//------------------------------// // 1 - Wake // Story: New Dawn // by Split Flow //------------------------------// Radiant Dawn knew that she was dying from the moment she gained consciousness. It wasn't the languishing kind that haunted every waking hour, reminding her that she was living against the clock.  No, this was a different form of dying altogether. It was as if there was an angry colony of ants gnawing away at her organs, crawling through her insides and trying to burst out through her skin. She groaned in pain, her breath forming clouds of condensation in the frigid air  Radiant pressed the rusty button that was supposed to open the hatch. The metal crunched loudly in protest, refusing to budge having fused itself together with age. The mare hissed in frustration and punched it with a hoof instead.  The device slid home and to her relief, the tinted window began to crack as designed. She fidgeted in her bed, watching impatiently as spiderwebs creeped through the enchanted quartz glass at an agonizingly sluggish rate.  Her throat tickled. Radiant coughed into her hooves, hacking up something wet and sticky. Blood. Radiant cringed, fur standing up on the back of her neck. Hoffmare's Syndrome wasn’t supposed to make her cough up blood.  Radiant swallowed the rest of the unpleasant gunk back down, cringing at the unpleasant metallic aftertaste in her mouth as she wiped her hoof on the threadbare cushions of her pod. She paused, like she was trained to and took a moment to assess the situation. The only logical explanation was that the process meant to revive her had gone wrong, and she was down with some novel affliction. Radiant shivered at the thought, silently cursing at herself for finding a way to make her eventual death even more painful. Not being able to breathe was unpleasant enough, but coughing up blood was a whole new level of inconvenience. In all fairness though, the scientists that devised this insane plan back in Equestria had tried to dissuade her. Radiant vaguely remembered combing through a thick stack of reports, complete with pictures of previous experiments that didn't come back quite the way they should in their attempt to dissuade her: dogs with stone limbs, a cat with a head of polished rock and other horrors best left unremembered.  The petrification matrix R&D had hacked together was a relatively new way of keeping living beings in stasis over long periods of time. Funnily enough, they had no qualms accepting a perfectly healthy changeling into the program. But her? Even the most ethically questionable scientists in Equestria grew squeamish when involving terminally ill patients. Her parents didn’t approve when she announced her intentions to them. They wanted their daughter to stay at home with them “where she belonged”, which was an absurd notion since she was the best candidate for the job. Why condemn somepony perfectly healthy, with a full life ahead of them on a one way trip when they could fulfill the fillyhood dreams of somepony else with nothing to lose? She was meant to explore, not languishing herself away at home. That was why she signed up with the Startrotter Association after all. She had hoped her contributions would help ponies explore the stars, until they found the Arion probe from a system thousands of light years away. The body object had prompted the association to embark on the most ambitious mission of discovery in Equestrian history. The plan was to launch a vessel to make the trek to the probe's home system. When Equestrian space-travel had advanced sufficiently enough, they would send a ship to pick them up, if they hadn't arrived at the system. From what Radiant understood, it was a long shot and more of a publicity stunt to get ponies interested in space. An endeavor like this traditionally called for an expeditionary scribe to log things down for the royal archives, and that was where Radiant came in. Since the trip had a chance of ending up as a one way journey, her condition would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience at worst. She could do a lot in the ten years that she had, and if something happened to her on the way there, then she wouldn't even feel a thing while she was petrified. The pain in her chest was growing worse now, and it felt like her lungs were starting to burn away. Radiant frowned, giving the hatch a cursory tap. The glass was supposed to shatter by now, and she wasn't sure if the air in here was still good for breathing after Celestia-knows-how-many years of marination with the elements. If the airtight seals were still, then she was was also looking at the very real risk of suffocating herself to death. Radiant grimaced at the thought. She braced herself against her bed and bucked at the tinted glass, yelping as her hooves harmlessly bounced off the enchanted quartz and leaving her with nothing but a dull throbbing pain in her legs for the effort. She pressed the button again, panic welling up in her chest as nothing happened. Her ears perked up at the sound of a muffled voice drifting from outside the pod, recalling that she wasn't supposed to be alone. Startrotter had sent two ponies on the trip, with the other being a changeling named Seefi. Stay with your buddy, and you'll never worry, went the mantra. "Hey! Seefi! Get your flank over here! I can't get out!" She croaked, tapping at the glass to get her companion's attention. Seefi heard her alright, because the next thing Radiant knew was having her eardrums nearly destroyed with whatever spell the changeling was using to blast the pod. It was loud, grating and Radiant shoved her hooves into her ears in a futile attempt to block out the sound, watching in awe as an angry, glowing disc sliced through the hardened iron as if it was nothing more than butter.  She flinched as the spell sent sparks bouncing carelessly around her pod, lighting up the interior with a brightness that rivaled Celestia's sun. The bone-shattering buzzing seemed to go on forever until the dreaded hatch finally fell away with a triumphant clang, bathing Radiant with cool, fresh air from the outside. Radiant gasped, taking in a lungful of the sweet air. "God dammit Seefi, that took you long enough. Turn the lights down will you? It's way too bright." She grumbled and promptly crumpled over, hacking up more blood and mucus all over the inside of her pod.  Guess I'm not using that as a bed anymore. Radiant clambered out of her resting place. She tried to stand with legs that didn't work right, managing to stumble around like some newborn foal before falling into an undignified heap on the cold floor. The earth pony blinked, noticing just how smooth the surface was. This wasn't the mesh panels of their ship. No, it smelled clean, if the faint smell of antiseptic was to be trusted. Radiant looked up, finding a massive ceiling looming over her head. It was high enough to rival Princess Celestia's throne room but it was also sparsely decorated. Even the evenly spaced lighting crystals set in the gray masonry looked bland, a stark contrast to the tasteful filigree that adorned the chambers of the royal palace. To her left was what seemed like a pedestal of sorts, propping up an oversized fish tank that was filled with an evil looking fluid which bubbled lazily ever so often. Combined with the strange metal machines connected to and the forest of tubes snaking around it, the device wouldn't have looked out of place in some mad scientist's basement.  Conclusion? This was not her ship or some residence for the planet's rulers - experience had taught Radiant that even the most thrifty of creatures couldn't give in to temptation and display at least some of their wealth. No, this place looked like a laboratory, probably one with a very specific purpose in mind. Whoever wanted to drag her stasis pod out of her ship all the way here probably had a very compelling reason to do so. But what? A shape moved in her peripheral vision. Radiant Dawn turned her head, and that was when she saw them.  She gasped, clambering back to the pod. It was a wonder that she didn't wet herself. Aliens! No amount of preparation from could have prepared herself for this. Their mission was supposed to find the planet of the ape-like creatures that referred to themselves as the people of the earth. She knew that much from the Arion probe they found. Radiant had seen the pictures it carried, fully expecting to meet this race of "people", but the… things that greeted her seemed nothing like the ones the artifact carried. The creatures, there were five of them, resembled the misshapen monkey things only in stature. Their bloated skin was a sickly shade of green that certainly didn't look like the chitin, fur or the ‘gelatinous membrane’ theorized by the scientists who briefed her. Radiant winced as their flesh crinkled, watching in morbid fascination as they lumbered towards her. What was most unnerving was the smooth, featureless faces they had, making them look like golems. Radiant cringed internally as she stared at her reflection, suddenly wishing that she was back in the pod again. Wait a minute, where is Seefi? She could search for her missing comrade later, but she needed to act now. The golem things looked impatient. Radiant gulped, putting on the biggest smile she could muster. As cheesy as the alien invasion Applewood films were, the fate of Equestria could very well depend on this moment. She wasn't about to let her fear get in the way of this, lest she be responsible for accidentally declaring war with them because she looked at them the wrong way. Radiant gritted her teeth, forcing herself to ignore the fire slowly burning her lungs away. Hopefully, she would live long enough to relay something meaningful to them.  Radiant was no linguist, but that was why they had brought Equish reference guides along in the archives of their ship. Hopefully, there was somepony on the alien's side that had a special talent in language and had already deciphered enough to gain a basic comprehension of her language. Otherwise, it would be a terrible waste of time just to teach them enough Equish to ask if they had already eaten dinner. In the end though, she didn’t get to say anything at all. Maybe it was the way she looked at them, or they didn't appreciate her dirtying up their clean floors. One of the golems with yellow stripes running down its body stuck out a limb in her direction, bellowing what sounded like a war cry. “stɑp ˈstændɪŋ əˈraʊnd! wi doʊnt hæv mʌʧ taɪm! ˈhɜri!”  Radiant froze as its unnaturally hollow sounding voice echoed across the room. The sound struck something in her, and despite all the conditioning that the Association had drilled into her for first contact, Radiant Dawn couldn't help but scream as the monsters started to run towards her.  She turned tail and ran, giving in to instincts that had kept her kind safe over the eons when chased by something. “stɑp ˈrʌnɪŋ gɑd ˈdæmɪt, wir ˈtraɪɪŋ tu hɛlp!” One of the golem-creatures swiped at her. Radiant barely managed to dodge in time, almost tripping over her legs.  “Yeah, screw you too!” Radiant shot back. Even with the magic of the earth flowing through her veins, the golems easily covered twice the distance she took with every step. Worse still, there was nothing that looked like an exit in the massive cavern. She couldn't keep running forever. Her hooves felt numb and it was starting to get increasingly difficult for her to keep her balance. Still, Radiant pressed on, mustering every ounce of energy she could to dodge their swipes and flee. “Buck!” Her legs gave up on her. Radiant yelped, skidding helplessly into the jumble of tubing beside the oversized tank. She tried to free herself, kicking and struggling against the inanimate tendrils. In her desperation, she only managed to trap herself deeper inside the tangle of rubber.  “aɪv gɑt ɪt!” Thundered a voice from behind shouted from behind, scooping her up with sinewy claws that easily wrapped around her chest. Radiant Dawn growled, kicking and nipping uselessly at the thing’s bitter tasting flesh. The golem didn't even flinch as it held her up, thudding noisily to the massive tank. “Woah, h-hey! I can't breathe water!” Radiant squirmed as it lowered her inside the tank, her hooves touching the fluid. Whatever was inside wasn’t water. It was viscous and gooey and the liquid felt… alive.  She didn't know how to describe it, but the sensation wasn't so different as having thousands of little bugs crawl through her skin. Radiant struggled, trying to distance herself from the evil looking goo as the being hesitated and held her there. “ju ʃʊr ju wɑnt tu du ðɪs waɪl ʃiz əˈweɪk? jʊr ˈgoʊɪŋ tu draʊn hɜr əˈlaɪv ju noʊ?” “wir ˈteɪkɪŋ ə bɪg ɪˈnʌf rɪsk æz ɪt ɪz. wi doʊnt noʊ ɪf ðɛr ˈbɑdiz kæn ˈhændəl ˈaʊər ˈmɛdəsən” Came the reply from behind her. Radiant tensed up, unable to shake the feeling that this felt like the beginning of some bucked up sacrifice ritual. “Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!” Radiant hammered her hooves against its claws as it thrust her into the liquid. She gasped for air, swallowing mouthfuls of the foul tasting liquid and coughed violently as her lungs tried to expel the fluid, barely noticing the clouds of crimson that came back out. It didn’t take long until she could swallow no more of the gunk, or put up any form of meaningful resistance as her cells ran out of oxygen to work with. The golem finally let her go, but Radiant was too weak to swim. She watched helplessly as she sank to the bottom of the tank, her vision fading to black as her brain shut down. She couldn't go out like this. She couldn't have. It just wasn't right for somepony to travel thousands of light years just to die like…. this…. Radiant Dawn's hooves twitched one last time and she slipped into the clutches of the gray mare.