Chapter 11
Twilight and Applejack returned to the ship after their adventure outside to the mysterious alien base, finding a most amusing sight. Neglecting to disrobe from their suits, the pair re-entered the Yamato to overhear Rainbow Dash receiving a stern lecture from Celestia. Apollo stood off to the side, not wishing to interrupt.
“And furthermore, not only did you endanger the lives of the gunnery crew, but also that of Twilight Sparkle and Applejack!” Celestia spoke sternly, down at the pegasus, whose head was low, making her appear very small next to her superior.
Not wishing to get in the middle of Celestia’s lecture, The two returning ponies, stood off to the side, trying to remain as casual as possible. Not an easy feat when both were clad in motorized armour.
“However, this is exactly the reason I chose you for the position of Tactical officer,” Celestia added in a far warmer tone.
“Come again, you highne- Captain?” Dash asked.
“You did what you felt was right. If you had not activated the weapons when you did, your friends may very well not have returned,” The captain motioned to the two suited ponies.
“It is for this reason why I give you a commendation. And my personal thank you.”
Dash looked up at her superior, not quite sure whether or not the sudden shift from scolding to praise was genuine.
“Thank you, Captain,” Dash said, feeling safe enough to stand back up properly.
“Now return you your posts. I think we’ve had enough of the ‘Dark Star’ for now.”
“With all due respect, Captain,” Apollo spoke up. “Do you not wish to at least investigate those ruins some more? This is an unrivaled opportunity.”
“I have to agree with Apollo there, Captain.” Twilight stepped forward, the servos in her suit whining loudly. “Who knows what we might find in there.”
“Exactly, who knows what you might find in there,” Celestia responded.
“Huh?”
“You saw those weapons better than anyone, that place is dangerous, I will not allow you and Applejack to risk yourselves again,” she said sternly.
Noticing the disheartened look on her pupil’s face, she made her way over to Twilight.
“I almost lost you, I won’t risk it again,” Celestia said softly.
Twilight appreciated the sentiment, and returned the warm smile. But she would be damned if she gave this up.
“Maybe we can send more out. When we were suiting up one of the ponies said that they had made at least twenty modified EVA suits,” Twilight reasoned.
“That is true,” Apollo added. “As of this moment there are twenty three heavy EVA suits, and five have had their servos installed.”
“I’ll go with them! With me on their side, nothing can touch em!” Dash chimed in, fluttering over to join the others.
“Ah gotta say, even I’m a mite curious about that place,” Applejack added.
Celestia looked down at four sets of pleading eyes looking back at them. Who knew a ruler of one thousand years resistance could crumble so easily at the pleading of some of her friends.
“...Very well. But I want you to take some form of defense,” she reasoned. “Apollo, you know more of the armoury then myself. Do you have any idea what you might be able to use?” She asked, turning towards the white stallion.
A childlike grin stretched across his muzzle as the request was asked of him.
“Oh, I think I’ve got just the thing.”
“Sweet land of Equestria! What in tarnation is that monster?” Applejack gaped at the massive weapon sitting on one of the massive shelves of the ship’s armory. It was certainly nothing like any pony weapon that had ever been designed or built; even with the industrial revolution started by the Yamato, pony weaponry had barely changed in the centuries.
At the most basic level, the Town Watch and Militias still carried single-shot crossbows that had likely seen action during the wars that raged before Equestria’s uniting first from the Hearth’s Warming War against the Windigoes and then the coming of the Princesses to establish modern Equestria after Discord’s Reign of Chaos with their Unity Conquest, before the Minotaur Wars marked the start of the, mostly, peaceful reign of the Equestrian Diarchy.
Many of those weapons were heirlooms, and Applejack knew that because her parents and Granny made sure to keep them trained and practiced in how to maintain, load, and shoot the large crossbow hanging over the fireplace. Old Black Smoke was said to have seen all of the wars in Equestria’s history, and it probably had.
As Applejack studied the weapon, she could tell right away that it used some kind of fancy bullet for ammunition, and that meant it was a gun. Not a Shoot Stick like the Regular Army, but an actual gun like those used by the Frontier Rangers and Royal Guard.
Of course, trying to compare the black powder flintlocks and caplock rifles of the Rangers and Royal Guard to this monster weapon was like trying to compare a statue of the Captain to the real thing. It always fell short.
Not even the larger cannons used for sieges and dealing with large monsters compared properly to the weapon on the shelf as Applejack took in the finer details.
Three large barrels dominated the design and while Applejack was not as mechanically inclined as some ponies, not even as interested as Applebloom was on occasions, she could easily pick out the fact that the barrels rotated from somewhere in the main body of the weapon, where it took only a small jump of logic to figure out the rest.
The large exposed belt was clearly an ammunition feed, taking the large bullets into a port on the side from a large hopper opposite the weapon, and the arrangement easily told Applejack that the hopper was also a counter-weight to the weapon.
All in all, it looked big, mean, and yet for the life of her Applejack had no idea how such a monster weapon could be used by a pony.
Apollo’s voice brought her out of her studies of the weapon, “That, Applejack, is the Compact Assault Combat Cannon Mark Seventy-Seven.” He pointed to a stencil on the side of the weapon’s body that declared quite proudly in white paint CACC-77 to anyone who cared to look.
“We were planning on some sort of nickname, but your friend Pinkie Pie found it earlier and solved the problem for us.” He pointed to pink writing underneath that declared with equal pride Party Cannon to any who cared to look, “I don’t mind it, but some of the others wanted to call it the Devastator or the Fury.”
Applejack shook her head, “Pinkie’ll say that all cannons are useful for are parties. But I know I don’t want to be invited to whatever party that cannon will be a part of.”
Apollo nodded, “True, but it’ll be what the larger excursion party will be bringing just in case there’s any active defenses inside, or possibly hostile defenders. Which only leaves the question of which pony gets to carry and use it.”
“I volunteer!” Rainbow Dash immediately held up her forehoof in the air, flapping above the group to gain more visibility, “I’ll take it! As Tactical Officer it’s my responsibility to protect the others!”
Celestia chuckled lightly, eyes dancing with sly humour. “I’m more than certain that you would be more than enthusiastic in making use of the Party Cannon, however the pony who will be carrying and using this weapon will be Apollo.”
“What! Why do you get the cool weapon?” Rainbow demanded as Apollo smiled.
“One, I trained with the prototype and the first production model, which also happens to be this weapon. Two, we scavenged ammunition supplies from the ship’s fighters for this weapon, and we can’t let that ammunition go to waste.”
“So why not train me then? It can’t be that hard to use.” Rainbow pressed as she watched Apollo remove a modified EVA suit helmet from a nearby box.
“This helmet is from one of the modified, powered EVA suits for Pegasus usage. Take a look.” Rainbow Dash took the helmet and blinked at the weight as Apollo nodded, “We’ve had to pack a lot of new electronics into it, just allow a pony to fire this monster. Key to it is what the engineers and technicians are simply calling the Firing Bit.”
Everyone save for Celestia cocked their heads in confusion as Apollo took the helmet back and flipped it over to show a visible extension that would clearly go into a pony’s mouth, “This. A simple pressure trigger but the helmet has to transmit the firing signal from this into the suit’s connection to the gun, and then the gun has to successfully fire.”
“It seems simple enough.” Twilight mused, “But I’m guessing the usage is more complicated?”
Apollo nodded, “Exactly. This weapon is designed to be slung over a pony’s back and plug into the suit, and it swivels slightly left, right, up and down, by following its wielder’s eye movements, to allow the weapon to remain on target but the real problem is the recoil.”
He stared directly at Rainbow Dash, “Even if you were trained to use it Rainbow, all it would take is a short burst lasting only a few seconds to send you flying into a wall. You simply are too light and small to carry, aim and most importantly, brace effectively to manage the recoil of what the technicians say is thirty-five millimetre ammunition.”
Rainbow tried to retort, but fell silent. She couldn’t fault Apollo’s reasoning; the gun was huge and so was the ammunition, and while Rainbow was proud of her physique and athleticism, she could easily see that a pony would need to be a lot bigger than her to be able to wield that weapon.
She floated back to the deck, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She agreed, before she made a ‘hmph’ sound, “That doesn’t mean I have to like it!”
Apollo shook his head with a grin, “Don’t worry Dashie, I’m sure we’ll get something more fitting for you up and running soon. Who knows? This little excursion might give us access to something that can help with that.”
Dash tried to hide her blush at the thought of that, even as a small voice wondered what kind of weapon could match what she could do with the Yamato’s guns.
The suit up was fairly straightforward, Because Twilight and Applejack had kept theirs on, they were only checked for damage while Rainbow and Apollo were fitted.
It was then it became apparent to Rainbow just how much her small stature was a hindrance. The barrel of the suit had far too much space on either side of her body. While a pain for the fitters, Rainbow enjoyed having the extra wing room.
What she wasn’t so keen on, was the padding that had to be placed under her hooves in order for her legs to properly fill the suits limbs. By the time the helmet was fitted, she had managed to ‘grow’ another three inches.
Thankfully, the attention was taken off of her when the overhead crane jangled into position over Apollo. Hanging below the crane was the CACC-77, or as it was far more suitably named, ‘The Party Cannon.’
The chains quivered under the weight of the armament. Dash cringed within her suit, she wasn’t even the one that was going to carry it, and it looked painfully heavy. Apollo didn’t even flinch, or at least, it didn’t look like he did inside the suit, Rainbow couldn’t tell.
The fitter ponies carefully guided the huge weapon into place on the stallions back. Rainbow saw his legs bend under the strain, and a grunt sounded through the suit. The servos kicked into gear and she saw Apollo stand back up to his full height.
The latches on the inside of the brace clicked and locked into position on the outside of his suit. Apollo shifted from left to right, causing the gun to swing around slightly, always reorienting to the forward position.
The barrels of the weapon spun as bullets traveled along the open belt until the first bullet entered the weapon and with a loud click the barrels jerked to a stop.
A technician checked the empty belt section that allowed the weapon to load the first round and expertly removed it from the weapon before slapping Apollo’s side twice and the pony nodded in his suit.
“Locked and loaded,” he chimed through the radio.
The howling winds on the surface buffeted the four ponies as they trudged through the ash towards the complex. With twice as much suit to carry equipment, each pony (minus Apollo for obvious reasons) had been outfitted with spare air canisters.
Applejack had offered to carry Apollo’s seeing as she had to muscle strength to carry the spares. When the posse had neared the hill that the Yamato had ‘removed,’ the time they had lost carrying the extra weight had been more than made up for by walking through one of the trenches the Yamato had carved into it.
Being in the centre of the utter decimation and destruction caused Rainbow to lag behind at the damage she had caused. An entire land formation had been altered from sheer force alone. This wasn’t just a trench, it was a valley.
She was so taken in by it, she didn’t realize the other had arrived at the other side and were waiting for her.
“Dash, you okay?” Apollo asked through the comms.
“Y-yeah it’s just. I did this... It’s a lot to take in,” she stammered.
“Well if working on the Yamato has taught me one thing it’s this,” Apollo replied, looking back to the ship on the horizon. “She’s got one nasty temper.”
What remained of the journey was fairly silent, save for when Twilight nearly fell in an ash drift. Keeping a cautious eye out as they entered the compound, Apollo let out a loud whistle.
“Geez Dash, you really did a number on this place,” he remarked, looking around.
“I made it safe!” she retorted.
“You made it melt,” Twilight jumped in.
“You made an entrance!” Applejack called, looking down inside of a ruined building.
The group brought themselves over to the apple farmer. Sure enough, the decimated building had given way to a staircase, leading down under the ash and soil.
“Ladies first,” Apollo joked.
“Giant gun wielding ponies before beauty,” Dash responded, fluttering her eyelids behind her visor before realizing how futile the gesture was.
Apollo snorted, making his way through them and mounting the broken wall with some difficulty, before trudging down the stairs.
“It’s clear! The stairs can take the weight.” he said as he jostled the heavy weapon around on his back.
“I’m glad these suits have got reinforced spines, otherwise I might be seeing a whole lot more of Fluttershy,” he commented off-hoofedly, as the girls made their way down.
The name of her oldest friend being spoken caused Dash to pause. Last she had seen of her yellow friend, she hadn’t been coping too well with the stressful environment of the medicinal wing. She could only imagine what the sound of the cannon fire might have done to her.
Even though the surface of the Dark Star was dark, there was still enough light to navigate around. Underneath the ruins however, very little light reached into the basement.
The lamps on the suits, warmed into a sweeping glow, covering the dark corridor in warm light. The needle on the power gauge inside the helmet wavered slightly, before coping with the extra strain and normalizing.
“We’ve got an hour of air in the suits, plus two more for the canisters. With the drain from both the servos and the lights, we’ve got about three hours left of battery power,” Twilight summarized.
Dust and ash speckled their visors as they slowly made their way deeper into the alien tunnels. It was a jarring experience to go from the howling winds of the surface to the near deathly quiet underground. The only sound, being that of the ‘Whine, chunk, chunk’ of their suits mini-motors.
Even though she would never admit it, Rainbow Dash was grateful for the huge cannon on legs walking beside her. Not that she was scared or anything, but the oppressive silence was starting to get to her.
Eventually, after rounding a corner and descending another flight of stairs, their expedition was halted the ancient enemy of progress.
A locked door.
The ‘door’ was less a door and more a sliding wall. Easily a few feet thick and over a dozen tonnes the door was not going anywhere soon. It had withstood both the ravages of time, and the fury of the Yamato, it was plain to see that it was one tough cookie.
“Well that’s brilliant!” Rainbow Dash said exasperatedly. “What now?”
“You’re pretty good at levitatin’ Twi. Wanna give it a crack?” Applejack offered.
The unicorn hesitantly nodded, before a glow kicked up from behind her visor.
“I’ll try.”
The specially designed ‘horn space’ on the crown of her helmet began to glow as it channeled Twilights magical energies. A purple glow wrapped around the doors size and began to tug it upwards.
GROOOAANN, CRE-CRE-CREAAAK
The heavy door protested loudly. Its loud manifestations of discomfort sounded through the chamber, sending chills through the spines of everypony present, much the same way nails on a chalkboard would.
Twilight only managed to lift the mighty door a few inches before a loud clunking echoed from somewhere above it, and it’s upward journey quickly halted.
Beginning to sweat, Twilight harness the latent power that the Dark Star fed into her. Even with the beneficial supercharging, the door only moaned loudly under the added strain.
Pushing harder, the door let out a worrying series of pained creaks. The ceiling around the top of the door began to warp, but the door itself refused to budge.
An acute pain built within Twilight's horn. She had only ever come close to burning her horn out twice. Once when she discovered her Cutie mark, and the other when she had lifted the Ursa Minor out of Ponyville.
Not wishing to damage her horn, she reluctantly let go of the door. The huge steel construct fell back into its previous position, sounding a colossal bang through the entire room.
“Jeez Twi! Give a mare some warning next time!” Rainbow called from her position behind Apollo.
“Scare ya did it Dash?” Apollo smirked, unable to look around due to the Party cannon blocking his vision.
“I wasn’t expecting it was all!” her voice cracked, and her cheeks blushed under her helmet.
Heavy panting cut the chatter as Twilight spoke up. “It’s no use, the bearings have seized. Without them, I’m basically trying to lift the whole building above us up as well.”
“You did well Twi, we won’t hold it against you,” Apollo replied reassuringly.
“Well what now? We can’t go forward, and most of the other buildings looked pretty empty,” Applejack said, clearly annoyed at having to return to the Yamato so soon.
Apollo sized up the door, before speaking. “Twi, did you manage to figure out how thick it was?”
“Huh? Of course, its actually only about ten inches thick,” the unicorn replied, having ‘felt’ how large the door was when lifting it.
“Hmm,” the stallion mused. “I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem much longer.”
“What are you up to. Apollo?” Rainbow asked accusingly.
The gun-toting stallion responding by kicking his suit into combat mode. Retinal scanners within the helmet fired up, locking onto his eyes and maneuvering the huge gun ever so slightly.
“You might wanna stand back,” He suggested, to which the mares wisely agreed.
Apollo’s hooves shifted into a wide stance. His head ducked slightly and the suit locked up. The three point mount began to rotate, the small motor beginning to whine.
The cannon swiveled to point dead center on the door. The pitch of the whine increased and the barrels spun into a blur.
Of course Rainbow was bracing herself. But for a second time that day she vastly underestimated the alien technology they possessed.
The dark corridor was filled with blinding light from the muzzle flash. The sound was like tearing fabric, with the undertone of a constant buzzing. The force from the gun kicked up a layer of ash around the room, coating the walls.
The damage was something else. The bullets came so thick and fast that it was almost a laser. Even though Apollo had trained with the gun even he struggled to keep it on target. The bullets struck the door wildly, unable to keep focused.
This mattered little however as the sheer force from the weapon punched through the door with ease, turning the door into an oversized sieve.
The stream of fire stopped, and the barrels began to slow, their mouths glowing orange and acrid smoke wafted around the room.
“Dude, that was awesome! You gotta teach me how to use it!,” Dash squealed with fan-girl enthusiasm.
Twilight stood there dumbfounded. “That’s horrifying!” she said in disbelief.
“A weapon capable of such utter destruction, that can be carried into battle!? That’s terrifying!” she said with genuine fear in her voice.
Apollo turned towards her, his eye movement still commanding the cannon. Through his emotionless visor, and with the massive cannon unintentionally pointing at her, she felt herself go weak in the legs.
“A necessary evil,” he replied, before turning to Applejack.
“Would you kindly, AJ?” Apollo said, motioning to the door.
Applejack said nothing as she approached the ravaged door. Finding a particularly weakened section, she spun round and delivered a powerful buck to the door.
The damage, plus the suit’s servos and the latent magic meant the construct didn’t stand a chance. A small segment of metal blew inwards, allowing an access point for the team.
Aside from the light being let in through the hole, the room was almost completely pitch black. The lamps were invaluable, but failed to pierce more than a few body lengths into the dark.
All the while, Twilight kept glancing over to Apollo. Or more specifically, the large gun he sported. She knew Equestria had guns, such as flintlocks and muskets, and that they had obviously been reverse engineered from the Yamato, the idea of using one didn’t sit well with her.
Applejack remained impartial. She understood the necessity of weapons, and would gladly use one if it meant keeping both herself and her friends safe. But she wasn’t overly enthusiastic about them either. Big Macintosh had always been the one to gush over Old Black Smoke.
Rainbow on the other hoof, was on the entirely opposite side of the field. Never before had she seen so much concentrated awesome in one machine, (Other than the Yamato itself, which was less awesome, and more scary powerful.) and she desperately wanted one for herself.
Not that she was any psycho-lunatic, but if Apollo wasn’t around, her friends needed somepony to protect them. And Rainbow Dash would do anything to keep her friends safe.
Eventually, the group made their way into a mostly untouched room. The ash and dust had failed to penetrate this far down, leaving the room in almost pristine condition.
As the group stepped into the room, the sweeping lights quickly revealed its purpose as Twilight stepped on something that made a sharp crack. She lifted her hoof quickly to reveal a broken piece of strange jewellry. Her light then shone onto what to her eyes was some sort of carrying case, filled with a random assortment of bizarre objects.
“Huh, don’t think whoever made the Yamato made these.” Applejack commented as she picked up a rather strange looking cup that was pointed on the bottom.
“Now how in tarnation are you supposed to put down something like this?” She asked, carefully placing it back on the ground and everyone watched as it tipped over with a sharp clink, “See? Makes no gosh darn sense to make a teacup like this!”
“Maybe they had a way of putting it down without spilling tea, if they did indeed drink tea, and not something like blood or liquified minerals.” Apollo commented, before shining his lamps onto more objects strewn about the room and the rotted remains of what could only be some form of couch or chair.
“We’ll get some of these on the way out. Twilight, collect the most intact and place them somewhere near the entrance so we can recover them later.” He ordered and Twilight nodded, trotting around the room to pick up the cup Applejack was now deliberately playing with, trying to get it to stand on the tapered point on the bottom.
Along with a few pieces of strange jewellry, some kind of crystal that made a soft chiming sound, and what she assumed was some kind of piece of cutlery, not a random piece of junk metal, it took only a few seconds to gather and place a small, neat pile of artifacts near the entrance and mark it with a flare crystal.
Confident that the massive background magic would keep the flare alive while they were spelunking, the group headed through an open doorway that wasn’t choked with rubble and ash, the only sounds being the whir of their suits and the heavy hoof falls of their movement.
Most of the doors were locked, with no visible means of opening them, and with time and air at a premium, the group was forced to simply leave them alone. The ones that were open were often empty or as to be expected from being buried under ash and rock, caved in.
One loose door nearly spelled disaster, when Rainbow managed to tug it loose the group was nearly buried in a flow of silt-like fine ash that flowed more like water than mineral detritus, and that prompted the next loose door to be carefully opened at a distance by Twilight.
Thankfully no ash came rushing out and the group made their way inside to reveal row upon row of empty shelves and a few scatterings of…
“Weapons…” Twilight said in a hushed voice as Rainbow moved near one of the objects and poked it with a hoof. Obviously, the device did nothing except shift slightly, much to Twilight’s relief.
“Now this...this is awesome.” Rainbow stated with a smile in her voice. Before anyone could stop her, she wrapped a forehoof around the barrel of the weapon and hefted it up so that it was illuminated by the lights, “Look at this! I bet you could fight a dragon with this thing!”
She was not far off the mark, Applejack mused to herself, the massive weapon was longer than Rainbow, but no where near the behemoth size of the Party Cannon.
Where the CACC-77 was huge, bulky and stubby. This gun sported only one barrel, which was massively long, and perfectly machined. Four long spines extended past the barrel, and the light that shone onto the space between the spines shimmered and warped just enough to be noticeable.
A large port was visible on the side and Rainbow shifted the weapon to look at it, “Aw, looks like there’s no batteries!” She was about to put the weapon down when an idea entered her head, “Hmm, I wonder…”
“Better not be planning something stupid Rainbow.” Applejack warned as Rainbow set the weapon down and began looking around the shelves, going from one to the next, until she suddenly whooped in victory and came back carrying a cylindrical object that gave off a purple glow through one end.
“Found it!” And before Twilight, Applejack, or Apollo could stop her, Rainbow slammed it home into the port. Instantly glowing lines spread out from the port across the entirety of the weapon and it began to unfold and shift as a soft hum began to sound in the room.
Panels shifted to reveal exhaust ports behind the spines as the removed panels began to spin along the barrel while three long fins suddenly flared and the weapon began to float off the ground, purple light coming from their rear as they shifted backwards and locked into place with loud clicks.
At the rear, the back section opened up to reveal four cylinders that also began to spin in a circle, but at a slower speed, crackling purple electricity arcing between them while the cylinders began to emit a purple glow through slits in their sides as something began to spin inside each of the cylinders as well.
Finally, sections shifted away to reveal complicated looking grip underneath and a side area reformed into a series of intricate lenses and small spines attached to a small red globe as the weapon floated near Rainbow Dash and emitted a soft green light that traced across her suited body as everyone held their breath.
The resulting series of chirps and beeps it suddenly sounded nearly scared everyone out of their suits and even Apollo reflexively locked the Party Cannon onto it as the grip suddenly changed into something that a pony could comfortably use while long cables snaked out and locked onto Rainbow’s suit.
And then...nothing. The weapon remained silent save for the humming it was now constantly emitting. Rainbow curiously tugged at one of the cables and noted that they didn’t budge, “Huh, guess I get to keep it,then.”
“Tartarus damnit Rainbow Dash, could you not go out of your way to activate some weird alien doohickey that could more than likely kill us all! I think I nearly aged to be as old as Granny watching that thing do...that!” Applejack demanded as she waved a hoof at the alien weapon, which chirped and shifted to point at her, “Dang it! See!”
“Aw, you’re just jealous that I got a big alien gun before you did!” Rainbow stated as she grabbed the grip assembly and aimed the floating gun towards the far wall, “Besides, this thing probably doesn’t have any ammo to fire! Watch!”
She yanked the trigger and before everypony watching, the small cylinders suddenly increased speed until they were a purple blur as the gun whined loudly and motes of light suddenly flew into the space between the barrel spines as a purple dot formed, before with a bass shriek, a crackling bolt of purple energy was fired, the weapon rocking back as the fins glowed brighter to handle the recoil as the bolt struck the wall and exploded, sending a cloud of dust and ash into the faceplates of the group as an unlucky shelf collapsed with a deafening crash.
It had taken barely seconds for the gun to do all that as Rainbow stared in silence, before swallowing noisily, “Okay, I guess it does have ammo.”
“Well, you wanted a big gun Rainbow Dash, now you’ve got one.” Apollo stated blandly, before waving a hoof at the door, “I guess you won’t mind taking the lead then.”
Rainbow was now very glad that no-one could see her face as she lead the group out of the room and back into the hallway.
The rest of the journey had been fairly quiet. With their air and power supply diminishing by the second, the party only had half an hour before they had to return. A few rooms after the armoury, they entered a very utilitarian space.
The floor was metal grating, the holes within showing through to the dirt underneath. Four huge machines sat in each corner, filling the room with their obnoxious size. A quick inspection showed that they were in fact generators. Against all probability, two were still running, albeit with some loud knocks.
“Look here,” Apollo called from the side of the room, gesturing to an open panel.
Within, many switches and buttons were housed. Even though all the labels were in some odd language, it was fairly obvious to assume that green meant ‘on’ and red meant ‘off’.
And the box very clearly displayed nearly all of its switches set to the off position.
“It looks like a circuit breaker,” Twilight said, looking over the panel.
“What makes you say that?” Applejack asked.
“I’ve read about them. In large, fancy buildings, like the hotels and casinos in Las Pegasus, they use electric lights in place of arcane candles. Whenever there’s a power surge, the circuit breakers are tripped, stopping all the lights from being damaged,” She recited in a perfect lecturers tone.
“So how does that help us?”
“If we turn them back on, they might restore power to some of the facility. Maybe even life support systems!”
Applejack put a hoof to her helmet, “So how do we turn it back on then?”
“Like so!” Twilight smiled, as her magical glow enveloped every unpowered switch and flicked them.
The generators in the room groaned in protest as they began to be sucked dry by the dozens of lights and monitors activating. Sadly, a quick glance at the gauges inside the helmet told them that it had not infact activated any means of breathable atmosphere.
This did little to dampen Twilight’s mood however, as she experienced the same glee she felt when she had been allowed access to the Yamato’s systems.
“Oh look! Data!” she salivated, moving over to a nearby computer.
“Careful Twi! We don’t want you doing anything stupid. We’ve had enough of that for today,” Apollo said, shooting a glance over to Rainbow, who was still babying her new toy.
As expected, Twilight ignored him, and began to frantically tap away on the terminal in a way that only a pony who had spent countless nights upon one instead of sleeping could. It was difficult for the mare, the interface was entirely different, and she was unable to read anything it displayed.
Perseverance won through though, as random clicking eventually brought up a series of images.
Most of the picture were of little interest. Being of rock samples or boring regions of deep space. That was until she found one particularly familiar looking one.
The photograph displayed a blue marble, hung in the middle of space. Patches of organized white clouds and random green continents covered it.
It was plain to see. It was a picture of Equus.
Scrolling through even further, she noted that the amount of pictures of her home began to increase. With every new picture, the camera taking the photograph got closer and closer to the planet, until it could easily see the lights of cities at night.
“W-what is this?” She stammered. “Were they. Were they watching us?” Her voice quivered through the radio.
Apollo approached, to stand beside Twilight. It was obvious to see that she was understandably creeped out. Like if you found pictures of yourself in someone elses photo album that you don’t remember taking.
The stallion stood silent for a moment, weighing his options. “I think it’s time to go.”
“W-what! why? We’ve still got ten minutes. Don’t you wanna know why they were watching us?” Dash asked.
Apollo looked back over to Twilight who was now looking around nervously. While he did want to figure out this rather unsettling discovery, the safety of his crew always came first. Both physical and mental.
“Excursion team to Yamato. This is First Officer Apollo, beginning our return now.”
The return back was a speedy one. Apollo had read the files on all of the elements and although Twilight was an exceptionally skilled mare, she had been known to fly off the handle at the littlest things. Relying on her to open doorways in abandoned alien ruins when she was jumpy was not ideal.
Rainbow Dash had managed to secure some more ammo for her gun. Delivering a power-armour aided stomp to a locked box she had overlooked before she found more of the strange purple batteries.
Upon re-entering the Yamato, the four had quickly stripped out of their stuffy suits. Rainbow’s rifle was reluctant to let go of the armour, but once Rainbow had stepped out of the suit, the gun automatically detached, and laid still, chirping until she picked it up.
The artifacts that the expedition had recovered had been unceremoniously dumped outside the research labs, leaving Twilight to retire to her room.
“I’ll be in my room, if you need me. Tell Celestia it was an... Eye opening experience,” She had said. Now, Apollo, Rainbow and Applejack had to face the snore-fest that was debriefing.
“So there was nothing dangerous within the compound?” Princess Celestia inquired.
“No ma’am, aside from Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash here,” Apollo smirked. Having been the ‘defacto leader’ of the team, he answered most questions, with Applejack verifying his claims.
“Hmph,” Rainbow pouted, clearly not enjoying having all her old boasts thrown back at her as telling jabs. The pegasus tried to contribute to the session as best she could, however being prone to hyperbole as much as she was, most of her claims were taken with a grain of salt.
“And you said Twilight has not joined us because of ‘disturbing imagery’?” The captain asked.
“Pictures of Equus, ma’am. She seemed thoroughly unsettled by them,” Apollo confirmed.
“You wouldn’t think a couple pictures of her home would creep her out that much,” Rainbow muttered under her breath.
Unfortunately for Rainbow, the princesses keen hearing picked up on that, causing the conversation to swing over to her. “And I believe you found something as well.”
“Huh?” Oh yeah, I picked up this neat gun and it like ‘attached’ to me or something. It was really cool,” Rainbow smiled.
“Yeah I don’t think I want to learn how to use the Party Cannon now, I got my own,” she said, looking over to the weapon which was propped against the wall.
“Hmm indeed,” Celestia responded. “I can only imagine that such a unique weapon needs a name? You can’t just keep calling it ‘the gun’ now can you?”
“Yeah I’ve been thinking about that,” Dash said, still eyeing the rifle.
“What do you think about, Violet Tempest?”
“Fitting,” Apollo commented, looking over at the purple highlights on the gun.
“So what now Cap’n?” Applejack asked.
Celestia looked down at her crew, a determined look in her eye.
“We keep travelling.”
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I wonder if the alien gun is alive like the Yamato? Possbly, but not in the same way? Sentient weapons are go!
3097730 the gun is not sentient, its merely noisy.
Ah yes, a full auto party cannon.
Have a video.
3097756 basically
Please! More! MORE! I am LOVING THIS!
Mobile weapons platforms ponies, all of my yes.
The last (first? Yeah, first) thing Dash needs is an anti-tank rifle.
Great chapter
I'm really enjoying it so far.
Now this is just an idea; probably something you could have happen later on in the story. Have them encounter the humans. Like the Yamato gets caught up in the middle of a space battle just when they come out of warp. Humans vs. some made-up alien race. hope this idea interests you and keep up the good work
Hmm, glad I put my chapter out recently, otherwise I'd be concerned that someone would think I stole the idea from you.
Twilight seems a bit jumpier and nervous than usual. She's faced a rampaging Ursa Minor and ran from a hydra, but realizing that the aliens who built a base in your start system were also watching the planet with sapient life unhinging her? Seems a bit exaggerated.
3106747 an Ursa minor in your face, while confronting, can be dealt with. Being watched without you're knowledge by someone you don't even know? that's unsettling.
3107471
That's the thing, though; she's known there's been sapient alien life "out there" for a while, she's traveled on a ship made by some. I think it's not that big of a revelation that some of the aliens might monitor the planet, the same way she would study a bird or something. Or is that what you're going for, twisting things around so that Twilight now has to see the sometimes heartless scientific method from the other end of the scalpel?
3107532 exactly, she wasn't to phased by the Yamato as it was being controlled by ponies. But now she has discovered something else, something she has no knowledge of. It frightens her
3010309 went and looked that up. While interesting, its not what I've got planned. But it is definitely a concept worth exploring...
3097756 Well at least they don't have a Metal Storm with either subspace ammo storage, or regenerating ammo, and if it were the 40mm grenade launcher variant, well, nothing would remain in the direction it's being fired.
Read the chapter, found it interesting, and am damn glad she isn't getting anything close to one of my RP characters weapons, a four barreled caseless assault rifle that has a fire rate of 40,000 50mm rounds per minute, which contain: Thermite, heat activated hydrochloric acid, a hydrogen cyanide infused tip, are armor piercing, have a rapidly fulminating mercury compound that activates upon being fired, and carry an electro magnetic pulse.
3163664 did you just comment on my fic to shamelessly brag about something that has nothing to do with it entirely?
I like you
3163698 Nope, just not-so-subtly trying to plant ideas in your head, is it working? On a Sci-Fi-er note, Quantum Shielding. That is all.
3163701 not really, and why have quantum shielding when you've got wave motion shields and Armour as thick as a battleship anyway?
3163703 Because it allows you to get non-Newtonian in your energy reactors. That and it's more effective at deflecting positron beams than the wave motion shields, and lasts indefinitely.
3163706 you realize that I can't just insert some random tech into a pre-established and quite well know space craft just because it may be better.
And don't think the WM shields are pushovers. They can take some serious beatings
3163749 I know that, I'm merely stating that if you introduce any alien races not in the series, you can have them using something like that as reactor shielding, coz once you get into Wave Motion Engine levels of power output, that's essentially all it can be used for.
Here's an apt explanation of the Wave Motion Gun: The Wave Motion Gun, because fuck you.
3163760 the Wave motion gun: For when it absolutely, positively, must die.
3163766 I still say my motive for firing the Wave Motion Gun is better, you can't argue with that logic. But here's another: For when you hate something so much you want it to be erased from existence.
This story is awesome. Simple as that. MOAR!
3206817 chapter 12 is being written as of this very moment
3206826
soloprpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/yes-300x225.jpg
ugh why is KSP being dragged into this?!?!?!
3308055
Haha. I don't care.
3163766 A bullet has your name on it. A grenade is addressed "To whom it may concern." A battleship shell is a general announcement. The WMG is a "FUCK YOU!".
WHERE IS ANALYZER!! HE IS MY FAVORITE ROBOT!!!
She doesn't know what she's saying/thinking. She will eventually, and then her tune will change dramatically.
By the way, the fact that whose-name-I-forget is in Yamato's systems means that, if the ponies ever threaten humans, it's probably kill all the ponies on board, even if it must self destruct. Though, venting all the airlocks and calling for marine boarders to come clear the decks would work, too.
Maybe because you're a sapient aliens species? Sherlocks...
If you ponies have minds that weak then you don't belong in space. I just realized I mentioned that in another fic by this author. Huh, small internet.
Ah, yeah. I see your point now.
Another thing that goes with paragraphing; you often break a single character's speech into two paragraphs when you add an "action" sequence. Like so. (In this case the "action" is that Dash looks at the weapon.)
By doing this I've often had to reread a bit to realise, no, it is not, in fact, a different person speaking, but still the same one.
Simply put, this is what that speech segment should look like. (Though I'd personally add more description of gestures and her expression to make it more lifelike and emotive as well.)
The only time you really break the speech of a single character up is when he or she is talking their mouths off and it would be multiple paragraphs worth of talking. Usually these are if you have a scientist person who wants to explain everything about the universe.
I don't know what show the Yamato is from, but I can't help parodying the Star Trek intro with it, my fan-girl-ism is too great.
Space... The final frontier.
These are the voyages of the Starship Yamato, it's continuing mission to explore strange new worlds.
To seek out new life forms, and new civilizations.
To boldy go where nopony has gone before. And also blow things up.
4610103
Yamato is from a Japanese Anime called Space Battleship Yamato that appeared during the 80s. It was released in the US under the Star Blazers Name. There have been several Movies made including a Live Action Movie that came out in 2010.
Recently, Space battleship Yamato has been rebooted (quite well I believe) into an updated series: Space Battleship Yamato 2199. This can be found on Kissanime.com.
5769284
Didn't it originally air in the 1970s and not 80s?