The Quest For The Past
Chapter 113: Gilda Part 4
Previous Chapter Next ChapterI'd woken up a couple of hours later and had slowly dragged myself to the portal with my one good limb. When I finally reached it and got through back to Equestria, I discovered that present/past me had already gone through the portal and that pretty much everypony else was just standing around it, waiting. After a lot of explaining and healing, I finally reached the part about the Amethyst Stranger. Really? That's the name I'm going with? Yep. Well, I guess it's better than 'Primotaur'...
"...And then I dragged myself back here," I finished. Most of them had worried faces. Celestia seemed to be in deep thought, Luna looked like she was happy about me getting my ass kicked, but Vesper (the version of her before we built the M.M.D.M.) looked like she was having a panic attack; she was visibly pale and shaking slightly. "Vesper? What's wrong?" As soon as I asked, everypony turned to look at her.
"C-Crystal Armour?" She asked, shakily.
"Yeah, what's-?"
"I've seen 'em before." Wait, what?
"What are you talking about?"
"It's 'cause-" She suddenly stopped herself. "I... I can' say."
"Why not? Paradox?"
"It's... It's..." She gulped. "I can' say..." There was an awkward pause as I considered what to do.
"Okay. I'm going back through." Vesper suddenly looked confused.
"Wait, but-" I walked back through the portal before she could finish.
I was just outside of Nerdy's shed. I could hear weird metallic sounds coming from inside. Machinery maybe? I opened the door and saw Nerdy doing something with what looked like an electric kind of saw. It was much louder than how it sounded form outside.
"Nerdy!" I tried to shout over the noise. Nerdy looked up from what he was doing and turned off the saw.
"Hey, Cloud," he greeted. "What took you so long? Did you find out who took it?"
"Well..." I explained what had happened.
"Ow."
"Yeah."
"I didn't even know bones could ricochet."
"It was very painful."
"It sounds it."
"So how are the Thunder Gloves coming?" He looked confused.
"Thunder Gloves?" I nodded.
"That's what I'm calling them." He shrugged.
"Okay then. I've only finished one so far, but the other should be done by tomorrow."
"Good."
"So what's the plan now?" I thought to myself for a moment and considered the possibilities:
While it was true that the Amethyst Stranger was a huge problem, I still had to remember that Sunset Shimmer was the whole reason Twilight, Spike and I were here. It was stupid to trust a blatant enemy, but at the same time, the A.S. had no reason to lie about returning the crown after they'd beaten me. Sunset having an army of Primotaurs would make it much harder for Twilight to stop her, so helping out with that would obviously stop it from being an issue.
"I think the best thing to do is stick to the current plan," I explained, "Sunset's still dangerous and is actively trying to overthrow Equestria slash kill everypony in Equestria or some bucking bullshit like that. If the Amethyst Stranger was telling the truth about returning the crown, then Sunset's still the biggest problem of right now. If we topple her army, Twilight and I can take her on by ourselves without anyone else getting in our way."
"Sounds good," Nerdy replied. "I could use some help making the second Thunder Glove and then tomorrow, after past us leave, I'll show you how they work and we can get back on track." I smirked at him.
"Let's do this!"
It was the next day and our past selves had just left. Nerdy had brought a mannequin out to the back garden and I was about to try out the Thunder Gloves.
They looked very strange: Each one was a rubber glove with bits of metal plating on the back of the hand. There was a button on the flat of the hand (I think they're called palms?) and on the two centre knuckles, two bits of metal stuck out a little. Lots of wiring connected to all of the parts on the two gloves which connected up and was attached to some kind of heavy box which Nerdy had put into my bag.
"Alright," started Nerdy, "these are really simple to use. When you make a fist, press down on the button to turn on the stun-gun part." I tried it on my right hand and the knuckle area seemed to buzz. "You only have a limited charge, so try not get into fights unless you have to."
"Can't I just fight normally against most Primotaurs?" I asked. Nerdy shook his head.
"No, there's a bit of a downfall to the Thunder Gloves. The rubber is there to protect you from getting shocked yourself, but it'll make your regular punches a bit weaker. The electrical area itself," he pointed to my knuckles, "will also make it awkward to punch without the stun usage."
"How are these supposed to help again?" He rolled his eyes.
"Try punching the mannequin."
"Okay." I threw an electrified punch at the mannequin. It was sent flying about a meter and landed in the grass. There was a visible burn mark where I'd punched it. "Nice." I turned back to Nerdy. "So how much charge do these have?"
"There should be plenty, but if you do run out, I put some backup batteries in your bag. Just find me and I'll switch them around."
"What if I need to take these off?"
"Er..." He paused for a couple of seconds. "You're kinda screwed." I sighed.
"Great." I stretched out the arm I punched with. "We should probably get going, we're nearly caught up." Nerdy agreed and we made our way back to the school.
Next Chapter: A Hell Of A Problem (Vesper's POV) Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 33 MinutesAuthor's Notes:
Sorry this took so long, writer's block struck again.
The 'heavy box' is a car battery.