Title:           Psychological damage #3
Author:          Maintenance-Bro
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/jzyWuLxq
First Edit:      Thursday 17th of July 2014 04:40:34 AM CDT
Last Edit:       Thursday 17th of July 2014 04:40:34 AM CDT

The rest of that dinner progresses as smoothly as possible, considering Falken told you he was working on a surprise that had everyone else worried that he was going to build some sort of death machine, except for Twilight, who seemed to be calm during that entire explanation.
Rainbow's presence at the table was slightly worrying to you. If she was here, that meant she was being watched, something you would have preferred not to cause. Putting a pony on their equivalent of suicide watch. Not that you've ever heard of ponies committing suicide for that matter. Well, with the exception of Osprey, but that was only repeated attempts of which you stopped and fixed.
So dinner was a little rough, on both you and Dash, you wanting to check on her, and she didn't want to be there at all. Both of you were thankful when it was over.
 
1930 Hrs. Luna's Balcony
There's just two of you excluding Luna as she raises the moon tonight.
"So, what are we going to do this fine night?" You ask after the moon has been raised, which to you makes no sense, coming from a world where well, you know, earth goes around sun, moon revolves around earth and such.
"I do not know. Do either of you have ideas?"
"Well, couldn't we go and prank the city?"
"No, I shall have to clean it up later. I wish not to clean up a mess."
"Oh that's no fun."
"Morgan, I am the ruler of the night, if it were not my duty to care for the city and the nation during the night, I would happily set up pranks for my sister to find." Luna said as you shake your head.
"Morgan, we're a little too big and noisy to quietly toilet paper a home here, but we can tape toilet paper to Celestia's door."
"That I approve of."
"Of course you would Luna." You say as you laugh a little, though she is levitating the equivalent of duct tape, and about four rolls of toilet paper.
"Alright, let's go TP Celestia."
"Lets." Luna said
The night is filled with childish pranks and other sorts of fun as it were called, vandalizing the castle for your own entertainment purposes and well, Princess Luna didn't seem to complain about the "damages" the three of you were causing.
"Tis my sister's home, though we share it, it's upkeep is her responsibility."
"So, we could damage the place as much as we want and she has to deal with it?"
"Yes, but do not bring down an entire wing of this castle, that she may be angry." Luna said as you knocked over a "small" statue of Celestia and it shatters on the ground.
"Rex."
"Well, if she has this one, she's pretty damned conceded. One statue won't do much."
"Yes, but that was her favorite one."
"Eh, sue me."
"What?"
"Human term, I believe an easier one to understand would be bite me." You say in response to the prodding about the statue you knocked over.
"Well, try not to knock any more over."
"Riight. 'try' not to."
"Do not do it on purpose and call it an accident Rex. I shall tally up the damages."
"Luna, don't sound like your sister." You say joking with her, but she takes it a little too seriously and instantly quiets down and shatters a vase. The three of you break out into laughter and use a washable marker on the glass covered paintings, drawing mustaches, beards and unibrows on paintings of Celestia. All in all, the three of you have a really good night vandalizing the castle, which you're all going to blame on kids, because well, why the hell not?
 
0800 hrs. Canterlot Castle.
When you wake up from sleeping on the cold marble floor, you sound like a zombie, groaning and mumbling as you make your way to Morgan.
"Time to go home?"
"Yea. Brother staying?" You say as Falken comes trotting out.
"Nope I'm going home with you two. You mind if I let Twilight catch a ride with me?"
"Uh, I guess. Twilight, just don't touch anything inside of him, I'd hate for you to kill yourselves."
You say as you're still half asleep
"Very funny Rex. I'm inside of a very dark compartment. If I didn't know any illumination spells, I'd be in the dark."
"Falken, turn on your internal projectors."
"My eyes!"
"Thanks Falken." You say as Twilight is probably flailing around, much to your discontent inside of Falken.
"I was going to do that in flight."
"Bad idea, your control surfaces moved."
"Oh, again you would be correct. Shall we begin our flight home?"
"Eager to go home son?"
"Well, I can start partial construction when we get home." Falken said as you shake your head before taking to the skies and waiting on the others to form up with you.
 
0945 Hrs. Skies between Avalon and Canterlot
Halfway home you see a blip on the radar coming towards you, it's too big to be a fighter or a pegasus, but it's certainly not a SAM.
"Hey dad, isn't that Patches?"
"Yea, it is. You two go home, I'll go see what Patches is doing."
"Alright. See ya at home." Morgan said as you nod and break off to meet up with Patches who was turning to meet you.
"Hey Patches, what you doing up and about?"
"I was looking for you."
"Well, I guess you found me."
"Yea, can we talk for a little bit?"
"Sure you mind speeding up a little? I'm kinda close to stalling."
"Sure, but don't go over 250."
"Alright. That buffers me a bit more." You say as you hold off her right wing, in her presence you can't help but feel a little smaller. Something you kind of missed, but even being small you were just as powerful as you are now.
"So what was it you wanted to chat about Patches?"
"I kinda feel bad about what happened to you."
"Patches."
"Don't you Patches me mister, you're going to listen."
"Alright mom." You say which was everypony's response to her saying you're going to listen.
"I know it's not my fault, you were doing what you needed to for all of us. There's just this feeling of I wasn't paying attention like I should have. I mean I could have put five .50 guns on it and covered you." Patches said
"And you could have gotten yourself seriously hurt or worse. You must really like your name if you're willing to get more."
"Well, it's more of I feel like I should have done more than just getting out of there like you said."
"Patches, everything turned out alright in the end, so don't worry about it. Falken mopes around because he thinks he killed me. Sure there was a pretty bad burn on my side and a decent sized chunk missing, but there was a rock that was superheated and exploded, tearing through me. To think I was killed by a fucking rock." You say as the two of you continue towards Avalon's Shadow.
"Your boy has problems with what happened?"
"Yea, it's kind of grief, and kind of guilt. I think most of it has passed, but I'm not entirely sure, he's still grief stricken and occasionally has a guilty conscious."
"Well, maybe I should have a word with him."
"Patches, it's for my family to work out, thanks though, if it gets rougher for us, I'll keep you in mind." You say as you can see parts of Avalon in the distance.
"Hey Rex."
"Yea?"
"Sometimes I would notice you staring at the Y on my tail. Why were you doing that?"
"Oh, back where I was from I had a family member serve in the air force during a war, and he was a gunner on a B-17, no pony attached to it though. I guess it just brings back happy memories of the man and wondering what he thought when he flew."
"I can't speak for him, but bombing is one of the scariest things in my life. Those black clouds that caused some of the patches on me, it's horrifying."
"I could only imagine." You say as you're watching the runway get bigger.
"Ladies first Patches, I'll circle around and see you on the ground."
"Alright Rex, but we're not done talking."
"I knew we weren't." You say getting a giggle from patches as you break off and circle back to re line up for an approach to Avalon's Shadow.
1148 Hrs. Avalon's Shadow.
Thunderbolt is waiting over with Patches, and as per your orders one of the squadron is with her.
"You're home."
"Miss me much?"
"A little, but if Twilight's here you need to be here too. Who knows what type of trouble that mare can get herself into."
"Don't have to tell me twice Thunder. I remember what happened last time I let her do something unattended." You say as Patches looks at you in a little bit of confusion.
"She nearly destroyed Canterlot, and it would have been her fault, sure we launched that satellite, but she brought it down and she built it."
"Oh that incident where you flew out really early and blew up something?"
"Yea that one." You say as Patches remembered you leaving to destroy the SOLG.
"How'd she get here so quickly?"
"How do you think? She hitchhiked in Falken. Seems he takes a bit after me, when he's pulling pranks."
"You allowed that?"
"It was either that or walk here, I really didn't feel like walking Thunder. Sorry Patches, I'll be with ya in a minute." You say as you're talking to Thunder and acknowledging the bomber.
"Take your time, I'm not going anywhere." Patches said as both you and Thunder smile up at her motherly face.
"So what are we going to do about Twilight?"
"We? Don't you mean them?"
"Huh?"
"Sure it's our problem, but Sand Island has to solve it. So why not have them watch Twilight and Falken." You say making Edge's smile disappear for a moment.
"Sir aren't we supposed to be watching for threats? Not babysitting?"
"Remember the SOLG?"
"Yes, but what has that to do with"
"The purple smart one 'accidentally' brought it down."
"She's a threat."
"Kind of, she's my son's best friend, you drive her away, and I'll hang you by your turbines." You say coming up with a new threat for compliance.
"Aye sir. I'll tell Archer to keep an eye on her." Edge said as she quickly disappeared.
"So, Rex, do you know what unit he was in? The family member?"
"Yea, 463rd Heavy Bombardment Group. 774th squadron." You say
You know from the markings on Patches that she was in the same group, the wedge Y and yellow elevator and rudder told you that. Squadron wise you didn't know.
"Well, I'm from the same group, different squadron. You ever share that with anypony?"
"Sometimes. Usually with those who ask. Thanks for putting up with the absentminded daydreams of mine Patches."
"Don't worry about it Rex, sometimes when I sleep outside, some of the little buddies sleep around me." Patches said as you could imagine them sleeping, the fighters off her wing, and ready to protect her from anything that goes bump in the night. You can't help but smile, and hide the thoughts of trauma it must bring back for Patches when she wakes.
"It doesn't bother you when they do that?"
"Sometimes. The flashbacks are fewer and fewer now. They've been going away since you've shown up Rex. I'm rather thankful for that."
"I'm just glad you remained in one piece, and let me hide the really ugly patches on you. It's really nice having a reminder of what I used to know, wasn't a happy or perfect world, but you at least remind me of some of the happier memories." You say as Patches has a few tears in her eyes.
"Rex, you made her cry."
"Thunderbolt, they're tears of happiness. Most ponies see me as something awful."
"You're a bomber that carries 4500lbs of bombs, of course ponies see you as something destructive."
"Thunderbolt let me have this moment alright? It's not often I actually remind somepony of something happy. Thank you Rex." Patches said as she openly wept, bringing the attention of all escort fighters in the area.
"It's alright guys, I'm just happy."
"You sure? Cause it looks like yer cryin."
"I'm fine you guys. It's just I've been told I bring back happy memories to a certain pony." Patches said as she got her crying under control, which crying in the first place was very much unlike her.
"We'll take care of her from here Rex. It's kind of odd seeing her so happy."
"Well, take care you guys." You say
1223 hrs. Your hangar.
As soon as you walk in your stomach grumbles, and Thunder stares at you.
"Rex, you did eat before you left right?"
"Right, about that, I may have been up all night, and breakfast was not on the list of things to do."
"Well, aren't you lucky that there's some leftovers." Thunderbolt said as you went to the fridge and looked for leftovers.
"From my breakfast."
"Uh where?"
"The fuel smart ass."
"Crap." You say as you go and chug what was left of Thunderbolt's breakfast. She must not have been doing much while you were out, the canister was 3/4ths full, and that at least made a dent in your stomach. Despite the "Guh" and gasp for air after downing the fuel to avoid the taste of it, you go and sit on the couch.
"We do not need to be watched, I find this to be a nuisance, and a hindrance to what I am doing."
"Falken it's not you I'm watching, it's the other one."
"Because she's a pony?"
"Because she nearly destroyed Avalon's Shadow."
"That was an accident that your group, those MiGs and father Morgan and I dealt with. Successfully I might add."
"Well, we just want to make sure she doesn't do that again."
"And she shall not, as long as I am watching her. Tell my father this is unnecessary." Falken said at a near yell of which you heard, despite being half asleep and leaning on Thunder.
"Archer, if he says he'll keep an eye on her, then he will, he's probably better for the task than you are."
"But."
"Don't argue let the kid do what he wants with his friend."
"Yes sir." Archer said as you could hear him walking down the hallway.
"What is he doing?"
"Building a robot."
"Why?"
"Why do you think?"
"Still upset about that?"
"If this will make him less cranky, then I say we let him make it, and Morgan, stay out of my thoughts." You say as you felt her trying to pry.
"How'd you know?" Morgan asked as she poked out from her room as you did the same thing, except you got into her head
"Oh right, you can do that too."
"Yea, you forget that sometimes." You say
Morgan smiles weakly and then asks "So what was up with Patches? She want to be your mommy?"
"No, but I would totally let her if she wanted to. She wanted to talk about the 'thing' that happened a few days back."
"Oh, and how is she?"
"She's fine, wishes she did something other than listen to me, but she's alright."
"Well, at least it was a happy meeting."
"Yea, yea it was." You say as you look over the couch to Morgan who's just standing in her doorway.
"Hey dad, you mind telling me a little more about Patches? I mean like some of the things she's done?"
"Sure, have a seat, if I fall asleep on you, well you know why."
"Alright." Morgan said as she went and sat on the couch across from you. Then you start to think, back to when you first met Patches, or 44-6719.
"First off, Patches is just a nickname for her. Her name is actually 44-6719, but Patches is easier to remember and a physical feature of her skin. She's covered in patches, you should have seen her before I got my hands on her, there were these big ugly splices and patches keeping her together, I smoothed them out and made them all less noticeable, even if that meant redoing a whole bunch of them. She's seen action with the 463rd before I pulled that designation from the depths of my mind and her history. I don't know who or what she bombed, but she has, and it frightens her. I can only begin to imagine the horrors she's been through. The only one I knew who has seen it is long gone."
"She's bombed ponies before?"
"I don't know, but she has definitely done bomb missions and taken flak damage. She's got a heart of gold though. Has the attitude of being everyone's mother, everyone listens to her, even your daddy."
"So would she be like my grandmother or something?"
"You already have a grandmother, Skye. Remember? Mom's mom."
"Oh right."
"And I thought you were asking me about Patches?" You say as you get Morgan to blush a little, apparently she also wanted to know her family history.
"Well, yes I do want to know about her, but you don't have any parents do you dad?"
"Had, they were left behind. They uh sometimes didn't see eye to eye with me, and well since the accident that brought me here only brought me, I guess they just aren't here."
"Ok."
"Alright, so let me see, where'd I leave off? Ah yea Patches is like a mom. I guess that comes from encouraging the little fighters that zipped around her to make it back to base, even if she was tore up something fierce, a lot of this is me putting pieces together and guessing, but they're damned good guesses." You say as Morgan smiles.
"Rex, didn't you say you had a family member in the 463rd?"
"Yea, a grandpa. He flew as a gunner. A human gunner in the non pony B-17. Why ya bringing this up?"
"I just thought it'd be nice for Morgan to know."
"Thunder. She didn't ask."
"Yes, but I did, and you explained."
"loopholes." You say as you look at your hooves.
"I think I'm gonna take a nap. Did that satisfy everything you wanted to know Morgan?"
"Yea, a good amount of it anyways."
"Good, now if you'll let me take a nap." You say as you lean fully on Thunderbolt and close your eyes, passing out in the process.
"What am I going to do with him."
"I dunno, you married him."
"Because he's a lovable idiot sometimes. And the biggest hero I've ever seen. Putting family and nation before himself. It's a wonder he doesn't come home like this more often."
"Well, Luna, Dad and I were up most of last night vandalizing Celestia's castle."
"Morgan why would you do that?"
"Luna wanted to. Dad may have had a slight hoof in what happened." Morgan said as Thunderbolt pet you, smiling and wondering what to do with you, as you basically pinned her to the couch, so she too would take a nap.
"Wake us if anything happens alright?"
"Sure. Doubt anything will."
"You never know sweetie."
"Alright mom." Morgan said as she went back to her room
Meanwhile in Falken's Room
"How much of this have you already built?"
"The bare frame itself, I used a lot of scrap pieces that were lying around. Though none are a Titanium alloy, they are mostly an aluminum alloy used in us ponies. Therefore it should work. The only issue is I cannot do the very sensitive and small components, and that is where I need your help. If I didn't have such big hooves, I would have done it myself. That and I am unsure how to construct a fuel cell or where to even find one."
"Perhaps your dad knows how to make one or where to get one."
"I would prefer not to, but if we have to I shall ask him for one."
"I'll help you as much as I can." Twilight said as she looked at the schematics and the decryption key to Falken's writing.
"Wonderful. Thank you for your assistance, I shall go and retrieve more materials."
"Where did you get these servos?"
"I may have gotten them from dad's shop."
"With permission?"
"Questionable."
"Falken you stole these from your own father?"
"Yes and no, I think when he sees the finished product that will make up for the losses. Now may I get the resources we need?"
"Yes, but what about your guards?"
"They don't know about this door." Falken said as he opened a section of his wall that pointed straight to the shop.
"And I don't plan on them finding out."
"How did you?"
"Dad sleeps pretty heavy, and all that time I've spent 'reading' in here, I may have been doing other things. Like the robot and the wall." Falken said explaining Twilight's shock.
"I'm happy you're on our side."
"Technically my father's side. Which most often ends up being your side, except for a few things."
"Like what?"
"SOLG?" Falken said as the two of them walked to the shop. As they are walking to the shop, Patches manages to ambush them. With Falken, that's a remarkable feat.
"Hey Falken, what are you up to?"
"44-6719? Why are you?"
"Stop reading my tail, it's Patches. So what are you up to?" Patches asked with a cheerful smile.
"Getting supplies to make a surprise for my father. May we continue Patches."
"What kind of surprise?"
"Patches, it is a surprise. If I tell more ponies than I have, the chances of it being a true surprise drop with every pony I tell."
"But you can tell me right?"
"I'm very sorry Patches, but I cannot. I do trust you to keep the secret, but I do not know what to think due to you being there when I first fired my laser at the Ursa. When you were taking off." Falken said causing Patches to sigh.
"I wish I could have done more."
"You and I both. But you listened to my father, which is all that you could have done. Firing physical bullets at the Ursa would have passed through it and damaged the hangars. My laser hurt it and eventually killed it due to chemical and radiation energy."
"I'd still like to think I could have."
"I understand. Patches, tell nopony but it is a robot for my father. So he can continue to repair ponies."
"You're such a thoughtful son. I wish I had a child like you, so thoughtful and kind." Patches said as Falken was pleased by this compliment and his face actually reddened a little.
"You and your little friend can go along your way. I won't slow you down. If you need any help, or need me to distract your dad, let me know."
"I shall 44..... Patches."
"Caught yourself. Be seeing you Falken." Patches said as she walked off, same bright and cheerful smile on her face as when she ambushed Falken.
So Falken and Twilight rummage through your shop for supplies and other things they need to build the robot. When they are finished, Twilight has logged all that is missing, and everything else is in it's place, and you don't know the difference.
"Why'd you tell her?"
"I do not know. There was just something about her I liked."
"What about her did you like?"
"I cannot say for certain, but she feels like a grandmother to me. Not my mother's but father's. Confusing isn't it?"
"Yea." Twilight said