Into The Past Part XVI - Some Things Should Stay Lost
Dusty, it turned out, was a font of knowledge about the library and its contents. He knew every volume and title within the place. Literally thousands upon thousand of old tomes, ledgers, spell volumes. His encyclopedic memory helped them narrow down quickly where they wanted to go and what books they should be looking at.
They took a break after that, willing and able to help him pack up the most precious of the items he cared for.
Princess Celestia had agreed wholeheartedly to his appointment, sending a personal apology to him by way of Spike. There were no hard feelings, it just proved that Princesses could make mistakes like anypony else. That endeared them even more to the ponies they watched over.
The Unicorn was pleased as punch, vowing to frame the letter and keep it always. Even though he dealt with Princess Cadence and Shining from time to time, it was still thrilling to him.
Tech spiders skittered in and out, carrying away what would be broken down and reused in the fabrication facilities Crusader and Athena contained. This would help rebuild stocks as they were suffering a dearth of things after so long, barely squeaking by on maintenance and resupply.
The storehouse was rapidly being depleted of its contents. The two Bolos quite efficient when told they could take anything and use it in return for pointing out the better of all the items.
Athena had already inventoried the lot, but now it was down to what was more important. Remnants, as any archaeologist could tell you, told you about who they were used by, the society as a whole based on what remained gave clues to everything.
There were a few arguments, some disagreements between the two war machines and Dusty. They wanted something for the rare elements it contained, he wanted it for the history itself.
“It is an old comm-node service module, it doesn’t work and even if it DID work, you couldn’t connect it to anything because you haven’t got an entire communications web networked over the globe!” Athena was getting frustrated this time. The first few disagreements were solved quickly, this however, was becoming tedious.
“It’s the only one! We can display it. Why do you want it anyway?” He had tried to follow her explanation but got lost at service module. Dusty was bound and determined to keep it!
“It has a few pounds of rare elements we need. We’re having a hard time finding them for our quantum fire control computers to maintenance them correctly.”
“Quan..tum...”
“Quantum fire control computers. They let us lock on enemy targets and deliver suppression or direct fire faster than the enemy can handle.” Athena leaned in, getting nose to nose with the stubborn pony, “That means vaporizing the enemy.” She growled between clenched teeth.
Dusty wasn‘t moved, “I don’t care, I’m taking it to Canterlot.”
“You are not taking it to Canterlot! We need those materials!”
Crusader decided being quiet was the best policy for now, sitting and observing the tiff for a moment. They needed those rare metals, scrounging for them was becoming very tough in the vicinity of Ponyville. If they did not get them, they would be forced to make trips to other parts of Equestra and do surveys.
What they had found within the old defense node and the debris fields would keep them humming right along for years. If they could get it out of the tight hooves of one stubborn archivist, this could be a double whammy for supplies.
Perhaps, he thought, it was time to intercede, this was becoming untenable. As he started forward, Dusty reached back and brought out some odd-shaped thing from a box, threatening Athena with it.
Crusader actually stopped and blinked, tilting his head in curiosity, where in the world did they find that?
“I warn you, I’ll protect this with my life!” Dusty bopped Athena’s nose with the semi-flexible item, making her blink.
Athena looked shocked for a brief moment, “You..hit me with..that.. You hit me!”
“I shall strike you again, if you persist on demanding my artifacts!” Dusty held it out before him as if a rapier, waving it menacingly in front of the sable pegasus.
Crusader was still eyeing the ‘weapon’ Dusty was holding, knowing what it was and thinking the whole scene ludicrous, if not for the fact that Athena was now preparing to do damage to the poor pony in return for the harmless strike. But he couldn’t stop looking at this quite funny tableau.
Athena heard something behind her, making a turn swiftly and looking around, zeroing in on Crusaders motionless form.
“Did you just snicker?”
“I did not.”
“Don’t you snicker at me!”
“I assure you, I did nothing of the sort.”
Lavender eyes narrowed for a moment as she returned to the previous conversation, seeing Dusty standing there, ready to defend his carefully hoarded collection with..with.. There it was again!
“I swear,” She tossed over her shoulder, “If you’re laughing, we’re going to have problems.”
“I am doing nothing, sister mine.”
“What is going on in here? We can hear you.. What is.. is that?” Twilight’s head was cocked, looking like an exact replica of Crusader as she stood by him, “What is going on?”
“He hit me!”
“I just gave her a slight tap on the nose, nothing harmful.” He waved the item in his clenched fetlock, making sure it remained between her and the precious artifact she wanted to take, “I shall defend myself, and my relics, good pony!”
“I’m going to show you a whole new world of..” Athena flipped around, “Stop snickering!”
Crusader was as before, but Twilight had a hoof in front of her muzzle, looking innocent as could be and shrugging, “Wasn’t me.”
“Perhaps if you calmed down Athena, we could solve this some other way.” Crusader was being as diplomatic as he could.
“He hit me!”
“It was not harmful, and you were quite angry with him about the item.”
“We need those metals, badly.” She glared at the bold Unicorn, “We really need them.”
“I agree, we do. Can we not come to a compromise?”
Rainbow came wandering in, bored of reading at the library and seeing Dusty waving around that...thing... at Athena.
“What in Celestia’s name...?” Her brow furrowed, cocking her head exactly like the other two.
“Don’t you start!” A steady hoof was pointed at the cyan mare who raised hers in supplication.
She turned back to deal with the recalcitrant Unicorn, getting lightly whopped on the nose once more as she tried to sidestep him, wanting to retrieve the module.
“You shall not pass!” Dusty was looking braver by the moment.
“I swear, you stubborn pony, you hit me one more time with that and I’m going to shove it right up..” She flipped around on a sound once more, “I heard that!”
Twilight and Rainbow both had hooves in front of muzzles, looking at her with round eyes, Crusader imitating a statue as normal.
A hoof pointed backwards, “Tell him to stop bopping me on the nose!”
“Maybe..” Twilight started, “There could be a way.. The sound of flesh getting hit made her stop and cover her mouth once more, eyes growing very wide, muffling any sounds as Dusty gave Athena a good smack on her back end.
Rainbow practically had to shove her hoof in her own mouth to stop from laughing out loud, the sounds still above normal in the quiet area as Athena slowly turned to look at the Unicorn over her shoulder.
“That’s it. Nose was one thing, but hitting my..”
“Athena..”
“...backside is totally out of bounds.” She pointed a hoof at the Unicorn in front of her, “You better watch it mister!” She reached out and snatched the item from Dusty’s hoof with a motion that was almost too fast to see.
“Now, I think we can talk about this sensibly.” She waved the wobbly item in front of Dusty’s nose, “Otherwise you and I are going to have a disagreement.”
Her ears perked up at a familiar sound, slowly turning to look back over her shoulder at two figures who were trying hard not to laugh, and Crusader who had a slight smile playing around one side of his mouth.
The sable pegasus didn’t think, sticking a hoof out containing the object and pointed at the three, “Stop that! This is serious!”
“Yep, sure looks serious alright.” Rainbow was snickering out loud, her eyes crinkled in delight before the laughter got louder.
Athena gave a disgusted sigh, throwing the object of their humor over her shoulder before she had a chance to realize what she’d done. The sound of artificial materials smacking her backside was the result.
“Ah ha! The advantage is mine once again!” Dusty was getting a lot better at pretending he was some hero out of the stories and menacing her.
Crusader tried, he really did, at least as far as diplomacy went, “Dusty, maybe you should stop so we can come to an agreement on the item.”
“Okay, I was being polite. I really was.” Athena stepped towards the Unicorn, “I’m going to beat some sense into your thick skull...”
“I warn you, I am skilled at self-defense!” Dusty didn’t back up, waving his weapon in her face.
“Athena, do not hurt him.” Crusader’s voice was stern.
“Stop being a worrywart. Just going to show him a trick...or two.” Her laughter was merry over the comm bands.
Her front left hoof swept out in a sable colored blur, knocking the item from Dusty’s grip as her back end dropped towards the floor. The outstretched leg pinned itself to the crystal tiling as a pivot, her body swinging around it to the right and bringing both back legs in for a sweep which took Dusty’s legs out from underneath him.
As the Unicorn toppled over with a squawk of dismay, Athena’s body completed its swing, letting her plant both fore legs on the ground as her hind end passed them, propelling herself into a backwards somersault. Twisting in the air she landed on all four hooves, straddling Dusty and looking down at him with a slight smile on a very calm face.
“As a trusted friend once told me, Dusty. Never think you’re invincible, there’s always someone out there just a little better than you.” She reached out, tapping his nose with a solid hoof, “Understand me?”
“Y..yes.”
“Can we have that module now?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“N..not really..?”
She stepped aside, letting the scholar get up and dust himself off as he looked incredulously at the slim pegasus, “How did you even do that? I saw..a.. It was so fast. How can you not..I mean...”
A sable hoof held up stopped him, “We are not in any way invincible, we just fight smarter. There’s been occasions, Dusty, when we had to run for our lives.”
She smiled, seeing his mouth drop slightly as he imagined that huge machine sitting outside having to retreat from anything.
“We’ll do this. We can take the interior parts, the stuff we need, leave the casing intact, that way you can still show it off in Canterlot. That sound fair?”
“Yes! Very much so.” He was nodding enthusiastically.
“Good, we’ll continue on then.” She gave him a comforting pat, turning to survey the rest of the items left.
Twilight bumped Crusader, watching the interplay, making him lean towards her.
“Yes?”
“That thing doesn’t go to the museum.” She pointed to the object lying on the floor, forgotten in the agreement.
“Of course.” A glint in his blue eyes presaged a small jape, “Though we could fabricate a power cell for it if you really wish..”
“No!” She blushed heavily under her lavender coat as Rainbow giggled up a storm.
“Are you sure? It would be no trouble at all.” His voice was calm as always, though a bare hint of humor was starting to come through.
“You think you’re funny, huh?” Twilight was giving him a sideways glance, Rainbow was laughing under her hoof.
“I have my moments.”
Just then a tall figure loomed in the doorway, “What’s going on?” Wyatt was holding a cold glass of juice as his eyes swept the room in a professional manner, going wide when they spotted it, “Where did you find that?” A finger pointed at the much reviled and discussed object, “You find the wreckage of a..”
“Perhaps it is best not discussed, Sergeant?” Crusader still had that small smile playing around the edges of his mouth as Twilight blushed furiously.
He was quick, Wyatt was, seeing the lavender Alicorn looking anywhere but at it, “Got it.”
Rainbow stopped giggling for a moment, “I don’t see what the big deal is anyways, just a thing.”
The tall human leaned down, whispering for a few seconds into Rainbow’s cocked ear. The cyan mares face getting redder and redder as the seconds went on, Twilight leaning in to try and listen as Crusader watched curiously.
“WHAT?” Her raspy voice boomed out over the room as she blushed tremendously under her coat. The cerise eyes grew large as Wyatt nodded, standing back up to take a sip of his drink.
“Yeah, we were quite the race Rainbow, making things like that.” He chuckled and looked at the flustered pegasus.
Rainbow coughed once and ruffled her wings slightly, “I, uh... I think I’ll just go back to..the library..yeah..” She looked up at Wyatt, “You guys really had some weird ideas.” She turned and took off down the hallway in a clatter of hooves.
Twilight was watching the retreating pegasus, turning to look at the tall human, “What did you tell her?”
“Oh, you know, a little background on that.” He hooked a thumb towards the thing.
“I offered to fabricate a power cell for it,” Crusader’s comment was given as innocently as it could be done.
“Well, that was mighty nice of you there, Unit CRSD of the Line. Mighty nice.” He leaned towards the immobile pony, eyes locking on Twilight, “She take you up on it?”
The violet eyes popped open, “No!” A royal hoof pointed at Crusader, “It does not go to Canterlot.”
“Understood, an ‘accident’ will be arranged.”
Twilight was satisfied with this answer, turning and trotting out with her nose practically stuck in the air, recovering her dignity as much as she could.
Wyatt snorted, then actually started snickering loudly, laughing up a storm as he tried to hold onto his drink. Crusader watched with an amused look before smiling along with him.
A voice came back through the stacks of crates, Athena’s annoyance plain, “Stop snickering!!”
To be continued.....
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That is still funny. I wonder if it's the same one?
They need to shove that thing into a fabricator. If it somehow makes it's way back to ponyville and the crusaders find it Rainbow Rarity and Applejack will find the whole 🐦 and 🐝 talk coming up sooner than they would have liked
I swear that "thing" travels around. Also, what is snickering in the crates?
I hope this is the same one that Shining was waving around the first time.
Well since Wyatt is a fan of the old sci-fi series, i hope you add The Expanse (be interesting to see Crusader speaking Belter creole), and Shining hook up with him for the geek stuff.
Someone's going to get a special present, we think...
....oh my~
Luna and Celestia will be getting one each for Hearthwarming
Was it a vibrating dilldo or something?
8972216
In a word? Eeyup.
https://youtu.be/V4UfAL9f74I?t=7