Twilight galloped into the bar and took her seat quickly. “I did it, I woke him up, he’s awake, he’s awake!”
“That’s fantastic, how’s he taking it?”
“He doesn’t know I woke him up… I can’t tell him, he’d hate me, he’d hate me for taking away his life, just so I wouldn’t be alone anymore. Celestia, what’ve I done?” Twilight asked as she clutched her head in her hooves and stared into a bottle of wine that was directly in front of her.
“You’ve done what you feel you needed to. If you want, you can bring him here and-”
“No! You can’t tell him, he can’t know yet. I’ll tell him, but I have to let it come naturally. I have to tell him in the right way, this’ our secret, okay?” she asked Minnie, implored.
“As you wish, Twilight, I’m just a bartender, not a secretary,” she replied. “Care for a drink?”
“A stiff one, double Scotch with Splenda this time,” Twilight said as she replaced her hooves to her temples and pressed lightly. “C’mon, Twilight, you’ve been through worse. You’ve fought monsters that would have flayed the flesh from every unicorn, just for their pelts and a giggle. You’ve negotiated peace with a race of bipeds that were in their fourth world war and were ready to end their entire race. You’ve befriended the Lord of Chaos, several times. You can handle this.”
“Here’s your drink, Twilight, anything you wish to share?”
“No,” Twilight said as she drank the drink in a single swallow, slammed her hoof onto the bar, and roared as the liquor burned its way down her throat, then coughed. “Luna’s teats that’s strong,” she said as she charged her magic, “I’ll see you soon, please, our secret,” she said before she vanished from Minnie’s bar.
…
Twilight landed on her bed and bounced twice, taking in the open feel of her suite as she felt her head spin for a brief time before she rolled to her hooves and climbed from the bed. She went down to the second floor and to the bathroom. Showering, brushing her teeth, peeing, grooming herself and preening her wings; she finished and looked at herself in the mirror and her eyes locked on her horn.
“No, no-no-no, I can’t let him see me like this. Pegasus or unicorn? Can’t be both, but have to be one… which?” she looked to her sides and the wings comfortably tucked in, then to her horn and sighed. They were both as much a part of her as her fur was… but she’d cut that off once and was still herself.
She concentrated and focused her magic to her sides and with a much simpler popping sound than she expected, her wings were gone. “There, now,” she cast a similar spell and her wings reappeared, “okay, there when I need them. Hello, unicorn Twilight, it’s been a while,” she said as she focused her magic and let the spell envelop her body.
She felt herself shrink slightly and the pop sound came again and before her eyes she looked at the unicorn she had once been so long ago. She smiled to herself and turned around, examining herself and groaned as she looked at her cutie mark. “That won’t work, he’d know me regardless! Okay, Starlight Glimmer, time to do the old cutie mark trick you taught me.”
With a few seconds of focus she recalled the spell and closed her eyes, she released the spell and felt a cold tingle wash across her body, then opened her eyes. “What!? No! I’m not supposed to look like Starlight Glimmer, I’m supposed to have her cutie mark,” she sighed and recast the spell with different focus this time.
She watched her coat return to the comfortable purple she knew, her mane returned to its correct colors, and her cutie mark was now Starlight Glimmer’s. “Thanks, old friend, I knew I could always count on you when I needed you,” she sighed as she stood tall and left the bathroom, the suite, and the floor.
Twilight noticed several lights flickering on and off in the distance down a hall. “That’s the thirty seventh time that’s happened this month, what’s going on?” she asked. “Discord? Is that you? Are you here?” Silence replied as the halls went dark again. “Fine, be that way,” she turned back to the elevator and walked in, stopped, then returned quickly to her room.
…
“Hello?” Shining Smile asked as he walked into a shop and looked around, “anyone here?” Twilight stepped from the elevator and watched him exit the shop and walk across the hall to another. “Hello?” he called out.
“Hello,” Twilight answered from behind him. He turned and looked at her and smiled. “Oh, hello. I’m Shining Smile, I just woke up, but there’s no one else here, where is everyone?”
Twilight stood still. “I’m Twilight… Glimmer, and we’re it. You woke up early… just like I did.”
His smile fell, then he smirked. “Right, so you’re a comedian?” He watched as her expression didn’t change from its serious nature. “Wait, how can we be awake early? How early are we talking here, a couple months?”
…
“Estimated time to arrival is in 131 years, eight months, nine days.”
He stared in silent shock at the images before him. “H-how long, um, have you been awake?”
“Meh,” she looked past the holographic images of their journey and into real space beyond the window, “about four years.”
He snapped his gaze to her and looked at her slightly empty eyes and before she knew it she was in a tight hug. She tensed at first, pulling back slightly, then let her body relax as she fell into his embrace and began to cry openly, loudly, from the deepest part of her being. Centuries of sorrow began to pour out of her at the moment and he held her as she vented the sorrows she’d kept hidden, the fears she put away, and the anxiety she had coped with.
Most of all, she cried because of what she’d done to this stallion and that she’d have to tell him.
…
“This’ the main dinner hall, there are eighteen dispensary islands across the floor and each has virtually unlimited food, especially if it’s just the two of us,” she giggled softly as he looked around the area.
“It’s so, clean and empty. You’ve been coming here for four years?”
“Four times a day, everyday. A mare has to eat a regular diet,” Twilight smiled.
“But, Twilight Glimmer, it’s such an extreme case. A pony shouldn’t be able to be alone for more than six months before madness begins to set in, how did you-”
“Ah, here we are,” she interrupted him, not liking where the conversation was heading, “my favorite island. I’ll get my meal and meet you at my reserved table, okay?”
He nodded and watched as she waved her hoof then tapped two keys and took her dispensed meal to her table.
Twilight sat and looked at her block of meal and sighed as she took the spoon in her magic and pressed it to the corner. As always, it began to crumble under the weight of the spoon and within a few seconds of her sitting a small group of four robots were waiting to pick up her mess. She smiled at them and tossed the first spoonful to the robots.
“Jasper, Snickers, Cordy, you let Buddy eat, too.”
She sniffed the air as Shining arrived with a tray full of hot food: fresh oatmeal, scrambled eggs, buttered toast with strawberry jam, almond flavored cappucino… her gaze crossed his tray as he sat down and she looked at her broken block of, ‘food’. She took the spoon to her mouth and crunched the roughage as he sat down and smiled at his meal.
He glanced to her tray and raised an eyebrow. “On a diet?”
She chuckled softly and raised the hoof that wore the bracelet. “No, this’ what I can have at my access level.”
His jaw fell open. “You mean to tell me that you’ve eaten that for four years?” Twilight nodded and lifted her spoon to her mouth again, her chest aching at the scent of his meal before he grabbed her tray and moved it aside, pushing his in its place. “Eat this, please.”
“No, it’s your meal, I’ll-”
“Don’t be proud, you need more than that to live and we both know it. Now, eat up and I’ll get another tray,” he said firmly as he got up and turned tail, a rather nice tail, to her and returned to the island and got another tray. “There, now we can eat a proper meal, right?”
Twilight stared at the food in front of her and wiped her right eye from the tears that were forming before she took her spoon and scooped hot oats into her mouth. She began trembling in excitement as she began hopping across the tray, eating some of everything as quickly as she could, just in case something happened to make her have to stop.
Shining smiled as he watched Twilight gobble her meal as he took a more modest spoonful of food to his lips and enjoyed a rather common meal that he’d had only a couple days before, in his timeframe. He chuckled as he watched her guzzle the drink down like a crazed animal, ignoring her magic and using her hooves, then drop the cup into it’s spot.
He sniffed the air as a sudden sweetness, he knew pretty well, filled the air and he blushed as he thought of its source. The mare across from him was definitely excited from the meal, he thought. A common occurrence according to some studies, he began to think while focusing on his meal and away from the mare’s enjoyment of her first real meal in years.
Twilight licked her bowl clean as she held it in her hooves and let it fall to the tray, then licked the tray free of toast crumbs, and then her hooves, just in case there was anything there.
She slumped back in her seat and giggled giddily as her belly grumbled at her in satisfaction. She stared at the ceiling tiles for a moment before she felt herself falling asleep and began to tip backwards and before she could stop herself she tumbled from her seat, ungracefully with flailing limbs and a yelp, and landed on her back.
“Oh my, are you alright, Twilight?” Shining asked in concern as he got up and quickly went to the smiling mare.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been better,” she said and yawned. He yawned too and they shared a chuckle. “I think I need sleep, how do you feel?”
“Tired and thirsty, just like they said I would when I woke up.”
Twilight forced herself onto her hooves and stumbled forward, taking her tray in her magic and putting it away. “Hurry and eat, I’ve gotta show you a few more things around the ship.”
Shining nodded and drank the rest of his coffee and cleaned his tray and sided Twilight. “I’m ready.”
“Then follow me. Sorry guys,” she looked to the robots, “no more snacks today.”
She showed him the pool, the elevators, a couple observation areas she preferred and not once did he complain that she was showing him common things that held no interest to him. He was following her and letting her talk as much as she wanted, in a tight black dress with white opals, that showed her muscles moving as she walked, because she needed it more than she knew.
“And this’ the bar! I spend time here almost every day, too. Well, everyday, and then some, sometimes. This’ Minnie, the bartender! Minnie, this’ Shining Smile!” Twilight beamed and placed a foreleg across his back.
Minnie looked to Twilight and processed something before looking to the stallion. “Ah, it’s nice to meet you, I hope you two enjoy your time together. Would you like a drink?”
Twilight cleared her throat. “A water! Or, uhm, tea? Maybe a coffee?” she placed her hooves on the floor again and thought for a moment.
“I’ll take a margarita, mango, and make it sweeter than normal.”
Twilight looked to the stallion as he took a seat several from where she usually sat and then to Minnie, who seemed to be taking in Twilight’s change in appearance as well as her indecisiveness. “I’ll take the usual, a single, with lemon this time,” Twilight said as she approached her seat and hesitated.
“Um, I’ve sat here for the past few years,” she said uneasily looking at Shining and the seats next to him.
“Oh, it’s fine,” he said hurriedly,” I’ll move to you so you don’t have to sit alone over there.”
She took her seat and he sat next to her as Minnie began making the drinks. “Here’s to long lives and good health,” Twilight toasted more from rote memory than plan. She clinked her cup to his and drank half her cup, gently setting it on the bartop and staring into it.
He sipped his drink and sighed. “Now that’s a great drink. Thanks, Minnie. So, Twilight, what’s the plan?”
“Plan?” she asked side glancing to him.
“Yeah, to get us back to sleep or wake up others. You know, a plan? There’s gotta be something you’ve thought of over all this time.”
***
Shining looked sadly at the spread of tools, cutting equipment, computer parts, and torn apart walls around the command rooms. “I’ve tried everything to get into the command decks. The pod room is secure and so is the command room. I can see into the command room through the window in the door, but that’s all the access I have.”
“Well, maybe I can have more luck,” Shining said as he went to a command console and waved his hoof over the unbroken pad. “Access denied,” a voice said.
She placed a hoof on his side. “It won’t open, I’ve tried everything.”
“I didn’t think it would work, but it was worth a shot,” he said quietly, “so, that’s it then? Why not go back to engineering and slow the ship down?”
Twilight shook her head and kicked a screwdriver away from her hoof. “If I tinker with anything back there I could drop us out of FTL and then the trip would take a hundred thousand times longer. If I did manage to even slow us down, the next ship is still on autopilot and won’t do anything but avoid us.
“We could even watch it pass us by, if we’re sharp eyed enough,” she said with a smile, “I’ve done the math and worked out everything, there’s nothing to do but live.”
He turned to her and frowned. “Well I’m not ready to cash it in. I just woke up so there’s still hope, and maybe if we woke up from hypersleep then others might, too. We may not be alone for long, so we have to hope for the best, right?”
He walked past her and to the elevators. “I’m going to my room, you wanna come and work out some plans, you may. Otherwise I’ll see you in a few hours at Minnie’s?”
Twilight followed him. “Yeah, I can talk about my plans... But first, let me show you some things I do to get my mind in a better place.
Twilight led him to an observation room and called the holographic trail of their journey up and began offering different scenarios that ranged from flying too close to a star for a gravity assist and warping the star’s atmosphere enough to cause it to make a slight shift in spectrum and change it’s color from white to a tinge of blue. Another scenario had her change the planet to having a surface of green jello.
They shared a laugh at the sight of the ships bouncing across the surface. The last scenario was her favorite; as they landed her nine best friends were waiting for her with open forelegs when she disembarked. She shed a tear while Shining hugged her.
…
This is the arcade,” Twilight said as she led him in. Pinkie welcomed him, as well, and his eyes were drawn to each game that had Twilight’s name as the score winner in nearly every slot on every machine.
“Here’s the best one for me, because I love to dance and I’ve gotten better at it since I’ve had so much time to practice. I really can’t believe how bad of a dancer I was and nopony told me!” she smiled weakly. She slipped into her black rubber shoes and climbed the stairs with him following as the lights dimmed.
“All you do is copy what they do and you get points! It’s so easy and a great way to learn to dance,” she said as the characters appeared and struck a pose that Shining laughed at. “Yes, even the poses.” She wiggled her legs and tail and starred the pink pony across from her down with an intensity that bordered on pre-combat.
When the pink pony began dancing Twilight copied her moves almost exactly with a fluidity that almost belied ponykind. Shining was in awe as she ended with her own pose, forelimbs crossed as she stood on one hind leg, panting and smiling victoriously. “Your turn,” she said landing on all fours and taking a well deserved sit.
Shining looked to the slick and bearded stallion across from him and smirked awkwardly as the hologram began to wiggle his backside and side step to the beat. Shining looked to Twilight, who was hopefully looking at him, then he began to copy the moves. The music hummed to a stop several seconds in and Twilight laughed.
“B-b-b-b-usted!” the game announced as Shining looked around in shock.
“But, I did exactly what he did,” he pointed a hoof at the stallion that was sitting and leaning against the pink pony.
“Not well enough. Try again?”
“Yes,” he said with a determined look crossing his blue face. The match began again with Twilight scoring high and he scored better, completing the round. He reared and stomped his hooves at his close win to loss and Twilight flinched.
“Okay, I think we can play something else if-”
“Oh, Tartarus no, I’m gonna whoop that guy’s flank,” he said with a grin to her then wiggled his legs and got ready for the next round.
…
Twilight sidestepped his rush and bit tighter on the ball as she pushed through the very padded robotic guards and crossed the goal line. “Yes! Another point for team Twilight! Woot-woot!” she spiked the hoofball and did a little jig in place as he trotted up to her.
“Okay, so you’re a master of hoofball too? What can’t you do?”
Her smile fell as she thought suddenly of the one thing she couldn’t do.
…
“That won’t work either. The combustion ratio is seventeen to three point six five, the resulting reaction would cause more damage to the superstructure before opening the doors, or even denting or scratching them.”
“You’re really smart, what was your special talent again?”
Twilight looked away from him and faked a cough. “Well, uh, venting energy?”
“So, you got your cutie mark while venting energy? Interesting,” he said writing something on a notepad he’d been using all day. “Okay, and how old were you when that happened?”
“About seven, maybe nine. I can’t really remember anymore, so much has happened that it’s just become another day in a long lonely life,” she said moving another technical manual to herself. She yawned. “I’d been three days that we’ve been going over these plans and we haven’t gotten anywhere I haven’t been yet, why don’t we just admit defeat and go do something?”
“I’m still not convinced that it’s over. There were at least a hundred different creatures that designed this ship, and the others, for the trip. Heck, Princess Twilight Sparkle played a huge roll! There’s gotta be a way to get around this, she’s known for her neurotic obsession with every possible detail, there’s a way, we just have to think like her.”
Twilight held back a giggle. “You’re funny when you’re stressed.”
“And why do you feel that way?”
“Because when I get stressed I kind of obsess with whatever it is that’s bothering me until I resolve it. It took me years to go over every possible way that wouldn’t end with somepony on the ship getting hurt,” she glanced to him then away, “but then I found you, and here we are.”
“I see,” he scratched more on the notepad, “have you read all these technical manuals?”
“No, just the relevant ones. I don’t think the manual on waste reclamation is going to help wake up the command crew. Or the one about recycling air, how would that help us get back to sleep for the rest of the journey? And this one,” she held up a manual on maintaining the robots, “I’ve even read this one three times, just in case a robot could have access in any possible way, and still no luck,” she tossed the hardcover manuscript away.
Twilight rolled to her back and looked at the ceiling of his room. It was far nicer than the one she’d be assigned. It was higher, with a changing spell that made it flow with the time of day, on Equestria, and there were even pegasi in the distance moving clouds that she could see. All an illusion, though. The chandelier was a nice touch to his room, though, and the small waterfall that sang or hummed, or even made ocean noises… maybe a little much. She remembered it had been designed for a human, not a pony, so it was a bit more lavish than it needed to be.
“Hey, Shining?”
“Yeah, Twilight?”
“Can I… sleep over tonight?”
There was a pregnant pause and silence as Twilight awaited the declination. “I don’t see why not,” he finally said. If Twilight had her wings still she’d have flown around the small room with her excitement. She, instead, rolled to her belly then jumped twice, then landed on his bed and snuggled with the covers.
“Oh, this’ gonna be so nice, to have a sleeping buddy!”
He chuckled as he looked up at the late afternoon sky. “Yeah, when it’s bed time. Until then, how about I get back to planning?”
Twilight hummed as she nuzzled a pillow then quickly rolled from the bed. “Hey! Lemme show you my room! It’s really nice and it was supposed to be for Princess Twilight and her leadership crew! It’s totally neat-o, lemme show you, ple~ase?” she begged as she lowered herself beside him.
He rolled his eyes and smiled before he agreed. Twilight hopped up and went to the doorway, pushing it open with ease as she’d been given access to his room, and quickly led him to her suite.
“Wow,” he said walking in through the massive oaken doors. He couldn’t help but notice the cutie mark on the door and the certain way Twilight’s rump swung when she was walking in. He shook his head and looked around the room in awe. “It’s so, big!”
Twilight giggled. “That’s what she said!” she shouted and burst into laughter. “Oh, Celestia, I’ve waited so long to finally use that joke… and it was worth it! The look, on your face!” she laughed as he gawked at her before chuckling.
“I didn’t know you were so… crude,” he said in jest as he walked past her and looked at the three floors. “So, you’ve lived here?”
“Oh, yeah! Lemme show you! There’s a kitchen here, but I don’t have access to buy anything to cook and I had an assistant that did most of my cooking when I should have learned and then when I could have learned I was too busy with my job and then I just let my friends help or I ordered food more often than not, not that you could tell with my figure but I make certain to exercise a lot otherwise I’d get fat and lose my confidence and Celestia always says that confidence makes the mare so there’s that,” she paused to inhale deeply and began to explain what each floor held as she happily went up the stairs and hopped around between each area.
“And this’ my bed where I sleep and that over there is Fort Book, where I can read all the books I want all day and night and no one can stop me because I’m Princess Twilight and any monster that comes near my fort will be thwarted by the mightiest weapon of all!” she shouted as she struck a pose, pointing above and beyond herself.
“And what might that be,” Shining held back a laugh at her practiced theatrics.
“The power of the written word! None shall defeat Fort Book as long as the Princess possesses the books of freedom!” she karate chopped the air and ended her pose, then looked back at him with a cheesy grin. “But, Fort Book could always use a knight to defend it, too.”
Shining trotted over to the small structure made from books, stacked together and with enough space for one pony to fit and nodded. “Yeah, I could see it. Where do I sign up?”
Twilight went over to him and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back. She withdrew and smiled. “Thanks, for being here with me.”
They looked deeply into each other’s eyes as Twilight leaned in closer to him and he stayed still, ready for a kiss… only to be booped on the nose. “Tag! You’re it!”