//------------------------------// // Chapter X - Heading Off // Story: Book 1 - Prisoner and Savior // by Midnight_Lights //------------------------------// "Uh, is everything alright in there?" Twilight heard a female guard say, it was probably the one she had teleported here earlier. Twilight was hiding under the covers of her bed. The blanket felt sleek and shiny, but still warm. She suspected that it traped her body heat in it because it was black. "Can you say 'sey' if you are okay? The guard asked. "Sey," Twilight responded, just barely loud enough for the guard to hear. Twilight felt troubled and anxious now that she had seen Luna. It made her want to get back to her friends and family even more than before, which put a giant weight on her shoulders that made her unmotivated to get up. Twilight wanted to go home, and she wanted to protect her newly appointed country. However, she was unable to find the motivation to solve her problem, and her friends weren't there to help her get out of her slump. She lay in bed for several more minutes, urging herself to get out of bed, but also finding excuses. Twilight tried to calm her mind down using the technique that Cadance taught her, but it only made her think about Equestria again. Eventually, panic overtook her sadness as she realized she didn't know much about this world or where she was. This panic led to her getting motivated to find some books and papers. Twilight hopped off of the bed and looked around at her room. It was small, just large enough to fit a bed, closet, and a small desk. The room was lit by a single light at the top, there were two other light units, but only one of them was on, casting a dim light, almost with a bluish tint in it. Twilight walked over the door and tried to figure out how to open it. The door didn't have any locks or handles and it didn't open when she pushed on it. "Any creature out there?" she called, hoping that the guard she heard earlier was still there. "Sorry, but I can't understand you" The guard said, but Twilight was still happy to hear her. "No, can you let me out?" Twilight asked. "Do you want food or water? "Out," Twilight repeated, slowly "Bathroom?" "O...U...T" Twilight said again, even slower this time "You want to leave?" "Yes!" Twilight said, with exaggerated enthusiasm to make sure the guard understood her. "I'm not authorized to let you out until you meet with Captain Zeck." Twilight wasn't having that. She needed to find her way home, and the ship was the safest place she had been so far to do that. Twilight asked to be let out again, putting anger in her voice, but it was denied. "I will alert Captain Zeck that you wish to speak with him sooner." Twilight wasn't bothered by having a meeting or even having to wait for someone. However, she felt like she was just another prisoner here. She decided that she had recovered enough to teleport, so she made a blind jump to the other side of the door. "OW!" yelled the guard, using her normal voice this time. Twilight had teleported right in front of her, which caused the guard to be pushed violently to the floor as Twilight landed on top of her. "Sorry!" Twilight called to the guard, as she got off her and took off flying down the halls. She had to jump a few times again as the gravity had changed slightly. Twilight flew down the hallways, stopping to try and open each door that she passed, but most looked like rooms just like hers. Eventually, she arrived at a larger room, with a few tables scattered around it. She saw Zeck and several other creatures crowded around another creature who was talking to them all. By the way that he was talking, it looked like he was telling a story. His four arms were flying around the place, and his face was very exaggerated. Twilight lingered in the doorway for a second. She was mesmerized by the creature's story even though she didn't understand what he was saying. When she turned to leave and continue her search, Zeck noticed her. "Twilight!" he cheerfully called as he sat up and walked toward her. The other creatures there turned to look at her too, including the storytelling one, who also stood up and joined Zeck. The rest of the creatures watched Zeck and the other lead Twilight out the door, before turning back and starting to talk amongst themselves. Twilight let herself be escorted to another room in the ship with a small table in it. When the arrived, Zeck pulled out a small, thin, rectangular device, and started talking into it. Twilight looked at him with confusion, but then the other creature said something to her which drew her attention away. "What?" Twilight asked, confused "Chmone," he said, using one of his hands to point to himself. Twilight was still confused, so he repeated it a little slower. Then, Twilight understood that he was saying his name. "Oh, uh. . . Twilight," she said, pointing to herself with her hoof. Just then the guard Twilight evaded earlier walked into the room. Twilight felt herself grow tense, hoping that she wasn't there to put her back into the room. Chmone approached the guard and said something to her, and Twilight just watched them talk awkwardly, feeling a bit out of place. "Hello Twilight, I am Xul." the guard said, addressing her. I am going to be serving as a one-way translator between us for now. Everything after this will be directly translating what Captain Zeck and Co-captain Chmone here are saying." The guard, Xul, turned back to look at Zeck who was sitting at the table next to Chmone. Zeck said something to Xul, who translated it to Twilight. "I'm sure that you are probably very confused right now, but my crew and I are working on a translator so we can more thoroughly explain everything to you. However, we need samples of your language and translations for it to work. Could you please help us with this?" Twilight nodded, and Chmone took out a small rectangular object and tapped on it for a few seconds, before saying something to Zeck and the guard. "What is the name of your language?" The guard asked, "Ponish" Twilight replied. "How do you say 'yes' in Ponish?" "Yes" "And what about 'no,' how do you say 'no' in Ponish?" Twilight felt like the creatures were talking down to her with how they were wording things, but she kept going. "No," she said "What is the name of your home?" Twilight felt sad again, and she decided that as soon as this was done, she was going back on the hunt for books and maps, and would ask Xul to help her. "Equestria," she said, flatly. They continued asking her things such as 'why,' 'maybe,' 'I don't know,' 'look,' and many other simple statements. After about 15 minutes had passed, Chmone got up and left, and Zeck, through Xul, said that they were done. "It will take us some time to get translators working for your languages. Until then, you are free to wander around the ship as long as Xul, me, Chmone, or another guard is with you." They don't trust me, do they? Twilight thought. They talked down to me before, and now I have to be escorted everywhere. Twilight looked over at Xul, who had a mostly blank expression. When she turned back to face Zeck, she saw that he was already leaving. The doors seemed to open for him, and then close once he had passed them, leaving her alone with Xul. "Do you want to go back to your room?" Xul asked, and Twilight shook her said. "Okay then, I'm not going to waste time trying to figure out what you want, so just lead and I will follow you." Twilight noticed that Xul when she was speaking on her own, didn't talk down to her like the others did. She started to respect Xul for this. "Uh. . ." Twilight started to say. She looked around the room for an object to turn into paper and a quill, or pen. Xul just stared at her. "I know I said I wouldn't ask, but...do you want me to show you around?" Xul said. I'm not interested in exploring at the moment, but that will probably lead me to some maps and books so... Twilight nodded. "Okay, come with me." Xul said, as she walked toward the door. Twilight followed Xul around the spaceship. Xul showed her where the bathrooms and bedrooms were first. Then, she led Twilight to the front of the ship where a few creatures were piloting it. After that, they went to the meeting and dining rooms, then to a room near the top of the ship. It had mostly see-through roofs and walls. However, one wall was covered in a giant map-like thing with several books and papers on shelves next to it, and another wall, the one Twilight, and Xul were at, had some light and the door on it. "This is the observatory, if you notice, you can see that the map over there has a bright orange dot on it. That dot represents us, and it shows us where we are in the local solar system, galaxy, or the universe if you know what those are. Anyway, we use it to chart courses and find paths, but the newest ships have switched into smaller and more concise digital maps, which are only in the pilot room. Anyway, not much to see here, but I can teach you about it later if you want." Xul turned to leave, but Twilight stopped her hoof on the floor to get her attention. "No," she said. "Sorry?" "Stay," Twilight said, but it wasn't one of the words that she had taught them, and even if it was, Xul probably wouldn't have remembered it. "I don't know that word," Xul said, and she turned back to the door, gesturing to Twilight to follow, but Twilight walked further into the room. "Aren't you coming, Twilight?" Xul asked. "No." "So... you want to stay here?" "Yes!" Twilight said, excitedly. She would finally have a chance to find her home. . . . Chmone and his friend, Zeck, were discussing what to do and where to go now that they had escaped from Terram when the conversation topic turned to Twilight. "She is definitely of a unique species. I wonder if "Equestria" has more of her kind. What did she call herself again?" Zeck wondered. "I think she called herself a "yonp," it was something equine," Chmone responded. "And I agree, Twilight seems to have a lot of strange abilities, I would love to see all that she, and her kind, can do." "Me too, but I feel that we have more pressing matters than research." "Yes, yes. But what if we stopped at her planet, and maybe picked up some more yonps? We could gain an edge over the Sectanium with an army of them, especially if they were all like Twilight." Chmone suggested. Zeck paused for a moment. "...true. However, I don't think they would be willing to fight." "Well, we could always force them to?" "We don't have anything they could want, except for one of their own, but it would be stupid of them to give themselves to us for just one of them back. Also, they seem too soft to even battle, and this isn't even their fight." "Oh right. Twilight seems to have lots of power in her, but she has yet to even try to attack us." Chmone said. "She also saved that guard," Zeck paused to remember her name, "Xul, even though she was an enemy. I think even if we did force her kind into working for us, they might not have the heart to fight." "Fatal flaw, huh? Powerful and useful, but unable to use their power for good." "I guess so," Zeck concurred, "And speaking of power, what do you think the Sectanium are going to do?" The discussion drifted off the topic of Twilight and back to making plans. . . . Twilight and Xul had been working hard for the past hour. It was difficult since there was only one-way communication, but through a very tough game of charades, the two had worked out a system: Twilight points to something, and Xul translates and explains it to her. Xul was getting tired of it, but Twilight seemed to be full of energy. Maybe they get energy from tiring others out. Xul thought. "The yellow line indicates the UFF, United Freedom Fighters' territory." She said when Twilight pointed at the dividing line between the Sectanium, Mandors, and UFF territory, the latter of which had the least territory out of the three. "I bet there are people on this ship who work or worked for the UFF. We're the good guys out of the three groups. Of course, there are minor groups too, but they aren't important." Twilight then pointed to one of the galaxies in the UFF's territory, which zoomed in on the star map. Xul was used to this. She guessed that Twilight was looking fo her home, which she knew was in the UFF's territory, but not in the center area, since that was densely populated with known planets, and a Sectanium ship would have a harder time getting there. Excluding those, they were about halfway through the possible galaxies at this point. Many of which Xul knew about or heard about, so she could easily eliminate them from containing Twilight's home. However, it was Twilight who seemed to be keeping track of the galaxies. She never once repeated one, while Xul was struggling to tell if they had just looked at the Ramton galaxy, or the Rambon galaxy (they looked similar, but neither housed Twilight's solar system, which Xul knew would have very little information about it). The cycle continued for many more galaxies and a few miscellaneous things. At one point, Captain Zeck dropped in to check on them. Xul got more nervous around him since he tried to kill her, and she didn't know what side he was on. However, Twilight didn't seem to be bothered by his presence. Zeck lingered by the door for a few minutes, watching them work. "Temar, I don't know much about it," Xul said, for what seemed to be the 50th time. She zoomed in on the galaxy and looked at all of the tiny solar systems, represented by dots showing the color of their suns. "What color is your sun again, red?" Twilight turned to a page on a nearby book with a picture of an orangeish yellow sun. "Okay." Xul said, and used voice command on the map to make it cross out any suns that weren't orange, white, or yellow, which could easily be mistaken for one another from a planet. Now, only about half of the solar systems remained, and Xul moved them together, making them appear closer together. Then, she removed the suns and had the map shows only the ones with lifeforms on them. Twilight studied them for a few minutes, then she picked one and zoomed in on it. It looked different than the others because it only had one planet, which was in the center of it, instead of its sun. That was very strange, but not impossible. "Equestria!" Twilight said, sounding excited, and a bit exasperated. "That's her solar system, Contrarium?" Zeck asked, "has her planet been named yet?" Xul tapped on the planet showed on the screen and watched as information about it showed up. "it's called Equus, sir." Xul said, in psyspeak so that Twilight would have some idea of what they were talking about. "Em esucse," Twilight said, directing their attention over to her. She pointed at the green planet in the solar system. "Equestria," she said, then she pointed to herself with her hoof, and back to the planet. "That's your home, we know." Xul said. "I believe she wants for us to take her there, can't blame her." Zeck put in. "Ask her that." "Do you want us to take you to your home?" Xul asked. She was getting excited and motivated to work now, thinking that they would now have a set goal in mind. She thought that going there would be fun, as she hasn't been to a new planet in forever, and they might be able to create diplomatic relationships. "Sey," Said Twilight, she looked happier, or more excited, than before. "Tell her that once the translator is built, we can discuss taking her home, but for now we will continue to travel away from Terram to ensure that we haven't been followed," Zeck said, and Xul repeated it to Twilight in psyspeak. Twilight looked anxious to get going, but she seemed to contain her disappointment that they weren't going to go right away. "Xul," Zeck said, "I am going to go now, but I want to speak with you once you and Twilight are done here, okay?" "Yes, sir," Xul said, and she turned back to Twilight once Captain Zeck had left the room. Twilight had started looking around the room again. . . . Well, this stinks! Trine thought. A Warrior had just arrived, and he felt a tingle in the back of his mind as they attempted to break in. Luckily, they were on the other side of the large building, and likely on the surface floor, while he was in the sub-basement. This gave Trine a little time to prepare in case the Warrior decided to take over him. He didn't have many bad thoughts, but he knew that he wasn't loyal to the Sectanium. He was only there because it was the easiest way to get a high paying job. This meant that for the next few minutes, he repeated things to himself. I'm very loyal to the Sectanium. They are amazing. The Sectanium are the superior race. Freedom leads to suffering. Eventually, the Warrior's pull became stronger, but they weren't interested in Trine. Instead, a nearby guard seized up, which was a side effect of being mind-controlled. Trine had never been himself, but he was taught about what to do and what would happen. He knew that a person or creature could still think and see what they were doing, but they were less aware of it, almost in a dream-like state. It was also very hard to fight off, but still possible if you were experienced enough in it. Being controlled wasn't painful unless the person controlling you threw you off a cliff or something that would cause physical pain. However, it did sometimes leave you with a headache. The mind-controlled guard started rigidly walking towards the exit. Trine was tempted to follow them but feared that the Warrior would find out. . . . Ash had very little time to prepare for it. The Warrior arrived very close to her, and almost immediately took hold of her body. Ash first tried to fight because she became confused and scared, but after realizing what was happening, she let go and became controlled. However, Ash was still very annoyed at this and felt that the Warrior should have given her a warning before mind-controlling her, but she wouldn't dare go and tell them this, so she shoved it to the back of her mind with what little control she still had. Ash felt her muscles tighten up, then relax a little as the Warrior took complete control of her. She felt thoughts in her mind surface and dissipate as the Warrior saw them. Ash watched, like a person in the passenger's seat of a ship, as she rigidly walked out the door. Then, she walked until she reached a room that she had never been to before. It was one of the meeting rooms usually used by the managers and high ranking staff, low ranking workers like her were seldom allowed in. There, she saw the Warrior. It was a male Sectanium dressed in the usual business clothes of a high ranking person. Ash expected him to be wearing spikes or something else that screamed "I'm dangerous", but he looked almost normal. The only thing different about him was that his third eye was more developed, and was glowing yellow while his normal eyes were glazed over. He also had a small silver pin on his side shoulder with the picture of an eye on it, the symbol of the Warriors. The Warrior stood there for several more minutes, and from the corner of her eye, Ash saw more mind-controlled creatures walk in. Ash took notice of several guards that she had seen before, including other staff members. A few high-ranking Sectanium and Mandors walked in freely and stood next to the Warrior as he worked to bring everyone in. A Warrior can move when they are mind controlling people, but it can be hard for them to do both at the same time, and it usually weakens the link between the Warrior and the controlled creature. Eventually, aliens stopped coming into the room, and Ash saw herself and the others, of which there were about 20, move out the door. The group walked to a medium-sized spaceship, and once all of them were on, they froze up again. By being frozen, the Warrior could move more easily, so Ash saw him and two other Sectanium walk up onto the ship. There, a few of the soldiers started moving again, this time into the pilot room. The Warrior then looked the rest of them over a few times, before releasing his hold. "Partner up with another creature of you same species and gender, and find a bedroom to stay in. Stay there until further instructions are given." He said in psyspeak. Ash felt familiar anxiety creep in. She hated situations like theses when she had to partner up with a person she didn't know. It reminded her of school. The guards and staff started mingling around each other, and Ash joined in. While they were partnering up, the spaceship took off, and Ash watched at the planet she had spent the last few years on, fade into the distance.