//------------------------------// // Timeless // Story: My Little Engineer // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// Pilot’s Log Date: 01/06/2406 17:37 “Pilot’s log, date and time included in the log itself.” I began once i’d sat down at the table in the room, across from Luna who still looked slightly shaken up. “Both Princess Luna and I have confirmed that the Virtual Intelligence i’ve nicknamed Vinyl is, or has developed into an Artificial Intelligence and has breached her shielded container. Her data is now roaming free on the currents of Xenon in the air, as though it’s acting like her own personal circuit board that she can take a form of an eerie shadow.” I paused to take a good long pull on my glass of Scotch, one of the items I had cryogenically frozen in with me when I was shipped out. Luna had had a sip of the drink but passed on it, deciding it was too strong for her and opted for a brandy instead. “We have no way to contain her right now, we don’t have the proper containing device to do so and we will now also need a capture program in order to bring her here for containment and deletion.” I took another sip of my drink and swirled the remainder in the tulip shaped glass it was held in. “Regards to the mining operation, I think I should go and help the ponies clear out the stone.” Luna announced with a sound of still being slightly shaken, setting her drink down on the table to stand herself up onto her hooves to approach the airlock. “Mining operations have begun and the mine entrance has been outlined. Princess Luna has just opted to go and join the workforce and clear out the stone. I’m going to go join her as soon as I’ve finished my drink.” I concluded my report and ended the recording, saving it to my suit’s hard drive until I could upload it to the servers. Then again, without the communication network available to me, it was pointless to do so in the first place. A few minutes of silence later, I set my helmet over my head and let it pressurize my suit with purified oxygen. Stepping into the airlock, the remarkably silent doors slid shut and let the air exchange to that of the outside but gave me just enough time to try and decipher what I could do to reign in the newly rampant AI. Putting all thoughts aside for the time being, I began the slow task of trampling the grass on my slow way over to the mine entrance where efforts were already being made and now with Luna’s help with her magical seal, a sizeable rectangular hole had already been dug in. There was still plenty of work to do before any ore could begin to be extracted but I didn’t think it would take much longer till we reached that point. In the meantime, I figured I should get started on the Deep Earth Seismic scanning equipment and to do that, I would likely need the help of the two scientific ponies, Twilight and Sunset. Approaching a village pony at random, my heavy footsteps did the work of gaining their attention for me so I could ask for Twilight’s approximate location. The pony pointed me towards Ponyville where I would look for the large and out-of-place crystalish castle. I’ll be honest, I thought the pegasus mare was kidding but a short hop over with the Wyvern told me that she really wasn’t. Setting down towards the castle’s vague backyard area had the entire town aware that I’d come to visit, especially the pair of ponies I was aiming to speak with. Good evening, to what do we owe the pleasure? Sunset welcomed me into the castle once i’d approached and my footsteps gave me away of my arrival. “I was hoping to speak to you and Twilight about setting up Deep Earth Seismic scanning equipment, try and figure out just why this planet is destabilizing like it is.” I explained as I was ushered into a library where Twilight was currently reading with her dragonling assistant. That sounds like it could be quite interesting to find out. We’ve never been able to come up with any kind of technology that would allow us to penetrate so deep. Sunset grinned back before the dragonling said something I couldn’t understand, but judging from the light smack on the head from Twilight, I could hazard a guess of what it was. “Well, I can provide the technology and do all the hard work of building it. I’m no geophysicist so i’d have given the task to Vinyl to sort the data out and dumb it down for me. With her… unavailable, you two are my best options.” I explained and remained standing before the pair as Sunset hopped up onto a sofa next to Twilight’s chair just long enough to listen to my words and share an eager glance with the princess. You have technology that provides a clear image of deep earth activities without having to mine down that far? Twilight demanded eagerly as she hopped down from her seat to begin traversing the library for materials required for note taking. Actually, that’s not all that unbelievable if I think about it now.  “Normally it’s used for deep earth ore detection and mining purposes, but it also works for our purposes now.” I shrugged back and was beginning to lose track of the purple streak as she zipped around the entire room, never remaining in place for longer than a second to retrieve some kind of item. Ooh, I can’t wait! This is so exciting, no pony has ever gotten a chance to find out what goes on under the crust without coming to serious bodily harm attributed to mining straight down! Twilight’s voice came from everywhere at once even though the words remained firmly before me. I had to chuckle at that last part, everyone knows not to dig straight down! What do you need to build this equipment? And where does it need to be built? “I honestly have no idea where is should be built, so I was just going to place it anywhere out of the way and go from there.” I shrugged back as much as my exo-frame would allow me to do so. Sunset hopped back down from the couch while the dragonling took off to rush around the library at Twilight’s request, retrieving other items that she needed. I’m ready! Twilight announced as she slid to a halt with the dragonling on her back still trying to stuff items into her saddlebags. Do you have everything you need to build the device? “It’s all in the Wyvern. We just need to get to a location and build it.” I answered and lead the ponies outside. Taking them around to the back, a pink blur streaked across my path followed by the appearance of Pinkie Pie; though this time she remained a bit further away from me likely in efforts to refrain from being shot again. “Hiya! Great to see you again!” Pinkie grinned as my eyes went wide in that I could understand her perfectly, meaning she was speaking Advanced Galactic English instead of whatever language they spoke. “Why can I perfectly understand you?” I inquired as the rest of Twilight’s and Sunset’s friends appeared from the other side of the large building. Dash gave me a welcoming nod from her hovering position over Applejack before diverting herself towards the Wyvern. “I ‘unno,” Pinkie shrugged as she bounced alongside the rest of us while the other ponies all loaded up onto the Wyvern for the random trip, the destination of said trip unbeknownst to any of us. “I guess you just do!” You just learn to accept things with her, trust us. It’s better for your health to just go along with it. Someone replied from behind me. I sighed and hauled myself up to the cockpit in front of Dash as she got herself settled and already had the craft primed for takeoff. Where exactly are we going, anyways? I just realised that none of us have any actual inclination as to where we’re going. One of the ponies in the back inquired from my text panel. “We’re going to go set up a Deep Earth Seismic Reader to find out what exactly is going on in your planet.” I explained and checked that everyone was aboard and strapped in as best they could be. With final preparations made, I lifted the craft up off the ground and aimed it away from the city and towards open plains where the machine could work alone and undisturbed. So, I’ll be the first to say, the words seemed to have originated from the yellow pegasus judging from the movements of her muzzle. But I’m worried about what will happen with the griffons who foalnapped Twilight. I know that the wrong-doers have been removed from the list to escape the planet, but what about the rest of their kind? The Suit has agreed to let the Princesses build a list of the Griffons who are sympathetic to us who’ll come with us into space. The same is said for the rest of the other nations. Sunset explained before Twilight took over. I am worried too, Fluttershy. There’s no way we can save everyone this time. There are going to be a lot of creatures left behind to die when the planet does die. The purple one remarked morosely, judging from the features of her face anyways, as she draped a hoof over the mare’s shoulders. “I cannot fit the entirety of the planet’s life on the ship, so I’ve asked the princesses to build a list of the planet’s best and brightest. Things like fauna and flora can be easily stored so there’s no worries about that. The hardest part is going to be working out who comes and who stays behind to die.” I agreed with a light nod and began the descent towards an open field in the middle of nowhere. You think there’ll be creatures who try to get onto the ship any way possible? Dash wondered through the terminal screen and I nodded back, even if she couldn’t see me do so. “Very likely. I’m going to have to build automated defenses for the shuttle launchpads to keep anything unregistered from getting in.” I said before turning an eye towards the camera. “Twilight, I’d like you and whoever you need to build me a list of workers from the Registry that the Princesses re creating to put them into the protection detail. I know there’ll be workers who’ll try to sabotage the project’s many phases out of revenge for their friends, family or themselves being excluded from the Registries. I want you to also build a profile for each member to find out who'll be most likely to cause trouble for the rest of us leaving.” “That’s going to take quite a lot of time, do you think we’ll have time to do so?” Pinkie inquired for Twilight, providing the translation before the Rosetta Stone program could do so. “I suppose we’ll find out once we get the Seismic equipment up and running.” I remarked as the ship touched down on the ground and I disabled the inertia dampeners to let the craft settle on it’s own. With everyone disembarking, I remained in my seat to let the ship place the majority of the Equipment’s parts into my pack through the cockpit. Once I was loaded down, I resorted to my jetpack to get me to the ground safely before retrieving my welder to begin the mini-project. The others all behind me must’ve loaded up the craft while I wasn’t looking and set about setting up white work tents to provide shade for those who wouldn’t want to remain in the sun, which was basically everyone. ~~~ With the equipment up and running properly, and an irritating itch being prevented from being scratched by my suit making me wish I could remove my suit, Twilight and Sunset crowded before a miniature computer-like device plugged into the Deep Earth Seismic Equipment to read the data provided every time the hammer hit the ground and sent a pulse into the crust. The rest of those assembled were sat under a separate tent with the ponies enjoying a mid-evening snack while I resorted to just watching the environment around us. Oh, this is so exciting! We’re looking at entirely new data never before seen! Twilight shrieked for the twenty-seventh time this evening. She had reached a point that even Sunset had lost all similar enthusiasm and merely nodded or uh-huh’d in return. I’m more worried about this information we’re getting, Twilight. Calm down and actually look at the data, please! Sunset requested, giving her teacher a nudge from shoulder to shoulder. Look, from what we’re seeing… “What? What’s wrong?” Pinkie inquired once she’d appeared standing on both backs of the two ponies to peer down between them at the screen. Even Twilight curbed her enthusiasm as her eyes roamed over the data presented to her from the sonic hammer, looking more and more worried than eager to learn. Now she looked horrified that she’d learned what she did. Uhm, it would seem that… that the planet is dying much faster than we thought… Twilight announced through a shaking voice, stepped back from the keyboard which toppled Pinkie who yelped at the sudden movement before collecting herself. By these numbers, we’ve got less than six months before the planet collapses into a giant ball of nothing…  I coughed as I watched the translations and stood suddenly as my mind’s to-do list began to remind me how much time we actually needed to even get materials off the planet. This reminder was reinforced by an enormous trembling in the ground with the Equipment and computer blaring alarms at everyone nearby. Six months. Six months before the planet dies. And I needed eight. We were fucked.