Chapter 81 – A Somber Note

Back in the garage, Pilit sat at her desk, hands rubbing the stress from her face as she tried to relax and reset her thinking, "Ho." she groaned as she looked to the ceiling, "What now?" she asked herself. She had been drowning herself in work, trying not to think about the situation. Instead, she had tried to focus on something else.

"You alright?" she heard from behind her. She turned her head, finding Writch as the much larger Treeopon female gently made her way towards her, "You need anything?"

"I'll be fine." Pilit said, "As long as I keep working maybe I can find a way to help."

"Don't burn yourself out." Writch told her.

"If I can just…" the smaller Treeopon began. She was stopped when Writch placed her hands on Pilit's shoulders. Though the larger Treeopon hadn't said anything, the younger couldn't help but let the tears out again, she had blamed herself at first, and Writch had been her support along with Twilight, but now… "It's not fair!" she sobbed, "Why us?"

"I don't know." Writch said solemnly, "But we're going to rise up from the ashes of this and be stronger than ever." She then squeezed the shoulders of the young Treeopon, "Remember the story of that phoenix that Spike told us?" she asked, "The one Princess Celestia has as a pet?" Pilit let her tears slow and nodded as she recollected the story the young dragon had spoken of, "Well, like that Phoenix the worst will make us stronger. You'll see." She then looked to the younger Treeopon's tablet, "What's that?" she asked as she pointed to the screen.

Pilit wiped the tears from her eyes and looked down at where she was pointing, a small icon that had no name, but the icon itself looked like a schematic. "I don't know." Pilit said and tapped it. Once it came up, the two Treeopons let their eyes slowly widen as they somehow recognized it, "Is that the B336 Schematic?" she asked in surprise.

"What's 'AURA'?" Writch asked.

"It's…a fuel source?" Pilit said, "I think we can build one!"

"Well, sure. We've got the blueprints for it." Writch said though not condescendingly, "I want you to see if you can improve it!"

"What?" Pilit asked.

"Yeah, when this thing was made, they knew nothing of magic, but you…" the larger Treeopon said and looked to the young Treeopon, "You've studied magic, even practiced it. You understand how it works."

"But…" Pilit began, "…What does that have to do with…"

"Think about it." Writch said, "Twilight said that the fuel, the blue stuff was like liquid magic, and Rainbow Dash uses her magic to boost it. What if making it flow like magic is the key to making it better?"

Pilit turned back to the schematic, studying it and thinking, "Wait," she said, "This is all wrong." She then tapped a small spot on her desk and up came a holographic screen. With a quick swipe, she moved the schematic from the tablet and onto the much larger desk. She began fiddling with it, pulling the outer shell off and rearranging the insides, "Magic flows in a natural way, so with everything directly going to the core, it's like trying to feed a heart used blood in both halves, all you're going to do is choke it in the end, but if I add a bypass tank and a second core system…" Writch watched as Pilit tried to add everything she was suggesting, "No, that won't work…but maybe…" she once again began to fiddle with the hologram, and then placed the shell back onto the machine, "That might work." she said and smiled, "We can use most of the parts from all three of the older versions."

"I don't know if we have much left of the third one, the others have yet to bring anything back yet." Writch reminded her.

"I'm actually preparing for that with this build." Pilit said, "I'm gonna need your help though. There's no way I can do this alone."

Writch lifted one of her arms and flexed, "You got it." she said, "Are we going to let the others know?" she asked.

"Not yet." the younger one said, "The less that know of this the better, I don't want the Sunik teams trying to sabotage us on this. One little screw-up can spell disaster with an engine this delicate."

"What do you mean delicate?" Writch asked.

"Trust me, just us two." she said, her voice adamant about what she was saying. Writch simply nodded.

It was a while until Blade and the others came back, the transport ship gliding gently into the garage and settling in the back, somewhere away from the spot designated for the racer. As soon as the hatch door on the back of the ship opened, Fluttershy and Twilight both had Breeze strapped to a cot, an angry look on his face as he was pushed towards the med bay. Blade and the rest of the ponies came out from the same opening, "I can't believe how riled up he is!" Pinkie said, "I mean, I know that Rainbow Dash needs help, but COME ON!"

"He's worried about her." Blade said, "My brother would just dive into the fog and search for her if he could."

"Not a good idea." Applejack said.

"I agree, with his injuries he wouldn't be able to do much." Rarity added in.

"Any luck?" Spike asked as he made his way up to them.

"I'm afraid not." Rarity answered.

"Even worse, the inspector said there was a lot of blood!" Pinkie shouted and somehow could feel the shocked looks that fell upon her. She smiled at the others, knowing full well that it was too late to backtrack and she had no idea of how to calm the situation.

"We don't really know for sure who's." Blade interjected, "And they won't give us the remains of the Rainbow Trail Mk.2 until they finish their investigation. Heck, the blood might have come from the spear since we know nothing about it."

"But still…" the baby dragon shuddered.

"We must have faith." Image said, interrupting his friend's worry, "We'll find the truth when they find their way back to us."

"How long do we have to wait?" Spike asked.

"Until the track comes back." Twiggs said as he approached them.

"What do ya'll mean by that?" Applejack asked.

"One of the gates was destroyed when the spear struck it, so all {snort} we can do is wait." he said as his answer.

"But Tris said that Sselekk's ship hit the gate, and instead it shut down their shield for a bit." Spike said, "That must have been some incredible power." Twiggs nodded at the idea.

"Do you…mind some company?" they all heard from the garage door. There, at the opening to their garage, stood Honor and Chivalry as well as Syls and Tris. Both the Meltackians with dull colors flowing through their skin, the sadness of blues and dull purples dominant, "We came to find out if there was anything we could do to help." Chivalry continued.

Tris and Syls both had looks that could have easily been a cross between sadness and anger, "Any news about them?" Syls asked almost desperately. Blade simply shook his head, "Well, you'll let us know right?"

"Absolutely." They heard Twilight say. The alicorn, somehow regally, made her way out of the hallway, and up to their friends at the door of the garage, "And you can all come in, we're about ready to start dinner." she invited them and then turned to the side of the garage door closest to her, "You too Sselekk." she said, "You're all welcome to join us."

The group outside the garage door turned to the side where Twilight was looking, and from that side, the large Sunik, hand to the back of his head, emerged. "How'd you know?" he asked.

"You're our friend." she said simply, catching the Sunik off guard, "Come on in. It might be a bit different than what you're used to, but I hope you enjoy our food."

Dinner lasted until the sunset, the light barely peeking from over the horizon, and it was that time when the inspector arrived, a somber look on her face. The look got everyone, leaving or staying to stop, "We've confirmed the blood we found." she said and hesitated, "It was from the Sunik named Krisskkil."

The group gasped in fright, "There's not enough to confirm anything, right?" Syls asked.

The inspector shook her head, "Sorry, there was no way he'd lose that much blood and still be alive." she said and looked the smaller Dryskian in the eyes, "It's like he was hit with the spear head-on." Syls went silent, her breath catching in her throat, "On the other hand, all we found of Rainbow Dash, was this feather and a few drops of blood in the cockpit. So, there's a chance she's still out there. We're going to keep up the search efforts, and we'd like to enlist the help of your pegasi."

"I'll help." Blade said.

"Me too." Fluttershy whispered.

"My magic might be able to help as well." Rarity chimed in.

"I'll do what I can." Twilight said.

"Ah can help with the search on the ground." Applejack said.

"Me too!" Pinkie announced.

It was then that Sselekk, Tris, and Syls could no longer hear them, having moved back to the garage of the Dryskians, both Tris and Sselekk helping to support Syls due to shock and holding her hand to her mouth in both disbelief and trying and keep herself from vomiting. "I'm going to go back to the sight and see if there's anything left that I can find." Sselekk said in sadness, "Let my team know if you need anything."

Tris nodded as the large Sunik walked away. They entered the garage, instantly surrounded by very somber and crying children. The rest of the team either went to bed or tried to support the children the best they could. Syls fell to her knees, both hands on the floor to try and support her weight. The children noticed, and all came to her, grouping up in a giant hug. Tris watched as the smaller Dryskian finally let it all sink in, and burst into tears, an ugly cry that echoed throughout the entire garage.