The snake cleared her throat. "<...in light of recent revelations regarding the origins and identity of one Fluttershy, Transcendent Technologies Incorporated wishes to extend its formal apologies and a promise of lifetime compensation for the grievances said individual has suffered from the actions of its former subsidiaries-->"
"<Oh cut the crap,>" growled the largest newcomer. "<Long story short, TTI wanted one of theirs on this, and we picked her since she was the best option out of all the ones we knew.>"
"That makes sense," Fluttershy allowed, still frowning at the snake. "So I'm guessing you have the anchor."
"<...yes.>" Ekundayo reached her head into the sack tied tightly around her lower half. "<It's right here, let me just--ah.>" She pulled out a thick black cylinder twice as tall as Twilight, concave grooves dividing it into seven sections marked with glass panes on the side and bearing a single colored screen at the top.
"Alright then. I'll just give it to our local transdimensional expert, and he'll set it up."
Fluttershy took the device, handing it over to Discord. The draconequus looked at the object with a mild frown, but slid the strange construct he was holding into it. He winced when his talon phased through the material, pulling out a tiny red thing that writhed in his grip.
The yellow pegasus narrowed her eyes. "Ekundayo--"
"<I don't know what that is!>" the snake said quickly. "<I'm not authorized to know what that is!>"
Discord rose his tail, snapped the fur on the end of it, and the tiny red thing burned away. "Best to nip that in the bud. If it had taken root, things could have gotten incredibly messy." He finished his work, noting the screen lighting up with green text. "Should work pretty well without that anyway."
Twilight blinked. "So, what was that anyway?"
"Kudzu, basically." Discord cracked his knuckles. "Well, you've got boring princess duties to do, call me when Fluttershy's ready to continue her story. Chaos knows I've waited a while for that."
With a snap of his talons, he vanished.
Ekundayo blinked, staring at the spot he had been standing. "<What... what was that? What kind of creature was that, the cuil reader-->"
"Discord is a friend of mine," Fluttershy said firmly. "And a good one. Speaking of friends..." She gestured toward the other ponies. "I'd like to introduce Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship."
Twilight stepped forward with a smile. "It's a pleasure to finally meet Fluttershy's friends from another world. I would like to formally welcome you to Equestria."
The aliens all looked at her.
"<...Fluttershy,>" said the fox, "<what did your friend just say?>"
"Oh! Right." Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Votum, could you transfer what you've made of the translation matrix to their toggles?" She smiled at the aliens apologetically. "There was apparently a bit of temporal dilation involved in the tether transfer, I've actually only been back... two and a half days, has it really only been that long? I'll update the translation matrix as we go, but you're going to have to endure a bit of a language barrier until then."
Twilight frowned. "Fluttershy, I may not understand what they're saying, but your special talent--"
The pegasus snapped her head to look at her, still smiling. "Not all of them understand cutie mark magic," she said in an undertone, flicking her tail toward the snake pointedly. "I'd like to keep the true scope of my ability close to my chest right now."
"Um..." Pinkie leaned in. "Why though?"
Fluttershy lowered her voice to a whisper. "She's a good person at heart, but Ekundayo is also the one who... well, took my wings apart."
Twilight's eyes shrunk to pinpricks. "WHAT?!"
Starlight Glimmer looked at the snake, who curled in on herself at the attention. "How though? She doesn't have any hands. Is she telekinetic?"
"Tools," Fluttershy replied, shivering. "Look, I know you want to do something with her, but it won't help now. I'm the one she hurt, I'm the one who will deal with her. Understood?"
Twilight looked from the snake, to the other aliens, to Fluttershy. "We're going to have to talk about that."
"She's only getting one cupcake," Pinkie declared firmly. "Maybe two if she's reeeeeeeally sorry."
Fluttershy snorted. "Never change, Pinkie."
"Change is a part of life, Fluttershy. Sorry."
That got a giggle from the yellow pony.
"<So sorry to interrupt,>" said the utterly unapologetic mechanical alien, "<but we've got our matrixes installed. I'm going to test them now, alright?>"
"Alright, Alea. Go ahead."
The hovering alien cleared her throat. "Many I say nice hello friend pony many friend from graph animal many many. Many I nice thank you of let many I join you at you home place--"
"Okay, stop. We need to tweak this thing."
"Oh sure, Fluttershy, go right ahead."
"Right, so--" Fluttershy blinked, and then glared at the smirk on the catlike face. "You did that on purpose!"
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" Rainbow Dash hovered around the group. "You brought aliens! Actual aliens! And... huh." She tilted her head. "You know, I thought you'd look weirder. Like tentacles and stuff. Or twelve eyes. You just look like animals on their hind legs."
"Rainbow Dash, don't be rude." Rarity cleared her throat, smiling up at the newcomers. "For what it's worth, you do all look quite elegant."
"All I'm saying is these guys don't really look like they're from another planet," Rainbow pointed out. "I mean, huli jing, robot Abyssian, a gargoyle, some sort of griffon wannabe--"
The largest newcomer perked his ears. "You have griffons here?"
Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Rainbow, Bat Sunrod is a bat taur. Calling them gargoyles is... kind of not done. It'd be like calling a pegasus a feather duster."
"Really? Weird, he looks almost like a gargoyle." Rainbow leaned into an unamused scarred face. "I mean, slap a lion's tail on him and you're golden."
"I thought taurs had four legs," Rarity mused.
"Well, it's more like they have six limbs..." The yellow pony sighed. "Sunrod, gargoyles are a known if relatively rare race here. I hope you don't take any offense at my friends' understandable confusion."
"I will keep that in mind," the winged figure rasped.
"Oh, nifty voice, very growly." Rainbow hovered over the others. "Never seen a wingless amphiptere before. And... I don't know what you're supposed to be."
"I'm a seal!" chirped the addressed individual.
"...I've seen seals," Rainbow deadpanned. "You're not a seal. Your mane is too long, your muzzle's too short, and your eyes are too big. They're almost pony-sized!"
"Kryse'is is a seal Vector," Fluttershy pointed out. "So, she's... seal-shaped, sort of."
The blue pegasus leveled a flat look at her, gesturing at the alien.
"...Okay, yeah, but her tail's the right shape... and..." Fluttershy shrugged helplessly. "Look, Vectorkind was this big genetic experiment and it was never going to be a hundred percent, alright?"
"Wait, can we go back to where there are griffons here?" the largest one asked.
Fluttershy sighed. "Yes, Ko-k0ro, there are felid/avian hybrids with wings, talons, lion tails, the whole shebang, I'm sure you'll meet some of them eventually. Right now, well..."
"Yes, quite." Twilight cleared her throat. "On behalf of Equestria, I would like to formally thank those of you responsible for caring for Fluttershy and ensuring her return to our lands. You are welcome to stay in my palace, and we will do our best to accommodate you. If you need anything, let me know, and I will see to it personally."
Alea chuckled. "You hear that, Ko-k0ro? You can finally have that megaburger you always wanted!"
"Well, uh..." Twilight chuckled. "I'm not that good of a cook..."
"I meant you could ask your servants to do it."
Twilight blinked at her.
"...Because, as a princess, you have servants," Alea continued. "Because you know, royalty. Pampering."
"...Actually, Spike here usually cooks for us," Twilight corrected.
"Hey," said Spike.
Kryse'is gasped. "Oh my god you talk. I am so so sorry, I just thought you were a pet or something!"
"Nope, Spike's a dragon," Fluttershy explained calmly.
"So you have a dragon as a servant," Alea mused.
"No, she has a dragon as..." Fluttershy considered. "...Family? I don't know if it's a son or little brother thing. How old were you when you hatched Spike?"
"Seven point three two six years old, rounded down," Twilight pronounced proudly.
Reinhild quirked an eyebrow. "You have that memorized?"
"It was one of the most important days of my life," Twilight pointed out. "I got my cutie mark, I became Princess Celestia's personal student, and I hatched Spike!" She wrapped a foreleg around the dragon and nuzzled him fondly, ignoring his half-hearted protest.
"...Ooookay," Alea drawled, "so, just to be clear: Where are your servants?"
"Oh I don't do that," Twilight explained. "I mean, sure, it might be nice, but I feel it makes me less approachable. If I need help with anything, my friends are always willing to lend a hoof."
"Speaking of," Rarity interjected, "Where is Applejack? She and Pinkie should have been here a few minutes ago."
A blur of pink shot through the castle doors, rebounded against a wall, twirled in midair (incidentally releasing a full buffet table), and skidded to a stop with the sound of a party horn. "Hey there new friends--!"
Fluttershy winced, giving Ekundayo a sympathetic look when she hissed in pain. "Pinkie... little much there."
"Oh?" Pinkie glanced to the snake, then to Fluttershy--and for the briefest of moments, her smile seemed very much like Discord's. "Really, Flutters?"
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. "...I'll ask for your help if I need it."
"Hmmm." After a moment, Pinkie shrugged. "Oki-doki-loki! Anyway, hey there new friends! I brought ~snaaaaaaaacks! Help yourselves! But you only get one cupcake," she added, pointing at the snake firmly.
Rarity blinked. "What?"
"She knows what she did," the party horse said sternly.
Rarity turned to Twilight in confusion, who wouldn't look her in the eye. Then she turned to Fluttershy, who slowly shook her head. "...alright...? So, thank you for the snacks, Pinkie--"
Ko-k0ro rose a feathered arm. "Hey, so I'm not big on science fiction, but isn't it supposed to be dangerous to eat alien food? Biochemistry and all that?"
"Oh don't worry about that," Kryse'is assured him. "Progenitus ran a full analysis of Fluttershy's cellular processes, and while she's genetically quite divergent from earth-derived organisms, her actual biochemistry is fairly similar aside from a few exotic processes which the higher-ups are pretty sure are related to her unusual abilities. So this should be safe to eat... well, safe-ish," she mused. "There is the possibility of ponies being immune to certain toxins, and of course there's always the issue of foreign biological contaminants--but the company prepared me in both cases so you're not likely to die. At worst you'll just suffer through the inexplicable nature of an unidentified illness for a couple of months while Fluttershy uses the equipment I brought to treat you."
Eleven pairs of eyes focused on her broadly smiling face.
"...when, exactly, did the company have a chance to examine my cellular processes?" Fluttershy asked flatly.
"I filed a sample while we were on Ganymede," Kryse'is explained casually. "Got the results back around when we got to Europa."
"Kryse'is," Fluttershy said in a calm but nonetheless unamused tone, "do you remember the conversation we had about how ponies view privacy, especially in regards to medical treatments?"
"Oh yes! It was very interesting!"
Fluttershy raised a brow.
Kryse'is's smile faltered a bit. "...what?"
"Kryse'is, did I ever give you permission to run tests on my cellular biochemistry?"
"You did sign an employment contract with Progenitus," the seal pointed out. "Legally speaking--OH! Oh, is this one of those corporate law versus country law things again?"
Fluttershy sighed. "Yes. Yes it is."
"So I shouldn't run tests without asking permission from the ponies involved."
"That's right... and....?"
Kryse'is frowned to herself. "...and... um..."
"...and since I was unaware of the clause that let you run tests on my sample...?" Fluttershy prompted.
"...you are owed compensation? Wait, that doesn't seem right." Kryes'is tapped her chin for a moment, before her face lit up in recognition. "Oh! You want an apology! I'm sorry, Fluttershy, it won't happen again."
"That's perfectly fine, Kryse'is, I understand and forgive you." The pony turned to Rarity with a long-suffering sigh. "She's a nice girl, really, just..."
"Oh, I understand entirely," Rarity assured her. "Celestia knows how often I've had to explain things to Sweetie Belle."
The castle doors opened again, Starlight and Applejack striding in. "Howdy, yall, sorry Ah'm late--whoa nelly!" She pulled back her hat, looking up. "You're Shy's alien friends?"
"Yep." Reinhild put a hand on her hip. "You must be Applejack, right?"
"That's right. Sorry fer tha wait had a bit of an issue that cropped up on the farm. Caught Starlight on tha way here." Applejack nodded toward the strangers. "Hope you weren't waitin' too long..."
"It's fine. Pinkie just set up the snacks. Oh!" Fluttershy started gesturing around. "Applejack, this is Seargent Reinhild Ca'Fo, AleaFaulkner, Kryes'is Zizkind, Bat Sunrod, Ko-k0ro Skyhope, and Ekundayo Śniegowski, Spectral Navigator. Everyone, this is Applejack, bearer of the Element of Honesty, head of Sweet Apple Acres, and a very dear friend of mine."
"Pleasure ta meetcha," Applejack said with a tip of her hat. "How're ya all findin' Ponyville so far?"
"It's... different," Reinhild mused. "Not bad, mind, just..." Her tail swished as she tapped her hip. "It's... rustic seems to be the best word."
"What," Ko-k0ro chuckled, "cause they've got no tech here?"
"It's not that. It's... the people, well, ponies. We got odd looks, but then they noticed we were with the princess and..." Reinhild shook her head. "There was no panic. Interest, sure, but no... there weren't any of them who didn't trust that we were handled."
"Very similar to where I grew up," Sunrod mused. "Trusting. Welcoming, even."
Applejack rose a brow. "Aincha tha one that was raised by them spy people?"
The bat smiled grimly. "Ah. I see our reputation precedes us. You bear the element of Honesty, right?"
"Did for a while. Can again."
"I take it that means you have a sense of when people are lying."
Applejack narrowed her eyes. "Ah do, yes."
"Well, I may be in the business of keeping secrets, but that doesn't mean I lie unnecessarily." Sunrod crossed his arms, wings curling around his shoulders. "It would be... dishonorable to waste obscurity."
A frown passed over Applejack's face. "Frankly, Ah think lyin' at all is dishonorable."
"It damages trust, yes. But--"
Reinhild groaned. "Drop it, Sunrod, we're not here to debate philosophy."
"Mmm." Sunrod conceded the point with a nod. "So... what shall we do?"
"Well," Starlight mused, "Fluttershy has been telling us all about her time on Mars."
"I actually about wrapped up that yesterday," Fluttershy pointed out. "Maybe you all could join in while I tell them about the trip to Venus?"
Ko-k0ro laughed. "Well, I'm not going to be much help there!"
"Oh, you might be surprised." Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Discord?"
Discord materialized with a flash, startling Ekundayo back a bit. "Oh, are we starting the story again now?"
"Mmmhmm. Would you mind terribly making couches for our guests?"
"Oh not at all."
With a snap of his talons, almost everyone was resting on an array of double-decker couches. Alea blinked, sharing a confused look with Reinhild, who was sitting next to her; Kryes'is giggled, leaning toward the suddenly very wary Sunrod. Above the second pair, Ko-k0ro looked down with surprise, before shrugging and nestling into the cushions; Ekundayo was trembling, keeping scared eyes on the draconequus as she curled into the couch above fox and cog. Arrayed opposite them, Twilight and Spike sat beneath Rainbow and Applejack, while Discord and Pinkie lounged above Starlight and Rarity.
Fluttershy, between the aliens' couches, looked up at her sudden throne, and the pattern emblazoned on it. A small smile came to her face. "...I don't... think my wings were ever that big, Discord."
"Maybe not in flesh," Discord allowed.
"...Well, I suppose this is appropriate, in its way." Fluttershy hummed thoughtfully. "Yes... right, I guess I should start with our purchase of starship tickets."
"I don't know if this is fair," Fluttershy murmured uncertainly.
Reinhild gave her a look. "What, that we need to pay for transport and you don't? It's fine, Shy. It's just a perk of being an employee." She flicked a finger across the table, tapping a few of the glyphs that appeared. "If we were taking an IRPF ship, you'd have to pay and I wouldn't." A small chamber rose from the center, holding a cup of steaming... something, which the fox grabbed and took a quick sip from. "Difference is, you're still starting out. We can absorb the costs easily."
Fluttershy watched the tiny chamber descend into the table, her expression still uncertain. "It's not... exactly that. Progenitus wants me to run tests with the B.I.N.C.S. on Venus, but I want to find... something, some clue why I'm here. And some way to get home. They're letting me ride their ships for free, and I'm grateful and I certainly will do what they're asking but at the same time--"
"Are you whining about taking advantage of corptime?" Alea snorted. "They're megacorps, Fluts! They couldn't care less what you do, as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line. And let's be real, all you need to do is get the project started and file a few reports. Far as they're concerned, that's it--you could be running a lateral brothel on the side but so long as it fell into their safety regulations, they'd be fine with it."
Reinhild quirked a brow. "What's wrong with lateral brothels?"
"The ones with actual laterals? Nothing, so long as it's legal. But if you want to save money--"
"Ah, yes, that urban myth." Reinhild rolled her eyes. "Corptowns require you to be able to present a license and answer questions if you're selling your body, so that never actually happens."
Alea shrugged. "Not saying it does, just giving an example."
"I, um..." Fluttershy blushed, curling her wings around her face. "I don't think I would ever run a brothel..."
"What, you don't help your animal friends find good mates?"
"N-no! I might give them advice, but they--"
"Wow, geeze." Alea held up a hand. "Fluts, I was joking. I don't really think you're the kind to be so casual about sex. And that's perfectly fine, don't get me wrong, I just mean... it was a joke, alright? It wasn't like I was hurting anyone."
Fluttershy frowned, her ears folded back. "I... suppose...."
"...fuck, whoever was behind your simulation made you too damn cute," Alea grumbled. "It's like looking at a sad puppy, multiplied by ten!"
"And?" Reinhild asked, smirking.
"And I don't do guilt, alright? Guilt's pointless, what's done is done, you either fix it or you move on! But--" The cog waved a hand at Fluttershy. "Just look at that, Reinhild! Look at that! I wouldn't be surprised if she got a manifestation to say sorry!"
Fluttershy managed a small smile. "Actually, I have a friend named Discord--"
"You are shitting me." Alea leaned her elbow into the table, pointing at her. "You do not, I repeat, do not have a transcendent buddy bud, right?"
"Oh he doesn't look anything like the transcendent manifestations here," Fluttershy assured her. "He's much more... hmm... kooky. Chaotic, even."
"And let me guess, he can warp reality with a snap of his fingers?"
"Talons, actually."
Alea threw up her hands. "I don't believe this. That's impossible. You know what? I'm not going to believe it unless I meet this Discord myself!"
Discord flicked his tail, smugly curling up to perch on Pinkie's mane as he smirked down at Alea.
"Well?" Reinhild prompted, crossing her arms.
"All I said was I'd believe it when I met him," Alea groused petulantly. "And I've met him, and I believe it. That's all."
Fluttershy nodded in understanding. "Mmmmhmmm..."
Alea threw up her hands. "And why are you talking about that anyway? That's just... we talked, it wasn't important! Friends talk all the time, right?"
"That's right," Twilight agreed. "Sometimes, you don't have to talk about anything important to be a true friend."
She sat up with a smile... until she noticed the strange looks she was receiving from the aliens.
"...Did... did I say something wrong?"
"No," Reinhild assured her, "you didn't say anything wrong..."
"She is the princess of friendship," Fluttershy pointed out, not hiding her amused grin.
Alea leaned back, "So, what, she's obligated to talk like an after-school kid's cartoon?"
Fluttershy hummed thoughtfully. "Actually... that sort of direct statement about social interactions and/or moral imperatives is pretty common here. I guess it's just a cultural thing."
"Huh. No wonder you fit into Progenitus culture so easily."
"Well... Progenitus is a lit-tle more, how do I put it... pushy? They have a good core message, but..." Fluttershy shook her head. "Sometimes it feels like they can be too invasive."
"I never really felt that way," Kryes'is mused.
"You never really lived outside the corp," Sunrod countered.
"I mean..." Kryes'is considered that for a moment. "...actually, you make a good point. But I'm on an alien world now! That counts for something right?"
Fluttershy giggled. "Yes, Kryes'is. You're in brand new territory, that I've lived in all my life."
"That's right!"
"Anywaaaaaaay," Ko-k0ro drawled, "getting us back on track, what's next, Shy?"
Alea smirked. "Oh, tell them about the chakat, they'll get a kick out of that!"
Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd bring up the chakat..."
Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "What's this chakat thing? Is it some kind of space dohickey that shoots lasers?"
Fluttershy snickered. "No, no... well, you see, we were taking off..."
"Please remain in your pods until the lock lights turn off," chimed a voice from the cushion Fluttershy's head was currently sinking into. "If upon release you are suffering any issue, our stewards will be ready to assist you. If this is your first starship launch, you may be experiencing disorientation and or symptoms of irrational panic; you will find calming pills in your armrest pocket, and may request further medication throughout your journey. Thank you for traveling with the Progenitus fleet and endorsing our continued care of the Whole."
"Um... you're... welcome?"
Fluttershy's words were strained by the pressure against her chest. It felt almost as though an invisible bear was sitting on her, and given the roar that reverberated through the padding enveloping her she wasn't quite sure that it wasn't what was actually happening. Of course she'd studied on interplanetary travel, but it had seemed so different from however Luna had ended up on the moon and back that she had her doubts.
Then again, there was a lot about this world that didn't make sense. Maybe she really was riding on a vessel that propelled itself with ground-pointing firework cannons. She'd seen Pinkie Pie pilot stranger things.
The image projected on the plastic in front of her continued to tick up the distance traveled, with a stylized golden silhouette of their ship climbing a dotted line from a solid green ring to a dotted blue one. "We will be entering parking orbit within ten minutes. If you have any holoshows you wish to watch, you may tap your toggle on the nearest surface and the usual menu will appear on your cover. Incorporated eye-tracking parameters can be used to simulate limb motion should you feel unable to resist the g-forces..."
The idea of in-flight entertainment didn't really appeal to Fluttershy at the moment, seeing as she was being slowly swallowed by her pod. She decided to take a quick nap instead--it always worked for Rainbow Dash after she went particularly fast.
A few minutes later, a rapping sound brought her back to the realm of wakefulness. She blinked away her sleep and peered through the plastic. "Oh, hello Reinhild!"
Reinhild rolled her eyes, tapping the plastic again and cupping her ear.
"Oh, right." Fluttershy looked around for a moment, tapping a hoof against the release tab. The plastic slid aside with a hiss, and she pushed herself up--and squeaked a bit when she kept floating on.
"Easy there." The fox reached out, grabbing her rear hoof. "We're zero-g now, remember?"
"Right." The pegasus twitched her wings a bit, reorienting herself. "Oh, that is... strange... almost like swimming."
Reinhild pulled her down to the rung-lined pathway. "Well, if it's your first time awake in zero-g, you should probably not get too adventurous. I mean, Alea thought she could just fly around and..." She shrugged, gesturing toward a distant pair of figures. "Progenitus ships. Way too much open space, frankly. Hell, Spyglass ships are easier to get around in... even if it does mean getting lost."
Fluttershy gripped a rung with one hoof, shaking her head to clear the sudden confusion of the floor suddenly feeling like a wall. "There wasn't any zero-g on that, um, other ship..."
"Yeah, that was a cruiser. This is just a frigate." Reinhild glanced at the figures as they approached, releasing her hold on the pegasus. "It's a size thing. If you're small enough to land on a planet, you're too small to get gravity generators."
"Oh." Fluttershy nodded in comprehension, wings fluttering about experimentally. "I suppose that makes sense." She hummed to herself, gently letting go of the rung and flapping carefully.
The fox frowned at her. "Shy--"
"It's alright. See?" Fluttershy flicked her wings and came to a standstill. "I was just surprised. I can handle this."
"Hey hey! Miss life-saver's out and about!" Alea grabbed a rung with a hand, waving off the taur holding her. "And here I was worried you'd miss the jaunt."
Fluttershy gave her a look. "Jaunt?"
"Slang," Reinhild explained. "We're still in parking orbit, but we'll push out to interplanetary travel in... what," she turned to the taur, "two hours?"
"Two hours, fifteen minutes." The catlike face turned to Fluttershy with a smile. "First-time spacer?"
"...Technically no," the pegasus admitted, "but... well, it's my first time in zero-g." She flicked her wings, reorienting herself. "Thank you for bringing back Alea, miss...?"
"Shir, actually." The cat grinned. "Shir Fleetthought."
Reinhild groaned. "Oh, not this chakat crap..."
Fluttershy gave her a look. "Chakat?"
Alea chuckled. "Right, you wouldn't know! See, back before vectors were created--heck, before the geomats were made, lots of humans would sit around imagining 'hey, what if we could actually genetically engineer a race?' And this one guy came up with this out-of-the-world idea about tauric hermaphroditic felines--"
"And now one in every five hundred cat taurs decides 'fuck it, I'm going to stick on a dick and/or boobs and play at being some dead ape-man's fantasy' because of course that makes sense." Reinhild rolled her eyes. "I think it's just because it's a random scrap of surviving human culture so they think it sounds cool."
"Excuse you," Fleetthought snapped, "just because it's 'cool' doesn't mean it's a stupid decision. I thought long and hard about being a chakat."
"Not hard enough. You've got earrings. The original works clearly have the chakats avoiding body piercing or tattoos."
"...wait, seriously?"
"Yeah."
"How do you know that?"
Reinhild shrugged. "I got called a kitsune back in school so much I decided to research old earth myths. One thing led to another..."
The cat taur frowned, glancing away. "Well... dang. I mean on the one hand I do like most of the culture, but I also like these earrings... my mom gave them to me..."
"Um..." Fluttershy cleared her throat. "I know that some families back in Equestria have mixed heritage, but they make it work... and culture does change over time. Pegasi used to be highly militaristic."
"Pegasi?" Fleetthought asked.
"She's simulation-born," Alea explained.
The taur hissed sympathetically. "Yikes. Are you doing okay?"
"She is now," Reinhild assured her. "Hell, she's on assignment from Progenitus, that's why we're going to Venus."
"Well, good for you." Fleetthought gave Fluttershy a sympathetic smile. "Listen, you need anything on the trip, you just let me know. I'll point you right to it."
"Thank you," Fluttershy replied. "I hope it's not too much trouble..."
"Oh, no trouble at all." The taur made to go, but stopped for a moment. "No piercings? Really?"
Reinhild nodded. "Yep."
"Huh." Fleetthought's ears flicked as the taur drifted off to another deck.
"...Ah..." Rarity coughed awkwardly. "About these... chakats... they alter their bodies to become chakats?"
"Well, to mimic a fictional race from before Earth fell," Reinhild clarified.
"And... they alter... ahem... personal, intimate structures?"
Fluttershy sighed. "Yes, Rarity, Vectors can and do alter their appearance, genitalia, and internal structure. It's part and parcel of having a complete genetic understanding of their bodies."
"I went through a lot of frames as a kid," Alea said. "Heck, my first few bodies were male, but... didn't feel like me."
"My family raised me without, um, naming my gender," Ekundayo supplied. "It was a coming of age ceremony... well, in the area where I grew up, anyway."
"I like switching it up every few years," Kryes'is chirped. "Genderbending is fun!"
"And there's the downside," Sunrod quipped dryly. "Some people don't take the benefits we have seriously."
Reinhild snorted. "To be fair, Kryes'is doesn't take anything seriously."
Rarity hummed thoughtfully. "The fashion implications alone..."
"Unfortunately it's not going to be easy at all for ponies," Ko-k0ro pointed out. "You're completely different, genetically speaking. Everything would have to mapped out and simulated and tested and, well, that would take a lot of time and effort. Not that somebody wouldn't put that time and effort in, but we can't just jump in and start handing out body alteration tech right off the bat."
Pinkie snorted. "Well, duh! I don't think Sunrod would like being a table!"
The room broke into chuckles for a moment or two.
"...Wait." Ekundayo raised her head. "That... pun, it works in both our languages?"
"...apparently," Twilight mused. "Huh. That is interesting. Spike?"
Spike sighed, pulling out a scroll. "Study cross-linguistic puns. On the to-do list."
Rainbow Dash flicked her wings. "So you were on a spaceship! Like, on purpose, going to another planet! Did you run into space pirates or anything cool like that?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "No, not on this particular space trip. Most of the time I just read about Venus and worked on learning new skills that would be useful there. But..." She swallowed. "We got to see something horrifying."
"Hey Shy." Alea's voice was unusually somber. "You're... gonna want to see this."
Fluttershy glanced up from the holoscreen in front of her. "See what?"
"We're passing through the Red Horizon broadcast zone." Reinhild let out a small breath. "They keep an eye on Earth, you know? The station that orbits closest... there's a lot of data, but there's also a camera. Real-time, five-second delay."
The pegasus glanced around. The other passengers, and even the crew, were speaking in low, solemn voices. A few had opened vids to watch... something.
Fluttershy nodded, shutting off her holoscreen. "Alright."
Alea tapped the table between them, lines spreading to form a rectangular window. Framed within came the image of two orbs--one, swirling white with blue and brown beneath its surface, the other a pitted, gleaming silver. And between them, rising from the surface, was a long red... it looked almost like an exposed crystalline muscle, to Fluttershy's eyes, comprised of multiple threads twisting, but tapering off in its center to a visible gap.
"There it is," Alea said quietly. "The Ruby Spire. Nobody knows what it is, or what it does, but we know the Whispers made it." She sighed. "Or... became it. It's not clear."
Fluttershy swallowed, watching the lightning spark between the gap. "Is... is this what they're trying to make everywhere?"
"That's everyone's best guess," Reinhild replied. "Even TTI isn't sure what they're doing. Or if they know, they're keeping it quiet."
"There's a fleet assembling to attack it," Alea muttered. "Pulse, Progenitus... even the IRPF, as funders anyway. There's not enough support yet to actually do the thing, but... some people think it'll work." She shook her head. "I don't. If a show of force could destroy that, we'd have nuked it long ago."
"Some people just... want to feel like they can do something," Reinhild pointed out. "Anything. This is the most unknown thing in our solar system, and it's infected the source of all life we know of. No matter what you think about Earth or humanity, that's too big to just... not think about, sometimes."
Fluttershy listened to them with one ear, but continued watching the image quietly. There was something about the lightning that occasionally sparked across the spire. Something... strange. She wasn't any weathermare, but it seemed almost unnaturally cognizant. Not simply following the path of least resistance, but actively choosing how it would move through the void.
"...it's... alive," she murmured.
Alea gave her a look. "What?"
"It's alive," she said, more firmly. "I can see it."
Reinhild shrugged. "That's one theory--"
"--and," Fluttershy continued, "it's... thinking isn't the right word... it looks like it's... aware."