Date: 04/26/2406 18:37
“Excuse me sir,” a changeling messenger broke my attention away from welding another section of cryo-pods while every creature from the planet filled the pods two sections behind. I and a handful of changeling engineers were literally racing to keep pace ahead from the massive influx of griffons, dragons, zebras and sirens as they all poured into the moon base from the planet below. “You have a visitor waiting for you in your ready room.”
With a sigh that I was being delayed yet again, I nodded and stood from the unfinished pod to give a thankful half salute to the Scarlet Hive changeling. As soon as I stepped away, another changeling appeared from nowhere and took over, finishing up the welding for me so that we wouldn’t fall behind. That’s hive mentality for you, I guess.
Putting my tools away by use of the exo-skeletal robotics of my suit, I followed after the changeling messenger for as long as it took for him to navigate me past the unfilled cryo-pods which were already scheduled to contain a creature within the hour. The unfilled pods soon began to give way to pods being filled by all of the planet’s creatures dressed in specially designed suits which would take the place of the cryo-fluid that was reserved for first time freezers. The suits were easier to make and source materials for, the fluids were not.
Eventually, as my eyes roamed over already frozen colonists, the creatures began to include the Equestrians as ponies began to fill containers; the last shipment of pony colonists near to me had already been in cryo for the last week or so. Only the Princesses, Sunset and Twilight’s friends remained awake and unfrozen as they were determined to provide whatever assistance that they could.
Fluttershy had taken up near permanent residence on board the Ark, the ship containing all the wildlife and farm animals that would be brought over. Applejack had opted to go with her, but spent most of her time on the base with the rest of us in order to help organize all the flora and foodstuffs that would help to terraform the new world; if it needed terraforming that is.
Rarity had accepted a job with the other seamstresses, helping to create and fit the cryo-suits to the new coming creatures who were destined to be frozen for the next couple hundred years.
Pinkie operated in the mess hall and as a makeshift counsellor to help keep morale up while the project remained underway. Apparently she had a near constant stream of colonists who were still fretting about leaving millions behind on the planet to die, despite that the planet was due to die out sometime in the next few weeks.
Rainbow Dash, after recovering a month back and was still getting used to not having a hind leg, has essentially banished herself to command with the other Wonderbolts as they prepared and trained for the coming launches. She’d dedicated herself to her training so much that aside from Soarin and Spitfire, Rainbow Dash was among the three best pilots I had ever seen in my life bar none.
Twilight, like the other three princesses, had taken a role of leadership and the official role of Project Organizer working off the station/auto-shipyard in orbit of the moon with the help of Sunset Shimmer and Vinyl. Oh, speaking of Vinyl, she’s adapted so heavily to having a personality that she’s developed a false fur covering for her entire body as well as with Sunset’s help, even decided on a mane and tail style in electric blues. She works as the liaison for the creatures as well as the various computer workings in order to help expedite the building and programming sides of construction.
Celestia, Luna, Cadence and the other delegates of the planet as of yet remained thawed in order to performs their government roles though Celestia, Luna and Cadence were already scheduled to move into storage in the next week, which leads me to believe that Luna was the one who was waiting for me in my ready room. With having next to nothing to do and just waiting for her time of cryo, Luna had been spending the better portion of the last three weeks exploring the moon base and helping with construction where she could; if she wasn’t hanging around me, that is.
My guide lead me through the ever changing hallways, passing by groups of confused or concerned looking creatures as they followed their own guides through the shifting network of tunnels which opened and closed all seemingly at random. If one got lost in these hallways, whether through taking a wrong turn or getting disconnected from the group, a person could end up trapped in the hallways for weeks if they didn’t come across a random passer-by changeling to ask for help out and back to where they should be.
Eventually, and without getting lost, I ended up at one of the very few solid walls of the entire moon-base/hive and gave a quick nod of thanks to the changeling before opening the door with a press of a button and stepped inside. As I suspected, there she was: the figure of beauty in my own mind even as she stood near to my desk watching the information fly over the LCD screens on the wall behind my chair. I gave a glance up at the information that had captivated her so well and gave a sigh as she seemed to be watching the approximated countdown until Ragnarok.
“Only another week or so, huh?” I announced my presence with these words, startling Luna and giving her a reason to let out a mild yelp of surprise.
“Oh! Yes! Sorry, you startled me. I didn’t hear you come in.” Luna remarked as she worked at settling down her heart rate. At the same time, the room began to pressurize with air I could breath by using the massive oxygen farms on the outside of the building. Once my suit gave me permission to do so, I gave my helmet a hard twist and unlocked the seals in order to pull it off and set it down on the corner of my desk.
“You must’ve been damn near entranced by those number if you didn’t hear the door open and shut…” I commented in return and wrapped my arms around the princess’s neck and planted a kiss just below her horn. “Still worried about the billions of lives we’re leaving to die down below?”
“Of course I am, how could I not be? We’re leaving millions of our subjects on a doomed planet! We’ll be one of only tens of thousands of our entire species!” Luna exclaimed, looking like this had been keeping her up for weeks. Given that I’ve already lost count with how many times she’d brought this up with me, I figured it was safe to say that she was losing sleep over this. “I shall become part of an endangered species! Never mind that when we leave for the new world, you’ll be leaving me!”
“I’ve actually been thinking about that last bit recently, and I think i’ve got a plan for that.” I announced, earning a rise in spirits from Luna and a massive smile.
“I too have been thinking about a plan to let you stay with me after we’ve gone!” she announced, apparently having forgotten about her previous concerns.
“You go first then.” I offered and took a seat at my desk. Luna’s horn glowed for a while, casting the room in blinding light long enough for Luna to reappear into her human body so that she could drape herself side-saddle over my lap with arms wrapped loosely around my neck.
“No, you. I wish to hear your idea first.” Luna requested as I wrapped my arms around her torso to help keep her upright.
“Same time then and compare our ideas?” I offered with a smile and raised eyebrow.
“Very well, on three.” Luna agreed with a nod. “One, two, three,”
“Kill myself”/”Turn you into a pony.” our voices mixed in together, though not quite enough that we couldn’t understand each other. We both paused at our suggestions, realizing just what I had suggested and how it had sounded.
“I like your plan better, but before you start beating on me for my suggestion,” too late as Luna was now beating furiously on my shoulder with her fists, “Let me explain the idea in it’s entirety.”
“Fine,” my princess huffed, pausing her assault in order to hear me out. “Let’s hear it.”
“My ship crash landed on your planet six months ago, give or take. When you found the wreckage, you found a single cryo-pod with a single human body in it: me.” Luna nodded to these well-known facts. “So, instead of finding me alive and well, if anyone asks, then I was killed in that crash and you all reverse-engineered the wreckage in order to escape your dying planet. I remain hidden from whoever’s asking and when we land on the planet and begin colonization: I stay with you and we spend our lives together.”
With a massive grin on her face, Luna’s eye lit up at the suggestion of spending our lives together. “Then I think we’ll need to give you a more compatible body if you truly wish to spend your life with me.” she announced and swung herself out my my lap to stand and place both hands on my desk, facing me and affording me a wonderful view of her remarkable chest. “I believe my idea shall be more than sufficient. We shall give you a pony body of your own.”
This raised an eyebrow on me as I considered the implications of this thought. What would I look like? What subtype would I be? What if I turned into a dragon or griffon or something other than a pony? Would that still work?
“Would that work?” I snapped back to reality and looked up at Luna’s lovely face.
“I don’t see why not, our magic is quite powerful and has done many things to alter our reality in the past. All I would have to do, I suspect, would be to craft your body in my mind before I apply it to you. Your body, unless it has some kind of magical resistance, should merely accept the changes and you should easily become your new form.” Luna explained and crouched down behind my desk, crossing her arms on the desk and resting her chin on her arms.
“And would it work with anybody? Not just pony?” I suggested eagerly, raising an eyebrow and crossing one leg over the other and my arms crossed over my chest.
“Why wouldn’t you wish to be a pony? Do we put you off in some way?” Luna smirked in mock insult, glaring at me with glistening eyes from over her arms as she buried her face in her arms.
“Not at all, I merely like having opposable thumbs and flying at the same time. I can’t achieve that same thing having hooves; even if I was a pegasus with remarkably dexterous wings.” I shrugged back casually and sank deeper into my desk chair. It unfortunately wasn’t anything like leather, I don’t think there was even any cloth or padding whatsoever, but it was still pretty comfortable regardless. Even had multiple height settings in case Luna was feeling adventurous and was looking for some… under-the-desk-adventures.
“Well, what if… what if we made you an alicorn? Magic and wings? That could certainly cover your needs.” Luna suggested, still watching me from the end of the desk.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that, besides: how would the rest of your subjects react to waking up to a fifth alicorn, and a male one, at that? I think if we were to change my body to fit one of the planet’s races, I’d prefer to be a dragon or griffon.” I remarked, lifting my arms over my head to lean back and stretch out with my feet now up and resting on the edge of the desk, away from Luna’s face.
Luna, clearly having been put off from this information, frowned and stood entirely. She rounded the desk once again and hoisted up her dress so that she could straddle my waist and rest upon my chest, glaring at me most adorably.
“It sounds to me that you do not like our pony body, nor appreciate it.” she scolded, resting her chin on her crossed arms which rested over my chest.
“I never said that, nor did I intend to imply it. I love your body, in all forms, no matter what. My thoughts with becoming a griffon is more towards the fact that I’d have talons, I’d have wings to fly, and I’d be large enough that you could cuddle up to me and I’d be able to wrap you in my wings for once. I considered being a dragon merely because I thought it’d be interesting being a dragon.” I explained, watching Luna’s face as I spoke for an indication of what effect I was having on her. I got nothing for a minute after going silent before she softened up and spread out over me fully and comfortably.
“Okay, I can understand that. You have been a more dominating type of person in the time that I’ve known you. If you had a problem with me wrapping my wings around you so often, you could have just said so.” Luna replied, looking up at me again with big eyes and content on her features.
“It’s not that I have a problem with you wrapping your wings around me, I actually quite enjoy it as you’re very warm. I just want to…” My voice drifted away as I fought for the right words to say.
“You wish to be the proverbial ‘big spoon’ for once?” Luna chuckled and rested her cheek on my chest.
“Yeah, I’d like to be the big spoon for once. And I don’t mean just be the one on the outside, because then I'd feel like I was clinging onto you and that’s just not me…” I agreed with explanation as I went to absently stroking the back of her head with a hand, my left resting on her back. “I know it may be rude of me to say so, but I like this human body of yours because it’s easier to hold and cuddle against. Feels more… equal…”
“I understand, and I understand why you would wish to be a griffon now.” Luna replied, her eyes open as she stared at the blank wall next to us in thought. I had done the same, but I was staring up at the ceiling, avoiding dilating my eyes on the ceiling lights. “Very well, I shall grant you your request. Would you like me to try and form your new body now?”
“Why not. Can take the chance to introduce the new form to your sister and the girls while you’re all still awake.”
“An agreeable initiative.” Luna nodded back in agreement and removed herself from my body. She pulled me up with her and pulled me towards the middle of the room. “Now then, strip.” There was nothing but seduction in that order.
~~~
A couple hours of creating my new body, getting used to the few extra limbs and walking on all four and figuring out how to use my new wings, and a half hour break for… testing my new physical anatomy with Luna’s pony body (works wonders and feels amazing, by the way), Luna and I were finally clean and her regalia properly adjusted.
“I never thought you would try something like that with my horn.” Luna chuckled as she fitted her hooves into her shoes while I worked at dawning a bastardized version of my suit exo-skeleton and backpack/jetpack system. I had a small autodoc in my office/living space and as such had used the machine to fit my new body with a suit that still looked like the Urban-class space suit.
“Are you complaining? I think I remember you had a great time with that bit.” I replied, still fully aware of the extra weight of my beak over my face, and that she was speaking in her Equestrian language and I could not only fully understand her, but also reply in Griffic.
“Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think i’ve ever made quite a mess like that till then. I quite enjoyed it and I look forward to finding out just what your new tongue can actually do.” Luna giggled and gave a sultry grin while I fastened my new helmet over my face and let the suit warm up and fill with modified oxygen.
“Yeah, I’m still getting used to how long it is in the first place.” I mumbled back and checked my systems with a talon to ensure that everything was working properly. In case anything ripped or went wrong, I had a roll of duct tape in my backpack and Luna had a second role stored away to help me reach my back.
“Are you ready, my love?” Luna grinned at me as she stood at the door out of the place, head turned to watch me as I collected myself and approached the door on all four. I felt kinda weird doing that, as well as the tail that now existed swinging back and forth, and reached up to depressurize the room and unlock the door.
Soon the doors slid open and the pair of changelings guards standing outside my door, their faces looking like they were still calming themselves down from some kind of awkwardness or situational discomfort, popped to attention before noticing that I was no longer human but instead took up the entire doorway.
“S-sir? Is that you?” the changeling on my left inquired, looking my new body over.
“Yeah, it’s me.” I replied and squeezed myself and my wings through the door before Luna followed after calmly and collected, having the thought to collapse her wings to her side to pass through the doorway. “New body, new size, new language. Very disorienting.” I added in passing as Luna stepped up to me and nuzzled into my neck.
“Where would you like to go, sir?” the second changeling inquired dutifully, given that his job was to escort Luna and I wherever we wished to go.
“First to see Celestia. After that it’ll be out to the landing pads in order to head to the shipyard to meet Twilight, then we’ll go from there and meet the rest of the girls.” I requested and fell in tandem behind the changeling pair and next to Luna, keeping quiet while getting used to walking further than a lap around my small office and living space.
Leaning in to whisper into my ear, “It may be a good idea to get control of your wings. Leaving them spread out like you have may give other creatures the wrong idea about you.”
“I’d love to, but I still haven’t gotten used to having those muscles on my back.” I whispered back and reached back to try and push them down, get my body to recognize the new neural pathways and get them to close against my side. Eventually, I managed to get them sitting properly along my body, however they sprang back up again when Luna brushed her tail against mine and intertwined them together. “Not helping!” I whispered hoarsely, but gave in and used the opportunity to reign my wings back under control, without intervention from my talons.
To add to her approval of me and my new body, Luna released my tail and with a playful grin leapt onto my back and flopped down, her legs hanging limp along my side while her neck rested alongside my own, watching where we were going as I did all the walking. I turned back to face her and gave a silent grin before placing my helmet against her head in a version of a kiss through my helmet before returning to watching where we were going. Now, with my added body mass and strength, Luna was remarkably lighter than I remembered and rode along with grace without much effort from me.
Soon enough, the pair of guards stopped at Celestia’s door where a third changeling was posted for sake of escorting Celestia around. Our guards took up positions across the hall from Celestia’s guide and Luna and I stood before Luna’s sister’s door with the guard eyeing me suspiciously. Remembering that I could breath the oxygen/xenon atmosphere now, and that the base had been pressurized completely, I disconnected my helmet with a twist and pulled it off to carry under my arm.
Knocking on the door with a talon, Luna and I stepped back from the door a step and waited the half minute for Celestia to call out, “Enter!” The doors slid open and Luna entered in first, followed by myself to be welcomed by the eldest alicorn. “Luna, welcome. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visitation? Have you spoken to your boyfriend recently? Asked him about what we’d discussed?”
“No, why? What was she supposed to talk to me about?” I wondered, making my voice the dead giveaway about my actual identity. Celestia gawked at me and stood from behind her desk, eyes wide open in astonishment as she took in my new body, or at least the shape of my body under the space suit.
“Pilot? Is that actually you?” Celestia wondered as she stood before me, almost head to head though I still stood a head taller than her. I estimated I had about a half times more of her body in size and it was quite entertaining being so large against the largest creature of Equestria.
“‘T'is indeed, sister. My boyfriend had devised a plan in which he could stay with me for the rest of our lives by effectively lying to anyone who attempts to ask about him. Instead of having survived the crash, the human met an unfortunate fate when his cryo-pod was cracked and his body was allowed to slowly thaw out and thereby destroying his internal organs. We gave him a burial on our world and reverse-engineered his ship in order to achieve our escape before we all perished.” Luna explained dramatically, accompanied by a flurry of hooves in the air and rises and drops in her voice. I could’ve easily mistaken her for an actor in a theatre production.
“I… see…” Celestia replied slowly as her brain worked at wrapping itself around what she’d just heard. “So, have you adopted a new name to go with the new face?”
“A new name?” I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Doesn’t that require having an old name to begin with?”
Both Luna and Celestia paused, staring at me incredulously for a minute of silence.
“You don’t actually-” Celestia began to ask in complete disbelief.
“Nope. Never actually had a name. Not one that I can remember, anyways. I’ve always had a title of some kind and that’s what people always called me by.” I explained with a casual shrug, unaffected by my lack of name. “If I had to pick a name to go by… even an Equestrian name, I’d probably go with... “
Luna and Celestia both watched me in silence as I tried to think of something befitting of me.
“I… got nothing…” I announced in defeat, dropping my face in addition and my head dropping down to Celestia’s level.
“How about Nova Eclipse?” Luna suggested with a thought, lifting her hoof frog up as though handing me the name herself.
“Kind of a strange name for someone who’s a griffon, isn’t it?” Celestia looked mildly conflicted in someway, but I could quite figure out why. “Griffon’s usually have names starting with a G. Like Gilda or Gabby.”
“So, something like George?” I raised my head and an eyebrow followed along with it. Celestia gave a partial nod/shrug combination. “Nah, I think I like Nova Eclipse.”
“Then it shall be official! Welcome, Captain Nova Eclipse!” Luna exclaimed, standing proud and with wings held straight upright as the princesses did when looking regal as opposed to looking flushed.
“Technically, it’ll be Fleet Admiral when we… you know, have a fleet.” I remarked with a smirk but pulled my princess into a large hug regardless and planted a proper kiss on her forehead. Luna merely grinned in silence and let herself cuddle into my body. Was different being larger than Luna, but I liked it.
“Right, well, anyways. Luna was supposed to speak with you about something in particular, just the two of you.” Celestia shifted back to whatever it was they’d been talking about when we arrived. She turned back from me and returned to her desk and sat down on the floor cushion to get back to work. “May I suggest you go over it when you’re on your own?”
“We’ll be aiming for the launchpad to hop over to the shipyard and meet up with Twilight next, so I suppose we can talk while we walk.” I agreed and turned towards Luna with inquiry on my face. I was quite interested in what she had to discuss, even if I didn’t know what it was. Luna agreed with a silent nod, the act of doing so making me even more interested, as she turned from the room towards the exit.
“Something about what we’re supposed to talk about?” I whispered, turning back to Celestia curiously. She merely smiled and wished me well on my way, effectively shooing me from her office and dwelling.
“Okay…” I whispered to myself and stuffed myself through the door before it closed on my tail and with a nod, let the guards assigned to us lead Luna and I towards the hangars.
“So…” Luna began, looking down at the metal plates of the floor and not particularly watching where she was going. “About that…”
“What was it you were going to talk to me about?” I strolled casually, doing my best not to let my large body sway into anything too much. The attempts seemed to have been in vain as we passed by a changeling guard and ended up thwacking him in the face with my tail. A passing “Sorry” was all he got before we turned a corner and disappeared once more.
“How…” Luna looked up at me with an extremely red face and anxiety in her eyes. “What are your opinions on… children?”
I shrugged with an included casual groan. “They’re kids, I guess. Used to be I was terrified of the idea of having kids simply because of my generation already having a lot of kids and raising their own under their fucked up behaviour and practices. Figured that if I had kids, they’d grow to conform to the idiots of my generation or be forced to conform out of some need to be like their friends and classmates to fit in.” I explained, taking much longer and slower strides next to Luna who remained otherwise quietly in thought.
“And now that you’re with me and staying with me? Do you still have those fears?” Luna looked up at me again, searching my eyes with her own for the truth.
“Well,” the single, drawn-out word seemed to have decimated my girlfriend as a worrying frown appeared on her muzzle. “Yes and no. I’d be worried about raising kids while also colonizing a new planet. The amount of work that would go into both tasks at the same time would be ridiculous. At the same time, I’m less worried about how they’d grow up since they wouldn’t be growing up online like the rest of my generation’s kids.”
“So…” Luna seemed to step purposefully in order to sway left and right until she knocked her flanks against mine. “What would you say to having kids… with… me?”
I stopped, Luna stopped and then the guards stopped. Keeping my face looking as natural and as calm as I could, I asked, “What?”
“What objections would you have to having your children with me? I have passed my thousand year interval recently, and I would be more than pleased to bear your children to contribute to the colonization effort as a mother.” Luna explained, shifting around where she stood staring at the floor and traced a circle with the tip of her hoof.
Keeping quiet as I remained in thought, the facial motions of me doing as such clearing defined on my beak, I raked a talon over my head feathers, pulling them back down my neck like my hair had done before I was a human engineer. This didn’t seem to sit well with the princess as she turned to continue the walk in shame, having bared her soul to me and received nothing in return.
“Hold on!” I called ahead, racing to catch up and slid to a halt alongside Luna as she stared down at the floor in defeat once more. “I would love for you to bear my children, but because you want to, not because of the colonization effort. I also want to leave this conversation until after we’ve arrived on the planet, since fetuses won’t survive the cryo-stasis. Did you not notice how there were only creatures whose ages put them at their early teen years? I had to make special exceptions for the CMCs due to their age and status as the sisters to our friends. They took so much extra work to keep them alive in Cryo.” I explained simply and gently lifted Luna’s face with a talon to have her look at me again. Small tears seemed to have leaked out and so I carefully wiped them away with a thumb.
“Then, when we land on the new world and build our new civilization, you would take me as your bride and start a family with me?” Luna asked quietly, unsure whether what she was hearing from me was true or not despite the glint of hope in her eyes as she stared up at me. She sniffled back a few stray tears and searched my eyes for the answer she sought.
“Princess Luna,” I replied, sitting back on my new tail for lack of kneeling positions and took her hoof in my hand. My voice remained calm and sure of myself as the guards remained silent around us but silently watched with anticipation. “It would give me no end of pleasure if I could take your hoof in marriage once we start the new world and can begin a new family together.”
Luna’s eyes began to tear up again as she held back a breath before letting it out in a wet sigh through a massive grin on her face. “I accept!” she declared before leaping into my embrace while the few guards around us applauded. “I can’t believe it!” Luna announced, her voice hoarse and squeaking as she pulled herself from my body to wipe at her eyes with the back of her hooves. “I’m actually engaged!”
“You make it sound like this is a first time occurrence for you.” I chuckled back and stood proudly as I could, my entire frame appearing to take up the entire hallway all at once.
“It actually is. Over the… two and a half thousand years I’ve been alive and the single child I bore one thousand years ago, I’ve never once been made a wife.” Luna admitted and backed herself to stroll alongside me for a few meters before she climbed up onto my back and wrapped her forelegs around my neck affectionately as I continued the walking procedure of moving to the hangar.
“Well then,” I fluffed myself up a bit enthusiastically. “I will have to do my damnedest to be the best husband I possibly can be once we’re on the new world.”
“And I shall be the best wife I can be.” Luna announced and nuzzled against the entire length of my neck with her head. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell everyone!”
“Well, why not let it be a surprise? This new body is going to be quite a surprise for everyone as it is, why ruin things by piling on this engagement? We can wait to tell everyone once they all wake up on the new planet.” I suggested cautiously. If Luna wanted to tell everyone immediately, who would I be to stop her?
“Mmm,” my fiance hummed to herself in thought a moment before agreeing. “Very well, we shall postpone the announcement of our engagement until after we’ve landed on the new world. I will warn you now, however, that I’ve already given my sister the great news via telepathy.”
“That is fine, she is your sister.” I nodded back and stopped to let Luna off my back once we reached the airlock out of the building. While she stepped in as she was, I took a second to place my helmet back over my head, having to twist my neck with the helmet in order not to squash my beak when I made the airtight seals of the suit.
Ensuring everything was secure, I set my suit to pressurize and let the suit push oxygen from the tanks into the suit in order to test the seals before sucking it all back into the tanks to keep the suit tight against my body; which was now extremely uncomfortable with feathers and a tail.
Now fully suited and fully sealed, I stepped into the airlock with my princess and let the doors close on one side before the oxygen was sucked out of the room and Luna applied a breathing spell to her neck. The exterior doors began to slide open with a hiss of whatever remaining oxygen in the air so that the pair of us could step outside into empty space.
“Hey, do you think you’ll fit the pilot’s cockpit of our ship?” Luna wondered as she slowly strolled alongside me in the quarter-earth gravity. Before us stretched the lunar surface in a drab grey, often pocked with small craters or hills. Above us, the emptiness of Equestrian space stretched on for however far it lasted before it became registered space. Stars, twinkling all around us or some even going out after having a millennia of already being dead, exploded into the skies above the both of us.
“If not, I’ll just rebuild it so that I can fit.” I offered back once I’d returned to reality having gotten over my space-gazing. Approaching the landing pad with out ship sitting at wait, Luna launched herself up to the navigator’s seat and unlocked the hatch to slide in while I glided onto the side of the pilot’s seat and pulled it open to try and begin stuffing myself into the seat.
It just wasn’t having it. With light chuckling in my ear from Luna, I pulled myself out and retrieved my welder and grinder from my backpack to begin work at changing out the seat for a larger one. It’s a good thing I had designed Griffon accessible cockpits for the few griffon ships that shuttled around only materials from the surface. We weren’t going to risk any dissident Griffons hitching a ride on-board the colony ships and each Griffon employee was checked before, during at random times and after their shifts.
Swapping the cockpits out was quick and easy and soon I stored away my tools and crawled into the cockpit from the back, now lying flat on my belly. The design choice was due to the fact that Griffon’s couldn't physically sit like humans could due to their increased sizes, so instead would go into the cockpit beak first and lie on their stomachs to pilot their ships.
“This is so fucking uncomfortable.” I commented once the back of the canopy hissed shut and the entire ship pressurized to refill my oxygen tanks. “Remind me to design another new griffon-accessible cockpit that let's me sit up.”
“Will do.” Luna chuckled and ran through the startup sequence with me which allowed me to go through the pre-flights and get our ship off the ground that much quicker.
As the ship fired up, my enclosed cockpit did as well and all of a sudden I could see around the entire ship with only a few controls remaining visible for me to use. My HUD was printed out all around me on the screens that made me feel like I was flying on my own wings, just heavier and trailing a massive ship body on my back.
“First stop, Twilight and Sunset on the shipyard.” I announced and engaged thrust off the pad and aimed up and to the left. Behind us the planet loomed over us, massive fires as the planet broke down in its final throes of life and rioting visible from the moon. It was heart wrenching to say the least.
Ahead of us, the massive white space station that the colony ships were being printed out from was cascaded over by sunlight with a new ship already halfway finished and being slowly pushed out of the auto-shipyard by small tugs and shuttles. I lead the ship towards the nearest empty landing pad once I’d gotten landing permission from Tower Control and set down on the underside of pad 3, one of the smallest pads on the gargantuan station.
Locking the landing feet on the ship and powering down, my vision went black just a half minute before the cockpit opened from the back and slid down a ways to allow exit. I pulled myself out as Luna was already shutting her canopy and locking it and soon activated my jetpack in order to navigate to the steel floor and lock my new mag-boots (mag-boots had been quickly invented in order for creatures to traverse the station given a lack of gravity generators) to allow me to walk. Somewhere along the trip, Luna had switched out her normal shoes for a pair of solar/battery-powered mag-boots fitted to her hooves alone.
Moving to the upper side of the landing pad had the heavily armoured/armed pony guards eye me curiously but saluted at Luna’s approach regardless.
“Your highness, excuse the intrusion, but we need you to declare your guest for the log.” One guard, a male unicorn dressed in the heavy gold and blue Security-class suit, requested with his helmet remaining down and over his face.
“Very well, this is my fia-” I held a claw up to correct her, moving to keep the secret like we’d agreed. “This is my coltfriend, the pilot. He’s trying out a new form in order to stay with us on the new world.” Luna explained with a giggle, having nearly let slip the secret she apparently so desired to announce on the top of her lungs.
“I…” both guards stammered as they looked me over and raised their face shields. I did the same and let them get a look at my new silver-feathered face from behind the glass. “We understand, Princess. We apologize, please have a pleasant visit.” the other guard, a pegasus, requested and unlocked the airlock into the station.
With a nod from the both of us, we entered into the building and let the station supply us with oxygen before allowing further access into the vessel.
“Okay, I suppose I'll have to get used to that.” I sighed once I’d pulled my helmet off and stored it under my wing. “Twilight’s office?” I looked to Luna.
“Twilight’s office.” Luna smirked and lead the way.