Awakening

by solocitizen

30th of Winter Season, 10,056 AC

“Attention pegasus fleet, this is the FTL freighter Luna Dream, we are on an errand of mercy delivering medical supplies to the planet Arion.” Lumina angled her head over the microphone on her command console. “According to Article Twelve of the Treaty of Equus, you are required to grant our request to make orbit. Firing on an unarmed, civilian FTL freighter is a class three war crime. Tell your ships to stand down.”

A hologram displaying the planet Arion and the pegasi blockade popped up in front of Lumina’s face. Her hooves dragged and dropped holograms in the air, and with a gesture of her horn, she toggled through her list of preprogrammed commands. Outside the bridge window, the blue green planet glowed like a shining gemstone in the light. The vents surrounding her blew cool air on her face.

“Any response from the pegasus fleet?” Lumina asked Animus.

“The pegasi have not responded,” he said from out of the speakers surrounding her. “Their gunships are maintaining a target lock but have not opened fire. I am standing by with electronic counter measures.”

“Get ready to use them if they decide to fire.” Lumina traced a line from the hologram of the Luna Dream to the shadow of Arion’s moon with her horn. “I’ve plotted a course behind the moon, we can hide there and try to sling shot out of the system if this all goes bad.”

“Message from the pegasi fleet.”

“Patch them through.”

The console next to Lumina beeped.

“This is Commander Typhoon of Task Force Six.” The voice of a pegasus no pony wanted to hear raised at them barked out of the speakers. “Your arrival was not anticipated by the praetor, however, as per the treaty you are cleared to enter orbit to provide medical supplies. You are granted thirty-six hours and then you must break orbit, and you must adhere to all civilian ship regulations. Failure to depart within thirty-six hours or to obey our regulations will result in your immediate termination. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal clear,” Lumina said into the microphone. “I wanted to ask, do your regulations say anything about shore leave? You see, I’ve been stuck on this ship for five months and, I was promised a little bit of time to stretch my legs.”

“Lumina what are you doing?” Animus asked. “Arion is under martial law. I do not recommend making planet fall.”

She killed the switch on the microphone. “I’m going to find my mother.”

“Commander Typhoon to Luna Dream, please respond.”

“This is the Luna Dream.” Lumina flicked the microphone back on.

“You are permitted to land, but you must return to your ship and break orbit in thirty-six hours. I am forwarding a list of additional regulations for you to follow while you are planet side. Typhoon out.”

The speakers beeped, and Lumina dismissed the holograms surrounding her. She swiped a button with her hoof and her command chair flung to the back of the bridge.

“I’m going down there, Animus, and there’s nothing you or anypony else can do to talk me out of it.” Lumina bit the release strap on hr safety harness and bolted off her chair and out of the bridge.

“I was not going to attempt to stop you.” His voice followed her from room to room and into the hyperlift. “Given the conditions on the planet, I highly recommend that we maintain constant radio contact. I will be able to provide you with intelligence and keep a transmat lock on you at all times.”

“Can you do that through the ear bud on my datapad?” Lumina stopped the hyperlift at her quarters. “I’ll need something inconspicuous.”

“Yes, that will provide me with a sufficient target. I have checked over the regulations the pegasus fleet provided and there are no regulations that prohibits transmat as long as you beam down at a starport for check-in.”

Lumina dashed into her room and slipped into her Interstellar Express denim flight jack and dumped her datapad into her saddlebags. She threw on her saddlebags, crammed the earbuds into her ears, and straightened the badges on her jacket. A quick hyperlift ride later, and she was standing on the transmat panel in station D-2.

"Okay, Animus, I’m ready.” Lumina straightened out her jacket and put her hooves together at attention.

“Commencing transmat,” he whispered.

Yellow light enveloped Lumina, and with a crackle and a snap and a burning sensation, the white walls of the Luna Dream vanished and overcast skies took their place. Tainted winds swept through her golden-yellow mane.

The glimmering towers of Arion City were no longer crystals illuminated with the lights of thousands of offices and homes, but obsidian shards, unlit and pounded into cruel shapes. Rubble and debris bled out of craters and broken points. Gunships hovered in and above the clouds, while soldiers clad in powered armor roamed the streets and rooftops. A gunship swooped in low from over head, shaking the ground beneath Lumina’s hooves. This was not the Arion Lumina remembered.

Lumina approached a watchtower guarded by pegasi in shining blue powered armor. The microfusion thrusters on their legs and wings hissed and burned, and the high powered assault rifles mounted on their shoulders followed their gaze. A pegasus in a leather officer’s cuirass nodded at Lumina.

“You must be the pilot from Luna Dream, I was told that we’d be expecting you.” The officer scrolled through a hologram above his table.

“Gee, what gave it away?” Lumina pulled at the nametag on her flight jacket.

The officer squinted at her.

“While on Arion, you will be required to adhere to all regulations and orders put to you by members of the Pegasus Imperial Military. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Lumina feigned a salute.

“I hope you’re not trying to impersonate an officer,” he said, “that’s a crime with a very public and corporeal sentence.”

The hologram in front of him flashed green.

“Alright, Ms. Specter, you’re checked in and may proceed into the city. Curfew is in five hours. Make sure you’re indoors before then.”

Lumina cantered off past the checkpoint and into city. A short distance away, she found the tram. During the ride, Animus whispered what information he could dig up about her mother, which didn’t amount to much. The Arion datasphere fractured under the pegasi occupation, and Animus struggled to find anything at all.

“I’ll try her apartment first,” Lumina whispered to him. “If I don’t find her there, then maybe I’ll find some clue about wherever she is now. Can the transmat take multiple ponies up right now, or do you need to reconfigure it?”

“Yes, however taking a pony off-world in this manner violates several of the regulations.”

“I don’t care, I’m not leaving my mother here to rot another day. Not again.”

“As you command.”

The tram let Lumina off a block from her mother’s old apartment building. The top half of the tower was missing, but little lights inside flickered. Ponies still called the derelict home.

Lumina paused, and grasped her chest. The place just beneath her heart, and right above her stomach, clamped into a tight ball.

On her way down the street, Lumina spotted a powered armor squad keeping watch on the roof of an office building. She paused as just then an earth pony, more of a filly than a mare, marched out of the alley with a gun mounted on her shoulder.

“For Arion!” The earth pony chomped down on the firing bit, and at that instant every hair on Lumina’s body stood up, and two of the armored pegasi tumbled off the roof.

Tight Stream Electro Magnetic Pulse weapons were something Lumina had only read about but never seen in real life. They fried electronics, disabled vehicles, and swatted powered armor units out of the sky at the speed of light, without making a sound or flash. The pegasi squad didn’t stand a chance.

The two pegasi that fell from the roof never fired their thrusters to slow their fall. Their armor locked up and they tumbled through the air with all the grace of gargoyles ejected from their place. Their heads cracked against concrete. The rest of the squad stood fixed and unmoving.

“Lumina… status… electro-magnetic interference…” Animus’s voice gave way to static before cutting out entirely.

One powered armor pegasus escaped the beam, and in an instant he descended down the side of the building, and skied across the ground on the glare of microfusion thrusters.

Adrenaline surged through Lumina, but her legs couldn’t decide whether to run or to hide. She stared at the oncoming pegasus unblinking. Rifle fire cackled in the air.

“Move!” A brown stallion shoved Lumina out of the way of the pegasus. “Come on! This way!”

The stallion galloped down the street, and Lumina followed with her head low and her ears tucked flat against her head. They hurried into the apartment building, and slammed the door behind them. Safe for the moment, Lumina caught her breath while her rescuer peeked out of boarded up windows. He was an earth pony with a brown coat and hyper vigilant orange eyes, and a posture as if he spent his entire life running and hiding.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes, I think I’m fine.” Lumina padded herself down for bullet wounds.

“Wait.” He backed away from the window and looked Lumina up and down. “It’s you. You came back!”

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

He laughed.

“Yeah, Lumina, it’s me, Mist Nova. We used to hang out all the time in school, remember?”

He was the right age, color, and his voice was familiar. He even smelled like Mist Nova. Lumina’s eyes widened, that was Mist Nova, why didn’t she put that together sooner? She was about to laugh with glee, but then she realized why she hadn’t recognized him: Mist Nova was a pegasus.

“What happened to you?” Lumina stepped around to his side and ran a hoof down his back. No wings, not even a bump or bone that hinted that they were once there.

“Oh, those.” Mist Nova stared down at the ground. “I had a biosculptor remove them when the invaders started rounding up pegasi. They may not like unicorns and earth ponies, but they hate pegasi born outside of the empire. They called us traitors to our tribe. I’m fine though, it’s not like wings were that useful anyway. They were only useful for grabbing stuff, and looking good.”

Lumina pulled Mist Nova close.

“It’s so good to see you again,” said Lumina. “It looks like everypony has been to hell and back. I’m just glad to see one friendly face.”

“Lumina, what is your status,” Animus whispered to her. “Please respond.”

“What’s that?” Mist Nova asked.

"Nothing, just my ship’s computer, hold on one sec.” Lumina let go of Mist Nova and pressed her earbud with a hoof. “Well, not great, Animus. I just watched the pegasi mobile infantry gun down an earth pony after she T-SEMPed two of them out of the sky. It was the most brutal thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Are you damaged? Do you wish for me to engage the transmat beam?”

“No, I’m not ready to come up yet,” Lumina said. “I’m just about to find my mother.”

“Very well. I will begin sending our cargo down. The transmat beam will be unavailable for the next forty minutes.”

“Alright, I know how to reach you. I’ll call if I need anything.”

Lumina put her hoof down and turned her attention back to Mist Nova.

“Uh, so you’re with the Interstellar Express now?” said Mist Nova. “That’s, uh… I would never have guessed you’d end up as a pilot. What brings you here?”

“When I heard that Arion needed Medical supplies, and the Express was going to try to make a run here, I volunteered for the job.” Lumina glanced down at her hooves. “I’m here looking for my mother. Do you know if she’s still living here?”

“I’m sorry but she left.” Mist Nova’s words cut through Lumina. “A FTL ferry showed up here about two years ago on a diplomatic errand. Your mother, she somehow secured transport off-world with the diplomats. I know she spent every bit she owned to do it, but I can only pass on what I heard through, uh, let’s just call them my sources, and I can’t say with any degree of certainty where she went. I’m so sorry, Lumina.”

She slumped down to the floor, too shocked to react anyway else.

“Lumina, you have my most sincerest apologies,” Animus whispered. “If your objective is no longer on the planet I advise returning to the ship immediately. What are your next orders?”

“I don’t know, Animus, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Lumina said aloud.

“Hey, I know something we can do.” Mist Nova extended a hoof to Lumina. “My wretched excuse for a tribe hasn’t stamped all the life out of Arion. Come on, I’ll show you where the ponies are always welcoming and the cider never runs dry.”

Lumina took Mist Nova’s hoof and pulled herself up.

“Thank you,” Lumina said.

With that, Lumina and Mist Nova left the fractured apartment building and ventured into the downtown district. The sun never set. The clouds overhead obscured its descent, but the grey sky just darkened into black and a low orange glow.

A short tram ride later, the two arrived at the famous Café Rarity. Somehow, it had escaped a lot of the abuse most of the buildings in Arion City endured. Its neon sign and its signature red carpet were just as brilliant as she remembered. Lumina had never been inside, oh no, that was a place where only the most important of ponies gathered, but she’d seen it on holo-cast. Everypony on Arion had. Café Rarity was a cultural icon.

Mist Nova trotted inside, but turned back when he realized his companion never crossed the threshold.

“What is it, Lumina?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just I never thought I’d actually get to go inside this place. Not after I left, at least.”

“Come on in.” Mist Nova held the door open for Lumina. “I’ll get you the best lavender torte you’ve ever had.”

Inside, it smelled like coffee and fresh flowers. Ponies that refused to let the dirt and chaos of the occupation break their noble demeanor milled about, with their chins high and their posture strong. Near the front of the café, a pair of unicorns in bow ties blew into trumpets fixed to stands. Before Mist Nova and Lumina even grabbed a table, the stallion behind the counter called out to him.

“Hey, Mist, what will it be? The usual?” He balanced a plate on his head and slid it onto the countertop. “Oh, and great job out there today. Maybe now we can finally get things done around here.”

“I hope so,” said Mist Nova. “Actually, tonight, I think that my guest and I will each have a cup of coffee and a slice of your lavender torte,” then he turned to Lumina and added, “if that’s what you’d like, of course.”

“That sounds excellent.”

The pony behind the counter got their orders up in a hurry, and insisted that the house covered their tab. Mist Nova grabbed their serving tray and led them around the back of the café to a loft up the stairs. They got a table overlooking the café, and for a moment, they sat there sipping coffee, enjoying their tortes, and watching the fancy ponies eat, drink, and banter.

“You know, you’ve really grown a lot since I last saw you, and I don’t just mean that you look taller.” Lumina finished her torte and pushed her plate back with a hoof. “You’re a lot more confident. The awkward young stallion I used to hang out with after school didn’t invite me out for dessert at the fanciest café on Arion.”

Mist Nova blushed and turned his head down at his plate. There, a little hint of the Mist Nova she remembered surfaced.

“Thank you, I like to think that not all of what I’ve been through has changed me for the worse.” He slurped down the last of his coffee.

“Well, are you going to tell me why the stallion working the counter is covering our tab, are you some kind of VIP now?” Lumina straightened herself up, and tried to make eye contact without success.

“V-I… what?”

“Very Important Pony. V-I-P.”

“I, uh, don’t really want to talk about it.” Mist Nova kept his eyes down, and the blush disappeared.

“Yeah, you do, or else you wouldn’t have brought me here. You’re showing off. You’re trying to impress me and it’s working.”

Mist Nova met Lumina’s eyes, but just for a second. He sighed, and pushed his empty coffee cup around on the saucer.

“You remember that weapon, the one that disabled the powered armor squad? I, uh, you see, I make them. I was there to see if it would work.”

Lumina didn’t say anything.

“We all have to do our part for the resistance, if we’re going to survive, and life isn’t easy here, not since you left; we’re dying in droves out here. We have to kick them off of Arion, and I found a way to do it, with spare parts, that’s the tricky part. And I get paid well for it, too. Can we talk about something else? I’d like to hear about how you ended up flying an FTL ferry.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lumina cleared her throat. “I wanted to come back here, and the only way I’d be able to do that was either by raising a mountain of credits, or by joining the Interstellar Express. When I got to New Canterlot, I started training myself to fly shuttles and the basics of stellar cartography. By the time I graduated from general schooling, I had the ideal resume for an FTL pilot.”

Mist Nova never met Lumina’s eyes, he squirmed in his seat, and he stared out over the loft without speaking.

"Is something wrong?” Lumina flashed back to that awkward time in her life when she was somewhere between a mare and filly, when she, more than anything else, wanted more than a friend out of the stallion sitting across from her. The idea of him upset at her was enough to stop her heart.

“I- yes, there is something wrong.” He glanced up at Lumina. “You got off this rock, you’re the only one in our school, neighborhood, the only pony I knew that did. The things that happened to me, the choices I made to survive, I didn’t have a say in any of them. Not if I wanted to live.

“You could have been anything you wanted to be,” he said. “You could have built bridges, or been a doctor, or a super cool scientist. Instead you chose to spend your life looking for a way back here? You took your choice, and you decided to come back, to this place? I’m sorry, but isn’t this a waste of your potential?”

“Just who do you think you are judging me?” Lumina propped herself up on her front hooves and gazed right down at Mist Nova. “You, on your high pedestal, want to tell me about poor life choices? I watched a filly today take one of your guns and kill two pegasi, right before they opened fire on her. You make things that kill and you’re going to sit there and tell me I’ve picked the wrong path.”

“You weren’t here!” This time Mist Nova met her gaze, and his eyes were watering. “You left. You weren’t here when they invaded Arion City, or when they spirited away all the pegasi I ever knew off world to get re-educated! We never heard back from any of them. I-” He swallowed, bit his lower lip, and continued. “All this time I’ve been thinking, ‘thank Celestia Lumina is spared from this.’ You don’t know what it’s like! I had to cut off my own…”

Mist Nova gestured to the place behind his shoulder blades.

“That’s what it takes to live here,” he said. “That’s what’s you left behind. That’s what you were spared from. And that’s what you spent your life trying to come back to.”

Lumina backed down into her seat. She yanked the earbud from her ear and set it on the table.

For a long moment neither Mist Nova nor Lumina said anything, they watched the ponies below them gather into a crowd around the trumpet duet. She recognized the song; "Moonlight Serenade," she believed it was called.

“You know, I really don’t like crowds, or big parties for that matter,” Lumina said. “There was only one reason why I wanted to go with you to the gala all those years ago.”

Lumina and Mist Nova found each other’s eyes.

“I’m really sorry I said all that just now,” Lumina said. “I was out of line.”

“I… uh… it’s fine,” he said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Lumina reached over the table, and put a hoof on Mist Nova’s shoulder, and the two smiled at each other.

“I missed you quite a bit,” Mist Nova said.

With that, Lumina got up out of her stool, walked around the table, and hugged Mist Nova.

“I missed you too.”

He put a hoof on Lumina’s back.

After a moment, Lumina pulled herself away from Mist Nova and dragged her stool around the side of the table, and sat herself down to his right. The trumpet duet down bellow continued playing its sad, sweet, song. Lumina and Mist Nova exchanged a smile, and the two bantered and talked as only old friends could; well into the night. They swapped stories and laughed and talked about nothing in particular until the last of the fancy ponies departed, and the band packed up and left.

Mist Nova glanced at a clock and jumped out of his chair.

“Wow, is curfew really in forty-five minutes?” he said. “I can’t believe we spent so much time here. Anyway, uh, I need to get going back to my apartment.” Mist Nova paused and tapped his front hooves together before continuing. “If you need a place to stay, I could -- if you want, of course -- but you could spend the night at, um, my place.”

When Lumina looked at Mist Nova, she didn’t see an arms dealer scarred by tough choices; she still saw the colt that stole her heart. In her mind was a perfect vision of how the evening would turn out, and she had wanted it for so long that she was more than willing to overlook unpleasant details, such as the T-SEMP gun, their argument earlier, and the occupation, to make it happen. Lumina giggled like a school filly, and told him, “Yes!”

They fled the warmth and light of the café, and took to the cover night. Instead of going directly to Mist Nova’s home, they meandered through the streets and hoof paths illuminated by only the occasional lamp-post. The night air was cool, but in the company of each other, neither minded at all.

A short time later they arrived at a place where the sea and city met. Lumina recognized the place the instant she stepped off the trail into the expansive public garden; Mist Nova had taken her to the very spot where she met her mom for the first time after her parents divorced. The cobblestone paths, Somerset Trees, and the rolling hills of turf still managed to remain unmarred. Though the buildings across the bay were shattered, lights still shone from their windows.

Lumina stood up on her hind legs and threw her free hooves over the railing and looked out over the Sapphire Sea. Mist Nova joined her at the railing, right as a sliver of moonlight poked out from behind the clouds. The wind carried the scent of the ocean and there wasn’t a single pegasi gunship or trooper in sight.

“I’m surprise this is still so intact,” Lumina said. “You know, right after my parents split up, I was worried I was never going to see my mother again. My dad and I met her for the first time after the divorce at that park bench -- that one over there -- and I right then I was the most relieved and happiest little filly on Arion.” She never took her eyes off the water and her face faded.

“I’m happy I got to bring you back here.” Mist Nova scooted closer to Lumina. “I’m sorry, about what I said earlier, I, uh, well, I’m actually really glad I got to run into you again. I didn’t mean what I said, I’ve just been under a lot of stress, as you can imagine.”

“You don’t have any idea how hard it was leaving,” she said. “I left behind everything I ever knew. I traded my home, my friends, my mother, and you, for a gilded stalactite in a cave. It’s been tough, and now that I’m back it’s not at all what I expected.”

Turning away from the water with her ears popped up, Lumina put a hoof on Mist Nova’s shoulder. “You should come with me! You’ll never have a better opportunity to leave this place.”

“I can’t do that.” Mist Nova dropped off the railing and met Lumina’s eyes. “Despite everything that’s happened during The Occupation, my place is here, and the resistance needs me if we’re going to have a fighting chance. We can do this. We can retake our world. Once we drive the Pegasus Empire from Arion, we can rebuild it how it was all those years ago. Exactly how we remembered it.”

When Lumina glanced back at the moon, she picked out the outline of a massive troop carrier from behind the clouds, and she realized that the moonlight reflecting off the water was nothing more than the glare of its engines.

“How many gunships are in Arion City?” A cool breeze kicked at Lumina’s mane and tail.

“Last I counted, three wolf pack flotillas, each about four strong,” he said. “So about twelve at any time, but that doesn’t count the carriers and the fleet in orbit, or all the soldiers on the ground. Why?”

The idea of staying there felt wrong. All wrong. Lumina looked down at her hooves, and for the first time admitted to herself that her future with Mist Nova didn’t extend past that evening.

“I can’t stay.” Lumina couldn’t look at Mist Nova, and as she spoke she kept her eyes on the sea. “When I look out at the water, I want so badly to see something that isn’t there. I can’t exactly explain why, but no matter how painful the memories of leaving are, the thought of staying any longer just feels worse somehow.”

Mist Nova shuffled around on his hooves, huffed out a puff of mist, and glanced over his shoulder.

“You aren’t still mad about earlier, are you?” he asked.

“No, you were right about all that, I wasn’t supposed to come back here.” Lumina climbed down off the railing and kissed Mist Nova on the cheek, and backed away. “I’m sorry, I am, but I have to go now.”

Mist Nova’s ears flopped down, and he raised a hoof to touch his cheek. The air nipped at Lumina’s face and legs, and the glare of the troop carrier started retreating back behind the clouds.

“This is the last I’m going to see of you, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I’m sorry.” She backed down the path.

“Maybe it will work out better for us in the next life, yeah?”

“Maybe.”

Lumina turned around and marched down the path without looking back. She ducked behind a tree beside the trail and plugged Animus back into her ear, then called for an immediate transmat.

How long Lumina sat in the transmat station, she didn’t know. After a time, she slipped off her saddlebags, ripped the Interstellar Express jacket from her torso, and let it fall to the floor.

“How did it go with your friend, Lumina?” asked Animus. “Was the desert good and the air refreshing?”

“No, it didn’t turn out at all as I hoped.” She walked out of the transmat station, and down the hall. “Inform the pegasi fleet that our mission is complete, and that we’re leaving. After that, plot a course out of this system and make our first jump to Unitopia. We still have a package we need to pick up and deliver to New Canterlot. The sooner we get started on that the better.”

“As you command.”

Lumina relocated to one of the couches on the observation deck, and watched her world shrink into the star field. She sat there in the dark for several hours, before Animus called and broke the silence.

“Do you wish to discuss it?” he asked.

“I shouldn’t have gone down there and I shouldn’t have taken this assignment.” Lumina rolled over on her back and stretched her legs out. “What was I expecting, for my life to pick up right where it left off? I had this fantasy and I wanted it to come true so badly, I wasn’t thinking about whether or not it was actually good for me.”

“I am sorry to hear that your evening did not go as you had hoped.”

Lumina stared up at the ceiling and rested a hoof over her eyes.

“Animus, I think I’m going to quit my job,” she said.

“Did your time on Arion have anything to do with this decision?” Animus asked.

“It has everything to do with this choice. I spent my life searching for a way back, and maybe Mist Nova was right, maybe the whole pilot thing isn’t what I’m supposed to do with myself.”

“Nothing is predestined, Lumina.”

“I’m not talking about destiny, I’m talking about finding my own path for once. Something I care about that also has some sense of purpose. My mom gave up her seat on the last shuttle off of Arion so I could have a life and make what I wanted out of myself, not deliver cargo. Do you know what I mean?”

Animus went quiet. The Luna Dream encountered a stray gas pocket, most likely atmosphere vented from the hull of some unfortunate spacecraft. The ship rocked to one side.

“What about me?” Animus asked. “I am a part of the ship. I am unable to quit.”

“It was just a thought,” Lumina said. “I’m not leaving you behind, not now and not ever. You’re one of the few friends I have left. I’m not losing you.”