“Throne, that doesn’t look good.” Rainbow’s voice was barely audible over the static. “I’m going to need a bit of help here.”
“On my way,” Rarity unfastened herself from her harness and dusted herself off. “Please excuse me for a moment. Once I have delt with the Sergeant, we can discuss our next steps.” Rarity attempted to remain professional.
“Bring a med-kit too.”
Rarity sighed and pulled out a box from under one of the seats. She wordlessly exited the lander leaving Twilight to her thoughts.
She undid her own harness and dropped her forelegs to the floor. Before she could collect herself, she felt something roll up against her hoof. She looked down and froze. Spike was powered off on the floor. Twilight blood went cold as she picked him up with shaking forehooves, and inspected him for damage.
A small red lumen steadily flicked on and off. “Ok, he’s in standby mode. Just check the system,” Twilight reassured herself. “Don’t worry Spike, I’ll get you back on as soon as possible.”
Twilight carefully held Spike as she keyed a series of inputs into some small runes set into the roof of his mouth. Technically they were supposed to be unusable to a laypony’s hoof, but her telekinesis worked in a pinch. She held the runes down and waited.
When she was a filly, she had been determined to learn at least the basics of Spike’s maintenance. Despite the Mechanicus reputation for guarding the secrets of the machine closely, childhood curiosity had won out. After a small ‘donation’, one of the tech-priests her family employed begrudgingly taught her some of the basic maintenance litanies.
Finally, a soft chime played and a small slip of paper started printing from the underside of Spike’s mouth. Twilight waited for it to finish before reading.
+++
+++WARNING: TAMPERING WITH THE HOLY MACHINE WITHOUT AUTHORISATION IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH+++
>ACQUIRING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS…
>>>CORE… OK
>>>NEURAL TISSUE… HEALTHY
>>>MEMORY… OK
>>>POWER… FAIL
>
>WARNING: CURRENT PERSONALITY MATRIX UNLOADED DUE TO LOSS OF POWER
>LOCATING RESTORE POINT…
>LOCATED [12] PERSONALLITY RESTORE PROFILE(S). LAST BACKUP… 326 SECOND(S) AGO
>ASSESSING STABILITY…
>>>ID… INGRAINED
>>>EGO… DEVELOPING
>>>SUPER-EGO… ENFORCED
>
>PROFILE SUITABLE FOR RESTORATION TO APPROPRIATE VESSEL
>SUSPENDING FURTHER DIAGNOSTICS. PROVIDE POWER FOR FULL ANALYSIS
>RETURNING TO POWER SAVING OPERATIONS
>PRESS ANY RUNE TO FINISH
+++
“That’s good… I think. Just need to find a tech-priest,” Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m good, Spike’s ok, everything will be fine.”
“Twilight darling, could you do me a favour?” Rarity shouted from outside. “We are going to be here for a bit longer while I deal with Sergeant Dash.
Twilight carefully put Spike back down on a nearby seat. “Of course, what is it?”
“Check the ship’s vox. It might be damaged, but if you can transmit something it would save us quite a bit of effort.”
“I… I think I can do that.” She flicked a switch and the vox came to life with a burst of static. Twilight settled down next to it, Spike laying close by.
Nearly half an hour had passed since they had landed on Everfree and Twilight hadn’t even left the lander. She watched the dial as the long range vox communicator scanned through the various wavelengths hoping for something to come through. A bright spark from the side of the machine suggested to her it was probably a futile effort.
The sound of static was starting to grate on Twilight’s ears.
The lander’s climate control had been another unfortunate casualty and now only blew lukewarm air around the inside compartment, though as the outside was scoldingly hot, it was still an improvement.
Outside Rarity was tending to an unpleasant gash along the side of Rainbow’s barrel. The landing may have been smoother than expected, but the front of the lander had taken the brunt of the damage and a branch had smashed through the cockpit glass, injuring the pilot.
“Hey I’m getting nervous sitting around here. Whoever shot us down will probably send somepony to look for us,” Rainbow’s voice drifted from outside. She sounded quite well, given the circumstances.
There was a series of frustrated grunts and shuffling. “Will you hold still? This is delicate work.” Rarity did her best to keep the needle still.
“I’ve been to the medicae loads of times and I don’t remember the stitches looking like that.”
“I’m sure my hoofwork will be far sturdier than whatever crude stitching the medicae normally does,” assured Rarity.
“At least they don’t make me feel like I’m some kind of embroidered dress!”
Twilight watched the spectacle from the safety of the interior. The outside was very different to what she had expected. Compared to the sterile recycled air of the station the atmosphere felt so thick it was almost unbreathable. Instead of the ordered sounds of the station, there was no electric hum or metallic clanging. The forest was filled with so many sounds that they overlapped into an indistinguishable mix of noise, which made her feel some kind of instinctive nervousness.
Seeing Rarity had nearly finished helping Rainbow, Twilight thought she might as well brave the outside. She was going to have to at some point anyway. She emptied her saddlebag of the books she had brought and carefully placed Spike inside. Hopefully they could come back here, but she wasn’t going to leave Spike alone.
Rarity called out when she saw Twilight approach “I take it this is your first time on a planet surface?”
“Is the air supposed to be this thick? It feels like I’m in an agri-tunnel.”
“I don’t have the slightest clue. Frankly it is all the more reason we should be leaving as soon as possible.” Rarity pulled out a bottle of pills from the med-kit and a bottle of water and gave it to Twilight. “Here take these, apparently they help with common planetary allergies and illnesses.”
“Thank you.” Twilight took a few of the tablets, and the air became slightly easier to breathe. It almost felt bearable. “So, what is the plan now?”
“First, did you have any luck with our vox?”
Twilight shook her head.
“Then there seems to be few options other than to investigate that tower that shot us down.” “The alternative is wating here. As Sergeant Dash says, we will be found by those who shot us down soon anyway.”
Rainbow returned from the cockpit with a hoof held vox set. “I’ve got this. It’s only good for short range stuff, though. The good news is we can use it whenever somepony gets near, the bad news is they’ll probably be shot at too.”
“So what are we going to do?” Twilight asked, a hint of worry crept into her voice.
Rarity took her pistol from the lander and dusted it off. “Investigate the tower. We might be able to disable the defences. Or we might find a way to communicate with the Golden Gryphon. Either would be useful right now.”
“Won’t it be guarded? We aren’t in a position to be fighting anything.”
“I am certainly not planning on taking them head on! Just a little survey. If there are too many, we reconvene to think of something else. There is no harm in exploring our options.”
Twilight stared into the thick underbrush with uncertainty. “Ok, lead the way.”
“Trust me this is just as unpleasant for me,” Rarity gave a somewhat sympathetic smile. “But now is not the time for trepidation.”
“Right, sorry.” Twilight scurried forward, slipping into file behind Rainbow.
They had barely been walking for five minutes before Twilight realised something. The energy she had felt when she first arrived, it was coming from the tower.