Special Circumstances #4

“Increased heart rate, core temperature, all physiological signs point to high energy expenditure. Besides the obvious luminescence of her horn, I wouldn’t be able to tell you where it’s going. It’s not being spent in the usual places you’d see it dumped if someone was just faking exertion. There seems to be a lot more energy moving through her than what she herself is producing, as well.”

 

“Is it enough to actually move the planet?”

 

“Not from what I can deduce about this planet’s mass. And not nearly enough to fiddle with a class G2V star. It’s possible she could be simply manipulating a much more powerful device that does such work for her, but I can’t detect any energy signatures nearby that could be responsible. That being said she is doing a lot of work on something, and I don’t think it’s just going into glowing pretty colors, not from what I’ve seen from the more common unicorn phenotype. Hold on, let me try a different tack.”

 

You return your attention to just admiring the spectacle. Before the large gathered crowd is a small stand with some regalia on it, but mostly unadorned. In the center is a post with an abstract representation of the sun. Currently it isn’t all that abstract actually; the sun is shining through an opening in the center. Before it flies a very large example of the world’s equine populous, possessing both wings and a horn. She’s a princess, they all say, but in cases like this you get the feeling they revere her as a god.

 

The Princess reaches the top of the arc of her slow ascent, eclipsing the sun shining through the sculpture with her own body, throwing her shadow over the assembled onlookers. It is a particularly striking image, you admit, but your admiration is broken by Mous reporting back in the earbud nestled in your left ear. “Alright, disturbing news. From what I can tell, there’s a very real possibility that she is manipulating the planet. Not the driving force but a sort of stabilizer and regulator. I can get you more info later tonight; I’ll be trying to monitor gravitational and orbital forces now that I have an idea what to look for. The moon should be affected too; want to take an extended trip to the beach sometime?”

 

“Sounds lovely,” you subvocalize back, “but I don’t think we’re quite done here in town. Besides, if we’re going to work on this why don’t we go straight to the top?”

 

“Really keen on rising fast, are we trying to set a new record for meteoric ascent?”

 

“’Go where the action is’, they all say,” you retort.

 

“You make and get your own.”

 

The stunning imagery wraps up the ceremony it seems; ponies started dispersing and going about the other business of the day. You can’t see the princess until she resolves almost right in front of you through the departing crowd. “Hello Anon, Mous. I’ve heard much about you from my student in town, though I admit not enough to sate my curiosity!” The Princess’ tone is light and friendly, her expression doubly so. Laughter played at the corners of her eyes, and her smile is outright disarming.

 

You drop to one knee and bowed before her, a sign of respect many civilizations demanded before royalty and one that the other ponies had approximated in their own greetings.  During the maneuver you note Twilight Sparkle behind and to the left of the Princess. You’re not quite sure how she apparently learned ‘so much’ about you, but made a mental note to track her down in the future.

 

“I would say the same, Princess,” you reply, rising, “Lyra has been very informative, but likes to focus on my kind more. I’ve tried to learn what I could on my own without being impolite. I still have much to learn about your great nation and its wonderful inhabitants.”

 

“Well if you don’t mind a quick pointer now, just know that you don’t have to take such a deferential tone with me.” The Princess’ smile broke into a chuckle, and she turns to walk off. “I can fill you in a bit myself on both, if you’d like to follow?”

 

You smile and nod. The Princess’ turn had put Twilight to her right, so you close on her left.

 

“Coming?” you ask Mous under your breath.

 

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Taking advantage of my ability to stare directly at the sun.”

 

“She does seem pretty bright, metaphorically speaking. Staring is rude, though.”

 

“You know what I mean. I’ll be along shortly. Make a good impression.”

 

The three of you start walking towards the center of town, silently at first. The revelers around you get on with their celebration, though with little attention to the apparent focus of the day walking beside you. As if reading your mind, the Princess finally speaks.

 

“I always must wonder at their enthusiasm. I appreciate the admiration it shows me on this day in particular, but today is far from the only thing that these ponies will really get excited about. Twilight tells me there’s never a dull day here, and this is but one town in the whole of Equestria. Sometimes even amidst the bustle of the Palace in the heart of Canterlot I wonder if I have the quieter end of the deal.”

 

The princess turns her head to face you now, while not changing pace. “But your housemate stands out in her excitement over your presence. Twilight’s interest can be excused- she’s eager to learn everything about everything- but you’ve really caught Lyra’s mind. I don’t like to meddle too much but Twilight has touched on the subject of her… misadventures several times before. Tell me; is it true your kind has been here before?” On the other side of the great white equine, Twilight’s brow furrows.

 

You feel it expedient that the mystery remains in the air, and don’t want to dispel it. “Not as far as I’m aware, but I’m not ruling it out. We keep extensive records for longer than this country has existed, if Lyra’s correct, but at the same time one cannot expect any individual to know everything those records say. I can’t really invite you in, but maybe you could ask my hostess yourself?”

 

The Princess smiles and returns her gaze to where she was walking. “Perhaps another time. With your arrival I’m sure Twilight can find renewed interests in Lyra’s materials anyway. Until then, I can be satisfied in-“

 

Your earbud screeches loudly in your ear and an unseen force shoves you violently to the right. Not a quarter of a second later something shrieks by to the left of you, through the space your head just occupied. As you stumble into the side of the Princess, you bury your face in her feathery limb to shield your eyes from the light of a tiny blast, light an even purer white than Celestia’s hide. The burst is far too bright to be a normal detonation and too small to be the primary attack, the accompanying sound more an extremely loud pop than a deafening boom. The Princess’ broad wings unfurl, inadvertently knocking you to the ground as Twilight shrieks in alarm.

 

Loud thumps against the ground bring your attention around to the direction you were walking in, and hovering just above the armored pegasi that represent the Princess’ escort, is one of Mous’ knife-missiles suspended within the glow of Celestia’s magic. You, the Princess, and Twilight are enclosed within a pale purple dome; you’d guess Twilight put a magic barrier up to protect you from any further assault.

 

Your left ear is throbbing like mad with an unbearable pain, and you can’t hear much out of it but an incredibly distant-sounding voice. You paw at your ear, and your earbud slips out with a film of blood on it. Taking advantage of the Culture’s major genetic modification away from baseline humanoid, you stimulate your body’s drug glands to flush your system with pain reliever. You shakily get to your feet as Celestia floats the knife-missile in front of her face. “Are we under attack by flying fountain pens?” she asks in an amused tone, but her stance and wings half-spread tell you she’s tense.

 

Twilight is more obviously agitated, though maintaining the barrier just fine. The unicorn looks down at the earbud in your hand, and then to your bleeding ear. “Did they hit you? I’m sorry, I reacted as fast as I could, but-“

 

You cut her short with a shake of your head, then throw it back and shout ,“MOUS! What’s going on?”

 

When you open your eyes, the drone is there, floating above the bubble. “I came as quick as I could. Sorry Anon, I’ll explain it later.” The drone says over its external speakers.

 

Mous then looks to Celestia while you tried to think. “Is Your Highness hurt?” On one of the body panels turned to face you, Mous flashed in Marian’s dot-pattern characters; ‘AM 3 rds’. The missile destroyed whatever its target was with three of the 2mm antimatter bullets stored in its wedge-shaped nose. That would explain the purity of the white light thrown off.

 

You are about to ask why the knife-missile didn’t use its own effector field, when you remember you two are trying to refer to Mous’ abilities as magic. In the span of time your shock-addled and drug-dulled brain tries to rephrase the query, Celestia responds to Mous’ question. “No, I’m fine, thank you. Do you know what this is that attacked us?” The Princess levitates the captured knife-missile over to its drone operator. More guards arrive, forming a tight circle around your group. Twilight lowers her shield as they arrive.

 

“Actually that’s one of my pets. Something threw rocks at you with great speed, a smaller one managed to get through and hit Anon in the ear.” The drone snatches your bloodied earbud up and passes the it in front of Celestia’s face, too quickly for her to make out any detail on it, pressing it back into your hand firmly afterwards. You close your hand around it quickly and jam it in your pocket.

 

“My little friend moved to help you before you could be injured; it intercepted the larger of the two it saw. As far as I know it was just the two rocks.” Mous floats down to examine your ear.

 

You saw the knife-missile jump, but Celestia’s magical grip does not relax. “It isn’t a very animate creature, is it?” she asks, observing how little it actually moves in its struggles.

 

“Well, neither am I.” Mouse replies, waggling the pairs of panels underneath its body and alongside its tail section as if to demonstrate the full extent of its articulation. “But I don’t think now is the time to discuss foreign fauna.”

 

“No, you’re right.” The Princess admits, only now relaxing and returning to her full height. Her guards- six of them here now- are arrayed in a loose ring around the four of you, standing between you and a crowd of agitated onlookers that gathered in response to the commotion. Whoever your assailant was would now be lost among them.

 

“Was it meant for you, Your Highness?” You ask in a muted tone, trying to adjust to being able to hear out of only one ear.

 

“I think it’s you someone’s not too fond of, Anon.  Go home and get some rest. Though your friend seems capable of protecting you, I’ll keep guards with you for the rest of my stay in town.”

 

“Thank you, Your Highness.” You bow a bit more awkwardly than before. Mous dips the front of its chassis in an analogous gesture, and the two of you head off towards Lyra and Bon Bon’s house, flanked by a guard on either side.

 

Several hours later, you’re reclining on your bed, earbud now seated in your right ear. Fortunately, the device didn’t block any external sound during operation, or you’d be completely deaf. Mous said the perforated left eardrum should mend in as little as week in perfect conditions. As it was it’d probably take closer to two.

 

“The knife-missile isn’t exactly good at communicating with organics,” Mous says apologetically. It spoke through the earbud to prevent eavesdropping. “It flagged the message urgent and I patched it through immediately without second thought. It didn’t hit the rock with an effector field because it was busy using it to shove you out of the way. No use trying to protect you if it had to impale you to get there.”

 

“Well it made quite a show and allowed you that nice ‘second rock’ distraction, though I wish it didn’t cost half my hearing. But I have to ask, was her conclusion just a consequence of your fib? Was the first rock heading for her or me?”

 

“Definitely you. The knife-missile likely wouldn’t have responded for a threat against the Princess.”

 

“Alright, the important question then. Why?”

 

“Well we’ve been snooping a lot in the past week, and we haven’t been bothering to be terribly covert with it. Maybe someone feels threatened? Though we’ve been obviously nosing around we haven’t shown anything pointing to our drive to take the reins of this society. I can’t point to anything that would betray us as something other than curious foreigners. Maybe we just inadvertently came across something a pony would rather we had ignored. I wouldn’t discount race violence but the town on a whole really doesn’t seem the type. Distrustful sure, but not aggressive.”

 

You still have a terrible headache, and couldn’t really think well through it. You are starting to wonder if a nap would be a good idea, when you hear a vague rapping noise.

 

“Knock at the front door,” Mous helpfully supplies.

 

You stand and maneuver your way over to the entrance to the living room near the front of the house. Lyra is there, speaking with one of the guards that had taken post outside the house’s door. She insisted on staying in the house to help care for you, even though Mous assured her it could take care of the task on its own. Bon Bon had no complaints; she had been at the house when they arrived and it gave her the opportunity to join in the festivities, which continued after the interruption.

 

Lyra turns to you with a smile. “It’s for you Anon. Celestia wants to know if you’re doing alright!” Her irreverence for her sovereign was unparalleled in Ponyville. You make your way to the door, and bend at the waist for the Princess instead of the more involved kneel.

 

“You look like you’ve stayed in intact, Anon,” Princess Celestia says with what you’re quickly assuming to be her typical demeanor; confident and seemingly amused with the whole world.

 

“Yeah, but my head feels like it wants to go to a thousand pieces. I think I can hold it together a bit longer,” you respond in a similar tone. Then, more sincerely, “Thank you again for your help.”

 

“I’m returning to Canterlot shortly, but we’ll be seeing each other again soon. Though our discussion was cut short it wasn’t concluded. I’d like to know more about your people, and I’m sure you’d like to know more about your new home.”

 

“Yes, again thank you. Take care, Your Highness.” You bow again as she turned to leave, and you close the door.

 

Turning to Mous hovering in the back of the room, you subvocalize, “Our new home, she says. She’s as confident as we are about the status of our return trip. Twilight said she was the greatest magic user in the world, I guess that doesn’t speak well of our chances then.”

 

“Doesn’t rule out a pickup,” Mous replied on the private channel. “Either way we’ll make the best of it.”

 

“Yes. More time to play.”