The Cutie Mark Crusaders find, repair, and pilot a giant mecha from Earth's distant future, while dealing with every giant robot anime cliche in the book. This Cutie Mark Quest is a real Crusade.
"Living here in Ponyville Fighting villains from afar You've got to find first gear In your giant robot car"
When the CMC stumble across a giant mecha from another time, another place, another reality, their latest quest for their Cutie Marks takes on epic proportions. Between getting to class, dealing with an angry alien that's somewhat friendly, dealing with an angry alien that is distinctly less friendly, and anything else the heavens can throw at them, you'd think things were hard enough. But they still have to be home by bedtime.
...at least piloting a giant robot makes it easier to get certain bullies to shut up. Ponies dig giant robots too...when its weapons aren't pointed at them.
Apple Bloom sighed sadly as she carelessly assembled a few bits of junk she'd stumbled across in her walk through the Everfree. She'd sat down after gathering a good amount and reaching Zecora's hut. Unfortunately, the friendly zebra shaman was out at the moment, so Apple Bloom couldn't talk to her like she had hoped. Still, assembling these metal pieces and other bits she'd found kept her somewhat entertained for a while, even if she didn't know what they were.
After a time, she finished her assembly. She smiled as the small device rose up on its multiple legs, extending a ball of crystal from its top. It then proceeded to give off a bright sequence of rainbow colored lights, quite pretty. Apple Bloom's calm, quiet contemplation of the lights was interrupted as she heard hoofsteps approaching.
Turning, she saw Zecora stepping into the clearing around her hut, Scootaloo across her back looking frustrated, Sweetie Belle beside them on her own hooves. Zecora smiled as she saw Apple Bloom. "Tell me now, little bloom, what has you so suffused in gloom?"
Apple Bloom sighed. "We tried to get our Cutie Marks again today...but it's beginning to look like we'll never find them. We're running out of things to try, and nothing works."
Sweetie Belle nodded. "Everything we try blows up in our faces, too."
"Sometimes literally," Scootaloo commented dryly.
"I told you Cutie Mark Crusaders Chemists was a bad idea," Sweetie Belle pointed out.
"Water shouldn't explode!" Scootaloo growled.
Zecora chuckled as she listened to the friends' conversation. "Of your antics I am aware, as I am of outcomes unfair." She glanced at the device Apple Bloom had assembled. "But tell me dear, what have you made here?"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "I often find bits and pieces of metal, wires, and glass. When I'm really down in the dumps, I put 'em together to make something. It cheers me up...for a little while."
"And think you not this might have been meant, in your search for your hidden talent?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "I'd really rather have a talent that's useful."
Zecora shook her head. "Correct me if I've mistaken your meaning, but do you say this is less useful than underwater basket weaving?"
Apple Bloom blinked, then flushed. "We only tried that once..."
Zecora thought for a time. "Perhaps the reason you find your creations lack heart, is because in assembly you've a shortage of parts." She gestured for the three fillies to follow her. Curious, they did.
Zecora led the three young friends through the Everfree Forest to a wide gorge, stretching back to a huge pit. Filling the pit and spilling over was the largest pile of scrap that Apple Bloom had ever seen. "What's that?" Apple Bloom asked, awed.
Zecora smiled. "Beyond the sky is a gate to elsewhere. That which it disgorges ends up down there. To keep it from depressing the world even deeper, I have chosen to become this yard's keeper. If anything here your interest fits, to my young friends it is yours for two bits."
Grinning widely, the three friends began scrounging through the scrap yard, looking for something interesting to work with.
"How about this?" Scootaloo asked, holding up some unusually configured metal.
"Nah," Apple Bloom said. "Too shaped, nothing to work with."
"How about this?" Sweetie asked, pushing a hunk of stone around.
"I need metal or glass," Apple Bloom replied as she scrounged in a large pile.
"This?" Scootaloo asked, holding up a red and white ball with a button.
"We already tried every ball game cutie mark in existence," Apple Bloom pointed out, leading to Scootaloo tossing the ball carelessly away.
"What about this-" Sweetie froze as the large barrel leaking green liquid she was pushing rolled down the side of the pile, bouncing off into the Everfree where it was eaten by a hydra, which promptly exploded. "Never mind!"
"We're never gonna find anything awesome at this rate!" Scootaloo complained.
At that point, Apple Bloom pulled a piece of junk aside, causing the entire scrap pile to cascade downward, revealing a massive, headless mecha the rough size of Canterlot Castle. After all three fillies stared at it for a while, Apple Bloom spoke up. "Awesome enough for you?" she asked Scootaloo.
"Two bits, right?" Sweetie called out to Zecora. Chuckling, Zecora nodded knowingly.
Three months later, at the end of summer vacation from school, Apple Bloom leaned back inside the old barn at Sweet Apple Acres. It was never used for anything aside from the occasional party, so when she had asked Applejack if she could use it to work on a Cutie Mark related project, her older sister had chuckled and approved.
All three Cutie Mark Crusaders had worked hard on repairing and restoring the abandoned mecha. Apple Bloom had focused on repairing the internals, replacing anything broken and adding systems she felt necessary. Scootaloo had been put in charge of designing the outside, and had given it what she felt was an awesome paint job. Sweetie Belle, realizing how dangerous her usual clutziness would be with this project, had instead contented herself with fetching supplies.
Now, Apple Bloom watched as her two friends finished polishing the crimson vehicle they had found in the junkyard and had jury rigged as the missing head unit. It was the only thing visible above ground, as their first task had been digging a huge cellar to work on the mech in. Right now, the head unit looked like it could roll right out the front of the barn.
"Hey Blank Flanks!" an irritatingly predictable voice called out to them.
The three friends turned to find Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon sauntering up to them. "Finally putting your talentless selves to good use?" Silver suggested.
"I'm sure Daddy would happily toss you a few bits to wash the family coach," Diamond taunted, grinning.
On any other day, their taunts would have had the CMC glaring daggers at them, complaining, demanding to be left alone, or - if pushed too far - with Apple Bloom telling them to 'get off mah farm' while reaching for Granny Smith's shotgun. Today, however, much to the bullies' surprise, it resulted in wide grins. Reaching over, Apple Bloom threw a lever to a spot marked "Up". With that, she raced over and leaped into the head unit - followed by Sweetie and Scootaloo - as gears began to turn. The entire mecha rose upwards on the moving platform as it erupted from the barn.
"You were sayin?" Apple Bloom called down.
Pressing a button at random, Scootaloo caused one arm of the mecha to swing forward and extend a strange weapon. A beam fired from it, vaporizing Silver's necklace and Diamond's tiara in twin flashes of blue light that left both their manes frazzled. The two bullies screamed and fled in fear.
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack shouted up from the ground. "Is that you up there?"
Apple Bloom looked down guiltily. "Yeah, sis, it's me and the others."
"What's the big idea wrecking the barn like that? You are so grounded!" She seemed to just notice the giant mecha. "What's that?"
"It's the Cutie Mark project we've been working on!" Scootaloo called down.
"I think it's called 'Megan' or something," Sweetie added. "Can't really read the text very well."
"And we just got it working after working on it all summer!" Apple Bloom added petulantly.
Applejack glared up at them for a while, then sighed. "Alright. You got one test drive lap around Ponyville, but then you're grounded till school starts, and you have to fix anything you break!"
"Yay!" the three fillies shouted together.
Scootaloo glanced over the crazed arrangement of buttons, controllers, joysticks, and other video game type controllers scattered in front of her place before the wheel. They'd taken out the two front seats and replaced it with a cushioned bench they could all sit on in front. "...what's with all the video game junk?" she asked.
"I asked Button Mash what kind of controls I should use for a giant robot, and he told me this was what you were supposed to use," Sweetie admitted sheepishly.
Scootaloo nodded. "Alright...so how do I make this thing go?"
"I dunno," Apple Bloom said with a shrug. "I just built the thing and hooked the buttons up to all the systems. I don't know what the systems do."
Scootaloo tilted her head. "So...push random buttons and see what happens?"
"Works for me!" Apple Bloom said happily.
They all grinned as they started pressing random buttons. Down below, Applejack shuddered, feeling a horrible premonition. Glancing towards Ponyville, she muttered, "At least it's Tuesday..."
Apple Bloom grinned widely as she stuck her head out the window as Scootaloo manipulated the controls. "Alright. We seem to be heading towards town just fine. Nice work with the jump over the farm so we didn't step on any trees."
Scootaloo grinned. "It took a bit to figure out where the jump button was, but it seems the wheel and these pedal things control the legs and jets. That's good to know."
"Guess we'll figure out what controls the arms later," Sweetie commented. "Uh oh."
Down below, a mare screamed. "Giant metal monster! Run!" Other ponies started screaming as well.
"Chill everyone!" Apple Bloom called out. "It's just us!"
"Cutie Mark Crusade!" the first mare screamed.
"The horror! The horror!" another lamented.
Sweetie Belle's ears dropped. "Are we really that bad?"
Scootaloo shrugged. "Eh." She glanced over the controls. "Let's see what else we can do."
At that moment, the entire mecha started blaring loud noises.
"Turn it off!" Sweetie complained.
"I don't know how!" Scootaloo shouted. "Apple Bloom!"
"I didn't design that!" she yelled back.
Within moments, a swirling blue and white vortex appeared in the sky. Three blue and white mecha dropped out, two larger than the third, the third appearing somewhat more feminine. The third mecha extended a hand, pressing a button on a device it held. The mecha the CMC were riding in stopped its racket.
"Whoa!" Scootaloo gasped. "Where'd they come from!"
A screen on the control panel lit up, revealing a redheaded human face. "The future-" the woman started, then paused. "...what are you?" She shook her head. "Never mind. Give me back my robot, primitives!" The three mecha took combat stances.
Scootaloo blinked. "Primitives? Hey, where do you get off talking to us like that?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "Is that a...human?"
"Actually," Sweetie speaks up, "according to Equestrian Salvage Law, it is fully and completely our robot." She pauses. "What's a robot?"
The woman talking to them looked flabbergasted. "How can you claim ownership when you don't even know what it is?"
"According to Equestrian Salvage Law," Sweetie explains, "if a boat, airship, or other transport goes unclaimed for one year or greater, anypony can claim ownership if they spend greater than 300% of the initial found value in restoring it to functionality. This 'robot' qualifies as a transport, and was under a huge pile of junk for in excess of 20 years minimum. We bought it for 2 bits, establishing the initial found value. We spent our combined allowance funds - some 200 bits - restoring it to functionality and refurbishing it for our use. That is 10000% of the initial found value, so we own it free and clear."
The woman blinked a bit at this lecture. "And if I wanted to dispute that?"
"Then you would present your case to the nearest representative of the Equestrian Royal Court," Sweetie explained. "That would be Princess Twilight Sparkle, the town's librarian."
"She's our private tutor!" Apple Bloom bragged proudly.
As the woman blinked, obviously shocked at this information, Scootaloo spoke up. "Say, who are you, anyway?"
"I am Commander Kiva Andru of the Earth Coalition." The woman shook her head. "That robot is a very dangerous weapon, and I need it back to save my world from an invading alien race! I sent it through a time warp so that I could pilot it at a pivotal battle in the war against the Glorft, an alien race determined to conquer-"
"Bored now," Scootaloo interrupted. "Pushing random buttons!" She pushed a button on the control panel.
Megas leveled its arm forward and fired its fist at one of the larger white mechs, sending it crashing on top of the Ponyville schoolhouse.
"Wow!" Scootaloo said. "Rocket Punch!"
"Yay!" several young colts and fillies shouted. "Extra week of no school!"
The other mech charged forward towards Megas. Scootaloo quickly spun the wheel, causing Megas to side step. An accidental push of buttons led to Megas grabbing one of the attacking mech's arms, ripping it off, and smashing it with it. "Umm...stop hitting yourself?" Scootaloo offered.
"Nice moves, Scoots!" Sweetie said happily. "Say Apple Bloom, after we beat these robots, think you could fix them so we can each have one?"
"I can try," Apple Bloom offered doubtfully.
"Will you take this seriously?" Kiva demanded, firing energy beams from her mech.
Sweetie slammed her horn into a slot labeled 'horn goes here', and felt a tingle along her horn as her magic fed into the mech. It extended a hand and generated a magic shield, using its own energies to greatly amplify Sweetie's magic. The lasers bounced off the shield, and Kiva's mech barely dodged the return fire. Kiva then sent her mech flying forward in a physical assault. However, as she tried to grab the car based head unit of Megas, Scootaloo pushed a few buttons on one of the controllers. Megas' right hand extended a blade and cut Kiva's mech in half, making it fall to the ground.
"Scoot!" Sweetie complained. "What happened to keeping them in more or less one piece so we could each have one?"
"Sorry!" Scootaloo apologized.
Kiva, having abandoned her mech after it was cut in half, landed in the back seat of the head unit, which was still a standard car seat. She stared at the three CMC. "How...how did you three destroy my drones so easily?"
"Scoot pushed good buttons," Apple Bloom said, pointing at her.
"How did you get to be such a good pilot?" Kiva asked.
"Flight simulators and other fighting games with Rainbow Dash!" she proclaimed happily.
Kiva shook her head, then glanced around at the crazy assembly of controls. "What have you done to my robot?" she gasped, not able to tell one control from another.
"Our robot," Apple Bloom corrected. "And the entire thing was fried, several systems were non-functional, and it was completely missing a control unit. I managed to repair all the damage and reconnect all the systems, while upgrading the power source with a high-density mana crystal. I also connected all the control circuitry to the new controls...though I wasn't sure what all the systems were, so I don't know what does what."
Kiva shook her head. "How could you fix if...never mind. What did you do with the time flux control unit?"
"You mean the thing that was there?" Apple Bloom asked, pointing to the Cutie Mark Crusader Badge stuck on the front dash. "Princess Twilight confiscated it for being too dangerous, and sent it to the Canterlot archives for analysis, archiving, and disassembly. Time travel's dangerous!"
Kiva's jaw dropped. "You...you destroyed it?"
"No," Sweetie corrected. "The researchers at Canterolt University dismantled it. There's a difference."
"I still say I coulda fixed it if Twilight had let me," Apple Bloom complained.
"I thought Twilight said that was why she confiscated it," Scootaloo countered.
Kiva sighed. "Without it, Megas is trapped here in this time period...wherever here is." She hung her head. "And so am I."
The CMC glanced at each other. "Don't feel too bad," Sweetie Belle spoke up. "Ponyville's a great place to live, and everypony's sure to welcome you!"
"But I know you'll miss your family back home," Apple Bloom began, "but-"
"I don't have any family 'back home'," Kiva explained. "Where and when I come from, the Glorft have already conquered Earth, my home planet, and everyone I knew and loved fell in battle against them." She was rather surprised when the three fillies glomped onto her without warning. "Wah?"
"Don't be sad, please," Apple Bloom said, nuzzling her.
"Yeah," Scootaloo spoke up. "You'll never be alone in Ponyville."
"And-" Sweetie slipped, her flank bumping a button on the dash labeled 'Tachyon Beacon Do Not Press'. "Oops!"
"That was the Tachyon Beacon!" Kiva shouted. "The Glorft can find us now!"
At that moment, a seemingly endless swarm of snot green mechs poured from a blue-white vortex in the sky, landing all across Ponyville. The lead one projected a hologram. "Attention Earth dregs! Surrender the war bot, or we vaporize this city!"
"Eww!" all three fillies said as they saw the face of a Glorft.
The alien paused. "...you aren't Earthers. A new world to conquer!"
"Hey!" Apple Bloom shouted. "You ain't conquering nothing today!"
"Time for level 2!" Scootaloo said happily. She began pushing random buttons again.
A rocket popped out of Megas' shoulder, shooting towards the Glorft before arcing upward into the air.
Across town, Pinkie Pie grinned up at the huge pile she had assembled. "Here it is! Equestria's largest collection of bagpipes! And now I'm going to play them all!" She suddenly shivered. "Hang on...ear wiggle, itchy rump, tappy hooves...that's a running gag about to start!"
The rocket slammed into the mountain of bagpipes, vaporizing them.
Pinkie stared at the crater, then pulled out a scroll and quill. "Note to self: invest in large amounts of spare musical instruments."
Scootaloo frowned. "Well, that wasn't first gear." She started pushing other buttons.
In response to the commands, Megas leapt into combat, seizing hold of enemy mechs to rip them apart, smash them into each other, blast them with lasers, or otherwise tear them asunder.
As one leap carried them over the Everfree Forest, Zecora looked up at them. "The fires of inspiration have been lit. But I must ask, where's my two bits?"
Kiva tilted her head. "I thought you said-"
"We ran out of bits before paying for the new head unit," Sweetie said sheepishly.
Megas came in for a landing, making a huge explosion on one Glorft mech that obliterated several others. "Yeah!" Scootaloo shouted out. "How do you like them apples?" She failed to notice that most of Ponyville - with the exception of the Crystal Tree Library, Sweet Apple Acres, and Fluttershy's Cottage - had been leveled, reduced to a dusty wasteland.
At that point, the Glorft commander's mech transformed into a spider-like form.
"Spider!" Scootaloo shouted, looking freaked. She began pushing buttons. "Squish it squish it squish it squish it squish it squish it squish it!"
As she shouted, Megas responded to the button pushes by leaping into the air and proceeding to stomp on the offending mech repeatedly.
"That's it!" the Glorft commander shouted as he managed to push Megas away from his mech. "Send in...the UMD!"
"We're screwed," Kiva lamented as numerous Glorft mechs began combining into a larger and larger mech.
"Why?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I've fought the UMD before," Kiva said sadly. "There's no way to beat it." She looked up as the Commander's mech took the final place at the head of the UMD. "You three fought well, though, for..." She paused. "How old are you three, anyway?"
"Twelve," they said together.
Kiva's eyes widened. "12? You three should never have been in-"
"Hey Sweetie, put your horn back in!" Scootaloo interrupted.
As Sweetie did so, the Glorft commander opened communications again. "Prepare for your doom, pony scum...or flee like chickens."
Scootaloo's brow furrowed. "Alright, that's it! You can smash my robot-"
"Our robot," Apple Bloom corrected.
"You can destroy our town-"
"We did most of that," Sweetie pointed out.
"You can conquer our planet-"
"My planet, actually," Kiva spoke up.
"But nobody calls me chicken!" Scootaloo finished. Almost in response to Scootaloo's anger, Megas launched upward as a blade of Sweetie's magic formed around the right hand and arm. With a single swing, Megas severed the UMD's head unit - composed of the Commander's mech and other components - from the rest of the UMD, causing it to fall over backwards, completely broken. The same colts and fillies from before cheered.
Kiva stared. "...well, that just made all of humanity look like idiots."
"We'll meet again, pony filth!" the commander barked out. "And next time, I'll destroy your world!"
"Bring it on!" Scootaloo shouted out.
As the Glorft leader left, Sweetie Belle glanced down at what was left of the town. "Umm...didn't Applejack say we had to fix whatever we broke?"
"Eeyup," Apple Bloom sighed in resignation.
The three fillies quickly glanced at their flanks. Seeing no defining marks, they all let out a simultaneous "Aww!" much to Kiva's confusion.
A few days later, Apple Bloom stood before the entire town's populous, scratching the back of her head nervously. "Well, I've been working on the issue, and I've got good news and bad news." She turned to Sweetie and Scootaloo. "The bad news is that I wasn't able to restore any of the mechs, so we can't each have our own."
"Aww!" Sweetie and Scoot pouted.
"The good news," she continued, pressing a button on a remote.
Piles of metal and alien tech scattered around town began to shift, taking shape into all the destroyed buildings complete with accurate internal structure. The snot green then faded into the usual coloration of the town buildings.
"The good news is Ponyville now has an auto-repair function," Apple Bloom said, smiling.
As the crowd cheered, Kiva could only stare. Over the past few days, she had seen the level of technology available on this planet, and she had no idea how Apple Bloom could possibly have effected repairs on Megas, let alone this level of reverse engineering of Glorft tech that the very technology that made the UMD work now reassembled the town automatically.
A blast of confetti startled her out of her reverie. "And now that the town's rebuilt," Pinkie Pie shouted, "we can throw Kiva her 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!"
As everypony around her cheered, Kiva turned to Apple Bloom. "What's a...party?" When she heard Pinkie gasp in shock, Kiva regretted voicing her query where the pink pony could hear.
Kiva did her best to relax in the festive atmosphere that surrounded her. From what she'd heard, Pinkie Pie had outdone herself with this party, going above and beyond to welcome the first human to arrive in Ponyville. For her part, Kiva was still trying to understand what a 'party' was beyond distressingly loud rhythmic thumping and noise, group vocalizations of various levels of harmonization, group movements of varying levels of skilled choreography, and various activities with obscure and inscrutable rules. Or, as Pinkie Pie had put it, music, singing, dancing, and games.
Kiva admitted to herself that Pinkie Pie made her incredibly nervous. When she had confessed to the pink pony that she had never been to a party - in fact, had no idea what a party was - the mare had gotten very intense, demanding to know how she could possibly have passed up on even the wonder of a birthday party. When Kiva had explained that she didn't actually know when her birthday was or even her age - beyond 'old enough to enlist' - the mare had looked to be on the verge of tears. Kiva had turned to a nearby rainbow-maned Pegasus for help, desperate for a diplomatic solution. A short time later, she learned that today was now her birthday - the logic being that arriving in Equestria had been a form of rebirth - and that future celebrations of her birthday would also celebrate the anniversary of her arrival in Ponyville...or 'Birthaversary' as they had termed it.
Kiva had accepted this to the best of her ability, even if she had no idea what half of it meant. Pinkie Pie wasn't crying, everyone seemed happy, and the entire town was welcoming her like an honored guest, despite her arrival heralding the destruction - and then rebuilding - of the town. The citizenry was still getting used to the new state of the town, especially with the discovery that new buildings could be programmed into the town and be fully constructed within the hour, rather than the laborious manual construction that had been before (apparently, the local construction union had considered striking over this until they realized they were completely unnecessary under the new system, at which point they entered negotiations to have Apple Bloom become a member of the local union and enforce heavily modified union prices on all automatic construction). Overall, though, everyone seemed happy with the change. One pony in particular, a lime green Unicorn by the name of Lyra Heartstrings, had been especially welcoming and affectionate, and Kiva found herself dragooned into constantly scratching the contentedly sighing unicorn behind one ear while sipping her drink with her other hand. She tried to ignore the jealous glare of the Earth Pony introduced to her as Bon Bon.
However, despite the overall joviality of the occasion, Kiva found herself assailed with dark thoughts. She was still stuck here on this alien world surrounded by primitive but friendly aliens who nonetheless seemed to be able to shape their world to their whims. The sight of Pegasi shaping the clouds into pretty pictures had been highly unnerving, as Kiva had immediately begun thinking about the military applications of such skill and found the result terrifying, especially after Rainbow Dash had created a miniature tornado all on her own to clear away the excess clouds. The demonstration of Unicorn 'magic' in setting up those party related matters that weren't crafted by Pinkie's 'Party Cannon' had also been terrifying when thought of in military terms, especially when one of the ponies spoke of how easily Twilight Sparkle had calmed and transported an Ursa Minor...after someone had explained to her that an Ursa Minor in this usage was a humongous bear like creature larger than most buildings in town that amplified its already immense strength by absorbing starlight, and not a constellation as she had first interpreted (she had no desire to encounter one, or the full grown variant dubbed an Ursa Major, which was apparently large enough to cradle the Minor in one forearm). The Party Cannon itself was somewhere between terrifying and confusing as well.
However, once she pushed everything about this world that unnerved or frightened her aside, she was confronted again with the dilemma of being trapped here. Without Megas' Time Flux Control Unit, she could never make it back to her own world or time, let alone to the time she needed to in order to save her world. She knew that it had been confiscated by the country's rulers, as time manipulation was apparently a restricted field. The implication from that that it was possible for these ponies to manipulate time in their own way was another thought she didn't want to explore too much. However, she was still a soldier, and as such felt a need to get back to the battlefield. Towards that end, she excused herself from Lyra and headed for the lavender pony she knew to have the most authority locally.
The pony in question looked up at her approach. "Are you having fun, Kiva?" she asked.
"I suppose I am, yes," Kiva replied, unsure exactly the definition of fun in this scenario, but knowing any response less than an affirmative would bring down the well meaning frenzy of a Pink Menace. "Your Highness-"
Twilight waved a hoof. "Please, just call me Twilight. I'm still getting used to the whole Princess thing, and would rather my friends - even new friends - just call me by name."
Kiva mulled that over as best she could, although she still didn't understand completely. However, obedience to the chain of command was too ingrained into her as a soldier to resist, and Twilight was the highest local authority. "Very well. Twilight, can we talk privately about something important?"
Twilight sighed knowingly. "Alright. This way." Twilight stepped into a room just off the main chamber of the Crystal Tree Palace - something else Kiva was still getting used to just the concept of - where the party was being held. As soon as the door closed behind them, all sound from the party vanished, much to Kiva's amazement. Twilight walked to a desk and sat down behind it. "What can I do for you, Kiva?"
Kiva sat down in front of the desk. At first, she found the chair uncomfortably short for her frame, but was pleasantly surprised - if unnerved - as the apparently living crystal of the chair expanded until the dimensions were comfortable for her. Quickly pushing this amazing revelation aside, she got to the meat of her issue. "Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to request the return of both Megas and the Time Flux unit so that I can take it back to my world and the time in the war against the Glorft where I can use Megas to save Earth. Time is of the essence, and-"
She fell silent as Twilight raised her hoof. "I knew you'd make this request. Before I answer it, though, I'd like to ask a few questions and posit a few scenarios, at which point I'll give you a chance to resubmit your request, if you still want to at this time. Is that alright?"
Inwardly, Kiva seethed at the delay. However, she wasn't dealing with civilians or children, or even primitives at this point. This was a planetary leader with enough understanding of what she was asking to know how dangerous time travel was. Swallowing her anger at the delay, she nodded. "Alright."
Twilight smiled. "First, in its current state, can you pilot Megas?"
Kiva winced. "No, I can't."
Twilight nodded. "Would you be able - say, over the course of the next ten years - to repurpose the controls so you could?"
Kiva thought about that seriously for a time, then shook her head. "No. It would probably be easier to try and make sense of the current control scheme, and even that is a doubtful outcome, especially with the new systems based in magic."
Twilight smiled. "Over the ten years stipulated, do you think you could work with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo to the point where the four of you can master the control system?"
Kiva grimaced. "Working with Apple Bloom, I could probably figure out how each set of controls connects to Megas' systems, and at least figure out how to properly label some of the buttons."
Twilight nodded again. "Now I would like to posit a scenario. Say you get the Time Flux Control Unit back tomorrow, program it to take you back to your world in the year..." She waved her hoof to coax a year out of Kiva.
"3035," Kiva supplied.
"3035, to before the battle begins, when you can turn the tide of the battle. How many will die before you get there?"
Kiva frowned. "Only those who died before the battle began."
Twilight nodded. "And how many more will die if you wait 10 years before taking the trip?"
Kiva swallowed. "In ten years, humanity will be all but wiped out!"
"How?"
Kiva stared at Twilight, surprised such a brilliant mare could be so stupid. "In 3037, when I come from, we're already all but wiped out. By 3045-"
"But you'll be going to 3035," Twilight pointed out.
Kiva froze, not quite grasping what Twilight was saying.
Twilight smiled. "Kiva...in theory, when you program the Time Flux Control Unit to go to 3035...does it matter what the space time origin coordinates are when it comes to getting there? Or just what you program the end coordinates to be?"
Kiva thought for a time. "I...suppose not..." It was still difficult to wrap her mind around this. Time travel was still the cutting edge of cutting edge technology even in her time.
Twilight nodded. "That's right. It doesn't matter if you leave tomorrow or ten years from tomorrow. If you program the Control Unit for 3035, you will arrive in 3035, before the battle that lost humanity the war, and the Glorft will have exactly the force they had the first time the battle was fought."
As Kiva wrapped her mind around this, she felt her entire body relax, a tension she'd grown so used to she didn't even know she was feeling it anymore relaxed all at once. "But...but the Glorft that followed..."
"Are dealing with limited resources," Twilight pointed out. "They only have what they brought with them, and anything within reasonable range for resource harvesting is under Luna's direct magical control and would actively fight their attempts at mining. Megas has already countered one UMD - their ultimate weapon to your experience - with ease. How much easier will it be to deal with them as you and the CMC come to master Megas even further?" Twilight leaned back in her chair. "And how much more effective will Megas be if you wait to return to the Big Battle until after you have an expert pilot?"
Kiva lay back in her chair as these concepts slowly sank into her mind. For the first time since she joined the Earth Defense Force, time - and the Glorft - weren't snapping at her heels. She actually had time to relax.
Twilight smiled knowingly as she watched Kiva think. "So...do you have a request of me?"
Kiva thought for a bit, then nodded. "Yes. I would like permission to begin training Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo in the maintenance and piloting of the avatar unit Megas, and when they reach their majority I would like to request a return of the Time Flux Control Unit to Megas so we can save Earth from the Glorft."
Twilight nodded. "Since Megas legally belongs to them now, they're bound to pilot it will we or nill we. Their families will feel better if someone who knows how it works is teaching them how to do so safely. Once they reach their majority and are legally responsible for their own actions, you may ask for their aid in saving Earth. If they agree, I will see to it the Time Flux Control Unit is repaired and returned to you."
Kiva stood and bowed. "Thank you, Your Highness."
Twilight giggled. "I thought I told you to call me Twilight!" she complained jokingly. She then smiled at Kiva. "How about we head back out to the party? Pinkie's bound to be wondering where the guest of honor's gotten to."
Kiva nodded. "Alright," she said, heading for the door. She realized that she had agreed to basically be a glorified babysitter for three pre-teens who controlled the greatest war machine to ever be created...but she found she was actually looking forward to it...and to learning about this 'fun' Pinkie was so eager to teach.
As Twilight stepped through the door, she froze. "...What did you do to my castle?" she shouted at the top of her voice.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo smiled sheepishly from the cockpit of Megas. "Apparently, Megas doesn't have a party cannon function," Apple Bloom admitted sheepishly.
"It was her idea!" Sweetie Belle accused, pointing at Scootaloo.
"Whoops!" Scootaloo said nervously.
Kiva put her hand to her forehead. She was no longer looking forward to this. "This is going to be such a headache..."
Kiva climbed around carefully inside Megas with Apple Bloom. She was familiarizing herself with the war machine's internals all over again, as well as the modifications Apple Bloom had made to the inner workings. As they came to each primary system, Kiva would tell Apple Bloom what the system was called, what its function was, and whatever she could tell her about how it worked. In return, Apple Bloom told her what she'd been referring to it as - which was also the name it had on the sheaf of hoof drawn plans Kiva had been working from - as well as what modifications Apple Bloom had made to it, giving extra details beyond her minor notes on the crude drawings.
"And this is the hyper-fusion reactor," Kiva said, pointing at a central chamber of Megas. Inside, a large glass cylinder had powerful arcs of energy shooting through it. To her surprise, it also had a large, pulsating crystal inside. "I take it that's the high-density mana crystal you mentioned?"
"Yup!" Apple Bloom confirmed. "It was actually low on juice when I got it, but when I opened up the core it was giving off some sort of radiation that got sucked into the crystal and slowly reenergized it. So I tossed it in, where it floated into the center before I closed the door."
Kiva stared in shock. "The waste radiation of a hyper-fusion reactor is some of the most concentrated, deadly radiation known to exist. And..." She examined the systems. "By using the mana crystal to reabsorb and convert that radiation into magic energy, you've increased the safety of the power core by a wide margin, gave Megas a completely new power source alongside its original energy flow, and increased the efficiency of the reactor by 20%!"
"Yup!" Apple Bloom said happily. "Scootaloo was over the moon when she learned that I'd made the reactor '20% cooler'." She grimaced. "Scootaloo quotes Rainbow Dash religiously."
Kiva tilted her head at her phrasing. "So...what god do you worship?" she asked.
Apple Bloom paused. "...what's a god?" she asked.
Kiva shook her head. "Never mind. I think I may have misunderstood your word usage. Our languages probably have a different definition for it. What's religion in your language?"
"Science without understanding," Sweetie Belle said over the communications array from the cockpit, where she and Scootaloo had been observing Kiva and Apple Bloom's progress.
Kiva paused, trying to parse that. "I think I need more of an explanation," she admitted.
"If a given set of actions produce a predictable result with reliable consistency, it's ritual," Sweetie explained. "If you don't know why those actions produce that result, it's religion. If you do, it's science."
"Like with the Zap Apples," Apple Bloom explained. "We don't know what causes them to grow the way they do, but we know that we always have to do certain things in order to guarantee a good harvest. We don't know how much of what we do is actually necessary, and how much is...what's the word I'm looking for, Sweetie?"
"Ancillary?" Sweetie suggested.
"Yeah, that. Some of it might just be unneeded stuff added from Granny Smith's strange mind, but we have to do it all because we have no way of telling which parts actually trigger the magic. So it's religion."
"And that's what religiously means," Sweetie explained. "Doing something compulsively like you've always done before, as though a single mistake would ruin it."
Kiva rubbed her chin. "Seems there's quite a bit of adjustment I'll have to do to be at ease in your society. Lingual adjustments, at that." She ran her hand through her hair. "Let's keep going, see what else you changed."
"Gotcha!" Apple Bloom agreed, turning to lead Kiva to other parts of Megas.
After a time of further going over the various repairs and upgrades Apple Bloom had done, Kiva shook her head in wonder. "Apple Bloom, where did you learn to do all this?"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "I've always been good with my tools. It's no big thing, really."
"No big thing?" Kiva asked, stunned. "Apple Bloom, I've looked at the level of technology you have available on your planet. Earth of my time was centuries beyond this, and the Glorft who originally made this were millennia ahead of us. It took me years to learn enough of Megas' systems to redesign it for human use, and you took the same systems and my redesigns, and reconfigured it to pony use, improving on the original specs in the process...all in the course of a single summer!" She shook her head in amazement. "That's real talent, the likes of which I'd never even imagined before...especially since you don't even know the science behind most of it."
Apple Bloom stared up at Kiva in amazement. "Really? That's...talent?"
"And a real special one at that," Kiva replied, kneeling to rest her hand on Apple Bloom's head. "Being able to intuit technology eons beyond your own without fully understanding it and improve upon it? Even if you didn't have Megas, that's the kind of talent I'd want to take with me back to the early days of the war. Anyone can be trained as a pilot, but a good mechanic is worth Megas' weight in gold." Kiva blinked and tilted her head. "Apple Bloom, why is your butt glowing?"
Apple Bloom gasped, spinning to look at her flank. As the light faded, an image had appeared on her formerly blank flank: a silver wrench crossed with a blowtorch, with a miniature of Megas' power core at the cross point. Apple Bloom suddenly spilt into a huge grin as she leaped into the air. "Yes!" she screamed loudly. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" she continued to shout as she bounced around Kiva. "I got my Cutie Mark!" She turned to the internal cameras. "Can you see it Scoot? Sweetie? Look, I got my Cutie Mark!"
"It's amazing, Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle said quickly.
"Dang, that looks awesome!" Scootaloo added.
"Would someone explain to me what this is about?" Kiva asked.
As Apple Bloom was still bouncing around, Sweetie Belle decided to answer. "A Cutie Mark appears when a pony discovers their special talent," she explained. "Generally it appears between 10 and 13 years of age, though some are earlier and some are later. We've been trying to find our Cutie Marks for over a year, since we're the last ones in our class to find ours."
"And Megas got Apple Bloom hers!" Scootaloo said happily. "Maybe we can, too! A Giant Robot Piloting Cutie Mark would be totally awesome!"
"And where does that leave me?" Sweetie demanded. "It seems all I do that's Megas related is fetch and carry, make sardonic quips, and stick my horn in it. None of those sound like good Cutie Marks."
"Maybe your special talent will be sardonic wit?" Kiva suggested, trying to smooth things over.
"Oh yes," Sweetie replied drolly. "Cutie Mark Crusader Cynic, yay." Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were consumed with giggles. "It's not funny!"
"Come on!" Apple Bloom cried happily. "I've gotta show Applejack! And Big Mac! And Granny Smith! And rub it in Diamond Tiara's face!" With that, the three fillies raced out of Megas towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Kiva leaned against an internal wall of the giant war bot. "You were once an engine of destruction under the command of your makers," she mumbled to herself. "Then I turned you into a beacon of hope. And now...now you're a child's plaything." She chuckled and patted the metal wall. "If you could talk...would you be happy?"
She turned and left without waiting for a response. If she'd waited a moment longer, she'd have felt the thrum of power from the mana crystal that briefly filled the mech, illuminating the inside of the mech in joyous pink light.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo sat happily in the cockpit of Megas, enjoying their lunches. School had let out early that day, making a most enjoyable start to the weekend. Megas was currently parked in the new barn, which was big enough for Megas to stand at ground level in, and the roof was designed to flip open and shut to let Megas fly in and out without causing damage. Kiva was on the uppermost floor in the back of the barn, where any noise the Crusaders made - short of activating Megas - wouldn't disturb her as she read through the books she had borrowed from Twilight on Equestrian laws and culture. She was attempting to familiarize herself with the world she'd found herself stuck on for the foreseeable future, as she was no longer in any sort of rush to leave.
"So what are we going to do over the weekend?" Apple Bloom asked her fellow Crusaders.
"More Crusading, probably," Sweetie Belle replied. "I mean, Scootaloo and I still need our Cutie Marks."
"Maybe we could figure out how to use Megas to get our Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo suggested, looking over the controls eagerly.
"Unlikely," Sweetie pointed out. "If you haven't got a piloting Cutie Mark yet, you probably won't be getting one. Besides, I really don't want a Cutie Mark in being a glorified battery!" She gestured to the hole marked 'Horn goes here!'
Scootaloo grumbled, turning her back.
"How come you want Megas related Cutie Marks, anyway?" Apple Bloom asked. "I mean, I know Megas is awesome and all, but-"
"It's not that," Scootaloo interrupted, not meeting their eyes.
"Then what is it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"It's...never mind. It's stupid." Scootaloo glanced back towards her friends, seeing they were still staring at her. "Alright. It's that story Pinkie Pie told us about how she got her Cutie Mark."
"Huh?" both fillies asked in confusion.
"She grew up on a rock farm, lived a good portion of her life there, and had friends and family there...but then she got her Cutie Mark in throwing parties. There wasn't a real place for a party pony there, so she had to leave to explore her talent...leaving behind everypony she knew there...and now the only one from that part of her life she still connects with is her sister." Scootaloo frowned, blinking her eyes against incipient moisture. "If...if we get our Cutie Marks in different things, then we'll have to pursue those talents...which will pull us in different directions...away from each other." She sniffled, turning away so they wouldn't see tears in her eyes. "But if all our Cutie Marks have to do with Megas, then we'll always stay together...always be a team...always be friends..."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's eyes were wide as they stared at their friend. Within moments, the two had piled onto her for a group hug, one that she did not resist.
"What genuine emotion," a voice spoke from nearby. "It warms my heart."
All three fillies spun to the source of the voice. What they saw left them all staring.
"It's...a giant floating human head," Apple Bloom said slowly.
"With tiny little arms and legs," Scootaloo added. "It's so..."
"Cute!" Sweetie Belle squealed.
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and the floating head stared at her in shock. The head finally broke the silence. "Ahem. At any rate, my name is Magnanimous. I'm sure you've-"
"Then you have presents for us?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Magnanimous blinked at the seeming non-sequitur. "No, I don't have presents for you. As I was saying-"
"Lock on that target, Scootaloo!" Sweetie said quickly. Scootaloo grabbed the controls and leveled one of Megas' arms at Magnanimous, a large laser cannon popping out to lock onto him.
Magnanimous floated back in shock and confusion. "Now what's all this then?" he inquired in concern.
"Magnanimous is synonymous with generous," Sweetie explained. "But you aren't very generous."
"And in Equestria, your name is either synonymous or antonymous with your nature," Scootaloo explained. "So your name means-"
"I'm pretty sure you mean antithetical," Sweetie interrupted. "I don't think antonymous is a word."
"It so totally is!" Scootaloo countered.
"Prove it!" Sweetie challenged.
Apple Bloom pulled out a dictionary, flipping through the 'A's. "Umm, Sweetie? Scootaloo's right. It is a word."
"Wow," Sweetie admitted. "Learn something new every day." (1)
Magnanimous glanced from one filly to another, trying to figure out some way to seem generous to them. "Umm...I have some candy for good little girls?" he offered.
The three fillies gasped. "Stranger Danger!" Sweetie Belle shouted, as Scootaloo leveled a great deal more weaponry at the floating head.
"Kiva!" Apple Bloom shouted. "A F.A.G. is offering us candy! Should we blow him up?"
"What did you call me?" Magnanimous bridled.
"A Freaky Alien Genotype," Sweetie Belle explained. "F.A.G."
"Oh," he replied, feeling foolish.
Kiva came out from the back of the barn, rubbing her head as she hopped into the back seat of Megas' cockpit. "What's going on here?" she asked, glaring from the CMC to Magnanimous.
"My name is Magnanimous," the floating head replied quickly. "I was attempting to recruit these youngsters - specifically their giant war mech - to fight in the Tournament I sponser, but we got sidetracked into a discussion of naming conventions, and I offered them candy in an attempt to prove I was generous so they wouldn't blow me up under the assumption I was villainous."
Kiva stared for a time as she tried to make sense of it. Finally, she spoke up. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo...the convention of names reflecting either personality or abilities of the bearer isn't very prevalent out in space."
"Oh," the three fillies intoned in unison. Scootaloo lowered Megas' weapons.
"What's this about a tournament?" Kiva asked curiously.
Magnanimous smiled. "I happen to run a very impressive fighting tournament, where war machines from all across the galaxy compete to see which is the strongest and who is the best pilot. There are astounding prizes for the victors, and fame and eternal glory for the one who fights through to become...the champion!"
"Champion..." Scootaloo breathed, her eyes sparkling.
Kiva rubbed her chin in thought. "Hmm...this does seem like it could be good training for you three in controlling Megas, and getting you used to other methods of fighting." She looked up at Magnanimous. "Give us the coordinates. We can be there tomorrow shortly after dawn local time...but we'll need to leave to make it home in time for bedtime for these three."
Magnanimous blinked a bit, not expecting conditions such as this. However, he soon smiled. "Certainly. I shall expect you then...assuming their parents give permission?"
"I think I can talk them around," Kiva commented drily.
"Then tomorrow it is!" Magnanimous affirmed. "Until then, young gladiator!" he proclaimed, saluting Scootaloo before flying off into space.
Sweetie Belle grinned as she stared down at the coordinates that had been transmitted to Megas' nav computer.
Apple Bloom groaned. "Applejack's never gonna agree to this."
Much to Apple Bloom's surprise, all three fillies received permission to engage in the 'field trip' into space to participate in a giant robot fighting tournament. While Applejack didn't like the idea of Apple Bloom going off into space, she knew the little filly was eager for her own share of adventures since Applejack got up to more than enough of them with Twilight...and besides, it would be wrong to keep her from pursuing her destiny as represented by her Cutie Mark. If Megas was capable of space flight, then it sure wasn't meant to stay ground bound. Besides, there was already adult supervision.
Rarity had given Sweetie Belle permission to go, as their parents were once more out of town on one of their many vacations. She had, of course, given her all sorts of warnings, advice, and 'necessities' for her trip, as well as encouraging her to see if she could bring back some gemstones from space, both because Rarity would love to own one or work one into an ensemble and as a special treat for Spike. Sweetie Belle had already decided to leave most of the 'necessities' behind in the barn where Megas' lift-off thrusters would probably incinerate them, and blame it on a meteor shower or something...a decision quickly vetoed by Kiva when she learned that Megas was suddenly - and seemingly of its own accord - equipped with an nth-dimensional storage space just below the cockpit that had labeled itself 'The Closet of Holding', and both wanted to put a use to it and figure out how Megas was upgrading itself and why. That avenue of research hit a dead end when Princess Twilight informed her that 'magic just does things like that sometimes'.
Scootaloo was a different case. Pegasus parenting - with rare exception - tended to be a little more hooves off than that of the other tribes since they had the entire sky as their home, with most parents encouraging their foals towards exploration and independence as soon as they could control themselves in the air, generally by age 4. As a result, Scootaloo's parents spent quite a bit of time away from home for work, and - after discovering the strong bond that had developed between the two - left Rainbow Dash nominally in charge of Scootaloo when they were out of town. This basically meant it was Rainbow's job to make sure there was healthy food in the house, that Scootaloo did her homework, that permission slips got signed, and that Scootaloo never wound up in the hospital. As such, it was Rainbow that Scootaloo asked for permission to fly her giant robot into space for a giant robot fighting competition...at which point Twilight had to magically pull Rainbow off Kiva as the prismatic pegasus was clinging to her desperately while screaming, "Take me with you!!!" Needless to say, Scootaloo got permission...and a camera.
And now Megas was shooting through space heading for the coordinates that Magnanimous had given them, looking for a combat arena where they would do battle against other giant robots...and possibly other things on the same scale, depending on what was available. "Are ya sure we're goin' the right way?" Apple Bloom asked as she once more glanced out the windows in search of some sign of where to go, still not used to the idea of empty space with only the stars and the computer for guides.
Scootaloo glanced towards where a giant neon sign floated in space reading Welcome to the Galactic Championship Federation Bash Fest! "I'd say so," she mused as she steered Megas past it, towards a massive space station with a huge dome at the top.
"Well, this place should prove interesting," Kiva mused idly as she looked it over. "Pretty advanced...might have some spare parts we could use for Megas, or a few other things we might be able to use. Might even be able to find more information on the Glorft."
"It'll be up ta you and Sweetie ta do any lookin' around," Apple Bloom pointed out. "Scoot's gonna have to pilot Megas in the fights, and I gotta stay close ta fix it up."
"What if I need to use the magic systems?" Scootaloo complained. "Those only work with Sweetie, right?" She gestured to the horn slot in the dashboard.
"Actually, I went over what I could makes sense of out of the magical circuitry, and that's only necessary if you want to go with controlled magical discharge," Kiva explained calmly. "Or spellcasting, to use your world's terminology. If all you want to do is use the magical energy for combat systems - like a shield, a sword, or a gun - just throw this switch here." She pointed to a switch labeled 'Get Peeved'. "...I have no idea why it keeps changing to that...or why that's apparently a bad word in your culture."
"Oh, sweet!" Scootaloo declared eagerly, taking careful note of exactly where on the dash that switch was so she could find it when she wanted to.
"Of course, I'm also supposed to keep track of you all..." Kiva murmured thoughtfully. "But as long as you both stay in Megas, it should be fine. It's rather hard to misplace, after all."
"I'm surprised you aren't worried about Megas taking damage," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "I mean, it's pretty important to saving your world, right?"
"Apple Bloom included the same systems she put into Ponyville in Megas' last upgrade," Kiva pointed out, her tone warring between wry amusement and awe. "Anytime Megas isn't moving or doing anything, it can take five minutes to fully restore itself as long as the magic channels are intact."
"In that case, it's time for some fun!" Scootaloo crowed as she angled them into the docking bay lit up for them.
Before long, the group found themselves inside a massive dome shaped battle arena, the very one they saw from outside at the top of the station. At the moment it was plain gray, though the stands around the edges rose to nearly the top of the dome and were filled with a huge variety of alien life forms the likes of which none of the four could have even imagined before today. Displayed above the arena was the G.C.C.S. Champion belt, which immediately had Scootaloo's undivided attention.
"Welcome, fillies!" Magnanimous declared warmly as he floated down to the group. "And you as well, dear lady. Has everyone got their permission slips signed?" He chuckled at his little joke...a chuckle that died away as all three fillies pulled out signed forms giving them permission to enter their Megas in an intergalactic combat sport for the day. "You lot certainly do things by the book, don't you?"
"Well, our tutor does," Sweetie Belle explained readily.
"And she's one of the Princesses, so...what can you do?" Scoot added with a shrug.
"Well, as long as it's all taken care of," Magnanimous allowed, trying to move things along. "Let's get your pilot in and out there, while the rest of you enjoy the spectacle-"
"Actually...ah'm gonna have ta be in Megas, too," Apple Bloom pointed out dryly. "Part of the conditions of me gettin' ta come, since it's part o' mah special talent." She turned side-on to show the mark on her flank. "Th' whole point o' this trip fer me is ta learn ta take care o' Megas in conditions other than Equestria, especially active battle conditions."
"And if she can't do that, we'll all just have to go home," Sweetie added in an artfully regretful tone with an innocent smile that would have made Rarity proud. "And after everyone here's gotten so excited seeing Megas..."
Magnanimous chuckled dryly. "You girls drive a hard bargain, and remind me not to end up on the other side of a court case from you, little lady." He playfully ruffled Sweetie's mane. "Alright then, pilot and mechanic in the mech, and you two enjoy the show. Maybe even put a little wager on the outcome of the matches?"
Kiva frowned. "I don't think their guardians would approve of gambling-"
"I won't wager more than two bits!" Sweetie promised devoutly. "And it's my own money, besides. And we've got to get some space currency for all the souvenirs everypony wants, anyway."
"Did you ever pay that zebra back for the head unit?" Kiva asked curiously as the pair headed for the stands.
"Details!" Sweetie countered defensively.
Surprisingly enough, it was rather easy for the pair to reach the kiosk where wagers were taken, as every female alien in the crowd - and a surprising number of male aliens - cooed eagerly at the sight of Sweetie Belle and either fought each other for a turn to try and cuddle her or literally threw the others out of the way so she could go where she wanted to. Kiva simply followed along, wondering what it was about her that did that to so many otherwise sensible creatures. Upon reaching the kiosk, they discovered that Megas was rated at odds of 45000 to 1. The alien behind the counter made odd noises that were obviously an inquiry regarding Sweetie's wager.
Sweetie ignited her horn and floated two gold bits out of her saddlebags and onto the counter. "On the new guy," she offered happily, not noticing the dead silence that surrounded them. "And let it ride."
Kiva was mentally torn. On the one hand, this did ensure Sweetie wouldn't have to keep track of the gambling side of things and they could explore if they wanted, and there were no worries as long as Scootaloo and Megas kept winning. On the other hand, she did not like the way everyone went dead silent just then, or the way they were all staring...either at Sweetie's magic or the gold Kiva wasn't sure, and she didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.
The alien behind the counter carefully picked up the bits and examined them for a time, and finally printed out a receipt that he held out to Sweetie, displaying an initial wager value that made Kiva swallow convulsively. Plainly, it was the gold. She'd better keep a very close eye on Sweetie Belle...and her saddlebags.
Scootaloo braced herself in Megas' pilot's seat as lights came on in the arena and Magnanimous began an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Galactic Combat Championship Federation Bash-Fest! In the blue corner, making his G.C.C.S. debut, weighing in at 48 protos of destruction, the Eradicator from Equestria, the Ponies Pummeler, the Children's Charger...mmmmmmMEGAS!" Light shone down on Megas as the audience proceeded to boo...until the cameras zoomed in on Scootaloo in the pilot's seat grinning ear to ear as she revved the engine. Then the audience daw'ed.
"And in the red corner..." Magnanimous continued as heavy music began to play and the spotlight shone down elsewhere. "The Cancer from the Crab Nebula...the Breaker of Black Holes...the Red Dwarf of Devastation...SuperrrrrNOVA!"
Another mech was revealed in the spotlight, this one roughly humanoid in shape with yellow and black limbs, a head shaped like a viking war helm, a massive battle axe as one hand, and a red cape on its back. It thrust its arms into the air as pyrotechnics kicked off around it. The audience cheered excitedly...though there were a few surprising calls of, "Don't you dare hurt that little pony!" that made Magnanimous chuckle even as Scootaloo pouted at being underestimated.
"And it looks like the audience has found a darling, if not a favorite," the host joked as he gazed down at the match waiting to happen. As two 'show-mechs' - mechs that looked like showgirls - pulled Supernova's cape off, Magnanimous continued his introduction. "Alright, you two, I want a nice, clean fight. And by clean, I mean I want to see total chaos and destruction!"
"Oh, so our Cutie Mark attempts," Scootaloo mused to herself, not realizing Magnanimous - if not the audience - was picking up the chatter inside the mechs. "At least it's familiar territory."
"Don't let yer guard down!" Apple Bloom warned her from where she was watching over Megas' power core. "And be careful o' usin' the magic systems. We ain't never used 'em without Sweetie, and this doesn't seem like the best time for a field test."
"Got it!" Scootaloo confirmed as she gripped the controls tighter.
"Are you ready for the robot ruckus?!" Magnanimous called out, and the crowd cheered.
"You going down!" Supernova declared intensely, gesturing to Megas as his mouth grill glowed with his words.
Megas glanced away disdainfully, lifting one hand to make 'blah, blah, blah' motions, causing the crowd to erupt with laughter.
"Don' ya think that was a mite overconfident?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.
"M-Maybe?" Scootaloo allowed...not really wanting to admit that she hadn't worked the controls to do it, even if she had seen them do so.
As Supernova growled angrily, Magnanimous laughed over the speakers. "Someone's confident!" he declared as a virtual landscape took shape around the two mechs, shaping jungle trees and foliage.
"Ah need ta get ahold o' whatever they use to do that..." Apple Bloom murmured in awe as she stared out through a viewscreen.
"And Megas is off to an amazing start, having countered Supernova's charge and disarmed him!" Magnanimous announced as Supernova got back to its feet. "Who could have seen that coming, folks? But Supernova's never been one to let things like that keep him down!"
Supernova snarled as a new ax generated from the slot before turning to expel a jet of flames at Megas from the tip of the ax. Scootaloo kept the ax spinning, creating a wind barrier that deflected the flames.
"Looks like Megas is ready to blow away the competition, folks!" Magnanimous called out. "But can it continue to take the heat? That fur coat can not be comfortable right now!"
Scootaloo frowned, shaking her head to clear away sweat. Magnanimous was right, it was getting hot in the cockpit. It was time to take a gamble. Spinning the ax a little faster, she gave herself some breathing room before hurling the ax forward. It spun through the air and flames to embed itself in Supernova's arm, causing the fuel tank for the flamethrower to explode from the unexpected breach. What was left of Supernova scattered around the field.
"Talk about an explosive finish!" Magnanimous declared excitedly as the audience cheered or booed as was their wont. "And against all odds, the first pony to fight in the G.C.C.F. wins her debut bout, and sets a new time record!" The announcer's box floated over to Megas as Scootaloo lowered the roof so she could cheer and take pictures. "Who'd have believed it folks?"
Kiva and Sweetie Belle glanced over everything that was for sale as they wandered through the stands. "Well, there's...quite a selection," Kiva observed as she kept Sweetie Belle close by. Privately, she was glad none of the food-stuffs appealed to Sweetie at all. She did not want to see what these fillies were like hopped up on exotic chemicals. Sugar had been bad enough.
"So, uh...how am I going to know if Scoot's won a match?" Sweetie asked curiously. "If I let it all ride, how am I going to have spending money?" At that moment, her receipt blinked. Glancing down at it, she gasped in pleased surprise. "Oh wow! Looks like they won! That's a big payout...oh! I'll just keep this much for immediate expenditures, and let the rest ride." She marked the adjustments on the receipt, and a floating eye robot came over with a bag of credits. "Time to go shopping!"
Kiva rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement before following along as Sweetie began her shopping, seeking out the various things on her list. One thing was for sure, keeping an eye on these fillies would certainly never be dull.
It wasn't long before Sweetie had finished her shopping trip, and in the process had conscripted three trolley drones to carry all her purchases back to Megas when it was time to go. Her 'souvenirs' included gemstones, new fabrics, fruit and vegetables from other planets confirmed by Kiva's scanner to be Equestria viable without destabilizing the ecosystem, books, videos of battles both in space and on obscure worlds (along with a player for the videos and a portable power generator to run it), musical instruments unlike anything ever seen in Equestria, and an adorable critter of unknown origin that she just had to get for Fluttershy...along with a care instruction packet with the oddest restrictions she'd ever heard of. Still, Fluttershy could figure out how to dry clean an animal...though she had to get clarification on how 'midnight' was measured as far as the creature was concerned when it came to a planet where time was determined by the magic of the rulers moving the celestial bodies rather than natural motions.
With all the shopping done, Kiva spoke up. "So, now that you've gotten all the souvenirs you wanted, don't you think it's time we started looking for information?" she asked Sweetie Belle as calmly as she could manage. She tried to tell herself that Sweetie was just a child - not even a teenager by her world's standards, if she understood the significance of 'Cutie Marks' properly - so she could be excused for being easily distracted. Still, she was beginning to lose her patience with this...meaningless activity. Even if there was no rush in terms of years to get ready to defeat the Glorft, they still needed to be home by sunset to avoid getting in trouble with the fillies' respective guardians, and that left only so much time to access the galactic networks while they were here.
"The jeweler was complaining about his normal mining areas falling under Glorft control, and was able to give me a list of the star systems they had taken as of this time," Sweetie pointed out without blinking. "The fabric merchant mentioned the change of prices as far as military grade fabrics as opposed to civilian with parts of the galaxy gearing up to combat the Glorft, though inefficiently. The tech merchant who offered the videos told me they were salvage from a Glorft destroyed world, and even showed me on a starmap where that was. The critter and produce merchants had similar complaints, while also pointing which worlds had managed to avoid Glorft attention so far despite being in their path of conquest. And the book merchant was so pleased to hear about Princess Twilight's passion for the written medium as opposed to electronic storage that he offered to let us use his data access terminal for more information, since being an information merchant he has higher security clearance on his personal terminal than what's available on public access terminals."
Kiva stared at her, completely stunned. "...how...?"
"You didn't think I was chatting everyone up just to get good deals, did you?" Sweetie asked archly. "With how many credits I'm winning on Scoot and Megas, that's hardly a concern. Besides, my sister is passionate about gossip. It might not matter so much to me in a general sense, but I have noticed how making a merchant feel good during negotiations - and a bit of friendly flattery - can get their mouths running, whatever the shape."
Kiva shook her head in amazement. "Remind me to stop underestimating you girls just because you're young..." Letting out a more relaxed sigh, she managed a smile. "So when are we meeting him?"
"Just as soon as Scoot's done with her next bout," Sweetie answered readily. "Since she's going to win again, that'll change her odds and the following bout will be delayed to give everyone time to change their bets. That's when he'll be free." At that moment, Sweetie's receipt dinged again, registering her new winnings. "Looks like that's right now!" she said happily. "Come on!"
Chuckling to herself, Kiva chased after the young unicorn. She couldn't help but feel like she was being spoiled with these three, and hoped she wasn't losing her soldier's edge. Still, she had to admit that as far as those who might have ended up with Megas, she could have gotten much worse. She should really count herself lucky.
Though somehow I doubt it would be as much of a headache, she thought to herself.
In another reality in a distant and alien place known as Jersey City, a different Kiva sneezed for no apparent reason. She made a mental note to give herself a physical health check, just in case her immune system wasn't as up to dealing with older Earth germs as she thought. Then again, given where she had to live, she was honestly surprised it had taken this long to show signs of sickness...
Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief as Megas' second opponent - a green squid-based mech of all things - went down for the count. It had been a bit of a rough battle, as it hadn't underestimated Megas the way Supernova had, nor had it posed or postured during the battle. Still, Megas had emerged victorious, and Apple Bloom was already managing the auto-repair systems for quick fixes in the most significant areas, since they both seriously doubted they'd be given the five minutes they needed to let Megas fully repair.
She blinked in surprise as Magnanimous floated down towards her. "Looks like I was right about you, filly," he purred happily. "You're going to make me rich." He then chuckled. "Well, you and some sucker that actually bet on you in the first round-"
"Oh, that'd be Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo pointed out with a smirk. "She said she was going to bet her allowance on me."
"Well what are friends for?" Magnanimous asked, not even blinking as he shifted gears. Glancing over the records, he blinked in shock. "Though if that's what kids get as an allowance where you live, I might just want to retire there."
"And this is the part where you say I can wait until after the next round to take a break, since you're going to tell me to take a fall so you can make a killing off everyone who's going to bet on me now that I'm on a winning streak, right?" Scootaloo asked incisively. When Magnanimous blinked in shock, Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Please. That would be obvious to anyone who'd read a book, and Rainbow's been reading lots of sports-drama novels to me as bedtime stories lately since it's been a while since A.K. Yearling came out with a new novel. It's kinda cliche."
Magnanimous managed a chuckle. "Well, it's nice to see you know how things work." He frowned. "And if we're going by the cliches...I assume this is the part where you refuse to do so, probably in some sort of insulting manner that highlights what I see as your naivete as far as how the world really works and your determination to make it big despite my attempts to stop you?"
Scootaloo blinked for a time. "...does 'piss off' count? I...kinda got lost halfway through that sentence."
"Yes, yes it does," Magnanimous allowed. "Though I warn you, I have ways of getting what I want, and it's wise not to cross me."
"If you don't like me shooting for the championship belt, feel free to get in the ring yourself and try and stop me!" Scootaloo countered playfully. "Though I should warn you, don't try and leverage me with my friends."
"Oh?" Magnanimous asked in amusement. "And why shouldn't I? It sounds like it would work."
"Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't," Scootaloo allowed. "But I know one thing. If you do, then I will not rest until I've hunted you down personally, shoved that belt so far up your plot I have to rip your jaw open to pull it out the rest of the way, and then torn that hover thingy off you to see what you look like under it before determining what to do next. But it won't be pleasant for you."
Magnanimous blinked for a time. "That would probably be a bit more intimidating if I knew what 'plot' was slang for," he admitted calmly.
"The end that does your thinking for you if you actually thought an idealistic prepubescent would actually go along with throwing a match in her giant battle robot just because you said so," Scootaloo pointed out flatly.
"...delicately yet blatantly put," Magnanimous allowed. "Though I have to wonder how 'plot' became slang for that on your world-"
"Because everyone agrees that plotholes stink," Scootaloo replied easily.
Magnanimous stared at her for a time. "I'm honestly not sure how to feel about that," he admitted before floating away.
Kiva followed Sweetie back to the book seller's stall, where he was calmly waiting for them. Well...'he' was a bit of an assumption on Kiva's part, as all that could be seen of 'him' under an all-covering cloak was the tendrils he used to manipulate his wares and the glowing eyes in the shadows under his hood. He'd introduced himself as 'Mora', and beyond books and other forms of information had spoken of nothing else. He seemed to writhe as the pair returned. "Ah, there you are," he purred happily. "Please, feel free to seek the information you desire. My terminal is here." He seemed to flow to one side, revealing a very basic terminal with a holo-display and keypad at comfortable height for Kiva to use, and a perfectly round data-port down lower. When he noticed Kiva glancing at this, he gurgled oddly. "I normally keep it lower for my own use, but I adjusted it since you cannot adjust your own height as easily. There is another data-port higher up if you wish more direct access."
Kiva smiled and nodded. "Thank you for your consideration," she offered warmly as she stepped up to the terminal, immediately hooking the cybernetics in her wrist to the data-port via inbuilt cable so her translator circuits could work and let her understand the information she found.
"Fascinating," Mora mused as he observed her actions, seeming to take notes. "And how does this technology handle the buffering between neural and computer data rates?"
"I'm afraid I don't know," Kiva apologized ruefully. "My specialties were combat and mechanics, not programming. I know how to build it and make it work for a human, but I don't really understand the theory behind it." She frowned as her search queries either came up empty or with access denied. "Which would probably help me figure out what's going on here..."
"Oh, the information you want is restricted to military terminals," Mora apologized ruefully. "I'm afraid this unit won't be able to display what you're looking for."
"Display?" Kiva asked incisively. "So it can access the material, just not show it to me?"
"More or less," Mora allowed evasively. "With the proper overrides, the limitation could be circumvented, but those are simply not available..."
"Well, maybe a bit of hacking..." Kiva murmured as she tapped away at her holo-keyboard.
Sweetie watched this for a time, but rapidly grew bored. Glancing around, she found her eyes drawn to the round data-port that was at her level. "Huh," she mused thoughtfully as she examined it. "Kinda looks like the 'horn goes here' slot in Megas' control panel. ...about the same size, too..." Without thinking too much more about it, she stuck her horn into the slot.
Kiva jerked back as energy suddenly blazed around Sweetie Belle, her horn and eyes glowing as Kiva's own data access went haywire. "What the-?" She took in Sweetie's state. "And here I thought children without fingers wouldn't need the 'don't stick your fingers in the electrical socket' warning..." she grumbled as she bent down towards her to try and shift her.
"Kiva?" Sweetie's voice suddenly asked from the terminal. "What happened? Where am I?"
"What are you talking about Sweetie?" Kiva demanded in confusion. "You're right here...aren't you?"
Sweetie glanced around at her surroundings. "I...I don't think so...it kinda looks like I'm floating in a sea of numbers. There are...a few images scattered around, and a lot of...scrolls? Also, I see a few walls of fire here or there. What does it all mean?"
Sweetie waited fearfully for Kiva's response. "Sweetie...by any chance does your race's magic include anything to let the mind leave the body?"
"Oh, Astral Projection!" Sweetie piped up happily. "But that's a really advanced spell, and I don't know it..." She blinked as she found herself flowing through the sea of numbers until a particular scroll unrolled in front of her, showing her details of Astral Projection as it was represented in a particular 'fictional story' that was referenced. "Oh, this is how it works!" She pressed her hoof to the scroll.
"Sweetie, information on Astral Projection just downloaded itself to my wrist unit...in your written language," Kiva explained. "I...I think your magic interacting with the technology caused you to astral project...into the information networks. I can only assume it's something that developed from using your magic to energize Megas, somehow."
Sweetie thought about that for a time. "You mean...like Megas heard Scootaloo's talk about us all getting Megas' themed Cutie Marks, saw I had a potential for something like this, and primed my magic for it?"
"...that attributes far more sentient awareness to the avatar unit than I'm fully comfortable with, but close enough," Kiva allowed. "For now, see if you can't get access to information on the Glorft."
"Alright, I'll see what I can find," Sweetie replied. "Glorft, Glorft..." She swam her way through the sea of numbers in the direction she felt was the right one. "Here's hoping getting back is easy, though..."
Scootaloo found Megas' next opponent was a red, samurai themed mecha and the battle took place in a simulated city, almost. The battle quickly clashed with a mutual charge, and both mechs gripped each others' hands in an attempt to force the other back. Seeing the strength at the moment was evenly matched, Scootaloo changed tactics by pulling back. As the enemy mech went off balance, Megas lunged forward in a headbutt, knocking the foe prone.
At that moment, panels in the floor opened and cables of some sort lashed out in an attempt to ensnare Megas...only for the mech's fingers to turn into claws. A quick spin shredded the cables before they could latch on. "Traps now?" Scootaloo gasped in excitement. "This tournament just got interesting!" Lunging forward, a powerful slash downward with one set of claws severed both her foe's arms, while a sideways slash split it down the middle.
"Ah didn' know Megas could make claws!" Apple Bloom gasped in surprise as the audience cheered.
"Guess I pressed a good button," Scootaloo offered, glancing down at the 'Don't Get Trapped' button that had appeared in the back of her seat that she'd accidentally bumped when she'd reared back from the sight of the cables. She was pretty sure the button wasn't there earlier, but she'd never actually checked...
Sweetie carefully floated through the sea of numbers and images, mumbling 'Glorft' over and over under her breath. This seemed to keep her on a specific course. There were several times where she was almost distracted by various things that caught her interest - whether in the form of images or scrolls - but she quickly discarded the distraction since Kiva was counting on her to get what they were looking for. Maintaining her focus, she flowed along in the sea. She found that various parts of the sea had paths linking them together, and she was able to move faster along the paths than if she tried to push straight through the sea in the direction she felt she needed to go, so she stuck to the paths whenever they had her going in roughly the right direction.
Eventually, she came across a massive structure surrounded by flames, mines, and what looked remarkably like gun turrets. Strange drone constructs also patrolled it. When she mumbled 'Glorft' under her breath again, she felt herself pulled towards the structure. "Kiva, I think I've found something," she spoke up firmly, hoping her voice would carry to Kiva...wherever she was relative to her. "It's...I don't know how to describe it..."
"I can't really see it from here," Kiva explained calmly. "I was able to see that information on Astral Projection earlier. Up until now, I've only seen a few odd hyperlinks that streamed by rapidly."
"Hyperlinks?" Sweetie asked curiously. "That must have been those paths I was on. It made getting here much faster when I ran along them instead of floating through...and I touched the scroll about Astral Projection..."
"Perhaps you could touch what you're looking at?" Kiva suggested thoughtfully.
"I don't think that'd be a good idea," Sweetie countered, eyeing one of the drones. "It's...pretty secure."
There was a brief pause and some odd static. "Mora asks if you can take a picture of it," Kiva translated after a time.
"Picture?" Sweetie asked, confused. "I don't have a camera-" To her surprise, a camera appeared in her forehooves. "Oh! There we go." Aiming it carefully, she snapped the picture. "Did that help?"
There was silence for a time. "...Sweetie, I don't know how you managed it...but you're at the military processing center for the entire Glorft civilization. If we can get information out of it without detection, we'll know everything about the Glorft. Everythi-"
Sweetie blinked as Kiva was cut off and everything slowed down. "Kiva?" she asked in confusion.
A message popped up in front of her, seemingly projected from her horn.
External communication lost. Forced disconnect anticipated. Quantum acceleration in place. One minute personal time until forced disconnect. Warning: forced disconnect will cause disorientation, loss of equilibrium, or enforced separation. Engage emergency recall to body? Time to return, 20 seconds personal time.
Sweetie stared in shock. Based on the countdown, if this was right she had maybe another 20 seconds before she would be too late to get back to her own body. "But...but it took so long to get here-"
The message changed as the spot on which she stood briefly pulsed.
Incognito bookmark placed. Emergency recall to body?
She didn't know what an 'incognito bookmark' was, but she'd just have to ask Kiva and hope it was good news. "Do it!" The world vanished.
Scootaloo waited calmly in the cockpit of Megas, waiting for the next match to start. She knew getting so confrontational with Magnanimous after he had come to try and make her take a fall. It was likely unwise to bring up her friends as she did, too. She told herself she did it to try and protect them, but she couldn't help but think it somehow put a bullseye on their backs-
"Scootaloo, come in!" Kiva suddenly called out over the comm link as her face appeared.
"Kiva?" Scootaloo gasped in shock. "What is it?"
Kiva started to say something, only to be cut off as the signal was lost. Manganimous then appeared on the screen. "I gotta admit, I'm impressed," he said calmly. "I expected you to be atomized by now-"
"Is this the part where ya've got Kiva and Sweetie Belle in some sort of death trap and are tryin' ta compel Scoot ta throw the fight ta save them?" Apple Bloom interrupted dryly. "Ah hope yer at least gonna announce that it's the 'underhanded tactics' of our next opponent tryin' ta 'break our fightin' spirits' at the start o' the match Scoot's supposed ta throw. It'd be real disappointin' if Trixie back home could put on a better show than someone with an audience multi-star wide."
Magnanimous blinked a few times. He then smiled disarmingly. "Now why would you possibly believe I would-"
"If Apple Bloom gave you the idea to spin it that way, do you really think I'd believe it when you told me right after she suggested it?" Scootaloo pointed out flatly.
"You know, even genre savvy adults are willing to play along," Magnanimous countered acidly. "You kids are taking all the fun out of this." The communication cut.
Scootaloo sighed as she watched the new terrain take shape, a rocky landscape with a few trees and stone arches. The far gate to the arena opened, revealing a mecha in samurai armor...which quickly became five.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Magnanimous announced to the audience. "Megas' next opponent is the Samechrai Brothers...but it seems they've lost the path of honor! Behind the backs of this establishment, they have captured friends of Megas' pilot and suspended them over...the Quantum Singularity!" A spotlight shone down on a glass cage containing Kiva and a disoriented Sweetie Belle, suspended over a swirling black vortex contained between several pylons emitting a containment field. "The little pony must now choose between her friends' well-being, or the Championship!"
Scootaloo's eyes narrowed angrily as the audience booed this development. "Why that..."
"Clever," Apple Bloom murmured. "If we fight, we lose the crowd appeal. If we throw the fight, he can eliminate the other guy next round and the crowd'll cheer him."
"Or I can do what the switch says!" Scootaloo snapped as she reached forward and flipped the 'Get Peeved' switch.
"Scoot, what will activatin' the magic combat systems do?" Apple Bloom demanded as circuitry within Megas shifted. "It's not like it's gonna give you a magic button ta press to save Sweetie and Kiva!"
Scootaloo blinked as the buttons on the control panel moved around, and one revealed a new label. "Uh...you mean like a button labeled 'Anti Friend-Eating Quantum Singularity'?"
"...well that's convenient," Apple Bloom murmured thoughtfully. "Think it'll work?"
"Only one way to find out!" Scootaloo declared as she brought her hoof down hard on the button.
Megas leapt out of the arena to grab hold of the pylons emitting the containment field. A fist reared back and punched through the pylon, making the field there fail. The singularity whirled as the gravity emitted started to pull Megas in...and the chest of Megas opened into a frighteningly organic looking mouth filled with vicious looking teeth, spreading until it utterly enveloped the singularity before slamming closed and pulling back to the normal configuration. The front panel of Megas' chest shifted back and forth organically with an odd crunching sound before settling back to normal. A massive belch sound effect echoed from the machine.
Kiva stared down at the mech in shock. "...how?" she managed to gasp out just barely.
"...the fuck did I just watch?" Magnanimous spoke over the loudspeaker.
"Hey!" one of the female audience members shouted loud enough to be heard, a green-furred fox-like humanoid female in a white dress. "Language! There are children present!"
"Oh shut up!" Magnanimous snapped back. "After what we just saw, that was totally called for!"
Once Kiva got over the shock of Megas eating a Quantum Singularity, she got right to work trying to hack the lock on the cage they were in, since there was no longer any danger to getting out. Had it been with just herself and Sweetie, there would have been no way to escape the Singularity and reach the safety of the containment pylons. Before she got very far, however, Megas reached up and grasped the cage. A single squeeze and the cage shattered, allowing Megas to deposit the pair of them into the cockpit.
"Welcome back," Scootaloo offered happily. "Did you get all your shopping done?"
"Yup!" Sweetie declared happily. "Did the drones get it all here?"
"Yup!" Apple Bloom called out from the engine room. "Everything's all stored and stocked."
"So...unless you want to keep fighting to claim the belt in this obviously corrupt competition, I think we've done all we need to do here," Kiva indicated pointedly, hoping to get a message across.
"Not quite," Scootaloo countered. "I can do without the belt from a staged fight. I can accept being pressured to throw a fight, which I'm going to ignore. I can even accept trying to be strong-armed by a megalomaniacal idiot." Her eyes hardened fiercely. "But nobody gets away with hurting my friends! Sweetie! Can you get access to the PA?"
"On it!" Sweetie declared as Megas leapt back into the arena, landing on several of the samurai-shaped mechs that were the opponents. Sticking her horn into the slot for it, she focused on her memory of coasting through the information networks...and found the program in question. "Got it!"
Megas pointed up at Magnanimous. "I know it was you that arranged for my friends to be put in danger!" Scootaloo declared, her voice echoing through the entire stadium. "It's bad enough you run a fixed arena where 'rising champions' only last long enough for people to start betting on them before being forced to throw the fight so you can rake in the cash!" Gasps of shock, dismay, and fury filled the stands. "But to pull it on us kids! I'm going to mow through everything you can throw at us, and I'm not going to stop-" Megas suddenly pulled out a huge bag of Fluglehorns before mashing them together to shape them into a Megas-sized one. "-until I can shove this up somewhere you shouldn't show on network television!" Roars of eager approval and excitement filled the stands.
"Where did you get that?" Kiva asked in confusion.
"Pinkie asked me ta store her fluglehorn collection somewhere it wouldn't get blasted by a missile like her bagpipe collection," Apple Bloom explained. "Figured the safest spot was inside Megas."
At that moment, the doors at the edges of the arena opened and disgorged a swarm of opponents from the organic to the robotic and everything inbetween. A steel grate closed over the arena, sealing Megas and the opponents in.
"So does Rarity, oddly enough," Sweetie pointed out.
"So there's no chance of any of you taking this seriously, is there?" Kiva asked curiously.
Three pairs of eyes turned towards her, giving the cutest looks of innocent confusion she'd ever seen even if one was through a camera feed from the engine room.
"Never mind," Kiva allowed. "So what do you think the odds-"
Megas drew the magical energy sword it had used against the Glorft.
Kiva stared at it for a time, then leaned over Scootaloo to examine the control panel. "What are you doing?" Scoot asked in confusion.
"Looking for the snack button," Kiva answered readily. "There's bound to be one."
"Those are on the seats," Sweetie pointed out. "Labeled 'Popcorn', 'Muffin', 'Cupcake', 'Soda', and 'Juice'."
Sitting back in her seat, Kiva examined the buttons. "Well, I might as well try to be healthy." While she only had vague awareness of what the buttons meant, she pressed 'Juice' and 'Muffin'.
Back in Ponyville, Derpy's eyes briefly straightened out of nowhere, and a certainty that something important had happened somewhere suffused her being.
Before long, the assembled swarm had fallen before Megas, whether sliced to pieces, suplexed into unconsciousness, or jammed into the holes in the cage until they were bent out of shape. Scootaloo calmly brushed off her hooves as Megas mimicked the actions with its hands. "Well, that takes care of that," she declared happily. "Now lets deal with Migrainimous so we can get the belt and get home. We've missed lunch, and I think Megas is hungry too." She gestured to the fuel gauge which was close to pointing at 'empty'. "I guess Kumquat Shred Tomatoes aren't very filling."
"...Quantum Singularity," Kiva corrected dryly as she brushed away crumbs.
"Yeah, that thing."
At that moment, something shook through the air and sent Megas flying against the edge of the arena. When the group turned to look, Magnanimous had hooked himself into a white and gold mecha with two arms on its left side and some sort of giant emitter on its right. "And I thought you were tough," he taunted smugly. "Not so tough against the...Sonic Abominator-"
Megas suddenly lifted the giant fluglehorn to its chest, and a devastating blast of sound echoed from the mouth, focused so tightly it struck Magnanimous' mech like a blow, shattering the emitter on its right hand.
"HOW?" Magnanimous demanded in shock as the mech staggered back. "How can you possibly-" His words were cut off as the mouthpiece of the fluglehorn erupted out the top of his mech, nearly going right through him.
Megas released the other end of the fluglehorn as it released a pathetic toot, brushing its hands clean.
"...you weren't kidding about where you were going to shove it," Kiva murmured as the entire audience winced.
"Nope!" Scootaloo declared happily as Megas tore the cage open to fly up and grab the belt. "So...know anywhere around here we could get something to eat? I think we need to refill before we head for home."
Kiva tapped her chin thoughtfully as they flew out of the stadium and into space, accompanied by the cheers of the audience as they converged on Magnanimous with lawyers in tow. "...I might know a place..."
Kiva smiled thoughtfully as she looked around the 'food court' the group had found themselves in. While she'd been somewhat leery about visiting the 'Planet of the Space Amazons' as it had been dubbed in the star charts Sweetie had gotten during their shopping trip - especially as it was marked as a world that had successfully - and frequently - repelled all attempts of invasion and conquest including the Glorft - she had decided to go there anyway once she was able to confirm that the world was called that due to the fact it was populated by a race of humanoid warriors that were almost entirely female. As she'd expected, the three fillies received instant welcome...for a variety of reasons.
While Apple Bloom had received the expected 'adorable pony' welcome that had the Amazons discreetly cooing over her, Sweetie Belle was treated with something akin to religious awe as though a God - or the avatar thereof - had deigned to set foot among mortals. Scootaloo, meanwhile, was greeted as a fellow warrior, eagerly welcomed by the youngsters who wanted to wrestle with her...and likely would have had the group not beelined for the food court. Once they were in line, they were more or less left alone.
Kiva had a bit of trouble adjusting as she took in their surroundings. On the one hand, between the stonework, the arching columns, the marble statues, and various sorts of plants encouraged to grow here and there, it looked somewhat ancient Greek or Roman in design, as though the ancient ruins had never fallen into disrepair. On the other hand, the electric light displaying the elegant scrollwork restaurant name of 'Spacey's' in the recess of one wall made it feel more like the shopping mall-like area they'd visited at the fighting tournament they'd just left. Kiva had some trouble adjusting to the dichotomy. The fillies were perfectly at home, with Scootaloo commenting about 'Cloudsdale'.
As they sat down with their food, Kiva was surprised to see they weren't the only offworlders present. At a table not far from them, five rather colorful men in matching uniforms were enjoying their food while attempting to 'pick up chicks' as the tiny green-skinned one put it. He did not seem to be meeting with success, as he had several slap-marks on his face and a bruise in the shape of the butt of a spear between his central two eyes. The red and blue skinned ones seemed only to be making a half-hearted attempt, while the purple skinned one seemed to be watching the others' attempts with tolerant amusement.
...the giant of a redhead appeared to misunderstand the metaphor in the activity, much to the rueful amusement of his compatriots and the glee of the youngsters he hefted into the air under their mothers' watchful gazes. Then again, he was the one the adult females seemed to enjoy talking to...
As the trio of fillies enjoyed their salads and smoothies and Kiva attempted to identify the meat in her sandwich, she couldn't help but overhear the red-head boasting. "...cause the name's Recoome! And it rhymes...with boom! And his foes are gonna be hurting...all! Too! SOON!!!"
Scootaloo's eyes lit up as she heard that. "Sweet, a wrestler!" she cried out happily. "Hey Racoon!" she called out, unwittingly butchering his name and making all five of them stiffen. "Wanna try fighting my robot?"
The giant turned slowly with an air of menace towards the group...only for that air to instantly vanish as they caught sight of the fillies. "No, Recoome doesn't fight brightly colored ponies anymore," the giant continued apologetically. "Recoome learned that lesson when the last one booted Recoome and his companions out of his native panverse. We're still trying to find the way home."
"Nice to see there was a Spacey's here, though," the blue-skinned one said in a raspy, nasal voice.
"You said it, mate," the red-skinned one commented in an Australian accent.
"Gentlemen," the purple-skinned one chided gently in a cultured, urbane tone. The group immediately turned back to their own table and interrupted meal.
As Scootaloo pouted with a disdainful flutter of her wings, Kiva did her best to put that conversation out of her mind. She had enough of a headache with these three without considering alternate dimensions and ponies with the ability to literally kick someone into another one. Instead, she listened as best she could to the chatter of the Amazons regarding the fillies. That would likely be more enlightening for herself. As Scootaloo buzzed over as best she could to dump her trash, Kiva heard one sentence in the Amazons' native tongue that she'd likely spend a while decoding to understand.
"Why does the hummingbird falcon?"
Once the group was well fed and Megas refueled, they set course back for Equestria, ready to let themselves unwind from the hectic day. Even as Megas fixed its last few repairs, Kiva could see that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were starting to nod off. Sweetie Belle was already curled up tight in her seat, much to Kiva's frustrations. She had been hoping Sweetie would be up to helping her explore the Glorft database they'd found via her astral projection, and that Megas would be up to discreetly connecting to the networks.
To Kiva's surprise, Scootaloo suddenly pitched forward, her face smacking a button on the steering wheel as she slipped into blissful sleep. Kiva quickly lifted her to the side, ready to try and take the controls and hope she could damage control whatever the button had done...only to see it was labeled "Auto-Pilot and Aesop". As Megas continued flying itself towards home, a screen on the dashboard lit up and a message began to appear.
Dear Princess Twilight,
While the glitz and glamor of fame and fortune in a fighting circuit - or anywhere else - can be appealing, it can easily hide the dark underbelly of such industries. One should never allow themselves to become so seduced by the glimmer that they lose sight of what really matters...or blind to the dangers inherent within. If one doesn't stay true to oneself in a quest for fame and glory, one will never truly achieve either.
Also, out in space cute appears to sell better than sex. Odd, that. Yours truly, Space CMC.
Kiva looked over the letter for a time as she heard Apple Bloom begin to snore. "Well...as after action field reports go, it's...different."
P.S. Tell Pinkie sorry about her flugglehorn collection.
