Chrysalis walked down the hallway, two massive Humans at her sides, moving to one of the many conference rooms aboard the 'Odyssey'. Her..... benefactors had told her that Celestia and Luna had awoken two days ago and now she was going to go meet Celestia.
Frankly she thought that this was a horrible idea, and she had told John that, but the Humans had decided that this was better than the two of them meeting in some secluded hallway by some chance of fate and killing each other.
Begrudgingly, Chrysalis had agreed.
She had no desire to meet the Alicorn, but she decided that it was better to get this out of the way now. She hated to admit it but she looked forward to having something other than the many Humans walking about to talk too. Other than John, and some scant conversations with James, she was effectively alone here. She had tried talking to the other Humans aboard but they were too...... different, near unrelatable, so she supposed it would be at least refreshing to talk to Celestia.
Even though they'll most likely be at each other throats most of the time.
In the month that she had been awake she had spent her time attempting to short out her own memories, and the, in the words of James, genetic memories she ‘inherited’ from her mother. All-in-all a very aggravating, yet enlightening, process, it gave her a new and much needed perspective on the Humans.
One that Celestia or Luna would never have.
She could remember every event that herself, her mother, her mother's mother, and so on had ever experienced. The down side was two fold, the initial suppressing of all that information had...... changed her normal mannerisms, she had never been particularly ‘friendly’ as an adult, but when the Humans... blocked all that to make her ‘fit’ in that little world they made, when they changed her mind in such an extreme fashion,she became.... unpredictable, violent. Parts of her forebears personalities had ‘come in through the cracks’ and ‘superimposed themselves over her own’, at least that was what John had told her.
The other side to it was that the removal of the ‘blocks’ to her memories had restored her personality to normal.... mostly, she still had a hard time distancing her own memories and personality from the others in her mind. It was like thousands of her, all arguing at once. At times she wished the blocks were back, if only to stop the voices in her head.
‘You need us....’ The voices called at once.
She did her best to ignore the low buzz in the back of her head.
“Ma’am?” One of her escorts said. “Is everything allright?”
“Yes, Human. Everything is fine.” She said as she motioned them to continue.
She found her eyes drift to the walls, She could remember how these hallways looked when she had first arrived. They were a grey-white, they looked strong, immovable, like the Humans that made them.
Now?
They looked faded, beaten and battered .....
Tired.
These walls hold back the deadly cold of space, they protect and shelter.
She looked at one of the Humans next to her.
How much more can they take?
Yet, every so often, they would pass a section that still looked as it had when she first arrived. Still holding fast against everything that had been thrown at it, deviant to yield, to fail in the protection of its charges.
“Ma’am, we here.” The Human said.
“Thank you.” Chrysalis said, after a long pause.
She closed her eyes as she passed through the membrane that made up the nano-door. Feeling the electric tingle run through her form. She opened her eyes and took in the room.
It was relatively small in relation to the other room she had been in, standing at the four corners of the room were the massive Human soldiers, her own entourage coming through and standing at the door, every one of them cradling their massive weapons. At the table sat a unarmored John, James, ‘Captain’ Del Marco, and at the end opposite to her, Celestia.
‘Prey..Food!’ The voices screamed in her head.
Celestia for her part just sat there, mouth agape slightly. Then in a flash she shot up from her seated position horn aglow and a deep scowl on her face. Faster than she could track, every one of the armored Humans in the room had their weapons trained on her head, she could even see John reaching for his sidearm.
“Chrysalis!” Celestia yelled.
She heard an odd sound and a wave of nausea washed over her, Celestia’s fur rose a little as it became statically charged, and then Celestia’s horn stopped glowing.
:~:
Celestia felt a powerful nausea wash over her, and her head exploding in pain as her horn stopped glowing, she could feel her connection to her magic being severed. Her vision going foggy, and everything sounded muffled for a moment before going back to normal.
With her vision returned to normal she could see every armored Human holding their weapons up at her. A buzz at the edge of her hearing making her ears go flat on her head.
“Celestia.” Chrysalis said with a smug look in her face. “What’s the matter, cannot use your ‘godly’ powers?”
“Chrysalis....” Del Marco warned standing up, he turned his head to Celestia. “ I brought you both here so you two can reach an..... understanding, not so you can rip each others heads off. You don’t have to be friends, you don’t have to even like each other, I do need to know I can trust you two not to kill each other. Am I clear?”
“Yes.” Chrysalis said.
“Yes.” Celestia said after a long pause.
The Humans lowered their weapons, though they were aimed slightly in her direction. Then the buzz dissipated and she felt her magic return, a soft glow encompassing her horn for a short time.
“Good. Now both of you...” He trailed off, gesturing to their seats.
After a short time of thinking Celestia voiced a question that had been nagging at her since she had woken, “Just where are we going?”
Del Marco looked at her for a moment, “Originally we were going to go to Terra with the other three Ark-ships, but the Chairman, the effective leader of the UEG changed our destination when he learned of the coup that was occurring across UEG space.”
Chrysalis spoke up, “To where, and why?”
“The ONI’s off Terra headquarters, Olympus Mons, similar to Zeus Station. Last word from the stations AI Hermes was that the station was secure. As for the reasoning..... we don’t know. The Chairman gave explicit orders to divert to Olympus Mons, the only thing I know is that there was a.....situation at Terra. We’re about half a month away, that is if nothing sets us back.” Del Marco said, sounding sad near the end.
“What if this..... station isn't secure?” Celestia asked.
“Then we’re all going to die Celestia.” James said speaking up, “The ships drive is dead, so if the station is damaged or, god forbid, destroyed; our chances for survival decrease exponentially.”
“You cannot fix this device?” Celestia asked.
John spoke up, “We do not have the tools or resources to fix the ship’s drive, even if we did, multiple of the ships sub-systems were damaged so even if the drive was operational we could not jump the ship. Hopefully the parts and supplies we need will be there.”
“That’s it? One final leap of faith? One last blind jump into the fray? With the outcome of extinction facing us all should this gambit fail!?” Celestia asked.
James spoke up once more, “Yes Celestia, that’s exactly it. You have to understand that, we are, all of us, on the precipice of extinction. None of us are above that, not us, not you or your Ponies, not Chrysalis or her Changelings, not the Dragons. We all face death, but we don't have to face it alone. Tell me Celestia, would you be the cause of the extinction of your race? Just because of a.... grudge, because you see us, or Chrysalis and her Changelings, as an enemy.”
“I see you in that light because of what you did to us! A.... A collection of lies is all that we are!” Celestia said back.
Surprisingly enough Chrysalis was the one who answered her, “What would you have had them done? Would you have let you ponies die slowly, as you watched them waste away? Would you have watched them fight and die over the remaining sources of food and water aboard this vessel? Have you stopped to think how they feel? They lost everything and yet they still look out for us. You should thank them, not spit in their face. They know what they did was wrong, but tell me Celestia, your people are happy are they not? They could have easily killed us all and increased their own chances for survival, instead they gave us a viable paradise to live in. None of our subjects were without anything, they on the other hand, " She looks around the room at the humans present, "I’ve watched slowly waste away.”
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, feeling regret, “I’m …...sorry.”
Del Marco looked at her, a small smile on his face, “You don’t need to be sorry Celestia, we can understand that you're angry, that you don’t want to believe what happened, nobody would want too.” He closed his eyes for a moment before continuing, “That brings us to the topic of Luna.”
“What about her?” Celestia asked, worried.
James took over the conversation, “Your sisters mind is...... fragile, you know this as well as we do. When we woke you up it was not because your POD was malfunctioning, it was your sisters. Given her tentative grasp on sanity, it was decided that you were to be woken to act as a..... stabilizing element.”
‘Nightmare Moon’ Celestia thought.
James continued, “Your sister suffers from schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality syndrome. Normally we kept it in order with medication, but we ran out around a thousand years ago. In the simulation her ‘other’ personality..... superimposed itself over your sister and made ‘Nightmare Moon’ as you called it. In actuality it was the system attempting to fit her new personality into the system, creating a self thinking program in the system you called Nightmare Moon. In response we created a program to isolate that string of code in a secondary system, unfortunately it took your sister with it. It took us nearly a thousand years to figure out how to separate them without harming your sister.”
“The Elements of Harmony.” Celestia said, to which James nodded.
“We then used the redesigned program, acting through those six ponies, to ‘kill’ the malfunctioning program and forcing the other personality deep into your sisters mind. We need you to make sure she does not fall apart again, like I said we were able to keep her in line with meds, but seeing as we do not have them anymore you’ll have to do.” James said.
“If I can't?” Celestia said.
“Then we have to....... euthanize her.” James said, a tinge of sadness running through his voice.
“What! You can’t-”
“Yes, we can.” James said sharply, “If she starts to tear up the ship, that leaves us will not a lot of options. You and your sister have....... elevated views of yourselves. You may not be the ‘gods’ you think you are, but you're powerful, and we can not risk the ship over a temper tantrum. Your sister is a valuable specimen, one that I would rather not lose, but we’ll do what’s necessary for the greater good.”
Celestia closed her eyes, “I..... understand.”
“Then lets go.” James said standing up.
“Wait, where?” Celestia asked.
“You said you wanted your sister awake right?” He said walking out, Celestia getting up to follow. “Chrysalis, return to your room please, I don’t want Luna seeing you just yet.”
“Yes James.” Chrysalis said was they passed through the nano-door.
:~:
Celestia looked at Lunas sleeping form, the other Humans out of the room until they were needed.
“Ember? Can you wake her please?” She said to the air.
“Wake up procedure has begun.” Embers voice rang out.
After a short time, Luna’s eyes began to flutter open.