//------------------------------// // 1 - Heroes // Story: A Friend In Need // by sopchoppy //------------------------------// Twilight levitated the water glass back to the small table across the room while she telekinetically pulled the bed’s blankets up around her. She clicked the room’s light off, but left the light in the bathroom on. With a few minor adjustments to the bathroom door she was finally satisfied with the amount of illumination. She felt a little silly for needing a night-light, but the thought of a pitch dark room after the day she had was not comforting. She distracted herself from those thoughts by using her magic to feel and trace the electric wires connected to the switches. It was clear that these humans had progressed farther in their use of electricity than ponies. Which, now that she thought about the trip back through the city to this place, was more than obvious. She resisted the urge to take more notes, she really needed to get to sleep. At the same time she was a little afraid to. What if she woke up somewhere else again, somewhere even more strange, even scarier? She didn’t know how she got here, so she couldn’t rule it out. Her heart sped up at the thought. What if she was uncontrollably leaping from dimension to dimension, striving to put right the spell that had somehow gone wrong, and hoping each night that the next leap would be the leap home? She hastily sat up and brought a hoof to her chest and took a deep breath and felt herself calm down a little. Then she stopped and looked down at her hoof as she stretched out her foreleg and slowly exhaled. Where?…When had…she learned that? She collapsed back onto the bed in frustration. The reminder that she couldn’t even trust her own mind right now certainly didn’t help her anxiety or her quest to get to sleep. She lit her horn and searched deeply for any signs of lingering spell workings and relaxed a little when she didn’t find any. As far as she could tell, nothing was going to spirit her away to another dimension in her sleep. At least nothing currently active in the room with her. Argh, why did she have to qualify that. Ok, something else, think about something else. Ignoring their technology, only for the moment she assured herself, what about the inhabitants of this, wherever it was that she had come to. Brockton Bay, the one with the scary mask had told her. They had seemed nice enough she guessed, well at least nice enough to her. The one without a name had set swarms of bugs upon a bunch of people. If you ignored how she was using it, it was a fascinating piece of spell work. She would have needed to combine some kind of attraction charm with one for aggression and limited both to only the species she desired and excluding and others of her choosing from it. An incredibly complex working, and she had also seemed to be able to modify it on the fly, which was even more impressive. Maybe she would get a chance to speak with her again, it would at least allow her to modify her notes to include her proper name, whatever it might be. But, hadn’t the one called Tattletale said she was a bad guy? Hadn’t they run away before the knight, Armsmaster, had shown up? She hoped this was some kind of cultural translation error. It must be of some kind, they hadn’t treated her badly. They certainly had been pretty merciless with that Lung creature, but that was understandable. But the one controlling the bugs had attacked other humans as well…She guessed she would have to wait and ask Armsmaster to explain it to her. He had seemed…professional. Yes, she supposed that word was the best fit. Not unlike some of the Royal Guardsmen she knew. Which made sense, as that is what she figured was the closest analog to him in this world. He had tried to be, not comforting, but reassuring a few times she thought. He was a little, but she could tell he had been more focused on other things. That was okay, she understood being a knight was a duty you couldn’t put down for a single individual. The human he had introduced her to, Miss Militia, and wasn’t that a confusing name and possibly another translation problem, had been comforting and kind. Maybe it would be better to direct her questions towards her if she was available in the morning. Twilight had a feeling she would be more patient with them than Armsmaster would be. She was never going to get to sleep if she kept thinking about all these things! She let out another deep breath and stared at the wall. She lasted about a minute and a half before turning her magic back to the task of following the electric wires through the walls. Just until exhaustion totally overcame her. ———————————————————————— …A true true friend helps- ———————————————————————— Twilight woke with a start, heart racing. What? Where?!? She stood up and got caught in the sheets, spun around, rolled off the bed, and fell in a tangled heap into the floor. Something that sounded like a growl issued from the pile of sheets before they erupted into purple flames and disintegrated around the panting unicorn. She turned towards the door as she heard someone chuckle softly. Her thoughts started to clear. Another of the knights of this place was standing there, his armor was different than Armsmaster’s but it had the same style helmet and visor. “Well that’s one way of getting out of bed in the morning. Have to say, after looking at the security footage last night, I wasn’t expecting the cute purple unicorn to greet me by setting her room on fire in a mindless rage.” He was shoved roughly into the doorframe by a woman wearing a skin tight suit with some sort of repeating fractal diagrams covering it. “Leave her alone Assault, no one should be subjected to you first thing in the morning.” She paused for a second, really taking Twilight in, then continued, “Wow. So are you really…Wait, no one should have to answer questions before breakfast. Follow us and we’ll lead you to the grub. Do you like bacon and eggs? I’m Battery by the way.” Twilight screwed her face up in thought. “What’s bacon? You wouldn’t happen to have any oatmeal or daisies?” Battery’s eyes widened a fraction before hurriedly whispering something in Assault’s ear. Assault let out a choked laugh before Battery shoved him into the hallway were he walked briskly away. When Battery spoke again the cadence of her voice was a little quicker than before. “He’s just going to go ahead and see if we have any oatmeal, we probably do. Daises we’re fresh out of I’m afraid. Why don’t you grab a shower real quick.” She gestured to the door across from the bed she had slept in last night. “That always helps me clear my head in the morning. Do you have any clothes?” She looked over Twilight once again. “We could probably adapt something that could work for you.” A befuddled look crossed Twilight’s face. “Clothes? Are we going somewhere formal?” Twilight asked as she started towards the door to the bathroom. “No, but…never mind, no, nowhere formal. Just breakfast and a casual discussion with some of my team mates about what happened last night, no big deal.” Twilight sighed in relief at the words, “Okay, I’ll be just a minute,” and she closed the door behind her. Before she turned on the water she heard Battery quietly mumble from the other room. “Bacon,” Battery sighed, “what was I thinking?” Twilight briefly wondered about the mysterious bacon before dismissing it and stepping under the glorious warmth of the water. This was a good idea. She allowed herself a minute to simply stand there before opening her eyes and looking at the bottles on the shelf. The one labeled shampoo was hardly large enough for her mane, let alone the rest of her and her tail. Hmm, these humans did have a lot less hair overall. She supposed the tiny bottle made sense, but it didn’t help her current situation. If these were guest quarters, maybe…She used her magic to open the bathrooms cabinet and feeling around did find a basket that held 4 more bottles. Pulling them to her, she nodded her head in satisfaction. That should be just enough. Remembering that she had somepony…someone waiting on her she quickly set to work getting the dust and dirt from last night’s adventure out of her coat. She was once again glad that she was a unicorn when she turned off the water to realize there were only two, not very absorbent, towels in the whole bathroom. Using her telekinesis she wrung the water from her mane and tail and pushed as much of it as she could off her coat. Afterwards the towels were just enough to finish the job. She stepped back into the bedroom and gave Battery a pleased smile. “Thank you, I did need that. I feel a little more pony now.” Battery returned her smile and gave a light laugh before replying. “I figured you would, it’s the only way I function after a late night patrol. Come on, chow’s this way,” she said indicating the hallway beyond. As Twilight followed after she once again turned her eyes to the hallways and rooms that they passed. It was very…utilitarian. She wondered if that was due to this being a military barracks of some sort, or if it was a more general human aesthetic. Even for a barracks it was pretty plain. They came to a fairly large kitchen area, the stoves and ovens readily recognizable, and Assault was there. He was wearing a pink apron with a costumed figure painted on the front that looked three sizes too small for him and setting out three large bowls of what her nose told her was oatmeal. In the center there was a large fruit bowl filled with apples. Her mouth salivated. Last night’s snack apparently a fading memory to her stomach. “Good morning ladies, breakfast at the Casa de Assault, is served.” He gave a small bow as he finished and Twilight noticed Battery was holding her hand to her face as though in pain. Battery indicated with her other hand that she should take a seat and Twilight levitated a spoon and dug into the oatmeal with enthusiasm. “Well that answers one question.” She heard Assault say as he sat down opposite her while Battery slipped into the space beside her. “Does Vista know you have one of her old aprons? I thought she burned them all.” “Oh no, I wasn’t going to let something as perfectly embarrassing as this PR fever dream fade into history. I have a whole box of them stashed away, I’m going to hand them out when she graduates to the Protectorate.” “She’d kill you.” “She’ll try. Should be fun.” The conversation didn’t make a great deal of sense to Twilight, not knowing the context, but their pleasant banter was a soothing background to go with her breakfast. While she was eating she spotted a knife block on the counter and pulled a knife over to the table. Selecting an apple from the basket she began to slice it into bit sized pieces to add to the oatmeal. She smiled when she tasted the new combination. Then she noticed that Assault and Battery had stopped their discussion and were looking at her. “Um, would you like some too?” Stupid, where were her manners? She hadn’t even thanked Assault for making the oatmeal. “Yeah sure kid, that sounds great. Battery?” “Yes, that would be lovely, thank you Twilight.” “Ok,” she said happily as she pulled another knife from the block and two more apples from the basket. “Also thank you very much for the breakfast Assault, the oatmeal is very good.” Once she had reduced the apples to a uniform grouping of apple bits, she halved them and levitated them over to her companions’ bowls while floating the knives over to the sink. “No worries, about the easiest thing to make there is. Hmm, the apples do make it better. Nice power you got there,” Assault commented between bites. Power? She hadn’t used any more power than a standard unicorn could handle. A bit more control possibly. Maybe that’s what he meant. “Thank you, it’s part of my talent and I practice control exercises everyday, so it’s not that special really. How about you, what is your special talent?” A confused expression crossed his face, but before he could answer someone else came into the room. He was wearing a bright red suit with stripes down the side that came together to form a V on his chest. Twilight thought it strange that the knights of this city didn’t seem to have a standard uniform, but it would at least help her remember them. “Twilight Sparkle right?” He asked and she nodded. “Velocity. Pleasure to meet you. Hate to interrupt your breakfast, but the Director would like to talk to Assault and Battery about their patrol last night since she’s already on site.” Assault groaned loudly and a grimace flickered across Battery’s face before she stood up. She walked around the table and hauled Assault up as well. “Come on, sooner begun, sooner done, they say.” “How bout never begun, never done?” Assault parried. “Not an option I’m afraid. Twilight, It was very nice meeting you. Hope to see you around in the future,” Battery said with a smile. “It was very nice meeting you and Assault as well, thank you again for the breakfast.” “Catch you later kid,” Assault said, and with that Battery guided a grumbling assault out of the room. Velocity shook his head and looked back over to Twilight. “Looks like you’re about done, wanna go outside? This place can get a little claustrophobic after awhile.” Twilight nodded and quickly levitated all the dishes over to the sink, washing and them setting them up to dry in the rack next to it as fast as she could so she wouldn’t keep Velocity waiting. “Neat trick, but we do have dishwashers you know.” He said lightly. “I’m sure the staff here is kept plenty busy already, without washing up after me as well.” Twilight replied as she settled the last dish. “Th…fair enough, let’s go get some fresh air.” A couple of more corridors and another electrical lift ride later they were standing on the roof of the facility. Twilight quickly trotted over to the edge and gazed out over the water towards the horizon. She took a deep breath and smelled the salt contained in it. It had been a long time since she had seen the ocean, it was beautiful and intimidating in a way. She trotted over to the other side and looked out at the city, raising up and bracing her fore hooves against the railing. The breeze shifted, blowing from shore, pulling at her mane, and carrying an industrial smell. Something rumbled above her and she glanced up at what appeared to be an extremely fast aircraft, impossibly high. There was just so much…different here. A small part of her was excited at the opportunity to learn so many new things, but it paled in comparison to the weight of the uncertainty she had about everything. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, gazing out at the alien city in the distance before she heard a couple of people approaching her. Turing around she saw Velocity escorting a shorter human with a straight black mane and wearing what looked like a formal business suit. Unlike everyone else she had met, this one wasn’t covering her face at all. She wasn’t sure what the significance of that was, but Twilight found it nice to finally see a whole face. “Twilight. This is Dr. Yamada. She’d like to talk with you about last night, and what you do and don’t remember. She thinks she might be able to help you piece some things together.” “Really?” Twilight asked. “That would be great, I’m certainly not making much headway on my own so far.” “I’m pleased to meet you Twilight, would you like to come with me to my office? I find a quiet atmosphere can help, but we could talk here if you would prefer?” “Oh, no, your office is fine with me. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me,” Twilight replied. “No trouble at all. While we’re walking why don’t you tell me about your morning.” She felt a spike of guilt as she remembered how her morning had started, but she guessed that was a good a place as any to start. “It started with fire.”