Ad posterum, ad aeternitatem
Pilot’s Log
Date: 04/27/2406
Station Time: 10:31
The emotions from last night hung in the air, considering that the entire station was mostly glass and the constant reminder of what had befallen the planet was always just beyond that glass. Staff members attempted to continue to perform their duties admirably, heads always remained high for as long as they could support it but there were still many groups of creatures along the walls and tucked into the corners, all openly weeping. I couldn’t blame them, we’d all just lost our home for the foreseeable future.
I, well I trudged forward for a lack of better word, from the landing pad where I’d just parked the custom Wyvern that Vinyl had left behind to Twilight’s office. I was still a Griffon, no changing that while Luna was holed up in storage looking over the remaining Equestrians with her sister. I would be with her at the moment, but Celestia had suggested that I go check on the other seven equestrians still awake and see how they fared.
So that’s what I was doing.
I lumbered up to the tiny door, my shadow cast on it from the lighting behind and beside me on both sides. I stared down at the door half my size and sighed.
I pressed the call button and the door chimed. Nothing happened so I tried again, chiming the door but with no answer. I connected my wrist computer to the door to see if Twilight was actually in her office, and according to the small machine she was.
“Twilight, I’m coming in.” I called in a low, somber voice before overriding the door lock with my personal code. The doors slid open and I stuffed myself through.
The defeatist look on Twilight’s face as she rested on her desk while idly rolling around a small stress ball with a hoof struck out at me even before I noticed that she was still actively, though silently, crying.
“Tia asked that I come check on how you’re doing.” I explained and to lower my profile and save myself a headache from bashing my head against the light hanging over her desk, lowered myself down before her desk and got comfortable.
“Pilot,” Twilight frowned and sucked back a couple tears and a noseful of mucus. “Or, Nova, whatever you’re calling yourself now, I just lost my planet. How do you think I’m doing?” she didn’t even give me the courtesy of looking at me as she bit off my head.
“I know exactly how you’re doing. You’re doing the exact same as everything else on this station. Honestly, if we didn’t have work to do, I’d probably curl up with Luna and cry with her.” I replied, crossing my arms on the desk and lightly perched my head upon those. “I may not have lost Earth, but I’m a man almost three hundred years out of time. I understand feeling lost in an infinite universe with nothing to go back to, no place to call home.” I explained, apparently softening Twilight’s face a bit but didn’t quell the tears considering she just sucked back another round of snot.
“But,” I continued, Twilight’s right ear flicking towards me for once as she afforded me real attention. “You have to remember what this project is about. It’s about finding and building a new home for everyone. A new planet to return to.”
“I know…” Twilight turned from her side and mimicked my form once she’d crossed her hooves under her chin as well, though she still wasn’t looking at me. “We knew this day would come. I just… I thought it’d be easier.” she mumbled and buried her muzzle behind her forehooves.
“Witnessing the death of billions will never be easy, no matter how prepared you are.” I gave back in return, accompanying a sigh. Twilight remained quiet but seemed to have taken the words at face value.
“Can…” she started up again in the tiniest, little voice I’d ever barely heard. She could’ve given Fluttershy a run for her money in terms of decibel level. She looked up at me face to face, fur around her snout matted wet. “Can I have a hug?”
I chuckled weakly and sat myself upright. “Sure thing, come here.” I replied and opened my arms wide while remaining lying down for ease of access. Twilight dropped down from her chair and rounded past, wiping off her face with a wing before leaping up into my embrace.
She was very nearly off her hooves entirely once I firmly had her, but the little alicorn didn’t seem all that bothered by that fact and was more than content to just hang there and cry into my neck.
Eventually she pulled her head away, signalling me to set her down again and let her collect herself and to also let me clean myself off.
“Thanks, Nova. I appreciate it.” Twilight pulled in a heavy breath and let it out slowly, still wiping at her face with her wings.
“You’re welcome.” I nodded back and stood not quite to my fullest height considering the ceiling. “Can I ask that you continue to perform your duties admirably until we’re done here?”
“Of course, yes.” Twilight nodded back affirmatively and slowly paced back to her desk and hopped up on her desk chair to get started. “Thanks for coming by, it’s just what I needed.”
“It’s what I do.” I shrugged back with a smirk and turned to make my entrance. Stopping at the door, I turned my head back towards Twilight. “It won’t get easier, it won’t necessarily get better, but remember that you’ll be all the stronger for overcoming this with everyone else.”
“I’ll remember that.” Twilight nodded back before moving to her stacks of pages. “See you later.” I nodded back to that and stepped through the door and let it close behind me.
~~~
The command deck was almost eerily quiet. Only a skeleton crew remained from last night’s debacle and even the atmosphere suggested that those currently present would rather be anywhere but here. Of the primary bridge officers, only Rainbow Dash actually appeared to be here, if her hetero-chromatic mane was any sort of sign.
“Dash?” I called, alerting everyone in the room to my presence and had them all snap to attention before I put them back at whatever form of ease they could muster up. Dash seemed to be the only one ignoring me as she didn’t even turn to greet me, instead remained facing forward to her console.
I approached her station, ignoring the few sniffles from the other officers and stepped up alongside her chair. Remarkably, she was completely asleep at her station with her console on automatic to prevent most fuck-ups. At least she was considerate enough to prepare ahead.
I turned to a commanding officer in the room and raised a claw to snap my talons together and get his attention. “How long has Dash been here?”
“She was here and working up a storm when I went on shift four hours ago. I don’t think she’s taken a break since yesterday.” He reported before going back to the clipboard in his claws and returned to the holographic table in the middle of the room.
“Thanks.” I nodded back and returned to Rainbow Dash. “Get a replacement for her up here asap, I’m taking her to her room.” I commanded, earning a ‘Yes Sir’ from the commander. Crouching down, I slid my hands under Rainbow’s forelegs and lifted her into my embrace like I would a toddler. Shifting to actually carrying her like one, I moved into the elevator and took the short trip down without disturbing the sleeping pegasus on my shoulder.
Once the doors to the car opened and I stepped out, I shifted Rainbow so I could free up a hand and operate a nearby wall computer and fire up the navigation system. I had no idea where Rainbow’s room was so the pulsing rainbow lines on the wall helped quite a bit. Following the line down a couple hallways, I ended up at her room and unlocked the door to step in and set Dash down on her bed.
I must’ve only been in there for a minute before I snuck back out and turned towards the landing pad where I’d parked the Wyvern. I still had five more ponies to see before I ended the day with Luna.
~~~
The gargantuan hulls of the First Harvest and its sister material carrier ships blocked out the light of the sun as I came up for docking. Here should be Applejack and Fluttershy, though Fluttershy was most likely to be on one of the Arks carrying all the animals in cryo. It’d be a simple hop skip and a jump across from the First Harvest to go visit her after AJ.
After achieving docking clearance with the ship’s flight control systems, I pulled myself up and let the docking clamps hold my wyvern in place next to a large catwalk jutting out of a larger frame of metal with similar ships coming and going. Pulling myself out of my craft, I engaged my jetpack and floated from the vessel to the catwalks before engaging the mag-boots I wore to hold me down.
Navigating the ship with help from the ship’s computers and the line system, it only took me half an hour of walking to reach Applejack’s location: one of the four massive storage areas.
The cargo doors slid open and I stepped in, disengaging my mag-boots once I had confirmed the gravity in the cargo bay was good.
“Applejack!” I called out once I’d pulled my helmet off and hung it on my hip.
“Over here sugarcube!” Applejack’s cracking voice called back from a massive pile of Deadtech cargo boxes stacked three stories high or higher. It’s a good thing the rest of the bay was basically dead silent, otherwise I’d have never heard her or been able to pinpoint her precise location.
Tracking her down was simple once I remembered that I had wings and could fly over most of the boxes rather than taking the long way around on foot/claw/paw/whatever.
I skimmed over a couple of boxes to come across a small clearing, only a hundred feet in circumference, with a strangely glowing tree having been uprooted and transplanted onto the ship for the duration of the trip. Apparently this single tree was responsible for generating the magic for every single race on the now dead planet, including the magic that allowed me flight.
Surprisingly me, I landed in a small group of very familiar ponies all sat around the tree or laid out in silent mourning. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Sunset Shimmer were all present, as well as other creatures I couldn’t singularly name.
“Girls, I came to see how you were all doing.” I announced and laid myself down near to the girls and let them crowd in around me.
“It’s… it’s hard, you know?” Applejack sighed back, her voice lacking in that typical hardness that she was so well known for. Her words were remarkably soft spoken, a true testament to how she, and the rest, were actually feeling. “We knew this day was comin’ for a while now…”
“Yet we never truly expected to outlive the very planet we were born on.” Rarity agreed with a slow nod before laying herself down on her blanket, resting her head on her hooves. “I don’t even want to begin trying to imagine how many ponies I knew who were left behind…”
“It’s probably better you don’t try.” I agreed solemnly and let Sunset gradually crawl across the floor towards me so that she could lean into me for support. “Honestly, I don’t even have any advice for you all with this…”
“What kind of advice could there possibly be to make any of this better?” Fluttershy asked quietly, her voice just as soft as it usually was, provoking me to wonder if she was actually saddened at all, but the steadily flowing tears confirmed that she was, indeed, just as morose as everyone else.
“There really isn't any. Not that I know of, anyways.” I shook my head and spread my wings out, my right wing ending up draped over Sunset’s back. The other girls all shared a look amongst themselves, then with me before scooting under my wings as well and cuddling up. “All I can tell you is that now we’re that much closer to loading up the last of us and leaving all this behind.”
“We’re finally gonna get stuck in storage too?” Applejack mumbled, probably to me and the others as we all stared at the Tree of Harmony, but it sounded like she was asking herself only.
“Not just yet. I want all of you wake and present for when we do take off. Figure the Bearers of the Elements should be awake with their princesses when we leave.”
“I would prefer that as well, allow me to make my final goodbyes, as it were.” Rarity agreed and inched herself closer into Applejack who in turn made room for the pony.
“What’s all left to do then?” Fluttershy asked timidly from next to Sunset on my right.
“Not much. We’ve just gotta finish loading the remains of the other races into cryo, finish building the colony ships and then get the pods loaded. I give it… another week and a half or so of hard work.” I explained, giving a vague idea of what was next to come.
“If it’s alright with you all,” Sunset peered out around me at the girls and then to myself. “But would you four please stay with me here for a while? I… don’t really want to be alone right now.”
“I’ve got nothing else to do. I’ll go see Pinkie later.” I shrugged back and lowered myself down so I was totally lying flat and got comfortable. The girls all did the same and got comfortable under my wings.
~~~
Pilot’s log, final entry before departure.
Date: 05/13/2406
Time: 13:14
This is it. A few days behind schedule but everything is loaded up and we’re ready to leave for registered space, then, our new homeworld. All non-essential pony personnel have been cryogenically frozen and are in storage until we either need them, or we reach the new world. The entirety of the New Equestria colony ship is either in storage, or on the bridge with me.
Present: Princesses Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence. Also present: bridge crew consisting of the remainder of the Wonderbolts who’ve been stationed on the New Equestria. The remainder of the Wonderbolts have been stationed as bridge crews across all other colony ships. Finally, Rainbow Dash as helmspony next to Spitfire. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Sunset Shimmer are present as guests.
Soarin remains on comms, waiting for the first data packages to come in once we exit Limited Space and I return to Registered Space for the first time in… almost a year.
“Well?” Celestia looked to me from my right while I shifted around in the Captain’s seat. “Any final words?”
“Yes, something inspiring perhaps?” Luna requested, her hoof resting in my claw on my left though she turned more towards me hopefully.
“Maybe, but I don’t know how inspiring it’ll actually end up being.” I shrugged back, aiming the response to my fiance. Turning to my seat’s console, I opened up a fleet wide communication.
Waiting until Soarin had confirmed that I was broadcasting to all seventy-something ships, I took a deep breath.
“To begin with a human saying from my world, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your Fleet Admiral speaking on board the New Equestria to all ships listening. Today is a momentous day, one that will remain forever locked in the annals of our history as the remnants of the planet behind us. Today is the day we set out and embark on our journey to find us all a new home.
“This day has not come without pain and suffering. In every sense of the term, we’ve all lost countless things, people and memories in the goal to survive your planet. By no means does today mark the end of this suffering. Fact of the matter is, we’ve only just begun. But, it is through our suffering that future generations will live on. It is through our suffering that our respective races will survive!
“Today marks the end of an era! The Era of Equus! For the next century, we will thrive in the Era of Journey, as dictated by the Princesses and the Council of Races! Today we take flight towards the future! Today, we aim for our new world! We aim for Lux Aeterna!” I let my voice drift off into nothingness, not really sure what left I could say so I went with an old Keen Academy saying: “There’s a saying that humanity has, I figure it kind of fits here. Ad Posterum, Ad Aeternitatem. Means, Forward to the future, Forward to eternity.”
“Sir, all ships are reporting engines fired and primed. We’re just waiting for the go ahead.” Soarin reported, pulling his hoof away from the piece in his ear to look back at me.
“When we break out of Limited Space, start sifting through the lists of Class L planets for a suitable one for us.” Twilight requested back, earning a nod from Soarin before she turned back to me. “Is there anything else?”
To answer her question, “All ships, once we breach into Registered Space, wait for further orders and coordinates from this ship. After that, you’re free to go as you will.” I commanded before drawing in a deep breath with the image of the dead planet now behind us. “Goddammit, I had something cool for this last command but now I’ve lost it…” I cursed myself under my breath, earning a small chuckle from the girls around me.
“So, something simple then, dear?” Luna suggested with a tilted head towards the front of the bridge. I calmed my mind down to four simple words.
“Fuck it, punch it!” I commanded from my seat.
“Aye sir, fucking it!” Rainbow smirked and pushed down hard on the throttle. The engines of the ship whined in response and the starscape before us began to move into our vision, steadily turning into small blurs of light. The other ships all did the same, following after the flagship of the fleet and kept pace.
Soon enough, the blurring became a constant streak of lights as we gained speed and neared to the edge of this tiny little pocket universe.
“Sir, I think we’re nearing the edge of Limited Space!” somepony shouted from behind me and turned everyone’s attention to the screen before us all. The colours began to shift to those in Rainbow’s mane and then some before ripples of light began pulsing over the ship’s hull. The engines began to scream louder as the workload grew heavier, but they held fast and continued our punch through reality itself.
All of a sudden, the starscape ended and all that was left was blackness. All sense of motion ceased, all lights dancing outside the ship were gone. It was as though we had moved into Oblivion itself. Even sound seemed to have gone as I turned towards Luna, and then Celestia, both of which seemed to be moving in slow motion and completely silently despite their moving lips. Even Pinkie, upon inspection, seemed to be having a hard time with being forced to remain completely silent.
Then, it all came back in like a tidal wave. A single, solitary explosion of colour erupted around our ships as sound returned full force and assaulted our ears all at once. The screaming of the engines, the yelling of the ponies on the bridge, the very sound of my own heart. All of it, all at once.
The sounds all died off as one by one, everyone’s eyes turned to the screens in awe, even Pinkie going silent as she too looked upon the future.
The expanse of space before us, nebulas in green and reds and blue off in the far distance and stars and suns around those. The rest of space was… expectedly empty and to say that you could see no end was an understatement. There was no end to see.
Opening a channel across all ships one last time with Luna’s hoof firmly grasped in my claw and a grin on my face, “Welcome, everyone, to the Galaxy.”
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Gonna be honest: Clicked this story at the beginning because Space Engineers and changeling tag (I think it had it had it at the beginning? Or I'm just losing it), but stayed for the intriguing story.
Very well written, and kept me looking forward to a new chapter! Looking forward to the "sequel", too, seems like a fun idea!
I like this! Now if only Star Trek was this good............
Chapter 6:
*"everything they could"
*"nothing to it"
That's as far as I've read, and I'm enjoying it thus far.
So thanks for that.
nice!!!!
7942456 Just Discord, you don't need Space Engineers, or knowledge about Star Trek, but either either will help in the long run. It will be much like a pen and paper rpg, but without having to worry about checks or rolling or anything like that. Rules will be discussed at a later date when I've got my starting players.
Eh im up at 0400 hrs i guess i will read while i prep my uniform for the day.
7948615 No, they were wearing dresses.
7947480 hmm? Your what? Do you have an AI squirreled away somewhere also?
7962345 There is a difference. An AI, or Artificial Intelligence is, in leyman's terms, sentient digital life. Capable of forming it's own thoughts and opinions, capable of forming it's own wants and needs. This is why it's theoretically so dangerous for AI to exist, if a hyper-intelligent being like an AI suddenly decided that it no longer needed humans, how are we supported to defend ourselves? It's as smart as it wants to be.
A VI, or Virtual Intelligence, is a program with algorithms designed to recognize patterns and replicate them. Statement A is most likely supposed to be responded with answer B. Question E is most likely supposed to be answered with answer Y. They respond to specific stimulus and input, giving predetermined responses in kind. It's like a digital map of a large shopping mall. "You are here, where would you like to go?" "I need new shoes." "Here is a list of all the open shoe stores in the building, and here's how you find them." You can't ask it if it thinks shoe store A is better than shoe store B. You try and ask it that, it'll just throw up ratings for the stores. It can't make decisions for itself.
Regards to the Xenon thing: yes, I know, I'm a chemistry idiot, I got it. Got the idea from another story, rolled with it and apparently my Noble Gas selection has damned me.
7962379 I do agree about that ignition part however the light show part is what I was focusing on when I typed that <Insert time> ago.
Amazing series it was great although I have one question
WHERE IS DISCORD THE ENTIRE SERIES!!!
Well, must admit -- that one has literally touched my heart. I've been working in an aerospace design bureau myself, after all. I especially liked how much small, but cool details there are in this fic of yours. It really reminded me of an old Soviet movie called "The Mystery of the Third Planet". Don't have any idea, why. So keep on writing -- you definetely have a proper spirit.
P.S. -- Quite ironically, I've finished reading this story just at the 12'th of April. Happy Cosmonautics Day, I guess.
8090737 Well thank you. It's cool to see all kinds of people in all kinds of professions regarding to space travel read this and see what they have to say. It's quite rewarding considering all the mistakes I make due to lack of research or gaps in intelligence.
What was all that about Limited Space? So Equus was contained in a pocket dimension?
8129292 Basically, yes. Held there by old Equuic magic.
I think the removal of text describing the essential playing of Space Engineers was a good thing for this story. It would be terribly dull to read a playthrough of a game. The dreamscape sequence was out of place and felt like a shameless plug of another work of yours, whether true or not. At several points I felt the story was rushed; versus black-outs to cut the text of construction down significantly, I felt that some details were left out. Details such as construction crew organization plans, and generally actually ordering things be done even if it weren't by any focus characters; I feel we blacked-out more than just menial tasks. So what if other people are dying with the planet? You seem to have glossed over the parents / grandparents of the focus characters, or did you forget that they would be counter-productive to colonization efforts? Yes, it would be hard to write a reaction from the focus characters to the logical decision, but if you permit their elders, and their seniors, and their seniors, then you multiplied the survivors who are ineffective to the efforts to survive by a rather large number. I specifically refer to Granny Smith. What about Big Mac? How'd Applejack react? The others? You used the catchall "our planet is gone and people we know are dead" so it's all very dull.
Good stuff, comparably. +1. Not sure how to categorize it on my bookshelf though.
I gotta say, you almost lost me for a while there, but I’m glad I stayed on. Your plot development skills seem like they shaped up a bit- Still could use some work, in my opinion, but I found fewer and fewer direct plot holes, developments that felt out of place, and events that skipped around. Even some of the technical impossibilities I pointed out got rectified (And that’s even cooler, because I posted long after this story finished, heh), like the thing with 12 people not being enough for genetic diversity. All in all, I am going to drop a like after all, and I hope you continue to improve. Well done.
9175705
Why thank you. I openly acknowledge that I have much to improve upon in my writing, so pointing out what needs work is rather helpful.
9175305
I understand that lack of drive; it’s why my favorite stories that I write are lounging on the sidelines still after over a year. I’m still working on improving that myself. A few ideas of things to try, but nothing I’ve been able to test yet, too busy.
10233399
No, they're not. At least, they're not supposed to be.
Filthy Heretic.
A Space Engineers and MLP crossover? Gotta admit this is a first, but I am HERE for it.