Buggy System

by Dedion

Crash Landing

Silence filled the air of the spacecraft while Almira focused on preparing a remedy for Chrysalis. The changeling in question now sat on one of the seats at the ship's console. Okdi had attached itself onto one of her forelegs before it went dormant. Not a sound was heard amongst the crew aside from the occasional shuffle from Almira and the hum of the engine. While Chrysalis mostly enjoyed the silence as she gazed at the site of the planet they were currently orbiting, the rising levels of anxiety and fear of her two 'companions' would not be good for her now.

Whatever happened from here on out was going to have to be carefully played out. From what Chrysalis had studied, the species that the others on the ship with here belong to had some type of natural resistance to intro-flux manipulation. Which meant mind-control was going to be a bit trickier and energy consuming that it would normally be for Chrysalis. Perhaps prolonged mind-controlling would even cause greater stress on her Rebounding Flux or maybe even worsen it. However, that got Chrysalis thinking. On her home planet, she could use flux at without worry of it rebounding. There was a thing called Magic Burnout, but that only happened when someone used up too much of their magic not while they were using it. It also didn't leave someone with a splitting head ache.

Also flux did not behave on her home planet as it did with the rest of space. Chrysalis gave a small chuckle at sight of Twilight Sparkle performing magic and all of sudden everything explodes or turns into a liquid or explodes into a liquid. However, flux did not change its form unless it was acted upon by an outside force. Maybe the planet itself had some sort of 'field' around it that prevented that? Or maybe it was something else. Chrysalis was brought out of her train of thought as Almira finished the medicine. A test tube nearly filled with a light green mixture was presented to Chrysalis who observed it curiously. "It's not top of the line, but this should help being your flux back down to normal levels," Almira stated. Chrysalis gazed at the tube of liquid for a few moments more before she enveloped it in flux field. She gave the contents a sniff and gagged.

"Ugh... smells like durians," she commented.

"Sorry, life saving medicine doesn't normally come with strawberry flavoring," Almira joked. Chrysalis gave a fake laugh before she placed the tube to her lips and proceeded to drink from it. The liquid had a taste similar to highly salted water and left an aftertaste that Chrysalis would have done anything have it took away. As the liquid hit her stomach, the pain in her head quickly faded. The changeling sighed in relief as Almira sat in a chair next to her. It was here that Chrysalis became reacquainted with the mix of fear and anxiety that plagued the air around her. She was going to have to get rid of that soon.

"Come on," Chrysalis started. "I literally can taste your anxiety. Go ahead and ask some questions until I'm bored to death. Conduct some mild experiments on me if you two must, but do something other than brood." Almira shuffled in her seat for a bit.

"What are you? Really." Almira questioned.

"You couldn't figure out from all the experiments on my 'samples' and question sessions?" Chrysalis teased. As she looked over, she saw a serious look upon Almira's face. Chrysalis turned back and gazed out into the empty void of space. "Well, for starters... my species relies heavily on mag... flux for our everyday lives. Those who couldn't utilize their flux the way they like the rest were used for... other things. It was my job to make sure every one of my species had a role to play and see to it that they played that role to the best of their abilities."

"Wow. So your species are focus around a military economy?" asked Almira. Her anxiety began to dim as her excitement grew stronger. "That would explain some things," she mumbled under her breath. Chrysalis chose to ignore that part.

"Well, yes and no," Chrysalis answered, "MY species was as you described. However, there are different versions of my kind around my home planet. Some were extremely docile in their ways, they are so fluid with integrating with other societies that some argue about their very existence as well as never laying a hoof on someone unless it's self-defense. Then you have some of the more brutal ones. One I can think off the top of my head had perfection etched into their very being. Everything had to be perfect."

"Every step, every breath, wingbeat, blink, and anything else you can think of had to be absolutely one-hundred percent perfect. If one person was out of line for a second, if one thing chose to get in the way of perfection, there would be nothing left by ashes. And that was if my mother was in a good mood that day." Chrysalis finished her explanation. When she sensed the fear of Almira and Ge-Foli rise again, she mentally kicked herself for saying too much.

"Calm down you two. I'm nothing like my mother," Chrysalis commanded, 'Mostly anyway.' That last part she thought to herself. "While my mother saw perfection in only our species, I saw it in other things as well. I'm a... tinkerer of sorts. I like putting things together so that they form something greater than they were only. Like how I made Okdi here." The spider drone in question chirped at the mention of its name. That lie seemed to calm the two down enough so that Chrysalis wasn't too affected by their emotions.

"Alright, one more question," Almira started, "You said that your version of your species was militaristic. What are they now?" Chrysalis paused for a moment to come up with an answer. She looked through her many failures and remembered what her hive had become.

"Let's just say, I was forced to step down from my position as leader," Chrysalis answered. Almira looked worried for a moment, but Chrysalis quickly ignored her as she plugged Okdi back into the ship's console.

"Okdi," Chrysalis started, the mechanical spider hummed to life and awaited further input. "Bring up the interstellar map and show us where we are." Almost instantly, holograms appeared above the console and displayed a variety of information. However, the one that most of the crew were interested in was the large map in front of them. A small green dot on the map identified the craft the trio was on. White lines served as markings of the territory of different governments. Any planets that were deemed as hospitable were outlined in green. Inhospitable planets were outlined in red. Each of the groups gained a different emotion out of the trio based on the discovery of their position.

"Tsk... They teleported us a long way away from the United Empire..." Chrysalis said with annoyance. "They must have used a Checkpoint to teleport us here."

"We're in neutral territory. That's not good, but it's not bad either." Almira stated. "And we're a little too close to New-Goldenar territory for my liking. The real problem is that this ship doesn't have a Jump Drive, so we're going to need a refueling long before we're able to reach one. Not to mention the food and drink required to make the trip as well would be too much for the size of this ship."

"Can you cut to the point?" asked an annoyed Chrysalis.

"We're stuck here until someone else picks up on the ship's signal" Almira responded. Chrysalis was no stranger to be stuck in unfamiliar territory. She even made a little book detailing what to do.

The changeling began giving her spider drone another command, "Okdi, give us an estimate about the local flora and fauna." The spider drone took a moment to respond to its master's question. According to Okdi could pull up, the plant life that spawned on the planet's surface were edible by the United Empire's standards. The wildlife ranged from simple herbivores to large flying insects. There were a couple of flashes from Ge-Foli's core. Chrysalis immediately smacked it onto the floor. Almira yelped in shock. "Jokes aside, I think it's about time we land this thing. We get to save on power as well as not having to resort to fighting in a vacuum. You guys should buckle up."

With a few clicks of her seat belt, Almira was firmly buckled to her seat. Chrysalis levitated Ge-Foli's core off of the ground and gave it to Almira to hold onto. Chrysalis took control of the ship and quickly made the descent into the planet's atmosphere.

---

It is one thing to study about space travel and breaching atmospheres. It is another thing entirely to actually do it. The gravitational force that was put on the crew of the ship nearly made Chrysalis pass out. Not to mention the heat from entering the atmosphere was intense as well. A green shield was put over the ship as the crew continued to descent farther and farther. Chrysalis was so lost in concentration that she didn't see the flashing warning signs nor hear the screaming of Almira. She just needed to hold a bit longer and the heat would die down and they could... could...

Everything went dark for a few seconds. Chrysalis assumed she had just blinked, but when her eyes opened again Almira was controlling the ship and was avoiding collision with a massive tree after massive tree. Sadly, she failed to dodge one tree completely and lost a wing to the ship. The world was now spinning as they plummeted further towards the ground. Almira screamed as loud as she could while Chrysalis ignited her horn. The ship became covered in a green aura before being broken apart, piece by piece. Chrysalis enveloped herself as well as Almira and Ge-Foli in the same green aura. The ground slowed its approach towards the trio because of Chrysalis's doing. However, she could not stop all of their momentum.

Almira quickly grabbed Ge-Foli's core and curled around it. She braced for impact before she tumbled across the ground. The initial impact knocked the breath out of her and as she continued to roll, she became covered in cuts. Chrysalis faired no better. Before she hit the ground, she managed to attach Okdi to her right foreleg. On the initial impact, her chitin on the left side of her abdomen took most of the damage. A sickening crack was heard for a split second. Chrysalis lost her grip on the ship components that were still in the air, causing them to fly at full speed towards her and her crewmates. She slid next to Almira and quickly stood up as pieces of the ship embedded themselves into the ground around them. She ignited her horn once again and all the ship components glowed in her green aura.

A green force field was summoned in front of the trio as some of the ship's parts were not able to be stopped fully. A shower of metal rammed into Chrysalis's shield. Cracks ran across the shield quicker than Chrysalis could fix them. Just as Chrysalis began to think that it was over for her, the last bits of the ship was stopped by her flux field. Her shield shattered after serving its purpose. All pieces of metal were lowered to the ground and all electronics were placed on top of the metal to ensure they wouldn't get dirt in them.

Once everything was settled, Chrysalis fully expected to feel the same headache from before. Expect, the headache never came. In fact, she didn't feel any fatigue at all. She turned to speak with Almira, but was stopped when a piercing pain ran through her. She immediately fell to her right side and shivered as wave after wave of pain washed over her. She moved her head and saw cracks webbed into her chitin. Green blood began to flow from the cracks. Chrysalis's head slumped back down onto the ground as she thought about her current situation. She was currently crash-landed with two of her crewmates with one of them being just a core, the other a bit flustered and covered in cuts, and her chitin was cracked to Tartarus and back on her left side. Considering how other crashing landings have gone for others, Chrysalis counted this as a win in her books.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Ooh, that's going to take a while to heal, chitin doesn't regenerate very quickly at all.

[PaintedPony]

If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing. ~Chuck Yeager

[Twilight_Shimmer]

Launchpad McQuack: "Any Crash you can walk away from, is a good one!"

[Razzy]

"They're rainbow moose now. Long story."

'species had a roll to play' - role

'She slide next to' - slid

[Black--Soul]

Very tough time for the survivers,but they are still alive so that's something