Operation - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
“So, how exactly does this stuff work?” Nova asked as he eyed the strange material. The material almost reminded him of rubber when he looked at it, but it was light, like it had been made out of foam. And it didn’t feel like rubber when he ran his hoof over it, not quite. It was a little less grabby than rubber would have been, resisting his motions somewhat, but not pulling against his coat the way rubber would have.
“Do you want the simple answer or the complex answer?” Sky Bolt asked, laying out one of the sections on the floor of the armory. “'Cause the complex one is probably over your head a little.”
Nova rolled his eyes. “The simple one then,” he said, watching as Sky Bolt finished spreading the suit—he could see now that it was one—out. It reminded him a bit of the bodysuits he’d seen the Wonderbolts posing in, except that it lacked the Wonderbolts' familiar gold and yellow color scheme. This stuff was base black, seams and textures in the material giving it a look of its own. Here and there on the suit were points that looked harder, like the material was stiffer, with small raised discs rising from them.
Nova prodded the material with one hoof. It almost felt spongy when he put his weight on it. The suit shifted, part of it rolling under under his hoof, and his eyes spotted a faint glimmer of something sewn—or magicked, he wasn’t sure which—into the fabric, a line that faintly sparkled.
“Well what are you waiting for?” Sky Bolt asked, her voice impatient. “Put it on!”
“Alright,” Nova said. The back of the suit was open, an unzipped opening stretching all the way to the shoulderblades. He stepped forward, bracing his front legs against the opened and pushing his back legs down the suit, feeling the cloth slip only somewhat grudgingly past. His hooves stopped, pressing up against a rubbery material that gripped against his hooves snugly. He pulled the back end of the suit up, pushed his tail through the provided space and then reared back, testing his balance on his rear hooves. He could still feel the floor through them, just somewhat muted, as if he was wearing a thick glove.
“This is pretty impressive so far,” Nova said, pushing his forelegs into the upper portion of the suit and sliding in over his shoulders, revelling briefly in the freedom of his foreleg once again. A quick shrug pulled the suit up near his shoulders, and then he ducked his head through the opening, popping it out the front and feeling the suit settle on his shoulders.
A perfect fit, he thought as he gave his legs a few experimental movements. He could see the rest of the team watching him with interested expressions from the corner of his eye. “So, like I said,” he said, turning back and spotting a zipper in the fabric down near the base of his tail. “What’s it do?”
“Well,” Sky Bolt said as Nova tugged on the zipper with his magic, frowning as it gave a surprising amount of resistance. “Once you close the zipper, you’ll see. It’ll be easier to explain then.”
“Right,” Nova said, tugging a little harder and being rewarded with a soft zip as the suit closed snugly around him. Nova hadn’t been joking when she’d said that each suit was going to be individually cut, it almost felt like a second skin. The zipper clicked home and he released his magic. “Well,” he said, starting to turn back towards Sky Bolt. “It’s clo—”
He stopped speaking as his head snapped around far quicker than he’d intended it to. He raised one hoof in surprise as his head came to a stop, only to have his hoof come up far quicker than he’d intended to. He stumbled back, his hooves flailing as if they weren’t moving where he wanted them to, and he froze, holding every muscle in his body as still as possible.
“Alright,” he asked, looking over at Sky Bolt, who was snickering while the rest of the team was looking on with a mix of expressions from amusement to questions of his sanity. “Seriously now. What does this thing do?”
“Nothing too much,” Sky Bolt said with a grin. “In addition to being an attachment point for the armor itself, it also serves as an internal regulator. Simply put, it helps your body regulate the pathways of magical energy in your body, giving it a small boost.”
“So it makes me a little bit faster and stronger,” Nova said, carefully setting his hoof down and tilting forward. He could feel the difference now, an almost refreshed feeling coursing through his body. He lifted one of his hooves, moving it through the air in a complex pattern. It felt easier, lighter, as if someone had shaved a few pounds from his hoof.
“Pretty much,” Sky Bolt said. The effect will be a little less apparent when you put your armor on, because that’ll add some extra weight, but in short, wearing one of these will keep you functioning just a little better than normal.
“Huh,” Nova said, twisting his head to get a better look at the suit. The faint shimmer he’d seen earlier was more pronounced now, coming to life as faint yellow lines that glowed across the suit. The glow was almost indistinguishable, but he could see it very faintly. “Neat. Is it always going to glow like that?”
Sky Bolt shook her head. “I can’t even see it from here, but it will get brighter if you use your magic. Mine will glow a bit brighter when I fly or use other pegasus traits, and the same will go for any other natural abilities. Hopefully it shouldn’t be an issue, but we can always thicken the material in our next version if it does turn out to be a problem.”
“Well,” Nova said, lighting his horn and watching as the yellow lines on his suit began to glow in tandem. “I think it looks pretty rad.” He released his magic and watched as the yellow glow faded away. He shifted his head from side to side, feeling the scrape of the suit's neck where it ended just below his jaw. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it would take some getting used to. “So,” he said, looking at Sky Bolt. “What next?”
“Now,” Sky Bolt said, making a short, wing-assisted hop over towards the cloth-covered gurney she’d rolled into the armory. “We apply the actual armor.” She whipped the cloth back.
“Purple?” Nova said in surprise as he got his first glimpse. The armor plates were clearly a dark purple, flat in shade but with a slight gloss to them, likely because of the crystal they had been made from.
“Yep,” Sky Bolt said, picking one of the pieces up in her hooves. The rest of the team gathered around the gurney, Dawn going as far as to tap one of the armor segments. “At first I wasn’t sure what to do for a color, but then I figured why not go with a more muted version of your coat colors? After all, we don’t really have a color association like the other Guard divisions, so why not take that to its conclusion?” She flapped her wings, floating over to Nova. The armor piece was more angular than he’d expected, almost like it was an actual piece of geometric crystal rather than something manufactured.
“That’s a lot of pieces,” Nova said, looking at the spread of armor plates and segments on the gurney. “How does this stuff attach anyway?”
“Pretty easily,” Dawn said. “It’s the order that’s the hard part, or putting the pieces in the wrong place. The armor itself attaches at special points, like this.” She stepped forward and crouched, bringing the plate up against Nova’s side, right next to some of the small discs he’d seen earlier. There was a snapping noise and the plate almost jumped out of her hooves, clicking against his side and staying there. He made a few experimental motions, twisting his body, but the plate didn’t get in the way, moving with the fabric and staying stuck against it.
“Wow,” Nova said, raising his rear leg and giving the armor plate a push. It didn’t come off, in fact he felt the suit pull against him as he pushed. “How do I get it off?”
“The zipper is the focal point for everything right now,” Sky Bolt said, motioning for him to follow her to the gurney. “You might have felt it click ‘down’ when you zipped it up. It’s what completes the circuit that lets the suit regulate everything as well as activating the spell that lets the armor plates lock on. Unzip the suit,” she said, picking up a second piece and attaching it to Nova’s other side. “And the connection to the actual armor will weaken. Eventually it’ll all fall off, but it should hold on its own just enough that you’ll be able to detach it yourself.”
“This is some pretty impressive gear,” Hunter said, lifting one of the crystal plates and tapping it. “How much does this all cost?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Sky Bolt said. “And you guys really should be watching how I do this, because I’m not dressing you all up each time.” There was another faint snap as the next piece jumped into Nova’s lower stomach. “This all has to be put on in an order or it won’t move right.”
“So I’m guessing lower pieces first,” Dawn said, leaning in close as Sky Bolt attached another piece. Nova fought the urge to shift as the two mares stood close enough to his flank to make him feel self-consciously awkward. “In order to keep them settling correctly.”
“Yep,” Sky Bolt said, attaching another piece to Nova’s stomach. He fought the urge to flinch.
I am really going to have to figure out how to do this on my own, Nova thought. This is just a little too awkward.
“So how much was all this, really?” he asked, giving a small mental sigh of relief as the next bit of armor was attached to his side. So far most of the pieces so far had been pretty small, although he could see a few larger ones waiting on the gurney. “A rough estimate.”
“Well, how many bits do you make each day?” Sky Bolt asked, one ear twitching.
Nova shrugged, noticing that even that small movement was exaggerated. “I think ninety bits?” He said, pausing to think about it, since he never saw most of it. “Yeah, ninety bits a day.”
“Alright then,” Sky Bolt said, lifting the largest piece of crystal in her hooves, which looked to be a chest plate, although not similar to any Nova had seen before. “In order to just pay for the suit, not the armor ...” Sky Bolt said, maneuvering her way to his front. “You’d need to save your whole paycheck for more than a year.” Nova blanched, looking down at the suit in shock. Around him he could see the rest of the team suffering similar responses.
“Yeah, comparatively you could buy a set of the Royal Guard armor after maybe say,” she paused, humming for a moment. “Two or three weeks tops. And that might be pushing it. So yeah,” she said, pushing the chest plate into position. “Try to take good care of it.”
“But not too good of care,” Captain Song said, speaking for the first time since they’d entered the armory. “The purpose of armor is to protect you. If it comes down to breaking your gear or dying, break the gear. That said,” he said as the chest plate snapped into place, “try not to break it. Like Sky Bolt said, it’s expensive. Really expensive. Clear?”
“Got it,” Nova said as the rest of the group gave their own affirmations. He looked down at the chestplate as Sky Bolt stood back. It was angular, unlike the smooth, curved surfaces the Guard wore, and shaped differently as well. He still had full range of his shoulder.
“I’ve got to admit,” he said as Sky Bolt picked up a segmented and curved piece of armor. It reminded Nova of a centipede. “This stuff looks pretty sweet.”
“It’s more than sweet,” Sky Bolt said as she laid the segment along one side of his back. “You won’t find armor like this anywhere else. I guarantee it. Nopony has armor like this.” She turned as the segmented armor snapped home to find Sabra already handing her the next segmented piece. “Asante, Sabra,” she said, taking the piece in her hooves and attaching it to Nova’s other side.
“Now I want everypony to notice,” she said, pointing at one of the as yet uncovered connection points. “This armor may be snazzy, but it connects with the first connection point it comes to. Put it in the wrong place or connect it in the wrong order, and you’ll be starting all over again. Got it?”
The rest of the team nodded as she picked up one of the larger armor pieces. Unlike the others, this one was somewhat boxy, rising several inches as it moved towards one end, where a small recessed opening sat on the top.
“What’s this thing?” Nova asked as Sky Bolt set it on his shoulders, the piece clicking into position.
“It’s where the enchanted crystals will go when we get them,” Sky Bolt said, giving the piece a shove that rocked Nova from side to side. Apparently satisfied, she turned back to the gurney. “For now it won’t do as much, but later it’ll be pretty important.”
“Alright,” she said, picking another piece from the gurney. “Just three more to go and then you can attach the rest of them yourself.” She lifted one of the larger pieces, flipping it in her hooves, and Nova was surprised to see a rendition of his cutie mark on the crystal surface, the yellow and pale blue crescents overlapping and contrasting with the deep purple shade of the armor.
“That’s my cutie mark,” he stated as Sky Bolt attached the curved piece to his flank. She nodded. “Why does it have my cutie mark on it? None of the other Guard divisions have their cutie marks on their armor.”
“That’s for several reasons,” Captain Song said, and the eyes of the group, Nova’s included, turned towards the grizzled stallion. “First of all, the Royal and Night Guard have uniform armor. They’re supposed to present a unified front. Every so often you’ll find a border squad that has a few custom modifications, but for the most part the idea is that the Guard is supposed to share a common theme.” The Captain gave a shrug. “It’s the same reasoning that gives them the coat and eye enchantment. To make them all look like part of the same unit.”
"The second reason,” the Captain said, continuing as Sky Bolt attached an opposing flank piece to Nova’s other side, “is to keep a single Guard from being easily identified.” Nova’s eyebrows raised at that. He’d never thought about it that way, but it made sense. “A pony's cutie mark, next to his coat, is one of the easiest ways of identifying her or him. By keeping the Guard uniform and covering their cutie marks, it’s not only a way of keeping the sense of uniformity intact, but it keeps individual Guard safe from directed attacks.”
“Sounds like an ancient holdover,” Dawn said, her voice, as always, cultured with just a hint of a Manehatten accent. “I doubt we truly have much need of that these days.”
Captain Song shook his head. “Truthfully, we don’t, and the Princesses agree with you.” He paused and gave a shrug. “But traditions die hard, and the Guard have grown accustomed to it.”
“So if that’s the way the Guard do it,” Nova said as Sky Bolt dropped a piece almost as large as his chest plate across his lower back, overlapping it slightly with the two pieces that sat over his cutie marks. “Then why are we going with cutie marks on ours?”
“Because we’re not uniform,” the Captain said, stepping towards the group. “We are the Dusk Guard. We’re supposed to be identifiable, much like the Wonderbolts. So, when Sky Bolt asked me about putting cutie marks on our armor, I thought it was a good idea.”
“Well it sounds good to me,” Hunter said. “I like the idea.”
“I have a question,” Sabra said, speaking for the first time since he’d entered the armory.
“If it’s about the accuracy of your cutie mark,” Nova said, grinning at him. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Sky Bolt made sure it was perfectly accu—ow!” he let out a yelp as Sky Bolt kicked his unarmored leg.
“What did you want to know?” Sky Bolt asked, ignoring the glare that Nova was giving her.
“What color is it?” Sabra asked. If he’d noticed Nova’s grinning remark or Sky Bolt’s response, he was giving no indication of it.
“We were going to make it a faint mottled grey, dark-grey, and white,” Sky Bolt said. “Almost like polar camouflage, if you’ve ever seen what that looks like. Is that alright?”
Sabra gave a nod. “It’s fine, I was just curious.”
“Well if you’d like, your armor is getting made last, we can still change—”
“Ahem,” Captain Song said, clearing his throat. “Sky Bolt, if we could get back to the demonstration please.” Sky Bolt flushed red and turned back towards Nova.
“Alright,” Sky Bolt said, pausing for a second to give a small cough as her cheeks returned to normal. “That last piece was actually the last one. The rest of these can be applied in any order, although it’s better to have the other pieces attached first. Nova,” she said, stepping back. “if you’d come over to the gurney here ...” Nova stepped up to the gurney and looked down at the pieces that were left. “You can probably figure out what most of these are on your own, but if you can’t for now just follow my lead.”
She began attaching the smaller pieces of armor to the suit, and after a moment of observation Nova followed her lead, attaching crystal pieces to his legs, shoulders, and even the back of his neck. Finally, the last piece—a small cover for his upper hoof—snapped home, and Sky Bolt stepped back, a satisfied look on her face.
“All done!” she proclaimed, waving with both hooves. “What do you think?”
“I think...” Nova said, rocking his shoulders back and forth and then switching to picking his legs up one by one and flexing them. “I think it works pretty well.” He rotated his shoulder, feeling the slight weight of the armor. “I can feel the weight of the armor,” he said, flexing his body first to the left, and then to the right, the segmented armor on his back sliding over itself. “But it’s not really that apparent.”
“That’s part of the reason you have the suit,” Sky Bolt said. “Without the suit boosting you, you’d feel the weight of the armor a bit more. But with it, you shouldn’t be too bothered.”
“I don’t feel bothered at all!” Nova said, rearing back and looking down at the armor. “This stuff is rad!” The armor didn’t cover the entire suit, in fact there were plenty of several inch wide gaps in the armor pieces through which he could make out the black material of the suit underneath. But he could already see that it was by design, allowing him to twist and turn his body in a way that the armor the Royal Guard wore would never allow. “This stuff is amazing!”
“I agree,” Dawn said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“You don’t read enough comic books,” Hunter said, tilting his head to one side as he looked at Nova. Dawn scoffed, muttering something under her breath that Nova couldn’t make out.
“Well, I can’t take all the credit for it,” Sky Bolt said, her wide grin showing that she was clearly enjoying the praise. “Craft and his team worked out a lot of the fine details, I just came up with the concept and got the materials figured out.”
“Well then,” Captain Song said, his eyes running over the armor. “I think I should compliment them personally.” He gave his head a small shake. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“So,” Dawn asked as Nova continued to stretch, growing more used to the feel of the armor by the second. “What sort of advantages does this offer over traditional armor aside from the obvious mobility advantage and the aforementioned increase to our own abilities?”
“It resists and reflects magic,” Nova said before Sky Bolt could answer. “Try and pick up one of the armor plates with your telekinesis and you’ll see what I mean.”
“Won’t that make it difficult for me to perform my medical responsibilities?” Dawn asked with a frown.
Sky Bolt shook her head. “The crystal is resistant, but not impervious. Besides, you could always remove it or put your magic through the gaps.”
“What about helmets?” Captain Song asked. “When will they be ready?”
“Not for another few days unfortunately,” Sky Bolt said, looking chagrined. “Sorry boss, but there’s some extra work that has to be done with those that’s going to take some time.”
“Cool, cool,” Nova said. His grin felt so wide it must have stretched from one side of his face to the other. “Now can I go play with this stuff out on the training field?” He bounced on his front hooves, feeling the concrete floor through the rubber-like covering. “I can’t wait to try this stuff out during a capture the flag game.” He saw Hunter’s eyes widen at the mention of the idea.
“Hey, yeah!” Hunter said, a wide grin growing across his face as he turned to Sky Bolt. “You said I was next, right kid? Well let’s get me geared up!”
“Alright, your stuff's under the cloth on the other side of the—” Sky Bolt stopped speaking as Hunter whipped the cloth off and began climbing into his bodysuit without even pulling it from the gurney. Dawn walked up next to her, and Nova could see her rolling her eyes.
“Like a foal at Hearth's Warming,” Nova heard her say to Sky Bolt. Nova rolled his eyes. She’ll be just as excited when she gets her own set, he thought, lighting his horn and watching the lines on his suit glow again. Now hurry up and get your gear on, Hunter! I want to go test this stuff out!
“Equestria to Nova!” Nova snapped his attention back as Sky Bolt waved a hoof in front of him. “Listen up, out of the gear.”
“Wait, out?” Nova asked, stepping back. “I haven’t even had a chance to try it out yet!”
“You’ll get your chance,” Captain Song called towards him. “But first you need to prove that you can take that gear off and on as well as rack it.” He waved a hoof towards one of the lockers on the far wall and Nova groaned.
“Alright, alright,” he said, taking another quick look over at Hunter, who seemed to have gotten his wings tangled in his suit. “Hey, Hunter!” he called. The tan pegasus turned, almost falling on his side as his legs caught on the suit, one wing popping out to try and stabilize the stallion. “You might want to take your hat off before you get too far,” Nova said, grinning. “And even then, I’ll bet I can get this off and on again before you get yours on!”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “You’re on, kid!” Hunter turned back to his suit, pushing his shoulders through the legs despite Sky Bolt’s sudden cry of alarm—and promptly fell on his side with a thud. Nova snickered as he slid the zipper back with his magic. This’ll be a piece of cake.
* * *
"Alright, now you’ve both had a little bit of practice with this stuff,” Steel said as the team listened intently. “Although,” he said, his eyes flickering to Hunter for a moment. “I think some of you might need a bit more practice than others.”
“I don’t normally wear clothes, okay?” Hunter said, and Sky Bolt fought to suppress a snicker as the stallion pulled his hat low over his face. “Let’s just drop it and move on, ‘right?” Sky Bolt fought another snicker. By the time they’d managed to get Hunter into his suit, Nova had already been halfway through putting his armor back on. It was a good thing Hunter hadn’t made any kind of bet on Nova’s challenge or he would have lost. Then again, she reflected, he might have learned his lesson at the dinner. Dawn was still irate at him for that.
“Anyway,” Steel said, drawing the group's eyes back to him. “I want all of you to get some rest tonight, even you Sky Bolt,” he said, pointing right at her. “The teams you have in there are competent enough to handle anything that goes on, and anything they can’t you can help them with tomorrow morning. Clear?”
She nodded, suppressing a shiver at the thought of ponies other than her messing with The Hummingbird. I’ll have to go make sure that the sides are off limits, she thought. I don’t want any of them messing with the superboilers.
“Now, as for the rest of you, the evening is now your own. You can practice, get dinner, whatever you feel you need to do. However, tomorrow morning will be business as usual. The ERS meeting isn’t until noon. Yes, Sabra?”
Sky Bolt’s eyes slid towards Sabra as he spoke up. “Earlier you said that two members of the team would be present.” He tilted his head as his eyes ran over the group. Was it her imagination or had his eyes stopped on her for just a brief moment? She shook her head as he turned back towards the captain. Focus, she needed to keep her focus. Or sleep. Maybe sleep would help. Her thoughts shifted towards the item in her saddlebags. There was also that.
“Which two members of the team do you desire to be present?” Sabra said, earning a nod from Steel.
“A valid question,” Steel said. “First Lieutenant Hunter will be the ranking officer, as for the second, it can be any of you.” His eyes ran over the small group. “Any volunteers?”
“I’ll do it.” Nova said, and Sky Bolt looked over in surprise. Nova was volunteering? Her eyes darted back to Steel, who was nodding with a satisfied look on his face.
“Alright,” Steel said. “Be there, with Lieutenant Hunter, in dress uniform, before it starts.”
“Wait, dress uniform?” Nova asked, looking disappointed. “Not the armor? Sky Bolt hid a smile behind her hoof. So that was why he’d volunteered.
“No armor,” Steel said. From the look of things, he was trying to hold back a chuckle as well. “We’re only there at my request, and the last thing we want to do is send the impression that we’re expecting one of the board members to be attacked at any moment.”
Nova sighed. “Fine, right. No armor, got it.”
“Alright, then dismissed, I’ll see you all tomorrow morning.” Steel said. Sky Bolt saluted along with the rest of the team, Steel returning the salute and heading for the door.
This is it! Sky Bolt thought as the team began to break up. Nova was out the door almost immediately, Hunter close behind. The perfect chance!
“Hey, Sabra,” she said, catching the zebra’s attention. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Sabra turned from the door, the same calm, serene expression he always seemed to wear on his face. “Ndiyo, Sky Bolt?” The last members of the team left the armory, Dawn giving them a backward glance as she left.
“I—uh.” She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. “Naweza kuwa na ... kipaji kwa … ajili yenu,” she said. I have a gift for you. “Je, wewe … karibu na macho yako?” Sabra closed his eyes and she smiled. She was speaking Zebra well enough that he’d understood her request.
“Kushikilia mikono yako,” she said as she turned her head to the side and opened her saddlebags, pulling out the gift she’d made for him.
Sabra sat back, holding out his front hooves. “Ujuzi wako na lugha imeboresha,” he said, the words flowing much more smoothly than her own stammered attempts.
“Asante,” Sky Bolt said, blushing slightly. At least that one was easy. She leaned her head forward, dropping her gift into his hooves. “Alright,” she said, switching back to Equestrian. “Take a look.” Sabra complied, looking down at the small, inch-and-a-half thick metal rod that she had just placed in his hooves.
“What is it?” Sabra asked, tilting it in his hooves. Sky Bolt smiles as she saw that her estimates had been correct. Folded as it was, the rod was about the width of his shoulders.
“Point the ends away from you and twist it,” she said, smiling and backing up slightly. Sabra followed her instructions, pointing the ends of the rod to either side and twisting it between his black hooves.
There was a sharp snap and both ends of the rod shot out, tripling the metal rod's length. Sabra looked at it in surprise for a moment and then gave it an experimental toss. The staff jumped lightly in his hooves, flexing just a tiny bit as it landed back in his hoof. “Is this ...?” he began to ask. Sky Bolt nodded.
“It’s a new fimbo,” she said, smiling at him. “I figured that if you made another bamboo one it would just get broken again, so I sketched out an idea and put something together. It’s not entirely my work,” she said, idly pawing one hoof against the ground. “I tracked down Princess Luna to do some magic on it, so I kind of owe her a favor now, but it's the same size and weight as your last staff, and you can fold it, so—”
“Asante,” Sabra said, and leaned forward, wrapping one of his legs around her shoulders in a quick hug. Sky Bolt froze at the contact, unsure of what she should do, and then it was gone, Sabra pulling back and settling himself on his haunches once more. “Asante sana.”
“Wewe ni kuwakaribisha,” Sky Bolt said, the practiced phrase falling from her lips much easier than her earlier statements. “I knew you liked having one,” she said, switching back to Equestrian. “I hope I got the length right. I even textured the metal with a bit of a grain so it’d feel more like your staff did.”
Sabra gave the metal fimbo a few experimental spins, the tip swirling through the air with a faint rush of air. “It’s perfect,” he said, rolling it from one hoof to the other and snapping it off the floor with a couple of sharp cracks. He flicked one of his hooves, and the staff came to an abrupt stop, its ends quivering slightly. He looked at it for a moment.
“How do I fold it?” he asked, his eyes running up and down the length of the staff.
“You twist the center piece again,” Sky Bolt said, reaching over and placing her hooves next to his on the staff. “But you have to pull it out and twist it, then push it back in, like this.” She twisted her hooves in opposite directions, feeling the mechanics of the rod resist her pull. She gave it a little more force, and then a little more … and with another snap the two ends of the staff slid back into the center, leaving her and Sabra holding the smaller sized staff once more.
“Ajabu,” Sabra said softly, staring at the staff. Sky Bolt pulled her hooves back.
“I’m glad you like it,” she said, tossing her head to one side and giving him a smile, “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to do for the rest of the evening?”
“I was planning on going to my quarters to meditate and reflect,” Sabra said, threading the shortened staff through the strap on his saddlebags.
“Really?” Sky Bolt pulled her head back. “That’s it? Want to do something else?”
“Like what?” Sabra asked, the staff secure on his back.
“Like go to a club or something,” Sky Bolt said, giving the zebra her best smile. “Have some fun! That place we rescued from the golem gave us standing invitations, and I hear Vinyl Scratch will be performing there tonight,” she said, dragging the last word out and tilting her head to one side while raising her eyebrows. Sabra was giving her a look she recognized all too well from her school years now, a look of slight panic that meant he had absolutely no idea what to do. That worked fine. She did.
“Come on,” she coaxed. “Aren’t you looking to find out what life is?” She saw his ears perk up at that, she’d caught his attention. “Why don’t you come with me and try a little of mine? It’ll be fun, I promise!” she tilted her head back in the other direction, giving her sky blue mane a chance to sweep back across her neck. Her move had been made and now ...
“Ndiyo,” Sabra said. “Of course, why not?” Sky bolt gave him a wide smile.
“Well then come on!” she called, trotting past him and giving her head a little toss. “You can drop your stuff off at your quarters while I get ready!”
“What about your workshop?” Sabra asked as he trotted after her.
Sky Bolt rolled her eyes. “Steel’s totally right, those guys can handle it.” Besides, she added mentally. I’m totally doing something way more important.
Five minutes later, with her mane and coat cleaned, and quite a bit freshened up, she led Sabra out the door of the barracks and towards the Canterlot nightlife.
* * *
Hunter looked up from the common room table as Sky Bolt and Sabra left the barracks, the energetic young pegasus nearly pulling the young zebra behind her, and grinned as the door slammed shut behind the pair. Poor kid looks like he’s not sure if he’s being taken to be executed or exemplified, Hunter thought as he looked back down at his pile of mail.
He’d been so busy over the last few days between the golem and making sure the team was in shape, he hadn’t even bothered to check his personal mailbox. Then he’d wanted to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything with the Guard reports before he’d gotten to his own stuff, just in case there was anything important that they’d found over the last little bit.
Ultimately after sifting through the entire pile which, despite his requests for more concise reports, had still been a fairly large stack, only three key points had stood out. The first was that not a single theft had occurred since the Guard had seized the golem shipments, which wasn’t too surprising. The second was that they still had yet to make any headway with any of the warehouses they’d staked out. Even the warehouse on Palomine Street in Baltimare, the closest origin they had of the entire operation, had been swept and examined from every angle, and turned up nothing.
The third was a little more vital. The Guard had successfully taken apart the other two golems, as well as recovered one more, and in the process of disassembling the third had discovered that the battery crystals were in fact, volatile as they had suspected. A technician had dropped one, and the resulting crack had led to a bang that had put three of the researchers in the hospital, though none with serious injuries thanks to the quick-thinking actions of a nearby Guard.
Hunter nodded in appreciation as he put the last bit of paper down. Exploding crystals, now that was something that could prove useful to know. If nothing else, if they ran into a few more golems, they’d know what to watch out for. Thinking back to the blast of thunder he’d given the first golem, it’d probably been pure luck that the bolt hadn’t upset the battery crystal and blown the thing apart.
He shook his head and picked up the small stack of mail with his hooves, flipping through it to see what caught his eye. Most of it was exactly what he’d expected. A few envelopes from the Rangers, most of it stuff he could look at later. A wilderness magazine he’d been subscribing to for years that always had excellent articles and had a head editor that happened to be one of his old mentors.
The next envelope caught his eye and Hunter dropped the rest of the stack without going further. The postmark was from Ponyville, but that wasn’t what had caught his attention. Instead it was the faintly scrawled name on the return address, a name that had been painstakingly written in pen with several smudges and one crossed out error.
Dinky Doo. Hunter smiled wide as he peeled the top of the envelope back with his teeth. A few pieces of folded paper fell into his waiting hoof, and he carefully unfolded them on the surface of the table.
The first piece of paper was a letter. A short letter, with a few misspelled words written in large, simple print. It was short but sweet, telling him about how she was getting better with her magic and would be starting school soon, which she was excited for. It also mentioned Thistle by name, which made Hunter smile. Apparently Derpy hadn’t been too shy about what she’d arranged a few weeks earlier.
There was a PS as well, letting him know that while she was glad he was off protecting ponies, she wanted him to visit again because she missed him. He smile again when he read it, making a mental note to make a trip to Ponyville as soon as the case with the golems either stabilized or was resolved.
He flipped through the other two pages that Dinky had sent, smiling as the first one turned out to be a crayon drawing of her and her Mom baking together. Hunter grinned as he looked at the drawing. He hadn’t been able to make art look that good when he’d been a teen, and here Dinky was outdoing him with crayons. Her spelling may have needed a little work, but he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she’d gotten a cutie mark in art in a few years.
Hunter flipped to the second picture and let out a shocked laugh. It was quite clearly a picture of him and Thistle cuddled together on a bench in Ponyville with little hearts floating above their heads. He shook his head in amazement as he looked down at the picture, letting out another laugh, this one a bit longer. That kid’s definitely her mother's daughter, he thought. Just as much of a romantic. He chuckled again. From time to time he wished that he’d been able to see Derpy as more than a friend; she was a wonderful mare after all, and a devoted mother. But he’d met her too soon after Swift Wing had passed, and it had just never been on the table.
He gave his head one final, amused shake as he looked down at the picture. Once again he had to admit that it was a pretty good depiction, although Thistle was just a tad off. Dinky apparently wasn’t as familiar with the mare. Her coat's a bit lighter shade than that, he thought, and her cutie mark is a bit lower, her plot isn’t really that big. He felt his ears perk up as he caught up with his thoughts. Was he really thinking that?
He took one last look at the picture before folding it gently with the rest of Dinky’s note and sliding it back into the envelope. He had to admit, an afternoon with Thistle in Ponyville did sound like fun. Maybe not the way Dinky had envisioned it, after all she was just a friend. But it would be nice to spend some time showing her around the town, visit Dinky and maybe even fly out to show her the Ranger station in the Everfree.
He set the envelope aside and turned to the last bit of mail in the pile: a Baltimare postcard. Unlike the letter from Dinky, the writing one this was smooth and flowing, written by a careful hoof. Or in this case, he realized as he saw the name it was signed in, a careful paw.
Hey Buddy! the note began. Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know I’ll be in Canterlot this week. The bosses are coming in for some board meeting. Something to do with the future of the Equestrian Railway or whatever, I’m not really sure. They don’t pay me to care much about that. Anyway, they’re going to be attending some big head honcho meeting with your Princesses while they’re there, so I was wondering if you wanted to chill and catch up, since we didn’t get a chance to at the dinner the other day. Korkutuyor Golden Spike. I can tell you, my bosses do NOT care for him. Anyway, they’ve got this sick custom railcar since they’re in charge of the R&D department for the railway. They can just attach it to any train they want whenever they want, and they travel all over in it. Picking up stuff, seeing places, whatever they want. I’ve been all over Equestria since I started working for these two. Baltimare, Canterlot, Los Pegasus, Tall Tale … even Vanhoover! All in the same week! Perks of the job I guess. You’ll have to come see this thing, it’s pretty posh!
Anyway Hunter, come check it out when you get a chance. It’s quite the ride. Stay chill!
Blade Sunchaser
Hunter sat back as he tossed the note down on the table, instantly regretting that he was going to be on duty for the ERS meeting the next morning. Blade was pretty fun to hang around with, and from the sound of it this business car she was spending time in was pretty nice as well.
If I could bring Thistle along, introduce her to Blade ... he shook his head. No chance now, not with the ERS meeting that he was going to be guarding. Well, not guarding, he thought as he gathered his stack of papers and headed for his office. More like posturing—no, representing. He tossed the reports on his desk, not caring that they scattered across the desk. He could pick it up later. Right now, he wanted to drop his mail off at his room, get some dinner, and then, maybe, get some relaxation in before tomorrow.
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
1,103 users online
1,995,218 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Regarding the armor, the zipper goes from the base of the tail to the neck, right? I'm kinda having trouble envisioning how the non-unicorns will be able to take it off, or zip it all the way up.
Also, Hunter should see if he can get an itinerary for where the R&D car has been from Blade. May or may not be related, but it is something to look into.
By the way, was the bodysuit supposed to make me think of Tron?
3039881
They can still get it to the base of their neck by grabbing it with their teeth, or if they aren't close enough to that, they can use their hoof to press it the rest of the way blindly. Slightly inconvenient and requiring a degree of flexibility and dexterity, but doable. Or if they don't really want to, they can get a teammate to do it.
The bodysuit is indeed slightly Tron-ish, although only when a pony's magic is being used, and once the armor is on it you don't see as much of it. I hope you enjoyed envisioning it!
I hope nopony messes with the airship's boilers while Sky Bolt is out trying to date Sabra...
Golden Spike and his "off-the-grid minions," as it were, seem exactly the type of critters to take advantage of this kind of lapse in judgment... 
Really wish I'd give it more thought earlier when Blade mentioned they went all over the place, as well as one of the sisters mentioning R&D.
Suit uses internal magicks? How does that affect zebras I wonder, and does it allow them any similar glow?
Also, the armor really reminds me of how Mjolnir Armor works, or at least from RvB standards with the black bodysuit and Armor combo.
Needs work on teamwork, but I want to see them do a rematch sometime in the near future.
No armor? At least wear the bodysuit underneath. Good idea to bring the ex-thief. Should be able to percieve something should it come up during the meeting.
Interesting staff idea. Wonder if endgame staff would be like JttW Goku's Nyoibo.
Sweet moment with Dinky's letter. Waiting to see if the griffin can spot Song and identify him.
Went all over the place 'sightseeing'? Gut feeling is pushing me towards my theory last chapter that the sisters are involved, just putting up a front of 'defending the princesses's interests'.
pulling it from
one of
'Cause
its
led to "a" bang, I think.
Did Blade mention who she was working for? I can't remember. Onwards!
I'm pretty sure no one would notice the suit underneath their dress clothes, would it?
typing this on phone, at 1:00 am. = not easy.
I had my suspisions of mint and her sister being hevily involved a few chapters back. with that letter though, my suspicions must be correct. if not a pinicle to the conspiracy, they do know more then they let on.
Im stopping here for the night, but this story will be read by end of tomorrow. ill pm you soon after im done.
Ohhhh!!! Enchanting can make a unicorn unstable, right? That would explain the bloodshot eyes and anger that Mint's sister had. The train car has also been to all of the locations that the crates/robberies were connected to. Hunter needs to ask Blade if the sisters picked anything up (crates, perhaps?) when they went to the different cities.
Wonderbolts'
suit's
But not too good of a care,
stuff's
Hearth's Warming
even you, Sky Bolt,
Zebra (language nouns are capitalized in English)
rod's
Ultimately, after sifting through the entire pile, which, despite his requests for more concise reports, had still been a fairly large stack,
coat's
after all,
3039881
I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking it. I totally want one of those.
Is he REALLY so dense as to miss that?
Based on my experience with rubber gloves, I'd recommend using talcum powder before putting it on.
I thought it had been mentioned in an earlier chapter that Thistle had an actual coltfriend, and that her and Hunter were just friends. Is Derpy not able to see that Hunter may have reached a point that he might be willing to consider her more than just a friend? Hell, Dinky loves him! If that ain't a sign...
Nothing more between Nova and Dawn?
7138870
Not at all. You're forgetting that you're being handed, as a reader, everything that's key. To Hunter, this would be no different than an FBI agent investigating criminal activity across seven states, and a friend mentioning that they'd been to those states recently in an entirely unrelated conversation hours later. To a reader it's a lot more obvious because we only see the parts of the story that mattered (because it would be a much duller story if it covered every hour of every day), but break it down and think about all the expanded time between those key scenes, and it suddenly becomes a lot more understandable that someone wouldn't connect random dot A with random dot B from several hours later.
What you're asking for here is a main character to instantly suspect their friend because they'd been to the same major cities that crime took place in, major cities that even the cast themselves have been to.
8742663
Had being the key word there. Derpy mentioned in one of her segments that Thistle seemed to move from match to match pretty quickly. She was angling for Hunter to be a bit more permanent.
I know logic and reason have nothing on MLP shipping goggles, but Hunter himself lays it out (as does Derpy with how she tries to hook him up with Thistle): He and Derpy are friends but nothing more. They're bound by their respective status of having lost a loved one, Hunter before the wedding, and Derpy sometime after Dinky was conceived, and they're good friends, but neither see the other as a romantic interest.
Black undersuit, angular outer armor, enhances movement and strength. Did someone named John-117 help with the design?
9146318
That's the universality of design similarity law at work!