• Published 25th Feb 2019
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My battery is low, and it’s getting dark - Naughty_Ranko



The global dust storm of a century, the dying message of an indomitable robot, and a unicorn who just can’t let go of a mystery.

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17. The Battle of Everfree

Lightning struck in the distance, illuminating the five beings trekking through the Everfree Forest at night. To any long-time resident of Ponyville, it would have seemed like utter lunacy to be out under these conditions.

But they were on a mission, and none of them wasted a single thought on turning back.

“Try it again, maybe with more power?” Sunburst suggested, his lips drawn into a thin line as he watched the laptop that was being kept dry under his and Trixie’s cloaks.

“I’m at the limit of the system,” Trixie replied, biting her lip. “And more thaums won’t increase the range. We should be closer to where we picked up the earlier pings, but they just stopped.”

“Maybe he just got so far ahead of us that he moved out of range,” Spike ventured.

“Doubtful,” Trixie replied, looking around at the muddy forest floor, “he’s not the fastest to begin with. No, for some reason he’s no longer connected to the BSN. All we have to go on is the earlier bearing.” She pointed her hoof vaguely.

“It’s not much.”

“This way.” Everyone turned their attention to Maud who kept her head to the ground and was sniffing for something.

“Are you sure?”

The rocktologist nodded. “Perchlorates. It must be the sample bin he took.”

“It’s more than we had a moment ago,” Trixie determined and stowed the now useless laptop completely away under her cape. “Let’s go.”

For several minutes the rescue team moved deeper into the forest, led by Maud’s nose, until they were called to a halt at a clearing by Cranky. “I don’t like this,” the donkey said darkly.

Spike looked at him nervously. “What is it?”

Cranky pointed at several furrows in the ground. “Look. There’s the kid’s tire tracks. Two sets. One leading deeper into the forest, the other turning off here.” He pointed. “That’s the return track. He went the way we’ve been heading. Then he doubled back and passed through here again.”

Sunburst lowered his head to inspect the tracks as well, though he could not make out much. “How can you tell which is which?”

“First set is deeper,” Cranky explained. “Because he had the soil and the scrap with him. He was going to dump those. So the second set, which is shallower on account of the kid carrying less weight, must be the return track.”

“That’s good, right?” Spike was desperate for some good news at this point. “Maybe he’s heading back now that he’s done what he came here to do?”

Cranky clenched his jaw. “There’s a second set of tracks alongside his.” He pointed. “Timberwolves.”

Everyone went deathly quiet. “Maybe these are older?” Spike was still clinging to hope and wasn’t about to let it go.

“We can hope,” Cranky said, though he did not sound convinced in the least. “Come on.”

They doubled their pace as they followed Cranky through the night and doubled it yet again when the sounds of growls and crunching metal in the distance grew more and more distinct. When Cranky finally reached the edge of a slope, he stopped abruptly and waved for the others to keep their heads down.

“How many?” Trixie whispered as the rest of the group caught up to him and saw the timberwolves attacking their friend.

“I count six,” the donkey replied just as quietly. “We have to act fast. We have the element of surprise, but there’s still a lot of them.”

Trixie thought for a moment. “I have an idea.” Turning to Sunburst she asked: “What’s the most distracting thing you can think of?”

Down by the boulder, the pack was continuing their grisly work, seemingly whipped into a frenzy by the slow progress of their assault.

Then suddenly, the pack looked up as a female voice seemed to come from several directions at once. “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!” “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow!”

“Seriously, that’s what you landed on?” Trixie asked, her face locked in concentration as she cast her Throw Voice spell on a continuous loop in every possible direction.

“I find her highly distracting,” the wizard defended his choice while keeping up with her casting speed to supply the illusion of his mother’s voice.

The timberwolves kept turning, unable to pinpoint the source of the interruption and clearly confused.

“It’s working. Charge!” Spike leapt down the hill, followed silently by Cranky and Maud. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the path was still slippery. Thankfully, he had his wings to fall back on while the other two were kept on their hooves by years of outdoor experience. The young dragon weaved into a spot between the wolves and his friend, dropped down and let loose a breath of flame. “Leave him alone!”

To his left, Maud spun and used her earth pony strength to buck one of the wolves in the head. To his right, Cranky was less graceful as he simply body-slammed his opponent.

“Opi! Can you hear me? Can you move? Opi!?” Spike took on two or three at a time, the wolves instinctively shying away from his fiery breath. Unfortunately, the dampness in the air and all around lessened the effectiveness of his attacks considerably. It was all he could do to keep them at bay. “Opi!”

Starting to wise up about the distraction, the wolves began to turn their attention back to the rover and its three protectors, playing to their strength in numbers.

Realizing that the usefulness of their spells had worn off, Trixie and Sunburst also charged down the hill, blasting the wolves with their magic as they went and drawing up alongside their three friends in a protective semi-circle around Opportunity. “Get up, Bolt Bucket,” Trixie yelled over her shoulder while loosening another magic bolt. “Starlight is waiting for you back home!”

Unfortunately, Opportunity remained silent and unmoving. What was even worse, the five would-be rescuers were now being cornered themselves.

Blasts of dragon flame and unicorn magic struck and splintered off limbs that regenerated momentarily. Cranky or Maud would sometimes land a blow that completely destroyed a wolf, but then it reassembled itself just as quickly.

Their attacks remained probing for the moment, but the pack was repositioning themselves, encircling them and cutting off all retreat.

“Great,” Cranky grumbled. “Could this day get any worse?”

Both sides suddenly went quiet as enormous, heavy footsteps drew closer, the sounds of battle having attracted yet another one of the Everfree Forest’s Apex Predators. Within a few heartbeats, the three heads of a hydra loomed large over the treetops.

“You had to ask, didn’t you?” Maud dead-panned.

“Oh, come on!” Spike was spreading his arms and yelling at the heavens. “For once, how about some enormous monster drops out of the sky that’s on OUR side!?”

Again, the entire scene changed drastically when an impact that dwarfed the earlier arrival of the three-headed hydra shook the earth, rattling the teeth of the Ponyville group and momentarily dispersing the timberwolves with its shockwave alone.

The forest known for its spooky noises at night reeled in silence from the impact. Everything was still. Even the rain had stopped falling, seemingly in awe of the new arrival as the clouds parted and moonlight shone on his wet skin with an eerie reflection.

From its kneeling position, the enormous hulk of the being that had seemingly answered Spike’s call rose. The very Spirit of the Planet Mars, given form by human imagination and made flesh by Equestrian magic, drew himself up to his full height. Red eyes stared first at the broken rover, then turned in full force on the creature.

“You try hurt Friend Opportunity,” the giant said slowly in his rumbling voice as his hand shot forward with blinding speed and closed around the hydra’s middle neck. “Mars Smash!”

The hydra let loose a roar, its remaining two heads wrapping themselves around his arms and legs and biting down wherever they found exposed skin. Unflinching, and with one hand still around the middle neck, Mars lifted his fist and struck. And again. And again. Blow by blow, the God of War went to work, not so much brawling as hammering away at his opponent like a smith would at a particularly stubborn piece of iron.

Spike got his bearings when the wolves that still surrounded his group began to reform themselves. “Alright, good start,” he called out. After all, it had worked once, so perhaps … “For an encore, how about the actual Power Ponies showing up?”

“Shadow Patrol! Aggrediamus!” Pharynx’ voice thundered from the heavens as he led his team through the treetops and into combat. “Gabby, you’re on point!”

“Roger that, Cap!” With her superior eyesight, the young griffon took the lead, flying so low that her belly almost touched the forest floor. Tibia and Pharynx, having changed into bugbears, followed close behind in a V-formation. Gabby would indicate a target with her wingtip, and one of them would strike out with their claws to strike down the wolf that was about to snap its jaws around her without fail. The griffon never even looked back, fully trusting her teammates to have her back. After they’d dispatched three enemies like that, they turned sharply and attacked again before the timberwolves had time to even properly put themselves back together, never breaking formation.

Meanwhile, Garble had landed on the ground. “G-String!” he shouted. “Formation Hammer & Sickle!”

“10-4, G-Man!” Gilda confirmed and took up position above him.

Garble would run towards a single timberwolf at a time, dropping down at the last possible moment and sliding through the mud. When he was right under the belly of the beast, he would kick upwards with his legs, vaulting the beast into the air. At that precise moment, Gilda would move in and strike out with her razor-sharp talons to decapitate the magical construct.

“Close enough,” Spike breathed in disbelief.

Time and again, Shadow Patrol’s teamwork made short work of the wooden beasts as they kept reassembling themselves. They had spent weeks of traveling together, first tracking Mars, then escorting him back to Hook Beak Pass and now here. They’d gotten on each others’ nerves. They’d fought with each other, laughed with each other, and they’d also trained with each other.

There wasn’t a one among them who hadn’t at one point cursed Pharynx for enforcing a strict training regimen, not even Tibia. But now, all those experiences came together in brutal efficiency as they coordinated their assault almost without the need for words.

In a final bid to turn the fight back in their favor, all the enchanted pieces of wood drew themselves together into the form of one giant wolf.

Shadow Patrol assembled together, drawing up in a new line around the Ponyville team which in turn had never yielded in their defensive positioning around Opportunity.

The beast growled, fangs dripping with a slimy green substance, as those sickly green eyes shone in the dark. Then, two even more terrifying red eyes appeared over its shoulder, and Mars picked the alpha wolf, who could only respond with a surprised howl, up with one hand.

In the distance, the unconscious form of the hydra could be seen lying amidst trees that had been broken like matchsticks. Although bloodied from vicious bites and scratches, the God of War stood triumphant.

“Bad puppy,” he said and threw the wolf several hundred meters until it hit a large boulder and broke into pieces with a pitiful yelp. This time, perhaps by choice, the pieces did not move again. “No hurt Friend Opportunity while Mars here.”

Once again, silence engulfed the forest until Tibia pointed at the hydra and said: “I feel kinda bad for that thing.”

“Yeah,” Gabby agreed with a rueful smile, “it hadn’t even done anything yet.”

“What were you thinking?” Pharynx had called Garble and Gilda to attention and was preparing to give them the dressing down of their lives. “You were carrying him on the way here! You both were boasting that you could lift him across the Everfree with just the two of you! How could you just drop the big guy like that?”

“He told us to,” Garble replied weakly.

Gilda nodded to confirm her comrade’s story. “Yeah, said someone called Serendipity told him that Opportunity was in trouble. Though I didn’t hear it.”

“Neither did I. But you don’t exactly say ‘no’ to the big guy when he asks you a favor,” Garble finished. He then noticed the Ponyville group over the shoulder of his boss. “Oh hey, Pee-Wee. What brings you here? I hope you’re not getting my sister into trouble.”

Spike, still gob-smacked from the events, could think of no better response than to wave at the other dragon.

Pharynx turned to also take stock of the actual situation. When he’d led his team into combat earlier, he’d literally fallen back on old instincts. Noticing Trixie, he said: “Ah, the blue one.” He turned his head a couple of times to look around for any more ponies. “Where is your better half?”

“Indisposed at the moment,” Trixie managed to reply. “And what brings you here this fine evening?”

Pharynx nodded towards Opportunity. “Him, apparently.”

Mars had knelt down over his friend, his shaking hands hovering over the damaged rover. “Friend Opportunity. Mars here. Please, Friend Opportunity speak. Friend Opportunity?”

Trixie arched an eyebrow. Pharynx simply shrugged. “They appear to know each other. The big guy tore up half the Badlands looking for his friend.”

The unicorn nodded in understanding. “Yeah, the little guy has that effect on people.” Unafraid, she walked up to Mars and laid a hoof on his thigh. “You’re his friend as well, huh?”

Mars nodded, his huge hands still hovering over the rover but afraid to actually touch him for fear of doing more damage. “You Opportunity friend? Then Mars friend. Please, help Opportunity. Fix.”

Trixie shook her head sadly as everyone assembled around them, seeing the full extent of the damage Opportunity had suffered for the first time in their entire horror. One of Oppy’s PanCam eyes had been torn from its socket and was hanging by a single wire. Bits and pieces of the solar panels had been broken off. Gouges in his sides showed exposed wires and circuit boards, and the rover wasn’t moving. “I’m afraid I can’t. But I know somepony who can. Will you help us take him to her?”

Mars nodded. He cupped his hands to either side of his fallen friend, scooping several pails’ worth of dirt up along with the rover to make sure he could lift him safely. “Mars help. Blue pony lead way. Then blue pony help Opportunity.”

Trixie nodded, turning back toward Ponyville as the silent procession of her friends, Shadow Patrol and the being known as Mars followed her, carrying Opportunity back home along with them.


“This is really bad.” For a long time those remained the only spoken words in Starlight’s workshop, said by Princess Twilight Sparkle who had returned with Star Swirl the Bearded and Mage Meadowbrook after gathering the last of the ingredients that would hopefully aid Starlight in her recovery.

After their return from the Everfree, Spike’s group and Shadow Patrol had brought the battered and broken rover here and gathered the entire household sans Starlight, the two Pillars and Sunset who were supposed to watch over the former.

Everyone wanted to help, yet nobody knew where to even begin. Oppy was completely unresponsive. He hadn’t shown any reaction despite numerous tries. No word, no touch, not even a direct signal over the Binary Sparkle Network would elicit a reaction from the rover.

“Starlight!” Everypony looked towards the door as Twilight tried and failed to block Starlight’s view of Oppy’s sorry state. “You really should be in bed. I … I’m not sure you’re ready to see this.”

Starlight wordlessly walked past her mentor, and Twilight neither said nor did anything else to stop her. Sunset gave her an apologetic smile. She’d no doubt tried to keep Starlight in bed, but hadn’t been willing to go as far as Trixie had previously. The room was still while Starlight, with a disheveled mane and dark rings under her eyes, shakily walked up to her battered and broken friend, falling to her knees in front of him.

Her horn ignited as everyone watched in silence, engulfing the toolbox on the nearby workbench in her magic aura, pulling it toward her. But her magic hadn’t regenerated enough to hold the weight, so the toolbox came crashing down immediately, spilling its contents all over the floor.

She picked out a screwdriver, the tool light enough to actually be levitated towards her, and feebly started to work the screws on a panel at Oppy’s side, her grip slipping with every other turn of the tool.

“Oh, for pony’s sake!” Trixie was the one to break the onlookers out of their saddened silence. “Give me that!”

“Back off,” Starlight hissed as Trixie dropped down next to her. “Don’t you dare put me to sleep again. I’m doing this.”

Trixie gave her friend a hard stare and forcibly removed the tool from her magic grip. She continued to stare even as she wordlessly used it to unscrew the panel and removed it, having to pry the bent metal away from the chassis at one point. “Tell Trixie what to do. I know you’re the only one who can fix him. But your magic is still weak. So leave the grunt work to me.”

Starlight sniffed, swiping the tears she didn’t realize until now were there from the corners of her eyes. “There … I need you to reach in with your magic to the left of that opening … and carefully pull the plug that’s there. That’s the power cable that connects the solar panels to the circuit board. We need to check it for damage or breaks.”

“Right,” Trixie confirmed with a nod. “Start with the power supply. Smart.”

Sunset Shimmer, being the second one to break out of the funk that had engulfed the room prior to Starlight’s appearance, stomped a hoof onto the ground to get everyone’s attention. “What are you all standing around for? Spike, get something to write with. Whatever Starlight and Trixie do, no matter how small, you will write it down, so we know exactly what goes where when we put him back together.”

“Yes, of course!” Spike replied as he gathered a notepad and pen.

“Twilight,” Sunset went on.

“”Yes!”” Two voices answered, followed by an alicorn and a unicorn looking at each other.

“My Twilight,” Sunset clarified, pointing at the human turned unicorn, “I’ll get to you in a minute. Twilight, you go back through the portal and gather the girls. I want you to hit every electronics shop, hardware store and scrapyard that’s still open at this hour. We need electrical wire, screws, nuts, bolts …"

“… replacement circuitry boards. And a soldering iron! We may be able to save some of Oppy’s own circuitry that way,” Twilight finished the thought herself, already heading for the portal room.

“That’s my girl. Sunburst.” She turned to the stallion. “You know crystals. We’re going to need some in case we have to completely rebuild Oppy’s power source with magitech. The best ones come from the Crystal Empire.”

“Got it,” Sunburst replied, thoughtfully stroking his beard. “I know the perfect cave. But it’ll take me some time to get there and back.”

“Twilight will teleport you. You can do that, right?”

“Yes,” the alicorn confirmed. “For two ponies, I’ll be able to manage a direct trip to the Empire. What else do you need from me?”

“As soon as you’ve dropped him off, get back here and head to your lab. Pick out the most independently operational of the arms you’ve made and put the finishing touches on it.”

“Got it,” Twilight confirmed and readied her teleport spell.

“Wait, there’s one more thing I need from Sunburst before you leave,” Sunset said, holding up a hoof. She looked at the stallion. “Go on a date with me after this is all over? A real date, I mean.”

“I … uh … what?” He spluttered his response before mentally coming to grips with what she was asking. “I mean, sure!”

“Great,” Sunset said with a grin, lowering her hoof. “Off you go.”

Sunset was about to turn and start helping out Starlight and Trixie when she was stopped by a small changeling hoof. “Excuse me, Miss. My tall friend would like to know if there’s anything he can do to help?” Tibia asked, pointing towards the lone window of the workshop.

The unicorn looked at the small window through which the two red eyes of the enormous being that could not fit into the castle stared anxiously. She walked up to him and saw his lone finger that lay on the windowsill. It was almost as big as her, a far cry from what the delicate repair work called for.

“Mars help,” he rumbled.

Sunset patted the giant digit. “You already helped plenty by finding Oppy and bringing him here. Just … be here for him when he wakes up. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see his friend. Leave the rest to us.” Sunset turned and grabbed the laptop to get started on writing a set of start-up commands to send to Oppy via the Binary Sparkle Network upon the completion of Starlight’s repairs. She stopped. Without turning around and with her eyes hidden under her mane, she said to Mars: “Also, I don’t know if you believe in any gods. But if you do, this might be a good time to call in any outstanding favors.”