, increasing clockwise. Choosing to get as far away as possible from the crashsite, Lauren turned the ‘Mech to heading 180, opposite of where she faced. Well here goes nothing.
Moving the throttle forward to 45 Km/h, as that was as fast as she dared pushing the 90 metric tonne behemoth on ice or snow.
Thump. Thump. Thump
The shallowest incline which looked like it was scalable by the Blood Asp was dead ahead. Moving over into the next area and getting away from where she had crashed at was a good objective for the moment. No telling who might have been tracking any of them on the way down.
Lauren’s in-console radio was off, flicking it on just filled the cabin with static. No one was broadcasting. Figured she might as well start. Automated message to any of her lancemates, she hadn’t caught the frequency that the other lance had been broadcasting on, as they were both ordered to change once they had docked with the Atlantis. So for now, the sure-fire thing was to send out intermittent long range radio calls, if they would even go that far.
Up the side of the slope. Fresh snow that hadn’t been packed in yet broke off sending mini-avalanches down where the Assault ‘Mech had walked. At least there wouldn’t be any footprints from the ‘Mech when all was said and done.
While she navigated the snow-desert, Lauren sent out a wideband S.O.S if anyone was listening they’d come a running. For better or for worse. Better for her, worse for them. She had a bunch of guns on metal legs. What could possible do any harm to that? So what if the ‘Mech was a bit damaged in the crash landing, it would take a hell of a lot more to put this monster out of its misery.