After ringing the third time in a row Luna started thinking nopony was home. Her persistence was rewarded, though, when the speaker responded with a voice encompassing all the tiredness of the world.
“My shift's over, colts. Go home.”
“Rose, is it?” she tried, searching for the familiar notes in the timbre.
“Princess Luna?” the baffled voice replied from behind. There was a thud of something falling inside. “What are you... What am I... How can I help you?”
“By opening the door, for starters,” the princess knitted her brows aristocratically.
“Oh, right, sure. One minute.”
It seemed the door truly did slide into the wall a minute later, no less. There was a blue mare in the doorframe, the one she'd already seen in the control room. Judging from her mane resembling a mix between a tumbleweed and a bottle brush, the alicorn caught her in bed.
“Woke you up?” the princess inquired sympathetically.
“No. Well, yes. Errr,” the mare got confused, “did you need something, Your Highness?”
“May I come in?” Luna specified and, seeing a rainbow of emotions on her host's face, added. “No well yes?”
The pony gave way, letting her into the room. Serenity slipped inside right after her, and the mare stiffened, watching him closely. That didn't slip past the princess' attention.
“Captain,” she turned to her all-time companion. “I ask you to stay outside.”
The leader of her guard stopped and lifted his brow.
“Indeed, I am confident,” Luna confirmed, casting glances at the frozen host. Yep, that's it. As soon as the door behind her guard closed the pony stopped short of letting out a sigh of relief. Seemed to straighten, even.
“Any problems with security?” Luna inclined her head to the side, curious, watching the pony in front of her. A pony with a bright mane, with a coat of deep blue, especially fluffy on her chest, with a metallic bracket on her ear. There were twin knob headphones dangling from her neck, their cord stretching across the withers.
“Who, me?” the pony shrank again but then got a hold on herself and carelessly threw her forelock away from her eyes. “Pfft! Why?”
Luna shrugged.
“Your call, Rose.”
“Blessed sweetrolls,” the pony made a wry face like if she just tasted quinine and wrinkled her nose. “For the love of Celestia. I'm not ‘Rose’, not ‘Rosy’ and not ‘Rosie’,” she met Luna's gaze and blushed. “Sorry, princess. A sore spot.”
“The captain called you Rose,” alicorn mentioned casually.
“Captain abuses his liberties,” ‘Rose’ snorted. “I mean, yeah, sure, we're not military. The captain, if you please, wants some coffee but has no secretary provided in the staff. Man'core tail his... coffee. That's not in my contract.”
“How should I call you, then?” Luna specified, taking a look around. The dwelling was much like Celekh's tiny room in shape but that was were the similarities ended. There was a small flickering notebook on the unfolded bed, half-hidden under the wrinkled blanket, the latter obviously not a standart issue. Right under it there was was a lonely slipper shyly huddling up to the bed leg. All kinds of spare parts, circuit boards and mechanisms were piled in corners, in cardboard boxes on the shelves, even on the table. There also was a bright patch on the wall just above the table, with shreds of sticky tape in the corners.
The pony turned her side to the alicorn and uplifted her hindquarters.
“Tell me, does it look like a rose for you?”
Luna choked but had enough self-control to do it silently.
The pony's cutiemark resembled... a flower. A simple one, with round petals of pale rose and a yellow center. There was also a tangle of thorny branches with serrated leaves behind it.
“Actually... kinda sorta.”
“You must be kidding me!” the pony blurted furiously, flinging up her hooves and rolling her eyes. Then she noticed a sparkle of mischief in Luna's eyes and stopped. “Wait, you are...”
Princess took a moment to let this thought get settled in her mind. Then she shook her shoulder lightly, a bit sad.
“My sister does it in a more... natural manner. A thousand years of practice. Now what is your name?”
“Dogrose, Your Highness,“ deep blue pony slightly nodded.
Here it goes again.
“I see,“ she said. “The wild one. I've heard it was used for tea sometimes, wasn't it?”
“If you're going to take a sip, princess, watch the thorns,” the pony replied in a funny voice.
“Take a...” Luna couldn't keep her composure this time and snorted, blushing profusely. Dogrose after a small pause did the same.
“I am abusing my liberties, too, it seems,” the pony noticed, addressing nopony in particular. “Sorry, Your Highness. Working with the captain quickly makes you allergic. A natural immune reaction of sorts. Besides...”
She waved her hoof around.
“So I've noticed,” the princess nodded. “Still, I'm not sure what exactly is your position under Lash... Dogrose.”
“Call me Dow,” the pony grinned. “I'm dealing with communications and their maintenance. Intercom, radio tower, that sort of thing. Helps keeping the captain at bay. He stays away from the place for the most part. Too cramped for his ego.”
“What were you doing in the control, then?” the alicorn wondered.
“Ah, that,” Dogrose snorted. “I'm also a part-time infosec engineer. It's quiet, easy cash, but any incident is a real party pooper.”
“So this disappearance is what brought you out of your radio room?”
“Yeah, that sums it,” Dow nodded. “Radio is currently useless anyway. Any signals are jammed by statics. If you wanna watch some newscasts better plug into any terminal at the Recreation.”
“Radio signals only?” princess specified.
“Your Highness?”
“Call me ‘princess’,” Luna replied, imitating Dogrose's intonation. “Captain believes Celekh to be dead since the sandstorm should have disrupted the navigation of her mech.”
“Very likely,” the pony answered slowly. “You can't see your own nose in the dust, let alone the NavSats. Stationary beacons are of little help either, even if you set their output to max. Any signal dissipates, quickly becoming corrupted.”
“I'm no expert,” Luna began adsent-mindedly, “but what about some autonomous navigation system? Like the one you and Celekh were working on?”
“No idea whatcha talking about, princess,” Dow looked drawn.
“I'm in a difficult situation here, to be honest. You see, Dogrose, I am positive captain Lash is aware of your little side project, but he can't put two and two together. No idea why.”
“Perhaps he is weak on the head part,” the blue-coated pony grumbled. “What do you care... princess? How do you even know about it?”
“Was in the right place, at the right time,” Luna shrugged. “That true? Can this program show her the way?”
“It doesn't work like that. Eh, anyway, who cares?” Dow sighed. “What's in it for you?”
Luna shook her head.
“I do care. Regarding why... Maybe I haven't seen an umbrum for a while.”
“You're insane, you know that?” Dogrose blurted.
“I am Nightmare Moon reformed,” alicorn managed a weak smile. “Is it really your place to evaluate my sanity? Who knows, maybe madness should be measured in Lunas.”
Dow studied her for a while. The princess, in turn, raised her brow elegantly. At long last the blue mare shifted, dropped on her rump and threw her hooves up.
“Welcome to the club.”