Chapter 9: Out Of The Bottle
The sun would be coming up soon. Tiran and Ruwa had been walking through the night, only pausing briefly to rest. For the most part, it had been done in silence, Ruwa leading in the front with Tiran closely following her.
There hadn't been much conversation, but a mob of questions rambled around in Tiran's head. At the forefront of them; the humans mentioned by Ruwa. Who where they? Why had they been here? And why so few of them?
Tiran sped his pace to pull up along side his guide, "Hey, Ruwa..."
"Yes?" she looked up at him innocently.
"About these other humans... what do you know about them?"
Ruwa cocked her head up as she walked, as if deep in thought, "Well, not much actually. And even then, only what I heard. I've never actually met one before..."
"You haven't?"
"No...or, I haven't until now!" she smiled at him. "What I did hear, though was that they were a little strange, but nice."
"They were nice?"
"Yes, but you should also never get on their bad side." Ruwa stated it as if it were a known fact.
This piqued Tiran's interest, "Why's that?"
"I heard they were also great warriors. Sent to help us in our time of need."
Tiran thought about that. Great warriors sent in a time of need? It sounded a lot like superstitious mumbo jumbo. And he was here now, the only human here that he knew of. But he wasn't a great warrior, not in any respect. He was just a pilot. Hell, he had barely even passed hand-to-hand at OCS, and his shooting scores were sharpshooter at best. Not bad, but not an expert either.
Tiran decided to press on, "So what did these guys do, what did you all need?"
Ruwa thought for a moment, like she was trying to come up with answers on a history test. "My mother told me a lot about them. The first one came a long time ago. Back then, there was dissent among the ruling family, an army was raised. Then the human showed up. I heard they found him in the Everfree, but nopony knew how he got there. There he met the Elements and they took him to Canterlot to speak with one of the Princesses.
"Being a warrior, he was asked to train some troops, to help fight the growing threat. He did and that's how the RSTG was founded, one of the most brave and skilled companies in the Royal Guard. They traveled all over the country, helping any that needed them."
"What happened after that?"
"There was a battle," Ruwa continued, "One of the biggest in our history. Monsters came, from the sea, joined with the army that wanted to take over our land. The Royal Guard met them on the Western Coast with the RSTG and held them back."
"And they won?"
"Of course, silly!"
That answered some of Tiran's questions, but the wanted more, "What did the human do after that?"
"Nopony knows..."
"He disappeared?" Tiran guessed.
"I guess you could say that...."
"When did this happen?"
"A really long time ago. I think almost thirty years."
Tiran pondered that. The first human was here three decades ago, but no one knew where he was or where he went. Back home, maybe? But there were others. Ruwa had said as much. "What about the other two?"
"The other two? Oh yeah! They came about three or four years after the first, both at the same time. They were found in the wastes of the Frozen North. The RSTG found them and brought them back to Canterlot."
"They both came at the same time?"
Ruwa nodded.
"What did they do here?"
"A lot of the same as the first." Ruwa answered. "But they also helped make peace with the Lotkin."
That was new. Tiran hadn't heard her mention that word and she seemed to shiver as she said it. "What are Lotkin?"
"They were the monsters from the battle before. They were big, almost eight feet tall! They liked nothing more than to fight, plus they eat meat..." she said the last part with a hint of disgust. "But they turned out not to be so bad. Just really rude and sometimes scary. They live on the coastal islands now, but some come to trade and represent their tribes in competitions. A few were even allowed to join the RSTG."
"And the humans helped with all this?" Tiran asked.
"Yep. The army from before came back and attacked our country. The humans went to the Lotkin and asked for their help. The Lotkin agreed and helped us take back our cities. After that, Our Princesses granted them the right to citizenship in our country if they wanted to. Not many did though."
"Then what happened to the humans after that?"
"Nopony knows." Ruwa said simply.
Tiran scowled, "Again? Really, nobody knows where they're going?"
"I think one went back, with the Princesses help. Nopony knows what happened to the other one."
That caught Tiran's attention. So one got back with the help of these Princesses. It sounded like they lived in Canterlot. Maybe he could speak with them and ask them to help him like they did the other human. At least it meant that there was a way he could get back home. Back to his command.
"You've mentioned the Princesses a lot," Tiran put to her, trying to gather as much information as possible, "why not a king or queen?"
"There was one, thousands of years ago, but after she passed, her two daughters inherited the throne. Both rule Equestria now, one watches the day while the other, the night."
Tiran paused for a moment while Ruwa kept walking, considering the last thing Ruwa had just told him. When she noticed, she stopped and stared at him. "Is something wrong?"
"You mean the Princesses pass down their rule to their daughters?" he questioned.
"No, same two."
"Just the same two for a thousand years?" Ruwa nodded again. "How is that possible?"
"They're immortal." Ruwa responded almost casually.
Tiran looked as if he'd just been struck with a stupid stick. Immortal? That just wasn't possible to him. He knew the theory was possible, if lobsters and jellyfish managed to avoid capture or being eaten, they could potentially live for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Tiran realized Ruwa had continued walking again and hurried to catch up, "So who are these Princesses?"
Ruwa beamed as she repeated their names, "Princess Celestia rules the day and raises the sun, while Princess Luna watches the night, controlling the phases of the moon and protecting us in our dreams." she happily explained.
Once again, Tiran was starting to get confused. Previously, Ruwa had been talking about the Princesses as if they were real heads of state. Now, she was making them out to be like deities of some sort. Tiran considered asking more questions, but he thought better of it. If this came down to religion, he didn't want to get stuck in a theological debate.
Instead, Tiran decided to ask about the other town she mentioned, the one near Canterlot, "You said the humans had been in Ponyville before. Did they live there?"
Ruwa considered his question, "I'm not sure... I think the first one had a house there, and it was where the first RSTG members were trained... I honestly don't really know. I haven't been there before. Except..."
"Except what?" Tiran asked. He was in a strange place and he wanted to get as much information as he could.
"Princess Twilight lives there. If anypony knew, it would be her."
"Princess Twilight?" Another one? What was this? Tiran thought she just said there were only two ruling Princesses. Now there was three?
"Yes, Princess Twilight," Ruwa continued, unabated. "She was actually just recently crowned a few years ago, but not everypony agrees with it since she wasn't originally part of the royal family."
"Are there any other Princesses I should know about?" Tiran asked almost sarcastically.
"Well, there is Princess Cadence, who rules the Crystal Empire in the north. The Royal Family has a bunch of other princes, dukes and duchesses, but they serve in more administrative roles."
Mentally, Tiran was reeling from all this talk of royals and ruling, he didin't know what to make of it. He actually kind of regretted asking in the first place. At least he got some information about the other humans he had wanted. As it was, he was tired of talking about it, though.
He looked at Ruwa, confidently striding next to him, completely undaunted by the darkened woods surrounding them. Tiran had to admit, he had underestimated the seemingly timid pony he'd seen earlier. There was more to her than what he knew.
A question formed in Tiran's mind, "Ruwa, why were you living alone out here?"
The mare almost stopped, hesitant on her next step, but then continued on, "How do you know I live there by my self?"
Tiran hadn't really expected that question. He still didn't know wether or not she knew he had been in her house before. A second later, she answered the question for him.
"You were the one in my house last week, weren't you?"
Tiran looked at the ground and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Yeah. Sorry about your backdoor, by the way," he said sheepishly.
"It's ok," she looked at him and surprised him with a smile he hadn't expected, "I was thinking about moving out of there soon any way."
"Oh, alright..." He was glad she wasn't mad at him, but it still didn't answer his original question. "But still, why?"
Ruwa didn't respond for a long moment. Tiran almost thought he had offended her by asking. He was about to apologize when she started speaking again.
"I... I sort of have a problem."
"What kind of problem. Oh, uh, I mean, if you don't mind me asking..."
"No, it's fine. Remember my Cutie mark?"
Tiran recalled it without looking over. He thought it might be rude to stare at it again, especially given its location. "Yeah, it was a cloud or something, right?"
"Yes..." she said solemnly. "You see, when we're born, we don't have one. As we grow, we begin to discover our talents, our passions. When you find what you're good at or what your destined to be, you're Cutie mark appears."
"So what's your talent?"
"That's..." Ruwa hesitated, and for a moment, Tiran thought she would drop it right there. "I thought it was supposed to be weather related, I am a pegasus after all, but... when I try to control the clouds or shape them, well... it doesn't usually end very well. So I live out here to practice. Away from anything I can damage," she said dolefully.
That was interesting to Tiran. She could control weather. Or at least, pegasi could. Being able to control the weather was still just a fevered dream back on Earth, and even then, it would require tremendous amounts of energy and effort. The fact that here, just one pony with wings on her back could do it was unbelievable. Though, Tiran didn't know exactly what to believe any more.
In the east, the horizon began to accumulate a reddish hue. It began to grow brighter, transitioning into twilight and pushing back the dark of night. Ruwa looked up and with a little gasp, darted forward, almost breaking into a gallop.
"Hey, what's wrong?!" Tiran called after her as he began to jog to keep up.
Ruwa just called back over her shoulder, a look of glee on her face, "C'mon!"
Tiran just shook his head and chased after her.
Ruwa led him down the path at an almost breakneck pace. He struggled just to barely keep up. Even with the suits enhancements, she was very fast. In addition, dirt and grime had built up in the joints of the suit, making it slow to respond and thus hampering him further.
Because of this, Tiran nearly missed Ruwa as she suddenly cut onto an adjacent path. As Tiran followed her, he was dismayed to see that just a few yards down, it began to steeply angle up, the path jagged and rocky. Still, he charged on, desperate to catch up with the pegasus pony that was already halfway up the slope.
With some puffing and panting, Tiran climbed to the top, wondering what had been so urgent. When he finally got there, he was too tired to even look around. Tiran doubled over, resting his good hand on one of his knees in an attempt to catch his breath.
"What are you doing, Tiran, you'll miss it!"
Tiran grudgingly pulled himself up and ambled over to where Ruwa was standing to se what the fuss was all about. Ruwa was standing at the edge of a cliff at the end of the path. Tiran almost didn't see it until the last minute, abruptly halting himself before he fell over. When he looked out, he saw wide lumpy plain that seemed to stretch out endlessly below and to the right. To the left was a row of colossal shapes that almost looked to scrape at the sky.
"What are we—" Tiran began to ask, but Ruwa cut him off.
"Shh, just watch."
Behind them, a burning golden glow began to rise and build. In a matter of seconds, Tiran felt the warmth of the new day's sun on the back of his head. To the left, tall, stalwart mountains began to reveal themselves, their snowy caps gleaming a painfully stark white. As the sun rose and blessed the land with its light, color began to emerge on the plain below.
As deep browns and vivid greens jumped out, Tiran began to realize that it wasn't a plain at all. It was a massive forest full and abundant with life. At the encouragement of the sun's warmth, streams of delicate butter flies began to emerge and dance about upon the tree tops. Here and there, birds would dart in and out of the canopy, adding flashes of color with their feathery patterns to the scene below.
"It's beautiful..." Tiran managed to force out, almost overwhelmed with the breath taking sight.
"I know." Ruwa said absent mindedly. "I come here some times to think. It really helps clear your troubles from your mind."
"Shame its so hard to get here," Tiran muttered to himself.
'You need to exorcise more.'
"Can it, Li." Tiran said without thinking.
Right after he said it, Tiran realized what he'd just done. He slowly turned to look at Ruwa, hoping she hadn't noticed. No such luck. Even as he saw her, Ruwa was staring at him suspiciously.
Tiran quickly backpedaled, "Sorry, wasn't talking to you," he said with the most apologetic expression he could muster.
"Then who were you talking to?" Ruwa demanded.
"No-nobody. Just thinkin' out loud again."
She didn't look convinced. "Right, just like when you were down in the basement. About that, too. Who has a full-on conversation with himself like that?"
'Might as well come clean.'
"Li, don't!" Tiran hissed, but even as he did, the small speaker embedded in his arm crackled to life.
At first, all that came out was harsh static and some painfully distorted words, causing Ruwa to take a few steps away from Tiran with a look of fear crossing over her face. Tiran sighed in resignation, there was no going back now, the genie had been let out of the bottle. He lifted his damaged prosthetic as close to his chest as he could and gave the area on his forearm containing the speaker a few good whacks with his good hand.
After a few more bursts of static, Li's voice came out loud and clear, though with some small crackles, "Thank you, Tiran."
Ruwa nearly leapt back at the sound of Li's voice, "W-who is that?" she stammered.
Tiran sighed again, "Ruwa, meet Li," he said in a bored tone. "She's my partner."
"It's nice to meet you, Ruwa." Li said politely.
After a moment of staring with an unbelievable expression, Ruwa cautiously shuffled up and hesitantly tapped Tiran's arm a few times with her hoof before backing quickly away, as if whatever was inside would jump out and bite her, "She lives in your arm?" she asked with a slight waver in her voice.
Tiran had to chuckle a little bit at that, "Well, yes and no."
Ruwa just gave him a confused look, "But how can she fit in there, it's so tiny!"
Tiran scratched the back of his head, trying to think of a way he could explain it to her, "You see, she's not actually a person, so to speak. Li is a semi-sentient computer program. Her memory and processes are stored in a core matrix installed directly into my prosthetic which allows me to directly interface with her."
When all Tiran received from Ruwa was a blank stare, he tried a different approach.
"Ok, think of it this way: it's like that voice in your head that tells you what you should or shouldn't do, but you can talk to it."
Ruwa's face brightened a little as she seemed to understand, "You mean like a conscience?"
"Yes, but far more advanced than Tiran's," Li quipped.
"Oh, I'm not that bad!" Tiran shot back as Ruwa giggled at Li's comment.
"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Li!" Ruwa finally said after she was finished giggling at Tiran's expense. "I'm happy to have you with us."
"Likewise."
Smiling back up at Tiran, Ruwa said, "She seems very nice."
"Thank you, Ruwa."
Tiran snorted, "Yeah, try living with her in your head twenty-four/seven."
"Well, she must be plenty helpful," Ruwa said in response to Tiran's last comment, "after all, you said she was your partner."
"I can do plenty fine on my own!" Tiran retorted defensively.
"Without my direct assistance, I estimate that we would have suffered eleven crashes, twenty-three mishaps and one-hundred and fifteen injuries, amongst which seven would have been fatal."
Ruwa almost laughed again, but this time managed to restrain herself, albeit poorly. Tiran's expression soured at Li's all too accurate statistics. She really didn't have to estimate anything.
"Ok, I'll admit, yeah, she's a great help. But I'm still a skilled pilot without her help, an exceptional one at that." Tiran said, placing his hand proudly on his left hip.
"No one was trying to dispute that." Li pointed out accusingly.
Ruwa stifled another bout of giggles, "She's funny!"
Tiran starting walking back towards the slope that would take them back down to the path, "Don't remember having her installed with comedy software," he muttered sullenly.
Ruwa trotted over to catch up, "Oh, c'mon Tiran, lighten up."
* * *
An hour later, they were back on the path, making their way down the side of the mountain. Tiran just mindlessly trudged on while Ruwa had an energetic conversation with Li, with Li mostly asking questions about Ruwa and her country. Tiran knew that for the most part, Li was gathering information about this country and it's inhabitants, but as he listened, he found that Li didn't sound exactly the same as before.
Sure, she used the same polite tones and mildly expressionless voice, but it was somehow different. She was coloring her speech with more emotional cues, using different phrases, speaking with sentences that sounded less logical and calculating and more...human. for Tiran, it was almost unnerving.
What had Dr. Welkin said about the drones they had used to test the M-drive before? Tiran tried to remember. It was something about their systems going all screwy, their operating systems not working as designed. A phrase came to mind, something he had read about that had something to do with random code sequences generating within the program and affecting its behavior. What was it again, something with a ghost? Tiran tried to recall it, ghost in the... something.
Whatever it was, he suspected it was happening with Li. The thought chilled him. In the article, it had also mentioned that when this occurred to complex programs, it could cause the whole thing to fail. Or worse, whatever equipment the system was running would malfunction catastrophically and cause a lot of damage, or even bodily harm to anyone nearby.
"Tiran, you're a Lieutenant!?"
"Huh?" Ruwa's unexpected question jerked him from his thoughts.
"Li said that you're a Lieutenant," she told him again.
"Oh, uh, yeah. You have to be an officer in order to be a pilot," Tiran said. "Otherwise, there's no way I would get to fly."
Ruwa's eyes went wide in astonishment, "You can fly!?"
Tiran cocked an eyebrow in bemusement, "Yeah. What did you think I meant when I said I was a pilot?"
"I thought you meant, like, for a barge or something, I didn't know that humans could fly," Ruwa said in defense.
Tiran was taken somewhat aback, "A barge? Why would you think that?"
"I think you would be well suited for the job." Li put in.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Li."
"No problem."
"So what do you fly?" Ruwa asked with excitement.
Tiran didn't know if he should tell her about the Cloudburst. He knew Li wouldn't approve, especially since the aircraft was still technically classified. Therefore, he thought it best to start at the beginning.
"After going through Officer Candidate School, I went to flight school and flew a bunch of trainer aircraft. I originally wanted to fly fighter aircraft, but I got stuck with Gunships." Tiran explained.
Ruwa tilted her head, "Gunships? What are those?"
"It's a medium sized aircraft loaded up with weapons that we use to get Marines in and out of the fight. I thought it would have been boring at first, but...I got proven wrong pretty quickly."
"How so?"
"Well, at first I thought I would just be flying them around from place to place, not really doing much else, but...let's just say that wasn't the case. My first few sorties were pretty boring, about just what I expected. On the fourth or fifth, that was when things got interesting. Let me tell you, there's nothing that focuses you quite as well as some one shooting at you," Tiran deadpanned.
At this, Ruwa appeared appalled, "Why would anypony be shooting at you?"
"My world isn't exactly having the best time right now, Ruwa."
When Tiran didn't elaborate, Ruwa looked away with a concerned expression on her face. She didin't exactly know what to say to that. But another question formed in her mind.
"Did...did you ever have to shoot anypony?" the pegasus mare asked.
When she looked back at him, she saw his face had become a hard, expressionless mask, as if he was forcing himself to contain something painful. Ruwa was about to ask if he was ok when he finally responded.
"Ruwa, if you can do me one favor," Tiran said, his voice becoming low and dangerous, "don't ever ask me that again."