Void Trials

by Obsi

New Life

As weeks went by, Shetland found herself more and more impatient. To her dismay, her admittance to the program changed very little in her daily routine. Sure, she was practicing a little more diligently at the gym and joined Ciloa when she freaked out over her packing list, but mostly it was the same old routine. A few things did change, however. For one, her friends were now a couple, and made no secret of it. At first it had been nice, seeing them move on from making obvious advances only the other somehow managed to miss, to openly going on dates and making out, but the latter was slowly getting out of control for Shetland's taste. Other changes were harder to quantify. Ever since she had burst into her mother’s castle, she hasn't gotten a single letter from her and Shetland didn't know how to feel about that. Sure, Twilights weekly (sometimes even daily) letters rarely improved her day, but with them missing… it felt like another connection of a few remaining ones had been cut. Of course, her friends couldn't understand. When she'd brought it up with Ciloa, she'd simply told her to write to her mother herself.

“What would I even say?” Shetland had asked. “I'm not gonna apologize for anything. And a normal letter would just be awkward.”

“Maybe visit her before we leave.” Press had suggested calmly, which sounded sensible enough. Annoyingly. Maybe too annoyingly, as Shetland managed to find reason after reason to delay her visit until the final day, where she awoke with a guilty feeling in her stomach.

Maybe “awoke” wasn't the right term though, as she could not for the life of her remember falling asleep, the anticipation keeping her up most of, if not all night. Therefore she was still yawning heartily as she greeted Press in the train leading to the Appleloosan air base. Press managed to fall asleep on the ride. Shetland could only envy him as she glanced out into the countryside. The darkness of the yet-approaching dawn did not reveal much to her.

Upon their arrival, they were ushered onto an open field by a tired-looking royal guard. To tell the truth, airbase was a misleading name, it was simply adapted from one. No, this was a station for rockets and a landing platform for a small class of spaceship, those that were able to enter the atmosphere. They reminded her of bees, large, metal bees, but instead of rounded, their body parts were blocky. The three metal legs on each side only increased that impression. Shetland estimated each one could comfortably carry around four dozen ponies.

Press seemed less captivated by the spaceships, his tired eyes blankly looking around the landing sites, attempting to find something of interest so they would be easier to keep open. A loud yawn escaped his mouth, pulling Shetland back to the present.

“Do you know why they called us here so early?” he asked groggily.

“No.”

He let out a sigh. “Figures… any idea how long we'll be waiting?"

She shrugged. “No idea.”

“How about you wake me when someone's coming?” he suggested jokingly.

“How about you sniff a skunk?” Shetland suggested reasonably.

He opened his mouth to answer, but let out another long yawn. “I'm too tired to argue…”

Shetland hissed, causing him to snap to attention as she saw the guard arrive again, accompanying a unicorn stallion. Shetland narrowed her eyes, she could have sworn she'd seen him before, recognized his bright red fur…

“Crimson?” she asked unsurely.

“Shetland!” he called back, a grin forming on his face. He raised a hoof, surprising Shetland, but she quickly moved to bump it.

“Glad to be with a pony I know.” she said, returning his smile.

Crimson raised an eyebrow, looking past her. Shetland placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder. “This is Press, a good buddy. Press, this is Crimson, I met him in a bar.”

“Charmed.” Press said with a little nod of his head.

“Always good to know a friend of a friend.” Crimson said, his eyes shifting from him to Shetland.

“I'm sure we'll all become great friends when we're in action.” Shetland smiled down at them.

“Wait…” Crimson said, again looking from one to another. “He's in too? I thought there'd only be two of us.”

“Funny story…” Shetland slowly pronounced. “There's been some complications with my application.”

“With yours?” Crimson asked incredulously, looking up at her. “How come?”

“Well…” then she felt a poke on her shoulder, but as she looked behind her back, she found Press standing straight as a statue.

“I see you all managed to be here in time, tattletails.” A rasping mare’s voice sounded clearly from across the field, where a deep-blue pegasus approached with rigid steps. She wore a medal-adorned jacket, but it was the sight of her large, red tricorn hat that made Shetland snap to attention. If she’d learned one thing in boot camp, it was to respect a pony's hat!

“I am Void Waver, Captain of the Esseles.” she said, her trained voice easily invoking discipline in the tired trio. “As long as you're on board, my word is command. Understand?”

They nodded in unison. Her hat was very impressive.

“You will be brought on the ship early. We can't have you bumbling around, trying to figure out how to move in zero-gravity while we're trying to launch. I will not accept you standing in my crew's way. Understand?”

“Yes, Ma'am.” They sounded again, although this time Shetland fell a bit behind. Zero-gravity. She'd always wondered what that felt like.

“Now to you, big boy.” She said, ripping Shetland out of her daydreams.

“Ma'am, she's a mare.” Press corrected her meekly.

“Big girl.” Waver said, her eyes unmoving on Shetland. “My cousin is the acting Voidmarine where we're going. He's not happy about having to train up an extra newbie, ordered by the princess or not, so you better be crazy good and. Never. Talk back to him. Got it?”

“Yes.” Shetland said, looking sternly into the captain’s eyes.

“Good.” she said, stepping back from her and standing in front of all of them. “Our transport will be here shortly…” Her eyes rolled upwards and as she rose her head, Shetland could make out the edge of a clock in the brim of her hat.

“Ma'am?” Crimson asked. “Aren't we taking a ship?” His eyes wandered to the vehicles in plain view.

“What a waste that'd be.” Waver said. “What do you think this is, public transport? We're taking the cheapest and quickest way like everypony else. We'll teleport.” Raising her head, her glare softened as she recognized a group of four unicorns approaching.

“Good morning, sleepyheads!” she called with a grin. They mumbled a greeting back, taking positions around them as a soft glow came from their horns

Shetland mentally prepared herself. She'd teleported with her mother before, it probably wouldn’t be that different-
.
A flash from their horns blinded her and the next moment she felt… not light, rather as if a hook was pulling her innards upwards, except that she couldn’t tell which direction upwards was! They were floating in what looked like a pegasus foal’s playground, as every wall was covered by bright, yellow foam. Instinctively, her hooves searched for the ground, but the sudden movement caused her to suddenly surge up?-wards, into the soft surface from which she bounced off, still struggling to find something to hold onto. A loud “OUCH!” caused her to crane her neck (not helping her situation). Behind her, Crimson had hit his head on a bar protruding from the wall. In her tumbling, Shetland managed to make out more bars coming from every side. Her attempts to grasp one of them, however, were not met with success, as every attempt to get closer launched her in a seemingly random direction all over again. This chaos was accompanied by Void Waver's rumbling laughter. Annoyingly, she seemed to have no problem with the sudden change in gravity, using her wings to stabilize herself. Still flailing, Shetland was starting to feel dizzy as a light-blue aura halted her to a sudden stop. Looking down, for lack of a better word, Press had not panicked like Shetland and Crimson, and instead used his magic to anchor himself and now Shetland to a wall he deemed to be the “ground.” Despite her gratitude, Shetland could not avoid feeling a little jealous as she looked at his horn. Crimson merely seemed annoyed as he replicated his trick.

“Worth it every time to see some grounders flail around.” Waver chuckled. “Alright, ground rules!” she raised her voice back to the commanding tone, looking sternly at them. She struggled to maintain her sobriety however, as all three snapped to attention and promptly launched in all directions again. When they finally caught themselves a second time, Shetland felt a flicker of pride as she managed to catch a pole, the captain pierced them each with a glare, softened only by her own smile. “Stay still, shut up and listen!” she declared, to which they all nodded.

“Rule one, my order is law! I want no buts, no arguments. What I say, goes, no questions unless I ask for your opinion. Number two, you’ll stay out of my crew's way. No distracting or chatting with them either, you can do that in the kitchen.”

“There's a kitchen?” Crimson asked, surprised.

“There's a microwave if you like your canned food warm.” she said dryly.

“Oh…”

“Although we do make petitions for it every week. Pencil-pushers keep thinking we'd just make a mess.” Shaking her head, Waver pushed herself towards a hatch with her wings. “Don't touch anything you’re not allowed to and don’t go anywhere without one of the crew accompanying you. That should be it for rules. Get used to moving around for now, I’ll have somepony pick you up in a few.” With that, she opened the hatch, which led into a corridor, and closed it behind herself.

“Sooo… space!” Press exclaimed, grinning at Shetland. “How're you feeling?”

“Kinda sick, actually…” Shetland answered as she tried to figure out how to go in the direction she wanted.

“My sister said it's usually a little irritating at first.” Crimson said as he floated past her. Of course he had figured out moving from pole to pole quicker than her.

“Your sister?” Press asked, while Shetland’s face adopted a darkening shade of green.

“Mirror Light is an electrician in Horizon. I’m sure you'll like her if we get enough time off to visit her settlement.” With a look to Shetland, he added: “I think she mentioned there's a tube here somewhere if you need to, uh… defood.”

“No. no,” Shetland protested. “My stomach can take this.”

It could not.

Yet, when the vomiting ceased, she felt lighter, as if a rancid lump had left her stomach. The tube had surprised Shetland by having a moderate amount of suction. That did come in handy.

None of them knew exactly how much time had passed as the hatch opened and another pegasus mare came floating in. She was dark green, and held herself close to the hatch, as if fearing one of them could suddenly smack into her. “Hello, I'm Diesel.” She introduced herself, as the others did the same. “The captain told me to bring you on the ship and show you around.”

“We're not already on the ship?” Press asked.

“Oh, no, we're in the ESDY, the Equestrian Space Dockyard. The Esseles is docked here. Please just follow me.”

One by one, Shetland, Press and Crimson carefully nudged themselves through the hatch, following the waiting mare.

The corridors were exceptionally tight, every wall was either a compartment, or cluttered with computers and other sciency stuff Shetland couldn't identify. It quickly became apparent that while the others quickly floated through, Shetland had to slowly and carefully feel her way through to not smash into anything. A nervous feeling of claustrophobia settled in her.

Luckily, after a long, winding way during which they'd take a turn left, up, and right, they came out in a tube, easily large enough for a carriage to pass through. There were even longer poles here, and there were tracks at the right wall. A group of pegasi were pushing large crates along those lines. Shetland could only guess they were magnetic, keeping the cargo from floating off and hitting somepony.

“Oh, shoot,” Diesel muttered. “They're already loading up the ship. We should have been inside a little earlier. Don't worry.” She assured them as they all gave her a worried look. “As long as the captain doesn't notice, it'll be okay.”

They passed above the crates (the change in her perception of “up” still made Shetland a little dizzy) until they arrived at a huge window panel at which Diesel had to stop because her entourage was staring with their eyes wide open.

Beyond these windows was space. A neverending majestic nothingness in which thousands of stars flourished far away. And at the bottom of the window, they made out Equus, partially veiled by clouds, their planet was a beautiful sight to behold: a perfect, utterly unique pearl of, what Shetland began to grasp, billions more. Though that was only the background to a picture of a mighty ship, a behemoth of steel, easily 150 metres in length. It boggled Shetland's mind that something of that size had been constructed in space, from this station. It was sleek, relatively so, with a large, rectangular compartment hanging from the back end. Since all the pegasi were pushing the crates towards a tube connecting to that compartment, Shetland assumed it was the cargo space.

Diesel ushered them through a different tube into the middle part of the Esseles. The ship looked much cleaner from the inside, most walls just being walls. A wave of relief washed over Shetland. She’d have room to breathe after all!

The leading pegasus shut the door behind them as she held herself from yet another pole. The Esseles seemingly used the same system. “Welcome, passengers.” She said with a grin. “Your luggage will be put in the cargo, at the front. You can retrieve it at anytime, but weapons are off-limits on the ship. We wouldn't want one going off and hitting something vital.

“The captain had a pistol.” Press said, his eyebrow raised.

“That may be, but even she carries her ammunition separately.” Diesel said firmly and shrugged. “It is simply a standard procedure and if you want to argue, you have to speak with the captain.” Shooting a worried look in their direction, she quickly added: “Do not argue with the captain.”

“Noted.” Press chuckled.

Relieved, Diesel went on. “Our journey will presumably take around thirty hours. I will later notify you when you are free to roam around the ship, as long as you stay out of our working areas.”

Shetland grunted.

“Which is why captain Waver allowed me to show you around now.” Diesel said, summoning a cheerful voice together with a smile.

Despite being a little miffed about the restrictions, Shetland was also excited. Floating was already becoming easier, it felt now like swimming through the air, even though she still occasionally smacked into a wall.

Admittedly, not everything was miraculous and eye-opening. For one, Shetland would have preferred a written instruction on space toilets rather than Diesel’s monologue and, worst of all, stories. She was also peeved to learn that there were no showers, at least not in the regular sense. It seemed the only way to wash yourself was to catch the floating water in a towel and clean yourself that way. Press and Crimson saw no problems with that at first, until Shetland pointed out that she would need help reaching her back.

She shot down Crimson's offer for assistance. Charming or not, she knew Press better.

Last on the list, the tour led them to a room containing only an assortment of pillars of different size, each covered in complicated markings, emitting an icy glow. Press and Crimson gave it a confused look, shaking their heads as if to get rid of an annoying insect.

“Yep,” Diesel said, using a stern look to make sure they were staying out of the room. “This is our magic doodad, developed by Princess Twilight. Without that, we'd still be stuck in our solar system.”

Shetland, who was examining the markings, was surprised to find that everyone was looking at her. “What?”

“Well, your mom invented this.” Press suggested reasonably: “Did she ever explain it?”

Narrowing her eyes, Shetland glared at him and poked a hoof on her barren forehead. “Even if she did, how would I understand her magic babbling?” she groaned. “It has something to do about going faster without going faster and teleportation and I can't tell you more.”

“Well, that is something.” Diesel said with a smile. “Essentially, this is a modified teleportation spell that disrupts our relative advance from our speed.” As she was met with three blank looks, she elaborated. “Imagine taking a single step, but afterwards you realize you've crossed the distance of a thousand.”

Shetland looked to either side, but to her annoyance, her friends seemed like they had no trouble understanding. “Unicorns,” she muttered.

When they returned to their cabin, a simple room with a sleeping bag hanging from each of the five walls (including ground and ceiling, which were relative of course) they encountered a pleasant surprise in the form of Ciloa, who was waiting for them. She apparently had no problem with the lack of gravity as her hooves just stuck to whatever surface she placed them on. Yet, just as she waved a hoof, Diesel got her attention by poking her shoulder. Loudly, the pegasus said: “Would you excuse us for a moment?”

“What was that about?” Shetland grumbled a minute later. The pegasus had led her away from her friends and through an automatic door. The entire corridor had expanded greatly to make room for this gate, actually. From the hatch on the side and what she assumed was their position on the ship, she guessed it was the cargo space.

Diesel pulled a lever and led Shetland through the opening gate. The cargo was simply vast, especially in comparison to the rest of the ship. It felt more like a wing in her mother's castle, except it was densely packed with containers. The pegasus led her adeptly through the avenues, and they approached a pedestal, on which stood a set of armor. All enclosed, dark purple plates, almost encroaching into black. The helmet's visor was of a lighter purple, which Shetland knew would be transparent from the other side. It was a marvel of craftsponyship and technology. And most of all, it was huge! Reaching above Shetland, it seemed to measure up to even alicorns in sheer dimension. As Shetland quietly stared, Diesel sought to break the silence.

“Your mother told me to show you this, Miss Sparkle.”

Shetland whirled around, just barely catching herself on a crate's edge before tumbling away into the air. “It's Twilight's?” Shetland asked, her eyes widening. Her mother wasn't coming to Horizon too, was she?

“No,” Diesel shook her head, holding a letter out to Shetland. “I believe it is yours.”

Astounded, Shetland broke open the seal, definitely a royal letter, and began to read.

Dear Shetland,

Despite our disagreements, I am still happy you get to fulfill your dreams. My only intention has ever been your best, but it turned out my desire to see you safe has clashed with you choosing your own way. I am deeply sorry for that. With this letter, you will receive an advanced suit of armor, specifically tailored for your needs and optimal protection.

May it keep you safe where I cannot.

Love, Twilight.

Shetland put down the letter, staring at the suit as her mind raced, trying to figure out how to feel about all this. She placed a hoof on the smooth plate as she made her decision. “I won't forget what you did…” she whispered quietly, “but I think I can forgive you.” After all, this was a pretty damn good way of apologizing.

---

“Awesome!” Ciloa grinned later in their quarters. She would have to leave them before nightfall, whenever that was, but for now she preferred to spend her time with her friends. One friend, specifically, as she was wantonly draping her hooves all over Press's back. Shetland was sure she'd spend the night with them if she could.

“A battlesuit.” Crimson said, his eyes reverently focused on Shetland. “And a pretty good one, I bet.”

“I'm not an engineer,” Shetland grinned back. “But considering that my mom got it, I'd say it’s top notch.” With a sigh, she added. “Too bad Diesel didn't let me try it out, though…”

“Just relax.” Press suggested. “You'll get to use it in time, just you wait.”

“Easy for you to say, you have a marefriend to waste your time on. I got nothing.” Shetland grumbled, holding her hooves crossed as she slowly pinwheeled in one spot.

“You could do that as well, you know?” Press said slyly.

“What?” Shetland asked, taken aback and followed Press's eyes. “No!” She exclaimed forcefully as she realized the bastard was looking at Crimson. She barely even knew him! It would be weird! And top it all off, that red idiot had the audacity to look hurt!

Scoffing, she turned away, unable to get rid of the annoying burning feeling in her face. This is gonna be a looong journey, she thought as she readied herself for bed hours ahead of time.

Author's Note:

Hello readers. I am still amazed I have readers now

Anyway, as on my end, the story is done and only needs editing, I would really like to shorten the shedule to one week (gotta have some time to potentially receive chapter specific feedback so it definitely won't be less than that.) Unfortunately my editor has been very busy lately and I want to give the next chapter specifically some extra attention before it goes out.

But on a brighter note, you will receive the first and only spoiler you will ever get from me right now! Dont you share it in the comments though or daddy will have to ban ya.

The kitchen is a major plot device

Comments

[Vinx]

I love it.

Im always happy when a scifi story does not employ "magic gravity" for convenience, but actually puts its characters thru zero gravity and its difficulties :)

Also, all those little side infos like the suction tube, corridor walls packed with easy to access equipment like a real space station, no showers, no up/down and utilizing all walls in an cubic/rectangle room, it makes it a lot easier to imagine the rest of your world. Before this ive pictured their world as some hybrid between many generic scifi settings and canon FiM, but now with those descriptions my imagination shifts towards Babylon 5's EA, The Expanse, Independence War (The Games), Event Horizon and Elite, so a much more down to earth not-so-fancy-tech feel.

I can only say it again: I love it

[Obsi]

8347944
Would you believe that I'm not familiar with any of these? In fact, I simply used three hours watching tours through the ISS on youtube. I will freely admit as well that I have much more details in mind for places that aren't in Equestria. And yeah, WHY DOES most every sci-fi setting use artificial gravity? It'd be so useful. And comedically exploitable.

[Vinx]

8348244
Heresy!
Joke aside, it doesnt suprise me to be honest, even though The Expanse is currently the most popular airing space opera series, it somehow fell under the radar in germany due to being aired only on the Syfy channel and Netflix. And the other ones, they are all pretty old already, except Elite Dangerous.

The Expanse (2015 - on going)
Its a pretty high value production based on a very good book series, which was not only priced for its main story but also its extensive worldbuilding, love for detail, semi-realistic take on mankinds future in space, and unique visuals. An example is the ships, imagine a skyscraper with an engine at the bottom, the whole travel they accelerate at 1G, and midpoint they turn 180° and deaccelerate at 1G, that and the ships vertical construction creates 1G artifical gravity, but other than that, zero-g, or being nearly turned to mush in high-g combat manauevers.
Its hard to not spoiler it, so ill only say: If you like Scifi, Semi-Realistic Space flight, refreshing concepts, then go watch it, you wont be disappointed.

Babylon 5 (1993 - 1998)
Babylon 5 was one of Star Treks bigger rivals, but due to its overall more harsh and dangerous take on space, and its lacking funds, it never quiet reached the same wide spread audience. But today its considered one of the gems of scifi, the whole series is very diverse, comes with loveable characters and a great cast, and doesnt mind going down the funny route from time to time. Sadly the first season was done on a rather low budget, so its doesnt do the other 4 seasons quality justice, that leads to many people not watching beyond 2-3 episodes of the first season. If you dont mind old stuff, give it a try, is one of my favorites to this day :)

I-War/I-War 2: Edge of Chaos (1997/2001)
In a time of every other space game being jet fighters in space, this one took a unique take on space sims with putting you in command of a 180m big corvette with a full newtonian flight model, a brutal vision of the future, and game changing concepts such as induvidually damagable ship parts. For example, an impact did more that just lower your "health bar", depending on were it hits you numerous systems can be damage or destroyed, many times i did get some of my manauevering thrusters shoot to hell, or once i lost my frontal cannon, man was that crazy fights when you suddenly loose the ability to pull your nose down etc, or have to keep your enemies behind you because only your aft weapon still works.

Event Horizon (1997)
Well its a scifi horror movie, its pretty good at being that and gave many children nightmares for weeks. Other than that, its grim take on space flight and ship designs were very memorable and influenced many authors.

Elite: Dangerous (2014)
Currently one of the most popular space sims. It earned a big reputation for employing multiple scientists as advisors to create a semi realistic vision, newtonian flight models, and having the biggest ingame galaxy to explore up to this date. It keeps improving with each update, but many players stay away from it as the game expects you to "occupy oneself", it doesnt take your hand as says "go do that", it just provides you with the tools neccesary to do whatever you want, sadly many players apparently need the holding hands and cant decide for themselfs as to what to do :/

So yeah, maybe this wall of text peaked your interest in one of those gems

[Obsi]

8348459
would you believe that Doctor Who is virtually unknown in germany and I only found it with the Doctor Whooves and Assistant radio play?

[Vinx]

8348488
Yeah... our TV programs are a bit retarded if you ask me, tons of retarded reality shows and reruns of sitcoms, wanna watch something good for a change? Be ready to pay for Netflix, or buy DVD/BRs
So no wonder that many great shows are nearly unknown in germany.

[AmethystAce]

How does this not have more views? Or likes?

[Obsi]

8349376
I assume because of the dark and sci-fi tags.

Or maybe my reader-slaves haven't promoted me enough *cracks whip*

In case you couldn't tell, I am absolutely serious. yes. for realsies, no kidding, definitely

Although, while I'm glad to hear that you enjoy it, what I need is some feedback. is there a character or plotline that bugged you a little? (whistle doesnt count, you're supposed to dislike him)