My Little Engineer

by Soren Mercer

Racing Hearts

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Date: 02/04/2406 20:05

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Waking from my rather short nap to the sound of Vinyl yelling at me from my desktop was not the setting for a happy engineer. Resisting the urge to kick her for waking me -given that it’d only hurt me more than it’d hurt her-, I merely sat down at the desk and glared.

“What?” I demanded in that groggy, early not-quite-awake-but-not-asleep kind of voice.

“She’s still here.” Vinyl finally calmed herself down and I could just tell that she was crossing her little arms behind that screen.

“You woke me to bitch at me for Luna still being around?” I growled back and furrowed my brows, already plotting my revenge against her; it would be quite entertaining.

“Yes! When are you going to get rid of her?” Vinyl demanded again, still sounding like she was trying to be mean but in reality, her voice just made her sound cute.

“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” I sighed and stood. I also went about pulling my shirt off, something Vinyl asked about but I merely told her to wait again.

Exiting my room, I approached the sleeping form of Luna and gave her shoulder a moderately gentle shake to wake her up.

“Luna, wake up.” I shook again, however my attempts seemed to have woken Celestia up instead and I could already feel the beginnings of a bitchlestia episode coming on. Holding a finger up to silence the princess, I returned to Luna once again. “Luna.”

“Mmm? What time is it?” Luna mumbled in her sleep as she gradually roused. “Nooo… I don’t want to let you go…”

“What do you think she’s dreaming off?” I wondered, aiming the question at Celestia who merely rolled her eyes and settled back down again. With a shrug, I gave Luna another good shove, finally startling her enough to wake her up.

“What? I don’t want to get up!” Luna protested as she latched onto me and pulled me into her body before nearly falling asleep again.

“If you get up, I'll give you a special gift.” I offered, now feeling the entire weight of Luna smothering me with her chest. I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to.

With a groan, Luna finally cracked open her eyes and looked down at me with suspicious eyes.

“What’s the gift?” she asked in a voice I suspected could have been counted as sultry, probably the remnants from her dream.

“Get up and I’ll show you.” I replied once I managed to pull my face from her breast. With a second groan, Luna released me and let me roll onto the floor before she too landed on her hooves, her solid mane looking bedraggled and dishevelled.

“I’m up, what’s the gift?” Luna rubbed at her eyes and yawned, looking down at me as she stood over me entirely.

“Come with me to my room, I have something I want to show you.” I smirked back in reply as Luna nodded and stepped back, only now noticing my bare chest to the effect of her wings starting to flare outwards. Just what I was looking for.

Getting up and leading Luna by the hoof into my room, I held a finger up to silence Vinyl before turning around to face Luna and get down on one knee.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Vinyl screamed as she likely made her conclusion at my posture. Oh how wrong she was. Instead, I turned Luna’s head to face mine with both hands before pulling her in close. Her eyes grew wide, her wings flared out a little more and Vinyl kept screaming.

I went in, planting my lips against Luna’s making her wings pop out and stand at attention while her face went completely red. In the meantime, I could feel the daggers Vinyl was digitally sharpening behind my back and aiming at my neck; even if she’d never be able to actually hurt me. Hell, I could practically hear Vinyl blow a couple circuits with the display, if the popping noises were any indication.

Parting lips with a pop, Luna went cross eyed while I turned to grin maliciously at Vinyl who just- kept- screaming. All the while, I kept grinning until Luna spun me on my heels and leapt at me, knocking me to the ground to plant a second kiss on me. While initially shocked -probably by the fall- I instead leaned into it and wrapped my arms around her neck as best I could, pulling her down into me.

The screaming coming from Vinyl was turning into bloody murder and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more, the kiss or the screaming. Eventually, however, Luna pulled off of me purring and gave me a wink before backing herself out of my room with difficulty considering the erect state of her wings.

Sitting myself up to watch Luna go with a massive dopey smile and a face that was now more red than blue, I spun up onto my desk chair and turned down Vinyl’s voice completely.

“Does that answer your questions?” I piqued an eyebrow and gradually increased Vinyl’s voice to at least hear a change of pace from just screaming bloody murder and rambling to at least issuing every known death curse and hex on me and Luna as quickly as she could. I turned her back down again and left my chair to retrieve my shirt and pull it back on over my skin before leaving from the bedroom altogether to aim for the kitchen for some dinner.

“Pilot!” Luna exclaimed once she and her sister saw me leave the room. “Tia doesn’t believe me when I told her you kissed me!”

“Really now, you think Luna would just lie about something like that?” I gave Celestia a raised eyebrow as I continued to the processor machine. “Especially with all that screaming from Vinyl?”

“Oh, I don’t know, she could have been screaming about anything.” Celestia joked, now sitting upright and fully awake after the volume of Vinyl.

“What, do you need proof?” I stopped at the large standing machine to begin my dinner order as Vinyl turned herself back up, having shifted from death threats to just outright bawling.

“Yes!” Luna barked back, looking eager for another taste as she stood against the back of my couch, staring me down with a glowing horn. “She does!”

“Luna, calm yourself! You’re going to put a hole in the walls at the rate you're going!” Celestia burst into chuckling as I finished my order and returned to the living room where both mares sat and waited for me. “I’m sure that if he actually kissed you, he wouldn’t be acting so calm-” Celestia was interrupted as I came up behind Luna, lifted her head and kissed her upside down. “I stand corrected.”

“One thing about human males, Celestia,” I began once parting ways with Luna. “Is that we don’t start freaking out after we kiss someone we like.”

Luna gasped at this announcement, but skipped to the end. “You like me?”

“Yeah, we’ve spent the last couple months together, we’ve grown fairly close as it is so it’s only natural to like each other.” I shrugged back and returned to the food processor to order up a rye-n-coke in a tall glass. The machine normally served these things in shorter glasses, but I'd custom wrote this particular pattern into the machine.

“You do know that she not only likes you but-” Celestia began to look concerned for her sister, however I held a hand up to stop her again.

“Celestia, I’ve kissed your sister three times now, I think I know how she feels about me.” I smirked as Celestia rolled her eyes in defeat and sat back against the couch again.

“Fine, but I’m going to do the older sister thing: If you break my sister’s heart,”

“I know, none of us are escaping the planet’s explosion.” I retorted, holding Celestia’s tongue as she thought about how her threat would actually affect their chances of getting off planet. “Don’t worry, I have no plans to hurt Luna.”

“Good, because I don’t want to have to condemn the planet because someone broke my sister’s heart.” Celestia decided to take the lead from me again, smirking at me while Vinyl’s crying began to wear down to sniffling. “But, I think if you were worried about Vinyl going feral before,”

“Nah, she’ll be fine. She’s uploaded herself into a container that’s shielded to contain her if I have to unplug her entirely.” I shrugged back and took a sip of my drink.

“I heard that!” Vinyl called from my room, her voice intermittently broken by sobs.

“Then remember that next time you even think about harming Luna!” I shouted back, switching from the happy-go-luck-I-just-kissed-a-princess to I-will-fucking-end-you in a second flat. “From now on, she shall be my girlfriend!” I added, before darting to the mare in question. “I hope I’m not being to presumptuous with that declaration?”

“Not at all, to be honest, I found it quite sexy.” Luna giggled with an accompanied wink before settling down on the couch to face her elder. “Celestia, when was last you performed your duties in court?”

“Oh, dammit, that’s right.” Celestia dropped her head in defeat and looked out the window at the stage of the sun. “I’ve totally forgotten…”

“And if it’s alright with you, Luna,” the dark princess turned to me once again, looking at me upside down. “With all of Vinyl’s crying, I may need a place to stay the night.”

Luna let out a low growl of agreement and smirked before dropping her head to wink at her sister, for whatever reason.

“Please, not before we leave the planet. I don’t think they’d survive the cryogenics.” Celestia remarked as she stood to make her exit from the place. “If you’ll both excuse me, I can at least hold a night court before I aim for bed.”

“I’m just going to wait for this to finish up and then I'll pop by your place?” I offered to Luna who nodded and trotted after her sister through the open door. Once I was alone with the bawling Vinyl, I sat down at the dinner table to wait for the machine to finish dinner while finishing up my drink and setting the empty glass on the table.

After some minutes in silence, I found myself self-reflecting. “What am I expecting from this newfound relationship? If Luna is expecting children of some kind, would that even be possible and how would that work out? She is royalty, so how will the nobility take to me suddenly appearing? What about when we all get to the new planet and I have to return to Earth with news about the newly colonized planet, what happens then and could the new planet survive Celestia's wrath when I make the news?” As I continued to think, I began to noticeably psych myself out of this new romance; despite that I so casually entered into it not fifteen minutes earlier.

A few more minutes in silence and brooding and the processor dinged it’s task complete, offering me a silver domed tray in which my medium rare steak sandwich lay in wait for me. On it should be sauteed mushrooms in a moderately thick gravy next to garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The main attraction would be the peppercorn elk steak resting on a fairly decent sized piece of garlic toast, synthesized to look like it had been grilled to perfection.

Retrieving the platter with a pair of towels, I set everything down on the table before me and prepared myself for the sensations I was about to partake of.

~~~

Dinner was had and I had to put myself down for a short nap afterwards in order to digest everything before attempting to move distances longer than the distance from the table to the suit at the door that I would have to rely on in order to survive down at ground level.

Half an hour of rest later, I pulled myself up from the couch and wiped my face off with a hand to clear the remnants of sleep from me. Stepping into my room, I was pleased that Vinyl had gone offline for the time being and let me disrobe and step into the shower to wash up for my overnight visit at Luna’s.

Once fresh and smelling not like sweat or dinner, I stepped back out and dressed myself in the skintight body suit that went under the EVA suits. Clipping on the translation module to my collar and strapping the throat mic to my neck before covering it all with the collar of the suit, I crossed the distance to the Urban-class suit packed away into a small crate set into the floor of my room at the foot of my bed and got dressed.

“Don’t wait up for me, Vinyl. Do get some good sleep though.” I whispered in my passing through the door and letting it shut behind me as I placed the helmet over my head and locked it in place, letting it pressurize the suit with a hiss and brief chill of air.

Stepping into the evening light and locking my shack’s door behind me, I took off at a sprint towards the edge of the platform that would lead towards the mining town below and leapt off the edge with a spring in my step.

Activating my jetpack but disabling my inertial dampeners, I quickly approached terminal velocity while using the jetpack to keep me from hitting the mountain side. My suit systems detected that I was no longer falling and activated the generic flight HUD which showed me the horizon, airspeed and altimeter. Using this information, I straightened myself out horizontal to the horizon and activated my inertial dampeners just enough to let me properly fly around like the birds of the planet; or like the pegasi who dwelled in the clouds. Disengaging the speed safety devices of my suit, I pushed full thrust into my pack to push me forwards faster and faster, my heart rate rising as my speed increased and my breathing becoming more and more laboured as the adrenaline in my body began to circulate.

Once I’d achieved enough speed, approximately 245m/s according to my HUD, my vertical fall was overpowered by my horizontal flight and I took off around the mountain a few times; first facing the mountain to get a look at it again after initially scouting it in the Wyvern, then facing away to stare out at the night sky. While there was still a bit of sun up on the mountain peak, it was fully and completely night down below and as likely the ponies below were all probably packing in for bed.

Breaking away from skimming the surface of the mountain with my back, I turned back onto my belly and shot away towards what my HUD told me was in the direction of Ponyville before coming about in a massive arc to aim for the main drag of the mining town to begin my descent and slowing. The best way for me to do that was to somersault over so that my feet was ahead of me and my jetpack’s bottom thrusters -the more powerful ones- could act as the primary braking force while the other ones all cancelled out the other axis of movement once I'd turned on all my dampening forces.

Timing it perfectly, I hit the ground sliding on my feet at only 11m/s and slid for a good couple feet before coming to a full stop; surprisingly staying upright in doing so. Sucked that no one was around to see it though.

Dusting myself off from the slide, I activated my headlamp to illuminate the area around me to locate Luna’s abode in relation to my location.

Found it.

Not only did I come in with an amazing landing, but I also managed to stop only a few doors down from Luna’s home. Spinning on my heels, I shut my lamp off to keep from annoying any of the locals with my arrival -forgetting that my mere landing was not silent in the slightest and probably spooked a good number of neighbors- and gave myself a quick jog to Luna’s front door.

Stepping up onto the large patio I stopped at the door and have a couple hearty knocks -figure knock loud enough the first time, don’t have to repeatedly annoy anyone else with incessant knocking after- and stepped back a step to wait.

The sound of ceramics being dropped, accompanied by the sound of metal hitting the floor and eclipsed by a bit of cursing in Equestrian, and the sound of trotting towards the door alerted me to the home-keepers arrival.

The door flew open with an eager Luna at the doorway, her mane solid and laying flat against her head with sparkling eyes and white teeth in a large grin.

“You’ve come!” she announced and backed away from the door, letting me into the place. “I’ll admit, I was beginning to believe you were going to stand me up, that everything earlier today was a lie or some hallucination…” Luna admitted as she shut the door behind me and circled around me to lead me into the living room on the left -never mind that I had designed the basic framework for her house in the first place so I knew where everything was already.

“Well, I'm here now. As promised.” I nodded back and took a seat on one of the sofas near to me.

“Please, make yourself comfortable! I was just preparing a light snack while I waited for you. I have also taken the liberty of making sure that this whole place is air sealed shut. You can take your suit off, I’ve purified the air supply.” Luna announced as she turned from the living room to the kitchen again, giving me a quick look at the seal on the back of her neck keeping her healthy in this environment.

“Well I appreciate the efforts.” I replied and began the process of removing the parts and pieces of my suit, letting the valves of my suit hiss shut before disconnecting the seals so as not to waste extra air for the trip back up the mountain.

Setting my suit in a neat pile at the end of the sofa with the helmet sat staring up at me with the gloves underneath, I sat back and got myself comfortable with an arm over the back of the seating and a leg folded over the other.

“I must say, it’s much warmer down here at the base of the mountain than it is at the peak, even indoors.” I announced, the throat mic and translation units still hidden under my skin suit's collar.

“That is one of the benefits of being at sea level, I suppose.” Luna agreed as she cleaned up whatever dishes she’d broken at my arrival and returned to her snack. “Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?”

“No thank you, I’m fine but thanks for the offer.” I held a hand up from my knee, regardless of whether or not she could actually see me do so.

“So, i’ve been wondering about the future.” Luna began as she turned from the kitchen with a large bowl of a mixed garden salad in her magical grasp and a fork hanging from the edge of the bowl. “Specifically what life will be like on the new planet.”

“Well,” I let Luna hop up onto the sofa next to me and cuddle into my body as close as she could while still being able to eat. “Let me go over how it’ll work from completion of the Colony Ship in two months.”

“That’s still taking some getting used to, only having two more months before we have to evacuate the planet…” Luna briefly interrupted, sounding distressed but not enough to be unable to eat as she forked a mouthful of salad into her mouth.

“Yeah, I know. But we’ll make it. We have to.” I reassured the princess, giving her a heartfelt hug from the side before getting adjusted again. “So, we complete the colony ship and get the selected personnel loaded aboard and into cryo. A small crew, only about five or six give or take, will remain awake for a few months to ensure that nothing happens to the ship that could endanger the lives on board. They’ll make sure that the ship escapes the planet unscathed and reaches registered space before setting a course for a previously uninhabited planet that will support all forms of life currently on this planet.”

“If there isn’t one nearby to set a course towards?” Luna looked up at me with a partial mouthful before swallowing and continuing her snack.

“Once we’re in registered space, that won’t be a problem.” I replied. “Once a course has been laid in, the skeleton crew will then go into cryostasis as well and will go through a similar routine that I did. Every five years they’ll wake up to perform maintenance or collect resources from asteroids, moons or from uninhabited planets from orbit.”

“You can do that?” Luna raised an eyebrow through a mouthful then quickly emptied her mouth out and apologized for the lack of manners.

“What, planet cracking? Sure, we achieved that somewhere in the two hundred years I was asleep, apparently. I’ve even got the blueprints and tech spreads to build the necessary equipment for the colony ship if we need it.” I shrugged back with a smirk. Luna stared at me in disbelief. “I have no idea how it all works, but I know that it uses gravity tethers and massive mining lasers to break off continent-sized chunks of the planet or moon and then refines them into ore and materials.”

“I am actually quite worried about how humanity has advanced in technology. To be able to mine an entire planet for it’s ores… What if it was weaponized?”

“Not possible with the entire galactic community watching. Humanity is not the most technologically advanced race in the Alliance and if we tried to crack an inhabited planet then one of the other races would surely beat us back down.”

“What would happen if one of those other more advanced races attacked with planet cracking technology?”

“One of two things, the rest of the galaxy would fight back or we’d be exterminated.”

“That simple huh?” Luna sighed heavily and dove back into her bowl of vegetables. “Okay, so go on.”

“Right, so when the colony ship reaches the new planet the VI will automatically enter into orbit and begin the process of waking everyone up to begin the colonization. The planet terrain will be analyzed and divided out amongst the species to best support each type. The new Administration will head down to the planet and spend a couple months setting up the government buildings.” I had to pause to take a breath and organize the rest of the plans in my mind and cough a couple times into the crook of my arm.

“After that, the workforce will descend and begin construction of critical infrastructure after which the entirety of the ship will descend and populate the planet; the colony ship being torn down piece by piece as the planet’s infrastructure takes place.”

“Aren’t you worried that creatures still on the ship would become accustomed to living on the ship instead of living on the planet? Won’t they try to resist?” Luna raised an eyebrow in worried curiosity.

“Would certainly be a problem if, like I said, the ship wasn’t getting shredded piece by piece in order to build up the new colonies. While everyone is in space, races are going to be living amongst each other so the ship being torn apart will affect everyone equally. Eventually there’ll be no choice but to head planetside.”

“You make it sound so simple...” Luna sighed and set her bowl and fork down to curl up into me further, closing her eyes to settle down.

“Hah, yeah I know.” I gave a soft hearted chuckle in reply and wrapped my arms around Luna as best I could to pull her into me further. “We both know it’s not going to be that easy.”

“No, but a mare can dream.” Luna smirked back and yawned. “My word, I think it may be time for bed…”

“Agreed.” I nodded and released Luna who whined at me doing so before getting herself up to toss the bowl and fork into the kitchen sink with precision then lead me towards the stairs in the hall that would lead up to the second floor and to her room.

Walking into Luna’s darkly-decorated room, everything in blue, silver and black, Luna hopped up onto the large double-sized mattress as I trailed after her and pulled the both of us under the covers. Luna immediately wrapped her legs around me and latched on while I worked at getting the blankets over the both of us.

“There’s something I would like to try, if you’ll let me.” Luna whispered as the lights in the room died off with the glow from her horn. “I’d like to try dreaming with you tonight, but you have to let me in.”

“I have no idea how to do that…” I whispered back and breathed deeply of Luna’s fragrance. Blueberries.

“While you’re sleeping, if you feel an unfamiliar presence, don’t fight me okay? I’ll pull you from your dream into a shared one between us.” Luna explained into my chest and breathed deeply herself.

“I’ll do my best.” I offered and settled down into silence with the princess in my arms.

Author's Note:

The next chapter or two are going to take a fairly different approach from the main story as the pair roam my mind. Should be semi-interesting...

Comments

[Vitae]

Sage?
Is that you?

[Black Jack]

Intresting intresting this story is
I can't wait for more chapters and one thing
I'm not complaining I just wanted to let you know don't you think you rushed the couple a little quick?
One chapter evrything is like it is the next luna tells her feeling the next there dating
Although I'm not a writer like you so nvm I guess I could just be acting like a dumbass

[DerpTape]

but you have to let me in.”

“I have no idea how to do that…” I whispered back and breathed deeply of Luna’s fragrance. Blueberries.

“While you’re sleeping, if you feel an unfamiliar presence, don’t fight me okay?

. . . You know, out of context, and with a certain mindset, this could be considered to be a concerning exchange.

[0Z0mbie]

9725270
no no why i could have read the entirety of this story and not to had have read this comment why!?!