Chapter 11; Remembering the fallen.
It'd been two long weeks since everything that went down at Canterlot, and as per mine and Pinkie's arrangement, I was delivering her a 12-pack of Coka Cola.
As much as I'd prefer to have Pinkie head over to the ship to pick up the cans, she already told me she'd be busy on shift today. That and with David still buried in guilt, my ship had seen cleaner days. I'd also mention my food stores are now going down much quicker, but since I now have to feed three people (and the fact David consumes his body weight in snaky food daily), I'd basically be stating the obvious.
I entered sugar cube corner, realising that not many ponies were actually here yet. Then again, it was a school day, and the morning, so most of the early customers were gone. All there really were was a couple of ponies towards the glass window to the side, while an elderly stallion was way near the door with a newspaper in hoof, a muffin on his table. I was glad.
I walked toward the main desk where I saw Mrs Cake, packing cupcakes and donuts into delivery boxes. She also had a Coffee on the counter, likely a morning pick-me-up. I couldn't say, I was carrying two personal cans of Coke on me for emergencies…
"Morning Mrs Cake, I've got Pinkie's delivery." I told her, placing the small box on the counter, stretching my aching arms afterwards.
"Thank you Dearie, Pinkie should be here in a minute for those." She told me, putting her boxes to a side for a moment. "Can I get you anything? On the house, naturally."
"Well, I've never been one to turn down free food…" I muttered, scanning the display case for my options. "Salted caramel donut?"
"Of course, I'll get that for you." Mrs Cake said with a chipper tone. To be fair, I was starting to get used to this town, and it was honestly quite nice. Especially the likes of the Cakes, who's baking we're one of the only reasons I ever leave my ship… aside from chores… and Twilight's occasional interrogations- I mean… well, yeah, they were basically interrogations.
"How's your friend doing? Wasn't his name David?" Mrs Cake asked, placing my donut on the counter.
"No real change. Still moping around in the ship, eating constantly and completely paranoid about what he did." I told her, sighing as I picked up my donut. "It's gotten to the point where I had to keep my favourite foods in a password-protected fridge! And I had to change the password on my Coke storage machine twice."
Mrs Cake chuckled. "Ooh, I feel you there. There's no worse crime than having somepony take your favourites."
And thus the door connected to the kitchen opened up, revealing Pinkie. She was carrying a servers tray on her head and one in her front-left hoof. Not entirely sure how she can remain balanced while doing that, but I guess I shouldn't really look too much into it. I'm still recovering from her using her hair to pick things up.
"Hi Marc! Gimme a minute." She said, placing the trays of fresh food in the counter and putting the spare food into the display shelf. Once she was done, she put both trays on top of one another and set them to the side. "Alright, done. You brought the Cans?"
I smacked the top of the box. "Yep. This bad boy's got all the cans you asked for." I pushed the box towards her. "Honestly quite glad not many ponies are here. I don't really want a repeat of last time."
"Don't worry Marcy, I learn from my mistakes! From here on out, any parties involving you will include no more than me, my friends and the crusaders. Pinkie promise!" She declared, making a cross mark on her chest with her hoof and placing her hoof over her eye.
I chuckled. "Yeah, unless I tell you otherwise… which is unlikely, but… wait, why would you throw me another party? Wasn't the last one enough?"
"That was your welcome party silly! I'll still throw you parties for your birthday and for the anniversary for when you landed in Equestria! It's just manners."
I raised an eyebrow. "How… are you going to figure out my birthday? Not even David knows that."
"Marc, trust me when I say she'll find a way. She always does." Mrs Cake warned.
"That's true! Even if I have to follow you 300 days a year, seven days a week. I will find out eventually!" Pinkie giggled, casually running her hooves together as a smile for- wait a minute.
"… you mean 365 days a year, right?" I corrected Pinkie, a dazed and confused look filling my already slightly tired face.
Mrs Cake shook her head. "The Equestrian calendar has only 300 days Marc. Ten months, thirty days each. Is it different on your world?"
"Where I come from, there's 365 days in a year, with around about 30 or 31 days in a month… Great, time differences! This should be fun to sort out…" I moaned, realising this meant I'd have to sit down in my ship for about an hour or two figuring this out… or just get Cloud to do it, therefore making the whole thing happen in a matter of moments.
"I know, right? Now you'll have two ages, one for each world! That means double the birthdays!" Pinkie cheered, bouncing into the air and somehow… causing confetti to burst out?
"I'm… not sure that's how it works, is it?" I asked, honestly curious about how that'd work, given it seemed… incredibly inconsistent. Especially for that one day every five years where the birthdays both occurred at the same… time. "Wait, would that make me 18 in Equestrian age?"
"Yeah. Well, maybe 19, but definitely 18." Pinkie declared, about to begin packing up some more boxes when she stopped and stared at me. "Wait! That means you've missed three birthdays!"
"I… don't think those count. So unless you're planning on doing them scattered across the year between now and my next actual birthday…"
"Oh no, I have a better idea… brace yourself Marc, because I just had an amazing idea!" Pinkie declared, a certain glint in her eye telling me… well, that I should probably try to slowly walk away. "I will combine all your missed birthday parties, and make one mega-jumbo birthday celebration!!"
Me and Mrs Cake just stared at Pinkie blankly, looking towards one another.
"Should I be exited, or extremely terrified?" I asked.
"Both." Mrs Cake replied, the both of us returning our gaze to Pinkie.
"Come on Marc, this'll be a first for me! And I always throw parties for my friends!" Pinkie stared into my eyes with her puppy dog eyes, almost feeling as though she was staring into my soul… a rather faithful use of number 37, not bad. "Please? PLEASE?!"
"Okay! But if we're doing this, then I have a few conditions." I told Pinkie, backing away for some breathing space. "First is that the guest cap is at 12 or 15 at most. As I said before, I don't want a repeat of last time."
"If that's what you want, then I'm alright with it." Pinkie said.
"Alright. Next is that over the next few days, we'll arrange the day the party is happening."
Pinkie chuckled. "Marcy, I can set up a party in ten minutes. All you need to give me is a couple hours notice and the party will be ready for you.
"Alright, duly noted. As finally…" I scratched my chin. If I'm technically considered 18 here… "I want beer."
"Marc, you need to be at least 21 to drink in Equestria. You're not old enough in Equestrian years." Mrs Cake said, denying my request straight out of the gate.
"Well, you need to be 18 to legally purchase alcohol where I come from. And given I'm technically 18 in Equestrian…"
"Sorry Marc, nothing we can do about it, wether or not it's allowed on your world." Pinkie sighed, her eyes suddenly lighting up afterwards as to say 'eureka! That's it!' "I might be able to ask Applejack for some apple cider for the party. It might not be alcoholic, but it's family-made by her, she's a friend, and it's the closest thing you can have!"
I paused for thought. "Not sure I can negotiate up from there… alright, deal!" I grabbed Pinkie's hoof for a hand shake, but I was still unfamiliar with how ponies gripped things. As such, it felt like Pinkie's hoof was a suction cup, grasping to my hand and almost refusing to let go… until she did.
"Yay! I have another party to plan!" Pinkie albeit cheered, reaching into her mane and pulling out a reasonably large bag of bits (based off memory, it should be 200 bits?) … and here came the headache again…
She then poured out roughly half the bags contents and put it to the side. "I'd usually ask for some bits upfront for the price, but given this is a special case, and you're a friend, I'll just call it half the total bits from the coke money. That alright to you?"
"You're asking me if I want a hefty discount off a party I didn't know I was having until three minutes ago… do you expect me to say no or something? Because I'll gladly take that offer." I joked, grabbing the bag of bits and throwing it into the air, catching it then throwing it again in a loop. "You're a legend Pinkie. Pleasure doing business with you." I glanced at Mrs Cake." And nice bumping into you Mrs Cake."
"Not a problem dearie. Take care now!" She called over, waving me away with her free hoof, busy at the cash register.
And so, with a reasonably hefty amount of bits to my name, I decided I'd have a wander around. Errands to do, food to buy, arcades to play then immediately beat in less than half an hour… in other words, a typical Tuesday.
-0-0-0-0-0-
And thus, having spent some of my bits on a cone of chips, some sweets and an hours time at the arcade (which was mainly spent trying to obtain this single Indiana Jones-looking pony plushie), I finally arrived at my next stop; Carousel Boutique, the workplace and home of Rarity. Not too shabby in my opinion.
I mean, the design was rather intriguing, as the building itself was reminiscent of an actual, well, carousel. What made it even more cool was the addition of several display pony mannequins (ponequins?) lining above the ground floor. While I was slightly disappointed that it didn't spin like the fairground rides of old, I was aware of how much time and money it'd take to set up and run. I'm not going into the fact Ponies likely rode these things in fairgrounds, so would basically be riding… horses?
Anyway, enough discussing the peculiar design, I had business here. As such, I pushed open the door, causing a Cliqué bell notice system to play. Take it from a Brit, this was more than familiar to me.
It took me only a moment to look around the shop, but what I saw was essentially several built-in runways, each with rows of dresses and suits nearly lining beside and around them, with a single feature dress in the middle of each runway. Speaking as someone who just throws on clothes without really worrying about trends or anything, I'll admit the display was rather impressive, but I honestly just shrugged and moved forward, towards the main desk.
"Be with you in just a minute!" I heard Rarity call from one of the back rooms, the light buzz of a sewing machine telling me she was in the middle of working. I knew she was expecting me, but I guess I should've come here before I went to the arcade… even though that meant I'd have to carry the clothes she was making for David around with me.
I heard several quick and light hoofsteps walking towards me, revealing a rather familiar young filly; Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo's fellow crusader and Rarity's younger sister.
"Hey Marc! What're you doing here?" She asked, a chipper and happy tune embedded in her voice.
"Just picking up some clothes for David. I asked Rarity to make them for him a few days ago." I explained to the tiny child, crouching down so I could see her better. "I learned the hard way that David can't fit most of my clothes, so I asked Rarity to sort sort some out for him specifically."
"Why do you humans wear clothes all the time anyway? I only see ponies in Canterlot wear clothes as much as you."
"That's… an incredibly awkward and complicated question… such as the question of why you're not at school right now." I returned her question, relived I wouldn't have to explain… that story.
"N-no, It's not like that! I help my sister with her work sometimes!" Sweetie's squeaked, waving her hooves in front of her for defence. "Since she gives me bonus allowance for it, Ms Cherilee sees it as a job and let's me off for it."
"Ah, ok. Just making sure you weren't scything or something." I groaned, recalling that one time I was pressured into scything a lesson with a friend… it ended really well.
"Anyway, I'll go get Rarity for you. Just wait here for a-"
"Oh, it's you Marc! Sorry, I didn't realise." Rarity said as she walked over.
"Nope, doesn't matter then." Sweetie puffed.
"Alright Sweetie, back to work please. I need you to go get some Aqua silk and turquoise fabric from storage please." She instructed her sister, who's ears immediately perked up.
"I'm on it sis! See you Marc!" Sweetie shouted as she galloped away.
"Alright, I guess that gives me a moment to relax." Rarity said, levitating a brush and giving her mane a quick swipe or two, restoring it to it's usual style. "How are you doing Marc?"
"Meh, slightly tired but overall alright." I answered, having a quick look around at the clothes on display, mostly so my mind could wander. It wasn't even lunch yet and I was already knackered. "David's slightly better than he was, but that's like saying my hair is slightly longer today that it was yesterday."
"That poor dear. I do hope he gets better soon." Rarity used her magic to levitate a box onto the counter. "These are the clothes you asked me to make for him, although this is only the first half. I've been too busy so the other half will take a couple more days to complete. But these are mostly pyjamas, underwear and socks, shirts and pants. A pair of shoes aswell, you can thank your Cloud friend for showing me to do those."
"And… probably everything else too." I added. "Seriously, how were you able to get him to help you? He intterupts me every five minutes while I'm trying to watch anime or something."
"Take it from me darling, working with different kinds of ponies is something one has to do to succeed. Cloud was foalsfolly!" Rarity chuckled, pushing the box towards me. "And once he gave me the patterns necessary to make human clothes, that was easy too."
"I'm just going to… politely smile and nod." I joked, pulling out the remainder of the pack of bits Pinkie gave me and placed 42 of them on the table. "This should cover you for your help. And again, thanks for this."
Rarity pushed the bits back. "No need darling. I found this experience rather interesting, and no doubt I'll need to know how to make clothes while you're all here."
"Alright, I'll rephrase. This should cover you for the materials you used." I told her, once again pushing the bits in her direction. "I'm not usually one to turn down free things, but not paying you for this feels wrong. So please, for my own sanity, take the money."
"Alright then! But only since you insist." Rarity finally conceded, picking up the bits with her horn and placing them in the nearby till. She then looked back to me. "Anyway, I don't mean to be rude, but I have another order I need to start working on. Nice speaking to you Marc, and… good luck with David."
"Thanks. I'll need it." I said, walking over to the door to exit. I took a quick look-back towards where Rarity was a moment ago, to find she'd already went neck to her workroom. As such, I just turned and left the shop. Back home I go…
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Having just entered the orchards of Sweet Apple acres, I decided to have a quick sit down by a tree. The walk between Ponyville and AJ's family farm was surprisingly long, my legs began to ache by the time I made it there.
I took a quick moment to look to the sky, the brilliant weather giving me a nice view of the bright blue sky. A few small clouds floated here and there, but I overall found it rather relaxing. Quite surprising how Pegasus ponies can affect the weather, huh?
If it wasn't for the mention of Pegasus manipulating the weather in the history book Twilight gave me, I'd probably call it blasphemy… as well as all the magically-altered physics if this world. But to be fair, I've seen enough in this world to realise that I should just probably accept whatever crazy stuff goes on in this world, for my own sake.
"Hey Marc, over here!" I heard a familiar call over to me. Turning in it's direction showed me it's source; Twilight.
"Twilight. How's things?" I asked, groaning as I got back onto my feet and turned to her, noticing a scarily wide smile forming on her face… I now regret asking.
"It's going amazing! I finally cracked your aura info!" She said with a squeal, levitating a small scroll above her head with pride. "It took me days, but I finally did it! This could make history for your kind in Equestria!"
"Woah, calm down Twilight!" I told her, raising my hands to try and hush her. She'd stopped speaking, but a light squeal could still be heard coming from her. "One step at a time. Now explain to me slowly and simply, what's so ground-breaking about this information?"
"Long story short, You're magic is almost identical to equestrian magic!"
"… what do you mean 'almost'?" I asked.
"Well… that's a long story. Want me to explain?"
I groaned, getting back to my feet. "Sure, but walk and talk. I'm heading to my ship anyway."
Twilight walked to my side. "Alright, where do I start?… Well, the basis of a ponies magic starts from their soul and makes aura. That much I already explained."
"Back at the party, I know. The different bodily focuses of a pony gives each of them their respective magic, and aura is the fuel for that. Yada yada, science stuff."
Twilight nodded. "Nicely remembered. But that said, I couldn't find those same 'focuses' in yours or Shane's data. Fact is, you're identical in species, but your magic is different."
"Didn't you look into genes or aura colour? Would that have any affect?"
"You thought exactly as I did, but no. Aura's colour seems to have no correlation to the magical ability, given both you and Shane have green-ish blue or aqua aura. And I couldn't access your genes without asking you for DNA. Not to mention human and pony DNA are different. So guess what I did next?"
"You're probably going to tell me anyway…"
"I looked at what your aura does when your magic activates, and it's… complicated."
"As was everything else you've said so far…" I groaned.
Twilight ignored my comment. "Shane's aura mostly concentrates in his head and his hands, with streams connecting them. If he knows how, he can activate the shield similar to a unicorn using a spell. You're… different."
"I know, my magic is different." I answered back sharply, fully aware I brought on this mini lecture by myself… great.
"No, I mean you're aura is. It's just… there. It's through your entire body, but it only activates when you're hurt."
"And… it goes to the injury and… magically heals it?" I asked.
"Not exactly, more like it accelerates your bodies own natural healing. If anything, you're aura enhances your whole body. Speed, strength. Stamina and reaction time, on top of your healing."
"In that case, why doesn't it work when I'm being sneak attacked or knocked out?"
Twilight scratched her chin. "Well… maybe it doesn't affect durability? I don't know, it's just a hypothesis."
"So… you told me all of that, as a hypothesis? As in you don't have a concrete answer for it?" I asked bluntly.
"Well, it's the closest I've come to an answer, and I figured you'd want to know." Twilight moaned.
"Ugh, well it's better than nothing I guess…" fortunately for me, I'd arrived at my ship. "Go on in and… lecture Cloud or something. I'll just be grabbing a shower and working on some equipment."
"…At the sam-"
"INDIVIDUALLY!!" I cut Twilight short, correcting my statement before she could pull off a joke. Didn't stop her from laughing though.
…Anyway, having survived Twilight's speech, I opened my ships doors, and immediately got blasted with enough loud music to shatter glass! I tried to walk in to find the source, but tripped and fell as I stood on piles of trash and cans all over the floor, resulting in me dropping my box of clothes (the fact it was sealed preventing the clothes themselves from falling out.)
I looked up from my lower vantage point to see David, spread out over my sofa-bed, watching an intricately choreographed anime fight scene on the big TV, with the volume, as clearly proven, at incredibly dangerous levels.
Seeing this as my first view upon walking into what was essentially my home, I decided to do the only sane thing that felt right for the moment; I flipped the sofa, with David still on it, and used the remote console on the table to turn the TV off. The room fell into almost perfect silence, aside from David squirming his way from under the sofa.
"What the hell?! I leave you alone for a few hours and this is what you do?" I yelled at my friend, now coming to understand why my mother hated high volume… words I never thought I'd ever agree with.
"Ah piss of you ginger prick!" David growled in rampancy, getting off his knees and approaching me. "You should've seen that coming after locking me out of the coke machine, again! You're lucky I figured out the password, otherwise I'd be well and truly pissed right now!"
"Fuck sake man, how the hell'd you figure out-"
"You set the password as 'password'! I'm pretty sure even Connie'd figure that one out!" David yelled, face-palming hard enough to be heard from miles away. "I've tried to tell you about sorting out proper codes for your doors and that. Putting the password as 'password' is the computer equivalent of saying 'please open me'!"
"Yeah, but I put a second password! That kinda screws up your whol-"
"The second one was 'unlock' mate! That's even worse!" David walked up to the cola storage, pulling out a can. "Face it mate, I'm better with computers and that than anyone in the project. Something as simple as guessing a password doesn't even stretch my metaphorical back!"
At this moment, Cloud finally chose to make his appearance, his first action being a quick glance around the room. "Oh thank god, the music's gone!" He turned to face us, and specifically took notice of Twilight. "Hey there Book Horse!"
"Hey computer person." Twilight greeted, walking over to cloud as the two of them began their own minutiae conversation. I don't really want to get involved, as Cloud and Twilight combined essentially become a living glossary of Equestrian and Earthen information. It's… overwhelming, to say the least.
I groaned, returning to pick up all the remaining empty cans (and silently prey at their loss. They were too young to die…)
"David, I know it's rich coming from me, but could you try to lay off the coke? You know this stuffs essentially my income."
"I know… but come on man, we both know how good that stuff tastes! At the very least we could replicate the formula and make more of the stuff."
"Yeah… but that's being held off for as long as possible." I explained. "No doubt it'll be needlessly complicated to get all the ingredients, secret ingredient included. Knowing me, I'll probably mess it up some point down the line."
"As depressing as it sounds… I can't argue there. When it comes to planning stuff, you're as useless as Caboose from Red vs Blue." David joked.
"Yeah, but at least I'll have a Tucker to blame everything on." I returned the joke, fully aware of what I'd likely awoken.
"Pfft, dunce."
"Imbecile."
"Fanboy."
"Fangirl."
"Baked bean!"
"Symmetry freak!"
"Knobhead!"
"I-idiot with… Brown hair!"
David chuckled. "Yeah Marc, must've thought about that one all night."
"Yeah, I came up with it while I was banging your mom!" I burst out laughing, barely able to believe I just used that joke!
David groaned. "I hate you…"
"I hate you a slightly larger amount!" I returned, giving him a deadpan stare, locking eyes with him as though we were arch-rivals.
In truth, this kind of conflict has happened more than once before. And as always, I knew what came next.
Me and David both erupted into an uncontrollable laughing fit, barely able to breathe as we came together in a sort of brotherly hug. That's what happens when two autistic as fuck nerds come together in an argument. Death battle, eat your heart out!
"Okay… that makes things… 6-4 to you?" David managed to splutter out in the middle of his laughter, sitting back on the still flipped sofa.
"Pretty sure I won that one though, so more like 7-3 to me." I answered his question, only being met with an irritated groan.
"I'd hardly count counter-arguments only as a victory. If anything, I got that one through my actual insults, meaning I got in more insults than you quicker."
"Alright, let's leave it to the audience then. Who do you two think won?" I turned to the other two, realising they'd completely blanked us through that entire argument. "Nope, no third party."
"Let's… just call this one a draw." David muttered, flipping the sofa back up and sitting down on it, the whole mood changing in a mere moment.
Having picked up on his sudden mood shift, I sat down next to him. "You alright man? Still feel bad about Shane and that?"
"What do you think? Of course I do man! I just… I don't know." David moaned, cupping his head I his hands and groaning. "Everything just feels… normal, after everything I've done. Even now, I still can't get the thought out of my head. What I've done is… yeah."
I reached over David's shoulder, pulling him closer. "Look, David, you can't blame yourself for this. You weren't even in control at the time, not to mention the fact you openly believe it wasn't wrong, proving your decision was clouded!"
"But I still did it! Nothing'll change that!" David looked up from his hands. "It doesn't matter if I was hypnotised or corrupted at the time, what's done is done. These are my demons, and I chose to face them!"
"Then I'll face them with you dammit! I don't care what it takes, I'll snap you out of this!" I told him, standing up and holding my hand up for him. "I'll always have your back."
David remained silent for a moment, eventually turning away from me.
"I… I just need time Marc. Thanks but, I have to face this myself." He turned to lay down on the sofa, facing the back cushion to avoid eye contact with everyone.
Having reached a dead end with David, I decided to walk over to the kitchen area, grabbing some of the nearly past-date donuts I had and taking a nibble of it. Quite frankly, I'd have to buy more food eventually, meaning the food I had needed to be consumed quickly. In that sense, I guess David being an absolute pig is a good thing? Maybe I could just ask Pinkie to help clear things up. She'd be able to handle everything, bar the meat.
Having officially become bored, I decided to final start paying attention to Twilight's and Cloud's conversation. My shower plan would come after, but after my depressing-ish conversation with David, I needed a pick-me-up, regardless of my understanding of it.
I sat down at the desk, the chair scraping the floor causing Twilight and Cloud to wince, pulling them out of discussion.
"Don't mind me guys. Just figured I'd check what you're talking about, given talking to David is essentially the same as talking to a brick wall right now." I explained, stretching my back before leaning forward on the desk.
"Take it from me Rusty, you don't want to get involved in this. It's an enhanced Twilight lecture, with extra trimmings of esposition and enthusiasm." Cloud warned. "Although it could be fairly worse I guess. You're just lucky I'm better capable of understanding and applying information than you."
"… you're just recording the conversation for later, aren't you?" I asked him, realising that the voice recording application was active on my computer, and an episode of Cowboy Bebop was playing on the screen.
"What? No, I'm-" cloud tried to bluff his way out of it, only stopping as I turned my personal computer off, as well as the apps. "H-hey! The recording only saves if I press stop idiot!"
"Nice try with the bullshitting there Cloud, but maybe turn the monitor off next time?" I told him, his only returning insult coming a a middle finger in my face. He was also about to say something, but his hologram and voice cut out, leaving myself as Twilight confused.
"What was that? Is he alright?" Twilight asked worryingly, looking at the holographic projector and under the table for signs as to what was going on.
"My guess is some software or computer system's got his attention. He'll probably be back in a moment." I answered, sitting on the chair and turning the computer back on, deciding I'd get back to watching a couple of anime episodes. "Even if he doesn't come back, less of a headache for me."
As soon as I finished that sentence, Murphy's law decided to kick in, Cloud re-appeared, his hands furiously tapping his holographic hand-tablets as though he was possessed.
"Marc, we've got another awakening beacon. Tracking it now." Cloud declared, once again disappearing briefly, causing the equestrian map to pop up.
"An awakening beacon? Isn't that the thing that let you find your friend Shane?" Twilight asked curiously, lifting herself up (given her minuscule size) to see the map.
"It is. That means someone else finally decided to wake up." I explained to Twilight. "I'll be honest, it took them long enough. I mean, it's been over a whole week already! Not to mention a third of us are already awake, so why is this taking so long?"
"Hmm… alright, found it. Look here." Cloud started, Turning to the map. From there, the two dots representing mine and Shane's ships began to send off two beams of light
Towards a southern area of Equestria.
"I'm now able to use both this ship and the other fragments beacon receiver to triangulate this third ship segment. And… it apparently originated from these… badlands south-east of the Macintosh hills? Not sure how we didn't pick it up until now, but it's registered as at least three, maybe four, days old."
"That's not really important right now. All I know is a virtue has been found, and I'm going to bring them back here." I jumped up, quickly running over to my equipment storage area, scanning my stuff for necessities.
Cloud gave me a deadpan stare. "Let me guess; joke about Americans and guns?"
"Nah. To be fair, these things have kinda saved me a couple of times, given anything and everything wants to kill me here." I said, drawing out my Katana and a pair of pistols, fastening their holsters to my belt. I them grabbed a smaller box just below my swords display stand. "Besides, I think this might be better to use."
I opened the box, revealing the enchanted ring that Celestia had made for me. It seemed rather normal as far as rings go, being made of gold with a clear, white gemstone in it's centre. Further inspection revealed engraved symbols around the main ring itself.
"Ahh, that thing! Yeah, that'll definitely help you avoid any unwanted attention." Cloud nodded, currently scanning the train route for the best way there.
"An enchanted ring? What does it do?" Twilight asked, walking up to me and picking up the ring with her magic for a closer inspection.
"Luna said… it'd make me appear as a pony temporarily, until I take the ring off. Only thing is that people who see me put it on can see my actual body." I groaned, realising how convoluted the item actually sounded.
"So a ring with a built-in perception spell? Sounds handy to me." Twilight gave me back the ring, walking back to the table. She then turned back around and looked at me. "Alright then, try it out. Put it on."
"How's that supposed to work? You're not supposed to look at me when I put it on."
"I know, I'll close me eyes… but cloud has to keep looking. Just a control variable." Twilight explained, closing her eyes and covering them with her hooves. "Alright Marc, let me know when the ring is on."
"Alright then…" I breathed outwards, closing my eyes and slowly slipping the ring onto my finger. "Here goes something."
I felt the cold metal end of the ring touch the end of my finger, so I opened my eyes and… realised nothing had changed. "Brilliant, no dice!"
"Is there… some sort of delayed reaction or something?" Cloud asked, clearly as impressed as I was in the current moment. "Twilight, I don't think it works."
"Huh? That's weird. I swear I felt the rings spell wor-" Twilight now looked fully at me, her jaw dropping as soon as she looked at me. "I-I… uh, it… it works."
"Okay, so Twilight can see it, while Cloud and myself can't. I think that confirms what Luna said?" I mumbled, walking back over to my storage cupboard and closing it. Just as I did though, I was caught off guard by my reflection, or more accurately, what my reflection looked like.
I saw a pony staring back at me, or more accurately, the spells illusion being reflected through the metal panel. What I saw was a stallion slightly smaller than Big Mac was, much more thin too. A thick, green coat of fur all over him, flaming red hair and tail, and a pair of wings by his side. For an illusion, I was oddly caught off guard at how realistic it looked… I looked?
Although I was more shocked at how it was copying my exact facial expression. I was shocked at first, then intrigued, moving around to see how well it would copy me.
"Ok… that's oddly… creepily realistic! Bloody hell!" I yelled, watching as my words came out of the reflections mouth. Adding to the weirdness factor.
"Twilight, should we be worried about him? Wouldn't he get disoriented if he saw himself like that for too long?" Cloud pondered.
"Let him get used to it. After all, that's how everypony will see him while he has the ring on." Twilight answered, walking up to me nudging me, knocking me out of my trance. "When are we leaving?"
Having snapped out of my focus, I once again returned to my actions, grabbing a small sack bag and putting some essentials into it, starting with two bottles of water. I then paused. "Wait… we? Implying you're coming with me?"
"Sure, why not? I've been needing a break anyway."
"… did you not see me grabbing weapons? Pretty sure it'll be dangerous."
Twilight chuckled. "Marc, you've got the element of magic stood right in front of you. I think we'll be fine."
"Meh, suit yourself then." I hung my bag on my chair, taking the ring off for a moment. "I'll grab a shower and meet you at the train station in about an hour-ish. That sound alright to you?"
"Sure thing! I'll grab a few things and let spike know to cover the library for a couple of days." Twilight chirped, walking directly over to the door. "See you soon! Bye Cloud!"
"Yeah, see you Sparky!" Cloud chuckled, looking as though he was about to return to something, but got caught off-guard by my own laughter. "Okay, what?"
"Pet names man? Seriously?!" I yelled, stopping for a moment to breathe. "Do you like her or something?"
"Pfft, coming from the guy who's categorised facial expressions? Yeah, right." Cloud rolled his eyes, pulling out his tablets. "Jeez, make friends with one like-minded person, and everyone thinks you like each other. Typical."
"Alright tiny, keep you knickers on…" I opened my bathroom door, turning for a glimpse of the room. I noticed David had somehow gone to sleep. As such, I once again walked back over to Cloud for a moment. "Let him know what's going on when I'm gone, will you?"
"Don't worry, I'll have to. I'm not going to be the one on nanny duty this time bitch." Cloud chuckled.
"Oh, and one more thing." I turned the PC back on. "I need you to keep changing my food storage password while I'm gone. You know, to stop David from getting in."
"Really? Still hung up about that?" Cloud asked, the stern expression I answered with being enough to tell him the deal. "Alright, I get it. I'll protect your precious food! Happy?"
"Very much so. Thanks Cloud." I said, running over to the bathroom and closing the door. I had a time limit, and I wasn't planning on going past it.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Well, despite scraping the time limit, I managed to get to the train station and meet Twilight, who'd already bought our tickets for us. As such, we were mainly just waiting in the train for the departure. This… was mostly filled by me putting my feet up an staring out the window, but that's only because I found the time to drag.
This was cut short, thankfully, as Twilight attempted to grab my attention, coughing and causing me to look her way.
"Can I… ask you an honest question?"
I sighed. "Go ahead. Not much better to do."
"Well, your main job seems to be tracking down your friends. You travel Equestria and track them down, bring them back and… well, you get where I'm going."
"No, I don't." I told her, raising a curious brow.
"What I mean is, that's what you have to do, your mission, so to say. What I'm asking is, what do you want to do outside of that? What's your personal goal?"
"… why bring it up?" I asked.
"Well… all you seem to do is get yourself in danger…"
"I tend to believe danger finds me. If I had a choice, I'd be more than happy to hide myself in a pillow fort or something."
"… I mean you keep putting yourself out there. Twice now you've left the ship to find someone, even though you're confident something will come after you." Twilight sighed. "What I'm asking really is… why? What do you get out of it?"
I paused. I didn't really know how to answer that question at first. So I sighed, and just let it out as it was. "I don't… like staying still. I guess after everything I've been through, working towards an objective is something I'm used to… this last week just reminds me that I need to be doing something, stay busy, to function.
"I guess I keep going because… stopping doesn't feel like an option anymore. Wether it be for my own benefit, or for those who died to get me where I am… I have to keep going."
"Marc, you don't need to feel like that." Twilight interjected, leaning forward and donning a lethal combo of a caring voice and number 14. "It wasn't your fault everyone's dead. What happened on your world was a tragedy, even what happened to Shane."
"… my parents died trying to get me and my brother to safety. My brother might still be out there, but I was… right there when I lost Shane! He was the closest thing to family I had left." I couldn't help but shed a few tears. "It's why it hurts so much when David blames himself. I was the one who had no control. I had to sit there, watch Shane sacrifice himself to save David."
I noticed that, after my small outburst, I seemed to cause an awkward silence. "Sorry. I think I over-reacted there."
"No, I'm sorry. I'm the one who brought it up." Twilight answered, moving over and taking the set directly next to me. "You're clearly going through a lot right now. Even through it, you're trying to focus on helping David rather than yourself. But that only makes things worse."
"What can I say? I'm an emotional sponge. I was chosen as virtue of loyalty for a reason." I chuckled, remembering all the times Connie used me as her own private Psychiatrist. Not that I was bothered by it.
"You're my friend Marc. If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me." Twilight told me, smiling brightly before moving back over to her seat, picking up one of the books she brought with her.
I sighed, opening my own bag and grabbing my GameGear, one of the remaining things I have from my parents. I'd recently charged it, but i hadn't played it in years.
Well, this should be interesting.
-0-0-0-0-0-
The rest of the train ride seemed to whizz by like a blur, as me and Twilight had arrived at the closest stop to the badlands. This involved getting off just before the mountains, which meant we had a reasonably large trek in order to reach the signals origin point.
Fortunately for us, there seemed to be an engraved path on the way there, meaning there was a good chance there was a village nearby. A quick glance at a few ponies passing by us confirmed this suspicion.
After about an hour and a half of walking, me and Twilight came to a stop, having noticed the village in question ahead.
"You think we could stop there for a bit and rest? My legs are killing me?" I groaned, switching the leg I put my weight on so I could stretch the other. Twilight seemed to do a similar thing.
"I don't think that would be an issue. We can stay there and figure out how far the ship fragment… is." Twilight paused, squinting at the village. "Is… that it there?"
I jumped at this,looking in her vicinity. "Where? Near the village?"
"No, inside the village! Look!" Twilight said, pointing towards a structure inside the village. True to her word, the ship fragment was directly in the centre of the village. It stood out like a sore thumb.
"Hmm… must've moved it there for security I guess." I scratched my head. "Come on, let's go see who it is."
As I began to jog, Twilight moaned. "Come on! My hooves are killing me!"
"And you think I'm not hurting aswell? It's irrelevant, we're really close."
After another ten minutes of walking, me and Twilight arrived at the town. From first glance, it seemed rather big, with several multi-story houses and a few shops lining the road. It had a western sort of feel to it, something to do with the tone of the houses or the dirt-moulded road.
I took a moment to look around, eventually noticing a sign just by the entrance of the town.
"Welcome to… Marecambe? Ugh, is my home town not even immune to the pony parody names?!" I whined, gathering a confused glance from Twilight.
"Is that really what you're focusing on here? Isn't finding your friend more important?" She asked.
I groaned. "I know, I know… maybe we find something to eat first? I don't think the ship is going anywhere."
Twilight was about to say something, but a growl from her belly interrupted her. "Yeah… what my stomach says."
As such, me and Twilight entered the town, gaining a few welcoming glances from a few townsponies. I couldn't help but feel butterflies while this happened, realising how in the open I was. I continued in regardless, glad Twilight offered to come along.
We began walking down a few streets, where I began to notice some construction work going on. It seemed solidly underway, But I instinctually stood away from it. Guess I was just playing it safe.
We then walked through another splitting pathways, when I came to a stop. I'd seen a humanoid figure, so I wanted to get a better look. So I continued in that direction, and my heart skipped a beat when I realised who it was.
A familiar brown cut of hair, rounded face, almost as tall as me. I knew who it was, and it wasn't a good thing. Even Twilight noticed I was distracted.
"What's up?" Twilight looked in my line of sight, noticing the person I was staring at. "Isn't that the friend you were looking for."
"No… we're far from friends." I sighed. "That's… Joseph. The virtue of Honesty. AKA, the biggest prick on the whole project."