Chapter XII: Canterlot
"I still don't think this is a good idea madam."
"I never said it was a good idea."
"That... doesn't inspire confidence."
"Good, being overconfident is a bad idea, tends to get ponies killed," I dryly said to Silver, causing my recruits to all look at me in alarm. We were all sitting in the train car in the morning after I gathered all my recruits, which involved whacking anypony that didn't wake up at the crack of dawn with a stick. Oddly enough, the train car Princess Celestia reserved for me had enough seating to nearly fit in the original amount of recruits, alerting me that she probably expected me to drag the recruits to Canterlot with me.
Thankfully with all the available space, some of the ponies that still had injuries were given an entire seat to rest on, while I assigned seating for the rest. This resulted in Silver and I taking a seat together with Dusk Cloud, a dark blue coated thestral stallion with a short black mane, and Orange Spring, a green coated earth pony mare with an orange mane and a overly cheery smile. As I observed them, Dusk took on a hardened look, probably due to my training style.
"Hey, don't give me that look. Like I said, if you can't stand the training, then just leave," I declared, to which Dusk just flicked his ears in annoyance.
"I can not just simply leave, madam. It would shame my family if I were to simply leave on my own accord," Dusk replied in a gruff manner.
Oh... one of those 'honorable' way types. Gotta crush that line of thinking now, I thought to myself. "You're worried about shaming your family? 'Cause odds are, you're likely to shame yourself if you stick to this team more than just giving up now." This drew Golden Sword's attention, who was sitting across the aisle with Dusty Skies opposite him.
"I highly doubt that madam, as much as I doubt an alien pony like you would understand anything about honor."
"Please, there were many kinds of aliens from where I can from, and I met some aliens in my line of work that was so... obsessed with some honor code of theirs. It tended to get them killed," I nonchalantly replied while waving a hoof around. "Besides, you'll going to be having to do things that you would consider dishonorable in this line of work."
"Such as?"
"Hitting an alien in their... well, that," I answered as I pointed a hoof down there.
Blinking, Dusk took on an offended look as he did the predictable thing 'honorable' folk would do. "I would do no such thing. Taking such action would tarnished my honor. I rather die than commit to such an act."
"Yeah yeah, but think about this scenario. There are lives of innocent ponies on the line that depended on you completing your mission. However you ended up in a situation where you have to commit that 'act' on an alien or you will die. Which would you choose, your 'honor', or their lives?" I asked as I stared him down.
Scowling at me for a minute, Dusk finally answered, "I would choose to sacrifice my honor instead of innocents."
"Good, cause if you said the other choice, I would have tossed you off the train instantly," I said with a mocking grin.
"You would stop the train just to kick somepony off madam?" Silver asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Who said anything about stopping?" My response of course caused everypony to just stare at me, to which I just shrugged before turning my attention to Orange Spring, who had her usual smile turned into a shocked look. "So, Miss Spring, can you really stay so optimistic throughout the training? Like I said in the interview, this job is not pleasant."
"Are there really going to such situations as you described?"
"Pretty much, or worse. Before you say anything Silver, I truly wish that was a joke, but it isn't," I replied as we were all getting off the train, taking a look around. I was only in the Princesses' castle when I first came to Canterlot, so I was intent on ge—wow, there's a lot of unicorns here. I wonder if there is a species thing going on here in this world too.
"Madam, do you know where the castle is?"
"Sadly no, so take the lead Silver, I have some rather important questions to as—don't give me that look. I'm getting information on some of the ponies here." Giving an annoyed look at Silver, I let him head to the front of the group before he started to lead us toward the castle as I took position next to Golden Sword.
"Is something the matter madam?" Golden said in that 'noble' tone of his.
"Why yes, there is an important matter. Can you tell me the general views the nobility of Canterlot normally hold?"
"I beg your pardon? Aren't you a noble too madam?"
"Only recently, so I didn't get to meet any nobles yet. Just tell me what you can before we reach the castle," I ordered. "I’d rather know some things before I encounter any of them. 'Cause I have a feeling that these nobles are going to be similar to some ponies I meet, and if this feeling is true, I'm going to have to resist the urge of throwing a chair at their face."
Gasping in shock, Golden asked, "What in the sweet name of Celestia would cause you to do that?"
"Let's just say that I had a few bosses that I really hate."
It wasn't long before we arrived at the castle and were escorted to some facility, which gave Golden Sword time to inform me that while some nobles may be somewhat like my former bosses, but most of them actually aren't that bad after all. However, shortly after entering some tower on the outer edge of the castle grounds, I spotted Princess Celestia, some members of the Royal Guard, and some other unicorns that I assume must be scientists or something like that. Can't be sure with this world of magic.
Just as Celestia was about to greet me as my recruits began to bow their heads to her, I stopped her in her tracks when I said, "Greetings later, let's check the debris now. There wasn't any incidents in their recovery?"
While everypony was staring at me in shock with the exception of Silver Shield, Celestia just gave me an amused smile as she answered, "Thankfully there weren't any, and while we were able to identify some of the debris as harmless rocks or inert material that was similar to the probes, we did find three objects that appeared to be some kind of container."
Raising my eyebrows, I kept my mouth shut as I contemplated on what potential scenarios we could encounter. "Princess Celestia, take me to the containers, now. Also, bring in the best objects you got for piercing or smashing purposes."
Her expression shifting to concern, Celestia began to lead us to wherever she has stored the debris. "Do you think we may have something dangerous inside these objects?"
"Can't say for certain, though I know that there could be anything in them. Depends if I could identify what organization those containers may belong to, but regardless I rather have us prepared for anything."
We soon reach a portion of the building where the rooms have glass walls to view through in order to see the room's contents, which gave me relief when I saw that these containers were put into separate rooms. Sadly this relief was short-lived for I saw that these containers was something I hadn't encountered before. Though there appeared to be some markings on the side of the containers, they were too deformed from the portal incident to be legible. They were made of some metal alloy, and appeared to be twenty feet long, seven feet wide, and five feet tall. Right next to the containers was a series of raised platforms, probably for any non-pegasi ponies to use in over to view the container without touching it.
"Not good, I don't recognize them, which means that these are more of the private kind of containers. So either they use to belong to some government force or to a high-end organization. Celestia, can you still use magic if you're outside the room?"
"Yes, we can. I take it you want me to remain outside the room?"
"I want everypony to remain outside the room until I say otherwise, I'll be the only pony going into the room. For now, I want two barriers, one surrounding the entire room, and one covering over me. Now Celestia, if I open a container and suddenly fell over, do not enter the room, no matter what. Just teleport the container into space and myself out of the room. Understood?"
"Wouldn't it be better for a Royal Guard to just follow your directions?"
"Perhaps, but they may not be able to react properly, just do what I say," I said before I opened the door, approaching the first container. Instantly, I could see the walls, floor and ceiling of the room covered with magic, along with a golden barrier surrounding me, as well as some spears, hammers, even a giant boulder teleporting into the room. Getting on the platforms, I was able to see that the top of the container had some kind of double door with a damaged keypad that was probably a result from falling out of the unstable portal. Taking a deep breathe, I gripped the lids with my magic, grunting as I began to pull at them.
Thankfully, either the design of the container wasn't built to handle magic or the damage it sustained weakened it, for I was able to pry the lids open. Unfortunately, the moment I pulled the lids open, an eight foot long, three foot wide and two foot high object flew straight up out of the container. I quickly saw that it was made of a familiar white crystalline design, its body in a sleek angular shape that narrowed down to its rear end.
"Shit!" I said in my native language, for I recognized the thing to be an aerial Dixian war machine as it opened two small panels, taking aim at me. "Celestia! Smash that thing! Smash it now!" Thankfully, before the machine could fire and test whether or not Celestia's barrier could resist its firepower, the lone boulder crashed into it, sending the both of them into the wall.
Looking to the glass wall, I yelled, "That boulder won't be enough! Grab something made of stro—" only to hear a familiar pop of the teleport spell, causing me to see a large sheet of metal engulf in a golden aura to appear. The boulder was moved aside, revealing that it didn't even harm the machine, only for the sheet of metal to smash into it, over and over until it exploded. Small jagged pieces of crystal rain around the room, bouncing off the barriers harmlessly till everything settled down.
Planting my rear end on the platform, I started to pant as I felt my panic fading away as the Royal Guard rushed into the room. A couple came to my side as the rest surrounded the remains of the machine and the container, before Celestia herself strode inside. Joining the guards at my side, Celestia lowered her head to my level as she asked, "Aether? Are you okay."
"I'm okay, though I want to hit you in the face now."
This caused Celestia to rear her head in surprise as the guards glared at me, probably for my rudeness to her instead of gratitude for keeping me safe. "Why do you want to do that?"
"Remember that I told you that nopony should come inside until I said otherwise? You all could have gotten... augh I wish I had finished that dictionary. Just, we're all lucky that there is nothing here to make anypony sick with something that we may not be able to cure." Looking over to the container, I saw that there was nothing inside. "Seemed that the machine was… off… until after the portal event which may have turned it on, and was waiting to attack the moment some pony opened the container. Well, time to move onto the next two."
"Next two? After what just happened?" Celestia asked, her face expressing some shock.
"Yeah, better get it over with instead of waiting for something else to happen. Besides, we still don't know what is inside the other two containers, could be bad, could be good, could be junk to us. Also, the sooner we know, the sooner we can figure out if magic can cause it to react badly or not," I said as I got off the platform, heading to the next two rooms as the guards just blinked at my willingness to continue despite the danger I just faced.
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Now is a good time for life insurance xD
good thing Rainbow Dash isn't there, she would be pissed that there is someone more badass then her
Ather should introduce them to the saying, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
6293298 I wouldn't insure anyone living in Ponyville, the losses would be too damn high
6293298
Can you imagine the premiums for her dangerous line of work? How could she afford life insurance?
6293344 6293298 Would any company want to insure her anyway?
Aether seems to take potentially life threatening events a bit too casually.
Great, it's like the Mystery Box from Call of Duty Zombies, you open it, and BOOM you get something good, or something bad, and you now have two tries left... Well, great chapter nonetheless, I love this story
Aether should really stop threatening to hit Celestia in the face, ponis aren't gonna like her if she keep trying to harm their ruler you know
"they" instead of "there".
Heheheheh, oh wow, this is going to be fantastic!
Nicely done.
Two more boxes, I wonder what's in them! :D
Love this Book hope you keep posting more chapters as i cant get enough of this
6282210
yes best not to give aether a portal gun... or the gates of tarturus will open and freeze over
The only honorable warriors you want on your side are Klingon, Krogan, and BOLO.
This guy sure as all hay aint any of those.
Also, lets take the possibly highly destructive alien technology into the very heart of our capital city? I thought Trojan, and Tragedy had the same etymological root? I mean, when they said containers, I thought maybe a picnic basket, which a standard total conversion power plant drone could vapourise Canterlot Mountain.. but a shipping container? I wouldnt want to put that on the Moon. Say Hi to Mr Eclipse Cannon.
Still, nice to know that proper excessive and brutal application of a metallic slab nature is enough to deal with the minor problems. Which Bank did Celestia rip the vault door off?
Please dont let one of the boxes be the Grey Goo generator from Pushing Ice.
mariowiki.com/images/thumb/5/59/Fake_Item_Box_-_Mario_Kart_Wii.png/250px-Fake_Item_Box_-_Mario_Kart_Wii.png mariowiki.com/images/thumb/5/59/Fake_Item_Box_-_Mario_Kart_Wii.png/250px-Fake_Item_Box_-_Mario_Kart_Wii.png
6293540 Or maybe it is a gun that shoots Glados out of it's muzzle!
6293353 Eh, after the fifteenth you get used to it.
6293396 They can take it. And she did kind of fuck up back then...
So she still has to get punishment.
Deservedly, too.
I have no idea how you'd even translate the concepts of something like "dirty nuke," "biological weapon" or "nanite swarm" to a species like this. Even if they don't understand the reason, following simple instructions by the expert you appointed yourself shouldn't be beyond anyone capable of walking and breathing at the same time.
I'm really trying not to, but looking at this kind of behaviour, I can really sympathize with the frustration Aether must be feeling pretty much all the time. It's like they want to kill themselves.
6294288 actually, I think it's something like this
go to time 4:44 on the video and there's your theory
cant wait to find out whats in the other 2 presents!!!
6294288 ah ignorance is bliss is it not? Seriously though explaining the concept of Weapon of Mass Destruction to the ponies should be high on her to do list not to mention the concept of Terror Weapons too.
6294353
Huh? I had a theory?
6294510
They're barely capable of coping with the idea of middlingly harsh military training. I think actually telling them about that stuff would probably turn them catatonic with horror.
I hate it when fics devolve into this type of one sided dialogue mess.
Oh god, everyone thinks she's on her period, don't they?
Possibly human tech? Ooooh I hope so.
One wishes Pinkie was there to exact unholy fourth wall retribution. Somehow. Someway.
She definitely won't be calling Aether anything like 'silly filly' anymore if she sees Aether shaking off an incident like that so easily!
Shouldn't it be safer to NOT open them and seal them away or something?
6299293
There could be anything in there. If those things are weapons and have a timer on them, stuffing them into a hole somewhere would just be giving them the chance to go off at the convenience of whoever sent them, instead of giving the protagonists a chance to deal with the problem on their own terms.
6300568
And the containers are also damaged so whatever safeties they have could fail.
Still they should get a better place that the middle of Canterlot for this.
I wonder how much the equivalent of of a nuclear testing place would cost in bita to build in the middle of bowhere to test extra dimensional stuff?
6302523
Good point. I think the Badlands would do fine, though. You don't exactly build testing sites for nukes and stuff, after all... you just try to find a place where they won't fuck up anything important.
"Couldn't we just send them into space without opening them to see what's inside?"
"No, we tried that already and it didn't go well."
"What happened?"
"They came back."
6306083
" fuck that shit! I'm out!! All aboard the nope train to fuckthatville!!!"
Or they're lost interdimensional junk. Or Shadow technology from ships blown up in hyperspace by the Vorlons. Or Cybermen hiding out in the void. Or some lockers from teenage Reed Richards' (the sucky movie version) lab that got sucked in when he was playing interdimensional explorer...
So many assumptions made with so little evidence...
Highly illogical creatures.
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6306083
I LIKE your thinking!
some of the comments reminded me of "into the looking glass" by John Ringo: nasty aliens called the "Dreen" (similar to the Zerg) were coming out of strange "Looking glass" wormhole-style portals (they really did look like round mirrors) and threatening to overrun Earth. the hero obtained a "Quarkium" explosive device from some friendly aliens, which would close most of the portals if they could get it close enough-preferably on the other side of a portal.
it had the explosive power of 600 megatons! that might be enough to break a planet to pieces!
the friendly alien said, "if it goes off before going through the portal, the result will be...unpleasant."
"biggest understatement of the-of all time!" the hero thinks to himself.
8296441
I read that. Book 4 was apparently written while the author was high, though...
6616364
The cat came back, the very next day...