Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Duran woke Rainbow and Twilight early the next morning. Rainbow wasn't actually asleep when he came to get her; she'd been restless all night, only managing to sleep for a few minutes at a time. So, when her door had opened and the human had quietly said, "Dash, we need to get ready to go," she'd been on her feet and fully awake within moments.
The pegasus was almost fizzing with nervous energy. She barely paused long enough to grab Applejack's hat off of her desk and plop it on her head one last time before winging her way out of her bedroom and finding that he'd already woken Twilight, who was standing behind the human sleepily rubbing her eyes. Duran asked the two ponies to wait in the entry room while he retrieved his suit, advising them to take the time to wake up.
Rainbow Dash didn't need it, virtually dancing around the room while she waited and chattering at Twilight without even listening to herself. She felt like she was never going to be tired.
Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, very definitely needed the extra time to wake up. By the time the two friends heard the human's footsteps coming back up the hallway, she'd managed to rub the sleep out of her eyes, and was responding to about a third of what Dash was saying. It would have been difficult to respond to more than that, actually, since the pegasus was talking so quickly she sounded almost like Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow forced herself to calm down as the heavy, thumping footfalls came closer to the door. Twilight was still watching her bemusedly, wondering if she was going to stay that hyper, when the door finally opened.
It was the first time either of them had seen one of the heavy battle suits in motion. The big, wide doors the entry room sported were just barely enough to admit the massive suit, and Duran had to maneuver carefully so that its boxy, swollen shoulders didn't hit the sides of the frame. Dash could feel the floor tremble slightly with each footfall, and even with the helmet open the suit looked incredibly alien and threatening, far more so than the lighter suit they'd first seen him in.
He parked the suit, opened the chest plate, and swung himself out. "Okay, ladies, a few things we need to go over before we head out. First up; Dash." The pegasus saluted. "I know you're going to be tempted to fly. Don't do it. I'm not sure how far up you could get before the ship does something about it, and I'd rather not find out, okay?" She nodded. "Second; Milady Twilight." The unicorn rolled her eyes and made an inarticulate sound of frustration. "Right, right, just Twilight. Sorry." Dash pressed a hoof to her mouth to muffle her snickers. "You are probably going to be tempted to use your magic if we get attacked on the way. Like I told Dash, don't do it. I've already warned her," He glanced at the pegasus, who sobered and nodded again, "that anything we run across on the way is probably going to go after her first. They'll do that as long as you don't use your magic; let them. Dash can take care of herself long enough for me to handle the problem." Twilight started to protest, but Duran knelt and laid his hand lightly on her muzzle to forestall her. "Listen; if you get hurt and can't cast your spell, we are all screwed. Your job on the walk there is to keep a low profile and let me and Dash handle anything that comes up. Okay?"
Twilight nodded slowly. "I don't really like it. I can take care of myself if I have to, but I'll hold back if you're sure that's what's best."
"I am absolutely sure." Turning, he removed a black box about half the size of a pony's torso from where it was hanging on his suit, and lifted what looked like a collection of straps off of a small hook on the suit's back. "Of the three of us, you're the least expendable. Neither Dash nor me will be going anywhere without you, and I mean to make certain you're kept safe. I'm not suggesting that I'm going to neglect Dash's safety, or mine, but without your magic I get the impression that you're a lot more vulnerable than she is, is that right?" At Twilight's reluctant nod (and Rainbow's far more enthusiastic one) he held out the box. "That's why I want you to carry this."
The unicorn looked at the box suspiciously. Rainbow didn't think it looked all that heavy, and she hoped it wouldn't slow her friend down. "Uh, what is that?" The academic asked.
"This is a copy of the library core." Twilight's violet eyes widened in surprise.
"That little thing?"
Duran nodded. "This little thing holds more than six thousand years of written history. Plus information on all the science and technology of an interstellar civilization. With this, you could take your people to the stars."
Twilight was speechless. Dash chipped in with an awestruck, "Woah."
"This could be utterly invaluable to your civilization. That's why I want you to carry it, Twilight. If any of us are going to make it through that portal, it's going to be you." He raised the collection of straps in his hand. "This is a piece of what we call load-bearing equipment that I modified last night. It should fit you, and make the core easy to carry. Do you want my help putting it on?" Twilight nodded, and the human knelt down again to help her don the vest.
Dash wondered when he'd made that. She'd been with him the whole time he'd been working on the armor, and had thought he'd gone to bed when she had. Guess he couldn't sleep either, she mused. Once the human had the load-bearing harness securely fastened to the unicorn's body he attached the library core so that it rode comfortably above her shoulders, well out of the way of her legs so as not to impair her movement. He tugged on it a few times, making sure it fit snugly and wasn't inclined to shift.
Dash laughed. "Hey, Twilight, I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff!" She teased. The collection of straps and pockets looked a little kinky. Duran looked at her uncomprehendingly, but the unicorn flushed a bright red under her lavender coat.
"Rainbow!" The unicorn scolded, "This isn't the time…"
"Relax, Twilight. I won't tell anypony." Rainbow snickered some more and Twilight glared, while Duran blinked at the two of them.
"Um, okay. Anyway," the human pulled his pocket computer out of his fatigues and slid it into an appropriately-sized pocket on Twilight's new harness. "The schematics for a basic terminal and power station are saved on that. Even if I don't make it, you should be able to build an interface station, and once you have that, you'll be able to pull up plans for more advanced units from the library itself."
Rainbow suddenly sobered. Looking suspiciously at the human, she asked, "Why is Twilight carrying all the important stuff? Why don't you carry some of it, behind all that armor?"
"Because, Dash, I am frankly the one least likely to survive today. I am going to be making a concerted effort to put myself between the two of you and any threat that arises, and if I get unlucky I don't want either of you to suffer for it." He shrugged. "I certainly intend to survive, but just in case I don't, I want this stuff to get home with you. And I didn't want you carrying it, because you're going to need every bit of agility you can muster."
Rainbow's rose eyes were still narrowed. "You sure you're not planning to flake out at the last second and stay here?" She asked, "'Cause if you do, I'm totally coming back through that portal and dragging you along. Armor or no."
Duran laughed, though Dash thought she could hear a nervous undertone to it that she didn't like one bit. "No, Dash, I'm planning on coming along. If I survive, of course." Dash resolved to keep an eye on the human. She was still worried about him. "I do, however, have something for you."
Walking over to the other side of the parked suit, the human retrieved another set of straps, this one hung with odd levers, cables, and what seemed to be the slender barrel of a gun. Rainbow cocked her head, peering at the odd device intently. "What's that?"
"It's what you asked me for last night, of course!" Rainbow's eyes got big. "I'm pretty pleased with it; let's see how it fits."
"Ohmygosh, you found one I could use?" Delight warred with apprehension on the pegasus's face as Duran knelt beside her like he had with Twilight, carefully settling the long barrel along her right side and a slender box on her left. Cables connected the two components, and a lever with a small button on it stuck out in front of her.
"What, exactly, did you ask for, Rainbow?" Twilight asked, a slight edge to her tone.
"Oh, last night I asked Duran to find a gun I could use." Rainbow flashed a grin at the unicorn before going back to watching how Duran was attaching the weird setup and keeping her wings out of the way.
"What?" Both human and pegasus froze at the outburst, looking up in shock. "Rainbow, you're going to use a gun? Are you crazy? That's... that's not the kind of thing ponies should be doing!" Twilight shook her head, aghast. Next to her, Rainbow could sense the human's tension as he looked back and forth between the two ponies. "Ponies don't fight! We certainly don't kill if we can avoid it!"
"Yeah? And what makes you think we can avoid it here?" Rainbow snapped. "This isn't Equestria, Twilight, and we've already had this conversation, anyway! If it's a choice between hurting something and letting it hurt my friends, I'm totally fine with using this thing." She jerked her head to indicate the weapon.
"Rainbow... you don't really mean that." Twilight's voice had lost its edge. She sounded concerned and a little confused. "I know you said you'd gotten in fights in the past, but this is different! If you use that, you'll be killing living things! I know we'd talked about it, but I didn't think you'd actually go through with it! You can't do this, Rainbow!"
"Wha- You're not my mom, Twilight! You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do!"
"I can if you're acting childish!" Heat started to seep back into Twilight's tone. "I think you've been listening to too many of Duran's war stories. It's fine for him to act like that, but you're a pony, Rainbow Dash, you should act like one!"
"What the hay, Twilight! That is not fair! This is my call, not his!" Rainbow glanced at Duran, seeing the stricken expression on the human's face. "And I don't think you've listened enough! We're going to get attacked out there, and Duran can't look in every direction at once! I'm just trying to help, make it so he's got less to deal with! What is your problem, anyway?"
"I'm...!" The unicorn began angrily, but the anger left her in a sudden rush, leaving her looking downcast. "I'm worried, Rainbow. I'm worried about you and the way you're acting, I'm worried about what's going to happen to us, and I'm worried I'll mess up the spell to get us home." Twilight closed her eyes in silent misery. "And I'm scared."
"Aw." Rainbow stepped away from where Duran was still kneeling, stock-still, and gave the unicorn a quick hug. "I'm worried too, Twilight. But I think we'll be okay. And I think I'll be able to do a better job of making sure we're okay if I use this." She nodded at the gun half-hanging off her side. "Tell you what. If you'll promise to trust me, then I'll promise to listen if you tell me I'm going too far. Deal?"
Twilight sighed heavily, but nodded. "Okay, Rainbow Dash. I'm still not happy about this, but I do trust you. Deal."
Rainbow stepped back over to Duran, who was watching the two with raised eyebrows. "Something wrong?" She asked him.
"Uh- no, no, nothing's wrong." He wasn't a very good liar.
Twilight picked up on it too. "If something's bothering you, Duran, you should really tell us. We're going to be depending on one another out there; If there's a problem, we should work it out before we go."
He blinked. "Oh, it's just... really? You two were sounding like you were winding up for a pretty serious fight, and you can just drop it that quick?"
"Well, yeah." Rainbow shared a confused glance with Twilight. "We both figured out why the other was upset, so there's no real need to keep going."
"Wow, you folks really are alien." He shook his head. "You don't hold grudges? Get into... well not fistfights, you don't have fists, but, ah, physical altercations?"
"Oh, heavens, no!" Twilight started, but trailed off, seeing Rainbow sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.
"Weeeeell... I do, sometimes. I'm kind of a freak that way; I've been in a few real fights." Rainbow admitted. "There's a few ponies like that, but not many. And I'd never hurt Twilight! She's my friend!" She finished indignantly.
"Oh. Well, in that case, I'm sorry if I started that fight." Rainbow glanced at Twilight, who laid her ears back in chagrin.
"No, you didn't. And Rainbow was right, it wasn't fair of me to drag you into it. I'm sorry."
"No harm done. I am a bit concerned, though, about whether you think I'm a bad influence..." He trailed off, sounding uncertain.
Rainbow wanted to speak up, but she figured anything she said was more likely to make the situation worse than it was to make it better. Instead, she waited for Twilight to speak.
"Well, Rainbow was right in saying we'd had this discussion before, and at the time she'd barely talked to you. I don't consider you a bad influence, but I'm not entirely sure it's a good thing for you to be the only influence to have around her." Twilight wasn't looking directly at Duran as she spoke. Rainbow ground her teeth in annoyance, thinking way to talk about me like I'm a foal who isn't standing right here, Twilight! But she held her silence, waiting to see how the human reacted.
He nodded slowly, expression unreadable. "Fair enough. I appreciate your honesty." He smiled, "And I understand that you're scared. I think we all are; we'd have to be crazy not to be. But like I told Dash last night, I'm confident that we'll be able to get everyone back." Twilight perked up, her confidence somewhat bolstered, but Rainbow remained a little uneasy. Something in Duran's manner rang slightly false, and after hanging around him so much she knew that humans were less trusting than ponies were. She really wished she could look in his head to see what was actually going on in there. She wondered for a moment if he was just acting the way he thought they expected him to act, but she shrugged the thought aside; that kind of twisty doublethink didn't really fit right in her head.
She couldn't read his thoughts, so she just let him finish fastening the weapon harness to her, marvelling at the design. When he finished, tugging at it to make sure it was secured firmly just as he had with Twilight's, and her excitement overrode her concern. "Oh, cool! How does it work? Where did you find this thing?"
He held up a finger in what she'd come to recognize as a wait a moment gesture, pulling some kind of tinted visor out of his pocket. He pulled off her hat and settled the visor over her eyes, adjusting the elastic band at the back so it fit snugly but not too tightly, and settled the hat back on her head. "Got this one piece left to connect, then I'll explain." He took a small wire that ran from the top of the visor, ran it behind her ear, and plugged it into the weapon. The visor instantly turned transparent, so clear she had only the feel of it on her face to tell her it was there at all.
"There we go," Duran said, satisfaction in his voice. He pressed something on the rifle "Okay, see that thing in front of you? Grip it in your mouth, but be careful of that button. Don't press it." Rainbow reached forward and took the lever in her teeth, gingerly. The instant she did, she saw a dot appear on the floor, almost exactly where her eyes naturally fell. She moved her head, noticing that the gun barrel moved as she did so, and the dot seemed to follow along wherever she pointed. She dropped the lever to speak, and the dot disappeared.
"Oh, that is so cool! What was that little glowing dot?" Twilight blinked, but Duran chuckled.
"The dot is the aim point; the rifle produces a low-power beam when you hold the control yoke. It's an infrared light, so Twilight and I can't see it, but that visor shows where it falls. Basically, that dot is where the rifle is pointed, so make sure you don't point it at anything you don't want to shoot, understand?" His voice was stern in the last sentence, and Rainbow nodded. "As long as you have the control yoke gripped in your teeth, the rifle will point basically where you look. It has kind of a limited traverse, so you won't be able to point it very far to the left or right, but it's the best I could manage, and I'm pretty sure you're agile enough to compensate. Once you have it aimed at your target, you should be able to press that button with your tongue to fire. It does fire in bursts, so be careful or you'll drain the battery fast. How's the fit? Feel okay?"
Rainbow shifted in place, testing the harness. It wasn't restrictive, the barrel on the right side was low enough that it didn't interfere with her wings, and the weight was even on both sides, so she didn't feel unbalanced. She jumped a few times, twisting in midair to see if anything would come loose, but nothing shifted. It fit closely, but nothing pinched, and she didn't feel anything digging into her sides. "Wow, this fits really well. How the heck did you find something that fit a pegasus in a base full of human stuff?"
"Oh, I built it." Duran's voice was dismissive, but Rainbow and Twilight shared an impressed look.
"You built it? When? I only asked for this last night!"
Duran shrugged, a gesture that Rainbow always found amusingly exaggerated with the human's long arms. "Last night, after you'd gone to bed. I couldn't sleep, and I remembered you asking about something to defend yourself with, so I went down to the machine shop and threw that together." He frowned a bit. "I'd wanted to use an assault rifle or something, but I couldn't figure out a good way to deal with the recoil, and it would need an ammo hopper or something that would have made it drag to one side, since you'd have major problems reloading magazines or clips."
Twilight was amazed. "You built all of that in one night?"
Rainbow cut in before Duran could speak. "Less than a night! I was up talking to him until like, midnight!"
Duran shifted uncomfortably. "You're talking like it was hard. I just took a pulse laser rifle out of the armory, took the stock off, modified the trigger, and built a stabilized gimbal system for the controls. The harness took pretty much no time, and the visor's a stock unit. I had a full machine shop; it's not like I built it out of scraps!"
Rainbow flipped her wings in a shrug. For whatever reason, Duran thought it was no big deal, so she was willing to let it slide. "Well, I think it's really cool. I guess we just didn't realize you were this good at that kind of thing."
The human smiled, a slightly distant look on his face. "Well, I was an engineer, you know. I didn't just do analyses; I used to love building mechanisms, machines, even little robots and things like that. Haven't had a chance in a long time; I should be thanking you for giving me that opportunity." His smile faded, replaced by a slight frown. "I just wish I'd been able to give you a slugthrower instead."
"Why? Is there something wrong with this one?" Rainbow cocked her head, examining the harness.
"Well, no, I went over it really carefully both before and after I put it on that mount, and I wouldn't have given it to you if I thought there was something wrong with it, it's just..." He trailed off.
Rainbow waited a moment for him to finish, before prompting, "What? It's just what?"
"I- don't fully trust energy weapons. Not since my sister..." He cut himself off mid-sentence, a shocked look in his face.
Twilight looked similarly surprised. "Sister? I didn't know you had a sister!" She looked at Rainbow, who shook her head. "I've read most of your journal, and we've spent three weeks here with you! Why have you never mentioned that?"
The human swallowed heavily, looking away. "It's... because she died. Two days before I got stranded here."
"Oh, Duran, I'm so sorry! What happened?"
"Lys was... a member of a Survey unit. Teams out on the edge of the Imperium that looked for habitable worlds, mineral resources, other species, that kind of thing. Her flotilla had pulled up in this system that had a lifebearing world, and most of the science teams were planetside. Live worlds are really, really rare, and Lys was a xenobotanist, so she was just thrilled to have a new ecosystem to look at. I'd gotten a message from her about four days before..." He choked up and had to stop, wiping at his eyes. The two ponies were quiet, letting the human regain his composure. Clearing his throat, he continued, "She was doing a random sampling, just a preliminary thing. The guard force wasn't huge, and she was kind of a long way from the nearest one, but they were all armed, and survival-trained to boot. When the predator came out of the trees, she had time to get her weapon out; it was a shortbarrel levin rifle, arcane energy weapon that fired this sort of concussive-disruption blast. Short range, but it would have torn the critter in half... only it failed on her. No one had any idea why, and when they checked the gun... afterward... it was in perfect condition. She always kept it well-maintained, but it just... failed. By the time the expedition's guards got to her it was way too late. They killed the predator, but not before it killed my big sister." He sniffed, wiping his eyes again. "Why the hell am I talking about this? I've barely even thought about Lyssa in years..."
"Thank you for sharing that, Duran." Twilight said quietly. "I think it was good for you to talk about it, and I feel that I know you a little better than I did before."
The human looked at the unicorn for a moment, then coughed and shook his head. "Kind of you to say, Twilight, but I've wasted enough time moaning about the past." Swiping at his eyes again, he pulled out a visor similar to the one Rainbow was wearing. "Here, let me put this on you real quick." He settled it quickly over Twilight's eyes, pressing a small button that turned it as clear as Rainbow's. "Okay, these visors are important, since Rainbow here is using a visible-light laser. Make sure to keep these on, or you could get blinded. Dash," Rainbow, brought out of a momentary reverie, blinked for a moment before looking attentive. "Your visor is tied to your weapon. If you see a yellow flame symbol, it means it's overheating, and you should stop firing to let it cool off. If you see a yellow lightning bolt, it means the battery's getting low. If you see a red lightning bolt, that means you're out of power, and you should ditch the gun since it's just dead weight. Here's the quick release..." He showed her briefly how the harness could be detached with two quick motions, falling clear so she would regain all her agility, not that the harness slowed her down much.
Rainbow interrupted briefly to say, "Hey, dude, if you need to talk..." but Duran merely nodded curtly.
"If I need to talk, it can wait for later. I've wasted enough time already. Okay, two final things. If either of you see something you don't think I've noticed, make sure to say something. And finally, there are some creatures that go around on the ground, but take off and attack from the air if they get into a fight. I'll try to warn you if I see any, but if you see something taking off, look away from it. The ship will fry them, but if you're looking at them when it does, it may blind you, even with those visors." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, reaching out to lay a hand on each pony's shoulder. "Okay. It will be better if we can get into position before dawn. Are you both ready to go?"
Both ponies nodded. The human climbed back into his armor suit and sealed it up. As the door opened, he turned and said, "I'll take lead. Twilight, you're behind me. Dash, watch the rear. Keep your eyes open, be as quiet as you can manage, and if you need to slow down, tell me." With that, the human led the way out into the badlands, footsteps thumping heavily on the rocks.
*Author's Note: Okay, here we go. Thanks for your patience with all the talky bits, readers who are still with me. The next chapter's action-oriented, which I like to think I do far better than I do character dialogue! And yes, the design for Dash's laser rifle harness is partially based on Kkat's Fallout Equestria battle saddles, because I honestly couldn't come up with a better way for a four-footed, fingerless being to use a human weapon.
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*fistpump* As a serious sci-fi junky, that literally gave me chills.
An energy weapon harness for Dash, oh hell yeah. Too bad they can't bring that machine shop along as well, that would be a nice shortcut to working with the information in the library. In a way it's another good argument for bringing Duran along, a fully trained engineer from a space-fairing society is nothing to shake a hoof at.
I wonder if it is considered irony that RD too lost her limbs.
And then Dash was Calamity. BRINGING EVERYTHING FULL CIRCLE
937091
Twilight explained in an earlier chapter that ponies have not had a war, a full scaled conflict, in generations. The scene about the misinformation concerning gryphon birthrates and their tendency for inter-clan warfare also shows that Celestia modifies their history to a certain extent.
Maybe Celestia dislikes violence or she wishes to prevent Equestria from becoming a warmonger? It could be possible that pony civilization had an aptitude for war and created Discord...
...I'm gonna bask in that for a moment. Discord is the only equus Chaos God...
Damn it! That is so awesome!
Regardless of speculation, it's noted several times that Rainbow Dash is an outlier amongst pony behavioral patterns for aggression. Even among pegasus.
You know that those were all extremely different circumstances. Nightmare Moon would have killed every life form on the planet. Discord takes our laws physics as an amusing suggestion. He also may not be reformed here and it may not be possible to even kill him. Chrysalis and the changelings were an outside-context-problem and were staging an invasion into the cultural and political heartland of the Equestrian government and assaulted several of their Princesses. Aside from the comics they haven't made any appearance in the show since the invasion. At the speed they were going and at the height which the shield launched them, they would have likely been killed on impact. I don't think I have to mention any of the changelings that didn't have a convenient window or the good fortune to be in a tall enough structure to not get pancaked against anything when the shield expanded.
I would not want to be the one to clean that up.
iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/303017__safe_twilight-sparkle_animated_princess-cadance_glomp.gif
Twilight plz
That said, the willingness to kill is still a legitimate concern, as that can deeply affect anyone, pony or human. Killing hideous monsters less so than sentient beings, but still.
Seems like it's going to end like it began, which I guess is fitting; Duran dies protecting them. I'll be seriously surprised if he doesn't.
Twilight, now is the time to think with reason and logic, not emotion and preconceptions. Please, for the sake of everyone involved.
(Also, Mr. (or Ms.) Author, I don't exactly like the role that you've given Twilight hereabout since this is your story, I'll refrain from saying much more.)
This is why I can't stay angry at you. In fact, I don't think I can get angry in the first place.
this reminds me of a gag in that crazy "mlp time loops" collab:
Dash writes an adventure story.
the publisher rejects it because "ponies can't write adventure stories".
while Dash is staring angrily at the publisher, too shocked to talk, one of the Chaos Gods from Warhammer 40,000 come in and demands to know why his book of poetry was rejected.
the publisher says, "because chaos gods can't write poetry."
"fuck you." says the chaos god.
"watch your mouth, there's a pony present."
THEN Rainbow dash swears at the publisher for several minutes, using language so foul, the chaos god starts taking notes!
I like the 'talky bits'. It's what I come here for, really.