//------------------------------//
// 6 - Hope 
// Story: Lost Among The Stars 
// by PostPony 
//------------------------------//


---Twilight Sparkle---


They have weird fans here, I thought to myself. I was laying on the bed in the room lent to me by the Prince. Suspended from the ceiling was a fan that just looked like a hoop of metal painted white. It was attached to a panel on the ceiling by three hydraulic pistons in a manner that allowed it to point straight at me. A cool breeze that perfectly compensated for the heat of the sun coming through the window blew over me and through my fur, rustling my mane and the red unmade blankets beneath me. The room was a mix of warm colors with abstract artwork on the wall, a closet I had no use for, and a desk in the corner.

The lethargy I had been experiencing was not something I was used to. At any other time in my life I would have been in a rush to learn everything I could. I knew, I had been taught how to use the wondrous device across my room which had access to more information than a hundred million royal libraries, yet it was not on my mind. I had been demonstrated the use of the internet and even given a course on internet safety but that was a while ago and the details escaped me. The only thoughts on my mind were that of my friends. Did they know that I was still alive? Was somepony taking care of Spike?

I had no idea, and it hurt. I was never going to see my niece grow up. I forced myself off the bed and stood upon the floor for a while before trudging over to the computer. I sat in the chair. It was large and low to the ground. Big enough to allow me to comfortably sit on my haunches and leave my front hooves free to do other things, like use the keyboard. That was an interesting machine on its own. All the buttons had letters in English in the middle, but while the versions I had seen before were just a bunch of small rectangles, this one was row after row of arching buttons made to be pushed by a hoof without hitting any others by accident. The curved surfaces were placed in tiers with the qwerty row slightly higher than the asdf row and so forth.

As nice as it was, I didn’t do anything with it. I leaned back into the red cushions and did nothing much at all. The motivation wasn’t there. It was a low point of the last few months. It wasn’t long after that trip with frosty to see the launch that the Prince finally introduced me to the local press. I think they found me to be underwhelming. The basic story was shared, I filled in some questions from both ponies and humans wielding pieces of technology I was unfamiliar with, objects with large lenses floating behind each of them with perfect steadiness, stocky cylinders with either some kind of foam or a metal mesh on the ends held as close as they could get away with. They asked about who I was, what the state of pony politics from home were. They listened with some interest as I explained the unification of the old nations but other questions focused on our technology. The were disappointed. I also told them about my mission to find the old city that went missing and how well that went. In the end, Spark dismissed me. I didn’t feel very strongly one way or the other about that. I heard him say that he suspected me of suffering from ‘Herd Expulsion Syndrome’ which didn’t sound terribly accurate since I wasn’t in any herd, but I could just look it up. Well, could have. I never did.

It has been, what, a month or two since then? I was starting to see progress in my limb growth. The part they had in my chest had been removed and my flanks were almost symmetrical again. They had to occasionally bring me back to the hospital to refit my legs.

Otherwise nothing was happening. I knew what would motivate me. I had read a fair bit on pony psychology. If there was some way that I work, some productive thing I could do to reconnect with my friends and home, then that’s what I would do. As much of a loner as I had once been, as much as I once would have tried to learn, nothing was going on.

Then there was a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” I reply, unwilling to put the effort into any more eloquence than that.

Frosty Davis poked her head into the room. “Hey, Twilight.” Twilight didn’t quite understand what kept bringing her back but she was welcome. “There’s something going on that I think you’ll want to see. C’mon!” She then scampered back into the other room.

I got to my hooves and exited the room. It was a challenge to avoid the loud thumping sound that my heavy weight and metal hooves made against the floor. I didn’t even try. This room was also one of warm colors with a wall of floor to ceiling windows showing off the Pacific and the wilderness around us. Down the hill closer to the shore sat some city or suburb or something. Frosty was there on the couch. I wondered why she was around so much, in the home of what I assume is the head of state. Celestia’s counterpart. Spark Eclipse was around more often than I would have expected him to. Doesn’t he need to run a country? Regardless, he was lounging back in a chair in a sort of side room that had no wall separating it from the living room I was in now. He was facing away towards a hoard of screens arcing around and above him. While they didn’t show anything that I could see, he clearly could. I still never learned what he was wearing over his eyes. He might have explained it once out of an effort to engage me in conversation but that was certainly not a day to remember.

On the wall was a huge display, rich in colors and detail that didn’t get much use. Right now though, it presented a human speaking into the camera. I wondered if it was like the ones I had pointed at me back… a while ago. On the other hoof, Frosty was exceptionally excited. She wildly waved me over. I made my way and casually lay on my side with my heavy metal hooves hanging off the edge and my head held up by the cushion.

“Remember that launch we saw? The probe reached its destination last night and the NASA guys have been looking at the data. They’re going to tell us what they found!” Frosty Pinkied at me, I mean said to me ecstatically. The information she had given to me about the space race and how the country next door landed people on the moon was one of the last things I was able to pay attention to with vigor.

In spite of being down in the dumps, I listened as well as I could. The man on the screen spoke of the journey to start with, giving details that mostly flew over my head. VASIMR was clearly an acronym for something but the man on the screen moved right along with his speech. “The alpha point lies on a direct path from the sun to the trinary star system of Alpha Centauri. The optical and radio telescopes on board the probe are receiving unexpectedly clear images of the star, while they are not providing new data or outperforming the James Webb telescope, they are vastly more effective than what would be expected for their size. On the other hand, the magic sensor prepared by unicorns employed by NASA for this undertaking is also returning unexpected data. While all of the magic sensors in use several months ago have picked large amounts of interference coinciding with the earthquake in Tamarelantis of the Equine Principality of North America, the alpha point seems to be a volume of exceptional calmness. While the magic field remains present, the agitation it usually exhibits is nigh nonexistent.”

I considered his words as he continued on talking. I was pretty certain that the reason I couldn't go home was because of the very same interference he was talking about. Perhaps the portal could get me to the next star, but what good would that do me? I can't go further without finding another point. It's not like I can just bounce between stars all the way home… can I? 

With a moment of ‘too good to be true’ thoughts came a deeper analysis. Can such a thing even work? I would need to get way out there in space in the first place. Humans have been exploring the other planets here for a long time right? Some of them live on Mars I think. And where is my home anyway? There was so much I didn't know, but it seemed to be possible. I figured I was with a couple knowledgeable ponies so they would be the first to ask. 

My eyes regained focus and I realized that I had sat up at some point. Then I noticed that they were both staring at me.

“What?” I asked in confusion. Was I doing something wrong?

“Oh, nothing.” Frosty said, “You actually don't look dead inside for once. It looks good on you. You should try it out more.”

I glared at her. I brought my attention towards the other alicorn in the room. He was looking at me with a knowing smile, the exact same kind that Celestia use when she was expecting me to figure something out. “What is that face all about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You seemed to have an epiphany so innocent old me just wants to know what you’re thinking.” He said not-innocently.

“I think you know exactly what I’m thinking.” I lightly accused

“Really? Tell me what I’m thinking then.” He implored.

“Well,” I started. “There’s a way home.”

“Exactly.”