//------------------------------//
// Up, and Above: 7 
// Story: In Twilight 
// by Kentavritsa 
//------------------------------//

 . 

Nothing unexpected appears before me, as I am stepping out into my cloaking-room. Then again, why should it?

I am alone, in my very own home.  Is this a separate home, from the two previous once. Or, just different variants of the very same; located, one on top of the other?  It is the same building to me, even if it had been built up by stacking very different modules.

Now I am stepping on the hardwood floor, coated with the same crystal-clear rubber.  For now, I have my squeaking noises following me where I go.  It is a companion, I had chosen to befriend; even if it is not a person or a Pony, but just a noise that could as easily bothered or scared me.  Now I like it.  I have a wardrobe, with outdoors clothes; but I leave this, for later.  I am not going out, right now.  There is a home indoors, for me to explore.  I am curious, as to exactly what I have to see.

As I open the first door, I have a living-room; identical to the one I have in my original home, on what I see as the ground-floor.  I will stay on the first level, just as Rarity still lives in Ponyville, and base her empire from there.

While I may like and enjoy the additional options, but I still find the first one more comfortable.  Is it just, because this is where I had woken up; or, is it because it is closer to where I had originally come from?

This is most certainly not Ponyville, or Canterlot; but now, this is my home.

Maybe I should have examined my living-room closer; so that I could see just how different it is here.  Now that can wait, because I want to see this home for myself.  I can't wait, while I take the time to explore my home in more detail.

For some reason; I had ignored the mare's room, and the shower.  I do imagine, these are identical; to what I have already seen, maybe I am wrong.  Am I sloppy, as an explorer; when I am ignoring details, I could have enjoyed examining?  Oh, well; I still do have time.

What I can't ignore, is the pitch black sky; decorated with scattered pin-prick stars.  Is it night, here?

When I trot up to the first window, and look out; I notice that the ground is a dark gray, and devoid of plants and life.  Inside, I am protected; from the hard vacuum, that is flooding my garden.

“Curious!” I exclaim.

“I have certainly never seen anything, the likes of this!” I mumble, quietly.

Aside from the mare's room, and the shower; I also have a kitchen, aside from the final door into the mystery-room, I had never seen before. I enter the kitchen, observing the over-all similarities with my very own kitchen, and the one I entered in my Japanese home, as well.

I have a fridge, and a freezer; just as expected.  I have the stove, the oven and the micro-wave oven too, of course; just as I have the plate, the bowls, the glasses and the stainless-steel cutlery.

Apparently, the freezer is empty.  I do still have some fresh vegetables in the fridge, though. I even have bread, butter and milk.  Just can't seem to find the cereals.  Several empty cupboards; and the one, final place to look.  What I find is odd, but I guess there had been a reason, for what I am finding here.  Several tubes of, what is marked as food, or edibles.  Each tube, filled with a creamy paste, like shrimp-cheese.

“What in the name of Celestia, is this?” I exclaim, in indignation and confusion.

As I step out of my third kitchen, I gravitate towards the door to my mystery-room.  What could possibly be out there?  Since this is the thing, I do not know what to expect; I am curious to see this first.  Finally something truly worth exploring.

The first thing I notice about this door; it has no door-handle, like all the other doors have.  Odd, isn't it?  While there is no key-hole, but the opening mechanism is more distinct.  As if, it was designed; not to be opened accidentally, or prematurely.  Just in case, something happened.

“Whoa!  What is this?” I inquire; from none in particular, since I know there is none to answer me.

No answer, and no response is forthcoming.  Just as I had been expecting, all along.

“Most curious!” I mumble, as I am picking my brain.

Still no response; but at least, I figure out how to open the door.  There is no vacuum, outside.  At least.  That is something to be thankful for.

Since this is technically still indoors; there are no monsters, or hideous creatures, either.

Once I manage to open the door, I step out.  Just a few feet before me, I am faced with an identical door.  By the door; I find a set of boots, identical to the once I had seen before.  Here, I only have a set of glistering black boots.

No sign of the clear, or red once here.  How curious?  I once more pick my brain; in the hopes to figure out the significance, of what is before me.

“Oh, well; guess I will try these black boots, this time!” I mumble.

I light up my horn, before I focus; lifting up each individual boot, placing them on the floor before me.  Once I had placed the boots on the floor, I step into them in turn; looking down at my hooves, watching the boots contract around my hooves.

“A perfect fit, each and every time!” I exclaim; “Rarity could have loved these!” I ponder; giggling, at the image.

Just like before, the companion squeaks are now gone.  I had inadvertently banished them, for the time, when I put these boots on, for the duration of the boots staying on my hooves.  I guess I had known this all along.  This is part of how these silicon boots work.  I had already learned it, the first time; and it isn't as if any of the boots are any different.  The colour may change, but the boots are still the same; at the very core of the design.

“Caution; Low-gravity environment” the sign on the door reads.

I notice this sign, as I look up from my hooves.  Maybe this sign had been placed here for a reason?  I guess it is placed, exactly where it is, for me to see it now; just as I had stepped into these black boots.

“Curious, I certainly had never expected that!” I exclaim, looking curiously at the sign.

“I guess it is convenient, that I am a Unicorn; with the ability to levitate, I could pull myself down!” I ponder.

Of course, a Pegasus could have used her wings; to the same effect, or so I would imagine.

“Low gravity, does that suggest that there is a chance the air could be thinner as well?” I mumble, suspecting a danger ahead.

I open the door; bracing myself, for what is ahead.  Thankfully, there is no rush of air, passing me as I head out.  I realize; something is holding the air in, preventing my precious and breathable air from escaping.  Of course, I am not truly outdoors and outside my home yet.  Had I been, I would have had more than just the sign cautioning me of the low gravity.

The ground, under my hooves is soft; falling almost as if I had been trotting on flower, like that I know Pinkie Pie uses to bake her delicious confectioneries with.  Though she is using tons and tons of sugar and other ingredients as well.

The air is pitch black, due to the lack of nitrogen, spreading the expected blue light.  There is no atmosphere outside.  Though this room still contains enough breathable oxygen, for me to remain conscious.  Of course, there is a slight carbon-dioxide build-up here now, due to my presence; since I am using up the oxygen.

For now, there is no worry; it should take me hours, to use up enough oxygen, to cause me any problems.  This room is huge.  It is in fact, so large; I do not even feel the minuscule flow of gas, that depends on my breathing and consumption of oxygen.

I can see no structure, before me; as far as the eye could see, which I guess should be comforting, right now.  There is but the faintest hint, of the glass-wall before me, containing the air.  While I may refer to it as glass, it is in fact a clear sapphire-sheet.  Glass is far too fragile, to trust with the air surrounding me.  If the glass would break, the air would rush out, leaving me stranded in hard and highly unbreathable vacuum.  I would perish in a matter of no more than minutes.

Of course, I like to stay alive; and I certainly do not look forwards, to the experience of what the vanishing air would be doing to me and my body.  Good thing, I had not read up on this subject in particular.  At least, not recently, or recently enough, for me to worry about my health and survival.

If I am looking close enough, I would see the titanium-support, keeping the glass in place.  The reason behind not seeing these; is that they had been coated with pitch black carbon-fiber support.  You simply can not see the pitch black carbon-fiber, against the stark black atmosphere backdrop.

On my right, I find a small building,; a shed, in which equipment is stores.  I open the door, finding the light-switch with ease.  As I turn the light on, I can see everything within the shed with ease.  I have shovels, buckets and bags of seed.  I trot forwards, towards the first bag of seeds.  I have several lines of these seeds, whatever they may be.

“Pony-seeds” reads the bag I had approached, just a moment before.

“Pony-seeds?” I ponder; “Sounds like Bird-seeds!” I continue; “But these are for feeding birds, not planting crops!” I finally conclude.

“Curious!” I mumble.

Of course, I had never heard of Pony-seeds.  Where am I?  I had thought of this place, as my home; now I am starting to reconsider, pondering exactly where I am.  While everything I had previously seen, did make sense to me; this is changing everything, on a very fundamental level.

“These seeds were never intended for me to consume, I have far too much food in my kitchen!” I mumble.

“Of course, if one kitchen were to dry up; I could go to the kitchen on the next floor, living on what I find there!” I ponder.

What is the likelihood; that the food would run dry, in each and every kitchen I have at my disposal.  Unless it is expiring, due to poor storage, or anything else to the effect?  I do not even know, how many kitchens I have.  I have only been to three modules, of the Doll-house that is passing for my home.

Curious, I am lifting up the bag of seeds, turning it around; in the hopes of finding some kind of an explanation as to what this is.  Maybe they explain, how these seeds are supposed to be used, or how to care for the plants, if I were to plant them.

On the back of the bag, I do indeed find the guide I had been hoping for; in my search for the explanation, as to how I am to use these seeds.  The declaration explains how much light and water the plants are supposed to be needing.  There is also explanation, as to how warm it needs to be and a number of other parameters a farmer would need.  I am no farmer, or botanist; but I guess I could enjoy, growing some crops on the land I had been imparted with.

“Everything I need to know, in order to properly grow these seeds before me!” I realize.

If these are indeed Pony-seeds, as the table is suggesting, I could grow myself a heard; building up a group of new friends, so that I need not be alone anymore.

These seeds require quite a lot of ground, for just a single seed to grow properly.  I pick up a bag of the seeds, a shovel; levitating these out of the shed, carrying these to a location close to the door.  I pick up the sacks of soil indicated on the sack of seeds, levitating these to the site, where I intend to sow these seeds.  I trot back and pick up the rest, including what looks like frames; carrying everything to the site.

I line up the frames, on the ground; one by one, in a neat row of four.  I dig up dirt from the ground, before I fill it up with fertile soil.  Now I place a seed on each and fill up with the indicated fertilizer and cover up with a sack of soil on top.

I trot back, pulling a hose with me, spreading water on each seed.  Of course, there is nothing more I could possibly do for the seeds right now; I have to wait for the seeds to grow; before I can continue.  I guess I could still adjust the light, to be ready for the seeds, when the first green is sprouting above the ground.

Now I am pulling the hose back into the shed, right along with everything I did not need, for the first site.  I find a grid-control, giving me the opportunity to light up my fields.  I activate the grip, choose the section where my first site is; adjusting the light, to what these seeds require.  There, done.  That was easy, even for me.

“I could sow more seeds, any time I want!” I ponder.

“Right now, I want to see the second floor!” I mumble, to myself.

With that, I trot back to the door.  I punch the control, to open the door; waiting for it to open, before I step back in.  The door closes behind me, and I move over to the next floor to the living room.

Once the door in the living-room closes behind me, I trot back to the flight of stairs; leading me to the second floor of this module.  Now I trot up the flight of stairs, out onto the second floor.

Maybe this floor is not so different, or exciting; but right now, I feel like exploring this floor.  I open the door to each bed-room, in turn; finding them identical to the once I had already seen, on the two previously explored levels.  I have the purple bed-linen, in my bed; just like before, nothing new or overly exciting.  I have exactly as many bed-rooms as I had before; on this floor, in this module.  I have the same wardrobe, mare's room and shower as well.

“Okay, now I have seen this floor, too!” I point out, to no-one in particular.

While I guess I am a bit bored, I step back into my room; looking closer, in the hopes I find something new or different.  On closer inspection; everything is different.  Just as I had found the previous room, in the Japanese style; this is in the Astronaut's style.  Whatever that means?

At first glance, everything had looked exactly the same; as it had in my room, but there are details setting the room apart.  On the surface, it may be identical looking; but the bed is made different, and the windows are air-tight.

“Everything looks like wood, but it sounds as if this had been crafted out of stain-less steel, under the surface!” I mumble.


 ---   ---   ---