//------------------------------// // Exodus // Story: DisQord Continuum: Equestria Rising // by ZoidbergIsBestPony //------------------------------// Exodus Onboard the P.R.S. New Horizons (Pegasus Relocation Ship)… “Private Pansy!” Commander Hirkain shouted on command deck. “How’s our numbers looking?” “That’s ‘Pimsey’, sir,” the young recruit corrected, in a soft whisper. Private Harmon Pimsey was a weak gangly Pegasus who probably never should have joined the military. His father was a general before he retired and used his clout to get his son pushed through boot. The private had a soft yellow fur with a light blue mane, which gave him a rather feminine appearance. “Don’t correct me! Now let’s get a move on! Hup-two!” the commander yelled. His hearing was quite excellent and could easily pick up those subtle remarks from his soldiers. “Yes, sir. Sorry sir. We’re dropping off another 23,000 Pegasi on this transport making the number 2.75 million relocated over the last six weeks.” “Excellent. If we keep building ships, then we should be able to just get out every last Pegasus before it’s too late.” “Actually sir, according to the numbers…” He quickly stopped talking after the glare he received from the commander. “The numbers are fine Pansy. Focus on your duties!” the commander retorted. He walked away from the private and took his seat in Captain’s chair (superseding the authority of the actual ship’s captain). “It just makes no sense,” Pimsey thought to himself. “Commander Hirkain keeps asking for more ships for transport, but every new ship’s design cuts the crew number in half and doubles our defensive capabilities. Private Pimsey pushed the thought from his mind as he had to get twenty-five other tasks completed before his shift ended. He did not particularly like the commander. He didn’t particularly care for the military in general, but it was obvious to the young private that the commander cared more for his own agenda, than the true welfare of his fellow ponies. Sitting back at his station, he brought up his terminal which was split between four screens and a control screenpad. Sifting through dozens of charts, graphs, sensors, and forms to fill, he spent the next ten hours completing his tasks. In the Captain’s chair, the commander continued to monitor the situation as passengers Digi-Ported down to the surface of the planet. [Digi-Ports are technology based on Unicorn teleport magic. As science and technology continued to improve in their society, a greater understanding of the how and why Unicorn magic works the way it does, came to be common knowledge. After the discovery of the Monoceros particle, ponies of all tribes were able to start collecting and producing similar magical capabilities by combining the particles into their technology. They were even able to absorb free particles from the space around them, as the particles are quite abundant in nature. The famed Scientific Explorer Award winner, Dr. Newton Applefall, discovered that all ponies, regardless of sub-species, absorbed different amounts of the particles into their bodies, thus allowing them to perform such simple feats as lifting and manipulating objects with their own hooves. (Generations of ponies never realized the scientific miracle of performing such a simple task as holding a tool in their hooves and using it!)] Standing in long lines all over the ship, passengers waited to disembark. The first-class passengers were the first to disembark, naturally. The remaining passengers were given a Digi-Port Number and a time-slot for when to report. There were forty-five different Digi-Ports all over the ship, each able to transport ten ponies at a time. However, the arduous task would still take over a day to complete. While they waited, many ponies brought their children to some of the many viewing windows around the vessel. From there, they could stare out and see their new future home from orbit. The planet was in a trinary system; three suns spread in a triangle with several planets orbiting all three. Some orbited between the solar bodies, but were so hot, they had surfaces on the order of 8,000°C. Due to the intensity of the heat produced by the three stars together, Pegasopolis had to be established on a planet at least two hundred and fifty million kilometers to reach the nearest sun. [Earth is only one hundred 150 million km away from its sun.] The planet had an orange hue to it, due to the composition of the minerals on the surface. It did not have any oceans, but the pioneers of the colony discovered an underground ocean spread across the planet with enough fresh water for life. But what really drew the Pegasi to this new world, were the clouds. Clouds were spread throughout the planet, soft, yet firm. The clouds were large and thick enough without dispersing to build vast cities throughout the planet. Many little fillies and colts were pointing at different cloud formations trying to see different shapes and animals while they waited to start their new lives. Onboard the R.U.S. Prominence (Royal Unicornian Ship)… “Clover? Are we there yet?” Princess Platinum asked in a bored, whiney tone. “Not yet, your Majesty,” the princess’s servant replied. “It will still be another six hours or so.” Clover was Princess Platinum’s main servant and had been since they were fillies. She was a deep blue unicorn with a violet mane. Her cutie mark was a feather pen over parchment. She loved to write and always wanted to become a writer, but was never allowed the time to try. Every chance she did get however, she put into her writing. She made short stories about a utopian world she thought of, where all ponies were friends and worked together in a simple life away from technology. After the disaster, she saw her dreams shatter apart before her very eyes. Clover was the closest thing the princess ever had to a friend. And the princess showed her appreciation for her in a most unique manner. “Ugh! I’m so bored! Clover, be a dear and entertain me, would you?” the princess commanded. “We could play a game if you like. There are several available in the rec center…” Clover tried to offer, happy to do something fun herself, but the princess simply stared at her with an incredulous look on her face. Sighing, Clover then offered, “…or I can tell you again about how all of the Unicorns in the colony will be waiting to greet you when you arrive.” “Oh, what a splendid idea, Clover!” the princess praised. “You always know just what to say to cheer me up! You’re so clever…you’re…Clover the Clever! Haha…Now I’m the clever one!” She laughed at her own wit for a full minute or so, before calming herself and allowing Clover to describe the parades and banquets that will be awaiting her upon arrival. Clover was born into the service of the royal family. Her mother was a servant and died during childbirth. She was raised and taught to be a royal servant. As soon as she was old enough to be physically able, the Queen herself, before her passing, selected her to be the royal servant to the princess. She grew up side by side with the princess doing just about everything together. As for her opinion of the princess, she neither liked nor disliked her, but just always held the dream of something bigger for herself. “So why can’t I just stay at the colony now?” the princess asked looking out of her royal suite window into the emptiness of space. “Because…,” Clover started, “If you don’t go back, ponies back home will start to suspect something is wrong and panic will break out." “Ugh! Then why am I bothering to go now?” she complained again. “We are trying to comfort everypony on the colony to convince them that you are there to support them even on a different world; and to show everypony back home that the colony is bright and sunny and attractive, so they’ll consider purchasing tickets to move here.” Clover had already explained this to her several times, but she was ‘too concerned with more important matters’ to remember such trivial details. Clover started to look out the window as well, thinking about the thousands of Unicorns on the ship preparing for life in a new home far away from everything they’ve ever known. The ship was Pegasus designed, as they were always the stewards of the air. However, more Unicorns started entering the fields of spatial aeronautics and traversal physics, and becoming pilots and engineers. The transport ships for the Unicorns were now entirely run by Unicorn crews. They were mere hours from the new home, Unicornia. The planet was located in the star system adjacent to the one which housed the Pegasopolis colony. The planetary system only had one star to orbit around, but the colony was on a planet with two moons. The skies of the planet had a purple haze which covered the planet, yet allowed plenty of light through to produce crops. The planet was specifically chosen because of its haze which had large concentrations of Monoceros particles, which would nearly double the abilities of every Unicorn living there. Princess Platinum and Clover continued to stare out into space imagining the new world they would eventually be living on permanently. Inside the chancellor's mansion... “SMART COOKIE!” the chancellor screamed down the hall. “I have a name you know!” a young filly administrator called back to the chancellor. Sunbeam was the chancellor’s personal assistant/administrator. She was yellow with an orange mane that was usually braided. She handled all the requests made by the chancellor, as his personal assistant. She would often suggest ideas to the chancellor, to help him through his duties. He, naturally, would always take the credit, however his gift in return was the nickname of ‘Smart Cookie’, much to Sunbeam’s chagrin. “I have need of your input on an important matter. Could you drop whatever nonsense you’re looking at and get in here and help me!” he yelled. Sighing, Sunbeam tried to organize the four different screenpads spread across her desk. She quickly piled them together in order, before getting up to see what the chancellor needed. The topmost screenpad had the title, “Quota Deficits in the Earth Pony Relocation Program (EPRP)” written at the top of the report. “Yes, chancellor, what did you need?” she asked, entering his suite. He didn’t appear to be in the room. “Chancellor?” “In here,” he called from the walk-in closet. She entered the closet to find the chancellor half dressed. “Good. Now, I have an important business meeting with some investors this afternoon, and I need your help picking out which suit I should wear.” Sunbeam looked at him questioningly. “You don’t have any investor meetings scheduled for today.” “Oh! Well…These are some personal investor friends of mine. They want to…er…explain some investments…they are selling.” The chancellor quickly pulled from the air. “These investors wouldn’t happen to be two blonde fillies who couldn’t have gotten their cutie marks more than a year ago could it?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. “Now, now. The investors may be a bit young, but brilliance knows no age!” he said. Now please! Which suit should I wear to impress them?” Sunbeam looked him up and down. She knew about his taste for young filly prostitutes, but could do nothing. She had signed away her rights to talk, in a hidden clause in the non-disclosure agreement she signed, when she was first hired. The chancellor was interested in her too, when she first took the job, but she was a strong-willed pony and bucked him right in the jaw. Instead of beating her, or even firing her, he laughed and said, 'he’d never encountered such a strong-willed young filly'. He gave her a raise and a promotion. Ever since, he never propositioned her again, but instead asked her opinion on just about every one of his decisions. “Here,” she said picking out a black pinstriped suit. It gave the chancellor the look of a Mafioso ready to take down “Pony Clams”. “I think that suits the nature of your meeting.” “Yes…yes…I like it! It makes me look important. And that’s how it should be!” he said admiring his look in the mirror. Sunbeam rolled her eyes when she knew the chancellor was not looking. “Now, while I’m out, see to it that the..er..relocation efforts are..um...seen to,” said the chancellor as he collected himself to leave. “I’ll take care of it Chancellor Puddinghead.” “What did you just call me?” He gazed at her angrily. “What? What did I say? I said, ‘I’ll take care of it Chancellor Puttinghoof’.” she quickly corrected herself. “Oh..I could’ve sworn…nah! My imagination, never mind,” he said returning to his innocent, ignorant manner. “Well, I’m off. Keep the light on for me.” “I always do sir,” Sunbeam said, smiling. She waited until the chancellor closed the door completely before muttering, “Chancellor Puddinghead!” She went back to her desk and began looking at the first pad on the list. “Sigh…what are we going to do?” she looked gloomily at the figures for the Earth Pony relocation plans. Earth ponies had the fewest ships in the fleet. They had tried to barter some ships from the other races, but it had mostly become a none-for-all and all-for-me approach. Each race had their own shipyards and pilots. Earth ponies could only construct three ships over the last six weeks, which was beyond a record under normal circumstances, but making the reality for relocation much more difficult. Pilots were being trained by other pilots, while they were transporting passengers. It was a dung pile of epic proportions, and Sunbeam was sitting on top with a spoon to shovel with. Over the past six weeks they were only able to transport 127,000 ponies to the Soil Lands colony. Meanwhile, there were over three million requests to book passage, and that number was rising rapidly. It had been six straight weeks of no sunlight. The temperatures were dropping all over the planet. Where the Earth Pony Chancellor’s residence was located, it was currently summer. It had recently started to lightly snow over the last few days and hasn’t stopped. “This is only going to get worse,” Sunbeam thought aloud. She took the charter list for the next ship leaving and looked up their contact information. She grabbed her personal screenpad and plugged in the info. A short fat stallion with brown fur and a black mane appeared on the screen. “Ah Sunbeam! I’m glad you called. I take it you’re calling for the next batch?” “Yes, Skip. How many can you store?” she asked. “Maybe three hundred fifty.” He answered, keeping descriptive nouns out of his replies. “You were able to get five fundred on the last one.” “Things have changed,” he replied. “More highs being stored, so less room for lows.” “Alright, three hundred fifty then. At the same rate?” she asked, knowing all too well the answer. “Sorry, less room means more risk. I can do it now for seven fifty a piece.” “Seven hundred and fifty bits!? Please! You’re doing me a favor, and I’m making you set for life. Can we make it five hundred a piece?” “hmm…sigh...five fifty, Sun. I’m only doing that because you’re like a daughter to me.” “Thank you, Skip! I’ll transfer the money and the list to you now.” “You’re welcome. Bye.” He said closing the connection. Sunbeam put her personal pad down and grabbed another. It was the chancellor’s official screenpad. It was locked, but Sunbeam had long since guessed his password and it never changed, “12345”. She typed in the password unlocking it. She quickly drafted the work order. Crew employee manifest, E.P.S. Destination (Earth Pony Ship). Name/Position/Salary: Sundry Tomato / Crewpony / 550 bits Cherry Blossom / Crewpony / 550 bits Applucia Planter / Crewpony / 550 bits … Sunbeam typed out each of the three hundred and fifty names from her list. They were all poor Earth ponies who could no longer afford to eat, let alone book transport to the colony. She had been secretly booking them by filing them as employees aboard the transport. They would not get much food on the trip over, but it would hopefully be enough to survive the journey. When she had finished typing the list, she attached it to the accounting paperwork to pay for the employees. This required the chancellor’s hoof print. Luckily, Sunbeam had created a mold from a print she took while the chancellor was sleeping one night, passed out on hard cider. She authorized the payment and sent the documentation to Skip, otherwise known as Captain Skip Seabird. Breathing a sigh of relief that that was finally over, she locked the Chancellor’s screenpad and moved on to the next task. Picking up another screenpad, the title of the report read, “Massive Food Shortage.” “This is going to be a long day…” she thought miserably, as she continued to work through her tasks.