Lost Moon Dancer

by qwefg

Ch1 Waking Up

Those who do not fear the unknown are truly blessed with ignorance for they cannot comprehend just how horribly things can go wrong.

Moon Dancer opened her eyes and gasped for air as she fell to the floor. Her lung worked to take in as much fresh air as she could only to cause her to cough as she struggled to breath. The icy touch of the cold air burned her throat as she struggled to keep her breathing steady.

She tried to calm herself as she looked around the dimly lit room only to see a terminal resting nearby her. The light above the machine kept flickering as if drawing her to it. Her first thoughts raced to what had happened before she was trapped inside this room.

She was in Canterlot… Twilight had invited her to a picnic with her old Canterlot friends. She did remember going to the picnic but her memories were a little fuzzy. Did Minute do something to the drinks when she wasn’t looking?

“Where am I?” she muttered to herself as she felt something pinching her body “What happened?”

She looked at her own body only to see a white bulky suit covering most of her body. She tried to take the suit off only to realize she couldn’t find a way to remove it. Her horn ached in pain as she saw her own breath in the air as the room seemed to grow colder by the second.

The room was almost alien as the cold white metal covered everything. She couldn’t help but shiver as there were a few pieces of ice hanging from the ceiling. She looked behind her and spotted what looked like a large egg shaped coffin that had been made just for her size. There were no windows in the room and there was only one door leading in and out of the room.

Moon Dancer walked over to the door and shouted “Hello? Is anypony there?”

She pressed her face against the door as she couldn’t see anything behind it. She couldn’t hear anypony on the other side of the door. The only thing in the room was the screen as the blinking light continued to flicker above it.

She tried to smile as she told herself “This is probably just some sort of bad prank. Lemon Hearts told me that I needed to spend more time outside… and Twilight’s intervention might have taken it a bit too far.”

Moon Dancer remembered how Twilight had reacted after remembering her old Canterlot friends. While Moon Dancer shouldn’t have been so rude to Twilight about trying to reconnect… Twilight was also kind of at fault.

“Hopefully this is a prank from that pony Pinkie Pie… or Rainbow Dash.” She told herself as she walked over to the screen with the blinking light.

She paused as it sort of looked like one of those large computers that Twilight had in her basement.

Moon Dancer tapped the wall beside and muttered “It isn’t humming… no cracks, seams, or spaces in-between the machine and the wall.” She bit her lip and looked at the mostly empty room “And it also doesn’t take up half the room. Maybe the rest of the computer took up the room on the other side of the wall.”

She looked back at the front of the machine as the screen was there… but no slot for the paper to print out. There were a couple of keys similar to a typewriter in front of her. She carefully used her magic to press down on one of the keys as it went down until a faint ‘click’ was heard.

She looked back up at the screen as she expected to see the button she had pressed only for the screen to show “In death we survive to grant others a chance, but in bowing our heads to those who invade we only offer up the lives of those who will come after us along with our own.”

Moon Dancer shivered the screen flickered for a moment before a new message appeared “Are you awake?”

She looked around the room and shouted “I’m awake! Where are you?”

The message flickered again “Are you awake?”

Moon Dancer frowned as she looked at the machine and pressed the letter Q as it appeared on the screen. She pressed a couple more letters before hitting enter as the screen flashed only to bring up the previous question.

She took a deep breath and slowly typed “I am awake. Where am I?”

She watched the letters appear on the screen as the new message replied “You are onboard the T960 Interstellar. If you have any further questions then please type your questions into the computer terminal in front of you.”

Moon Dancer closed her eyes as she tried to remember what had happened before she woke up in this room. Her mind was fuzzy as the cold air certainly wasn’t helping her thing as she thought back to her friends. She didn’t remember leaving the picnic so it would be safe to assume that they moved her when she accidently fell asleep.

She glanced at the terminal and typed “Where are the others?”

The machine quickly replied “The others are in Cryo status.”

Moon Dancer frowned as that didn’t make much sense “Where are they?”

The screen flickered for a moment as the message still read “The others are in Cryo Status.”

Moon Dancer grunted in frustration as she typed “Bring them to me!”

The screen slowly typed out the response to her demand stating “Current request in unable to be granted due to power issues. Life support can only currently sustain one individual until power is turned back on. Please interact with MAL at the next computer terminal for any further requests and instructions in the next room. To open door please enter OPEN DOOR.”

Moon Dancer pressed harder on the keyboard as she typed “Open door.”

The door slowly hissed as it opened up as Moon Dancer raced outside of the freezing cold room only to find another room with a locked door and a terminal. The young mare rubbed her head as she tried to carefully think about what was going on.

There was one of those events where you placed a group of people in a room as they tried to figure out how to solve the puzzle. The room had a table and a rather oddly shaped couch. It didn’t look like it was built to support a pony as it was a bit too thin as the backrest was a little bit tall. There was a single window of a picture of some alien planet and two moons orbiting it.

She chuckled as who ever built this place must have had a lot of time on their hooves to make it seem as if the planet was slowly rotating outside. With a quick tap against the wall to check for any spaces between the picture and the wall… she was a bit surprised to see that the picture was welded onto the wall.

A little bit extreme to sell this gag… but maybe somepony like Pinkie Pie would be crazy enough to go the extra mile. Thankfully there was another screen on the other side of the room with the same typewriter setup.

She raced over to the machine and typed “Where are my friends?”

The screen flickered as a new message appeared “I am sorry but Life support can only support one individual for right now. If you take the power converter chip on the table behind you…”

“Where am I!” Moon Dancer typed in frustration as she was growing tired of this game.

The screened flickered again as a new message appeared “You are aboard the T960 Interstellar space ship that is currently docked with space station Vigil. This ship was built to create a sustainable atmosphere to help keep it’s crew safe and able to survive deep within the cold void of space. Currently life support has been set for only one crew member.”

Moon Dancer shook her head as she was probably in Canterlot… or Ponyville. There was just another pony sitting outside on the grass and looking through a one way mirror watching her reactions. She just wished that they hadn’t made the room so cold.

She slowly nodded to herself as she said “My name is Moon Dancer.” The screen still had the previous message as she realized she had to type her response “My name is Moon Dancer.”

She tried to focus on the screen instead of the terror her heart was feeling as the message replied “Hello Moon Dancer. Is there anything else you want to ask?"

Moon Dancer shivered as she tried to ignore it as she mumbled to herself “What I want to know is how I got here or what’s going on… but I doubt you’ll tell me that.”

The screen didn’t change until Moon Dancer typed “Where are you?”

“I’m right here.” The cryptic message replied

Moon Dancer felt like rolling her eyes as she decided to play along “Can you please explain?"

The screen flickered for a moment as a new message appeared “My name is MAL and I am the Manufactured Artificial Life created to help guide, protect, and ensure the safety of both the crew and the mission. Would you like a map of the show to show you where to put the power converter chip in?”

She chuckled nervously as she typed “Could you also show me a picture of the chip?”

Moon Dancer stared at the screen as she saw herself… well the back of her body in the white bulky space suit you saw little foals wear on Nightmare Night. So this suit didn’t look like it was strung together at the last minute or bought at a costume shop as it had various items attached to it including what seemed like a bulky… backpack. Not the standard saddlebag design, but something you would see on a diamond dog or a Minotaur.

Oh and there was a red circle drawn around the table behind her. Another red arrow was drawn on the picture pointing at what looked like a one of those large crystal chipboards that looked like it came from an old sci-fi horror play Minute had once shown her. Moon Dancer moved her forelegs as she noticed that it wasn’t a picture… it was a camera watching her in real time.

She quickly turned around and tried to see where the camera was being hidden as she didn’t see anything like the cameras back home… of course those weren’t advanced enough to show her movement in real time.

It couldn’t be the same stage trick the actors used during their plays as that was really smoke and mirrors. If it was a series of mirrors reflecting her image than she would have seen the first piece of glass or reflective surface they had been using inside the room.

Moon Dancer took a deep breath and used her magic to scan the room. There were plenty of spells that could be cast to give the illusion the screen was showing… or maybe it was a combination of scrying spells? She kept casting every type of detection spell that she knew of only to grow more frustrated with each passing second.

Magic was common in Equestria. Levitation spells by unicorns… flight from a nearby Pegasus… yet she couldn’t sense anything. No magical gems or arcane circuitry… She couldn’t even feel the normal magic used by the other tribes as the area around her felt empty.

She tried pushing herself as she extended the reach of the spell past the room she was in. She continued pushing herself as she had no idea what ‘scale’ she was using as she didn’t get any response. Her entire body shivered as she didn’t feel any ‘background’ magic in the area.

Moon Dancer gulped as evil underground bunker hidden deep within the ground of a nearby mountain came into play. After all she couldn’t be up in an unknown space ship because that would be silly… and highly improbable. It was just more likely that… everypony outside wasn’t using magic within her radius meaning she could detect their presence with her spell because they were not actively using magic.

That or a secret society entirely made up of donkeys had built this place in secret and managed to build a series of devices that managed to record her actions and then play it back to her in real time without anypony in Equestria realizing what they were doing.

“Yes…” Moon Dancer muttered to herself sarcastically “Because that make much more sense than the alternative.”

She sighed as she tried to remember that this was all some really big elaborate prank. Maybe Princess Twilight Sparkle had just managed to convince all of Ponyville to help her out with this prank. Maybe this was all a big joke… or some sort of test to take notes on and then send to Princess Celestia… after all the newest alicorn had used a ‘need it, want it’ spell to make a friendship problem so that she could solve it and report back to Princess Celestia.

Moon Dancer chuckled nervously as that had to be the answer instead of wishful thinking on her part. Still she couldn’t help but shiver as she lifted up the ‘chip’ with her magic. It didn’t look like anything she had studied or read about… as there wasn’t a single gem or arcane relay setup to help power, manipulate or anything that matched the computer Twilight had.

She chuckled nervously as she told herself “Maybe Pinkie Pie has a party set up in the next room. I just stick the ‘chip’ into the slot and surprise… everypony throws me a surprise birthday party or something.”

Moon Dancer walked over to the door tried to open it up manually only for it to remain shut. She looked back at the computer and remembered what she had to do to open up the previous door.

She tried to keep calm as she was ready to chew out whoever was responsible for this prank as she typed “Can you open up the door?”

The screen flickered as a new message appeared “Currently ship power only allows a limited amount of life support and power to certain rooms. If there is anything you want from the cryo room than I suggest you grab it before requesting the door to open up. Otherwise the door will remain shut until enough power has been restored to the ship.”

Moon Dancer shouted as she furiously typed “You mean my friends might die!”

A new message suddenly appeared “They will be safe in Cryo. The door to the room will be turned off as the systems will attempt to conserve life support. You just won’t be able to return until power has been restored.”

Moon Dancer sighed in relief as she shook her head as she replied to herself “It’s just a prank… a really bad prank as nopony is in danger…”

She glanced back at the room that she had woken up in as she didn’t feel any better. Looking back at the message on the board her previous words felt hollow as her heart beat continued to race as the previous jump scare still felt fresh.

“Just take a deep breath.” Moon Dancer replied as she walked towards the open door “Remember the Cookie Cutter Theory… the most likely answer is probably correct. It’s more likely this is a bad prank than anything else.”

******

Moon Dancer followed the machine’s directions as she found the ‘power room’ and inserted the missing ‘chip’ back into its assigned slot as the ship began to hum. Warmth started to fill the room as Moon Dancer waited for everypony to jump out and say ‘surprise’ as they scared her half to death.

She slowly tapped her hoof as she waited for the jump scare only for nothing to happen. Moon Dancer looked at all of the strange machinery in the room as she didn’t know how they worked… expect that heat was being restored to the rooms and there wasn’t a single gem in any of these systems.

She used her magic to check for any changes… any signs of magic being used as the heat had to be coming from somewhere. She didn’t find any heating spells or any creatures breathing fire as that process also involved using magic. She chuckled nervously as the only other answer she had was actual fire… or maybe some sort of natural underground heating source like a hot spring or something.

She sniffed the air trying to smell the hint of smoke, sulfur, something to tell her where this heat was being generated. To her despair she couldn’t detect anything. She couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. The faint ‘hum’ of the machines beside her that seemed to fill the room told her the machines were working… without any connection or basis on the similar arcane technology used in Equestria.

Moon Dancer slowly walked back to the room with the terminal as she glanced at the smooth white hallways… as she didn’t see anypony. No scuff marks on the floor or hoof prints left over as somepony didn’t wipe their hooves. No fallen feathers from any pegasi or strands of hair left from a pony as the suit she wore felt more constricting now.

Nopony was here as her own hoofsteps seemed to echo in the empty hallway as she spotted the closed doors that could only be opened by a command from one of the terminals. Her footsteps quickened as she raced back to the room and waited to see her friends only to find the room empty as the Terminal stood there… waiting for her.

Moon Dancer quickly typed in panic “Now can you give me back my friends!”

This prank had gone on long enough. She was scared so let everypony jump out and say ‘surprise’ as she would gladly scream in terror if only it meant somepony else was here. She couldn’t be up in a space ship looking at a planet she had never seen before. This had to be all one elaborate prank otherwise… otherwise…

The screen flickered for a moment as a new message replied “I am sorry, but I can not do that Moon Dancer.”

A shiver ran up her spine as she typed “Why not?”

The text disappeared as what looked like the image of a paper document appeared on the screen saying “Currently life support is restored, but only a crew of two can be sustained. The crew must be able to work together to restore the hydroponics bay before a third member of the crew can be woken up.”

Moon Dancer looked at the paper grimly as she tapped a button only for a new message to appear “It’s to make sure the crew can work together or to remove internal strife before it becomes a problem to the crew.”

She gulped as her legs gave out. This was… she shook her head “No… it has to be a prank. Just one big joke… It can’t possibly be…”

Moon Dancer typed “But I want all of my friends back.”

The slow dread she had been feeling grew as she tried to banish it as she tried to think logically. What was more likely to be true? Was she trapped on a spaceship or was this all a big prank. Was she Celestia knew how many miles away from Equestria… possibly even the planet itself… or was this a really bad prank… or did Starlight Glimmer do something to her?

She chuckled nervously as that made sense in a slightly cold, but certainly better alternative than the other crazy theory. Starlight Glimmer was just a pony who made a cult out in the middle of nowhere stealing cutie marks to fuel her own magic and adding to her ridicules amount of skills had to be behind all of this.

After all how could a unicorn even know so many types of spells… or learn so many tricks with her spells without being noticed by Celestia or anypony important. Her friend Sunburst was sent to Equestria’s School for gifted unicorns and she was a nobody until Twilight found her creepy village.

Moon Dancer chuckled as this was probably all some sort of evil plan made from Starlight Glimmer… certainly not because Moon Dancer felt a little bit of jealousy towards the other unicorn as Twilight decided to make Starlight Glimmer her personal own student instead of sending the crazy mare to jail or something instead of picking Moon Dancer to be her student… Starlight Glimmer was just as old as Twilight and Moon Dancer so why should she get to learn magic with Twilight if not for some sort of evil mind control spell?

She chuckled to herself as that was probably it… Starlight Glimmer had used a sleeping spell on Moon Dancer when no pony was looking and then stuffed her in that pod before shipping her to that one ‘cave’ that was near her town where she stole everypony’s cutie marks.

Moon Dancer had even remembered asking Twilight why they didn’t just go inside to make sure she didn’t hide behind the tunnel entrance. She continued to chuckle nervously as that certainly made a lot more sense than the grim alternative.

The screen flickered as the machine continued to reply “And currently there isn’t enough food for more than two people. All you have is dry rations for now until power is restored to the Hydroponic systems allowing more water to be treated and for the garden to grow food. Once the systems are working more crew members can be woken up from cryo status.”

Moon Dancer bit her lip as she probably should have paid more attention to what was on the screen than her internal rant and attempt to justify what was going on around her.

She sighed as she typed “Can I pick who wakes up?”

She just had to wake up whoever else was captured by Starlight Glimmer and then warn Twilight. Yes that was all she had to do as this certainly had to do. If she was lucky it was a unicorn who could teleport them out of here.

That or she’d wake up one of her friends from Canterlot… after all if Starlight Glimmer was going through with her crazy plan than she had probably abducted her friends once they started asking questions or something.

There was a slight pause as the message didn’t appear right away as Moon Dancer glanced at the machine only for the next message to appear “So far I only have numbers for the crew. If you don’t know what number they were assigned then I won’t be of much help on telling you which crew members you are looking for.”

Moon Dancer groaned as she furiously typed “We’re ponies! Who in their right mind labeled us as mere numbers instead of listing our names!”

“If you have any complaints or suggestions to help improve travel aboard the T960 Installer space ship then please write down your suggestions and submit them to the ship captain so that a review committee can look over your comments.” The machine replied apparently not catching the point of her complaint.

Moon Dancer glanced at the machine as she tried to figure out what to do next “Can I see any pictures so that I might be able to tell who they are?”

The machine complied with her request as it showed her ten other egg shaped coffins like the one she was previously in except she couldn’t see anypony’s face. Ten coffins as she didn’t know who was inside each of them or what had taken them. She wanted to ask the machine why they were here… but she wanted to free her friends before asking that question.

With a deep breath Moon Dancer picked one of them at random and hoped for the best.

Hopefully one of the other ponies could help her... Maybe Pinkie Pie would jump out shouting surprise as this was all some great big prank. Maybe a member of the royal guard would appear with the knowledge and skill to teleport them back to Canterlot or someplace close.

Moondancer took a deep breath as she selected one of the egg shaped coffins at random as she looked at the room where she had woken up. The camera inside the room allowed her to see what was going on as she couldn’t help but shiver at the thought of the golem like machine staring at her without her notice.

The old egg shaped coffin that held Moondancer disappeared from the room she had been held in as it sealed itself back up before falling through the floor. A couple of seconds later a new egg shaped coffin started to rise from the floor as a cold mist surrounded the coffin. The computer in front of her had various images, words, and symbols appear on the screen as they passed by faster than her eyes could keep track of.

The egg shaped coffin inside the room began to hiss as more mist filled the room as it slowly cracked open. She watched the coffin finally opened up as the real time video continued to play in the corner of the screen as the words and images finally ended.

Moondancer just watched a shepherd dog fall face first out of the egg shaped coffin as the dog was whining in pain after hitting the floor nose first. The machine registered a second crew member as the dog started barking up a storm.

“Can we put the dog back into cryo and pick somepony else?” Moondancer typed into the computer with her head held low.

“The next crew member had been selected… even if the results are much lower than expected” The machine replied “Currently retrieving documentation for crew selection process and awakening sequence."

Moondancer stared at the hoof written document on the screen as she realized what the machine had meant “Do not allow the crew to put members back into cryo. Being placed back into cryo should not be used as a punishment and if the members of the crew are not able to work together than they should resolve the issue… unless an untimely death happens.”

Moondancer face hoofed as she typed “So this dog is my partner unless she dies.”

“Personally I would advise you to kill the dog, but if you feel that it is necessary…” The machine replied and just seemed to be waiting for her response.

She looked at the dog who was sniffing around the room in confusion as the dog had no idea what was going on. Moon Dancer shook her head as it seemed crazy to kill a dog just to get another chance to pick out another crew member. Still the AI seemed to be watching her as if waiting to see if she would actually go through with it.

She felt a shiver down her spine as the previous message must have been a typo or something. There was no possible what that it was asking her to kill the dog just to try again?

Moondancer took a deep breath as she typed in “Can you open up the door so that we can place her into a safe room?”

The door opened up as the dog came racing in before tackling Moondancer. She couldn’t help but chuckle a little as the dog kept licking her face a couple of times before whimpering probably wondering what had happened to her master.

Moondancer stared at the dog as she couldn’t help but wonder what this meant… yet a strange feeling of calmness passed over her body. She couldn’t help but chuckle despite the tears than ran down her face as none of this made any sense.

What was with the keyboard system since only a small amount of races could use it? Who built all of this stuff without anypony noticing? What would she do if she wasn’t in Equestria… if she was on some secret island or in some land past the frozen north tucked away in some creepy mountain Nopony knew about?

She shook her head as she had to stick with the evil Starlight Glimmer theory since that plan made the most sense… That was the most likely reason behind this entire mess. All she had to do was figure out how to free another pony… and then… then she’d have the proof that she was looking for.

The dog sat by Moondancer’s side whimpering as if sharing her thoughts. Moondancer slowly started petting the dog’s head as she replied “Don’t worry dog… I’ll think of something.”

She wrapped herself around the dog as closed her eyes… Sweet Celestia was she tired.

Author's Note:

Let me know if I missed any spelling mistakes or any questions you may have.

Comments

[Backupo]

Pony in space. Crazy AI. My only question is where the suit came from and what is with the pods?