Lyra Heartstrings - 24th of Faust 09 EoH - MorningLyra Heartstrings - 24th of Faust 09 EoH - Morning
Multiverse Location: Imperial Equestria, Badlands, Equis #9 - The Solar Empire
Sky’s claims of this being a human built starship hadn’t rung quite true for me. I mean, yeah… Apparently these worlds were just my own in the future. But how does anything survive for over two hundred and fifty million years? I’d expect proton decay or something similar to have kicked in long before now.
Given just well, rust, salt, and wear and tear from sand I’d be shocked to see anything made of any alloy last for just a hundred thousand years. I’d expect the actual elements used in anything this old to have decayed into something else by now. But well, every culture has their legends, and it’s rude to call bullshit on them. So I’d kept my mouth shut.
But the moment Sky had opened the door to lead me to Trigger’s quarters (as her other self went by), I became a believer.
I was by no means an expert in pony architecture. I’d really only seen one of their prisons, and a different culture’s palace. But there was one thing I had seen a ton of, and that was human built military vessels.
Yeah, sure, we didn’t have starships, but we still had spacecraft. I’d been on a few civilian transports in my time, every time I’d gone to visit my mom in fact. We also had navy vessels, and you can bet your ass that as a pilot, I had spent a LOT of time on aircraft carriers, and even on a few submarines with aircraft launch tubes.
There’s just a certain way that humans build things like that. An efficiency of design that blends comfort with function to try and make them not butt heads so much, and usually fails... It’s something you noticed if you spend absolutely any length of time aboard a ship. And I could see it everywhere in the corridors along our trip.
The corridor itself was over all rectangular, sized to be exactly eight feet tall and six feet wide. The upper corners of the halls were slanted, covered by panels which (as the occasional missing one revealed) hid pipes and wires from view while still providing easy maintenance access. The ceiling itself had embedded light bars which gave off a cheery white, full spectrum light which still somehow failed to look like sunlight, and every few dozen feet the small sprinkler head of a fire suppression system poked out of the ceiling just enough to be effective.
The walls, oh the walls. A thing of beauty! Large panels, clearly modular in design, attached to one another via expertly engineered linkages to form a simple smooth wall structure, with the occasional slight portrudance of a support column which stuck out just enough to prevent the ceiling from collapsing. But not enough to prevent two people from passing in the corridor.
Occasionally, a control panel dotted the smooth white walls, a simple physical button tactile control. The sort of thing you would use if a man-machine interface was down for whatever reason. A pony would need to rear up to reach it. For me, it was at a comfortable chest height. Oh, and the engraved control labels were in english. That sort of clenched it.
It was beautiful. Clear, expert computer assisted, optimal designed, modular segments arranged into an absolutely purposeful overall design. The lovely glow of artificial lighting and the pleasant background hum of mechanical systems, the little comforts I had been missing for an entire week were here and welcoming me. I was home, but not home.
As a direct result of the homesick feelings, I had no idea what Sky said for the entire walk. I’d set Cheer.ly to manage the smalltalk and just sort of followed along behind Sky, spending the entire trip trying to connect to the ship’s systems and see if there was anyone there.
It would have been just the best thing ever to find a direct net link, but there simply wasn’t one. Though I did manage to link up to a PA system. So at least there was something.
<We have arrived at our destination,> Cheer.ly informed. <Transferring memories of conversation… Returning control of speech centers.>
Ahhh damnit… I still had one link left to try. Stupid walk, thirty more seconds and I’d have gotten to poke at whatever ‘Sub-Processing Unit 43893’ was.
Sky frowned and looked up at me in concern. “You okay? You looked like you had a small stroke there,” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I dismissed. “I was just trying to see if I could remotely access the ship via my implants. The facial tick is just a thing that happens.”
Well, it’s a thing that happens when you transfer brain functions between you and your VI but no need to be specific…
“Getting right to work ’eh?” Sky asked, smiling at my sorta-lie. “I like that. Did you get into anything?”
I nodded. “Yeah I got into the general alert system. Nothing playing on it, and well, it’s the only thing I can think of that would be accessible to civilians… Oh, uh, there was no encryption either, just an open system. As you’d expect.”
“Darn… Well, upside, if you can get into one, you can probably get into others,” Sky said confidently. “Wait, can you do anything with that system? Make it dance a little bit?”
“Er, probably, why?” I asked.
“Well, I didn’t know where was a PA system for starters,” Sky informed.
I smiled. “We'll, see, that’s the thing. You wouldn’t hear jack shit from it. It’s a direct to brain system. We don’t really use buttons to control our tech, everything is neural interface based. I could play my entire music library over the thing and you’d never hear it… A changeling might though. I picked up their telepathy once.”
Sky blinked. “Then what are the physical controls for?”
“Emergency access, probably,” I said with a shrug. “I mean, my fighter had a physical yoke and throttle control for emergency use. Or hey, maybe we made first contact at some point and they are for the non-human crewmembers use.”
“That would explain why I had to make several critical systems controls from scratch and splice them in…” Sky mused. “I’d figured the nanorepair system just forgot to maintain them.”
Nanorepair? “Hold it, this thing self-repairs with nanites!?” I asked in alarm. “What do you have to stop them going gray goo!?”
Sky rolled her eyes. “If that was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. They really don’t do anything but take sand, rip protons off it, and make more hull materials… And the system is pretty degraded too. So it’s not fixed more than like, the basic hull shape and some critical systems.
“And anyways, the nanites are mechanically designed to only be able to process silica in sand form. Which we are fortunate enough to be in a huge pile of. Trust me if this thing was capable of doing that, yeah it already would have. Now, you ready, or is there anything else you want to freak out about?”
“You are absolutely certain that they can only break down silica?” I asked firmly.
Sky nodded. “Mhm. And they are not smart… They don't even use metal from the hull itself. There are entire sections of collapsed deck that we’re still clearing out. Self repair systems ignore it and just patch holes in the hull and keep the structural supports intact. Oh, and keep their population at exactly seven trillion.”
I let out a deep breath. “Good… Good… Sorry… Just, nanoweapons.”
Sky nodded. “Eh, yeah. That would be a horrible thing if it was ever do-”
“It’s been done! I was eight,” I corrected instantly.
Sky winced. “Oh. Well, in that case, trust me, we’re safe.”
“Let's just move on, alright?” I asked. I had no reason to distrust her, and I really would rather not think about that particular attack. It’s rare that both sides agree to ban a weapon class…
Sky nodded and reared up to press a door release with a hoof. The steel double doors slid apart with a hiss, revealing a rather comfortable carpeted room which could only be described as an apartment's living room.
A nice living room. By my standards. Awesome!
A nice rectangular space, one wall with a row of windows with a nice view of… Well, sand... And the other walls nice solid metal painted a warm ivory color. A color which went nice with the burgundy carpeting, and made the already sizeable room feel bigger, even with the big wooden gaming table set up in the middle of the room, the beanbags, the… Big TV?
Huh, okay. I guess the ponies and changelings here hadn’t worked out how to use the entertainment systems right… Regardless, it was a lovely room, with two doors which led into a bathroom and a bedroom. A proper suite, life on a cruise ship. Or Star Trek.
I felt a sudden compulsion to ask if anyone knew what the hull’s exterior looked like. But that was completely pushed aside by the room’s three occupants.
The most noticeable ones were exactly identical, pink furred and darker pink maned mares. For a second I thought they were copies of Mysuki, but their sky blue eyes, triple balloon brands, and impossibly fluffy curly manes and tails dispelled that illusion. The third was literally Sky, but with a more masculine build and cooler hair.
Spiky beats buns, Sky...
By this point I was used to ponies. Their appearance alone didn’t disrupt my thoughts. Nor was it the fact that the three of them were playing cards around the table. What completely floored me is that they were all dressed to some degree.
Correction, BADLY dressed to some degree. It looked like something out of the historical records from the 1980’s had eaten the 2170’s fashion and pooped out this terrible mismatch of random articles of clothing…
Trigger threw up both forehooves in a victory pose as the doors opened, exclaiming, “Woo! Royal flush! Number One, nighponese schoolmare hat. Number Two, the leopard print scarf.”
“Awww,” the two mares moaned in unison ears drooping sadly.
“Hey them’s the rule- Wait was that the door?” Trigger asked.
“Seriously!?” Sky demanded. “Dress poker!?”
Trigger’s ears lay flat in irritation, refusing to turn around and face Sky and I. “Hey, Number Two feels left out if just Pinkie and I play alone… Man I hate how we share biometrics-”
One of the two maes pointed over Sky’s shoulders and hissed, “Look!”
The other simply grabbed the top of his head and turned it gently.
Trigger sputtered in surprise. “Holy crap! Ummm… Alright, yeah, now isn’t the time for cards. So uh, hi, random mythological creature! Uh, yeah, been keeping this thing warm for you! Sorry about the weird smell in the cargo bays. I can’t get the atmospheric controls working like they should be and-”
“I’m not here to reclaim anything,” I laughed, unable to take a pony dressed in an open front green leather vest and a pair of zebra striped stockings seriously. “Just passing through.”
“You should have gotten my message that there was an important project to do!” Sky exclaimed in mild upsettedness.
“We’re just having some fun Sky, you don’t need to be a party pooper, dear,” one of the pinks said with a sad sigh.
Trigger rolled his eyes. “My watch is off. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a day 'off' if I leave it 'on'. Heh heh. Seriously, you make me work on off days way too much for me to even think about leaving it on. Now, on to the bigger much more important thing…” Trigger flailed both hooves at me in a pointing gesture. “Human! Not extinct. Here. Now. Is!”
I did my best not to burst into a giggle fit as one of the pink mare's grabbed a tiny sailor’s hat from a pile of clothes behind the table, and put it on, clearly intent on continuing their game.
“Yeah! And she’s being nice enough to try getting me into the locked out systems,” Sky said taking a deep breath of irritation. “Would you please walk her to each system so she can try them out? That’s all I need you to do. I have to work on her dimensional tunneling device, I’m going to be busy.”
I wanted to pay attention to the argument, but I was still biting my tongue to keep from laughing my ass off at the idea of ‘dress poker’. That actually seemed fun! But the real question was if it was a sex game or not… If not I’d have to ask to join!
One of the pink mares leaned over to her counterpart and whispered something I didn’t catch, causing the other to nod.
“Uh, well, yeah. I can do that. Cuz for once it’s actually something important,” Trigger agreed.
“Good!” Sky exclaimed somehow both satisfied and irritated. “Now can I leave you too it or do I need to micromanage everything!?”
“Sheesh,” Trigger grumbled, “I need to take a chill pill today.”
Sky face hooved. “You know, I’d take you on as a full partner in my business if you had any idea of how to work hard!”
“And I’d take you on as a full friend if you knew how to be content with being a multibillionaire and took some time to enjoy life,” Trigger retorted in an even tone. “Seriously, all you do is rake in more bits. Take a vacation! Use some of them for a change.”
Ha! This was hilarious!
“I can’t, I agreed to help with a rebellion! AND the Empire they are fighting against!” Sky retorted.
“Yeah, so did I- Oh! Wait, human, ship… You want her to, right okay. I’m on the same page now,” Trigger said mostly to himself.
“You have zebra stockings on!” I exclaimed, finally unable to hold in the laughter.
The mare on the left beamed a huge smile as I broke down into the laugh, the one in the hat frowned and passed her counterpart a small pile of coins.
“Awww,” she grumbled. “Two more minutes…”
“Yes,” Trigger agreed in the most serious tone imaginable. “I do. Anywho, so, Sky, you go do your thing. I’ll just get over seeing an extinct species and then take uh, whatshername around the ship. No worries. I want this war over as much as you do.”
“Good… Good…” Sky sighed before turning to me as I managed to calm down and clear my throat. “Ms. Heartstrings, if you’d be so kind as to make sure he takes you to do your part of our little bargain, I’ll be on my way to fulfill my half.”
I nodded. “No problem… As long as he takes off those stockings… Cuz I’m going to lose it again if he doesn’t.”
Trigger smirked. “Well the point of the game is to make the other players look really stupid…”
“It’s fun!” The bet losing mare exclaimed. “You should play a few hands! You need new pants anyways, those ones are falling off.”
I smiled and gave her a nod, “Yeah they don't have a hole for my tail… The tail’s new.”
“Please don’t get caught up in their…time wasting,.” Sky pleaded. “I’ll be going now. I’d like a progress report in three hours.”
Trigger gave her a dismissive hoof wave. “It’ll get done. So um, human… Come on in. What’s your name? Also do you want those pants fixed?”
Sky sighed and started to walk off, grumbling about people not taking things seriously.
I took a step into the room, the doors hissing shut behind me. “Yeah. That would be nice, and the name’s Lyra.”
The two pink mare’s ears perked, faces giving the same happy-shocked expression before the two fell over in a giggle fit.
Trigger snickered. “Your name is Lyra Heartstrings?”
I nodded. “Yeah… Why is that funny?”
“Y-you'd have to meet somepony,” Trigger snickered. “She’s obsessed with human mythology. Shares your name. It’s funny.”
“So um…” I asked. “When do we get started on the-”
“Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea that we are in no way doing?” Trigger asked. “Never. Duh.”
“What’s so bad about it?” I asked, frowning suspiciously.
This version of Sky clearly was opposed to his counterpart… Maybe she did have some sinister motive.
“She’s not evil, is she?” I asked jerking my thumb back at the doors.
The pink mare on the right shook her head quickly. “Nopes! My Sky’s a little itty bit rough, but she’s super duper nice under the surface… She just needs to stop being so greedy.”
“I blame her not having her own Sai,” the other pink mare continued. “My Triggie has one to keep him in check and he’s great!”
“Yeah, it looks like she’s the only me to have not made an ai to help keep them er…focused,” Trigger sighed. “Speaking of AIs, not that she believes me, but yeah, back in my universe, the Phoenix's AI was still alive and I accidently turned it on and well… That was a hell of a year. Needless to say, I checked this one for an AI when I got here and yup! Same deal.
“So if in my universe poking a human bone against a bioscanner got her to wake up and go apeshit… Yeah you are so not going to turn on a psychotic AI that’s like, millions of years past needing a proper tune up, and attached to a massive starship. And don’t try to do it behind my back, because I’ll have to stop you for the good of everypony. Hell, everyone.”
I took a half step back, the stallion having gotten really intense at the end. Holding up my hands defensively I insisted. “Woah! Easy there, killer. Let’s just talk this out. Why doesn't she believe you? Couldn’t you show Sky that it’s there?”
Trigger nodded. “I did. She agrees that the AI is there and on standby. But she doesn't agree with me that it’s going to be insane because this hull was found more intact than my universe's hull… But what do I know? I’m only a programming prodigy. Buck me, right?”
I had a sudden realization. In ARGs, every time the programmer said, ‘the system isn’t ready!’ or something similar, and everyone ignored him, everything went to shit real fast.
“Not into guys, can I buck her instead?” I asked jokingly as I pointed to one of the pink mare's instead.
“Sorry, Pinkies go with Triggies, it’s a rule,” the mare informed apologetically.
“What?” Trigger and I asked in confused unison.
She grinned at the two of us and giggled. “Your confused face is so cute! Yours too, Lyra-with-hands! Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!”
The other Pinkie waved at me excitedly. “Me too!”
“You’re too, what?” I asked frowning before facepalming. “Right you are also… How do you tell them apart?”
Trigger laughed. “We can’t. Hell, quantum scans can’t. Unlike Sky and I, the Ponks are completely identical.”
“That’s not true!” The pinkie on the left exclaimed, pointing a hoof to her counterpart. “She likes oatmeal raisin cookies!”
Her counterpart blinked and gave herself a confused frown. “But… So do you.”
“Oh! Right,” the first one admitted with a blush.
“I just call them Number One and Number Two, depending on which enters a room first,” Trigger admitted. “But seriously… We are not going to turn on that AI, even by accident.”
“It didn’t screw up your whole world, did it?” I asked hesitantly.
Trigger shook his head. “No… But it did something that woke up something else… Something evil and immaterial. As far as I know, everything in that universe is a plaything for it now.”
I winced, mind jumping back two hops. “I-I think I was there… It’s a crawling sort of presence, right? Makes you forget things, freezes your hand when you want to draw a weapon?”
All three ponies nodded. “Yeah, that’s it,” Trigger sighed. “I thought I was doomed until I managed to get Sky’s portal stabilized on my end. Grabbed Pinkie, left behind some mirror pool duplicates with enhanced intellects, then bailed. Been here ever since.”
One of the Pinkies nod noded. “Yeperooni! It… It felt bad to leave my friends, but Discord promised he’d fix everything as soon as he could.”
“Wait, Discord!? Terrifying floating chimera shaped eldritch entity, Discord!?” I asked, heart skipping a beat.
The room erupted into laughter. Making my face flush bright red.
Shaking his head Trigger cracked a smile. “Oh man, I see he got you good! Discord’s like- Wait! You’re a human. Did you see Star Trek?”
“Uh, yeah… Some of it survived the- Wait, how have you seen Star Trek!?” I demanded.
“It’s stored on the ship’s computers. I do movie nights,” Trigger explained. “Anywho, Discord's like, almost literally Q. Except more of a playful asshole. At least…he is now.”
I took a deep breath and centered myself. Between nanites and elder gods, I was getting a bit unhinged.
“Right… Okay… So say we don’t get this ship running? How do you stop the war and improve the land and all that?” I asked. “Cuz you need a plan B if you want to abort Plan A.”
“Use the Elements of Harmony to fix everything, duh,” one of the Pinkies exclaimed with an eye roll.
“The what?” I asked with a frown.
“The same artifacts used to banish Prince What's-His-Face-” Trigger explained.
“Artamice,” a Pinkie corrected.
“Well excuse me! He’s only a chick in my universe and has a completely different name,” Trigger grumbled. “Anyways, the thing used to banish him. The Rebels managed to get the last one two weeks ago. So all we need is a group of ponies with strong bonds of friendship, each of whom is an example of at least one of six virtues and blam! Problems solved.”
“And we found that group!” Pinkie-on-the-right proclaimed happily. “I tried to use Laughter myself… I mean, I did use it back home, but you need to be good friends with everypony else using one and you need at least two ponies and I and other me can’t work out how to make Magic work, so we couldn’t do it…”
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Wait, so you have a magical artifact that can solve the problem… And found people who can use it… And she’s still trying to get this ship running because, why?”
“Because she’s never seen the Element’s work,” Trigger explained. “She doesn't believe that can undo something they did. Which is fair… I mean, in my universe, new bearers were found nine years ago. I’ve seen them used all the time. Heck! I married one of them.
“But here… Well… Twilight Sparkle is a loyal consort to His Majesty, Applejack can’t stand working with others… The Elements I know just don’t work here. So this universe hasn’t had Bearers since Prince what’s-his-plot was banished until last week.”
I opened my mouth but one of the Pinkies cut me off. “Don’t worry! Shiny Whistle, Risky Weld, Metal Head, Fireburst, Dream Weaver-”
“I believe you can get me through the night!” The other Pinkie sang-interrupted.
“Ahem,” the first continued. “Dream Weaver, and Aura Chime are all great friends! Each one has everything they need. The Elements will work with them, I’m sure of it! Pinkie Promise.”
“And we are all certain that those Elements will work?” I asked. “I mean, I know jack shit about magic… But if you know it will work-”
“One time, in my home universe,” Pinkie-on-the-right began, “a big meaniehead centaur decided to go all soul-eaty-kaiju and drained the magic from everypony in all of Equestria, except for Twilight, who tried to fight him with all of Alicorn magic! But she couldn’t defeat him even with all of Celestia’s power, and that’s a whole sun’s worth!
“But once we got our hooves on the elements again, pow! Stripped him of all his power, banished him back to tartarus, and put all the magic back with everypony getting the right magic too! One single spell did all that in ten seconds flat!”
“The Elements of Harmony should kinda be called the ‘Elements of Total Victory’,” Trigger explained with a grin. “It’s pretty lucky that they, well… That they don’t let just one person use them. Also they seem to have some sort of internal morality and conscious. Gotta have at least two who personify that specific mortality. But yeah. War’s over. We’re just waiting on six ponies to get to rebel HQ. We don’t need the starship.”
“Right… Well that’s good,” I mused, frowning slightly. “But um, I need my device fixed, and also my armor and jumpsuit got trashed and your counterpart offered to fix them but only if I helped her out…”
Trigger rolled his eyes. “Sai, you there buddy?”
“As always, sir,” Sai’s voice rumbled from hidden speakers.
“Lyra and I totally tried every system out, right?” Trigger asked.
“Mhm. I even have the video evidence,” Sai agreed.
“Awesome. Too bad it didn’t work,” Trigger sighed fake-dramatically.
“She’s not going to buy that…” I said, rolling my eyes.
“She will if you agree with me,” Trigger countered.
“But she’s only going to fix my gear if one of the things gets unlocked,” I pointed out.
Trigger’s eyes narrowed. “Seriously!? That scuzzbutt! Not everything should be a business deal. Especially helping stranded dimensional travelers! Did she make Ayna help fix your stuff?”
I nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“Pinkie! Do the thing!” Trigger ordered, pointing to the large wallscreen.
One of the Pinkies snapped an overly dramatic salute while the other pressed a small button on the wallscreen. The device flicked on, showing a small room almost completely filled with electronic and mechanical junk, as well as a bunch of stuff I could only describe as ‘new age era mystical mumbo jumbo’. The junk spilled over almost every surface, making the smallish changeling almost invisible due to the sheer amount of crap in front of her desk.
I was only able to recognise her by the little glowing stripes.
“Thing done!” The saluting Pinkie informed.
Trigger gave me a smile and turned to the screen. “Hey, Ayna, are you listening?”
“Mhm, whatcha need big brother?” Ayna asked, not looking up from her tinkering.
“Did Sky ask you to help out a human today?” Trigger asked.
“Oh! Is that what her species’s is called?” Ayna asked, still tinkering. “Er, I mean, yes.”
“It is, and I was wondering if you could send her get up to my room? I’d like to work on it myself,” Trigger asked.
“Sure! I need to test out Droney McDroneface anyways,” Ayna agreed happily.
“... Would you like me to rename that cargo drone for you, sis?” Trigger asked, the look on his face indicating mild distress a the name.
“No,” Ayna replied.
“Alright, you have fun with whatever you're working on now, okay?” Trigger asked.
“Always do!” Ayna confirmed happily. “Droney, pick up that pile of gear and give it to big brother.”
A cheerful electronic beep from off screen rang through the air before one of the Pinkies turned off the screen.
“Oh look,” Trigger said to me smugly. “Problem solved.”
“So it is…” I agreed.
“Sooo… Wanna play some cards?” One of the Pinkies offered. “I can fix your pants while we play!”
“Uh, the fabric repairs itself. You’re an earth pony so, you can’t do magic, right?” I asked hesitantly.
“Um, yeah! All Equestrian fabric fixes itself unless the cut’s made with enchanted fabric scissors. I might not be Rarity, but I can put a hole into and a button onto some pants,” the Pinkie informed happily, holding up a pair of scissors which I swear she hadn’t had a second ago.
“Oh! That makes a lot of sense… But um… Humans don’t like to be naked, and I have nothing under these,” I admitted, a little embarrassed.
“Looks like you’ll have to lose a hand then,” Trigger said, sitting back down. “I’ll deal you in. it’s like regular poker, but the losers put on anything the winner picks out… Normally it’s a sexy times game but we like to play just for fun. So don't worry about that. Everypony promise to give her a bottom to put on first?”
“Yeperooni!” The Pinkies chorused.
“Well… Alright then. Deal me in, I’ll learn as we go,” I said taking a seat at the table, immediately regretting it as my knees were forced up into my chest. “This chair is very small…”
“No it’s not, you’re just tall,” Trigger snarked. “Now, aces are high, and eights are wild. Other than that standard rules apply.”
Flintlock Rose - 24th of Faust 09 EoH - Morning
Multiverse Location: Imperial Equestria, Badlands, Equis #9 - The Solar Empire
The word ‘hive’ always had a sort of cozy feel to me. Maybe it was because I was familiar with bee hives, and those are just so small, you know? I’d expected to only have to search an area the size of a few city blocks for Lyra.
Fun fact! The useable portion of the Emerald Hive is currently nine point six three two seven cubic kilometers.
CUBIC KILOMETERS! The damn thing is so big that you can’t describe it in even square kilometers… Halp!
There was a little train thing inside of it, and one of the changelings I’d asked for directions told me there were other little train things too… And also to not take the wrong one or I’d wind up having to wait an hour for the next car.
It didn’t help that all of the hallways inside the damn thing looked exactly the same. White walls. Kinda slanted roof. Sometimes doors. Signs in a language I didn’t read. Blinky lights on consoles that didn’t seem to do crap!
“Why isn’t there a map on the wall or something!?” I sob-lamented to myself.
“Because local residents know to ask me for directions,” a stallion’s voice informed.
I looked up instantly, recognising the voice as the same one from Lyra’s bracelet computer. “Sai! Is Lyra nearby?”
“Wrong Sai,” The voice apologised. “I’m living in this hull, the Sai you are thinking of is a different version of me. Do you want directions to your friend?”
“That would be amazingly helpful!” I pleaded.
“One sec… Oop… Sorry, look slike she’s buisy at the moment. Is there any other place you’d want to go? Because you’ve kinda wandered into a military only area. So you know, you need to scoot,” Sai politely informed.
“Oh… What’s she doing?” I asked curiously.
“Helping repair some ship systems as a part of a business deal with my boss,” he replied.
“Oh! Right!” I exclaimed, realizing I could ask for help with my armor, like I had planned to when I started out here in the beginning. “Um, do you know where Ayna Trigger is? I’d like to see if she can refit my dad’s old armor for me.”
“Of course… She’s busy too, but unlike other organics, she has the capacity to multitask. I’m sure she won't mind talking with you right now,” Sai said in an oddly dickish tone of voice.
I suspected he wanted me to bug Ayna for some reason…and that felt like fun! Bug bugging, a sport if I ever heard of one.
“Awesome! So where do I go?” I asked.
“I’ll direct you, you’re close, this is one deck below engineering. The nearest lift is just down the hall on your left,” Sai instructed.
He continued to direct me along a five minute walk. I had to say, the help with directions made everything livable. The floorplan was robust and maze like, but also seemingly purposeful. I’m sure I could learn the way around in time but right now… I really needed the help.
“Alright! We are here,” Sai informed. “Turn left.”
I turned left and immediately frowned. “This is a wall…”
“One sec,” Sai informed.
With a hydraulic hiss, the wall split in half, one panel sinking inwards and sliding down into the floor as a door hidden behind it slid apart. The room on the other side was very cramped, not due to it’s size but because it was a mess of spare parts. No organization, just heaps of arcane and mundane tech everywhere.
No… No there was organization, it just wasn’t obvious at first glance. What parts I did recognize were all heaped in with things that did the same thing they did. Everything was sorted into piles by function… Interesting!
“Sai… Did I ask you to stop showing people where my door is?” An irritated changeling’s voice asked.
“I can’t remember that, ma’am,” Sai clearly lied.
“Oh… Well please don't show people where my door is. It’s hidden for reasons,” she asked. “Person coming in, what do you need?”
“Uh, well, I have some old armor you made and I need some work done on it,” I informed hastily.
It was clear she really didn’t want company.
“Ayna Tech carries a lifetime warranty, somepony upstairs will replace anything that’s broken. Please go away. I’m building things,” Ayna asked.
“Well, the problem is it’s my dad’s old armor, and it doesn't quite fit me so… I need it refit,” I explained. “So you know, a replacement won't fit me.”
“Oh. Okay. I’ll take measurements and have one made then. Please come in… I don't want people knowing where my door is, and if you stand there it will stay open,” Ayna grumbled.
“Why don’t you want people to know where you are?” I asked as I stepped into the room, Ayna becoming visible from behind a pile of junk.
I wasn’t sure, but she looked small for a changeling. Even for her caste, assuming I was remembering my castes correctly, the glowing stripes marked her as a harvester. More to my total shock she had a cutiemark!
“Oh my gosh! You have a cutiemark!” I exclaimed, unable to contain the surprise. “Are you a hybrid too?”
“No. I’m not,” Ayna sighed. “Some changelings earn cutiemarks like a pony. It’s just really rare. Zebras can get them too, but that’s more common… I hide in here because of my mark. It makes me useful… And people want to use me because I’m usefull, and I can’t say no to people because that makes me feel bad. If I don’t hide, I have no free time to make the things I want to make.”
“Oh…” I said, ears drooping sadly. “I didn’t know… I can leave if-”
“No. Then I’ll feel bad that you learned I feel bad if I say no so you decided not to ask for my help. Because that means I told you no indirectly…” Ayna groaned, stopping tinkering with the parts on her workbench to rub her temples. “Stupid brain… Why can’t I shift instincts away?”
I winced and looked for anything to distract her with, before remembering my armor. Slinging the sack I’d carried it in off my back and onto the floor I took out the helmet. “Well, let’s do this quick then, here’s the helm-”
“Ooo! I remember making this one!” Ayna exclaimed eyes lighting up. “He really really loved it… And you’ve been using it? He had it replaced because it ran out of juice… It’s little better than a regular steel hat right now.”
“I-it is?” I asked hesitantly, remembering running headlong into battle thinking that there were enchantments on my side…
“Mhm!” Ayan nodded. “Oh! Are you Red’s Filly? I like Red, he lets me just make things for him. No fuss over the design. Just wanted things to work well and last a long time. Oooo! Wanna do that too?
“I mean, I understand that other organics get attached to things, but I’m free this afternoon and tomorrow we could totally make you something unique for your own!”
“Uhhh… Sorry I don't really understand what you are saying,” I apologized.
Ayna’s cheeks glowed green for a second. “Sorry… got excited. Um… Your dad said he wanted his armor to look distinct, so I let him look through my collection for something he liked, and I made it for him. Same for your mom too, I mean, Red and Sa’mas had sex, spawning you, I assume… Right?”
I nodded then blinked That was the wierdest way to put it one could possibly have used but…yes. “Er- yeah… Wait, you’ll make my my own gear just like theirs? In a day!?”
“No, I’ll make you your own unique gear. And yes in one day, one suit of armor isn’t much work with the tools I have here,” Ayna said with a slight frown. “Um… Am I speaking right? Sometimes I don’t do it right.”
Oh! Oh… Now I got it… The poor bug wasn’t quite sane.
“You’re speaking just fine,” I said gently. “I just lost track of you is all. Er… Would you mind making me something similar to my mom’s?”
Ayna nodded. “Yes, because I agreed to make her armor iconic and unique.”
“Oh, alright… Sooo what do we do then?” I asked.
“I let you look at my collection of legends. You pick something that jumps out at you. I remake it in a pony-shape and fit it with cool stuffs,” Ayna explained. “Sai, would you open the rack for her please?”
“Sure,” the disembodied but somehow not creepy voice answered.
Some machinery whirred as a workbench and wall slid down into the floor, a new floor sliding into place to cover the gap as four rows of shelves slid outwards from a recess in the wall.
Curiously I trotted over to look at the ‘legends’ as she put it, and blinked in surprise as I noticed each shelf was covered in boxes of comic books, each carefully sealed in plastic.
“Um, these are comicbooks. Did Sai open the right-”
“He did,” Ayna confirmed. “And yes, they are comics… But not pony made ones. I printed them out from the ship’s historic archive. Each one is a story told by a long dead species. Each one a tale of their heroes, some fictional, some probably true. They are legends, meant to inspire and teach others… I use them to help me come up with ideas of things to invent.”
“That’s actually a neat idea,” I mused. “Um, is it okay if I read these or just flip thru so I can see more than-”
“Yes. I just keep them in the bags because this seems to be the proper way to store them,” Ayna informed. “Let me know when you have decided.”
Ayna hadn’t looked up from her workbench once the entire time she had been talking. Sai was right. She could multitask.
Deciding to take up the actual mad scientist on her offer, I turned to the comics and began to flip through them. I couldn’t read the language they were in, but what really surprised me is that they almost exclusively featured people of Lyra’s species.
I spent longer than I should have looking through them because of that. She said she was from an alternate dimension, but just maybe I could get a look at what her world was like from these stories. Stranger coincidences had happened after all.
I wasn’t an idiot, I understood what fiction was. Obviously the superpowers and the alien invasions and the asteroids were fake… But the backgrounds, the cities, the little ways that everypony, er, every-human acted and walked. The fact they were always clothed. The little things, they gave me an idea of what her world might be like.
It seemed like a cool one. Similar to my own, but different. It would be a cool place to visit. And a freaking awesome place to live if the alien invasions and super villains were real! That would be the shit!
Flintlock Rose! Champion of the weak! Flying elbow droper of the cruel!
“I once got lost for days reading those. Have you made a selection?” Ayna asked.
“Huh?” I asked snapping my attention away from the volume in my hooves.
“You have been looking for three hours,” Ayna informed.
“Oh! I got lost in- The world's shown in these are pretty cool,” I admitted, a little embarrassed.
“They are. I’m happy I can read English, because a lot of the stories are good too. Have you made a selection?” She asked again.
“You can read these?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes, all Emeralds learn English. The ship’s controls are labeled in it, and so is every file in the system… I guess you need more time. I’ll ask again later,” Ayna decided outloud.
“Oh! No! I found two I really like, I’m just torn between the two,” I explained.
I picked up the two volumes and carried them over to her, setting them down on the desk beside the gun of some kind she was building.
“I like the way this one can be summoned onto the user by the belt buckle thingie, but the over all outfit is just so goofy looking… If you’re willing to customize looks, can we make it look like this one?” I asked tapping the comics in order.
Ayna glanced away from the weapon for a moment. “Yes. The Power Rangers ‘armor’ looks very silly… But summonable armor would be very useful. I could easily just add that feature to something that looks like Doctor Doom’s armor… But I can’t make you anything close to his kit. I’m not even CLOSE to being that good.”
“Oh so that’s what the books are called,” I said to myself. “I’d like that… Because this armor looks really cool. It’s like, half medieval, half futuristic… Also that cape. That cape is awesome.”
“Yes. It is,” Ayna agreed. “It’s funny, your dad asked me to make gear from a comic called Doom. Heh.”
“Sooo if you can’t make an exact copy of his gear, what can you do?” I asked curiously.
“Standard protective enchantments, the materialization feature as discussed, speed and strength multipliers, built in weapons. Retracting butt and groin plates incase you have to poo. That sort of thing,” Ayna answered, turning to look at me, her eyes glowing for a few long moments. “Right… I know what size to make for you now. Um… Sai, can you have her wait somewhere?”
“Yes,” Sai said. “There is a free guest ca-”
“Actually… That’s a gun you are making, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Ayna replied.
“My dad taught me energy weapons and arcane gun design… Want to make it together? Might be fun,” I asked.
“Ooo! Yes that would be fun! Two heads are better than one, and I still can’t give myself a second head yet,” Ayna complained before scooting over slightly. “This is being made for a biped, so the grip and trigger are all weird, but that’s irrelevant. Right now, we need to work out a means to accelerate this projectile at hypersonic speeds while keeping it stable.”
I squinted at the ‘projectile’. “That’s a grain of sand… It’s going to need to move VERY fast to do much damage. I assume it gets enhanced with an arcane energy field?”
“Mmmmhm!” Ayna said happily. “That was my test to see if you knew your stuff. Let’s get cracking.”
“Sure thing! I’ve always wanted to build weapons with a mad scientist,” I joked.
“But I’m happy right now… I could try to be mad if- Oh! Crazymad. Yes, that’s an accurate descriptor for me. Pass me that screwdriver, please,” Ayna asked.
This was going to be a fun day!