9: The Derelict part 2
Within the hour, Prism was out in the water swimming for the large hole they had detected earlier. Silver cast the submarine’s two powerful spotlights towards the location, scaring away a school of fish in the process. Prism’s suit had flippers on her back hooves and larger ones for her wings-turned-fins.
Prism poked her snout into the shadow wrapped cave. The water current was mildly flowing past the front of the hole, but was deathly calm to and from the opening itself. Prism flipped on her twin helmet lamps, burning away the darkness to reveal a silt and debris covered square hallway. Green and blue grime covered metal and dead coral stretched all the way to a far wall where the hallway bent away.
What perplexed Prism most was that underneath the very fine layer of fungi, she could see the sharp lines of the upper walls and metal ceiling. The hallway itself was also much larger than that of any made by ponies. It’s like it was built for super sized alicorns. ~“Silver, how’s the transmission; getting both audio and visual?”~
~“Reading you five by five. Good luck in there.”~
Leaning down to look at a small crystal strapped to her foreleg, Prism momentarily closed her eyes and focused on pulling her magic into her leg. The act came easily and soon flooded her left foreleg. The crystal soon sprang to life and started leaving a soft amber trail behind it as Prism swung her leg around to test it out. The glow remained steady and the amber glowing trail refused to dissipate or drift away.
~“Alright, I’m going in. You better start thinking of ways to nail Firefly while I’m busy.”~ Using her broad wings as flippers, Prism propelled herself deeper into the sunken vessel. The bend in the hallway led to a fork in the path. However, one of those paths had collapsed long ago, leaving her only one path to take, one that lead deeper inside.
~“Sure thing, PF.”~ Silver rolled his eyes out of anger for Firefly. Not that I can with you out there in the water.
Unknowing of Silver’s lack of compliance, Prism focused on her surroundings. Down several more hallways and through a few broken floors, Prism made it to a point where the calcium and salt build ups were much rarer. Passing into a suite sized room, Prism found the first signs of furniture. A table undoubtedly bolted to the floor was now little more than a thin wire mesh. The once taut and clean wires were now little more than bulbous rusty looking spokes. Out of curiosity, Prism tried brushing away at the rust, only for it to flake away entirely to leave behind untarnished metal. Stainless steel maybe?
The rotted remains of four chairs were close by, yet had been scattered throughout the room by the forces that had sunk the vessel. Finally, there was what Prism assumed was a topled vending machine in the corner, it’s front door cracked open. Its contents spilled out and lost many years ago. The large room had several places where the floor and ceiling had crumbled and fallen away.
Must have been made of flimsier material then the hallways. ~“I think I found some kind of commissary or lounge. Pity there’s nothing to drink.”~
Silver huffed in amusement. ~“If you’re thirsty, there’s plenty of water all around you.”~
Prism huffed and started swimming over to the hole closest to the sensor blank spot. ~“I have an air filter, not a salt filter, dingus.”~
~“All I hear are excuses,”~ Silver fired back with a shot in the dark at playful banter.
~“I’ll try it after you, wise guy.”~ Prism cut her cajoling short after spotting a hole in the floor that led into a room with an almost empty passageway. ~“How’s my position?”~
It took Silver a moment or two to switch gears back to business. ~“Ahh… yes. Lemme see… you’re just twenty meters directly above it now.”~
Prism pulled out a hoof sized scanner and focused it on the water itself. ~“My tricorder’s not picking up any kind of radiation or toxins. At least nothing my suit can’t keep out.”~
~“Right. Link it to the radio so I can keep it active while you move.”~
~“Acknowledged.”~ Prism returned the scanner to her belt and slipped down the hole and saw that she landed in what looked like a basketball court, sans the raised baskets at anyrate.
~“So can you tell me if the history books are telling the truth about those tricorders?”~ Silver asked with genuine curiosity.
Prism continued her exploration, but briefly looked up quizzically in the general direction she thought the submarine was. ~“Why would I know anything about the history of these things? I never trained with them outside of the water since the rover’s sensors are normally enough.”~
Silver couldn’t hide the grin in his voice. ~“Oh come on, don’t give me that. The books say your mother invented the first tricorder like… a hundred and fifteen years ago named it after a prop from an even older TV show.”~
Prism came to a dead halt and looked back at the tricorder on her belt with new eyes. ~“You know what… I could totally see her doing that.”~ Scoffing at her mother’s ancient antics before pressing forward again. She came across a small set of double doors that led into a deep shaft straight down. ~“Anyway, I think I found an elevator shaft. It should take me where the pocket is.”~
~“Copy that.”~
Prism’s journey down the shaft brought her down, near very bottom of the sunken vessel. Glancing around, she discovered a gaping hole leading to where she needed to go. However, something caught her eye, making her turn off her headlamps.
It took her eyes a moment to adjust, but sure enough, she could see a faint ripple in the water coming from one of the side room at the far end of the hallway. She pulled out her tricorder in hopes pointing it at the disturbance give a cleaner picture. ~“Umm… Silver. Are you sure you checked that my entry point was the fastest way here?”
~“That’s what it looked like on the sensors. Why?”
Irritation had yet to creep into her voice, but it was leaning more heavily towards curiosity. “I’m seeing water movement coming out of the room where the blank spot is.”
“Odd. But like I said though, the sensors can’t see past that pocket. So whatever it is might be causing it. So ya might wanna be careful in case it’s some sleeping monster or something.”~
~“That’d be my luck alright.”~ Prism slowly crept forward towards the disturbance, and was being meticulous in checking for possible aquatic threats or loose debris. ~“I’m surprised so much of the ship’s bones is still in one piece.”~
~“Not much can stand up to the ocean for this long. Probably worth collecting a sample of it later with the drill.”~
~“Well that’s what we’re here for.”~ Prism spotted a particularly unstable looking collection of broken and twisted metal debris hanging precariously from the ceiling.
Silver spoke with only a hint of a lecture as Prism carefully navigated under the obstacle. ~“Just be careful. There’s no telling if some other part of the ship might collapse on you.”~
~“I don’t plan on doing anything stupid, mom.”~
With only a few meters left to go, Prism scrutinized the entryway. It looked much like a metal sliding door that had gotten stuck half open. Given the estimated larger size of the original aliens, even being half open was more than enough for Prism to slip through.
Within the chamber, Prism’s headlamps fell upon a huge bubble of air that pressed against the floor and ceiling of the chamber. She went wide eyed upon seeing what laid within that air pocket. Now that her helm-cameras were in full view of the pocket, Silver could see it as well, and was in no less shock.
Just inside the bubble were thirteen of the same aliens Prism saw from the artifact dig sight. One was ethereal like the hologram from before while ten others were in what Prism assumed what might have originally been a meditative stance. Those aliens and the hologram had turned their gaze towards the final alien who was frozen in an accusing gesture at the artifact with one hand outstretched. In that hand was a hoof-sized device that was the dead center of the frozen scene. Lastly, the group of meditators were all nude, presumably waiting their turn at the artifact. The one with the device however was wearing a drab brown robe.
Prism used a camera to zoom in on it, revealing the device was of a sleek cylindrical design with the alien’s thumb pressing down on one end. Must be the trigger.
Lastly, standing before the artifact itself was a smaller alien that was kneeling forward in obvious pain. Prism’s face turned icy after noticing one of the alien’s left arms looked as if it was retracted in on itself while the other left was becoming thicker and musclebound. That arm’s hand had already lost any of slender, dexterous appearance it once had for a long thick flipper. A large prehensile tail with scales was growing out of the alien as well.
“By Celestia’s sunburned plot! They were even turning people into marine life too?” Prism assumed the strange looks on the rest of the aliens was one of surprise directed to the time freezer, and not at the changing one. “Do you think maybe this is how Equestria ended up with so many sentient species evolving all at once?”
~“Wouldn’t that screw with historians. And how come you can swear by a princess, but I can’t?”~ Silver asked with obvious indignation.
Prism sighed in forced annoyance. ~“You know darn well you picked the wrong one.”~
Silver hummed nonchalantly before his tone grew more serious. “So I guess not all of the aliens wanted to become animals after all.”
Prism eyed the aliens who had been meditating. ~“Buncha weirdos.”~ What could drive people to do that to themselves? Prism pulled her eyes away from the scene to focus more on the anomaly that was keeping an air pocket in between the aliens and the ocean. ~“How about those scanners? Can you pick up any readings now?”~
~“Ahh… stand by.”~ Silver’s hooves danced over the controls, trying every trick he knew to get anything to work. Yet time after time the readouts were either complete blanks or were only detecting the water on the other side of the bubble. ~“I don’t understand it. I’m not getting a thing out of any of it.”~
Prism let herself bob up and down in the water, mind churning. ~“You think it might be time freeze magic?”~
Silver was quiet for a few moments as he remembered protocol regarding such a thing. ~“I don’t… think so. I should be getting some Starswirl particles, but I’m still reading zeros across the board. As far as the instruments are concerned, we must be hallucinating.”~
~“The camera too, huh? You better radio this to Command. Mom or Spike should know what to make of this.”~
Twilight Sparkle was rather enjoying the view of a modified elevator going up to her office. Without the need of radiation protection for outer space, the elevator was now able to offer a grand window view of the colony facing the dormitories, the new housing units, and the ocean beyond all of it.
It was exactly that new housing which was the focus of her attention. In rows of two with a thin street between them, over four hundred houses now stretched from the base of the rover hub and curved slightly to be parallel with the ocean to allow for maximum ‘beach-front’ property.
Each house was completely airtight, save for the individual air purifiers. Each of them had a modest-sized front and backyard with Equestrian grass that seemed quite capable of thriving on this new world. Additionally, the houses lacked any sort of customization to the point where they were criticized by being too cookie cutter.
I don’t see what the fuss is about. Ponies can always repaint and decorate their homes as they wish later.
Today was the day that the first of the houses, namingly Twilight’s, would be declared fit for habitation. She was giddy to pull all of her data slates and office materials out and relocate to her home. In this day and age, who needs a dedicated office and court hall when I can do that anywhere that can accept calls and has displays.
Twilight’s mind was alight with countless ideas on how to personalize her new home. Should I go with wall to wall books, or just settle with candles that give off that old library smell? Maybe something more modern while still keeping a book motif? I definitely need to set up a personal observatory before the month’s out.
Twilight’s musings were interrupted by a priority one alert with Spike’s hologram materializing before Twilight could fully register the alert. Any sort of complaint she had died at his stony face. ~“Twilight, we’ve got a problem. Prism found a potential Starlight Violation.”~
~“An SV? Unless we missed a temporal storm on the way in, isn’t that a little overkill?”~ All she got was him tapping his foot and crossing his arms. Sometimes I miss that old sense of humor of his. ~“More of the aliens’ legacy I presume?”~ A small nod was all Twilight needed to order the empty lift to reverse direction back towards the command deck.
~“‘Fraid so.”~ Spike gestured and sent Twilight a live feed from Prism’s helmet along with a separate replay of Prism’s journey through the sunken ship just incase Twilight saw something Spike missed. ~“I think the source of it is that small device in the clothed alien’s hand.”~
Twilight mentally ordered the feed to zoom in on the offending alien’s hand. Sure enough, there was a gunmetal grey egg shaped device in it’s hand. She slowly exhaled out of disappointment. ~“These aliens are making me wish we picked a different planet.”~
Spike shook his head and shrugged. ~“Well to be fair, we had no way of knowing we’d find any of this. I’ve already ordered a transport to be ready for you and wet suit as well.”~
~“Good I’ll be down shortly”~ Twilight used the time to fully watch Prism’s decent since the live feed was currently unmoving. Twilight furrowed her brow at the sheer lack of life and overgrowth in the spaces near the bubble. “No… It can’t be.” Twilight switched her radio to Prism just as the elevator opened up. She walked into the passageway at a brisk pace towards Central Command. ~“Prism, turn the camera to the edge of the bubble again.”~
With a word of acknowledgement, Prism turned her gaze to the edge. As before, there was a noticeable gap between the water and the edge of the untouched carpet of the frozen room. ~“So weird isn’t it, momma? It’s like the air is somehow pushing back the water.”~
The hairs on the back of Twilight’s neck stood on end as realization struck her. ~“Prism, please tell me you didn’t come into contact with any of it!”~
The fear in Twilight's voice put Prism on edge, making her back away from the bubble. ~“Well… no. I’m not stupid.”~
A little relief slowed Twilight’s hasty speech down. ~“Okay, good girl. Just - just keep it that way. Go ahead and find a safe point for the submarine to burrow a shortcut to the exterior. This might take some doing.”~
~“Roger that.”~
By now, Twilight had reached her destination, and entered to find Spike hovering around his command station with several other ponies mostly focused on watching over patrols keeping animal life away from the colony. “There you are, Spike, we need to initiate a temporal anchor over the colony. Recall all the patrols, and have the Pathfinders stay with their rovers. We need a full temporal stabilization of the colony.”
The operators stared wide eyed at Twilight, none of them even remotely believing they’d ever have such an event occur at all. Spike coolly barked an order at them. “You heard the princess, get to it!”
Everyone jumped into frantic action as Twilight stepped up to Spike’s side. “Voyager, execute Omega Protocol on standby mode.”
With a short musical chirp of acknowledgement, the AI’s voice cut in. “Acknowledged. Recalibrating atmospheric mana for chronal rebuffering. Informing exterior work crews and military personel. All interior civilians will only be alerted upon crisis elevation. What which point, all personnel are mandated to find their designated spell array and await further instructions.”
All throughout the colony’s air circulation network, atmospheric mana was kept at a stable concentration. Only now, those vents were altering it, slowly giving the air a blue tint. It brought a tear to Twilight eye upon sensing the faint change, for it was one of the last projects she and Celestia had worked on in brighter, happier days.
Spike broke Twilight out of her thoughts by leaning into her ear. “Are you sure all this is necessary though? I thought time-stop bubbles only affected themselves and maybe the immediate surroundings.”
“That’s the standing theory, yes. However, I don’t like the fact that there’s an air pocket when for all rights there shouldn’t be one, let alone how relatively untouched the interior is. All time-stop bubbles ever used in Equestria were maintained not only from the outside, but also for very short periods; a year at the very most.
“There’s no data or study on one that’s been active as long as this one has. Yet it’s the fact that it’s influencing the area outside of itself that worries me.”
Spike hummed in agreement. “Do you think it’s an immediate danger?”
“I won’t know that ‘til I get there.” Twilight sent a mental command to her transport to fly over and hover near the Command Center’s massive window. “But all the same, I’d like to try canceling the bubble safely and rescue those aliens from being crushed by the ocean at the same time.”
Spike was mildly taken aback by the statement of rescue, not for the sentiment, but for how it could be done at all. “Only you would think to cast a barrier able to withstand oceanic pressure like that.”
Twilight grinned and winked at Spike. “What can I say? It’s in my blood.” Twilight telekinetically pulled a spare environment suit of hers from the lockers near the room’s entryway, speaking as she deftly put it on. “This is an opportunity we can’t miss.”
“Uh huh,” Spike answered at length. “And what about the fact that at least one of them committed a Starlight Violation?”
Twilight had enough of her suit on for it to begin the boot and perform its checklist sequence. “Protocol is clear: they are to be treated like Equestrian citizens until their government can be contacted. Assuming they have one anymore.”
Spike became rather stiff at that. “Are you sure that’s wise? Their government could be violent. Even if these aliens are not, it’s clearly been a long time since they’ve been in the loop, they could have become aggressively xenophobic as time has passed.”
Twilight paused for a few long moments before eventually donning her helmet. “That is a risk to be sure. But at the end of the day, these aliens have obvious claim over this world, albeit an old one. I still don’t believe their whole civilization would have allowed themselves to regress into animals. Better our first contact with them include some of their rescued people than cold turkey.”
Spike ground his teeth before speaking his next words. “I hate to say this, but I have to agree. Be careful down there, and may Elysian winds guide you.”
With a sisterly smile, Twilight pecked Spike on the cheek. “Hold the fort while I’m gone.” A moment later, Twilight teleported through the window, near the shuttle. Soon after ducking inside the passenger bay, the craft tore off towards a supply depot to pick up some special equipment she would need.
As Twilight’s shuttle closed the distance, Prism was keyed in on the submarine’s biggest feature: a mana drill. Traditionally used for underwater mining, the smaller pathfinder version allowed large samples to be taken for any number of reasons. As it stood, the drill was serving that function at this very moment.
With Prism’s inside perspective, her helmet displayed the phantom of where the beam would be firing and guided the drill until it was directed in such a way that it would give a straight run to the outside, but without hitting the time-bubble. ~“Alright, Silver, start slow and ramp up. I don’t want this alien hull having some random mana reflective crap going back on you.”~
~“Aye aye, cap’n!”~
Prism groaned at Silver’s bad pirate accent. Ultimately though, most of that time was uneventful in the undisturbed chamber. It was well over an hour before the first sparks of the drill pierced their way into the room, another ten minutes for the cut to be completed. The hull had started to form a molten ring two ponies in diameter. Hot mana carved through the derelict with trival ease, allowing Prism to rest easier. As soon as they had come, the mana beams faded away with a tractor beam-ish aura bathing the severed piece. With a grinding effort, the submarine slowly pulled the piece away.
Prism was now free to swim out and made her way towards the airlock where a nozzle and hose were ready for her after sliding out of a panel. ~“Keep close, Silver. The hose doesn’t go very far.”~
~“You got it.”~
Prism went right work, if only so she could distract her mind from having to think about the job. Honestly. I signed up to see the skies, spelunk caves, discover new plants, and eat them. Not rutting spraying foam on stupid water collectables!
I should have told Ruby to go shove it with this assignment. There are plenty of other ancient aliens to find on dry land, why did she have to rub it all in my face, huh?
Despite her constant grumblings, Prism was able to coat the hull sample with sufficient foam for it to start floating the whole piece up to the surface for airborne retrieval.
Prism watched it go with smoldering disdain until she noticed a pony shaped objected pass the sample by. Her frown inverted in an instant after recognizing her mother. ~“Momma, you’ll never guess what I found under the rug!”~
Twilight let off a snark filled ‘ha’ and she continued to swim down, trailing a large train of equipment strapped to her tail. The faint light of a series of auto-ballast regulators kept the equipment from dragging her down to the sea floor. ~“You know, young lady, you need to find better friends than dust bunnies and spare change.”~
~“Well I’ve finally decided to take your advice,”~ Prism replied with a burst of laughter. ~“Got a whole bunch of real friends down here, but they’re pretty stiff at the moment.”~
Twilight came to a halt in front of Prism and they shared a quick hug. “Well then, let’s see if I can do something about that.”
With Silver keeping a wary eye on the island sized leviathan that was still lingering within sonar range, Twilight and Prism took three hours setting up the myriad of equipment she had brought with her. Powered both by a powercell from the submarine and a dozen crystals Twilight had also brought, the final set up was a collection of shield emitters and other pointy equipment Prism was unfamiliar with.
There were twelve of the odd devices in total, each as tall as Twilight, with skeletal satellite dishes pointing directly at the time-stop device, and hummed with a power that felt terribly wrong to Prism. Just being near one of them made the magic they were leaking feel oily on her skin, the air she breathed tinted with brimstone, and her stomach doing flips if she even came close to touching one.
Twilight had just finished the last connections when Prism started swimming over to confront her about it. ~“Alright, Voyager, start testing the setup. Let me know when everything is greenlighted.”~
She never heard the AI’s acknowledgement when Prism called out to her upon arriving close by. “Mom, why exactly are you using so much dark magic in those ray guns?”
Twilight arched an eyebrow at the description. “I’m surprised you can feel that through so much shielding. But yes, it is dark magic.” She saw the shock and heavy concern crossing her daughter’s face and held up a restraining hoof. “Dark magic has more uses than just decontamination, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Twilight added slowly with a morose tone. She shook it off to adapt her more common lecturing voice. “Dark magic has specific properties that will be needed to collapse the time bubble. I’m worried that normal arcane mana will not suffice for a bubble that’s distorting the world around it so much that none of our sensors can pierce it.”
“It’s not going to corrupt us then? What about the aliens?”
Twilight nodded in shared worry and eyed the scene with contemplative half-frown. “Dark magic is a lot like fire. It can be quite useful as long as you keep it at arm’s length. Which is why we’re using the emitters. As for the aliens… hopefully they’ll only experience a brief moment of discomfort, which I’m hoping they’ll chalk up to suddenly finding themselves hundreds if not thousands of years in the future.” Assuming they can feel dark magic at all. Twilight cast a curious eye at her daughter, sensing there was something unusual about the state of Prism’s alicorn magic.
Strange… It’s like Prism’s magic is trying to compensate for something, but has no outlet. With any answer remaining elusive, and sensing nothing dark about the abnormality, Twilight let it be to focus on the moment.
~“Network setup successful, Colonial Princess. Shall I activate the sequence?”~
Speaking to both daughter and AI, Twilight turned to watch the aliens. ~“Begin on my mark, Voyager.”~ “Prism, stay close me. As much as I don’t like being this close to the bubble when it pops, we need to be close by so the aliens don’t panic and try to attack the shield projectors.”
Prism looked down at her suit, humming all the while. “Well, if they might think we’re just more animals, at least the suits should keep that thought very brief. I’m ready when you are.”
Using her circlet to get the exact spell matrix right, Twilight cast a large rune under both her and Prism’s hooves. The lavender word of power resonated in Prism’s gut as she observed the skittering sprites of mana be distorted by the water. “Feed your mana into the rune. It will anchor us to the regular flow of time.”
With her years of mana manipulation, Prism had no trouble projecting her mana through her hooves and into the rune. The word of power took on amber highlights to compliment the lavender primary hues. “So we’re totally safe on this rune thing?”
“Safe enough that I don’t think it will risk the baby.”
Twilight’s words mollified Prism considerably, allowing her to exhale most of her tension away. “Ready when you are.”
Waiting until Prism’s footing was steady, Twilight returned her attention to the time-frozen aliens. ~“Okay, Voyager, hit it.”~
Both mares watched as the shield emitters sparked to life first, forming an encompassing shield over the air pocket and tracing along the floor and ceiling in case of collapse. The barrier took on a honeycombed appearance due to being composed of millions of tiny hexagons.
Shortly after the shield let off a sheen glow to announce its full power, dark magic started oozing out of the other machines. Three rings of concentric circles quickly formed from the dishes and the dark magic coalesced into solid beams. Eight of them all directed at the chrono device.
The effect was immediate, bursts of energy were flying off the time-bubble as it squirmed and deformed wildly under the assault. Both mares felt a gut-punch as the rune of protection yanked at their mana to shield them from a nasty whiplash of chrono-charged energy. Prism risked a look backwards to see a large rust covered gash stretching all the way through to the outside, with two pony shaped outlines marring the otherwise straight cleave.
“It’s just like I thought,” Twilight yelled over the rumbling, churning water that was building around them. “A lot of force and energy got caught between the bubble and the normal flow of time!” Another lash of energy cracked through the room.
Twilight’s equipment was none the worse for wear, being sheathed in protective dark magic, but the mares were losing their breath to the increasingly heavy mana cost of their own protection. “The beams have to tunnel through it to end the anomaly.”
A band of solid white light started forming just above the surface of the bubble, and quickly became all encompassing. Prism watched in awe as the dark magic beams easily carved through this new barrier, with cracks starting to form at the entry points like glass. Prism shielded her eyes with a wing a moment before it all shattered, throwing a torrent of magic in all directions.
A big piece of it slammed into the ponies, rocking Twilight on her hooves and knocking the wind out of her due to the extreme mana cost from the rune. Prism was flat on the ground in a barely lucid state. Prism’s legs felt as heavy as lead, her wings felt like pins and needles were constantly attacking her, and a migraine was pounding in her skull.
Twilight took a few second to finally get some air again, but when she looked up, the aliens were moving . “It worked! Chalk another one up for Purple Smart!”
“Laaaammeee,” Prism wheezed and coughed dryly. Prism tried to speak further, but nothing came out of her throat but soft dry wheezing. Her ears were ringing badly and spots filled her eyes.
Twilight was torn between tending to her daughter and the aliens who were starting to argue violently between each other, seemingly obvious to their surroundings. The war in her mind barely lasted an instant. Twilight scooped Prism up in her magic and sprint swam through the opening towards the submarine. Shouting and a pained animal screamed came from behind her, but it was all secondary.
~“Engineer Silver Glow, status report!”~
The bat pony’s panicked voice practically jumped over the radio. ~“Everything’s fine here, Princess. The backlash faded before the rune was even taxed to a tenth of it’s power.”~
~“Good, get that first aid kit out and have the ether ready. Prism’s going into mana-withdrawal!”~ All Prism had to say for herself was non verbal moaning as she kept drifting away from consciousness.
By the time Twilight reached the submarine, Silver remotely opened the outside hatch. Twilight quickly deposited Prism inside and used a tether to anchor her to the inner wall. ~“Take care of her, engineer, I have to tend to our guests.”~
Using what little spare magic she had left, Twilight made sure none of Prism’s limbs got caught in the admittedly cramped airlock as the door shut. With her daughter secure with Silver, Twilight turned to swim back to the aliens, only hear a piercing squeal rattle the wall, coming from the derelict ship.
The squeal and the flood lights coming from the hole were suddenly silenced by a single clapping crash of water, and a huge air bubble rushing for the surface.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” Twilight raged at seeing two still aliens float up along with the escaping air. She bolted through the water as fast as she could towards the site. Were they suicidal or something?! Her hopes rose a smidgen as the lighting returned, but was flickering almost as badly as a strobe light.
Upon swooping into the chamber, Twilight was stunned to find an elephant sized purplish-black monster that was in the later stages of drowning with it’s thrashing coming to a halt. The beast was bulbous and malformed with cancerous growths making it a miserable looking thing. Twilight didn’t need centuries of experience to feel the entirety of both the arcane and black magic roiling around inside the beast.
With a burst of her own magic, Twilight blasted the creature with a spell of Cadence’s creation. The act crystallized the magic before it could prove dangerous and ended the creature’s suffering. Was that the alien who was getting mutated by the artifact?
That thought jarred Twilight into searching rapidly for said artifact, only to sigh in relief that the thing’s crystals were dark and the rest of it was entirely inert. Yet she had no time to savor that relief when she noticed movement in the dark.
Finding one of the shield arrays that still had a functioning floodlight, Twilight wrapped it up in her magic and directed it at the movement. There she found a single alien thrashing in a small concave part of the ceiling where a small pocket of air somehow avoid being pushed out.
“One survived?!” Not having any other recourse, or way to ask for permission, Twilight zapped the alien with a sleep spell to allow her to press it’s limbs against its body, then put the alien in her stasis spell. I don’t think he’ll mind a few more hours in stasis… assuming it is a he, or if they even have hes.
With the alien secure and protected, Twilight unclipped a gas canister from her suit’s belt and brought it over to the air pocket. From there she collected a large sample. Don’t want you possibly choking on our air, now do we?
Back in the submarine, Silver pulled Prism out of the airlock and worked the clasps to get her helmet off. Prism’s eyes were rolling around, and she was muttering nonsensically to herself.
“Come on, Prism, you can tough out mana exhaustion.” Silver ignored the water from her suit soaking into his uniform and fur while he attempted to bring her around.
His efforts were brief after the onboard computer chirped an alert. “Warning: crewmember Prism Flash’s life signs are fading. Acute organ failure imminent. Alerting colony medical.”
“Organ failure? How?!” SIlver’s hoof practically shot into the first aid kit he had brought with him. “Ahh - umm - ether right? That what the princess said, so where is it!?” Pulling the first tray of medical supplies off, he found a large bottle of liquid with big stenciled letters reading ‘ether’ on the front. He popped the cap off and cradled Prism’s head just like his first aid training told him.
He gently started pouring the contents down her throat after Prism proved unresponsive. “What the hell, Prism. I thought only unicorns could die from mana exhaustion.”
The ether had a cascade effect upon hitting her stomach acid. Mana bloomed forth, filling every cell in her body in a wave of energy. The instant this wave hit her brain Prism started trying to breath and promptly coughed up the ether in her mouth. Silver kept her from flailing about, but did allow her to roll over. She gagged at the tongue spasmingly foul taste of ether and exhaled in a wheeze, but only dense blue vapor escaped her maw.
“Ugh, that’s disgusting!” Prism hacked and unceremoniously spat a blue wad of gunk onto the floor.
“Crewmember life signs stabilizing. Standing down medical alert.”
Silver slumped in relief as Prism started cradling her head at a massively pounding headache. “Do you always end up in a medical emergency during missions?”
Cracking one bloodshot eye at him in defiance, Prism croaked a terse response. “I don’t plan on making a habit out of it.” What little good humor she had faded when Silver presented the ether bottle to her.
“Here, the princess said you needed this, and I bet that headache might get better if you drink up.”
She eyed the foul drink with disgust and turned away from it. “No thanks. I just need some fish or something.”
“Hey, you were about to suffer organ failure, so drink up, doctor’s orders.” He all but shoved the bottle in her perplexed face.
“Organ failure? No way.”
“Yes way. At least that’s what the computer said.” He twitched an ear towards the closest speaker.
It took her several long moments to process the information that went against everything she knew of basic pegasi medicine. “...Fine. I’ll get answers later.” Prism tried to activate her mechanical hands, only to remember she was still in her deep-water suit. “Blugh.” With no recourse, she grabbed the bottle in both hooves and choked the rest of the ether down like a batch of sour milk.
Once she discarded the bottle, Silver helped her stand. “Let me help you outta that suit.”
By the time Prism had been extracted from her suit, Twilight was cycling her way past the airlock with her new friend in tow. She took one look at Prism and grinned. “Good, you’re up and about. Are you well enough to help me with him?” She jabbed a wing elbow at the alien still held aloft in her magic.
“I’m not really feeling so hot, honestly.”
Twilight frowned as Prism shakily pulled herself onto a nearby equipment bench to lay down. I thought pegasi recovered quite quickly with ether. Turning to Silver, Twilight presented her alien. “Where’s the stasis chamber? The sub has one for bio samples right?”
Silver couldn’t stop himself from whistling at the size of the alien. “How did both you and him fit in the airlock?”
“I improvised,” she deadpanned. “Stasis chamber?”
Shaking himself out of the alien-induced trance, Silver answered with regret. “Sorry, princess, we don’t have anything big enough to hold him. Not in stasis at any rate.”
Crap. I was afraid of this. “Then bring us to the surface. Looks like I’ll have to hold him myself until we get back to the colony.”
With a snap salute, Silver barked his compliance and made his way to the command chair. Having no other recourse, Twilight gently placed the alien on the floor and walked over to gently rub Prism’s forehead.
Between the draining of the protection rune and maintaining the stasis over the alien. Twilight was already taxed heavily. Yet she still summoned the strength to check over her sleeping daughter. Her horn ached and the skull forming its base burned at the effort, but the pain was trivial to one of her experience.
I think I can see why she hates underwater assignments so much. Really wish I thought to bring a camera outside of the one on my suit.
Her gaze turned to the frozen alien, scowling all the while. The alien wore the drab brown robes of the one who activated the time freeze in the first place. “I’d like to blame that mutant for the deaths of your brethren, but I’m not taking any chances you might be more than just a survivor.”
Is the alien a public menace? Do the aliens customize what kind of animal they become? One of them should totally become a super skunk that gives off a kilometer wide cloud of stink.
It's technically Sunday for somebody so.... yeah!
Here is some fan art of a pony engineer and a miasma remover bot!
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Wooo! Update!
I'm somebody!
Oooh this is getting so INTERESTING. Can't wait to what you come up with next!
Noice noice.
It wasn't Sunday for me when the chapter was posted, but I finished it on Sunday!
I hope it's the one that pressed the stasis device.
Well this came fast. Great chapters as usual! I'm eager to see how things will go once the alien wakes up.
Well, damn - that escalated quickly. While it was expected that something interesting would happen during Prism's underwater voyage, I think it's safe to say you dashed all expectations with this development. A living, breathing alien from the time of progenitors? That's one hell of a discovery alright, and I can't even begin to speculate how this will impact the plot because we know so little about the circumstances that led them to be imprisoned in said time-bubble, or of their motives in general. One thing's for sure though, it has to be kept well the heck away from any equipment of its time for now, especially one capable of triggering mutations; with their penchant for "evolving" things, there is no saying what it would potentially try to do.
On another note, Prism's exhibiting unicorn-like behavior in terms of mana flow and behavior? I think we all know where this is going (unless you have another curveball planned for us) - from Twilight's musings in the earlier chapters it was clear that Prism had the potential (the first of her daughters to have it?) to go full Alicorn, and it looks like Prism may well be well ahead of whatever timetable Twilight had pegged for it. Perhaps the large amounts of alicorn magic Twilight pumped into Prism to allow her to survive her mutation supercharged the whole process and made it speed up? I imagine Twilight will have a theory or three once she learns what actually happened to Prism and that she was in danger of dying from mana exhaustion.
And speaking of alicorns, that's another interesting tidbit about their biology - only capable of having children of the same gender as the mother ... or the same gender as the alicorn parent, as the case might be. Twilight mentioned alicorn magic being the cause, so I'm going to assume that the mixing of ponies' innate magic serves as much of a role as genetics when it comes to determining the foal's gender - with the next assumption being that alicorn magic is so hyperdominant that it takes precedence over the partner's magic and genetics, brute forcing its way to the top and ensuring that the foal would share the more prominent traits of its parent. And with no male Alicorns around with whom to mate with ...
Yeah, I can see why Twilight would be slightly miffed about the fact. On one hand, it's not like a female baby is any worse than a male one. On the other hand, I can imagine why the creation of a new life feels less 'magical' if you know beforehand what you are going to get out of it, in broad terms. Neither bad or good, just ... atypical. Aye, I can see why Twi's somewhat bemused by it. I must say I really like you inserting these interesting tacks of alicorn biology and nature in the story, it's quite fascinating.
And speaking of Twilight ... Tricorder? Purple Smart? Oh Twilight
Though I guess one is bound to develop some eccentric quirks over the centuries, and Twilight has always been a somewhat eccentric pony to start with.
All in all - a great pair of chapters that set up a bunch of very interesting plot points and developments, I can't wait to see what happens next.
I think pegasi would be best divers, because water is like air but denser. That means they can use under water the same power they use for flying. Pegasi have affinity for water manipulation.
The story is very interesting so far, I have to say you have a very Wonderful and Awesome Imagination to write these kinds of stories and for that I commend you, It is always so detailed and the characters along with the events are very fun to imagine, also the Sid Meir's Civilization Beyond Earth Reference is also very Interesting, I just hope They will NEVER have to fight a siege worm or the leviathan Even the Minotaurs and Griffins, The Equestrians have suffered too much and it pains me to imagine the horrors they are going through, But like them I must Endure it, I must be strong to pass through any obstacles in my way. Also is the alien Terran or Anthropomorphic in any way?
P.S Will the Alien be human in nature? was Ariel seen along the shipwreck? Do you do what you want cause a pirate is free? you are a pirate!
One does not simply make a Legendary Sci-fi story, Without drinking Xenomass. Will the Aliens declare "All You Bases Are Belong To Us?"
Will we find out on sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY
What happened to Starlight in this time line?
7379916
Dead for centuries as of this point in time, seeing as the story takes place hundreds of years in the future. If memory serves me, Twilight was mentioned as being more than 400 years old.
7380000 Don't think age really matters if you have high level control over time like Starlight.
7380125
She could time-travel, true, though this required Starswirl's magical scroll and Twilight's crystal map - doing it under her own power was not within Starlight's capabilities - but that won't stop one from aging. You'd need to stop your personal time (something akin to Twilight's stasis spell) while somehow retaining the ability to move and function instead of freezing yourself solid, or find a spell that can de-age yourself, if you want to cheat aging via time magic. If one is after eternal life, time magic typically isn't the thing that's going to help you.
You would need some sort of medical spells or technology to stop your cells and biological functions from decaying with age, but even these days ponykind doesn't seem to have cracked biological immortality.
7380164 Its unfortunate but i strongly disagree with your view, Starlight based her time travel spell on the works of Starswirl and used the map to aid in its casting but non of that means she can't create a similar version of the spell without outside aid just like when Twilight travelled a week into the past, its also made clear that Starlight has a greater mastery of time magics than Twilight and Starswirl plus though many hate to accept it the show has shown on numerous occasions that Starlight is a stupidly powerful unicorn with a high level understanding of magic.
The is no reason why Starlight Glimmer the student of Twilight Sparkle would not become an immortal time traveler or godlike pony princess outside of never being born.
YES. The moment I heard they want to bring them out I imagined something like:
Twilight Sparkle: We're getting them out.
Sadly No One: You know, they probably come from ages ago, and may not be able to breathe the current atmosphere, if they even could in the 1st place. The only air confirmed to be breathable for them is in the bubble that we can't scan through. There's a few of them in a rather small bubble, they will use up what is left way before we can make and bring more to the BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN.
7380164
For powerful and inteligent unicorn like Starlight age probably wouldn't be a problem. Magic is based on telekinesis. And with sophisticated telekinesis regeneration of cells at molecular level wouldn't be a problem for someone like Starlight. And there is still posibility she will become an alicorn.
I'm looking forward to their attempts to communicate with the alien!
Nice work, keep it up.
7380233
There is no question that Starlight is a powerful and talented unicorn, the strongest we have seen outside of unicorn Twilight herself, but let's not exaggerate her prowess (which is certainly not greater than Twilight's and Starswirl's) - just because she can produce a specific effect by combining Starswirl's work (which she indeed modified - and that's impressive, but Starlight herself says in the show that it was simple to do and that Starswirl did all the hard work) and the Crystal Map - the thing that's connected to the Tree of Harmony and the Elements (making it by far the strongest magical entity in the show) - doesn't mean it's feasible she can accomplish that under her own power. That's a bit like saying that Twilight could seal Discord in stone on her own for a thousand years simply because she has produced said effect through the usage of the Elements.
And that's assuming mucking about with time magic isn't banned in the first place, seeing the catastrophic results it produced the last time. And even if she could - like I already said, being able to time travel isn't connected to physical longevity, and granting eternal youth typically isn't the purview of time magic. Traveling to the past doesn't make you yourself any younger. And her becoming an alicorn seems to be a wee bit of a stretch (and evidently hasn't happened in this timeline anyway).
And if any of those things could happen, if it was actually possible to make ponies live forever through gratuitous application of magic, then Twilight would have certainly used it to save her many children first and foremost - remember, Prism is Twilight's 8th (or was it 9th?) child, yet none of the others are still around. Meaning that, even after hundreds of years and the advances in both magic and technology this time has brought about, such means simply aren't within the purview of ponykind, even for the most powerful and connected of them. Starlight being around isn't the least bit surprising - it would be far more so if she were. The better question is where's Discord, to be honest.
7380524
Well I sure hope they won't try to communicate with the alien like this.
7380939 guess we will just have to agree that i disagree.
Question, if the alicorns can only produce children of their gender, then what happens when an alicorn male and an alicorn female mate? Do they produce a paradox? or do they negate each other out and it becomes randomised?
7383455
Yes, it is randomized in that event.
7379541
Twilight was called Purple Smart by one of her husbands along the way, and has occasionally called herself that ever since. Every husband and friend after the fact joined in in calling her that as well. (mostly because Twilight would never partner up with a stallion who had no sense of humor or willingness to act silly from time to time.)
7379063
I'll give you a hint. It involves REDACTED
7380524
7380997
Could end up being like this:
7383538 I thought it was from Winter Bells personally
PS, Tricorder? You wonderful person.
7383538
I'm impressed, you even came up with a in-story explaination for that fandom name
But yeah, I can see why Twilight would value good humor and general cheer in ponies, especially those close to her - bowing, scraping, pomp and circumstance are things she gets plenty of while "on the job" (which is almost always). Family and friends that could help her unwind from all that seem almost mandatory. I imagine the habit of injecting a little bit of silliness in her typical routine she picked up from Celestia (or finally understood why Celestia does it).
7380233 "without outside aid like Twilight did"
Uh
Twilight ALSO used her time-travel spell with outside aid; Starswirl's scroll. That was why she could only do it once, recuerdas?
This story is, admittedly, too cool for school right now. Anyway author, you're great. Story's great. That's it. However, I think that many other people would like to know if the possibility of human contact is coming into play, or whether or not we'll see awesomer science stuff happening.
7384113 I see starlswirl's scroll as just that a piece of paper with valuable knowledge and i don't recall any instance were the show says it on its own has magical properties, its also made clear that Starlight has a greater understanding of time related magic then Twilight and Starswirl.
Its true that Starlight is very abusive of her abnormally high level magic (underestimating or not careing about the butterfly effect) but that's a ethics problem not an issue that impacts her ability to use magic.
I’m probably in the minority that believes that Starlight Glimmer is as magically gifted as Starswirl (she lacks formal education) and is an equal match for post ascension Twilight ( Twilight admitted she could not beat Starlight in a straight up fight)
The rules on time magic are not truly explored in the show so what its capable of currently is unknown and for all we know the could be secret groups of immortal time travelers screwing the universe.
7385577 It's stated outright that Twilight can only use the scroll to cast the spell once.
The thing about fighting and beating Starlight was that SL's win condition was 'prevent Rainbow Dash from racing'. That's a LOT easier to accomplish than Twilight's, ie, 'prevent any change whatsoever to the timeline'. The fight was heavily skewed in SL's favor, and she was powerful enough to make that an insurmountable task. That doesn't mean she's more powerful than Twilight, just that she was strong enough to prevent Twilight from curb stomping her.
7386564 well as i have said before lets agree to disagree on this topic.
So I've been having a stressful day amongst a stressful month and finally I decide to check in on the various relaxing pony words just to find one of my favorite stories has not just updated, but now sports a plot twist I enjoy immensely and several funny and adorable moments. Which has done wonder for finally lifting my spirits. Thank you so much, I really needed this!
7410703
I had not considered that, but it makes sense. Consider it corrected.
That picture at the end. I know you said it's a pony engineer and robot thing, but I still can't make heads or tails or it. Could anyone please explain it to me.
7425999 There's a fully suited unicorn in the foreground, near the bottom. In guessing that the big mechanical thingy is the bot. At least, I think it's a unicorn. That thing might be a horn, or it might be a covering for the ears.
Someone plays to much subnautica....
If Silver went out there, he probably wouldn't need wing fins... he's already got flippers. :)
IT’S ONE OF GETHAR’S LOST ONES!!!! THEY’RE MESSING WITH ALCHEMY!
Ooh, is that a reference to the season 5 ending? What is an SV anyway? A time stop? A time loop? Any spell affecting time?
Interesting internal dialogue... in human thought, the natural assumption of a person/alien of unknown gender is that it is a he until proven otherwise. That’s not sexist or anything, that’s just the way language works: the masculine pronoun is the default until feminine is applicable.
However, pony culture is much more female oriented, so it would seem proper for the default pronoun to be feminine until proven masculine.
Unless... the female-dominant pony culture came about after language did, which was masculine-default, and thus the masculine-default in language carried over even to the ponies’ female-dominated culture.
I can't see the picture.
8296196
2 things.
1) A SV would be a spell that effects time. Quite possibly in a dangerous or detrimental manner.
and
2) Language springs up at the same time as culture (albeit at different rates of co-evolution). With words coming about to define things important to that societies needs. Not counting environment's effect on language evolution.
So even though they are mare dominant society. They did co-evolve around Minotaurs and Griffons (where such things as boy, girl, hands, etc.) could originate from becoming loan words. That and not exactly true on "all aliens are considered male until proven differently". If it had a body type that looked like a female biped (having spent time on Earth and seeing female Minotaurs) she'd call it a she. But lacking those secondary sexual characteristics she's going with he.
That's how aliens are given a 'he' / 'she' pronoun (you can bet that Captain Kirk looks for boobs before he lays on the "Charm"). With those that are of unknown body types given a male or female pronoun dependent of culture of the species. This one looks bipedal, lacks breasts, so Twilight is safe assuming it's a he. It not really a language thing, as much as an assumption based upon physiology.