//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Nihil Novi Sub Sole // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 3 “Vinyl Scratch? Is that you?” Vinyl could only grin at the sound of the voice she heard, she remembered that voice, just as clearly as the day she had first met him. “Benjamin Willoughby!” Vinyl called out. Willoughby climbed out of the top of the armoured car and crossed over to where the two mares were standing, he grasped Vinyl, giving her the biggest hug he possibly could. “Am I glad to see you!” Willoughby smiled at the two mares before him, but turned back around to face the armoured car. “Duffy! You moron! These are ponies!” Another kangaroo poked his head out of the top of the armoured car and shrugged. “Hey, at least I got the number of legs right,” he said before ducking himself back inside. “Willoughby? How... how do you remember me?” Vinyl asked. “I changed the world!” Willoughby shrugged. “Elements of my regiment, The Royal Kingsland Fusiliers, were assigned to protect an archæological dig site in the Northern Protectorate, it was easy work, just stand around all day and keep the excavators out of trouble, until one day, I had to piss something terrible, so I went... that’s when I found it, this odd little statue of a unicorn. I was pretty far away from the main dig site, so I gently picked it up and gave it a look over, that was when I started to remember, little things at first, like being on the inside of a tank. Which was odd, because I joined an infantry regiment this time around, not armoured cavalry. I shrugged it off, and decided that Professor Tebbs would want to see it. So I started hopping back, along the way, I started to remember more. By the time I got back to camp, all my memories had come back. I saw Tebbs and I actually saluted him! He was confused of course because he didn’t join the military this time around, I showed him the statue and he got really excited and told me to get it bundled up and ready for shipping, I did as I was told, and next thing I know, it’s in a shipping crate bound for Warrene.” Princess Luna opened her saddlebag and brought out the artefact that she was carrying, showing it to Willoughby. “Is this the statue that you found?” Willoughby only needed to look at it for a second. “That’s the one! What are you doing with it?” “We’re taking it back to where you found it. Where it belongs, I think you understand why. This artefact gave you your memories back, which makes it dangerous for certain people to posses,” Luna said. Willoughby nodded. “I remember that bomb going off, if that statue is anywhere near that powerful; then say no more. Let’s go put it back.” Vinyl smiled at the kangaroo in front of her, “I always knew that I could count on you Benny-boy!” She leaned forward in order to nuzzle the kangaroo, however, with her lack of sight, she misjudged the distance that he was in relation to her, and found herself falling flat on her face. “Vinyl!” Willoughby called out; he leaned down to help her up. “Are you all right? What happened?” “I’m FINE!” Vinyl snapped at him, pushing him off her and getting herself to her hooves. “The artefact’s defences robbed her of her eyesight,” Luna explained. “She’s blind.” “Vinyl...” Willoughby said. “I’m so sorry...” “It’s fine,” Vinyl said, forcing a grin. “Do worry about it, I’m over it.” Willoughby could tell that she was lying through her teeth, but he chose not to say anything. Despite the mare’s cheery outward appearance, she was hurting on the inside. Vinyl Scratch was his friend, but Willoughby didn’t know how to help her. “Well, obviously our next step is getting that artefact back where it...” Willoughby said, his voice trailing off. His ears began to twitch slightly. “You hear that?” Vinyl’s ears began twitching as well. “Yeah, what is it?” Willoughby looked to the east, several hundred metres towards the rocky plateau; the sole landmark in several hundred kilometres of desert. “Oi? What the bloody hell is going on out here?” the kangaroo called Duffy called out, poking his head out from the top hatch. Crack! A shot rang out, hitting Duffy in the chest and causing him to tumble out of the armoured car. “Dingoes!” Willoughby called out; he brought his rifle to bear and fired a shot back towards the plateau, turning the bolt to ready itself for another shot. “Everyone into the car!” Luna and Vinyl scrambled into the top hatch of the armoured car, taking cover where it was most safe. “South Island is supposed to be a nice place!” Luna called out to Willoughby. “What happened?” “It is! The Outback is a little inhospitable though,” Willoughby called back; he had climbed inside as well and was in the process of unbuttoning the armoured car’s autocannon. “This is going to get loud!” Pom. Pom. Pom! Vinyl crawled into the driving compartment of the armoured car and started fiddling with the controls. “What are you doing?” Luna asked her. Vinyl only grinned at her when she started the engine. “How do you know how to do all that?” Luna cried out in surprise. “Comes from sitting on my butt all day spinning records!” Vinyl said sheepishly as she through the armoured car into gear. “You... you’re not going to try and drive this thing are you?” Luna asked in surprise. “What does it look like I’m doing?” Vinyl asked, “Vinyl! You can’t see!” Luna exclaimed “Flat, open landscape for a hundred kilometres around! We’ll be fine.” She said, and stamped her hoof down on the accelerator. The armoured car flew forward, accelerating rapidly away from the plateau and the dingo raiders. Luna pulled the restraints of the co-driver’s position over her; she was in a full out panic. Vinyl however, was laughing, the wind blowing though her mane through the open view ports, she had never felt more alive in her entire life. “YOU’RE INSANE!” Luna shouted at her unicorn companion. “I know! Isn’t it awesome!?” Vinyl called back with a grin, doing her best to keep the armoured car on a straight course north. Vinyl drove for about ten minutes when she took her hoof off the accelerator and allowed the armoured car to slow; she didn’t bother breaking, simply allowing the car to coast to a stop. She turned off the engine and grinned widely at Princess Luna. “Told you we’d be fine!” Luna did not reply, her eyes had narrowed and she was panting heavily, gripping the restraints tightly in fear. Willoughby brought himself back inside the armoured car. “Where did you learn to drive p...?” Willoughby froze in place when he realised that it was not Princess Luna in the driver’s seat, but Vinyl Scratch. She turned back and gave him a wide grin. “How...?” “Large open space with no major landmarks anywhere nearby to run into, sort of bumpy, probably ran over a cactus or two, but other than that, wasn’t too hard,” Vinyl said with a grin. “Car’s own weight helped.” “You’re insane Vinyl Scratch,” Willoughby said, shaking his head. “I know, isn’t it awesome?” Vinyl said with a grin. ... The trio made camp that night, starting a fire and leaning against the armoured car. “I’m sorry about your compatriot,” Luna said towards Willoughby. “Duffy? Yeah, he was a good jack,” Willoughby said with a sigh. “South Island’s got a bit of a Dingo problem in the Outback, now that they’ve obtained and learned how to work Schäferhund Storm Harnesses, small packs of raiders like to go after isolated homesteads, they leave bigger settlements alone, and that’s why we were out here, Duffy and me.” “Storm Harness?” Luna asked. “Yeah, the Schäferhund walk on four legs just like you do, so it’s kind of hard for them to use a gun effectively, so they take two of their automatic rifles, ‘storm rifles’ and attach them to a harness and bight down on a control yoke with their mouths to fire. Storm harnesses will support just about everything, pistol, rifle, anti-tank rockets. Dingos only have the first two, fortunately,” Willoughby said with a shrug. “There are isolated raider bands of Dingoes all over the outback, so my company was outfitted with armoured cars and we drive around looking for them.” “You’ll still be able to help us, won’t you?” Vinyl asked. “Absolutely! I’d never leave my friends alone in the Outback!” Willoughby said. “I’ll drive you to the place where I found the artefact tomorrow. Note how I said I’ll be driving. You, Vinyl Scratch, will be sitting in the back as far away from the controls as you possibly can be.” “Aww, you suck!” Vinyl said with mock disappointment. She grinned brightly at her companions, and they all allowed themselves a small laugh.