It wasn’t really a wall, per se, so much as it was an invisible force field. I stumbled back a pace but caught myself while the others rubbed their snouts. I walked to it and pressed against it forcefully to no avail. The others turned and bucked it to no avail. I punched it to no avail… I was getting upset cause I was running out of ways to use the phrase ‘no avail’.
Finally I placed my hands on my hips and considered my options. I could try to blast this thing but that’d be a waste of ammo. I could try to find a portal or opening but that was stupid. This thing could be miles, if not tens of thousands of miles long, given the size of the planet it could be larger.
Well, I could always turn back, that’d at least keep us in a forest, maybe there’s more intelligent life that may have seen my crew. I mean Skippy can’t have gotten that far if, if this was here when he was. But, that’s not a good idea. From what I saw the library was one of the only things there within the forest, as far
as they knew.
The forest was in the center of a large continent, one of thee that were all vertical and separated by oceans. The oceans were simply 1, 2, 3. The world was spherical and orbited a yellow dwarf star, like my own, and had six planets, Home being the fourth from the sun. The others were, again, numbered with ‘Home’ breaking the train only.
Each planet was unique in their own ways, but the first two worlds were rocks, the next world was too chaotic to let life flourish. I assumed, and still do, that solar radiation was the chaos. As for life, I don’t think it can hold life, but let them believe what they want. The other planets, 5 and 6, had several moons and were uninhabitable due to gravity and cold.
But, that’s getting into astrophysics. A fun hobby but not a fan, personally. I’ll just pretend to fly on a ship across the void and not think about how it works at… the… Sorry, I lost you again. I’ll just tell you about the other lands shortly.
Most other locations were estimates on the maps, like the gryphon kingdom and hawkins nation. They weren’t even given sizes since territories were constantly being won, lost, or disowned by their owners, reclaimed by the land, paperwork lost and feuds, or even legal work, holding ownership up. Sometimes entire cities would trade claws several times over a year without a drop of blood being shed.
Then there were the tundras of the north, dry deserts and savannahs to the south, and an ice cap at the north and south poles that were used for easier crossing of land borders than sailing across oceans with unknow sea life waiting to gobble a small ship once it crossed too far out.
Well, to the east was a settlement that we were going to and here I was. Uh, we were. I kicked some dirt at the blasted thing and watched as it passed through, no problem.
“Great! First major challenge, get past the bubble like grass. How do we do it guys?” I asked eagerly, faking enthusiasm.
“I not know, maybe Lom?”
“Hmm, food and dirt go through, maybe hide in food and dirt?”
Retalia laughed at her answer but my mind was turning out ideas hella quick. “I have an idea, good thinking Lom,” I said patting her head, “but we’ve gotta go back to the trees, cover up in leaves, er, your food, and dirt before coming back. We may just pass through.
So, to save obviousness, we returned a few hours later covered with dirt and mud, as well as leaves, twigs, I even grabbed a bush and put in on my armors head calling it my outside mane. They laughed like crazy, it was a good moment. Lom was about to go through by he stopped her, pushing a hoof through and grinning as he walked through it.
Lom followed and I took up the rear, stopping suddenly I began to pull heavily and stopped as Retalia returned through the field and laughed louder than I had heard him laugh before.
“What? What’s up? C’mon, tell me!” I shouted in desperation as Lom trotted back and began laughing.
“Mocha, you tail is stuck in water wall!” she giggled as she ran around me.
“Wha-?” I backed up and into the field and got out of my armor, walked around to see a spot of metal that was exposed on my rear where, apparently, Retalia had put a vine in a nook used to hoist my armor up for repairs, as a joke.
I had to laugh at the cleverness of his joke, but he’d knocked a patch of mud off and exposed that one part to the bubble thing that held us in. I looked up to see a beautiful day and rushed to cover the spot before the mud got too dry, reentered it, then walked through with them behind me.
That problem solved I had to think of a way to get back at Retalia but put a little more focus on the move ahead. I couldn’t spare more probes yet, so we’d have to go ahead blind. So to speak. The plains were wide and beautiful. The greenest grass I think I’d ever seen as far as I could see and wildflowers scattered across the entirety of it all of all colors.
The most vibrant painting ever couldn’t elicit the kind of feeling I’d had at the moment. I took several photos and realized something amazing and drastic. Something dramazing! I had no way to print the photos! I stared at the horizon and practically grit my teeth. When, not if, when my suit finally broke and I couldn’t take it all with me, how was I going to play these memories back?
Sure, the arm cannon and rifle were coming with me since they were modular, the helmet too, since it was slightly large but still light and full of scanners, and the memory crystals, but that was all I could scavenge. Those were all that would last of the thing. I was gonna look like an idiot too, if I wore it all.
I didn’t even include the bulletproof vest option since I didn’t think I’d be in the field this long, and without Techie… Whatever, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. This is amazing, if only I was a grass eater.
I didn’t know what herbivore was. I didn’t know everything, afterall. Even now I don’t, which I am totally okay with. No pony should know everything, or what’s the point of life?
So, we walked through the fields for a couple of days, the weather was nice enough and my suit did me the gift of giving me clean air, while the enchanted necklace gave me allergen and bacterial resistance. Just luck, not planned or fate. A lot of creatures that went to the library would carry germs that would make other creatures ill.
Also, there was a lot of dust, tree pollen, and stuff like that which would make some creatures ill. So, I guess it was kinda planned and maybe a bit of fate that I ended up there… I never thought of it that way. Huh.
On day four I had almost run out of toothpaste flavored health food in my suit and water was scarce out there so I was getting worried. Three more days and I’d be out of water, which by the way was just recycled pee. Yummy, I know... There were filters that cleaned it, yeesh, I didn’t drink it fresh. Ew. Why would you ask that?
Yeah, humans were weird by modern pony standards, but that didn’t mean we were that weird and gross.
So, here we are, back to the tale. Yay.
So, I did the unthinkable, I tried some grass. I had to try something or I’d be dying while they watched. I have to tell you, it wasn’t that bad. It was gross, kinda sweet, and chewing it turned it into a gooshy mush that turned my stomach, and I don’t think it held much nutritional value for a human, but it wasn’t too bad after that.
They were excited and pleased as punch I could finally eat with them… Once I ran out of food. Gods, what I prospect, a starving human eating grass to survive. I did have the option of being carried but it was kinda embarrassing to ask that. I’d save that for a later option.
While we trudged ahead it became really boring for us all. The scenery was always the same and the walking was making us take breaks more often, sometimes an hour, sometimes five. I had talked and listened to them all I could and even music and the occasional movie was getting boring.
The batteries were running down, even with the sun charging it, or should I say slowing the drain on the battery. It just kept getting better and better.
Finally a sign of hope, smoke in the distance. That wasn’t a coincidence, I got really excited and began talking of what it meant; food, water, creatures to trade with, maybe a mode of transportation or a map. Best of all a place to sleep for me, a real bed, or anything that wasn’t in that infernal armor or on the grass in its shadow.
I made haste, a full gallop! The air felt so good on my face, or that’s what Lom said when she ran back to me and tried to encourage me to move faster.
Another fourteen hours. Fourteen hours, of seeing hope on the horizon before I saw a small town creeping up on us. The closer I got the faster I wish I could have walked. Finally we got there, to the border. I was so excited to see another life that I marched right into town and found the main street.
It was a decent sized hamlet, smaller than Ponyville and had simple one story houses, a couple had signs over the entryways which I knew to be shops. An inn and a traveler's store were actually the only shops on main street. It’s kind of annoying how it’s called ‘mane’ street in Equestria now.
I saw doors slamming shut and window being closed as we approached, one horse to each side of me. A gryphon flew from a roof and landed in front of us.
“Creatures, why are you here? Trouble or trade?” she asked raising her right foreclaw a hoof length from the ground to show she was ready to fight.
I actived my external speakers. “Trade and a bed, if that’s not too much of a bother,” I stated flatly.
She growled and hissed at me, at the same time. “I am Rea, guardian of this town. You make trouble, you’re gonna leave in pieces.”
She jumped into the air and flew back to the building, which I noticed to be the sheriff station, but they were called guardians. Same concept, just how names changed over the years. No signage, only a set of three bars on the door.
I looked to my sides to see no horses, then turned to see them behind me, smiling sheepishly. “Scared a bit?”
“Yes, they hunt, eat Poh’Nee.”
“Well, not with me here,” I said raising my rifle and pointing it to the sky. “Boom, right?”
With a bit of confidence they took to my sides again as I made my way to the inn.
It was quaint by any standards and I was impressed to see a simple entryway with a table set a few paces inside the doorway. Two open rooms to the side led to what I assumed were a dining room and a social area. I could make out doors to either side in the back of each room as well.
I was still outside and had to make a choice; leave the safety of my armor and go in or sleep in it again. I took a few steps to the side, turned around, and opened it up, stepping out into the cool air.
I looked back to my armor and thought about Iron Man again. The armor was so similar that if it was possible I bet they could have been sued by the owners of the show; whoever that was. With a last motion of me placing my rifle inside I commanded it to shut. I watched it close from the outside for the first time since I bought it. Cool stuff.
The arms, legs, and torso were open while the helmet rolled back and was easily detachable from within. They folded closed and I heard a slight hiss as it pressurized.
With a bit of pride in my armor choice I turned and went inside the inn with the two in tow. They followed me in and I cleared my throat, then knocked on the table, and after what must have been a food minute called out.
“Hello? Anypony,” I mean, I called out, “anyone here? I’d like a room, I can trade some gems.”
A rustle came from a side room as my first pony came into view, an earth pony, poking its head slowly from around a corner and looking me over, then the two I was with. I smiled and looked to the neutral expressions of my friends, then looked back to where the pony was.
“I-it’s okay, I’m not a danger and my friends here are safe too. We just want a room to stay in until we figure out where to go next, a couple days at the most.”
I heard a deep sigh as the pony walked around the corner and cautiously approached the table with a book on his back. He was brown with a black mane, I remember, but I can’t recall his name. I think it was Josh, maybe Joey, whatever it was I took some solace in the familiarity of his name.
Yeah, get used to a lot of thing being different. Names, places, attitudes, a lot.
So, there I am, with two horses, dresses in combat greens, and a pouch in my hand.
“H-hello, guest. What have you to trade for your nights of lodging at my home?”
“Well, I got these gems from a goblin, I’ll trade you two yellow ones per day.” He took one look of them and his jaw almost detatched it opened so quickly. “In that case, one for a week?”
He looked to me and closed his mouth, wettened his mouth for a second or five of silence between us, before he spoke.
“T-thi-this’... A deal,” he said forcing a smile, still staring at the gem. Reaching his hoof up I bumped it and asked where my room was. He pointed to the door to the left. “Three rooms, they’re all yours, help yourself to anything else in the house too,” he said. I swear his eyes were twinkling.
I wasn’t a fool, I had to know how much these gems were worth. Once we got to a room we decided they would share I sat down with them in a semicircle and dumped out the gems and looked them over. I knew nothing about gemology but I knew my colors, and these were just colored rocks to me that were shiny.
“How much can these be worth? What if he was afraid of it and a mob is gonna form up around us? I think I’m gonna need a sidearm, just in case,” I said to the others who looked at me with curiosity, “it means a small boomer. Be right back,” I said gathering the gems and putting them in my other leg pocket, not the one that had the towel, the other one. Only two legs, remember.
So, I open the door and see the owner jump back, folding his ear down, the one that was pressed against the door trying to listen. “Oh, uh, just checking if you’re doing okay. I can see you’re fine, so I’ll just,” he said quickly as he galloped back to the front. I stood there for a few seconds before pushing through the mental wall of ‘what the heck’ and followed his path to the living room.
He was peeking at me around the corner of the dining room doorway and I could hear him breathing heavily, the table had a small note on it in words, more like scratches, that I read as ‘closed’.
Ha, I got this guy wrapped around my finger. Another gem and I could spend a month here I bet.
I exited to see a few curious children looking at my armor before I coughed softly into my clenched fist and looked at them,smirking. They screamed and scattered, running to various alleys to regroup and tell the tale, I’m still sure.
I walked to my armor and asked for a sidearm, and just like the original Robocop the leg opened to show me a small but powerful pistol. I couldn’t do as much as I’d like with it, but it had thirty rounds. twenty rubber bullets and ten real rounds. More for crowd control than combat, which is what I needed here.
My internal HUD, which is a computer screen in my head, linked to the weapon and secured it to my hand when I picked it up and got a readout of the rounds in it. There were three clips I left in the armor, two were all real, ready to kill, rounds. So if I needed to I could kill up to seventy creatures, if I was ever that good a shot.
It was more for safety than actual harm and don’t worry. I didn’t kill anyone in that town at this point in the story.