//------------------------------// // 6: Solutions // Story: Daring Do and the Throne of Ouroboros // by Tolerance //------------------------------// Sunny initially began working her way to the front of the ship, where she envisioned the ship's control room was located. Only, when she got to the forward-most bulkhead, she found an overhead access to the main deck instead. Backtracking through the forward cargo holds and back into the crew's quarters, her only other option was to search the rear compartments. Her next guess at a location for the control room would be directly above the engine room, which would make her little exploration that much shorter. She briefly wondered if Aaron would forgive her is she snuck back into the cabin she shared early, if only after she'd explored the rest of the ship. It wasn't like it would take her a whole quarter hour to traverse every deck anyway. Before she could reach her destination, Sunny was interrupted by an intriguing smell coming from somewhere nearby. It was definitely some sort of pony food, no doubt, but it smelled very different from the things that Aaron had cooked before. Stumbling into the deserted crew's mess, the canine made her way to the serving counter, beyond which existed a certifiable bustle of activity. Ponies worked diligently to prepare a host of food for the crew in time for the next meal. Fresh bread, Fresher salad, and some sort of yellow soup with bits of green scattered inside. "Dinner's not going to be ready until-" One of the cooks started before realizing they weren't talking to a hungry crewmate in search of a snack. "Oh, hey, you're one of them Diamond Dogs I heard about! Gimme a second." The pastel blue pony said before throwing another pan of rolls into an oversized oven. His immediate work finished, he walked through the tiny door adjacent to the serving counter and approached Sunny. "Well I'll be, the deckhands weren't pulling my chain after all. Never thought I'd see a Diamond Dog up close!" "Um..." was all Sunny could say as the pony got a little too close. "Oh, where are my manners, the name's Blueberry Biscuit, but you can just call me Blue. Nice to meet you...um." "Sahni." "Like I said, nice to meet you Sunny. What brings you to the mess decks?" Sahni flattened her ears at hearing blue mispronounce her name. "Um, something smelled good?" "Right, yeah. Dinner's still in the works, but I'm not sure I have anything that you guys can eat, sorry. All you guys eat is rocks right?" "Gems. We eat gems." Not that she wouldn't mind tasting a few new things, however. "Yeah, I definitely don't have any of those. Sorry. I feel kinda bad not having anything for you. Maybe we can ask the captain to pick something up at our next stop or something?" "No need, we brought food with us." "Wow, really? That's a relief." "Um, do you think I can try pony food?" "Yeah, no. I reeeaally shouldn't. The crew'll start showing up any minute now, and they get first dibs. That, and they're very angry if they don't get their food on time. If you come back after the meal though, I'm sure there'll be something left over." "Oh." Sunny said as she turned to leave. She doubted she'd want to leave her cabin again after her little walk was over, no matter how good the food smelled. "Come on, don't be like that." Blueberry said before Sunny could walk away. Looking back at the oven, he confirmed that he still had some time before he had anything else to do. "Here I'll make it up to you." Reaching back behind the counter, the pony pulled up a couple of glasses and a bottle with a picture of a piece of fruit on it. "Have you ever had this stuff before?" Sunny very much doubted it, but took the bottle anyway. The fruit was mostly round with a piece of stick and a leaf poking up from the top. It wasn't like anything in Aaron's garden. "I have not." "Then it's your lucky day! Grab a seat while I pour us some." ~~~~~ Aaron was glad he set up this version of his avatar with a universal info parser. The last one hadn't needed it, thankfully, but it never hurt to be prepared. Besides, it felt awfully good to be using a physical medium every now and then. An initial inventory of the documents available in the crew’s study included, but was not limited to; an incomplete atlas in regards to anything outside of Equestria, some basic operations manuals, three particularly lewd novella, stashed behind said operating manuals, and an assortment of light fiction. Beyond that, there was a book titled ‘The Chronicles of Starswirl’ as translated by one Twilight Sparkle. Aaron briefly wondering who was in charge of setting up the ship's reading list before making a mental note to read the tome later, anyway. Even with the book about an old acquaintance, what interested Aaron most about the whole collection was that it included what appeared to be a complete set of Daring Do books. Looking at the back cover, Aaron noticed the photo of the author, who was wearing a particularly concealing outfit, at least as far as what he'd seen of them so far. Upon closer inspection, he could even believe that this A.K. Yearling was a spitting image of the Daring he was familiar with. A sister perhaps? Then there was the fact that they seemed to be published as a work of fiction, and not as some sort of episodic biography. "Most curious. I can see why the Chaotic One chose her." A sudden commotion came from the passageway. Not wanting to be caught in the study, Aaron made for the exit, only to have an airpony nearly barrel into him. "What's the commotion?" "Oy, you haven't heard? You're mate's causing some trouble in the mess hall!" Leaving the 'mate' thing as some sort of sailor jargon, it was impossible to mistake the fact that the pony was referring to Sunny. ‘What could she have possibly gotten herself into in only a few minutes?’ Aaron thought to himself before addressing the equine, "Show me." "Come on then, this way!" ~~~~~ Sahni wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but, but it had to be because of that fruity pony. No, wait, the fruity pony’s drink. Maybe? Sahni's head hurt. She remembered pushing the pony away when the drink burned at her insides. Then she fell to the floor, and she tried pulling herself up to the table, but now she couldn't find it. She thought she heard other ponies who were shouting something, but she couldn't understand them. That's never happened before. Maybe if her head didn't hurt so much, she could listen. She pushed these other ponies away too. Sahni didn't want anything more to do with them or their funny liquids. Then she heard something she did understand. At least she assumed she did. It sounded like her Lord Aaron. Had he come to rescue her from this crazy place? She turned towards the barretoned siren's call. She struggled to focus on the figure supplying the voice. Sahni didn't think it looked like a pony. The figure stepped closer, almost muzzle to muzzle, close enough that Sahni could catch the figure's scent. "Sahni?" Aaron asked once more. It was him! Sahni was so happy to hear him calling her name. So, so happy. Closing her eyes, she licked his muzzle and inched closer into a kiss. Oh, how she'd wanted to do that. Why hadn't she done that sooner? Sahni almost didn't care. But something was wrong. Well, more wrong. The kiss. There was something wrong with the kiss. Sahni opened her eyes once more, finally able to focus somewhat. What she saw shocked her to her core. She had, indeed, kissed her Lord Master, but the most shocking part of her actions was that he wasn't kissing back. Sahni couldn't understand. Why he would be so mean? Did Aaron not feel the same way? "I see." Aaron said, as he attempted to hold her upright. "You've lost your self-control, Sahni. Oh how I wish it would never come to this. I'm sorry, Sunny." "Sorry for, for… Aaron?" "Sorry that I must now take what you have lost." Aaron grabbed Sunny by the scruff of her neck, his other claw keeping her muzzle facing his own. Staring deep into his eyes, Sunny found that she didn't like this Aaron, but she couldn't turn away. Aaron forced his will into his gaze until, eventually, the smaller of the two no longer offered resistance. Her arms dropped to her sides, the sparkle in her eyes drained into a sullen light. "Sleep, Sahni." And she fell, unconscious, into her Master's arms. Aaron picked Sunny up and began carrying her to her cabin. Turning to one of the bystanders as he left the galley, "See to your wounded. And send for your Captain, I wish to speak with him." The two diamond dogs gone, the pony who received the orders was the first to snap out of the collective reverie. "Well, you heard him, get this sorted!" Blueberry Biscuit, holding his battered side, only asked, "What the buck just happened!?" ~~~~~ Aaron had managed to tuck Sunny in as the Captain arrived with a cohort of surly ponies in tow. "I don't suppose ye got an explanation as to why my mess decks are a literal mess now, would ye? Cause as far as I'm concerned it is well within my authority to throw ya both overboard!" "I doubt that such drastic measures will be necessary, Captain Stirrup. But I too wish to get to the bottom of this course of events. Do you mind if we both head back to the galley?" "And what about the little miss there? It was her that caused all of this, wasn't it?" "I'm not entirely sure. Besides, she's in no condition to talk, at least not as long as-" "Aaron!? What happened to Sunny? I just landed and everypony's acting like-" Daring Do interrupted. "Well, Miss Do, I'm positive that Sunny will be thrilled to learn of your concern. She will be fine, albeit incapacitated, for the time being. Captain?" Captain Mac Stirrup motioned for the two largest ponies to guard the door while the other two moved to either side of Aaron. "I believe you should follow us, Daring." The walk to the mess decks was a short, but tense one. The remaining guardsponies eyed Aaron closely, as though his every move were somehow a hidden threat. "Wow... Sunny did this?" Was all Daring could say as the group reached the trashed compartment. Most of the debris had been moved so that nopony would trip on anything while the injured were treated, but other than that, everything looked the way it did when Aaron had first arrived. "I should start by apologizing, Captain. We haven't been entirely forthcoming with you. Sunny and I are not exactly the same kind of Diamond Dogs that you might be used to. In fact, we don't even use the same moniker. We are known as Canis Sapiens, and for the last millennia or so, we have hidden our culture away from the prying eyes of ponies. That very solitude, I believe, may be partly to blame for our little incident here today." "How so?" "Well, Sunny's actions were not what I'd consider her normal behavior. Her inhibitions were lacking, so much so that she would let any small sway of emotion control her. Ah, here we go," Aaron said, pulling a destroyed bottle of AppleJack Daniels from the remains of a trashed table. "I detected a hint of alcohol on her breath during our encounter." "Do ya honestly think I'll believe that this was just some sort of drunken episode?" "Frankly Captain, I don't care what you believe." "Not helping, Aaron..." Daring whispered. "Yes, as I said before, we've been secluded for a long time. All the while our genetic makeup has been forced to undergo some otherwise drastic changes. Those changes might very well have altered the Canis's ability to safely absorb alcoholic beverages, for instance. Since our diet consists mostly of gems, which don't exactly ferment, there's no way to have seen something like this before hand. And unless Sunny regains her composure and a repeat performance is allowed to take place, there's no real way to confirm." "So you mean to tell me that your kind doesn't know what alchohol is or what it does to ya, even though you seem to know exactly what this stuff is?" "I'm not exactly the same as the other Canis. It's rather difficult to explain, but suffice it to say, I do know what booze is." "So what then? I'm just supposed to believe every word you say? If it weren't for Miss Do here vouching for you I'd have already tossed you lot over the side!" "And I apologize for whatever issues that may have been caused by my friend's actions. Still, while I can't backup my words with proof at the moment, at least let me make up for it with something else." Aaron faced the nearest tables and summoned his energy, forcing it into the metal components of the broken mess equipment. Soon the tables and chairs were floating in the air, slowly untangling themselves from each other and correcting any bent or dented sections. Before long, the mess was almost back to it's original condition, with the exception of anything made of wood or cloth. "H-how in the name of Celestia can-?" "Trust me Captain," Daring Do interjected. "I think we should just take his word on this." "Is that the same magic you used on the lass? The spell you used to put her to sleep, I mean?" "Wait what? You did what?" Daring asked in sudden confusion. "Yeah, he used some sort of mind control on her. dropped the girl like a sack of potatoes, without even lifting a finger, I might add. "Oh, that. No. That is something else entirely, something more, personal, I guess. It can only be done under certain conditions, and I'm sorry Captain, but I don't know you well enough to divulge what those conditions are." "Is that so?" "Um, Captain Stirrup, Sir?" "What is it?" "The other dog was getting a little, um, well, intimate before he dropped her, sir..." "Fine, I won't press the matter. For now. You're just lucky that Petty Officer Biscuit feels partly responsible for what happened here, but Mark my words, Canine, one more wrong turn, and I will see if the two of you can fly." "As you wish, Captain." The Captain and his cohorts left Daring Do and Aaron to themselves as they needed to get the meal schedule back on track. Daring turned to Aaron, "What's this I hear about intimacy?" Aaron coughed. "Hmm, what do you mean?"