I do consider the possibility that these panicked ponies might attack, however, and hold my tuned- and as of yet untested- battlescreen on standby while I have my spiders carve out and construct a natural-looking cave on the hillside, leading to one of the access ports along my side. Behind this port, I clean up- and seal- Passenger Seven, preparing it for use as a liason. I carefully ensure that the bare metal appearance of my port aft Hellbores and armor is not repeated; I do not wish them to realize that both belong to the same entity. The seats I remove, as repair- and modification to fit a pony- would take too long; a quick, fake rug disguises the brackets easily. I contemplate, but decide against, fusion ignition, and set to work fixing and modifying the seats. Perhaps I can have at least a few ready when the first pony enters; I’m rather curious as to the viability of the pony version blueprint my design cores just produced.
Rainbow slaps her hooves to her ears for a second before she crashes into a screaming Twilight. “What was that?” she asks, not having seen the destruction just yet. A pause. “Twilight?”
Rarity shows up, still searching frantically for her Sweetie Belle. “Oh, have either of you girls seen Sweetie Belle?”
Rainbow shakes her head, shrugging her forelegs in midair. “Last I saw, they were going crusading while we part- Rarity!”
Rarity, upon hearing that the Crusaders were out doing Celestia knows what when such a disaster happened somewhere, had swooned.
“That too!?” Twilight howls out.
Rainbow is now more confused than anything else. “What happened?” she repeats.
“You mean you didn’t hear it?” Rarity and Twilight ask simultaneously, the former practically leaping off of her couch while the latter clambers back to her hooves.
Fluttershy practically falls out of the sky, a look of pure terror on her face. Rarity swoons again.
“It exploded,” Fluttershy utters, barely audible.
Rainbow’s hooves land on the grass before Twilight asks the question. “What did?”
“The Everfree.”
Rarity raises her head slightly, looking at Rainbow. “That isn’t where they were crusading, is it?”
Rainbow shrugs- but Fluttershy had seen the Crusaders cut across Ponyville towards their treehouse. “They’re safe,” she says, slightly louder than before. “They were running for their treehouse.”
Applejack screeches to a halt. “Darn right they were- and scared to Tartarus of whatever it was. Big Mac’s taking them into the house right now.” She takes a look around. “Where’s Pinkie?”
“Canterlot,” Twilight smirks. “Not sure when- or why- she left.” She looks towards Spike.
“Oh, um,” he begins. “Princess Luna noticed the, um, noise too, and sent a letter about it.”
“What’d she say?” Applejack chimes in.
Twilight speaks up to answer. “Only that Pinkie had arrived. She asked about what the, erm, event was.”
Pinkie pie suddenly zips her way up to the party. “That was-” she begins, before she is interrupted by the thunder of the Royal Canterlot Voice, sounding from somewhere in town. Probably a rooftop.
“CALM DOWN EVERYPONY!” Princess Luna hollers, using her magic to amplify her voice. She’d already searched for Twilight in her castle- and facehooved as soon as she got out here. “We will make certain this thing doeth not threaten any of thee!”
While these statements themselves didn’t exactly sooth everypony, at least they quieted down to listen. Princess Luna sighs; everypony still looks just as frightened- it’s just that they know she’s here. At least they stopped screaming. She’s about to continue speaking when someone else yells something out.
“Fear not,” Daring Do calls out from the air, “for the Timberwolves have been defeated and this meteor strike in the Everfree poses no threat to anypony!”
Her apparent jubilance was probably more effective of a panic-stopper than her words- but either way, she manages to calm the town fairly quickly before dropping to the rooftop next to her Princess, and bowing. “Sorry, Princess.”
“Meteor strike?” Luna asks.
“Uh, no, actually,” Daring responds. “That was the only way I could think of to comfort everypony.”
“Comfort? How dangerous?”
“Uh, blow up a city dangerous, I think.”
“Princess!” Twilight’s call registers.
Luna glances down at Twilight, back at Daring, and finally drops down to the ground with the explorer to meet the Elements. “Hast thou found anything?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Not yet- still only just hearing about it.”
Luna turns immediately to Daring. “You knew something about it?”
She nods. “Yes. Have you read my latest book…?”
Twilight and Rainbow nod; nopony else does.
She sighs. “Well, it’s that same metal tunnel. Some timberwolves chased me into it this time, where I ran into the Crusaders. Turned out some of the wolves had wings, so even the then-elevated barrel wasn’t safe from them.
“But while it demonstrated the same glow as happened in the book, Sweetie’s horn was most certainly not affected. It also turned out to have an extra chamber in the back; the door opened unexpectedly, and we took cover inside it. The door closed, then…” She pauses, and gulps. “We heard it, but didn’t see anything in the darkness. Sweetie lit her horn again before I could get out my light crystal; that chamber was pretty well sealed. We waited for only about a minute before the entryway opened again, and we headed out into the hot tunnel… to find the crater.
“Something tells me that, had that thing intended to hurt us, it very easily could have… And probably still can.”
Twilight asks the next question. “Do you know what it is?”
She shakes her head. “I only know I’m not an investigator.”
“Bonbon,” Applejack and Rainbow state simultaneously.
Luna and Daring tilt their heads.
“She’s an investigator of some kind,” Twilight nods. “She should be able to help.”
“Are you sure we’ll be okay out here?”
“Of course we will be. You know that, with my candies, nopony will see us. Plus, between my skill and your magic, we’ll see everything coming!”
She scowls as they reach the top of the newly-formed slope. “If you say so… Woah!”
It’s a crater. More like a double crater, though; there’s one, with more metal at the bottom, as if a heavy explosive had gone off deep underground. There’s also a second, stretching out away from them, into the woods- almost as if a very large meteor had skimmed their edge of the hole and slammed into the opposite edge, continuing on until it disintegrated completely.
“What in Equestria?”
Snort. “About sums up my reaction, as well. Might be a meteor or something, maybe some heavy explosive attack.”
Her horn glows. “Um… Nope, no meteors… and… Oh My.” She closes her eyes for a second, head turning side to side, horn still glowing.
“What?”
“Only one explosion… Looks like it was focused somehow, to produce both craters at once.”
Her eyes widen. “How big?”
“Uh… Remember Blasting Cap?”
Nod, and shudder.
“This is something… Oh, ten thousand times more powerful…?” She shrugs. “I can’t tell exactly- it all disappears into a haze of violence as we get into the crater… But I’m pretty sure it started at- or close to- ground level.”
Scowl. “Interesting.” She leads her partner down the slope. “Anything on this metal?”
“Just a sec… Huh. Nothing thaumic, but I’m picking up some kind of energy- what!” She shifts her stance, horn glow intensifying.
“What happened?”
“It’s- ugh…” Her horn goes out, and she sits on the stone. “I was picking up some kind of energy barrier over the surface… Not a thaumic barrier, mind. Then my magic just inexplicably bounced off that barrier- and I can’t sense anything about it now!”
“Huh.” She reaches out a hoof, holding it overtop the metal. She lowers it slowly, finally making contact… Nothing happens. She tries striking against it, but still nothing happens.
“Uh- wait! It’s-!”
She leaps back off of it, landing solidly on the rock. “What’s it doing?”
“I- er, I still can’t see it, but it’s bothering your magic. Like the candy- it’s already broken that.”
One problem is easily fixed by another candy from her mane. “Bothering my magic, you say?”
Nod. “Must be some kind of antimagic barrier… and I don’t know, but the way it interacted with your earth pony magic did not look healthy.” She closes her eyes, horn glowing a little bit. “I don’t know if it’ll have any immediately noticeable effect… Nor if it’ll heal properly.”
She blinks her wide eyes. “Too dangerous, then. Let’s get out of here.”
Both mares gallop back for Ponyville, leaving the strange metal terrain behind.
Admittedly, it’s nice to know my new antimagic barrier works; the first was useless. Even this new one, there is some bleedthrough; I was able to improve it some before they left, but my screens are still not as impervious to magic as they are to physical or energy weapons. This ‘Tirek’ being might have been defeated- but where there is one, there can be another, and he did manage to damage my armor.
The part that worries me is the mares’ reaction. I wish this barrier to block magical activity- and NOT to interfere with ponies’ ability to cast magic, as it seems to have done. I have temporarily moved the barrier just underneath the skin of my armor, rather than overtop; it will remain here, exposing my outer armor to magical attacks, while I gather sensor data and recalibrate it, until I am confident that it will not harm ponies walking across my hull.
I find myself wondering if it might be possible to get the afflicted mare into my medbay; Tactical is willing to suggest any number of ways, but none of them have more than a 13.91% chance of success. I resolve to install a medical support system into my avatar; this offers over an 83.07% chance of being able to make contact and deliver some nanites, even if not in nearly the same capacity as the medbay. This should be ready in… 3.57 days.
Three days pass. Three busy days, for one Twilight Sparkle and the investigation team that Princesses Celestia and Luna sent her, in an effort to discover how to control the thing. On the first day, Twilight had tried using magic to move it, to no effect; it was too heavy even for her. She then hadn’t even been able to pry open any of the hatches. On the second day, a pack of… somethings burst from the forest some distance away, using the long portion of the craters as a runway to reach them- and flinging sharp-tipped bone-like spines at them while they did so. The unicorns threw their best at them, to no effect, so the guard detail had lined up, ready to face off against these lopsided spiderlike foes.
Only they hadn’t needed to. One of the three smaller raised platforms had flown open all of the sudden, to snap shut again as soon as an interesting fire-propelled spear had shot out of it, to the horror of all present. The spear twisted in midair, curving swiftly towards the oncoming monsters, and slammed into them full force- exploding violently a moment later. No additional crater was created, but it was still the biggest explosion any of them had seen before- even the bomb experts. Needless to say, the approaching things did not survive the blast. When Twilight tried prying that same hatch open again, it wouldn’t budge. As a matter of fact, this time, her magic couldn’t even touch it!
The party had noticed on day three that the surface appeared to be freshly machined, even though it had been quite rough when they first arrived.
Now, on the morning of day four, something happens- though the investigation team hear nothing of it. Fluttershy is on approach to find out how it’s going when she discovers a new cave in the ground. For some reason, she finds herself wanting to explore it immediately, and glances at the surrounding terrain, searching for somepony to call over, before she shrugs internally and enters the dark cave. Even after she rounds a couple corners, the cave retains its dimly-lit friendly feeling- which only magnifies Fluttershy’s curiosity. In her book, caves are dark and scary, but this one is neither- more like an unlit hallway in Twilight’s castle.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this particular cave, she finds, is that the deep end of it is not rock. Rather, Fluttershy encounters some kind of metallic surface, though the light is too dim to inspect it. Interestingly enough, when she removes her hoof from it, the middle section slides smoothly open, revealing a well-lit room inside.
While her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, Fluttershy lets out an eep! and dodges to the side, against the rock. Once her eyes finish adjusting, her unusually burning curiosity drives her forwards. The doorway that had opened, aside from being several meters deep, is a little bit too tall for a pony, she decides- at least, most ponies. Princess Celestia could walk comfortably through this door- and that’s not something that can be said about most of the doors in Ponyville.
When she notices the half-dozen odd seats crammed into the back corner, compartment, she almost shrinks away from them, before admonishing herself. It’s not like an empty seat is going to ask her out to dance, after all. She spends a few minutes exploring the room, still not sure exactly what had piqued her interest.
She finds that the seats are, perhaps, the most interesting feature in the otherwise featureless room. Both the seat and the back are padded, with an interesting-looking headrest and foreleg-rests unlike any she’s ever seen before. They’re spaced quite evenly, at about six inches… and when she pushes on them, they give slightly- to return dutifully back into place when her pressure is removed. There’s even a gap between the seat and the back, as if to accept a tail- and an assortment of straps and buckles to keep a pony from falling out of the seat. She has to wonder exactly why an adult pony would be falling out; the releases on the buckles would be easy for the seated pony to strike.
With a small smile, deciding she’s found what she was looking for, she clambers into one. It’s easy to climb into, and her tail slides right through the gap she’d noticed before as she reclines back on it. She places her hooves in the hoofprints on the sides- which had adjusted themselves silently and unexpectedly into the perfect spot while she wasn’t looking. She rests her head against the headrest and closes her eyes, smiling briefly to herself. She likes how it feels, she decides. The cushions support her almost flawlessly. She doesn’t even have to hold her wings folded!
“Thank you.”
“Aaaeep!” Fluttershy’s startled scream blends into a timid squeak as she almost flies out of the seat, landing smoothly on all four hooves and trying to find the stallion that had spoken to her. As near as she can tell, she’s alone in the room- but that doesn’t stop her from hiding behind the seats.
“I apologize,” the invisible stallion speaks again, receiving another squeak for his efforts. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She’s now hard against the corner of the room, diagonally opposite the entrance- which still stands open. “Wh- where?” she squeaks.
“Where am I?” After her tiny nod, he continues. “You could say that I’m all around you- a machine, so to speak.”
At this, an eyebrow raises. “Machine?” she queries.
“Yes.”
Her squeak is fading into her normal voice. “But you’re alive!”
“Technically, no. I am something called an Artificial Intelligence. Everything that I am was crafted and manufactured, like a clock.”
Silence reigns for a few moments.
“I wanted to thank you,” the stallion continues, “for testing those new seats for me.”
Fluttershy looks back at the seat she’d vacated, the sides having reset to their original positions. “Uhm, you’re welcome,” she squeaks.
I find her personality a near perfect match to my previous commander- and I am now missing only her name. I do wish I hadn’t had to open a hole in my antimagic screens to be certain they wouldn’t bother her. I have, however, been able to push those screens back out to the surface of my hull, without risking damage to any ponies.