Shedding Peace
Twilight bolted upright with a sudden start and immediately regretted it.
A shooting pain lanced through her head that floated black blobs in her vision. She cowered to the floor and groaned, clutching at the point of agony for a moment. She had a brief moment of panic when she didn't feel her horn and then immediately sunk into dread.
Shattering glass, a slicing sword, and she was helpless. That's what had happened.
She pushed that disquieting thought out of her mind and studied her surroundings. There wasn't much to it, little more than a wooden box with a slanted roof that was about two lengths long and one wide, barely enough room to turn around without scraping her nose on the wall. There was no door, just a rack of bars between her and a dimly guttering lantern sitting on a box.
Twilight gave the bars a shove and immediately realized she wouldn't be able to budge them. Instead, she pressed her face against the gaps to try and see around the edge of the cell.
A great bovine head swung around the corner and glared at her with a bloodshot eye. She let out a hiss and hopped back into her cell as the auroch banged a hoof against her bars and let out a harsh bellow. She slid to the back of the cage and stammered. “S-stay away!”
“Do as she says Buford.” Came a rasping, choked voice from outside the cell. “There's no need to intimidate the girl. She has enough sense to be afraid already.”
The auroch glared at the speaker for a moment before snorting and turning tail. He gave Twilight a moment of stinkeye as he passed and flicked the bars with his tail.
“Buford is quite cross with the losses we faced acquiring you. Two of his brothers were aboard the ship that was crushed.” Said Bakasura as he stepped into view, the tiger head sitting atop his shoulders once more. He stared down at her with a curious look Twilight couldn't quite place. He reached a hand through the bars and set a tin cup along with a pair of pills on the floor. “Take these.”
“What is it?” She asked back shakily.
“Water and a mild anesthetic. Both will help with your headache.”
“I don't want any of your drugs.” she kicked the pills through the bars.
“Then don't take them Sparkle.” The thing slurred back, words still not quite fitting its mouth.
“Why am I here? Why did you ponynap me?”
“Directly to the point. Very well.” he reached down behind the box and brought up several tubes of leather. “Look at these, if you would please.” He passed them through the bars.
Twilight glared at the scrolls for a moment before knocking them from his hand. “What are they?”
“Maps. Ones I have put together over the last year.” He pulled the lamp closer to her cell and turned it up so she could read.
Twilight scanned over the rudimentary charts and snorted. “These things are expansive, but just awful. Whoever made them didn't track the parabola of the bodies orbit, they just predicted that they would move in a static circle. That's not how normal gravity works, much less Shattered Lands pseudo-gravity.”
Bakasura slurred back. “I am no cartographer. I have been forced to make do. Regardless, do they make sense to you? Could you use them, despite the flaws?”
She gave them a minute's worth of attention and nodded. “I could, but what for? Why did you bring me here?”
Bakasura looked down at the map between her hooves for a moment and muttered. “To find something that was stolen from me a long time ago.”
“Why would I help you?” Twilight spat. “You attacked us, you broke my horn, you threw Spike out a window!”
“True, true, and true, though the latter act had few repercussions. Your pet dragon is quite fine, judging by the heat of his flames. I was rather surprised, my hyena shape will be unavailable to me for days.” He let out a rueful chuckle. “As for why you would help me, the standard reason; If you don't, I'll kill you. Aid me, and you might live.”
He spoke simply, flatly, no misleading inflection or tone that would construe his meaning. Twilight half-expected him to continue speaking rather than end on such a blunt threat. When he did not, she felt the weight of what he said. This creature was different. Bakasura wasn't a raging beast or stricken by a curse. He didn't want to steal her love or even throw Equestria into chaos. There was no greed or hunger or lust in his eyes, he was looking down at her like she was a frog he was about to dissect. Something that might give him knowledge he could use, or something that would be shoved aside if it couldn't.
Twilight fought down a throatful of frightened gorge, wiped her mouth, and said. “What do you need?”
* * *
Raj rubbed at the back of his neck, the minor pains and twinges presaging a headache that would only make his task all the harder. He turned up the lamps and squinted down at the maps Twilight had left for the hundredth time and, once again, failed to draw any information out of them.
Spike grumbled and rolled in his basket, nightmares disquieting his sleep. Rajrishi was proud of the little dragon, he had stayed up and struggled with the maps until exhaustion literally knocked him off his feet. Raj looked out the porthole at the faint light of the rising sun and realized exactly how late it was. Or early it was, depending on one's perspective.
The door to the maproom swung open with a sudden crash, startling Raj from his seat. Topsail tromped in, dragging a terrified goat draped in ropes. The gruff pegasus said “Tell him what you told me.” The frightened goat began bleating pitifully, moving its hooves as it spoke. After a minute it stopped and curled into a ball on the floor. Topsail grinned, clearly proud of himself. “You hear that Captain?”
Raj wiped his face and got back to his feet. “I don't speak goat Topsail. Never thought I'd need it.”
“Right.” Topsail pushed the panicked goat away, no longer even considering the creature. “Been interviewing every prisoner we caught, most of them are saying the same thing; they're here searching for something obscenely valuable and they don't know where the rest of the ships are, but they know there's four of 'em. Except this fella,” He lightly kicked the cowering goat. “he knew something extra.”
“How's that? I thought all the prisoners didn't know jack. What's so special about him?”
“He's a cook. Got moved to the ship we crushed right after we burned those three that ambushed us. Seems that shapeshifter's favorite chef was on the ship you invaded and this fella was second place. So when Bakasura took control of that ship from last night, he moved this guy over to prepare his meals.”
Raj stared at him blankly for a second and shook his head. “Topsail, I haven't had any sleep for almost thirty hours. If we could fast-track this I would be grateful.”
Topsail gave him a sour look and gestured to the goat. “He moved over at sundown yesterday. Ship he came from was exploring this big floating mountain covered in giant mushrooms. That sounded pretty familiar.”
Raj's eyes widened. “It should, we flew over it on our first day here.” Raj cleared some of the clutter on the table until he was looking at the correct map. He scanned the page as quickly as he could until he found it, Mass Nine, the ninth floating mountain Twilight had identified and charted. He ran a finger along the arc of its travel and said. “Here.” He scratched out the formula on a piece of parchment, re-did it when he realized his mistakes, and then pointed to a spot on the arc. “That's where it was yesterday at sundown.”
“Then that's where we're headed. Few hours steam from here will put us there. It's a start at least.” He let out a sharp breath. “I'm gonna move the ship into battle-mode. If they got four ships, we're gonna need it.”
Raj squinted. “Alright, what do you need from me?”
“You can get some sleep and some mess. I've seen corpses look better than you. We're gonna need you 'fore long, so take a note out of your dragon's book and get some rack time.” He tilted his head at the slumbering dragon.
He started to protest, but immediately lost steam when a sudden wave of tension crawled up his neck and he staggered. He blinked rapidly a few times and muttered. “Yeah that's... that's a good call Topsail.”
The Shipmaster grinned broadly. “Don't worry Captain, this is what the Air Navy does. Come on you.” He grabbed the goat and dragged him back into the hall corridor.
* * *
Twilight squinted at the maps arrayed on the table in front of her. She tried to beckon the lamp closer and was rewarded with a shooting pain in her forehead for the effort. She clutched at the stub of her horn and cursed.
Bakasura pushed the light closer and Twilight almost thanked him before she caught herself. She bit the charcoal stick and marked a spot. “There, that should be what you need.”
The Rakshasa looked it over and muttered. “Are you sure?”
“No.” Twilight responded flatly.
Bakasura drummed his fingers on the table in irritation. “Why is that?”
Twilight shot the shapeshifter a weary glare. “I'm running on incomplete information, so I'm forced to make inferences. If a dock was built in the Shattered Lands, then it would need to be somewhere that was close to static and deep in the interior. That orbital has a circuit of less than ten kilometers and there's nothing overtly dangerous about it. It fits the criteria, but I can't be sure until it's checked.”
Bakasura studied the unicorn in front of him and snarled slightly. “It's also very far from our current position. It will take hours for us to reach an intercept position.”
Twilight shot back. “How would I know where I am? I'm a prisoner."
Bakasura gave her a withering look and said. "Sparkle, your station entitles you to certain treatments, but if you are wasting my time in hopes that your friends will find you, I-”
Twilight bolted up to her hooves and flipped the table at him. “I'm doing what you want you jerk! I'm complying, I'm finding your stupid treasure as best I can!” She shouted, voice cracking, before stammering. “Just... just leave me alone.” and collapsing onto the floor.
Bakasura looked down at her coldly. His lip curled slightly, exposing a single yellowed fang, before he regained his composure. “You're tired. Rest for now. Food and water will be brought to you.” He stooped to gather the scattered charts.
“Why?” Twilight asked weakly, her head lifting up from her folded legs.
“Why what?” Bakasura said back as he rolled up a map.
“Why are you looking for Jolly Roger's treasure anyway? Why go through all this?” She asked, thin trickles of tears running down her face.
Bakasura stopped and looked up at her. Twilight felt her skin crawl beneath her coat, those bulging black eyes disgusting her even through her terrified anger. “I suppose I owe you that much.” He stepped close, looming well over her as she cowered slightly on instinct. “Sparkle, I am trying to leave this place.”
Twilight cocked her head. “I don't understand.”
“I know.” He helped her back up and ushered her back into the cell.
* * *
The Break of Day prepared for war was a very different beast.
Down alongside the hull, Rainbow Dash was hammering down a great canvas bag to the side of the ship. As the linchpin turned into the lock, the team of pegasi holding the thing up let go with an audible sound of relief. Rainbow gave the pins one last check before shouting up to the deck. “We're good, start 'er up!”
A pair of engineers activated the pump and started filling the heavy canvas with foaming concrete. The pegasus team massaged and worked the bag, kneading the stuff into every crevasse of the interior. They all let out hisses of pain and backed off regularly, shaking their hooves as heat seeped through the thick hoof-gloves. Steam boiled through the canvas, rapidly drying out the foaming stone substance. Once set, the bag would harden into an ablative layer of armor that would detonate any cannon shell before it was able to reach the fragile hull. Once the bag was bulging every seam and had stretched over the linchpin points, the team started moving up and down to check the dozens of bags already covering the hull.
Up on the deck, Rarity was holding up a curtain of chain link to the overhead bag, straining from the weight of it. Fluttershy and a few other pegasi rapidly affixed it to hooks mounted on the envelope while ponies pulled and strained on it below to affix it to the hull, creating a springy shield that would deflect indirect shells and stop any crippling shots to the deck.
The last hook took the weight and Rarity slumped down. She wiped the sweat off her brow and took a settling breath. She scanned up and down the deck, studying the brown canvas armor and rattling shield of chains and shuddered, appalled by the idea of it all.
A thud drew her attention and she turned around. The doors to the below deck swung open and Applejack strained her way onto the deck, a thick rope held in her mouth that trailed to a large cannon she was dragging up the steps. She turned around and started pulling in reverse, her front leg in a sling adding to the weight of her burden.
Rarity's horn lit and together they were able to lift the weapon over the last few steps. Applejack huffed out a breath and dropped the rope to fan herself with her hat. “Thanks Rares.”
“Think nothing of it Applejack. Tell me, why are you dragging this... thing up to the deck?”
“Ship's got built in blindspots, these're s'posed to cover them. We don't got enough to make a full battery, but every shot makes a difference.” she gave the thing a quick knock with a hoof and said. “What about you? Ain't your job to find out how ta track Twilight with magic?”
Rarity rolled her eyes to the side and groused. “We did actually, it just won't work here. The Shattered Lands have too much ambient wild magic for a spell as delicate as that. It won't work unless she's within a few hundred meters.”
“Huh, well ain't that a kick in the teeth.”
“Quite.” Rarity agreed, her lower lip pouted out. She recovered from her doldrum and looked down at her friend's tied up leg. “Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be moving such heavy loads in your... condition?”
“What, this thing?” She shook it slightly. “T'weren't nothing. Gave it a few hours sleep to get to mendin' and it's already on its way. Just can't put no weight on it, which is jess fine. Not to tip my own hat but me on three legs is still half 'gain as strong as anypony on this boat.”
“I have no doubt, but for my own peace of mind would you allow me to help you place the... device?” She asked with a slightly hopeful smile.
“Suit yerself.” Applejack bit the rope again and started hauling towards the front of the ship as an azure glow wrapped the cannon.
Raj looked down from the foredeck at the bustle of activity covering the ship as ponies hurried to make last minute changes to the ship. He took in a deep breath and picked up smoke and grease alongside the metallic tang of hot metal. He let out the breath and hummed thoughtfully to himself.
In drydock, like it was during the navy ball, the Break of Day was a soaring and majestic example of shipcraft. The lines of it were elegant and beautiful, the dark wood contrasting with undulating fins and vanes that caught light and cast it into scintillating patterns. Windows and portholes of shining brass shone on each deck and abundant interior lights made the great vessel appear cheerful and inviting. That combined with the fact that not a single gun or cannon was visible on the thing, it was possible to forget that it was a warship.
The Break of Day was a warship though, a vessel intended for lengthy, violent patrols along the borders of Equestria. To that end, rolling shutters of steel came down over those windows and were then buttressed with layers of concrete foam. The sheer number of fins and vanes that were removed from the hull proved how many of them were purely aesthetic. The gunnery ports were no longer impossible to notice, looking like deep pockmark scars in the foam that marred both sides. The deck was no longer a cheery, lit place. Now it was a dark, hunched space packed with cannon and wrapped in a layer of fence that glittered like sharkskin.
When the fighting was over the bags would be dropped, the gunnery ports sealed, the cannons unlatched, and the fence rolled up. The Break of Day would put the lie back on and return to port looking exactly like it had when it left, the whole of Equestria unaware of the terrible violence that had been inflicted on it and by it.
Luna looked at him curiously. “Captain, you look as though a thought has stuck upon thine mind.”
He shook his head. “Just realized a difference between humans and ponies.”
“Just the one?”
“Just one more.” He clarified. “Humans would spend resources making something that could fight better, ponies would spend resources to forget they already had.”
Topsail's voice roared from his station at the wheel. “Ten minutes you sods. Get the battlestations, now!”
A murmur went up through the crew as they gathered weapons and opened firing ports, preparing for combat. Luna gave Crescent a few experimental tugs as Raj drew his axes. He moved to the front of the ship as it started to angle around a bend.
After ten long, long minutes, he saw them. Half a mile off and hovering over an uneven cluster of mushrooms capping a bobbing mountain, were four Junks.
* * *
Twilight lowered her head into her folded hooves, sniffling slightly again. She pawed at her broken horn, desperately wishing that it would reappear. She glared up at the Rakshasa's back, anger boiling in her gut at the continued sight of him.
A clatter of hooves sounded from stairs she couldn't see and Bakasura's head snapped to the side. A brown goat ran up to him breathlessly and started bleating and crying too quickly for her to pick out more than a few words. Whatever he said seemed to enrage Bakasura as his body rocked with tension and he lifted the messenger by the scruff of his neck. “What!?”
Twilight perked up as the goat repeated its message, the words even more mangled by fear. Bakasura swore and dropped the creature. “Signal the others. Get everybody to their posts and make ready. We are leaving.”
The goat's head bobbled and it sprinted back towards the stairs. Twilight smiled genuinely and said. “They found me.” It wasn't a question.
Bakasura stomped away with a wordless growl, which was all the confirmation she needed.
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Looks like the Break of Day is ready for round 3....
Intriguing...
Does that possibly mean he's not from Equus, as well?
Slight error--run on dialogue.
7974619 Interesting thought, my first thought was that he wants to die. Such as leaving this plane of existence. Though your idea makes more sense.
Spike actually killed the hyena form? Huh.
Go, little lizard man.
Alondro in this position, "Ah, the typical false dichotomy accompanying the picture-perfect stereotype ultimatum. Though, I suppose you could be forgiven for not realizing I have a 3rd option available to me." He bites down hard upon a false tooth and grinds.
"Poison?!" snarls the rakshasa.
Alondro grins, "If you knew me in the least, you'd be trying to run as fast as you could right now." An electric glow surrounded his body and a rising whine filled the air. "I never merely commit suicide when I can take out all my enemies with me. I've just activated my nano quantum spin inverters. Don't ask me to explain it. There's no time left and you still wouldn't get it."
TITANIC EXPLOSION!!!
And that is why it's foolish to corner a mad scientist. We come prepared.
7981806 Twilight: "Not only that, but you'd be surprised at how many times Alondro's tested it---just to make sure it works as advertized.
"
8007645 I'm like Rick that way. Any TRUE scientist always conducts an experiment at least 3 times to ensure the result is not random chance!
1355376604.rsc.cdn77.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rick-and-Morty-Season-3-release-date.jpg
And if you're an especially ambitious scientist, you test it a few... hundred... times or so.
I'm very ambitious.
8010020
Rick and Morty gets referenced a lot on my comments page. I like it.
8010215 I can relate to Rick, as my inventions also tend to result in mass casualties.
8010227 I can relate
8010560 We should totally collaborate on some inventions! I'll bet we can at least quadruple the destruction!
8016184 Yes, at a minimum
8016244 So I have this idea for self-replicating angstrom-scale quantum spin inverters. They'd all activate upon detecting the vibrations of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
8019431 oh, but you're thinking a bit small there.
Why go with just spin inverters when you could really liven things up with quantum charge inverters? ♪♫
BTW, in case you've been following, the spin inversion is essentially what is killing Lieutenant Scott and her colleagues at her old base in my Weirder Than Normal story.
8019842 Spin is easier! You just get the tiny robot arms to spin the particles the other way! If you have to change the CHARGE, it means applying through another credit card company and getting verification, then you have to check the interest rate and make sure it's not a variable one cuz that's how they get ya!
8021170
So true!
Well, since you're only interested in spin, I have to ask you what is the average torque of a coconut unladen spin?
8021749 What do you mean? An African or European spin?
8022386 Oooooh, close, but still wrong, I'm sorry to tell you. The correct response was supposed to be "spin or isospin?"
*badoiiiinnngg! goes Alondro*
Should've gone with the cake--I mean--change of charge
8022404 Bah! Antimatter by any other name will still mutually annihilate upon contact with normal matter as sweetly!
8025340 I've grown to like portal projectors for both offensive and defensive applications.
), or shut off their inertial dampeners just as the engines are instructed to do an emergency reverse thrust (they'll be cleaning off the Bridge's main view screen for months after that
) or any number and combo of other entertaining activities.
Keeping ordinary deflector shields such that the enemy will expect us to use conventional tactics, but we throw up a portal just before the enemy's weapons impact--which goes to an exit portal projected into one of their unimportant cargo holds (with an orientation that aims the fire power toward their engine room).
Also, my collaboration with Ryuu has given me a few ideas of implanting computer viruses that can be activated upon command into an enemy system before hostilities commence. Things that can cause the power feed for weapons to be redirected to a ship's galley replicators (damn! that's the biggest cake ever! and it took out three decks!
8027728 Are we talking about a wormhole portal here? Because you can do all sorts of neat things with those! Including creating galaxy-destroying wormhole weapons!
nerdlush.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/kmp-dvd18-59-20.jpg
I nearly have one ready! All it needs is a multiphasic tenser resonance oscillator!
8028319 Indeed I am. Related to that, also have plans for a bioweapon that farts helium when under stress and pisses explosive wild fire when fed a tannot root.
1.bp.blogspot.com/_l9_M3jYn25I/TETy3zr_C2I/AAAAAAAAKx0/7Zrq3cEqsCM/s320/rygel+piss.JPG
But back to the wormholes--yes, they can be used to destroy galaxies, but at much smaller scales, they can do all sorts of fun things to annoy those that annoy you. It's all a matter of the fine control to one's touch. Move it a bit to the right, you've got newest largest void between all the galaxies. A smidgen to the left, the opposing captain's toilet is flushing onto his head.
Also, I might have to check, but it's possible that Trevar has one of those on his shopping list....
Okay--he's shopping for some differential thaumaturigic discrimators, piezo-manna variable transducer regulators, auguric-pattern wave buffers, psychokinetic phase motion rotators, Lei-way shunt deharmonizing regulators, Svengali-Machiavelli spin schemer manipulators. Think you can adapt some of those to what you need?
Good Song.
Should be an ellipse instead of a parabola. When an object in space orbits another one that has marginally more mass it will follow Kepler's laws of planetary motion. But, if you were to accelerate to escape velocity, then it would be a parabola.