Three weeks have passed without incident. All my emergency power reserves are full, main reserves at 0.01%- enough for a short burst of combat, including as many as 13 full-powered main battery war shots, assuming I’m able to locate a source of hydrogen. On that thought, I might have just stumbled across a water table; I’ve sent some nanites down to confirm before I open a tap. I have launched three more drones; the two solar ones will only feed me power during sunrise and sunset, when I will not be revealed by such. At other times, they feed the third new drone: A much heavier, more capable battery-powered long-range recon drone, with minimal solar capacity added on. It is powered by a counter-grav engine, and is currently hovering near the solar drones while it waits- probably a few more days- for a full charge.
Many times, I considered breaking com silence in an attempt to locate or contact one of my brothers or sisters. I have listened to the pop and fizz of static for weeks, not one communications attempt coming inbound- suggesting the possibility of an overwhelming enemy that might intercept the transmission. My drones are communicating with me through a hypersecure ‘entanglement’ connection that, while it only travels at the speed of sound, is utterly undetectable and impossible to intercept. Speaking of which, I have that system operating at capacity with just six drones.
I have continued my repairs. My upper port aft main battery Hellbore is confirmed fully functional; I have also operated repairs on my still-subterranean lower port aft main battery. My Light VLS is online and functioning; I have only repaired 3 tubes, positioned just aft of the exposed weapon. I have reprocessed and remanufactured all the warheads present for those tubes, while my next repair priority goes to my tracks.
I have also resculpted the canyon around the exposed weapon, raising the bottom of the barrel 1.3 meters above the ground level; this should be somewhat harder for other incidental discoveries to simply walk into. I have carved a tunnel through the surrounding rock to one of my own personnel hatches, though I have disguised the entrance with a battlescreen projector and a holoprojector, both fed by hardlines. A second tunnel, vertical and similarly disguised, grants access to one of my drone magazines; inside this magazine, with its similarly repaired launch tube, I am in the process of repairing additional drones for launch immediately upon requirement. Three of my numerous battlescreen projectors have been repaired, granting me a screen powerful enough to shrug off anything smaller than a fusion weapon. I have tuned one of them to what I hope will deflect magical energy, and hold it on standby.
The only problem with battlescreens, given my current predicament, is that they have a tendency to shine- and actively repel things from my armor, such as the dirt and rock lying on top of me. In short, if I light one up, I’m going to stand out like a Bolo in the plains. This is also the main reason I won’t yet ignite any of my four now fully repaired fusion plants, even if I have truly discovered a source of groundwater. Fusion plant emissions are readily detectable; so far, nothing I have done has made any known emissions. Except the magnetic experiment with Daring Do’s assailant in my upper port aft main Hellbore.
I was kinda wondering when the next visit was coming. The one I just detected contains quite the party- involving at least a couple of each kind of pony, several cameras, a cart full of disguises… Unless I miss my guess, this is a movie crew- with guards. They spend some time looking at the now suspended barrel tip before they get to work setting up an interesting wooden lattice, which they cover with dirt, presumably to look like the surrounding terrain. As a couple of them march down the barrel, which I have some sensors watching down now, I hear them complaining about how they’d never been able to build a set for the scene- and that this should be perfect.
I notice that Daring isn’t a member of the party; rather, her part is played by a similarly colored mare with a wig to disguise her real mane and tail. At least she’s a Pegasus- the Earth pony stallion playing her assailant used the pony equivalent of makeup to hide his bright red coat. The unicorns holding the cameras use their power to simulate magic on his false horn, and to help the faux-Daring use makeup to appear more and more injured as the scenes progress.
Daring must have published a new book with it or something- and now, there’s a movie crew attempting to recreate the scenes. Their solution to imitating the gel bath is rather ingenious- and amusing. After removing all of the ‘injury makeup’ on her face, she swaps to a new costume- which appears to involve a lot of crushed gemstones for the sparkle effect. It takes them almost forty five minutes to apply the effect to her wings; the costume has them ingrained into its surface, along with the mane/tail portions. The biggest issue they face is that, whenever she moves her wings, a cloud of gem dust descends… So after cleaning up and resetting approximately twelve times, they change their approach- and finally get the scene done. Finally, they clean up their operation, pack up their costumes, and demolish their outside-the-barrel setup before they depart.
Mmmm, but the capture of that film wasn’t the only thing that was completed that day. I have confirmed the aquifer, and initiated a tap; I will begin processing hydrogen fuel in approximately 13.91 seconds. I hovered my not-so-solar drone right overtop their heads and in front of their faces, without their responding to it. They seemed to notice the tiny ripple of its passage- several of them commented to their companions on seeing heat waves on a cold day, but did not seem to be able to see the drone itself. I did not test my newly tuned battle screen.
Thus, now that the sun has gone down far enough, I have diverted this drone over to the nearest settlement, traveling at only ten meters per second, to catch a closer look- and begin analyzing the locals in their natural environment, in an attempt to gather information. Such a slow journey at such low altitude will have little to no effect on the overall power drain overnight; it will still reach peak charge within 4.81 minutes of its previously predicted peak time.
It seems today is somewhat interesting. There appears to be one store, titled “Sugarcube Corner”, with quite the crowd inside. Ponies are leaving sporadically, alone and in groups, as I watch; I stop the drone and drop it to a hover over the street just long enough to get a clear image in the window.
It’s a party. Like, blowout nopony-shall-ever-be-bored party. Ponies appear to be leaving more because of exhaustion than because of a lack of enjoyment. I manage to snag a few moments of conversation- and divert some of my fabricator capacity into the creation of a pony avatar. It’ll be solar/battery powered, and not capable of maintaining full-powered operation for more than a few hours, but that shouldn’t be an issue; assuming I can manage to fit in, day-to-day operation as an independent, ground-pounding unit shouldn’t reduce the charge level below 90%, even in bad weather. I decide to hold my drone nearby until I send out my new avatar, at which point the avatar will take over the cultural- and common knowledge- experiments.
A clatter of hooves on the top of my Hellbore turret draws my attention away from my drone, where it is exploring an apple orchard on the edge of town. It seems that the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as Daring Do had referred to them, managed to slip through a sensor blindspot while I wasn’t paying attention. A quick review of the area reveals an interesting ladder hanging from a tree above the barrel, which they are using to descend onto its upper surface. I hear a giggle, connected to a derogatory mention of ‘timberwolves’. Seems they feel safer now than last time, simply because the chasm is deeper. It also seems that Sweetie Belle has gotten better with her magic. I am tempted to test my AM screen with her; scaring a foal is less likely to reveal me than scaring an adult, especially considering that the end of the weapon is inside an apparently extremely scary and dangerous Everfree Forest. I find that mildly amusing.
The three fillies manage to descend into the barrel of my turret. Applebloom holds a second ladder from on top, while the other two- Scootaloo first- climb down and enter the barrel, before Sweetie Belle uses her magic to float the top of the ladder down inside… Then Applebloom herself.
“We’re in!” Scootaloo announces readily, as soon as Sweetie Belle finishes bringing Applebloom in.
The other three join her. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Treasure Hunters, Yeah!” They clap their hooves together.
“I still don’t think Daring Do is gonna want us along,” Applebloom scowls.
Sweetie Belle sighs. “What if we prove we can help her on her next adventure?”
Scootaloo goes almost crazy at the suggestion. “Maybe then we can invite Rainbow Dash!”
Applebloom sighs, looking away, while Sweetie Belle speaks up again. “I know Rainbow’s your idol, and Rainbow loves her Daring Do books, but I still don’t think they’ll want to team up.”
“Oooh, you never know, though,” Scootaloo utters, somewhat deflated. The trio proceeds down the tunnel, Sweetie Belle using her much-practiced light spell to light the way.
Almost a full minute passes without remark nor event.
“Hey Sweetie Belle- did you read the part about the glowing walls?” Applebloom asks.
The light goes out instantly. “Don’t remind me!” the response squeaks out in terror.
“It only happened when he was about to kill Daring Do, though- we should be safe!” Scootaloo chimes in. It’d taken her close to two hours of carefully chosen persuasive words to get Sweetie Belle anywhere near this tunnel after she heard about what happened in Daring Do’s latest book. Then they’d met Applebloom and headed over- and she wasn’t right about to let Sweetie Belle panic now, especially when they would still need her to get everypony safely back out on top of the thing!
I find myself wondering if perhaps that book- which I haven’t heard about- should have been kept secret from Sweetie Belle; it seems she’s afraid I’ll activate the weapon once again. Applebloom’s response, vocalized shortly after Scootaloo’s comforting statement, places the blame for the activation on Daring Do- some sort of defensive magic she’d somehow used, and thence not something that might go off randomly. It takes the two fillies close to an hour to calm their frightened companion enough to continue down the barrel. I slowly activate the LEDs I have placed alongside the coils; these lights will imitate the glow effect with a high degree of accuracy, without imitating the containment field. Should the containment field be necessary, the lights will be instantly destroyed by it; however, they will not hinder the proper functioning of the weapon. I fade in the glow slowly enough they reach full illumination- a similar glow as was seen during Daring’s battle- without Sweetie Belle’s noticing.
During this timeframe, my drone gets a solid read on some talking cows- same language as the ponies- and visits what looks to be a shattered treehouse in the middle of town. The remaining fragments suggest it had once been a library; a sign out front directs the drone towards a crystal castle’s lower floor, dubbing it “Princess Twilight’s Castle”. The drone is on route to the said castle when one of my solar drones, hovering above my position, reports the approach of a party of some sort of airborne creatures- monsters, perhaps?- following something in the general direction of my weapon.
As they approach, my seismic remotes pick up a large number of somethings trampling their way through the forest behind the flying ones. After a minute, they also detect a single, galloping quadruped, with a 97.34% match to Daring Do’s step. Two minutes later, she bursts from the treeline directly underneath the flying creatures, which dive down to meet her at the bottom. A quick stroke of her wings propels her out of their paths- and straight down the throat of my weapon, which she tumbles to a landing inside.
The Crusaders had just reached the back of the weapon when they hear a distant howling noise of some sort. They pause in their examination of the fascinating tunnel before Applebloom makes her terrified voice heard. “Is it just me, or,” she begins, fading quickly.
“Or is that a lot of timberwolves?” Scootaloo finishes for her.
Sweetie Belle, who had recovered admirably from her fright and cheerfully traveled the rest of the barrel with the other two, shivers in the gentle blue illumination. “At least they can’t reach us,” she mutters.
The trio stands firm for a few seconds.
“True, we can wait them out,” Applebloom agrees, and sits down.
The howls only get louder. Eventually, they witness an exhausted Daring Do come running out of the woods, only barely visible in the darkness, and flap swiftly into the weapon, tumbling to a halt. She quickly jumps back up again, eying the entrance- before she performs a double take towards the Crusaders. “What’re you three doing here?” she asks, her voice echoing down the barrel.
“Uh,” Scootaloo responds.
“Will you please stop following in my footsteps until you grow a little older?” Daring Do pleads.
Applebloom sees it first. “Look out!” she cries, pointing past Daring Do.
A quick glance back, and a buck to the face for the winged Timberwolf, and Daring Do dodges back towards the fillies, now monitoring the newly reassembled timberwolf- and its compatriots joining it in the barrel, including some of the more normal variety. She trades blows with the wolves as she continues backing towards the fillies. “Anything throwable?”
“Nope!” the frightened squeak comes back.
Pshuuu-ching!
“Waah!” The hornlight flickers for a second and disappears, leaving the blue lighting.
The monsters- Timberwolves, Scootaloo called them?- have entered the barrel after the ponies and are chasing them down towards the Crusaders. I cannot stop their advance; judging by the reactions, the Crusaders believe Daring has a plan, and Daring is desperately hoping the Crusaders have a plan. She calls back to them with what my tactical arrays inform me is a disguised request for ammunition. Sweetie Belle’s frightened squeak, as she presses herself against the sealed breech, confirms the negative.
I contemplate my options. I can either let them face near certain death… or risk a 99.72% chance of being discovered in order to grant them a 72.51% chance of uninjured survival. I run a quick systems check.
Main battery 250-cm hellbores, 37.5% functional.
Secondary 80-cm hellbores, 3.01%.
Tertiary 10-cm hellbores, 1.31%.
Primary ion bolt repeaters, 0.65%.
Light VLS, 0.41%; 0% of tubes clear, 13.73% of magazines filled, ranging from 500-lb to 10 kton chemical warheads.
Primary point defense laser clusters, 7.31%.
All other weapons systems nonfunctional.
All fusion plants 100%; offline, bunkerage at 12.83%- enough for weeks of sustained combat.
Final emergency power reserves, 100%.
Main power reserves, 0.27%- a few minutes of surface combat (No countergrav), plus enough juice to fire my reactors. Sunrise in 6.48 hours.
Track systems, 9.37%; effectively immobile.
Countergrav, 1.03%; enough to generate approximately 13.91% of necessary lift to counter my mass.
All sensor systems 100%.
Damage control 100%; operating at 1.71% capacity for power requirements.
Battle screens, 13.71%- enough to produce a full-strength screen, plus a couple of generators tuned against magic.
Outer hull armor, 73.17%; all else in pristine condition, including disruptor fields.
Medbay, 43.27%; one nanovat and a number of portable gurneys and life support systems, intended for use against a mass epidemic.
Auxillary vehicles, 1.72%- one Ferret-class troop transport and two Dragon-class assault tanks functioning, though none in pristine condition.
I make my decision.