• Published 22nd Apr 2015
  • 6,783 Views, 735 Comments

Pony Class Starship - Viking Hoof



An A.I. awakens aboard the HKS Dancer, a desolate and quiet ship. The crew of which is nowhere to be found. And in the wake of all of this the A.I. discovers something.... something peculiar.

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Dancing With A Frigate In The Pale Moonlight

The coat wrapped around her barrel, across her back, and hung over her aft hull. There were sleeves for each of her forelegs, terminating just above each hoof. The white body of the coat was a proper crisp snowy shade of white, and the black was suitable enough for the cuffs, trim, shoulders, and decorative sash. The tailor hadn't managed the silver, it would take another craftsman to inlay silver and manufacture medals and buttons. She'd managed to talk the seamstress out of attempting the boots with cloth. The karpus was regulation enough. Its fit was the best she could arrange. The brim was a bit looser than she liked, a plastic brim might be a good fix.

Aurora murmured in pleasant satisfaction as she examined the handiwork in the mirror, it wasn't weatherproofed nano-fiber, it wasn't micro manufactured silk, it wasn't even poly-vinyl breathe weave, but the mare had done a decent job. Her equine features didn't cut a proper look at all, but the coat and cap themselves was up to standard... for barracks use. It'd just have to do. Would Gunnery Sergeant Perry say the same?

Aurora already knew what Gunnery Sergeant Perry would say. He'd laugh his head off at how cute she looked. The figure she cut wasn't just improper, it was cartoonish! He'd laugh his fucking head off, shortly before making some sort of innuendo about her horse ass.

"Dear, please stop fidgeting. You're ruining your dashing new uniform!" Aurora wondered briefly if it was a difference in taste that made the Rarity keep insisting that she looked dashing. Or perhaps it was the horse's investment into the outfit driving a misjudgment.

There were only a couple of species with the prized ability to remain extremely clear in judgement and carrying little bias. They unfortunately weren't known for their ambition or drive, often taking a small cushy job that provided enough to get by. Aurora had already figured out the horse's weren't very clear headed. She'd very nearly call them excessively obstinate and possessed of strong personality. At least, the ones she could get to talk. The guards seemed oath bound to shut their pie-holes.

Admittedly, her sample size was probably terrible. Five reportedly famous horses and a collection of royalty were very likely to be a bad slice of the population to act as a representative for horse-kind. On the other hand, if she did have an accurate segment from which to extrapolate the nature of horse kind...

It was fortunate that she was part biological, to put it simply. She could simply turn off the math whenever it began to go insane. Needless to say, it was very unlikely a stable horse society made up what she had met. It was very likely these were outliers behaviorally and social hierarchy wise. Sociological phenomenon for psychologists to dig into.

"There!" Oh, the white horse was done. Aurora gave herself another look in the mirror. She was an adorable laboratory pup horse thing, and the uniform still did nothing more than a red and white striped bow would have. "J-just so dashing! The white just stands out in a crowd!" Well, if it would help her negotiations with the Horse people...

"I'm glad it's turned out so well." In the back of her mind, Aurora picked up on a faint distant sound, a small sound. It was only a small snippet of her processing power that analyzed the sound, relying on reference computers to help it chug along. It was slightly more powerful than the processing power she'd dedicated to analyzing the cultural significance of the fact that horses had a non-dissimilar taste in clothing. At least as far as military uniforms were concerned, even if their guards looked like they’d crawled out of a classics as cartoons textbook. Neither were as powerful as the sociological program that'd come up with that "diplomatic" response she'd just uttered.


Aurora filed it away for later. She allowed the white horse to slip the coat off of her, and turned back to the mirror to take another look at herself. She frowned as she caught sight of her aft-quarter moving away. Moving back across her starboard length, she used the mirror to do a review of her outer-hull that she would normally do with local sensors.

She was starting to like her new form less and less by the second. Her eyes were too big, too exposed, her bulwarks were thin and flimsy. Her mighty propulsion seemed no more than frail feathers. Her sleek hull had been reshaped into this chumped up overgrown puppy. Not a single proper warning marking anywhere on her hull for moving parts or decompressive hatches. She felt... bare, even under the strange fur. Her handicapped cannons were a small consolation.

The hair wasn't bad though, she'd have to adjust her hologram whenever she left this place. She wondered if Counselor Ylva would like it. the lightened gray strands shimmered almost in an almost silvery fashion. It was a strong color match with her ridiculous blue eyes, and the two of them contrasted with her non-regulation darker steely gray fur coat surface.

“Is there a problem dear?” Rarity inquired. standing visible in the mirror behind Aurora.

“Just re-examining my current hull.” Aurora caught an odd look cross Rarity face. The frigate internally winced at the slip up, reminding herself that once again, she was not a ship right now.

“Is there anything else you need dear?” Aurora reviewed her plans for the day, searching for anything the tailor could help her with right at the moment. Rarity wouldn’t be much use in calculating sub-orbitals, nor would the horse likely be a scholared cartographer. Perhaps… no, the equines would probably not enjoy filling out a thorough skills and knowledge form.

"No, I just need some time to think."

Author's Note:

My attempt at the uniform's coat.

Hey everypony, bet you thought I was dead. Just want to announce a few things.

1) Yes I'll be writing this again, I really intend to push myself into a writing mindset again.

2) I'm running a couple of online tabletop rpgs (pre-made campaigns, so won't take away too much from my writing.) One is midnight Central Time Saturdays, which is already in progress through a star wars campaign. And one is going to be run on Tuesdays which will be set in a sort of muskets in space roleplay, or be plain vanilla star wars.

3) I'm going to need an editor again now that I'm writing again.

4) I intend to go back and basically "fill in" the plotholes/contradictions left wherever I'd have one idea early on that changed later. There's a lot of ideas I had that changed a few chapters in, and I intend to edit the earlier chapters to make the story less confused. If any of you'd like to help, go ahead and go through and see if you spot any plotholes/contradictions. People who help will probably be listed on the relevant edited chapters.

5) I don't intend to re-post old chapters after editing, I will simply edit the already edited ones and note a change-log of older chapters in the Author's notes like this one.