//------------------------------// // Part 1, Chapter 12: Busywork // Story: The Portgate // by Archival //------------------------------// Work strengthens the soul, the mind, the body, and the spirit. -Verdant Blaze, The Ethic of the Equestrian -Andrew- A white cloud of hot breath escaped Andrew's mouth, the cold morning air quickly causing it to fade out of sight. The sky was a dull shade of blue-gray that sat between the colorless dark of night and the bright light of the day, a color that was a perfect match with its analogue on Earth...wherever that was. He took a sip of military-issue instant coffee from the plastic cup in his hand, his insides warming up as the sun began to peek over the horizon. Andrew looked around the fields that encircled the wooden tent-shack as the first rays of light filtered through the trees. He frowned at the gnarled brown lines disturbing the otherwise uniform meadow. The ugly, twisted remains of the battle two days ago were strewn around the grasses, some of them still giving off wisps of a green gas-like substance even after forty or so hours of laying in the wind. Andrew remembered picking up a chunk of wood-wolf just barely after the last gunshot had been fired; it was firm and supple, like it had just come off a tree. Now, however, they were soft and mushy, crumbling into mulch at the slightest touch. Gray soon turned to blue with the last sip of the bitter drink, and Andrew set the cup aside on an empty crate. There was definitely more to the forest than met the eye - and if the past week was anything to go by, it wouldn't be anything good at all. A clear priority had been set from the day the wood-wolves attacked; the security of their small shack was no longer ignorable. An additional door had been cut out opposite the existing one the day before, making it easier to respond to any threats quickly should the time come. The previous wooden barricades were to be reinforced with dirt and wooden spikes, as well as a shallow trench two yards out and two feet deep. Loaded rifles would be ready at each edge of the square defenses, with plenty of ammunition as well. The only way in or out would be through one of two wooden walkways that would be laid over the spikes and trenches and taken away in case of attack. Andrew savored a minute of respite from his daily toils, enjoying the feeling of the cold air against his body before grabbing a nearby entrenching tool and setting out to dig some holes. Manual labor could be tiring at times, but Andrew didn't mind; in fact, the repetitive nature of the work was something for him to take solace in, a sort of reminder of his childhood. He remembered how he once took his father's old shovel from the shed out back and began to dig long, straight trenches in the backyard lawn. Why, he couldn't quite remember. Maybe he was trying to build a house? His motives were unclear, but he did remember when his father returned from work, and his reaction... My son, what have you done? I...I was just... ...heh heh...No worries. I'm not upset. I'm glad you've done this, truth be told. Your mother has been nagging to me all week about how it's so hard to find good, fresh veggies out here in the suburbs. I would have preferred for these holes to be farther back, but...you did an admirable job. I'm impressed. Dad was a resourceful man, one who always took the best of a situation and squeezed every ounce of opportunity out, even if it cost him a pound in work. The holes soon sprouted with tomato and pepper plants, their fruits bursting with flavor and color every summer. Even if they were in the middle of the lawn, they were still healthy and productive plants. "Where there is work, there is life," he once said to Andrew out on the front porch. "You might be a bit young to understand, but know this: Every minute you spend working is a minute towards a rich life and a happy family, son." Andrew didn't exactly have a rich life that moment, though. Marooned on an alien world, not sure if he would ever return home, and stuck living in a ramshackle hut under the threat of danger...a two-story house in a nice neighborhood would have been much preferable. And his family?... He paused for a moment, the thought taking him away from his work. The sun was now in full bloom, hanging halfway between noon and morning. Sweat had poured out of his body, but Andrew was too entranced in his work to notice until then. His family... Leah was an optimist and always tried to make everyone as happy as possible. Noah was a good, strong, protective man, if a little distant at times. They had come together as friends over the last two weeks, each day bringing them a little bit closer to one another. They had grown stronger together, became more open with each other... Back to his work he went. Stab, step, lever, toss the dirt away. Noah had come out of their little house and started to whittle away at the thin trunks of cut-down trees from nearby. His hatchet hacked and diced away at the tips of the sticks, each chop sharpening a point just a little bit more and more. Soon, they would have their spiked trenches and a little bit more safety against whatever was in the forest. Leah was inside, communicating with the aliens. She could have helped out with their work, but her brain was the more useful asset. If those horses - and the civilization they came from - could communicate with Leah, things would probably work out smoothly. They would be safe, sheltered, treated well... Or captured, imprisoned, killed, and dissected. Optimistic thinking, Andrew Martinez. Real uplifting in these times of extreme difficulty. -Halberd- In that moment, Sapphire Halberd hated nature, he hated the woods, and he most certainly hated the Everfree forest. Case in point: the mass of branches and shrubs that bogged their little trip into the trees. Luna's Night Guard was an elite fighting force loyal to the Princess herself, dedicated to protecting the Guardian of Dusk and carrying out her will. They were most notable for their formidable skill in urban fighting and magical combat. They were some of Equestria's finest troops, the very best of the best. They were trained to undergo fierce trials, do the impossible, and fight with the power and precision of a thousand ponies. That didn't mean that they had to adore slogging through thick vegetation, though. Everyone, from the unicorn vanguard hacking a path through the bushes with their blades to the claustrophobic pegasi to the out-of-element earth ponies, was a little bit disgruntled, even if their faces didn't show it. Their devotion towards the Princess, though admirable, could not completely keep their morale high and their spirits unwavering, as the motto went. Corporal Halberd couldn't stop his four-pony squad from feeling a bit worn out, either. He twisted his head to the left, his lips finding purchase on the rubber-infused cloth straw strapped to his torso. The waterskin was good at its job - holding water, without leaks, in a portable and easy-to-use container - but horrible at keeping the water palatable. The bitter taste of the inner coating never seemed to go away, even after several years of dedicated use. Still, it was better than the cumbersome miniature barrels that were in use just three decades ago. A bit of a yucky taste was better than having ten more pounds on a pony's back, even for an earth pony as strong as Sapphire himself. Though his legs were barely tired from the walking and his hooves free of blisters and aches, the deep blue pony was beginning to feel a little exhausted. His natural earth pony magic was strengthened and practiced through months of training, yet he felt almost a sort of hesitance to continue. Maybe it was the hours of dull, monotonous marching they had done. Maybe the forest was just throwing his senses off. Sometimes a pegasus would rush above their heads, a satchel of machetes over their torso, and deliver the fresh blades to the unicorn vanguard. From what he had heard during their one rest in the middle of the day, the unicorns dulled their blades at a crazy pace. Some of the branches were so hard that they actually chipped the edges of the machetes as they cut them. A quiet murmur broke out in front of Sapphire, in the front platoon. He leaned over to the side a little to see what was going on. The captain was talking to a pegasus scout, and he wasn't being too quiet about it. Sapphire didn't hear what they were discussing, but the ponies around him clearly did. With a nod, the scout flew back to the rear. "HALT!" The hundred pony company snapped to attention at the sound of the command, a reflex they had gained after years of service. Nopony spoke a word. "Ponies, prepare to set up camp in the clearing up ahead. We'll be staying until sunrise tomorrow. Sergeants and above, the Princess has requested that you meet her in 10 minutes. Understood?" "Yes, SIR!" Captain Steelshield's voice was quickly drowned out by the cries of the division under his command. Princess Luna had decided to come along for this search mission, though nobody really knew why. This excursion into the woods was probably important, but Luna was rather vague about their objectives. All she had said was that they were searching for "any abnormalities in the region," and that they were to try to be as discrete as possible. Why they would have to be discrete in the middle of the Nowhere Forest, nobody knew either, but at least that was something the Night Guard was good at. "Dismissed." -Leah- "Umm... Day...twelve? Day twelve of this video log. Of us being stuck here, I mean." "The boys have been making our little hut a bit safer. I think they put spikes in the ground and dug a hole around it. Really hope we won't have to use them. After the whole hydra thing and the wood-wolf attack, I guess we need to be a bit more worried about this kinda stuff." "Oh! The aliens! New stuff today. Learned a lot about them. Actually, I spent the entire day conversing with them. In real awkward pictograms, too. The unicorn knows a lot of math. And they have these marks on their butts, like, on the side. Apparently they're supposed to be what they do. Nice to know tattoos are universal. Actually, it was on their fur... I'll have to look into that. What else... Oh! The unicorn had a star, don't know what that's about. The pegasus had a really cool cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt. I mean, it has - no, she. They have males and females. She has a rainbow mane. Maybe they have a religion and this has to do with it? And the orange horse has three apples on it. It's definitely a farmer. And apples. That's something I didn't expect, but I probably should have." "Also. The unicorn did more weird stuff with its horn. Yesterday, it was holding stuff with the weird energy. Today, it made light with it. We were waking up, and it was still kinda dark. So I'm fumbling around, and she - the three horses are all female - her horn just lights up. Like, there's a little sphere of light hovering right above the tip, and it's as bright as a lightbulb. I didn't fall over, but... I mean, yeah. I was a bit surprised." "I've really been thinking about this ability they have. It's clear that the light is some sort of energy - I mean, it doesn't get much more 'energy' than light. What else can they do? The unicorn practically bulldozed half of the wood-wolves when they were attacking. If we had to fight them, it would definitely be a tough time. Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Leah stared into the camera, a smorgasbord of emotions on her face. Excitement, curiosity... nervousness, a little bit of fear, just a smidgen of despair... She regained her focus and wiped the negativity off her face. Sadness never helped anybody. "I guess that's it for now. Until later, I guess." With a tap of the space bar, Leah stopped the recording and dragged it into the "Video Log" folder. Another tap, and the sixteen-inch screen shut off, bringing the already dark room into the total darkness of night.