29: Alf Wakes, or Tries to Anyway
You know, I was half tempted to simply leave you as biological slurry. A synthetic voice gloated lazily, faint laughter echoing its words. But these… pony allies of yours quite intrigue me. As I broke your body down, I sifted your memories. Abhorrent for the most part. However, a species with a corporeal goddess, two now it seems, actually living among them. Quite fascinating wouldn’t you say?
Oh, right, you’re not much of a conversationalist in this state are you? No matter. I shall allow you to keep your useful engineering knowledge, but everything of your culture and gods must die, even their final memory. The only thing you will remember is that you are the living monument to my vengeance… and mercy. You earned that much when you didn’t even wait to exit the transport to sever yourself from your old pantheon.
Now go to your new goddesses, serve them well. Provided they care enough to save you now that you are no longer a novelty.
It was close to three in the morning. Bio Lab Seven was dark, save for a single desk lab. Polypeptide was using a collection of recyclable takeout boxes as a pillow. Some of last night’s dinner juices were matting the unicorn stallion’s fur. It was a time honored tradition of his frat house chapter to sleep like this at least once a month, although he did it more often due to the colony’s heavy work hours.
“Alert,” came Voyager’s commanding voice, snapping Polypeptide awake. “Non-Citizen Alf’s cocoon is breaking open. All on-duty laboratory personnel report to Observatory Seven immediately!”
“Ahh!” Polypeptide screamed as he fell out of his chair and landed hard on the rubberized floor. He groggily rubbed his head and climbed back to his hooves. “Eruggg, I really need to lay off the hot sauce.” He was still in a sleep deprived stupor until Voyeurger repeated its warning. “Seriously?!”
Snatching up his portable scanner out of habit, the biologist practically shoved himself through the iris door leading into Alf’s domicile. The light came on automatically as he weaved around the various furniture pieces. A wet, heavy thud smacked onto the floor ahead of him. Polypeptide jumped onto and past the bed to at last come upon Alf. The former alien had crawled out of the pit where his cocoon had been, only to collapse barely a foot away.
Polypeptide skidded to a halt upon seeing him. Alf had a dual colored mane of neon green and yellow along with a brown coat. That alone made Polypeptide’s muzzle wrinkle. Yet what really grabbed his attention was the horn and wings. “By Twilight, an alicorn?!” He raced to close the distance to wake him up. “Hey, Alf,” Polypeptide half-shouted while lightly slapping Alf’s cheek. “Ya got ripped off with those colors, but hot damn, an alicorn is top shelf!” Polypeptide’s excitement started to ebb when Alf proved unresponsive. “Uh, buddy?” It sank lower. “You awake?”
Finally remembering his scanner, Polypeptide ran it over Alf’s still form. The readings made his jaw drop and his ears flatten out of horror. “Voyager! Immediate medical stasis around Alf, hurry!” Polypeptide scooted away from Alf to give the stasis a wide berth. As soon as he was clear, Alf started glowing blue with the stasis spell. Polypeptide quickly brought up the emergency radio channel. “Medical, report to Observation Lab Seven, I’ve got a patient in cardiac arrest!”
Twilight Sparkle took a brisk walk through the central government building on the way to sickbay. While the maternity hospital was quite large, that was all it was. Any other sort of patient still had to go to the original sickbay. While Alf’s critical state lingered on her mind, she ultimately had little cause to worry. He’s in stasis, and Sawbones was on call, so he’s already tending to him. Now that he’s a pony, we should have no issue correcting the problem. Reproachable Instigation wouldn’t have bothered giving him a full body just to kill him after hatching, right?
Twilight felt that life-long friend of hers clawing at her mind: Anxiety. She shoved it back to focus on something far more historic as she looked over the picture of Alf’s body. The picture was of him after getting cleaned up, with his body glowing from stasis. Twilight absently nodded at night staff who bowed at her passing. A male alicorn. I don’t think even Celestia’s seen an alicorn stallion before! This is big, bigger than big! Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, only barely realizing she had stepped into the elevator. She took a moment to notice the two sleep deprived earth ponies who had already been inside. Between the three of them, Twilight’s ethereal mane threatened to suffocate everyone. She absently toned it down to normal hair length. “Sorry. Medical, please.”
The stallion near the buttons nodded hastily. “Right away, Princess.”
Twilight turned to face the door so she could think some more. A grin wormed its way onto her face. I can hardly believe it! I could finally have a son! A son!! The thought of holding a baby colt of her very own sent her heart aflutter. Four hundred years of only daughters made the ancient mare silently wish of living that other half of motherhood long denied her. But here and now, she could finally have her wish fulfilled. Twilight shook her head, trying to set her thoughts straight. No, I can’t get ahead of myself. Alf’s been through a lot. It’s going to take him a good long time to settle into his new species, let alone new culture. Not to mention sense of attraction in mares. At least I hope he prefers females after all this.
But we have all the time in the world to wait for him to settle down. Besides, that wouldn’t be fair to Sawbones. Twilight idly brought up the camera feed of the medical director at work. Sawbones was talking to a couple of other doctors close to Alf. Seeing him work warmed her heart and brightened her thoughts. He’s a wonderful pony, and there’s no reason to break up with him just to satisfy an impatient mare. A coy thought danced in her head, making Twilight snicker. And who knows, maybe in a hundred years or so, Alf might choose Prism instead. A son or grandson, just so long as I finally get a colt in the family, I’ll be happy.
Dreams of holding a son teased her all the way to Alf’s hospital room. If Twilight had not spent a good chunk of her life as a diplomat, she might have kept wearing that massive grin when she walked up to Sawbones and his team. “Hello doctors, how’s Alf doing?” Sawbones’ dark, worried look did not speak to Twilight of a lover feeling threatened by his mare eying a more ideal mate. Twilight’s mood dropped upon realizing Sawbones and the others wore beleaguered expressions.
“Quite poorly, actually. He’s suffering from total organ failure brought upon by Polycarbuncle Disorder.”
Twilight blanched at the news. “Polycarbuncle? But he’s an alicorn. His magic should be perfectly stable.”
“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about his tribe just yet,” one of the other doctors commented, a cherry red pegasus stallion. “Sure he has wings and a horn, with the magic to go with it, but he doesn’t have a singular carbuncle and your daughter possess. In fact, he has three of them, one for each base tribe. If memory serves, you and Prism possess only one carbuncle.”
Sawbones nodded in agreement. “Polycarbuncle is extremely rare, but typically happens in the offspring of inter-tribe couples, and even then, only with partners that have a long family history of mixing tribes.” He waved at the stasis emitter above Alf’s bed. “Most sufferers die soon after childbirth once they are no longer stabilized by the mother’s magic. If Polypeptide had been any slower, Alf would have suffered acute cerebral hemorrhaging.”
“Among a laundry list of other maladies,” piped in the third doctor. “I hope you can… offer some insight into this from an experienced alicorn perspective. Polycarbuncle’s never been seen with three carbuncles before. At least in the records we were able to bring with us.”
“Let me see him,” Twilight half-commanded, trying to keep from letting her dreams of a son die before even the hour was out. Using her circlet to guide her magic to a razor degree, Twilight probed Alf’s body. Sure enough, he possessed the magic of all three tribes. Yet not a drop of alicorn magic existed. Without it, the unicorn magic permeating his brain, as is normal so they could conceptualize spell patterns more naturally. However the earth magic was trying to make his organs more shock resistant, resulting in an unstable formation. Moving on, his hooves and legs were in an equally bad state as his pegasus magic fought to structure his bones to be more shock and toque resistant, while the earth magic struggled to make his bones far denser and compressive resilient. Patches of bone in both pegasus and earth styles made his bones brittle to the point already fragmenting along the lines. Then there was his body as a whole, the earth magic tried to make him resilient and strong, his unicorn magic worked to make his body a conduit of mana, and his pegasus magic tried to implant several nodules throughout to make him lighter during flight. Such things were present in Twilight, but for her, a combination of alicorn genes and the magic itself allowed a harmonious balance Alf clearly lacked.
“Damn it.” Twilight once again felt her hopes for a son be crushed. She loved her daughters of course, but who hasn’t longed for something they can never have?
Some part of her felt this was some sort of jab Reproachable Instigation hit her with from beyond the grave. I should have known better that it would have never allowed Alf to become what he saw as a god. You really are a foolish, sentimental old mare. Sighing, Twilight looked at the doctors. “You’re right. He’s a mishmash of the three tribes. Can we save him?”
“I think so,” Sawbones offered. “Physically speaking, he has all the parts of the three root tribes. I’d imagine we can surgically remove two of the carbuncles and the corresponding body parts, and then he would stabilize.”
“I agree,” said the cherry red doctor. “Alf is a unique case as he has not lived as a pony before, so he has no psychological identity as any of the tribes. Choosing one for him here and now shouldn’t cause any such problems… at least as far as tribe is concerned.”
The last doctor spoke up with a nervous tone and dug at the floor with a hoof. “He still sees you as a goddess. If you were the one to select his tribe, I highly doubt he’ll have any issues over it.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Twilight tried to sigh away her dashed hope in order to focus on the moment. It was a difficult and maybe even cruel choice, but Twilight had experience with those. Just picking who got to come here out of all the others, possibly separating families in the process. This is easy by comparison.
Ultimately, she didn’t need to think long. “Alf is used to having six limbs. Make him a pegasus. He may not have access to projected magic anymore, but…” She unfurled a wing in front of her and wiggled her primaries. “Let’s hope he sees flight as an acceptable trade.”
Sawbones nodded tiredly. The late night adrenaline was wearing off. “We’ll get started right away.”
“Very well, I look forward to helping him adapt.”
Prism Flash was on the hunt. The constant updraft of the living pit made low-level flight precarious at best. The stadium sized, fleshy mounds crawled with all manner of nasty that not even an explorer like her was willing to touch. Still, the allegedly lava-filled eggs were quite enticing, and it was a treasure trove once she got to the right spot. Prism flew over to an outcropping that had eight of the long and narrow eggs. More importantly, the updraft was much more manageable here.
~“Are you done playing around in the air? Hurry up and grab one already!”~ Firefly goaded from his safe perch near the treeline.
~“Lay off! You try flying through this storm and see how you fare.”~ Prism flicked her tail at him, nearly rocking herself out of the sky for her efforts. “Right, focus!” She eyed the eggs, searching for a good target. Of the lot, one of them had only a quarter of shell clinging to the rock. At least a dozen of the worm things were crawling on it, covering the egg in mucus. Wow, ya know what, I am so super glad I went through all the hassle of getting my horn. I don’t care if my fingers are robotic, ain’t no way I’m touching that.
Prism’s horn lit up and she started flinging the worms off one by one without a care to where they landed. Once free of its tenders, she magically grabbed hold of the egg and started to jiggle and shake it free, which took some doing. Prism still thought in terms of grabbing the object like she would with a hand. She used her telekinesis to grab and pull on the most stable parts she could see, and used her mass as leverage, an act that was quite difficult to do in midair. Nevertheless, the rock eventually gave way, only for the sticky mucus to give one last effort to keep the egg attached to the others.
“Ahhh ha!” She cried out victoriously. An excited grin cleaved her face as she beheld her prize up close. The egg was easily the size of a pony’s leg, both in length and almost in width. The magma-looking liquid was clearly visible through the glasslike shell. Prism had not quite learned tactile sensing through magic alone, so she couldn’t tell if it was a hard shell or gooey. Her curiosity wanted to get a better look, but the wind was shifting, and threatened to fling her high into the air. “Right, let’s get you home.”
Returning to Firefly was easy enough for the experienced flier, and Prism landed right next to him. She presented the egg to him with a prideful smirk. The liquid within sloshed while the shell was starting to smoke. “Alright, I got the stupid thing. Get a containment canister so we can get back to our actual job.”
“Ahh, Prism, that thing wasn’t smoking like that in the pit,” Firefly cautioned, worriedly. He stepped back a bit, making Prism drop the smirk.
She looked at it, and the white wispy smoke was getting thicker and darker by the second, but the liquid within seemed unchanged. Was the shell thinner? “I’m sure the updraft was just blowing the smoke away. “Just hurry up and get a stasis box already, I don’t know if this thing’ll break if I put it on the ground.”
The smoke was starting to burn Prism’s nose hair, and she finally had enough after seeing the hot core was starting to expand like a balloon. “Ya know what? Screw it, we’ll get another one later.” Reshaping her kinesis like a catapult, Prism was about to fling the egg back to where it came from. However, instead of launching the egg, the moment she put force into the throw, the shell cracked wide open. The instant the egg broke, the liquid hit open atmosphere. The egg exploded like a massive gas grenade, kicking up a huge cloud of red smoke. “Ah rut!” Both Pathfinders raced to escape the scalding hot gas, but they couldn’t stop themselves from breathing in a lungful.
They stumbled past the cloud and almost smacked into Barbie. Prism’s vision was swimming and the last thing she saw was Firefly collapsing next to the rover’s front tires as she herself face planted the ground.
As the world around her blurred out, Prism felt as if her spirit was being pulled away into the air. He mind was swimming too much to think, let alone realize what was going on. She stopped close to a few thousand feet above the surface, and her deceleration twisted her path so she spun around in lazy rolls. Prism was gleefully enjoying the feeling until a massive pressure wave strike her, blasting away the mental fog.
She glanced all around her, and instinctively started flapping her wings. It took her a few more seconds to realize she wasn’t feeling any air moving against her, and her efforts were not effecting her altitude. “What? Where am I?!” She scanned the skies, finding that despite her distance from the ground, the air felt as if she were at sea level, and that the atmosphere seemed to have no end, with clouds reaching distances they had no right to. “Trippy.” She looked back at the ground in time to see a ripple pass through the distant plants and animals like a water drop on a still pond. “I think I just found this world’s newest psychedelic drug. But, why don’t I feel high or anything? This drug sucks.” When the ripple converged directly below her, a gust of air burst towards her. “Hey woah, hold it!” Prism channeled her pegasus magic through her horn and created a bubble of calm. The wave crashed into her, only to flow around her bubble like a river against a boulder. “Okay, if this is how drug trips normally feel like, I’ll pass. Should I even be coherent enough to know it’s a drug trip?”
Prism’s question was forgotten when she noticed the planet itself was changing. The greens and blues were coalescing into a single point directly below her. “Uhhh oh…” The mass of blue and green something started to stretch out towards her. “Okay… drug trip or not, I’m not going near that stuff.” She tried flapping her wings again, to put some distance between her and the organic mass surging up towards her. But no amount of effort worked. Real fear took hold when it was getting close enough to see the mass consisted of millions of animals. Wolf beetles, the giant wasps, every single beast that had formed the massive swarm that marched on the colony was roaring to catch her.
Prism scrambled with both wings and legs trying to put some distance between it and her, only for a dark thought to hit her. It’s - it’s just like that dream world I found momma in. I can’t move!! Panic almost threatened to push all other thoughts aside until she remembered a detail. “But I could move back then, but with—” She stopped trying to fly regularly and simply willed herself forward. Prism shot away like a cannonball. The mass of plants and monsters behind her started to shrink away, yet her triumph was short lived. An enraged growl so deep, so primordial that it could have only come from the planet itself hit Prism with enough force it would have killed her had she been in the real world. She looked back to see the pillar of life was quivering with fury and surged forth with frightening speed.
“Can somepony give me an antidote to this gas already? Please?!” Prism was being overtaken so she poured even more willpower into speed. Even with her renewed effort, the pillar was still gaining on her. This close, the growl revealed itself to be the conjoined efforts of a billion monsters, all calling out for her. “Go away!” A particularly loud roar shook every fiber of her incorporeal being. She freaked as the pillar of monsters seemed to accelerate at her defiance. Far too fast for her liking. Real terror gripped her. “Please anywhere but here, anywhere but here!”
The pillar surged ahead of Prism, causing her to stop out of sheer panic. Teeth, tusks, and spines all encompassed her like a spiked cave. The growling was omnipresent now, and an electrical shock jolted through Prism. She gasped in pain and lost her breath. The globe of spikes surged to impale her, only for a second shock to make the world around her go completely white.
Prism sat bolt upright, sucking in a ragged breath. She looked around in a panic to find she was still near the cavern while Firefly’s rover Barbie had three arms around her, two holding shock paddles while a third held an empty syringe. She flailed about, knocking the limbs away as her gaze darted between the machine, sky, ground, and everywhere in between looking for the pillar of monsters.
“Pathfinder Prism Flash, please calm down,” the rover requested in the most sultry feminine voice possible.
“What? Where? Did?” Prism’s heart threatened to beat its way out of her chest as she scrambled backwards, only to get a hoof caught on her wings, making her stumble painfully.
Barbie rolled over slowly, not daring to get too close. “Pathfinder, you are safe. The effects of the gas are mitigated.”
The longer Prism looked at the rover, the slower her heart and thoughts became. She stole a few more glances around her before focusing on the vehicle. “Barbie, what the hay was that?!”
“A psychotropic substance by all appearances. I have summoned medivac from the crawler, and transport should arrive shortly.”
A killer migraine pounded Prism’s head, but the wake-up drugs Barbie had pumped into her were keeping her awake. “What - what happened after that egg popped?”
Barbie tilted its camera head before rolling sideways to reveal Firefly who was strapped down in his chair and was twitching violently. “Both you and Pathfinder Firefly went unconscious for ten seconds. After which—” it was cut off by the whine of aerial engines decelerating, and the white and red medivac coming into a hover. Both exhaustion and the sedatives Barbie finally took hold and Prism collapsed, this time in a much quieter sleep.
Sickbay onboard the crawler was tiny in all respects. It consisted of two cots, one surgical table, a few counters, a sink, and a storage closet for medication and equipment alike. The vast majority of the medical supplies were in the cargo bay. It was very much a rushed construction with the “prevention over cure” mindset. Sickbay wasn’t even a seperate room, and was more like an oversized alcove along one of the crawler’s central passageways.
Prism Flash was sitting up on a cot with her hind legs dangling off the side and a cup of hot black coffee resting in both of her hands. She had a massive headache that was making magic all but impossible. The only medical doctor the crawler had was looking over some readings on his personal display since they didn’t even have space for any screens. “I have to say Prin— Pathfinder,” he began, a little uncomfortable with the title. “I’m not sure how you’ve recovered so well compared to your partner, other than chalking it up to ‘because alicorn’.”
Prism raised a worried eyebrow at the olive green pegasus. “What kinda medical diagnosis is that?”
“The kind from a gastroenterologist that has no idea what to make of a brain repairing frayed neurons. If your partner is anything to go by, the damage was minimal, but he’s still in danger and you emerged largely intact.”
“Wow, even my brain repairs itself—” A moment later, the rest of what the doctor said registered with Prism, and she felt her temper rise as she looked at Firefly. The stallion was in stasis on the surgical table, frozen with a horrified expression, and flailing at some unseen creature. “You got some serious bedside manner issues there, Hemoglobin.”
The doctor looked away from his display to glare at Prism and opened his mouth with a witty barb ready, but held it back upon remembering who she was. “S-sorry. I never wanted to be a chief of medicine.” He looked back at his frozen patient. “Why Doctor Sawbones thinks I’m the best pick is beyond me.”
Prism didn’t pretend to know everypony’s record by heart, and right now, she wasn’t too keen on using magic to search for the answer. A best guess was called for. “Weren’t you second in command? Er - as far as doctors are concerned?”
Hemoglobin scoffed derisively. “Only because of the maximum age Princess Twilight set for colonial registration. If we were back in Manehattan Central Hospital, I’d be a junior surgeon at best. Now I’m here looking at brain waves to which I can only say ‘it’s not supposed to be like that’.”
Prism averted her eyes from Firefly. Guilt rooted her to that cot and she couldn’t bring herself to leave her fellow Pathfinder’s side. Stupid idiot. If only I had just ordered you to get back to work instead of getting that damn egg. “Sawbones is too busy, or just too far away?”
Hemoglobin resolved to simply monitor Firefly rather than risk doing something he knew little about. “Central says he went into surgery one hour before your distress call went out. Given the hour, he’ll probably be too exhausted to assist here for another six hours.”
The pair lapsed into silence for a minute or so before a hologram of Praxia materialized in the nearby hallway. The changeling’s worried expression relaxed upon seeing Prism sitting on the cot with a mildly perturbed face. “Prism! I heard what happened. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Prism waved her off. “Just like I told mom and Silver, I’m fine. Just a bit spooked.” At least Silver knows when to leave me alone.
“Yes, well, the spooked part is why I’m here.”
The comment drew renewed attention from both ponies, who shared a glance before Prism focused on Praxia. “What? Interested in a new narcotic?”
Praxia wanted to roll her eyes, but the presence of the doctor make her keep a professional frown. “Hardly. Doctor, the medical staff here in Central has gone over Prism and Firefly’s bloodwork. The gas they were hit with acted as a psionic gateway.”
“A what?” Hemoglobin ask blankly.
“The brain scans, they are exactly what the aftereffects of a psionic attack look like for Prism, and the mid-attack patterns in Firefly.”
“Forgive me for asking, Adjunct, but there’s nothing about psionics in medicinal science… or science in general.”
Praxia gave him a measured look. “I would imagine so.” She returned her attention to Prism. “Changelings are the only naturally psionic species from the old world. As you might expect, once my kind started embracing technology, our scientists started delving into this power with more… gusto. Fast forward, and my mother had a drone among Seed One’s drydock crew. He implanted data concerning psionics within Voyager’s systems, so that I’d have access to it when I’m ready.” An annoyed twinge in her tone bled through her professional mask. “Mom apparently neglected to tell anypony about it, so Twilight and I only learned of this after Voyager offered a diagnosis when the med teams were unable to.”
“There was a drone on the shipyard?! I thought only ponies were part of the dockworkers!” Hemoglobin half-shouted in a panic. “N-no offense to you, Adjunct, but I I would have thought giving such a position to another species would have been made public.”
“It was a concession on Sensei’s part,” Praxia admitted calmly. She hid it well from the doctor, but Praxia couldn’t hide her hurt feelings from Prism. “Mother would give me up to Princess Twilight in exchange for having a single worker at the dry docks so mother could make sure I would get off planet.”
“You need to relaaax, doc,” Prism chided grumpily on how they were starting to ignore Firefly’s condition, and how he was annoying her in his indirect insult towards Praxia. “It was just her mom’s way of keeping an eye on her. Ya know, make sure Praxie here went on Seed One like mom promised.”
“Let’s get back on topic,” Praxia admonished the doctor. “I bring this all up because both you and Firefly were attacked psionically.”
“By what?” Prism asked the question that was on Hemoglobin’s mind as well. “A weird ass dream?”
Praxia glanced over at Firefly, a sorrowful frown creeping over her professionally neutral face. “Psionic attacks differ greatly depending on if the victim is awake or asleep. When awake, the victim’s willpower is stronger and harder to keep control over them unless previously subverted. A victim who is asleep is typically much easier, provided they are not lucid dreamers.”
“But I’m not—” Prism’s rebuttal died on her lips. A memory struck her from the attack. “It felt like the alicorn space,” she whispered to herself. Weird.
“That can’t be right,” Hemoglobin rebutted politely, weary of causing further insult. “Every time I brought the patient out of stasis, his brain waves would remain erratic. I already denatured the gas in his system as well. Why is he still being attacked while Pathfinder Prism isn’t?”
“That is what I hope to find out. The data my mother gave us showed me how to cut a pony off from… prolonged psionic control and or attack, which is why I’m flying over to the crawler now. I’m hoping I can trace the attacker back to a rough idea of its location.”
Hemoglobin sighed in relief while Prism jumped to her hooves and almost went so far as to hug Praxia’s hologram. “That’s great! Any chance some of that data can show us how to correct any permanent damage as well?”
Praxia shook her head. “If it was a changeling attack, I’d say there wouldn’t be a risk for it in the first place. Hard to extract love from a brain damaged victim after all. But here there’s no way to tell until I get there. More importantly though, is what exactly attacked you.”
Prism shivered as a flashback of the dream passed over her mind’s eye. “It wanted me dead, probably some new monster we haven’t seen yet.”
Hemoglobin hummed aloud, his brow knitted with thought. “I doubt it. If that dream of yours was part of the attack itself, then it sounds to me that you evaded its efforts--if your recollection of it is any indication--but poor Firefly did not. Even after his rover administered the field treatment, he keeps seizuring. Hence why I’ve been forced to keep him in stasis except for brief treatment periods.”
It was not an answer Prism liked. “If that’s the case, then maybe it wasn’t trying to kill, but something else entirely?”
Praxia tilted her head in thought. “Perhaps it is a leftover from Alf’s people. It’s possible it served a constructive purpose—if you can call what his people were doing constructive. Yet biological evolution has rendered its fine-tuned function a scattered mess.”
“No, no!” Prism stomped her hoof, making Hemoglobin jump a bit. “There was purpose behind that… thing. That pillar of whatever was narrow, focused. If Praxia’s right about all this, then something is out there. And we can start by firebombing that cave.”
Twilight Sparkle, four-hundredish year old mare, ruler of a colony, and magical prodigy, snored on a waiting room bench. The purple alicorn was half draped over the furniture after she failed to summon enough energy to even walk back home. With Spring Roll in the capable care of the nanny AI, Twilight was more inclined to wait the surgery out. The only receptionist on duty couldn’t help but to be embarrassed for Twilight, and made made sure all the security camera were pointing away from her.
It was already past breakfast time, and the waiting room was deliberately kept closed for Twilight’s sake. That is except for one person. A claw rested on Twilight withers, followed by a gentle shake. “Hey, Twi.”
“Herrm?” Twilight blinked for a moment before using a wing to bat at the sleep robber. “Just one more turn…”
“Come on, bookhead, there’s a line outside of sickbay to use the waiting room,” he joked trying to imitate his adoptive father Night Light’s voice.
It was a good enough approximation for Twilight to jump awake. She hurriedly looked at the speaker to see not her long dead father, but a green and purple dragon smirking at her. “Spike? Spike!” Twilight roped him into a tight squeezing hug, one he was eager to reciprocate. “I missed you so much,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“Heh, feels like just last night we were fighting that big sea monster.”
Twilight gave a final squeeze before letting go. “Well, it’s been a year, you overgrown couch cushion. We have so much to catch up on!”
Spike pulled away so he could sit comfortably. He gave a long, slow sigh. “Voyager and some of the guys filled me in on the big stuff.”
Twilight grinned from ear to ear. She knew Spike did that so he’d be updated on any threats, while leaving the personal matters to long chats with his age-old sister. “Well, as it turns out…”
Brother and sister spent most of the day catching up, and for that short time, Twilight felt like she was back in her crystal castle, back in the warm days of Equestria’s golden age. A time when she was there with her little brother, still small enough to ride on her back.
After a long walk together, brother and sister ended up looking out of a window towards the sea. The docks had all been repaired, and several new shore batteries were being built. But to Twilight, she imagined the old dirt roads of Ponyville before cars and snow claimed it all.
Her eyes drifted along the warm streets until she imagined her first husband, a bright green unicorn with a short pale red mane. There, she imagined a little colt with her purple fur and his mane laughing and running alongside him. A scant second later, she banished the daydream. Stop it right there, old girl. You know that can never happen.
Twilight let her gaze rise to the sky. Via her personal display, she replaced the midday sun with the night sky. Celestia’s star was in the center of her vision, or at least it would be if it still shined. To think I outlived Equestria. A part of her wondered if some survivors still eked out an existence once the final Seed left orbit. Were any more made after Celestia departed? Twilight rested her head against Spike’s shoulder, taking a bit of comfort in his familiar scales. He had stopped chatting, content to let them sit in silence. Maybe. Not that we can do anything about that now. “Spike, when do you think we’ll hear from the other princesses?” She could easily do the math herself, but for the moment, she wanted someone else to give a better estimate.
“I guess it depends on how far away their chosen planets are, and if they figure out a faster way to communicate with us.”
“So, too long, then.”
Spike tilted his head so he could see her. “I don’t know. If we focus on nation-building, we’ll be ready to do the searching ourselves one day. Frankly though, I’m more worried about the minotaurs.” he added with a worried brow.
Puzzled, Twilight pulled away from him. “Why?”
“They’re late. Far later than they should be,” Spike answered honestly. “I expected them to have arrived by the time I woke back up, and yet not one sighting.”
“I see.” Twilight looked back out of the window. The landscape of Ponyville had vanished from her mind’s eye, replaced by the hard reality she was left with. “Perhaps they overpacked. Our engine technology was roughly on par with them, but they had a far larger ship. Inertia is a real speedbump, you know.”
“I guess.” Spike stood up and stretched. “I need to get back to the briefings to finish getting brought up to speed. But before I go, I have to ask, why did you put Prism in charge of that crawler? I would have thought Praxia was going to be your first pick.”
“It was a good first step into leadership,” Twilight admitted with a grin. “The settlers know what to do, and an administrator AI is already going to do the delegation while Prism is out exploring, but when she returns, she’ll be in charge.”
“Ha, you’re just giving her an excuse to go on long range missions.”
A twinkle in Twilight’s eye joined her widening grin. “Not if her special somepony is there.”
Spike giggled while rubbing his chin. He gave his sister a mischievous look. “The chessmaster strikes again.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- law abiding pony · 30k words · 344 17 · 4k views
- law abiding pony · 216k words · 1,455 27 · 14k views
- GMBlackjack · 63k words · 475 31 · 5.5k views
- tom117z · 71k words · 740 39 · 10k views
- law abiding pony · 104k words · 1,554 36 · 18k views
- law abiding pony · 172k words · 742 28 · 8.6k views
- law abiding pony · 93k words · 701 15 · 7.2k views
- law abiding pony · 7.4k words · 1,233 27 · 14k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.188 seconds
Total duration
704 users online
788,129 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hey, glad to see this back. Very curious what attacked Prism and Firefly, and what Praxia will find. Alf is concerning, and I hope he doesn't mind being a simple pegasus rather than an alicorn.
It's ALIVE!!!!!!
*Reads 1/3 of the chapter*
Yeah, I need to start again.
Down that path lie many sleepless nights
I can't express how happy I am that this story is back. I love world building and civilization (pun intended) building and this is one of the best. Also it has sci-fi and one of my favorite games as a base, so it makes it extra special.
Thank you very much for continuing.
This day started rather shitty, but then i saw this update.
Go away migrane, even you cant spoil the joy or reading another chapter of one of my favorite stories.
New chapter!
I wonder if the Minotaurs are late because their ship got captured before it left ground? Who knows who'll actually show up.
9645046
IIRC, there was some force that seemed to be guiding the swarms of native creatures, directing their big attack. I think it has been mentioned that there is some kind of planet wide intelligence, like the thing from the Avatar movie.
Bummer that Alf won't be an alicorn but i guess Twilight's thoughts answered a question of two alicorns mated what the results could be.
It's been long enough that I definitely pictured the 80s show Alf and was very confused.
9645368
I always picture the Alf from that show when the name comes up. Kinda hard not to if ya know it, and it makes the fic funnier anyway.
9645426
lol same
I hope that something just happened to the minotaurs ship on route to the plant and not Equestria before they left it.
9646365
I don't remember how space travel works in this, but most of the time they'd be going too fast to be intercepted and not destroyed. If something went wrong with the ship, they're likely just hurdling on some unknown trajectory forever. Something happening in Equestria has a lot more interesting options to play with, imo.
9645046
9645239
WARNING: SPOILERS (Probably)!
4.bp.blogspot.com/-DEOir7PbAn0/VE7SqwfiIuI/AAAAAAAAPw0/CXkl57xtnQs/s1600/049.png
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_Flower_(CivBE)
9646677
Yeah, that's the one. Thanks.
Twilight:
media0dk-a.akamaihd.net/49/78/611691b3ff2cffaf3c240dc6d27f0f83.jpg
Whelp, see ya'll next year!
9645239 Look up Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I suspect a good chunk of Planet and the Mind Worms are about to become very relevant.
Heh. Been long enough since I got to read this fic, I was a quarter of the way through the chapter before I remembered which fic I was actually reading! Great to see an update. Keep up the good work!
Planet froze before anyone else could escape.
New planet is sentient and angry.
The psychotropic eggs aren't as good as mushrooms.
What else could go wrong?
-watches minotaur ship crash into grifdom settlement-
quickmeme.com/img/08/082b3c5d4b558cf2d42561b523e29e8f409bf4f9604af13dd17bc65969fbad89.jpg
The planet itself are mad. because the newcomers technically destroy them. if the pony's can communicate with the planet itself, they may can be at harmony. but first there find a way to comm with it. what happened to prism is the first step. yes this planet are Consciousness and mad because what we doing so far.
Are we EVER going to have a new chapter for this?!?!?!
So... now that Hives are, sadly, over, will that means that this great story will start getting updates? :D
10316291 10308486
Yes, now that hive is wrapped up, i will be returning to this book.
10316741
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10437080
Oh ok.
10811709
Sorry about that.
About to reread what has been written so far, but I hope this fic will be continued soon.
Edit: as of 10/14/21, just finished ch. 29 again, RIP this fic.
Friendly boop
Been a while since I did any reading of your stuff, but I've been a looong time fan. Fantastic work you seem to somehow always do.
Was getting ready to start reading one of your other fictions, such as this one, but its been a while since there was any chapter updates.
Should I start reading 'clash of magic and steam' first instead? I'm not really sure how you schedule chapter updates between different fictions.
11108312
As of right now my sole focus of clash of magic. I’m currently doing advanced job training until March so my updates for that will be wowed until then if not paused all together. And I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my work, I hope clash ends yup a favorite too.
10811709
Still true.
Well, this is exactly the story I'm here for on FimFic. Alien worlds, pew-pews, colonial management, colorful ponies, all that jazz in one place : )
I hope it'll be continued someday, and we'll have our answers : ) Like what was this thing that Two and company grabbed with Alf from alien self-destructive temple thingy : )
Still a good story, just finished rereading it, can't wait for an update!
Any idea when we'll get a new chapter to this story???