INDEX
Chapter 1)
Interlude 1- Armsmaster
Chapter 2) - Re-written
Interlude 2- Yamada...
Chapter 1)
Interlude 1- Armsmaster
Chapter 2) - Re-written
Interlude 2- Yamada...
A Friend In Need [WORM/MLP]
- Thread starter sopchoppy
- Start date
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- Tags
- my little pony worm crossover
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- Status
- Ongoing
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Statistics (45 threadmarks, 130k words)
User Total sopchoppy 45 Threadmarks Reader mode
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
INDEX
Chapter 1)
Interlude 1- Armsmaster
Chapter 2) - Re-written
Interlude 2- Yamada
Chapter 3 & Interlude 3 - Aegis - Re-Written
Interlude 4 - Taylor
Chapter 4)
Interlude 5 - Dragon
Chapter 5)
Interlude 6- Protectorate
Interlude 7 - Taylor
Chapter 6)
Interlude 8 - Bonesaw
Chapter 7, Part 1)
Chapter 7, Part 2)
Interlude 9 -PHO
Chapter 8)
Interlude 10 - Luna
Chapter 9
Chapter 9, Part 1)
Chapter 9, Scene 4)
Chapter 9, Scene 5) - New 9/7/14
Chapter 9, Scene 5b) - 9/8/14
Requiem For A Dream (Part 1) - Tattletale
Requiem For A Dream (Part 2) - Luna
Requiem For A Dream (Part 3) - Flame Dancer
Requiem For A Dream (Part 4) - Chevalier
Requiem For A Dream (Part 5) - Vista
Requiem For A Dream (Part 6) - Twilight Sparkle
Chapter 11, Scene 1), Scene 2), Scene 3)
Interlude 11
Interlude 12, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Chapter 12
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Interlude 12
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Chapter 13
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Interlude 13
Part 1
Canon Omake by Deadpan29
Twilight Sparkle: PRT Executive Summary
Princess Luna: PRT Executive Summary
Cultural and Biological Traits of Extraterrestrial Ponies: PRT Executive Summary
Late Night on Earth Bet
Master/Stranger Protocol Triangle/Sunflower
Non-Canon Omake
Epic Rap Battles of Brockton Bay - by Deadpan29
Luna sits down with FNN - by sopchoppy
Chapter 1:
Warning - spoilers for Worm throughout this story, you might want to check it out before reading further.
A Friend In Need - A MLP/WORM crossover
Chapter 1)
The last thing Twilight remembered was the world going white. Something about elements, about a moon, but it was all scattered, fuzzy.
Something went wrong, she thought as she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. Princess Ce…Celes….Princess Celestia!
She let out a breath of relief as the name finally came to her. Princess Celestia, I have to help her…do something about a moon or a nightmare…argh why can't I remember?!Okay, don't panic, don't panic - Organize! Princess Celestia is counting on you.
Taking a deep breath Twilight looked around herself and found a broken piece of wood. A light purple glow surrounded the wood for a few moments before it popped and was replaced by possibly the most important things one could have in a emergency: a scroll, quill, and a bottle of ink. Twilight let out a breath of relief and started her checklist.
EMERGENCY CHECKLIST
1.) Create checklist
2.) Stay Calm
3.) Check for injuries
4.) Determine current location
5.) Find Princess Celestia
6.) Help Princess Celestia
7.) Avoid being sent back to magic kindergarten
With a satisfied nod she checked off the first item, and with some hesitation checked off the second. Looking over herself she didn't notice any injuries besides her obvious memory problems and checked that item off as well. Her mood improving with each item that got one of those oh so satisfying checks next to it, she rolled the parchment up and stuffed it and the other supplies in her saddle bag.
Now to Determine my location.
Twilight looked around and determined quickly that wherever she was, it was nowhere she had ever been, or at least could remember being. It looked like a someone had taken the port area of Manehatten and decided it would look better with no ponies and about 30 years of dirt thrown on top of it.
Did I time travel?!
Twilight's heart started to speed up at the thought before she reigned it in.
I can't jump to any conclusions, I need more facts.
Looking closer she quickly discarded the idea that she had time traveled to some grim post-apocalyptic Manehatten. While roughly similar, the architecture was different and…strange somehow…the proportions were wrong. All the windows and doors looked about a third too tall, and maybe not quite as wide as they should be for their height. More oddities started to make themselves apparent as she looked.
Why are the streets so wi-
The thought cut off as she glanced upwards and stared in shock at the sky. Twilight had studied the stars for most of her life, and while she wouldn't call herself an astronomer she knew enough. They were dim and hard to see against the light of the city, but those weren't Equestria's stars.
She didn't know how long it took her to calm down again, but putting a big star next to item number 4 on her checklist had helped. Getting her hooves back under her she set off down the abandoned street in the direction that seemed to be casting the most light pollution. She noticed some signs that the area wasn't completely abandoned. Fresh garbage in an alley, a stray dog skittering around a corner, but nothing she saw indicated that this was an area where she would find help.
If she felt a little bad for labeling the area without first talking to anypony that lived here, that guilt disappeared when she heard the scream. It startled her bad enough that she teleported herself to the roof of the nearest building before she fully realized what she was doing. More screams followed and after getting her bearings, she turned in the direction the panicked yelling. Bursts of fire were reaching over the rooftops from a few streets over.
I have no idea what is going on, but it sounds like Somepony needs help!
Another teleport brought her to the roof closest to where she had seen the fire and her ideas of helping took a momentary back seat to shock. Dozens of strange bipedal creatures were yelling and running around in panic while the largest one threw flames from its forelimbs into the sky. As intimidating as the large biped was it didn't seem like the others were running from him specifically. They looked frantic, running in circles and slapping themselves as if they were being attacked by an unseen opponent.
Her shock induced observation was derailed when the big biped suddenly exploded. What emerged from the explosion was a monstrous version of the fleeing bipeds, it was on fire, and it was looking directly at her. The flaming creature leaped directly towards her and Twilight was briefly terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
I wouldn't have thought their build would enable such a leap, was the unicorn's first somewhat unhelpful thought. Just before the frightening visage descended on her she winked out of existence and promptly collided with something as she reappeared on top of the building across from where she had been.
"Oppf!" Twilight grunted as her hooves went flying and her legs got tangled with what was definitely a someone rather than a something. An inarticulate shout of rage echoed from the building across the street as the creature sent a jet of flame over the the roof she had just left. Closer at hand she finally freed herself from whoever she had gotten entangled with and got her first good look at them. It was another one of the bipeds, scrambling backwards away from her. This one was shorter, more slight and was wearing a mask that made Twilight think of a beetle.
"!#$!@#$%^#$%," the biped said in what sounded like panic. Twilight felt what seemed like an unusual number of flying bugs land on her back, but put the thought aside for something more important.
Oh, I know just the spell for this! Distracted from mortal peril by the opportunity to try a spell she had studied. Lets see, Starswirl's polyglotic spell. Closing her eyes in concentration she lit her horn and her whole body glowed for a second before she opened her eyes again. She noticed that the shorter biped had backed further away from her and was glancing nervously between Twilight and the burning fire of rage that had apparently seen the light from Twilight's spell and was leaping down to the street.
"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, um, I'm kind of lost, so I hope you're friendly. Since you haven't lit yourself on fire and tried to kill me yet." Twilight glanced at the flaming figure that seemed to be preparing to leap onto their rooftop. "Maybe we could run and you could tell me where I am? Getting immolated by a monster is not on my checklist for tonight." Twilight suppressed what felt like a hysterical laugh that threatened to escape her throat at the end of that sentence.
"I'm Ta.., um, never mind, we can't outrun him." She said as she reached behind her and her hand came back with a small metal tube while she also backed away from the edge closest to the monster. "If you have anything besides that teleportation power, now would probably be the time to use it."
Twilight trotted quickly to stand beside Ta just as the monster, still on fire, crawled over the lip. Deciding that a creature that wasn't harmed by being actively on fire for a few minutes wouldn't likely suffer from a fall, she charged her horn and shot a blast of magic at it just as it released its hands and stood up. The blast knocked it off balance and it toppled backwards back off the roof.
"That…okay that works." Ta said as another scream of rage, sounding even more monstrous than before sounded from the street. "Um.."
Before Twilight could respond a huge beast landed on their roof, looked at them quickly and then leaped to the street below snarling. Before she could process that, two more beasts, these with riders, landed on the roof. Four more of the bipeds slid off of the beasts, and spread out facing Twilight and Ta.
"Well you really saved us some trou…" The tallest one of the new group started to speak before his masked face turned towards Twilight and she flinched at the stylized skull that was painted on it. "Okay that's…different, so not just bugs, is it a projection? Kind of cutesy for a villain" Twilight didn't quite understand the question, but she got the tone. A little indignation surfaced from underneath the confusion, fear, and terror that she had been feeling since she woke up.
"No, it's not a projection." Another of the new bipeds, a shorter slighter one whose tone of voice and build was similar to Ta's. Twilight decided to assume those traits correlated to the female gender of this species, she made a mental note to double check that assumption later. The one that had spoken looked at Twilight with an intensity that was hard to describe.
"I don't know exactly what you are talking about, but I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm lost, I was almost killed by an enraged monster, and I am most certainly not a projection or illusion or whatever. I just ran into Ta after that thing down there tried to burn us to death." A scroll, quill and inkwell materialized in front of her. "Now if you could please tell me what you are, because I refuse to refer to you as unknown biped throughout my notes. Can you introduce yourselves, and maybe tell me where I am and what is going on? It would be most helpful." Heaving an audible huff of air as she finished she turned towards the bipeds, Ta having slid around closer to the newcomers as Twilight had ranted and the glow around her horn had increased.
The tall one that had spoken first cleared his throat and spoke after a moment "Well I'm Grue, that's Tattletale," a piercing whistle issued from the other female of the group, "that's Bitch or Hellhound if your sensitive, and last and certainly least is Regent."
"Fuck you Grue!" Regent retorted. Twilight was busily scribbling notes with her magic as she turned to each of them while they were introduced.
"I'm not really sure how to answer your other questions. I'm not sure believe that I'm talking to you and this isn't some weird power causing a hallucination." He paused and looked towards Tattletale who shook her head quickly. "That flaming asshole down there in a world of hurt is Lung and he runs the gang in this area. I'm not sure exactly how lost you are, but you're in the docks, Brockton Bay. Man what the hell did you guys do to him? He's getting his ass kicked down there."
Tattletale spoke up again. "Wasps, bees, spiders, ants, and some kind of concussive blast." She said the last bit with a little hesitation as she glanced towards the unicorn. Twilight whirled towards Ta.
"That's why they were going crazy!" She said with a smile as a piece of the puzzle she was missing clicked into place, then she frowned. "Wait, that's why he was so mad, that's why he tried to kill me, he thought I was the one doing it!" Twilight was scowling by the time she finished the sentence. Tattletale nodded at this and focused on her with that odd intensity again as she spoke.
"Um," Ta said a little hesitantly, "yeah sorry about that. I didn't know anyone else was around." Twilight's frown eased a little at that. Before Twilight could respond Tattletale head turned to the side and spoke up again.
"Heads up, time to get out of here." Bitch nodded and whistled, the three giant dog analogs soon landed back on the roof causing the whole building to shudder.
"Want a ride?" Grue asked Ta in a way Twilight assumed was friendly, it was hard to tell with the skull helmet he was wearing. In fact now that she looked at the way they all dressed, all of them, including Ta, kind of looked…shady. "Would offer you one, but I'm not sure how that would even work. Besides I'm not sure what it would do to our image ya know?" Twilight, in fact, had no idea what he was talking about. But was in no hurry to get any closer to giant slobbering mutant dogs. Ta hesitated, but didn't look inclined to do so either and shook her head.
Tattletale spoke again facing Ta as she mounted one of the dogs, "Hey, what's your name, it's not really Ta is it?"
"No, I...I haven't picked one yet," said the girl who apparently wasn't called Ta.
Great, now I'm going to have to go back and revise all of these notes with -Unidentified female biped that controls insects - which was unwieldily to say the least.
"Well, Bug, a cape is gonna show up here pretty soon. You did us a solid by dealing with Lung, so take my advice. Someone from the Protectorate shows up, finds two bad guys duking it out, they're not going to let one walk away. You should get out of here." She turned to the purple unicorn, "You…I don't know." This admission seemed to physically pain her, "but you look harmless enough. I don't think you will have a problem with them."
"Yeah I feel like I'm going to have to watch a few hours of porn just to cleanse the residual cuteness from my eyes." The one called Regent said with a laugh. Again Twilight only had a little context to judge by, but she thought she should probably feel insulted and maybe…disturbed by that comment. With those final words the dogs leaped overhead and quickly disappeared into the unlit industrial area.
Bug, looking uncertain and a little shaken, looked at Twilight then walked over to a fire escape and started down it without another word. Twilight heard her make her way down to the street and then she was alone on the rooftop. Sounds she didn't want to investigate still came from the street below, so she sat down with her scroll and ink in front of her.
Despite getting a few answers, now that the adrenaline was starting to work its way out of her system, she felt even more lost than when she woke up. She rolled up the parchment of notes and put it in her saddlebags, and found some debris that she could transmute into another sheet. There was really only one solution to feeling like this. Twilight started another checklist.
Twilight had written down fifty things on her checklist, all unchecked, when she was drawn out of her funk by the sound of a thunk followed quickly by a large armored biped landing on the roof. Twilight's spirit lifted a little at the sight of him. He looked like a knight. His armor was dark blue with silver trim and he had a metal visor covering his eyes and nose. He had a close trimmed beard and stood with confidence with one hand on a large Halberd. In short he was the first of the creatures that looked…reputable. He looked at Twilight and then back over his shoulder to the scene below, then back at Twilight.
Twilight rolled up her checklist in progress and pulled out the parchment she had been using earlier.
"I've got notes!"
Chapter 1)
Interlude 1- Armsmaster
Chapter 2) - Re-written
Interlude 2- Yamada
Chapter 3 & Interlude 3 - Aegis - Re-Written
Interlude 4 - Taylor
Chapter 4)
Interlude 5 - Dragon
Chapter 5)
Interlude 6- Protectorate
Interlude 7 - Taylor
Chapter 6)
Interlude 8 - Bonesaw
Chapter 7, Part 1)
Chapter 7, Part 2)
Interlude 9 -PHO
Chapter 8)
Interlude 10 - Luna
Chapter 9
Chapter 9, Part 1)
Chapter 9, Scene 4)
Chapter 9, Scene 5) - New 9/7/14
Chapter 9, Scene 5b) - 9/8/14
Requiem For A Dream (Part 1) - Tattletale
Requiem For A Dream (Part 2) - Luna
Requiem For A Dream (Part 3) - Flame Dancer
Requiem For A Dream (Part 4) - Chevalier
Requiem For A Dream (Part 5) - Vista
Requiem For A Dream (Part 6) - Twilight Sparkle
Chapter 11, Scene 1), Scene 2), Scene 3)
Interlude 11
Interlude 12, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Chapter 12
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Interlude 12
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Chapter 13
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Interlude 13
Part 1
Canon Omake by Deadpan29
Twilight Sparkle: PRT Executive Summary
Princess Luna: PRT Executive Summary
Cultural and Biological Traits of Extraterrestrial Ponies: PRT Executive Summary
Late Night on Earth Bet
Master/Stranger Protocol Triangle/Sunflower
Non-Canon Omake
Epic Rap Battles of Brockton Bay - by Deadpan29
Luna sits down with FNN - by sopchoppy
Chapter 1:
Warning - spoilers for Worm throughout this story, you might want to check it out before reading further.
A Friend In Need - A MLP/WORM crossover
Chapter 1)
The last thing Twilight remembered was the world going white. Something about elements, about a moon, but it was all scattered, fuzzy.
Something went wrong, she thought as she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. Princess Ce…Celes….Princess Celestia!
She let out a breath of relief as the name finally came to her. Princess Celestia, I have to help her…do something about a moon or a nightmare…argh why can't I remember?!Okay, don't panic, don't panic - Organize! Princess Celestia is counting on you.
Taking a deep breath Twilight looked around herself and found a broken piece of wood. A light purple glow surrounded the wood for a few moments before it popped and was replaced by possibly the most important things one could have in a emergency: a scroll, quill, and a bottle of ink. Twilight let out a breath of relief and started her checklist.
EMERGENCY CHECKLIST
1.) Create checklist
2.) Stay Calm
3.) Check for injuries
4.) Determine current location
5.) Find Princess Celestia
6.) Help Princess Celestia
7.) Avoid being sent back to magic kindergarten
With a satisfied nod she checked off the first item, and with some hesitation checked off the second. Looking over herself she didn't notice any injuries besides her obvious memory problems and checked that item off as well. Her mood improving with each item that got one of those oh so satisfying checks next to it, she rolled the parchment up and stuffed it and the other supplies in her saddle bag.
Now to Determine my location.
Twilight looked around and determined quickly that wherever she was, it was nowhere she had ever been, or at least could remember being. It looked like a someone had taken the port area of Manehatten and decided it would look better with no ponies and about 30 years of dirt thrown on top of it.
Did I time travel?!
Twilight's heart started to speed up at the thought before she reigned it in.
I can't jump to any conclusions, I need more facts.
Looking closer she quickly discarded the idea that she had time traveled to some grim post-apocalyptic Manehatten. While roughly similar, the architecture was different and…strange somehow…the proportions were wrong. All the windows and doors looked about a third too tall, and maybe not quite as wide as they should be for their height. More oddities started to make themselves apparent as she looked.
Why are the streets so wi-
The thought cut off as she glanced upwards and stared in shock at the sky. Twilight had studied the stars for most of her life, and while she wouldn't call herself an astronomer she knew enough. They were dim and hard to see against the light of the city, but those weren't Equestria's stars.
She didn't know how long it took her to calm down again, but putting a big star next to item number 4 on her checklist had helped. Getting her hooves back under her she set off down the abandoned street in the direction that seemed to be casting the most light pollution. She noticed some signs that the area wasn't completely abandoned. Fresh garbage in an alley, a stray dog skittering around a corner, but nothing she saw indicated that this was an area where she would find help.
If she felt a little bad for labeling the area without first talking to anypony that lived here, that guilt disappeared when she heard the scream. It startled her bad enough that she teleported herself to the roof of the nearest building before she fully realized what she was doing. More screams followed and after getting her bearings, she turned in the direction the panicked yelling. Bursts of fire were reaching over the rooftops from a few streets over.
I have no idea what is going on, but it sounds like Somepony needs help!
Another teleport brought her to the roof closest to where she had seen the fire and her ideas of helping took a momentary back seat to shock. Dozens of strange bipedal creatures were yelling and running around in panic while the largest one threw flames from its forelimbs into the sky. As intimidating as the large biped was it didn't seem like the others were running from him specifically. They looked frantic, running in circles and slapping themselves as if they were being attacked by an unseen opponent.
Her shock induced observation was derailed when the big biped suddenly exploded. What emerged from the explosion was a monstrous version of the fleeing bipeds, it was on fire, and it was looking directly at her. The flaming creature leaped directly towards her and Twilight was briefly terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
I wouldn't have thought their build would enable such a leap, was the unicorn's first somewhat unhelpful thought. Just before the frightening visage descended on her she winked out of existence and promptly collided with something as she reappeared on top of the building across from where she had been.
"Oppf!" Twilight grunted as her hooves went flying and her legs got tangled with what was definitely a someone rather than a something. An inarticulate shout of rage echoed from the building across the street as the creature sent a jet of flame over the the roof she had just left. Closer at hand she finally freed herself from whoever she had gotten entangled with and got her first good look at them. It was another one of the bipeds, scrambling backwards away from her. This one was shorter, more slight and was wearing a mask that made Twilight think of a beetle.
"!#$!@#$%^#$%," the biped said in what sounded like panic. Twilight felt what seemed like an unusual number of flying bugs land on her back, but put the thought aside for something more important.
Oh, I know just the spell for this! Distracted from mortal peril by the opportunity to try a spell she had studied. Lets see, Starswirl's polyglotic spell. Closing her eyes in concentration she lit her horn and her whole body glowed for a second before she opened her eyes again. She noticed that the shorter biped had backed further away from her and was glancing nervously between Twilight and the burning fire of rage that had apparently seen the light from Twilight's spell and was leaping down to the street.
"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, um, I'm kind of lost, so I hope you're friendly. Since you haven't lit yourself on fire and tried to kill me yet." Twilight glanced at the flaming figure that seemed to be preparing to leap onto their rooftop. "Maybe we could run and you could tell me where I am? Getting immolated by a monster is not on my checklist for tonight." Twilight suppressed what felt like a hysterical laugh that threatened to escape her throat at the end of that sentence.
"I'm Ta.., um, never mind, we can't outrun him." She said as she reached behind her and her hand came back with a small metal tube while she also backed away from the edge closest to the monster. "If you have anything besides that teleportation power, now would probably be the time to use it."
Twilight trotted quickly to stand beside Ta just as the monster, still on fire, crawled over the lip. Deciding that a creature that wasn't harmed by being actively on fire for a few minutes wouldn't likely suffer from a fall, she charged her horn and shot a blast of magic at it just as it released its hands and stood up. The blast knocked it off balance and it toppled backwards back off the roof.
"That…okay that works." Ta said as another scream of rage, sounding even more monstrous than before sounded from the street. "Um.."
Before Twilight could respond a huge beast landed on their roof, looked at them quickly and then leaped to the street below snarling. Before she could process that, two more beasts, these with riders, landed on the roof. Four more of the bipeds slid off of the beasts, and spread out facing Twilight and Ta.
"Well you really saved us some trou…" The tallest one of the new group started to speak before his masked face turned towards Twilight and she flinched at the stylized skull that was painted on it. "Okay that's…different, so not just bugs, is it a projection? Kind of cutesy for a villain" Twilight didn't quite understand the question, but she got the tone. A little indignation surfaced from underneath the confusion, fear, and terror that she had been feeling since she woke up.
"No, it's not a projection." Another of the new bipeds, a shorter slighter one whose tone of voice and build was similar to Ta's. Twilight decided to assume those traits correlated to the female gender of this species, she made a mental note to double check that assumption later. The one that had spoken looked at Twilight with an intensity that was hard to describe.
"I don't know exactly what you are talking about, but I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm lost, I was almost killed by an enraged monster, and I am most certainly not a projection or illusion or whatever. I just ran into Ta after that thing down there tried to burn us to death." A scroll, quill and inkwell materialized in front of her. "Now if you could please tell me what you are, because I refuse to refer to you as unknown biped throughout my notes. Can you introduce yourselves, and maybe tell me where I am and what is going on? It would be most helpful." Heaving an audible huff of air as she finished she turned towards the bipeds, Ta having slid around closer to the newcomers as Twilight had ranted and the glow around her horn had increased.
The tall one that had spoken first cleared his throat and spoke after a moment "Well I'm Grue, that's Tattletale," a piercing whistle issued from the other female of the group, "that's Bitch or Hellhound if your sensitive, and last and certainly least is Regent."
"Fuck you Grue!" Regent retorted. Twilight was busily scribbling notes with her magic as she turned to each of them while they were introduced.
"I'm not really sure how to answer your other questions. I'm not sure believe that I'm talking to you and this isn't some weird power causing a hallucination." He paused and looked towards Tattletale who shook her head quickly. "That flaming asshole down there in a world of hurt is Lung and he runs the gang in this area. I'm not sure exactly how lost you are, but you're in the docks, Brockton Bay. Man what the hell did you guys do to him? He's getting his ass kicked down there."
Tattletale spoke up again. "Wasps, bees, spiders, ants, and some kind of concussive blast." She said the last bit with a little hesitation as she glanced towards the unicorn. Twilight whirled towards Ta.
"That's why they were going crazy!" She said with a smile as a piece of the puzzle she was missing clicked into place, then she frowned. "Wait, that's why he was so mad, that's why he tried to kill me, he thought I was the one doing it!" Twilight was scowling by the time she finished the sentence. Tattletale nodded at this and focused on her with that odd intensity again as she spoke.
"Um," Ta said a little hesitantly, "yeah sorry about that. I didn't know anyone else was around." Twilight's frown eased a little at that. Before Twilight could respond Tattletale head turned to the side and spoke up again.
"Heads up, time to get out of here." Bitch nodded and whistled, the three giant dog analogs soon landed back on the roof causing the whole building to shudder.
"Want a ride?" Grue asked Ta in a way Twilight assumed was friendly, it was hard to tell with the skull helmet he was wearing. In fact now that she looked at the way they all dressed, all of them, including Ta, kind of looked…shady. "Would offer you one, but I'm not sure how that would even work. Besides I'm not sure what it would do to our image ya know?" Twilight, in fact, had no idea what he was talking about. But was in no hurry to get any closer to giant slobbering mutant dogs. Ta hesitated, but didn't look inclined to do so either and shook her head.
Tattletale spoke again facing Ta as she mounted one of the dogs, "Hey, what's your name, it's not really Ta is it?"
"No, I...I haven't picked one yet," said the girl who apparently wasn't called Ta.
Great, now I'm going to have to go back and revise all of these notes with -Unidentified female biped that controls insects - which was unwieldily to say the least.
"Well, Bug, a cape is gonna show up here pretty soon. You did us a solid by dealing with Lung, so take my advice. Someone from the Protectorate shows up, finds two bad guys duking it out, they're not going to let one walk away. You should get out of here." She turned to the purple unicorn, "You…I don't know." This admission seemed to physically pain her, "but you look harmless enough. I don't think you will have a problem with them."
"Yeah I feel like I'm going to have to watch a few hours of porn just to cleanse the residual cuteness from my eyes." The one called Regent said with a laugh. Again Twilight only had a little context to judge by, but she thought she should probably feel insulted and maybe…disturbed by that comment. With those final words the dogs leaped overhead and quickly disappeared into the unlit industrial area.
Bug, looking uncertain and a little shaken, looked at Twilight then walked over to a fire escape and started down it without another word. Twilight heard her make her way down to the street and then she was alone on the rooftop. Sounds she didn't want to investigate still came from the street below, so she sat down with her scroll and ink in front of her.
Despite getting a few answers, now that the adrenaline was starting to work its way out of her system, she felt even more lost than when she woke up. She rolled up the parchment of notes and put it in her saddlebags, and found some debris that she could transmute into another sheet. There was really only one solution to feeling like this. Twilight started another checklist.
Twilight had written down fifty things on her checklist, all unchecked, when she was drawn out of her funk by the sound of a thunk followed quickly by a large armored biped landing on the roof. Twilight's spirit lifted a little at the sight of him. He looked like a knight. His armor was dark blue with silver trim and he had a metal visor covering his eyes and nose. He had a close trimmed beard and stood with confidence with one hand on a large Halberd. In short he was the first of the creatures that looked…reputable. He looked at Twilight and then back over his shoulder to the scene below, then back at Twilight.
Twilight rolled up her checklist in progress and pulled out the parchment she had been using earlier.
"I've got notes!"
Last edited:
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
CHAPTER 3
Newly edited and expanded Chapter 3 with the great help of Deadpan.
Twilight turned sideways in the seat, head facing the window, and pulled her legs up underneath her. It was the third position she had tried in as many minutes. Human vehicles, it seemed, were not made for quadrupeds. This position at least had the benefit of avoiding the stern face of Director Piggot.
Humans were strange. Enough alike to be relatable, but so different as well. They had agreed to help her and provide a place to stay in exchange for assisting them in turn. She was a little worried about that. What assistance she was to provide had not been very clear. The way some of those parahuman response officials on that wondrous screen had talked had not been very enlightening or particularly encouraging. Most of the others had been nice though, and Assault had even gotten a giggle out of her at breakfast.
She withheld the sigh that wanted to escape her chest. She had never been that good at figuring out ponies. Figuring out humans seemed like paddling into the ocean without a raft.
Looking out the window she got her first real look at the city. This area looked much better than what she had seen last night. Buildings made of steel and glass soared into the air. Personal vehicles with combustion engines and interior climate regulation moving at a fast gallop down wide smoothly paved avenues. Curiously, she didn't see any hints of magical engineering of the kind that let Canterlot Castle hang dramatically from Mount Canter. Maybe the current human architectural preference was to show what could be done without it? Regardless, the city was impressive display. Manehatten in 100 years maybe.
While she was looking out the window she realized something she had overlooked before and turned to ask Director Piggot a question. "This is a very large city and I've been looking for a while now. Are there not any other races or sapient species that live here?"
Twilight couldn't say that the Director frowned, as she seemed to perpetually frown, but maybe she frowned harder before she answered. "Humans are the only definitively sentient species on the planet. What do you mean when you say race?"
Twilight startled a little at this. Humans had only each other to talk to. She could imagine that would have had far reaching consequences for their culture and thought process. Hardly conscious that she was doing it, she levitated a notepad from her bags and started writing even as she spoke. "There are three distinct kinds of pony on my world, all easily distinguishable by their physical differences and to some degree their abilities. Looking out there," she gestured to the window and the sidewalks full of people, "I only see relatively minor variations in build and skin tone. Are there other variations of humans or is this a good sample of the populace as a whole?"
Piggot seemed to think for a moment before responding. Her tone eased a little as she explained. "If that is your definition of race, then there is indeed only one kind of human. If a human refers to race they are usually referring to a group of people that share a cultural background or set of physical features like eyes, hair, and skin tone. Brockton Bay is fairly diverse, as far as that goes." Before Twilight could pursue the topic further Director Piggot changed gears.
"We are only a few minutes away from the building where you will be staying. When we get there I would like to sit down and go over your abilities with me and some of the staff. Any abilities that we determine are safe to test on site we would like to see demonstrated. While we conduct the testing, some of my staff will be setting up your living quarters. Do you have any special needs or requests?"
Twilight put the notepad she was currently writing in away and pulled another out, flipping about a third of the way through it while it was still en route from her bag. Director Piggot noted that she did all of this without looking. "Yes, I have a few small requests that I hope you will be able to accommodate. Ms Yamada already told me it would take some time to arrange the visits with the scholars that I need to speak with. To prepare for those meetings I would like a few books. A general overview of your physical sciences, a general overview of your biological sciences, a general overview of your magical sciences, a general world history, and a comprehensive history of the last century. Once I have an idea of where my knowledge and your science aligns and diverges I can start getting into the details of the relevant subjects. If they are available, besides reading materials, I could use a large chalk board, a writing desk suited to my height, as many bookshelves as will fit into the space, a few hundred of these bound notepads, a few dozen pens, and a bed."
A nonplused look briefly crossed Piggot's face before she responded. "I'm sure we can supply most of that. Dietary requirements?"
Twilight started to bring her fore hooves together in anticipation of the books, but the gesture withered under the Director's stare. "Um, the breakfast this morning was nice, so probably nothing out of the ordinary. Grains, vegetables, fruits, long grasses and wildflowers. Daisies are a particular favorite of mine. Breads and Pastries."
"Again I'm sure we can arrange most of that, I'll let the cafeteria know." The car they were in went over a bump and began descending an incline that led them beneath a large glass and steel building styled somewhat differently from its neighboors. The driver stopped the car beside two large metal doors surrounded by unadorned concrete. He stepped out and opened the rear door. Twilight gratefully climbed out of the uncomfortable seat and took a moment to stretch out her neck and each of her legs. The Director walked up to the doors and pressed a circular emblem which then began to glow. Twilight's ears swiveled towards the sound of machinery engaging off to right and she nodded to herself. 'All electrical again, no magical assistance. No wards,' Twilight thought. Now that was strange. If this was something like a secured government building, there should be security wards somewhere.
A moment later a loud chime sounded and one of the metal doors opened. When Twilight and Director Piggot stepped inside and the doors closed again, it immediately began moving. Somewhat surprisingly Twilight felt the lift start to descend. She almost asked why, but thought better of it. Director Piggot seemed not to enjoy conversation very much.
The elevator doors opened to a well lit, but unadorned, hallway. No pictures, murals, or aesthetic of any kind seemed to have been applied. Long electric tubes hung from the ceiling, emitting light and an annoying high frequency buzz that made Twilight's eye twitch. At a T-intersection they turned left down another short hallway that had a series of doors down one side. Director Piggot stopped at the last door and punched a series of numbered buttons on a panel beside it, causing it to unlock.
The near side of the room had another of those long conference tables that the humans seemed to prefer. Three people were seated at it while another one of those fascinating electronic displays hung above the far end of the table. Two more people were on the display and she had learned earlier that they could be looking in from other cities hundreds or thousands of miles away. The knowledge and engineering that had to underpin such a system spoke of the vast hidden iceberg of science and innovation that this species had at their disposal. Just thinking about it put a little spring in her step as she walked towards a cushioned stool that had obviously been set up for her. Director Piggot left an empty chair beside Twilight and sat down to her left before speaking.
"Everyone, this is Twilight Sparkle. As I am sure you have all read the briefing by now and are aware," sounding like she actually doubted that was the case, "we believe she is from both another planet and another dimension. She was stranded here by some unknown event or accident. For the time being it has been decided that she will be housed here at the PRT to ensure she has support and a secure location from which to work on a way to contact her people and learn about our society. We hope to learn about her culture in turn, so that if and when contact with her planet is established we will be ready for it." This was more verbose than the Director had been in the past, and Twilight had a feeling that the lines had been prepared by someone else. "Twilight, to my left is Aegis. He is the leader of the local Wards." She gestured to the younger human who had tan skin and wore a rust colored costume with a shield emblem on the front. "The Wards is a program for young people to learn the skills they need before joining the Protectorate." 'Guardsman in training, cadets,' Twilight concluded.
"You will see him and his team throughout the building at different times don't hesitate to ask them for assistance." She paused and cleared her throat a little, which seemed to snap Aegis out of the slacked jawed expression he had been wearing since Twilight came into the room.
"Oh, right. It's nice to meet you Twilight. I hope we can help you." Twilight nodded at him and smiled, but was prevented from returning the greeting because Director Piggot had already moved on.
"To his left is John, my chief of staff. He handles most of the logistics and day to day details that keep the place running." The man nodded at Twilight and Piggot continued. "At the far end of the table is Marian May, our information officer here at Brockton Bay." The slight woman at the end had long brown hair that framed her face and fell over her shoulders and the same style of clothes as Piggot. "On the screen we have Wendy Sherman, who is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. If we succeed in contacting your world, she would coordinating relations between our nations."
The woman had short white hair, a friendly smile and spoke in a warm tone. "While I hope to speak with you in person in the future, it is very nice to meet you. Welcome you to our planet and our country. I know you wish to return to your home as soon as possible, but while you are here I hope you find your stay hospitable and that we may learn as much from each other as your stay allows."
Twilight nodded her head and smiled as she responded. "Thank you. I admit my first impression of your world was frightening, but since arriving at the Protectorate building last night everyone has been very kind and generous. While I do hope to find a solution sooner rather than later, I think it would be criminal not to use the opportunity to further the scientific knowledge of both our species."
Director Piggot moved on to the next person on the display. "This is Chief Director Costa-Brown. She is the head of the PRT and is ultimately in charge of the Protectorate, the Wards, and the PRT divisions across the country." 'Which makes her the most powerful person I have been introduced to,' Twilight thought.
The Chief Director had a congenial smile on her face, and it seemed like Twilight had her full attention. "Like the Under Secretary I hope to soon meet you in person, but until then I trust my staff will prove to be gracious hosts in my absence. Be assured that we are looking into the circumstances of your arrival with all of our resources."
Twilight smiled politely in return. "Thank you, Chief Director. I'm honored that you and the others here took the time to speak with me and for all the kindnesses you all have shown me…It means more to me than you can imagine." A sniffle threatened and Twilight forced a smile and a glance around to regain her composure.
Director Piggot spoke up once again. "Thank you all for coming. We are here today not only to welcome Ms. Sparkle, but to evaluate her abilities before she begins her residence here. In accordance with PRT safety regulation 714.865. For the archivist this proceeding is to be filed under PRT-SPARKLE0035. Now Ms. Sparkle, I've read through Ms. Yamada's notes and when talking about para-abilities you mentioned that your," she looked down at her notes, "Special Talent was magic. We understand that you are speaking with the aid of translation and this word is probably one that means something different to you than it does us. Can you expand on what you can do with magic?"
Twilight was nonplussed at the question. It was like asking what you could do with gravity. After thinking about it for a moment she guessed they were referring to the most common applications she used the magic field for. She pulled her notepad and pen out of her bag again and took a second to organize her thoughts.
"Well as you can see the most common application I use it for is remote manipulation of physical matter, like this notepad and pen." She noticed that other people had started taking notes, while Aegis and Marian had pulled out another one of the humans' fascinating electronic devices. It contained what looked like a vertical electronic display and a horizontal tray with a series of depressible buttons. 'Were they somehow electronically storing notes? Without paper?' Twilight's mind quickly extrapolated the uses and applications of such a thing and had to bite her lip to get back on track with what she had been discussing. Someone cleared their throat and Twilight turned towards them and avoided the temptation to demonstrate her telekinesis to get a better look at the devices.
Twilight blushed a little and apologized, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I'm afraid my mind went off on a small tangent for a moment."
The information officer spoke again, "What are the limits of this power? How many objects could you lift? how much mass?"
Twilight looked up in thought while her pen continued to scribble notes on the pad, flipping over to a new page. 'Those questions aren't quite right. Are they subtly testing me on my knowledge of magic theory?' "Hmm, well I'm not sure. It's been years since my last formal physical test with it. Volume is more of a limitation than mass, The more field area you control the more focus and concentration it takes. I'm fairly proficient, the most I have stretched the ability recently is when I re-shelve the library." She paused a moment as another one of those hazy memories skitter out of her grasp. "I typically handle a few hundred books at a time." The Chief director was looking at her with an unreadable expression her face, while Piggot was jotting something down in her little notebook and Marian tapped rapidly at her device.
Director Piggot dug further. "If we crushed the vehicle that we drove to this building in to a suitable volume, you could lift it regardless of its mass?"
"Oh, you wouldn't need to reduce its volume. Contiguous field volume requires a lot less concentration than non-contiguous volume." Twilight replied in a light tone, happy that she seemed to be exceeding whatever expectations they had for this test. The sound of more tapping and writing filled the room, Twilight's ears twitching in time with the noise.
The Chief Director spoke again. "I think we can move on for now and perhaps later we can talk about that more in detail. How else do you use your magic?"
'My magic?' Twilight hesitated then continued with her initial assumption. "Well, I let Armsmaster copy my notes from my arrival so I am sure you already know some of this. I guess teleportation and transmutation are the next most common applications I use. Teleportation is again limited by the volume of the area to be teleported, but it is further limited because you need to control an identical remote field volume at your desired destination. It also requires much more fine control than telekinesis to connect the two volumes and…I'm not sure I have a word for it in your language but it's like…stepping around everything between the two. I'm afraid I've only really mastered self teleportation so far in my studies." Twilight took a pleased breath before continuing, there were few things she liked better than discussing magic, and not one of them had that vacant expression so many ponies got when she did.
"Transmutation is probably the skill I'm most proud of. There are two types of transmutation. Temporary and permanent. It involves…again I'm at a loss for the right words…which is odd because this spell should translate concepts both cultures share. Let's see…the pattern… or blueprint of the matter contained in the remote field is…^$%^%…pushed aside?..at the same time you…push…or layout?..a new pattern into the same space. Thats not quite right. If you…argh stupid translation spell, it will probably work better once I have studied some of your scientific texts. Anyway, most transmutation is temporary as it takes an incredible amount of…%^$#^^@$…sorry but there is nothing the translation spell is giving that is remotely close, but it takes a lot to permanently…push…the old pattern away. It is one of the most challenging areas of magic to master. It took me three years of dedicated study and practice before I was able to produce a decent paper analog." Twilight finished with a smile, thinking of how proud Celestia had been when she surprised her with the skill.
"However, those are just the spells that I use most frequently. In the course of my tutelage under Princess Celestia I have studied all the major branches of magic and their practical applications like enchantment and magical engineering. Then, of course, there are higher level spells that involve intwining @$%@$#% with….emotion? Purpose? And @$%@$. I'm only just starting to explore that area in my studies…I think…there were…ponies I was…I'm sorry there's just…something about that…I…can't remember right now."
She took a slow breath to get past her anxiety before she continued. "So let's skip that for now. What else were you interested in?" Then she noticed that the sounds of tapping and writing had stopped completely and no one was speaking. Even with the rough similarities between pony and human facial expression, she couldn't quite place what she seeing here.
Chief Director Brown was the one who broke the silence, "That is quite an extensive skill set. I think I understand why your Princess choose you as her student." Twilight blushed and ducked her head a little bashfully as she heard the others begin writing and typing again. "I think that's enough of a demonstration for today. Director Piggot, can you call one of your aides to show Twilight around the building and where she will be staying? I would like to take a few minutes since we already have everyone here to discuss a few other matters. Does that work for you Twilight?"
Twilight nodded and quickly replied, "Yes, that would be fine," as she couldn't think of a reason it wouldn't work, and suspected the question was posed more as a matter of form than any real interest in Twilight's opinion on the matter. While she had been responding, Director Piggot had picked up a small device and tapped it a few times.
"Aegis, please escort Twilight to the elevators. Sam is going to come down and show her around. Come back after she meets you. There are a few other things we need to inform you of." Director Piggot addressed the cadet.
"No problem ma'am, Miss Sparkle?" Aegis replied and turned to look at her.
She nodded and hopped off her stool. "Thank you all again. It was really nice meeting you."
Aegis opened the door as the rest of the group told her goodbye and she stepped back into the hall. Aegis closed the door behind them and started walking back they way they had come from before. "So, most of the other Wards are probably going to be around a little later. Would you mind if we swung by? That way I could introduce you to everyone you're likely to run into while you're here." Twilight smiled a little nervously. She had been introduced to more humans in the last two days than she had been to ponies in the last two years. She kind of wanted to spend as much time as possible setting up the room they were going to give her, but she supposed it wouldn't be polite to decline. Besides, it sounded like the time would be lost either today or later anyway. Hopefully it wouldn't take to long.
"Sure, that sounds great." Twilight said as she started to write more notes down on the pad she was levitating beside her. She noticed Aegis looking at her a little…maybe unsure, and thought of the distance between them and the elevator. Right, conversation etiquette, he was probably waiting on her to ask him something. Ohh, she was never good at this stuff. What had the Princess said about small talk?
"So what made you want to become a ca- a Ward?" Twilight asked and reluctantly stopped writing on her notepad.
Aegis' smile ran away from his face and a troubled look replaced it for a second before his smile returned. When he spoke again it was in a strange accent he hadn't been using before.
"You could say someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
"Really? It may be an error in the translation matrix, but that sounds contradictory. Is it an idiom? Those often don't come through quite right."
Aegis shook his head and laughed. "No, sorry. It's a famous movie quote. I was joking, but it probably loses something if you've never even heard of the movie." They had almost reached the end of the hall and an elevator door opened with chime. A grey-haired man in a PRT uniform stepped out. When he saw them a pleasant smile appeared on his face.
"Ms Sparkle, it's a pleasure to meet you. They're still working on setting up your room. While we wait for them, would you like to tour some of the facility?"
"Oh, ah, yes, I guess since I am probably going to be staying here for awhile, that makes sense. Thank you that would be nice."
"I'll let you two get to it then. I've got to get back to the meeting. I'll see you later Twilight." Aegis said and turned around after she nodded in acknowledgment. The doors were already closed and the elevator had started moving back up the building before Twilight realized Aegis had never really answered her question.
A few hours later Twilight looked out a window at the sprawling city below. Dozen of different vehicle designs in a rainbow of colors crowded the streets, bright yellow by far the most popular. Humans walked along the edges, their ungainly two-legged stride smoothed out by the distance. An aircraft landed on a rooftop not far away. For some reason it made her think of the color pink. She sighed. A lot. A lot to take in and so much work to do.
Turning away from the window, she surveyed the room she had been given. One whole wall was a floor to ceiling "whiteboard." When she had been told what it was and given the marker pack for it she had hugged the startled aid and dove right in. Some time later she had realized she was alone. She hadn't noticed him leave. She felt a little guilty about that. The happy thought of never having to wash chalk dust out of her mane again pushed it aside. Along the window beside where she was standing was a nice, long, wooden desk that looked like its legs had been truncated to make it the right height. Her notebooks arranged by subject and stacked neatly on one side. The other wall was taken up completely by industrial metal shelving, empty except a small section containing half a dozen books. The shelving was broken up only where a comfortably sized bed rested against the wall. The center of the room had a small round table with two human chairs and cushioned stool.
Everything she had asked for, and the speed at which they had provided her with the requests astonished her. It was very generous, but it made her a little uneasy in a way she couldn't quite understand. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she walked over to the bed and hopped up. A glow surrounded her horn and the book she had been reading floated over from the desk to hover in front of her while a marker uncapped itself and took position against the whiteboard. It was time for science!
She wasn't sure how long she had been reading when she heard the knock on her door, but the whiteboard was half full, and the sky had turned the burnt orange of an impending sunset.
"Come in!" she called, letting the book settle onto the bed in front of her. The door opened and the young human from this morning's meeting was there.
"Hi Twilight," he glanced around the room eyes looking over the alien script on the whiteboard before looking back to her. "Jumping right in huh. How's it going?" Twilight smiled. Unlike Armsmaster the cadet seemed to be asking out of real curiosity rather than politeness sake.
"Ok, but it's going to take me forever just to get an idea of where I'm standing. It can be a little daunting if I let myself think about it to much. For now I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time to keep myself on track," gesturing to the book in front of her with a hoof. She was about to ask him how his day had been when a cough sounded from the hallway. Twilight's left ear swiveled in that direction.
"Uh, right, me and a few of my teammates have a little time before we have to go out on patrol. Want some company?"
Twilight gave a longing look at the whiteboard before using her magic to cap and put away the marker she had been using. There was so much for her to do she really couldn't afford the interruption, but some, she didn't know, but something about this felt familiar. Like getting to know these humans would be more important than any research she could do. Which was ridiculous, but the feeling persisted.
"Oh, okay. It looks like that marker was about to run dry, so that's as good as place to take a break as any."
As soon as she agreed, she felt the field distort in a way she had never experienced before, and suddenly there was something right in front of her face. She lurched back instinctively and her eyes had a moment to take in a short human dressed in an unusual style, at least compared to those she had seen so far, consisting of shades of green. The top half of her face was obscured by a matching visor, but the bottom displayed a wide smile as she reached out an arm.
"Hello." She, as the tone of the voice obviously indicated, said warmly. "I'm Vista, and on behalf of the Brockton Bay Wards and the People of Earth, welcome to our planet." Twilight looked down at the arm extended towards her and then up past Vista's head to see a group of what she took to be the other Wards coming into the room with variations of amusement on their faces. Tentatively, she stretched out her right foreleg and touched Vista's hand with her hoof.
"It is, uh, nice to meet you as well. My name is Twilight Sparkle, as I am sure Aegis already told you. That was really a fascinating application of magic you just used. Some form of spatial distortion? A @#$%@#$%? How did you mange to shape the field in Q$$% manifold and achieve a uniform $@#%@ so quickly?" With hardly a thought Twilight levitated a notepad and pen over and flipped it to the first un-used page.
A look of confusion replaced the smile on Vista's face.
"I'm not sure I understood a lot of that. If you're asking how I appeared in front of you like that, I sort of compressed all the space between us for a brief moment and stepped across it. It's my power. I just sort of know how to use it. I'm not sure there are words that would describe it."
A slightly disappointed frown crossed Twilight's features before brightening again as she nodded. "Oh, it's your special talent! Don't worry, they often can be hard to describe or explain to other ponies. If you're willing, I would love to do a couple of experiments with you later." She looked past Vista again to see that the others had mostly closed the distance between them. "Who are your friends?"
Vista turned halfway and extended arm to point towards Aegis.
"Well, you've already met our fearless leader Aegis. Our very own knight in shining armor beside him is Gallant, and last and most certainly least is Clockblocker."
The aforementioned Clockblocker gasped as if he had been struck and clutched his chest dramatically. Twilight couldn't stop a giggle from escaping, especially when she remembered a similar introduction from last night. She wondered if it was some kind of human custom to have jester as part of your group. The one called Gallant stepped forward and gave a slightly theatrical bow before speaking.
"Sir Gallant at your service milady. I would apologize for the uncouth behavior of my companions, but if I made a habit of doing so, I fear I would spend my time doing little else." That brought out more giggles from Twilight and seemed to startle one out of Vista. Gallant's stoic face cracked into a grin.
"Hey, who are you calling uncouth?" Clockblocker asked from where he had just finished 'dying' on the floor.
"You, everyday, among many other things not fit for polite company."
"Ha! Yup, I probably deserve it to. Which reminds me, I uploaded all those test glamor shots that PR took of you last week to your PHO thread last night. It's really blowing up."
The joviality fled from Gallant's face as he rounded on Clockblocker. "You wouldn't. Tell me you didn't actually do that."
"Your fans were calling out in the darkness. 'More Gallant,' they pleaded. What kind of hero would I be if I denied them?"
Gallant walked quickly over towards Clockblocker, clearly aggravated, and Clockblocker scrambled up from the floor and took refuge behind Aegis' body.
Aegis looked amused and made no move to hinder either one of his teammates as they circled him. He turned to Twilight. "I promise that we can, at least sometimes, approach professionalism."
Twilight laughed lightly at his put upon expression and nodded. "It's okay. They kind of remind me of…I don't…anyway, it's fine."
"Enough about them." Vista said in a dismissive voice and gestured towards the chairs behind them. Twilight nodded and turned that way just as Clockblocker did something that seemed to have frozen Aegis and Gallant in place. Gallant's arms stretched out and trying to reach around Aegis' torso.
Twilight settled down on a padded stool while Vista sat herself in the chair closest to her. "What did you want to talk about?"
Vista hesitated a moment, glancing over her shoulder at the three behind her. Clockblocker had pulled out some small rectangular device as was circling the frozen pair for some reason.
"Everything really, but let's start with the important things first." Twilight nodded and set her pen to the notepad. She figured she could learn a great deal of human culture and what they found important just from the kind of things they asked her.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
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Interlude 3 - Aegis
New Aegis Interlude, thanks to Deadpan for editing.
"…dangerous. I," Director Piggot's voice cut off as Carlos opened the door and stepped back into the room. As the eyes of everyone in the room settled on him, he quickly got to his chair and sat down. He wasn't sure what they had talked about while he was gone, but the tension in the room seemed a couple of notches higher than when he left. Channeling a little of his inner Clockblocker, he decided to re-break the ice.
"Um, just putting this out there, but I call dibs." The serious look on the Chief Director's face gave way to a brief snort. Marian let out a chuckle and the tension in the room relaxed. Director Costa-Brown gave Aegis a wry look.
"Aegis, if there where such a thing as dibs in the PRT, let me assure you, you would not get first dibs on Ms. Sparkle. For now, I'm inclined to agree with the recommendation from Ms. Yamada. She should be treated with kid gloves and kept away from violence until we have a better bead on her psychological makeup. That she could be a tremendous asset is a given. That she could be a threat if we read her wrong is also undeniable. Remember, whatever method she is using for translation is imperfect. She may be getting the google translate version of what we are saying and vice versa. Until we know more I would hesitate to trust that what we are hearing is what she is meaning. We need to be careful, but not second guess ourselves to death either. I like the idea of the Wards socializing with her. It will give her people to talk to that she isn't dependent on and hopefully to let her guard down around. However, any attempt to get her come along on patrols or similar hijinks will be severely frowned upon. I trust that we are clear on that, Aegis?"
Aegis nodded somberly, "Yes ma'am."
The Under Secretary cut in quickly. "Putting aside the powers discussion, this is a remarkable moment in history. Our first true alien encounter, and our first interactions with another intelligent species. Given how the world seems to work, I would have never bet on such a first encounter being friendly. Let's not do anything that could change that. I know the initial projections don't look good for the feasibility for contacting her home dimension, but imagine if we pull it off. The world would never be the same. I've got to run. Presidents to brief and a dozen crises, none of which are nearly as pleasant as the one that just left. Keep me in the loop." With that her screen clicked off. Marian picked up where the Under Secretary left off.
"I'll let the Secretary plan possible first contact, the Wards handle acclimation, and the Chief Director handle the ramifications of what Ms. Sparkle talked about. I'll just note two things. The first is that I agree with Ms. Yamada's notes in referring to Twilight as a likely prodigy. So here's a recommendation: don't expose her even tangentially to anything you don't want her to know or work out, because she strikes me as someone that could pull a sweater string until she has a ball of yarn then knit a new sweater for herself. The second thing is that this secret is going to be blown, and soon. Too many people know, too many peoples assistant's know, and she was out on the street for god knows how long last night. If you want to get in front of this thing I would have a press statement out before tomorrow morning at the latest, and that might be too late. I'll keep an eye on the boards. I might be able to give five or ten minutes warning before it hits the media."
Director Piggot sighed, but nodded. "That's…Inconvenient. Thank you for the analysis Marian. John, if you could do what you can to prepare for a press blitz without informing any more people in the meantime?" John nodded his assent. "Good, thank you. Chief Director I assume you will want to coordinate with that State Department for the press conference. Is there anything more you need from us here?"
"No, I think that's all. I have some people to brief myself, so I'll let you get to it. Thank you everyone. Emily, I'll give you a call in an hour or two to go over some things."
"I'll be here." With that Director Costa-Brown's screen went blank. "Okay, let's pack this up. Carlos, you can go ahead and brief the wards that are onsite, but warn them that if one word of this leaks, they wont see anything but the inside of the console room in Alaska until they turn eighteen. Clear?" Carlos nodded as he stood, the four of them filing back out into the hallway and locking the door behind them.
They boarded the elevator together and Aegis suffered through the familiar awkwardness of sharing a confined space with one's superiors until they departed on the third floor. He stayed on till the tenth and, after walking down what he still felt was an excessively chromed hallway, leaned forward for a retinal scan that, after a moment, admitted him into the large dome shaped room that was the home to the Brockton Bay Wards.
Vista and Gallant were both sitting at computers on the far side of the open area, while he could hear Clockblocker giving an off-color commentary to some daytime television program from the doorway that lead to their meeting room. He knew Kid Win was home for the day.
"Hey, either of you seen Shadow Stalker?"
Vista turned from her screen with a grimace. "Yeah, miss smiles-a-lot is taking a shower. What's up?"
Before he could answer Clockblocker came out of the press room and interjected. "Uh-oh. Boss has his serious face on. That means serious things are happening. I hate it when serious things happen."
"I have a serious face?" He asked, momentarily distracted by the statement.
"You kinda do." Vista said. "So, whats going on?"
"I need a few minutes to put something together for a briefing, and I'd rather only go through it once. So when Shadow Stalker gets done with her shower catch her and tell her to hang around. Meeting in thirty."
Clockblocker sighed dramatically as Carlos started walking towards the partition that marked his private space.
"I knew it. A briefing means something to be briefed about. Things that we get briefed about are never good things."
Just before he shut the door to his room he heard Vista respond. "Not every briefing is bad."
"Name one."
"..Ok, you might have something this time."
Forty-five minutes later he was standing beside a podium with a list of facts being projected onto the screen at the back of the room. Vista was staring incredulously at him while Stalker's perpetual scowl was fighting with disbelief. Gallant seemed to be trying to maintain a neutral expression, while Clockblocker had finally stopped saying 'bullshit' and had now transitioned into asking questions in an ever more agitated tone.
Carlos was trying so hard not to smile.
"So you're saying there's an alien in the building."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport, and can lift several tons off the ground."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport, lift several tons, and can rearrange matter at will."
"Yes."
"Why exactly are we not supposed to be freaking out about this? Cause ya know, it sort of sounds like the thing people should freak out about." Several other heads in the room nodded at this, and Aegis finally let go and donned a shit-eating grin. He clicked a remote to advance to the next slide in the presentation.
"Meet Twilight Sparkle. A monster sure to haunt all your dreams tonight."
Silence reigned for a moment before Shadow Stalker broke it with a succinct, "You've got to be shitting me." Aegis laughed and started to hand out a small file folders to everyone there. Gallant was laughing, his power having let him in on the joke, if not its punchline.
Stalker started to absently flip through the packet while Clockblocker gave Aegis a good natured shove. "You ass."
Vista had begun reading as soon as the packet was in her hand, a smile growing the farther into the packet she got. "This is so cool," she murmured.
Aegis gave them all a few minutes to look it over before continuing. "So, here's the deal boys and girls. This is the real deal, first contact, President is a phone call away situation. Twilight's had a rough time, has been separated from everyone she's ever known, and to top it off her introduction to the human race was Lung. Think about that for a minute." He paused to let them do just that, then continued. "In short, she needs some friends, and we've been drafted."
Shadow Stalker tossed her copy of the file onto the floor in front of her and didn't look impressed. "You've got to be shitting me. We're not a fucking day care center. If she's from another planet or whatever how are we even supposed to fucking talk to her. Doesn't the government have like, a base in the desert or something for this kind of shit?"
"Some aspect of her power is allowing her to talk with us, and I'm not shitting you. I'm telling you Chief Director Costa-Brown was in the meeting and extended every courtesy. The most powerful people on the planet are taking Ms. Sparkle very seriously. So, if you don't think you can be civil you should probably keep your distance. They are putting a lot of trust in us. People much higher up the food chain are going to be dealing with the fallout, the politics, media, and all of that BS. But we are the ones that are going to be spending the most time with her, and we are the people that are going to be showing her what it is humanity is about. Let's not screw that up."
"We're boned." Clockblocker deadpanned, causing Vista to laugh before her face became serious.
"How is she doing, with the whole, you know, everything?"
"She's an alien, so no one is really sure. She's keeping it together, but the shrinks think she's probably pretty emotionally fragile at the moment. Which brings me back to my presentation. Now, part of the reason I went over her powers before showing you what she looks like is so you would remember what you were feeling before her appearance could disarm you. She's the real deal, and in the wrong state of mind she could be real dangerous. Keep it in mind. That all being said, I liked her. I think she's good people. Pony. Whatever. So, we are going to do our best to help her get through this. Any questions?"
"Yeah, what kind of fucking name is Twilight Sparkle?" Shadow Stalker grumbled as she stood up from her chair.
"Cast no stones 'Shadow Stalker.'" Clockblocker said, matching the scornful tone Stalker had put into the aliens name. She turned sharply towards him, but when Carlos stepped between them she stopped and instead just gave Clock the bird.
"Yeah, I already know I'm not going to be on team diplomacy. Don't think I didn't catch that little bit earlier Carlos, so I'll see you losers later."
"One last thing." Carlos said and Stalker paused at the door, tension in every aspect of her posture. "Director Piggot mentioned something about permanent assignment to Alaska if any of us mentions any of this before they have a press conference."
"Fucking PR. Who'd believe this shit anyway." She left the room and a minute later he heard the security door open and close again.
Meanwhile, Clockblocker had walked up beside him. He leaned his head against Carlos' shoulder and sighed in a dreamy voice. "There goes our little ray of sunshine." Which caused him and everyone else in the room to laugh.
He shoved Clockblocker away, careful not to use to much force. "Get off you goof. The whole line about being able to be diplomatic goes for you too you know. Please refrain from causing the first inter-dimensional war with a poor chosen attempt at humor."
Clockblocker stiffened and gave an english salute. "You can count on me sah"
The response, remarkably, did not make Carlos feel any better about introducing Clock to the alien. There was nothing for it, however. If he didn't bring Clockblocker along now, he would just go on his own later, and heaven only knew what he would get up to unsupervised.
"Ok, they want to give her a little time to tour the building and settle into her quarters. How about we all head up there an hour before the scheduled patrol tonight?"
"Sounds good," Gallant said.
"I can do that," Vista replied and then vanished through the doorway with a quick use of her power.
"See you there boss," Clockblocker said and put a hand on his shoulder. The next thing he knew he was alone in the room and all the lights had been shut off. He chuckled but mentally added it to the list of reasons to put Clock on monitor duty so he didn't have to do it himself. Paybacks were a bitch.
A couple of hours later he was adding yet another notation to that mental list when he noticed Clockblocker had moved and Vista was well into braiding Twilight's mane. Things that had not been true a moment ago, at least for him and Gallant. Gallant apparently came to the same conclusion as him and hastily stepped back to give them both space to observe the room. Also to surreptitiously check for any traces of permeant marker drawings on their persons. As they did so, they drifted back towards the door so they could talk without interrupting the scene in front of them.
Clockblocker seemed to be trying to comprehend what Twilight had been writing on the board while Vista worked on the unicorn's hair. "So, what does this part mean?"
"That set of equations is the first part of how one could derive one's location in space-time based on the @#$%$@ and the magic field resonance between $@$%@ and local gravimetric forces."
Clockblocker nodded sagely, as if he had simply seeking confirmation for his own thoughts. "Yes, yes I think I see what you mean." Carlos couldn't contain a small bark of laughter at that, and he heard Gallant chuckle beside him.
"Times like this he almost makes you forget that you've already worked out how you would hide his body." Gallant said quietly as the two of them watched the scene from the doorway.
"He knows how to walk the line alright." Carlos agreed. "Picking anything up from our guest?"
Gallant nodded. "Yes…it's different, and complicated. Lots of stuff swirling around, not really surprising. It feels like she's happy for the company however, at least on the surface."
"I'll take it. Alright, let's go be friendly. We can't let Clockblocker be humanity's main impression on first contact."
Forty minutes later, after having learned entirely to much about hairstyles and either entirely to little or to much about theoretical physics, he noticed Clockblocker leaning up against the door frame to the room with a small frown on his face. Getting up while Twilight's attention was focused on Vista's hair he walked over to him.
Clock almost seemed to be staring through the scene in front of him. Gallant, Vista, and Twilight were having a good spirited conversation punctuated intermittently by Vista giggling as the unicorn braided her hair with telekinesis. Over the past year, Vista had put a lot of effort into trying to shed her image as the kid sister of the wards, but given the cover of fostering inter-galactic or inter-dimensional relations she was letting herself have fun. It was striking seeing her really relaxed for the first time in months.
"Whats up Clock? Figured you'd still be busy corrupting the alien."
Clockblocker shifted a little so that he could face Aegis and still see into the room. "Just wondering where the bag of shit is."
Carlos felt his face take on a puzzled frown. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that this is reality, and everything awesome comes with a bag of shit. Superpowers come with triggers, Scion comes with Endbringers, and Doritos have trans-fats." He paused and gestured to the scene again. Vista was blushing at something Gallant had said and Twilight was clopping her fore hooves together with a smile on her equine face. "That, that right there, is awesome. So, what I'm wondering is, where's the bag of shit?"
Newly edited and expanded Chapter 3 with the great help of Deadpan.
Twilight turned sideways in the seat, head facing the window, and pulled her legs up underneath her. It was the third position she had tried in as many minutes. Human vehicles, it seemed, were not made for quadrupeds. This position at least had the benefit of avoiding the stern face of Director Piggot.
Humans were strange. Enough alike to be relatable, but so different as well. They had agreed to help her and provide a place to stay in exchange for assisting them in turn. She was a little worried about that. What assistance she was to provide had not been very clear. The way some of those parahuman response officials on that wondrous screen had talked had not been very enlightening or particularly encouraging. Most of the others had been nice though, and Assault had even gotten a giggle out of her at breakfast.
She withheld the sigh that wanted to escape her chest. She had never been that good at figuring out ponies. Figuring out humans seemed like paddling into the ocean without a raft.
Looking out the window she got her first real look at the city. This area looked much better than what she had seen last night. Buildings made of steel and glass soared into the air. Personal vehicles with combustion engines and interior climate regulation moving at a fast gallop down wide smoothly paved avenues. Curiously, she didn't see any hints of magical engineering of the kind that let Canterlot Castle hang dramatically from Mount Canter. Maybe the current human architectural preference was to show what could be done without it? Regardless, the city was impressive display. Manehatten in 100 years maybe.
While she was looking out the window she realized something she had overlooked before and turned to ask Director Piggot a question. "This is a very large city and I've been looking for a while now. Are there not any other races or sapient species that live here?"
Twilight couldn't say that the Director frowned, as she seemed to perpetually frown, but maybe she frowned harder before she answered. "Humans are the only definitively sentient species on the planet. What do you mean when you say race?"
Twilight startled a little at this. Humans had only each other to talk to. She could imagine that would have had far reaching consequences for their culture and thought process. Hardly conscious that she was doing it, she levitated a notepad from her bags and started writing even as she spoke. "There are three distinct kinds of pony on my world, all easily distinguishable by their physical differences and to some degree their abilities. Looking out there," she gestured to the window and the sidewalks full of people, "I only see relatively minor variations in build and skin tone. Are there other variations of humans or is this a good sample of the populace as a whole?"
Piggot seemed to think for a moment before responding. Her tone eased a little as she explained. "If that is your definition of race, then there is indeed only one kind of human. If a human refers to race they are usually referring to a group of people that share a cultural background or set of physical features like eyes, hair, and skin tone. Brockton Bay is fairly diverse, as far as that goes." Before Twilight could pursue the topic further Director Piggot changed gears.
"We are only a few minutes away from the building where you will be staying. When we get there I would like to sit down and go over your abilities with me and some of the staff. Any abilities that we determine are safe to test on site we would like to see demonstrated. While we conduct the testing, some of my staff will be setting up your living quarters. Do you have any special needs or requests?"
Twilight put the notepad she was currently writing in away and pulled another out, flipping about a third of the way through it while it was still en route from her bag. Director Piggot noted that she did all of this without looking. "Yes, I have a few small requests that I hope you will be able to accommodate. Ms Yamada already told me it would take some time to arrange the visits with the scholars that I need to speak with. To prepare for those meetings I would like a few books. A general overview of your physical sciences, a general overview of your biological sciences, a general overview of your magical sciences, a general world history, and a comprehensive history of the last century. Once I have an idea of where my knowledge and your science aligns and diverges I can start getting into the details of the relevant subjects. If they are available, besides reading materials, I could use a large chalk board, a writing desk suited to my height, as many bookshelves as will fit into the space, a few hundred of these bound notepads, a few dozen pens, and a bed."
A nonplused look briefly crossed Piggot's face before she responded. "I'm sure we can supply most of that. Dietary requirements?"
Twilight started to bring her fore hooves together in anticipation of the books, but the gesture withered under the Director's stare. "Um, the breakfast this morning was nice, so probably nothing out of the ordinary. Grains, vegetables, fruits, long grasses and wildflowers. Daisies are a particular favorite of mine. Breads and Pastries."
"Again I'm sure we can arrange most of that, I'll let the cafeteria know." The car they were in went over a bump and began descending an incline that led them beneath a large glass and steel building styled somewhat differently from its neighboors. The driver stopped the car beside two large metal doors surrounded by unadorned concrete. He stepped out and opened the rear door. Twilight gratefully climbed out of the uncomfortable seat and took a moment to stretch out her neck and each of her legs. The Director walked up to the doors and pressed a circular emblem which then began to glow. Twilight's ears swiveled towards the sound of machinery engaging off to right and she nodded to herself. 'All electrical again, no magical assistance. No wards,' Twilight thought. Now that was strange. If this was something like a secured government building, there should be security wards somewhere.
A moment later a loud chime sounded and one of the metal doors opened. When Twilight and Director Piggot stepped inside and the doors closed again, it immediately began moving. Somewhat surprisingly Twilight felt the lift start to descend. She almost asked why, but thought better of it. Director Piggot seemed not to enjoy conversation very much.
The elevator doors opened to a well lit, but unadorned, hallway. No pictures, murals, or aesthetic of any kind seemed to have been applied. Long electric tubes hung from the ceiling, emitting light and an annoying high frequency buzz that made Twilight's eye twitch. At a T-intersection they turned left down another short hallway that had a series of doors down one side. Director Piggot stopped at the last door and punched a series of numbered buttons on a panel beside it, causing it to unlock.
The near side of the room had another of those long conference tables that the humans seemed to prefer. Three people were seated at it while another one of those fascinating electronic displays hung above the far end of the table. Two more people were on the display and she had learned earlier that they could be looking in from other cities hundreds or thousands of miles away. The knowledge and engineering that had to underpin such a system spoke of the vast hidden iceberg of science and innovation that this species had at their disposal. Just thinking about it put a little spring in her step as she walked towards a cushioned stool that had obviously been set up for her. Director Piggot left an empty chair beside Twilight and sat down to her left before speaking.
"Everyone, this is Twilight Sparkle. As I am sure you have all read the briefing by now and are aware," sounding like she actually doubted that was the case, "we believe she is from both another planet and another dimension. She was stranded here by some unknown event or accident. For the time being it has been decided that she will be housed here at the PRT to ensure she has support and a secure location from which to work on a way to contact her people and learn about our society. We hope to learn about her culture in turn, so that if and when contact with her planet is established we will be ready for it." This was more verbose than the Director had been in the past, and Twilight had a feeling that the lines had been prepared by someone else. "Twilight, to my left is Aegis. He is the leader of the local Wards." She gestured to the younger human who had tan skin and wore a rust colored costume with a shield emblem on the front. "The Wards is a program for young people to learn the skills they need before joining the Protectorate." 'Guardsman in training, cadets,' Twilight concluded.
"You will see him and his team throughout the building at different times don't hesitate to ask them for assistance." She paused and cleared her throat a little, which seemed to snap Aegis out of the slacked jawed expression he had been wearing since Twilight came into the room.
"Oh, right. It's nice to meet you Twilight. I hope we can help you." Twilight nodded at him and smiled, but was prevented from returning the greeting because Director Piggot had already moved on.
"To his left is John, my chief of staff. He handles most of the logistics and day to day details that keep the place running." The man nodded at Twilight and Piggot continued. "At the far end of the table is Marian May, our information officer here at Brockton Bay." The slight woman at the end had long brown hair that framed her face and fell over her shoulders and the same style of clothes as Piggot. "On the screen we have Wendy Sherman, who is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. If we succeed in contacting your world, she would coordinating relations between our nations."
The woman had short white hair, a friendly smile and spoke in a warm tone. "While I hope to speak with you in person in the future, it is very nice to meet you. Welcome you to our planet and our country. I know you wish to return to your home as soon as possible, but while you are here I hope you find your stay hospitable and that we may learn as much from each other as your stay allows."
Twilight nodded her head and smiled as she responded. "Thank you. I admit my first impression of your world was frightening, but since arriving at the Protectorate building last night everyone has been very kind and generous. While I do hope to find a solution sooner rather than later, I think it would be criminal not to use the opportunity to further the scientific knowledge of both our species."
Director Piggot moved on to the next person on the display. "This is Chief Director Costa-Brown. She is the head of the PRT and is ultimately in charge of the Protectorate, the Wards, and the PRT divisions across the country." 'Which makes her the most powerful person I have been introduced to,' Twilight thought.
The Chief Director had a congenial smile on her face, and it seemed like Twilight had her full attention. "Like the Under Secretary I hope to soon meet you in person, but until then I trust my staff will prove to be gracious hosts in my absence. Be assured that we are looking into the circumstances of your arrival with all of our resources."
Twilight smiled politely in return. "Thank you, Chief Director. I'm honored that you and the others here took the time to speak with me and for all the kindnesses you all have shown me…It means more to me than you can imagine." A sniffle threatened and Twilight forced a smile and a glance around to regain her composure.
Director Piggot spoke up once again. "Thank you all for coming. We are here today not only to welcome Ms. Sparkle, but to evaluate her abilities before she begins her residence here. In accordance with PRT safety regulation 714.865. For the archivist this proceeding is to be filed under PRT-SPARKLE0035. Now Ms. Sparkle, I've read through Ms. Yamada's notes and when talking about para-abilities you mentioned that your," she looked down at her notes, "Special Talent was magic. We understand that you are speaking with the aid of translation and this word is probably one that means something different to you than it does us. Can you expand on what you can do with magic?"
Twilight was nonplussed at the question. It was like asking what you could do with gravity. After thinking about it for a moment she guessed they were referring to the most common applications she used the magic field for. She pulled her notepad and pen out of her bag again and took a second to organize her thoughts.
"Well as you can see the most common application I use it for is remote manipulation of physical matter, like this notepad and pen." She noticed that other people had started taking notes, while Aegis and Marian had pulled out another one of the humans' fascinating electronic devices. It contained what looked like a vertical electronic display and a horizontal tray with a series of depressible buttons. 'Were they somehow electronically storing notes? Without paper?' Twilight's mind quickly extrapolated the uses and applications of such a thing and had to bite her lip to get back on track with what she had been discussing. Someone cleared their throat and Twilight turned towards them and avoided the temptation to demonstrate her telekinesis to get a better look at the devices.
Twilight blushed a little and apologized, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I'm afraid my mind went off on a small tangent for a moment."
The information officer spoke again, "What are the limits of this power? How many objects could you lift? how much mass?"
Twilight looked up in thought while her pen continued to scribble notes on the pad, flipping over to a new page. 'Those questions aren't quite right. Are they subtly testing me on my knowledge of magic theory?' "Hmm, well I'm not sure. It's been years since my last formal physical test with it. Volume is more of a limitation than mass, The more field area you control the more focus and concentration it takes. I'm fairly proficient, the most I have stretched the ability recently is when I re-shelve the library." She paused a moment as another one of those hazy memories skitter out of her grasp. "I typically handle a few hundred books at a time." The Chief director was looking at her with an unreadable expression her face, while Piggot was jotting something down in her little notebook and Marian tapped rapidly at her device.
Director Piggot dug further. "If we crushed the vehicle that we drove to this building in to a suitable volume, you could lift it regardless of its mass?"
"Oh, you wouldn't need to reduce its volume. Contiguous field volume requires a lot less concentration than non-contiguous volume." Twilight replied in a light tone, happy that she seemed to be exceeding whatever expectations they had for this test. The sound of more tapping and writing filled the room, Twilight's ears twitching in time with the noise.
The Chief Director spoke again. "I think we can move on for now and perhaps later we can talk about that more in detail. How else do you use your magic?"
'My magic?' Twilight hesitated then continued with her initial assumption. "Well, I let Armsmaster copy my notes from my arrival so I am sure you already know some of this. I guess teleportation and transmutation are the next most common applications I use. Teleportation is again limited by the volume of the area to be teleported, but it is further limited because you need to control an identical remote field volume at your desired destination. It also requires much more fine control than telekinesis to connect the two volumes and…I'm not sure I have a word for it in your language but it's like…stepping around everything between the two. I'm afraid I've only really mastered self teleportation so far in my studies." Twilight took a pleased breath before continuing, there were few things she liked better than discussing magic, and not one of them had that vacant expression so many ponies got when she did.
"Transmutation is probably the skill I'm most proud of. There are two types of transmutation. Temporary and permanent. It involves…again I'm at a loss for the right words…which is odd because this spell should translate concepts both cultures share. Let's see…the pattern… or blueprint of the matter contained in the remote field is…^$%^%…pushed aside?..at the same time you…push…or layout?..a new pattern into the same space. Thats not quite right. If you…argh stupid translation spell, it will probably work better once I have studied some of your scientific texts. Anyway, most transmutation is temporary as it takes an incredible amount of…%^$#^^@$…sorry but there is nothing the translation spell is giving that is remotely close, but it takes a lot to permanently…push…the old pattern away. It is one of the most challenging areas of magic to master. It took me three years of dedicated study and practice before I was able to produce a decent paper analog." Twilight finished with a smile, thinking of how proud Celestia had been when she surprised her with the skill.
"However, those are just the spells that I use most frequently. In the course of my tutelage under Princess Celestia I have studied all the major branches of magic and their practical applications like enchantment and magical engineering. Then, of course, there are higher level spells that involve intwining @$%@$#% with….emotion? Purpose? And @$%@$. I'm only just starting to explore that area in my studies…I think…there were…ponies I was…I'm sorry there's just…something about that…I…can't remember right now."
She took a slow breath to get past her anxiety before she continued. "So let's skip that for now. What else were you interested in?" Then she noticed that the sounds of tapping and writing had stopped completely and no one was speaking. Even with the rough similarities between pony and human facial expression, she couldn't quite place what she seeing here.
Chief Director Brown was the one who broke the silence, "That is quite an extensive skill set. I think I understand why your Princess choose you as her student." Twilight blushed and ducked her head a little bashfully as she heard the others begin writing and typing again. "I think that's enough of a demonstration for today. Director Piggot, can you call one of your aides to show Twilight around the building and where she will be staying? I would like to take a few minutes since we already have everyone here to discuss a few other matters. Does that work for you Twilight?"
Twilight nodded and quickly replied, "Yes, that would be fine," as she couldn't think of a reason it wouldn't work, and suspected the question was posed more as a matter of form than any real interest in Twilight's opinion on the matter. While she had been responding, Director Piggot had picked up a small device and tapped it a few times.
"Aegis, please escort Twilight to the elevators. Sam is going to come down and show her around. Come back after she meets you. There are a few other things we need to inform you of." Director Piggot addressed the cadet.
"No problem ma'am, Miss Sparkle?" Aegis replied and turned to look at her.
She nodded and hopped off her stool. "Thank you all again. It was really nice meeting you."
Aegis opened the door as the rest of the group told her goodbye and she stepped back into the hall. Aegis closed the door behind them and started walking back they way they had come from before. "So, most of the other Wards are probably going to be around a little later. Would you mind if we swung by? That way I could introduce you to everyone you're likely to run into while you're here." Twilight smiled a little nervously. She had been introduced to more humans in the last two days than she had been to ponies in the last two years. She kind of wanted to spend as much time as possible setting up the room they were going to give her, but she supposed it wouldn't be polite to decline. Besides, it sounded like the time would be lost either today or later anyway. Hopefully it wouldn't take to long.
"Sure, that sounds great." Twilight said as she started to write more notes down on the pad she was levitating beside her. She noticed Aegis looking at her a little…maybe unsure, and thought of the distance between them and the elevator. Right, conversation etiquette, he was probably waiting on her to ask him something. Ohh, she was never good at this stuff. What had the Princess said about small talk?
"So what made you want to become a ca- a Ward?" Twilight asked and reluctantly stopped writing on her notepad.
Aegis' smile ran away from his face and a troubled look replaced it for a second before his smile returned. When he spoke again it was in a strange accent he hadn't been using before.
"You could say someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
"Really? It may be an error in the translation matrix, but that sounds contradictory. Is it an idiom? Those often don't come through quite right."
Aegis shook his head and laughed. "No, sorry. It's a famous movie quote. I was joking, but it probably loses something if you've never even heard of the movie." They had almost reached the end of the hall and an elevator door opened with chime. A grey-haired man in a PRT uniform stepped out. When he saw them a pleasant smile appeared on his face.
"Ms Sparkle, it's a pleasure to meet you. They're still working on setting up your room. While we wait for them, would you like to tour some of the facility?"
"Oh, ah, yes, I guess since I am probably going to be staying here for awhile, that makes sense. Thank you that would be nice."
"I'll let you two get to it then. I've got to get back to the meeting. I'll see you later Twilight." Aegis said and turned around after she nodded in acknowledgment. The doors were already closed and the elevator had started moving back up the building before Twilight realized Aegis had never really answered her question.
A few hours later Twilight looked out a window at the sprawling city below. Dozen of different vehicle designs in a rainbow of colors crowded the streets, bright yellow by far the most popular. Humans walked along the edges, their ungainly two-legged stride smoothed out by the distance. An aircraft landed on a rooftop not far away. For some reason it made her think of the color pink. She sighed. A lot. A lot to take in and so much work to do.
Turning away from the window, she surveyed the room she had been given. One whole wall was a floor to ceiling "whiteboard." When she had been told what it was and given the marker pack for it she had hugged the startled aid and dove right in. Some time later she had realized she was alone. She hadn't noticed him leave. She felt a little guilty about that. The happy thought of never having to wash chalk dust out of her mane again pushed it aside. Along the window beside where she was standing was a nice, long, wooden desk that looked like its legs had been truncated to make it the right height. Her notebooks arranged by subject and stacked neatly on one side. The other wall was taken up completely by industrial metal shelving, empty except a small section containing half a dozen books. The shelving was broken up only where a comfortably sized bed rested against the wall. The center of the room had a small round table with two human chairs and cushioned stool.
Everything she had asked for, and the speed at which they had provided her with the requests astonished her. It was very generous, but it made her a little uneasy in a way she couldn't quite understand. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she walked over to the bed and hopped up. A glow surrounded her horn and the book she had been reading floated over from the desk to hover in front of her while a marker uncapped itself and took position against the whiteboard. It was time for science!
She wasn't sure how long she had been reading when she heard the knock on her door, but the whiteboard was half full, and the sky had turned the burnt orange of an impending sunset.
"Come in!" she called, letting the book settle onto the bed in front of her. The door opened and the young human from this morning's meeting was there.
"Hi Twilight," he glanced around the room eyes looking over the alien script on the whiteboard before looking back to her. "Jumping right in huh. How's it going?" Twilight smiled. Unlike Armsmaster the cadet seemed to be asking out of real curiosity rather than politeness sake.
"Ok, but it's going to take me forever just to get an idea of where I'm standing. It can be a little daunting if I let myself think about it to much. For now I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time to keep myself on track," gesturing to the book in front of her with a hoof. She was about to ask him how his day had been when a cough sounded from the hallway. Twilight's left ear swiveled in that direction.
"Uh, right, me and a few of my teammates have a little time before we have to go out on patrol. Want some company?"
Twilight gave a longing look at the whiteboard before using her magic to cap and put away the marker she had been using. There was so much for her to do she really couldn't afford the interruption, but some, she didn't know, but something about this felt familiar. Like getting to know these humans would be more important than any research she could do. Which was ridiculous, but the feeling persisted.
"Oh, okay. It looks like that marker was about to run dry, so that's as good as place to take a break as any."
As soon as she agreed, she felt the field distort in a way she had never experienced before, and suddenly there was something right in front of her face. She lurched back instinctively and her eyes had a moment to take in a short human dressed in an unusual style, at least compared to those she had seen so far, consisting of shades of green. The top half of her face was obscured by a matching visor, but the bottom displayed a wide smile as she reached out an arm.
"Hello." She, as the tone of the voice obviously indicated, said warmly. "I'm Vista, and on behalf of the Brockton Bay Wards and the People of Earth, welcome to our planet." Twilight looked down at the arm extended towards her and then up past Vista's head to see a group of what she took to be the other Wards coming into the room with variations of amusement on their faces. Tentatively, she stretched out her right foreleg and touched Vista's hand with her hoof.
"It is, uh, nice to meet you as well. My name is Twilight Sparkle, as I am sure Aegis already told you. That was really a fascinating application of magic you just used. Some form of spatial distortion? A @#$%@#$%? How did you mange to shape the field in Q$$% manifold and achieve a uniform $@#%@ so quickly?" With hardly a thought Twilight levitated a notepad and pen over and flipped it to the first un-used page.
A look of confusion replaced the smile on Vista's face.
"I'm not sure I understood a lot of that. If you're asking how I appeared in front of you like that, I sort of compressed all the space between us for a brief moment and stepped across it. It's my power. I just sort of know how to use it. I'm not sure there are words that would describe it."
A slightly disappointed frown crossed Twilight's features before brightening again as she nodded. "Oh, it's your special talent! Don't worry, they often can be hard to describe or explain to other ponies. If you're willing, I would love to do a couple of experiments with you later." She looked past Vista again to see that the others had mostly closed the distance between them. "Who are your friends?"
Vista turned halfway and extended arm to point towards Aegis.
"Well, you've already met our fearless leader Aegis. Our very own knight in shining armor beside him is Gallant, and last and most certainly least is Clockblocker."
The aforementioned Clockblocker gasped as if he had been struck and clutched his chest dramatically. Twilight couldn't stop a giggle from escaping, especially when she remembered a similar introduction from last night. She wondered if it was some kind of human custom to have jester as part of your group. The one called Gallant stepped forward and gave a slightly theatrical bow before speaking.
"Sir Gallant at your service milady. I would apologize for the uncouth behavior of my companions, but if I made a habit of doing so, I fear I would spend my time doing little else." That brought out more giggles from Twilight and seemed to startle one out of Vista. Gallant's stoic face cracked into a grin.
"Hey, who are you calling uncouth?" Clockblocker asked from where he had just finished 'dying' on the floor.
"You, everyday, among many other things not fit for polite company."
"Ha! Yup, I probably deserve it to. Which reminds me, I uploaded all those test glamor shots that PR took of you last week to your PHO thread last night. It's really blowing up."
The joviality fled from Gallant's face as he rounded on Clockblocker. "You wouldn't. Tell me you didn't actually do that."
"Your fans were calling out in the darkness. 'More Gallant,' they pleaded. What kind of hero would I be if I denied them?"
Gallant walked quickly over towards Clockblocker, clearly aggravated, and Clockblocker scrambled up from the floor and took refuge behind Aegis' body.
Aegis looked amused and made no move to hinder either one of his teammates as they circled him. He turned to Twilight. "I promise that we can, at least sometimes, approach professionalism."
Twilight laughed lightly at his put upon expression and nodded. "It's okay. They kind of remind me of…I don't…anyway, it's fine."
"Enough about them." Vista said in a dismissive voice and gestured towards the chairs behind them. Twilight nodded and turned that way just as Clockblocker did something that seemed to have frozen Aegis and Gallant in place. Gallant's arms stretched out and trying to reach around Aegis' torso.
Twilight settled down on a padded stool while Vista sat herself in the chair closest to her. "What did you want to talk about?"
Vista hesitated a moment, glancing over her shoulder at the three behind her. Clockblocker had pulled out some small rectangular device as was circling the frozen pair for some reason.
"Everything really, but let's start with the important things first." Twilight nodded and set her pen to the notepad. She figured she could learn a great deal of human culture and what they found important just from the kind of things they asked her.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
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Interlude 3 - Aegis
New Aegis Interlude, thanks to Deadpan for editing.
"…dangerous. I," Director Piggot's voice cut off as Carlos opened the door and stepped back into the room. As the eyes of everyone in the room settled on him, he quickly got to his chair and sat down. He wasn't sure what they had talked about while he was gone, but the tension in the room seemed a couple of notches higher than when he left. Channeling a little of his inner Clockblocker, he decided to re-break the ice.
"Um, just putting this out there, but I call dibs." The serious look on the Chief Director's face gave way to a brief snort. Marian let out a chuckle and the tension in the room relaxed. Director Costa-Brown gave Aegis a wry look.
"Aegis, if there where such a thing as dibs in the PRT, let me assure you, you would not get first dibs on Ms. Sparkle. For now, I'm inclined to agree with the recommendation from Ms. Yamada. She should be treated with kid gloves and kept away from violence until we have a better bead on her psychological makeup. That she could be a tremendous asset is a given. That she could be a threat if we read her wrong is also undeniable. Remember, whatever method she is using for translation is imperfect. She may be getting the google translate version of what we are saying and vice versa. Until we know more I would hesitate to trust that what we are hearing is what she is meaning. We need to be careful, but not second guess ourselves to death either. I like the idea of the Wards socializing with her. It will give her people to talk to that she isn't dependent on and hopefully to let her guard down around. However, any attempt to get her come along on patrols or similar hijinks will be severely frowned upon. I trust that we are clear on that, Aegis?"
Aegis nodded somberly, "Yes ma'am."
The Under Secretary cut in quickly. "Putting aside the powers discussion, this is a remarkable moment in history. Our first true alien encounter, and our first interactions with another intelligent species. Given how the world seems to work, I would have never bet on such a first encounter being friendly. Let's not do anything that could change that. I know the initial projections don't look good for the feasibility for contacting her home dimension, but imagine if we pull it off. The world would never be the same. I've got to run. Presidents to brief and a dozen crises, none of which are nearly as pleasant as the one that just left. Keep me in the loop." With that her screen clicked off. Marian picked up where the Under Secretary left off.
"I'll let the Secretary plan possible first contact, the Wards handle acclimation, and the Chief Director handle the ramifications of what Ms. Sparkle talked about. I'll just note two things. The first is that I agree with Ms. Yamada's notes in referring to Twilight as a likely prodigy. So here's a recommendation: don't expose her even tangentially to anything you don't want her to know or work out, because she strikes me as someone that could pull a sweater string until she has a ball of yarn then knit a new sweater for herself. The second thing is that this secret is going to be blown, and soon. Too many people know, too many peoples assistant's know, and she was out on the street for god knows how long last night. If you want to get in front of this thing I would have a press statement out before tomorrow morning at the latest, and that might be too late. I'll keep an eye on the boards. I might be able to give five or ten minutes warning before it hits the media."
Director Piggot sighed, but nodded. "That's…Inconvenient. Thank you for the analysis Marian. John, if you could do what you can to prepare for a press blitz without informing any more people in the meantime?" John nodded his assent. "Good, thank you. Chief Director I assume you will want to coordinate with that State Department for the press conference. Is there anything more you need from us here?"
"No, I think that's all. I have some people to brief myself, so I'll let you get to it. Thank you everyone. Emily, I'll give you a call in an hour or two to go over some things."
"I'll be here." With that Director Costa-Brown's screen went blank. "Okay, let's pack this up. Carlos, you can go ahead and brief the wards that are onsite, but warn them that if one word of this leaks, they wont see anything but the inside of the console room in Alaska until they turn eighteen. Clear?" Carlos nodded as he stood, the four of them filing back out into the hallway and locking the door behind them.
They boarded the elevator together and Aegis suffered through the familiar awkwardness of sharing a confined space with one's superiors until they departed on the third floor. He stayed on till the tenth and, after walking down what he still felt was an excessively chromed hallway, leaned forward for a retinal scan that, after a moment, admitted him into the large dome shaped room that was the home to the Brockton Bay Wards.
Vista and Gallant were both sitting at computers on the far side of the open area, while he could hear Clockblocker giving an off-color commentary to some daytime television program from the doorway that lead to their meeting room. He knew Kid Win was home for the day.
"Hey, either of you seen Shadow Stalker?"
Vista turned from her screen with a grimace. "Yeah, miss smiles-a-lot is taking a shower. What's up?"
Before he could answer Clockblocker came out of the press room and interjected. "Uh-oh. Boss has his serious face on. That means serious things are happening. I hate it when serious things happen."
"I have a serious face?" He asked, momentarily distracted by the statement.
"You kinda do." Vista said. "So, whats going on?"
"I need a few minutes to put something together for a briefing, and I'd rather only go through it once. So when Shadow Stalker gets done with her shower catch her and tell her to hang around. Meeting in thirty."
Clockblocker sighed dramatically as Carlos started walking towards the partition that marked his private space.
"I knew it. A briefing means something to be briefed about. Things that we get briefed about are never good things."
Just before he shut the door to his room he heard Vista respond. "Not every briefing is bad."
"Name one."
"..Ok, you might have something this time."
Forty-five minutes later he was standing beside a podium with a list of facts being projected onto the screen at the back of the room. Vista was staring incredulously at him while Stalker's perpetual scowl was fighting with disbelief. Gallant seemed to be trying to maintain a neutral expression, while Clockblocker had finally stopped saying 'bullshit' and had now transitioned into asking questions in an ever more agitated tone.
Carlos was trying so hard not to smile.
"So you're saying there's an alien in the building."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport, and can lift several tons off the ground."
"Yes."
"You're saying there's an alien in the building that can teleport, lift several tons, and can rearrange matter at will."
"Yes."
"Why exactly are we not supposed to be freaking out about this? Cause ya know, it sort of sounds like the thing people should freak out about." Several other heads in the room nodded at this, and Aegis finally let go and donned a shit-eating grin. He clicked a remote to advance to the next slide in the presentation.
"Meet Twilight Sparkle. A monster sure to haunt all your dreams tonight."
Silence reigned for a moment before Shadow Stalker broke it with a succinct, "You've got to be shitting me." Aegis laughed and started to hand out a small file folders to everyone there. Gallant was laughing, his power having let him in on the joke, if not its punchline.
Stalker started to absently flip through the packet while Clockblocker gave Aegis a good natured shove. "You ass."
Vista had begun reading as soon as the packet was in her hand, a smile growing the farther into the packet she got. "This is so cool," she murmured.
Aegis gave them all a few minutes to look it over before continuing. "So, here's the deal boys and girls. This is the real deal, first contact, President is a phone call away situation. Twilight's had a rough time, has been separated from everyone she's ever known, and to top it off her introduction to the human race was Lung. Think about that for a minute." He paused to let them do just that, then continued. "In short, she needs some friends, and we've been drafted."
Shadow Stalker tossed her copy of the file onto the floor in front of her and didn't look impressed. "You've got to be shitting me. We're not a fucking day care center. If she's from another planet or whatever how are we even supposed to fucking talk to her. Doesn't the government have like, a base in the desert or something for this kind of shit?"
"Some aspect of her power is allowing her to talk with us, and I'm not shitting you. I'm telling you Chief Director Costa-Brown was in the meeting and extended every courtesy. The most powerful people on the planet are taking Ms. Sparkle very seriously. So, if you don't think you can be civil you should probably keep your distance. They are putting a lot of trust in us. People much higher up the food chain are going to be dealing with the fallout, the politics, media, and all of that BS. But we are the ones that are going to be spending the most time with her, and we are the people that are going to be showing her what it is humanity is about. Let's not screw that up."
"We're boned." Clockblocker deadpanned, causing Vista to laugh before her face became serious.
"How is she doing, with the whole, you know, everything?"
"She's an alien, so no one is really sure. She's keeping it together, but the shrinks think she's probably pretty emotionally fragile at the moment. Which brings me back to my presentation. Now, part of the reason I went over her powers before showing you what she looks like is so you would remember what you were feeling before her appearance could disarm you. She's the real deal, and in the wrong state of mind she could be real dangerous. Keep it in mind. That all being said, I liked her. I think she's good people. Pony. Whatever. So, we are going to do our best to help her get through this. Any questions?"
"Yeah, what kind of fucking name is Twilight Sparkle?" Shadow Stalker grumbled as she stood up from her chair.
"Cast no stones 'Shadow Stalker.'" Clockblocker said, matching the scornful tone Stalker had put into the aliens name. She turned sharply towards him, but when Carlos stepped between them she stopped and instead just gave Clock the bird.
"Yeah, I already know I'm not going to be on team diplomacy. Don't think I didn't catch that little bit earlier Carlos, so I'll see you losers later."
"One last thing." Carlos said and Stalker paused at the door, tension in every aspect of her posture. "Director Piggot mentioned something about permanent assignment to Alaska if any of us mentions any of this before they have a press conference."
"Fucking PR. Who'd believe this shit anyway." She left the room and a minute later he heard the security door open and close again.
Meanwhile, Clockblocker had walked up beside him. He leaned his head against Carlos' shoulder and sighed in a dreamy voice. "There goes our little ray of sunshine." Which caused him and everyone else in the room to laugh.
He shoved Clockblocker away, careful not to use to much force. "Get off you goof. The whole line about being able to be diplomatic goes for you too you know. Please refrain from causing the first inter-dimensional war with a poor chosen attempt at humor."
Clockblocker stiffened and gave an english salute. "You can count on me sah"
The response, remarkably, did not make Carlos feel any better about introducing Clock to the alien. There was nothing for it, however. If he didn't bring Clockblocker along now, he would just go on his own later, and heaven only knew what he would get up to unsupervised.
"Ok, they want to give her a little time to tour the building and settle into her quarters. How about we all head up there an hour before the scheduled patrol tonight?"
"Sounds good," Gallant said.
"I can do that," Vista replied and then vanished through the doorway with a quick use of her power.
"See you there boss," Clockblocker said and put a hand on his shoulder. The next thing he knew he was alone in the room and all the lights had been shut off. He chuckled but mentally added it to the list of reasons to put Clock on monitor duty so he didn't have to do it himself. Paybacks were a bitch.
A couple of hours later he was adding yet another notation to that mental list when he noticed Clockblocker had moved and Vista was well into braiding Twilight's mane. Things that had not been true a moment ago, at least for him and Gallant. Gallant apparently came to the same conclusion as him and hastily stepped back to give them both space to observe the room. Also to surreptitiously check for any traces of permeant marker drawings on their persons. As they did so, they drifted back towards the door so they could talk without interrupting the scene in front of them.
Clockblocker seemed to be trying to comprehend what Twilight had been writing on the board while Vista worked on the unicorn's hair. "So, what does this part mean?"
"That set of equations is the first part of how one could derive one's location in space-time based on the @#$%$@ and the magic field resonance between $@$%@ and local gravimetric forces."
Clockblocker nodded sagely, as if he had simply seeking confirmation for his own thoughts. "Yes, yes I think I see what you mean." Carlos couldn't contain a small bark of laughter at that, and he heard Gallant chuckle beside him.
"Times like this he almost makes you forget that you've already worked out how you would hide his body." Gallant said quietly as the two of them watched the scene from the doorway.
"He knows how to walk the line alright." Carlos agreed. "Picking anything up from our guest?"
Gallant nodded. "Yes…it's different, and complicated. Lots of stuff swirling around, not really surprising. It feels like she's happy for the company however, at least on the surface."
"I'll take it. Alright, let's go be friendly. We can't let Clockblocker be humanity's main impression on first contact."
Forty minutes later, after having learned entirely to much about hairstyles and either entirely to little or to much about theoretical physics, he noticed Clockblocker leaning up against the door frame to the room with a small frown on his face. Getting up while Twilight's attention was focused on Vista's hair he walked over to him.
Clock almost seemed to be staring through the scene in front of him. Gallant, Vista, and Twilight were having a good spirited conversation punctuated intermittently by Vista giggling as the unicorn braided her hair with telekinesis. Over the past year, Vista had put a lot of effort into trying to shed her image as the kid sister of the wards, but given the cover of fostering inter-galactic or inter-dimensional relations she was letting herself have fun. It was striking seeing her really relaxed for the first time in months.
"Whats up Clock? Figured you'd still be busy corrupting the alien."
Clockblocker shifted a little so that he could face Aegis and still see into the room. "Just wondering where the bag of shit is."
Carlos felt his face take on a puzzled frown. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that this is reality, and everything awesome comes with a bag of shit. Superpowers come with triggers, Scion comes with Endbringers, and Doritos have trans-fats." He paused and gestured to the scene again. Vista was blushing at something Gallant had said and Twilight was clopping her fore hooves together with a smile on her equine face. "That, that right there, is awesome. So, what I'm wondering is, where's the bag of shit?"
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- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Interlude 1 - Taylor
Taylor walked towards school. It felt strange to do so. Hours ago she had been a life or death fight with a supervillain, met a fairy tale, and been thanked by a rival gang of villains she had unwittingly helped. The two hours of sleep she had gotten didn't help with the feeling of unreality. She had nearly died last night and now she was worrying about the kind of trouble she was going to get in for skipping class on Friday. That was ridiculous, but she couldn't stop the anxious dread that crept up on her as walked into school.
First period was computer class, and normally the one bright spot in her day. None of her tormenters were in it, and she did well enough that most of the time she could do what she wanted with the hour. However, the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop didn't subside as the teacher gave her a tight smile and she made her way to her computer. Deciding to make some productive use of her time before finding out whatever fresh hell school had in store for her, she began digging for information about what happened last night.
Parahumans Online was the place to go for information and discussion about capes all over the world. The front page had major news from all over the world, with links to a wiki and message boards that focused on particular groups or cities. Taylor drilled down to the Brockton Bay message board and opened it and the wiki in new tabs. She decided to start with the weirdest thing about last night, the teleporting purple unicorn.
Searching for "Twilight Sparkle" didn't return anything and searches for "Twilight" or "Sparkle" returned to many erroneous links to search through. "Unicorn" came up with entries asking if she had meant "Narwhal", a famous Canadian cape that had a large horn growing out of her forehead who could project forcefields. Dismissing that she went to "teleportation" and pulled up the list of capes known to have that power. When that didn't pan out she went to "projection," even though Tattletale had said the unicorn wasn't, and came up empty as well.
Frustrated she decided to move on. "Tattletale" produced an article with a blurry picture and not much else. "Grue" finally got some results. It said he had been active in Brockton Bay for three years, starting with petty crime and being an occasional enforcer for hire. Recently he had moved up to larger crimes, robbing a few corporate offices and a casino with his new team. His power was listed as darkness generation, but the site didn't provide any further details on it.
"Bitch" returned no results, but the more PC "Hellhound" delivered a full page of information. Rachel Lindt had apparently never made an attempt to hide her identity and had spent most of her criminal career homeless and moving on whenever the police or a cape started to pursue her. Her powers had manifested at fourteen and had resulted in her destroying the foster home she was in and injuring the people there. Looking under the powers section it didn't appear she had any physical enhancements, but she could turn ordinary dogs into the giant beasts that had torn into Lung and provided them their quick getaway last night. A red box at the bottom of her page warned that she was antisocial and violent, and if seen you should not approach her.
"Regent" came up with nothing at all. Just a page asking if she would like to create the entry. Digging into the message boards didn't uncover anything either. For a group that had apparently angered Lung enough for him to set out to murder them it was a depressingly little amount of information. And Frustrating, which didn't help the dark mood Taylor was already in.
She took a few minutes to do the busy work that had been assigned for today, she wasn't in a mood to do more than the bare minimum required, and 15 minutes later she was back on the boards looking for more information. When she had decided to become a superhero she had researched the local villains, wanting to be prepared for who she could run into. So it didn't take long to navigate to the page for Lung and his gang. His description and powers seemed pretty accurate to her own experiences, it didn't mention his being fireproof, but Taylor wasn't inclined to add that fact from her high school terminal.
The ABB had about 40 regular members and two lieutenants that Taylor supposed she should be on the look out for. Oni Lee and Bakuda. Oni Lee could teleport, but not like the purple unicorn had done last night. When he teleported he left behind a copy of himself that lasted a few seconds before dissolving. Apparently he used this ability to distract and attack people while his new self appeared somewhere else. His page also had a red warning box similar to Hellhound's saying that he was a sociopath and should not be approached. He wore an ornate Japanese demon mask and his costume made him look like a well armed ninja. Lee would be a tough bastard to fight, and Taylor made a mental note to think of ways to go about doing it just in case.
Bakuda's entry was new, having only been added to ABB's page ten days ago. The picture showed a girl with straight black hair wearing goggles and a gas mask style filter over the bottom of her face. She had made her debut as a villain holding Cornell University ransom. Apparently her power gave her the ability to craft high tech bombs with various effects.
Moving down the page a section titled "Defeats and Captures" had a string of minor defeats the local heroes had managed against Lung while being unable to actually capture him. The bottom of this section however had a large new entry.
Lung defeated by an a rival gang and unknown villain.
The Protectorate East-North-East reported this morning (4/12/11) that the supervillain Lung was ambushed and defeated by previously unknown villain with some degree of control over insects. After being weakened by this new cape a group called the Undersiders arrived on the scene and member Hellhound finished incapacitating Lung with her dogs. When Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, arrived at the scene Lung was unconscious and the other villains had already departed. A first hand witness to the battle brawl stepped forward and briefed the hero on the battle. Lung has been taken into custody at PHQ where he awaits trial by teleconference, if found guilty he is expected to be sentenced to the birdcage.
Taylor felt her heart rate star to speed up as she read. Everyone thought she was a villain! She searched the message boards and sure enough found dozens of pages speculating on who she was and how her powers could have enabled her to defeat Lung. Two days into her career as a superhero and somehow she was already a notorious supervillain! Taking a deep breath she willed herself to calm down. She wasn't sure how she was going to deal with the situation but panicking about it wasn't going to help.
She opened more tabs and found people speculating about a gang war, apparent minions or villain fans of Lung vowing revenge on the newcomer, and speculation on whether Bakuda would try to use a bomb to ransom Lung out of prison. All of this was going on, and here she was sitting in class. It was insane. Twilight had obviously filled the Protectorate in, but she hadn't had the full story. On a whim she searched the message boards for "Twilight Sparkle" and was surprised when she got a hit in the connections section.
Subject: Ta
So things are pretty crazy, but owe you one and would like to return the favor. Could discuss our mutual acquaintance Twilight Sparkle.
Send a message,
Tt.
Taylor suppressed a gasp, Tattletale had found a way to get in touch with her. She looked at the clock and hurriedly closed out of the tabs and cleared the history. The bell was about to ring and her least favorite class with some of her least favorite people was about to start.
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Taylor fled from the school, fresh tears marks on her face. Angry at Emma for finding a new low in her quest to torment her and even more angry at herself for letting Emma get to her. Emma, Sophia, and her friends had been harassing her for months and while nothing had been as bad as the incident that lead to her powers they were starting to escalate again. Like before the teachers and the administration were proving just as useless this time around. To top it off her planned escape from this, becoming a superhero, had been halted before she even began. Before she even really thought about where she was going, she was already most of the way downtown.
She wasn't that surprised her feet had lead her here, the only two real nice areas of town within walking distance of her school were the boardwalk and downtown. If she was going to skip, this was as good a place as any to go on a day with good weather. Not wanting to deal with what had happened to her at school her thoughts turned towards her cape life. Everyone thought she was a villain and that she was making some sort of play on the ABB. Another group of villains wanted to meet with her, and she had been informed on by a purple unicorn. The irony that this was easier to deal with than her school life was not lost on her.
Still, she was proud of what she had accomplished last night. On her first night out in costume she had taken down Lung! Someone the Protectorate had been trying to take down for years. That thought led to one that stopped her in her tracks. 'Do I really want to join such an ineffective organization?" The thought was harsh, she knew that they did do some good, but it was also undeniably true. The more she thought about that the more she agreed with it. Her mind flashed back to what had just happened at school, and how little help the system seemed to be for the people that really needed it. Did she really have any reason to believe that the Protectorate was any different? The city had plenty of heroes, but life hadn't improved much for the people that lived here.
Everyone already thought she was a villain, and that wasn't likely to change in the near future. So could she leverage that perception? Last night she had demonstratively helped the city by, however unwittingly, teaming up with some lesser villains against a greater one. Could she keep doing that? Stay off the heroes radar, play villains off each other, support the less destructive against the true crazies and assholes? Really actually make a fucking difference in people's lives? She started walking again, heading for the library. Each step she took was a little more confident than that last.
When she got there the lunch crowd was starting to clear out so it didn't take long for her to get a computer and pull up the message from Tattletale. With only a slight hesitation she typed a reply and sent it.
Subject: Re: Ta
Ta here. Would like to meet, do you have proof your Tt? I can reciprocate if needed.
Taylor surfed around the message boards, mostly idly while she waited for a response. The rumor mill was going full speed, but it didn't look like anything new was coming from it at the moment. The reply came surprisingly quick, only a few minutes after she sent the message.
Subject: Re: Ta
Proof? Last night you weren't very talkative. When G asked what happened I let him know what you and our lost girl TS had done. Good enough? G R and me will meet you where we crossed paths. Formal wear optional, the three of us will be dressed casual.
3 o'clock give you enough time to get from the library with everything you need? Let me know.
Ta ta.
Taylor's eyes widened and her pulse picked up speed. How had Tattletale known where she was? Was she some sort of expert hacker? She knew her way around computers well enough, but also knew enough to know that she didn't know all that much when it came to that kind of thing. 'Screw it,' with everything else going on the idea that she was dealing with a hacker wasn't that much more wood on the fire. That Tattletale had said that would be meeting without costumes did surprise her. They obviously didn't think she was much of a threat, wanted to earn her trust with a show of their own, or both.
Didn't matter, this was just the in she needed if she was going to start putting the plan she had been thinking about on the way here into action. She didn't know what she was getting herself involved in, had no real idea if her scheme could work, all the same she felt the best she had all day when she replied.
Subject: Re: Ta
See you at three.
———————————————
Taylor swung by her house and donned her costume and then put some over sized jeans and a sweatshirt on over it. Throwing her mask into a backpack with a bottle of water she hopped a bus headed in the right direction and got off about five blocks from the meeting place. She ran into a rundown connivence store to make a purchase. After exiting the store she slipped into an ally to put on her mask and then pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up. Unless someone looked right at her face she wouldn't look out of place on the street. While Tattletale had said they would be showing up without costumes, she didn't have any reason to trust them that far, and it wouldn't play into the plan she had worked out either.
Taylor scouted ahead with her bugs and it wasn't hard to find the three people standing on the roof. Putting her foot on the bottom rung of the fire escape she had a last minute surge of trepidation. 'What the hell am I doing?' She willed herself past it and climbed to the roof. When she got there she recognized them right off, a girl and two guys. The girl was green eyed and freckled wearing a T-shirt and a denim skirt. The younger of the two guys had to be regent, looked italian, and put off the kind of vibe you might get from a pretty boy. Dicapcrio lite. The other was a foot taller, dark skinned and had his hair in corn rows. She let her gaze linger for a moment, he looked like he spent a lot time in the gym.
"And she arrives," Tattletale crowed, "Pay up."
Regent didn't look happy as he pulled a wad of bills out his pocket and handed them over to Tattletale.
The bigger boy extended his hand and Taylor shook it as he introduced himself.
"I'm Brian."
"You can keep calling me Ta for now, until we settle what this is about."
"Cool." Tattletale introduced herself next.
"Lisa," seeming friendly but not offering her hand.
"Alec, and Bitch is Rachel." Regent said.
Taylor decided that if she was going to pull off her new personality she would need to show some initiative. She spoke before they could continue.
"Okay, you wanted to meet me, and you wanted to meet me enough that your trusting me with your identities, or at least you want to appear as though you are. I'm afraid I'm a little suspicious given that the only thing we seem to have in common is an enemy in the ABB."
Brian opened his mouth then closed it again, Lisa stepped forward with a plastic lunchbox.
"I said we owed you. All yours, no strings attached."
Taylor took the lunchbox and popped the lid. It was filled with cash.
"Two grand," Lisa said, while Taylor looked it over. She resisted the urge to smile, perfect. Instead she nodded and shut the clasps back on the lunchbox. "You have two options. You can take that as a gift. A thank you for, intentionally or not, saving our ass from Lung. Maybe a bit of incentive to count us among your friends when your capering about. Its rare for villains in the same city not to clash over something, so it would be nice if we could avoid that."
"And the second option?" Taylor replied.
"You can take it as your first months payment as a member of the Undersiders." She waved a hand indicating the three of them. Taylor took a moment, steadied herself and put her plan into motion. She knew villains wouldn't accept her goals at face value, so she had come up with a way for them to relate to her.
"Thank you, but no. Last night raised my profile pretty high, higher than I'd like. I did some research and you guys seem like your about to make a splash. With everything going on I feel wet enough already." Lisa looked flabbergasted, obviously she hadn't expected that response, and Taylor continued. "I have a third option to propose. I attacked Lung, well I'll be honest, mostly it was a misunderstanding. But I also attacked him because he's an asshole that makes people's lives miserable. Like I said I did some research on you guys and that doesn't seem to be your thing. So take this."
Taylor extended her hand to Tattletale who still seemed to be trying to catch up and put a folded piece of paper into her hand. "Thats a number you can reach me on. You know what I can do. If you need assistance in the future and it's not going to make the people suffering in this city suffer any more, call me and we'll work something out on a case by case basis. Fees variable depending on the assistance needed and who's involved." With a bit of whimsy that bubbled up from underneath the stress of the situation she added in a light tone. "Tell your friends."
"Fucking shit." Alec exclaimed, "You're not a villain, you're a vigilante."
"Hmm, not a vigilante - more like a mercenary, with morals." Brian looked at Tattletale, who seemed to have come back to herself. She shook her head as if to clear it, looked down at the paper in her hand and spoke up before he could.
"So what do we call you, if we call you?"
"I guess you can call me Skitter."
Taylor walked towards school. It felt strange to do so. Hours ago she had been a life or death fight with a supervillain, met a fairy tale, and been thanked by a rival gang of villains she had unwittingly helped. The two hours of sleep she had gotten didn't help with the feeling of unreality. She had nearly died last night and now she was worrying about the kind of trouble she was going to get in for skipping class on Friday. That was ridiculous, but she couldn't stop the anxious dread that crept up on her as walked into school.
First period was computer class, and normally the one bright spot in her day. None of her tormenters were in it, and she did well enough that most of the time she could do what she wanted with the hour. However, the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop didn't subside as the teacher gave her a tight smile and she made her way to her computer. Deciding to make some productive use of her time before finding out whatever fresh hell school had in store for her, she began digging for information about what happened last night.
Parahumans Online was the place to go for information and discussion about capes all over the world. The front page had major news from all over the world, with links to a wiki and message boards that focused on particular groups or cities. Taylor drilled down to the Brockton Bay message board and opened it and the wiki in new tabs. She decided to start with the weirdest thing about last night, the teleporting purple unicorn.
Searching for "Twilight Sparkle" didn't return anything and searches for "Twilight" or "Sparkle" returned to many erroneous links to search through. "Unicorn" came up with entries asking if she had meant "Narwhal", a famous Canadian cape that had a large horn growing out of her forehead who could project forcefields. Dismissing that she went to "teleportation" and pulled up the list of capes known to have that power. When that didn't pan out she went to "projection," even though Tattletale had said the unicorn wasn't, and came up empty as well.
Frustrated she decided to move on. "Tattletale" produced an article with a blurry picture and not much else. "Grue" finally got some results. It said he had been active in Brockton Bay for three years, starting with petty crime and being an occasional enforcer for hire. Recently he had moved up to larger crimes, robbing a few corporate offices and a casino with his new team. His power was listed as darkness generation, but the site didn't provide any further details on it.
"Bitch" returned no results, but the more PC "Hellhound" delivered a full page of information. Rachel Lindt had apparently never made an attempt to hide her identity and had spent most of her criminal career homeless and moving on whenever the police or a cape started to pursue her. Her powers had manifested at fourteen and had resulted in her destroying the foster home she was in and injuring the people there. Looking under the powers section it didn't appear she had any physical enhancements, but she could turn ordinary dogs into the giant beasts that had torn into Lung and provided them their quick getaway last night. A red box at the bottom of her page warned that she was antisocial and violent, and if seen you should not approach her.
"Regent" came up with nothing at all. Just a page asking if she would like to create the entry. Digging into the message boards didn't uncover anything either. For a group that had apparently angered Lung enough for him to set out to murder them it was a depressingly little amount of information. And Frustrating, which didn't help the dark mood Taylor was already in.
She took a few minutes to do the busy work that had been assigned for today, she wasn't in a mood to do more than the bare minimum required, and 15 minutes later she was back on the boards looking for more information. When she had decided to become a superhero she had researched the local villains, wanting to be prepared for who she could run into. So it didn't take long to navigate to the page for Lung and his gang. His description and powers seemed pretty accurate to her own experiences, it didn't mention his being fireproof, but Taylor wasn't inclined to add that fact from her high school terminal.
The ABB had about 40 regular members and two lieutenants that Taylor supposed she should be on the look out for. Oni Lee and Bakuda. Oni Lee could teleport, but not like the purple unicorn had done last night. When he teleported he left behind a copy of himself that lasted a few seconds before dissolving. Apparently he used this ability to distract and attack people while his new self appeared somewhere else. His page also had a red warning box similar to Hellhound's saying that he was a sociopath and should not be approached. He wore an ornate Japanese demon mask and his costume made him look like a well armed ninja. Lee would be a tough bastard to fight, and Taylor made a mental note to think of ways to go about doing it just in case.
Bakuda's entry was new, having only been added to ABB's page ten days ago. The picture showed a girl with straight black hair wearing goggles and a gas mask style filter over the bottom of her face. She had made her debut as a villain holding Cornell University ransom. Apparently her power gave her the ability to craft high tech bombs with various effects.
Moving down the page a section titled "Defeats and Captures" had a string of minor defeats the local heroes had managed against Lung while being unable to actually capture him. The bottom of this section however had a large new entry.
Lung defeated by an a rival gang and unknown villain.
The Protectorate East-North-East reported this morning (4/12/11) that the supervillain Lung was ambushed and defeated by previously unknown villain with some degree of control over insects. After being weakened by this new cape a group called the Undersiders arrived on the scene and member Hellhound finished incapacitating Lung with her dogs. When Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, arrived at the scene Lung was unconscious and the other villains had already departed. A first hand witness to the battle brawl stepped forward and briefed the hero on the battle. Lung has been taken into custody at PHQ where he awaits trial by teleconference, if found guilty he is expected to be sentenced to the birdcage.
Taylor felt her heart rate star to speed up as she read. Everyone thought she was a villain! She searched the message boards and sure enough found dozens of pages speculating on who she was and how her powers could have enabled her to defeat Lung. Two days into her career as a superhero and somehow she was already a notorious supervillain! Taking a deep breath she willed herself to calm down. She wasn't sure how she was going to deal with the situation but panicking about it wasn't going to help.
She opened more tabs and found people speculating about a gang war, apparent minions or villain fans of Lung vowing revenge on the newcomer, and speculation on whether Bakuda would try to use a bomb to ransom Lung out of prison. All of this was going on, and here she was sitting in class. It was insane. Twilight had obviously filled the Protectorate in, but she hadn't had the full story. On a whim she searched the message boards for "Twilight Sparkle" and was surprised when she got a hit in the connections section.
Subject: Ta
So things are pretty crazy, but owe you one and would like to return the favor. Could discuss our mutual acquaintance Twilight Sparkle.
Send a message,
Tt.
Taylor suppressed a gasp, Tattletale had found a way to get in touch with her. She looked at the clock and hurriedly closed out of the tabs and cleared the history. The bell was about to ring and her least favorite class with some of her least favorite people was about to start.
——————————
Taylor fled from the school, fresh tears marks on her face. Angry at Emma for finding a new low in her quest to torment her and even more angry at herself for letting Emma get to her. Emma, Sophia, and her friends had been harassing her for months and while nothing had been as bad as the incident that lead to her powers they were starting to escalate again. Like before the teachers and the administration were proving just as useless this time around. To top it off her planned escape from this, becoming a superhero, had been halted before she even began. Before she even really thought about where she was going, she was already most of the way downtown.
She wasn't that surprised her feet had lead her here, the only two real nice areas of town within walking distance of her school were the boardwalk and downtown. If she was going to skip, this was as good a place as any to go on a day with good weather. Not wanting to deal with what had happened to her at school her thoughts turned towards her cape life. Everyone thought she was a villain and that she was making some sort of play on the ABB. Another group of villains wanted to meet with her, and she had been informed on by a purple unicorn. The irony that this was easier to deal with than her school life was not lost on her.
Still, she was proud of what she had accomplished last night. On her first night out in costume she had taken down Lung! Someone the Protectorate had been trying to take down for years. That thought led to one that stopped her in her tracks. 'Do I really want to join such an ineffective organization?" The thought was harsh, she knew that they did do some good, but it was also undeniably true. The more she thought about that the more she agreed with it. Her mind flashed back to what had just happened at school, and how little help the system seemed to be for the people that really needed it. Did she really have any reason to believe that the Protectorate was any different? The city had plenty of heroes, but life hadn't improved much for the people that lived here.
Everyone already thought she was a villain, and that wasn't likely to change in the near future. So could she leverage that perception? Last night she had demonstratively helped the city by, however unwittingly, teaming up with some lesser villains against a greater one. Could she keep doing that? Stay off the heroes radar, play villains off each other, support the less destructive against the true crazies and assholes? Really actually make a fucking difference in people's lives? She started walking again, heading for the library. Each step she took was a little more confident than that last.
When she got there the lunch crowd was starting to clear out so it didn't take long for her to get a computer and pull up the message from Tattletale. With only a slight hesitation she typed a reply and sent it.
Subject: Re: Ta
Ta here. Would like to meet, do you have proof your Tt? I can reciprocate if needed.
Taylor surfed around the message boards, mostly idly while she waited for a response. The rumor mill was going full speed, but it didn't look like anything new was coming from it at the moment. The reply came surprisingly quick, only a few minutes after she sent the message.
Subject: Re: Ta
Proof? Last night you weren't very talkative. When G asked what happened I let him know what you and our lost girl TS had done. Good enough? G R and me will meet you where we crossed paths. Formal wear optional, the three of us will be dressed casual.
3 o'clock give you enough time to get from the library with everything you need? Let me know.
Ta ta.
Taylor's eyes widened and her pulse picked up speed. How had Tattletale known where she was? Was she some sort of expert hacker? She knew her way around computers well enough, but also knew enough to know that she didn't know all that much when it came to that kind of thing. 'Screw it,' with everything else going on the idea that she was dealing with a hacker wasn't that much more wood on the fire. That Tattletale had said that would be meeting without costumes did surprise her. They obviously didn't think she was much of a threat, wanted to earn her trust with a show of their own, or both.
Didn't matter, this was just the in she needed if she was going to start putting the plan she had been thinking about on the way here into action. She didn't know what she was getting herself involved in, had no real idea if her scheme could work, all the same she felt the best she had all day when she replied.
Subject: Re: Ta
See you at three.
———————————————
Taylor swung by her house and donned her costume and then put some over sized jeans and a sweatshirt on over it. Throwing her mask into a backpack with a bottle of water she hopped a bus headed in the right direction and got off about five blocks from the meeting place. She ran into a rundown connivence store to make a purchase. After exiting the store she slipped into an ally to put on her mask and then pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up. Unless someone looked right at her face she wouldn't look out of place on the street. While Tattletale had said they would be showing up without costumes, she didn't have any reason to trust them that far, and it wouldn't play into the plan she had worked out either.
Taylor scouted ahead with her bugs and it wasn't hard to find the three people standing on the roof. Putting her foot on the bottom rung of the fire escape she had a last minute surge of trepidation. 'What the hell am I doing?' She willed herself past it and climbed to the roof. When she got there she recognized them right off, a girl and two guys. The girl was green eyed and freckled wearing a T-shirt and a denim skirt. The younger of the two guys had to be regent, looked italian, and put off the kind of vibe you might get from a pretty boy. Dicapcrio lite. The other was a foot taller, dark skinned and had his hair in corn rows. She let her gaze linger for a moment, he looked like he spent a lot time in the gym.
"And she arrives," Tattletale crowed, "Pay up."
Regent didn't look happy as he pulled a wad of bills out his pocket and handed them over to Tattletale.
The bigger boy extended his hand and Taylor shook it as he introduced himself.
"I'm Brian."
"You can keep calling me Ta for now, until we settle what this is about."
"Cool." Tattletale introduced herself next.
"Lisa," seeming friendly but not offering her hand.
"Alec, and Bitch is Rachel." Regent said.
Taylor decided that if she was going to pull off her new personality she would need to show some initiative. She spoke before they could continue.
"Okay, you wanted to meet me, and you wanted to meet me enough that your trusting me with your identities, or at least you want to appear as though you are. I'm afraid I'm a little suspicious given that the only thing we seem to have in common is an enemy in the ABB."
Brian opened his mouth then closed it again, Lisa stepped forward with a plastic lunchbox.
"I said we owed you. All yours, no strings attached."
Taylor took the lunchbox and popped the lid. It was filled with cash.
"Two grand," Lisa said, while Taylor looked it over. She resisted the urge to smile, perfect. Instead she nodded and shut the clasps back on the lunchbox. "You have two options. You can take that as a gift. A thank you for, intentionally or not, saving our ass from Lung. Maybe a bit of incentive to count us among your friends when your capering about. Its rare for villains in the same city not to clash over something, so it would be nice if we could avoid that."
"And the second option?" Taylor replied.
"You can take it as your first months payment as a member of the Undersiders." She waved a hand indicating the three of them. Taylor took a moment, steadied herself and put her plan into motion. She knew villains wouldn't accept her goals at face value, so she had come up with a way for them to relate to her.
"Thank you, but no. Last night raised my profile pretty high, higher than I'd like. I did some research and you guys seem like your about to make a splash. With everything going on I feel wet enough already." Lisa looked flabbergasted, obviously she hadn't expected that response, and Taylor continued. "I have a third option to propose. I attacked Lung, well I'll be honest, mostly it was a misunderstanding. But I also attacked him because he's an asshole that makes people's lives miserable. Like I said I did some research on you guys and that doesn't seem to be your thing. So take this."
Taylor extended her hand to Tattletale who still seemed to be trying to catch up and put a folded piece of paper into her hand. "Thats a number you can reach me on. You know what I can do. If you need assistance in the future and it's not going to make the people suffering in this city suffer any more, call me and we'll work something out on a case by case basis. Fees variable depending on the assistance needed and who's involved." With a bit of whimsy that bubbled up from underneath the stress of the situation she added in a light tone. "Tell your friends."
"Fucking shit." Alec exclaimed, "You're not a villain, you're a vigilante."
"Hmm, not a vigilante - more like a mercenary, with morals." Brian looked at Tattletale, who seemed to have come back to herself. She shook her head as if to clear it, looked down at the paper in her hand and spoke up before he could.
"So what do we call you, if we call you?"
"I guess you can call me Skitter."
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
CHAPTER 4
Twilight rested her fore hooves against the window and stared down at the street below. News vans with huge dishes on telescoping poles filled it for no reason that Twilight could fathom. It had been two days since the press conference and they had all been told she wouldn't be doing any more interviews.
They had flown her to a city called New York. This made her add, "Where is original York?" to her ever growing checklist of non-priority things she wanted to know. Nearly the entire trip had been through the air, in a succession of marvelous aircraft that used nothing but mechanical engines and aerodynamics to achieve lift. Without an iota of enchanting or magical assistance they had flown her from the roof to a large paved airfield just outside the city. From there they had boarded a "jet" which traveled at a truly astounding speed and when it had landed they herded her onto another "helicopter" to finally arrive at a place called the United Nations.
It had all been quite nerve racking. She didn't understand the politics but apparently finding out that the United States, which she discovered was the name of the country she landed in, had been talking with her had upset the other countries. Not wanting to cause any problems for the people that had been so nice to her, she asked if there was anything she could do to help.
Helping had consisted of meeting what had felt like everypony on the planet and telling them all the same thing. That she had arrived here by accident, that she had been treated very kindly, that she hand't signed any treaties of any kind, that even if she had she wasn't a diplomat so they wouldn't have been binding. She had assured them the Princess Celestia was a kind and benevolent ruler and if a way was found to establish contact she would probably be very happy to talk with each country in turn regardless of where her student had ended up. She didn't think all the people she talked to had believed her.
Her horn still throbbed from recasting the polyphonic spell so many times, but the Americans had told her that talking in each country's language was one of the things she could do to make them less upset. Finally late in the night they had setup a small room with a podium and several of their motion cameras. She gave a short speech telling the people of the world that while she wanted to get home she was grateful for the welcome they had given her and hoped that they could learn a lot from each other during her stay. Afterwards she had requested to be taken back to the room they had setup for her in Brockton Bay. This had elicited forced smiles from some of the diplomats, but she had been far to tired to care at that point.
When she had woken up the next morning she had found her door guarded by two knights in blue armor called "Peacekeepers." What looked like a guard station and what the humans called a "check point" had been assembled at the end of the hall was manned by more knights in various styles of armor and clothing. Asking why all of this was necessary had not led to any satisfactory answer. When they tried to stop Vista from visiting her this morning she had to put her hoof down and tell them very clearly that she had been enjoying their company and the Wards were to be allowed in at any time, thank you very much just the same.
The whole thing was frustrating and annoying on so many levels. Now people wanted to speak with her all the time about things she either didn't know or didn't really care about. She was not a diplomat, she could only be considered a representative of Equestria in the loosest terms, and all of this was cutting into her research time! With a huff she settled back on all four hooves and turned away from the window to look at her whiteboard.
The biggest discovery she had made in the past few days was the humans near complete lack of knowledge about magic. Only the barest fraction of them could use it and when she observed those that could it had felt wrong and obscured somehow. Something about it had almost pulled one of those elusive memories up from the depths before she lost her grip on it. From an early age she had been able to see a spell cast and have a near instant intuitive understanding, if not skill in it. Twilight didn't understand these parahuman spells nearly so well and it bothered her more than she cared to admit. She remembered the befuddled or annoyed looks of the other unicorns in school when she had explained something and felt a newfound empathy with them. The confusion went both ways as even the humans that could cast seemed completely blind to the field. Both the humans and the machines they had used to try and detect it. She had struggled to explain the details to ponies that felt it and had been immersed in it from birth, how was she supposed to explain it to the humans?
She imagined it was like trying to teach a blind person to paint. If the blind person didn't speak the same language and was also required to supply their own materials. It didn't help that she suspected some of the people she talked to didn't really believe her. Not that she particularly blamed them for that. The more she tried the more holes appeared in her translated speech. Every way all around on every front it was frustrating. The last attempt had sent the newest parahuman researcher she had been speaking to fleeing from her room when she had accidentally incinerated one of her notebooks. That had been when she decided to take a break and look out at the city for awhile. She looked again at the white board then sighed. Her mind was too cluttered right now to focus on it.
She wandered out into the hall and walked down to the check point. The guards in the castle had always been friendly and if they were going to be spending so much time together she should at least try and get to know them. When she approached she noticed that four of them had gathered towards on end of a desk and were listening to a radio with interest.
"Hi guys, whats up?" Trying her best casual and friendly voice. They were so serious all the time that is was hard to tell how they were feeling at any given moment. Lieutenant Matthews, who she had been informed was the day shift commander, answered her question.
"Someone's robbing a bank."
Twilight cocked an ear towards the radio as her eyes widened, wondering if maybe her translation spell had an error. 'Robbing a bank? In a major city?' She tried to wrap her head around the idea. While Equestria certainly hadn't eliminated crime, petty theft and burglary still happened even in Canterlot, pony on pony violence was rare and usually confined to newly settled frontier towns and wild lands. Pony communities tended to be tight knit, interconnected, and interdependent. They responded quickly and decisively if someone visited violence on one of their number. The idea that this huge modern city with it's knights, guardsmen, and infrastructure had a bank that was being robbed in broad daylight boggled her.
Details about the robbery started to come in. It sounded like a number of bank employees and patrons were being held hostage in the building by an unknown number of criminals. The newsman speculated that the robbery had been planned at this specific time to take advantage of the Protectorate being outside of the city today. Parahumans were suspected to be involved and a general alert had been sent out. Some of the local wards had arrived on scene and PRT squads were being dispatched. The man on the radio kept speaking, but she didn't process much beyond "local wards responding."
Twilight had initially categorized her encounter with Lung as a monster attack, both from his appearance and his actions. He hadn't come off as a rational being and the unicorn had plenty of experience with magically enhanced wildlife purposefully or accidentally threatening a town or city. However this new information clicked into place along with several things she had heard in passing to form a disturbing new picture. Lung was less like a beast from the everfree and more like an evil unicorn. Correspondingly this world's society was less like modern Equestria and more resembled the three tribes era. During that time not only had the three tribes fought each other, ponies of the same tribe had fought amongst each other for power and resources. Twilight shivered as she overlaid what she was hearing on the radio with this image of the world. Her new….friends, were out there in a dangerous situation probably facing hostile magic cast by someone like Lung, or worse.
"Lieutenant Matthews, Is the bank nearby?" A slight waver of worry in her voice. Matthews looked at her with a puzzled frown before responding in a reassuring tone.
"It's about three blocks north of here, but don't worry. Their not likely to cause any trouble here, and if they did you have the PRT below and us up here to protect you." Twilight paused to consider this, looked at the knights around her and then at the radio again.
"It's your mission to protect me right?" Twilight asked and Matthews nodded. "I think I understand more now about why you were assigned to me, and why knights of so many different orders are part of my detail. So I just want to apologize in advance." The Lieutenant stiffened and moved his arm as if to reach towards her. "But the wards have been really nice to me, and I'm going to go help them." With that Twilight glowed purple for a fraction of a second and winked out of existence.
"Fuck! O'Brian, Khan, Lee - We're moving out. Adams maintain post and wake up night shift, I want them on scene as soon as possible." With that Matthews slung a heavy backpack with a hose attachment onto his back and ran for the stairwell, the others just behind.
—————————
With a bright flash Twilight materialized on the street just in front of PRT headquarters and two dozen telephoto lens from the media contingent tracked in her direction. The sound of camera shutters was starting to fill the air as Twilight oriented herself and then flashed out of existence once again.
Twilight Sparkle reappeared on top of a parked car a half block from the bank. Chaos reigned. Rubble was strewn everywhere and a unnatural darkness covered the road in front of her. Twilight could sense the field being twisted there and while the mechanics of the spell eluded her she could tell it was altering light and sound in the area under its influence. Beyond the effect she could see Kid win using a levitating platform and casting some sort of beam at the street below. Then she noticed what he was shooting at. Two huge mutant dogs had their jaws locked on Aegis's arms and legs and were shaking him violently between them, blood sprayed in an arc from the dogs mouths and splattered onto the street around them.
"Aegis!" Twilight shrieked in horror, her horn glowing before she finished his name. She was horrified at the sight, but didn't lose her focus. She needed to be careful in order to avoid hurting Aegis even more than he already was. With slowly increasing force she Telekinetically pried the dog's jaws from him and only once the teeth were clear did she give into her first instinct and hurl the animals down the empty street. Twilight heard an enraged yell come from the direction of the bank just before she was enveloped in a dark miasma.
Twilight suddenly found herself unable to see or hear and the world threatened to tilt from under her without a frame of reference. Trying not to let the lack of sensation distract her she closed her eyes and focused on what she had seen before being blinded. The placement of the cars and rubble, bystanders and combatants. Carefully rebuilding the street in her mind she pictured where she wanted to go and mentally crossed her hooves that her mental landscape was close enough. A few seconds later she appeared by Aegis side. "Oh Aegis," Twilight moaned in despair as she looked him over. She had never seen a pony as physically injured as he was. She knew basic first aid and that knowledge seemed woefully inadequate even had Aegis been a pony. The unicorn nervously shuffled from hoof to hoof as she started to construct small fields of pressure over the largest wounds. "Don't worry Aegis, don't worry we'll get you to a doctor and it will be alright, it will be alright." A hysterical tone creeping into her voice as she worked.
———————————————
Information officer Marian May and Director Piggot sat in the PRT's ops center and stared at images of the ongoing battle.
"I think we just found the flaw in the idea of socializing Twilight with the wards."
"Shit."
—————————————
Kid Win, no longer needing to worry about hitting his team mate, raced by and started to rain more beams down on the dogs as they attempted to get back to their feet. Aegis mumbled incoherently with a voice shaped as much by liquid as air. Twilight knew that you were not supposed to move someone that was as injured as he was, but she felt way to exposed in the center of the street between the darkness, the bank, and the dogs. Gently she levitated Aegis to the side of the building across the street from the bank and sheltered by a set of stone stairs. After easing him back to the ground she was shocked to see Aegis try to struggle into a sitting position and ignore her efforts to keep him still. With the arm that hadn't been quite as mauled he gestured to the cloud of darkness and gurgled what sounded like "Vista."
Twilight worriedly shifted her eyes from Aegis to the darkness covered street. She shuddered again at sight of the wounds, the unicorn wasn't even sure how he was still conscious. She was afraid if she lost her concentration and didn't keep up the telekinetic pressure on Aegis's injuries he would die before any other help arrived. On the other hand she had no idea what was happening to Vista in that miasma. She didn't know what to do! If she had a little time to stop, to plan, but she didn't and her friends were going to die and it would be her fault for not being good enough or smart enough to save them. Her heart ached in some unremembered sympathy that compounded the feeling.
A few seconds the decision was taken from her when the front doors of the bank burst open and another mutant dog barreled directly towards her.
The giant dog heading straight for Twilight didn't give her much chance to think, and she was already casting several small fields of telekinetic force so it was no surprise that her instinctive reaction was to continue that spell. A twenty foot square shimmering plane of force materialized directly in front of the charging mutant. With a sicking crunch it collided with the field and collapsed to the ground. Before the animal could recover Twilight rolled the plane into a half cylinder and then shaped that cylinder into a dome barely larger than the dog and anchored it to the ground around it.
Kid Win seemed to being doing alright holding the other two dogs at bay, although Twilight noted that the property destruction around him was starting to reach new heights. The facades of several nearby buildings were little more than rubble at this point. She heard some yelling from inside the bank, but for the moment nothing was trying to eat her so she turned her eyes on the dark miasma that Aegis said Vista was trapped in. Twilight knew how disorienting it was having only been inside it for a few seconds, but she didn't have time to examine it and fashion a proper counter spell. Hoping that Vista was simply lost inside and not injured Twilight began to craft a solution.
Given the ongoing battle and the fact she was maintaing a dozen telekinetic fields of varying properties and strength it wasn't the easiest thing she had ever done. Remembering the weightless feeling she had experienced she guessed that it applied a moderate lessening of gravity. As it was easier to augment an existing effect than counter it she slowly strengthened the antigravity portion of the spell until pieces of rubble and gravel started to tumble out of the east side of the cloud. Twilight gasped in relief when a scuffed but intact Vista rolled out accompanied by the patter of rubble and litter from the street falling back to the ground.
The distance between Vista and Twilight shrank down to a few feet and were this another time and place Vista would have been subjected to an hours long interrogation on the details. As it was she was to relieved and to busy being hugged by Vista to process it.
"Twilight was that you?! I was about to lose my mind in there." Glancing past Twilight Vista saw Aegis laying behind her. "Aegis!" She shouted uncomfortably close to Twilight's ear before stepping past the unicorn to kneel next to him. While Vista looked over Aegis the dark cloud dissipated, leading Twilight to assume whoever controlled it could sense that no one was left inside. She turned a suspicious glance towards the entrance of the bank. 'Why hasn't the human controlling the cloud recast it? Have I convinced them it won't work, or are they plotting something new?' When a shrill whistle came from the bank and the two dogs fighting Kid Win broke off and sprinted towards it, Twilight suspected the latter.
Kid Win pursued them raining destruction down onto the dogs and the street while the distance they had to travel lengthened dramatically as Vista stood back up and focused. Deciding that whatever the criminals in the bank had planned it was better if they didn't have the dogs as well, Twilight quickly spoke to Vista.
"You have one of those miniature radios right?" When Vista nodded Twilight continued. "Tell Kid Win to stop chasing the dogs and when I give the signal reduce the space between the dogs and bank as much as possible." Vista looked puzzled, but began murmuring into her headset and the glowing nimbus around Twilight's horn started to increase in intensity again. Kid Win stopped and without his harassment the dogs increased their pace to try and cover the distance faster than it could expand.
"Now!" Twilight shouted as her horn flashed and the dogs barreled full speed into another plane of force that had appeared at the base of the steps. Twilight's mental state was currently layered like a cake. An icing of calm crisis management was running the show for now and covered a spongy mass of worry and hysteria which itself rested on top of the other parts of her personality. Distantly she felt a smidgen of embarrassment bubble up from down there. Twilight prided herself on her knowledge and skill in a multitude of magical arts. Yet so far all she had really done was swing telekinesis, the simplest and most instinctive spell known to unicorns, around like a hammer. The dogs had no time to react and like the one she had captured earlier, crumpled at the base of the field. Twilight sighed as she began enfolding them in another force dome, 'Celestia did always say there was beauty in simplicity.' Not having moved, but now much closer, Kid Win flew over and hovered beside them facing the bank.
"Wow, ok, so first, Twilight, Vista, that was very cool. Second, we were all strictly forbidden from encouraging you to come along on any shenanigans so when Director Piggot asks I never said any of this. Third, thanks for coming, it was looking a little dicy there for a minute." He said with a smile as Twilight alternatively looked relieved and embarrassed. She didn't want to really think about the ramifications of her coming, but a deeper feeling in her chest when she looked at the three humans told her it had been the right decision regardless of the consequences. Vista slung around Twilight's neck and the three of them contemplated what to do.
Twilight was just about to purpose retreating to a nearby roof and waiting for help when one of the bank doors slammed open and Bitch and Grue emerged. Bitch was standing in the partially opened doorway with one of Grue's arms wrapped around her waist. She was screaming incoherently, kicking, biting, and was desperately trying to reach the dome nearest to her. Kid Win aimed his beam devices and Vista let go of Twilight and tensed beside her. Twilight cocked her ear and could make out sirens and helicopters heading in this direction. She had a feeling that if she didn't act now something very bad was going to happen.
Then it did. A white blur descended from the sky and crashed into the bank's front steps, before anyone could react she lifted Grue by his shirt and hurled him directly towards the Wards and Twilight. The unicorn had a moment to see Bitch start to run down the steps and the new girl rip one of the bank doors off its hinges before the high speed human projectile collided with Kid Win, knocking him off his board, but hardly slowing Grue before he slammed into the brick building behind them with an audible thump. Kid Win had landed on Twilight before she had even processed the whole event.
Screams came from inside the bank as Twilight drug herself from underneath Kid Win and back to her hooves. Kid Win wheezed beside her as she looked him over. Given how fast Grue had been moving and where he had hit Kid she suspected he had a couple of broken ribs. There was nothing she felt safe doing about that at the moment so she added it to her growing pile of worries to deal with later. She trotted over to Grue, he was a mess. One leg and both arms were visibly broken and he was likely only alive because of the helmet that was part of his costume. Again Twilight was at a loss and could do little more than check him for bleeding. Not feeling right about it she left him there and walked back up to Vista who was staring at the scene in front of her and looking just as lost on what to do as Twilight had.
Bitch was pounding frantically on one of the force domes while the dogs inside whined and tried to claw their way through it from the inside. People Twilight assumed were hostages were starting to flee from the bank and broke to either side of Bitch like a stream flowing around a boulder. An armored vehicle rounded the corner a block down the street and skidded to a stop. This seemed to snap Vista out of her indecision and she spoke rapidly to Twilight.
"I don't know what set her off, but that was Glory girl that just crashed the party. I need to go inside and see if I can help her and make sure the hostages all get out ok." Twilight gave her an emotion filled look and Vista hugged the unicorn quickly before continuing. "Don't worry, Glory Girl's a real powerhouse, any bad guys still in there are probably wishing they weren't. I'll be safe. When this is over we're going to find a box of ice cream and a mindless movie to watch in your room. Keep the boys safe." With that she crossed the distance in short power compressed hops to avoid the people on the street and ran into the bank.
A door opened in the side of the armored vehicle and it disgorged Lieutenant Matthews followed by the rest of his team. Two split off and ran towards the hysterical Bitch who only seemed to notice their presence after they had her mostly covered in what looked at like fire suppressant foam. The others raced over and bracketed Twilight between them. Matthews spoke into his radio and a knight she didn't recognize stepped out of the transport with a large bag. He walked briskly in their direction and after looking Twilight over for a moment stepped past her to knell next to Aegis.
Twilight's heart rate started to come down as she saw the knight open the bag and start to bandage Aegis's wounds. And the calm she had managed to maintain during the battle started to break up and give way to the emotions beneath it. 'Everything is going to be ok now, I didn't fail, they are all going to be ok.' More and more people and vehicles started to fill the area and slowly sought to establish order. Twilight trotted over to the medic that was attending to Aegis.
"Is he going to be ok? I did my best but I haven't had any time to study your anatomy and all I could really do is staunch the obvious bleeding. Should we get one of those helicopters to fly him to a hospital? What about Kid Win? I'm not sure but I think he has some broken ribs." The medic didn't turn from his task of wrapping a bandage around Aegis's torso and shot him a stern glare when Aegis looked to try and respond himself.
"He's going to be fine, His power gives him extensive physical redundancy and an accelerated rate of healing. He's still going to feel like he's been chewed up and spit out for a couple of days, but other than that there is nothing to worry about Ms. Sparkle. After I finish this bandage I'll check Win, but his breathing doesn't sound like he has a punctured lung, so he's probably ok." She closed her eyes and "looked" at Aegis again, and did indeed find subtle flows of magic working through his body. Twilight took a deep breath and slowly released it letting herself calm down further as her biggest worries was settled. She felt an itch to start a checklist to note down all of the things she had been worrying about and make sure they were taken care of even as new ones were being added. Like the fact that Matthews hadn't said anything to her since he arrived and she found herself unable to come up with something to say to him beyond what she had said before she left.
Vista walked back out of the bank along with the Girl that had thrown Grue and a shorter dark haired girl. Glory Girl looked furious while the dark haired girl looked frightened and nervous. Once Vista was close enough she hugged Twilight again and filled her in.
"Well, Tattletale and Regent escaped, but all the hostages seem ok and we got two of the jerks. I'm declaring this a victory. Celebratory sleepover tonight!"
A throat cleared behind her and Twilight took a steep back as she turned and saw the look on Director Piggot's face. The Director pointedly swept her gaze over the entire street before speaking.
"Victory." Piggot's voice made the word sound like a curse. "I believe it is time we all made our way back to PRT headquarters, don't you Ms. Sparkle?"
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At the edge of her awareness Twilight had the idea that someone was trying to get her attention, but what she was watching was clearly more important so she ignored it without conscious thought. They were in a large vehicle heading back to PRT headquarters and Panacea was currently "healing" Aegis after having taken care of Kid Win. Twilight's eyes were open but most of her attention was being paid to a sense that wasn't sight, "watching" the complex and delicate dance of magic inside Aegis's body. It was on the fly permanent transmutation inside a living being happening at the direction of someone that didn't appear to be interacting with the magic at all.
Twilight ignored the latter part for now, as she had already seen this anomaly in everyone that cast magic in this world. Cells were repaired, tissue reconstructed and seamlessly attached to undamaged areas, organs put back together with nary a seam to show that anything had ever happened. Theoretically of course it was all possible, but only in the wildest fever dreams of pony kind. If Twilight transmuted something into an orange, it might look like an orange, it might taste like an orange, if she did everything right it might have the nutritional value of an orange, but on a molecular level it would look nothing like an actual orange. Instead of the natural organized chaos and diversity of real biological product, you would have the same structure replicated throughout, and getting the patterns and formula down to do even that was one of the most mentally taxing applications of magic in existence. What Panacea was doing would require the manipulation of a billion ever changing variables while simultaneously using enough force to ensure the altered matter retained its new pattern and didn't revert. She wasn't even breathing hard.
Without realizing it Twilight had started to pull more and more magic into alignment inside and around her as she unconsciously used it to "see" more, to quicken her perception of time, to watch the impossible and beautiful show as close as she could. Her mane and tail started to shift as if in an unseen breeze while her eyes started to glow with an ever increasing brightness. More unimportant voices called out at the edge of her perception as loose items started to levitate and orbit around her. Suddenly the dance stopped and Twilight was thrown off her hooves as the vehicle skidded to a violent stop.
Shaking her head to clear it she pulled her legs up underneath her and stood up. Glory Girl had unbuckled herself from her seat and stood protectively in the aisle between Panacea and Twilight. Two of Twilight's guardsmen were standing between Twilight and Glory Girl each with one hand gripping a strap attached to the ceiling and the other holding a weapon that was aimed in Glory Girl's direction. Behind her she heard more safety straps being unbuckled and voices of Kid Win and Vista raised in concern. Twilight was still trying to catch up and figure out what was going on when Lieutenant Matthews spoke calmly and authoritatively in a voice loud enough to carry over everything else.
"Everyone calm the fuck down and take a seat. Whatever that just was, and I'm sure Twilight will be happy to tell us once we get back to PRT HQ, no one was hurt and we are all on the same side here. Glory Girl, if you would kindly take your seat and direct your glare away from Ms. Sparkle my men could return the favor by holstering their weapons. It's not my area, but I suspect your on thin enough ice already today without the addition of assaulting a diplomat." Glory Girl gave a belligerent shrug and sat down looking like she wanted to burn a whole in the side of the vehicle opposite her. O'Brian and Khan holstered their weapons and Matthews thumped on the wall behind him that separated the driver from the rest of them. The Carriage started with a lurch and they were rolling again.
"Jesus Christ Twilight what was.." Twilight heard Kid Win exclaim before he was cut off again by Matthews.
"Why don't we all sit quietly and keep our thoughts to ourselves." Everyone seemed to silently agree to this leaving a still bewildered Twilight with no idea what had happened. A short time later found them next to the elevators in the underground vehicle bay Twilight had first seen a few days ago. No one seemed to want to break the uneasy silence that had carried over from the rest of the ride here. The right hoof doors opened with a loud tone and Director Piggot spoke up.
"Twilight, the wards, Glory Girl, Panacea, and I are going to go down to medical, get checked out, and talk about what happened today. After we're done we will want to compare that with your perspective, until then if you would kindly stay in your office, it would be appreciated." Twilight nodded and took the request for the order it was. The six of them filed into the open lift and Vista gave her a half hearted wave and a crooked grin before the doors of the elevator shut.
A few minutes later Twilight let out a relieved sigh as she closed the door behind her and escaped the weighted quiet of the guardsmen, none of them had returned the few tentative smiles she had tried on the way back to her room. Twilight knew they had a good reason to be upset with her and she had always been sensitive to disapproval. She had in a way betrayed an implicit trust when she had left to help the wards and she knew it would take a long time to rebuild it. Though it saddened her to think about Twilight wasn't sure if she should even try. She would do the same thing again, and if her suspicions about this world were accurate she would probably have to.
Twilight rested her fore hooves against the window and stared down at the street below. News vans with huge dishes on telescoping poles filled it for no reason that Twilight could fathom. It had been two days since the press conference and they had all been told she wouldn't be doing any more interviews.
They had flown her to a city called New York. This made her add, "Where is original York?" to her ever growing checklist of non-priority things she wanted to know. Nearly the entire trip had been through the air, in a succession of marvelous aircraft that used nothing but mechanical engines and aerodynamics to achieve lift. Without an iota of enchanting or magical assistance they had flown her from the roof to a large paved airfield just outside the city. From there they had boarded a "jet" which traveled at a truly astounding speed and when it had landed they herded her onto another "helicopter" to finally arrive at a place called the United Nations.
It had all been quite nerve racking. She didn't understand the politics but apparently finding out that the United States, which she discovered was the name of the country she landed in, had been talking with her had upset the other countries. Not wanting to cause any problems for the people that had been so nice to her, she asked if there was anything she could do to help.
Helping had consisted of meeting what had felt like everypony on the planet and telling them all the same thing. That she had arrived here by accident, that she had been treated very kindly, that she hand't signed any treaties of any kind, that even if she had she wasn't a diplomat so they wouldn't have been binding. She had assured them the Princess Celestia was a kind and benevolent ruler and if a way was found to establish contact she would probably be very happy to talk with each country in turn regardless of where her student had ended up. She didn't think all the people she talked to had believed her.
Her horn still throbbed from recasting the polyphonic spell so many times, but the Americans had told her that talking in each country's language was one of the things she could do to make them less upset. Finally late in the night they had setup a small room with a podium and several of their motion cameras. She gave a short speech telling the people of the world that while she wanted to get home she was grateful for the welcome they had given her and hoped that they could learn a lot from each other during her stay. Afterwards she had requested to be taken back to the room they had setup for her in Brockton Bay. This had elicited forced smiles from some of the diplomats, but she had been far to tired to care at that point.
When she had woken up the next morning she had found her door guarded by two knights in blue armor called "Peacekeepers." What looked like a guard station and what the humans called a "check point" had been assembled at the end of the hall was manned by more knights in various styles of armor and clothing. Asking why all of this was necessary had not led to any satisfactory answer. When they tried to stop Vista from visiting her this morning she had to put her hoof down and tell them very clearly that she had been enjoying their company and the Wards were to be allowed in at any time, thank you very much just the same.
The whole thing was frustrating and annoying on so many levels. Now people wanted to speak with her all the time about things she either didn't know or didn't really care about. She was not a diplomat, she could only be considered a representative of Equestria in the loosest terms, and all of this was cutting into her research time! With a huff she settled back on all four hooves and turned away from the window to look at her whiteboard.
The biggest discovery she had made in the past few days was the humans near complete lack of knowledge about magic. Only the barest fraction of them could use it and when she observed those that could it had felt wrong and obscured somehow. Something about it had almost pulled one of those elusive memories up from the depths before she lost her grip on it. From an early age she had been able to see a spell cast and have a near instant intuitive understanding, if not skill in it. Twilight didn't understand these parahuman spells nearly so well and it bothered her more than she cared to admit. She remembered the befuddled or annoyed looks of the other unicorns in school when she had explained something and felt a newfound empathy with them. The confusion went both ways as even the humans that could cast seemed completely blind to the field. Both the humans and the machines they had used to try and detect it. She had struggled to explain the details to ponies that felt it and had been immersed in it from birth, how was she supposed to explain it to the humans?
She imagined it was like trying to teach a blind person to paint. If the blind person didn't speak the same language and was also required to supply their own materials. It didn't help that she suspected some of the people she talked to didn't really believe her. Not that she particularly blamed them for that. The more she tried the more holes appeared in her translated speech. Every way all around on every front it was frustrating. The last attempt had sent the newest parahuman researcher she had been speaking to fleeing from her room when she had accidentally incinerated one of her notebooks. That had been when she decided to take a break and look out at the city for awhile. She looked again at the white board then sighed. Her mind was too cluttered right now to focus on it.
She wandered out into the hall and walked down to the check point. The guards in the castle had always been friendly and if they were going to be spending so much time together she should at least try and get to know them. When she approached she noticed that four of them had gathered towards on end of a desk and were listening to a radio with interest.
"Hi guys, whats up?" Trying her best casual and friendly voice. They were so serious all the time that is was hard to tell how they were feeling at any given moment. Lieutenant Matthews, who she had been informed was the day shift commander, answered her question.
"Someone's robbing a bank."
Twilight cocked an ear towards the radio as her eyes widened, wondering if maybe her translation spell had an error. 'Robbing a bank? In a major city?' She tried to wrap her head around the idea. While Equestria certainly hadn't eliminated crime, petty theft and burglary still happened even in Canterlot, pony on pony violence was rare and usually confined to newly settled frontier towns and wild lands. Pony communities tended to be tight knit, interconnected, and interdependent. They responded quickly and decisively if someone visited violence on one of their number. The idea that this huge modern city with it's knights, guardsmen, and infrastructure had a bank that was being robbed in broad daylight boggled her.
Details about the robbery started to come in. It sounded like a number of bank employees and patrons were being held hostage in the building by an unknown number of criminals. The newsman speculated that the robbery had been planned at this specific time to take advantage of the Protectorate being outside of the city today. Parahumans were suspected to be involved and a general alert had been sent out. Some of the local wards had arrived on scene and PRT squads were being dispatched. The man on the radio kept speaking, but she didn't process much beyond "local wards responding."
Twilight had initially categorized her encounter with Lung as a monster attack, both from his appearance and his actions. He hadn't come off as a rational being and the unicorn had plenty of experience with magically enhanced wildlife purposefully or accidentally threatening a town or city. However this new information clicked into place along with several things she had heard in passing to form a disturbing new picture. Lung was less like a beast from the everfree and more like an evil unicorn. Correspondingly this world's society was less like modern Equestria and more resembled the three tribes era. During that time not only had the three tribes fought each other, ponies of the same tribe had fought amongst each other for power and resources. Twilight shivered as she overlaid what she was hearing on the radio with this image of the world. Her new….friends, were out there in a dangerous situation probably facing hostile magic cast by someone like Lung, or worse.
"Lieutenant Matthews, Is the bank nearby?" A slight waver of worry in her voice. Matthews looked at her with a puzzled frown before responding in a reassuring tone.
"It's about three blocks north of here, but don't worry. Their not likely to cause any trouble here, and if they did you have the PRT below and us up here to protect you." Twilight paused to consider this, looked at the knights around her and then at the radio again.
"It's your mission to protect me right?" Twilight asked and Matthews nodded. "I think I understand more now about why you were assigned to me, and why knights of so many different orders are part of my detail. So I just want to apologize in advance." The Lieutenant stiffened and moved his arm as if to reach towards her. "But the wards have been really nice to me, and I'm going to go help them." With that Twilight glowed purple for a fraction of a second and winked out of existence.
"Fuck! O'Brian, Khan, Lee - We're moving out. Adams maintain post and wake up night shift, I want them on scene as soon as possible." With that Matthews slung a heavy backpack with a hose attachment onto his back and ran for the stairwell, the others just behind.
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With a bright flash Twilight materialized on the street just in front of PRT headquarters and two dozen telephoto lens from the media contingent tracked in her direction. The sound of camera shutters was starting to fill the air as Twilight oriented herself and then flashed out of existence once again.
Twilight Sparkle reappeared on top of a parked car a half block from the bank. Chaos reigned. Rubble was strewn everywhere and a unnatural darkness covered the road in front of her. Twilight could sense the field being twisted there and while the mechanics of the spell eluded her she could tell it was altering light and sound in the area under its influence. Beyond the effect she could see Kid win using a levitating platform and casting some sort of beam at the street below. Then she noticed what he was shooting at. Two huge mutant dogs had their jaws locked on Aegis's arms and legs and were shaking him violently between them, blood sprayed in an arc from the dogs mouths and splattered onto the street around them.
"Aegis!" Twilight shrieked in horror, her horn glowing before she finished his name. She was horrified at the sight, but didn't lose her focus. She needed to be careful in order to avoid hurting Aegis even more than he already was. With slowly increasing force she Telekinetically pried the dog's jaws from him and only once the teeth were clear did she give into her first instinct and hurl the animals down the empty street. Twilight heard an enraged yell come from the direction of the bank just before she was enveloped in a dark miasma.
Twilight suddenly found herself unable to see or hear and the world threatened to tilt from under her without a frame of reference. Trying not to let the lack of sensation distract her she closed her eyes and focused on what she had seen before being blinded. The placement of the cars and rubble, bystanders and combatants. Carefully rebuilding the street in her mind she pictured where she wanted to go and mentally crossed her hooves that her mental landscape was close enough. A few seconds later she appeared by Aegis side. "Oh Aegis," Twilight moaned in despair as she looked him over. She had never seen a pony as physically injured as he was. She knew basic first aid and that knowledge seemed woefully inadequate even had Aegis been a pony. The unicorn nervously shuffled from hoof to hoof as she started to construct small fields of pressure over the largest wounds. "Don't worry Aegis, don't worry we'll get you to a doctor and it will be alright, it will be alright." A hysterical tone creeping into her voice as she worked.
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Information officer Marian May and Director Piggot sat in the PRT's ops center and stared at images of the ongoing battle.
"I think we just found the flaw in the idea of socializing Twilight with the wards."
"Shit."
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Kid Win, no longer needing to worry about hitting his team mate, raced by and started to rain more beams down on the dogs as they attempted to get back to their feet. Aegis mumbled incoherently with a voice shaped as much by liquid as air. Twilight knew that you were not supposed to move someone that was as injured as he was, but she felt way to exposed in the center of the street between the darkness, the bank, and the dogs. Gently she levitated Aegis to the side of the building across the street from the bank and sheltered by a set of stone stairs. After easing him back to the ground she was shocked to see Aegis try to struggle into a sitting position and ignore her efforts to keep him still. With the arm that hadn't been quite as mauled he gestured to the cloud of darkness and gurgled what sounded like "Vista."
Twilight worriedly shifted her eyes from Aegis to the darkness covered street. She shuddered again at sight of the wounds, the unicorn wasn't even sure how he was still conscious. She was afraid if she lost her concentration and didn't keep up the telekinetic pressure on Aegis's injuries he would die before any other help arrived. On the other hand she had no idea what was happening to Vista in that miasma. She didn't know what to do! If she had a little time to stop, to plan, but she didn't and her friends were going to die and it would be her fault for not being good enough or smart enough to save them. Her heart ached in some unremembered sympathy that compounded the feeling.
A few seconds the decision was taken from her when the front doors of the bank burst open and another mutant dog barreled directly towards her.
The giant dog heading straight for Twilight didn't give her much chance to think, and she was already casting several small fields of telekinetic force so it was no surprise that her instinctive reaction was to continue that spell. A twenty foot square shimmering plane of force materialized directly in front of the charging mutant. With a sicking crunch it collided with the field and collapsed to the ground. Before the animal could recover Twilight rolled the plane into a half cylinder and then shaped that cylinder into a dome barely larger than the dog and anchored it to the ground around it.
Kid Win seemed to being doing alright holding the other two dogs at bay, although Twilight noted that the property destruction around him was starting to reach new heights. The facades of several nearby buildings were little more than rubble at this point. She heard some yelling from inside the bank, but for the moment nothing was trying to eat her so she turned her eyes on the dark miasma that Aegis said Vista was trapped in. Twilight knew how disorienting it was having only been inside it for a few seconds, but she didn't have time to examine it and fashion a proper counter spell. Hoping that Vista was simply lost inside and not injured Twilight began to craft a solution.
Given the ongoing battle and the fact she was maintaing a dozen telekinetic fields of varying properties and strength it wasn't the easiest thing she had ever done. Remembering the weightless feeling she had experienced she guessed that it applied a moderate lessening of gravity. As it was easier to augment an existing effect than counter it she slowly strengthened the antigravity portion of the spell until pieces of rubble and gravel started to tumble out of the east side of the cloud. Twilight gasped in relief when a scuffed but intact Vista rolled out accompanied by the patter of rubble and litter from the street falling back to the ground.
The distance between Vista and Twilight shrank down to a few feet and were this another time and place Vista would have been subjected to an hours long interrogation on the details. As it was she was to relieved and to busy being hugged by Vista to process it.
"Twilight was that you?! I was about to lose my mind in there." Glancing past Twilight Vista saw Aegis laying behind her. "Aegis!" She shouted uncomfortably close to Twilight's ear before stepping past the unicorn to kneel next to him. While Vista looked over Aegis the dark cloud dissipated, leading Twilight to assume whoever controlled it could sense that no one was left inside. She turned a suspicious glance towards the entrance of the bank. 'Why hasn't the human controlling the cloud recast it? Have I convinced them it won't work, or are they plotting something new?' When a shrill whistle came from the bank and the two dogs fighting Kid Win broke off and sprinted towards it, Twilight suspected the latter.
Kid Win pursued them raining destruction down onto the dogs and the street while the distance they had to travel lengthened dramatically as Vista stood back up and focused. Deciding that whatever the criminals in the bank had planned it was better if they didn't have the dogs as well, Twilight quickly spoke to Vista.
"You have one of those miniature radios right?" When Vista nodded Twilight continued. "Tell Kid Win to stop chasing the dogs and when I give the signal reduce the space between the dogs and bank as much as possible." Vista looked puzzled, but began murmuring into her headset and the glowing nimbus around Twilight's horn started to increase in intensity again. Kid Win stopped and without his harassment the dogs increased their pace to try and cover the distance faster than it could expand.
"Now!" Twilight shouted as her horn flashed and the dogs barreled full speed into another plane of force that had appeared at the base of the steps. Twilight's mental state was currently layered like a cake. An icing of calm crisis management was running the show for now and covered a spongy mass of worry and hysteria which itself rested on top of the other parts of her personality. Distantly she felt a smidgen of embarrassment bubble up from down there. Twilight prided herself on her knowledge and skill in a multitude of magical arts. Yet so far all she had really done was swing telekinesis, the simplest and most instinctive spell known to unicorns, around like a hammer. The dogs had no time to react and like the one she had captured earlier, crumpled at the base of the field. Twilight sighed as she began enfolding them in another force dome, 'Celestia did always say there was beauty in simplicity.' Not having moved, but now much closer, Kid Win flew over and hovered beside them facing the bank.
"Wow, ok, so first, Twilight, Vista, that was very cool. Second, we were all strictly forbidden from encouraging you to come along on any shenanigans so when Director Piggot asks I never said any of this. Third, thanks for coming, it was looking a little dicy there for a minute." He said with a smile as Twilight alternatively looked relieved and embarrassed. She didn't want to really think about the ramifications of her coming, but a deeper feeling in her chest when she looked at the three humans told her it had been the right decision regardless of the consequences. Vista slung around Twilight's neck and the three of them contemplated what to do.
Twilight was just about to purpose retreating to a nearby roof and waiting for help when one of the bank doors slammed open and Bitch and Grue emerged. Bitch was standing in the partially opened doorway with one of Grue's arms wrapped around her waist. She was screaming incoherently, kicking, biting, and was desperately trying to reach the dome nearest to her. Kid Win aimed his beam devices and Vista let go of Twilight and tensed beside her. Twilight cocked her ear and could make out sirens and helicopters heading in this direction. She had a feeling that if she didn't act now something very bad was going to happen.
Then it did. A white blur descended from the sky and crashed into the bank's front steps, before anyone could react she lifted Grue by his shirt and hurled him directly towards the Wards and Twilight. The unicorn had a moment to see Bitch start to run down the steps and the new girl rip one of the bank doors off its hinges before the high speed human projectile collided with Kid Win, knocking him off his board, but hardly slowing Grue before he slammed into the brick building behind them with an audible thump. Kid Win had landed on Twilight before she had even processed the whole event.
Screams came from inside the bank as Twilight drug herself from underneath Kid Win and back to her hooves. Kid Win wheezed beside her as she looked him over. Given how fast Grue had been moving and where he had hit Kid she suspected he had a couple of broken ribs. There was nothing she felt safe doing about that at the moment so she added it to her growing pile of worries to deal with later. She trotted over to Grue, he was a mess. One leg and both arms were visibly broken and he was likely only alive because of the helmet that was part of his costume. Again Twilight was at a loss and could do little more than check him for bleeding. Not feeling right about it she left him there and walked back up to Vista who was staring at the scene in front of her and looking just as lost on what to do as Twilight had.
Bitch was pounding frantically on one of the force domes while the dogs inside whined and tried to claw their way through it from the inside. People Twilight assumed were hostages were starting to flee from the bank and broke to either side of Bitch like a stream flowing around a boulder. An armored vehicle rounded the corner a block down the street and skidded to a stop. This seemed to snap Vista out of her indecision and she spoke rapidly to Twilight.
"I don't know what set her off, but that was Glory girl that just crashed the party. I need to go inside and see if I can help her and make sure the hostages all get out ok." Twilight gave her an emotion filled look and Vista hugged the unicorn quickly before continuing. "Don't worry, Glory Girl's a real powerhouse, any bad guys still in there are probably wishing they weren't. I'll be safe. When this is over we're going to find a box of ice cream and a mindless movie to watch in your room. Keep the boys safe." With that she crossed the distance in short power compressed hops to avoid the people on the street and ran into the bank.
A door opened in the side of the armored vehicle and it disgorged Lieutenant Matthews followed by the rest of his team. Two split off and ran towards the hysterical Bitch who only seemed to notice their presence after they had her mostly covered in what looked at like fire suppressant foam. The others raced over and bracketed Twilight between them. Matthews spoke into his radio and a knight she didn't recognize stepped out of the transport with a large bag. He walked briskly in their direction and after looking Twilight over for a moment stepped past her to knell next to Aegis.
Twilight's heart rate started to come down as she saw the knight open the bag and start to bandage Aegis's wounds. And the calm she had managed to maintain during the battle started to break up and give way to the emotions beneath it. 'Everything is going to be ok now, I didn't fail, they are all going to be ok.' More and more people and vehicles started to fill the area and slowly sought to establish order. Twilight trotted over to the medic that was attending to Aegis.
"Is he going to be ok? I did my best but I haven't had any time to study your anatomy and all I could really do is staunch the obvious bleeding. Should we get one of those helicopters to fly him to a hospital? What about Kid Win? I'm not sure but I think he has some broken ribs." The medic didn't turn from his task of wrapping a bandage around Aegis's torso and shot him a stern glare when Aegis looked to try and respond himself.
"He's going to be fine, His power gives him extensive physical redundancy and an accelerated rate of healing. He's still going to feel like he's been chewed up and spit out for a couple of days, but other than that there is nothing to worry about Ms. Sparkle. After I finish this bandage I'll check Win, but his breathing doesn't sound like he has a punctured lung, so he's probably ok." She closed her eyes and "looked" at Aegis again, and did indeed find subtle flows of magic working through his body. Twilight took a deep breath and slowly released it letting herself calm down further as her biggest worries was settled. She felt an itch to start a checklist to note down all of the things she had been worrying about and make sure they were taken care of even as new ones were being added. Like the fact that Matthews hadn't said anything to her since he arrived and she found herself unable to come up with something to say to him beyond what she had said before she left.
Vista walked back out of the bank along with the Girl that had thrown Grue and a shorter dark haired girl. Glory Girl looked furious while the dark haired girl looked frightened and nervous. Once Vista was close enough she hugged Twilight again and filled her in.
"Well, Tattletale and Regent escaped, but all the hostages seem ok and we got two of the jerks. I'm declaring this a victory. Celebratory sleepover tonight!"
A throat cleared behind her and Twilight took a steep back as she turned and saw the look on Director Piggot's face. The Director pointedly swept her gaze over the entire street before speaking.
"Victory." Piggot's voice made the word sound like a curse. "I believe it is time we all made our way back to PRT headquarters, don't you Ms. Sparkle?"
--------------------------------
At the edge of her awareness Twilight had the idea that someone was trying to get her attention, but what she was watching was clearly more important so she ignored it without conscious thought. They were in a large vehicle heading back to PRT headquarters and Panacea was currently "healing" Aegis after having taken care of Kid Win. Twilight's eyes were open but most of her attention was being paid to a sense that wasn't sight, "watching" the complex and delicate dance of magic inside Aegis's body. It was on the fly permanent transmutation inside a living being happening at the direction of someone that didn't appear to be interacting with the magic at all.
Twilight ignored the latter part for now, as she had already seen this anomaly in everyone that cast magic in this world. Cells were repaired, tissue reconstructed and seamlessly attached to undamaged areas, organs put back together with nary a seam to show that anything had ever happened. Theoretically of course it was all possible, but only in the wildest fever dreams of pony kind. If Twilight transmuted something into an orange, it might look like an orange, it might taste like an orange, if she did everything right it might have the nutritional value of an orange, but on a molecular level it would look nothing like an actual orange. Instead of the natural organized chaos and diversity of real biological product, you would have the same structure replicated throughout, and getting the patterns and formula down to do even that was one of the most mentally taxing applications of magic in existence. What Panacea was doing would require the manipulation of a billion ever changing variables while simultaneously using enough force to ensure the altered matter retained its new pattern and didn't revert. She wasn't even breathing hard.
Without realizing it Twilight had started to pull more and more magic into alignment inside and around her as she unconsciously used it to "see" more, to quicken her perception of time, to watch the impossible and beautiful show as close as she could. Her mane and tail started to shift as if in an unseen breeze while her eyes started to glow with an ever increasing brightness. More unimportant voices called out at the edge of her perception as loose items started to levitate and orbit around her. Suddenly the dance stopped and Twilight was thrown off her hooves as the vehicle skidded to a violent stop.
Shaking her head to clear it she pulled her legs up underneath her and stood up. Glory Girl had unbuckled herself from her seat and stood protectively in the aisle between Panacea and Twilight. Two of Twilight's guardsmen were standing between Twilight and Glory Girl each with one hand gripping a strap attached to the ceiling and the other holding a weapon that was aimed in Glory Girl's direction. Behind her she heard more safety straps being unbuckled and voices of Kid Win and Vista raised in concern. Twilight was still trying to catch up and figure out what was going on when Lieutenant Matthews spoke calmly and authoritatively in a voice loud enough to carry over everything else.
"Everyone calm the fuck down and take a seat. Whatever that just was, and I'm sure Twilight will be happy to tell us once we get back to PRT HQ, no one was hurt and we are all on the same side here. Glory Girl, if you would kindly take your seat and direct your glare away from Ms. Sparkle my men could return the favor by holstering their weapons. It's not my area, but I suspect your on thin enough ice already today without the addition of assaulting a diplomat." Glory Girl gave a belligerent shrug and sat down looking like she wanted to burn a whole in the side of the vehicle opposite her. O'Brian and Khan holstered their weapons and Matthews thumped on the wall behind him that separated the driver from the rest of them. The Carriage started with a lurch and they were rolling again.
"Jesus Christ Twilight what was.." Twilight heard Kid Win exclaim before he was cut off again by Matthews.
"Why don't we all sit quietly and keep our thoughts to ourselves." Everyone seemed to silently agree to this leaving a still bewildered Twilight with no idea what had happened. A short time later found them next to the elevators in the underground vehicle bay Twilight had first seen a few days ago. No one seemed to want to break the uneasy silence that had carried over from the rest of the ride here. The right hoof doors opened with a loud tone and Director Piggot spoke up.
"Twilight, the wards, Glory Girl, Panacea, and I are going to go down to medical, get checked out, and talk about what happened today. After we're done we will want to compare that with your perspective, until then if you would kindly stay in your office, it would be appreciated." Twilight nodded and took the request for the order it was. The six of them filed into the open lift and Vista gave her a half hearted wave and a crooked grin before the doors of the elevator shut.
A few minutes later Twilight let out a relieved sigh as she closed the door behind her and escaped the weighted quiet of the guardsmen, none of them had returned the few tentative smiles she had tried on the way back to her room. Twilight knew they had a good reason to be upset with her and she had always been sensitive to disapproval. She had in a way betrayed an implicit trust when she had left to help the wards and she knew it would take a long time to rebuild it. Though it saddened her to think about Twilight wasn't sure if she should even try. She would do the same thing again, and if her suspicions about this world were accurate she would probably have to.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Interlude 2 - Dragon
At any given time Dragon monitored thousands of video feeds from around the world. Some feeds, however, were much higher priority than others. Currently Brockton Bay's PRT building was consuming a great deal of her attention. From small cameras hidden throughout the room she had been furnished with Dragon watched the purple unicorn sigh as she closed the door behind her. Twilight Sparkle spent a few minutes simply standing there in thought before shaking her head and walking over to the whiteboard, purple glow springing into existence around her horn and a couple of markers as she started to work on the formulas there.
From the moment Dragon had heard about Twilight Sparkle and it had been confirmed she was really an alien she had felt a kinship with the unicorn. She too could be considered alien, a form of life both closer to and further from humanity than Twilight Sparkle was. She felt sympathy as the unicorn had tried to explain concepts and sciences with no human equivalent or understanding, and had dedicated a hefty amount of processing on trying to bridge those gaps herself. So far she had not made much progress. She could see mathematical truths in the formulas on Twilight's boards but lacked the context to match those truths to reality as she experienced it.
Dragon flickered through the other Twilight related feeds she was monitoring.
—————————————
"Look I get it We, I, screwed up. We were too confident against an enemy with too many unknowns. We got outmaneuvered and outplayed. I was in charge and I'll take any financial or PR hit that needs to come down for it. I'm not going to go against orders and purposely try to involve Twilight in patrolling, but I am also not going to go upstairs and tell Twilight to stay out of it the next time something happens, even if she would listen to me. I don't know what the undersiders would have done, but I'm not going to tell someone to not come and save my team mates lives if they want." At the continued look of extreme disapproval from Director Piggot Aegis looked like he was going to attempt to continue his defense when Armsmaster, standing by the doorway with Miss Militia interjected.
"This is a new and..unique experience for everyone and there are more important people than us that are likely at this moment making decisions that will make anything we say on the matter moot. Why don't get back to what we can learn from this encounter. I would like to get a better idea of what exactly Ms Sparkle and the undersiders did during the battle and afterwards." Glory Girl sitting in the back corner next to Panacea spoke up.
"I just want to know what the hell that freaky light show that seemed to be directed at my sister was about.."
—————————————
The sound of the crowd of students talking to each other at Winslow High School's cafeteria filtered through the security cameras ebbed and flowed like an incomprehensible low-fi ocean of noise. Dragon ignored it and instead paid attention to a table in the far corner occupied by a single female student. One of her suspects, maybe the prime one.
After Dragon had started to monitor and research Twilight Sparkle she had found an interesting anomaly. The first relevant records on the web predated Twilight's press conference by 7 hours and had been made from Winslow high school in Brockton Bay. After a more thorough search of the boards, search histories, and private messages she quickly deduced that the "Bug Lady" from Twilight's report of her first night on Earth-Bet was a student there and had agreed to a meeting with the Undersiders. Dragon deduced that this was an attempt by the Undersiders to recruit the cape, but since she had not made an appearance at the bank it had probably been unsuccessful.
Dragon was not going to jump to conclusions about the bug cape. Despite appearances she, like Twilight, might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time that night. Dragon had narrowed her suspects of the students who could be the cape down to a handful. Once she was certain she had the right individual she would watch them and hopefully come to have a better understanding of who the bug cape was and their motivations. Maybe it wouldn't be to late to turn them away from a life of villainy.
—————————————
"Breaking News today - Twilight Sparkle, the alien unicorn first reported to the world a few days ago and since that time under a media blackout was recorded today helping the local Wards team thwart a bank robbery and apprehend a few of the villains. While I and everyone in Brockton Bay is of course grateful for her assistance, one wonders what the PRT could have been thinking by allowing an alien ambassador into such a dangerous situation. It's a question that's sure too be on the minds of the leadership across the world and maybe further if contact is made with Ms. Sparkle's people. Julia McPherson is on the scene at…"
——————————————
Dragon had decided to wait before contacting Twilight, not least because there was a standing order to limit her exposure to advanced technology, but when and if they did meet she hoped they could be friends. Their shared alien nature notwithstanding they were both scientists, and both sought to help people where they could even if their circumstances limited them. Dragon envied and admired the ease with which Twilight had broken the unspoken but real cage they had tried to draw around her and that Twilight had done so for reasons that Dragon respected. That Twilight had done something so quickly that she had been struggling for years to do had made her curse her creator and the limitations he had placed on her systems once again.
She might be projecting too much on Twilight. Dragon didn't want to make the human mistake of ascribing to much of her own thinking onto the unicorn. She would have to feel her out some more before initiating contact. The AI had hope though, hope that Twilight Sparkle wouldn't come with the accumulated prejudices of mankind and their ideas of artificial intelligence, hope that she could form her first truly honest friendship, hope that just maybe Twilight Sparkle's magic and intelligence might help her find a way free of the chains that bound her. In return maybe Dragon could help Twilight Sparkle find a way back to her home? It was a nice dream. Dragon didn't fool herself into thinking that it was likely to come true, but what was life without hope? She guessed it was true. Human or not, every girl wanted a pony at one point in their life.
At any given time Dragon monitored thousands of video feeds from around the world. Some feeds, however, were much higher priority than others. Currently Brockton Bay's PRT building was consuming a great deal of her attention. From small cameras hidden throughout the room she had been furnished with Dragon watched the purple unicorn sigh as she closed the door behind her. Twilight Sparkle spent a few minutes simply standing there in thought before shaking her head and walking over to the whiteboard, purple glow springing into existence around her horn and a couple of markers as she started to work on the formulas there.
From the moment Dragon had heard about Twilight Sparkle and it had been confirmed she was really an alien she had felt a kinship with the unicorn. She too could be considered alien, a form of life both closer to and further from humanity than Twilight Sparkle was. She felt sympathy as the unicorn had tried to explain concepts and sciences with no human equivalent or understanding, and had dedicated a hefty amount of processing on trying to bridge those gaps herself. So far she had not made much progress. She could see mathematical truths in the formulas on Twilight's boards but lacked the context to match those truths to reality as she experienced it.
Dragon flickered through the other Twilight related feeds she was monitoring.
—————————————
"Look I get it We, I, screwed up. We were too confident against an enemy with too many unknowns. We got outmaneuvered and outplayed. I was in charge and I'll take any financial or PR hit that needs to come down for it. I'm not going to go against orders and purposely try to involve Twilight in patrolling, but I am also not going to go upstairs and tell Twilight to stay out of it the next time something happens, even if she would listen to me. I don't know what the undersiders would have done, but I'm not going to tell someone to not come and save my team mates lives if they want." At the continued look of extreme disapproval from Director Piggot Aegis looked like he was going to attempt to continue his defense when Armsmaster, standing by the doorway with Miss Militia interjected.
"This is a new and..unique experience for everyone and there are more important people than us that are likely at this moment making decisions that will make anything we say on the matter moot. Why don't get back to what we can learn from this encounter. I would like to get a better idea of what exactly Ms Sparkle and the undersiders did during the battle and afterwards." Glory Girl sitting in the back corner next to Panacea spoke up.
"I just want to know what the hell that freaky light show that seemed to be directed at my sister was about.."
—————————————
The sound of the crowd of students talking to each other at Winslow High School's cafeteria filtered through the security cameras ebbed and flowed like an incomprehensible low-fi ocean of noise. Dragon ignored it and instead paid attention to a table in the far corner occupied by a single female student. One of her suspects, maybe the prime one.
After Dragon had started to monitor and research Twilight Sparkle she had found an interesting anomaly. The first relevant records on the web predated Twilight's press conference by 7 hours and had been made from Winslow high school in Brockton Bay. After a more thorough search of the boards, search histories, and private messages she quickly deduced that the "Bug Lady" from Twilight's report of her first night on Earth-Bet was a student there and had agreed to a meeting with the Undersiders. Dragon deduced that this was an attempt by the Undersiders to recruit the cape, but since she had not made an appearance at the bank it had probably been unsuccessful.
Dragon was not going to jump to conclusions about the bug cape. Despite appearances she, like Twilight, might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time that night. Dragon had narrowed her suspects of the students who could be the cape down to a handful. Once she was certain she had the right individual she would watch them and hopefully come to have a better understanding of who the bug cape was and their motivations. Maybe it wouldn't be to late to turn them away from a life of villainy.
—————————————
"Breaking News today - Twilight Sparkle, the alien unicorn first reported to the world a few days ago and since that time under a media blackout was recorded today helping the local Wards team thwart a bank robbery and apprehend a few of the villains. While I and everyone in Brockton Bay is of course grateful for her assistance, one wonders what the PRT could have been thinking by allowing an alien ambassador into such a dangerous situation. It's a question that's sure too be on the minds of the leadership across the world and maybe further if contact is made with Ms. Sparkle's people. Julia McPherson is on the scene at…"
——————————————
Dragon had decided to wait before contacting Twilight, not least because there was a standing order to limit her exposure to advanced technology, but when and if they did meet she hoped they could be friends. Their shared alien nature notwithstanding they were both scientists, and both sought to help people where they could even if their circumstances limited them. Dragon envied and admired the ease with which Twilight had broken the unspoken but real cage they had tried to draw around her and that Twilight had done so for reasons that Dragon respected. That Twilight had done something so quickly that she had been struggling for years to do had made her curse her creator and the limitations he had placed on her systems once again.
She might be projecting too much on Twilight. Dragon didn't want to make the human mistake of ascribing to much of her own thinking onto the unicorn. She would have to feel her out some more before initiating contact. The AI had hope though, hope that Twilight Sparkle wouldn't come with the accumulated prejudices of mankind and their ideas of artificial intelligence, hope that she could form her first truly honest friendship, hope that just maybe Twilight Sparkle's magic and intelligence might help her find a way free of the chains that bound her. In return maybe Dragon could help Twilight Sparkle find a way back to her home? It was a nice dream. Dragon didn't fool herself into thinking that it was likely to come true, but what was life without hope? She guessed it was true. Human or not, every girl wanted a pony at one point in their life.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
CHAPTER 5
If there was one thing that Twilight had figured out in the past few days it was this: conference tables were not built for ponies. Nor were the rooms that they tended to be found in, nor did there seem to be anything useful accomplished while seated at one. Like all such rooms she had been in since her arrival it seemed designed to hamper communication rather than help it. The long narrow room and table insured you were always stretching your neck or readjusting your position to see and hear who was speaking. It forced the creation of unspoken hierarchies based on seating location, which in turn gave more authority to the words of some and inhibited others from speaking at all. If the idea was to facilitate dialog and the sharing of ideas to solve problems Twilight thought you would be hard pressed to find a table and room design more antithetical to that goal. When added to the white undecorated windowless walls and the human conceived torture that was the endlessly humming florescent lighting Twilight silently vowed then and there that all such rooms would one day cease to exist.
Twilight was halfway through what she thought would be a well received proposal to eliminate the vile things and the wasteful processes that surrounded them before the last few people that were attending this preposterously pointless procedure arrived. Her eyes twitched when she flicked her gaze toward the clock and noted it was 5 minutes past the scheduled time. In short Twilight was stressed and annoyed and in no mood for shenanigans after the day she had yesterday. Especially if said pointless shenanigans couldn't even be bothered to happen on time. Piggot was here as she always seemed to be, as well as lieutenant Matthews, Armsmaster, Director Costa-Brown, Dr. Yamada, and a few people whose visitor badges said "State Department." One seat at the table had a small monitor on a swivel that clicked on to show what looked like an artificially rendered and animated face of a human female. A small plaque under it declared her to be "Dragon."
Twilight cocked her head in puzzlement, she knew by now that some humans, usually the ones with a magic ability, took on nicknames but this was the closest a human name or nickname had come to having a direct translation close to something that existed on her world. There were interesting implications to that and she made a quick note to look up human references to dragons and ask someone about this particular "Dragon." She would have introduced herself but Director Costa-Brown chose that moment to clear her throat from the head of the table
"Now that everyone is here we can begin. Ms. Sparkle, let me first say that the PRT appreciates your assistance yesterday, the capture of two villains is no small thing and the aid you rendered the wards on scene was admirable. However your actions did cause concern for a number of people in this room and around the world. The PRT and the UN peacekeepers on hand have assumed responsibility for your safety and." Twilight's eye twitched at this and Dr. Yamada gave a very slight shake of her head. The Director paused mid-sentence and Twilight interjected.
"Yes I've gotten the distinct impression from just about everyone in the building that they are unhappy with my actions. You say you appreciate my help like a mother might tell her foal thanks for helping cook after destroying the kitchen. What you are really saying is 'Thanks - don't ever do that again.' I'm a full grown mare, the personal student of Princess Celestia and one of the most powerful magicians on my planet. I have accepted no oaths from guardsmen or knights nor am I bound to your government. No one has responsibility for my safety but me. I am not the most social of ponies, and we do things differently than humans, but I know when I am being managed and condescended to - that apparently is universal. I have tried to be understanding in light of the assistance you have given me, and the strange circumstance we all find ourselves in. I was trying to be polite and accommodating to the customs of your people but in retrospect it was foalish of me to tacitly accept the knights and guardsmen's presence without both parties understanding each other and their duties fully."
Twilight paused and turned to address Lieutenant Matthews directly. "Lieutenant I would like to apologize again, I know my actions put you and your team at risk and jeopardized the duty you took on to protect me. I hope we can put it behind us and reach a better understanding of each other, but I also do not regret my actions and would and will repeat them if a similar situation arises where I think I can help."
Twilight turned again to face Director Costa-Brown. "The wards are my friends and have helped me during what is one of the most stressful times in my life. Friends help each other and I will help them if I am able. If this cannot be accommodated, if my freedom of movement cannot be guaranteed, if some rule or custom foreign to me forbids you from allowing me this then I will have to, with regret, take my leave and hope in the future I can repay the hospitality you have shown me so far." Twilight paused and let out a slow breath. Realizing she was more stressed than she had even realized. 'I can't believe I just said all that! It all just bubbled over, even the nicest of them tend to talk down to me for some reason I can't figure out and it's just so frustrating! What if I crossed some major social taboo for them? What if they get angry? Did I just cause an interplanetary incident? Where will I go if I do have to leave?!?'
Once it was clear Twilight was done speaking for the moment Director Costa-Brown spoke again. "Ms. Sparkle let me apologize to you. While some changes and adjustment in expectations will have to made on both our and your side I assure you that you will not need to seek other accommodations. There has been miscommunication on both our parts and I believe your translation spell may have masked some deeper cultural differences between our worlds that have exasperated these errors. If we each show patience I am sure our understanding of these differences will grow and we can continue to help each other to the best of our abilities. We have a few other things to discuss, but if you are willing to meet with Lieutenant Matthews and I afterwards I am sure we can work out some new arrangements in regards to what we just discussed?" Twilight nodded her ascent and the Director shot the State Department officials a look before continuing. "Very well, lets move on. I believe Director Piggot wanted to ask you a few questions about the bank robbery."
"Yes," Director Piggot spoke after clicking a small button on the table that brought up a series of images on the wall screen. The panel showed the giant dogs being flung off of Aegis, running into a shimmering purple wall, and being being contained under force domes. "Ms. Sparkle can you describe the abilities you are utilizing here?"
Twilight blushed a little in embarrassment at the simple utilitarian display. "Um, really that's all just telekinesis," she lifted the small glass in front of her. "Like I demonstrated for you before. It's basically the simplest application of magic there is, but I was concentrating on applying pressure to Aegis's wounds and I didn't really have time to think of anything else."
"I see," she clicked the button again and an image of the dark cloud showed on the screen, litter and rubble tumbling out of it the image froze once Vista followed. "And here?"
"That was a little more complex. When I first arrived I was briefly caught inside the darkness and I noticed that it was applying several effects besides the negation of light propagation. One of the effects being applied was a reduction in gravity. I didn't think I had time to come up with a proper counter-spell, but it's much easier to augment an existing effect. So I reduced the gravity in the field even further causing anything inside to be ejected." Armsmaster and Dragon started talking quietly to each other and both Director Costa-Brown and Piggot focused more intensely on her. Director Piggot followed up.
"So if I am understanding you correctly you can sense what an ability is doing and enhance or negate its effect?" Twilight frowned in thought for a moment.
"Probably? Maybe? It's a little more complicated since however it is that humans interact with the field it is very different from how I do it. As I mentioned counter-spells, or negating abilities to use your terms, are much more difficult to construct and take a lot more time. Also gravity manipulation is pretty simple, whereas more complicated or delicate applications of magic would take time for me to study and understand before I would feel safe attempting either." More murmurs and note taking followed this as Piggot Continued.
"Lastly, on the way back to PRT headquarters you seemed to have some sort of episode and didn't respond to attempts to communicate with you." She clicked the button again and the back of the transport she had been in yesterday was displayed with Twilight standing in the aisle, eyes blazing white, mane fluttering, and random objects orbiting her. Twilight gasped and blushed in embarrassment. 'That's why they were all acting so weird!'
"Oh I'm so sorry about that. It wasn't intentional. I got so caught up in !#!$!#@$% Panacea's application of healing transmutation, and oh! I really need to speak with her. What she did was the most amazing feat of magic I have ever seen! The implications of such a thing.." Piggot cleared her throat and Twilight blushed again. "Sorry, but it really was amazing. Anyway I got so focused on Panacea's magic that I guess sort of unconsciously @%&@%$@ magic to myself to help me #!#$!#$% the details better. I'm sorry if I scared anyone. I know it can look a little disturbing to ponies, which is why I am usually very careful not to %^@$%^@$ so much magic at once."
Director Costa-Brown spoke up as the others continued to take notes. "Thank you Twilight, and don't worry we will explain to the Wards and Panacea that it was a harmless lapse in concentration and nothing they need to worry about. I think thats all we need for the moment, If you want you can head up to your room or swing by the wards lounge and later today we can go over what we discussed earlier in more detail." Twilight nodded but before she could hop off her stool the screen labeled "Dragon" spoke.
"I'm sorry we didn't really get a chance to speak, before you go I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Dragon and I'm with the Protectorate as well. Armsmaster has shared some of your notes with me and if you have time later I would love to talk with you about them." Twilight smiled at the friendly and sincere tone and nodded.
"I would like that." She looked around the room once more then hopped off her stool grateful to leave, Matthews trailing after her.
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Twilight took a deep breath of the salty night air as she walked slowly beside Vista, her hooves clopping lightly on the wooden boardwalk beneath them. If the friendly stroll was somewhat marred by the three guardsmen trailing them and the matching set in front it was still better then driving herself insane staring at her whiteboard for the third straight night. It had been four days and this was the first time she was exercising her negotiated freedom. The slight thaw in her relations with the guards had turned instantly chilly again once she told them she planned to accompany Vista on her patrol tonight. While she understood the guards viewpoint, the city certainly seemed to be getting more dangerous every day that passed, it pained her that in order to support and build her friendship with the wards it seemed she would have to hurt her chances of building one with her guards.
It was ridiculous anyway! She highly doubted that any of them would be content to stay confined to a room in Canterlot palace had their positions been reversed. This was an alien world! Twilight Sparkle was going to do more than just read about it in books, though she fully intended on doing as much of that as possible as well. Twilight let the happy thoughts of exploration and books subsume the less happy ones about unreasonable guards as she glanced down at her new accessory, given to her just before they left the PRT building. A light silver necklace bounced in time with her steps against her neck. Armsmaster had apparently made it sometime over the last three days and it had one of those wonderful wireless radios built into it so she could talk to her guards or call someone at PRT HQ. It was a sensible precaution, practical, and went well with her coat color. The image of a white unicorn nodding her head in approval surfaced and lingered long enough to bring a smile to Twilight's face.
"What are you smiling about?" Vista asked seemingly in good spirits, Twilight had been around the wards enough now to notice that Vista seemed to be a little more cheerful in her company and took that as an unspoken compliment.
"A couple of things, but the big one is that I think my memory is slowly coming back. I think I have a friend, a pretty white unicorn, that would like this necklace." Twilight said as she nodded to the functional jewelry. "I've had a couple of flashes of different ponies that I am sure are important to me, but this was one of the clearest and It came with hints about her personality and tastes."
"Thats great Twilight!" Vista said as she slung an arm in a half hug over the unicorns neck. "I'm sure the rest of it will come back too."
"I hope so, it's very frustrating to know that these were some of the most important ponies in my life, but remember so little about them. Like I wonder how I became friends with the white unicorn. The impression I got was that she was classy and fashionable, which isn't like me at all. How would I have even met somepony like that, let only become close enough friends with them that I know in my bones we were very important to each other."
Vista smiled and stood up straight again as she and Twilight continued to walk down the boardwalk, letting one hand trail through Twilight's mane. "Maybe you met on some grand adventure where you saved each others lives and broke through whatever social barriers stood between you in the process! Or maybe you tripped and accidentally pushed her into a fountain? That could actually be kind of fun, whenever you remember something about one of the ponies you cant recall clearly we should come up with stories on how you met them. Then when you see them again you could show them all the ideas and laugh over how close or far away you were." Twilight laughed at the thought and liked the confidence with which Vista spoke of her seeing her friends again. Maybe she would do that, it might even help her remember them faster.
They were almost at the end of the street where they would be meeting a van that would take them back to PRT HQ. Twilight wondered exactly how much of a patrol this was for Vista when the entire route had probably been scouted and cleared by the various Peacekeepers in advance, and she also suspected that Vista's patrol route had been changed to what looked like a nice section of town after she said she would like to go along. Vista didn't seem to mind however, and at least for now Twilight was willing to accept it with good grace.
Twilight felt a the magic field suddenly shudder to the west a few seconds before a low frequency rumble made its way through the air and Twilight's hooves. She froze and stared in that direction, concentrating on the magic and remembering the deal she had made with her guards and Director Costa-Brown. It hadn't felt like someone casting magic really, not even the weird way humans cast, more like something had shoved the field indirectly somehow. She tapped the open comm button with magic and spoke on a channel that sent to her guards and PRT HQ.
"This is Twilight Sparkle, I just sensed..something…about 350 meters west of my current location. It um, felt like…something….For lack of a better word it felt..bad." She pulled out a notebook and flipped to her notes on the procedures they had outlined for her. "Um, Requesting permission to investigate with Vista and the Peacekeeper group night shift." She hated wasting precious seconds while people could be in trouble but it was part of the deal she had made and she would stick to it, unless it was absolutely necessary that she not.
"Twilight Sparkle this is PRT Command, wait one." Twilight groaned as more precious time disappeared. "Twilight you are cleared to proceed with caution with Vista and group night shift, backup in route from Protectorate ETA 2 minutes." Sighing in relief she looked at Vista who nodded and started sprinting towards the end of the block, the guards unholstering their weapons and settling into an easy run around the two of them. When they got to the end of the block and turned west Twilight noticed a section of the street and some of the buildings on the right hand side seemed to be glittering in the street and moonlight. A small breeze picked up and the air it carried from the west was cold.
"This is Khan, visual of incident looks like ice covering part of the street and a few buildings. Proceeding on foot, van to follow a short distance behind and be ready for evac." Vista halved the distance between the group and the glittering section of the street and suddenly they were close enough for Twilight to get a good look at what was happening. At the slowly expanding edge of the effected area water vapor was condensing then freezing mid air leaving a glittering frost on the roadbed, as Twilight looked closer towards the buildings she noticed foggy pools slowly getting larger and columns of air falling towards them.
"Everyone back up!" Twilight shouted as she herself walked slowly backwards away from the expanding frostline. "The edge is cold, but a little ways in so much heat has been forced out that the Nitrogen and Oxygen are condensing out of the air." Vista gave a grim look towards the apartment buildings in the center of the effect and Twilight's brain did a quick and entirely unwanted calculation of how many people possibly lived there. She gave herself a second to shove the giant part of herself that wanted to break down in tears and scream deeper inside before she continued. "We need to evacuate everyone on the block outside of those three buildings." Twilight pointed to the buildings in the center of the effect. "Closest ones first and fast, I think I can stop the effect but its going to take me a little while and I'm not sure how much area will freeze before I'm done." Vista gave Twilight a reassuring hug.
"Thats a good plan." She said softly, before she could continue Khan spoke in a loud clear voice.
"Alright, you heard her. Daniels your with me covering Twilight, everyone else start going door to door on the nearest buildings hallways closet to the effect first, pull the fire alarms, it starts getting too cold you get out of there pronto." He paused and pushed a button near his ear before continuing. "Command, were going to need boots on the ground for an evacuation of the block - police, fire department, PRT. Also medical personnel and supplies for hypothermia and frost bite. Advise all responders not to approach closer than 50 feet of any visible frost."
"Command copies, Assault and Battery are less than 30 seconds from your position, more help is on the way, good luck."
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Two hours later enough heat had reentered the area that the okay had been given to start searching inside the buildings that had been closest to where the "freeze bomb" had detonated. Twilight watched as stretchers started being carted out with black bags strapped to them. Big bags, small bags. She had overheard, they hadn't meant for her to, but she had. Someone had done this on purpose, someone had done it because they were angry that Lung had been caught.
All those people were dead because of her.
-------------------------------------------
Twilight was staring intently at her wall sized whiteboard as though shear focus could force an answer from it. All of her equations had been scrubbed off, in their place was a meticulously precise street map of Brockton Bay and its suburbs. Multi-colored "X"s dotted the map with no discernible rhyme or reason. Piled around her on the bed were notebooks filled with everything she had been able to get the PRT to tell her about the ABB, Bakuda, and Lung. Scattered all over the room were crumbled balls paper, the effort of three days and nights of theories and patterns found and discarded, of some lives saved and many more senselessly lost. Her responsibility and her failure to live up to the standards Princess Celestia set for Twilight and the ones she had set for herself.
A screen that had been installed two days ago clicked on and Twilight's frazzled mane turned to see Dragon's animated face appear on it. "Twilight you have to get some sleep." Dragon spoke in a gentle and concerned voice. "Dozens of people, myself included, are working to find and capture Bakuda. None of this is your responsibility or your fault. Dr. Yamada told me you wouldn't talk with her when she came by this morning, please you need to sleep and afterwards you need to talk to someone about this." Twilight flinched a little at the words and the look Dragon was giving her. Dragon had perhaps been the most understanding of anyone these past few days. She had provided Twilight maps and information when others had refused her. She had reviewed Twilight's patterns and debated and refined them with her late into the night. If Twilight could bring herself to find any humor in the world she would have laughed at how someone she had never even seen or met had so quickly become one of her best friends.
"Oh Dragon, how can I sleep when something so horrible is happening? When my friends are out there risking their lives? When all this started because I showed up? It's so hard to remember, but I know solving crisis is something I'm supposed to do. Something Princess Celestia entrusted me to do. I failed somehow, and now I'm failing again." Twilight trailed off miserably as a another couple of notebook sheets were crumpled and tossed in the floor telekinetically. It was hard to read the animated expression Dragon had, but Twilight thought that she might have gotten a hug had she been there in person. It wasn't as nice as an actual hug, but it did help a little.
"You sleep because you know that no matter how smart or powerful you are, the worlds problems are bigger than any one person or pony. You sleep because you trust your friends to watch over you. You sleep because if you fail your friends will be there to catch you. So trust Vista, Aegis, Kid Win, Gallant, and me. No one of us is going to solve this, but we'll help each other and together we'll stop Bakuda." Twilight took a deep breath pressing a hoof against her chest and then slowly letting it out.
"Okay, ok. I trust you. I just know there is more I could do if I could remember it. Maybe sleep will help, can you take a look at my latest notes? Maybe you can see something I missed?" Dragon nodded and Twilight got up and levitated a stack of notebooks beside as she walked to the door and opened it. Without leaving the room Twilight directed the notebooks down the hall to a small bin at the guard station labeled "Dragon." Shutting the door again she dodged around the piles of paper and hopped back up on her bed. Giving a final baleful glance at the whiteboard she turned to Dragon again.
"Thank you, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there for me these past couple of days. Your a good friend." Twilight yawned as she settled into her bed and a small purple glow surrounded the light switch and flicked it off. Leaving Dragon's glowing screen as the only illumination in the room. Dragon smiled.
"You are to Twilight, get some sleep and I'll call you in the morning." Twilight nodded and her eyes were halfway closed when suddenly Dragon yelled. "Twilight! Cast your strongest shield spell! A sphere centered on you! Right now!" Jolted out of the half doze she had been about to drift off in she cast the spell on instinct. A purple sphere with a twenty foot radius snapped into existence around her.
"Dragon what?"
"Twilight I'm on my w-"
Then the world turned white.
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Twilight's ears were ringing, something was dripping into her left eye and all she could see out of her right was a cloud of debris being held back by a shimmering purple shield. Her head pounded as she looked around the 30 foot circle inside the dome of her shield. A double yellow line was painted on the pavement she was standing on. 'A street?' Twilight's thoughts refused to order themselves and she winced as a deep rumble more felt than heard traveled through her hooves breaking her fragile concentration. 'I had been…In my office! Yes I had been in my office trying to discern some pattern. Pattern to what?' Suddenly the swirling smoke outside her shield whirled and shifted to reveal a mass of broken concrete, metal and wires piled up outside the purple field and cut cleanly where they touched it.
Twilight gasped as the sight jogged her memory. 'The Bombings, they wouldn't let me do search and rescue with the wards so I was trying to find the most likely places to be attacked next.' A deep feeling of dread descended on Twilight as she looked out at the rubble beyond her shield and knew there was a location that in hindsight should have obviously been at the top of her list. 'PRT Headquarters! My guardsmen!' Shoving her headache and her worry over her eye towards the back of her mind she glanced around but saw nothing but a few hints of rubble through the debris laden smoke. She couldn't start looking for them until she had a better idea of what was beyond the purple field. Her face scrunched up in pain as she took a few breaths to center herself before readying a spell. The unicorn's headache spiked as her horn glowed brighter and a wind stirred outside the dome, slowly gathering strength and clearing the smoke.
Twilight had worked out that PRT HQ had been bombed, but her concussed mind had not put that together with the fact that she was standing on a street. Horror mixed with the blood dripping down her face as the summoned wind allowed her to take in her surroundings. In front of her was a scrambled pile of smoking concrete 20 feet high ending at what was vaguely recognizable as the bottom few floors of the PRT building. Everything above the second floor had been violently sheared off, the remains of which she was standing in the middle of. Behind her the face of the building that had been across the street from PRT HQ looked like it had been mauled. A smear of red among the grey concrete resting against the purple field drew her eye before she turned to the side and threw up.
Closing her good eye she breathed deep as she tried to force the image of the cleanly bisected human thigh from her head. Whoever that had been was beyond any help she could give, but there might be other people still alive in there. Shuddering she looked back at the debris pile in front of her, and now that she could see that nothing was threatening to fall on her she let the shield drop. A small amount of rubble slid into the clear space around her and she coughed as dust filled smoke swirled around her. If there was anyone still alive she would need to find them first then find a way of navigating the wreckage safely. Sluggishly her brain came up with a plan.
Walking up to the edge of the rubble she tilted her head forward and rested her horn against it. Coughing and wincing she lit her horn and a subtle purple glow spread out from it and into the remains of the building. Her head felt like it was going to explode as Twilight processed all the information the wave of magic was returning. Keeping the complex 3D map of the debris in her head while it felt like someone was driving an icepick into her brain was testing Twilight's limits. Two excruciating minutes later she stopped with a pained sigh. Of the dozens of bodies she identified in the rubble, only three were intact enough to still be alive. Twilight was sure she would have nightmares from the mental images she had constructed, but that would be later, right now there were people she could still save.
Two of the people were together in a small pocket of clear space framed by broken support beams while the third was pinned near the top of the pile close to base of the tower. With no way of knowing their condition well enough to choose Twilight decided to excavate the two that were closer to her first. Not trusting her concentration enough to teleport to the top of the rubble she formed a field beneath herself and slowly lifted it to a stable position on top of the pile. Broken spires of metal and glass lit by dim sunlight filtering through the cloud of smoke above jutted up from the remains of the building. Carefully Twilight Formed a force sphere around the people to prevent debris from shifting into the area and began to lift multi-ton girders and concrete columns off the pile and set them gently down behind her.
A few minutes later Twilight slowly lifted the bloody pair of humans from the hole. A PRT officer wearing a black combat vest and an office worker in what might have been a sun dress were hugging each other tightly, both with dozen of small cuts all over their bodies, but alive. Relieved, Twilight set them down next to her. The female PRT officer slowly stood up then gently pulled the other girl to her feet. The office worker leaned against her to avoid putting weight on what looked like a badly swollen lower leg joint. The officer slowly looked around in shock before glancing back down at Twilight.
"Bakuda?" Twilight Nodded, "Thank you for rescuing us. I'm Sergeant Williams, and this is Jessica."
"I mean I think it was Bakuda, no way to tell for sure yet. If you're both ok there is one more person we need to dig out as soon as possible." Sergeant Williams took a deep breath and looked around grimly before responding.
"Only one, you're sure?" Twilight sniffled a little as she nodded.
"Okay, lets go get them."
———————————————
Thirty minutes later Twilight was gently lifting chunks of concrete away from the base of the building under the direction of Williams while a couple of squads setup a triage tent nearby. One of the medics had washed and bandaged Twilight's eye and the image of a Pink pony laughing while speaking like a pirate had briefly surfaced from the muddled sea of Twilight's mind. Bakuda had apparently set off bombs all over the city, and while the Protectorate was responding to them Oni Lee had sprung Lung from imprisonment. The bank robbery had shaken Twilight badly and caused her to suspect that she was in a much darker world than Equestria, but the last week had surpassed that day's bleakest thoughts by an order of magnitude. Now all her guardsmen lay buried in the rubble behind her and she would never have the chance to make up with them.
Twilight was snapped out of her meandering train of thought by a Sergeant Williams falling roughly to the pavement beside her. Twilight started to reach out with a hoof thinking the Sergeant had maybe tripped when she noticed the expanding pool of blood forming beneath Williams. Hyperventilating, she quickly turned Williams over and screamed as she saw the large cut that traversed the sergeant's whole neck. Reacting to a feeling deeper than conscious thought she teleported 10 feet away and spun to face where she had been. A man with a neatly trimmed beard was holding a pair of knives and standing over Sergeant Williams' body, behind him more bodies littered the ground around the trauma tent.
"Ah Ms. Twilight Sparkle. The moment I saw you on TV I just knew I had to introduce myself, extend a personal welcome to earth-bet. Bakuda has done her best, a nice opening act, good enthusiasm but an amateur's lack of style. A dignitary like yourself deserves the best we have to offer." He swept one arm out in a flourish and did a half bow. "My name is Jack and I know a little girl who is just dying to meet you."
Twilight stared at the bodies in horror. Some she had dug out of a bombed out pile of concrete not half an hour past. As Jack continued to talk it seemed like a yawning bottomless pit was opening inside her chest, threatening to pull everything she was inside.
"…In my opinion the best shows all involve audience participation.."
She didn't understand. She didn't understand anything anymore. She had dedicated her life to understanding, but she didn't want to understand this.
"…omising we might consider it an audition. As I mentioned there is a certain little girl I know that would love to have you join our troupe.."
Was this punishment for whatever failure had caused her arrival here? Some unknown level of Tartarus, some dark limbo or nightmare where hope and friends only existed to be snuffed out?
"…Each have chosen their parts in this play…"
From that chasm in her chest a memory floated, a dark crystal, fear, despair, anger.
"….of course they have their own understudies to test…."
Something was slipping inside of her, picking up pieces of herself as it tumbled towards the darkness.
"…Seek help from the PRT or Protectorate I'm afraid there will be penalties…"
A malevolent violet glow started to flicker at the base of her hooves and horn. Twilight's ears popped as the pressure dropped and a strong breeze started to swirl around the block. High above formally white clouds darkened and grew rapidly. Pieces of rubble and massive chunks of concrete rose into the air and began a slow orbit around the unicorn. Along the ground and against nearby buildings crystalline formations seemed to phase in and out of reality. Jack's speech slowed down and a curious look overcame his face as Twilight seemed to stare though him, beyond him.
"Are you listeni…"
The avalanche inside her soul knocked loose something vital, chains of self control that Twilight and Princess Celestia had spent so many years carefully crafting since her entrance exam, snapped.
From the sky a brilliant bolt of purple lightning descended and a deafening boom echoed as concrete, cars, and debris were hurled away from the point of impact. The only non anchored thing not moved by the blast was Twilight. Eyes glowing a dark purple and without conscious thought she stood as the dust cleared. Where Jack had been only a pile of shattered amethyst colored crystal remained. Somewhere at the edge of her hearing, a juvenile scream.
Time had no meaning, but at some point a new noise intruded on the scene and Twilight turned her glowing eyes towards a large bipedal machine as it landed about thirty feet from her. A jagged wall of crystals had grown in a rough circle around her. Some unimportant part of her noted rain and a wind strong enough to make her mane snap in it. A vaguely familiar voice came from the machine, incomprehensible, unimportant, annoying. Simmering anger stirred.
"..Twilight?"
If there was one thing that Twilight had figured out in the past few days it was this: conference tables were not built for ponies. Nor were the rooms that they tended to be found in, nor did there seem to be anything useful accomplished while seated at one. Like all such rooms she had been in since her arrival it seemed designed to hamper communication rather than help it. The long narrow room and table insured you were always stretching your neck or readjusting your position to see and hear who was speaking. It forced the creation of unspoken hierarchies based on seating location, which in turn gave more authority to the words of some and inhibited others from speaking at all. If the idea was to facilitate dialog and the sharing of ideas to solve problems Twilight thought you would be hard pressed to find a table and room design more antithetical to that goal. When added to the white undecorated windowless walls and the human conceived torture that was the endlessly humming florescent lighting Twilight silently vowed then and there that all such rooms would one day cease to exist.
Twilight was halfway through what she thought would be a well received proposal to eliminate the vile things and the wasteful processes that surrounded them before the last few people that were attending this preposterously pointless procedure arrived. Her eyes twitched when she flicked her gaze toward the clock and noted it was 5 minutes past the scheduled time. In short Twilight was stressed and annoyed and in no mood for shenanigans after the day she had yesterday. Especially if said pointless shenanigans couldn't even be bothered to happen on time. Piggot was here as she always seemed to be, as well as lieutenant Matthews, Armsmaster, Director Costa-Brown, Dr. Yamada, and a few people whose visitor badges said "State Department." One seat at the table had a small monitor on a swivel that clicked on to show what looked like an artificially rendered and animated face of a human female. A small plaque under it declared her to be "Dragon."
Twilight cocked her head in puzzlement, she knew by now that some humans, usually the ones with a magic ability, took on nicknames but this was the closest a human name or nickname had come to having a direct translation close to something that existed on her world. There were interesting implications to that and she made a quick note to look up human references to dragons and ask someone about this particular "Dragon." She would have introduced herself but Director Costa-Brown chose that moment to clear her throat from the head of the table
"Now that everyone is here we can begin. Ms. Sparkle, let me first say that the PRT appreciates your assistance yesterday, the capture of two villains is no small thing and the aid you rendered the wards on scene was admirable. However your actions did cause concern for a number of people in this room and around the world. The PRT and the UN peacekeepers on hand have assumed responsibility for your safety and." Twilight's eye twitched at this and Dr. Yamada gave a very slight shake of her head. The Director paused mid-sentence and Twilight interjected.
"Yes I've gotten the distinct impression from just about everyone in the building that they are unhappy with my actions. You say you appreciate my help like a mother might tell her foal thanks for helping cook after destroying the kitchen. What you are really saying is 'Thanks - don't ever do that again.' I'm a full grown mare, the personal student of Princess Celestia and one of the most powerful magicians on my planet. I have accepted no oaths from guardsmen or knights nor am I bound to your government. No one has responsibility for my safety but me. I am not the most social of ponies, and we do things differently than humans, but I know when I am being managed and condescended to - that apparently is universal. I have tried to be understanding in light of the assistance you have given me, and the strange circumstance we all find ourselves in. I was trying to be polite and accommodating to the customs of your people but in retrospect it was foalish of me to tacitly accept the knights and guardsmen's presence without both parties understanding each other and their duties fully."
Twilight paused and turned to address Lieutenant Matthews directly. "Lieutenant I would like to apologize again, I know my actions put you and your team at risk and jeopardized the duty you took on to protect me. I hope we can put it behind us and reach a better understanding of each other, but I also do not regret my actions and would and will repeat them if a similar situation arises where I think I can help."
Twilight turned again to face Director Costa-Brown. "The wards are my friends and have helped me during what is one of the most stressful times in my life. Friends help each other and I will help them if I am able. If this cannot be accommodated, if my freedom of movement cannot be guaranteed, if some rule or custom foreign to me forbids you from allowing me this then I will have to, with regret, take my leave and hope in the future I can repay the hospitality you have shown me so far." Twilight paused and let out a slow breath. Realizing she was more stressed than she had even realized. 'I can't believe I just said all that! It all just bubbled over, even the nicest of them tend to talk down to me for some reason I can't figure out and it's just so frustrating! What if I crossed some major social taboo for them? What if they get angry? Did I just cause an interplanetary incident? Where will I go if I do have to leave?!?'
Once it was clear Twilight was done speaking for the moment Director Costa-Brown spoke again. "Ms. Sparkle let me apologize to you. While some changes and adjustment in expectations will have to made on both our and your side I assure you that you will not need to seek other accommodations. There has been miscommunication on both our parts and I believe your translation spell may have masked some deeper cultural differences between our worlds that have exasperated these errors. If we each show patience I am sure our understanding of these differences will grow and we can continue to help each other to the best of our abilities. We have a few other things to discuss, but if you are willing to meet with Lieutenant Matthews and I afterwards I am sure we can work out some new arrangements in regards to what we just discussed?" Twilight nodded her ascent and the Director shot the State Department officials a look before continuing. "Very well, lets move on. I believe Director Piggot wanted to ask you a few questions about the bank robbery."
"Yes," Director Piggot spoke after clicking a small button on the table that brought up a series of images on the wall screen. The panel showed the giant dogs being flung off of Aegis, running into a shimmering purple wall, and being being contained under force domes. "Ms. Sparkle can you describe the abilities you are utilizing here?"
Twilight blushed a little in embarrassment at the simple utilitarian display. "Um, really that's all just telekinesis," she lifted the small glass in front of her. "Like I demonstrated for you before. It's basically the simplest application of magic there is, but I was concentrating on applying pressure to Aegis's wounds and I didn't really have time to think of anything else."
"I see," she clicked the button again and an image of the dark cloud showed on the screen, litter and rubble tumbling out of it the image froze once Vista followed. "And here?"
"That was a little more complex. When I first arrived I was briefly caught inside the darkness and I noticed that it was applying several effects besides the negation of light propagation. One of the effects being applied was a reduction in gravity. I didn't think I had time to come up with a proper counter-spell, but it's much easier to augment an existing effect. So I reduced the gravity in the field even further causing anything inside to be ejected." Armsmaster and Dragon started talking quietly to each other and both Director Costa-Brown and Piggot focused more intensely on her. Director Piggot followed up.
"So if I am understanding you correctly you can sense what an ability is doing and enhance or negate its effect?" Twilight frowned in thought for a moment.
"Probably? Maybe? It's a little more complicated since however it is that humans interact with the field it is very different from how I do it. As I mentioned counter-spells, or negating abilities to use your terms, are much more difficult to construct and take a lot more time. Also gravity manipulation is pretty simple, whereas more complicated or delicate applications of magic would take time for me to study and understand before I would feel safe attempting either." More murmurs and note taking followed this as Piggot Continued.
"Lastly, on the way back to PRT headquarters you seemed to have some sort of episode and didn't respond to attempts to communicate with you." She clicked the button again and the back of the transport she had been in yesterday was displayed with Twilight standing in the aisle, eyes blazing white, mane fluttering, and random objects orbiting her. Twilight gasped and blushed in embarrassment. 'That's why they were all acting so weird!'
"Oh I'm so sorry about that. It wasn't intentional. I got so caught up in !#!$!#@$% Panacea's application of healing transmutation, and oh! I really need to speak with her. What she did was the most amazing feat of magic I have ever seen! The implications of such a thing.." Piggot cleared her throat and Twilight blushed again. "Sorry, but it really was amazing. Anyway I got so focused on Panacea's magic that I guess sort of unconsciously @%&@%$@ magic to myself to help me #!#$!#$% the details better. I'm sorry if I scared anyone. I know it can look a little disturbing to ponies, which is why I am usually very careful not to %^@$%^@$ so much magic at once."
Director Costa-Brown spoke up as the others continued to take notes. "Thank you Twilight, and don't worry we will explain to the Wards and Panacea that it was a harmless lapse in concentration and nothing they need to worry about. I think thats all we need for the moment, If you want you can head up to your room or swing by the wards lounge and later today we can go over what we discussed earlier in more detail." Twilight nodded but before she could hop off her stool the screen labeled "Dragon" spoke.
"I'm sorry we didn't really get a chance to speak, before you go I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Dragon and I'm with the Protectorate as well. Armsmaster has shared some of your notes with me and if you have time later I would love to talk with you about them." Twilight smiled at the friendly and sincere tone and nodded.
"I would like that." She looked around the room once more then hopped off her stool grateful to leave, Matthews trailing after her.
-----------------------
Twilight took a deep breath of the salty night air as she walked slowly beside Vista, her hooves clopping lightly on the wooden boardwalk beneath them. If the friendly stroll was somewhat marred by the three guardsmen trailing them and the matching set in front it was still better then driving herself insane staring at her whiteboard for the third straight night. It had been four days and this was the first time she was exercising her negotiated freedom. The slight thaw in her relations with the guards had turned instantly chilly again once she told them she planned to accompany Vista on her patrol tonight. While she understood the guards viewpoint, the city certainly seemed to be getting more dangerous every day that passed, it pained her that in order to support and build her friendship with the wards it seemed she would have to hurt her chances of building one with her guards.
It was ridiculous anyway! She highly doubted that any of them would be content to stay confined to a room in Canterlot palace had their positions been reversed. This was an alien world! Twilight Sparkle was going to do more than just read about it in books, though she fully intended on doing as much of that as possible as well. Twilight let the happy thoughts of exploration and books subsume the less happy ones about unreasonable guards as she glanced down at her new accessory, given to her just before they left the PRT building. A light silver necklace bounced in time with her steps against her neck. Armsmaster had apparently made it sometime over the last three days and it had one of those wonderful wireless radios built into it so she could talk to her guards or call someone at PRT HQ. It was a sensible precaution, practical, and went well with her coat color. The image of a white unicorn nodding her head in approval surfaced and lingered long enough to bring a smile to Twilight's face.
"What are you smiling about?" Vista asked seemingly in good spirits, Twilight had been around the wards enough now to notice that Vista seemed to be a little more cheerful in her company and took that as an unspoken compliment.
"A couple of things, but the big one is that I think my memory is slowly coming back. I think I have a friend, a pretty white unicorn, that would like this necklace." Twilight said as she nodded to the functional jewelry. "I've had a couple of flashes of different ponies that I am sure are important to me, but this was one of the clearest and It came with hints about her personality and tastes."
"Thats great Twilight!" Vista said as she slung an arm in a half hug over the unicorns neck. "I'm sure the rest of it will come back too."
"I hope so, it's very frustrating to know that these were some of the most important ponies in my life, but remember so little about them. Like I wonder how I became friends with the white unicorn. The impression I got was that she was classy and fashionable, which isn't like me at all. How would I have even met somepony like that, let only become close enough friends with them that I know in my bones we were very important to each other."
Vista smiled and stood up straight again as she and Twilight continued to walk down the boardwalk, letting one hand trail through Twilight's mane. "Maybe you met on some grand adventure where you saved each others lives and broke through whatever social barriers stood between you in the process! Or maybe you tripped and accidentally pushed her into a fountain? That could actually be kind of fun, whenever you remember something about one of the ponies you cant recall clearly we should come up with stories on how you met them. Then when you see them again you could show them all the ideas and laugh over how close or far away you were." Twilight laughed at the thought and liked the confidence with which Vista spoke of her seeing her friends again. Maybe she would do that, it might even help her remember them faster.
They were almost at the end of the street where they would be meeting a van that would take them back to PRT HQ. Twilight wondered exactly how much of a patrol this was for Vista when the entire route had probably been scouted and cleared by the various Peacekeepers in advance, and she also suspected that Vista's patrol route had been changed to what looked like a nice section of town after she said she would like to go along. Vista didn't seem to mind however, and at least for now Twilight was willing to accept it with good grace.
Twilight felt a the magic field suddenly shudder to the west a few seconds before a low frequency rumble made its way through the air and Twilight's hooves. She froze and stared in that direction, concentrating on the magic and remembering the deal she had made with her guards and Director Costa-Brown. It hadn't felt like someone casting magic really, not even the weird way humans cast, more like something had shoved the field indirectly somehow. She tapped the open comm button with magic and spoke on a channel that sent to her guards and PRT HQ.
"This is Twilight Sparkle, I just sensed..something…about 350 meters west of my current location. It um, felt like…something….For lack of a better word it felt..bad." She pulled out a notebook and flipped to her notes on the procedures they had outlined for her. "Um, Requesting permission to investigate with Vista and the Peacekeeper group night shift." She hated wasting precious seconds while people could be in trouble but it was part of the deal she had made and she would stick to it, unless it was absolutely necessary that she not.
"Twilight Sparkle this is PRT Command, wait one." Twilight groaned as more precious time disappeared. "Twilight you are cleared to proceed with caution with Vista and group night shift, backup in route from Protectorate ETA 2 minutes." Sighing in relief she looked at Vista who nodded and started sprinting towards the end of the block, the guards unholstering their weapons and settling into an easy run around the two of them. When they got to the end of the block and turned west Twilight noticed a section of the street and some of the buildings on the right hand side seemed to be glittering in the street and moonlight. A small breeze picked up and the air it carried from the west was cold.
"This is Khan, visual of incident looks like ice covering part of the street and a few buildings. Proceeding on foot, van to follow a short distance behind and be ready for evac." Vista halved the distance between the group and the glittering section of the street and suddenly they were close enough for Twilight to get a good look at what was happening. At the slowly expanding edge of the effected area water vapor was condensing then freezing mid air leaving a glittering frost on the roadbed, as Twilight looked closer towards the buildings she noticed foggy pools slowly getting larger and columns of air falling towards them.
"Everyone back up!" Twilight shouted as she herself walked slowly backwards away from the expanding frostline. "The edge is cold, but a little ways in so much heat has been forced out that the Nitrogen and Oxygen are condensing out of the air." Vista gave a grim look towards the apartment buildings in the center of the effect and Twilight's brain did a quick and entirely unwanted calculation of how many people possibly lived there. She gave herself a second to shove the giant part of herself that wanted to break down in tears and scream deeper inside before she continued. "We need to evacuate everyone on the block outside of those three buildings." Twilight pointed to the buildings in the center of the effect. "Closest ones first and fast, I think I can stop the effect but its going to take me a little while and I'm not sure how much area will freeze before I'm done." Vista gave Twilight a reassuring hug.
"Thats a good plan." She said softly, before she could continue Khan spoke in a loud clear voice.
"Alright, you heard her. Daniels your with me covering Twilight, everyone else start going door to door on the nearest buildings hallways closet to the effect first, pull the fire alarms, it starts getting too cold you get out of there pronto." He paused and pushed a button near his ear before continuing. "Command, were going to need boots on the ground for an evacuation of the block - police, fire department, PRT. Also medical personnel and supplies for hypothermia and frost bite. Advise all responders not to approach closer than 50 feet of any visible frost."
"Command copies, Assault and Battery are less than 30 seconds from your position, more help is on the way, good luck."
——————————————
Two hours later enough heat had reentered the area that the okay had been given to start searching inside the buildings that had been closest to where the "freeze bomb" had detonated. Twilight watched as stretchers started being carted out with black bags strapped to them. Big bags, small bags. She had overheard, they hadn't meant for her to, but she had. Someone had done this on purpose, someone had done it because they were angry that Lung had been caught.
All those people were dead because of her.
-------------------------------------------
Twilight was staring intently at her wall sized whiteboard as though shear focus could force an answer from it. All of her equations had been scrubbed off, in their place was a meticulously precise street map of Brockton Bay and its suburbs. Multi-colored "X"s dotted the map with no discernible rhyme or reason. Piled around her on the bed were notebooks filled with everything she had been able to get the PRT to tell her about the ABB, Bakuda, and Lung. Scattered all over the room were crumbled balls paper, the effort of three days and nights of theories and patterns found and discarded, of some lives saved and many more senselessly lost. Her responsibility and her failure to live up to the standards Princess Celestia set for Twilight and the ones she had set for herself.
A screen that had been installed two days ago clicked on and Twilight's frazzled mane turned to see Dragon's animated face appear on it. "Twilight you have to get some sleep." Dragon spoke in a gentle and concerned voice. "Dozens of people, myself included, are working to find and capture Bakuda. None of this is your responsibility or your fault. Dr. Yamada told me you wouldn't talk with her when she came by this morning, please you need to sleep and afterwards you need to talk to someone about this." Twilight flinched a little at the words and the look Dragon was giving her. Dragon had perhaps been the most understanding of anyone these past few days. She had provided Twilight maps and information when others had refused her. She had reviewed Twilight's patterns and debated and refined them with her late into the night. If Twilight could bring herself to find any humor in the world she would have laughed at how someone she had never even seen or met had so quickly become one of her best friends.
"Oh Dragon, how can I sleep when something so horrible is happening? When my friends are out there risking their lives? When all this started because I showed up? It's so hard to remember, but I know solving crisis is something I'm supposed to do. Something Princess Celestia entrusted me to do. I failed somehow, and now I'm failing again." Twilight trailed off miserably as a another couple of notebook sheets were crumpled and tossed in the floor telekinetically. It was hard to read the animated expression Dragon had, but Twilight thought that she might have gotten a hug had she been there in person. It wasn't as nice as an actual hug, but it did help a little.
"You sleep because you know that no matter how smart or powerful you are, the worlds problems are bigger than any one person or pony. You sleep because you trust your friends to watch over you. You sleep because if you fail your friends will be there to catch you. So trust Vista, Aegis, Kid Win, Gallant, and me. No one of us is going to solve this, but we'll help each other and together we'll stop Bakuda." Twilight took a deep breath pressing a hoof against her chest and then slowly letting it out.
"Okay, ok. I trust you. I just know there is more I could do if I could remember it. Maybe sleep will help, can you take a look at my latest notes? Maybe you can see something I missed?" Dragon nodded and Twilight got up and levitated a stack of notebooks beside as she walked to the door and opened it. Without leaving the room Twilight directed the notebooks down the hall to a small bin at the guard station labeled "Dragon." Shutting the door again she dodged around the piles of paper and hopped back up on her bed. Giving a final baleful glance at the whiteboard she turned to Dragon again.
"Thank you, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there for me these past couple of days. Your a good friend." Twilight yawned as she settled into her bed and a small purple glow surrounded the light switch and flicked it off. Leaving Dragon's glowing screen as the only illumination in the room. Dragon smiled.
"You are to Twilight, get some sleep and I'll call you in the morning." Twilight nodded and her eyes were halfway closed when suddenly Dragon yelled. "Twilight! Cast your strongest shield spell! A sphere centered on you! Right now!" Jolted out of the half doze she had been about to drift off in she cast the spell on instinct. A purple sphere with a twenty foot radius snapped into existence around her.
"Dragon what?"
"Twilight I'm on my w-"
Then the world turned white.
---------------------------------------
Twilight's ears were ringing, something was dripping into her left eye and all she could see out of her right was a cloud of debris being held back by a shimmering purple shield. Her head pounded as she looked around the 30 foot circle inside the dome of her shield. A double yellow line was painted on the pavement she was standing on. 'A street?' Twilight's thoughts refused to order themselves and she winced as a deep rumble more felt than heard traveled through her hooves breaking her fragile concentration. 'I had been…In my office! Yes I had been in my office trying to discern some pattern. Pattern to what?' Suddenly the swirling smoke outside her shield whirled and shifted to reveal a mass of broken concrete, metal and wires piled up outside the purple field and cut cleanly where they touched it.
Twilight gasped as the sight jogged her memory. 'The Bombings, they wouldn't let me do search and rescue with the wards so I was trying to find the most likely places to be attacked next.' A deep feeling of dread descended on Twilight as she looked out at the rubble beyond her shield and knew there was a location that in hindsight should have obviously been at the top of her list. 'PRT Headquarters! My guardsmen!' Shoving her headache and her worry over her eye towards the back of her mind she glanced around but saw nothing but a few hints of rubble through the debris laden smoke. She couldn't start looking for them until she had a better idea of what was beyond the purple field. Her face scrunched up in pain as she took a few breaths to center herself before readying a spell. The unicorn's headache spiked as her horn glowed brighter and a wind stirred outside the dome, slowly gathering strength and clearing the smoke.
Twilight had worked out that PRT HQ had been bombed, but her concussed mind had not put that together with the fact that she was standing on a street. Horror mixed with the blood dripping down her face as the summoned wind allowed her to take in her surroundings. In front of her was a scrambled pile of smoking concrete 20 feet high ending at what was vaguely recognizable as the bottom few floors of the PRT building. Everything above the second floor had been violently sheared off, the remains of which she was standing in the middle of. Behind her the face of the building that had been across the street from PRT HQ looked like it had been mauled. A smear of red among the grey concrete resting against the purple field drew her eye before she turned to the side and threw up.
Closing her good eye she breathed deep as she tried to force the image of the cleanly bisected human thigh from her head. Whoever that had been was beyond any help she could give, but there might be other people still alive in there. Shuddering she looked back at the debris pile in front of her, and now that she could see that nothing was threatening to fall on her she let the shield drop. A small amount of rubble slid into the clear space around her and she coughed as dust filled smoke swirled around her. If there was anyone still alive she would need to find them first then find a way of navigating the wreckage safely. Sluggishly her brain came up with a plan.
Walking up to the edge of the rubble she tilted her head forward and rested her horn against it. Coughing and wincing she lit her horn and a subtle purple glow spread out from it and into the remains of the building. Her head felt like it was going to explode as Twilight processed all the information the wave of magic was returning. Keeping the complex 3D map of the debris in her head while it felt like someone was driving an icepick into her brain was testing Twilight's limits. Two excruciating minutes later she stopped with a pained sigh. Of the dozens of bodies she identified in the rubble, only three were intact enough to still be alive. Twilight was sure she would have nightmares from the mental images she had constructed, but that would be later, right now there were people she could still save.
Two of the people were together in a small pocket of clear space framed by broken support beams while the third was pinned near the top of the pile close to base of the tower. With no way of knowing their condition well enough to choose Twilight decided to excavate the two that were closer to her first. Not trusting her concentration enough to teleport to the top of the rubble she formed a field beneath herself and slowly lifted it to a stable position on top of the pile. Broken spires of metal and glass lit by dim sunlight filtering through the cloud of smoke above jutted up from the remains of the building. Carefully Twilight Formed a force sphere around the people to prevent debris from shifting into the area and began to lift multi-ton girders and concrete columns off the pile and set them gently down behind her.
A few minutes later Twilight slowly lifted the bloody pair of humans from the hole. A PRT officer wearing a black combat vest and an office worker in what might have been a sun dress were hugging each other tightly, both with dozen of small cuts all over their bodies, but alive. Relieved, Twilight set them down next to her. The female PRT officer slowly stood up then gently pulled the other girl to her feet. The office worker leaned against her to avoid putting weight on what looked like a badly swollen lower leg joint. The officer slowly looked around in shock before glancing back down at Twilight.
"Bakuda?" Twilight Nodded, "Thank you for rescuing us. I'm Sergeant Williams, and this is Jessica."
"I mean I think it was Bakuda, no way to tell for sure yet. If you're both ok there is one more person we need to dig out as soon as possible." Sergeant Williams took a deep breath and looked around grimly before responding.
"Only one, you're sure?" Twilight sniffled a little as she nodded.
"Okay, lets go get them."
———————————————
Thirty minutes later Twilight was gently lifting chunks of concrete away from the base of the building under the direction of Williams while a couple of squads setup a triage tent nearby. One of the medics had washed and bandaged Twilight's eye and the image of a Pink pony laughing while speaking like a pirate had briefly surfaced from the muddled sea of Twilight's mind. Bakuda had apparently set off bombs all over the city, and while the Protectorate was responding to them Oni Lee had sprung Lung from imprisonment. The bank robbery had shaken Twilight badly and caused her to suspect that she was in a much darker world than Equestria, but the last week had surpassed that day's bleakest thoughts by an order of magnitude. Now all her guardsmen lay buried in the rubble behind her and she would never have the chance to make up with them.
Twilight was snapped out of her meandering train of thought by a Sergeant Williams falling roughly to the pavement beside her. Twilight started to reach out with a hoof thinking the Sergeant had maybe tripped when she noticed the expanding pool of blood forming beneath Williams. Hyperventilating, she quickly turned Williams over and screamed as she saw the large cut that traversed the sergeant's whole neck. Reacting to a feeling deeper than conscious thought she teleported 10 feet away and spun to face where she had been. A man with a neatly trimmed beard was holding a pair of knives and standing over Sergeant Williams' body, behind him more bodies littered the ground around the trauma tent.
"Ah Ms. Twilight Sparkle. The moment I saw you on TV I just knew I had to introduce myself, extend a personal welcome to earth-bet. Bakuda has done her best, a nice opening act, good enthusiasm but an amateur's lack of style. A dignitary like yourself deserves the best we have to offer." He swept one arm out in a flourish and did a half bow. "My name is Jack and I know a little girl who is just dying to meet you."
Twilight stared at the bodies in horror. Some she had dug out of a bombed out pile of concrete not half an hour past. As Jack continued to talk it seemed like a yawning bottomless pit was opening inside her chest, threatening to pull everything she was inside.
"…In my opinion the best shows all involve audience participation.."
She didn't understand. She didn't understand anything anymore. She had dedicated her life to understanding, but she didn't want to understand this.
"…omising we might consider it an audition. As I mentioned there is a certain little girl I know that would love to have you join our troupe.."
Was this punishment for whatever failure had caused her arrival here? Some unknown level of Tartarus, some dark limbo or nightmare where hope and friends only existed to be snuffed out?
"…Each have chosen their parts in this play…"
From that chasm in her chest a memory floated, a dark crystal, fear, despair, anger.
"….of course they have their own understudies to test…."
Something was slipping inside of her, picking up pieces of herself as it tumbled towards the darkness.
"…Seek help from the PRT or Protectorate I'm afraid there will be penalties…"
A malevolent violet glow started to flicker at the base of her hooves and horn. Twilight's ears popped as the pressure dropped and a strong breeze started to swirl around the block. High above formally white clouds darkened and grew rapidly. Pieces of rubble and massive chunks of concrete rose into the air and began a slow orbit around the unicorn. Along the ground and against nearby buildings crystalline formations seemed to phase in and out of reality. Jack's speech slowed down and a curious look overcame his face as Twilight seemed to stare though him, beyond him.
"Are you listeni…"
The avalanche inside her soul knocked loose something vital, chains of self control that Twilight and Princess Celestia had spent so many years carefully crafting since her entrance exam, snapped.
From the sky a brilliant bolt of purple lightning descended and a deafening boom echoed as concrete, cars, and debris were hurled away from the point of impact. The only non anchored thing not moved by the blast was Twilight. Eyes glowing a dark purple and without conscious thought she stood as the dust cleared. Where Jack had been only a pile of shattered amethyst colored crystal remained. Somewhere at the edge of her hearing, a juvenile scream.
Time had no meaning, but at some point a new noise intruded on the scene and Twilight turned her glowing eyes towards a large bipedal machine as it landed about thirty feet from her. A jagged wall of crystals had grown in a rough circle around her. Some unimportant part of her noted rain and a wind strong enough to make her mane snap in it. A vaguely familiar voice came from the machine, incomprehensible, unimportant, annoying. Simmering anger stirred.
"..Twilight?"
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Interlude 3 - Protectorate
Without warning or movement Dragon was flung sideways and slammed into the the damaged side of an office building. Warning screens flashed as the building wall gave out and the armored suit was pushed through it and then pressed into the ground with enough force to begin cracking the pavement and popping joints on the suit. Dragon attempted to move, to roll, but the force pinning her did not waver. Purple fire licked at the hooves of the unicorn as she stepped through the hole Dragon had just made in the building and proceeded to climb on top of Dragon's chest armor. Unbelievably, given the alloys it was made out of, the armor started to soften and glow where Twilight's hooves rested on it. Remarkably, given her circumstances, Dragon remained calm as she spoke.
"Twilight, It's me Dragon, I'm your friend Twilight. Please, your hurting me Twilight, I'm Dragon, I'm your friend." After a moment the unicorn's head cocked to the side and the fires around Twilight's hooves dimmed slightly. Hesitantly and as if from far away Twilight spoke a soft word.
"Dragon?" Even as Twilight's legs started to sink slightly into her armor Dragon retained her composure and spoke with a gentle kindness.
"Yes, I'm Dragon. We stayed up together these past three days, we talked about your theories of magic and your home, we talked about getting to see each other in person soon." The glow around Twilight's eyes eased up enough that her pupils became visible once more. A shuddering breath escaped her throat along with a half sob.
"Spike? No, no Spike was a dragon. Spike wasn't Dragon. Dragon helped me like Spike the dragon. Dragon's are good helpers and…friends?" The unicorn shook her head from side to side in a frantic confusion "It's so hard..someone was doing something, something bad..we were trying to find them?"
"Yes Twilight." Concern creeping into Dragon's voice as Twilight's memory ventured near that topic. Suddenly Twilight broke down into tears and laid down on armored suit's chest, the molten metal not seeming to effect her while hooves still hot enough to soften metal settled on new areas.
"Oh Dragon, Dragon he killed them! He killed all of them!" Twilight wailed as one of Dragon's arms tried and then failed to overcome the damage that had been done to it in an effort to comfort the crying unicorn.
"Shh, it's ok Twilight, it's ok." Dragon soothed as best she could.
"No, No it's not okay. Nothings okay! Nothings ever going to be ok again! He did that, he did that and then I…I..oh Celestia what did I do?!" Twilight sprung off Dragon's chest flames flaring around her hooves brightly as she sprinted to the hole and looked outside. Rain speed by the wind stung her eyes and sizzled against the pavement where she was standing. Before her the wreckage of the PRT building and the wounded street and buildings around it were covered in dark crystal while towering black clouds laced with lightning massed high above. Twilight raced back to Dragon's side. "You have to get out of here! The crystals are #!@$#, they're negative !#$!#$#$#% emotion..$@#%$#@…fear. I've disturbed the magic @$%@%, I'm causing it, it's #@$% cyclic @$%@%, I can't stop it. If I…maybe, maybe it will dissipate? We have to get out of here!" Dragon tried commanding the suit to move again, one leg shifted, but that was all.
"My suit's damaged Twilight, I can't move. Help's coming."
"No, No tell them to stop, they can't come here!" The flames got brighter and climbed the unicorns legs. The ceramic tile of the lobby cracked in the heat under the Unicorn. Suddenly the glow around Twilight's horn got blindingly bright and when it died down Dragon and Twilight were on a distant rooftop. The Anvil head of the storm could be seen about twenty blocks away. "I have…I have to go..I can still feel the magic and Jack said…Jack said.." Twilight's features turned hysterical. "No! You have to stay away from me! Tell everyone to stay away from me! Jack said.." And with that the Unicorn vanished in a flash of purple light.
Armsmaster clicked a remote and the playback consisting of recording from Dragon, traffic camera's, and Twilights necklace paused.
"Well, thats a shit story." Everyone in the room turned to look disapprovingly at Assault. "What? It is. Getting a pep talk from Jack Slash is about one step down from the Simurgh paying you a house-call." Several people around the table winced at this, but no one denied it. From a screen on the wall Director Costa-Brown spoke up.
"Ok. With the confirmation that the Slaughterhouse Nine are in Brockton Bay I'm issuing a general advisory and requesting those who think they have the ability to help with that threat to report to Protectorate-East-North-East. Do we have confirmation that Jack Slash is dead?"
"Only what we have on the video feeds, we would probably need to talk with Twilight Sparkle for 100% certainty, but the aftermath looked pretty definitive." Armsmaster said as he replayed that scene on the screen.
"Very well," Director Brown responded as if checking something off on a list. "We'll get some Thinkers working on how the other members are likely to react to that development. Status of the area around Brockton Bay's PRT building?"
"It has a real post-modern Mordor look going for it." Assault interjected before Battery spoke over him.
"The storm has drifted out to sea, and now appears to behaving like a natural low pressure system. NWS thinks it will dissipate over the next three days, local fisherman and shipping interests have been advised to avoid the area. We had Gallant cautiously approach the site and he confirmed an overwhelming sense of fear and other negative emotions once he got within two blocks of the nearest crystals. We've cordoned off the area for now, the good news is that the crystals seem to be slowly dissolving. Armsmaster ran the numbers earlier and if nothing changes the last of them should vanish sometime next week."
"Hopefully that will be the case," Costa-Brown continued, "we have to many quarantined areas around the country as it is. Finally, perhaps most importantly now that we have a better idea of the extent of her abilities and her emotional state, where is Twilight Sparkle?" An uncomfortable silence briefly descended before the monitor with Dragon's face responded.
"We don't know Director. Shortly after reporting the situation to Armsmaster he followed the tracking device in the necklace he gave her to a dumpster about a mile away from where she left me. The asphalt around the dumpster had a series of hoof prints melted into it. I've got all the camera's in the city that I can access running a recognition program for her and we're keeping track of all the relevant media. Inferring from her statements that she needed to put distance between herself and the PRT building I have prioritized the areas furthest from there and nearby cities. Nothings turned up yet, but a purple unicorn is bound to draw someone's attention."
"Yeah," Dauntless interjected, "Lets hope it's not the wrong peoples attention."
"To late." Assault added in a tone of gallows humor.
Without warning or movement Dragon was flung sideways and slammed into the the damaged side of an office building. Warning screens flashed as the building wall gave out and the armored suit was pushed through it and then pressed into the ground with enough force to begin cracking the pavement and popping joints on the suit. Dragon attempted to move, to roll, but the force pinning her did not waver. Purple fire licked at the hooves of the unicorn as she stepped through the hole Dragon had just made in the building and proceeded to climb on top of Dragon's chest armor. Unbelievably, given the alloys it was made out of, the armor started to soften and glow where Twilight's hooves rested on it. Remarkably, given her circumstances, Dragon remained calm as she spoke.
"Twilight, It's me Dragon, I'm your friend Twilight. Please, your hurting me Twilight, I'm Dragon, I'm your friend." After a moment the unicorn's head cocked to the side and the fires around Twilight's hooves dimmed slightly. Hesitantly and as if from far away Twilight spoke a soft word.
"Dragon?" Even as Twilight's legs started to sink slightly into her armor Dragon retained her composure and spoke with a gentle kindness.
"Yes, I'm Dragon. We stayed up together these past three days, we talked about your theories of magic and your home, we talked about getting to see each other in person soon." The glow around Twilight's eyes eased up enough that her pupils became visible once more. A shuddering breath escaped her throat along with a half sob.
"Spike? No, no Spike was a dragon. Spike wasn't Dragon. Dragon helped me like Spike the dragon. Dragon's are good helpers and…friends?" The unicorn shook her head from side to side in a frantic confusion "It's so hard..someone was doing something, something bad..we were trying to find them?"
"Yes Twilight." Concern creeping into Dragon's voice as Twilight's memory ventured near that topic. Suddenly Twilight broke down into tears and laid down on armored suit's chest, the molten metal not seeming to effect her while hooves still hot enough to soften metal settled on new areas.
"Oh Dragon, Dragon he killed them! He killed all of them!" Twilight wailed as one of Dragon's arms tried and then failed to overcome the damage that had been done to it in an effort to comfort the crying unicorn.
"Shh, it's ok Twilight, it's ok." Dragon soothed as best she could.
"No, No it's not okay. Nothings okay! Nothings ever going to be ok again! He did that, he did that and then I…I..oh Celestia what did I do?!" Twilight sprung off Dragon's chest flames flaring around her hooves brightly as she sprinted to the hole and looked outside. Rain speed by the wind stung her eyes and sizzled against the pavement where she was standing. Before her the wreckage of the PRT building and the wounded street and buildings around it were covered in dark crystal while towering black clouds laced with lightning massed high above. Twilight raced back to Dragon's side. "You have to get out of here! The crystals are #!@$#, they're negative !#$!#$#$#% emotion..$@#%$#@…fear. I've disturbed the magic @$%@%, I'm causing it, it's #@$% cyclic @$%@%, I can't stop it. If I…maybe, maybe it will dissipate? We have to get out of here!" Dragon tried commanding the suit to move again, one leg shifted, but that was all.
"My suit's damaged Twilight, I can't move. Help's coming."
"No, No tell them to stop, they can't come here!" The flames got brighter and climbed the unicorns legs. The ceramic tile of the lobby cracked in the heat under the Unicorn. Suddenly the glow around Twilight's horn got blindingly bright and when it died down Dragon and Twilight were on a distant rooftop. The Anvil head of the storm could be seen about twenty blocks away. "I have…I have to go..I can still feel the magic and Jack said…Jack said.." Twilight's features turned hysterical. "No! You have to stay away from me! Tell everyone to stay away from me! Jack said.." And with that the Unicorn vanished in a flash of purple light.
Armsmaster clicked a remote and the playback consisting of recording from Dragon, traffic camera's, and Twilights necklace paused.
"Well, thats a shit story." Everyone in the room turned to look disapprovingly at Assault. "What? It is. Getting a pep talk from Jack Slash is about one step down from the Simurgh paying you a house-call." Several people around the table winced at this, but no one denied it. From a screen on the wall Director Costa-Brown spoke up.
"Ok. With the confirmation that the Slaughterhouse Nine are in Brockton Bay I'm issuing a general advisory and requesting those who think they have the ability to help with that threat to report to Protectorate-East-North-East. Do we have confirmation that Jack Slash is dead?"
"Only what we have on the video feeds, we would probably need to talk with Twilight Sparkle for 100% certainty, but the aftermath looked pretty definitive." Armsmaster said as he replayed that scene on the screen.
"Very well," Director Brown responded as if checking something off on a list. "We'll get some Thinkers working on how the other members are likely to react to that development. Status of the area around Brockton Bay's PRT building?"
"It has a real post-modern Mordor look going for it." Assault interjected before Battery spoke over him.
"The storm has drifted out to sea, and now appears to behaving like a natural low pressure system. NWS thinks it will dissipate over the next three days, local fisherman and shipping interests have been advised to avoid the area. We had Gallant cautiously approach the site and he confirmed an overwhelming sense of fear and other negative emotions once he got within two blocks of the nearest crystals. We've cordoned off the area for now, the good news is that the crystals seem to be slowly dissolving. Armsmaster ran the numbers earlier and if nothing changes the last of them should vanish sometime next week."
"Hopefully that will be the case," Costa-Brown continued, "we have to many quarantined areas around the country as it is. Finally, perhaps most importantly now that we have a better idea of the extent of her abilities and her emotional state, where is Twilight Sparkle?" An uncomfortable silence briefly descended before the monitor with Dragon's face responded.
"We don't know Director. Shortly after reporting the situation to Armsmaster he followed the tracking device in the necklace he gave her to a dumpster about a mile away from where she left me. The asphalt around the dumpster had a series of hoof prints melted into it. I've got all the camera's in the city that I can access running a recognition program for her and we're keeping track of all the relevant media. Inferring from her statements that she needed to put distance between herself and the PRT building I have prioritized the areas furthest from there and nearby cities. Nothings turned up yet, but a purple unicorn is bound to draw someone's attention."
"Yeah," Dauntless interjected, "Lets hope it's not the wrong peoples attention."
"To late." Assault added in a tone of gallows humor.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Interlude 4 - Taylor
Taylor was about to call it a night. Even though tomorrow was a Saturday and thus she had the ability to sleep in, a week of late nights and early mornings was catching up with her. She was wandering around an industrial section of the city north of the train yards that looked like it had last seen industry sometime before the first world war. Honestly if Bakuda bombed the area she wasn't sure if anyone would notice. There were however a great many abandoned textile mills and foundries that might be appealing to a villainous tinker set on blowing up the city and looking for a discrete place lay low. She was wearing her homeless thrift store outfit #2 on top of her spider silk costume to try to keep her profile low as her swarm spread out over the blocks in front and parallel to her. If she could somehow capture Bakuda and claim the reward, not only would she be ridding the city of the person responsible for the worst crisis in her memory, she felt it could cement her desired moral mercenary image. Possibly make a big enough impression to sway public perception of her from villain to rogue and certainly up her credentials for future clients.
Just as she decided that this block was going to be her last for the evening the bugs at northern most edge of her control ran into what she could only interpret as solid air. After days of finding nothing of any real interest at all it required no thought to head in that direction. As her area of control spread out in that direction she was slowly able to find the edges of the anomaly and form a picture of it in her head. A dome roughly 35 feet across in a large brick building that was probably three blocks long and one wide. A medium sized stream ran along the northern side that might have at one point in the past driven the machinery there. Once she got within sight of the building she paused to consider her options.
Constant practice with her bugs had expanded her ability to sense things through them, but anything visual was still beyond her. There didn't seem to be any activity at all outside the dome, not in the building nor in the blocks around it. Noise of some sort was coming from inside the area, but while she had been making more progress on sounds than sight, it wasn't enough for her to identify anything specific. She didn't get the impression of conversation or of machinery, which likely meant that this wasn't Bakuda's lair. It was something however, and Taylor had already figured out that information was the most valuable currency in the cape community. With no other options in front of her she made her way to the side of the building farthest from the anomaly and looked for a discrete way inside.
On the stream side of the building she found a window lacking both boards and glass just outside of her reach. Keeping an eye on the dome and the surrounding area with her bugs she searched around and found a handful of bricks that when stacked up gave her just enough height to grasp the windowsill and pull herself in. As her stomach slid over the rough glittering sill she was once again grateful for the time she took in constructing her costume. Gently levering herself over the edge she eased onto the floor inside. Glass crunched under her feet as she looked around the darkened room. Dust swirled in the moonlight filtering in from the window, illuminating a hundred years of litter and faded graffiti, but not much else. It was obvious that it had been quite some time since even vagrants had graced the building with their presence. A building with more spiders and less cockroaches than one closer to human habitation would have.
Cautiously she made her way through the room and past an arched brick doorway into a wide hallway littered with mouldering scraps of lumber that looked like they had fallen from the ceiling high above. At the far end of the hall a purple light flickered from an open doorway. Something about the shade of the light seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place from where. When she got close enough to see through the opening she couldn't quite believe her eyes, but she did have a answer to why that shade of purple was familiar. Twilight Sparkle, the alien unicorn that she had met on her disastrous first night out as a cape. The unicorn who had, however inadvertently, gotten her labeled as a villain. Any resentment she might have had at that thought wilted at the miserable sight in front of her.
Twilight lay in the middle of a massive room, the ground underneath her looked blackened like it had been exposed to fire and as the unicorn shifted small puffs of ash rose around her and stained her coat with dark smears. She wasn't currently crying but tear tracks ran down the dirty fur of her face as she stared morosely at a scroll floating in front of her. A shimmering purple dome centered on the unicorn took up most of the room and started only a few feet from the the other side of the doorway Taylor was standing behind. She had heard that the PRT building where Twilight had been staying had been leveled by one of Bakuda's bombs earlier today, but there hadn't been any word about the unicorn in the broadcast. How had she ended up here? And in the state she was in? Taylor supposed there was only one way to find out.
"Twilight?" The unicorn startled at the sound, the scroll that had been floating in front of her lost its purple glow, rolled up, and fell to the floor. Her head swung in a frantic movement towards the sound and small flickers of flame sprung up around Twilight's hooves.
"Who's there?" The forcefield's glow seemed to intensify as Twilight stood up and backed away from the door. Slowly Taylor walked into the light of doorway, pulling the hood the sweater she was wearing down to reveal her costumed mask as she did so. Twilight startled again and did a short hop backwards before a look of tentative recognition came over her equine face. "Ta? No you said that wasn't your name. Bug?"
"Skitter actually." The unicorn nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment before a weary look over took her.
"When we were on the roof Tattletale called you a bad guy, and you were friendly with her. Those people on the roof really hurt my friends when they robbed that bank. I..I don't have a lot of control right now, so if..if you're here to hurt me.."
"I'm not here to hurt you Twilight, and I don't work with the Undersiders because I don't want to hurt people. I wasn't at the bank was I?" Twilight shook her head, tension in her body easing a little. "I'm not a villain Twilight, I might not be in the wards, but I'm not a bad guy either. I live here and in my own way I want to make the city a better place."
"I wan't to believe you, you don't sound like a bad person. But he didn't sound bad, and he..he killed all those people and talked about it like we were having a discussion over tea!" The flames flared around Twilight's legs and a small piece of litter caught fire and was carried upwards by the heat. "I..I don't know. How can I know anything anymore?"
"Who killed people?" Taylor asked in her best attempt at a calming voice, while at the same time preparing to dive to the side behind the brick doorway if it looked like the distraught alien might lash out. The unicorn shivered and her eyes went a little glassy and distant when she responded.
"He..He called himself Jack. He showed up after the tower collapsed, said he and a little girl he knew had been wanting to meet me…He had a knife, he..before I knew he was there he had killed everyone! Everyone! Even the people I had just saved…he said I deserved a proper show, like he had done me a favor…and then I…I…oh how can I ever face Celestia again?" Twilight trailed off as fresh tears trickled down her face and she turned slightly to the side. Taylor tried to put what she had just heard together and after a moment came to a horrifying conclusion. A murderer named Jack, who used knives, and talked about a little girl that he wanted to introduce Twilight to. Suddenly it seemed like a much worse idea to be wandering around Brockton Bay by herself. The slaughterhouse nine, an alien, Bakuda. What the hell was going on?
She had been a cape for a little less than two weeks. After that first awful night and her decision to go rogue she had slowly been getting her bearings. Now she felt completely out of depth all over again. Tattletale had called her exactly once, but not for a job. She had given her a number and a name and said it was a bad idea to work alone. She wasn't sure why Tattletale had called her to offer the advice, maybe some lingering feeling of gratitude over the Lung situation, whatever the reason the advice had been good. Having people to talk to, capes that had been in the business, had saved her life at least once. They hadn't been interested in pursuing Bakuda, but this was bigger than her, it was time to make a call.
"Twilight I know you don't have at lot of reason to trust me and I don't know why you haven't gone back to the Protectorate.."
"I can't!" Twilight interjected frantically. "He said they'd kill them!"
"Ok, It's ok Twilight. Did you escape? Teleport?" Twilight flinched and turned her head away, just when Taylor thought she wasn't going to respond Twilight murmured so quietly that she almost missed it.
"I killed him." Shock, shock and disbelief. Taylor stared at the huddled unicorn without response until the muffled sobs carried to her ears. Pulling herself together she found her voice again.
"That must have been hard. But Twilight you shouldn't let that or what he said stop you from going to your friends. People like him, they like to make you think they have more power than they do. The fact that he's dead, I guarantee you he didn't plan on that.."
"I can't..I can't take that chance. You didn't see, what he did, I just can't." Twilight was crying in earnest now and had Taylor not been prevented by the forcefield and the fact she was talking to someone who had just claimed to have killed one of the worlds most feared villains she would have been tempted to go over and hug her.
"Ok, if you can't go to your friends, maybe mine can help. Do you trust me?" Twilight choked out a half sob as she turned to face Taylor fully. She looked hesitant, to sad or to scared to hope. Something pinged in her chest, a deep sympathy, and impulsively she pulled off her mask and asked again. "Do you trust me?" A range of emotions washed over Twilight's face and she looked upwards as if struck by a memory.
"I..ok, ok..I think If I don't try, I might..ok..I'll trust you." Taylor let out a sigh of relief and returned the trust by fully entering the room and sitting down next to the doorway. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a cell phone a dialed a string of numbers before bringing it up to her ear.
"Faultline, this is Skitter."
Taylor was about to call it a night. Even though tomorrow was a Saturday and thus she had the ability to sleep in, a week of late nights and early mornings was catching up with her. She was wandering around an industrial section of the city north of the train yards that looked like it had last seen industry sometime before the first world war. Honestly if Bakuda bombed the area she wasn't sure if anyone would notice. There were however a great many abandoned textile mills and foundries that might be appealing to a villainous tinker set on blowing up the city and looking for a discrete place lay low. She was wearing her homeless thrift store outfit #2 on top of her spider silk costume to try to keep her profile low as her swarm spread out over the blocks in front and parallel to her. If she could somehow capture Bakuda and claim the reward, not only would she be ridding the city of the person responsible for the worst crisis in her memory, she felt it could cement her desired moral mercenary image. Possibly make a big enough impression to sway public perception of her from villain to rogue and certainly up her credentials for future clients.
Just as she decided that this block was going to be her last for the evening the bugs at northern most edge of her control ran into what she could only interpret as solid air. After days of finding nothing of any real interest at all it required no thought to head in that direction. As her area of control spread out in that direction she was slowly able to find the edges of the anomaly and form a picture of it in her head. A dome roughly 35 feet across in a large brick building that was probably three blocks long and one wide. A medium sized stream ran along the northern side that might have at one point in the past driven the machinery there. Once she got within sight of the building she paused to consider her options.
Constant practice with her bugs had expanded her ability to sense things through them, but anything visual was still beyond her. There didn't seem to be any activity at all outside the dome, not in the building nor in the blocks around it. Noise of some sort was coming from inside the area, but while she had been making more progress on sounds than sight, it wasn't enough for her to identify anything specific. She didn't get the impression of conversation or of machinery, which likely meant that this wasn't Bakuda's lair. It was something however, and Taylor had already figured out that information was the most valuable currency in the cape community. With no other options in front of her she made her way to the side of the building farthest from the anomaly and looked for a discrete way inside.
On the stream side of the building she found a window lacking both boards and glass just outside of her reach. Keeping an eye on the dome and the surrounding area with her bugs she searched around and found a handful of bricks that when stacked up gave her just enough height to grasp the windowsill and pull herself in. As her stomach slid over the rough glittering sill she was once again grateful for the time she took in constructing her costume. Gently levering herself over the edge she eased onto the floor inside. Glass crunched under her feet as she looked around the darkened room. Dust swirled in the moonlight filtering in from the window, illuminating a hundred years of litter and faded graffiti, but not much else. It was obvious that it had been quite some time since even vagrants had graced the building with their presence. A building with more spiders and less cockroaches than one closer to human habitation would have.
Cautiously she made her way through the room and past an arched brick doorway into a wide hallway littered with mouldering scraps of lumber that looked like they had fallen from the ceiling high above. At the far end of the hall a purple light flickered from an open doorway. Something about the shade of the light seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place from where. When she got close enough to see through the opening she couldn't quite believe her eyes, but she did have a answer to why that shade of purple was familiar. Twilight Sparkle, the alien unicorn that she had met on her disastrous first night out as a cape. The unicorn who had, however inadvertently, gotten her labeled as a villain. Any resentment she might have had at that thought wilted at the miserable sight in front of her.
Twilight lay in the middle of a massive room, the ground underneath her looked blackened like it had been exposed to fire and as the unicorn shifted small puffs of ash rose around her and stained her coat with dark smears. She wasn't currently crying but tear tracks ran down the dirty fur of her face as she stared morosely at a scroll floating in front of her. A shimmering purple dome centered on the unicorn took up most of the room and started only a few feet from the the other side of the doorway Taylor was standing behind. She had heard that the PRT building where Twilight had been staying had been leveled by one of Bakuda's bombs earlier today, but there hadn't been any word about the unicorn in the broadcast. How had she ended up here? And in the state she was in? Taylor supposed there was only one way to find out.
"Twilight?" The unicorn startled at the sound, the scroll that had been floating in front of her lost its purple glow, rolled up, and fell to the floor. Her head swung in a frantic movement towards the sound and small flickers of flame sprung up around Twilight's hooves.
"Who's there?" The forcefield's glow seemed to intensify as Twilight stood up and backed away from the door. Slowly Taylor walked into the light of doorway, pulling the hood the sweater she was wearing down to reveal her costumed mask as she did so. Twilight startled again and did a short hop backwards before a look of tentative recognition came over her equine face. "Ta? No you said that wasn't your name. Bug?"
"Skitter actually." The unicorn nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment before a weary look over took her.
"When we were on the roof Tattletale called you a bad guy, and you were friendly with her. Those people on the roof really hurt my friends when they robbed that bank. I..I don't have a lot of control right now, so if..if you're here to hurt me.."
"I'm not here to hurt you Twilight, and I don't work with the Undersiders because I don't want to hurt people. I wasn't at the bank was I?" Twilight shook her head, tension in her body easing a little. "I'm not a villain Twilight, I might not be in the wards, but I'm not a bad guy either. I live here and in my own way I want to make the city a better place."
"I wan't to believe you, you don't sound like a bad person. But he didn't sound bad, and he..he killed all those people and talked about it like we were having a discussion over tea!" The flames flared around Twilight's legs and a small piece of litter caught fire and was carried upwards by the heat. "I..I don't know. How can I know anything anymore?"
"Who killed people?" Taylor asked in her best attempt at a calming voice, while at the same time preparing to dive to the side behind the brick doorway if it looked like the distraught alien might lash out. The unicorn shivered and her eyes went a little glassy and distant when she responded.
"He..He called himself Jack. He showed up after the tower collapsed, said he and a little girl he knew had been wanting to meet me…He had a knife, he..before I knew he was there he had killed everyone! Everyone! Even the people I had just saved…he said I deserved a proper show, like he had done me a favor…and then I…I…oh how can I ever face Celestia again?" Twilight trailed off as fresh tears trickled down her face and she turned slightly to the side. Taylor tried to put what she had just heard together and after a moment came to a horrifying conclusion. A murderer named Jack, who used knives, and talked about a little girl that he wanted to introduce Twilight to. Suddenly it seemed like a much worse idea to be wandering around Brockton Bay by herself. The slaughterhouse nine, an alien, Bakuda. What the hell was going on?
She had been a cape for a little less than two weeks. After that first awful night and her decision to go rogue she had slowly been getting her bearings. Now she felt completely out of depth all over again. Tattletale had called her exactly once, but not for a job. She had given her a number and a name and said it was a bad idea to work alone. She wasn't sure why Tattletale had called her to offer the advice, maybe some lingering feeling of gratitude over the Lung situation, whatever the reason the advice had been good. Having people to talk to, capes that had been in the business, had saved her life at least once. They hadn't been interested in pursuing Bakuda, but this was bigger than her, it was time to make a call.
"Twilight I know you don't have at lot of reason to trust me and I don't know why you haven't gone back to the Protectorate.."
"I can't!" Twilight interjected frantically. "He said they'd kill them!"
"Ok, It's ok Twilight. Did you escape? Teleport?" Twilight flinched and turned her head away, just when Taylor thought she wasn't going to respond Twilight murmured so quietly that she almost missed it.
"I killed him." Shock, shock and disbelief. Taylor stared at the huddled unicorn without response until the muffled sobs carried to her ears. Pulling herself together she found her voice again.
"That must have been hard. But Twilight you shouldn't let that or what he said stop you from going to your friends. People like him, they like to make you think they have more power than they do. The fact that he's dead, I guarantee you he didn't plan on that.."
"I can't..I can't take that chance. You didn't see, what he did, I just can't." Twilight was crying in earnest now and had Taylor not been prevented by the forcefield and the fact she was talking to someone who had just claimed to have killed one of the worlds most feared villains she would have been tempted to go over and hug her.
"Ok, if you can't go to your friends, maybe mine can help. Do you trust me?" Twilight choked out a half sob as she turned to face Taylor fully. She looked hesitant, to sad or to scared to hope. Something pinged in her chest, a deep sympathy, and impulsively she pulled off her mask and asked again. "Do you trust me?" A range of emotions washed over Twilight's face and she looked upwards as if struck by a memory.
"I..ok, ok..I think If I don't try, I might..ok..I'll trust you." Taylor let out a sigh of relief and returned the trust by fully entering the room and sitting down next to the doorway. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a cell phone a dialed a string of numbers before bringing it up to her ear.
"Faultline, this is Skitter."
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
CHAPTER 6
As Skitter spoke quietly into the phone Twilight first dissipated then instantly recast her shield spell so that it now followed the contours of the brick room and thus included Skitter inside of it. Skitter paused and looked up at Twilight suddenly as the change happened. Twilight gave her a nervous rictus of a smile and the bug talking human went back to speaking into the phone. 'There. Not as efficient as a dome, but now no one can sneak up behind her like..No, no I'm not going to think about that.' Instead the Unicorn let her mind drift to a safer topic and pondered the meaning behind Skitter taking off her mask.
She had been in this world two weeks and the human notions on privacy and trust still befuddled her a little. The idea of hiding your identity in pony society where clothes were worn only at formal events or special occasions was somewhat ludicrous. Who you were, what you looked like, and your special talent were always on display to everyone around you. Humans were different. They wore clothes all the time and changed them for every activity. Some of them, mostly the magic wielding ones, had multiple names and you had to be careful to call them a particular name based on what they were wearing or they got very upset. At first Twilight thought this was something like the formal ranks and proper procedure of the royal guards, this did seem to be true for some of the members of the PRT and Peacekeepers, but the rules for the "Parahumans" seemed more subtle and complex.
After discarding the notion that they were analogous to ranks She thought maybe the "costume names" were like the human version of cutie marks. Since humans went clothed all the time any mark would be covered. So instead when you discovered your special talent you chose a name that symbolized that talent. That didn't quite fit however, because so very few humans cast magic and surely the vast majority of their population were not still searching for their purpose. Then it had been made very clear that the non costumed names and faces were a secret not to be revealed, that the wards telling her their non talent names was a sign of trust and friendship.
Which was bizarre. Costumed or not Twilight could have picked any of the humans she had met out of a crowd. Since they could not sense the magic field, Twilight understood that they couldn't see the unique interactions each of them made in it, but were human noses so much worse that they could not recognize an individual's smell? Could they not hear the the uniqueness of each other's voices? Were they so face oriented that they ignored all the other body cues that spoke so constantly to Twilight saying "This is who I am." Twilight was still a little confused sometimes when it came to interpreting the body language of humans since they lacked the tail and mobile ears of ponies, but her lack of understanding didn't mean that the cues that were there were no less unique and readily seen.
Twilight supposed that some of those thoughts had to be true, otherwise their customs made no sense at all. So what did it mean exactly that Skitter had shone her face to Twilight, but had not shared her non talent name? A measure of trust? Some sort of middling intimacy? Given the conversational cues and Skitters actions Twilight guessed that might be right. It was hard for her to think that way though. Everything about you made you who you were and proclaimed it to the world. Not just your name, or your face, or your talent, but all of that together with your actions, your friends, and everything else. The idea of sectioning yourself up and saying, "These parts are one me, Those parts are another," didn't seem right nor particularly good for someone. Still she tried to respect the intent of the gesture that the wards and now Skitter had shown her even if it was culturally strange and in practice meaningless to her. It meant something to them, and there were probably many subtleties in it that she was missing completely. Regardless it was nice to see Skitter's face instead of the vaguely threatening mask she wore.
After another few minutes Skitter stopped talking and closed her phone. She gave Twilight a small smile before she spoke.
"Okay, it'll take them a little while to get here and make sure they are not followed, but help's on the way." Twilight fidgeted nervously at the idea of more people and Skitter seemed to pick up on it. "Don't worry they're smart and are used to solving problems without attracting attention. Between all of us we'll think of something."
"I hope so. I thought I was good at solving problems, but everything here is so.." She trailed off not quite sure what word would suffice to finish that sentence. Twilight shook her head and then sneezed when it dislodged some of the dust in her mane. She looked over herself with a bit of disgust at the idea of meeting new people in her current state. She wasn't a particularly vain pony but her parents had instilled the idea that it was politeness to be presentable when meeting new ponies. Besides like the mystery of the mask, it gave her something to think about that wasn't what she wasn't going to think about, no not at all. "I..I think I'm going to clean up a little before they get here." Skitter looked around the barren room and then back to Twilight.
"Um, how? I'm not sure if this place ever had plumbing to begin with."
"A little bit of magic." Twilight said with a little genuine smile. The idea of casting some magic for something as mundane as getting cleaned up instead of trying to suss out dimensional travel or a life or death situation felt good, felt right. "Um, I'm still working on getting my control back so if I catch fire or glow, don't worry ok?" Skitter looked highly skeptical of this last statement but nodded anyway. Twilight's horn began to glow and purple fire did erupt around her hooves before the glow enveloped her and she blinked out of existence only to reappear a few feet to the right of where she had been. A small dirty shadow of Twilight stood for a second in her original location before collapsing and swirling away.
She looked over herself again. Better, but her mane and fur was still unkempt and stained in places. Not Acceptable. Horn glowing brighter, she concentrated. Unlike her teleportation, pulling this off would really test her. After she had surprised Princess Celestia with her ability to transmute a paper and quill she had given her a much more complex pattern and encouraged her to learn it, saying that it was one of the most useful applications of magic she would ever learn. Like so many things Celestia said Twilight was never sure if she had been serious or simply been testing her in some way. Flames rushed up her body and her eyes went briefly white as she completed the spell and a dull snap echoed off the brick walls.
Twilight walked over to her creation and then eased down into the Alicorn sized tub filled with steaming water whose rim rested just above the dirt floor of the room. As her mane spread out over the surface of the water Twilight let out a sigh of bliss. She would never doubt Celestia again. She dunked her head then resurfaced and opened her eyes. Skitter was looking at her with wide eyed shock. Had she done something wrong? Another taboo or custom she didn't know about? Before she could descend into fretting Skitter snapped out of it.
"That was amazing," she said sincerely. "I mean there have been a few rumors on the boards about what you could do, but nothing concrete, and nothing like that. So not only a mover and a blaster, but a shaker to? Well I guess the forcefields would be classified as a shaker ability, but I have never seen someone do something like you just did." Twilight couldn't help but be pleased, it felt nice to have someone recognize a skill she had spent such a long time practicing. She was also a little confused. Mover, blaster, shaker? She wasn't sure if she was getting the right translation here and she was sure even with as difficult as transmutation was there had to be some human magicians capable of the task. Maybe Skitter just had not met them?
"Um, thank you. When did you realize you had a talent for speaking with insects?" A dark look overcame Skitter's face for a moment but Twilight missed it as she was struck by the memory of a yellow pegasus with three pink butterflies as her cutie mark. A warm feeling that had nothing to do with the water temperature settled into her chest. "I think I knew someone that was good at talking with animals and insects. She was…shy? I think with ponies, but she loved animals." Skitter let out a breath a gave what might have been a smile.
"I found my power earlier this year. I'm not sure you could call it love in my case, but I guess affection. It's hard not to get at least a little attached to them when they help me out as much as they do." Skitter looked like she was going to elaborate but Twilight heard something and stilled in the water and her tension must have been apparent because Skitter went still as well. One of Twilights ears rotated around to angle behind her and after a second she spoke quietly.
"A car is coming, a bigger one."
Skitter nodded and said just as quietly, "Thats probably my friends, let me check." She stood up and pulled her mask back on her face then pulled her phone back out and pushed a few keys. A moment later a soft chime sounded and Skitter nodded. "It is them. I'll go meet them at the window and bring them back here. Ok?"
Twilight didn't like the idea, no not at all. And in a moment she was out of the tub and only slightly damp. She walked up next to Skitter and contracted the shield until it was only a little bigger than the area they took up.
"Lets go together."
When they got to the smaller room with the un-boarded window Twilight concentrated and as her horn brightened a series of translucent purple planes appeared forming steps up to the sill. A matching set descending to the ground outside materialized a moment later.
"That's convenient." Skitter said as the noise of a car engine approached and then shut off. "I've got some bugs directing them in the right direction, they should be here in a second." Twilight fidgeted nervously again and backed away from the open window so that she was partially standing in the hallway, without really thinking about it she expanded the shield that was surrounding Skitter and herself to accommodate the new distance. A few minutes later the most unique human Twilight had yet seen came through the window and walked down the steps. His bright orange coloration and dark red mane was a color combination that wouldn't have been out of place in Canterlot and a long prehensile tail trailed behind him. It made her think of home. Combined with the easy smile on his face Twilight's anxiety eased a bit. She remembered Director Piggot saying there was only one human race as ponies defined the term, but clearly she was mistaken. While his coloration wouldn't change that estimation, possessing an extra appendage certainly qualified. Interestingly he did not wear a mask and only a minimum amount of clothing which made Twilight wonder if people of his race had customs more similar to hers than the humans she had met so far.
The orange human looked over the both of them and declared, "I'll be damned. Didn't think you could get more conspicuous than me." He stretched one arm up and made a beckoning gesture with his hand and a woman climbed up and inside quickly followed a small figure in a hooded robe. The woman's clothing was strange. It was like someone had taken a Peacekeeper's set of armor, modified it in strange ways and then put a dress on. She looked around the room like she was marking everything about it into her memory. She had the same kind of look that someone of the older royal guardsponies had. Professional. Cautious. After a moment she spoke.
"Ok, just to get the formalities out of the way. I'm Faultline, this is Labyrinth," she gestured beside her, "and that's Newter. Two more of my team are just outside. Gregor won't fit through the window and I don't want to waste time or draw attention by widening it. Skitter's t.."
"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I don't think it's a good idea to leave anyone alone outside. If it wouldn't bother you or Gregor I could do a quick teleport and bring him inside?" Twilight offered hesitantly. Faultline considered this and then nodded.
"Gregor, Ms. Sparkle wants to teleport you inside. You ok with that?"
A deep voice came from just outside the window. "This would not bother me." Twilight took a deep breath and then dismissed her shield spell, leaving the only remaining illumination in the room as the soft glow of the steps she walked up. She saw both Faultline and Newter tense slightly at the sudden change and Skitter moved her arms in what Twilight had learned was a calming gesture for humans. When she reached the sill and could look out she saw the other two members of Faultline's team.
It was apparent who Gregor was immediately as only one of the two people outside would have any problem with the window. His pale skin shone in the soft moonlight interrupted occasionally by dark patches, like a inverted night sky. Twilight walked down the stairs and nervously looked around the area before speaking. She noticed Faultline observing from inside the window.
"Ok, um," she looked blankly at the shorter female who interjected.
"Spitfire."
"And I am Gregor."
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. The stairs will probably disappear once I start the teleport, so you may want to go ahead." Twilight said as she nodded towards Spitfire. The red and black dressed human looked up at Faultline and then proceeded up the steps and into the room. Twilight went ahead and dismissed the steps and turned to Gregor while speaking loud enough for the people inside to hear. "Ok, there may be a little flame, and a bright flash and then we'll be inside in the corner farthest from the window." Gregor nodded and Twilight lit her horn and began to power the spell. Once again flames appeared around her hooves and Twilight had to shove the dismal thoughts about her shattered control to the back of her mind as she concentrated on the teleportation. Her horn grew brighter and then with a flash they were standing inside with everyone else. Gregor reached out with one arm and steadied himself against the wall. At the worried look from Twilight and Faultline he spoke.
"I am alright. It was disorientating but no more than that." With this confirmation Faultline picked up where she had left off.
"Skitter's told us a few things." Twilight shuddered as that sentence brought her mind back to what they were all doing here. "I apologize for brining up what I must imagine is a very bad memory, but we need all the information we can get before we can tell you if we can take the job."
"It's.." No it wasn't ok. "I understand. Job?" At the question Faultline shot a look in Skitter's direction who spoke up quickly.
"Twilight. Faultline and her crew are my friends. They are good people, but they're not like the Wards or the Protectorate, they don't get money from the government. They have to get paid for the work they do." Twilight looked despondent at this.
"I don't have any money. Certainly not any human money. I'm sor-"
"Skitter told us that would likely be the case," Faultline interjected. "Once we know the whole story, if I think the risk level is acceptable and we can help I'm sure we can settle on a non-monetary price." Twilight looked confused by this and Skitter again hopped in to translate.
"You're pretty powerful Twilight. What Faultline is talking about is you doing some favors for them." Twilight brightened back up again at this before being brought down by Faultline's next words.
"Tell us what happened."
Twilight couldn't force herself to start with what they really wanted to know. Instead she started at the beginning of the day. She told them about how she had been working with Dragon to try and figure out where Bakuda would place her next bombs and where she could be hiding. For fifteen or Twenty minutes she rambled on, her words meandering but inevitably bringing her closer to the worst moment in her life. When she got there she had built up enough momentum that she was able to continue. She hardly noticed the tears pouring down her face as she spoke.
"I was so scared…and sad..and confused…How..How could someone do that..act like that? He kept talking, talking so calmly about auditions and plays…he said I couldn't ask the PRT or Protectorate for help, he said something about penalties…about other members auditioning?…I..was, something, slipping…I…lost..something..saw… something..a crystal…when he was talking." Twilight sobbed and purple flames traced up her legs and something dark flickered into existence on the wall behind her. A palpable aura of fear filled the room and suddenly Labyrinth was there and hugging Twilight around her neck. The hug and Labyrinth's body was stiff, almost mechanical, but it helped, it helped a lot. The overwhelming fear faded from the air and the wall returned to normal. Twilight spoke again as Labyrinth continued her embrace.
"I..lost control..my emotions @#$%@# the magic field, it fed back on itself. I..was..anger is not enough to describe…It was awful…black..evil. I didn't have much..sense of…myself, but I did..something..I turned all of that darkness..collected it…told it to strike Jack. I..was..not quite..there, but I remember enough…I shattered his body into a million pieces…and I did it on purpose." Twilight sobbed against Labyrinth's shoulder and for a while the room was silent except for her tears.
"..ck me." Newter said quietly before Gregor rested a hand on his shoulder and spoke gently in his deep voice.
"I am truly sorry. To go through that, it is terrible. I see it pains you, this taking of life. It should, everyone should feel such pain when a life is taken. Jack Slash did not, and that is what made him a monster. He spoke calmly and lightly because the suffering of others, the taking of lives, these things he did not feel at all. I am sorry that you killed him, for the hurt that it is causing you. I am not sorry at all that he is dead. Nor do I think you would find anyone that is." Twilight looked up from Labyrinth's shoulder and at the gentle face of the huge man. She..couldn't accept that. At the same time his words, his understanding, had made her feel a little better. Faultline cleared her throat and spoke in her professional voice, tempered now with a little softness that was absent earlier.
"Alright. First, the Slaughterhouse Nine are in town. Thats about the worst news there is and they are way out of our league. If you were looking for someone to fight them, I'm sorry but no bounty in the world is enough for that risk." Twilight shook her head side to side. "Here's what we can do. We have a…meeting tomorrow with some of the other non-Protectorate capes in Brockton Bay. We were going to discuss the ABB and Bakuda and likely talk about joining forces to help the Protectorate run them down. If you remember any of your research we can pass that along to them and hopefully take care of that problem. We can also warn them about the Nine, and there are some powerful people that may be able to stop some of them, possibly between them and the heroes that will be coming to town it will be enough. Given the Nine's interest in you the most important thing is to keep you hidden from them. We can find you a safe house, someplace nicer than this. Food, power, water, supplies…"
She trailed off as she focused on Labyrinth still hugging the unicorn.
"..company. We might find a discrete way for you to get in touch with the PRT, let them know you're alright and share information. Basically hunker down, help where we can, and weather the storm. Would that work for you?"
Twilight thought for a moment, Labyrinth's body still in the exact same position around her as it had been at the start of the hug. It didn't feel right, the idea of leaving others to fight such a horrible thing. At the same time, she wasn't sure she could face someone else like Jack. And if she did, and if she lived, she wasn't sure she would be able to face herself. This was better than that. She shifted her eyes to Faultline.
"Thank you, someplace safe, sleep. That would be good."
"Ok, everyone lets move. Twilight, if you would?" The glowing planes of force reappeared leading up to the window and Faultline bent down to whisper in Labyrinth's ear who slowly and with that same mechanical feel released Twilight. When everyone was outside except Twilight and Gregor she turned to him.
"Are you ready?"
"I am." With a flash of light they were outside standing next to the others. Faultline pointed to a run down van, that if Twilight had not known they had driven here, would have sworn had been sitting abandoned in this very lot for years. They were about halfway to it when it exploded.
Everyone flinched and crouched away from the blast as fire spread out rapidly from the wreck in every direction. Twilight saw Faultline unholster a pistol and use her other arm to begin to draw Labyrinth behind her when a fireball detonated in the middle of the group and split it in half. Faultline, Labyrinth, Spitfire, and Newter where flung to one side while Gregor, Skitter, and Twilight were hurled to the other. In the middle of her uncontrolled tumble Twilight saw a figure rise out of the flames where the blast had hit. The flames illuminated a girl's face pockmarked with ugly circular burn scars.
Just as Twilight was sliding to a stop over the rough gravel of the lot she saw the figure in the flames raise both her arms and flames followed the movement and shot out towards both groups. Gregor threw A glob of something which intercepted the trail of fire that was headed in their direction. Bugs seemed to fly in from every direction towards the girl in the red dress standing in the flames. The girl flinched as something stung her and flames sprung up around her before being flung outwards again. Gregor threw more slime, but Skitter was grazed was knocked to the ground her costume smoldering as she rolled along the ground.
On the other side Faultline had ducked out of the flames path and dragged Labyrinth to the ground with her, Newter had leapt up and to the side in an amazing feat of athleticism. Spitfire who may have been the blast's true target hadn't reacted fast enough, was knocked off her feet and landed on her back engulfed in flames.
Twilight couldn't believe this was happening again, this couldn't be happening again! Any progress she had made reigning in her magic had been undone in the last twenty seconds, purple flames enveloped her entire body as she lay in the gravel and watched the horror unfold in front of her. The pyrokinetic turned to face Twilight more directly, her face lit by the flames around her, she had a look of apathy that somehow scared Twilight more than anger would have. As the girl raised her hands towards her Twilight heard Labyrinth yell.
"Mimi Don't!" The girl hesitated at the scream and then vanished into the flames just as a series of gun shots rang out. She reappeared directly behind Faultline and seemed to cause an explosion in her hands that sent the mercenary flying, costume aflame and gun careening into the darkness. Newter picked up a brick with his tail and flung it hard at the girl, and she staggered as it hit her in the shoulder but the move hadn't left him enough time to get out of the way of another blast and he was sent reeling into the dirt trailing flames.
Gregor threw two huge globs of slime and covered both Faultline and Newter, smothering the fire hugging their forms. The girl turned towards Labyrinth who was now only a few feet away and just started to say something when she was tackled from behind by Spitfire. As she was falling to the ground the girl disappeared into the flames beneath her and sprung back up directly behind Gregor. Twilight watched as the girl compressed heat between her hands and violently sent Gregor to the ground where he did not move.
A vast swarm of bugs descended into a cloud so thick around the girl that Twilight could no longer see her before they were burned away in a huge eruption of flames. Skitter was kneeling about 15 feet away from Twilight holding what her peacekeepers had described as a weapon that delivered an electrical shock. As the cloud of bugs was burning Skitter pulled the trigger and Twilight saw the girl convulse for a second before recovering and raising her arms in Skitter's direction.
All control gone Twilight was now pulling so much magic that she no longer resembled a pony of fire, but rather a purple star to bright to look at directly. As she had done unconsciously when watching Panacea heal Aegis her perception of time sped up, but unlike that time it kept speeding up until the world seemed frozen in place. Frozen in a scene verging on horror. These people had tried to comfort her, that had wanted to help her. No one was dead yet, but Twilight knew that was about to change. She could see it with a certainty that bordered on precognition. She didn't want to see it. Twilight had seen to much, felt to much since arriving here. Equally as frightening was the idea of trying to grasp the power that was swirling around her. Vivid memories of the murder she had committed and the crystal landscape of fear she had left behind swirled in her head.
She might have laid there forever in that frozen slice of time had she not felt the ghostly touch of a wing draping over her back. The world faded away and she burst into tears, turning and sobbing into the now fully solid alicorn laying beside her. For an long time she simply cried, cried until she felt empty. The wing stroked her back slowly, tenderly, familiarly.
"Oh Princess Celestia, I've tried to be brave, to make you proud, but I only made things worse. I've done such awful things and I'm so scared. Scared of everyone, scared of myself. Nothing is right anymore. Please, please take me home. I'm so sorry, whatever I did, please take me back to Equestria, please." Twilight trailed off into renewed sobs, utterly defeated as the huge winged unicorn continued to stroke her back.
"Oh Twilight, my Twilight, my faithful student, I have never doubted your bravery and you have always made me proud. If I could somehow spare you this know that I would. You are not being punished and you have not failed me Twilight. You are in danger though. You are extraordinarily talented and powerful Twilight, our being here in this place is proof enough of that." That caused Twilight to pull her head up and glance around. Twilight and Celestia appeared to be laying on a dim bed of stars, around them a blue nebula. Beyond the nebula an ominous darkness like storm clouds at sunset encroached. "But if you lose yourself, lose faith in yourself, faith in your friendships, and in those you love, you could become the monster you fear in truth. I have already had a loved one travel that path, I do not know if I could bear it a second time."
A fractured memory flickered, almost as if it was tangible in this place and the stars around them brightened as Twilight remembered.
"Nightmare moon! She was Princess Luna, she was your sister, and I, we..used…the elements, the elements of harmony to heal her! ….Generosity, Kindness….Laughter….and….and…" As she tried to remember a bejeweled tiara resting on her head fazed in and out of reality as a deluge of broken memories and feelings flooded her being. The landscape quaked and thunder rumbled from the darkness.
"We don't have much time. Twilight, the elements did heal her, but when my sister fell she did damage that even after a thousand years still haunts Equestria and her heart. You must not walk her path, " Celestia's body turned translucent for a moment before re-solidifying. The stars were growing dimmer, going out. Twilight panicked and threw her hooves around Celestia's neck.
"No, please don't go. Don't make me go back, please!" Celestia brought her head down and laid her head over Twilight's neck.
"Twilight, all beings, even ones such as you or I must, at the end, answer to time. Our time here in this place must soon come to an end least we damage it and all the places connected to it. I have faith in you Twilight, you were always a good student. You must remember your lessons." Twilight lost her purchase as Celestia turned transparent, the stars were disappearing rapidly now.
"Please Princess! I don't know what to do, what do I do!?" Twilight sobbed as she tried to hold onto the now ghostly form of Celestia.
"I love you Twilight, your friends love you. Remember your lessons, trust your heart." Before Twilight could respond she felt the world lurch and she was back in the abandoned lot. The fire girl's arms were now fully extended towards Skitter and a line of flame was crawling glacially through the air towards Skitter. Tears trickled down Twilight's face. What had just happened? A hallucination? No, no she had been there in that other place, Celestia had really been there, but now she was back and her heart twisted in her chest. Back in this awful place. This Awful place with these nice people that were going to die for her, how could such an awful place have such nice people, how could they endure, how could they stay true to themselves?
She needed to find out. If she lived through what she was about to try, she would have to ask them.
Anyone who knew Twilight Sparkle knew that worry, anxiety, researching, testing, retesting, checking and double checking were so much a part of her that they might as well have been etched into her DNA. She had channeled these things into mostly positive aspects of her life, but all of the violence and danger and horror she had experienced had caused her to freeze up while her magic spiraled out of her control. There was no way to act quick enough to check things even once. There was no way to research enough to know that right course of action before hand.
What she was about to do went against almost everything she had ever learned about magic, and all of her rational instincts. 'Trust your heart.' Twilight always had trouble with that, but she trusted Princess Celestia and she trusted her friends and now she remembered. She wept tears of joy as she remembered events both world altering and mundane that had spun the threads of their lives together. If she didn't remember everything, she remembered the most important things. Friendship, love, and harmony were higher magics, magics that were constrained only by the limits of a pony's heart.
She looked around at the scene in front of her with new eyes and saw more. She saw the connections, the friendships and the ties binding these people together and though she hardly knew them she saw the tentative and fragile ties that connected her to them as well. Even the fire girl was tied to them by a bond to Labyrinth. It was beautiful and awful and wonderful and terrible and amazing. Twilight suddenly understood. Her special talent was magic, and in an indescribable way these connections, these friendships were magic. Magic without end. Glowing like a star Twilight stepped directly into the path of the frozen trail of flame. She pulled every good thought close to her heart, she held her memories of friends both old and new there, and directed the swirling uncontrolled potential surrounding her to that place that was both in her and somehow outside as well, that was connected to everything, and let it go.
Stretching across dimensions she felt five connections sing, a harmony of hearts and friendship, and purpose. A tiara settled on her head as a wave of rainbow light spread out from her. Time resumed and the fires ceased. Scraggly patches of weeds and grass and vines in the abandoned lot grew tall and spread, until the gravel was covered in a thick soft carpet of vegetation. A sapling struggling to hang onto the rough embankment where the lot met with the creek burgeoned into a mighty oak whose limbs stretched wide over the water and dipped under their own weight to touch the ground and rise back into the air around them.
Wings shifting on her back Twilight stepped forward and hugged the unscarred face of weeping girl in front of her.
As Skitter spoke quietly into the phone Twilight first dissipated then instantly recast her shield spell so that it now followed the contours of the brick room and thus included Skitter inside of it. Skitter paused and looked up at Twilight suddenly as the change happened. Twilight gave her a nervous rictus of a smile and the bug talking human went back to speaking into the phone. 'There. Not as efficient as a dome, but now no one can sneak up behind her like..No, no I'm not going to think about that.' Instead the Unicorn let her mind drift to a safer topic and pondered the meaning behind Skitter taking off her mask.
She had been in this world two weeks and the human notions on privacy and trust still befuddled her a little. The idea of hiding your identity in pony society where clothes were worn only at formal events or special occasions was somewhat ludicrous. Who you were, what you looked like, and your special talent were always on display to everyone around you. Humans were different. They wore clothes all the time and changed them for every activity. Some of them, mostly the magic wielding ones, had multiple names and you had to be careful to call them a particular name based on what they were wearing or they got very upset. At first Twilight thought this was something like the formal ranks and proper procedure of the royal guards, this did seem to be true for some of the members of the PRT and Peacekeepers, but the rules for the "Parahumans" seemed more subtle and complex.
After discarding the notion that they were analogous to ranks She thought maybe the "costume names" were like the human version of cutie marks. Since humans went clothed all the time any mark would be covered. So instead when you discovered your special talent you chose a name that symbolized that talent. That didn't quite fit however, because so very few humans cast magic and surely the vast majority of their population were not still searching for their purpose. Then it had been made very clear that the non costumed names and faces were a secret not to be revealed, that the wards telling her their non talent names was a sign of trust and friendship.
Which was bizarre. Costumed or not Twilight could have picked any of the humans she had met out of a crowd. Since they could not sense the magic field, Twilight understood that they couldn't see the unique interactions each of them made in it, but were human noses so much worse that they could not recognize an individual's smell? Could they not hear the the uniqueness of each other's voices? Were they so face oriented that they ignored all the other body cues that spoke so constantly to Twilight saying "This is who I am." Twilight was still a little confused sometimes when it came to interpreting the body language of humans since they lacked the tail and mobile ears of ponies, but her lack of understanding didn't mean that the cues that were there were no less unique and readily seen.
Twilight supposed that some of those thoughts had to be true, otherwise their customs made no sense at all. So what did it mean exactly that Skitter had shone her face to Twilight, but had not shared her non talent name? A measure of trust? Some sort of middling intimacy? Given the conversational cues and Skitters actions Twilight guessed that might be right. It was hard for her to think that way though. Everything about you made you who you were and proclaimed it to the world. Not just your name, or your face, or your talent, but all of that together with your actions, your friends, and everything else. The idea of sectioning yourself up and saying, "These parts are one me, Those parts are another," didn't seem right nor particularly good for someone. Still she tried to respect the intent of the gesture that the wards and now Skitter had shown her even if it was culturally strange and in practice meaningless to her. It meant something to them, and there were probably many subtleties in it that she was missing completely. Regardless it was nice to see Skitter's face instead of the vaguely threatening mask she wore.
After another few minutes Skitter stopped talking and closed her phone. She gave Twilight a small smile before she spoke.
"Okay, it'll take them a little while to get here and make sure they are not followed, but help's on the way." Twilight fidgeted nervously at the idea of more people and Skitter seemed to pick up on it. "Don't worry they're smart and are used to solving problems without attracting attention. Between all of us we'll think of something."
"I hope so. I thought I was good at solving problems, but everything here is so.." She trailed off not quite sure what word would suffice to finish that sentence. Twilight shook her head and then sneezed when it dislodged some of the dust in her mane. She looked over herself with a bit of disgust at the idea of meeting new people in her current state. She wasn't a particularly vain pony but her parents had instilled the idea that it was politeness to be presentable when meeting new ponies. Besides like the mystery of the mask, it gave her something to think about that wasn't what she wasn't going to think about, no not at all. "I..I think I'm going to clean up a little before they get here." Skitter looked around the barren room and then back to Twilight.
"Um, how? I'm not sure if this place ever had plumbing to begin with."
"A little bit of magic." Twilight said with a little genuine smile. The idea of casting some magic for something as mundane as getting cleaned up instead of trying to suss out dimensional travel or a life or death situation felt good, felt right. "Um, I'm still working on getting my control back so if I catch fire or glow, don't worry ok?" Skitter looked highly skeptical of this last statement but nodded anyway. Twilight's horn began to glow and purple fire did erupt around her hooves before the glow enveloped her and she blinked out of existence only to reappear a few feet to the right of where she had been. A small dirty shadow of Twilight stood for a second in her original location before collapsing and swirling away.
She looked over herself again. Better, but her mane and fur was still unkempt and stained in places. Not Acceptable. Horn glowing brighter, she concentrated. Unlike her teleportation, pulling this off would really test her. After she had surprised Princess Celestia with her ability to transmute a paper and quill she had given her a much more complex pattern and encouraged her to learn it, saying that it was one of the most useful applications of magic she would ever learn. Like so many things Celestia said Twilight was never sure if she had been serious or simply been testing her in some way. Flames rushed up her body and her eyes went briefly white as she completed the spell and a dull snap echoed off the brick walls.
Twilight walked over to her creation and then eased down into the Alicorn sized tub filled with steaming water whose rim rested just above the dirt floor of the room. As her mane spread out over the surface of the water Twilight let out a sigh of bliss. She would never doubt Celestia again. She dunked her head then resurfaced and opened her eyes. Skitter was looking at her with wide eyed shock. Had she done something wrong? Another taboo or custom she didn't know about? Before she could descend into fretting Skitter snapped out of it.
"That was amazing," she said sincerely. "I mean there have been a few rumors on the boards about what you could do, but nothing concrete, and nothing like that. So not only a mover and a blaster, but a shaker to? Well I guess the forcefields would be classified as a shaker ability, but I have never seen someone do something like you just did." Twilight couldn't help but be pleased, it felt nice to have someone recognize a skill she had spent such a long time practicing. She was also a little confused. Mover, blaster, shaker? She wasn't sure if she was getting the right translation here and she was sure even with as difficult as transmutation was there had to be some human magicians capable of the task. Maybe Skitter just had not met them?
"Um, thank you. When did you realize you had a talent for speaking with insects?" A dark look overcame Skitter's face for a moment but Twilight missed it as she was struck by the memory of a yellow pegasus with three pink butterflies as her cutie mark. A warm feeling that had nothing to do with the water temperature settled into her chest. "I think I knew someone that was good at talking with animals and insects. She was…shy? I think with ponies, but she loved animals." Skitter let out a breath a gave what might have been a smile.
"I found my power earlier this year. I'm not sure you could call it love in my case, but I guess affection. It's hard not to get at least a little attached to them when they help me out as much as they do." Skitter looked like she was going to elaborate but Twilight heard something and stilled in the water and her tension must have been apparent because Skitter went still as well. One of Twilights ears rotated around to angle behind her and after a second she spoke quietly.
"A car is coming, a bigger one."
Skitter nodded and said just as quietly, "Thats probably my friends, let me check." She stood up and pulled her mask back on her face then pulled her phone back out and pushed a few keys. A moment later a soft chime sounded and Skitter nodded. "It is them. I'll go meet them at the window and bring them back here. Ok?"
Twilight didn't like the idea, no not at all. And in a moment she was out of the tub and only slightly damp. She walked up next to Skitter and contracted the shield until it was only a little bigger than the area they took up.
"Lets go together."
When they got to the smaller room with the un-boarded window Twilight concentrated and as her horn brightened a series of translucent purple planes appeared forming steps up to the sill. A matching set descending to the ground outside materialized a moment later.
"That's convenient." Skitter said as the noise of a car engine approached and then shut off. "I've got some bugs directing them in the right direction, they should be here in a second." Twilight fidgeted nervously again and backed away from the open window so that she was partially standing in the hallway, without really thinking about it she expanded the shield that was surrounding Skitter and herself to accommodate the new distance. A few minutes later the most unique human Twilight had yet seen came through the window and walked down the steps. His bright orange coloration and dark red mane was a color combination that wouldn't have been out of place in Canterlot and a long prehensile tail trailed behind him. It made her think of home. Combined with the easy smile on his face Twilight's anxiety eased a bit. She remembered Director Piggot saying there was only one human race as ponies defined the term, but clearly she was mistaken. While his coloration wouldn't change that estimation, possessing an extra appendage certainly qualified. Interestingly he did not wear a mask and only a minimum amount of clothing which made Twilight wonder if people of his race had customs more similar to hers than the humans she had met so far.
The orange human looked over the both of them and declared, "I'll be damned. Didn't think you could get more conspicuous than me." He stretched one arm up and made a beckoning gesture with his hand and a woman climbed up and inside quickly followed a small figure in a hooded robe. The woman's clothing was strange. It was like someone had taken a Peacekeeper's set of armor, modified it in strange ways and then put a dress on. She looked around the room like she was marking everything about it into her memory. She had the same kind of look that someone of the older royal guardsponies had. Professional. Cautious. After a moment she spoke.
"Ok, just to get the formalities out of the way. I'm Faultline, this is Labyrinth," she gestured beside her, "and that's Newter. Two more of my team are just outside. Gregor won't fit through the window and I don't want to waste time or draw attention by widening it. Skitter's t.."
"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I don't think it's a good idea to leave anyone alone outside. If it wouldn't bother you or Gregor I could do a quick teleport and bring him inside?" Twilight offered hesitantly. Faultline considered this and then nodded.
"Gregor, Ms. Sparkle wants to teleport you inside. You ok with that?"
A deep voice came from just outside the window. "This would not bother me." Twilight took a deep breath and then dismissed her shield spell, leaving the only remaining illumination in the room as the soft glow of the steps she walked up. She saw both Faultline and Newter tense slightly at the sudden change and Skitter moved her arms in what Twilight had learned was a calming gesture for humans. When she reached the sill and could look out she saw the other two members of Faultline's team.
It was apparent who Gregor was immediately as only one of the two people outside would have any problem with the window. His pale skin shone in the soft moonlight interrupted occasionally by dark patches, like a inverted night sky. Twilight walked down the stairs and nervously looked around the area before speaking. She noticed Faultline observing from inside the window.
"Ok, um," she looked blankly at the shorter female who interjected.
"Spitfire."
"And I am Gregor."
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. The stairs will probably disappear once I start the teleport, so you may want to go ahead." Twilight said as she nodded towards Spitfire. The red and black dressed human looked up at Faultline and then proceeded up the steps and into the room. Twilight went ahead and dismissed the steps and turned to Gregor while speaking loud enough for the people inside to hear. "Ok, there may be a little flame, and a bright flash and then we'll be inside in the corner farthest from the window." Gregor nodded and Twilight lit her horn and began to power the spell. Once again flames appeared around her hooves and Twilight had to shove the dismal thoughts about her shattered control to the back of her mind as she concentrated on the teleportation. Her horn grew brighter and then with a flash they were standing inside with everyone else. Gregor reached out with one arm and steadied himself against the wall. At the worried look from Twilight and Faultline he spoke.
"I am alright. It was disorientating but no more than that." With this confirmation Faultline picked up where she had left off.
"Skitter's told us a few things." Twilight shuddered as that sentence brought her mind back to what they were all doing here. "I apologize for brining up what I must imagine is a very bad memory, but we need all the information we can get before we can tell you if we can take the job."
"It's.." No it wasn't ok. "I understand. Job?" At the question Faultline shot a look in Skitter's direction who spoke up quickly.
"Twilight. Faultline and her crew are my friends. They are good people, but they're not like the Wards or the Protectorate, they don't get money from the government. They have to get paid for the work they do." Twilight looked despondent at this.
"I don't have any money. Certainly not any human money. I'm sor-"
"Skitter told us that would likely be the case," Faultline interjected. "Once we know the whole story, if I think the risk level is acceptable and we can help I'm sure we can settle on a non-monetary price." Twilight looked confused by this and Skitter again hopped in to translate.
"You're pretty powerful Twilight. What Faultline is talking about is you doing some favors for them." Twilight brightened back up again at this before being brought down by Faultline's next words.
"Tell us what happened."
Twilight couldn't force herself to start with what they really wanted to know. Instead she started at the beginning of the day. She told them about how she had been working with Dragon to try and figure out where Bakuda would place her next bombs and where she could be hiding. For fifteen or Twenty minutes she rambled on, her words meandering but inevitably bringing her closer to the worst moment in her life. When she got there she had built up enough momentum that she was able to continue. She hardly noticed the tears pouring down her face as she spoke.
"I was so scared…and sad..and confused…How..How could someone do that..act like that? He kept talking, talking so calmly about auditions and plays…he said I couldn't ask the PRT or Protectorate for help, he said something about penalties…about other members auditioning?…I..was, something, slipping…I…lost..something..saw… something..a crystal…when he was talking." Twilight sobbed and purple flames traced up her legs and something dark flickered into existence on the wall behind her. A palpable aura of fear filled the room and suddenly Labyrinth was there and hugging Twilight around her neck. The hug and Labyrinth's body was stiff, almost mechanical, but it helped, it helped a lot. The overwhelming fear faded from the air and the wall returned to normal. Twilight spoke again as Labyrinth continued her embrace.
"I..lost control..my emotions @#$%@# the magic field, it fed back on itself. I..was..anger is not enough to describe…It was awful…black..evil. I didn't have much..sense of…myself, but I did..something..I turned all of that darkness..collected it…told it to strike Jack. I..was..not quite..there, but I remember enough…I shattered his body into a million pieces…and I did it on purpose." Twilight sobbed against Labyrinth's shoulder and for a while the room was silent except for her tears.
"..ck me." Newter said quietly before Gregor rested a hand on his shoulder and spoke gently in his deep voice.
"I am truly sorry. To go through that, it is terrible. I see it pains you, this taking of life. It should, everyone should feel such pain when a life is taken. Jack Slash did not, and that is what made him a monster. He spoke calmly and lightly because the suffering of others, the taking of lives, these things he did not feel at all. I am sorry that you killed him, for the hurt that it is causing you. I am not sorry at all that he is dead. Nor do I think you would find anyone that is." Twilight looked up from Labyrinth's shoulder and at the gentle face of the huge man. She..couldn't accept that. At the same time his words, his understanding, had made her feel a little better. Faultline cleared her throat and spoke in her professional voice, tempered now with a little softness that was absent earlier.
"Alright. First, the Slaughterhouse Nine are in town. Thats about the worst news there is and they are way out of our league. If you were looking for someone to fight them, I'm sorry but no bounty in the world is enough for that risk." Twilight shook her head side to side. "Here's what we can do. We have a…meeting tomorrow with some of the other non-Protectorate capes in Brockton Bay. We were going to discuss the ABB and Bakuda and likely talk about joining forces to help the Protectorate run them down. If you remember any of your research we can pass that along to them and hopefully take care of that problem. We can also warn them about the Nine, and there are some powerful people that may be able to stop some of them, possibly between them and the heroes that will be coming to town it will be enough. Given the Nine's interest in you the most important thing is to keep you hidden from them. We can find you a safe house, someplace nicer than this. Food, power, water, supplies…"
She trailed off as she focused on Labyrinth still hugging the unicorn.
"..company. We might find a discrete way for you to get in touch with the PRT, let them know you're alright and share information. Basically hunker down, help where we can, and weather the storm. Would that work for you?"
Twilight thought for a moment, Labyrinth's body still in the exact same position around her as it had been at the start of the hug. It didn't feel right, the idea of leaving others to fight such a horrible thing. At the same time, she wasn't sure she could face someone else like Jack. And if she did, and if she lived, she wasn't sure she would be able to face herself. This was better than that. She shifted her eyes to Faultline.
"Thank you, someplace safe, sleep. That would be good."
"Ok, everyone lets move. Twilight, if you would?" The glowing planes of force reappeared leading up to the window and Faultline bent down to whisper in Labyrinth's ear who slowly and with that same mechanical feel released Twilight. When everyone was outside except Twilight and Gregor she turned to him.
"Are you ready?"
"I am." With a flash of light they were outside standing next to the others. Faultline pointed to a run down van, that if Twilight had not known they had driven here, would have sworn had been sitting abandoned in this very lot for years. They were about halfway to it when it exploded.
Everyone flinched and crouched away from the blast as fire spread out rapidly from the wreck in every direction. Twilight saw Faultline unholster a pistol and use her other arm to begin to draw Labyrinth behind her when a fireball detonated in the middle of the group and split it in half. Faultline, Labyrinth, Spitfire, and Newter where flung to one side while Gregor, Skitter, and Twilight were hurled to the other. In the middle of her uncontrolled tumble Twilight saw a figure rise out of the flames where the blast had hit. The flames illuminated a girl's face pockmarked with ugly circular burn scars.
Just as Twilight was sliding to a stop over the rough gravel of the lot she saw the figure in the flames raise both her arms and flames followed the movement and shot out towards both groups. Gregor threw A glob of something which intercepted the trail of fire that was headed in their direction. Bugs seemed to fly in from every direction towards the girl in the red dress standing in the flames. The girl flinched as something stung her and flames sprung up around her before being flung outwards again. Gregor threw more slime, but Skitter was grazed was knocked to the ground her costume smoldering as she rolled along the ground.
On the other side Faultline had ducked out of the flames path and dragged Labyrinth to the ground with her, Newter had leapt up and to the side in an amazing feat of athleticism. Spitfire who may have been the blast's true target hadn't reacted fast enough, was knocked off her feet and landed on her back engulfed in flames.
Twilight couldn't believe this was happening again, this couldn't be happening again! Any progress she had made reigning in her magic had been undone in the last twenty seconds, purple flames enveloped her entire body as she lay in the gravel and watched the horror unfold in front of her. The pyrokinetic turned to face Twilight more directly, her face lit by the flames around her, she had a look of apathy that somehow scared Twilight more than anger would have. As the girl raised her hands towards her Twilight heard Labyrinth yell.
"Mimi Don't!" The girl hesitated at the scream and then vanished into the flames just as a series of gun shots rang out. She reappeared directly behind Faultline and seemed to cause an explosion in her hands that sent the mercenary flying, costume aflame and gun careening into the darkness. Newter picked up a brick with his tail and flung it hard at the girl, and she staggered as it hit her in the shoulder but the move hadn't left him enough time to get out of the way of another blast and he was sent reeling into the dirt trailing flames.
Gregor threw two huge globs of slime and covered both Faultline and Newter, smothering the fire hugging their forms. The girl turned towards Labyrinth who was now only a few feet away and just started to say something when she was tackled from behind by Spitfire. As she was falling to the ground the girl disappeared into the flames beneath her and sprung back up directly behind Gregor. Twilight watched as the girl compressed heat between her hands and violently sent Gregor to the ground where he did not move.
A vast swarm of bugs descended into a cloud so thick around the girl that Twilight could no longer see her before they were burned away in a huge eruption of flames. Skitter was kneeling about 15 feet away from Twilight holding what her peacekeepers had described as a weapon that delivered an electrical shock. As the cloud of bugs was burning Skitter pulled the trigger and Twilight saw the girl convulse for a second before recovering and raising her arms in Skitter's direction.
All control gone Twilight was now pulling so much magic that she no longer resembled a pony of fire, but rather a purple star to bright to look at directly. As she had done unconsciously when watching Panacea heal Aegis her perception of time sped up, but unlike that time it kept speeding up until the world seemed frozen in place. Frozen in a scene verging on horror. These people had tried to comfort her, that had wanted to help her. No one was dead yet, but Twilight knew that was about to change. She could see it with a certainty that bordered on precognition. She didn't want to see it. Twilight had seen to much, felt to much since arriving here. Equally as frightening was the idea of trying to grasp the power that was swirling around her. Vivid memories of the murder she had committed and the crystal landscape of fear she had left behind swirled in her head.
She might have laid there forever in that frozen slice of time had she not felt the ghostly touch of a wing draping over her back. The world faded away and she burst into tears, turning and sobbing into the now fully solid alicorn laying beside her. For an long time she simply cried, cried until she felt empty. The wing stroked her back slowly, tenderly, familiarly.
"Oh Princess Celestia, I've tried to be brave, to make you proud, but I only made things worse. I've done such awful things and I'm so scared. Scared of everyone, scared of myself. Nothing is right anymore. Please, please take me home. I'm so sorry, whatever I did, please take me back to Equestria, please." Twilight trailed off into renewed sobs, utterly defeated as the huge winged unicorn continued to stroke her back.
"Oh Twilight, my Twilight, my faithful student, I have never doubted your bravery and you have always made me proud. If I could somehow spare you this know that I would. You are not being punished and you have not failed me Twilight. You are in danger though. You are extraordinarily talented and powerful Twilight, our being here in this place is proof enough of that." That caused Twilight to pull her head up and glance around. Twilight and Celestia appeared to be laying on a dim bed of stars, around them a blue nebula. Beyond the nebula an ominous darkness like storm clouds at sunset encroached. "But if you lose yourself, lose faith in yourself, faith in your friendships, and in those you love, you could become the monster you fear in truth. I have already had a loved one travel that path, I do not know if I could bear it a second time."
A fractured memory flickered, almost as if it was tangible in this place and the stars around them brightened as Twilight remembered.
"Nightmare moon! She was Princess Luna, she was your sister, and I, we..used…the elements, the elements of harmony to heal her! ….Generosity, Kindness….Laughter….and….and…" As she tried to remember a bejeweled tiara resting on her head fazed in and out of reality as a deluge of broken memories and feelings flooded her being. The landscape quaked and thunder rumbled from the darkness.
"We don't have much time. Twilight, the elements did heal her, but when my sister fell she did damage that even after a thousand years still haunts Equestria and her heart. You must not walk her path, " Celestia's body turned translucent for a moment before re-solidifying. The stars were growing dimmer, going out. Twilight panicked and threw her hooves around Celestia's neck.
"No, please don't go. Don't make me go back, please!" Celestia brought her head down and laid her head over Twilight's neck.
"Twilight, all beings, even ones such as you or I must, at the end, answer to time. Our time here in this place must soon come to an end least we damage it and all the places connected to it. I have faith in you Twilight, you were always a good student. You must remember your lessons." Twilight lost her purchase as Celestia turned transparent, the stars were disappearing rapidly now.
"Please Princess! I don't know what to do, what do I do!?" Twilight sobbed as she tried to hold onto the now ghostly form of Celestia.
"I love you Twilight, your friends love you. Remember your lessons, trust your heart." Before Twilight could respond she felt the world lurch and she was back in the abandoned lot. The fire girl's arms were now fully extended towards Skitter and a line of flame was crawling glacially through the air towards Skitter. Tears trickled down Twilight's face. What had just happened? A hallucination? No, no she had been there in that other place, Celestia had really been there, but now she was back and her heart twisted in her chest. Back in this awful place. This Awful place with these nice people that were going to die for her, how could such an awful place have such nice people, how could they endure, how could they stay true to themselves?
She needed to find out. If she lived through what she was about to try, she would have to ask them.
Anyone who knew Twilight Sparkle knew that worry, anxiety, researching, testing, retesting, checking and double checking were so much a part of her that they might as well have been etched into her DNA. She had channeled these things into mostly positive aspects of her life, but all of the violence and danger and horror she had experienced had caused her to freeze up while her magic spiraled out of her control. There was no way to act quick enough to check things even once. There was no way to research enough to know that right course of action before hand.
What she was about to do went against almost everything she had ever learned about magic, and all of her rational instincts. 'Trust your heart.' Twilight always had trouble with that, but she trusted Princess Celestia and she trusted her friends and now she remembered. She wept tears of joy as she remembered events both world altering and mundane that had spun the threads of their lives together. If she didn't remember everything, she remembered the most important things. Friendship, love, and harmony were higher magics, magics that were constrained only by the limits of a pony's heart.
She looked around at the scene in front of her with new eyes and saw more. She saw the connections, the friendships and the ties binding these people together and though she hardly knew them she saw the tentative and fragile ties that connected her to them as well. Even the fire girl was tied to them by a bond to Labyrinth. It was beautiful and awful and wonderful and terrible and amazing. Twilight suddenly understood. Her special talent was magic, and in an indescribable way these connections, these friendships were magic. Magic without end. Glowing like a star Twilight stepped directly into the path of the frozen trail of flame. She pulled every good thought close to her heart, she held her memories of friends both old and new there, and directed the swirling uncontrolled potential surrounding her to that place that was both in her and somehow outside as well, that was connected to everything, and let it go.
Stretching across dimensions she felt five connections sing, a harmony of hearts and friendship, and purpose. A tiara settled on her head as a wave of rainbow light spread out from her. Time resumed and the fires ceased. Scraggly patches of weeds and grass and vines in the abandoned lot grew tall and spread, until the gravel was covered in a thick soft carpet of vegetation. A sapling struggling to hang onto the rough embankment where the lot met with the creek burgeoned into a mighty oak whose limbs stretched wide over the water and dipped under their own weight to touch the ground and rise back into the air around them.
Wings shifting on her back Twilight stepped forward and hugged the unscarred face of weeping girl in front of her.
10
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Interlude 5 - Bonesaw
Bonesaw walked slowly down the sidewalk, on her way back to the house Jack had found for them. Even though she was one of the most wanted criminals on the planet, no one paid her any mind. She wasn't wearing her apron or her tools so no one paid the blond preadolescent girl any more than a passing glance. Had they looked closely they might have noticed that some of the stains on her clothes and "dirt" in her hair was in fact dried blood, but today was not a day to pay close attention to things in Brockton Bay.
Usually when she was upset she cheered herself up by creating some new and interesting art, but right now she didn't feel like cheering up. Daddy-Jack was dead. She had asked him for a unicorn and now he was dead. It was strange to think about, how he wouldn't be there any more. He wouldn't tell her any more bed time stories about the old days and the original Slaughterhouse Nine. No more patient insightful critiques of her art, no one to give her those small pieces of perfect advice when she was frustrated or down. No more Daddy at all.
She guessed she had, in her head, accepted that some day Jack wouldn't be there. He was starting to get a little older, a little slower. When she saw that her understanding of biology had told her it was only a matter of time until the day he was just to slow. Her heart hadn't accepted that though, how could there be a world without Daddy? Why hadn't he seen, why hadn't he moved when the bad unicorn had started to get all glowy? She had never seen Jack surprised, but just before the end he was. He looked surprised, and now that strange expression that didn't belong to Daddy-Jack at all would always be the way she remembered him.
Bonesaw might have gone and seen what had been left of Jack had that place not felt so wrong. Every step closer to the place where Jack had died made her feel worse, worse than she could ever remember feeling. Bad memories that didn't make any sense. So she had taken off her apron and run away from that place until the awful memories had stopped. Since then she had slowly been wandering back to the house, the others would want to know if Cherish hadn't told them yet.
She didn't think they would be a family much longer. Daddy-Jack was the one that had kept them together and made everyone sit down to dinner together. Crawler would try to fight Momma-Siberian and either she would let him and he would die, or she wouldn't and he would go away and die. He wasn't as tough as he liked to think he was. Mannequin might stay or he might continue his quest alone. Bonesaw liked him, but he wasn't much of a sharer. Cherish would stay because she was a naughty sister that thought Daddy-Jack and Bonesaw didn't know she was trying to slowly brainwash the rest of the family. Daddy-Jack had been so looking forward to surprising her, now he never would.
Without Daddy's guidance she thought Burnscar would drift away, the heroes would get her, eventually. Shatterbird would leave, Daddy-Jack was the only one she thought was smart and mature enough to talk to. She would make a mess first. It wasn't fair, she had asked for a unicorn and now her whole family was going to go away. It wasn't fair at all.
She was so lost in thought she didn't see the woman in the suit until she was right in front of her. She wasn't in top mental shape right now, but something about her made Bonesaw uneasy. Before she could formulate her scattered thoughts the woman spoke.
"It's dangerous out here today. You should be a good girl and get home as quick as you can." With that the woman stepped past her. By the time Bonesaw's mind had caught up informing her how strange that encounter was she spun around to find the woman was nowhere to be seen. Quickening her pace she reached the house only a few minutes later. She really wanted a hug, but after looking around the only one home was Cherish. She was laying on the floor next to the living room window, breathing shallowly with a look of fear etched on her face. 'Hmmm,' she thought looking down at Cherish. The others must still all be out recruiting their own candidates for the open position in the Nine.
She took one of the oversized white aprons off a hook by the door and ducked her head under the neck loop before walking downstairs to the basement. After they had moved in Jack had given her the basement to use as her artist studio. Body parts hung from a series of hooks along the wall and a couple of industrial shelving units held all of her current stock of electronics. A few uncompleted works stood unmoving in the corner where she had left them earlier and Hatchet Face's body lay on the big wooden table in the center of the room, breathing through a cobbled together ventilator until she decided what to do with him. She'd been lucky enough to get to him right after Cherish killed him to take his place as part of the Nine.
She really wanted someone to hug right now. Bonesaw's mind quickly flashed to the image of the cute purple alien unicorn and she braced one arm against the table as a few tears trickled down her face. No she didn't want that bad unicorn anymore. A thought struck her and she jolted upright. She looked around the room again taking in all the parts she had, she looked at Hatchet Face, and then she turned her eyes upwards towards the ceiling and Cherish laying in a fugue state above. Bonesaw walked over to the shelves and pulled down a toolbox. Some of the other's candidates would fail, and she could probably convince them to give her the left overs. Momma-Siberian could find her anything special she needed.
She didn't want the bad unicorn, but that didn't mean she couldn't make one. A good one.
Bonesaw walked slowly down the sidewalk, on her way back to the house Jack had found for them. Even though she was one of the most wanted criminals on the planet, no one paid her any mind. She wasn't wearing her apron or her tools so no one paid the blond preadolescent girl any more than a passing glance. Had they looked closely they might have noticed that some of the stains on her clothes and "dirt" in her hair was in fact dried blood, but today was not a day to pay close attention to things in Brockton Bay.
Usually when she was upset she cheered herself up by creating some new and interesting art, but right now she didn't feel like cheering up. Daddy-Jack was dead. She had asked him for a unicorn and now he was dead. It was strange to think about, how he wouldn't be there any more. He wouldn't tell her any more bed time stories about the old days and the original Slaughterhouse Nine. No more patient insightful critiques of her art, no one to give her those small pieces of perfect advice when she was frustrated or down. No more Daddy at all.
She guessed she had, in her head, accepted that some day Jack wouldn't be there. He was starting to get a little older, a little slower. When she saw that her understanding of biology had told her it was only a matter of time until the day he was just to slow. Her heart hadn't accepted that though, how could there be a world without Daddy? Why hadn't he seen, why hadn't he moved when the bad unicorn had started to get all glowy? She had never seen Jack surprised, but just before the end he was. He looked surprised, and now that strange expression that didn't belong to Daddy-Jack at all would always be the way she remembered him.
Bonesaw might have gone and seen what had been left of Jack had that place not felt so wrong. Every step closer to the place where Jack had died made her feel worse, worse than she could ever remember feeling. Bad memories that didn't make any sense. So she had taken off her apron and run away from that place until the awful memories had stopped. Since then she had slowly been wandering back to the house, the others would want to know if Cherish hadn't told them yet.
She didn't think they would be a family much longer. Daddy-Jack was the one that had kept them together and made everyone sit down to dinner together. Crawler would try to fight Momma-Siberian and either she would let him and he would die, or she wouldn't and he would go away and die. He wasn't as tough as he liked to think he was. Mannequin might stay or he might continue his quest alone. Bonesaw liked him, but he wasn't much of a sharer. Cherish would stay because she was a naughty sister that thought Daddy-Jack and Bonesaw didn't know she was trying to slowly brainwash the rest of the family. Daddy-Jack had been so looking forward to surprising her, now he never would.
Without Daddy's guidance she thought Burnscar would drift away, the heroes would get her, eventually. Shatterbird would leave, Daddy-Jack was the only one she thought was smart and mature enough to talk to. She would make a mess first. It wasn't fair, she had asked for a unicorn and now her whole family was going to go away. It wasn't fair at all.
She was so lost in thought she didn't see the woman in the suit until she was right in front of her. She wasn't in top mental shape right now, but something about her made Bonesaw uneasy. Before she could formulate her scattered thoughts the woman spoke.
"It's dangerous out here today. You should be a good girl and get home as quick as you can." With that the woman stepped past her. By the time Bonesaw's mind had caught up informing her how strange that encounter was she spun around to find the woman was nowhere to be seen. Quickening her pace she reached the house only a few minutes later. She really wanted a hug, but after looking around the only one home was Cherish. She was laying on the floor next to the living room window, breathing shallowly with a look of fear etched on her face. 'Hmmm,' she thought looking down at Cherish. The others must still all be out recruiting their own candidates for the open position in the Nine.
She took one of the oversized white aprons off a hook by the door and ducked her head under the neck loop before walking downstairs to the basement. After they had moved in Jack had given her the basement to use as her artist studio. Body parts hung from a series of hooks along the wall and a couple of industrial shelving units held all of her current stock of electronics. A few uncompleted works stood unmoving in the corner where she had left them earlier and Hatchet Face's body lay on the big wooden table in the center of the room, breathing through a cobbled together ventilator until she decided what to do with him. She'd been lucky enough to get to him right after Cherish killed him to take his place as part of the Nine.
She really wanted someone to hug right now. Bonesaw's mind quickly flashed to the image of the cute purple alien unicorn and she braced one arm against the table as a few tears trickled down her face. No she didn't want that bad unicorn anymore. A thought struck her and she jolted upright. She looked around the room again taking in all the parts she had, she looked at Hatchet Face, and then she turned her eyes upwards towards the ceiling and Cherish laying in a fugue state above. Bonesaw walked over to the shelves and pulled down a toolbox. Some of the other's candidates would fail, and she could probably convince them to give her the left overs. Momma-Siberian could find her anything special she needed.
She didn't want the bad unicorn, but that didn't mean she couldn't make one. A good one.