25: Of Docks, Boats, and Teleports.
I’m lying on my back, looking up at the stars, it is such a peaceful night, with few clouds in the sky. Feather’s eaten so much that it is about all she can do to climb up and fall asleep on my chest, her little wings tucked tightly to her sides.
Ah-Pee is sitting up, chewing on a piece of straw and leaning against a large rock, brushing part of her mane as she relaxes.
Sugarberry moved over to lay her head against my hip, needing some sort of physical contact, I don’t mind, I understand how she feels and don’t mind the closeness.
Cipher and Ballad, on the other hoof, are lying side by side watching the stars, one advantage of not being in a big city, the stars some nights just paint the sky.
“Rainbow, tell us a story.” I say softly, stroking Feathers mane with my hoof.
“I’m not much of a story teller.” He says, chuckling.
Ah-Pee smiles and looks over at him, “I’m sure Grandfather taught you some, so tell us.”
“Long ago, in a world before this one, there was only darkness, the world was empty and barren except for 6 beings, First Man, First Woman, Salt Woman, Fire God, Coyote, and Begochiddy. Begochiddy was the child of the sun, and first created 4 mountains. White in the east, blue in the south, yellow in the west and black in the north. But there was still no light.”
Blaze sits up and spreads his wings wide as he talks. “The first beings grew tired of this and they decided to leave the first world. At the center of the first world Begochiddy planted an massive seed which grew into a tall hollow reed. He then gathered all his creations and crawled inside. The reed grew out of the first world and into the second.”
“The 2nd world was light and blue, when the first beings emerged from the reed they found a nice place to live, but the world was already inhabited by the cat people. The first beings fought for years, but in the end they could not find harmony, so Begochiddy gathered his beings and entered the reed once more.”
“The reed grew on and on into the third world, this world was yellow and full of light. The first beings rejoiced and built camps here, and had many children. Begochiddy created rivers and lakes, and birds, and animals of all kinds. One day coyote found a baby by the river, the child of the great water monster. Coyote ever the prankster and and loving of chaos, stole the baby and hid it under a blanket. When the water monster found his child missing, became furious and brought great rains.”
“Quickly Begochiddy gathered his children at the great reed and they forced coyote to give back the child, but it was too late, the third world lost to them they traveled to the fourth world.” Blaze motioned around with his hoof.
“This world was not as beautiful as the third, but it became the home of the Navajo. Begochiddy taught man how to live the right way, how to plant corn, and beans, and squash, and the right to give thanks to the plants for the food given to them.”
“And that is how the Navajo people came to live in the fourth world. Though some believe that the beings of the third world are not lost to us, and they are the source of our spirit guides, the animal totems that guide us and remind us of our path of harmony.”
Blazed looked around at the mares, Cipher faked a snore, her tongue hanging out.
I let out a soft giggle, “Ok I guess for Cipher unless the story contains explosions it’s not worth hearing.”
“Told you, there’s a reason I never really got that interested in the Navajo myths, no action. It’s said that our language is so alien from other language groups because it’s not of this world. But since when do creation stories have to make sense right?” Blaze chuckled.
“Says the pegasus pony born on another world.” Ah-Pee pointed out.
“Ouch, touché…”
*** 1000 years ago or so, though it’s still a Monday ***
Starswirl returned to the marble with Willow. The locals had shared their bounty and held a celebration in honor of their new friends and even though they seemed to have little, they were more than willing to be generous with it.
“So how long will the gate stay open?” Willow said looking at the stone.
“Oh it’s permanent now, it should stay linked to this stone.” Starswirl said proudly. “The next step is to run some more tests, and then show it to the Princesses.”
“Maple and Juniper are going to stay back at the settlement to help the inhabitants and see what they can learn though I’m worried about them.” Willow said with a sigh.
“Oh posh, they will be fine, the inhabitants will keep them out of any harm’s way.” Starswirl chuckled stepping through the gate.
Willows hooves hit the stone floor and started skidding a bit as he tried to find his new center of gravity. “You really need to put a warning label on that mirror, going through it is rough.”
Starswirls horn glowed bright as he put on his hat again, “Oh its fine, just takes some getting used to, interesting, you came back as a deer, good to see.”
“Wait what? You had doubts about that?” Willow looked at him shocked.
“Oh no doubts, though I assumed there might be a tiny chance, hardly worth mentioning that you might have come back though as a pony. It’s good to see the magic remembered your true form.”
Willow sat down panting and started checking himself over, legs, tail, antlers, good everything was where it was supposed to be then looked at Starswirl, “You could have warned me.”
“Well the chance was so small I didn’t feel like it would be an issue, besides if an error had cropped up, we could have fixed it.” Starswirl chuckled, “As well you had fun exploring, did you not.”
“Trust me, life as a hairless biped with a mane is not a fun concept. I’m all for trying things once but I’ll leave that strange stuff to the ponies.”
“So what do you intend to do now?” Starswirl said with a chuckle.
“Get some more water from the Everfree, pick up some forest squash seeds, maybe some some beans, and bring them back for the girls. The growth potion should ensure they have enough food for the next few months, if not longer.”
Starswirl chuckled, “And if needed we can drop off more supplies for the inhabitants in a few weeks. With any luck we can use the mirror to open up new trading partners.”
“It will take me a day or so to get the supplies they want, I’ll meet you back here tomorrow night?” Willow asked as he was heading out.
“Sure, sure not a problem.” Starswirl said waiving a hoof as he went about looking up other spells, “I wonder if it’s possible to give deer cutie marks? Maybe a destiny spell.”
*** New Mexico Bunker ***
“Is it our destiny to live with these abominations?”
“NO!”
“Is it God’s will that man become just a lesser being to the animals on the very planet he created for them?”
“NO!”
“We stood against the blacks, and now they infest our government, and cry about their rights everytime one gets punished. We stood against the Mexican’s now the government bows down to the cartels and lets any that want to cross our borders. And now this!”
The man wore military fatigues but was no soldier, though he did follow orders. He had found others who believed in God and country. God and Country, a term so many had forgotten. He was bound to make them remember.
“We too have friends though, friends in power, friends who can supply and support us. They give us money, they give us guns, and now they give us drugs to fight with.”
Opening a case he turned it so all could see, small bottles of pills, each bottle only contained 3 pills but there were hundreds of bottles in the case. “With these, we shall have no fear, we shall feel no pain, we shall be removed from the burdens to carry out gods will.”
The inside to the case bore the logo… a white line hitting a triangle and branching out into a rainbow of colors… a stylized S in the middle of the rainbow.
*** Velvet ***
I just shook my head rubbing my muzzle with a foreleg, “Teleporting isn’t just hard it’s dangerous. I was hospitalized for a jump, I can teach you the basics of it but I don’t know if it’s safe. I don’t know how much it will take out of you, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Sugarberry stepped forward taking a deep breath, “I know, and it’s not a quality of life thing, but it could be an emergency thing. I may never want to or have to use it, but just knowing I…” Shaking her head she corrected herself, “just knowing we, can do it, if we get trapped, imprisoned…”
“I know I’m not the best unicorn here, not the strongest, don’t have special spells, but with groups out there like Spectrum, AoG, ISIS, and worse, even being able to teleport a few feet onto the other side of a door might save my life.” Ballad looked down, “I know you’re not going to be around always to protect me.”
“Well this is Henry’s and the LT’s call. They had me on light magic duties, no teleporting, after my last accident, so it’s up to them if I’m strong enough.”
Henry chuckled “Ok Twilight front and center.”
I eep softly and look to Henry, before walking up. Very carefully he gives me a check over, using a small flashlight in my eyes, ears and nose, before nodding. “As long as you take it easy, I gave you a medical pass.” Ruffling my mane he chuckles, “And the fact that you have 3 unicorns behind you, giving me sad pleading eyes, is not the reason I’m okaying it.”
Looking back at the girls I take a deep breath, “Ok girls, first thing you need to learn is, time, space, and thought are not the different things we make them out to be.”
The groans were enough to say they disapproved, but the truth is, there really isn’t a better way to describe or understand what a teleport is, in a way it’s ignoring the laws of time and space, with thought. This was only sight to sight, so it wasn’t as dangerous as it could be. I still watched them very closely through.
I was worried that they would only be able to blink a few feet, but even Ballad seemed to make jumps of up to 400 feet, though that left her wobbly and dizzy. “It might not seem like a lot but it’s enough to get you out of most high rises, that’s about 40 stories.”
Sitting down hard she shook her head, “I see why you were worried, that’s just… painful.”
Sugarberry winked in beside us and wobbles before throwing up. “Now I know why unicorns don’t do that all the time in the show, that’s brutal.”
“When my daughter does it in the show the first time, she wobbles a lot. Of course Twilight was never the best at teleporting, it’s about control rather than brute force.” Teleporting a short jump onto the other side of them I give Sugarberry a soft nuzzle, “though I’m not sure if throwing up’s a good sign.”
“Where’s Cipher?” Ballad said looking around.
Spinning around we started calling, “Cipher! Cipher!”
“Oh god, I hope she didn’t teleport in to the ground or something…” I started panicking looking around the area for her.
With a pop Cipher appeared beside us, holding an extra-large coffee in her forehoof, “What?”
“The heck, where were you?” Ballad said snarling.
“I just popped back to the house for a coffee. Can you imagine if they give me an office in sight of a Starbucks?” Cipher held up her coffee, and sat sipping it.
“Oh God we’ve created a monster.” I said shaking my head and giggled.
“What? Once you get used to it, you can wink from point to point pretty quick, it just takes a lot of coffee, I mean A LOT!” She said nodding.
*** Blaze ***
“So you grew up in New Mexico?”
Feather shook her head no, “I was born in Nevada, near Los Vegas but my parents figured it wasn’t a good place for a little girl to grow up.”
“Yeah, it’s strange but I could never see Vegas as a place to raise kids. I know people do it but, it’s no Los Pegasus.” I chuckle softly lying on my belly keeping Feather under wing. She’s so small I can pretty much cover her with my wing.
“I still feel like a monster, every time I close my eyes I see myself…”
“They aren’t ponies, they weren’t ponies from Equestria. I know it’s going to be hard but trust me it’s going to be hard for all of us. Probably every pony here has eaten beef, but in Equestria cows were intelligent too.” Shaking my head I sigh softly.
“So what am I going to do?” Feather said with tears in her eyes.
“Oh, that’s the fun part, you’re a blank flank, you never found your true love, true calling as a pony, and likely as a human. You get to grow up again, this time the right way. Yeh I know that sounds bad but it’s true, unlike the rest of us who have no idea about going back to our pony lives, you are young enough that you get to find out your entire life.”
Feather sighed softly, “I know what you’re trying to do. It’s just… hard to deal with.”
“Want to hear a secret? I grew up thinking that magic, wasn’t real. I avoided my culture, my history because I was scared as a child. The problem is, now I’m starting to wonder, what’s real and what’s not. I see the great spirits dad talked to and wonder if I should have been talking to them too, learning from them.”
Looking down I nuzzle Feather, “I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t turned my back on the old ways. I wonder what would have happened if I had followed Grandfathers ways.”
“It would have been hollow, empty and lonely.” Grandfather said walking in. “Consider for a moment, had you followed that path, you would never have met Twilight Velvet.”
Sitting Grandfather softly stroked the little foal, scratching behind her ears. “Blaze does have some wisdom though. Feather, your actions as a human was guided by human values not pony. Now it is time to learn the pony values. For that you have many who can teach you.”
Closing her eyes Feather leaned into the scratching, content. I blinked looking at grandfather though, the idea of never meeting Velvet again seemed, painful.
“Grandfather, this is stupid but I think I’m falling for her.” Taking a deep breath I looked at the foal, “It’s so awkward because I knew him as a guy for so long, but at the same time, I look into her eyes, and know I never want to leave her.”
Feather blinked, “Tell her, tell her.”
“I’m scared, I’m scared she’s going to flip out if I do, have one of her freakouts or panic, or worse.” I shake my head, “and that would hurt more.”
*** Off the coast of California ***
“They’ve seen us Captain.” The helmsman of the Rapid Response Boat clung tighter to the ships control stick as the small craft went airborne again.
“The crew of that go-fast must be insane, there pulling close to 40 knots in this weather, and I think I got whiplash 2 waves ago.” The radar operator called out.
“Captain, engine 2’s running a little warm, but nothing to worry about for now, I’ll want to check her out after this though, I think we might have shook something loose.” Grabbing the console for dear life the engineers head snapped forward as the boat hit the next wave hard.
“What’s the chance of us being on her before she hits international waters?” The captain asked looking through his binoculars at the boat ahead of them.
“Better questions what’s the chances of us being on her before she rips herself apart, that’s a fiberglass hull, I’m still surprised it’s in one piece, were taking a beating here Captain, so they must be getting it worse.” The engineer called out keeping his eyes on the engine and oil gauges. “We’re pushing the engines to the max.”
“Where the hell are they going? They were heading for international waters before they spotted us, radio back to Command, tell them to start looking along the projected course of the that boat… They have to have a mothership out there somewhere. At least we can get pictures of it and take them if they go to port.” This was just frustrating, Captain Harris had been with the US Coast Guard for 18 years now and these go-fasts were always annoying.
“Sir they are dumping cargo, 2 black bags overboard and picking up speed.” A typical drug tactic, dump the cargo for more speed.
“Damn it, ok our engines are already too hot, let’s slow up pick up the evidence before it sinks, hopefully the aircraft can track them and we can try again when they try to make landfall again.” The captain said.
“This just doesn’t make sense Captain, why would they have drugs on them if they were heading for international waters? Usually its inbound boats with drugs, we don’t usually see export drugs.”
Slowing the boat, they turned themselves broadside the waves letting them be pushed back on the first of the bags, it was huge, duffle bag sized probably big enough to hold several hundred pounds of drugs. It took 3 people to haul it on board, before the boat put itself in position for the 2nd bag.
The RRB tilted dangerously as they slide down the wave and grabbed the next bag the crew hauled it up. Right off the bat they knew it wasn’t drugs. Neither bag felt like the normal packing for drugs, cutting open the first back, in the wind and rain, the deck crew called back “Captain, this is seriously f’ed up.”
Coming out onto the aft deck the Captain attached his harness hook to the rail and knelt down, “It’s some kind of horse, but its head and colors are wrong, purple and green? It looks like it’s been beaten and shot.”
“Captain, this one’s alive!”
The 2nd pony was smaller, blue with pink mane and tail, its head and muzzle were smaller as well.
“Get it inside, and store the body here. Tie it down, we’ll sort this out at port.”
“My brother, where’s my brother.” The small blue equine said weakly.
“Captain…”
“I heard, get… her… inside, I’ll get on the horn right away.” This was not normal.
*** Velvet ***
Heading back inside I was exhausted, I swear, there seemed to be an emotional component to magic. If I was angry or such my magic seemed to be a lot more powerful, so it left me really drained teaching them all day, especially something hard like teleports.
Walking in I found Feather lying in front of the TV, even though she was 25 years old she was watching cartoons, with chocolate milk beside her muzzle. Her wings were still healing slowly but surely and she looked a lot better, even her colors were getting richer. The LT had taken a turn to watching her, he seemed to be great with ponies which was a life saver.
Lying down beside the LT, Feather was quick to move over to snuggle up to me. She looked up at me with huge eyes and putting on her best foal voice she played up to the child aspect, “Velvet, if we can’t find my real mom and dad, will you and Blaze be my mom and dad?”
It caught me off guard, really off guard, the idea of adopting lost foals. All of a sudden I started thinking of all the lost foals scattered around the world, with no real idea who their pony parents were. Oh Celestia, what about the Pound's babies, what if they were sent here too.
“I think you and Blaze would be a great mommy and daddy for me.” Feather said then put her head tight against my side.
Gently I lay my head over Feather, than it hit me, Blaze as a daddy with me as… “Oh Feather, I don’t know, Blaze and I are just friends.”
“Nuh uh…” Feather kept with the child speech, “He loves you, he said so, he knows it every time he looks into your eyes. I think he’d make a great daddy. I don’t think I’m big enough pony wise to be on my own.”
Gulping heavily I looked at the LT, “Blaze?”
“No, I'm the LT, or James works in a pinch.” He said and gently put his and on my back stroking my fur gently.
“I mean,” ok what do I mean, shaking my head I start over. “Does Blaze actually?”
The LT chuckled softly, “It’s an unwritten rule with the squad right now, we are trying not to do anything that makes you doubt yourself or feel uncomfortable with being a girl.”
Softly he moved his hand to lay it right on my cutie mark, I know I said how personal those were, but I trusted him, and something about his hand just made me feel relaxed. Looking down at me he smiled, “We’ve been leaving it to you to figure out, if you want to get into a relationship with males or not. It’s something personal to you, for you to decide if you are really ready. It’s not for me to say, and military reg’s don’t cover ponies. Though married couples are allowed to serve together and be posted together. That’s the whole Join Spouse program after all.”
“Do I love him?” I said weakly.
“My little mare’s growing up and starting to think of boys,” the LT said with a smile. “Again that should be for you to decide, but if you’re looking for a suggestion, I’d say wait till your out of heat, make sure it’s your heart, and not your tail that’s deciding.”
Blushing a bit I look down and lay my head over Feather protectively. “Thanks dad.”
“You have a huge heart Velvet, you always have, and I think self-doubt has always been your problem here, wondering if you are good enough. Trust me, you are, I think you do love Blaze but you still need time to sort that out. It’s been less than a month, but if there’s one thing I do know, you’re a beautiful, kind, and gentle mare, and a wonderful mother. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”
“How come you’ve never got married LT?” I said looking up, I knew I was getting into dangerous territory asking that, it was something I’ve always just taken for granted and never really thought about. He had been single as long as I’d known him, and never been one to chase after the girls.
“It’s probably going to sound stupid but, I never felt it fair to a woman to have to put up with me being gone for months, or even years on end. Often we are called out last minute, and the stress that puts on a relationship is huge.” Gently he stroked my cutie mark, “I’ve seen soldier after soldier return home, carrying the burdens of what he’s done, the lives he or she’s taken. It’s not something most people can understand.”
Shaking his head slowly he sighed, “I’m fine now, but I see soldiers suffering through nightmares and trauma of the battles they have fought, waking up in cold shivers from dark memories. To carry that home to a wife, I couldn’t do that. It’s not just those who get physically injured, there are more soldiers every year suffering from survivors guilt and PTSD.”
“LT, you can’t worry about things like that.” I say softly but I know he’s right, everyone has their breaking points… I don’t know how I’d deal with a spouse waking up screaming at night, for better or for worse often doesn’t include mental trauma’s like that.
“If your wife has gone through similar things through, and can understand.” I shake my head, so few women serve in front line combat though, and even fewer are put into positions like having to kill children. You can never tell what’s going to happen. “And as to dark memories, trust me, every pony out there probably knows that feeling waking up screaming about Discord's curse.”
“Maybe someday, when things calm down I’ll settle down.” Gently he boops my nose with his finger, “maybe it will be with someone who’s as brave and strong as you.”
“My daughter's off limits,” I say giggling, “she’s too young for you.”
*** Coast Guard RRB ***
As the Boat pulled up to the wharf lines were thrown across, to pull it tight to the dock, nothing going on was making any sense and it just kept getting stranger. Captain Harris had been informed that CID would be picking up the body, not Navy, not Coast Guard, not even FBI but Army was picking them up. ATF and FBI had vehicles there as well.
A Coast Guard Investigative Services officer met the Captain as he stepped off the boat, “What the hell did you step in Harris?”
“I’ve got no idea Jenny, I’m chasing down what I think is a drug boat that’s making a break for international waters, they dump cargo and instead of drugs I find this.” Kneeling down he flips the covers off the bag and showing her the body of the male pony.
“Dios mío!” Jenny knelt down touching the body, “What’s with the colors?”
The Army Ambulance staff came down with the stretcher, “Where’s the survivor?”
“She’s inside the cabin,” Harris said as they jumped onto the boat, even Jenny was confused when they went to work on the female pony, they had vet style breathing masks for her, they had blood pressure monitors on her foreleg, it was obvious they knew what they were doing.
“Get the contact on her ear and neck, I’ll get the ones for the barrel.” One of the EMT’s called out, “I want her vitals’ before we move her.”
The first EMT was flashing her eyes with a pen light, “Miss? Can you hear me? Pupils are responsive but she’s unconscious.”
“Get a the neck wrap blanket just to be safe.” The second called out and they put a blanket around her neck before strapping her to the stretcher board.
Watching, the pony was moved off the boat by stretcher then brought to an army ambulance, CID was still photographic the body when the FBI and ATF officers came on board.
“Sorry about this Captain, I’m Agent Mills with the ATF. We’re going to need the tracking photo’s for the go-fast you were chasing.”
“Ok this is BS, what the hell is going on here, what’s the ATF got to do with that?” Harris said pointing at the body.
“That? Nothing, CID is handling that. A radical militia groups in the USA has been getting their hands on high tech drugs, we didn’t know where they were coming from or what they were trading or paying for the drugs with, until now.” He said looking at the body.
“Ok just for a moment pretend I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. You’ve got EMT’s who are vet trained, talking horses, and drug runners going through the worst weather I’ve seen to get into international waters.”
“They are ponies and that’s a different issue, there’s a terrorist group that’s been operating in US Borders, they have attacked US Army personal as well as police in 3 different states. CID has been investigating them for about 2 weeks now, as well as the ATF for weapons violations. Recently they have started employing designer drugs, but we didn’t know where these were being made or how the group was paying for them.”
“And?” Harris was less then trilled right now and this wasn’t making his headache any better.
“And, as of today we think we’ve figured out the missing part, there is an Oceanic research vessel the RSV/MC Corvallis sitting about 300 miles off shore. She’s flagged to the Czech Republic, it's a flag of convenience, we think she’s acting as a mobile drug lab as well as a laboratory to carry out experiments on the ponies.”
“Well that helped with everything except one part. What the HELL is with the ponies?” Jenny said, then looked at Harris.
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
610 users online
1,057,292 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Phew, 25's reformatted and up I see a very happy Harts Fire and Swyrl with this part.
Cipher and Feather are too evil to live.
Starswirl is in for a big surprise on Thursday?
5805006 What could possibly go wrong on Thursday?
5805037 It's Thursday. The proper question is what can go right.
yes you are right Harts Fire is vary happy.
“My little mare’s growing up and starting to think of boys,”
I am starting to see a huge under story here and I am liking it.
this is some of the best yet the intrigue is really starting to go deep.
and just wow the aog is every ware.
now will rainbow and blaze truly find ach other and what of feather?
and do I passable see the L T staying in command of this now pony ranger squad ? and will the army keep the squad intact?
it would be nice of the LT found his special somepony. yes this is just a little ok big hint. it would be nice the LT finds some one that needs help and they find feeling for each other at the same time
just a passing idea.
Harts Fire
I now have a Farley good idea who grandfather is.
still not telling. ^~^
I finally get caught up, and you post another chapter right after I do!
5805295 i warned you didn't i?
5805295 I've been at that point three times before I managed to finally catch up.
So it isn't over for you, either.
5805455 unless of course i post 2-3 chapters at once :)
And she takes things deeper...
Whoa! Okay, no. These guys are not following god, even in a deluded fashion. That i might forgive or overlook in a way. That was just downright racism, no ifs ands or buts about it
You know, I've never seen you used the word Blink once to describe teleport...Blink is used a lot in games and movies for short range teleport...Like in the one mission where we control the Behemoth-class Battlecruiser -The Hyperion- in starcraft 2.
They said something about blinking to get out of the way of mines and crossing obstacles in the game...And the word Blink also sound less childish.
I used starcraft a lot in examples because I'm most familiar with it.
Raceist levels over 9000
8636054
Warning, he's approaching redneck levels!
Sadly i saw one tyrate by an American "racial equalizes and diversity" professor, that makes ANYTHING I could write look left by comparison.
🎶 in the rainbow factory! 🎶