A living room, clouded by time and early youth, was filled with a filly’s singing. Prism Flash, not even old enough for school, laid on a beige carpet floor, coloring a picture. She hummed and sang to herself as crayons traced a few stick figures; the tall alicorn of regal purple, the little filly with a red, brown, and steel-grey mane matching that of herself. The last figure haunted Prism in a flash of lucidity. The proud sky-blue stick figure stallion with an emerald, orange, and sandy blonde mane had the little Prism on his back with Twilight nuzzling both. A little outline of a heart floated above the trio with a smiley face below.
As quickly as the sorrowful flash of lucidity came, it vanished, leaving Prism confused a moment before returning to her artwork.
After she finished coloring in the heart, a baritone voice called out to her in unintelligible speech. Prism looked up to find her father standing opposite of her picture. He was a strong pegasus, and wore his military uniform as if he were born in it. Prism could see his trusty mana rifle was slung across his back, as it always was, ready to defend home and country. His face bore that half-cocked smirk of pride that Prism longed to see when he looked at her.
This time, she could understand him. “How’s my little trooper today?”
Prism’s child-like grin faltered as a profound sense of loss washed over her at seeing his face. “Daddy?!” Before he could get a word in, Prism forsook her picture and raced to embrace him.
He recoiled in surprise as the little filly squeezed him tightly, only for him to relax and hug her back. “Hey now. I’ll come back, I always do, don’t I?”
Prism looked up to bask in his smile only to find she wasn’t hugging her father, but Twilight Sparkle instead. The light in the room dimmed upon realizing her mother was crying, with dark stains under her eyes.
Dread sank into Prism’s gut. “But he was just here!”
“I know, baby,” Twilight wept while hugging Prism tighter as if her daughter was the last thing left of her husband.
“But - but,” Prism’s vision swam as tears welled up. “Why? I just saw him!”
Twilight looked sorrowfully at her daughter's, eyes red with grief. She opened her mouth to speak, “Alert! Hull integrity compromised! Enacting emergency protocol seven!”
Confusion rapidly replaced sorrow as Twilight’s melodious voice had shifted to an artificial baritone. “It is advised you brace yourself, Pathfinder.”
Twilight and the room around her shattered as Prism woke up. It took her a few moments to realize she was in the ‘tent’ attached to her rover. The ‘tent’ shuddered and rocked as the leg anchors pulled out of the rock.
Prism came to her senses a few moments later, shaking off the last of the dream. “Joe! What’s going on?”
The sound of the rotor engines deploying and spooling up heralded the rover. ~“Atmospheric elements are eroding my systems.”~
The haste to which Joe shot into the air threw Prism against the wall with a sickening crunch with the wall giving a little from the impact. Prism was about to freak out at the prospect of a broken bone, but she felt no pain, and her helmet’s display was not flashing any injury warnings.
Prism struggled against the G-forces of the rover’s rapid accent. “But the atmosphere was just fine,” she growled through the G’s. Well if we’re flying, we can’t be in that bad a’ shape. “Are you sure we weren’t attacked by an animal or something?”
“Negative. It was a weather anomaly connected to the green pools.”
“Well that’s just fantastic.” Prism lurched to free herself from the floor, only to find her left foreleg had pounded a large dent into the lower wall. “How the hell?! It should take a sledgehammer to do that!”
It wasn’t much longer before the rover leveled out their ascent as it climbed above the toxic mist. It scanned the area to find that the forested foothills further down the path to resource pod seven were clear of the anomaly.
A cold, bitter wind had come along, funneling the green fog rapidly up to the north. The wind was causing serious turbulence, forcing the rover off course multiple times. ~“Pathfinder, this unit advises that you vacate the domicile.”~
Prism had her hooves full just trying to stand upright and gather her rifle. Her flier’s instincts knew bad wind conditions even without needing to be outside. “You’re going to have to level out for me, or I might get hit by your rotors!”
~“Affirmative.”~
Using her suit’s hands to claw her way to the airlock, Prism fought the jostling and erratic bumping until Joe found a brief window of calm. With a hissing click, the door slammed open, allowing Prism to leap through into the starry night. The wind slammed into her as it picked up again with a shrieking howl in her ears and tugging at her outstretched wings.
Yet Prism was no stranger to harsh weather, and controlled her stall within seconds. Her helmet quickly gave her various wind readings and highlighted the hobbled rover.
“Hold on, Joe, I got this!” Leveraging the power of her half-royal bloodline, Prism circled around the rover to get between it and the oncoming wind. Pointing her hoof forward, Prism gathered her magic in her wings. Not wanting to take chances, Prism fell back on her mother’s training, and let part of her mind focus deep within a normally dormant part of her mana. With practiced effort, she tapped into that magic and let it flow through her before redirecting it to her wings.
Her flight faltered a bit as her wings grew. The exo-suit, custom made for her alone, expanded to allow her wings to grow unhindered to mirror that of Twilight’s own. Once both her magic and her wings were prepared, she guided that mana along her outstretched hoof, and yelled a wordless cry. A violet windshield burst to life. The shield followed the general shape of her body, and by feeding it more power, she was able to encompass the rover in its protection.
It took time for both pony and machine to correct themselves in the sudden calming of the air immediately around them.
~ “Power reserves reaching critical levels. Recommend setting down at this location.”~
Prism’s display lit up with a spot on a hill far above the flowing green smog that had a natural fissure easily large enough for Joe to squeeze through and be protected against the wind.
“Sounds good, Joe. Let’s move!”
Using her helmet’s display to keep the rover behind her, Prism banked downward to the fissure. The crack was perpendicular to the wind, allowing Prism to grin at the welcome sight. “Hurry, get in there!”
Prism landed on a patch of wind-torn soil near the fissure, where the rover landed and retracted its rotors. Prism backpedaled as she followed Joe into the fissure to keep her shield against the winds, releasing it once they were inside. With her adrenaline running high, Prism started sweeping the twenty meter long fissure for any animals or threats. As the rover settled down at the center, Prism checked every nook and cranny before feeling satisfied that they were safe.
She relaxed a little, and let her magic go, allowing her wings to shrink back to normal, making her hiss through clenched teeth as pain lanced through her wings. A burst of amber motes of mana floated around her wings before sinking back into Prism. She fell to her rump, having been winded by the whole affair. “Damn that hurts like a son of a nag!” She blinked a few tears away, as she tried to fight the throbbing deep pain that felt as if her wing bones had been broken then set back into place. Just let it pass, let it pass.
After a while, the pain died down enough for Prism to function again, though she resisted moving her wings for the time being. “Maybe I should take momma up on that training to keep those wings around the clock after all, now that I don’t have explorer exams to study for anymore.”
Prism took a bit longer to let her body’s magic to calm down, and eventually did a few test flaps to get the muscle stiffness out before approaching the rover. Once she actually had a chance to look at the machine, she knew instantly why it was in such a hurry to leave. Just about all of the paint from the main camera head was gone. Much of the plastic surface had enough pockmarks to look like it had gone twenty rounds with a gatling shotgun and lost. The metal didn’t look any better with Prism’s dent in the ‘tent’ clearly visible. She brushed the dent to find metal flakes falling away with frightening ease. Surprisingly, the glass lenses on the various sensors and cameras were completely untouched. “You don’t look so good, Joe.”
~“Multiple minor system failures detected. This unit requires repairs before further duty.”~
“No kidding,” Prism deadpanned with a head shake. “Was this a chemical or biological attack?”
~“Potentially both,” the rover replied emotionlessly, yet the answer still sent shivers down Prism’s spine. “However my scanners detected the green fog was filled with organic particles. This unit suspects it was damaged by spores and other organic factors.”
Her adrenaline fading Prism stifled a tired yawn. “Gimme the decontamination crystals. I better make sure your skin isn’t still hot to the touch.”
~“Affirmative.”~ Joe opened the corroded airlock and lowered both the black and golden crystals, allowing Prism to snatch them up.
While her wings were Prism’s primary mana focus, a pegasus’ hoof was more than enough to provide low power to the crystals. She started at the front, yawning tiredly. “So why didn’t you bug out as soon as you detected something was wrong?”
~“My scanners detected several large flying creatures come in and start drinking from the pool where you took the sample. Recent protocol updates were clear: avoid confrontation with large native wildlife. This unit determined the degenerative cloud was less of a threat than sixteen animals equal in size to the princess.”~
“Lovely,” Prism groaned as she lethargically sterilized the first good leg. “The whole planet’s going to be like one big Mushroom Everfree Forest.”
Over the next hour, she methodically swept every square inch of Joe’s exterior to render it safe to work with.
Finished with that, all Prism Flash could do was check the helmet’s clock. “Only slept for three hours… Whatever that stuff was, it works crazy fast.” She looked at both ends of the fissure with a critical eye. I can’t do spot repairs while I’m dead on my hooves like this, not after what it took to get us here safely.
Prism dug around the rover’s extensive array of tools which had thankfully gone undamaged. Within were a set of motion detector spikes. Prism set out to place the spikes all around the fissure, before returning to the rover. “There. Let me know if the spikes detect anything.”
~“Affirmative.”~
Prism let out a tired sigh. “I need my sleep if I’m going to do any repair work. In the meantime, compile a report on what happened, go ahead and send it back to HQ, and tell me in the morning.”
~“This unit will wake you early if its findings prove critical.”
“Fine, fine,” Prism waved off tiredly. “Now, is it safe to sleep in the tent, or am I going to have to worry about you breaking and falling on top of me?”
To that, Joe lifted each of its six wheeled legs, reconfigured said wheels into anchors, and punched each one into the rocky ground. Prism watched impassively until the sixth leg crumpled and snapped off. She gave it a deeply worried look while the rover’s camera head studied the broken leg before slowly facing Prism. ~“This unit is rated to remain safe for habitation with only four intact legs.”~
“Umm… I think I’ll take my chances outside this time.”
~“That is inadvisable. There may be other sources of equally corrosive vectors that this unit cannot protect you from if you remain outside.”~
Prism worked her jaw as a war between two lines of reason raged within her. Slowly, fatigue set in, making her growl in frustration and a bit of fear. “Alright, alright, but if you fall on top of me, I’ll find a way to haunt you.”
~“Affirmative.”~
Back in Seed One, Twilight was taking a much needed break for personal stress relief. She had just finished watching part of her three exabytes of holographic pornography, a collection that had accumulated over four hundred years. At this point she was ready to take a shower after having enjoyed the afterglow of such private exercises.
I really should find another coltfriend. I’ve waited long enough. A pre-made list of available, and probably compatible stallions started scrolling across her personal display. As always, she made sure the lists was arranged by tribe, fur color, intelligence, and several other factors she desired in a relationship. She hemmed and hawed quietly as the list progressed, making small addendums here and there. I should probably add a new filter for those who would more readily see me as a mare instead of some untouchable ruler on a pedestal.
Heaving herself off the bed, Twilight made for her personal shower, and cleaned herself up. Once that was done, she stepped back into her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her head and mane. Twilight paused in her step at finding Praxia waiting patiently near the door, in a room where the air circulation had not quite eliminated the reek of Twilight’s fun. Praxia’s presence made Twilight scowl deeply with faded embarrassment. “You know, if you took my advice, you wouldn’t need to resort to hiding outside my door to feed on lust.” Not to mention how weird it is every time I catch you doing it.
“My apologies, Sensei, but I don’t think many stallions see me that way, or mares for that matter.” Praxia dug a hoof at the floor, unwilling to meet Twilight’s gaze.
Twilight rolled her eyes as she walked over to her nightstand to retrieve her horn headset. “Honestly, Praxia, how many times do we have to have this conversation? For a species that needs to feed on love, you seem highly resistant to seeking it outside of Prism and me.”
More like an emotion vampire, Praxia mused grimly at the age-old insult. “I will endeavor to improve my efforts, Sensei.”
“I know it’s hard, believe me. But love is something to be cherished and is worth the risk, especially for somepony like you.” Twilight couldn’t stop a sad sigh from escaping her at how sullen Praxia drooped. You’re leaving me no choice. I guess I’ll have to take a page from Celestia and try to chessmaster a coltfriend for you after all. Should be easier than getting one for myself at least.
This unhealthy mindset is making her hemorrhage love to the point where I need to help her almost every night. Filing those thoughts away for tomorrow, Twilight flashed a smile. “At any rate, I heard what you did about the animal attack. You certainly put your mind to work better than my first pupil.”
Praxia brightened considerably at the praise. She wore a smile while inching closer for a much needed hug. “Thank you, Sensei. I have your education to thank for that.”
Twilight knew exactly where that redirected praise was going. She sat down on her bed and opened her forelegs invitingly. “Well come on, you.”
If there was ever a favorite part of Twilight’s day, the love from her student and dear friend was a strong contender. Praxia practically lept at the chance and embraced Twilight as the mother she wished she had.
Both mares stayed like that for a few heartfelt minutes, allowing Praxia to feel bloated with love. Were it left to her, Praxia would have remained in Twilight’s embrace for hours, feeling safe and loved by the mare she adored above all others.
As always, Twilight was the first to separate. “How is the construction going?”
Praxia knew Twilight had already read the report, but humored her teacher. She took a few steps back to have a respectful distance. “Very well. The levee’s in place, though I still recommend construction of a dam when we have the resources to do so. The solar farm itself already has the core facilities in place, and we’re just adding more panels until daybreak in a few hours. Provided the weather holds out, we’ll be able to loosen up our energy restrictions.”
Praxia cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Also a report came in shortly before I ahh… arrived at your door.” Praxia wilted a little at Twilight’s renewed ire. “There was a minor incident with Prism out in the field.” With a pulse of her horn, Praxia transferred the report Joe had compiled.
“I take it she’s alright then?” Given Praxia’s lack of heavy worry, and that it wasn’t immediately brought up in the first place, Twilight wasn’t overly concerned. Nevertheless, she still looked over the report with interest.
“Some sort of atmospheric phenomena caused major damage to her rover. While Prism escaped unharmed, the machine has a broken leg and potentially critical metal fatigue along its surface.”
Twilight was aghast at the readings in the report. “An atmospheric phenomena did that!? I swear it feels like every report I’m getting says this world is one big Everfree Forest. If such a thing were to happen here…”
Praxia wrestled a bit with mild confusion. “I don’t understand. Can’t our pegasi just deflect the clouds?”
“On a local level? Maybe.” Twilight’s mind started churning on how to formulate a new protocol to handling this issue. “Prism’s response during the escape proves our magic can at least affect this world’s weather, but we don’t know to what extent.”
Seeing her teacher get so worked up, Praxia quickly started putting more thought into the incident. “I suppose her direct lineage to you might have given her an edge any other pegasus wouldn’t have had. We’ll have to see to what extent we can safely control this...”
Praxia trailed off as she took a few moment to actually study the images Joe took both while still inside the insidious green fog, and above it. The light of the twin moons orbiting this world gave excellent lighting, allowing Praxia to see just how extensive the fog was. “...this miasma.”
Twilight hummed approvingly at the title. “And here I thought I’d be able to get some sleep tonight.”
Unwilling to let her teacher stretch herself thin, Praxia took a step forward. “I’ll take care of setting up the protocol, Sensei. I already informed the night shift to alert me if any of the miasma drifts towards the colony, and sent a warning to the rest of the Pathfinders.”
“Which just proves to me you’ve been overdoing yourself just as much as I have. Go on and get some sleep, I can handle a few days without it.”
Praxia remained firm, but respectful. “I may not have an alicorn’s constitution, but thanks to your love, I feel refreshed already. I can handle this.”
Twilight was about to object, but she noticed how much more energetic Praxia looked compared to when she first came in. Plus Twilight’s mind decided to remind her of the growing laundry list of tasks still set before her to unpack the colony. “...Alright, Praxia, just promise me you’ll get some sleep right after. Love high or not, we all need sleep.” I learned that the hard way. “We both need to be in top form if we’re going to make this colony a success.”
“My thoughts exactly, Sensei.”
Bright and early the next day, Prism Flash was decidedly not a happy camper. ~“What do you mean, I’ve been issued a recall order!?”~ she growled menacingly over the radio.
The holographic head of an orange earth stallion was sweating profusely since he was one of many that didn’t want to gain the ire of the princess’ daughter. “The orders come from Praxia herself. With your rover suffering potentially mission-critical damage, you can’t remain out in the field.”
Prism ground her teeth and seethed at him. “Then give me a portable oxygen generator! I’m not going to waste away inside when there’s an energy crisis on our hooves.”
“I’m sorry, Pathfinder. Orders are orders, and we don’t have any spare rover suited to support you. And if the AI’s reports are accurate, there’s a real possibility of critical metal fatigue, and your field repair tool can’t fix that. It needs to be brought back to the colony for repairs.”
Prism kicked a rock, making it bounce off of Joe’s severed wheel. Damn it! Now that jerk Rose is going to win the bet for sure! “Whatever!”
Prism cut the comms so she wouldn’t have to look at the operator’s face anymore. Yet through it all, she slumped down against the wall of the fissure, sinking into mild depression. She sat there and sulked for two minutes before an idea struck her. Hold the phone.
She accessed the satellite feed. After some doing, she had both her location and that of pod seven pinged on the map. It’s only nine klicks away. I can easily fly over and inspect the pod. If I’m lucky, the chopper will swing on by to pick up the thorium and me, and then return later for Joe.
“Joe! Stay here, I’m going out a bit.” Prism ran over and starting fiddling with the emergency supplies to find the spare oxygen canisters.
The AI assumed there was only one thing Prism would want to leave for. ~“It is this unit’s obligation to remind you that pod seven is outside of the recommended distance between us.”~
“Why do you think I’m getting some spare air?”
After slinging her rifle across her back, taking several long gulps of water, and replenishing her suit’s air reserves, Prism took the air and saluted goodbye to the rover. “See you on the flipside, Joe.”
~“Protocol requires this unit to report this, Pathfinder.”~
“Go ahead!” Prism yelled back dismissively as she cleared the fissure. He’ll be fine.
Once she had some altitude, Prism gazed around for the resource pod beacon. The little blip on her display led her eyes deeper into the hills where the mushroom caps were so tall and so dense that it looked as if the hills themselves were two stories higher than they should have been, and were a dazzling array of colors. The sky was filled with white clouds, casting vast shadows across the forest below. Oh peachy… That’s the direction the wind was blowing that green smog.
She double checked the passive homing beacon. Well, the return signal is still strong, so I guess it found a nook that the smog doesn’t get into.
With time and her oxygen reserves against her, Prism dipped into a shallow dive to preserve her strength. The flight was a pleasant one, the skies were warm, maybe a little too warm for a child of an ice age. She spotted two flocks of white and grey ‘birds’ flying around the tops of the mushroom caps and numerous small critters roaming the tops of the toadstools, leaping from cap to cap.
Not wanting to let her curiosity eat away at her limited oxygen, Prism Flash forcibly ignored the slew of new critters, and focused entirely on the beacon. She only got halfway to the site when Spike called over the radio. ~“Mind telling me why you’re breaking regulations, Pathfinder?”~
Prism cringed a little at the serious tone and use of her title instead of name. ~“My job, sir. We need that thorium.”~
Spike sighed heavily. ~“We have two other explorers searching the pods, you can afford to sit on the sidelines for a few days.”~
Prism saw her opening with the information slip. ~“Why only two? Somepony get hurt?”~ she asked with mounting worry. If anyone, hopefully Ruby… with something minor at worst. Can’t prove I’m the best if she gets hospitalized.
~“You can find out what happened upon your return. I order you to return to your rover immediately.”~
Prism slowed down a little. Wager or not, she didn’t want ‘disobeying a direct order’ hanging over her. “Come on, captain. I’m right here. Just let me poke my nose in, see what the pod has, and bug out. No harm, no foul. Besides I have hours of air left.”
Spike paused for a few seconds as he double checked Prism’s IFF locator and the pod’s location via satellite. By Celestia, she’s annoying sometimes. She’s got Twilight’s ‘right all the time’ intelligence, and her father’s brashness, all rolled up in one messed up package. You’d think the ‘Rainbow Dash’ in that bloodline would have thinned after a few generations. All told, he was acutely aware of how morale was strong and steady, but such strict energy restrictions could start to undermine it before much longer. The solar farm was currently only enough to allow ponies a hot shower, and little else since the power was needed elsewhere. If the pod had thorium, it would be worth the investigation. ~“A quick peek, nothing more.”~
“Yes!” Prism cheered with a hoof pump. ~“Roger that, captain.”~
Prism leveled out above the mushroom caps and sailed towards a crest in the hill where the beacon was calling from.
The mushroom caps were incredibly dense here, only having small openings in between the caps. Prism spotted the closest one of several small airborne critters reminiscent of hummingbirds and dragonflies in her eyes. The creatures scattered at her approach with many of them racing through the opening.
Prism’s initial over eagerness was abruptly cooled by caution after remembering the warnings about large, potentially hostile wildlife that Joe relayed earlier. She landed gently and tested the fungal cap, finding it to be surprisingly sturdy as it had only minimal give after several hard kicks.
With her footing secure, Prism slowly crept towards the hole in the canopy that was closest to the resource pod. It was only when she got close that she noticed a steady blue glow coming from the hole.
Prism slowly crept closer. Reaching the edge, she cautiously unfolded her mechanical hands, and grabbed her rifle. Prism circled the hole, checking to make sure there wasn’t an ambush predator waiting for her. When she saw no sign of any threat about to jump out at her from below, she pulled her rifle back and poked her head through to look around.
It was now that she could tell that the glow was coming from the underside gills of roughly half of the giant mushrooms. The gills themselves were as steady as any tree branch, while having long thin wispy tendrils hanging down for filter feeding. Or to catch small insects and birds, Prism mused with curiosity.
When she saw no animal movement, she switched her helmet’s thermal sensors on. Even after a few careful sweeps, she found nothing that at least looked threatening.
With quick grace, Prism slipped through the hole and fell into a hover just below the hanging tendrils. The forest floor was covered in soil, but lacked much plant or fungus life due to the near total lack of sunlight.
Thankfully, the gentle bioluminescence was bright enough to see by. Prism followed the blinking waypoint of the beacon towards a small clearing where the trunks of the surrounding giant mushrooms were mysteriously stretched far off center. The pod itself was covered in what looked like purple moss at this distance, but there was no mistaking its tall obelisk-like appearance. Bingo!
With only the barest semblance of a cursory glance around the large clearing for threats, Prism sprinted the distance between her entry point and her prize. Upon getting closer, it was obvious the pod had smashed through the mushroom cap above, with a minor hole still remaining. However, buried beneath what she thought had been purple moss was revealed to be a thick coating of slimy fluid with the pod itself covered in hundreds of teeth marks and shallow claw furrows. Prism rubbed her hoof along the countless contours caused by the damage. “Bloody hell… You must have pissed somepony off big time coming down.”
While her suit could hold several hours worth of air, Prism’s paranoia over her air supply made her attach her spare oxygen canister early to top off her suit’s reserves. By the time she was done, her helmet finished interfacing with the pod.
Alright, the computer’s talking… looks like everything’s green.
The front panel of the pod hissed loudly as it tried to open, but between the slime and how deeply it had impacted into the ground, the panel only opened a few inches. “Ah come on!”
Prism grumbled as she leapt on top of the pod and wedged her hind legs against the panel while pushing off on the pod’s apex. “Come on you stupid thing, open!”
Prism continued to curse and huff for a few seconds before realizing the panels were not going to give. “Ugh! Stupid pod!” She got off to inspect the problem. The ground was soft, but the impact had blown enough earth away to keep the doors clear to open. With the pod’s computer claiming it was in working order, that left only one other thing.
Prism turned her attention to the slime, only to gaze in amazement. The slime had changed drastically, having formed a tight interlocking mesh of fibers, effectively keeping the pod’s door from opening. Prism grabbed her knife and tested the slime-turned-vice. She gasped a little in surprise to find it was completely solid. “Holy… this isn’t slime, it’s more like spider silk. I knew I should have brought a sample box.”
With the silk unable to return to a liquid state, Prism made short work of it, easily slicing it down the length of the pod. Now that the door was unhindered, it opened freely with a clang. Like last time, Prism found several crates with black handles. Pulling one out, she found it was exceedingly heavy, almost making her drop it. In addition, there were no cryo gasses leaking away. “Should be a good sign.”
She quickly found the diode near the handle, allowing her helmet to read the contents. A massive grin split her face. “Ooooh yeah! Got me some thorium!” Prism dropped the crate and orbited the resource pod cheering and hollering her success. “Ha ha! I knew I’d find it first!”
After half a minute, Prism perched herself on top of the pod and opened her radio. ~“Seed Actual, this is November One.”~
~“Go ahead, November One.”~ Prism deflated a little at finding out it wasn’t Spike who answered.
Ah well. ~“It’s time to party boys, I found a whole pod full of thorium ripe for the taking.”~
“Nice work out there, November, I’ll have the recall VOTL directed towards your location instead of the rover.”~
~“And tell Spike I was right, would ya?”~ Prism asked with a snicker.
It took Prism a moment to notice the distinct lack of relief in the operator’s voice. ~“Shouldn’t you be singing my praises for saving us all?”~
The operator snorted in amusement. ~“You’re an hour late for that honor. Firefly signaled he found a thorium pod half an hour ago.”~
~“You gotta be kidding me! Did Rose put you up this?”~ Prism held out hope she was right.
~“My apologies, Pathfinder. But think of it this way. According to the memorandum from the Colonial Princess, a second thorium pod will give us enough power to end energy sanctions, whereas just one would have only allowed some loosening.”~
~“...Well, I guess that’s good enough.”~ Prism shook her head to stop from moping over a lost bet. ~ “See you soon then.”~
It took her a minute or so to remember she didn't actually know the stallion. Ah whatever.
Having nothing better to do and plenty of oxygen, Prism went to work slicing away the rest of the purple silk wrapping on the resource pod so it could be extracted more quickly.
Thankfully, that barely took half an hour, leaving Prism free to explore her surroundings. Prism Flash found the clearing itself an unusual find, and flew over to inspect the nearest fungal tree.
The towering mushroom had soft grey skin, but a quick probe with her knife proved that the interior of the massive fungus was as hard as any tree back on Equis. Maybe they function the same way. Fluid and nutrient transport on the surface, with structural support on the hardened interior.
What confounded Prism was that just by looking beyond the clearing, all other mushrooms of seemingly the same species were more or less completely vertical. And yet all the ‘trees’ around this clearing were standing in such a way that they bowed outward before curving back inward to have their caps almost completely close off the sky.
“There’s no way in Tartarus this is normal,” Prism mused aloud. It was only now that she missed having Joe along and its full suite of sensors. Could this be a magnetic pole perhaps? Maybe a ley line for the planet’s magic? Whatever it was, I bet my bottom bit it caused the resource pod to land right smack dab in the middle of this place.
Without even a single sample box present, and no horn to conduct cursory scans, Prism had to regulate herself to simple observation. Not to be deterred by a lack of equipment, Prism started an audio log and rattled off every minute detail of the strange landing. She decided to travel the perimeter of the clearing to see if there was any other abnormality in the surrounding foliage.
It didn’t take her long to notice something that gave her an involuntary shudder. Hanging from one of the mushroom caps, with the tendrils acting as supports, was a large misshapen object that was completely cocooned in the purple silk she had found on the pod.
With her paranoia spiking, Prism stopped her audio log, and took to the air in a low hover so she could free up her forelegs to hold her father’s rifle. She tuned out the sound of her flapping wings to listen in on any prowling threat. Should I bolt for the hole in the canopy? No. There’s no telling what had that thing cocooned. I better pull back to the pod first.
Keeping her eyes peeled, and her weapon following her gaze, Prism slowly withdrew to the pod. Now that she was expanding her gaze, she saw there was purple silk all over the mushroom trees of the clearing. On the far end, opposite of the first mushroom she inspected, was a mound of silk easily the size of a small house.
Three large openings led into darkened interiors that she dared not go near. After several minutes of sweeping the treeline, nothing sprang out at her, but the distinct lack of small animal activity kept her on edge.
Something’s fishy… That wrapped up thing was the size of a bloody manticore, easy. But what I don’t get is, I was distracted for a while with the pod. So why didn’t the locals come and tear me to shreds if this is a nest?
However, it wasn’t long before Prism started to wonder. Is nobody home?
For the twentieth time since she retreated to the pod, Prism switched to thermal imaging, and still revealed nothing bigger than a mouse crawling around.
Slowly, curiosity got the better of her paranoia, but it was only when she noticed an odd rock formation around the purple silken nest that she started to investigate more closely.
Keeping her gun trained on the trio of holes leading deeper into the nest, Prism looked towards the left side of the nest to find a thin rise of stone loosely covered in more silk. But something was off about the stone that kept drawing her in.
Fearful of the web, Prism found a few places to step down without touching the silk so she could inspect the stone. It was only when, by pure chance due to the location of usable footholds, that she saw the slab at an angle while switching her helmet back to normal light. There, plain as day, was a weathered but clearly visible artistic relief on the stone.
Prism’s breath caught in her throat at the discovery. Peering through the thin filaments of silk, the relief clearly depicted some form of four legged animal with damaged iconography carved underneath. Much of the animal was still present, save for the head and most of the back legs. The lettering had missing pieces, but there was no denying what she saw. “Holy mother of Burral! Aliens! Sapient aliens!”
Prism’s skyrocketing excitement halted when she heard the tell-tale thump-thump of the approaching VTOL aircraft.
For the first time since she first stepped hoof on this alien world, Prism couldn’t wait to return to the ship. Sapient, artistic aliens! Oooh, I can’t wait to drop this bomb on momma. I’ll get a whole expedition team to lead! I might even get to name these guys! I think Prismites has a nice ring to it.
Wanting to see her mother’s face in person when she delivered the news, Prism decided to be silent about the discovery, and wait until she returned. Presently, she flew back over to the pod to await the arriving aircraft.
~“This is Grabber Claw, calling November One, you read me?”~
Prism grinned massively at the imagined accolades, her loss of the bet totally forgotten. ~“Loud and clear, Grabber. I’m waiting here with the goods.”~
~“Alrighty, November. Looks like the toadstools are a bit clustered from where I’m seeing. Clear out so my co-pilot can blast a big enough hole for us.”~
~“Whoa, hold on, Grabber, the pod’s like right next to an alien nest. The locals aren’t home so I can’t tell if they’re dangerous or just hiding from me.”~
~“Loud and clear, November. We’ll try to be delicate.”~
Prism gave her acknowledgements and flew away from the pod, and far from the nest. Shortly thereafter, the mushroom caps above the pod were hit by a carving spell that started to circle around the pod. That act of paranoia made her entirely miss that the mushrooms getting hit by the spell starting quivering wildly at the spell’s touch. Right before she turned back around, the entire canopy above the pod violently exploded sending chunks of fungus all over the clearing.
Prism was speechless for a few seconds before growling and flying over to angrily shake her hoof at the pilots. ~“What the hell is your definition of delicate!?”~
~“Don’t blame me,”~ the co-pilot replied defensively. ~“The shrooms must react poorly to directed magic.”~
~“Well let’s be quick about this before the locals get pissed.”~
The pilots sent their agreement. Thankfully, only a single large chunk of fungus had come to rest on the pod. Prism pushed the surprisingly light piece of debris away so the claw had a clear shot at grabbing the pod.
Being trained in such efforts, Prism took charge of guiding the claw into place around pre-made grooves in the pod itself. One by one, the claws were locked in place, allowing Prism to look back up at the aircraft and wave to the pilots. ~“Okay, lift her up.”~
The downdraft tripled as the engines whined at the load, but sure enough it started to rise.
Prism was about to fly up to join the pilots when a heavy buzzing noise, akin to hundreds of changelings challenged the VTOL’s rotor blades for the dominating sound. A cold fear fell upon Prism as she brought her weapon up. Her eyes had been scanning the underbrush, not above the caps. So when the VTOL’s pilots started crying out in panic and alarm, her eyes jerked upward. The aircraft was being peppered with dozens of crossbow bolt sized spines.
~“Get out of here, Grabber, hurry!”~ Prism screamed as she flew up to poke her head above the canopy to find the source of the spines. She needn’t have bothered when a wasp-like insect the size of a car came from the side and slammed against the hull of the VTOL. Having more time to react, the co-pilot unicorn fired a bolt of magic, blowing off one of the wasp’s legs, making it let go with a screech of rage and pain.
Two more wasps crashed into the side of the aircraft, smashing through the tail section on the second impact. The aircraft collapsed under the weight of its cargo and crashed back down on the ground, spilling debris everywhere.
Prism had already fled back under the caps when the first wasp attacked, which was the only thing that saved her life. The insects surrounded the dying aircraft like a swarm of enraged bees. The pilot died in the crash, while the co-pilot tried to fend the wasps off with his magic. The cockpit proved difficult to crack, but that wasn’t stopping the massive insects from clawing at the pony within. ~“Get out of here, November! I’ll distract them as long as I can!”~
~“But what-”~
~“Go!~ the co-pilot commanded harshly. ~“I’m taking at least one of these bastards with me!”~
With the insects focused on the downed VTOL, Prism tried to slink away with her rifle tight against her chest. She nearly escaped the circle of trees when her back leg snagged on a few strands of silk. As she pulled herself free, the strands began to glow brightly, the luminescence spreading all around her. “That’s new.”
Several of the flying insects around the doomed aircraft immediately turned her way and screeched a bellowing war cry.
“Oh rut me!” Giving up all pretense of stealth, Prism blasted into the air with the insects quick to take up the chase. With the mushroom caps as dense as they were, Prism had no chance to climb into open skies, so she ducked and weaved around the trunks of the giant fungi. ~“Seed One, Seed One, I’m being pursued by hostile wildlife, I need emergency air support!”~
The gut chilling buzz of the giant insects grew louder with each twist in the path, each detour around a particularly dense thicket of brambles cost her ground. Still, Prism shot through the forest like a bullet, but the bugs were familiar with this terrain.
~“This is Seed One.”~ Prism was relieved it was Spike who answered. ~“We just lost contact with Grabber, what happened out there?”~
Prism saw the ground dropped into a steep hill, and finally some larger breaks in the canopy. With practiced aim, she rolled on her back to shoot the closest wasp. She was momentarily terrified to find the bug was trying to bite at her tail. She fired several shots almost point blank.
The rounds bit and tore at the wasp’s head, causing chunks of it to blast apart with the whole insect crumpling into a tumble. She fired a few more wild shots at the next closest bug, but missed with all but one, before flipping back around to power through the dive. ~“Big bugs! Big, Biiig Bugs! They attacked Grabber and brought it down after they cleared some of the shrooms to carry the pod out of here.”~
~“I’m scrambling the drones to home in on your signal. Keep your radio active.”~
Thanks to the steep hill, the canopy was much looser, and she quickly found an opening large enough to sprint through. ~“Copy that!”~
With her wings straining from the effort, Prism bolted towards the hole. Yet right before she could clear it, one of the giant wasps appeared on the other side, hissing at her with awaiting jaws.
Prism panicked, and slipped down along the slope of the hill, flying so close to the ground that her primary feathers smacked dirt. She had to kick off to get more altitude, but the act cost ground.
The wasps behind her swarmed in all directions, trying to converge on Prism.
It was here however, that the hills became so steep that the mushroom canopy disappeared entirely. Prism made a beeline straight for open skies smirking at how much faster she could go. Right as she was about to reach the open skies, a wasp the size of a truck descended from above the last giant mushroom cap. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Prism as insectoid death warmed over stared back at her with an earsplitting shrill cry.
It was too late to stop, and it was too big to avoid, so all Prism’s mind could do was aim her rifle and fire off three quick shots as she tried to veer to the side. The first shot went wild, the second buried itself center mass, while the last was fired point blank as the wasp turned to intercept her.
The wasp tried to snap its jaws at her, but missed. Instead it closed its legs around Prism, trapping her in its grip.
However, her speed was too much for the wasp to stabilize, and they were sent tumbling out of the air. The cliff, sky, and green ground spun rapidly, disorienting Prism as she struggled to free herself.
“Get off of me you freak!” Prism dodged her head as the wasp snapped its jaw at her. The wasp’s legs kicked and snagged her saddlebags, spilling its contents along with her knife. She tried to get her rifle to bear, but the wasp was simply too close to fire.
Time and again, the wasp lunged for her head, each time Prism was able to pull her head out of the way, but on the fifth try, the wasp clamped down on Prism’s helmet. A sickening crack heralded a dozen warnings of a suit breach, causing Prism to scramble in a panic. ~“It breached my suit! It’s breached my suit!”~
With Equestrian air escaping into the wasp’s mouth, the creature howled in surprise as the mana-infused gases burned its mouth. It released Prism’s helmet, and flung her away, ripping several additional ruptures in her suit and digging into her skin.
Raging at the death sentence the wasp had given her, Prism was finally free to aim her father’s rifle and emptied thirty rounds into the monster’s gut before the weapon went dry. A quick glance around her revealed that the rest of the wasps had given up pursuit.
In a desperate bid to save herself, Prism spun back around, and spread her wings wide to correct her fall. Fear pounded in her mind at how close the ground was, which revealed itself to be one of the massive green pools. The alien air leaking into her helmet started filling her lungs, making her cough raggedly. So much so that she couldn't keep her wings open as consciousness started to fade. I can’t stop myself at this speed, I gotta level out!
The cracks in her helmet spread as the air tore at it. Even working against such speed, Prism was starting to pull up, only for the corpse of the wasp to slam into her. “Would you just stop trying to kill me!”
Prism rolled out from under the wasp, and spread her wings again. Yet this time Prism all but freaked at how close the green lake was. “Aaah heeell!” she cursed while trying to correct her fall in spite of the lake. “Activate failsafe Stopgap!”
Right as gravity pulled Prism to her doom, a combination of a combat drug to deaden her pain, and a stimulant spell to keep her awake and alert shot into her neck from the base of her helmet. Prism’s wings were stretched almost to the point of dislocation. She was just barely starting to level out, coughing all the while, when she grazed the pool. The liquid’s viscosity pulled at her hooves as she dipped lightly into its surface.
Knowing she was about to lose control, Prism tucked her wings in tight as she started tumbling across the pool towards the shoreline. The first hit knocked the breath out her, the next ripped what was left of her oxygen tank away, the third almost gripped her, slowing her down while tugging at her left wing and foreleg dislocating both. The fourth and final hit dropped her almost a meter from solid ground.
Though Prism couldn’t feel the pain, it didn’t take her long to start sweating bullets at how many limbs refused to obey her. Yet the worst of it was the air itself. It took her a few seconds to finally get some air back in her lungs after being winded. However it felt like she was breathing in a dense cloud of dust with each breath, something Stopgap didn’t suppress. It made her cough and hack as she tried to pull herself neck-deep through the molasses-like ooze to the shore line. Were it not for the shallowness of the spot she came to a halt at, allowing her good legs to keep her up, Prism knew she would have drowned then and there.
~“Pathfinder November, are you there? Please respond.”~
Prism slipped, with her head dipping half-way into the muck. The slime oozed into her wounds and mouth, denying her the ability to reply to Spike’s repeated messages. The only thing telling him she was still alive was her constant coughing since her suit was too damaged to send data on her vital signs.
~“Help is on its way, Prism! Just hold on!”~
Somewhere south of Seed One, close to the river where Prism gathered her first samples, Twilight teleported into existence. Yet she only lingered for a split second before teleporting again.
This time at the bend in the river where the hills started to rise. Teleporting again, Twilight brought herself to the first resource pod. Over the next five minutes, Twilight Sparkle followed the beacon over vast stretches of land. Teleporting over such distances at such rapid succession would have killed a lesser pony. Twilight’s mana ran hot, her horn ached, and her heavy breathing threatened to fog over her helmet, but that meant nothing compared to Prism.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, she saw her unconscious daughter. Prism had managed to pull her head above the pool on the bank, yet she hadn’t the strength to drag herself fully out of the muck.
With one last teleport, Twilight blinked down to Prism’s side, winded and nearly collapsing from the backlash of so many rapid teleports. Twilight’s eyes fixated on Prism, sensing her irregular breathing. Even with her horn threatening to crack under the strain, Twilight cast a stasis spell, grunting through the pain spiking at the base of her horn.
With Prism frozen in time, Twilight knelt down to stroke her daughter’s loose hair that had come free from the holes in her helmet. Twilight’s fear spiked at seeing the teal foam at the corners of Prism’s mouth, indicative of Stopgap use. “Mommy’s got you, Primmy,” Twilight said as the medivac’s rotors thumped in the distance. “I lost your father, I’ll be damned if I lose you too.”
Having to draw so heavily upon her alicorn magic to not only maintain the stasis spell, but to stay strong enough to ward off any further threats, Twilight carefully pulled Prism out from the green lake. She wasn’t helped at all by the sheer lack of atmospheric magic, making the stasis spell hemorrhage magic in a way Twilight struggled to counteract. ~“I have her, Spike. Have the doctors on standby. Be ready for Stopgap detox.”~
~“Already done, Twilight,”~ Spike replied with obvious relief.
Twilight dearly wished she could move Prism into a more comfortable position, but attempting to do so would mean canceling the stasis spell first. There was no way Twilight would do that until her daughter was in the doctors’ care. ~“And, Spike, prepare a contingent of troops along with a few combat drones. I want you to retrieve the bodies of the pilots, if there’s anything left of them, and collect that pod. I won’t let any of their sacrifices be in vain.”~
~“And if we run into more aliens?”~
Twilight looked at the situation as if she were ordering an action against manticores or any other hostile species. ~“Do what is necessary.”~ Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight spotted the barrel of Prism’s rifle in the green muck as it slowly slipped below. With what magic she could safely use without cracking her horn, Twilight pulled the weapon out and noticed the magazine was fully spent. She laid the weapon down next to Prism. Even in death, you have continued to protect her. Rest now, it's my turn.