//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Odyssey of the Timeless // Story: Deos ex Caellis // by Devona //------------------------------// To you, after long centuries... Hi, darling. It's your wife, remember? Water Lily. I really do hope you can still recall my name, but as much as that would mean to me, I doubt it's actually the case... It's funny, isn't it? For some reason, I find it amusing how fate can be, and somehow, I want to think you'd agree with me. I'm sure you've spent your final years in grief, convinced of my gruesome death somewhere in the void above, and yet I still breathe, farther away from our home than anypony has ever been. Do not despair, though, wherever you are right now. I know you did what you could in my absence, I'm more than certain you made Equestria know your name in your efforts to preserve what little stability must've been left after our disappearance. I can effortlessly recall your resolve, your will of steel, your determination; of course I can, though - for me, it's been mere minutes... I never thought the stasis chambers onboard this vessel would be of any use to us. I was so optimistic, even as I went through training and preparations, even as all the instructors kept telling me this technology is not much more than a huge experiment, a shot in the dark. Yet I still volunteered, eager to help the ponies I loved, and nowadays, I tend to wonder if it wasn't against your unspoken will. But here I am now, so far beyond the boundaries of anything familiar to anypony who's ever lived. In our hope to discover and befriend, we jumped into waters far too deep. We never realised how dangerous a voyage this distant could be. Sometimes, I think about how Equestria might've fared in the wake of our disappearance; it's been centuries, after all. As I find myself writing this, the timestamps onboard say the year is 3102, but... who knows for sure. Something might've broken, and even if not, time is relative. It could not possibly flow the same way here and back on Equis. But however long it's been, we've received no transmissions past the first few. Neither from other starships nor the planet itself. I can't possibly know what happened to our home, whether our presumed deaths turned you inwards, or if the gracious Sun of Celestia devoured you whole. All I know for sure is that nopony ever checked on the Coltlumbus when we blinked and left, never to be seen again... My biggest regret is being unable to be with you as the world spiralled into oblivion. I still cling onto hope that nothing like that happened, but... it's difficult, you know? For all we know, we three might be the last ponies left... as the thaumo-spatial drive failed, our hibernation might've well put an end to our lives as well, but alas, it did not. I choose to interpret it as a sign; maybe, just maybe, we carry the mantle of ponykind across the stars, the last hope for our survival. But in the end, who might ever know? Certainly not me. Maybe nothing's wrong back home. Maybe the population calmed down, the riots ceased, and somehow, we simply stopped our progress in its tracks, not needing outer space. But... right now, I need motivation, I need something to bring me out of this misery that I find myself stuck in, something to let me carry on. In a few moments, I'll have to leave this room and put up a display of playfulness for all the others, and... and I need strength. Strength to do that, strength to carry out my duty. I've already failed once, and I'm not going to again. Right now, in my mind, I'm with you. I don't want to go. Whenever I sleep, I want to fly away and meet you in our cozy cabin in the woods. I want to go shopping with you, I want to be together as you accompany me to the spaceport, even just one last time. I'm going to send this message... back towards Equis. Towards home. I cannot possibly resist, and... and I need something to put up a mental barrier against all these feelings which plague me. You are not alive, nopony we've known is, perhaps nopony at all, and even if they are, it's going to take this message eleven long years before it reaches them... a lot can happen in that time. But I'm going to do it. I need to. To you, my darling, after long centuries. Several hours had passed since Luna assumed her seat in the cockpit, now staring mindlessly through the ship's portholes at the sea of stars before her, the rest of the crew nowhere to be seen. Blinking several times, the former Princess took another sip of her favourite brew of coffee, followed by a quick look inside the cup. It was empty. Again. This was the eighth portion she'd finished, and all of them in a row, at that. Breaking out of her trance, Luna stood up from the comfort of the command chair, the big mug still in her magical embrace. She would've helped somewhere else on the vessel, was it not for her utter convinction of the hopelessness of the current situation. Whether she drinks more or not, who truly cares; the Coltlumbus had long been forgotten, and was stuck eleven long light years away from Equis, burning through the last remnants of its fuel reserves trying to reach the Initiative's first destination. And if that destination turns out to be lacking any opportunities to resupply - and lack them it will - then it doesn't really matter if the few drops of water left onboard are all used for Luna's hot beverages. Strangely enough, since waking up from stasis, the former Princess had not concerned herself with the wellbeing of either Equis or her comrades nearly at all; no, all she felt was complete, all-encompassing numbness. Simply nothing mattered. She was stuck in a metal tomb hundreds of billions of miles away from anything she'd ever known, loved or fought for, helplessly waiting to be devoured by the dark void of space. The Initiative was over before it even bagan... and the news of a former Princess' disappearance hundreds of years ago alone could've very well caused trouble across Equestria and beyond, so much so that the possibility was scary to even consider. It was all simply... too much. Too much for a healthy mind, too much for anyone wishing to remain sane. And so... perhaps it was better to simply let go...? With these thoughts at the back of her head, Luna slowly made her way to the coffee machine. Hah, she thought, How foolish were we to volunteer... we should have stayed in Silver Shoals, alogside Tia... oh, how much would we give to witness our sister's cheerful smile just one more time... Suddenly, a brief, loud hiss filled the air, signalling a nearby door sliding open, and soon Luna clearly heard slow, quiet hoofsteps approaching her; the former Princess could swear the gloomy sounds were being accompanied by faint, shallow sobs. As she turned her head to the open corridor leading up to the starship's cockpit, the mare was quick to spot a reddish-blue pony coming her way; it was undoubtedly the silhouette of the onboard mechanic, Water Lily. Luna couldn't help but cast a small smile - after all, who knows, maybe some company would help reignite her mind's much-needed potency? Conversations with friends were always welcome, and, just perhaps, might assist in fighting off the dangerous, depressive thoughts Luna could already feel creeping up at the back of her head. After taking a closer look at Water Lily, however, Luna's smile quickly faltered; her initial impression was right - something was very clearly wrong. Quite certain the mechanic had yet to notice her, Luna decided - without pondering the issue much, to be sure - to take the initiative herself. Raising one of her hooves in a greeting gesture, she quickly uttered an awkward, "Welcome!", the sound of which triggered even her own anxiety almost instantly. There was however hardly time for Luna to scold herself for such strange behaviour... It was impossible to tell what got into Water Lily so suddenly, but the sound of somepony else in the vicinity clearly triggered all of her senses, spurring them to action. With a yell that could very well echo through nightmares, she jumped back, eyes fixed at Luna. Only after a few long seconds did the mechanic stop the screeching, realising that the former diarch's posture indicated a similar reaction, albeit clearly more concealed; such a withdrawn body coupled with her surprised expression were hardly ambiguous, after all. Breathing heavily in an attempt to calm herself, Lily finally gathered the strength to speak up. "Wha-what!? Me!? Where!? Uh, I mean, I-... we-... I'm here! Yes! How may I assist you?" she laughed awkwardly, clearly trying to wipe her tears off her fur in a way that would be least noticeable. Luna rolled her eyes briefly, smiling under her breath; normally, keeping the crew in a decent emotional state would be one of the top priorities, but now... it felt like that's not what anything was about anymore; if anything, it was about calming her friend. "Bah! If only there was something to assist with at all..." she blurted out with a small laugh without much thinking, only to immediately scold herself mentally for being do outwardly pessimistic. "Yeah..." replied the mechanic, looking down. "Uh... but we could use the company, to be sure," uttered Luna in a final attempt to cheer Lily up, desperately hoping her awkward smile would not scare the technician away. Water Lily laughed quietly. "Yeah, I think I could use that too," she sighed. "Thanks, Luna. So... any updates? Any at all?" Now it was Luna's turn to utter a deep, distressed sigh. "I fear not. The vessel is proceeding towards the objective, to be sure, however we do not believe any of us may survive to see it..." she chuckled. "Well, aside from perhaps Markethor. I would not be surprised had this been a plan of his all along... how our gracious Twilight Sparkle convinced him to work with us falls beyond even my metaphorical clairvoyance regardless," she finished, staring absent-mindedly through the ship's front porthole as she waited for Water Lily to assume a comfortable seat beside her in the cockpit. "I suppose so, but we should cut him some slack, honestly," Lily replied, almost mechanically and without any emotions. "He's been staying in line so far. We should give him a fair chance!" the mechanic smiled, in a manner Luna couldn't help but notice was a bit unnatural. Perhaps she is trying to keep her mind off of something, she thought. But... Tia would always tell us to talk about what we feel... for fear of unbalanced existence. Luna clenched her eyes shut; this would not be easy for her at all. With a heavy sigh, she spoke up again. "Yes, we... we suppose we should," she sighed once more. "Hey, uh... perhaps there is something bothersome for you out there, Lily?" She ended up blurting out in a single breath, in a manner she realized very well couldn't have impressed anypony. As if on cue, though, Water Lily stood up and lowered her sight, looking somberly at the floor. "I... let's just say I left someone on Equis, someone... very dear to me, and... well..." she sighed, small tears forming in her eyes, so far held at bay. "Okay, you know what? I may seem all cheerful and happy, about to take on the whole world, but in the end, I'm just a little pony. It doesn't matter to me anymore if we succeed, I... I just want to go home, Luna! I want my dead husband back!" Lily screamed through clenched teeth, tears exploding from her eyes. It didn't take long for the crew mechanic to collapse completely on the floor, her eyes covered with her front limbs, sounds of sobbing echoing throughout the cockpit. For a long time Luna would not be able to tell what exactly took her over in that moment of weakness; whether it was compassion, pre-existing feelings of friendship or the simple, natural need for a companion, or maybe it was something else entirely, swirling and turning at the back of her head like the mystery it was. But no matter what it happened to be that called her to action, the former Princess, with her muzzle assuming the most ambiguous and bland expression imaginable, stood up from her seat and walked slowly yet steadily towards her distressed companion. For Water Lily, spiralling deeper and deeper into her worst nightmares, nothing was needed as much as the warm embrace of a large alicorn wing that soon enveloped her absolutely. Suddenly, it felt like the dam intended to hold back ner tears had formed again, and Lily didn't have to fear anything anymore. Looking up, she could not possibly fail to notice the smiling grin of Princess Luna looking at her directly; all these bad feelings... somehow, this one pony banished them in an instant. Finally, still unable to fully stop her sobbing, Lily gathered the couraged to speak once again. "You know, Luna... I'm an astronaut, yet this is the first time I've ever been to space. I did exceed at every test the Star Control threw at me, but... I think that my stupid, optimistic mind never expected us to actually live out the rest of our lives in this metal trashcan up in the heavens..." Water Lily sighed, clenching Luna's wing tightly as cold shivers traversed her spine. "The Thaumo-spatial drive failing so quickly... you know, I just suppose I never thought my life could get this much worse in a second's worth of time. And now..." she sighed deeply. "I'm sorry. I genuinely am. I... needed this." Water Lily stood up from the floor, wiping the last tears off her eyes, before looking back at Luna. She tilted her head in slight confusion, though, realising the former Princess had been looking through the starship's front porthole for the last few minutes. "That might be right, indeed," Luna uttered quietly, not moving an inch. "But if we truly are lost in this abyss... then that means mourning provides no effect indeed," she turned back, her expression stoic. "And if survive we shall not... let us revel in friendship and make this time a testament to ponykind. One final time." the former diarch smiled, stretching her wings out once more. Water Lily smiled, laughing quietly. "Just... don't tell the others about how I just was, alright? I... don't think I'm ready to show myself like this to anypony other than you, ha ha..." "Not a word uttered. I guarantee it." And just as such, without any fuss, the two mares embraced each other again, in a hug that would last for hours. Today was not a good day for Mythic Facade. Not only did he have to deal with all those gut-wrenching feelings sparked by the Initiative's sudden failure, but the realisation he'd also have to spend the rest of his life with people who all deeply despised him began slowly but surely dawning on the astronavigator. And the worst thing was... there hardly seemed like anything he could possibly do would change a thing. Weakly rolling onto his left side in a way that looked more anemic than anything, Mythic grabbed a pillow from the ground and pushed it against his head, trying to block all the surrounding sounds. Now, in this darkness, noone could see his tears gradually drop onto the bedsheets. This was it, huh? During training, Mythic never thought he'd be chosen for the final mission. Where he was from, though, rejecting such an opportunity... it was simply never an option. He'd been the pride of his village ever since he'd joined the Star Control, but to lead ponykind into the stars, to contact the first intelligence from beyond Faust? That would be something... entirely different. Something he was never prepared for. Something he was not ready for. Something he did not want in the slightest. But now... it was the simple reality. Although hardly religious, Mythic just had to wonder if what had transpired was not some sort of divine punishment wrought upon him by a diety known or unknown. It was all too much. It was mental torture. Sighing deeply and shaking his head, Mythic slowly realised he would not be able to get any more sleep. An annoyed grimace soon entered his muzzle, followed by a deep growl as the navigator stood up and turned the lights in his cabin on. Barely any sound reached him from outside the room. Great, Mythic Facade thought to himself, Knowing my luck, I'm either already the last one standing, or Lily's just waiting outside this door... with a goddamn knife. Another sigh. How many had it been by now...? Mythic could not know. This entire voyage had been a giant nightmare. And as such, head hanging low, the astronavigator stepped through the door, wandering aimlessly through the ship. Mythic tried to estimate roughly how much time had passed since he'd left his quarters; he tried to do so more than once, in fact, but each and every time he would arrive at the same exact conclusion, which he knew very well could not have possibly been true: hours. And yet, everything he saw in all that time could be summed up as walls, doors, floors and ceilings. The same metallic environments he'd seen many times before. The same labels, monitors, wires. The very same rooms he had passed through many times before. Mythic - like every member of the ship's crew - had learned the layout of the Coltlumbus very well, and it wasn't any sort of art to do so either; the ship was small, with one central corridor and a few smaller ones protruding from it on both sides. The navigator could easily turn around and return to his cabin at any moment, but he did not want to. His eyelids hardly felt heavy anymore, and for some mysterious reason, wandering aimlessly through the vessel brought a little bit of the much-needed calmness and reclusion to the tired stallion. Suddenly, a loud, unexpected thump brought Mythic out of his thoughts. Looking up from the floor for the first time in a long while, he could not help but immediately take notice of where he stood; right now, in front of him was nothing but the half-open, metallic entrance to the starship's very heart - its engine room. Mythic barely realised as his thoughts of sorrow gave way to raw curiosity; not thinking much, he stepped through the door, only to be greeted by the sight of a pale, thick tail, lifted up vertically, clearly instructing the navigator to wait. Its owner, a large humanoid by the name of Markenthor, was just tinkering with a set of cables and wires next to the main drive core; what exactly he was doing, Mythic couldn't tell. It wasn't exactly like the stallion was a mechanic in the first place, and the Replicant's stoic, unmoved expression was as barely visible as it was enigmatic. A fallen metal pipe next to the humanoid did however betray the source of the loud sound. After a few moments of silence, Mythic realised Markenthor would not speak up; of course he wouldn't, it's not like he had ever done so in training... training which, truth be told, he probably never needed in the first place. Hoping to break the awkward silence and, just maybe, cast his stray depressive thoughts away for even a second, Mythic soon decided to say something himself. "Uh... hey there, big guy!" he uttered, unsure of what he wanted to talk about at all, "So, uh... you're doing something there? I mean, of course you are, duh!" Myhtic let a small snicker escape his mouth, "So... what is it that you're doing, by the way?" It took a good while for Markenthor to react to the navigator's words in any significant way, almost as if the Replicant was effectively filtering them out of his mind, ignoring Mythic's rant absolutely. After a few moments, though, his tail suddenly laid down onto the floor again, and as Mythic returned his gaze to Markenthor's head, he noticed the Replicant looking at him from the side, curiously without even remotely slowing down his previous activity; the biped's pale hands continued adjusting the various wires so quickly and with such precision that it was nigh-impossible for the stallion to see which of the cables were being moved in the first place. Soon, however, Markenthor's sight returned to the panel in front of him and what he presumably considered a much more vital activity. With a slightly annoyed grimace, Mythic spoke up once again, "So, that's it, huh? You're not even gonna answer me? Fine. It's not like anypony here cares, you know?" The navigator left his mouth open, trying to think of something more to say, something at least slightly more elaborate than just the first words coming to his mind, but to no avail. Slowly, he turned around, ready to leave the room imminently before being stopped in his tracks by a deep sigh. "I do not concern myself with the petit reasonings of individuals such as yourself, our esteemed astronavigator," a distinguished masculine voice that almost did not fit the pale biped resonated throughout the room, sending brief shivers down the stallion's spine. Turning around once more, Mythic saw the Replicant now looking at him directly, with an expression of pure, distilled neutrality. "However," Markenthor continued. "Do not for a moment mistake me for your enemy. I am merely here for your... convenience." For Mythic, this was enough to warrant further questions. Even still, though, he soon found himself in the middle of a tornado of thoughts, and before he knew it, the only thing he was able to utter was an awkward, "What?" Despite releasing another deep sigh, Markenthor appeared much more troubled than he did annoyed. His luminous eyes felt like they were boring deep into the navigator's soul, examining his entire past, personality and lineage. After a few painful moments, the Replicant spoke again. "Mistakes are a constant in this galaxy. The thaumo-spatial drive, the Nightmare coup, the Replicant Revolution." He looked to the side, as if in thought. "We are but mere pawns in the large game of chance the universe is playing. And these? These are its climaxes." Mythic tilted his head to the side. "But... okay, what does it all mean? If you messed with the drive to have us stranded in here forever, I swear--" Booming laughter was all the navigator could hear for the next minute. As it ceased, a large smile still remained on the Replicant's face. By now, his expressions were becoming clearer and clearer. "Mythic Facade, was it? I do admire your resolve to confront someone such as myself so upfront. However, I do believe there is no need to." Swiftly, Markenthor turned to the panel he had been working on and pulled a well-concealed lever. As a soft hum filled the air around them, Mythic could swear something in the engine core almost... awakened. Rose from the dead. "There," the biped's voice brought the navigator's attention back to him. "A simple malfunction of power relays. The Band of a Thousand never does leave sentients in need." But Mythic was not there to hear the rest of the Replicant's words. With a gallop unseen since the dawn of time, he left, searching desperately for Luna and Water Lily. His cries for attention resonated throughout the entire vessel even as he got further and further away from the engine room. Markenthor meanwhile, briefly allowing himself to cast a small smile, slowly stood up, shaking particles of dust off of his long, black shirt. Cold. That was the only thing Luna could feel. Bone-crushing cold, accompanied by a whole orchestra of silence. The black space she was stuck in waved and swayed, unmoving and yet changing, shifting. It all felt like some sort of... trance, almost. However hard Luna tried to concentrate, her thoughts were running faster than a Manticore chasing its prey. They were all very... fuzzy, unfocused. Barely tangible. No matter what she did, the former Princess could not remember how she got here. Suddenly, the black space lit up, and everything around her came to life. With a shriek that echoed through Luna's very soul, the now-bright surroundings thrust her forward, towards a cascade of sounds, colours and flashing lights. Things flickered and blinked at the speed of light. Luna saw a tide, a grey tide eclipsing the very stars on the midnight canvas. She saw streaks of light racing across her sight. She saw puddles of blood mixed with mud, and a planet being cracked asunder. Finally, after what felt like hours, a faint voice resonated around the former Princess, almost as if echoing throughout a small room. "Come..." it said. "We... are..." A set of numbers. One, two, eight, one again and three nines. One, six, seven, seventeen. Nine hundred and twenty four. Luna's vision turned back to blackness, as everything around her seemed to violently spiral outwards. There was nothing she could do as a giant vortex quickly formed, suddenly sucking the former Princess in. She tried to scream, but to no avail. The black fabric around her suddenly formed into spheres, and Luna's body felt like it was being pulled between the vortex and those black holes. Furious fidgeting did nothing as her body was being pulled asunder. As both forces kept growing stronger and stronger, she- "Aahhhhh!" Luna screamed, thrusting upwards from her bunk and almost hitting the cabin's roof with her tall horn. A dream. That's all it was. However... as a dreamwalker, she clearly felt something very... familiar inside of it. Something that almost reminded her of herself. Wasting no time, Luna got out of her bed, dashing towards the starship's cockpit. As she activated the central intercom, a few bold, and yet oh-so-hopeful words resonated throughout the vessel. "Attention, everypony! With the thaumo-spatial drive now operational, I might just also be in possession of something that shall ensure our survival..." Scrap the original 'destination'. 1281999 16717 924 it was!