//------------------------------// // 04: Castles In The Clouds // Story: Eclipse Phase: Dreamcatcher // by Pyrite //------------------------------// Eclipse Phase: Dreamcatcher By Pyrite. 04: Castles in the Clouds For the first time since he was very young, Kyrrin was seeing the world through real eyes. It certainly felt different. The light stung at them, making him blink rapidly and flutter his wings. Some of the colors seemed brighter, maybe a little more real. It wasn't quite as sharp. The overwhelming transcendental experience he'd built this moment up to in his head, the moment he would finally open avian eyes again, failed to crash over him. It was a little disappointing. He closed his eyes for a moment, and remembered to breathe. The lungs were a bigger change. A power core's fluctuations didn't have this kind of emotional feedback. Breath came faster as he thought about it, and he had to force himself to calm. When he opened his eyes again he accepted them for what they were. They were his eyes, and no one else's. That was meaningful enough. The Neo-Avian rose up on his thin legs, shifting his talons on the branch, and tested his new wings with a few flaps. He reveled in the sensation of the air flowing over his feathers, but too soon he felt a cramp in the muscles of his new body. It had only been fully-grown recently, and was still a little weak. Kyrrin was the product of several breakthroughs in cognition and the nature of sentient awareness made before The Fall. When Equestrian science ponies had discovered the physical and psychological structures from which language and self-awareness arose in ungulates like ponies and zebras and cows, they were able to identify less developed versions of the same structures in the minds of many other animals who only certain ponies with special gifts had been able to understand. Several species of bird and some sea creatures were able to be genetically and mentally re-engineered to a pony level of intellect. With the help of vocabulator implants, these uplifts could even learn to understand and speak Equestrian. The newly-embodied raven felt a gentle hoof press against his back, and turned to bring one eye to bear. A yellow pegasus with a pink mane stood over him, smiling down with wide eyed sincerity. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it soon. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you,” she said softly. “You’ll hurt yourself if you rush, so please take it slowly.” He gave a little nod. "Alright. I'll try. It's just... they're my wings now." He hugged them to his sides. "I really want the chance to get used to them." "Of course you do, but there will be plenty of time for that now. In a few days it shouldn't be any problem at all, and it will take much longer if you damage them." She held his gaze for a moment, until she was sure he had his agreement, then stepped off the branch and gently fluttered around the side to better address the rest of his little flock. Kyrrin moved his focus to the eye on the other side of his head, now staring 'up' into the wide-open avian portion of the habitat. Willowy trees grew from plantings set into the walls, their branches spreading out through the air to provide a multitude of perches and little hollows. Hundreds of Neo-avians of every breed flitted or glided through the air between them, in a swarming flock of life and culture. Then he tilted his head back into line with the thick branch he was perched on, where almost thirty other ravens, crows, owls, and parrots had gathered. All of them were recently liberated from corporate control, and just like him they were adapting to their new bodies. The birds had grown used to a life of forced servitude, their minds uploaded into drones or small shuttles where their owners could make the best us of their flight instincts. They had adapted to jets or rockets, and returning to bodies made of flesh and feathers had become a distant dream. At least until Kyrrin had acted on rumors he had heard about the Mercurial Railroad, and sent a message that he'd dared to dream would be received by the pony they now all had their eyes on. "I know it's a lot to take in, but the Gardens are your new home now, if you want them," Fluttershy began. "You're free here and you own yourselves. You don't belong to anypony, least of all me." The corporations funding the uplift projects had been able to gain public acceptance through assurances that uplifted animals would be better able to safeguard their own species without having to depend on pony involvement in their lives. At the same time, those corporations carefully prevented a system of rights from being properly recognized in the Equestrian legal code, despite the efforts of uplift rights activists. Princess Celestia had been in the process of a yearlong negotiation with activists, corporations, and the uplifts themselves to finally establish their rights in law in the years before The Fall, but it was only one of many legal niceties that had been put aside temporarily to deal with the building crises. Now that the Equestrian government was relegated to historical data, the largest and most central government arising from the ashes, the Pony Consortium, had a habit of treating uplifted animals as the property of the hypercorps that had created them. Fluttershy lighted back down on another nearby branch, balancing on her hooves in the peculiar way only pegasus magic made possible. “There are a few minor things you’ll need to learn to take care of around the station if you want to live here, but that won’t take more than a few hours every week or so. You should try to become a part of this community, and learn to get along with everyone here. I do hope all of you will stick together and help each other adapt.” As she finished speaking, some of the birds in front of her startled into the air, though their untested wings only carried them a few feet. Others simply stared behind her and backed away along the twigs they clung to. Fluttershy felt a set of clammy tendrils begin to slink around her withers, wrapping around her from behind and pulling her toward the trunk. She let out a high-pitched squeal as she was dragged back. As two more tentacles wrapped around her, she twisted in their grasp to face her assailant, and wrapped her forelegs around the octopus clinging to the trunk of the tree, hugging his squishy body tightly. "Oh Plix, you snuck up on me! I've missed you since we've been out, how have you been?" "Worried," he answered, his slightly-mechanical voice rising out of the vocabulator implanted somewhere within his head. "We have all been worried about Fluttershy. We always do when she leaves." Fluttershy stepped back along the branch, taking one of his tentacles between her hooves and letting the others drape over her back. "You shouldn't have to worry about me. You have my backup on file, you'll never lose me." Plix moved to pull her in again, as if he could protect his little pony from the dangerous world outside the habitat. "We do not want to have to tell a new Fluttershy what happened to the old Fluttershy, or wonder to ourselves for months what has happened, whether it is time to give up hope and revert. He squeezed her just a little tighter, his voice coming from somewhere just under her muzzle. "Fluttershy only talks about her backups when she has been putting herself in danger. Has she?" The butter-yellow pegasus looked away guiltily. "Well..." The ghostrider modules implanted in Fluttershy's sides seemed to weigh more heavily with nearly thirty Neo-avian souls uploaded into them. She knew that the data and magical energy they were composed of didn't have a literal weight, but that didn't stop her awareness of each implant inside her, now ferrying the mind of a future friend. Doing her best to ignore the feeling of that precious cargo pressing down on her, she galloped through the corridors. Her hooves skidded on the smooth tiles as she swerved through a doorway, emerging behind the reception desk of Experia's front office. She leapt over the desk, toward the glass outer doors and freedom beyond them-- --and smacked right into the secretary's prim blue unicorn morph as the mare reared in surprise at the sudden intrusion. The two ponies went tumbling over her desk, sweeping a rather tasteful Neighponese lamp along with them, and fell on the floor in a heap. Fluttershy gently but hastily pushed the shocked mare off of her, scrambling up to her side. "Oh my goodness, I'm really, really sorry about this, but you see there's--" One of Fluttershy's ears swiveled toward the sound of clanking hooves emanating from the still open doorway. She lunged toward the desk, reaching out a leg to carry the secretary with her, as a pair of faceless, gleaming, armor-plated synthmorph ponies galloped into the room, the assault rifles mounted on their backs swiveling in turrets and opening fire. The two living ponies huddled behind the solid desk as rounds were driven into its fabricated hardwood frame, with more whizzing over their heads to shatter the glass doors and windows at the entrance. "What's going on?" the receptionist cried, curling into a tight ball against her desk. "I-I'm putting in a call to security!" Fluttershy shook her head sadly. "There's no need, really. Security is already firing on us." The unicorn just stared, trembling, at the pegasus mare who had made her smile with a moment of pleasant small talk just a few minutes ago before going to her appointment. "You should probably tell them I threatened you." Fluttershy continued, twisting around to get the floor under her hooves. The gunfire stopped, but Fluttershy knew better than to leap out into the open. Instead, she took the fallen lamp in her teeth and threw it into the air. Made to look like a paper lantern, the lamp had a vague enough resemblance to Fluttershy's coat to fool the security ponies into opening fire on it. It disintegrated under a blaze of withering fire, but served its purpose. By the time they stopped firing, Fluttershy's hooves were sliding on broken glass as she emerged into outer walkway that circled the corporate tower, and leapt off of it. She pumped her wings furiously, rising quickly into the vast open area of the cylinder colony. She was headed up, where the ground beneath her curved up to meet itself far above. Fluttershy had strong wings now. It was one of the first things she'd asked for after the accident, when Twilight was designing her new morph. While it superficially resembled her old body, this one was built for strength and endurance. She pumped those wings for all they were worth, pulling on the inner strength that had once allowed her to keep up with a Discord-infected Rainbow Dash while dragging a hot air balloon. With thirty new friends who needed her, it didn't matter what her body was normally capable of. By the time the guard ponies had emerged from the wreckage of the doorway, she was already halfway to the cloud column at the center of the cylinder. A stream of automatic fire tore through the sky, sweeping around in circles as she twisted her flightpath to the left and the right, distance barely allowing her to evade. For a moment, that old twinge of paralyzing fear almost seized her wings, making her gasp and twitch, but then she was past it. Back when she'd been in that server waiting for Twilight to have her new body ready, she had asked her to use a new set of techniques she'd been experimenting with to remove her fear entirely. "No. I wouldn't do that to you, and I'd stop anypony who tried," Twilight had snapped at her. "That's not how psychosurgery works!" She'd continued after calming down a moment. "Fear is a part of who we are, Fluttershy. Maybe for you it's an especially large part, but if I just get in there and cut that out, it wouldn't be you in there anymore." Fluttershy had eventually talked her into a compromise: with some minimal tinkering, the feedback that made her reflexively freeze in the face of danger was toned down and rerouted, giving her more conscious control over herself in stressful situations. She could still feel that terrible anxiety inside her, like a tiger pacing its cage in her chest, ready to clamp its claws around her heart again, but she didn't have to let it out. A stroke of pain carved itself up the side of her leg, bringing her mind back to the present. She let out a pained squeak before clamping her muzzle shut and pulling her legs in tight underneath her, trailing blood until the medical nanites inside her sealed off the wound. Among the clouds, in the weightless center where the air didn't push as hard against her, she was able to break visual contact. The pair of security synths finally relented, unwilling to risk firing into the cloud at random considering its other inhabitants. Those very same pegasi leaned out from the many doorways and windows carved into the cloud face to get a look at the source of the commotion. Fluttershy turned her face away as she circled by them, unwilling to face ponies whose community she had disrupted with violence. [Eyes open Hooves. You need to see to fly.] The sharp, sarcastic voice in her head was Artemis, an uplifted owl who was hitching a ride in one of the ghostrider modules in her sides. [The plan didn't include this much getting shot at. It won't be long before the corps start pulling in other forces. You gotta keep your head in the game and pull this out before they can get it together.] The pegasus nodded, forcing her eyes open again. [I know. I'm sorry.] She cringed a little in the air. [There's always so much more shooting than I plan for.] She dared a glance at her side as her wings carried her further around the edges of the cloud face. [Is everyone alright in there?] [These birds are scared, but holding together. They all knew this would be dangerous when the asked for our help.] Fluttershy took a deep breath and drew on her inner reserves. It would all be worth it. She just had to make her way to the other side of the habitat. The Cinnabar Express was docked there, latched to the rim edge beyond the vertical wall. She just had to make it on board and it would deliver her new friends to their new lives. The 'gravity' shifted around her as she traversed the center of the hab. Her stomach lurched a little as 'down' made a quick circuit around her. She worked hard to slow her anxious breathing, gliding over the carefully designed buildings and streets below her, and finally swooped in for a landing on a composite road ending in a tall pair of metal doors. She glanced around nervously, certain that sensors from the maglev station to her left had caught every moment of her approach, then galloped toward the doors. [Artemis, could you please, please open these?] [They're in security lockdown, Hooves. The corporation knows we're here and they're probably scrambling counter-intrusion specialists right now. They don't intend to let us leave] Fluttershy's steps faltered, and she stumbled to a halt, staring up at the gleaming metal. [Do... do you mean you can't open them? We're trapped in here?] [Of course not. We're fine,] Artemis answered smugly as the doors began to grind open. [I just wanted to make a point that these hypercorp foals are amateurs compared to me.] Fluttershy left the manicured lawns and gleaming chrome defining the architecture of the habitat's 'outdoor' area behind as she slipped between the opening doors, which screeched to a halt and closed again the moment her tail was through. The other side was all sterile white plastic, designed with cavernous arched ceilings to make room for the movement of freight. High above, hoses for fluid and gas transfer snaked across the ceiling, disconnecting and reconnecting with each other every few moments. A bright line of text flashed in Fluttershy's view. 'Security Alert: proceed to nearest checkpoint.' Glowing lines were drawn down the corridor walls to guide her. Around the corner a cavernous chamber opened before her, with pairs of airlocks seperated into rough terminals by short walls of stacked plastic crates. A hooffull of ponies who had been milling around were now moving toward the glowing lines with a sense of put-upon annoyance. Fluttershy quickly pulled into line with them, finding herself behind an especially put-off olive-coated stallion. Hoofbeats echoed through the bay as dozens of others responded to the apparent security threat. Before long, the gentle curve of the ceiling fell away to reveal a hastily-assembled choke point, another pair of synthetic guardponies flanking the one-pony-wide gap in the barricade. In the stark lighting of the transfer area, the shadows from their sharp, angular forms made them even more intimidating. The wide-barreled plasma rifles mounted to their backs didn't help much either. The ponies ahead of her began filing through the checkpoint, each submitting to the intense scrutiny of one of the menacing roboponies. The rest of the little herd milled about nervously under the steady gaze of the second synth, many eyes never leaving the barrel of his plasma rifle. A tense silence reigned, the cluster of ponies dwindling as one by one they were cleared to pass. The silence snapped like a twig as the aggravated stallion Fluttershy had followed came to the front. "Is there any chance you can tell us what's going on? This is the third time this month we've been forced to drop everything and waste an hour like this." By the way the ponies behind the olive earth pony stared at him, one would think he had just poked an Ursa Major in the eye with a stick. Those who'd already made it through kept their gazes carefully forward and began to trot more briskly, lest they be drawn into the scene. The synthetic security guard did not respond, merely continuing the sweep of his eyes. "I mean come on!" the stallion continued. "This has got to be a massive inconvenience for everyone. Is this a drill? Who schedules these things?" "Employee Strike Silver," the synthmorph spoke up suddenly. "Your complaints regarding the inconvenience of necessary security procedures has been forwarded to your immediate supervisor. You are cleared to pass this checkpoint. Have a nice day." Finally comprehending that he'd put his hoof in it, Strike Silver instinctively backed down a few steps, bringing his rump into contact with the horn of the unicorn who had stepped into place behind him. He yelped and spun around to face his accidental assailant, prompting both guards to aim their focus, and their plasma rifles, directly at him. "Please move through the checkpoint." The security pony's deadly cold voice reverberated through the docking bay. "Alright, alright, no problem..." Calming down, he was halfway through slowly and carefully backing up through the gap when a thunderous clatter filled the terminal behind them. As one, everypony turned to see that a plastic crate had toppled from the stack down to the floor, and that a butter-yellow pegasus was swiftly winging her way over to the next wall of crates. For one frozen moment, everything else was still, but as Fluttershy's hooves hit the top of the next crate at a gallop, the security ponies leapt over the barricade, clambering over Strike Silver and bowling him over onto his back. By the time they crossed the terminal, Fluttershy had gained quite a bit of ground. Bolts of plasma fire spattered against plastic crates as she scrambled for hoofing atop them, opening holes in their sides and sending more than one toppling over just after she leapt nimbly to the next. Finally, she broke line of sight and disappeared behind the wall of crates. The mechanical ponies were relentless, galloping down the open lane until they finally spotted her again three terminals down. They squealed to a halt, opening fire on her as she dove toward an opening airlock. Fluttershy finally gave into her fear instinct and let herself drop as globules of blue fire streaked over her back to sink into the wall above the airlock door. She landed hard on her grazed leg, which decided that between the bullets and the freegalloping it had taken enough punishment for one day and gave out on her completely. With a pained squeak, she crumpled around her injured leg mere meters from the opening door. The synthmorphs moved up the sides of the terminal, training their rifles on the downed pegasus. "You are being taken into custody. If you resist, we are authorized to retrieve your stack." [Artemis?!] Fluttershy quailed in her head, her body trembling. [Lie still, Hooves. Help is on the way.] A pair of black shadows flitted from the now-open airlock doorway, drawing the synthmorphs' attention away from their fallen prey. They quickly resolved into a pair of Neo-Ravens, each carrying a grenade in its talons. Plasma rifles swiveled to their new targets and fired. One of the ravens managed to circle faster than the turret could track her. Her tail-feathers were left smoking as the sphere of energy singed them in passing. The second bird wasn't so lucky, catching the ball of liquid death in the wing and losing it down to the base instantly and tumbling to the floor next to Fluttershy in a whirlwind of agony. Unfortunately for the synth that shot him down, he'd already dropped his grenade. Twin spheres of white fire bloomed in the terminal. In their wake, the plastic floor had been vaporized in two neat circles, revealing metal hull plating that still glowed with heat. Each wall of crates was melted and fused back together into a twisted cargo sculpture. And the two synthetics were smoking metal shells, toppled over and half melted into the floor. The remaining raven wheeled around and landed in front of Fluttershy's still-quaking body. The bird leaned in and nipped at the pony's ear, pulling toward her companion. Fluttershy's eyes flashed open, her ears filled with alarm klaxons, and she scrambled to her hooves. She nosed under the fallen Neo-raven and slid him onto her head, then trotted quickly into the waiting airlock. Fluttershy gave her octopus friend a sheepish smile. "...maybe there was a little danger involved." Plix gave her what passed for a worried look among uplifted octopi, which was really more of a quivering of his body than a look. "We care about our Fluttershy. We do not want her to be hurt." This prompted a weary sigh from the pegasus. "I know that, Plix. But there are so many uplifts out there who need our help, so many who never get to have proper lives of their own. That's why we built the gardens in the first place. I can't turn my back on them now, even if it is a little dangerous." Plix deflated, literally to a degree. "We understand, but still we worry." Fluttershy turned back to the birds she had rescued. In the moment of awkward conversation, they had regathered on the branch, and blinked curiously at the pegasus and octopus on the other tree. "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I should have introduced you!" Fluttershy interjected, backing up and waving a hoof toward the octopus who had accosted her. "Everyone, this is Plix. He's a long term resident here and a very good friend of mine. He lives in the underwater ring, beneath us, but he likes to come up here and climb around. I hope you'll--" An image suddenly popped into her optics, accompanied by a voice message from Artemis. Fluttershy stopped mid-sentence and stared. [Hey, Hooves, guess who just requested permission to dock.] The image was a view from one of the external cameras mounted on the outer hull. Through it, she watched a distinctive four-engine shuttle as it decelerated on approach. "Oh my goodness, Rainbow Dash is here," she whispered. Fluttershy turned suddenly back to the group of uplifts, her mane falling in front of her face. "I'm sorry, everyone, but something's just come up. Plix, could you please show them around the station, at least until Muninn gets back from putting Huginn in the healing vat?" Plix looked the birds over, then gave Fluttershy's ankle a farewell squeeze. "Because you ask." "So, this is what you and 'Shy spent all that time workin' on?" Applejack asked. "Ah never got a chance to see it properly, especially considerin' what was goin' on in mah neck of the woods that year." "It was Fluttershy's idea, really. She just needed a little help with the whole 'making it happen' thing." Rainbow replied, flying just a little above where Applejack was loping along the wall in Zero-G. "Ah don't mind ta disparage yer hard work or nothin', but..." she stopped to wave a hoof at the wide corridor they were walking through, which took up about half of the area of the docking spar. "It doesn't seem like much." Indeed, the docking spar was a simple affair, just a corridor with regular doorways leading to small chambers along its length. But despite the lack of gravity and sophistication, more than a few ponies could be seen moving about the spar. Rainbow turned to grin smugly at Applejack behind her. "This is just a transfer point. You'll see the real work when we get into the habitat rings." "Oh but it was sooo worth it too!" said Pinkie, bouncing along from wall to wall. "Last time I was here, it was for a party in Aqua Ring. Oh wow, but dolphins really know how to party, and the octopuses can actually be a lot of fun once you get them out from under their rocks." "Ain't it octopi?" Applejack suggested. "Gesundheit." Pinkie said with a sudden look of concern, which was immediately forgotten with her next idea. "Hey! You should totally all jump into seaponies while we're here! Come on, when was the last time you even had a swim?" "No thanks," Applejack snipped. "Ah'd rather keep ta four simple hooves if it's all the same." Applejack was without her signature cowpony hat, which would have been more than a little troublesome in a zero-gravity environment. Her mane and tail floated freely behind her, pooling up around her legs and above her head whenever she paused. Pinkie shot Applejack a concerned glance as she bounced across the hallway. "But it is all the same! The same thing day in and day out and doesn't that get a little boring after ten years?" Applejack's expression soured. She shot a momentary glare at Pinkie. "Maybe ah've got simple tastes, but ah for one am just fine with just bein' an earth pony, thank you." Pinkie stopped bouncing, pinned to one side by Applejack's eyes even after the farmpony bit her tongue and forced herself to look away. Then Dash was between the two earth ponies, her wings flared toward Applejack, her mane and tail a prismatic halo around her as she stared her friend down. "You're going all tribalist now? Really?" She was just barely not shouting, ignoring the looks it was getting her. "That was getting old before we were mares." Applejack whirled on the pegasus, her mane and tail flying up into the air to snake behind her head. The gesture was somewhat ruined by the way her hindquarters swung a little farther in front of her than she'd intended. Trying to recover from this, she blustered on. "Is it wrong ta just be comfortable in one sorta skin, then? Am ah not allowed ta stay in the sorta body ah was born in out here?" She pointed an accusing hoof at the pegasus. "Ah don't see you leavin' those wings of yours behind for somethin' new." Rainbow snorted. "At least I'm not afraid to try something new every once in a while! What, are you worried that you might like it?" Dash was pulled away from her staredown by a gentle but insistent hoof on her neck. It was Pinkie Pie, and her ears were pinned back. "It's really great that you're willing to stand up for me Rainbow Dash, but this is a tiny bit less than helpful." These words didn't exactly mollify her, and she shifted in the air, her anger quickly transferring focus. "What am I supposed to do, Pinkie? You two have spend the whole trip tiphoofing around whatever is going on, and it's been driving me crazy! What is your deal?" "Not that it's any business of yours." Applejack commented. "Um... excuse me, why is everypony fighting?" The three arguing ponies turned toward the soft-spoken voice, and fell immediately silent. Fluttershy was floating there, her tail coiled up beneath her, with her mouth hanging open anxiously. The fragile silence persisted for just a moment before Pinkie shattered it into a thousand pieces. She pushed expertly off the wall, hurling herself toward Fluttershy with her legs held open, and caught the hapless pegasus in a hug that sent them both spinning down the corridor. "Flutters! I can hardly believe it, though I should after we came all this way to find you" she babbled, not paying attention to Fluttershy's frantic wingbeats. "The birdie running docking control said you just got back!" Her wings mercifully not caught by the flying hug-tackle, Fluttershy was able to steady their course before they were slammed into a wall. Shocked out of her earlier apprehension, she gave her friend a gentle squeeze with the leg that wasn't caught under her. "I had to go pick up some new friends. I... I've missed you too, Pinkie... but would you please let go? I can't breathe very well." Giggling, Pinkie Pie obliged. She pushed off gently, and did a graceful flip in midair to clap her grip-padded hooves to the corridor wall. She'd barely gotten clear of Fluttershy's airspace before Dash had swept in, stealing a brief but intense embrace before backing off again. "Yeah, long time no see," she commented, blushing. She rubbed the back of her mane with a hoof. "Too long." "Ah apologize that ah'm not leapin' on ya mahself, but ah'd probably get us both hurt. Was never so good at throwin' mahself around like this." Applejack trotted under where Fluttershy was floating, and reared up to grab hold of her briefly as well. "But don't think that means ah'm now glad to see ya." Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment as their necks pressed together, then pulled back to take them all in. The Dreamcatcher protocols each of them had passed through their coatlink in the embrace checked out. They were really her friends. And they weren't here just to see her. "It's very good to see you all," she said, then took a moment to quiet the butterflies in her stomach. "It's just a bit of a surprise." "Well it's not like we could have told you we were coming, with you falling off the system for the last two months." Rainbow snapped, then immediately cringed at her own words. "I mean, I know you've got a lot to take care of..." "An' Ah can't exactly make a call ta this place from the moon. Yer still a wanted mare in the inner system," Applejack added. "Haven't even had a chance to ask how ya been in more'n a year." "Well, um..." Fluttershy paused to gather her thoughts. "Things have been going pretty well, I guess. I'm sorry about not being in touch. We usually need to run silent when we're bringing new creatures. I should have sent--oh!" She squeaked, her cascade of apologies cut off by Rainbow Dash's hoof on her mouth. Rainbow's glare only lasted for a moment, before she broke into a smile. "It's OK. It's not like we would have gotten a message before we were on our way here. We're cool." She took her hoof away and began flapping her way down the corridor again, moving slowly and looking back over her shoulder for her friends to follow. “Artemis?” Fluttershy called out as she rose through one of the many canopy layers of Avian Ring. She landed gracefully on the thick base of the long branch in which her friend made her home. Artemis was riding her familiar Neo-Avian morph once again, a lanky owl body with a rakish look to its facial feathers. Across a large, neatly constructed nest from her was another owl, who flared his wings when he glanced at Fluttershy, making her almost lose her balance as she scrambled to back away from him. Managing to hear the pony's tiny squeak, Artemis turned as well. She glared at the back of her husband's head, and took a step forward on her talons, reaching out to brush the back of his neck with the transgenic, batlike hand that extended from the elbow of her wing. He turned to look at her. Fluttershy held her breath as they just stared each other down. Aremis' eyes were wide and haunting, shifting very subtly as they had their silent argument over the mesh. Finally, he backed down. He turned one last glance at the four-legged interloper, then opened his wings and flew in the opposite direction. Artemis turned back to Fluttershy. “Hey there, Hooves,” she greeted, flitting with a few flaps of her wings to a new perch closer to the pegasus. “Oh-" Fluttershy finally gasped in a breath, her voice coming back. "I- was I interrupting something?” Artemis spared a look in the direction he had flown, then turned back, shrugging her wings. Her embodied voice was a little different from the one Fluttershy had grown used to hearing transmitted directly to her aural centers, but it definitely still had Artemis’ harsh edge to it. “Nothing really. Don’t worry about him, he’s just on the loosing side of an old argument.” “You... you were fighting over me?” she asked, backing up further along the branch, feeling like an intruder in her own habitat. Artemis turned her gaze back on Fluttershy, as fierce as the one she had used against her husband. “I told you not to worry about it.” After a moment, she looked away again. “I love Solomon, but he's a little too hardline sometimes.” She met Fluttershy’s eyes again, trying not to overpower her this time. “I don't let politics decide who my friends are.” Fluttershy nodded, letting out a little sigh of relief. “Then thank you for standing up for me. I just hope I haven’t come between you two. I’d never want to do that.” “He’s going to need to accept my choices and my friends sooner or later if this is going to work,” Artemis answered. “Now come back over here. There’s something I want to show you.” She gestured toward the nest with a wing, then fluttered back to stand over it. Fluttershy picked her way carefully over the branch, never having been quite as comfortable with high places as most pegasi, and peeked inside. Within the depths of the nest there was a small, open incubator dome, and inside was a pair of tiny owl chicks. Their plumage a softer version of the distinct points sported by their parents. They stared up at Fluttershy with their solid black eyes wide open, taking everything in. Her eyes went almost as wide as theirs,. “Oh, Artemis, are they- did you really- Oh my goodness!” she squeaked ecstatically. ` Artemis puffed up a little in pride. “Yes. They’re mine. And Solomon’s. That seapony genehacker finally came through for us.” She brushed a wing lovingly over the two little balls of fluff, who each shivered slightly at the touch. “She showed me a list of all the genetic timebombs in my DNA she had to disarm, but it was worth it.” Fluttershy sank down to her pony knees to get a closer look at the Neo-Avian children. “I’m so happy for you. You always talked about how much you hated reproductive control, but I had no idea you’d been trying to have children this whole time.” Artemis nodded, staring off into the distant wall of the habitat. “I don't like to talk about long shots. I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up if it... didn't go right." Then she turned and gave Fluttershy as brilliant a smile as her face allowed. "Apparently they’ve been about ready to hatch for the last week, but Solomon waited until I was back. He made sure I got to see them hatch.” "That's good of him." Fluttershy commented, glancing back at the little owls in the nest, cheered by the sight of them. "It is, but he's going to need to get used to you. Now that you're sticking around for a while, I intend for my chicks to know their godmother." Fluttershy’s heart sank. "Um... about that..." Artemis turned and glared at her. "What about that? We just got back." “Oh, it’s just... well, Rainbow Dash is here because of some bad dreams she's been having, and it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. She invited me to join her for a week or so.” Fluttershy cringed. Artemis knew what that meant. “I’m sorry, but I really do need to go with her.” Artemis didn’t answer for the longest time, only staring into Fluttershy’s eyes as if she was looking for something. Fluttershy looked back, holding the gaze as well as she could. Artemis was one of her oldest and most trusted sentinels, and had been ever since she had uncovered that the pegasus organizing for the Gardens was embroiled in a shadowy network of conspiracy and confronted her about it. At the time, Fluttershy had done the only thing she could think to do, and the last thing Artemis had expected: she had calmly explained what Dreamcatcher was, and showed her evidence of what they were fighting against. When she was finished, Artemis had only been able to think of one thing to say. “I’m coming with you.” Artemis said with finality. “No, Artemis, you can’t!” Fluttershy defended, coming back up to her hooves. “You have chicks to take care of now. You’re needed here. Besides, we’re just spending some time together. It’ll only be a week or so.” “You’re just spending some time together. With Rainbow Dash. The pony who invented trouble.” She glanced around suspiciously, and then leaned closer, brushing a hand over Fluttershy's side. [They named her Proxy Danger for a reason, I have to assume. The last time you went off with her to deal with 'bad dreams' it was a week before you were ready to speak again.] “I know she can be a little... reckless sometimes, but I’ll be fine. Please, I couldn’t ask you to do this. I couldn’t.” Artemis turned her head sideways, watching her with one intense eye. “Let me send a fork along with you at least. In case you need me.” Fluttershy shook her head again. “We could be gone more than a week, Artemis. You know how hard it can be to reintegrate after that.” [They'll never allow a breach of security like that,] she added over their link. Artemis’ eyes pierced through Fluttershy, and she took on the pose of an owl that knew exactly where a tasty vole was hiding in the grass. “It won’t be so hard if you keep her in cold storage until you need her. If she’s only got a few hours of experience, she won’t have time to change.” [And then they won't have to know unless it turns out you needed me.] She turned her head in a twitch, which made Fluttershy jump. “I’m not letting you leave until you agree to at least that.” “Al-alright,” Fluttershy conceded. She took a few steps to the side, quickly changing topic as she looked back in on the tiny owls. “I hope you’ve made up your mind about what to name them.” The fleshy edges of Artemis’ beak perked up in an avian smile as she turned to look at her progeny again, who had watched the whole exchange with wide, blank eyes. “His name is Apollo, and hers is Minerva,” she answered, leaning in to lovingly nudge each of them in turn with her beak. “They’re beautiful.” Fluttershy said, pausing to let the moment sink in. “I’m sure they’ll grow up just as strong and smart and brave as their mother.” Artemis gave Fluttershy a blushing look, then turned her beak up. “I don’t. I’m too brave for my own good. I’d better not catch them trying the stuff I did growing up.” She turned her gaze back to them, her features softening. “I’m just glad I'm going to be able to raise them as free birds.” Fluttershy carefully brought a hoof toward them, looking to Artemis for her nod of permission before gently brushing each of them. “So am I.” It was hard for Fluttershy to pull herself away from Artemis’ hatchlings. The two spent more than an hour together, slipping between chats about the habitat's gossip and culture and moments of silent contemplation, until the sight of Solomon circling in the distance finally prompted them to part. Artemis had been her last stop. She'd already said goodbye to everyone else. She was more than a little somber on the glide down to the bottom of the avian ring, but the copy of her friend in her pocket helped keep the sense of dread at bay. The 'gravity' on the floor of the ring provided a thin layer of normal pony habitability, and was home to a few dozen anarchists, uplift sympathizers, and brinker hermits, but plenty of rooms were left empty most of the time. Ducking into the cramped corridor and passing her hoof over the door gave her access to the small meeting room she'd secured for her friends. It was little more than a small room with a thick plastic table, but in true form Pinkie had already managed to put together some refreshments. She and Rainbow were at the table, while Applejack sat in the corner, staring at her hooves. She still didn't look right without the hat. The farmpony looked up as the door slid closed, her eyes shifting away from some nebulous emotion. "Sorry about this, Shy. I hate that we gotta barge in here and sweep off with ya just as ya were about ta settle in." Fluttershy took a moment to look each of her friends in the eye before sinking down to her rump. "I wish we were really just going to spend a week or two flying around together." She let out a tiny, heartrending sigh. "But I guess they wouldn't be pulling proxies up like this if it weren't important." "There’s no sayin’ fer sure yet, but I was called in by Twi’,” Applejack answered. “There’s been some kinda incident over in Titan’s back yard, and apparently she thought it was important enough to pull the old team together.” "It had better be world shattering with all the fuel I'm burning on this." Dash groused. "Oh, I hope it isn't." Fluttershy said quickly. "It's always so much better when it turns out to be nothing." Applejack shook her head. "Can't count on that ah'm afraid. They wouldn't let us put ourselves on the pointy end if a regular cell hadn't already stepped in it and gotten bit." Rainbow Dash saw Fluttershy's cringe, and decided it was a good time to change the subject. "We need to get a message out to Rarity. We've still got a deal going with that darkcasting group on Venus, right?" Fluttershy gave a tiny nod. "A lot of our uplifts come in that way, and it's one of the only ways we can keep up with what goes on in the inner system. O-outside of the network, I mean." She glanced over to Applejack. "I hope that's alright." Applejack looked sour for a moment. "Ah guess there ain't too many eyes on ya out here, so long as you've got a cover for it." The yellow pegasus gave another nod, perking up at a thought. "Will we be meeting up with Twilight too?" "Yeah," Dash answered, slamming a hoof down on the table. "Whatever Discordian Boogiemare is out there, it won't know what hit it."