The sun's rays penetrated through the ship's observation deck, basking all those within range with much-needed warmth to help jump-start their day. One grunt, in particular, nursed his fresh cup of coffee as he took his morning checklist to the bridge. Today would be another productive day; he would put his best foot forward to please Lord Zurg and the Empire.
While also managing to stay on his bad side, which was, strangely enough, a good thing.
''Morning Gleeb!'' Gleeb nearly fell over as Lord Zurg's newest recruit made it a point to greet everyone on board and see if anything could be done to help the day's plans. ''Check this neat drawing I made!'' Cozy Glow showed the small green alien a paper titled with her name and a very crude, and frankly, chicken scratch drawing of her and Emperor Zurg hugging and being friends with the caption; Friends for life.
''Mmm, very nice, I see the rainbows could use a bit of work, but A for effort,'' Gleeb chuckled, watching the recruit zip about and showing the others. She was a strange kid or filly in her particular biological case, and he wondered what exactly she expected to do when signing onto the Empire.
Because rainbows and hugs would do little but irritate Lord Zurg.
''Hehehe. . .just try not to bother us too much, Private Glow; we need to focus on today.'' Gleeb chuckled to himself. ''One day you may be in my shoes, managing this ship.''
Pausing, Cozy Glow turned to Gleeb, a wide smile on her face. She could be in charge of Mr. Zurg's cool ship?! ''How?'' Gesturing for her to follow, Gleeb wanted to show the youngster a thing or two.
“Being in this line of work for as long as I have, you pick up a few things,” Gleeb gave an air of wisdom to the young Private. How much promise to the Empire she had would only be matched by her motivation. “Emperor Zurg expects results after your last mission in Ponyville was met with. . .mixed results.”
Blushing, Cozy thought everypony had forgot about that. It only happened a week ago, and she did barely mange to convince guidance counselor Glimmer to make everypony in the town forget, even Headmare Twilight. “That was a bad thing of judgment, that’s all.”
“Error in judgement, which is why you have to earn back the staff to use outside of the area of the ship.” Gleeb said, checking off his list, and seeing the downtrodden look in her eyes as her ears drooped. But he wasn’t all work and no play; younger kids needed a firm nudge, but also reasonable distance to grow and and live.
Two birds, one stone.
Or two evils for one Zurg Empire.
“How? What would make Mr. Zurg change his mind? A lot of ponies I know can’t-ZIP!” Cozy gasped, dashing away and neatly spilling Gleeb’s coffee until she came back with a fresh parchment and quill, drawing something with the speed of Rainbow Dash and she shoved the parchment in his face, smiling a mile wide. “This!”
Taking a moment to observe what she drew, after squinting some and tilting the drawing. Huh. That. . .actually could work; granted the execution leaves some to be desired and the timing is last minute.
But and evil plan, he knew when he saw one, even from a child.
“And how old are you?
10 and 1/2!” Cozy chuckled, before breaking out into a full out manical laugh when she thought about her plan. “Mr. Zurg will love this! Hahahahaha!” Gleeb raised a brow at the timbre in her voice, a bit higher pitch then what he was used to, but the feeling was definitely there. Her breathing came almost naturally, pausing to let more air in and push her chest out to sustain the reverb that passed through the bridge. Button Mash, Aura, and even Beeper (telemetry bot) holding up score cards in order from 4, 7, and 4.5. “Really, Beeper? I tried my best this time around!~”
Castle Of The Two Sisters. . .
“And perfect!” Emperor Zurg chuckled to himself, admiring the finishing touches put on his statue that stood at the very geographic center of the castle which his minions were working diligently to repair, replace, or otherwise create the aura of evil Zurg intended. “Quite the mother-load of space, the vines are the right thickness and shade, and the view from the top floor that hasn’t fell apart yet is just divine.”
“Oh, indeed my lord,” Zurg turned his attention to the Brain Pod who gave him the data pad detailing their progress. “The completed estimate for your new base will be in the next 3 or so days here, provided the weather does not force us to stop,”
“Excellent, excellent! One more accomplishment that will lead to this world being mine, and Buzz Lightyear kissing my shiny metal butt! Oh, oh I wonder how the Christmas Tree Ranger is doing, plotting not capture me, no doubt.” Zurg said, his body shaking with the excitement of a wild muscle. “If only he could! Can’t find me in another dimension!”
“Actually,” Brain Pod 25 replied in a matter of factly tone, paying the quirk of wonder and subtle
glow of his lordship’s eyes. “Different time, and dimension, the implication is there, but being sure of the when makes just as much sense as the where.”
Zap! Zurg blasted his minion with an eye beam, the impact flinging the poor soul into the nearest tree where the casing cracked and began to leak from the sheer pressure of hitting the tree.
“If I want to find something out, I shall ask,” a groan of agreement was what Zurg heard, regardless of the tone of pain underneath. “But I am curious about one thing; would our scanners and communication network be strong enough to possibly reach past dimensional and time specific limitations? I wish to contact Warp Darkmatter.”
“Oh. Right. Him. The feat in it of itself would actually be fairly accomplished with the technology we have now, however. . .” A glare from Lord Zurg quelled his stalling. Brain Pod 25 knew with any greater distance would require something to compensate the much greater distance. Time and exact location as a secondary issue would be be done in minutes. “We would just need an amplifier of sorts to bridge the distance, is all.”
Shuffling forward and leisurely clutching a fist when he took a moment to feel the heat penetrate through and give him the sense of warmth and comfort that he heard so much about.
And even experienced at one point. But something else felt off. As if he was forgetting something. . .
He never really wanted any of this; not like this. It was only because-
“-Hi, Mr. Zurg!” Cozy Glow’s voice pinged from his communicator, the display blowing up to show a medium sized image of Cozy on the deck of the ship, with her almost boundless energy. “Do you like building forts?”
Pinching his fingers to his nose and exhaling, Zurg dreaded whatever cockamamy scheme the little disaster managed to think up herself. Why did he let her in again? “Huawh.~ Greetings, Private Glow; I would hope you have something good of mention. Now speak.”
Right! Cozy had to make sure Mr. Zurg knew what she did. “I found a neat thing that the staff can do!” Cozy’s tone was overlooked by Zurg narrowing his eyes, causing her to catch her slip of the staff before making her point clear. “By the ship, like you said!”
Groaning at her lack of communication etiquette, Zurg’s eye caught wind of the background changing when he took a second to focus. Where was that little idiot going? “What are you doing? I suggest you speak quickly.”
Knowing that Mr. Zurg would love to hear about her plan, Cozy figured it would be easier to show him. Tapping the Z icon on her chest, the view changed, revealing the edge of the Everfree Forest giving way to a scorched landscape, littered with stray boulders and tumbleweeds as far as the camera could see. “I made some new friends with the Diamond Dogs!” Cozy said, angling down to see her being carried by what looked to be primitive dogs dressed with collars, leather vests and a hungry glint in their eyes that Zurg could easily see as. . .fear?
“What exactly do you mean by friends? Why do they look so afraid of you?”
“They suddenly wanted to be friends when I showed them my staff.” Cozy said, a bit unsure if Mr. Zurg would want to hear the next parts, but Aura said to report everything. “They wanted me to come to their favorite spot for an offering. I tried giving them something they would like to show we’re friends, but they said I would be enough since I’m a leader,” Cozy said, one of the grunts saying something to catch her attention. “Oh, sorry Mr. Zurg; I gotta go! Private Glow reporting. Bye!~”
“Wait, you sub-standard excuse for a minion!” Zurg yelled as the communicator cut off. A few things registered in his mind.
Diamond? Dogs. And the fact that Cozy Glow may have done more then him in a few days then he did in his first year as a ruler.
And who told her to use the staff again for something like that?!