Chapter 20: A Chipper in a machine
Edited by:Regreme
“Alright, the registrations are now completed. Welcome to the Empire, Miss Chipper,” the stallion on the other side of the desk announced before hoofing Chipper a copy of the official documentation papers that solidifies her citizenship within the empire, along with the rights and privileges that go along with it.
Chipper simply accepted the paper with her magic before giving her thanks to the middle aged stallion and showing herself out of the foreign bureau office, where a couple more changelings were waiting to get their papers verified as well.
Chipper stopped and looked down at her documents with both confusion and a sense of loss. She even scratched her head, not really sure what all of this would mean for her going forward at this point, being a recognized citizen of a surface dwelling nation. Granted this place was great, even a dream come true to be honest. Food, love and energy, as much as she wants, whenever she wants. Never has she ever felt too full, so incredibility energized and free in her whole life. The moment she was first brought here (against her will back then) was the moment where everything suddenly opened up to her: life, the universe, everything.
Or maybe it was just the byproduct of the sudden rush and overload of love which caused her to feel like that. Not that she can really look back on it, as she almost forgot all recollections of that particular moment. All she can recall of the past events was one of the crystal guards waking her up inside some dark alley, with all kinds of weird stuff covering her.
The guard was being incredibly vague with the topic at the time, but she could guess that it must have been something embarrassing, judging by his facial expression.
Either way, that was a couple of days ago. Now, she was an official citizen of the Crystal Empire with no idea what to possibly do from this point on. She didn’t even agreed to become a citizen in the first place, as she was more or less picked to be one of the first to see if both changelings and crystal ponies can actually peacefully coexist with one another.
She would have personally kept her position as a changeling guard in training. But it seems that that part of her career seems to be over for the time being, as she is now expected to somehow find a way to mingle with the crystal ponies around her and do something with it. One of those goals would be to look for a new occupation to keep herself busy and learn more about these rather shiny looking equines. Well, to be fair, she is an equine too, though only a lot less shiny and far less...well... mostly shiny.
“Hmmm...I wonder if their guards would accept a changeling?” Chipper thought to herself as she gazed at the passing squad of crystal guards patrolling the streets. It seems silly at first, to immediately jump back into a military role after having lost her former one. But then again, what else was she supposed to pick besides going with the obvious? She had never been anything else but a guard since she was old enough to contribute to the hive’s well being, so trying something else would be a bit...dodgy for her.
So, she might as well go with that and hope for the best. Who knows? Maybe the training requirements to become a crystal guard aren’t as demanding as the ones she had to face as a changeling guard.
With that, her mind was made up. “If I really want to join the Crystal Guard, then perhaps asking one of them would be my best bet in getting my first step done. Just...need to find one,” she told to herself before looking around.
All she saw was a fairly busy looking street and a lot of crystal ponies wandering about. There were even a couple of changelings mixed in, both trotting around on the ground and admiring the city and its crystalline theme, or just flying about in the air.
But besides those two, there was no nearby guard for her to ask, which was just typical as a whole platoon had just passed by here before she made the mental decision of becoming a crystal guard. Now, she had to either track them down, or search around for someone else who could then point her to the right direction.
Knowing that the latter would be more or less the easier option with a lot less hassle, Chipper began looking around for anyone or anything that could perhaps help her with her endeavor.
She found one, a rather elderly looking stallion with a shield strap on his side. The shield had the same insignia on its center as the crystal guards have on their armor, not to mention that she also saw the same symbol on a lot of banners around the city, being the shape of a crystalline star which must be some form of national symbol or something. Or at least some form of standard for their guards.
Knowing your nation’s flag is important, after all, especially when being part of its military.
Chipper shook her head. “Anyway, enough thinking,” she told herself before making her way towards the elderly gentleman who was currently talking to a mare behind a market stand.
The market stand itself was fairly curious, offering what Chipper could tell must be some really old looking books and tomes. She personally hasn’t seen a lot of books, or even tomes for that matter. Not that it would make any difference if she did came across them before, as she had no literary skills to make use of them whatsoever.
Being a low lonely ranked changeling didn’t exactly give her a lot of opportunity to even learn writing or reading, and if so, it would most likely be useless anyway in her situations, as she doubt that she could even read the crystal ponies’ alphabet or writing system, and one look at the book’s cover immediately told her that her theory was true. Those letters or symbols were beyond foreign to her, and therefore useless.
“Uhm...excuse me...” Chipper began as she came up to the pair.
This got the two ponies’ attention, as they both looked at Chipper with raised eyebrows. This forced Chipper to be reminded of how socially intimidated she can be, causing her ears to fall flat against her skull and her tail to tuck in between her flanks, a move that can the considered sexy if you looked at it from behind. The roundness of her flanks was made even more apparent, with a tail tucked in between them, but thankfully, nobody noticed or cared.
“Yes? What is it?” the old looking stallion asked while studying Chipper’s looks.
Chipper mentally slapped herself. “Well, uhm...I was just wondering if you could maybe point me to the closest guard barracks? I am thinking of maybe trying out my chances with the guard, if they even take changelings, that is?” she asked, sounding a bit too nervous for her own liking.
Not the best impression to make when making it clear that she may be interested in joining the military. They need tough and confident ponies, not timid ones like her.
The stallion was about to reply when another pony suddenly stepped up. “Is that so? Do you really want to join the crystal guard then?” a young stallion asked, his goggles and tool bags strapped on his forehead and barrel respectively, making him look like someone who knows his way around machines or engineering. Or so Chipper guessed.
He also looked a bit more...should she say, basic, compared to most other crystal ponies she had seen so far in terms of color, sporting a light brown goat with a simple red colored mane. Though both of them were also shimmering and shining in the same crystal like pattern as the rest of his kin, of course.
Chipper simply nodded, to which the stallion smiled.
“Sweet, maybe then you might be interested in being part of this new program? The creation of a brand new military branch, separate from the crystal guard,” he stated, which in turn made Chipper curious.
“A brand new military branch? What might that be?” she asked, causing the stallion to smile.
“Well, simple. The new, upcoming mechanized branch of the military. Right now, we are kinda looking around for anyone interested in giving this new program a try and become possibly one of the first few individuals who can call themselves MagiTech Knights. And yes, in case you are wondering, we are also instructed to accept changelings as well who have gained citizen status within the empire. And looking at your papers, I would say that you do check in with the recommended requirements to join,” he explained, pointing to the documents which Chipper was holding on to.
She followed his hoof gesture and looked at the document she had just received before looking back at the stallion. She noted that the old geezer was no longer there, leaving her with this new pony and the stall owner, who has also excused herself by arranging a stack of crates behind her shop.
She focused back on the young smiling stallion in front of her. “Well...I guess, in that case, I might just go ahead and accept your offer, not that I have much else to do anyway at the moment,” she responded with a sigh.
The stallion smiled. “Sweet, the first catch of the day. I can personally lead you to the newly repaired barracks which will be hosting this new mechanized branch, along with its members and workers,” he responded before ushered Chipper to follow him.
She did, hesitant at first.
“By the way, my name is Kidd Brass. What might yours be?” the now named Kidd asked as he looked over his shoulder.
Chipper perked up at that. “Oh, uhm...my name is just...Chipper. I am just a low ranked changeling where I came from. Almost just a drone,” she answered a bit discouraged.
Kidd seemed intrigued. “Drone, you mean similar to Bee drone in a Beehive?” He asked.
Chipper shook her head. “No, not quite. Changeling drones can talk and think on their own, just like me. It’s just...it’s just that they are the working class in a changeling society, expected to basically do all of the dirty and hard work for everyone else,” Chipper answered as the two continued to trudge through the busy streets of the city.
Most crystal ponies they passed by didn’t even bother to look at Chipper’s direction, which was fine with her as she already felt quite uncomfortable as it is, being in the only changeling trotting about on the surface. She had spent pretty much all of her life underground at this point, and having no cave roof above her was rather unsettling for her, not to mention being surrounded to by so many surface dwellers as well.
She really did stick out like a shore hoof in this sea of glamour and color.
But again, thankfully, those aforementioned ponies didn’t give her much heed or attention as Kidd continued to lead her to heavens knows where. Though, talking about heaven, seeing the endless blue skies above her along with the warm and bright sun was certainly something she could get used to. The key words being ‘get used to’. She still missed the safe confinements of the underworld.
She wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t the only only changeling who felt like that.
“Okay. Here we are,” Kidd eventually announced, which forced Chipper out of her thoughts.
She looked up, tilting her head a bit at the structure in front of her. It was a building, crystal in nature like everything else here. Though, the only difference about it was that it somewhat resembled a medium sized fort, with tall and defensible walls surrounding the building’s back, and the entrance consisted of two large double doors and a portcullis in front of them.
The portcullis was, of course, drawn in, since many crystal ponies seemed to be going both in and out of the building. Some were guards, while others looked somewhat similar to Kidd here, carrying tools and other items around them, which would be reminiscent to someone who is good at tinkering.
Not sure why this place needed so many of them, but Kidd did mention that this branch was mechanically focused. What that meant, she had no idea, but she is surely going to find out sooner rather than later, especially when she suddenly found herself passing through the main gate and into a large courtyard. A courtyard that was filled with massive brass colored things that she had never seen before. In fact, those things looked like dragons, from her point of view.
“Uhm...what are those, and why do they seem so...motionless and don’t do anything?” she asked while pointing at the four machines in front of her, instinctively keeping her wing muscles tensed up, just in case.
Kidd smiled. “Oh, those? Nah, don’t worry about them. These are actually the machines I have been telling you about before. You really don’t have to worry about them doing anything as long as they are deactivated,” he answered.
Chippers reaction was quite predictable. “What?” she stated in surprise. “These things are actually machines? Like, really machines? Artificially created ones?” she asked with wide eyes.
Kidd just nodded. This prompted Chipper to look back at the brass beasts to the left end side of the courtyard and squint her eyes. Kidd was right, as she just now noticed the obvious looking pistons and joints underneath the beast’s metal plating, which didn’t looked very biological at all, at least from what she knew. In fact, these four machines didn’t looked like anything she was mentally picturing when Kidd talked about them.
She was mentally imagining something similar to a catapult, something made of wood, or maybe even rock with very basic but still confusing mechanics behind them. But this, this was certainly something she didn’t expect, nor did she expect its design to have such sheer complexity.
In fact, its outside complexity confused her the most, as she could only imagine how such a machine could even work internally. Is it maybe powered by magic? For her, it has to be, because she can’t think of anything else that could possibly get this thing moving. Maybe it is powered by steam, too, similar to the trains or other machines the ponies use to the far south, if the stories she has heard about them are true.
But either way, she was clueless about all of this, but also incredibly impressed at the concept alone and its overall use of nothing but metal in its overall design. She could only guess the sheer complexity these things must have by just looking at them externally. But if Kidd’s words are true, then she is certainly going to learn more of them sooner than later if she truly decided to join his efforts.
“Uhm...Chipper? Hello?” Kidd asked, while poking the frozen changeling on the shoulder.
She shook her head. “Wha-what? Oh! Yeah, uhm...” she responded awkwardly while looking at him.
Kidd smiled. “I guess, judging by your expression and reaction, that you must be very impressed. Trust me, so was I when Sir Cid and the rest of us watched these machines move for the first time. You will get used to this idea over time as well, especially when you are going to be tasked in taking these things out to the fields for training and actual mission related purposes in the future. As Sir Cid himself has stated, this is truly just the tip of the Iceberg on what this technology can do,” he announced, momentarily getting lost in his own words and thoughts about the future.
Chipper just nodded, before the words of Kidd quickly sunk in with her. She was going to drive one of those things if she accepts his offer in joining this mechanized brigade? She didn’t know if she should feel excited about the idea or be incredibly nervous.
Though to be fair, she was mostly nervous about the idea more than anything else, because in the end, she would be climbing inside a metal beast whose functions still eluded her. She was prepared to operate a catapult or something similar, despite the redundancy of operating such a machine thanks to her ability to cast magic (even though she hardly knew any spells that can be even remotely considered offensive). But still, something like that would have at least made her understand what it was, how it works and what was expected of her. But this...this just seemed far too alien, even for her. Maybe she should just tell him that...
“Hey, Chipper, is that you?” somebody called out, which forced her out of her mental meddling.
“Wha-what?” she responded, getting a small sense of deja vu thanks to that.
She was even more surprised though when she recognized the person who called her out. It was none other then the changeling guard she was momentarily forced into captivity with on that one fateful day. The fact that she would run into him so early once more was surprising enough, let alone here of all places.
The aforementioned changeling fluttered towards her, landing right in between her and Kidd, who in turn looked at the newcomer with curiosity before recognizing him from somewhere.
“Ah, yes, aren’t you one of the first who came here to attend the new training program? I do remember having seen you this morning with a few other newcomers. Crystal ponies and changelings alike. Though...then again, I can’t really tell, as you all kinda look the same for me. Sorry if that is considered an insult,” Kidd announced before apologizing.
“It’s fine. I don’t expect anyone to really tell us apart who isn’t a changeling. For us, it's easy,” he stated before focusing his attention back at Chipper.
It was actually kind of funny how she didn’t know his name yet. But then again, she was just paired with him briefly, before everything turned soar. But none of that mattered now, as she was again more surprised to have heard that the same changeling she was with on that fateful day had also decided to take part in driving one of those brass monstrosities. Furthermore, that there were more changelings besides her as well.
Maybe it was kinda okay to still take part after all.
“Say, are you going to join this training as well? I mean, as far as I know, you have also been given the career axe as well, to be forced to take citizenship for some social test. But at least you didn’t have to lose a lot thanks to that...unlike me,” he stated before mumbling something angrily at the end.
She just sheepishly smiled, feeling somewhat responsible or guilty for his forced down situation. But she still nodded, letting the changeling know that she was on board as well...kind of.
That was when something happened. A stallion stepped out onto a podium right next to the machines, looking like a very important military figure, judging by his ornamented armor and helmet.
“Everyone who has come here to partake in this new training program for the creation of this new MagiTech regiment shall now please enter the building barracks for an upcoming briefing session in around half an hour. Do not be late, or your chances in joining this training shall be cut short indefinitely, as right now, we are only accepting a limited numbers of new possible recruits. That is all. Be responsible and attend the meeting after registering,” the stallion shouted before leaving the podium.
Chipper and her counterpart simply looked at each other afterwards, as Kidd came up to them to get their attention.
“Well, it seems that you two better hurry and get yourself registered before the briefing begins. I can lead you to the registration office if you want,” Kidd suggested.
Both changelings just nodded before following Kidd to wherever this office was to get this confusing stuff done.
What a day for Chipper.