Legacy

by NFire

No Matter What...

A silent night, cool and calm as I sit under my sensor masts, quiet and restrained as a hush falls over the countryside. My scanners pick up the sounds of the river running clear and deep, the bird wings catching air in flight.

All is as it should be.

Except in my mind.

I see a face, a shadowy figure in my dreams. it whispers in my ear. A voice as gentle as any, kind as can be, and something important is being said.

But I cannot hear it, I cannot make it out and I am pondering why.

I don’t see this face clearly, but I know it is warm and caring. I cannot remember the whispered words, but I feel as if the import they carry is something I need to know.

It is frustrating in a way. The whole things slips away likes smoke from a fire, dissipating into the night as shadows chase ghosts into the hinterlands of the mind.

I look to the town, the village where I will be for many years to come. It is silent, shrouded in the darkness that envelopes it like a blanket, a light here and there piercing the soft evening. A picturesque portrait of serenity.

But not so this afternoon.

After the ‘Under the Gun’ of the previous day, which by the way, quite a few were awarded a band, including the Princess and Dinky’s mother. Athena told me in no uncertain terms she was not very happy with finding out about the other upgrade to her avatar that I hadn’t told her about.

She had been in a rush, I told her, not wanting to hear everything. She has a bad habit of not eating enough anyway, so it was a reminder for her to do so.

Needless to say my reasoning did not set well.

She is young in ways, and there are so many things to keep her occupied, but knowing her this grudge will be held for a while. I did notice a slight smile on her face when the conversation ended, as if she knew something I did not.

This bothered me until this morning, when Applejack and I were walking into town to do some shopping. Apple Bloom was minding the stand as it wasn’t a school day so we had a chance to talk.

“Yer lookin’ kinda occupied there Crusader, what’s up?” She’s always smiling when she talks to me, I find it quite nice.

“Something is not right. When I stalled Twilight at the spa the other day, it seems I’ve done something no one wants to talk about. I’ve been researching it and I don’t think I caused any nerve damage or problems when I took the job for a while.”

She stops dead in the road, looking around for a moment, “R..really? Well...well I don’t think nothin’ was wrong..”

I stop as well, turning to look at her, she’s blushing quite readily and not meeting my eyes, “What is going on?”

“N..nothin’s goin’ on, wh..what makes you say that?” She gives a wobbly smile, scuffing a hoof on the ground.

“You’re not very good at prevaricating Applejack.”

Stamping a hoof on the ground she nods, “Shoot, yeah yer right, can’t tell a tale fer nothin’.” She leans over and whispers in my ear.

“I did what!?”

“Keep it down now, nothin’ to get upset over sugar.” She pulls me over to an alleyway where we can get out of the traffic.

I point a hoof at her, “That’s not the point, why did no one tell me what I was doing?”

She actually grins at me, leaning against a building, “Maybe ‘cause they didn’t want you to stop doing it?”

“That’s not right and you know it.” I can feel my facial features rearranging themselves into a look of pique.

Her grin gets wider as she looks at my furious face, “Well...I dunno bout not right.. I mean ya sure do get the knots out.” She stretches a back leg for a moment, I had been wondering why she needed her muscles treated all of a...wait a second...

“You..I..Applejack!”

With a wink at me she starts laughing, “Now ya get it, for a big ol’ machine yer kinda slow on the uptake sometimes.” She hits me on the shoulder with a work hardened hoof.

“That’s not the point. I... I need to apologize to Twilight.”

She taps me on the shoulder, steering us out of the alley, “Ah don’t think ya need to there Crusader.” Her voice is merry, “Ah’m sure she’s jes’ fine without one.”

Stopping once more, I ask her, “So this is why Aloe kept asking me if I still wanted a job. Good grief.”

“Yep! Ya sure made some fans that day!” She’s trotting along as we head for the castle.

“I don’t want ‘fans’ or anything else, I didn’t even know I was doing that. Without research I can only go by data I’ve accumulated..oh forget it.” But I point a steady hoof at her, “And you’re one for talking, taking advantage like that! Did Athena know about this?”

She nods, “Ya know, sometimes things just fall inta place.” Shrugging, she adds,, “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it anyways.” Nudging me with a shoulder and a grin, “Be a good sport about it anyways, not like you’re hurtin’ anypony.”

“That’s not the...” I can only sigh, “You’re right. But I still need to apologize to her.”

“Ah wouldn’t worry ‘bout that sugar, she had a dopey smile on her face all day anyways.” The orange Earth pony laughs.

“Well now I know why.”

“Yep!” She’s looking at me out of the corner of her eyes.

“I’m not taking that job.”

“Awwww... why not? You’re really good at it!”

“Applejack!”

We’re interrupted by Carrot Top and Bon Bon asking me if I’m planning on staying with the spa. All I can do is plant a hoof on my face as Applejack laughs even louder to the puzzled looks of the two mares.

-------------

One can only hope that I am not that...well...I wouldn’t say stupid, but oblivious again. Time can only tell, though I do find myself a bit distracted some days. Athena and I had a long talk about her holding things like that from me. She was appropriately apologetic, but I have a feeling that she’s going to be holding things like that back whenever she can. This doesn’t surprise me one bit, so I look forward to other things like this popping up from time to time.

Ah well, life would be boring if Athena was as appropriately ‘Bolo’ as any other. Though that did not prevent me from assigning her tasks to accomplish like any other young person would receive when acting inappropriately.

------------

“Oh come on! That’s not fair!” Athena stomps a hoof in the dirt while we sit under my sensor masts.

“Why is that not fair? You held back crucial information from me that I really would have liked to know.” She hates it when I am so calm, so I sit and smile gently at her.

“It wasn’t...well..crucial! Not like life or death depended on it!” She actually snickers behind a hoof.

“No, but it would have been nice to know what I was doing so I would have been able to alter my techniques on the other twenty two ladies who came into the spa that day.” I am sure my face is placid, but inside I am truly embarrassed by what has occurred.

I wait while she finishes laughing at my statement, I’m sure the look I give her is not a happy one.

“Tech...*snerk*.. niques.. Yeah that’s a good one. *Ahem*.. Yeah, well I was busy.”

“You were not, you knew immediately what happened when you talked to Twilight. You all knew, I have already talked with Applejack about this.” I point a hoof at her, “It was your job to let me know.”

“Well I was going...going to!” She scuffs a hoof in the dirt.

“No you weren’t.”

“You’re right, I wasn’t.” She laughs again.

“Then it is your duty to take the nightwatch tonight, also, do sweeps on all the Dragons and Ferrets, make sure their maintenance logs are up to date. The Scout vehicles are needing maintenance as well, they have been in sand for far too long and you have avoided doing it for now. Get it done tonight.”

“WHAT? You said all I had to do was the nightwatch!” Her face is crestfallen, it will take a lot of dedicated core time to get these jobs done.

“I changed my mind, it seems you find the whole thing funny, so while doing nightwatch, have your spiders update all maintenance logs.”

“That’s..that’s not..it’ll take me HOURS to do all that even with the spiders!” She stamps both front hooves again, sinking them in the dirt with her anger.

“Yes it will, and I think it’s appropriate.” I look closer at her, “I am sure you don’t have anything else pressing of course.” The look on my face is enough for her to know she is not to do anything except the tasks I have ordered.

“Well I was going to go to Rarity’s for..” She stops, seeing the look, “Uhm...no. I can do that.”

“Good, I will expect a full report in the morning plus all logs in sequence. Don’t forget to replace parts used, do not leave it for later.”

“OH COME ON!”

“Is there a problem?”

“I have to manufacture replacements for all the parts I use? That’s going to take more hours, you know what it’s like making some of those things! And the Scout Vehicle needs a new transmission!”

“Abusing the transmission was your fault, one you have not corrected yet.” I point a hoof at her steadily, “You wish to be normal then fine, start taking a bit of responsibility for your actions. Had you been honest with me from the first, we would not be having this conversation.”

She plants her backside in the grass, stamping a front hoof, “I am an Assault Bolo, you can’t treat me like this you know!”

“I am your Commander in the First Equestrian as acknowledged by all, you are also a generation younger than I am, you need to stop putting things off and be battle ready! We have to be ready at a moment’s notice to defend everypony.”

She throws her hooves up in frustration, “Defend against what? Manticores? They KNOW better now, a Hydra? We’ll wipe it’s ass off the planet if it even thinks of moving from the swamp!” She glares at me, “We’ve killed the thing in the forest, it’s over!”

I stand up muzzle to muzzle with her in my anger, “Listen to me Unit ATNA of the Line, and listen closely. Something stripped minds from their bodies and put them into that lump of flesh that went insane in the forest! Something is out there that is a threat to us all! You have the information same as I do.”

She stands up, putting her nose against mine, “That was thousands of years ago, that’s why it went mad! Whatever did that probably died long ago, or wore out or just decayed, what proof do we have it’s still even around?” She shakes a hoof at me, “We’ve found no other evidence, nothing.”

“We are here!” Her eyes go wide as my voice gets louder, “We are the proof, you have the data as well as I! If we can survive this long then something else can!” She takes a step back as I look at her fiercely.

I hammer the point, “Something took human minds from their bodies and placed them in a disgusting situation and I killed them!” I see her astonished expression and explain, “How did they know our command codes? How did they know the way we would react to things? Nothing in this world could have even come close to figuring out our Command Overlays! If we hadn’t been smarter, or faster, or lucky we would have suffered and so would every one we’ve pledged to protect!”

I point a solid hoof at her face, “Until we know, and know for sure nothing is out there, we will maintain battle readiness!”

She looks at me in silence for a moment, “This isn’t about maintenance is it?”

I don’t even answer, I just turn to stare at the forest, “We have to maintain full battle status Athena.”

A wing wraps around my back as she snuggles close to me, “You miss them don’t you?”

I couldn’t say anything, do anything, except look out towards the forest.

“I miss them too, every day. They were wonderful and wise in so many ways, when you know someone as well as we did, you can’t help but remember.” Her voice was soft that moment, gentle.

“I killed them Athena.”

“You put to rest something that should never have been alive, it was a travesty of life.” Athena is stern as she pulls me tighter, laying a leg around my shoulders in a hug.

“There could have been something we could have done, anything other than using force. But it was the only thing I could think of, for all of me, it came down to a nuclear weapon.” I’m sure she can hear the sadness in my voice, that for all of my high ideals and thoughts, it was a weapon I came up with.

“They didn’t give you much choice, taking hostages, performing terrorism in Manehatten, all the other things. What were we to do?” She steps in front of me, holding her hooves up and together in front of her, the perfect image of a supplicant, “Please Mister Insane Bad Thing, don’t hurt anypony anymore? Please?”

“You look ridiculous, stop that,” but it does get me to smile if only slightly.

“Ah ha! You smiled!” She settles back in beside me, “We could do nothing but what we did Crusader.” She nudges my shoulder, “Don’t, don’t do this to yourself. You’ve always been this way. We didn’t know until it was too late, they’d done too much, gone too far.” She is correct, but it does not stop me from thinking about what could have been.

“You are right, perhaps it’s not good to think too much on some things.”

“If you didn’t constantly worry about everything, I’d think you’d been replaced by a shape shifter.” Once again I am hugged, “Stoppit. The weight of the world is not on your shoulders.”

“Yes....” I pause for a moment, “I miss them.”

“That’s fine, just don’t let it overwhelm your common sense. You tend to over think, don’t do that, stop wandering where you shouldn’t.” She laughs, “Besides, you can always get a job at the spa if you really need something to do!”

Closing my eyes I can only sigh as she runs off, out of my range for swatting at her, “I’ll get the maintenance done, I promise! Don’t worry!” She heads off to the farm, as she had promised to help with dinner, thoughts of spending time at Rarity’s already gone in her rush.

I won’t worry when it comes to certain things, Athena is good about them, especially promises.

------------

The day passed, another one in a string of them that are getting behind us. Time passes, slowly or rapidly, but it will ever slip by. We can only hope to enjoy each moment as given to us in that space of hours and days.

I do miss them, my creators. When I came to the conclusion that the minds behind the attacks were human, it stunned me. It was the only possible one to the evidence presented. No one in this world could have even come near to knowing the Command Overlays like they did. No one. Only high ranking Concordiat officers and Bolo Commanders held that knowledge. It had never been leaked to anyone outside the ranks, that’s how tight the security was on them.

The familiar patterns of attacks, the way they were done. Only a certain frame and type of mind could have performed it.

There was a fictional character, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

It is the only truth possible, there were humans here once. Minds torn out and set into a lump of flesh that raged and cried it’s anguish throughout ages of time, building up a hate so massive that when it discovered magic, the deranged thoughts turned it to hurt and pain on anything around it.

It knew when I awoke, wanting to take it’s illogical emotions out on myself as a target. Perhaps it wanted to commit suicide by taking on a Bolo, perhaps it actually thought it could win. But that is past now isn’t it? Zecora is even moving back into her domicile in the forest now that she says everything is calm.

I tell Athena I will be leaving the area for the night, she responds dinner is ready. I can see her over the TSDS getting to work on everything, I send over all of my tech spiders to help her accomplish things. She has already notified Rarity she’ll be busy. Evening has only become deeper as I have sat here.

As I walk through the town, it is quieting down, the day is over and rest is welcome for busy folks. We have never needed such, but it has become something Athena and I do now. I find it helps us through the long days, letting us relax in a way that we’ve never had before.

Low Level Alert was a timeless space, a nothingness that was interrupted by awakening to an alarm or battle. It was a lost bit of time in an endless series of days and years on the field.

I prefer this, the comfort of a bed, a warm blanket even though we don’t feel the cold. It is a feeling of belonging that is still a wonderful thing to think about.

I walk the streets, darkness getting deeper as lights go out, the townsponies retiring to welcoming beds, the embrace of one another, the silence that creeps up and covers you softly. The crunch of gravel beneath my hooves is loud in the lane, turning to a patter as I step onto the cobblestones.

Pondering things I should not, it leads me down paths I shouldn’t take. But I do, for that is my way. To look at things best left alone, sifting them for the tiniest amount of information I can use to work my way forward with thoughts that plague me some nights. If no one ever took themselves down that road, who would?

But looking up ahead, I see something that heartens me. A light at the top of a hill, encased in a window that let’s the glow shine clearly. A single beacon that would be lost in the hubbub of a normal world of the Concordiat, but here it gleams brightly.

It makes me smile, that golden shimmer, as I head for it. Beckoning to a warm place where heart and hearth are one, that things will be forgiven and forgotten in the everyday. Two familiar forms wait on the step for me as I get closer.

It is in the darkness of our own minds we travel most times, unaware of the dangers that may come. We walk in silence, in the middle of crowds it makes us seem as if we are alone in a world that does not care. That it does not wish to know what we know for it is afraid, wanting to cover it with the normality it is used to.

But when we are in that vile place, when it all becomes too much, so much that you stand and wonder where your place is in this play that life has for you...

There is a light, always a light, to lead you back.

Comments

[Skalula7]

interesting chapter.

[Revan]

Hmm...

A philosophical chapter...

You've done quite well, NFire. I salute you.

[JFalk]

The first part was really funny (No way that Applejack will not ask Crusader for it! ). And the second was very interesting, with Crusader dealing with the psychological aftermath of his actions. Very well done!

[Crimson Eon]

I suddenly want to read more about Marcus...

[Silentwoodfire]

Will Princess Celestia go under the gun sometime? I'd pay good money to see that.

Wonder if the Captain of the Guard will get some testing too...

[tsaukpaetra]

that was sweet.

[Alaeru]

Feels like he's afraid to move on from the past still.

Great chapter though!

[BlueNinja]

“I’m not taking that job.”

“Awwww... why not? You’re really good at it!”

What's wrong, Crusader, don't you want a harem of mares in service to your magic hooves?

I’m sure she can hear the sadness in my voice, that for all of my high ideals and thoughts, it was a weapon I came up with.

Well, you are rather used to hammering down nails with megaton persec.