//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Rise and Shine // Story: When Technology fails // by Ponynator //------------------------------// "Good that she ran out of paper sheets, or I may have never gotten away." Spike said to himself; he was on his way home. Twilight told him to get some more sheets from the library while she stayed back in the storing room where the space-suit was kept. Luna had told them that it would be better for Jan to let her enter his dreams because she was more experienced in using the spell. Princess Luna's reaction was still a bit strange; it seemed like she was hiding something. Why the hay did she ask about the paper sheets anyway? I swear that I put more of them into the saddlebag. Wait... could it be that she destroyed the empty ones and wants us to leave? But why? He stood in front of the door and opened it, going inside. And that dream she told us about. 'He was in space again'. Why would a dream repeat itself in such a short time? *knock* *knock* *knock* "Who could that be?" Spike who had just closed the door re-opened it. Applejack was standing in front of him and gave him a serious look. "Well, well, well. Back from your secret mission?" "Oh, oh." She went in, closing the door and looking face to face into Spike's eyes. "Tell me, what the hay is a human and why does the Princess want to keep it a secret? I know there was more in that letter than just "Go to the hospital my most faithful student and tell nopony, because this is a secret.' " "Uhm, I don't know what was written in the letter, Twi-... WAIT! How do you know that it's about a human?" Applejack face-hoofed. "Because you nearly yelled it all over the farm when you got some apple pie from us! Spike, tell me what's going on! Princess Celestia made an announcement in the city hall just three hours ago, saying that the shaking we felt last night was caused by Princess Luna accidently using the Royal Canterlot voice because she had a nightmare." "What's so strange about yelling because you had a nightmare?" The earth-pony was now double face-hoofing. "Spike, it was night; Princess Luna is awake in the night. You don't need to be the Element of Honesty to see that this is a lie." "And why are you bothering me?" "Because you know something that I don't." "Ask Twilight, I don't know anything." "Spike!" "Okay, okay; I will tell you everything." Applejack sat down. "I'm listening." Spike gulped, he knew that they would blame him for this... — — — — At the hospital, in the storing room... "A space-suit... interesting... that would explain why the whole system is airtight - well, was..." Dr. Whooves had just re-build the space-suit with Twilight's help. They covered the burned holes with some tape, so they could test her theory about the human being in a total vacuum. The unicorn already told him about everything she knew. "So they are really using them to protect their bodies from the vacuum and supply them with oxygen." "Still, this one is half-destroyed. By the way, it is made out of a very thick material and that thing at the back is gigantic compared to the one I saw." "That's strange, maybe it's an older version?" "Why would they use an older version for such an important thing as travelling to our planet?" "Maybe it was an accident?", the doctor tipped his chin, "What am I saying? If it was an accident, why did they use an old one?" "We aren't getting anywhere like this. I hope that Spike hurries up; I want to get back into his dreams and search for some answers. By the way, did you manage to open that box?" "I gave up after hitting number 2910." "I will try it, I don't have anything better to do." Twilight grabbed the box with her magic. "I wonder what number he has cho-", she flipped the number to 2911: The box made a *click* and opened slightly. "-sen..." Dr. Whooves dropped his jaw. "Just ONE number?" "Did you plan this?" "No I didn't... What's inside?" The unicorn opened the box completely. "Clothing; that's his clothing! They are the same as in the space station." "Wherever he wanted to go, it seems like he was going to stay there." Twilight unfolded the clothes and put them on the table; in the box there were still two other things. She grabbed them and held them up so Dr. Whooves could see them too. "Sunglasses and... what is this thing?" It was a strange black object with a mirroring surface. "Be careful! We don't know if it's dangerous!" "Wait there's something written on it... FTC... what is FTC?" "Maybe a code? Look, there is something written on the backside as well." Twilight turned the strange object; on the back was a small text: "Warning: Device contains a nuclear battery with 100mg Uranium. Please remo... NUCLEAR!?" She dropped the object. "Don't let it fall down!" "Got it, got it! Doctor, bring me a contamination meter, quick!" The brown earth stallion turned around and grabbed one of the instruments behind him and quickly held it beneath the apparently nuclear contaminated object. "Turn it on." "Uh... It IS turned on." "There must be something wrong; even 100mg Uranium should create a measureable radiation." "The instrument is working correctly, it's still measuring the natural environmental radiation. Maybe it's sealed with a special material? Something like a lightweight version of lead?" "That could be true, but why is a nuclear material inside this thing?" Both of them looked at each other, Twilight groaned. "Ughhh... This is getting more and more complicated. Hopefully Jan awakes in a few days; there are so many things I want to ask him." "Me too. But from what I've heard, it will at least take weeks." — — — — In the quarantine room... What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do? Luna was walking in circles, she was unsure how to handle the dreams the human had. She knew that her sister wouldn't be happy about the things she encountered; she didn't lie when she said that the dream repeated itself, an indication that it had originated from a real experience. What if Tia throws him into prison or into, a dungeon... or even worse! What if she banishes him to the moon? The moon goddess was still shocked because of the dream. She knew that Jan didn't want to be a murderer, aside from the fact that it was an emotional reaction. I know! I will just tell them that humans can't handle that much of magic and that we can't enter his dreams for a while. Luna turned back to the human and lit her horn in magic. Just ONE normal dream... She closed her eyes. She was in a long white tube. Finally a different dream! Wait... a tube... the space station? Turning around she saw Jan running into her direction. Why is he running this time? Please not another nightmare... She could hear a voice, but this one didn't sound natural and had no emotion in it. "WARNING! CRITICAL ERROR IN REACTOR SYSTEM! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" Whatever a 'reactor' is, this doesn't sound good. After a few seconds she realised that a red light was flashing at the ceiling and that a loud, bloodcurdling sound could be heard. Oh no! This is an alarm! They are evacuating their space station! "Jan quick! Get into the shuttle!" A man was standing at a hole in the wall; Jan jumped through with the other man following him. On the other side were a dozen people, each of them sitting in a seat; Jan flew to the back of the room, sitting down in one of the two empty seats. "Hatch closed! Undock the shuttle and get us out of here!" The other man also flew to the back, taking a seat next to Jan. Jan sweated and was shivering. "Is this a training alert?" "No. This is real!" "What the hell happened to the reactor? Why do we need to evacuate?" "I don't know! We heard a small explosion and then the reactor temperature went crazy!" "Where are the others? Why is the second shuttle still docked?" Jan pointed at the large window at the front of the room where the space station could be seen. Wow! Twilight was right; this thing is gigantic! "Who's that out there? Why is he still outside the ISS 2?" 'ISS 2'? Is this the name of the space station? "That moron! He won't get inside before-" A light filled the room and the men covered their eyes when suddenly a shockwave hit the shuttle and was wildly tumbling in several directions. An angry voice was coming from the front: "Don't fall apart now! C'mon stabilize!" He was pushing buttons on a panel full of switches and lights. A few seconds later the shuttle was finally coming to a hold; it was quiet for a while when suddenly someone broke the silence. "What has happened... turn the shuttle to the direction of the ISS 2!" It was Jan's voice, Luna could hear that he was scared like in the nightmare he had experienced before. The moon goddess looked outside the window - what she saw was horrible: Only parts and small sections where flying in space. "No, this can't be real" But it's true Jan, isn't it? She could feel the pain. "Help me!" The voice was craggy and stuttered. "Oh my god, someone is still alive! Where are you?" "Help me, I am falling!" Again the voice was hard to understand. "I can see him! He's flying into the direction of Earth." The pilot gently pushed the stick at his side. "Can you hear me?" "Help me!!" "Can - you - hear - us?" But the other man just cried. "Shit, the communication isn't working!" "We... can't get him..." Jan said from behind. "Don't say something like that!" "No... he's too fast." The man was quiet for a second. "You are right. He will enter the atmosphere in a few seconds." "I don't want to die like this!" It was the man again, the voice was already craggy from crying. Luna's heart nearly broke at the sight of the man in his space-suit, quickly approaching the earth; unable to change his fate. "He's entering the atmosphere..." The pilot was extremely quiet and hard to understand. "No, please god no!" The man was screaming in agony while he lit up in a red ball. Jan started to cry. "This has to be a nightmare." He was shockingly staring at the burning man. "Jan... don't look..." Luna's voice appeared; suddenly Jan was staring directly at her. OH NO! HE SEES ME! She quickly aborted the spell and gasped. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage... But with that the human gasped as well and took a deep breath. "Doctor! I think he's coming to his senses!" "Ahhh, where.... where am I? Why.... can't I see anything?" Jan screamed and continued. "And why... why is everything hurting so much?" Luna didn't know what to say. "It hurts.. it hurts so much." His face showed nothing more than pain. "Please... make it stop!" She knew that she had to say something. "You are safe. Don't worry, the doctor is coming." "Where am I? What happened? Am I dead?" "No, you're not dead. You're in a hospital." "But what happened?" "I... don't know." The doctor stormed inside of the room with two nurses behind him. "What has happened?" "Doctor, he needs something against his pain!" He looked at the shivering patient "Give him 200mg morphine and 0.5mg adrenaline." He pointed to the door. "I want to talk to you Princess, outside!" The doctor went outside with Luna following him, he closed the door. "Princess Luna, by all respect, what have you done?" "He saw me while I was in his dream." She knew that she had screwed up. "Do you even know what could have happened? He could have died from the shock! He was deadly injured and in a deep coma which should have lasted for at least a few weeks! And now, after half a day he's awake! I don't even know if morphine will put a stop to his pain, or if it's going to kill him! We know NEAR NOTHING about his anatomy!" "I am so sorry doctor..." She kneeled down and began to cry. "It's my fault." "Please don't cry. I didn't want you to cry, please." "No, it's not because of you, it's because I screwed up." They could hear the screaming of the human and could nearly feel his pain. "He's alive and from what I've seen he won't die that easily." "I know, but now he has to feel nothing more than pain..." "I got the feeling that the morphine will work, don't worry too much." "I hope so. Hopefully Twilight didn't hear it." "Uhhhhm..." "She's right behind me, isn't she?" "Princess Luna, what has happened?" Twilight had ran up the stairs as soon she had heard the scream, at first she thought that something had happened to the princess. Dr. Whooves was way behind her and heavily panting. "He has seen me, Twilight." "In his dreams? Princess, I thought that you would be experienced in using the dream spell! What has happened?" "I can't tell you." "What? But why?" "It's too cruel." "Cruel? What have you seen?" "..." "What can be so cruel that you don't want to tell me?" "..." Suddenly the elevator doors opened, with Applejack and Spike inside. "Twilight! Princess Luna! What was that screaming?" Spike ran to Twilight. "I already thought that somepony has died." Luna shivered at the word, she had seen enough death for the day. "Princess Luna, what is wrong? Did that human attack you?" The moon goddess cocked her head. "How do you know that we have a human here?" Applejack rolled her eyes and pointed at Spike. "Sorry, she nearly assaulted me and I couldn't lie to her." Twilight face-hoofed. "I knew that something like that would happen. We were supposed to tell nopony about this!" "Don't blame him for this. I was already suspicious after you hurried to the hospital." "We will talk about that later." The lavender unicorn turned back to Princess Luna. "Please Princess Luna, tell me what you saw." "I don't know if I should..." "Just tell us the truth. It can't be that horrible." Sorry Jan, I hope that this won't backfire for you. "In the last few hours... he only dreamed about death." "That was a bad joke, right?" Spike asked confused. "That was the naked truth." Applejack realised in shock. "This is horrible! Why is he having nightmares only?" "Because these things maybe really happened and he feels guilty for it." "Death? Did he murder somepony?" "In one of his dreams he-" But Twilight cut her off. "No! I can't believe it! The human that is lying here is a murderer!" "Twilight no! Maybe it's not real; you can't just say that somepony is a murderer because he dreamed of it!" "That's not normal! Nopony would dream something like that!" "You don't know." "I know, because murdering hasn't happened in Ponyville for decades!" "But I dreamed of it, too!" The moon goddess covered her mouth with her hooves. Everyone in the room dropped their jaw, even the two guards turned around. "Did you just say that you dreamed of murder?" Twilight asked. Luna looked at each of them, but realised that she couldn't hide it anymore. "Yes I did." "Princess Luna, this is... I don't know how to describe it." "Who have you murdered?" Spike asked, receiving a kick from Twilight. "Tia..." Again everyone dropped their jaw, but this time it hit the floor. "As Nightmare Moon...." She remembered the dream, how she walked to her sister and did it; Luna was almost crying. "Princess Luna, you know that this was just a dream! You will never turn into her again! You had the dream just one single time, or not?" "Yes, it was just one time." She rubbed the small tears away. "Nevermind, we have something more important to talk about and that's him." "You said that he dreamed about death multiple times, but just one of them contained a murder." "I still don't want to talk about it too much." "We need to know him as much as we can." "Do you think that you can handle such a crude theme?" Everyone in the room nodded. "Okay, I will try to tell you about it..." — — — — Half an hour later... "...and at that point he saw me because I said to him that he shouldn't look at it." "That giant space station was called ISS 2?" "Yes it was." "But what happened? Why did it explode?" "Like I said, it had something to do with the reactor thing." "I think that we should ask him about that later." "At least he stopped screaming now, I will ask the doctor how he's doing." Luna knocked at the door, but before she couldn't even say anything he let them in. The doctor was whispering. "The morphine and adrenaline worked and he's still alive. The strange thing is that he's still talking about other pains." "Other pains?" "His 'heart', but not in the medical sense. I think that you should talk to him, he needs to hear a familiar voice." "Me? But I don't know what to say." "Just talk to him." "I will try." Luna walked over to the human lying in the bed - she knew that the pain he was currently feeling had been caused by her; interrupting a dream at a specific point reflects its emotion into reality. Applejack, who hadn't see a human before, was amazed. Wow, he's tall - I wonder how strong he is... Luna was now standing besides him, but didn't say anything; he couldn't see her, he still had the bandage over his eyes. After a minute she broke the silence. "Hey, are you alright?" "Not really, but thanks that you asked." "Isn't the medicine working?" "It is working but-... wait... I know your voice, I talked with you before, right?" "Yes that was me." "Nice to hear you again. What's your name?" "I.. uh.." Why didn't I see that coming? What name could a female human have? "My name is Lulu." She could hear someone face-hoofing in the background. "Sounds a bit like a nickname... it sounds quite familiar..." "Uh.. why? Is something wrong with it?" Dumb idea Luna! "Oh hell no! It's a great name, it's just that I thought of the roman name 'Luna' when I heard it and I don't know why." Is this some kind of joke? How did he knew that? "Actually you are right. Lulu is my nickname and Luna is my real one." "Oh good to know. Well my name is Jan, I would likely give you a hand but since you are standing on my right and my right arm is in a plaster..." "I see; what about that pain you wanted to tell me about?" The small smile that had appeared on the human's face disappeared. "It's just... I had a nightmare before I woke up." You really are the cause, great! "May I ask what kind of nightmare you had? Only if you want to talk about it of course." "Are you some kind of psychologist?" "Not really but I have some experience with the problems of nightmares." "I see; well my nightmare was about the ISS 2." He stopped for a second. "You know the ISS 2 right?" "Yes, I heard a bit about it." "Okay; I was working as an engineer on the ISS 2 and in that dream it has been destroyed." "Why has it been destroyed?" "You don't know?" She could hear anger and not fear in his voice. "The reactor had a malfunction and they made me responsible for it! For the death of twelve people!" I really hit a nerve here. "You said that they made you responsible - it wasn't your fault, right?" "No, it wasn't; they said that I forgot to tighten some screws after a maintenance, but this is just rubbish." He took a deep breath, as if he had held it the whole time. "Personally I think that it was caused by a small asteroid." Jan turned his head to her. "But something was different, when we escaped with one of the shuttles I could see something blue standing in front of me... and something told me that I should know what it was, but I only saw a silhouette." Somehow know it? Did they observe us? "Could we change the subject? I don't want to talk about it at the moment." "Of course we can, what do you want to talk about?" "I want to know what happened. Why am I so injured? And where the hell am I?" End of Chapter 5 Red alert! Heavy shitstorm incoming in the next chapter(s)!