Numbers.

They lined the mares flank on both sides, but that wasn't what was interesting about them. The sequence of '01111001 01100101 01110011' was prominently displayed upon her right flank, while the sequence of '01101110 01101111' was stretched across her left side. It made no sense, it was obvious that Gaige had tried to duplicate the appearance of a normal cutiemark. So why would she make it different on both sides?

What could it possibly mean? If broken down and taken simply as the numbers they were presented as, then in binary they read as 'yes' and 'no'. But that still meant practically nothing to her. If she asked a question of her from the right side, would she get a 'yes’ answer? If from the left side, the opposite? Twilight should have known better, there was no way that Gaige would have just given up something like the password so easily.

At the very least she should have suspected such trickery from the mechromancer.

"Qwerty?" She asked, breaking the near silence that had permeated throughout the cockpit.

"Yes, princess?" The mechanical pony replied, turning to look at Twilight.

"Not a princess, Qwerty," the subject reprimanded her, making minute adjustments as the craft continued to cut through the darkened depths.

"My apologies," Qwerty promptly continued, not sounding the least bit contrite. It was rather hard telling her tone and inflection at all, but at least it wasn't a completely monotone drawl. "I had assumed based on archived data that you were currently the Princess of Friendship. I had wondered where your wings had gone if you were as such, but I surmised you had simply misplaced them. Perhaps you will find them in a box of lost things?" she mused, tilting her head to the side.

"There is no 'princess of friendship'," Twilight managed to get out, confused at the turn the short conversation had taken.

"Oh?" Qwerty drawled in a drawn out tone. "That means there's an open position then, yes? Perhaps you should audition and see how it goes?"

"That's, I'm not, that's not how it, you can't just," Twilight sputtered, trying to find her words. "Sorry, I think we got a little off track, can I ask you something?"

"Certainly, princess," Qwerty responded in a flat tone. Twilight thought she could almost hear a slight tinge of smug mirth, but that was swept away almost immediately.

"What does your cutiemark mean?" She asked, satisfied at her inquiry. Gaige had never stated that she couldn't straight out ask what the answer was. It wasn't like she had anything to lose from asking.

Qwerty quirked an eyebrow, the expression freezing said eyebrow in place as the rest of her expression returned to normal. "My, how forward. Are you asking me out on a date, princess?"

Twilight gaped, not quite understanding how the conversation had taken such a turn from such an innocuous question. She struggled to form a response, failing to do so for a time.

"I didn't," she tried, only to be interrupted by Qwerty.

"Oh? Am I not attractive enough for you? Alas, how deep these words cut. Truly, my existence is now bleak and meaningless," she continued, the effectiveness of her words tainted by the lack of expression on her face. Sans errant eyebrow. Noticing that Twilights gaze kept tracking up to rest on the still raised eyebrow, Qwerty gave herself a minor thwack on the side of her head to reset the motors. The eyebrow returned to its previous position.

"You're making fun of me," Twilight accused, slightly upset that this mare would joke about such a matter. It wasn't fair, to be taunted like that. The first pony to ever openly ask along those lines... And it wasn't even a real pony. So unfair.

"You tried to cheat," Qwerty returned with just as little enthusiasm.

“I didn't,” Twilight protested, trying to find the words to verify her point. Finding naught more than excuses, she filled the silence with a slight huff of frustration.

Twilight turned from the invisibly smug robotic mare, peering forward at the various controls that the Mechromancer interacted with to guide their craft ever onwards. There were many screens and too many toggles, switches and buttons to count at just a glance. The main controls that she seemed to interact with however were three floor based pedals, a long stick that jutted up from the floor, and what looked like two rudder controls that jutted out of the craft.

At least she assumed they were rudder controls. They didn't look like they were properly placed to be able to control the ship if there was actually a rudder, but their direction subtly changed when the subject tweaked these two sticks.

“Sooo…?” Twilight prompted, catching Gaige's attention.

“No thanks,” she replied, shaking her head slightly. “I don't sew. Used to knit, but I only did that cause my mom liked to. Never really had the knack, you know? They'd always turn out looking like lumpy pumpkins, regardless of what I was trying to make. I did however like these bead packet things, you just follow the instructions and you'd end up making a turtle, or a lizard, or even a house or something. Those were fun. Wait, why do you ask?

Twilight paused, trying to parse the almost inane rant that had been thrown in her face. It may have been an accident, but she didn't trust the Mechromancer well enough to assume she wasn't just trying to mess with her head.

“I didn't, I mean… I was trying to ask where we’re going,” Twilight finally settled on.

]Gaige took a long hard look at Twilight, then shrugged. “Then why'd you start off asking me about sewing? I may be a genius but even that is a bit of a stretch to expect me to catch up on. I mean, come on Twilight, you're supposed to be the smart one, you should be adept at speaking dumb by now…”

Twilight bristled in her seat, her tail slightly bottling as she fought off a wave of indignation. She was definitely messing with her. There was no chance in Tartarus that hadn't been intentional.

“My… apologies,” she finally ground out, seeking a non antagonistic result. “I didn't mean to assume. Can you please tell me where we’re going?”

The Mechromancer looked slightly miffed that she hadn't gotten a more vehement response, but that was quickly smothered by another negligent shrug.

“Nothing major, no problem. I indeed can perform such an action such as the like of informing you of our future destination.”

Twilight stayed silent, waiting for her host to continue. When the silence continued to stretch between them without an answer forthcoming, Twilight realized her mistake. She had caught her in a grammar trap. Like a little foal and she had walked straight into it. She had definitely been indulging Rainbow Dashes and Applejacks verbal quirks for too long, if she herself was starting to use their slang without knowing. She definitely should go through a refresher course as soon as she got home.

“Will you please tell me?”

“Probably, most likely,” the subject replied as a smile threatened to upturn the corners of her lips.

Twilight strangled down a frustrated growl at the continued verbal fencing. Was this what she was reduced to? Weasling responses out of a petulant foal?

“In a more expedient manner? Perhaps in the next few seconds, in a manner that is not twisted in an attempt to be as confusing as possible?” she finally settled on, trying to keep her tone level.

“If I must,” Gaige huffed, a small frown crawling across her face. “I have an appointment with a previous client. She was injured in a bit of a… dispute with her previous acquaintances. One of her legs was… unsalvageable and her physicians were forced to amputate the limb.”

Twilight quailed at the information, her ears splaying behind her. Undeterred, Gaige continued as if Twilight hadn't let out a squawk of distress.

“I saw that I could help her, so I did. Came in the middle of the night, took her to one of my labs, took off the excess tissue that would have hampered the implants, then fitted her with a prosthetic. Her ‘friends’ threw a bit of a fit afterwards, but she shut them down pretty quick. Eventually I was seen as a trusted friend of the family, more or less.”

Gaige tugged slightly at the leftmost control/rudder/stalk/thing -Twilight really need to get more information about this craft, she hated feeling like an incompetent in regards to what should more than likely be common information- and the craft roughly tilted upwards. After a few seconds they evened out, the water surrounding them having lightened greatly. Twilight could actually see the surface far above them, glistening in the the ending sunrise.

Had they really been traveling this long? Twilight had left her house a little after noon, and it hadn't felt like it had been that long. She had been unconscious for a time, but it hadn't felt that long…

“Trouble is,” Gaige continued, either not noticing Twilights inner confusion or simply outright dismissing it, “The place where she lives isn't the most conducive to delicate machinery. I could fit her with a more heavy duty model, but she preferred the ability to walk with discretion over walking with a badass swagger.”

Twilight goggled at her choice of words, trying to piece together her true meaning. Obviously she didn't mean she wanted to put an evil donkeys leg on her patient… Right? She could be talking about putting a donkey's leg on another donkey, but how would that make it ‘heavy duty’? What about insinuating it was evil? Twilight pushed these concerns aside, there was probably some sort of miscommunication happening that she wasn't able to see through.

“Still, wear and tear occur normally just from her walking around. I keep on having to come back every month or so just to give it a tune up. Otherwise the silly thing gets all jerky and uncontrollable. I could just install some graviton pulse generators to ‘repulse’ certain contaminates, but again that would force the limb to balloon to obviously modified proportions. Not really an option, no matter how many features I told her about,” Gaige ended on a long, drawn out sigh as she gave the leftmost control stalk another tug.

So she was making the trip for a house call? Twilight wasn't sure why SHE had to come along, as was her inclusion was just short of actively kidnapping her. Some of her friends might even still view it as such.

]“It's gotten pretty late,” Twilight commented, drawing the subjects eyes to a particular screen. Apparently it had the time somewhere on it.

“Huh, so it has,” Gaige noted in a bored tone, grasp on her previous line of conversation lost in the silence between them.

“Spike will probably be wondering where I am,” she prodded, trying to see what Gaige would have to say to this line of inquiry.

“It is far more likely that he will be in the process of waking up at this point of time, and eating some sort of sugary breakfast cereal that is unhealthy for him,” Qwerty interrupted, gaining a confused look from Twilight. “At the very least, that is the widely known stereotype of adolescents that I am drawing my conclusion from. It is quite possible that he could be baking a breakfast quiche, I personally don't know of the breakfast of adolescent drakes.”

Twilight stared at her, trying to organize her thoughts as she interpreted the words offered to her. Finally she settled on a short breathed ‘what?’, she her brain struggled to understand the robotic mares last statement.

“What do you mean, breakfast? That's the sunset,” she stated, pointing upward at the tinted light up above that had steadily gotten darker over the past few minutes. It wasn't because they were going back deeper under the water, either.

“Indeed it is. The sunset on the other side of the planet, when compared to Ponyville,” Qwerty continued, which despite remaining toneless somehow had the air of a teacher chastising a particularly dull student. Twilight for her credit didn't respond in ignorance, silently gaping at Qwerty with her jaw flapping soundlessly.

“I left him a note,” Gaige supplied breathlessly, trying to hold in her mirth.

“A… note?”

Earlier, Aproximately Three Hours After Twilights…’Kidnapping’

Spike stood stock still, staring in disbelief at the… ‘pony’ that stood before him. It certainly looked like a pony. Superficially, at the very least. His coat was an earthy brown, almost boring in its colour. His mane was a sandy blonde, plastered in an easily forgettable style. The most striking of his appearances however… Was his head. Spike couldn't tell for certain, but it looked… almost too big. And considering how much larger most ponies were than himself, that was saying something.

Stretched across his face was a perpetual smile, unbroken except by the delivery of certain words.

“So Twilight is…”

“Taking a short trip!” The earthen stallion replied with an undeniable cheer. “She most certainly expresses her sadness at being unable to bring you with her, but fear not! I am here to supervise you for the princess, to accommodate and care for your needs and safety!”

“Riiiiiiight,” Spike replied in a drawn out tone, unsure as to his actual motivations. The fact that the stallion claimed he was here on orders of Princess Celestia… Or even on Princess Luna's order would be easily proven or disproven. All he had to do was get away for a minute -perhaps for a bathroom break- and send a letter to the princess for clarification.

It wasn't out of the question for Twilight to arrange for a babysitter, especially on short notice. She had done this before. But the timing simply struck Spike as odd, what with the recent altercation they had with Ponyvilles newest resident. True, it had taken place in Canterlot, but that was semantics.

“So you're supposed to be my… Babysitter?” Spike asked, trying to glean as much information as he could from the strange stallion.

The smile faltered, before returning in full force. “Do not be silly, Master Spike. According to my records, you are only four years younger than Twilight Sparkle. A baby in dragon terms, but you live in Ponyville, do you not? A baby only in semantics. I am your, your, your, your, your, your, your-”

Spike watched on in horrified fascination as the stallion repeated the word… repeatedly. His distinctly larger head twitched with every utterance, finally giving a tremendous jerk as he completed his sentence.

“-Chaperone! Yes, chaperone. A minder in name, but more of an assistant to help avoid deleterious scenarios!”

Spike stared at him for a couple seconds, resolving to get that letter off as soon as possible. This stallion just reeked of bad intentions.

“I have dinner cooking in the oven, a mixed dish incorporating some sapphires we had lying around…”

Spike twitched, his eyes widening as his spine snapped ramrod straight.

“I had some left over after preparation, so I made muffins!”

Spike stared at the tray of pastries swung in front of his face, lightly drooling beyond his ability to control himself.

“By the way, where are my manners? I am Normal. You can call me Norm!” the stallion declared, his smile stretching his face ever wider.

Spike reached forward, plucking a muffin off the tray.

Maybe he could hold off on sending the princess a letter. Twilight couldn't be in too much trouble, right?

Back To The Present With Gaige And Her Super Friends…

“Yeah! Sorta. He’s smart, he’ll figure it out,” Gaige offered, redirecting her attention to the controls in front of her.

“But… it can’t have been more than an hour or two!” Twilight complained. Gaige stiffened in her seat, surprise filtering across her face.

“Wait, we’re still going?” Gaige mumbled. “But we had a kickass flashback scene and everything…”

Twilight stared at her, head tilting against her will as her confusion washed over her.

“...What?”

Gaige continued to stare back at her, before she let out an embarrassed cough. “So you maaaaaaay have slept a bit longer than I told you…”

“...What.”

“Like, totally not my fault, but you just looked so peaceful laying there…”

“...Whaaaaaat.”

“And I might have administered a bit of a sleeping agent?”

“What?!!?”

Author's Notes:

Happy Birthday to me, here's a present for all of you!
Hope you all enjoy the short chapter, I'd like to take the time to shamelessly plug my other stories, which also have a new chapter today!~

These are URL links
|
V
To Echo A Mimic
Cout De Jumanji
Sword In The Stone: Courage To Be King
Applegate
Ready Player One
^
|
Those were URL links

Lazruth asks:
You know, part of me wants to ask if Twilight really thinks Gaige is a danger to ponykind at large or if she just believes any cock-and-bull that comes from Celestia's mouth. Then I remember Celestia is an egotistical jerk who thinks that anything that doesn't fall in line with her views of "Harmony" is evil and Twilight has been staring at the sun for so long that she can't see anything but that.

So instead, a question for Gaige. Obviously the ponies are against you, xenophobic as they are, but what races on your Equestria's planet like you?

Well... honestly its just the ponies of Equestria that I've ended up having trouble with. Ponies pretty much everywhere else they seem more chill. Aside from that, I have connections to the Zebras, Minotaurs, Seaponies, Drider Sect, Dragons... I'm pretty much on 'friendly' terms with everyone except Equestria and a few others. The Gryphons and the Diamond dogs, specifically. The Gryphons because they're stupid meany heads that wont forgive me for fixing that one guys wing (okay, so he couldn't fly after I replaced it, but his wing was sheared off! It wasn't like he was going to be flying anyway...), and I specifically have a grudge against most Diamond Dogs. They just keep tunneling into my cashes, stealing my stuff! Seriously, they're worse than the Equestrians at this point.

Trithtale asks;
Now I've got a question from a displaced of mine.
Echo: Gaige, can this skelepony have a huggle?

...Huh... uh... she kinda just bolted out the door. I think she was saying something about 'tearing the fuck out of time and space for some skellypone snuggles'? So... uh... She should be along momentarily. Depending on how distracted she gets.

Lord Shaxx asks;

Gaige, I convinced Arach Jaral from Dead Orbit to give the schematics for the Hung Jury SR4 to me, and I've sent them to you. Specifically the variant with 20 shots per clip rather than 16, a red dot sight and a scope that highlights targets at optimal range, Triple Tap (3 rapid precision shots return 1 round directly to the magazine), and Firefly (precision kills cause the victim to explode like a HE grenade). The weapon is a scout rifle made by Omolon, meaning it fires perfectly accurate low-recoil rounds, each shot hits like a revolver, the projectiles are energy, and there is a fluid ammo display on the side.

Would you be willing to build it? I feel it would be far superior to your pistol. And I could tell Omolon that they're the first of the Tower's weapons manufacturers to have a product in another reality. Have them rub it into Hakke and Suros's faces.

...Wait, so where is it? you said you were going to send me the schematics, but all I've gotten is your message saying you were going to send it. Did you forget to attach it? I forget to do that occasionally, you also gotta be careful with the larger weapon blueprints cause that trips ALL SORTS of government firewalls and trackers. Pff, trying to regulate weapons that could possibly be used to lay waste to an army. Who do they think they are? Should probably set up my own server units, so I don't have to keep leaching Wifi off of the dimension across from me...

StarChaser01 asks; 01000100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 0111001 01111001 00111111.

Uh... yes? I mean, it's not one of my strongest languages, but I will admit I'm rather proficient at it... Why? ...What? ...Why are they asking me questions again? ...I'm not being abrasive, I'm just wondering why you're having me-

As always, be sure to think hard, and ask even harder questions of the character of your choice. I'll make them respond to it next time, even if they don't want to.