//------------------------------// // Sunshine at the Resort // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Lyra and Twilight rematerialized inside of a small room that was only large enough to house the transporter that they emerged from. The only thing of note was the door out of the room. Other than that, the walls appeared to be of a similar design to Sphere 211. Walking outside the room, Lyra noticed a significant change compared to the room before. The walls and floors of the hallway they entered were a bright metallic silver with doors to other rooms to their left. Twilight pointed out that they led to some crew cabins or guest cabins, depending on who was using them. Lyra followed Twilight down a series of corridors until they came to a small room with several chairs installed as well as a pair of consoles on the far end of the small room that, when combined with the view of outer space through the windows, appeared to be a cockpit of a spaceship. Lyra quickly concluded that they were aboard a spaceship in what she had to assume was inside of the Eternal Sphere. Twilight quickly hopped into the pilot’s chair and began preparing the ship to begin moving towards their destination of Hyda IV. Lyra sat in the co-pilot’s chair next to Twilight and let her thoughts catch up to her. Now that she had time to think, Lyra noticed that Twilight really did look like she did a thousand years ago. Her mane was that of a regular Pony’s mane again and she was about her height and body size. She also noticed the purple high tech battle armor that she was wearing, but from the perspective of someone who was not knowledgeable of such armor, it would look like Twilight was wearing leather armor. It was designed that way in case Ponies had to encounter medieval cultures who had discovered Symbology. In case Lyra had to do the same, her armor had a setting that would alter its appearance to avoid getting too much unwanted attention, though she knew that she and Twilight would get enough attention as Ponies anyway. Better to look like medieval Ponies than futuristic Ponies in the least. Lyra also noticed that the ship was in the middle of outer space instead of a space station or a planetary docking station. This became another of the growing list of things that she needed to discuss with Twilight. Twilight soon finished typing on the holographic display and relaxed in her chair. She took a deep breath and let it out before turning her head to her companion with a faint smile. “It’ll be a few hours before we reach Hyda IV. Take this time to get whatever you need done. There are showers in the cabin bathrooms and they are fully stocked with whatever you might need. There’s also a dining area on the lower deck with a series of food synthesizers. Help yourself!” Lyra thought about Twilight’s offer for a moment but quickly decided against that. “Actually Twi, there are some things I want to talk to you about before we get there. First of all, what info do we have on our targets? Do we know anything about the anomalous data that these children possess? Do we have to watch out for anyone else besides the Vendeeni? Also, why was this ship drifting in space and seemingly abandoned?” Twilight brought up another display that showed the face of a human male with blue hair and green eyes. “This is Fayt Leingod. Nineteen years old, attends Bachtein University as an engineering major, enjoys fighting video games, specifically combat simulator games where he personally fights. When not working on schoolwork, studying or playing video games, he’s playing basketball. The game has similarities to buckball, but also has fundamental differences. He likely used video games and basketball as an outlet for his frustrations while his parents spent more time on their research than with him while he was growing up.” Twilight frowned at that but also understood that the fate of the universe was at stake which left the parents with a difficult choice to make. Didn’t mean she liked it though. The image shifted, this time to the face of a young human girl with blue hair and amber eyes. “This is Sophia Esteed. Seventeen years old, attends Bachtein High School and is part of an ROTC program. She is expected to attend the Federation Officer Academy after graduation and quickly rise in the ranks for her exceptional tactical prowess. I’ve heard that there were some abnormalities in her medical reports, but nothing that has hindered her overall health. We may have to look into that.” Once more the image shifted, revealing another human female with blue hair. This one had dark bluish green eyes. “This is Maria Traydor, nineteen years old. Orphaned as an infant, she was brought in by the Traydor family and subjected to the same symbological experiments as the other two, likely at the same time as Fayt with Sophia coming later. Seven years ago, in relative Eternal Sphere time, the Aldian Empire attacked a vessel carrying the Traydors but only Maria managed to get to an escape pod in time before the ship’s warp engine core collapsed, destroying the ship and everyone who remained. She was found by a Klausian ship and has lived among them since. “It turned out that the Klausians were part of an organization whose purpose was preventing the corrupt elements of the Federation Government from bullying reluctant races into joining.” Twilight sighed. “I keep telling those fools that the Pangalactic Federation does not exist to conquer the galaxy but those representatives are as stubborn as the Canterlot nobility.” Another sigh. “Two years ago, one of the Federation ships went rogue and tried to destroy the flagship of the Klausian organization known as Quark. They would have succeeded except Maria’s powers manifested by turning a quantum torpedo into a weapon capable of piercing the best shielding and obliterating the ship at the same time. The strangest thing about this power is that it is similar to an administrator’s power to alter data.” “After that, Maria took over Quark and her impressive charisma and leadership skills had made the organization bigger than ever.” Twilight paused for a moment and shook her head in disappointment. “I can only hope that the Federation can come to a peaceful resolution with Quark before things escalate any further.” “What about her education?” Lyra asked, curious given that Twilight mentioned the educational background of the previous two targets. Twilight shook her head, “Can’t really say, I only have the Federation records with regard to the years leading up to her twelfth year. I can only assume that she was either in the Klausian educational system, which I doubt since the high gravity and low oxygen density of their homeworld would have been detrimental to Maria’s health over a long period of time, or she was educated by the members of Quark. “She does have a knack for hacking into databases though. When I noticed her breaking into Federation databases, likely looking for info on her parents, I had to quickly scrub it of any info that I would rather not have her know; anything related to the Eternal Sphere research. She did, however, find the Leingod research data even if the information was incomplete. She does know that she and Fayt were test subjects. It’s likely that she will be looking for him.” “How did you find out about her hacking attempts?” Lyra asked. Twilight smirked, “She may be good at getting into databases but she is lacking in subtlety. I had to cover for her when the anti-cybercrime division caught wind of her infiltration.” “So we need to worry about the Vendeeni and possibly Quark when looking for Fayt, but is there anyone else we need to worry about? What about the Aldians?” “Swift doesn’t have any interest in the targets and seems more interested in continuing our intergalactic chess game than pursuing a few test subjects.” Lyra hummed while frowning and tilting her head slightly. “I suppose that beats trying to fend off three alien races like with the Great Wars and the End War. So what do we know about the experiments?” “The Leingod research team specialized in genetics and symbological research. They managed to combine the two subjects and soon learned how to inscribe symbols into genetic code. Our research team would have handled the discovery with the usual procedures except we couldn’t for two reasons: One is the imminent threat of the administration drones while the other is the unknown nature of the symbols that were used in the three test subjects. Unlike the common ones we are aware of, the ones used in the experiments were unlike anything previously seen. Given the current situation, we need to discover the nature of the new symbols and we have little time to do so. This is why I have opted for the direct approach.” “Does the incident from two years ago have anything to do with this?” Twilight nodded, “Maria’s ability still warrants further study. The demonstration with The Invisible was impressive but we still need to know how it works.” Twilight deactivated the display before continuing, “To answer your last question, the reason this ship is drifting in space is because I prefer to avoid the bureaucracy associated with docks and spaceports. This ship is equipped with special coding and magic that prevents it from being noticed by sensors or the naked eye. There is also a jump drive that automatically activates when a ship is on a collision course with it and the ship is in crewless mode. Employees from Sphere keep this ship fueled, stocked and maintained at all times so there really isn’t any real need to dock the ship.” With her questions answered, Lyra spent the rest of the trip to Hyda exploring the ship and checking out its many features. She knew that even if they beat the Vendeeni to Hyda they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the resort for long before battle was joined. Meanwhile… A young blue-haired swordsman was engaged in battle with a giant ferocious beast. The beast used its claws to slash at the swordsman but the swordsman nimbly dodged the swipes and countered with a few slashes from his longsword. The beast attacked by sweeping with its long tail but the attack was too slow and the swordsman had enough time to react by backflipping. The beast sensed that the flow of the battle was out of its favor so it began rushing at the swordsman while flailing in desperation with its razor sharp claws. The swordsman was caught off guard by the attack but managed to sidestep to the side of the beast while receiving a few deep cuts to his right arm. The beast in its desperation left its flank open to attack which the swordsman capitalized on by driving his sword into its side, piercing a vital organ. The beast vanished, leaving treasures behind in the form of fol, the commonly accepted currency in the galaxy, and armor. The swordsman didn’t celebrate for long before his reality was ripped from him as his headset was removed, returning his mind to reality. It took Fayt a few moments to readjust to the real world before he turned his attention to the one who removed his headset. The culprit, his father, frowned at him before he put the headset beside Fayt. “What gives?” Fayt demanded. “I was just about at the best part.” Robert sighed as he sat down next to his wife Ryoko. Sitting beside Fayt was his childhood friend Sophia who had a catty grin on her face. “Fayt, I know you love to spend most of your time playing video games, but we’re on vacation right now and this is time we spend with our family and loved ones. Even Sophia came along to spend time with us.” “Actually, I came along because my parents were going to the research facility on Moonbase and I found that I’d rather be going with you than browsing the limited selection at the station’s shops and hoping that would be enough time spent while my parents finish whatever they needed to do over there,” Sophia clarified. She looked at Fayt again and her grin returned. “Besides, it was fun sensing Fayt’s emotions while he was playing.” Fayt had often been disturbed by his childhood friend’s ability to feel emotions. Her family had her tested for psychic abilities but it appeared that she could only sense emotions. That wasn’t the only unusual thing about her though. Despite her slender figure, she was actually stronger than she looked and any cuts she sustained healed a little faster than what is normally expected from the average person. Another mystery that was yet to be solved about her was a mysterious armband that was attached to her left wrist. Not only was it indestructible, there was simply no way to remove it without chopping off Sophia’s hand. There was also some electrical activity within the wristband. Nobody knew what the device was supposed to be doing but since it wasn’t hurting Sophia, the specialists decided to leave it be. Thinking about Sophia’s strange nature distracted him from thinking about how unfair his father was being. The shuttle transporting the Leingod group soon landed at a docking pad near the Grantier Hotel where they would be staying. The group quickly headed to the reception desk and checked in. Their luggage was transported to the rooms they would be staying in. With that handled, the Leingod group soon began their vacation in earnest. Fayt was allowed to play in the battle simulator game for a couple of hours before he had to head to the beach where his parents were. Sophia quickly changed into a blue two-piece bikini before she headed to the beach to swim a little and work on a tan. When the time limit for Fayt was up and he was nowhere in sight, Ryoko asked Sophia to go check on him. Sophia already had a good idea what happened and left the beach and headed to the arcade. As expected, she found her childhood friend walking out of the simulator with an exhausted look on his face as he stumbled his way to a nearby bench. Sophia decided to reward him for getting his exercise by buying two shakes; one for each of them. Fayt was deep in thought about his performance in the game before a plastic cup appeared in front of his face, startling him. “Here you go!” Sophia said cheerfully. Fayt grabbed the shake while calming his nerves. “Hey Sophia, you startled me.” Sophia’s smile quickly turned into a grin, “You know you’re over the time limit, right?” Fayt looked at a nearby clock and was surprised at how much time had passed while he was playing his game. “Wow…I guess I did get kinda sucked in. I hope my parents aren’t too mad.” “You know, I might be interested in fabricating a story to Uncle Robert and Aunt Ryoko if you’re willing to walk around the hotel with me.” “Are you blackmailing me?” Fayt deadpanned. Sophia’s grin remained unchanged. “Call it what you want, do you really have a choice?” Fayt lowered his head in defeat. “No…” “Then let’s go.” With that, Fayt and Sophia began exploring the Grantier Hotel. As they walked, Fayt decided to start a conversation. “You know, for someone who’s planning to enroll in a military academy when she graduates, you sure have a mischievous streak.” “I have to get my fun while it lasts. When I do enroll, I’m not going to be able to have this much fun again for a long time.” Fayt understood where Sophia was coming from. Military academies were not places where one could cause trouble and avoid getting kicked out. Despite his consistent playing of video games, he was still doing well in his classes at the university and was on track to being a mechanical engineer. With the exercise he was getting in the simulators, he may even be able to take on jobs in more dangerous environments if he enlisted in the military as a combat engineer. The pay would be better too. Sophia’s prowess was becoming a legend at her school. She was in her school’s chess club and she was still undefeated after her sophomore and junior years. She was also on her school’s fencing team. She skillfully balanced her extracurricular activities with her schoolwork and was able to make straight ‘A’s. There have been the occasional bullies for standing out, but she handled her own problems, even if the situation ended up with the bullies being humiliated and transferred to other schools. There was no evidence to suggest foul play against them since whatever they schemed seemed to backfire on their own spectacularly, but Fayt knew better than to think what happened was a coincidence. The student body quickly learned not to mess with Sophia after her freshman year. The two decided to return to their room briefly to grab a change of clothes. Sophia went in first to get out of her swimsuit while Fayt went second to get out of his sweat-drenched clothes. On his way out, Fayt noticed the trash can in the room filled with discarded food wrappers. “You certainly helped yourself,” Fayt commented. “You know that I have a really high metabolism. I can eat what I want and not gain weight,” Sophia deadpanned. “Among many other monstrous abilities,” Fayt mumbled. Sophia heard it anyway. The girl put on a fake smile that failed to hide her growing fury. “Should we test the durability of these walls with your body?” Sophia threatened in a venomous tone that made a chill run up Fayt’s spine. “L-Let’s move on!” Fayt said hastily. Sophia dropped the matter and walked with him to the beach area. Back at the reception desk, the receptionist spotted a pair of Equestrians approaching. The employee regarded them once they were in front of him. “Names?” “Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings,” Twilight introduced. The receptionist looked through the reservation records for the names and found them in a minute. He presented the two with a keycard for their room and a warning not to lose it. As they walked away, Lyra decided to telepathically communicate with her partner through her psionic powers to avoid anyone overhearing them. “How come that receptionist didn’t look at us weird? Are Ponies a common sight in the Eternal Sphere?” “Kind of,” Twilight replied. “With how much we interact with the people in this universe, approaching them in disguise would eventually lead to problems down the road. You remember what happened with the Changelings. “Instead, we designed an alternate Equus and placed it in an unexplored part of the universe in case anyone got curious about our origins. It got explored really quickly so now everyone is convinced that we are from this universe. I also have some contingency plans in case any of the major factions decide to try to conquer or integrate the planet into their fold.” It didn’t take long for the two to find the targets as they figured that the beach would be the first place to look, though Twilight originally figured that Fayt would be at the hotel arcade. Of course, the scene they saw was a little awkward to look at as they saw Fayt being flirted with by Sophia and some hotel patron with brown hair and wearing a blue swimsuit. Fayt looked really flustered. When she felt like he had enough, Sophia convinced the other girl to walk away while pointing out that she was punishing Fayt for his earlier comment. “Seems like a herd kind of stallion, doesn’t he?” Lyra remarked. “Be nice,” Twilight said while giggling. “So what now?” Once Twilight’s fit of giggles subsided, she frowned slightly. “Unfortunately, we can only wait for the Vendeeni to make their move. For now, we keep an eye on them. You’re better at tailing without being noticed. Can I leave the task to you?” Lyra nodded before she walked into the nearby foliage to escape potential witnesses on the beach. She activated her Shadow Walk ability and became invisible. Twilight headed back into the hotel and explored the place a little to kill time. Feeling fully rebuked, Fayt went back into the hotel with Sophia behind him. For some reason, Fayt felt like visiting the rooms of the other patrons who had decided to leave their doors unlocked for anyone to enter. Lyra, who understood the concept of an RPG, could only shake her head as she witnessed one of the most common elements of one. Eventually, Fayt walked into what was proclaimed by a young dark skinned girl with gray hair tied in pigtails as a dressing room for a circus troupe. Sophia stayed outside of the room and watched the event unfold. The girl wore a pink dress lined with yellow. A series of black belts adorned her torso which appeared to hold a long strip of red fabric where each end went through a hole on a pair of thick metallic armbands that she wore on each wrist. The ends of the red cape ended through a pair of large red metal orbs. She also wore a pair of black shorts and pink boots with bells on them. The jewelry she was wearing consisted of one hoop earring on her left ear and a ruby necklace. Lyra secretly watched the scene unfold as the energetic girl initially assumed that Fayt was her fan before she drew a crudely drawn picture of herself and her name on the back of Fayt’s shirt. While Fayt was trying to explain himself to the girl, who introduced herself as Peppita Rosetti, Sophia appeared to be watching in amusement as Fayt struggled to explain himself amidst Peppita’s assumptions. When he finally did explain, she scolded him for doing something as childish as randomly barging into people’s rooms. Peppita then got depressed about Fayt not being her fan but bounced back quickly and gave Fayt a ticket to tonight’s circus show. “Girl seems to have some Pinkie in her to bounce around the emotional spectrum like that,” Lyra thought to herself. Lyra observed Fayt and Sophia heading into the arcade room. Sophia noticed her friend eyeing the nearby game terminal before a smirk appeared on her face. “Hey Fayt, since you seem to really want to play your game right now, how about I join you?” “Huh? Are you sure?” Fayt asked. “Of course.” As Fayt was about to activate the terminal to begin a game, he noticed that the one he was looking at was already occupied. Since there were other terminals in the room, he went to another and entered it with Sophia. Lyra looked at the terminal that the two left behind and noticed that Twilight’s name was on the list of occupants. She smirked as she decided to join her by entering her name into the terminal. She then had to wait for Twilight to accept her request. A couple of seconds was all it took for the request to be accepted and the door into the simulator opened to let Lyra in. She approached the purple mare who was equipped with simulated caster gear and a staff. “You know that it’s not wise for a spellcaster to attack monsters without a front line fighter,” Lyra commented. “Unless they’re good enough to hold their own,” Twilight countered. “What about Fayt and Sophia?” “They’re in a nearby simulator, they should be in there for a while. So I decided to see what you’re up to.” “I’m getting some practice in. I need to get some of the rust off before all Tartarus breaks loose.” “Mind if I join you? I need a bit of a warm up myself.” Twilight nodded as she vocally commanded the system to start a game for the two of them while designating the parameters. They didn’t need a challenge right now since they will have plenty of that in the near future, so the computer generated some monsters that would be just tough enough to get them warmed up. The first round consisted of a large flightless bird with a huge beak and two large beetles with pincers as large as their bodies. Lyra deployed a pair of energy blades from the simulated focusers on her wrists: one red, one green. While Lyra could have created the blades from her hands, she decided to go along with the game and use what was provided. The three monsters’ movements were slow, with the bird moving slightly faster than the beetle monsters. Lyra quickly dashed behind one of the large insects before she kicked it onto its back and stabbed its underbelly with her red blade, causing it to vanish. At the same time, Twilight moved to the flank of the monster formation while casting Fire Bolt symbols at the other beetle. She quickly incinerated the insect and it vanished. The bird’s attention was on Twilight and slowly walked toward her with its hard, heavy beak raised to strike. That was a mistake as it allowed Lyra to move in and cut through the beast. Once the last enemy was defeated, the two relaxed for a moment before Lyra asked Twilight a question. “These monsters die strangely. This is nothing like what I saw in the Koprulu sector. Is this part of this game’s simulation?” “Yes and no, enemies were designed to be killed in a way that is foal-friendly to other players. We can’t have fillies and colts traumatized by scenes of blood and viscera. That’s an easy way to get a lawsuit and a lot of angry parents giving me and Princess Celestia problems. There are some worlds where the level of violence is at a realistic level, but those worlds are protected by age restriction wards.” “So we may end up having to fight the characters of fillies and colts at some point…” Lyra noted. “It’s a possibility.” Twilight turned her attention to the computer again and ordered the next wave of monsters to appear. This time a quartet of small spherical creatures with feet and bat wings and long tails appeared. Twilight and Lyra looked at each other and grinned before Twilight bombarded the bats with a volley of Ice Needles before her horn glowed and released a wave of heat that struck the needles that hit the bats, melting the ice and soaking the bats’ fur. Lyra followed up with a Psionic Storm that electrocuted the damp creatures. The third wave proved more of a challenge in the form of two flying insects and a massive living piece of metal with arms. The insects were dealt with quickly when Lyra sliced one in half and Twilight allowed the other to get close before she touched the ground and caused a series of earthen spikes to shoot out and impale it. Lyra’s attacks were only causing shallow wounds on the metal beast and she had to dodge a number of swipes from its large arms. She had to sidestep whenever it used the same Earth Glave spell that Twilight used. Twilight performed a Scan on the beast to try and find a weakness and smiled when she found one. “Lyra, it's weak to electricity,” Twilight called out. Lyra nodded and prepared a Psionic Storm while Twilight prepared to zap it with a Lightning Blast. The attacks were released and the metal creature was horribly electrocuted but still standing. Lyra quickly finished the fight while it was stunned by charging herself with psionic electricity before charging the beast with her Storm Charge ability. The impact from the attack caused the creature to crack and break apart before vanishing. Lyra took a moment to catch her breath before she walked over to Twilight to give her a high five. That was when tremors shook the hotel and the electricity flickered before an alarm went off.