Twilight laid in her bed, in her suite, alone. She’d sobbed and cried for the past two days until she couldn’t cry anymore. Opening her eyes she coughed dryly and looked to the water dispenser across the room. Calling to her magic she pressed the button and began collecting some in a magic sphere before bringing it to herself and sipping it all down in one motion.
She sighed once she’d finished drinking and laid her head back down on the soft pillow and sighed. “Another day, another night… another decade alone,” she whimpered as she shut her eyes tightly.
She turned her gaze down past her legs and to the window and looked into space and wished she could cry again. Cry more. She groaned in the effort to squeeze a single tear from her eyes and finally laid her head back to the pillow in exasperation.
“What am I doing with my life?” she whispered. “All I’m doing is living in the past and the present, again. I should be thinking about the future, the world I’ll be leading and the ponies and others…” she stopped and sighed, again. Stopping herself she rolled to her belly and climbed from the pristine covers to the edge and then the floor.
Walking to the stairs she descended and looked around the second floor, it was more barren than she’d remembered. She hadn’t noticed him moving in his things and acquired items from around the ship until it was all gone. In the time she’d taken to talk with Minnie about what she’d done and how she couldn’t blame the robot, he’d cleaned out all his belongings from her suite.
He probably returned to his room, but she’d been to self absorbed to think about it until now. “Computer, Fluttershy?”
“Yes, Princess Twilight Sparkle? How can I help?”
“...Where’s Shining Armor… I mean Shining Smile?”
“Prince Shining Armor has been deceased for over one thousand years, Shining Smile is on deck 7, room 3523.”
Twilight looked at her bathroom and thanked the hologram before she cleaned herself up, used the facilities to their fullest capabilities then placed her crown upon her head.
She left her suite and made her way to Shining Smile’s quarters.
Stopping outside his door she heard the sound of music playing through the door. She raised a hoof to knock and stopped herself. Looking at her foreleg and then back to her wings she shook her head slightly. She shouldn’t lie to him anymore. No more secrets. No more being alone.
Knocking on the door softly she waited a few second and shrugged, then began to turn to walk away, then she was face to face with the stallion as he left the bathroom. Staring at him she hoped to see a smile, only to see a frown form and his brow furrow. “Are you here to put me back to sleep?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I was desperate and-”
“Then have a nice day,” he bowed slightly, mockingly exaggerating the next phrase, “your highness.” He walked past her and bumped her out of his way as he went to his room, opened the door, and let it shut behind him without looking back once. Twilight stared at the door in slight shock.
“No pony’s done that to me in… ever!” she huffed and walked to his door, knocking forcefully like a police officer looking for entrance. “Hey, you don’t get to leave that way!” The music turned louder and the panel blinked red for a second. “You can’t lock me out! I’m a Princess and you have to listen to me!”
The music loudened and she stomped her hoof to the floor heavily in frustration. “Fine, be that way. I’ll talk to you later,” she shouted to the door and turned away, stomping to the elevator and taking a seat. “Swimming pool,” she said to the room and waited as the doors closed. They made a hushing sound as they closed. “No, you hush! He has no reason to shut me out now, we’re all we have.”
The pressure in the elevator came in heavier than normal and Twilight’s ears popped as the lift began to move. Halfway to her floor it stopped suddenly and she was sent into the ceiling as the gravity failed just before the lift stopped. “Ouch! What the hay? Fluttershy? Why’s the elevator freaking out? It can’t be mad at me too.”
Fluttershy replied in distorted static, then silence. She wouldn’t reply to Twilight’s commands and requests. Finally Twilight went to an access panel and opened it, using her wings to hold herself steady as she worked the panel free.
“Let’s see here,” she hummed as she scanned the circuitry, “well, maybe if I redirect the power flow from the air filtration system to the lift motors I can get going again.” With a few changes to wires and a switch being toggled several times Twilight grunted as gravity resumed and she fell onto her left hind leg heavily enough to hurt, but the lift had resumed movement.
“That’s more like it,” she said standing and flexing her stressed limb as the lift moved again to her floor.
Twilight exited the lift and quickly went to the pool and jumped in, using her wings to propel herself ahead and to stop her in the middle of the pool, then she relaxed and floated to her back, her wings spread fully to hold her even so she could look at the wooden ceiling.
“What a week.”
***
Twilight panted heavily as she finished her latest lap around the concourse, ignoring the offers shops had if she’d only go in. It was her best run since, ever. She’d never had the time or desire to gallop to her best ability, and she was using it to its fullest. She slowed by a water dispenser and grabbed a cup in her magic as her legs trembled and threatened to fail her. She tossed the cup aside and placed her lips on the dispenser and began to greedily slurp her fill of purified water.
She snorted a breath in and stopped drinking to begin gulping fresh air into her lungs as she let her wings open. She regretted the action as it didn’t relieve the weight on her legs and drew more from her energy reserves than she thought they would. She let herself collapse to the floor beside the water dispenser and exhaled all the air she could before she sucked in more.
Her head spun, her vision blurred, and she felt amazing. The burning across her body, the pain in her muscles, the cold water in her belly that was nearly returning to her mouth with every deep breath. Best of all, she wasn’t thinking about anything besides her body. Not Shining Smile, the lies, the lost friendship, the lonely suite, the life she stole from him… she was lost inside her mind and her mind was clear.
She didn’t know how much time passed but she finally got up and quickly trotted to Minnie’s bar to use the bathroom. She stumbled as she walked in and saw Shining at the bar with a clear liquid in a glass in front of him. He turned to glare at her. “What’re you doing here,” he asked.
“It’s Tuesday, I get to be with Minnie on Tuesday’s.”
“It’s Wednesday,” he clarified and returned to looking into his drink.
“Oh,” she replied as she staggered to the bathroom, “I just have to pee, really bad,” she made her way out of his sight.
“You said you only peed in the shower,” he shouted at her after she’d turned the corner.
“Sir, was that necessary?” Minnie asked Shining.
He looked up from his water and stared at Minnie. “No, it wasn’t. We’ve had this talk before, you know how I feel about her.”
“I also know she’s sorry and wishes for forgiveness.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about forgiveness when we land on Calendar,” he said gulping his drink and moving from the seat. Twilight returned, looking intently at the floor beneath her forehooves as she walked towards the exit. “Forget it, you can have the day with her,” he said as he walked through the exit threshold.
Twilight looked up and inhaled to say something but the words died in her throat and only a whisper of one word escaped. “Please.”
…
Shining was trotting through the concourse, looking at the shops that were waiting for hundreds of visitors. Advertisements galore sprang out at him, it felt like. Advertising discounts for large purchases, groups, and reservations. He continued past them and made his trot down the main hall to the end waterfall. Turning around it he went back on his path to complete his modest workout.
Twilight’s voice squealed to life over the P.A. systems. “Oh, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t think it would, uhm, look, Shining. I’m sorry for waking you. I know I was selfish and petty and being self centered,” Shining looked up to the glass ceiling and around as the mare spoke, not stopping in his trot, but he grew more upset the longer she talked.
“I couldn’t be alone anymore. I spent so long alone that I was bordering on suicide when I found you, asleep in your pod. I, felt something I hadn’t felt for a very long time,” she giggled briefly, “and your name reminded me of my brother. He was the captain of the royal guard back before I first got my wings.
“He was, and always will be, my first best friend… and many others have come and gone. I’ve wielded the elements of harmony with some, fought the Solani with others… and others I’ve been in love with, foolish flings or lifelong affairs. The four years I spent with you, reading to you, sleeping beside you, telling you about my life, I felt that friendship again.
“I didn’t want to wake you up, but I didn’t want to be alone, either. I needed to wake up, and I still haven’t, I guess, in a way. I had to think of the future of the new world, and an insane pony princess wouldn’t have been a good thing. I mean-” she stopped when she looked into a security monitor at him shouting. Flipping a switch she gasped.
“-ole my career! You stole my family and future and money! You ended my family line! I had a dozen names chosen for a child and now they’re worthless! I was something back home, now I’m nothing! I’ll be ashes in space decades before we get there, you…” he fell to his haunches and she could see tears falling to the floor.
“Shining, I know you might not want to talk to me now, but think it over. We can still be friends, uh, distant acquaintances at the worst, right? We haven’t really talked out a plan about anything besides who gets Minnie on which day, but we need more than that, we can’t be alone, can we?”
He looked around and found a camera pod attached to a wall and glared into it. “I was a therapist, I can manage better than you ever could!”
“Oh, I, guess I never asked what you did-”
“That’s because you’re a selfish… you know what, nevermind,” he stood and wiped his eyes before he walked away.
“But, we can talk this out now! You’re a listener, I’m a talker, it’s the perfect base for a friendship.”
“A friendship based on lies and deceit is doomed to fail, Princess. Even you know that.”
She placed her hooves on the console before her and looked intently into another monitor that he was approaching. “Shining, we can start over. I’ll tell you everything from the start and won’t lie to you. I’d even be willing to make you an Alicorn so we can-”
“Live the rest of eternity in a lie?!” he shouted, “With you in the back of my mind as the cause for my eternal torment? Never, I’d spend a year in my room drinking my own-”
Twilight cut the communication off and slumped back into the chair and swiveled it away. “I can fix this, I have to. Starlight Glimmer may be the Princess of Magic now, but I’m still the Princess of Friendship, and I have a standard to uphold. Please, let me fix this,” she squeezed her eyes shut and took a calming breath.
…
Twilight called upon her magic and scanned the floors going down the main concourse, following the fiber optic wiring, power conduits, waste and water pipes, and other technology that was needed to make the ship operate, until she found a large open space where the technology wasn’t crossing over itself in controlled chaos.
“Right here,” she said, marking the spot with a small divot before she left.
…
Twilight slept comfortably in her suite, her bed messy and covered with papers and plans of what she was planning when she felt a presence watching her. She opened her eyes quickly and turned her neck to look to the right and she saw Shining glaring at her.
Without a word they stayed still for a moment before he lifted something and threw it at Twilight. She gasped and screamed as ice water splashed across her, and everything else around her, soaking the mare and bed. He jumped on the bed and pushed her down with his forelegs. “I hope this helps you wake up!” he shouted as she blinked her eyes clear.
He raised a hoof and brought it down quickly and nearly struck her, but he stopped himself. Grunting in frustration he climbed from the bed and went down the stairs, leaving a wet mare in a damp bed. Twilight lay back down and looked at the ceiling, shivering slightly as ice melted between her body and the bed sheets, and felt nothing.
She was emotionally dry and her heart was done aching for him. If she only got to see him when he lashed out, it would be enough.
…
Shining passed Twilight during one of his morning trots and glanced at the mare as she carefully tore a hole in the concourses floor and he rolled his eyes, taking a wide berth around the mare and her doings.
She glanced up at him as he passed by her and then looked back at the opening she was making and focused on her work.
…
Twilight knocked on Shining’s door and rocked side to side, waiting. She knocked again and waited and finally the door hissed open. “I have a gift for you,” she said before he could shout at her. His ears unpinned from his head and moved to face Twilight as his features relaxed slightly.
“I haven’t seen you in three weeks and now this?” he sighed. “What do you want for it?”
“Nothing, just, to give it to you.”
He stared at her. “Fine, give it to me,” he finally said and looked at her hooves.
“It’s by the bar, I left it there for you, you can get it whenever you’re ready.”
“Wait, so you got me something I can’t even have right now?” he asked incredulously as she turned and walked away, a smile forming on her lips. “What a generous gift, your highness,” he snorted and the door hissed shut.
Twilight kept walking and went to the elevator, then the bar, and waited.
An hour passed before the elevator doors chimed and the doors slid open to reveal the blue stallion. He took a few steps past the waterfall and stopped, exhaling deeply at what he saw.
Twilight appeared behind him with a smile. “It’s a willow tree, a few years old when it was put in stasis but it’ll be nice and big in a few years and you can read under it whenever you want and I won’t bother you, I promise.”
He went to the tree and sniffed it, looked it up and down, then moved under it to a tablet lying on the floor. He could feel the soil beneath the metal and he smiled to Twilight for the first time in nearly two months. “Thank you,” he said quietly and moved under the tree, laid down, took the tablet in his hooves and began to look it over.
“I’ll, see you later?”
He didn’t reply or acknowledge her, but she felt better and less empty, and happy.
…
Twilight nuzzled Shining in her bed and hummed contently as she pulled him closer to her and pressed her lips to his, pillow? She woke up and sighed in exasperation. “This’ the second night I’ve dreamed of him,” she whined as she pushed the pillow he’d slept on away and rolled over, “I swear, if I fall in love with him I’ll never forgive myself.
“But, what if he loves me? Or likes me? I haven’t seen him for three days, since I gave him the tree, what if he’s dreaming of me too? Like, right now?” she let a hopeful grin cross her muzzle as she sank as deep as she could into her large, empty bed. “I think, I need to relax before I go to sleep,” she giggled to herself as she pulled the pillow she’d pushed away close again.
***
Twilight woke up bright and refreshed to the sound of the P.A. system announcing something. She hummed and smiled as she nuzzled her pillow, then her ears twitched and she sat up quickly.
“Whoever put a tree on my ship had better have a good reason,” the new female voice rumbled. Twilight fought from her covers and fell from the bed, a tangled mess of sheets and blankets. She grunted and teleported free with a yelp as she began to fall from the third floor terrace to the floor below. Opening her wings and flapping she stopped herself before she impacted and flew to the door.
With a thud she burst through the door and landed, entered into a full gallop to the elevator, and slid into the small room, shouting the floor she needed to get to.
Twilight didn’t sit, choosing to hop on her hoof tips in anticipation as the elevator moved at its seeming slower than usual pace to the concourse.
The elevator stopped early and the doors opened to show a very surprised Shining Smile with a very messy mane. He entered the elevator and the doors sealed the two in the most awkward silence Twilight could remember since she was just a little unicorn. The elevator chimed and the doors hissed open, both ponies moving out in unison and rushing to the tree.
They both stopped as they took in a six foot tall minotaur. Blue skin, black fur, and horns that were polished so well they nearly reflected the tree she was staring at. “What’s the meaning of this?” she pointed at the tree before turning to look at the ponies. Taking in Twilight she fell to her knees in prostration.
“Get up! Who are you, are the others awake?!” Twilight asked loudly as she galloped to the bowing minotaur.
Standing at a quick pace the minotaur shook her head. “Lieutenant Sub-Commander Regina, Alotta, Tech division.”
Shining burst into laughter and earned a glare from both females. “It’s nice to meet you, Alotta,” Twilight raised a hoof in greeting and smiled as Alotta shook it gently. “The tree is here because we needed it,” she glazed over some details, “and now you’re awake so where’s the rest of the crew?” she asked happily.
“I’m the only one awake, my pod had an error and woke me up early. I didn’t expect to find you, Your Highness, or a tree. What’s been going on since we left? You’re supposed to be asleep, both of you, all of us.”
Shining stopped laughing at Twilight’s glare and frowned at her in return. “Look, she woke up and then I did, and now you’re awake. We’ve got a long way to go, too, so welcome to the party,” Shining huffed and crossed his forelegs.
“That’s not an answer I’m alright with,” Alotta said turning to the elevator, “come with me.”
They quietly rode the elevator to the command ring and exited to the sight of a mess of screwdrivers scattered around the area. Alotta looked back to Twilight and then Shining before walking out into the hall and walking past the spent equipment. “I was wondering what all this was about.”
“Yeah, we tried to get into the command center or the command sleeping pods, but it’s sealed really well.”
“Human’s don’t take chances,” she said stepping over a large industrial drill and leading the ponies, “they wanted to make sure the command crew woke up if we were needed and the ship would be safe from anything and everything that would or could harm it or its crew. The fact you’re awake tells me there’s something very wrong.”
They made it to the command door and Alotta waved her wrist before the panel and the door opened, just like any other. Twilight’s eye twitched as Shining patted her on the side before he walked past her and inside.
“Don’t touch anything,” Alotta said as she walked into the command room. A sterile white room with windows around every other side, a large table glowed in the center of a lowered platform while another, smaller, table of the same style a few lengths inside the doorway. Twilight reached to touch the smaller table and an alarm blared.
“Dude! Don’t touch the merchandise!” Rainbow’s voice called out. Twilight blushed slightly and relaxed her foreleg from her chest as Alotta and Shining looked pointedly at her.
“Computer, system diagnostics?” Alotta asked the larger table.
“Hey, I dunno what’s going on here, but it’s not my fault!”
Alotta frowned and looked at Twilight. “This is the hero, the greatest pegasi commander, of Equestria?”
“The voice is Rainbow Dash, and in her life she accomplished a lot, so it was logical, to the programmers, to have her as the command interface. Not me,” she pointed out.
“Whatever, there’s no display so there’s gotta be something wrong with the diagnostics systems. We need to reboot the system,” Alotta said with a heavy cough, “excuse me for that. On each deck there’s a panel by the floor marked with a serial number ending with the deck number and a corresponding letter on the wall nearest the elevator, open it and connect this,” she took a tablet from a nearby cubby that blended into the wall, “and plug it in, then get back here.”
Twilight and Shining nodded, taking a tablet each and moving to the doorway. “While you’re doing that, I’ll check your pods.” Twilight and Shining kept moving, slightly more nervous and anxious of each other.
…
Twilight appeared behind Alotta as she looked intently at the circuitry of Shining’s pod. “Your pod just opened, woke you up early. This pod,” she paused to cough into her hand and wipe it on her leg, “does he know you sabotaged it?”
Twilight moved the tablet from her magic to the minotaur. “Yes, that’s why I planted the tree. We’re still over a century and a quarter from Calandar, I needed him to be my friend, even if it was in the smallest way.
Alotta groaned and shook her head. “Damn. How far did you two take it?”
“I kissed him once, on his birthday.”
“That’s it? I’d have ridden him like a bucking bronco,” Alotta grinned widely as Twilight suddenly frowned and lowered her head. “That’s what I thought, you like him, don’t you?”
Twilight’s demeanor changed and she took a step back in surprise. “Uh, I, uh.”
“Well said, for a princess. I won’t tell him, and sorry about that a second ago… unless you wanna share?” Alotta laughed loudly at Twilight’s baffled expression and her wings popping open as naughty thoughts filled her mind.
“N-no! He’s mine, I mean, he’s not mine but- Stop teasing me, let’s find out what’s wrong.”
…
The table lit up and an image of the ship appeared, red warning boxes filled the air around the ship with lines connecting where the problems were. “Well, this sucks,” Alotta mumbled as she took in the nearly ship wide alerts.
“What they hay?” Shining whispered at the alerts.
“The whole ship is in trouble, isn’t it? Computer, what’s happened?” Twilight asked.
“She won’t respond to you, Your Highness, your access is too low. Computer, what happened to cause all this?” Alotta asked.
The image changed to a bar graph with a high spike on it. “So, there was something that happened and the shields were all boosted up and then stuff started to go all wonky.”
Alotta looked at the spike and tapped it, expanding it. “Pod Princess 4 activated when the event happened,” she looked at Twilight and then back to the display. Pinching her fingers on the bar it shrank down and the other errors began to show in order. “Something’s been causing errors and making the system work harder and harder to compensate whatever’s causing the problem.”
“So, just ask the computer what happened and fix it,” Shining advised.
“Not that simple. The event changed the workings of the self repair, so that means,” Alotta coughed roughly, “we have to find and repair the problem ourselves,” she managed to say before falling to a knee and supporting herself on the table with another coughing fit.
“Alotta, you’re not well, what’s wrong?”
“I… don’t know,” she replied as she clutched her chest and rasping a deep breath, “I, need to rest, give me until this evening.” She stood and walked proudly to the door and after it opened she looked back. “I’ll be right back, relax and have some time, we’re going to be busy soon and I don’t know for how long.”
Twilight looked at Shining who began walking to the door. “Shining-”
“I’ll be under my tree, resting as well.”
Twilight closed her mouth and nodded once to the stallion who didn’t look back once as he followed the minotaur out of the room. Alone, Twilight turned back to the table and ran a hoof along the surface. “I miss the old days of you sending me and my friends on little missions, what do I do now? Now that everything feels wrong?”
She looked at the table, waiting some kind of reply. “Computer,” Twilight called out.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Rainbow’s voice replied.
“I’d… like to upgrade to Princess Diamond Level.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. What’s the password?”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, code Harmonic 6.”
“Oh, my bad! You’ll be upgraded as soon as the Ship Commander gives approval for pass level increase, thanks for flying Air Dash.”
Twilight facehoofed and groaned. “Of course I need security to give me access to a higher level, human security protocols.” She turned to leave and relax as well.
Hours later Twilight was swimming in the pool, her wings gone as she had realized she enjoyed swimming as a unicorn. Shining was reading under the tree, a hushed rustling of the leaves drew his attention up as that rarely happened before he yawned and laid his head down and quickly fell asleep.
Alotta was deeply asleep, breathing raspily, in her quarters.
As Gravity failed.
Twilight was hovering underwater, remembering when she was young and imagined what it was like to float in the sky. Something she didn’t think was possible at the time. She held still, holding her breath as she relaxed and let her mind flow like a steady river. An ache was barely noticeable in her chest but it was a tell she knew from decades of training.
Flexing her muscles she flapped her wings and stayed still, a smirk formed on the side of her mouth as she remembered she’d taken her wings away. She kept her eyes closed and began the task of swimming up, after several stroked of her hooves against the water she opened her eyes as she wondered why she hadn’t broken the surface yet.
Holding in a gasp she looked ahead to a distorted world, the room seemingly tossed into a convex lense moving down she realized she was trapped in a bubble of water. Panicking at the thought of her water droplet solidifying into a ball of ice in space she felt the ache in her chest pulse as she needed a single gulp of air.
Casting the spell to return her wings she flapped them as hard as she could to escape, only to cause the water around her to spin and begin to pull her into a dizzying spiral within. She tried a teleport spell, only to appear in a growing bubble nearby. Exhaling and gasping in a quarter breath of air she was pulled to the center of the new drop of water.
Thrashing in a primal panic she exhaled most of her air in a scream for help as she watched the room around her spinning in every direction, just as she was. She felt the ache in her chest worse than before and realized that she was still a pony, and needed air and food to live. Her thrashing and the last of her air escaped in the panic of her mind as she grabbed for anything with her magic, only to pull more water closer to her from outside.
As a red darkness enclosed upon her vision from the outside in, her only rational thoughts were of Shining Smile, before she put herself into a deep meditative sleep with a last second spell.
***
Shining woke up as something brushed across his whole body. He chuckled to see he was in the tree and he knew the feeling of gravity loss. “Stupid ship,” he said as he began to pull himself to the floor before the gravity resumed and he tumbled and hurt himself. Holding the trunk at the base he sat and waited, looking around the area and noticing a few garments trying to float free of their stands and an errant bottle of some alcohol hovering out of Minnie’s.
Gravity resumed several minutes later and a lot of clattering and smashing of bottles filled his ears. He smiled and quickly trotted from under the tree with pride. “Not hurt at-” he grunted at the tablet fell onto his head with a clack against his thick skull. “-all. Ouch.”
***
Gravity resumed and Alotta fell to the floor of her quarters with a heavy thud and an exhale as the wind was knocked from her. She rolled to her chest and pushed herself up, listing as she held her head, and asked the computer a system update.
***
Twilight woke as her body hit the poolside, a wave of water splashing over her causing her to gasp in air and vomit water the next second. Her chest ached and her head hurt, she took note of her brush with death and moved her wings first. Standing she shook dry and coughed more water from her lungs as air replaced the liquid for dominance.
She shook her bleary head and stumbled to the side, falling over and screeching as she toppled back into the pool. She cursed and favored gravity at the same moment as she splashed into the water and quickly fought the weight, gasping for air and pony paddling for surface. Until her back hooves made contact with the bottom and she stood up quickly.
Blushing slightly she looked at the water in the shallow end that was up to her knees and cleared her throat, mucous filler her mouth and she spat into the water, stood tall, and began to walk as regally as she could from the significantly shallower pool.
Trotting from the pool room she shook dry again and made her way quickly to the elevators, savoring the air as she splashed through water that had filled most of the halls.
“Command deck,” she called as she entered the elevator with caution. The elevator stopped on the concourse level and Shining entered, rubbing the top of his head.
“Rub all you want, you won’t get a horn that way,” Twilight mused through her chest pains. Shining rolled his eyes and took a seat a space apart from Twilight and looked out the window into open space for the duration of their trip.
Alotta was waiting for the duo in the command room. Her color slightly lighter than it was before she went to bed. “What happened was gravity failed,” she said as the two entered and she waved her hands over the table, moving through graphs and analysis before she stopped. “I, am sick,” she said to Twilight, “but I shouldn’t be.”
“You woke up, too. Maybe you’re just adapting differently than us ponies,” Twilight suggested as her horn alit and she scanned the minotaur. She hummed. “I think you should see the doctor, er, medical bot.”
“Didn’t you blow it up?” Shining asked.
“Oh, well, there’s still the autodoc,” she suggested as she moved beside the minotaur. “Hop on, I’ll walk you there, there is something wrong with you, but I’m only a doctor for ponies.”
“Of course you are, Princess,” Alotta said pushing the mare aside, “but I’m well enough to walk. Let’s go to the medbay and fix me up.”
Moving as quickly as they could they made their way to the medbay. The elevators seemed to move slower and their hooves seemed to weigh more as they went on. When they got to the medbay they were all breathing heavier, but moved to the next room. “Just climb in and tell me what to push,” Shining said moving by the control panel.
“Just press scan and don’t touch anything else, the machine will let us know what’s wrong,” she rasped as the machine rotated a clear door open. She walked inside and the device rolled sideways, lying her on her back. Shining pressed a green circle on the pad and the machine came to life. With a bright light flash to start, it began sending thin lines across the minotaur’s body, then it stopped. “What’s it say?”
Twilight and Shining looked at the screen in silence until Shining spoke. “That’s, a lot of red. Is that good or bad?”
Alotta tapped a button on the inside of the autodoc and the door opened. She swung sideways and rolled from the bed to her hooves and walked to the panel that was designed to face away from the patient, and sighed. “Yeah, that’s a lot of bad red. Doctor, what’s wrong with me?”
“I’m sorry,” a female voice came over the system, “but only authorized medical personnel are allowed to talk about your conditions or diagnosis with you. Please wait for the doctor to return.”
Alotta grunted, snorted steam from her nostrils, then waved her bracelet by the console. “Override Command Authority 5308, Alotta Regina.” Shining snickered.
“Grow up, shining,” Twilight commented as the computer confirmed his authorization.
“Patient has seventy three ailments that cannot be treated before the patient’s life functions cease. Treatment is not possible without medical team present.”
They fell silent. “How long do I have until I die?” Alotta asked somberly.
A click to their left got their attention as a machine dispensed three tablets. “These will aid with the pain you experience during the next few hours.”
They looked at the medicine in the dispenser for a while before Alotta turned and left the room. “I’ll be in observation room B2 in two hours, meet me there.”
The ponies didn’t know what to say to the dying minotaur as she left them. Twilight felt Shining lean against her and she tensed at the contact. She looked back to see him holding back tears. “You’ve, never seen death, have you?” she asked him.
“No, it’s something we’re taught about. We all know it happens and that it isn’t pleasant. But, we do the best we can with our lives to make it meaningful… it’s not something one is ready for, I guess.”
“No, and it’s never easy. It never gets easier to know death, especially of those you care about,” she said draping a wing across the stallion, “but I’ll be here for you and Alotta through it all. Let’s just go to the observation room to wait for her, okay?” Twilight said softly as Shining nodded and nuzzled Twilight’s side, partly to dry his eyes.
“Yeah, I like that idea. Let’s go.”
…
Alotta walked slowly into the observation room and smiled slowly, weakly. Wearing a dress uniform she seemed to have pride she hadn’t had earlier. Each step seemed to be more of an effort then the last. She looked at Twilight and then Shining and nodded to them and the bunch of flowers they had gathered and placed in the center of the window looking into space. She sat in a chair closest to the window and looked at the stars as they moved slowly by in the distance.
“I joined the mission because I wanted to go down in history as one of the guides to the new world. The new future for all the creatures of Equus and Earth alike. My family is already setup for generations whether we make it or not,” she chuckled, “and with you I know we’ll all make it. The problem is in engineering, but I didn’t have time to figure out what exactly.
“Here,” she whispered as she took her bracelet off and passed it to Shining, “this will, get you access, to the ship. I’ve raised Princess Twilight’s access level to the same,” she handed the item to Shining and turned slowly to look at Twilight, who was holding her hoof up and looking at her bracelet. “It’s the least I could do,” she rasped a quiet laugh.
Twilight leaned in to hug the minotaur and Shining did the same. A hug from both sides was something the minotaur had never experienced and it was a nice experience. “Thank you… I,” she chuckled, “really should have taken the medicine. Do, I look, good at least?”
Shining sniffled and let her go. “I think you look amazing.”
“Stallions… love… the… uniform,” she whispered as her last breath left her and she slumped in Twilight’s embrace. Twilight sniffled and rested the minotaur back into her seat, making sure to sit her upright. Twilight stood and walked over to Shining and hugged him. They both let each other cry with the other as the flowers by the window tipped over.