Celestia stared at the swarms of metallic bots deconstructing the debris and reassembling the walls, roads, and destroyed personal items of some of the victims. She and Luna were growing increasingly concerned with the presence of this individual and they're technology. The metal stallion left after checking for any other victims, but Celestia was sure that she was forgetting something but wasn't sure what. The elements were taking care of rescue efforts and watching for any other victims in the area, leaving Celestia and Luna to ponder everything together.
"Where were the guards?" Luna wondered. "I still haven't found them."
Celestia scratched the side of her head. "I overheard one of the wounded ponies saying that they couldn't harm the psychotic one, and so they hid away."
Luna raised a brow. "It has been many cycles since you last used words as inelegant as 'psychotic'." She frowned and looked towards the castle far away. "But that is an unacceptable excuse. We'll have to discipline them when we return." She looked around. "Preferably after we're done with overseeing rescue efforts in this section."
Celestia heaved a sigh and looked up. "What are we supposed to do? I don't want him to stay if it means this will happen to my ponies."
"True," Luna agreed. "But he has proved that he has the technology to improve everypony's lives." She kicked a piece of rubble, attracting the attention of the clouds. The mare twirled her hoof around the machines and giggled to herself. "So much like a dream."
"But is the cost worth it? What about the ponies under our care?"
"Nopony was killed," Luna defended.
"But ponies were hurt." Celestia stared her sister in the eyes, and the emotions behind the eyes of both rulers was drastically different. "A tower built on a foundation of bones will crumble instantly."
Luna frowned. "Quoting the Dynasties of the East, are we?"
Celestia stuck her tongue out at her sister in a side of foalish behavior, and Luna responded in kind by doing the same.
"Plus, he's shown us that he has the technology for WARmachines," Celestia specified. "Until he gives us the agricultural technology he demonstrated, I just don't..."
She exhaled loudly through her nostrils, and while she had the need to continue talking, loud thumps against the floor put both her and Luna on guard.
"What is that? Another threat?" the moon princess shouted.
Their eyes darted left and right, trying to discern any movement not coming from the aforementioned elements. Instead, they saw a round figure rising from the down-riding street.
"Oh." Celestia relaxed. "It's the ball pony from the auditorium."
Luna relaxed as well and scrunched her eyebrows. "What's he doing here? I thought they all returned to the ship."
He spotted the princesses and waved to them, followed by quickly rushing forward and sliding at their hooves. "Princesses!" he chimed. "I'm so glad to meet you again after so long!" He stood up and engulfed the two in massive hugs, nearly crushing them.
"But...You saw us...earlier..." Celestia struggled to speak with what oxygen was left in her lungs.
The ball dropped them and waved a hoof dismissively. "Meh. He doesn't like it when I'm friendly." He imitated the traveler in mockery, keeping to his dull demeanor and apathy. "He prefers that I stay 'professional' and keep my joys to the ship."
Luna gasped and grunted like she was just rescued from drowning. "That's quite the formidable grip..."
"Thank you!" the pony said in a high pitch. He looked at them and the surroundings and pouted. "You two don't look like you're having a good time," he noted with a muffled tone.
"Your 'master', or whatever you call him, is the reason!" Luna shouted.
The ball scratched his head, then his face went flat. "Oh. I suppose Scleretin went on a destruction spree again because she saw you?" He pointed to Celestia.
"Y-yes," the white mare responded.
The ball rolled his eyes and facehoofed.
"I take it this isn't the first time?" Luna noted. "Well, I mean, he did have his 'counter-measure."
The stallion lowered his hoof, displaying his squinted eyes slowly looking to the sides with a nigh inaudible screech in their movement. "Riiiiight...That thing," he spat.
"What? What is it?" Luna prodded.
"Ehhhh...Forget it. I won't talk about it, but it looks like you're getting worried." He rolled back and forth on his rear before resuming. "Maybe I could...help with that? Only if you let me," he shied away.
Celestia was baffled and couldn't find the right words to start talking with the ball pony. "Well, why does he keep Scleretin if she's like that? That's an inCREDibly unstable pony," she emphasized.
The ball scratched his head. "I'm not sure, really, but I think it's because she has a tactical mind or something." He shrugged. "I never understood her rage towards you and, to a lesser extent..." He looked to Luna but said nothing. "Even so, the traveler accounted for that which is why he sent these nanobot clouds to repair the damages done." The metal pony huffed and tapped one of the newly rebuilt walls with a hoof. "Just don't be surprised if there's an abnormality in the walls. They..." He puffed up his mouth and nodded.
"Tactical mind, you said?" Luna queried. The stallion nodded. "This traveler sure carries a lot of dangerous things with him," she stated with an aggressive tone.
The stallion didn't pick up on it. "Well, I heard that his first few tries almost had him killed because he refused to carry any military equipment." He looked up at the saucer. "And then he got THAT thing."
"Wait...so it wasn't his ship?"
"Not at the start...maybe. I don't know." The stallion scrunched up his lower lip, engulfing his upper. "I'm the third addition to his crew."
"Really now? So you don't know much?"
"I do know a few things, and I know the names of the other two." He counted on his hoof as though he had fingers. "The angry one is Scleretin, and the one with the tall hooves is Chinch'k Kuchuk." He smiled.
"And what is your name?" Luna asked.
"Bolbo Bonnivar Benitan Bollvi Bollibar Bonbony Berriman Bahaumptshire Bel Bor Batistany Buful Bufulva Bafulvee Bolol Bolohl Benziu Bifeevel Bvhelk Bvoanhson Bokunvan Bastan -or just Bolbo Bastan- of the House of Bastan."
"That's...quite a mouthful," the white alicorn wheezed. She looked to her side to see smoke trailing from Luna's ears. "You're royalty?" Celestia noted.
The stallion shrugged. "Dunno. Used to be. We were usurped by another family and lost it all, but I was still a newborn when it happened, so I don't know much of that life." He tapped his bloated chest. "I just like the idea of family history." He leaned in next to Luna and whispered loudly in her ear. "I also like the more negative members. Gives some 'pzazz' to the tree."
Luna pulled her head back. She looked insulted. "And why would you say that to me?!"
The stallion shrugged. "I could've said that to your sister. It would've made no difference."
"...Why not?"
"Because it's just a sentence?" He scratched his head. "I don't understand."
"Before we continue, I'd like to understand something." Luna straightened herself out and stared the stallion in the face. "What was that thing you did in the auditorum? When you became emaciated?"
"Oh. That. My kind become round like this when we absorb too much magic. We can store a LOT of it!" he laughed.
"More than us?"
"Yes," he answered flatly. "It's not like we can use all of it at once unlike you...buuuuut that's what the traveler did. That's why I became that thin, floating noodle. Let's me break through dimensional walls, too. The things we threw around were just to stabilize the spell.""
The two sisters stared at the stallion who was taking such an ability as 'fun'.
"That is a very impressive ability," Celestia noted. "I know! Plus it helps when we end up in timelines where magic doesn't exist or is in short supply." He put a hoof to his chest. "Mine was overflowing with it." His bragging became doubt in less than a second, and he put a hoof to his lip in thought. "Although that might be why we can absorb so much. Never did understand that," he mumbled to himself.
"Focus," Luna insisted.
"Huh?"
The mare dragged a hoof across her face. "So he's one of those kinds of ponies. Great. I'm curious as to what your world was like. I want us both to know-" She gestured to herself and her sister. "-who we're working with."
"Oh. Well. That's easy," he chuckled. "Being from a world overflowing with magic, we had many things that would seem fantastical to you, like large waterfalls flowing upwards, streams of water trickling down from almost nowhere, spirits and portals to 'spaces between' as we called them. Colorful crystals growing out and creating beautiful fields. Then you had the more twisted stuff, and then stuff even *I* found weird, like the floating islands." He looked back at the sisters then made a realization. "No. The world you saw was not mine. Mine is more colorful and varied." He frowned. "Well. Was. We didn't even make it to space. All the politics and royalty-type stuff lost us to the weird disappearance of magic."
"Now that's peculiar." Celestia hummed sarcastically. "I thought the traveler was supposed to help stop that."
"He did. We just learned to get magic elsewhere, and we found a world several centuries later just like ours." Bolbo smiled widely. "We found another sapient species there, too." He closed his eyes and reminisced. "We both loved singing and creativity. Those were fun times."
"Sounds like you wanted to go back to those times," Celestia lamented. "Couldn't you do that with time travel?"
"Yes, but what for?" He booped her on the muzzle. "When we reminisce of the past, we think of how we felt back then." He tapped the ground playfully. "You can't recreate that emotion. It was unique at the time, so why waste your time trying to repeat it when you can make new ones in the future which you could think about just as fondly?" He tilted his head slightly.
Luna nodded. "He makes a fair point."
"And I know that the traveler is...blunt, and dangerous, but if you've spent literal billions of years working up your plans, then failing, then having to start back from zero yet again, I'm pretty sure you would have grown livid again."
"I see...Tell me," Celestia started. "You said you were glad to see us again. How were we?"
"Oh, very exciting, you and your brothers and sisters."
"What," Luna blurted out flatly.
"Oh yeah. You had several siblings. Don't you have some here?" he asked.
"N...Not directly," Celestia stuttered.
"Huh. Sounds...strange for royalty."