Flight to Nowhere

by computerneek

Chairs

Crack!

“I think I broke her again.”

Whiz, having only jumped slightly at the lesser noise, turns to the disappointed green villager with the pointy forehead. “Leave her alone?”

The green head bobs gently to the side. “That would work, but then I wouldn’t get answers… Oooh! How about I help with the healing?”

Whiz raises an eyebrow. “I’m plenty good myself,” she states.

“Oh, but I noticed your healing thing seems to go much faster when my unicorn magic has the bones already lined up…”

She raises the other eyebrow. “Oh?” She glances down at the villager she’s treating; this one’s got a crushed wing, and used to have a cracked rib. “Give it a shot.”

Five seconds later, one burnt umber pegasus leaps into the air to make way for the next- and, without further ado, the two move on in their cooperative healing. Whiz hopes that the green villager’s strange ‘magic’ thing won’t run out too soon- it’s reducing the required mana expense for each healing by almost half.

However, no matter how she asks the self-proclaimed ‘unicorn’ how she’s doing it, she only gets a wink in return, never a verbal answer… save the standard “It’s a unicorn thing”.

So, she tries moving on to other questions, even as they finish up with the final major injury- and start moving on to less dangerous ones. The villagers are practically lining up for them now, rather than the previous skittish hiding; as a matter of fact, she’s fairly certain she’s treated more villagers than there had been when she came down already. “What’s your name?” she shoots at the unicorn.

“My name?” The unicorn smiles so wide it’s got to hurt, but shows no sign of pain. “My name is Lyra Heartstrings, how about yours?” She offers a hoof as she speaks- while the glowing spike on her forehead soothes their next patient’s pain; they’ve finished the last of the truly broken bones by now, so her magic isn’t offering much of a mana savings any more.

“Whiz,” she answers, mending the wingless flat-forehead’s cracked rib with an offhand wave. “You said you broke Thiz?”

She nods.

“How so?” Another wave unbruises a pegasus’ flat forehead.

“I introduced myself.”

An eyebrow raises.

The green head tilts. “She fell over.”

“And?”

“It’s not like I asked her to pass out…”

“Ugh…” Whiz hangs her head, and sets off towards the ship. She makes a point of keeping her trot unhurried.

“Ahh… Um, I better go this-” Crack!

Whiz raises an eyebrow, taking a glance back at the suddenly absent unicorn. She emits a heavy sigh- runaways are so annoying- and continues her journey.

---

“Gah!”

Thiz startles awake, flailing about for a second on the distinctively wet decking, while she tries to blink even more wetness out of her eyes.

“Oh, you’re awake,” the unicorn smiles.

“Uh,” Thiz mumbles, her vision clearing. That disappearing upside-down bucket must have been her imagination.

“Please don’t go to sleep again, I think your- is it friend or sister?- wants to talk to you.”

“What…?” She starts lifting herself to her hooves, scowling at the amount of water all over the floor. The green mare is remaining rather helpfully silent for some reason; as such, it takes her all of two seconds, once she reattains her hooves, to fully process what had been spoken. “Huh? Why?”

“I think it’s because I broke you… twice.”

She tilts her head. “You broke me?”

“Uh, metaphorically, yes. The second time, you actually passed out.” She scowls. “So, is she your friend, sister, really friendly friend, companion, superior, junior, assistant, …?” She trails off.

Thiz spends a second trying to process her list, but eventually gives up. “Um, the… twelfth?”

“Nemesis?”

“WHAT? No! She’s my sister!”

She laughs gently. “Didn’t think it was twelve.” She then looks past Thiz. “Ooh, and look who’s here! Is it okay if I’m here?”

“Uh…” Thiz mutters, turning to look- and spotting an expressionless Whiz, one hoof poised above the top step.

Both mares gaze at Whiz for a couple seconds.

“Uh, is she broken too?”

Thiz leans away from the green mare, looking at her in revulsion. “No!” She looks back towards Whiz, and tilts her head. “I think.”

Whiz blinks, jumps, nearly falls down, and stumbles forwards, quickly reducing to a walk. “No, I’m not broken,” she states.

The unicorn glances between the two for a second. “So, how’d you get here?”

Whiz just raises her eyebrow, while Thiz retorts- very quickly, at that- with a question.

“Who are you?” she asks.

The green unicorn smiles, placing a hoof on her chest. “Me? The name’s Lyra Heartstrings, and you probably forgot I already told you once, right before you passed out. What was that about, anyways?”

“Uh…”

Before Whiz has a chance to add a response of his own, Lyra inserts another statement. “Don’t worry, you probably forgot it alongside my name. Not like I was saying anything important at the time anyways.” Crack!

Thiz jumps back from the very suddenly empty air, striking off the door with a wet splat.

Crack! “Oh, and I can clean this up.” Crack!

Whiz walks towards Thiz. “Well, at least she cleaned up her mess,” she mutters irritably, glancing down at the floor; all of the water- including that soaking Thiz’ coat- had gone with the unicorn the second time she disappeared. “Did she tell you anything before you got back?”

“She’s a unicorn,” Thiz begins. “I’m a pegasus, you’re an ‘earth pony’... and we’re all ponies.”

Whiz nods. “Anything else?”

“What’s a cutie mark?”

Shrug- though it doesn’t work too well. It worked better than last time, though. “No clue.”

“So… why was everyone- erm, she said everypony- staring at your flank…?”

She shakes her head this time. “No clue there either. It’s almost like there’s something there, but there’s nothing.”

“Wait…” Thiz trots to the door, looking down towards the survivors… specifically, their flanks- and withdraws after a few seconds. “Oh.” She looks at her own flank- her own, solid-colored flank. “Oh.”

“What?”

“They’ve all got pictures of some sort on their flanks.”

“Pictures?” Whiz is tempted to look as well, but resists. “Like what?”

“I don’t know- it looks almost like a tattoo.”

“What’s a tattoo?”

“AAAHH!” Both mares leap into the air, flying backwards away from…

From a green unicorn head, sticking out from under that seat.

“Oh, and if you’re talking about our cutie marks, it’s something everypony gets, usually when they’re a foal. Something about representing your destiny…” Crack! “Mine’s related to my muuu-siic!” She sings the last word, simultaneously strumming the lyre in her hooves with her magic, now sitting on the seat instead of under it. The instrument disappears with a gentle pop while she hops out of the seat, twisting to look at it. “These things weren’t designed for ponies, were they?”

“Of… uh…” Thiz mutters, looking towards Whiz.

Whiz raises an eyebrow. “Oh, right,” she mutters, under her breath.

Lyra raises an eyebrow at them. “Lemme guess, you were planning on inviting everypony aboard?”

“What makes you think that?”

“You opened the whole wall, but you’ve got not one but four smaller doors you could have used.” She points to the nearest airlock door.

Thiz looks at Whiz, who sighs.

“Yes, if they want to,” she states.

The unicorn nods. “Of course they’ll want to- everypony’s only been staying here because it’s too dangerous- even with an escort- to travel the road to Equestria.” She glances out the door. “For an earth pony, at least. There’s a reason there’s so few unicorns and pegasi.”

“Ahh… Um…”

She glances at the seats. “How much time will you need?”

“Um…”

“So close the door and open it when you’re ready- I’ll go stall for time.” Crack!

“Uh…”

The two mares look at each other.

“What just happened?” Thiz asks.

“Hey everypony! The minotaurs have been chased off- but those two are going to offer us a ride once they finish cleaning up!”

They gaze out at the voice drifting in from outside.

“I think she just happened,” Whiz mutters.

“Can we leave her behind?” Thiz asks.

Whiz shakes her head. “No- she might have figured us out, but she’s also helping us hide it.” She looks at her sister- and the shuttle shifts slightly as the frame takes on the weight of the door once again. “It’ll be safest to play along.”

---

Crack!

The two mares look up, having been warned by the polite knock on the exterior wall… Nevermind that the wall is far too thick- and well insulated- for a simple knock to penetrate it without also shaking the shuttle.

“Someone- er, pony- hurt?” Whiz asks.

The minty unicorn smiles. “Nope- and while nopony here will really notice the someone versus somepony thing, the ponies in Equestria will.”

“Huh?”

Whiz steadfastly resists the urge to facepalm- Lyra, however, seems to have chosen not to resist. It looks downright painful, but she doesn’t seem to care.

“How did I see that coming?” Lyra asks rhetorically. “It’s because everypony around here has been stuck living close to minotaurs- who use the everyone variant. There have been occasional visitors, some friendly, some not… this is the first attack I’ve heard of in this normally relatively safe area.”

“Sorry?” Thiz mutters.

Whiz very nearly fails to resist the urge to facepalm- facehoof- again.

“Oh, no worries, it’s only natural. I just hope you don’t meet Twilight.”

“Twilight?” Whiz asks. “Is that…?”

“Somepony I know who happens to be a librophagic scientist? Yep. And you think I’m bad.”

“She’s not here, is she?”

“Nah- but I share a hometown with her. Anyways, are these…?” She indicates the reshaped seats filling much of the room.

“Our new seats?”

“I take it they’re not final?”

“Oh?”

“Well, those old ones have all sorts of straps and brackets on them, but these are little more than glorified stools.”

“Uh… Yes, but we don’t plan on moving very quickly with a shipful of ponies, so that shouldn’t be a problem… for now.” She looks at the half-transformed seat in front of her, the back floating casually into the air to join its brethren in a pile. “We’ll work on better high-speed seating later. Is there something you need?”

“Uh, no, not really… I thought I’d let you know everypony’s gathering their stuff. Celestia’s going to be lowering the sun soon-”

“WHAT?”

“Oh? You come from someplace where the sun lowers itself or something…?”

“Uh…”

“Ahh. Well, here on Equus, Princess Celestia controls the sun while her sister, Luna, does the moon.” She looks towards the wall that had been open earlier. “We’re going to want to have a… history lesson before you run into too many ponies.”

The two hornless mares look at each other for a second, then finally nod.

“Probably the… prudent choice,” Whiz mutters.

“Maybe if she’s less annoying,” Thiz utters under her breath.

Whiz looks at her sister briefly. “Speaking of which,” she turns back to Lyra, “you seem to have changed?”

“Changed? Like how?”

“Uh, like not poking your nose everywhere it doesn’t belong?”

“Yes, that. I… thought it’d be better if I wasn’t quite so nosy.”

Thiz raises an eyebrow, but Whiz speaks before she has a chance to speak herself. “Better how?”

“Because…” She lets out a little sigh. “There’s something in the air in here, isn’t there?”

Whiz lets out a little chuckle. “Oh yes, lots of somethings- nitrogen and oxygen, mostly.”

Lyra waves a hoof dismissively. “Those are components of the air… and I’m not talking about dust either. I’m talking about the… something I can see transforming that chair.”

Both hornless mares look at the chair in question, which Whiz has almost finished reshaping.

“See?” Whiz asks.

She tilts her head slightly. “Well, not so much see, as feel. Earlier, when we started the whole healing thing, I didn’t think about your, um, strange magic- I only thought about your pony magics. That must have been when it happened.”

The seat gets abandoned, the two mares directing their attention towards the unicorn. Whiz nods for her to continue.

“When my foreleg was mended when I touched Thiz, I assumed it was something similar to pegasus healing magic- which normally only works for self-healing.” She smiles lightly at Thiz’ expression. “So it wasn’t. But that’s the problem, because what I did next… I placed her against that crippled pegasus and, on that assumption, cast a spell to amplify the effect.

“What that spell does… It’s more of a freeing spell than a directive spell; if she hadn’t wanted to heal the cripple, or if her magic facilities were already exhausted from another casting of that spell, nothing would have happened. The spell works by creating a channel between the caster and the primary target- that’d be you, Thiz- in order to channel my unicorn magic through you as the desired facet of your magic, being the healing. It worked- I felt it doing just that- and I assumed the cripple’s recovery rate was so high because of the already very powerful self-healing magic I assumed you had.

“However… I’m beginning to suspect something else crossed that channel during that time. It’s supposed to be a one-way channel for my power to flow through- but there’s a reason we never cast it on unicorns: The feedback can be deadly.” She shudders. “I don’t know what it was, but ever since then, I could feel it every time you healed somepony.

“Once I got everypony getting ready on their end, I spent some time trying to see how close I’d have to be to feel your work in here; sensing spells told me you were manipulating these seats. Only, no matter how close I got, I couldn’t feel it. Once I teleported in, even from across the room, it’s glaringly obvious.

“But that’s not why I came in; I was willing to wait for you to open the door to experiment further.” She smiles. “I did feel you closing the door from across the plaza.” Her smile fades once again. “Rather… five minutes ago, I realized I felt some of that… energy… in myself.”

Author's Note:

So, how are we doing?

Comments

[LostArchivist]

Interesting... So their magic does work on others. And on the resident crackpot, too. Uh oh. :D

And now you have explained the attack and how that weird healing thing worked. Thanks.

Interesting that she's helping them hide their out-of-town nature, shall we say. I'm guessing probably because it's easier to study them that way, rather than snooping like earlier. Then again, you could also be going with the "ponies are nice and have no self-preservation either" angle ("Do you eat ponies?" "Uh, no." "Great!".)

[computerneek]

8882482
Or maybe because, while she does want to learn all about them, she does not want their secret to ruin their lives...

[LostArchivist]

8882509
Eh, that can't be it.
:D