Chapter Four: Sunburns
Chapter Four: Sunburns
Twilight woke up to a pleasant morning.
Mist covering the mountains slopes, cold nip in the fresh air. She felt better, reinvigorated. A weight lifted off her shoulders. She went with a spring in her step, ready to conquer anything the Rimworld threw her way.
Sentiment not shared within the crew.
“You know, fuck defenses, Im building us some houses right now.”
Crown looked utterly miserable. Somehow even worse than yesterday. And tad overdramatic, slapping his hands on the table for effect hard enough to shake her bowl of cornflakes. But his words didn't go unheard. King and Knight echoed their apparent, if less enthusiastic, agreement. In their defense, it's hard to be enthusiastic about anything while looking like freshly dug out corpses forced to walk the day again.
“Common, it's not that bad,” argued Lilith.
“You would say that, but that's only because you and Twilight have half of the stupid hall for yourself.”
“It's more like a third,” Twilight clarified. The human sense of decency had been a strange concept. That it demanded that they divide the barracks between genders somehow even stranger.
Thinking about it, the male to female ratio on the base was hard tilted towards the male part. It made Twilight wonder what exactly was the norm for human society. In Equestria, mares had always been more numerous than stallions, were the humans the opposite of that? Ah, the studies of eguinology she could delve into! A civilization so diverse and varied was any researcher's dream.
Only if it didn't come along with a nightmare.
“Half, third, doesn't matter. What does is that you don't have to listen to King trying to bring down the roof, using only the sound of his snoring."
“You exaggerate,” the gunsmith defended himself, crossing his arms. ”My snoring is nowhere that bad.”
“King, I couldn't sleep because small items kept falling off the walls.”
“You are saying it like I wouldn't wake up by myself then.”
“Yo, my friend, tell me, what happened that one time a meteor landed on your house?”
“T-That’s beside the point!” he stammered. “It was one time! One time I slept through an event.”
“Sorry King,” said Lilith. “But even I know that when you are asleep, an orbital bombardment wouldn't as much as shake you.”
Twilight could help but giggle at the frustrated human, alongside others.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Goddammit. One time!”
“So what are ya saying Sun? Should I start building?”
Sun stood behind his usual place by the stove, shakily taking a plate of food and carrying it to the table, spilling some on the way.
“Sorry, what were you saying, Knight?”
“Eh, Crown, and I was asking about the houses?”
“Oh,” he smiled sheepishly, “No, the defenses are more important at the moment. We just have to live with the discomfort for a while.”
Knight raised an eyebrow “Where were you last night anyway?”
Sun Glory's shoulders slumped down, a deep sigh escaped his lips. Twilight noticed that Dawn by his hip was purring slowly, the same way it did when she held the sword during her pain-induced shock.
“I went on a walk, clear my head,” he said finally.
“For a whole night? Okay, well, I'm still building at least a better bathroom.”
“Why isn't the one we have now enough? Yes, it's inconvenient using it one at a time but we are low on resources.”
“I call horseshit on that, we have more than enough steel to build a better bathroom.”
“Crown, I think that's the wrong expression.”
“Nope, horseshit is definitely right.”
Twilight cheeks turned into her best imitation of a ripe tomato. “Not my fault! It's just how they come out!”
“I don't care how they come out! The plumbing can’t handle it! The toilet is still clogged! Eat more fiber or something, that ain't natural!
“I have been stressed a lot!”
Sun Glory facepalmed, mechanical hand hiding his face. “I think we got it! Build more toilets, or strengthen the plumbing, or whatever you must.”
He sat down, while Twilight watched him carefully. There was a heaviness in his motion that she was positive wasn't there before.
That's strange, he is normally one of the cheery ones. But it's probably just exhaustion.
King's face suddenly lit up. Smirk on his face
“Oh, I nearly forgot. Twilight, I made you this. See how this looks.”
King tossed her a black piece of cloth, with two strings attached and an image of a human skull with crossbones on it.
“Since when can you embroid?” questioned Lilith.
“Since me sweet gran-gran taught me.”
She turned it in her telekinetic grip, finally clicking what it was.
“An eye patch?”
“Arr matey! Forr that extrra pirrate look!”
“...This won't become a regular thing, won't it?”
“No chance, if he ever does it again, I'm shooting him. Why are you laughing? I mean it! I have a gun!”
Twilight went to the range. It had became part of the morning routine as much as the breakfast with the rest of the colonists. Alone, Knight being too busy to oversee her, she did her checks and ‘shouldered’ the rifle.
It wasn't the first time she went to the range without him, and her familiarity with the Lee-Enfield grew enough to be confident about firing the weapon without supervision.
Didn't help her aim any though.
Flash and the telltale crack of a gunshot, the bullet landing to the left of the target.
She supposed that the loss of an eye impacted her accuracy, but it was hard to tell - she missed before and she missed now. Not a large difference.
The eye patch proved to be comfier, at least, the inappropriate pirate imagery notwithstanding. Much better than the gauze and bandages. The glitterworld medicine did wonders, the wound itself already looking years old. Human technology and magic-that-was-not-called-magic-for-some-reason proved to be borderline miraculous yet again.
Another miss, she opened the bolt, took some bullets from a box and-
“You know, you shouldn't do that.”
“Aah!” Twilight jumped, scattering the bullets on the ground.
Sun Glory stood unfazed behind her, a stoic expression betraying a small smile. For someone so large and in full armor, he could move with surprising level of stealth.
“Training alone is a great way to ingrain mistakes into one’s technique.”
She huffed. “What else can I do? Knight isn't here.”
“Plenty, for starters, I would choose some other weapon. Rifles certainly do not seem like your forte.”
Her ears landed flatly against her skull. So she wasn't great at it, but she was trying! She really was!
“Melee, on the other hand, er, hoof, you seem to possess quite the talent at.”
“Talent?” she asked in disbelief. “I had one serious fight and look how that turned out,” she said, pointing a hoof at her eye patch.
“You survived and destroyed a scyther, with nothing but an improvised weapon. Ambushed and at a disadvantage, you were victorious.”
“A hollow victory.”
He shook his head.
“No victory is hollow if you live to tell the tale.”
She noticed he had a bundle under his arm.
“Why are you here?”
He spread it on the ground, revealing various equipment. Shields, wooden swords and axes, poles and weights, few metal-looking discs. All made for practice.
“For a similar reason to you, I imagine. Test my ability, and refresh the basics.”
“Haven't you just said I shouldn't train alone?”
“Yes, but the rules are different for a beginner.”
He rummaged through his practice weapons, hand stopping every now and then, picking up, inspecting, and moving on. Until he finally found what he was looking for.
“But today, none of us shall be practicing alone.”
He lifted two spears, tossing one to Twilight.
“With a spear?”
She overlooked the familiar shape. A short spear for a human, normal one for her. Blunted, and with a ball instead of a tip, but unmistakably a spear - she saw them daily on the Royal Guard in Canterlot. Her own brother carried one while with him while on duty.
“Spears are a simple weapon, both to make and to learn to use. But don't let that fool you, a spear in the right hands is a wicked and dangerous tool. There is a reason why it was the most popular weapon for most of history.”
“But wouldn't it be more practical to train with something more…modern?”
“You mean the thousands of years old rifle?”
“Yes! No! I mean, a gun would just be better, wouldn't it? No offense, but it just seems would melee put me at a disadvantage.”
“Twilight, most, if not all, disadvantages of melee combat are easily countered by your psychic abilities. Not to mention that you already are…unsuited for ranged.”
"Because of the eye?"
"No, because you can't hit anything."
"...Oh."
"We shall start with proper posture and...hoovework. The lower center of gravity you possess gives you more stability, another good thing."
She tried to mimic what Shining Armor did when she saw his spar on rare occasions.
"Watch how you stand. Now, when moving, the important part is to make sure you keep enough presence on the ground. See? At least one foot always stays."
He pointed towards his legs, as he moved from guard to guard, showing her some of the most standard ones.
"Normally, the proper way to learn is to drill the footwork so long it becomes an instinct, then move to actual weapon training, but we don't have that luxury.
"We shall start slowly, blow for blow. You first and don't giggle and get your mind out of a gutter."
She suppressed her laughter and straightened her posture. Spear levitated above her head, then swung it at Sun's torso. With a flick of his wrist, her attack was effortlessly deflected aside by his own weapon.
"Now, what do you think you did wrong?"
Twilight stared. To her, Sun almost didn't move at all. "I was too slow?"
He shook his head. "Your speed was good, but you telegraphed your move, made your intentions too obvious with that huge overswing. Remember, do the smallest, quickest movement possible to get the job done. Also, it's a spear, not a club. You can cut with it, but thrusting and stabbing are going to yield better results most of the time.
"Now watch what I'm doing carefully, your technique will have to accommodate the lack of feeling in the levitation, but the method stays the same. I go slowly."
He thrust the spear forward as in slow motion, aiming at Twilight's neck, stopping halfway.
"What would you do to defend against it?"
"Block?"
"Show me."
Twilight put the handle of the spear between herself and the threat.
"Good, what you did here is something I wanted to show you. See how the point of your weapon is aimed at me? Now try side-stepping."
Twilight did, moving away and positioning herself more to his left side. Their spear still locked into each other.
"Right, now you are beyond the pointy part of my spear, while yours could be in my belly before I could blink. In real combat, this exchange would happen almost simultaneously. Let's do it again, faster this time."
He moved back, then lunged forward, Twilight blocked and moved to attack, impacting Sun's armored chest with her blow.
"Good! Just a nitpick, try intercepting the attack before it can get much oomph behind it. We repeat it a few times then it's your turn. Always remember…”
Twilight parried an attack from above, deflecting it to her right. Eye narrowing in concentration.
After more introduction techniques, their sparring match gained speed. She had a distinct advantage her small stature gave her - Sun's attacks could only come from above, and by attacking so low he would open himself to retaliation - Twilight managed to score this way a few times, but she had a feeling he was going easy on her, his own strikes coming only from her good side and leaving her plenty time to react.
He swept at her with the blunt weapon, aiming to slash her the back of her legs on a way back, while simultaneously raising his weapon to block her stab.
He would probably get her again, if not for him suddenly collapsing on one knee.
Twilight panicked, has she hit him too hard? No, the hit didn't land, what was happening?
Sun Glory clenched his fists, spear falling to the floor, muscles on his neck tightening, veins visible.
"Glory! You alright? What happened?"
She rushed to his side, sparring momentarily forgotten. Her attempts at getting him back to his feet were unsuccessful, he was just too darn heavy!
"I'm okay," he said through gritted teeth, getting up, one shaky leg at a time. She didn't budge.
"I will be fine, really. It's just an old wound of mine acting up."
"You sure? It looks serious to me."
"I have been through worse. I'm used to it."
Used to collapsing from pain? Twilight wasn't so easily convinced.
"I think you should rest."
“No, it would not help any, but I think we had enough practice for one day.”
Twilight looked up, it must have been at the range for hours. She was so behind schedule! She had to go.
“Tomorrow again?”
“Tomorrow again.”
Footsteps and hoofs on the scorching hot sand, The three of them were by one of the cliffs. Struggling for breath as they walked.
Crown wiped the sweat from his brow with his dusty hands.
“Can't believe we ran out of steel.”
“We wouldn't if someone didn't build a whole stupid bathhouse!” King replied, annoyed.
Mining in the hot desert was not an enjoyable experience. But Crown, King, and Twilight lost the draw - and as tiring as it was, she imagined it could be worse.
Knight had the duty.
“...Worth it,” replied Crown.
But a few things didn't add up.
As they moved to the ore deposit, revealed plainly in the side of the cliffs surrounding the base, their job was simple, to mine steel.
Steel, the alloy.
“How are we even supposed to mine steel? Isn't it pony made from iron first?” she asked, and the humans stopped for a second.
“Yeah, you are right. I haven't really thought about it. But this isn't ore per se, you see. More like really old wreckage.”
“Yup, ain't it just some scrap? One that got buried after the terra-something?”
“Terraforming I think it was, and maybe? I dunno.”
That raised more questions, did someone live here before them? There were the ruins, and the rusty wreckage scattered around the planet. Who were they? And what happened to them?
“Huh, anyway, time to get to work!”
Pickaxes hit the stone, revealing and loosening bits of steel with each strike of the tool.
Small items, all badly corroded, but recognizable. Machinery bent and wrecked beyond any use other than smelting into something else. Pipes and handfuls of screws, a bunch of sheet metal, and all other kinds of scrap.
Crown gave them a bright smile as an idea came to his mind.
“You know what this needs? A song!”
“God merciful!” “Please no!”
Twilight flattened her ears. Maybe the duty wouldn't be that bad after all.
“Maybe we can work in silence? Use it to think? Please?”
“Nonsense! But we need a proper miners song. Let's see. Down down down? No, something else.”
“I know one.”
Twilight gave him a nudge.
“Don't encourage him!” she whispered.
“Don't worry, this one is good,” he whispered back. “It's a traditional mining song of the lost terra and their famous mountain-dwelling folk.” King cleared his throat.
“Heigh-ho!” he began as he swung his pickaxe.
“Heigh-ho!” Crown echoed.
“Brothers of the mine rejoice!” King sang, picking speed. “Swing, swing, swing with me
Raise your pick and raise your voice!
Sing, sing, sing with me - common, you too Twilight!”
She rolled her eye and joined in. The tune was catchy and joyful. In the rhythm, they worked. The tools turned instruments made music with each piece of steel freed from the wall. Even Crown's normal singing became much more subdued and mostly in tune, almost bearable.
“Down and down into the deep
Who knows what we'll find beneath?
Uranium, plasteel, gold, and more
Hidden in the mountain store,” King led the trio, his singing voice surprisingly deep.
The song made her feel weird. Like she needed to grow a beard and hate the color green.
“Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone
Raised in the dark, the safety of our mountain home!
Skin made of iron, steel in our bones
To dig and dig makes us free
Come on brothers sing with me!”
The synchronized trio went into the chorus as they broke walls of compacted scrap together as one.
“I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole
Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole
I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole
Diggy diggy hole, digging a hole
The tunnel they made grew with each word, the heartsong powering them. Twilight was too caught up in the moment to wonder how a heartsong managed to happen in such a low magic field, but it did and it made her insides flutter.
“The sunlight will not reach this low
Deep, deep in the mine
Never seen the blue moonglow
Dwarves won't fly so high
Fill a glass and down some mead!
Stuff your bellies at the feast!
Stumble home and fall asleep
Dreaming in our mountain keep.”
He lowered his voice, the tone became much more ominous and dark.
“Born underground, grown inside a rocky womb
The earth is our cradle; the mountain shall become our tomb
Face us on the battlefield; you will meet your doom
We do not fear what lies beneath
We can never dig too deep!”
”Im dwarf and- wait, do you hear it?”
They stopped, pickaxe mid-swing.
There was rumbling coming from underneath their feet and hoofs.
Twilight put her ear to the ground. It sounded like…slithering and scraping of hard stone against something.
It made her think of a giant ant farm and-
“Bugs,” she said.
“Crown, get the flamer, the heavy flamer.”
“On it!”
They turned and ran stopping by the entrance. A green mound of pulsating fleshy material rose from a crack in the floor, the writhing mass blocking the only exit.
“Shit! What now?”
King took a revolver from a holster by his hip. “This is bad, this is very bad.”
Twilight started to panic, the noise getting louder by the second. Backed to a corner of the freshly dug mine.
There was one thing she could do, insanely dangerous, but it may be their only way to escape.
The insect hive opened, and a creature the size of a common sheep crawled out, looking like an unholy union of a spider and a scorpion. Mandibles dripping with venom, many angry-looking orbs staring at them.
“Behind us!
And it wasn't alone.
“They are in the walls! They are in the walls!”
They were coming from everywhere. Encircling them as Crown fired a single shot at them, bouncing off uselessly and only deafening his fellow colonist, the bugs undeterred.
“Stand close to me! I get us out of here!” she shouted, sounding far more confident than she was.
Teleporting inside a weak magical field was dangerous, doubly so when not seeing where she was going and adding two huge humans to the equation made it plain mad to attempt by any normal unicorn.
Luckily, she wasn't a normal unicorn.
Her horn glowed, and magic swelled.
‘Zap’
The trio vanished in a shower of purple light as the first of the spelopede pounced.
The first thought that went thru Twilight's head after the teleport was ‘Ouch, pain’
The second was ’I'm never doing that again.’
The two humans and a pony reappeared near the mine exit, about ten paces in front and five up to be precise.
Landing on the ground hard in a pile of limbs and bodies, the humans were first to get untangled.
King confused, looked around.
“What the hell was that?”
“Call me apathy and ignorance, because I don't know and I don't care! Grab Twilight, we are booking it!”
The insectoids started swarming out of the mine, screeching and giving in pursuit.
They grabbed the dazed unicorn and implemented what Knight would call the F.E.A.R strategy.
Fuck everything and run.
Twilight regained her sense as she bounced on King's back, her horn leaving a thin trail of smoke.
“They are gaining on us!” she yelled.
Crown let out a string of profanities. “To the workshop! Faster!”
King wanted to slap him for that , like he didn't already run his fastest, but any attempts to give him a retort died in his throat due to his burning lungs and legs threatening to fall off.
Crown rushed inside the workshop building, shoulder checking the door for it to open and shutting it after leaving them through. Barricading it with a tool cabinet.
Twilight hopped from King's back as he struggled for breath.
“You really need to get in shape, King.”
“I've been a pencil pusher for half a decade, give me a break.”
“Will the door hold them?” she asked. Her magic was gone for a moment, all of her reserves used. If they get in, she would be practically useless in a fight against those monsters.
“Yup,” he leaned against it. She could hear pangs and scraping of chitinous claws against it “Solid four-inch steel. Nothing gets through that! Now, where was that stupid flamethrower King?”
King went pale, color draining from his face. Twilight traced his gaze, her eye growing the size of a dinner plate.
“Hey, Crown?”
“Where the fuck- yes? Have you found it?”
“Did you ever get to close that hole in the wall after the fire?”
“No? I have been too busy- ah…”
Behind him was a very angry spelopede, opening its jaws and letting out a roar.
“Kill it! Fucking kill it!”
“With what?” asked King as they began back paddling towards the closed and barricaded door.
“A gun! You have a gun! Shoot it!”
“I can’t! I ran out of ammo!”
“You fired once!”
“I forgot to bring extra!”
“Why-King where the fuck is the flamethrower!”
“It's in the weapon locker,” he deadpanned.
“Great, where is the weapon lock- it's behind the spelopede, isn't it.”
King gave him a nod. “Yup.”
“...Shit.”
Backs against the door, as more insects were trying to get thru it, the door frame shaking. Twilight was in full panic mode, there had to be something they could use.
“What do we do now?”
“Can you psychic us away again?”
Her head hurt, she was sure she had a nosebleed and the tip of her horn was scorched black.
“Not an option.”
The giant insect approached, stance lowered, gaze filled with primal hatred.
“Well, then there's only one thing we can do,” Crown said.
Mandibles ready, the spelopede prepared to jump.
A wrench hit it on its head, not doing any damage, but confusing it.
“Random bullshit go!” the builder yelled as he threw another thing, a sewing machine, at it. “What are you two waiting for? Start lobbing shit!”
Twilight didn't need any further encouragement, opening the tool cabinet and grabbing the first thing that came under her hoof, a screwdriver, and throwing it at the beast.
“My tools!”
“We get you new ones! Now, yeet!”
A barrage of hammers, mechanical parts, one small anvil, and a radio went at the insect. Most missed as it dodged the improvised projectiles without much issue, but the radio impacted, dazing it.
“Now! Go for it!”
Roaring, three more spelopedes got inside the warehouse.
“Well, we had an okayish try guys.”
“I hate you.”
The circle of bugs tightened around them, cornering them back to the doors.
Twilight noticed it first. An angry buzzing noise.
The spelopedes stopped, turning around.
Crown and King began hearing it too. Splash, screeching.
Tearing.
An insectoid body flew inside, splattering against the wall. Well, that's not fully accurate
Most of a body flew inside.
A blur appeared inside the building, chain-sword swinging, cutting into insect flesh. Spelopedes charged as the giant stomped and crushed them.
One pounced at the figure, mechanical arm plucking it from the air, holding it in a literal iron grip.
There was an ugly wet noise and some twitching from the spelopede mangled corpse as he tossed it aside.
Sun Glory looked at them, he seemed almost disappointed.
“Seriously?”
“They surprised us!”
Sun opened the weapon locker. Finding what he came for here in the first place.
“Is that a water gun?” Twilight asked, confused.
It was a black pipe with a red tank. Partially made out of black metal, makeshift and rugged, like if a foal got into a smithy and decided to make a toy from assorted plumbing supplies.
No, not black metal, blackened metal, colored by intense heat.
“Twilight, somehow, you managed to say exactly the opposite of what this is.”
A small flame lit at the end of the weapon.
“We still need a plan, a distraction. Something to collar the bugs into one place.”
Twilight gave it a thought. “They attacked because we disturbed them with our mining, but only after we started singing. It's not loud noises, King’s shot in the cave did nothing. So it had to do with the sound itself. The harmony in it.”
Then it hit her! If the bugs like harmonious, synchronized sounds then…
“Crown, We will need you to sing your heart out. Herd them to the mine! Ready?”
Kick racked a shotgun, “It's showtime.”
Four of them by the entrance, weapons drawn. Bugs swarming outside.
“Okay, here it goes,” Crown took a deep breath. “YODELAYEe-
They watched the flames, illuminated by the glow as spelopedes screeched and burned,
The entrance to the mine was consumed in flames. The smell of charred chitin and burned meat filled the air.
“I-I-I just…” Crown trailed off.
Sun Glory still holding the flamethrower in shaking hands.
“In all of my years, of all the things I saw, this…this is fucked up.”
A part of the tunnel collapsed, the stone ceiling burring some of the insects alive.
“They just…flung themself into the fire…”
“Crown,” Twilight finally found her voice.
“Y-Yes?”
“You are banned from singing from now on. Forever.”
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11256540
Thanks <3
Fun read keep it up
I want more
11266563
Sorry for the delay - should upload more soon. But I do still have a little trouble that my home is momentarily missing several walls that it really shouldn't have.
11270034
Sorry to have bother you. Hope you get the house done soon!
11270061
You are never a bother, thanks for commenting! And the next chapter is almost finished, should be done either today or tomorrow.
11334352