Chapter 22 – Extraordinary Find
"This…is…Amazing!" Twilight said as she gawked at the large wooden box that Twiggs, Blade, and Applejack had all brought into the garage. The entire team had been brought into the bay, and Syls and Tris had been invited to see the spectacle, "This is the find of the century…of the millennium!" she ranted and Pilit was right there at her side, the same wide-eyed excited expression on her face as she peeked into the broken part of the box, "I don't even care that it's broken! It's the B336 Magnus Particle Engine!"
"I've only seen theories of this thing's potential!" Pilit said out loud, "And it's right here in our yard!"
"You've actually seen the theories?" Twilight asked as she placed her hooves to the Treeopon's chest, "I'm so jealous! I've only seen the guess art in the museum!"
"And read the articles of its disappearance like twenty times!" Spike added in.
"Eheheheh" Twilight chuckled a bit, her embarrassment showing as she did.
Pilit didn't care, she grabbed the hooves of the alicorn and looked her in the eyes, "It's…the…B…336…Magnus…Particle…Engine!" she said as she and Twilight began to let their excitement climb to new heights. Pilit began dancing around and Twilight just flapped her wings to spin with the little Treeopon.
"What's so special about that engine anyway?" Syls asked.
Both girls stopped their spin, glancing at the smaller Dryskian with intent and surprise, "What?" Pilit asked.
"You've never heard of the B336 Magnus Particle Engine?" Twilight asked.
"Neither did you until you got to Bacromus!" Syls tried to defend herself by pointing to Twilight.
"I'm not from this solar system." Twilight countered, "What's your excuse?"
"You just had to ask." Rainbow said as she let her eyes fall in an annoyed look.
"To keep it simple, the B336 MPE was argued to be the most powerful engine in its time. However, it never got to perform in front of a crowd because a rival company was found to have caused it to disappear on its route through the solar system." Pilit explained, "No one ever found it until today."
"If they knew a rival company sabotaged the rout, how come they couldn't find it?" Applejack asked.
"Good question Applejack!" Twilight complimented, "In fact, the reason is that the investigation didn't actually commence until at least one full Cycle later, and by that time the company that built the B336 and the rival company had both been out of business for some years. In fact, they had gone out of business because the B336 went missing. Both companies had promised an engine that would surpass all other engines without fail, and the stats on the B336 ledger were supposed to be proof of that. No engine has ever come close to its power output or its performance level."
"But that was all just on paper." Pilit added in, "In the interview, the owner of the company spoke of how the B336 actually exceeded their expectations, but…" she turned to the piece of support sticking out of the crate, "…I don't think this one is going to impress anyone anymore."
"Can't you just fix it?" Breeze asked and turned to Writch and Blade.
"I've never seen an engine like this, I doubt we have the parts for it." his brother said.
"Same, I wouldn't know where to start." Writch admitted.
Then all eyes focused on Pilit, and she started to get nervous, "I'm not trying to fix a legendary engine!" she said, "I'd need blueprints and spare parts if the thing even takes parts. I don't know the first thing about it!"
"You said the power was still on in that old ship?" Writch asked.
"Yeah, it was a surprise to me {snort} as well." Twiggs said.
"Think you two could find a terminal?" she asked.
Applejack smiled, "We'll start first thing tomorrow mornin." she said.
"I can ask the scroungers from my yard to help." Tris said.
"Don't get too many involved." Writch said, "Wouldn't want a turf war on our hands…or hooves."
"Plus, you got your own racer to worry about, {snort} let us handle this." Tusks said.
"Ok, if you say so!" Syls said before Tris could argue, "Just let us know if you find anything good. We'd like to be a part of history to."
"Will do." Rainbow Dash called out as the Dryskians made their way to the exit of the garage, and back to their own base.
The night came, darkness engulfing the entire side of the planet as the people and ponies all settled in. All, but one. Syls, it seemed just couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed, a large fluffy cotton bed that looked like it was made mostly out of wool. She poked her head out of her enormous white covers and groaned. She made her way to the base of her garage, the Silver Blitz sitting there in the middle. She placed a hand on the machine, her jacket hanging just off of her shoulders as she tried to comfort herself. "It's crazy huh girl?" she asked the machine, "We just meet a few months ago and now we're in the first place. Hope we stay that way." Suddenly she heard a nose, a clang of something that hit the ground. "Who's there?" she called out, and grabbed the first thing she could, a large monkey wrench, "I know how to use this…" she sounded the fib in her own mind, "…as a club!" She was surprised when she saw a shadow bolt out of the garage, mostly because the rest of the room was near pitch dark. "HEY!" she called out and ran after the thief. Whoever it was disappeared quickly, so Syls just ran around, tracking the thief across the complex, stopping at an open door to Rainbow Dash's garage. She made her way inside, looking around for her quarry, "I know you're here!" she whispered. She kept the wrench up to her head, ready to strike when necessary, and heard something fall to the floor again. She looked in the direction of the noise, and rounded the Rainbow Trail, just in time to see a hooded figure grab something from the floor, and look up at her. The hood kept the face way too dark for her to recognize. The figure locked eyes with her, and then seconds later ran again. "HEY!" she called out and ran back to the door after the being, just barely ducking through just before the lights came on and a very surprised Writch and Tusks came out to investigate.
"What was that?" the male asked.
"You wanna race?" Syls whispered herself as she tailed the figure, "Then let's race!" The second those words escaped her lips, she pushed herself even further, running almost twice as fast. She closed the gap as best she could, but then the figure veered, running off to the side and into the racing field as it picked up speed for some reason, nearly disappearing in the sand and grass it kicked up. "Can't outrun me!" she said and pushed herself to run through the dust, squinting her eyes as she found the path thanks to the steps she tracked, not footsteps, but rather the dust cloud that came up from the ground after the foot fell. Thought suddenly, it stopped. The dust disappearing and falling around her as she looked around, her eyes now wide open and alert. "Where are you?" she asked herself, her fur ruffled from her annoyance, and then she looked down, not straight, but down none the less, a large hill or dune, depending on how you wished to see it, that made its way down into what looked like an old run-down ruin. The inside lit up as if it had a campfire flickering inside. "I found you." she whispered to herself and slid down the hill, ready to catch the perpetrator in the act of stashing the items he or she had pilfered. Then she heard voices. Children's voices.
"Hey Krisskkil, were you able to find it?" a boy asked. Syls stealthily made her way to the entrance to peer inside.
"I sure did." a mid-ranged happy voice added in, "I also got something else, check this out!" Syls was surprised to find a Sunik standing there covered in a dark brown cloak with what looked to be a circular disk in hand, just as he pulled out a small cylinder with a blue wire on the outside and a large plug coming from the back of it.
"What is that?" a girl's voice asked. The girl seemed to be another Sunik, young. Probably less than a half a cycle old, and the boy a slightly older Hylop with brown fur and ginger hair. In fact, there seemed to be quite a few children, each of a different species from this solar system, all at different ages below a single cycle.
"It's a Fixil." he said and placed the cylinder on a large table off to the side. With a few small clicks, he actually placed the two machines together, the disk on the top, and then somehow synched the Fixil into the table before plugging the concoction into a cable that stretched across the ground, "There, now you don't have to use the fire to heat the area and cook food." he said and placed a small pot on top of the disk before placing ingredients from under his cloak into the pot.
"You brought food?" a smaller Treeopon boy asked, "How did you get Sselekk to agree to that?"
"Yah?" a girl Treeopon asked, "He loves his food wayyyy too much."
"What he doesn't know won't hurt him!" the smaller Sunik said with a smile.
Syls pulled back from the entrance and smiled sadly before walking back to the hill. "Did you bring another Matrix Element for the Furnace?" one of the older girls asked as the Dryskian walked away.
"Did you think I would forget?" he asked, and that was when Syls made it to the top of the hill, the voices now just mumbles from within the ruins.
She made her way back through the fields and was stopped by the very Sunik she had been chasing, he had somehow made it in front of her. She stood there, ready for a fight, only to have him place his clawed hands together, "I must ask you to keep what you just saw a secret." he said. She looked at him, in surprise, "If anyone found out about those kids, they'd instantly be separated from each other. I can't let that happen; they've been a family together for so long I doubt they'll even accept anything else. So please, I ask you humbly, don't tell anyone?"
"You stole from us; you stole from my friend." she said as she stood up from her defensive position.
"I know, I was told to sabotage your racers by my coach, but I know these parts can easily be replaced." he said, "And it was for the kids, they need to stay together, I need to keep them safe. Safe from my emperor."
She looked perplexed at him, "You would disobey your emperor?" she asked.
"Not directly, but I still want to keep those kids safe." he said and bowed to her, "So I must ask you to keep my secret, just until I can save those kids, please?"
The rest of the journey was like a dream, she couldn't figure out how she got in front of Rainbow Dash's garage, but she stood there, the door closed and the Sunik's words echoing in her mind, "Syls?" she heard from the door, and there stood Rainbow Dash, Tusks and Writch, "Are you ok?" the pegasus asked.
"I…" she began, and then the plea of Krisskkil once again sounded itself in her mind, "Saw someone stealing something from your ship." she said and lowered her head, "But I lost them. They got away."
"Did you see what part was taken?" Writch asked.
"No, but it was from the front, I think near the cooling center." she said, and Writch scoffed a bit.
"Probably the Matrix Element. Man, trying to sabotage our ship and cause the engine to stall form overheating huh?" the Treeopon asked, "Well, we'll see about that. Make sure to get your mechanics to check the Element on your engine as well." she said and made her way to the Rainbow Trail to make sure to get it fixed before anypony else woke up.
"Yeah, I'll make sure to do that." Syls said, "Sorry I didn't catch em. Thanks for the tip." With that she turned back to her own garage and walked back to get some sleep, her eyes lowered in some kind of understanding.
