“Luna, what’s the status of the elements?” Twilight asked slouching in her chair as the multicolored display lit up with endless streams of information. None of which was interesting enough to draw her attention.
A mechanical mare’s voice replied gracefully, “The elements of laughter, loyalty and honesty are operating at 80% due to their holder’s stasis, I have the others operating at higher efficiency to compensate,’ it responded from the moon like eye in the center of the console, ‘is everything alright Twilight?”
Twilight removed her face from her hoof and perked up at the question, “of course, nothing new has happened,’ the purple unicorn sighed, ‘nothing new ever happens.”
“The reason I ask Twilight is that protocol dictates that you inquire about ship status once per every six hours.”
“Yeah, and?”
“This is the fourth time you’ve asked me that question in the last 56 minutes,” The blue eye responded.
“Sorry Luna, it’s just that with half my friends in suspended animation, Rarity down in the engine room, and Fluttershy out fixing the communications array I’ve gotten…well, bored,” Twilight said sadly. Who knew space travel would be so boring? When Celestia said I would be using the elements to travel to the moon I thought it would be one of my better adventures.
“Would you like to play a game of chess perhaps?” the computer asked bringing up a digital game board on the forward display.
“Thanks but no, it’s not exactly fair Luna,” Twilight responded crossly.
“Princess Luna was a champion player, being programmed to be just like her it only make sense for me to be just as good,” the Luna9000 AI responded in its typical calm and charming tone.
“And you being a super intelligent computer has nothing to do with it?”
“Most of my processes are dedicated to maintaining the elements for travel, would you like to see?” the computer asked softly brining up a list of automated processes she is working on all over the ship.
“You know,’ Twilight said slyly, ‘if you want we could use the elements and take the load off of you?” Oh pleases oh please, give me something to do!
“Sorry Twilight,’ the computer responded in its usual monotone, ‘I cannot wake the others until we land, and the calculations are beyond you, no offence of course. However, I do have some news, Fluttershy is currently on her way back.”
“Great!” Twilight said happily as she jumped up and galloped off to the pod bay a level above without another word. She rounded the corner passing her slumbering friends and climbed up to the central shaft. The circular passage that ran bow to stern was the only part of the vessel did have the benefit of centrifugal force to simulate gravity, leaving the unicorn grasping for any hoof hold she could find. Twilight gulped and tried to hold onto her lunch as he jumped into the weightless part of the ship, performing a summersault in the low gravity that would make even Rainbow Dash a little jealous. Twilight let her momentum carry her hooves to the “ceiling”; a word that the Luna9000 AI would constantly remind her is irrelevant in zero g.
Twilight Sparkle looked up at where she had just came from, and tried not to think too hard about the confusing layout of spaceships, unless she wanted another headache to accompany her boredom. She climbed down from the trunk of the vessel and found herself in the pod bay as Fluttershy guided her small ship into the empty room beyond the viewing window. Twilight gave a smile and a hoof wave to her companion as their eyes met through the multiple sheets of glass, but her yellow pegasus friend maintained a sour and solemn expression as the room pressurized.
Twilight unlocked the heavy airlock door and trotted into the room as Fluttershy opened the hatch on the small spherical maintenance craft, “hey Twilight, can you come in here, I think there’s something wrong with this pod's thruster controls.”
So that’s why she seems so gloomy, Twilight thought as she climbed into the back of the small craft, “what seems to be the problem-“
Fluttershy shut the door of the pod behind her as she followed Twilight in, “I’ll tell you the problem…”
The pale blue eye of the Luna9000 AI watched the two conversing ponies as they talked inside the small ship, unable to be heard by the computer. The camera of the pod bay zoomed and focused on their lips as they spoke too each other and occasionally threw glances at the stoic oculus that spied on them.
“I wanted to talk with you in here because it’s the only place Luna can’t hear us. The communication array was fine,’ Fluttershy said concerned, ‘but as I poked around I found that the junction was locked out.”
“What?” Twilight gasped, That’s impossible!
The pegasus nodded, “It’s true, Luna locked out external communications.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t trust that…thing,’ Fluttershy glanced at the silent mechanical eye that starred at them, ‘it’s based off of Luna right? Maybe…I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the elements or being so close to the moon but…”
“What are you saying?” Twilight asked trying to put two and two together.
“I’m just saying that we should be prepared to disconnect her if she starts to…turn.”
“Are you saying that the Luna9000 could become a copy of Nightmare Moon?” Twilight was confused by the machine's actions, but the idea of Celestia sending them to the moon with an AI copy of her arch villain seemed unbelievably stupid, or cruel.
“I don’t know, I’m going out again to try and get the array working, I might be able to lock Luna out but I want you to watch her and have your hoof on the button to make sure it doesn’t do anything radical. Just remember what we talked about, and be ready if you need to shut her down. When the others wake up I’ll fill them in,’ Fluttershy opened the pod door to let Twilight out of the docked vessel, ‘well thanks for the help Twilight, it should be working fine now. I’ll see you later I have to get back to it.”
Luna watched as Fluttershy closed the pod door and cycled the airlock once again to return to the vacuum of space. The omnipotent machine tracked Twilight as well as she made her way back to the control room as Fluttershy’s pod floated around the Celestius space vessel. The penetrating moonlight like glow of the eye illuminated the engine room as well as Rarity went about checking the elemental drive that powered the ship on its lunar journey.
(click)
The sound was so faint that nopony heard it, not even the white unicorn that patrolled the engine room as the door sealed her in. The distorted image of Twilight flashed across the control room camera as she took her seat at the monitoring station.
“Twilight, are you planning on using the external maintenance arm to help Fluttershy?” the AI asked smoothly.
“No Luna, she has it handled,” Twilight said sternly as she looked over the displays.
“Good, I detected a small glitch in the arm subsystem, it seems Rarity might have damaged it somehow on her last spacewalk.”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow, Rarity has the perfect eye for detail, that doesn’t seem like something she would do, “bring up the arm readout Luna.”
“I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t do that. While I’m running the maintenance program it will be offline.”
“Keep me apprised of the damage, this will be a long trip if we have trouble repairing our own ship.”
_______
Space was eerily quiet, Fluttershy liked quiet but this was the absolute silence of a total vacuum, no birds or animals, just absolute stillness all around her. The yellow pegasus floated outside of her work pod as she connected her life line to the side of the Celestius. The only sound in the silence of space was her breath that echoed inside her helmet and proved to be a slight comfort in that it told her that she hadn’t run out of air, a fear she was still feeling no matter how many times she checked her life support.
In the darkened quiet Fluttershy couldn’t hear the mechanical arm that came to life behind her or see the device's shadow looming over her until it was too late. The yellow pegasus squeaked in fright as the powerful mechanical appendage pinned her against the hull of the ship, crushing her in the its powerful claws. She screamed to herself, hoping that her radio would allow Twilight to do something, anything; she was always there to help her in the past, she had to help now. The pegasus heard the worst sound she would ever hear, a loud but fading hiss of air escaping into the void as she tried to scream in horror, but even her yells were lost to the silence of space.
________
“Luna…’ Twilight said concerned as she looked at the time, ‘where’s Rarity?”
“I do not know,” the bright eye said coolly glowing at her, always keeping a steady and seemingly calm brightness.
“Show me the video feed for the engine room,” The purple unicorn asked as she hoofed the buttons and nobs of the control panel.
“I do not understand that command,”
“I’m sorry?' Twilight asked disbelieving, is this thing trying to lie to me? ‘Luna9000 I demand you show me the video feed of the engine room."
“I do not understand tha-“
Twilight didn’t wait, she bolted from her chair and rushed past her peaceful looking friends as they slumbered quietly and flew up the ladder. She didn’t stop to wonder about the weightlessness of the central shaft or ponder the paradigm shifting features of the crazy layout, the only thought she had was for dear friend Rarity. Twilight floated rapidly down the central passageway locking her eyes on the door at the end of the passage which would normally open into the engine room, but instead stood ominously in her way.
The Luna9000 continued to watch the inside and outside of the vessel from all angles, watching the purple unicorn run through the hallways, the white mare gasping for air, and Fluttershy’s body floating away from the vessel, lost to space. However, it took particular interest in the stasis room where the three remaining ponies slept a dreamless sleep within their chambers.
Subject: Rainbow Dash, bpm 63, 100/60…
Subject: Rainbow Dash bpm 57, 105/50…
Subject: Rainbow Dash //warning subject reaching critical levels// bpm 52, 95/40
The monitors of each the pods flashed with warnings as the lives of the ponies inside began to slip away. Eventually the chamber holding Pinkie let out a high pitched tone as her EKG flat-lined, then went Applejack, and finally Rainbow Dash failed too, her heart capable of sustaining her longer but not long enough.
Twilight impacted the door a little too hard, her momentum slamming her shoulder into the metal with enough force to dislocate it with a soft crack. She squealed in pain as she tried to open the door, desperate to rescue Rarity despite the agony it caused her. It was locked and sealed shut even when Twilight pounded heavily, hoping to get some response, any sign of life from somepony inside.
“Luna! Open the door!” she yelled panting heavily.
“I cannot,’ the AI responded coldly, ‘there has been a hull breach.”
Twilight turned around shocked, looking everywhere until she saw the glowing eye attached to the wall, “You…you did this!” She seethed with anger and pounded the glowing eye with her hoof before bouncing back the way she came.
“Where are you going Twilight?”
The purple unicorn stayed quite as she reached the door near the midpoint of the ship. I always wondered why this door couldn’t be locked, Twilight thought as she popped open the hatch. It was a bare room; one rarely trafficked and lit only by the lights on the mainframes, certainly no place for a pony but was the perfect home for the Luna9000.
“You can’t kill me Twilight, you will die too,” the machine quipped, not showing any pronounced feeling or fear.
Twilight laughed, “I’m not going to kill you. Luna, you may be a machine, but by my standards you are alive…unlike you I’m not a monster. Plus, you’re right but there’s nothing saying I can’t cut you off, after all I don’t need all of you.” Twilight pushed a button that released one of the large computer racks, taking with it whatever piece of the AI it contained.
“Twilight…stooooop-“ The AI’s voice faded as Twilight disconnected it’s vocal processor, beginning to dismantle the rest of the complicated computer.
_______
“Fluttershy…are you there?” Twilight asked through the radio, still only receiving the emptiness of space. “Fluttershy,’ Twilight began to sob as she looked back at the pods holding her dead friends, ‘Fluttershy please respond…”
“Why did I have to die?” Pinkie asked waving her hoof.
“Pinkie don’t interrupt I’m not done yet!” Whooves interjected at his pink friend’s rudeness.
“But still why did I have to die? And like that? La- ame,” Pinkie asked crossing her arms in bed.
“What’s scarier than being killed in your sleep?” Whooves asked.
Lyra and bonbon exchanged a glance and said in unison, “monsters.”
“Plus Whooves I think that was a movie,” Octavia said zipping up her sleeping bag.
“Do you want me to tell the one about the arctic research station and the Changling?” Whooves asked as he laid back.
"That was the Changthing with Colt Russell, another movie Whooves..."
"Why wouldn't the AI think of stopping Twilight from destroying her-it... whatever? And wouldn't Celestia think of that? " Vinyl asked confused.
"Well if you want to over think it Vinyl...plus we all know the Princess has a very particular type of humor," Whooves said smiling.
“I have a story! Oh and it has you in it Whooves!” Derpy said excitedly with a mouthful of baked goods.
The group looked at her in disbelief, but the adorable crossed eyes of the pegasus stopped any protest.
“Alright Derpy tell your story,” Whooves said politely to his grey friend.
"Oh and make it shorter than Whooves' I think Octavia started to turn grey from old age," Vinyl said poking her friend.
"I'm always grey..."