//------------------------------// // 8: A New Mission Statement // Story: Friendship: Beyond Equestria // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Howling wind and rolling thunder rattled through a darkened dormitory, startling its sole occupant awake at its passing. Prism’s wings snapped open, throwing the light blanket aside as she scrambled to make sense of her surroundings. The moment of disorientation didn’t last long however and her explorer’s training kicked in, dragging away her sleepiness. Thunder and rain filled her ears, delighting her enough to roll over and simply watch the rain patter against the window. The sun, now blocked by the storm clouds,was only just beginning to climb up into the sky, leaving much of the illumination to the scant few lights of the colony. “Actual rain… No more snow for us.” Prism laid there for several peaceful minutes, drinking in the weather just a few feet away. Despite the harsh wind, torrential rain and booming thunder, the fact that she was safe and sound in her dormitory allowed Prism to watch passively. However, such moments of peace were not meant to last long as the wall mounted speaker barked to life with Voyager's speech. “Pathfinder Prism Flash, there is an inclement weather advisory in place.” “You don’t say.” “Given the severity of the storm, all exploration missions are temporarily postponed.” “Wouldn’t stop the mail,” Prism mocked to the uncaring AI. “In addition, Pathfinder Ruby Quartz has called for a meeting at headquarters starting at fifteen hundred hours.” “Joy.” Prism looked over to her wall mounted clock. “9:00AM.” She laid there confused for a moment, forgetting the days here were longer than those back on Equis. Shaking away her confusion, she sat up and yawned lazily. “Plenty of time for some breakfast.” With that offhanded comment the unbidden memory of the dig site, and Dirt Dobber’s death slammed into her mind’s eye. She let go of a shuddering breath, and called back to her mother’s teaching the night before. “There is more to being an alicorn, or at least in your case, a partial alicorn, than just a long life and more magic. We must learn how to not just survive, but how to live with ourselves. “Alicorn magic can enable us to do just that, by having a mind as resilient as our bodies. Assuming of course, if you know how.” Prism was silently grateful she didn’t have to learn to clear her mind like she expected, but instead used a practice she had been doing for years: channeling her alicorn magic. Only this time, she let it ebb and flow with her thoughts, letting the mana course through her brain, guided by her subconscious will. “Our magic constantly works to renew and invigorate the body, but it can only do this because the body already tries to heal on its own.” Prism instinctively spread her large wings out as far as she could. Both her amber eyes and her mana-swathed wings started to glow. The alicorn magic felt easier to move, far more so than when she had ordinary pegasi wings. It was as if the magic itself yearned to envelope, protect, and empower her. “However, the mind normally repulses any influence by this restorative magic. I suspect this is likely because it would hamper our ability to think properly. As such, you must give yourself time to open the gates as it were, and let the wounds of your mind heal, lest they become scars. “But be warned. Unlike with the physical body, our magic cannot fix scars to the mind. Trying to do otherwise will lead you down an apathetic and aloof path. You are far more aware of that danger than most." Prism sighed and let go of her magic. “I don’t want the scar of her fixed anyway.” She shook her head vigorously to cast away thoughts of her mother’s lesson and that of her older sister. However the tips of her primaries brought her attention to the grungy state of her wings. Feathers poked out here and there, some loose, others deformed by improper sleep. “Ugh, so many extra feathers. How does mom sleep with such big flappers without getting them messed up every time?” At least my enviro suit kept everything in order, she grumbled irritably while fetching her personal set of hand-claws from a nearby drawer. Fussing all the while, Prism used the nimble fingers to fix her erratic feathers back into workable condition. Can’t believe pegasi used to have to do this by mouth. Freak’n yuck. With her task done in moderately short order, she inspected her wings in the wall mirror nearby. A niggling thought bubbled up at the sight of them. She called me a partial alicorn… She’s never called me that before, even after I learned how to grow my wings out. Could she be… Nah, Prism shook her head and tucked her wings back into place. I came to her asking to keep big wings. Momma may be a schemer, but even she could have… Prism looked at her reflection’s face, imagining for a moment that she had a horn. You know what? I wouldn’t put it past her to wait for me to ask first. I’ll play dumb for now, but I’m so busting her if she offers to teach me how to create unicorn or earth pony magic. Filing her suspicion away for now, Prism went through her morning hygienics before making her way to the mess hall. As always in the cramped space of the ship-turned-capitol-building, the mess hall was filled to the brim with ponies. The four separate lines for food were no exception. Thankfully though Twilight Sparkle being unofficially the Alicorn of Organization, the lines moved quite rapidly. It wasn’t too long before Prism came up to the downside of organized efficiency. As soon as Prism got to the food, an automatic dispenser unceremoniously dropped a tray on her back from a tube on the wall, causing her to instinctively spread her wings a bit to stabilize it. Marching forward, a small collection of packaged freeze dried foodstuffs dropped on the tray with a plastic box dropping on top of it all, each item coming from a different dispensary tube. And with that, she was released into the cafeteria, loaded to the brim with patrons filling every table and booth. The cafeteria's design was more for aesthetics than pure function. With the ship having been safely on the ground for some time now, the inner section of the entire ring was nearly hollowed out with a large collection of minor support beams allowing a large collection of tables to exist for the pegasi and thestrals of the colony, thus freeing up the rest for their ground bound brethren. Due to the mass of ponies pushing behind her, Prism had to quickly unfurl her foreleg mounted hands and take the tray in them so she could climb into the air to avoid getting trampled. Now. Knowing Praxia, she’s probably spacing out somewhere too focused on some work to leave her table. Flying through the organized chaos, Prism kept her tray tucked underneath as she hunted down her honorary sister. Sure enough, there she was on the third floor and tucked down by the far end, yet what brought Prism up short was that Silver was chatting with her. With a snarky grin, Prism slid over and dumped her tray onto the round table and latched onto the bench on the other side of Praxia and Silver. “Hey guys, what’s up with you two?” Praxia almost jumped out of her seat as if she’d been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar, while Silver didn’t think anything of it. “Hey, PF, Praxia was just asking me about any other good VR sims, you know any?” Praxia pulled at him and whispered in his ear. “Why are you telling anypony!?” Silver was at a loss in what to make of that while Prism only grinned mischievously at the couple. “VR sims, Praxia? Have you been naughty while I was gone?” “I most certainly have not!” Praxia snorted scornfully at Prism’s mocking ‘bedroom eyes’. “Uh, no,” Silver said slowly to try and defuse the situation. “We just wanted to know of any more campaigns. I know you talked the princess into inviting a few game designers into the Seed program.” “Can’t believe I even had to,” Prism chuckled after laying off of Praxia. She was a merciful pony after all. “You’d think she’d love VR games if she ever took the time to try.” Praxia slowly loosened up from her embarrassment and sat a bit straighter. “I think Sensei knows herself all too well. There is merit in never indulging in something if you know you’d greatly overindulge in it.” “Psh, if you say so.” Prism checked through her personal library in her visor’s display. With her hand-enhanced hooves, she thumbed through a few folders to find her admittedly small collection. “I don’t have that many for Demon Slayer, but I have a bunch for Planet of the Killer Potatoes.” Praxia flicked her mane to the side dismissively. “Ugh, no way. That game is trash.” “It is not,” Prism scowled defensively. “It’s a cult classic!” “That’s just another way of saying the world think’s it’s garbage, save for a few misguided souls.” Praxia stated matter of factly as payback for earlier. “Ha! We’re just the only ones who can see the genius of the killer potatoes.” Prism thumbed her nose at Praxia before turning towards her packaged meal. Praxia waved off the last comment while Silver was a bit perplexed by the whole exchange. I don’t know how PF brings such strange habits out of the usually straight-laced Praxia. “So I heard what happened at the digsite. Must have been hard.” Prism let out a mild sigh and popped open a bag to find some dried carrots. “Yeah… Well, just gotta make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Praxia eyed Prism carefully with a worried frown. “Are you sure you're feeling okay? Last I saw, you weren’t doing so hot.” Prism rolled her eyes at the whole thing rather than at Praxia. “Mom taught me some form of meditation tied to my alicorn magic. Really takes the ‘umph’ out of grief apparently.” “Must be nice…” was all Silver was willing to say in a forced neutral tone. Praxia felt smoldering sorrow out of Silver, but her attention was primarily focused on Prism. She was more than a little intrigued by such a technique, and slowly and tactfully got Prism to open about the mechanics involved while she ate. When all was said and done, Prism was nearly done with her meal and both Praxia and Silver were mulling over the information. It didn’t take Praxia long to nervously rub the back of her head. “I don’t want to sound unsympathetic here, but I don’t think I’m really qualified to help you on this one.” Both ponies gave her a curious look. Prism’s snark returned in full force. “Look, Praxia, I know you’re not a qualified therapist, but you can actually give advice.” “That not what I- ugh.” Praxia smacked her forehead out of exasperation. Think diplomatically like Sensei taught you. “Let me put it this way. I know, and am grateful for, that I look like just another tribe of pony, but the fact is - I’m really not. My mind does not work in the same way as a pony’s in some ways. At least that’s what I’ve been told.” “So you experience grief differently?” Silver asked already half expecting the answer. “How would you know, though?” Prism pressed with a sour tone. “You barely make any friends outside of momma and I. So who did you lose, huh?” “You mean beside my entire race back on Equis?” Praxia countered just as bitterly. “Oh come on, you hate your mother.” “My mother, yes, but who knows, maybe I could have been friends with one of the other queens.” Prism hesitated, not really having a counter to that. Silver was starting to look uncomfortable. “Point is, when my mother dumped me off in Equestria she gave Sensei a big list of changeling facts so she wasn’t trying to raise me totally blind. Apparently the list also said changelings don’t suffer emotional scars. If you heard her talk, grief just sort of washes out of us in a matter of weeks.” “Riiight…” Prism turned to Silver. “Well what do you think?” Swallowing the lump in his throat, Silver tried to keep a level tone. “I... I really don’t want to talk about it.” Praxia gave Silver a sad look and gently placed her hoof on his own. “It sounds like you need to though.” He froze with his eyes on her hole riddled hoof. “I may not be the best at it, but Prism and I talk about stuff that bothers us all the time to each other. Can you share?” Silver looked up at Prism who responded by giving a small frown and leaning over her food. “Throwing your heart on the table’s rough. But I gotta admit to getting a lot of practice with ol’ holier than thou over there.” They’ll probably think I’m a nut case if I clam up… but then they’ll just see me as a nut if I told them. “I’m sorry I ju-” He looked up to speak with Prism only to see Firefly sitting at a nearby table staring daggers at him. Firefly called him through Silver’s earpiece, to which Silver was immensely grateful that the mares couldn’t hear. ~“Dude, I know that look. Sympathy always gets the mares.”~ Silver was thrown off his train of thought for a moment before surprise and a bit of anger got a hold of him. “Excuse me for a moment, ladies.” He turned away from the surprised mares, placed a hoof to his ear to hiss at Firefly. ~“Why are you watching me, Fire?!”~ ~“Cause everypony in town saw you eating breakfast with Miss Ice Regent herself. I came to make sure you didn’t blow it.”~ Small town. Silver gave Prism a nervous half grin before turning back away. ~“Yeah well they’re asking about the thing.”~ Firefly’s voice lost it’s snark. ~“You mean, the thing thing?”~ ~“Yes!”~ Firefly was silent for a few moments; long enough to let Silver know he was giving it real thought. ~“I know it’s heavy. But those two aren’t just some heat and beat mares. Tell’m anyway, Silver. Trust me.”~ Despite it all, Firefly’s serious tone caught Silver off guard. ~“You - you’re serious?”~ ~“Hundred percent, bro. You gotta take the plunge with more than just me, bro.”~ Silver looked up to see Firefly nod at him. ~“What’s a wingmate for right?”~ Silver shored up his nerve and cut the call. He gave the mares an apologetic look. “Sorry, Firefly had to tell me something real quick.” Prism shrugged it off while Praxia nodded in understanding. “So… Grief. I guess I better start with context. My family used to be a herd of four, but we lost Glimmer Shine, Velvet Coat, and my father Textile in the war. My father actually ended up dead in that stupid little skirmish in Dusty Willow.” Prism recognized the name immediately. “Wasn’t that the fight that happened while the ceasefire was being signed?” That was two years after papa died. Silver powered through it, keeping his voice level and eyes mostly dry. “Yeah… Pointless waste as my mother kept calling it. She - she never recovered from that. With the sun dying and an ice age setting in, she lost hope. J-just a month. One month before the Seed Initiative was announced, momma hung herself.” Prism was struck speechless, with her eyes misting over at the memory of when she learned that her father wasn’t coming home. Praxia may be resilient against grief, but she knew the sadness of being alone. With neither of them able to speak, Silver felt he was on the spot to continue. “After she… It - it felt like the color just drained out of the world. I couldn't find the drive to keep up my apprenticeship, or even bother getting food. If you hear Firefly talk, he’d swear up and down my cutie mark started to turn grey.” Silver had to spend several moments to recollect himself. Prism’s couldn’t think of anything to say, and only stared blankly at her food. Praxia wanted to hug him to comfort him, but the voice of keeping a public professional image stayed her hoof. “So if you can use some spell or whatever to get rid of grief, then use it,” Silver said with thready iron in his voice. “I hate grief, I really really do. It’s a mind numbing inescapable pain. And the worst part? After the fact, you know those you loved would never have wanted you to feel so damned miserable in the first place.” Silver let some tears flow, but he quickly became acutely self-conscious of the countless eyes in the cafeteria. All of them watching him, judging him, questioning him, perhaps one too many mocking him out of ignorance. Damn it Firefly! “I should go. Sorry.” Silver searched for the nearest exit and took off into the air. Praxia lept into the air to chase after him. “Silver, wait!” Prism couldn’t move, and lost sight of them. Those same emotions of the news of her father, eroded by her young age at the time, resurged with renewed force. Along with all the horrid feelings that truly heavy grief brought with it. She slumped in her chair, the food forgotten. Geez. I’m such a stupid idiot. Praxia chased after Silver straight through the nearest cafeteria exit. She didn’t have to chase him far since this sector of the ring had dozens of semi-private alcoves with seats lining the walls. Silver checked a few of them before finding an empty one and ducked inside. Praxia stopped at the short privacy wall not only to give him a few moments alone, but also to watch for any passersby who might have given Silver more than passing interest. Praxia’s reputation caused any curious pony to quickly look elsewhere. Just roll with it, Praxia. They don’t really mean anything by it. I hope. After waiting for half a minute, Praxia poked her head past the wall to find Silver draped himself over the bench with a forlorn frown complete with fallen ears and his leathery wings hanging limp over the edge. “Can I come in, Silver?” He took the time to at least look at her, but his defeated expression remained intact. “Sure. Public space and all.” “Thanks.” Given the small tight space, Praxia really only had one place to go, the other side of the bench. She sat down somewhat rigidly in an attempt to mimic how Twilight would get her to talk sometimes. And there she stayed, silent yet noticeably present, giving him time to speak when he was ready. She also started writing a text message for Prism. At some point, Prism had tracked Praxia’s location thanks to Voyager, but upon entering, Praxia silently waved her away while Silver was still facing away from the entrance. Praxia had expected her to arrive and sent that text message reading, ‘He’d be overwhelmed with both of us here, talk to him later, please?’ Prism raised a hoof to protest, but thought better of it and departed with her head hung low. With her gone, Praxia returned waiting for Silver. Thankfully she wasn’t kept waiting for much longer after that. “I need to stop letting Firefly talk me into stupid stuff like that.” “Don’t blame yourself or him - um -entirely.” Praxia took a moment to lay a reassuring hoof on his withers, just like Twilight did so many times before. “I mean, we practically put you on the spot.” Silver pulled himself up into a sitting posture, and became self conscious enough to pull his wings back up into a normal resting position. “I told myself I’d have told you or Prism in a few months… or years preferably. That is if you ever wanted to go that far I mean,” he added way too quickly for his liking. “But now I just look like some emotional trainwreck which is probably all over the net by now.” “Hey, hey, it’s not that bad,” Praxia offered with what she hoped was a winning smile. “If anypony asks we can just say it was homesickness. There’s been dozens of cases of breakdowns so ponies wouldn’t think anything of the whole cafeteria thing.” Praxia pulled back to think of a few things to cheer him up. “For what it’s worth, I think you really helped Prism out, and yourself too I bet.” “You think so, huh?” Silver sighed in relief after Praxia nodded firmly. “Thanks. I’ve really only been able to talk about it with Firefly until today.” “Why didn’t you see a therapist?” Silver scoffed at the notion. “I hate to say it, Praxia, but I barely qualified to get a seat in the first Seed. There were tons of engineers lined up for my spot, and if I had a mark for past trauma on my record, I’d still be on Equis waiting to freeze to death.” Praxia froze. He’s right. How many ponies did I pass over due to even a hint of mental health issues? “Well all things considered. I'm glad you didn't.” “You mean that?” he asked with slowly growing hope. Praxia tried to take on what she hoped was a faux-insulted tone and flared her hoof dramatically. “Unlike most politicians, I at least prefer to speak true.” “Ha. You know you’re not as cold as ponies say you are.” Silver thought she looked more goofy than a skilled actress, but the point was taken. Praxia skillfully morphed the coming discontent into mild forlorn. “I kinda avoided making friends back on Equis. After all, I didn’t want to make a friend and then be forced to leave them behind like so many others.” Silver hummed contemplatively, scratching his chin all the while. “Would you perhaps be willing to make friends now?” “I like to think we’re friends,” Praxia replied with restrained hope. “Or more if you want, I’m good for either.” Sometimes, I hate it when Firefly is right. Sometimes. “Praxia, this may seem out of the blue, but I heard that the masseuses that came with us finally opened for business up on Ring three. You wanna go relax? My treat.” Fond memories of saunas and therapeutic facials bubbled up in Praxia’s mind making her jumpy at the idea. “I’d love to. Sensei gave me the day off so we can stay for a while and-” Praxia received a text message from Prism asking if Silver was okay. A smile crossed her muzzle. “You know, I think Prism would like to join us, what do you say?” “That’d be great! I’ll make the call.” Twilight lounged at her desk with a steaming cup of tea held aloft in her magic. It’s coy scent teased her nose as she sipped. The office was only marginally lit so she could watch the storm outside. It’s been ages since I’ve seen actual rain. It’s quite beautiful.. Leaning against a nearby wall, stood Spike as he munched on some fish bacon and pancakes. Being an adult, he no longer required a regular source of gemstones, yet he still wishfully imagined having an opal or a fire ruby to munch on. “Twilight, I’ve been thinking about that artifact you found.” “You and half the colony I’d imagine,” she replied while taking a scone from the desk. “A fair assessment,” he conceded with an amused grunt. “But I think we shouldn’t just let sleeping dogs lie. We should start gathering as many as we can as soon as we can.” Twilight raised a curious eyebrow at him before finishing her scone. “This wouldn’t happen to be about the griffins and minotaurs would it?” Spike tsked. She reads me too damn well. “Exactly. Let’s say for the moment that they don’t find any living native sapients, just the artifacts they left behind. You know as well as I do that old habits die hard. I bet my bottom bit that either one or both of them would try to weaponize those thing.” Twilight simply nodded slowly as she mulled over it, giving Spike a chance to continue. “My last intelligence report before leaving Equis said that debates were going on in both the Confederation and the Empire as to who would lead the Seed ships here.” “Yes, I know of them.” Twilight’s mood soured deeply “A toss up between Iron Beak and Grunhilda for the Empire, and a three way divide with Rolling Barrage, Undaunted Drive, and Steel Shoulder. I’m not exactly fond of any of them.” “Uh huh. Which is precisely why we should prepare ourselves. I wouldn’t put it past most of them to tack on a fusion bomb or ten on their Seeds and drop them on us before making planetfall.” “One can only hope they could move past such barbarism.” Twilight huffed and started reviewing the colony’s security and woefully lacking military strength against such a threat. Spike kept himself busy with eating his food while waiting for the other shoe to drop. “But we’ve learned our lesson.” A thought struck Twilight and she pulled up the latest findings the geologists had created on the pink floating rocks. “These things might be quite useful. Spike, I want you to find a way to use these…. Floatstones to have a defense screen. According to this,” she pushed the information on the stones over to Spike’s display. “They have a much higher potential weight capacity than cloudstone.” “Looks promising,” Spike said absently, since his mind was only partially onboard with the idea of using untested rocks. “What I’m more worried about is what they’ll do to any natives. Let’s say the satellites manage to find any intelligent life, the minotaurs would probably enslave them and the griffons would hunt them for sport and food.” Twilight sighed disdainfully, but her irritation was not directed at Spike. “Not all griffins and Minotaurs were like that, Spike.” “Only the ones in power,” Spike countered with undirected hostility. “At least enough of them to matter.” “...I would love to think you’re just clinging to the past, Spike.” Twilight slumped back in her chair and gazed out into the storm. What I wouldn’t give to keep the worst of our troubles limited to just surviving the planet. “Voyager. Have you detected any signs of active intelligent life?” “Negative, Colonial Princess. While I have discovered over fifty sites with the artificial alloys. Closer scrutiny of each location has revealed nothing more than animal life. However, I have detected much higher concentrations of the alloy in several locations under the various oceans. It is possible that a minor extinction event may have occurred in the not too distant past.” Twilight ran the numbers in her head. He’s only had enough time to scan maybe a tenth of the planet so far. “That would be far too many for us to hunt them all down before the griffins showed up. Thank you Voyager.” “Of course, Colonial Princess.” With the AI out of the conversation, Spike spoke after polishing off the last of his bacon. “We still have enough resources to print out a couple of deep-sea submersibles, right?” “We do actually,” Twilight replied with a growing smile. “And to think Luna thought I was going overboard by including them.” Twilight took a moment to giggle at her wordplay. Having nowhere to put his empty plate, Spike simply held onto it. “Let me send a pair to the two closest concentrations of alien alloy then. That might give us a better clue as to what happened with these natives.” “A sound idea. I’ll leave the operation to you then.” “I’ll have a plan worked up by the time the storm’s over.” Spike walked over and gave Twilight a bear hug with Twilight giving one right back. “See you later, Twilight.” “You too, Spike.” With Spike gone and her breakfast finished, Twilight hid the plate under her desk for the moment, and called upon two ponies: the unicorn mare Berry Cake, and the thestral stallion Painted Canvas. Both ponies almost immediately answered her call, causing their holograms to manifest within moments of each other. Both ponies bowed instinctively while Twilight remained at her desk. “Please rise. I have come to a decision about the memorials.” Neither supplicant wanted to look like a fool in front of the other since the princess had kept her own counsel until now. Twilight kept her tone as regal as possible. “I made a promise to Station Commander Weighted Scales that I would honor both his, and Equestria as a whole’s sacrifice with a memorial. It would an extreme disservice to do otherwise.” Berry Cake risked giving Painted Canvas a smug grin, though tried and failed to mask it from Twilight. “My thoughts exactly, your highness. Everyone of them is a hero to us all.” “Indeed.” Twilight stated with projected empathy. “Nevertheless, we must stay focused, and honor their sacrifice by thriving on our new home.” Twilight had two lists materialize in front of the two ponies, depicting a long list of ponies that scrolled by too quickly for either of them to read any names. “The colony’s mental health counselors sent me those lists of ponies suffering from homesickness and survivor’s guilt in varying severity. In light of this, I can’t allow a memorial that would remind everypony at least twice a day that we left everypony else we ever knew to either a frozen fate, or to go on a ship with the other princesses.” Berry Cake wilted and hung her head a little. “I guess his idea would better serve you, then your highness.” “I’m glad we’re in agreement,” Twilight stated firmly, yet with enough empathy to keep Berry’s mode from sinking too far. Painted Canvas flashed a smug grin and stepped forward. “If I may say, your majesty, I knew you were wise beyond your years.” Twilight directed a supremely deadpanned look at him. “I think I’ll just take that compliment at face value. Go ahead and get to work, Mister Canvas. I want it up as quickly as you can, without cutting corners of course.” “Cutting corners?!” Canvas asked completely flummoxed and scoffed at the very notion. “This will be my legacy for the ages. I wouldn’t dream of delivering anything but the absolute best! I shall not rest until it is done, your majesty.” “Good to hear. If you have nothing else, you may go.” Twilight raised a waiting hoof at Berry Cake before she could disconnect the call. As soon as Painted Canvas’ hologram vanished, Twilight addressed the sullin mare with her trademark regal warmth. “I meant what I said about wanting to honor those we left behind, Miss Cake. While the Pathfinders may be getting the rover hub, I want you to redesign your memorial to Equestria into an exterior monument. Something that can be placed in a plaza or park.” “Thank you, Princess,” Berry Cake said with relieved reverence. She cracked a happy grin as new ideas raced through her mind. “I’ll be sure to make the monument somewhat mobile for when we eventually redesign the capital. How does something with a traditional Canterlotian flare to it sound?” “An excellent idea. If you need more of that pink floating stone, I'll have one of the resource collection teams made available to you.” “You honor me, Princess. I’ll be sure to rework it to make the viewer’s catharsis a bit more… positive.” “Excellent.” With a dismissive gesture from Twilight, Berry Cake disappeared after giving one final bow, leaving Twilight to her work. Roughly half an hour passed when the door chime rang, pulling Twilight from a tantalizing geological report. “Enter.” The door whisked open to reveal Doctor Sawbones with a long white box in his magic. “Good afternoon, Colonial Princess, am I interrupting anything?” “Nothing that can’t wait a few minutes, doctor.” Twilight made of a show of closing her personal display with an overhead swipe of her hoof. “What can I do for you?” Sawbones stepped fully into the office, allowing the automatic door to close behind him. He then opened his box and pulled out a single orange rose from the hydroponics bay. “I’d like to ask you to join me this evening in watching ‘The Stalwart Knight’ with me on ring five. The play actors have an otherworldly talent.” Twilight was taken aback by the offer, giving time for Sawbones to reach the desk with flower in tow. “Doctor, I’m - I must admit I’m a bit surprised by the offer.” “Well as chief medical officer, I take pride in caring for the colony. However, with you, I fear you rarely have need for a physician. So how about a friend instead?” He presented the rose to which Twilight giggled behind a hoof and accepted it into her own magic. “Oh how far I’ve fallen as the Princess of Friendship when it is somepony else that has to come to me.” “If I remember the historical records correctly, I believe Dame Rainbow Dash came to you in a much more… impactful manner.” Twilight giggled even stronger than before. “Well to be fair, I wasn’t too keen on friendship back then. I’m surprised you did your homework on me. I didn’t think anypony even read about those days anymore.” Sawbones tsked playfully and wagged a hoof at her. “Nonsense, your highness. As chief medical officer, I made it a point to know your history after being assigned to Seed One. I must say the path to your ascension is a heroic tale fit for a play in and of itself.” Twilight fell smoothly into taking a casual tone with him, something she dearly missed outside of Prism, Praxia, and Spike. “They actually made several movies and plays out of my life, as I’m sure you know. Not one of them were even remotely historically accurate.” “Are they ever?” Twilight and Sawbones shared brief chuckles. “Oh they get the important bits right from time to time. As for your offer, I would love to join you.” Sawbones’ face lit up with a wide smile, and he dipped into a low bow. “You shalln’t regret it, your highness.” “Please, just call me Twilight.” “As you wish, Twilight. I’ll see you there at ten tonight.” “I look forward to it, Sawbones.” With that, he waved goodbye at her before leaving the office. Twilight watched him depart before turning her eyes to the rose. It spun slowly in her magic as she thought about his offer. Sometimes old girl, you have to let them come to you. With no vase to put it in, Twilight opted to eat the flower, thoroughly enjoying the familiar taste of friendship. Much later Silver and Prism flew through the open doors into Pathfinder HQ. Ruby and the others were already sitting at the small collection of built-in benches with the engineers also present. Ruby waved them down. “Hurry up! The sooner we get this briefing over the sooner the engine boys can get to work.” “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Prism yelled, her mood refusing to sour at Ruby’s gruff tone in light of the massage parlor she just left. “Talk to you later,” Silver called while he joined the rest of the engineers standing or hovering behind the pathfinders. Prism swooped down, landing heavily onto the chair nearest Ruby and gave her a snarky look. “So what’s on the agenda on this fine rainy day?” “Fresh orders, in case that wasn’t obvious,” Ruby deadpanned before addressing the rest of the team. “And they come straight from on high, so don’t bother me with any griping,” Ruby directed more at Featherbeard than anyone else. “Due to findings from the lackluster expedition earlier this week, the brass want us to start hunting down these alien artifacts pronto." Featherbeard grumbled in spite of her comment. “Last I checked the patch on my uniform said Pathfinder, not dirt digger.” He shared a sour look with Ruby before downing the last of his soda can and crushing it. “We’re not going to be the ones digging it up anymore,” Ruby briefly glanced at Featherbeard who growled approvingly and at Prism who had lost her grin. “Commander Spike simply wants us to go to all the locations ID’ed by the satellite: assess any and all local threats, use ground scanners to map out the extent of any ruins, and move on. It will be up to Command which ones we secure, ignore, or scuttle.” Firefly had been lounging on the sofa, taking up several cushions when Ruby’s last comment made him sit up in surprise. “Wait, why would we destroy alien artifacts? Sure the last one was nasty, but we can still learn a lot from them right? I know a guy who would give his left leg for one.” Featherbeard was more annoyed than anything else. “Why are we needed for this job at all? We brought along a team of archaeologists didn’t we?” Prism subconsciously slipped into a mild lecture mode of speech. “They were brought along more to keep living knowledge of the field alive more so than an immediate direct need for them. Plus mom believes in being prepared.” Featherbeard scoffed at Prism while Ruby barged back into the conversation before it could run away on her. "The archaeologists also don't have the same level of hazard training that we do. As far as we’re concerned, they’re lab coats who aren’t afraid to get dirty. They need at least a few squads for protection where as we can slip in without overly disturbing the wildlife,” Ruby eyed Prism. “Most of the time at least.” Featherbeard grumbled and waved her off, but made no further argument. The rest of the pathfinders groaned with far less gruff, allowing her to finish. “Now. The primary reason we’re scuttling some of them is to keep them out of Griffin and minotaurs’ hands, and I for one am in complete agreement.” A round of surly affirmatives rang out from both the pathfinders and the engineers. “We don’t need them weaponizing any when they eventually discover them.” With the group more or less in agreement for the reasoning behind the new mission plan, Ruby moved on by bringing up a list of orders on her display and swiping them to everyone else's. “Prism, since you seem to be such a mare of firsts, you get to be the one to search the first underwater location.” “Aw come on, I hated underwater training!” Prism growled while swinging a hoof at Firefly. “Why not send him instead? He’s practically a fish.” Ruby fixed her with a smug grin. “Oh don’t worry. He’s going too. The rest of us are going after land targets.” Right in the corner of Prism’s eye, she could see Firefly giving her bedroom eyes while mouthing the song ‘Under the Sea’. “Now, all of you have the details in your orders. I want all of you ready to move the moment the storm breaks. Firefly, Prism, you two get some extra time off until the engineers assemble the subs, so go have fun.” Ruby smirked at Prism, keeping an otherwise professional tone. “While you can at least. Scout drones have spotted some whale sized fauna down there.” The pathfinders broke up to prepare their gear while Prism remained in her seat fuming so hard at Ruby that Silver and Firefly could almost see steam. Silver flew over and gave her an apologetic shrug. “Well it could be worse. The subs we have on file aren’t nearly as claustrophobic as the ones you had during training.” “Psh, yeah. I could be stuck with a snorkel and flippers.” Firefly elbowed Silver after seeing how causal Silver was with Prism. “I don’t see why you have such a problem with it, PF, you got two giant flippers on your back as it is, am I right?” Prism’s ire shifted to Firefly and his teasing. “All ya gotta do is get mommy dearest to enchant those feathers for the water.” “One more word and I’mma smack you something fierce.” Prism waved her hoof at him for good measure. “You better thank the stars we’re not actually going in the same sub. I still need to get you back for that itching powder in my suit!” Firefly cackled at the memory. “The classics are the best, right? I still have you spazzing out on video, here let me share it.” Silver interposed himself between them before Prism could march up and slug Firefly. “Come on, Prism, you know Firefly. He’s just a prankster that’s all.” “You’re fun when you’re angry you know that?” Firefly winked at her before turning to leave. “Silver! Tell that lazy engineer of mine to include that massage chair I like in my sub. Don’t let him use some lame excuse about not wanting to alter the blueprint.” “I’ll pass the word,” Silver called out to his friend as Firefly made his way to the exit. Already the room was getting crowded with noise as the other engineers started retooling the rovers or moving Prism and Firefly’s rovers into storage while wall-mounted lifts brought in the prefabricated sections of the mini-subs. Stupid water, stupid Ruby, and stupid sub! Stupid thing is too cramped. Prism wanted nothing more than to kick something. “Sorry bout him, Prism. His sense of humor is just…. Different.” Silver gave the irate mare an awkward smile in a failed attempt to lighten the mood. “Yeah, well forget him and Ruby. Just lemme know when you’re done with the sub so I can get started on my checklist.” “It’ll be a couple of weeks at best,” Silver said cautiously. “Our printers aren’t as big as the ones back on Equis. You could always go out on your own to see the land in the meantime.” “Hmmm, might not be such a bad idea,” she conceded after a few moments thought. “Well have fun watching the printer build a sub while I twiddle my hooves waiting for the storm to clear.” “Can do,” Silver replied cheerily with a snappy salute. “See you later tonight maybe?” Not like I can do much else. “Sure thing, call it a date if you like. I’m off to go do… something worth my time.” With a resounding gruff of immense irritation, Prism departed to go drown her sorrows in virtual reality. Much later that night, Twilight Sparkle and Sawbones sat towards the front of the audience with a sunken stage in front them. Sadly, there was no room to pack the troupe’s props or costumes, but thankfully they were able to share what they would have had through everyone’s personal display. The actors were currently on an old wooden water ship crashing through the waves with holographic water splashing upon the closest members of the audience. A storm raged above with thunder and lightning crash all around the whole cargo bay. The dozen ponies on stage yelled to each other over the storm to save the ship from flooding. Twilight watched on in excitement as the age old tale was retold anew. The main protagonist, the surly peg legged earth pony captain barked orders to his crew. “Keep your hooves about ye lads! This storm be the work of sea ponies!” A particularly large wave seemed to swell up with a blue pony with flippers instead of wings poked halfway out. “Foalish land dwellers. The sea and its bounty belongs to us! Leave our waters or drown in your greed!” Twilight pried her eyes away from the action to wrap a wing around Sawbones. He in turn gently leaned against her and gave a lopsided grin before turning back to the play. Perhaps this can be something more than just friendship. Twilight mused happily to herself.