A crew of ponies travel through space, meeting strange creatures and bizarre lifeforms
Trivial Knowledge was a unicorn with a gift of near-perfect recall of minor information. He was also one of the first five ponies sent by Princess Celestia to leave the comfort of Equestria, seeking new horizons, new worlds to explore, new friends to meet, aboard a space-travelling construction known as the Friendship.
It was two hundred years after the defeat of Nightmare Moon when the faster-than-light ultra-long-range teleport spell was first created. It was first named the FTLULR teleport, but a dyslexic pegasus misread it as the 'flutter' teleport, and the name stuck.
Within three years, Princess Celestia created an expedition, to seek out what lay beyond the one barrier which no pony had ever cast; the last hurdle, the final frontier. Space.
A building was created; the very strongest and sturdiest house that any pony had ever created. More than large enough for the five ponies that would be living in it. Magical sigils and spell-filled gems adorned the outer walls, with most of the available space going into the patterns necessary to power the flutter-teleport; while on the inside, every imaginable tool had been laid out. The library contained just over a thousand volumes, individually selected for the most useful information on a long journey to a completely unknown destination; the greenhouses contained vast numbers of fruit trees of all sorts; and the main exercise room was large enough that even Swift Wing, the pegasus, required a good two minutes to cross it at full speed.
It was named the Friendship.
Five ponies were personally chosen by Princess Celestia to pilot the Friendship through the depths of space, to seek out new worlds and new civilisations, and to attempt to make friends with beings from every reach of space.
Most senior of the ponies was the Captain, Swift Wing the pegasus; her cutie mark showed merely three lines for speed.
Second in command was Magic Surge, the unicorn; her talent lay in providing the vast raw magical power that the flutter-teleport required.
Third was Healthy Growth, an earth pony, whose talent lay in the biological sciences; his job consisted of ensuring that both the trees used to grow their food, and the ponies who ate that food, remained healthy and strong through all the troubles that they were to face.
Fourth was Fine Control, another unicorn; her talent lay in casting magic with incredible precision, and it was to her that the task of ensuring that the Friendship arrived at the desired destination.
Finally, the junior-most member of the crew was Trivial Knowledge; a unicorn with an excellent memory for small details, who had been sent along as a recorder and chronicler, to write down the discoveries made by the Friendship on its journey for the Princess to peruse after their return.
“Trivial!” called out Fine Control, as she spotted the young stallion, frantically glancing through the books in the library. “Thank goodness, you're still alive!”
“Not for much longer, if the Creature comes in here.” said Trivial, tossing aside one book and grabbing another. “Has it got Healthy yet?”
“Not unless it was within the last three minutes.” said Fine Control. “He says the herbs are growing well, at least, though that's slim comfort if we won't live long enough to use them. What are you doing?”
“This whole situation reminds me of something.” said Trivial, tossing yet another book aside. “I'm just not sure what, it's rather frustrating...”
“Does it matter?” asked Fine Control. “Without Magic Surge to provide the power, we can't ever go home; we're trapped here forever, in the deepest depths of space! Why, we shall never see Celestia's sun again!”
“Celestia's Sun!” said Trivial, looking up suddenly. “Brilliant! I think I know what to do now!
* * *
It had begun well enough, a full day earlier; the Friendship had been en route from Equestria to the first and nearest star, Proxima Centauri, a mere seven lightyears away. Thanks to the flutter-teleport, this equated to a mere three weeks of continuous rapid-cast teleportation spells; however, even with Magic Surge's impressive reserves providing most of the raw power, it was necessary to stop on occasion for all three unicorns to rest and recuperate. It was for this reason that Captain Swift Wing had declared a two-hour lunch break. Healthy Growth had taken the opportunity to ask Fine Control if she would accompany him in a game of chess, while Captain Swift Wing had asked Trivial Knowledge to double-check the spell matrices for any signs of incipient burnout. Trivial suspected that the Captain would likely spend her break in the main exercise room, trying to break her personal speed record; though he had absolutely no idea what Magic Surge would be doing, he privately suspected that she would be fast asleep, recovering the energy she'd need to keep the flutter-teleport running later in the day.
Trivial had just finished verifying the third reversal nodes, when he heard a sudden crashing overhead. Instantly dropping his test sapphire, he ran for the stairs, heading up into the overly large exercise room. Healthy Growth and Fine Control arrived at the door a moment after he did, and the muscular earth pony pushed him back and knocked on the door.
“Captain?” called out Healthy. When he received no reply, he tried the handle; the door was not locked. With care, motioning the other two to stay behind him, he carefully peered into the room.
His eye was immediately drawn to what lay on the floor, in the shattered remains of a balance beam. It was a stone pegasus, wings still outstretched, an expression of wide-eyed surprise on her face.
Captain Swift Wing had been turned to stone.
* * *
“It's the most clearcut case of a locked-room mystery I've ever seen.” said Healthy Knowledge, firmly. “We're the only ponies within several lightyears in any direction, and unless one of us smuggled a cockatrice aboard, there wouldn't be a cockatrice any closer than that, either.”
All three unicorns nodded. They knew where this was leading, but there was no denying the logic.
“On the other hand,” said Healthy, “it is possible for a unicorn to cast a petrification spell, turning somepony to stone – permanently, or temporarily. Do any of you know three how to cast such a spell?”
“No.” said Magic Surge, immediately.
“No.” agreed Fine Control.
“No,” said Trivial Knowledge, “but I do seem to recall a herbal cure that I read about once. A combination of herbs that, when rubbed into the skin over a period of three days, can restore a petrified pony to her previous physique. The details are in one of the books in the library.”
Healthy nodded. “That would be useful.” he said. “Celestia left us with a vast supply of seeds; I can grow the herbs, and we can apply them to the Captain as necessary. But that still leaves us with a problem. We have three unicorns on the Friendship, gentleponies. All three of you claim not to know the petrification spell; but we have a petrified pegasus placed in the pantry to tell us that somepony on this ship does know how to petrify.”
Healthy glared at the assembled unicorns. “Mares and colt, while I hesitate to accuse any of you of any such dealings, I suspect that one of you may be lying. Therefore, as procedure dictates, an investigation must be run. As the only remaining crew member physically unable to cast a petrification spell, I would propose that I lead this investigation. Any objections?”
The three unicorns shook their heads.
“Very well. In that case, I would like to enquire of each of you precisely where you were and what you were doing when the Captain was transformed.”
“I was in my room.” said Magic Surge. “Sleeping. You should know, you had some trouble waking me up.”
“I was playing chess with you.” said Fine Control.
“And I was checking the flutter-teleport sigils for signs of burnout.” I said.
Healthy nodded. “Fine was indeed playing chess with me,” he agreed. “I don't believe she could have cast a petrification spell during that time without my noticing her horn glow. Trivial arrived at the door along with me and Fine; short of teleportation, he could not have been in the room.”
“I didn't notice any signs of a teleport when we arrived in the exercise room.” said Fine.
“That would appear to exonerate Trivial.” said Healthy, firmly. “Magic Surge, that leaves only you. Your alibi is unconfirmed; you could have been in the exercise room, but slipped out the other door and down the back stairs before I entered the room. I shall ask you again; did you, or did you not, petrify Captain Swift Wing?”
“I did not!” said Magic Surge firmly, as three pairs of eyes looked at her.
“Fine and I were both in the same room at the time the incident happened.” said Healthy Growth, firmly. “We can corroborate each other's alibis. Trivial could not have got to us in time without teleporting, if he had petrified the Captain. It must have been you who did it; there is simply no-one else, in the deeps between the stars. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”
Magic Surge looked around at the three of us, then glanced up at something behind us. “It's – it's coming through the wall...” she said; and as she spoke, she turned to stone herself, a statue that showed the fact of her innocence more clearly than any words that she could have spoken.
There was a long silence, as the three of us stared at the statue that had been a valued crewmember and second-in-command mere minutes ago.
“Well,” said Healthy eventually, “no-one's horn was glowing there; so, as improbable as it seems, there must be some other creature here, far from any stars, that can turn ponies to stone.”
Trivial Knowledge glanced backward. “Through the wall?” he said. “But – the wall is unblemished. Nothing came through it!”
Healthy and Fine turned about, and inspected the blank wall.
“No teleportation residue.” said Fine. “What sort of creature could we possibly be dealing with here?”
“Celestia's Sun!” said Trivial, looking up suddenly. “Brilliant! I think I know what to do now!”
“What?” asked Fine Control.
“We need to feed a trickle of power into the flutter-teleport matrix.” said Trivial.
“We can't travel any distan-” began Fine.
“I know!” interrupted Trivial. “But we don't need to travel, we just need to feed a little power into the matrix. Just enough to make it light up, and keep it lit up. Quickly, before another one of us is turned to stone!”
Trivial leapt to his hooves, and galloped for the spell-control room.
“But... I don't understand...” said Fine, hurrying after him.
“The creature,” said Fine, “it's not made of matter, I don't think. That's how it can pass through walls. It's like a cockatrice, only it's completely unaffected by – and completely unable to affect – normal matter, probably normal magic too. It can't touch us, and we can't touch it. That's how it got into the Friendship before.”
“But it can affect matter.” objected Fine Control. “It's been turning ponies to stone.”
“Ah, but that's done through its gaze.” pointed out Trivial. “It's some sort of... space cockatrice. It doesn't need to touch us to turn us to stone, it just needs to be able to see, and be seen by, us. And Magic Surge definitely saw it.”
“...that makes sense, I guess.” said Fine, hesitantly. “But what does this have to do with lighting up the flutter-teleport matrix?”
“Because it retreated every time it entered the ship.” explained Trivial Knowledge. “Something that's in here is driving it away; the same thing that keeps these creatures away from Equestria. Something that's both here and in Equestria that's not usually found in the depths of interstellar space.”
“...air?” asked Fine Control.
“No,” said Trivial Knowledge, “air is made of matter, which doesn't affect this creature. No, it is affected, even repelled, by light. Right now, it can hover around the outside of the Friendship, and poke its head through the outer wall at any time to petrify any of us; but it can't hold its head in the light for long, and quickly retreats. If we can light up the outside of the ship as well, then we can drive this creature off!”
“I see...” said Fine. “It makes so much sense!”
* * *
“Well done, all of you.” said Captain Swift Wing, once he could move again. It had been four days since the flutter-teleport matrices had been lit up; one day for Healthy Growth to grow the required herbal mix, and three days for the cure to be administered; both the Captain and Magic Surge were still a little stiff and grey, but time and a little herbal skin lotion would remedy that.
“I feel that I should apologise.” said Healthy Growth. “I handled the crisis incorrectly at first, suspecting an internal rather than an external cause of trouble.”
“No permanent harm was done.” pointed out the Captain. “It is important to bear in mind, though, that we are heading into unexplored, unfriendly territory, far from the protection of the Princesses. We do not know what is out there; we must be very, very careful, for we shall face environmental dangers the likes of which no pony has ever seen before. Though, had I thought this through a little more myself, I might have expected to find some danger in the interstellar deeps.”
“Why, how could you have expected some sort of non-matter cockatrice before you saw it?” asked Healthy Growth.
“The form of the danger could not have been predicted,” said Captain Swift Wing, “but its presence could have been guessed. Consider, the number of stars in the sky.”
“Millions.” said Magic Surge, nodding.
“Billions.” said Trivial Knowledge.
“And, lit by one single star, the world of Equestria has bought forth dozens of intelligent species.” continued the Captain. “That any world should have failed to develop any form of intelligence at all seems unlikely, to say the least. And yet – and yet none of those worlds have ever yet sent travellers to Equestria. There must have been some reason for this silence from the stars; some dreadful danger in the depths of space that has claimed any previous explorers attempting to cross the gulfs from star to star. In the Ghost Cockatrices of the Deep, I believe we have found this danger; and as long as the flutter-teleport matrix remains lit up, we have a defense against it.” He nodded firmly. “We shall move forward,” he said, “and continue our explorations. Trivial, please note down this incident in your reports; future expeditions will be well served to have permanent lighting matrices installed.”
Captain Swift Wing fell from the sky, green trailing behind her wings and vanishing as she dropped from the atmosphere's upper layer. The strong winds of the lower layer slammed into her body as she dropped, and we were forced to run to keep up.
It was Magic Surge who caught the Captain, holding Swift Wing with her telekinesis and gently lowering her to the ruined alien street, ignoring the sample container that bounced across the cobbles some distance away.
The Captain looked up at the four of us and wheezed.
“What?”asked Fine Control, leaning closer. “Did you say some-”
Trivial Knowledge grabbed Fine with his telekinesis, pulling her back.
“Careful!” he said. He pointed at the Captain's mouth; there was a slight greenish tinge in the air the Captain was breathing out. “It's probably not a good idea to breathe that in,” Trivial said, “given what it's already done to the Captain.”
Swift Wing took in a deep breath, a great greedy gulp of air, and expelled it in a giant burst of green. It faded quickly, but covered quite an area around her before it did.
Everyone else backed off, keeping away from the cloud of green.
“What's happened to the Captain?” asked Fine Control, nervously.
“Some sort of mind-controlling gas?” suggested Magic Surge. “Wanting nothing more than to spread and take us over?”
“Don't be ridiculous,” said Healthy Growth, firmly.
* * *
The world had seemed innocent, on first approach a mere two hours before.
“Target is in motion.” warned Fine Control.
The three unicorns stood around the pillar that formed the core of the flutter-teleport spell matrix, their horn touching their individual interface sigils. Off to the side, Healthy Growth and Captain Swift Wing watched, quietly.
“In motion?” asked Healthy Growth, quietly.
“Some worlds travel around their sun, instead of allowing the sun to travel around the world.” replied Captain Swift Wing, just as quietly. “This is one of those worlds.”
After a brief pause, the Captain added “I do hope you have some remedy for motion sickness, we might need it in a few minutes.”
“Suitable teleport destination located.” said Fine Control, ignoring the quiet conversation. “It's in motion, but relatively slowly. Targeting spell... Magic, Trivial, if you can give as much power as you can in three, two, one, now!”
Everything went momentarily white as Magic Surge dropped all her power into the flutter-teleport matrix; and then there was a thump as the Friendship settled down, for the first time, upon the surface of a truly alien world.
It was accompanied by a tremendous howling.
“Does that sound like timberwolves to you?” asked Magic Surge, nervously.
“It sounds like the wind to me.” said Captain Swift Wing. “It's blowing a gale out there. Talk to me, Fine. Where are we?”
“Captain, the planet isn't just moving around its sun, it's also spinning on its own axis.” said Fine Control. “I put us down on the axis of that rotation; from here, the planet is turning under us, but at a constant rate; the only motion we need to worry about is the motion of the planet around its sun, which will be constant. I thought that this would give us the best chance to get used to it, Captain.”
Captain Swift Wing nodded. “Good thinking, Fine. The spinning's noticeable, but not enough to disorientate us.” She clapped her front hooves, and added, “Well, here we are. Who's going to be the first to step out onto the surface of a brand new world?”
* * *
As it happened, the first to set hoof to the ground of the new world was Healthy Growth. Before long, however, the rest of us had also stepped out onto the dusty surface of the world. Wind blew from our right-hand side, causing clouds of dust to engulf Healthy's muscular body. He stomped a couple of times, and peered closely at the ground.
“I don't think there's much growing here,” he said, “nor can I feel any water nearby. It seems we've landed in some sort of desert; there's some regular shapes on the ground, which might be the remains of badly eroded houses; the air's very dry, and I can't see any greenery anywhere.”
“That's because all the green is up there.” Captain Swift Wing pointed up, to the sky above our heads; the brilliant, emerald-green sky, in which the distant sun on the left-hand horizon was nothing more than a dim glow in the murky green.
“What is that green stuff?” asked Fine Control.
“I don't know,” said Captain Swift Wing, “but before we leave, I'd like to get a sample. Trivial, go get the sampling jars, would you? Everypony else, feel free to have a look around, but don't go too far from the Friendship.”
* * *
“Whoever they were,” said Captain Swift Wing after a brief hour's investigation of the ruined city, “they were slightly larger than ponies, developed a civilisation, but died out several hundred years ago.” She looked out over the heavily eroded walls. “Does anyone have any idea why?”
“Tidal lock, Captain.”
“Thank you, Trivial Knowledge.” The Captain nodded, just once. “Now, would you care to explain that in more detail?”
“Ah... sorry, Captain. It's because this planet travels around the Sun, instead of vice versa. See, over time, an object that orbits another, more massive object will adjust its spin until it keeps the same face toward the larger object all the time. It can take millions of years, but it's inevitable in the end. And, see, the Sun hasn't moved in the sky since we got here. And once this happens, the planet becomes almost entirely uninhabitable; one side becomes so hot that the ground melts, the other no doubt ends up so cold that the air freezes. Only in the twilight zone in the middle – right here – are temperatures conducive to life.”
“I see,” nodded Captain Swift Wing. “But why not develop a line of cities along the twilight zone?”
“Because it would be a line, Captain,” replied Trivial. “Any city needs to be sustained by a certain amount of farmland; if it all needs to be maintained linearly, then the average distance that the produce needs to travel is increased. It might be possible to survive like that... but I imagine it would be a very fragile type of life. The first problem to crop up would likely be a species-ending disaster. And if they didn't have the power to move their own sun, then they were no doubt unable to deal with any of a number of potential disasters.”
“I see,” nodded Captain Swift Wing. “So it all comes down to their inability to control their own sun, then?”
“Yes,” nodded Trivial Knowledge. “No species can survive in the long term without being able to control their own sun.”
“But the presence of this city does show that a species can develop without that ability,” pointed out Healthy Growth.
“In the interval before the planet becomes tidally locked,” nodded Trivial Knowledge.
“I see,” said the Captain, spreading her wings and picking up one of the sampling containers. “Well, I'm going to head up and get a sample of that green stuff up there. Could be interesting, whatever it is.”
The Captain flew up, expertly holding herself against the strong, ground-level winds as she climbed near-vertically through the air. She opened the sample container, and flew up into the green; and was instantly flung to the side, as the winds in the upper atmosphere blew unexpectedly in the opposite direction to the winds in the lower atmosphere.
She recovered quickly, however, and sealed the sample container shut with some of the green air inside it.
However, the Captain seemed to be having some trouble; her wing-beats slowed, then stopped, and she fell from the sky, dropping like a stone.
“What's happened to the Captain?” asked Fine Control, nervously.
“Some sort of mind-controlling gas?” suggested Magic Surge. “Wanting nothing more than to spread and take us over?”
“Don't be ridiculous,” said Healthy Growth, firmly. “The Captain's short on breath, not mind-controlled. The question is what to do about it...”
“Fine, can you dry out the Captain's lungs a bit?” asked Trivial Knowledge. “Not much, just a little. Surge, could you cool down the air around her? Think... arctic midwinter at midnight. I'll help with that.”
“So, a serious drop in temperature and a little dryness?” asked Fine Control. “How will that help?”
Healthy Growth nodded. “I get it.” he said. “Just do it now, you two, the Captain doesn't have much time, we'll explain later.”
The three unicorns' horns glowed; the temperature dropped. Captain Swift Wing coughed, a much smaller cloud of green bursting from her mouth. A second gasp, and this time the green was almost invisible. On the captain's third gasp, she no longer exhaled in green. Healthy Growth stepped forward, and carefully lifted the Captain, taking her in to the small infirmary.
* * *
“So what was that green stuff?” asked Magic Surge, once the Captain was safely resting and, according to Healthy Growth, well on the way to recovery.
“Moss.” said Trivial Knowledge. “Even back on Equestria, there are certain kinds of moss which are a known danger to cavers; the moss likes warm, dark, moist conditions. As can be found in certain caves, or...”
“Or in pony lungs.” said Healthy Growth, grimly. “And the last thing anypony needs is moss growing in their lungs. It's next to impossible to get rid of the stuff normally, too.”
“Airborne moss?” asked Magic Surge. “How does that work?”
“On a planet like this, with no intelligent life or wild magic, very well.” said Trivial Knowledge. “You see, without pegasus or wild magic to affect the weather, a tidally locked planet like this one must logically have a very simple weather system. The air on the side facing the sun heats up and rises, while the air on the opposite side cools down and sinks; the continual wind that we feel is the result of the sinking air from the nightside moving over to the dayside; in the upper atmosphere, the wind direction will naturally be reversed. Since the moss grows and reproduces naturally in the upper atmospheric conditions, but can't survive in the lower atmospheric conditions, all we had to do was reproduce the lower atmospheric conditions in the Captain's lungs to kill off the moss growing there.”
“So that's why you had me cool down the air.” said Magic Surge. “The cooler air, added to the Captain's body heat, would have dropped the temperature enough to freeze the moss.”
“But why did I have to dry out her lungs?” asked Fine Control.
“Ah,” said Trivial Knowledge, “when the sun shines on the dayward side of the planet, it doesn't just heat up the air; it also heats up the water. There are probably seas that are boiling around there; the upper atmosphere isn't just warmer than the lower, it'll also be substantially more humid. I wasn't sure if it was the temperature or the dryness that killed the moss, so I had to go for both options.”