Chapter 12: The Calm River
Jayne awoke to mumbling. He might’ve awoken to mumbling before, but he was doing it again now. He couldn’t hear the maybe-mumbling then, but he could hear it now.
“-try to think, and look, and see, and it’s round here. Everything is round and real, like a toy, but out there it’s flat. It’s like a book and its pages, it’s not real until you turn the page and read what’s written there and see what it is. They can’t see the pages.”
River’s face appeared inches away from Jayne, her eyes locked with his own widening pupils. “They go out, but they’re not a part of the pages. They can read the words, but they make the pages bulge, like stones between the covers.”
Jayne tilted his head to the right, still never tearing his gaze away from the two crazed eyes that looked down upon him. “Simon! Yer sister’s sayin’ crazy words!”
“It doesn’t make any sense!” River half shouted, half hissed. “Nothing of ours should be out there! Their words and strings seep in, but it doesn’t change what’s inside here. How can they exist?!”
“Simon?!” Jayne glanced past River to the door, the only way out of the infirmary. It remain closed. His eyes darted left and right, before settling upon the table beside him, upon which rested a small, yet lethally sharp scalpel.
River saw it too.
Jayne grabbed out for it, River’s smaller hand following in pursuit. His fingers wrapped around the hilt of the metal instrument just as River’s own dug into his wrist. Jayne let out a yelp, and tried to wrest his arm away from River, but her grasp remained firm. As strong as Jayne was, River had the advantage. He was still partly delirious from the medication, River had her whole body weight focused down on his arm, and her abnormal strength was crushing his wrist.
“Simon!”
“It doesn’t make a difference! Their world is so different, but wherever we go, death follows!” cried River. “They just won’t stop screaming! Why won’t they stop?!”
River’s hand slipped away from Jayne, and the larger man felt her weight being pulled off away from him. Looking up, he saw River sobbing into Simon’s shoulder as he held her.
“River? River, it’s alright! It’s okay, you’re safe here.”
“Why is this happening to me?!”
“River, this is going to get better... I’m going to fix this, remember?”
The distraught girl looked up at Simon, managing to speak clearly even through the tears. “It’s going to be so much worse.
“No!” Simon grasped River by the arms. “No, don’t say that! Okay, River, look at me. Look at me. It’s going to be alright. I don’t know when, but you’ll be alright. You’ll be alright.”
River nodded wordlessly, and allowed herself to be drawn into another hug by Simon. The Doctor made eye contact with Jayne from over her shoulder just as he’d finished setting the scalpel back on the table. Jayne made a point of rubbing his crushed wrist, hoping that Simon would think that he hadn’t just been wielding a scalpel against his seventeen year old sister. Maybe he had noticed, but had seen that Jayne had grabbed it to keep River away from it. Maybe he’d noticed and assumed that Jayne would’ve used it on her, but hadn’t brought it up.
“You okay, Jayne?”
“Fine. Just keep a damn eye on your sister,” Jayne grunted.
Simon nodded, and escorted River out of the infirmary with the intent of getting her back to her room. The two turned a corner down to the crew quarters, and nearly walked headfirst into Mal.
“Simon.”
“Captain.”
...Both stood in silence.
“Quite a punchin’ arm you got there, Simon. They teach you how to do that in Doctor school?”
Simon quietly motioned for River to return to her room, Mal watching in silence as she slunk past him before turning back to listen to the doctor.
“Maybe I’ve grown accustomed to living amongst a bunch of brutes and bandits. Though to be honest, I really didn’t expect it to go so smoothly.”
“Well, all things considered, I did get myself pretty roughed up there by a flying blue pony earlier in the day.”
“...It scares me that I actually believe that. You got ‘roughed up’ by one?”
“Sure did. Little thing barrelled into me, knocked me clean outta the Mule at full speed. Sent me hurlin’ couple dozen o’ metres, at least,” Mal recollected.
“And you’re still standing?”
“That itched at my my mind too.” Mal frowned. “Winded me good and hard, but it didn’t hurt so bad out there. I’m beginnin’ to notice it ache at me now, though.”
Simon matched Mal’s grim look. “Get yourself into the infirmary. I need to make sure River’s okay, then I’ll be right back.” He hurried past Mal in the direction River had taken, but stopped just short of disappearing down another of Serenity's narrow corridors. “ And please, don't go getting yourself thrown from anything while I’m gone.”
“Humans?!”
“Reavers?!”
“Aliens?!"
“Impossible!"
“Yes, aliens!” Twilight repeated over the din of the townsponies. “Please everypony, just listen!” the unicorn yelled in vain. The citizens of Ponyville had worked themselves into a fearful frenzy of disbelief and anger directed at nothing and nopony in particular, completely ignoring Twilight in the process.
Twilight heard Rainbow Dash sigh from behind her. With a small gust of wind, the pegasus thrust off into the air, hovering several feet above the town square. Dash inhaled a large gulp of air, then let loose.
“Everypony be quiet! Twilight’s talking!”
The town square become silent, all heads turning in shock to look first at the fearsome pegasus, then at the meek unicorn blushing bashfully below her.
“Uh, thanks Dash...”
“Not a problem!” said Rainbow Dash as she descended back to Twilight’s side.
“Now then, as I’ve told you all before, we have some, err, visitors! The mayor and I have already spoken to the humans, and they are definitely friendly. Odd, but friendly. Now, they’ll be here for a while, but they shouldn’t get in the way too much. I think. They need some help from my friends and I to go back to where they came, so please act nicely around them. Right now they’re stuck here, and they have no way of getting back to their home, so please, everypony, do whatever you can to make them comfortable while they’re here,” the unicorn finished.
“What about the Reavers?” came the voice of one mare from amongst the crowd.
“They don’t sound friendly!” another nervous stallion called out.
“Well, you’d be right,” Twilight replied hesitantly. “In fact, according the humans, they’re monsters... And they’ll be here in a few days.”
Instantly the crowd erupted into panicked shouting, adults and fillies alike babbling agitatedly amongst themselves. Repeated cries of “monsters?!” and “we’re doomed” made their way over the din to Twilight’s ears. Rarity and Applejack brought their hooves to their faces behind her. “Honestly Twilight,” Rarity chastised, “you could at least have used some measure of subtlety. Now Rainbow Dash shall have to calm them again.”
Rainbow sighed, rolling her eyes as Twilight smiled sheepishly. “On it...” And with another gust of wind, the pegasus resumed hovering over the townsponies. She inhaled deeply, enough so that her lung appeared to inflate like balloons inside her chest... And roared.
Twilight glanced back and forth as to her left, Fluttershy turned pale, her legs locking as she bleated and tumbled to the floor. To her right, she just managed to catch all but the bravest members of the crowd either cowering or leaping an average foot into the air as Rainbow Dash made her best impression of a wolf. She did a fairly good job of it, too.
All eyes turned from Rainbow to Twilight as she landed yet again, a stern expression on her face. Twilight cleared her throat. “Um, yes... So like I said, they are monsters, but you have nothing to be afraid of! Just so long as you all remain inside your houses wh- uh, if they ever come here. The humans have promised to take care of the Reavers and make sure that they don’t hurt anypony. You have nothing to worry about!” Twilight smiled at the crowd. The crowd didn’t smile back.
Mayor Mare stepped forward to take Twilight’s place in addressing the townsponies, the Unicorn turning to face her circle of friends. “Well, that’s that!” she announced. “All that’s left now is to help the humans find their stuff in the forest!”
Everypony save for Pinkie and Rainbow frowned at Twilight.
“Umm...” Fluttershy kicked a hoof hesitantly. “Are we sure they’re friendly? I mean, they seemed really tall and, uh, intimidating...”
“Yeah, an' even if they are frien’ly,” Applejack interjected, “how can we be sure that they can deal with a buncha monsters?”
“I’m with Applejack on this one,” Rainbow said. “I mean, none of them look like they have wings or magic! And I knocked that Captain guy down pretty easily!”
Twilight lowered averted her gaze in thought, before raising her head as an idea popped into it. “Well, why don’t we just go their ship and take a look? We can see what we can do to help them, and we can show Fluttershy that they’re nothing to be afraid of! Right, Pinkie?”
“Of course! Oh oh you’ll just love Kaylee! She’s reeeaally nice and friendly, even though half the stuff she says doesn’t make any sense at all! Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing circles around Fluttershy. “Let go there right now!”
Twilight smiled. “So who’s with me?”
“Well, this can only end well...” Rarity sighed, joining the others as they begun their way to the edge of town.
“I just don’t see why is has to be taken from my shuttle,” Inara frowned.
“Because we already took it from the other shuttle!” Wash explained. “We only take the secondary capacitor set, and the shuttle’s still flyable, at least. The systems’ll automatically shut down any secondary functions to make way for prioritising the main ones.”
Inara raised an eyebrow. “Define 'secondary functions.’”
“Oh, y’know, unimportant stuff. Flight stabilisation, Cortex access, atmosphere controls... Kaylee didn’t really get into the specifics of it all.”
“Well, let’s get this over with then,” sighed the Companion. She moved aside to allow Wash access to her shuttle room, where he unpocketed a screwdriver and moved to unscrew one of the few uncovered panels across from the door. The panel pulled away as the last screw came free into Wash’s hand, revealing a complex tapestry of wires and mechanical components. He pulled up on one set of wires, and signalled for Inara to come over. “See that panel there? Flick every switch down except for the rightmost, no- leftmost one.”
“Rightmost or leftmost, Wash?”
“...Leftmost. Definitely.”
Inara frowned, but did as Wash said, flipping all the breaker switches up save for the leftmost one. The lights went out, along with the glow of the terminal across the room, and the ambient hum of the shuttle.
“Leftmost one, hmm?”
“Actually, that was meant to happen. Kaylee said she’ll put together a quick fix for you later, until she has time to put everything back where it actually belongs. You, uh, might want to stand back for this next part,’ Wash warned, before pulling out two linked cylindrical components, each about a foot in length. Sparks flew and arced between the open panel but ceased as he pushed the set back against two perfectly shaped nodes built within the panel. It remained there for a few seconds, before Wash pulled it back out, sans the electricity.
“Well, that’s done, and nobody’s dead! I think we’re making progress.”
“I’m glad,” Inara smiled. “You get that to Kaylee, I’ll deal with this,” she said, pointing to the unscrewed panel.
“You sure? Okay... be careful though. Mal’d go nuts if he heard I let you get yourself electrocuted.”
“I’ll be fine. Besides, I doubt Mal would so much as shed a tear if that ended up happening.”
Wash raised an eyebrow, but left the shuttle with a smile, heading down the narrow corridors of Serenity. Kaylee was waiting for him at the entrance to the cargo bay.
“Got that capacitor set you wanted.”
“Wash, there’s knockin’ at the cargo door?”
“Knocking?” Wash handed Kaylee the capacitor, checking the light machine gun which he hadn’t yet taken off.
“Mm-hm. I thought it mighta been them ponyfolk, but it don’t hurt to be cautious.”
Wash walked over to the large metal cargo door, coming to a stop at the control panel. Hesitating just for a moment, he waved for Kaylee to stand by the stairs, and raised his gun as the door cycled open. Sure, the Reavers wouldn’t be here yet - and even if they were, Kaylee would’ve heard more than just knocking - but what if the ponies weren’t the only things out there? Heck, these things could teleport and fly into things with the force of a rocket, and they were four feet high walking bundles of joy!
But his fears were unfounded, as before him, on the soil at the foot of the cargo ramp, stood six brightly coloured ponies. Several of them he recognised from previously, but there were a couple of new arrivals. They all looked up at him with a mixture of expectation, surprise, confusion and, in the case of one pony, fear.
“Um. Hi there.”
Twilight stepped forward. “Hi, uh... Wash, right? Is it okay if we come in? We have some more friends we’d like you to meet!”
Wash turned to see Kaylee smiling crookedly at him, then turned back to the ponies. “Y’know, I’ll ask the Captain, and see what he says about it. Until then, all of you, stay here please.
Kaylee, look after them, okay? Shout if anything tries to kill you!” he added as he passed by her, on the way to... well, wherever Mal might be.
If I were Mal... Wash thought to himself, wondering where he’d be most often were he the Captain. What did Mal normally do, where did he normally go when he wasn’t shooting and punching things or being shot and punched?
...Infirmary.
The Forest was silent. The Forest was never silent. The bear came to a stop at a tree, turning to sniff at the bark. It’s eyes narrowed, and it sniffed again. The bear clawed at the tree, tearing four small gashes into the bark, revealing the tree’s pale underskin. The leaves on the tree rustled, then fell silent.
The bear sniffed the air again, then roared sadly, turning to slink away into the forest.
At the roots of the tree, where the bear had just been standing the undergrowth stirred. Two piercing blue-green eyes appeared amongst the leaves, and Zecora stood up, brushing the leaves and branches from her, and tossing aside the piece of bark she had used to conceal herself. Staring after the bear, she turned her gaze to the tree.
Flecks of blood painted the area immediately around the claw marks. Small droplets of red similarly and generously decorated the leaves covering the path the bear had taken. To say “there was a lot of it” would be an understatement. The mess was comparable to the Sugarcube Bakery after Pinkie Pie had got her hands on some of Zecora’s liquid fireworks, attempting to create a cake that “fizzled in your mouth and your stomach!” The floor had been coated in cake batter; the forest surface was similarly affected.
Zecora frowned. “Something terrible has hurt that bear,” she mumbled in the general direction of the tree. “Something feral. I’m afraid I feel that we are all in grave peril.”
Her musing were answered. Something carried on the wind, down from the mountains just barely reached her ears, causing them to flick as they caught the sound. It was guttural, it was angry, it was screaming.
And it was the most bone-chilling sound the fleeing Zecora had ever heard in her life.
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'Tis nice to see this updated.
For a moment there, I thought you were saying the Reavers had gravely wounded an Ursa Minor - possible, but there would be a lot fewer Reavers afterwards. And Mom would be rather irritated. But then I remembered that we'd seen _regular_ bears in the show as well, and that makes a lot more sense.
Ah - try not to delay the next chapter quite so long, if you could? Cheers.
What kind of effect would the elements of harmony have on the reavers?
Complete hatred = Cleanse
Full of chaos = stoned
utther aphaty for everything but the most basic instinct = ¿?
2103091
Creatures from another universe with different rules being hit with magic that fundamentally changes what you are = ?
Creatures who are not just influenced/incarnations of evil or chaos, but have been changed so that they feel nothing but those things, being hit by magic that purged the first, and turned to stone the second = ???
Interesting question, I'll spend some time thinking about it. Actually, I think I might even find a way to implement this at some point.
Finally, Jayne is awake! :D
2121000
Yep! It took entirely too long, but I’m finally getting some Jayne up in here!
Just finished reading. Is this still alive?
Seeing as how the last posted comment was 15 weeks ago, I'm beginning to feel a mite discouraged regarding the continuation of this fic.
5361307
100 fucking weeks later...
very cool. I'm working on a MLP/FIREFLY crossover myself. I look forward
to more.
2121139
R U dead?
It's 2018, the last comment was in 2014!
it is now 2020 I now pronounce this story dead may it rest in peace