//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty: Helping out and heading home. // Story: Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters // by sevenofeleven //------------------------------// The Love Room Margot found herself back in the room of love. At first it was empty and the smell of bleach and blood threatened to make her choke and gasp. Then the fumes subsided as she heard something flopping around wetly. She didn’t want to look. Somepony whispered, “You’re responsible for this. Look!” Margot just shut her eyes. The entreaties to look rose in volume from whispers to thunderous shouts that threatened to deafen her. She just clenched her eyes tighter. When she thought it was all over the wet noise happened in front of her. Her traitorous eyes opened, and she saw a saddening sight. Poor Kiya was using her forelegs to drag herself closer to Margot while blood leaked out of her body. Her hindquarters just kept flailing about in a circle while black and yellow stinking liquids dribbled out of what was left of her intestines. Kiya looked up at Margot with filmy grey eyes. “Why didn’t you help me?” Margot recoiled. “I-I couldn’t tell if what happened was real.” A green amorphous shape appeared behind Kiya. “Oooh yess, I think you should have tried something. Maybe you could’ve stopped me?” Margot shook her head. “No. I could’ve hurt somepony instead.” Dr Geist smiled and kicked Kiya. Her head and forequarters flew through the air spilling blood all over the place. Jerome appeared with eyes darting in panic. “You could’ve helped me too. Why did you let him rape my mind? Why?” Kiya slopped back in front of Margot. “Why?” All of them began to say why. Margot stepped back and screamed. Red Hook Brooklyn Wharf Refugee Center Margot awoke on her blanket with a scream in her throat. She looked around; it seemed like they were in some sort of storage room. There were piles of metal crates behind her. Twilight Sparkle lay curled up on a blanket mumbling and twitching. Skybreeze, Rarity and Spike were sitting on the grey tiled floor with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo was still sleeping along with Far and Nga'Devro. Margot got up, she was done with sleep for now. She cantered over to Rarity and Skybreeze. Spike looked at Margot. “You okay?” Margot nodded. “Yes.” Skybreeze faced Margot. “After what happened in that horrible room, I could imagine anypony not sleeping well. I’m still expecting that horrid Geist creature to show up with his Oooh yesses.” Margot faced away from Skybreeze. “I should’ve done something. Maybe Kiya...” Skybreeze narrowed her eyes. “Don’t blame yourself. If you had been firing off blasts of magic, you or I could’ve killed somepony.” Her eyes went back to normal. “Mind magic can be so tricky.” Margot looked back at Skybreeze. “Maybe?” Rarity nodded. “No maybes about that. We are in a safe place now. No creatures here that can mess with our minds.” She looked around for a moment. Margot wanted to ease Rarity’s mind but she wasn’t sure. Apple Bloom raised her left foreleg. “Mahgot, do you want to know how we became the Sky Hoof Crusaders?” Margot nodded. She wanted to get away from her mind’s morbid musings. “Well, we galloped out of town and was halfway to the Evergreen Forest before Scootaloo started wheezing and gasping...” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “No, I started wheezing then Scootaloo started gasping.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Whatever. Then ah bright light appeared in front of us. It was so pretty Mahgot. The colors were so pure. Behind the colors was a large glowing pony. Then it spoke, well kindah. The words went straight to our hearts. The Messenger showed us the future and what we could do to help.” Margot peered at Apple Bloom. “So you signed up first?” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nah, Scootaloo signed up first, then Sweetie then me. We didn’t sign a contract, but the Messenger looked at us long and hard.” Rarity narrowed her eyes. “Did the messenger have a face? How did you know it was looking at you?” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “The Messenger of Oonte was a bright glow but somehow we knew it was looking at us. Weighing us. Seeing if we were worthy.” “So the times you said you were at the clubhouse you were outside of town meeting this creature?” “That was the first time Rarity. The Messenger came to our clubhouse and taught us things.” “Things? What sort of things?” Rarity said while a frown covered her face. Sweetie Belle sighed. “It taught us how to heal and to give Grace. We also learned some other blessings.” The sound of footsteps outside the door made Margot look up to see who or what would enter. A dark haired woman wearing army fatigues opened the door and pushed a cart through. On the cart were two cans of vegetarian beans and two cans of spinach. Several bowls and a large silver mixing bowl were on the second level of the cart. Margot noticed that there was no heater for the food. Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “Beans.” Skybreeze echoed her disdain. Margot just rolled her eyes. She wondered if Skybreeze and Rarity were related. The woman made shooing movements with her hands. “Back off!” Skybreeze scanned the cart. “Really? Cold food?” The woman recoiled. “What the hell! You can talk?” Apple Bloom stepped up. “Yep.” The woman narrowed her eyes. “You know, we could’ve just put you all in a park and let you graze.” The look of horror that crossed Rarity’s and Skybreeze’s faces almost made Margot laugh. Then she thought about pulling up grass with her mouth, and the idea wasn’t very pleasant. Rarity pranced up to the cart. “Civilized ponies don’t graze.” Skybreeze nodded. Far walked up to the cart. “We’ll take this food and be happy. Who knows what problems you guys are having?” Twilight Sparkle walked up to the cart. Spike joined her. Skybreeze whined. “The food will be cold. Can’t you cast a spell to warm it up?” The woman recoiled again. “I don’t know any magic and the sterno supplies are very low.” Spike raised his hand. “Hey! No problem! I can spit fire!” The woman recoiled again. “Wait.” Margot saw how things were going to spiral out of control. She just had to speak up. “Hello, my name is Margot. What’s yours?” She stuck out her right foreleg. The woman eyed Margot’s foreleg like it was a bloody slimy dagger. “Um, my name is Emily.” Margot moved her foreleg back. “Okay, Emily. Spike is pretty good at controlling his fire. How about we let him warm up your mixing bowl so we can have a decent meal. Would you like having a cold meal of beans and spinach?” Emily nodded then opened the cans of beans. When she was finished mixing them she held the bowl out. Rarity grabbed it with her telekinesis and brought the bowl to Spike. He coughed up a small green flame against the bowl. A moment later, the smell of cooking beans filled the air. Nga'Devro cantered up to the cart. “Nga'Devro thinks this will be an interesting meal.” Emily opened the cans of spinach and added their contents to the bowl. She peered at Nga'Devro for a moment then mixed the spinach. After that she started filling the serving bowls with spinach and beans. Skybreeze used her telekinesis to give the ponies their bowls. When the mixing bowl was empty, Rarity placed it on the cart. Emily looked at the ponies. “I will be back with some water.” A half hour later she showed up with more bowls and some bottles of water. Margot didn’t remember too much after that before going back to sleep. Morning came with another woman also in army fatigues to lead the ponies to the bathroom. Margot wondered about the security, but didn’t ask any questions. Some more sleep seemed pretty fine for her. Unfortunately she didn’t get any. Some guy in a wrinkled gray suit showed up. He looked around. “Which one of you is Margot.” Margot sleepily stood up. “Me.” The guy nodded. “Come with me please.” Margot followed him out the door and down the hall. There was a bit of gawking, but not too much. He stopped next to a small office that looked like it used to be a broom closet, and unlocked the door. Margot followed him inside. There was a desk and two chairs, and no brooms inside. The guy with the suit sat at the desk while Margot climbed on the chair. He sighed. “Alright, my name is Stanton Elridge, you can call me Stan. Gimme a sec while I turn on the security field.” Margot felt something blow right past her. Stan peered at Margot. “So you say you’re a D-Core employee. Do you know your ID number?” Margot rattled off the ID. Stan nodded. “Are you undercover? You should have an Situation ID too.” Margot shook her head. “No, I ended up here because of a nonsanctioned third party.” Stan sighed. “Great. Okay, I’ll send the info upline and see what they say.” Margot heard him type in the info. She expected a long wait but it only took a few minutes. It saved her from doing awkward small talk. “Okay, they’re satisfied that you are who you say. Let’s do the briefing once I load up the question set.” Margot waited. For what seemed like an hour she discussed what happened to her and answered questions. Finally Stan looked away from his monitor. “Do you have any questions?” Margot nodded. “I would like to be human again. When can we do that?” “To be honest, I have no clue. A quick and dirty way would be to transport you somewhere, but we have no transporters here. At the end of the month, I hope Upline sends us more supplies. We need power and food here.” Margot frowned. “Great.” Stan’s stomach growled. ‘The food and power situation isn’t good here. We’re getting more refugees, but not enough food. Gimme a sec while I check your file.“ Margot looked around. Her stomach growled too. “Well, it looks like we’re in luck. You know how to make food and water replicators. That’s useful.” Margot shook her head. “I’m still recovering from the last battle I was in.” Stan looked up then back at Margot. “How long before you can make the equipment?” “Several days.” “Nope, don’t have several days. I can give you one day. How about your friends? Can they make food?” Margot shrugged. “It’s better to make a device. I can talk to the others and see what they know.” “What about Jerome?” Margot shrugged. “Apple Bloom said he was with the Messenger. Dr. Geist did a job on his mind.” Stan whistled. “Artificers are pretty rare and skilled enchanters are even rarer.” Artificers were D-Core employees that were a mix of wizard and engineers. Margot was one, but she spent most of her time fighting than making and or repairing equipment. “Do you know when he’s coming back?” Margot shook her head. “What’s with the security?” Stan sighed. “Well, the food situation is pretty bad. Scavenging teams are afraid to go into buildings because they think flashers are hiding there. They can handle most of the zombies except for the zappers.” Margot peered at Stan. “Zappers?” Stan nodded. “Zappers are zombies that can fire paralyzing beams out of their eyes. Also this area is not good for finding food and the harbormaster’s offices are too far away. We don’t have enough brave and skilled folks to clear the area. To answer your question, you and your friends are in the military section instead of the civilian because some folks are very hungry. After your help at forty second street, the military folks are interested in you.” “Don’t you have D-Core wizards here?” “Yeah, we got them but most of them are tired from fighting. We don’t have that many either. Like I said, we need food, water and power real soon.” Stan leaned forward. “Oh. Another thing. You guys should lose the clothing. Folks don’t expect ponies to wear clothing. Also it’s not like you’re going to get your threads cleaned anytime soon.” Margot eyed Stan’s suit. Stan shrugged. “We’re in a harbor area, a good cleaners is several blocks away. Not going to risk my life or someone else’s to spruce up. Again, you have one day to recover and then you have to do something for our food situation. I’ll walk you back.” Stan walked Margot back. While Margot trotted at Stan’s heels she thought about her situation. Being turned back into a human would be great. Being a pony on Earth would be a pain. When Margot got back to the room Skybreeze met her at the doorway. “Margot, we need to do something about food here. They just gave us a bit of... Wait? What was that stuff again?” Far yelled, “Oatmeal!” Skybreeze nodded. “Oatmeal. It was alright but it was such a small portion. Not even enough for a foal.” Apple Bloom walked up. “Ahm still hungry.” Margot nodded. “Yeah. The humans here have very little food.” Apple Bloom frowned. “Don’t humans have farms?” Margot nodded. “Yes but maybe the farmers are dead or too far away? This isn’t a farming area, it’s for ships.” Skybreeze looked at the crates in the back of the room then back at Margot. “I doubt those crates have food in them. What do we do?” Sweetie Belle walked up. Her stomach growled. Scootaloo and Twilight Sparkle joined them a few moments later. Margot looked at the group of ponies. She wanted more time to rest but the food situation was pretty dire. “We need to help the humans by providing power, food and water. Skybreeze, do you know any food conjuration spells?” Skybreeze shook her head. Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “I remember Sinnamon Swirl was the first unicorn pony to take ancient food conjuration spells and make them easier to cast. I didn’t get a chance to learn any of those spells.” Skybreeze stuck out her left foreleg. “Now that you’re a princess, you could get access to proscribed spells. Few unicorns know that magic. I know a few spells we could use for power though I don’t know what the humans use for their lights.” She looked up at the lights in the ceiling. “I don’t see any lightning bugs.” Margot looked up then back at Skybreeze. “I can help you with that and the food conjuration. Once we have power, it’s almost all downhill.” Apple Bloom spoke up. “We could ask Oonte for another miracle?” Margot looked down at Apple Bloom. “That would work but once the food is gone, we would have to ask again. If we fail, we may have to ask Oonte for help.” Apple Bloom nodded. Margot faced Skybreeze. “We’ll wait for someone to feed us lunch and pass a message to Stanton Elridge.” Skybreeze frowned. “Who?” “He works for D-Core. I bet he has a place where we can work.” Rarity walked up to Margot. “Well, we can wait for that. Maybe we can ask Mr. Elridge about our clothing? My shirt and pants could do with a wash.” Margot sighed. “You could wash them Rarity.” Spike raised his hand. “Rarity, I’ll wash your clothes!” Rarity stuck her nose up in the air. “Really darling, I would never expose these fine fore hooves to questionable human soap. I doubt I’ll get a good hooficure here from humans.” Margot sighed. “Yeah but the humans here are having problems with having enough water. Anyway, it’s all moot. Ponies don’t wear clothes here so we can take ours off.” She took her clothes off while the rest of the team disrobed. A few hours later, Emily returned without a cart. “I’m sorry but we don’t have enough food for you.” Margot walked up to her. “Can you send a message to Stanton Elridge?” Emily nodded. “Tell him we’re ready to help him out.” Emily frowned. “Help him with what?” “He’ll know what we’re talking about.” Emily said fine and walked out the room. Several hours later, two humans came to escort them. One was a short woman with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. The other one was a tall guy with brown eyes and hair. The blonde woman began to gush about the ponies. “Oh look, they have even smaller ponies. Fillies! Oh look at that pegacorn with the lavender fur!” Scootaloo just mumbled something under her breath. Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes. “I’m not a pegacorn, I’m an alicorn!” The woman just gushed some more. “Check that tone, it reminds me of Sister Ianiccone, the one that used to smack me with the ruler. Phil, you remember Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy? My arms were redder than a salami when they let us go home.” Phil chuckled. “Yeah, I do. I bet they still remember you Elaine.” Skybreeze narrowed her eyes. “Did this sister hit you on the head with the ruler too?” Elaine narrowed her eyes. Margot stepped up to stop things from getting worse. “Forgive my friend, we’re a bit testy because of the food situation.” Elaine smiled. “Yeah, even little ponies have to eat like horses!” For a moment, Elaine found herself getting nasty glares from a bunch of ponies. Phil chuckled again. “Geez Elaine, I don’t know how you do it. Somehow, you were able to piss off ponies. Ponies, sorry about Elaine, she’s really good folks once you know her. Let’s move along to the powershed.” Skybreeze whispered, “I don’t want to know Elaine.” Rarity smiled. Elaine frowned. Margot was sure Elaine heard Skybreeze. The trip to the shed was without incident except for a few more cold glares. Phil opened the door and he waited outside. The team filed into the shed. It looked like the room they were sleeping in. Grey tiled floors and a bit more room. On the left side, a diesel generator chugged away while the lights pulsed from dim to half power. Margot was glad the room had decent circulation so they wouldn’t be choking on fumes while they worked. She sighed, it was time for the fun part. Skybreeze beat Margot to the first question. “So do we cast a spell on the device?” Margot shook her head. “No. We have to make our own power supply.” She had some specs for generators, but most of them were based on D-Core tech, and it was against regulations to use tech without authorization. Skybreeze looked around. “Well, most of my work for power generators was theoretical. I did get a chance to study that sunscreamer lab.” Twilight’s ears perked up. “Sunscreamer?” “Yes, a magic using creature that looked like a pony. It seemed like the power was coming from the sun.” Margot nodded. Pulling power from the sun would solve the energy problem if they didn’t make any serious mistakes. “Skybreeze, can you make something to pull power from the sun?” “Well, I guess so but I don’t have a lab or equipment. It would take me a while to make both.” Margot shook her head. “We don’t have the time for that.” Skybreeze looked away. “I don’t know what to say.” Margot faced Twilight Sparkle. “When I was working with Luna to make a weapon system to protect the camp from flying enemies, she showed me a spell that allowed us to talk mind to mind. There was no sharing of thoughts other than what was needed.” Twilight nodded then smiled. “I remember that spell. It’s called the Mental Meeting spell. It creates a space where minds can meet. Let me see, yeah, I remember all of it though Luna and I did it once.” Skybreeze frowned. “Do we have to worry about using a lot of power? Will there be feedback artifacts?” Twilight shook her head. “If we’re careful, none of that will happen.” Nga'Devro cantered up. “Nga'Devro wishes to try this strange mind spell.” Twilight frowned. Margot smiled. “Can I go first and when everypony is in, Nga'Devro can join. This way if there are problems he’s safe.” Twilight looked at Nga'Devro. “I guess so.” She focused her will and a bright purple glow covered her horn. Skybreeze walked up. Twilight touched Margot’s horn and the glow spread. At first Margot felt nothing and then she felt Twilight as a large presence.  A few moments later Skybreeze and Rarity’s presences showed up. It was like they were a part of Margot like a leg or a hoof. Finally, Nga'Devro was added and he felt different. Somehow he felt smaller, but more dense. Twilight broke Margot’s train of thought. “We need to work quickly, connecting all these minds is very stressful.” Skybreeze started. “So Margot, who raises the sun on this world? I doubt the humans here do it. I haven’t sensed any with a magical aura.” “No one raises the sun here, it’s an effect of a rotating world.” Margot felt the surprise of the other ponies. “Let me show you.” It took a moment for Margot to cast a spell that showed the area and then to have the spell race for space. When the spell floated above the Earth and showed a blue white world silently turning in space, she felt different emotions from the other ponies. Most of them were surprised and curious. Nga'Devro was definitely curious while Skybreeze was a bit fearful. Margot moved the viewing spell further out into space. Skybreeze saw the spectacle. “It makes us seem very small. It also seems very cold.” Margot nodded, but in the mind spell, they all could sense her feelings. “I know a spell that will convert sunlight to electricity then we have to transmit the electricity to a receiver.” Skybreeze’s fear changed to curiosity. “Teach me this spell and I’ll use the sun’s energy.” Nga'Devro pointed at the sun. “Nga'Devro wonders if we will lose the sun’s energy when it’s night here. How do we handle that Margot?” “Well, the spell that uses the sun’s energy will be high enough that it will face the sun all the time. The energy transmitter will send the energy to the receiver without worrying about line of sight.” Twilight frowned. “Won’t you lose energy?” Margot nodded. “Yes but we will get way more than that.” A bit of pain came from Twilight. Margot had a quick mental image of her standing and panting while blood dripped from her nose. It seemed like they didn’t have a lot of time to work inside the spell. Margot shook her head. “The sun transmitter might take too long to make. Twilight might not make it. We don’t want to be in the middle of a spell when she passes out. How about something easier like a battery?” Mathematical formulas floated above Skybreeze. “Well, if we use a storage device, it would make things easier, but we will have less power. Let’s see, we could get enough power from sunlight to charge up a device.” Several sets of blueprints floated above Margot. “We could use the device to power the base and make food.” Rarity nodded. “I’ll help with the design. Margot, you are too utilitarian. A bit of style would be welcome.” Skybreeze pulled power from  sunlight and Margot with the help of Rarity and Nga'Devro made the generator. A feeling of urgency filled them. Twilight Sparkle was fading fast. After the generator was made, Margot hooked it into the power lines then she worked with Rarity to make a control panel. They were working on the food and water creators when the Mental Meeting spell failed. It was like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer. A white hot flash and she was lying on the floor too weak to move. Margot closed her eyes. Moments later, she heard voices. “Oh crap Phil, look at the ponies! Even the lavender pegacorn is lying on the floor with blood dripping out of her nose! What the hell happened?” “I dunno, Elaine.” “Do you think it was the fumes from the generator? Heck, even the buggy looking pony is out cold.” “Seriously Elaine, that’s not a buggy pony.” “Really, Phil. Look at it’s eyes. They look like a bee’s eyes. Bees are bugs.” “Yeah, whatever. Looks like we got another generator and machines making food and water.” “Wonder where that stuff came from?” “Seriously Elaine, you gotta ask that question? The room’s full of unicorns and one pegacorn.” Elaine put her hands on her hips. “Phil, you’re too old to believe in magic.” She walked over to the food generator. “Wow, food bars. They’re kinda small. No problem, I can fit a bunch of them in my pockets. Oh shit, white chocolate and peach! Nice!” Phil frowned. “White chocolate is too sweet for me.” Margot managed to regain some of her strength. “Rarity, you added white chocolate?” Rarity tried to stand up. She wobbled and slid to the floor. “Well, nothing takes the sting out of a bad day like a bit of chocolate.” Elaine swallowed a bit of a food bar. “The white unicorn got it right.” Phil grabbed a bottle of water. “Elaine go and get a vet, these ponies might be very sick.” Elaine nodded and walked to the door. Darkness moved in on Margot and she lost consciousness. Red Hook Brooklyn Wharf Refugee Center Several days later Margot didn’t remember too much of the following days. They were just a blur of drinking water out of bowls, eating and trips to the bathroom. And yes, lots and lots of sleep. She looked around. Twilight Sparkle was still sleeping and the other ponies were missing. Other than Twilight mumbling in her sleep, the room was pretty quiet. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom burst in. “Mahgot, you gotta come quick. The messenger sent us a portal. We’re going back to Equestria.” For a moment, Margot wondered if she should go with them. This base could use her help. Sweetie Belle woke Twilight with a poke of a white hoof. Twilight jumped up and screamed, “Get out of my head Dr. Geist!” She looked around. Sweetie tapped Twilight again. “The Messenger has sent us a portal. We need to go now!” Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle. “Go where?” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Back to Equestria. The group is waiting for you!” Twilight headed for the door with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Margot hesitated. She wasn’t sure she would get home again, but she couldn’t abandon her friends. With a sigh she followed them out the door. Outside, it was cold and overcast. The oval-glowing portal was the only bright thing. The rest of the group was waiting. Far looked at Margot. “Well, let’s get back home.” He stepped through the portal. The rest of the group followed him. When Margot reached the portal, she noticed strange green sparkles mixed in with the bright blue. It gave her a chill, but she stepped through anyway. Unlike the first time she stepped through the portal and instantly arrived somewhere else, she was stuck in some strange place where cruel laughter echoed like thunder. Then the shaking started like she was a rat in a can. The shaking and laughter increased until she was dizzy and sick. When she thought she couldn’t take anymore, Margot was roughly tossed on the ground like yesterday’s trash. Something howled in her mind for a moment then it stopped. Apple Bloom yelled. “The Messenger is sorry, but the gleaners messed with his portal spell.” Margot stood up and looked around. She was standing next to the ruins of a very familiar building. Before she could inspect it further, she saw a group of changelings approach. Twilight Sparkle walked next to Margot. “They have fighting glows on their horns. We have to be ready.” Margot prepared some spells. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle walked up. Apple Bloom sighed. “Guys, things have changed since we were gone.” Sweetie Belle looked around. “Yeah, five years worth of change.” Margot nodded. “Great.” The changelings flew closer.