Cadance sighed deeply, the fatigue of the day catching up with her. She lent over the railing, staring out across the lake and the multitude of glimmering lights that reflected off of it. Dusk had come, or at least what passed for it in this strange artificial world. The translucent flower shaped structure that sat at the centre of the end of the cylinder revealed its purpose now as it ever so slowly closed, enveloping the artificial sun, filtering its light into dimmer oranges and reds. If she strained her eyes carefully she could even see the thin guide wires or tracks that the thing ran along, crossing the length of the cylinder, allowing the vague imitation of a real sun that crossed the sky.
It was a thought that Cadance could not help but smile at, not so much for the content of the amazing fact, but for how she had learnt it. After Sunset had slept for a good four hours, she had finally marched out - grumbling about needing more sleep the whole way - to receive another drone delivery. One she apparently wasn’t entirely happy with, though never clearly explained why.
Still, what had arrived was quickly unpacked, giving the group a project of setting up almost a hundred triple bunkbeds. They weren’t terribly luxurious, but they were more than sufficient for the time being, even having thick, sound dampening privacy screens so each bunk could become enclosed. While the group project of building and arranging them went on, Sunset had relented in answering more questions about their temporary new home. She had taken to it surprisingly well, explaining with wild gestures and genuine excitement over a number of things that made this place work, tiredness momentarily forgotten.
Not for the first time Cadance wondered if Sunset was bi-polar or something similar with the way her mood could flip on a bit. Regardless of that however, she was glad this place had brought out those better, more joyful sides of Sunset’s personality.
“Hey there.”
Cadance jumped a little as her thoughts were interrupted by the call. Looking back, Shining Armour approached her, doing his best to put on a happy face as he joined her leaning over the railing. She greeted him with a smile of her own as he experimentally wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a hug. Both of them had to adjust their position a few times before it became entirely comfortable, as were the awkward trials of adjusting to entirely different bodies.
They stood there for a time, watching dusk turn to twilight, and the range of activity that accompanied it. The city became alive with lights, as did a number of the roads and other towns all around the inner surface of the cylindrical habitat. What appeared to be a light show started up, accompanying an open air performance or rave along the lake side. Much to their surprise the lake itself came to life as well, with vague leviathan like forms lit with bioluminescent lights alongside pods of smaller ones that drifted in and out of view. It lent credence to the claims by a number of their people that they had seen whales out in the salt water lake.
“This is crazy…” Shining murmured as his gaze dropped down to his unoccupied hand as he flexed and stretched the still alien appendage. “I mean I’m living it and I still can’t quite believe it. I almost think we’re still back under the empire dreaming while we’re all sealed away but… there’s no way Sombera has this kind of imagination. Not when every rational idea for space travel I’ve heard described it as cramped and spartan.”
“I’m… not so sure,” Cadance replied back, as quietly but more thoughtfully. “Not about the dreaming bit, I’m with you there but when you think about it… a pony needs a lot of space to live happily. Living on a ship like the sea going ones we know, is fine for weeks or even months but not for decades or longer. I… hate to think of having to get used to such tight quarters, I think it might drive me mad. If you could, if you had the choice, why wouldn’t you make mini cylinder worlds like this if you needed or just wanted the living space? Even if you weren’t going anywhere, it seems a lot easier than finding a planet to live on, and Sunset did imply there weren’t very many of those, not with an atmosphere we could breathe. It makes an abstract kind of sense.”
“Maybe,” Shining admitted with a shallow nod. “But we don’t know for sure yet. There are still a lot of questions waiting for Sunset.”
“I think… I don’t think she’s going to answer them,” Cadance admitted, prose still thoughtful. “Not all of them anyway. She’s not that kind of teacher. I believe she’ll give us the tools and teach us how to use them and find it all out on our own.”
“Oh? And how would you know that?” Shining inquired wearily. “I’ll admit I’m more than a little curious how you know her so… so well you feel safe trusting her like this.”
Cadance sighed and shook her head tiredly, staring down into their faint reflection in the deep, dark waters sloshing gently below. “Sunset can be a prickelly character to get on with. But she’s a good pony deep down. As for how I know that, well for starters, she taught me how to use magic in the first place. Even when Aunti Celestia of all ponies couldn’t.”
Shining screwed his face up in disbelief at that. “Okay now this is a story I got to hear. How the heck does that little punk out teach Princess Celestia?”
His wife couldn’t help but giggle a little, both at Shining’s adorably boyish look of bewilderment and her own memories of the story. “Because while Celestia has plenty of experience teaching unicorn foals how to use magic they’ve already had their whole lives, teaching an adolescent who’s never before had access to it, let alone used it, is a different matter entirely. I did start out a pegasus after all.”
“Okay, I follow why you were an unusual case… but then how did Sunset solve that?” Shining accepted with an uneasy nod.
“Simple. She literally threw the rule book out the window, screwed up my homework into a ball and threw it at me,” Cadance replied succinctly, without hesitation nor doubt… but also with an all too innocent smile.
Shining refrained from commenting, simply staring back at her with one eyebrow raised sceptically. As expected, Cadance broke out into giggles under the steady, inquesting gaze.
She did, however, manage to compose herself and explain eventually. “Well, she did do that, and then told me to try levitating that, instead of constantly breaking Celestia’s tea cups, or messing around with those annoying precision training spheres that only respond to the correct amount of magical pressure. According to her, I was pretty much a foal using magic for the first time. Instead of trying to regulate it carefully, to only use as much force as necessary, I first needed to get used to using my magic at all. So, I practised with her on a bunch of screwed up paper balls which I could compact into little wooden marbles, bounce off walls or set on fire without worrying. Soon enough I was doing little aerial obstacle courses with origami birds, racing through rings of fire, being chased by little illusionary dragons and all sorts that Sunset provided to make it less boring.”
Slowly Shining processed the mental image, accepting it with a slow nod. “Okay. I’ll admit that sounds inventive. And kinda fun for somepony figuring out magic for the first time. But… why’d she do it? I mean, she doesn’t seem like the charitable sort. I can tell the only reason she’s putting up with us is she has something to gain from it all.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Cadance objected gently but confidently, even as she mulled over her memories of Sunset. “I mean, she did say the only reason she was helping me was because she was sick and tired of watching me embarrass myself, but… she changed. She really got into things, encouraging me and challenging me and seemingly enjoying the whole ordeal herself too, even if she denied it later. I think that was the first time I saw an honest smile on her face. And it was hardly the last or only time she helped me either. To be honest I owe her a lot for teaching me how to keep the nobles off my back without causing an incident… and for taking the fall for a few times I did offend or embarrass someone. Though now I think back on it, given how she did that, it was usually just a way for her to annoy the various nobles further,” she admitted with a giggle.
“Well I guess I can’t begrudge her for that,” Shining admitted with a sigh. “Especially with how my own interactions with the higher nobility have gone. Not that they’re all bad ponies but… they’re almost always… entitled? Up tight? Snobbish?”
Cadance could not help the chuckle that escaped her lips.
“So… mind explaining the Mi-Mo thing as well?” Shining asked next, causing Cadance to stiffen up and gently glare at him. It had little effect on Shining and his barely suppressed smirk.
Groaning in defeat she resigned to explain it as briefly as possible. “I suppose it goes back to how we first met. Celestia was… quick, to adopt me as a niece. To make me close, both to keep me safe politically and… I think because she was lonely, for any kind of company that might last. This… didn’t exactly ingratiate myself to Sunset, as in short I was getting between her and Celestia. The details aren’t really mine to share however.”
Shining nodded slowly, wanting to ask more but at the same time aware of the firm boundaries Cadance had when it came to spilling other’s secrets.
“Anyway, this meant she did her best to stay distant, always remaining stiffly formal and addressing me with my full name or title whenever she had to talk to me. Backhanded compliments and veiled insults were sprinkled in whenever Celestia wasn’t in ear shot. It was some time later when Celestia began to introduce me to various Princessly duties when she came up with it. I was on edge at the time, trying to take myself as seriously as possible. We got in a spat over… ugh, something I can’t even remember any more and the topic of how formal she always was came up. She just came up with it on the spot, used it to baby me and I hated it. It sounded so silly and immature when I was trying to be everything but that. Naturally she caught on to how much it got on my nerves, and from then on Sunset did her best to call me that, especially in public. Threw my previous insistence on her calling me something shorter and less stuffy then my full name back in my face every time I complained about it.” Cadance could not help a derisive snort as one memory in particular surfaced. “She even managed to get a group of kindergartners to call me that when they were struggling to say my full name. This also happened to be the first time Celestia ever heard it and naturally thought it was adorable, especially coming from a group of excited foals and started using it to tease me too. At least she was more tactful.”
Shining was now looking far more uncomfortable. “And you just put up with it? And all the other things like it? I remember some of the things she said back in the catacombs.”
Cadance snorted in half amusement, the memories exasperating and souring her mood. “Of course not. I tried to give as good as I got but… well, I was never very good at tearing others down. In Sunset’s own words my insults were; cute, like a naughty foal demanding icecream. So… I suppose that is the other side of my relationship with Sunset. On one side, tutor and political protector, on the other a jealous bully.”
Shining sighed and wrapped his arm around her once more, pulling her into a hug. “And of course, you being the wonderful, beautiful mare you are can’t help but put all your faith in her better side.”
The compliment was enough to bring a light blush to Cadance’s face. “She did get better, her teasing became friendlier and I think she no longer blamed me for Celestia’s growing distance in the end. It’s almost funny really. I’ve had so little family since… back then. I guess I got attached and she became like a bratty, know-it-all, older sister to me. I think she might even feel the same way, even if she doesn’t realise it. Sunset doesn’t exactly have any family of her own.”
“Orphan?” Shining asked quietly at the morose admission.
Cadance simply nodded with a bitter-sweet smile. “I suppose it’s one thing we have in common.”
“And she saw you as getting between her and Princess Celestia,” Shining murmured as he thought through the situation to its logical conclusion. “Because she adopted you but not her.”
Cadance tensed up, even before Shining had come to the full conclusion pulling away and beginning to fidget. “Please Shiny, don’t say anything!” she spoke up worriedly, looking back at him with darting eyes that couldn’t seem to decide whether to stare him down or look away in shame. “That’s not supposed to be my secret to tell. I realised it myself of course, but Sunset is very sensitive about it.”
Shining sighed tiredly, eyes staring off thoughtfully before responding. “I won’t. But I can’t pretend this won’t colour how I think about-”
“Yo! What up Mi-mo.”
The pair jumped at the unexpected greeting and spun around to see Sunset strutting towards them, hands buried in the pockets of a lightly worn charcoal hoodie, decorated with the silhouettes of red flames. They both gaped at her a little, so suddenly being interrupted by the subject of their conversation.
“Don’t tell me, talking about me right?” she guessed correctly with a smirk, having caught their weary looks at being interrupted. “Can’t blame you. Not like there’s anything more impressive around to talk about,” she boasted as she strolled over to join them, a distinctly relaxed sway to her steps.
Cadance couldn’t quite tell if she was serious or not, though she strongly suspected not given Sunset had taken a moment to pointedly look up, over and around at the miniature cylindrical world surrounding them as she spoke. She then proceeded to collapse onto the railing and stare out at the city beyond with a slightly dopey smile. Now Cadance thought about it, the way she had looked at them had a distance to it, like she was looking through them, rather than at them. It was a drastic contrast to her typical, sharp and searching gaze.
“Are you alright Sunset?” Cadance asked tentatively, remembering her erratic mood over the day, and especially how she allowed her frustration to surface in more private company.
“Peachy,” she replied cordially and seemingly without a care. “Still need more sleep but I’m not holding myself back from biting everyone’s heads off anymore. Hummm… biting. You know humans are kinda cool but I always wanted to try out being a dragon. Rawr~”
Cadance couldn’t say she was entirely convinced of Sunset’s wellbeing, especially with that non-sequitur comment. Something to add to her confusion was the slight smell of something oddly pungent she briefly caught wafting off of her. Not that Cadance had an opportunity to ask thanks to her husband.
“Don’t suppose you’re up to answering more questions then?” Shining asked with a tentative expectation, though schooled of any hostility.
Sunset groaned and rolled her head on her shoulders. “Yeah, I guess so. What about?”
He was actually taken aback by the quick agreement, needing a moment to blink away his surprise that she didn’t waste further time griping about it. “Well… you were pretty determined back in there we had nothing to worry about. That survival was guaranteed. That we’ll never be discovered or found out.”
“Never said that last bit, just that it was unlikely. At least in the near future. But I guess I did imply that, and to be fair guaranteed survival is almost true,” Sunset argued back, firmly correcting him but not without an understanding look cast his way. “We’re not going to starve even if we have to resort to chowing down on ration packs and we’re not going to go without housing even if we have to go squat in one of the emergency shelters. Just as importantly, there’s enough to go around and enough to do, no one is going to notice a couple of hundred extra mouths and working hands unless we do something drastic to advertise ourselves. And even then, well no one is going to try and kill us just for being here. They’ll be suspicious and invasively investigate us down to the muscle strands of our sphincters but they won’t be out to harm us.”
The explanation seemed to satisfy Shining for the moment, who nodded as he mulled over the implications. “Emergency shelters huh?”
“Yeah. Sealed habitat pods in case of a serious hull breach. Through all four of them plus armour, gas tanks and more,” she said with an amused snort. “Cramped quarters and basic amenities only. To be honest we’re not any better off now besides having immediate access to the outdoors, but they’re there and no one really keeps too close an eye on them. The plan I’m working with for now is hiring some people to build a bunch of apartments inside them,” Sunset said as she pointed a thumb back at the row of other abandoned warehouses, all connected by a much longer, squatter building behind them. “But ultimately I guess it’s up to you what you do. As long as it gets everyone out of my lab, I don’t care.”
“And the authorities here won’t notice or mind all that construction?” Shining asked a bit more pointedly, not quite able to ignore the dismissive comment. “Do you own the whole place or are you just a squatter?”
Sunset’s face scrunched up once more and she grumbled under her breath for a moment before weedling out a response. “It’s… complicated. I don’t own the place and private property doesn’t really exist here the same way it does back in Equestria. There’s a hard cap on real estate in a spaceship after all, even one as big as this. But the place is practically mine to do with as I please so long as someone more important doesn’t decide it’s needed for something else. Since there isn’t any reason to fear a famine it’s not going to be turned back into a fish factory any time soon and it’s not much good for anything else right now so… yeah.”
“Fish factory? Right. You did say they were meat eaters,” Shining mentioned uneasily. “I suppose there are worse ways to get meat.”
“Well, we are just using the boathouses if it helps. Apparently the idea behind this place was they could fill the lake up with fish for food, turn it into one giant farm. I didn’t mention it because I know how squeamish most ponies are but the area in back is where they would gut them and can them. The boats are long gone, but there’s still some old machinery in there so I’ll reiterate; Don’t. Go. Back. There,” Sunset explained, her finishing stern warning delivered with a hard glare and a finger wag to drive it home.
“Don’t worry Sunset, you’ve made it quite clear it’s dangerous, and locked up for a reason,” Cadance reassured her with a tired smile, having heard her the first couple of times she had made the warning that day.
Sunset merely grunted in response, before giving over her attention to the distant, steadily dancing lights below the water. It was then, far off near that distant light show that one shape began to rapidly ascend. Breaching the surface with a distant crash of water, an echoing moan reverberated across the lake, closely followed by a distant round of cheers. Cadance watched, slack jawed as the wale of some breed or another soared almost airborne for a moment before flopping over and crashing back into the water. She found herself looking to her husband, silently asking if they had really just seen that, only to receive the same questioning look in return.
“Heh, drama queen,” Sunset merely murmured with a smirk.
“What are they like?” Cadance asked blearily after a moment, still blinking away her amazement. After all, what kind of species would bother to bring along such massive creatures to other worlds?
Sunset looked to her questioningly for a moment, prompting Cadence to give a gentle hand wave to the city across the waters.
“Huh,” Sunset actually scrunched her face up in thought as she stared idly at the city. “Not the easiest question to answer.”
“Why not?” Shining prompted. “Are they just like ponies? Are they more or less violent? Who are their rulers?”
Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Not that simple. I mean, could you sum up all of ponykind in a sentence or two? Without sounding racist towards the different tribes? Sure, I can sprout the same old song and dance as old as Equestria itself about us being one harmonious family, in tune with nature and whatever, but then I would be spending the next decade listing all the edge cases and other points of view. And don’t even get me started on fleet politics. Their government is a multi-tired mess of lottery appointed experts, different overlapping elected positions and a theoretically neutral, theoretically meritocratic hierarchy of ship officers. Nepotism still ends up playing a big role there though, even if they would never admit it. The colonies and Sol are even worse, being much larger population centres.”
“Well why not just try to explain the here and now then? What’s relevant to us in the immediate future,” Cadance asked, trying to tease out an answer of any kind, if only to have somewhere to start with.
Sunset hunched over the railing and reluctantly nodded at the idea. “Well I guess I can try that… I could certainly use the practice before everyone starts demanding to be let out of the play pen,” she griped out before starting. “To concede to some stereotypes… humans are generally more aggressive than ponies. They’re omnivorous predators after all, so it’s kinda in their nature, a bit like Griffons or Dragons.”
That last comment drew out some worried looks from both Cadance and Shining, which Sunset quickly caught and groaned at.
“Oh, stop fretting!” she near enough demanded of them, shooting a light scowl their way. “They’ve long outgrown hunting and even farming cattle. Mostly. I don’t think I even know any humans who have killed something before. Griffons or Diamond Dogs are way worse. I know I kept the menu vegetarian but you could even give meat a try yourselves as it’s all pretty much grown in a vat these days. Don’t ask for details, it’s… a bit gross, if ethically clean. Moving on… They’re curious to a fault, so expect them to go gaga over us when they finally find out, we’d be their first contact, first sapient life not from Earth.”
“Well, I can’t say we would be any different, under better circumstances,” Cadance added, with a bitter sweet smile.
“Maybe. Having the benefit of the two to compare, most ponies are a lot more reserved, or just skittish,” Sunset argued back with scepticism lingering in her voice. “Anyway, they can be incredibly creative, imaginative and driven, as you can no doubt see,” she continued with a gesture up towards the surrounding habitat. However her expression fell into an uncomfortable frown. “Friendly most of the time too, being highly social creatures. However they can also be greedy, cruel and capricious. Though their greatest pitfall might be their tendency towards paranoia. It’s likely the biggest reason they might refuse to help us.”
Cadance felt a more confused frown overtake her as she absorbed that line of thought. “Their paranoia, not their greed means they might not help us…? I don’t understand, how could they see a few desperate refugees as some kind of threat? A drain on resources, maybe but-”
Strangely enough, that statement caused Sunset to break out into laughter. “Ahhhrg! The pretty pastel ponies are here t’ take ‘er jerbs!” she called out in a strange faux accent between guffals. “Don’ git too close, you might catch dem diabetes!”
After a moment of steadily subsiding laughter, Shining lost his patience. “What in Nightmare’s name are you raving about now?!”
Sunset stifled her remaining giggles and shook her head, a little out of breath from her own outburst. “Sorry, sorry. You’d have to look at some old human history to get it. Suffice to say they can find or fabricate malicious intent anywhere,” she began to explain more rationally. “For example, they might suspect our presence here to be some kind of ruse to trick them into attacking our enemies. They might even consider ponies in general to be fake, a deliberately engineered form to play on their sympathies and protective instincts. Weirdly enough they have pretty good reason to think that considering non-intelligent equines exist on Earth, and ponies as a species coincidently fit the human definition of cute to a T.”
“So… we might come across as too good, or too unfortunate?” Shining summed up thoughtfully, the more tactical side of his mind chiming in. “A honeypot trap of sorts.”
“Something like that,” Sunset agreed glumly with a nod. “Even if they take us at face value they might suspect we’re at fault somehow, that we attacked first or did something to piss these other aliens off. And they might have a point, as they might be right.”
“What?!” Cadance felt herself burst out. “We would never! Equestria, the Empire, we’ve long since resolved towards peaceful coexistence with other nations! Celestia has even set a precedent for permitting cities or regions to secede from her rule! Given valid motivation to of course.”
Sunset snorted and shook her head, implying Cadance wasn’t understanding something she did. “Yeah, I know that. And I sure as hell don’t believe we attacked them first, even if we could. But we still might have done something to provoke them. It might be something subjective, like magic or moving stars around is against their religion. Or it might be something more serious, like them actually knowing more about magic than we do, and came to stop us from blundering into some unknown danger. Hell, magic could even be poisonous to them and they’re here to stop us polluting their space or something. Not that it justifies what they’ve done to us. Just explains it.”
That explanation left Cadance standing there in shock, and as the idea sunk in she felt herself go limp against the railing, staring down into the dark waters below. She had never thought about it like that before, nor was she inclined to, she realised soon after. It was not natural to think of oneself as the perpetrator of their own victimhood, yet somehow Sunset had managed.
“I see,” Shining murmured, looking troubled. “I think I understand what you mean about paranoia. That kind of combative thinking would make peace… difficult. Are you sure we’re going to have such an easy time hiding ourselves?”
Sunset shrugged a little dismissively, still unconcerned by the prospect. “Yeah. They can be paranoid, it’s not their default state of mind. As long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves no one is going to start pointing fingers or jumping to conclusions. As far as they’re concerned we’re just some weird comune getting back from reconnecting with nature or some bullshit like that. Way more feasible than hitch-hiking aliens that jumped aboard their ship mid-flight via magic portal.”
“That still doesn’t explain a lot… let alone let us know how we should act around them,” Shining was quick to point out. “We still risk setting off that paranoia if we appear too out of place.”
Sunset let out a deep exasperated sigh, head rocking back as she stared up at the sky, or rather the ground above them. “Honestly? The easiest path would be to just not. Hide up here and keep interaction to a minimum. Make a little hermit community of ourselves, it’s not entirely uncommon. But that would hardly reap the best rewards.”
“So? What are we supposed to do then?” Cadance urged. “I’m not entirely keen on isolation on principle. Building bridges is always the better option.”
“Well, in the near future, learn the main language. A little bastardised amalgamation of several popular languages they call Iglish. After that Pan-Asian Lingo if they’re feeling more adventurous. But immediately…” Sunset trailed off for a moment as she looked over the two of them carefully. “I’m probably going to regret offering this tomorrow but I’m going to need to go out, sign for some camp stoves among other things. There’s some stuff they refused to ship in quantity and by drone without an in person contact, for safety reasons and other red tape crap. You - or some of your little court - could come with me… see it all for yourselves up close. It would be a start at least.”
“That sounds…” Cadance trailed off, not actually quite sure what it sounded like. Her eyes drifted to the distant city of lights.
“Daunting, to say the least,” Shining finished for her. “But I can’t say I don’t want to confirm everything with my own two eyes.”
“Not quite the word I had in mind,” Cadance corrected, “If only because I have no idea what to expect.”
Sunset smirked back at them yet again. “Yeah, that’s pretty much where your expectations should be. There’s a lot I have yet to tell you just because there’s so much to tell. We turned your world upside-down with the big impossible stuff, now we get to spin it around with all the little improbable stuff. So… you in?”