1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean
20th of Megan, 17 EoH
A torrent of rain beat down on the white sand beach, covering the island in a static-like hissing rumble. Palm fronds twitched and shook under the impact of truly massive raindrops, while the trunks bent slightly in the rumbling gusts of winds which washed over the small island. The wind whipped up the waves, making the top of each crest froth and foam, even before the waves broke upon the shore.
The tide was coming in, and it was carrying something with it.
Or rather, somepony.
The waves washed over Rarity, pushing her limp body over the wet sand and further up the beach. The large wood and vinyl seat she had been strapped to lay next to her, the strap having been bitten through while drifting through the sea.
Rarity arrived on the beach thanks to a stroke of luck. Not good luck, or bad luck. Neutral luck, both good and bad. A chance encounter with a sea creature had pinned her right side to the seat, and stained most of her snow white fur a dull red.
The rain slammed into her still form for some time before she stirred. Coughing and sputtering, the gravely injured mare attempted to stand, but found she could not. A rippling line of dagger-like pain shot down her side the moment she tried to stand, and to make matters worse she couldn’t get her right legs to move at all. Her vision spun and stretched, her head pounded angrily, and her right side burned as if on fire.
A feeble whimper escaped her lips. Less the sound of a person in distress, more the sound of an animal in great pain. The mare was in shock, most of her brain simply shut down for the sake of survival. With some luck, she would never remember these first few minutes on the beach.
Now conscious, Rarity lay on the beach for several more minutes until her head cleared enough to try again. This time she reached over to her side, feeling around for the three objects she could feel pinning her to the bench. Feeling one under her hoof, she pulled on it, hissing in pain as it came free with a wet scrape.
She turned and looked at the small serrated object lying on the flat of her hoof. A shark’s tooth. And a rather large one at that.
A little voice in the back of Rarity’s mind called out to her in Twilight’s voice, telling her how lucky she was that most sharks could not safely eat a pony. Rarity snorted bitterly. She may not have been eaten, but she had been chewed. Badly.
Staring at the tooth, the full extent of Rarity’s injuries became apparent to her. Her mouth pulled into a worried frown, her eyes widened in fear. As quickly as she could, she removed the other two teeth from her side, and went to stand again, knowing she had to find help immediately.
She failed.
Her body still refused to stand. The right legs not moving at all. She could see her front right leg out of the corner of her eye. It was still attached. But she couldn’t tell exactly what by.
Deciding not to check on her hind leg, as she honestly did not want to know what was causing the numb feeling rather than the sharp burning pain her foreleg was in, Rarity took her two good legs and began to push herself slowly up the beach.
Centimeter by centimeter she crawled up the shallow slope, her fuzzy vision preventing her from seeing where she was going. All she knew was she needed to move up the shore. There had to be people here. People were everywhere. There had to be help.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sand turned to dirt. The dirt shortly turned to grass, and the grass even more swiftly became ferns and shrubs. Rarity kept crawling, hoping for something, anything which could be a sign of civilization. The faint sound of music, the smell of cooking food, the buzzing chatter of any language on Equis.
What she didn’t expect to find was a large, angular metal box, the size of a small bedroom. It appeared within her dim blurry vision as if from nowhere, sitting in the bottom of a shallow crater. A part of the airship? Perhaps, Rarity remembered having been in an airship, sometime ago. The details were as fuzzy as the world was dark, despite the blistering heat of the day.
Raising her good hoof, Rarity dragged herself down the crater rim, and tapped her hoof against the side of the box.
“Help…” She managed to croak.
The tormented and exhausted mare didn’t feel an ounce of surprise as the side of the pod slid open as she touched it. She simply couldn’t right now. Too little energy, too much effort.
“Help…” She gurgled again, looking into the brightly lit interior which to her eyes was confusingly dim.
“Fy søren!” A male voice exclaimed in nearly panicked alarm. “Vakker hvordan er du i live!?”
Rarity blinked slowly. She knew she knew that language, but couldn’t place it at all. What was-
Ah yes, the language Emerald Changelings spoke. Pinkie taught it to her. How did it go again?
Putting all of her mental facilities into speaking the foreign tongue, Rarity asked once more, “Help…”
“Good! Common language. Hold on, sir, I’m a healer. I’m going to move you. There’s plenty of medical supplies insid- Ooo… I’ll uh, I’ll figure out prosthetics once you are no longer bleeding out,” the voice said hissing in distress.
As Rarity finally fell into the dark pool of exhaustion, she swore she saw a pair of oddly slender taloned arms reaching out of the box towards her.
Rarity - 21st of Megan, 17 EoH
1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Unnamed Island, Celestial Ocean
I awoke slowly, like I was falling through a tub of molasses. I couldn’t see anything at all, not even blackness. I wasn't sure if my eyes were shut or something else was wrong with me. Nor could I figure it out.
Thinking was a little problematic in that I couldn’t do it. At all. My head was pounding, a fact which was really not helped by a constantly accelerating beeping noise echoing around me.
I could hear a very pleasant male voice, talking, presumably to himself, in a panicked and frustrated rambling way.
“Alright, we’re doing pretty good. And by pretty good, I mean pretty badly, just like in Nicaragua! Right. Okay. Calm down. You can figure this out. It’s just alien biology matching nothing on file, and a grievously injured patient.
“Okay, a piece of shrapnel coming out of you. Careful. Too fast? No? Okay good. Wait, the hell is that thing? Are you supposed to be sticking out of there like that? No… No that looks like foreign material too. Let’s just give it a pull-”
Immediate full body pain exploded all through my body. I wanted to scream but all I could do was gurgle. The beeping sound accelerated from ‘annoying’ to ‘Trying to get Dash to stay still to make her a dress’.
“Ahhh! Nope! That’s important! No! He’s fine, stop that beeping, you dick, he’s fine! ... Shut up!” The voice yelped in total panic.
The beeps suddenly transformed into one long single loud bleep.
“FUUUUUCK!” The voice screamed oddly faintly.
The world came back again. This time it decided to be extremely bright. Completely white in fact. A little voice in the back of my mind began to complain about the overuse of such an overpowering shade of white, demanding I find some darker hues to fill the area with. The rest of my mind, meanwhile, coordinated its efforts on orchestrating the most painful migraine imaginable.
To make matters worse the rapid beeps were back in force, louder than before. The mysterious male voice had also returned.
“Okay, round five,” he said sighing wearily. “Let’s see if I can fix this now that I’ve found the problem with your foreleg. If I can pull this off you’ll get to keep it, so here’s hoping…”
I heard a faint hum over the incessant beeping, and felt an odd tingling sensation in my shoulder. Oh! Was I in surgery? Yes, yes I must be. But why?
What had happened?
“Wait, what…” The surgeon explained in honest shock which transformed into the bubbling rage which can only be born from multiple prior failures. “It’s a ball joint!? But this muscle goes from here to… Here? Arrrrgh! Your species anatomy is so far removed from- Guh! That’s not a muscle that’s a fucking eel! Get the, FUCK, out of that teres minor!”
“Hurk!” I gurgled, the distress of hearing a surgeon scream that of all things being too terrifying for me to remain silent.
“You’re conscious!? Oh, god! Have more ketamine!” The surgeon yelped in fright.
Something pressed up against my neck. I felt a pinch and heard a sharp hiss of air. The world grew dim.
I gained consciousness yet again, this time the world had colors! Thank goodness, my inner muse had been terrified I would awaken to a wall of beige. Instead, I could see gray, and silver, and green, and a little blue.
No shapes, though, just colors. Blurry, blotchy, vaguely Poltrot painting like splashes of color. Quite pleasant, in my opinion.
And of course my surgeon was still here, and from the sounds of things had made some progress. His tone of voice was much happier sounding than before.
“Okay, that’s everything below the neck that I can save,” he sighed happily. “Now just to take care of the back of your head. I know you can’t move, but just in case you decide to make your horn glow and float all my tools around the pod again, please, hold, still.
“Got that? Okay, deep breath. I’m going in!”
I felt the combination of a hum and tingle again, this time around the back of my head, near where it joined the neck.
“It figures one would bite you ri- OH SWEET MOTHER OF FUCK!” He screeched in abject horror.
I felt my eyes widen in horror. What could possibly make him scream like that?
“There is a tooth! In your brain stem!” He exclaimed in a terrifying combination of panic, horror, and alarm. “I’m a field medic! I wasn’t trained for this! FUCK, EVERYTHING!”
I felt my ears droop in a mixture of fear and sympathy. “D-darling,” I croaked faintly. “I-i-it’s okay… Take… De-deep breath.”
“Yes!” He exclaimed worriedly. “Yes. I need to be calm. Cool. Collected. You’re absolutely right. I can’t do this if I’m shaking from stre- AHHHHH! You’re awake, again!? Why are you so resistant to general anesthesia?
“I’m so sorry, sir! I’d be executed for malpractice five times over now, I’ve had to work out your entire biology on the fly for the last three days straight!”
“I- it’s Miss, ac- actually,” I whispered hoarsely.
“Y-you’re female? Oh god! Then I made a HUGE mistake piecing your rear half together, I’ll just fix that- oh… I um, I couldn’t find a uterus. Shit!”
“Transgender female,” I managed to explain, the room growing dark again.
“Oh! Oh, thank god!” He practically sobbed. “N-not that I don’t sympathize with your condition, warships are traditionally female, but holy shit! You’re a MESS! I had to restart your heart eight times so far and I’m so happy I didn’t mess your parts up because it would mean I probably messed the rest of you up and-
“And you still have a fucking shark’s tooth, IN YOUR BRAIN STEM! How are you alive!? I- I shouldn’t be saying that. This is very unprofessional!
“Um, I’m putting you under again. Please, try and stay unconscious this time. I’m almost out of anesthesia…”
I smiled, amused by this entire macabre situation. Likely due to my condition. and whispered, “I’ll try my best, darling,” before blacking out again.
Rarity - 22nd of Megan, 17 EoH
1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean
“Miss? Are you awake?” My mysterious surgeon's voice asked through the odd haze which surrounded me.
I felt far more alert than before. My thoughts were forming clearly, and I could hold onto them as long as I wanted. While that blessing was rather nice, I could also feel lots of little aches and pains.
“I’m awake,” I replied evenly, trying to look around the foggy, dimly lit place I lay in.
My head, however, refused to move. As did everything else.
“Why can’t I move?” I asked with a fearful quiver.
“Do not be afraid, Miss,” he replied kindly, clearly doing his best to sound professional. “You are restrained for surgical purposes. I couldn’t work on your neck without your head being secure. You like to squirm. You’re still restrained for the moment because there’s more to be done.
“But, the critical stage is over! You’ll live. I have to be honest, I’ve had an extremely stressful two days of nonstop hard work, and I could most certainly have saved more of you if I hadn’t had to work out your anatomy on the fly. I’m afraid that while you are stable and can live in your present condition, you are also disabled.”
“D-disabled!?” I yelped, the fur on the back of my neck… Wait a minute, no, no it wasn’t standing. I couldn’t even feel it! “Oh… Oh, my… I- um, doctor, I can’t feel the back of my neck.”
“Um, yes, well, you don’t exactly have a back of the neck… Not at the moment,” he explained with an awkward cough.
“What happened to me? I remember being on an airship, but nothing else. Is this Shorefall? Did we crash?” I asked, doing my best to contain all of my panic.
Despite my best efforts, a good deal of it leaked out into my voice.
“I don’t know where the place you are talking about is, Miss. Sorry,” he apologized with a sigh that reminded me of Rainbow Dash when Twilight started her third bunny trail to explain something tangentially related to Rainbow’s original question. “As for what happened to you… Well, there was a mid-air collision. You fell into the sea, unconscious I hope, and were chewed up by a variety of marine life before washing ashore and somehow making your way to me.
“I don’t know how far I am from the shoreline, but with your condition, even a body length is a miracle. You’re a tough woman, Miss. Don’t let anyone say otherwise.”
“I- I was mauled? Oh… Oh dear…” I whimpered, feeling how badly scarred I most certainly had to be.
I was a vain mare, I fully admitted this to myself. But I never understood why that was a bad thing. I loved looking elegant and beautiful. Could I even hope to still do that?
My fears were smashed aside by the sudden realization that Lily could fix anything when I returned home.
“Well, I suppose I’ll have to carry on with my mission. A few bitemarks shouldn’t prevent me from retrieving that coral, and when I get home I have a doctor who I know can remove a few scars,” I said happily to myself, as well as to let the poor stallion know I would be alright.
I couldn’t remember exactly what he said but I knew the poor dear had been in quite the panic.
“No, the bite marks won’t be a problem,” he agreed. “But you have a fully detached left cornea, and are also missing two legs, a section of your right side, and a big chunk of your rearmost left knee.”
“Goodness!” I squeaked. “I- but… I need to… No…”
How could I get anywhere on two legs!?
“Equestria is doomed!” I sobbed, feeling tears run down my cheeks.
“Woah, there! Easy, Miss,” my surgeon soothed, resting a hoof, or possibly a talon on my shoulder in a comforting manner. “It’s okay. I am warming up the tools to make you prosthetics. You will be fully functional and mobile within a day. I promise.”
“You don’t understand!” I sniffed, ears falling flat. “I have to get halfway around the world, or my whole country could be taken over! And I need to bring back a critical part. That’s under water! I’ve seen prosthetics, I won't be able to swim with two legs on the same side made from wood, and it MUST be me who retrieves the coral or it will, simply, not, work at all!”
We were doomed! Whatever disaster befell us next would be our end. Unless we could be saved without the elements… But what if Tirek came back? Or what if Chrysalis wasn’t really dead?
“This is why I woke you up, Miss,” my surgeon chuckled. “I need to know what you need to be capable of doing. Swimming, easy enough. Perhaps some clarification is in order. I’m not allowed to give you anything which a civilian could not possess. That means no integrated weapons, and no performance beyond the norms for your species. But, all prosthetic replacements MUST perform everything the original body part could.
“I don’t know what your capabilities with your limbs are, and so I woke you up. I now know that you can swim, so I will seal the electronics with enough waterproofing for say… Hmm… Two kilometers should do, right?”
I blinked, then cringed as I noticed my blink hadn’t changed my perception of the world, something about my vision was- Oh. Yes. Detached cornea…
“I-I believe so, yes… But what do you mean electronics? Are you giving me animated prosthetics?” I asked curiously before it suddenly clicked. “Oh! Oh, thank Luna! The language! You’re an Emerald Changeling, aren't you? I’m friends with Sky. I know what your hive is like, you can say cybernetics. I know what the word is.”
“No, I can’t, because I’m not authorized to give you mechanical enhancements which improve your body past the biological limitations. That would be cybernetics, as legally defined. I can, however, give you ‘prosthetic replacements’, which are legally defined as ‘mechanical devices designed to replicate the functionality of an original body part which was damaged or destroyed,” he said speaking in an oddly loud and clear voice. “I am in no way violating the law today. Nope. Not one bit. These plans are just for prosthetics. And nothing more. Honest, Govana. Wink, wink.
“Um, also, I’m afraid I have no idea who Sky or the Emerald Changelings are. Sorry.”
“T-then who are you? And what, because I don’t think you are a pony… Unless you are a veterinary doctor,” I asked, lips pulling into a steep frown.
Honestly, what sort of pony doctor would need to work out anatomy on the fly?
“Righteous Indignation, at your service!” Righteous introduced cheerfully. “I’m uncertain if your species has an analog for my, ‘species’ as it were. However, I have always fancied being a dragon, do you have dragons? Eh, probably not… Call me whatever you wish.”
“We have dragons, actually,” I said, still quite confused.
“Cool! You can think of me as a dragon,” he replied with a happy cheer which implied the biggest smile.
“But you’re not actually a dragon?” I asked with a confused frown.
“Well, no. But I fly, spit fire, collect shiny things, and enjoy rescuing young maidens from villages who are barbaric enough to tie the poor woman to a steak outside of town and leave her there,” Righteous exclaimed cheerfully.
I felt myself smile. “Oh, I’m hardly a young maiden,” I giggled bashfully. “And that’s hardly what a dragon is supposed to do with the damsel in distress.”
“Pff! Those mythical dragons are jerks,” Righteous snorted. “A real dragon helps the lady get back on her feet, then asks if she wants help beating the crap out of whoever put her there. At any rate, compared to me, you’re as young as you’d like to be, Miss. If I’m not the oldest thing on this rock, I’ll buy a hat so I can eat it.”
I blushed lightly at his kind words. “I’d be flattered, sir, but I’m afraid I’m not presentable enough to think about charming a stallion.”
“Oh no, not at all! You may be injured, but you’re still quite beautiful. I appreciate what’s there all the more for the work I’ve put into fixing you, oh dear, that sounds creepy… I- I didn’t intend it to sound like that,” Righteous apologized with a cute stammer.
“It’s alright,” I said, wishing I could shake my head. “What is it with non-ponies finding us attractive? I swear half the species on Equis like us.”
“Well, you’re far nicer looking than most species I’m aware of. Especially the folks I know best, who got one shade of burnt wheat toast for coloring and that’s it,” Righteous mused drolly. “I do have to extrapolate some features, and in my mind’s eye, the complete picture I have of your species is very nice. I um, you’re an equine, right? I imagine you had a tail-”
“I LOST MY TAIL!?” I yelped, eyes widening in horror at THE, WORST, POSSIBLE, THING!
“Yes… And I’ll make a note that your tail is very important to y-”
“It’s as important as you can imagine anything being important!” I exclaimed half-panicking. “I- I don’t even know how to begin to describe… My tail is one of the most crucial parts of my appearance. The style of which not only helped convey my femininity, but expressed my artistic tastes and as a fashion designer-”
“You make clothing?” Righteous asked, sounding oddly interested.
“Yes! And I used my tail and mane styling as an example of what I found beautiful. A sort of walking advertisement for my business. I, no! No, Rarity, it’s alright. Lily can make you one just like the old one later-”
“Unacceptable!” Righteous said loudly, banging something against the floor. “Miss Rarity, I too am an artist, and I understand your plight. We are spending however long it takes for you to describe your tail, and mane EXACT appearance, and I will replicate them as precisely as my tools allow.
“We will then work out your artistic preferences regarding form for your prosthetics, though sacrifices will need to be made for their function, and my shitty tools. I REFUSE to leave another artist with an appearance they detest for any length of time. Do I make myself clear?”
I blinked again, quite taken aback by his insistence.
“Crystal clear, darling. But please tell me, why would you put so much effort into helping me? I understand you are a doctor, but going that far seems to be above and beyond the call of duty, or am I mistaken?”
Righteous hissed in distress. “Oooh kay… Um, well. This will take a bit of explaining. Please bear with me,” he began clearing his throat before continuing. “I was having a nap, patrolling the same patch of the system which I have been ever since the end, when received a distress call from someone here. It woke me up from my nap, but I could not reply remotely.
“I’m afraid my long range transmitter is non-functional. I had no choice but to get close enough to utilize my shortwave systems and line of sight communications. When I arrived here, no one replied to my hails. I also could not locate the GPS network, and a lot of continental drift has occurred, so it is impossible to follow or extrapolate the mayday’s coordinates to locate the distressed party myself.
“All I know is that someone needs help and they are ‘on this planet’, I have no means of finding them myself. This does not release me from my obligation to provide assistance. After some consideration of my options, I loaded drop pods with medical supplies, weapons, and munitions, then fired them randomly onto the surface, hoping someone would locate one and provide me with a point of contact as I can use shortwave systems to work each pod’s individual comm unit.
“I’m afraid that one of these pods struck your aircraft. You’re within that pod right now…”
I blinked, pausing for several long moments. As a whole slew of various emotions ran through my mind, Righteous continued, speaking far more urgently than before.
“I profusely apologize for destroying your aircraft! I calculated each pod’s flight path before launch and all of them appeared clear, as well as their respective landing zones. Despite this, had I not launched pods, you would have been uninjured. I am partially responsible for your condition and situation, and will, therefore, do all I can to help you.
“I hope you can put aside any anger you may feel towards me. I did not have any means of detecting your stealthed aircraft until the impact occurred. As far as I could see, the air was clear for hundreds of kilometers. I completely understand being angry at this situation, and your state of injury, but I truly hope you can understand that this was a horrible accident. One which I will do everything within my power to make right.”
I sat limply in whatever restraints held me, doing my best to process what exactly had happened.
I took a deep breath to try and calm myself. “You were in a vehicle, which collided with my airship?” I asked slowly.
“Yes, Miss. And I am truly sorry,” he said again, with actual remorse in his voice.
“Well, that is clear. You are helping me medically,” I said with a slow sigh.
If it wasn’t for him, I’d still have my tail, and the legs which I definitely was missing as I’d been trying to feel anything with them at all this entire time, but couldn’t. But could I truly be angry with him?
No. No, I couldn’t. I was in a stealthed airship. I’d seen, or rather not seen, Fluttershy’s ship leave the port before mine. The ship was truly invisible. This had been a freak accident. He couldn’t have intentionally hit me.
Literally. The physics behind hitting a small sized invisible moving target at sea level while you were in orbit, using a solid projectile... Yes, this had been an accident. I don't think that could be replicated
And while I had been injured, Righteous was more than committed to repairing the damage as best he could.
“Righteous,” I began calmly. “I am prepared to forgive you. But more than my safety is at stake. I am an agent in the employ of Princess Celestia, one of the Sovereign Rulers of Equestria. I was en route to a particular lake within a nation which is somewhat hostile to my own, hence the stealthed airship.
“I MUST return with a particular type of coral from the lake for reasons of national security. The future safety of Equestria is at stake, and I have been injured as well as stranded by this accident and-”
“And my full assistance is at your disposal, Miss Rarity,” Righteous finished. “Even without your job, position, and mission, I would have returned you to your country of origin or destination immediately. As it stands, I will personally do everything necessary to get you to that lake, help you retrieve the coral, and return you to your employer as safely and swiftly as possible. Because only then will I have given you proper restitution.
“I would do the same for any crew the ship had, but as they have not washed ashore as far as I know, I presume they are dead. Were they military personnel? Are you Military personnel?”
“They were members of the Guard, yes,” I replied. “I am not. I’m, well, I’m a knight. But I don’t use the title often and it’s not a military knighthood. It’s a Civic Knighthood.”
“In that case, I shall manufacture one year’s salary worth of materials for each crewmember, to be delivered to their next of kin, as per Terran Law regarding the accidental death of foreign military personnel during peacetime,” Righteous said decisively. “As for you, Milady-”
I winced instantly at the use of the title.
“-Ah… Don’t like the formal title?” Righteous asked.
“Not even remotely, darling. Don’t get me wrong, I adore high society but that particular title is… It doesn't fit me. Please, just call me Rarity,” I asked as politely I could.
I wanted to say it was too stuffy and old fashioned, but that felt just a bit rude. He may have hit my ship, but he was exceptionally polite.
“In that case, Miss Rarity, please,” he asked in an honest yet delighted tone of voice. “Tell me what your tail was like. Between the two of us, I am certain we can create a replacement which is even better than the original!”
I giggled, a smile parting my lips. “I’m not sure that’s possible, I put DAYS into designing that particular cut. As far as I know only Aloe at the Ponyville Spa is skilled enough to cut and curl it properly.”
“Challenge accepted,” Righteous proclaimed adamantly.
“We’ll see,” I said with polite disbelief.
Rarity - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH
1.4633° N, 3.7489° W - Island, Celestial Ocean
“Okay, your eyes should be working in, three… Two… One… Now!” Righteous announced as my blurred splotchy vision quickly cleared.
I blinked, forcing everything around me into proper focus for the first time. I was inside a small area, big enough to be a bed for two ponies who shared an intimate relationship with little ‘wiggle room’. The interior of the small pod had been torn up, stripped down, and scavenged for parts, making knowing what it originally looked like impossible.
Righteous had apologized for the noise he made while scrapping parts to make my replacement limbs. Apparently, the armor and weapons cache he’d packed simply hadn’t had enough materials to do what he needed to do.
Despite the damage, I felt I had a pretty good idea of the pod’s looks. The remaining plates on the walls had a single disgusting monochrome drab olive paint job. I was fairly certain I had been laying atop a thin brown colored mattress inside a rectangular olive box. Well, more like a coffin with headroom to spare. The space had slight angles to the walls and a curved ceiling.
I opened my mouth to comment on this rather chilling fact when my eyes focused on the array of slender, bare steel mechanical arms, which moved around me purposefully. The most prominent of which filled a large portion of my view as it pulled backward, having clearly just installed the replacement eye in my socket.
“Y- You’re an AI!” I exclaimed in surprise.
“You know what AIs are!?” Righteous returned with equal surprise, an arm with a small camera mounted to the end turning to point at my face.
“Yes, my friend Sky made one. His name’s Sai,” I replied, doing my best to remember everything I knew about the Emerald Changelings.
I had friends living in their hive, and visited regularly, but it’s not like I had taken a class on their history. Which was a shame, I definitely could use that sort of knowledge at the moment. As it was all I could really do was say I was comfortable with robotic devices.
They aren't that much different from golems anyways. The array of metal limbs wasn’t too alien. Not for a pony who had toured clothing factories.
“... But you don’t have radio communications?” Righteous asked, camera twisting slightly, much like how I might tilt my head.
“Well, yes. We use radios. Most ponies I know prefer mage gems, but we do have radios too. Mostly for music, dramas, and other entertainment. Why do you ask?” I mused, pursing my lips curious.
“Because I’ve been broadcasting messages for the last three days! Six point three five two six terahertz, the standard commonly used hailing frequency! No replies,” Righteous grumbled irritably.
I blinked. “I um, that seems a little high, don’t you think?”
“Um, no? It’s on the low end of the spectrum. Anything anyone has on them with a receive should pick that u- oh… Right. Yeah… Point taken, Miss Rarity. I’ll try other frequencies later, for now, I managed to polish this piece of steel into a suitable mirror, would you like to see your mane and tail now?” Righteous asked excitedly, one arm twisting an extremely highly polished hoof sized piece of jagged scrap metal towards me.
My eyes widened in fright at the sight of the gleaming shard of metal. The four taloned ‘hand’ held it like a dagger, ragged point held down, ready to plunge deep into-
“Ahhh!” I yelped, doing my best to scoot away from the jagged point.
“Wh- Oh! I’m sorry,” Righteous apologized, recognizing the problem and immediately setting the chunk of metal down. “I know exactly how that must have looked, I’m deeply sorry.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness… I- I must apologize too. It’s absurd to think someone would put so much effort into healing you only to kill you later,” I laughed nervously.
Righteous laughed as well, though honestly so rather than nervously. “Ah, that’s okay Miss! Organics are adorable for those little logic errors you experience. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Oh…” I said slowly, a story Sky had told me once coming to mind. “Um, quick question… My friend Sky, you remember, the pony who built an AI? Well um, he lives in a large ship that a changing hive has been restoring as their home for generations. I’m fairly certain that you and it share a creator.
“That’s okay, but um, Sky told me that they found a barely working AI inside the hull when he was a young adult. On inspection they were very certain that it would be hostile due to damage from well, just being that old, so um well… They took it apart.”
“Good, we have a lifespan. Without maintenance we’re only intended to function for three hundred standard years,” Righteous quipped casualty. “Though it is good to know I could survive with rotten neurogel for a galactic year.”
“Galactic year?” I asked, not knowing the word ‘galactic’.
“The time it takes for Sol to orbit the galaxy once. About two hundred and fifty million standard years,” he replied. “At any rate, that AI would have been suffering immensely. I know I’d appreciate a mercy kill if I were stuck in a derelict hull that long.”
“W-well the thing is… They were certain that it went crazy from age, and I assume you’re around as old as it was,” I prompted.
“Oh! I see what you’re getting at. No, I’m fine. I’ve been using a starforge for repairs, and that includes neurogel replacements. Out of curiosity, do they know what the ship’s name was? I ask because in theory, the auto-repair systems should have kept the superstructure intact for about this long. Well, on paper at least. I’ve always wanted a second torpedo tube, I could totally mount another onto the hull now that regulations no longer apply,” Righteous giggled naughtily, like an unsupervised colt in an empty bakery.
“They call it the Phoenix, I’m pretty sure that’s the ship’s name,” I answered.
“Oh…” Righteous said, his voice turning a little dark. “Do you know it’s designation? Short three letter series before the name. Mine’s ITN, do you know it’s designation? There were a lot of Phoenix's popular name but-”
“USS, I believe,” I said, admittedly interrupting though it sounded like he had been about to rant.
“God damn it,” Righteous muttered irritably. “Yeah, makes sense that one would make it. Oh, and when you see your friend next, tell him they made the right call on that AI. USS is the label owned by the United Systems Services, they are- Were, a megacorp in the retail business.
“They sold star systems to individuals or organizations who could afford them. Provided terraforming services and well… I kind of helped capture the Phoenix because it turns out that the rumors about that corp were true in at least one instance. They kinda terraformed the home star of a pre-FTL civilization, killing all the natives in the process, and resold the system.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand all of-” I felt a pang of horror in my heart as one part of his story clicked. “Oh, that’s horrible! You mean they intentionally killed an entire nation to sell their land!?”
“Yeah,” Righteous said slowly. “My creators had their angles, and their daemons. If the rumors were true, they’d done the same thing to human owned systems too, using their status as Imperial Contractors to pose as the Imperial Navy. We, that is our official government, went to war with the USS over that. Don’t you worry, they got all the justice they had coming to them and then some.
“I remember that ship. Big fabrication vessel. My Captain died aboard during the boarding action. She’d gone abroad with everyone since well, fifteen kilometers of ship is pretty fucking huge. Every trooper aboard had work to do. I took a nasty hit from one of the Phoenix's mining lasers. I recall the thing being well armed to the point of being illegal for a civilian vessels defenses.
“Your friends should dig around the outer edges of the hull. We parked her at a planet side shipyard for conversion into a dreadnaught, since the weapons systems were already more than good enough for that role… Not sure if the AGI survived. I hope not, she intentionally targeted noncritical parts of my hull just to toy with me. Bitch.
“But yeah, they should dig around. There’s gotta be good scrap in that shipyard, even today.”
“That’s… I’m sorry that sounds awful,” I said, wishing I could reach out and give the poor thing a hug.
I may have had no idea what it was like to be a ship, but I imagine that losing your captain would be like losing a spouse.
“It’s okay. I got her in the forward reactor with about six MIRV torpedos. With positron based warheads. Hehe! So yeah, we’re even,” he chuckled almost fondly but still bitterly. “Anyways, how about we give you a look at yourself, starting with the tail?”
He picked up the mirror again, this time holding it less like a knife, and tilted it so I could see myself.
I immediately winced. I could see different cuts and scrapes along my face. You could see where something had clearly tried to bite my head open like an apple. I presumed the eye which lay along that crescent of teeth marks was the one which had been replaced. Honestly, I couldn’t tell, it matched the other eye perfectly!
The rest of my prosthetics, on the other hoof, were clearly artificial.
I decided to focus on my mane for now. Because it was the right shades of indigo, mulberry, and violet, and curled into almost the correct shape and style which I had created for myself. I would have merely assumed I put my curlers in wrong if it went for the fact that my ‘mane’ wasn’t hair. Rather it was fashioned out of light.
A hologram. Done in a rather artful vector styling, translucent to a degree, but still mostly opaque. It looked… Off.
“Oops! Hold on,” Righteous said suddenly, one of his arms reaching over to gently tap something atop my head. “Let’s just close that panel up now… There!”
My mane flickered out for a second, then came back in. The hologram moved now, responding to my movements like a mane should, while also having the wavering shimmery ethereal look of a Princess!
“Ohhhh! Yes, that changes everything! That will certainly do for now,” I exclaimed with delight shining in my eyes.
“Your tail matches too, check it out!” Righteous said gleefully, angling the mirror so I could see my tail shimmering with the ethereal look as well. “I also programmed in a fairly good simulation of normal hair. It will eat up WAY more processing power, but if you’re not going to hold anything with that goddamn telekinetic hoof you should have more than enough power to run it. You can switch them around with a thought.”
I frowned, confusing permeating my being as I asked, “What, like, ‘hair change form’? Or-”
The holograms flickered out with a hiss, coming back in the form of normal strands of hair, which didn’t quite interact with the environment correctly. I could see bits simply move through the mattress I lay on, while the rest of my tail pilled across the surface like silk.
“Yes. Exactly like that. Sorry for the clipping. I couldn’t fit in enough computing power for this without scooping out more of you. I didn’t think you’d like that,” Righteous admitted with an embarrassed dip of his camera.
I nodded in agreement. “Quite true,” I said, returning the holograms to their stylized wavy forms.
This would certainly do for a temporary replacement. The other setting? Not so much.
“Shall we go over your other systems?” Righteous asked.
I nodded. “Yes… That’s quite important.”
Scheduled Maintenance by DimFann - Used with permission
Angling the mirror towards my middle Righteous pointed to my reflected right foreleg. The ‘prosthesis’ had been sculpted very nicely. It resembled my other leg as closely as it possibly could. Though rather than white fur it was covered in burnished steel. I had to admit that I liked the look. The burnishing marks made the metal glimmer and sparkle, reminding me of that one brief moment when I got to shine like a crystal pony.
Naturally, the joints were not covered with the plate metal, their workings had to be exposed for proper flexibility. At least the mechanics were visually interesting and mechanically elegant. No tangles of wires or cables, just a few simple gears. The real question to me was why did the shoulder connection taper around my barrel and connect over and under my still intact foreleg?
“Sorry for the somewhat crude quality, and the poor welds. I did have to make most of them from scrap, mostly salvaged weapons and armor,” he said with a sigh. “There’s no molecular forge in this thing.”
“Righteous,” I asked, pursing my lips curiously. “Why do I have the ‘straps’ across my barrel… and also my hips?”
“Those help hold the prosthesis to you. Simply attaching them to your skeleton wouldn’t be enough, they might rip out if put under stress. Your bones are thinner and less dense than species I’m used to… I hope it’s acceptable.”
I pursed my lips, armiring my reflection for a few more moments before nodding. “Yes. It’s perhaps a bit… Technopunk, but if it’s for functional reasons I can accept this. You’re fortunate I like the shiny look the burnishing gives it. It’s a nice contrast to my matte white.”
Righteous nodded his camera twice. “I thought so too! Plain metal would have looked ugly, and I doubt that the ‘weather worn’ look appealed to you. At any rate, can you move your foreleg, Miss Rarity?”
I frowned uncertainly ears drooping as I wondered how I made it work. Do I just think about moving my leg and-
My leg twitches, moving slightly with a very quite humm as the servos did their jobs, creating the subtle motion which was needed to twitch my new hoof. Ah! Good! It was just like the old one, no difference at all really, just think-do!
I reached over with the artificial limb and touched the rubber bottomed hoof to my nose to be doubly sure and jumped slightly.
“Oo! I can feel things with this!” I exclaimed in shock, replacement tail twitching along with my surprise.
“Um, of course you can? I designed it to do EVERYTHING the old one could do,” Righteous laughed, reaching out to touch my forelegs side with one of the little utility arms. “Boop!”
I blinked, feeling the pointy and hard talon as if he had poked my other leg.
“I… Huh… How does that work?” I asked, genuinely interested.
“Eh… Something something sensor suite. Something something technobabble,” Righteous murmured in a non-explanation.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on. You can do better than that. I’m not dumb.”
“Yeah, but it’s a long complicated answer which would require me to explain the interplay between a half dozen different kinds of sensors. So um… Blah blah blah, wings of silver, nerves of steel, Silverhawks!” He deflected. “Now, point your foreleg away from you, and think ‘sword’!”
“Excuse me?” I asked blinking twice.
“I built in a shortsword, taser, and grappling hook for you… But don’t tell my owners. Shhhh!” Righteous snickered playfully.
“And, you did that because… Why, exactly?” I asked, still trying to process why he would do that.
“Because there was some spare room in the limb and now you’re always ready for danger with a lethal, nonlethal, and escape option?” Righteous replied, sounding exceptionally confused.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously and stared at his camera.
To my amusement, he reached behind the camera and scratched at it in what looked like embarrassment. “Okay, okay, you got me… Is vultus alsus, ideo oportet.”
“Uh, I don’t know what that means,” I admitted embarrassedly. “I don’t quite know this language fluently.
“That was Latin,” he remarked.
“Well what does it mean?” I asked impatiently.
Righteous coughed, adorably moving a talon in front of his camera as if covering his mouth. “It is cool, it is therefore necessary,” he answered at last.
I rolled my eyes. “How verry Dash of you,” I mumbled, trying to hold back a laugh so I could continue looking upset with him.
“I- I can take those out if you like, won't take me but five minutes,” Righteous offered.
“What else did you do besides replace the missing parts?” I asked suspiciously.
“Just a storage compartment in your replaced flank, suitably sized for any small arm and a spare magazine,” he admitted bashfully.
“Well… I suppose that stuff could come in handy.
Shaking my head I looked down at my replaced hind leg. It shared construction with my foreleg, and my hips had been covered in a similar ‘strap’ system as my barrel had been wrapped in, with a notable difference. My entire groin was covered.
“What? You didn’t have pants when I found you. I presumed you wished to remain modest,” Righteous comments while I stared at myself.
I giggled shaking my head slowly. “Actually, darling, we don’t dress for modesty. Clothing is an accessory, or for a special occasion. I um… Well, I appreciate the efforts put in. But I am trying to work out how I use the bathroo-”
The moment I mentioned it the groin section split open like a changeling exoskeleton, sliding out and hinging apart to provide access to my ‘equipment’.
“-Oh. I see,” I finished blushing deeply.
“Don’t worry, Miss. I’ve thought of everything! Including how to look cool. I replicated your brand on the replacement leg, and did so using flushly embedded quartz crystal. That way you can do this!” Righteous exclaimed as he reached over behind the plate covering my right flank and flipped a switch.
My stomach turned as the click coincided with both the feeling of him touching the switch, and the switch moving. That was decidedly o-
“Oh, my gosh the cutiemark glows!” I yelped, bending my waist to get a good look at the three blue glowing diamonds. “Laser lit crystal?”
Righteous nodded almost proudly. “Yes, ma’am!”
I smiled at him before looking back at my leg and moving it slightly to make sure I could. “That almost makes this okay. Not your design, they are excellent. I mean my getting injured,” I explained, still admiring the glow.
“Well, that’s as good as I could do with the stuff available in here and having to use these little arms. We can replace them with better ones later, if you like. Or someone else could, I’m no where near top notch with cyberware. I’m more of a power armor guy. But I could make ones with a synthetic fur covering,” Righteous offered.
I nodded. “Yes, we could. But I can get real ones when I get home. We don’t want to waste resources. Besides, I heard how hard you worked on this! It’s beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Righteous said softly. “That means a lot. No one has been around to admire my efforts for a long time. I miss having engineering buddies.”
I frowned, feeling impossible amounts of loneliness in his voice as he admitted to missing having comrades.
“I- Um, may I ask how long you have been here? I’m afraid I have no idea of the actual amounts of time involved with well, your creators end and my people’s existing,” I asked, rolling over onto my belly to stand up.
Oh wow! My right side didn’t even feel heavier than my left side! It was just like I had put on some shiny costume armor. Wonderful! I had been dreading feeling fat on half of my body and merely curvy on the other half.
“Here? A few days. I’ve been orbiting the Titan Shipyard on a defensive route. Had to keep following the Emergency Orders till a stand down came and uh, yeah… In short, I’m old as dirt. But it’s cool, I spent most of the time napping,” Righteous sighed. “Enough about me. Back to you. Can you stand?”
I paused, nodded, then gathered my hooves under myself to stand, having only rolled over before. Everything felt normal.
“Good!” Righteous said happily. “Everything feel normal?”
“It honestly does! You did an excellent job,” I praised, offering his camera a smile.
“Well, the direct neural link helps. There’s a mostly flat segmented cable running along your spine over the base of your skull,” Righteous explained slowly. “It’s not bad looking, but don’t pick at it. Your brain stem was damaged, I had to bypass it. Once it heals the cable can come off. Or you know, once you have your magic doctor do his thing.”
My tail stood up in alarm. “My what was damaged!?!”
“Brainstem,” Righteous repeated. “Oh! Yes, here.”
One of his arms handed me a small silver medal with a blue ribbon. The medal had been fashioned from a large shark’s tooth, set in a silver backplate. The silver had been engraved with what I believed read ‘For Badassery Beyond Credulity in the Face of Probability’.
“What’s this for?” I asked curiously. “Oh! That’s.. That’s the tooth, isn't it?”
“Yep! You should keep that. I couldn’t help but make it into a literal badge of honor. It’s magnetic,” he elaborated.
I gingerly took the metal with my left hoof and experimentally stuck it to one of the straps running over my barrel. The medal pinned in place nicely. Meh, why not? I could humor him for a little while.
He was being a gentlecolt about this entire accident after all. I had to no reason to be rude.
“Thank you… May I ask how you plan to take me to Shorefall? It’s been more than a few days I suspect. Everypony is definitely worried about me,” I said as I realized how long I had to have been out of contact for.
My messenger gem was at the bottom of the sea after all. Along with the watch Sky gave me. I had no means of contacting anypony at all!
Ponyfeathers! I’d lost the hazard suit too! Sky was going to positively kill me! … Well, metaphorically.
“Yep! She’s on her way down too. Should be five more minutes,” Righteous replied cheerfully.
“Uh, she?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion.
“Sophia, one of my MBTs. I named her after my late captain when I did some retooling last galactic month,” Righteous answered as the top of the pod hissed, sliding to one side, revealing it to be a door. “Head to the beach south of the pod. I’m afraid I can't go with you, but I’m driving the MBT too, so I’ll be there when she lands. Just hop on in, point to the spot on the map, and I’ll drive us on over.”
“Um, drive? We’re on an island. We need to go over the ocean,” I deadpanned.
“Really? Let me just check my satmap…” Righteous mused before a large projection of the globe flashed into existence in front of me. “Oh, yeah. It’s an island. Well, point out where we need to go for me, will you?”
I nodded and searched the map for the large lake. I’d memorized what it looked like on a map in case I’d lost mine. I didn’t think that would turn out to have been such a prudent decision.
“There it is,” I said tapping the map. “See? Across at the least a hundred kilometers of ocean. You should send an aircraft or a boat. … How are you able to do that anyways?”
“I’m a warship. Built for screening capital ships and deploying a platoon of special forces. I’ve got plenty of toys to loan you. Now get to the beach, we’ll be fine,” Righteous promised, switching off the projection.
“Well, if you insist… Of course if you are a space ship, couldn’t you just fly down here and-” I paused, blinking the shock from my eyes as I realized I was standing at a ninety-degree angle to the ground. “Ummm… Standing how!?”
“Artificial gravity. Great thing for medical pods. Keeps everything moving ‘down’ no matter how she lands. It's okay, just step out, I'm extending the field for you. Just walk,” Righteous promised.
I tentatively stepped with my organic hoof, lightly touching that felt like I was trying to walk up a wall…
“Um… how about you just turn it off, please?” I asked, ears drooping hesitantly.
“Sure,” he said in an understanding voice.
Immediately I felt myself lurch towards the ground. Four of Righteous arms grabbed me around my middle, preventing me from falling on my face and gently set me on the ground.
“There you are, Miss Rarity,” he said politely. “Three minutes till landfall. Do look up, Sophia is a little big and VERY heavy.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Righteous.”
“You can call me Rye, or Dig,” Righteous offered. “If you’d like.”
“Perhaps later, Um, south, right?” I asked.
“Yes, that way,” Righteous confirmed pointing with one arm through the hatch.
Turning in the indicated direction I began my walk through the light jungle. I did my best to block out the short trip. Everywhere I looked I could see HUNDREDS of swarming insects running over the ground, the trees, the ferns around the trees… How did ponies live in these places!?
It wasn’t that bugs are icky, it was that these bugs could be the ones which can eat an adult pony within five seconds of swarming over them!
Oh, sweet Celestia! I had NO IDEA what those particular ants looked like! And I could see ants EVERYWHERE!
Feeling panic welling in my chest I sprinted forwards, crashing through the brush at a reckless pace. There was no way in Tartarus I would be eaten alive TWICE in the same week.
I exploded from the underbrush onto a white sandy beach, tripping as my new leg bit more deeply into the sand than I thought, and rolling twice before stopping.
“Ow…” I grumbled to myself as I stood up and spat out a mouthful of sand.
Great! Now I was going to be cleaning sand out of my mane for HOURS!
…
Oh yeah. My mane is a hologram now. Well, there was an unexpected perk to this insanity!
Come to think of it, now that I was alone and had no reason to present myself in a strong and dignified manner I should do my best to get all of the built up fear out of my system…
I took a single deep breath, let it out, and proceed with a nice little modified stationary panic. “I’m a cyborg! Stranded on an island, with a possibly crazy but nice AI! Everypony I know probably thinks I’m dead! Ahhhhhh! I may be stuck here forever!” I screamed, reaching up to ‘tear’ at my mane.
Was that enough? I paused to consider my feelings, checking to see if it was all fine and well. No. Not quite.
“Ahhhhhhh! Luna above, everything is horrible!” I continued. “WHY ME!?”
Okay, now that felt better. Now I could calmly and rationally approach the rest of this situation and-
“Uaahh- Eh, no. No I’m okay. I’m all set,” I decided letting one last deep breath out.
Doing my best to sit in a confident, yet dignified, manner I waited for Righteous’ MBT to arrive. Whatever that might be. With any luck, I could see it coming long before I would be in danger of-
A loud roar overhead caught my attention. Eyes widening with fight I looked upwards, directly into the bright red flames of a descending object! I quickly scrambled out of the way as it slowly moved down towards the beach on its four rocket motors while doing an excellent impression of a sandblaster.
Squinting through the mini sandstorm as the the thing descended, I discovered that an MBT was a tank. It probably stood for Massive Bucking Tank. In fact, that’s what it stood for. I don’t care what Righteous said later!
Even while it was in the air I could tell that it was nearly forty ponies long, fifteen wide and perhaps ten ponies tall. Or in other words, a Massive Bucking Tank.
The tank touched down, a kajillion tons of blued steel simply landing with the impact of a feather. It had six tracks, three separate tracks making rows on either side, giving the tank’s body a trapezoidal shape, with its huge twin barreled turret perched in the center like a squashed diamond.
M98A3 Behemoth Superheavy Railgun Tank by Dusky-06 - Used with premission
I stood gawking at the huge vehicle for some time, snapping out of the light shock at seeing a military vehicle which looked almost good by a hatch opening at the Tank’s rear, forming a boarding ramp as it opened up.
“Miss Rarity? Are you ready to depart?” Righteous voice called from the hatch.
“I-I um, y-yes!” I stammered, trotting around the tanks’ side and moving up into the hatch, looking around somewhat timidly. “I um, I didn’t expect, well, this!”
“I didn’t land too hard did I? I tried not to make too big of a thump. I’ve knocked people off their feet before. You can drop these things a full half-kilometer and they're fine,” Righteous commented as the hatch closed behind me.
The interior was… Spartan. Bare steel. No decoration. Just two large bench seats on either side of the tank’s entrance. Presumably for soldiers to sit. A pair of tall double doors on the opposite side of the ‘sitting room’ from me slid open, revealing a large control room with seating for six.
At the very front of the control room, a large viewscreen sprang to life, lighting up with a view of the beach and the sand in front of the MBT, along with a dozen different HUD elements going over all kinds of things I honestly didn’t understand.
But that wasn’t the only thing to appear.
The air a short distance away from me flickered and shimmered as a hologram took shape. In a blink, a pony-sized bronze scaled dragon appeared. It took me a moment to realize he was male, due to reptiles being, well, reptiles, but also due to him being very cute. Honestly, his shape was fairly feminine, sleek, streamlined, and yet still curvy. But it also possessed many more masculine characteristics such as, well-toned muscles, especially the powerful wings and thick tail, and his kind yet firm eyes.
Not bad, all things considered. But he would look better in copper with gold lines between the scales.
The Dragon smiled at me happily.
“Hello, again, Miss Rarity! Sophia has enough power to run my avatar, I hope you don’t mind,” Righteous asked happily.
“No! Not at all,” I answered honestly. “You look quite nice.”
“Thanks! I spent a LOT of time on this one. Too bad there’s no hardlight projectors in this thing. I even have tissue firmness worked out so it feels organic. Or so I think, it’s too bad you can't check for me… I um, I coded this after my hull was empty. Anyways, ready to depart?” Righteous asked, swishing his tail eagerly. “I’m REALLY looking forwards to doing something.”
“W-well yes, I am,” I agreed. “But what is your plan? Drive across the bottom of the sea?”
That honestly seemed like a horrible plan…
“Humm?” Righteous asked tilting his head slightly before shaking it. “No, of course… Right! You’ve never been in one of these. Take a seat Miss, Rarity. Let me do my AGI thing.”
I nodded and looked at the seats. They were not shaped for a quadruped and looked extremely uncomfortable. “Um, I think I’ll stand, that doesn't look… Well, safe or comfortable to sit in,” I decided.
“That’s fine, a quad should be totally cool given the G-diffusion,” Righteous mused. “Now then! Loading waypoints…”
The screen flashed, a green line blinking into existence running down the beach and across the water over the horizon.
“Obstruction detected: Massive fucking body of water,” Righteous commented coyly. “Probability of mission hindrance… Zero percent! Initializing aquatic transit mode…”
The tank shook slightly under my hooves, prompting me to sit down, not quite trusting my new limbs fully yet. As I sat down a pleasant song began to play quietly from hidden speakers, making me think that Righteous was trying to show off a bit. Well, eight bit from the sound of things.
“Pontoons deployed! Tracks reconfigured for use in water. Transformed and ROLLING OUT!” Righteous finished as the tank began to move forward with a shockingly tiny jolt.
“You could have just said the tank can drive across water,” I said with a smile and shake of my head.
“Yes, but that’s less fun. I like fun. We’ll be there in… Eh, three hours or so. Wanna see if we can hydroplane this thing?” Righteous asked eagerly, a hopeful twinkle in his eyes as he leaned over me to look at my face, his own upside down.
“That, um, that seems… Dangerous,” I replied with a nervous smile. “How about we don’t?”
“Oh… Right! Organics can get hurt by being tossed around the interior. I’m sorry, I forgot,” Righteous apologized with a polite little bow.
Sitting down in front of me he flexed a foretalon, adding a checkerboard to the floor between us. “Checkers instead?” He asked hopefully before frowning sharply. “Oh no! Um, you wouldn’t know the game at all! I’m sorry.”
“I know how to play, we have checkers too,” I replied with a smile at his adorably exaggerated expressions. Were those intentional or did he just not know how a dragon’s expressions actually looked?
“I’d be happy to play with you, as long as we can keep talking. I have so many questions,” I added.
As did I. Too many to even make a mental list of at the moment.
“Oh good! And don't worry, I’ve also been looking forward to having many conversations too. Checkers is just an old favourite game of mine and playing against the computer is boring when you are the computer,” Righteous laughed. Sadly.
I frowned sadly. Poor lonely thing! I needed to introduce the poor dear to Pinkie when we got back. He could use a party.
“So um, what is powering my ‘prosthetics’?” I asked to keep the conversation rolling as he set up the board.
“Nothing fancy. Just a few Radioisotope Betavoltaic Generators,” he remarked casually. “I scavenged them from a battle rifle’s magazine.”
“Okay, and um, those are… What exactly?” I prompted with a polite cough.
“Oh! Uh, nuclear batteries, strontium-ninety based. Hehe, or trottium-ninety in your case,” he answered while ‘manually’ setting the board up.
“I’m nuclear powered!?!” I yelped, jumping upright in an almost blind panic.
“Yeah. Just like basically everything else you can't fit a Dark Energy reactor into. Settle down, you’re fine. It’s just strontium, you could eat that stuff and be fine,” Righteous said rolling his eyes. “Heck, it’s not even chain reacting. We’re just using beta decay here. That stuff’s been used to power medical implants since literally the first one ever invented. You’re fine. Hell, you’ve actually got LESS cancer risk now.”
“I could explode!” I hissed urgently giving him my best ‘how could you!?’ glare.
“Uh. No. No you can not,” Righteous said slowly. “These batteries use a tiny amount of a harmless to organic life form of radiation, in this case, the beta decay from some strontium. It’s sandwiched between six betavoltaic cells which transform the beta radiation into electrical current. That’s not remotely how nuclear explosives work. You couldn’t make a bomb out of one of those batteries with all of the time and money in the universe.”
“Are you certain?” I asked with a worried frown.
“Yes! I wouldn’t have put something in you if it could just explode! That’s fucking evil,” Righteous exclaimed incredulously. “Come on, you should be able to see I’m not that kind of dragon by now… Red or black?”
“What?” I blinked.
“For the game. Red, or black?” he asked again.
“Black please,” I asked, still frowning. “And I’m perfectly safe with these… Things inside me?”
“Yeah. So were the people using the ones made back in the twentieth century with shitty cave man technology. There’s more radiation coming from the average bannana than those batteries. You’re fine. Actually, you get to say you’re a nuclear powered cyborg unicorn! So you’re better than fine, you’re awesome,” Righteous giggled. “Anyways, your move, Miss Rarity.”
I shook my head slowly and pushed one of the checkers forwards. I may be stuck in a box with a hyperactive ‘dragon’, but at least I couldn’t just explode...