//------------------------------//
// Act 2 Part 7 - Am I Transmitting? 
// Story: I Against I, Me Against You 
// by Flynt Coal 
//------------------------------//

Applejack couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so cold. She used to think winters in Equestria were bad, but they had nothing on this! Even their journey to the Crystal Empire hadn’t been this cold, but then again Applejack and her friends had actually been dressed for the weather. Now Applejack was pushing through thick white snow in nought but her own orange coat.

They hadn’t been walking for much more than an hour before the storm came in. The strong winds bit into Applejack like a thousand tiny needles. Her ears, her snout, her legs and her tail were all numb and aching from the cold. She constantly had to reach up to keep her hat from getting blown off of her head. Every step was a struggle, with the thick snow piling up to her chest at times.

When the wind died down a little, Applejack lifted her gaze from her hooves to look out in front of her. Nothing had changed of the view from the past couple of hours. She couldn’t see anything except snow in every direction, the darned white stuff either on the ground or being blown around in the air. The one thing Applejack could see was Church, who was leading the way directly in front of her.

Applejack had put herself directly behind the tall cobalt armored biped to use as a shield against the wind after it had gotten really bad, and his footprints made traversing the snow much easier. While normally Applejack wouldn’t have been so selfish, somehow she didn’t think Church would mind if he knew what she was doing. Despite complaining about anything and everything back in Equestria, the man hadn’t raised a peep about the cold.

That armor must be mighty warm, Applejack thought with some envy. She then remembered something Twilight had mentioned about Church not even having a living body. Dern fella probably doesn’t even know what cold feels like! The thought didn’t make Applejack feel any warmer, and with a grunt she glanced back at the third member of their little party.

Pinkie Pie was merrily bouncing along behind Applejack. Not walking. Not trudging. Bouncing. How the perpetually perky pink pony managed to keep up that pace all this time was beyond Applejack. It was then that the apple farmer remembered that Pinkie was (in fact) talking, suddenly growing very annoyed. She had just spent the latter half of the snowy trek tuning out Pinkie’s rambling, and just like that she was focusing on it again! Worst of all, Applejack knew it would take just as long to tune Pinkie out again. It was just like every time Big Macintosh had decided to mess with her by saying “Don’t think about pears” before a day of apple bucking: it would take Applejack hours to stop thinking about pears afterward!

“And that’s the story of how Maud and I saved Hearth’s Warming!” Pinkie said. “It was pretty crazy, but next year was even crazier because we found out why you can’t bake rocks into a pie!”

Applejack growled and spoke through gritted teeth, “Pinkie… y’know I love ya to pieces and all… but please, for the love of the sun…”

“Shut. The fuck. Up!” Church said. 

Applejack stopped and glared at him. “Hey! That was completely uncalled for!” 

Church turned around. “But that’s what you were gonna say, right?”

“Not like that!” Applejack retorted. “Like most decent folk, I woulda put it nicer!”

“Meh. I like my way better. It’s more honest!”

“Ooh! That’s your thing, Applejack!” Pinkie exclaimed. “See? You guys have something in common! Maybe you guys could be friends!”

“No!” Applejack and Church both yelled.

“Sure you can! You know why?” When Applejack and Church didn’t answer, Pinkie cleared her throat and took a deep breath. Applejack didn’t realize what she was doing until it was too late.

“Theeeeeeeeeeeere’s nothing quite like being friends,
You can be friends with anyone!”

Church stepped in before Pinkie’s song could get any momentum, “No! Stop! You’re terrible! Seriously, I don’t know how this is possible, but you’re actually making me miss Caboose! That is a huge achievement in annoyance!”

“Ooh, do I get a trophy?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

“Stop using honesty as an excuse to be mean to my friends!” Applejack shouted, pointing an accusing hoof at Church.

“Well, tell your friends to stop annoying me!”

“But then how will I get my trophy?” Pinkie asked.

Applejack’s patience was wearing thin. She was cold, she was exhausted, and she just wanted to find a warm place to rest.

“Look, let’s all jus’ stop arguin’ and find a place to lay low while this storm blows over.” Applejack said, cutting off whatever scathing remark Church had prepared.

“You mean like in that building over there?” Pinkie Pie pointed off to the left of the trio.

Following Pinkie’s outstretched hoof, Applejack and Church spotted it. Though it was hard to see through the snowstorm, there were definitely several lights shining through a fair distance away. It didn’t take the cobalt human and two earth ponies very long to get close enough to see a gray metal structure built into the side of a wall of ice at the end of a small frozen canyon. Church held up the sniper rifle he always carried with him and looked down the scope of the long-range weapon in the direction of the building.

“I knew it,” Church said as he continued to survey the structure.

“Do ya know where we are?” Applejack asked.

Church lowered his rifle and turned to face the pair of ponies, “This is the first base I was stationed at when I joined the army. This is Sidewinder!”

Applejack smiled as she gained a bit of hope at finally getting out of this miserable cold. “So if yer old buddies are stationed there, they should let us all in!”

Church shook his head. “All of my ‘old buddies’ here were wiped out. I’m actually the only survivor of Sidewinder’s Blue Base!”

Applejack suddenly felt even colder. “Who would do such a thing?”

Church shifted his weight awkwardly. “My girlfriend, actually.”

“Tex?” Applejack remembered her alright. “Why would she do that?”

“I dunno. Because someone paid her, probably. What matters is that the people in that base now are Project Freelancer’s troops. And seeing as they spent all of their resources hunting down Twilight when she was last here, I don’t think we’re going to get a warm welcome from them!”

Of course he had to use the word ‘warm.’ Applejack looked over at the base and its warm, inviting lights. She was starting to think it would almost be worth getting captured just to get out of the cold.

“But, there’s a cave just off to the side we can use as a shelter,” Church continued. “From there we’ll figure out a way to find the others.”

The others. Applejack wasn’t sure how, but the rest of her friends and the humans had all gotten separated when Twilight transported them to this world. Finding them was the logical first step in their mission to find this “Alpha” thing Tex kept talking about and stopping the Meta. When she thought of it like that, they really had their work cut out for them. In that moment, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder where her friends had all ended up. Wherever they were, she hoped they were somewhere with a more agreeable climate. Anything would be better than this insufferable cold. 









With another dramatic sigh, Rarity stopped her march through the seemingly endless sea of sand and sat down to catch her breath. She had been walking for three hours now. Three hours with the scorching sun beating down on her. Three hours drenched in her own sweat. Three hours without a good refreshing drink…

“Yep. This looks like a pretty good foundation for my sand castle.”

And three hours in the company of the two legged blue moron called Caboose. One glance at the armored human as he started gathering sand for a tower was enough to finally break Rarity’s dam.

“UWHAAAAA! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” Rarity dropped to her knees and cried, effectively depriving herself of more of her body’s fluids. “IT’S SO HOT AND SO DRY AND I’M SO TIRED AND SO THIRSTY AND I’M GETTING SAND IN MY COAT AND MY MANE… MY BEAUTIFUL MANE IS GETTING FRIZZY!”

“Aw, don’t worry!” Caboose said as he gathered more sand into a pile. “I think you look great in a huge afro!”

Rarity’s only response was to continue wailing into the sand, her giant poofy mane weighing her down. It was some time before she was able to calm herself again, and her hysterical sobbing became frantic sniffling and hiccuping. Unfortunately, Rarity felt even more thirsty now than she had earlier.

“You done?”

Rarity opened her eyes and found herself looking up at a prismatic pegasus. Rainbow Dash was looking down at her wearing an annoyed expression, apparently having just returned from another flight to scout out the terrain. Rarity scowled at the pegasus’ complete and utter lack of sympathy. She had half a mind to answer “no” and continue her hysterics out of spite, but eventually decided it would be unwise to further dehydrate herself.

“Yes,” Rarity groaned as she climbed to her hooves and shook off as much sand as she could. “How’s our progress, dear?”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “We’re getting pretty close! Those towers are just over the next couple of dunes!” Her scratchy voice was even more hoarse with the lack of fluids.

When the three of them first arrived in the middle of the desert, Rainbow Dash had flown up high in the sky to figure out where they were. Unfortunately, she’d seen no sign of the rest of their friends, but in the distance Rainbow had spotted a cluster of six tall, dark towers. Since Rainbow couldn’t see anything else around for miles, the pegasus, unicorn and Blue had all agreed to make their way toward the towers.

“Did you see anything else this time?” Rarity rasped. Her meltdown hadn’t been good for her already parched throat.

“Actually, yeah! There was what looked like half buried temples in the center of the towers!”

“Temples?”

Rainbow’s grin grew even wider as she nodded, “Yeah! Ancient looking ones, too! Just like in Daring Do and the Pharaoh’s Tomb!”

Rarity, however, did not share her friend’s optimism. “Doesn’t sound like the kind of place that would have water!”

“Yeah, but if it’s anything like the book, it’ll have something even better: the Scarab Jewel!”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and glared at Rainbow Dash.

“Y’know what else those temples might have? Shade!” the pegasus added in response.

“If you want shade, then look no further than… Fort Caboose!”

Both ponies turned to look at the dim man in blue armor. To his credit, Caboose had actually outfitted the mound of sand he put together with turrets and a moat. It even had a blue flag on the central tower. Unfortunately, it only came up to his knees.

“I… think we’ll stick with the mysterious temple for now, Caboose,” Rarity stated.

This seemed to offend Caboose, as the blue man huffed and crossed his arms in a childish way. “Well. You’re just jealous you don’t have my architectural genius!”

Despite her initial shock at the fact that Caboose knew a word with so many letters in it, Rarity was able to convince him to continue accompanying them to the temple. She wasn’t sure how long the remainder of the trek to the temples was, but to Rarity it felt like a lifetime. Somehow, the sun had managed to get even hotter and more oppressive than before, and more than once she’d stumbled and nearly fell down. It was getting harder and harder to lift her hooves but the thought of water or at least a nice shady place to rest kept her going.

As the trio crested the second sand dune, they got a good look at the six towers Rainbow had seen from the air. They were placed in a circular formation, with a wall of a similar make connecting them to each other. That could be a problem. The towers themselves were certainly ominous. The tall, dark obelisks seemed to claw at the sandy, cloudy sky above, the tops ending in a pair of prong-like points. They were made of a dark metal that (for some reason) didn’t strike Rarity as being of the same make as the other human technology she’d seen thus far. Something about these towers screamed “ancient,” yet there was a modern might to them as well.

Rarity was almost ready to give up once it became apparent that they needed to go around the large wall connecting the towers until they could find an opening, which seemed to take just as long as the walk there. They never actually found an opening, but what they did find was a particularly large sand dune that covered a large section of the wall, allowing the group a way to climb over. Upon reaching the top of the dune, Rarity had to rub the sweat from her eyes to see what lay in the center below.

In what appeared to be a large sinkhole in the direct middle of the area guarded by the dark towers were several structures. From this distance the temples below seemed tiny, especially compared to the massive size of the surrounding towers; Rarity knew though that they would be significantly bigger up close. 

The buildings themselves looked nothing like the towers, Rarity realized. Where the surrounding towers looked ancient yet still maintained, the smaller temples in the center looked downright decayed. Each of the buildings was of an orange-tan color, but looked to have gotten that way through eons of being beaten by the weather. Despite her immense fatigue, Rarity found it prudent to study the layout of the temples as they made their way down the sandy dune. The leftmost structure was the tallest, and was comprised of a tight cluster of four pillars angled inwards. To the right of that was a longer building stretching the length of the rest of the temples. The top of it was lined with several smaller angled pillars. Around these buildings were several smaller pyramid like structures.

After another several minutes of walking, the trio were finally getting near the edge of the sinkhole the temples were in. As they drew closer, a warning went off in the back of Rarity’s mind. She thought she heard voices coming from the other side of the temples and thought she caught sight of some distant vehicle glinting in the sun, but it was gone by the time she tried to focus on it. Perhaps this was just one of those “mirage” things ponies see when lost in a desert. Unfortunately, the flashing yellow warning lights that were planted in the sand along the perimeter of the sinkhole were most definitely not mirages. This was evidenced by the fact that a very real alarm started going off somewhere in the cluster of ruins.

“What’s going on? Are there people here?” Rarity asked. It was the only explanation to the alarms.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she raced forward to cross the small bit of sand between the group and the ancient temples. 

Something about the empty field of sand put Rarity on edge. Why would there be warning lights this far back? Why would passing them trigger a sound that just seemed to be screaming “danger” over and over again? Rarity’s questions were quickly answered by a metallic click followed by a small cylindrical object leaping out of the sand in Rainbow Dash’s path like a snake lunging at somepony who ventured too close to its den.

Fortunately, Rarity was able to act quickly enough to produce the shield spell that Twilight had taught her. Rarity brought a clear blue bubble of magical energy around Rainbow Dash just as the cylindrical object exploded in the air in front of her. Rarity had nowhere near the magical stamina of her purple friend, and her already waning physical condition meant that she wasn’t able to hold the shield together after the fiery blast, but it did its job. Rainbow Dash was protected from the spring loaded explosive device, though the force of the blast knocked her off her hooves.

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash coughed as she climbed back to her hooves. “What the hay was that?” 

“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t recommend running any further in case there’s more of them!” Rarity advised.

Caboose suddenly gasped and pointed toward the ruins, “Look! Some new friends are coming to greet us!”

Alarmed, Rarity followed Caboose’s armored finger and spotted a group of humans wearing gray armor. They were all running toward the edge of the expansive sinkhole and Rarity immediately noticed that like every other of these human creatures they’d encountered, they were heavily armed.

“What do we do?” Rainbow asked.

“Say hi! No! Ask them what their favorite color is!” Caboose said.

“How will that help?”

“If their answer is ‘blue,’ then we know they can be trusted!”

“Nothing we can do but hope they’re friendly,” Rarity said. She didn’t like the idea of being chased back out into that desert where they would surely die.

The men in gray armor spoke amongst themselves for a few moments, occasionally gesturing in the direction of the three interlopers. Finally, one of them stepped forward and raised a hand to the side of his helmet.

“ATTENTION TRESPASSERS!” the man’s voice echoed loudly, artificially amplified by a device in his helmet, “THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA! YOU HAVE JUST ENTERED A MINEFIELD.”

“YEAH UH, IS THIS A LITERAL MINEFIELD OR A METAPHORICAL MINEFIELD?” Caboose’s voice was not amplified, but it was loud enough on its own.

“WELL, ONE OF YOUR PETS WAS ALMOST BLOWN UP BY A MINE, SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?” the man in gray asked.

Caboose was silent for a moment. “SEE, I DON’T LIKE THE WAY YOU’RE PUTTING ME ON THE SPOT, SO IT KINDA FEELS LIKE A METAPHORICAL MINEFIELD!”

“IT’S A REAL MINEFIELD! WITH REAL MINES THAT WILL BLOW YOU TO FUCKING SMITHEREENS IF YOU TAKE ANOTHER STEP CLOSER!”

“SEE? I JUST FEEL LIKE I WALKED ON A METAPHORICAL MINE AND IT METAPHORICALLY BLEW ME UP AND NOW MY FACE IS METAPHORICALLY DISFIGURED AND I’M GOING TO NEED METAPHORICAL SURGERY!”

The man in gray made a series of frustrated grunts before remembering that whatever was still amplifying his voice was still on and switched it off. As the soldiers in gray once again turned to confer with each other, Rarity turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Well, what’s the plan now?” she asked. 

At that, Rainbow Dash smiled, “Easy: we go over it!”

Before Rarity could formulate a response, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off. She looped around in the air and then swooped down to scoop up a very startled Rarity, who yelped in surprise. Rainbow Dash carried the white unicorn high above the minefield and set her down in front of one of a large pair of the angular obelisks that formed a set of arches a fair distance away from the gray soldiers.

“Rainbow! I thought I told you never to pick me up without warning!”

“Oh, dude! When I pick up chicks, I don’t need to warn them! Bow chicka bow wow!” said an unfamiliar male voice. “Wait… what does that even mean?”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s ears simultaneously drooped when they realized they were not alone. Slowly, the two mares turned to look behind them. In the shade of one of the angled towers was another human soldier currently sitting on a small olive green box with his feet up on a similarly colored fold out table. The man was wearing armor very similar to Caboose’s, only it looked a bit more… upgraded. Though, while Caboose’s armor was pure blue, this man’s armor was more of an aqua-marine. 

Strangely enough, the man seemed about to fall out of his seat at the sight of them, “What the fuck? There’s more of them?” he spoke in a slightly high pitched voice that had a certain juvenile quality to it. It was a bit like Caboose’s voice now that Rarity thought about it, but where Caboose spoke and thought like a child, the aqua armored man in front of her now carried himself like a particularly riotous teenager.

Several footsteps quickly approaching through the sand behind her interrupted Rarity’s thoughts and she turned to find the squad of gray soldiers who had greeted them come skidding to a stop before cocking and raising their rifles at her and Rainbow. The one who warned them about the minefield earlier spoke up.

“Sergeant Tucker! These creatures appeared in the western minefield along with a soldier! Permission to take them into custody?”

Her heartbeat suddenly increasing, Rarity realized the man in aqua - this “Tucker” - was in charge and turned back to address him, “Please! My friends and I are lost in the desert without food or water! If you can spare any of your supplies for us…”

“Sorry! No can do, horse-lady!” Tucker stood up. “This is a secure dig site! No one but authorized personnel are allowed here! Normally, I wouldn’t turn down a hot chick in need of some moisture - bow chicka bow wow - but I have a job to do! Besides, you’re not really my type! Not only do I prefer my women more… well, human, but really, afros are so last millenium!”

Rarity’s teeth ground together.

Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice, as she threw herself to her knees before Sergeant Tucker and cried, “Please! We’ll die!”

Tucker shrugged, “Sorry. Rules are rules!”

Rainbow’s sad, pleading face did a complete 180 and she rose to her hooves and assumed an aggressive posture, ready to dish out a rude comeback. Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of a loud boom. Then another. Then another.

The entire group turned to the direction of the sounds and found themselves looking out at the minefield. Mines were going off left and right as somebody made their way across. In short order, Caboose arrived before the gathered group, charred and smoking. A tiny fire was burning on his left shoulder pad.

“Man… those were some pretty painful metaphors.”

Tucker took a surprised step forward. “Caboose? What the fuck are you doing here?”

Caboose looked over at the man in aqua and gasped, “Oh my… Tucker! You’re here!” Caboose then realized what he was saying and his ecstatic tone changed to one filled with more animosity. “Oh… Tucker. You’re here.”

“Wait, you two know each other?” Rarity asked. Her statement was echoed by the man in gray armor.

“Oh yeah! Rainbow dog, fashion dog, this is my not-friend Tucker!” Caboose introduced. “We were in the canyon together.”

For some reason the mention of a canyon sparked a sense of familiarity in Rarity. Didn’t Twilight mention something about a canyon in her stories of this world?

“Hey, do you know Twilight?” Rainbow Dash had apparently come to the same conclusion.

“Oh, the purple unicorn chick? Hell yeah!” Tucker said. “Wait, are you guys friends of Twilight?”

Rarity gave Tucker a deadpan look. “Surely that’s obvious?” They were the only other ponies Tucker would have met.

“Well, I had my suspicions, but I didn’t want to generalize! I’m not racist!”

One of the soldiers in gray armor cleared his throat, “Sir? What are we to do with these trespassers?”

Tucker looked at the soldier who spoke and then back at the trio. “Meh. They’re cool. As long as they stay out of our way they can stick around.” Tucker started walking toward the center of the ruins and beckoned for the others to follow. 

“But they could be working with…”

Tucker stopped him with a raised hand. “They have my confidence. If you really don’t like it, you can take it up with Eberle.” 

Reluctantly, the soldiers in gray dispersed. Tucker returned his attention to his guests, “Sorry about all that. We’ve been getting trouble from a group of nearby Insurrectionists. It’s why we set up the minefield.” Tucker took another look at the weary travelers. “You guys look like you could use a drink!”

The statement made Rarity grin widely. Perhaps finally she would be able to return her body to a more agreeable temperature.









Shivering, Applejack scooted closer to the heating unit in the safety of the icy cave and rubbed her shoulders. Outside, the farm pony could still see the snow being blown around in the storm. It had been a few minutes since Church had turned on the fuel based power source in the cave and with it a few floodlights and the heater. Already, feeling was starting to return to Applejack’s extremities. Of course, this created the problem of being able to feel precisely how cold she was.

At the sound of a clang at the back of the cave, Applejack glanced over to see Pinkie Pie doing exactly what she’d been doing the last time Applejack looked: rummaging through the various other devices that were there. It seemed that this cave was where the base just outside kept all of the equipment that they weren’t using. Applejack’s ear flicked in annoyance as Pinkie pulled something out of an olive green crate and studied it for barely a second before becoming bored and tossing it haphazardly to the ground.

“Careful, Pinkie! Church said not to touch anything!” Applejack warned.

Pinkie shrugged. “He’s not the boss of me!”

As Pinkie started looking over a large object that looked like a metal door frame, Applejack sighed and looked across the cave from her at the man in question. By all outward appearance, Church was standing perfectly still, leaning slightly against the cave wall. Of course, Applejack knew better.

“I’m going to sneak down to my old base and see what I can find out,” Church had told her before leaving, “you two should stay here.”

“And why do you think Pinkie an’ I will be content to jus’ sit here and do nothin’?” Applejack had asked.

Church’s answer had nearly caused Applejack to jump out of her skin, “Because you guys can’t do this!”

Applejack decided that as long as she lived, she was going to deny that she yelped like a filly when the white, transparent armored figure materialized in front of her. Church had been quick to explain that he was actually a ghost possessing a robot body, and that it was this very ability that made infiltrating Sidewinder’s former Blue Base well suited for him and him alone.

“Still don’t mean I’m content to jus’ sit here…” Applejack muttered to herself as she glared at the currently vacant cobalt body. She had half a mind to give the mechanical body a little shove and let it fall over just to see Church’s reaction when he got back.

Applejack wasn’t sure when she decided this, but she was pretty certain: she did not like Church. Still, I guess he’s better than that lazy, good for nothin’ orange…

“APPLEJACK!”

The mare in question jerked back in surprise, her ears ringing from the abrupt, close exposure to Pinkie Pie’s raised voice. Applejack turned to Pinkie to let her know exactly how much the sudden assault on her eardrums was appreciated, but was stopped in her tracks after she got one good look at Pinkie’s very much not pink face.

Pinkie Pie’s face was completely black.

“Um, sugarcube? What happened to yer face?” Applejack asked. 

Applejack gestured to Pinkie’s severely black face, but the party pony seemed genuinely perplexed.

“I don’t what you’re talking about Applejack, but look! I fixed a thing!” Pinkie Pie pointed toward the back of the cave where she’d just been. 

Right away, Applejack saw it: the metal object that resembled a doorframe Pinkie had been playing with earlier was now filled with a shimmering green energy. It cast the end of the dim cavern in a slight green glow. In the silence that immediately followed, Applejack noticed an electric hum that was not there before join that of the diesel generator. 
“Turns out it wasn’t connected to that generator thing Church turned on like the other things were, so when I plugged it in it did that!” Pinkie explained.

“Uh, Pinkie? What exactly is that?”

“I don’t know!” Pinkie happily proclaimed, her shining smile standing out on her black face, “but when I stuck my face into it I saw what looked like the inside of a snowy, metal building!”

Applejack gave Pinkie a deadpan stare and raised a solitary eyebrow. “You saw a weird, shimmery green thing... and yer first thought is to stick yer face in it?” Applejack couldn’t imagine that was a safe way to test that thing. She figured Twilight would say something about a “scientific method” if she were here. Regardless, that certainly explained the blackface. Sort of.

“What in the heck is that black stuff?”

“What black stuff?”

“The black stuff on yer face!”

Pinkie went over to one of the metal crates at the rear of the cave and pulled a washcloth out of her mane. She then proceeded to polish the metal on the crate until it sparkled, after which she studied her reflection carefully.

“Wow! I have a black face! My zebra friends definitely wouldn’t like that.” Pinkie followed this statement up with a lick of her own face. “Ooh! Salty!”

Applejack rolled her eyes and prepared to return to her space heater when something occurred to her.

“Wait, you saw the inside of a building when you looked through that thing?”

Pinkie nodded her darkened face. “Yep! I even saw one of those gray soldier people, and then something see-through went inside him and he was all like ‘HIGAGURGURK!’ I waved at him but I don’t think he saw me!” 

Pinkie held up her right hoof, which Applejack just noticed was also covered in the mysterious black stuff. The farm pony considered the facts for a moment. Pinkie had said she saw the inside of a building when she stuck her face into the enigmatic device. There was only one building anywhere nearby that she was aware of, and it was one that Church was currently infiltrating using his unique ability. She was suddenly reminded of one of Twilight’s powers.

“Hey, Pinkie? You don’t suppose that there device is some sorta teleportation doo-hickey, do ya?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Maybe! But where does it lead?”

“Well, it seems pretty likely that the building you peeked inside is the Blue Base out there, and the soldier fella you saw was actually…”

The distant sound of a blaring alarm rose up outside the cave, simultaneously cutting Applejack off and finishing her statement, as well as making an unsettling one of its own.

“That don’ sound good…”

Pinkie Pie concurred with a loud gasp, “Church is in trouble! Let’s go help him!”

At that moment, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder if Church would run to their aid if either of them were in the same situation. She stopped that train of thought before it could effectively leave the station. She was Applejack! Honest and dependable! Even if she didn’t particularly like Church, Applejack would help him anyway, if only because Twilight - for reasons beyond Applejack’s understanding - considered him a friend.

“Right! Let’s move!” The cold long forgotten, Applejack made to run out of the cave but was stopped by a firm grip on her tail.

“Wait Applejack! I just had a super fantastic idea to get into that base!” Pinkie let go of Applejack’s tail and the beleaguered farm pony turned around, giving the party pony a questioning look.

Pinkie Pie simply turned around and looked to the back of the cave. Applejack’s gaze followed hers and she found herself looking at the teleporter. Applejack suddenly felt very uneasy and took a nervous step back.

“Yer not serious, are ya?”

Pinkie looked back over at Applejack and smiled. “C’mon, Applejack! You’re not afraid of a little black stuff, are you?”









The shade of the area in the center of the ancient temples felt amazing. Never before had Rarity been so happy to be out of the sun. Rarity looked over at Rainbow Dash and her good mood was lessened as the rambunctious pegasus mare picked up a canteen full of water and proceeded to chug it as if it was cider season. Rarity didn’t even look at Caboose as the man drank his water through a crazy straw inserted through the front of his helmet.

Rarity lifted her own canteen and took a dainty sip. Just because she was dehydrated didn’t mean she could stop acting proper! Still, that little sip barely quenched her immense thirst so Rarity took a bigger sip. When she was still thirsty half a second later, she took a significantly longer sip that became more of a gulp. Before Rarity knew it, her canteen was empty and she was reaching for another one.

“Whoa, slow down Speed Racer! You don’t want to over-hydrate yourself!” Tucker warned.

Rarity fixed him with a glare, before realizing he had a valid point and relenting. Instead of drinking from the other canteen she grabbed, she poured it over her head and began flattening out her poofy, frizzy afro-mane. Tucker snickered.

“Girl, if you wanted someone to make you wet you should have just asked! Bow chicka bow wow!” 

Eyes widened in horror, Rarity glared at Tucker. She convinced herself that the heat in her face was just the desert sun. 

“That is not the way you speak to a lady!” Rarity chastised. “Besides, I thought you said that…”

“I’m not interested in what you’ve got? I’m not,” Tucker answered. “But it’s very important that I make sure my moves are still smooth now that I’ve got someone to practice with! I mean, the only other woman in this dustbowl is…”

“Sergeant Tucker!” a firm female voice rose up behind them.

“Uh oh…” Tucker turned around and right away Rarity noticed he was standing straighter. 

A soldier wearing white armor with light blue detail resembling the make of the soldiers in gray was purposefully walking toward them. Strangely enough, following her was a soldier wearing bright pink armor. The woman strode right up to Tucker and glared up at him. She was a petite thing, but still held a powerful air of authority to her.

“I have just been informed that you allowed an unidentified soldier along with two unknown sapient beings passage into our camp! Were your instructions not clear?” the woman asked with a calm fury that set Rarity on edge. As the target of said fury, she could only imagine how Tucker was feeling at present.

“With all due respect Captain Eberle, this ‘unidentified soldier’ is a teammate from my old canyon,” Tucker explained, “and no: I don’t think he could be working with the Innies.”

“How can you be sure?” Eberle asked.

Tucker’s response was to point at Caboose. The man was currently trying to lick an ice cream cone with his helmet on. Captain Eberle regarded him for a moment before returning her attention to Tucker.

“And what about these… things?” Eberle gestured to the pair of ponies.

Everyone suddenly heard a loud gasp. It took Rarity a second to realize the sound had come from the man in pink armor, as he was now staring right at her.

“Wait… everyone else can see the little unicorn and pegasus? It’s not just me?” he asked.

Realizing it was time to make an introduction Rarity stepped forward and adjusted her still wet mane.

“Yes, I’m Rarity and this is my friend Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow Dash put on a pair of sunglasses and casually folded her hooves. “Wassup?”

The man in pink armor responded with a high pitched squeal and danced on the spot. “I knew it! I guess my friends weren’t imaginary after all! Suck it mom!”

“Agent Donut. Professionalism please,” Eberle warned.

“Colonel McMuffin?” Caboose asked, looking at Donut.

Donut looked right back at Caboose. “Oh heeEEeey Caboose! I didn’t recognize you in that armor! Did you get an upgrade?”

“Yes,” Caboose answered too quickly.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Rarity and Eberle asked simultaneously.

“Yeah, this is turning out to be a pretty fun reunion!” Caboose stated as he attempted another lick of his ice cream.

“Captain, permission to make a request?” Donut asked, remembering Eberle’s earlier warning.

“Okay…” Eberle said.

Donut promptly grabbed Rarity and Rainbow Dash and held the two ponies in each arm as he knelt before his superior. “Can we keep them? Pleeeeeeeease? I promise I’ll take good care of them!”

Rainbow Dash struggled and squirmed to escape Donut’s grasp while Rarity just sighed, hoping once the pink man got what he wanted he’d let go.

“Well…” Eberle sounded unsure.

“Come on, Captain. What are we going to do? Send them all back into the desert to die?” Tucker asked.

Rarity smiled. Despite his flaws, at least Tucker knew how to do the right thing.

“Because I’d be okay with that!” Tucker finished, earning a frown from Rarity. Unfortunately, it was hard to look intimidating whilst being snuggled by a man in pink armor.

“Okay, until we can arrange to have them transported elsewhere, those three can stay...” Eberle declared after some thought.

This triggered a “Yes!” from Donut as he squeezed the two ponies tighter before releasing them.

“... so long as they do not interfere with our operation here.”

“So... what exactly is your operation here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Rarity had to admit, she was rather curious about that as well, but based on the behavior of these soldiers it was top secret stuff. In fact, it kind of reminded her of the air surrounding the crashed ship in Dodge City. Just the same, Eberle seemed reluctant to go into detail about it.

“We’ve been excavating these ruins in search of an artifact…”

At this, Rainbow Dash got excited and began hovering in place. “Oh! Like the Scarab Jewel? Oh, I know! The Scepter of Light!”

“I… don’t know what any of those are…” Eberle said.

“Don’t worry, as long as you don’t open the tomb of Tutanponum and release the zombie curse you’ll be fine!” Rainbow Dash gave a confident nod as the others looked on in confusion.

Sometimes I wish Twilight had never shown her those books…

“Look, all I can say about the artifact is that Project Freelancer has placed great importance on finding it before anyone else does, and anyone who tries to interfere is to be dealt with immediately.” Captain Eberle turned to leave. “Trust me, it’s in your best interest to stay the hell out of our way.”

Eberle shoved aside Caboose as she passed him, knocking the ice cream cone from his hand in the process. Caboose’s posture sank as he looked at the sad piece of ice cream now melting in the hot sand.

“Aw, cheer up Caboose! It’s not like you could have eaten it with your helmet on anyway!” Tucker said.

“Yeah, but I still had dreams…” Caboose said mournfully.

“Well, no dreams for you!”

“Yeesh. What a nag!” Rainbow said as she watched Captain Eberle go. Tucker was doing the same, though Rarity surmised his motive for doing so was different.

“Don’t be mad at the Captain, she’s under a lot of pressure,” Donut said. “This is her first assignment since she was promoted to Captain, and considering how important it is to Project Freelancer, she’s probably under a lot of stress.”

As Captain Eberle continued away towards the main structure of the temples, Rarity watched her, frozen in place. Project Freelancer. Those were the people who were after Twilight the last time she was here. The people who created the monstrosity that foalnapped Sweetie Belle. The people who were now in Equestria up to Celestia knows what. And here Rarity was, right in the midst of one of their secretive operations.

Rarity suddenly found herself feeling far less safe in the encampment - surrounded by so many enemies - than she had earlier. The desert was still hot and arid, but Rarity’s veins were cold as ice.









“HIGAGURGURK!”

The gray Freelancer soldier convulsed and soon enough, Church found himself in a flesh and blood body again. Church looked around. He heard a noise off to his left, but didn’t see anything but the glowing teleporter. Huh. The teleporter node in the cave was turned off. Could Applejack and Pinkie Pie have…?

Church shook his head, clearing it of that line of thought. There was no way those dumb ponies could repair a broken teleporter node. The Freelancer forces here must have just rerouted it to another location. Deciding not to dwell on it, Church turned right and walked down the passageway. After passing a ramp that lead up to the top level and another leading back down to the first, Church entered an area with a computer terminal on the far wall.

A lot was different about Church’s old base in Sidewinder since he was last here: most notable was the sheer number of giant grav lifts that now lined the canyon walls. Church prayed that if one thing had remained unchanged, it would be the password to the computer.

Access Denied displayed itself in big red letters proudly on the screen after Church tried to log on.

“Damn it!”

“Having trouble there, Jake?”

Church turned around and tried not to yelp in surprise at seeing another soldier standing at the entrance to the room. The man was wearing gray armor identical to Church’s host save for a single green stripe along one of his arms. Church shifted sheepishly.

“Yeah man, I just… heh heh... forgot the password to the terminal!” Church said.

“Is that so?” the other man asked, putting a hand to his chin as he studied Church in a way that made him nervous.

“Yeah, what was it again? It was, uh…”

“Fragmentation,” the man answered, still looking over Church with suspicion.

Church gave a nervous laugh. “Thanks man! I didn’t want to get locked out and trip the alarm! Heh heh...” Church turned back to face the terminal.

“Yes, I’m sure you didn’t,” Church froze as the other soldier took another step closer, “after all, you never forget a password!”

Church looked back over his shoulder. “Well... everyone has their off days I guess.”

“No, Jake. Not everyone. Not in the army. We can’t afford to have ‘off days.’” To Church’s immediate alarm, the man’s hand was moving closer to the pistol on his hip.

Church turned back around to face him. “Are you okay, uh…” he hesitated when he realized he didn’t even know the name of the man he was talking to, “...buddy?”

“You tell me. You’re the one acting nervous and… strange,” the man said. “And you may recall the CO told us to report anyone acting strange immediately.”

Alarms were going off in Church’s mind. “Wait a minute, buddy! There’s no need to report this. It’s me, your old pal Jake!”

The other man tilted his head. “That’s another thing you never do.”

“E-excuse me?”

“Call me ‘buddy.’ You do remember my name, don’t you?”

“Of course!”

The other man just stood there, staring at Church expectantly. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“What’s my name?”

“Uh… do you remember your name?” Church asked, clearly grasping. “I mean, the CO said to report anyone acting strange. A guy that can’t remember his own name is definitely pretty strange, right?”

The alarms in Church’s mind increased tenfold as the other man took the sidearm from his waist and raised it at him. Clearly he was through playing games.

“My name.”

“Uh…” Church looked around like a cornered animal. He was running out of options fast. He could always just take a stab in the dark and say the first name that came to mind (like Jon) but there was very little chance he’d get it right. 

With little else to do, Church drew his own pistol and fired a single shot at the other soldier. The other man in gray jumped, but soon realized he hadn’t actually been hit. Instead, the thing that had taken Church’s bullet was a red button on the wall just behind the other man. A button labelled “Alarm System.” Now the alarms in Church’s mind were replaced by very real alarms sounding throughout the entire base.

“Of course. As long as I’m not trying to hit it, I’m a fucking dead eye!” Church grumbled.

In short order, the room became filled as five more soldiers (some in gray armor and some in white) entered. They seemed initially confused at the sight of the soldier with a single green stripe pointing his pistol at the other near-identical soldier, but quickly raised their weapons in the same direction.

“We have an intruder here, boys,” the soldier with the stripe on his arm explained. “He was impersonating Jake!”

Church looked at all of the armored men pointing guns at him and quickly began to realize just how cornered he was. Church wasn’t seeing a way out of this.

“Listen guys, I know this looks bad, but trust me! I used to be stationed here! I was part of the Blue Team!” Church tried to explain.

“That’s impossible,” the man with the green stripe said.

“Yeah, the Blues here were wiped out, I know. But I survived, you can look at the records if you don’t believe me!”

One of the soldiers in white armor deactivated the alarm, returning the room to silence. The man with the stripe tilted his head and looked at Church curiously. This time he didn’t seem suspicious, though. He looked genuinely confused.

“No, that’s impossible because there was never a Blue Team in Sidewinder to begin with! The records themselves say so!”

Church’s (well, technically Jake’s) mouth dropped open under his gray helmet, “But… how can that be?”

“This is a top secret facility. Only Project Freelancer’s highest ranking operatives even know it exists!” the man with the stripe explained. “The only sim troopers who were ever here was a rogue squad of Red soldiers in league with an Insurrectionist group. But those Reds were completely wiped out by a Freelancer. Agent… Wyoming if I’m not mistaken!”

He was wrong. He had to be wrong! It just didn’t make any sense otherwise! Sure, Church remembered when Grif and himself were taken prisoner by the Reds of Sidewinder and how Wyoming had come to kill them, but the rest of it just didn’t add up. As it happened, Church didn’t get a chance to further question the matter with the other soldier.

“TAG! YOU’RE IT!”

One of the men in white armor was abruptly shoved to the ground by an unseen force. Church only caught a glimpse of a black, shadowy figure before it ran out of the room on four legs.

“Shit! He’s not alone!” the man with the stripe turned to face his men. “Get the other intruder!”

The soldier who was knocked down climbed to his feet and he left the room in pursuit of his assailant followed by two others. Only three other soldiers were left now, one of whom was the man with the green stripe.

“Okay, put him in a holding cell,” he ordered, “we’ll figure out exactly who he is and what’s going on!”

As it happened that would not come to pass. A rope tied in a lasso suddenly appeared around one of the other two men, who was then yanked off his feet toward a dark corner of the room. This was followed up by a good hard buck from a pair of black hind hooves belonging to a four legged figure Church had assumed was merely another shadow.

The man in white armor beside him turned around just in time to be tackled to the ground by the same dark, four legged entity. As the shadow proceeded to pummel the hapless soldier with a strong pair of front legs, the man Church had been talking to turned around and took aim with his pistol. That’s when Church saw his opportunity. He may have been a terrible shot with his own weapon, but he didn’t need to be accurate to hit the man in the back of the head as hard as he could. The man with the green stripe groaned in pain and rolled over where he hit the floor. Church picked up his pistol and pointed it at him.

“Out of curiosity: what is your name?” Church asked.

“It’s Jon!” the man said.

“Really? Fuck! I could have guessed that!” Church then knocked Jon out with a swift kick to the head.

With all enemy soldiers incapacitated on the ground, Church looked over to the shadow that saved him. A big pair of green eyes in the middle of the pitch black body looked back up at him.

“Church? That you in there, partner?”

“Applejack?” Church had a hunch, but actually hearing the mare’s voice come from the black as night creature before him was still a surprise. “Uh, why are you…?”

“Covered in black stuff?” Applejack asked, removing her hat and dusting it off, returning some of its natural brown color. “Long story.”

“Actually, I know all about the black stuff… more or less.” Tucker always got covered in it whenever he’d use a teleporter. “What I mean is, why are you here? I thought I told you guys…”

“To stay put. I know.” Applejack wiped her face with a hoof, and some of its original orange color returned along with her freckles. “Church, I may not ever think of you as a friend, but I still want to be able to rely on you to get us through this world. That means you should also rely on us to do our part!”

Church nodded. “Alright. Sounds fair… speaking of ‘us,’ where’s Pinkie Pie?”

Applejack grinned. “Keeping the rest of those fellas busy!”

At that moment, the pony and the human heard a distant scream and a high-pitched female voice proclaim, “You’re supposed to run away from me, sillies! Don’t you know how to play?”

“I almost feel bad for them,” Church stated as he made his way back over to the terminal. 

“By the by, was there a reason you didn’t just use yer ghost powers to escape when all them Freelancer folks had you cornered?” Applejack asked.

Church froze as he reached for the terminal. “Reasons…”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t think of that, did you?”

“Shut up! You can’t prove anything!”

Church wasted no time in typing “Fragmentation” into the password field, letting the topic be forgotten. He gave a little whoop when Access Granted appeared onscreen. Applejack stood on her hind legs and used her front hooves to lean against the wall so she could look at the terminal. Church typed like a man possessed, navigating through screens of information faster than Applejack could even read it.

“What are you doin’, Church?” she asked.

Church spent a few more seconds rifling through data before giving a “hmm” and answering, “I’m checking to see if there’s anything about our friends on the PFL network, but it looks like they’ve been keeping themselves below the radar.”

At the very least, this meant that they haven’t been killed or captured, but it was still frustrating not to know where they were.

“Are there any other bases nearby? Preferably with nicer weather?” Applejack asked.

Church typed more information, and in a few seconds the image of a lush green canyon with a tall metal structure in front of a waterfall appeared onscreen.

“Okay, the closest Blue Base is Outpost 17-B: ‘Valhalla.’ Looks about a day’s drive south from here.”

“Alright! Let’s get in one of them mobile-auto things downstairs and git outta this icebox!” Applejack said.

“Hold on, there’s one more thing I want to check.” 

With a few more swift finger movements, Church brought up the records of all personnel who served at Sidewinder over the last five years. After going through the older files for about a minute, Church gave an annoyed grunt and typed in a name.

“Private Mickey.” He got his answer immediately.

No results found.

Church tried another name. “Private Jimmy.”

No results found.

“Leonard Church.”

No results found.

Church just stared at the screen. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, but they made no move to touch any of the keys. He stayed like this for so long that Applejack had to give him a nudge to bring him back to reality.

“Uh, Church?”

Church stepped away from the terminal. “It just doesn’t make any sense…”










A shrill shriek from Rarity promptly awoke Rainbow Dash from her nap as the terrified unicorn leapt onto her lap and held on for dear life.

“Ack! Rarity, what’s your problem?” Rainbow had been resting in the shade of one of the two stone obelisks that formed an arch at the far end of the ruins. It would seem her well earned sleep was destined to be short lived.

Rarity only raised a quivering hoof as she pointed at something in the direction of the temples. Aggravated, Rainbow Dash looked where she was pointing and soon shared Rarity’s shock.

“Blarg!”

A very large bipedal creature in armor was walking toward them, but it was very different from the humans that they’d met thus far. This creature was taller and more muscular than the armored humans. It had large, ungainly hands with only four digits in which it held a smooth purple rifle. The lower part of its legs were inverted versions of human knees, but what really separated this creature from the humans was its face. 

The blue armor this creature wore did not cover its face, and its face was a far cry from that of the human Freelancer that was killed by the Meta in Dodge City. Instead of having a flat face with smooth skin, this alien’s head protruded forward and had dark, lizard-like skin. A pair of reptilian eyes adorned its face and it had a jaw comprised of four mandibles, each lined with razor sharp teeth. That and the blue “fins” on top of its helmet gave the creature the appearance of a shark walking on land.

“W-w-w-w-what is that?” Rarity asked as the thing got closer, making noises that sounded like a series of “honks” and “blargs.”

The beast was standing over the two quivering mares, clicking its mandibles curiously as it sized them up.

“Puh-please don’t eat me! I taste terrible I promise!” Rainbow Dash begged, holding Rarity tighter.

“Whoa whoa whoa, relax Joey!” Tucker said as he approached the large creature. “I guarantee you they’re not a threat!”

The creature turned toward Tucker. “Blarg?”

“No, they’re not food! They ended up here by accident and we’re letting them stay with us until we can arrange a ride out for them.”

The creature honked in a way that sounded like a question.

“Yes, if we catch an animal that you can eat, I’ll tell you!” Tucker folded his arms. “What are you even doing here? Doesn’t Abraham need you back at the main temple?”

The creature regarded Rarity and Rainbow Dash one final time before coming to some decision and turning to leave with a resigned blarg. Tucker turned to the two terrified ponies.

“Sorry about Joey. He’s not exactly high up on the Elite social caste.”

It took some time before the two ponies had the courage to let go of one another. “What… was that thing?” Rarity asked once she found her voice.

“That was one of the aliens we have working with us here,” Tucker explained.

“One of the aliens?”

“Yeah. They’re called Sangheili, but most people call them Elites. They were the aliens we were at war with until recently. They’re really big into this ancient technology and one of the rules in the Human-Elite peace treaties is that whenever someone finds a new artifact site, excavation teams all need to include members of both species.”

“So… you speak alien?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh, hell no! I failed sixth grade French! I have a translation device in my helmet that displays what they’re saying on my HUD.” Tucker looked around. “But... if anyone asks, I know how to speak some Sangheili. I need to keep up appearances since I’m kinda an ambassador to these Elites.”

“You’re an ambassador?” Rarity asked, making no attempt to hide her shock.

“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of experience dealing with the Elites in the past. Helped one of them out on a religious quest, had a baby with it. Oh! And they gave me this sweet ride! Check it!”

Tucker pointed out a strange looking vehicle through the arch they were leaning against. It was a gray, metal vehicle with a lot of really spiky looking parts surrounding a single large spiky wheel. Rarity and Rainbow Dash nodded their heads in perfect synchronization until something Tucker said caught up with Rarity.

“Wait… you had what with an alien?!” Rarity exclaimed. Suddenly her discomfort around Tucker seemed a lot more justified. Rarity simply made her way to lean against the other half of the arch. She then began rubbing her face with her forehooves. “I am going to get so many stress wrinkles from this trip…” she groaned.

One thing still didn’t really add up in Rainbow Dash’s mind. “The alien’s name is ‘Joey?’”

“Yeah, the Elites all have crazy names that are way too hard to pronounce, so we just give them all human names.” Tucker started snickering. “We told them it’s a symbol of honor and respect in our culture! Elites love that shit!”

Yawning and stretching, Rainbow Dash took a look around as Tucker returned to a crate where he had been looking at a datapad. The area they were resting in seemed to be the main camp used by the human soldiers. Olive green supply crates and equipment cases were everywhere on the side of the stone arch facing the desert. On the side of the arch facing the temples, a couple of jeeps and an ATV sat on metal fixtures in the sand. There was even a particularly large vehicle with treads and some kind of long barrel on top, as well as the alien vehicle Tucker showed them. Lastly, there was a table with a radio connected to a communications tower. The radio was currently being operated by one of the gray soldiers.

Off to her left, Rainbow could see Rarity resting in the shade of the other side of the arch trying to compose herself. Donut sat down beside her. 

“Gee, that looked like quite the fright you had there! You alright there, Miss?” the pink young man asked. Rarity responded with an anxious smile and a nod. “Can I just say that I really like what you’ve done with your mane?”

At this, Rarity gave a more sincere smile. “Oh. Thank you, darling. Though, I must say the weather here hasn’t been particularly kind to it.”

It was the truth. Rarity’s usually expertly styled mane was a frazzled mess. Even dousing it with water and combing it with her hooves hadn’t returned it to its former glory.

“Oh, that’s okay! I have all kinds of hair product you can use to fix it if you want!” Donut offered.

“Really?” Rarity suddenly moved very close to the man in pink. “I… wouldn’t want to impose, but…”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all! I’ll even hold the mirror for you!”

Rarity seemed to grow happier by the second, “Well, thank you Mr. Donut. That’s very generous of you!”

“Hey, do you think after you could help me do my nails?”

“Yes, and I could show you how to do my hooves. I am in desperate need of a hooficure!”

“We can have a full-on makeover session!”

The whole ordeal with the Elite forgotten, Rarity went off with Donut, the pair giggling amicably. Looks like Rarity’s made a friend. Rainbow rolled her eyes as the pair left her sight to engage in their girly activities, leaving the pegasus with Tucker. Perhaps this was her chance to discern more information about these temples. Rainbow gave another stretch of her wings as she approached the man in aqua armor.

“So… Tucker. What else do you know about these ruins?”

“Well, they were built by an ancient race of aliens that went extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago,” Tucker explained, not taking an eye off his datapad. “Their technology was crazy-advanced. They built these giant ring-worlds in space that could end all life in the galaxy in the blink of an eye, so naturally whenever any of their tech pops up on the radar, everyone wants to get their hands on it.”

That would certainly explain why these “Freelancer” people were so keen on finding whatever was in these temples. Rainbow didn’t want to think about something like that falling into the wrong hands.

“Excuse me, sir?” the man in gray operating the radio turned in his seat to address Tucker. “I’ve got someone on the radio here who wants to speak with you.”

“Command?” Tucker asked, putting down his datapad and walking toward the radio setup. 

“Whoever it is, they’re en route to our location.”

Tucker “hmphed” as he leaned over the man’s shoulder. Rainbow decided to take a glance at Tucker’s discarded datapad, hoping to discover more information just like Daring Do would have done. The effort proved fruitless, as all she saw were what appeared to be pictures of human mares (is that what they’re called?) wearing very little clothing. Disappointed, Rainbow Dash decided to follow Tucker to the radio.

“I repeat: this is Albatross 42-Niner requesting permission to land at Dig Site Alpha,” said a voice over the radio.

Tucker reached past the radio operator and held down a button on the radio console. “Uh, this is Sergeant Lavernius Tucker. What’s your business here, dude?”

“Are you in command of the dig team?” the man on the other end asked. He spoke in a serious, intense voice.

“Nope. That would be Captain Eberle, but she’s kinda busy at the moment. However, as her Second in Command, you can talk to me. Now, what do you want?”

“I told you. I want permission to land!”

“Sorry. This is a restricted dig site, so I can’t just let anyone land here who wants to!”

“I know! I have business here! I was sent by Command in response to your CO’s request for additional men and equipment!”

Rainbow Dash watched as Tucker exchanged a look with the man operating the radio. “Did Eberle call for backup?” the man in gray asked.

“She didn’t say anything about it to me, dude!” Tucker spoke into the radio again, “Sorry, can you wait until I get confirmation from my CO?”

“Only if you make it quick. My ETA is five minutes and I don’t have the fuel for a go-around.”

Tucker cursed under his breath. He looked from the man operating the radio to Rainbow Dash.

“Fuck it. I guess he can land for now, right? After all, we let you guys stay with us,” Tucker nodded at Rainbow. “We can always just refuel them and send them on their way if this turns out to be a mistake. Hell, we can even put you three on the ship with them so you can get out of here sooner!”

For some reason, Rainbow Dash had an uneasy feeling in her gut as Tucker reached for the transmitter. She found her thoughts returning to her favorite literary heroine as they had so often done throughout her time amongst the ruins. For some reason, the image of a trap closing in around Daring Do filled her mind’s eye. 

“Okay! Go ahead and land,” Tucker transmitted. “Uh. I didn’t exactly get your name.”

“Just call me CT.”