Chapter 41 - Union/Reunion
☢★★ Whirling Gears ★★☢
Whinnyapolis was an annoying city. I didn’t like it. It took me forever to work out how and why, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t un-see it.
Cities should be grids. It makes delivering the mail simple. It makes logistics simple. Whinnyapolis had a grid. It also had lots of factories, and warehouses. It had been a true industrial center before turning into a mostly collapsed, falling down, and somehow still burning pile of broken dreams.
Broken dreams and city streets that formed 89 degree angle intersections.
Why? Just… Why?
Rainbow led us through the city by hoof, and in spite of the need for repairs at the Sparkle Cola Factory (bunker?), Moondancer sent two of her big-huge guards to take us as far as half way. Apparently their presence would piss off “the locals”. Wondering about the how and why of that thankfully distracted me from the almost but not quite right angle street intersections.
Rainbow’s random tips and tricks helped distract me too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pay close enough attention to absorb them. A fact she eventually smacked my nose with a wingtip over.
“Hey! Gears! Pay attention! I’m trying to make sure you can shut the stupid thing down, okay?!” Rainbow snapped her left eye twitching slightly.
I offered her my best apologetic smile. “Sorry… It’s just this city is robot hell and it’s hard to pay attention.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow in that classic “mom-asking-why” pose I’d seen a million times on other people’s moms.
I cleared my throat, flicked my tail, and pointed with a hoof tip to the next rubble strewn intersection.
“So, ignore the rubble and the wrecked autowagons,” I said as I slowly traced my hoof along the intersection corner. “Do you see it?”
Rainbow shook her head. “No. What?”
Desi looked up at the two of us with watering eyes and a trembling lip. “Roadways intersect at non-right angle.”
I nodded. “Yeah, they’re all 89 degree intersections. It’s… It’s not okay!”
Rainbow squinted at the intersection, ckcoked her head, then took off, flying straight upwards and hovering above the rooftops for a split second before diving back down to the asphalt.
“You’re right… Why?” Rainbow grumbled to herself.
I shrugged. “I don’t know? Jerks on the city planning board?” I offered Rainbow a gentle shoulder pat. “C— Can you explain again? I’ll try and pay better attention. It’s just… very very distracting.”
Rainbow signed, kicked a bit of broken concrete with her hoof, making it bounce down the off-angle road. “There’s little time… I’ll go over the basic thing you’ll need to do, okay?”
I nodded and closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the road, and began to follow her by the sounds of her hooves clicking on the street.
“Once inside the shield bubble, you’ll go into the Lyra Machine and Tools factory, and make your way to the loading dock. There are stairs going from the dock’s unloading floor to the store room level. There is a fire alarm on those stairs, pull it down six times in under 4 seconds, then hold it down for 2 seconds,” Rainbow instructed. “This will open a hidden stairwell inside the stairs going up, down below is the old MoA base. You’ve still got my pin, so you’ll be let in by security if it’s still operational.”
“Okay, I can do that. Six times, then hold for two seconds,” I repeated with a nod, eyes still very much shut.
“Once inside, you’ll have to make your way to the Mirror Lab, there are signs,” Rainbow continued. “The Mirror Lab is small, it's easily missed. Once in the lab you’ll find a megaspell matrix built around what will look like an ordinary floor-standing mirror. It’s not. It’s a very powerful arcane artifact. The megaspell extends that artifact’s wards outwards to form this shield. You’ll need to power it down, or if you can’t, disconnect the mirror, go clockwise, and disconnect wires in the sequence of the colors of the rainbow.”
I nodded twice. “Okay, anything I should worry about?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow repeated. “First, whatever you do, do NOT touch the mirror’s surface. The frame is fine, but the reflective parts are not safe. If you touch it, I have no idea where you’ll wind up.”
I raised an eyebrow, accidentally pulling my left eye open and once more witnessing the hellish street layout. “What do you me— aaaaa! Stupid intersections!”
I closed my eyes tightly again.
I heard Rainbow mmmed worriedly. “It’s… It’s one of the Starswirl World Mirrors. They’re portals attuned to different planes of existence. There’s no way to know if the portal still exists on the other side, or where this mirror is attuned to right now. If it sucks you in, it could spit you out anywhere in this, or any other world, and there may be no way back.”
I winced. “O— Okay. Let me just burn that right into a memory sector…” I said while doing just that.
There was absolutely no way in Tartarus I was going to let myself forget that!
As soon as the memory files were written, I cleared my throat to indicate I was done. “Okay. What else?”
“Lyra Machine and Tool produced a lot of stuff for the Equestrian military,” Rainbow warned. “Their facilities may contain hostile robots. Including our own shot at the Assault-Pone-3 idea. I heard they even had an experimental prototype that was smarter than Zebra robots… But AJ kept a tight lid on that whole division, after what happened with the Anti-Machine Rifle. So much so I have no idea if that’s true or not. Point is, it could be filled with killer robots that may attack you on sight because Zebra.”
I gulped and then eeeped as I stumbled over a block of concrete, judging by the sound. “A— Anything else?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said in an odd tone of voice. “Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, go into Lab A without me.”
I opened my eyes and looked over to Rainbow, who was looking back at me with genuine worry.
“Because…” I prompted waving a hoof for her to go on.
Rainbow’s worried look became one of the utmost seriousness. “Because, that lab is huge, it’s full of very dangerous artifacts, and without me to explain what is and isn't safe to handle, you could blow up the whole base… and we need its command node intact.”
“Ah, yes. Good reason,” I agreed with three bobbing nods.
Rainbow looked to Desi and bent down a bit to get on her eye-level. “And that goes for you too. Sure, you’ve shown you know how to use a Star Blaster, but there’s other things in that lab too. Got it?”
Desi nodded once, then her ears perked. “Power supply?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know, probably?” she twitched her wings gently then began to pick up her pace. “Come on. We’re almost there.”
☢★★◯★★☢
We walked through the streets for another half hour. Everything was eerily quiet. I kept expecting to be shot at by raiders or even just plain old bandits. Each of the towering steel and concrete buildings provided so many sniper’s nests it wasn’t even funny.
Yet we made it through with such ease I honestly couldn’t even begin to understand how or why.
Then we rounded the last corner and our destination was in sight. It explained everything.
At the end of the street, in a large lot where the multi-story buildings and towers at last thinned out to reveal a huge open clearing, was the shield. It looked like a massive spherical mirror had been placed in the middle of the city. It reflected the sky, the buildings around it, everything, even us. It looked like there was just a hole in the world. If there was a factory beneath the shield, it couldn’t be seen.
Then, there was the large post-war building built right at the end of the street in front of the shield-covered park. A hodgepodge, yet well constructed building formed from bricks queried from broken concrete, windows made from melted-together auto-wagon windshields, and a wrought iron fence made from rebar with bits of concrete stuck to each bit of metal still. It took the form of a prewar chapel, complete with a bell tower.
The tower featured no bell, but had been decorated with small bits of painted scrap cut and placed to mimic a stained glass window. The image was the same as the painting the Pippites had sent Homage. What’s more, the chapple’s doors were engraved with a large number 2, and the fence’s taller posts served as pikes atop which the heads of decidedly violent looking ponies had been mounted to be picked apart by carrion birds.
A sign above the chapple’s door read “Church of the Silver Eye”. Another sign in front of the fence had a more sinister message.
Everything the Eye reflects is holy ground. Raiders and other Criminals will not be tolerated beneath its gaze. All who commit evil shall join these damned souls in eternal torment.
I almost said something out loud along the lines of “oh, no, not these guys again…” but fortunately I noticed several pipites were tending to small gardens in the church’s yard and kept quiet. It took me another three steps to notice the other ponies present.
They wore dusty-gray robes that blended in perfectly with the concrete, and stood still as could be, always watching the Pipites as they worked, or looking off in one direction or another, but never moving.
They almost looked like statues.
Rainbow slowed down, coming to a timid, cautious walk. Desi and I slowed to match her pace.
“Did you know this was here?” I whispered to Rainbow.
She shook her head. “No… I have no idea what—”
A thin slice of concrete peeled itself away from the rubble pile to my immediate right, resolving into one of the cloaked ponies.
I yelped and jumped away, ready to draw my concealed plasma pistols. Rainbow’s wings flared and she was off the ground in an instant. Desi waved hello and kept walking.
A pale gold light shone beneath the camouflage pony’s hood, and an unseen force froze me in place.
“Be still,” the pony whispered. “Until you fire, you have nothing to fear.”
“Let us go,” Rainbow said with an eerie calm.
“We’re not going to hurt anypony!” I added with a nervous gulp.
The pony nodded enough to make their deep shadow filled hood dip. “We sense no evil intentions. Were you a threat, you would not have reached this place.”
The unseen force vanished, and I heard Rainbow drop to the ground.
“I think you should explain a few things,” Rainbow said as she stood up and turned towards the robed unicorn. “Who are you?”
“We are the Children of the Eye,” the pony explained, explaining nothing. “We guard the Eye, and the world from the Eye. Have you come to worship the Lightbringer with our friends, or do you seek the truth of the Eye?”
Ooookkkay. Creepy religious cult. Okay. Fine. Let’s just not piss them off…
And just as I had that thought I saw Desi trot up to a random robed cultist and start casually asking questions about their camouflage abilities. Oh no?
Rainbow side-nodded to me and cleared her throat. “We’re here for something in the space beneath that shield. I left it here before the war.”
“Yeah,” I said to try and make Rainbow’s words sound true.
Sure, they were, but this random creepy pony wearing concrete colored stocking to hide their fur color entirely didn’t know that.
The cultist titled their head to one side and trotted over just enough to be able to gesture at the mirrored dome.
“The Eye cannot be crossed like a threshold. Not by just anypony. Were you hoping to dig under its barrier, you will find that you cannot,” they whispered as they put their hoof back on the road. “The Eye is a full sphere, we have dug beneath it in ages past. You are welcome to try and enter the realm beyond the Eye, but you may not interfere with us, nor any who may come to us through the Eye.”
My ears perked up at “through the eye”. “Wait, so, then—”
Rainbow squeaked in distress, her wings flaring somewhat. “Y— You mean to tell me that’s a portal and not a barrier?”
Rainbow’s pale, terrified expression, showed me just how worried she was about this. She’d clearly wired the thing up wrong. I remember her explaining she jerry rigged it...
I cleared my throat. “We heard machines can pass through it, and are relying on that.”
The Cultist chuckled and nodded, again, eerily quietly.
“They say machines can pass through, even during the moments a pony may pass from one side to the other,” the pony whispered quietly.
I raised a hoof to ask a question. “Excuse me, but… If it’s not what Rainbow thought it was, is she right about it killing anypony who passes through it?”
The pony hesitated for a moment. “The Eye may only be passed through during certain alignments of the moon and stars. If you draw near, and look through it into the factory beyond, you will see the bones of those who came at the wrong time. The Eye carries you to another time or place, be it here, elsewhere, or your grave.”
Rainbow frowned, then took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Alright, you’re worshiping this wormhole. Got it. Fair enough. But why are you letting those Pipites redecorate your church? Why kill anypony who gets close that isn’t peaceful? Not that I’m objecting… Frankly, it would be nice if you guys could take your little religion and go nationwide.”
The pony chuckled gently, their voice finally loud and distinct enough for me to understand I was speaking to a mare. She pointed with one hoof to the Pipites gardening. “They know of the Eye, and believe their Lightbringer may return to them through it. It is possible, and through their faith, they are welcome to live with us in wait for their day of salvation.”
I blinked and cocked my head. “Um, how is it possible? Pip’s locked in the SPP Tower.”
Rainbow cleared her throat. “Yeah. Ours is…”
“Oh…” I frowned, finally understanding the implications of a massive planar gate sitting in the middle of Whinnyapolis.
None of them were very good… Except for that one where the other side was filled with all of the lost mail and known address change forms.
“As for our hunting,” the cultist continued. “The Eye reflects that which it beholds. If a good soul reflects in it, there is a small hope of a good soul coming to us from the Eye. If a normal pony, with a heart stained with gray, comes into the Eye’s view, nothing happens. Should someone with an evil heart be reflected in its surface, the Eye will always birth a monster.”
Ah. I thought, sucking in a hissing breath for emphasis.
Rainbow’s face fell. “How many times has this endangered ponies?”
“Countless,” the cultist replied before resting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder reassuringly. “Fear not, for we have been here since the first time, and we have stopped them all.”
“What kind of monsters?” Rainbow asked bitterly.
“Daemons. Dragons. Beasts which once roamed the dark corners of this world,” the Cultist answered casually. “These are common. The Eye has brought us things from myth as often as things from places known or once known to Ponykind. It has brought us things unseen by anypony before. Again, fear not. For the Eye is protected.”
Rainbow sat down and closed her eyes tightly. Doubtlessly angry with herself for causing this situation.
“What’s your name?” I asked the mare politely.
“We forsake names. Our identities do not matter. Our sole duty is to safeguard the eye, and ensure no evil enters its gaze,” the mare answered quietly.
“Yes, but like, what’s your name though?” Rainbow said instantly.
“We forsake names,” The cultist restated with a little exasperated sigh.
“You need to be called something so people know specifically to get you when you’re needed over anyone else,” I offered, hoping that would clear up… whatever this miscommunication was.
“We are interchangeable, travelers,” she said in a flat tone. “There is nothing one can do that others cannot. Were we any other way, our mission would fail.”
She pointed to the shield and nodded slowly. “Please? Be on your way. I must resume the watch.”
The mare ducked back down, melting into the concrete rubble before Rainbow or I could say anything at all.
Wow, Dad said in the back of my mind. She’s almost as good as my assistant was.
Huh?
Lunch hour would come and BOOM! Gone.
Rainbow stared for a moment at the spot where the mare was and then looked over to me, nodded, and began to trot for the shield’s rim silently.
Or was that the wormhole’s rim? What should we call this thing now?
“Rainbow,” I said quietly. “So, what do we call this thing now?”
“My latest buck-up,” she muttered bitterly.
“No, seriously… Wormhole? Shield? What?” I asked, flicking my tail nervously.
Rainbow took a few more steps, paused, then hopped over a concrete block in her way. “Gears… These guys can out-stealth me. They’re everywhere. Assume they heard our conversation earlier. Don’t give them anything else.”
“That we did,” a cultist whispered as they stood up, revealing themselves to have been the rubble Rainbow had just jumped over.
Rainbow yelped and took to the air, stopping a full two meters up. “HOW THE BUCK DO YOU DO THAT?!”
“Many of us are ghouls,” the pony whispered. “Two hundred years of practice blending into one place… You become akin to a god, and your students are trained to mastery.”
My ears perked up, more than a little intrigued. “Could they teach me to blend into snow as well as you guys can blend into concrete?”
The pony shook their head and then reached into their robes, rummaging around. “I am called Heretic by the others,” they said as they produced the butt of a weapon from beneath their robes. “I have sent machines into the area beyond the Eye, as I wished to know why it formed here, and not some place else.”
They continued to slowly remove the weapon, making sure we knew they were not drawing it to attack us. It was some sort of shotgun. Industrial in design, metal and polymers. Black mostly, with a bit of silver, and a luminous dot on the front sight post. It was also very angular, yet tubular. Pump fed, with an integrated flashlight below the magazine tube.
It was definitely not equestrian… and it had a very large grip similar to a griffonese weapon. It reminded me vaguely of a starblaster’s grip, but it was far less elegant, and definitely sized for some very thick talons. Or fingers…
“Is that a Minotaur’s shotgun?” Rainbow asked before I could.
The Cultist… Heretic? Nodded. “It is. It was given to me long ago. It is an 8-Gauge weapon. I will provide twenty shells. They are rare on these shores.”
I took the weapon with a hoof and examined it for a moment, then offered it back. “I can’t use it. I’m not a unicorn, and big as the trigger guard is, my hoof won't fit in there.”
Rainbow cleared her throat. “Your battle saddle has a quick mount for Minotaur built equipment. All G3 saddles and onwards do. Fun fact, Lyra Machine and Tool made those for us. I had to spend five hours talking Lyra into it. She wanted to make robot gauntlets ponies could slip on then use griffon or minotaur weapons… I’ll hook it in at the edge.”
I took the shotgun back and tucked it into the straps behind my bag, then accepted the shells Heretic offered me. They were still in their original box. I couldn’t read the print, but the logo had a hippo on it. I smiled a little, remembering watching small herds of them back in Zebrica from time to time.
Heretic began to walk, heading towards the reflective dome. “There are things within the Eye’s space. My machines have seen them… I do not know what your plan to enter is, but if it succeeds, be on your guards… And…” they paused, stopped walking,and turned to face me. “Destroy it if you can.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Um, don’t you worship it?”
Heretic nodded and rolled a small piece of broken concrete beneath their left forehoof. “Yes. But all things must end… Especially that which draws danger to the innocent.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement, opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Heretic continuing. “They say there was a very clever robot that tried to close the eye once before. It failed, and left.”
I gulped. That didn’t bode well… But at least it meant I could get out.
Heretic pointed with their left hoof to a section of the shield slash wormhole. “That is where the barrier is the weakest. Try there… Be warned, under these stars, the Eye gazes into Tartarus. If you can wait two weeks, it will look elsewhere.”
Rainbow stopped mid-step and slowly turned back towards Heretic. “Excuse me, but that thing can point to Tartarus?!”
Heretic nodded. “Yes.”
“Annnd if evil ponies approach it, something from where it’s looking that’s even more evil emerges, right?” She pressed.
“Oh…” I said with a wince and worried rev of my cooling fans.
“We have yet to fail,” Heretic said with a chuckle. “The beasts of that realm do not like being egged.”
Rainbow triple blinked. “You… You’re saying the Deamons of Tartarus can’t handle being hit with an egg, and run?” she shook her head almost violently for a moment. “WAIT! Where are you getting the eggs?”
Heretic reached beneath their robe and produced a small, black, egg shaped gemstone that seemed to be sparkling with green light from within. “Wrong kind of egg, pony.”
I cleared my throat and gently nudged Rainbow. “Let’s go before that two hundred year old shell detonates just because…”
“Good idea,” Rainbow said with a gulp. “Hey, Heretic, buddy, don’t trip okay?”
The pony chuckled and walked towards a rubble pile. “I haven’t in two centuries. Good luck,” they said before crouching, and vanishing into the jagged blocky pile.
“I don’t want to be here much longer,” I said to Rainbow with as serious a face as I could muster.
She nodded and trotted towards the shield quickly, tapping Desi on the shoulder with her wing as she passed the little mare. “Come on, we’ve got to get Gears inside.”
I picked up my own pace to fall in line after them and—
Desi’s telekinetic grip held a small taco and a little plastic cup of lemonade.
“Where did you get the taco?” I asked Desi as I tried everything I could to determine the answer on my own.
“Asked sneaky pony,” Desi replied between bites.
“Wait, they gave you a— That… That looks like a coal-station microwaveable…” Rainbow said as she turned her head to look, then just looked away. “ Yeah, let’s not bother the people living next to an open wormhole…”
The three of us continued to the very edge of the reflective shield. It was kind of strange to see my own reflection. I’d changed a lot since I left home. Thicker flanks, thanks to the radiator upgrade and Roll’s partial rebuild of me with parts mom left behind in her lab. My improvised power armor legs…
To say nothing of the crappy security armor I was wearing. I never thought I’d see myself in real armor. My subdermal plates had been more than enough for most anything back home. The Heartlands were… definitely more dangerous.
Still, not as bad as many ponies said. I’d made a lot of friends… Friends who had died. I’d fallen in love, too… she’d also died. It had been almost two months since I’d left home, and back then, I couldn’t say I’d ever thought I’d become the mare I saw in the magic mirror.
I didn’t like her. I preferred when she still had all of her friends and her special somepony. But she had a job to do. I had a job to do. The Tainted had to be stopped. I’d already paid the postage. I just had to drop the package on their doorstep.
I felt a tug at my side as Rainbow slotted the shotgun into my battle saddle. “Okay… There. It’s locked in. I’ve put the shells into the auto-loader too, so—”
I blinked and looked back at Rainbow. “It has an auto-loader?!”
She nodded, then looked up at me with a distressed face. “Please tell me you weren't manually reloading…”
Desi took out her book and quickly flipped through it before looking to Rainbow. “Gears is a silly pony. She definitely did not know.”
I slowly facehooved and groaned. “I’m not a soldier, okay?”
Rainbow shook her head, then nodded towards the shimmering, shiny, mirror-like barrier in front of me. “Just… Just get it done.”
“Right,” I said as I began to take a step forward.
<STOP!> Jasmine signed in the back of my mind.
I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked instantly.
“Shh!” I hissed to her before turning my thoughts inwards. What is it?
<We can’t do this like this,> Jasmine insisted. <Think for a second, you’re an old spirit, and you could move this shell without me, but what lets you have thoughts, personality, preferences, hopes, dreams, and all that stuff?>
You do. I answered, frowning.
“Gears, what’s wrong?” Rainbow repeated quietly.
“Shh! Jasmine’s talking to me,” I said out loud, trying not to get too distracted.
<That’s right, I do.> Jasmine continued. <Without me, you lose half of yourself… and vice versa. That shield kills anything that goes through it, and Heretic said they hadn’t tripped in 200 years. They are a ghoul. They’ve never dared to go inside. That means it’s not safe for the undead to enter, they’ll die too.>
My eyes widened in horror, I set my hoof down then stepped back form the shield. If I walk through it, then you’ll die for real… and I might become too stupid to finish the mission.
<Exactly,> Jasmine sighed. <But we still have to do this. The literal, actual, fate of the world depends on us stopping them.>
But we cant! I protested, stamping my hoof as I bit back tears. We’re not what Rainbow needs. We’re the wrong tool!
<Yeah, we are… If we stay like this.>
I blinked and frowned. “What?” I said out loud.
<Gears… We’re almost a warlock. You know it, I know it… But the thing is, I'm not the one stopping it from happening. I don’t want to exist as an individual, you know that. I’m here because you feel guilty that your existence required the death of my body… But I welcomed it. I was miserable. I was never allowed to be a part of anything. Gears… Let me go. Let me be more of you. Then it won't matter when that field melts off your pelt completely, because I’ll be a part of every bolt, every circuit. All of my knowledge and experiences won't be locked off from you anymore, either. We will be one for real. You’ll instantly be smarter, better, and more powerful for being kind and taking a mare off life support when she can’t reach the plug herself.>
I shook my head and stamped my hood hard.. “NO! No, I can’t do that! You deserve every chance to live! Just because it sucked—”
<Oh, yeah, sure, we’ll tooootally find a necromancer willing to soul jar me into some cloned body or whatever you’re thinking. Yeah, that’s on the table…> Jasman practically spat. <If it was, I’d say no. I don’t want to be an individual. I haven't for years before our Uncle skinned me alive to help make you! Please. Let me go. Become stronger. Stop them from destroying the world. There’s no other choice!>
I closed my eyes tightly, and shook my head. I can’t! If I let go of the guilt, and we merge, I know what you say now, but you’ll regret it later!
<Uhhh, no? I won't exist to do any regretting at all.>
Rainbow put a hoof on my shoulder, “What’s wrong? I need to know.”
I turned around to face Rainbow and Desi, both of whom were looking at me with worried eyes.
“I— Jasmine… If I go through now, she’ll die when the field destroys my pelt,” I said, voice trembling somewhat. “She wants to fully merge as a warlock, that would let me go through without losing most of my higher reasoning—”
Rainbow looked at me like I was an idiot. “Then do it! Or did you forget we’re trying to make sure there’s a world left after the Tainted’s next ill advised button push?!”
“But she’ll be gone forever!” I explained, tears streaming from my eyes. “She died to make me. It’s not fair to her!”
“Is this her idea?” Rainbow said bluntly. “The merge?”
I nodded.
“Then do it. She wants the world to not literally explode!” Rainbow shouted at me, her left eye starting to twitch.
“But—” I began.
“No buts!” Rainbow growled. “We have to—”
Desi put one of her tiny hooves on Rainbow’s mouth to quiet her. Rainbow shot her a glare, but stopped talking so Desi could speak.
“Jasmine is part of Gears,” she said slowly, definitely having rapidly used her book to find the correct words as she dropped all expression of emotion. “She is not working properly. You need to be fixed. She is the broken piece. Fix her, fix you. Jasmine won’t be gone. You will be her. She will be you. Like friendship, but permed tent.”
I blinked and titled my head. “What?”
Desi looked back down at her book then blushed. “Permanent.”
<Please listen to her, she’s right.> Jasmine begged.
I took a deep breath then hung my head. “Okay… I’ll do it.”
I turned back around and faced the shield again, doing my best to ignore my reflection. How do we…
<Just let go. We would have melded right when mom put us together if you hadn’t stopped the merge. The process is still there, trying to finish. I know you can feel it at the very back of your mind. It's a door you're holding shut. Just let go.>
I sat down and closed my eyes, doing my best to… just let go.
A minute passed. Then another. And another.
I don’t… I don’t think I can do this alone. I admitted, my ears drooping down.
<Okay… Then, maybe… Yes. I think I remember how the book described doing this from the start. Hold up your hooves, frogs up. Use spiritual energy to make a point in your left hoof that’s you. Move your essence outside of your body and rest it just on the top of that hoof. Okay?>
I moved my hooves up, focused, pushed, and timidly let some of my aura shine in my hoof. It probably wasn’t too good of an idea to do that right next to a hole in reality but, um, desperate times?
<Good. Open your eyes, I’ve pushed myself into your our other hoof.> Jasmine reported.
I opened my eyes. In my left hoof was a large golden ball of light, almost the same size as my hoof. In the right, just a single green spark of light, like a firefly that got lost and landed on me to rest.
Is that how little of her was left? Poor thing… No wonder she wanted to join with the rest of her… the rest of me.
<Okay,> Jasmine called, her voice very distant. <With spirit power, lift the auras, and let them touch.>
Then?
<That’s it. I think>
I concentrated, released some of my power, and willed the two points of light to move upwards. They resisted, it was like trying to pick up a box that was heavier than you thought. I pushed harder. Harder… Even harder, then, they began to slowly glide upwards.
Small bolts of energy began to crackle off each ball, zapping my hooves in a slightly tingly way, but mostly arcing to each other. I willed them to move closer, pushing even harder than I was already. I needn't have bothered. They wanted to touch.
They slid together like magnets running into each other, bolts of lighting crackling and sparking gold and green as they rammed into each other, forming a single, bright, lime green orb.
I paused, wondering why I felt nothing when they touched. Shouldn’t that have been—
The orb raced back towards me, slamming into my chest and sinking into my reactor core. My entire body pulsed with lime green light, building up until a full aura shone brightly enough to look white in the mirror. I could feel a thousand tendrils running through my mind, linking me to new thoughts, memories, feelings, ideas, and knowledge.
All of her memories, I could see them now. Jasears. Uh, Gearsman. No, her— I mean, my… Our—
NO! Mine. My memories. My knowledge. I am whole… for the first time.
She was physically disabled, she was not. She was socially disabled, she was merely an outcast. I am the best of both worlds.
“I am complete,” I said to myself.
“I’m blind…” Rainbow muttered angrily. “You could have warned us. I have sunglasses.”
I laughed. “Sorry, Gears had no idea that would happen… I prefer that name, let’s keep using it.”
Desi gently tugged on my tail for attention. “Still sisters?”
I nodded and gave her a quick hug. “Sure are! Even if not really. You need some family, and I’m here… Kind of a dumb thing to say before going on a olo mission… Heh,” I grinned a little bit.
Looks like she was wrong. We’re not as smart and eloquently spoken as she thought we’d be. Oh well. Still, an improvement.
Desi returned my hug. “Understood. Experience high levels of desirable yet implausible probability.”
“Thanks,” I said as I turned to step through the mirror. “I’ll need the luck.”
I saw myself in the mirror portal. Just how I remembered from a few moments ago, except… Yeah, that was confidence and drive in my Sweetie Eyes. She was right. We should have done this years ago. No more fragments. No more stupid misunderstadnings.
Soooo… Before you go in there, hon, Dad said through my comm system. You know I’m alive now, just, somehow ghoulified into data or otherwise merged with the computers in the Crystal City, right?
Cool, I still have that fantasy too! I lied just to bug dad.
I hate everything… Dad grumbled.
Just pulling your leg dad. Sorry for being stupid. I was mostly emulating mom before this data dump. I think.
Dad laughed. Thank Celestia. You have no idea how annoying that got! Now, get in there and save the world… Then come save me. Please. I’m not in danger, I’m just trapped in a computer and your mom’s never gotten around to it...
No problem, I replied before taking another step forwards, raising my hoof to enter the sphere’s realm of influence and—
A klaxon blared through the rotting husks of buildings. It was loud, long, and low. A classic air raid siren. I stopped and turned my head to the sky, wondering if some ancient cloudships were about to drop bombs.
The sky was clear.
Then what—
A cultist ran up to us from behind, tripping the proximity sensors which I’d previously paid no attention to because ponies don't have those and I was stubbornly fixed on being something I was not.
“Get back!” The cultist shouted. “A great evil approaches! We failed to kill it in time! It is reflecting!”
Rainbow swore something under her breath. “Gears! Dive through, we’ll fall back!” she said as she began to run backwards, Desi hot on her tail. Uh, I mean, nose.
“Right!” I said and bunched my hind legs to jump through the portal.
I sprang, flying through the air, forehooves outstretched towards the mirror-like surface.
I mean the bright toxic green surface.
Oh… no…
A dark shape flew from the opening portal and slammed into me. We tumbled end over end, sailing away from the mirror-portal’s rim, bouncing along the ground twice, then skidded to a halt. The thing that hit me seemed to be a pony shaped mass of flesh, covered in thick, black, ichor blood.
I gathered my hooves beneath me to flick it off myself. It moved, twisting until a pair of blood red eyes looked into mine.
“Oh, hi Gears!” the blood pile said to me.
In Speed’s voice.
“What?!” Myself, Rainbow, Dash, and the Cultist asked at once.
Speed picked herself up, shook some of the blood off like a puppy getting out of a pond, then somehow pulled a sawed off double barreled shotgun to her from where it had lain next to the portal with telekinesis. Dull, red, evil looking, telekinesis.
“So I just got punted through that portal thingie by a really big angry thing that’s pissed cuz I killed its two friends because they're a really fun thing to kill right? So we should probably—”
“How did you survive?!” I snapped, one eye twitching th either wide open. “You got hit by a giant space rail gun that fires meteorites!”
Speed nod-nodded, and more of the blood fell off showing she’d apparently grown a small pair of horns.
Uh oh…
“Oh, no I didn’t die,” Speed explained excitedly. “When you die there’s like, a loading screen then you wake up in the lobby.”
I facehooved and remembered she was locked in a Dream Pod simulator her whole fillyhood…
Speed cleared her throat. “Sorry, some B-Negative got in my mouth and it tastes gross. Anyways, I’m pretty sure that Outside’s physics engine couldn’t handle that hit, and I got clipped through the map into the Tartarus level, which is AWESOME, by the way!”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the green portal was still open… and had grown, rather than contracted. I frowned for a moment, then realised Speed had said something kicked her out of the portal…
“Um, Speed?” I said, but she was on a roll.
“So I landed on this big like, meat-floor thing, and this deamonmare came over and was all flirty and shit and well, I had just been fighting so I was turned on and was like “Sure!” but it was a trick and she tried to eat me, so instead I ate her—”
A pair of massive, orange-red scaled and also leathery hide covered hands reached through the portal, grabbing the rim of the gateway about 3 meters above the ground.
My core skipped several cycles. “SPEED!” I yelped, activating my battle saddle to take aim.
“— Apparently that means you take over their body, I guess it’s a map or game mode thing? Anyways, I did that and started killing like, everything, because it’s a challenge and also fun, and then I ran into this one stallion who gave me a gun but didn’t say anything. So kinda like that Day-P mod for the Yildra simulation map—”
The monster attached to the hands poked its head through. It looked like the child of a dragon, a badger, and a crocodile. It’s literally burning orange eyes scanned around, then fixed on Speed. Also me.
“Speed.” I squeaked.
“A— and then I just keep shooting and killing things until that jerk bucked me through the portal,” Speed said before firing over her shoulder and hitting the monstrosity in the face.
It screeched and stepped all the way through, revealing an ape-like body with a back covered in six tentacles that dripped a greenish corrosive ooze.
The link to tartarus slammed shut behind it.
“— and now I’m back with one of my friends. Best weekend ever!” Speed finished before turning around and running headlong at the literal spawn of Tartarus with a loud happy eeeee. “Come on let’s split this one!”
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Ooooooooooof course Speed just fought her way through Tartarus . . . I should've seen this imminent return since the moment the nature of the Eye was mentioned. Of course, I am an exhausted dumb birb, so I didn't. Gears is now whole, which is good, but the prevention of the end of the world is delayed by Tartarean invasion, which is not. Now that Gears is whole and Swan is sane-ish, the forces of evil, stupid, and raw toast stand no chance!
Gears needs to deglove herself before going through the portal. That way she can meat-suit back up when she's done!
son of a ... you get the 20 bits.
So, the foreshadowing was there and I was even thinking of Speed with that new gun that Gears had just gotten, but I didn't expect a demonized Speed to face-tackle Gears from the portal.
...Just realized that Speed is going to be even more overpowered and unkillable since she fused with and overpowered (and ate) the demonic creature she first encountered in there. And of course she ran into the Doomslayer.
The bat is back!
Oh dear. Dash was reading the Postal Sorting machine manual by Bloody Stupid Johnson.
Eye cultists have got Oscellus class stealth there?
Yaay, not only is Speed back, but Doomguy gave her her demonceneara weapon?
That's one hell of an effective way to create a barrier. Kinda too effective though.
She failed as a nerd when she didn't use that moment to make a reference. Still happy for her though.
Ah, Speed... You shall never know true death. Rip and Tear little bat from hell, Rip and Tear.
Yay Speed! And it looks like she upgraded to full demon, this can only bode well for the wasteland
Wander and the griffin are heading to Lyra's factory, Rainbow, Gears and Desi are already there, the whole party is coming back together for the final boss level!
10412769
yeah, and Mom is on her way... Gigantic Meka-Godzilla-Pony of DOOM, and she's PISSED. Because she thinks Gears is 'offline', aka: deader than door nails. AND she's bringing along our favorite ex-wrestler, Cross-sexed, Hyper-Muscled, Stallion/Mare, along with literally dozens of Machine Spirits in her 'chorus'.
But... "YAY!!! Speedy is back!" Gotta love that 'Combat is the Ultimate Sex' Thestral mare. Figures that she would fight her way out of Tartarus. There is a reason I have, and do, love that mare. Aw, come on, it's easy... Thestral!
Lots of twists and turns yet to go, and Mr Filly Killer has no idea what's coming for him. Good.
Rhymer, the Frank Pony... just being my 'batty' self. :)
10412192 You're fine. My editor didn't and I even told him I planed on her being fine actually.
10412238 That would have worked, though it would also seriously reduce her performance capacity.
10412311 I only bet on sure things.
10412350 The fact she overpowered it implies the power gain is neglagable.
10412439 10412460 10413005 10412769 Glad you guys enjoyed things!
10412690
She did, the author didn't. Read the passage again then watch the music video :3
10414227
Oh, I didn't mean before. She wouldn't have been able to do the mission if she had done it before.
If she degloves now her pelt won't be harmed. :D
SPEED IS ALIVE! :D
I look forward to gale's elimination.
So... you could say she's a Speed demon now?
And of course the 89 degrees is what pisses gears off the most. *hugs gears*
And thus was Gears cursed, cursed to end up falling through the mirror portal
Or end up in Lab A
I suspect you'll find out soon enough
Hmm, that's pretty smart
Makes sense
Heh
Hi Speed, how was Tartarus?
So, do we call her Speed Demon now?
Like in two, or just kill it together
Sometimes, you just fail to realize something and just break the system. Looking at you Speed
10415896
10415942
That is a very good point
The city planning board vetoed the suggestion that they use 69 degree intersections. Something about the Ministry of Morale liking the idea too much...
This is one way to describe being atomized by Ponestein's Crowbar and sent to the afterlife destination for non-boring ponies...
10417482 In her defense, she was *literally* raised by videogames. She's probably amazed this was the first "Glitch" so far...
Lab A is Warehouse 13, apparently.
Interesting and ominous.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
In hindsight, it might have been a bad idea to jury-rig a dimensional portal mirror into a shield.
Well that seems bad.
That's helpful, Rainbow did want someone to talk to with a name or the equivalent.
Nice.
Huh. Tartarus, they say?
I never doubted her.
That's a bit of a problem.
A problem with a long delayed solution.
Hah! Finally.
Fantastic.
The horns are a good look, probably.
Okay, so if Speed and that demon just came out of the portal, we still have a problem of whatever great evil that that cultist was shouting about. Well, and the demon too, but I assume Speed will kill it.
10428086 Good to see you, DJ. How have you been?
10428150
Pretty good, just have a bit of a disrupted schedule because of the pandemic, a lot of my usual reading times don't exist where they used to.
Hey! Great updates! Hope all is going well for you.
10436982 A lot is going well, unfortunately there is a problem. See my latest blog post.
desi has taco, and Speed had fun! :3
I know this sounds trite... but one of the best lines in the entire story was made by Desi. "energy levels low, insert Taco". I STILL giggle about that. :)
cocked
can't
Solo or Yolo? :D
the other
Its
I am getting some Mass Effect vibes...
Hmmm... Weren't we just discussing this? I'll bet that Hell decides that this is a good time to send Speed back, because they sure don't want her there! :D
Speak of the minor demon...
The funny part is that I can't tell if she's wrong or not. I could see it that she somehow is actually running on game physics, and making a rocket jump into a hellgate seems like something she'd manage.
Also, of course she'd be a blood connoisseur. I forget if she originally was or not, but it fits either way!
Huh, I wonder who that might be
Yeah, that's her, alright. I wonder how everyone else is reacting to this? And I'm still not sure if it's her or the daemonhost that triggered all their warnings. Depending how much EXP she gained in there she might be scarier than the actual demons. I will note that she casually punted a massive one back through the portal...
RIP AND TEAR UNTIL IT IS DONE
Both. Both is good. Good job Speed.
EQG world portal? Is it now a portal to tartarus so gears can get speed back from the dead?