-83-
“Well I lost contact with them; they have landed safely on the ground at least.” There was a long pause after Opal spoke, the remaining people on the Shining Jewel thought she was going to freak out and were looking to the nearest monitor at her avatar. Gilda’s presentation to the crew was that Opal was a closet rampant AI and she tended to have a very bad fixation on Rarity, one that had her always worried the minute Rarity was out of sight and possibly running into danger. At least that’s what Gilda thought Opal’s major problem was. “What? Do I have something on my coding? Why is everyone staring at the nearest screen?”
“I think it is just the fact that you are utterly freaked out right now and they are expecting a more visible reaction. Heck even I would expect a visible reaction, you might even be able to pass for a Changeling with the way you’re currently acting.” If anybody had bothered to ask Chrysalis, who was currently busy with something in her room, then they would know that she could feel Opal’s emotions. That alone should definitely be impossible as machines didn’t actually have the ability to radiate emotionally, nobody had bothered to tell Chrysalis of this fact and thus she wouldn’t understand why it would be important to bring it to someone’s attention. “I don’t see what your problem is, they’re in an armored vehicle and you said it yourself that they landed alright.”
“I’m not freaked out; I’m just mildly concerned as that particular vehicle was not made specifically for combat Crystal.” Even Opal missed the fact that Chrysalis had picked up on something about her, such as the fact that she was more than she appeared to be. She was, as Chrysalis had stated quite clearly, obviously freaked out and hiding it behind a veil of looking entirely calm.
“Eh, whatever you say Pony hive mind.” Who was Chrysalis to complain to the pony hive mind about how she really felt? She didn’t understand why someone would use technology to create such an emotional being for a hive mind, but she shrugged it off and continued what she was doing. Pausing in the middle of her hobby, Chrysalis idly considered doing something nice for Little Snack. The filly was certainly giving her plenty of love to eat so that her personal food stores would last a bit longer. Her thoughts went back to Coco’s offer to help, had that adorably shy mare seriously thought she needed help to acquire a mate of her own? Well she’d show them all by earning Sassy’s love and then some! “Can you tell me what Sassy is doing at the moment?”
“She’s currently pushing herself with her samurai training. Which reminds me, Vera, I need you to go to the exercise room.” Do not focus on her Opal, you’re a big girl, you can go a day or two without thinking entirely Rarity. Okay, so Opal might have to silently admit that she had a problem since Chrysalis clearly stated the obvious, but Rarity was her mom and darn it Opal wanted to protect her mother’s fragile mortal existence. She knew she should be focusing on the crew that was currently here, but Rarity kind of had a dangerous habit of almost getting mauled to death when she wasn’t looking. She’d have to trust that Ember would protect Rarity with the same kind of violence a dragon would protect their hoard… oh goddesses, is that why Ember was sticking around and paying rent? Well that was something to discuss with Vera in private, it seemed like Ember was going to be around Rarity for the rest of her life and not exactly in the way Opal would have liked. Maybe a few nudges here or there would help things progress, but that would have to come later as Opal had business to attend to. “I think Sassy might be overdoing it a bit… oh and I might have an important matter to discuss in private with you later Vera. So please don’t pull a disappearing trick, it’s not as fun as when Trapeze does it. Even then you should know that finding you again will be incredibly problematic process if you drop out of sight Vera.”
“I might want to see Sassy as well; I need to know how she looks and smells while covered in sweat.” It was something to be curious about, not that Chrysalis had any untoward intentions for Sassy. This was actually plain curiosity that had nothing to do with how attractive she thought Sassy might be, she would hold her tongue of any instinct to make a pass at Sassy until she could figure the mare out.
Vera would have certainly liked to know that some of her suspicions surrounding Opal were founded in reality; it was quite unfortunate for everyone that Chrysalis didn’t have a reason to bring up the fact that she could feel Opal’s emotions. It was a clear sign that Opal was in fact a living being even if she only appeared to be an artificial being on the surface; a lot of red flags were missed waving in the breeze.
The thing Opal needed to discuss was the fact that she realized that Ember had created a hoard and she had her suspicions as to what said hoard entailed. The dragon had been rather subtle about it, as it wasn’t until now that Opal realized that she could miss things and wasn’t performing perfectly as she might have liked. Then again Opal had never really tried to be perfect in the first place and knew that making small mistakes wasn’t a bad thing. It’s when you started making big and irreversibly deadly mistakes that you should really start to panic about things. Opal wasn’t exactly sure on how to address the Ember situation until said dragon came back to the Shining Jewel, the bounty hunter had been getting exceedingly friendly with the rest of the crew quite recently and now the reason why was quite glaringly obvious. It made Opal wonder if she was considered a part of the hoard too.
-
The slow soft sounding thuds of the large three toed metal legs thumping against the ground had been constant since they started out. Nothing seemed to have raised an alarm and they were still on course for their destination. The six of them sat at a folding table in the large rectangular lower torso of the vehicle trying to pass the time, the quiet of the surrounding snow covered countryside was quite unnerving. Not a scrap of life was to be seen out here, at least nothing moving for they could still see small frozen over copses every now and then.
“I hope my cousin Sugar is alright... I dread to think what it would take to survive in weather like this.” Rarity was seated in a heated moving vehicle, she wasn’t about to worry about her own safety at the moment. “My cousin always had a taste for sugar that could match that of Pinkie Pie’s insatiable ability to swallow pastries whole… I probably should have introduced them or at least mentioned them to one another.”
“If she’s anything like you Boss Lady, then we’ll definitely find her alive.” It was meant as a compliment, because Gilda thought Rarity could survive some pretty nasty situations even if she hadn’t been directly in the thick of most of them. When she had been in the thick of it, Rarity had obviously performed well enough to come back alive with a gash in her side and a tale of dangerous flesh molded monsters. “Earth Ponies are pretty hardy as well; they can survive in a lot of conditions other ponies would have a lot of problems with. If any of them aren’t strong enough to survive until we can find them out here, then we can at least say we tried to help and we’ll give them a nice burial.”
“That’s my Gilda, always being a sour grape. I would like to personally think that they’re all completely fine and hunkered down somewhere out here waiting for a rescue or at least some kind of aid.” Greta was the positive to Gilda’s negative and it showed. That didn’t mean she didn’t see reality as it was. “I at least have to admit, with as cold as it is out there, that Gilda has a point. The prospects aren’t as great at finding something alive and well in these conditions.”
“The cold never bothered Rover anyway.” Rover had stuck his head out one of the hatches to get an idea of how cold it was. He could clearly see his halitosis when he exhaled and he didn’t think his breath had exactly been that bad, he’d have to scrape his tongue more thoroughly even if he despised such an action. “Never above ground for it often enough when younger, but Rover like playing in it just the same as ponies would. Right now, I am thinking it is not a good idea or time for playing outside.”
“The first time I played in snow is when I visited a snow planet; it was after I performed a job. Never could get snow back in the volcanic lands on Equus, it was way too hot for that.” Ember’s tail twitched back and forth as she reminisced of her time in the snow. “Yeah I think that was about the time that started researching all the dangerous biological hazards I could run into. Even if my body melts snow rather easily, I still managed to make a snow dragon and an ice sculpture while I was on that planet, I even threw a few half melted snowballs into the air. I had lot of fun, but it was rather lonely doing all of that alone. It wouldn’t even surprise me that I’m the warmest thing in this room right now.”
“You know this is rather cozy and spacious for a vehicle that has replacement legs and everything else you said it was capable of.” Saffron still couldn’t believe how much space existed inside the lower torso of the Centaur-pede. She had gotten good look inside the Bombing Peregrine and this thing seemed to be more impressive based on the scale it was built with. “There’s even more space than the Bombing Peregrine at least.”
“Yeah well, the Bombing Peregrine was built explicitly for combat situations. This is more like a home away from home kind of thing and it’s well furnished as we could make it.” Checking her data pad once again in the last few minutes, Greta was making sure nothing was going wrong. The legs and their joints were all running optimally, the shields were on and back to full strength. The upper torso was locked in place and the arms weren’t shifting about, nothing was overheating, sensors were still not picking up any life or motion out there and things seemed entirely in order. “Though we’ll need to sleep on mats in here, the only real private place in the vehicle is the toilet and shower. Word of warning, don’t use too much water. I’m mostly thinking of you when I say this Boss Lady, we don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck down here and we need to conserve resources.”
“I’m not that bad with taking long baths am I?” It was kind of upsetting to Rarity that Saffron, Greta and even Ember wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Gilda just gave her a flat look and a raised questioning brow. Rover didn’t seem to care about the question and was just shuffling the deck of cards for another round. “Fine, I might admit to overstaying my welcome when it comes to cleaning my body. I just don’t like feeling dirty and I like to keep myself in pristine condition, I am the face of my business after all and a lady has to look her best you know.”
“Who else thinks we should set a five minute time limit? I don’t mean just Rarity, but for all of us.” There were three appendages following Gilda’s statement. “Well the majority wins Rarity.”
“When did we form a democracy and why must you all be so mutinous about it?” Crossing her hooves with a huff Rarity was only slightly upset at this, but she didn’t contest the knowledge that she did use a lot of water when it came to looking her best. “Fine, I’ll let myself be stuck to the ridiculous five minute time limit to do the best with my appearance as I can. All bets are off if we find a working shower that isn’t running on a limited supply out here.”
“I understand taking pride in your appearance and all the hard work that goes into it well enough Rarity, I like to keep my scales shiny and presentable at all times as you very well know.” Ember got closer to Rarity and threw an arm around her and started to gently caress Rarity’s mane without messing it up. “You have to understand Rarity; we were inevitably going to draw a line somewhere when it comes to our collective survival. I don’t know about you, but I would care less about my appearance if it meant everyone here surviving for another day. Could you say you would give up how you looked if it could preserve our lives for a little longer?”
“I’d actually give up on everything to make sure all of you lived long fulfilling lives.” The petting felt weird to Rarity, but at least Ember wasn’t messing up her mane. “My habit of getting into trouble isn’t exactly helping in that is it?”
“It’s not you who gets us into trouble Boss Lady; we can do that just fine on our own. It’s more like trouble is attracted to us.” Being on edge constantly was tiring for Greta; she was watching the sensors scanning their surrounding like she was part hawk. “We at least know something is coming this time, but not in what form.”
“I’ve been getting myself into trouble when I took up my mantle as a hero.” Stretching out her hooves and giving off a small yawn, Saffron picked up the five cards dealt to her with her hooves. “I’ve got a lot of scars to prove it and do you think I look ugly?”
“Not at all Saffron darling, you’re quite lovely young mare and the fact that you can fight crime and still look as wonderfully exotic as you do is quite amazing.” Rarity’s praise was met with a blushing Saffron looking at the table in embarrassment. “I should probably be asking you for tips on how you managed to keep such a lovely appearance without it being ruined by all that roughhousing with ruffians. This does leave me wondering if there’s something wrong with me in wanting to look my best at all times.”
“Rover is seeing nothing wrong with Boss Lady; you are true alpha who cares far more about pack than self. Though Boss Lady is still somewhat selfish for appearances sake, I am completely okay with that.” With a wagging tail and a broad smile directed to the slightly prissy pony, Rover flicked five cards to Greta and then moved on to Ember. “Late mother is always saying there are such leaders like you that exist and Rover much happier for actually finding one. Not trade pony leader for anything! Even I know the meaning of priceless or irreplaceable, Rover is having very difficult time finding such a leader.”
Rarity wanted to cry, but she didn’t want to smear her mascara. The friends she had with her were ever so wonderful, even if they did take a vote over her head to force a five minute time limit on showering. She hid a smile behind her five cards and they continued for another five minutes playing in silence, winning or losing hands. Everything became tense when the Centaur-pede suddenly came to a stop and everyone felt the shift in the lower torso when it did, a relatively quiet alarm went off.
“Okay something just tripped the sensors… both motion and life detection.” Greta was poking at her data pad with her index talon looking over the information. “Whatever it is that tripped the sensors, it’s about the size of a pony and it is about a mile off to the east. That’s not too far out of our way. Before you ask Rarity, we have a pretty good sensors range given the terrain around here is mostly flat except for the hills of snow. The snow on the ground is causing a few issues, but as long as we aren’t in the middle of a blizzard or at least a snowstorm we won’t have to worry about detecting threats. Well that’s rather odd… ”
“How odd are we talking Greta and do I really need to be up in the pilot’s seat for this?” Something the size of a pony would most likely be intimidated by the Centaur-pede and would likely prefer to avoid it, unless they were in a desperate situation.
“The readings are detecting a completely healthy organism with no deterioration in temperature… you’d at least expect some loss of heat out here.” Greta tapped her screen while looking to Gilda. “Isn’t a bit odd given the current circumstances that something is out here and reading as completely healthy? You know, despite there being a lack of viable food around here thanks to the terrible climate trouble. It’s also cold enough that any source of water is frozen over, so what is this pony sized organism even drinking?”
“I certainly think this requires investigating, let’s head in that direction and I’ll go topside and try to scope out whatever it is out there when we go closer.” Ember stood up from the table and went to a nearby ladder and started climbing for the back of the lower torso.
“That’s a sound idea, Gilda start heading in that direction please.” The griffon threw Rarity a mock salute and made her way for the ladder that led up into the upper torso.
“Do I need to get my armor on?” If she needed to be ready at a moment’s notice, then Saffron would quickly throw the armor on and get up on the back of the Centaur-pede with Ember.
“No, I don’t think we’ll need it for this, but get your EVA suit on anyway and get a pistol out.” Going to her numerous bags of clothing, she pulled her EVA suit out of a pile and started to put it on. “While I’m quite sure Gilda and Ember can handle this if its trouble, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for anything.”
-
“I was not prepared for something like this, what exactly is that creature? It resembles a pony, but I can already tell just by looking at it that it is most certainly not a pony.” Looking over the side of the Centaur-pede’s back, Rarity immediately spotted what was detected. “I’m sure Chrysalis would have a field day with it, whatever it is.”
“You remember when I said that there were beings that weren’t an active threat, native and nearly sapient? That would be one right there, it’s called a Puffle.” The creature wasn’t as majestically dangerous as Ember imagined it being. It vaguely had the face of a pony and she really couldn’t make out the body, she could see four tiny hooves sticking out of what looked like a solid ball of thick pink fur covering every part of it.
The creature looked at the middle right leg of the machine and sniffed at it, after a moment it gasped, did a raspberry then started hugging the leg and began nuzzling it lovingly. It was possibly the most adorable and least threatening thing in the area; also it was notably the only thing in the area.
“If they aren’t an active threat, then what exactly is threatening about them?” Gilda’s voice came from the one large red eye in the head on the upper torso; she had her attention squarely on the ball of fluff hugging the leg. The thing looked like something Chrysalis and her Changelings would use at livestock, given how much hair it had on its body. “I’m getting the feeling that there’s something about them being threatening in a passive manner.”
“They are exceedingly stupid and I mean lethally stupid in such a way that they could get someone or themselves killed with their actions.” It was well documented and Ember didn’t believe that something could be so close to sapience and yet impossibly imbecilic. She didn’t know why it was hugging the leg, but it certainly wasn’t intimidated by large machinery. “I’m talking stupid like sticking its tongue in a light socket for a third time, even after it knows from experience the first two times ended in pain. They are quite playful, herbivorous and their fur is a thick protective covering that prevents them from getting injured by the few small predators this planet has. Some ponies have mistaken them for being almost sapient because they have some level of intelligence that allows them to mimic something a pony does. That led to an unfortunate incident with a blue Puffle catching fire from mimicking a pony making a fire pit. The Puffle was alright after the incident, but it didn’t learn its lesson when it made another fire pit and it’s why they are known to be lethally stupid by every pony that ever comes across one on this planet. There’s also a good reason that Ponies try not to teach them things after that second incident, they were labeled as passively dangerous and possibly lethal to anyone not smart enough to leave one well enough alone until it wanders away of its own volition. Feeding them ice cream, candy or something sweet usually makes them leave faster.”
“What exactly happened the second time around to cause that kind of response?” Saffron thought the creature was cute and adorable in a bright eyed childish manner, how could something like that be dangerous?
“The first time the blue Puffle created a fire pit it was on an open plain where the fire wouldn’t spread and they eventually managed to douse its slowly burning fur before it could do any real damage. The second time the Puffle apparently got the idea that you had to create a fire in a fire station… five blocks went up in flames before fire fighters from a different town could arrive on the scene. They didn’t exactly save that town either.” Yes it was as dumb as it sounded, but then Ember decided to tell the last tidbit which really sells the level of idiocy a Puffle will go to when taught something. “It had apparently started a fire pit using all the fire fighting gear. It was apparently not done out of malicious intent on the Puffle’s part, but the sheer and utter stupidity that the Puffle thought you had to start a fire using all of said equipment at once to do it right. Mind you this includes several fire fighting gunships loaded with chemicals specifically meant to stop fires. I know a thing or two about doing the impossible with endothermic chemicals and somehow incidentally burning down a building. Why the cause of the fire was even determined to be a fire extinguisher if you can believe it. Heck, it hardly makes sense given the Puffle probably couldn’t even read a written language to begin with to even know what the sign on the fire station says. I’m sure if I was there, I would have been outright blamed for that incident for just being a dragon near a place where a fire broke out in a highly volatile manner.”
“So… we just ignore it… is that all?” If this creature was as potentially dumb as the one that was just described to her, then Gilda wanted it to be as far away from the Centaur-pede as possible. It sounded like a machine eating gremlin.
“Yep, let’s just keep going and ignore that it exists. We do not want to be responsible for whatever it does if we teach it something and we do not want to interact with it unless it is to give it something to eat so it’ll leave us alone.” Innocent as they might sound, look and act, Ember was going to have nightmares about the other incidents she heard that Puffles had been involved in. “Whatever any of you do, do not go down there and touch it or make it even more interested in us than it already is. Also don’t look up things about them; it’s going to give me nightmares for a while knowing what I do.”
“Doesn’t it seem a bit cruel to leave it out here like this?” Even after hearing the story, Rarity wanted to do something generous for the cute thing currently snuggling up against a leg of the Centaur-pede.
“No, Rarity, just no, trust me on this, you do not want to do anything for that creature!” Ember was putting her foot down on this one; she had to protect her hoard from that little fluffy monstrosity. She didn’t know what was dumber, the Puffle or Rarity for wanting to do something for it. “It’s been doing well enough on its own so far and it doesn’t even look like it needs help with anything if it’s as healthy as the scanner says it is.”
“Well if you’re absolutely sure…” The look Rarity was receiving cowed any thought of going near the pink fluff, the fierceness of Ember’s eyes spoke a volume of words and she was willing to listen to them.
“I’m dead serious, that thing could get us killed even if it is entirely innocent Rarity.” Ember really didn’t like being angry with her hoard, but she had to protect it from itself in this situation. “I actually looked these things up and I would think that I would know more than you do about it. I’ll let you look it up later and decide for yourself if it was a good idea or not to ignore it, but please do this one thing for me. I wasn’t wrong about sewer squids, I’m definitely not wrong about this. We do not want to give that thing the time of day.”
“Okay I’ll ignore it, though I don’t like having to do so one bit.” Rarity would trust Ember’s judgment on this one, but it kind of hard to ignore that such an adorable fluffy alien pony thing was just outside looking for attention. “Gilda get us back on course and do as Ember says, let’s… ignore it. Well at least for now, if it won’t go away then we’ll at least feed it and shoo it off afterwards.”
The Centaur-pede started moving towards the northeast back on course and they completely ignore the squeaking pink blob of thick fur stuck to one of the legs. It even seemed to be enjoying itself, ignoring it was kind of hard because it was a fairly visible, even from a good distance away.
-
Chrysalis, Lightning, Vera and Bernard just sat there watching poetry in motion. They saw every swing, stab and twirl of the sword as something akin to an interpretive dance. Sassy was sweating and looked very tired, but she certainly looked graceful when dancing with a blade in her hoof. None of them had the heart to stop Sassy, she wanted to keep going until she dropped and she even told them as much.
Finally Sassy slowly stopped her dance and sheathed the sword; she was breathing raggedly and slowly began to lie down. She had only been able to keep up the dance for five minutes at a time; she had barely taken a break longer than a minute throughout her harsh training regimen. Vera had been keeping her watchful eyes on Sassy’s health. Sassy was coming along greatly, but she would injure herself badly if she continued to push herself at this rate.
“Sassy, I think that that is enough and it’s time that I gave you a nice massage…” Trying to sit up and deny Vera’s rather incredible services, she failed to form any words as soon as Vera’s hooves touched her gently and started work over the tired muscles. “That’s it, relax, everything will be okay. You don’t want to push yourself too hard; you’ll injure yourself badly if you do and then you’ll have to go through therapy all over again. Do you want that Sassy?”
“No…” Sassy whined before something popped in her back making her go limp.
“I know everything will be okay physically, but will she be okay mentally? She seems to be working through a lot of emotional turmoil, tastes kind of funky really.” Poking her chin with a hoof while flicking her tongue about her lips, it was as if Chrysalis could actually taste the emotions coming off of Sassy. “Like a banana split, only instead of chocolate somebody use mango sauce and the caramel sauce is made from refried beans. At least the strawberry sauce tastes correct. The banana flavor leaves something to be desired and I sometimes wish I were an Alicorn so that I could personally enjoy the end results of tasting such a flavor.”
“Yeah, not going to ask how you would even know what any of that tastes like. Considering actual food holds no nutritional value for you at all.” It was among the many things Lightning would never want to know about Chrysalis, she was still going to be friends with her though. Once she was clear of pasted bones, Lightning would get that game of Twisty she’d been craving for a while now.
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Huh, I wonder if the fact that Opal transmits emotions is going to come up eventually.
Chryssie's attempts at getting together with Sassy are going to be glorious.
On the one hand, it'd be an awesome source of food for Chryssie and the changelings. On the other, they'd probably somehow blow their new planet up.
Rarity has to shower less? This is the worst possible thing!
No, bad Puffle, so 3 humping the robot's leg!
'why someone would use technology could create such an emotional being for a hive mind' - technology to create
'She was seated in a heated moving vehicle, she wasn’t about to worry about her own safety at the moment.' - you didn't actually mention that it's Rarity who's talking, so replacing the 'She' at the very beginning with 'Rarity' would be a good idea.
'scanning their surrounding like she part hawk' - like she was part hawk
'despite their being a lack of viable food' - there