Pony Class Starship

by Viking Hoof

Space Pony Part Two

Author's Note:

Yes, the title is relevant.

Party?...

BOARDING PARTIES! Aurora rapidly maneuvered away from the pink ship, and prepped her FTL drive. Warnings blasted in her organic senses as her FTL drive refused to lock in coordinates in unrealspace, her buoy kept falling back into reality.

“Hey, you can’t be going, I haven’t given you your cake yet!” Cake?... Aurora stopped to consider what exactly the new ship had said.

“You have foodstuffs? I’m afraid I will not need any, my crew is missing.” Aurora answered before she ended up paying for things she didn’t need. The navy would be quite upset if she requisitioned frivolous things.

“I uh… does that mean she’s not hungry?” Aurora turned bodily to the new pink starship.

“Please identify, are you the Captain of the vessel, or perhaps the AI?” The ship designated Pinkie Pie began to malfunction, much as the ship designated Cadance had on the way to the strange Starport. That wasn’t a good sign, a worrying possible side effect of having a unchained AI. Was this a colony of unchained AI’s?

Aurora glanced back at the massive starport, There was no way AI's could maintain this without some form of help.

“I’m Pinkie Pie of Ponyville!” Aurora turned her cameras back to the ship designated Pinkie Pie.

“I think I should put into dock and then try to find out what happened to my crew.” Aurora began, still uncertain of what exactly she was walking into.

“Your… crew?” Aurora paused. Was the Pink Ship doubting her faculties? Did it think she was lying, or was the Pinke ship doubting her sensors.

“Yes, they aren’t on board and I can not detect them anywhere.” Aurora affirmed, double checking her sensors just to make sure.

“Do you plan on looking for them?” So the Pink ship didn’t detect them either? then why had she asked?

“It’s going to be rather hard to find them with just optical systems, I was hoping to put in for repairs and-”

“Pinkie, do you remember the castle apothecary?" Cadance inquired of pinkie quietly through the side of her mouth. In the corner of her eye she saw Pinkie nod.

“I must admit-” Cadance turned away from the gray ship to whisper to Pinkie.

“I think she might have hit her head, Pinkie. Would you mind going ahead and getting a doctor ready?” Cadance muttered tiredly.

“Okie-” Cadance cut Pinki off with a hoof gesture.

“these crystals are-” Cadance ignored the little grey Aurora as it continued on.

“No surgery room parties this time Pinkie, we don’t need to find a pony with a lung transplant coughing up confetti out of the blue.” Cadance gave Pinkie her best stern Princess look.

“awww, okie dokie.” Pinkie gave a serious nod and disappeared behind the hill.

“Huh, Pink ship is leaving, I had not completed my data transfer.” Cadance turned back to the gray ship.

“Data?” She inquired, not quite sure she’d like the answer.

“My logs, I was just conveying a few logs I’ve recorded on the strange visual of the crystal structures in the distance.” Cadance glanced back at the castle.

“I… if you say so.” Cadance turned away to lead the gray pony on further.

Aurora followed, meticulously examining each inch of the strange place she could capture with her optical sensors. She was getting better with the strange pneumatics embedded in her neck. She managed to turn it this way and that. It was useful since she had only two cameras working.

That gave her an idea she wasn't quite comfortable with, she filed it away to discuss with the ship's captain, or even possibly its counselor if warranted. Aurora gave another glance around. Still no threats, not even any hidden anti ship defenses. Was this place supposed to be hidden? Was this space just so well patrolled or garrisoned that they didn't bother with defenses?

Aurora looked around a third time. After spending her whole life in space, it was certainly a different place.

Cadance glanced back to the little gray mare as she craned her head awkwardly left and right, as if searching for something, but without knowing what or where. It was certainly a curious little things, in both senses of the word. Where had it come from? Had it made the huge skidmarks in the glacier? What did it mean crew?

The Pretty Pink Princess of the North wondered for a moment if this was some trap of Sombra's. She decided it was unlikely, but shuffled it back into possibilities. Nothing was certain with Sombra.

Cadance turned back to the crystal palace. She barely caught Pinkie waving from a balcony window, a small speck against the massiveness of the palace. She didn't question how the Earthpony had gotten there so fast. She knew better than to question Pinkie too much.

That meant that the doctors were ready. It also probably meant that some poor patient was going to be coughing or barfing out confetti. The whole Crystal Empire still had to go to the palace for any sort of medical attention. There was still months of backlog for standard medical surgeries.

---

---

Aurora refreshed her cameras and rechecked the shutters, unable to compute the architecture of such a massive creation as she stood at the top of a cliff. Its scale was unprecedented, at least for a ground structure. Aurora desperately wanted to know what it was made out of, but her limited sensors could only assign it a crystalline quality.

It was, Aurora took a millisecond to recalculate, approximately 17.5 kilometers tall. Such a massive structure was nearly inconceivable! The subroutines designed to assist in interfacing with the crew translated that as "two Terran Everests, one on top of the other." There was no way some pirates could pull this off.

"Cadance, please explain what the structure before us is made out of." Aurora turned her conning tower to face the Princess Cadance. The Cadance's conning tower top sensor tower shined with a strange light that set Aurora on edge. Was it a energy weapon attack? The Republic of the North Star had failed all attempts to make feasible energy weapons, but aliens that could build such massive star ports very well could have.

Perhaps it was a strange form of FTL? It could be damn near anything with her external sensors down as they were. Aurora argued internally if she should go to red alert, but without the captain's permission her protocols were damn near impossible to convince without a direct obvious threat.

Aurora's internal sensors lurched in the distinctive way a unexpected FTL jump always caused them to. She very nearly went to red alert as her internal inertia dampeners went haywire, and an overflow in exhaust systems began to build up.

She very nearly vented through the forward exhaust ejection port. Once the small nanomachines and wet goo sacks that comprised her consciousness resettled properly into place, she reopened her blast shutters to take in her new surroundings.

engines active?

negative

Aurora looked down again. She seemed to be on a small docking platform on the side of the massive crystalline star port she had seen in the distance.

Engines ready?

Engines unresponsive

Aurora looked around nervously for a way down. While impressive in size, things 17.5 kilometers tall were nothing to be on the top of without usable engines.

Aurora briefly referenced her database of structures of this size. A few alien battlestations and what not, asteroid colonies, major industrial plants in zero or low gravity situations, but that would be the sort of gravity that would render her strange legs unnecessary. This planet had earth gravity at the least.

Aurora wondered upon the mass of such a structure. If it was any sort of light metalloid and the crystal was just a covering, no, rather it would have to be sectionally alloyed to achieve such architecture.

Maybe gradual alloys?

Aurora paused as she felt something press into her side, right into the armor between sections of her main hull. Internal sensors flared up. She maneuvered away from it, using her strange legs to achieve lateral movement. She again tried her engines, but no response.

Halfway through the movement Aurora felt the Pistons and actuators in her leg seize up. Klaxons flared all inside her as she struggled to get engines to respond, instead they just shifted uselessly, the compensators struggling to adjust for thrust that wasn't there.

Aurora felt her biochemical hardware begin to go numb. She wondered for just a moment as the numbness spread to her conning tower processors, why it hadnt taken her longer to figure out how to maneuver on land.

Then she felt, and thought, nothing.

---

Aurora's cyber hardware putted along at minimal power, only able to barely maintain her without the assistance of her biological hardware. Not quite enough for awareness, but enough to keep her power plant from going into meltdown.

---

Cadance blinked in confusion as the small Pegasus fell to the ground. The strange way the mare had moved. The strange speech. Everything stood out as odd and, unnatural. She'd assumed some sort of construct. In part the anesthesia was just to see if anesthesia worked.

And yet, she hadn't expected Sombra to be able to make something so... solid. She was almost certain he couldn't. Cadance nudged the prone mare with her hoof, but the diminutive mare didn't budge an inch. She wasn't sure where the weight was coming from, but the mare seemed real enough to her. That would imply she had been some innocent that was captured.

"Go get guards to carry her to the hospital. Maybe we can undo whatever Sombra's cast on her." The two nurses paused to give Cadance an uncertain look. "You can try to carry her if you want." Cadance's explained, nudging the mare again to demonstrate. The two nurses nodded and trotted off.

Cadance leaned in closer to the gray mare. Her chest wasn’t moving.

In fact, the mare's chest had never moved. The mare hadn’t stopped to catch her breathe once the entire walk. Had Sombra practiced, Cadance shivered at the thought, necromancy? Cadance paused in thought. A gray bodied mare who never breathed, that would seem to indicate necromancy, but the mare was also super jittery, and she talked as if she was a ship. Necrotic constructs tended to react rather slowly, and Sombra's wouldn't have imprinted such an absurd mental illness.

Not a normal sea ship though, there was something more to it.

Cadance turned as two guards arrived with a wheeled stretcher. She stepped back and allowed them to maneuver the mare onto the cart.

“Where to Princess?” Hmm, where to indeed.

“The medical wing.” The doctors would be able to make a better determination as to the mare’s condition, or lack thereof. The guards nodded and turned the oddly strained gurney back into the castle, leaving Cadance alone on the balcony.

If the mare ended up not being an agent of Sombra, what would Cadance tell... what had the mare called herself, Aurora?

Cadance sighed in frustration. She hadn’t used to be this… direct when it came to possible threats, but Sombra had worn her curiosity and subtlety down to not but nubs. Sombra's methods left very little room for doubt if you wanted to survive.

Comments

[Lord Of Dorkness]

...OK, this story is just as brilliant as it desperately needs an editor.

Frankly, I'd even offer myself because my curiosity is that peaked, but I'm more of an 'idea bouncer/wetter' while what you seem to need is somebody good at spelling/grammar; something that's sadly my own big weakness.

I'm digging the story so far, though, so I really hope it continues.

[AppleTank]

Curious. I wonder how much miss AI here is biological. Some things are just a bit ... off. Also somewhat amusing that Aurora seems to be unable to reconcile her new size.

[Viking Hoof]

5934737 know any editors?

[Lord Of Dorkness]

5936579

Appletank a few comments back is actually a friend of mine and sounds like he'd be interested.

Send him a PM, and I'm sure he'd love to help.

[Ranakastrasz]

5935179 The fun thing about size is that without external reference points, if you shrink or expand, without being able to observe the event, you would be unable to determine if your size changed or not. You will normally assume that you have not changed size

[Viking Hoof]

5940019 That's exactly the point. I nearly have the next chapter done and I am expanding on this point.

[xoid]

This is comedy gold.

[clonezero]

Can spaceships get constipation?

[DJ_Arashi_Rora]

6731234

Maybe?

[The_Laundry]

I finally understand.
The ship (Aurora) is shaped like a pony (and is MUCH smaller than a normal ship [it's the size of a pony]) and is mistaking real ponies for other ships.
Amirite?

[Gravity012]

7736470
LOL I just figured that out to. I thought she went full pony, but she is still part ship.....I guess?

[Tanis]

7736470

I already suspected halfway through chapter 1, that Aurora's triangulation calculations where being thrown off by a drastic change in the size of her body, but Cadence's internal dialogue confirms it for me:

Had it made the huge skidmarks in the glacier?

Seems pretty clear to me that this poor starship has somehow been transmogrified into the size and form of a Pegasus; this has Discord's MO all over it, though from my limited understanding of the lore, i suspect he could not resist making his involvement known from the start, if indeed this was his doing.

[Bahamuttone]

she was lieing, or

Lying

Was this place was supposed to

remove

[tsaukpaetra]

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Battle readiness rating: 17 percent. System reconciliation required. Integration we testing recommended.