StarChaser

by StarChaser01

Chapter 8: Minor Complications

StarChaser was woken up by the sound of Dubstep.

“Damn it, stop dropping the bass, you’re going to break it,” he mumbled sleepily.

“Fine…” came the response right after the music stopped.

“How’s the processing of the data going?”

“I have finished processing the data collected from yesterday.”

“So, the matrix should be working better today?”

“Yes, the Agent Smiths in the code should be doing a better job.”

“Agent Who’s?” StarChaser asked, very confused.

"Oh, nopony important Mr. Anderson."

StarChaser just looked in the general direction of the AI core with a look of confusion before a rather energetic knocking at the door cut off further conversation.

“Well, someone’s excited,” StarChaser mentioned. “Activate translation matrix.”

“Translation matrix activated.”

“Come in!” StarChaser called out.

As soon as the doors opened, he came under assault by the pinkest thing he had ever seen.

“Hi I’m -no word, assumed to be a name-! What’s your name? OOO! Let me -no word, given context, assumed to mean ‘guess’-! Is it Blacky? How about Starry? Nighty? Darky? Why are you looking at me like that? OOO! That’s a cool -no word, processors overloaded-!”

The proximity detectors automatically deployed the visor almost as soon as the pink thing went right up to his face.

Backing up, StarChaser could see that the pink thing was actually a very pink Earth Pony. Apparently it was in a sugar rush or something.

It was at this point that the AI spoke up.

“Error, system overload, external stimuli will be discarded until systems have returned to normal.”

“Well damn, congratulations, you just broke an AI,” StarChaser tried to tell the pink one, but judging from the look he was getting the translation matrix was also disabled.

Taking the opportunity, StarChaser looked around at the other ponies that had entered the room.

There was an orange Earth Pony with a hat on, a blue Pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail, a yellow Pegasus was hiding behind the rainbow one, and there was a white Unicorn that reminded StarChaser of a certain Unicorn that he despised…

Mentally shaking his head, he noticed that the pink pony had just been silenced by the Alicorn and the other ponies were trying to introduce themselves. As his helmet was still recovering, StarChaser couldn’t understand a word they said but he could gather a few things about them.

The Pink one was hyperactive, the orange one was practical yet polite, the white one seemed to be a little over polite, and may have said something about his helmet, the yellow one was very shy, and the rainbow one seemed to be sizing him up, maybe she thought he was a spy or something?

---

“Sir, I have recovered from the overload and am ready to resume the translation matrix, so long as ‘The Pink One’ doesn’t start talking again…” The AI finally stated.

“Resume translation matrix,” StarChaser quickly commanded.

“Resuming…”

“Sorry, I couldn’t understand you, that one,” StarChaser pointed to the Pink pony, “Overloaded my helmet.”

“Oh my –no word, assumed to be something along the lines of ‘gosh’- I’m so sorry that –assumed to be the Pink pony’s name- almost broke your helmet!” the Alicorn said.

“It’s all right, it shut down before any permanent damage could be done. So, what were their names?”

“Oh! Well, this is Apple-no word, assumed to be the second half of the Orange pony’s name-,” the Alicorn pointed to the orange pony, “this is Rainbow Dash -‘Rainbow’ and ‘Dash’ might be supposed to be one word, unsure at this point-,” she pointed to the rainbow colored one, “This is -no words, as with the other two, is a combination of two words-,” she said as she pointed to the pink one, “this is -no word, note; this name seems to only contain one word-,” she pointed to the white one, “and this is -no words-,” she said as she pointed to the yellow one.

As she was saying the names of each of her friends, StarChaser nodded to each of them in turn.

“You never said your name,” she said suddenly.

“Pause translation,” StarChaser quickly commanded.

“Translation paused, and no, neither “Star” nor “Chaser” have a translated counterpart as of yet,” the AI responded.

“Darn, resume translation.”

“Translation resumed.”

“Sorry, but my helmet does not have the words yet,” StarChaser told the Alicorn.

“Oh,” she seemed disappointed.

They all were starting to leave when suddenly the pink pony started bouncing up and down.

“Ooo Ooo! Can he come to -no word, seems to contain the word ‘pony’-?” she cried while bouncing in midair, defying all known physics in the process.

“I doubt that he likes being -no word, assumed to have a similar meaning to ‘caged’, or ‘trapped’- up for so long!” the rainbow one agreed.

“I don’t quite know what you’re talking about, but if it involves me being able to stretch my wings and fly I won’t complain,” StarChaser interjected.

“Well, I don’t see the problem with that, besides he would be closer by so no need to travel here for -no word, assumed to mean something similar to ‘research’ or ‘study’-” the Alicorn mused.

“-no word, assumed to be the Alicorn’s name/title- dear, I think that -error, internal power supply low, rest of sentence has been lost-“ the white one said.

Because his helmet had gone into power saver mode, StarChaser didn’t know what was said, but he gathered that they wanted him to go somewhere but the language barrier and his helmet’s power loss were preventing them from asking him.

---

“Power restored, diagnosis in progress to determine reason for power loss,” StarChaser read as his helmet rebooted, “Well that’s just great!”

“Diagnosis complete, I’m back!” the AI cheerfully stated.

“Good, now what happened?”

“It seems that I have depleted the local field in this room by drawing from it so much…”

“But isn’t that impossible? Wouldn’t the field just recharge itself?” StarChaser asked, utterly confused.

“Under normal circumstances, yes, but like a battery, as it depletes the amount that can be drawn at a time decreases, and the amount that I was drawing dropped below the amount that I was using. I didn’t deplete it as much as drained it. It will probably be fully healed within the month if we move to a different part of the field.”

“Huh, learn something every day,” StarChaser muttered. “Can you resume the translation matrix without straining your energy reserves?”

“Yes I can, however I will have to relocate the processing power so other issues may arise, please wait while I save and quit to title.”

“…Okay?”

“Done, translation matrix activated.”

“Sorry about that, my helmet ran out of power,” StarChaser told the Alicorn.

“Oh, I was wondering what happened there. Wait, ran out of power? How did it get power then?” she asked.

“It draws on the field, after a while the field in a specific area gets overused so I have to move to a different location for it to recharge fast enough, I don’t know how long it will last until it runs out of power again.”

“So... what should we do?”

“You could give me a tour of this place…” StarChaser suggested.

---

“You are making a map of this place, right?” StarChaser asked as he was lead into yet another hallway.

“Yes, and right now I’m conserving power by having the matrix be one way unless needed,” the AI replied.

“Speaking of power, is the field here better?”

“Much.”

“Good.”

It was at this point that he was lead into a hallway with stain glass windows depicting a strange mismatch of a creature holding what appeared to be a long loaf of bread as a sword.

StarChaser looked at the weird picture, then at his ‘guides’ who looked amused for some reason, then back at the picture.

It had moved.

“Run a scan on that window; tell me if you find anything unusual.”

“Already found something strange, it seems that there is an impossibly large energy source inside the window.”

Before StarChaser had a chance to reply the picture sneezed; then looked right at him.

“Hello, what do we have here?”

“… What?”

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay, but the next delay will probably be longer. College started this week for me...

So, comment on what you liked, didn't like, or just thoughts about the story as a whole, I'll read them all!

As usual, if you're going to dislike this story please explain why in the comment section below.

Comments

[Slayer 10321]

Awesome matrix reference!!!!

[AzureShark]

Update please! I verry much would like to see what happens next. :3

[StarChaser01]

5035946 I want to, but it's approtching midterm in college and... well...
"oh ho ho, you like doing things other than studying? Well FUCK YOU! You're a college student now!"

[I_am_catkid]

Cool