Nyota Komeo - Day 115,315Nyota Komeo - Day 115,315
The Machine Shop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island
Razor slumped as she walked towards us, her left leg dragging more than anything else, blood pouring down her hide, almost invisible thanks to her colors. She just looked a bit wet. But I knew better. I’d been there almost every time she’d ever been hurt.
I’d seen her bite her leg to force the bone back into place. I’d seen her cut a strip of flesh away with a talon to get a stuck arrow out.
Razor was a tough girl. The toughest I’d known of any species. She just asked for a health potion.
I stepped forwards and knelt down next to her, looking her in the left eye.
“So. On a scale from the time I punched you, to when you got mauled by that Giga last month…” I asked in what must have looked like the mother of all asshole moves.
“Nye! She’s hurt! Get help!” Twilight exploded worriedly, her panicked cry echoing off her helmet.
Giga’s older sister, Razor hissed faintly. I think I’m dying… I did not ask as a joke. Twilight, Nye was right to think I did ask as a joke. It’s something I would do.
I felt my heart almost stop. “I- I don’t,” I stammered looking at the ruins of my house in fear. “Chip! Chip, do you have more of them?”
The Trodoon shook his head twice. “No. I’m sorry… But we are close to an obelisk. We could upload her for transport, and then download her from a drop elsewhere. The Beastfolk have two drops in their territory. They’ll definitely have some! And if they don’t, we can just get Razor to Star and have him make her a beastfolk.”
I like your plan, tiny raptor. But your tail is still too small for my tastes. I’m sorry, Razor apologised with genuine sincerity.
Chip blinked, his eyes taking on their nocturnal glow as he hopped back in surprise.
“But- But I don’t want to mate with you!” Hhe yelped in surprise. “Why would you even bring up-”
“Dying people say weird things,” I explained, climbing back to my feet and squatting down to lift Razor up.
My armor’s servos whined in protest as I lifted her two tons up, holding her limp but still moving form as securely to my chest as possibly. I crunched the numbers in my head, and nodded to myself as I determined my jetpack could lift myself, itself, and Razor. The flight would be slow… But she was tough. She would make it.
“Hold on, we’ll get you patched up,” I promised, turning around so I wouldn’t have to make a turn carrying her. That would just take too much time. “Did you get whoever did this to you?”
Razor gurgled in satisfaction, but her sound carried no thoughts behind it.
“Are you sure you can make it in time?” Twilight asked worriedly.
I nodded. “I can… But… We have a problem,” I groaned, the facts of the moment starting to sink in. “We will talk when I get back. Stay alert!”
My house was gutted. I could survive that. Rebuild even. It wouldn’t take long. But we had a deadline. And it WOULD take longer than that.
I jumped, activating my armor’s flight systems. The turbofans screamed in mechanical pain as they struggled to move the massive load I’d put on them. But they still lifted us off the ground.
I opened up the throttle, managing to get a good fifteen kilometers per hour out of my pack. Razor squirmed uncomfortably, her uninjured leg moving to wrap around my waist, but recoiling from the jet’s flames.
“I’m sorry. I know ye hate heights,” I said as soothingly as I could while focusing on not falling out of the sky.
Only… Because… Can’t kill… Them, she chuffed feebly.
“You’ll find a way one day,” I replied with a smile, turning slightly so we could land on the pad when we arrived.
The flight was physically short, but it felt long. I’d lost plenty of mounts before. At this point I was numb to it. But I’d lost very few friends. I wanted to keep it under five.
Luckily, Razor was still breathing by the time we landed. My boots touched down on the steel web’s inner most ring. A landing I’d have taken a moment to appreciate on any other day. But there was no time now.
I slammed my fist against the console, activating it as quickly as I could. The menu sprang to life in my eyes, making it but the work of a moment to find what I needed. My ‘finger’ hovered over the button, ready to put her in the transport system, but with one pressing question to ask.
“Hey… If we can't heal you, what do you want me to do?” I asked, looking Razor in her eyes.
Nothing. I avenged myself. Stole away her shock prod. Hit her implant with it. She’s dead forever, Razor said with a pained growl.
“Y-you got Charlie?” I asked, ears raising in shock as much as my helmet would allow.
No. Different female. Please… Do it now, Razor pleaded.
I nodded and hit the button.
Razor vanished in the familiar white shimmering light. She was safe.
Twilight and I… We were screwed.
Did I need to tell her why? She had to have realized it by now. Twi was a bit slow on the uptake sometimes but she still got there quick enough. She’d realize we’d lost the replicator.
I turned back around, and quickly ran up the path, not trusting my jetpack after the abuse I just put it through. The last thing I needed right now was to fall to my death. I didn’t have any beds set up here… And if they breached my secret room, I didn’t even have a stash of equipment.
Stupid ARK move… Worst possible time for it!
The trees flew by as I ran only a bit faster than my normal pace. I’d definitely damaged the leg servos during that last fight. I probably had enough spare parts to fix this set one last time… If by some miracle we could get the supplies for a Tek Replicator, Twi MIGHT be able to make it in unmodified equipment.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it?
I burst out of the jungle just moments before my armor’s systems locked up with a screech of metal. The sudden jolt made me lurch forwards, stumbling as I struggled to catch myself as the armor no longer supported itself.
“Guh!” I yelped, forcing myself upright, and looking up to try and see where Twilight was.
A small patch of gleaming lavender caught my eye amongst the rubble surrounding the largest hole in my house. There she was. Right where the replicator had been. Good. She’d worked it out.
I should get up there… But I had to ditch my armor for now. I was too exhausted to lug it around unpowered. Understandable, considering what we had been doing all day.
I sat down as best I could. Which meant falling down. I popped the armor’s latch with a sigh.
“Yep, main servos shot,” I grumbled as my armor clamshelled open, allowing me to stand up.
Before my armor closed, I grabbed a brick of C4 from a vest pouch and tossed it inside, keeping hold of the tripwire and quickly rigging it to go off when the armor opened next time.
No sense in letting anyone take my kit and they HAD to still be in the area. They knew I wasn’t home...
Turning around I jogged up towards the house, whistling loudly as I drew near. “Oi! Twi, it’s me,” I called loudly, just to make doubly certain she wouldn’t shoot me assuming I was someone else.
“Okay!” She called back, oddly happy. “Sir Hoppy’s alive! Poor thing was hiding under a sheet of metal. Oh! We found your little workshop under the floor! They didn’t get it.”
I stepped inside through the hole in the wall, flinching slightly as I saw the elerium crystals used for whatever reason in the walls construction jutting out of the shards of steel which still clung to the intact wall. That… That wouldn’t be a good thing to hit with any form of high energy pulse.
“Well, that’s a miracle!” I exclaimed in honest shock, jaw dropping slightly. “Usually raiders kill any pets they find… Are you sure your cutiemark isn’t for luck?”
Twilight snickered and shook her head. “No, silly! If it was I wouldn’t be here, and your house would still be standing… Sorry for being so up beat, I’m just happy Hoppy is alive,” she admitted a bit of hyperactive glee.
I nodded in agreement. “Aye, that’s good. And at least I can fix up my own armor,” I said as I turned the corner to see Chip and Twilight, with Hopps clinging terrified to her right shoulder.
They were standing near my real workshop’s hidden door, which they had pried open.
I’d built the half basement in my house for a reason. Gave me just enough of a crawl space to put my real workshop underneath where I’d had the replicator, and looked like I’d just built down like that because of the terrain.
Though to be honest, I’d sort of expected Charlie’s willy nilly demolition to just blow a hole through the floor…
Twilight tilted her head slightly. “Can’t you make me a set too? Or even just a jetpack?” She asked.
I nodded. “Sure! How many months do you have?” I asked sarcastically.
“Oh…” Twi said, her head tilting down slightly. “Okay, contingency B! How hard is it to build a new replicator?”
“We have enough element for it,” I sighed, sitting down on a fallen support beam. “But without permission to access any rich metal deposits… A day to get all five thousand ingots together since we’ll have to build new forges too. Then we have to get a hundred and fifty black pearls together and we don't even have a way of making scuba equipment now.
“Yer rescuers will arrive LONG before we can get a new replicator built. And we don't know how long they can stay here… Maybe their portal lasts minutes. We don’t know. We can't see your ‘parents’ now. We need to wait here for rescue.”
“Ponyfeathers…” Twilight sighed, sitting down on her own pile of rubble before looking through the hidden door into my workshop. “Wait! You have a TON of stuff in here! You don't think you have the supplies to make one in here already?”
I shook my head quickly. “Nope! All of that stuff is outside the system. I can’t just smelt it back down into the ingots the system will recognise and let me use to build engram stuff. Now, if we had Civilian or Military implants, that wouldn’t matter. But these are prison issue.”
Twilight slumped atop her rubble pile, clearly about to cry. I hated doing that to her… But what other option did we have? It’s not like the Dragonslayers had a replicator on Ragnarock yet. I hadn’t made one for them… And while Drake could do it himself, they wouldn’t have the supplies.
The Megalodons had one, but they wouldn’t let me use it for free and now I had nothing I could pay them with. Items glitched out of the system were useless for them, and everything not in my workshop would have been taken in the raid or destroyed.
Did I have any way of cheering Twilight up?
“Um, girls? We can just use mine,” Chip commented happily.
I snorted, cracking a smile. “Thanks little guy, I needed a that,” I said giving him a genuine smile.
Stuff like this was just a part of life here. This was base wipe number twenty three. I just had to keep calm and get to work re-
“Okay, well, it’s not exactly mine… But I know where one is with no humans near it!” Chip replied with a happy chirp.
I frowned, “Are you actually serious, or joking with us?”
Twilight nodded twice. “This is a serious problem, Chip. You’re not joking, are you?”
He shook his head twice. “Nope! Not joking. I was raised near here in a large house on the beach-”
I facepalmed. “There’s a freaking Replicator in there?!” I asked groaning into my palm. “I never explored that thing because… It’s swarming with lots of high...level... Troodons… Huh…”
Come to think of it, some of them seemed too tough for wild ones. They would have had to have been bred. His story was adding up.
“Yep! That’s where my family lives. I left because they make fun of me for liking tools more than hunting, but I’m welcome back and there’s a replicator in the stone bit perched on the rock over the sea. We can just ask to use it real quick. No one will mind,” Chip said rather confidently.
“It’s night, Chip,” Twilight pointed out, taking off her helmet to show him her worried frown. “I think they will mind a lot if a tasty snack walks into their nest… And didn’t you say that your old friends left a long time ago? Why haven’t the wardens cleared their base out?”
“Oh, no they don’t do that,” I explained quickly. “Abandoned structures are left intentionally. So Ye’ll fight over them. And well, NO ONE wants to clear out the nest of a few hundred Troodons. It’s why this hill was pretty easy to take for myself. Next to the Nope Zone.”
“It’s a bar… I was taught to mix drinks and serve them. The sign still reads open…” Chip grumbled.
I blinked twice. “E-excuse me?”
“The Grove: Pub-n-Grub. Open twenty four hours a day! Ask about our Dodo omelette. It’s a business. Says so right on the sign. I asked what it said once. We can just go in,” Chip insisted, his tail lashing incredulously.
“Yeah, I know it was a business,” I agreed. “You could probably have run a rather profitable one back when I first got here too. The whole place was way less dangerous in terms of the inmates.”
“It’s still a business!” Chip insisted stamping his foot.
Twilight and I started at Chip for a few long quiet moments.
“Y-your family is still running it, as a pub?” Twilight asked, her jaw dropping slightly.
“Yes! It’s very safe there. So most of us are still alive. And cooking things is fun!” Chip insisted. “Why do you think I like cooked meat better than raw meat? I’ve got to eat cooked meat! Also I cooked you breakfast this morning, where did you think I learned to make crepes!?”
I blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of my head. “I uh, I thought Twilight made those…” I admitted, coughing into my fist.
“Oh,” Chip said with an understanding nod. “Well no. That was me.”
Twilight cleared her throat, shuffling her feet against the rubble strewn floor in embarrassment.
“Yeah, I’ve been banned from cooking under the threat of a purple dragon strangling me after I spent thirty eight straight hours trying to make rice because I thought all of the units had to be EXACT, and getting so frustrated I sort of converted half the kitchen tools into scientific apparatuses designed to get EXACTLY two cups of water by molecular count… So I don’t actually cook! Heh heh,” Twilight explained with a feeble grin.
“Rexshit!” Chip swore for me as he turned to face Twilight. “You are not THAT crazy!”
“I uh, I used to be. Long story,” Twilight apologised. “So um… How about we quickly make two beds just incase then go see if there still is a Replicator down there? I mean, how long have you been away from home, Chip? Could something have happened?”
“I go back from time to time to get drinks. It’s still there,” he said confidently.
I shook my head slowly, still not believing this. “Are ye telling me that I’ve been sitting a few klicks away from a restaurant run by trained Troodons for the last three hundred years, lad?” I demanded.
Chip shook his head. “No. It’s a pub.”
Twilight blinked and tilted her head to one side. “W-wait! It’s that close by and you NEVER checked it out in all that time?” She asked incredulously, one ear dropping flat.
“I did!” I protested. “I just never actually went inside because I like not losing all my equipment. I’ve looked at it through a telescope a lot. By the time I had the firepower to think about actually entering what I thought was a Troodon hive, I saw nothing of value to me inside it!”
Chip chirred sadly, his tail drooping. “But- We have Shawarma! On display! In the front window. That’s valuable!”
“Um… What?” I asked, brain starting to shut down in confusion.
“Was it a Friday? You probably were looking on a Friday,” Chip mused scritching his chin with one claw.
I took a deep breath and stood up. “Okay, Chip, we’re going. We are going because until I see it I am going to keep calling horse apples on this,” I decided.
Twilight nodded in agreement and stood up, gently reaching up to calm her jerboa with a gentle pet. “I have to agree… No offense Chip, but it’s just a bit… Hard to believe.”
Chip huffed, crossing his arms for a moment, tail flicking before he darted out of the house through a hole in the wall. “We’re intelligent, you know… It’s not THAT hard to cook food and brew drinks,” he grumbled. “Come on then. You’ll see you’re wrong.”
I frowned worriedly, turning to call after him. “I’m still not sure your people will welcome us just walking into their home!”
Twilight sighed and walked over to me, laying a hand on my shoulder. “Well, if he’s with us, they should listen. If not, we can run… That said, we don’t want to loose him, sooo, run!” She instructed before running after our Trodoon friend into the night.
This had bad idea stamped all over it…
I sighed, quickly stretched my legs, and then ran after her. Twilight was right. If there was a replicator at that ‘pub’ Chip was our only means of getting to it.
Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone
I hadn’t exactly been happy when Celestia insisted on personally going to retrieve Twilight. It was a security thing. She had believed whatever portal device we wound up constructing could be moved out of my lab and set up anywhere we liked. That simply was not true.
The end result of Project Lavander was a real mess of arcane and mundane technologies, working half through skill and technical expertise, and half on luck. It worked, but even with my technical knowledge I doubted I could get it running within any reasonable amount of time if we had to move it. And if we wanted it elsewhere it would need to be PHYSICALLY moved.
We tried teleporting the small scale device and teleporting completely fries Lyra’s time dilation shield. That’s the part which would take forever to remake. Which is why if we moved it would would have to take the whole thing apart, put it on a truck, and physically move it.
Luna’s mane that would be the biggest hassle. I’d have done it if this portal was for any reason other than retrieving a stranded pony. But since for all we knew Twilight was living in a hole under a tree to hide from the Nazgul, we didn’t have several months to reassemble the damn thing and do the tests to ensure it was properly working.
Which is why I told Celestia that the lab’s portal was ready, and for the sake of a speedy recovery, we would be using it where it currently stood.
I’d always known that I’d have to let some Equestrian soldiers into the lab to use the portal and get her. I was fine with that. Celestia would always want at least one soldier to go with any group I chose. The logical choice for the mission meant that the Frontier Guard would be sent, and they knew how to keep their lips buttoned.
Nope. That wasn’t going to happen. Not exactly.
Celestia insisted on going herself. Ensuring that no matter what was on the other side we’d have the magical firepower to get Twilight, assuming she wasn’t unable to cast spells for any given reason.
Ayna had tried to explain that barring Twilight being imprisoned and cut off from her magic by some equinemade force, that if she couldn’t cast spells then Celestia couldn’t ether. Celestia had pointed out that even if that was the case, her armor had both technological and arcane enhancements and outclassed anything in the Guard’s armories.
I pointed out that I could make something better than her gold plated tin of beans (but in more polite words) for every pony in a platoon in just an afternoon. So that wasn’t really a valid argument.
“I don’t care. I am going to help bring Twilight back. Regardless of your opinions on the matter,” she’d insisted, her voice and determined glare leaving no room for argument.
If I hadn’t let her, she would have tried to take what she wanted by force. That was my assessment. That was Ayna assessment. And it was also Captain Skritt’s assessment.
We’d argued about what to do for a long time. Things got a bit heated, I’d proposed a few plans, they all got shot down. I didn’t like it, but in the end we went with Skriit’s plan.
So I gave her access to my lab.
JUST Project Lavender's chambers, mind you. But Lab access is Lab access. I don't like handing it out. Celestia wouldn’t even know there was more to the lab, or keep that access after the mission was over. And I’d drawn the line at her wanting to know where the portal was.
Which is why she and her troops could only enter the lab through the use of my teleportation technology. Without knowing its location.
Fortunately, she’d taken that one well. Sort of. More like she didn’t want to cause an international incident.
Celestia paced back and forth in front of the portal’s archway. Her golden armor gleaming painfully under the lab chamber’s bright light as she waited. The sixteen ranger’s she’d brought with her stood nice and professionally away from the sensitive technoarcane equipment, waiting for Ayna and I to finish the calibrations, each one clad in matte colored armor which didn’t reflect light at every, conceivable, angle!
I liked them.
“How close are we to being able to use the portal, Doctor Trigger?” Celestia asked suddenly, forcing me to look up from the waveform guidance control station.
“Very close,” I answered with a happy smile. It was almost go time. “Ay, how’s the time-blender shield applicator looking?”
Ayna hopped into the air, her wings buzzing loudly as she flew across the room to a station neither of us were manning. Derpy had voluntarily left the chamber for its first major activation, not wanting her special talent to cause problems or her klutzy nature to cause a domino effect.
Lyra had left for the day to try and pick up a book on Dream Magic from a foreign shop. I understood completely. If some Nightmare had fundamentally altered reality to break Pinkie and I up, I’d want to find a way to dispel it’s magics too.
Unfortunately that DID mean we were down a pony in terms of manning each station.
“Holding stable at expected levels. If the portal is correctly attuned, we’re good to go,” Ayna replied after a moment inspecting the monitor.
“Oh! So we can go now?” Celestia asked with an eager smile, her tail swishing hopefully behind her.
I quickly held up a hoof. “Not so fast! It says here that the portal is correctly targeted, but there are a few things everyone here needs to be briefed on,” I warned urgently.
Celestia nodded. “I’ve already given them their mission briefing, we have our plans all figured out. You’re good to go, right my little ponies?” Celestia asked turning towards the platoon.
“Um, yeah…”Their Lieutenant replied, scratching the back of his head with one hoof in objection to being referred to as a ‘little pony’. “We all know what you want us to do on the other side, Ma’am. But I think that the doctor means there’s things we need to know about this portal before we use it.”
“Exactly, like how to get home,” I quickly added.
Celestia frowned. “We already went over this. This portal is one way, your standard portal gateway is capable of taking us back home due to the temporal interference only existing for objects going from Equestria to the other world. You proved this by throwing a small drone through and having it come back. It came back intact.
“All we need to do is carry your gate through with us, assemble it on the other side, easy since it’s self assembling, and use it to leave later on. I remember. There’s no problems.”
I nodded slowly. “Right… And you remember that It will self destruct in ten minutes after opening, and is preset to take you straight to this high security room. Right?”
She nodded confidently. “Yes. I remember that.”
“And you told all of them that, right?” I asked worriedly turning to face the soldiers. “You know that portal will explode after ten minutes and you can’t disarm that system without rendering the entire portal inoperable, right? Guy who's carrying it through?”
“Sir, I am aware, sir!” A corporal with a equipment specialist's patch on her shoulder proclaimed loudly, offering me a salute.
Then she held up the short field manual of operations for the gate which I had printed out. She’d been keeping it in a pouch on her barrel.
Polite too! Frontier Guard, easily the best troops Equestria had.
I returned the salute. “Good! And Celestia, you read your copy of the manual too, right? Especially page thirteen?”
Celestia nodded firmly. “I did.“
“Okay. Now that I am absolutely certain you guys won't strand yourselves, we can get this thing moving,” I said pressing a few buttons on my control console.
The lights ringing the gate went from red to green signifying the forcefield blocking access to the portal was no longer in place. Ay tapped a few commands in as well, the smaller brass disk in front of the portal hissed, blue runes glowing along its edges as arcane energy coursed through it. The temporal blender shielding was go.
“Everything’s green here,” Ayna called.
Good. The portal should have been set to overload when somepony of Celestia’s energy level touched it. A few harmless sparks, breakers flip, looks like the portal was damaged, tell Celestia it will take time to fix, then send in some people actually qualified to go to another universe and safely rescue somepony in it.
Preferably people who were NOT the leaders of a nation with copious amounts of political importance to a nation of millions and therefore basically irreplaceable.
I nodded and turned to Celestia, pointing towards the portal with one hoof. “Okay, door’s open. Go ahead, and good luck!” I announced with a simple smile.
Celestia smiled, a weight leaving her shoulders. “I’ll take point, everypony follow me!” She announced turning towards the portal.
Her platoon formed up behind her, entering a very orderly line formation. Celestia began to walk forwards, when suddenly the Corporal in charge of the portal blinked, a worried look crossing her face.
“M-ma’am?” she called. “The manual says this portal has strict energy limits, and I recall you mentioning you fully charged your armor’s arcane reserve. Are you sure that-”
I said she could take a LITTLE extra power. How much had she decided to take? Was it more than what I’d told her to or less? If she’d charged her armor more than I’d told her was safe to use the portal might ACTUALLY explode!
This is why I wanted to make a fake portal, Skriit!
“How much power do you have in that armor!?” I asked quickly. “Ay! Close the-”
Celestia turned to look at me with a confused frown, but continued to walk forwards, her left hoof touching the portal’s face.
If she put more than a day’s worth of her mana reserve into that set of armor, as I expected, then the combined energy density would-
The portal itself exploded in a flash of blue-orange plasma as it was overwhelmed by the power forced into it. Huge sheets of sparks screeched and hissed as the blasted outwards from half the chamber’s equipment. The lights popped as the released energy seeped into the power grid, tripping the breakers.
A heartbeat later the lights came back on, emergency power dimly illuminating the room in a red glow.
I looked around the slightly smoky room, wincing as the portal’s frame continued to spark and hiss, occasionally managing to make a coin sized scrap of a portal in the center.
Luna damnit! It wasn’t supposed to ACTUALLY explode! It was supposed to be safe, so no one could get hurt. Upside, now it was a real accident… Downside, now I had real repairs to do...
I took a deep breath, holding it for several seconds. “Is everyone alive? Are there injured?” I asked loudly to be heard over the hissing.
“I’m alright, what happened? How soon can it be fixed?” Celestia asked half worriedly, half angrily.
I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by a string of reports form the soldiers. All of them were okay, though the two in front had the cloth parts of their uniforms burnt to a crisp.
“I’m fine too,” Ayna said as they all finished. “The power surge blew half the system… This is going to take a lot of work.”
Half the system? Fuck! I’d counted on the breakers tripping to save the equipment. But that’s Project Lavender for you.
Satisfied that everyone was fine, I turned back to Celestia, giving her my best angry scientist glare.
“How much power, did you store, in that armor?” I repeated.
“Two weeks of my normal daily output,” she answered immediately.
“I said, you could take, a LITTLE BIT of extra mana!” I snapped, left eye twitching. “One point twenty one gigawatts of stored thaumaturgic current is NOT a little bit!”
“Yes it is,” Celestia disagreed. “You never told me taking too much would cause the portal to explode!”
“I DID WARN YOU IT COULD EXPLODE! ASK LUNA! SHE WAS THERE!” I roared. “My exact words, ‘If too much energy passes through the portal at once it will destabilize and the resulting plasma discharge could kill anyone nearby.’ I then told you that a person of your arcane potency was already approaching the safe limits of what this system could handle, and that if you wanted to take ANY extra energy, you could only take a little bit.
“But nooooo! You decide to take so much energy that it’s the equivalent of eleven of you walking through the portal at the same time! HOW IS THAT IN ANY WAY A LITTLE BIT!?”
Celestia’s ears fell, flopping sadly down atop her head. But she kept up the mask of a confident leader. “Alright. I made a mistake. Everypony does. How long will it take to effect repairs?” Celestia asked, getting back onto her hooves.
“Probably a month. If we even can fix it,” Ayna replied for me, her voice dripping with venom. “Please leave. We’ll tell you if it’s working again.”
“It won’t be that bad, Ay. We rigged safeties in this morning, remember? Most of the critical stuff should be fine. Hopefully we have spare parts for everything that did get toasted,” I said as soothingly as I could, turning back to my station’s controls to start running a diagnostic.
I shared her worries under the soothing mask. Hopefully nothing too important was broken.
“Alright… And I am truly sorry. If- If you need anything for the repairs, let me know immediately,” Celestia offered, her head hanging slightly.
As it should… Seriously, mare, I told you that sending a fully grown alicorn through was pushing it!
“I will,” I said, continuing to focus on the task at hoof.
I heard the soldiers start to teleport back to Trottingham. Vanishing one by one with a short pop.
“Ma’am?” The corporal asked.
“Yes?” Celestia answered.
“Why don’t you hold onto this copy of the portal’s manual? It’s very informative. Particularly page thirteen,” she continued, the sound of papers rustling as she passed something to Celestia.
That’s where I’d listed the mass and energy limits in a convenient table.
“What’s your name, Corporal?” I asked curiously, looking at her olive green face mask.
“Tactical Supremacy, Sir,” she answered.
It’s nice working with professionals. I’d have to look her up later for contract work if I needed mercenaries.
“Nice to meet you, Tac,” I said with a polite nod as I turned back to my work. “If you’re allowed to do mercenary work, feel free to pick up an application from any SkyTech store you come across. Good day.”
“You too, sir,” she said before she vanished with a pop.
A louder pop and a white flash signaled Celestia’s departure.
“We should call Derpy and Lyra back in. We’ll need everyone for this,” Ayna commented. “I can’t believe she didn’t read the bucking manual!”
“I can’t believe the portal actually exploded instead of just getting shut down!” I agreed as I flipped open my watch, and activated it’s comlink.
A few quick commands brought up the team wide channel. “Girls, we have a problem,” I said into my watch.
They had no idea about the plan to ensure Celestia didn’t get herself banished too. Ayna and I had felt we should bring them in, but Skriit pulled rank on us both...
“Oh no! Did somepony get hurt?” Derpy asked immediately.
“Did we just accidently banish Celestia?” Lyra asked with a worried squeak.
“No. Celestia just ignored the entire briefing and blew out half the system trying to take more energy through than it could handle. We need everypony to come help fix things… Lyra, did you get your book? We can wait for you to get your book,” I said with a long weary sigh.
“I got it. I haven't gotten to read it but I got it. I’ll teleport back as soon as I can remember where your watch thingies teleport controls are,” Lyra informed.
“How bad is the damage?” Derpy asked, the sound of a facehoof echoing through the mic.
“She LITERALLY blew out half the system,” Ayna answered. “We’ll be pulling fried bits out of most components. Personally, I think we may have to build a new one from scratch…”
“I’m sort of shocked that you didn’t do it, Derpy,” Lyra joked to try and lighten the mood.
Derpy chuckled. “Hey, I haven’t broken THAT many things… I was mostly worried about- Oh! Oh hey, I have an idea,” she exclaimed excitedly.
“What is it?” I asked curiously, glancing up at the heap of ruined equipment. “Because we could use a few good ones.”
“I have a friend who might be able to help fix this. Machines are sort of her thing. But um, she live back on my homeworld… And I’m not sure she’s allowed to leave,” Derpy explained. “I’ll go ask if she can and if she’s willing to see if she can help.”
“How much help would she be?” I asked curiously. “I already have the chamber’s security systems down for visitors. I don’t mind one more today, but if she’s not going to be an asset, she’ll just get in our way.”
“NaN could probably give you a run for your money, Sky,” Derpy answered immediately.
I blinked. “You have a grandmother who is an engineer?” I asked. “Why didn’t you see if she’d help before now!?”
“No, not Nan. NaN. As in ‘Not a Number’. Her parents- It’s a culture thing,” Derpy corrected.
Ayna and I shared a look. Who the hay names their kid after a number? And not even a proper number at that!
“Okay, and why couldn’t she come here before now to help?” Ayna asked for me, frowning slightly.
“Like I said, I don't think she’s allowed to leave. But I’ll ask. This is important, it’s not like she owes me a favor, but she is very nice. I think she could help fix the portal very quickly and she really loves machines. I’ll be back soon,” Derpy said, her comm going dead as she disconnected.
“Found the teleport controls,” Lyra announced. “I’ll be right there.”
Her line went dead with a click.
I sighed and walked towards the still sparking portal to cut its power. Hopefully Derpy’s friend would pull through. Even if she couldn’t help fix this, if she really was around my level of engineering expertise, we could put our heads together, improve this damn thing, and get Twilight unstuck.
Ponyfeathers… We couldn’t even send a letter through now to tell Twilight about the delay.
I hope she’s not stuck in a slimy cave somewhere. Trying to hide from a huge monster that’s immune to magic by cowering under a pile of bones…
At least Celestia wouldn’t be the one to go get her now. She was NOT the right pony for the job.
Twilight Sparkle - Day 15
The Grove: Pub-n-Grub, South Jungle - The Island
“This is the best sandwich I have ever had in my life!” I exclaimed joyously, ears fully perked as the juicy sandwich dripped onto my plate as I held it up.
Who knew that meat could taste so good! Celestia, I needed the recipe for shawarma! Leave it to carnivores to make something this tasty out of an animal’s carcass.
No wonder the small number of griffons capable of digesting plants almost NEVER prefered eating vegetables.
“I’d be enjoying this more if I wasn’t completely confused…” Nye agreed with an awkward smile and a blush as she shifted her weight uneasily, making the booth squeak.
To be fair, we were inside a very dilapidated and rundown stone and wood house-like building which sat right on the beach, safely tucked away at the base of a cliff with a rock arch to its back.
Normal for this world.
The building was indeed full of Trodoons. Also normal for this world.
The Trodoons had little uniforms styled after Germane barmare dresses. Not remotely normal for this world.
Nor were the carefully maintained diner-style booths inside the building, the somewhat tacky decorations composed of random objects bolted to the walls, the stuffed broodmother head hanging over the bar (With its mandibles posed to hold up the menu board) or the hospitable and expedient service even in the same nation as normal for the world Nye was used too.
We’d walked up all terrified, hands gripping weapons tightly. Chip had just zipped on into the slightly crooked, aged cabin-like building and yelled ‘I’m home! I brought customers!’ and then we’d been swarmed by a dozen uniformed Trodoon, literally carried into a booth and been given samples of the day’s soups and desserts.
I definitely had taken it better than Nye had.
I nodded twice. “Yep. I sense Pinkie behind this. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I’m going to ask when I get back. There’s no way this isn’t her doing. Somehow,” I agreed, taking another bite of amazing sandwich.
That’s why I’d taken it well. Pinkie would definitely teach a bunch of murder machines to love cooking and show them how to manage a restaurant. And also brew beer. They had good beer. And I didn’t like beer normally.
I had practice dealing with whimsical insanity. Nyota did not.
“Three hundred years,” Nyota groaned into her hands. “Three hundred years, I could have just walked down here, sat down, and ordered a goddamn sandwich… For FREE since they just like cooking for people!”
“Is anything wrong with your order?” A waitress hissed worriedly.
“She wants to know if something’s wrong with your food,” I translated, doing my best to hide a smile.
Nye’s reaction to this was really amusing!
“It’s fine… I just can’t believe I would have been GIVEN food if I came here instead of BECOME food,” she groaned face firmly embedded in her palm.
“You wouldn’t have to have come here. We deliver too! You could have left a note by the door with an order and our hunting parties would drop food off at your den when they go out for the night. It’s nice you finally did come in! I wish more people had the fangs to come in and order. Cowards,” our waitress spat before trotting away towards the bar. “Enjoy your meal!”
“What did she say?” Nye asked, wincing as she braced for more total shattering of her conception of the world in which she lived.
“She said they also deliver,” I informed with a giggle.
Nyota’s head made a loud thunk as it smacked into the table. I couldn’t help but giggle at that and gently rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Nye. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere NEAR here either… And if it’s messing with you this bad don’t worry. We started the replicator what, half an hour ago? It should finish building everything soon, right?
“Chip will come out and let us know it’s all done, then we go back to your place, you do the modification thing, and we get underway on time, just like we planned. It’s okay! Just sit back and enjoy the sandwich.”
I took another bite of the tasty awesomeness of tasty. Despite getting attacked and losing Nye’s house, today had been a good day. Mostly because sandwhich.
Nye sighed and sat up, taking her first bite of her sandwich. Her eyes immediately lit up with delight. “Oh my gods! It’s actually excellent!”
“Right?” I agreed with the biggest grin ever.
Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH
SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone
Over the course of the last two hours, Lyra, Ay, and I had managed to get a full assessment of the damages. The short of the matter was ‘We’re pretty much bucked’. As for the long of it…
Two critical systems remained intact. The temporal shielding applicator, and the portal aperture. We could open a portal, we could shield things entering it from the effects, but the targeting computer was a complete loss.
The power systems were also shot. But those could be replaced very easily. I had spare parts, and Lyra was already working on installing things.
But the targeting computer… Ay and I still had the data we needed to make one. We weren't about to EVER delete any of this project’s documentation. But manufacturing one wasn’t simple.
You couldn’t just print one out, or conjure one up. We’d found out the hard way that the metaphysical aspects of the device were equally important to the physical ones. It HAD to be made by hoof or the arcane parts of the computer wouldn’t properly function.
We were looking at nearly a month to build another one all told. We had to acquire the materials, some rare and some common. Perform several arcane rituals which usually took days. Hand craft each component for assembly…
It would get done, naturally. But we could have fixed the portal in a matter of hours if the computer could be purely technological.
Or if Ay could fix a fried tri-crystalline focusing optical processing core. Of if I could for that matter. Or even Lyra.
That mare was surprisingly adept with old human tech. Sure she didn’t know the names of things but-
While pulling a floor panel up to access a junction box, a sudden realization struck me out of the blue.
“Hey, Lyra… Important question,” I said, voice echoing slightly thanks to the open hatch.
“About what?” she called from across the room.
“What do you plan to do with that book you pick up? You know it’s a serious criminal offense to own that in Equestria, right?” I asked, just to be certain.
“Yeah. I do,” She replied. “I have a plan.”
“What, ask Luna if you can keep it?” Ayna asked curiously. “Because that won’t work.”
“I think it will. She knows I’m the last pony who would use it for my own gain. Given what it’s already done to me. I just need to know how to undo what was already done, then I can destroy it,” Lyra stated, her voice leaving no uncertainty as to her plans.
She would destroy it when she was done.
“Yeah… And maybe Luna covers for you. But it’s written in Hund, right? Do you read Hund?” I asked.
“No. I was going to get it trans- Oh. Okay yeah, problem,” Lyra mused, holding a hoof to her chin.
“Right,” I said with a nod quickly flipping the junction box's breakers back to their normal positions, since the wiring inside was fine. “If you ever want to use it, someone will learn you have it. If Celestia ever finds out, you’re screwed.”
“You wouldn’t have brought this up if you didn’t have an idea,” Lyra rightly pointed out. “What is it?”
“Well, Ponyville is scheduled to be rebuilt in two months. You’re currently single, and you left Bonbon everything. Kudos on not being a jerk, by the way. If you live here instead of finding an apartment, and apply for dual citizenship, you can get the book translated and read it because we only ban the use of Dream Magic, not the study of it.”
“Um, yeah, but I’m foreign military. I think it would be a bit hard to get that status,” Lyra pointed out with a concerned frown.
“Oh look, I’m the Engineering Chief,” I reminded before pointing to my sister. “And there’s the Acting Archmage. Two out of three Captains say it’s cool, so you’re cool. I'm assuming you agree that it would be a fair to lend her a hoof in getting her mare back for helping with this, Ayna?”
“I do… Though she can’t actually do anything with that book here. She’ll have to find an unincorporated territory. Or go back to Hound to actually cast any spells she learns from it,” Ayna reminded.
“Well in that case, yeah. I guess I’ll live here for a month or three till I figure it out,” Lyra decided. “Heck, Luna basically lives here now. I can just teleport to Equestria to be with my friends on game nights or whatever.”
I nodded twice. “There ya go. That’s probably the best I can do to pay you back for your help,” I admitted. “Aside from money, of course. Which you’ll get. But I really can’t think of anyway I or anyone I know can help you dispel a spell that alters the whole of creation and actively counters attempts to undo it’s changes.”
I paused a frown forming on my lips as I started to recall something. “Wait a minute! There might be-”
The bright white glow and odd warbling sound of an active D’ni book interrupted my train of thought, the idea vanishing into the ether as Derpy materialized in the middle of the lab chamber.
The gray pegasus mare was not alone. Standing at her side was a fairly average looking unicorn mare. Well, average for a mare who worked out. Her peach fur wasn’t long enough to hide the muscles her fairly powerful frame carried, though she still had a female shape to her.
Sort of like Applejack come to think of it. Take that musculature, put it on a unicorn mare, give her a rather cute shade of brown. Almost wheat, but a bit darker. Burnt wheat. Top it off with a bi color mantis green mane with a mauve streak (similar to Lyra’s), bind the mane back in a ponytail the same length as her medium cut tail and you had…
Well, a very average looking mare who had a cutiemark in the shape of a carpenter’s pencil covered by a crossed monkey wrench and engineer’s hammer.
She wearing a red welder’s mask covered in aging stickers (some brand logos, others typical geek flair), her fur covered in grease smudges along with bits of metal dust and shavings, and carrying an old beat up slightly rusty red toolbox with a freaking Proto: Professional Tools logo on it in her left forehoof.
WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GET A 20TH CENTURY TOOL BOX!?
“... so there you have it,” the mare said to Derpy in Equish, clearly continuing a conversation. “It’s like a spiritual meatloaf.”
“Okay, I get it now. Thanks!” Derpy replied happily flashing the mare a smile.
I raised a hoof, one question completely blanking out my mind in favor of another. “The hay is a spiritual meatloaf and what could possibly be like one?” I asked, lips pursed and eyebrow raised in confusion.
The mare waved a hoof dismissively. “Eh, that’s a half hour long conversation I’d have to repeat to explain the analogy I had to use to explain a pretty in depth topic to someone who didn’t know a thing about it,” she explained before holding out the same hoof to me. “Hi there, name’s NaN. Damn glad to meetcha.”
I shook her hoof, still wishing I’d heard the rest of that conversation. “Sky Trigger. The changeling over there is my sister Ayna, and the minty mare is Lyra,” I introduced.
NaN nodded. “Yep, I’m up to speed. Derpy writes home a lot. Sooo she said this portal thing fried. Looks more like it was deep fried. What did her in?” She asked, turning a critical eye over the wreckage.
“User error,” I grumbled bitterly.
NaN smirked. “Figures. They never read the manual do they? I swear it would be the perfect place to hide your porn,” she snickered before clapping her hooves together to pop her forehoof joints. “So, what exactly broke and what bit is the most important? I don't have much time, I’m not allowed to be here. My sister is going to be pissed if she notices.”
I smiled. “Okay, I like you. Here’s hoping you can help. Ay, can you float the processing core over here please?”
“No problem,” Ay replied, the pyramid-ish shaped slightly blackened crystal and gold component floating over to NaN in the usual nimbus of green energy.
NaN plucked the core from the air with one hoof and looked at it for a few moments, inspecting it critically from almost every angle.
“Um, do you want me to tell you what it does?” I asked skeptically.
“Well it’s a processing core, so it processes something obviously,” NaN snarked before giving me a wink. “But I’d say given the array of crystalline lenses and traces, that this is the central processing unit for an optical computer which utilizes light and mana in a dual phase system. This is pretty clever, I’ve never seen one this small. Derpy’s right, you are good.”
I held up both hooves. “Woah! Hold it, you have these things back on your homeworld? Can we go buy one or something?”
NaN shook her head no. “Afraid not. Ours are pretty crude, not much call for this sort of technology. They wouldn’t be able to perform nearly well enough. At least, I’m assuming that based on the size and density of the traces and the super tight tolerances that you need humm… Something in the exahertz range?” She asked with a curious tilt of her head.
I shook my head slowly and turned to Derpy. “Okay, explain how she can tell that by looking at it,” I demanded.
“I cast an identify spell on the core when I picked it up,” NaN answered for her. “I dont have the specifics, but I know what it is.”
“But your horn didn't glow,” Lyra objected. “How could you have cast any spells?”
“I’m not using your world’s magic. I’m using mine,” NaN admitted with a blush. “I don’t know your system yet. Something as simple as an Identify spell having a coronal discharge is… Interesting. That’s reserved for the highest levels of magic where I’m from.”
I nodded twice. “Right, Derpy’s shown me a bit of your world’s spellcraft. Sorry, I forgot that it’s sometimes invisible. Did your spell show you how to fix it, just out of curiosity?” I asked hopefully.
“No, but the problem that I can see is the crystal got too hot and cracked,” NaN reported.
“Yep,” I confirmed. “Do you have a spell which can fix cracked crystal?”
She shook her head. “Nope. But I do have a sonic probe and a bottle of Copper Acetate Monohydrate solution. I might be able to coax the crystals into growing back together. It won't be a perfect patch, and it probably won't restore it to anything near design specs but it will probably switch on and give you what little it can.”
I tapped a hoof against my chin in thought before nodding. “Alright. If you can get the crystals in one piece, I can probably go through with a CNC laser array and recarve the traces to the right states,” I decided. “Go for it! How long will that take? Usually growing crystal is a lengthy process.”
“That’s what the probe’s for,” NaN informed, setting down her toolbox and popping it open. “Give me twenty minutes. If you can get this thing powered back up, we can see if it switches on before I have to go.”
I watched her rummage around her toolbox, pushing aside a bunch of old looking simple tools. A hammer, coping saw, screwdrivers, until she pulled a small plastic bottle from the box, set it down, rummaged a second more then pulled out-
“That’s a sonic screwdriver!” Ayna exclaimed accusingly, pointing to the slender metallic pink tipped tool in NaN’s hoof.
NaN raised an eyebrow. “Uh, no? I mean, you could drive a screw with it but it’s a probe… Calling it a screwdriver really limits your perception of what it can-”
“There was a TV show which had them in it in this universe,” Derpy interrupted with a polite smile. “That’s what they were called in it.”
“Gotcha,” NaN said as she picked the crystal back up to drizzle solution over it from the bottle. “If I ever get to sneak away again, I’ll have to see that. Sounds like it would be a pretty inventive show.”
“It was,” I agreed, wanting to check out her take on a sonic screwdriver but also understanding she was in a time crunch.
And that if she came from a world where those were commonplace, that she could actually help. I wasn’t about to interrupt her.
“Ay, get the comm lines between the gate and the shield system working again. Lyra, you take the power lines for the gate itself. Derpy, you get the targeting scanner ready for use. I’ll rewire the gateway itself. We can probably jerry rig everything for a test run within twenty minutes… Though we won't get to make it a very long one soo, uh, Ay?”
“Get a systems check cued up,” Ayna said in acknowledgment.
“Right!” I agreed with a nod, immediately rushing over to the ruined gate to begin stripping out each and every blackened component.
If this worked, we could be back up and running in a day or two instead of a month!
The next twenty minutes flew by in a flurry of barely controlled chaos. Ponies cursed as machinery proved difficult. NaN’s ‘probe’s’ humming became increasingly irritating as time went on. The already cluttered, debris strewn floor, became worse as everyone tossed broken components aside. Ponies rushed in and out, fetching spare parts from the storeroom down the hall.
Through all of the noise, movement, and difficult parts, I managed to strip everything I could tell was broken from the gate in twelve minutes. Fortunately, I had parts on hand to replace them and putting those replacements in went far smoother. The only way it could have gone more smoothly is if I had thought ahead and make a spare gateway for this particular device.
A bit of an oversight on my part. I had spare gates for my other portal.
I managed to get everything rigged for a quick systems check in eighteen minutes flat. Ay, Lyra, and Derpy finished their tasks a few minutes later, but NaN worked on.
“I’ll need another ten minutes…” She lamented when I asked how things were going.
With the added time, I got Ayna to help me make further repairs to the gateway. The longer we could get it to contain a portal, the better our data would be.
We’d just replaced the secondary guidance coil when NaN sighed in frustration and set her sonic down.
“Whelp, this is as good as I can make ‘er,” the mare informed, looking at the core with a disappointed frown.
“How good is that?” I asked worriedly.
“I’m not sure. Do you have a spec sheet anywhere?” She asked me with an apologetic eardroop.
“Yeah,” I replied nodding to Lyra.
Lyra got up and took a spare copy of the manual off a lab table and held it out to NaN. “It’s all on page thirteen,” she informed.
NaN took the manual and flipped through it with her hoof, spending about a minute studying the page before sighing again.
“Wow… Yeah, I’m just not going to be able to make this perform that well again,” she informed with object certainty. “But it should work… A little. As is you could take oh… Six ponies though the portal before it would just give out. Four if you wanted them to have any equipment on them. And I’m pretty sure you won't get more than a minute and a half of operation out of her before she just gives up the ghost.
“I’m sorry guys. This crystal is just really not into growing in the way you want it to. I’m also pretty sure it won't take laser cutting without cracking again. The molecular structure is all brittle now. Like steel before it’s tempered. And no, I don't know how to temper crystal.”
“Well poop,” I sighed, closing my eyes for a second. “At least we can use it to run a system diagnostic. That will save some time.”
“A week or so if we can find out exactly what’s wrong with the rest of the system,” Ayna elaborated.
NaN nodded, not satisfied, but set the core down on top of a nearby table. “Well, I hate to fail and bail, but I’m probably in deep shit right now. It was nice tinkering with you guys. We’ll have to do this again sometime. Especially since this is a sibling free world. Really makes it appealing, you know?”
Before I could say anything to that NaN tossed me her screwdriver. As I plucked it out of the air she offered me a smile. “Here, consolation prize,” she said turning to Lyra. “I remember Derpy said you are into oddities. Here, have an extradimensional doodad for a paperweight.”
NaN reached into her toolbox and tossed Lyra a small pink colored crystal cube which pulsed with pink light in its core. I couldn’t help but notice the pulses approximate a heartbeat as NaN turned to Derpy, who took a book from her saddlebags and flipped it open to a specific page.
“Here you go. Good luck! I hope she didn’t notice,” Derpy said, ears drooping.
“Ah come on, kid. We both know she did,” NaN sighed, reaching out to touch the book. “Bye bye guys. Have fun rescuing the princess!”
The book’s white glow enveloped the room as it emitted the usual creepy noise. The mare vanished. Gone basically as quick as she came.
A real shame too. Because she came from a world with sonic screwdrivers and-
Sonic screwdrivers. ‘Have fun rescuing the princess’. Four ponies, with a little gear. That was much more along the lines of what I’d wanted to send after Twilight.
Letting Celestia go would have been a huge mistake for everypony involved, Equestria needed her here. I had hated going along with it, but Skriit’s plan did work in the end. Celestia was no longer going to leave this dimension.
I hadn’t quite been able to rig the portal to just shut down and throw a few harmless sparks. But that was Project Lavender in a nutshell. A complicated, delicate, pain in the plot to work with.
The portal was more damaged than I’d intended for it to be when it was actually used. Would this repair be safe? Could we find out? We had one and a half minutes… Maybe. The answer was a solid maybe.
Maybe we could get a real team of qualified people to Twilight tonight. But who should go?
Ah, yes...
Like dad always said. If you wanted something done right, do it yourself and bring some friends along to help.
I flipped the sonic around and tucked it behind my left ear. “Ayna, get that core installed and ready to go. Do NOT switch it on. I’m going to grab a survival suit and the Lab-in-a-Bag. Anyone else want a suit?” I asked as I jogged towards the door.
“WOAH! Hold it, are you going to just dive through yourself!?” Ayna asked incredulously. “We have no idea if it even works!”
“We'll have about forty seconds after finishing a diagnostic during which we will know if it’s safe,” I countered. “Twilight is stranded in an alien dimension and in pain and I’m pretty sure we just got help from a Time Lord-”
Derpy giggled. “She’s not a Time Lord! They're just basic multitools back home. A wizard invented them.”
“Doesn't matter, might as well have been!” I countered, flashing her a snarky grin. “Point is, Celestia had her chance. She didn’t read the manual. We’re the ones who invented this thing, I’m the one who invented the return portal, Derpy’s already a dimention hopping adventurer, Lyra is a vampire knight, and Ayna is an accomplished wizard.
“We’re enough to get Twi back on our own. Heck, on my own I could maybe pull it off. I’m going if it’s safe. Who's with me?”
Ayna didn’t even let a half second pass before shaking her head. “This is a stupid idea which will probably get you into trouble. I’m in,” she said firmly.
Heh, good old sis. Always wanting in on the dangerous fun.
“Well… If Celestia broke things this badly because she didn’t read the manual…” Derpy mumbled to herself before shaking her head. “I really wanted to spend a few centuries here on vacation, but I’ll do it for Twilight. You’re right. We are some of the better suited ponies for the job.”
“Do I want to explore another universe?” Lyra asked sarcastically. “Gee, I don’t know…”
I snickered. “Supplies for four it is,” I said quickly running out of the room.
Grabbing the supplies was a matter of seconds. I kept dozens of caches full of basic survival equipment in each section of my lab. I did super science in here. There was no telling when you’d need an oxygen supply, a tool kit, and a real big gun.
Or a Lab-in-a-Bag. Dimensionally transcendent toolkits came in surprisingly handy. Even when you took into account what their name implied they were.
While grabbing everything, I questioned my idea. Running after Twilight myself did seem foolhardy on the surface. But since I was going to be bringing the return portal myself, and I’d have a full set of tools and equipment at my disposal, I was confident I could solve whatever problems arose.
Besides, Derpy would have her books with her. Failing everything, we could use one of them to return home. Two methods of departure at our disposal.
Yes. This was the best option. The right ponies for the right job.
I returned to the lab, and passed out everyone’s gear, instructing them to just carry it in the duffel bag for now to shield it from any portal effects. Who knew what might happen if the portal’s damaged state disagreed with a plasma cell?
I also gave Lyra and Derpy a small injection of immune bolstering nanites. Because if sci-fi taught me anything, it was ‘Alien diseases are terrifying’. I had one in reserve for Twilight as well. Just in case.
Once I’d passed out the gear, we immediately began to start the portal back up. Nopony said a word as we triple checked every step. Slowly and carefully reopening the hole back to Twilight’s exile.
Before an hour had passed, the green swirling energy field once more sat between the arches. Lyra, Derpy, and I crowded around the portal entrance, ready to run through. Ayna sat back to monitor the system. Ready to give the word to go and then fly straight through herself.
The seconds ticked past, each one more tense than the last. Would it be safe? Had NaN fixed the core properly enough for this? Or would Twilight be trapped there even longer?
The portal’s lights suddenly flashed from red to green. “We’re good! Forty seconds until destabilization,” Ayna announced.
“Are we TOTALLY sure this won’t kill us?” Lyra asked, a few drops of fear managing to pierce through the brave mask she’d put on.
I wasn’t. Not totally. But I was mostly sure. Sure enough to try.
I turned around, gently resting a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder. “There’s an old human saying, Lyra. A phrase of great power and wisdom. And consolation to the soul in times of need...”
“What’s that?” She asked, as eager to learn anything about humans as she always was.
I turned back towards the portal and jumped through. “Allons~y!”