Fading Suns: A New World

by David Silver

13 - Life Settles

Redheart was a kind and caring pony that ensured his speedy recovery. "Just like a pony," she had remarked as she worked.

The thought tickled at the same part of Laud's brain that had been bothered by other things. Even their health professionals saw similarities. The anatomy of a pony, an alien species, had every right to be drastically bizarre compared to that of a human, and yet she had seen nothing that had surprised her.

In the end, he emerged with a splint and bandages to help support the healing. He hadn't broken anything. It was, apparently, just in case. He wasn't going to fight her about it, and off he went, mended. Life went on. He learned from a patient Maud and expanded his vocabulary each day.

Fluttershy proved to be interesting. She would stop by without warning at times and offer up different things. They were all dead things. "Do you like this?" She would ask, wielding a plate of stir-fried fish slices on a bed of greens.

Fortunately, they were tasty dead things. Still... "Thank you." Laud did accept them with the good intent he thought she had. "But why?"

"Oh, well, it's important for everyone to eat well." She smiled at him without guile evident. "You aren't a pony, so I'm trying to figure out what it is you prefer."

Laud set the food down in his lap as he sank to the ground, plate at the ready. "That's easy. Humans eat basically anything."

"Anything?"

"Almost. Good cooking helps." He nudged the food with a fork. "Which you seem to have."

She colored at the compliment. "I learned a few tricks for my animal friends."

"But I am not an animal," he noted.

"Yes you are." She nodded with certainty. "We all are."

"Point..." He speared a slice and gave it a try. It was salmon. It wasn't like salmon. It was salmon. Why did they have salmon? The entire world was too close to be coincidence. "But I'm not a wild animal in need of help."

"But you are a friend." She nodded. "And... if you don't mind... I am curious. Could you tell me more about yourself, about humans? Are you a mammal?"

Laud found himself suddenly glad he had never had occasion to be naked in Fluttershy's field of view. Her curiosity could lead to awkward moments. Then there was the fact that the world had mammals. They had all the defining traits of being a mammal. That wasn't as big a red flag. Several worlds had mammals. It seemed to be a popular convergence, evolutionarily. But it did stack with everything else. "Yes, but let me ask a question in return. Do you know of the creator of everything? The--" he had to slip back into English, there was no equine word for it. "--Pancreator?--"

Fluttershy tilted her head back and forth. "I'm afraid not..." She hopped to her hooves. "I should get back. It's almost lunch time for all the others, and I wouldn't want to miss that, or they'll get hungry."

They exchanged polite waves as she trotted off, leaving Laud to enjoy the given meal.

A form settled beside him. It was Maud, but he hadn't heard her coming. It was a talent she had. She was so calm in action and thought, she gave almost no impression until she wished to. It was a talent he envied. Stealth had never been a strength of his. "Maud," he greeted. "Nice to see you."

"Hey." She put a hoof on his shoulder while she leaned in to look at what he was eating. "Did you buy that?"

"Fluttershy brought it."

"That was nice of her," she noted in her flat tones. "You are ready."

"Ready?" He hadn't finished his meal. Most of it remained on his plate.

She pointed at him directly. "You can speak well now."

Oh, right. Laud hadn't even noticed over the passing days. Like many things, it had been a gradual process.

"Pinkie won't wait any longer."

"What?"

"Your party is at sundown," informed Maud. "Be ready."

"She had mentioned wanting that..." He had hoped she forgot about it in the meanwhile, but clearly not. "Do you know who she's inviting?"

Maud pointed at herself.

Laud let out a little half-chuckle. "Besides you."

She reached casually for his plate and took a bit of the green. "Her friends. You said you wanted a small party."

How did ponies hold things on the end of their flat hooves? Magic? Probably magic. That felt like a cheap answer. Surely there was some scientific explanation for it, but he was no biologist. "Thank her for me for baring that in mind. I do appreciate it." He ate his meal and Maud sat patiently while he did so. The fact that she didn't wander away was a hint. When the last bite vanished into his mouth, he set the plate aside. "Something on your mind, Maud?"

"Yes."

An awkward silence built. "What is it?"

She pointed to the sword. "That is made out of rocks I do not recognize. I want to know more about them."

He was no smith either, or metallurgist. "Good steel, forged by good people." He rose to his feet and drew it free. He held it out for display. Maud was not scared by the motion. She didn't even flinch, and he trusted her not to.

She reached out and began touching it without asking. It was an impropriety, but she had indirectly beckoned, and he had displayed it. He knew it was coming. "It is just steel? Your people make steel strangely." She tapped at the sword twice, ear perked at it. "No, different steels, put together. I never saw that before."

A layered alloy? Seemed as likely as anything else. "I admit, I never asked my smith for his secrets. He did good work for me, and I thanked him for it."

Maud nodded. "Ponies do not fight with swords as often as your people seem to. You had more practice." She stood up on all fours. "Do you know about the rocks in your egg?"

"Egg?"

"The thing you came in."

Ah right. "All of it is made by people who specialize in their craft. I don't mean to deny you, but I can't share what I don't know." Maud frowned faintly, which was more expressive than she usually was. He imagined she was very upset. "Let's go take a look. I can at least identify some of it. You went through all this trouble to teach me, I'll do what I can."

Her expression eased to neutrality and she nodded. Following after him into the castle and towards the resting place of the ship, her eyes remained straight ahead. "As a rocktor, it is in my professional interest to identify new rocks."

Laud nodded as he reached for the doorknob that had no right to be there. "I can appreciate that. The trick is that most of them are made secretly even among my own people, and with specialized tools. All I can do is give some names and maybe some purposes."

Maud did not object. She rarely did.

Laud began sifting through the orderly piles of the bits of his ship. "Plastic--" Ponies seemed to have plastic, that had been surprising. "--copper wires..." He held up each thing as he found it. "Armored hull, couldn't tell you what that's made of. Kept me alive, in the end, but didn't stop the ship from busting apart." He picked up a circuit board. "This is a board that gives our machines some thought."

Maud raised a brow.

"It's a circuit board. It has... what was it... silicon?" It made sense why Maud had insisted he learn rock names. "The flow of electricity is what makes it work, but this one's broken."

She tapped at a chin. "Interesting," she said in her level way.

"What are you two doing?" Twilight came in from the hallway.

Laud put the board back down. "We were going over the parts of the ship as best I could, which isn't nearly good enough for this particular purpose." He was a noble, damn it, that had specific skill requirements.

Twilight's ears perked. "I'd like to hear this as well, if you don't mind?"

Two witnesses wasn't any harder than one, and he moved on. "Glass, also plastic."

Maud held up a hoof. "That appears nothing like the other plastic."

That one Twilight got. "Oh, plastic is a very broad term. Depending on how its made, it can take on many different appearances and uses. Do go on, Laud."

"Right, you weren't here when I went over this." He picked the circuit board back from the pile.

"Ah, the thaumic circuit," said Twilight with a smile. "Once I figured out it was built differently, it made complete sense."

"Thau... What? It's a circuit, yes, but not thaumic anything." Thaumic was a word for magic. He did not have magic in his ship, he was sure of that. "It runs on electricity."

Twilight rolled a hoof. "Electricity is just one of many energy sources one can use to complete a thaumic circuit. I recognized its use right away. There's even one in here that's still operational." Her horn plucked a small display from the pile. "Watch." Her magic crackled around it, producing electricity. The display lit up, showing all its lights at once. It looked sort of like '88888888888', all its faces on at once. "If I focus just... so..." The display became ''88288883888' but they kept changing in spastic little ways. "It's difficult to control."

Maud brought her hooves together in a single clap. "The rocks being used are designed to channel electricity in very specific ways."

She wasn't wrong. The two were clever, very clever. Thinking ponies to be simple creatures was to underestimate them, and that could cost a warrior or a noble dearly to do. "Right," agreed Laud. "I would like to show you more, but we're at about the limit of my knowledge."

Maud nodded. "Thank you. May I examine these further?" She waved over all the parts. "I wanted to ask you earlier, but you were not ready to be asked."

"That... was very kind and considerate of you, Maud. Thank you." He gave a formal partial bow towards her. Surely, if she wanted to, she could have just asked Twilight, the ranking member of the community, but she had waited until he could be talked to properly. "Try not to hurt anything more than it already is, not that I expect this ship will ever get off the ground again." He nudged a small pile with a booted foot. "There are other things to bring up, but that can wait, just don't make any exact copies." There were jealously guarded monopolies involved.

Maud approached the piles. "I look forward to starting. Laud, you should prepare for your party."

"Ah, yes." Twilight looked to him. "Rarity said to stop by her store. Do you know where that is?" He did and said as much. "Great! She said to come before the party, so as soon as you can, please."

"I'll help!" came a new voice as Spike appeared at the door. "Wouldn't want you getting lost," he said in obvious falsehood. "Besides, I should check if she needs any help..."

Laud was unaware of Spike's adoration of the lady, but saw no reason to deny his presence. "Very well, if you wish to visit her alongside me."

"W-what? I mean, nah, I'm just... being helpful."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "You two have fun. I'll see you for the party, Laud."

Laud looked to Spike. "You'll be there too, right?"

Spike blinked in surprise. "You... want me there?"

"Why wouldn't I?" He was a friend made.

"You said you preferred smaller parties... so Pinkie didn't invite me..."

"Well I am inviting you," insisted Laud, clapping Spike on his back, avoiding fins. "You are no stranger. I would be delighted to have you there."

Spike brightened up. "Alright! But first, to Rarity." He sighed as he said it, getting lost a moment in his own love-smitten thoughts.

Author's Note:

I have put aside the language barrier, as you may have noticed. As amusing as watching Laud stumble through this, I feel it's done its purpose for the story. Am I wrong? Am I right? Is this all a typo?! Let me know.

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Comments

[badninja]

Not bad but I get the feeling that Twilight and Laud are going to have fits when the whole "magic" thing gets fully revealed.

[BestinDworld]

um im just wondering was this fic based on a game?

[David Silver]

8279414
Yes, a tabletop and video game, Fading Suns.

[RadicalDishonesty]

I wonder if Pinkie invited all of the main six, but not Spike, or only the ponies that she knew was close to him, Maud, Lyra, Bon Bon, Twilight, etc.

The first would be right out. The latter might be a misunderstanding.

Anyway, I was a little dubious of the word "succor" for his vocabulary... even with no language barrier he might not know less common words.

[David Silver]

8279449
Tweaked!

[Raistlin]

8279388

In Fading Suns, there is "magic": psionics, theurgy and antinomy (evil theurgy). So, not sure why levitation surprises the MC ( albeit he could, depending of his religious beliefs, mistake the ponies for mutants and abominations, both of them an actual thing in the setting).

[terrycloth]

8279605 I thought he was surprised that they were using them so freely and openly when he's used to them being an abomination. He seems to have put that horror on hold for now.

[David Silver]

8279764
That is exactly what I was going for. The idea that magic might be used without limitation, fear, or censorship.

[Daremo]

I did and said as much - He did and said as much

Once I figure out - Once I figured out

---

All of the convergence and similarity seems like good evidence of a pan galactic diaspora at some point in the almost unimaginably distant past.

Either that or it's all maaaagic.

[Booster Spice]

Given pones have no knowledge at all about Earths production methods, then making a perfect copy of a working computer wouldnt violate anything because its a total black box to them? They have no need to know exactly how its origionally made or works, they can just duplicate them in bulk?

Lets see how Laud handles parties?

[David Silver]

8280484
Magic is not a satisfying answer, alas, but fixing typos is!

[Bloody_Tofu]

The language barrier can be well used... until they start learning. This seems like a perfect time to let most of it drop while still leaving room for comedic mistakes. Ah slang terms... the reason universal translators fail so hard.

[FanOfMostEverything]

I looked to Spike.

You drift into first-person for a bit there.

In any case, he language issues have definitely served their purpose. This is a good time to put them aside. Now Laud can confront much more important issues. After all, now that he's at an appropriate level of eloquence, he has no excuse not to see the other princesses. But first, he has a party to attend.

[David Silver]

8288667
Oof. My bad. I put my mental space right behind Laud's eyeballs and it shows.

[NightmintHLW]

"Ah, the thaumic circuit," said Twilight with a smile. "Once I figured out it was built differently, it made complete sense.

the 2nd sentence did you forget the last " or is it not a sentence at all?

[David Silver]

8397746
Fixed!

[tsaukpaetra]

Well after all the structures are the same, just adapted differences in actual words.

[_SkyHorse]

Ah right. "All of it is made by people who specialize in their craft. I don't meant to deny you, but I can't share what I don't know."

Mean.

[David Silver]

8709007
Fixfixfix

[son_of_heaven176]

"Ah, yes." Twilight looked to me.

Slipped into first person.

[David Silver]

8871202
Fixed!

[Okie Brony]

8280995
My Little Pony: Typos is Magic.

Fluttershy proved to be interesting. She would stop by without warning at times and offer up different things. They were all dead things.

That made me think of a cat presenting its owner with a dead bird.

Fortunately, they were tasty dead things.

That made me laugh.