//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: The Equestrian Starliner // by computerneek //------------------------------// “Hold on a sec,” she pauses, glancing back at the control panel from in front of the airlock door, finger inches away from the open key.  She’d never terminated that hardline comm call, so it might still be open.  “What happens if I become an earth pony?  How would I do the permanent-turn-human thing?” “At this time, only Unicorn magic is known to be capable of transmogrification.  The Equus-native Unicorn currently aboard may be willing to offer assistance.” She winces.  “Is there any way to be certain I become a unicorn?” “Negative; no known method to control initial transformation.  A process has been identified by which any pony can be transformed into an Alicorn, a fourth breed with the thaumic capabilities of all three.” “...  Roger.  So, when I come aboard…  If I’m not a unicorn, we’ll do that right away.” “Orders confirmed.” She nods, and pushes the button to open the airlock door.  The door slides open, and she swings herself into the larger ship’s airlock, dropping quickly and easily to the floor in the ship’s internal gravity field.  She watches the airlock door close behind her, then braces herself as the other one opens. Nothing happens. She blinks.  “Nothing’s happening?” The voice comes from the walls.  “Thaumic penetration through atmosphere is slow, without turbulence or excess pressure.” Then she feels it.  Fog of some kind invades her brain, overwhelming it rapidly, despite her effort to fight back against it.  She feels herself falling forwards- and then, the fog is gone, leaving her dead exhausted… and still falling forwards to the ground.  Her arms snap out in front of her to catch her fall- and she spots something blue in their place before her entire body is suddenly riddled with pain.  Including three appendages she didn’t know she had- two on her back, just below her shoulders, and one down at the very bottom, right about where a tail would be located. This pain only lasts a second or so, before it becomes the odd tingling of residual pain, fading quickly to nothing again.  During that second, though, she fell to the ground, her arms crumpling underneath her like boiled spaghetti. She sucks in a fresh breath of air, her chest, neck, and chin all resting on the cold metal decking…  even though her head is upright, not face-down. She lets out a groan.  “Ow… What was that?” “Alicorn transformation complete; pain appears to have been caused by the circumvention of a transportation step, and was unexpected.  Alicorn transformation process tuning is in progress.” “Ugh…”  She lifts her head off the decking, shifting her arms underneath her and pushing herself up on them.  Moments later, her legs take up a fully extended position underneath her as well, rather than the knees she’d expected. And it doesn’t hurt at all to look forwards, down the passage.  It doesn’t even feel weird, as it would have in the past. “Hokay,” she mumbles, and looks back at herself. Sky blue fur, with matching wings; golden tail, and she can see the base of her mane is the same color as well, in addition to the part hanging down over her eyes.  She takes a deep breath, and lifts a hoof to check her forehead. “Ow!” Yep, she has a horn- and hitting it like that hurts. “Owowowow…  So, um, you already turned me into an Alicorn…  What was I before?” “Pegasus.” “Ahh…  Thank you.  Anyways… Now, to walk.”  She takes a careful step, then a few more, and quickly builds herself a rhythm. Then she pauses.  “I wonder… Where are they at?” “Nothing?” Bonbon asks. Lyra sighs.  “Come on, you should know more than anypony else:  Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The big thing that’s stopping me is that whatever metal this thing is made of is really good at blocking thaumic flow.  And, of course, the densities in here are already extremely high.  I’m sure you know what happens when magic is overconcentrated?” Bonbon shudders.  “It becomes difficult to control.” “Yes.  The stuff in here is already concentrated enough it’s hard for me to keep my spell straight; I don’t want to go any more powerful because I might hurt somepony.”  She chuckles. “Somepony like Twilight would probably have no problem in this, though.” She lets out a sigh.  “So, if we can’t find anypony else around here, have you found anything to suggest what happened?” Shrug.  “A little.  Unless I miss my guess, Twilight was trying to come here herself- but overconcentrated her mana and lost control of it.”  She looks around. “Depending on how big this thing is, we might be able to estimate just how much it took for her to overconcentrate- and how many slash who she had helping.  As I’m sure you know, no pony has enough power to do that on their own.” “Nopony does?” “Wha-  you don’t know?” Shrug.  “Thaumic overconcentration is so rare I didn’t need to study it…  and didn’t see any reason to.” Facehoof.  “Right. I keep forgetting you skipped school to go to Agent training early.  I still think we should get you some grade-school books to study sometime; it’s standard biology, taught to every pony.”  She takes a deep breath.  “While it’s true, newborns and young foals often don’t have control of their magic, that’s simply because that part of their brain hasn’t developed yet.  Magic surges are a problem because that’s before the inhibitive part of their magic facilities is developed- the part that prevents accidental magic use. But once both of the above are developed, the more powerful a pony is, the more power they can safely handle.  That relationship is quite constant; any given pony can safely handle about twenty percent more power than they can produce.” “What about when they grow stronger?” “They don’t.  That’s a common misconception; they’re just waking up more of their facilities, bringing their active production closer to its hard maximum.  The only thing that can change that maximum is ascension.” “...  Oh.” “Anyways, if we’re going to be headed someplace, we’d probably better bring Fluttershy.  We don’t want to be separated.” “What-?  But-!” “I know, I know.  It’s going to be a pain, and we might have to give up an opportunity or two.  But we don’t want to leave her here, find the way home, and not be able to find her, do we?” Blink.  “True.” “Plus, knowing Fluttershy, she’ll probably follow our instructions pretty reliably.  All we have to do is be nice and listen when she has something to say.” Sigh, and her ears go flat.  “Yeah… Sometimes, I wish I was the one that knew everypony, rather than you.” “Comes from sticking to standard school for my youth, then going to Agent training,” she states.  “But hey, as much as I’m the better people pony, you’re the better Agent.” A blush decorates her cream-colored face.  “Oh please.  Everypony knows I’m an Agent, but nopony even suspects you.” Smile.  “And that’s because I know better what to expect them to do.  Agent training is inadequate for that; one requires a genuine childhood to understand what normal ponies do- both to hide things, and to discover things.” Scowl.  “Exactly my point.” “But when it comes to a mission, you’re easily twice as efficient as I.  And you’ll notice that, in everypony else’s eyes, you’re first and foremost my partner, then an Agent.  Nopony thinks of it because I’m very obviously just a musician.  So, while they know somewhere deep inside, they’ll never think of it until they actually need to look for an Agent. “It’s the perfect cover, I think- nopony consciously realizes you’re an Agent, but they all know who to go to when they need one.” “This is the voicemail of Commissioner Skyla Matthews, United Space Administration.  Please leave a message after the tone, with your name, number, and business, and she’ll get ba-!” He sighs, removing his finger from the call termination key.  “You know, Captain, it’s been two days since you went on duty up there and I already miss your instant response times.”  Then he looks up at the ceiling. “Speaking of which, I wonder what they have you doing that takes you away from your phone…?” He heaves another sigh, looking back down at the document in front of him.  He’s found it, after weeks of searching, with the assistance of several Officers that can’t be trusted in space:  The law that lets him, as the Head of the Space Police, request a specific person for police service. If she says yes, there’s nothing Personnel can do about it- she’d be a cop, regardless of what other departments wanted, until either he lifted the request or she withdrew her agreement…  at which point she’d still be a cop until Personnel wanted her elsewhere. After a third sigh, he keys in a different number.  This ex-officer never was very good, as an Officer, but that wasn’t for lack of effort.  When he had panicked over his poor performance ratings three years ago, he’d helped Officer West identify the skills that he did have- and acquire a position where he could use them to his advantage.  Namely, as a Commissioner. West is now a fairly senior Commissioner, and has been a good contact point for when he wants info from the aforementioned office…  and doesn’t want to waste time going through the official channels. Commissioner West picks up quickly.  “This is Commissioner Carl West, United Space Administration,” he greets. He nods.  “Admiral Wolf here, United Space Police.  How’s it going over there?” “Going good, actually.  As of just last night, I’m senior to everyone but Head Commissioner Kane himself!  I was going to use this new authority to take the toughest job in space, the Starship Athena…  but it seems a junior Commissioner was assigned to her yesterday morning.  Annoying.” “Absolutely,” he states.  “Here’s hoping that junior knows what they’re doing, hmm?” He laughs.  “I’d say she does.  She turned down some six different assignments beforehand, on the basis of a lack of training- and last night, I understand she requested a full crew to help her inspect the ship.  Only, it was turned down by one of my new juniors- and I missed the window to override him because he did it in the middle of the night. I’m a little caught between waiting for her to request again or just sending people up.” He chuckles.  “Maybe you should get in contact with her, see what she wants?” “Maybe, yeah…  I don’t know. Anyways, you only ever call me at work when you want something.  What is it?” Another chuckle.  “Straight and to the point again, I see.  Well… You may have heard stories about Officer Matthews?” Grin.  “Yeah, I have.  Impressive, that lady.” Nod.  “Impressive indeed.  Best Officer I’ve ever had.  The Personnel took her away- and now, she’s Commissioner Matthews.  I’ve got the Police Request laws in front of me, but I’d like to ask her before I invoke them- and she’s not answering her phone.  Do you know where she’s been assigned?” He laughs.  “Funny you should ask!  We’ve been talking about her already.” “What-?  So, the Athena?” “Yep.  She’s up there alone right now, and she’s checking Athena over for commissioning into naval service.  You planning on taking her right away, or when she finishes?” “I don’t know yet- I was going to ask her.” “Ahh.  If she does go right away, it won’t be long until I get another Commissioner up there, so no problemo.  Lemme know, please?” He chuckles.  “Will do.”