Lost Moon Dancer

by qwefg

Looking for trouble

The difference between hope and denial is often just a hair's breath away.

Moon Dancer stood in the kitchen as she glanced at the drone. The machine had told her about the shop which shouldn’t be that far from the ‘ship’ that she was on. She just figured that the machine would give her a can of pepper spray, a vest, and maybe a small club.

Instead the machine had somehow managed to get it’s… talons? Claws… Hooks? What was the technical term for those metal limbs?

Her train of thought stopped when she saw it preparing a harpoon gun “NO! We do not need a harpoon gun to walk down to the store!”

Moon Dancer shouted as she tried to put away the large weapon as the drone somehow manage to look at her oddly.

She grunted as she used her magic to type the message so that the machine could ‘hear’ her response. The screen flashed as a new line of text appeared… as the drone was starting to sort the weapons from the crate.

Moon Dancer took a deep breath as she read the machine’s reply “The space station may be hostile. The fact that they have yet to make contact or send a greeting protocol after I sent a message to confirm one of the ship’s crew is going to board their station is troubling.”

The unicorn glanced back at the harpoon gun “But maybe we could try limiting it to safer weapons?”

“The harpoon gun is completely safe.” The machine replied to her shock.

She looked back at the very sharp tip of the weapon and the… strange handle and trigger built for a race with fingers. “How is that weapon safe?”

“Unlike modern fire arms where you can simply shoot a bullet… there is a less likely percentage of unknown damage that could be caused by a small metallic projectile that could pierce multiple hulls and result in the loss of life support.” The machine stated “In the worst projected scenario a harpoon will either be stuck in the offending assailant or just somehow manage to pierce or damage one wall or hull.”

Moon Dancer slowly nodded her head as she didn’t know what ‘modern’ weapon the machine was talking about… or how a harpoon gun was considered safer when compared to them.

Thankfully she knew how to rephrase her questions “Actually I was referring to ensuring both me and the possible assailant survive. We do not know what is happening and I don’t want to hurt somepony that just happened to be frightened.”

There was a long pause before the harpoon gun was finally placed back into one of the crates “It is your call. Please keep the Riot Suppression Gun nearby at all times. If you feel you are in trouble simply pull the trigger and keep the nozzle pointed away from any parts of your body at all times.”

Moon Dancer nodded as this felt much better… until she was given a small toy space gun with a white glass sphere. Still it would be better than carrying around a harpoon gun. The drone finished giving her a few more items… improvised saddle bags made from old sacks and a few round hoof ball sized objects with labels that read ‘handle with care’ or simply ‘danger’ written on their sides.

She simply placed the items in her poorly made saddlebags before the terminal showed her the directions to the shop.

******

Moon Dancer stood outside the final door to the ‘ship’ before she would reach the ‘space station’ in this infernal complex. With a deep breath she prepared herself for the trip ahead of her. She had a shield, and a descent list of spells that could defend her if anything tried to attack her. She had a slight idea on how this place worked so she wouldn’t be caught by surprise by anything unusual.

“Just remember I can barely accesses any of the cameras near the docking bay doors so if there is any trouble I won’t be able to help.” The machine warned her. “Also just be careful in the hallway… it was built more for fashion than design.”

Moon Dancer simply nodded her head. She had her sweater instead of that pesky suit and she was about to wake up another pony. She could do this.

“I'm still going.” Moon Dancer typed “Open Door.”

The large doors in front of her hissed as various lines of text raced across the screen. The doors slowly opened up revealing what looked like a glass hallway. There was a solid metal floor with two small ‘walls’ by her side that were just short enough for her to stick her head above.

She could see the same view that the picture inside the building had shown her… expect it almost felt as if she was walking amongst the stars around her. Whoever built this place must of wasted a fortune just building this hallway as she couldn’t help but gaze in awe at her surroundings until she reached the end of the hallway.

Once she stepped through the iron doors they slowly sealed themselves shut. A pressurized hiss went off as Moon Dancer looked at the other part of the strange complex she was in.

The walls were more of a dark and almost seemingly rusted metal as her hooves seemed to echo across the room. The lights were more dimly light as the entire room seemed to be set in a horror movie tone. The terminal looked the same… albeit a little bit darker and more rust looking, but it seemed to be working just fine. The entire area felt as if Nopony had even bothered cleaning this area as they let the dirt and grime simply build up.

Moon Dancer remembered the directions she had to take… but she decided to give the machine a test “Show me to the shop.”

The message replied “Please state valid response.”

Moon Dancer frowned “Where is the shop?”

“Please state valid response.” The message replied once again.

Moon Dancer rolled her eyes “Where can I get a regulator piece?”

“Please state valid response.” the machine replied without missing beat.

“Maybe he’s just pretending to not hear me.” Moon dancer mumbled to herself “Well the shop isn’t too far away.”

******

Walking down the hallway was simple enough. There didn’t seem to be any real damage beside lack of upkeep… or a cleaning crew. How could anypony make one side spotless and another side feel like it had been abandoned for years was beyond her. Certainly they could have spared a few bits to hire somepony to get a mop and a bucket around here?

Something hit her hoof and flew across the floor for a short distance before clicking as a voice replied “The captain believes in the mission more than any of us, but he won’t tell us anything. Why are we bringing these supplies to this place? Why are we censoring so much stuff that is common knowledge? I mean just about every screen savor I can find says ‘Potions are death. Space is life.” And yet they are marking it as an unknown illegal substance.”

Moon Dancer glanced at the small rectangular device. The voice sounded female… and increasingly worried. She even had a slight accent that she couldn’t place… as if Equestrian was her second language.

“I guess that’s why I’m making this report.” The voice continued “We have no idea what the cargo we are carrying… or the reason why the eggheads want it. We are not allowed to say anything about this place to the folks back home… and I think the captain shot someone who talked about quitting when we got back to…” The voice stopped as their breath started to quicken as Moon Dancer could hear the slight sliver of fear in the speaker’s voice “…well you know where.”

There was another pause as if the speaker seemed to be waiting for something to happen to her. After nothing had apparently happened there was a soft sight before the voice continued “Still the captain claims that she’s alight… that and Pam was just given over to the station councilor. Funny how she’ll send someone to ‘psychiatric help’ when having complaints the crazy rules Vigil has, and yet she refuses to tell the egg heads that she had yet to turn on the ship’s AI. Something about worrying about the machine starting an uprising and killing us all.”

There was a small chuckle “Yah because killer robots are going to be the ones who kill us. Of course just by saying that the next group that comes here will end up finding my body hacked apart by a dozen buzz saws. Still at least it’s safe up here… even if this place seems a little bit cramp.”

There was another click as Moon Dancer used her magic to lift up the device. There didn’t seem to be any magic coming from it… or any normal methods used to contain spoken messages since it was in fact smaller than a hoofball. Still she quickly tucked it away as she could mess with it later.

Moon Dancer walked down the hallway and turned the corner only to see a poster on the wall. A potion bottle was left near the image of a small house that apparently was on fire. The colorful liquid killed all the flowers nearby with a grave stone with ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ written on it.

Besides the poster was far simpler one that simply read “Potions are death. They run everything around them. Tell your nearest law enforcement agency if you see someone with a potion.”

She shook her head “Alright… well I at least know what I’m not suppose to touch down here.”

She couldn’t help but smile as off to the right was a small shop with big glowing neon letters that read “Vigil Outpost Store! We're on the lookout for whatever you may need!”

Moon dancer walked to the door only for a small chime to go off as the doors automatically opened allowing her to step inside. She looked down at the floor and smirked as a carpet had been laid down… to probably hide a pressure system that was used to operate the door.

She couldn't help but chuckle at the simple device that had surprised her before taking a notice at the inside of the store as dozens upon dozens of colored boxes filled the shelves. She didn’t recognize most of the items, but the sheer amount and variety of items surprised her. Though she did find it odd that where cashier should have been was an empty seat as the store seemed to be empty.

“Hello?” Moon Dancer asked out loud “Is anypony here?”

She slowly walked around to the other side of the desk and found a knocked over bag of chips and a broken mop that was covered with various scratches as some sort of black tar seemed to be smeared across the broken handle.

The unicorn looked away from the desk as she told herself out loud “It’s probably another trick. It’s just something to give you a sense of unease without any actual danger Moon Dancer. This is just a theme park haunted house… with actual food instead of plastic fruit.”

She took one of the plastic packages of sliced apple and opened it up. They did smell fresh... well fresh in the sense any plastic sealed item could smell as she popped one of the pieces into her mouth. There was a slight cold tingle as the apple slices were still could and they hadn't even dried out!

Moon Dancer smiled at the actual taste of flavor as she said to herself "It's defiantly not made out of wax!"

Using her magic she opened up her saddle bags and started grabbing anything that looked valuable. She started off simple as she took some basic items like the strange ink pens and paper to write on. Then she slowly grabbed more items that looked important even if she didn’t recognize their names. Of course she did fill up a large portion of her saddle bags with snack food as she wasn’t planning on eating more of that sandy substance without something that had a little bit of flavor.

The shop seemed like a normal convenient store even if the store seemed built for somepony Celesta’s size instead of a normal pony. She could only imagine how hard grabbing some of the items would have been if she was an earth pony.

Of course her favorite part of the store had to be the freezer section as dozens of frozen vegetable meals were on display including various boxes and brands of ice cream. There was also a rather nice freezer bag she could place them all in to keep the items cold that seemed to be made out of some sort of special type of fabric.

Moon Dancer had nearly filled up her saddle bags, but she had yet to find the regulator part she had been searching for. She did manage to find a sign labeled “Storage room” that unlike the store’s pressure sensitive doors … this one had a terminal with some sort of card stuck into the machine. Moon Dancer pulled the card out with her magic only to watch the screen turn off.

“A security measure…” Moon Dancer mumbled to herself “Without anypony standing near it?”

She pushed the card back into the terminal as it started back up again. Without wasting a second the unicorn typed “Open Door” into the machine as the doors opened up. She quickly pulled the card out of the machine and waited a few seconds… and sighed in relief as the doors were still left open.

“Okay the storage room probably has the missing parts.” The unicorn told herself “All I have to do is find a box labeled regulators.”

She stepped inside as the growing sense of unease grew. The various boxes that filled this room were all brown without any distinct markings. The lights in the room were far brighter than the ones in the store as Moon Dancer had a hard time looking up at the ceiling from the intensity of the lights above her.

“Is there Anypony in here?” Moon Dancer asked out loud “… Well if Nopony is in here I’ll just take the parts I need and leave without paying.”

She waited a couple of seconds before shaking her head “Funny… that always seems to get somepony’s attention in a store. Still if the previous part of the building was empty why should this place be any different?”

******

Moon Dancer had spent the next half hour traversing the room trying to find the regulator parts as she left a small trail of garbage made out of empty snack bags and other various food containers… because she had to make sure they were edible and not made out of sand. They were not as good as the stuff back in Canterlot of course and she did need to make some extra room for those missing regulator parts to fit in her saddle bags.

As for the missing parts… it took a while for her to navigate the labyrinth of boxes to find where the regulator parts were stored and the first three boxes were empty or filled with garbage. So naturally when she pulled out the fourth box she jumped for joy to find it filled with the missing parts she needed.

She used her magic to take as many parts as she could and filled her saddle bags. Sure she could carry the box with her magic, but it was far easier to carry them in her saddle bags than to use her magic to carry the box over the same distance.

“Magic is good for short sprints. Not marathons.” Moon Dancer reminded herself “I could just put the box on the shield and pull it like a sled.”

She removed the shield on her back and placed it on the ground and prepared to make an improvised sled she could pull until she saw her shadow growing larger despite the fact she was standing still. She slowly turned her head around ready to greet the pony only to see a strange canine like creature she hadn’t seen before.

The term ‘unnatural’ was the only thought that crossed her head despite the fact that the creature’s body seemed mechanical in nature as a few exposed wires seemed to spark across it's body. She couldn't tell what gender it was, but the body seemed similar to that of a timber wolf as some of it's limbs seemed... splintered or jagged in a sense. Most of it's body seemed to be covered in a black tar like substance that was spread across it's body like a second skin... or possibly a suit?

Moon Dancer took a step back as the creature’s head stared at her. Instead of a regular wolf like head the creature’s face was more oval shaped as a single soft yellow light could only be seen. A sickening sound filled the air as two wings came out of the creature’s back… except that these wings lacked any feathers as if something had plucked out all of the feathers from it.

Moon Dancer gulped “Are you in charge? I asked if anypony… any dog was here as nopo… I mean no one answered.”

She slowly turned around and started to pick her shield back up only for the creature to prepare to pounce as the soft yellow light turned red “Potions are death. Space is life. The price of our safety is our own vigilance.”

Moon Dancer nodded her head “I’m sorry I if I…”

She screamed as the wolf like creature jumped at her as she quickly summoned a shield spells blocking the creature only for the black goo to splash against her spell causing her horn to ache in pain.

Moon Dancer quickly switched to the riot shield as she tried to remember any self defense lessons from Celestia's school for gifted foals as a sickening sound filled the air. The monster’s head seemed to either be growing a jaw or tearing it’s own mouth open revealing a dozen sharp rusty gray metallic teeth. Both theories were equally horrifying to her as monster continued it's assault.

Her spell broke causing the creature to land in front of her snarling “To bow our heads kills us and those who come after!”

Moon Dancer tried to open her mouth to ask why it was attacking her, but she didn't get a chance at the monster lunged forth trying to bite her. In a panic Moon Dancer moved the riot shield in front of her blocking the creature's attack before unleashing a powerful blast of magic sending both the creature and her shield flying back as the monster slammed against the ground.

Normally she would have asked if it was alright, but nearly being attacked twice by the same creature made her panic as she ran towards the exit of the storage room trying to escape. Her heart was racing as the only thoughts that entered her head was escaping from this place as she followed her trail of discarded wrappers out of the room.

The mare smiled as she nearly reached the exit only for something to grab her leg and drag away from the exit.

Moon Dancer turned her head as she screamed as the plucked wing like limb from the wolf monster had wrapped around her left hind leg. The black substance on the limb started to smear across her fur causing it to sting, but that wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the fact that the monster was trying to use the other wing to wrap around her other legs.

In a panic the unicorn threw the toy gun she was given to defend herself at the monster only for it to catch toy with the spare tendril. The nozzle of the toy was pointed at the monster by chance at as a white foam like substance spewed all over the monster causing the creature to howl in pain as it threw the object across the room.

Moon Dancer quickly caught the device with her magic and pulled the trigger at the limb that was holding her. The foam like substance hit the limb causing the monster to release its grip on her leg so that she could escape.

She out of the room and straight over to the terminal typing “Close Door” as the doors sealed shut trapping the monster behind the large metal doors. Her magic quickly tore the keycard out of the terminal and shoved it into her saddle bag as the sounds of the monster thrashing about on the other side of the door could still be heard.

This continued for a couple of minutes as she watched the door in terror. The only weapon she had was kept pointed at the door as if the monster was about to burst straight out of the door in a blind furious rage. Only when the sound of the monster thrashing about stopped did she finally sigh in relief believing she was safe… until she remembered she forgot the box full of Regulator parts inside the room.

“Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.” Moon Dancer shouted in a panic as she searched her saddle bags “Please, please, please… oh thank sweet Celestia their okay.”

The unicorn sighed in relief as she put away the spare machine parts and looked down at her rear legs. There was a small ring around the leg that had been grabbed as the fur seemed burnt… or damaged. She didn’t know what the creature was… or what it was covered in, but she had a healthy suspicion that it wasn’t safe.

“I should probably wash it out…” Moon Dancer muttered to herself as she used her magic to retrieve a bottle of water “And I probably should have looked around a little bit more for anypony else.”

The cool water washed over her leg as she felt a small sense of relief as the black substance seemed to wash away. Her mind raced with questions as she tried to figure out just where the creature came from. Was it in the storage room since the doors were locked shut when she arrived or had it somehow walked into the store when she wasn’t paying attention?

Something wet hit her on the back of her neck as she touched it… only for it to feel sticky. She tilted her head up only to see a large spider like creature covered in black goo. Parts of the ceiling panels slowly broke apart forming the monster’s legs as the lights on the ceiling started to disappear only to form the monster’s eyes.

The monster stared down at her and spoke in a similar mechanical voice like the wolf monster “Potions are death. Space is life. Death is for those who betray us for their own folly.”

“Ponyfeathers!” Moon Dancer shouted as one of the monster’s legs swung at her.

She grabbed her saddle bags and ran out of the store in panic before turning her head back. Unlike the Kitchen Assitant Drone that reminded her of a spider… this one looked like an armored spider chasing after her. The front half of the body was covered in rusty metal leaving the exposed almost pitch abdomen dripping with a similar black substance like the wolf monster had. A few dozen smaller hoofball sized version of the metallic spider seemed to crawl out of the black goo.

“Potions are death. Space is life.” the smaller spiders recited in creepy unison

“No time running now!” Moon Dancer shouted as she ran

She head the monster speak in unison “Our survival is achieved by the efforts of those before us.”

That was when one of the smaller spider monsters smashed against the side of the wall causing her to look back. The large spider was still chasing after her expect that it was using one of it’s spare limbs to hurl the smaller creatures at her. Most of them hit the walls or the ceiling being crushed upon impact, but some of them survived and started racing after her.

Her mind was in a panic as she couldn’t think of a spell to help her out, but she knew the foam stuff worked against them. She quickly sprayed one of the smaller spiders that had landed in front of her trapping the creature under a layer of foam. The unicorn prepared to run through the foam only to smash into it as she just realized why the monsters tried to avoid it as it felt like she just tried ramming a brick wall.

“Keep foam away from self.” Moon Dancer muttered to herself as she turned her head to see the two small spider creatures lunging at her.

She screamed in terror as she summoned a shield spell to protect herself as the two small spiders collide against it. She could deal with them trying to tear though the shield, but the murky black substance that continued to drop from their bodies was another story as her horn started to ache.

Moon Dancer grabbed the foam gun with her mouth and pulled the trigger as the foam like substance smeared across the front of her shield as it felt like a cloud was being placed right against her spell which didn’t felt as nearly as bad as she was expecting. Once the shield spell dropped the monsters tried tearing into the foam like substance with far less success than they were having with the foam as it didn’t have any problems with the black ooze that dripped from their bodies.

Part of her mind was both amazed at the weapon she now wielded and horrified that she had nearly mocked the friendly machine thinking that this part of the complex was safe! She didn’t know what happened aboard this part of the building, but it was clear to see that something went horribly wrong.

Moon Dancer turned tail and ran as she could hear the monsters trying to tear their way through the temporally wall she had made. Her breathing grew faster and faster as she recognized part of the hallway as the entrance to this crazed complex. She turned down the corner and panicked as she prepared to type in the needed command only to see that the door had been left open!

That was when the sound of the wall shattering echoed through the room as a mechanical voice seemed shouted “In our struggle we shall triumph. With our knowledge we shall stop the ignorant. With our victory we shall reclaimed what has been lost and punish our vile foe!”

Moon Dancer turned towards the hallway as one of the monster crash into a nearby wall. She looked behind her just to see one of the small spider monster land behind her as the second one tried to catch up only for the doors to suddenly slammed crushing the monster.

The walkway seemed to start to shake causing the other monster to look back at its comrade that apparently didn’t make it. Moon Dancer just continued running through the hallway just as the door almost slammed shut on her tail. There was a loud hiss as Moon Dancer turned around while trying to find something to fend off the monster… only for there to be silence.

She noticed a message on the terminal “Hostile life form has been dealt with.”

Her first thought was a moment of relief as she had made it safely back to her side of the complex until she realized that the monsters were just right outside her door.

Moon Dancer quickly ran over to the machine and typed “We need to find some way to get the monsters away from the door!”

The screen flicked as it showed Moon Dancer running into the room as small spider monster that was left behind… only for it to suddenly fly… no jerk to the right? She rubbed her eyes as the recording looped showing Moon Dancer making it safely inside the room… just when another door opened up off to the right as the spiders had suddenly flew out of the hallway against their own will.

Moon Dancer gulped as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end as she typed “What happened?”

“Unknown hostile life forms have been found aboard the station.” The machine replied “Current cause or reason for how they came aboard Space Station Vigil is unknown.”

Moon Dancer shook her head as she clarified “What happened to the ones outside the door?”

“Unknown hostile life form could have still proven a danger to the crew so the controls to the airlock had been overridden allowed for the quick and safe disposal of the hostile life forms with minimum risk to the crew.” The machine replied “Thankfully you did not stop to see what had happened to the first hostile life form and continued running to safety.”

Moon Dancer gulped as she looked at the door. The large solid door that had apparently been made to shut before she had typed in the command. “Where are the hostile life forms now?”

The screen flicked revealing both of them floating in space… floating in space without any sort of protective gear.

“A cleansing agent may be needed to be used on the Space Station door as the door only crushed one of the hostile life forms.” The machine replied “The hostile life forms that had attacked you should burn up in the atmosphere of the nearby planet during the re-entry process if the cold vacuum of space has not killed them already.”

Moon Dancer gulped a little bit louder as the machine just explained to her what had happened in the same way a pony would talk about the weather or how they had cleaned their house.

The unicorn looked down at the screen as she typed “How did you open up the doors and do all of this?”

“Your hypotheses of the use for the extra crew members had been proven to be successful.” The machine replied “Crew documentation, registration, and authorization for one Dog had been useful to give the necessary commands needed to help rescue you.”

Moon Dancer slowly nodded her head “The dog typed in the commands?”

“I typed the commands into.” The machine stated “The dog just was an easy authorized crew member ID that I could use with or without her input. Somehow the avian had finished registering itself as the ship’s gardener without my knowledge. An explanation for how the avian was able to do that would be helpful for future reference.”

Moon Dancer wasn’t so much concerned that the phoenix somehow managed to work one of the terminals… but that the machine was in control of this part of the… of the…

She shook her head as she couldn’t believe it as the room was silent. The very first monster continued clawing at the door when it was covered in the foam like substance. The other two monsters continued attacking until something distracted it… most likely the realization that they were about to be shot out into space.

Moon Dancer chuckled nervously as that couldn’t possibly be true.

She grabbed weapon she and she typed “I need to clear the spot right now. Open door.”

There was a small pause as Moon Dancer counted the seconds. They seemed to drag on as various sounds came from the door, but none of them were clawing, howling, or the sounds of a monster scratching at the door. Once they finally opened up… she saw the damage.

A black almost skeletal… or metallic limb was left in the door apparently torn from the creature’s own body. A trial of black goo was left on the walkway and almost ‘smashed’ against the guard staining it black. Off to the direction of the creature had disappeared on the screens.

Moon Dancer knew it was foolish to even think such a thing was possible as she used her magic to try to get a better look at the image in the distance… only to see the monsters floating away. Her legs started to shake as she realized it was real. The monsters had been shot out into space. The ‘hallway’ wasn’t a fancy decoration.

Then she heard scratching. She turned her head towards the other door as she could hear metal grinding against metal.

Moon Dancer ran back into the room and typed “Close door! Show image on other side of the hallway!”

The door closed as she could hear it hissing… as the image of the large spider monster took up most of the screen. The monsters legs were pressed up against the door as it was slowly tearing off thin strips of metal. She felt sick as smaller versions of the spider seemed to be crawling in and out of the black goo on the large spider’s abdomen. The monster itself seemed large… in the fact she knew to run from it. Now that she had time to look she was horrified!

The beast just barely fit into the hallway as it was massive!

The screen flicked as a new message appeared “Disengaging from Space Station Vigil until needed.” The room seemed to shake a little “Air lock has been disengaged. No hostile life forms are aboard this ship. Moving ship to safer distance near landing port C7 and will wait near the airlock instead of docking to it for now.”

The camera image stayed on the monster spider as it continued slowly tearing through the door. Moon Dancer couldn’t help but stare at the monster waiting for the machine to find some way to stop it! Maybe activate some sort of backup system that sprayed the foam over everything or flood the room with water. At this point she would be happy for some contrived system that always seemed to appear in the Daring Do novels!

The monster managed to tear a small hole into the door as the room seemed to shake. At first she thought it was some sort of spell or explosive that she had been hoping for, but there wasn’t any flash of magic or explosive flare.

Instead the monster started to flail about in a mad panic as the smaller spiders were trying to run away. The door finally broke as the monster’s body seemed to disappear for the room as all the smaller spiders seemed to be sucked out the door.

Moon Dancer closed her eyes for a few seconds expecting to hear something smash against the wall… only for silence. The room was now empty as the nearby doors in the previous room had been sealed shut. The screen flicked revealing the monster spider creature… floating near a metal hallway with screens inside the room. The outside was regular steel as the ‘wallpaper’ merely showed what was outside the hallway as the spider monsters drifted away without anything to grab hold of.

“The ship will not be docked for a few more minutes.” The machine replied “Unless there becomes a need to go aboard the station I would highly advise leaving the ship close, but not in direct contact with Space Station Vigil for now.”

She just looked at the screen in numb terror as the ship just moved past the part of the station it had been docked to. This wasn't some sort of underground complex built by some random faction on Equestria's soil or seem place on the planet. No this physical impossibility was actually real otherwise somepony had somehow rigged up an entire complex underneath a mountain with an absurd amount to magical runes, spells, and enchantments to allow for the subtle and easy ability to swap out each room within the entire underground complex with other pieces depending on the situation.

Sadly that idea seemed rather implausible right now.

A new message appeared “Was your mission a success?”

She looked down at her saddle bags and found the missing regulator parts “It was a success.”

That was what she typed, but in many ways it didn’t feel like a success. It felt like a joke… a really bad horrible joke in which the audience was pointing at her and laughing at her. Everything she thought she knew didn't matter as she had no idea what to do!

She turned her head back towards the cryo room as… she needed somepony to talk to. She needed to forget about what happened aboard the space station. She needed an actual pony to tell her that she wasn't crazy... or that she wasn't going insane.

Comments

[mishun]

Just noticed that it got cancelled.
Such a shame --- it was one of my favourite sci-fi stories so far.

[mishun]

It looks like in the end I'm not going to know what happened with Moondancer in space. Awww So intriguing!

[mishun]

Oh, I still remember this one!