Chapter 3
Breakdown
The next morning, Shining Armor made his way down to the Royal Dining Room, surprisingly spry considering how late he stayed up listening to Twilight’s story. His wife, on the other hoof, was a mare who seriously needed a cup of coffee. Her mane hadn’t been in worse shape since the time she was trapped in the tunnels under Canterlot
“I can’t believe the servants woke us up this early,” Cadence grumbled.
“I guess somepony forgot to tell them how late we stayed up,” offered Shining Armor.
“I guess.” Cadence let off an undignified yawn. “I wonder if Twilight’s up yet.”
“Knowing her? She probably stayed up late reading up on recent history,” replied Shining Armor as they reached the dining room. A unicorn guard quickly saluted before opening the door. Inside, Shining Armor and Cadence saw Princess Celestia sitting at her usual spot, while to her right sat Princess Luna. The Night Princess usually took a light meal in her own quarters at this time, but seeing her at the breakfast table was not unheard of.
Sitting on Celestia’s left, surprisingly, was Twilight Sparkle, this time without her armor. In front of her were plates full of pancakes, hash browns, and various egg dishes, all of which she looked upon greedily. Cadence and Shining Armor couldn’t help but giggle at the spectacle.
“That look on your face tells me that you’ve been on combat rations for a while,” the Guard Captain said.
“Really? How could you tell?” She asked as she dug into her pancakes.
“Because that’s the same look he gets after a long weekend of training,” replied Cadence as she took a seat across from her aunt, while her husband sat across from Twilight. “So, are you up for continuing your story?”
“Of course!” She exclaimed. “I hope I can finish by tonight so I can go see my friends. How’ve they been, by the way?”
“It’s… been hard on them,” Celestia replied sadly. “Applejack buried herself in her work just to keep distracted. Rarity put on a brave face in public, but deep down she was worried. Rainbow Dash has been all over the world looking for you. In fact, she’d only just returned to Ponyville yesterday after an extensive search of Zebrica. Fluttershy’s barely left her home since that day, only going into town for the basic necessities. You know how Spike is, of course, but Rarity’s been taking good care of him.”
“… And Pinkie?”
The sorrowful expression on the Princess’ face said it all. “She has been… taking it the hardest. She’d barely eat the first two weeks, so little that the Cakes worried about her health. She didn’t even smile for a month. She went back home to the rock farm for a few days and it seemed to help. She began to smile again, but it was tinged with sadness.”
“I… I see.”
“She blames herself, you know. Can you ever forgive her?”
“Princess…” Twilight began, tears brimming her eyes, “I forgave her that very same day. The moment I went into space in fact…”
Getting out of the car, Twilight marveled at the winged monstrosity before her. It was made out of a gray metal with various markings painted in white, the most prominent one being the word “MARINES” near the door along the back and “UNSC” on the tail section. At the front, Twilight spotted a glass canopy over what she assumed was the driver’s compartment. The vehicle was currently hovering a couple feet off the ground. Twilight estimated that it would take dozens, if not hundreds, of pegasi to lift the machine, and she marveled that it could do so under its own power.
“Looks like Sam decided to wait for us,” George said as he climbed out of the car. Twilight hopped out as well, and saw another human leaning out of the passenger bay of the vehicle. This human looked different than the ones Twilight had already encountered, so she assumed it was female. She was just a hair shorter than George, wearing identical armor to George and Tony, but didn’t have a helmet. Her blonde hair was cropped just below the ears, and her eyes were a bright green.
“Captain,” she said in a feminine voice, confirming her gender. “What’s with the purple unicorn?”
“Lavender!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Correction, what’s with the talking, lavender unicorn? Is this another one of your hair brained schemes?”
“Govno!” exclaimed another voice, in what sounded like a Stalliongrad accent, as another human stuck his helmeted head out the doorway. “I’m having flashbacks to Jericho VII.”
“Now Sergei, what was wrong with Jericho VII?” George asked flatly.
“You had the Pelican drop our Warthog through a skylight!”
“…So?”
“While we were in the damn thing!”
George just shrugged. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it? The Covvies never saw it coming.”
“Nobody saw it coming!”
Sam facepalmed with an audible smack. “I swear to God, Lin and I are the only sane ones in this unit, and I’m stretching to include her.”
“Speaking of whom, where is our rookie?”
“Right here,” replied a soft, feminine voice. From seemingly out of nowhere, another soldier appeared, this one wearing vastly different armor than the others. It was olive drab and appeared bulkier, under which was a black bodysuit. Most striking of all, however, was the golden, globe-like visor that made up most of the helmet’s front. Written on the collar of the chest piece was “Lin-B260”.
“I hate it when you do that,” said George.
“I’m sorry,” she replied in that same quiet voice. It was eerily similar to Fluttershy’s tone, but instead of being timid, the voice was monotonous, completely devoid of emotion. It was like the voice of a machine simulating a living being.
“Just… just get in the damn Pelican.”
With that order, Lin climbed into the dropship, followed by Tony, Samantha, and George. Twilight hopped on and nearly slid off. Before anyone could reach down to help her, she teleported next to Tony, much to the surprise of everyone in the craft.
“How…” Sergei started to ask.
“Magic,” George and Tony replied simultaneously. Sam and Sergei both cocked their heads, though Lin seemed un-fazed by the statement. Sam, Sergei, Tony, and Lin sat down in seats that folded out from the walls of the passenger bay while George helped Twilight get strapped in. The seats were uncomfortable for her, as they were clearly designed for a bipedal creature. With Twilight unable to go anywhere, George took the seat next to her.
Her stomach lurched as the engines’ whine grew to a deafening roar and the Pelican took off. The rear hatch closed soon afterwards, reducing the deafening noise to a safe, but still loud, level. George reached up into an overhead compartment and extracted a headset and microphone. It took some adjustment, but he managed to put it on Twilight.
“Can you hear me alright?” He asked.
“Yes, I can hear you.”
“Good, because there’re a few things we need to go over. First things first, after we get to the ship, our first stop will be the quarantine lab.”
“Why?” Twilight asked.
“Simple, you might be unintentionally carrying a disease that, while innocuous for your species, could be deadly to us, so we need to rule that out first. That goes for the rest of you, too.” The others didn’t seem phased by that statement.
“I see.” Twilight could not deny the logic behind that particular safety protocol. “What next?”
“That I’m not so sure about,” admitted George. “Most likely, Tony and I are gonna get reamed by Colonel Zhang. Also, Doctor Montgomery will most likely want to talk to you.”
“Who?”
“Our ONI handler, and our ship’s Chief Medical Officer,” replied Tony. “She’s actually a nice lady.”
“Very nice,” added Lin, still in the same monotone, but with a hint of something else. Her voice gave Twilight the impression that something was deeply troubling her, something in the soldier’s past.
She’d read a book on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder once, just after the Smarty Pants Incident. Princess Celestia herself had recommended it to her, and Twilight had only needed to read a couple chapters to understand why. The Princess believed that the incident came about because Twilight had suffered a mild case after the battle with Discord, and hoped that she would recognize the symptoms as well. However, a few trips to a psychologist had eliminated those fears.
Now though, Twilight was wondering if this strange, otherworldly soldier could be suffering from a major case. The others were jovial, actually laughing with each other. Lin, however, was the exact opposite, distant, aloof, and cold.
“Hey Twi, wanna see something neat?” George asked, shaking her from her thoughts.
“Sure.” George stood up and unbuckled Twilight from her seat. When she jumped down, she immediately noticed that the dropship was still climbing. The deck was steeply pitched, but not so much that Twilight had trouble standing. George, however, seemed to be struggling to stand upright due to his higher center of gravity.
Slowly, he led her to the back of the craft towards a small porthole in the door. Twilight had to stand on her hind legs to see out the window, but what she saw was simply breathtaking. The ground was several hundred kilometers below, so far that she couldn’t make out individual landmarks. A ways to the east, she could see the terminator line, marking where day turned to night. However, most spectacular of all was the border between atmosphere and space, where royal blue met inky blackness.
The Pelican turned away from the planet as it passed through this border and the whining engines were silenced, replaced by a dull rumble. Out the porthole, Twilight could now see something that she truly loved; stars, thousands of them, more than she had ever seen even on the clearest, moonless night in Canterlot. Princess Luna was an artist with the night sky, but even her greatest masterpiece paled in comparison to the wondrous display before Twilight’s eyes.
“Yeah, everyone’s like that their first time in space,” said George as he noticed Twilight’s awed expression. “C’mon. We need to get you strapped in before we lose gravity completely.” He almost had to drag Twilight from the window. She felt so light now, almost as if she was floating, making it hard to move naturally. Eventually, George managed to get her strapped back into her seat.
“So Sam, how’re the others?” He asked as he took his seat.
Her face fell, she obviously had bad news. “Jacque… he didn’t make it.”
“What happened?”
“Beam rifle… Through the heart… Close range,” Lin slowly droned out. “Left him… No choice.”
“Covvies were right on our ass, sir,” Sam stated. “We barely made it as it is. We got separated from Weber and Grimes, but they made it to their Pelican.”
“My fault... Got sloppy… Like before…” Lin’s voice was breaking, as if she was on the verge of tears. Sam reached over and placed her hand on Lin’s shoulder, while the other woman slumped in her seat. “Like before.”
“How long to the Charlemagne?” George asked, presumably to the pilot.
“Two minutes, sir,” a voice replied over the intercom. “The lab’s prepped and ready.”
“Tell Dr. Montgomery that our SPARTAN’s having a breakdown,” he ordered.
“Roger that.”
In no time at all, Twilight felt the Pelican land with a small thump. George reached over and undid Twilight’s straps, allowing her to climb down. The first thing she noticed was that, wherever she was, the gravity was normal. The rear hatch of the Pelican opened and the squad filed out of the dropship, mostly under their own power, though Lin had help from Sam.
As Twilight exited the dropship, she wasn’t too impressed with the hangar. It was smaller than she’d expected, smaller than the Throne Room back at the Palace. The walls and floor were metal, completely devoid of decoration, and coated in drab gray paint.
Before she could truly look around, the squad ushered her towards a door, which slid open automatically. The door led to what appeared to be a small, cramped hallway that was barely large enough to hold them all. At the opposite end was another door, though this one did not slide open, even with Sergei leaning against it. In the center of the door were two lights, one red and one green. The red light was currently lit, while the green one remained dark.
As soon as the doors closed, a low hissing sound could be heard, and Twilight could feel the air pressure dropping slightly. Less than a minute later, the hissing stopped, and the green light on the door lit up while the red was extinguished. Sergei stepped back from the door as it opened, allowing Sam to carry Lin into the next room, followed by Tony, Sergei, Twilight, and George bringing up the rear.
It was a fairly large room, almost as large as the barracks at the Palace. Unlike the hangar, the walls in this room were painted a dull, off-white color. Shelves full of various medical supplies, glass vials, and several pieces of technology that Twilight could not readily identify lined the wall to the left of the entrance, while the opposite had well over a dozen beds. Next to a cabinet, a pedestal of some sort stuck out of the ground. Across the room from the entrance was another door similar to the one everyone just passed through, above which the word “QUARANTINE” was stenciled in big block letters.
Sam carried Lin towards a bed and laid her down, while Twilight dashed off to examine the equipment. She was about to open one of the cabinets, when she heard someone clear their throat. Turning to face whoever was trying to get her attention, Twilight spotted another human, a female, sitting in the corner of the room.
She was a statuesque woman, a little less than six feet tall. Her blonde hair was wrapped in a tight bun, and her eyes were a piercing green. Other than the lab coat, she also had on a dark-blue shirt and skirt.
“Where did you come from?” Twilight asked hesitantly.
“I’ve been waiting here. You really need to pay more attention,” she replied with a smile.
“Dr. Montgomery, what are you doing here?” George demanded.
“My job, Captain,” she said. “I have a blood test to run, and a scared little girl that needs consoling.”
“Well I hope you’ve got a strong immune system, because you just exposed yourself to who knows what,” George deadpanned as he took off his helmet, allowing Twilight to see his face for the first time. His skin was pale, as if he didn’t spend much time in the sunlight. He lacked hair on his face, save for a pair of thin eyebrows. The hair on his head was raven-black and cut short, barely half an inch thick.
“I appreciate your concern, Captain, but it is unnecessary.” She shot back. “Lin is in a bad place right now, and needs someone to calm her down as soon as possible or she could lash out, and I can’t do that through a computer monitor.” She walked over to a nearby shelf that was loaded with medical equipment and pulled out a hypodermic needle and alcohol swab. She then approached Twilight, knelt down, and held a foreleg up. She examined the limb for a minute, before sighing in defeat. “Alright, I’m not up to speed on my equine anatomy. Where’s a vein I can use?”
“Let me,” she replied with a huff, wrapping the swab and needle with her magic and taking it out of the Doctor’s hands. “How much do you need?”
“Just a few milliliters.” Dr. Montgomery tried to keep a passive expression at the display of telekinesis as Twilight took a blood sample, only allowing a raised eyebrow to showcase her fascination. Soon enough, the unicorn had drawn the requisite amount of blood and withdrew the needle. “I hope you were paying attention, Captain. You might need to give her an injection one day.” Twilight set the needle down, allowing the Doctor to grab it.
Blood sample in hand, the doctor walked over to a machine and placed the full syringe inside. “Joy, are you here?” Twilight cocked her head to the side in confusion; it looked like Doctor Montgomery was talking to nothing.
“Of course I am, Doctor. I’m everywhere,” replied someone Twilight could not see. Without warning the pedestal emitted a blue light, which coalesced into the form of a miniature, longhaired, nude human female. “Wow, that came out creepier than I intended.”
“What the buck are you?” exclaimed Twilight.
“Language, my little pony,” she chastised, waving a finger at the unicorn. “I’m Joyeuse, the Charlemagne’s shipboard A.I. Everyone calls me Joy for short, though. What you see here is my holographic avatar, which I use to communicate to the crew. People find it disconcerting to just speak to thin air.”
“A.I.? As in, artificial intelligence?” Twilight received a nod from the hologram. “I… I had no idea humans were this advanced!”
Joy held a hand over her mouth and appeared to be shaking with laughter. “You mean to tell me that, after teleporting a long way from home, meeting several beings straight out of your mythology, nearly getting killed twice, having to deal with those two knuckleheads…” she pointed to Tony and George, “and finally, flying into space, you’re still surprised?”
With everything laid out, Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness herself. “Yeah, this has been a strange day, even for a Tuesday.
“You use the same word for the day of the week? Amazing. I wonder what else we share. Tell me, what’s the date back where you’re from?”
“While I’m sure this is fascinating,” interrupted Montgomery, “Can you please run the blood sample? If I’ve contracted a disease that’ll make my eyeballs melt, I’d prefer to know sooner rather than later.”
“You wouldn’t have to worry about that if you’d just follow proper quarantine procedure, Doctor,” groused Joy. “But no, you had to break isolation to take care of Lin. While admirable, I would prefer you not come crying to me if you get infected.” She sighed. “Ok, running a full microbe scan. Shouldn’t take long, an hour tops.” With that proclamation, Joy winked out of existence.
“Wait, I have a question,” exclaimed Twilight.
“Yes?” Joy asked, reappearing on top of the pedestal.
“How did you know what happened to me earlier?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Tony interjected. “Joy and I talked while George was telling his story. Basically, I filled her in on the situation.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. Now, if there are no more questions…” Joy winked out once again, this time for good.
On her bed, Lin had stopped crying, but was still visibly distressed. With a sigh, Dr. Montgomery stood up and approached Captain McCoy. “She’ll be alright, but she needs rest,” she stated. “I hope Joy can hurry with that blood culture. The beds may be comfortable, but isolation is still not a nice place to be. Now…” she turned towards Twilight, “where are my manners? I’m Dr. Helen Montgomery,” she said with a charming smile.
“Twilight Sparkle, pleased to meet you,” replied Twilight, before turning her gaze on Lin. “What’s wrong with her?”
Helen hesitated, trying to word her statement just right. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I have to invoke Patient/Doctor Confidentiality. You understand right?”
“Whoa there, doc!” George protested. “Patient/Doctor Confidentiality is fine and all, but it goes flying out the window if it could possibly get my men killed. I have a need to know.”
“True, but Miss Sparkle doesn’t, Captain,” she replied. “I’ll brief you fully later, something I definitely should’ve done before she was attached to your unit. Did it affect the mission at all?”
George shook his head. “It didn’t come up until we were in the Pelican, when we were talking about…”
Helen placed a hand on George’s shoulder. “He was a good man, Captain.”
Twilight couldn’t help but marvel at how similar these strange aliens were to ponies, especially their body language. Although different due to their bipedal nature, Twilight had no trouble at all reading it like they were ponies themselves.
The moment ended when Joy reappeared above her pedestal. “Doctor… you might want to take a look at this.”
“What is it, Joy?” she asked, pulling away from the Captain.
“While I ran a microbe scan, I also decided to see what else I could find. As I suspected, the DNA sequence is similar to earthborn equines, with a few key differences of course. However, one test picked up something… strange.” She snapped her fingers and disappeared, only to be replaced with a graph. “It appears to be an unidentified form of energy that is completely natural to her species. I theorize that this is the source of her telekinetic abilities.”
“Any idea what the source of this energy is?”
“Unknown.”
“Could it be some type of microbe?” Tony interjected. “Like midichlorians?”
Joy sighed. “No, Sergeant DiNardo, it is not midichlorians. You really need to lay off the old sci-fi vids.” Tony responded with a single raised finger.
“As I was saying,” Joy continued, “I would love to thoroughly test Ms Sparkle’s abilities after she clears quarantine. That is, if she wouldn’t mind.” All eyes turned to the unicorn, who suddenly felt much smaller
“I don’t see why not,” she managed to squeak out.
“Fantastic!” Joy’s hologram looked like it actually brightened by a few lux. “I’ll have some crewmembers prep a room for testing purposes. Ooh, they’d probably like to see this. I could sell tickets.”
“Joy,” interrupted Helen. “No exploiting the pony.”
The hologram put on the saddest puppy-dog eyes possible. “Not even a teeny, tiny bit?” Helen’s only response was to cross her arms and give a stern look. “Fine,” Joy responded with a sigh.
“Wait, this examination won’t be invasive, will it?” Twilight was rapidly getting second thoughts after seeing Joy’s enthusiasm.
“Oh, don’t worry my little pony,” replied Joy, allowing Twilight to calm down. “We don’t have the equipment on board for a proper vivisection.” Seeing Twilight’s distressed look, she quickly amended, “That was a joke.”
“Not funny, Joy,” said George.
“Eh, I guess,” she replied half-heartedly.
“Not good enough,” he stated firmly. “Apologize to the poor girl.”
“Ugh, fine,” she sighed. “I’m sorry for my poor taste in humor, Ms Sparkle.”
Twilight glared at the hologram, and George could practically see smoke rising from her mane. No, wait, that is smoke!
“Alright, I forgive you,” she said, and all traces of smoke disappeared.
“Well then,” she began, glad that her apology was accepted, “while I’m busy making sure that you won’t infect the crew, why not tell me a little bit about this ‘magic’ that you use?” As she said this, Joy snapped her fingers and a holographic pad and pen appeared in her hands. “I must admit, I am curious. I have never seen anything like it before.”
“Oh, this ought to be interesting!” Tony exclaimed as he pulled off his helmet. Like George, his hair was black, but longer, nearly an inch thick. His complexion was darker than George’s, indicating more time spent in the sun.
Sergei had also taken the opportunity to take his helmet off. His complexion was pale, much like George, but his hair was blonde rather than black, and his eyes were a bright, piercing shade of green. The right side of his face was pockmarked, as if it had been burned some time in the past. Forcing herself not to stare, Twilight looked down, and noticed the man’s thin, wiry frame for the first time.
Once again, Twilight found that everyone’s attention was focused on her, but unlike last time, she didn’t mind too much. Joy had given her a chance to slip into “lecture mode,” and Twilight had every intention to educate these people.
With a smirk, Twilight conjured up a pair of glasses and slipped them on, much to the amazement of everyone present, while Joy appeared to be furiously scribbling notes. “Alright then,” she began, “lesson one: basic theory of magic…”