Leaving Bounds
“What do you think is that thing?”
“It looks like it’s broken.”
“Do you think it’s living?”
“There’s no way it could be living, it’s weirdly damaged.”
“Could be a golem.”
“Golems aren’t really living are they?”
“That may be the meaning. I guess you’re right.”
“You smell that?”
“Something died here.”
“You think it got it?”
“It looks too heavy to move without noticeable tracks.”
I had managed to distract her. I was grabbing a drink from my ever draining supply of soda when I saw Twilight looking over at my workbench. The spherical Artifact I had picked up before ‘great disaster’ was sitting there, where I left it.
“Hey what’s this?” She asked, reaching to touch it. I grabbed her hoof before she could touch it.
“I don’t think touching without protection is a good idea. I don’t know what it is, I found it while escaping from the Xephoes,” I answered. That artifact was still sitting where it was when I jumped. It wasn’t affected by turbulence when I landed.
“Hey how…” I thought before realising. “Oh right! The Grav generator was still running on impact.”
“The what?” Twilight asked.
I went over to the Console and went into gravity control. The Grav generator was still on. I switched the settings to a little higher feeling the effects. Twilight stepped forward before stumbling over. I suppressed a laugh before turning off the generator.
“That was me messing with the gravity generator. I was wondering why nothing had moved. I assumed the gravity generator would’ve been damaged on impact but it still works preventing turbulence,” I explained sipping my soda. Damn, I’ll run out sometime. Can they replicate this here?
“You can generate gravity without magic?” Twilight asked curiously.
I nodded. “Basically creates a new gravity field that can even sort of over right other fields. I have no idea exactly how it works. Maybe there’s some information in the codex.”
“The codex?”
“Yeah, a big offline database I’ve got on my computer,” I explained. “We can check it out later. However it’s civilian so it may not have that sort of deep information.”
I went over to the weapons rack that held a couple of interesting weapons. The pride of all my looting had acquired me: the “Gravity Vortex Launcher.” It’s exactly what it sounds like, fires a giant gravity vortex that sucks things into it before collapsing into an implosion. How did I know this? I saw it in use. Such an experimental weapon shouldn’t be in my hands, but, it was. Another Xephos raid gone wrong and I was there to clean up, all that was left was the launcher, the Xepho that stole it had no idea how it really worked, and yeah, basically wiped out everyone that wasn’t already dead in the raid. The indicator on the side of the weapon read the number one. There were two charges in the weapon it seemed at base and I had no idea how to recharge it. It probably would cost too much to do so. Maybe there’s something here that could help me, but I don’t want to dive in too deep.
“What’s that?” Twilight asked, pointing to the monstrosity of a device.
“Oh that old thing. Just the end of the world,” I jokingly answered. It was a half-truth. It wouldn’t start the end of a world. Well, to the receiver it would appear as such. I should probably lock it up somewhere in case to prevent anyone from getting to it, who knows the collateral damage that could be caused with such a device. I won’t be putting it in my drive, it’ll take up too much space there.
I climbed out of the ship with Twilight following me. It was getting dark. Everyone else had already basically left. I guess that’s what happens when you spend a while getting to know each other. I checked my night vision and my infrared when I noticed a lot of figures standing around.
“Hey, ugh Twilight. Are there supposed to be other Ponies here?” I asked her. There were a bunch of ponies standing around. I clicked off my infrared and they disappeared.
“Nope, I don’t see anypony else here,” She answered gazing around. “Why do you ask?”
“Do you have some sort of invisibility magic here?” I asked. That was the only logical answer.
“Yeah, Invisibility magic is generally restricted to high end users… Are there cloaked guards here?”
I nodded. “Yeah there’s like Eight of them and they’ve got a perimeter set up. If they’re guarding the ship they don’t have to.” Honestly if what Twilight said was true then these guys must have been special forces.
Twilight looked up at me before concentrating. I noticed her horn glow for a moment. “How did you know they were there?”
“Infrared lenses. I can see heat signatures. They should really mask their heat signatures. Didn’t I tell you? I’m wearing contact lenses.”
“Contact lenses? Those were only just developed here, you have…”
“They’re not new technology. Well, contact lenses in general. The augmented ones are kind of new,” I looked over to the area where I fought the Timberwolves, the wooden bodies still lying there. “Hey, does anyone technically own this forest?”
“The Everfree? No. Well, it falls within Equestria so it’s within that domain, but on a lower level no one owns it,” She answered. “Well, as far as I know. Maybe somepony owned it a long time ago.”
“So that means I can do whatever I want here?”
“Theoretically, yes. But I wouldn’t advise doing just anything.”
I walked over to the pile of wood that was lying there. “I want to get rid of these carcass. Not sure if I would need a fire permit or something. I can assure you the fire won’t spread.”
“I, I never thought of that,” She replied, following me up to the pile. “Not the timberwolf thing, we never got to the destroying the cores part. No I’m talking about the fire in the Everfree. For as long as recorded history, there’s been no sources of a fire breaking out in this forest.”
“Is that a good or a bad thing?”
“Well since the Everfree is mysterious and unknown… I don’t know. It might be, but at the same time, fire is a good tool to counteract weeds.”
“Uh huh, well, what matters is that someone is the first to try,” I said pulling out my lighter. “Time to light a blaze.”
I turned to see her staring at the lighter. “What? You don’t have lighters here? Geez, what kind of planet is this?”
“Oh, but we do have lighters here. They’re just not things that we would just carry around everywhere,” She clarified.
“When you get lost in the forest, you’ll be glad to have one with you,” I checked my watch. 1300 nexus. 1900 local. I wasn’t sure what the habits of the locals were, but assuming these ponies are diurnal, I was guessing she should probably head back to whenever she lived. Funny how this world followed a twenty four hour day. Don’t ask me why the nexus is set up that way, I’m not going to say that us humans set that up.
“Hey, Twilight, I’m assuming you should be heading back around now, it’s Seven. I don’t know if time is different around here, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh seven? I told Spike I’d be back around now. I should go,” she explained, concerned.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I said. Now go and I can maybe work on the ship, maybe burn the carcasses as I suggested. Come back tomorrow if you want.”
I walked outside following after Twilight. The guards were still there. “And tell them to fuck off.”
I watched Twilight walk over to one of the guards. After a couple of moments, the guards uncloaked themselves and walked away from the crash site. Peace and quiet, well as far as i knew. It was weird considering I was alone for the last year or two. Maybe it was just the whole alien thing.
After I gathered the corpses and lit them in a controlled environment, I returned to my ship and went over to the main console.
“Set up a cam on the fire. If it exceeds the boundary significantly, then warn me.”
“Hold still mate, I’ve got yah,” I reassured the crippled form of my friend on the ground. His Chest was blown through, his main shield was destroyed and his secondary was barely deflecting the strays. I digistructed a nano-shot and popped the cap off.
“Dude, I’m done. It’s too much. You can’t help me,” He sputtered out over the blood in his mouth.
“No, No man. I can stabilise you,” I countered as I injected the serum into his body. “C’mon man stay together.
“No man, They’ll just get me again. You’re just going to get yourself killed. Back to the ship now.”
“WE CAN MAKE THIS WORK!”
“Shut, the fuck up man,” He said his voice clearing as the nano-shot stopped the blood flow in his mouth. “There’s no time. Believe me, you’re the only one who can make it, I’m not letting you die with me.”
I ducked down just in time to dodge the shot of a sniper shot. My shield could have resisted it, but a second shot would have time to get through. I turned behind me spotting the target and fired my handgun at him. The first two shots missed, but the last three made it. Terrible positioning for him.
“Please, if we’re both dead then no one can remember what a big son of a bitch I was,” He pleaded to me before gesturing to the rifle on the ground. “Hand me my rifle. Then go.”
I reluctantly reached down and grabbed the rifle. I turned and looked at Ben for half a second, but to me it felt like five, before handing it over to him. I dropped him another nano-shot before activating my overshield and running out of cover.
As I ran towards the ship that was parked on the other side of the valley entrance, I saw all the Xephoes turning their guns towards me. I didn’t have the dexterity to fire and run at the same time. But I didn’t have to.
Ben propped himself up from behind the cover and aimed his weapon at who I assumed was the leader of the ambush. The leader thought that he was safe to be open, but he didn’t know Ben’s perseverance.
“You’re looking at the wrong spot!”
I woke up the next morning and rolled off my bed. Nothing bad had happened when I was asleep, nothing literally. But, my mind. It was not good. My last one was a month ago so I thought they had stopped. But it would seem otherwise. Might have something to do with my arrival, or it’s just coincidental. I didn’t really want to think about it then.
The whole being stranded on this world thing got me thinking. If I were to get seriously injured, I wouldn’t have a doctor to go too. Or at least an intergalactic one. I’ll have to rely on my medi-chamber and the nano-shots I have. I could always make more nano-shots from the chamber. That’s at least until It runs out of serum, then I’ll have to try and get some more. The Thing was that I didn’t know too much about the serum in the first place. I mostly just scavenged it or bought some. The Chamber had limited functions anyway and if my head was ripped off then it wouldn’t do much anyway.
Basically, I can’t do anything stupid here. I didn’t know anything about this planet’s medical situations.
While I was eating my breakfast, a thought occurred to me. What foods am I able to eat here? I knew I could probably survive off hunting, but that would get old real quick. Really, I wanted to know about the plants and stuff around here. If they could replicate some of the food I already have then that would be a bit surprising.
After breakfast I climbed my way out of the ship. Waiting there in front of me was Twilight. I know I told her to come back, but I didn’t really specify a time. There was no way she could have guessed my sleeping habits and such, but still, here she was. She looked a bit worn out.
“How long have you been waiting there for?” I asked, walking up in front of her.
“Not very long,” She replied smiling up at me. “You don’t have to worry about it. Are you ready to go to Ponyville?”
Not a very surprising or original name for a pony settlement, I thought to myself, before staring down at Twilight for a moment. “Since when were we going to Ponyville?” I questioned her.
She stepped back stroking her neck. “Oh um, I thought I already discussed it with you,” she stumbled over her words. “I thought that maybe, it was about time I showed you our town. I mean it has to happen sometime.”
“Wasn’t really what I was planning for today, but really, I wasn’t planning anything so I guess it’s okay. Although, would it be okay to bring an alien into your town so early?”
“Nopony’s really reporting your existence yet, but Princess Celestia hasn’t put any restrictions on it yet. I figure we should get it over and done with so you don’t have to lurk around in the Everfree like a hermit,” she looked down for a moment. “We don’t want a repeat of Zecora.”
Zecora huh? I’ll save that question for later. “Alright then, I kind of want to see what a pony settlement is like anyway. I’m thinking the townsfolk will have a lot of questions for me. Should I be upfront or more classified?,” I asked for her opinion. “I’m asking because even though I’m not like a Pathfinder or anything, I feel like maybe I should follow some sort of protocol?”
“I don’t know anything of your protocols, but I think you should be a bit upfront, but not too much that it might give them any weird ideas.” Twilight started trotting away from the ship and towards town. I checked to see if my defenses were active before following behind her.
The further we walked away from the safety of the ship, the less dense the vegetation got and the more anxious Twilight seemed to get. As if she was expecting something bad to happen.
“Hey are you okay?”
She turned to face me. Clearly she wasn’t, and I think she knew she couldn’t lie in this situation. “Really, I’m not. I’d rather spend as little time in this forest as possible.”
“Is it really that bad?” I said looking around. I couldn’t see much of harm, other then maybe a carnivorous plant that was easy to avoid. I couldn’t hear anything either. “I mean, you made it here before right?”
“I did, but I had to make a bit of a long range teleport, and the Everfree does not make it so easy. It’s kind of draining,” she explained. Right, so that was why she looked worn out.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, just know that you’re not getting hurt under my watch. Heck, I don’t even know if any of them would dare to attack me.”
It was that which made Twilight stop and listen around. “You’re right. We’d normally hear a couple of noises by now. But I haven’t heard anything. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, and honestly, I don’t want to take the risk.”
“You make it sound like you’ve come through here a couple of times. I thought you didn’t like this place.”
“I don’t, but the first time I came through here, I didn’t believe it could be so bad, besides it was during a time of desperation. It was during the return of Nightmare Moon, and I theorised her presence put some fear into most of the creatures here.” She stopped and turned towards me. “You don’t think they’re scared of you?”
“Scared of me?” I thought for a moment. Yeah they were definitely scared of me. “Yeah, probably. Though, I wouldn’t expect them all to straight up ignore me. I’m still an invader in their land, kind of, so maybe they’re just checking me out.”
“Checking you out?”
“Instead of going full rampage on me, they’re trying to analyse me for any weaknesses and stuff,” I explained. “Not that I’m exposing much right now. If they were smart enough, they’d know that looks don’t always mean anything.”
Twilight didn’t say much else as we continued to walk along. When you’re seeing almost the same stuff over and over again, the trip can kind of feel longer. I left a mental note to myself to make a path through here so at least there will be some sense of progress getting here. I heard from Twilight earlier that there are two paths in the forest. One leading up to Zecora’s hut, someone who apparently actually lives here, although not too far in. The other one leads up to the castle of the Two Sisters. It kind of intrigued me but I didn’t ask much about it.
We finally made it to the edge of the forest. I say finally, but my clocks say it only took around thirty minutes. It was certain that the foliage slowed us down a bit. Adding on the fact that Twilight was pretty worn out otherwise I would have just told her to fly on without me. I assumed flying was better than walking, but who knew if this forest had tons of flying monstrosities as well.
I could see the town ahead of me. It was kind of like a village, not a small one but regular sized I would say. Considering the name it literally must have been a village. In the distance, I could still see the mountainside city. Compared to the village, it looked as if it was more prestigiously constructed.
“Hey guess what Twilight? You made it, all while being quite a bit fatigued,” I congratulated her as she sighed in relief. “There was nothing to worry about, see?”
“I can assure you that any other pony would have felt the same way that I had. Well, maybe not Rainbow Dash.” She let out a loud yawn. “With your ship as a safe haven she would feel a bit alright.”
“Twilight, you seem more than worn out. Maybe you should get some rest. Just get one of your friends to show me around or something,” I suggested.
“I don’t understand what’s going on. I know I’m tired from the teleport, but I shouldn’t be this tired. I teleport everywhere all the time.”
“Didn’t you say before it was long range teleportation with some sort of Everfree fuckery?” I replied.
“I… Yeah, but I never expected it to be this draining. I’ll have to make adjustments next time. Maybe I’ll try walking as much as I can,” she answered. “I think I’ll take up your offer. We’ll go to the castle first.”
“Or maybe I could just come to you. Since you showed me the way out, I know the way back.”
“That fast?”
“Yes, I’m that good.” It was just some technological fuckery actually, but I didn’t want to tell her that. “In fact, I know an easier way for you to contact me. I don’t have it here with me now, but I’ll give it to you as soon as possible.”
“Oh yes please. If it saves me from walking, then I’d gladly take it. Maybe we could replicate it?” She perked up all giddy like.
“Hey, no experimenting on it without me there. I don’t think that will go well and we need to make sure it will work.”
She paused for a moment, as if she needed a bit of time to process my request. “I promise I won’t do anything wrong with it.”
I looked at her suspiciously. “You’re worn out. Don’t make promises now, especially since you don’t even have it yet.”
She didn’t protest or really say anything as she just walked towards the glistening tree crystal structure thing in the distance.
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aah yis new chapter :D
We will remember you Ben.