//------------------------------// // Superiority // Story: My Little Engineer // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// Pilot’s Log Date: 01/04/2406 15:02 Sir, we watched the land as the note suggested and noticed a fissure originating from the Smoky Mountains. Following that, we found a spot where the fissure split around a small plot of land. We got in closer and found traces of there having been an encampment recently torn down; fires still burning. Spitfire reported from the back seat while Dash acted as Navigator for me as we circled around a seemingly random portion of land. As the pony had described, a rather impressive fissure in the ground had formed but left an almost perfectly round pillar of ground a good couple dozen meters in diameter. At the center of the pillar was what looked like a recently burned out pile of ash and embers with faint traces of smoke rising in the wind. From Dash, We believe that Twilight’s captors are still somewhere in the area. They can’t have gone far since we found the area. I agreed to myself and lifted the ship from its hovering position above the ground and activated the turrets on the sides of the ship. They were still empty but I had to have added the ponies as a friendly faction to me so hopefully Twilight wouldn’t get too terribly shot up. Relying on the Turret’s auto-enemy targeting system, I scanned the area for any sign of the targeting reticules until I found a fairly decent cluster of them behind and to the right of us. Spinning the craft around on it’s axis, I loaded up the main gatling cannons still on the nose of my ship and began my descent. “Dash, you broadcast an immediate surrender of everything down in front of us. Spitfire, you man one of the turrets and prepare to open fire if things go wrong.” I ordered as the exhaust of the vertical engines did work in clearing away most of the brush hiding the potential enemy. Both ponies acknowledged my command and a short notification that someone had begun operating a turret appeared to my left before being cleared away. Coming in down as close as I could without actually landing, I took aim at a large group of ponies guarded by what looked like a platoon of griffon mercenaries judging by their armour. Peering into the group, I spotted Twilight Sparkle bagged and being towed along by chains from her back and neck in the middle of the group; probably keeping her from flying off. The magnified down of Dash’s language told me she was demanding surrender even if I couldn’t understand anything at all. I could, however, understand the drawn flintlock firearms being aimed at the ship. “Tell them if they open fire that it will be a declaration of war against me and that they will not survive.” I ordered as my fingers sat ready on the firing trigger of the gun’s control stick. Dash probably cooperated and reciprocated my orders to a language the bird could understand, however many of the griffons merely grinned or snarled back at me in reply. Failing diplomacy, I twisted the ship enough to line up three sure kills with the gatlings without harming Twilight. Still, she’d likely to suffer terminal injuries if I just sprayed wildly. “Twilight Sparkle, get down!” I shouted and gave Dash just enough time to echo me before I opened fire on the birds and their compatriots. The three guns at my disposal whirred to life before spewing hot magnesium and quite easily shredded through the birds before me. Tilting up a quarter of a degree I ensured that while I could hit the taller enemies that now fled before me, I wouldn’t hit the shorter ones; primarily being Twilight who was now on her belly and probably screaming at the noise. Letting up on the trigger let the barrels cease their spinning and let them cool a few seconds to that I could spin the aircraft to bear the turret Spitfire was on towards the enemies. Setting the craft down, Spitfire opened fire on the remaining birds now in the air and trying to line up potshots on the craft. Were they any lower to the ground, they would’ve only had one turret to worry about but the higher the ascended, the likelier they were to trigger the- and now the top mounted turret automatically opened fire. Popping open my own canopy with the turrets providing covering fire, I leapt down from the craft with my suit retrieving my rifle so I could cover myself on my race to retrieve the Princess. Crossing the few meters between the ship and Twilight took a matter of seconds with the adrenaline-fueled sprint I was in and I soon slid to a halt next to the cowering pony. Reaching down and scooping her up off the ground, I had to fight her resistances before I tugged the hood off to let her get a look at her new captor turned rescuer. Launching back into another sprint, I aimed for the back of the craft where Spitfire was waiting to receive the princess and got her loaded into the craft. Once she was secured and babbling away into Spitfire’s forelegs, I returned to the cockpit with a burst of assistance from my jetpack and quickly sat myself down in my seat. I didn’t even wait to strap myself in before the canopy lowered itself back down and enclosed my space so I could take off from the ground and shoot up into the air. “Next stop, Canterlot! Have Twilight give Celestia a message that we’ve got her!” I ordered and gunned the engines to maximum thrust once I’d disabled the turrets on the ship to keep from shooting anything I wasn’t supposed to. Rounding past the Smoky Mountains, I came upon what looked like nothing less than the griffon’s entire air force spread out before me and armed with their pathetic weapons. Piling on the brakes, I lifted the nose to get as much stopping force as I could before coming to a full stop in the air before the massive flock. What’s going on up there? Spitfire demanded as she and Twilight recovered from the sudden stop; I could still see what they were doing through the cabin-facing camera mounted in the back. “We’ve got company. Apparently the griffons weren’t keen on losing their bargaining chip. Keep Twilight safe while Dash and I work on breaking through the legion before us.” I ordered and reactivated the turrets. Immediately, all three turrets -one gatling and the other two anti-ship cannons- found their targets and began to open fire in the strange auto-targeting parameters they had. I pushed hard on the accelerator and advanced on the birds, opening fire on them with my own guns while they scattered to make themselves harder targets to hit. Didn’t matter, the turrets all had perfect aim and soon explosions of bodies and shrapnel began to rock the ship as the closer shells and bullets exploded near to the craft. The sound of small mettal pinging against the hull told me that the remaining birds had opened fire on me and judging from the fact that I could no longer see the griffons meant that they were either beside me where they could get a lucky shot off on Twilight and Spitfire, or they were directly behind me and soon to be shredded by gatling and 204mm rounds. “This is ridiculous! You’re just stalling!” The griffon ambassador shrieked, bashing his fist on the stone top of the conference table. It’d only been ten minutes since the suit had disappeared from the room and only eight minutes since the Griffon’s tried to end negotiations so they could solidify Equestria’s step down from the colony ship. “Yes! We are! We’re waiting for the pilot to get back to make final changes to the agreed upon negotiations!” Luna shouted back while Celestia merely rested her chin on her hooves which were crossed over the table. Luna had grown to be Celestia’s voice in the new heated debate about how long to wait for the suit and so Celestia was more than content to just lounge around with the other delegates who’d agreed to wait for the return of the suit; and the return of Twilight Sparkle. “I demand that we finalize these negotiations now, or do you not wish for the safe return of your princess?” the griffon demanded with a grin as a few griffons behind him pressed a claw to their ear before losing their smugness. “Oh, I’m most than certain that my sister will be returned safely and without Equestria giving up their seat on the ship.” Shining Armour announced as he trotted back and forth behind his seat. “The looks of confusion on your group’s faces says that we’re already making headway.” “What?” the ambassador nearly lost his feathers as he wheeled on his party expectantly. “What’s the matter?” “Sir,” the lead of the group whispered back, “It seems that we’ve already lost the hostage. Our eighth airborne fleet is engaging some kind of strange flying craft and can’t shoot it down!” “Hah!” Luna grinned maliciously. “We told you! You will not having the Equestrian’s seats on the colony ship! We have Twilight back! Our negotiations with the Griffon Nation are hereby voided!” “Nonsense! Unless I see Princess Twilight here in this room of her own free will, the negotiations will stand!” “Sir!” the radio operator now shrieked. “Our entire eighth aerial fleet has been wiped out!” “Everyone alright back there?” I demanded as the guns just now clicked empty even if the notifications to my left didn’t tell me as much. The last of the griffon bodies was still in freefall and was due to become food for the scavengers below, whatever they may be in the crazy land. Rainbow Dash, reporting no injuries. I’m fine. Dash announced from behind me through written word. Spitfire here with Twilight, we’re fine. We should get a move on back to Canterlot before more show up. Spitfire reported and let me release a breath to myself before giving a light chuckle. Gunning the accelerator, I disabled the inertial dampeners and let the air wings take over the job of lift as we aimed back around the mountain peaks for the relatively close city on yet another mountain. ~~~ “So, I hear you’ve demanded that Equestria be removed from my Colony Ship to make room for more of you?” I demanded as I stomped back into the conference room. My arrival had had the intended effect of raising everyone to whatever forms of legs they had. At my left stood a proud pair of Rainbow Dash and Spitfire, both still in their flight suits while Twilight stood on my right looking worse for wear but upright and glad to be out of captivity. “What! This isn’t possible, we had our very best guarding her!” the griffon ambassador shrieked through translation to me. The Griffon’s language seemed to have less telepathic underlays and so the Rosetta Stone had been able to provide vocal translations to me. Of course, that meant that anything any griffon said was in a woman’s voice but ehh, i’m not complaining. “They weren’t very good then, sorry to say.” I replied with my words being translated to their language. This meant that I could kind of speak in the griffon language and no longer needed to translate my words to the Equestrians unless I had much to say (Longer speeches still freaks out the software every now and then.) I still had to translate their words to Enhance Galactic English, but this wasn’t much more than a mild inconvenience. Twilight! Are you alright? Cadance demanded as she and her partner galloped hard from the table to sweep Twilight off her hooves to begin their inspections for injury. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you. Thanks for getting me out of there, I don’t know what I would’ve done if the Equestrian nation had been successfully kicked off the Colony Ship at my expense. Twilight replied as she gave her brother and sister-in-law both hugs at once. The rest of the room seemed content with just watching the events transpiring before them and so remained otherwise quiet. “Princess Twilight,” The Minotaur Prime Minister announced as the smallest princess was escorted towards the table with Spitfire, Dash and myself acting as guard from the Griffons. “A pleasure to meet you again. I’m glad to see you healthy.” Well, healthy enough to walk and talk anyways. The Griffons kept me drugged on some kind of Zebric drug that inhibits magic. Twilight replied as I took my previous seat at the table next to the Prime Minister, who offered a fist bump in congratulation. The looks on Luna, Celestia and Cadance’s faces as they stared down the Griffons were wonderfully revenge-filled. Ah yes, I know this drug well. It purifies all traces of Xenon from the system, preventing the creature from casting any magic. The Zebric representative announced as she dug around in her robes. Pulling a flask of some kind of green liquid from a pocket, she set in on the table to be retrieved by Celestia who offered the drink to Twilight. This will kickstart the recollection process for your magic but ultimately it will be only a matter of time before your magic replenishes itself.  You have the thanks of the Equestrian government. Luna announced, earning similar nods from Dragon Lord Ember and the Prime Minister. Twilight took the vial with a thankful nod before popping the cap with her teeth and quaffed the entire thing in one go. I, on the other hand, was making notes that the unknown system in the ponies bodies were actually their magical systems and that it did actually rely on the heavy presence of Xenon, as Vinyl and I had suspected. “Right then,” I clasped my hands with a clap, gaining everyone’s attention. “The matter of dealing with the Griffons.” “I vote they’re kicked off the Colony Ship like they attempted to do with the Equestrians.” the Prime Minister announced, looking over everything gathered with an arm resting on the table. Even hunched over, the bull was massive in comparison to myself and the horns on his head gave even the Dragon Lord a run for her money. I agree, the Griffons should be forced to find their own way off the planet if they wish to survive. The red-shell Changeling nodded, narrowing his glowing eyes at the increasingly nervous griffon Ambassador. They deserve nothing less. “I disagree.” I announced, startling everyone at the table all at once. “I can’t agree that dooming an entire race to death is an option, even if the Griffon Ambassador had planned to do so himself. I am completely certain that among his race would be Equestrian sympathizers who would protest Equestria’s removal should his plan have worked.” So you would let this traitor on board your ship? Luna demanded, slamming a hoof down while pointing at the griffon and his company. I shook my head enough to get my helmet to move to show my disagreement again. “That one and his? They won’t even see the launch pad from a hundred kilometers. His kind, once we root out the friendly ones, sure.” I shrugged back with a sigh. “Tell me, Princess. Do you and your kind want to be responsible for the extinction of the Griffon Race?” Well, I suppose not, no. Luna sighed and slunk back down into her chair, defeated. Very well. It is ultimately your ship and we will refer to your wishes. Once Negotiations are finalized we will send an envoy to Griffonia to find Griffons loyal to the Equestrian Nation and start building a list. “Cool, thanks.” I offered a smile, a useless gesture since no one could actually see my face at the moment. “Now, I trust that appropriate trade negotiations have been made already, so all we need to do now is finalizations?” I inquired as the typist next to me passed me the many pages of agreements that I had to go through and sign. Later. All we need to know from you is how many seats there are on the ship and who you want to let on. Celestia replied as she pointed her horn at the stack of papers before me, directing my eyes back to the stack of paperwork I would now have to get through. Later. “Okay, well I’m not very good at personnel selection, so how about your best and brightest and their friends and family then draw lots for the remaining however many seats? I’ll have a better number of total available seats once construction actually begins in a few months.” I announced and took hold of the stack by the left side to leaf through the pages and let my suit’s VI upload images of each document to go through and give me the jist of the trades. “In a couple months? What more do you need to do first before you can start building the Colony ship?” The Prime Minister inquired as he and everyone else at the table watched me stand. Never mind that you yourself said that the planet only has at most a couple months before the destabilization becomes more severe. At most, half a year to a year before the planet completely dies off. Luna too stood and approached me, halting my momentum from exiting. “You’re kidding right?” I demanded, rounding on everyone with a look of incredulity. “We all have so much to do before I can even start the Space Docks to build the damn thing! We’ve gotta mine as much material resources as we possibly can in the span of three months, I have to build orbit-capable ships to get those materials up there, I’ve gotta train an entirely new fleet of pilots capable of piloting those craft, I need someone to design the damn Space-Docks in the first place since i’ve got no intergalactic Internet connections any more…” I scoffed mildly before turning away and exiting from the room. Shouting back so the Prime Minister could translate for me, “We all can’t remain sitting on our asses talking anymore! Get busy!”