//------------------------------// // Chapter 58: Some Liquid Courage // Story: The Koprulu Sector // by TheKopruluSectorUnion //------------------------------// “No, no, no! There’s no way that would ever work!” Rain Sight protested as she erased another plan from the computer’s holographic projector. She sighed as she sank back into her comfy armchair, “Hijacking a military transport during a planet wide lockdown… really, Rainbow Dash? That’s suicide!” Rainbow Dash puffed up her cheeks and turned her head at the purple mare, “Well I don’t see you coming with anything better.” She said accusingly. Rain Sight’s eyes noticeably twitched as she grinded her teeth; she looked like she was ready to blow her top. “Now ladies, take it easy would ya?” Eye Glass said as he intervened, “We’re here to come up with a plan to get all of you safely off world, not to start cat fights…” his words had a sobering effect on the two before they muttered quick apologies to each other. “ …though I really wouldn’t mind seeing one.” He said with a laugh, but the baleful glares from the two mares quickly silenced his laughter. “Well that’s one more idea rejected.” Apple Bloom sighed as she laid there on the sofa, “Anyone got any other ideas?” Scootaloo was about to say something but Apple Bloom cut her off, “Ones that don’t involve assaulting a military installation.” The pegasus mare blushed as she turned her head back to the holographic projection of their plan, which was unfortunately still quite blank. Despite their initial enthusiasm this morning, they were unable to settle on a plan on how they could get everyone past the lockdown and off Cadia before Twilight’s inevitable betrayal. Everyone had pitched in their ideas, many of them sounded promising, but there was always a fatal flaw in them. One such idea was to have Rain use her new rank as Lieutenant Commander to order the patrols to let them through the lockdown, but realized that the guards would be suspicious if they saw a high-ranking DI agent using an old cargo shuttle as transportation. Plus, they weren’t sure if Twilight had even come through with the promised promotion. Sweetie Belle had even suggested that they use her psychic abilities to manipulate the militia to escort them off world, but both Rain Sight and Eye Glass quickly dismissed the idea for various reasons, one of them being that the militia would shoot her on sight if they find out she was a Ghost. Every escape plan they came up with was subsequently rejected, either because it was too risky due to their lack of resources or manpower to carry the plan out or that it depended too much on the small chance of Twilight not finding out about their escape before they get off world. To say the least, everyone was frustrated with the lack of progress in coming up with a escape plan, and it had pushed their patience to a breaking point as some of the more hot-headed members of the team butted heads in heated arguments. They came close to trading blows on more than a few occasions, forcing the others to step in before things got out of hand. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m fresh out of ideas.” Apple Bloom said aloud as she leaned her head back onto her cushion to rest. Everyone else looked at each other to see if any of them would speak up and offer another idea for an escape plan. A minute passed by silently and no one said anything until the doorbell buzzed, causing a few of them to jump up from their seats. Apple Bloom pried an eye open and gave her friends a strange look, “What are y’all so jumpy about. We told room service to deliver lunch to our suite, remember?” They gave her an embarrassed smile while trying to cover the red hues in their faces, which Eye Glass made worse when he chuckled at them, causing them to blush even harder as they glared angrily at the elder stallion but were reminded of the pony waiting outside with their lunch when the door buzzed again. “Well? Is someone going to answer the door or not?” Apple Bloom asked. Everyone then turned their heads to Sweetie Belle, “What? Why me?” she said as she pointed at herself. Apple Bloom cleared her throat and gestured to her immobile state, while Scootaloo showed herself to her room to hide, being thrown into one’s own room was an experience she didn’t want to repeat ever again. Sweetie Belle looked over to Rainbow Dash and Rain Sight who were still upset with Eye Glass for his inappropriate comments and laughter. The stallion held his hooves in front of himself and said, “I’m not even supposed to be here, remember?” “Ugh! Fine, I’ll go get the door…” Sweetie Belle said as she got up and trotted over to the door, “…but I’m getting first dibs on the food cart!” she stated before opening the door to see the same bellhop from yesterday. The bellhop smiled when he saw her at the door, “Hello again, Miss Belle.” He said in a posh voice in an attempt in impress her. “Oh, hi again… Umm, sorry about slamming the door in your face yesterday.” She said as she blushed in embarrassment, which made the love struck bellhop tongue-tied as he just smiled and nodded at the mare as he stared at her. Sweetie Belle soon became uncomfortable with how quiet the bellhop had become and the way he was looking at her. She didn’t need her psychic abilities to tell that the stallion was infatuated with her, but after losing Sovereign, she was in no mood for any romance. She was saved from an awkward rejection when Apple Bloom called out to her impatiently, “Sweetie Belle, where’s our lunch? I’m getting hungry over here!” “Just a minute!” she shouted back before turning back to the bellhop, “I’m sorry for taking up your time, I’ll take the cart in myself.” She said before she pulled the food cart into the room with her magic and shut the door, leaving the bellhop outside. ‘Darn it, I forgot to get her phone number again!’ he thought as he walked away. Since their food had arrived, everyone agreed that it was a good time as any to take a break and gathered around the food cart to see what Apple Bloom had ordered for lunch. Everyone paused when they saw that their friend had essentially ordered every apple-based dish the hotel had to offer, there was even a few bottles of Sweet Apple Acres brand cider. The only thing that wasn’t made from apples were the hayfries and side-salad. “Really, Apple Bloom? Really?” Scootaloo asked her friend as she held a green frosted cupcake with an apple slice on top. “What? I was just hungry for apples.” she said as she let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah…but isn’t this a bit much?” Scootaloo asked as she pointed a hoof at the food cart overladen with the apple-infused dishes. “Okay, fine. I just felt a little homesick so I told them to bring up whatever apple dish they had on the menu. Guess I got carried away.” She admitted before she let out a nervous chuckle. Her friends’ eyes softened at the mention of home. With everything that had happened, they had almost forgotten about their home until Apple Bloom had mentioned it. They weren’t sure how long it had been since they had left their old lives behind back on Mar Sara and they missed their families. “I wonder how Rarity is coping with mom and dad’s death…” Sweetie Belle muttered sadly as she imagined her sister crying her eyes out at the loss of her entire family. “…she doesn’t even know that I’m still alive.” “I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m sure Applejack and Big Mac are helping her through it.” Apple Bloom reassured. “Thanks Apple Bloom.” Sweetie Belle said as she smiled at her friend before giving her a light hug while Scootaloo faked a gagging motion, but was unexpectedly enveloped in Sweetie Belle’s magic and was pulled into a group hug, to which the orange pegasus begrudgingly accepted. The touching moment was interrupted by a growl coming from Apple Bloom’s stomach, which was made worse by the rumbling coming from Sweetie’s own belly joining in. Scootaloo shook her head at her friends who were smiling sheepishly at her. “Yeah, yeah, I get the message, more food coming right up.” Scootaloo said as she turned to the food cart to see the others had already started eating without her. “Hey! Save some for the rest of us!” she said as she called out to them as she went to get some food for her friends and herself. Penny Pincher thought the Prophet had made another poor decision when she installed a bar inside the mess hall, and he was right. As he had predicted, drunken brawls had become a common occurrence because of this and it gave him more than enough reason to avoid the mess hall altogether. However, today he was making a special exception for himself as he entered the rowdy mess hall. He could see hundreds of Diamond Dogs having their meals as they chatted amongst themselves over some obscure topic or another. He could see a good number of them were already drunk as they laughed at every joke they heard. He ignored them as he made his way to the covered bar in the corner and smiled in relief as the noise of chatter grew faint as he got closer to the bar, which made the place slightly more bearable. Thankfully, the bar was mostly empty so he found himself a quiet corner and sat down by the bar. He was soon greeted by Ditzy, as she fluttered over to him. “Hi Doctor, what can I get for you?” Ditzy asked as she brought out a notepad and pencil. “Derpy? I didn’t know you were the bartender.” Penny Pincher said in mild surprise. The mare giggled as she shook her head, “Nope, just filling in until he comes back from the kitchen. So what drink would you like?” she asked again. Penny Pincher was about make his order when one of the Diamond Dog soldiers cut him off, “Two ice cold beers for me and the bossman here.” The mercenary said as he sat down next to him. “Two beers, coming right up!” Ditzy chirped and left to prepare their order, leaving the two stallions alone. “Never thought I’d see you down here in the mess hall, boss.” Toper stated as he swiveled the stool around and leaned into the bar. “Girl trouble?” he asked Penny Pincher as he gestured to Ditzy as she filled up a glass mug with beer. Penny Pincher shook his head and said, “Goodness no! Whatever gave you that idea, Sergeant Toper? I simply came here to get rid of some stress, and I heard drinking is a good way to do so.” “I hear that boss.” Toper laughed as he held up an imaginary mug in agreement, “Though I gotta ask, what’s got you so stressed that you’d come down here and slumming it with the rest of us?” Penny Pincher let out a depressed sigh as his shoulders slumped and said, “The Prophet…” which made the other stallion raise an eyebrow as a sly smile formed on his face, “…not like that sergeant! Good gracious, is your mind always in the gutter?” Toper only laughed at the indignant look on Penny Pincher’s face, but stopped when he saw the glare the brown stallion was giving him, “Sorry, but you gotta admit, you walked right into that one. Anyways, what were you going to say?” “As you know, I'm the Prophet’s personal accountant and assistant, and as such, it is my job to help her with anything she wants, regardless how insane some of them may be, while also making sure the company doesn’t go bankrupt due to her antics, which is often more difficult than it sounds. And with the losses we suffered back on Cadia we’ll be lucky if we…You’re not even listening, are you?” the stallion said accusingly as he eyed the bored looking mercenary. “Nope, ya lost me back at how crazy the Prophet is or was it something about the company going bankrupt?” Penny Pincher facehooved at Toper’s tactless reply. “Look boss, I’m not a smart pony like you, but I don’t need to be smart to see that you’re stressed. So-” “Here you go, Doctor!” Ditzy interrupted the mercenary as she place two mugs brimming with beer in front of the two stallions, “Would you like some snacks to go with that?” she offered. “This will do just fine Derpy, but I’ll call for you if I do.” Penny Pincher replied. “Okay Doctor, see you later.” The bubbly mare said before she left. Penny Pincher waved goodbye to the mare before he looked at Toper who finished his drink in just one go. “Ah, that’s the stuff.” Toper exclaimed as he placed the empty mug back on the bar, “Now where was I…oh yeah, just take a load off and relax before you burn yourself out. Anyways, see ya later boss.” Toper said before he left the bar. Penny Pincher thought over the mercenary’s words as he held his beverage in his hooves and stared at his reflection before he let out a sigh, “Might as well give a try…” he said as he lifted the mug to his lips and drank the beer. Before he promptly spat the drink out in disgust, “Ugh, that’s just horrid!” he said as he pushed the unfinished mug away. He was about to call out to Ditzy when his personal communicator started ringing. The stallion cleared his throat before he answered the call, “Penny Pincher here, what’s the matter?” “The Prophet is on her way back to the Vengeance, sir.” “Good. What’s the status on those that followed her?” he asked, wondering if the Prophet had somehow ‘lost’ all ten of her ‘assistants’ to this suicidal errand of hers. He had argued that they should have sent a fully equipped squad down, but as always, what the Prophet wants, she gets…no matter how insane it was. “The pilot confirms only three others with the Prophet, sir. Two of them Iron Feathers.” Penny Pincher groaned as his head ached with the losses. The loss of the rank file soldiers didn’t really matter that much to him, but the loss of the Iron Feathers just added more to his growing stack of problems. “Inform the crew of the Prophet’s return. I’ll be down at the hangar in a moment.” Penny Pincher ordered before ending the call. He sighed in frustration before he took another look at his unfinished mug of beer… but shook his head disdainfully at it and promptly left the bar for the hangar. Inside the one of the ship’s larger hangar bays, Penny Pincher, along with half a dozen guards stood waiting for the Prophet’s return, but it had been well over an hour since they gathered there and the Prophet’s shuttle had yet to return to the ship. Penny Pincher sighed as he put away his pocket watch. He knew that the Prophet would often become bored and distracted during trips, even short ones and reasoned that she had most likely told the pilot to take a detour just like she had done with the entire fleet when they went to Tacoville. Even so, he absolutely hated wasting time! His mood lifted when he finally saw the Prophet’s shuttle in the distance as it approached the hangar, but raised an eyebrow when he noticed that the shuttle wasn’t slowing down and he wasn’t the only one who saw this as the guards were suddenly shouting for everyone to clear out of the hangar. However, Penny Pincher stood rooted to the spot as he stared at the shuttle and saw the Prophet laughing through the cockpit as she sat at the controls. He could hear the guards screaming at him to get away but he ignored them and waited there with a bored look on his face as he let out a sigh. Not wanting to see the carnage unfold, the guards shut their eyes and hid behind their cover, but instead of hearing a crash, they heard the sounds of rubber skidding to a stop. Some of the more curious guards opened their visors and peeked over their cover to see the shuttle had come to a complete stop. And Penny Pincher was still standing there, mere inches away from it and appeared completely unfazed. Penny Pincher let out a small sigh before he smoothed out his mane and suit which got ruffled in the commotion. Once his appearance was much more appropriate, he looked up at the cockpit where the Prophet was smiling at him and said in a calm and and yet annoyed tone of voice, “You’re late.” “Awww, come on Mr. Penny Pincher. I was just having a bit of fun flying around.” The Prophet said in a whining tone before she teleported out of the cockpit and appeared before him. “You should’ve seen the stunts I pulled with this baby! I was dodging rocks like crazy!” she said as she made flying motions with her hooves and made propeller sounds. “Need I remind you that expensive pieces of military hardware aren’t toys for you to play with?” Penny Pincher said as he sighed in frustration. He looked up at the cockpit and noticed a red smear on the window, “Madam Prophet…where’s the pilot?” “Oh, be right back!” the pink mare said as she teleported back to the cockpit and back out in front of him, holding the pilot’s body up for him to see. The pilot’s helmet had caved in as blood flowed out of the cracks, “He didn’t put on his seat belts when I told him to.” Penny Pincher sighed and was about to argue that the cockpit was designed with only one seat for the pilot when he remembered the original purpose of the Prophet’s trip to Char and asked, “Did you get what Miss Sparkle wanted from Queen Bee?” The Prophet’s smile dropped at the mention of Twilight’s name and replied in an annoyed tone of voice, “Yeah, yeah, I got her doohickey right here…” she said as held up a metal case which wasn’t there a second ago. “…plus, I also picked up my stuff too!” she then whistled shrilly at the shuttle, “Alright guys! Bring it out!” The shuttle’s rear doors opened up and the ramp lowered before the guards saw the three surviving volunteers disembark from the shuttle as they carried the large container, which held the Prophet’s personal project, between them. Penny Pincher gestured for the other guards to assist with the container while the mechanics went in to check the shuttle for damages that would need repairs. “Go ahead and take a break, we’ll take it from here.” One of the guards said to the three ponies who dropped the container into the waiting hands of the guards. Their mechanical legs almost buckled under the surprisingly heavy weight of the container but the three mercenaries ignored their request for help as they walked over to the Prophet. “It’s good to see that you brought some of the men back alive with you unlike last time.” Penny Pincher said as he looked at the three mercenaries that had survived the Prophet’s antic. He noticed that their armor was quite damaged as one of their visors was cracked, just enough for him to see the face of one of the surviving recruits that followed the Prophet. He thought he saw his eyes glowing for a brief moment before the Prophet was suddenly in front of him with an angry look on her face. “Hey! It’s not my fault they couldn’t handle a bunch of bugs!” the pink mare said in an annoyed tone of voice as she glared at him. “My apologies, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that…you picked out some excellent volunteers this time.” Penny Pincher hurriedly replied, which placated the pink mare’s mood. “Thanks! Anyways, here…” The Prophet said as she put the case into his hands, “…put this in a safe place. I’m gonna go and take a nap so take care of the fleet while I’m away.” She then let out an exaggerated yawn before walking out the hangar bay, followed by the three mercenaries. “As you command, Madam Prophet.” Penny Pincher replied before he left the hangar bay as well, leaving the guards to deal with the heavy container. “Man, I never thought I’d eat so many apples in my life.” Eye Glass said before letting out a satisfied burp and reclined back into the sofa, to which Rain Sight wrinkled her nose at while giving the elder stallion a hard glare. “Honestly Eye Glass, you have the table manners of a slob.” Rain Sight said as she helped clear the table with Sweetie Belle, who levitated the dirty plates over to the now empty food cart. “Hey, I’m old! And old ponies can get away with things like that.” He retorted in a fake raspy voice, “After all, I don’t know how much time I’ve got before I kick the bucket.” His acting however, earned him no sympathy from Rain Sight. “Since you’re so old, I guess you won’t want a glass of cider…Hey! Who took the last bottle?” Rain Sight exclaimed and heard someone belching behind her. She spun around and spotted Rainbow Dash holding the missing bottle in her precision gloves and a glass mug in the other. “What? This stuff is awesome!” the pegasus declared as she poured herself another glass of cider. “Give that back! That’s mine!” Rain Sight demanded as she reached for the bottle, but Rainbow flew up to the ceiling and hovered there. “Come and get it, slow poke.” the cyan pegasus taunted before she drank more of the cider, making the purple earth mare more agitated than before. “Oh, it is on!” Rain Sight declared as she put on her own precision gloves and chased after the pegasus. Sweetie Belle sighed as she cleared away the rest of the plates herself while Scootaloo sat down beside Apple Bloom as the two giggled at the strange behavior their friends were exhibiting. Scootaloo shook her head at them before she said, “Yeah, I remembered my first cider. Seriously Apple Bloom, what does your family do that makes it so good?” “That’s a family secret. So unless you’re part of the family, I can’t tell you.” Apple Bloom replied. “Family huh? Wonder how Big Mac feels about marrying a younger mare…” the orange pegasus said aloud. “Scootaloo! Ewww! You leave my big brother alone!” Apple Bloom protested as she tried to swat her friend, but since half her body was still stuck in a cast, all she could do was flail her hooves uselessly in the air. “Relax, it was just a joke…mostly.” She muttered the last part quietly, but not enough for Apple Bloom to not hear it as she started flailing her hooves at Scootaloo again while the pegasus just laughed at her futile attempts at hitting her. They stopped when they heard Eye Glass chuckling at them. “What’s so funny Mr. Glass?” Apple Bloom asked. “Oh nothing, it’s just that I still find it hard to believe that someone from a backwater world like you could break into the Dominion Battlenet…” his expression became serious as he leaned closer, “…how did you do it?” “Why the sudden interest?” Apple Bloom asked when she heard the sudden serious tone in his voice. “Just curious.” Eye Glass said with a shrug, but Apple Bloom didn’t believe him and narrowed her eyes at him. “Okay, ya got me.” He raised his hooves in admission, “I just thought that you could shut down the Battlenet again and escape during the chaos.” “Well, I can’t…not anymore.” Apple Bloom grumbled as she crossed her arms in a disgruntled fashion. “Why not?” Eye Glass asked curiously. “The program I…made is inside my laptop and Twilight has it.” She replied hesitantly, unwilling to reveal the secret rootkit inside the Dominion Battlenet so easily. Eye Glass may be helping them right now, but he was still an agent of Dominion Intelligence. “Don’t you have a backup copy of that program lying around…if you don’t could you make a new program?” Eye Glass suggested as he gestured to the laptop sitting on the table, but Apple Bloom shook her head. “No, Twilight took everything and it would take too long to rebuild that program from scratch, besides even if I did have a backup copy, I’d still need my laptop. The program was designed to only accept commands from it since it was custom built from special parts that I…er ‘borrowed’ from the militia back on Mar Sara.” Eye Glass leaned back and closed in eyes in deep thought before he finally spoke up, “So if we could get you another laptop just like your old one, can you use it to shut down the Battlenet?” “I think so, but it’s not like we can find a shop that sells high tech computers out there.” She said as she gestured to the damaged buildings outside the window. “What if we got you the parts to build a new one, would you be able to do something with it?” Eye Glass offered. “Well…if I did have another laptop, I could use it to build a basic version of the program. Where are you going with this anyway?” Apple Bloom asked. “I never did tell you how I smuggled myself off the orbital platform did I?” Apple Bloom shook her head, “I managed to pass myself off as one of the guards aboard a shuttle coming down to Cadia. There was a recovery team on board and from what I heard, they’re here to recover valuable tech from a Dominion ship that was shot down during the assault…” he trailed off as he leaned back into his seat as he let the two mares figure it out on their own. “The Iron Will!” Scootaloo suddenly spoke up, “You’re talking about the Iron Will, aren’t you?” the red stallion nodded. “But wasn’t it blown up? I mean I was right there with the others when it got shot down. There was a big explosion and everything.” “Apparently not, if a recovery team was deployed down here that means that the Iron Will is still intact. Which means if we can get access to it…” he smiled when he saw Apple Bloom deep in thought before she spoke up. “Give me that laptop; I need to make a list.” Eye Glass obliged her request as he levitated the laptop over to Apple Bloom who started typing furiously on the keyboard. “Gotcha’!” Rain Sight declared loudly. Everyone turned their heads to see the purple mare as she tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground before standing back up, the bottle of cider now in her metallic grasp. Deciding to claim her prize, she held the bottle to her open mouth, only to taste a single drop. She opened her eyes and saw that the bottle was empty. During their chase, Rainbow Dash had finished off the bottle and had only continued the chase to mess with her. She glared at the pegasus who was still dazed from being tackled before she stomped off to her room. Minutes later, Rainbow Dash got back up and let out a sly chuckle as she rubbed the sore spot on her head where she was hit when Rain Sight tackled her. “Totally worth it…so, can we order up some more?”