It would seem these stonewolves are not explosive-resistant. The pressure release when I opened the door was slightly greater than expected, though still not enough to cause any damage or to knock my Commander off the edge. However, all that is left of these wolves is tiny fragments. “Clear,” I mutter, and trot my spider out, carrying the grenades. It takes her a few seconds to gather up her stuff once again, before she follows. Her face shows a look of shock; I suspect she is not used to such weapons. I pray this means hers is a peaceful civilization, without the hazards of war. I can do little to aid her in such very far from my hull, in current state. I estimate it will be many years before I can restore myself to acceptable combat effectiveness, assuming mineral densities are steady throughout this region.
I lead her off my Command Deck, routing back out. I encounter no additional enemies along the way; I lead her out to the end of the cave, where she takes a deep breath in the light breeze. She smiles gently as she does so, and says something to me.
I offer her the grenades- and she accepts them, even before I speak. “Just in case,” I mutter, as I order my spider to an approximation of a bow.
Exactly as expected, she blushes and seems to fumble over her next couple words, but she stows the grenades in her pack anyways. I have engineered them not to go off accidentally, when carried other goods such as those still filling her pack; thus, there is little to no danger in carrying them there. I do hope she handles them safely once she removes them from the pack, though.
Finally, she departs on her journey. I watch her go for almost ten minutes before running the spider back in to rest on my Command Deck once again, while my nanites travel about, hunting for resources in greater and greater numbers. I also begin the assembly of a wide network of duralloy cables reaching through the terrain, expanding the reach of my nanites. Before I can move again, I will have to either sever or dissolve these cables.
She spends most of her moderately short journey in a glide. It helps that the wind is traveling back towards Equestria proper; she’s a little thirsty to be driving too much energy into her wings.
Ahah! There’s the edge of that field! She angles herself down, landing gently on the grass. There’s a stream not far from here, she knows. She…
She pauses, looking to the side. At the spot she’d been eating her daisy sandwich when that little spider had awoken. She looks back towards the desert, blinking a tear out of her eyes and touching the jewelry it had given her before she resumes her journey.
“I’ll be back.”
She watches as the train pulls in, and Fluttershy steps off of it. Of course, the other five are also here; they’d heard, by unicorn message, that she would be here today.
“Welcome back!” the pink one greets Fluttershy, bouncing in the yellow mare’s face.
She smiles lightly at the display, watching the five greet the one. Then…
What’s that glint on Fluttershy’s ear? She’s too far away to see it clearly- and magical visual enhancements tend to be a lot less stealthy than magical auditory enhancements. Ah- but she’s not the only one to have noticed it. It would seem Rarity has also noticed it.
“Ooh, did you get a new accessory?” The white unicorn asks.
Her response begins with a gentle blush. The yellow pegasus might be more open with her friends, but she’s still shy- and it would seem this memory is not one of her favorites. “Um, yes. The… It gave it to me.”
It? Fortunately, she doesn’t have to consider long- the pegasus must be referring to that spider thing from ancient history, the ‘Spider of Metal’. She’d found out about the mission shortly after the mare had left on it.
She checks her disguise, making sure anypony looking in her direction will think her attention is on the pages in her hooves. Most ponies don’t realize that, while visual magnification spells produce large regions of optical distortion for anypony else to see, making a one-way newspaper is easy. As a matter of fact, she’s sure even Twilight doesn’t know that- the mare has shown a propensity towards brute force. Or friendship force, but she’s not so sure that’s any different.
The distant homecoming greeting eventually comes to a close, and the six mares walk past her position, close enough for her to get a clear look at Fluttershy’s new jewelry. Unfortunately, that’s all it appears to be- though, perhaps fortunately, she’s already prepared for inconspicuous use of magic. Her horn is already aglow, holding her newspaper aloft without the need for her hooves. The glow does not change at all as she appends another spell- a light sensing spell… Yep.
She can’t quite place it, but there’s definitely more to that jewelry than meets the eye. Perhaps… Yes. There must have been something out there- she does notice, distinctively, that the Spider of Metal had not returned with her. Had it already been sent to Canterlot…? Or had it stayed out in that desert? She folds the newspaper, drops her transparency spell, and leaves the station herself.
My new cables are very light; I expect to be able to expand my network many hundreds of miles. Precise figures are not available at this time, as the distance will vary with the terrain- and directional priorities. In any case, I am disintegrating much of my outer two layers of armor- reducing it to just twenty-five centimeters per layer- to assemble this network. I am also closing my hull breaches and disposing of the material that managed to enter through them.
From the moment I begin construction of this network, the maximum reach of my nanites expands. I discover fresh resources in these regions; the soil is still poor in resources, but I am a Unit of the Line. By re-allocating my available resources, I expect to restore all track systems to full operability before I have expanded this network further than 218 meters. I expect this will take……
My system clock appears to have developed a fault.