//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Bugs // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Gaia Prevails // by John Colt //------------------------------// Chapter Four Bugs “Aideen’s Audiolog. February 6, 1247. The black board of Hufstein looks promising; I bet I can do at least half those repair jobs.” “Did you get lucky last night?” I spun around to see Craft had snuck up on me. “What are you doing here?” “I’m stalking you. I feel better about myself when I see others fail,” said the mare that drank herself into a coma yesterday to avoid me. “You should probably file a restraining order. Aww... ” She pointed at an engagement announcement, “isn’t that sweet?” Oh yeah, that’s right. Craft is working as... whatever it’s called. Hufstein’s bulletin board is full of information, and the reason why she is here is to harvest them. An engagement is a change in population; it might be unimportant, but it adds to a greater picture. I remember the speech Rosetta gave about money, and information has value to ponies. I’m probably imagining that I keep crossing paths with Craft more than usual. Only one thing had been by chance: her finding me at that mountain. Running into her in a cheap motel and at the bulletin board hadn’t been as unlikely considering her occupation. “So?” It sounded like a question. Craft obviously noticed my confusion and added, “Your night, how was it? The cute one. Remember? Wait...” She looked in the air and frowned as if to remember harder. “Was he cute or was I just drunk?” Define: cute. One: generally, attractive of pleasing, especially in a youthful, fun-spirited way. “Hmm... I guess...” Two: Physical features, behaviors or personality traits attributed to infants or cuddly animals. No. “Kind of. Stop smiling.” As Craft continued to study the black board and copy some of the data into her PipBuck, she didn’t stop smiling. A PipBuck... I’ve noticed it on her before, but never put much though into how she got one. Craft had knowledge about StableTec’s social experiment in Stable Eight, but she doesn’t appear to be much older than me. I would have known her if she had been from Stable Eight too. I was just about to ask her, when... “Hey! Aideen!” Quick Shot came running at me. “Hey! Good... Morning. You...” He was panting; he should have been breathing properly. “Quick, come on; breathe; focus. The bulletin board wont run away from us. Catch your breath.” “Yeah.” He laugh-coughed. Yeah, laughing is not a good fit if you are out of breath. Why did that small dash leave him so out of breath so fast? The entire time between seeing me and reaching me it would have taken him to at least hold his breath to get this exhausted. “So, why are you late? Did you think I wouldn’t show up? Let you pay for my drinks and then sell you down the river?” “Kind of.” “And when you saw me actually being here you just ran.” “Yeah, but I wouldn’t have been late. I was held up by my mom.” He cursed silently. Something similar to ‘Why did I say that?’ was going through his head. “Err... She didn’t believe me when I said I had a da- arranged to meet with a fri- had something to do.” Aww... “Takes a brave man to admit something like that.” I turned to the board and asked him: “See anything you like?” In the corner of my eye I saw Craft starting to quiver in suppressed laughter before I realized my mistake and added: “A job, I mean.” He stared at the bulletin board; he didn’t read it, he focused extremely hard on a single point. This is not good, is it? Can I have someone falling for me? It would certainly raise my publicity in Hufstein, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, right? I certainly need to do some window shopping before making a purchase, but was a relationship even an option for me? Craft has been quite right about the virgin thing. I have never opened up to anyone before; I don’t even know how to do that. I need some practice. Quick Shot? He was certainly interested in me. he would be easy, right? How would I approach him on that? I got nothing... I looked over to Craft. he would certainly know what to do. Once again I found myself thinking, when had she become my role model? She always seems to know what to do, or at least that was the impression I got from her, because she always seems to have a stupid comeback. “You said you can fire a gun, right? And you have a PipBuck with this S.A.T.S.-thingy. What do you think about extermination? Hufstein itself looks for some po- equines to wipe out the silverbugs.” “Yeah I can handle myself with a gun.” That was an overstatement. I never fired at a living being before; I doubt I could shoot a pony, but bugs? I think I can handle those. “Silverbugs? I’m new here so...” “Right. Err... Well... The old silver mine ran dry before the war so it was never an issue to really go in there, but there are some bugs coming out of it from time to time. They eat some of the crops planted out there. The silvermine is a maze with its... maze-like corridors, of which half are collapsed, but... BUT you have a PipBuck!” His last words sounded excited all of the sudden. I knew why, of course. “My PipBuck has an automap.” Unlike everyone else I wouldn’t get lost in the silver mine. “Yeah, let’s do this.” “You mean, like...” He paused. What was he up to now? “together?” Oh... “Sure, you know more about the local mutated insects than I do. I need some brains to my brawn, don’t I?” Seeing him smile was worth making a stupid joke, I know why Craft does it now. Unfortunately for Craft I was not a good audience, but I realize now I should smile at her whenever she does something fun (unless it was actually not funny). “The city of Hufstein pays good, right?” His smile transformed; it wasn’t genuine glee from a joke anymore, but greedy, in a healthy way, and why wouldn’t he? We are going to make money, probably way more than the (for us non existing) risk to get lost in the mine would be worth. *** *** *** “Well, that was weird.” We left the mayors office, with a deal for an impressive sounding amount of money. Quick Shot had held a poker face, so I didn’t know just how good of a deal we managed to get. “What do you mean? It was a good deal.” ‘Good deal’ was satisfying, but I could tell he had hoped for more; After all we will still have to split it two ways. “Not the deal, it’s the mayor... I felt like he was afraid to look at me?” “Really? I didn’t notice anything,” Quick stared into the sky as if to remember again. “but I lived my whole life with zebra-weirdness surrounding me.” “Not everything a zebra does can be explained with zebra-weirdness, that’s racist.” “Yeah... Well, he’s married, maybe he didn’t want to tempt himself?” Funny... “That wasn’t really the expression of a stallion who likes what he sees in that way.” “Hmm... then maybe he wanted to show you couldn’t... uhmm... play your charms on him?” Quick blushed furiously. It was quite bold of him to say I have charms. Normal mares like to have compliments made about them, right? I never considered myself normal, but I liked it. Not what he said; I knew I had... charms to use in negotiation with stallions. I liked it because it was him who told me so. Something about me is appreciated by a friend, and I smiled, showing his appreciation is appreciated. And Quick Shot is a friend, a real friend, isn’t he? I thought I had friends before, but those were just the fillies my age with whom I played with, or the ones who had the looks to get thrown in lusthouse duty in the Crimson Company alongside me. Sympathy through similarity, but I don’t think I ever had a friend. I had mentally friendzoned him. Thinking about how Quick Shot would wince when I would tell him that, my smile grew wider. It was a deeper relationship than everything I ever had and I had only met him yesterday. He noticed my smile. “You seem awfully happy?” “I’m... just thinking.” *** *** *** “I’ve never been this close to the crater.” “Wow. This is... wow.” Before us lies the Hufstein Crater, it was a perfect hemispherical hole. “Annihilation-megaspell. Radius: 500 meters. Everything inside it was just gone. Once Cloudsdayle got hit, the pegasi simply dropped it on the battlefield.” “Yeah, it was cruel.” I said it, just like him, without any emotion. It happened a long time ago. No matter how many ponies died then I couldn’t feel it. Anger directed to the pegasi maybe, but definitely no sadness. Somewhow, I got myself thinking the crater was beautiful. The megaspell had exposed the silver mine and provided us with an entrance. A framework to access the mine had been built long ago for a reason that escaped my mind. The ponies of the wasteland must have known the mine had run dry, but they probably thought they are smarter than pre-war ponies with a shitload of technology to search for silver. As we made our way down I found out the framework was way steadier than it looked. I learned enough about real architecture in the Stable to respect whoever managed to make this, but come on, dry dung can only be stacked so high. At the entrance of one of the tunnels we met another zebra who shied away from us. “You’re... the ones here for... the job?” She’s talking really quietly. I had not much experience with zebras, and, as racist as it sounds, they all looked alike to me. However I could tell she was about Quick Shots age. “Hey Xanthrine, didn’t expect you down here.” He knows her? “H-Hi... Quick...” Wow, she was even shier than Quick Shot. “Hi! I’m Aideen. I take it you know each other?” “Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood. Err... Aideen, this is Xanthrine. Xanthrine, this is Aideen.” Friend of my friend, I guess. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” I reached out my hoof to her. She didn’t respond, she didn’t shake my hoof either, if anything she just shied away even further, staring at me. Okay, awkward. She’s eying me, only at times allowing herself to take a quick glance. Quick glance, pun intended. Heh... What’s wrong with me? It is as if Craft is rubbing off on me. Quick broke the awkward silence. “Xanthrine? You have something for us?” Strictly keeping it business if social fails. Good call. Xanthrine nodded towards a bag hanging of a hook at the mine shafts wall. I engulfed it in my magic and floated it over to me. Although I knew what’s inside I wanted to see it. Now don’t look excited, Aideen, Xanthrine is already afraid of you, make an impression as if a remotely detonateable homemade bomb was- Can’t concentrate, must squee. It was beautiful. There were a lot of gadgets built in, probably to assure we wouldn’t run off with it, but something was missing. “Where’s the detonator?” “Mayors office.” I go out on a limb here and assume she doesn’t like me. “Uhkayy... We’ll be... going then.” I placed the bomb back into the bag and put it around my neck. “No!” She almost shouted. “I... ahh...” “Xanthrine?” Quick seemed utterly confused. “What’s going on?” Yeah, explain yourself! Of course, if I would say that she would probably block me, so I remained quiet. “Y-you should take it.” “The bomb? Why?” “I don’t trust her!” That was the first complete sentence I heard out of her mouth. Glad to see she at least has confidence about something. “What!? Why? She hasn’t done any-” “It’s okay.” I interrupted him and put the bag around his neck. “It doesn’t matter. Just... You can talk this out if you want I’ll head on in now.” Zebras... I activated the lamp on my PipBuck and walked into the mine. I heard Quick whisper: “What was that all about?”, but wasn’t able to hear Xanthrines response, as she had been talking hushed to begin with. The air inside here was pretty bad, but I commanded my PipBuck to tell me when it reached concerning levels. The standard setting was to mention it once it would have reached a lethal level. Who designs something like that? If the air is lethal you’re already dead. Quick caught up to me before I reached the first intersection. He had put on a miner’s helmet with a flashlight on top, it looked ridiculous, but I couldn’t look directly at him anyway. “So? Mind telling me?” “I’m sorry if she... Xanthrine isn’t usually like that. I don’t know what got into her.” “You’re a bad liar. She told you. Don’t worry, I can take any insult. I just don’t like it if it’s behind my back.” “She said you are... uhmm... evil.” He almost pressed that word out, but quickly added: “It’s a zebra thing I guess. This is evil, that is evil. Don’t mind it.” It was not what I expected. “That’s what she said?” “Yes. No. She didn’t say... She did say...” He paused to take a breath. “Zebras have about a thousand different kinds of evils and hundred different names for it. So really, don’t mind it.” I never had any prejudice against Zebras, but that was before I had time to talk with some. Now I feel like I am starting to really dislike Zebras, is that okay only because they don’t like me either? Change of topic please. “Turn left or go straight ahead?” “Uhmm... straight.” *** *** *** “Wait, stop. I think heard something.” “Wha-?” “Shh!” Again I heard a clicking crawling noise, it certainly sounded insectoid. I assume this time Quick had heard it too. Not like I could see his expression, but the way his head was slightly tilted he seemed to concentrate on his hearing. Is that it? I lifted a small creature just outside our lights range up and floated it towards us. “Yeah, that’s a silverbug alright.” “It’s not a bug, it’s an isopod, a crustacean.” “Bug, crab, doesn’t matter, it’s not going to be one for long anymore.” Silverbug, huh? Even though inaccurate, I just stick with the already existing name. For a mutated inse- isopods it was small. I have seen tainted or irradiated insects the size of ponies. But this silverbug? I could stomp it with my hoof! It was only about a foot long, it’s width fitted exactly beyond my hoof, and the for isopods usual carapace plates over it’s body, looked weak. Or do I only imagine that weakness because it has lost it’s color? Most animals living in very dark environments end up with a white, silvery color. Judging from the way it curled it’s body together in defense of being picked up I’d say it’s related or even was mutated out of a common woodlice. “Aww... look at how it convulses with glee. I think she likes you.” I floated it over to Quick and held it in front of his face. “Gaaahhahaha.” Initial scream turned laughter to which I quickly contributed. “Why would you do that?” “I’ll call her Sivir.” I sat her down again. “Now go, Sivir! Run to your family; show us the way.” The little silverbug ran off, as I ordered it to. “Sivir? Really?” He wasn’t confused, his voice showed clear signs of amusement. “What? Come on, we’re on the hunt. Can’t let it get away on us now.” *** *** *** We were surrounded. Not by the cute small ones, but... pony sized, and bigger ones. Bigger was figuratively, as they were flat creatures, but one of the giants had a jaw-thingies the size of my legs. Err... mandibles. This is not the time to think about the proper terms. No, actually this was the perfect time to focus on something else. BANG! BANG! I don’t remember gunshots being so loud, but then again last time I’ve heard them I was alone in the middle of nowhere, not in a mineshaft where they could echo around. DAMN, WHY DID HE SHOOT? Quick jumped onto the giant silverbug, which he had shot the antennae off of. His plan had probably been to simply run over it and make his way out again. I probably should have followed, but now I was thankful for my lack of reflexes. The silverbug had caught one of his leg in its... mandibles. Quick screamed, I couldn’t blame him, after all his leg would- Nothing happened. The Silverbugs were still unmoving, and Quick’s silverbug hadn’t bitten down. He was bleeding badly, but if it would have intended to sever his leg it could have simply done so. The silverbugs were intelligent. This situation feels familiar. What have I gotten myself into again? “What do you want?” Please be herbivores, please be herbivores, please be herbivores. They didn’t respond. Of course they didn’t respond, would they even be able to respond? However they opened their circle and made a pathway for me to follow. Okay, that is pretty clear. I could let this count as a response. “Okay, message received.” I nodded. “Err... Quick? They’re intelligent, or are at least controlled by something intelligent, and I don’t think they are vicious.” “What the hell are you talking about?” Quick hadn’t noticed them making a way for me to follow, but to be fair he was kinda preoccupied with being chewed. “It could have severed your leg, but it didn’t, and they want us to follow.” “You.. they... what?” “Just shut up and don’t struggle, it would only make your leg worse.” *** *** *** We arrived in a fairly bigger cavern. It wasn’t part of the mine and exactly what we would have been looking for: the breeding ground. There was one silverbug that defied the description of gigantic, I already used giant for one, considering the size of their queen, that was average sized. Quick was dropped in front of the queen. At least I consider it to be the queen, as it was the biggest one and it kept pooping out eggs, which were carried away by smaller silverbugs (workers?). I assume the queen won’t just speak up, so I did the only thing that came to my mind, and I tended to Quicks wound. Although we had better equipment I used a non-magical bandage on him. The bloodflow had already stopped. “I don’t think an artery is damaged, only muscles. You’ll survive that wound.” This wound, yes, but the question is: what else is going to happen to us? Quick was breathing heavily, but suppressed screaming. “What happens now?” What would I give to know the answer. I was less afraid at the moment than I had been when Nightmare Moon had killed one after another. The situation was all too familiar... The queen made clicking, rasping, and whizzing sounds, it almost sounded like... Wait a minute... “Are... are you trying to talk?” She clicked again. “Err... click three times for a ‘yes’, please.” Click, click, click. “Okay, wow, this is... unexpected.” She sucked in air, rasped, pushed it out and rasped somewhat again. “Oi rrr ju hrr, oi rrr ju hrr, oi are ju... you h... here. W-Why are you here! That’s what you tried to say. Err...” All I can come up with was the truth. “We did not know you are intelligent, and you uhmm... eat away the crops of Hufstein err... the settlement outside, you know... of po- equines. I don’t know if you have a concept of property, but they planted and cultivated the crops; they own those crops and... and you took them without allowance, you stole them.” She responded again in here strange way, different clicking and whizzing. Without a doubt she had no vocal cords to talk, so this was her best at communication. “To tes, to tes, to tes... huh...” To death. Are we sent to kill her? Yes, we were... “It was before we knew you were intelligent. Two hums, one ended with a click. Then a crack and a whistle. “No mat. Kap i. No mat... Kap i... No mat... Kap i...” Repeating the sounds she made seemed to do the trick. Quick was completely quiet and watched my conversation with the Queen. “No mate. Copy. You can only make copies of yourself. Your species has no genetic diversity, you don’t have a mate?” Click, click, click. That meant ‘yes’. “Okay, I don’t understand. Why are you telling me this?” She responded ‘to tes’ again. “You WANT us to kill you?” Click, click, and here it comes: click. That was a yes. “Yeah.” Quick came forth. “Yeah, we can do that.” “No, we are not killers. You said you don’t take assassination jobs, and that is what this job has just become, we have to kill an sentient being. AND I wont assist in a suicide.” “Uhmm... Aideen? I don’t understand. The mayor wants us to and she wants us to, and we’ll get a lot of money for it.” Oi! “What ‘Why’? Why I don’t want to kill you? Maybe because everyone has a right to life? You want to die because your life is boring, right? So do something with your life.” What am I saying? “The mine! Look at this cave, you can dig. Do you think you can dig for your namesake, silver?” “Uhm... Aideen? You know the mine ran dry?” “A mine cannot just... run dry. There are always traces, but at one point the work required is not worth the yield. But for you it can work, right? You can trade with Hufstein for crops. I mean, you don’t need the crops you are... obtaining. What has been stolen was way to little to sustain this amount of your kind.” I gestured around the cavern. “Trade can pep up your life, right?” She didn’t respond, but her flock was moving. I could wait for them to do for whatever she ordered them, but patience was not Quicks virtue. “Yo, whats going on?” “They do something, I don’t know. Wait and see.” The small silverbugs, the workers carried something to us. Silver ore. “Yes, yes this is perfect. What do you say? Will you give trading with Hufstein a try?” Click, click, click. ** *** *** “You expect me to believe you?” Seems like his zebra-sense is telling the mayor the same thing it told Xanthrine, and he thinks I’m evil of sorts. “Yes, the silverbugqueen is willing to trade silver ore for crops.” “And your partner got left behind in the cavern with her?” “His leg was badly injured and they are working on a proper technique of communication.” “You are in luck, the bomb has a resonance scan and a tracker. I can tell it is a few miles outside of town and a good distance underground. I can also tell it’s in a cavern with a lot of movement.” He pointed at the terminal on his desk. “I’ll consider the offer of this silverbug... queen. You can go now.” ‘I’ll consider the offer’ damn politics. “I’d like to talk about something else.” The mayor usually didn’t spare me much eye contact, as if I’m not worth a glance (evil and all), but the one I received from him for daring to waste more of his valuable time was destructive. “I’d like to purchase a house.” “With what money?” “All the silver ore I managed to comfortably carry in my saddlebags. About 50 pounds.” I still had no sense of how much something was worth, neither the silver, nor the house, but he didn’t know that. The factor that he wanted me out of his office as soon as possible came in handy, as he didn’t want to barter with me for a long time. Just when I left the town hall a pony caught up to me. “Excuse me, miss?” “Yes?” “It err... doesn’t happen often that you guys leave your reward.” He handed me a bag of caps. “3200 caps. Like agreed, right?” “Yes, I mean no. I work together with somepony, 1600 each. And we didn’t really do what we were supposed to-” The ground shook for a brief moment. *** *** *** “WRAAAH!” I felt I was now far enough away from Hufstein to be able to scream out my anger. They killed him... “THEY KILLED HIM!” Without a sense of where I was I walked the only path I knew: Back towards Mt. Mustang, back towards that facility... I could hear happy marching music, the last thing my emotional state needs right now was hearing something happy. Nopony has the right to be happy right now. I whipped around towards the music and shouted: “What do you want from me!” It wasn't a question as I didn’t expect an answer. It was a sprite-bot. They were built on the authority of the Ministry of Morale. It’s said they blasted music through the streets of Equestria's cities to raise morale, but truly they are made for surveillance. Flying cameras to invade the privacy of each and everypony, thank you Ministry of Morale leaving your legacy to whoever bastards is controlling them now. The sprite-bots were rare in the region; as the Crimson Company believes Red Eye to control them, they destroy all sprite-bots they can get their hooves on. But I think Red Eye would not continue to try invading Company-territory. He does however feed his own speeches of propaganda into the sprite-bots broadcasts. To my surprise the music was interrupted and a robotic voice started talking to me. “Good Evening.” I didn’t answer. Was this one of Red Eye’s broadcasts? No. The music didn’t stop, but was cut off and the sprite-bot stopped in front of me, it was talking directly to me. “As to what I want: I want to help you.” “Likely story. What do you want?” “I want to help you, to help me, to help us all.” Alright... “Look, I already have a deal with one evil, bodyless entity which doesn’t answer to my questions, I don’t need another. So either you talk clearly or you can go. Who are you?” “You can call me Watcher, and I’m a friend.” “Can I call you ‘voyeur’? Not much of a difference if you ask me.” “You’re rather rude, but I forgive you as you are emotional at the moment.” I was NOT emotional! “I figure you need a friend right now.” I started crying. I thought I had forgot how to cry until three days ago, then I had cried because I was simply angry with myself because of my weakness. Now I’m angry at the mayor for killing Quick, angry at Quick for dying, angry at myself because I was crying of anger and not sadness, but especially angry because I made myself hope. Hope... Hope of what exactly? A normal life? Friendship? Romance? “Now, now. Don’t cry... ahh... I was never good at comforting others. I... ahh...” Watchers voice, although robotic, sounded concerned. “A friend of mine, she was kind of like an adoptive mother for me, could always comfort me. She never really did anything, but she listened to what was troubling me. So... If you want to talk... I’ll listen.” So I told him about everything, about Stable Eight, about the Crimson Company, about that facility and Nightmare Moon, about Craft, about the memories, about Quick Shot, about the Silverbug Queen, and about the mayor. I couldn’t see him, and he knows it; to not seem like he walked away from his console he continuously made a quiet “mhm”, “yes”, “wow”, or “what an asshole” at the right moments, but never interrupted me. “That’s quite a story you have there,” he said when I ended with running out of Hufstein. “I’m bad at talking about feelings.” “So don’t.” I don’t remember at what point I stopped crying. Talking had really been rather therapeutic. “Thanks for listening... Watcher.” I chuckled. “You’ve got to change your name maybe.” “Heh... Yes, maybe.” Watcher paused before he changed the subject. “So Gaia Prevails stole Nightmare Moons armor. That’s interesting.” “You say that as if you know about this ‘Gaia Prevails’ thing. I don’t want to beg here, but at the moment the more information I have the better.” “Okay, just one question first: Nightmare Moon didn’t... talk to you? She did not try to swing a ‘sympathy for the devil’-thing, right?” “Err... no. Why?” “This is kind of hard to say... There has never been an explanation as to what Nightmare Moon is. To be honest I think it to have been a psychotic episode of Princess Luna, but what you said... If Nightmare Moon reacted to an invasion of the facility and placed something in your saddlebags, it means she is a real... being.” “Okay... But that doesn’t explain why you’ve asked that.” “I have read a lot, more than you can probably imagine, and I trust you have a good imagination. In ancient pre-equestrian folklore and in zebra-mythology there occur... supernatural beings who cannot enter your house unless you invite them. I believe there are still zebra-shamans around who place fetishes and masks in front of their doors, meaning ‘welcome’ or ‘come inside’. Unknowing ponies have copied those invites on doormats, thinking it’s a nice gesture.” “‘Go Away’, the doormat in front of the cabin where the facility was hidden said ‘Go Away’, that is...” “That is... disturbing. Anyway, what I wanted to say was: Nightmare Moon needs a body, and maybe she needs allowance to enter a body. That’s why she spared only you and demons are said to be quite narcissistic and vain. They would choose a pretty body over a strong one. No offense.” “None taken. Wait, demons?” “Most accurate word I could come up with.” “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, there is no way I would let... Nightmare Moon have my body, and time sharing isn’t an option either.” Watcher didn’t respond immediately. “What? You.. you don’t believe me?” “Yes, I... I mean: No. You are just... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...” He took a deep breath. “It outsmarted Princess Luna while she was in an emotionally difficult phase in her live.” “I guess.” Do I claim I had a stronger will than a goddess? Could a ‘demon’ even possess a goddess? The easiest explanation is Princess Luna was not a goddess. No! That is not what I believe in. Princess Luna was a goddess! This whole demon-thing is ridiculous. The facility just has a ridiculously effective security system which makes nopony want to come back! Now I only have to believe what I just thought. A real security system wouldn’t have let us in to begin with. Come on... a demon? Why is it so much worse now that I can categorize what Nightmare Moon is? Because it implies there is more than one. Why does my life continue to get so more messed up by the day. Blessed are the unknowing. The more I know the worse it gets. But I have to do this... “So? About Gaia Prevails, what do you know about it?” “Well, my information only covers the first half of the war.” He paused, then explained: “I have an old collection of newspapers that predate the Ministry of Image.” Watcher had said he ‘had read more than I can imagine’, and with a collection of newspapers it would make sense. Although he never gave me a reason not to trust him, somehow I couldn’t bring myself to believe him. It wasn’t because he never gave me a reason to trust him either, except for being a shoulder to cry on, which happened for whatever reason. He had stopped again, maybe to see if I believed him? If so he was a bad liar, or was I just paranoid? Where else would he have gotten the information? The method of acquiring them didn’t matter anyway. “So...? Please continue.” “Sure. So... Gaia Prevails.” Watcher seemed caught off guard. He really did lie, didn’t he? “Hmm... Gaia Prevails. They were against the war, of course. Called out to protest it, ‘ponies shouldn’t have to die for coal’ and stuff. A lot of ponies had the same thought concerning that. They also had their faction in the zebraland with the same thing, ‘zebras shouldn’t die for diamonds’.” “But what differed them from other groups is that they were really into it. Whoever organized it, they were really private, nopony knew who they are. They were wise in starting out like that. As the war grew worse they stole technologies which allowed ponies and zebras to kill each other more effectively. There have to have been some really powerful unicorns in the group. And they-” Watcher stopped once again, but it was a different kind of stopping. In mid-sentence? “What is it?” “Sorry, I just imagined Equestria trying to weaponize Nightmare Moon.” Oh, wow! Yes, imagining something like that is a good reason to stop in the middle of a sentence. “The armor must have been protected like crazy, no ordinary thief could swing something like that.” You would have to be top of your class; you would have to be somepony who has his dissertations (plural) ready in January. “Anything else about Gaia Prevails? I kinda have another question.” “No. Out of the top of my head I don’t know more. I could, however, look up more for you though.” “Wow, that ahh... would be great, thanks. Then... You know something about a unicorn called Spellfield?” “Yes. One of the greatest minds of his generation. He was a professor at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, taught Magical Theory, Magical Engineering, Advanced Arcanics and a few other subjects. He was also the teacher of Twilight Sparkle.” “I thought Princess Celestia was Twilight Sparkle’s teacher?” “Yes, but Twilight went to regular school too. The lessons the Princess taught her were another kind of special. Twilight also went to school like a normal filly.” “Okay, thank you.” It was my turn to pause. “You are a good friend.” “I... ahh... thanks. I haven’t been a good friend to anyone lately. It means a lot to me. I’ve gotta go now, but I have to give you advice first: You have got to be watching out for Nightmare Moon. I know, I know. You will. But a tip for resisting her: Find yourself a virtue. A virtue that defines you to strengthen your spirit and you have to stay true to yourself. You got that?” “Watch out for Nightmare Moon, Resist by finding virtue, yeah, got it.” “Good. Goodbye... friend.” “Goodbye, friend.” I smiled and nodded to him. The sprite-bot continued playing its music right in the middle of the song and flew off. “Goodbye... friend.” I repeated. *** *** *** Footnote: You have reached Level 5! New Perk: Egghead: Upon leveling up you can distribute 2 more skillpoints. Special Perk: Eyes of the Night: Your eyes can quickly adapt and you can see better in dark environments. Skill note: Explosive Weapons has reached 25. Skill note: Building has reached 50. Quest completed: Silverbugs [X] Enter the silver mine. [X] Find the silverbug-queen, or the silverbug breeding grounds. [X] Place the bomb. [X] Return to the mayor. [Failed] Optional: Represent the silverbugs in Hufstein. Quest: Freedom [X] Optional: Take a job from the black board in Hufstein. [X] Decide how you want to continue. [ ] Find your virtue. New Quest: Living the Equestrian Dream. [X] Buy a house in the suburbs. [ ] Get a day job. [ ] Get married. [ ] Have two foals. (0/2) [ ] Optional: Have additional foals. (0/X) [ ] Optional: Die without regrets.