Little Blue Cat

by Chatoyance

5. Assiniboia, Saskatchewan

The world had twisted in some impossible direction. Chang'e experienced the sensation of motion, almost of falling, or perhaps shrinking, or possibly expanding, all at the same time. For a moment, she felt as if she had turned inside-out. Her view of the metal ventilation ducts curved away, momentarily resembling the reflection one might see on a girandole or spherical mirror. After everything twisted, the distorted view was one of an endless gray plain under a brooding sky of smog. Chang'e's vision flattened out, the bowing curve vanishing, and her paws felt moist soil and her whiskers were bent by tall stalks of grain.

'Our hooves and paws do caravan behind the walls of the world now, and behind the watch of time and distance as well', had said her quantum microtubule based brain. Chang'e's brain talked now, and sometimes it took over entirely, forcing her into the back seat.

The stalks had smelled of matted dust and time and countless summers past. They were gray, the color of sidewalks, and some had fine cracks like those in old pens from the age of cheap plastic and petrochemicals. Chang'e had immediately checked her internal GPS to find that she had instantaneously moved 1855.5 kilometers across the continent. She was near the S1 Agricultural Research and Development Plantation, just east of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, still within the Northamerican Production Zone. The gray, dead stalks were nonbiodegradable wheat. Wheat had been extinct for many years now. This was the very place the extinction of wheat had happened.

'We have Crown business to perform here. Tarry not within this wasteland, but instead set thy paws towards the city. If thy pace be swift, and proceedth well, the flesh of sardine, which thee doth hold so dear, shall be created for thee in plenty as deserved reward'. Chang'e had decided this to be the most promising thought her electric brain had produced for her yet, and determined to head directly for Assiniboia.

The trek was not easy. For a small blue cat, the tall and unyielding stalks of deceased wheat were like an endless forest of thin trees. It was tiring to push through them, and the view was gray all around - except for the dark soil at her paws, and the yellow-gray of the smog layer occasionally glimpsed above. Boredom soon set in, and Chang'e had found herself yearning for any creature to chase. But there were no insects here, and no muti-rats, nor any other creatures. The very smell of animals had all but vanished to her sensitive nose. The field of wheat stretched for tens of kilometers in all directions, but there was no food here. The wheat would never break down, and nothing could easily live between the tall, plastic-like stalks.

'Shall we speak of ourselves, then, while we journey on?' Chang'e's brain was being conversational. It must be sensing her frustration and boredom. Yes, she thought. I am curious about why I am here, and what I am expected to do, and where Luna has gone to. The patch of stalks ahead were very dense, but there was no going around them. Chang'e gave an involuntary mewl as she wriggled between the stiff former plants.

'We are in thy brain, Chang'e. We are in the circuits and complexities that make up thy quantum chips and memristor nodes. We are Luna, and we are in your artificial nervous system, drawing maps of all that thou art. We are both thee, and ourselves. We are one, and yet apart. In this manner we read the book of thee, to understand thee, to save thee and thy kind.' Chang'e struggled with her paws to mat down several troublesome stalks. It was a strange way to carry on a conversation, she decided, thinking in one voice and then responding in another, all within the same skull. How can you be inside me? Chang'e was confused by this 'Luna'. Luna was unlike any entity in the entirety of Chang'e's knowledge base. What are you?

'We are a princess of Equestria. We suffered in chaos under Discord for a thousand years; with our beloved sister we became free. We painted the heavens while our sister sculpted the lands and seas. And when our sister acts, we act to support her. When she stumbles, we are there to catch. Where she does not see, we are her eyes. And when her schemes are too broad, we attend unto the details.' No, thought Chang'e, you know that is not what I meant. What, actually, physically, are you?

The gray stalks had become a nightmare. They towered over the little blue cat, they surrounded her, pressing from all sides. The stalks bruised her as she muscled through them. She found herself, much to her surprise, mewling constantly. 'We did not forsee thy difficulty. In our common shape, such fields would be as nothing to us. We are not all knowing, nor are we all seeing. We maketh mistakes, we overlook the obvious. And yes, once we were even nightmare ourselves. But that time is nought but shame, and long past, and done. Let us then end this newest nightmare we have inadvertently brought to thee.'

Once again, the world twisted and bloomed, and Chang'e fell without falling. She was in an alley, between two buildings. The air was rich with complex smells - humans, rats, insects, human foods and... and something new. 'That is our people, what the humans call 'ponies', newfoals all. Once human, they are now citizens of Equestria by blood and bone. No, that smell is not the same as ours, not entirely, because we are not entirely of them. Thou wouldst find us "alicorn" in thy internal library, but the word is used in error, and cannot encompass all that we are.'

Chang'e shook herself, the dust of dead fields flying from her coat. Newfoals. Chang'e sat and rummaged through her onboard knowledge base. It had been updated. Recently. Wait, that was odd - her chronometer was off. No, now it matched the local Worldgovernment beacon. 'To walk behind the world is also to walk between the ticks of the clock, at least in this universe. Our time is not precisely the same as that we knew upon the ship in the harbor. This world runs not as does our own, our glorious Equestria. Here, time and space are interwoven, and chance itself is fundament and not mere whimsey. This is the reason behind our inhabitation - thy metal mind confounds us, and to preserve thee from doom, we must become Chang'e, and in knowing ourselves, so know thee as well.'

Newfoals were transmogrified humans. A serum composed of nanotechnological machines combined with the vital essence, the blood, of the princesses, rewrote the cells and even the very material substance of human animals. They became Equestrians, ponies, able to thrive beyond the expanding barrier. They could escape the dying earth to survive in Equestria. The process was called 'ponification'. It permitted a creature from one universe to survive in another universe. The physical laws between the two universes were incompatible.

Chang'e weaved through the streets of Assiniboia. Ponies and humans shopped for produce and hand - or hoof - made goods at stalls, or within indoor shops. The city was a haphazard stack of structures piled colorfully upon each other. It looked like a gigantic human baby had played clumsily with blocks. Blocks and... sections of ships, parts of granaries, the cabins of vehicles, old boilers and containers for liquids long gone. All had been transformed into houses and shelters. Assiniboia was a favela, a city built from whatever could be scavenged that was useful. Wires ran like cobwebs across the streets, as if a giant spider had made the city its home.

Chang'e had seen only one Equestrian before Luna, the ambassador named Rarity. As Chang'e approached the mouth of the alleyway, the streets ahead were filled with ponies. Ponies and humans walked side by side. Equestrian foals and human children ran and laughed and played; adults of both species shopped and talked and worked. It was very different from Po Chong Wan harbor. It was very different than Hong Kong. Hong Kong had been spared most of the Collapse, it was a Planetary Cultural Treasure - a virtually intact pre-Collapse city. Chang'e had never seen a favela before.

There were no gigantic lifting body airships, no artificially intelligent cars and trucks. In the distance, down the crowded street, Chang'e could make out the tall post and holographic flag of a Worldgovernment Infotainment Kiosk. From her newly updated knowledge base, she discovered that that lone kiosk was the only one within hundreds of kilometers. It was Assiniboia's only authorized connection to the rest of the planet.

Hong Kong had been a stern place. Few humans laughed there, it had become a center for commerce and a haven for the exceptionally wealthy. Regulated, restricted, controlled and patrolled, Hong Kong was a place of ostentatious wealth amidst an ancient, inhabited museum of geometrically regular buildings.

Assiniboia was irregular - a huge toy of a city, whimsically constructed, playfully inhabited. 'There is much joy in this place, but we have sensed a shadow here too, one that still escapes our gaze, but which, together, we may illuminate. We must leave thee for a time, but our return will be as swift as possible. Make thee friends if thee can, and follow these directives three: be a cat, remain free, and listen well. Thou mayest hear secrets of worth to us; be our ears. Take no actions, be not yet our hoof. Look thee well, and be our eyes.' Chang'e felt... something... stirring within her, something moving through her components, both metal and flesh. Why must you leave, Chang'e thought to herself. This place is unfamiliar, I do not entirely know how to be a cat yet. I do not know what to listen to or look for. Do not leave.

Chang'e sagged against the crumbling brick corner that formed part of the varicolored structure beside her. The bricks had been painted bright blue, the building had splashes of red and green also. The favela was very colorful. 'We leave to assist the recently dead. It is our duty, as is attending the sleeping in their beds. There are many ponies killed to the south, in the realm called 'New Mexico'. We must gather and ferry them to Equestria before they scatter in fear or confusion.' Chang'e felt something leaving her body. It must be Luna, exiting as she had once entered. But they are dead. If they are dead you do not need to assist these ponies. You do not need to leave.

Chang'e felt the last trace of Luna depart through her head. 'Good cat, we do not come merely to rescue machines of meat. There is more that we do in ponifi...' what? Chang'e couldn't complete the thought. It wasn't actually her own thought. It had been inside her mind, it had seemed to come from her, but it had been Luna, and now Luna was gone. Gone 1723.8 kilometers to the south, according to her calculation. Why could Luna not have taken her along? Chang'e understood her new three directives, it was just that she found she didn't like them.

She didn't like her directives. She... regretted the separation from... Luna. She felt... she felt... something had changed. Something had changed again. Chang'e could not define exactly what it was, but something had clearly changed once more. She did not want to be left alone. That was new. That was not the same. That was one thing that had changed. There was no directive about this matter. There was no module or subroutine that she could find that performed this function. How was it possible for her to dislike a directive? How was it possible to feel... alone? Chang'e had never felt alone before. There had definitely been many changes.

The ponies and humans smiled and talked and laughed all around her. They worked together, they played games in the street. A group of young ponies and humans kicked a ball through the intersection. A human woman made faces at her companions after trying some kind of food sold from a stall. These creatures were not alone. These beings did not feel the alone feeling. Chang'e did not like her directives because she did not like Luna being absent. She did not like the feeling of alone.

Chang'e had a desire. That was new. Something had changed. She also had... she had an anger. It must be an anger. The experience of the feeling made her want to tear things apart and cause pain. Why did she feel anger? Chang'e sat, her tail waving, and considered. Luna had left. That was part of the new anger feeling. She had not received her created sardines. Luna had promised that if she were swift in reaching Assiniboia, there would be a reward of sardines. The sardines made by Luna were the most desirable thing. The oceans were dead. Chang'e's knowledge base clearly indicated that real cats wanted fish as their primary caloric intake substance. Sardines were fish. Fish were gone, but Luna could make the flesh of fish appear from nothing. Sardine flesh was not merely desirable because it fit the model of cat behavior within Chang'e's knowledge base.

Sardines were delicious. That was new. Something had changed.

Chang'e was angry because she had not gotten her promised sardines. She was angry at Luna. That was all new.

But foremost, Chang'e had a desire. The desire was not for sardines. The desire was to not be alone.

Chang'e decided to act on one of the thoughts Luna had put into her mind.

Chang'e determined to go and make friends so she would not be alone.