Chapter 20: First Day part 1: the bets part of waking up is Jarvis in your cup
“Hmm?”
“And it looks like you are coming close to the halfway point of your journey.”
“Wha?”
“But it is still a long and arduous path. Will you be able to do it, Dan?”
“Bwahh?”
“Well we mustn’t think about failure now. For now you should think about waking up, Dan.”
I woke up suddenly after having a weird dream. It’s not like I haven’t had dreams like that before; having a lucid dream where you are fully aware that you are dreaming but still stick with it. But I’ve never had one where someone or something was talking to me; and seemed to be talking about my actual life specifically. In any case it was freaky enough to wake me up and make me feel like I didn’t want to sleep anymore.
It was still pretty dark but I could see that no one else was up yet after my eyes got used to the darkness. I figured that since I was up I should try something out that I had thought about before I went to bed. I got out of my bed and made it as quietly as possible. Looking over at my night stand I saw a note that hadn’t been there before I fell asleep. I noticed the writing as Celestia as I picked it up and read it to myself.
“Dear Dan,
I am very thankful for how you fought against me. It has been a very long time since I have had at least a little challenge. That being said I will apologize again in this letter for the end of the match where I may have over reacted a tad bit. Although I will say I was impressed with your last strike; it showed your intensity and will to fight. Maybe that was the reason I cast that triple gravity spell. Anyway if you are reading this now you are probably back in your barracks and wondering about what happened to your armor right? Well after we got you back here I cast a spell to take your armor off and it turned into a pair of gloves which I out in the nightstand. Now normally with guards I am well aware of the potential of their armor; but since you aren’t exactly a normal pony guard I can’t fully give a good estimate on the potential of your armor. You can fiddle around with it and experiment with it and see what you can make of it. I look forward to seeing what happens
Sincerely;
Princess Celestia
PS. If any of the guards give you flack for calling me Tia instead of just Princess Celestia just ignore them.”
I laughed on the inside; Celestia sure was something else. Ready to fight but yet apologetic when going just too far. I looked down and saw the pair of gloves that apparently were my armor in their unused state; they were more mittens than anything else. Not wanting to wake anypony I grabbed them and headed into the commons room of the barracks. Putting on the mittens I decided to give Celestia’s advice a try and see what I could do.
“Ok so I know it responds to my words but in a combat situation that’s not so good so let see…” I stood there just looking at the mittens on my hands and then began to think. I figured that since it was magic armor and that if they could respond to my voice then the same could be said for my thoughts. I concentrated thinking about each individual piece of my armor and started thinking of commands that would work.
“Umm Armor up?” I said in my head and waited. Nothing happened after a few seconds.
“Suit up?” again nothing.
“It’s Morphing Time?” in tried out of desperation kinda hoping that it would work.
I stood there just thinking for awhile before I decided to try the simplest command I could think of. “Armor: On?” I thought and sure enough with a magical flash my armor appeared and my helmet came up and covered my head.
“Ok good to know that works. Now I wonder if there are any other commands?” I said looking at the screen on the inside of my helmet. “Umm armor commands.” I said and was surprised to see a list of words pop up no my view screen. “Ok I wasn’t expecting that. I wonder what I got in this armor? Ok lets see where was that command…ah ok. Helmet: Disconnect.” I said the command and waited as I heard a bunch of little parts move and do their job. Once the noises stopped I grabbed my helmet, pulled upwards, and surely enough it came off.
“Ok good good; step one complete. Now let’s see what I’m working with here.” I said finally getting a good look at what I had been sticking my head into. It was a lot different than I had though. It looked like normal circuitry but with some kind of magic twist. I saw gems that looked like circuit parts and other things that amazed me.
“Wow now that is something else…I wonder how I even begin to...” I started to worry about how to work on this but then something caught my eye. As if the helmet was hearing me I saw a bright arrow point to something inside the helmet and fade away. I stuck my hand in to where and my hand came upon I little inset where a wire was. I could feel that you could be able to pull the wire out so I did and once I got a good look at it I was a bit stupefied.
“Oh you have got to be shitting me it can’t be that simple.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I looked at the side to where you would plug things in and sure enough the plug from the helmet was like one I would plug into my phone.
“Ok now that’s too uncanny even for me…I guess I’ll chalk it up to magic here and see where this goes.” I said to myself plugging the two together. For awhile nothing happened but then the screen on phone flickered and then went black. I stared at it for awhile thinking that I might have just broken my phone before the word “Hello” appeared in bright blue letters. I stared in shock for awhile thinking of what to do.
“Uh…hello?” I said thinking that since my phone had a microphone in it that something would get picked up. I waited after I had tried to have a conversation with my hybrid helmet phone before the screen lit up again saying “What is your name”
I was shocked that my phone just asked me a question; and I was even more shocked that somewhere in the back of my head I thought it would be rude not to answer. “Um my name is Dan…and you are?” I wasn’t sure why I asked back.
“I am your armor I do not have a name unless given one” it only spoke in statements and didn’t use any punctuation.
“Hmm what are your functions?” I asked.
“I have three functions. First: listen and respond to user commands, Two: maintain armor, Three: adapt”
“Adapt; what does that mean?”
“Due to powers I can’t quantify due to magic or technology I can process any information to acquire new functions that you desire”
“So you can imitate things?” I asked not finding it weird that I was now having a conversation with my helmet.
“Imitate is an acceptable synonym”
“Alright then; I can think of something I want you to adapt but I will need control of my phone.” I waited a second and my screen turned back to normal. I had found out that I could still use the internet for some reason here in Equestria. And this was the first case where I found that it would be more beneficial to me. After looking through a couple of things I brought up as many things about one of my favorite AI’s; J.A.R.V.I.S from iron man.
“I want you to asses everything I bring up and adapt to it as best you can.” I was now giving commands to my helmet and I guess the AI inside it.
“I am already half way done is there anything else you would like me to do?” I was surprised when the voice I had heard in the movies came from my helmet.
“Wow your fast. Um no after finishing do what you have to; to optimize yourself and the armor ok Jarvis?”
“Very good sir. And I thank you for giving me a copyrighted name too sir.”
“Dan is that you?” I turned to see Swift Gale had come into the room. “I heard talking but I only see you. Who are you talking to?” she gave a look like you give a person who you think is going crazy.
“Oh I’m just talking to Jarvis here. Say hi to the Sergeant, Jarvis.” I said moving to the side and letting her see my helmet that in the way it was sitting had the front visor staring at her.
“Good morning ma’am.” came the voice from the helmet and just like I had figured Swift Gale freaked out. She immediately jumped backwards and hid behind a table in a defensive position.
“WHA WHA…WHAT IS THAT!!!” she shouted; not loud enough to wake everyone else.
“Well it’s my armor. It turns out it’s a bit more technologic than I would have thought and so I was able to create a sort of “spirit” if you will that helps me out with things.
From my position I could see Swift just barely poking her eyes out from the top of the table, and despite knowing her more aggressive behavior her actions did make her seem a bit cute. Slowly she peeked more of her head out from behind the table.
“Is it dangerous?” she asked.
“Sir if I may?” Jarvis said from his place on the table.
“By all means go ahead.” I said giving him permission.
“If I may ma’am…”
“Sergeant.” Gale interrupted; rising quickly from her position before realizing what she had done and lowering herself again.
“…Sergeant. I’m nothing more than a mix of magic and technology I have no physical form other than Dan’s armor. And since the point of armor is defense and protection I have no means of doing anything that could be considered dangerous.”
“So you can’t attack?”
“Even in the armor fully constructed state I don’t think I have the ability besides what Dan has allowed me to. I cannot move unless he gives me the information to adapt.”
“Ah ok then I…guess that’s ok.” She said finally coming out from behind the table and coming closer. “What are you smiling at Dan?” she said after finally looking back at me.
“I was just thinking that this went better than I expected for the first time. I mean at first I thought you were going to scream in panic and declare it witchcraft or something. But then I remembered that you already have magic; so I kinda lost my train of thought there.
“Sir I am ready for re-attachment I have finished the adaptation.”
“Oh good thanks Jarvis. Ok let’s try this out.” I said unplugging my phone and grabbing my helmet from the table. As I started to put it back on it automatically adjusted so it would go on with out any problems; I guess that was Jarvis doing It for me. After my helmet was once again secured and connected it back my chest piece everything went dark for a moment.
“Jarvis?”
“Just a simple reboot sir I have to acclimate and go over the rest of the armor for all new functions to be processed and work.” I stood there in total darkness for awhile before everything started up again. It turns out that even my outside audio was off because once everything came back online I heard the morning reveille sound and saw the squad start their morning routines. Nobody asked me anything and Swift had disappeared to do her stuff so I thought it was best to simply drop the armor for now. It turned back into its normal state of a pair of mittens and I went along the business of getting ready for the day. It wasn’t until breakfast that anypony had bothered to say anything to me.
“Hey Dan what’s that thing on your ear?” Scribble Page asked me. I was puzzled by the question until I finally felt around and found something on my ear. I managed to pull it off without hurting myself; I found that a Bluetooth like ear piece was the thing he had been asking about.
“Jarvis did you do this?” I asked out loud causing ponies to give me a weird look for talking to no one in the room. That was until Jarvis voice came out through the earpiece.
“Yes sir I thought it would be a more optimal idea for when you do not have you full armor on. And might I add that it does look quite nice on you.” I chuckled at the AI’s attempt at flattery and humor and looked around to see plenty of shocked faces looking at me, and before any of them could speak Swift Gale answered for them.
“It like some kind of magic spirit in his armor that helps him maintain it. That’s the easiest explanation you’re gonna get. You can ask him any other types of questions you want later but for now we have morning training so hurry up and finish eating and move out!!!” and on her words everybody seemed to forget about it quickly and went back to what they were doing except for Jonagold who was muttering something along the lines of “confangled modern doohickey”. I laughed a bit as I put the earpiece back in and headed outside to begin the day.
“Sir, am I such a strange thing to these ponies?” he asked.
“We are in a world with magic, mythical creatures, deities that can move celestial object and who knows what else. I’m sure strange is the norm for a lot of things. Give it some time it will pass. Now lets see what today’s training has in store for us. Right Jarvis?”
“Very well sir I will create some First Aid protocols.”