//------------------------------//
// 4: Taking Chances 
// Story: Steampony 
// by Winged Anomaly 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 4: Taking Chances

“Should we go through?” I asked nervously.  Whitefire shot me a funny look.
“I really can't see how that would be a good idea.”
I shrugged.
“I don't know.  I mean, portal to a strange, new world... when will we be here again?”
“You didn't seriously just say that,” Whitefire laughed dryly.  Sky had a funny look on her face.
“I am not sure,” she said, “Part of me is afraid, but part of me is curious.  I want to go in, but at the same time, I'm afraid of the potential consequences.”
I glanced between them.
“You're both fucking pansies,” I laughed, taking a deep breath, and stepping over the threshold.
“Wait, Pan, you can't... oh.”
I turned to see White had rushed after me, and in doing so, stepped across.  She froze for a moment, but then, just shrugged.
“Well, since I'm here...”
Sky followed a moment later, nervously eyeing the borders of the portal.
“We shouldn't go far,” she commented, “We have no idea how long this will stay open.”
I gestured to one of the massive clockwork monuments.
“Yeah, I just want to go up to one of those towers.  Get a closer look.”
Our footsteps echoed hollowly against the flat, white ground, the sound fading nearly to nothing in the white emptiness before echoing from the clockwork monuments.  As we approached the nearest ones, we began to hear the sound of their movements – the steady clanking of the vast gears meshing, rhythmic and hypnotic, free of the usually ever-present squeak of a lazily oiled shaft.  Whatever this white metal was, it either didn't need lubricant, or was very well maintained.  As we finally stepped up to the base of the monument after ten solid minutes of walking, I put my hoof against a vast gear... perfectly smooth.  So close to frictionless, I almost didn't feel it pressing against my skin.  Strangely, it felt warm, like some kind of energy was gently emanating from the depths of the machine.
“I think these make magic,” I said, voicing my gut impression, letting my gaze wander up the seemingly infinite height of the tower.  It just stretched up – never ending, never tapering down or decreasing in complexity.  A tether, connecting the earth to the heavens.
“Uh, Pandora...” Whitefire said nervously, backing up towards the massive gear, “Turn around.”
I did as she asked, and gasped in awe.  A machine, towering easily many hundreds of meters into the air, slowly strode across the infinite plain.  It was tinted a gentle light violet; a tiny, skeletal hub connecting eight vast, kilometer long legs which moved with slow, gentle grace through the clear air, like a giant, slow-moving spider.  It paused, and I felt its gaze on us for a brief moment, but then it just turned away, and kept walking.  I wasn't sure why, but... I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  It was a machine, but... something about it felt... alive.  I was about to say something, but then, a deafening sound echoed through the plain: a sound like something tearing at the seams.  I turned to the portal, and saw that it had expanded.  Significantly.  And a moment later, with another rip, it grew bigger.  Then bigger.
“Come on!” I shouted, sprinting for the portal, “If this keeps expanding, it could swallow everything!  We need to find what's keeping it open and get rid of it!”
We sprinted back into normal space a few minutes later, skirting around the portal's edge... and there lay the rest of the Titan.  Its front half was dust and memories, but its back half looked mostly intact, save for the damage it had suffered when it slumped to the ground.  A flickering of light caught my eye, and as I approached, I saw the Titan Heart: the rings of metal whirling metal surrounding a core of vibrant purple light.
“It's maintaining the portal,” I shouted back to the others as the ring of energy expanded again, “We need to get that turned off!”
As we approached the Titan Heart, it became clear that the blast had originated from the front of the device.  The entire front half of the Titan mech had been obliterated, sheared off from the back half with an almost perfect cut.
“Hey!”
I glanced over, and saw Whitefire had clambered up to the Heart, and was holding a cable in her hooves.
“One of the other intact cores is feeding it power!  If it has no power, it can't keep spinning, right!?”
“Worth a shot!” I shouted back, starting as the portal expanded yet again.  White motioned Sky up to the cable, who quickly withdrew one of her knives and severed the cable with one precise, deft strike.  The light vanished, the Titan Heart slowly spooling down... and the portal collapsed with a deafening 'crack'.  A blast of pure force flung me to the ground, dashing White and Sky against the ruined Titan and sending them falling to the earth, some meters below.  They weren't moving when I caught sight of them again.  I ignored the ringing in my ears and scrambled to my feet.
“Sky!  White!”
Sky was out cold, blood from a fresh gash pooling under her head.  Whitefire was slowly sitting up, groaning and clutching at her side.
“Broken rib,” she gasped, “I'll be okay, not my first.”
I gave Sky a shake, and she slowly regained consciousness, wincing and putting a hoof to her head.
“Didn't know you could feel pain,” I laughed, “Good to see you awake.”
“Dizzy...” she muttered as I helped her to her feet, but she didn't stay that way for long, swaying  for a moment and collapsing against me.
“Damn, you really took a crack to the head.  White, if you're feeling up to it, can you help me here?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Did you... Did you guys close the portal!?”
I glanced over my shoulder, and there stood the soldier from earlier, bleeding from a few small wounds, but otherwise intact.  I nodded.
“Yeah, the Titan Heart was maintaining it.  Guess we know what happens when it's overdrawn.”
I looked at the ground where the portal had been; it was scorched and blackened, still aflame in some places.  Where the portal's edge had passed into the earth, it had cut: leaving a long, smoldering slash among the wreckage of the Titan.
“Damn heroes, you are,” he said with a smile.  But I wasn't thinking about our victory.
“'What we stand to gain'.  Fucking imbecile,” I spat, “The good General survive, or do I get to dance on his grave sooner rather than later?”
The soldier shook his head.
“I'm not sure; haven't caught sight of him yet.”
His gaze shifted to the wreck, and he sighed.
“Honestly... I thought it was just too damn big to break.”
“Big just means lots of moving parts,” I commented as I helped Whitefire up, “Though that's kinda moot if you use a fucking bomb to power the thing.”
“Well, if what I heard's true, then 'bomb power' is the next big thing,” the soldier replied grimly, “The General mentioned at one point that this was just 'one of dozens'.”
I threw up my arms.
“Then let them have their Titans, just power them with a bank of smaller Harvester Engines!  There's no need to put this volatile... thing at the core of it all!”
“What do you think powered that cannon?” the soldier asked.  I was silent.
“That weapon was supposed to unleash a beam of pure magical energy – destructive on a primal level, and the emitter, the device producing this beam WAS the Titan Heart.”
I had a sudden urge to snap my fingers.  Which was weird, because ponies don't have fingers.
“That's it!”
Whitefire shot me a funny look.
“Is looking for clarification asking too much...?”
“It's been bugging me,” I continued, “Quill got access to the blueprints for the Titan, and he said it should work at full capacity without overdrawing the Heart, but this weapon tries to fire, and boom, overdrawn.  That means this weapon wasn't in the blueprints Quill had access to, and knowing him, he got the final versions.  The guy likes to be sure.  So this beam was some big, super-secret military project developed based on the incorrect assumption that the Titan Heart WOULDN'T cause some catastrophe if put under a lot of stress.  But that also explains this other thing!  Quill was wondering: why a Titan Heart?  Why not power a Titan with a battery of smaller Engines, which are much safer, more tested, and equivalent in mass?  Answer: because they wanted a secret megasuperlaser.”
“And,” Whitefire said, catching on, “Because Quill only finished the Titan Heart due to the military's interest, that means that the Titan Heart exists, literally, to make this beam.”
“And if it tries to do that, it blows up.  Cool,” I finished.
“Quill is going to love this,” Sky commented wryly.
With help from Gearbox, the soldier, we rounded up as many survivors as we were able into one of the troop trucks that had ferried soldiers to the demonstration, and made tracks for the nearest town.  Celestia, what a day.  Our assassin had a concussion, our gunslinger had snapped a rib, and the only one in any condition to fight was me.  Baseball-bat fillie.  Fortunately, the twenty-eight hundred bits left between us after Whitefire's purchase would probably be more than enough to keep us fed and housed until we were done patching ourselves up, after which we could hopefully pick up work of the less... paranormal variety.  We stopped by the local hospital to get our various injuries seen to, after which we headed for the local tavern at best speed.
“To you guys... or gals, rather,” Gearbox said with raised glass after buying the first round, “For saving Equestria with a combat knife!”
“Don't toast us,” Whitefire said, “Toast Sky there.  She cut the cable, and took the hardest hit for her trouble.”
Sky smiled weakly, impulsively putting a hoof to the fresh bandage around her head.
“To Sky!” Gearbox cried.
“To Sky,” we mirrored, and drank deep.
And that... that is how all this shit got started.  We knew the whole Titan Heart business was no small fry from the beginning, but we thought that since it was clearly so dangerous, it would be mothballed; existing models destroyed or locked up, and production ceased.  But we never thought, never thought for a SECOND that things would go down the way they did.  Luna's tits, did things ever spiral south from there.  Ah well.  Ignorance is bliss, right?

***

Three days later, our train pulled into the Manehattan central station.  We were home; battered, bleeding, and more drunk than a sailor on his last day of shore leave, but happy, and looking forward to that juicy bundle of bits.  Personally, I just wanted to get the money and go, come back and tell Quill what had happened after a decent night's rest and a few rounds of stiff liquor, but Whitefire's old cop sensibilities got the better of me.  She wanted to give it to him upfront, clear and simple... after he paid us, of course.  Come to think of it, with two thirds of our crew all bandaged up, there'd really have been no delaying the storytelling session.  His features plummeted when he opened the door.  He motioned us inside, and the moment we were out of sight, he was all over us.
“What happened out there!?  Celestia's bones, are you alright!?”
Whitefire smiled stiffly.
“The job was... tough.  If you don't mind, could you pay us now?  Trip home's long, and we've been though a lot.”
“Of course, of course.”
He handed us three thousand bits – forgot to deduct the two hundred he'd given us earlier.  That, or he felt we could use the extra.  Then he led us into his living room; a comfortable place with soft chairs, a crackling fire, and shelves of books.
“Now tell me,” he said once we'd all settled in, “What happened out there?”
I glanced to Whirefire.
“Where do we start, White?  Secret laser?  Alternate reality?  Asshole General?”
“Let's start with the secret laser,” White said, nodding.  Black Quill was thoroughly confused by now.  White adjusted her seat, and took a breath.
“Alright, Professor, I'll give it to you straight.  The blueprints you had were NOT final.”
“But I...”
“Please, don't interrupt.”
He closed his mouth, and nodded.
“They commissioned you to build the Titan Heart for one reason and one reason only: to directly power a devastating main gun in the Titan war machine; a weapon that doesn't just channel the magical energy produced by the Titan Heart, but uses the Heart as an emitter.  The designs for the beam were left out of the schematic you were given, presumably to keep the project a secret... but it also meant you couldn't take a look at it to determine if it would overdraw the Heart or not.  Guess what happened.”
He let his head fall into his hooves.
“The Titan Heart was overdrawn.  I knew I should've never built the cursed thing.”
“But what happened after is kinda cool,” I said in an attempt to comfort him, “So... it's not all bad.”
He nodded.
“Alright.  Continue.”
Whitefire complied.
“I don't know... exactly what happened immediately after.  We were inside the Titan when the weapon was fired.  I woke up in a pile of rubble; what was left of the Titan.  And behind me was a... hole.  In space.  Being generated and maintained by the Titan Heart.  I found Pan and Sky, and we... well, we went through.”
“WHY DID YOU...”
I sheepishly raised my hoof.
“My fault.”
The Professor sighed heavily.
“Continue.”
“On the other side, everything was... white.  Simple.  The ground was perfectly flat, and there was nothing there except these towers built of clockworks that seemed to stretch up infinitely.”
I tentatively raised my hoof, again.
“Spider monster.”
“Right, there was a kilometer tall mechanical spider.  It saw us, but it didn't seem to care... went about its business.  And that... is where things got bad.  The portal started to expand at an alarming rate.  We crossed the threshhold back into our reality and went around the portal to the back half of the Titan, which was still in one piece.  The actual force of the portal's opening was only directed forwards, so instead of firing a laser, it went off like a bomb.  Anyway, we saw that the Heart was still operational, and assumed it must be maintaining the connection to the other world... so Sky disconnected it from the Harvester Engines that were keeping it going.  When the Titan Heart shut down, the portal immediately closed... the shockwave did a bit of a number on us, though.”
He took a deep breath, trying to avoid flying into a panic.
“Alright.  I'll gather my things and meet with the Military Council immediately; it may take a little extra pressure to get the point home that the Titan Heart is too dangerous to use in such a fashion.  You three, try to enjoy your pay, and get some rest.  You've been through a lot.  Contact me if you're looking for more work; I've got a hunch this situation might produce more jobs ponies like you can handle.”
White nodded with a smile.
“Thank you kindly for the offer, sir.  We'll be sure to let you know if this ordeal hasn't softened our appetites.”  
I felt good as we made our way outside.  We'd done well; had even been offered more work.  The situation with the Titan Heart hung above our heads like a thousand ton weight, but was so high up it was difficult to see; its urgency lost to its distance.  Right there, right then, we didn't care about the fate of the world - we just wanted to get completely smashed.  Two door up the street we went; to Mercury's place.  For the first time, it looked like I'd have the means to pay off my tab, I thought to myself with a smug smile, and as expected, I was drunk within an hour  Several more had passed before the only part of the night I really remember swung around.  Sky was quiet, but happy, and I was practically bouncing off the walls, but Whitefire looked morose.  She voiced her thoughts a few moments later.
“You know... I've been thinking.”
I laughed raucously.
“There's no need to do that!  'S why we bought these drinks, after all!”
I was really, really drunk.  I moved to take another swig, but Whitefire took me gently by the wrist, guiding the mug back to the tabletop.
“No, really... listen, please.  I've been thinking about... well, death.  Since everything that happened at the Titan... I mean, we got lucky.  The explosion could have killed us.   The rubble could have crushed us.  The portal could have closed behind us.  The shockwave could have dropped us onto sharp debris.  Hell, the pissy general might have even shot us.  A lot of good ponies died, and we three failures survived.  Why?”
I shrugged.
“Can't complain.”
I felt her hoof against mine; a gentle caress.
“I'm not asking you to.  I'm not even asking myself to wonder why our lives were spared... it just got me to thinking.  We could die at any moment, from any cause.  If today were my last day on earth, what would I want?”
She leaned in close, whispering seductively in my ear.
“I would want you.”
I leaned back slightly, nervous.
“That's... sweet, but...”
“How do you know you won't like it if you've never tried?” she continued with a smile, “Grant a dying fillie her last wish, why don't you?”
I started to panic, but then I looked at her.  Her soft smile, her bright, hypnotic eyes...
“I want to pull away,” I whispered, mostly to myself, “But something about your... beautiful eyes... maybe I could just...”
Nervously, slowly, almost hesitantly, we let our lips touch.  It was exciting.  The taboo of it, the thrill of doing something my predispositions told me was wrong... it ran through me like an electric shock.
“Why don't we... why don't we go somewhere more private?” I whispered, breathing heavily.  She smiled seductively, took my hoof in hers, and led me to the door.
“I think we can manage that.”
I heard Sky sigh heavily and mutter something, but I didn't care.  I was entranced.  Enchanted.  We made our way back to Sky's apartment, where she led me into her bedroom with that small, almost nervous smile.
“This... is going to be different for you,” she said as she climbed into her big, soft bed, “But don't worry, it's not that much different.  Come on... let me show you a few tricks.”

***

I felt like absolute shit when I woke up.
“Oh, Celestia's eternal spirit, my fucking head...” I groaned, rolling over in bed, and coming face to face with Whitefire, who was smiling nervously.
“Morning,” she said with an apologetic grin.  Frantically, I looked around.  The sheets were in a state, both our manes were completely out of order, my beloved hat was discarded on the ground, and there was a roll of duct tape looped around one of the bedposts.
“Last night,” I opened hesitantly, “Did we...”
“Yup.”
“Were we...”
“Yup.”
I held up my arms.  Socks, for fuck's sake.
“Was I wearing...”
“Yup.”
“And that duct tape was...”
“Yyyyup.”
I collapsed back on the bed, and hid under my pillow.
“Ffffffuck.”
“Well,” she said hesitantly, “If it helps, you were having a blast.”
“It doesn't.  Thank you.”
She sighed, and got up.
“Well, as one night stands go, that was pretty good,” she commented as she tossed me my hat, “You're going to have to get up.  I need to make the bed.”
“So this... doesn't mean commitment?” I asked, peeking out from under the pillow.  Whitefire paused a moment, frowning.
“Uh... no.  We were drunk, and while I think you're bloody hot and certainly wouldn't mind a long-term relationship, we were... well, drunk, and you've already stated your aversion to all things lesbian while you were sober.  Two plus two is five... wait... ah, fucking headache.  You know what I mean.”
Slowly, the memories of last night began to filter back as I straightened out my mane, put on my hat, and got out of bed.  It was... different, different like she'd said it would be, and different in a way I wasn't sure I was comfortable with... but also like she'd said, for a one night stand, it had been fantastic.  I didn't dare tell her in case she took it as an indication I was interested, but I was smiling as I stepped out into the living room in search of a hot drink.  I was clearing sleep out of my eyes as I stepped into the kitchen, and started when I nearly ran into Sky, who was staring blankly at me.
“I made coffee,” she said after a moment, and handed me a cup.
“Thanks,” I said with almost painful sincerity, and moved over to the table, where I nursed the delicious drink for several minutes before White came out of the bedroom.  Sky handed her a cup as well, then continued to stand and glance between us for some time as we sat at the table, sipping our respective drinks.
“Well?” she asked after a while, and White spewed her coffee back into the cup, laughing raucously.
“Sorry,” she said a minute later, wiping away the tears, “Sorry, Sky.”
She cleared her throat, then turned to Sky with a serious face.
“Pandora and I have chosen to attribute our actions to a state of extreme intoxication, and have elected not to enter a formal relationship.”
Sky just blinked for a few moments, then frowned.
“You're mocking me.”
“I am.”
“Fine.  No more coffee.  I'll just spend the time between the end of my morning routine and the beginning of your hopelessly skewed day... watching... television.” 
She shuddered visibly.
“Actually, maybe I will keep making coffee.”
Sky finished off her cup, then headed back into the kitchen to rinse it out, but not before making another pointed glance between Whitefire and myself.  Once Sky was out of earshot, White faux-whispered,
“I don't think she believes me,”
I was getting a bit frustrated with the whole situation... or maybe it was just the headache.
“Why are you taking this so lightly!?”
She seemed a bit taken aback, then a little pained, and glanced away.
“Because if you take everything too seriously, then... life's rough.”
Something about the way she said that indicated real pain... indicated a past.
“What happened?” I asked gently.  She forced a smile.
“Maybe I'll tell you some day.”