Crash!
“Ack!” Rarity yelps again as her teapot smashes on her table, spraying boiling tea everywhere. Fortunately, Twilight reacts fast enough to control the errant liquid before it hurts anypony, but the tablecloth is already stained. Good thing she made it herself, Rarity considers- she knows exactly what it is… And how to safely remove any stain from it. “Sorry about that!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Applejack answers, while Twilight concentrates on the teapot repairs. “We know you’re still recovering from that, uh, thing.”
Rainbow nods. They’d all found out about each other’s injuries, past and ongoing, during their stay in Zeus’ hull. “Better to use it than not, as Zeus is so fond of saying,” she says.
Fluttershy lets out a soft yelp, leaping backwards into the air. She likes using Zeus’ massive processing power to help her keep track of everything- and is the only pony to regularly have her com’s neural link active. As a side effect, she’s no longer quite so shy- nor nearly so skittish. Especially with no discernible cause. So of course, Pinkie- whose famous Pinkie Sense is a so-far-unreturned casualty from last week- stares at her, trying to figure out exactly what tidbit of information Zeus just sent her. The other three are also distracted, looking towards their shy friend.
Woe unto those who let themselves become distracted. It happens too fast for Twilight to warn anypony- but since her eyes are on the still unrepaired teapot when her spell falls apart, she is able to dodge the steaming tide herself. She’d noticed Fluttershy’s motion- at the same time as she had noticed the pending collapse of the spell. Zeus must have picked up on the fluctuation in her horn and warned their golden friend- but not had time for the others. That reminds her, while Pinkie, Applejack, and Rainbow all get doused in the scalding liquid, he often doesn’t bother to deliver a warning he considers useless- or too late.
Fluttershy clears her throat, hovering gently over the table to cool the liquid before it can soak further into everypony’s fur. “Careful, it’s hot,” she mutters, her face contorted into a snicker.
That, Twilight decides, is a less fortunate side effect. Zeus’ sense of humor seems to have no trouble manifesting itself through their shy friend, when linked. He’s shown a willingness to deliberately withhold a warning, and to give it right after they run afoul of it, apparently for a laugh. Honestly, she’d been glad Pinkie had been the first to try that ‘flavorful curry’ of his- it’d been too spicy even for HER! Suffice it to say, nopony else had touched it.
Rarity winces as a few stray drops strike her hooves, staring open-mouthed at the new lake forming under her table. “Everypony okay?” she asks.
“Yeppers,” Pinkie replies, splashing hot liquid everywhere with her characteristic bounce.
Applejack uses one sodden hoof to shield her eyes from Pinkie’s splashing. “Mostly,” she agrees.
Rainbow wrenches her head free of the ceiling, where it had ended up when she jumped with surprise. “Ow. Am I, Zeus?” She runs a hoof across the top of her head, as if feeling for damage.
He sends his response to everypony’s links. “Mostly. You’ve managed to crush your left earlobe, scratch your right eyeball, and bruise your rump, all well within immediate repair capability.”
Everypony laughs as Rainbow drops back to the ground, checking for the aforementioned bruise. Of course Rainbow would ask the one with control over the fancy self-replicating medical nanites he gave them.
Twilight turns back towards the teapot, her horn flickering briefly before it goes out again. “Any clue why I haven’t been recharging?”
“Easy- your magic gland has shut down for remodeling.”
“Remodeling?” Applejack asks. “What in the hay is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it means in the dictionary.”
Twilight raises an eyebrow. “So it’s changing?”
“Yes.”
“How is it changing?”
“Slowly.”
Her other eyebrow goes up as she dons her skeptical expression. “What is it doing to change?”
“Apoptosis and cellular division.”
Twilight’s hoof meets her face. No, not going to ask. Not going to ask, no. It’s a trap…. Ah, hay with it. “What are a-pop-toast-ice and cell-U-lar division?”
Called it.
Almost a full hour later, Zeus finishes explaining apoptosis, thankfully to Twilight only.
By this point, the spilled tea, tablecloth, and teapot have been cleaned up, and Rarity has procured new tea in a new pot, which she manages to settle safely on the fresh tablecloth with her unstable magic. “I really do wish that thing hadn’t attacked us,” she mutters.
“We still don’t know why it left the Tree when Zeus erased the reviving Plunderseeds,” Rainbow chimed in.
“Or why our trip was quite so quiet,” Rarity states. “I know, six monsters. But absolutely nothing else even made a peep, aside from those nasty things!”
“Nasty they may be, but they were extremely vulnerable to defoliants,” Zeus inserts. The moment a single molecule of the light weedkiller-strength defoliant he had used touched any given plundervine, the entire plant had shriveled and died off, disintegrating into dust. He hadn’t told anypony, but he had traced them back to their original sprouting locations- and each of those had acquired a formation of six deep penetrator warheads- estimated salvo yield, 9.2 ktons of magically focused, rocket-propelled destruction- immediately after it had withdrawn. Not a single particle of plunderseed had survived.
Okay, nuke it from orbit may be a bit overkill there. Someone likes his explosives.
I see that you are using my (stolen) channeling idea already, unless he's the one upgrading it.
Is that wise? He's going to get ideas from it quite quickly now.
8710113
Of course he likes his explosives- especially when something is willing to threaten his new world.
Yes, I'm using that channeling idea- speaking of which, thank you.
He'll try to get ideas, certainly- but he's presumably had nanite scans of Celestia and Luna (they have tailored comsets), and doesn't have any yet. Zeus' channeling attempts will wait for quite a while- perhaps until after he "sees" Cadence, and possibly Flurry Heart as well. A naturally growing Alicorn aught to provide enough clues for him to figure something out, after all... Unlike an ascension-adjusting one. Speaking of which, our ghastly enemy's presence must have frozen Twilight's.
8710125
I don't know what you meant by that last line.
Also, make sure you read Denuo Fortuna. I did steal that idea, after all. It's a dark story, though.
8710154
Dark story.... Is it okay if I just 'make it my own', so to speak, without reading source material? I mean, that's kinda what I'm doing with both Laumer's Bolo-verse AND MLP right now...
8710192
Well, of course (assuming I ever could come up with a plot or even decent conversation, I have a crazy tech-magic system that either rips off or explains just about every other, so I know what you speak of). I just thought I'd suggest the story, since it's pretty good, and it seems fair to increase its views in response to my pilfering.
The author has not updated it in a while though; I hope it's alive.
OMNI:Tell me am I the only one who can't help but ship flutters and Zeus more and more every chapter.
REALITY:Yes.
OMNI: SHUT UP!!!
8712207
I personally despise romance stories; as such, I will not be focusing on any shipping that occurs- nor paying it any attention. However, you're welcome to identify it when it shows up!
Oh boy... Missing chapters before this one at this moment.