-22-
“Hopefully our reinforcements will be a great boon to the people of Quia System in their time of need; we don’t have much information on what’s going on there other than the fact that the MOM may have recently caused a lot of damage.” It wasn’t fun time and it was time to be serious, little ponies and other beings were dying out there and that required Celestia and Luna’s attentions. “The long distance communications went dead in that system, so we can only hope that things are not as bad as they seem.”
“Can we not spare any more, is there nothing more that we can do there?” Luna was being just as serious as her sister as playtime was for when things were simple and peaceful, where your neighboring systems weren’t under assault by biological monstrosities that can cross the void to reach you.
“No, we cannot spare too many of our forces personally as we’d be spreading ourselves too thin at that point.” It was hard for Celestia to say that they couldn’t protect everyone nor could they watch everything. They weren’t quite omnipresent or omniscient, but when they have a prophetic dream they knew to start paying attention and even if they didn’t that would mean the threat was all the worse because they couldn’t predict it coming. “We should currently be watching the Applon System to make sure there are no incursions coming from that direction, there have also been reports sent out to the asteroid mining facilities to watch out for fake asteroids as an early sign of possible incursions.”
Biological grey goo that can traverse space certainly made sure that nowhere was absolutely safe and defending the habitable planets all the more important, running from a threat such as this would only make it harder to survive. As long as Celestia and Luna lived they would protect their home world of Equus in the Equon System and help the other nearby livable worlds in whatever capacity they could manage. It was quite upsetting that there were monsters out there that you just couldn’t befriend that would either destroy, eat or assimilate you, thankfully sentient friendly races outnumbered such threats and made sure they didn’t become far worse given time and opportunity.
“I’ve always said you can’t befriend everything, because eventually you’ll meet something that diplomacy doesn’t work on.” As if Chrysalis were one to talk, diplomacy worked pretty well on her after a massive rock smashed her throne room. Anti-magic barriers were completely pointless if your opponent was still capable of attacking you from outside of it. The major example would be of Luna or Celestia dropping a meteor on you from orbit if they so wished. An anti-magic barrier prevented magic from working inside it; unfortunately it didn’t stop more scientific things from happening such as velocity given to a massive object hurtling towards your skull. “That includes Luna’s kind of diplomacy especially; you know the kind that involves shotguns. If you love shotguns so much Luna, why don’t you just marry one already? By the way Celestia, you still owe me five hundred bits.”
“I admit I have a strong love for Mr. Boom Stick, but now is not the time for joking about diplomacy or talk of my impending marriage to a beloved weapon. My sister is still blocking my efforts in that regard.” After a moment of trying to think of an action to take Luna looked at the table she sat at. “I sadly cannot actually think of any way to help Ewesen further aside from waiting patiently for more information.”
“The universe is a big place Luna; you know we can no longer protect our little ponies effectively from everything that is out there. Also you are not marrying Mr. Boom Stick; it is silly and not happening on my watch Luna.” Closing her eyes, Celestia inhaled then exhaled sadly. “We can however do our best to provide places of relative safety and great comfort, even knowing that no place is truly safe from danger forever. We need constant vigilance and to help our ponies learn to fend for themselves, lest we forget to look for monsters and allow them a grand opportunity by becoming too complacent. The Planetary Protection Patrol at Ewesen along with our reinforcements will have to be enough to handle the situation.”
“I don’t mean to be rude princess, but you have one of the worst militaries I’ve ever seen. At least I can honestly say your spaceships are better than your soldiers and that’s saying a lot.” What Chrysalis said was true; Celestia’s ground forces were more ornamental than anything as their combat prowess left something to be desired in comparison to their presence in space. Even the Wonder Bolts were more performers and actors than real soldiers, despite starting out as a military initiative to carry on traditions. “So… about the gala, do you still want me to do that thing for you? Do you also need me to transform into you so that I can ask your book fetishist to the gala for you because you’re too chicken to do it yourself?”
At least all changelings were minimally trained for combat and survival under Chrysalis’s rule; only those that wished to go into military roles were allowed to stick around for the more intensive stuff. Changelings could react to danger far better than ponies were often seen doing; at least aside from the ones that were specifically samurai or mage trained which were really so few in number. Celestia relied way too much on the unique few to solve her major problems. At least in commanding spaceships the unique few did actually matter to a greater degree, otherwise it was a bloodbath waiting to happen by Chrysalis's perspective.
“I’m still considering the terms of your payment and if we weren’t allies Chrysalis, then I would be smashing you into the nearest wall right now.” After a moment Celestia realized the opening she just gave Chrysalis and watched in horror as Chrysalis opened her mouth slowly with a broad smile. Cue soon to be blushing princesses.
-
Coco moved her hooves and kept busy by constructing an impulse saddle, this time she was thinking of including the support batteries into the design of this particular saddle. She wanted to do something that sounded useful, well more useful than just sitting and worrying about Rarity, Sassy and their friend Ember who still freaked her out somewhat. She was working from a design aspect currently as she had yet to work out how she was to add batteries to it. The impulse feature runs on its own battery and draining from that particular battery was a bad idea, so the auxiliary batteries had to be separate from the main impulse function. She felt something touch her and she jumped, only to calm down a second later when she saw that it was just Vera gentling putting a hoof on her right shoulder.
“Do you want to talk about it? If I’m going to be the crew’s therapist then I need to know what’s bothering you.” After a long time of getting used to her curse, Vera almost welcomed becoming used to being just a shadow to her sisters and as for now. Now she wanted to get to know everyone on the crew personally and help them achieve great things, she had someone who could see her and she had a job where she could be acknowledged. “Coco, my job is to listen, help and assuage you as needed. Talk to me.”
“Why did Sassy run off like she did? Why didn’t she tell us she was a samurai? I still personally think she’s more like an assassin or a ninja really. Now Rarity is putting herself in danger for Sassy’s sake and I don’t even know what to think about that aside from the fact that Rarity might be too forgiving at times.” Stepping away from her work and letting Vera’s hoof stay where it was so she didn’t lose track of the mare, Coco continued on. “I know Rarity; she’s being way too generous with how Sassy treated her previously after the incident involving the med-bed. Sassy was doing so well with keeping her sanity, she’s so strong and yet she seems so vulnerable at the same time.”
“I won’t pretend to understand the kind of psychological scars she has, but she probably ran off thinking she could take on the world to protect you two from the dangers out there. From what we’ve heard from Rarity, Sassy’s taken some pretty bad injuries in her somewhat mindless if noble recklessness, still have to say it’s impressive to hear she took out a Vorager on hoof with a sword.” Pulling her patient into a hug, Vera started to coddle Coco for a few seconds before releasing the hug. She didn’t take her hoof off of Coco though, because she wasn’t quite done talking yet. “Your friend is a wonderful pony and yes she’s strong in some ways and in others not so much. She practically craves positive physical affection for one, but on the other hoof she’s too scared of actively ask for more than she is willing to take at a time. Most likely her reluctance stems from an incident between her and Rarity after the med-bed one that you two have alluded to that ended up with her needing help. She was taking her affectionate approaches surprisingly easy on the both you and Miss Belle, I would have actually expected more attempts to kiss or nuzzle the both of you. Given that her therapist was Fluttershy, it went a long way to helping her… and hurting her at the same time. You see Fluttershy is well known for giving ample amounts of physical affection without anyone ever needing to ask for it when she feels it’s absolutely needed. Sassy soaked all that up and is much calmer around her and more highly stressed around the two of you, of whom she cares for deeply. Again she desperately wants your affection but doesn’t want to press the issue after what happened previously. Her samurai training was something her previous therapist knew nothing about; so it’s rather telling that she opened up to Rarity immediately when she was asked about it. Sassy fears men as much as she loathes them, but she is willing to work with them or do just about anything for Rarity’s sake as if she were trying to largely make up for that huge past mistake. That is actually a good thing as while she will never love them, she needs to be able to confront and talk to men in at least something approaching a civil manner. Please fill in the blanks, what am I not aware of about her?”
“Yes that all sounds about right, Rarity rescued Sassy and that led to her almost doing the same thing to Rarity that was done to her.” This caused Coco to prompt Vera by pointing a hoof at her to see what she thought.
“In summation to that, Sassy assaulted you and Rarity in the form of a knee jerk reaction. She could have felt tainted by what happened and wanted to feel better by taking comfort in someone. She instead went about it in a highly detrimental way. Her hatred of men started from that moment, so who else to share the pain with than a friend who’s a mare? Her mind went straight to needing intimate contact with someone of her own gender which fits what I’ve said so far.” Vera nodded back to Coco and titled her head giving the adorable mare a curious look. “Please go on, if you even have more to tell me.”
“Sassy loved both her parents a lot; they have or had a strong family bond together.” That was all Coco needed to say to get Vera’s eyes to widen at the implications. “To say that both her parents feel grief over this is an understatement.”
“Interesting, just know that Ms. Saddles was trying to be strong for the both of you and actively wishes to protect you from everything, including herself it would seem. It may lead her to being a tad… suicidal, so my being here as an unobtrusive presence is entirely warranted. Now let’s move on to you, what are you feeling right now?” This pointed question from Vera caused Coco to freeze. “I don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want me to and Opal would know better than to break patient confidentiality right?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m not even here.” Obviously lying through her digital teeth Opal said this clearly and loudly, one of the CAT drones was even there pointing at Vera as the other one slowly floated around the ship on patrol. “Though you’re diagnosis of Sassy is making a lot of sense from what I’ve seen.”
-
Tromping around in the sewers was not Rarity’s idea of a good day; it was in fact one of the worst days she’s had in a while. She was taking up the rear on one of the four teams of three in the sewers; they were heading for one of the furthest away pipe control systems. It was one of the most important ones to seal off and it had to be the second one to be closed up after another team finished with theirs. So once they arrived they had to hold their position. Why did Rarity have to volunteer for something that made her want to burn her EVA suit when they were done? It was so positively filthy that her need to be clean was getting worse by the second even when her body was not personally touching the sludge she trotted through.
That there were so few people who could physically volunteer to fix this problem had Rarity worried, at least everyone on her team was armed. Ember was on point and had her material rifle, Trailblazer, at the ready with her claw always on the trigger as they walked through the pipe quietly. They were listening for any sign that the sewers had been found and invaded. Ember’s weapon would be quite lethal in an enclosed space like this and it was already a deadly weapon for any situation to begin with.
Rarity looked ahead at Ember and pitied her slightly; at least Rarity’s helmet gave her nothing but clean freshly refined air to breath. It was a saving grace for the putrid nasty muck they were walking through, poor Ember would have probably wanted her EVA suit right about now and could smell everything. Said EVA suit was still at the spaceport on Ember’s recently purchased ship parked near the Caravel Boutique.
Rarity didn’t know enough about a Parascine’s biology to make a guess as to what their third companion was feeling about all this filth they were moving through. He took up the middle with a material pistol loaded with straightened out and cut apart paperclips. One paperclip made at least three to four viable rounds for the pistol to shoot and the Parascine could fire at least a hundred rounds per loaded clip of repurposed paperclips.
“Trouble there is yes; do not disturb the sewer squids on the ceiling. Don’t attack or retaliate they will, yes. Light doesn’t bother them yes, loud noises might.” The companion simply named Droll was a blue parascine with three green nucleic eyes pointed upwards. His nasally sounding voice made both Ember and Rarity halt to look at him.
“How dangerous are sewer squids exactly?” Rarity looked up and saw a lot of shifting conical hoods on the ceiling being revealed by her helmet lights. They were brown with dark green splotches; it looked like something puked all over them. The rest of the sewer looked like that, so the sickening colors made sense from a camouflage perspective.
“Rarity, unlike normal squids who spew ink, these things can spew a variety of chemicals depending on the threat. Anything ranging from what amounts to napalm to acid that is quite selective in what it damages.” Ember didn’t make any sudden movements and kept walking forward. “The acid would even be capable of hurting me without damaging the pipe we’re walking through.”
“Then make no threat, receive no threat yes. They know that we are not predatory and are just passing through.” Droll was a rather nice guy and quite brave to volunteer for this mission. His psychic powers would be invaluable as he was a walking life detector that could tell you exactly what he was detecting for a good range around himself. His tentacles shook agitatedly as he seemed to tilt what passed for his head towards the ceiling again. “Many are the monsters above ground, not sensing any in tunnels so far yes. There are so many of them above us though, scary and numerous are they yes. Prudent actions we are taking here, happy to have volunteered for a chance to protect ailing life as she of the earth would want.”
Rarity didn’t mind Droll or his verbal tic of saying the word ‘yes’ a lot, he shivered slightly at the ceiling and it made her wonder what he was feeling or seeing. Magical powers and psychic powers were quite different and yet so similar. She swept her light down a tunnel at a T junction they were passing as they walked and saw nothing of note, but watched their back all the same. Parascine might be gifted with psychic powers, but those powers could be spotty at times and he might miss something in his distraction at detecting so many above them in the streets.
“When the first team finishes closing off their necessary pipes it’ll block the route we came through, but our route is not about going back the way we came anyway. Hopefully the fifth team watching the pipes leading directly into the hospitals basement and generator can keep any unwanted visitors out while we’re busy.” Keeping her wits about her Ember walked into a wide open circular room with multiple pipes leading away from it; there was some kind of office up in ceiling that could be reached on one of two a nearby ladders and the catwalk above overlooked this area. She pulled out a plastic map and shook some detritus off of it to peruse it for a bit. Nodding, she tapped the side of her helmet. “We’re in position, waiting for confirmation to start closing off pipes at the control station two. No enemy activity yet and only natural wildlife down here… no they weren’t Ewesen Clog Spiders just a few sewer squids. Okay, we’ll be on the lookout and if we incidentally run into a nest I can handle it, do I get paid if I can clear a nest out of the pipe? Alright then, we’ll talk about it later.”
“I know I’m going to regret this and I really hate to ask, but what’s a Ewesen Clog Spider?” Rarity swept her helmet from left to right and then moved it upwards towards the nearest ladder and ceiling after not seeing much more than the flooded floor of the room. She was almost swimming in the nearly chest deep sludge.
“Clog Spiders might be a problem if we have to go through their territory yes? Clog Spiders inhabit tunnels and hunt prey no matter the size, highly carnivorous, usually have numerical advantages yes. Easy to recognize, love damp and dark places and clogging pipes of large sizes with thick webbing and lots of bodies. They have eight legs and are as big as a pony’s head or larger.” Droll could have been a bit more descriptive then spiders the size of Rarity’s head, but it was enough of a description for her. “The pipelines require cleaning at least twice a month and Parascine do good work yes. Clog Spiders like cramped places and not wide open areas unless prey or food is to be found.”
“Now we just sit here I take it?” Lifting hoof out of the sewage she flicked some sludge off of it and away from herself and her companions. “It’s really quite horrible down here.”
“At least you two don’t have to smell it, as a dragon I love the smell of brimstone. The smells down here on the other claw are quite nauseating, so be thankful your helmet keeps it out. It’s making me even consider trashing this armor for good after I get a nice scorching hot bath to get the smell of this grime off me.” Ember swept her rifle towards the other entrances in this circular place as she moved over to the ladder; she motioned to Rarity and Droll. “You’ll be the one to handle the controls Rarity so climb up there, me and Droll will stay down here. We’re waiting for the signal from the first team and then we can begin closing the requisite pipes.”
“Alright then, I’ll climb on up and get ready to close the pathways.” Happy to get out of the sewage Rarity put her hoofs on the ladder and started to slowly climb up to the catwalk above. “I have to admit I thought this would be far more treacherous and so far it’s just been disgusting.”
“There’s not much glamour in my trade considering I’ve had to carve my way out of a monsters stomach once when I was swallowed alive. So if you think this is disgusting, then you’ve practically seen nothing yet.” The reason why Ember didn’t bring up such a story with Rarity before this moment is because she gathered and was completely certain that Rarity wouldn’t have been very interested in hearing it. “Getting anything Droll?”
“No, I am getting nothing… wait there are Clog Spiders coming towards us nearby, they stopped and are not approaching any closer but are not leaving yes. No sign of swarming meteor monsters down here as you ask for.” Droll raised a tentacle and pointed out two pipes that he sensed the Clog Spiders from. “They are in those two pipes, being wary is a need yes!”
“I have to ask, why does the sewer system run by the hospital? While I’m on the subject, why do the pipes even require manual activation?” Having reached the top of the ladder, Rarity carefully stepped off and started daintily trotting across the catwalks towards the room in the center of the ceiling above the pipe pathways below. She opened the door with her magic; on the opposite side was another door as she moved into the room from its left side to sit down in the simple chair. The small control room had a panel with several switches and buttons to press; she tried not to get any of the quickly drying sludge on the seat when she sat down with a wretched squelching noise. The first thing she could feasibly hit was the lights and the area below lit up. “I’m in position Ember, just tell me when we’re ready and what to hit specifically when we need to do our part.”
“It’s for the generator really; the sewage water doubles as a coolant and it’s quite effective as Ewesen doesn’t have much in the ways of damaging sewage. This planet has a lot of ecologically friendly facilities, as to the manual activation from these pipe control points? I’m guessing some pretty bad oversight that nobody really considered or thought of as being a big problem up until now.” The two pipes were Ember’s main focus at the moment; they were right next to each other and easy to keep an eye on as she didn’t want any aggressive carnivorous arachnids to hurt her best friend or companion. “Mostly what we’ve been treading through is unfiltered mud and a few barely hazardous chemicals, among a few other disgusting things I don’t think you want me to mention. It is a sewer after all.”
“Where does our exit strategy put us exactly?” They hadn’t exactly gone over the plan in great detail in a rush to get everyone out into the sewer tunnels to quickly close off any entrances, it bothered Rarity a little that they had to go the farthest out.
“We’ll meet up with team four for their pipe sealing and then both of us will conjoin with three and one at the final location we need to seal off, team five is the emergency response group and guarding our way back into the hospital.” Things were way too quiet for Ember’s liking and she didn’t like it when things were quiet. There have been several moments in her life where things were perfectly fine when they were quiet; this situation wasn’t one of them. They were in the middle of city wide invasion by the remnants of a dead MOM core and as such it was disconcerting for things to be this quiet. Especially when bounty hunters and the three P were fighting said numerous remnants’ above ground at the moment. “Thankfully this didn’t happen at night, because if we were down here at night then things might have been worse.”
“You do know that all nocturnal sewer dwellers here are just as active even during the day yes?” Here Droll put his back to the wall and his nuclei shifted left and right tentatively. “We are getting company soon, five Ant Heads, likely a scouting party yes.”
“Calling it in then, we got trouble down here and we’re about to be hit with a scouting group of Ant Heads. Be advised, there could be even more down here already. Maintain contact to warn the rest of us where they are if they show up in your area. Watch your backs and move quickly.” With a flick of her left hand the second barrel of the rifle started glowing and Ember kept it pointed at the two tunnels. “Oh and please hurry it up with the first pipes; my group is next to Clog Spider territory at pipe station two. I don’t like the idea sitting still here for too long.”
“Is this room up here safe?” Turning to the door on her left Rarity quickly closed it, feeling very wary of actually leaving it open at a time like this.
“It should be, though you won’t survive for long without clean food or water. We’re the ones that are exposed down here Rarity. Just stay there until we’re done here, then we can leave.” There was a bit of relief and tenseness in Ember’s voice as she spoke up again. “Team one is finally in position and beginning the closing process.”
“What exactly happens if we do end up doing this in the wrong order?” Rarity, not being able to stop her inquisitive mind from popping more questions to Ember, asked one last question that had been a rather pertinent one.
“Completely flooded pipes, which means far more active sewer squids to deal with. Also a lower portion of the hospital could get badly flooded, possibly enough to damage the shutters letting the monsters in through the front door.” With a pull of the trigger, Ember unleashed a swath of flames that flashed out at the two tunnels. The large black spindly leg that had poked out leapt back and screeched at the sudden wave of flames that almost incinerated it.“The Clog Spiders are getting a bit brave here, hurry up team one. On top of that Rarity, it could lead to damaging the backup generator and putting multiple lives in danger, especially our own.”
“Right, I’m guessing there’s no pressure then?” It was an ironic statement for Rarity to spout off given that they were manipulating pipes.
“We’ll be under a lot of pressure if something does go wrong yes. I am being a great swimmer and will be fine… Ant Heads are near, they are coming directly at us and many more are on their way.” Droll’s nuclei started glowing brightly as he got a good grip on the material pistol with two of his tentacles. “Eyeless ones attracted by fire maybe yes?”
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Yeah, the royal guard kinda sucks.
I bet Chryssie could've found many ways to resist, but it all turned out well in the end, especially that it saved the changelings from the horrific malformation from the season finale.
Chryssie is having much too much fun teasing the princesses.
Poor Ember, I think she'll need to jump into an active volcano for a few days to cleanse herself.
7680490
Wouldn't put it past a dragon to breath fire on themselves as a form of cleansing, killing bacteria with fire always works.