//------------------------------// // 15 - Sunny // Story: Re:Harmony // by starcross7 //------------------------------// Chapter 15 - Sunny   It was a mess.  A total mess.   Chancellor Posey had more pressing matters to attend to other than the first-hoof personal inspection of the ruined Tartarus 01 and its labs.  Scientists and lab technicians had to be called forth from their vacation time as well as sick leave to clean the mess on the ground level for the Chancellor and her three President-Advisers to go through.   The first basement level was partially empty, but an experimental ice-bomb filled the second basement level with snow and ice.  This weapon, known as a WnDg Bomb, was construction from a hybrid of stolen pegasii Atmostech and the compression of the captured Windigoes into a tiny container.  The scientists who made such a thing did their nation proud.  None of the ancient evil creatures who slumbered here in Tartarus 01 had wreaked havoc on Gaeaopolis.  At least not yet.   About a hundred Clone Soldiers specializing in arctic warfare had to be recalled shortly after their initial deployment, all to protect Gaea's most powerful Chancellor.  Wrapped in a sheep-wool black coat, the Chancellor rode on a snowcat that carried her, Teddy, Ace, and Lancer through the icy floor towards the furthest extent of the damage.  Here, technicians and construction crew carved pieces of Lavan's form to be organized, cataloged, and eventually put back into its frozen prison in the floor above.  This was just one beast they had to cut up and move.  There was still that purple ooze, a few hydras, and a solidified cloud demon amongst others.   "Brr!" said Ace as the snowcat stopped at its destination.  "I wonder how much it will cost to clean this up?"   "Isn't that your job to calculate these things?" Teddy asked.   "I was appointed President-Adviser of Economics because I know where to kick the ball when it comes to funding and logistics.  I got a lot of pretty mares figuring out the rest of the details."   "Then why aren't they here right now?"   "Er, they forgot to buy their winter coats?"   Teddy snorted, and Lancer rolled his eyes after listening to his bickering colleagues.  He struck out on his own to investigate the damages to this level where Gizmo had secretly built his Robopony factory.  If Ace and Teddy had any sense, they would have already suspected that the scientist was already diverting power in the initial stages of his clandestine operations.  After that, it would have been assumed that he used the captured Windigoes to mask the heat buildup from the secret factory, and then siphoned Lavan's natural fusion energies as a power source.   The indigo pony felt a sudden breeze, and heard a blip.  He glanced behind him and saw Posey consulting, as per her newly regular habits, with a black-hooded pony.  Lancer held deep reservations about that stranger who had recently appeared beside the Chancellor, and perhaps it was because of his own personal jealousy.  He had always been loyal to her, and acted as her confidant.  He was given the special honor to protect her daughter during her outings.  Just as the hooded pony had appeared, he or she had suddenly disappeared.   "Mr. Lancer!" cried one of the tundra Clone Soldiers.  "We found a survivor!"   Lancer galloped to a carved hole where a pair of Clone Soldiers and one technician gathered.  He looked down and to find the mangled body of a cream-colored and bespectacled stallion buried within the ice.   "Help me," gagged Gizmo.   "Why should we help the likes of you?" frowned Lancer.  "We reviewed the surveillance footage and the security logs to find that you were primarily responsible for all this mess.  Not only that, you violated all military protocol in constructing your secret Robopony factory.  You should be executed on the spot, but maybe a freezing death would be a more appropriate punishment."   "Mister Lancer," spoke Posey.   Both the Clone Soldiers and the technician shrunk back with their head bowed, and Lancer stepped aside the Chancellor made her way to the hole.  She lay down and leaned her head into the hole and listened, with a smile, the request Gizmo wheezed to give to her.   "I see," Posey said as she rose back to her hooves and began walking away.  "Soldiers, hurry and pull him out.  I command you to take him to Chamber B2-52 per his request."   "Chancellor," said Lancer as he caught up to her.  "This stallion committed treason against Gaea and killed many ponies."   "I am aware of that tragedy, but a pony who is dead is of very little use to me than one who is actively opposed to the Government of Gaea.  Gizmo's knowledge of robotics will prove useful when we begin our final assault against Pegasopolis."   "Can we trust him after all this?"   "Of course not.  That's why I'm having Professor Bond modify the programming so I'll be in direct control of Gizmo and his Roboponies."   "If that is what you desire, then so be it."   "What of the two intruders?"   "Their descriptions have matched the reports we received from the zealots from the station.  The purple mare is definitely a unicorn known as Twilight."   "You see why I allowed Gizmo to live?  The appearance of this 'Twilight' is all according to the forbidden Starswirl Prophecy, and we must move fast to recover the other two Elements of Creation."   "I have already sent Taurus and Aries to investigate.  Thanks to the data we managed to salvage, we only know of three so far, and one is already in possession of the Rebel Applejack.  We have also lost the Alicorn as well."   "Then we'll have to consult other powers should our initial plan fail.  I am confident our scientists will have finished our weapon in time for the final assault, and I still have my 'insurance' by my side."   "Just who is that pony that's always beside you?"   "That information is not for you to know just yet.  Mister Lancer, that Robopony over there…"   The two stopped to see a lone silver and frosted Robopony staring at them with its whirring green mono-eye.   "It was found hanging around Gizmo," said Lancer.  "Must still be under his command."   "Keep an eye on it," said Posey.  "My companion felt awfully suspicious about it."   According to Applejack's wrist-mounted computer, almost a day had passed during their wanderings of the caverns of Gaeaopolis.  Spike had been in tears for almost the entire time, crying in Twilight's mane in the process.  As for the Earth-Alicorn, she seemed to be full of unlimited energy as she trotted left and right sniffing for food, a way out, or both.   On the second day, their hover cart had finally spent out its batteries, and their provisions had dwindled down to only morsels of oat bars.  Spike had stopped crying and declared to himself and the others that dragons should not shed any more tears so that Octavia's sacrifice had not been in vain.  He had taken to accompanying Twilight almost constantly, and Twilight, as she promised, proceeded to teach him how to read and write by using the dime novel she brought with her from Sewer Town as a makeshift textbook.  She also began conversing with him on how his dragon fire teleportation worked.  With various questions she asked him, the baby dragon could only volunteer what he knew and what they did to him, much of which was too painful for him to talk about.  Luckily, the hover cart had a compartment containing research papers on Spike's magic, which include diagrams in the construction of small Tele-Orbs and the formula in creating a destination matrix created from his cells.  Basically, Spike had the ability to carry an object or living creature in a compressed magical form in his stomach, but only for a limited time.  He could also do the same by sending the teleportee to a planted Tele-Orb, provided they carried the destination matrix.  Octavia had left them with three of these orbs to start.   The unicorn had been the group's primary source of light from hereon, but as time passed, her glow began dimming.  While water was plentiful in the various cave pools, she needed food to use any kind of magic, and the last battle pretty much left her spent.   On the third day, Spike and the Earth-Alicorn had been venturing from the mares' encampment to find food, and all they could scrounge up were gems, and eyeless fish, none of which the unicorn or the earth pony could consume.  The Alicorn never needed to eat, so it seemed, and Spike could easily survive on meat and gems.   Aside from Spike, the Earth-Alicorn had been nuzzling close to Twilight at every moment, much to Applejack's annoyance.  The earth pony had even fashioned shorts to cover the Earth-Alicorn's flank, but the Alicorn had immediately threw off and cantered off.  Applejack yelled at the Alicorn, and not until Twilight's command did the white mare put on shorts.  That did not satisfy Applejack one bit.  In fact, she grew more annoyed and decided to not talk to anypony or travel close to her companions.   She slept alone one night and across from her the Earth-Alicorn and Spike snuggled close to Twilight.   "Applejack," said Twilight.  "Applejack.  I know you're awake."   "What is it Twi?"   "You've been quiet for quite a while."   "I'm tryin' to save up energy by not talkin'.  I really don't wanna resort to eating moss or worse: eyeless fish."   "That's not it.  Ever since we left the labs, there's something on your mind.  We got Sunny, but all you've been doing is giving her angry looks."   "Sunny?"   "Spike decided that should be her name because of her Destiny Glyph."   "I don't know why she has to glom on you like that.  I mean, you may be a Twilight, but there's just no way she knows who you are."   "Applejack, you're not jealous, are you?"   "Of course not!  You're just my partner in crime."   "I'm sorry we haven't been talking with each other like before.  Look this is really strange for me well.  Sure I trained a few young ponies back in my village, but I never really had to take care of anypony.  With Spike, Octavia tasked me to look after him.  With Sunny… well, she might act like this, but I can tell that deep in her mind, she's like a lost child."   "You can't get her to talk?"   "I don't know.  She seems to understand my words at least."   "She can say your name."   "She hasn't said anything since we left.  Please Applejack, you can't be acting like this.  What about finding the rest of the Elements of Creation?"   "You're right.  We know where the second is, and we gotta get there before Posey gets to it first.  Twi, I'm sorry I have been mean to Sunny."   "It's okay.  To be honest, I am weirded out by her behavior.  I almost wished she glommed on you instead of me."   "Not on my life.  G'night Twilight."   "Good night."   Even in complete darkness, Applejack could imagine to warm image of two mares and a dragon snuggling for warmth.  It reminded her of that day her mother died.  Applejack, unable to sleep, carried her recently born baby sister into Big McIntosh's room and huddled close to one another in mutual sadness.   The Element of Truth told her that the dead could not be brought back to life, but she wanted to fool herself to believe that there was a way around that.   There had to be another way…     As a change of pace, Sunny and Spike had gone off ahead while Twilight and Applejack, weak from hunger, slowly advanced forward in the caves.  The earth pony found herself gravitating towards the unicorn, and without realizing it she nearly knocked her over when they made their flank-to-flank contact.  Twilight managed to recover and then exert a light chuckle along with Applejack.   "Kinda glad Spike found a playmate," said Applejack.  "Even if she is already a dumb grown-up mare."   "Hey, that's not a nice thing to say," said Twilight   "I know.  Say, you ever had a boyfriend back at your village?"   "I had a few crushes, but I never had time for one because of mother's strict schedule.  What about you?"   "Too busy rebellin'."   "What about Shine?"   The earth pony blushed.  "I suppose I like to imagine him as one."   "Does he know?"   Applejack shook her head.  "That darn pony was way more focused than me.  Lemme tell ya, this one time he--"   Fwump!  Applejack turned around and found Twilight splayed out on the ground.   "Sorry," Twilight smiled weakly.  "I guess I'm not used to starving like you do."   "Hold on Twi!  I'll get you something to eat."   "That's okay.  All we have are dried fish and gems."   "Don't faint on me Twi.  Even if it's meat and rocks, you gotta eat somethin'!"   Applejack then heard trotting noises behind her, and zipping right up beside her was Sunny and Spike.  Sunny dropped before Twilight a bushel of five bananas.   Bananas.   "Bananas?" Applejack asked.  She reached her hoof over to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks, but Sunny kicked the bushel away and hissed at the earth pony.   "Sunny, no!" Twilight cried.  "That was very rude of you!  You give Applejack half of what you found!"   "Where in the hay did you find the bananas?" asked Applejack.   "There's a portion of the cave that has crates of them," replied Spike as finished eating one himself.   Crates?  Wherever they found them, their exit was near.   "Spike, get on my back!" Applejack.  "Twilight, you get on Sunny!  We're bustin' outta here!"   Before they sprinted off, Applejack finished her two bananas in two quick gulps.  With a filled stomach and renewed hope, she ran as fast she could, damning all the sore pain throughout her body.  Thanks to Spike's directions, they made it to what looked like a dead-end, but Sunny approached it and pushed a large block of rock inward enough for all of them to slip into the hidden chamber.   Just as they described, there weren't just a few crates of bananas.  There were mountains of crates!  Not just of bananas, but of exotic fruit like kiwi, pineapples and pears.  There was already one broken crate of bananas where Spike and Sunny had helped themselves to, and resumed helping themselves to.  Whoever owned all this could probably spare a few bushels for the ponies' stomachs.  They were probably Earth Party Elite members hoarding all the best produce for themselves.   "I guess you're not too bad," Applejack said to Sunny.  "I sure you wish you stop licking and nuzzling Twilight."   Sunny responded by blowing a raspberry after staining her lips with fresh raspberries.   No time to think about the morality of eating food that wasn't theirs.  Applejack and Twilight gorged discretely on everything they set their eyes to.  Some fruit they like, and some they didn't, but this was heaven after days of starving in the caves.   The ponies and the dragon had brief rest, but when they heard doors open into the stony cellar chambers, they immediately woke up and covered their mouths to cover their breathing.  They heard the hooves and voices of two ponies passing by as they broke open the crates to pull out what they needed.   "Gifts from our allies, huh?" said one of them.   "In reality, they are starving their own citizens just so they could receive fat funds and weapons courtesy of Posey."   "Just like here, but what can I say?  Posey has managed to take down Cloudsdale Fortress all by herself."   "But this reward here is too much if you ask me."   The two ponies had left.  Applejack and Twilight agreed that it was time to emerge from hiding.  From behind the crates, they knew that the cellar was large, but it was larger still with rows of and rows of stacked crates in a chamber almost as large as Spike's pen.  Neither of them could think of anypony who would be able to house such exotic produce.   Then it dawned on Applejack there was one pony in particular...   Applejack, faced with this revelation, was the first to climb up the stairs and into another basement level built with more pipes and vents on top of old tiles.  Further in she ran down the long hall and then climbed another set of stairs and poked her head past the door.   Luxuriously patterned woven carpet.  Wood-accented walls.  Golden wall chandeliers delightfully designed to house light bulbs behind stained glass covers.  Lining up the hallway were paintings from the best artists of Gaea, both past and present, and some had portraits of the previous Chancellors in heroic gestures.   "Applejack, wait up!" Twilight cried.  "What's the hurry?"   "I think we're in deep," replied Applejack as she closed the door.  "Very deep in the mud hole."   "What do you mean?"   "We're in the Palace of the Earth… Posey's home."