Chapter 23: Solstice
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats.
Time stretched and twisted in Chance's mind, overwhelmed as she was with radiation and drugs. She dreamed strange nightmares, and for once there was no Princess Luna to comfort her. Corpse-cities rose across the surface of a dead planet, a planet of browns and grays where there once had been greens and blues.
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief.
It was an old nightmare, the same one she had experienced almost nightly when she had first arrived in Equestria. She watched Seattle burn and there was no comfort this time. She did not cry out, though her pulse raced as the experiences replayed themselves in her mind over and over.
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only there is shadow under this red rock,
The moon brought her no comfort, either. She watched the latter half of the war from her perch of darkness and stone, and imagined other little girls like herself losing their families to the flowers made from fire.
Come in under the shadow of this red rock.
Was it her speaking? There was a field of dead trees in red-brown soil. Her vision took her below, through silt and sand and steel until she was looking at herself, unconscious in a dimly lit room.
"Should we use the bowl? I bet that will wake 'em up."
"Could it have something to do with them being unicorns?" That was Scootaloo's voice, a little raspier than usual. "The magic here is awful."
"There is no magic here." Pip sounded closer. He felt closer too, come to think of it. That was his flank she was feeling, resting protectively against her. Not that he had any need to protect her from her friends. What had happened? Her head was pounding, and her stomach rumbled with a disquieting undertone of nausea. Not enough to provoke herself into vomiting, but enough that the thought of eating repulsed her. It was not a happy position for her insides to be in, that was certain.
Of course, the nausea was nothing compared to the sensation coming from her horn. It was a numbness, the pins-and-needles sensation mixed with a cold like a severed limb. With her eyes closed, it was easy to devote all her concentration to her carefully trained magical senses. There was nothing to sense. No ley lines, no auras, not even the magic that should've been radiating from herself and every other pony in the room. This was Earth.
That didn't explain the nausea or the weakness, though she didn't need his help to figure out the answer. If this was Earth, then there was something almost as pervasive on the surface as magic was on Equestria: nuclear radiation. Jumpsuits would've kept out most of it, but not all. Gamma rays didn't stop just because thick fabric asked them to.
'Nanophage, am I suffering from radiation poisoning?'
The response came immediately, as a line of English text visible even with her eyes closed. "You began suffering the symptoms of acute radiation syndrome approximately 33.5 hours ago. All damage has been repaired. Expect mild disorientation and digestive distress for the next few hours, along with epilation over the next 7-82 days."
Chance sat up, so abruptly that Pip jolted beneath her and Apple Bloom froze, carrying a little dish of water in her mouth. With a shrug, she turned and dumped it on Sweetie Belle's resting form. The result was more or less as one might predict. The pony sat up gasping and squealing, her eyes casting all around her for the source of the distress. If Sweetie Belle was being true to form, Apple Bloom's actions would have provoked the beginning of a pitched battle.
There seemed to be no energy to fight. All the young mare did was moan and kick vaguely in Apple Bloom's direction utterly without passion. Sweetie Belle lacked both Chance's training and aptitude with magic, but that didn't mean she wouldn't feel what Chance was feeling now. They would all be feeling it in their own ways; it wasn't as though earth ponies or pegasi needed magic any less. What was being in a universe utterly devoid of magic doing to their bodies? She queried the Nanophage again for a health report, but the report included nothing she didn't already know.
"Hey," Sweetie Belle moaned, "you try opening a door to another universe, see how tired you are..." Then more quietly, "My head feels empty."
No witty retort came from any of the watching ponies. Instead Apple Bloom brought a towel, offering it to Sweetie Belle.
Chance looked away, resting her head against the warmth of Pip's back. When she spoke, it was with all the enthusiasm of a doctor informing a patient of a terminal prognosis. "Welcome to Earth."
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "We figured something was up when we woke up locked in a room with our suits gone."
Sweetie Belle sounded thoughtful. "I expected it to be bigger," she said, looking up at the gray ceiling.
For a room in a bunker it was actually quite large; a vaulted ceiling rounded to look almost like the inside of a globe in stone. On the far side of the room was a row of large turnstiles and admission booths in slowly rusting metal and dusty glass. Above them on the ceiling was a faded mural of the Christus with arms spread over the row of booths leading into a set of tightly shut blast doors. Of the many lights on the ceiling, only a few nearest to their part of the room were lit, leaving the rest in perpetual gloom.
"How did..." Chance tried to remember, but found her head burned whenever she tried. "Sweetie Belle and I were with Truth, under the deck..."
"We got you out." Scootaloo didn't hide the pride from her voice well, which Chance took to mean that Scootaloo herself had been the one to do it. "While we fell. Started falling right away, and you two were unconscious. We dragged you to the deck and the parachutes did the rest. Somepony must've found us. We all smell weird, if your nose hasn't woken up yet."
Chance nodded in agreement. "That's decontaminant, so we don't bring anything irradiated in with us and get people sick. Standard procedure when your whole planet is toxic."
None of her friends had a chance to say anything to that, because the door opened then at the far end of the room, massive metallic gears clanking as they went.
What Chance expected was some sort of welcoming committee, sent to give these visitors from Equestria the very best and most respectful of treatment. Equestria was, after all, their only hope for the future. Chance didn't know to what level the details were known by people back on Earth, but she was sure Truth would've told them enough to ensure they were well-treated. All it would take was a single call to Lunar Command and they could recover the machines waiting in the wreckage of the Fury. One of the lunar quickships could take them into the upper atmosphere and open the doorway. If Truth had sent the message immediately, the ship might only be hours away.
There was only one man. Far from an official committee, the single young man wore a threadbare uniform and seemed to stumble forward, as one who is in great physical or emotional pain. Was something wrong down here? Why would someone injured be sent to greet them unless everyone else in the bunker was in even worse shape. The young man was dragging something, though it was hard to make out at first.
Chance rose to her hooves along with her friends, forming a protective herd without so much as a word exchanged between them. "What's going on?" Apple Bloom asked, and without anypony needing to say so all of them fell back a step or two, keeping close together. Chance could feel Pip's body on one side, muscles tightening like a spring building tension.
"Hello!" Chance stepped forward a pace, trying to make herself sound more cheerful than she felt. "Were you the one who rescued us? We've very grateful." Her English was good, almost without an accent. The man halted, his eyes darting furiously between them. Sweat poured down his forehead. Chance could see the object he was dragging behind him now; it was an old SAR. He was dragging the hard plastic rifle along the ground by the stock, the barrel grinding and scraping on concrete. The plastic was tough and dense enough to be used as a club, to say nothing of the damage the gun could do if he used it as one.
Scootaloo, whose vision was best of their group even in the gloom, gasped. "Chance, why does he have a gun?"
The young man muttered furiously to himself, half Spanish and half grunting. The Neuroboost implant was prepared to translate any of the human tongues, but it could make nothing of the slurred whispers that echoed under the vaulted ceiling and the watchful eyes of the Christus.
He started toward them so suddenly that all of them jumped, slowly lifting the rifle. He seemed to have completely forgotten it was anything more than an object to strike them with. The look in his eyes was pain like nothing Chance had ever seen, a fearful struggle and intelligence not matched at all by his shambling and grunting.
There was no Truth to help her connect the dots, but Chance didn't need him. Her enemy had used this tactic already, on all the humans in Equestria. "He's got a virus!" She started backing up again, and her friends followed. "Like the one on Equestria, the one messing with all the humans there." Could they get past him? He wasn't moving very quickly... But then her head was splitting and she felt like if she tried to move any more quickly she might spill her guts. It wouldn't take much force to break open her skull.
"We can take him!" Scootaloo's voice was brazen, hiding her fear behind her courage. "There's five of us!"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "That ain't fair! If it's a virus, than he don't got no idea what he's doin'! Can't hurt a pony who ain't never been told they're doin' wrong!"
"Samil was the one doing it in Equestria, and he isn’t here! I don't know how many friends he had on Earth, but I don't think the chances are good that he could find us here that quick. I bet it was automatic." Chance gestured at him. "See how messed up he is? He's fighting it. Most people don't have nearly as much of it as the military does, and he's clearly not military. I bet we can free him." Chance stepped forward, with such confidence that the young man stopped his advance for a few seconds.
"We don't have our magic, remember?" Scootaloo shouted, exasperated. "You can't just use one of Twilight's spells on him!"
Apple Bloom seemed to realize what was happening, because she advanced to stand beside Chance. "It ain't magic!" She looked back. "Ya'll gonna help us hack that virus or what?"
Chance might be a pony. She had been a pony for a long time, and not having access to her magic felt like losing a limb. Yet before she had been a pony, she had been a human child. Before she had ever known the magic of Equestria, she had learned the magic of ones and zeros. Before she had ever eaten fae fruits or studied with the Princess of Magic, she had been a little girl living in a world where all human knowledge was only a plastic keyboard away if she knew what buttons to press. At no point in her human life had she not slept less than five feet from a computer.
The Neuroboost strain of Nanophage was a significantly more advanced implant than what this young man had in his head. The ponies surrounded him, moving with him but never getting out of range of the proximity radio. Chance made contact first, easily decrypting the signal traveling into his brain and following it along its twisting connections. She made the way for the Crusaders to follow, and set to work. The internal structure of the Nanophage implants appeared before her like city streets from above, and she flew through them like a pegasus.
Together they found the offending program, like a rot in parts of the brain that responded to emotion and influenced the ethics of decisions. The black program whispered that the young man's friends were starving. It showed him pictures of the horrible illnesses the ponies carried, and the evil things they would do if they got inside the bunker. Yet, for all the cleverness of the images the program lacked both adaptability and resilience.
Against the four of them with military-grade hardware and pony teamwork, it really didn't stand a chance. While her friends kept the virus contained and the man confused, Chance wrote a program to seek out and destroy the virus, restoring every program it had altered in the young man's head and preventing him from receiving data from the bunker's internal network.
He stopped sweating first. Then he stopped shaking. Lastly, he let go of the gun, which fell with a clatter but didn't discharge. His eyes widened and he immediately wrapped his arms around himself, looking at once afraid and grateful. His dark eyes darted between each of the ponies in turn. His voice came raspy now, but the Spanish was intelligible enough. Chance's implants only took a split-second to translate.
"I am free." A brief pause as he looked between them. Any doubt about their intelligence seemed to resolve quickly. "You're in danger. The others... telling me to kill you. Asking how long I would take... wanted bodies for dissection. I'll tell them I did it, send the elevator down. Few minutes until they figure out I lied. Then they come for all of us. Unless you can do that again for everyone." He gestured vaguely around himself with his hands, no doubt indicating their hacking.
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to answer, but Chance silenced her with a look. "We can't be in multiple minds at the same time." Chance spoke in Equestrian at first, then more urgently in English when she turned to face the young man again. "This is a bunker, right?" She glanced briefly up at the Christus, then back to his face. "South or Central America?" She struggled for a moment to remember what she knew about the way these places were run, not wanting to say the wrong thing with his mind only so recently returned to him.
Newcomers would've been isolated, even if they'd been human. The Tower had been known to infect survivors with deadly nanoviruses or worse and send them into populated bunkers, so a week-long quarantine was usually followed by a complete examination before anyone could be taken lower. The room looked like it had once been a main entrance of sorts, which indicated they were very near the surface.
"What's your name?"
The young man stumbled backward, evidently taken aback by her coherent English response. Chance didn't know if he was bilingual or his own implants were translating; the effect was ultimately the same. "E-Enrique. W-what... What are you? Horses but not horses, talking... Are you genetic experiments? What's happening to the people here? Is it you doing it?"
Chance sighed. If what he had said was true and their time was limited, they couldn't afford to waste it in answering these questions.
Apple Bloom answered before she could, her English not quite so good but still plenty clear enough to be understood. It sounded as though she weren't using a translation program to speak it, which made Chance smile in spite of herself. Her friends were probably the most human ponies in existence. "We're ponies! Two earth ponies, two unicorns, and one pegasus." She gestured with her hoof as she said each group, indicating them.
"Not experiments." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at the idea. "All natural! Well... Except for the Nanophage... But there's no shame in a few implants!"
"I don't think the Precursor needs to be told." Of all her friends, Pip was the least comfortable and most nervous-looking in the company of this alien.
Chance pressed herself briefly against him, in a way she hoped was comforting. She felt him relax, a little. "Enrique, we're sorry to have caused you such trouble. No, it isn't us altering your minds... After all, it wouldn't make much sense to try to force you to kill us, would it? If we had wanted to kill ourselves, there are easier ways." She moved away from Pip, right over to the dark-haired human. As she did so, she made a point of kicking the gun away, out of his reach. There were no guarantees their hasty antivirus had been totally successful.
"Do you have access to any shielded vehicles, Enrique? Most big bunkers have salvage teams, and this one looks big. We need something that can hold all of us for a trip to recover some equipment. We'll need supplies too... Food and water for several days, and our suits back since I doubt you have pony-sized equipment. Can you handle all that?"
Enrique seemed to be recovering his senses, because the first signs of resistance flashed in his face. "We have a long-range shielded cargo transport that can keep you alive for a few days as long as you stay out of the hot zones. Still... I can't give you all those things! You can't use our cargo transport, whatever you are. Ponies, genetic experiments, whatever. I won't betray my home."
Chance puffed herself up, trying to seem as large and imposing as she could. The young man was nearly twice her height, and he didn't even flinch. "Listen." She leaned closer to him, speaking hushed and more urgently. "There is a Steel Tower virus infecting this bunker. We cured you, but we can't cure everyone, not right now. We're on an important mission, one that could end the war for good. If you cooperate, you might just save the whole human race. My name is Kimberly Colven; I was sent by Lunar Command. If you get me an uplink, you can verify my identity codes. My friends-" She flicked her tail behind her. "are each recognized as official ambassadors with the Federation. Well... Those three are. Pip's my boyfriend... But he's a very helpful boyfriend!"
The young man's face was difficult to read. Chance was out of practice with human emotions; the ears weren't very expressive, and there was no tail at all. His scent was worse, all ape and sweat. She was quite sure she had never smelled like that back on Luna-7. Of course, she had no idea how long the virus had been controlling him. Showering probably wasn't part of its programming.
"Can't contact anyone; communication relay is down. Hardware fault way down by the central core, no way to fix it from here. Happened right after I sent your identification codes. The pictures didn't match, but..." He frowned. "Virus. Important mission. You say it can end the war with the Tower for good?"
Chance nodded vigorously. "Completely." It wasn't exactly untrue. "If we hurry."
Enrique swayed on his feet, seeming to make up his mind. He looked between the ponies one last time, then nodded. "Follow me. Not much time left."
* * *
The strange captain of the Equestrian skyship wasted no time at all getting them all to work. Equestria might be primitive technologically, but it seemed to have missed the memo about gender roles in primitive societies, because no less was expected of Rainbow Dash and Lonely Dawn than what the captain asked of Charles. No, not Charles. Vigil. Nobody had called him anything else in all the time he'd been aboard.
Not that he wasn't flattered Rainbow Dash had apparently put so much thought into a "proper" name for him, but Charles did not want or need a new name when his own was already so familiar. Had it come from anyone else, he would've dismissed it outright.
But it didn't come from anyone, it came from her. How had his feelings of frustration and annoyance changed so suddenly?
As every night before, Charles had been assigned the worst watch of the night, the second to last. It wasn't that he thought the watches weren't incredibly important; with a war going on and known enemies in Equestrian airspace, it was a real testament to how easily ponies trusted others that he had so quickly been given such an important responsibility. The problem was that pony eyes had very poor night vision. Like Earth birds of prey, excellent vision in daylight was almost useless in the dark. Mostly he had the sound of distant voices or engines, and sources of light which would've stood out against the stars and the moonlight.
He was listening so closely to the sound outside the ship that he didn't hear the hooves behind him until they were very close. He sniffed, and found the scent was familiar. Not that he expected any different; he already knew who had the next watch. Rainbow didn't smell well at all, though it was hard to identify exactly what message his nose was trying to tell him. Powerful emotions for sure, distress. Not just physical distress, though. It was like the smell of a hospital, like sickness and rot.
Was he only now noticing it?
"H-hey." She nudged him gently on the shoulder. "Didn't you hear the third bell? I'm on watch now."
The usual snark was missing from her voice. He turned, and could only see her outline in the gloom. "You should be in bed." Charles touched her gently on the shoulder with one of his wings, one of the many gestures he had learned from her example. It was far more physical than he ever would've been with a coworker, but... ponies did things differently. "I can take your watch. Just get back to bed."
Even in the dark Charles could see her shake her head. No, not see. He felt her mane brush past his face, that was how close she was. "Are you saying I'm not strong enough?" He could feel her stiffen defensively without having to look. He knew her well enough to know what might be motivating her reaction.
"You're the strongest pony I know," he said, without a trace of irony. "You've kept going with a few first-aid implants that were only made to stay in a few days. You haven't complained and you've been the strongest flier of any of us despite it all. But..." He leaned closer to her, close enough that he was sure she could see his eyes. "Rainbow, you need a surgeon. A human surgeon. Probably an artificial organ or two." He forced a smile, even though he didn't feel anything like smiling. "That wing you're using is a toy compared to what the engineers designed. You need something with a good solar coating, and a bioelectric input. Self repairing, no more-"
He stopped, breathing in sharply, as she rested her head gently on his shoulder. He didn't need to look to see that she was crying. Rainbow Dash was not graceful with her tears. She sounded as though she were trying to strangle a small animal. Without knowing what else to do, Charles wrapped his wings around her, without actually applying any pressure.
Charles said nothing, holding still and acting for all the world as though he were alone and waiting for her to be the one to speak. She did, eventually.
"I... not used to...." She cleared her throat, and sounded much clearer when she spoke again. Not that she pulled away. "Why is it getting worse? I've been hurt before... you're supposed to get better, not worse!"
Charles relaxed his grip a little. I will comfort the fearful. But was that all he was doing? "What I did to you, it wasn't supposed to be permanent. It was just to keep you alive long enough to get to a doctor. We're already in Equestrian airspace. A few hours with a good doctor and I promise you'll feel great again."
She was quiet again, long enough that Charles worried she had fallen asleep. But then, without warning, she pulled away and sat on her haunches beside him, looking over the railing at the clouds. "I wish..." She struggled a moment, as though the words cost her enormous effort, before the rest of what she had meant to say tumbled out in a rush. "I'm sorry I've been such a jerk through this trip. I didn't know how to react, an alien and a soldier, so pompous and arrogant and I haven't felt anything for a stallion in a-"
"I'm sorry too. I was just as bad – worse, maybe. Not sure I caught that last part." He chuckled. "You were mumbling."
She kicked him. It wasn't hard; actually, it was far weaker than he had expected. Charles had a feeling that a lesser pony would've already been bedridden if they were in her condition. She really shouldn't have been moving around these last few weeks. The implant might have been able to start her healing if she had been in a hospital instead of flying through the air and fighting for her life.
"I can't." She was firm. "Not now." She tapped a hoof on the deck in front of her, in a way obviously meant to be both final and decisive.
Unfortunately, her behavior only made him more confused. Many men would struggle their whole lives to understand the opposite sex. Charles had never felt like one of them, though now he had some idea of what they meant. Clearly there was a great deal about pony relationships he didn't understand.
"That's fine." He coughed. "Fine, Rainbow, honest. I... I'm sure you've got good reason."
She looked relieved. Or was it that she smelled relieved? She definitely smelled better than she had when she had first walked up, that was for sure. "Good." She cleared her throat. "Glad. I wouldn't want us not to be cool."
He shivered once in the chill breeze. "Yeah, we're cool. It's for the best. I'm sure when we get back they'll be able to change me back pretty quick. By now the whole compound ought to be finished, assembly lines ready to go. They can pop me out and into a human android in no time. Put this... whole pony business behind me."
"No!" Her response was so fast it sounded like reflex. She coughed. "I mean, don't rush or anything! There's so many other war things going on... I bet if you had a good teacher, you might even make Wonderbolt with a few years of practice! It's not like the war will last that much longer, if it's even still going. We've got Celestia and Luna, and what do they have? Lizards? Give me a break!"
Charles couldn't help but notice the way her artificial wing twitched when she thought about dragons, and her body drew a little closer. It wasn't as though he blamed her. He had read once that being burned was the worst pain a physical body could endure. "It... Might be King Richard sees an advantage to having a pony on his staff," he admitted, looking away. "He always thought the Federation got preferential treatment because of their ambassador." His voice deepened in his best impression of King Richard, forgetting that he wouldn't have dreamed of speaking such things in pony company only a few weeks earlier. "She can't help it, Celestia's hardwired to respond positively to her own kind. It's the herd mentality! Of course they get more of what they ask for." He had the good sense to stop there, before Richard had launched into a protracted discussion with Tesla about the frailties of organics.
It was a stupid thing to say, and an even stupider way to act. But she laughed, which made it more than okay. She sounded much happier when she finally spoke. "If we'd met a few years ago, it would've been different. And... Maybe if I wasn't dying." She shrugged her metal wing. The real one seemed a little slow to respond. "But I've got somepony now, somepony special. She..." Rainbow paused, "Unicorn customs are pretty confusing."
"Ponies are confusing," he retorted. "I think you're delirious. You should be asleep."
Rainbow Dash had frozen, her body suddenly stiff and alert beside him. He followed her eyes, and saw that she had caught sight of something flashing in the air in front of them, a faint green glow moving up fast. Without thinking, Charles bolted the few paces to the bell and began to ring it with all his might, shaking the cord in his teeth and trying to ignore the painful ringing in his ears.
This was no military vessel, with a trained crew ready to spring into action at the slightest sign of trouble. Sailors stumbled from below in confused ones and twos, barely seeming to know where they were going.
The light didn't wait for them, though as it turned out it was much closer than it had initially appeared. Charles could hear before he could see; the sound of four plastic rotors. As it drew closer, the little UAV lit up the row of LEDs that guarded the blades, with a steadily flashing rhythm of red and white. The drone was flat and of a very primitive model, like the old delivery drones from the age before personal fabrication. The drone had a single weapon mount, though whatever had been there previously had apparently been replaced with a lightweight hologram projector.
Charles didn't have to use his eyes to recognize Tower technology when he saw it. The little machine gave his implant a ping when it arrived, though did nothing else. Charles latched onto the connection, and was only half-watching as the projector began to glow and the figure of a pony appeared in the air, about half of life size. It had no color, and when it spoke the sound came from the drone and not from its mouth.
It was hard to imagine a more generic pony than this one; utterly lacking distinguishing features, its mane matching its coat and not clearly a stallion or a mare. He had a feeling it was an earth pony only because whoever had rendered this thing hadn't bothered to spend more time selecting an avatar more carefully. The voice was no AI; it was his king.
"Ponies of Equestria; the airspace you are about to enter contains many dangerous enemy vessels and is unsuited for travel. By order of Princess Celestia, you are to alter course immediately." A map appeared, which displayed an aerial rendering of Equestria marked with latitude and longitude along with the positions of various stars. "Whatever your original course, you are directed to travel to the Crystal Empire through the following clear-flight corridors."
The pony stopped, seeming to react not at all to the crowd of ponies and their murmuring. The voice abruptly changed, becoming flat and mechanical. "If you do not understand the instructions, I can repeat them," it said. "Please say yes if you understand the instructions. Please say no if you would like them repeated."
Before any of the ponies aboard could say anything and ruin this chance at rescue, Charles pushed to the front of the crowd. "Command override!" he said as clearly as he could, forcing his mouth to stumble over the English. "Suspend current program!"
The hologram didn't turn to face him, nor did the map flicker as the drone hovered in the air above the deck. The mouth didn't move as the synthesized voice spoke. He felt a dozen eyes on him, most of them unfriendly. The ponies were scared, and this clearly hadn't been the reaction they expected. The drone didn't seem to care about his accent or that a pony was the one attempting a command override. "Input authorization code."
"A-127-TE-2291." He spoke as clearly as he could, saying every letter and number slowly to the growing whispers and discontent of the ponies around him.
There was a brief silence from the drone, until the projection vanished like a ghost. "That authorization code has been suspended. Only your superior officer can reinstate your authorization, should I establish a connection?"
Charles shivered at that. Here in Equestria, he had only one superior. He had never sent a message to that man unsolicited. You answered the summons of the king, not the other way around. Of course, this was also the only way he could get an important message sent in time to actually make a difference. King Richard wouldn't see this as a breach of protocol, not with a war on.
He didn't get to answer, though. The zebra captain remained silent no longer, and got his attention by shoving him hard on the side. "What do you think you're doing? This machine was sent to deliver important information; it isn't your place to interfere. You are our guest, remember."
"Should I establish a connection?"
Charles fought hard to keep down his anger as he turned back, shrugging off the pain of the captain's strike. He hadn't been trying to hurt Charles, anyway. Just remind him and the crew who was in charge. "I'm not interfering with it, Captain. My people sent this machine. It responds to my commands because it was also sent to find me." Before the angry-looking zebra could interfere, Charles nodded vigorously at the drone. "Yes! Establish the connection!"
The bright LEDs went out, except for the faint green glow on its underside. The captain turned away from him in disgust. "True Course, on the helm! Get us into that safe corridor, maximum speed! The rest of you, to your duty stations, we're done here!" Then more quietly, "Vigil, if you wo-"
"Uplink established. Due to bandwidth restrictions, only two-dimensional images will be sent." A square appeared in the air facing Charles, still in the uniform blue of a cheap holoprojector. The image was clearly taken indoors. King Richard was in his full regalia, and judging from the displays behind him on the wall, not in his office. His voice sounded much less high-fidelity than the recording they had heard earlier, with every few words abruptly shifting up or down in pitch a little in the compression of the signal. Still, there was no mistaking him, beard and all.
A bright light shone from the drone onto Charles as the camera trained itself on him. Frightened, everypony near him retreated until they were out of the light. He was alone as he looked up into the face of his monarch for the first time in weeks.
There was no reading Richard's expression, there never was. His voice, however, was stern. "Whoever you are, I expect an immediate explanation; who told you to say what you just did? Tell me immediately, or there will be retribution." Even the ponies around him, with no idea what he was saying, seemed to sense the anger in his tone and retreat another few paces. If Charles had eyes in the back of his head, he might've noticed the smug expression on the captain's face.
Charles lowered his head immediately in the best approximation of a bow he could manage with this body, spreading his wings automatically as he did so. Not that the Tower had any protocol for wings. "I greet him raised by our voice to sit in judgement," he said, slowly and formally. "No man told me to say what I did; I spoke it of myself. I am Sir Charles Gray, your humble servant." He frowned. "Perhaps... more humble than I ever intended."
Richard seemed to lean closer to the camera, his face growing larger as he inspected Charles. Even through a camera Charles felt as though he were naked under that piercing gaze. For the first time, he actually was. There was shouting in the background, heated and emotional conversation coming from somewhere beyond the camera's field of view. It seemed to be shaking a little too, though it was hard to say what might cause that.
Eventually Richard said, "I do not doubt such things are possible, not anymore. I must be certain, however. Give me some proof you are who you say, not some clever imposter. The Federation has many native friends, and I would not risk my kingdom over them." Though there was still plenty of suspicion in his voice, the anger was all but gone.
Charles nodded. "Of course. I... I think that..." He turned. "Rainbow Dash! Can you tell King Richard who I am?"
The pony rose a little unsteadily, though she was doing a better job of hiding it than she had been earlier. Maybe it was just that there were so many ponies to see. She advanced into the spotlight without fear and sat down at Charles's side. She looked at the projection when she spoke, not the camera. "This is the pony that you sent to fly us! The one who saved my life!"
King Richard said something in a hushed voice to someone out of frame, then turned his attention back to the camera. "Sir Gray, my friend." The transformation was evident, as warm as he had ever sounded to him. "It is good to see you are alive. I shall have a shuttle dispatched at once, it can meet you in the air. How many passengers will we be transporting?"
"Three, your grace." Charles answered without hesitation, though he didn't hide the relief he felt at apparently being recognized. "One in serious need of medical attention. Rainbow Dash has implants in need of replacement. And a replacement wing; I didn't have one handy when I made this one for her."
Richard nodded gravely. "The drone will remain with you. We have much to discuss, but that is presently impossible. Be well until we meet." The projection vanished abruptly, his last words echoing off the wood of the deck. Slowly, the drone began to lower itself onto the deck, rotors slowing until the soft bumpers landed almost soundlessly on the wood, inert.
* * *
Applejack met Cigaal's eyes with a burning, fierce confidence. "You need us."
The man was sitting at his desk, his armor replaced with a cloak of night-black fabric. To Applejack's enormous surprise, he wrote not with a tablet but with a quill pen and ink. His strokes were long and elegant, the work of a master calligrapher. She could not read or even recognize the symbols that flowed from that pen; clearly they weren't English. "If Luna's report is true, then I need every Son for this battle."
"Then why haven't we been given jobs? You'll be needin' all the help you can get yer hooves on! I know we're just gettin' the hang a' this, but I think we've made our worth mighty clear by now."
"None would question your courage or your strength," Cigaal replied.
"Then why can't we come?" It took every drop of courage, every ounce of determination Applejack had within herself to keep talking. Arguing with him was like arguing with one of the princesses. She might not think of him with nearly so much reverence, but if anything she feared him more. You could always trust Equestria's rulers to be polite and kind. Cigaal was polite, but he was also ruthless.
Cigaal took a deep breath, as though he was fighting to control his temper. "Because many of us will not return."
Applejack, who had devoted the entire walk over to preparing an argument against the magic-devouring qualities of the army they were fighting, was stunned into silence.
"You won't know this; there is only so much we can safely download into a recruit, which by necessity entails neglecting the merely informative details." He gestured over her shoulder, at the door. "Perhaps you have wondered at our name. My unit is called the Sons of Barsoom because every one of us is an orphan. We have no mothers and no fathers, so Mars itself is mother to us. A mother without mercy or kindness, yet one who respects strength and is always fair."
She gasped, thinking of Ryan and Makoto and all the others. When the war was over, they would have no family to return to. Not that Applejack didn't know exactly what it was like to live without a mother and father. "Why?"
"We have the most dangerous missions. We charge without fear into the enemy manufactory with a nuke on our back, knowing we will not return. We pilot doomed ships behind enemy lines, and fight until they tear us apart. And when we die, only Mars herself will remember us. No parents, no husbands, and no wives. If we live, we live for Barsoom. If we die, we die for Barsoom."
"My parents died when I was a filly." Applejack didn't know what had provoked her to speech, particularly about something so personal. Hadn't it taken her years to speak openly about this with her friends? "My grandmother don't remember who 'ah am anymore. Mars might not be mah' mother, but Equestria sure is. She's in danger; worse danger than ever before. If ya'll don't let me help her now, what sorta pony would 'ah be?"
Cigall put down his quill and sat back in his chair, his eyes closed. For a moment, Applejack feared he might have fallen asleep. Then he met her eyes again, expression as fierce as ever. "Do the others feel this way?"
"Mah' brother does. As for Pinkie Pie... I think she's just as happy to help anywhere. She's a good medic; she's happy enough stayin' behind in the field hospital. But not me. Ah know better." She made herself as big as she could, which was easier in the armor. She already felt gigantic. "Ah know this one battle's gonna make a heapin' helpin' a’ difference. If we can win here, ah reckon we can last 'til reinforcements get here. Ah know ah can't make ya, but I'm askin' anyway. Let mah' brother an’ me fight for Equestria with you."
The human captain rose to his feet, slinging the rifle over his shoulder but not reaching for his armor. "Come with me, pony Applejack. I will show you where you can serve."
Cigaal took her through the camp, where the Sons were already preparing for departure. Many cared for their armor, assisted by ponies Applejack guessed had been human themselves until recently. They seemed to recognize her, because the only looks she saw were friendly. Yet she was following Cigaal closely, and nobody dared interrupt to do anything more than wave at her.
He led her past the preparing humans to the carriers, where she noticed a great deal of the equipment was being unloaded. Of course she understood well enough why; this battle would not be protracted, and every bit of cargo they took that they did not need would only be a liability.
That was when she saw it. The massive shape was easily as tall as the carriers themselves, though she knew from her downloaded training that it could fold itself for transport easily enough. An Albatross could transport one if it carried nothing else. From the look of it, the thing had been assembled using components from several different smaller vehicles. Human war machines were so fantastically modular. The massive metallic vehicle stood perhaps forty feet at its height, with four sturdy legs. The cabin at the top rotated freely atop its base, with arms that could independently target packed with every weapon whose name Applejack knew. She didn't recognize the large main gun resting atop the cabin, a silvery metallic barrel studded with strange metallic protrusions and transparent tubes glowing faintly blue.
"I remember this from what you crammed into mah' head." Applejack walked a little past Cigaal, tapping the armor plates with a hoof. It was as sturdy as anything she had ever felt. "This is called an... Atlas Walker, right? Ah thought these weren't much use in war. Weren't practical."
He nodded. "Washington did good work teaching you. Yes, this mighty war-machine has little use in a human war. Such a valuable target would have been destroyed with orbital weapons, and constantly bombarded with artillery. But these so-called demons we travel to fight have no orbital platforms, and no artillery, nor have they ever known an enemy like this." He gestured at the massive main gun. "I trust that at least is new to you, yes?"
At her nod, he continued, "The most terrible weapon the human mind has ever devised. It's meant to be mounted on a capital ship; and demands so much energy that only antimatter will suffice to drive it. If you wish to fight with us, you will assist in its use; you and your brother both. You cannot fight on your hooves, because the enemy feeds on the magic of your species. Yet from inside, you two might serve as copilots, and I would need to sacrifice only one of my men to it instead of three. Likely you would need do very little; your presence would mainly be a precaution in case we lost our connection to Washington or the pilot was somehow incapacitated. Yet even so, to place you inside I must be confident you would be willing to use the weapon if I order it of you."
"What is it?" Applejack walked around the edge of the Atlas, looking up at the huge gun. She tried to compare it with what she now knew of human technology, but found no close comparisons. Only the blue tubes she could identify; those were some sort of high-energy plasma coolant, the sort that might be used on the largest reactors. "This gun, 'ah mean. I'm sure it ain't worse 'an anythin' else I've seen, but I'd like tah' know if you're makin' a fuss over it."
"Your timing was fortuitous, as we were about to conduct a test firing." He raised a hand to the side of his head, pressing the key on his headset. "Makoto, are you ready?"
Applejack heard her reply just as the Atlas began to groan and shake. "Aye, sir! Moving to firing position." Little lights came on all over it, all of them a soft blue like the cooling tubes on the main gun. The vehicle groaned, and lifted its massive legs. The earth shook with every step. It didn't go far, just past the carriers. Applejack could see the obvious target; the rusting hulk of a pony airship, which had crashed somewhere near the main road leading towards the battlefield. The area all around it had been marked with glowing plastic cones, and so far as Applejack could see nothing moved downrange.
"The power to create and to destroy belongs to God," Cigaal said, clutching his cloak more tightly about himself in the chill. "Man should not wield such weapons as this. It is called an entropic accelerator. It neutralizes the strong force which holds atomic nuclei together."
"Ready to fire, sir!"
Cigaal brought down his arm at a harsh angle. Applejack didn't know how Makoto could see the gesture, yet she could tell she had. Applejack had no idea what the "strong force" was, or what an "atom" might be. It wasn't something she'd ever found on the farm, and it apparently hadn't been something Washington had taught her either. Yet she watched, knowing she was about to find out. The faint blue glow from the machine above her suddenly became as bright as the snow, and the warmth radiating down from it warmed her in the cool air.
The sound was unlike anything she had ever heard, a deep thrum that began to escalate in volume and pitch both, becoming both harshly high and loud together. At once there was a flash, a blue unlike any blue Equestria had ever seen. A lance of light instantly connected the Atlas to the wreckage of the ship, and for a second it looked like lightning. The wreckage of this ship was sturdy iron and steel, a foot thick in places. In less than a second, Applejack watched it disintegrate. Not crumble to ash, like it had been burned; there was no ash left behind. After a second or so of sustained firing the beam vanished, and with it any sign there had been a ship.
Coolant hissed above her, then even the wind was quiet. "Would you dare use such a weapon, Applejack?"
"Not on a pony. Not on a gryphon, or a dragon, or a goblin, or anythin' livin'. But..." She shivered all over. "We're fightin' necromancy. Took the magic of the Tree a' Harmony last time, an' we don't have that." She rested a hoof on the massive leg beside her. "We'll be yer' copilots."
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5274102
For those of us who don't believe in coincidence, this should be a subject for serious concern.
5300446
I don't expect that ship to be going anywhere ever again, if that's what you mean.
Well that came out of freaking nowhere.
Aw snap, we've got ourselves a Dr. Device now.
Darn it, now I'm not sure- maybe Cigaal is Idris Elba instead.
Applejack, don't you dare go an die on us, now
On the other hand, they now have a negative space wedgie cannon. This should be fun.
HOLY BEEP! Big gun... I have a feeling that thing will take out a dragon in one shot... and the stuff on the other side of the dragon. I hope Rainbow and Charles can get the medical attention they need, and the Steel Tower has a plan to help the ponies.
And then we have our intredpid heroes on Earth... and they apparently brought the virus with them. I can't wait to see what Chance has planned.
Crap, it seems like Chance, Pip, and the CMC has gotten themselves in a mess, thanked to that stupid virus. And, Dash has gotten into some trouble as well...maybe all of them if the king is infected. Then, there is Applejack's side of the story. Oooh, I can't wait to read how that little event is going to come out.
C&C:
But I've got somepony now, sompony special.
> Missing an ‘e’ for ‘sompony’.
5301143 Sounds like more than I've added.
5301747 The virus is only for Nanophages, which are only used by the biological loving Earth Federation. The Steel Tower are all mechanical and use a different system, so unless the Steel Tower is also compromised by Outsiders (like the Earth Federation is with Dr. Samil), they should be ok. Now, the King has his own agenda though, so we'll see where that goes.
Also it's kind of funny that the only 'pure' good humans are Avalon and the Sons of Barsoom. Steel Tower are andriods and the only good Earth Federation forces remaining are all ponies.
5301945
it would be of no surprise, then, that I would exclaim with this: whew. As for having his own agenda: eh, it's nothing new on that regard.
Heh, yep. But, thankfully, at least the Steel Tower isn't too bad off.
Another chapter for to read, oh joyus day
When the reader feels the need to look up a word he/she dosen't understand and actually enjoys it, then your doing it right
The line about Pip made me chuckle
of corse the former hairless monkey -well, former android of a former hairless monkey- thought Equestria even had a memo like that to begin with
wait... is Rainbow comming on to him?
Dawn is not going to like this...
Thats all I'm going to quote when its about him, so far everything you write about him makes him seem so effing badass
Wrath of God.
There where no errors that I found (true, I was away this weekend so if anyone else allready pointed them out if they even existed- I'm rambling)
Grade: A+
Now if you'll exuse me I need to sleep (6hours sleep over 48hours is not recomended, but I is idiot
)
5300939
I would be a poor liar if I didn't say that I was heavily inspired by the classics of science fiction when writing the human future, Ender's Game among them. The movie might've been pretty unfaithful in plenty of ways, but dang if those special effects weren't beautiful. And those user-interfaces seemed like an extremely logical prediction of how we might interact with our computers a hundred years from now.
5301699
All these facts and more coming next week in Harmony Defended 24: Truth! No lie.
5301747
Got it, thanks for pointing that out!
5301767
Not true! I'd be using stock art if it wasn't for you! Or those mock-up covers I made in paint...
5301945
Your analysis is exactly right; the Steel Tower is immune to any nanophage virus, because they don't use it. Which does mean that we can keep counting on them as the story goes on. Keep counting on them to follow their own agenda, but... that was part of the reversal I wanted to make for the adventure. I didn't want anyone on the "good" side to be morally white or black. Well, except the Princesses. But Equestria is the exception in that regard.
5305017
I always enjoy these long reviews. Even if some of them are full of the mistakes I made (which are useful to know, since they improve the quality for future readers (which I hope they'll be a great deal of over the next few years as I keep writing in this universe)), plenty of them also point out the good things. Like with Cigaal. It's good to know the impression I've been trying to create for him has worked. Samuel L Jackson plays Cigaal in the new summer blockbuster, Harmony Defended. Truth will be voiced by Morgan Freeman.
Why do I have the feeling the main gun will get one or two shots before the Atlas gets wrecked? I bet the thing won't even use up the lesser ammo before then. Still, it might be good for a moment of shock and awe... maybe even a little stompystomp on the man-sized demons?
(While expecting the Atlas to go toe to toe with a giant dragon or demon like a scene from Pacific Rim is just wishful thinking on my part, it'd still be bucking awesome as the two Apple wreck some hellspawn, and maybe even a tree-buck to the head for good measure)
Oh hell, the virus is on the Earth side of the portal now, too?
Good thing for Enrique that our super hacker ex-human pony is on hand to unhack him.
Dash smells like she's dying? That's not good.
Huh, didn't see that coming. For some reason I'm assuming Twilight but I'm not sure why. I can't tell if Dash is half-lucidly propositioning Charles to join her herd or trying to let him down gently. (Edit: reading the comments I'm really confused now since Bandana The Reaper has a quote with Dash doing exactly the former but now I'm not seeing it anywhere in the chapter).
A tower drone, and contact with King Richard! Awesome. And a shuttle is on the way, hopefully with medical equipment on-board ready to treat Dash, even more awesome.
AJ and Mac are being assigned to co-pilot a massive combat walker with a Finger of God style weapon? Even more awesome if that is possible. And good call Cigall on finding a spot for the siblings that doesn't involve them being directly exposed on the battlefield. They still could be vulnerable if the demons are enough of a match for the Sons, but at least they are taking precautions.
5300925 Pretty much, yeah. Mostly I was thinking of the pictures you see of airplane crashes where the plane just isn't even recognizable anymore as anything other than a field of debris and assuming this was something similar.
5313545
ak.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2613659/preview/stock-footage-finnish-flag-waving-against-time-lapse-clouds-background.jpg
>Why would someone injured be sent to greet them unless everyone else in the bunker was in even worse shape.
y u no question mark ;_;
>Applejack could see the obvious target; the rusting hulk of a pony airship
Do you think this'd work better with a colon instead?
>It neutralizes the strong force which holds atomic nuclei together
That sounds nasty
What if you breathe the result?
It's a Godzilla cannon!