22 - Junction Town part 2
The capitol building’s exit held a nearly tangible wall of cool air. I walked back and forth several times to check. An almost perfectly vertical line between slightly-CPU overheatingly hot, and nice, cool, enjoyable day. Sweet, sweet, relief!
If I hadn’t gotten ethylene glycol coolant in mom’s old lab, I might have popped something trying to stay cool in the Tartarus-maw that was that stupidly designed building.
Who the hay thought it would be a good idea to make a dome, from a nearly black wood, without much in the way of internal supports, in the middle of a farmable patch of an arid landscape, beneath the burning gaze of the sun? I was from the icy north and even I knew what happened when you left an egg under an upturned cast iron pot on a bright day!
I also vaguely recalled an ancient Zebrican warlord using rows of dark painted box-like huts on the sunny hillside on the edge of town to drug and then torture his prisoners for information. If I was remembering correctly it nearly always worked, but that didn’t always mean being let out of the box. I can only imagine how much worse that building would be if it had been placed on the dunes next to the Ziggurat of Caesar.
Actually, I could imagine it easily. Everypony in there would die within minutes of sunrise. I’d die an hour or two later. Heat is no joke!
I shook my head at the thought and trotted my way through the distressingly inedible gardens (Seriously, who wastes arable soil on decorative plants?!) to the market entrance. As I walked I did my best to keep an ear out for Wander’s song, but the buzz of the market was so loud that even if she was still playing, I hadn’t a prayer of finding her that way.
I was going to wander for Wander. Hehe!
I took a look around the open air market as I trotted out into it. Thanks to my soul searching on the walk in, I couldn’t really remember how the hay I got through. Or... anything about the market really. I did remember they way the storefronts ringed the open air section of the market plaza, but that was really it.
I paused at the edge of the wooden deck to make sure my saddlebags were latched. Sure they had anti-theft enchantments, but if the latches were open, well… I also ran a hoof through my mane. It may be a dumb brushy mohawk, but I could at least make it look kind of tidy…
Wait a minute. I don’t like my mane. I’ve never liked my mane…
I closed my eyes for a quick moment and focused some of my magic inwards. Hey, Jasmine. Why don’t we like our mane?
<We used to have a longer flowy one. Recessive trait for a zebra, sure, but much prettier in my opinion. We could actually style it! It was nice… Please ask mom if she can fix it later.>
Will do! I thought as I ended the… link?
Yeah, let's call it a link.
I began to make my way though the market crowd. It was packed! Almost as packed as the capitol building’s lobby, as a matter of fact, though thankfully much much less hot. Ponies flowed through the market like crude oil through gears. Slowly, thickly, in globs, occasionally fouling one or more cogs.
Walking through the market was a very, very slow affair. Which must have been good for business since everypony was forced to browse simply by walking through the place.
I passed by a kiosk selling all kinds of glassware. Most of it was pre-war in nature, but I could tell that a few of the more crude bottles and bowls were made recently! Mostly due to how cloudy and warped the glass was, but also thanks to its ugly brownish color that was less like the amber glass of a beer bottle and more like the color of an unflushed toilet. Glassmaking is not at all easy, and I was willing to bet the ponies making those containers didn’t know you were supposed to add things other than sand to the furnace.
I wanted to take a minute and tell the cute stallion working the booth that he should add borax to the sand to help it flow better when casting, but unfortunately the crowd of ponies swept me away down the lane towards a larger booth selling the earthenware pots, pans, and other housewares along with buckets of paint. All of which had maker’s marks from merchants I’d seen in Ponyville.
Sure, they were all clearly hellhound claw scratchings, but they were unique hellhound claw scratchings… and I kind of liked the art style. Maybe I could go back one day and get them to claw up some wood to hang on my wall!
Then I noticed that the booth had a sign labeling it as “Ponyvillian Earthenware and Paint.” A simple name, but very much serviceable.
Surprisingly, only three hundred and twenty-three five hundredths of the market seemed to be selling housewares and general goods. The majority of the other shops, or at least, half of them, sold weapons, weapon accessories, ammunition, armor, or a mix of those things.
You had a few gun shops, but none of them were selling anything I was interested in. I had Feature and my pistol in addition to my remaining LAER. Sure, LAERs needed regular cleaning and maintenance or the lightning might decide not to go out of the barrel but out of its butt and into yours, and precision-dust-free-maintenance wasn’t something I could do with the tools available, but I still had a few weeks or so before the critical clean-or-die point was reached.
I should be done with my deliveries by that time and could radio for a pick up.
What interested me enough to spend a few minutes checking out the kiosk, though, was a place run by an older stallion. A unicorn, to be specific. He made shotguns. Sure, they were all made from pre-war salvage, but he put so much heart and soul into making functional weapons from the scrap.
While his wears looked homemade, they definitely weren’t amateur. He had some hinged guns for break actions, a few revolving shotguns, and even a pump action, all crafted from old two-by-fours, water and sewage pipes, and salvaged hardware odds and ends. But you’d never know that until you handled them, and even then he’d gone ahead and decorated each one with carved stocks, grips, and even the odd engraving on the barrel.
He called his shop “Royal Nonesuch Firelegs Inc. Est 2276” I made a mental note to take Speed to this booth later so she could squee with the old guy over all the shotguns on display. Especially since he let you handle the guns he had on display!
I got to play with the action on his pump gun. It worked almost perfectly! The only issue was a bit of stiffness in the pump, which was probably from a burr in the slot of the pump housing his file was too dull to take care of without scouring the other edges until the pump felt loose. I made a mental note to buy him a new file if I found one in the market. Artists shouldn’t have poor tools.
I almost gave him a radio simply because of how nice his shotguns were. Queen Katydid preferred shotguns for hunting with. She might like to know about new models being produced. At the very least, she’d like somepony who could carve and engrave to decorate her beloved Celestial Arms DP-12.
Of course, I couldn’t give the old stallion a radio because they weren't meant for store owners. So I moved on… I had to find Speed and bring her back here after all! I continued down the market trail, turning my head this way and that in search of my friends amidst the sea of ponies.
I trotted for about six seconds. Then I found the booth selling Sparkle Cola. The shop keeper had positioned old theater lights above her booth so it appears to be bathed in heavenly light, and also set up a phonograph to play some old monk-chanty… music? On a loop. That alone caught my attention, because duh but what was really interesting is that she was selling all of the flavors!
Original, New Sparkle, Classic Sparkle, RAD, Quartz, Victory, Rainbow Crash, Cherry, Grape, Fusion, Dark, Clear, Berry, Balefire, Cider, Cooler, Hearty, Frutti, Love, Power, Punch, Ray, Rush, Void, Extreme, Mango, Kiwi, Dragonfruit, Hay-Fry, Anti-Apple, and even a few bottles of the experimental flavor “Why Are You Making More, Don’t We Have Like Thirty Flavors Already?” which had been in a limited test run before the end of the world and according to legend, tasted like creative bankruptcy.
How did I know all of this?
Easy… The Shopkeeper had a seemingly highly focused form of omniscience...
“During the Great Passion Fruit Famine of 2054, ponies actually noticed the taste difference when the recipe was changed! I have three bottles from that time period, I used to have four, and let me tell you, you so super duper absolutely can! It goes frum YUM! to just yum! and I can't imagine a worse fate for those poor, poor, ponies! The Balefire must have been a relief to the poor ponies in Manever who never even got a supply of Classic. Now, not much is known about the causes of the famine, but it can be assumed that passion fruit crops died out en masse! During this time, the Sparkle-Cola™ Corporation, oh uh, I think I forgot to mention that the company wasn’t owned by Twilight Sparkle, they just licenced her name. Anywho! They had to find a way to get more passion fruit or their company was going to go right to Tartarus! Literally. Princess Luna threatened to banish their CEO there if they didn’t undo the damage. Apparently passion fruits were her favored snack. Which leads me to a theory I have on her actually having been a bat pony with a disguise spell, but I digress. So, the Sparkle-Cola™ Corporation began to look into ways to grow plants without nature being involved at all, to counteract the zebra embargos on imported food and of course the effects of the horrible famine itself. That’s when their Chief Flavor Engineer invented the basic chemical additives which allowed for the creation of the first true hydroponic gardens! They partnered up with Stable-Tec to create vast underground farms which could provide all of the ingredients necessary to make Sparkle Cola™ for all of Equestria forever!” The Sparkle-Cola™ colored mare who hadn’t even told me her name before ranting at me about the stupid soda continued.
”Make the exposition st-ah-ha-ha-haaaappp!” Imaginary dad sobbed.
She just keeps going, and going, and going… Like the Energiser pony, I thought back, completely awestruck by this mare’s lung capacity.
“The best part of all this is that Sparkle-Cola™ had already partnered with Robronco to automate delivery of its soda to every shop! Now there isn’t a store which has paid for product delivery in two hundred fourteen years, but ponies all across the Wasteland have been using the vending machines, so sometimes, if you camp out by one of them, you can see the robots come and restock the machines! It’s super duper cool and if you ask nicely you can even get a tour of the whole farm and bottling plant. And that’s how we still have fresh Sparkle-Cola™ after all these years! So, would you like to buy anything?”
I shook my head politely. “No thank you. It was really cool to hear all of that, but I need to go find my friends.”
The terrifyingly-hyperactive mare smiled at me. “Okay! Bring them by later and we can all enjoy a nice bottle of Sparkle-Cola™!” the black-hole-of-exposition turned to the poor damned colt to my left and said, “Hi! Would you like to hear the history of the Sparkle-Cola™ company? Founded by Moondancer on May 3rd 2043, just three years after the return of Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle’s discovery of the Element of Magic…”
”FLY, YOU FOOL!” dad screamed at the pegasus colt.
I quickly backed into the crowd and let it sweep me along so I could be far, far, far away form that crazy mare. Seriously, she was dressed in one of those old Sparkle-Cola Spacemare costumes I’d seen on billboards in Manehattan and armed with a magical energy pistol she’d built inside of an old Sparkle-Cola bottle. Who does that?
I felt something bump into my flanks, heard the clink of glass falling over, and eeped. Turning around I saw I’d run plot first into a small booth selling dried herbs, bandages, and a few other simple medical items. I looked up to apologize to the owner for accidentally knocking over her little stacked display of potion bottles with my but the mare behind the booth gave me an understanding smile.
“It’s okay! Keep running before my Sister forgets she didn’t tell you about the six other companies the Sparkle-Cola™ Corporation owned,” she whispered while gesturing for me to flee down the market aisle.
My eyes widened with horror. I turned around and galloped into the crowd.
Thankfully my pure terror subsided after some more market wandering. While there was no sign of Wander or Speed that I could find, I had found a shop selling baskets made from woven strands of plastic, and even a blacksmith selling hooftools made from an odd metal I hadn’t seen before.
I’d asked what the silvery blue metal was, but he wouldn’t tell me. Trade secret and all that… Which sucked! Based on the color, weight, and taste it wasn’t anything I knew of, not even a titanium alloy! I didn’t have the chemical composition of any of its components in my databanks.
That wasn’t too odd. I knew they were incomplete. For instance, I’d had to add uranium to my database myself a few decades ago when I wondered what that glowing green rock was and what it tasted like.
I went ahead and purchased a small entrenching tool from him, just so I could see what the metal was capable of. Also, well, a shovel-axe-pick was a good tool to have, and I didn’t have one before. Besides, somepony back home would be able to tell me what it is.
I stopped for a moment to mmm and smile at the memory of the week I got to enjoy some uranium snacks. Man uranium had been good! Only thing that my systems didn’t need a real sense of taste for to enjoy.
Too bad it made ponies sick via all those rads. I’d keep some by my bed at home to nibble on. Mmmm, uranium pops! Maybe somepony here was selling a little bit of—
“For the love of Luna… Again?! Why?!” A voice demanded angrily.
I blinked and realized I was staring blankly at the same devilishly handsome jerky vendor griffon I had accidentally stared blankly at a few hours before. I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry! I’m a bit featherbrained today.”
The griffon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Just… move along and don’t do it again, please.”
I nodded and turned to go when I noticed that in addition to all of the jerky he was selling, he also had a few clearly talon-made books on display.
My eyes widened as I held in a squee. New books! Mom would love post-war books!
I cleared my throat and pointed a hoof to the little stack of books. “Uh, actually could I take a look at those real quick?”
The griffon nodded. “Sure. Just don’t stare at me… I swear it’s like you have too much soul or something,” he said, his back arched and all of his feathers standing on end.
”Technically, he’s correct,” dad chuckled.
Quiet you, I thought as I began to look through the pile of books.
The books turned out to be a series called Tales of a Kludge Town Jerky Vendor. It was so nice to see somepony writing fiction! There were eight volumes in the series and it was clear that the griffon running the booth was fictionalizing his own life. I mean, they were about a griffon who sold jerky who was so cartoonishly evil he could only be fictional, but when I flipped through the first volume there was also lots of practical business advice for the modern world.
I thought it was interesting to put real advice into fiction. I mean, it had to be fiction. If any of this were true the town guards would have shot him on sight. The fictional griffon sold his own mother into sex slavery and had created several hatchling labor camps. I mean, come on!
I looked up to tell the griffon I thought it was an interesting choice to portray himself as a villain and ask why he did that, just in time to hear a mare’s voice ask, “So this is where you little ponies have been hiding the protein! I’ll take four kilos of your jerky, sir. I’ll be paying in gold, is that fine?”
I had two immediate thoughts. First, why had her voice come from behind and above me. Second, why was the vendor’s reply, “Yes, that’s fine! I uh, I don’t want any trouble.”
I mentally facehooved and realised that the mare must be an alicorn. Likely a known bandit, since he expected trouble.
“Here you go,” the mare said as she set a bag of bits down on the counter.
With a foreleg containing biceps easily as wide as my thigh! She had a pipbuck on her foreleg. It was the same model as Speed’s. Same size too. It couldn't close around her leg. She’d had it held to her fetlock with a pair of belts!
I turned my head to look over my shoulder. Sand colored fur met my eyes. It took a moment to realise the fur belonged to a leg, and not a pony’s barrel. I tipped my head back, and back, and… she had to be.. Just… like… the absolute tallest!
My jaw dropped. Standing over me was a mare, yes. But not an alicorn. She had sand colored fur, a long loose wine colored mane, gold eyes, and stood almost three times my height. I could walk underneath her without ducking if I wanted too.
What she lacked was wings. Or a horn. Like an earth pony. But tall! And huge! She was built like a brick shithouse, if somebody decided it needed steel reinforcement to hold even more solid brick. Sure, she had feminine curves, somehow, oh no, wait, the curves were just more muscle… She’d worked out specific parts to maintain a feminine shape… A wise precaution because she could probably crush a coconut with her pectorals.
As if that wasn’t terrifying enough, she was wearing a pistol in a leather holster on her barrel. A pistol sized for her. Which meant this thing was actually a 40mm grenade revolver. Which, for her, was just a largeish hoofgun...
My jaw dropped as I stared up at her. I couldn’t help it. This mare was taller than Gale! Probably by a lot!
“A— Are you a horse?!” My mind asked the question almost on its own, shock demanded an answer.
The mare, who clearly had to be called something along the lines of Slab Bulkhead, took a step back so she could look down at me and smiled. “Oh! Sorry, I thought you were a marekin. I mean those flanks can’t be re— Uh as for your question, by blood, no. By size, yes. I’m twenty one and a half hooves tall. Well beyond the required fourteen.”
“Huh?” I asked, still staring at the massive female bodybuilder towering over me.
No. Scratch that. Not bodybuilder. None of that bulk was the puffy soft muscle they put on to bulk out. Her bulk was all rock hard, actually used muscle. Like a farm pony who became a dockworker to pay for training in some kind of martial arts monastery.
That was… that was…
”Really hot?” imaginary dad suggested.
Yes but also scary!
”... yes.
“Ah yes…” she sighed. “Few ponies know this… It was covered in highschool, you’d think it would be common knowledge. Horses and ponies are the same species, ponies grew smaller over time while our equine cousins remained the same size. You know, adaptation by natural selection. Every so often you get a pony who grows to be my size…”
Butch Deadlift winked at me before continuing. “In height, at least… Few people of any race tread the Path of Swol long enough to reach—” she reared up to strike a pose and flex, making her poor grenade belt squeak and creak, threatening to rip apart. “— PEAK PERFORMANCE!”
As she reared up I saw the other half of her face for the first time. Previously, the hideous burn scar covering the entirety of the left side of her face had been hidden by her height and the other angles but now...
I winced as I couldn’t help but stare at the old red scar, and her eye. Her right eye was the nice gold I’d seen before. The left was mint in color. A transplant for sure. Good to know somepony out there could perform transplants but also—
“Oh, my, Celestia! What happened to your face?!” I asked as I backed up into the stall.
She dropped back down to all fours and calmly reached out to take her bag of jerky from the vendor. “Keep the change. As for my face, my older brother was an asshole and had access to the clothes iron.”
I shivered. Why did so many ponies I knew of have horrible foalhoods?
“It’s cool though,” she said, looking down at me for a moment before taking all of the jerky out of the bag at once to just jam it into one of her cheeks and hand the bag back. “Uh puhthed hem thr uh feh wahs fuh eht.”
“Y— You punched him through a wall?” the griffon vender asked.
Buff Eatlots nodded and kept chewing.
“I believe you,” the griffon and I said in unison.
The huge mare finished the jerky in four more bites, swallowed, sighed in relief and smiled. “Thanks! All they got back home is apples and other hydro-crops. I’ll be in touch. Later!”
She started to trot off, each step carrying her shockingly far.
Wait. Hydro crops.
Hydroponics.
She had a pipbuck.
Stable Dweller!
I immediately ran after her, no way was I about to let a Stable Dweller out of my sight, not when Lith could desperately use information on how to grow the very food this mare didn’t like… Or maybe she just needed the protein for reasons of being fucking HUGE!
Wait… What could be in a Stable that would let a mare get that big? A stallion spending his whole life in a gym wouldn’t get that buff… Would he?
“Wait!” I called up and after her. “Hold on!”
Buck Brickbarrel turned her head and frowned. “Sorry, cutie, but I don’t date ponies. Pretty sure I’d crush you to death in the sack.”
I blinked, one of my ears drooping down sadly entirely on its own for some reason. “What? No! I mean, not unless you can generate twelve thousand megapascals of force.”
I was pretty sure that was the yield strength of my upgraded chassis alloys. Or was it twelve point six?
Crunch Plotsteak raised her only eyebrow. “That’s… That’s not what bone breaks at,” she said before snorting and grinning. “Right! Zebra. You used some of those potions you can brew up to upgrade yourself, didn't cha? Personally I don’t like steroids, but not everypony can have my genetics. I don’t even exercise.”
As I tried to process that, she sat down and hunched her shoulders so we’d be on the same rough eye level. “So, maybe we can have a date. Personally, I thought I’d have to settle for a poor youngish dragon so we’d be about the same size, but I’m down for a zebra on super soldier serum! What’s your name?”
I blushed. “Uh… It’s Whirling Gears, but I wasn’t trying to ask you out…”
Her ears drooped sadly while the rest of her face remained happy. “Aww, too bad! Your flanks are great! Where did you get those done?”
“My mom did them,” I replied. “She’s a… Doctor. Um, actually, I wanted to ask you about those hydroponics you mentioned. I represent a remote northern kingdom called Lith and I’m looking to trade. We could really use knowledge of hydroponics to—”
Stomp Chuckmares blinked in surprise. “Oh! You’re that Zebra!” she sighed and stood up. “Fraid I can’t help you. I’m currently living way out in Lagrange Point. It would be way too hard to get supplies up north from way out there.”
I frowned as I tried to remember if I’d ever heard about any place called Lagrange Point. Nothing came to mind. It had to be a post-war town.
I tilted my head as I realized something. “Wait… but… you can come here for jerky?”
She nodded while flashing a playful smirk my way. “Yeah. It’s one hay of a walk though, but that don't trouble me!” she sighed and gave me a sad look. “Trust me… you won’t be getting any help from my housemates. Sorry, that’s just how it is. Technically I’m not supposed to be here, but it’s not like they can stop me without shooting me, and to quote the little piss-ant who woke me up this morning, “Don’t fire! You’ll just make her mad!” heh heh…” she shook her head and grinned. “They had buckshot. He was right.”
My ears perked. “Oh! Sub-dermal plating?” It was always nice to meet someone else who wasn’t all meat or all metal.
She shook her head. “Nope. I’m just that tough!” she said with a wink then leaned down and whispered “Because of the subdermal armor. But shhhh! As far as anypony knows I’m just that tough. I got tired of picking frag grenade residue out of my plot so I got six millimeters of armor put in… Weird something so thin can be so strong!”
I nodded and did my best to not stare too much at her mint-eye and scar even though close up the melted flesh patterns were actually kind of neat! Like fractals and ocean waves. “Right! I’ve got three millimeters of plating myself, and it’s enough to stop most small arms.”
Slate Hoofcrunch tilted her head. “Is that how you survived that Tainted ambush? You know there’s this story going around that you’re some kind of Zebrican death-machine? Heh!”
I giggled and shook my head. “Nope! Just a cyborg. And a Crystal Empire one at that,” I squirmed slightly and rubbed my forehooves on the ground shyly.
Dad! She wanted a date and is hot but scary wut do?! I begged.
”Well, unlike my wife, your marefriend is cool with multiple partners and found herself a side mare… Go for it! If she was so strong she broke everything she touched she wouldn’t be alive today. You’ll be fine.”
Good point! Thanks dad!
I cleared my throat and bit my lip for a moment. “So— Um—”
She smiled and gave me a flirtatious wink. “Reconsidering that date?”
I nodded. “Yeah… Just, a few questions. First, what’s your name? Also, is it okay to go on a date right when you meet somepony or… what? How does that work?”
“You… Don’t know?” she asked looking completely flabbergasted.
I shook my head. “No. I have a marefriend and we are open but she’s my first so I don’t have much experience with—”
Wreck Gizzlebeef shook her head. “Noononono! You don’t know my name? I’m famous! I’m famous twice, actually.”
I coughed into my hoof awkwardly and just sort of swished my tail.
She frowned and looked into my eyes. “Come on! I’ve got a hopefully unique face! EWL? You know, wrestling? I was huge there for a while. Then there’s the laundry list of military achievements to my name, too.”
I gave her my best apologetic smile. “Sorry… I’m not from Equestria. I’m from Lith. I have no clue about local heroes… it’s cool to know there’s a wrestling league though!”
“Well, in that case I’ll introduce myself how a real mare should,” she took a deep breath and backed up slightly then popped her neck. “HIT the music!”
Big McLargehuge reached down to her pipbuck and clicked a button on the face, starting a prerecorded track of fairly generic guitar and sequencer riffs. Ponies scattered.
“Um,” I said briefly.
She stood up and posed herself in such a way as to appear both ready to attack and like a big brick of meat at the same time. “Gears! You may think you’re the best mailmare this side of the Crystal Mountains but you ain’t no Macintosh! You think you have what it takes to step up to a ten time world champion!”
I scooted back slightly, not exactly sure what was going on. “Uh… But, I don’t want to fight?”
Especially not a mare who could definitely punch me into and through the object of her choosing!
“You may have survived being barbecued alive by some bootlicking goons, and you laid the smackdown on Captain Gale Force, but that don’t mean a damn thing to this mare!” She said before rearing up to take on some kind of martial arts stance or something, which she changed every few words from then on out. “Cuz the name, is Loom! And it rhymes, with doom! Annnnd you’re gonna be hurt’n… All. Too. SOOOOOON!”
”Ohhh, that kind of wrestling,” Imaginary dad said sadly. ”Also… Loom? Really? How is it that all of your stupid name ideas fit her better? Than her actual name?”
“Um,” I squeaked form the middle of our suddenly vacated section of the marketplace.
Loom reached down to her pipbuck, turned off the music and sat back down. “Nothing? Yeesh. You really must never have watched a match in your entire life!”
”I didn’t either hon, but I do know that’s how the “Pro Wrestlers” would introduce themselves in the ring for the audience. I think she was just hoping you’d seen her before.”
Thank Celestia! Uh, also thanks dad.
”No problem, hon!”
“S— So, uh… Why not just say “Hi, my name is Loom”?” I asked with a shaky grin.
“Mostly because it's less fun,” Loom said with a toothy grin.
I nodded to my left. “Yeah… and also pretty terrifying…”
Loom blinked, looked around then raised her eyebrow. “Yeesh! If that’s all it takes to scare you, I’d hate to see what you do when a flight of dragons lands on top of your camp in the middle of the night!” She shouted into the distant crowd.
The way she said that had a certain ‘That happened to me once’ ring to it. And sure enough…
Loom grinned at me. “I’ll bet they couldn’t suplex a dragon right when they woke up either.”
My eyes widened. “Y— You suplexed a dragon?!”
“Sure did! I got a medal for it. Not my best suplex though. My best one was a few years back. About fifteen, I think. A zebra assassin was running from a few of our colts after blowing his cover. They cornered her on the roof of a small office building but she was dug in there real good. I wasn’t about to let an assassin get away or kill any more ponies so I climbed up the side of the building, grabbed her by the neck and suplexed her off the side right into the parking lot. SPLAT! Zebra brains everywhere! Uh…” she trailed off and coughed awkwardly while fidgeting with her forehooves. “Probably an awkward story to tell a zebra… She was a bad zebra. You’re not. So…”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s fine, really…” I stopped my rool midway through to narrow my eyes. “Wait, you suplexed somepony off the side of a building.”
“Yuh huh.”
“And survived?”
“Eyep.”
“When they went splat?”
Loom shrugged. “It was just five stories. I was back on my hooves in time to salute those colts as they looked over the edge of the roof and say “For Equestria!” It was great!” She giggled. “The look on their faces!”
Dad? Why am I turned on by that?
”Because strong mares are bucking awesome!”? Dad suggested. ”Also, I swear I heard a story like that before…”
I cleared my throat. “So uh… Loom? Still interested in a date? I um… I do have to find my friends but maybe we could look together and talk… I also have a hotel room for the night.”
Loom’s face fell slightly as she sighed. “Well… That may not actually be the best idea.”
I triple blinked then gave her an angry glare. “But— But you came onto me!”
She nodded and scratches at her wine red mane. “Yeah, I did… I’m just used to any pony coming up to me asking for an autograph or for a date unless I work with them… You have like, the body that makes a lesbian drool and are a zebra so I figured you biosculped yourself to get the girls… I don’t really care who I sleep with so, yeah. I figured you wanted a date. But you didn’t… I’m sorry for assuming.”
I nodded. “Well, thank you for the apology but—” Something she said clicked in my head. “Wait, ideal? For a— B— But we based this look on Swordmare! Isn’t this ideal for stallions?!”
Loom snickered. “What? You thought Swordmare was for stallions?! Buck no! High Winds wrote that for mares into curvy mares. Your big, cute, heart-shaped plot is literally tailored for mares who like busty mares. If it was for stallions, it would show off your slit by being more spread open. But you’re soft, pillowy, and coyly hiding the goods. That’s for a mare’s eye.”
“I— But…” I ear drooped. “I did this to get boys!”
Loom bit her lip to try not to laugh. “Well… Uh… Sorry? It seems to have gotten you a girl though, so there’s that, right?”
I nodded and closed my eyes tightly. “Yes… It’s just… How did my mom not know this?” I groaned. “I spent years focusing on stallions! Many, many dateless years!”
Loom’s ears and tail twitched nervously. “W— Well… You seem nice... We still could do a date, I guess… Just uh, if we do, you gotta promise to never tell my housemates, okay?”
“I don’t even know them,” I pointed out as I wiped a sniffle from my nose.
…
Wait a minute…
That explains all the mare on mare sex scenes in Swordmare! Huh… I’m just an idiot apparently.
But mom’s not, so what’s up with that?
Loom nodded and sighed, flicking her tail nervously again. “Yeah… That’s right, you don’t. Okay, there’s one box checked… There’s another one though. Are you like, strictly mares only or what?”
“Oh um, no?” I said with a little frown. “Why? Do you have a coltfriend who might want to join us?”
“Pff! No. I wish,” she laughed. “I um… I’ve actualy never gotten past laying down with somepony. They chicken out last minute. I figure they're afraid of getting hurt while we do it and, well, I mean I could kill them with a twitch on accident and I don’t know how I’ll act during sex. I really could…. You know. Crush a pony like a tin can. I’ve done that in hoof to hoof combat plenty of times. So… Can’t blame them really.”
I nodded and trotted over to give her foreleg a hug. “I promise that’s not a problem. I’m very durable! Why did you ask if not because coltfriend?”
She bit her lip. “Uh, well… I’m not a biological mare, and I haven't had surgery yet either.”
I tilted my head and took a step back. “You’re? Wait, but—”
Loom sighed and stood up to get ready to leave. “Yeah, I get it… A lot of ponies find mares like me gross. It’s okay. I’m used to it.”
“No, I mean—”
Loom stood up to leave. “I’ll be seeing you then. Sorry for—”
“NO, YOU IDIOT!” I snapped my left eye twitching.
Loom looked down at me in shock.
“I meant you reared up! WIth your hips right in my face! I didn’t see stallion bits!” I said with a huff. “You don’t have to make up an excuse to just go if you don’t want to go out! You don’t have to be hurtful like that!”
Loom gave me a sheepish smile. “Uh, you… apparently didn’t notice how I whip my tail up between my legs when doing poses like that.”
I frowned as my brain flashed back to both times she’d reared up. “Oh… You did do that. Huh…”
“So yeah. I’m good at covering up,” Loom murmured.
I thought for a few moments then offered her a smile. “I don’t care. I like stallions, and mares. Depending on how I flip the coin. So I really don’t care what you have… Well, I mean, I do. Because I haven't gotten to be with a stallion, or someone with stallion parts, yet.”
Loom’s eyes went wide for a moment. “I— oh. Um…”
“Besides,” I continued, “You’re not the only transmare I’ve known. There’s a few of them up in Lith, specifically Pomare because that’s where zebras live mostly so there’s potions to make their bodies match their brains.”
Most trans ponies I knew used some of their soil ration, if not all of it, to grow the ingredients for their regular potions instead of herbs and spices like everypony else.
Loom blinked. “Wait, t— they know how to make the potions? I used those for years until bucking Rarity banned cosmetic transformations! Ugh! MoI horseapples! “It’s not traditional, we must remain steadfast in the old ways to prevail!” Like Tartarus we do! We needed to stop pussyhoofing arround and actually launch a proper strike against their heads of state!”
My jaw dropped as I realized the full implications of what she just said.
Loom punched the wooden deck beneath us in rage, easily splintering it as she put her hoof clean through the six inches of wood!
“Could have at least left medical exemptions, but noooo!” Loom continued before I could get a word in edgewise. “Just had to ban a whole class of potions for being too close to stuff zebras brewed. After also banning SRS because nooo, gender roles and traditional nonsence, making finding a surgeon willing to do the operation you thought you didn’t need because you could just chug an ounce of potion once a week or so and the lifetime cost for that was less than the surgery, and you got the real thing instead of an imitation of it, completely im-bucking-possible to get!”
“You’re pre-war!” I said quickly, just to cut off her rant.
Loom’s anger merged with confusion as she gave me a weird look. “What?”
“You were alive before the bombs dropped!” I elaborated.
“Um, yeah? So what? Everyone here older than six was alive then too,” Loom said in a tone which suggested I was the special kind of stupid which was able to think vaccines cause autism.
I gave her my best stupefying half-glare possible. “What?! No! The war was two hundred years ago!”
Loom triple blinked. “Wait, what?”
She turned around and put a hoof on the shoulder of a random pony. “Hey, you. How long ago was the Great War?”
The stallion she grabbed squealed and squirmed in her hoof’s grip. “T— Two hundred years. Please let me go.”
She let go and took hold of another pony. “Hey, how long ago was the war?”
“Against the Enclave?” the mare asked with a little frown. “Um… Fifteen years? I think?”
“No,” Loom said firmly. “The Great War.”
“Oh, just over two centuries… How do you not know that?” The Strawberry colored mare asked as Loom let go.
The huge mare’s mismatched eyes took on a dangerous gleam. “I’ve been lied too… I am going to find out why.”
My ears drooped back. “Sooo… No date?”
“No,” Loom said as she stood up to leave. “At least, not right now.”
“Will you at least tell me how you could possibly be confused by when you are?” I asked, though I had a few suspicions.
“Stasis capsule,” Loom grunted. “I’m a soldier… I’ll be in touch.”
That’s what I thought. There was bound to be a quite few ponies who happened to be in medical stasis pods for a healing coma when the balefire hit Equestria. It only made sense for a few to have survived the years and for a small number to be thawed out by some adventurous souls.
I squealed and raced forward to catch up to her. “Wait! How, though? You don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t know where you’ll be and I think you’re pretty and while we’ve only been talking for a little but I think I like you!”
Loom stopped in her tracks, her tail lifting slightly… Allowing me to see that yes, yes she was in fact not biologically a mare. And… also that I was glad hooves fit into my various receptacles comfortably because WOW! I mean, she was huge, so of course everything would be huge but WOW!
Screw being worried about accidentally crushing a pony in bed, she should be worried about fitting at all!
”GEARS! FOCUS!” Dad snapped for me.
Eeep! Thanks! She’s just HUGE! I thought as my cheeks began to glow. I guess failing everything I could just kinda hug it and—”
”I know! Please stop looking for my sake!”
Oh that’s right dad was awkward about seeing other stallions. He was always so adorably squicked out over it. Hehe!
Loom turned around. “You… You didn’t know I was famous. How could you, I should have died two centuries ago… That means you like me for me…”
I nodded. “Well, yeah!” I blushed and swished my tail a little. “I mean, you’re very attractive, seem nice, and… The more I understand about romantic relationships, the more I understand that I want several of them. I like you… I definitely would like to sleep with you, so… You know, why wouldn’t I like you? I mean yeah this is much faster than I realized I liked my marefriend Wander, but now that I understand the emotions and protocols better, naturally my calculations will be much faster.”
Loom tilted her head. “Calculations? That’s a weird way of saying… is Equish your first language?”
I blushed a bit more. “No, actually… My first is Zebrican.”
Loom blinked twice, her mismatched eye widening, proving that yes, it was in fact a transplant and not a glass eye. “Woah! Hold on, wait. You’re a Zebrican zebra?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Loom’s mouth opened and closed slowly. “I— I know it’s been… Two centuries but… I was there. A lot. I killed a lot of your people. I’m artillery, see? I shelled… Well, everything I was asked to. Thoroughly. I— And you still would…”
I nodded. “Mhm!”
Watching such a huge mare stammer, stutter, and sputter for nearly a full minute from something so simple as a mhm brought a smile to my face.
“B— But that makes no sense!” Loom protested. “You should hold the biggest grudge against me! Against everypony, really!”
I shook my head. “I don’t. It was war. Both sides did bad things.”
“Yes, but I personally did a lot of those things.”
“You’re a soldier. It was your job. Just orders,” I said with the kindest smile I could manage at the time. “I don’t have the moral high ground. I’m also a cannoneer. I’ve also killed a lot of people. Mostly ponies. We’re on even hoofing.”
Loom paused for a moment then shook her head. “No… No, what I did was on a much bigger scale than anything you could have done in a wasteland like this.”
I paused for a moment to reference what old data I had on Equestrian battleships. Specifically their crew complements… The Alicorn Class battleship was crewed by 2700 hooves, while the smaller Pegasus Class needed only 1300, and the typical cruisers employed to screen for the battleships were crewed by 500ish…
Given the total number of vessels I sunk and assuming all hooves went down with those ships, which was the most plausible scenario given my firing pattern and orders to use saturation fire…
I rested my hoof on my muzzle for a moment. “Hmmm… Well, I’m directly responsible for the deaths of at least eighteen thousand four hundred Equestrians during wartime,” I remarked. “Even if your count is higher or lower, I really don’t care. War is war, peace is peace. The war is over, it has been over forever now, and everypony should try and get along and move on. So, I really don’t care. It’s not like you were out slaughtering civilians, right?”
Loom bit her lip and sighed. “Well… I can’t say for sure if all of those villages were fully civilian free, but no. Mass slaughter is… Somepony else’s thing,” Loom said with a shiver.
“Gale Force?” I asked with a wince.
Loom nodded and shivered. I could almost see a flashback slide across her eyes. “Yeah. That’s his thing. He really hates you guys! I was just in for the health plan and to serve my country.”
I shuffled my hooves against the wood beneath me. “So um… I— Is how you were acting before just, an act you put on?”
“No,” Loom said after a moment. “That’s me when I’m happy.”
“Then yes, I like you,” I said with a smile. “I’m sorry you have to go… But can we please find a way to maybe meet up later? I’d like to get to know you more and maaabey have a little fun.”
I glanced down at her hindquarters.
Loom smirked. “Maybe?”
“Definitely,” I corrected.
Loom took a deep breath which made her gun belt creak and groan. “I could get into a lot of trouble for this…” she murmured quietly.
“Why?” I asked with a curious frown.
“I… I have duties. Responsibilities. I think… I need to ask some questions,” She bit her lip nervously then pulled a small chip out of a slot in her pipbuck. “Take it. It’s a tracking device and communicator. Squeeze it once and we can talk via my pipbuck… Actually don’t do that! I’ll call you. It will let me find you, though. So hold on to it. I’ll be back for it one way or another. Okay?”
I nodded and took the chip, clipping it on my armor’s collar next to the MoA chip. “Got it! And... Thanks!” I offered her a smile. “I mean, you’re bombastic. I think that’s the word for it. And you're not really all that scary because of the being huge thing once you talk for awhile.”
Loom’s ears twitched adorably. “T— Thanks… I have to go.”
I waved as she galloped off, her height giving her amazing speed. “Bye! Please call soon!”
Because seriously… I think we could relate to each other a lot.
Also I really want that—
”For the love of me, stop thinking about that please!” Dad begged.
Hehehe! I knew him so well I can torment my own imagination. Hey, you may not like dick, but I do!
”Gears…”
Think I’d get stuck on her? I asked with a mental giggle.
”Oh, look! Speed! Let’s resume this conversation never!”
I blinked and noticed Speed walking through the crowd, looking off in the way Loom had run while ponies gave the batpony with a chainsaw, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle on her back a very wide berth.
“Speed! Over here!” I called.
Speed’s head whipped around to my direction and she galloped over to me. “Did you see a huge mare run that way or was that just me?”
“Oh, that was Loom. We were talking… Hopefully she’ll be back in a few hours. I asked her out,” I said with a grin.
Speed gave me a blank look. “You asked her out.”
“Yes,” I said with a nod.
“Ribbon Loom,” Speed said slowly. “You asked her out?!”
Wait her name was Ribbon Loom?! Dammit! Brick HardMeat fit so much better! Ugh!
I nodded again and sighed in disappointment. “Yes… Wait you know her full name?” I frowned curiously, then facehooved and laughed. “Of course you do! She was alive then and a soldier. No way a mare that big wouldn’t be known about.”
“Yeah! I mean,” Speed shivered. “You’ve got ovaries of steel there, Gears.”
I shook my head. “No… The closest approximation for those organs are composed of primarily ceramics and crystal.”
Speed laughed and shook her head. “Not what I meant… According to legend, she once suplexed a dragon, and killed it. I— I’m not brave enough to let her mount me…” Speed admitted with a blush. “Also, I thought she died. The Dream Pods have this memorial section and she was in it…. Then again, so was Gale Force and he’s apparently alive. Could be the MoA cover for field agents.”
“Oh!” My ears perked up. “Maybe that’s Ra— Uh, Do Well’s mission! Defrosting some old MoA Agents she previously let sleep so she can help stop the Tainted.”
But then… Why would she say it had only been five years?
I frowned and thought for a moment, trying to see if that would be something Rainbow might do. I didn’t know her very well, but personally if I wanted to avoid a person I woke from stasis freaking out over having been gone for centuries, I might say it had been only a few years then tell the the truth after they had adjusted.
It might help them acclimate to the new world better to not think it was entirely unlike everything they had known and loved.
Yeah. Yeah I could see Rainbow doing that too.
Speed shrugged. “Maybe? Could be.”
I held up a hoof to tell Speed to hold up as an idea occurred to me. “One moment, I want to check something.”
I could actually check and see if Rainbow had Defrosted her! I could obviously just call her, but well… Silverlight was right. I needed to stop having important and personal conversations in public. And I’d just done that in the capitol building… oops…
Fortunately, I didn’t need to call her!
I took the communicator pin Rainbow gave me off my armor and held it in my left hoof. Then I took the one Loom gave me, and held it in my right hoof. Comparing them side by side, they appeared identical. Small silver discs engraved with the MoA lightning bolt and cloud sigil on one side.
I clipped Rainbow’s back onto my armor and held Loom’s pin out to Speed. “Hey so, Loom took this out of her pipbuck. Does yours have a little communicator pin in it?”
Speed hummed then shook her head. “No… It has an internal radio, but no detachable transceiver.”
“What about tracking devices? That you can plant on things?” I asked, remembering it was also a track—
Oh. My. Celestia. That’s how Rainbow had known where I was! She couldn’t see me, she had just been bucking with me! Ha!
I smiled at my little realization.
Speed raised an eyebrow at my smile and shook her head. “No. There’s no detachable stuff at all. Why do you ask?”
“Because Do Well gave me the one on my armor,” I said as I reattached Loom’s pin to my armor. “And I saw Loom take this one off her pipbuck. Do Well has a pipbuck too. This pin is the same as the other one. Ipso Facto, Loom has an MoA modified pipbuck, just like Do Well’s. Therefore, it’s pretty likely she either worked for the MoA in the past, or is working with Do Well now.”
Speed hummed then nodded. “Yes. That’s possible, and you have okay evidence for it too. But it could also be a coincidence.”
I nodded. “I could be, but I don’t think so. There can’t be very many MoA pipbucks out there.”
Speed look into the distance thoughtfully for a moment then fluttered her wings. “That’s certainly true… Uh, anyways, Wander is waiting for us! We made six thousand caps playing and I super duper super want to buy one of these knives made by this one smith. He’s got this cool blue metal that looks all alien and stuff! And he has a few knives. I so want one! I could draw it next time we’re fighting grinding mobs and be all “That’s not a knoife! This is a knoife!” and it would just be awesome!”
“Oh, yeah! That guy,” I said with a smile as I remembered the gunsmith. “I bought an entrenching tool off of him, his prices are good we can definitely get you a nice knife, and I think I remember a few combat knives on his counter… Oh! There’s also a shotgun maker I want to show you.”
Speed hummed. “Well, I’m pretty good on shotguns, but you never know! Besides I’ll bet all those girls would like a hug, right?”
I shook my head. “None had awake spirits.”
“Sleep hugs are good too…” Speed giggled before flashing me a wink. “Come on! Lets get Wander.”
I followed her as she trotted off towards the south side of the market. Speed started to sing as we walked. Probably happily remembering the awesome performance I missed out on.
”♪ He'd known it won't last forever!
She'd go ahead for a while…
When you open your eyes,
When you gaze at the sky
When you look to the stars
As they shut down the night.
You know this story ain't over! ♫”
Aww, that song sounded great! Oh well, at least I met a nice mare who I maybe had a chance with. It would have been nice to share my bed with two special someponies tonight, but Wander on her own was certainly infinitely perfect already.
Then again… You can add infinities together to form larger infinities. I love you, math!
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Yeaahhh...
Huh.
Why do I suddenly really badly want to see a what-if where he did stop and talk with the glassmaker? :
I actually had to go over that twice. Bit over 3/5ths. :P
Hee.
Unwanted buttzap!
stuffs in earplugs and puts on earmuffs
I have prepared for the Eeeeeepocalypse. I can only hope this is enough preparation to keep my hearing once it's over.
Oh no.
Oh if only you knew....
"Where are you keeping the protein!"
lol.
Yikes.
Heh.
Heh.
most of them probably couldn't, no, you'd pretty much need to recross the pie and apple lines to get that.
Heh.
It's a skill that ponies seem to be supernaturally good at.
Well well well...
Heh.
...nitpick, addition alone doesn't get you bigger infinities. You need exponentiation to get that. Sortof.
Loom is like a cross between Iron Will and Troubleshoes?
If Gears cant tell by taste what the material is, given sensitivity should be enough to discern nuclear isotopes by chemical variation, its moon metal, whatevre that material is?
Need to find Gale Forces Phylactery and give it a Fat Man enema?
I love word play
brrr shivers watch vid below at ur own risk
another great chapter from an awesome story, cant wait to see how this unfolds with Loom and the fact that she's a MOA and or the fact that rainbow is still alive
I have to feel bad for the griffon. Being soul-stared at by a Zebra mare twice must have been traumatizing for him. Yay! A colt/marefriend for Gears!
I am Gears in this scene, surprisingly
I am dad in this scene
WE SHALL NOT BE SILENCED
I'm not sure those potions classify as steroids as they permanently alter the body... would have to look it up
A fair point
Because you and your squadmates are very useful when kept on a tight leash
No... Loom, Gale and the rest are currently being tricked and used by whoever is in charge of the Tainted
Yes, yes you do
9651279
I can field this one.
They would give Gears a deadpan stare, and ask her what the buck she was talking about. Because they wouldn't have an understanding of what borax was.
9651570
Actually, many forms of steroids do alter the body permannalty. It's an umbrella term for a whole class of drugs. It's just misused a lot. Like cancer. Cancer isn't a disease. It's a family of diseases. That's why you can't cure cancer, you have to cure Carcinoma, Sarcoma, Lymphoma, leukemia, Germ cell tumors, and Blastoma. Oh, wait... each of those is also an umbrella term...
Steroids are like that too. Except worse. because instead of a name for a situation of a cell that's decided not to die when it's suposed to...
It's the name of a friggan basic chemical compound in organic chemistry.
9651471
Six times, technically
Hopefully! Could... go either way
9651344 I assure you, it will be interesting.
9651329
I don't know. I didn't watch that episode. The one with Troubleshoes.
She could tell you the chemical composition, yes. What she couldn't tell you is the name of the material because she dosn't have one for it. In this case it's actually mostly a pure element with an atomic number 125, and an atomic weight of atomic weight 323. We'll use Tn as a label for it. it's also got a small amount of another element in there too. So it's made of Tn8El2 with the TN triple bonded to the El and each other. She doesn't have that on file, so she can't tell you what it is other than by saying, well, what I just said.
9651279
Right?!
Incorrect. All the basic math functions work with infinities too. I can prove this.
The set of all whole numbers is infinite, containing all non-fraction positive numbers and also zero. Howeaver it is smaller than the set of all numbers. The set of all Integers is also infinite, but smaller than the set of all numbers. Howeaver, the set of Integers is twice as large as the set of whole numbers. Since both sets are identical, save that the set of integers contains negative values and positive values, it can be said to be twice as large... Except no.
The set of integers is (2x)-1 the size of the set of whole numbers, because both sets include zero. As there is no negative zero, the set of integers can only be described as "Twice the size of the set of whole numbers, minus one." Therefore basic addition and subtraction must also apply to infinities, allowing for infinite sets to be added together.
9651650
Really? I somehow missed those other four times Gears soul-stared the poor griffon. Could you point out where they happen?
9651701 Well... Gears, twice. Jasmine, technically, twice. And her dad, again, twice. More than one consciousnesses has access to those eyes... Ima spoiler that even though there's been more than enough clues to work it out.
Wait, is this the one you were basing off the dreadnought?
She certainly fits the bill, and I feel like it's the only thing she'll be able to fit into without a lot of prep.
Gears needs a shotgun, or something. Everything in her arsenal is generally mid to long range, particularly her Thot Begoner 5000. Unless I'm forgetting something.
Because she is legendarily dense.
Are you trying to tell me something~?
Ah Gears, you adorable derp, never change
The big STRONK mare is certainly an interesting choice. I wonder how she'll react to Rainbow being alive. Or to date her apparent unit leader's cyborg zebra niece.
That's one complicated family, that's for sure
The father's discomfort with penises is hilarious. But then again, not everyone's cool with everything, and sometimes we delude ourselves into believing we'd accept more than we truly would. I hope he can adapt to all lovers Gears acquires in time.
Damn, that's a lot of weapon stores. And automated cola production that can survive the end of the world and last centuries is SO a fallout thing!
Uranium pops, now that's new. And I bet Rainbow would find it totally and absolutely awesome.
9651650
Meep...
Infinity plus infinity just gets you...the same infinity you started with. There's just as many even numbers as whole numbers. That explanation given by doctor strange about infinities always makes me facepalm because he was WRONG.
The density is different but not the total amount.
It probably didn't help that this old stallion could be heard from a half dozen speakers around the place:
Phht. Just be glad it wasn't the Angeliser bunny. The zebras had to sink that one into a vat of molten steel to stop it.
After blowing it up.
Three times.
Okay, the way she says that, it's clear she doesn't mean an actual Lagrange point, but still. The implication is that she's from really rilly freaking far away.
Oh, gods. She's a female Rekoom. Maybe she did mean an actual Lagrange point. Project Horizons did mention a space stable, now that I think about it...
And now we know the real reason Spike stopped leaving his cave before the Gardens megaspell was activated.
And that doesn't suggest an ominous explanation for how she knew what you did to Gale, at all, Gears. Nope. Not at all.
...and that's clearly setting up an inevitable betrayal. Even if it's unintentional, if ol' Galey-waley gets wind of who she has a tracker on, he's gonna swipe the access info.
Oh dear...
9652164
See how infinities come in sizes? Infinite sets are just numbers. N0, N1, N2, and so on... You can add, subtract, multiply, and divide infinite sets by infinite sets, or even regular numbers. While you still get an infinite set, it's a different infinite set than the one you had to begin with. IE, you can math infinity.
9651938
"B-- But I want a nicer mane...
"
It gets worse :D
The qestion here is... From what stems the discomfort? Squickyness? Fear for safty? Fears of inadiquesy? Inability to personally do things with it?
Right? Why wasn't that a Nuka WOrld thing? It's a New Vegas thing fluf wise tho! You never get to see a Sunset Sarsaparilla machine restocked.
"Sure the whole regenerating my tonge and intestines hurts like hell, but she's right! They are pritty tasty!"
9652166
Fallout has lots of space related stuff!
Fallout Equestria also has space related stuff!
In spite of how important space and aliens are to both Fallout and Fallout Eqeustria, Lagrange is actually used as a name for lots of things! Not just as the name for gravitationaly stable points within the orbit of celestial bodies.
9652358
Yes you can math infinity, yes there are ways to get bigger infinities, but adding infinity to infinity is not how you GET bigger infinities.
Infinity has a number of non-intuitive rules when you start mathing with it. Here's some of them:
infinity+infinity=the same level of infinity
infinityxinfinity=the same level of infinity
2^infinity=a bigger infinity
Similarly I can line up the integers/counting numbers alonside all the rational numbers (fractions involving whole numbers), but I can't line them up alongside all the real numbers (e.g. irrational numbers like PI, the squareroot of 2, etc.)
Its' a different set, yes. However, unintuitively, the MEASURE of that set-aka "how many elements it has"-is the same if try to simply double it-because the lack of the "end of the line" causes the infinite measurement to stay the same.
If you're really REALLY interested I can give you an in depth explanation for some of the the very very nonintuitive behavior of infinity, though considering how much you hate math I'm surprised you've taken this conversation as far as you have...
9652414 Nonononono! Infinite SETS. The sets contents can be manipulated mathematically.
What does anti-apple taste like?
9652421
Ah, joining the infinite sets together, or performing arithmetic operations on every element OF the set! Well, yes. You can definitely do that, and have a new set at the end of it; most of these operations will even follow ordinary arithmetic sensibilities!
...
...The...biggest not-so-intuitive thing is that while the set of whole numbers contains both the even numbers and an infinite number of numbers that are not whole numbers, the measure of this set remains the same as the measure of the set of even numbers. THAT is where infinity gets weird.
Hey, that's pretty nice.
That could be a useful tool.
Interesting that he knows.
That is one seriously large pony.
It's a good story to keep it secret.
Loom, that works. Because of all the looming.
Well, not the best plan, then.
Huh. Well, that still does kind of check the box for Gears.
Now that just brings up more questions.
Hmn, okay.
I was thinking about it before, but given this new revelation I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that older brother with the iron was Gale Force. There's still a missing sibling if I'm remembering correctly. A brother, but that still kind of fits with Loom being trans and war-time Equestria being restrictive on that point.
TBH I suspect the artillery detail probably makes Gears more interested than she already was.
Possibly not, actually. Battleships compete well at scale escalation.
LOL
There's an important difference as to which it is.
9652541
Pears and prickliness.
Anypony else want Loom to join the party?
9652541
Oh that's orange.
9652683
Yes :3
In this case, the set of Gears romantic intrests contains an infinite ammount of yay allready. Howeaver, it could easily have an infinite ammount of eeee! added to it.
9652837
Hehehe, somone gets it :3
"Hold on!" balances a coin on its edge. "Yes!"
"... why did--"
"I'm ready now! Let's go!"
"But why--"
"I said let's go!"
Interesting theory :3
Yeah. They also have a supprizing amount of crew given WWII style ships and low automation. Which means even sinking one battleship can mean more people die than a small town might have.
9653178 Plenty. We'll see what happens.
9653492
that's a lot of
and EEEEE!
The funny part is that it really is accidental, of course!
Probably.
And I thought I'd heard everything by now. Silly me.
Somehow I think this would be even more endearing to Gears. Rather the wrong argument to use...
Waaaait...! She's dating her uncle! By accident!
Good thing she's adopted. Okay, we're fine.
I can't wait for Dash to hear this one. Heh...
There are so many implications for just how much stuff the Tainted are up to in the background. And let's hope that Loom isn't consigned to the brig (or whatever they are using) once she starts to ask the awkward questions. Especially since Gale might get that tracker.
9652421
I'm fairly sure she's having that already. Oh, you said sets... :D
I still wanna know how her dad's actually in her head. I'm pretty sure at this point that it's actually him (though I'm confused as to HOW she has a dad). Man, that's gotta be awkward. No wonder he gets all weird when Gears starts ogling. Of course, even a mental model would probably do the same, but it's weirder (for him) this way.
...That might be another reason that Speed likes her. They (and/or) the SWAT fillies were all trained by him!
Could use a comma -- Sure, they
wares
licensed
mare, who hadn't ... stupid soda, continued.
It reads much nicer with some sort of pauses there.
Lied to
9662168
Sparkle-Cola! The only cola.
Somehow I think this would be even more endearing to Gears. Rather the wrong argument to use...
I can assure you she's not... And not in the "Oh, well they are trans so we should call her Gear's aunt" way.
It's about to get to the foreground, don't you worry...
This will be addressed... It's kind of important.
You know that you are a damn good musician when you earn more in a few hours playing music than your zerbborg does for saving the lives of many.
Play that funky music ghoul gal, play that funky music right!
Nitpicks:
" I looked up to apologize to the owner for accidentally knocking over her little stacked display of potion bottles with my but the mare behind the booth gave me an understanding smile." First time I say this, but this need more butt!