Glintlock - Part Two
While Median Park isn't the only recreational area that Manehattan has, it's by far the largest. Hundreds of acres lie almost squarely in the middle of the city, with enough space for virtually any activity under the sun. Tall trees, grassy fields, hoofmade streams and creeks, nature trails, playgrounds, picnic areas... if I didn't have a child to find and a griffon to catch, you can bet I would be trying to wax lyrical right now. This, bar none, is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life. It's what everyone back home needs to aspire to.
All that, and I haven't gone very far into the park yet.
Not far from where I entered, my radar is warning me about a freshly disturbed patch of ground that seems out of place next to the path. Had I not been using said radar, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Easily handled, I think to myself, utilizing my powers to shape a fairly bulky chunk of ice. Once it's fully formed, I toss it onto the dirt and stand back.
A net immediately rises out of the ground and hoists the cube into the air, wrapping itself around the ice. A moment later, a volley of crossbow bolts perforate the cube from multiple angles, causing it to crack and break apart.
It would be a tossup as to whether such a trap would have really harmed me, but since it was probably intended for Gray, points for effort anyway. Keeping the radar active in case of a follow-up attempt, I take a few moments to take the net down. A combination of the radar and simple mathematics lets me extrapolate the positions of the crossbows, and I only need to stab once to render each of them useless.
A swarm of Magiflies attracted by the noise fly towards me. These look modified from the ones I've seen previously, being green and blue instead of orange and pink (and having smaller eyes on top of that). Their tiny limbs have been lengthened and reshaped into curved hooks, with a larger one extending from the end of their abdomens. Not that they're able to use them against me: a four-second blast of Arctic Pulse immobilizes them, and a single slash smashes them apart. A tiny glowing shard salvaged from one of them restores some of the energy that required.
Just a hunch, but maybe this variety helped Glintlock set up these traps? Aside from the design differences looking like they would allow the Magiflies to carry small objects, I don't feel like he would have been able to cover the entire park on his own. I'll have to keep my eyes open for more of these.
With that distraction out of the way, I return to a bulletin board that had been posted near where the trap had been set. Behind a pane of glass is a map, among other things, giving a basic outline of the park's paths and attractions. It's enough to make me whistle; even with the radar helping me, this is a lot of ground to cover. The foal could be anywhere, and the chances of her wandering into danger are increasing with each passing minute. ...
Something's growling from close by. Another drone? I don't remember them making much noise.
But turning towards the source of the growls, I'm reminded that I still have a fair bit to learn. The creature giving me an unnerved and upset look from the shelter of a bush is large, brown-and-white, and looks like some sort of giant weasel. I swear to X, if it tries to bite my leg, nature and I are going to have words. "Oh, relax," I tell it, not expecting it to understand. "Give me a moment to get my bearings, and I'll be out of your fur."
But Equestria has decided to surprise me once again: apparently wild animals around here are smarter than they would have been back home. The creature jerks its head at the trap I'd dismantled, then at the drones I'd just destroyed. It opens its mouth and does its level best to communicate using a combination of squeaks, growls, and huffs.
I don't speak 'weasel', but I can least guess at what it's trying to say. "I suppose you want me to get those things out of your territory?"
The creature is silent for a few seconds before moving its forelegs in an approximation of a shrug. I'm getting 'close enough' vibes from that gesture.
"In that case, maybe you can help me," I suggest to it. "You might have seen the path through your territory being blockaded earlier. Did you happen to see a foal enter past it within the last few hours? Give me two sounds for 'yes', and one for 'no'."
The weasel... seems to be considering my question. Without really knowing how to interpret its movements, I have to fall back on guesswork. Finally it emits two short growls and lifts one paw, gesturing at a split in the path fifteen yards distant.
"Thank you," I tell it, bowing ever so slightly. "Once I've found the foal and caught my own prey, I'll make sure your territory is safe." There's nothing else that I have to say, so I'd better get back to work.
...
Fifteen minutes and a few more disarmed traps later, I grimace as what had happened fully sinks in. Talking to wild animals and expecting them to talk back. Leviathan, you're not going to be making any waves back home anytime soon.
"Lookit her, worried about what her Cutie Mark's gonna be!"
"She's obsessing over that way-hay-hayyy too much!"
"Hey, look at mine! I bet you wish you had one of these, don't you?! Ha-ha-ha!"
The foal didn't get why she'd been having a bad day up to his point. Normally, the teasing she got from her peers and other children her age was... well, not good-natured, but at least they weren't inclined to push it for more than a little bit. Today, something seemed to have lit a fire under them. She didn't understand why, nor did she make any connection to the sudden loud noises that she'd heard the evening before.
If she had, she would have realized that the spike in ridicule wasn't due to any real animosity. Those around her were more in the know as to local events, and they were worried that they would be next. Due to not knowing any better, the teasing they had subjected her to today was their way of coping. Of trying to get rid of the fear that their home was in danger, that the certainties of life weren't quite so certain anymore.
Even if she had known, it wouldn't have made her life any easier. After one comment that struck her as vicious, she decided that she'd had enough. Snapping at them to leave her alone, she'd left them behind for Median Park, her favorite place in the city. Maybe there she'd be able to get a few moments of peace, she'd thought.
She was too worked up to pay attention to the Police ponies guarding the entrances when she arrived, and neither did she pay any attention when the officers made their failed attempt at bringing her back. She didn't care about any of that. She just wanted to get some solitude, somewhere away from those that decided mocking her was their idea of a good time. As such, she made her way to a specific playground that she knew about, parked herself on a colorful roundabout in one corner, and settled down to brood.
It took a while before she finally realized that she was alone. Barring a few animal noises, the Park around her was very quiet. At this time of year Manehattan's schools wouldn't have been in session, so there should have been more foals her age running around and having fun. Adults who probably didn't have to work until the afternoon would have been around to keep them in line. There was no sign of either. Where is everypony?
Her ears twitched as she heard a loud, violent-sounding ruckus from somewhere nearby. She didn't want to be around those who bothered her, but she didn't want to be alone with noises like that, either. Hearing a soft rumble, she knew that it was time for her to eat. Jumping off the roundabout, she decided to make tracks for home, blowing a stray hair out of her eyes as she went.
...Or at least she would have gone home, if somepony hadn't jumped directly in her path. "Young lady?" the foal was told, the figure who'd spoken standing straight. "I'm here to get you out of the Park. It's not safe here."
The foal recoiled out of fear and awe, shuffling backwards a few steps. "The robot from the paper!" she cried out, eyes temporarily swapped out for saucers. "Stay away from me!"
Leviathan started to take a step towards her, but thought better of it. The weapon she was holding vanished before the foal's eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you," she explained, stooping down to better speak to her. "A criminal's taken over the park. I've been asked by the Police to get you out."
"And I'm just supposed to believe that?" the foal protested. "I didn't see any Police!"
"You seriously didn't notice the ponies in uniforms standing on either side of a barricade that said 'Caution: Do Not Cross' in large letters?" Leviathan informed her. "They were right out in plain sight, little pony. Kind of hard to miss."
The foal racked her memory, trying to remember anything. As she struggled to think, she had a dim recollection of somepony calling for her to come back when she'd arrived at the park, but... "I was upset at the time," she said, her face souring like unsweetened lemonade as she recalled how she'd felt when she arrived. "I just wanted to be alone. I..." It hurt to say this, but she forced herself to anyway. "I wasn't paying attention."
Leviathan looked around, searching for something she didn't know about, then refocused on her. "I'm not an expert, but talking about it would probably help," she suggested, her tone surprisingly gentle for somepony much bigger than herself. "How about it?"
The foal considered this. Well, it's not like anypony else is here to talk to me about it...
I'm lingering at the playground for a little bit. I probably shouldn't be delaying, but it will be easier for me to escort the child back where I entered if she has her head screwed on straight. Wandering off when she's unable to focus isn't going to help anypony.
The child's seated at the bottom of a slide, with me on the grass next to it. She's introduced herself as 'Babs Seed', and she's apparently having difficulties with her peers. Mockery, bullying, and the like. I'm not sure what possessed me to stop and talk to her, considering I'm in the middle of a mission, but it's beginning to look like a good thing I did. It seems like she needed somepony to talk to.
Now, it's been previously established that I'm not a psychologist. My initial interactions with this world's denizens should have given that much away. I'm not qualified to solve the problems of the world. It doesn't look like that's what she wants at the moment, though. For now, she just needs somepony to talk to. Somepony who won't mock her for not manifesting their destiny on their sides.
Speaking strictly for myself as an outsider to their society, I feel like the term "blank flank" is a misnomer. If her peers can't see all of that potential, then her peers need to grow up.
On my way in, I'd destroyed another swarm of those modified Magiflies. My radar's picked up on the presence of another set of them east-by-southeast of my present position. They haven't tried to interrupt Babs' heart-to-heart, instead patrolling around the perimeter of the playground beyond the trees. I don't think she even knows that they are there.
I still don't believe that Glintlock's refraining from victimizing her. What sort of game is he playing?
"...After he said that," Babs is complaining, her tail twitching now and then, "I just couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to be alone, so I went over here. Why does everypony have to be so mean?"
"I'm not mean," I point out. Mean to my enemies, maybe, but not to children.
"Everypony my age," she elaborates. "Grownups are cool, I guess..." She eyes me curiously. "Are you a grownup? Can robots grow up?"
"That's... complicated," I tell her, wondering how to explain the process of memory uploading to her. There were provisions for Reploids with smaller bodies if they wanted to relocate to larger ones, though I don't know if they're still current. Or for that matter, if they're among the provisions that Copy X let slide.
Babs is not impressed. "You don't know, do you?"
"Now, I didn't say that," I defend myself. "I just don't know how to explain it to adult ponies, never mind foals. Back home, you can at least expect that the other party would get it if I told them. Around here, it's not so easy."
"What do you mean?"
"When biological beings grow up, they don't stop to think about it. It just happens without them needing to say or do anything besides staying healthy. When a Reploid wants to grow up, there's a number of different procedures that they have to go through. They've got to have an entirely new body built, get their minds transferred to the new bodies, have their old bodies either properly disposed of or prepared for a new mind to be placed... It's easier for us if we're built with adult bodies and minds from the start so we can just get it over with." Which makes me wonder if those who have child-sized Reploids constructed consider this process at all.
Babs stares at me for a time, one eye half-closed and the other wide open. This is I-Don't-Get-It in its purest form. "...You're right," she finally says. "That is complicated."
I concur, and this is my own race we're talking about here. "Kyahahaha! Compared to Reploids, you ponies have it easy. The worst you have to worry about is 'when do I get my Cutie Mark'. You all know that sooner or later, you will get it. If that was our only major concern back home, nailing down our lots in life would be so much easier."
Hearing that brightens Babs's mood for a moment, but only for a moment. "It would still be nice if ponies didn't make fun of me, though."
"Oh, no question," I agree. As it happens... "I know a few ponies who shouldn't make fun of you, if you're willing to trust me on this."
Babs hesitates. "...Mom and Dad say I shouldn't just trust random strangers," she says.
Sage advice, but I still take offense towards half of it. 'Stranger', yes. 'Random', I am not. That's Gray. "You trust the Royal Police, right?"
"Well, yeah," Babs affirms. "I don't know anypony at school who doesn't."
"The Police hired me specifically to bring you out," I explain. Just in case she forgot me telling her about it when we met. "I don't know how I can prove it to you, though. They didn't give me any visual proof to offer that I was working with them, such as something with their emblem. All I can really give you is my word."
Babs seems like she's thinking hard about this, but not in a way that's conducive towards getting her out. "I don't know..."
"Well, think about it for a bit," I say with a shrug. "I have to talk to my helpers for a moment." I test for frequencies, trying to find the one that will connect me with those waiting outside the park. "Maverick? This is Leviathan. Do you read me?"
-"Sure do,"- Maverick... groans? What happened? -"That radio screeched right in my ear just now and spooked me. I managed to hit my head on a tree branch."-
Oh. "That was probably me. Sorry. Anything new since I entered the park?"
-"We had to turn away a few visitors from this entrance, but that's it,"- Maverick confirms, still sounding a bit grouchy. -"How about you, boss? Did you find the foal?"-
"Yes, she's safe, but she wants proof that I'm working with the Police. I doubt she's going to leave with me otherwise, and I don't feel she'll be safe on her own with that hunter around."
"Hunter?" Babs asks, sounding worried. I ignore her for the moment.
-"Oooof. Tricky,"- Maverick grouses. -"None of us can come in to talk to her. ...Unless..."-
"Got an idea there, Mav?"
-"I might,"- she says. -"Is your radio built into your head or your helmet?"-
"The helmet. Why?"
-"I'm just thinking that if you held your helmet near her, one of the boys here should be able to talk to her,"- Maverick suggests, and I still wish her real name had been something else. -"Preferably somepony good with kids."-
Hmm... I don't want to take off my helmet in the middle of a mission, but I am close enough to Babs that she can just lean over a little to listen in. I'd say it's worth a try.
And speaking of Babs, she's looking anxious. "Who are you talking to? And what's this about a hunter?"
I'm a little bit annoyed that she's interrupting, but I may as well humor her. "You remember how I said a criminal had taken over the park?"
"I think so. Why? Is that the hunter?"
...
...
A few moments of simplified explanation on his backstory later, Babs is very, very confused. "Why is he hunting in Median Park? You can find animals like these anywhere!"
"Because he's hunting either me or a pony that acts like a cat," I tell her, "and he's not picky as to which one he gets." Or is that a cat that acts like a pony? After seeing Juniper Leaf's journal, I think it could be either at this point. "He's willing to break the law to do it, and he's why the park is so empty. Aside from getting you out, I've also been asked to capture him and give him to the Police. The sooner I destroy his traps and get him out, the sooner the park can open for everypony again."
"Okay... that makes sense," Babs admits. "But who were you talking to? I thought you were talking to the air at first!"
"Like I said, my helpers."
Exasparation fills the atmosphere with one word: "How?!"
"With radios," I explain. I'll spare her the technical details. "You know those little black things that attach to a pony's ear? You might have seen a Police officer or two walking around with those sometimes. They let ponies make themselves be heard over long distances. For a city as big as Manehattan, they're needed to help the Police respond to big problems quickly."
"That's what those things are?" she exclaims, surprised. "I always thought they were just ugly earrings!"
-"...'Ugly earrings'?"- Maverick mutters. Don't ask me how it's possible, but I think I heard her eye twitch over the line.
"Hee... you're not too far off the mark." I barely managed to prevent another burst of laughter there. "As I told them, I've got one of them right here." I tap my helmet at the appropriate location. "So if it looks like I'm talking to thin air, that's actually the reason why. I'm not insane."
"...That's some very awkward headgear you've got there," Babs says. "I don't get why you put up with it."
I think she's starting to open up a little. Maybe getting her to talk to those out front won't be needed. "I have to. You've seen that special edition of the Minutes from a few weeks ago, so you already know that it helps me fight and swim. You're right, it does make things awkward in cramped areas, but it's really only difficult if I need to take a carriage somewhere." My face is warming up. Please don't notice, please don't notice...
Babs' face---which on a personal note looks as if it was built for sarcasm---shifts towards concern. "Are you okay? You're blushing."
She noticed, X blast it. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You're sure? Because if you're not feeling well---"
"I said I don't want to talk about it," I warn her a trifle testily, one hand on the side of my face she's looking at.
Babs considers it... then smiles. Oh, no... I recognize that look. Zig-Zag and Pure Energy get that same look on their faces whenever they're feeling playful. "Didn't I just get done talking to you about my problems? It can't be worse than what I've gone through."
"I'm not going to play the 'my problem is worse than yours' game, Miss Seed," I answer with the slightest bit of heat.
"It's not a game," she insists. "I just want to know. C'mon, tell me."
"No."
"Tell me!"
"No."
"Tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme-tellme---!"
Children, for the love of---! "Alright, fine! If you must know, I wasn't watching what I was doing and started scratching my helpers behind the ears on the way here! THERE! Happy?!"
...
My credibility just shrieked in terror. I got outplayed by a child, and she knows it. Never mind me raising my voice to a few decibels below straight-up shouting: she's smiling like she's won a lifetime supply of her favorite snacks. "Babs, I swear on my creator's name that it wasn't what it looked like," I groan past my palm.
"You know what? You're pretty cool," Babs replies, seeming more upbeat. "I don't mind hanging out with you for a bit."
...What? "That was what changed your mind?" I ask, incredulous.
"What can I say?" She reaches over and taps my arm. "You're funny for a robot." She climbs up my arm and uses the helmet's fins to boost herself up onto my head. "C'mon, let's go! Back to where I came in, right?"
Never, for as long as I live, will I ever understand children. They're about as flaky as your average bowl of cereal. "...Yeah," I manage to say, getting to my feet and leaving the playground at a fast walk. My eyes flick from side to side as I re-activate my Radar. "Let's just get this over with." I sigh to myself. "The other Guardians are never going to let me live this down."
"Aw, don't be mad!" Babs 'encourages' me, holding on tight to my helmet. She does her best to imitate my voice. "'I'm not mean!' 'I'm not insane!' 'I'm not blushing!' You did say all that, right?"
I roll my eyes in what I hope is a good-natured way. "That's a terrible impression."
-"But not inaccurate!"-
"Maverick, why are you still listening?!"
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
1,028 users online
1,638,222 hits today, 2,167,270 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Seriously cops you couldn't physically grab a filly. Facepalm.
Andni got that reference
Good to see Part 2 is up, and we now have Babs Seed. That does, of course, bring up a question. Will she tell her family about Leviathan?
And I had another question that popped into my mind when I was thinking. If Leviathan had "causal" clothes, what would you dress her in? I know we have never seen her without her armor, but I'm curious about what you would choose.
11406789
To their credit, they at least tried to catch her. Thing is, asking unarmored ponies to go up against repeating crossbows is a bit of a hard sell. ()^_^
And I'm glad someone got it.
11406826
Quite possibly. And if she won't, then it's likely that those she's living with will.
Hmm... thinking about it... I suppose in keeping with the whole water-and-ice theme she has going, maybe a blouse and a knee-length skirt in her colors. Maybe earrings in the shape of ice shards, a set of low boots... that's my best guess, anyway. That's just what I'd pick, though, so I have no idea what she'd commission from Bossa Nova.
Nomater the spices or gender, children are divius.
11406882
i mean before she got close enough to be in danger
11407048
See previous answer. For the officers to have set off the crossbows trying to catch her, she already would've been in danger to begin with.
11407182
crossbows do have a range limit. I am sayign grabbing her before she gets into that range
11407239
Kind of hard to do when they don't know where the crossbows are situated. Look at Part One carefully: there's no mention of Glintlock setting everything up until after the Park was emptied of civilians and barricaded. No one else entered after that point until Babs arrived. To put it simply: the Police had no prior intelligence when they made their retrieval attempt; they didn't know to get Babs out of range, because they didn't know there was a range.
11407262
but accordign to this chapter she literally walked passed the blockade. so Iam askign why didn't they grab her before she got pass that.
11407286 You're missing the point. They couldn't have grabbed her in time because she already slips past while they were dealing with other ponies. But they didn't notice her until after she got past the barricade.
Sorry to butt in, but this was available for everyone to see.
11407301
Maybe i missed that. Ots a minor issue.
11439185
It would make for a funny little moment
11439566
It was marvelously done
I hate to say it, but I have to. Sorry about this.
Is the next chapter coming anytime soon?! I'm starting to get bored with waiting. I'm still holding on, but I'm not sure if I can hold off for much longer. I'm trying, but it's started to get to me.
Look, I'm not being mean. It's just been almost two months since the last chapter. I'm sure I'm not the only person waiting. I just wish the next chapter will come out already.
I'm sorry if my words come off as mean.
11443601
...They kind of are, yeah. But to answer your question, I'm still chiseling away at it. Word by word, sentence by sentence.
I do the bulk of my story writing on my laptop at work, and I missed most to all of four days last week due to illness (half-day on Monday, missed Tuesday and Wednesday, half-day on Thursday). And even without that, my mind has not been in the right state for writing these past few months. I'm sorry if you're getting impatient, but I have my own slew of problems to deal with right now.
Maybe I could've finished it sooner if I was healthy, maybe not. I don't know.
(Is the story really that good that it makes people wonder about updates? I figured I was doing something right after the first few chapters, but I didn't anticipate this.)
Flustered Levi is funniest Levi!
Also wasn't expecting Babs to show up!
Heh, children