Soft white light filled the blank room, spilling from sterile fluorescent tubes that hung from the low ceiling tiles. The air was still, but for the tones of a bored alicorn that lay in the centre, her dark wings splayed out to balance her on her back.
“eighteen thousand twenty two, eighteen thousand twenty three, eighteen thousand twenty four, eighteen thousand twenty five, eighteen thousand twenty six...”
The counting went on for quite some time, until the perpetual series was broken by synthetic voice broke the repetition.
“What are you doing Prisoner Luna?” the voice seemed to come from all directions at once, the sound having no discernible source.
Luna didn't even flinch, nor did she look up or respond, instead continuing her count.
It took five more repetitions of the question, each identical in tone to the last, for the princess to look away from her chosen spot and glance around the room, answering angrily “I am counting, is it not obvious ghost?” with that Luna went back to her count, her eyes narrowed in annoyance.
The synthetic-voice chuckled, though the sound was hollow and emotionless “It is obvious enough Prisoner Luna, but I am no ghost.”
Luna snapped her head round then, eyes scanning warily about “Oh? What are thee then, if not a spectre? You speak from nowhere, and are unseen even to my godly eye. That speaks of nothing but a ghost.” the god did not return to her count, instead twisting her ears around to listen for an answer.
The voice held it's silence for a moment before responding, its tones still dead. “I am no ghost or spectre Prisoner Luna, I am the ship's 'Intelligent Control and Assistance Network', though most of the crew know me by the shortened moniker 'ICaAN” the vessel paused as if thinking before speaking again “your name of ghost, while wholly inaccurate, may be useful as an analogy. If it helps you to comprehend me Prisoner Luna, please think of me as a 'ghost' possessing this ship, watching over the crew and the vessel's secondary systems”
Luna peered about for a few moments more and then sighed “Okay then ICaAN, nice to meet you.” she turned back and began her count...
...Two thousand counts later, the voice came back
“Why are you counting Prisoner Luna?”
Luna stopped her count and stilled, but otherwise said nothing
Just as the voice went to repeat the question, Luna rolled on her side and huffed “I'm bored, there is naught to this cell but bare white walls and simple furniture. There is nothing to occupy my mind, So I count the seconds while my mind can play on abstract theory and equations.”
ICaAN held it's silence for a moment, just long enough for Luna to nearly lose interest before it's voice rang out, this time from a specific point in space; directly behind and below the alicorn as it were “If you are bored Prisoner Luna then it is my duty, no, my pleasure to help.” there was no hint of pleasure, nor other emotion in IcaAN's voice.
The voice had come from right behind and below Luna's back legs, so she tucked her shaven dock instinctively and had to twist and turn to see from her laid down position. There on the ground was a very strange looking creature; in some ways IcaAN's body looked like a gigantic silver disk about two meters around, with six chrome spider legs sprouting from underneath it, The top of the bulbous disk was dotted with a dozen black globes. There was something unnatural in the stillness of this new creature however, it didn't twitch or move in any fashion, not adjusting weight or seeming to breathe.
Luna regarded the creature with hesitant eyes and an unsure throat “ICaAN?” she queried, waving a wing and shifting around to try and get the apparent source of the voice to react. Slipping shakily off her bed the alicorn approached the arachnid-thing and bent her muzzle close, twisting her head and walking round it to get a view from all angles. There was a body of sorts underneath the giant disk, a simple body that was a quarter of the thing's size, the 'body' of the creature held four glowing lenses, and it was the place the legs sprouted from, making the huge silver disk seem more like the bulky back end of this insect. The thing didn't move, didn't react. Luna bit her lip and raised a hoof, moving with glacial slowness and a surgeons care the ruler placed her hoof on it's side, shoved the thing over, then settled back to watch.
There was no movement for a moment, nothing to see. A half minute passed before the insect twitched, whirred, and finally moved, it's six limbs moving with liquid smoothness to right itself. After a pause to adjust it's weight ICaAN spoke again, the voice coming not from the insect's 'body', but it's bulky backside. “Hello Prisoner Luna, I am sorry for the silence but I was simply setting up the game.”
Luna sat down in-front of the spider and looked at it with suspicion “Game?” She trotted her front legs nervously “what game?
ICaAN spoke once again from the giant disk, it's voice still emotionless and mechanical “The game currently on is an action game that is used recreationally by the crew. I understand that they are planning a tournament in a few days.”
Luna lost a bit of suspicion as she sat there, watching the motionless insect “As thee wishes Icaan. Anything is preferable to tedium, how is this game played? Will it be dangerous?”
ICaAN laughed hollowly the insect shifted on the spot, legs splaying out a little to the back as the disk tilted, letting the tiny body underneath look at Luna with it's small lenses “Of course not Prisoner Luna, the game is entirely virtual. All sensations and experiences will be illusory. It would not be healthy for the crew to constantly be engaging in real combat.”
Luna raised her eyebrow, in a manner reminiscent of her sister “Combat? A game about fighting?” she sounded apprehensive, but a little excited, reflected by her half smile.
ICaAN moved the insect back into it's old position, it's voice now coming from all around once again “Yes...” impossible a it was to parse any hint of emotion from the robotic tones of the 'ghost' there seemed to be some element of sadness, perhaps shame riding underneath the thing's voice “My masters, for all that they are wonderful, are a naturally aggressive species, constantly prone to competition and argument if they cannot vent their petty frustrations.”
It should not be possible for a voice that emotionless to sigh, and it didn't, but you could feel the sigh hanging in that moment of silence before ICaAN carried on “Thus they invent these games of combat and violence, to let them play out their anger and their more destructive tendencies in a safe environment.”
Luna stood and smiled slightly “That sounds... Entertaining.” she walked slowly around the insect, her wigs extended and she smiled while she stretched, hissing in satisfaction as joints popped up and down her body “It hast been far too long since I was last in a brawl. Let the game begin.”
The insect did not turn to look at Luna while she finished stretching and working the kinks out of her muscles. Instead it waited patiently for her to be done before speaking “As you wish Prisoner Luna. Please lay on your back on the bed, and I will insert you into the game.”
Luna did as she was told, watching out of the corner of her eye as the insect-thing jumped into motion, scuttling to and up the nearest wall, crawling until it hung directly above her. Luna looked a little nervous and a bit self-conscious, covering herself with her wings as the bulbous disk swung slightly, positioning itself directly over the princess.
The godly pony suppressed a squeak as the insect-device-thing sprang into action. The black globes that dotted the disk suddenly sprouting tentacles, long silver hoses sliding out and undulating through the air towards the reluctant alicorn. IcaAN's metallic voice rang out, somehow soft despite the mechanical harshness “Please remain calm Prisoner Luna. You may experience some slight discomfort as you are taken from the actual into the virtual world.”
Luna seemingly remembered herself then, stiffening her resolve while her form relaxed, not even blinking as the front-most tentacles split open to reveal a disconcertingly organic, membranous 'suction cup' device that planted itself firmly over her eyes, moulding to their shape, not even breathing as a third split open and encompassed her muzzle, the bulges of a respiration tube visible as it went down her throat.
The lunar princess couldn't held a spasmodic jump though, when the rest of the insect's appendages slid down to latch onto her limbs, her torso and base of her cranium. The twitching stopped suddenly then, Luna's body going as limp as a puppet with cut strings, her breathing hitching for but a moment before starting up again.
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There was blackness. A void of nothingness so complete that the mind could not comprehend, Luna wanted to scream, but she had no mouth, no breath, nothing but the utter nothingness.
Then the world came back, spiralling into view in the form of dots and lines of light, tiny specks of sensation appearing and eventually forming a complete picture, one of blank whiteness and a cold stone floor, of still air and nothing to smell.
Luna shifted and groaned, slowly shifting her hands underneath her and pushing herself up on shaking arms, the shifting folds of a cotton robe falling loose off her frame. The princess opened her eyes then, reaching a hand up to brush a stray hair from her face, the silky blue-black strand falling back without fuss into place with the rest.
Hands... Luna suddenly seemed to notice her hands for the first time then, after noting the completely blank room, the former alicorn regarded the back of her extremity with something between confusion and annoyance, turning it slowly round to note how the dusky skin that covered it turned a gentle pink on the palm. Her face held nothing but befuddlement when her eyes moved from the hand to go down the arm, gazing at her arm as if she had never seen it before, even bringing her other hand to brush at the tiny hairs that grew all over the muscle-bound limb.
It was only when her stare had reached her covered shoulder, and from there her lithe, beautifully proportioned body, that Luna dared to make a sound “What..?” the word stumbled out unsure, as a child might walk into the den of something dark and scary. Her hands gently traced the curves of her body for a moment before swinging up to feel at her flat, all too human face, perhaps noting the distinct lack of horn. With something like desperation, edged and hardened by a growing anger, she felt at her back, twisting her head and shoulders to look at her shoulder-blades, probably marking the complete absence of wings.
The anger came bubbling up, finding purchase in her throat with all the ease of an old friend, boiling and billowing up into a booming bellow that echoed like rolling thunder off the blank white walls “ICAAN! What hast thou done to me!?” She stood with limbs askew, her chest heaving and face contorted in a snarl of wrath.
There the princess stood for some time, gazing about for some sign of her captor, just as she gathered breath for another shout a voice rang out, it sounded something like ICaAN, but it was happy, chirpy, like a mother watching their child's first Nightmare Night “Hello Luna, lovely to meet you. You sound unhappy, is there anything I can do to help?”
Luna snapped round to glare at this newest apparition, an androgynous human in a long white robe, smiling faintly at her from across the wide expanse of the white room. The former alicorn growled out loudly “Yes, thou can tell me what idiocy Icaan hast wrought! I entrust him to play a game, but instead I wake to find he has stolen my body! Of course I am unhappy”
The apparition's laugh was light, designed and shaped to make Luna relax and let her anger simmer down a notch despite her best efforts. After her laugh the apparition spoke again, her voice seeming to come from an inch away from the princess's ear “Stolen your body?” when the angry equestrian whirled to face left, there the strange human stood with white robe floating in a non-existent breeze “That doesn't sound like something Icaan would do, but I suppose this is your first time in virtual space, it's okay if you're a little confused.”
Luna stumbled back, way from the apparition, only to bump into the thing as it appeared behind her, the one in front fading into nothingness “Virtual space?” she queried, whirling around with anger still plain on her face, but ebbing slowly “Who art thou?” She added, backing up a step.
The apparition smiled gently, eyes a neutral grey around the iris. “I am the Entertainment Virtual Assistant, or Eva, for short. This is the Virtual Space, a waiting room for your consciousness before you are inserted into the game. Because this is your first time, please feel free to take as long as you need to get used to your new form.”
Luna's anger fought back again “What, pray tell, was wrong with my old body, that I may not play your game with it?”
Eva shook her head “Nothing is wrong with your equine form, but the game software is not equipped with non-human body shapes, so you have been matched to a default human model. If the cosmetic appearance is not pleasing to you, please feel free to edit your skin colour, hair, body and facial proportions. Simply think on what you want to change, and you will be able to choose from a catalogue, cybernetic implants and low-level surgical alterations are also available.”
Luna listened to this with something approaching complete confusion, but eventually nodded. She held up her arm to look at it and said aloud “So, if I were too wish my arm changed, I simply think it, an-” she was cut off as a shimmering screen appeared in the air in front of her, displaying a list of different arm models, from the default human, to ones made entirely of metal, covered in chitin, scales, fur or feathers.
On a whim Luna reached out, and tapped an arm-model that seemed much like a normal humans, but for an exposed biceps muscle that seemed to be made of silver steel cable, and a thick tube of blueish fluid running down from the shoulder into it. With the care of a practised Diarch the princess suppressed a squeak as her arm shifted and changed to match the model perfectly, except for the skin tone, which matched hers.
Luna spent the next five minutes playing with the various catalogues, editing her new virtual body's hair, eyes and limbs; she shed the loose robe soon after to start messing around with the proportions of her form, inflating and deflating some parts while she stretched and shrank her limbs. Eventually Luna settled on an average, but slightly taller than usual form, with skin a few shades darker and short cut black hair with a few specks of luminescent silver dotted through it, her arm had a line of implanted bio-lights and a starry sky was tattooed down the back of her leg. Her eyes had a distinct cat-like slant to their pupils.
Eva watched patiently while the alicorn finished the final few touches, standing with a faint smile as the last few changes settled into place. The imprisoned princess had seemingly forgotten her earlier animosity by now, and was smiling genuinely as she walked up to the apparition and smiled “Okay, ready to game now. Am I allowed arms and armour, or is this a contest of unarmed skill?” she seemed up for both, clearly having been hyping herself up.
Eva put a hand on Luna's shoulder and answered calmly “It is an Arena Combat game, named 'Blood-pit', you will be allowed to choose from a range of weapons, war-gear and armour before being assigned your team and entering the arena.
Half an hour later, Luna stepped from the shadows of the preparation area and took in her team, a pair of glimmering hand-axes clutched in her hands, a pair of cybernetic wings sprouting from beneath her antiquated scale-mail armour. Her smile was half smirk, half nervous energy “Let us game” was all she could think to say.
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Captain Morgan gazed through the one-way glass at the twitching alicorn as she hung from the cables, her limbs spasmodically moving as her body picked up phantom signals from her deadened nerves. The old man smiled a little at the screen that showed her antics, he turned to the watching engineers “Think she'll stay hooked up?” he asked.
The engineer nearest nodded “Should do, looks like she's having fun. No issues yet” from a mounted speaker system shots echoed, a scream of anger was suddenly cut off “aside from her inability to duck... Should keep her occupied for a while.”
Morgan nodded “Good. With that sister coming aboard we won't be able to keep her 'magic' contained. When the time comes for the older sister to arrive, send in the droid again, keep her distracted in game-land.”
As the old officer left, the men and women turned back to watch the games begin, without a word a bag of popcorn was produced and passed round.
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Fluttershy and Rainbow dash looked in need of popcorn themselves, sitting on a tree-stump whole the argument went back and forth, both sides refusing to back down. More and more of the heavily armoured aliens had joined in, as had more of the yellow-suited ones.
Biting her lip, Fluttershy turned to her friend "Um... should we just take the crusaders and go? I don't think this is going to end any time soon." she got too her hooves and fluttered her wings nervously.
The cyan speedster smirked back "I like your thinking" she stood up, going into an easy hover almost immediately.
The two ponies crept silently through the air towards the crusader's pen, Fluttershy keeping an eye on the developing argument, Rainbow Dash watching the guard at the cage. Neither semed to nootice as the pegasi flew gently up oover the pen's walls, pausing in the air above it.
"Okay Flutters,we'll get Zecora first, then head back for the crusaders" Rainbow ordered, looking towards where the zebra still hung limp on her ropes. the knots were big and complex, but nobody around the clearing seemed to notice or care, all the aliens were either watching the shouting match or looking off to the north.
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"30 from LZ. Prepping to land"
"Switching to VTOL in 3...2...1..."
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They were working furiously at the first knot when the sky, the air and the ground seemed to vibrate with a cacophonous roar and a shadow blotted out the sun, trees being blown nearly flat and charred by the downdraft of heated air that spilled from it's four wings. Fluttershy's wings locked and Rainbow choked as the gigantic thing came towards them, bulbous body large enough to swallow buildings, the wingspan large enough to rival that of the most titanic dragon.
Both pegasi made for the ground as it came over, both trembling as the shadow passed over
All around the plateau the argument was forgotten as the yellow-suits rushed away to prep the landing zone.
The gargantuan creature came down, the giant frame swinging around to land on a rock square in the plateau's centre, the ear-splitting roar of it dying slowly away to a dull rumble backed by a low whine. then came the creak and groan of strained metal as the back en of the beast split open, opening like a gigantic set of mandibles to allow a huge ramp down.
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The security marines all watched as the Bulk-Lifter settled down onto it's concrete landing pad, the eight engine cooling down. From the cavernous cargo opening spilled robots, hundreds of metal disks, floating on air-jet engines or scuttling on long spider-legs.
As the droids spilled out into the open air, one marine stopped a passing engineer and asked "That's the cargo? Robots?"
The engineer sounded testy, but deigned to answer "Uh.. yeah, construction robots, the next two lifters are bringing down the materials." he tried to walk away, only to be pulled back.
"I thought those were only for deep space construction, for the Athena?" the marine was joined by one or two others, who agreed with the first, all watching as the silver disks spread out in a careful grid pattern.
Hemmed in by the armoured bodies, the engineer sighed "They are, but we don't exactly have any proper earth-movers or drills, we'll just have to make do."
the marines looked between each other and then asked "Why not? We have all that military stuff, we have some seriously heavy ordinance in storage." the others all agreed, gathering more marines, and a few medics
"I saw a jeep in there once." one volunteered.
"That's nothing, I was on watch, and I saw a guy walk by with a flamethrower" a marine remarked, leading a pack of robots by.
The engineer stumbled over his words "I-I'm not sure.. I think it-"
"it's because the 'New Dawn' is a publicity stunt" the new voice broke the babble's back as the newcomer strode closer, clad in light gear with a lieutenant's pip decorating the visored helmet
The marines all saluted at once "Lt. Redmond sir, nice to see you on the ground Sir!"
Redmond set them at ease with a returned salute, smiling slightly "Thank you gents. CSO sent me down to oversee things down here. As to that, can anyone explain what exactly those things are doing messing with that prisoner?" he pointed towards the still-shivering pegasi next to the zebra.
The assembled marines all looked slightly sheepish then.
You could hear the lieutenant's smile behind the mirrored visor. "No? Alright then, soft rounds please gents, one for each should do. Gather up all the aliens and dump them over the border fence. No reason too keep them any longer, might buy us some brownie points during negotiations."
Mumbling apologies through their mics the marines began to hustle towards the trespassing ponies, who had noticed and were attempting to fly, well one of them was, the butter coloured horse was apparently having a lot of trouble getting her wings to work.
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Five minutes later there was a series of thumps as six ponies were dropped carefully over the barrier fence, two with darts sticking from their flanks.
Another five minutes passed before more equines approached, a nervous dragon leading the group, flanked by Twilight, Rarity and one newcomer, who was still babbling animatedly at the sight of the alien's enormous flying machine.