//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: After the Nightmare // by CORACK //------------------------------// "Selene." Selene felt a hoof poking her in the shoulder. She groaned and tried to roll away from the unprovoked assault. "Selene." Selene sat up in bed, she pulled the blanket off of her and swung her legs over the side. She turned the small light next to her bed. Moon was standing right next to her. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was the middle of the night. "What is it?" she said, yawning. "Horn ready," Moon said. "What?" Moon pointed at her horn, it glowed steadily, for a moment, then faded. "Horn ready," Moon said again, answering nothing. Selene let out another yawn, she had no idea what the pony wanted. "I don't know what that means Moon." The pony scrunched her nose, trying to figure out how to express herself better. "I use - the next word was in Moon's language -, it come from horn." and Moon's horn lit up again. "Ok, so you use your weird floaty power and it comes from your horn, I get that." "I use - that word again - on you." Selene just stared at the pony for a moment. "You woke me up in the middle of the night, so you could float me around the room? Go back to bed you crazy pony." Moon shook her head. "No, not that, other -and another word in Moon's language -, help talk." Selene had no idea what the pony was getting at, but she was tired and she wanted to go back to bed. "Ok yeah sure, whatever you want, just hurry up so I can go back to sleep." Luna looked at Selene, she was ready to cast the translation spell, but the spell would touch the minds of both her and Selene. She wanted to ask permission before casting it but her limited ability to speak Selene's language was holding her back. Selene finally agreed, but Luna wasn't sure Selene knew what she was asking. Still, she had at least tried. She'd be able to explain the whole thing in a few minutes. Selene was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking very annoyed. Luna walked over to Selene and rested the side of her horn on Selene's head. She concentrated on the translation spell and her horn began to glow. Selene could feel a tingling sensation, it started where Moon's horn was touching her, and then spread out until it encompassed her entire head. Moon looked like she was concentrating on something. Selene had no idea what was going on, she hoped Moon wasn't about to pick her up by her head, her neck felt sore just thinking about it. The tingling sensation slowly dissipated as Moon's horn stopped glowing. She lifted her head and looked at Selene. "Hello Selene, can you understand me?" Selene felt a bit woozy, she lifted her hand and held on to her forehead. The room was spinning. She fell backwards onto the bed and passed out. Selene was awake but she hadn't opened her eyes yet, she had a bit of a headache and didn't want to get out of bed. She has some strange dream about Moon last night. In the end it was hunger that forced her to open her eyes, if she didn't get out of bed, she couldn't eat. She saw Moon sitting in chair, like some over-sized dog, floating a book in front of her. The pony noticed Selene sitting up and turned her head slightly. "Good morning Selene, I'm sorry about last night. Translation spells can sometimes muddle the mind a bit, especially if you are unprepared." "What?" "Oh, can you not understand me? I am fairly sure I cast the spell correctly." "What?" "Do you remember last night at all?" Selene thought back to the night before, there was a dream, something about Moon. She shook her head no. "Well then, I shall start over. My name is Luna, I would like to thank you for saving me back when we first met. I also have many questions if you feel up to answering them." "Luna? What? What?!? How is this... what?" Luna started to respond but Selene interrupted her. "No, stop, you'll have to wait your turn. Ever since I found you, it's been one impossible thing after another. Where did you come from? What are you? How do you do the... the... thing with the horn - Selene pointed at the floating book - that!?" Selene's face reddened as she realized she had started to shout. It was the first real conversation she had in years. Teaching Moon, no it was Luna now, how to say a few things that made the daily work easier didn't really count. This was an actual conversation and she was far out of practice. "I'm sorry Luna, it's just that, well, I've been alone here for so very long and then all of a sudden a talking alien pony shows up and..." "You know of ponies? Have you seen others? Where were they?" Luna asked. "Others like you? No, sorry, uh a pony is an animal from Earth, it's, well Earth is the planet where I'm originally from. I only called you a pony because you sorta look like one, but there weren't any ponies like you on Earth. They were animals, they didn't talk, and they didn't have horns or wings. I take it you aren't from around here then?" Luna's eyes dropped at Selene's response, there was one moment of hope but then it was gone. "Oh, I see." she said sadly. "No, I am not. I do not know how I got here, but this is not my world." "So somewhere out there is a planet full of flying horned ponies?" Selene asked. "No, not exactly. I am from the land called Equestria. It is filled with ponies, but they are not all like me." "There are three pony tribes, earth, pegasus and unicorn. Earth ponies have neither wings nor a horn. Pegasus ponies have wings, and Unicorns have horns. I am an alicorn, I possess the magical traits of all three tribes." "Magic? Like casting a spell or something?" "Interesting, I was under the assumption that you were not aware of magic. You yourself are completely barren of magic's touch and your reactions whenever I used magic were those of confusion." "Humans, uh that's what I am, have stories about magic, but that's all they are, stories. It isn't something that actually exists, or well, I didn't think it was." Luna then gave Selene a brief rundown of the three pony tribes and their various abilities. Earth ponies were generally strong and good at growing things. Pegasus ponies could fly and manipulate the weather. Unicorns could cast spells with their horns. If she hadn't seen Luna do some of the things that Luna was talking about, Selene would have never believed it. She still wasn't sure she did, ponies could push clouds around and make it rain? Crazy. "Luna, it's getting late, we need to go out and check the traps and if today isn't any better than the last few days, I'm going to have to go hunting." "Is that when you use that portable miniature cannon?" "Oh, the rifle? Yeah." "Cannons were a relatively new invention when I was ban... uh before I came here, I have never seen one so small before, human weapon technology must be very advanced." Selene started to chuckle. "That rifle is almost two hundred years old. It's been in my family for generations." Selene's laughter turned into a frown. "It was my father's." Luna realized she had stumbled into a sensitive topic, she kicked at the ground nervously. "I am sorry Selene, I did not mean to bring up bad memories." "It's, OK Luna, you didn't know. Hey, now that we can understand each other, we should do proper introductions, but first let's get breakfast, I'm starving!" Luna looked at the skinny human and wondered if there was more truth in that statement than Selene had meant to reveal. ##### Breakfast was eaten quickly, both Luna and Selene were eager to find out more about each other. After the meal was finished and places were cleaned, Selene led Luna to a small room off of the main corridor. It had previously been used by the crew for rest and relaxation, and there were a few small couches arranged around a low table. "So, who wants to go first?" Selene asked, eager to find more about the pony. Luna wasn't sure how much of her history she wanted to share with Selene, so she politely asked Selene to start. "Well, as you know, my name is Selene, Selene Weaver. I'm a human, female and I'm 24 years old, oh and like I mentioned I'm from Earth." "Earth is your country?" "It's the home planet of humans, and it was where I was born." "So this is not Earth then?" "Oh no, I don't actually know where we are right now, the Ascension, that's the ship we're on, was a colony supply ship. It was headed to the colony on Dradus to drop off equipment. There was an accident, something wrong with the dimensional drive and the ship crashed here." Luna looked puzzled. "Ship? This is a ship? How could it crash here, apart from the ice and snow, I have seen no water around. And why would a ship need to cross into other dimensions?" "Oh no, not that kind of ship, it doesn't travel the seas, it's a spaceship. We use them to travel to other planets." "You said that humans don't have magic, but you say you can travel through space and across dimensional barriers? I am very confused as to how this could be possible." "Well, with technology, pretty advanced technology I guess. The ship uses a dimensional drive so it can move faster than light. I'm not exactly sure how it works, the technology is way beyond me, but the general idea is that the ship shifts into another dimension, we call it D-space, travels a certain distance, and then returns to normal space. For every unit of distance traveled in D-space, the ship moves hundreds to thousands of times the distance in real space, depending on which level of D-space is used." "The very thought that such technology could exist seems impossible to me, as I said I am aware of other dimensions but the only way to reach them is though complicated spells. Equestria's fastest technological transportation was a pegasus drawn chariot." "Is Equestria where you're from?" Selene asked. Luna's ears folded down. "Yes, it is my... home country." she said, sadly. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, the things you can do with your magic seem impossible to me. I was going to ask you if it wasn't some advanced form of tech, but based on what you just said, I guess not." "No, the use of magic is a natural ability of ponies. I can talk more about it after you have finished if you would like." "Yeah, I would like that, " Selene said. "So anyway, I was traveling on the Ascension, with my dad. My mom died when I was very young so whenever work took my dad somewhere, I followed. My dad was one of the ship's mechanics, it was his job to keep the ship running. Specifically, he worked on the power systems." "I was asleep in my room when the D-drive failed, I woke up to emergency alarms and a horrible shaking. I got an message from my dad that the ship had unexpectedly exited D-space, main power was down and we were on a collision course with an unknown planet. Most of the crew were in engineering trying to help get the engines back online. We were moving too fast to survive a crash. They did manage it, at the last possible minute but then there was a coolant leak and everyone in engineering was killed - Selene paused to wipe a few tears away - my dad included." Luna shifted uncomfortably, it had been a long time since she last had a serious, open conversation with anypony. She was far out of practice when it came to comforting another, but Selene had been so kind to her, she felt that she should return that kindness. Slowly she reached her wing up and rested it on Selene's shoulder. "It's OK, you don't need to continue if you want to, " she said. "No, it's alright, it was a long time ago, " Selene said, nodding her head. "The ship still crashed but the damage wasn't catastrophic, it's not space worthy, but enough of it survived that I've been able to turn it into my home. Unfortunately, I was the only survivor of the crash. The rest of that weren't in engineering were on the bridge and it was one of the few sections that was totally destroyed. It took me a few hours to dig my way out of my room and find a working computer terminal, that was when I was able to check ships sensors which confirmed that I was the only survivor." "How long ago was this?" Luna asked. "Well, the days here are a little shorter than on Earth, 20 hours instead of 24, and I've been here for 4380 days, that comes out to be just about 10 years Earth Standard Time." "Forgive me, but did you not say you were 24 years old? You have spent almost half your life here alone?" "Yeah, I was just a kid when the Ascension crashed, I've been here my whole adult life, " said Selene frowning. "Ponies are considered legal adults at 16 years of age, is it the same of humans?" "Almost, it's 18 years for humans, " Selene said. Luna gave Selene hug with the wing that was still resting on her shoulder. "I am sorry that you had to endure such a hardship. I am familiar with being alone for a long period of time and I would not wish it upon anypony." Selene giggled, she couldn't help herself. Luna's eyes went wide, shocked that Selene would laugh during such a serious discussion. "I'm sorry Luna, but... anypony? I think your translation spell is hitting a bit of a hiccup." "No, that is the proper term. Do humans not have a similar term?" "Anyone, " Selene said with a grin. "Saying anypony would be like saying anyhuman the meaning is clear enough, but it just sounds odd." Her face then turned serious again. "What puzzles me is I have no idea where this planet is. The navigation sensors of the ship survived the crash, and they couldn't pinpoint a location and they should be able to determine the location of the ship anywhere in known space. Heck the signal from emergency transponder, which has been running the whole time, should have made it halfway across the galaxy by now." Selene sighed and rested her head on her hands. When she first discovered that the ship was broadcasting, she had expected rescue within weeks. Those weeks turned into months which turned into years. She confirmed that the signal was going out, but she hadn't received any sort of response which just didn't make sense. "Sorry, I didn't mean to turn the conversation sour, " Selene said, apologizing. "Let's talk about something else instead." "I have a some questions about human technology if you don't mind, but is there anything you wanted to ask me?" Selene thought for a few moments, there were hundreds of things she wanted to ask Luna, but she wasn't sure where to start. She looked at the pony and her eyes were immediately drawn to the moon on Luna's backside. "Why do you have a moon on your butt?" she asked sheepishly. "You mean my cutie mark?" Luna said, turning to look at her mark. "Cutie mark?" "A cutie mark is a representation of a pony's special talent. It appears when the pony finds out what their true calling in life is." "It appears? Like it isn't a tattoo of some kind?" "No, cutie marks are magical in nature, they are tied into the very magic that makes a pony a pony. When a pony is born, they have no mark. As they grow older, they will eventually discover they have an affinity for some talent or ability. It is in this discovery that their cutie mark appears." "So they get this mark and it tells them how to live their life?" Selene asked. She wasn't sure if she liked that idea. "No, not really. The mark does not make the pony, rather the pony makes the mark. Everypony has likes and dislikes, it is through exploring what they enjoy that they eventually discover their true talent." "So like if a pony really likes running they'll get a running cutie mark?" "Not necessarily, a pony may have hundreds of things they are good at, or only a few. Eventually they will discover what they are most passionate about, and that is when they get their mark. Nor is a mark limiting. A pony with a running mark may enjoy and excel at baking or swimming or flying, but their true passion will be running." "So what does the moon mean? Are you passionate about sleeping?" Selene asked, feeling confused. Luna let out a loud laugh. "My cutie mark signifies my ties to the night, this can include sleeping, or more accurately dreaming, as well as being in charge of the physical aspects of the night, such as the stars and the moon." "In charge of the night? Ok I'm really confused, I think you're going to have to tell me more about magic before I quite get what you are saying, " Selene said rubbing her temples. "For now, is there anything else you wanted to ask me?" Luna nodded, she had many more questions, mostly revolving around human technology, some of the terms she had heard Selene use, and the state of the Ascension. Selene answered them as best as she could, by the time they had finished talking it was well past lunch. The two decided to take a break to eat, and then go out and do the daily chores. Traps had to be checked, ice had to be gathered, and Selene had to patch a hole in the side of the ship that was letting in the cold.