//------------------------------// // Strange friends // Story: Aristocrats, Bureaucrats and Other Criminals // by Phosphor //------------------------------// There wasn’t any time to admire the scenery. Twilight held on for her life as the cabin of the Sentinel shook from side to side while Angel ducked, weaved and sometimes barged straight through the underbrush. It was fortunate she had barely eaten today, her stomach was already threatening to relieve her what little she had eaten. They passed through a dense patch of leaves into a small clearing where Angel stood tapping his forefoot impatiently as he waited for everypony to catch up. Fluttershy pointed to a wrecked chimera transport nestled against a low cliff edge while she helped Twilight down from Angel. It was covered with enough leaves to be almost invisible against the thicket. The front armour was punched by a large hole, which a bird had now made its home. While free of overgrowth, the interior didn’t look much better. Piles of electronic scrap filled most of the cabin, with only some tattered cushions for comfort. Rainbow passed a small data chip to Fluttershy. “I got the location of where we were supposed to be going on this, think you can work out how far off we are? With Angel I bet we’d be able to get back in no time.” She quickly took the most comfortable spot in the room for herself. Fluttershy plugged the chip into a socket on her neck, her eyes appeared to lose focus for a moment. “It would be about five days by hoof. Angel couldn’t go much faster than that, the undergrowth tires him out a lot. Do you have enough supplies?” Rarity vaguely pointed at her sodden dress. “Does it look like we packed for a long hike?” She would have emphasised the gesture by showing her empty pockets, but her dress didn’t even have any. “Our supplies are at the base camp where we should have landed.” “I have my nutrient replicators, but I don’t think that’s… uh… edible to normal ponies, sorry.” Fluttershy pulled a kettle out from one of the piles and set it on a small heat-plate. “I do have some tea if you would like that while I fix your vox?” “That sounds like a lovely idea.” Rarity paused. “You came out here from Ponyville Station on your own?” “I brought Angel. He is a very good guard.” she reached out and stroked the front armour of the cockpit with a proud smile. Rainbow laughed at the sight. “You know, you’re great and all Shy, but you’re never going to convince me that isn’t a bit weird.” “You said you were originally from Cloudsdale, is that the station with the Sky Dome?” asked Twilight. “You bet! It’s great, you can wing it for hours and still not reach the other side. You know I broke the sound barrier in that place once during training.” “You did get kicked out of the Militarum cadets for that though,” Fluttershy pointed out. “How was I supposed to know the commander would be that precious about a few broken windows?” From Rainbows tone it sounded like it had been a little more than ‘a few’. “But, yeah, that’s how I ended up here. A bunch of ponies came through looking for recruits. They weren’t fussy as long as I had the skills, so obviously I got hired.” Twilight tapped her chin in thought. “Oh, I remember hearing something about that. Our family helped organise recruitment as part of our arrangement with Blueblood.” Fluttershy looked at Twilight in surprise. “You’re from the family that led that, and Angel nearly crushed you? Oh, Omnissiah forgive me!” “Honestly, I am fine. So um, you are from Cloudsdale as well?” Fluttershy nodded, visibly relaxing at the question. “The Magi were looking for volunteers to go on a mission to help establish an outpost on a new station. It wasn’t too long after Volpone was evacuated and they needed anypony with experience to help them. I was hired with others to help with the fleet’s maintenance. “I remember when I first heard the captain’s ship had been rescued from a space hulk. It must have been so traumatising for the ship to have been drifting alone for so long.” “I didn’t think ships could get that lonely.” Twilight sounded surprised. “Of course they can, they’re just like any machine-creature! All creatures of the Omnissiah need care to keep them happy. Although it was strange, it was like the ship had never seen a pony before. The poor thing must have been terrified. It took us a long time before it even allowed us to commune with it.” “What is all of this scrap for?” Twilight asked Fluttershy. “I heard the rumours of lost technology, so I snuck down on one of the shuttles with Angel. It is surely the blessing of the Omnissiah that so much has been preserved.” Despite the description they still looked like piles of rusted scrap to Twilight. The kettle began to boil so Fluttershy poured tea for each pony. The teacups were mercifully clean. They even had the handles that made them hard to hold with hooves, but polite society had decided was essential to the aesthetic. To Twilight’s surprise the tea was rather pleasant, with only a few unidentifiable bits floating in it. “Um, I have an idea to boost your vox, but I’ll need to borrow it first, if that’s ok with you,” Fluttershy asked. Rarity gave up trying to pick out the bits from her own cup. “Whatever for? We do need something to be able to communicate.” “The chimera’s old vox centre might have a few parts that could be used to boost your signal. I think the range should be enough for you to contact captain Blueblood directly. “Eh, sure, I’ve listened to enough static for one day anyway.” Rainbow passed the vox to Fluttershy. Fluttershy took the vox and went into the old cabin leaving the rest of the group to their own devices. Twilight quickly hurried after her. “Hi, sorry. I remember you said you could do maintenance?” Twilight took out Spike and held him up. “Please could you see if you can do something?” Fluttershy marvelled at the skull. “Oh my, he’s not like any model I’ve seen before.” “I’m worried he’s hurt, so I would really appreciate it if you could you just give him a quick check. I saved this maintenance report if that helps.” Fluttershy read the note while simultaneously inspecting Spike with her mechadendrites. After half a minute she put Spike down on the counter. “He just has a loose cable, I’ll get him back to you before we leave.” Fluttershy smiled. “Please be careful with him.” Twilight watched Spike anxiously. There was a beat, Fluttershy tapped two of her mechadendrites together nervously. “I… get a bit self-conscious when ponies watch me, would you mind…?” “Oh, sorry!” Twilight left Fluttershy to her work and returned to the others, who were eating lunch while they waited. Twilight pulled her own fungi bar from her cloak and sat next to them. Seeing this Rainbow shuffled over to Twilight with a smug grin, “Hey, I hear they sometimes put real ponies in these bars.” Twilight swallowed, shivering as the dry starch scratched her throat, “That’s just a rumour, besides direct cannibalism is known to cause heavy metal poisoning and other illnesses. That’s why they use them as fertiliser instead.” Rainbow stopped chewing her bar, “Wait, you mean these things have actual ponies in?!” “Well technically just nutrients extracted by the fungus," Twilight took another bite from the bar, undeterred. “Recycling is key for maintaining a station of any significant size. The loss of biomass from disposing of them in other ways is considered unacceptable.” “I don’t know about you, but I remember plenty of sermons about ‘renewal after death’ when I was growing up.” Rarity did her best to hide her smile behind her hoof. “I thought that was a metaphor!” Rainbow exclaimed. “If it helps, most bars only have between zero and thirty percent corpse derived mycelia,” Twilight added. It did not. Rainbow stared blankly at Twilight before placing her bar back in its wrapper, “Not hungry.” They sat eating the reminder of their food in silence. The awkward mood was interrupted when a strange sound came from Fluttershy’s direction. Spike came rushing out with Fluttershy following after him. Twilight bolted over. “Spike, You’re ok!” “Yeah, my memory is a bit fuzzy, but everything seems to be working.” Spike hugged her back. “You didn’t say he could talk,” Fluttershy sounded bemused. “Thank you so much!” Twilight hadn’t really listened to what Fluttershy had said and dragged Spike somewhere quiet to check him over. “I wondered where he had gotten to.” Rarity left the pair to their reunion and went to Fluttershy. “Did you manage to fix the vox?” Fluttershy nodded and passed the vox over. “Thank you.” Rarity fiddled with the controls for a few seconds, then spoke, “Golden Gryphon, this is Duchess Rarity Belle can you hear me?” There was a short silence. Rarity was about to repeat herself when a high-pitched voice answered. “We hear you loud and mostly clear Duchess. You should know you got Bluey all worried!” “Oh Throne, how has she heard already?” Rarity muttered to herself. “Sergeant Pie this is personal business, and no concern of the Union.” “Nuh-uh, boss made it clear the safety of our valued guest is as much of the Union’s concern as it is the captain’s. We are all on standby ready for you to give the word.” Rarity looked like she wanted to argue the point but decided to drop it, “You will need to wait for a bit, there are air defences in the area that we will need to disable. I’m sending our current location. Wait until we signal the all clear, then head towards this location. You should see the spire when you are close, try to land as close to that as possible.” “Okie dokie! I’ll keep an ear out.” The transmission ended. “Of course it had to be her,” Rarity muttered under her breath. “Who was that?” Twilight asked. “That was Pinkameana Diane Pie, I believe you briefly met her on the landing bay.” “She seemed nice enough.” “It isn’t her I am concerned about. Sergeant Pie is an exceptional soldier, however her boss is part of… Look, our internal affairs shouldn’t matter to you. You will soon be out of this mess, and we can get back to our own work.” Rarity cut Twilight off from further questions by turning to Fluttershy. “Your help in this matter is very much appreciated. if there is anything you need, please do let me know.” “Thank you, Lady Rarity. Um, I don’t want to burden you, but would you be able to take me back to Ponyville? I could wait for the local Mechanicus enclave to pick me up, but since you happen to be here… If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” Fluttershy gingerly pawed at the ground. “Well I am hardly going to leave you out here in this ghastly environment.” Rarity almost seemed offended by the thought.