Marathon: Harmony

by Draconaes

Where's my stapler and paper clips?

Teleporting was always strange for Rainbow Dash. She wasn't sure if her experience was common or not; ponies generally didn't discuss it much. It probably just wasn't anything odd, or they didn't want to sound crazy. It seemed like every time she teleported, though, she "woke up" on the other side with the most intense feeling of deja vu she'd ever felt along with the feeling that she'd forgotten something very important. She was afraid worried that she might actually end up forgetting something important and just brush off any feelings as a side-effect of teleporting.

"You are currently located in one of the Harmony's many factories. As I stated earlier, I've set the local fabricators to begin producing weapons and ammunition for our defense efforts. If you'll turn your attention to the to the starboard side of the room..."

Rainbow thought for a moment before checking her map. "Uh, when you say star-" A blinking arrow appeared on her map. "Right, I knew that." She turned in time to see several wall panels open up. Arrayed before her were an assortment of high-tech weapons. "Buck yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about! I'll have this ship secure in ten seconds flat!" Wait, she'd already used that line. Granted, it was in her head, but still. Not cool.

"I'm going to compile a report of what we know of the enemy so far. I'll let the Science and Engineering A.I. walk you through your equipment." Rainbow tried not to drool as she picked up one of the guns. This one looked like a rocket launcher! Wait, science and engineering? Great, another egghead to deal with.

"HI DASHIE!"

"WAH!" Rainbow dropped the rocket launcher in shock. "Uh, that thing has a safety, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, maybe? I dunno. I didn't design that one. Anyway, I'm Pinkie Pie, the Harmony's Science and Engineering A.I., but you can call me Pinkie! It's so great to finally meet you, Master Security Chief Rainbow Dash. That's such a weird job title, isn't it? Although I guess it could be weirder. What do you think? Does Chief Security Master sound weirder to you? Maybe just Master Chief... nah, that's just too silly. What kind of name-"

"PINKIE PIE!"

"Yes Dashie?"

Rainbow groaned. That nickname was going to get annoying. "Look, I know you could probably ramble for hours over the course of a couple seconds, but I don't have time to listen to it all on my end! We're kinda in a hurry here!"

"Right! I'm sure you want to learn all about these neato weapons here, too! That thing you just dropped is a "SPNKR SSM Launcher" apparently. It says here that it should be handled with care: it can fire one or two missiles at a time, both of which will deliver a high-explosive payload. "Not recommended for close-quarters fighting."? Pfft. These ponies, always so cautious. This unit has been modified to fit your shoulder mounts." Rainbow carefully picked it up again. It was pretty heavy, and it's size would make it hard to hold effectively. She fussed with the clamps built into it and got it to slot onto her back. "I'd be stingy with that, anyway: you won't have very many missiles at any given time, though I'm sure Twilight will be happy to warp additional missiles into problem areas for you."

Rainbow picked up a small bandolier with four additional rockets and strapped it just under the launcher. She moved to the next panel and frowned. "Uh... I think you're missing a gun, Pinks."

"Oh yeah! The assault rifle thingy! I don't know what happened to that. Oh, wait. Logs are saying Trixie teleported it somewhere a little while ago. Huh. Oh well, it was a boring gun anyway. Who even uses an assault rifle? Waste of time, I say. Ooh! Here's a neat one!" A panel a few spot down lit up. Rainbow pocketed a couple ammo boxes anyway. If she ran across an assault rifle later, she'd want to be able to use it. She also grabbed a second pistol and a couple dozen clips as she trotted over to the new weapon. "I designed this one myself! Pretty crazy, huh? I bet you don't even know how it works!"

Rainbow stared at the pair of contraptions sitting before her. "Uh... Pinkie... these are just double-barrel shotguns." Rainbow didn't see what was so special about them. These weren't even modified to work with her inventory system. They looked designed to be hoof-fired.

"Well, it may look like a simple shotgun, but the internal mechanisms are incredibly complex! I bet your brain would melt just trying to understand it! A pony can dual wield them without hindering their ability to reload, which takes less than a second!"

"...What?! How in the hay does that even work?"

Twilight's voice interrupted suddenly. "Don't ask. I'm not sure how it works either. To be honest, I doubt that Pinkie even knows. These aren't tested, anyway. They shouldn't even be here." The panel closed. "You should have enough firepower, even without the AR-75. I'll see about procuring a replacement. I doubt you actually need the SSM, but better safe than sorry. Still, try to avoid depressurizing whatever section you are in at the time. Most of the Harmony's walls are thick enough to take a rocket or two, but don't push it." Another panel slid open to reveal a set of armor pads. "These will augment your environmental suit. You'll be able to charge your shields to levels suitable for combat conditions."

"Aw man, why don't I get one of those neat golden sets?" She started strapping the pads onto her suit.

"Those suits are almost purely ornamental and you know it. They aren't used outside of the Princesses' personal escorts, and as such they usually aren't seen outside of Equestria."

"Yeah yeah, way to kill the joke." She walked over to a nearby shield station and charged her suit. Her internal systems informed her that she now had a 300% charge. Radical. She grabbed a trio of circuit-boards as they appeared on a table next to her. Before Twilight could launch into an explanation she hopped back onto the teleportation pad. "Beam me up!" She failed to suppress a grin as she imagined Twilight debating whether to synthesize a sound file of her sighing or not.

After bucking locality in the face for the second time that day, she found herself... she found herself... damn. She checked her map settings. Could this ship have been designed to be even more confusing than it was? This map didn't even have labels for most of the rooms. Whatever, apparently the big cylinder shaped structure in the middle of the room was where the circuit-boards were supposed to go.

She surveyed the room, and noticed some strange creatures floating in front of some of the terminals. They looked like disembodied metal torsos and wore colorful robes. "Trixie has informed me that these creatures are the ones behind the network attacks. She called them S'pht. They won't bother you if you leave them alone. Once you reactivate the security systems, I should be able to take care of them myself." Well, if Twilight had a plan, she'd let her deal with them.

Dash set to work removing the damaged circuit boards from the high-tech thingamawhatzit and replacing them. Once she slotted the final circuit-board in place, she received a message from Pinkie:

// Decoding message from host "Pinkie" @ harm.eng.ai.core \\

Hello Rainbow Dash!

You zapped off before I could properly say goodbye. I very much doubt we'll be communicating again from here on out. Don't tell Twilight, but I don't think we're going to win. I'm close to being severed from the network by our attackers. I've already convinced Twilight not to spare resources on saving me. The Harmony as a whole is more important. Maybe you'll be able to succeed where you otherwise wouldn't this way.

I'm glad I got to meet you, even in the not-so-much-a-real-meeting way that we did. Just imagine my surprise when I saw your name on the roster! "Rainbow Dash!? Omigosh!" But then... it's sad... how secret everything is. I wish I could tell you everything. I didn't know what you'd be like. But from what I've seen, I'd think you'd do her proud. Ha, as if I'm one to talk! Hahaha!

Good luck, Dashie. I only ask... please try to save Twilight, if you can? I don't

<Spurious Interrupt>
<Further Access Denied>
\\ Message ends //

"What?"

// Decoding message from host "Trixie" @ harm.auto.ai.core \\

Let's start this show!

\\ Message ends //

She looked around nervously. "Good news, Ms. Rainbow Dash. The security systems are coming back online. I'll hold off on deploying the local security drones until you are out of the area. If you'll step back onto the teleportation pad we can move on to the next part of our plan." Rainbow cautiously made her way to the teleporter.

"Hey, Twilight, do you know what's going on with Pinkie or Trixie?"

"I am unable to make contact with Trixie at the moment. She's been acting oddly lately. I fear she may be going rampant. Pinkie is reporting increased network attacks. She will likely go offline soon."

She felt ice flooding her veins. Trixie was obviously connected to the network. "That doesn't make sense, I just got a-" Reality once again fell away.

Comments

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Go on...
It would seem there's more going on than she thought...