A City of Light, Alone in the Dark

by aduck

The Fine Art of Making Friends (2)

Part 2

Zack had long since come to the conclusion that there would always be something that would surprise him on Babylon Five. After everything that had happened in the last two years, it was inevitable. Some surprises were dangerous, like when that biological energy weapon was smuggled onto the station, almost destroying it. Some were just weird and unknowable, like when Babylon Four had somehow appeared out of time just long enough for the crew to be evacuated, only to disappear again.

And sometimes, there were good surprises. Like when the newest ambassador and her attache sat down at the same table he was eating breakfast at, and asked if they could join him.

“Well of course. I’m fine with you joining me. Zack Allen, Station Security. You are Ambassador Twilight Sparkle and Attache Spike, right?”

Said ambassador nodded as the dragon beside her took a seat. Ambassador Twilight’s horn lit up, and the chair she was standing in front of...changed for a lack of a better word. The back was removed, the seat was raised, and a large, red, circular pillow appeared on top of the seat. It was also at this time that Zack noticed that the plate of food next to Ambassador Twilight was just floating in the air, surrounded by a purple sparkling light.

Zack blinked rapidly as the ambassador sat down upon the changed stool. Spike smiled at him. “Don’t worry, she’ll change it back once she’s done.”

Zack shook his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just...even with all the weird things I have seen on this station, I have never seen anything like that before. How, ah, exactly did you do that?”

A small grin appeared on Twilight's face. “Magic. More specifically, transformation magic. You see, Clover the Clever first theorized-”

“Twilight, you’re starting to lecture again.” Spike interjected, halting Twilight’s rambling.

“Opps.” Her cheeks gained a soft red tinge. “Thank you Spike.” She turned back to Zack. “The long and short of it is magic, though if you want a more comprehensive explanation I will happily mail you the information.”

“No thanks. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds interesting, but I have enough on my plate as it is.” The three began eating in a comfortable silence.

“So Ambassador, why did you come here to sit down?”

Twilight paused in her eating. “Mainly to meet you. Well, not you as in you Zack Allen, but to meet you, the member of Station Security. You see, my BBBFF-”

“Big Brother Best Friend Forever.” Spike interjected. The dragon didn’t even have to look up to know Zach had a perplexed look on his face.

“Right, my BBBFF was a member of the Royal Guard, a protector of Equestria. He even was promoted to Captain of the Guard. One of the things he told me was that one thing that made a guards day was meeting and being thanked by civilians for doing his job. I made it a point to thank guards back on Equ...on the Sphere, and I will do so here. Also, it’s a good way to make friends.”

“So it is. Well, thanks for your thanks.” The sound of cutlery on plates and bowls resumed at the table.

“Darn. I was really hoping that the food would improve here on the station over that on the Icarus.”

“Spike, don’t complain like that.”

“It’s alright, everyone complains about the food. It’s just one of the downsides of living on a space station.”

“Really, how come.”

Zack once again had a series of fast blinks as he noticed a small notepad and pen being levitated in the air. To his left Spike just groaned softly.

“Well, you see, even with hyperspace it still takes a long time for anything to reach Babylon Five. A direct line to Earth is about forty or so hours, but that’s mainly for passengers. Our food takes a much less direct route. Large resupply ships stop at multiple colonies in a circle, with Babylon Five being at one stop. As a result, our food has to be frozen, and so it tastes…less good.”

“Frozen, lower quality…” the notepad snapped shut, and both it and the pen disappeared into a small pack slung over Twilight’s back. Thanks for the explanation.” Twilight then looked down at her now empty plate.

“Seem’s like it is time to go. Spike, are you finished?”

The young dragon quickly scooped the last of his oatmeal into his mouth. A large gulping sound emanated from his throat. “Yup, all done.” Spike stood up. “Nice meeting you Zack.”

“Indeed. It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope we are able to eat together again in the future.” With that, Twilight removed herself from her chair.

“And it was nice meeting the both of you as well. I hope you have a good day.” The new residences of Babylon Five walked off out of the cafe’s area. Zack noticed a scroll appear out of the bag. The pen flicked over the scroll once, and then both were placed in the pouch.

Looking back at the table, Zack noticed that the chair had returned to its original form. He chuckled. “Always something on this station.” With that Zack resumed eating.

A beeping noise from his hand grabbed Zack’s attention. A female voice came from his comlink. “Security control to Zack.”

With practiced ease, Zack tapped the comlink on the back of his hand. “Zack here.”

“We have a report of a robbery in your area. Suspect is a human; a young, black-haired female. It appears to be a snatch and grab.”

“Understood, I’m on it. Zack out.” The finger tapped the comlink again. Zack took a brief moment to stare longingly at the uneaten portion of his breakfast. With a sigh, he stood up. “Yup, always something.”

Author's Note:

Ah, Zack. Babylon Five is host to many fine characters. Zack Allen will always hold a special place in my heart though. While not my favorite, I do love him for being a simple nice guy without being boring. On a station where character's are constantly evolving, for better or worse, Zack remains basically the same. He's kind and friendly. He supports his friends.

Zack is arguably the third least developed main character on the show, behind that fighter pilot from Season 2 who was forced on the show for marketing purposes and was promptly killed off, and Lieutenant Corwin, the background C&C guy who hanged around and survived long enough to get in the title screen credits in season five. I appreciate Zack for this. He doesn't need to change, doesn't need to be a mover in a universe full of people making big impacts. The world could use more Zack Allens, and he is my fourth favorite character for it.

As always, all constructive criticism is much appreciated. And since last time I got great advice from Vinx, this time I will ask about something else: Description. Now, I know it is something I'm not good at. I just don't posses an understanding of what vocabulary to use when describing things, beyond the basic colors. This mainly stems from my own lack of interest in these things. As a result, I write with minimalistic descriptions to try to avoid confusion, both on my end and on yours.

However, this is a crossover. That means there must be at least some people giving this a shot who have never watched Babylon Five (Which you totally should. If you like MLP, you'll like B5, so long as you get past the pilot episode/movie.) So to you, I ask this: Do I need (more) descriptions, and if so of what?

Comments

[Vinx]

For me personally your amount of descripions/telling is good enough, but thats mostly due to B5 being my most favorite show, so i can guess were Zack was eating. Someone who doesnt know B5 that good might be puzzled and wonder.

So i always asked myself if some location or item is important, interessting, viable to set the mood, or simply good fluff.
If the answere is yes, i would introduce it, describe it or tell about it, if not i would leave it to the imagination of the reader.
In this case, i would have said it could be good fluff and used to set the mood, telling that zack is eating breakfast at a resaurant on the promenade, maybe the cheap eclipse cafe, which is part of the zocalo, the most busiest locations on the whole station, with all the shops, bars, kiosks, resaurants and what not, and if i remember correcly one of the locations he spents at least half of his work hours, and encounters a lot of his suprises.

I hope this might give you some idea how you can decide for yourself if you should introduce/describe/tell about something, and dont worry about your descriptions being minimalistic or simple, that actually makes it easy to understand and accessible, especially for those who arent native english speakers.

Also, kudos for Zack, hes one of my favorites too

[aduck]

6712715
Once again, thanks for the advice. Hopefully tomorrow I can work on that and clean up this part. No seriously thanks. It means so much more to me to see you offering correction and advice, because it means that my work is worth correcting.

Also, out of curiosity, who's your favorite B5 character. Mine's Vir, who has far to many nice guy bad ass moments, from "Abrohano Lincano" to his request of Mr. Morden's "associates", and fully coming into his own during seasons four and five.

[Vinx]

6713001 Again, youre very welcome. Afterall youre writting a story i enjoy so far, and i nearly cant wait to see were it will go, and im grateful for that. So the least i can do, is to return the favor a bit by trying to help when you ask for advice.

Oh yes, Vir is a funny and well designed character, and especially his character development in the 4th and 5th season i great.
Nailing down one favorite is hard for me, so id rather say i have multiple favorites, and one of those favorites is actually the synergy between two characters.
In no particular order:

Gkar and Londo - those two are just gold, and the development between those two is one of the best, especially the kind of friendship they create. And those dialoges, damn, if someone would ask me what the most funny thing in B5 is, id say those two.

Ivanova - shes one of my favorites due to her crazy personality, and her hard but still human outer layer, which especially is done great when you see those moments were is obvious that its actually her way of trying to not get hurt again. Many say shes a hollow character there to poke fun and create jokes, but in my opinion those people never saw the hour of the wolf, her interactions with marcus, and what happend to her after marcus gave his live to save her.

Zack - some say hes lacking a character development, id say hes a great character type. Hes funny, reliable, nice and helpful, stays true to his friends, and even with everything going crazy all the time, he just accepts it and goes on, solid like a rock.

Bester - this is propably a suprise, i dont like the character himself, but i like how hey show that even this creepy selfish guy who many would call a monster, still has a little bit of his humanity left.

[tinmanbrony]

when is the next chapter?

[Vailen]

I take it this story is dead, which is a shame seeing as I love B5 and this looked promising

[Shenzy]

Not like i needed further proof but... B5 !?

okayyy so this settles there is no story which never was written, as long it does contain ponies XD