The Requiem

by Onyxian

Reunion

The male, teenage voice popped up from her right, on the elevated platform. With it, she turned in shock at it’s source, which indeed came from the elevated platform, in one of those chairs, it’s screen as active as the one in front of her. Sitting in it was a slightly smaller male version of whatever they had been turned into. He had shaggy brown hair, with barely any but some strips of dark blue cascading down it’s roots. He had purple eyes and brown eyebrows, with a smirk across his pale face. He wore a grey hoodie with black, obviously used jeans and was staring right down into Twilight’s direction.

“Erm...” Twilight started, unsure of what to say to the stranger. Who is this kid? Why is he here? Are there others?

“One sec,” he said, exiting the chair and making his way towards the ladder connecting the platform she was on and the elevated platform he was on. Climbing down, he touched the ground and skipped just one ladder step, turned around, and walked casually towards Twilight.

“Name’s Ed, short for Edward.” reaching out his hand, he stood quietly as he awaited her response. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do; although shaking hoofs was a formal way of greeting each other back in Equestria, she wasn’t sure it was the exact same way with whatever he was. Well, she suspected Ed wasn’t an Equestrian. This apprehensive pause of silence and the awkwardness of Ed holding out his hand for nothing to shake it caused him to pull it back and reply, “...so,” He walked towards the screen that had been in front of Twilight when she entered, pressing buttons on it that intrigued Twilight’s curiosity. He continued talking as he solemnly typed mysterious readouts onto the created-image. “You remember who you are, right? No loss of memory, no brain-damage?” he turned momentarily to look Twilight in the eye as he finished asking his rather thought-provoking question. Standing quietly did the girl stare, perhaps afraid and confused at the stranger. She was both, and blindly shook her head while mouthing the word ‘no’ to make sure he understood. He smirked again; “Good. I’m glad at least one of the other passengers knows about themselves...”

“Where are-” she stopped herself, almost interrupting Ed during mid-speech. She wanted desperately to know where she was. Judging by the great, wide window in front of them, they weren’t on Equestria, and they weren’t on it’s moon, since both could be seen clearly. Ed stopped his typing in reaction to her sudden fragment of a question. Turning to her, he looked curiously into her eyes, almost scanning and processing her emotions, her thoughts, and her questions. He looked as if he was somewhat of a protector, someone who understood another and made sure they were safe. His purple eyes, identical to hers, dove into her mind gracefully and suddenly. She noticed how the reflection of the sun off the planet was creating a bluish aura around Ed, highlighting those brilliantly lit eyes.

He spoke after a brief period of quietness. “You’re sure you know?” His brows raised in misunderstanding.

“N-No, no.” she quickly responded to make him understand that she did know who she was. “I do remember, it’s not like...that...” she trailed off, lacking purpose to go on of how she can fluently remember her life and who she was and everything else that she could know (save the millions of questions on her mind regarding where she was).

He sighed. “So you know where we are?”

“Oh! Uh...I...no.”

“Well,” he said, walking around the monitor to the opposite side. Twilight instinctively followed him down to the lowest part of the room, where they could get the closest to the window as possible, near all the chairs with monitors in front of them. “You’re certainly not on Equestria, I figured you already knew that when you saw it.” he pointed at the blue planet, stopping in front of the glass. “And that means we’re not on the moon, ‘cause it’s right there.” He pointed to the fully-lit ball of grey poking out from behind the planet. The sun cast day upon both worlds.

“How do you know of Equestria?” she asked curiously, before thinking further on.

“It’s in the ship’s databases, down on the 2nd deck. Besides, I was born as an Equestrian.”

His answer caught her attention. So he is an Equestrian. He’s been turned into this as well! Maybe he knows why we were turned into these things! Oh Celestia, for a colt, he sure is important! “So do you know why we were turned into-"

“No. I don’t.” he blatantly interrupted.

She sighed. I knew it was too good to be true. I guess time will tell me what I need to know. It better hurry, because I’m bored of being dealt nothing in my favor here. Seriously, nothing about my questions have been answered so far, and I think it’s because everypony on this...THING knows just as much as I do. For once I’d like something that actually answers-

“I think it’s better if you focused more on the fact that you’re in a star cruiser and not on a planet.”

She turned to face him as he interrupted her thinking. “We’re on a what?”

He casually repeated. “A star cruiser. You’re in a star cruiser orbiting Equestria.”

FINALLY. But now it was no longer a matter of ‘where’, it was now ‘why’. More furious questions came to Twilight’s head. The more that came, the wider the perspective of answers.

“...well, I can safely say I didn’t expect to be on a ‘star cruiser’, whatever that is.” she said, disregarding, or rather putting aside, her questions. Looking around at the technology that surrounded her, she could look at the so called ‘star cruiser’ in a much different perspective. It wasn’t a building, a castle, a moon, or even a planet (not that she knew what a star cruiser was exactly, but she only speculated that it was none of the above possibilities). It was some orbiting ship in the atmosphere of her home planet. Ed was now leaning normally on the wall to his left, preparing to talk away about his experiences.

“Well, I was in total surprise when I figured out,” he continued happily as she looked around, feeling the chairs, touching with hands and fingers rather than a flat hoof. She could feel something, grab something with these strong and endurable stubs of muscle and bone and skin. For the first time Twilight could experience safety and non-apprehensiveness in this wondrous structure of metal and steel. She could touch one thing and touch something else with only two fingers on the same hand. It wasn’t unified as a flat slate, it was diverse and separate from one another. It was different, and it was magical. “I did the same thing you’re doing now, using fingers differently. Of course, when I had hooves, it was when I was very young, about 6 or 5. And when I woke up from one of those cryo pods, it was about 7 or 8 years ago...maybe 9. I’ve spent all this time learning the ins and outs of this monster from the inside through databases, terminals, maps, and personal experience. It’s really been fun.”

“Wow!...You’ve been awake for 9 years?”

He paused. “Well, yeah. What else would I do?”

“What about food? How did you stay alive this long?”

“There’s a ton of food up in Deck 6, where the kitchen and cafeteria are found. It’s like everytime I go up there, there’s just as much food as there was the previous day. I don’t know how, but I’ve been living off that infinite food for all these years.”

“Why didn’t you wake the others up?”

“I couldn’t. I was too small and I wouldn't have been able to reach the terminal that aborts the cycle, even if I knew where it was, despite it’s obvious placement. Over time, it never crossed my mind that I may have wanted to wake you.”

“How do you speak so fluently? You said you were 7 when you woke up, how did you learn to speak so-”

“I think if I told you how many terminals there are on this ship, then you’d understand how I’ve learned.” He interrupted anxiously.

“So, if you know everything about the ship...”

“Not everything,” he walked up the ramp connecting the lower and middle area . “I don’t know how long it took to build this ship, and I don’t know how long we’ve been orbiting Equestria. I can guess why it was built, but it’s probably far from the truth.”

“...so, if you know so much about the ship, why haven’t you landed on Equestria yet?”

He turned to the window. “The ship needs a hangar to dock on in order for it to land. As far as I know, they were supposed to finish a hangar as soon as the ship left the planet, but...”

“But what?”

The silent ship-dweller stood facing the planet for what seemed as a long period.

“...I don’t know.” he looks away from the window as if he wishes to put it aside, to disregard and ignore it’s omnipotent presence. He was young, still trying to find a purpose. For years he had learned the ship and became it’s caretaker, it’s master, it’s friend. All he wants is to return home and make out a life for himself. But it’s like he is destined to live forever in the ship, living in it’s heated rooms and comfortable accommodations. It was nice, and like home in every way. Of course, he was too young to remember his home, let alone his parents properly. He even forgot their names...

“...C’mon. Let’s go meet your friends.”

Trusting Ed with only the brief time that the two had to answer and ask questions, she followed him as they both approached the stairs in which she had used earlier to meet this talented and alone soul, trapped away in silence and solitude for many years on end, in the ship of mystery and darkness.

“UGH!! Where did I ever get these dreadful clothes!? They’re so loose, and baggy, and...” the disgusted and spoiled noise spilled through the hallways. Nearby, Twilight and Ed slowly approached, with light finally guiding them through the darkened ship. Every once in awhile Ed approached a panel on the wall, pressing his finger onto a switch mechanism, and shortly after, the lights flooded the darkness with a menacing and sudden appearance; so suddenly that Twilight had to cover her eyes with her arm in order to keep from going blind. She’d wait for her eyes to adjust, and then venture through the light until the dark returned, and the cycle would repeat up until they arrived at the cryopod chamber.

Twilight could see that Applejack had stuck to her side of the job, and all her sleeping friends were now on their...feet...and doing just as fine as she was when she first got up. She’d have to ask if Rainbow was exposed or not, since the illness was so quick and passed rapidly after it’s initial appearance (at least that’s what she learned from Applejack earlier on), just to see if she was right about the sickness being related to clean environments. In that case, she’d have to ask Rarity if she was sick at all or not.

The annoyed dialogue continued echoing from the chamber. “How in Equestria could any of you girls wear these completely outrageous pieces of apparel?!”

This time, a response followed. It sounded like Rainbow Dash, to her memory. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only clothing in this *cough* whole castle.”

“It can’t be! I don’t...I can’t wear this filthy and unpresentable-”

“Oh, you want to be the first to go out there and see if there’s anything else for sale, fancy pants?”

Applejack’s voice cut in. “Now both of y’all stop bickerin’, and wait for Twilight like decent ponies. I wouldn’t want her to walk in on a catfight, ya hear?”

"I already did!" Twilight intervened with a smile on her face. The interrupted ponies looked suddenly to the source of the voice, staring in awe. A delayed reaction came, first from Rarity, who was recognizable with her barely changed hair and eyes, save the fact she also had turned into the same creature that every pony had.

"Twilight! Darling, is that you?" she asked, no doubt trying to confirm her suspicions.

"It's me, Rarity, don't worry." Twilight answered reassuringly. She approached from the cryo-pod chamber doorway towards her friends, who all stood looking at her new body and form. The friends came from all around and got into one great big group hug, celebrating their reunion, despite it’s rather awkward setting. From all around came remarks of happiness and joy; the Mane Six had once again come together to overcome a shared goal, but perhaps their goal was different from Twilight’s, since her questions had now narrowed down to just a few important ones after meeting Ed upstairs.

Out of all these shouts and remarks filled with joy, friendship and return, one voice was unmistakably missing from the small crowd. Out of those 6, one was missing. But whose voice was Twilight not hearing out of those present 5? She looked around with the space she was offered in the big hug, seeing who was missing. After looking briefly during the loud noise that her friends made (as Ed watched from the hallway intersection that was not so far from the chamber’s opening), she noticed the absence of a certain hyperactive pony’s voice.

...Pinkie Pie.

“Girls...” Twilight said apprehensively to quiet everypony down as she now broke from the hug, looking all around for her pink friend. They noticed her sudden absence as soon as she left, since they all were trying their best to hug her the most. So they stopped with curiosity and hopefully waited for Twilight’s happy continuation of her greeting. Instead, she looked everywhere in the room, asking her friends a question that they had not yet answered for themselves earlier on. “Where is Pinkie?”

“Oh...umm,” Rainbow Dash responded immediately to her question as Twilight kept looking around the room, in between pipes and metal sheets on the walls and ceiling. “We don’t know where she went.”

“Erm, what exactly do you mean by that?” Twilight asked worriedly, and quit looking around to face Dash while she tried her best to answer.

“When Applejack woke us, we couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in those big pipes like we were. Did you see her when you woke up?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously as Twilight walked towards her from the corner of the chamber where she was looking for a final time.

“No,” she replied. “I didn’t.”

“Well that’s just great,” Dash leaned onto the wall she was nearest to, pouting in disappointment at her friend’s unfortunate answer. “Where in Equestria could she be then? Do you think she woke up before anypony else?”

For the first time there, Ed broke into the conversation with an answer as he approached through the door. “Not likely. I’ve been awake for 9 whole years, and as I checked the terminals on board, I figured out I was the first to wake up in a long time. So unless this ‘Pinkie Pie’ left about a thousand years ago, there’s no way she was ever on this ship.”

The answer brought about a very uncertain feeling through the friends’ minds about their missing pink friend. Pinkie was just as important and near to one another than anypony else, why would she not be onboard? Without her, there certainly was somewhat of a boring experience. She was always the one to live up the situation when things looked grim. She never looked at things in a negative way...

...Where is she?!

Rarity was not contemplating the whereabouts of Pinkie, instead, she was paying more attention to Ed, who she had just seen enter the room without introduction or notice. Interested in the filly’s appearance, she approached him, noticing the slight difference in height, and how he was almost as tall as everypony there.

“Umm...Twilight, who is this?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s Edward. He’s been awake for a much longer time than us, and I found him while I was trying to find the source of that sound I heard earlier with Applejack.”

Applejack broke from her silence and responded eagerly. “By the way, Twilight, did ya ever find out what that sound came from?”

“...No, I didn’t. I guess I was too busy talking with Ed to remember why I left in the first place. Sorry ‘bout that.” she answered, hoping her friend would be sympathetic enough to forget about the noise and focus mainly on Ed and the ship itself.

“Noise?” Ed unintentionally continued the brief conversation. “You heard that too? From all the way down here?”

Applejack turned to Ed. “Sure did. Was louder than one of them speakerphones back in Ponyville. Hay, it was louder than anythin’ I’d heard in my life.”

“That’s rather odd,” he stood perplexed, putting his fist up to his chin in a thinking stance as he looked up at the ceiling. “I wasn’t aware of any noise the ship made while it orbited.” He unintentionally spilled the beans about their destination being an orbiting ship, causing Rarity to stare even more provocatively than before. It caused Ed to actually look at Rarity so that she may actually continue talking.

“We’re in a what?”

“...A ship.”

“Why in Equestria are we sailing?”

Ed chuckled at her misconception, and corrected her.

“We’re not sailing; we’re on a star cruiser orbiting the planet of Equestria.”

Twilight couldn’t prove it, but she could’ve sworn that Rarity’s new pale skin had turned back to her original white color. She wondered why, but immediately remembered Rarity's recently found hatred for science-fiction when she read that 'awful' book written by somepony that she couldn't remember. Her mouth agape and her pupils shrunk in shock and horror, the terrified pony began to shudder her response. “W-We-W-We’re o-o-on a-a...” she trailed off in embarrassment to keep herself from making an even bigger paranoid fool of herself. To assist the frozen Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed in to grab her and brought her to the corner of the room where she could sit and recuperate from the sudden truth that nearly made her faint.

Standing silent for the entire time that Twilight was there was the very confused and mute Fluttershy, who had barely showed any reaction to the news that both Ed and Twilight brought. Interested to know why she was so shy to contribute dialogue, Twilight looked to her and asked, “Fluttershy, are you alright?”

She responded with a simple nod, and nothing more.

With a friendly sigh, Twilight walked up to the still pony and reassuringly put her hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been silent this whole time. Is there something I should know?”

She responded with a simple shake of her head, and nothing more.

“C’mon, Anything cool happen while I was gone?”

She looked down at the ground with a saddened look upon her face. “I just don’t know what’s going on, Twilight.” her childish and shy voice always got the better of Twilight, it turned her into a mother figure rather than a friend. She always felt so sorry for Fluttershy, she never bloomed the way everypony else had when they were actual Equestrian fillies. Where they found their cutie marks in involvement and accomplishment, she found hers in isolation and discovery. It was always like that; she was always the last one that her friends could trust to be brave and understanding. But she was so...timid.

“Oh, Fluttershy,” Twilight rubbed her friend’s shoulder slightly. “We all don’t know. That’s why I went to answer out the many questions that Applejack and I had in mind. I just hope what I can get it enough for you.”

“They never taught me how to walk, Twilight...” she said with slight interruption. She ended the previous conversation with this small and important statement, and she wasn’t done. “When they woke me up, they got me up on my hooves and told me to stand here while they taught Rarity to walk. When they finished with her, you came in.” she finished subtly and looked away, staring sadly at the metal ground where her feet touched.

“It’s okay, I can teach you like I taught Applejack. It’ll be fine, Fluttershy.” Twilight tried her hardest to get Fluttershy into a better state than she already was.

“Oh...oh, okay.” she said, slightly happier than she just was. Relieved, Twilight began to teach her how to effectively walk, stand, and jog in place, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash kneeled next to Rarity as she slowly recovered from the sudden dose of truth that Ed was very casual to deliver, and since her mental collapse, Ed was standing awkwardly in the corner nearest to the exit, still processing the event in his mind like a tape recorder he had found up on Deck 6 in the cafeteria.

After a while, Fluttershy was just as ready to walk normally as everypony else, Rarity had fully recovered and was still having a rather annoying headache, and Ed was done staring into space as he stood doing nothing. The six sat down in the chamber and began to talk among themselves, discussing the important events and answers they had all gathered within the past hour and a half. Ed began with an explanation and summary of what he knew.

“I woke up in one of those cryo-pods when I was 6 or 7. Over time, I adjusted to being” - he gestured to his body - “this. When I woke up, I saw you, and tried to find a way to get you out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the ‘abort cycle’ button on the panel next to every pod since I was little and couldn’t reach the panel in the first place. I spent the last 9 years at the most exploring and learning about this ship. And over that period, I forgot about you guys sleeping down here, and wasn’t aware that you could wake up at any moment, until Twilight here actually did, and met me up at the Bridge. And that’s all I can tell you.”

Twilight added onto his explanation. “That’s when he told me that we were on a ‘star cruiser’, whatever that is, orbiting our planet safely, and that he knew nearly everything about the ship so far, except it’s age and it’s purpose.”

Rainbow Dash cut in. “What?! But those were the most important questions I had!”

“Well, we’re just gonna have to find out, aren’t we?” Twilight responded.

“I hope we don’t find anything bad out there, I mean, what if this ‘star cruiser’ was made because Equestria was taken over by somepony, or something...” Fluttershy worriedly said.

Rarity answered with pride. “I personally doubt it, dear. We were probably sent up here to conduct a simple test for the Princess herself. This ‘Ed’ is most likely a stowaway who has forgotten his ways, and Pinkie is probably scarfing away at Sugarcube Corner...”

“We can’t be certain, girls. Not without proof. And just as a side note, I take personal offense to the ‘stowaway’ label.” Ed reminded the other ponies with a serious tone.

“My apologies.” Rarity responded.

A silence lingered for a short period of time, perhaps due to awkwardness that both Twilight and Ed brought with them. Applejack then saw something of interest, and got up onto her feet just to see what it was.

“Hey,” she said, pointing curiously and apprehensively at the object. “What is that?”

She pointed directly at a cryo-pod on the opposite side of the room, with a white and snowy texture covering it’s glass screen, and a name covered in ice on it’s bottom plaque. This pod in particular was different from the others surrounding it, because it was the only one with a clear inhabitant inside. Whoever it was, they needed to get them out.

“There’s somepony in there!” Rainbow Dash said, rushing relentlessly to the panel that opened the cryo-pod. Applejack was too busy trying to clear the thick ice away on the plaque to abort the cryo-cycle, so by obvious terms Rainbow Dash did it for her, trying her best to see past the blanket of frozen material and figure out who was. As she did, the others, including Ed and Twilight, walked up to the pod, awaiting a confirmation on whoever was sleeping while they sat talking. “I-I can’t see through all this ice!”

“Applejack, do you see a name?” Ed asks as he kneels down next to the desperate girl who is trying her best to scrape the ice off with just her hand. It was obvious that she overestimated her hand’s endurance when exposed to extremely cold material.

“This darned ice is givin’ me the chills! You got any tools I can use?”

“Probably, but they may already be awake when I get back,” he gets up and starts to sprint towards the exit. “I’ll be right back!!” he yells from the first intersection.

“Anything yet, Dash?” Twilight asks curiously. That’s when the deafening and histening sound began to go off. In order to hear one another, they had to yell at one another. Of course, Fluttershy was not in the slightest involved in this once they started screaming. Rarity started to see if there was a way to turn off the ridiculous sound by plugging up the holes that the sound generated from; she kept trying, but to no success. Either way, both proved useless in the effort of finding an identity.

“Wait, WAIT!” she yells as she first sees something. “I CAN SEE BLUE HAIR!”

“ANY STRIPS OF LIGHT BLUE?” Twilight suspects immediately that it must be Princess Luna, sent to keep an eye on the Mane 6..or 5. If so, this would be a really important event.

“ALL I CAN SEE IS BLUE.” Dash responded.

“WAIT UNTIL YOU CAN SEE ANY-”

“HOLD ON! I CAN SEE STRIPS OF REALLY LIGHT CYAN!”

By this point, Applejack was freezing her hand off, but could almost see the name; vaguely, but just enough to read. Push by push of her straightened hand, the ice chunked off in small and large pieces, until a visible name could be seen. Finally, the name was visible to the farm-girl’s eyes. It struck a very strong memory of something important that happened between them and...

“TWILIGHT!!” Applejack yelled when she read the name.

“WHAT?! WHAT IS IT! DID YOU FIND THE NAME?!”

That was when the noise stopped, and the ice on the glass started to melt away rapidly. With a sigh of relieve, the four ponies (Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity) began to look at the pod’s inhabitant, three of them wondering the possibilities of who may lay dormant in the undiscovered cryo-pod. Ironically, that was when Applejack spilled the beans of who was in the pod. And to Twilight, it was quite the surprise.

“It’s your brother, Twilight. It’s Shining Armor.”

“MY BROTHER?!” she yelled in surprise, almost as if the awful hissing sound was still occurring. In a sudden dash, Twilight sprinted up to the pod, where she looked as closely as she could through the glass to see if Applejack had read the name right. Without a doubt, the sight of Shining Armor with a change of his species (same as everypony there) confirmed her questions. The blue hair with a cyan stripe going down it’s length gave it away the most. I can’t believe Shining Armor is on this cruiser! Oh, the things he may know, the times we could catch up on! This is the best news I’ve had all day! She held onto the pod with a frozen expression of anticipation on her face, staring into his closed eyes until they would open to the new world.

“Anyone else concerned about his reaction when he sees Twilight?” Ed asked considerably. Weirdly so, a silence between everypony followed, most likely because they felt awkward to admit that the brother’s reaction would be hilarious. Twilight, who heard his question, took this seriously, and then proceeded to back away from the pod, as well as her friends who had been observing her very interesting reaction when she heard his name. Fluttershy, who stood in the doorway, remained silent, and Ed was the only being there that didn’t act the same. “Just sayin’,” he continued. “It could be hilarious, but nopony wants to wake up to a face looking down at them.”

Everypony stood silently. They awaited a course of movement from Shining’s motionless body. The silence that lingered before many times had returned, and it was never so hard to deal with for Twilight. She knew that even if her brother moved, that the silence would stay, until he escaped himself from that icy prison. Icy Prison...that reminds me of the Canterlot Castle Dungeons, where I met the real Cadence and had to...

She was getting off topic, and derogatorily abandoned the trail of thought that she had formed. Every second, every moment, Shining Armor could awaken. He could twitch an eye, or move a muscle. And even when he woke up, he’d have to try and find Cadence, his wife, who may or may not even be on the ship, and then she’d have to ask him if he knew why they were there, and even if he did, could Ed provide a way to leave the ‘star cruiser’ and land safely on Equestria? So many questions, so little answers. She speculated on how she had not yet gone insane. Perhaps it was because she always had her friends beside her every step of the way...

Or maybe it’s because she read all those books.