01
“So…” The changeling paced back and forth on the metal flooring, pausing to glance at the panel where the AI’s avatar was. “You’re sure this’ll work?”
“I am, Captain,” SAIL reassured yet again. “The design in my databanks should fit.”
“...alright,” she murmured, looking around the room again, then back to the wall mounted locker, one of her ears flicking due to the strange buzzing noise it was creating.
The locker opened after a minute of buzzing, revealing a small set of saddlebags.
“Woah…” She murmured, quickly crossing the distance and reaching out a hoof to pick them up. “You did this?”
“Correct, Captain.”
They were incredibly light, made out of a matte black material she didn’t recognize. It felt like some sort of fabric, but that was as far as she was willing to guess.
The nymph turned the bags over in her hooves a few times, inspecting them, before attempting to put them on.
Keyword; attempting.
SAIL spoke up after a long moment. “Captain,” SAIL spoke clearly, making sure she had the bug’s full attention.
She paused her awkward wriggling on the floor, her hind leg stuck in a strap, looking back at SAIL.
“Take them off, flip them, and try again. This strap -” She brought up the schematics of the saddlebags, highlighting a particular part, “- needs to wrap around your abdomen.”
She blinked. “I knew that,” she said, carefully untangling herself and fixing the bags according to the AI’s instructions.
“Of course,” SAIL agreed.
The panel near the front of the ship let out a chirping beep right as she pulled the last strap into place.
“Eighty two hours remaining, Captain,” SAIL informed smoothly.
The ‘ling felt a shiver run down her spine, making her carapace feel all tingly.
“I… I should probably get going, y-yeah?”
“Affirmative, Captain,” SAIL nodded, the locker opening at her unseen touch. “Your supplies..”
She lit her horn, grabbing a can of Campbelle’s Compressed Love®™, the flashlight and that weird, bronze ‘u’ thingy, which SAIL had said was a “Standard Issue Protectorate Matter Manipulators.”
Carefully stuffing them into her saddlebags and closing them with a resounding ‘click’, she turned to the room where she’d woken up, suppressing a shiver of nervousness.
“Ssooo, I just go and stand on the... glowy thingy…?” She asked, not able to guise the nervousness in her voice as she trotted up to it.
“Correct, Captain.”
“Alrighty then,” she murmured, taking the last few steps onto the teleporter pad.
“Powering up teleporter. Please keep all four hooves inside the vehicle at all times,” SAIL droned.
“Vehicle?”
“Three… Two… One… Teleporting. Good luck, Captain.”
And with that, the changeling let out a whimper before experiencing the feeling of being ripped apart and whisked away.
Some teleportation trips came with a mild side effect of hallucinations during the beaming process.
This trip was one of those.
She was floating in space, a million lights visible in the distance, shining gently.
Slowly spinning around, a star came into view, burning a bright yellow, a planet a few seconds later.
It kind of reminded her of Equis.
Oh.
It was Equis.
Her eyes widened, and she reached a holed hoof out towards it as she slowly span out of view of it.
Something wet ran down her cheek. She hadn’t realized she’d been crying.
A strangled sob left her throat as she realized just how far away from home she was.
With a ‘whump’ of displaced air, she was deposited none too gently onto the ground, the sky around her suddenly changing from the oppressive cold and nothing of space to the warm, open skies of the planet she was on.
A few more sobs left her before she mustered the will to get up.
She was on top of a small hill, with rolling green landscapes as far as she could see, plenty of shrubbery smattered around, and a forest in the distance to her right.
There were few creatures roaming near her, a small pack of bunnies and some orange blob things that gave her a weird feeling.
The only thing that stood out was the rundown looking structure at the top of a very tall hill.
The sound of birdsong floated gently down on the breeze, bringing a weak smile to her face.
She slowly sat up, her ears twitching as she took in the sights, sounds, and smells of this new place.
With the last sniffle out of her system, she rubbed her eyes free of any tears, blinking wearily afterwards.
A sudden displacement of air next to her caused her to jump, hissing out of surprise.
Next to her was her sword, blade end sunk a hoof’s length in the ground, a blue sticky note attached to the hoofguard.
“You forgot this, Captain”, it read in perfect cursive.
“Oops,” she mumbled to herself, picking up the sword and carefully placing it in what was evidently a holster built into the bags, sheathing it between her flank and the bag.
She took a deep breath in, standing up, and focusing her gaze on the structure up the hill.
With a final buzz of effort, the changeling made clear of the ledge, landing on top with a dull thud and a groan.
“i should...probably exercise...a little more...” she panted out, her forked tongue sticking out like a dog’s.
“Noted, Captain,” SAIL’s voice said from behind her, causing her to yelp, then cough violently for a few seconds.
After recovering, she glared at her saddlebags, where the AI’s face was displayed. “D-don’t scare me like that.”
“Apologies, Captain,” the pony on the screen looked somewhat downcast. “I was just about to inform you, my scans indicate there is some kind of archaic energy source approximately six point three four kilometers south-south-east from here. I estimate a 62% chance it is worth investigating, and a 37% chance you have nothing better to do.”
She blinked, processing what the AI had told her, before pouting. “...but I just climbed up this massive hill. It took like, ages!”
“From the surface scans I have completed, Captain, I believe the path you took was one with the most resistance. Also, there are stairs just over there.”
She slowly turned her head to ‘over there’.
The metal stairs blended in pretty well with the rock, but now stood out as they mocked her for being so very not perceptive.
She glared back at them, and shakily got back up back on her hooves.
“Stupid stairs,” she muttered, and turned her attention to the reason why she had climbed the hill in the first place.
In front of her was an ancient looking structure, mainly comprised of blue-black large stone bricks, with regularly placed rotten wooden support beams.
The tower was tall and squarish, with a raised hemisphere nestled at the top, a gap splitting the hemisphere into two even parts down the center.
“Woah,” She murmured softly, her hooves compacting the loose dirt under her as she slowly trotted inside.
The doorway was empty, the door itself having rotted off the hinges years ago.
A beam of sunlight shone in behind her, lighting up a small portion of the room in front of her, while also illuminating the dust particles in the air.
She took a tentative step inside, before taking a few more. Within moments, the changeling was standing in the center of the cramped droom.
Inside the room was nothing of interest, with the sole exception of the being a banner that hung above the entrance, somehow in better condition than the rest of the building. It was a deep blue color, with the new moon placed in the centre.
She stared at it for a bit, her eyes quickly adjusting to the low light levels, before she moved straight forward slowly, towards the next room.
Her eyes darted around side to side for she had a sudden moment out thought.
Reaching back, she fiddled with the opening mechanism on the back, to no avail.
“Push in and twist to the left, Captain,” SAIL reminded her softly after a few more moments.
“Oh.” There was the sound of the lock clicking a second later. “...thanks.”
“Never a problem, Captain.”
She smiled for a moment, before returning her focus back to her previous task.
Worming her hoof through the bag, she felt around for a good minute, before pulling out a flashlight.
With a simple click, it turned on, lighting up the darkness to the left of her.
She grinned.