Liam winced as he pushed his way through frayed cables and warped beams. Getting into the damaged pylon to see what that never-to-be-sufficiently-damned ship had done to them proved to be more difficult than he'd expected. The slight tilt of the ship didn't make things any easier either.
"So what exactly did you find?" he called back over his shoulder to Albrecht as he ducked under a section of collapsed ceiling.
"Nothing you or Will are going to like."
"Well that's descriptive," Liam muttered. "Can you at least give me a hint or something?"
"Just take a look, we're here," Albrecht replied as Liam stepped through a partially opened doorway.
If the chaos of the trip up had been bad this was infinitely worse. The pink light of morning pierced into the cavernous room of the 4th drive section through a dozen or more gaping holes, the edges peeled back and jutting inwards like grizzly stalactites. Wrecked machinery lay strewn about in unidentifiable chunks and slagged mounds. Worst of all though were the hundreds of small crystals and shards lying on the floor after being blown out of the surrounding equipment. All of them were black and pitted, just like Thomas' brain back at the embassy. Liam's lip twitched and he snarled a curse at the unwelcome sight.
"When we get back, they're fucking dead. They're mass producing this shit like it was mustard gas. No, not 'like', this is straight up chemical warfare! By their own laws they're mass murdering fucks and I'm going to make sure every last one of them chokes on a copy of the Geneva Convention."
"Like I said, nothing you or Will were going to like. We're going to need to scrub this place down before we can even start thinking about repairs. That's not going to be easy. Looking at the state of things it seems like all it takes is contact with whatever they're using to kill a shard completely. We're going to have to figure out some way to pressure wash the interior out."
"Albrecht, I'm laying down the law here and now. None of you are to enter this area. At all. If you can't come up with a plan guaranteed to keep all of you out of there while getting it cleaned then we're going to cut the pylon loose and make do without."
Albrecht grunted as he looked over Liam's shoulder and took stock of the carnage. "That's going to be rough. We'll lose a lot of our radiator surface and you know how much that will limit our drive output. We'll need time to check how much we can keep and time to work out a go-around for the coolant loop if we have to go down that route."
Liam spun around and held a finger up to Albrecht's face. The Legionnaire's eyes crossed as they focused on the fingertip between them. "Whatever it takes Al. None of you are going in that room while there's even a tenth of a percent chance you could come into contact with that shit. I've got seven of you here and I'm not losing another one. Do I make myself clear?"
"Hey, I'm not in any hurry to die. Trust me, none of us are going in there unless we're certain either."
"Good, glad to hear it. We're done with this for now so let's finish checking out the rest of the ship," he said as he turned around. He was stopped short as a hefty synthetic hand landed on his shoulder.
"Hold it right there. WE'LL finish checking the ship. YOU'LL go get some rest. You've got a big meeting soon in case you forgot and it will go better if you're not slurring your words from exhaustion or nodding off every other sentence."
Liam tipped an eyebrow up slightly and said, "Excuse me? When did you become my mother?"
Albrecht returned the eyebrow with one of his own. "About the same time you worked through the entire night, skipping from one of us to the next to stay busy."
"We're short handed and I was not about to sleep while you all were-"
"ENOUGH. We'll get this figured out while you're gone. With any luck the keel drives didn't get beaten up too bad and we can get lift and motive power and be out of here in a day or two. So with that as my professional assessment of the situation here's my assessment of you: YOU. NEED. REST," Albrecht commanded, crossing and flexing his arms to let him know that physical persuasion was an option if he continued to put up resistance.
"I'm fine-" he began then yelped in surprise as a large black and grey fist shot out towards his stomach. He bent backwards away from it only for another to swing around and clap him across the ear as his head came forward. He stumbled sideways as half his world was suddenly drowned out by an immense ringing tone and his sense of balance vanished.
"Any other day and you would have seen that coming and sent me flying to the other end of the ship. Right now you can't even recognize one of your own faints. Go to bed before I see what else I can use on you right now."
Liam shook his head and coughed down bile as the motion made his head swim. He was going to put a field in Albrecht's shoulder strong enough to rip the arm from it when he got back up- why couldn't he get back up? His arms and legs were shaking and his mind was still swimming. He stood there, hunched against the wall, trying to rise up to Albrecht's challenge for a solid half a minute. He couldn't.
"Damn Al, you went a little overboard with the strength. When I get back up-" he stopped as he felt his throat constrict and swallowed hard again.
Albrecht scoffed in the back of his throat and said, "Sure, I'm the one that went overboard. Sorry for pushing myself too hard. Now get going."
Liam gave him a one finger reply and slowly began dragging his feet back the way they'd just come. He was slower than he should have been and felt a number of aches he hadn't before weighing him down now. He couldn't remember what he'd been doing to get them. In fact, he couldn't remember most of what happened last night. Everything was a blur apart from the vivid memory of an unfamiliar ship locking missiles on them and seeing seven girls that couldn't be real standing around Will when he stepped out of the bridge to speak with him.
Twilight awoke feeling completely drained and exhausted. She slowly rose out of bed and stretched, muscles complaining and joints popping every step of the way. She shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times wearily. She'd had the weirdest dreams last night. Maybe using magic before bed wasn't a good idea? She'd have to- why was everything so bright? She put her hand between her and the glare piercing through the window until her eyes adjusted. She lowered her hand and her jaw dropped along with it. The first thing she noticed was this was not her room at home. Her room didn't have a country look which was something of a dead giveaway. Second was all of her friends still sleeping on mattresses and cushions piled onto the floor along with her. The third thing she noticed however was the reason for her jaw currently hanging out somewhere around her navel. Far beyond the window and reflecting in the mid morning light like a lighthouse was a tower of silver. One that looked remarkably like something she had been certain was just part of a dream.
"Mornin' Twilight."
Twilight noticed a fourth thing that she hadn't been able to see through the glare: Applejack standing next to the window looking back at her.
"Morning Applejack. So, uh... that wasn't a dream then huh?"
Applejack grimaced for a brief moment then brightened and smirked at her. She tapped a finger to the corner of her mouth and said, "You uh, got a little somethin'..."
Twilight frowned and reached up to her face to find a wet slick of drool tracing down to her chin. She hurriedly wiped it on the sleeve of her shirt as her face flushed. Applejack chuckled then looked back out the window, her smirk slowly turning into a frown.
"Well at least one of us got some rest. They've been crawling and flyin' around the damn thing all mornin'. Couldn't get any rest after Ah noticed 'em."
Twilight squinted through the glare and noticed a couple smaller dark specs hovering over the shining monument to failed landings. "I've got to find out how they do that..." she whispered as she watched them drift back and forth. Apparently it wasn't as much of a whisper as she'd thought because Applejack let out a short snort and frowned more deeply.
"Don't go gettin' your hopes up Twi. Remember how they treated ya when ya pulled your scanner out? Ah don't think sharing's a big thing wherever they're from."
Twilight paused in getting out of her sleeping bag, mostly because Applejack still had a core of steel in her voice, but also because Pinkie was currently lying across her legs in a disheveled heap. She shifted to a slightly more comfortable and less leg numbing position and turned to face Applejack again.
"AJ, I know you're upset over what happened to the farm but they haven't actually been that unfriendly-"
"Twilight, don't. The whole time they were talking it felt like they weren't sayin' more than they were sayin'."
Twilight blinked and ran the words over a few times in her head before she thought she had a felt she had a good idea of what she'd meant. "You think they were hiding something?"
Applejack continued to look out of the window with that displeased frown when she replied, "Ah'm certain. Ah've got a bad feelin' about all of 'em. They're bad news."
"Can you explain why you feel like-"
"Ah can."
Twilight waited a few seconds. "Sooooo..."
"Ah said can, not Ah'm gonna. They're mah feelings, not yours. Y'all won't understand."
"Applejack, that's not fair to any of us-"
This time Applejack did turn to look at her as she interrupted her question, the frown replaced with something closer to sadness or maybe pity. Twilight didn't appreciate the look. She was only trying to understand a friend's problem and getting nothing but push-back for it.
"Twilight, just because we're friends don't mean Ah have to explain everythin' goin' on in mah head to y'all. Ah've got reasons for how Ah feel, reasons all mah own, and that's the end of it."
Twilight was about to reply when her stomach growled loud enough for Applejack to hear and to make Pinky toss a little. "Mrrmm... why's all the cake gone...," she muttered as she smacked her lips with a faint frown. Twilight sighed and poked Pinkie in the side, causing her to faintly giggle and roll off her legs, freeing her at last.
"Guess that's our cue to get everyone up for breakfast."
"Yeah, Ah'll go get Applebloom and Big Mac up and get it started. Ah'll leave this lot to you."
"Get some rest he says. You'll feel better and clearer afterwards he says," Liam muttered as he began cresting the hill to the farmhouse stiffly. His legs protested every step and his arms wanted nothing more than to hang limp. He paused for a moment to stretch and instantly regretted it. His joints and back popped like a string of firecrackers but most impressive was his jaw, especially on the one side. It sounded like a gun going off and ached like crazy.
Gonna have to find a way to thank Albrecht for this. An all expense paid trip to a rock crusher sounds fitting. Maybe a dip in an acid bath beforehand to relax. He'll love it.
He took the moment of near paralysis as his body rebooted from aching to operating to look around in daylight. They'd done far more damage than he'd thought, both to the orchard and to the ship. He suddenly regretted his promise to Granny Smith because this was going to be way more work to repair than he and a grand total of seven Legionnaires could hope to fix quickly. Especially when they'd need to first pull the Celestia out of the ground. Looking at the shape she was in that was going to be easier said than done. More pressing than that was the need to start working on a way back home. Any distractions from that were unacceptable-
He stopped, running his last thoughts again and immediately chastising himself for even thinking of cutting and running instead of helping, especially with what he now knew about that orchard. It might have been an accident but responsibility still rested squarely on them. He'd made a promise to fix things and that was what he'd started the Legion to do in the first place.
Plus, what could the seven of us and an embassy ship hope to do that the rest of the fleet couldn't? If it weren't for Mom and Dad I'd be saying take our time, pull back and rebuild now that we're beyond their reach. The seven of us were never going to be a part of the rescue so us returning is kind of a moot point, isn't it? Now if I can just get myself to believe that.
With a resigned sigh he walked up to the door and finding no doorbell knocked loudly a few times. This was immediately followed by a loud series of crashes, bangs, and general chaotic noises that rapidly approached the door from within. Their arrival was preceded by a muffled yell.
"Pinkie, you get back here right now! Hold on a second. Applebloom! Where do ya think yer goin?"
Just before he'd made up his mind to duck and hide somewhere the door flew open, revealing an out of breath Pinkie and Applebloom.
"Hey there! You almost missed breakfast and it's a good one!" Pinkie said with a gigantic grin. It was somewhat countered by her eyes darting back to the side as if she was expecting something to happen any second.
"Applejack made flapjacks. Granny's out getting some cider from the barn if you want some," Applebloom said by way of explanation. Her eyes were filled with something between wonder and apprehension as she looked at him.
Oh hell, they're still real, he mentally groaned to himself as his eyes widened. Before he could reply or, as he'd rather have done, about faced and marched back to the ship and its fully stocked bar, Applejack stepped around the corner behind him and scowled at the trio in the doorway.
"There's not much left since ya got up so late and Ah'm not about to make more. Don't have enough time with all the work to be done now," she said as she turned and disappeared back the way she'd come. Liam didn't miss the implied barb and clicked his tongue softly in irritation as he scowled back at the space she'd vacated.
The world's still laughing in my face only now it's also giving me the finger as well. Then he remembered why she was acting that way and mentally slapped himself across the head. Again. Give her time. Give her time...
A pair of pink hands shot out and pulled him into the house and back into the moment. "You heard the lady, if you stand there any longer Twilight's going to eat everything left!"
"Wait, what? No I'm not!" an indignant cry replied from around the corner to a chorus of giggles and open laughter.
Pinkie jumped behind him and began pushing him toward the voices as Applebloom trailed behind them both. They passed into a rustic and homey kitchen and Liam swallowed discreetly as six pairs of eyes tracked his arrival.
"Uh, morning everyone."
"Good morning - oh my, you look dreadful!" Rarity exclaimed as she put down her silverware and brought her hands up to her mouth in dismay.
Liam frowned in confusion then noticed his faint reflection in the window behind them. His face was smeared with small flecks of grease and he had a set of impressive shadows under his eyes. He wasn't sure if they were from stress or lack of sleep. There'd been plenty of both in the last twenty four hours after all. The only consolation was he'd at least had the presence of mind to change into a new set of clothes when he woke up.
Oh yeah, this is a great first formal impression. You're killing it Liam.
"Oh. Sorry, I spent the night working with the others on the ship. Our water reclamation system's trashed so I wasn't able to clean up afterwards," he half-lied. The first part was true, the second less so. It had been out due to a busted pipe and a cracked reservoir but that had been fixed in minutes. He'd just been too dazed to make use of a shower afterwards, especially after Albrecht knocked him senseless. He was suddenly very aware of how greasy his skin felt and very thankful for the new and above all fresh scented set of clothes.
"Oh darling, that's terrible! Go get cleaned up before you sit down, I insist. You'll feel much better as well I'm sure," Rarity said with a frown. Liam nodded in thanks for the save and looked around hurriedly.
"Here, it's this way," Applebloom said as she tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. He followed her to the downstairs bathroom and nodded in thanks before ducking inside and locking the door shut. He turned around and winced as his reflection stared back at him from the mirror over the sink. The window hadn't done the damage justice.
Besides what he'd already seen he was also sporting a small bruise around his ear where Albrecht cuffed him and a number of other stains of unknown origin. He frowned and shook his head in annoyance then washed his hands and took off his button down shirt and the plain t-shirt below it as carefully as he could to avoid adding any stains to them as well.
A few minutes and a quarter of a bottle of soap later he felt surprisingly refreshed. The stains were gone and some life had returned to his eyes. As he buttoned up his shirt again he locked those same eyes with his reflection and softly said, "Okay. Your debut was crap and your followup miiiight have been even worse. That's all in the past now. They're normal human girls who just happen to be exact matches to the ones you know and can use frickin magic. There, you've said it. No big deal. No big deal... yeah righ- stop that. Better. Now, you're going to go out there, you're not going to freak out, and you're going to DEAL WITH IT." He arched his brow a little at his reflection and chuckled at the comically scolding expression.
"All done?" asked Applebloom as he stepped out into the hall.
"Yup. I could almost pass for living again," he replied with a sheepish grin. Applebloom's eyes widened and she took a step back.
"Wait, yer dead?" she asked in clear distress. Liam closed his eyes and groaned softly as he realized his error. He was going to have to stay away from his usual self-deprecating humor for awhile. Too much chance of being taken literally.
"Sorry, just an expression. It's been a long couple of days and I didn't realized how much I looked like death," he said. As if on cue a huge yawn crawled up his throat and he winced as his jaw ached with the effort.
Applebloom blew out a quick breath in relief then blushed. She spun around and quickly began walking back towards the kitchen. Liam followed behind and reentered to a small smattering of applause from the fashionista at the table. He steeled himself with a deep breath and focused on the seven girls seated at the table. That familiar chill of late ran up his spine again at the seven young girls looking back at him, most of them with neutral or friendly expressions with the exception of Pinkie who was doing her best to remake the fall of Pompeii in pancakes and syrup and wasn't paying him much attention at all. Applejack simply grimaced with her arms crossed. At least she didn't look openly angry right now.
"Much better!" Rarity said approvingly as he took a seat at the end of the table.
"Yeah, and we even held Twilight off your pancakes!" Rainbow Dash said with a snicker. Across the table Twilight blushed heavily.
"I didn't try to take any of them! They're joking, I swear!" she stammered while looking at him pleadingly then blushed even harder as Rainbow Dash began laughing. Pinkie took the opportunity afforded by the distraction to nab one of Twilight's pancakes off her plate and add it to the breakfast mountain on her own. Twilight caught the last of the motion and looked down at her plate.
"Hey!" she cried out, causing Dash to nearly fall out of her chair laughing. Before anyone could chastise either of the tricksters Fluttershy moved one of her pancakes over to Twilight's plate with a small smile. She'd hardly touched her own breakfast and had plenty left. "Oh! Thanks Fluttershy. Are you sure?"
"It's not a big deal, I'm just not very hungry today," she replied.
"Um, if that's on account of us then I'm... sorry," Liam said awkwardly. Fluttershy quickly shook her head with a smile that didn't meet her eyes. They were sad and filled with uncertainty. Over what, he couldn't guess, not with the thousand possibilities their arrival offered.
"Oh! No, I just never feel hungry when I get stressed and last night was stressful. That doesn't mean YOU made it stressful," she nervously clarified, "we were just shocked when you arrived and then more shocked at how strange you were- not that you're that strange. Just... not what we were expecting," she ended in a barely audible squeak.
Liam waved her off, mostly so that he didn't awkwardly sit there and stare at her in fascinated wonder, then looked down the table to the oldest Apple daughter.
"Is Gr- your grandmother around?" Liam asked, catching himself before he started addressing them all more casually than he should have. Or maybe that was better and wouldn't get noticed as much as him constantly correcting himself? He had no idea what the custom was and knew it was going to continue to drive him mad until some hint- or more likely some slip-up- informed him.
Applejack huffed and said, "Yeah, she and mah brother are bringin' in a barrel of cider from the barn."
"Ah, gotcha," he said. He wasn't panicking around them or feeling weirded out as much now but the awkward silence that followed felt worse. He had a million things he could ask but didn't dare to. Any one of them might give away his knowledge of their lives without him realizing. All of them seemed to be in a similar state as well or were simply waiting for him to make the first move.
"Hey, eat up! They'll go cold if you take too long," Pinkie said, breaking the silence before digging back into her own plate with gusto.
"Oh, right. Forgot. Uh, thanks for the food Applejack," he said with a hopeful smile her way. She nodded but otherwise didn't react visibly otherwise. He cut out a bite of the pancakes and slowly brought it to his mouth, feeling extremely uncomfortable under the stares of everyone around him- OH WOW.
"...I've died and gone to heaven. Sweet, fluffy, syrupy heaven," he said softly with wonder. Not only were they the best pancakes he'd ever had, he hadn't eaten for over a day now and his unintended fast magnified the sudden craving tenfold. He tore back into the plate of perfect pancakes in a frenzy, pausing only when a large bite went down hard. He coughed and cast about for something to drink.
"Here ya go," a scratchy, warbling voice said from behind him as a light green hand placed an amber filled cup in front of him. He grabbed the glass and downed it in one go. It was possibly even better than the pancakes.
"I'm moving in. I need these in my life everyday from now on," Liam half-joked between coughs as he looked back over his shoulder at Granny Smith. She chuckled and patted him on the back while Big Mac nodded to him politely then stepped over to lean against the counter, watching him with an almost bored look on his face. Applebloom joined him and he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side.
"Glad ta see ya at least got good taste in grub if not good taste in parkin' lots," Granny said with a small smirk.
Liam twitched and froze for half a second before sighing. "I won't argue that, not when the evidence is such an eyesore right now. We'll do what we can to help you fix up the farm, but first I think we're going to need to get the ship operational again and out of the way."
"So you're gonna tell us ta trust that ya won't run and leave us with this mess? Sure, why not?" said Applejack, giving him a smile that had exactly zero humor behind it. Granny stepped behind her and not-so gently cuffed her on the back of the head.
"Applejack, ya cut that out right now, ya hear me? Ah've had just about enough o' yer attitude. He offered ta help and whether you like it or not we need it. Ah thought about it and he's our only option. Our dang insurance isn't gonna cover the repairs and we can't afford both the saplings and the labor to fix the grove up and plant 'em. If they can help with either of those then we might be okay."
"Granny, why not call the cops or better yet the news channels? Ah bet one of 'em would pay us enough to get things fixed up in return for first shot at this story," Applejack said, pointing out the window at the ship rising in the center of what would otherwise have been a fantastic view.
"You'll do no such thing! Ah don't want none of them scavengers hangin' round here. Use yer head girl, they'd make us out to be the country bumpkins that nearly got abducted or worse. We won't have peace or quite again 'round here after that! But there's one other thing yer fergettin'."
"And what's that?" asked Applejack with that same out of character scowl.
Liam was incredibly confused by her anger at this point. Not simply because she was angry, Granny's quiet words to him last night still gave him hourly pangs of regret and shame so he had no questions there. If someone had desecrated the graves of his parents he'd have- well, it would have really given humans back home a reason to fear him. Even more than they had one now. No, he was confused because she was angry and none of the rest of her family seemed to be or at least that hers was completely out of proportion by comparison. They'd all forgiven him in some sense for the accident and she was still looking for the best place to stick the knife.
What really grabbed his attention thought was the threat of media attention was too close to a vital spot for his liking. They could not afford to get pulled into the politics or affairs of this world for any number of reasons. He slowly palmed the miniature transmitter he'd brought with him just in case and waited to see where things went.
"Apples. Help. People," Granny answer, jabbing a finger into the table with each word. "Always have and always will. Especially when they offer ta help us in kind. Or have ya fergotten 'bout how yer momma and poppa-"
"Alright! Fine, we'll use 'em to fix thing's! Are ya happy now?" Applejack growled in frustration.
Granny squinted at her for a few seconds then nodded. "Fer now. Now as for you," she said as she focused again on Liam. "How long will it take y'all ta git yer ship fixed up and out of the ground?"
Liam looked back out the window and thought about it for a moment before hissing through his teeth. "Hard to say. The others are running through the checklists but so far everything seems to be sound structurally. We'll have to run checks on power, controls and computers, and the primary drives before we can lift off. That shouldn't take more than a couple days. Buuuuut that's only half the problem. We're going to have to check for leaks once we head back up to orbit and get underway again. If there are any they'll have to fix them. My twins may be fine with not having air but I don't fair so well without it. If we're lucky we didn't get any cracks in the hull and we just need a day or two to check and fix the external seals. If we're unlucky the hull's been breached and finding and fixing every place that's happened could take weeks with most of the crew tied up in it."
Granny grunted and said, "Ah was afraid of that. It's only gonna take longer if yer helping us at the same time right?"
Liam nodded then said, "I'd say it would be best if we get the big repairs finished as fast as possible and get the ship out of the way. I can leave a skeleton crew to check the leaks and work with the rest here."
Granny looked thoughtful for a moment. "So how many would that be?"
"Hard to say right now. We'll have to figure out the full repair bill and then divy up the eight of us between the ship and the farm. Might need all seven of them on the ship to get it running again."
"You only have seven clone- er, Legionnaires for that entire ship?" asked a wide-eyed Twilight.
"Right now, yes. Normally she has a compliment of a couple hundred but we were transiting with just the bridge crew when we ended up here. The rest were on leave and... weren't on board. So, seven."
Granny sighed and shook her head. "Drat, that's not gonna help much then. We'll need a heck of a lot more than that to get this place fixed up before the window to replant is over."
Applebloom hung her head in disappointment and squeezed Big Mac's hand. He gave Liam his own weary glance then turned to look out the window at the orchard. His disappointment and his solemn demeanor stung, mostly because he'd been so levelheaded and easygoing with them since last night. As Liam tried to think of something to say to reassure them the rest of the group all looked at each other and nodded.
"If that's all you have then we'll just have to chip in for the rest, right guys? They can help us out while we do the heavy lifting," Rainbow Dash said with a grin and a nod towards Applejack.
"Absolutely, we simply can't let the farm linger in this state. We'll do whatever we can to set things right again," Rarity directed at Applebloom, eliciting a sniffle and a smile from her and an appreciative tilt of the head from her brother.
"Plus with our new powers it shouldn't be that-" Twilight began before her eyes shot open and she slowly turned to look at Liam. "Ummm..."
Liam gave her a small smirk and said, "Oh yes, I'll be asking about that another time. That was part of the info exchange deal we talked about. But before that I need to say that even one Legionnaire is going to be more help than I think you're giving them credit for."
Sunset leaned forward and clasped her hands on the table while resting on her elbows. "How so? You said you didn't have magic so how much can they really do?" The way she asked the question told Liam she was looking for more than just an answer. She was looking for background on them. Given what he knew of her it wasn't too surprising but at the same time it was very, very unnerving to be interrogated by one of your favorite fictions.
"Each of them can deadlift a thousand pounds and any injury can be repaired in minutes if they've got the spare parts and tools available. They don't need sleep, food, or water and will never run out of strength. Also, you may have noticed the EVA float packs some of them are using out there. If you use them right you can lift a car with one. I think we'll be able to pull our own weight without any issue," he explained, trying not to sound too smug.
Everyone stared at him for a few seconds until Rainbow Dash shrugged and said, "Okay, so maybe you'll be a bit more useful than we thought." Liam shook his head and chuckled.
"A bit. I designed them to be tough in the first place and we've all been making upgrades ever since," he explained. "I'm proud of all the progress we continue to make. I was afraid we'd run into walls, places where we just couldn't imagine ways around our problems because we all think the same way, but they've proven to be adept at looking at thinking outside the box, particularly the ones that take job stints outside our usual interests. Those guys are worth their weight in gold for us." He paused, his brow pinching as something he said nagged at the back of his mind. Now what was it-
Oh! Now that could get us some brownie points and give the finger to those two faced assholes back on Earth. Our Earth. That's going to get confusing.
"You mentioned needing labor and funds?" he asked, looking at the Apple family for confirmation. Granny and Applejack shared a look then faced him with muted annoyance and frustration.
"Yeah, we don't make a lot and we're gonna make a lot less now that half the orchard's gone. What of it?" Applejack asked warily.
"Well, it sounds like we've got the labor issue settled between all of us but I think we might also be able to help with the payment end of things."
Rarity watched silently as Will carefully sidestepped down the still broken ramp of the Celestia where they'd first encountered each other, gingerly holding the huge case in his arms. When he reached the bottom he placed it alongside the other five identical cases and flexed his fingers a few times.
"That's the last one. Compared to the enticement package these probably won't have any significant sale value and some of them we decided were worth keeping. Personal mementos and that sort of thing like the clock from your state visit to Luxembourg," he said, looking at the claimed-to-be-ancient boy standing by the pile he'd made.
Liam stared at the nearest case for a moment with a sad smile and an unfocused looked.
"Yeah, definitely keep that one. The rest of these are fair game though," Liam said as he lightly tapped the nearest case with his foot with an evil grin. "You know, something about the idea of pawning these for chump change gives me a warm and happy glow."
He was really enjoying whatever it was they were doing and judging by how Will matched his expression the same could probably be said for all of them.
"Do we even want to know what's in those?" asked Sunset loud enough for the pair to hear her from where they stood.
She was facing the ship while leaning over the hood of Twilight's car. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were leaning against the front bumper and talking about the hovering Legionnaire as best she could tell while Fluttershy sat next to them, watching the Legionnaires with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Applejack and her family had gone off on a walk around the ship to see the full extent of the damage and Pinkie was currently doing... something in the back of the hatchback. The fact that she was doing it silently was the part that most concerned her but when she'd tried to get a look at what she'd been doing she instead only seen Pinkie's palm blocking her view. "No spoilers," was all she'd said until Rarity looked away again. The rest of them were watching the small but energetic team of Legionnaires crawling and in one case flying over the hulking craft. The last one had been something of an issue, not because of anything it did, but rather as soon as Dash saw it she wanted to fly up to chase it and had to be argued down by all of them combined on the grounds of not interfering and not revealing her powers to it and the rest of the stranded castaways.
No, not it. He. I need to get out of the mindset of calling them "it" immediately. A faux pas like that would almost certainly strain things with them. I think. Maybe they wouldn't mind considering how Liam and they talk to each other? Ohhhh, they're just so odd I can't be sure! Maybe it would be best to ask them upfront? But what if they take that as uncouth and in poor taste! Hmmmm... maybe... maybe I can find some way to bring it up casually in conversation then? Oh! Maybe they'll accept a couple sets of suits or uniforms! If not then I could probably offer to repair or fit anything they might have. That would give me the opening I need, she thought excitedly. Her inner conundrum was interrupted by Liam calling back to Sunset.
"You will, but I'd like to wait till Granny gets back before I do the big reveal," Liam said with a huge grin.
It was probably the first time Rarity had seen him smile, really smile, since they'd met last night. Not a lengthy amount of time in which to be thoroughly acquainted for sure, but looking at his face now she realized that the friendly smiles and grins from their introduction the previous night now felt... forced. Perhaps that wasn't the best word. He'd seemed happy to talk with them and explain things, well, explain things as much as either of them had which wasn't very much now that she thought about it, but the point was that she could now apply the word "seemed" to that happiness with great confidence. He hadn't actually been feeling that way at all before and now, for whatever reason, he was. He wasn't unsure or conflicted- there, that was a good word for it! He'd seemed conflicted before and now he wasn't or at least wasn't noticeably.
She also noticed something else she'd missed while he beamed at Sunset. That heartfelt smile also made his face look noticeably younger, truly making him look like an out of place highschooler, and with a small feeling of pity understood why he'd been so upset when Sunset said he looked to be of the same age as them. She might have been interested in keeping her youth for a few decades longer if it had been possible but she would have preferred it coming in a few more years as well to be sure.
Sunset rapped a knuckle against the top of the hood then shrugged. "Okay, but if we're going to be waiting on them then maybe you can answer something for me in the meantime."
Liam and Will shared a quick blank look then looked back at her. "Sure, though I will say upfront that if it's something I feel you all need to hear then I'll wait on answering or if it's something that impinges on Legion state secrets then I'll have to decline."
Sunset tilted her head to the side and frowned. "Is that really necessary? We're not exactly spies. We're not even from your world."
Liam shook his head and looked at her sternly. "It's not actually about you, it's about us staying in the mindset."
Sunset's frown became a little less annoyed and a little more confused. "Uh, care to explain that a little?"
Liam sighed and nodded. "We can't afford to start thinking there are any situations where it's okay to hand out our secrets. They could impact thousands of lives in any number of ways and if we start making exceptions then one day we will slip up and reveal something we shouldn't have because we thought it was safe. The best way to not do that is to never give out that confidential knowledge. We don't have anything against you all personally, we just can't afford to let sloppiness and complacency into our actions. That's been demonstrated VERY clearly to us before," he said a little more darkly than Rarity thought was perhaps necessary.
She could understand where he was coming from of course. The world of fashion could be a tad cutthroat and one of the big rules she'd heard stated over and over again was never let your designs out before the season kicked off or else you might find them on someone else's lineup before yours. But he was being overly dramatic in making that point to them for sure.
If Sunset felt the same way she didn't let on, instead considering him for a few more seconds then shrugging again. "That makes sense I guess. I doubt that's going to apply to what I want to ask though." She waited till Liam motioned slightly for her to continue then looked up over his head and pointed. "Can you tell me where that came from?" He frowned in confusion then turned and followed path of her finger. From her vantage point near the back of the car she could just barely see the edge of his face and how he both froze and winced at the same time when he realized she was pointing at the ships nameplate.
What's that about I wonder? Her musing didn't have time to go anywhere as he quickly turned back to Sunset with a snap of his fingers.
"It's a play on words of Celestial. A lot of our ships get named like that, taking terms having to do with space or astronomy and altering them to sound like names. Just felt right since the seafaring ships of our world were often named after women and we wanted to do the same thing in a way appropriate for us." Will nodded slowly as he finished then went back to slowly pacing around while waiting for the Apple family to return.
Sunset raised an eyebrow slightly then looked up at the letters etched into the plate over the open bay. She let her eyes drift across them for a few moments then shot a smirk back at Liam. "I like that way of naming things. It's a good name too just... kind of ironic."
Liam notched up an eyebrow of his own and said, "Oh?"
"I know two others with that same name. One's the principal at our school and the other's an... old friend," she finished slowly.
If Liam noticed the pause and tone he didn't make anything of it and instead simply notched his brow up and said, "Huh. Small world I suppose."
Sunset gave a small murmur of agreement and leaned against the hood of the car again, her eyes wandering back up to the nameplate as she rested there. She didn't have long to do so before the sounds of the Apple family returning became noticeable. The quartet made their way back to clearing slowly, Granny breathing hard alongside Applebloom as they arrived. All four of them paused as they reached Twilight's car and Fluttershy was quick to pull out a number of bottles of cider and hand one to each of them. All of them downed them quickly then looked back at Will and Liam.
"Did ya have ta make yer dang ship so big? Took us ages to get around it and see how bad things are!" asked Granny Smith in a clearly annoyed tone.
Liam chuckled and tried to stifle a grin that threaten to split his face in two. "Granny, just be glad this is the ship we were in and not one of our other models. Most of them are at least as large if not larger and our flagship is large enough to house the Celestia in her main hangar."
All of the Apples gaped and stared up at the ship behind him. "Yer right, Ah'm glad," Granny said with a shudder. She frowned up at the now apparently rather small ship and snorted. "So, what did ya bring us out here to see?"
Liam tapped one of the cases with a heel and said, "Come on over and see for yourself." They looked at each other then headed over to where he stood. When they reached him Liam looked around them and said, "You all too. I'm going to need your help to make this work."
Rarity shared a confused glance with the rest of her friends then walked over to join Applejack and her family. When they'd all gathered round the six large sealed cases on the ground Liam leaned down and clicked opened a pair of locks at either end then lifted up the top and showed them-
"Oh my, those are stunning!" Rarity exclaimed. Inside the case, nestled in a bed of foam blocks, were a set of jade dragon figurines with long serpent bodies and golden whiskers in the style of some Neighponese art she'd seen before. Each scale had been hand carved and no two seemed to be identical. Both their mouths were open in a snarl and the two together looked like they were rearing away from each other in snarling combat, gold flecked eyes staring daggers at their opponent.
She felt a slight pressure on her shoulder and before she could who it was she got her answer as Rainbow Dash whistled loudly as only she could while looking over her.
"Dang dude, those are sweet! Did you buy those when you were on vacation or something?"
Liam snorted and shook his head. "Not a snowball's chance in hell Dash. They aren't really in my style but we kept them because they were gifted to us by the leader of a country we visited in the Celestia. Now I have the perfect excuse to get rid of them since I can claim they were destroyed in the crash."
Rarity and a few others winced at the course language, earning them confused looks from Liam and Will.
"What did I say?" asked Liam.
"It's ummm... well, you said- oh, I can't say it," Fluttershy muttered. Liam's expression contracted into greater confusion until Rarity cleared her throat.
"It's not considered couth to use language like that here. Just a bit of friendly advice for around town perhaps," she advised with a nervous laugh.
Liam's head slowly tilted to the side. "Wait, what language?"
"The, umm, H-word," Twilight replied abashedly.
"H-word? What the hell's the- wait, you mean hell?" he asked incredulously, eyes widening when Twilight flinched at hearing it again. She nodded in confirmation and he brought his hand up to cover his eyes.
"...okay, something to remember then," he said slowly, slowly dragging his hand down his face. "How about we return to just before I said hel- the 'H-word'?"
"Sure. So why get rid of them?" Applejack asked from the other side opposite Rainbow Dash. "Ah thought ya said they were gifts?"
Liam gave her an odd look then said, "Yes, political gifts. I didn't know their leader at all when I was presented these. It was simply a show of wealth, power, and general pleasantries. Things became more strained afterwards but getting rid of them would have been an undue insult." He looked up for a moment then snorted and said, "Well, more like just an insult."
Applejack frowned but didn't say anything else. Instead it was Applebloom who asked the next question.
"Are ya giving these to us? That's kind of ya and all but we don't really have a place for 'em."
Liam laughed openly alongside Will then looked at her warmly. "No, definitely not. They were insincere gifts in the first place and I don't intend to do the same thing to you and your family. These are going to be a down payment on the repairs and saplings like you mentioned. I just need you all to help me find a place to sell them. I'll try to find some actual gifts we can give or make for you all for your understanding and patience before we leave."
"Oh! Well that's sure nice of ya," the young Apple said brightly.
Rarity thought it was a shame to be letting go of such fine pieces of art, especially if the items in the other crates were of the same quality, but it wasn't her place to say so. She also wasn't sure they'd be able to sell them for as much as he was hoping, particularly since no one on this world would recognize any markings or identification on them. They'd be relying on the quality alone to set the price and from her experience in following the world of design she knew that often times it didn't matter as much as who'd made them. Twilight seemed to be of a similar opinion as well.
"I'm not sure how much we'll be able to get for these around here. No one will know how much they'd be worth on your world and will probably undercut it badly," she said as she squinted at one.
Liam didn't seem disheartened by her words though and instead gave her a wide grin, "Oh, I'm aware. Remember how I said this was a chance for me to get rid of them? I'm mostly doing this so that getting them off my hands actually benefits someone. Plus, these aren't going to be the real hot item. That title will go to the contents of this one," he said as he flipped open the lid on another case.
There wasn't any foam or gold inlaid jade sculptures in it, though there was gold. More gold than Rarity had ever seen in her life. A solid, shining brick of it sitting next to two matching sized ones of what she recognized as silver.
"Sourced from our asteroid belt and hot off the mint. Sort of," he said with a back and forth shake of his hand.
"Why in tarnation do ya have that with ya?" Granny asked in wonder.
"Repairs," answered Liam.
"Repairs?!?" all of them shouted in unison. Rarity frowned as Liam and Will shared the snarkiest grin she'd ever seen in her life then nodded in unison at them.
"Yes, repairs. Gold and silver aren't that hard for us to come by. It's common enough in what we mine that we use silver with its conductivity for all of our wires and gold and its corrosion resistance for all of our contacts and connectors. Usually leaves us with a lot more gold left over because of that."
Rarity stared back down at the ingots, awed at how easily they could come by such lustrous finds. She'd have given up quite a lot to be able to use them in wire and flakes and ornaments for her designs. Gold went particularly well with Rainbow's skin tone and accentuated Applejack's hair color while silver provided a good contrast for both Sunset and Twilight's usual color preferences. What she could do for them with such rare materials... except they weren't that rare for Liam and Will and the others. They were materials to make wires and machines with. Her awe gave way to melancholy at the thought of what it would be like if everything she prized for its, well, rarity suddenly became commonplace and easy to acquire. That was something she'd be glad to not see come to this world anytime soon.
"Wait, don't you need to keep these then? To get the ship up and zooming through space to find new worlds and boldly go where no one from your world has gone before?" Pinkie asked curiously.
Liam and Will both twitched when she said that and slowly looked at each other. Will shook his head and chuckled. He looked at Pinkie and tossed a thumb over his shoulder.
"Remember what we said about not being that rare? That's a fifth of our gold stores and a tenth of our silver stores. That will be more than enough to replace any cables too badly damaged to splice together and any fried connections. We can afford this to make up for what we've accidentally done here."
Everyone was silent for a full minute or more, staring into the two cases and the ship they came from. A few risked glances at the pair that came from it and the almost smug looks plastered clearly across their faces, or at least clearly across Liam's and thus probably Will's by association. Rarity thought again for the twentieth or more time that the way they covered their faces was just odd. The curious side of her was dying to see what was under that almost form fitting cover and she felt her fingers itch at the prospect of peeling back that-
Rarity! You were doing so well too! Just because they are the new and interesting topic of discussion does not mean you get to invade their personal space. Unless they should happen to get it into their minds to invite you to do so in which case it's perfectly fine, she said to herself sort of admonishingly in her mind, choosing to focus on the latter part of the thought rather than the former.
Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence of the group with a grudgingly respectful, "So what you're saying is you have your own nation of 'yous', you have your own spaceship, and you're basically rich. All because you got hit with something weird when you were in highschool. That about right?"
Liam opened his mouth to say something then paused, apparently thinking better of whatever it was. "Yeah, that just about covers it," he said with a lazy thumbs up.
Rainbow nodded for a second or two then looked at Rarity and their friends with a sly grin. "Guys, we need to step it up." Rarity and the rest of their group of friends all groaned, even Pinkie Pie.
Oh great, he's got her ego going now...
Granny didn't pay their drama any mind though as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot rapidly, looking down at the boxes with a calculating stare. A few seconds later she reached a decision and stuck out her hand towards Liam so fast Rarity was certain she felt a breeze pass over them all.
"Ya got yerself a deal Mr. Harcourt."
Liam took her hand and shook it firmly once then looked down at the bounty he was offering the Apples.
"Now we just gotta figure out where we can sell this stuff. Any ideas?"
Rarity tried to think if any of the shops or suppliers she knew of would take bulk materials like this but couldn't come up with a single one. She started to think about who she might get in touch with to see if there were options outside her acquaintances when Sunset slowly put her hand in the air.
"I... might know a guy," she said with a resigned grimace.