44th of Growing Season, 10,053 AC
Awakening
Solocitizen
44th of Growing Season, 10,053 AC
A clock tick-tick-ticked away while Lumina fought the urge to tap her leg or bite her hoof. The mare perusing her resume flipped through the pages with the slightest hint of disgust. A frown curled across her face, and that was all it took to send Lumina over the edge and to start tapping her hoof. She didn’t even try keeping rhythm with the clock.
The wall behind Harmony Treasure, an aging unicorn in charge of pony resources at the Interstellar Express, was plastered with a myriad of degrees and awards. The window in Harmony Treasure’s office offered a view of the sprawling Celestia City, while photos of CEOs and politicians occupying the free spaces of her desk.
“Do you have any questions about my resume?” Lumina asked.
“No.” Harmony Treasure flipped back to the previous page, and shook her head. “I’ll let you know if I have any.”
Lumina looked out the window and studied the city below.
Living in tunnels and towers the last two years managed to cure any claustrophobia she had, rid her body of its dependence on the sun and moon to judge day and night, and acclimate to an artificial summer all year long. The only thing that still bothered her after all that time was the fact that half of the city hung from the cavern ceiling. When she looked out, she looked down. Lumina didn’t even acknowledge that she was in a hanging tower, or that the sky above her was a network of spires and walkways. No pony ever fell from the upper city, but Lumina was still convinced it was possible.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Miss Spectre, this is the most disappointing thing I’ve read all week.” Harmony Treasure plopped the resume down on her desk, and Lumina snapped out of city gazing. “You would make a fantastic pilot. Your math scores are in the ninety-ninth percentile, you managed to get licensed as a shuttle pilot before you completed general schooling, and you came highly recommended by a pilot of ours.”
“Excuse me, but it’s Lumina, not Miss Spectre.” Lumina didn’t care if she was about to blow this interview or not, that mare was going to get her name right. “Sorry, please go on.”
Harmony Treasure slacked her jaw a little, then raised her eyebrows and leaned back in her chair.
“That fact of the matter is, Lumina, we still can’t take you,” she said. “For two reasons: first we do not employ pilots with a history of mental illness, and second, one of our sibling corporations would lose one of its head engineers if we did. I’m sure you’re already aware that your father threatened to quit if we took you on.”
Stammering with her eyes flashing between the window and the mare behind the desk, Lumina paused to readjust herself and think through a response.
“Did you read the part about how I’m cured, and about how your own psychologist examined and cleared me to fly?” Lumina started to climb out of her chair, but then pushed herself back in. “And my father, well, if there were such things as cutie marks, his would be a starship schematic. He won’t quit, he can’t. It’s his calling.”
The clock chirped once, and then ticked away. Harmony flipped through the resume on her desk once again and glanced at the clock.
“I suppose we can put you through the rest of the selection process,” said Harmony Treasure. “You’d be surprised how many applicants either disqualify themselves or withdraw after the AI compatibility screening. Are you free for the next eight hours?”
“I, think so.” Lumina’s father would murder her if she weren’t home in an hour. “Yes, I’m free. And if I pass your tests, do I get to be a pilot?”
“It will help your case, and mine if my boss decides to reprimand me for letting you get this far.” Harmony Treasure hopped out of her chair and opened the door to her office. “Right this way. The sooner we get started the better.”
Jagged walls, hexagonal rooms, and artificially grown crystals filled the Interstellar Express tower. It was designed to capture the sturdy and regal architecture common in the ancient Crystal Empire, and it succeeded. Past all the fancy hallways and offices, the architecture gave way to something much more utilitarian. Harmony Treasure led Lumina into a room that made no attempt at invoking regality. Its only purpose was to house a row of computer terminals and a vault on the other end. A unicorn and earth pony wearing lab coats played around with holograms above their workstations, and only paused briefly to greet Harmony and Lumina.
“Hello Harmony, what can we do for you?” the earth pony said.
“I was wondering if you colts were still running tests today?” Harmony waved a hoof at Lumina and presented her to the two ponies. “I have a potential pilot that needs to find out if she can work with an AI.”
“My shift just started.” The earth pony gestured with his head at his hologram and the projection vanished. “I can see her through the entire test.” He turned to Lumina and said: “If you become a pilot, you’re going to spend most of your career in deep space. Your only contact for months, sometimes even years at a time will be with an AI. So it’s important to know if you can handle interacting with one for an extended period of time, we can usually tell if you’re cut out for the job after eight hours.”
“You still want to do this?” Harmony Treasure asked Lumina. “It’s not too late to back out.”
“Well, if that’s what I have to do to pilot a starship, then yes, I’ll do it.”
The unicorn reopened his holographic display and started dragging and dropping symbols in the air. After some coercion, the hologram flashed green, and the vault at the far end of the room hissed open.
“If you fall asleep in there or threaten the AI, you’re disqualified,” said the unicorn. “Other than that, there’s nothing you can do to instantly fail this test. The computer in there is called ANIMUS, and he plays a wicked game of chess. Once you step inside we’ll lock the door behind you and we can begin.”
“You might want to use the restroom,” said Harmony Treasure. “You’re not going to get another chance for another eight hours.”
“I think I’ll be fine.” Lumina peeked into the test chamber, and saw nothing but white washed walls, a table, a couch, and a chess set.
At the gesture of the lead lab pony, Lumina stepped inside and the door sealed behind her. She scrutinized the test chamber, but didn’t find any speakers or cameras.
“Hello, I’m Lumina,” she said, but to what she didn’t know.
“It is good to meet you, Lumina.” A voice without inflection spoke from all around her, it belonged to a male, but it didn’t betray any emotion. “My name is ANIMUS.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” And she meant it. “So, tell me a little about yourself.”
* * *
Before Harmony Treasure even received Lumina’s resume, her boss warned her that if she did not turn that interviewee away the instant she stepped through that door, she’d spend the rest of her career in the mailroom. Instead, she made the mistake of humoring Lumina’s application.
The Interstellar Express lost more pilots than they were training year after year. As the director of Pony Resources, she was responsible for finding well-qualified pilots and putting them at the helm of a FTL ship, and Lumina was by definition a well-qualified pilot.
Harmony Treasure prayed to Celestia that when she returned to the AI test chamber the ponies down there would have disqualified her.
When she opened the door to their lab eight hours later, the lead lab pony stopped juggling his holograms and dismissed them with a single flick and said: “we need her.”
“What? I was hoping you two had gotten rid of her by now.” Harmony Treasure’s eyes clenched shut. “Is she really that good?”
“She’s not, but they are,” the other pony said. “ANIMUS and Lumina Specter are unlike any AI-pony pairing I've ever seen. By now, most subjects develop resentment toward the AI, but not her; she actually enjoys spending time with the AI, and so does it. They get along like old friends. We need to put Lumina and ANIMUS on a ship together.”
“What about her psychological condition?” said Harmony Treasure. “Haven’t you found any signs of mental instability?”
The earth pony brought up his hologram again and checked through his notes, and after a moment he dismissed them again.
“If she has a mental illness it hasn’t manifested,” he said. “From what I can tell Lumina is a perfectly healthy pony. She has a bit of a temper, but nothing that Animus can’t deal with. There is no reason at all why we shouldn’t hire her immediately.”
Good pilots were invaluable to the Interstellar Express, and unfortunately good pilots were very hard to come by. Harmony sighed; she was going to the mailroom after this.
“Get her out of there,” said Harmony Treasure. “I’ll tell her she’s got the job.”
The unicorn stabbed a holographic symbol and a buzzer rang. With that, the vault door opened, and there Lumina was, lying on her stomach and talking about nothing in particular.
“Well, I never really thought about it,” Lumina said to ANIMUS. “I guess it’s supposed to be artistic, but I never got it.”
“Perhaps no pony understands the phenomena,” said ANIMUS. “Images of ponies in socks have decreased by thirty three percent over the last two years. It is a subject on the decline in most artistic circles.”
Lumina spied Harmony Treasure in the doorway and got back on her hooves. “Hi Harmony Treasure, is my time up?”
“The two of you are hired,” said Harmony Treasure. “Lumina, you start training tomorrow at eight AM sharp. Don’t be late.”
A smile extended from ear to ear over Lumina’s face, and her eyes widened. She jumped up and down and clapped her hooves together.
“Thank you thank you thank you!” Lumina darted over to Harmony Treasure and shook her hoof. “Thank you so much.”
“Don’t mention it.” Harmony Treasure sighed. “No, really, please don’t mention it.”
“Uh, okay! Sure! You’re the boss!” Lumina cantered back into the test chamber and stared up at the ceiling. “I have to go now, but I’ll see you again tomorrow, okay?”
“Lumina?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“I believe that you and I are going to be friends.”
She gave Animus a sideways smile, and tilted her head just a little.
“You mean we aren’t already?” Lumina backed out of the test chamber, but not before adding, “See you tomorrow, Animus.”
“And you as well my friend.”
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Yay for updates! That was a good chapter to.
Ponies in socks.
Oh, you ponies kill me, you really do.
Okay, Lumina and ANIMUS were actually fairly adorable there.
And a legit good on Harmony Treasure for honoring the application.
"Hanged" should be "hung", as detailed here.
There's a tense mismatch here -- it should be "that when she returned... the ponies down there would have already disqualified her".
Read this up to here in one night. L-o-v-e it so far. Couple of tense and grammar errors, but otherwise perfect.
2420770
I know I got to that part and started giggling :D
2446268 Same!
Awww.
Poor metal centipede blender face thing.
That is, is
So cute, so adorable, so great. Really hope she gets to fix him.
2446268 Her future supervisor walks in on the "two" of them and overhears them discussing the pony equivalent of underwear advertising?!
*snerk* Easy to see why she considers Animus her best friend...!
Next question: how can rediscovering the "lost art" of unicorn magic restore Animus' personality?
Onward!
>And you as well my friend
There shoułd be a komma between "well" and "my"
2600508 Be honest, You would have shot it too.
Sharing your tastes in porn with an AI, are we Lumina?
2600508
lol what the fuck.