• Published 31st Jan 2017
  • 1,846 Views, 92 Comments

Imperfect Stasis - Mocha Star



A new adventure awaits Twilight Sparkle, years into the future, as she is crowned co-ruler of a planet several solar systems away from home... But she wakes up early and is alone on the ship. How will she cope with a over a century alone?

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Adapting

Twilight calmly walked into the dining hall and looked at hundreds of empty tables and booths set up in the most efficient way that she’d figured possible. A distant section near the corner of the room was reserved for couples, dates, and interspecies relations, which, surprisingly; occurred quite often. The sound of small robots coming to life with whirring noises made her ears swivel and her attention was drawn from her growing hunger for a second before she made her way to a food distribution island.

An island a couple meters wide that hung from the ceiling to dispense foodstuffs near the base, covered with icons of food choices covered panels and one panel was exclusively drinks that made her mouth water. She waved her hoof by a panel and it lit up. “Meal choice, please,” Fluttershy’s voice asked softly. Twilight poked a vanilla almond cappuccino and her ears fell as a denied tone buzzed. “I’m very sorry, but that option is for Silver members and above."

Twilight poked the next option and the next continuing through the row and receiving the same message overlapping itself. She frowned in frustration before taking in a deep breath and looking over the lists of drinks and skipped several rows down to soda options. Each option from orange to the one she detested the most… diet, was denied to her.

“I thought I got free soda,” she grumbled.

“Soda is dispensed to silver level and below members two weeks from our destination,” the voice advised.

Twilight growled and went two more beverage rows down to tea and selected the Celestia Select, a brew she had fallen in love with long before contact with humankind had introduced her to the indulgence of flavored coffees… and was denied. She yelled and stomped her hooves onto the floor and glared daggers at the console.

She went to the farthest right of the row and tapped it. “Thank you for your selection, enjoy your drink,” the voice said as plain chamomile tea was dispensed into a cup inside the machine and slid out to her. She took the hot cup of tea in her magic and turned to the nearest table and set it in a spot before turning back to the island.

She swiped her hoof over the console and skipped to the bottom three rows and tapped the farthest left icon and sagged as the buzzing sounded. “I’m very sorry, but that option is for Silver members and above.”

“Celestia give me strength,” Twilight snorted and tapped the second to last row and was approved for her meal. She listened as a container was filled and a small door opened and out slid a compressed block of hay, wheat grass, oats and a spoon. She looked at her meal as she took it to her seat. “Just what a pony needs…”

She ate in the silence with the poise and grace she’d learned over the years, taking time to chew each bite and savor what flavors she could while swallowing with a level of grace that she had once thought to be too much. She finished her meal within an hour and placed her plate and cup in the proper receptacle before she walked around and noticed trays, then continued to walk past them, taking note to use one next time.

She retired to her room and went to bed, lying on her side, and called a tablet over with her magic. She started with a story from the human world called Moby Dick. An hour later she set the tablet down and sighed. “That was a good book… Maybe I should read another,” she let her eyes close and fell asleep as visions of a great white whale entered her dreams.

***

Twilight dropped the thaumic laser to the floor from her magic and pushed it with the pile of equipment that wouldn’t cut through the door to the command room. “If I can get in, I can wake up somepony that can help me,” she said for the hundredth time. She picked up a heavy pulse driver and held it like a jackhammer in her magic, placed it to a seam in the door, and let her magic flow into it.

The sound reverberating through the halls made her stomach uneasy but she held at it until she had counted to twenty and then lowered the device, trotted to the sealed door and placed a hoof on the polished seam. She tossed the device into the pile and turned to leave area, again. She walked past the used cutting and drilling tools and glared at them.

Casting a repulsion spell, she scattered the pile of tools across the section she was in before turning away and walking to the elevators. The doors opened partly then closed as she took the first habitual step forward causing her nose to bump into the door. The door opened partly and closed several times before opening completely.

“If you break and send me into space I’ll be very disappointed in you,” she said as she entered the elevator and took her seat, not bothering to strap herself in as she’d grown accustomed to the trip.

She returned, for the first time in days, since she woke up, to the concourse and smiled as the area came to life as she entered. A waterfall of rainbows began to pour to her right for the first time and she lost herself in the swirling colors as they fell. She began to walk the long hall and looked at the stores and what they had to offer, then stopped and inhaled deeply as she looked at the back of a Minotaur.

She panted and gasped as she took a trembling step closer and entered a nice, posh, fully stocked bar and quickly went to the bar to meet the creature. “Oh, thank goodness. I’m not alone! How long have you been awake? Where have you been? Are there any others?!” she implored as the minotaur turned around and reached for a glass on the counter. It had a towel in its other hand and began to polish the drinking glass.

“Sorry,” it said gruffly, “I missed that. What’ll ya have to drink?”

“To drink? I don’t need a drink, I need to know if there are others,” she asked rearing to the bartop and looking intently at it.

“Afraid I don’t know what you mean, you’re my first customer of the day so…” it left the sentence open. Twilight leaned a little farther over and looked down to his legs and her hopes fell as she noticed a robotic track and inlay attached to the minotaurs lower body. “...what’ll it be?”

Twilight slid into a chair that was made for ponies in mind, and placed her hooves onto the counter. “I’m alone, again.”

“Miss,” the minotaur said, “we’re never alone, yet always alone. All we can do is the best we can with what we have.”

“What’s your name, do you even have a name?”

“Name’s Minnie,” the voice changed slightly to a more soft tone, “and you are?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh, a Princess? Well, first one’s on the house then! What’ll it be?”

Twilight looked at the seemingly endless options and looked to her wristband. “What can I get with this?” she held her hoof up.

“It’s all charged to your account, Ma’am. You can, technically drink every drop here, although I wouldn’t suggest it, and you’d get the bill… or your next of kin will,” she mused as she placed the cup down and her hands onto the bartop.

“I’ll have a Cerulian Ale. Double, on the rocks with a twist of bergamot.”

“Coming right up, and a fantastic choice, if I must say so.”

The robot moved swiftly from one side of the bar to the other before swiveling around and reaching to a top shelf to begin making her drink. She watched the fluidic motions of the robot as it poured her drink into a smaller glass, added her requested items, then placed it in front of her.

Twilight took the drink in her magic and sipped it softly, letting the various sweet flavors dance across her tongue before she swallowed and then downed the rest of the drink in one swallow. “Another, no ice and use lime this time.”

“Straight away, Ma’am,” the robot replied and poured another drink that Twilight gulped down with a sigh. “Feeling better, Ma’am?”

“Not really. And please, just call me Twilight. Are you sure no one else has come by?” she asked as she tapped the glass indicating she wanted another.

While the robot poured the drink she shook her head as well. “Nope, you’re my first customer today.”

“I woke up early from hypersleep.”

“That’s not possible,” she replied placing the next drink in front of Twilight, “hypersleep technology is a combination of the best human, Minotaurian, and Equestrian magics. There’s never even been a hiccup of a problem since the technology was introduced two hundred years ago.”

Twilight smirked. “How many customers have you had today.”

“Just you, Twilight.”

“And yesterday?”

“None, it was a slow day,” the robot replied beginning to polish a glass again.

“And since we’ve left on our journey? How many have you served?”

“Just you, Twilight.”

“So, if it’s only been me, and I’ve been awake for… let’s say three weeks.”

“Ah, then we’re almost to our destination? Wonderful to know, Twilight,” the minotaur nodded slightly with a content smile.

“Where are the other passengers, then?”

The robot looked to Twilight and stared. “They seem to be hypersleep.”

“And am I?”

“Apparently not,” the robot replied as it began to polish the glass again. Twilight frowned at the already sparkling clean glass.

“Then obviously, I must be awake and alone and we’re not at our destination, right?”

The robot stopped for a couple seconds then it’s head twitched as calculations were made. “You are not possible then, Twilight. Hypersleep has proven to be 100% effective.”

“Then I’m the first to ruin the perfect ratio, not the first time I’ve broken the system… probably won’t be the last,” she drank half her drink and sighed at the robot. “Have any plans for the next century?”

“Just what I have to do, Twilight,” Minnie said and winked to Twilight.

“What am I supposed to do? I’m alone on a ship traveling at faster than light speed with a robotic bartender as my only source of interaction. As humans say; what do?”

“Well, if you feel alone, even when surrounded by others,” Minnie said as Twilight sarcastically looked around the empty bar room, “why not have fun with it?”

“Fun? Princesses don’t have fun.”

“Take the crown off,” Minnie pointed to Twilight’s head and the crown resting on it, “and just be a pony for a while. Make friends, take chances, do something you’d never do and let the world see you in a new light. Then try and tell me how alone you feel.”

Twilight stared at Minnie for a few minutes while the robot polished a new glass and gave occasional glances to her. “You know what,” Twilight said firmly as she swallowed the last of her drink, “I’m going to try just that.”

She stood from her seat and promptly fell to her haunches, listing to the side lazily. “What tha-?” she mumbled.

“Ah, that would be the alcohol, miss. Ponies, while resistant to alcohol, are not immune to its effects and you consumed one glass more than most ponies should within an hour’s time.”

“Oh, thanks for that. Another!” she said pulling herself to her hooves and moving to the seat again, barely fitting as she looked at Minnie’s expression. “I said another! I’m going to live, starting now!”

“Ah, yes, Twilight,” Minnie replied as she began to pour another drink, “might I suggest living as an action and not as a function?”

“Then tomorrow I live, today I drink like a pony I once knew,” she looked at the glass in front of her and mumbled a quiet prayer before drinking it. “And give me some hard cider! Then a human beer, a good one! And some pretzels and hay chips… and turn on some modern rock and roll!”

***

Twilight awoke just outside the bar in the main concourse. She felt the pain of drinking for the first time in years and was thankful that no pony was around to see her lying on cool metal with her crown around her neck, dangling like a necklace. She didn’t detect any vomit, so she wasn’t that bad off, she thought.

Until she moved to stand up. The room spun and only then did she notice the whole area was darker due to simulated night. She lay her head back down and the spinning slowed as she thought of what she’d do first, once she could move on her own.

A cleaning robot bumped into her hind leg and she lifted her head quickly to see it, regretting the action, but still interested as to why a machine would bump into her. “Hello? Are you sentient, or being controlled?”

The robotic cleaner whirred around and moved away in an arc around her as Twilight called upon her magic and tried to cure herself of some of the after effects, to no avail. “Ugh, too much booze makes magic no work,” she mumbled as she rolled to her belly and braced her hooves for the inevitable effort she’d need to put in to standing.

With a hefty grunt, she forced herself up slowly until she was standing taller than she was lying down, her legs shaking and barely straight as she wearily looked around her and made a forced smile to Minnie, who was still polishing a glass.

With effort she’d expected to use to move Canterlot Mountain itself, she began to walk forward to the nearest elevator to get back to bed and drink some vitamin water, lots of vitamin water.

Twilight got to the elevator and laid on the floor as it began its warning to strap in and rolled her eyes. She inhaled as the elevator began a climb to the quarters section then sucked in a breathe as the elevator stopped and she began to float. Making matters worse, she opened her wings to try to balance herself and began spinning in the enclosed space as she attempted to stop herself.

The door to the elevator opened a few minutes later and Twilight stumbled through the doors as three cleaning robots crossed her path in an excited effort to be useful and clean the mess she’d made throughout the elevator.

Twilight, blushing deeply, quickly trotted away and down the nearest hall. She, indeed, felt a lot better after having lost so much waste from her body, but she had planned on going to the bathroom for all the mess it had made. She couldn’t bring herself to look at a robot for the rest of the day from embarrassment, so she decided to shower and get rest.

The communal shower was large and open, big enough for twenty ponies to stand and mingle, just like she’d wanted and planned. The reason she’d taken a lower level guest pass and not the Royal Diamond pass she was supposed to. She wanted to be seen as an equal, of sorts, with her subjects.

Now, she’d have traded a dozen Royal passes for a single pony to converse with. She bathed in hot water that was as fresh as any she could remember, before she went to her room and took another tablet from the wall and began to read more stories while she used what magic she could use to fill, and refill, her drink.

“Ah, a book about friendship and magic. That’s what I need right now! Harry Potter, prepare to be read!”

***

Twilight galloped down the halls of the concourse without too much fear of slipping and falling over herself and getting hurt.

She estimated her top speed during the ending length of the hall was as fast as… she didn’t care. She just liked to run. She turned around the rainbow waterfalls and made another lap to the other end in a few minutes to a similar waterfall before lapping back and slowing from a full gallop to a quick trot.

“Water,” she said as she approached a kiosk. A cup of water was filled and she took it in her magic, greedily gulping it down between heavy pants. She tossed the cup into a recycler and thanked the machine before returning to gallop again.

Twilight entered the arcade, a place she’d purposely avoided since she was a young unicorn because it was full of things that weren’t meant to help a mind grow, and looked around as it came to life.

Loud noises. Flashy lights. She was invited over to a half dozen games by the holographic image of her friend Pinkie Pie, each programed to simply entertain. She nearly backed out of the room but stopped, steeled herself, and walked in deeper. She looked around at the games and quickly figured out how to play most of them, others how to simply win by using quantum mathematics.

She stopped at a game that seemed to be different enough, a copy game. She carefully walked onto the large platform that would have fit five ponies side by side and waited.

“Um, hello? Can I play?” she asked as the arcade became slightly quieter. The area darkened and she jumped back slightly as an image of a pony that looked a lot like Pinkie Pie appeared, but she had tassels in her mane and glow sticks as earrings and as her cutie mark. A stallion appeared next to the pink mare on the far side of the platform and took a step back, began nodding as a heavy bass beat began to play.

The pink mare stood on her hind legs and began to move her hips side to side in a way that captured Twilight’s attention, before she landed on all fours and the lights dimmed, brightening over Twilight.

“...Oh heck no! I’m not,” she paused and looked around at the hopeful face of Pinkie Pie, looking at her from where her hologram stood at the entrance to the game. A plea that almost begged the mare from epochs away that screamed ‘please, dance’.”

Twilight turned back to the pink mare and hopped up to her rear legs and moved her hips right, then fell over to the left; her wings did nothing to help. There was a recorded laughter that played when Twilight fell that she didn’t appreciate as the pink mare repeated the motion under a spotlight.

Twilight got back up and onto her hind legs. “I’m so gonna show you how it’s done!”

Twilight flew off the platform and landed proudly at the base of the steps, lather covering her body as she panted and looked at the happy Pinkie Pie hologram. “Yeah, seventeenth! Take that,” Twilight gloated.

“Out of fifty,” Pinkie replied with a giggle into her hooves. “Don’t worry, everypony gets better with practice! Better luck next time,” she beamed a smile and began waving to the door, waiting for other ponies to come play that game.

Twilight stood regally and used her magic to wipe the sweat from her body and teleported it into the nearest corner for a robot to clean up and turn into something useful, like drinking water. Part of her didn’t like knowing everything was recycled, another part of her wanted to drink some of that recycled water right now, before she went back to get a better placement in the dance game.

She went to a nearby kiosk set in the wall, pressed the water icon, drank her fill after several cups, and then turned back to the game. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw one of the Pinkie Pie holograms look at her in concern… but that couldn’t be, it was, and is, just a hologram.

***

Twilight stood and tossed the computer terminal she’d modified to the floor and didn’t care when it clattered and probably broke. She looked at the control console to the command deck and back down the ring, past where she could see because of the curvature, and sighed. She couldn’t break in. She couldn’t magic in. She couldn’t hack in.

She charged her magic and teleported to the concourse and sighed as she entered the bar. Minnie was polishing a cup and smiled warmly to the pony approaching her. “Good day, Twilight. It’s nice to see you. Did you know you’re my first customer of the day, again?”

“Yeah, you’ve said that everyday for the past month. I’ll always be the first, and last.”

“Oh, there’s something to be said about that, Miss. A pony who spends that much time in a bar is certainly consistent with something in their lives, right?”

Twilight snickered. “I love how you’re always so positive and seem to have an answer for everything.”

“Ah, yes. I may be a robot but I’m programmed to be a smart one. I’m practically an android, to be honest, but like a pony I know; I don’t care for titles so much,” she smiled and winked.

“Yeah, I feel ya. So, here’s what I was thinking of doing today…”

Twilight shared her plans and Minnie simply raised an eyebrow as Twilight finished. “Well, that’s something I’ve never heard of, or been programed to respond to… I await the reaction of the other guests, as well as my own, when the time comes.”

Twilight sighed and downed her drink. “The time will come soon. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try and since there’s no living creature to judge me, present company excluded,” she nodded to Minnie, “I feel it’s as good a time as any. I’ll see you tomorrow, at the latest.”

“And I wish you the best in your endeavors,” she replied grabbing another cup and beginning to polish it.

Twilight stared at the repetitive action before leaving her seat and the bar.

Twilight exhaled deeply as she entered the showers from after her gallop around the concourse, taking two laps around the top two levels of the shopping center before she retired for the day from exercising.

She let the hot water wash over her and clean her fur from a day’s worth of sweat and the feeling of failure. She waited until she felt clean enough then began to tremble as she brought the sharpened blade to her eye level and made sure it was sharp enough by tugging a strand of her mane and gently slicing it off. Without effort the blade freed the hair and she let it fall to the floor as she watched it fall quickly, weighed from the water.

She brought the blade to her neck and made the first motion, wincing as the blade touched her flesh.

Twilight peeked from the shower room hesitantly and glanced both ways down the barren hall. She never took notice of how clean and polished the walls were until she caught her distorted reflection in a far wall. She took her first step out and shivered at the suddenly cooler air that graced her skin and brushed what was left of her mane from her face with her hoof before she made her way to her quarters.

Entering the room she walked to the small bathroom and opened the door, ignored the toilet since she’d been a naughty pony and peed in the shower, and opened the door fully to see herself. Her eyes closed tight as the door opened fully and the mirror faced her. She counted to seven and squinted one of her eyes open to see herself, bald.

She opened her eyes fully and gawked at the mare she was looking at. Save for her head and tail, she had shaved herself fairly well, having missed several dozen spots and patches of fur in areas that she couldn’t see too well, and she wasn’t going to try to shave her reproductive areas. That left several quickly healed light cuts on her neck and barrel from where she’d slipped or nicked herself, but she didn’t look too bad.

She turned sideways and looked at her dark skin, darker than the purple coat she wore so proudly, yet lighter than black. She smirked at herself and used her magic to call over a towel and let it drape over her back to keep some warmth while she went for a trot around the halls.

If she was going to be bald, she was going to experience what she could until it grew back, or she used her magic to regrow it. She stared into her reflections eyes and then shrugged. “Whatever. Who’ll ever know I was bald? Who would care if they did see me?” she smiled. “Twilight, you are beautiful in anything you wear, even nothing.”

She turned and began to walk to the door before she stopped and looked at her tablets, took one at random in her magic, and left the room.

Twilight began a long trek through many halls before she came to the room she had least expected to go into while on the ship since she was going to be on the ship for only two weeks and those were full of scheduling and planning sessions that were set up months before she even went into hypersleep.

Twilight found a nice recliner by the pool and laid her towel upon it, laid on the towel, and took the tablet to her gaze and began to read a random story that she selected from the thousands on the device.

Sixty pages into the story she let her gaze move to the pool. It’s pure waters almost called to her as she lowered the tablet and let forgotten memories come back to her of playing in the lake by Ponyville with her friends, her best friends, mortals in every respect. She rolled to her hooves and felt her ears swiveling like they hadn’t in a long time as her hooves clacked on the tile surrounding the rim of the beckoning waters.

She crouched and screamed gleefully as she leapt into the air and flapped her wings once to give her distance to make it into the middle of the pool before she curled herself tight and splashed into the warm water. She broke the surface and spat a mouthful of water out in a stream before laughing loudly and beginning to pony paddle to the far end of the pool that was against a bubble of glass that looked out into space.

She stopped and placed a hoof on the glass and rode the waves as she looked out at the universe beyond. An inch of material separated her from oblivion and she smiled at the blackness. She turned and dove under the water, using her wings to propel herself to the other side and back in a single breath.

She broke the surface and turned quickly in the water, closed her wings and dove to the bottom of the pool before opening her wings and, with a powerful flap, propelled herself out of the water and into the air above it. Water followed her up, each drop and bunch seemed to slow down as she looked around herself.

Slowly, time resumed and the water went its own ways while she glided to the rim of the pool and shook heavily until she was drier, then returned to her seat and resumed her reading, a bit of stress had left her and she felt calmer than she had in days.

“Maybe, another swim,” she advised herself, “I can read later.”