Chapter 97
Yawning, I stretched my legs out as I walked, moving along at a fairly brisk pace. My fur was damp still, but I smelled quite fresh and vaguely of lavender. Twilight's choice in shampoo didn't surprise me in the slightest, although it was infinitely better than alternative smells I could be sporting. Given how active yesterday had been, even after we got back to Twilight's suite, I was perfectly content to be smelling like flowers. It also shed light onto the reason that I was able to untangle myself from two sleeping mares without waking either of them. Bonus points for distracting them in our dream enough to also slip away even there.
I smiled at a maid as I walked past, returning her nod as well. She looked like the same one from yesterday who'd informed me about Octavia. Turning the corner, I instead exited out into a large courtyard, surrounded by an overhang on all sides with carved arches for walls. Shining Armor was standing in the center of it, as I'd been informed, and gave me a nod as I approached. Thirty guards, a mixture of day and night variants, stood in front of him, most not even moving to look at me as I approached.
"Sorry I'm a bit late. Took longer in the shower than I anticipated," I apologized. He smiled towards me, then took a sniff and grinned.
"And you still didn't get all the smell out. Heh. Regardless, it's fine. You probably beat my sleepy head sister by a good three hours. Who doesn't get up at five?! Sheesh," he muttered. I felt my cheeks heat up a little, but he didn't even seem fazed, so I just mentally shrugged.
Chuckling instead, I turned to look at the guards. "I see a few dozen standing here with more practical wake up times," I complimented, getting him to smirk outright and nod, also turning to face them.
"Yup! You have the full roster by now, I assume, including your two strange suggestions last night. They've been granted temporary permits under your jurisdiction for the time being. I'm curious, though," he admitted, looking back over at me.
Shaking my head, I explained, "I'm a firm believer in second chances. I don't think I'd be here without them. I've a feeling that those two will work extra hard to prove me right, regardless." Luna hadn't taken any effort at all to convince last night, listening to my explanation and just signing off on it immediately while maintaining that coy grin. Of course, she understood second chances, too.
I got two immediate grins from the front row, giving away two identities right off the bat. I was amused that the group was split almost perfectly into Night and Day guards, actually. All of the Lunars had wings, of course, and the traditional slit pupils, and all of their coats were the same gray purple hue, although that I knew varied from Lunar to Lunar. The Day guards were more distributed, with at least six Bastion units, a surprisingly few Air Force, numbering only three that I saw, and all the rest being the actual Guard. Were there different types of Lunars, too?
Shining gave a smirk to me and nodded, looking back into the crowd again before speaking up, in a more official and significantly louder tone of voice. "Attention!" he barked, causing everypony there to immediately lift both left legs, front and back, and then clap them back into their right ones, standing up straight after. He continued immediately with, "For those of you who don't already know, this is Captain Moon Mender, standing head of Dimensional Regulation and Lead of Research and Design. He'll also be the standing Knight Captain in the field during active duty when I'm not around. This includes training you in the use of the new toys R&D comes up with. All that said, he deserves the utmost of respect!" My mind really wasn't on it, and instead I wondered why they appended the 'Knight' in front of the usual 'Captain' rank. It was probably a temporary title or something to designate which of the Captains was in charge of the others in a given situation.
All of them immediately did the hoof motion again, which I realized was probably akin to a salute. I looked them all over, then repeated their motion, solidifying the armor under my skin as I brought my legs together. It made a rather rough clang, remarkably similar to them in armor, despite being a bit more quiet. A couple looked mildly surprised, but they were a remarkably stoic group. Still...
One in the front row lifted a foreleg up. Shining raised an eyebrow, but I mentally shrugged and nodded towards them. Royal Air Force B47 did another hoof salute before shouting, "Permission to ask a question, Sir!"
"Granted," I muttered, a sort of grim curiosity as to where this was going.
The guard did another salute before asking, "I know I speak for a lot of us here when I ask, but... What is the level of threat Dimensional Regulation is dealing with?" Ah, a serious question, then. That I could deal with, but first...
Looking over to Shining, I asked, "Is everypony here cleared through security?" Given BEID, it was a valid concern. The full scale of the threat hadn't exactly been disclosed to the general public yet, if I recalled correctly. Of course, I had just gotten Snapshot's report of the rest of the press conference, given that I hadn't stuck around for the remainder.
"As much as they can be," he assured, then lifted his head up. His horn glowed, and in a flash, a cubic outline had been drawn around all of us, vision beyond it suddenly dimming somewhat. He held the energy for a second before nodding to me, and I turned back to the rest of the guards.
Looking at them for a moment, I exhaled quietly, unsure of exactly how to convey the scale. "Best case scenario, nothing. If everything goes according to the plan we've got laid out so far, Equus won't see a peep of danger, and everything goes on as if nothing's wrong," I started, shrugging after, then continuing with, "Worst case scenario, an ancient race in the other dimension called the Grosh manage to create a stable portal to Equus, and we see an invasion force the likes of which has never been witnessed, ever. They have the technological advancements to literally reduce this entire planet to a fine dust in a dozen hours or so, and are ruthless enough to kill every single creature on the face of the planet just to get at its resources." To be honest, that was speculation. While it was known that the Grosh stripped planets bare of resources, they didn't always. Sometimes they came in and just murdered everything that was murder-able by definition, set fire to everything that wasn't, then left as if they were doing it for the entertainment value.
Their expressions were mixed at best, some remaining stoic, and the majority looking a mixture of uncertain and shaken. There was no panic, and I was pleased that at least their intestinal fortitude was on par with the soldiers my memories recalled training.
Shining gave a softer smile and nodded towards me before looking back to the guards and saying, "That is why we're actively pursuing our plan, with every intent on getting a grip on the situation before it gets to worst case scenario. This isn't a roll of a die. We can actively control the situation before us, and I don't know about you, but I'm not going to let these monsters anywhere near my loved ones."
Their resolve snapped back almost instantly, and I smiled to myself. He was used to talking to guards, that was for sure. As far as I knew, each and every guard here was here specifically because they volunteered, which usually indicated they had a strong desire to actually guard.
Nodding in agreement, I continued with, "We're currently at an advantage. We know our enemy, they don't know us, and they currently aren't even aware of our existence. With luck, it stays that way. We also have amazingly bright minds working on our actual plan as to keep things that way. We have the support of all of Equestria, and I have every bit of confidence in our ability to resolve this situation without a single pony getting hurt, which is what we're aiming for. There are also allies in the other dimension that are safeguarding us on that end as well. With luck again on our side, the window of opportunity for any serious threat against Equus is about two weeks duration, already starting. The risk for smaller scale issues persists for a few years after that, but for now, we're focusing on that two week window. That said, I look forward to working with you all." That was the maximum window that Keela gave me for her upgrades and investigation into the wreckage of the wing of the ship. She assured me that they weren't totally insane and going to attempt a rescue, if her sister was even still alive. No rescue had ever succeeded against the Grosh. It only ever resulted in failure and possibly more lives lost.
During the investigation, they were also working on upgrading the engine components of the vessel. The area they blind-jumped to had been an old asteroid mining complex. It was a creative way to get materials. Using a fast vessel, they zipped around and 'tagged' asteroids in the thicket, which, contrary to common belief, are actually not all that dense. Quite a bit of distance can be between each rock, but once tagged, the mining complex itself used a low magnitude attraction pulse to slowly pull all of the tags to itself, an inertia shield slowing them as they came in to drift around it.
The useful bit was that the field generator that was also responsible for the pulling could be 'flipped' in its output. This was an engineering nightmare that typically created impressive disasters on a large scale, given the field would attempt to then crush a small area into the finest singularity it could muster. It usually failed to crush it down dense enough and only ended up causing a fusion reaction with the materials in question and a nice sized explosion. Of course, if you captured the energy from said explosion after dumping a few more potent sources of matter into the area...
It was a long shot, but Keela had scavenged the reactor and a ton of extra parts from the facility. The fuel rods in the core were almost spent, but there was enough left to fire it off at least one more time. The extras would be tossed into the core to add to the explosion umph. Keela's idea was to haul the core to the weak spot leading to Equus, create a sizable localized barrier, encode the jump drive with the destination coordinates of Equus, and then launch the destabilized core into the barrier. The explosion would go through the first side of the Aegis Barrier as if it were tissue paper, her intentionally phasing it into real space in order for it to be ruptured. That's how it worked, of course. The absurd explosion would tear into the void behind the first layer of the barrier and punch through the dimensional separation using the released energy. After the area was 'weakened' by making a sizable hole in it, you fired off the Slipstream right into the area. The computer took over afterwards, the Slipstream shielding isolating you from the effects of the transit, with luck, and then dropped you off at the desired point in Equus. In this case, she was hoping to toss the entire vessel into a safe orbit around the moon. Teleportation magic was well within that range, and the Keldarians would be in Equus...
The only issue was if the explosion wasn't big enough. The amount of energy put into the burst that made the hole dictated the amount of 'mass' the hole would support before collapsing in upon itself. Her initial experiments had yielded an impressive array of utterly destroyed test objects she'd attempted to send through. So far, the largest object she'd successfully sent, that wasn't an absurdly powerful Aegis Artifact, was an apple. It was iced over from the transit while being baked on the inside, but their shield should take care of those issues, in theory. The real danger was the hole simply collapsing into a singularity while they were only halfway through it. No amount of shielding protected against that...
I snapped out of it a moment later, realizing I'd been zoning out. Shining Armor was still talking, having dropped the barrier now and was apparently discussing the logistics involved with the guards’ soon-to-be transit to Ponyville. Ah, I hadn't missed anything important, then. Well, at least not relevant to myself, given I didn't have a small armory of equipment to transfer, and all the paperwork involved in relocating this many ponies. I'd gotten the vague sensation that ponies didn't actually move around very often.
"So, is everything clear on our plans for the rest of the week?" he asked, looking over the gathered guards. They all did the hoof solute again before shouting out affirmatives. He looked over at me, and I nodded in return, earning a smile from the stallion before he addressed them all again with, "All right, then. From this point on, command is transferred to Captain Moon Mender. You're all dismissed to pack and get ready for the train ride in two hours." They all saluted for a final time before dispersing rapidly, heading in all different directions in quite a hurry, which didn't surprise me.
He smirked, then nodded to me instead. "You're probably already packed, but you should go wake up my sleepy head little sister, and Fluttershy. They'll probably need a shower before the train ride, too," he pointed out. I scowled at him, feeling a bit of heat in my cheeks again, but he just laughed and trotted in the direction of the throne room. Rolling my eyes, I sulked as I headed back the direction I came. Ugh...
* * * * *
The seat under me was rather comfortable, and I continued looking through the glass on my right at the countryside as it zipped past. Now that we were lowered out to sea level again, trees rushed past mixed with open fields, and I relaxed, feeling more at home closer to the ground rather than on the side of a mountain. Maybe it was just because I was used to Ponyville? Or it was some deeply ingrained Earth Pony values.
Two forelegs rested on my head, and had been for a while now. Looking up with my eyes, I saw the pink mass above me, and she gave a giggle and pointed out things outside again, this time a mountain range in the distance. “Ooooh, that’s the Unicorn Mountains,” she explained, her voice wobbling as she tried to apply an ethereal, ‘mystical’ sound to it before appending, “Probably named because a few of the peaks totally look like unicorn horns!”
Twilight scowled across from us, rapidly correcting, “It is not! They’re called that because the original founding group of unicorns were-“
Pinkie cut her off a moment later, blatantly whispering into my ear with, “It’s totally because they’re shaped like unicorn horns…” Twilight just slapped her forehead with a hoof, and I started to chuckle.
Adding a light giggle, Rarity nodded next to Fluttershy, who was next to Twilight. “Ah, yes. Vanhoover is on the other side of those mountains. Lovely in the summer, with nice imported fashions from Zebrica. Not so pleasant in the winter, though. Quite a bit chillier than Ponyville,” she informed. I tilted my head to her, a bit curious, and she smiled pleasantly towards me.
The train ride had gone well so far, and was almost over now. Admittedly, my apprehension was spiking the closer we got to Ponyville. They’d undoubtedly already heard about the news and knew all about me, given how fast word seemed to travel. I exhaled quietly, and Pinkie slid down my back a little more, instead hugging me around the shoulders. I smiled back at her, and she gave me a little nuzzle on the cheek.
“Relax, Silly. You’re getting all tense and nervous!” she chirped, giving me another squeeze. Rainbow gave a snicker from the other side of her, and I glared over at her in time to see Applejack subtly rolling her eyes as well.
Huffing, I assured, “I’m just a little worried about their reactions, is all. I’m not that tense!” Pouting, I looked back towards the window and came face to face with a gray pony head in the window. I let out a stifled yelp, flailing backwards and causing Pinkie to laugh as we both tumbled off the seat. Somehow, I landed on my legs, Pinkie having flipped us rather easily into a roll as we went through the air and corrected our descent. No, I wasn’t even going to ask.
Looking back up to the window, I saw my now grinning distant niece flying next to the train and looking through the window. Pinkie hopped up and opened the window a moment later, blasting the cabin with air, but Derpy hooked the sill and rolled inside, down Pinkie’s back, and landed with a little plop in front of me, still looking happy.
“Uncle! I don’t have to not call you that anymore!” she chirped, sounding delighted. Well, that at least revealed that the news had indeed spread fast.
Coughing lightly, I nodded to her, but couldn’t resist smiling. “Yeah, now you can. I didn’t exactly expect this to happen, but here it is. How is Ponyville taking it…?” I asked, not really wanting to know, but knowing that I should know in the first place. My own wording confused myself, and I hadn’t even said it out loud.
She giggled. Giggled. Shaking her head after, she assured, “I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Uncle. Although I’m not supposed to tell you anything else, sorry!” What…? What?! My eye twitched a little, but Twilight raised a skeptical eyebrow behind her, looking as confused as my insides felt.
“Wait, you’re not allowed to tell us how Ponyville is reacting? Why not?!” she asked almost immediately.
Applejack shrugged, however, then pointed out, “She did say not ta worry, which usually indicates ah good reaction. Or at least ah neutral one. Ain’t that enough?” Sighing, I gave a nod and just let it drop. If it was drastically important, I had a feeling Derpy would have just gone through and told me.
“I just came to check on you and make sure you were okay! The story was officially told by the news updates released by Equestria Weekly. I helped deliver them! This time I read it over real good first, though!” she assured, huffing afterwards.
Rarity smiled and nodded to her, assuring, “We don’t doubt you, dear. You’ve shown unwavering loyalty to your uncle, and don’t need to worry about that. Further, I highly doubt that, after the last time, BEID would attempt to use Equestria Weekly again. It wouldn’t be nearly as effective now that everypony knows about their first scandal.” That was probably true. They’d more than likely try for something other than newspapers now.
Derpy blushed a little but stayed grinning at me, then nodded to Rarity. “I still wanted to be careful! Even without knowing he’s my uncle, I felt super bad for falling for that! But no, the article this time around was really specific and neutral about things. It covered the press conference that Princess Celestia put on, and what happened at the cafe,” she explained.
Rainbow landed next to me a moment later, giving a smirk and hoof bump with Derpy before nodding over at me. “Sweet. So what are you doing meeting us early?” she reminded, tilting her head to the gray pegasus.
Perking at that, Derpy nodded and explained, “Well, the articles were very thorough about what happened, and what the press conference covered, but they didn’t touch upon what Mender’s feelings were at all. Seeing everything just blown open like that and visible to everypony, I’d be terrified… That wasn’t covered anywhere, though,” she explained quietly.
I stared at her for a moment, surprise being an understatement. Fluttershy gave an encouraging nod, however, and I exhaled softly, nodding back to the gray pegasus. “It’s been a whirlwind, really. It would be great if I could take a vacation, but that’s not likely for at least a few more weeks, by the sounds of it,” I muttered, and then chuckled dryly after. I then added, “It was more than just the reveal of my identity, though. I also got all of my memories back as well, including a lot of not so great ones of the other dimension… It’s all just a blur.”
Derpy gave a little whine, then leaned forward and hugged me gently. Smiling, I gave her a hug in return, relaxing there for a moment. She smelled lightly of a fresh rain, interestingly enough, mixed in with a paper smell, which made more sense given her profession. She smiled again and nodded up at me, and was about to open her mouth to say something further, when the speaker system for the train kicked on.
“We’re five minutes out o’ Ponyville now. Expect no delays in arrival. Weather is fair, an’ tha time will be quarter after eleven upon arrival. Ah hope you’ve all had ah pleasant ride!” an older sounding voice exclaimed over the intercom. I recognized the voice as the same one that spoke when we first started, and belonging to the older stallion in the engine room.
Given that we were in the first car, I wasn’t too surprised when I saw the door open after the announcement, and aforementioned stallion step out. He had a charcoal gray coat and, interestingly enough, a ‘mustache’ of sorts off his muzzle, graying like his mane was, leaving it just slightly lighter than his actual coat.
“Howdy there, folks! Ah’m sure ya’all heard that there message just fine. Need ta talk ta Captain Moon Mender,” he admitted, walking towards me. He gave a long smirk to Derpy as he approached. “Ah, yes, saw ya circlin’ an’ headin’ inside, Miss. Do ya got yerself ah ticket?” he asked suddenly.
Derpy gave him a sheepish grin, and I frowned. The ticket for the train seemed more like a formality, given it was only two bits for the trip. I was about to offer to just pay the two bits when he started laughing. “Nah, Ah vouch fer ya, Derpy. ‘sides, yer his niece, so it makes sense,” he cut off, letting me relax a bit. Heh, yeah, I didn’t think they’d care.
I stood regardless, turning to face the stallion fully, and he gave me a nod. Curious now, I asked him, “What’s going on?” I had a feeling I knew, but…
He didn’t beat around the bush, immediately continuing with, “We’re unloadin’ tha civilians first. All tha guards, an’ their equipment, are in tha last three cars. After we unload tha civilians, Ah’m gonna move tha train up so tha last three cars are right over tha station an’ ya can exit directly. Do they know we’re unloadin’?” Yup, figured. I nodded to him, of course.
“Yeah, I sent a message ahead an hour before we left. They already got back with me as I was boarding that there were three carriages waiting to haul the equipment when we got in. I’m going to have the guards help move it once we unload,” I explained, sitting down again while facing him. He considered it for a moment, his right forehoof scratching under his chin. He finally nodded however.
“Definitely good then. ‘cuse my concern. Some government things can just be mighty… disorganized sometimes. Once, Ah got stuck waitin’ fer three days up in tha mountains fer another train Ah was supposed ta switch cargo with. Turns out they scheduled me wrong. Disaster…” he finally admitted, slowly shaking his head after. Heh, well mix-ups could happen in any dimension, it would seem.
Twilight shook her head, leaning against the wall for a moment before warning, “This is only the first shipment of many, I imagine. With construction picking up now, there’s going to be a huge influx of equipment, workers, and supplies coming in soon.”
He nodded to that, chuckling after and assuring, “We can handle regular shipments, worry not. Looks like ol’ Ponyville might be gettin’ ah bit bigger in tha future. Heh.” He nodded to all of us before turning and walking back into the engine room, probably to prepare for the approach. I looked back to Derpy, and she grinned, nodding at me as she stood.
“I’m staying with you. Taking off from a train is a lot harder than landing on it, and I think you need all the company you can get for a while…” she admitted, lifting her left foreleg and lightly resting it on my back.
Nodding, I shifted on my hooves as the train started to slow, the ever so light vibrations of the breaks being felt through the floor by my rather delicate sensors. I closed my eyes, the vibrations synching up around me and rebuilding the cabin for a moment through sound scans alone, shifting outside to show the tracks zipping by. I ‘looked’ ahead of myself, my positioning software giving me the estimated distance to Ponyville, then calculating out visually where it was, mapping the track under us. I smiled, feeling it mapped out around me. There was no need for me to hide it anymore, now. Plus, with my new sensations and memories from my time as Azure, I felt more in tune with my less organic parts. More comfortable with them.
My eyes opened again, blue this time as the two orbs melted out of my shoulders. The projections expanded to the walls, and my scans overlapped the area to seventy percent opacity, washing the walls out and showing the wireframe terrain moving past us as my particle scans picked up as well. Dash grinned instantly, turning around and rotating to look around at the terrain as it zipped past. The others looked about, too, Spike hopping down to the floor and spinning in a fast circle, looking surprised. I relaxed, giving a smaller smile before nodding. “I… It doesn’t matter so much anymore. I feel more like me, regardless of the mechanical parts inside of me…” I finally admitted, looking around as the projections flowed around us. The display held no useful value apart from blatantly displaying my own cybernetic existence, and it felt oddly good to just declare it finally.
Applejack, who prior looked around with a frown, glanced over at me, then shifted to a smaller smile. "Ah think Ah understand. It's all about figurin' out who ya are, then bein' happy with it. It's ah lot harder than it sounds," she admitted, giving a soft chuckle afterwards. It sounded remarkably like she was speaking from experience, which surprised me a little. She always felt like the one who knew exactly what she wanted and was doing.
I nodded to myself, closing my eyes again as I turned the projection off. The train slowed more, the vibrations lessening around us. I felt her get closer without needing to look, and she gave a warm giggle, nuzzling into my neck. “Mmm, it’ll be okay. We’re right with you now,” Fluttershy assured, her breath on my fur. I relaxed a little, not realizing I had been holding my legs taut, and opened my eyes again, giving the yellow mare a gentle smile.
Rarity was on the other side of her, and gave a little giggle at that. “I’m not sure, Fluttershy. He’s not the only one with a bit of news to share,” she reminded playfully, causing a flash of pink to go through the pegasus’ cheeks.
Chuckling at that, I repeated, “It’ll be okay. I’ll be there for you, too.” She gave me a softer smile and nod as the train slowed to a stop. Twilight caught up to my right as Rainbow and Pinkie shot towards the side door to the car we were in. Giving a final little sigh, I walked up towards them as they each opened one of the doors.
My eyes widened, and to my utter surprise, the sounds of cheering blasted me first, then flurries of motion reaching my eyes. There were at least four dozen ponies on the train platform, most of them cheering happily. Cameras flashed, and balloons drifted over the crowd. To my surprise, banners were strewn over in a slew of colors, loudly pronouncing, “Welcome to Ponyville, DReg!” Oh…
* * * * *
Slowly backing up, I lined up the two carts with the metal poles stuck into the ground. The tent was a temporary one, but covered essentially the entire foundation of the barracks as it was under construction. I gave a nod, and both Big Mac and Noteworthy started slowly backing them into place inside the tent. It wouldn’t do for the armor and equipment to get rained on.
The six or seven guards already inside started unloading, and I walked forward again, helping the two stallions unhook themselves from each cart. Ponies were everywhere, which unnerved me a little, admittedly, a few members of the crowd having just followed us back to the unloading point. Mayor Mare still stood near, smiling pleasantly as she continued to talk.
“I fully encourage this, of course, both for the prosperity of Ponyville due to the sudden influx of new faces, and the level of safety it presents. It’s an assurance that brings a lot of peace of mind, especially over the events of the last few weeks,” she assured gently, the newspaper reporter standing right next to her and eagerly writing things down on the notepad floating next to her.
Smiling as Mac gave me a grin and nod, I let him step out of the harness before moving over to help Noteworthy with his last chest strap. “It’s not just Ponyville that we’re securing, obviously, but yes, it goes without saying that our response time if anything does happen, mundane or otherwise, is going to be much greater here,” I assured, carefully selecting my words to try to remain as diplomatic as possible. The press conference yesterday still had me on edge.
The mayor giggled instead, and nodded. “Of course. I’m sure you’re aware of how morale functions, though, even on a large civilian populous. It’s peace of mind, seeing something visually being done,” she assured, nodding twice to me.
Lyra, standing a few meters behind her, coughed lightly. “Uh, actually, a good chunk of us weren’t that bothered. Sure, the Everfree Forest is kinda creepy, and we don’t get lockdowns like that very often, but really, it was only a single explosion and a few roars. How many times has the town suffered massive collateral damage in the last few years?” she suggested, raising a skeptical eye towards the mayor, who suddenly sighed wearily. Uh, what…?
“Regardless,” the mayor quickly interrupted, then continued, “As you can plainly see, nopony here has the slightest problem with who you are. Princess Celestia herself has entrusted you with the responsibilities, and she’s an excellent judge of character, so I fully trust you with it. I’m also fairly sure I speak for everypony here with that.”
I relaxed a little, then smiled and nodded to her. Lyra nodded as well behind her, then gave me a grin, surprising me a little. She must have finally forgiven me for that whole ‘urine’ incident. Of course, knowing my backstory might have put it into better perspective, anyway. Bon Bon nodded along next to her, then added, “I agree. We already had a certain view of you around town, and instead of forming opinions about you based off the information, it really just added to it.”
I blinked, a little uncertain to that, and Lyra gave her a skeptical glance, then assured, “Adding to the already positive opinions of you, she means.” Ooooh.
“Well, yeah, that’s what I said,” Bon Bon assured, earning a light glare from the mare next to her, then an eye roll.
Twilight snickered as she looked over the checklist she’d started, still standing on top of Big Mac’s cart and taking inventory of it. “Regardless, we’re well on track with DReg itself. Supplies are in order, and everything is actually ahead of schedule. The barracks should be finished within the week, and then we start construction on the laboratory vault that’s going to go under it…” she revealed, looking her list over again.
I glanced to my right a little ways, noting we were about halfway between Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres now. The farm was about three kilometers from town, so this was a safe distance away, if something really did go wrong in the lab, which was doubtful. And ‘under’ the barracks was also relative, given it would be quite a ways under, and larger than the barracks itself. Plus the entrance was actually going to be on the other side of the path we were on. Well, road really, despite being dirt. I supposed it would need to have nice upkeep if heavy apple carts were heading up and down it.
Speaking of Apples, Applejack slid a rather large crate across the path, pushing it into the area where the other hole was starting to get dug. “Eeyup! Ah wouldn’t mind havin’ ah better road into town, that’s fer sure,” she admitted, pushing the box along with her head.
Mayor Mare nodded, assuring, “This road will be upgraded to cobble next summer, all the way to the farm. It’ll need it for the heavier supplies, regardless.” I didn’t have the heart to mention that the road would probably be obliterated by then anyway, due to the construction supplies already set to travel down it. Especially in the winter. Applejack snickered at the news a moment later.
“Ha! That’ll be somethin’, that’s fer sure. Things are definitely changin’ around here,” she admitted, trotting back up to us before looking towards me instead. “Ah think, even if ya don’t think yer deservin’ o’ tha title, yer good fer it regardless. Ya just don’t have confidence in yerself…” she pointed out, frowning finally.
My first instinct was to agree, which might have said something about her statement by itself. I shrugged lightly, and Twilight snickered again. I kind of wished that Fluttershy was here now. Rarity had taken her back to the Boutique about twenty minutes ago, along with Pinkie, who I more understood was just walking with them. I looked up at Rainbow, who was still here and helping the guards adjust the tent canvas. Surprisingly, Spike was still here, too, holding another list while sitting on top of Noteworthy’s cart instead. I would have figured he’d have left with Rarity, but apparently he was still loyal to Twilight, too. I tried not to snicker out loud…
Applejack scratched her chin lightly while looking around, however, drawing my attention back to her. After a moment, she noticed my stare and gave me a soft grin. "Ah, Ah was just thinkin'..." she started.
"Uh oh..." Big Mac murmured, smiling gently as he trotted up next to me.
She shot him a scowl, then added, "Shush you!" I personally didn't think she should be encouraging him to say even less than he normally did. It didn't take her long to recover, and she continued instead with, "Ah was thinkin', maybe if ya dabble ah bit more inta yer Earth Pony roots, ya might feel more at home an' comfortable with yerself."
I raised an eyebrow, but she lifted her hoof and gestured past me, pointing across the path to one of the wild apple trees that was growing in the cleared out area where they started the other construction site. The ‘wild’ trees dotted the area close to Sweet Apple Acres, and were sprinkled liberally throughout Whitetail Woods, if I remembered correctly. It was one of those that I'd gotten my first meal in Equus from. I looked back at her, but she stepped past me and trotted over to the tree instead.
Unsure of where she was going with this, I shrugged and followed after her, both of us also earning interested stares from the mayor and Twilight. Applejack looked up into the tree a moment later, then smiled upwards before turning and facing me again. I slowed as I approached, then blinked as she flicked her leg back and whacked the base of the tree. It shook momentarily, then I was surprised as a single apple detached and fell. She held her right hoof up, and it landed in it a moment later, causing her to grin.
"It ain't luck. Ah'm real good at harvestin'. Sync with tha tree an' ya can make tha vibrations go right where ya want it. Simplest step is ta knock as many apples down as ya can," she suggested, stepping aside and sitting down, gesturing towards the tree with her other hoof. Oh.
My mind did the calculations, and suddenly started reeling as I realized how absurd it was to 'cast' a magical effect in the very instant of physically bashing something. Not only did the timing of the energy release have to be flawless, but you needed amazing focus in order to pull it off that quickly.
She gave me a nod as I walked up next to her, then slowly turned around. "Good. Yer not used ta it, so fer now, back up an' keep testin' how far back yer legs extend. Ya wanna be able ta mostly extend yer leg, but just shy o' fully extendin' it, with yer hoof just ah little higher up tha tree than yer back reaches," she explained. I looked behind me, trying to gauge it, and she smiled, then whipped the apple over towards her brother, who surprisingly, caught it in his teeth rather expertly.
With both hooves free, Applejack slid closer to me and set them against my hip and shin at the same time, carefully lifting my leg back while helping me keep my balance. "Right 'ere,” she announced, touching my hoof against the rough bark before nodding and explaining, “Just enough fer maximum impact without ah full extension, which can hurt yer joints.” Oh, right.
I nodded to her, lowering it and then raising it up a few times while watching, the hoof pushing into the bark of the tree. She watched for a moment, then gave a smile and nod, leaning back again and sitting normally. “Just try whackin’ it ah few times ta get the feel fer it,” she suggested. Big Mac slowly walked over as well, still carrying the apple before sitting down to watch. His hoof lifted up to support the red fruit before taking a crunching bite out of the side of it.
Leaning back a bit, I lashed my leg out and whacked the tree lightly with my hoof. As anticipated, there was no give at all, and I felt the vibration go through my ankle and down my shin bone instead. Applejack gave a nod, then appended, “Eeyup. Double kicks apply more vibrations fer ya ta use. Try one o’ those. Ya basically end up with yer hooves restin’ against tha tree, then ya ease yerself back inta a standin’ position.”
Giving her a nod, I reared back instead with both back legs and extended out, whacking my hooves into the tree. It gave over double the amount of impact by the feel of it, but it wasn’t enough to actually knock any apples down. I blinked, then realized I was still propped against the tree and stretched out rather unsteadily. Tipping, I tried to lower my hooves to the ground, then squeaked as I slipped. The world rolled over for me, and I landed on my back instead in a dull thud, having done a complete front roll.
Applejack’s face slipped into my vision, giving me a warmer smile as she looked down at me, despite the hysterical laughing in the background coming from Rainbow. “Okay, that was mah fault. Ah shoulda warned ya ta get ah little closer ta tha tree first. Probably ah silly question, but ya all right?” she asked, tilting her head a little.
“Mmm, I think I dropped my pride somewhere in the roll. Could you pick it up and put it back in for me?” I asked, giving a sheepish smile upwards. She snickered, then hooked my foreleg with hers, pulling me back up to my hooves.
“Ah think Twi or Flutters are better equipped with helpin’ put yer ego back in. Let’s try that again, only with ya closer this time,” she suggested, giving a nod as I moved closer to the tree again. I felt my cheeks heat a little, but I just rolled my eyes and backed up a little closer this time.
With a little huff, I defended, “I’m not only about romance. I enjoy your friendships, too, you know.” Lining up again, I reared once more, making sure I was closer to the tree this time.
Applejack’s eyes widened, and she shouted, “Wait, you’re too-“ I gave a startled jump at her outburst, then widened my eyes as my hooves hit the tree before my legs even fully extended. Missing their mark, a hoof went to either side of the tree instead, and I unfortunately kept going.
Everything exploded into a flurry of agony and fireworks, and I vaguely remembered falling forward and onto my side, tucking up into a ball. It felt like someone had driven a railroad spike through my navel with a sledgehammer. Sounds were echoing for a moment, my ears ringing as I gritted my teeth, sort of feeling like throwing up now.
“….close ta tha tree…” Applejack finished, a slow ten seconds later before shivering. “An’ right in tha apples,” she appended, wince visible on her face through my eyes’ sudden blurriness.
Big Mac nodded next to her with an, “Eeyup.” I vaguely heard distant hysterical laughter from Rainbow somewhere, and both Spike and Twilight ran up into my vision a few seconds later, both looking worried. I stayed curled up, though, guarding my poor, sensitive bits from any additional trauma. Okay, I was going to look into ways of armoring that part of me as well with the dermal layers!
Twilight slipped around behind me, gently starting to rub at my flank next to my back right thigh. I shivered, her working along where it hurt the most, interestingly enough, as if she actually knew where- No, wait. I halted that thought immediately, realizing it was Twilight I was talking about, and chances are, she’d already researched it somehow at some point.
“No… pretty sure that was my fault,” I admitted, voice a little raspy as I winced. Slowly, I shakily got back up to my hooves, then glared up at the tree instead. My fault, and those damn apples! Ever since arriving here, they in particular had had it out for me! Personally, I was under the opinion that the fruit was evil now.
It cut Applejack’s next statement off, however, and she huffed, crossing her forelegs. “Fine, ya caught me before Ah could apologize. Still, Ah shoulda warned ya!” she defended, giving me a little glare. I smirked over at her, and it melted, causing her to start snickering instead.
Looking back up at the tree, I sighed and shook my head. “I think I’m going to have to get better at not maiming myself during the kicks before I can even try to mix in Earth Pony magic…” I admitted, exhaling softly as the still snickering Rainbow flew in, with Mayor Mare and the press reporter following. This better not end up in the newspaper!
“Ya okay, Mender?” Dash asked, landing lightly to my other side. I gave her a soft nod, then looked back up at the tree, my eyes narrowing again. Applejack raised an eyebrow up, but I touched my left hoof against the bark of the tree. A magical barrier formed, sliding up the bark and growing in a line all the way up to level off with the apples.
“Yup, but my pride refuses to leave without getting at least one of the apples down,” I admitted, earning a snicker from the orange mare behind me. Twilight just smiled and looked up as well, watching my magic with as much curiosity as she normally gave it, especially knowing that it was a ‘different’ way of casting from what she was used to. I knew what it was like to be fascinated by anything ‘new’. I’d been getting that particular feeling a lot in the last month or so.
Rainbow started giggling after, and pointed out, “Hey, you’ve got the Earth Pony stubbornness down already.” I raised an eyebrow to her, but Applejack snickered, trotting to the other side of me to where Dash was.
“Ah dunno, Dashie. Stubbornness is kind of a pegasus thing, too, ain’t it?” she pointedly asked, smirking at the mare. She got a mildly annoyed glare in return before Rainbow stuck her tongue out. Applejack pounced in that instant, pressing her muzzle right up against Rainbow’s, and I was fairly certain I saw her take the entire tongue into her mouth at the same time. The pegasus flushed instantly, eyes widening, and I snickered and turned away, trying not to lose my focus on my magic.
Extending the shield out after regaining my attention, I slipped it forward and circled it around the stem of the apple that was lowest hanging. Smiling, I held my other hoof up under it, and closed the circle off, giving it a little snip and letting the apple fall…
Or at least, that’s what my intention was. The shield closed entirely, becoming a solid plane of force, and the apple just sat there, not caring at all. I blinked once, staring at the strangely defiant fruit. The hell? Opening the barrier up again, I closed it once more, again feeling it connect through the center, but nothing actually happened. Twilight raised an eyebrow, then looked over at me curiously. I glared at it. It was mocking me. I just knew it!
Getting a bit upset now, I withdrew the barrier a third of a meter or so, then instead swung it sideways into the apple’s stem like a sword. It passed through entirely, going out the other side, and yet, the apple just sat there. Giving a little growl, I swung again at it, then again, this time passing it through the apple itself. The apple simply didn’t care, laughing silently at me from its high perch as the barrier seemed to just pass right through it. Arg!
Twilight watched, eyes suddenly starting to widen. Huh?! I looked back up at the apple, noticing that its inner red color was starting to get… brighter almost. I frowned until I noted the red tint spreading over the branch as well, as ambient light. The apple was glowing? Well, that had never happened befo-
The lavender unicorn smashed into my shoulder a moment later. My eyes widened as I in turn hit Rainbow and Applejack, and then our world imploded inwards, falling away momentarily as the air was pulled away from us. We popped like a bubble a second later, landing in a heap way over by the tent for the barracks instead. I blinked, watching the mayor and reporter landing behind Twilight, the unicorn’s tail brushed up against them, and I frowned, looking questioningly at her.
Her shield went up a moment later, covering us. My eyes widened, and I instinctively tossed mine up, too, just as the entire tree across the street exploded into a giant fireball, wood splinters raining across both our barriers as the wave of heat actually raised the temperature around us. My eyes widened and jaw dropped, looking at the huge cloud of dirt and debris, as a miasma of flame and bits of tree rained from the sky. W-What?! How?! But… why?!
The ringing in my ears finally died down, and I blinked twice, still holding my shield up as flakes of dirt and burnt wood fell down around us. Applejack sat up slowly, still holding an equally stunned looking Rainbow, and stared at the new crater, dumbfounded. I didn’t even know where to begin understanding what just happened.
Spike blinked twice, looking up from his spot on Twilight’s back and raised an eyebrow to the massive hole. “Huh,” he finally muttered, breaking the stunned silence of the group. Everypony looked over to him, and he just shrugged idly. “Eh, at least you blew up the right spot. Now they don’t have to dig the rest of the hole down,” he pointed out a moment later. Twilight slapped herself in the forehead with her hoof…
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what
i.imgur.com/iMtqa1d.jpeg
Waaaaait, was that BEID's doing? The're stooping to terrorism? Pitiful.
6146103
Indeed.
What?
Exploding trees. Huh.
... And how exactly was Mender expected to pick a particular apple from this tree?
Or are ALL the trees booby trapped? Applejack won't be too happy about that...
And with all of Mender's cybernetics, nothing warned him about an unexpected and dangerous temperature increase? Not to mention the presence of explosives (though I guess it could have been purely magic)?
Totally worth losing a little sleep for this.
Really cute scene with Derpy, she's great at the warm fuzziness.
good job keep it up
6146362
Those kind of countermeasures are only really much use if they are active. Mender was not expecting someone to try and kill him with explosives, so those systems weren't active at the time.
Loving the long chapters
... Explain. NOW
And so the true bad guys have been revealed. The Grosh are actually... apples. They have two ways of attacking: Exploding, or indirectly attacking YOUR apples.
Thats just mean, leaving us hanging like that. I'm going to tell those apples to go get you. :)
... the fuck just happened?
I'm so confused...
intriguing
6146622 So I guess Mender should ask BEID nicely to warn him ahead of time in the future?
Systems made to detect threats that don't actually detect threats are not terribly useful.
okay, so his magic is unstable enough to make apples explode if it comes into contact with them? strange, yet somehow useful information, he can carry around apples, and use them as grenades if it ever comes to that
or is it only while its attached to the tree it will blow up? in which case he would need to carry around an entire tree, with some water some sort of light source and some dirt for it, which should easily fit inside of him, if i'm remembering right.. the possibilities! and what about oranges, and other fruits! oh god the possibilities!
If I can do this with an apple, just think what Ic an do with the whole tree.
That was lucky. things couldve gone so very much worse.
As in crater from Sweet Apple Acres to Ponyville worse.
On the keldarian side, they use a suplemented ruptured warpcore to cause a dimentional breech, Mender just needs a barrel of apples?
What just happened
And that's why Magic isn't allowed on the apple farm.
6147650
What I meant was that Mender was sure that BEID wouldn't try something so brazen in broad daylight with such a high risk for collateral damage. He didn't have his defenses active because he didn't think that they would stoop to such lows.
Another enjoyable chapter. Love the scene with Derpy. Apples would rather explode than be harvested by Mender. Good job.
So now we can add trees to the list of things the universe wants to use to punish mender for the mere act of existing... maybe next the ground will just collapse for under him where ever he goes like a moving sinkhole, or have flowers launch pollen surgical strikes on his sinuses...
Whelp. That just happened.
I thought it was just the cherries we had to look for.
Mender needs to appoint Applejack to official apple picking pony for DReg. she's the only one who can safely pick explosive apples without anybody getting exploded
Wait... are his barriers now severing subatomic particles or something? Cause if that's what just happened everyone's kinda
now. What with the nuclear explosion right next to them and Ponyville. Or maybe Malice/the universe/Murphy just isn't done with him yet.
My guess as to what happened is that Mender's barrier reacted with whatever Applejack does to get the trees to grow. Remember that earth ponies use magic in their crops, and that it has been previously confirmed that Mender's magic can have an explosive reaction with Equestrian magic, depending upon the spells used. Mender has already blown a chandelier up, and has not really figured out what exactly caused the reaction, nor does he really understand earth pony magic. The apples probably didn't explode when he was trying to knock them down because any magic he might have been using was of earth pony origin, and would thus not react.
So, innuendo in there somewhere? I get the impression there should be.
6151549 only problem is that was supposedly a wild apple tree so not one the Apple family planted
6153101
It was near Apple land, and seeing as they were using it for practice, it is probable that Applejack had harvested that tree (and several others) before, which provided a base of "Equestrian" magic. Then there is the fact that Mender himself was using earth pony magic (or at least trying to) on that tree right before he used Keldarian magic. Add all those factors together, plus the fact that it is an established fact that magic permiates everything in the Equestrian universe, and you have more than enough of both types of magic for a reaction.
New from Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Grenades!
orig11.deviantart.net/205f/f/2013/342/5/4/how_do_you_like_them_apple_grenade___clean__by_supermariokingdom-d6x5q1e.jpg
An explosion of flavor!
Now, I'm not a botanist, a biologist, or a farmer, but I'm pretty sure apples aren't supposed to do that.
And a welcome party? Your hometown does you proud, Pinkie.
o-o
ill take two
Finally, i'm caught up!
After so long!
But now I have nothing to do
Can't wait for the actual training of the guards! And the weapons n stuff from R&D!
Wow I finally reached the "waiting for update" wall.
Need more chapters !
I.... I just .....I ...but....,..WHAT HAPPENED!!!!
I needs to know
Hmm... now did that tree explode because of Mender... or was it another BEID agent trying to off him?
I am very confused and apple tree exploded