• Published 20th Dec 2016
  • 8,203 Views, 342 Comments

Ponies and Lasers and Clankers, Oh My! - Tekket



Battle droids left without orders stumble upon Equestria, its neighbors, and all of the planet's inhabitants. Hilarity (and droid clumsiness) ensues.

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Chapter 13 - Picking Up Pieces

19 B.B.Y. Temporary Confederate Refugee Base, Unknown Planet, Sector G6 (See Galactic Map)

Cranker walked with his squad on patrol around the outer edges of the southern wall, nodding as he passed another patrol going the other way, before continuing his unfaltering march. He looked up at the sniper’s nest set up on top of one of the many troop transports that formed part of the walls keeping the base safe.

He moved silently, the only sound being the whirring of his servomotors and the soft squelch of mud underneath the patrol’s magnapeds as they marched. Slowly working their way around to the western gate, he brought up his hand, and the other four b1’s in formation behind him stopped in unison.

Something was swooping down from the sky from the direction of the lone mountain on the horizon, and as such, he placed himself in front of the gate and brought up his hand as the shape came closer. It soon resolved itself into one of the flying transports that the aliens loved so dearly, being pulled by two brawny, winged specimens with shiny golden plating covering them.

Cranker brought a hand to his head and radioed the anti-air tower to identify the approaching craft as friendlies before stepping out with his squad to meet the approaching ponies. Unsurprisingly, the purple one in bandages that had been on board the Dawn of Dusk was among the ponies that stepped off the flying platform once it had landed and come to a stop, but with her were some creatures that Cranker didn’t recognize.

Stopping just before the droids, the purple one stepped forward, first among the three that had gotten off the transport, and Cranker got a better look at the party. There was the tall, horned creature that he had seen at the aliens’ palace when they had first stepped off the landing craft in the courtyard, and the creature he saw here was quite impressive as well. Taller than a B1 and covered in rippling muscle that was clearly seen beneath a long coat, Cranker identified it as the most immediate possible threat before looking at the other member of the group; a white-furred creature with a horn, much like the purple one, except this one was missing wings and was built a bit more heavily.

Cranker stepped forward, as did the purple creature, and he said the only thing he had learned in the aliens’ language in the three days they’d been stranded here.

<Greetings!>

The purple and white creatures stood closer and showed their teeth to him, which Cranker identified as them smiling, and hopefully not baring their teeth at him, while the large, heavyset alien with horns on either side of its head narrowed its eyes and snorted, releasing a small cloud of hot air.

The short purple creature began chattering in its language to its two companions, much to Cranker’s dismay, though it quickly stopped and looked straight back up at him, before giving a low bow and saying something else.

Now, Cranker might have been slightly more intelligent that Spaller had been, but he still wasn’t quite bright. He hoped that the sounds he’d heard were a question, and with what he’d managed to discern about the purple creature in the five seconds it had stood in front of him, he responded with the only thing he knew in the aliens’ language.

“<Greetings!>”

The purple alien’s face seemed to crack just a bit, and Cranker took a half step back, wondering what he did wrong. Sneaking a glance behind him out of the corner of his photoreceptor, Cranker saw his squad looking around everywhere and pointedly not looking at him, and that was all the confirmation he needed.

He raised his hand to his head to contact the base command while the purple alien tilted its head and started speaking again, and he had to lift up his other hand to silence her. Since she jumped back, eyes wide, but finally silent, he eased his circuits as the line finally opened.

This is Base Gamma Command. What’s the situation, soldier?

“Base Command, this is perimeter squad four. We’ve got some VIP’s at the front gate, but I have no clue what they’re saying. I need a translator down here ASAP.”

Request Confirmed, perimeter squad four. A translator will meet you at the front gate momentarily.

“Roger. Perimeter squad four, out.”

Cranker nodded, though a moment later he realized the droid on the other end of the call couldn’t see him, and he directed his gaze back at the purple creature. Curious, it was still cowering in front of him, and as he looked past it, he saw the tall creature with two horns looking quite tense, and the single horn of the white creature glowing brightly as it had stepped back and looked absolutely terrified.

He made to bring his arm up in order to calm the alien’s in front of him before he realized it was still in front of him from when he shushed the alien, and moreover, he was still holding his blaster in that hand. It took him three full seconds to realize that he was pointing his blaster straight at the bandaged alien, and when he did, he immediately sprang back, jerking into a quick salute with his blaster pointed straight down at his side.

Cranker was extremely grateful he couldn’t physically show emotion, though he hoped the shaking in his servos didn’t betray how he felt.

Thankfully, he was saved from the uncomfortable silence as a loud whine sounded behind him, and the troop transport that the droids had been using as a front gate for Gamma Base slid to the side and out stepped another battle droid.

The B1 that stepped out of the base was identical in every way to all the others that had survived the crash, except for one small, six-pointed star that was painted on its shoulder; the emblem of a droid that had downloaded the translation software copied from TL-90’s databanks.

Though the droids were technically fluent in the aliens’ language now, or at least some of them were, they only had a sliver of TL-90’s translation software; a wise precaution, as a download package of that size could overload and fry the relatively cheap internal processors of the rest of them.

The droid that stepped through the gate greeted the purple creature and began a conversation, though it was, admittedly, somewhat slowed by the fact that the droid had to process the conversation through its software before it could respond, an act that wasn’t as quick as with the original.

***

Princess Twilight sighed as she once more walked away from the gate, General Kratos and Prince Blueblood at her sides.

“I realize they must be having a hard time with all that they’ve lost, but they’re still a military detachment! General Kratos, surely it shouldn’t take three days for a military force to figure out who’s in charge, should it?”

The large Minotaur general beside her have a snort and looked down at her.

“This whole thing smells funny. We haven’t seen anything like what you described when you were on their ship, so it seems unlikely that some of the remaining leaders are trying to usurp power from each other, but if they had only one or two good candidates to choose from, they should have established a proper chain of command by now. They’ve managed to build and secure their base just fine, and from what we’ve seen its operating smoothly. Our interaction with the translator just now proves it.” He lowered his gaze and stared hard at the ground, like it might crack and provide the answers they sought. “This whole thing seems fishy to me.”

“Well, if they have no leader picked out yet,” Blueblood chimed in from the side, throwing a disgusted look back at the ramshackle walls that protected the droids’ base, “perhaps we can come to an agreement with them. They are a foreign invading force in Equestria, after all, therefore they fall under our jurisdiction. If they’re not being hostile, then I don’t see why auntie Celestia doesn’t just declare them under her command. If they disagree, we’ll send the Royal Equestrian Army after them; give them a taste of what happened to us.”

Twilight whirled on Blueblood so quick she nearly slipped in the mud.

“Blueblood! Seriously? Haven’t you been listening to anything you’ve been told about the droids?”

She searched his eyes for a hint of recognition, and when his blank stare morphed into a sheepish grin, she nearly slapped him.

“The droids don’t feel pain, fear, or worry. They can’t. Didn’t you see some of the ones stalking around Canterlot when their ship first crashed? They tried finding each other throughout the streets of the capital just to know what their orders were. Didn’t you see them shrug off losing arms and legs and not caring, just so long as they could report back to their commanders? If we fight them, we might win, but they’re still an extremely lethal force, and one we need to tread carefully around!”

Turning around, Twilight winced and reached a hand out to her back and wings, which still throbbed dully from the sudden movement.

“Sweet Celestia, you’re a dolt…” she muttered under her breath in what she thought had been a whisper too quiet to be heard, but she hardened her gaze when she heard the sharp intake of air that signalled Blueblood had heard her.

Her sour mood evaporated a second later when she heard the deep, rumbling chuckle of General Kratos on her other side, and she couldn’t help but smile.

Despite their physical and cultural differences, the princess had found she quite enjoyed the General’s company in the few days she’d come to know him. He was blunt, and often very gruff, but since she had told Celestia and the General about her time on the droids ship, he had become somewhat sympathetic towards her, and she had a newfound appreciation for how terrifying it must have been when the delegation’s ship had nearly been destroyed on the way to Canterlot.

She unfortunately, had made no such bond with Blueblood. Celestia, after listening to Twilight’s story, had not left Canterlot, overseeing the reconstruction of the city, as well as taking care of her sister. Since both current rulers of Equestria were indisposed, and though the population had liked and preferred Twilight step in much more than Blueblood, Princess Celestia had chosen her nephew to represent the Equestrian government in all affairs concerning the refugee droids, though Twilight had still been given full authority to negotiate with them.

Though he had little to no training in being a head of office, and even less desire to be one, Blueblood had at first taken up the call, bolstered by other noble ponies he was friends with, and intent on bringing down hard justice on the metal invaders to Equestria. It was only once he realized he’d be deferring to Twilight Sparkle in the negotiations with the droids, and that Princess Celestia’s wish was to help the droids and integrate them into equestrian society, rather than punish and banish them, that his interest and enthusiasm for the whole thing had quickly evaporated.

Climbing back into the Chariot beside General Kratos and Prince Blueblood, Twilight looked back at the tall, metal walls of the base, and breathed a deep sigh. I hope they come forward soon. We can’t deal with a war right now. Looking around the lush interior of the carriage as one of the pegasi guards closed the door behind them, Twilight couldn’t help but supress a giggle. Though she and Blueblood were sharing one side of the seating quite comfortably, General Kratos was sitting by himself opposite them, and every time she saw him in a carriage she couldn’t help but laugh.

The General was so tall he had to stoop to avoid hitting his head, but because of his large, sharp horns, he had to make sure he faced the other occupants, lets he accidentally spear them during turbulence. As such he was sitting with his arms crossed and his head and shoulders scrunched down into the rest of his body; he looked as if someone had put horns on an especially short and pudgy dog.

The telltale bump that told the three that the carriage was beginning to move came, and Twilight could hold it in no longer. She burst out laughing, much to the chagrin of the General and Blueblood.

The General, for his part, merely huffed and grumbled to himself under his breath, while Blueblood sniffed and raised his nose, turning to face the window.

Giggles finally dying down, Twilight covered her mouth with a hand and sighed, the smile still sticking to her face.

“I’m sorry, General, I know you’re uncomfortable like that, but with how the last few days have been, I really needed the laughter.” She looked away sheepishly, noting the ever-present frown Kratos was giving her.

“No offense taken, princess. This has been a harrowing time for all of us, though if I have to ride in this darned thing one more time I swear I’ll cut a hole in the roof and just stick my head out of it.” He snorted a puff of air out of his nostrils as he spoke, to which Twilight tried her best to supress a smile.

“Of course, General Kratos. I’m sure accommodations are already underway, since the Minotaur delegation is staying a little longer than previously thought. I’ll be sure to include extra headspace in the carriages as part of those accomodations.”

Though the rest of the ride was rather uneventful, Twilight did her best to avoid looking out the windows. Besides the hastily-constructed droid base, which resembled nothing so much as a metal infection on the ground, as metal scraps and vehicles were dragged into an ever-larger defensive cluster, there was also the fact that the landscape from Canterlot to beyond Ponyville was marred by the titanic ship’s wreck.

The vessel had broken up into several larger fragments as it fell, and each had left a significant scar in the hills, fields, and forests where they had fallen, but even more so than that, the crash had devastated the remaining area. Small chunks of metal, plastics, and other foreign materials could be found as far away as the southern edge of the Everfree forest, and ranged in size from a fingernail to as large as a house. Closer to the ship, hundreds of acres of farmland and wild fields had been overturned and destroyed as the more intact parts of the ship had plowed through them as easily as a pegasus plowed through a cloud. Puddles, ponds, and whole lakes of fuels leaked into the surrounding area, and even three days after the crash, continued to burn and fill the air with an acrid scent, despite the ponies’ best attempts to smother them.

The part that wrenched at Twilight’s heart the most whenever she saw the devastation, was the thought of how many ponies had lost loved ones, or the even larger number that had been left homeless by the crash. Though the majority of Canterlot had been protected by princess Celestia’s shield spell during those crucial moments, she had seen the aftermath; homes reduced to rubble, streets collapsed into sinkholes that fell down the mountainside below, and every building’s windows turned into a series of deadly, sharp-fragmented holes.

When she had returned to Canterlot, she had also seen the clean-up and rescue teams searching through the broken husks of homes and businesses, and she had passed by too many crying ponies in the street for it not to scar her inside just a little bit. She gave a sigh and looked over and Blueblood, who was making sure to keep his gaze on the horizon out the window. For a few moments she looked at him and wondered; what was going through his mind, if he felt the same pain she was feeling, if his brash attitude was just a way to cover up how he felt.

Scratch that, she thought with a mental snort, as the prince noticed her looking at him, and very obviously shifted in his seat to face the side even more directly, he’s just trying not to think about how much of an inconvenience all of this has been to him.

Blueblood, for his part, didn’t do anything to discourage the thought.

***

B1-76504 gave the best imitation of a tired sigh that his vocoder could issue, leaning over on the console in front of him. Reorganising and redeploying the remaining droid forces was an arduous, boring, and downright draining task. Lifting his faceplate to look around the darkened command center, he took in his surroundings.

So much had changed since the crash, and yet, so little had. It had all been a blur. A holo-table stood in the center of the room, surrounded by four consoles that had been ripped from a salvaged field command module. The steady hum of generators could be heard through the walls and floor of the structure, and several droids went about their business at the other command consoles. Tinted and blast-resistant wrap-around windows gave the command center a decent view of the rest of the base, despite being raised only two stories off the ground.

76504 focused his attention back on his console, trying to push all the swirling data out of his processor so he could work, but apparently, some ghost in his programming decided his computing power was better spent remembering the past.

He had been stuck in the wreckage of the bridge for several hours, unable to move because his body was pinned under tons of metal. If had been able to breathe, he would have choked to death long ago from the smoke and noxious gasses boiling up from the ruptured hull as could do nothing but stare at the Captain’s unmoving frame next to him. Despite being pinned beneath wreckage, 76504 had been lucky, and had miraculously barely been damaged in the crash, especially since a spar of jagged and superheated metal had launched itself from the exploding fuel tanks, ripped through the bridge, and pierced straight through the Captain and another bridge pilot.

He had lain there, occasionally grumbling, until he heard a voice through the crumbling and creaking. Only one other member of the bridge crew had survived, and he and 44498 had passed the time talking about what they might have been able to do if things had turned out differently. Both trapped in the slowly crumbling wreckage of their ship, the two members of the bridge crew couldn’t see each other, but they had tried to keep each other company; they had nothing else to do until their power ran out.

Miraculously, once night had fallen, the two droids had felt the wreckage around them shifting, before bright searchlights fell upon them and clearing crews moved in to extract them from their deadly positions. 76504 had never been happier to see the six-legged “muckraker” crab droids that had dug through the debris for the clearing crews to follow, though the commandos that pulled him out seemed less than pleased at the news of the Captain’s demise.

The B1 shook his head and slapped a hand on his faceplate, giving another decent impression of a sigh that he dearly wished he could actually make. Snapping himself out of his memories, he looked around the command center once more before standing up, determined to take a personal walk around the base to see how things were coming along and to distract himself.

Before he could leave the room though, another droid walked in, this one with the stylized six-pointed star on its shoulder, and saluted, blocking his way.

“Commander, Sir! The ponies have extended another offer for peace talks. They’ve invited the base’s leadership to their capital city for a funeral ceremony. The pony princesses will be presiding over it and they’ve requested our presence. Afterwards they wish to begin negotiations with us to integrate into their society.”

“What? A funeral? Oh great, just what we need. Sometimes I really wish the Captain was still here, he’d know what to do. At the very least, it wouldn’t be me making these decisions.”

The other droid nodded in response, “I told them that the current command structure has not yet been reorganized, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t believe me this time or the other two times. What should we do?”

76504 thought for a moment, considering his options. He could certainly try and stave off the alien’s questions for a few more days while the droids reacquainted themselves with ground base procedures and finished salvaging the wreck of their ship, but he felt like he was out of his element.

He had been the sensors officer on board the Dawn of Dusk, and most of the sophisticated sensor suite on the ship was tied in directly into its systems, so although he was technically the highest ranked droid on the base, he had little to do except watch reports as they trickled in. He looked to 44498, his new second-in-command, sitting at his station as he went over an inventory of what the base had managed to save from the dreadnaught before its crash, and what had been rescued from the wreckage since.

“’98, I’m going to inspect how Gamma Base is coming. You have the command center while I’m gone.” Turning back to the translator droid, he waved and stepped past him, “Come with me. We’re going to find TL-90.”

With that, he stepped out of the room and made his way to the command post’s entrance. Stepping out onto the flattened muddy ground, he first made for the makeshift maintenance ward across the main plaza. The ramshackle building was put together with modular base walls and large pieces of dulled-down hull plating from the dreadnaught, and the sparks from welding torches could be seen inside.

The two droids passed by the airfield and the makeshift Vulture droid prep hangar, where the remains of the droids’ air superiority were housed. After taking heavy losses above Muunilinst and then again during the crash, the droids had walked away from the disaster with four damaged Vulture fighters, twenty one undamaged ones, and one single, very temperamental hyena droid bomber. 76504 had originally had the droids flying constant patrols over the base but then realized they didn’t have the fuel to spare to keep them in the air for long, and the entire air force was now grounded to preserve what little supplies they still had. The chattering of the Vultures reached his audio receptors as the two B1’s walked past, but were quickly drowned out by the sound of a high-pitched whine piercing the area.

76504 looked around before he was able to make out several small, aerial vehicles coming in to land at the airfield. Though the weapons and armor on the small platforms that four B1’s were currently in the process of disembarking from were far weaker than that of proper fighters, the new Commander at least took solace in the fact that they were easy to maintain and the energy required for them to fly was quite a bit easier to supply for patrols.

Pushing past the flap of a large knitted quilt stained with smoke and oil spots; one that had been generously donated by the ponies for the ‘droid refugees’ as they had put it, 76504 finally saw the droid he had been looking for.

TL-90 was hooked up to a small, mobile computer console and was conversing very animatedly with a super battle droid that was operating the computer, to the super droid’s obvious expense. Despite having no facial features or much of a face at all, the dull grey droid gave off a palpable aura of disgust and annoyance as the silver protocol droid continued to yammer on about this or that program that would make life at the base so much more effective, and if they would just listen to her and give her a little more leeway with how things were conducted then she was sure she could get the aliens to welcome them with open arms now that the droid force was stuck on their planet.

The super battle droid did its best to ignore her, and as such, didn’t notice the two newcomers, although the other droid hooked up to the console did. Another B1 was sitting patiently as he waited for his translation software to finish downloading. 76504 had ordered the translation capabilities be as widely spread as possible, to avoid confusion in the future. At the same time, an astromech was busy etching and spray painting a figure of a six-pointed star into the droid’s shoulder to denote it as yet another upgraded droid.

“Hey there, Commander! Guess what? This new translation software feels great! It’s like I can feel myself getting smarter! And I didn’t think I’d ever get to experience that! I even-” 76504 tuned out the rest of what the B1 was saying and turned to look at the protocol droid.

“TL-90, I have a question to ask. I know I’m technically in charge now since the Dusk went down, but these ponies have come be every day now. We’re going to end up talking with them or fighting with them one way or another, and I’d prefer not to fight, but I’ve got no idea how to lead, or really what to do in this situation. You’re programmed for politics and social interactions much better than any of us are… So I’ve decided I’m going to need you to come with me when I head out for the alien’s capital tomorrow. It’s about time we find out where we stand in this.”

The silver droid looked at the Commander for an uncomfortable few seconds before dipping its head and speaking much more quietly and calmly than before.

“I… yes, I’ll come with you. Speaking with these aliens will be the best course of action. We may have superior technology but we’re severely outnumbered and wholly unfamiliar with the terrain and capabilities of the opposition. If we started a war with them now, we might prevail, but I calculate that our odds of successfully establishing a connection with other Separatist forces would be reduced to four-hundred and fourteen to one if we were actively fighting a war with the resources we have.”

The Commander nodded and thanked the silver droid before dismissing the other translator droid. Perhaps it would do him some good to double check how the rest of the base was doing before he went back to the command center.

***

Trixie woke up screaming. She quickly clamped a hand over her mouth once she realized she was back in her wagon, but the images and emotions racing through her head caused her to shake under her blanket, despite not feeling cold. She shuddered and pulled back the curtains from her little window, looking outside and seeing nothing but darkness. It was still night, good.

She sat up in her cramped hammock, pulling her blanket around her and trying to calm herself from the terrible images that danced behind her eyes. She’d been in plenty of dangerous or unpleasant situations; she’d never admit it to anypony, but she’d caused most of them. But ever since she and Starlight had returned to Ponyville after the titanic spaceship had crashed, she’d barely been able to close her eyes before her mind began replaying the terror from three days ago. Clutching one of her trembling hands with the other, she rocked back and forth in her hammock and willed herself to calm down.

Unfortunately, she kept hearing the shriek of metal, she still saw the impact of a city-sized missile, and she still felt the ground quaking beneath her hooves. The showmare shuddered and cried silently to herself for too many long minutes as her breathing became more even and she finally managed to push the thoughts from her mind, for the moment at least. Eventually she felt something else; a warm hand on her shoulder, and looked up at the other occupant of her tiny wagon.

“H-hey… um, sorry for waking you, Starlight…” The blue unicorn mumbled as she hid her face in her covers, but the hand didn’t move away. A moment later, Trixie heard the sound of something shifting around and a moment later she found herself in a tight embrace.

“Don’t be sorry Trixie, this is why I agreed to spend the nights in your wagon. You can trust me. I’ll be here as long as you need.”

Trixie sniffed a few times before she raised her head and wiped her eyes, looking over her shoulder. The interior of the cart was dark, but she could see the dim reflections of Starlight’s eyes beside her. “Th-thanks Starlight. Trixie feels silly… I mean, we’ve saved Equestria from hordes of evil changelings! Y-you know, back when they were evil, and yet, this is so different. This time Discord showed up and saved us before anything really bad happened, but I felt even more powerless then than I did in the changeling hive…”

She shuddered and Starlight patiently waited for her to continue, holding her close the whole time.

“What’s happening Starlight? We’ve faced down so much together, but that… that… It was just death. We couldn’t stop it, the jroidz couldn’t stop it, and so many of them just… died. We-we could have just as easily died! And no one would ever find us because we’d be buried under a mountain of metal! I just… even after three days, I can’t stop thinking about it. What happens now?”

It was a moment before Starlight replied, and as she did so she sighed and rested her head against Trixie’s, whose breathing had calmed down considerably despite the unpleasant memories dredging themselves to the surface of her mind. “I don’t know what happens now, Trixie. I wish I could say I did, but I can’t. The jroidz lost everything that gives them security. Honestly, after seeing them on their starship, and how they talked and tried to regale to us how great joining them would be, I… I couldn’t help but be reminded of how I used to be.”

Trixie gave a small snort that turned into a hiccough and she had to quiet down for a few moments before she was able to focus on Starlight once more.

“I’m serious!” the pink unicorn gave a playful shove, but just as quickly hugged her friend once more. “Think about it. They’re all basically identical, and they felt secure in themselves and their routine. It was just like my little village a couple years ago, and when everything came crashing down around me, I was furious, and unpredictable, and I lashed out. My only goal back then was revenge. The jroidz seem a little too uh… let’s say ‘optimistic’ instead of something much ruder, than I was back then, but they may react similarly. There was only one of me at the time, and now there’s thousands of them. I think our best bet is to try and follow Twilight’s example of extending the hand of friendship to them. If we help them in their darkest times, then maybe we’ll be able to avoid a war with a thousand pissed-off aliens.”

Trixie sniffled again and brought her hands up to her eyes once more, looking down at her lap, and said nothing for a while. Her thoughts were racing around her head faster than she could keep track of them, and she just wanted everything to stop, for a day, for an hour, even just for a minute, so she could relax and not feel fearful of everything that had happened and everything that might happen.

She was so preoccupied that she barely registered when the hammock shifted and Starlight’s body pressed up to hers. Startled, she looked over at her friend in the gloom and saw she had climbed into the hammock with her.

“S-Starli-?” she squeaked.

“I… I know that probably wasn’t what you wanted to hear Trixie, but… What happened was terrible, and there are no right answers to how we can go forward or prevent what happened from happening again. But… I can still keep you company. And it’s clear that you’re still far too worried about this to sleep at all.”

The blue unicorn nodded silently, before realizing that Starlight probably couldn’t see her and responded with a hesitant, “Yeah, I don’t think so either.”

“I’m just here to listen and that’s what I’ll do. We don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s not focus on that. I know! I know,” the faint light reflected in her eyes changed as her voice raised an octave, “I know I probably made it worse by talking about the future in the first place, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m here for you. If you’re not going to sleep, then I don’t need to either. You’re scared, and tired, and confused, and I am too. But even if we are, we can still be scared and tired and confused together. Because it’s better to face these things together than alone.”

Trixie blinked a few times, and realized her eyes finally felt incredibly heavy once more as her body shuddered and she nearly fell back from exhaustion. “Thanks Starlight. You… you should go back to your own hammock now. But thank you for staying with me, and thank you for listening. I don’t know if I’ll be ready to properly talk about it, or ever able to put it into words, but… thank you. You’re a true friend, Starlight.”

She felt Starlight’s hands let go of her for a moment and felt the hammock shift once more before the hug came back and pulled her down into a lying position beside her friend.

“Um, Starlight-? These beds aren’t designed for two ponies and it’s really cramped-” she squeaked in surprise.

“Oh hush. I know, Trixie. But… I wasn’t lying. I’m scared, and tired, and confused too. And, I hope you’ll forgive me for being a bit selfish, but you’re not the only one who’s been having nightmares since that day, and… I don’t want to be alone right now.”

After relaxing from the nightmare, and getting tired once more, Trixie thought that she would have felt slow and lethargic, but suddenly she was much more aware of her surroundings in her little cart, and quite sure that her heartbeat had picked up significantly-

Trixie’s breathing quickened once more, but this time, all thoughts of the tragedy were banished from her mind and she completely forgot about her earlier nightmares as all her thoughts were consumed with the proximity of her best friend as she tried to calm herself and get to sleep; a feat which she eventually managed to do, calming to the rhythm of the pink unicorn sleeping in her hammock beside her.

***

Shining Armor opened his eyes and groaned.

“Ow… Cadance, honey? What’s going on? Why is the world shaking?” His blurry vision of a lush, velvet ceiling was suddenly replaced by the calmly smiling visage of his beautiful wife.

“You’re finally awake, sleepy-head!” she giggled and brought a hand to cover her mouth before continuing. “We’re in a carriage, and we’re on our way to Canterlot, remember? I told you this yesterday. We got a letter from Twilight and Spike, and she asked us to come help with the peace talks.”

At the blank look Shining gave her, she continued, sitting back, while his gaze turned to keep her in sight.

“Twilight said that some sort of disaster happened to Canterlot and part of Ponyville, and since the peace talks with the Minotaurs were interrupted, she wanted us to come by, along with the Minotaur prisoner. They’d gotten pretty close to an agreement but she said there were some complications and she wanted us to be there for it.”

Grunting and straining, Shining Armor placed his hands under himself and felt the soft velvet cushions of the royal carriage. Taking much more strength than he would have admitted, he raised himself to a sitting position next to his wife, which only caused her to fuss over him.

“Take it easy, Shiny. You’re going to rip your bandages again. The doctors said you were healing better than the first time, but still, try not to move too much until we get to Canterlot.”

The white stallion gave a huff and cracked a smile, looking sideways at his wife while he did so. “Please Cadance, I learned my lesson after I nearly bled out on the parade ground. I won’t go doing anything strenuous until I’m fully healed, alright? But you have to forgive a guy for wanting to sit up and get a better look at his beautiful wife’s face.”

Cadance’s giggles soon overpowered both of them, and they were both chortling quietly in the compartment until Shining Armor sucked in a breath between his teeth and grasped at his side where he was still bandaged. Damn, those Minotaur axes cut deep. He gritted his teeth and turned to his wife once more.

“See? You can’t make me laugh too much, or I’ll end up hurt again.” He said with a serious look, but his playful tone and the kiss that he planted on her lips a moment later betrayed his mood, and the pink alicorn gave him a playful shove on the shoulder in return.

“Oh please, you made yourself laugh. Just don’t try and pick any more fights with the Minotaurs when we get into Canterlot, and I think you’ll make a full recovery.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder as she scooted closer to him on the seating, and a moment later Shining sighed happily, and leaned his head on hers. The two of them silently took in the cloudscape through the windows for a time, content with each other and the world.

“I’m just glad we’re finally putting this nonsense behind us,” Shining spoke up with a sheepish grin, “It’ll be good to tune down the excitement for a while, and I’m looking forward to seeing Twily again. She’s probably sticking her nose in places where it doesn’t belong and annoying the Minotaurs with all sorts of questions.”

Cadance’s only response was to roll her eyes and hug herself closer to her husband as they continued on the trip.

Author's Note:

And I'm back! After far too long with this story, I'm back.

First things first, this year has been hard, though I'm sure its been harder for many others. Even so, I didn't have time for much at all recently, and most of this chapter was written in the last week. I'm currently doing okay, and I have a schedule for the first time ever. One that I'm trying to stick to.

The next chapter has not been started as of posting this one, but I'm keeping up at approximately a steady 2k words per day, and I'm dividing that between this and Ruins Of A Forgotten Time, as well as another large project I've been working on for a year now (though I have far less done than I'd hoped after all this time).

Finally... I'm tired. I love this story and the support everyone's shown me since I started writing Clankers, but I've been letting it drag on for too long and my inconsistent writing has bugged me for a long time. I'm going to be sticking to my schedule as best as I can, and I should have the next chapter of Ruins out in about a week if all goes well. The next chapter of Clankers should be out in about two weeks, barring any unforseen circumstances, and despite all the grand plans I had for the story, I'm going to be wrapping it up. The next few chapters will focus on tying up loose ends even as the story progresses, but I just want to finally be done this fic so I can look at it and be proud, rather than ashamed that I've been working on it for so long.

So yeah, hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, and I'll see you guys in a couple weeks with the next one!