//------------------------------// // Chapter Nine - Intelligence // Story: PONYHAMMER 40,000. The Warp Incursion. // by Duskrunner //------------------------------// "Well this afternoon has taken an unexpected turn." Cheerilee told Fluttershy as she watched Twilight. "I hope he'll be fine." Fluttershy replied, nervous about the creature she discovered that had abandoned her in favor of the princess. All Twilight had done was ask how the psyber-eagle was damaged. Its response wasn't what she expected. "Internal analysis indicates secondary cranium has been severed. Repairs required." "Fluttershy?" "I'm sorry Twilight, I only saw him. I didn't see anything like a second head." "Will you be alright without it? I mean, I know that's horrible but-" The servitor answered her immediately, ignoring all softening statements and attempts at sympathy. "Secondary cranium contains primary cogitator and secondary data storage. Security protocols are compromised." Twilight hesitated. "Why are you asking me for help?" "Identification protocols incomplete. Unit functionality remains compromised until restoration." "Will you help us?" "Insufficient data." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This isn't what I expected." "Twilight, the primer says a servitor is a mindless tool. If we fix it it'll go back to doing whatever it was before it was damaged." Cheerilee said without turning her eyes from the page. Twilight didn't stand on formalities like eye-contact when research was involved. "You mean it isn't alive?" "I don't know if you can call this alive, Fluttershy. The book says it has a machine in its head that... ok you won't want to hear this. Please trust me when I tell you that poor little guy isn't doing what he wants. His mind's controlled by the machine and it does whatever the human who owns him says. He got lucky; he lost the completely mechanical head. If that gets repaired he'll lose even more of himself." "We can't repair him then. It wouldn't be right." "And it's dangerous. Cheerilee, if it's 'protocols' are repaired it'll do whatever the Space Marines that own it say. Bits to hay say it'll call us 'Xenos' and go crazy." "Then what do we do with it?" Sometimes things just work out. The servitor had mentioned something about it's Psycher augmentation abilities being dependent on its secondary head, a phrase nopony understood. Twilight said it couldn't be done and suggested it be refitted for something else. "You know, I think this may just be the best blessing-in-disguise yet." Twilight beamed. "I'll say." Cheerilee agreed while rubbing her sore hooves. The psyber-eagle had presented a few options for retrofitting it's remaining systems into something its new Inquisitor, a title Twilight found suspicious but not completely unwelcome, would find useful. It didn't get further down its list after defining what a 'lexmechanic' was. With Fluttershy's instructions (courtesy of the modified Narthecium) the servitor's talons were replaced with the pnemo-quill apparatus and the empty space within its breast was filled with paper feeding mechanisms. For safety's sake Twilight ordered the servitor to only follow orders from a pony, a situation that quickly became complicated. "Define 'pony'?" "Well... it's... you know I'm uncomfortable talking to you like you're an object and I'm going to have to get your attention when I want you to write something; I don't know what humans value but I won't be wasting paper needlessly. So what's your name?" "Designation Psyber-eagle-" The rest of it's response was noise that rose and shrieked in a way even Pinkie's worst piper flute couldn't match. "Ow, are you broken?" "Negative, that is machine code designation. In binary it reads one, zero, zero-" "That's... not going to work for me. I know. I'll call you Goldwing, do you like it?" "Designation accepted, this unit will respond to it. Your orders?" "Excellent. Take a message." A gear noise filled the small room as the writing machines sputtered to life and the quill pressed to parchment. "Dictate. 'Dear Spike, I hope this message will find it's way to you. Assuming this works please send back three journal quality logbooks, blank, highest quality paper you can find because they're gonna go through a lot. And be prepared, as soon as I receive them I'm going to need you to send me copies of spells from the library. Your good friend Twilight Sparkle.' Print and copy in triplicate." Goldwing tore the paper at the end and held it to Twilight. A second pair of quills began to print the duplicates. Goldwing quickly learned to release the paper once her magic grabbed the page and rolled it into a scroll. At every step its new owner was creating a pattern in its AI, programming the psyber-eagle with it's habits and expected responses. Twilight held the rolled scroll and tried to remember how Princess Celestia delivered messages. Her mind wandered to how she would receive any answers. Still... a one-way messaging service was better than nothing. "So, Goldwing, now that you've been repurposed what do I need to do to lock your functions?" "Voice-imprint is complete for personal orders. Request to follow orders exclusively from designation: 'ponies'. Incomplete. Definition required." "Very well. Begin log, ponies." "Logging; personel file and itemization list." "Excellent. Let's start with... well I don't want to disturb anypony else while they're hard at work, I guess we should start with me." "Query: identify?" "Twilight Sparkle." Twilight thought about something for a second, then added. "Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Planetary royalty status confirmed, your highness. Species?" "Uni... I mean alicorn." "Definition?" "Earth Pony body, Pegasus wings, Unicorn horn. The aspects of all three tribes in one." "Imperium compliance status?" "I'm not sure what you mean." "Sentient race alicorn scanned as non-human. Profile and biological functions do not confirm to any known xenos. Superficial biological scans suggest a 28% compatability with Terra origin genus equine. Identify your sub-species' status in Imperial circles." Uh-oh. That sounds suspiciously like 'is your species labelled exterminate on sight?'. "Benevolent... but secret." I don't like lying to it, I mean him, but I can't just tell him his people might hate us "Species' propensity to genetic abnormalities?" "Geno-what now?" "Species stability and resistance to mutation." "Um... we don't mutate. Some ponies can be a little strange but we're stable... scientifically..." "Answer is acceptable. Genetic testing nonetheless recommended. Creating sub-index accepted Imperial species; Equus Sapiens. Pyscher status?" "Excuse me?" "All inquisitorial familiars are engineered with compatibility to human psychers in mind." "Define psychers." "Sentients; genetically mutated, stable. Threat level: extreme. Congenital mutation allows development of psychic faculties manifest in myriad ways. Common sanctioned manifestations include mental powers, levitation, prophecy. Byproduct; all psychers have an increased presence in the Warp requiring additional defenses. Owner displays telekinetics, Psycher probability 86%. Unit designated Goldwing was manufactured to amplify owner's existing abilities. Unit refitting and surgical procedure for owner required to restore this functionality." There is no way I'm letting him operate on me! Twilight thought immediately. "Oh, well this is magic." "Magic. Cross-reference sorcery." "No, magic! Ok, you said psychics, so their abilities are mental. Ponies aren't like that: Unicorns magic comes from our horns not our brains. Everypony has levitation, it's basic and very convenient not to have to grab everything with your hooves. Anything more complicated than that requires the study of spells." "Spells. Cross-reference sorcery." "No! Well maybe. It depends on what you define as sorcery." "Term is a catch-all for all non-sanctioned psychic powers." Twilight's hoof hit her face. "This is going to be a looooong conversation." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a different room Lyra was bored, twiddling with a lasgun, looking absolutely bored when Bon Bon trotted in. She wore a sewn burlap sack like a saddle and carried papers in her muzzle. "Knock, knock. How are you handling?" "Hey Bon" "You're looking blue, I'm guessing it's from the last few days. So... what happened?" "Vinyl and me had to set up a soundproofing bubble. The chanting is full blast now, but get out to ten paces and the music's muted and the bubble's completely invisible. A pretty good job but now I've got nothing to do." "Sounds like I got here just in time. Princess Twilight had this text prepared for us, I guess she thinks we're the best suited to work on this stuff." Bon Bon said as she passed a set of papers translated into Equestrian and rummaged around the workroom, pulling a tool set and dangling a tool belt on her back. Lyra took the scrappy folder with her magic and her eye shot up as she read the first page. "Toll the Great Bell Once! Pull the Lever forward to engage the Piston and Pump... Toll the Great Bell Twice! With push of Button fire the Engine And spark Turbine into life... Toll the Great Bell Thrice! Sing Praise to the God of All Machines" Lyra looked dumbfounded. "What does this mean and why would I waste my time deciphering-" Lyra went through the dozen of papers that hadn't been translated from the absurdly technical language of the Tech-priests of Mars. Schematics for armor, weapons and odd devices spilled to the floor. "-all of this nonsense?" Bon Bon gave a gentle smile and put the burlap sack down. She grabbed a wheeled cart and unloaded the sack's contents onto it. When she pushed the cart to Lyra it was heavy with mechanical devices galore on it. Lyra's eyes grew wide as saucers. Intentionally picked out, with great care to not blacken it or hide it with the other bits of machinery sat a single intact servo-arm, freshly removed from a tech-priest who was transferred from the Chaos mausoleum to the loyalist side. Twilight had deliberately chosen the servo with a power fist instead of the one with a clamp, the one with a claw, the one with a lasgun or the one with mechadendrites (the fancy name for a cluster of mechanical tendrils). "Fingers..." "Princess Twilight figured you'd leap at the job if you had the proper motivation, and she thought that once you caught sight of these you'd-" "Let's get started!!" Lyra said a little too loud and she shoved into the documents on top of the arm and pushed the cart towards the Imperium mausoleum to examine the rest of the deceased priest's body. She was overjoyed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lyra made a lot of noise as she pushed her cart towards the Imperium mausoleum as quickly as she could. Bon Bon trotted behind her at a much more reasonable pace, keeping her eyes open for anypony that might have gotten run over. As she passed the sleeping room Bon Bon saw that Blueblood's name as the only one with a smudge mark next to it. Bon Bon noticed, but didn't think much of it until she walked across the next room and did a double-take: Four ponies were staring through the wall adjacent to the sleeping room courtesy of Sparkler's magic. From the way Blueblood was focused exclusively on either the wall or one of the large storage containers and paid them no mind it was obvious Sparkler was making only one side of the wall transparent. "Sparkler, I don't think Derpy would approve." Carrot Top told her nervously. Flitter, Cloudchaser and Roseluck merely tilted their heads to the side as they watched Blueblood struggle. He had a hoof-full of swords tossed over somepony's blanket along with the shards of a snapped blade. Blueblood turned to the scoured wall and began to repeat a lunge three times before chiding himself, taking up his stance and trying again. "Look at him go..." Rose said as she admired him. Sparkler merely turned with an annoyed look to Roseluck. "We're not doing this for fun. Strike that. I'm not doing this for fun. I shouldn't have let you talk me into this at all!" "And what are we supposed to do? Prince Blueblood's the only one of us with anything close to martial training. He knows how to handle a sword and he's practicing now. How else are we supposed to learn?" "Couldn't you ask him?" Bon Bon asked confused. At that moment the prince looked very frustrated with himself and slashed three diagonal gashes in the wall, his efforts were clumsy but effective as he slashed twice with his fore-hoof but on the third swing he lost control of the sword and dropped it. Angry, he gripped the hilt in his teeth and swung a powerful uppercut that sparked against the wall and made a terrible screeching noise. Everypony winced. "I think he might not have the temperament to teach anypony at the moment..." Carrot Top thought aloud to collective noises of agreement. Sparkler rolled her eyes and dropped the spell. "I'm gonna find something else to do. Excuse me Bon Bon." Bon Bon stepped aside and let her go. The room next door got quiet but Roseluck didn't look at all phased: "All right, it looks like his grace is taking a break. Probably trying to remember more of his form. Get your grip ladies and start practicing." Bon Bon watched as the three ponies produced what they could find: an empty scabbard, a length of pipe and a mop swung from the heavy end. Carrot Top excused herself from practicing even though she stayed to watch. The earth pony and two pegasi began their imitation of Blueblood's angry strikes with their hooves before switching it up and adding muzzlework as well. "Good luck girls." Bon Bon said mostly to Carrot Top, who waved her off on her way. Bon Bon turned the corner listening to the sound of a power sword starting up again, trotting over to the Imperium room. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the Chaos tomb and hurried on. A body bumped into her. "Oh. I'm terribly sorry Bon Bon. Do you need a hoof?" Bon Bon looked up and saw Octavia standing over her. "I'm fine, Octavia. Thanks." Bon Bon looked past Octavia and saw Lyra inside the room, already dragging the deceased tech-priest over and playing with his body like a marionette. "Oh dear, Lyra, put him down!" back to Octavia: "So sorry, we aren't kicking you out moving in to work here are we?" "Oh, by no means no. I was just making some observations of my own. We've all been so active and a lot of things tend to be overlooked." "Oh dear, there's nothing wrong is there?" Bon Bon asked, worried about having to clear a room Lyra was already gleefully altering. "Nothing dangerous. I just thought to make a proper headcount of the... unfortunate victims." "Anything strange?" Octavia hesitated then answered. "There's only two tech-priests, five guardsmen, two females in power armor and, of course, the dozen marines." Bon Bon nodded but the demographics failed to set off any warning flags. Also, she was interested in wrapping up the conversation as soon as possible. "Well, it looks like Lyra needs me. Good luck with, whatever you're doing that for Octavia." Octavia was genial. "And you." The nodded at each other and parted ways. Octavia hesitated at the blast door to the Chaos tomb. Her hoof tucked a small gemmed brooch under her bow-tie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Octavia entered the Chaos mausoleum and found Vinyl hard at work on the sonics. "Oh hey there 'Tavi. You here to check up on me?" Vinyl Scratch called out joyfully. Octavia walked over to her, taking a quick glance at what her flatmate was up to. Machine pieces were littered all about them. Vinyl had clearly teamed up with Lyra and Bon Bon to identify all the vox units inside the HQ and scavenge whatever undamaged parts she could find. For all the mess Vinyl had been efficient at one thing: the mechanical pieces of the Blastmaster were kept away from the rest. "What are you up to in here?" Octavia asked. "Oh, it's no big mystery. The dude I brought in was a Chaos so he belongs in here and since Twilight got paranoid once she read all that mumbo-jumbo about the Chaos 'Tes it's taking me a lot longer to go through the machine." Octavia shook her head slightly at Vinyl 's abbreviation of the term 'Astartes'. "Between you and me I'd have been happy to just use the Blastmaster raw but she's convinced it's cursed or poisoned or something. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff I can't duplicate yet but check this out!" Octavia feebly got the word "Blastmaster?" out before she was guided to an alcove in the corner. There a loyalist backpack was in the middle of a major refurbishment while its Chaos counterpart leaned against the wall, it's exhausts already covered by a pair of heavy speakers. "The Blastmaster's being difficult but the Doom Siren is as good as done." "Who named these things?" Octavia asked. "Pinkie Pie." Vynil replied matter-of-fact. Octavia rolled her eyes "Of course. Say, didn't Berry Punch come in with you?" "Yeah but she's already done with the body she brought in." Vinyl pointed at the Noise Champion on a far table. "Haven't seen her in a while, she was here while I took everything apart but then she just took off before I finished rewiring the speakers, left the body she dragged here without really touching the stuff feeding into his veins." Octavia nodded, looking suspicious. "I see. I'll go ahead and get out of your mane then." "Not so fast, I got you something." Vinyl put her hoof around Octavia's shoulder and led her to Vinyl's saddlebags. Vinyl pulled out a long case sticking out through the open flap of the messy sack and gave it to Octavia. Octavia opened it and found herself staring at a device that superficially resembled a cello's bow. Octavia beamed. "Lyra and me were messing around with the weapons we found and were gonna toss out all the power swords Blueblood's broken when I got this great idea: It's a bow. I know you probably have like zero experience with a real sword or whatever and I thought you could use something, I dunno, familiar. If nothing else, it's a quiet reminder of home, right?" Octavia fidgeted lightly, pressing her hoof against the hair. Vinyl panicked and pulled it from her hoof with her magic. "Whoa, careful when you turn it on. The entire wire will light up. Ok. See?" The bow sang as it hummed to life and the hair danced with electric fire. Octavia understood now what Vinyl had done. The bow's screw was the activation switch. The over-sized 'frog' contained the power source. The 'pad' served as a hoofguard and the entire hair lit up with the energy field boasting more cutting power than even the sharpest steel blade. The stick served not only as a visual medium to keep an eye on where the hair swung but also as a secondary hoofguard in case something pushed the bow back towards her. Octavia grasped the bow carefully while it was still within Vinyl's magical grip and twisting the screw counterclockwise deactivated the energy field. Subtle, discrete, easily concealed and convincingly disguised. she thought. And whether or not she's aware of it, Vinyl naturally designed it as a limb-severing or decapitating garrote... Octavia replaced the bow in its case and hugged Vinyl. "It's perfect, thank you." "Aw, it's nothing. Well, back to work. Fair warning, it's gonna get pretty loud in here." "Be as loud as you need to." "Drop by anytime!" Vinyl called behind her as she reset her headphones. Vinyl magically sparked the machine on the Noise Marine backpack, tapping into what remained in the Doom Siren's power cells and blasting the wall with noise. Seconds later the loyalist backpack shrieked to life with feedback. Unable to hear her and looking away, Vinyl didn't notice as Octavia pulled out the brooch, aimed its mirror surface at the dead Chaos Marine nearest to her and pressed a concealed activation stud, discharging the disguised digital lasgun into its head. The laser noise was surprisingly loud. Vinyl turned off the backpacks and turned to Octavia, uncovering only one of her ears. "Did you hear something?" "No, I can't say that I did." Vinyl believed her but looked confused. She snorted slightly. "Weird. Hey, do things smell a little funny in here." "They do. I assumed it was normal, you both brought bodies with you when you arrived." "Yeah... I guess I just didn't notice before." Vinyl levitated her glasses from her face, took in everything around her and failed to notice the dead Marine with the significant hole in his head as anything new. "Speaking of the two of you." Octavia pressed to change the subject. "Where did Berry Punch go?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some trends are universal. Berry thought. The spires of Canterlot grow high. The higher you get, the more likely somepony important lives within them. It looks like humans are no different. Berry looked about her. The spiral staircase she entered through was... unusual to say the least. The room she was in was labelled "Officer's Mess". As far as Berry was concerned, it was a VIP restaurant. Nopony was really describing their current home as anything other than 'the building', but Berry had read the labels here and there. A standard constructed 'Field Command Bunker'. Standard except for the fact that it had a flat single-level roof. Under normal circumstances the Officer's Mess was supposed to have an overview of the grounds. This made sense, officers should be able to see what they're in control of. Berry Punch knew this because the walls of the mess were lined with holovids displaying I-kid-you-not identical representations of the surrounding hills and plains the Field Command was hidden amongst, but instead of something useful like live security feeds from surviving cameras the holovids showed formations of humans marching. As for the source of all this information.... "Shut up already. I don't care about the Mess Hall, I don't care about how nopony's noticed that thanks to you they can read 'High Gothic', and I especially don't care about the humans!" Discord's voice was oily and unpleasant in her mind. Don't be so mad. We both know what you're looking for is here. "Go bother Lyra!" Berry Punch was obsessed with the champion's armor and all its extra feeds. Once removed she confirmed all her suspicions: the tubes were intravenous feeds for medication. She wouldn't dare taste them and yet there was something about them, something familiar she was overlooking. If there were any native critters on planet Berry would have fed diluted solutions of the chemicals to them, force fed if necessary - Fluttershy's disapproval be damned. But there weren't any native critters to use as test subjects... You're so cute when you're acting tough and ruthless. "Shut up! I'm not gonna drink it myself and I'm not gonna ask anyone else to taste it either." We wake up all the sleepy-heads, so quietly and nice. "They're not Equestria critters!" Why so testy, worried about what everypony else might think about you, killing defenseless little animals? Scared what might cross the mind of poor litte- "I told you to never talk about Pinch you... wretch!" Berry Punch began to sob. Ever since she'd pulled the Noise Marine back to the compound Discord had been harassing her mercilessly. The jabs at her love of punch were nothing new, at first Berry thought it was just her conscience nagging her, repeating other ponies' half-remembered words . Then her thoughts turned to Berry Pinch and the voices became hostile, nasty. Saying things she'd never heard, proposing scenarios Berry had never imagined. She knew it was someone else's voice in her head. Tormented she'd tried to run away, hide in some secluded corner. She hadn't found any, of course. The compound was full of ponies moving and working. Nopony paid her mind but Berry didn't just want to be left alone, she wanted no possibility of anyone coming across her. She ended up lifting a floor grate and climbing down, hiding in the darkness. Huddled inside a narrow access tunnel Berry felt the voice lower, becoming distant. Not yet silenced but hopeful, Berry made her way down the tunnel and found another ladder. She climbed up and found herself here, in the hidden Officer's Mess, a panic room posing as a lounge. Now the voices were back and Berry realized she'd been herded there no different than an unruly herd of cattle. Now she realized it was Discord in her mind. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him, hiding in a nook. With nothing to throw at him she charged. He was gone and just as she'd expected he'd led her to find what she was looking for. The humans were imperialist, classist, elitist. A thousand times worse than the worst Canterlot snob. Snobs couldn't dream of existing without their pet comforts, they'd never dream of it. Berry had crashed the Inquisitor's room, the communications array Vinyl had cannibalized, the medbay... Finally, here, she found what she was looking for. The officers' rations safe. She failed to manipulate the device with her hooves so she simply gave up and bucked in the surface of the elegant wood. She smiled. Even in the far future of some dismal warped universe Berry Punch knew a wine cellar when she saw it. She began pulling out bottles, unscrewing a few caps, uncorking others. Soon bottles were arranged by scent and matching bottle style and labels. Berry wanted nothing more than to dive into this bounty, drown in it and let everything else fade away... Instead she began tasting, testing. Sorting bottles by estimated proof. I know what you want. Berry Punch thought bitterly. And you're not driving me to it! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside her room, Twilight was being mental. Again. Fortunately Applejack and the ever-present Cheerilee were at her side. They'd convinced her to quit the claustrophobic office and stroll with them through the corridors. "Cheerilee? Applejack? I'm hesitating aren't I? Everypony else has done their part. Cheerilee what are we up to?" I've been reading back notes for days. Why didn't Princess Celestia send Raven with Twilight instead of me? At least Goldwing has taken over the writing... Cheerilee grumbled internally before pulling out one of a dozen lists. "In accordance with your edict and common decency all chain weapons have been discarded. Power swords are common with power lances being preferred but scarce. Bolter technology is not going well. We're having trouble adapting the triggers for ponies. Lasguns for similar reasons are right out. On the other hoof your duplication spell has been successfully repeated and we are at no loss for ammunition. No such luck on fuel for the fire-breathers but at least 'prometheum' oil is commonplace. Work continues on the 'vox' loudspeakers-" "It's safe to say you've got every project under wraps sugarcube." Applejack interrupted lest the list go on forever. "Every one except for the obvious. Space Marines, the Sisters and for all we know the Inquisitor himself wherever he is because we have no reason to think he isn't alive; all humans survived with armor." Twilihgt sighed. This was going to be the most complicated feat by far. "Cheerilee. Read me the warnings again." "The 'rituals' for their machinery, if you can call them that, are vague and misleading but now I'm sure that everything has a magical power source that makes its parts move on their own. Lyra's trying to kick-start the spark in the backpacks." "Which won't mean anything if we don't have any ready suits." Twilight eye-rolled. "What did Lyra say?" Cheerilee rummaged and got another note. " -I don't think the problem's physical. There's magic working on each piece of armor and its resisting me trying to reignite the sparks. I think that magic wards the chaos corruption but I feel uneasy. I'm not saying we should give up but I don't want to pick sides in this struggle. Not with the perverts, definitely, but I'm starting to think we can't side with these people either. Their magic isn't right." "Cheerilee?" "I agree with Lyra. This book isn't a science textbook and it isn't a repair manual. It's a devotional text. It speaks of a god, sometimes two, who does everything and is everything and brings nothing but punishment to anything that exists outside him." "Punishment for what?" "As far as I can tell, for simply existing." Twilight stopped their walk when they reached the scorched remains of a devotional mural. It was representative of the Cult Mechanicus, the tech-priests and their 'machine-god'. She couldn't help staring into the strange machine effigy's eyes. "Twilight, this is very confusing for me." Cheerilee continued. "Whoever this god is, and he's vengeful and powerful in equal measure beyond understanding if the text is accurate, he is described in loving detail. The livery on these poor men matches the scripts and imagery in this book, in all of them. They swear their lives to him believing he protects them. And... I don't know if it'll upset you to hear me say it... looking around at this place, at this patch of earth, when you compare it to the rest of this world I can't say it's a lie. If what this book says is the truth, if this god does protect them as they live and even after death... in the face of all these horrors isn't what he asks for ... reasonable?" "Cheerilee... you're a wonderful teacher. Summarize this book for me, put it all together. What would you phrase as its central lesson?" Cheerilee took the book and tore a hoof-full of blank text paper and a quill from the Goldwing's inert talons and began thumbing through the texts. Twilight gave her time, there was much to do, everypony was hard at work with the machinery and supplies around them. There was time to be spared. Her expression turned to determination. "Twi, you know Big MacIntosh is practically insisting that, if you go along with what I think you're planning to, he should be the one to wear it first." Applejack warned. Twilight smirked. "AJ, Are you saying Big MacIntosh is being greedy?" Applejack hmph'ed at the question. "He's just worried about you is all. Probably doesn't feel right let somepony else take the risk." Twilight giggled and Applejack looked a little silly, then laughed along with her. She didn't realize Twilight had been teasing: the days had drawn on. The trio entered a storage room and Sparkler turned, surprised to see them. Every full set of Vorpal Swords power armor lay in storage. "Princess?" Sparkler asked nervously. She didn't get an answer. Twilight Sparkle levitated the first complete suit in front of her, made it shine and in a bright flash of light began to distort its shape from human to pony.