Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven

The Everfree Forest was in bloom, a more vibrant green than usual, sun filtering through the branches of its gnarled trees.

A stone's throw from the back of Zecora's hut, the Colossus of Talona rested on its broken knees, its glassy eyes dim and lifeless. The Cutie Mark Crusaders paced around it, admiring its features.

"It's just sad," said Apple Bloom, shaking her head.

"So… majestic," Sweetie Belle peeped.

"All the stuff about it from the museum, that's all here?" said Scootaloo.

"Yeah, it's at Zecora's place," Apple Bloom replied, gesturing to the hut.

"All that knowledge…" said Sweetie Belle. "It just doesn't belong to the public anymore. That's sad."

"Not necessarily," said Apple Bloom. The others turned to her. "It's ours now. So let's make the best of it."

"I don't think that it's 'ours', per se," Sweetie Belle said, frowning.

"Nopony else is doin' anything with it," Apple Bloom said. "And nopony said we couldn't read it. It might as well be ours."

"That just sounds an awful lot of rationalizing," Sweetie Belle said warily.

"That's because you spent two years getting roped into our zany schemes," said Scootaloo. "There's nothing zany about this. It's just us benefitting from reading materials that nopony else is benefitting from. Twilight would probably like to take a look at it, but she doesn't have the time. We do. And it'd be a crime to just let all that knowledge just sit there."

In less than a minute, they were in Zecora's empty home, rifling through the chest filled with all of the museum's material related to the Colossus.

Apple Bloom looked over a scroll, then pulled out a heavy signboard. "Ah, here's the sign… I wanna see how accurate this illustration is. I'm goin' in."

She left the hut and looped around it, entering the colossus through one of its flank hatches. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined her shortly, slowed as they were bringing the entire chest with them.

Scootaloo took to the air, inspecting the gadgetry located near the giant alicorn's spine. "Ooh! This is intense! What have we got here? Look at all these dangly things… are these for the neural links?"

"That's right," said Apple Bloom, consulting the sign.

"Is this what I think it is?" Scootaloo breathed.

"What?" said Sweetie Belle.

"What is it, Scoot?"

Scootaloo pulled down the pony-sized spine apparatus, bringing it into the view of the others. "Needles," she explained. "And these wires, I think they're copper."

"Wait, really?" Sweetie Belle gasped. "REALLY?"

"Seriously?" Apple Bloom mumbled.

"Yeah," Scootaloo said excitedly. "I… girls, I think the Colossus works on the exact same principles as Crusaders Mecha."

"So…" Apple Bloom said, almost laughing, "we re-invented a technology that's been lost for… what was it, four thousand years?" She checked the sign. "No, three. Three thousand. Still…"

"Yeah, we did," said Scootaloo. "We thought on a smaller scale and took it in a different direction, but this is… it's basically the same concept."

"Girls…" Apple Bloom said eagerly, "if we could invent that, just out of our own heads, then there's no way that we can't use all this raw material and information… to fix the Colossus."

"It'd be a snap," Scootaloo agreed.

"Fix her… could we?" said Sweetie Belle.

"She begged us to," said Apple Bloom. "And by doin' that, she proved that she ain't just a war machine, she's a livin' being with feelings. That means we have to save her, if we can."

"And we can," Scootaloo said confidently.

"We sure as shootin' have to try," said Apple Bloom. "If she works the same way as Mecha does, why, she's practically kin!"

"Well…" Sweetie Belle said uncertainly, glancing around at the three pilot stations. "It's not, you know, it's not like she's exactly the same as Mecha. Our deal with that was racial equality and unity. But our girl here, you need three immortals to pilot her."

Apple Bloom looked down at the sign. "Actually… that's not necessarily true," she said. "Look at this picture, look at the way they're all hooked up. You need three ponies, yeah, that's why those hijackers couldn't get her to move, but look at the three immortals here: one is the mind, one is the muscle, and one is the heart. They have to act simultaneously, but the three stations do three different things, each one channelin' a different aspect of their immortal nature."

"…You figured all that out from that old illustration?" Sweetie said blankly.

"Well, and the captions," said Apple Bloom. "Not the point. You get the point?"

"Mind, muscle, and heart," Scootaloo said thoughtfully. She nodded, slowly at first, then quickly as her eyes started widening. "Mind, muscle, and heart! Unicorn, pegasus, and earth!"

Sweetie Belle gasped. "I have a hypothesis!" She reeled back. "Whoa, déjà vu."

"Hmm?"

"What? What déjà vu?"

"…I dunno," Sweetie Belle admitted. "I just get the feeling that I've said that before. Or… maybe that I've been around someone who says that a lot? I… I don't remember."

"Huh. Weird," Scootaloo remarked. "But yeah, you see where this is going? Crusaders Mecha may have backfired on us, but this… this is a chance to do something real good! And our mistakes gave us the know-how to do it."

Sweetie's eyes sparkled. "The whole thing kinda feels like… fate."

Scootaloo glanced at her flank. "Does it ever," she whispered.

"And not only could we refurbish her…" Apple Bloom began.

"We could pilot her!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Ooh! Do you think she'd like that?"

Apple Bloom shrugged. "If I was her, I think I'd appreciate bein' able to walk around again, and not havin' any war to fight. Yeah… I bet she'd like that very much."

"And we don't need her for anything, so we could do whatever she wants," Scootaloo added. "She's probably never had that chance before."

"Oooooh, this is amazing!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "This is so fate! And it's so… so… ZANY! It's zany fate!"

"Zany fate gave us the experience to do this," Apple Bloom agreed.

All three of them looked up the Colossus' neck, to the inside of her head.

"Y'all listen here, Talona… may I call you Talona?" said Apple Bloom. "Don't y'all despair about never wakin' up again. My friends and I heard your words and took 'em to heart. We're gonna put you back together, and bring ya back. Bring ya back to life! By my honor as a Cutie Mark Crusader, YOU WILL LIVE AGAIN! AHAHAHAHAHA! BWHAHAHA! MUUUUWAHAHAHAHA!"

She noticed the others staring at her in wide-eyed horror. "What?" she demanded.

"You can pull off the evil laugh a lot better now, since your makeover," Scootaloo said grimly.

"Yeah," Sweetie Belle peeped.

Apple Bloom guffawed. "Right on!"