Aurora gently turned Twilight over with the medical bay surgical arm, ensuring that she had removed every remaining piece of Twilight’s protective layers. Finding no remnants of the padding, she turned her camera to the task of studying every inch of the horse for damage as she prepared an emergency batch of medical nanites, just in case things had gone worse than planned. The medical bay cameras tasked to look specifically for signs of puncture or radiation.
Her cameras didn’t find any signs of damage, aside from the bruising and minor ebullism, but that was to be expected. If she wasn’t misreading Twilight’s biology, the horse would be back to normal functionality within the day, although those fatty deposits along her hindquarters and legs would have been a bit of a bad sign on a human body.
Aurora referenced her notes, once again finding Surgeon Picard’s reports on those slaves they had saved in the Armistice Zone were proving an imminently useful guide to cross-referencing her human and xenobiology textbook. Something her studies hadn’t touched much on. It was unfortunate that the medical dossiers on the handful of non-humans serving onboard were of little use, the equestrian biology continuing to prove almost entirely mammalian.
Aurora gingerly removed the air tube from Twilight’s mouth, careful not to damage the soft tissue. If everything went as planned, then Twilight would be up and trotting around within the hour. Which left her some time to prepare further. Not everything had been accessible on the surface of Equestria. Nanites were prepared to scrub the halls clean behind them. A presentation on what humanity was, made exactly to what she could find from regulations. Preparing for a controlled decompression if Twilight went hostile. Foodstuffs made with the intention of matching the small bit of vegan diet she had consumed planetside. Her Analysis of the food continued the unnaturally Earth like trend. Seriously, how likely were the convergent evolution of two different species of trees to both produce apples?
She still wasn’t certain how long they should stay in orbit. At max three planetary rotational periods. From her calculations that was the absolute latest they should stay before thereso was a diminishing return on the investment of her time. Absolute for a given value of absolute, but exact enough to drive her decision.
There was much she would could gain from Twilight’s presence onboard. Confirmation of the absence of the shuttles from the hangar, physical examination of her still damaged datacores, and last and probably least biological samples. The first two were far more mission critical, but still, the more she knew about the horses the better.
Aurora used the medical arm to adorn the small purple horse with a blanket before shutting it off, done with as much of the examination as international treaty would allow without consent. She left a portion of her mind to the task of continuing with a visual examination, while the larger part turned towards the task of renewing her scans of the planet's surface below. She still had so many questions about what the hell had happened to this solar system to submerge it into another reality. It was a shame that the medical bay wasn’t equipped for the sensors required for that sort of investigation on the horse’s body.
But, now that she considered that problem… there was a way. Aurora had already planned on tailoring a spacesuit for Twilight. It would be needed to return to the surface of the planet (Aurora had no intention of returning to the size of a horse with Twilight inside of her). If she could convince Twilight to make a spacewalk past her sensors, that might yield more info.
Aurora booted the software in her sewing loom. Her visual sensors had been more than enough to to get the measurements she needed. Her simulations walked through the movements she had seen the horses make, adjusting the design as needed to make Twilight fit the space sleeve. The quadrupedalism would definitely require a remote activated zipper.
Her 3d printer got to work on the helmet. It would have to stretch out to fit the horse’s snout. It made the decision of where to put the oxygen pack a tad easier, adjusting the sleeve for the front of the neck to fit it. Aurora stifled a laugh as she reviewed her first draft of a design. It seemed that with the shape of the horse’s neck, the forward position of the utility insert had caused a hang in the fabric, which bore a rather unfortunate resemblance to a caruncle. It was just a passing flaw, quickly rectified by adjusting the elasticity of the front of the neck, but it went a long way towards lightening her mood.
Setting the reports from the quick production run aside, Aurora finished up her short list of priorities just as the medical bay camera sounded an alert. It seemed that her estimate of Twilight’s return to consciousness was accurate within the margin of error she had predicted.
--
Twilight’s brain stuttered back into action as sensations from throughout her body began to flood into her mind. She was… comfortable. Sore, but exceptionally comfortable. It was almost softer than a cloud, though if she had to guess some of her soreness was from the weird way her body weight seemed to be distributed across it, but Celestia be praised… or would that be herself be praised now that she had wings?... alicorns in general be praised if whatever material she was laying on didn’t make up for it by being more comfortable than that cloud bed she had ordered from Cloudsdale.
Twilight tried to shake the cobwebs out of her head, tried to open up her eyes and shock her system into wakefulness. She was rambling. She…
Twilight got the system shock she had been looking for as the memories of her ascent into orbit began to flood in. The feeling of the aether of life being ripped from her came rushing back into the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t repress a shudder as she tried to fight down the residual panic. It wasn’t the first time she had been put through something like that. Tirek had been a far greater source of terror. The breathing exercises Cadance had taught her came to mind, helping her to regain her calm.
She could do this. It wasn’t like Aurora hadn’t warned her beforehoof.
“Hello, Twilight. It’s good to see I was right about your recovery. I’m also glad to report that my medical examination turned up no long term detrimental effects from your exposure, you should be fine after a night’s rest.” Twilight felt a small surge of relief at the sound of a familiar voice.
Twilight blinked as her mind finally registered the familiar voice as Aurora’s, and took a moment to actually look around at where she was. It was metal. There was far more metal around her than she’d ever seen outside of a guardpony armory. Most of the metal she saw was painted over. The walls were a soft white, the floors were some sort of felt/carpet material colored a cool grey, and the trim alternated between a dark grey and a crimson red, but there was little enough of it that the room overall maintained a soft cool atmosphere. She especially marveled at the slender length of metal with what looked to be minotaur fingers on the end. It was hanging above her, though it appeared folded up. At each side of the surface she was sleeping on were wheeled metal tables decorated with a totally foreign assortment of tools. Each of the tools were affixed to the table with tiny little straps, though she didn’t see any buckles.
“Miss Twilight?” Twilight looked around again, trying to find the source of the sound, her mind began to feel a creeping anxiety as her second look over revealed no co-habitants within the room.
“H-how?” Twilight took a second to calm her voice, “where?” Twilight tried to let hear ears guide her eyes. Her head swiveled to and fro, carefully observing the room to try and get a pinpoint on the source of the sound she had heard.
“The sound you are hearing is from a couple speakers… though I’m starting to suspect this is perturbing you. If you desire I could use a more direct form of communication. I do it for some of the crew too, usually the ones that are cooped up in one room for long periods of time.” Twilight quickly nodded, her eyes and ears swiveling as she heard a soft chime, and saw a new source of light to her left.
Replacing a section of wall was a new moving image of a flat red tree of the bushier rounder variety slowly rotating on a field of stars. It immediately brought to mind those rapid speed projectors she had seen being tested in Canterlot, though if this was a projector of that sort it utterly shamed the noble elite’s attempts to create moving images by an amount that was further unsettling. Where the tinkerers’ “moving” projectors were stuttered and grey, this was vibrant and fluid.
“Greetings!” Twilight blinked in surprise as her previous sense of alienation was increased tenfold. The image of the flat red tree had been replaced by one of a creature. It was kind of like a minotaur… But only if she stretched the idea of a minotaur to near breaking. It was almost fully clothed from head to toe, the only exposed flesh being that of the head, which was simply adorned with some hair on the top. Though looking closer, it seemed like the alien had put on some makeup. Had she gotten that from Cadance?
The features themselves were definitely alien, though not repugnant. It looked like a warm blooded, live birthing, haired species. That is if those two large curves on the front hidden behind the opaque white and red outfit that covered most of her body were mammaries of a similar arrangement to those of the couple of female minotaurs Twilight had met.
Her face was flattish, the mouth separated from the nose structurally, rather than part of a snout or a beak. The eyes were a bit on the small side for a pony, but it was close enough to minotaur proportions to not be totally foreign, though the forward arrangement reminded her more of a griffon.
“Does my appearance distress you, miss Twilight?” Twilight quickly shook her head no, hoping that she hadn’t been staring too long and perpetuated some faux pas. “I am glad, it would have made making friends between your species and my people a rather uphill battle if we had to wear bags over our heads the whole time.” Twilight smiled eagerly. She was glad to see Aurora approaching their relationship from that angle.
“I’m sorry, it’s all just… so strange. Is this a picture of you? The outfit looks sort of like that jacket Rarity made you.” The image on the screen winced, though Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what part of the question was causing her to wince.
“Not quite, this is just my avatar… an image designed to represent me when I want to converse face to face with someone… like we are now.” The image of Aurora made what was unmistakably a bow, though Twilight took a moment to study the movement regardless. Twilight especially admired how Aurora counterbalanced her forward positioned left leg with her right arm raised high into the air. Evidently these aliens were more flexible and balanced than a minotaur, though that might have something to do with the lack of horns. Except, that left Twilight wondering...
“How do you get that image to move? Is that really you? Is there some delay for the film to get to this projector, or do you just tell it what to do or look like?” The figure on the screen pulled up from the bow, dusting off the white of her coat.
“A lot of it is automated processes they interpret my feelings and thoughts into the movements you see before you. I don’t have perfect control over what they show, but that’s intentional. Let’s others know when I’m hurting or angry when I might otherwise try to hide it.” The face on the screen went though a few different emotions, though it was pretty obviously just for Twilight’s benefit, rather than any actual change of emotion. “By the way miss Twilight, you should be able to walk about if you wish. The pace of the things we do is up to you of course, but we do have an itinerary we need to get to.”
“You… want to relinquish control over that?” Twilight asked as she gingerly stretched out one of her forelegs, testing to see if she could walk like Aurora had said. Much to her delight, Aurora seemed to be correct, all of the soreness and bruising felt not much more than skin deep.
Twilight paused in confusion as her forehoof failed to find the floor, even with her leg fully outstretched. Carefully she turned her body and peaked over the side, grimacing as she saw just how high off the ground she was.
“Apologies Miss Twilight, allow me.” Twilight’s eyes widened as the bed began to sink below her, inspiring a quick panicked furl of her wings before the bed came to a sudden stop. A quick test with one of her forelegs caught hold of the ground, and with a bit of an embarrassed blush Twilight dismounted the bed, ignoring the protests of her abused epidermis as it stretched and contracted.
“If you wish, Miss Twilight, I can provide a salve that would lessen your physical distress from the ebullism, though I’m not sure how effective it would be through your fur.” Twilight gave Aurora a polite no. The last thing she needed right now was some sort of goop in her fur. She was uncomfortable enough as is. “Also, if you wish for a copy of my medical report from my examination, I would be happy to provide it for you. If you do not I would need a record of that for legal reasons.”
Twilight’s eyes jerked to the side as the previously dormant ‘arm’ hanging from the ceiling began to move. She couldn’t help but openly gape as the apparent machine made movements smoother and more precise than any geared automaton she had ever seen. It deftly and dexterously picked up a small thin slab of metal around a third again the size of her hoofprint. It, with a small flair, offered the sheet of metal too her.
It was some form of text document, largely in Equestrian, though every once in a while there was an odd word out that she didn’t recognize or that didn’t quite fit. “I have attempted to provide a plain language explanation of my discoveries. It is unfortunate that I do not know the most up to date medical terminology in the language we are speaking, but I have tried my best to make do.” Twilight blinked once in confusion. “Once you are done reading it you just slide your hoof up the surface of the tablet to see more of the document.” Twilight blinked twice in confusion. “When you are done, slide up three times and provide some form of authorization, whatever your species desires.”
“I’m sorry if this hasn’t been the friendliest of welcomes, but I promise you once the paperwork is done things will lighten up. We both have a lot to learn about each other.” Twilight returned Aurora’s open smile, grateful for something she actually understood.
“Oh, no, it’s perfectly fine,” came Twilight’s shaky response. Tearing her eyes from the machine before her, she gave the document an eager look, curious to get a glimpse into medical technology that might be millennia ahead of whatever Equestrian had. Her mind racing about the new doctorates they might invent just for her. “Everything here is just so different from home, it was a bit overwhelming at first.”
Twilight scrolled through the medical report, shaking in excitement at all of the new medical treatments she was reading about. However, her enthusiasm and joy came to a sudden stop as one word burned into her mind.
"I-I BOILED?!"