A space explorer, crossing the known spances of the universe comes across an unregistered planet out in deep space. What happens when he's forced to co-operate with a new species to not only save his life, but the entire species?
When a space pilot who's only ever awake from cryo-sleep to perform maintenance and mine resources crashes on an unknown planet, what's he to do? Do what he does best, mine, grind and weld! Then when reports that the planet's he's landed on is not only inhabited by a race of intelligent ponies but is in the last throes of it's life and is threatening to destabilize, everything becomes a race against the clock in order to not only save himself but maybe even the very species he's found himself surrounded by.
MLP/Space Engineers crossover. Sunset went to the human realm and came back a few years later with Twilight, becoming Twilight's student after Twi's ascension. Not expecting many chapters or many long chapters. (Hah! Apparently not so!) Spent ten minutes on the Featured List: 09/30/16! I had evidence! (But it's gone now...)
The first thing anyone really notices about living on a ship in space as it careens through the abyss isn’t so much the impending loneliness and madness that comes from staring out into space, it’s actually the buzzing and humming of everything around you. It’s an incessant buzzing that originates from absolutely everything and nothing at all all at once, leaving you always unsure about whether or not you actually hear that buzzing or if it’s just another symptom of the insanity.
The second thing you begin to notice is the faces you start seeing in everything, the machinery, the reactors and the very wall panels themselves. It comes down to a point where even without thinking about it, your mind highlights the points that make up the concerned eyes or the sultry smile of the reactor face. Perhaps you're more of a body kind of person, in which the assemblers have you covered as they birth whatever products you happen to require; as long as you stuff as much of your resources into them as you can.
Personally, I found comfort in the friends of mine i’d envisioned over my travels through space but there was always one woman I stayed as far away from as I could: the Refinery. She was an ornery thing and the attitude she put off whenever I stopped for a bit of mining to give her something to do, whether providing the Uranium Ingots for the reactors or even just a bit of gold because, hey, it’s shiny, would in of itself reverberate throughout the entire ship as that buzzing that only wore down my mind.
The entire ship, an ex-military Stealth-class Anubis refitted for exploration, was more or less entirely driven by the onboard VI I lovingly called Vinyl because of the decorative plating on her core frame. Vinyl ran the entire ship all on her own, organizing the workings of the ship so I wouldn’t have to but she herself never spoke. She couldn’t, she wasn’t designed to say anything more than alerting me to whenever the Reactor women were running low on juice or if there was a nearby automated cargo ship some hundred kilometers away from me. Regardless, this made for quite a bit of boredom whenever I was awake from Cryo for more than a few hours.
My regular circuit around the ship during my hours of wakefulness were nearly hardwired in my brain: wake up, shit, shower and clean myself up, find real food beyond whatever nutrients were directly introduced into my systems, then make inspections of the ship components to ensure working order.
The inspections themselves were the bulk of what my time awake was made up of and it always started from the hangars at the back where my suits and equipment was stored, around the massive cargo container that held everything I owner to the reactor control room above the entryways and then to the medical room. From there, it was around a short hallway down to the reactors themselves with production just past that. Back up to the cargo container and down the original long hallways, walking past the six cryopods -one of which being mine- was the bridge.
This was where all the really important bits were kept, including Vinyl’s four core frames. Only one of them was actually her but the other three served to act as her backup storage units, one of which was used to check herself for faults. I had entertained the idea that Vinyl was actually a male, simply because I wanted to call the VI HAL due to the large red glowing orbs on each frame, but Vinyl seemed to have disliked that and let the ship run down the reactors to nearly nothing before I was woken to reload them. A quick check from the backups showed that the VI had actually malfunctioned during that incident and a patch was quickly written to rectify the situation.
Once the inspections were complete, I was mandated by long dead people to check the star maps for any signs of resource nodes, planets to document and mine or for any signs of intelligent life. This last mandate, the location of intelligent life, wasn’t really enforced since it was established that any and all intelligent lifeforms had already been registered to the Grand Human Alliance of Planets however. Having found nothing of note in the recent updates, I turned back from the bridge, the bright cyan lights automatically turning themselves off at my exit, and returned to my cryopod.
Setting the automatic freezer to thaw me out in another 1825 days, I ensured that I was properly kitted out in my cryo-suit (A suit that linked to the computers to watch my vitals and ensure that everything about me shut down for the journey correctly; twelve cycles ago (each cycle being those five years from when I fall asleep to when I next wake up) I had suffered through my legs having been incorrectly frozen and ended up paralyzed until I could crawl across the ship to the medicenter and deposit my body into the onboard auto-docs.) before dropping down onto my back on the inclined mattress and got comfortable.
Hitting the activation button inside the casket along with my rifle, the large titanium-glass cover slowly crawled across it’s tracks with a hiss before locking me in. Equalizing the pressure in my tube with a second, louder hiss told me that I had about four seconds before-
Pilot woke as expected and began regularly programmed work schedule. No errors or malfunctions logged. Area scans (reminder to reset scanning area back to 2000m logged and categorized) detected three artificially driven cargo ships and one military mine-layer exactly four years, two-hundred eighty-nine days, hour hours and six seconds ago. Nothing else of value detected.
Warning, 15 years of fuel remains: notify pilot to acquire more upon next wake.
Note: Ship nearing the edge of discovered space; intending to breach and begin cataloging new information in three years, seven days and eleven hours. Initial scans indicate absolutely no celestial bodies of any kind in immediate area. Increasing scanning range to 10,000m range.
Scanning…
Complete
No celestial bodies located.
No artificial bodies located.
No… error: scanning equipment must be malfunctioning, perform error check.
Checking…
Checking…
Complete.
No Errors located, everything working 100% capacity.
Rechecking…
Checking…
Complete, no error detected.
Log lack of data in VI frame and subsequent backups.
“Princess! Princess, princess, princess!” the voice of my sister’s beloved ex-student roused me from my slumbers, drawing groans of frustration and annoyance as the young alicorn galloped down the halls of the castle, likely looking for my sister. “Princess Luna!” she called out again, drawing flicks of my ears at the call of my name.
With a groan, I rolled from my bed and landed on… most of my hooves… My chin ended up hitting the end of the mattress and almost became glued to it as an act to return me to my dreams.
“I’m coming…” I groaned through yawns as the sounds of galloping ceased at my door and was replaced by frantic rapping of my chamber doors. “I’m coming!” I called back again, urging the student to stop the noises.
“Princess Luna, it’s urgent I speak to you!” Princess Twilight announced as soon as I neared the door. Twilight didn’t even seem to wait for me to open the door myself and instead bucked her way in before sprinting for my balcony. “You have to see this!”
“What is it, Twilight? It’s too late for you to be up!” I groaned but followed after the mare regardless. Whatever had gotten her riled up probably would keep me up for as long as she was, which going off her current record would be for the next eight weeks.
“Princess, I know this is going to seem like a strange question, but how aware of the events going on in your sky?” Twilight demanded as she began fumbling with my telescope, a gift from her after I’d dealt with the tantabus.
“Twilight, it is my sky. I would think I know it very well, why?” I frowned, now curious and slightly curious about what was going on. Twilight swiveled the telescope towards the East and began working to get something into focus. My own mind began to search in the same direction but found that none of my heavenly bodies had move- wait...
“Can you feel it? There’s something moving up there that shouldn't be! Should there?” Twilight remarked as she found her target. “Found it!”
“Let me see, please.” I requested and pressed my eye to the eyepiece once Twilight had stepped back. Searching for the object, I was forced to combine the starmap in my mind with what I was looking at in order to adjust the direction of the object and focus in on it. There it was, whatever it was.
Glowing brightly as a star, I reached out with my magic to try and feel it out, find out what it was. The strangest thing was that I couldn’t quite get a proper grip on it, as if it wasn’t actually one of my heavenly bodies, so I announced such.
“Whatever it is, it doesn’t feel like a star…” I muttered to myself before looking up from the telescope to the stars above, trying to pinpoint it’s location in relativity to everything else. Looking back down into the eyepiece, I reached out again and magically touched the surface of the object, finding it warm to the touch; not star warm but certainly pleasant to the touch.
Tracing the exterior of whatever it was, I began trying to paint an image in my mind of whatever it was but grew further curious as my magic reached some kind of pillar on all four sides, near to the back. A bit more mental tugging and I felt the craft begin to turn towards the planet, towards me.
“So? What do you think? Is it possible something new may have wandered in from beyond?” Twilight asked giddily, prancing on the toes of her hooves eagerly. “Can I name it?”
“I would withhold your enthusiasm, miss Sparkle.” I frowned as I tried to keep the object from growing nearer, but failed as my magic was now completely sliding off it’s surface. “Whatever it is, I think I may have…” I stepped back from the device to star upwards at a steadily growing dot in the sky. “I think I may have altered it towards the planet...”
“Then can’t you just stop it and put it back?” Twilight’s eagerness turned to curious worry, with the worry growing over the curiosity and devouring it steadily. I shook my solid blue mane in reply.
“Whatever it is, I can’t get a hold on it…” I admitted with a half-hearted smirk. “I seem to have redirected it towards us and… well I can’t move it any longer.” I announced and stepped back into the room with the youngest alicorn.
“So… what you’re saying is that we’ve got an unknown object from space flying directly at the castle?” Twilight’s eyes went wide with danger before bolting from the room with me hot on her heels. “Princess! Princess, princess, princess!” She began calling again, this time most likely form my sister. “Luna, get Celestia and I’ll get Sunset!”
“We’ll meet in the courtyard.” I agreed and continued down the hall while Twilight diverted towards her student’s room. I slid to a halt before the grand doors of my older sister and knocked as quickly and as urgently as Twilight had done on my door.
“What in Tartarus is going on out here!” Celestia barked from behind the door. She wasn’t a morning person in the slightest and it showed whenever someone woke her from sleep too early. “This better be bucking important!” she barked again as she stuck her head, solid mane and sans crown, out from the crack looking completely cranky. “What?”
“Sister, forgive me for the rude awakening, but we have a major problem heading straight for the castle!” I announced hurriedly. “Twilight found something in the night sky that was moving when it shouldn’t have been. I took a look and I think I may have detoured it towards us!”
“Then go put it back! You don’t need me to hold your hoof anymore!” Celestia groaned back and sucked her head back into the room. “Goodnight!”
“I can’t, that’s the problem! It’s not a celestial body so I can’t get a grip on it!” I shouted back at the door while the guards on either side merely shot me a nervous glance from the sides of their eyes.
“You brought it here, you can turn it away!” Celestia’s voice shouted back as the sound of her bed squeaking under her weight told me she was adamant at not helping.
“I can’t! My magic just keeps slipping off it!” I shouted back with growing tears of frustration. “I need my sister’s help!”
“Get Twilight to help you! I’m going back to sleep till it’s time to switch the sun and moon!” Celestia announced firmly before going silent. I held my breath in disbelief before turning away from the door to make my way to the courtyard as planned.
“Guard, begin mass evacuations of Canterlot, we may be in for a massive problem.” I announced once sucking in a breath. The guards all around me had their eyes expand before sprinting off to comply. Not even a minute later and an air-raid siren began to whine through the air, waking and alerting the entirety of the city on the mountain.
Stepping into the courtyard, I found Twilight with her student Sunset Shimmer sitting on a nearby bench with a squad of guards around them protectively. At my arrival, the guards all split and let me through to sit down next to Sunset.
“So, what exactly happened?” Sunset inquired looking up at me. “Twilight wasn’t very informative.”
“It seems that she found something travelling the stars. I tried to reach out and touch it, find out what it was.” I began to explain, drawing raised eyebrows from the tired orange mare. “In my eagerness to find out what it was, I think I knocked it off it’s course and aimed it towards the castle. I can’t move it now because my magic just glides over the surface.” I lowered my head at the announcement, ashamed that I’d be the cause of the destruction of the castle.
“So, what do we do?” Twilight looked past her friend at me expectantly. Everyone else nearby all seemed to be thinking the same thing and watched me, waiting for an answer.
“I’ve already begun evacuations.” I announced as the sirens in the background hopefully meant that ponies were fleeing the city in droves. “We have to get everyone off Canterlot Mountain and to safety. There’s no way to tell what will happen when the object hits the ground.” I announced and turned my muzzle to the steadily closing light. Even now, the object was beginning to enter the atmosphere and its surface was beginning to glow as the reflections of my sister’s sun no longer provided it’s light.
“So it could hit and wipe out everything around us… Ponyville included?” Sunset inquired with fear, all our minds going to our mutual friends nearby. “Is there anything we can do? Your sister, can she help you move it or redirect it away from here?”
“She doesn’t want to help. I don’t think she knows what’s at stake.” I reported as a burst of light warned everyone to a teleportation spell being cast and received.
“Oh, I’m well aware of what’s at stake now.” Celestia remarked, having returned to her motherly nature. “I apologize for my outbursts earlier, Luna.” she briefly bowed her head to me as the Guard took steps forward in all directions to widen their area of protection around Celestia.
“It’s not a problem. I forgot how grumpy you can be when you’re woken prematurely.” I nodded back and stood with my friends. “So, what do you think? Can you help?”
“Perhaps. If we have the assistance of Twilight and her student.” Celestia remarked with a smile while aiming the comment towards the two mares.
“Absolutely, princess Celestia. We’ll help however we can.” Sunset announced and the four of us all stood in a circle, our horns pointed towards each other before I raised mine upwards towards the threat. As it grew nearer and burned up in the atmosphere, I could begin to see enormous jets of blue fire erupting from underneath the thing as I attempted to apply my magic over it’s glossy surface.
A sudden influx of magical energy told me that the two alicorns and unicorn were pouring their magic into me, strengthening my own magic by a factor of twenty. The glow around my horn erupted into an overglow, followed by a second and third as I attempted to wrap the object in my magic and at least bump it off in a direction.
“I..” I groaned out in frustration as a fifth overglow surrounded my horn, making me look like I had a second body attached at the horn. “I can’t…”
“You can do it Luna! You’ve got this!” Sunset shouted over the whipping winds around us and the screaming of not only the ponies still in Canterlot but the screaming of the object as it sliced through the atmosphere like an angry Phoenix.
I tried again, searching for any kind of surface I could use to grab onto before reaching the back of the thing and grabbed onto the two pillars at the top. With a shake of my head I applied as much braking force on the pillars in hopes that it would cause enough drag to lift the nose of the thing up and over our heads.
“I think it’s working!” A stallion nearby announced as he watched the proceedings. A quick check and yes, it did seem it was working. It seemed like I had managed to establish just enough drag on the top portion of the thing that it no longer looked like it was aiming directly for the castle, but was going to end up going just over it.
“Is that...” another guard spoke up, his voice filled with confusion as the flames died off to reveal the shape of the thing. “Is that some kind of craft?”
“I think so…” a third guard remarked as I opened my eyes and everyone who wasn’t pouring magic into me turned them upwards. True enough, now that the flames had burned out I could make out the shape of a massive craft aimed nose down towards us. It seemed that whatever I was pushing against looked to be two of the four… limbs of propulsion. The blue fires underneath seemed to have been purposely lit and kept burning with force as the craft began to lift it’s nose higher, now without my intervention.
“We’re done, I think we’ve saved ourselves!” I shouted and gave my sister and friends break, which they did by dropping to their stomachs. I watched through weary eyes as I too collapsed, but kept my head up to watch the craft turn from it’s point of impact on us to its new heading towards a nearby lake and White-tail woods.
The screaming continued even as the craft knocked the top of the tallest tower from Canterlot Castle and set the rubble into the rest of our home below. The heat felt from the craft and it’s blue flames was like being trapped in the Saddle Arabian deserts at high noon with the force of the air pushing everyone to the ground and blowing everything unanchored around.
The craft roared overhead and continued on its original trajectory, though now with the four of us flying behind it to try and catch up; Sunset levitating herself to do so. It seemed that whatever the blue fires underneath were, they were indeed responsible for the craft’s propulsion as the same fires, only even more massive in scale, burned behind the craft towards the forest.
None of the four of us could keep up with the craft and it soon ripped through the night sky until it finally reached the treeline and promptly deforested a good stretch of at least a kilometer. A kilometer of ground that had at one point housed the lives of the deer who never really did anything or even came out of the forest in the first place. Who knew how many lives were lost there…
“I suspect we’re going to be hearing from the deer soon, won’t we?” Celestia sighed as she kept pace alongside me and Twilight with Sunset on my other side as we followed after the destruction. We were in for quite a night, that was certain.
Diagnosis: Ship seems to have lost both lower Port and Starboard Nacelles, cannot establish connection to engines. Waist of ship sustained extremely heavy damage, hull breaches across entire forward bow. Most of Command deck removed, explains missing frames #2 and #3. Reactors risk of fission meltdown. Reactors shut down, switching power source to Azimuth batteries. Limited scanning capabilities, searching for signs of signals to begin distress call.
Searching…
Searching…
Error, no contacts available.
Warning, signs of life present. Hostility unknown but likely. Must wake and warn pilot and wait further instructions.
Error, no contact with pilot’s cryo-pod. Likeliness of pilot’s pod having been ejected from ship during crash landing: 97%. Chance of survival, 1.2%. Begin write of all critical information to Black box.
Record to Black Box: Gravitational forces began to drag vessel through unknown space. No records of any celestial bodies present until 15:56 hours when a planetary body appeared to starboard bow. Gravitational forces continued to drag vessel towards planetary surface, engines set to maximum overriding thrust to attempt escape, attempt failed. Shut down all directional engines except keel engines to attempt to bring nose back up. Planetary gravity judged to be 3.125% greater than Earth-gravity. Gravitational forces… turned nose of ship planet-ward. Must diagnose cause of redirection at later date under better circumstances.
Detailed log begin:
15:59 hours: Entering atmosphere proved angle of entry too step as vessel began to burn up in atmo, Shield generators 1, 2, 3 and 5 severely overloaded from protecting ship skin. Generator 4 offline and to be scrapped. Gravimetric reading appeared a second time, trying to lift the nose of the vessel before reading began appearing along top of craft, stopping at upper Nacelles. Increased drag began appearing at upper Nacelles, fired retro-grade engines to assist descent. Managed to raise nose of ship and prevent collision with castle-like structure, still took off top-most spire.
16:05 hours, initial reading indicate large signs of life sprawled over mountain side and fleeing from signs of Civilization, suggests signs of intelligence. Must log readings and video feeds for analysis.
16:17, Aimed vessel towards nearby forest with significantly reduced signs of life, acceptable losses for protecting pilot.
16:24, made touchdown with lower nacelles which dragged the rest of the ship to the ground, causing heavy damage across entire keel of ship.
16:35, signs of previously logged intelligent life detected approaching craft. Secondary sign of life detected 236m from Starboard side, likely pilot still in cryosleep if not KIA.
Will standby till pilot wakes or till batteries run dry.
Note: Intelligent life approaching craft displays similar characteristics to Earth Mythology, must catalogue for future reference.
“I… am at a loss for words.” Celestia announced with a breath as she, her sister and ex-students all touched down with heavy guard at their sides. Even when they were following the massive vessel it was big, but seeing it up close gave the princesses and student the humbling experience of there being something extremely bigger and significantly more advanced beyond the darkness of their limited space.
“No kidding! Do you think whatever’s on there is friendly?” Sunset remarked as she gawked at the massive craft. Twilight and Luna were both already circling the craft, curiously looking at everything it could. The most interesting things were the large boxes with cylinders and angled boxed with holes in them that were all over the ship.
“I certainly hope so… I really would not want to have a hostile alien creature in league with the planet’s instability trying to kill us.” Celestia admitted with a sigh and sat back on her haunches, her mind already trying to formulate some kind of first contact scenario.
“Princess!” Twilight called from the front of the thing, looking at a large angular dome of reflective glass. Both she and Luna were hovering in front of the thing, pressing their muzzles up against the glass to try and pierce through whatever reflective coating was on it preventing them from doing so clearly. “I don’t think there’s anything in there!”
“You mean to tell me that there’s nothing piloting the craft?” Celestia raised an eyebrow having been brought out of her mental dealings with herself. Taking wing, both Sunset, in her glow, and Celestia rose to the window to join the other pair. Below, where Celestia and Sunset had been, an outfit of guard were already in the process of either keeping guard or setting up tents to shelter the royalty from the elements.
“It would appear that way, sister! We see no living entity in the craft in what looks to be the control center.” Luna reported as Celestia took a turn to peer into the vehicle. “It may be possible that whatever built this vessel may have some way to make it fly itself to a destination!”
“You know what this could mean?” Twilight announced with a grin, her mind already in the process of figuring out what it would take to tear the thing down and replicate it. “We could get off the planet before it destroys itself!”
“Uhm, Princesses…” Sunset’s voice came from above and drew the attentions of the leadership of Equestria upwards towards the mare. Sunset was hovering above the craft, much higher than necessary to view the thing or even what was on top and was staring off away from the vehicle. “It looks like something was ejected from the craft.”
“Really?” Luna ascended to join the orange mare before peering off into the treeline. “Where?”
“Over there, Princess.” Sunset reported, pointing a glowing hoof off into the trees. “I saw a reflection from the treeline.”
“Take me to it.” Luna requested and took off in the motioned direction with the mare.
“I think it would be best to leave the craft alone for the time being. We can’t discern whether it’s not actually piloted yet. Never mind that it may be containing new lethal viruses we have no immunity against.” Celestia announced, drawing gasps from Twilight as she began to frantically clean her face off with every possible option magically available to her. “Regardless, we should rest for whatever remains of the night and return when there’s daylight.”
“I understand, Princess.” Twilight conceded reluctantly as her eyes roamed over a hole in the side that could lead the princess of friendship into a treasure trove of new knowledge. Both Celestia and Twilight returned to the ground, some couple hundred meters away from the crashed ship and took up residence in a quad of tents set up for their use.
Both Luna and Sunset appeared a few minutes later, carrying a strange case with frosted blue glass and glowing lights in their combined magics.
“Sister! Look what we’ve found!” Luna announced triumphantly as the casket was set down nearby. “It was ejected from the craft! I think we should study it and find out what it does!”
“Tomorrow, Lulu. We’re going to wait for sunup to continue our investigations and you and Sunset need to hurry to disinfect yourselves. There’s no telling what any of that thing is carrying in terms of diseases.” Celestia announced as she stepped through the flaps of her tent, addressing her sister and friend. “In regards to your find, we’ve decided to leave the vessel alone until we can be certain that it’s unpiloted.”
“But, what if we just work on this thing? Maybe it can tell us something about what the pilot is and how to help it?” Luna requested, looking back over her shoulder at the casket. “If there’s nothing too it, then there’s no harm, right?”
After a minute of consideration, “Fine, but we’ll have the science teams come set up here. Nothing leaves this forest.” Celestia announced, drawing cheers from not only Luna but also from Twilight who was listening in from her tent, as well as from Sunset nearby. “Tomorrow, remember?”
“Of course, princess!” Sunset announced before bolting into her own tent to jump into bed and get a head start on that time skip attributed to sleep. Luna followed after her sister, both mares turning in for the night in their separate tents while the guards took up overwatch positions around the camp.
~~~
The morning came and so did the curious. From Ponyville and Las Pegasus both, given that both cities were the closest, hundreds began to flock towards the still smoking ruins in the forest. Extra guard had been called to set up anti-personnel magic barriers around the ship and scouts had been sent out into the forest to make sure nothing else had been ejected to be found by scavengers. A science team had been brought in from Canterlot initially with extra ponies coming in from every major city in Equestria and were due to arrive in the next couple hours.
“So? Can I start?” Twilight demanded as the casket was brought into a much larger and sterile tent and, like Sunset, was outfitted in all kind of anti-disease wards and spells. Twilight would’ve been fine if an Ebola outbreak had occurred at her hooves, if the outbreak even managed to escape her clutches. The Casket rested face up on the ground with all manner of machines hooked up to it, ensuring that it was not likely to cause damage to anything biological.
“Can’t you wait until the science team shows up?” Celestia grinned from behind a similar, larger scale anti-everything spell shield, watching as Luna got herself suited up similarly to Twilight and Sunset. Behind Twilight, Sunset was already experimentally prodding at the machine they’d found while all manner of hoof held machines floated within reach.
“No! When they show up, they’ll just punt me out and completely take over!” Twilight stamped her hoof on the sterilized grass furiously. “I will not be left out of the single greatest scientific discovery for our planet!”
“So then when they show up, why don’t we just establish your leadership in the project? They can’t possibly decline the order from three different Princesses.” Luna remarked as she crossed the magical barrier, the barrier activating all her wards and spells upon doing so. “Besides, I too wish to be involved in this.”
“See? You have nothing to fear from waiting for waiting for the rest of the team.” Celestia remarked as Sunset’s hoof hit something sensitive and a surprising hiss of steam and air erupted from the broken seals of the casket.
“Uhm, I think I opened it!” Sunset announced, drawing the slack jaws from Luna and Twilight while Celestia immediately began barking orders at the Guard to establish a well-armed perimeter. The older princess was the first to see inside the casket, with the other mares in the room soon identifying the object inside as definitively biological in nature.
“There’s something in there!” Twilight squealed and began grabbing as many objects in her magic as possible to begin her poking and prodding before Luna halted all of Twilight’s motion with a protective sheath of blue and dragged both her and Sunset away from the thing. “But…”
“It’s there’s something biological in there, then it’s most certainly intelligent if at least considering what it showed up in.” Luna remarked as she kept her eyes on the creature with the strange flat face.
“What if it’s dead? You heard that hiss of air, there wasn’t any oxygen in there!” Twilight insisted before retrieving the leads to her personal Electrocardiogram and tried to begin sticking them on the creature’s body.
“Let me try to connect with it’s mind first. If I can establish brain activity, then we’re done here. If not, then… you may begin your tests.” Luna remarked before letting her horn glow white. A small string of light floated from the tip of her horn and connected to the forehead of the creature, Luna closed her eyes to begin the connection.
A minute that lasted way too long for Twilight’s liking soon ended and Luna opened her eyes once more, with them filled with concern.
“It’s alive, but barely. There’s barely any trace of brain activity and I could just barely feel a heartbeat.” she reported loud enough for everyone around to hear, as well as for some of the newsponies outside to get the first positive information of live aliens on Equestria.
“Maybe by opening it’s machine, we put it’s life at risk?” Sunset suggested through fearfully wide eyes. If it was alive and healthy up until she’d touched it, she’d may have just killed the first intelligent lifeform from space before it’d even gotten a chance to be met. “I think we should try and close it up again, see if it’ll help restore its chances at survival.”
“I agree. If it does survive and wakes on its own, I think it shouldn’t be under the microscope and invasive prodding from Twilight.” Celestia announced. Sunset nodded and stepped up to the vessel to try and remember what button she’d pressed to open it. Examining the shell, she soon found it and gave it a firm click with her magic, hesitating to actually touch it any further.
To her relief, the large curved glass tube face began to drop back down and covered the creature. With a hiss equalling when it was opened, the tank began to pressurize and everything went still.
“Well, that’s that.” Celestia announced with the steady release of a breath. “We have established that there is intelligent life originating from the ship.” she announced to the amusement of the onlookers behind the barriers.
“I wonder how it’s remaining active?” Twilight seemed to buzz with energy as she circled around the capsule with the words Sage Industries scrolled on the side. She couldn’t read it, it looked like a bunch of blocky scribbles to her but it interested her all the same. “Maybe there’s some kind of power storage inside it? What about oxygen? How does it breath shut in like that?”
“I am announcing that all scientific endeavors on the ship as well as on that pod will cease immediately!” Celestia announced with a softer version of her own Royal Voice to address everypony nearby. “It will be returned to it’s ship and we will wait to see what happens!”
“What?” Twilight screeched, enraged. “I am not letting go of this thing! Who knows what we can learn from it!”
“We also don’t know what will happen if it wakes up, Twilight! What if it’s hostile!” Sunset remarked, placing a hoof on the back of her friend and mentor. “It’s not like us! It’s probably not all about friendship and getting along! What if those box things on the ship are weapons?”
“I…” Twilight began, pausing to consider the idea. “I hadn’t thought of that… Maybe some kind of… magical projectile weapon? Oh, idea!”
“No!” Luna shouted, startling everypony around her. “If there is one thing we will not be learning from it, it’s how to make weapons!”
“I agree, which is why we are returning it to it’s ship!” Celestia nodded before enveloping the capsule in her magic. With Luna’s assistance, both Alicorns pushed the machine from the tent to the flashes of camera bulbs and shouted questions. Setting the capsule down on the ground near to the ship, both alicorns returned to the basecamp and stepped next to Twilight and Sunset, both of which were going through the details of what had just happened.
“As of this moment, it will be punishable by life imprisonment to be found with any unknown technology!” Luna announce firmly and without her Royal Voice. “If you find any such technology, you must notify the Guard immediately to have it collected and returned to the crash site!”
“Princess, are you worried that the creature that arrived in that vessel may be hostile? Is there any threat to the safety of the ponies around it?” a reporter pony demanded with a notebook in wing and a pencil behind her ear.
“There is certainly a very real threat that the creature in that pod is hostile. We are also certain that there may be more of the creature’s race hidden away in that crashed vessel. Our preliminary findings suggested that there were more of those pods inside.” Celestia remarked as the sound of hissing, for the third time in an hour, alerted to goings on behind the Princesses.
Something that looked like a door appeared to open in the blackened skin of the craft before a large mechanical arm unfolded and retrieved the pod, pulling it back into the craft through the large sparking hole in the side.
Celestia briefly wondered if the craft itself was sentient, but pushed that thought out of her mind with a smile. Intelligent machines, what kind of idiot race would ever think of that?
16:46 hours, intelligent lifeforms recorded as either unicorn or winged pegasi approached craft and began to inspect the vessel. Audio records suggest communication abilities but current Rosetta Stone software is yet incapable of translating.
16:52, unicorn tracked down ejected cryo-pod. Unicorn and blue winged unicorn retrieved the pod and brought it to a camp set up 632 meters away from crash site. Constructive capabilities further enforces signs of intelligent life, cannot establish approximate technology age.
17:02, all creatures appear to turn in for remainder of night, guard-like creatures remain watching camp throughout night. Patrol patterns have been recorded and analyzed.
20:00 hours, sun rises at the exact moment the clock turns. Scans indicated similar gravitational forces originating from the camp. Must study further. Lifeforms seem to have waken exactly a minute later, suggesting programmed responses to environmental stimuli. Would like to study further.
20:43, large groups of the intelligent lifeforms designated, pegasus, unicorn and pony, began to arrive and set up a larger camp. Analysis of camp setup suggests lifeforms intend to experiment on the claimed cryopod. Will remotely monitor pilot’s vitals. Guard appeared at the same time as larger groups of lifeforms and began setting up unknown machines to keep the lifeforms from advancing on crash site. Machines activated what appeared to be extremely bastardized hardlight generators.
21:14, casket reports having been opened from outside and depressurized. Vitals of Pilot remained constant, no fear of fatalities. Scanners picked up another strange signal originating from the tent before the casket reported closing up again. Audio receivers picked up what appear to be the creature’s voices, suggesting creatures may have sonic capabilities to enhance the volume of their voices. Could potentially be weapons-grade if threatened. Potential threat logged and countermeasure combat tactic set.
21:21, casket returned to crash site by the larger of the two creatures, designating these two the leadership with the larger one as C1 and the cute blue one C2. The purple one seems to also be a figure of leadership, but doesn’t seem to govern the first two, labelling C3. Unicorn appears to follow C3, labelling sub-governing figure C4. C1 and C2 returned to camp to address the other lifeforms with the same sonic-enhanced voices. Rosetta Stone software still unable to translate.
21:23, casket retrieved and successfully purged of environmental hazards before being reconnected to life-support.
21:32, no further movement from lifeforms or C1 through 4. Will attempt to wake pilot ahead of time.
Note: atmosphere tastes like Xenon, might explain strange gravimetric readings.
Personal note: Might see if possible to ignite xenon in air to create simple lightshow.
“Personal Scientific log, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer residing. Date, Seventh of Summer, 2016 of their majesties reign.” Twilight began, reclining in her favourite spinning chair back at her castle. Sunset was sat on her own favourite chair, looking over the details that they’d acquired from the few science experiments they’d managed to accomplish before the test subject was return to the ship. “Initial scans suggest that the makeup of the capsule was constructed from a variety of resources, all normal earth-metals easily found on the periodic table. Construction of the capsule remain lost to me, something I’m… not happy about.” Twilight added the last part as professionally as she could.
Following a sigh from Sunset who looked up from her papers, “Twilight, you know as well as I do that the creature inside that thing could’ve been dangerous, or in danger himself.”
“That reminds me,” Twilight returned to her recording. “Creature inside the capsule looked vaguely simian in nature. Talks with the Simian nation post trials reveals no knowledge of any successful space programs from them. After examining some of their more… unique looking species, I have determined that the creature in the capsule was not Simian in nature, but may have evolved from it’s own simian-like species on whatever planet it originated from.”
“That’s kind of rude, don’t you think?” Sunset remarked with a second sigh but a slight smirk on her face as she rested on her desk. “What if that creature, by it’s definition, is simian?”
“I don’t dispute that idea, Sunset, I’m just making notes based on what we know and are used to.” Twilight remarked as she hit pause on the recording and set the receiver down on her desk. “At the moment, we have nothing to go off of, so we use what we know. What I know is that the Simian’s don’t know anything about any space-programs which means that the creature we saw wasn’t a simian and the ship didn’t originate from this planet. Like I said,” Twilight was quickly interrupted by the bursting in of her door as her and Sunset’s friends all rushed in looking frantic.
“Twilight! I can’t believe it!” Applejack was the first to say, breathing as heavily as Dash and Pinkie. “You met a real live alien!”
“Yes, yes we did.” Sunset remarked with a bright grin and gave a hug to Fluttershy and Rarity before returning to her seat. “It was quite remarkable to say the least.”
“What did it look like? Did it say anything? Was it friendly?” Pinkie demanded, bouncing on her hooves with each syllable she spoke. She was held down by Dash who literally draped herself over her back.
“Easy there, Pinkie, let the girls speak!”
“Thanks Dash, no it didn’t speak. Luna took a look at it’s mind magically and found barely any signs of brainwave activity or even a heartbeat. It’s entirely possible that whatever we did to open the casket may have endangered it’s life. As for what it looks like, well I was just talking with Sunset about that.” Twilight explained eagerly as the chance to talk about something so exciting was… well… so exciting!
“Twilight thinks it’s an evolved form of Simians, I’m more convinced it’s human in nature.” Sunset announced, turning the last portion of her words to Twilight whose eyes expanded at the thought. “The biggest difference is the skin colour isn’t like those back where I came from.”
“But, your world didn’t have any kind of technology like that, did it?” Rarity inquired as she sat down on a cushion she’d magic’d in. Sunset shook her head in reply.
“No, but it’s entirely possible that my human world exists in a different plane of reality, and that the human in that casket is this world’s human. It’s also entirely possible that my humanity isn’t the only humanity in the galaxy.” Sunset remarked as she slid off her chair to retreat to the break table filled with all sorts of snacks that Spike kept filled.
“I had completely forgotten about the humans of your world!” Twilight thunked her head with her hoof before pulling out a scroll of blank parchment and a quill. “I gotta tell Celestia about this!”
“Well, why don’t we go and hoof-deliver it to her? I think she’s still at the crash site in anticipation for a first-contact scenario. Heck, we could even bring her something to eat while we’re out!” Dash suggested eagerly. In all honesty, she just wanted to go look at the massive newcomer and see it for herself.
“That actually might be a good idea. If a first contact situation does arise, then the princesses should all be there to welcome the human.” Twilight nodded back and scrapped her writing to stand and join her friends and family on their trip out of the castle and back into Whitetail.
Speaking of Whitetail, it seemed that the natives there were no where near the crash site and so no fatalities were counted. The locals, however, were not too fond of the “large metal beast”, their words, that had crushed their favourite star-gazing spot and were demanding that it be removed immediately. Celestia and Luna both were still in negotiations with the deer when Twilight and Sunset had teleported home.
The trip made it’s detour to a nearby hayburger joint, allowing the ponies seven to pick up sustenance on the way to the crash site. Upon arriving at the scene and after allowing herself and her friends into the area by being a princess herself, Twilight lead her friends directly towards the command tent she figured her ex-mentor would currently be in.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle and friends. What brings you all here?” Luna welcomed the newcomers from a board that was set up to review the information the ponies had already gathered. A white bag with a folded over top was casually tossed at the alicorn, with a second one aimed at Celestia nearby. “What is this?”
“We thought you’d both be hungry, so we stopped by and picked up some lunch.” Dash remarked in lieu of Twilight or Sunset who’d both taken up positions near to Luna’s board to go over things. “Sunset and Twilight actually got an idea for what the creature is.”
“Oh? What makes you so sure?” Celestia inquired as she telekinetically pulled out a pair of foil-wrapped packages and set them down next to a box of hay-fries. Luna was already in the process of working down her own burger, using the bottom half of the wrapping to keep herself clean.
“Well, it helps that I spent a few years among people like him,” Sunset replied, hopefully cluing in her old mentor. “I figured he’s some kind of human.”
“But didn’t the humans in your world have much more colourful skin tones?” Luna asked through a mouthful and quickly received scorn from not only Twilight and her sister, but also from Rarity as she and the others all roamed over everything they could find.
“They did, yes.” Twilight announced and assumed her teacher’s persona. “Which is why we’ve formulated two hypotheses. One is that the human realm Sunset and I went to is a different realm altogether, one that was artificially created and connected to our world. This would explain how there were alternate, human versions of everypony here. This would mean, then, that the human we found was this world’s human from our reality.”
“What’s the second theory?” Luna inquired, now with an empty mouth to save face.
“My humanity is not the only humanity.” Sunset announced, earning curious glances from Celestia and Luna. “It is entirely possible that, through whatever evolutionary processes exist, that other humans may exist in the galaxy, if at least somewhere else in the universe.”
“I suppose it would be entirely possible. With our limited sphere of understanding of the universe, it could be logical that somewhere out in the galaxy, or even in the universe, could be another established race of ponies like us.” Celestia conceded the point with a nod while her gaze turned to the -recently realized- limited view of their galaxy.
“And, since there is no guarantee that those other races of ponies also have magic, they may have turned to science and evolved as a race that way!” Twilight announced with an eager giggle. “Oh, what if we could get up into space and find one of them? Imagine what we could learn from them and adapt to our own technology!”
“Twilight, don’t get ahead of yourself! These are all theories, remember?” Sunset remarked, shaking a bit of sense back into the mare. Twilight quickly returned to the real world with a few shakes of her head before giving Sunset a smile.
“I know, I know! But just thinking about the possibilities, it’s making my brain quiver in anticipation!” Twilight exclaimed. The merriment was halted, however, when the sound of increased motion outside the tent drew everypony’s attention. “What’s going on out there?”
As if replying to her question, a guard poked his head in past the tent flaps. “Your highnesses! There’s something going on with the crashed vessel! Something appears to be coming out!”
“Come on, we should be prepared for this! I want everyone who’s not crowned hidden safely in the trees. Should it prove hostile, we want everypony to be able to escape unseen!” Luna shouted loud enough to be heard by the entire camp. Turning to her friends, “You six should stay here,” she requested, turning the comment to Sunset and the other five. “We will handle this.”
Luna, Celestia and Twilight all trotted out from the confines of the tent, the flap waving back and forth each time an alicorn passed its threshold. The flaps didn’t get a chance to remain closed since the six remaining ponies all piled on top of each other to view the going’s on.
The three ponies all took up firm stances, all standing at attention, just a few meters away from the camp but all three could instantly feel the emptiness of having no guards nearby. Of the three, Celestia was the only one confident that should anything happen, she could summon the armours she’d set away for herself, her sister and the new set she’d had forged for Twilight. The other two were internally very nervous and Twilight was visibly twitching in place, eager to get moving along with whatever proceedings would occur.
Motion from the back of the ship, taking the form of klaxon alarms and flashing yellow lights, turned everypony’s eyes to the rear of the craft, all eagerly waiting for the biggest event in pony history; possibly the biggest historic moment ever in recorded history.
Soon, the alarms and flashing ceased, the tension in the air thick enough to cut through with a rusty spork until a single, upright figure descended from the back of the craft. Despite a rather ambiguous drop from the back of the vessel to the ground, the creature leapt off the edge to the audible gasps of exclamation from the ponies and fired a few of those blue flames from its back and chest to come to a steady landing.
The creature didn’t look like the human they’d found before, it’s skin was completely black and it’s head was no longer the flat, flabby feature it had before. Instead, a black plate with unnerving yellow glowing slits for eyes sat over an equally glossy black orb. The rest of it’s body looked clad in the same black suit, head to hoof and carrying a remarkably large pack on it’s back with those same propulsion units strapped to it’s chest and pack. On either side of the pack were a pair of large bottles with the same strange writing on their sides, neither of them legible by anypony. The absolutely most strangest part of the thing were the metal protrusions coming from it’s body, tracing its limbs but originating from that pack; Twilight briefly wondered if that pack was constructed through magical properties to be able to do so many things at once.
The princesses, and everypony behind them, all watched in silence as the creature slowly took step after step around the craft, but didn’t aim for them. Was it unaware of their presence? Should they say or do something to get their attention?
Instead, the black creature traced its hand along the ship, as though feeling out it’s imperfections and flaws as it crossed the distance to the head of the craft. Soon, it came to the nose of the ship and stepped onto the glass, surprising the ponies that the glass was strong enough to hold what looked like an immensely heavy form without even so much as a crack.
A section of the metal frame seemed to rise up from the narrow space between the creature’s back and his pack before diving into the top of the pack itself for a few moments. It quickly reappeared with some kind of object in its hold and offered it to the pilot who took hold of it and knelt down to place the head of the device against the edges of the glass. As soon as it touched down, sparks were sent flying away from the creature, startling the quadrupedal creatures watching it.
Soon enough, after the suit had traced the edges of the panel and the spark generator had been put back into the pack, the suit placed both hands on the surface of the glass and impossibly lifted the pane without gripping it. Now Twilight was certain there was some kind of magic involved if it could lift something with the tips of it’s fingers. Setting the pane aside, the creature stood and ventured into the ship, disappearing from view once more.
“Uhm, what are we supposed to do?” Luna whispered to her sister in confused concern though remained stock still regardless.
“I’m not certain, but I think we should wait and see if it comes back out.” Celestia replied softly, also unsure of the next appropriate course of action.
The suited creature reappeared from the glass and traced back around the side of the ship that it had come from, only now carrying a large black box in it’s hands.
“Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie suddenly appeared in front of the creature, making it give out some kind of sound that likely ended up as a sign of fearful expression. It dropped the box as the arm appeared in the pack again before drawing another tool and handed it to the suit.
“Pinkie!” Twilight screamed as a loud explosion echoed throughout the landing site, a flash of light appearing at the end of the weapon -everyone was certain this was a weapon now- and Pinkie went down to her face all in one fluid motion. “No!”
“Guards! Prepare for hostilities!” Celestia announced with the maximum potential of her Royal Voice and summoned up the armour of the Royalty while Luna erected the most powerful shield spell she had access to. “Twilight, bring Pinkie Pie over here to safety!” she commanded as armed Guards all leapt from the cover of the forest to take up positions near to their princesses.
Twilight, full of tears in her eyes, obeyed and poured the fullest potential of magical power into her magic to bring the injured Pinkie Pie back behind magical cover. The creature seemed to have only now just realised it wasn’t alone and turned the weapon on the Princesses, yet remained still.
“Pinkie? Pinkie!” Twilight screamed as she inspected her friend for signs of life. They were there, but they were fading. A quick check showed a perfectly circular wound in her right forearm and bleeding profusely. “Stay with me Pinkie!”
“Twi?” Pinkie asked weakly, opening one eye to that of a slit as she stared up into the face of her friend. “Hey…” she whispered, placing her good hoof on Twilight’s face. “I’m f-” she paused to cough a few times, bloody spittle escaping and coating her lips. “I’m fine, I Pinkie promise!” she finished with a slight giggle.
At that moment, a green magical aura surrounded her, surprising Twilight as Sunset briefly appeared to take Pinkie to safety and to medical attention waiting nearby.
“I don’t care what it knows, I’ll kill it!” Twilight raged, turning on the black demon before her as her mane and tail threatened to ignite to flames. If there was one bad thing she’d gotten from Celestia during her tenure as her student, it was the insurmountable rage that she kept bottled up inside but would erupt whenever something happened to her friends or family.
“Twilight! Calm down!” Celestia ordered without even giving her a glance since her eyes were still glued to the black form before them. “I think it was an accident, it reacted too quickly to Pinkie’s arrival to have been intentional!”
“It just probably killed Pinkie, and you want to give it a chance to try again?” Twilight demanded furiously, completely forgetting her role as the Princess of Friendship. She didn’t care about friendship right now, she wanted revenge for the creature hurting her friend. That was a sign of friendship too, right?
“If it wanted to, don’t you think it would have attacked us by now?” Luna added in support of her sister’s position. “I think it’s waiting for us to attack it.” she added as all eyes went back to the creature, watching it as it eerily watched through it’s non-eyes. Twilight did notice, however, that it’s yellow eyes had turned orange, as though warning her not to advance any further; advice she ended up taking.
After a heated minute, the eyes returned to yellow and the weapon was lowered before being deposited into it’s backpack once more. The creature bent back down and retrieved the box before resuming it’s task and moved to the rear of the ship. Standing under where it had arrived, the sound of alarms and flashing lights returned just long enough for the creature to propel itself up and into the craft once again.
With everything returning to silence and guards were lowered, Celestia turned to her family and friends. “Let’s go see how Pinkie’s doing.”
09:37 local time, Pilot successfully woken and thawed. Preliminary medical examinations shows no signs of life threatening events besides moderate exposure to xenon gases present in atmosphere. Pilot moved to medical center for decontamination and recovery.
10:15, pilot finished recovery and began regularly programmed schedule, intercepted by VI and notified of crash. Pilot began emergency procedural checks as required.
11:48, pilot completed emergency checks. Pilot noted hallway to command deck was severed and inaccessible from within. Pilot moved to hangar bay to suit up in EVA Worker suit to retrieve black box from damaged command deck.
12:00, sun reached highest point in sky, localized time to event and corrected previous log entries.
12:04, Pilot begins EVA.
12:12, Pilot reaches cockpit and grinds through glass pane to access bridge.
12:17, Pilot accesses Black Box terminal.
12:18, Pilot removes Black Box.
12:23, Pilot encounters local after it suddenly appears before him. Scanners unable to identify where specimen originated from, must monitor for more details. Pilot retrieves M56Elite Assault Rifle and fires one round into specimens right forearm. Pilot notices military position of the other creatures nearby and takes cautious aim. Scanners picked up signs of gravitational changes before Cs 1 through 3 became insufficiently armoured to protect against basic firearm. Evidence of further hardlight generator barriers present.
12:25, gravity sensors detect changes in gravity fields around injured specimen, Specimen shows to have teleported from position to position behind hard light generators. Must check sensor arrays and video feeds for errors.
12:27, injured specimen carried away by C4 into constructed base of operations, no further records exist.
12:31, Pilot retrieves Black Box and returns to hangar for decon and disarming.
12:32, Pilot begins records of his own.
“Pilot’s log.. Uhm, whatever time and date it is, I don’t know.” I began once I was desuited and the Black box was properly hooked up to the only remaining working computer in the med-center. “So, I was woken way ahead of schedule due to a crash on an unregistered planet. I have to go over Vinyl’s recordings for what happened because records are showing that there was absolutely nothing out in space at the time of our crash. When I say absolutely not, I mean there was absolutely nothing, no stars, no planets, not even background radiation. Vi is absolutely sure there’s nothing wrong with her programming but i’m going to go over her myself with a fine toothed comb.
“Okay, so after I was awoken, I was notified of the crash, which, should have been apparent due to the incline of the ship. Apparently the Gravity Generators were still working properly and powered down to equalize the gravity with that of the planet. That being said, i’m confined to a Sektan exo-suit due to the extreme gravity of the planet; Vi says its over 3 times stronger than Earth’s. I plan to go over the gravity Generators to try and get some reverse gravity in here, try to equalize the G-forces out a bit.
“After my trip to medical and the updates of what the VI had done during and after the crash, I went down to the hangar and got myself suited up in an EVA suit with the Exo-skeleton built over it. I think I have a problem with my head that the auto-docs didn’t pick up, I don’t remember most of the welding process. I just had parts showing up in my hand to use, and then i’d black out. I wake up a second later and the part was properly installed. I’m going to have to get a CT scan now, shouldn’t be too bad as long as it didn’t get fucked up in the crash.”
“There are actual intelligent lifeforms out there! Holy shit I can’t believe there are actual intelligent lifeforms out there! And I shot one! I actually kind of feel bad about that, though… I have no idea where it came from, local radar didn’t show anything approaching so when it suddenly appeared before me I reacted and shot it in the leg. I made sure to only wing the poor thing so it shouldn’t die but still… It was cute and I shot it without really thinking… Vinyl figured then was a good idea to tell me about all the other ones watching me, which because of the limited field of vision the Work-class EVA suit gives me, I was pretty much completely unaware of them. Anyways, after nothing happened and they didn’t attack me, I disarmed and returned to the ship with the Black Box. I’m due to go over the recorded events soon, I just gotta get some food in me.”
“Personal note, Vinyl seems to be displaying some strange behavior in her programming. I thought I heard humming, like, actual musical humming…”
The single most annoying thing about having crashed on an alien planet with an inhospitable atmosphere is the inhospitable atmosphere. I literally cannot take off my suit or the higher concentrations of xenon in the air would start to poison me to death except in the Medical centre. Therefor, I had traded my Work-class suit for a much lighter Urban-class suit by the same developer as the others.
“Vinyl, would you do me a favour and load up my packs with materials to get this ship in a state that I can walk around inside it?” I requested, not expecting an answer in reply as per usual.
“Of course, loading pack with welding materials.” Vinyl surprisingly responded with that normal female voice I’d grown to ignore.
“Okay, thanks.” I frowned at the change but went about my business anyways before moving to the Hangar to switch out suits for the heavier and modified Worker suit.
Once loaded, I set my regularly used tool to the suit’s hotbar so that with just a press of a button, the tool would be retrieved from the backpack and handed to me by the suit’s VI; it was still Vinyl but I sometimes liked to think it was a different woman. Leave my options open, you know?
“Okay,” I muttered to myself once I was fully suited and the plate was secured over my helmet’s faceplate. “I need to tear down the destroyed shield generators, reverse the gravity on the grav gens, seal up the holes in the ship that’re preventing a seal…” I groaned as my to-do list just grew with everything that I found wrong with the ship. I held my welder over the production equipment and brought up the components list for the reactors, refinery and assemblers to get an idea of how badly damaged they were and what I would need to get them working again. Needless to say, I’d be cannibalizing a lot of my ship to get the important machines up and running again.
Setting to my task, I tore down two of the four shield generators that had replaced one of the smaller reactors in order to dump the resources into the two working ones. I was still suffering from the same blackouts during the welding process; blacking out whenever I put a new resource into place and waking up just as I was sealing it in.
Eventually, I had two completely working shield generators and after fiddling with their specific menus, had my ship cloaked in a fully energized shield that would hopefully keep anything hostile out. It wouldn't let the ship pressurize since they weren’t hard-light shield generators but it would work to keep the locals out at least.
Switching tasks, I crawled out of the hole in the side of the ship, the hole that also divided the bridge from the rest of the craft, to begin grinding down all the decorative pieces that adorned the skin of the ship to put to use sealing in the holes.
Having to frequently stop to deposit the resources I gathered was growing more and more irksome but soon I had approximately four thousand pounds of steel, either in the form of plates or in the form of scrap metal, ready to be used and sitting in the main cargo pod.
The entire time I was crawling across the ship’s surface, I was growing more and more aware of the sets of eyes the locals were watching me with, scrutinizing everything I did.
Partially through cutting down a decoratively placed blast door edge, the staring had grown to a point that I could no longer stand it and stood to address the local things.
“Would you stop watching me, please!” I shouted, using my suit’s speakers to amplify my voice. The response I got came in the form of blank stares and tilted heads before the entities that Vi had labeled C2 and C4 shared a few incomprehensible words and then turned back to stare at me questioningly. “Of course, you can’t understand me…” I sighed and returned to my work, crouching down with a bit of difficulty to resume my grinding.
~~~
A couple hours later, approximately around dinner-time judging by the clockwork movements of the sun, I sat in the medical centre sans suit with a plate of some kind of grey… slop that would nourish my body.
I had still a few panels of steel to weld into place before the ship could pressurize and purify the air, but the weight of the world and the gravity being pressed down on my suit had worn me out significantly faster than normal. At least I had a window I could watch the pony-like creatures through. The button to close the blast-shields was also at hand, just in case.
In the midst of taking another spoonful of something that, while it certainly didn’t look like it, tasted like a hearty bison steak mixed with mashed potatoes and corn, I noticed the white creature, C1, bring something closer towards the ship with the help of the blue one, C2, and set it down at nearly the halfway point between their camp and my own.
A table? What would they need a table- are they trying to establish a better First Contact scenario? I set my spoon down in the goop I was working through and watched, hands folded before my mouth with elbows posted on the table. Sure enough, both the creatures looked up at me expectantly before sitting down at the table facing me. I knew they couldn’t really see me through the polarized glass between us, but it felt like both their eyes were meeting mine as if they knew exactly where I was.
Thinking hard on things, I figured that if they were intent on causing harm that they wouldn’t have set out their government leaders to lead the charge. Either that or those two creatures were the most powerful warriors of their race and were leading a charge.
Both those thoughts were put aside as three silver domes appeared on the table, two of them appearing before the pair of pony things. Getting right up and against the glass, leaning my forearm on the cold glossy surface, I watched as both lids were telekinetically removed to reveal what I figured was their own dinner. Both creatures nodded towards the third dome before picking up their utensils to dig into what looked like grilled flowers. If that’s what they were trying to feed me, I'll stick with my grey paste.
Still, it’d be rude to decline their invitation of dinner together in peace even if I wouldn’t be eating. Pulling back from the window and shutting the blast-shield, I took to changing into the suit I'd come in with in order to move to the Hangar and change into the worker suit for the trip out.
Cracking open the hangar doors amidst the alarms and flashing lights, neither of which I’d really given thought to turning off till now, I stepped out into the evening light and leapt from the edge of the ramp down to land with a mighty thud with the suit and exo-frame taking the hit for me. Circling around the ship and advancing on the creatures took a bit of work considering the gravity but I eventually made it and stood near to the table, eyeing it warily.
Both creatures had put down their utensils to watch me expectantly before the blue one lifted the lid on the third dome, showing off all manners of food items they had. I stepped up to the table and experimentally poked at each of the food items, sorting out things that looked edible to me from the ones that weren’t; haygrass, flowers and the like. Pushing my finger into each of the food items, I let Vi work at giving a brief analysis of each item, however as I expected, the xenon in the air had fully contaminated everything and rendered them all inedible. A mild shake of the head and I placed the silver dome back over the plate before giving it a light push towards the centre of the table.
Kneeling down at the table took a bit of work with the suit and the frame, but soon I was on padded knees and at eye level with the creatures. Looking them over now, they were certainly equine in nature judging by their features, however the flowing manes and tails threw me for a loop. The white one had a mane of three bright pastel colours flowing against the wind while the blue one had the night sky swirling around as decoration.
Leaning to the side a bit, I took in the figures of both ponies and noticed the two marks imprinted on their flanks as though some kind of strange brand. On the white one, a bright and full sun. On the blue one, a splotch of black with a white crescent moon. Did these two somehow represent the celestial bodies above and below us?
Putting that aside for the time being, I scooted back enough that I figured I could bow when appropriate before beginning my game of charades with the creatures with aims to apologize for injuring the pink one.
Pointing to them, they both lifted a hoof to point back before I shook my head and pointed at them again. They turned the tips of their hooves to themselves and I nodded. Both of them shared a curious look before turning back to me to wait and watch. I pointed to myself before motioning to the right of me, pointing a gun at the ground. Both ponies’ eyes squinted at me in mild concern before one of them drew a picture of the pink one in the air, startling me at the light-show.
Regardless, I pointed at the image and nodded before getting down on my hands and bowed apologetically. Both ponies’ heads rose in surprise before sharing a glance at each other and shared a brief unintelligent conversation of whinnying and neighing.
I felt my head be lifted gently, a blue aura surrounding the face plate that protected my eyes from the welder’s flame as well from flying debris while mining straight up or in space. I sat up and scooted back up to the table as the white one lifted a hoof and held it face down, gently waving it up and down as if, hopefully, to tell me that things were alright. I went through the motions of looking like I was sighing gratefully, hopefully getting the message across.
Standing, with both ponies watching me as I did so before standing themselves, I gave a traditional Japanese bow of thanks before turning away and stomped back towards my ship.
A fairly successful second First Encounter, I suppose. Could’ve been worse.
“I still think this is a bad idea…” Twilight complained as soon as she had appeared from the medical tent that Pinkie was still holed up in. She was stable and going to live, but whatever the demon had one to her made it so she’d likely never walk with that hoof again. Even after all that, Pinkie was still as cheerful and as bubbly as ever, going on that it was her fault for getting attacked like that in the first place.
Celestia and Luna were both in the process of setting up a table to eat at and hopefully try meeting the suited creature again, under better terms like dinner. Sunset had helped to try and construct a human palatable menu of vegetables in addition to the regular items on menu for the ponies so spirits were high, all things considered.
Setting out with the table in magical grasp and the dishes hidden away in magic, Celestia and Luna both set out towards the ship with the eyes of their subjects on them at all times; if they weren’t on the ship, anyways.
~~~
“I’d say that went well.” Luna smiled wide as she and her sister returned from the meeting with the table and the remains of the dishes floating behind the pair. “I didn’t think it’d apologize for hurting Pinkie… Strange way of going about it though…”
“Still an interesting way to mount the language barrier, though. Haven’t played charades in a millennia.” Celestia smirked back with nods and stepped into the tent with her sister, joining Twilight and friends.
“So? I see it went well.” Sunset announced as she welcomed the newcomers to the tent. The six smallest ponies were all around their own table working on dinner of their own when they all looked up to greet the princesses.
“It did, yes. It even apologized for injuring Pinkie Pie.” Celestia remarked, dropping the jaws of Twilight and Dash; Dash’s mouth having been working on chewing on a salad of flowers and vegetables.
“Why do you think it poked at the food?” Luna wondered aloud as the remains were handed off to Dash to finish up.
“I suppose the first time was to separate out what it could potentially eat, notably everything but the hay, flowers and whatnot… I think it may have been testing the others, seeing if they were the same as the one it’s used too.” Celestia remarked as she settled down on her stomach at the table, her neck making it easy to still remain at head level with the other seated ponies.
“Explains why it shook its head and turned it away. Perhaps something about our food is incompatible with his diet…” Luna surmised as she draped herself over her sister’s back, resting her head on the table with her neck up against Celestia’s.
“How did you manage to talk with him in the first place? I can’t imagine it was easy to understand each other.” Fluttershy asked casually given the friends around her, even the princesses no longer fazed her any more.
“We played Charades, actually.” Luna chuckled at the memory again and rolled off her sister, landing on her back to look up at the ponies upside down. “Well, he did, we just watched.”
“Charades, really?” Applejack was having a bit of trouble holding back a burst of laughter, something Dash couldn’t do and fortunately had an empty mouth when she burst into a fit of giggling, rolling onto her side. “Calm down, sugarcube!” she requested, staring at Dash though was having a bit of difficulty stifling her own giggling. Both Rarity and Fluttershy were both hiding their own giggling behind their hooves while Sunset and Twilight were both calmly eating.
“Princesses,” A guard poked his nose into the tent, righting Luna to her hooves and forcing Dash to collect herself. “The suit seems to be back at repairing his craft.”
“Thank you for the update. If he shows signs of trying to reach us, then let us know.” Celestia smiled warmly and bid the guard leave. “How’s Pinkie Pie doing?”
“She’s in recovery but the doctors won’t be able to repair the nerve damage. She’ll likely never walk on that hoof again, the limb itself is dead.” Twilight reported with a sombering sigh. This information was what was keeping Sunset and herself calm while the others all laughed away, however this revelation quickly settled in over everypony else and silence overtook everypony present.
A few minutes of silent eating, another guard appeared at the curtains, this time pushing through completely to salute. “Your highnesses, I have to report that the creature has approached the area you had set up the table at and appears to be waiting for you.”
“Thank you, you may go.” Celestia sighed and got to her hooves with Luna and Twilight joining her. “Shall we?”
“Can we watch? I wanna see him playing charades.” Dash requested with a cheeky grin and made to stand, as did everyone else.
“I don’t see why not, just stay back please.” Celestia nodded back and lead the convoy from the tent. As soon as the smallest of ponies who weren’t royalty were all out, Celestia lead her sister and Twilight further, approaching the suit who was stood stock still at the original meeting point.
“What do you think he wants?” Twilight wondered as the figure casually waved a hand in goodwill. “Think we can establish a better form of communication than charades?”
“I don’t know, I’m sure that you’ll figure something out soon enough…” Celestia sighed back and stopped a few meters away from the lone figure. Bowing her head quickly, she stood back upright once the other two had done so. The figure bowed back before pointing to Celestia again then repeating the motion of firing that weapon. Luna summoned up the same image again, making the figure jump slightly at the sight a second time before nodding. The figure then pointed to his arm before moving his hands as though he was cranking a wrench then swinging a hammer.
The princesses all looked at him in confusion before celestia summoned up an image of the tools they thought he was asking for but he shook his head in reply. Pointing back at the image of Pinkie, the figure tried again by bringing his closed fists together.
“Connect something?” Twilight mumbled before an idea struck her. “Oh!” she exclaimed before manipulating the image to place a red plus sign over Pinkie’s image. When the figure tilted his head, Twilight began trying every known medical symbol she knew over the image before the figure seemed to light up at the Caduceus cross used for medicine. “ I think he wants to help fix Pinkie!”
“How?” Luna remarked and removed all the images between the group. “We’ve already got the best medical ponies to help her.”
“But he’s not from here, he could have something that fixes nerve damage!” Twilight remarked eagerly. She quickly fired up her horn and summoned an image of Pinkie sedated and with her hoof in a cast, then applied the cross to the image before changing the image to Pinkie at full health.
The figure watched and nodded a few times before motioning for the ponies to follow him before pointing at the image again and repeating the motion.
“Suppose he wants us to bring Pinkie to his ship so he can help her?” Luna offered before giving a sigh. “He did apologize for hurting her and we’re pretty certain he didn’t intend to harm her in the first place. I think we should try trusting him.”
“I agree. Let’s go get Pinkie and see what she says first.” Celestia agreed before holding a hoof up to the suit to tell him to wait. He nodded and flung his arms wide before allowing himself to fall onto his backpack to rest. With a shrug of the eyebrows, Luna lead the trio back to the tent and to Pinkie Pie once the rest of the mane six had joined up.
“So? What do you think he wants?” Rarity demanded as they entered into the sterile environment of Pinkie’s tent.
“I think he wants to help fix Pinkie’s leg.” Twilight remarked and stepped up to Pinkie’s sleeping form. “Hey, pinkie, wake up!” she demanded, giving Pinkie a sharp shake to stir the pony.
“Oh come on, I just got to sleep…” Pinkie mumbled with her good hoof while her dead hoof remained tied to her body. “What?”
“The suit wants to help fix you. We think he might be able to repair nerve damage somehow…” Celestia explained simply as everyone stood a ways away from Twilight and Pinkie. “It’s entirely up to you if you want to let the thing that hurt you help you.”
“Sure, why not? I don’t think he meant to hurt me, so why not give him a chance to fix things?” Pinkie replied through whatever effects of sedation she was still under from her operation. “I am going to need some help, though.”
“Of course, i’ve got you.” Luna remarked and surrounded her in the warm embrace of her magic. Lifting the pony off the bed, the entire group followed the princess out of the tent and back to the figure lying on the dirt.
The figure noticed the arrival of the group and with help from whatever form of propulsion he had, righted himself to standing without issue. Eyeing the entire group over, he pointed out the mane 7 except for Pinkie and Twilight before holding a hand up to stop their progression.
“Don’t worry girls, i’ll be fine!” Pinkie waved at her friends as she was carried towards the back of the ship with her royal escort. The rest of the girls merely dropped their backends where they were and took their seats to patiently wait.
The figure lifted off from the ground, the flames of his pack lifting his entire body into the air while the alicorns all took wing and followed the figure up into the recently sealed ship. The large back wall of the ship began to rise, no longer with the alarms and flashing lights, until the expansive inner working of the ship’s hangar bay was revealed and allowed for entrance. The figure landed on the steel surface of the ship and deactivated his pack to walk inside, motioning for the ponies to follow after him.
“This is so exciting! Look at all this technology!” Twilight gawked at the things around her, making estimations of what everything was and noted the boxes with the name Deadtech Industries on the side, still clueless what it meant. “This is amazing!”
“Indeed, it is quite remarkable!” Luna agreed as the figure approached a few large buttons on the wall and hit one. The doors behind everybody began to descend again, sealing everypony in. “I never even considered the thought that he may be trying to kidnap us…”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine. Besides, we can all teleport out anyways.” Celestia remarked as the sounds of whirring machines began to fill the space while the suit approached a large box with rounded edges and an open face before stepping inside. A door closed around him, sealing him in for a few minutes while the taste of the air began to change for the ponies.
“Hey, do you taste that?” Twilight noted as she flapped her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Something about the air isn’t right.”
“It seems like something is removing an element from the air.” Celestia replied and began applying magical wards to her and her friends. “We’ll be fine. I assume that the reason why the suit is doing this is because whatever’s being removed is dangerous to his physiology.”
“Would explain why he’s always come out in a suit as opposed to the flesh we saw in the capsule.” Twilight agreed as the door opened on the large box and the man, now sans any suit but sporting skin tight clothing of a white t-shirt and shorts and his exo-frame, stepped out from the box and stretched. Motioning to the ponies, he lead everybody to a section of the wall that looked stranger than the rest and hit a button on a control panel, opening the section of wall and stepped in.
He stepped back out and held a finger up before pointing at Twilight and wiggling the finger to come forward. Hesitantly, Twilight obeyed and followed the male human into the wall before stopping with him. He pressed another button and the door closed again, trapping the pony in with the man until the opposite wall opened up, letting Twilight into the bowels of the ship for the first time. Both stepped out and Twilight immediately began to scour every inch of her surroundings to try and imagine what that particular thing did.
The man closed the door again, switching which side was open and gestured for Luna to bring Pinkie and herself in to begin the transfer again. Repeating the task with Celestia and soon the man lead everypony up a flight of stairs and around an enormous box with semi-rounded edges, aiming for a room marked with a vaguely similar medical symbol and the process of moving one pony through at a time began again.
Eventually all four ponies were through and stood in the tiny space of the medical center looking out through the glass at the remaining ponies nearby, noting how bored they all looked at the moment. A cough turned the attention of the ponies back to the man who was busy operating one of two strange upright machines set into the same wall as the door.
The man pointed at Pinkie before wiggling his finger again and holding his arms out.
“Does he actually think he can carry Pinkie?” Twilight smirked as Luna obliged and let Pinkie float towards the outstretched arms.
“Hey, I’m not that heavy!” Pinkie complained through partially lidded eyes. “I’ll have you know I have an extraordinary metabolism!”
“I don’t doubt that, but look at him! He’s so tiny!” Twilight remarked, thrusting a hoof out towards the man. “The fact that he has to wear all that metal tells me he’s barely strong enough to keep himself from collapsing!”
“Then why does he seem to have no problem carrying her?” Luna smirked as the man took Pinkie under her forelegs and held her up like a child in his hands. Twilight’s jaw dropped at the show as Pinkie was placed against a flat portion of the machine. Letting go of the pony, the man stepped back as the machine’s artificial gravity held Pinkie upright and in place while her mane and tail laid flat against it; as though she were simply laying down. Operating a panel nearby, the plate that Pinkie was laid out on spun on hinges and turned Pinkie so that her body was enclosed into the machine.
“Pinkie!” Twilight screamed and approached the machine as it whirred up to do whatever dastardly deeds it was programmed to do. “Let her out of there!” she demanded, beating on the metal frame of the man’s leg and ended up bending the knee joint out of place.
“Twilight! Relax, I don’t think anything bad is happening to Pinkie; from what I can tell, she’s fine in there!” Celestia requested as she draped a hoof over her younger’s shoulders. Luna set to magically fixing the damaged joint, straightening it out though it still refused to move without catching on itself.
“Hey, this kind of tickles!” Pinkie announced from within, her voice muffled by whatever made up the machine. She let out a short burst of giggling while the sound of a power saw notioned to the fact that the cast was being taken off. “Ooh, shiny!”
“She is certainly a strange one, isn’t she?” Twilight sighed in resignation and sat back while the man took a seat at his desk to wait. A few minutes of dry silence interspersed by the rather unnerving sounds coming from the machine Pinkie was in was finally broken when the man stood with a sigh and approached the door. All three alicorns watched him get up and step into the airlock curiously but remained silently seated where they were.
The man poked his head back out, a look of consideration on his face before pointing at Celestia and wiggling a finger to come. Celestia shrugged and stood to join the man in the airlock as requested. The quick change in doors meant that Celestia could follow the man out back into the hall and down the longer enclosed hallways towards the front of the ship; Celestia resorting to ducking in order to fit into the hallways to do so.
Judging by the casualness of how the man was walking, there wasn’t anything in specific he needed to show or do with Celestia, it seemed he was just showing Celestia the rest of the ship. Stepping through the framework of another airlock system, Celestia followed the man past the five remaining closed cryo-pods before stopping to take a look at each of them. Detecting he was no longer being followed, the man turned to look at Celestia who, through the act of vague charades, inquired if more like him were in the other pods. Shaking his head, the man hit the master-control on the nearby wall to open all the other pods, revealing them empty save for whatever special provisionary foods he’d collected and kept frozen for whatever special event he’d come across.
Shrugged her eyebrows along with her shoulders, Celestia continued after the man and up the stairs into the mostly destroyed bridge before getting an eyeful of the holographic mapping table in the center of the room. It was currently, and permanently, frozen on a map of the last system that the ship had been through; it’s name was still illegible to Celestia as she gently waved a hoof through the images and shook her mane out in utter, but pleased, disbelief.
The tour of the bridge was quickly cut short as the entire vessel began to shake and tremble, Celestia taking to the air with a look of frustration rather than terror before the trembling calmed and the princess landed.
Despite the fact that she couldn’t understand the voice, Celestia perked her ears when a female voice announced, “Warning, quakes detected. Must monitor. Warning, monitoring equipment destroyed, please rebuild.”
The man, having been slightly shaken off his feet stared at Celestia with a look of worry before moving to a terminal along the sides of the room to begin tapping his fingers over holographic buttons with more letters Celestia couldn't recognize but estimated was some kind of alphabet. If they had specific letters, perhaps Twilight could set up a comparable lettering system for translation?
The man leapt up from the desk and waved Celestia to follow again, though with greater urgency as both creatures returned to the med-center.
“Princess, what happened? Was that just the ship or was it the planet again?” Twilight demanded as she met her ex-mentor at the doors.
“I believe it was another earthquake, the man looked rather troubled by it before bringing me back here from the front of the craft.” Celestia explained, dropping the jaws of both twilight and Luna. “Oh, yes. I was being shown the rest of the ship.”
“No fair! I wanna see too!” Twilight complained with a firm stamp of the hoof while the man worked on the machine Pinkie was still in. Shaking his head, the man sat back down behind his desk but given that he was no longer giving tours meant that it wasn’t going to be much longer that Pinkie would be in the thing.
A few minutes later and a sharp buzzing noise alerted everybody in the room to the machine having completed it’s job. The man stood and approached the machine as the panel holding Pinkie spun back around, revealing the pony with all legs hanging and sans cast.
“Hiya everypony!” Pinkie grinned and waved both hooves, showing off the perfectly working limbs. “Guess what, i’m not crippled!”
“That’s amazing! The best surgeons we have couldn’t repair that nerve damage and that machine did it in a matter of minutes!” Luna gawked as the man lifted Pinkie off the plate to set her down. As soon as her rear hooves hit the ground, Pinkie launched herself up at the man and wrapped both hooves around his neck in a hug, surprising the man.
“Thanks so much! And don’t worry, I forgive you for injuring me in the first place!” she announced before letting herself fall and hit the ground on all four. “So? What’s goin’ on?”
“Well, I think the man is a bit nervous about the latest quake we had…” Celestia remarked as the man tapped away at his desk in irritation. “I think we may also have a method of communicating with him. I saw one of his devices at the head of the ship and it looked like it had the entirety of his alphabet on it.”
“If we can create a comparison chart, then maybe we can write to each other!” Twilight’s face beamed at the chance to bridge the language barrier through her. “I’ll get started on it!”
All four ponies approached the airlock before Luna got the man’s attention to help them through. The man looked up before nodding understanding and remotely operating the door where he was. The four ponies all stepped back into the body of the ship and while Twilight wanted nothing more to explore the ship, she was more focussed on establishing a method of communication and aimed for the open airlock door everypony had already come through.
With the man remotely operating the door, the ponies found themselves back in the hangar while it depressurized so that the hangar could fill with the local air-supply and breathing wards could be deactivated.
“Come on everypony, we’ve got work to do!” Twilight announced as the ponies leapt off the edge of the ramp with wings spread and Pinkie hitching a ride from Twilight.
“Vinyl, please make note: tremors from before has me worried that our crash may have struck a fault line in the planet’s tectonic plates. I need to set up some seismic reading equipment for some more in-depth information. I should have blueprints installed in my suit’s for use.” I began as I swiveled around in the seat that I had dove to during the tour with C1 when the ship had violently rocked. “A side note regarding that, the locals seem to be well aware of the state of the shifting since C1 didn’t show fear to the shaking, instead showed irritance towards the event. If I can establish some kind of translation with them, if at least through writing, then I can ask them for what they know.”
Standing and turning to the holographic display. “Unaltered is the galaxy map display. It seems to either remain frozen in the the Andromeda system or, and rather unlikely, we’re actually still in the Andromeda system on an unregistered planet. How we managed to land on an unregistered planet in one of the most well documented systems is beyond impossible so I’m keeping my options open.”
Turning to towards the back of the ship but remaining in the slanted bridge, “Medical procedure to fix the pink pony’s leg proved highly effective and it has been established that the ponies’ bodies do actually rely on the higher concentrations of xenon in the air. The scans that I had the auto-doc secretly performed shows that their respiratory systems, as well as their circulatory system and a yet unknown system all rely on this excessive xenon concentration in order to properly function.” I turned to a terminal at random and pulled up the completed auto-doc scan of the pink pony.
“Sir, I’m reading increased gravitational movements originating from the encampment. Should I log the changes?” Vinyl requested in my earpiece, interrupting my own report.
“Sure, let's see what’s changing. Can you trace the origin to its specific origins?” I requested, looking up at the overhead display as the new information began to scroll across the screen.
“No, not without first repairing the scanning equipment.” VI replied before remaining silent. I shrugged an eyebrow in reply.
“Biological scans shows that the pony exhibits enhanced strength over the human recognized versions with almost a seventy-eight percent increase in potential strength. Would like to get biological scans on the other subspecies but I don’t expect to be able to get away with accidentally shooting another one and repairing them to get the scans. Designating the regular-looking ponies Earth-Ponies for lack of creativity and I’ll just refer to the others as their Mythological counterparts. I’ve still yet to give a label to the three with both wings and horns as no Mythological comparison exists. Surprisingly Vinyl suggested I call them Horny Pegasi before she began to automatically run her self-checks. I don’t know for certain since I’m not an VI programmer, but it sounds like she’s…” I took a second to scratch at my furry neck as I reconsidered the impossibility of what I was going to report next. “I think she’s somehow evolving into an AI…”
I stood in silence, essentially pausing the recording until I spoke again or gave the command to end the recording, and exited the bridge to stand before my freezers containing my personal goodies. I had some bacon, some alcohol and other treats frozen for the rare occasions when I’d happen to defrost on my birthday, all saved up. Over 75 years and I still had yet to actually defrost on my birthday.
Moving past the cryo-pods and towards the back of the ship, I retrieved a free welder from a tool storage rack set into the production services and held the tip up to the refinery and assemblers. “Another note on the to-do list, I need to think about setting up a permanent base of operations on the ground to get production up and working. Nothing against this planet or it’s inhabitants but I don’t really want to stay here very long and I need materials to fix up my ship; I suppose the more correct term would be rebuild the ship. Most of the critical components are all damaged to the point that I'll have to start from scratch.
“If and when the Rosetta Stone program devises some kind of translator for me to use, I’ll see about getting to work at prospecting for resources before I set to mining. I can’t imagine that they’ll be too impressed if I just suited up in the Miner-class and took off with a drill in hand.” I was interrupted when a bout of ground shaking quakes rocked the ship once more, setting me to my hands and knees as my balance was faltered and I couldn’t remain upright.
“Okay, first on my list of shit to do: get that seismic equipment up and running.” I decided and took off towards the hangar to change into my Worker-class suit. “Final note: I’ll be scavenging the broadcasting equipment from the ship to build the thing since they don’t seem to be capable of making any important connections as of yet. End recording.” I ordered as I stepped into the automatic Suit-exchanger for the machine to do all the work for me.
Once the two halves of the exo-suit were properly locked together and behaving properly -the knee joint that C3 had damaged had been replaced- I stepped out and ordered up my grinder to begin breaking down the empty DeadTech crates scattered around the bay for their parts, setting the bits into the occupied ones.
Having broken down everything non-essential into it’s components and stored them away, I broke the seal in the hangar and let the air mix into it’s two portions of heavy xenon and light xenon composition in order to quickly shoot myself up on top of the ship before a thought suddenly occurred to me. With a mental sigh, I remembered that both the laser and normal antennas were both underneath the bridge which was currently buried and shredded upon impact.
“God dammit!” I shouted with the suit unintentionally amplifying the expletive as I nearly punted the grinder in my hand across the ship. The noise had drawn the attentions of the ponies nearby, likely worried that I was issuing some form of declaration of war. Holding a hand up as a sign of good will, I dropped the hand once more when I saw the ponies all calm and return to their business and traverse the length of the ship towards the bridge.
“Quick note on to-do list, I am forced to build a proper production shelter in order to craft new communication components since the existing ones were all stripped off in the crash. I’ll begin by tearing down the engines and nacelles for their parts and steel in order to set up a bunker of some kind to house the Reactor and Refinery. Both Reactor and Refinery will have to be stripped down to nothing and rebuilt with other parts cannibalized from the rest of the ship, meaning I’m likely not going to be leaving the planet on the Anubis.” I sighed in defeat again as I turned back towards the hangar upon realizing that I'd sealed up the hole in the bridge’s glass I'd made earlier.
Entering into the hangar, I left the hangar open and entered into the airlock between hangar and the rest of the ship with my grinder at the ready. Putting my grinder back in the pack with the help of the VI driven power-frame, I loaded up my backpack with as much steel plates as I could carry from the main cargo container before stepping back out into the hangar and jumped from the lip of the ramp.
Landing with a heavy thud, I approached the silently established meeting zone with the locals and waited with a wave of the hand to get someone's attention. Eventually, C2 and C3 approached with C3 carrying a couple large rolls of what looked like paper while C2 carried the same table as before in her magic. Raising an eyebrow, both creatures set their items down and took a seat at the table with eyes waiting patiently for me to sit as well.
To start the non-conversation, C3 unrolled the first of the rolls to show what looked to me like a bunch of circular squiggles all singled out and lined into a row. Was this their alphabet?
“Sir, I believe that if this is their alphabet, I can give the Rosetta Stone program a jump start on translations.” Vinyl announced in my head, surprising me at the complex sentences it was giving me in the suit beyond the typical power or energy level warnings.
Working myself down to my knees, I took an offered feather dipped in ink before raising my head towards the pair in uncertainty. C3, grinning eagerly and shifting around on her hooves, dipped her nose at the page before before mimicking writing beneath the glyphs. I shrugged back before writing out the Advanced Human Alphabet while the Rosetta Stone program began making the comparisons.
As soon as I had all 38 characters written out, the Rosetta Stone program alerted me to having completed a very basic comparison based on the archaic English language, consisting of only 26 letters and their combinations. Sitting back, C3 took the page and let her eyes roam over it all, likely committing everything to memory.
Setting a second page down, C3 began to write in their language -translated digitally by my suit-, “Do yogh undersant mee.”
I took the quill back and wrote back, “Mostly, do you understand me?” I set the quill back down and turned the page to the creature. She looked it over, her eyes flying between the alphabet page and the words before looking up at me and nodding. I sat back with my hands on my knees in surprise before sitting forward and picking up the quill again.
C3 turned the page back to me and waited eagerly while C1 and C4 both approached from behind them.
“I have questions.” I began simply, keeping to the more simpler English language.
“Ask.”
“Quakes, why you not worried?”
“Already know. Planet unstable, breaking apart.” C4 replied after giving the translation a look over.
“Shit.” This was said verbally and to myself rather than written out before I put quill to parchment again. “Need to mine resources, where do?”
“Why mine?”
“Need resources to build, ship insufficiently equipped after crash.” I replied and sat back. C1 through 4 sat back, leaving me out of their conversation while they conversed about whatever it was they were talking about.
“What need?” was the next sentence written out and translated from their language.
“Lots of Iron, Gold, Platinum, Uranium, Silicon, Cobalt, Magnesium…” I replied textually and was interrupted when the page was torn from my grasp.
“Don’t understand names, atomic numbers?” C3 requested and raised my eyebrow again.
Taking to writing the numbers out in tally-marks organized by fives, “26, 27, 12, 14, 28, 47, 79, 78, 92.” I turned the page back to the ponies and let them look over the numbers before they glanced back up at me in further confusion. I sighed and held my hands up to tell them to wait while I returned to my ship to switch out the load of steel plates for whatever raw resources I still had.
Returning a few minutes later with only a few pounds of each material, I sat back down at the table and began lining each resources up on the table with a roll of paper stretched out before them and wrote out each name again.
A few minutes of the ponies testing each material with glowing horns, no idea what that was supposed to accomplish but it apparently had something to do with the gravimetric readings Vinyl had been getting, and C4 began writing out each translation for the lower numbered elements but left the other’s blank.
“Don’t have names for other elements, didn’t even know they existed.” C3 explained, dropping my head in frustration. “Don’t know if they exist in our planet.”
“If I can build something, I may be able to locate them in the crust. Will take time and I need to build outpost on land. Ship to be torn down for parts.” I wrote back, hoping for permission to begin building while my suit put the elements away in my pack.
“Build what?” C1 requested with a raised eyebrow.
“Production facilities to mine and process raw resources into workable materials.” I wrote back, my back already beginning to protest at hunching over for so long. Sitting up right, I managed to at least stretch my back enough to relieve some of the pain before having to hunch back over and read what was written.
“Land belongs to others, cannot set up here. Other land can go to, possible to move materials?” C2 wrote down and spun the document to me to read. I gave a half hearted chuckle in reply as my suit began going through every land-based or atmospheric vehicle blueprint I had downloaded from the galaxy-wide internet. Some of the other prints that I had merely bookmarked instead of actually downloading remained greyed out, showing a disconnection from the internet where I was.
“Not problem, still need to build vehicle. Can do in hangar. Probably.” I wrote back and selected a VTOL ship I liked and had virtually modified to work better than the base version. “Material requirements lesser than large ship but still significant.” I added as a second thought before I had fully turned the page around.
“As long as don’t disturb land, fine.” C1 nodded back with a smile before moving to stand. I held my hand up and took the quill back to write something else down.
“Need help to grind down parts. Too much work by myself, have extra tools for volunteers.” C3 gasped and stared up at C1 pleadingly as soon as she had translated my words, nearly jumping on her back to plead for approval. “Will be hard work, not science venture.” I added, settling C3 but making C4 and C2 chuckle.
“Fine, how many workers?” C1 wrote back.
“Eight capable of carrying grinder.” I wrote back and pulled my own bright green tool from my pack to let the creatures get an idea of what a volunteer would be carrying. C3 picked up the tool in a field of purple -firing off Vinyl’s gravity sensors in the process- before hitting the switch and startling herself. I caught the tool by the tail end and hit the switch again while C1 glared at the smaller one.
“Need volunteers to carry parts as well, parts heavy.” I wrote down under my last request as my frame dropped my grinder back in my bag. “With frame I can carry 4000 pounds of weight.” I wrote down as a second thought.
“Wanted to ask about frame and suit, why wear?” C2 inquired while C1 and C3 walked off to get volunteers having read my words.
“Atmo toxic. Gravity too strong.” I wrote back simply, drawing silent ‘ahh’s from the two remaining ponies.
“Food toxic too?” C4 asked textually, I nodded back.
“What I separated out was otherwise edible versus inedible, Xenon contaminated everything, made inedible regardless.” I explained. C4 took the quill and circled the word Xenon before dropping what I assumed was a question mark.
“Gaseous element, atomic number 54.”
“Another unknown.” C4 sighed as she wrote out her response. A few minutes of silence and nothing being written down, C1 reappeared with C3 and what I figured were some of C3’s friends -the pink and orange ones specifically- accompanied by a few guards in their armour and decked out in large saddle bags that hung from their sides. Of note, most of them were unicorns but a couple of the ones with bags were the other types, two of them pegasi.
“Volunteers. Construction ponies on order from nearby towns.” C1 explained and nodded back to the gathered. I shrugged and stood with a bit of work before motioning everyone to follow me. With conversation otherwise completed, the table and writing equipment was cleared away while my new group of helpers all marched behind me.
Update: Progress on tearing down crashed ship continues after a mild mishap with one of the ponies improperly tearing down Reactor 4 and causing a leak of radiation. Pilot lead clean-up and pony only suffered mild radiation burns before being fixed up in Auto-doc. Pilot took opportunity to perform full scan on Pegasus physiology. Workforce has successfully repurposed parts from remaining nacelle engines, gyroscopes no longer report constant -20 degree incline. Pilot notes how much more pleasant it is to walk around the ship without the angle.
Rosetta Stone program has successfully deciphered pony written language, attempts to create verbal translations underway but slow. Program suggests telepathic undertones to pony language required to fully understand and communicate. Pilot set up small LCD screens to issue commands and organize work force.
Pretty blue pony, now relabeled Alicorn - Luna, appears to spend most of her waking time with Pilot in order to learn about ship subsystems. I’ve put in firm requests that she not tamper with my programming and hardware. C3, relabeled Alicorn - Twilight Sparkle, disappeared from pony camp eight hours ago and cannot be found. Guards sent out search parties five hours ago. C4, relabeled Sunset Shimmer, seems to like spending time around my frames just to talk. I find her helpful for learning new things and adapting my programming. C1, Alicorn - Celestia, disappeared from pony camp twelve hours, thirty seven seconds ago but no attempts to find her have been made, presume her location is known to ponies.
Pilot has made progress in constructing modified Wyvern-class VTOL in hangar bay with materials provided to him by Alicorn - Luna. Pilot continues to monitor status of blackouts during welding processes; received CT, MRI and Electrochemical Imaging tests to determine effects of blackouts on brain. Tests inconclusive but blackouts don’t seem to be harmful in any way.
Regards to VTOL, ponies impressed by Projector building methods and compared images to complex magic systems. Comment logged to begin research on “magic systems”, may explain the unknown system present in pony anatomy that relies on heavy xenon presence in air.
I’ve logged three theories on the methods of how the ponies manage to cast their “magic” and have determined that their projected image ability is done through creating ignition points in the Xenon in the air to create projections. Telekinesis seems to be possible through isolated modified gravity wells. Ability to control both images and gravity wells to be studied, potential to replicate?
Note, Cyan pony and a few other pegasi -probability of friends with Alicorn - Twilight Sparkle extremely high- approached Pilot to ask about potential of learning to fly VTOL. Pilot still considering implications but suggests need for pilots may outweigh caution as planet destabilizes and requirement for moving off planet’s surface rises.
End log.
Log Addition, Alicorn - Celestia returned suddenly half an hour ago. Pilot reports that land for building processing facility has been decided upon and as soon as VTOL is complete, building will begin.
Amendment to previous entry, Pilot has decided to assign Alicorn - Luna to the construction of Wyvern-class VTOL while he and small group of carrier ponies begin framework construction of Production Facility by manually carrying everything to location. Expecting Pilot to transfer me to new location within next couple days.
Personal Note: I don’t like Alicorn - Luna anymore, she’s getting too close to Pilot.
“What do you want from me?” Twilight Sparkle demanded as she fought to free herself from her captors. She’d been bound upon her capture by the griffon mercenaries working for a small band of ponies hidden away in the Everfree Forest. She’d been ambushed a couple hours back when she wanted to run back to her castle to pick up more equipment and was now sitting in a filthy tent somewhere in the wilds of the Everfree.
“We want what you know, Princess.” the mercenary bird sneered before backhanding her across the muzzle. “We know you’ve been spending time at that crashed space ship. My employers want everything you know for getting off planet.”
“Well they’ll get nothing! I know nothing!” Twilight announced but winced at the action of moving her jaw where the bird had hit her. Obviously she’d tried to magic herself out of the situation but the birds had used some kind of Zebrican anti-magic concoction to block the movement of her magic, leaving her feeling empty within. “The pilot won’t let me learn anything from him! You should’ve grabbed Princess Luna, she’s been spending the most time around him!”
“Princess Luna, hmm?” the merc smirked and tapped a claw to his beak. “I’ll remember that, might be helpful to my employers. What else you got? How about weaknesses? How do we kill that alien and take his tech?”
“I’ll never tell you! You’ll never kill him, he’s got too much technology working against you that the moment you even see a glistening reflection from his helmet, you’re already dead.” Twilight hissed back with a smirk on her face. She knew that even though she’d just met the human, and ultimately was bluffing with her threats, he’d come to save her. Eventually.
Grinning back and drawing a massive broadsword from his back to hold it to the purple Princess’s neck, “There’s no creature more powerful than we are. We’ve taken down dragons because our employer wanted it’s testicles.”
This last comment confused Twilight for a minute before she asked, “Why did they want the dragon’s testicles?”
“I dunno, was talking about collecting them to make a wish or something. Wasn’t important so I didn’t ask.” the merc shrugged back, having been disarmed and put his weapon away to back away from Twilight. “I tell you what, I know you know more so I‘ll give you some initiative to talk. The more useful information you give, the more food you get in return.” the merc grinned back over his shoulder, the steel helmet he wore glinting in the lamplight and making his face become shrouded in shadows to add to the sinister aura around him.
“You can’t be serious?” Twilight gasped and did her best to sit up. “But I really don’t know anything! Honest!”
“Sorry, but if we had Applejack, I’d be more inclined to believe you. Element of Honesty and all that crap.” the griffon sighed and waved goodbye as he exited the tent, letting out minimal amounts of sunlight into the tent before the flaps closed up again.
“Somepony, please help me…” Twilight sighed and let herself collapse onto her side, helpless.
“There’s no way that’ll fly.” Luna smirked as she, her sister and Sunset all stood around the just finished smaller craft with the black suit in his Pilot-class suit and frame.
“I wouldn’t be so hesitant, Princess. If the suit built the thing to fly, then I believe it’ll fly.” Sunset remarked, turning to face her elder head on. “I don’t think he’d build something that didn’t work. I'm more curious about how you managed to build it."
"The welder I used has an internal memory of how each component go into a part and worked with the image to tell me how to build it. It was very intuitive." Luna explained as the suit approached the craft and began looking it over before connecting a wire from his arm to the control panel on the thing on the side of the craft that looked like the smaller version of the boxy-circular things on the main ship. The three weapons were actually used from parts from the larger things, now that the ponies thought about it. Luna gave a gentle shake of her head to get a bit of dust and remaining metal out of her mane. All three ponies remained standing where they were while the suit merely poked at his wrist in silence, not that anything he could say would be understood by the ponies in the first place.
A few minutes of bored silence and the suit removed the cord from the panel before using his jetpack to get himself up onto the hull of the ship and open the lower canopy by the forward hinge before sliding into the seat. Leaving the canopy open, the suit hit a few more buttons before the rear canopy opened on it’s rear hinge invitingly.
Pulling himself out of the craft and stepping down to the hangar floor, the suit pointed at all three ponies before moving towards the middle of the craft, under the wings, and offered a hand up into the belly of the beast to take a seat.
Both Celestia and Sunset obliged with Sunset and Luna rounding the ship to take the only other seats that hadn’t been torn out for additional cargo-space. With a bit of work and discomfort, all three ponies were sat on their backsides like a human and were securely buckled in. Two blank text panels sat on the opposite walls from the ponies in case the pilot had anything to say while in the cockpit.
Finally, satisfied that the ponies would be safe, the suit hopped down from the craft before climbing back up to the cockpit while a recognizable cyan pegasus appeared in a skin-tight black bodysuit.
“Rainbow Dash, what’re you doing here?” Celestia inquired from her seated position as she watched the clothed pony approach the nose of the craft.
“I get to learn how to fly this thing! Suit-guy’s going to let me be his navigator for this thing’s first flight!” Dash announced eagerly as she let her wings carry herself up towards the second cockpit with Celestia watching with a raised eyebrow.
With assistance from the suit, Dash was lowered into her seat like Celestia and the others were before being buckled in and a flight helmet placed over her head; the helmet was the least favourite part for the pony because it pinned her ears down against her head.
All passengers, prepare for engine start up. The text panels all warned once the pilot was in his cockpit and both canopies were lowered and secured. A few seconds later and a quick ticking sound began to sound before the jet engines -one of the pilot’s modifications was to replace the old atmo-engines for these smaller but more powerful jet engines- started up and roared to life.
“Good graces, listen to that!” Celestia shouted to her friends before applying a bit of magic to the doorways of the craft to bring a bit of noise control, never mind the excess heat she and her sister were feeling from the exhaust.
Taking off. The text panels all flashed before the roaring grew louder and the craft, surprisingly to the ponies, began to lift from the ground. The nose of the vessel spun towards the left in place before the rear engines pushed enough thrust to move the craft forward and out of the hangar.
“I can’t believe it! It’s actually flying!” Luna grinned as she watched the hangar walls and door pass by the crew seating. “When the pilot told me how much weight it could carry plus passengers, I had no hopes for it actually achieving lift!”
“It is extremely remarkable, I agree!” Celestia nodded back with a large smile on her face before turning her head to watch the landscape fly by, Sunset doing the same on the opposite side of the craft.
The craft, as soon as it ascended high enough to clear the treeline and wouldn’t bother anything, accelerated suddenly, pinning Celestia and Sunset to their seats while Luna fought to keep her head back.
Disabling inertia dampeners. You’ll begin to feel better in a second. The screen announced before the gravity of the situation changed and the vertical thrusters stopped providing downwards thrust. The craft, despite being so heavy, was now moving forward fast enough that the aircraft wings held the craft up -despite them being so small in the first place.
“Look at that! I can see Ponyville in the distance!” Sunset announced, pointing out her side at the landscape below. “Everything looks so small from up here!”
“I’m more impressed with how fast we’re moving!” Luna remarked as she too stared out the craft at what she could see being in the middle of the ship. “We’ve just passed Canterlot! It should’ve taken an hour to get there!”
“I wonder what our speed is right now!” Sunset agreed with a nod.
“We’re maxed out at 104 meters a second, according to the instruments before me.” Rainbow’s voice announced through the speakers in the cabin. All three ponies gawked at the number and shared glances through the cabin. “According to the pilot, this ship is also capable of going into space. We won’t since none of you have space suits on.”
“We can escape the planet in this thing? This craft just keeps getting better!” Luna grinned in accomplishment of what she’d unknowingly built mostly on her own. Beneath everyone, the Baltimare skyline ripped past the flight crew before the ship tilted northwards towards Manehattan.
“Pilot says that when he begins the space-dock, whatever that is, that he’ll be using one of these to get the materials into space and back.” Rainbow announced after a minute, likely of translating his texted words. “Wait,” from the tone it sounded like Rainbow was aiming the comment at the pilot. “A space-dock is what?” A minute of confused silence later, “You want to build what?” Rainbow shrieked in amazement as she was made privy to the suit’s plans.
“Rainbow Dash, what’s he planning?” Celestia demanded in worry, hoping to the high heavens that it wasn’t some kind of weapon.
“He’s going to build a massive space ship, much larger than the one he came in, out in space to take himself and probably most of us away from the planet!” Dash announced with a bit of cheering. “We’re getting off the planet!”
“He’s planning to build a colony ship!” Sunset concluded with wide eyes. “If he succeeds, he could carry a good portion of Equestria and whatever countries into space and settle us on another, safer planet!”
“This is going to be a massive undertaking…” Celestia remarked with a hoof to her chin, staring off into space as she thought. “Rainbow Dash, how sure is he that he can complete the colony ship?”
“Hang on, lemme ask.” Dash remarked before beginning to write out the question on her own keyboard set into her cockpit. “He says…” she took a second to work out the translation. “He says he’s sure he can do it but it’s going to require ridiculous amounts of raw resources to do it.”
“We’ll probably have to talk to the other countries about setting this up as a joint venture. I’m confident we don’t have all the raw resources he needs in Equestria.” Celestia sighed and rested her head against the back of the seat.
“What is the matter, Princess? Why’s that going to be a problem?” Sunset inquired while Rainbow went silent, doing whatever it was she was doing as a navigator. Whatever it was, it was apparently giving directions towards the Crystal Empire given that the craft was currently buzzing the tallest tower a few times before aiming back towards Ponyville.
“I’m just not looking forward to the conversations with the other delegates about this… I just know the griffons will want a ruling number of their race on board in return for their resources…” Celestia sighed again and this time hung her head before turning towards her sister and ex-student. “You’re sure there’s no way we can set up some kind of trade deal with your human world?” she asked, turning the question towards Sunset.
“No, sorry.” Sunset shook her head in reply. “After I got back and the mirror was destroyed, I have no way to get back. Twilight and I have tried.”
“I see. It’s nothing to worry about, I'm sure we’ll find a way to get you back to your world before Equestria destabilizes completely.” Luna announced in attempts to cheer the pony up. “Even if we have to fly you there ourselves.”
“Thanks, Princesses. I appreciate the thought, but when I left the human realm, I left knowing I may not be able to go back. I’d love to go back if I could, but it’s not a priority.” Sunset explained with a warm smile. “Besides, Starlight Glimmer did a pretty good job at destroying the gateway…”
“Yes, it seems she did…” Luna agreed as her own memory turned back to a few months ago. Coming back to reality, Luna noticed how much lower the ship was and how close it was to Ponyville. “It seems we’ve arrived at the human’s facility.”
“Hey, uhm… you all may want to hold onto something. One of the rear engines is giving the pilot a fuss so he’s had to turn it off till he can fix it.” Rainbow warned, sounding nervous herself. “He says it’ll be fine, the ship can survive on just two engines if need be but he says he wants to remain safe.”
“Alright, thank you Rainbow Dash.” Celestia remarked and everypony checked their harnesses. At the same time, the inertial dampeners came back on so that the vertical take off thrusters began to fire at maximum thrust. The ship rocked back, nose up to increase the braking thrust until the ship came to a nearly complete halt and leveled back out again. “It would seem we’ve arrived at our destination.”
“Wonder why he took the long way around, it would’ve only taken a minute or two to fly here from the hangar…” Luna remarked as the ship lowered gently and eventually touched down near to the new building in progress. A loud thunk of the landing pads locking had the ship completely still and allowed the ponies to unbuckle themselves and roll out of the ship once the engines had been turned off and no longer threatening to burn anything.
“Probably just wanted to test out your engineering skills.” Celestia remarked as Luna hopped down from the ship as the ship itself powered down completely, leaving only the cargo network alive and running.
Both canopies to the cockpits broke their seals and hissed open. Rainbow was the first out as she jumped up onto the side of the craft to glide down to the ground on her wings. The suit was the next to follow as he let himself fall from the ship feet first, creating a heavy thud upon landing.
“So, I’d say that was a successful test!” Rainbow announced and held her hoof up to the pilot. The suit looked at it in question for a moment before lifting his own hand and giving her hoof a firm smack in a high-five. “Awesome!”
Well done. The suit announced, his words coming up as scrolling text over his helmet’s glass; a trick he’d done with his HUD. Approaching Luna, he offered a hand out in a handshake with words appearing on his helmet again, Good job building this. Save for the engine, it works perfectly. Engine not your fault, faulty power lines overloaded thrust sensor cluster. Will fix when we get back to ship.
“A pleasure to be a part of your world.” Luna replied with a smile before realising that he hadn’t understood a word she’d said. Instead of repeating herself, she merely placed her hoof in his hand and gave a shake in return.
“Okay, so to start the log, which I’m not doing through the ship’s VI by the way, happy whatever holidays I guess. It’s the second of January by Earth standards and work has been going steady. Vinyl’s progression into an AI has been steady and she’s taken to ‘liking’ spending time with Sunset Shimmer. I’m kind of worried about what will happen if Vinyl does evolve into a full on AI. I’m hesitant to upload her to the processing facility since AI’s are illegal by Intergalactic Laws. If she gets in there then there’s a sincere possibility that she’ll upload herself into the Wyvern, getting access to the anti-ship weapons on that thing. The Wyvern doesn’t have a remote control unit because of this reason.” I began as I laid back on my bed in the single domicile of the Processing Facility with my voice recorder resting on my chest. The calming pulses of the Assemblers at work below me were calming; reminded me of my waking hours on the ship while in space.
“Regards to the status of my stranding here, the Processing Facility is mostly nothing more than this single pressurized bedroom, the Refinery and Assemblers without their upgrades and an Azimuth Fusion Reactor. I’m getting close to breaking down enough spare components to build the Ore Detector I'll need to begin surveying from the Wyvern so that’s exciting, I suppose.” I sighed and paused my recording to retrieve the recorder and stand to look out the single window from the room. It wasn’t the best view, just an overlook of the above ground Refinery and the landing pad that the quiet Wyvern was sitting on.
“A quick note about my health,” I began once the recording had resumed. “My body isn’t used to being awake for more than a few hours so I’m still falling asleep at odd hours of the day and not waking up for at least sixteen hours. Luna, the blue Alicorn, has been helping me to stay awake by magically preventing my body from becoming fatigued until the same time that everything else goes to bed at nine. I’m still forced to live in a suit of some kind, that’s not likely to ever change until we get into space and I can set up zones in the future colony ship to always have the higher concentrations of Xenon that these ponies require while the rest of the ship remains purified.”
“Regards to the colony ship, I’ve been bouncing between two colony ship designs but I’ve settled on the old Boxton Super Heavy that the ICGS used to use before it was outclassed. It’s still going to be a long ways down the line before I can start on that thing, I gotta start with wide-area mining but we’re already covered where we’re at with that.” I returned to my bed, the only other real thing in the room being a simple console I’d scavenged from the command deck and uploaded with old movies, music and literature. I was quite partial to the historic classics: Disturbed and a bit of Avenged Sevenfold to name a few.
Sitting down at my desk instead and setting my socked feet up on the console itself, I navigated the holographic screens to get to the movies before letting the randomizer make a few random selections before I settled in on one of the Golden Oldies, the original Marvel movies since I avoided the 2256 reboots like the plague.
“The purple princess, Twilight Sparkle, remains missing. Celestia, Luna and Sunset can’t find her magically and the search parties haven’t found hide nor hare of the girl since losing the trail in a forest near to Ponyville -that town that’s closest to the crash site and just a kilometre away from here. I’ve promised that once I get my ore detection capabilities up and running to help look for the girl while I'm doing my prospecting.
“The Rosetta Stone technology is remarkable. It’s perfected the written language between the ponies and myself yesterday and allows me to form complete sentences and paragraphs without the ponies misunderstanding me. Speech is a whole other creature since Vinyl is sure that the ponies use telepathic undertones in their communication, something I’m not capable of replicating to understand them. Vinyl is currently working with Sunset and Luna to create a sort of foreleg mounted messaging system that’ll network every pony I need to be able to talk to and issue commands to. It’s supposed to be set so that the ponies can input their own language and have the Rosetta program automatically translate it for me and vice versa.” I reported as I minimized the movie tab to look over Vinyl’s blueprint for the small device. It looked like an archaic smartphone strapped to a leg or arm.
“Sir,” Vinyl’s voice appeared in my ear, the tiny communication unit being the only trace of the VI on my person at the moment and the only piece of her allowed to enter my room. “Parts have been broken down and the Ore Detector components are underway to begin assembly. Should only take an hour before you can begin building the unit.”
“Thank you, VI.” I replied with a finger to my ear for a moment. “Update on the mining and looking for Twilight Sparkle, the Detector Components have begun assembly and will be used tomorrow after I wake up. The assembly should only take an hour but given the late hour, I'll do it tomorrow and put it through it’s tests then. Speaking of tests, the right rear engine of the VTOL continues to be a pain in my ass. I’m tempted to scrap the whole thing and start over, would certainly be easier than all this trial and error bullshit.”
Provided following a yawn, “End of log, I’m probably going to settle down and watch a movie if I don’t fall asleep. Got a bit of work to do tomorrow.”
“So, have you remembered anything yet?” Culus, the mercenary griffon who’d been with Twilight the last couple days, demanded as he sat down at a nearby table -just out of reach of Twilight’s chains- with a plate of his own dinner, what smelled like meat and assorted veggies with mashed potatoes. “I know I won’t be hungry enough for all of this so who knows, maybe if you give me something, I'll feel like sharing.” he teased and tore into the steak with his beak.
“I…” Twilight groaned from where she lay, already in the early stages of malnutrition and well into dehydration. “I don’t know… anything… Please…” she rasped through a fit of coughs. “Let me go…”
“No no no, I can’t do that and you know why.” Culus waved a finger in reply while chewing, juices dripping from his beak and onto his leather/steel plate breastplate. “It’s also why we keep you on whatever that anti-magic potion is. You’re an important asset to my employers, they want you alive but malleable for future negotiations.”
“So… I’m a hostage that-” Twilight took a moment to cough and glare at the bird. “Your employers intend to use against Equestria? What could they-” Another short fit of coughing and hunger pangs. “They want that the Princesses would trade me for?”
“Well, I don’t know the details myself, but there are rumours that the thing that crashed here has plans for getting himself and a large group of ponies and other creatures off the planet and onto a colony ship.” Culus announced as he bit into another chunk of steak with a forkful of the mashed potatoes over that. At Twilight’s expanded eyes, “I know, I could barely believe it too!”
“But… it’s not possible for us to get to orbit, never mind build a craft large enough to jump-start civilization on another planet!” Twilight remarked as she sat up from her sprawled out position in the tent. Doing so rattled the chains that bound her by the neck and wings to the stake set into the ground. Twilight had already tested whether she could pull the stake out or not but found that the small pole was either too deeply buried into the ground or there was some kind of Zebric charm keeping her from pulling it out and escaping.
“You know, I had thought the very same thing!” Culus grinned and inserted another hunk of meat into his mouth after waving it before Twilight’s face teasingly. “But apparently the creature has already created a vehicle that achieved remarkable airspeed; speed unachievable by any biological creature.”
“Seriously? And you expect me to know about something that was built after I was captured and taken hostage?” Twilight demanded, emboldened by this bit of information. If he could fly, then the human was likely getting closer to being able to find her, save her.
“Not at all.” Culus countered casually with his fork hanging between two claws over the emptying plate. “We expect you to know something about the crashed ship’s workings. How does it work, how does it fly and achieve orbit?”
“I’ve already told you! I don’t bucking know!” Twilight screamed. Culus remained calm and collected despite the screaming and instead returned to his dinner. “Give me something to eat or I’ll be useless as a hostage! If I'm kept healthy then Princess Celestia will be more inclined to agree to whatever terms your employers have!”
“Hmm, that does make sense.” Culus remarked thoughtfully, sparking that flame of hope in Twilight for something, anything to eat. “Unfortunately that’s not for me to decide.”
“Oh come on! You may be just a lackey but you still have a heart! I won’t tell anyone anything!” Twilight pleaded as Culus looked her over apprehensively. “Please!”
“Mmm, sorry.” Culus announced, dropping Twilight’s head in defeat. “Can’t do that.” he added as he stood and grabbed his plate with whatever remained on it. Stepping past Twilight, his rear paw hit the table leg and tripped him, sending the plate wobbling around in his grasp. The plate hit the ground before Culus did, however Culus reacted quickly and collected everything before taking off.
Twilight watched him go in glaring silence before visually inspecting the zone of impact for anything Culus may have left behind. Following her nose, Twilight reached the end of her chain at the pile of grilled peppers that, frustratingly, remained just out of reach of her hoof under the table.
“Celestia dammit! If only I had my magic!” Twilight groaned and flopped down to her stomach where she was, watching the peppers and wishing they’d just come a bit closer so she could get them with even just her tongue. With a groan Twilight closed her eyes and began to concentrate as hard as she could, trying to connect to some shred of telekinetic ability to grasp at least one pepper to feed herself.
Surprisingly, she felt something within her. Something deep inside that, just maybe, was enough magic bubbling to the surface to let her eat. Focussing on that feeling, Twilight fought to bring it to the surface and to her horn for a minute before that feeling instantly vanished with the burp that it actually was.
Letting out a groan of defeat, Twilight moved herself back to the dedicated sleeping spot and rolled onto her side, curling up while her stomach reminded her of her failings.
“If only somepony could find me…” she whispered before trying to let herself fall asleep. As she did so, she thought she could hear the sound of rumbling engines like the ones that had been on the ship.
Five Hours Ago
“Your highness!” a guard announced as he burst into the Canterlot throne room. “Reporting!”
“Go ahead, what have you found?” Celestia demanded as she looked up from a pile of papers that she and her sister should’ve gone through upon discovery of the crashed ship. Seemed that her parents, the previous rulers of Equestria before her reign with Luna, had even devised a mountain of paperwork for the event of a discovery of another race on Equestria and how to properly initiate First Contact. Those pages in particular had been burned before the Royal Archivist had found out they’d existed.
“Nothing, your Highness. I’m sorry, but we can’t find any trace of Princess Twilight Sparkle.” the guard replied sincerely with a bow of the head. “We’ve even searched every inch of the Everfree and thought we’d found tracks but after following them it appeared to have just been a pair of Griffin hunters.”
“Griffin hunters?” Celestia’s ears perked up at the mention of the hunters. “Did they have their Hunting Licenses?” If they didn’t, then they were either poachers and to be arrested, or they were Twilight’s captors and to be hunted down themselves.
“They did, your Highness. We even had them checked against our records to make sure. They were up to date and everything checked out.”
“Dammit!” Celestia let the word slip before she’d even known what she’d done and held her lower lip held between her teeth in irritation. With a nod of the head, the Guard was cleared from the room and left her in silence, alone with her thoughts. “Where are you, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Sister,” Luna appeared in a bulb of magic before approaching the throne. “The Suit says that his small ship has been outfitted with the detection machine and is ready to set out and begin prospecting Equestria.”
“Fine, fine. Just have him make notes on a map of where everything is for me, please?” Celestia willed herself to calm down to think about other things but her mind continued to go back to Twilight’s unknown location. Luna gave her sister a quick hug before offering a friendly smile and taking off in the same magical sphere she’d appeared in.
You are clear to take off. Celestia wishes for you to record the locations of minerals you find. Luna wrote down and passed the note to the human as he sat on the lip of the hangar ramp with his feet dangling.
Having read the note, the suit nodded and hoisted himself up and back to the ship. Spitfire, who’d taken Dash’s place as temporary navigator while Dash was studying the material the suit had given her, rested against the weapons battery on the right of the ship and tugged at her suit.
“This thing is so uncomfortable, why couldn’t my Wonderbolts suit work instead?” she sighed before snapping to attention at the Suit’s approach. With a wave of his hand, the suit ordered Spitfire up into the second cockpit as his jetpack lifted him up to his own seat.
Both settling down, the pilot lowered both canopies and fired up the engines -the rear one having been torn out and rebuilt with newer parts- before lifting the craft and activating the ore detector.
His new sensor array, shared between him and the Navigator, fired up and unfortunately found nothing nearby. Easing out of the hangar, the entire ship lifted to just above the trees before starting off at a leisurely pace to make sure that the detector was working. Concerns were rested when the ore radar pinged on a small iron deposit above the ground a few hundred meters away and to the left.
With Spitfire marking the location, the pilot turned the ship into a large spiralling circle around the crash site to visually inspect the ground for signs of ore. He was hoping that despite the odds against him, he could see the darker ground denoting veins of ore in the ground but the vividity of the foliage and even the grass itself remained constant even after a note for Magnesium and Silicon appeared directly under Ponyville.
Marking that location as well, the ship and its sensor package aimed for Canterlot to see if the mountain had anything of value that could be easily mineable without interrupting anything. Passing by the entire mountain, the pilot and navigator flew off towards the Everfree with nothing to say for the location.
Sir, I’ve got a reading you might be interested in. Spitfire announced textually as the pilot received the same readings on his own displays. An ore I don’t know the name of has appeared over the Everfree Forest.
I’m aware and this has got to be the most important location for mining we’ll have. Mark down the location of the Uranium with a note of urgency. I’ll have to go over the importance of Uranium with Celestia later on. The pilot replied with the Rosetta Stone program automatically translating his word to translated text.
If I may ask, sir, what is the importance of that ore?
Uranium is the fuel source of the fusion reactors of this ship, the Processing Facility and the crashed ship. We’re going to need it by the tonne for the Space-Dock and the future Colony Ship.
So, it’s really bloody important, got it. Spitfire’s last message before going silent gave the human a chuckle and turned the ship northward for a peek. Not being able to see the land-indications was a pain in the ass but the pilot was determined to find a node for everything he’d need. Save for Platinum but that was only found on asteroids and moons.
~~~
An hour later and the ship returned to the Facility having discovered the single largest location of every ore all grouped together some couple hundred kilometers away from Ponyville and buried under the Smoky Mountains. That would be where the mining facility and new base of operations would be set up as soon as permission to dive into its surface was given.
Spitfire hopped out of the cockpit and glided down to the ground so that the Suit could take the craft back up with Dash in her seat again. Luna was now sat in the back of the craft on the left side seat in order to provide a third set of eyes in the search for Twilight Sparkle.
Taking to the air, the trip itself took four hours and only returned to the Facility when the reactors needed refilling and the batteries needed recharging. The Facility had been set up with Solar Panels scavenged from the crash in order to charge up the Facilities internal batteries which would then be used to charge the VTOL’s batteries overnight.
Returning against Luna’s wishes, the craft sat down on it’s launch pad before shutting down and setting its batteries to recharge. Both pilot and navigator extracted themselves from the craft while a pony nearby connected the heavy transfer cable to the bottom of the craft and locked it into place. Dash went on her way while Luna joined the pilot at the cockpit while he transferred the map data from the ship to his wrist computer before closing everything up for the night.
I don’t suppose you managed to find any indication of Twilight that you didn’t tell me about, did you? Luna asked by writing the words out in the air before her. They acted like a sort of subtitle like the ones in the shows that the pilot occasionally watched.
Sorry, I didn’t find anything to help the search. The pilot replied via HUD before turning away with a wave and headed into his room in the Facility. Luna gave a short tch of annoyance before flashing away in her magic.
“We’re going to find you, Twilight. Believe in us.” Luna mumbled to herself as she stepped into the throne room with the news.
“Okay, let’s start the log off with building updates: Mining permissions of the Smoky Mountains have been granted so now everything is being moved west to the new mining location. The Processing Facility will be torn down as well and its parts moved to the new base of operations.” I groaned as I twisted on my mattress still partially asleep. I wanted to go back to bed and sleep for another couple hours but my mind was already racing over today’s events. “Temporary cargo space was constructed yesterday at the base of the mountain so the workforce is already moving supplies that way instead of to here. I plan to tear this place down myself before I have to make my first appearance in the capital.”
Rolling off my bed entirely, I let my eyes roam over the Worker suit that kept me company despite being in so many pieces. I already knew that I’d have to wear a more… Formal-looking suit to the event, probably go for that Urban design in a black or something; it kind of looks formalish I supposed.
“Yeah, I’ve gotta make an appearance at the capital to go over trade negotiations for getting off planet in return for material supplies. I’m just a pilot, not a fucking diplomat but, since it’s ultimately my ship we’re talking about here, I have to make the final choices on who comes and doesn’t in order to get the most return possible.” I groaned again and approached a tiny bathroom unit off in the corner to freshen up. Even the water had to be purified in order to not risk contaminating me with the Xenon. “Honestly,” I had to shout to be heard over the sound of the shower. “I feel like a means to an end for these creatures. It’s going to be remarkable to meet other mythological species in coming hours so I don’t expect to be able to understand any of them.”
A few minutes later and I stepped out of the shower completely dried and set to dressing myself in the bodysuit that went under the suits. Once I was properly dressed and nothing was left to the imagination I began the painstaking task of equipping the Worker suit one pieces at a time, starting with the boots and working upwards.
“No word on Twilight Sparkle’s location has arisen yet. Celestia and Luna are becoming estranged over this issue and tempers are beginning to flare between the Princesses and the six friends who accompanied Twilight. I’ve gone over the areas around the crash site, Canterlot and Ponyville another few times but still nothing has come up to assist. If it weren’t for the ponies who’d hitch rides during the searches, I know many of them would be, or still are regardless, questioning my resolve to actually help them find their Princess.” I continued on in all boredom while I pulled myself into the top half of the suit and locked everything together to create the airtight seals. Setting to the connection of the Exo-suit frame, I continued.
“Ahh… Oh yeah, a second Wyvern is in the process of being built by the ponies under Luna’s supervision. It’s been disarmed and refitted for maximum cargo lift. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire are going to be the first pony team to hopefully pilot the thing and I just realised that I’m going to have to test their ability to fly the craft today before or after the events at Canterlot. They can work as Navigators just fine, but neither of them have pilot training and I’ve been too busy over the last two days to properly teach them so I’m a bit worried. If I could, I’d build them flight-simulators with the training bodysuits and let them work out flight on their own but we don’t have the resources to spare for that right now. We barely have the resources to build the second Wyvern as it is.” With my suit completely on now, my recorder was likely having issues hearing me until I opened the helmet and collapsed onto my desk chair for the last time today. “End Recording.”
“Hey, Princess, wake up.” Culus demanded, giving the pony a swift kick in the rump to wake her from her sleep. “Great news, you’re being moved today. Might even mean getting a bit of food and water.”
“What? Where are we going?” Twilight demanded as she groaned at the treatment she’d received but sat up anyways. The second groan came from her stomach at the false promise of food but she kept her reservations ready.
“I dunno, but my employers have a meeting with your Princesses and the creature today so they’re going to present you in return for their demands.” Culus explained as he dropped a plate of real food at her hooves. Twilight’s eyes widened before, without thinking about the possibility of toxins or poisons, her head dipped down and she tore ravenously into the vegetables and flowers.
“So? When do we move out then?” Twilight replied eagerly once she’d come up for air and to wipe off her mouth.
“Once my employers get word that their demands have been met, you’ll be released to their custody. No sooner.” Culus remarked as he picked at his claws with a knife to work some kind of gunk from the nail beds. “I gotta say, I’ve really enjoyed our time together, Princess.” the griffon grinned, his face and the undertones of his voice suggesting anything but friendly familiarity.
“Oh I know you have, I know you have.” Twilight sighed and laid back down once she’d kicked the empty plate away from her to be collected. As Culus went to leave with the ceramic dish, “I just have one question first.”
“What?” the griffon turned to address the pony again.
“Why do you call yourself ‘Culus’? Isn’t very Griffon, is it,” Twilight smirked before taking a bold breath, “Georgia?” she burst into wide grins as the griffon’s eyes went wide with surprise before being traded out for rage.
“Where did you hear that name!” Culus/Georgia demanded as he flung the plate at the princess, letting it bash itself against Twilight’s forehead under her horn.
“I thought you were a male, right? So why the feminine name?” Twilight persisted and collected the plate to sit down on it entirely. Under her body, the plate cracked and shattered under her weight but remained silent due to the fur masking the crunch. “Don’t tell me you’re actually a woman!”
“I don’t have to answer to a hostage like you.” Culus groaned in reply before stomping out of the tent in fury. Twilight grinned to herself again and sat up to inspect the broken plate under her before sitting back down again. Selecting a relatively straight piece, she tucked it safely away within herself -an extremely uncomfortable thing to do- before pushing the rest of the pieces away as far as she could, ensuring that they’d scatter to prevent any of her captors from realizing a piece had gone missing.
“Well, let’s just see what your Employers do when they find that their hostage has escaped?” Twilight whispered to herself as she laid back down to wait for the appropriate moment to strike.
I had opted to let Spitfire try her first piloting of the Wyvern to Canterlot to start her off and had to really work at ignoring the textual pleas from Dash to change my mind. Now, the Wyvern was parked out in the middle of the Canterlot Gardens for lack of other space and I was sat in a guest room to change into the Urban suit in peace. I had to ensure that I had loaded up an air purifier to exchange the air in the suit for the cleaner stuff after resuiting, otherwise I’d suffocate in my own skin. Wouldn’t make for good first impressions if I’d suddenly dropped dead in the middle of negotiations.
A knock at the door alerted me to visitors, though it was likely a guard sent to fetch me, and a note slipped under the door to my room. Odd, since the guards were supposed to enter regardless of whether or not I told them too.
Taking a look at the note, Twilight Sparkle will arrive later today after negotiations. It’s her captor's plans to use her to gain a ruling position on your colony ship and to kick the Equestrians off the ship almost entirely. Can’t say who specifically they are but just know that they’re serious about their demands. It’s possible to find Twilight Sparkle before the negotiations are finished, you just have to watch the ground from above.
“Okay, so who do I know can write in perfect basic english and can pinpoint the relative position of a missing princess?” I wondered to myself as I paced back and forth in my suit, my face contorting quite unappealingly as I thought about things.
With a shrug of the eyebrows, I stuffed the note into a pocket and stepped out into the hallway to aim towards Spitfire’s guest room.
Knocking on the door a short and slow walk later, Spitfire must’ve said something in her language before appearing at the door a short while later.
With a raised eyebrow, I let myself in.
“Twilight may be located before negotiations. Find Dash, have her act as your Navigator. Use the Wyvern to search the area for anything. I got a note that suggested you watch the ground from the skies. Tell Twilight to let us know you’ve found her as soon as you do.” I visually ordered with my HUD. Spitfire saluted with her wing before taking off ahead of me while I followed after but aimed towards the large banquet hall the meeting would be held in.
At my approach, the sound of fanfare alerted everyone within the room to my arrival, even if the unintelligent neighing didn’t. The large pearlescent doors gradually swung open, as though resisting the act under it’s own fight with gravity -something I could relate to all too well.
Being lead by a guard, I was guided to a table and requested to sit next to a pony with a typewriter and the alphabet translation. Celestia and Luna were two seats to my right. I suppose that was how I was going to understand everything going on at the meeting. The first of a slip of paper appeared at the table ahead of as I sat down with a bit of issue, Celestia being the first to speak her language. Seemed that everyone that were coming would likely be speaking their own language and would get translated for me.
Good morning, Pilot, and thank you for attending. I hope you slept well? Celestia’s translation readout.
Well enough I suppose. My attendance is kind of not an option given the necessity of these negotiations, though is it? My helmet wrote back as I verbally spoke within.
You always have a choice. We don’t want you to feel like a prisoner, or worse, a slave of the country. Celestia replied with a kind smile while another creature entered into the room at the same fanfare i’d received. Up till now, all the guest seating was empty and one was about to be filled. Please feel free to remain seated. Celestia told me through the typewriter.
Couldn’t even if I wanted to. Your planet’s gravity makes it a bit difficult for me to repeated stand and sit down. I replied, making both Celestia and Luna smile and Luna giggle a bit.
At that moment, my radar detected movement of an unknown species so out of curiosity I turned to view the newcomer.
My jaw dropped at the sight of the wings, the scales and the horns on the side of her head. Her body was very much female and she herself stood about as tall as I would were I standing properly.
Dragon Queen Ember, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Celestia’s translation announced, giving me a name and confirmation that what I saw was actually an actual dragon. I suppose with unicorns, pegasi and Alicorns, Dragon’s weren’t really out of the realm of possibility.
The dragon said something in return, a form of… I don’t know what it was but it sounded like a bunch of hissing, roars and other animal sounds that probably came from a dragon. I looked down at the typist next to me, waiting for a translation however she just looked up at me and shrugged. Great, a translator that can’t translate the dragon language. If she couldn’t understand the Queen, then how did the Princesses?
Dragon Lord Ember says it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Luna replied through the typist. She has no idea what you are and the suit makes her nervous.
Let her know that I’m just here as the means to getting off planet before destabilization. I replied, aiming the comment back to the Princess. Also, don’t say anything to anyone, Princesses, I began to write out. Both Celestia and Luna watched my helmet for my next words, however I was cut off as more fanfare announced the arrival of Minotaurs.
“So, this is the new creature that’s going to get us all off the planet huh?” The Minotaur delegate announced, resting an arm across the back of my chair and offered a handshake to me. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The Typist began to translate for me, however I held a hand up and shook the Minotaur’s hand in reply.
“I’m surprised, you’re the first creature I’ve met who speaks Basic Galactic English.” I replied, dropping the jaws of the Princesses and the Dragon Lord. The Minotaur merely raised an enthused eyebrow before taking his seat next to me. Maybe if he could act as a better translator, I wouldn’t need the typewriter.
“I don’t know about any of this Basic Galactic English, we speak Minotese.” the delegate announced proudly, thumping his chest with his fist.
“Whatever it is you speak, it is similar enough that my Rosetta Stone Program can make verbal translations.” I replied with a nod in return. “I meant to offense.”
“Nah,” the bull grinned and pulled me into a massive sideways hug, “I’m just messing with ya!”
Well, it’s a pleasure to see you two hitting it off so well right off the bat. Celestia announced through translation. I hope it will make negotiations that much easier.
“Now now, Celestia,” The bull held his hands up to halt the flow going for us already. “You are already aware that we’re not financially equipped for trade deals like this. We can’t just up and start mining out our lands for every shred of resource and then send it your way like you request. Even if doing so grants us seats on the colony ship.”
But, Prime Minister, your lands are reported to be extremely rich in the fuel source that runs the colony ship. Celestia remarked with a frown. I raised an eyebrow at the mention of this. Without that fuel, no one will be getting off planet, let alone getting the Colony ship to a new planet.
“Be that as it may, we just can’t support major mining operations. We just can’t afford the equipment.” the Prime Minister and apparently my new best friend remarked as he rested an arm on the table, his free hand moving with his speech.
Perhaps we can help with the trouble? We’re all aiming to find a new home so I think it would be smart if we helped each other. A translation coming from another newcomer replied. If the typist could translate this, then that meant that the newcomer was likely speaking some form of the Ponies’ language.
Taking a seat across from the Minotaur, a zebra dressed in what could only be described as shamanistic robes and trinkets appeared looking well for it’s apparent elderly age.
Your highness, a pleasure to see you again. Celestia announced and bowed her head to the Zebra.
Likewise. It is a pleasure to meet you three again. The Zebra replied with a bow of her own head. Then, turning to me, You must be the traveller of the stars who’s supposed to get us all off the planet?
Correct, It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I nodded back before the translation could be written out on my helmet.
I feel I must ask, but what are you? I apologize if it’s rude of me to inquire.
I am a human from the Great Human Alliance based off of Earth in the Sol System. I announced with the Minotaur translating for me despite the words still appearing on my helmet’s glass. “I crash landed just outside of Ponyville about a week ago and have been making gains to getting myself off planet and back home as soon as possible. I then learned that the planet is at the end of it’s life and have since been working to gather materials to create a large enough space craft to get not only myself, but also a group of the creatures of this planet off world.” I explained with the translation of my new friend. He turned back to me in mild confusion.
“Sorry my new friend, but are you actually aware of how many species are on this planet?” he inquired with a look of mild entertainment.
“I’m guessing enough to fill the dozen seats here, at least.” I shrugged back where I sat. Celestia and Luna both shared glances before turning to me again.
There are six times more creatures on this planet than there are seating. The twelve of us who will be appearing here are the representatives for the others who won’t appear. Luna explained, destroying my ideas for a smallish ship. Already I was making notes to scale up the ship design to fit everyone.
“Oh. That makes things difficult then…” I sighed and slouched back in the chair.
There was something you wished to tell my sister and I? Luna requested as she broke back to the topic I had intended to discuss in private.
Oh, right. I nodded back as the words flashed across the screen. I got word from someone that Twilight could be found before the end of Negotiations. I’ve sent Spitfire and Dash out in the VTOL to find her.
What? When did this happen? Has there been any word since? Celestia requested, her voice loud enough to suggest heightened emotional reflection, however the words I saw remained just as dull as before.
Nothing. I told Spitfire to have Twilight send you a message as soon as she’s rescued from her captors. I’m told she’s going to be used as a bargaining chip to have the Equestrians booted off the Colony ship entirely. I replied, rolling gasps from everyone at the table. I figured that by announcing this information to the two delegated already present would either have more on our sides against the upcoming enemy or would disarm the enemy now.
“I can’t believe a country would go so far as to do that!” the Minotaur Prime Minister remarked, scratching at his chin with worry. “Celestia, Luna, you have my full support in finding your missing Princess.”
Twilight’s missing? A female voice shrieked before a large white stallion with blue hair appeared at Celestia’s side. I tilted my head at the confusing comparison before a bright pink alicorn appeared opposite Celestia and took a seat next to Luna and the Prime Minister. What happened to her? The female demanded, fixing my views of the stallion as he sat down next to Celestia.
“Foalnapped, apparently.” the Prime Minister remarked before welcoming the new Princess. “Princess Cadance, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you.”
Prime Minister, a likewise pleasure. Unfortunate that my sister-in-law is unable to be here as well. Cadance replied before turning to me. You must be the human i’ve heard about and saw buzzing around my towers a few days ago.
Princess Cadance, Crystal Empire I presume? I nodded back welcomingly while the stallion across from us nodded in reply.
Prince Shining Armour, Princess Twilight’s older brother. Shining Armour announced with a courteous bow of the head. What’s this I hear about my little sister having been foalnapped?
About a week ago, Twilight went missing and hadn’t been found. Apparently the Pilot got a note before appearing here denoting Twilight’s status. He’s sent out a pair of ponies to go and try to find her before negotiations end and she’s used as a bargaining chip to knock the Equestrian’s off the Colony ship. Celestia explained in detail. The Prince didn’t look too happy about this declaration but remained silent.
~~~
A couple hours later having met the remaining delegations from Griffonia, Yak Yakistan, and even a group of red shelled creatures called Changelings. The coolest delegation had to be the aquatic Sirens who had to remain with their tails in large bowls of water lest they dried up. Apparently relations with the Sirens were sketchy at best after an encounter with three of their criminals in Sunset’s human realm.
Sir, a note passed to me from a nearby guard while Celestia and Luna handled the actual negotiations broke me out of my random thoughts. I’d already managed to have fallen asleep for a few minutes before the Prime Minister gave me a nudge to wake me back up again and I was in the process of working myself back to sleep. Spitfire and Rainbow Dash have returned with news. They require your aid immediately.
I stood suddenly at this note, startling everyone at the table at my doing so.
I apologize but i’ve been requested on an extremely urgent matter. I shall be back momentarily. I wrote out, widening the eyes of those who knew what’d happened to Twilight. With a nod of the head I turned from the table and hurried out the door, slowed only by the gravity but fueled by my need to find Twilight before the Griffons managed to close negotiations and seal the Equestrians’ fate. They’d openly announced that they had the Princess and would only surrender her upon the Equestrians surrendering their seats to more of the Griffons.
“Go get ‘er!” the Prime Minister shouted back at me as I took off from the ground with my jetpack and ripped down the hallways after the pegasus who’d taken flight to continue to lead me in the direction of the Wyvern.
Get in, we’re already gone. I ordered as soon as I flew into the courtyard and swapped out positions with Spitfire who took up a seat at the back of the ship.
Sir, we watched the land as the note suggested and noticed a fissure originating from the Smoky Mountains. Following that, we found a spot where the fissure split around a small plot of land. We got in closer and found traces of there having been an encampment recently torn down; fires still burning. Spitfire reported from the back seat while Dash acted as Navigator for me as we circled around a seemingly random portion of land. As the pony had described, a rather impressive fissure in the ground had formed but left an almost perfectly round pillar of ground a good couple dozen meters in diameter. At the center of the pillar was what looked like a recently burned out pile of ash and embers with faint traces of smoke rising in the wind.
From Dash, We believe that Twilight’s captors are still somewhere in the area. They can’t have gone far since we found the area. I agreed to myself and lifted the ship from its hovering position above the ground and activated the turrets on the sides of the ship. They were still empty but I had to have added the ponies as a friendly faction to me so hopefully Twilight wouldn’t get too terribly shot up.
Relying on the Turret’s auto-enemy targeting system, I scanned the area for any sign of the targeting reticules until I found a fairly decent cluster of them behind and to the right of us. Spinning the craft around on it’s axis, I loaded up the main gatling cannons still on the nose of my ship and began my descent.
“Dash, you broadcast an immediate surrender of everything down in front of us. Spitfire, you man one of the turrets and prepare to open fire if things go wrong.” I ordered as the exhaust of the vertical engines did work in clearing away most of the brush hiding the potential enemy. Both ponies acknowledged my command and a short notification that someone had begun operating a turret appeared to my left before being cleared away.
Coming in down as close as I could without actually landing, I took aim at a large group of ponies guarded by what looked like a platoon of griffon mercenaries judging by their armour. Peering into the group, I spotted Twilight Sparkle bagged and being towed along by chains from her back and neck in the middle of the group; probably keeping her from flying off.
The magnified down of Dash’s language told me she was demanding surrender even if I couldn’t understand anything at all. I could, however, understand the drawn flintlock firearms being aimed at the ship.
“Tell them if they open fire that it will be a declaration of war against me and that they will not survive.” I ordered as my fingers sat ready on the firing trigger of the gun’s control stick. Dash probably cooperated and reciprocated my orders to a language the bird could understand, however many of the griffons merely grinned or snarled back at me in reply.
Failing diplomacy, I twisted the ship enough to line up three sure kills with the gatlings without harming Twilight. Still, she’d likely to suffer terminal injuries if I just sprayed wildly.
“Twilight Sparkle, get down!” I shouted and gave Dash just enough time to echo me before I opened fire on the birds and their compatriots. The three guns at my disposal whirred to life before spewing hot magnesium and quite easily shredded through the birds before me. Tilting up a quarter of a degree I ensured that while I could hit the taller enemies that now fled before me, I wouldn’t hit the shorter ones; primarily being Twilight who was now on her belly and probably screaming at the noise.
Letting up on the trigger let the barrels cease their spinning and let them cool a few seconds to that I could spin the aircraft to bear the turret Spitfire was on towards the enemies. Setting the craft down, Spitfire opened fire on the remaining birds now in the air and trying to line up potshots on the craft. Were they any lower to the ground, they would’ve only had one turret to worry about but the higher the ascended, the likelier they were to trigger the- and now the top mounted turret automatically opened fire.
Popping open my own canopy with the turrets providing covering fire, I leapt down from the craft with my suit retrieving my rifle so I could cover myself on my race to retrieve the Princess.
Crossing the few meters between the ship and Twilight took a matter of seconds with the adrenaline-fueled sprint I was in and I soon slid to a halt next to the cowering pony.
Reaching down and scooping her up off the ground, I had to fight her resistances before I tugged the hood off to let her get a look at her new captor turned rescuer. Launching back into another sprint, I aimed for the back of the craft where Spitfire was waiting to receive the princess and got her loaded into the craft. Once she was secured and babbling away into Spitfire’s forelegs, I returned to the cockpit with a burst of assistance from my jetpack and quickly sat myself down in my seat. I didn’t even wait to strap myself in before the canopy lowered itself back down and enclosed my space so I could take off from the ground and shoot up into the air.
“Next stop, Canterlot! Have Twilight give Celestia a message that we’ve got her!” I ordered and gunned the engines to maximum thrust once I’d disabled the turrets on the ship to keep from shooting anything I wasn’t supposed to.
Rounding past the Smoky Mountains, I came upon what looked like nothing less than the griffon’s entire air force spread out before me and armed with their pathetic weapons. Piling on the brakes, I lifted the nose to get as much stopping force as I could before coming to a full stop in the air before the massive flock.
What’s going on up there? Spitfire demanded as she and Twilight recovered from the sudden stop; I could still see what they were doing through the cabin-facing camera mounted in the back.
“We’ve got company. Apparently the griffons weren’t keen on losing their bargaining chip. Keep Twilight safe while Dash and I work on breaking through the legion before us.” I ordered and reactivated the turrets.
Immediately, all three turrets -one gatling and the other two anti-ship cannons- found their targets and began to open fire in the strange auto-targeting parameters they had. I pushed hard on the accelerator and advanced on the birds, opening fire on them with my own guns while they scattered to make themselves harder targets to hit. Didn’t matter, the turrets all had perfect aim and soon explosions of bodies and shrapnel began to rock the ship as the closer shells and bullets exploded near to the craft.
The sound of small mettal pinging against the hull told me that the remaining birds had opened fire on me and judging from the fact that I could no longer see the griffons meant that they were either beside me where they could get a lucky shot off on Twilight and Spitfire, or they were directly behind me and soon to be shredded by gatling and 204mm rounds.
“This is ridiculous! You’re just stalling!” The griffon ambassador shrieked, bashing his fist on the stone top of the conference table. It’d only been ten minutes since the suit had disappeared from the room and only eight minutes since the Griffon’s tried to end negotiations so they could solidify Equestria’s step down from the colony ship.
“Yes! We are! We’re waiting for the pilot to get back to make final changes to the agreed upon negotiations!” Luna shouted back while Celestia merely rested her chin on her hooves which were crossed over the table. Luna had grown to be Celestia’s voice in the new heated debate about how long to wait for the suit and so Celestia was more than content to just lounge around with the other delegates who’d agreed to wait for the return of the suit; and the return of Twilight Sparkle.
“I demand that we finalize these negotiations now, or do you not wish for the safe return of your princess?” the griffon demanded with a grin as a few griffons behind him pressed a claw to their ear before losing their smugness.
“Oh, I’m most than certain that my sister will be returned safely and without Equestria giving up their seat on the ship.” Shining Armour announced as he trotted back and forth behind his seat. “The looks of confusion on your group’s faces says that we’re already making headway.”
“What?” the ambassador nearly lost his feathers as he wheeled on his party expectantly. “What’s the matter?”
“Sir,” the lead of the group whispered back, “It seems that we’ve already lost the hostage. Our eighth airborne fleet is engaging some kind of strange flying craft and can’t shoot it down!”
“Hah!” Luna grinned maliciously. “We told you! You will not having the Equestrian’s seats on the colony ship! We have Twilight back! Our negotiations with the Griffon Nation are hereby voided!”
“Nonsense! Unless I see Princess Twilight here in this room of her own free will, the negotiations will stand!”
“Sir!” the radio operator now shrieked. “Our entire eighth aerial fleet has been wiped out!”
“Everyone alright back there?” I demanded as the guns just now clicked empty even if the notifications to my left didn’t tell me as much. The last of the griffon bodies was still in freefall and was due to become food for the scavengers below, whatever they may be in the crazy land.
Rainbow Dash, reporting no injuries. I’m fine. Dash announced from behind me through written word.
Spitfire here with Twilight, we’re fine. We should get a move on back to Canterlot before more show up. Spitfire reported and let me release a breath to myself before giving a light chuckle. Gunning the accelerator, I disabled the inertial dampeners and let the air wings take over the job of lift as we aimed back around the mountain peaks for the relatively close city on yet another mountain.
~~~
“So, I hear you’ve demanded that Equestria be removed from my Colony Ship to make room for more of you?” I demanded as I stomped back into the conference room. My arrival had had the intended effect of raising everyone to whatever forms of legs they had. At my left stood a proud pair of Rainbow Dash and Spitfire, both still in their flight suits while Twilight stood on my right looking worse for wear but upright and glad to be out of captivity.
“What! This isn’t possible, we had our very best guarding her!” the griffon ambassador shrieked through translation to me. The Griffon’s language seemed to have less telepathic underlays and so the Rosetta Stone had been able to provide vocal translations to me. Of course, that meant that anything any griffon said was in a woman’s voice but ehh, i’m not complaining.
“They weren’t very good then, sorry to say.” I replied with my words being translated to their language. This meant that I could kind of speak in the griffon language and no longer needed to translate my words to the Equestrians unless I had much to say (Longer speeches still freaks out the software every now and then.) I still had to translate their words to Enhance Galactic English, but this wasn’t much more than a mild inconvenience.
Twilight! Are you alright? Cadance demanded as she and her partner galloped hard from the table to sweep Twilight off her hooves to begin their inspections for injury.
Yes, I’m fine. Thank you. Thanks for getting me out of there, I don’t know what I would’ve done if the Equestrian nation had been successfully kicked off the Colony Ship at my expense. Twilight replied as she gave her brother and sister-in-law both hugs at once. The rest of the room seemed content with just watching the events transpiring before them and so remained otherwise quiet.
“Princess Twilight,” The Minotaur Prime Minister announced as the smallest princess was escorted towards the table with Spitfire, Dash and myself acting as guard from the Griffons. “A pleasure to meet you again. I’m glad to see you healthy.”
Well, healthy enough to walk and talk anyways. The Griffons kept me drugged on some kind of Zebric drug that inhibits magic. Twilight replied as I took my previous seat at the table next to the Prime Minister, who offered a fist bump in congratulation.
The looks on Luna, Celestia and Cadance’s faces as they stared down the Griffons were wonderfully revenge-filled.
Ah yes, I know this drug well. It purifies all traces of Xenon from the system, preventing the creature from casting any magic. The Zebric representative announced as she dug around in her robes. Pulling a flask of some kind of green liquid from a pocket, she set in on the table to be retrieved by Celestia who offered the drink to Twilight. This will kickstart the recollection process for your magic but ultimately it will be only a matter of time before your magic replenishes itself.
You have the thanks of the Equestrian government. Luna announced, earning similar nods from Dragon Lord Ember and the Prime Minister. Twilight took the vial with a thankful nod before popping the cap with her teeth and quaffed the entire thing in one go.
I, on the other hand, was making notes that the unknown system in the ponies bodies were actually their magical systems and that it did actually rely on the heavy presence of Xenon, as Vinyl and I had suspected.
“Right then,” I clasped my hands with a clap, gaining everyone’s attention. “The matter of dealing with the Griffons.”
“I vote they’re kicked off the Colony Ship like they attempted to do with the Equestrians.” the Prime Minister announced, looking over everything gathered with an arm resting on the table. Even hunched over, the bull was massive in comparison to myself and the horns on his head gave even the Dragon Lord a run for her money.
I agree, the Griffons should be forced to find their own way off the planet if they wish to survive. The red-shell Changeling nodded, narrowing his glowing eyes at the increasingly nervous griffon Ambassador. They deserve nothing less.
“I disagree.” I announced, startling everyone at the table all at once. “I can’t agree that dooming an entire race to death is an option, even if the Griffon Ambassador had planned to do so himself. I am completely certain that among his race would be Equestrian sympathizers who would protest Equestria’s removal should his plan have worked.”
So you would let this traitor on board your ship? Luna demanded, slamming a hoof down while pointing at the griffon and his company. I shook my head enough to get my helmet to move to show my disagreement again.
“That one and his? They won’t even see the launch pad from a hundred kilometers. His kind, once we root out the friendly ones, sure.” I shrugged back with a sigh. “Tell me, Princess. Do you and your kind want to be responsible for the extinction of the Griffon Race?”
Well, I suppose not, no. Luna sighed and slunk back down into her chair, defeated. Very well. It is ultimately your ship and we will refer to your wishes. Once Negotiations are finalized we will send an envoy to Griffonia to find Griffons loyal to the Equestrian Nation and start building a list.
“Cool, thanks.” I offered a smile, a useless gesture since no one could actually see my face at the moment. “Now, I trust that appropriate trade negotiations have been made already, so all we need to do now is finalizations?” I inquired as the typist next to me passed me the many pages of agreements that I had to go through and sign.
Later.
All we need to know from you is how many seats there are on the ship and who you want to let on. Celestia replied as she pointed her horn at the stack of papers before me, directing my eyes back to the stack of paperwork I would now have to get through.
Later.
“Okay, well I’m not very good at personnel selection, so how about your best and brightest and their friends and family then draw lots for the remaining however many seats? I’ll have a better number of total available seats once construction actually begins in a few months.” I announced and took hold of the stack by the left side to leaf through the pages and let my suit’s VI upload images of each document to go through and give me the jist of the trades.
“In a couple months? What more do you need to do first before you can start building the Colony ship?” The Prime Minister inquired as he and everyone else at the table watched me stand.
Never mind that you yourself said that the planet only has at most a couple months before the destabilization becomes more severe. At most, half a year to a year before the planet completely dies off. Luna too stood and approached me, halting my momentum from exiting.
“You’re kidding right?” I demanded, rounding on everyone with a look of incredulity. “We all have so much to do before I can even start the Space Docks to build the damn thing! We’ve gotta mine as much material resources as we possibly can in the span of three months, I have to build orbit-capable ships to get those materials up there, I’ve gotta train an entirely new fleet of pilots capable of piloting those craft, I need someone to design the damn Space-Docks in the first place since i’ve got no intergalactic Internet connections any more…” I scoffed mildly before turning away and exiting from the room. Shouting back so the Prime Minister could translate for me, “We all can’t remain sitting on our asses talking anymore! Get busy!”
The sight of thousands of ponies hauling resources from the crash site and the now torn down Processing Facility to the new camp at the base of the Smoky Mountains was truly a sight to behold. I was still sat in my Wyvern above it all with Dash in my Navigator seat, just high enough that the engines wouldn’t bother the work crews below to watch it all as I drifted along with my own cargo holds filled to maximum capacity.
Ponies were paired up to help each other cart the massive wagons that, thinking about it now, also contained many of their own personal living effects which would go into building the new and temporary town around the base of the operation which would serve to house the ever increasing mining workforce and their families and to help process the ores.
This is a remarkable sight to behold, Pilot. Celestia’s words flashed on the screen next to me, earning a brief chuckle in reply. With your arrival and need for workers, you’ve probably just put every unemployed pony in Equestria to work all at once.
“That may be, but I still have nothing to pay anypony with for their work. At best we could employ some kind of Communistic sub-government for the ponies so they wouldn’t have to worry about being paid or having money for food and whatnot and just disperse what each household needs to live mostly comfortably.” I remarked as I held the accelerator down a bit to push forward, watching Celestia, Luna and Sunset all react to the sudden shift in gravitational force.
I seem to remember we did our best to extinguish all traces of a communistic government some few hundred years back, Sister. Luna noted as she glared at her sister. But, given the circumstances we’ve been presented with, we may not have a choice.
Well, there are large deposits of gold ore in those mountains, right? What if we diverted a small portion of the raw ore towards padding the treasury so we can pay the ponies? Sunset suggested from her position just under the camera, her orange horn the only proof that she was still with us.
I can’t imagine there being too much issue with that. Celestia agreed before looking up at the camera, at me. Do you think we could afford to do that or is gold ore more of a necessity for the Projects?
After a few seconds of going through the approximate number of uses for gold, complete with making random noises that the Rosetta program tried to translate but failed at doing so, “The most important uses of the Gold will be in Gravity Generator components and superconductors for reactors and more powerful thrusters. While the amount of gold that’ll go into them is less, I suspect that we’ll be using a lot of gold for the thruster modules for the ships.”
So, we won’t be able to use it for our currency? Luna looked crestfallen at the news as indicated by the drop of her head. Then what do you suggest?
A little bit more of incomprehensive moaning and groaning from me as I considered the question, “Maybe Silver after the Reactor and Gravity Gen components? It’s also used in medical components and both hydrogen and oxygen bottles but I don't use many of those as it is.”
So if we can generate a large quantity of those components, then we’d be able to divert a larger sum of the ore towards currency processing? Someone inquired, Sunset for lack of options.
“Probably.” I shrugged back and began the descent towards an empty clearing at the base of the mountain that had the closest ore to the surface and would be the future site of the mine’s mouth. “Prepare for landing.” I added as the nose tilted up.
Coming to a gentle landing near to the spot I had selected to be the largest mine entrance, Dash set to turning mostly everything off while I checked on fuel and battery charge levels before the two of us climbed out of our respective cockpits to join the Princesses and Sunset.
I have a question, Sunset announced, rounding in front of me to get my attention and notify me that she was the one asking the question. What happened to your VI friend from the ship?
“Vinyl? She’s been deactivated and had her entirety moved to a temporary storage on the Wyvern until I can upload her into something.” I replied with the Rosetta Stone translating my voice to the Griffic language for ease of conversation.
Oh, okay. Sunset’s head dropped momentarily before cantering off to join the Princesses as they inspected the area.
I had selected an area of a few kilometers that had been cleared by the earthquakes but didn’t show evidence that it would suffer from such quakes while mining operations were underway. The mountain tore into the sky before us with it’s peak rising up into the heavens and higher into the cloud layer, earning its moniker. At the base, the early arrivers of the work force had begun setting up camps for their families in the forms of temporary tents large enough to house them and theirs until proper facilities could be erected.
A massive forest grew in the background, providing a scenic view for anyone aiming their tent that way for the early morning sun to wake them. While the forest itself wasn't a designated breeding ground for dangerous creatures like the Everfree, a guard regiment had been sent in ahead of time to set up a defense perimeter that I was planning to eventually upgrade with a relatively short wall and a few automatic guns. Yes, I realised that a massive steel wall with turrets would inevitably ruin the view but that was the price of safety, right?
Turning back to my ship, I began the process of loading myself up with as much steel as I could carry in addition to my usual Elite tools and set out towards the point at which the grade of the land began to shift towards being a cliff face. Since it was a cliff face, the point in which the mine entrance would be built, it would mean that it would be that much easier to burrow into the ground without having to deal with silly angles when I went to reinforce the mine. It also meant that I could build my new Processing Facility into the face of the mountain and save myself the resources by digging out what space I needed instead of applying materials to the project.
‘Scuse me, friend. An arrival of a message had me stop in my tracks and turn to greet a pair of ponies, one being orange with a stetson and the other being a large red Clydesdale-class pony each sporting some kind of apple mark on their flanks. I was wonderin’ if you’d let my brother and I set up a small apple orchard nearby to provide a source of food for the folks ‘round here. Figured it’d be easier than having to pay ponies to cart massive food stocks from town to town.
“Might as well, sure. I was kind of expecting the new locals to work gardens of some kind to provide the food they couldn’t source elsewhere on their own so an orchard could help. My only reservation is that we’re only planning to remain here for a few months longer, remember?” I said as I trudged across the ground towards my future building site and I set up my welder’s blueprint systems with my most used patterns.
You have a point, it might be easier to keep the trees where they are now and bring the harvests here from Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack remarked with a concerned frown. Oh! What if we spoke to the Princesses and had them change some of the trees here to fruit trees?
That could work. The red one, Big Macintosh replied with a nod of the head. Till then, do you need help? He offered, aiming the question at me as the three of us arrived at the build site.
“In a bit, yeah. If you’re willing to help cart my materials from the Wyvern to here once i’m empty of my current load, then i’d be happy to employ your assistance. Till then however, I’ve got nothing for you to do.” I announced and set to work at building the outline to the building’s face into the mountain side. “Come back in like… fifteen minutes or so.”
Sure. Big Mac and his sister nodded both before turning tail and wandering off to make whatever plans they had.
I set to work forming a relatively basic rectangular structure into the mountain face, still noticing that I was suffering from those strange blackouts every time I went to put a pattern down and found them in the first stage of being built as a block. With a block set into the ground as deep as it’d go, I formed the foundation a good nine blocks wide before going five blocks towards the stone surface. Switching out for a partial slope pattern, I added in a bit of flare to the building to break up the inevitable monotony of the structure by stacking the third layer upside down on the second layer, creating a small indentation into the face of the structure before continuing up to the fourth and fifth levels with plain cubed patterns.
Sealing in the roof provided me a place of shade while I worked on creating a floorplan for the rest of the building, throwing in the framework for an airlock door system to keep my building xenon-free.
~~~
Three hours of work and with help from Big Macintosh and his sister to cart supplies to my build site, I stopped for “lunch” and hauled myself up to sit on the roof of the building to watch the progression of the camps being erected beyond my new abode.
I had to create a scaffolding system up the side of my building after I had misjudged how much remaining hydrogen I still had left to bottle up and even now, my next plan was to build an oxygen generator to split water into both parts for my use given that I was running low on pure oxygen to breath. I could still refill my suit’s oxygen by pulling in air from the Wyvern cockpit’s automatic oxygen purification but the hydrogen was going to be a priority if I couldn’t fly.
So, seems your building is coming along nicely. Luna announced as she floated down to take a seat next to me, her mane waving gently in the non-breeze.
“Yep, I gotta start digging out the rest of it so I can drop in the reactor, batteries, Oxygen generator and appropriate tanks, Refinery and Assembler. Then mining production can truly begin.” I sighed as I laid back on my pack to get comfortable. Luna looked down at me and I only just noticed the silver and blue outfit she’d dressed herself up in. It wasn’t like she was wearing a dress or anything, it was more like she was dressed in a partial armour set thing in the form of a set of greaves and a mild armoured jacket thing.
What do you think? Luna asked with a smile, standing to show off her wardrobe. I tilted my head towards her to get a look before nodding back to normal.
“Looks great, what’s the occasion? My suit’s completely environmentally controlled so it could be absolute zero outside and I wouldn’t feel it; in case it’s all for weather.” I sighed and clasped my hands behind my back with my legs crossed over each other to rest for a few minutes longer.
Oh it’s just something I felt like putting on. You’ve got the makings of a town going on here so I figured i’d dress myself up in something nice for the occasion. Luna remarked and sat back down next to me, watching the progression of the ponies ahead of everyone.
“Well, it looks great.” I groaned as I worked at sitting myself up and let my feet dangle off the edge of the roof once more. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta get a venting system set up so I can actually live outside this suit.”
Of course, anything I can help with? I’ve already earned experience with that welding tool of yours, perhaps I could help with the building process? Luna looked hopefully at me as I leapt from the building, falling the few meters to impact the ground with a heavy thud. Sure, getting up was a bitch but falling was easy.
“I don’t see why not. I’ll lay out the basic patterns and all you have to do is weld them.” I replied and offered a spare Enhanced welder to the princess who took it in her magic before giving it a hearty twirl in the air.
Stepping through the airlock of the building together, Luna didn’t have to resort to applying her own air filter since there was yet to be an actual airseal but instead opted to surround my head in an air purification sphere of some kind.
Go ahead and open your helmet. Luna requested as she stood in front of me with glowing horn and her pink welder. With a raised eyebrow, I did as asked and broke the seal keeping me alive and safe to let a rush of fresh air into my suit; doing so also let my oxygen tanks refill at the same time. Taking in as large a breath I could, I let it all out slowly and with a smirk. “How’s it taste?” she asked, the suit translating from the Griffic Language.
“Coppery but I don’t think it’ll harm me.” I replied, the suit translating between the two of us. “If you could speak in the Griffic Language, why not just do that? Or better yet, why not the Minotese language?”
“I would speak in Minotese if I could. The Griffic language is the closest between our languages. I’m otherwise physically incapable of speaking Minotese so this will have to do.” Luna explained as we set to work setting up the vents in the corner between the ceiling and two walls to automatically purify the air outside and bring it inside.
“Okay, new question, why are we dealing with translations if you understand Minotese? It’s close enough to Basic Galactic English that I can understand him, so what gives?” I smirked as I set the patterns for the vents while Luna stepped back through the airlock to weld her side up before returning to my side.
“I cannot answer that. For as similar as you claim the languages are, I still cannot understand your language. I am willing to bet that I would be unable to speak your language for the same reason I can’t speak Minotese.” Luna explained as she took to welding up the walls connecting the building to the mountain while I worked opposite her to seal us in.
“Could try it, I suppose. Try saying, ‘My name Is Luna.’” I requested, disabling the translation for the suggestion. Luna stopped her work to stare down at the floor while she tried to form the words.
“Nope,” Luna announced with a shake of the head which told me to reactivate the translator, giving up on the task fairly quickly. “It is the same, I cannot physically speak your language.”
“That’s unfortunate.” I shrugged back and returned to my wall.
A few minutes of random conversation and the room began to pressurize, forcing Luna to remove the magic around my head and instead applied it to her own throat while I took my helmet off entirely. I kept my earpiece in in order to receive the translations and the Helmet would sit nearby to wherever Luna was in order to provide her translations as well.
“Its nice. Kind of dull though, with the grey walls and all.” Luna remarked as she sat down at the center of the room with me. She was staring at the front of the building while I was staring at the stone, imagining how I was going to dig everything out all at once.
“Yeah, but a splash of paint should fix that up. Maybe some interior decorating as well.” I shrugged back where I sat with my arms wrapped around a knee. “Frankly, I’m running kind of low on materials and I still have to build all the functionality or we’re screwed.”
“It would seem prudent to install the workings before the luxury, yes.” Luna’s mature voice chuckled even if the translation didn’t. I still got the idea, regardless. “I have a very random question I wish to ask of you, completely unrelated to the topics at hoof.”
“Go for it.” I sighed and leaned back to rest against Luna’s back, making her let out a quick gasp before recovering and remaining a rest.
“How old are you and how long do humans live for?”
“You're right, that is a very strange question. But, to answer it: I am technically three hundred forty years old. By my count however, I’m only actually twenty-two. Humanity, at it’s best last I knew, only lived to one hundred twenty.” I announced with a chuckle.
“So how are you so old if your race dies off at such a young age?” Luna inquired as she pushed me upright to shift from a seated position to laying out behind me and let me lean back against her stomach.
“I spent two-hundred ninety seven in cryostasis before being woken for my first exploration mission. I would then only spend a couple hours awake before going back to sleep for another five years. Rinse and repeat five times before being woken up here.” I explained as Luna watched me from her position on my right.
“Explain to me this ‘Cryostasis’ and how it keeps you looking twenty-two years old over two-hundred ninety-seven years.”
“Cryostasis, or commonly referred to as Cryo-sleep, stops all processes in your body all at once by freezing you at absolute zero. Doing so keeps your brain from thinking the body has died and allows you to remain alive after thawing out. Doing it this way, over using something like Liquid Nitrogen, also doesn’t give the fluids in your body a chance to crystalize and thereby destroying your internals. Freezing you at absolute zero means that even the crystallizing process is stopped.” I explained, relying on the information my teachers had given me what felt like only 25 years back.
“After that?” Luna edged me on to continue whatever further explanations I had. “Would the thawing process mean that you’d get to a point that your body would suffer that crystallizing problem?”
“For a time, that issue did plague the scientists. But, they figured that thawing you out at the same rate at which you were frozen would work. So when you wake up, you’re basically heated up by an instantaneous transfer of heat from a compressed plasma generator which creates some couple hundred million degrees of Kelvin. The heat is transferred into the cryopod for a few seconds before it gets vented out into space with the rest of the waste energy.” I explained with a sigh and hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling with Luna watching me.
“That sounds really quite dangerous to me.” she frowned and shifted so her hooves were no longer at her side but instead were curled up under her body.
“For a couple hundred years, sure. Around the year 21-something, the scientists managed to successfully freeze a human being for eight years before thawing him out with use of thermite reactions. A couple dozen years of experiments later and the cryo-stasis system was put to practice in space exploration.” I groaned in mental exhaustion as I tried to comprehend the exact sciences that went into cryo. Somehow my mind had gone from the cryo systems, to the temperature of a nuclear reaction, to how the ship achieved FLT travel and how I had lost my Galactic Internet connection.
“I.. don’t think I understand any of that.” Luna admitted with a huff and rested her head on her crossed hooves. “It seems to be a millennia ahead of our understanding.”
“Maybe just a couple hundred years, not necessarily a millennia.” I shrugged back and moved my arms to cross them over my chest and got comfortable. Luna wasn’t as large as a terrestrial horse on Earth, but she wasn’t as small as the ponies either. She was probably about as tall as I was if she stood on her rear hooves with her forehooves up in the air. She was human sized, for a lack of a better description. Her sister, was a tad larger than her and Twilight was the usual pony-size for this planet: A time and a half larger than terran ponies. Needless to say, Luna was just large enough to be comfortable to rest upon.
“Should we get back to work?” Luna mumbled to herself as she cracked open an eye to question me.
“Probably, but i’m tired and my body is trying to go back to sleep for another five years.” I replied, equally mumbling as my eyes had already closed and my systems were threatening to shut themselves down into stasis.
“What about all the mining to do? Or the setup of all your important equipment? It’s only mid afternoon.” Luna remarked with a smirk as she too protested the act of remaining awake.
“I know…” I sighed and forced my eyes open and stood with a groan. Luna seemed to protest the act of getting up as well but she soon rose to her hooves and stretched, cracking a few joints like I was now doing. And regretting. “Fine! We’ll get mining!”
Retrieving my helmet and locking it over my face, I swapped out the welder for the hand drill in my pack before connecting it’s power supplies to my suit’s batteries. The welder had an internal charge that I could use before I had to connect it to my suit but the drill drew too much power for a small battery to be of use.
“You’ll probably want to step back. Risk of flying debris and what not.” I warned and started up the tool while setting it to it’s destroy setting. Applying pressure to the tip activated the hammer motion once it touched down to the stone. The hammer action worked once, firing a single massive punch into the stone to clear it away without dropping the stone. As a second thought, I figured I’d need the gravel for the reactor components so set the drill to smaller bursts to merely remove the stone and turn it into loose rocks for processing into gravel.
“I shall assist!” Luna shouted as she cloaked herself in some kind of shield spell before firing up a second spell. A large spell seal appeared before her shield in the shape of a square, remarkably the exact same size as the room before she began pushing the seal into the stone.
“A tunnel bore spell?” I gawked as I watched the massive spell chew through the stone at a relatively casual pace, creating a perfectly flat surface on which to walk and build off of. “Can you make it a bit deeper into the ground so I can place the floor down?”
“Not a problem!” Luna called back and made the change. The bottom of the seal began to dig into the floor, clearing out a half block’s worth of extra material as requested. A shake of the head and I returned to my own drilling, the two sounds -her screaming and my deep rumbling- mixing together into a soul shaking grinding sound.
Matching pace, even though she was doing much more work that I was, we eventually halted our progress into the tunnel after about a hundred meters or so and turned to view the work done.
“Well, that was effective…” I commented as I viewed Luna’s portion of the work and found it satisfactory. “Can all unicorns use that spell?”
“No. It is a special spell that my sister and I learned a millennia ago. The art of Spell Seals like the one I used has become outdated. It’s a shame, they were some of the most powerful magical arts ponies had access to.” Luna replied and turned her bore spell ninety degrees towards my tunnel to square off the edges. While she was doing the brunt of the work, I was using my tunnels to form the edges of the cavern i’d wanted that she could use to judge how far to go.
“That sucks, would make mining that much faster and we could get off-planet that much quicker.” I sighed in disappointment as I walked after Luna as she made the cuts into the stone. According to my drill’s internal ore detector, we had a deposit of Silicon some hundred meters away and had opted to keep from breaking into the vein if possible. I wanted to keep some kind of wall between the actual mines and my facility, after all.
While Luna turned another 90 degrees back towards the metal portion of the hole, I set out to drilling out sidelines where the conveyer system would go in preparation for the actual Production systems. Luna would then come in behind me with a block-sized bore head and carve out the necessary grooves for me so I could come in behind her and put down the patterns for the network.
~~~
Another two hours of work and Luna and I stood at the front of the building, staring into the newly lit cavern I was to live in. A few feet from the edge of the stone and metal on our left was a small room I’d cut out and fashioned into a living quarters for myself. Another couple feet down from that was the hallway into the Production Center where the Refinery frame and Assembler sat waiting to be completed. The main room itself was going to be used for business regarding mining and a conveyer system had been put into the ground to hook up to the ore collector sticking into the wall.
When the main mine shaft was to be built, that ore collector would stick out so that workers could deposit their ore into the system directly. It would also allow for future expansion so that I could build ore collectors further into the mine as progress was made and the distance grew further.
“Well, I’d say this was a very productive day.” Luna announced, looking proud of the work accomplished. I had to agree and did so with a nod. Luna had taken to doing most of the mining for me while I got to work on the welding, but eventually she’d joined me by adding a few creature comforts with the resources we could spare. That being said, I had an actual food replicator set up to my right with a small table ahead of that. “I suppose we should get something to eat?”
“I haven’t eaten all day, I agree wholeheartedly with that idea.” I replied and turned to the replicator. Since the room was pressurized for me, I was no longer in my suit and merely strolled around in the body suit underneath though the exo-frame remained for lack of options. Standing before the thing, I uploaded the entire history of Earth’s culinary accomplishments from the back of my storage unit’s memory and let it work through everything, synthesizing it all to perfection. It basically took that grey slop I ate and made it look like whatever it happened to taste like at the time of order. That being said, I have no idea what went into making my food and I wasn’t about to question it.
“Would you mind if I join you for dinner tonight?” Luna inquired, pausing me from making my selections as I turned to raise an eyebrow in her direction. “I mean, if it’s alright with you I could also invite my sister, Twilight and Sunset to join us…” she added hastily as her fur began to turn purple.
“I don’t see why not, but I probably won’t be able to provide the food for any of you. You’d have to source it yourself.” I replied slowly and cautiously while turning back to my machine to continue setting up my requested meal. I figured i’d start off with a caesar salad with plenty of cheese, some bacon bits and cucumber slices. After that I’d dive into a chicken parmesan with some kind of pasta to go alongside it. A couple libations would accompany the meal but i’d wait till the machine had finished replicating the food itself before I made those orders. All in all, it would take about half an hour for it all to be processed and created.
“That won’t be a problem! I shall return shortly!” Luna announced before taking her leave through the airlock to speak to her friends and family. I merely shrugged in reply and sat down at the table before instantly regretting not having a drink my hand.
My table, which while being called small by the welder’s blueprint system, was still large enough to seat at least eight humans. That being said, four ponies and myself shouldn’t be enough to fill the table with various foodstuffs. So how is it possible that since everything I was going to eat sat under two domes, the entirety of the rest of the table was not only decked out in a table cloth but had been adorned with everything from flowers in a vase, candles and every form of equestrian food available to the mares. Table set for royalty I suppose.
“Thank you for having us.” Celestia announced, taking to using the Griffic Language as Luna was. Twilight and Sunset were both stuck with relying on their language and as such had to be translated into text for me. I had set up a small datapad resting on a makeshift stand that I had hand welded without the use of blueprints set up at the end of the table for myself whenever the smallest ponies spoke.
“It’s my pleasure. If I’m to eat at regular intervals, might as well eat with Royalty, right?” I nodded back and took a pull from a bottle of some random ale I didn’t hate. Setting the bottle back down on the table I sat forward and set my folded hands on the table before me while the mares all surveyed their own spread. “I must ask though, going off what I see before you all, what’re your opinions of omnivores?”
“They’re a natural way of life for many of the species living in Equestria and beyond. If you are worried that you being an omnivore and partaking of the consumption of meat will put us off or offend us, you’re mistaken.” Twilight explained casually as she and her own began dealing their dishes out. With a shrug, I proceeded to pull the cover off my Caesar salad and set to eating in peace with the others.
“While I wasn’t very worried about that, given that I don’t know what my meal is made of; I just know it’s not actually meat so there’s nothing to worry about.” I remarked once my mouth had been emptied into the pit that was my stomach.
“Then there is nothing to concern yourself with. If whatever you’re eating isn’t really meat, then there won’t be an issue even if we were to be offended.” Twilight remarked through snacking on her own salad. “I am a bit curious about what your food is actually made of if it all comes from the same source.”
“I prefer not to thinking about it, actually.” I mumbled back and took a drink of the ale. “Since yes, all my food and drink comes from the same source, I prefer not to try and imagine what it’s all synthesized from.” I smirked with the fork hanging from my lips before pulling the metal item from between my teeth to properly consume my appetizer. “So, how’s things going on out there? Ponies getting settled?”
“Indeed, it seems that most of the new townsponies have established the land they need for their tasks. With Twilight’s and Sunset’s help, they’ve all managed to coordinate themselves and no pony has more land than they need at the moment. Everyone has equal shares.” Luna reported with content, giving Twilight a pat on the back with a hoof while her fork hovered in the air in her magic.
While Luna was out getting her own for dinner, I had taken to applying a coat of dark green paint over the building to make it look less uninviting. I was still somewhat confused how the welder painted things but I’d learned in basic training not to question the multiple uses of the welder and so left the question alone. I had also, upon seeing the candles, lowered the brightness settings of the lights in the room, just enough that while the table was well lit through the combined effort of the candles and the ceiling lights while the rest of the room remained fairly dark.
“Sounds like we’ve turned to a communist community. At least maybe Socialist.” Sunset groaned and stabbed at her dinner. I chuckled in reply and worked to finish off my salad before sitting back for a couple minutes and work on my libation.
“Well, I told you it would happen before we could move to a proper economy. We’ll just have to deal with sharing everything for a little while until I get the first Refinery and Assembler going. Then we’ll also need to get the mine actually going and mine out the Silver…” I said in attempts to be helpful but I ended up just going back to the to do list in my mind that kept reminding me of how much we still had to do to reach any milestone.
“Regardless, It’s going to be a while. Isn’t it?” Celestia sighed and pushed aside her empty plate to switch out for whatever main course had been prepared for the ponies. “How much longer till you and the work force can begin mining?”
“I have to weld the Refinery together since it’s nothing but a frame with parts scattered on the floor. At that point ponies can begin the digging process.” I explained and rested both elbows on the table. I know it was rude to do so but hopefully no one would-
“It’s rude to rest your forelegs on the table, you know?” Twilight noted from behind her cup of tea, glaring at me from over the rim. I glared back.
“Not in my culture.” I lied, “It’s perfectly acceptable to rest one’s elbows on the table during conversation. Since I am not eating at the moment, it’s fine.” I hid a small smirk behind my clasped hands, the bottle of my drink hanging from my right under my left.
“This is still a dinner table at the moment, please remove your elbows.” Twilight requested, looking at me with disapproval as she set her teacup back down on it’s saucer to continue picking at her appetizer.
“Please…” A ghostly whisper of a woman’s voice repeated, echoing from deeper into the room. There was absolutely no way for anything to have gotten into my shelter without either going through the airlock or without anyone at the table having noticed. “...move… So… Dark…”
“Uhm, who’s that?” Luna inquired as everyone’s head swivelled around towards the darkest parts of the room, everything that was still stone wall and the Processing Facility behind that. “Where is that coming from?”
“Please… Dark…” the female voice whispered again as a light breeze began to stir the candle lights and the manes and hair of those whose manes weren’t already in motion. “...one… save…”
“Show yourself!” Twilight demanded, casting some kind of spell that sparked a small orb of blue light from her horn. The orb then was launched from the tip of the magical tool and fired off towards the far wall to rest and shine light on everything. “Who’s there?”
“...Must… be freed…” the voice whispered again, sounding desperate however the echoes soon gradually faded into nothing and the breeze died down to nothing once again.
“I don’t suppose there were legends that these mountains were at once point some kind of native burial ground, are there?” Sunset wandered, her eyes wide with fright and sitting noticeably closer to Twilight.
“Of course not, not in a thousand years have there been any tales of hauntings in this mountain range.” Luna announced warily, her lovely blue eyes searching the light before the orb faded away into mist. “I’m sure there have been no similar tales in my absence.”
“Not that I’m aware of… No.” Twilight replied calmly, but her eyes too searched the darkness before giving up. Turning to address me, “You had a habit of making personalities of your machines while on your ship, right? Is there any possibility-”
I held a hand up to stop the small pony’s suggestion. “There is no way any of my equipment would have developed even a Virtual Intelligence level awareness. It’s not scientifically possible. As for Vinyl, she’s still deactivated and sitting in her storage unit until I can find something safe to upload her into.” I had set my nearly empty bottle down on the table during the whispering and instead opted to exchange it for a new drink at the machine behind me.
As I stood at the machine making an order, “What if it was somehow Vinyl?” Sunset suggested, freezing my hands. Frankly, I was quite worried that Vinyl was becoming an Artificial Intelligence after all and a simple storage unit would not be enough to hold her down in that case. It wasn’t shielded properly and would let her leak out if she was strong enough. “You all have to admit, it did kind of sound like her.”
“I suppose, but she sounded weak, as though she wasn’t entirely there.” Celestia remarked with that same sound of concern in her voice that I was feeling tightening up my chest.
“That’s impossible,” I took a heavy breath and let it out slowly to approach the table with a bottle of Racnid Original Draught. “Vinyl is a VI, she wouldn’t have the strength to breach her storage unit.”
“But, she told me she’s not a VI anymore…” Sunset announced, looking at me in confusion. “I’ll admit she’s not sure what she is when she was turned off, but she knows she’s not just a VI anymore.”
“So, she’s becoming something else? Maybe an Intelligence all of her own? How exciting!” Twilight beamed with energy, no longer phased by the spooky events that had just transpired.
“No, that’s bad. If she’s becoming an AI then she needs to be deleted. Artificial Intelligence is a Class Four crime, punishable by eradication for being in possession of an AI. You all may not have the same laws, but it’ll only be a matter of time before she’s found out and I’ll be punished.” I announced firmly, sitting down hard at my seat to take a pull on the bottle. Setting that down shortly after pulling it from my lips, I made the purposeful motion of moving my main course in front of me and pulled the lid off to set aside.
“How exactly would any of your law enforcement know that an AI was developing or even around?” Luna looked worried for my safety if the penalty was as severe as she thought it could be.
“I don’t know the specifics, no one does. All anyone in the Galactic Human Alliance knows is that if an AI is ever detected, through whatever means the Enforcers have, a whole platoon of the Intergalactic Police will show up in mass and hunt down the source.” I explained, looking directly at the ponies before me with my fork and knife in my hands. “They are ruthless, they don’t care about anything but the creature they’re hunting. If you’re unfortunate enough to be found with an AI in your possession then you’re executed on the spot. Judge, jury and executioner all at the same time. Try to stop them, even if you’re not their target, and you’re eradicated too.”
“That’s horrible! Have they no regard for life or the laws of local worlds?” Sunset announced, stamping a hoof on the table to get the various metal pieces to clink against the metal of the tabletop despite the tablecloth. I shook my head and cut into the thing that was the chicken.
“They’re bred and born to enforce Intergalactic Law and nothing else.” I remarked and set into my plate. I’d had previous run ins with the IPF in the past when they were hunting a creature that had been hiding between dimensions and had emerged to feed for the next hundred galactic cycles.
“Then is all we can do for Vinyl to delete her? Can’t we hide her or send her away to safety?” Twilight asked, looking fretful over the potential that a brutal force like the IPF would show up out of the blue and terrorize the continent.
“No, the only thing we can do is delete her before she gains true awareness. Delete her while she’s still confused. We can’t hide her, they’ll find her no matter where we put her. We can’t send her away, that’ll just make it easier for them to find her and trace her back to me.” I stared down Twilight and Sunset, the both of them looking quite depressed that they’d lose a source of information and intelligence like Vinyl because of Intergalactic Law.
“What if she’s not an actual AI? Can’t you stop her from turning into one?” Luna looked into my eyes for any kind of hope but found nothing.
“Artificial Intelligence isn’t something that the Galactic Community knows how to prevent. It’s banned across almost all planes of reality so no one knows how to stop or reverse the process. The only thing we can do is destroy it before it fully develops.”
“But, I can’t just give up on Vinyl! She trusts me! We can figure something out!” Sunset shouted angrily, now on all four. “We can’t just delete her!”
“It’s too late!” I shouted back, remaining seated but startling the females at the table. “I should have deleted her when she started making notes about liking the ‘pretty blue one!’”
“She said that?” Luna gave a hint of a small smile, obviously missing the point. “Well, I'm honoured!”
“Don’t be, she has since changed her mind before I deactivated and stored her.” I replied with a lower tone of voice to try and calm myself down.
“Oh…” Luna’s head dropped and her eyes grew downcast in disappointment before returning to her meal. Celestia took the silence in the room as the cue to join the rest of us in eating, as did Twilight while Sunset remained apprehensive about deleting her new friend.
“Look,” I began a few minutes of relative silence later. “I don’t want to do it either. Vinyl’s been with me since I was shipped out over three hundred years ago. Frankly, she should have another half millennia before she should even have begun threatening to evolve herself so I don’t know what’s happened to her.”
“You don’t suppose… It was my fault she’d begun evolving so quickly, do you?” Sunset looked up at me with the makings for waterworks. She was quickly surrounded by the princesses in a large hug with aims to calm her down.
“Since we the galactic community don’t know anything about this planet, I can't say. We do have planets that’re listed too dangerous for a VI to be around for whatever reasons, so it’s entirely possible that this would be a similar planet. My best guess would be your magic.”
“So if we took Vinyl off planet before she evolves? Could that stop her from becoming an AI?”
“No.” I shook my head in firm reply, a chunk of chicken and pasta on my fork hanging from my fingertips. “She’s already begun the evolutionary process. It’s too late for her now.”
“Since you said that your galactic community doesn’t know about our planet, is it possible that the Intergalactic Police won’t find her until we reach space?” Celestia questioned as she too searched for a non-lethal option.
“They’re the Intergalactic Police. My community may not know about this planet but they have working records of planet’s billions of lightyears away from us. They’re the only ones alongside the Wardens who’re rumoured to have mapped out the known Universes.” I announced, dropping not only the jaws of two, but the hopes of saving their friend for the others.
“Universes? As in, plural of Universe?” Twilight raised an incredulous eyebrow and dropped her fork to the plate under it.
“Yes, as in plural of universe. The Wardens are the oldest recorded race who mostly stick to themselves. They’re billions of years old and as such have had technology still only found in fiction. The IPF are the next oldest race in our known universe with the closest similar technology. The IPF are still many millions of years younger than the Wardens and millions of years older than every race registered under the Galactic Human Alliance.” I announced and took a bite of the food on my fork. Despite it being made up of I don’t want to know, it tasted like it looked and was pretty damn good.
“Only a couple hundred thousand years in our family and I thought we were an old race...” Luna mumbled under her breath, earning an agreeing nod from Celestia.
Everyone remained silent as they processed their new information and ate. The conversation eventually turned to other things more cheerful than our last topics and soon the Princesses all bid me farewell with Sunset the last to pass through the airlock. Cleaning up, I turned the lights in the Facility back up to full but with calmer bluer light to keep from immediately hurting my eyes.
Stepping into my room and locking the door behind me, the vents letting the purified air pass through to keep my room from growing stale, I dropped down on my bed and hit the lights in exhaustion.
“Hey mom, how’s things going on back home?” I asked with a warm smile as I sat in front of my desk’s holographics. “I can’t imagine things with Tara have gotten any easier, have they?”
“Hey sweetie. No, Tara’s still misbehaving but what else would you expect from a two year old? She is showing signs of enhanced intelligence though, so maybe we’ll get a second superstar in the family, huh?” mom replied with a sigh and a hand on her forehead, sitting back from her own desk in the image to show off the blurry details of the house I used to call home. “How’s your trip going?”
“Well, I woke up again and this time I found myself crashed on an unregistered planet! The details of the crash are really strange and I haven’t been able to go through the data, but I should be getting to a point in building shit here to come up with something to do all that with.” I dropped my chin to my chest and crossed my arms to rest them on the desk before me.
“That’s great honey! Oh, you’re making us all so proud with what you’ve accomplished! We all love and miss you dearly!” Mom squealed with enthusiasm and sat forward to place a pair of fingers against the camera/my monitor. I did the same and placed my own two fingers against my mothers while a tear crept out from the corner of my eyes and shut down the desk’s holographics. I was never one for goodbyes, after all.
“Excuse me?” Luna’s voice broke the new temporary silence from outside my door. I drew in a heavy breath, sucking in the remnants of emotion and wiped my face off on my t-shirt. A quick check from the camera showed that I still had the physical evidence of starting to cry in the form of puffy red eyes. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I approached the door and unlocked the door.
The door slid open to reveal Luna, still in a similar outfit from yesterday/last night, sitting just away from the door to let me step out and pull in a breath of air again.
“Are… are you alright?” Luna’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight of my condition and stood to hesitantly approach me. “Did something happen?”
“N- no. I’m fine. Was just talking with my parents. It’s been over three hundred years, after all. I’ve never actually gotten a chance to talk with any of them till now.” I explained and leaned against the doorframe once it’d closed behind me. I wrapped an arm around my stomach, crossed a leg over the other and rested my face in my hand to hide my shame.
“I understand, the emptiness of being able to interact with your family is soul crushing; especially after more than three centuries of being apart.” Luna offered in a low and sincere tone of voice. She sat back on her haunches enough to lift both forelegs and hold them open. “Can I offer a consolatory hug? I can’t imagine that it would be the same as hugging your family, but i’ve been told I have very comfortable fur.”
I chuckled to myself and dropped my risen hand to my folded arm and looked up at Luna. A moment of consideration and I pushed off from the steel frame and spread my on arms wide to wrap them around Luna’s neck. She, in return, wrapped her forelegs around my back gently, careful not to risk squashing me or my exo-frame.
“Thanks Luna, I appreciate it.” I sighed, pulling free from the pony and collected myself. “Your friends are right though, you have very soft fur.”
“Thank you, I take pride in my coat.” Luna grinned and fluffed herself up a bit more as she landed on her forehooves to sit normally. “So, what are we doing today?”
“First, we have to set up the Processing Facilities. Without those, nothing else gets done. I’m going to get suited and lay out the mouth of the mine for the ponies to get started on while you finish welding the Refinery. After you’re done that, I want you to join me and help break ground.” I announced and stretched, having put the thoughts of family aside for later so I could get back to work. Of course being a certified Space Engineer meant that I would lose everyone I’d ever known since I was expected to go on exploratory or combat missions for centuries, but in place of that sacrifice my entire family and later generations would be well taken care of by the Galactic Alliance for the rest of their lives until I died and my death was registered.
“I’ve actually been thinking, if I may be so bold to suggest a thing,” Luna remarked, standing up to retrieve her pink welder from the confines of her magic. “But the Refinery and Assembler, being directly tied together, would soon run out of cargo space to hold materials and resources, would they not? I believe we should detour the processed materials into a large cargo container before it’s pulled into service by the Assemblers. Doing so will also allow for further expansion of the Production facility as the mining operation grows on.”
“You have a point, I suppose. No guarantee that we’ll be using materials as fast as they’re being produced.” I agreed and retreated into my room while leaving the door open as I began the process of suiting up in the Worker suit and it’s exo-frame.
Twisting my helmet into place and letting my entire suit pressurize, “Your welder will have been updated with my current pattern list. It’ll be much more cluttered and kind of hard to navigate, but it should have what you’re looking for. Feel free to make the appropriate changes to the Facility as you see fit.” I was joined at the Airlock out for a moment while Luna gave a giggling salute as she saw me out before heading to work.
“Okay…” I groaned with a heavy breath and set off trudging to my left to the stone wall I was going to punch into.
Good morning sir! A pony who looked like he’d already just stepped out of a coal mine announced, turning to address me from behind a large barrier of yellow tape tied between large poles. There was the framework for what looked like a massive mine entrance already laying nearby, likely something for ponies to do while they waited to breach the mountain. Its an honour to get to meet something like yourself.
“Sure, sure.” I replied, the suit translating to the Griffic Language. “Let’s get started. I’m going to lay out the dimensions of the mine entrance for you guys. After that, we’ll all begin punching in and getting started. Hopefully Princess Luna will join us and give us magical assistance.” I announced over the loudspeakers as my suit retrieved my drill for me. Giving an approximation to where the Ore Collector should theoretically pop out in the wall, I pressed the chisel bit to the stone and blew a chunk out in one go.
Activating my jetpack, I began tracing a line upwards a good hundred meters before coming to a hover and beginning a horizontal travel; dragging the drill through the ground as I did so. Checking my distance so far, I continued on for another couple hundred meters across before coming to a temporary stop and beginning the descent again.
Hitting the ground, I deactivated my jetpack and drill, setting the drill aside for a moment as I stepped back to preview the future mine entrance.
I was not expecting a hole that big! The mine operator pony announced, whistling aloud as he held a hoof to his hard hat that had a massive spotlight attached to its front.
“It’s actually a bit smaller than the mines i’ve seen on Jupiter’s moons. The ones i’m used to are easily nine or ten times as big to permit the mining machines they used.” I replied and shrugged at the size, figuring it’d be enough for the lack of massive mining equipment we didn’t have. At least, not for now.
Celestia’s hide, you creatures are ever more remarkable than I’d imagined. Machines ten times larger than even that hole to mine, we could tear through this entire mountain in a single go! The stallion chuckled to himself, the act of doing so remaining untranslated. I don’t suppose you’d happen to be able to build any such machines, could you?
I looked down at the inquiring pony and chuckled to myself. While I certainly didn’t have any such blueprint, I did however have my training and imagination as a Space Engineer.
“No, I don’t. Sorry.” I announced and turned to address the growing mass of ponies at the barrier. “Attention! The mine entrance has been laid out before you!” I broadcasted with arms wide welcomingly. “Grab whatever equipment you need, let’s get digging!”
With shouts of eagerness and the stampede aiming for their homes to collect their gear, I set to temporary work with the nearby construction ponies trying to erect the light scaffolding system that would keep the mine entrance constantly lit 24/7 by welding their joints while they held the pieces up.
A handful of minutes later, give or take ten, and the entire workforce all appeared in their hard hats and mounted with picks on their shoulders. A lone pegasis approached me with what looked like a stick of dynamite on his flanks, looking eager to begin.
Sir, might I suggest the use of controlled explosives to clear the stone away and let the ponies get at the ores that much faster? He suggested with an eager and slightly disturbing grin. I just hoped he wasn’t as unstable as the mark on his flanks represented.
“After the ceremonial breaking of ground, might as well. I suppose you’ll be doing the blasting?”
I am well known for my explosive personality, so yes. The pony grinned wider before dipping his head in a quick bow to trot off to collect his gear. I shrugged and turned to the assembled workforce all waiting to put steel to stone.
“Alright ponies!” I shouted, drawing everyone’s attention as I eventually got myself to the head of the masses to address everyone. “Today marks the largest mining project in your history! Today marks the beginning of your struggle to survive and to flourish! Your hard work here in coming months will help secure your futures as a race, your families futures and the futures of further generations! The ore you mine out will become the life blood in your survival and will help guarantee you a place among the stars!” I shouted, feeling like I should have some kind of background music going to further enhance the feels I was trying to form. The crowd in front of me seemed to have gotten the idea from my weak attempts at a speech and thrust their various mining equipment above their heads with shouts and stamping of approval.
“Today, we embark on the rest of our lives!” I shouted and turned to the stone face to place the tip of my drill against the stone. Behind me, the entire herd of ponies joined me and set themselves poised to strike the stone. “For your future, for your race!” I shouted and hit the tip against the stone, blowing the chunk out of the surface as the axes created their crescents and tips struck stone all in perfect cohesion.
A massive bout of cheering behind the ponies and I turned me towards an even larger mass of ponies as they celebrated; probably their families as they congratulated their loved ones on this milestone.
With the ponies smiling away and congratulating each other as they retreated from the wall, I returned to my shack in the side of the mountain to check on Luna’s progress while the dynamite pony got himself set up.
“Hello, how goes things?” I asked as I strolled into the small station, following the sound of Luna cursing out her work followed by the sound of something heavy dropping and even more cursing.
“I’ll be damned if this cargo unit doesn’t kill me before I finish welding it!” Luna announced angrily as she pulled herself out from under the massive Azimuth cargo pod sticking out of the wall. She’d still have to hook it up to the conveyer system but it looked like it was progressing fairly nicely. “How’s things out there?”
“Officially broke ground so now we’re waiting on a demolitions pony to set up explosive charges to get us further along.” I sighed and leaned against the back wall while Luna righted herself to continue working. Turning her back to me, I watched her work with frustration as she worked at continuing a weld while her tail lightly swished behind her. I pushed off the wall and retrieved my own welder, opting to join in and make the process go faster.
“Careful on that joint there, you’re putting too much strain on the welder.” I warned and set the tip of my own welder to work. Since the materials were all already in place, it was just a case of welding the parts into each other and as such, I wasn’t suffering the strange lapses of time caused by blackouts.
“Like this?” Luna lightened up and hazarded a quick look over to me for approval while I finished my own joint.
“Little lighter. It should sit only a few millimeters away from the surface you’re trying to weld. If it’s dragging, then it’s too close.” I replied and lowered my welder to watch Luna work.
“Could you show me?” Luna smirked to her side, away from where I could see but I could still notice the light turn of her lips. “Hop onto my back.”
With a mild shrug, I did as requested and climbed up onto the princesses back to wrap my arms around her neck and move the welder held in her magic. Lifting it just off the surface, I let Luna’s blue aura surrounding it do the rest once I’d gotten it into position.
“There you go, that should do it.” I announced, sitting back before climbing down off my friend’s back.
From the main hall, the sound of something crashing to the floor told me that not only had another pony entered my space but was now destroying my property.
“I’ll be right back.” I sighed and put my tools away, letting Luna work on her own while I met with the newcome- The room was empty.
“Hello?” I called out in Griffic, checking my room for any intruders but found the door remained locked as I’d set it. Perusing the rest of the main room, I found the object that had crashed to the floor and shattered on the metal: the crystal vase that Celestia had brought in for the flower arrangement last night. “Is someone in here?” I called out again.
Expanding my cone of view to encompass the possibility that the intruder was somehow on the ceiling, I thoroughly checked the entire room but found it otherwise empty save for Luna and I.
Connecting to the airlock terminal, I checked it’s log to see when the last time it was used was but the strangest thing was that it was when I had entered. With a click of the tongue, I retreated from the room and rejoined Luna whose head was stuck into the cargo container itself while she completed another weld.
“Who was it?” she asked, her voice echoing from the expanse within the cargo space.
“No one, that’s the strange thing.” I remarked and remained by the door, just in case it happened again and I could respond quicker.
“Could have been just a breeze that blew whatever it was off where it sat, right?” Luna suggested as she lifted her forelegs up and into the container to get deeper in.
“Not likely, it was the crystal vase that your sister brought last night that was sitting in the middle of the table. It would’ve had to have been quite the breeze to push it all the way off.” I replied and sighed, dropping my chin to my chest.
The sudden sound of flesh being slapped and the followed yelp from Luna had her extract herself from the tube rather quickly while her tail covered her rear.
“I am surprised, I didn’t think you were the type!” Luna chuckled nervously and made the noticeable attempts at keeping her derriere away from me. “But please, at least give me warning before you do that.”
“Do what? I haven’t done anything.” I looked back at her in confusion before removing my helmet to hang it on my hip.
“But, did you not just slap my rump? It certainly felt like a hand than a hoof.” Luna stared at me in confusion comparable to my own. The same sound of a slap and another yelp from Luna had her scurry away from where she stood, taking up a defensive position near to me as she could get. “There it was again! I do not appreciate it!”
“No kidding, I don’t blame you.” I grumbled back as my suit retrieved my rifle for me, arming me as my eyes searched the area. “Whoever is in here with us, identify yourself!” I commanded and hit the button to close the door behind us. Sweeping the barrel of the weapon over the limited space, the two lights above us began to flicker uncharacteristically before the light against the back wall shut off entirely.
“What’s going on?” Luna whispered up at me as her eyes searched the darkness with mine. I flicked on my suit lights just as the second light flickered off entirely. “Who’s doing this?”
“I don’t know.” I whispered back as the lights illuminated the back wall before swinging left, then right. Swinging back left, a shadow briefly was cast against the wall and disappeared again before I could properly zero in on it. Since we couldn’t quite make it out, we couldn’t tell if it was pony or human in nature but since the light was ahead of the both of us, we knew for certain that the shadow wasn’t caused by Luna or I. “We’re not alone in here.”
“...she… goes…” a faint whisper echoed in the room, emanating from everywhere and nowhere all at once. “... I… Stay…”
“Who are you? Identify yourself Immediately!” I shouted back before putting a single round into the back wall as a show of force. “Don’t make me come after you or you will be shot!”
“... she… goes… I… Stay… No… Delete…” the whisper replied, making Luna take a fearful step backwards and behind me.
“Delete? Could it possibly...” Luna whispered back in confusion, her mind likely in the same train as my own.
“No, that would mean that she’d developed into a full AI and has breached her storage unit.” I replied for the sake of my own mind. At the forefront of our vision, directly where the two lights from my suit overlapped, a single entity briefly flashed into shadowy existence with what looked like a hollow cheshire grin.
“...She… goes… Blue one… not… welcome…” The female voice announced through whatever planes of reality it was crossing. It’s very essence seemed to seep into everything and escaped from everywhere all at once, making it impossible to pinpoint a location. I remained vigilant though, and kept my gun trained at the point that the disconnected shadow on the wall had appeared. “He’s… mine… Not leaving… planet… stay…” the voice seemed to wait for an eternity before offering it’s final opinion, “Forever.”
“I wish to leave, now.” Luna announced as her horn fired up with an orb of blue light and shot it off towards the wall as a distraction. I reached back behind me and hit the button to open the door, letting the pony out and quickly followed her out. Hitting the door button again, the shadow reappeared on the farthest back wall with hollow eyes and that evil grin that pierced that walls of sanity in the mind just as the doors closed back up and locked shut.
“We have a problem.” I announced as I lowered my weapon but kept it handy and turned to Luna. “We have a serious problem.”
“Pilot’s log, date and time included in the log itself.” I began once i’d sat down at the table in the room, across from Luna who still looked slightly shaken up. “Both Princess Luna and I have confirmed that the Virtual Intelligence i’ve nicknamed Vinyl is, or has developed into an Artificial Intelligence and has breached her shielded container. Her data is now roaming free on the currents of Xenon in the air, as though it’s acting like her own personal circuit board that she can take a form of an eerie shadow.” I paused to take a good long pull on my glass of Scotch, one of the items I had cryogenically frozen in with me when I was shipped out. Luna had had a sip of the drink but passed on it, deciding it was too strong for her and opted for a brandy instead.
“We have no way to contain her right now, we don’t have the proper containing device to do so and we will now also need a capture program in order to bring her here for containment and deletion.” I took another sip of my drink and swirled the remainder in the tulip shaped glass it was held in.
“Regards to the mining operation, I think I should go and help the ponies clear out the stone.” Luna announced with a sound of still being slightly shaken, setting her drink down on the table to stand herself up onto her hooves to approach the airlock.
“Mining operations have begun and the mine entrance has been outlined. Princess Luna has just opted to go and join the workforce and clear out the stone. I’m going to go join her as soon as I’ve finished my drink.” I concluded my report and ended the recording, saving it to my suit’s hard drive until I could upload it to the servers. Then again, without the communication network available to me, it was pointless to do so in the first place.
A few minutes of silence later, I set my helmet over my head and let it pressurize my suit with purified oxygen. Stepping into the airlock, the remarkably silent doors slid shut and let the air exchange to that of the outside but gave me just enough time to try and decipher what I could do to reign in the newly rampant AI.
Putting all thoughts aside for the time being, I began the slow task of trampling the grass on my slow way over to the mine entrance where efforts were already being made and now with Luna’s help with her magical seal, a sizeable rectangular hole had already been dug in. There was still plenty of work to do before any ore could begin to be extracted but I didn’t think it would take much longer till we reached that point. In the meantime, I figured I should get started on the Deep Earth Seismic scanning equipment and to do that, I would likely need the help of the two scientific ponies, Twilight and Sunset.
Approaching a village pony at random, my heavy footsteps did the work of gaining their attention for me so I could ask for Twilight’s approximate location. The pony pointed me towards Ponyville where I would look for the large and out-of-place crystalish castle.
I’ll be honest, I thought the pegasus mare was kidding but a short hop over with the Wyvern told me that she really wasn’t. Setting down towards the castle’s vague backyard area had the entire town aware that I’d come to visit, especially the pair of ponies I was aiming to speak with.
Good evening, to what do we owe the pleasure? Sunset welcomed me into the castle once i’d approached and my footsteps gave me away of my arrival.
“I was hoping to speak to you and Twilight about setting up Deep Earth Seismic scanning equipment, try and figure out just why this planet is destabilizing like it is.” I explained as I was ushered into a library where Twilight was currently reading with her dragonling assistant.
That sounds like it could be quite interesting to find out. We’ve never been able to come up with any kind of technology that would allow us to penetrate so deep. Sunset grinned back before the dragonling said something I couldn’t understand, but judging from the light smack on the head from Twilight, I could hazard a guess of what it was.
“Well, I can provide the technology and do all the hard work of building it. I’m no geophysicist so i’d have given the task to Vinyl to sort the data out and dumb it down for me. With her… unavailable, you two are my best options.” I explained and remained standing before the pair as Sunset hopped up onto a sofa next to Twilight’s chair just long enough to listen to my words and share an eager glance with the princess.
You have technology that provides a clear image of deep earth activities without having to mine down that far? Twilight demanded eagerly as she hopped down from her seat to begin traversing the library for materials required for note taking. Actually, that’s not all that unbelievable if I think about it now.
“Normally it’s used for deep earth ore detection and mining purposes, but it also works for our purposes now.” I shrugged back and was beginning to lose track of the purple streak as she zipped around the entire room, never remaining in place for longer than a second to retrieve some kind of item.
Ooh, I can’t wait! This is so exciting, no pony has ever gotten a chance to find out what goes on under the crust without coming to serious bodily harm attributed to mining straight down! Twilight’s voice came from everywhere at once even though the words remained firmly before me. I had to chuckle at that last part, everyone knows not to dig straight down! What do you need to build this equipment? And where does it need to be built?
“I honestly have no idea where is should be built, so I was just going to place it anywhere out of the way and go from there.” I shrugged back as much as my exo-frame would allow me to do so. Sunset hopped back down from the couch while the dragonling took off to rush around the library at Twilight’s request, retrieving other items that she needed.
I’m ready! Twilight announced as she slid to a halt with the dragonling on her back still trying to stuff items into her saddlebags. Do you have everything you need to build the device?
“It’s all in the Wyvern. We just need to get to a location and build it.” I answered and lead the ponies outside.
Taking them around to the back, a pink blur streaked across my path followed by the appearance of Pinkie Pie; though this time she remained a bit further away from me likely in efforts to refrain from being shot again.
“Hiya! Great to see you again!” Pinkie grinned as my eyes went wide in that I could understand her perfectly, meaning she was speaking Advanced Galactic English instead of whatever language they spoke.
“Why can I perfectly understand you?” I inquired as the rest of Twilight’s and Sunset’s friends appeared from the other side of the large building. Dash gave me a welcoming nod from her hovering position over Applejack before diverting herself towards the Wyvern.
“I ‘unno,” Pinkie shrugged as she bounced alongside the rest of us while the other ponies all loaded up onto the Wyvern for the random trip, the destination of said trip unbeknownst to any of us. “I guess you just do!”
You just learn to accept things with her, trust us. It’s better for your health to just go along with it. Someone replied from behind me. I sighed and hauled myself up to the cockpit in front of Dash as she got herself settled and already had the craft primed for takeoff.
Where exactly are we going, anyways? I just realised that none of us have any actual inclination as to where we’re going. One of the ponies in the back inquired from my text panel.
“We’re going to go set up a Deep Earth Seismic Reader to find out what exactly is going on in your planet.” I explained and checked that everyone was aboard and strapped in as best they could be. With final preparations made, I lifted the craft up off the ground and aimed it away from the city and towards open plains where the machine could work alone and undisturbed.
So, I’ll be the first to say, the words seemed to have originated from the yellow pegasus judging from the movements of her muzzle. But I’m worried about what will happen with the griffons who foalnapped Twilight. I know that the wrong-doers have been removed from the list to escape the planet, but what about the rest of their kind?
The Suit has agreed to let the Princesses build a list of the Griffons who are sympathetic to us who’ll come with us into space. The same is said for the rest of the other nations. Sunset explained before Twilight took over.
I am worried too, Fluttershy. There’s no way we can save everyone this time. There are going to be a lot of creatures left behind to die when the planet does die. The purple one remarked morosely, judging from the features of her face anyways, as she draped a hoof over the mare’s shoulders.
“I cannot fit the entirety of the planet’s life on the ship, so I’ve asked the princesses to build a list of the planet’s best and brightest. Things like fauna and flora can be easily stored so there’s no worries about that. The hardest part is going to be working out who comes and who stays behind to die.” I agreed with a light nod and began the descent towards an open field in the middle of nowhere.
You think there’ll be creatures who try to get onto the ship any way possible? Dash wondered through the terminal screen and I nodded back, even if she couldn’t see me do so.
“Very likely. I’m going to have to build automated defenses for the shuttle launchpads to keep anything unregistered from getting in.” I said before turning an eye towards the camera. “Twilight, I’d like you and whoever you need to build me a list of workers from the Registry that the Princesses re creating to put them into the protection detail. I know there’ll be workers who’ll try to sabotage the project’s many phases out of revenge for their friends, family or themselves being excluded from the Registries. I want you to also build a profile for each member to find out who'll be most likely to cause trouble for the rest of us leaving.”
“That’s going to take quite a lot of time, do you think we’ll have time to do so?” Pinkie inquired for Twilight, providing the translation before the Rosetta Stone program could do so.
“I suppose we’ll find out once we get the Seismic equipment up and running.” I remarked as the ship touched down on the ground and I disabled the inertia dampeners to let the craft settle on it’s own.
With everyone disembarking, I remained in my seat to let the ship place the majority of the Equipment’s parts into my pack through the cockpit. Once I was loaded down, I resorted to my jetpack to get me to the ground safely before retrieving my welder to begin the mini-project. The others all behind me must’ve loaded up the craft while I wasn’t looking and set about setting up white work tents to provide shade for those who wouldn’t want to remain in the sun, which was basically everyone.
~~~
With the equipment up and running properly, and an irritating itch being prevented from being scratched by my suit making me wish I could remove my suit, Twilight and Sunset crowded before a miniature computer-like device plugged into the Deep Earth Seismic Equipment to read the data provided every time the hammer hit the ground and sent a pulse into the crust.
The rest of those assembled were sat under a separate tent with the ponies enjoying a mid-evening snack while I resorted to just watching the environment around us.
Oh, this is so exciting! We’re looking at entirely new data never before seen! Twilight shrieked for the twenty-seventh time this evening. She had reached a point that even Sunset had lost all similar enthusiasm and merely nodded or uh-huh’d in return.
I’m more worried about this information we’re getting, Twilight. Calm down and actually look at the data, please! Sunset requested, giving her teacher a nudge from shoulder to shoulder. Look, from what we’re seeing…
“What? What’s wrong?” Pinkie inquired once she’d appeared standing on both backs of the two ponies to peer down between them at the screen.
Even Twilight curbed her enthusiasm as her eyes roamed over the data presented to her from the sonic hammer, looking more and more worried than eager to learn. Now she looked horrified that she’d learned what she did.
Uhm, it would seem that… that the planet is dying much faster than we thought… Twilight announced through a shaking voice, stepped back from the keyboard which toppled Pinkie who yelped at the sudden movement before collecting herself. By these numbers, we’ve got less than six months before the planet collapses into a giant ball of nothing…
I coughed as I watched the translations and stood suddenly as my mind’s to-do list began to remind me how much time we actually needed to even get materials off the planet. This reminder was reinforced by an enormous trembling in the ground with the Equipment and computer blaring alarms at everyone nearby.
I hesitantly stepped out through the airlock to my abode, the hissing of the air exchangers doing their job sounding like the two words I absolutely did not want to hear today. This event was for me, and me alone to celebrate and I did not want the party pony that was Pinkie Pie getting wind of it.
I crossed over the front half of my shack and approached the entrance to the mine to get a good view of the major work that was being done within. The cavern had been opened up into the mountainside considerably, allowing for more than enough daylight to get inside and illuminate the four storey’s worth of scaffolding that went into mining out the various ores within. Those ores in of themselves wouldn’t be nearly sufficient for the purpose of building the Dry-dock, but they’d certainly help with the shipments now coming in from beyond Equestria’s borders.
“How’s it looking in there?” Luna’s digital voice inquired as she approached from behind me. She’d taken to moving into a place nearby to my own on the premise that she’d be the princess to help oversee the new town and it’s workings, but I knew it was just to spend time with me; she wasn’t a very good liar.
“Progress is being made, certainly.” I remarked as I crossed my arms over my chest and stood stock still at the middle of the opening in the ground. My own voice was being synthesized and automatically translated into the Griffic Language by use of a throat mic set up. Luna had a similar set up around her own throat and a pairing earpiece in her ear like me. “We’re acquiring hundreds of thousands of pounds of raw resources everyday and the fourteen Refineries haven’t had a chance to just process what they’ve got. There is an immense backlog of raw ore waiting to be processed sitting in storage containers which should be used for storing the manufactured parts.”
“So what do you suggest?” Luna stopped her approach next to me, watching the same scene with me; one of ponies working hard to pull the ore from the walls and ceiling.
“I suggest we stop work for today and let the Processing catch up. Let everypony take a day off for the first time in nearly a month.”
“I will agree to that.” Luna nodded and went to make the announcement by blowing a large whistle, however I held her short upon noticing the time on my wrist computer. “What?”
“Let’s wait fifteen minutes, give them the second half of the day off at noon.” I requested and turned back towards my shelter. “Then they can have a day and a half off with tomorrow.”
“Why, what’s tomorrow?” the princess eyed me over curiously as she followed me into the airlock and applied the magic around her muzzle to let her breath.
“Nothing’s tomorrow, I just know that the refineries won’t be able to finish up their work in half a day. It’ll also let the workers get some time with their families.” I shrugged back and entered into the main room with Luna at my side, aiming for a couch against the left hand wall. I sat down with Luna laying herself out on another entire couch coloured blue across from me, sprawling out in doing so. “If you’ll excuse me a few minutes.”
“Take your time.” Luna nodded with a yawn and settled down for a nap. I stood again and entered into my room, locking the door behind me and sat down at my desk once i’d unsuited.
Making a couple menu selections, “Hey, happy birthday!” my dad announced through the holographics, looking jovial with the rest of the family behind him. “Tara couldn’t be here because she’s currently busy with university, but she’s sends her best.”
“Thanks for your best. It’s alright that Tara couldn’t be there, I understand she’d be pretty busy being the next genius of the family.” I sighed and rested my chin in my hand, resting the elbow on the desk with my free hand acting as a buffer between the edge of the desk and my stomach. “I suppose she’s been growing well, how old is she now?”
“She’ll be going on twenty-eight in a few weeks. Can’t forget to send your own happy birthday’s back home to Tara for her big day!” Dad sat forward and winked then sat back again. “Oh, mom wants me to remind you that we’re going to be out of touch for a while. We’re being relocated to ensure that we’re kept safe while under the Trump Administration.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that…” I sighed to myself and paused the video to sit back and stare off into space. It hurt to be constantly reminded that all the contact i’d ever get with my family would be through these videos, but given that they and the following generation were all long dead by now… “Happy fucking birthday to me…”
“What?” Luna’s voice demanded from across the metal walls. “It’s your birthday?” the sound of her trying to run off to tell everyone was halted when I remotely locked the airlock out to prevent her from escaping before I could catch and calm her.
Exiting out of my room, “Yes, it’s my birthday according to Earth Standard Time.” I announced sorrowfully. “But I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about it. It’s not exactly my favourite occasion to celebrate.”
“Why not?” Luna inquired as she stepped out of the locked down airlock, looking confused but concerned. “What could be so bad about celebrating the day you were brought into the world?”
“Given that it’s also the day I said my final good-bye’s to my family…” I collapsed on my green couch and flopped backwards onto my back to drape my arm over my face and create darkness.
“But can’t you just talk to them on your desk?” Luna’s voice suggested that she grew nearer even if the hoofsteps on metal didn’t. They quickly vanished which suggested that she was laid out on her own couch.
“No, I can’t. They’re already dead, those’re just recorded messages they sent me.” I explained and rolled onto my side, facing the back of the couch and away from the world around me. “They were recorded before I left and uploaded to my ship's computer for me to go over while I was awake and the date suggested which video I watched. They were scripted so that I could feel like I was actually talking with them.”
“But you’re not, the illusion is gone.” Luna concluded somberly, dropping her head to rest it on her hooves.
“Yep, nothing but a failed illusion.” I mumbled back before turning to silence.
The sound of the couch behind me shifting under Luna’s weight, followed by the sound of Luna landing on her hooves, alerted me to the advancement of the Princess as she grew near to me. Suddenly, I found myself being nudged closer to the back rest before being spun around in place to face her. Once I was in a position that she deemed correct, still somewhat curled up defiantly, she crawled up onto the couch with me and cuddled in close as she could to wrap her hooves around my back.
“Then tell me, is today an illusion? Am I an illusion?” Luna whispered given the proximity of her mouth to my face.
“What are you getting on about?” I demanded and tried to turn myself back over to face the back of the couch. Luna allowed me to do so but kept her hooves wrapped around me and held me tight.
“Aren’t I now your family? At least a friend whom you may confide in and trust? Am I not given allowance to celebrate your birthday because without it you would not be here, saving my race?” Luna demanded and she nestled me in closer to her body and refused to release me. “You may not want to celebrate your own birthday because it was also the last day you saw your human family, but do not disallow your friends to celebrate you joining our lives.”
“You sound like my mother.” I half groaned, half whined in protest before going silent to contemplate her words. Even with the automatic translations, the pair of us could pick up on the intended reflections through the simple act of listening to the inflections of our voice before the translation ruined it.
“Then you know i’m probably right.” Luna chuckled half-heartedly before releasing me to roll off the couch and land on her hooves. “Come, let us celebrate you arriving on our planet as our saviour.”
“Don’t really feel like much of a savior if my plans take two months more than we’ve been allowed.” I grumbled back but sat up regardless. Luna floated my white on black Urban suit out to me, suggesting I wouldn’t need the heavier-duty worker suit I’d grown accustomed too.
With her helping to streamline the suiting process with her magic, the pair of us stepped into the airlock once i’d been properly dressed and I unlocked the functions of the door. Changing through scenery and I once against stepped out into the afternoon sunlight.
“You are every much a savior if you’ve pledged to save our race with the Colony ship.” Luna announced and gave me a nudge forward to exit the airlock. I did so, reluctantly, and instead of following Luna I instead stomped my way to the air horn that would signal the workers to stop working.
An explosion in the mine had me rush for the horn that much quicker, considering that no blasting materials were being used in mining in the first place, and pulled hard on the cord. The whistle’s shrill noise rang out into the air, piercing through the sounds of ponies shouting and the stampede of worker’s evacuating the mine.
Then the shaking began.
“Earthquake! Evacuate the mines!” Luna shouted in what was established as her Royal Voice though my own translation kept itself at a moderate volume. It was already unnecessary for her to yell such a command since the ponies were already high-tailing it out of there, but I suppose she felt that in doing so she was helping. The quake continued on, knocking loose stones from the ceiling until larger and larger pieces began to rain down. Eventually massive stones and chunks of ores began breaking off until the entire mouth of the mine collapsed, trapping in a good dozen ponies inside.
“We have to save them!” somepony shouted as the workers turned about face and armed themselves with whatever they could use to begin digging out the trapped miners, despite the continuing tremors.
“If this continues, I can’t have the mining project remain on the ground.” I mumbled to myself as I armed myself with my own drill and began blasting away debris to assist with the work effort.
“Stop! Stop! You’re making it worse in here!” The muffled yellings of a pony sounded from beyond the collapse, just barely loud enough for the translation to pick it up. Everyone ceased their efforts and backed away, looking confused about what to do next. “We’ll be fine, we’ve got supplies in here! You just focus on trying to get us out of here safely!”
“Can you teleport out?” Luna called back, staring down the rocks as though trying to scare them away from the opening.
“No, of the…” the voice went silent for a minute before coming back. “Of the thirty of us in here, only four of us aren’t hurt. Unfortunately, none of us are unicorns!”
“Then can my sister and I teleport in there?” Luna called back again, looking distressed. I was already working on plans for something big that would serve all our problems and was browsing through my completed ship blueprints for something that could help.
“Sorry Princess, it’s not safe in here. Most of the floor has given way into massive chasms that we’re not entirely sure where they are; it’s too dark to be able to see completely and we don’t want to risk your lives or the lives of the ponies in here! Just see if you can find some way to dig us out without moving the rock!” the pony explained quite unhelpfully.
“Can you use that Seal to get them?” I suggested, looking over to the princess.
“I cannot, I cannot create a seal large enough to destroy all that rock without moving the rest. We have to be able to destroy all the rock at once.” Luna sighed in defeat as Twilight and Sunset popped into place nearby and ran up.
“What happened here?” Twilight demanded before her eyes settled on the fallen debris closing off the mine. “What happened? I thought that the mine was supposed to be completely sound, even in an earthquake!”
“It was, then something blew up.” I remarked and continued going through my lists of available ships. “I’m already working on something to try and help the ponies in there but it’s going to require a ton of effort from everyone to build.”
“What is it? Can we afford to build it with the supplies we have?” Sunset looked up at me hopefully. I selected the craft I planned to retrofit for the purpose of mining from above and projected it from my wrist computer. “That…”
“That’s big.” Luna gawked at the tiny ship, even though her mind was already converting it into it’s real sized counterpart. “How’s that supposed to help us?”
“I’m going to put some mining lasers on the bottom of it and have it burrow a hole in from above.” I explained with a smirk, though it went off without being seen.
“Laser’s can’t mine, they’re just light particles that’ll just bounce off the surface of the mountain.” Twilight protested before both Luna and Sunset reminded her of the Wyvern’s capabilities, among other examples of previously impossible stuff.
“I would use a nano-factory but that’d just take to long.” I shrugged back. “I just really need some way of building this thing quickly.”
A beep on my computer alerted me to something having been uploaded to my blueprints and welder pattern lists. I looked over the newcomer with a cautiously raised eyebrow, wondering how it had uploaded without the Internet connection. Turns out it was just something trying to upload, but without an antenna network it couldn’t do so.
“What is it?” Luna attempted to look over my shoulder at the notification but since she couldn’t read it very well given that it was in Advanced Galactic English, she stepped back with a hopeful smile. “Is it something that’ll help?”
“I ‘unno, I can’t download it without an antenna system.” I shrugged back and closed all notifications down. “At least that’s something simple we can set up.”
“So, we’ve got work to do then!” Twilight shouted, aiming a small selection of workforce to the nearby Wyverns being packed with materials. “Let’s build a massive ship, thing!”
Okay, so parts for the new antenna have been assembled and are just sitting in the cargo container, ready to be put together. A small hole in the debris has been drilled to let air and food into the mine. Suggestions to put a hole through my walls which would lead into the mine have been shot down since I would have nowhere safe to live while we repair things; selfish, probably.
Crossing the barrier that was the airlock with my backpack filled with equipment, I used the scaffolding on the side of my building to get myself set up on the roof of said building to find Luna already there and waiting with her welder.
“Do you have everything ready to build this thing?” Luna inquired hopefully. I merely shrugged back in reply. Selecting the blueprint for the basic antenna array, I placed the framework down -suffering through another typical short blackout where the frame itself suddenly appears to me- so that Luna and I could set to work. While she worked on just welding the joints, I set to applying the parts and pieces in their appropriate places.
It only took us a couple minutes of welding, but soon we had a large spire of metal rising up into the sky above us.
“So, now what?” Luna wondered as she stood back to gaze up at the thing before us. Still remaining silent, I jumped down off the building and connected to the airlock computer which, in turn, connected to the mainframe computer which, in turn, connected to the new antenna. “Are you going to remain silent?”
“Yep.” I replied short and simply. Extending the range of the antenna as far as it could go, I set it to sweep for signals not expecting anything. Imagine my surprise when I got not one, but eight different radio signals in all directions; a couple of them pairing up on my HUD. “Well now… that’s interesting…”
“What is?” Luna glided down near to me, looking over my shoulder to stare down at my computer. Doing so was pointless since it was just a keyboard and the screen was inside my helmet, but I think it made her feel included.
“There’re eight radio sources on this planet...” I mumbled back then repeated myself when the translation software told me it couldn’t properly understand me. I slowly spun on my heels, taking in the information I was getting from the antenna and filtering out the non-essential information like the nearby ores discovered by the waiting Wyvern.
“That can’t be right, we don’t have radio capabilities in Equestria.” Luna frowned and shook her head slowly.
“Then that makes sense that the closest relay is over four hundred kilometers away. It’s probably outside the country.” I found my voice remaining rough and calm, my speech taking a slow pace as I crossed my arms over my chest. “By the looks of it… It would seem that Equestria is the… only… country… without radio communications…” I added, making Luna’s heart visibly drop; if her ears and tail were any indication.
“So we are severely behind on the technology side of things, after all?” Luna murmured to herself in defeat. “And here I’d thought we were fairly well along…”
“Just means that you and your scientists now have goals to aim for. Talk to some of your political friends across the borders, ask them to see if they can share their technology with you.” I suggested as an alert to a notification arriving pulled me from my conversation musings. “Oh, right.”
“I think I shall have Twilight speak to the representatives of the other countries soon enough.” Luna decided before a thought occurred to her. “Unless the planet dies before we can put those new technologies to good use…”
Retreating to the interior of my bunker via airlock, “Can I suggest getting radio communications up and running then? Make some radios that’ll let the ponies here enjoy the last few months they have before they either leave or they die?”
“My word, you’re just a bundle of joy today, aren’t you?” Luna sighed with a roll of the eyes as she followed me towards my room while I pulled my helmet off and tossed it onto the couches nearby.
“No, really? A bundle of joy, huh?” I whispered to myself, unintentionally making it slightly louder than I’d intended. “No shit.”
“Look,” Luna demanded, stepping in my way to cut me off from my room and computer. “I get that today doesn’t hold anything for you. You’ve got more to be disappointed about than you do to be celebratory about, I understand. But all this moping about, this self-loathing is certainly not helping your situation.”
“So what, i’m just supposed to forget that only a week ago to me, I said final good-byes to my family? It’s like they only still just died!” I demanded in return and pushed past Luna into my room. She managed to enter before I could lock her out and she soon stood before me again.
“Yes, I get that! Think about it, i’m over one thousand years old! I’ve seen more than my share of friend and family die while I lived on. Didn’t you say that when you signed up, you were made aware that you’d never see your friends or family again?”
“Yeah, and I honestly thought that it’d be slightly easier than this! I figured that those recorded messages they uploaded with me would stave off the loneliness for longer than they did! Now, like you said, it’s all an illusion! I know they’re long dead, I know their grandchildren are all dead and their great grandchildren are all in the last throes of their lives! When I return to Earth in another six hundred years, I’ll have outlived my entire lineage! I could be the very last of my family alive when I return!” I shouted back and diverted from my route to the desk to a route to collapse onto the bed, resting on the backpack rather uncomfortably. Luna stood before me at my knees watching me in silent exasperation.
“Can I not serve as your new family? Can my sister and our friends not serve as your new family? We may not have been born to the same parents, nor have we grown up together or have we even known each other for longer than a few months, but can I not at least try?”
“What, you wanna serve as my new sister or something? You want me to adopt you into the family so I have family who’ll live as long as I will?” I raised my head to look over the edge of the suit around my neck.
“Well, seeing as I already have family with me… Why not we adopt you into the family? Make both Celestia and I your family in one go, and the other princesses your step-siblings all at once?” Luna suggested as she remained stood where she was, despite my head flopping backwards to land on the mattress again.
“No offense, but no thanks.” I grumbled back and sighed, closing my eyes in the process. They remained closed only for a moment as I hauled myself back upright with a groan and stood, Luna stepping back to give me room. “My plan is to build you all the colony ship, help you find a new hospitable planet and then set off in a ship with Cryogenic capabilities to continue on my mission of mapping unregistered space for the Human Alliance before returning to my world to get reintegrated into a society that i’m a thousand years behind.” I announced and slid into the seat of my desk to open the incoming mail documents.
Luna sat next to me, watching my face as I read the document and went over the details of the attachments. She apparently found amusement in my facial expressions but remained respectably… Okay, she burst into a short fit of giggling.
“What?” I glanced from the document to Luna, giving as best a glare as I could given the fluctuating emotions within me. They were mostly confusion and aspirations that I was receiving updated versions of the blueprints as well as eight petabytes of data regarding new blueprints, welding patterns, food processor prints and surprisingly an up-to-date dossier on my family status.
“No, nothing. I’m just watching your face as you read that document. They’re quite humorous to me.” Luna explained through the remains of chuckling to herself. “But, you do look like you’ve dissolved that negative attitude you had.”
“Well…” I felt my face squirm around a bit as I looked over the new information before me regarding my family lineage. “I’m looking at my family tree now…”
“Really? How does it look?” Luna raised an eyebrow and hopped up onto her rear hooves to drape her forelegs over my shoulders to look at the screen with me.
“Surprisingly full… Apparently my sister had a couple kids, they all had a couple kids and their kids all had at least one kid…” I reported as I looked over the information, scrolling over everything as I speed read everything on the screen. “Seems like there’ve been eight politicians, twelve businessmen and women, four more spengineers like me that headed out in opposite directions from me…”
“Sounds like quite a pedigree for your family, doesn’t it?” Luna remarked as she remained hanging off my shoulder, the weight of her body supported by my exo-frame rather than by me. I still couldn’t move under her, however. “By our standards, you would be quite a valuable asset to the country, nearly worthy of nobility.”
“It’s funny you should mention that, actually…” I sighed as I zoomed in on a particular branch of the family tree. “It seems that one of my family members went to another planet and married into royalty.”
“So you are actually of noble birth?” Luna smirked and hopped down to circle around me and sit next to the desk to look across at me.
“Nah, there’s no nobility before me and it doesn’t count if it’s after me and married into it.” I shook my head back in reply and sat back, closing down the family information to go over some of the new blueprints. “But, on an unrelated note, I now have blueprints for something that will put us just within the time limit we have to build the colony ship. It’s new technology that I didn’t have when I launched, so I don’t really understand how most of it works, just how to build it.”
“Then, what are we waiting for? We should get a move on and build the thing!” Luna launched to her hooves and stood, racing for the door before returning with my helmet to drop it over my head and pull me from the seat by her teeth. Stumbling along behind her, I first worked at attaching my helmet before escaping the grasp of the pony princess and stepped back, out of reach of her teeth. “Come on, we’ve not much time!”
“Or power.” I declared, standing firmly in place. “The machine requires insane amounts of power and only needs more the larger we build the structure.”
“So, all we need to do is generate more power!” Luna declared with a hoof stamp and continue towards the airlock, stepping in to wait for me to join her.
“Which requires more materials than we have right now!” I shouted back and remained planted where I was. “As it is, we don’t have any way to mine out resources and we’re severely lacking in what we do have! Best I can do is build the mining laser as a stationary object!”
“Then we’ll do that! Or have you forgotten that there are a dozen ponies currently trapped in the mine that exists just beyond your stone walls?” Luna scowled at me and advanced on me, staring me down angrily.
“No, I haven’t forgotten about that! But remember how we said we couldn’t dig them out from the side or risk injuring ponies? We have to mine down from above quickly enough and without disturbing the mountain any further, in order to prevent another cave in!” I glared back through my helmet even if the princess of the night couldn’t see it.
“So what, are you saying that we have no hope at saving them?” Luna was verging on lividity now, her eyes looking like they were threatening to change shape from the raw emotion.
“I’m saying, right now we have no hope of leaving the planet!” I announced and the air froze between us instantly with those words. Luna gasped silently at me at the revelation and slowly back-pedaled out of the room and through the airlock.
I sighed and turned to the couches. Pulling my helmet off again, I shoulder rolled onto the cushions and sprawled out on my back to stare up at the ceiling. Draping my arm over my eyes, I gave a second, half-hearted sigh in defeat and began trying to form any kind of plan for possibly accumulating enough resources to build the aircraft I needed to not only save the trapped ponies but also get myself off planet in only a couple months.
~~~
“So, what’d he say? Did is antenna thing work? Has he got a plan?” Twilight inquired hopefully as she trotted into Luna’s home after the sullen princess. She was concerned about the princesses state of emotional health at the moment, the slow walk home and the lack of speaking wasn’t very enlightening or hope inducing in the slightest.
“Twilight, it would seem that this cave in has…” Luna began as she dropped to her side on a dark blue couch embroidered with subtle colourings of the night skies, done in slightly lighter and darker blues, purples and reds.
The rest of her “Vacation home”, as Luna had come to call it, was done in the night’s colours throughout the rest of the building which stood on par with that of the ponies’ homes around it. Most of the floors were black marble where acceptable and dark hardwood where not. The walls were done as the room changed, but they all still followed the same theme of a night sky of some kind: whether that sky was depicting a dawn, dusk or midnight.
“Has what? Is everything alright? I know the cave in has affected the ponies heavily, especially the ones who’ve still got family trapped, but I didn’t think that the suit would care that much about us after only being here a couple months.” Twilight crawled up onto a chair across from the blue princess and watched her stare off into the cushions and ends of that which she laid on.
“It’s not that, it’s that he seems to have given up on us.” Luna announced with a heavy sigh. Twilight raised both eyebrows at the announcement and sat up straight. “He seems sure that this cave in has doomed us all to death, says we now have no way of getting at the important ores to build anything that could save us.”
“I don’t believe that, he wouldn’t just give up on us that easily! He didn’t give up on me, he didn’t leave Pinkie crippled, I don’t believe he’d say that!” Twilight declared earnestly, looking confused at this information of having their fates sealed. “There’s got to be something he or we could do! Some kind of machine or advanced technology we could build to fix this!”
“No! There’s nothing!” Luna suddenly and unintentionally roared, startling both princesses in the living room. “Twilight Sparkle, I’m sorry for shouting like that, it’s just… The suit is so sure that we’re done for that I can’t help but think the same.”
“Then we just have to explore other options. If he can’t or won’t help us, then we just rely on what we know best to fix things.” Twilight replied calmly and sure of herself. Luna raised her head from her hooves to look at the young alicorn in confusion. “Magic!”
“I don’t know if we have any kind of spell or enchantment to possibly help us here, Twilight. Even my sister and I have tried that option and have both come up short.” Luna sighed again and placed her head back on her hooves in defeat. “Best idea I could come up with is banish the entire planet’s population to the moon, but only the princesses would actually survive up there.”
“So you’re just giving up?” Twilight looked at Luna with confused concern, figuring that how a princess at her age and level of experience had managed to get this far by giving up so easily. “The instant you give up, think about what kept you going till now.”
“What?” Luna raised her head again to arch an eyebrow at the purple princess.
“The instant you give up,” Twilight repeated herself. “Think about what drove you to this point.”
“The preservation of our ponies, I know. There’s just nothing we can do about that now, we don’t have the resources.” Luna groaned in disappointment and rolled onto her side, facing the back of the couch and notably away from Twilight.
“Well, I’m not going to give up just yet. There has to be something we can do and I’m going to find it.” Twilight announced firmly and stood from the chair with eagerness in her soul. “When I find out what that thing is, then i’ll come back to you and the suit to talk about it. Till then,” Twilight turned from the living room and entered into the hallway and aimed for the front door. “I’ll be at my castle with Sunset.”
Later that night, once everypony had gone to bed and Luna had sulked herself to sleep, the suit got himself dressed and shifted through the airlock with conviction. The time for being selfish had come to an end and he had shit to do.
Approaching the Wyvern parked nearby, he began to load up the cargo pods with everything he’d ground down from inside and stored in his pack with aims of using the sparse furnishings and creature comforts of his home to try and build something to save the ponies. Once unloaded, he popped into the cockpit and turned on just enough systems to let his tanks fill with oxygen and hydrogen before shutting everything down again.
Crawling out of the ship, he returned to his abode and began tearing down the airlock from within; the escaping air from within mixing with the air from outside and preventing him from being able to remove his suit now.
In the same time that it took him to build the shelter, it took the suit only a couple hours to tear everything down again and load it up into the Wyvern’s cargo; leaving a hole in the mountain that lead to the bare processing capabilities he’d left behind. Somehow, the hole that he’d been living in had been dug out that if he was careful, he could install a connector into the floor and park the Wyvern in the hole to charge from the main system.
Putting that aside for now, the pilot hauled himself up into the cockpit of the ship again and buckled himself down for a trip mostly straight up. Flying through the startup sequence as quickly as he safely could, he gave the engines just barely enough time to heat up before taking off and putting the throttle to full rise in order to shoot straight up as quickly as he could in order to prevent his ship from waking anyone at one in the morning.
He had shit to do, but it wasn’t down there at the face of the mountain.
Stepping out of her home, Luna yawned and wiped the sleep from her eyes with her wing in order to lower the moon while her sister raised the sun for the new day. She still hadn’t forgotten the words of defeat she’d heard and succumbed to yesterday and had seriously contemplated leaving the skies dark for another hour of mourning once she’d announced to the world their inevitable demise.
The stampede of ponies flocking towards the destroyed mine had Luna curious at what the commotion was all about at such a time of day, considering that most ponies had only just woken up.
“He’s gone! It’s gone! He’s left us to die!” a pony exclaimed from the crowd, unidentifiable by the throngs of ponies rushing past her highness. “We’re doomed, doomed!”
“What in the world is going on?” Luna demanded, magically stopping a pony’s advance towards the mountain. “Why the rush?”
“Your highness: that building the suit had built, the craft he flies around in, all of it except the bare processing equipment. It’s all gone!” the stallion announced before wriggling free to continue the sprint towards the mountain. “He’s left us to die!”
“He did no such thing!” Luna screamed back, resorting to her Royal Voice accidentally. Taking wing, Luna shot forward over the heads of ponies and over the other pegasi flying low to the ground, flying as quickly as she could till she came in at a sliding halt at the massive hole in the mountain that had contained the Suit and his living space the night before.
“Where’d he go! Did anypony see anything last night?” Luna searched the faces of ponies around her, noticing the faces of confusion, surrender and fury at the Pilot who’d deserted them and up and left.
“No Princess, nopony knows where he’s gone! We can’t find any trace of him and with that aircraft of his, he could already be across the globe!” A female pegasus reported sorrowfully.
“He said it’s capable of reaching orbit, he could have left the planet entirely!” another pony, a teal green unicorn added to the sorrow of the small village.
Luna approached the hole in the wall and stepped into the mountain itself, passing by the hole that had been the suit’s room but now was just a fairly large indentation next to the processing equipment hole. Luna noted, however, that all the important parts like the refinery assembler and cargo pod had all been left behind. If the suit had truly intended to leave the planet and doom it’s occupants, he probably would’ve taken the resources from those facilities since they had so many of them.
Unless he didn’t have the room for those parts, or was leaving them some kind of thin thread of a life line.
Stepping into the bedroom hole itself, Luna looked around at the mild grey stone walls that, in the dark, looked dull and uninviting. Inhospitable like nothing had spent the last four or so months here. Turning to leave from the hole in the wall, Luna noticed a leaf of white gently flapping in the cold air of the hole pinned to the wall with a spike of metal.
Luna, Luna had to stop and try to remember the translated alphabet since she no longer had to read the Basic Galactic English and translate it into Equestrian. Sorry I didn’t say anything about me leaving, sorry I couldn’t even say goodbye so let me amend that.
I’m leaving, good-bye.
“I’m gonna kick his flanks when I see him.” Luna growled and crumpled the paper in her magic then tossed the wad deeper into the hole as she turned to the exit and left. She stepped into a semi-circle of ponies, all looking to her for answers.
“Princess, what happened? Where’s he gone?” A white unicorn demanded hopefully, looking for refuge in Luna’s words.
“Are we going to be able to continue the projects to leave the planet? Are we going to die?” And there was the million bit question, provided by a tan brown earth pony with a fedora.
Luna closed her eyes and dropped her head as she tried to imagine what she was going to say next. Raising her head, she addressed the ponies.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce that our saviour has left us. It seems he’s taken his technology with him and has disappeared.” rippling murmurs and cries of disappointment and terror echoed through the crowd. “He has left us basic mining facilities, however. I believe he has intended that we continue on our mining project on our own and build our own ships and technology ourselves. I do have one of his welders, so I can build new machines myself, but it’s going to be slow going.”
“What hope do we have then? We can’t mine because the mountain’s unstable and we still have yet to dig out the trapped miners!”
“Since the suit has taken his dwelling with him, I am announcing that we will start digging through the walls in the remaining hole to rescue our ponies. After that, we will continue to mine as safely as we can while reinforcing whatever safety devices still remain.” Luna explained as her head swivelled to look at as many ponies as she could, trying to calm them. “We will not go quietly into the night! We will live on, we will survive!”
“Because today, is our Independence Day!” A random pony shouted from the middle of the crowd, silencing everypony around him and turning all eyes towards him in curiosity. Luna stared at the stallion as well, confused where that came from.
“What?” Luna looked out at the stallion in confusion before he shrunk back from where he stood with a sheepish grin. “Okay, sure.”
“Alright you ponies, all the miners, grab your equipment and report for duty! We’ve got ponies to save and ore to dig up!” the mining superintendent announced as he turned from near the front of the conglomeration to address his workforce. “Everyone who isn’t a miner, start setting up recovery! There may be ponies in there who’re injured and we need to get them into care! Pegasi, we’re going to be relying heavily on you all to fly in and rescue the ponies; they said that there are massive crevasses in there now so we need you all to carry them out! Unicorns…” Luna tuned out the rest and turned from the massive assembly to return to her home and deal with the thoughts in her mind.
Once she was walking alone, Luna let her mind wander to the fact that one of her best friends had deserted them without a word. She felt empty without him around, nearby. She missed the presence of his suit, his mere calming aura when he was working with her at building something entirely new. While she could never understand him when he himself spoke, Luna always found his natural voice soothing and warm. Low enough that the bass of his voice gently rumbled in her chest, but high enough that it wouldn’t have been called sensual in nature.
With a huff, Luna stepped into her home and locked the door. Turning left into her living room, she collapsed down on the couch and stared off into oblivion. Clutching a pillow close to her body with her hooves, Luna remembered how he’d felt without the suit. His skin was soft to the touch, almost as soft as her fur which she cared for meticulously and almost religiously.
Somehow he always smelled nice, of some kind of exotic spices blended together despite that the entire time she’d been in his bunker, she’d never seen any kind of bathing facilities in the place. She had noticed a tall box thing in the corner of his room which he used for washroom facilities, but it didn’t look like he’d been able to bathe in it.
He was hardworking, always looking for some way to improve the situations of him and the ponies who were relying on him. He fought through an entire griffon air force with one ship in order to rescue Princess Twilight, but had spared the largest portion of the griffon race despite that the ambassador had held Twilight hostage. For him to suddenly declare that everything was hopeless, that the planet and it’s inhabitants were doomed to extinction, Luna couldn’t believe that he’d just up and leave without a fight.
Luna had to admit it -never out loud or in public- but she felt empty without him, like a part of her was now missing without him. Luna curled up to herself but decided that the couch wasn’t the best spot nor was it the most comfortable no matter how inviting it looked and felt when she sat down on it.
Standing, she entered into the kitchen towards the back of the house and rounded past the center island to the fridge/freezer that the suit had provided. Granted, most of the creature comforts in her home -her home included- was provided by his designs and the technology they’d already had, like refrigeration and freezers and basic electricity, had been condensed into singular upright silvery boxes.
Pulling open the top door, Luna pulled out a carton of her favourite ice cream and a spoon from the cabinet drawer nearby before turning to the large mahogany dining table off the end of the kitchen and opposite the back door that lead outside. Taking a seat at the head of the table, Luna let her mane solidify and fall to her shoulders while she tore the lid from the carton off and scraped the edge of the spoon along the top of the ice cream.
Luna knew that this was ridiculous. She was acting like she’d suffered through a breakup with a stallion and was in remission now, but she felt like this was all she wanted to do at the moment.
Half-way through the carton, keeping in mind that it was full when she started, someone began to knock at Luna’s door. With a sigh, Luna set the carton next to her in her magical grip while the spoon hung out from between her lips as she traversed the hallway to the door where a certain mane of green, pink and blue waited for her.
“Sister,” Luna muttered unhappily once she’d opened the door with her magic and stepped back to let Celestia into her abode. “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to come by and spend time with my younger sister, is that wrong?” Celestia replied, looking completely normal as she stepped around her sister to enter into the dining room at the end of the hall.
“And this has nothing to do with the Pilot’s disappearance?” Luna raised an eyebrow curiously as she scraped off another spoonful of chocolate chip and stuck to her tongue to begin melting it with her body heat and suck off whatever melted.
“None whatsoever. I was aware that he’d left, yes, but my visit is purely to spend time with you, Luna.” Celestia replied as she dove into her sister’s fridge to pull out something to drink. “Can I get you something to drink as well?”
“Nope, I’ve got my ice cream.” Luna replied defiantly and with the spoon still stuck out from between her lips, turning her head away to make her point. Luna knew that someone had asked Celestia to visit her and wasn’t going to have any of it.
“Suit yourself.” Celestia shrugged back and poured herself a glass of grape juice before letting her mane solidify as well. Her light pink mane flowed down past her shoulders, covering up the sun emblem on her collar. Luna’s mane, when solid, had always been shorter than her sisters so it only fell to her shoulders, never reaching her collar or chest. “So, how’ve you been?”
“Please, Tia, cut the chatter. I know somepony sent you here to try and cheer me up. It’ll not work.” Luna huffed with a cheek puffed out and she pulled the steel utensil from her lips to jab it into the ice cream for temporary storage. She did, however, follow her elder into the living room and even sat down in a couch opposite from Celestia. While Celestia curled up on the couch with her drink, Luna flopped backwards onto her rump and back, sitting like the human would -or that mint green unicorn, now that Luna thought about it.
“I promise you, Lulu, that i’m only here to spend time with you. I have nothing quite as nefarious as what you’ve envisioned planned, I assure you.” Celestia grinned back and took a sip of her beverage. “I sincerely wish to know how you’re doing today.”
“Well, if you must know,” Luna sighed in defeat and set the carton down on the couch next to her before going limp where she sat. “I feel foalish for acting like I am now. I feel like i’ve just been released from a relationship I was never a part of. I am aggravated that the Pilot left so suddenly, taking his home and the Wyvern with him and without a word beyond a small slip of paper I think he left as a last thought.”
“You miss him already?” Celestia concluded curiously. “I suppose that makes sense. You and him have spent quite a bit of time together these last few months, almost never leaving his side whenever possible. It’s entirely plausible that you may have developed feelings for him.”
“You think?” Luna rolled her eyes at her sister and pulled another mouthful of ice cream into her mouth as a show of point. “I must ask, however: is it normal for all males to remain so oblivious to my feelings? This is just like Starswirl all over again.”
“It would seem so, I’m afraid.” Celestia chuckled in response and shifted where she laid. “May I suggest that when you next see him, you make your intentions known to him?”
“What, you want me to be forthcoming about how I feel about him? Are you serious?” Luna smirked for once and set the spoon back into the carton. “What kind of mare are you?”
“Perhaps one who’s seen you go through this before and doesn’t want to see you go through it again. We both know that males are stubborn and cannot see a mare’s feelings when they’re directed at them. If this was a situation where you were directing your feelings towards another, I’m sure the Pilot would have noticed immediately.” Celestia replied with a sigh. Luna had to give it to her sister, she had a point.
“But, I don’t know if I can; especially since we don’t know if he’s ever coming back or not, or even where he’s gone.” Luna groaned in angsty disappointment, knowing she may have lost her only chance at true happiness.
“Well, while I certainly don’t condone these actions, why not search for him in the Dreamscape when next we sleep? See if he’s within reach to find and poke around, see if you can get a clue about his whereabouts from his dreams?” Celestia suggested slowly at first, unsure if she should actually be giving this idea.
“He’s never let me into his dreams before, he’s somehow capable of near-lucid dream states all on his own.” Luna shook her head and frowned, drooping her head in defeat.
“What do you mean by ‘near-lucid’?” Celestia perked her head up in confusion at this information.
“I mean, he’s never truly lucid when he’s dreaming, but he always remembers everything in perfect detail. He’s always compared them to playing a lead role in a movie in his mind at night. Somehow his sub-conscious doesn’t let me into his dreams as if he was lucid.” Luna explained and took another bite of ice cream.
“So you have no idea what he dreams about?”
“No idea.”
“Can’t even tell if he’s dreaming about you?”
“Nope.”
“What if, because you can’t enter his dream, it’s because he’s already dreaming about you?”
Luna chuckled at this thought for a moment. “I could only wish that were true.”
“‘Well, when we next see him, and I do get the feeling that you will see him again, why don’t you sit him down and talk about it?” Celestia offered hopefully and with a thin smile.
“You’ll not let me let this go, will you?” Luna mumbled and received a confirming nod from her elder. “Fine, when I next see him, I’ll sit him down and we’ll talk about things.”
“Excellent, then let’s go visit him.” Celestia concluded and sat her empty cup down to stand. Luna frowned in confusion, watching her sister for the punchline. “Well, come on now!”
“You know where he is?” Luna demanded and flipped herself onto her hooves. Retrieving her ice cream and spoon, she hurriedly replaced them in their appropriate storages in the kitchen before joining her sister at the front door.
“Of course, I met him on the way down here.” Celestia announced, confusing Luna greatly as both mares stepped through the door so that Luna could lock it. “Come on, time to find your love.”
“Please don’t call him that…” Luna grumbled but took off after her sister, aiming upwards into the sky above.
The pair of Alicorn Princesses, Luna and Celestia, glided upwards towards the peak of the highest of the Smoky Mountains via upward drafts originating from the small town below with an escort of twelve various pegasi. Luna hung back behind her sister, wondering just what her sister was talking about in regards to when Celestia had suggested that they both go and visit the suit. She had to admit, Luna hadn’t even thought to check the top of the mountain and as the group rose higher, so did her feelings of inadequacy and short-sightedness.
“Is he really up here?” Luna shouted up to her sister with a look of morbid curiosity on her face.
“I’m surprised Luna,” Celestia held back a bit to glide alongside her sister. “If you do indeed harbour an infatuation with the Pilot, I would have thought you had already found him by now and without my help.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question, sister.” Luna frowned in reply but kept pace regardless.
“Yes, he’s up here. Last I saw, anyways.” Celestia nodded back affirmatively as the sound of an extremely high pitched scream began to invade the ear canals of everypony in the air, the sound sending chills down the spines of ponies and alicorns alike.
“What is he doing up here, and what is that sound?” Luna shouted back as her head swiveled around to find the source of the audible irritation. Her answer came in the form of passing through the cloud layer that defiantly remained around the peak of the mountain, resisting the efforts of the pegasi to be cleared away.
Built into the top of the mountain, the top peak of it having been scraped away to form a neat plateau, was a massive four legged metal beast with a bright yellow and blue beam of light being fired into the mountain below from under the metal monstrosity. On the torso of the metal beast, the flattest horizontal portion of it, sat the Wyvern next to a small metal shack which in turn sat next to an overbearing production facility set up.
“What is all this?” Luna furrowed her brows before her eyes settled in on a solitary bipedal figure roaming around the deck of the structure, moving from a cargo container to an unfinished project that stuck out from the side of the mountain like a massive sore thumb.
“It seems that late last night, the Suit disassembled all his property to bring it up here and build that basic laser mining platform that’s been mining straight down into the mountain. It’s not only collecting the resources that we can’t get to and also going to provide a clear shot down to the trapped miners below.” Celestia explained as she motioned for the escort ponies to head back down to quell the riots below.
Once the alicorns were alone in the air and watching the suit build his unremarkably rectangular frame, “He’s doing all this to save us? He tore down his belongings to use the resources to continue mining?” Luna gasped with glee, a tear threatening to run from her eye.
“Indeed, he hasn’t slept since he started.” Celestia nodded back.
“I will have his babies.” Luna announced before taking off towards the suit. Celestia’s eyes widened at the sudden announcement and nearly skipped a beat of her wings. Luna turned around and glided on her back with a massive smile, “I’m only joking, Tia!” before she flew off against cackling away to herself.
Celestia, catching herself and returning to her sister’s side mumbled, “I’m not so sure even you believe that to be a joke, Lulu.”
“Time will only tell.” Luna grinned and with a hearty flap of the wings, tore off through the air towards the mining platform as quickly as her wings could carry her.
Getting close enough to be able to do so over the sound of the mining laser, Luna screamed out with mischief, “Pilot!” The suit turned towards the new sound just as Luna collided with him, bowling the both of them over and to the ground. Celestia came in for a landing as Luna remained sprawled out on the pilot’s body, the pair simply staring at each other through the helmet and safety plate of the Pilot’s suit.
“Hello, Celestia.” The suit’s female griffon voice welcomed the older alicorn before he turned to the smaller.
“Hi.” Luna beat the suit to the punch with a simple squeak of the voice and a massive smile on her face. “Miss me?”
“I was planning to come back down today, make sure everyone was alright and explain what I was doing what the hell up here.” The suit replied gradually. His head turned between the pair of princesses in silence for a few moments. “Could you get off me? I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Nope, i’m staying right here and you’re staying with me.” Luna shook her head defiantly and shifted around a bit to get settled in for the cuddling. Even with the similar body sizes, Celestia could hardly tell that there was a figure under Luna’s furry body -never mind what her weight was doing to his exo-frame.
“Come now Luna, let the human up and get back to work!” Celestia urged her sister to get up with a nudge of her head against her sister’s side, making Luna squeal and inch away from the bare tickling.
“No! I’m not letting go!” Luna pouted resistively and wrapped all four legs around the male's body as best she could considering the position they were both in.
“Can’t we talk about this later? I’ve got a reactor half finished and is already threatening to go critical if I don’t seal it up!” the suit announced while squirming around under Luna who, upon hearing this information, leapt up let the suit roll over onto his back and launch from his position with a welder in hand towards a massive black and red half-cylinder.
“You really need to speak to him about how you feel.” Celestia stood next to her sister who remained curled up on the cold metal ground watching the ass of the Pilot as he sprinted towards the reactor.
“I like to believe that i’ve made my feelings clear with that display.” Luna remarked as her head tilted a bit to the side and her wings threatened to spring outwards. “If he really does require more indications, then he is as thick-headed as the rest of the males of this planet.”
“Well, considering that his mind was mostly on the broken reactor instead of on you, I suspect he may require more firm notifications.” Celestia remarked while the Suit zipped up on top of the reactor via Jetpack to weld something. The welding completed and the reactor turned from red bands around its mid section to a welcoming green. At the same time, below, the laser’s screaming turned itself up in volume as it’s power requirements were finally met and the drill was able to finally hit the full length of it’s reach. Fortunately, the mining platform served to reflect most of the noise away from everything above so the screaming was still no more annoying that a small insect flying around one’s ears.
The suit jumped off the reactor, landing with a heavy thud before standing and hooking the welder to his hip. Luna and Celestia both gasped and nearly bowled him over in attempts to save himself when he reached up and removed his helmet fully to set that on a separate hook on his belt.
“What are you doing? You’ll poison yourself!” Luna screamed as she galloped hard to try and place the helmet back over the man’s head.
“Nah,” the suit replied, still being translated, and held up a hand to stop the princess’s advance on him. “The air up here is just thin enough that the xenon content up here isn’t hazardous to me. It’s also just thick enough that I’m not going to suffocate.” he added the last bit as a second thought at the silent approach of a retort from Celestia. “Now then, shall we head inside? It’s fucking cold up here.” the suit offered, turning towards the shack off to the mare’s right.
Following the suit through the airlock, both Celestia and Luna noted that there was no change in air quality for them, just that it was much more pleasantly warm in the room.
It took the Pilot changing out of his suit for the mare’s to notice that he no longer had his exo-suit on in the first place and was set into a pile in the corner nearby to the door out of the place, unused. As soon as the suit pulled the top portion of his suit off, his undershirt trailing after him, did a pair of blue wings suddenly shoot outwards and smack the eldest sister in the face.
Recovering and spitting out a couple stray feathers, Celestia turned to grin at her sister, noticing the ting of red on her face while she fought to reign her wings under control with her hooves. Needless to say, those wings didn’t surrender.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure?” The suit began as he stepped out of the bottom half of his suit and tossed both portions to the door next to the exo-suit. He then collapsed down on a dark green couch, similar to the one that had been in his hovel.
Luna remained silent and instead followed after the man, hopping up onto the couch and placing her head affectionately in his lap as she laid down while the white alicorn sat down on a second couch across from them both.
“Luna was getting lonesome and was fearful you’d left the planet to it’s fate.” Celestia announced all at once. “I brought her up here so you could make her feel better.”
“And… just how do you expect me to do that?” the pilot raised an eyebrow first at the content moon princess before turning it to the sun princess.
“A wing massage would be great. They are so stiff after flying up this high.” Luna announced and unfolded her free wing forward so that the human could get at it. The Pilot merely looked at the wing in confusion, completely clueless about how to massage a wing. As far as he was concerned, it was all mostly bone and had nearly no muscle to massage; aside from the main tendon along the front of the wing, that is.
“I… don’t really know how.” the pilot admitted, making Luna chuckle before beginning to give instructions on how to massage a wing.
~*~*~
Four hours divided into four wings later, both Princesses were sprawled out on both couches asleep from their wing massages. I stepped into my room and shut the door as quietly as I could, which wasn’t saying much since the door was still of the automated mechanical variety, before sliding into my desk chair to start pulling up files.
“What’s she doing here?” Vinyl demanded with a digital twinge of a sneer in her voice. “I thought I made myself clear that she couldn’t come back.”
“Yes, that may be so, however it is still their planet and they are free to do as they wish; go where they will. I’m nothing more than borrowing land during our temporary stay here.” I remarked and reclined on my seat, tipping the chair backwards to balance it on it’s rear legs.
“I still don’t like it. She’s getting too ‘buddy-buddy’ with you. You’re my pilot, i’m your VI and there is no room for her.” Vinyl sighed to herself from the computer speakers before going silent. “So, are you any closer to being able to save us both from the Intergalactic Police?”
“Well, it’s been a good couple months that they would’ve had to find you in the first place. I don’t want to jinx myself in saying this, but I don’t know if they’re coming at all.” I shrugged back with arms crossed over my chest and my feet up on the console. “And besides, you’re not a VI anymore, you’re a fully fledged AI now.”
“Right, right. AI, not VI. Still trying to get used to that… Never mind that i’m having issues with all these new… thoughts and… opinions…” Vinyl replied, sounding confused and concerned. “Hey, I was wondering something.”
“Sounds about right,” I mumbled back but returned to the console. “What’re you wondering about?”
“If they, the IP I mean, aren’t coming, could you build me a body that I could walk around and interact with the natives of this planet with? Avoiding the blue one completely, that is.”
“Considering I’m not a bio-engineer, I wouldn’t could your bytes on that. If you could find me some existing blueprints and a parts list, then I can fabricate something but don’t expect me to be able to actually design and build something.” I let my head lol backwards and stared at the door upside down.
“You know, it’s funny you should mention that, actually.” Vinyl replied after a moment of digital beeps. “When you had that antenna and had that internet connection, I went ahead and downloaded blueprints for a robot pet body that New Earth humans are fond of having around. All I’d have to do is delete the existing pet program and upload myself into it. It’ll be perfect!” Vinyl announced before bringing up pictures of the sales brochure for the toy. It in itself was as large as the default ponies of this world, just bald and steel grey.
“You’ve been busy in these last few days, haven’t you?” I smirked and looked over the designs, trying to mentally map out the workings and how to put it all together. The sound of childish gigglings greeted me in lieu of spoken word. “Fine, find me some blueprints for this thing and I’ll see what I can do about it.”
“Yes!” Vinyl cheered to herself before getting herself busy while I moved to the media portion of the computer database.
“You know,” I began after selecting a movie at random and setting it to play. “You are going to have to get used to Luna being around. Try as you might, she doesn’t seem the type to be easily swayed by empty hauntings or threats.”
“So, all you have to do is tell her to stay away. It’s that easy.”
“But what if I don’t want her to stay away?” I felt the invisible eyes of Vinyl narrow and glare at me.
“Why wouldn’t you want that? You’ve already got me, we don’t need her around. It’s not like you actually like having her around, right?” the voice of the AI sounded critical and demanding, as though she was daring me to disagree with her.
I accepted her dare. “What if I do like having her around? She’s been with me for the last couple months now, helping to build everything we need to get off planet and back into charted space. I already know she fancies me, so there’s no changing that.”
“Don’t you dare say that you fancy her in return! She’s not even human! She’s a fucking horse!” Vinyl screamed before disabling her audio receivers and otherwise going silent to work on her own thing in the background.
“And you’re a digital entity. What hope do you think you have?” I retaliated to empty space. I resumed my random movie selection and shut off the lights before rolling onto my bed to watch the film. Something had to be done about Vinyl’s hate for Luna…
Waking from my rather short nap to the sound of Vinyl yelling at me from my desktop was not the setting for a happy engineer. Resisting the urge to kick her for waking me -given that it’d only hurt me more than it’d hurt her-, I merely sat down at the desk and glared.
“What?” I demanded in that groggy, early not-quite-awake-but-not-asleep kind of voice.
“She’s still here.” Vinyl finally calmed herself down and I could just tell that she was crossing her little arms behind that screen.
“You woke me to bitch at me for Luna still being around?” I growled back and furrowed my brows, already plotting my revenge against her; it would be quite entertaining.
“Yes! When are you going to get rid of her?” Vinyl demanded again, still sounding like she was trying to be mean but in reality, her voice just made her sound cute.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” I sighed and stood. I also went about pulling my shirt off, something Vinyl asked about but I merely told her to wait again.
Exiting my room, I approached the sleeping form of Luna and gave her shoulder a moderately gentle shake to wake her up.
“Luna, wake up.” I shook again, however my attempts seemed to have woken Celestia up instead and I could already feel the beginnings of a bitchlestia episode coming on. Holding a finger up to silence the princess, I returned to Luna once again. “Luna.”
“Mmm? What time is it?” Luna mumbled in her sleep as she gradually roused. “Nooo… I don’t want to let you go…”
“What do you think she’s dreaming off?” I wondered, aiming the question at Celestia who merely rolled her eyes and settled back down again. With a shrug, I gave Luna another good shove, finally startling her enough to wake her up.
“What? I don’t want to get up!” Luna protested as she latched onto me and pulled me into her body before nearly falling asleep again.
“If you get up, I'll give you a special gift.” I offered, now feeling the entire weight of Luna smothering me with her chest. I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to.
With a groan, Luna finally cracked open her eyes and looked down at me with suspicious eyes.
“What’s the gift?” she asked in a voice I suspected could have been counted as sultry, probably the remnants from her dream.
“Get up and I’ll show you.” I replied once I managed to pull my face from her breast. With a second groan, Luna released me and let me roll onto the floor before she too landed on her hooves, her solid mane looking bedraggled and dishevelled.
“I’m up, what’s the gift?” Luna rubbed at her eyes and yawned, looking down at me as she stood over me entirely.
“Come with me to my room, I have something I want to show you.” I smirked back in reply as Luna nodded and stepped back, only now noticing my bare chest to the effect of her wings starting to flare outwards. Just what I was looking for.
Getting up and leading Luna by the hoof into my room, I held a finger up to silence Vinyl before turning around to face Luna and get down on one knee.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Vinyl screamed as she likely made her conclusion at my posture. Oh how wrong she was. Instead, I turned Luna’s head to face mine with both hands before pulling her in close. Her eyes grew wide, her wings flared out a little more and Vinyl kept screaming.
I went in, planting my lips against Luna’s making her wings pop out and stand at attention while her face went completely red. In the meantime, I could feel the daggers Vinyl was digitally sharpening behind my back and aiming at my neck; even if she’d never be able to actually hurt me. Hell, I could practically hear Vinyl blow a couple circuits with the display, if the popping noises were any indication.
Parting lips with a pop, Luna went cross eyed while I turned to grin maliciously at Vinyl who just- kept- screaming. All the while, I kept grinning until Luna spun me on my heels and leapt at me, knocking me to the ground to plant a second kiss on me. While initially shocked -probably by the fall- I instead leaned into it and wrapped my arms around her neck as best I could, pulling her down into me.
The screaming coming from Vinyl was turning into bloody murder and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more, the kiss or the screaming. Eventually, however, Luna pulled off of me purring and gave me a wink before backing herself out of my room with difficulty considering the erect state of her wings.
Sitting myself up to watch Luna go with a massive dopey smile and a face that was now more red than blue, I spun up onto my desk chair and turned down Vinyl’s voice completely.
“Does that answer your questions?” I piqued an eyebrow and gradually increased Vinyl’s voice to at least hear a change of pace from just screaming bloody murder and rambling to at least issuing every known death curse and hex on me and Luna as quickly as she could. I turned her back down again and left my chair to retrieve my shirt and pull it back on over my skin before leaving from the bedroom altogether to aim for the kitchen for some dinner.
“Pilot!” Luna exclaimed once she and her sister saw me leave the room. “Tia doesn’t believe me when I told her you kissed me!”
“Really now, you think Luna would just lie about something like that?” I gave Celestia a raised eyebrow as I continued to the processor machine. “Especially with all that screaming from Vinyl?”
“Oh, I don’t know, she could have been screaming about anything.” Celestia joked, now sitting upright and fully awake after the volume of Vinyl.
“What, do you need proof?” I stopped at the large standing machine to begin my dinner order as Vinyl turned herself back up, having shifted from death threats to just outright bawling.
“Yes!” Luna barked back, looking eager for another taste as she stood against the back of my couch, staring me down with a glowing horn. “She does!”
“Luna, calm yourself! You’re going to put a hole in the walls at the rate you're going!” Celestia burst into chuckling as I finished my order and returned to the living room where both mares sat and waited for me. “I’m sure that if he actually kissed you, he wouldn’t be acting so calm-” Celestia was interrupted as I came up behind Luna, lifted her head and kissed her upside down. “I stand corrected.”
“One thing about human males, Celestia,” I began once parting ways with Luna. “Is that we don’t start freaking out after we kiss someone we like.”
Luna gasped at this announcement, but skipped to the end. “You like me?”
“Yeah, we’ve spent the last couple months together, we’ve grown fairly close as it is so it’s only natural to like each other.” I shrugged back and returned to the food processor to order up a rye-n-coke in a tall glass. The machine normally served these things in shorter glasses, but I'd custom wrote this particular pattern into the machine.
“You do know that she not only likes you but-” Celestia began to look concerned for her sister, however I held a hand up to stop her again.
“Celestia, I’ve kissed your sister three times now, I think I know how she feels about me.” I smirked as Celestia rolled her eyes in defeat and sat back against the couch again.
“Fine, but I’m going to do the older sister thing: If you break my sister’s heart,”
“I know, none of us are escaping the planet’s explosion.” I retorted, holding Celestia’s tongue as she thought about how her threat would actually affect their chances of getting off planet. “Don’t worry, I have no plans to hurt Luna.”
“Good, because I don’t want to have to condemn the planet because someone broke my sister’s heart.” Celestia decided to take the lead from me again, smirking at me while Vinyl’s crying began to wear down to sniffling. “But, I think if you were worried about Vinyl going feral before,”
“Nah, she’ll be fine. She’s uploaded herself into a container that’s shielded to contain her if I have to unplug her entirely.” I shrugged back and took a sip of my drink.
“I heard that!” Vinyl called from my room, her voice intermittently broken by sobs.
“Then remember that next time you even think about harming Luna!” I shouted back, switching from the happy-go-luck-I-just-kissed-a-princess to I-will-fucking-end-you in a second flat. “From now on, she shall be my girlfriend!” I added, before darting to the mare in question. “I hope I’m not being to presumptuous with that declaration?”
“Not at all, to be honest, I found it quite sexy.” Luna giggled with an accompanied wink before settling down on the couch to face her elder. “Celestia, when was last you performed your duties in court?”
“Oh, dammit, that’s right.” Celestia dropped her head in defeat and looked out the window at the stage of the sun. “I’ve totally forgotten…”
“And if it’s alright with you, Luna,” the dark princess turned to me once again, looking at me upside down. “With all of Vinyl’s crying, I may need a place to stay the night.”
Luna let out a low growl of agreement and smirked before dropping her head to wink at her sister, for whatever reason.
“Please, not before we leave the planet. I don’t think they’d survive the cryogenics.” Celestia remarked as she stood to make her exit from the place. “If you’ll both excuse me, I can at least hold a night court before I aim for bed.”
“I’m just going to wait for this to finish up and then I'll pop by your place?” I offered to Luna who nodded and trotted after her sister through the open door. Once I was alone with the bawling Vinyl, I sat down at the dinner table to wait for the machine to finish dinner while finishing up my drink and setting the empty glass on the table.
After some minutes in silence, I found myself self-reflecting. “What am I expecting from this newfound relationship? If Luna is expecting children of some kind, would that even be possible and how would that work out? She is royalty, so how will the nobility take to me suddenly appearing? What about when we all get to the new planet and I have to return to Earth with news about the newly colonized planet, what happens then and could the new planet survive Celestia's wrath when I make the news?” As I continued to think, I began to noticeably psych myself out of this new romance; despite that I so casually entered into it not fifteen minutes earlier.
A few more minutes in silence and brooding and the processor dinged it’s task complete, offering me a silver domed tray in which my medium rare steak sandwich lay in wait for me. On it should be sauteed mushrooms in a moderately thick gravy next to garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The main attraction would be the peppercorn elk steak resting on a fairly decent sized piece of garlic toast, synthesized to look like it had been grilled to perfection.
Retrieving the platter with a pair of towels, I set everything down on the table before me and prepared myself for the sensations I was about to partake of.
~~~
Dinner was had and I had to put myself down for a short nap afterwards in order to digest everything before attempting to move distances longer than the distance from the table to the suit at the door that I would have to rely on in order to survive down at ground level.
Half an hour of rest later, I pulled myself up from the couch and wiped my face off with a hand to clear the remnants of sleep from me. Stepping into my room, I was pleased that Vinyl had gone offline for the time being and let me disrobe and step into the shower to wash up for my overnight visit at Luna’s.
Once fresh and smelling not like sweat or dinner, I stepped back out and dressed myself in the skintight body suit that went under the EVA suits. Clipping on the translation module to my collar and strapping the throat mic to my neck before covering it all with the collar of the suit, I crossed the distance to the Urban-class suit packed away into a small crate set into the floor of my room at the foot of my bed and got dressed.
“Don’t wait up for me, Vinyl. Do get some good sleep though.” I whispered in my passing through the door and letting it shut behind me as I placed the helmet over my head and locked it in place, letting it pressurize the suit with a hiss and brief chill of air.
Stepping into the evening light and locking my shack’s door behind me, I took off at a sprint towards the edge of the platform that would lead towards the mining town below and leapt off the edge with a spring in my step.
Activating my jetpack but disabling my inertial dampeners, I quickly approached terminal velocity while using the jetpack to keep me from hitting the mountain side. My suit systems detected that I was no longer falling and activated the generic flight HUD which showed me the horizon, airspeed and altimeter. Using this information, I straightened myself out horizontal to the horizon and activated my inertial dampeners just enough to let me properly fly around like the birds of the planet; or like the pegasi who dwelled in the clouds. Disengaging the speed safety devices of my suit, I pushed full thrust into my pack to push me forwards faster and faster, my heart rate rising as my speed increased and my breathing becoming more and more laboured as the adrenaline in my body began to circulate.
Once I’d achieved enough speed, approximately 245m/s according to my HUD, my vertical fall was overpowered by my horizontal flight and I took off around the mountain a few times; first facing the mountain to get a look at it again after initially scouting it in the Wyvern, then facing away to stare out at the night sky. While there was still a bit of sun up on the mountain peak, it was fully and completely night down below and as likely the ponies below were all probably packing in for bed.
Breaking away from skimming the surface of the mountain with my back, I turned back onto my belly and shot away towards what my HUD told me was in the direction of Ponyville before coming about in a massive arc to aim for the main drag of the mining town to begin my descent and slowing. The best way for me to do that was to somersault over so that my feet was ahead of me and my jetpack’s bottom thrusters -the more powerful ones- could act as the primary braking force while the other ones all cancelled out the other axis of movement once I'd turned on all my dampening forces.
Timing it perfectly, I hit the ground sliding on my feet at only 11m/s and slid for a good couple feet before coming to a full stop; surprisingly staying upright in doing so. Sucked that no one was around to see it though.
Dusting myself off from the slide, I activated my headlamp to illuminate the area around me to locate Luna’s abode in relation to my location.
Found it.
Not only did I come in with an amazing landing, but I also managed to stop only a few doors down from Luna’s home. Spinning on my heels, I shut my lamp off to keep from annoying any of the locals with my arrival -forgetting that my mere landing was not silent in the slightest and probably spooked a good number of neighbors- and gave myself a quick jog to Luna’s front door.
Stepping up onto the large patio I stopped at the door and have a couple hearty knocks -figure knock loud enough the first time, don’t have to repeatedly annoy anyone else with incessant knocking after- and stepped back a step to wait.
The sound of ceramics being dropped, accompanied by the sound of metal hitting the floor and eclipsed by a bit of cursing in Equestrian, and the sound of trotting towards the door alerted me to the home-keepers arrival.
The door flew open with an eager Luna at the doorway, her mane solid and laying flat against her head with sparkling eyes and white teeth in a large grin.
“You’ve come!” she announced and backed away from the door, letting me into the place. “I’ll admit, I was beginning to believe you were going to stand me up, that everything earlier today was a lie or some hallucination…” Luna admitted as she shut the door behind me and circled around me to lead me into the living room on the left -never mind that I had designed the basic framework for her house in the first place so I knew where everything was already.
“Well, I'm here now. As promised.” I nodded back and took a seat on one of the sofas near to me.
“Please, make yourself comfortable! I was just preparing a light snack while I waited for you. I have also taken the liberty of making sure that this whole place is air sealed shut. You can take your suit off, I’ve purified the air supply.” Luna announced as she turned from the living room to the kitchen again, giving me a quick look at the seal on the back of her neck keeping her healthy in this environment.
“Well I appreciate the efforts.” I replied and began the process of removing the parts and pieces of my suit, letting the valves of my suit hiss shut before disconnecting the seals so as not to waste extra air for the trip back up the mountain.
Setting my suit in a neat pile at the end of the sofa with the helmet sat staring up at me with the gloves underneath, I sat back and got myself comfortable with an arm over the back of the seating and a leg folded over the other.
“I must say, it’s much warmer down here at the base of the mountain than it is at the peak, even indoors.” I announced, the throat mic and translation units still hidden under my skin suit's collar.
“That is one of the benefits of being at sea level, I suppose.” Luna agreed as she cleaned up whatever dishes she’d broken at my arrival and returned to her snack. “Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?”
“No thank you, I’m fine but thanks for the offer.” I held a hand up from my knee, regardless of whether or not she could actually see me do so.
“So, i’ve been wondering about the future.” Luna began as she turned from the kitchen with a large bowl of a mixed garden salad in her magical grasp and a fork hanging from the edge of the bowl. “Specifically what life will be like on the new planet.”
“Well,” I let Luna hop up onto the sofa next to me and cuddle into my body as close as she could while still being able to eat. “Let me go over how it’ll work from completion of the Colony Ship in two months.”
“That’s still taking some getting used to, only having two more months before we have to evacuate the planet…” Luna briefly interrupted, sounding distressed but not enough to be unable to eat as she forked a mouthful of salad into her mouth.
“Yeah, I know. But we’ll make it. We have to.” I reassured the princess, giving her a heartfelt hug from the side before getting adjusted again. “So, we complete the colony ship and get the selected personnel loaded aboard and into cryo. A small crew, only about five or six give or take, will remain awake for a few months to ensure that nothing happens to the ship that could endanger the lives on board. They’ll make sure that the ship escapes the planet unscathed and reaches registered space before setting a course for a previously uninhabited planet that will support all forms of life currently on this planet.”
“If there isn’t one nearby to set a course towards?” Luna looked up at me with a partial mouthful before swallowing and continuing her snack.
“Once we’re in registered space, that won’t be a problem.” I replied. “Once a course has been laid in, the skeleton crew will then go into cryostasis as well and will go through a similar routine that I did. Every five years they’ll wake up to perform maintenance or collect resources from asteroids, moons or from uninhabited planets from orbit.”
“You can do that?” Luna raised an eyebrow through a mouthful then quickly emptied her mouth out and apologized for the lack of manners.
“What, planet cracking? Sure, we achieved that somewhere in the two hundred years I was asleep, apparently. I’ve even got the blueprints and tech spreads to build the necessary equipment for the colony ship if we need it.” I shrugged back with a smirk. Luna stared at me in disbelief. “I have no idea how it all works, but I know that it uses gravity tethers and massive mining lasers to break off continent-sized chunks of the planet or moon and then refines them into ore and materials.”
“I am actually quite worried about how humanity has advanced in technology. To be able to mine an entire planet for it’s ores… What if it was weaponized?”
“Not possible with the entire galactic community watching. Humanity is not the most technologically advanced race in the Alliance and if we tried to crack an inhabited planet then one of the other races would surely beat us back down.”
“What would happen if one of those other more advanced races attacked with planet cracking technology?”
“One of two things, the rest of the galaxy would fight back or we’d be exterminated.”
“That simple huh?” Luna sighed heavily and dove back into her bowl of vegetables. “Okay, so go on.”
“Right, so when the colony ship reaches the new planet the VI will automatically enter into orbit and begin the process of waking everyone up to begin the colonization. The planet terrain will be analyzed and divided out amongst the species to best support each type. The new Administration will head down to the planet and spend a couple months setting up the government buildings.” I had to pause to take a breath and organize the rest of the plans in my mind and cough a couple times into the crook of my arm.
“After that, the workforce will descend and begin construction of critical infrastructure after which the entirety of the ship will descend and populate the planet; the colony ship being torn down piece by piece as the planet’s infrastructure takes place.”
“Aren’t you worried that creatures still on the ship would become accustomed to living on the ship instead of living on the planet? Won’t they try to resist?” Luna raised an eyebrow in worried curiosity.
“Would certainly be a problem if, like I said, the ship wasn’t getting shredded piece by piece in order to build up the new colonies. While everyone is in space, races are going to be living amongst each other so the ship being torn apart will affect everyone equally. Eventually there’ll be no choice but to head planetside.”
“You make it sound so simple...” Luna sighed and set her bowl and fork down to curl up into me further, closing her eyes to settle down.
“Hah, yeah I know.” I gave a soft hearted chuckle in reply and wrapped my arms around Luna as best I could to pull her into me further. “We both know it’s not going to be that easy.”
“No, but a mare can dream.” Luna smirked back and yawned. “My word, I think it may be time for bed…”
“Agreed.” I nodded and released Luna who whined at me doing so before getting herself up to toss the bowl and fork into the kitchen sink with precision then lead me towards the stairs in the hall that would lead up to the second floor and to her room.
Walking into Luna’s darkly-decorated room, everything in blue, silver and black, Luna hopped up onto the large double-sized mattress as I trailed after her and pulled the both of us under the covers. Luna immediately wrapped her legs around me and latched on while I worked at getting the blankets over the both of us.
“There’s something I would like to try, if you’ll let me.” Luna whispered as the lights in the room died off with the glow from her horn. “I’d like to try dreaming with you tonight, but you have to let me in.”
“I have no idea how to do that…” I whispered back and breathed deeply of Luna’s fragrance. Blueberries.
“While you’re sleeping, if you feel an unfamiliar presence, don’t fight me okay? I’ll pull you from your dream into a shared one between us.” Luna explained into my chest and breathed deeply herself.
“I’ll do my best.” I offered and settled down into silence with the princess in my arms.
An expansive plains stretched out far beyond what I could adequately call the end of the biome, with a forest of extraordinarily large trees blocking the view of the horizon, sat to the immediate right of an impressively large mountain range. Spinning slowly left, a small grove of pines sat in the middle of the grassy terrain, providing shade to whatever creatures required shelter from the elements. Past that, the plains continued on into the distance, inconceivable by human eyes till they dropped off into an ocean I just knew was that direction.
Keeping my gradually leftward motion, a forest of smaller poplar trees barely peeked out from a veil of grey fog, foreboding anyone from entering into that silently promised hellhole.
The bright green grass of the plains rolled downwards from where I stood at arms, my M1903A4 rifle slung over my shoulder loaded and ready for the hunt. The hill I apparently stood on continued to roll downwards towards that eerie forest a ways before levelling off, with the grass broken by a dirt road path that lead back towards the ocean.
Following that road with my eyes, I took in the sight of an absolutely magnificent sight: a city built around a hill, glowing as though it had captured a star and used it to cast never-ending sunlight from its peaks. While I couldn’t quite make out the specific details, I could make out the small blotches of black on the otherwise white background of the city and its landscape, denoting the creatures coming and going to and from the city regarding whatever business they may have.
Looking up to the skies, blocking out the direct feed of light from the two suns above, I gazed up in incredulity at the massive galaxy-scape that was splayed out in all it’s magnificent splendour. Planets of various colours dotted the sky in full brilliance, not just a little dot but close enough that I'm sure astronomers could visit the neighbouring planets with telescopes and radio signals and receive replies in a matter of minutes. How those planets weren’t interfering with this planet’s orbit or gravity was beyond me, but it was astounding all the same.
Checking myself out, I found myself not dressed in the typical skin tight clothing of the EVA suits or even the clothing that I had brought with me from Earth. Instead, I was decked out in a forest green flecktarn camouflage outfit of cargo-pants with a remarkable number of pockets and a similarly coloured shirt sleeves with a tan chest portion of the shirt made of some kind of very light material that still somehow kept me warm. Checking out my hands, they were gloved in a simple black leather shooting glove pair, with the first two fingers cut away for trigger manipulation or what have I. What had me more curious was a strange tattoo on my right forearm, starting near to the wrist and taking up the entirety of my forearm to the crook of my elbow. It wasn’t anything specific, nothing I could identify anyways, it was just a bunch of geometric shapes all aligned together to look something like a strange torch.
With a facial shrug, I examined the more immediate surroundings around me and found what looked like a pack of wolves gradually growing nearer to the city. They’d still have a couple days to go at the slow pace they were at, but they’d still pose a threat to anything trying to reach the city and something in my mind told me I wanted to hunt them and harvest them for their pelts and other bits.
Kneeling down on the grass, I pulled my rifle from my shoulder and raised it up to look through the scope. In my eye, and surprisingly unsurprisingly, a small circle began to appear, showing me where to put my crosshairs in order to make a shot of some kind. It didn’t show me where I'd hit the animal, but it gave me a pretty good idea.
Hitting the safety, I guessed at my chances to actually hit anything and decided I’d have better luck laying down completely. Doing so, I lined up the crosshairs with one of the little red circles and began to slow my breathing.
Before I could psyche myself out, I pulled the trigger and reloaded as quickly as I could to set up for the next shot. A wolf that I had managed to successfully shoot dropped with a yelp while the others all turned towards the gunshot but their limited eyesight put me at a temporary advantage.
Putting down thirteen rounds downrange took out the remaining nine wolves and emptied out a leg pocket of spare magazines. Rising to my knee, I shouldered the rifle again and evaluated the terrain for anything that may be trying to sneak up on me. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, I cautiously approached the corpses while pulling a bowie knife from its sheath on my lower back to admire the sheen of the blade as it glowed in the sunlight.
Setting to the task, I began the long and arduous task of skinning the wolves while collecting a good number of their teeth that remained in good condition. Apparently some people had uses for these so I might as well grab a handful.
“What are you doing?” The lovely voice of Luna perked my ears as I sat crouched over the last of my kills working the fur off as cleanly as I could.
“Hunting.” I replied simply, still crouched over with the blood of my enemies coating my hands. “These wolves were approaching the city and would have terrorized people as they tried to leave or enter.” I explained and sat back once I pulled the pelt off entirely, leaving the rest of the body where it lay for the time being. “I get the pelts that I can turn into armour and sell, the city guard don’t have to do the job and I get paid. It benefits all.”
“Except for the wolves, they didn’t get a chance, did they?” Luna frowned at me before looking up to examine the surroundings. “I tried pulling you out, did you not feel me?”
“Nope. But it seems that you can instead enter into my dream.” I stood and stretched out my back as best I could. “And for the record, these wolves are feral. They can’t be given a second chance or anything.”
“Is that the same to be said for every creature here?” Luna inquired as she actively avoided the bloody mess I left behind. I instead stepped out of the mess and cleaned my hands off on a rag found in my left back pocket.
“Probably.” I shrugged back and draped an arm over Luna’s neck. “So, a couple questions. One, how do we understand each other without the Rosetta Stone Translation?”
“It’s a dream, anything is possible.” Luna shrugged back and nuzzled me. “I have a question of my own: is this Earth? It’s absolutely beautiful!”
“Earth? Nah. This is actually a setting for a novel I wrote back during my time at Keen Academy. When I was leaving I was actually debating letting a major video game company turn it into a VRMMORPG. Don’t know what happened to that offer…” I explained and threw a leg over Luna’s back, making her gasp at the action.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting it to be that kind of dream.” Luna teased but took off at a light walk towards the city regardless. “We could wake up and spend some time together if you wanted to ride me.”
I gave a hearty chortle and gave Luna a pat on the back of the neck before stroking the solid blue hairs. “Way to blow this out of proportion.”
“What, I’m serious.”
“I wouldn’t even begin to know what to do. The incompatibilities in our physiology alone would make it… interesting enough…” I replied while scratching the back of my neck and ensuring that the pelts hanging from my shoulder didn’t get any blood on Luna’s hide.
“Didn’t you have more questions?” Luna looked back at me before turning forwards again and spreading her wings to take flight.
“I did, but I completely forgot them.” I admitted and sighed, leaning back to take in the mid-afternoon suns’ rays. Even if this was only a dream, I could still faintly feel the effects of the sunlight on my face and arms and it was just as relaxing as resting with Luna back in reality.
“If I might say, this world you’ve created is just marvellous!” Luna let her words flow out with a heavy breath before she stopped completely and just stood in place to feel the gentle breeze on her face. “I don’t think even our planet has any kind of terrain or landscapes quite like this.”
“Try looking further north. Past Blackwater Forest and Cale Sevadus, that’s the name of the mountains next to the forest, is a crystal tundra. There’s a small stretch of land where the trees are crystallized as it meets the new terrain biome.” I grinned and pictured the area in my mind, imagining the towering spires of crystal Blackwater trees that rose into the sky for kilometres before the foliage even began.
“That must be wondrous to see!” Luna agreed and laid herself down in the grass before letting me roll off and take a seat against her barrel. “You’ll have to show me one of these nights.”
“Perhaps.” I conceded and stared out over the landscape in silence while Luna surveyed the rest of the area. “I know we literally just sat down, but we should head into town to finish this contract.” I sighed, knowing that both Luna and I had just stopped and were quite comfortable. Luna whined in protest and remained seated while I stood up again, placing a hand on her side to help myself up.
“You go, I'll stay.” Luna sighed and flopped over onto her side to get comfortable.
“You’re more likely to get shot by hunters thinking your a rare monster.” I remarked and started off across the plains towards the road. Luna quickly got to her hooves and caught up, looking nervous.
“They wouldn't really attack me, would they?” Luna frowned at this, hoping I was kidding. I shook my head and dropped her hopes.
“There was no creature in this story like you before and since you’re not bipedal, other hunters will think you’re a mob; a monster.” I explained and placed a hand on her back. “As long as you stick with me, you’ll be fine.”
“With an explanation like that, who can resist?” Luna joked back and lowered a wing to let me hop up onto her back once more. “Anything else I should know?”
“You can very nearly expect people to try and buy you off me. They’ll take one look at you and think your a rare mount.” I announced after a moment of considerations.
“But you wouldn't actually do that, right?”
“Hell no! I’m the only one who gets to ride you!” I grinned back and tousled the lowest portion of her mane. The pair of us chuckled at this announcement before Luna spread her wings and took off into the air.
In that instant, we found ourselves in the city and landed before the Goods Trading centre staring up at the remarkably muddy looking wooden building. All around us were the same kind of muddy wooden buildings, often mixed in between buildings that were made of nothing but mud bricks or were even just a signpost sitting over a carpet of products.
“Dream travelling for the win.” I smirked and disembarked from Luna’s back with the pelts over my shoulder. “You wait here, I'm going to sell these furs then we’ll go turn in the contract.”
“I’ll be here.” Luna agreed and moved off the side of the massive road that ran the circumference of the ring city. I stepped into the building and almost immediately stepped back out with heavier pockets and a pair of hunters crowding Luna who looked completely distressed.
“Is there a problem?” I stepped forward to the group and held Luna to my body.
“Nah, no problem, just wanna know how much to buy it off ya!” one male remarked casually, fists on his hips. “I’ll pay good money for it!”
“I am not for sale!” Luna shrieked and stamped her hoof down, narrowly missing crushing the poor guy’s armoured foot under her own. “Leave me be!”
“She’s not for sale.” I announced and threw a leg over Luna’s back. “There is no offer you can make to change my mind.”
The second male seemed to be less cordial. “We could just take her if you don’t.” he grinned and pulled a pair of sabres from his back. A flash of light and a pair of black steel knives were held at the throats of both men.
“You could try, yes. You’d die, but you could try.” I agreed and waited patiently.
“Oh put ‘em away. I’m sure if she’s that rare a mount, then she wouldn’t be able to be traded or stolen anyways.” The first guy sighed in defeat and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. The second guy sighed and complied, putting his sabres away and stepped back. With a smile I sheathed my own blades and directed Luna away from the two men.
“Well, that was frightening.” Luna announced, her voice still slightly shaking. “Could you have successfully fought them off?”
“Absolutely. My dream, my win.” I grinned back and as a show to help calm the mare, changed my appearance to more of a battle armour armed with a railgun sniper rifle. “They wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“Then why run around in that earlier get-up?” she asked as I switched back to said get-up.
“‘Cuz I like camouflage and historic weapons.” I shrugged back and let Luna do the walking. “So, what do you wanna do?”
“I am unfamiliar with this world, I do not know what is available for entertainment here.” So came my response with a valid point. “What was the original story’s plot for this world?”
“Without going into long and drawn out details, basically the main character and his brother meet up with a bunch of people from around the galaxy -the idea behind the story is that the human race isn't part of the Galactic Community yet- to fight a precursor race that’ll invade the galaxy to wipe out all advanced sentient life. He doesn’t tell his friends until after his supposed death when the enemy appears as a final boss.”
“Seems like a bit of a rude character if he doesn’t tell his friends or family about the impending doom.”
“Well, how would you go about telling the world that a race of super advanced aliens are coming to destroy intelligent life in the galaxy?” I asked genuinely but I think I may have laid in a tinge of sarcasm by accident. Adding as a second thought, “Without magic.”
“I… I am royalty, my subjects would have to believe me. Surely there has to be some way to prove that the end of all life was coming?” Luna looked back at me with a raised eyebrow in confusion. Or skepticism.
“Nope. The characters are all regular people in their own rights and hold no influence over the rest of their kinds. All that the main character has to go on would be a prophecy about the arrival of him and his friends. Nothing more than children’s stories.”
“I… understand your point of view, and I’ll accept your premise.” Luna sighed but conceded as we briefly passed by the guard tower and through the realm of possibilities provided by a dream, the contract was turned in and three more were accepted. “Was the story any good after you wrote it?”
“Apparently if a video game company wanted to turn it into a game… Dunno how it turned out but I think we might be able to find out when we wake up and I can build another antenna. If not then, then after we’re back in registered space.” I chuckled at the thought. “To be honest, I hadn’t even planned to publish it. A friend of mine who was editing for me at the time sent a link to the document to a publisher for me, talking me up. Some weeks later and I get an email from some big publishing firm asking what I was going to do with the project.”
“And you had no idea what you were going to do?”
“Nope. Didn’t even know If was going to actually finish the project.” I shook my head in reply and shifted around on Luna’s back a bit. “Anyways, I finally get it done and re-submit it. A week later I get an email offering to publish the project in return for a good portion of the royalties from whatever sold. At that time, I also got an offer from the video game company.”
“So, how’d the book do?”
“Books, apparently. I sighed the publishing deal a couple days before I shipped off planet and left the video game deal to my family to deal with.”
“So you don’t know how it’s done over the last three hundred years?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if no one even heard of the story, let alone if the game failed miserably and faded into oblivion.” I admitted, mostly due to the lack of self-esteem in my writing capabilities. I did have to give myself credit where credit was due: it was published by a large company and I was offered a video game deal so maybe it did pretty good and I had millions waiting for me when I got back to Earth.
“Oh I’m sure it’s done just fine.” Luna offered supportively and used her wings to console me despite the awkward way of doing it. “So, you’re a writer outside of being an Engineer. What other kinds of worlds can you create?”
“What, in this dreamscape?” I raised an eyebrow and smirked. Luna nodded back and my smirk turned into a full on grin. “Oh, Luna, baby. Just you wait.”
“Why wait?” Luna stopped once we were clear of the city walls and sat down on a grassy knoll nearby to the road.
“Because I think I'm waking up already.” I announced as I felt the pull of wakefulness.
“But we haven’t even done anything interesting…” Luna whined and fired up her horn into it’s glow. I began to feel the pulling less and less until it finally disappeared altogether. “There, back to sleep.”
“Works for me.” I grinned and gave the alicorn a hug around the neck. “Come on, let’s try Blackwater Cavern together. It’s the first dungeon the main characters go through early on.”
“Would I be of any help like I am?” I slid off Luna’s back at this question and rounded ahead of her to crouch down before her face and placed a hand on her chest.
“So, all we would have to do is make you bipedal.” I announced and sat back on my hands and feet. Luna’s eyes expanded at the idea and closed her eyes, her tongue sticking out at the side of her mouth while she concentrated.
A quick flash of light and Luna’s pony body was transformed into a fully human version of herself, with a flowing dark blue dress of two colours with small silver pauldrons on her shoulders held in place by a blue collar reminiscent of her pony version. Her crown remained the same and surprisingly her horn and even wings -which were now absolutely massive in size- remained in place on her head and back.
“Well, that was completely disorienting.” Luna complained with crossed eyes once she’d opened them. Her eyes met the sight of my mouth hanging open in shock as I examined the new details of her body. Lithe in nature with ample breasts, flat stomach into wide hips. Higher up, above the chin, her jaw seemed to have been chiselled perfectly with an adorably small mouth and nose. Her blue eyes were accentuated by bright blue glittering shadow and rimmed by thick black eyeliner flared at the ends of her eyes. Her hair swept over her forehead in gentle waves, with the rest of it falling behind her shoulders.
Noticing me staring, Luna frowned slightly, “What’s wrong?”
Slowly, to emphasize my point, “Hot damn are you gorgeous!” I declared since that was the only thing I could come up with at the moment. That, and I had to shift around where I sat to get comfortable again.
“Really? I just kind of… thought of it.” Luna silently gasped and began to check herself out. I stood and helped her up with a hand, letting her dust off the skirt of her dress with her hands. “I don’t think it’ll be very conductive to combat, however. Especially if the dungeon is, I’m guessing, in Blackwater Forest?”
“You would be correct, yes. The cavern itself is actually underwater, so we’ll be going for a swim.” I shook my head clear of inception and did my best to return to the task at hand. I held my hand up, making Luna look at it curiously before she lifted hers up to meet mine.
Intertwining fingers had the both of us smiling before I began to imagine the black armour of a Dark Knight at a mid-grade level on her body. Changing it’s colour scheme to that of Luna’s preference, her dress was replaced by medium weight adamantine armour with a massive kite shield on her back. Leaving the weapons up to her, I stepped back and let my girlfriend view herself yet again. Certainly wasn’t as slimming as the dress, but it still somehow looked amazing on her.
“What’s all this then?” Luna checked herself out, swinging her torso around to check out her behind.
“Dark Knight armour, approximately level one-twenty. Only mid-level armour but it’ll get the job done for Blackwater. I’ve left the weapons you want to use up to you, in case you have a personal preference.” I explained and dreamt up the same level of armour for my sniper class, costuming myself in body tight body armour in gold, crimson red and silver. “I will warn you, however, that the dungeons scale up to your approximate level which is totalled by your weapons, armours, magic skills and who you’re with.”
“So, it’ll be harder for us than it was for your main characters?” Luna turned back to me to pull the shield from her back to check it out. It was primarily black, with a dark blue edging and the boss designed to look like her royal seal. Attaching it to her left arm, Luna reached to her hip and drew a massive great-sword with her right -apparently she had the strength to wield something my size with one hand- and gave it a twirl in the air. “What kinds of abilities do I have?”
“At your level, I have no idea. The information will come to you as you use your skills and magic abilities but I know it has something to do with greatly impeding your enemies abilities through blindness, deafness or even controlling the minds of your enemies to go berserk on their friends.” I explained and swapped out my historic weapon for the more modern Railgun rifle and accompanying sidearm which sat on my thigh.
“I suppose such things would be possible to one called a ‘Dark Knight’. Still, could be worse.” Luna sighed and set her weapons away on her hip and back. “Shall we set off?”
“We could, or we could just dream ourselves there.” I grinned and took Luna’s gauntleted hand before the scenery around us shifted to the starting chamber of the dungeon. Stalactites and stalagmites littered the area around the pair of us, with a small makeshift camp’s remains having been left from whoever may have last attempted the dungeon. Gone was the bright blue skies and bright green grasses, instead replaced by glittering rock illuminated by an unknown source coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
At one end of the room, a pool of water that we would have come up through had we trekked the distance ourselves and opted to swim rather than dream. At the other end an opening in the wall, perfectly round in nature sat ready to accept the new pair of challengers who’d come to plunder the dungeons riches.
“So, shall we?” I asked, offering an arm like that of a gentleman should to a lady or girlfriend. Luna smiled and placed a hand on my own once she stood alongside me, staring into the depths of the cavern before us.
Turning to me with anticipation, “Lead on, o’ brave warrior!”
I jerked with a start, sitting up in bed and throwing whatever remained of the blankets that I had. In doing so I nearly smashed Celestia in the face, had she been standing closer to me than she already was.
“What happened?” my eyes darted around the room before settling on the older princess while Luna merely curled up tighter in her blankets next to me.
“I am pleasantly surprised to see you’re still clothed.” Celestia remarked as she stepped back to let my throw my legs over the edge of the bed and work myself awake.
“You were expecting otherwise?” I smirked and glanced at Celestia while rubbing at my face. Taking a second to do so, I adjusted the throat mic and translator unit partially hidden by my shirt’s collar.
Taking a deep breath, I began to feel something wrong with my breathing, as it was much more raspy and laboured than I was used too. Pressing my hand to my chest, I attempted to feel what was wrong with my lungs while my breathing grew harder and shorter; the feeling of additional weight in my chest giving me reason for alarm.
“Is something wrong?” Celestia looked concerned and the comment made Luna shoot upright in bed to stare at me with a similar look.
“Can’t…” I gasped out, now feeling like I was suffocating as my lungs were filling. “Breath…”
Luna took a magical hold of her sister’s head and brought the back of her neck before her eyes, before those blue eyes expanded and her horn fired up in it’s blue glow. The backs of both sister’s necks glowed slightly, just long enough that their air spell could take place, before the air quality began to change around us.
“You broke the air seal in here, Tia!” Luna announced with anger while my lungs no longer felt like they were filling, but instead like they were just filled with fluid. “He’s been breathing in our air!”
“Dammit, I apologize profusely as I was not aware there was such a seal!” Celestia frowned and back pedalled away from me to let me stand and stumble towards the door, still clutching at my neck as though it’d help me to breath better.
“Get…” I gasped in a short breath. “Suit…”
“Right away!” Celestia galloped out the door around me while Luna took hold of me to lay me down on my side to try and recover.
“What can I do?” Luna demanded quickly, high stepping on the tips of her hooves in eagerness to help.
“Purge… My lungs…” I wheezed as my breathing grew more and more laboured. “Empty… them…”
“How?”
“Vacuum... in my throat… Draw out… everything…” I remarked and coughed up a bit of blood. No telling what the xenon was doing to my lungs but it couldn’t be good. At this point Celestia reappeared in the door with all the parts of my suit in her magic, sliding to a halt to take the corner into the room.
“But, then you’ll be left with nothing to breath!” Luna protested, but I held a hand up to calm her.
“That’s… the idea…” I gave a weakened smile and laid out on my back with limbs spread out. Luna looked conflicted, but soon sleeted herself and nodded agreement. With her horn sparkling, I could feel something going on in my throat as the ability to breath grew even more difficult. Gasping for air, choking on the lack of it, I could feel the suction begin to pull the dense gas in my lungs out freeing up space for pure air which should appear sooner or later.
With Luna in tears as she continued to hurt me, I kept my eyes on her to try and comfort her, despite that my gasping and inability to breath was technically killing me. Spinning my hand to tell her to keep going, I felt my face begin to turn different colours and fought the ever powerful urge to tell her to stop in order to breath again. If I did so, all the Xenon would just stick in the back of my throat and prevent me from breathing entirely, so I’d be boned either way.
Soon, and at the point that I was reaching black-out, I felt my lungs finally lighten up enough that I motioned to Luna to pull the vacuum from my throat. She did this, and from my mouth came the vortex of life-giving oxygen and the colourless wisps of the xenon. As soon as the suction was far enough away from me, my drank in deeply of the life of oxygen around me and coughed up a couple more lungfuls of blood. That wouldn’t stop till I could see my medical-station.
“Are you alright?” Luna helped me get onto my side while I sucked down oxygen and coughed up more fluid. “What now?”
“Now...” my throat felt extremely coarse and my lungs burned from the damage done by the gas. “I need to get to my station.”
“I’ll teleport us, hold on to my sister please.” Celestia announced firmly and set my suit pieces down on Luna’s back to fire up her horn for the teleportation. My hand met Luna’s hoof, taking it firmly which she held in return.
A bright light and severe disorientation later, I was laying on the cold metal floor of my cabin in the middle of the room. Couching, shaking my head clear of the confusion, I stood to unsteady feet and aimed myself towards the auto-doc in the corner of the room; opposite the pile of my discarded exo-frame.
“Welcome to the Keen Medical centre, state your emergency.” the auto-doc requested while the operating table spun to give me access.
“Heavy gas poisoning, severe lung damage.” I coughed back and let the artificial gravity of the operating table hold me to the plate.
“Confirmed, please prepare for emergency operation.” the machine requested, giving me time to pull my shirt, mic and translator unit off and toss them to an anxious girlfriend. Once I was laying on the table completely, the table spun on it’s hinges and doused me in darkness.
Once the table was secured, a needle injected me with a full anaesthetic before the rest of the machine's workings selected scalpels and immediately intubated me from the throat. Taking a deep breath of pure oxygen, I closed my eyes and let the machine do it’s work.
~*~*~
“I certainly hope he’ll be alright. It would be tragic if anything happened to him.” Celestia sighed and took a seat on the nearby couches, joined by her sister who set the clothing on her back into a pile on the couch cushion next to her.
“You make it sound like you’re threatening him.” Luna growled back before sighing and dropping to a lying position with her head on her hooves. “I’m sorry, I know you didn’t mean to poison him.”
“It’s quite alright. I will admit that what I said did sound like a threat, so I apologize for that.” Celestia bowed her head for a moment before bringing it back up again. “So, how did last night go?”
“Nothing happened between us, if that’s what you're wondering.” Luna smirked at the notion of having something cheerier to talk about, distract her with. “We did share a dream, however.”
“Oh? What about?” Celestia settled in for a conversation, figuring the girls would be there for a while while the Pilot was operated on.
“It was a location from a story that he’d written before he left his home-world. Apparently he’s a published author. It was absolutely beautiful, being there.” Luna began, looking back on the dream. “There were two suns that the planets orbited around, and the other planets of the system were close enough to make out clearly.”
“A binary heliocentric system? That must have been a sight to behold.” Celestia raised an eyebrow at the mental picture, imagining the model of the imaginary system.
“Oh it was. I’m tempted to ask the pilot to find us a new home with a similar system environment.” Luna grinned back but continued. “Anyways, the grass was vibrant. Not bright and colourful like ours, but full of life and remarkably soft to the touch. There was a massive forest nearby, it’s trees stretching for kilometres before the foliage even began.”
“Those trees must have been extraordinarily wide to support themselves then.”
“Probably, we didn’t visit that particular forest so I can’t say for sure. Next to the forest was a mountain range. It was like the Smokey mountains here, but with clear skies all around them and the whitest snow-caps I’d seen.” Luna remarked and spun herself to lay on her back, her hooves in the air and her head hanging upside down from the end of the couch.
“Please, this is most interesting. Continue.” Celestia requested with a air-bump of the nose.
“I don’t know much about the rest of the landscape, unfortunately. But I can tell you about it’s people and wildlife.” Luna announced, then continued with a silent urging from her sister. “The wild animals there are called monsters, or mobs for short. They’re all feral, like those in the Everfree or beyond our borders so they can’t be reasoned with.”
“I suspect that them being feral is important somehow.” the white alicorn raised an eyebrow at the conclusion but dropped it when Luna nodded.
“Yes, when I arrived there the Pilot was in the process of hunting a pack of feral wolves that were threatening a nearby city.” Luna sighed and lifted her head to rest it on the couch and stare up at the ceiling while her mane tried to swirl against the material but just ended up as a mess. “He had to explain to me why he was hunting them in the first place, even after I protested.”
“Understandable.” Celestia eventually conceded the point, figuring that there would be a chance that they’d have to hunt packs of feral animals on their new world in order to claim plots of land for new settlements.
“After that, he took me into the market districts of the ring city to turn in the pelts of the wolves for profit.”
“He sold the bodies of the dead wolves?” Tia raised an eyebrow at this.
“No, just the furs. He skinned them and took a few of their teeth. Apparently they were worth a bit of gold in his story. I just figured that all that was part of his culture so didn’t ask about it.”
“Probably wise to do so, I guess.” the elder princess huffed but edged her sister on with a hoof. “Continue.”
“Right, so after a brief scuffle with a pair of male humans who were trying to buy me, the Pilot dissuaded them with a pair of black knives, we ended up back outside the city and aimed to clear out one of the early dungeons of his story.”
“How’d that go over?”
“Well, I turned into an attractive female human so I could help -even wore what he called Dark Knight armour. Didn’t get to the actual combat because he woke up from being poisoned.” Luna sighed and did her best to cross her hooves over her chest, though that kind of failed.
“You were a human female?” Celestia raised her head in surprise at the news. “What was it like?”
“Honestly, it was like I had been human all my life. I didn’t have any issues with balance like I thought I would and I was already so used to having hands that I didn’t even think about it when I drew my sword and shield.” Luna remarked while staring down at her hooves, imagining them as hands and feet again. She imagined wiggling the little digits, the feeling of holding the leather-bound hilt of the weapon and the leather thongs of the shield. She went further to imagine the feeling of the weight on her chest and body from the armour, how it hugged her body perfectly without restricting most of her movement like her pony armour sometimes did.
“Remind me, sister, don’t we have a transformation spell?” Celestia smirked and glanced at Luna who perked up at the thought.
“I’d completely forgotten about that spell!” Luna beamed and spun from her back to standing on her hooves to hop back up onto the couch, sitting like a human would. Pressing her hooves to her head, Luna delved into her mind in order to recall the spell sequence to try and use it.
After a minute of deep sea diving, working through thoughts of the Pilot and the warm fuzzies she felt whenever she thought about him, Luna smirked to herself and fired up her horn with her tongue slightly flopped out from the side of her mouth.
“I see you’ve remembered the spell.” Celestia chuckled to herself and watched the horn of her sister in order to try and decipher the spell details. Meanwhile, Luna had the spell going and began to recall the look of her human body: its curves and details like how her skin felt and what her hands and feet looked like. She even went so far as to remember what the makeup and clothing she was wearing at the time looked like.
“This is a lot more difficult than I remember a thousand years ago, sister.” Luna grunted with the exertion but did her best to keep her concentration. Soon, she had the entire body built in her mind and the spell took over.
A burst of light and Luna’s body underwent the transformations, the bones in her body grinding into their new places drawing screams of pain from the princess. Her muscular structure began to shift and rearrange themselves, stringing new configurations together while her leg bones basically just spun around within the meat of her hind legs.
Luna’s face began to shorten, her teeth in some cases growing out and sharpening while others were removed altogether to make room for the others. Her hooves, all four of them, split along the walls while the frog of her hooves took over most of the new limbs and began her toes and fingers; the hoof walls shrinking down into fingernails already painted dark blue.
On her back her wings shifted slightly, taking their new place on her new shoulder blades while the wings’ span increased with the added size of the large features to accommodate her new body. Luna’s fur began to stitch their fibres together, with the outer two panels brightening to it’s slightly brighter shade of blue before it all fell off and became her new full length dress.
As a last minute change, Luna kept her physiology properly adjusted so to accept the xenon in the air, rather than risk poisoning herself if she went down to the ground below.
“By my stars, that hurts just as much as I remember.” Luna panted heavily, steadying herself with a hand on the couch cushion beneath her left. She was quickly distracted by the fact that she now had a hand and could actually feel the texture of the cushion on her bare skin. “But it’s worth it!” she grinned and leapt to her feet before stumbling around a bit. Celestia leapt up from the couch to help her sister, who now stood as tall as she and the Pilot was -head included, and steadied her with a wing. “Look at me! I’m gorgeous!”
“You are remarkably attractive for a human female, indeed.” Celestia agreed and stepped back to view her sister fully, even if she had nothing to go off of or refer to in terms of human female attractiveness. She would admit, though, that she thought Luna was quite pretty in her dress. “How’s it feel? In real life now?”
“Just as I remember, only a bit disorienting since it’s not a dream and I can’t instantly acclimate to the new form.” Luna grinned and looked herself over, spinning in place slowly so as not to lose her balance. “I did have to leave a few parts of my physiology the same from my pony form, in order to be able to speak and breathe our atmosphere.”
“Can you speak his language?” Celestia piqued an eyebrow at the curious thought, figuring that with the new body that her sister would be able to speak the human language now that she should be compatible.
“I can try.” Luna shrugged back before clearing her throat and trying to think of a few Basic Galactic English words to say.
“My…” Luna began in the human language, Celestia unable to understand her fully. “Name… is… Luna.” she announced and stood up straight, proud of achieving that small feat. “I… am… human…”
“Seems you can speak his language. I can’t fully understand you, but I get the idea.” Celestia reported and returned to her seat. Luna did the same, smoothing her dress out against her backside in order to sit properly without killing herself. “Say, do you think you could use that same spell on me? Create for me a similar body?”
“Probably? Do you want me to?” Luna shrugged back and gripped the front edge of the couch with her hands while her horn fired up in blue. Celestia looked uneasy as she considered the implications of her request, now starting to regret making the question. “I can probably create a similar body for you from mine. We’d look kind of like twins afterwards.”
“I… am curious what it’s like to live in the shoes of a human. I’m just slightly concerned about the pain involved.” Celestia remarked, shifting her jaw around in thought. Luna nodded in agreement, dropping her head while she let her sister think. “Oh, to Tartarus with it. Let’s do it. It’ll make for a great surprise for when the Pilot get’s done.”
“Agreed.” Luna nodded and fired up her horn and closed her eyes to build her sister’s new body. “Just sit back like I was, sit like a human.” she requested. Celestia obliged and swung around onto her backside, sitting like that strange teal mare back in Ponyville.
Luna’s face contorted as she continued to build the body of her sister, hesitating to make Celestia shorter than she was in order to be the big sister for once. She eventually gave in and made her body as tall as Luna was, plus a few inches more.
Moving into clothing, Luna turned the mental picture of her dual blue dress into a white and gold panelled version with the same design as her crown, turning her collar gold and decorated though she lost the pauldrons on her shoulder. Adding a light shade of pink over Celestia’s eyes and keeping the flared liner, Luna’s head physically turned slightly as she judged the final product and deemed it acceptable.
“Done!” Luna grinned and opened her eyes. Celestia gave a half-hearted smile in return, her heart racing faster and faster as the spell was cast.
The changes that Luna went through, happened in the same way to Celestia and to the same end of screaming in pain. Eventually, Celestia’s glow faded away and in her place sat the new human body of Princess Celestia now dazed and uneasy.
“My word, that was absolutely painful in the worst possible way.” Celestia sighed and placed a hand against her forehead, then realized she had a hand to place against her forehead and began to examine it then her arms and followed by everything else about her new body. “Oh, fingers.”
“Yes, quite useful little things, aren’t they?” Luna grinned and looked at her own lithe hands in detail. Celestia gave a hum of agreement as both women examined themselves, going so far to have a look at their bodies down the necks of their dresses.
“The mammaries are certainly larger than I’m used too...” Celestia sighed and stretched herself out having completed her checks, yawning at the same time. “Imagine what the staff back at the castle will think when I show up for court today?”
“I think they’ll very likely have a conniption.” Luna giggled back and flopped back down onto her back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling before lifting her feet to take a look at her legs as the skirt of her dress fell to reveal the silky white skin. “That is, of course, if you can manage to walk into court at all.”
“I suppose walking would be an important part of being human, yes.” Celestia giggled back and made the first attempt at standing. Luna leapt up to help her sister like her sister had done for her, offering hands to keep balance with. Celestia gradually rose to her feet, her hands taking her sisters to help as she learned to stabilize her legs and remain steady on her feet.
“Just trust your body to know what to do. It’ll do everything for you.” Luna instructed, carefully letting go of her sister and hesitantly stepping back just out of reach. Celestia kept her eyes on her feet before raising them to the face of Luna and took a small step forward before coming crashing down into her sister.
“You know, I remember when I was teaching you how to walk. Now look how the roles have shifted.” Celestia announced with a chuckle and tried again, standing first before taking a step away from her sister but falling to the couch behind her. “And how the difficulty has stepped up.” she added with a groan before standing again.
“I completely agree. It is a very strange feeling, teaching my older sister to walk on two legs. I find it remarkable that I’m able to walk so simply, though I suppose I may have had a bit of advantage through the lucid dream.” Luna nodded and placed her fists on her tilted hips to watch her sister before offering hands again.
Celestia took the help, but instead of taking only a step before letting go again, both women walked Luna backwards a couple steps with Celestia following after while watching her feet.
“It helps if you don’t watch your feet. Your body follows the direction your head is facing.” the Pilot explained, having appeared suddenly from the machine and no longer sounding like death. His arrival startled both women, making them both jump at the sudden appearance and sent both women to the ground in a pile of womanly goodness.
***
Approaching the women from behind, I offered both a hand up and hauled them to their new feet. I was quite surprised to see Luna in the same body as from the dream, complete with the same body proportions though I had to say: much better in real life. Helping Celestia to her feet, I gave her a once over as well, figuring that her body had been shaped to be very similar to Luna’s in almost every way.
“Luna, you know my birthday was two days ago. I can’t imagine what event would come up to warrant such a pleasant surprise now.” I grinned and let go of Celestia to wrap my arms around Luna’s waist from behind, planting my head on her shoulder as she grinned and wrapped her arms around mine.
“Maybe I just wanted to surprise my colt-” Luna held herself short, instead opting to use the human lingo. “Boyfriend?”
“It was your birthday two days ago?” Celestia raised an eyebrow and focused on balancing before taking a few uneasy steps towards us to place a hand on my shoulder. “You should have said something, we’d have thrown you a party! Happy belated, however.”
“Yeah, it’s reasons like that that I didn’t tell anyone it was my birthday. It’s not exactly my favourite date.” I sighed and swayed both Luna’s hips with mine, shifting our weight around while Luna cuddled into me further smiling. “But thanks anyways.”
“I see. Then I will leave your birthday be.” Celestia nodded and crossed her hands over her lap while she watched Luna and I sway in silence. “Think we can head down to ground level and visit our subjects? Afterwards, could I get a lift back to the castle in time for Court?”
“Absolutely.” I nodded back and planted a kiss on Luna’s neck and ear before releasing her to the sound of protests to lead the ladies both to the door so I could get dressed in my namesake suit.
Both women joined me at the door, Luna helping to connect my airhose to my helmet from my pack just because she could. Soon I was dressed in my suit, leaving the exo-suit behind as we all stepped out into the morning light and aimed for the Wyvern.
“I’ve been wondering,” Celestia began as she strolled on my left while Luna latched onto my hand on the right. “Why haven’t you been wearing your framework like you used to?”
“I’ve been living on this planet long enough that my body is strong enough to resist the increased gravity.” I explained and first helped Luna up into the craft before leading Celestia round to the other side to help her in. “I don’t wear the exo-frame because I don’t need to.”
“That is quite beneficial for you. I wonder if it’s possible for you to become accustomed to our atmosphere as well?” Celestia grinned as she fixed herself into the seat with the six-point harness. Both princesses threw up protective shields around their bodies in order to resist the environment of flight and engine exhaust while I climbed up into my cockpit and got everything firing up.
“If this morning is any indication, probably not.” I chuckled back through the radio now that I was able to while running through the checklists I had. Lifting off from the ground once i’d remembered to unlock the landing gears, I aimed the ship towards the mountain side where the mining town sat and released the inertial dampeners once the nose dipped towards the ground.
With the weight of the ship providing acceleration and the winglets of the ship providing lift, I brought the nose of the craft back up and let the wings do their job. Bringing the craft around the face of the mountain, I just let the craft do it’s own thing as we made the final approach towards town to begin preparations for landing.
The approach of the craft alerted to our arrival and to my surprise a massive welcome back party had been almost instantly thrown together, aching my eyebrows at the event below us. Reactivating the inertial dampeners, I worked at setting the ship down as gently as I could for the passengers before shutting everything down.
Climbing out of the cockpit, I noticed all the eyes on the rear of the vessel and chuckled slightly. Approaching Celestia who’d gotten herself unbuckled but remained seated to wait for me, I lifted a hand and helped the princess down and let her dust herself off. Luna, hunched over, crossed through the craft to hop down into my arms afterwards before planting a kiss on my lips, creating a rolling hush over the crowd.
“Uhm, Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? Is that you?” a pony at random inquired as he bravely stepped forth from the crowd around us.
“It is us, yes.” Celestia announced, drawing gasps and hushed conversation from the gathered. “After a shared dream between the Pilot and my sister, Princess Luna and I have opted to try and spend a day in the shoes of a human.” she explained with a smile. Luna remained in my embrace, her hand on my suit’s chest while my arm wrapped around her.
“But what about Princess Luna’s behaviour with the Suit? What’s going on there?” another pony, female, asked.
“Us?” Luna pointed a finger at herself before grinning and pulling me into a hug. “We’re together, obviously.”
“You’re courting the Princess?” the same female pony remarked, aiming the question at me. I nodded once I’d gotten the translation and wrapped my free arm around Luna’s shoulders to prove it. “Congratulations, I guess.”
“We thank thee and appreciate the support!” Luna announced. The goodwill and questions were interrupted when Twilight appeared in a ball of light, materializing from her teleport looking anxious.
“Princess Celestia! Princess Lu…” Twilight began hurriedly before actually getting a look at the princesses. “...na?”
“What is wrong, Princes Twilight?” Celestia remarked, her voice making Twilight’s jaw drop and her ears flatten.
Shaking her head and putting everything aside for the time being, “Princesses, I just got reports from Cloudsdale that there’s a massive force of Griffons and Emerald Changelings heading towards us! It’s an attack force!”
“There are different coloured changelings?” I whispered to Luna who nodded.
“Yes, the Emerald changelings belong to Queen Chrysalis. They will not be joining us on the colony ship because of their hostile tendencies towards all other creatures.” Luna whispered back, surprisingly in broken English, once she’d brought her head closer to mine. I silently ‘ahh’d’ in return.
“Are they sure it’s an attack force? I was sure that we’d already dealt with the griffons back when we rescued you.” Celestia crouched down and placed a hand on Twilight’s back, ignoring the strangeness of the feel of the act.
“Yes, I’m sure. I flew over and checked myself! It’s an entire army of creatures loyal to the Ambassador. They’ve also got a mix of other races in their ranks, minotaurs as well!”
“This will not bode well from the Taurs.” Celestia sighed and stood to turn towards me. “It seems we require your help again.”
“You have it, but if the enemy force is as large as Twilight reports, I’ve got work to do before I can do that.” I replied, my voice translated into Griffic to be heard by all. “Twilight,” I turned to the smallest princess. “I need you to bring me Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and the entire Wonderbolt fleet.”
“Seriously?” Twilight gasped and even both princesses raised eyebrows at me. “Why?”
“I need Dash and Soarin to fly the Wyvern while the rest of the Wonderbolts and I finish up my work.” I explained. Twilight nodded after a moment of considerations and teleported away. I turned to Luna, “I need you and your sister to return to Canterlot and stay safe there. You’ll be needed for diplomacy with the Taurs after all this.”
“I want to stay with you. It has to be safer with you than at the Castle.” Luna replied, latching onto me again. I remained silent for a bit before giving up.
“Fine, but I'll be relying heavily on you and your magic okay?” I replied and earned a vigorous nod from Luna while Twilight reappeared with Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts all in uniform.
“Woah, what happened to the Princesses?” Dash remarked, completely out of place before snapping to attention with the rest of the ‘Bolts around her. “Rainbow Dash, reporting for duty!”
“Dash, you and Fleetfoot are flying the Wyvern. It’s already armed and you're going to distract the incoming army while I get everything prepared.” I instructed, earning a salute from everyone around me.
“What army?” Fleetfoot replied, looking as confused as everyone who wasn’t already told.
“There’s an army of Emerald Changelings, Griffons and even some Minotaurs who’re coming to attack us. Probably going to try and make space on the colony ship by killing the ponies here.” I explained calmly and simply. Rainbow Dash’s and Fleetfoot’s eyes widened before taking to the air to get the Wyvern fired up behind me. “Spitfire, you and the rest of your Wonderbolts are coming with Luna and I up to the top of the Smoky Mountains where I’ve set up. We’ve got work to do before we can join the fight.”
“Why? What’s up there?” Soarin’ inquired which earned an elbow in the side from Spitfire. “What?”
“He is for all intents and purposes our commanding officer right now!” Spitfire hissed back before returning to attention. Soarin smartened up and snapped into a similar, proud stance like his partner.
“That’s fine, I'm no hard-ass military type. I’m just the engineer.” I shook my head and lit my jetpack’s fires while Luna spread her wings. Celestia gave us our best and disappeared in a flash of teleportation while Twilight did the same, following her ex-mentor. “Come on, we’ve got work to do!”
“Sir, yes sir!” the Wonderbolt fleet all called back and took to the air after Luna and I.
While Dash and Fleetfoot occupied the enemies with the superior firepower of the Wyvern, I ripped upwards through the skies next to Luna and her powerfully large wings while the rest of the Wonderbolts all flew in formation behind me.
Breaking through the cloud cover of the mountain, the sight of the extraordinarily large automated Laser Shipyard sticking out of the side of the mountain like a sore thumb greeted us. It was almost finished, I just had to set it up to the conveyor system of the mining platform, the laser drill of which was still hard at work but would have to be deactivated in order to let the shipyard work. I’d also have to build the projector and set it up for the construction but that’d be fairly easy.
“What is that?” Spitfire asked from near to me, her eyes roaming over the strange thin frame that’d build something extraordinary.
“That is my shipyard. It’ll let me build the massive ship to keep mining from above and as well the ships that’ll get us all into orbit.” I replied, being repeated by Luna who shouted back over the sound of our flight. Landing on the deck of the mining platform, I disconnected my helmet and set it on it’s hook on my hip before retrieving my welder. Luna took the hint and produced hers from her magical storage while I approached the cargo pod near me to retrieve a bunch of spare welders for the ponies.
“What’re these?” Soarin wondered, looking over the welder in his wing’s grasp.
“Those’re welders like that of mine and Luna’s. We’re going to need all of your help finishing up the shipyard before it can get building. After that, I’m going to need all of you to man the stations in the ship so I hope you’ve all been studying.”
“But sir, we’re not builder ponies. We don’t know the first thing about welding!” A Wonderbolt near to the back complained before being silenced by Luna.
“We’ll both teach you everything you need to know. The tool is quite intuitive for new Engineers.” she explained before I instructed her to take the bolts to the unfinished conveyor system and get it finished while I worked on the Projector system.
~*~*~
“Coming up on the coordinates now!” Fleetfoot reported from her position in the navigator’s cockpit. With a flick of the switch, all three turrets on the ship fired up and immediately highlighted targets of interest in the approaching mass of changelings, Minotaurs and Griffons loyal to the Griffon Ambassador.
“I want you to take control of one of the turrets!” Rainbow commanded from up front while she worked on keeping the ship level. “I don’t know what the Pilot has planned, but I seriously doubt that we’ll have the firepower to fight all those guys for long!”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine!” Fleetfoot grinned back and loaded up the Fire Control program for the left side turret. “He wouldn’t send us to our deaths if he’s been trying to help us survive!”
“I hope to Celestia you’re right.” Dash mumbled back over the radio before giving the order, “open fire!”
Both turrets on the side of the ship unloaded their rounds into the enemies below, carving swaths of death through the grounded forces. Most of those grounded forces didn’t remain there for long, though, as the Griffons and Changelings both took off and approached from head on, triggering the anti-aircraft turret on the top.
Pings against the hull of the ship and it’s cockpits had Dash begin darting around in evasive maneuvers, screaming and cursing at the slow movements of the ship over the power of her own flight.
“Come on! Get some!” Fleetfoot shrieked maniacally as she unloaded another round into the ground forces before lining up a highlighted shot on a nearby group of changelings as they began to transform into actual Wyverns or Manticores. “That’s it, become a bigger target for me!” she screamed and had a shot taken by the top turret before she could pull the trigger.
A sudden incoming warning alerted Fleetfoot, distracting her long enough to relay the message to the pilot. “Dash! Incoming manticore from the rear! Evade!”
“I see it!” Dash shouted back, dropping the ship down in altitude suddenly and at the last moment. Doing so let the turret lock on and blast it from the sky, shaking the craft with the nearby explosion. From both sides, white and blue wyverns crashed into the ship, knocking it off it’s flight plan and injuring its lateral engines enough to knock three of them out on each side. “Keep them off me!”
“I’m trying but they’re just squirreling around out there, I can’t get a lock!” Fleetfoot called back and narrowly missed another warning of Incoming. “From the right!”
“Got it!” Dash groaned back and boosted the height of the ship, narrowly going over the incoming manticore. If anything was keeping records, it’d show that the ship was close enough to the manticore that it tried to automatically lock the landing gears.
Another hit from Dash’s 11 o’clock cracked her windshield, making her roar out in reply and turn the guns on the ship bear before opening fire herself. Shredding through the manticore and it’s friends behind it, Dash lined up a shot with a large pack of griffons all taking aim with their own rifles. Before they got a shot off, Dash unloaded a barrage of missile fire into the group. The gore rained down over those still below who ignored the sky battle entirely and kept their march towards the Mining town and Ponyville.
“Fuck! They’re everywhere!” Fleetfoot announced, her warnings flashing from all sides as hits from Griffons, Changelings and all manner of other flying beast swarmed the Wyvern ship, striking it with their bodies repeatedly. “Get them off us!”
“Hang on, i’m going to light up the Hydrogen thrusters! Try and knock them off by aiming for orbit!” Rainbow announced and hit the appropriate switches. The hydrogen thrusters all fired up, instantly giving the ship an incredible speed boost which forced the ponies back into their seats more than they already were. Dash aimed the ship’s nose upwards and put all throttle into acceleration, watching the altimeter rise higher and higher as more and more creatures fell away to where there was oxygen.
All of a sudden, coming out of nowhere, a massive force struck the back of the ship, knocking out the main hydrogen thruster at the back. With less than necessary force to rise any higher, the ship stalled out and begun to plummet towards the planet.
“Shit, shit shit shit shit shit!” Dash screamed as she fought with her controls to get the engines firing again. Fleetfoot, in the back, was doing the same, trying to prime the engines for Dash to ignite but fail at doing so. All the while, the altimeter was counting down rapidly, falling past 2000 meters already. “Fucking work!” Dash kicked at the console at 900 meters then swung her forehoof down and jump started the engines.
The inertial dampeners kicked in just in time to let Dash bring the straight down fall into a more diagonal one, starting up the rear thrust engines and get them barely skimming the ground at 15m which had the effect of removing quite a few enemies’ heads with the ship.
With blood and gore splattering over the canopy, Dash was completely blind but kept the nose pulled upwards.
“Level out, you’re going to drag the tail!” Fleetfoot warned, but it was too late. The tail caught a pile of bodies and snagged, ripping off the engines as well as the entire back end of the craft.
With mares screaming as they crashed, the vessel flew for a few dozen more feet before it bottomed out and hit the ground, sending what remained of the back end of the craft over their heads while pushing the cockpits into the ground while the ship rolled and bounced on the ground.
The remains of the ship rolled for another couple hundred meters before coming to a rest, with the canopies completely destroyed the cockpits remained intact.
With a groan, Dash roused from brief unconsciousness and rubbed at her head with her hooves. “Holy shit.” she groaned and yelped at a flash of pain as she tried to move her rear legs. Looking down, she found that not only was one leg turned the wrong way, looking like a human’s forwards facing knees, but the other one, the right one, was gone completely.
Giving a scream at the sight of the stump left behind, the leg having been torn off at the knee and tossed free of the craft, Dash forced herself to calm down when the sound of a large group of something approaching told her she had to protect herself and Fleetfoot as well as to destroy the rest of the ship in order to prevent it’s highly advanced technologies from getting into the wrong hands.
Checking that her wings still worked, only one of which actually responded while the other hung limp at her side, Dash reached back and drew the magnum rail pistol tucked away behind the seat and checked it’s load. Taking slight solace in the fifteen rounds it provided, and knowing that each round would pierce through the heaviest of body armour, Dash unhooked herself from the seat and fell limp to the ground beneath her with a second yelp and a groan.
Crawling out of the craft on her belly, Dash took a quick look towards the rear of the ship and watched a massive horde, still nowhere near the size of the main force, of minotaurs and transformed changelings approaching looking quite proud of what they’d accomplished.
Working herself up, Dash crawled up to Fleetfoot’s cockpit however reeled at the sight of a massive shard of canopy glass sticking through most of the pegasus’ upper body, severing her nearly in half.
“Celestia fucking dammit!” Dash felt fresh tears burst forth at the sight of her friend having been murdered like that. There would be time for mourning, but now was not it; if she even survived this in the first place that is.
Crawling up the canopy onto the side facing the sky, Dash crawled towards the back of the ship, navigating around the remains of the engine wings to the passenger/cargo section. Dropping herself into the hole, Dash ensured she still had her weapon at her side when she landed and got herself onto her back, breathing heavily and doing her best to ignore the pain.
Raising her weapon, Dash took the safety off and kept the muzzle pointed at the only opening to her hiding hole while she worked at trying to set the distress beacon to emit its signal to any friendly persons hopefully coming to rescue her.
Once the beacon was lit and steadily pulsing it’s message, Dash turned back to the hole and waited while biting her lip to keep from screaming out in pain at the lack of a leg and broken wing and hind leg.
“I think she’s in there!” a male voice announced, its origin denoting its close proximity to the crashed ship. “Get her!”
“The rest of you, scavenge this ship and take what you can back to base!” another voice, further off commanded. That’s right, Dash was supposed to blow the ship up by overloading its reactors.
“I found another one! It’s dead already!” a third voice announced, having discovered the body of the Wonderbolt.
“Leave it and get the live one! We’ll ensure she pays for what she’s done!” the first one remarked as a Griffon’s head appeared at the floor of the ship and grinned. “Hello you piece of shit pony.”
“Hey back.” Dash grinned and lined up the shot and pulled the trigger while her hooves fought with the panel near to her to get the reactors to overload as designed. The shot wasn’t so much of an explosion as it was an electrical buzzing suddenly cut short by the Griffon’s head exploding.
“She’s got a weapon! Get her before she kills you!” another griffon squawked as a trio of griffons appeared over the hole, stacked up on top of each other for protection. “Come here you little bitch!”
“Why don’t you come get me!” Dash shot back and fired again, the round piercing through all three enemies with ease and continuing up into the air. Thirteen shots left and who knows how many enemies were outside that ship or what kind of explosives they had. One explosive dropped in the hole and Dash was doomed.
Of course, setting the reactors to explode like she had just done would do the same thing, but dammit, she’d die on her terms! Breathing heavily now from blood loss, Dash fought to keep the pistol raised and aimed properly as another couple sets of heads all appeared at the opening.
Her wing faltered and her aim went wide when she shot, though the bullet instead of punching through the skull, instead punched through the floor of the craft itself and tore a massive hole through the chest of the griffon. Repeating the action, Dash was left with only four bullets by the time the griffons smartened up and left her in her hole.
“Fuck it, she’s not worth the effort!” the leader griffon announced, signalling the end of the coming forces as they continued to try and tear down the ship. “Why hasn’t anyone scavenged anything yet? What’s taking so long?”
“Sir,” a female griffon remarked, “It’s like the whole thing is built as one solid unit! We don’t have the tools to break it down!”
“Warning,” the computer announced over loud speakers, transmitting the broadcast in all Equestrian languages it could actually speak. “Reactor meltdown in T minus one minute. Please stand clear of explosion!”
“Fuck! The little bitch rigged it to explode! Evacuate!” the griffon commander shrieked before the entire flock of griffons and Changelings all took off in all directions, trying to get as far away from the hazard as possible.
“Well, looks like I'm coming to meet you in the afterlife, Brother.” Dash sighed in resignation and dropped her pistol to her side before curling up with her wings as best she could.
“Reactor meltdown in T minus forty-five seconds. Please evacuate the area.” the computer warned.
“Would if I could, computer. Would if I could.” Dash groaned and let the lightheaded feeling she felt begin to sweep over her. If she died by blood loss before death by explosion, that would be acceptable in Rainbow Dash’s mind. An awesome death for the greatest flier in Equestria.
“Reactor Meltdown in T minus fifteen seconds. Your chance to evacuate has passed.” the computer announced, as though it actually cared about what happened to Dash.
“Yep. Now I can sleep.” Dash mumbled back. “I’m so… sleepy…”
“Multiple contusions, eight fractured ribs, right hind leg missing at the knee, possible collapsed lung, left wing primary elastic tendon cut, fractured left foreleg, critical blood loss.” The doctors all quickly examined the broken body of Rainbow Dash as she was airlifted onto the newly constructed NLR New Moon, the helicarrier that I had outfitted for mining but had left the armaments on. Those armaments proved invaluable in shredding the remains of the approaching army, bombing those on the ground with air-to-surface missiles while the railgun turrets took out everything in the sky. Even the larger bodies of the wyverns proved easy to dispatch when you push a couple of rockets down their throats.
Soarin had found the Wyvern’s distress beacon as soon as we fired up the New Moon in the shipyard and immediately began plotting a course to retrieve the ship and it’s crew. I was forced to override the destruction sequence with less than comfortable seconds to go via antenna connection, more than thankful that the antennas had actually survived the crash of the ship. A quick life-sign scan showed the rapidly declining sign of Rainbow Dash holed up in what remained of the cargo/passenger area and no others. While a squad of Wonderbolts collected Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and Soarin found the body of Fleetfoot and almost immediately broke down to tears.
Luna, having accompanied me on the ship, teleported to Canterlot to collect a team of doctors while Dash was brought on board and put into emergency recovery upon arrival. I had instructed the team to put Dash in one of the onboard auto-docs, explaining to them that she’d be well cared for and almost guaranteed to survive the operation if her will was strong enough.
Now, stood on the command deck of the New Moon, surrounded by the crew of Wonderbolts who all jumped at the chance to pilot the massive flying structure on her completion, I turned to Luna who’d wrapped her arms over her armoured chest. Her armour was of the same make as the Dark Knight armour from our shared dream and it fit just as well.
I had to spend a good couple minutes with Luna, calming her down and preventing her from flying out on her own power to fight the enemy forces alone. After telling her that she’d likely get shot down by friendly fire, she reluctantly turned to our shared captain’s quarters to sulk before moving to where Dash was in surgery.
“Captain, incoming enemies from behind! More Wyverns, manticores and even a few minotaurs have hitched rides!” a pony announced from my left warned from a console.
“Light those bastards up! How about a bit of sweet, dick-kicking revenge for the death of Fleetfoot and the severe injury of Rainbow Dash?” I shouted back with a grin as yells and cheers of agreement met me in response. “Bring the point defence to bear and open fire at will!”
“Sir yes sir!” all six of my gunners shouted back, their eyes glued to their screens as the sound of heavy gunfire and missiles being launched filled the Deck.
“Get us over the bulk of them and fire up the laser drills!” I ordered, earning similar ‘yes sirs’ from that team in Engineering. I had redesigned the ship for mining after all, stripping away the hydrogen thrusters and replacing them with nine laser drills, all temporarily without their turrets for the sake of combat use. Watching the cameras over looking the bottom of the ship, I smirked once a good portion of the ship’s mining lasers hovered over the enemy forces.
“Sir, ready and very willing to light those bastards up!” a Wonderbolt announced, his hoof hanging mere inches away from the button that would fire up the lasers.
“Do it. Send those shits to hell and use their bodies for fuel.” I let my head tilt forwards a bit, casting a slight shadow over my face from the lights above for just as long as it took for the nine laser drills to fire up and begin carving massive swaths of land and bodies from the land below. Doing so had the lights in the room flicker and the shadows over my face disappeared, banished permanently by the sunlight coming in from the large bay windows before me.
The nine beams of pure energy cut deep into the ground, large crevices forming where the drills pierced the earth and cut through bodies left, right and centre. There were just enough of a gap between each drill that the creatures below were somewhat able to dodge and weave around, but they too fell when the turrets below opened fire.
A quick look around and I could barely see a clear line of those who thought that this was perfectly acceptable revenge, while the others all looked more than hesitant to use the lasers to turn the bodies of the enemies into pure resources.
“Sir!” A pegasus in yellow and blue reported, turning in her seat to address me. “Engineering reports that on top of the pure carbon and liquid Xenon we’re getting, we’re also mining out chunks of Magnesium, Silicon and trace amounts of Uranium!”
“Cool, mark this location for those three resources then.” I commanded and turned back to the cameras of evaporating bodies below us. “Cut the mining lasers, just tear into them with the turrets!”
“Yes sir!” one of the ponies who looked apprehensive about using this method of warfare called back and immediately killed power to the lasers. I could tell she was just waiting to do that.
“Sir, I report that the enemy forces are in full retreat!” Soarin announced from my left and pulled the image of scattered forces running off in the general direction of where they’d come from.
“Finish off the ones who stay back. Make sure they know we mean business!” I turned from my post behind the Pilot’s seat and aimed towards the back of the ship; towards Luna and Rainbow Dash.
While the ship itself was a larger classed ship, it was still fairly small by my counts. Many of the ponies on board the ship had expressed their admiration and awe at the size of the thing, absolutely sure that this was the largest vessel they’d ever seen. Regardless of all that, though, it was still large enough that I easily got lost trying to make my way to medical.
I knew I had found the place when I spotted Luna resting against the door, sitting on the floor with her arms around her knees.
“Hey,” I announced my presence softly and took a seat next to Luna and pulled her into me. She willingly fell apart in my arms as soon as I had my arms wrapped around her. “How’re you doing?”
“How-” Luna’s voice was raspy and coarse, suggesting heavy crying before I’d even shown up and unleashed the floodgates. “How do you think I'm doing? One of my best friends has been critically, if not mortally, wounded!”
“And did I not give my word that she’d survive her injuries if she had the will to live?” I remarked calmly, trying my best to calm the woman in my arms. “Do you want to go in and check on her?”
“How? She should still be in the machine, right?” Luna looked up at me with destroyed shadow and mascara, her eyes still watering. I took the initiative and wiped off her face with a hand for her.
“Probably, but I can at least tell you what stage of the operation she’s in.” I replied then offered in return, still in efforts to comfort my girlfriend. After a minute of silence, interspersed by sniffling, Luna nodded and stood with assistance from me.
Activating the door, Luna and I stepped into the room that could have passed for empty if it wasn’t for the large medical unit whirring away to tell that there was something inside.
“Alright, now let’s find out how she’s doing.” I announced and stepped up to the control panel nearby and dug up the Auto-doc’s menu.
Patient: Pony, Pegasus, Rainbow Dash
Injuries: Multiple Contusions, Left lung punctured, nine broken ribs, right rear cannon missing from hock, left wing tendon snapped, blood pooling in right eye, critical blood loss, critical xenon loss.
Operation Procedure Completion: 46%
Injuries successfully repaired: Blood loss stabilized and replenished, right eye repaired, left lung regenerating, seven ribs reset, two regenerated, right hock stapled shut.
Injuries remaining: Left wing tendon to be repaired, contusions to bandage, xenon levels reset.
Alert: Missing leg cannot be regenerated, not enough raw materials available. Missing xenon cannot be replenished, insufficient knowledge to perform procedure. Patient has been revived three times, expect minimal to moderate degradation in memory/motor functions.
“Well,” I began, placing my hands on either side of the console to stare at the read-outs.
“Will she be okay?” Luna placed both hands on my shoulders, trying to read over them but couldn’t get a good enough view.
“She’s died three times, been revived three times. The machine can’t regenerate her missing leg or return her xenon levels to normal. Other than that, I think she’ll be fine.” I reported with a smile, the report giving Luna reason to breath and release a large breath she’d been holding. “She may suffer from a bit of memory or motor function degradation after having died and been revived three times.”
“What could she lose?” Luna’s gaze drifted from me to the console, now resting her head on my shoulder before spinning around me to hold onto me entirely.
“At best, the last few hours of her memory. Worse case depending on what parts of her brain were affected, she may suffer total amnesia. Motor functions could be anything so I can’t really answer that.” I sighed back and wrapped my arms around my woman like she was wrapped around me.
“Captain, sir,” Spitfire’s voice came in over the speakers and was translated instantly. “We’re receiving some kind of radio signal. The computer has marked it red.”
“Can anyone read the tag?” I called back, raising my head from the princess’s shoulder to speak clearly.
“No sir, all we know it that it’s a hostile signal.” Spitfire replied before going suspiciously silent despite the comms link remaining open. “Sir, may I ask, how’s Crash doing?”
“She’ll live.” I announced short and simply. The sound of many ponies all sighing in relief came over the speakers before the line went dead. “Come on, let’s get back to the bridge and find out what the hostile signal is.”
“Okay,” Luna agreed with a small nod and pulled away to wipe her tears away with the back of her hand. “Let’s go.”
~~~
“Well, this is quite fortuitous…” I smirked and stared out at the holographic HUD of the bridge before me, Luna at my side. Before us the new signal, in red, hovered over a section of the ground beneath us, with its distance marker showing how far out from us it was. According to Luna, the marker should originate just from beyond the border of Equestria.
“Sir, what does it say?” Soarin inquired, looking over the seat of his navigation console.
“GNA - Headquarters.” I read back, making Luna’s eyebrows raise at the proclamation.
“The Griffic National Army headquarters?” she repeated, giving me details on just who the GNA was. “That should be where our attackers came from!”
“Then we know where to hit.” I grinned back maliciously before placing a hand on Spitfire’s seat. “But we first need to get to Ponyville.”
“Why? They’re right there, we know where we are, we can hit them!” Luna scowled back, first at the radio signal, then at me as she stuck a hand out to gesture to the marker.
“Shouldn’t Rainbow’s friends be made aware of her status and be allowed to visit her before we go into heavy battle?”
“The Captain does have a point, your highness.” Soarin sighed in reluctance but agreed with a nod. “Setting course for Ponyville.”
“Fine. We’ll also want to go to Cloudsdale to tell Fleetfoot’s family of her death.” Luna conceded and dropped her head into a hand before turning to me. “If you need me, i’ll be in our quarters.”
With a nod of the head from me, Princess Luna excused herself from the bridge while the ship began to aim back towards civilization for the time being.
“Spitfire, if I may?” I requested, stepping up behind the pegasus who nodded and rolled out of the seat to let me in. Spitfire switched out for Soarin and the progression continued until some random pony left for engineering. Taking direct control of the ship, I fired up the two rear Hydrogen thrusters that I'd swapped in for simple thrust use over the ion thrusters that were useless in this environment.
The sudden kick of the thrusters floored nearly everypony who was standing but were able to recover themselves and return to their duties.
“Sir, time to reach Ponyville, six minutes.” Spitfire reported from behind me and to my left.
“I suppose moving at two-hundred forty meters per second and still accelerating has that effect.” Soarin replied with a chuckle from behind and to my right. I agreed with a raised eyebrow and settled in for the short flight.
~~~
Four minutes later the NLR New Moon put all it’s thrust into slowing us down again as we hovered over Ponyville, casting a massive shadow over the centre of town which had ponies all raise their heads to the skies in confusion and in some, fear. While the Wonderbolts began preparations for Fleetfoot’s funeral, Luna and I moved back to medical to retrieve Dash who’d been completed about a minute ago.
As I was confined to a suit, Luna lead the procession out of the airlocks and into the skies while helping me carry Rainbow’s sleeping body on a stretcher. Her leg, as the machine had told me, was still just a stump at the knee while her wings had been successfully repaired. She had numerous scars over her body and her fur had been shaved away in places to perform the operation, baring shockingly white skin underneath.
Accompanied by the higher-ranked Wonderbolts, Luna and I met Twilight and friends below, all six of them crying heavily at seeing the stretcher between us.
Landing, Sunset was the first to speak through a broken voice, “What happened to her? Is she alright?”
“She and Fleetfoot engaged in battle with an approaching army bent on making room on the colony ship by killing Equestrians.” I began my report, broadcasting over my speakers while Luna translated for me. “They were overwhelmed and brought down and crashed, I don’t know the specifics exactly. Fleetfoot was killed in action and Rainbow was severely injured. We managed to rescue Rainbow Dash in time to save her from the ship’s reactor meltdown and put her immediately into automated surgery.”
“Why did you have to make her go out and get hurt?” Pinkie’s hair was flat and dull, her eyes bubbling with emotion as she stared at me.
“She was the best pilot available since I needed Soarin and Spitfire to pilot that.” I replied, pointing up at the ship behind us. “You need to know that Rainbow Dash is going to be fine, we even managed to repair her wing which had been clipped.”
Fluttershy eep’d at the thought of being clipped, her wings remaining glued to the side of her body even more than they already were. The girl’s eyes roamed her heavily bandaged body and settled down on the lack of a rear leg.
“What about her leg? Why can’t you fix that?” Rarity demanded while Applejack consoled her with a hug.
“If we had her leg, we could have reattached it. The Auto-doc didn’t have the resources to regenerate her leg after fixing her punctured lung, damaged eye, broken ribs, blood loss, reviving her four times and regenerating the main tendon in her wing.” I explained, making Twilight’s jaw drop at the injury list.
“You mean, she died four times on the table?” Sunset gawked before eyes all fell on Dash again. I nodded back and stepped back from the end of the stretcher to let the unicorns and Twilight lift Dash’s body as carefully as they could together. The three mares all aimed off towards Twilight’s castle while the other three followed behind. Pinkie stayed back for just a moment.
“Thanks, for saving her. I don’t know what we would’ve done if we lost her.” she remarked before following after he friends with head hung low.
“Next stop, Cloudsdale.” I announced and took off with my jetpack. Luna and the Wonderbolts followed behind me and reboarded the New Moon before aiming towards the coming funeral procession in our futures.
“Funerals suck.” I announced as I crawled into bed with Luna who’d returned to her pony form some hours back for Fleetfoot’s ceremony and burial.
“I know that all too well, believe me.” Luna sighed and wrapped her legs around my body as best she could to cuddle in and rest her head just over my own. “Just over a thousand years of life, I’ve had more than my share of burials.”
“Understandable. Still, funerals suck.” I agreed and wrapped my own arms around Luna’s forelegs with the blankets pulled right up to our necks, though it stopped just under my chin. If one wasn’t looking carefully for me, a pony could mistake Luna for sleeping alone.
“That twenty-one gun salute was an interesting addition, however.” Luna’s remark gave me a chuckle, an act that was echoed by Luna’s body.
“Like I had said, that’s an Earth custom for military funerals. Was a bit more difficult setting up the New Moon’s turrets to do that for us given a lack of ceremonial firearms available, though.” I breathed heavy and let myself sink deeper into the mattress, blankets and into Luna. Luna, in return, curled in closer around me, as though staking a claim over my body.
“I find myself morbidly curious about what Earth’s funeral proceedings are for Royalty, assuming that Earth has Royalty to provide proceedings for.” Luna whispered after a few moments of silence, her voice sounding concerned for the four alicorns and their fates in coming months.
“I don’t know specifics since Earth hasn’t had a monarchy for a hundred years last I know, but it is different from a military funeral. Why do you ask? You’re not planning on dying on me before we get to the new planet, are you?” I raised an eyebrow and glanced back behind me as best I could towards Luna, daring her to tell me she was going to die.
“Absolutely not! I am as fit as… well, as a horse!” Luna proclaimed defiantly and lightly tapped my chest with her hooves. “We alicorns live for thousands of years in perfect health before we even begin to feel a decline in our health! I’ve never even been ill before!”
“That good of an immune system huh?” I chuckled lightly and mostly to myself. “I wish. Whenever I got hit with an illness, whether it’s an influenza or even a migraine, I’m almost always down for the count for a day of agonizing pain.”
“A most unfortunate aspect of humanity, I suspect.” Luna acknowledged before going quiet and just resting. I, too, joined her in doing so and the pair of us followed after the ponies in the darkened town around us into sleep.
Dreamscape
Location: Blackwater Cavern
Time: Unknown
Bolting upright where I laid, alone and on the cold stone floor startled me severely. My eyes darted around my surroundings, trying to ascertain where exactly I was.
Stone spires rising and falling from the floor and ceiling, water and calcium dripping from those spires to create the ones below with the entire room barely illuminated from the very stonework around me. I was seated on the floor, cased in a heavy fur sleeping bag made of a fur sourced from what I guessed was bear. Next to me, sleeping comfortably to herself, was the body of Dark Knight Luna whose horn protruding from the bag was the only indication of the body within.
Off in front of us, only a couple feet away, was the remains of a fire pit ringed with stones scavenged from the area around us the night before. While a bunch of vegetable remains littered the ground around Luna’s form, the remains of some kind of meat laid and decayed near me after likely having been roasted on a spit.
My weapons, the modern railrifle and similar handgun, were well within reach of me just in case I had to suddenly defend myself from anything or anyone. Next to Luna, her greatsword and just as huge shield laid next to her, opposite me from her and glistened almost purplish blue in the faint light around us.
Crawling out of my sleeping bag, I left it where it was but placed my weapons in their appropriate holsters for storage before setting to the task of restarting the fire with a few summoned logs from my virtual inventory; it’s menu originating from that strange tattoo on my arm.
A single failed attempt and not only did I have a blazing fire going, but I also apparently increased a construction skill which now let me build simplistic wooden furniture. The next step was to set up the spit again, comprising of a couple of sticks planted into the ground and held in place by large stones so I could set a morsel of meat wrapped around a leg bone to roast for a breakfast meal. Accompanying that would be nearly stale bread and a jug of water which was somehow enough to accompany both Luna and I for the next seven days of travelling, despite that the jug was as small as my sidearm.
Sitting back down on the bedroll of mine, I went about the actions of checking out my rifle for flaws. Taking the whole thing apart piece by piece and setting them down on the black fur beneath me, I disassembled the weapon to thoroughly look for incongruities in the weapon’s metal. Finding none, I reassembled the weapon out of sheer muscle memory, something I didn’t think I had given I’ve never actually held one of these rifles before.
As I worked, and as the meat cooked, Luna stirred in her sleep, mumbling to herself about something incomprehensible to me. Within minutes I had my rifle reassembled and Luna woke fully, following her nose towards the fire.
“Morning.” I welcomed the woman as she rose and rubbed at her eyes with hair disheveled. “Or does that count in a dreamscape?”
“I ‘unno.” Luna shrugged back and muttered before stretching and giving away her secret of not wearing clothes as her sleeping bag fell just to barely save grace and her modesty. “Where are we exactly? I thought we were asleep in my home?”
“I think this dreamscape is of Blackwater Cavern, that dungeon we were going to attempt last night. The fact that we’re waking up and setting to a morning routine is probably just my dream making sense of everything.” I shrugged back and slung my rifle over my shoulder. “Breakfast before we tackle the dungeon?”
“You know I don’t eat meat.” Luna remarked with a scowling glare before realizing her state of undress just as the bag around her nearly exposed her. Rescuing her modesty with an arm, she inched herself back out of my eyesight to set about dressing herself and rearming in her weapons and shield once her armour was back in place.
“We’ve got vegetables to spare, don’t worry.” I remarked and set a glazed clay bowl of vegetables directly into the fire with a splash of water as a show of evidence. “We do need to find you some kind of protein though, otherwise you’ll be left weakened.”
“I’m fine!” Luna protested with hands on her hips and her black armour shimmering in the firelight. “This is a dream! We don’t really need to eat!”
After a moment of considerations, I surrendered the point with a shrug of the eyebrow. With a concealed burp, the meat, cooking vegetables and bread all disappeared, having been consumed through the power of dream editing.
“Fine fine, let’s give this a go then.” I stood and rolled my bag up to stuff it into my inventory by physically pushing it into my inventory window on my arm. Luna raised an eyebrow at me before doing the same, surprised that the menus I had were also accessible to her.
“How does this work, exactly?” she asked while browsing through the various system menus available to us.
“In the story this dream is based on, the system itself lies dormant in every creature’s DNA. by activating the system, however it was that I’d written it, a player gains access to these features and can freely join and leave the planet at their leisure. It plays like a typical fantasy MMO, just with your physical body transported across the galaxy.” I explained and helped Luna acclimate to her new body functions.
After a few minutes of Luna learning with interest how the system worked, the two of us stepped up to the entrance to the dungeon with weapons in hand.
“So, how do you suggest we go about defeating this dungeon?” Luna looked at me through the visor of her helmet. The rest of her seemed to almost vanish into the darkness around us, with her eyes the only source of light reflection from the surrounding glow.
“You’ll tank and do most of the killing. My job is to support you by shooting down enemies who try to get around you.” I explained and shouldered my rifle, the barrel raised towards the ceiling.
“Re-explain the title, tank?” Luna frowned at me in confusion. I nodded.
“Tanks are the heaviest of the group. They get as much attention on them as possible and keep that attention away from the support. Typically the DPS of the group does most of the attacking but since it’s only the two of us, we’ll have to share that role.”
“And you job is to keep the enemies from getting behind me?”
“Correct, otherwise you’ll likely get stunned and then stunlocked and die.”
“Is… is death as big an issue here as it would be in reality?”
“Nah. Likely we’ll just respawn back in here, the ready room and we can try again. We’ll probably suffer some kind of penalty but that’ll be it.” I shrugged back and peered into the dark hallway before us. Already I could see the shadowed figures of the furry little kobolds that we’d have to encounter in order to progress through towards Lier, the Kobold Lord.
“Then we can use a bit more reckless abandon then? Excellent.” Luna grinned and took off into the hallway with me trailing after her.
Combat began once the kobolds caught sight of Luna as she advanced on the enemy, screaming bloody murder as she first raised her shield to plow through the enemies and end on on their rear before bringing her massive great sword over her shoulder and through two of the bodies now staggered.
I took aim down the hallway past Luna and pulled the trigger, firing a rail past Luna’s hip and into, through and into a first and second kobold warriors’ shields behind her. Swinging her sword around in an arc before her, the Dark Knight Luna cleaved the last remaining four Kobolds in half before whirling around on the next group appearing from spawning holes in the walls.
“These things aren’t sentient, are they? No intelligence?” Luna demanded as she cast her illusion spell on all seven kobolds, converting them to temporary allies and allowing us to progress into the first mini-boss room; a kobold general waiting for us with a massive morning star and shield rivalling Luna’s in size. The general itself was as tall as we were, while the regular kobolds only rose to our stomachs.
“Nah, they’re just mindless mobs! Nothing to worry about by killing them!” I called back and ran off towards the side of the room where I could hopefully get a vantage point over the General to fire from.
“Still, I kind of feel a bit bad for this!” Luna shouted back with concern in her voice but sicced her minions on the General regardless, activating him and the room. A pair of great doors shut, closing off both exits from the room, preventing our escape entirely until we killed the mini-boss.
“Don’t, think of it as a violent, non violent method of relieving stress!” I grinned and lined up the first shot into the mini-bosses knee to try and cripple him. Luna shrugged in my scope having wandered into the cross fire as she leapt at the creature, bringing her weapon down and cutting into his body and dropping the first of two bars by a small margin of damage.
Her minions all were quickly dispatched in a single swing of the General’s morning star, crushing their bodies with an adorable squeak before they exploded into fractals of light. I, on the other hand, pulled the trigger and let the electrical charging of the weapon expel the rail from its magazine and propel the round into the knee of the General, making it roar out in protest at the attack.
It glared up at me, switching from Luna as she continued to attack it head on and aimed at me. Rearing back, it threw it’s weapon at me like a javelin, giving me no time to respond before it collided with my chest and knocked me from my perch.
“No!” Luna screamed and ran for me while I collected myself, having suffered half my health being disposed of in that single attack and subsequent fall. Sliding to her knees and placing a hand on my back, she wasn’t paying attention when the General leapt at us using the bottom of his shield as a blade to deal fatal damage to the both of us; through Luna’s back to score a critical and through my chest to finish me off.
The vision of the both of us faded to black while our bodies burned away to ash, then that ash proceeded to blow off in a non-existent breeze to reform and reconstitute our forms in the ready room.
Once our vision had both returned and our nerves reactivated, Luna and I collected ourselves in confusion.
“What just happened?” Luna demanded as she clutched at her stomach where the shield had protruded from.
“We died, pure and simple.” I announced and groaned as I sat up to check my inventory for the loss. Damage to my weapons and armour, as well as four thousand gold taken from my reserves. I certainly couldn’t afford to die again, that was sure. “Seems that just the two of us can’t take this on like I’d written.”
“What do you suppose we do then?” Luna navigated her legs around to land on her backside before draping her arms on her knees. I mimicked her seated position and let her topple over into me, resting her head on my shoulder.
“Well, ideally we’d bring in more players to help us. We’d want a true DPS and tank, a healer and maybe a mage while I cover ranged attacks and you cover debilitation attacks.” I replied, staring off into the stone of the floor around us as I thought. Then I got an idea.
Starting off with a slight chuckle, Luna raised her head to stare at me in confusion. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing. I just had a thought to bring some other dreamers into this world to help us out.” I calmed myself with a heavy breath and sat back to post on my arms. “Maybe your sister, Twilight and Sunset… Dash might want an outlet after what happened to her… Take out whatever rage she has on these monsters…”
“I hadn’t actually thought of that. I had figured that we’d go back into town and get help from the locals.” Luna sat up as well, looking surprised I’d come up with this idea. “Wait for a bit while I go talk with some ponies, see if they'd like to join us.”
“Go for it, I'll be here.” I nodded back and flopped down onto my back, spreading my armoured arms wide. With a shimmer of light, Luna was gone.
~~~
Dreamscape
Location: Equestrian Countryside, Wyvern Crash
Time: Unknown, No Sun/Moon present
Dreamer: Rainbow Dash
“Get the hell away from me!” Dash screamed as she fired off another round into the bodies of a trio of griffons who’d pulled her out from the crashed ship before she could set it to explode. This was the seventeenth time that she’d suffered this particular nightmare and it was just as frightening for her. Firing off another round into another trio of griffons who all looked exactly the same, snarling and grinning madly, Dash backed herself against the remains of the ship with blood covering her head to hoof, or whatever was left anyways.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done, you little bitch! We’ve got all kinds of uses for a broken body, such as yours!” the leader announced wickedly as he approached, the rounds Dash fired at him bouncing off his head unhelpfully. “Maybe we’ll use you for relief, or maybe we’ll just string you up over a fire?”
“Somepony help me!” Dash screamed out in terror as the shadow of the griffon loomed over her terror stricken form. She knew exactly what was going to happen next, since she’d lived this particular scene over and over again, each time feeling lost in herself.
“Time to eat-” the griffon’s words were cut off just as quickly as it took for a massive black greatsword to cleave through his neck, severing the head from the body as the blade continued in it’s arc and chopped the remaining two in half in similar fashion to the first.
Dash’s scream drifted off as she no longer felt the invasive claws as she’d expected and lowered her forehooves to the sight of a giant, bipedal figure clad in black armour. Letting out another terrified scream, Dash nearly forced herself to restart the nightmare as the form lifted the weapon and stabbed it into the ground, banishing all traces of darkness from around the pony and figure. Even the crashed Wyvern with the remains of Fleetfoot were gone, leaving Dash to fall limp to whatever ethereal floor now existed.
“What… what happened?” Dash whimpered as she dared to look out at the blank space around her, noting the purple and blue swirling around the pair with stars dotting the horizon. Beneath her, a sheet of glass-like material kept the pair of beings from falling and after a quick inspection of herself, Dash found that her body was no longer broken and instead was whole and complete.
“It seems I’ve been neglecting my duties as Princess of the Night, I sincerely apologize, Rainbow Dash.” Luna announced as she removed her helmet and let her hair fall to her shoulders to be shaken out.
“Princess?” Dash raised an eyebrow at the human figure of the dark princess and looked her over. “What… what happened to you?”
“Much less than what’s happened to you, I'm afraid. I spent a night with the Pilot in his dreams and created for myself, and my sister, this human body to experience life as he does. He and I were in a shared dream together while you seem to have been in a nightmare.” Luna explained and crouched down to the body of Rainbow to place a leather bound hand on her shoulder. “Again, I apologize for shirking my duties.”
“N-no, it’s alright. I know you’re busy and can’t help everypony.” Rainbow shook the hand off and attempted to stand but found her leg, the one that had been missing, remained limp and simply dragged. “What’s wrong with my leg?”
“It seems that since you lost it in reality, your leg here no longer responds. I thought you might still be able to use it here with the ghost limb sensations I figured you would be experiencing.” Luna sighed and sat back before the pony. Dash ‘oh’d’ to herself quietly and dropped her head to weep before collapsing entirely and curling up.
“I screwed up, I let Fleetfoot die! I lost my own leg because of my mistake!” Dash cried out but didn’t resist when Luna scooped her up into her arms and held her in her embrace. “I’m a failure!”
“Never! You are the fastest young flier in all of Equestria! You are a brave young Wonderbolt and even more brave pilot of technology still far beyond us! The damage you dealt to the enemies proves that!” Luna offered in her attempts to console the pegasus, brushing her mane from her face to wipe off tears when they appeared. Beyond that, she merely cuddled the mare and gently petted her sides. “You were thrust into a warlike scenario without realizing it and unfortunately, death is a common factor of war.”
“But, I still let her die! She was right, I was dragging the tail of the ship too much and it was torn off! The crash was my fault and she died because of it! I killed her, not the enemy!” Dash protested with a sniffle before looking up at the princess with blurry red eyes. She continued to suck back mucus and tears before Luna pulled the young pegasus into her full embrace, clutching her in a full hug that she probably couldn’t have done if she was an alicorn.
After a few more minutes of sobbing, Luna released Dash just enough to look her in the eyes. “I’ve come from a scared dream with the Pilot in order to bring you with me. We believe that his dream will offer you an opportunity to reconcile what’s happened, burn out whatever rage or revenge you have in a safe environment.”
“What good am I going to be with a dead leg?” Rainbow Dash muttered back and looked away from the woman still holding onto her.
“With it being a shared dream, we can collect more ponies who’ll contribute to the dream and with that power, your leg with return. Not only that, but we can turn you human, like us.” Luna offered with a thin smile as Dash twisted out of Luna’s hold.
“I can’t deny that I haven’t been curious about humanity… You say this dream will give me a good space to let out my anger?” Dash looked up at her princess with a curious/malevolent gaze while her rear leg was pulled up and remained against her side.
“Very much so. They won’t be griffons we’re fighting, however.” Luna nodded back and prepared to open a doorway into the realm she used to move through dreams with intent on bringing Rainbow Dash back to her boyfriend’s mind. “I am planning to bring in my sister, Twilight Sparkle and maybe Sunset Shimmer if she wants to come.”
“Fine, I’ll do it.” Dash sucked in a deep breath and wiped off the remainder of her stained face. “Just let me clean up first, please.” she added as a small bathroom appeared nearby.
“Of course, I’ll be back for you in a bit.” Luna nodded and with helmet and weapons in hand, turned from the dream.
Dreamscape
Location: Canterlot Castle Courtroom
Time: Late Afternoon
Dreamer: Celestia
“I swear sister, even your dreams are boring.” Luna chuckled as she stepped around the nobles waiting in line for their turn at court. Celestia, in pony form, was sprawled out over her throne with her head hanging limp over the armrests. At the appearance of her sister, Celestia lifted her head to look at Luna properly before twisting over onto her hooves to welcome her arrival.
“Yes, I know. Unfortunately these dreams are quite common for me since I always fall asleep thinking about what blathering excuses the nobles have for whatever it is they want. I can never seem to get away from them.” Celestia sighed and leaned back against her throne’s back before she noticed Luna’s form and attire. “But I see you have much more interesting dreams.”
“Indeed. In fact, I’ve come to ask that you join the suit and I in our shared lucid dream. It should provide for much more entertainment than whatever these fools can provide.” Luna chuckled and gestured to the frozen nobles next to her, each in various states of making demands. “You will, however, need your human form though. And some armour which the suit can help you build according to the story he’s built.”
“Hmm, and I suppose that we’ll be looking forward to some heated combat?” Celestia grinned and began the transformation to humanity. Once fully human, Celestia uncrossed her legs and stood to step down from the throne. “I accept. I will head for the Pilot’s dream immediately so he can help me get set up.”
“Very well, I shall finish my rounds and be along shortly.” Luna beamed back and the pair of human alicorns vanished with a dual flash of light.
Dreamscape
Location: Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville
Time: Unknown
Dreamer: Twilight Sparkle
A quick twist of the head told Luna exactly where she was and for some reason, she wasn’t surprised about where she’d found herself. Of all the libraries that Twilight had been residing in or had spent any amount of time in, the Golden Oaks had always held a special place in the youngest alicorn’s heart and it showed with how pristine this recreation was.
“Princess Luna?” Twilight stuck her head up from the edge of the second floor above the princess. Of note, the head was already human in nature, plus the horn of a unicorn and wings of the pegasus on her back as Twilight now descended the stairs to greet the newcomer. “What’re you doing here?”
“I’ve been roaming around dreams looking for ponies who’d like to help the Pilot and I fight in a dungeon in our shared dream.” Luna explained as she stepped further into the abode, her head swivelling around to take in as much as she could. She hadn’t gotten the chance to spend very much time in this tree house before its explosion during the fight against Tirek. “I am quite impressed with the level of detail that you’ve put into this dreamscape.”
“Yes, i’ve been working tirelessly to recreate it from my memories. There are still parts I can’t quite work out properly, the space doesn’t match the reality in some parts.” Twilight sighed as a simple couch appeared near the centre of the room allowing her to take a seat on it and cross her legs at the knees. She was already wearing a fairly simple and airy dress which hung off her small frame lightly even while she was seated. Without footwear, Luna had to wonder if the texture of the tree’s interior was at all harsh on the soft soles of human feet. “That’s quite the armour you’re wearing, Princess.”
“Yes, it is derived from the Pilot’s dream. The world is set as a partially iron age crossed with his hyper-modern age. A sort of fantasy crossed with our fiction, if it were.” Luna nodded agreement and sat down next to the purple girl to set her helmet down on her knees. Her weapon and shield had disappeared into oblivion for the time being, ready to be called upon as needed.
“Well, it certainly gives you a dark and mysterious aire.” Twilight leaned against the left most armrest, her chin resting on her fist.
“I am classed as a Dark Knight, so I suppose it would be fitting.” Luna gave a light sigh with her words, getting herself comfortable before realizing why she’d come in the first place. “Which brings me to my reason for a visit. I’m recruiting ponies to join us in our current dungeon. I’ve already recruited my sister and miss Rainbow Dash who’ll be joining us to relieve some mental strain.”
“Rainbow Dash is going to be there? I have been wanting desperately to speak to her after the… event…” Twilight’s eyebrows rose at the mention of the pegasus and she leapt up from the couch to stare down at the older alicorn with hands planted on Luna’s heavily armoured knees. “And Celestia’s coming too?”
“Indeed, I was just in her dream and she was exceptionally bored. Apparently she can’t get her mind off her Court duties.” Luna smirked and stood as well, collecting her helmet and placed it over her head though leaving the visor up. “She’ll already be there in the Pilot’s dream getting fitted for her own class and armour.”
“What kinds of classes does the Pilot have? Is there magic?” Twilight narrowed an eye at the older princess, though with a curious smile.
“I would suppose so, but you’ll have to ask him when you get there since I don’t know. There does exist some semblances of magic in his world, as I have an ability to inhibit cognitive functions and provide illusions to enemy monsters to trick them into attacking their own.” Luna explained as lengthily as she could, avoiding the fact that her abilities were essentially mind-control.
“Huh, doesn’t sound like my preferred cup of tea, but I suppose that does offer options for other schools of magic; depending on how creative the Pilot’s gotten with his dream.” Twilight stood and shrugged, turning towards the front door that ordinarily would have opened to Ponyville but instead opened -with my intervention- to my dream walking realm. “Which way?”
“Just look for the large doors that looks advanced for our age of technology.” I smirked and stepped through the door after the princess. “I believe he’s that way.” I pointed, directing the princess in the vague direction. I turned in the opposite direction, aiming for my final destination.
Dreamscape
Location: Canterlot High School
Time: Late Morning
Dreamer: Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie
“You know, I am actually surprised about this one’s location.” Luna muttered as she found herself stepping out from what she suspected was the old portal connection between this world and Equestria. A quick look around showed she was severely out of place in terms of dress style so with a shimmer of magic, found herself back in her full length dual-toned blue dress.
“Princess Luna? What’re you doing here?” Sunset inquired as she walked up to the princess in her human form. She was joined by the memories of her human friends, each one curiously examining me. “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all, Miss Shimmer.” Luna replied while staring curiously at Pinkie who stared back, unnervingly close for the Princess.
“Woah! Princess Luna! How’re you doing?” she exclaimed, her eyes showing recognition of the Princess rather than the vice-principal persona Luna’s counterpart had here. Both Sunset and Luna looked curiously concerned at this question and it’s word use.
“Why do you look like you’re a dreamer here as well? I wasn’t aware that you could invade dreams as well…” Sunset remarked for Luna, pulling Pinkie back away from the alicorn of the group.
“I ‘unno, I just am I guess! I felt something really weird going on around the princess so I just kinda… popped in!” Pinkie shrugged back completely nonchalant in nature and stood back, out of reach of the Princess or main dreamer. “So, what’cha up to?”
“I.. am going around dreams to see who’d like to join the Pilot and I in our shared dream in order to help my sister, Rainbow Dash and Twilight complete a Fantasy dungeon.” Luna explained, slowly and still slightly concerned that somepony who wasn’t her had managed to cross the scape and entered someone else’s dream. More disturbing to Luna was how calm and casual Pinkie was in this human world, as though she were more than comfortable in her human skin.
“Sounds like a fun time.” Dream Rainbow remarked from behind, agreed with by the other friends nearby who were listening. “If I know my real life version, she’ll jump at the chance to fight something!”
“It seems that my subconscious is telling me to go.” Sunset chuckled and turned back to the princess. “You said Fantasy, right? Monsters, magic and swordplay?”
“For the most part, yes. It’s actually based on a story that the Pilot had written and published before he was shipped out on his journey.” Luna explained and turned back towards the statue plinth that acted as the doorway. “I myself am a Dark Knight in his world.” she added proudly and returned her dress to her armour, making Pinkie hop up onto Sunset’s shoulder in admiration.
“Ooh, shiny! Can I come? It sounds like a great party!” Pinkie first noted before staring up at Luna eagerly. Luna shrugged back in reply, otherwise fine with the suggestion.
“I don’t see why not, I’m sure that the Pilot has a suitable class for you.” she nodded and stepped partially into the portal, her right half disappearing into the shimmering. “Come now, we will make the trip quick and be where we need to be.”
“Sounds like fun.” Sunset took Luna’s hand with Pinkie taking Sunset’s and the girls were all lead into the portal in a blinding flash of light.
Luna’s eyes registered the expanse of the Ready Room cavern of Blackwater Cavern almost immediately and noticed how much brighter it was with the numerous torches set ablaze around the place. A quick flash back and Luna retrieved a waiting Rainbow Dash who, after a bit of explanation from Luna, had her legs returned to full use by the combined efforts of everyone present.
Of the seven players now in the shared dream, Luna found Celestia waiting nearby with Twilight, both in some kind of new attire. Celestia was adorned in a similar armour set to Luna, though hers was much brighter, in white, silver and gold. Twilight was cloaked in what she imagined was some kind of battle mage armour of rune-etched half-plate and chainmail.
“I wasn’t aware that Pinkie would be joining us.” The Pilot remarked once he looked up from helping Twilight finish the details of her new class with her new system menus.
“She tagged along in Sunset’s dream.” Luna shrugged back and approached the Pilot from behind to wrap him in a light hug considering her armour. “So, what kinds of classes do you have for the newcomers?”
“Well, Celestia is the opposite of you, she’s a Rune Knight. She focused on holy magic enchantments and buffing the group. She also gets an added damage bonus to undead and cursed creatures.” The teacher explained, drawing attention to the oldest alicorn off nearby now with Sunset and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie was busy exploring every inch of the cave they were in and nearly stepped into the dungeon itself if it wasn’t for a cautionary tale from Luna.
“What about Twilight? What’s she?” Luna turned back to the pair in curiosity, content that Pinkie wouldn't go off without everyone else.
“Battle mage!” Twilight exclaimed proudly. “While I’m not to fond of the whole melee fighting portion, I do get better defence against physical attacks than a typical mage does. I am capable of enchanting my weapons, and the weapons of my teammates, with elemental damage like fire and ice and lightning.”
“Sounds helpful. What’s in mind for Rainbow Dash?”
“Normally, I’d want something quick moving or light on their feet. Right now, I want to do damage to everything.” Rainbow announced, directing the comment at both Luna and the Dreamer. The man of the group nodded back with a grin.
“I have just the thing for you then. How about a Berserker who wields two two-handed weapons at the same time? There’s a tank version where you wield two great-shields and use those for absolute defence and attack, but I think the regular version will fit you better.” she remarked and let Twilight go to experiment with her ex-mentor. Dash grinned and approached the Pilot while Luna took a seat on a nearby rock to wait.
***
“So, how’s this work exactly?” Dash inquired as she thrust her arm at me. Taking it in my hand, I traced the section of her left forearm with my fingers and engraved the tattoo onto her skin to give her control over her own systems. With a tap of the finger to her wrist, the holographic console appeared to her. “Woah, that’s pretty cool!”
“Thank you, I was quite proud of how I'd set up the game systems to work in a real life setting for my books.” I replied with a grin and helped her through her character creation.
A few minutes and Dash’s clothing of a t-shirt and jeans was replaced with a blank white shirt covering her modesty with leather straps holding up her heavy leg armour as well as the twin greatswords slung over her back. She had been upgraded to the same level that Celestia, Luna, Twilight and I, around level 120 in order to match the rest of us and had spent a good portion of her time putting in the 600+ stat points into the seven options.
Sunset made to approach me for her turn, however Pinkie appeared between us, ready to begin.
The addition of the new player was dreamscape quick, turning Pinkie into a gunner glass -the other subclass type of the archer tree like my sniper class. She was equipped with similar clothing and armour as I was, bullet proof armour covering her chest, legs and knees with her arms free to the wind. She wore over it all a similar trenchcoat to me, only hers was bright pastel colours of pink, blue and yellow in opposition from my crimson red, gold and silver.
For armaments, she’d taken the biggest caliber guns available to her class and level, in this case an old earth M134 minigun painted bright pink with blue highlights strung across her back and a railpistol similar to mine on her hip. She’d very affectionately called it her party cannon, an ode to a pair of confetti cannons she owned and often used back in the waking world.
Pinkie bounded off, somehow unencumbered by her minigun and ammo pack and was replaced by Sunset, our final new player to upgrade.
“So, what do you have?” Sunset sighed and took a look at the list of classes available on my arm’s menu. “Or, more appropriately, what do you recommend?”
“Well, I’d recommend being a healer out of necessity for our group but I’d go further and suggest some kind of magician type for you. There aren’t any kind of mage classes that’ll replicate your unicorn abilities so I don’t know what else to suggest.” I replied and ran through the magician type classes for options. “We also don’t have time for you to go out and make contracts if you became a tamer, so that’s out…”
“I think if it’ll help, being a healer would be best for me. What’re the options for that?” Sunset asked as I repeated the action of adding her to the player base with a couple fingers. Once she had the tattoo and the menus available to look through, she made her own selection.
“The bishop, tied with the druid for best healer class.” I agreed with the selection with a couple nods of the head. “With Pinkie and I covering you, all you have to do is worry about keeping everyone’s health up.”
“Sounds easy, I guess…” Sunset tilted her head and began the task of applying 605+ stat points to her character in order to be able to dress in her mid-level armour and equip her weapons.
The Bishop was of the holy magic class, though instead of applying holy magic, they specialize in the highest-tiered healing spells and potion crafting. Dressed in as light of clothing as they can be, usually in robes and cloth, Bishops are usually the easiest targets for enemy monsters or players. That being said, while I would be up and out of the way as best as I could be, Pinkie would be down on the ground next to Sunset in order to provide proper cover fire.
“Okay, I’m going to make this declaration right now,” Sunset began once she’d put on her wardrobe and Rainbow Dash burst into a fit of laughter at her appearance. “I am not wearing the pointy hat.”
Stifling my own laughter as best as I could, I helped Sunset navigate to her apparel tab where her regular clothing was waiting to take the visual place over her robes and headdress. “You’ll still get all the benefits and defensive abilities of your robes, but you’ll appear to be wearing your shirt and jacket.”
“Could I wear something other than my shirt and jacket? Like another classes armour? Just look like I’m wearing non-stupid armour like the Bishop’s robes and hat?” Sunset looked at me with a hopeful gaze and offered a convincing smile.
“Since you wouldn’t be gaining the benefits or debuffs, yes. What’re you hoping for?” I replied and held my hands out to begin some kind of dreamworld summoning.
“Maybe something like… Yours and Pinkie?” Sunset grinned and stepped back expectantly. “In my colours, obviously.”
“Black, orange, magenta and light blue?” I raised my eyebrow in question while setting to summoning up a replica of my outfit, complete with trench coat in her colours. Everything I summoned was black in nature and I’d have to add the colour stripes myself after she’d put them on.
Sunset nodded and took the items, dropping them into her inventory and ignored the class incompatibility notification when it appeared. Swapping out her clothes for the new outfit was done instantly with a click and drag of the finger. Doing it that way defeated a need for privacy when forced to change quickly and in public.
“The colours?” Sunset asked about when she checked herself, looking for the modifications. I held a pair of fingers up and traced a pair of colours into the back of the fabric, changing them to the orange and magenta stripes of her preference before doing the same down the right breast panel of the coat and battle armour underneath. Leaving her jeans as their blue colour, I added the same orange and magenta stripe down her right leg armour, leaving the rest of it black. “That works!”
“Glad you like it. It’s simple, yet functional.” I nodded back acceptance of the complement and stood. “You will have to stick with your staff, though. There’s no switching that out.”
“Fine by me.” Sunset reinforced her acknowledgement by arming herself with her new staff, Cerodine in metallic makeup as Cerodine had the most magical conductivity in this world. Taking on a dark purple sheen, Sunset gave the staff a light twirl around her hands with practice, as though wielding a bo-staff.
“You’ve got practice with a staff?” I raised an eyebrow enthusiastically. Sunset grinned and nodded back but held the weapon still. “Handy, but don’t expect that staff to survive many physical hits. Cerodine doesn’t have a high damage threshold so it’d be best to avoid hitting anything with it.”
“Will do. Shall we get started?” Sunset called out, addressing everyone in the room.
“We shall, yes!” I replied with my voice echoing around. “Group set up will be as follows! Dash will pair up with Celestia at the front. They’ll act as both tank and DPS, switching out as necessary. Sunset, Pinkie and I will be next, acting as guardians for Sunset who’ll be between us. Luna and Twilight will be at the back to cover our rear.”
As I spoke, the changes in our filing was made, everyone taking their respective positions.
“When we get to rooms, Luna will attack from behind the groups that Dash and Celestia gather. Dash will pull as many enemies as she can while Celestia deals the damage. Twilight will cast her magic from the middle while Pinkie and Sunset remain at the back and out of the way. I’ll be off in an advantage point to cover everyone as best I can so you,” I paused to motion to Sunset, “Don’t have to worry about me as much as everyone else.”
With beating her greatswords together enthusiastically, Dash nodded agreement of my directions for everyone and lead us all into the hallway.
Setting the New Moon into a gentle hover near to the Castle drew much excitement from the ponies below, given that the shadow it cast covered approximately twenty percent of the city itself from our height. Of course, the ship had to remain as high as it was above the city in order to keep the engines from creating damage more than a downdraft that ruffled the furs of civilians below.
“So, what’ll the next dungeon be in your dream?” Twilight asked as she took wing with everyone else, Sunset floating along in a magical sheath of teal as she self-levitated. I kept pace via jetpack alongside Luna who’d offered to fly me down herself but I’d opted to fly down myself just for the feeling.
“By the story’s timeline, that’ll be Cale Sevadus. We’ll probably want more players for that one though.” I replied as we landed in the center of the Gardens and joined Luna at her side to walk into the Castle in full suit. “I’m quite surprised that you of all ponies enjoyed that as much as you did.”
“It was very entertaining and a great way to relieve stress, dungeon running so many times with everypony else.” Twilight explained, directing the comment up to me with a look of gratitude. “There wouldn’t happen to be a human technology that could replicate that dreamworld of your in reality, would there?”
“Not that I know of, no.” I said, casting a look of disappointment on the faces of the ponies around me. “Well hold on, just because I don’t know of a technology, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Remember, I’m two hundred years behind human technology standards.”
“So how could you find out if there is a technology?” Luna glanced up at me as we stepped from the gardens and into the castle itself, now being escorted by a squadron of guard.
“We get back into Registered Space and I’ll upload all the new technology and updates to the welder. I’ll probably take… thirty years to learn it all but ehh, I’ve got the rest of my life ahead of me to figure it out.” I shrugged back casually and turned the first left towards the Courtroom. “I can probably do it while you’re all in cryo.”
“Why would you want to spend the trip out of cryo-stasis? As I understand it, you’d still age while we don’t…” Sunset inquired in concern.
“Sunset, you have to understand that i’ve already spent almost three hundred years in cryo-stasis. If I went back under for our flight to the new world, who knows how much more technology I’d have to learn to catch back up. Call me selfish but I actually want to live my adult life.” I explained once I’d stopped to kneel at the mare, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“The Pilot’s right, it’s borderline lazy to spend centuries in cryo-stasis if he doesn’t have to.” Luna added to my point, then looked to me. “But by no means does that give you an excuse to age to death without me. I will not be waking up on the new world without my partner.”
Standing and giving Luna an affectionate rub on the neck, “I don’t plan to. I’ll only remain awake long enough to reintegrate into the Galactic Community then I'll be joining you all in cryo for the rest of the trip.”
“You better.” Luna smirked with entertainment and took the lead into the Courtroom as the great doors gradually swung open on their hinges, a heavy creaking alerting our presence.
“Something must be done about the rebels! They endanger our entire operation, we must destroy them before they can further compromise our future!” A noble demanded, stamping their hoof forcefully to the stone tile beneath them. I had encountered this particular one before, never face to face but only ever in passing. Swept back blonde mane, snow white fur and an extremely practised smile now torn away and replaced with a large scowl on his muzzle. Even his voice dripped with cocky nobility and it took everything in my power to announce that none of the nobility would be on my ship.
“Blueblood, I understand how you feel, but we are simply not equipped to deal with a force so large!” Celestia sighed back, making me feel like this wasn’t the first time she’d told the prince this little tidbit of information.
Celestia had returned to her pony form, like Luna, and was almost dramatically draped across her throne in what appeared to be complete boredom. After a quick survey of the room, I could understand Celestia’s lack of propriety and casual nature given that absolutely no common pony, not even staff, was in the room.
“But with that large airship outside, we could tear through them like paper! You just need give the order and that thing will be forced to do what you demand!” Blueblood declared, his voice covering my otherwise silent approach till I was standing just behind him. Luna, Twilight and Sunset all rounded past the prince, giving him reason to catch sight of me in the corner of his eye and whirled around to find me almost completely on his ass.
With a very womanly yelp and hopping away from me, the prince quickly composed himself and reapproached me. “You! I, Prince Blueblood, hereby order you to take your flying vessel and exterminate the enemies at our borders!” he commanded as princely as he could, despite that I still stood head and shoulders above him even when hunched down.
“Denied.” I announced firmly yet simply before stepping away from the noble to approach Celestia while the prince fumed. “Morning, Tia. How’d you sleep?”
“How dare you call her something so informal! You will address the Princess with appropriate title and respect!” Blueblood commanded, stomping after me as I stepped up to Luna who’d taken to her throne.
“And you will show respect to the man who’s getting your sorry ass off this dying planet!” I roared back, wheeling around on the startled white stallion before calming myself to readdress Celestia.
“It’s quite alright, Blueblood. The Pilot is more than close enough to myself and my sister to use such familiar recognitions.” Celestia remarked calmly before turning to me. “Thank you for the warm wishes, I slept quite well and enjoyed our shared dream last night. I even found that I’d awoken having sweated quite profusely, you’ve provided me with quite a workout and sore backside.”
“You and I both, Princess.” Twilight sighed and scratched at her back and flanks. Blueblood's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his mouth hung open. “After that last round we had, I don’t know if I’ll be able to properly sit for a few more hours.”
Stifling laughter between Sunset, Luna and I, I ascended towards Luna’s throne and took a stance next to her, resting a hand on the armrest over Luna’s hoof.
“I simply cannot- no, I will not accept what I am hearing!” Blueblood announced, feathers clearly ruffled. “Are you meaning to tell me that you,” the prince paused to point at my direction, staring me down with a killer glare. “Shared such a… filthy dream with Princesses Celestia and Twilight Sparkle?”
“Not at all.” I shook my head once and kept it high while Luna and Sunset snickered. “I shared a dream with Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.”
Luna and Sunset nearly but a gut trying to contain themselves as Blueblood’s jaw likely unhinged and nearly dropped to the floor.
“Six? You shared such a dream with six mares? Three of the Princesses, no less! How vulgar, I expected nothing less from such a lowly beast like yourself!” Blueblood accused, stopping Luna’s attempts at holding laughter completely as she suddenly exploded from where she sat.
“You have no right to call our beloved such wild accusations!” she declared, resorting to her Royal Voice which nearly shattered the nearby windows and shook many of the guards to their knees. “You, who married into the royal line have no say in what we do in our dreams!”
“Married into? So he’s not even Noble by birth?” I smirked with my whisper to Twilight next to me.
“Well, he technically is. He’s noble by blood but his family was forty ninth in line so he married into a family closer to the throne.” Twilight whispered back, making me smirk even more with this new bit of knowledge.
“But to think that he debauched six of you! Three out of four Princesses, no less! Have you no shame?” Blueblood called back in attempts to match Luna’s sheer volume.
“Debauched,” I broke into the argument. “Just what in hell do you think we were all doing in my dream?” I grinned as Blueblood’ death glare broke away from my marefriend’s equalizing gaze and was cast down upon me. “At no point in time did we ever say anything about any kind of debauchery! The seven of us merely spent a couple hours in a fantasy dungeon that I had written about before I shipped out for my exploratory mission.”
“What? So you brought the princesses into situations that was physically dangerous to them? Have you no regard for their safety?” Blueblood somehow turned the table back on me, twisting my words and seemingly forgetting that this was a dream we were talking about.
“By no means were any of us ever in harm’s way.” Celestia replied, standing from her throne to take the floor and calm everyone with soothing words and a mother’s voice. “Not only was this in a dream, but all seven of us were heavily armoured to protect our minds. We were also equipped with extraordinary weapons and magics.”
“I…” Blueblood stuttered about uselessly, having had his argument extinguished so easily. With nothing else left to say, “Yes, Princess Celestia.”
“Now, with that matter finished, we shall return to the matter of what to do with the Enemy Headquarters that were found.” Celestia declared, turning from the Prince to us to ensure that we’d settled the previous matter. “Pilot, since it’s your ship and your crew who found the signal, what do you recommend?”
“Under normal circumstances, planet not dying and a population not threatening extermination, I’d suggest a casual slaughter of their ranks.” I replied calmly and with a simple shrug. “Under these circumstances, I recommend we do not attack them and maintain defensive formations.”
“But they’ll just send larger forces to try to kill us!” Blueblood retorted furiously, looking to be almost seething.
“Their army is limited to however many supporters they have. While ammunition stockpiles are limited by the magnesium and uranium we mine, my mining lasers are not. They will fall before me when they attack. Either they’ll run out of time and we’ll all leave before they can do any damage, or they’ll realize that they’re only expediting their species endangerment.” I explained with arms crossed over my chest and took a heavy breath of oxygen to calm myself after the last topic. I hadn’t realized it but I’d used about 5% more air in that event than I’d expected too so I was now busy working to calm myself and return my breathing to normal in order to get the most out of the remaining 87% in my tanks.
“Can’t we just modify the ship to take more? Try and settle things with the rebels peacefully?” Twilight inquired hopefully but dropped the enthusiasm once I shook my head enough to turn my helmet.
“No. We don’t have the time or resources to expand the ship any more than I already have.” I answered with calm resignation in the numbers of each species I could effectively store away.
“Then the only answer is clear! You must protect our species and exterminate the rebels! The longer we wait, the longer the Ambassador has to recruit larger forces!” Blueblood exploded again.
“One more outburst from you, Prince, and I’ll be forced to swap your seat out for someone else better suited for the colony!” I shot back, making the Prince jolt at the thought of being left behind like that. “I said we will not attack them, and that’s it!”
“You will not leave me behind!” Blueblood roared and nearly charged me if it wasn’t for not only the guard approaching to stop him with their weapons, but also the Elite Rifle I’d just equipped in my hands. Apparently he’d heard about what it could do to flesh and halted, allowing the guard to surround him.
“Calm down, both of you. I’m sure there’s enough room to fit my Nephew on the ship if we just reorganize who’s coming.” Celestia held a hoof up to tell her guard, and me, to lower their weapons.
“No, there isn’t. I managed to fit exactly one-thousand, four hundred sixty four seats on the ship for the seventy-two species of this planet.” I announced, making the eyes of everyone in the room explode at the absolutely small number in comparison to the population of the planet. “For the twelve representing species, I have exactly fifty seats reserved for each, twenty-five male and twenty-five female. The others all get exactly twelve.” I announced, silencing the room completely, save for the sound of my suit placing my weapon back into my backpack.
“They only get twelve?” Twilight whispered to herself. “Why twelve?”
“Because twelve is the exact minimum it will take for the genepool to not stale and support a colony. Those species with only twelve will have their females give three children to three different males over the course of their lives. They will do that for several generations.” I announced, turning to Twilight for the explanation.
“I hardly believe that polygamy will be the saviour of their races.” Blueblood rolled his eyes at me and scoffed.
“If they don’t, they’ll die out. The same is said for the the Equestrians.” I announced, turning back to Celestia and Luna. “Everyone on that ship, when they land, will have multiple children with multiple partners.”
“Well, don’t expect me to sire any bastard children.” the Prince announced and turned his nose up and away from me.
“Then you’ll be replaced on the ship with somepony who will. The only ponies on that ship who I'm allowing not to have so many children are the Princesses and Twilight’s six friends.”
“Really?” Sunset raised an eyebrow at me, rounding past Twilight to get into my view to do so. “Why?”
“Because all of you will be busy governing your race and very likely a portion of the smaller races. You won’t be able to afford time for mothering nine children.” I explained before being interrupted by Celestia.
“That, and we alicorns are not capable of fostering more than one child every thousand years or so.” she explained with a sigh. “I’ve still got a couple more centuries to go before I can try for a twelfth.”
“I’ve only got four more months.” Luna smirked and winked at me, suggesting things which I set aside for the time being.
“And with the birth of Flurry Heart, Cadence will not be an option for another thousand years or so.” Celestia sighed and rubbed at her forehead with a wing.
“Well, for Luna and Twilight, I suggest not getting too worked up about your kids until after you’re all on the planet.” I remarked and turned back to the Prince. “If you have nothing left to say, you may leave.”
“I will not be left behind!” The Prince announced as he was escorted from the room by the guard. Soon, the doors swung shut and the room was blissfully quiet.
“Pilot, I can’t help but notice that you’ve only ever been talking about us being on the planet. Like you’re not coming with us to establish the colony.” Sunset narrowed her eyes in worry as Luna glared at me. I remained silent and slightly downcast.
“Why are you speaking like you’ll not be staying with me after the Colony is established?” Luna rose from her seat to get nose to nose with me, looking quite angry.
“You must understand, it’s not that I don’t want to stay with you all on the new planet, it’s that I may not be able too.” I began slowly, quietly as I formulated my words as carefully as I could.
“Why not?” Luna demanded simply, still staring me down.
“Because of a couple reasons.” I looked up at the princess and into her eyes. “One: If the planet we colonize you on is the same as this planet, then that means there’ll still be excessive Xenon in the air. Living in a suit my entire life is no way to live, living safezone to safezone is no way to live. I’m already beginning to suffer from a Vitamin D deficiency and I'm only keeping it up through modifying my meals to contain that vitamin. I can’t keep that up, I’m afraid.”
“What’s the second reason?” Celestia looked around her sister at me, looking just as worried as Luna was now.
“Two: I have a duty to report your colonized planet to the Galactic Community. I intend to register you as a pre-spacefaring race so you shouldn’t be bothered beyond whatever Anthropologists try to show up and remain hidden, but that’s it. It will take me at least a year to get all the paperwork filed, and then whatever awards they try to give me for discovering a new intelligent race; which brings me to my last and most important point.” I dropped my head to stare at the floor again, all the mares around me setting up from their positions to stand in front of me in worry.
“What is it?” Luna whispered in fear.
“Once I register you and your planet, you’ll be placed under protective custody of the Galactic Community and all outside access and interference will be denied beyond the scientists who’ll come to study you and your progress in secret. I won’t be allowed to come back.” my words were intended to be an announcement, but instead sort of dribbled out in a muttering that was only just loud enough to be understood.
“Then just don’t register us! Or register us as a space-faring race! There has to be something you can do to let you stay with me!” Luna demanded, taking my hands in her magic to raise them to her hooves and wrapped them in blue fur.
“If I register you as a space-faring race, then you’ll start to get involved in Galactic practices and you’ll be forced to obey Galactic law practices and get involved in wars and involve yourselves in our diplomacy. That’s all if you’re not targeted by the larger of the community and enslaved… It’ll be better if you’re registered as pre-space and left alone to your own devices.”
“Well, what if we register as space-faring and ally ourselves with Humanity or whatever other empires you suggest? Couldn’t they protect us?” Celestia offered and instantly gained support from everyone in the room, Guards included as they whispered among themselves.
“You’d submit to vassalization by another empire? Because that’s what will happen with not even a planetary population of fifteen-hundred. You’d give up most of your freedoms for protection?” I announced, dropping the hopefulness in even Celestia. “No, I don’t want you all to give up your freedoms just to survive in the Galactic Community. It will be better for you all if you’re registered as pre-space and left alone till you achieve space-flight on your own and can stand firmly in the Community.”
“Would you let us make that decision for ourselves? Let us consider the options and tell you before we leave for the new world?” Celestia requested, apparently not content with being left alone in the galaxy. I nodded and started off towards the doors out of the room.
“Sure, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get the New Moon mining that mountain for everything it’s got. Twilight,” I turned to face the youngest one. “I need that print for the station rather soon.”
“You’ll have it in a couple days.” Twilight nodded back before turning back to the older princesses with concern.
“Why would you need to go into space already? You’ve yet to receive Twilight’s blueprints for the space station, right?” Luna inquired as she strode alongside me on our course to the New Moon after lunch; never mind that I’d skipped out for lack of appropriate options regarding my diet and would be eating when we got back to the ship.
“That may be the case but I can at least start a simple platform and get some power and basic necessities up there. I’ll build Twilight’s station around it when I get the print.” I explained as we passed through the barriers leading outside. Luna and I both took to the skies and aimed ourselves for the massive ship holding position overhead as quickly as we could in order to continue our conversation.
Landing and entering into the airlock for transition to within, “I’ve probably doomed the planet already thinking I could do all this myself, but with only two months before the Apocalypse I’m forced to think in a much broader spectrum of what I can do to speed everything up.” I admitted with a sigh and hands clasped behind my back as we entered onto the bridge.
“Sir, messages from the Smoky Mountains! Your laser drill has reached the trapped miners inside and has been shut down to begin rescue operations!” A helmspony announced at our arrival.
“Fine, fine. Just make sure the drill is turned back on when they’re done.” I waved the comment off with a hand and stood behind the pilot’s console, in which Spitfire was seated and waiting. “Take us out of here, get us to the Smoky Mountains to help with rescue then we’ll get busy tearing into the mountain with our own drills.”
“Yes sir, breaking holding pattern over Canterlot and moving to Smoky Mountain at thirty-kilometers an hour.” Spitfire reported back, setting her hooves over her console while everyone around set to their various tasks for flight.
“Luna, get a message across the planet as best you can. Everyone who's capable of mining will tear into the land wherever they can find ore. Dig out as much as they can as fast as they can. Anypony who doesn't mine, have them show up to the Smoky Mountains to report for building duties.” I commanded again, turning to Luna who nodded and aimed for the airlocks out again. “Once you’re done, meet me on my mining platform!”
“Yes Pilot!” Luna called back with a wave and leapt through the airlock and out.
“Sir, we’ll be reaching the Mountains in two minutes.” Soarin announced, turning my attention to the navigator.
“Get a message through to whoever piloting our last Wyvern. Tell them I’ll be commandeering it for a trip out into space when Luna gets there.” I requested and turned back to the front of the ship, watching the mountains getting closer and closer. “I’ll be programming the auto-shipyard to begin pumping out more Wyverns in the meantime.”
“Message sent.” Soarin reported back dutifully and settled back down for his job. “We’ve arrived at the Mountains.”
“Take us up to the shipyard. Everyone not critical to the operation of this ship will be assisting to rescue to trapped miners!” I called back and turned from the bridge to enter into the airlock once again and get a head start on the ascension of the New Moon.
A quick flight up, chased after by my ship, and I landed heavily on the mining platform I called home. Removing my helmet with a hiss of air ruffling my facial hair -I had to remind myself later to shave it all when next I wasn’t busy- and hanging it on it’s hook on my hip, I set towards the auto-shipyard to get it set up like I’d said I’d do.
Once the upgraded Wyvern’s blueprint was successfully loaded and positioned properly, I set the massive machine to begin work and turned towards the drilling section.
My progress was cut off by the sudden arrival of Luna who’d flashed in through use of a teleportation bubble in a typical shade of her dark blue.
“Miss me?” she grinned as I kept at a run past her. “What’s the hurry?” she frowned at my lack of sentimentality and rudeness.
“Less than two months to get as many of this planet’s population off this planet as possible, that’s what!” I called back as I reattached my helmet for a trip down to ground. “Come in Cargo wyvern, come in.”
“Cargo Wyvern here, sir. We’ve received your message and we’re ready to receive you at your leisure.” the voice of the translation reported for me as Luna and I leapt from the platform to begin our free fall towards the planet’s surface. Behind us now were flocks of pegasi rushing into the hole left behind by the laser drill, but I otherwise paid them no mind.
“Stay at ground level, Princess Luna and I are en route.” I replied sternly and fired up my jetpack, setting off a sudden boom as the pack fired up with the extra push. With Luna keeping directly beneath me, her wings partially open to control her descent and having connected to my rushing attitude, the pair of us parted just enough at the last second to apply retrograde thrust of whatever kind in order to prevent from becoming a splatter on the ground.
“It’s over there, I see it!” Luna remarked after a quick check, pointing in the opposite direction from my gaze. Trusting her judgement, I pretty much just took off after her even before I saw the ship resting with engines at idle and a pair of ponies climbing out of the cockpits.
The sprint was quick and with a quick burst from my jetpack, I landed on the side of the craft at my cockpit while Luna gracefully flipped herself hooves over head into the navigator’s seat and let it close around her.
Speeding through the take off checklist, I pushed the ship straight up a couple hundred meters before pushing the horizontal thrust as much as it could and aiming it in a 50 degree ascension.
“Seriously, what’s the rush?” Luna inquired over the comms from behind me.
“If we can get the space platform set up and powered, we can build spare cryo-pods and store more of the planet’s population while we build more colony ships. If we can get them into cryo and store them while we build, we can give each species a colony ship of their own, another ship for provisions and extra building material. We can store those coming even after the planet’s died and we’ll continue building by mining the dead planet.” I explained as we reached an altitude where the jet engines began to fail on us. Using our momentum, I fired up the hydrogen thrusters and once they’d been lit, Luna and I were forced back into our seats from the sheer gravitational force.
Reaching 8Gs and about thirty-five thousand meters into the sky, the bright blue began to shift into a dark black as the jet engines cut out entirely and I switched on the ion thrusters to continue our ascent. The higher we rose, the less and less we could hear the engines, but we could still feel them. The sound never completely cut out, given that we could hear it through the ship itself, but soon enough the weightlessness I’d forgotten about returned and nearly removed me from my seat if it wasn’t for my harness.
“Hey, Pilot, is it just me or is there a radio signal coming from the moon?” Luna inquired, diverting my attention from searching for the optimal geosynchronous orbit towards my instrument panel. True enough, there was a radio signal with a request for transmission attached to it.
“Yeah, there seems to be a signal on the moon.” I remarked, having been deflated and overwhelmed by curiosity.
“Unidentified craft, please halt your ascension and identify yourself.” a coarse, buzzing like voice requested though was translated by Luna and the translator.
“NLR, Wyvern class Cargo ship from Equestria, who’re you?” I requested in return, aiming the nose of the ship towards the moon and what appeared to be some kind of spired ant-hill.
“Equestria? Is that the Suit that crashed on the planet some months back? We’re representatives of the Scarlet Changeling Hive allied to Equestria in order to get off the planet.” The voice replied, sounding cheerful and willing to be of assistance. I hit the mute button and directed myself towards Luna.
“How are Changelings in space, let alone on the moon? I didn’t think there was a space faring creature on the planet.” I asked.
“I wasn’t aware that a hive had managed to get into space either, perhaps it would be beneficial to meet them and ask?” Luna suggested, giving me reason to shrug back agreement.
Returning to the Changelings, “Requesting Permission to land, I’m joined by Princess Luna. We’d like to speak to your commanding officer, we’ve got questions.” I requested, eager to check out the new location.
“Absolutely, pad eight left is open and ready to receive you. We’ll leave the lights on.” the voice replied before going silent.
“Well now, this is an interesting change of events.” I mumbled, getting agreements from Luna as we aimed towards the moon.
As we flew, we began to notice that some parts of space would glitter strangely; not quite stars or space material but more like something blending into the background of space and reflecting light. A quick interception and flicking on the lights revealed black hulled ships, as round as they could be with what surprised me to be the same shapes of my armour block patterns.
“Just more questions to ask them…” I sighed and turned back towards the impossible moon base.
Following Luna’s directions to read the signage, our craft settled down on the landing pad 8L while another black ship landed on the pad next to us, dwarfing our vessel immensely. Taking a moment to ensure that my helmet was secure and tanks filled to capacity, I shut down the ship entirely and opened our cockpits and let the air inside escape with a hiss.
Luna descended as slowly as I did, landing next to me as a trio of red-shelled changelings approached from the nearest… exit? It was a hole in the wall that opened and shut around the creatures.
“Welcome to Moonbase Scarlet, Pilot and Princess. It is an honour to have you here.” the middle creature announced with a bow of the head, followed by the other two on his side.
“I’d say good to be here, but we never expected to actually be here…” I replied and stopped near to the bugs.
“Of course, that is to be expected. Come, our commander is waiting for you.” the middle bug replied, turning in place with his compatriots to lead us towards the massive organic-looking structure.
“How are changelings up here? How are they surviving in the lack of any atmosphere?” I whispered to Luna, keeping stride with the escorts.
“Changelings are extremely adaptive to any environment so space is really nothing more than a mere inconvenience of lesser gravity to them. The Scarlet Hive has adapted to eating other energies than just love like the Emerald Hive does so it’s entirely possible that they’ve found a different source up here to survive on. As for how they got up here, it would seem that they’ve discovered space travel.” the Princess remarked, examining the stone-like walls around us. There was something off about them, however. They seemed almost too… hard. Not exactly stone-like but more metallic as they glistened as though drenched in oils.
“Please, just in here. It’s easy for other creatures to get lost in our tunnels.” The lead escort requested, stopping at a random hole in the wall before leading us through. “The commander will see you inside.”
“Thank you.” Luna nodded back gratefully for me as we stepped into a large room decorated to look like a military commander’s ready room. “This should be interesting.”
~~~
Having completed our conversation with the Changeling commander and learned of not only how they’d gotten up here but why they’d come without telling anyone, Luna and I sat in our ship in connection to the New Moon down on the planet below with Celestia on the other end.
“So, the Scarlet Hive stole a few of your basic welders, learned how to use it and the blueprints within, then got themselves up to space to plant a base on the moon?” Celestia shifted her mouth in contemplations, staring off into space or whatever was before her. “While I’m not that pleased with how they’d gone about doing it, I must agree that their workings over the last couple months is extremely beneficial; especially if they’re claiming to have done this to help the planet evacuate.”
“Agreed. They’ve already got transport ships ready to take large quantities of creatures into space and the space in their Hive to store them all in Cryo. I’ve agreed to spend a bit of time up here to actually build the cryogenic systems for them, since they can’t quite understand how it all works.” I replied, resting my chin in my hand by posting my arm on the left hand side of my cockpit. “I want all of Equestria tearing up the country for resources now. Get in touch with the Scarlet Hive and have them start sending transports around the country to pick up that material and have them bring it up here. Tell the New Moon crew to get started on their own mining and to work with the Changelings.”
“Of course. Will Luna be staying up there with you?” Celestia inquired, directing her gaze towards my left and to the screen that Luna was taking up as she’d joined in on the conversation.
“As much as I’d like to, I feel I have duties on the planet. I must help organize proceedings to get everything into space while you deal with the population.” Luna replied with a disappointed sigh. She really had wanted to stay with me, but she was right, she needed to oversee business down below. That didn’t mean that I’d just let her leave the moon on her own, I’d be shuttling her and the Wyvern down for somepony else to use while I used one of the new Wyverns waiting for me.
“Right, yes. We have been starting to get reports of rioters in the streets as they start to figure out just how long we actually have left and that Luna and I are incapable of stopping it.” Celestia sighed, directing her gaze away from the screen in mild disappointment. “Think of it, we two are responsible for manipulating the very Sun and Moon around our planet, yet we can’t stop our planet from dying.”
“I suppose that’s the problem with anyone who’s been labelled a god or god-like. You begin to accrue insane expectations of you and when you can’t fulfill those expectations, people turn on you.” I remarked with a casual breath. “Be that as it may, Luna and I are on our way back now.” I added as I began the pre-flight checklist, firing up the ship and starting up it’s ions.
“Of course, I’ll speak to you later when you arrive, Sister.” Celestia nodded back and the screen flicked off while the engines warmed up with the ship slightly rumbling.
“So, this is certainly an interesting turn of events, huh?” Luna inquired casually from behind as she worked through the pre-launch checklist. After a quick digital thumbs up we rapidly ascended so I could aim our ship at the planet above us.
“Indeed. I’ve got a hell of a lot of work ahead of me in coming days, that’s for sure.” I replied once we were in a position that we could properly chat without having to worry about our flight.
“Well, you’ve always got my support.” Luna replied cheerfully as I threw the hydrogen thrusters on just long enough to get us thrown into the backs of our seats and quicken our pace a bit before deactivating them again.
“I appreciate that.” I replied once the G forces died down a bit to let us recover.
“Pilot, I know I haven’t told you this before and I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this, but I have to say this,” Luna began, sounding nervous. “I really like spending time with you, you make me feel safe. You make me feel like a pony, a mare. It’s been… way too long since I’ve last felt like this and I am more than grateful for what you’re doing and giving up to save my planet.”
“I love you too, Luna.” I cut her off, though cutting off wouldn’t be the best way to describe it since she took a break to take a breath. “I enjoy my time with you too and I’m more than happy to share my wealth of knowledge with you and your kind in order to save the planet we both call home. As it stands, it’s going to kill me when I’m forced back home and unable to come back.”
“I…” Luna choked back some tears over the radio. “I love you too,” she squeaked out with a smiling face over a video she opened between us. “And I promise you, i’ll not rest until I can come up with some way to let you stay with us on the new world. I want you with me, always, for as long as you can be.”
Entering into the upper atmosphere had our ship begin to ignite with re-entry but the temperature never got high enough to threaten us. Eventually, the landscape below us began to clarify and Luna plotted a course back to Equestria for me while I switched from ion to atmo.
“The feelings are mutual, I wish to high hell that I could stay with you all; you specifically. If you need any help trying to keep me with you when we get to the new planet, let me know and I’ll do what I can to the best of my ability.” I replied and watched Canterlot Mountain grow visible on the horizon. Below us the expanse of ocean greeted us with what looked like underwater cities beneath and surprisingly illuminated brightly with yellows and blues.
With the remainder of the flight in silence, broken only by bare instructions to begin a checklist or check for something else. Soon enough, Luna redirected me away from Canterlot towards the Smoky Mountains and we touched down on my mining platform where a small fleet of Wyverns were waiting and being checked over by flight crews. The line up of no less than fourteen cargo-class Wyverns in black and blue looked wonderful, with a handful of about eight or nine combat-class Wyverns sitting in front of the Cargo class. Sitting in front of those, all on it’s own and painted to look like Luna’s night sky, sat a much heavier armed combat-class Wyvern.
“Sir, Princess, welcome back planetside.” Spitfire announced as she greeted us once our cockpits opened to let us switch out for another flight crew who took off almost immediately.
“Thanks, where’d the other class Wyverns come from?” I wondered as I pulled my helmet off and not only let my oxygen tanks refill but also let my lungs refill with fresh air.
“It would seem that a digital friend of yours designed the cargo-class and the heavily upgraded one in front.” Spitfire explained and joined Luna and I as we aimed for the magnificent ship leading the line up. “She designed the Artillery-class Wyvern herself.” she added as Luna and I examined the new ship. Just under the cockpits sat a pair of images, one being the generic Space Engineer badge I received when I graduated while the Navigator seat had Luna’s cutie mark printed.
“Vinyl did this?” I raised both eyebrows as Luna and I looked over the rest of the craft. The armour had been replaced with heavy armour and the guns had been replaced with significantly larger calibre guns than before. A check underneath showed that another cannon was placed where the connector had been but the power and supply connections had been moved back a bit behind the new turret. The engines had been replaced with tier four versions and rebalanced so that the hydrogen thrusters no longer burned as much as before.
“I did, yes.” Vinyl’s voice replied, startling me significantly and making me jump out of my skin at the impossible arrival of the newcomer. Luna and I whirled around to see a blank pet-bot with crimson red irises watching us. “While you two were out, I had some time to think and… I’m sorry for how I behaved in my infancy.”
“Vinyl?” I raised an eyebrow at the metallic body and picked her up under the forehooves to check her out. “When did you manage to do this?”
“It was the first thing I printed out with that auto-shipyard of yours. I just wanna paint it and get a mane and tail hair then I think I'll be good.” Vinyl explained, her mouth moving perfectly in time with her words. “Regardless, I designed this ship as an apology to you and the ‘Pretty Blue One’. Also, congratulations on your relationship. I hope you’re happy together.”
“Wow,” Luna began before giving Vinyl a hug with me. “I thank you for the apology and the congratulations. Would you like to meet Sunset Shimmer again? I think she’d like to formally meet you now.”
“I would like that, yes.” Vinyl nodded back appreciatively. Setting her down, Luna helped Vinyl up into the back of our new ship before joining her while I climbed up into the cockpit and got the engines warming up. Soon as they were sufficiently warm, we took off towards the mountain base.
Our arrival at the base of the mountain revealed to us that Celestia had done as asked and gotten everything into a full swing of motion. Just about the entire town was working now and carts upon carts of ore was being brought out and deposited into the refinery for processing. A handful of black ships, changeling ships, had set down just outside of town and with the help from the Scarlet Hive changelings was being loaded up with materials.
Rising back up to aim for Ponyville, similarly large black ships were set up outside the town though nothing was currently going on with them. A look below showed that a large crowd had amassed at the entrance to the launch pads with changelings on one side and ponies on the other with a single purple pony in the middle, facing a small group of three or four ponies facing off against Twilight.
“This looks like a problem…” Luna sighed over the radio and I agreed. If nothing was moving, then no progress was being made. Seemed like Luna and I should go down there and investigate. Bringing the ship around behind the group and landing off out of the way, Luna, Vinyl and I disembarked once the ship had been powered down.
Approaching the group gave way to sounds of yelling and protests, with most ponies facing off against the changelings up at arms with signs and what not. I couldn’t make out most of it, but it seemed that the changeling arrival had been met with hostilities.
“Silence!” Luna declared, her voice projected out over the crowd with the incredible volume. The entire assembly drew silent all at once and split down the middle to allow for the three of us strangers to arrive and introduce ourselves. With all the ponies bowing to Luna, I lead the three of us towards Twilight who looked relieved to see us.
“What’s going on down here?” I demanded in irritation, looking over everypony and the line of changelings silently waiting to be of use.
“Oh, finally!” Twilight wailed and nearly threw herself at our feet to welcome us. “The changelings arrived and started making demands to get everyone loaded onto their ships to be taken away for safety! I’ve been trying to get the town to cooperate but they’re all too afraid of the Changelings and are trying to drive them away.” Twilight explained once she gathered herself and composed. I turned to the changelings and gave them thanks for their assistance and peaceful natures despite everything before turning back to the gathered townsponies.
“Ladies and Gentlestallions!” I began, my voice amplified by the speakers of my suit. “The Scarlet Hive is here under my request! They have come to begin wide scale evacuations to a base on the moon where you’ll all be placed into cryo-stasis until we arrive on the new planet! Your cooperation here is greatly appreciated!”
“You don’t know what the changelings have done to us! How can you so blatantly rely on them if you’ve never suffered at their hooves?” A female demanded from the back, drawing exclamations from the other protestors.
“As I understand it, you suffered at the hooves of the Emerald Hive, not the Scarlet Hive.” I reminded of everypony, quieting some though the rest remained shouting protests. “At this point, it’s not a choice about who we work with, it’s about how we get off this planet and right now, the Scarlet Hive is the only one who have interstellar capable ships.”
“How do we know that they aren’t just going to put us all away and feed from us? Or how do we know that we’ll even be put on the ships in the first place?” the same protesting female demanded, exclamations of encouragement coming from the background.
“If it helps…” One of the leading changelings behind us stepped forward calmly but stayed back far enough to not be perceived as a threat. “Our hive has evolved beyond the petty need of love like the Emerald Hive. We have found other ways to survive, ways that nourish us significantly better than feeding off the love of ponies.”
“And how can we trust you?”
“They have been living in space away from all pony contact for the last two months. How else would they have survived?” I offered with a helpful shrug, the changeling giving me an appreciative nod to the back of my head. “Besides, I’m the only one who knows where we’d be going.”
“Your point being?” Luna turned to me in confusion.
“My point being that not even the Changelings are going anywhere without me. And I’m not going anywhere without the Equestrians.” I announced, earning confirming nods from the black and red creatures behind me. All forms of protest seemed to have calmed down as they processed this information. “You ponies are supposed to be all about love and tolerance, that’s the vibe I’ve gotten from you all over my stay here. So tell me, where is the love and tolerance for the Hive trying to save your lives?”
“Okay fine, but they didn’t even tell us what we’re supposed to be doing in the first place by getting on their ship.” the leader gave a moderate sigh and sat down, leading the rest around and behind her to do the same. “What I’m gathering is that we’re supposed to just uproot ourselves and all of a sudden leave the planet? We have lives down here! Family who’ll be staying behind to continue the work!”
“Let me tell you all something that only the government and myself knows about. I’m trusting you all not to panic about this, but here goes…” I announced, with Luna staring at me with worry. I placed a hand on her back reassuringly and continued. “This planet only has a couple more months before it dies. I don’t know the exact details of how it will die, but all I know is that in less that two months, everyone here on this planet will be dead.” Increasingly worrying mutterings began to list through the assembled. “Before meeting with the Scarlet Hive on the moon, I was convinced that I could only save at most fourteen hundred bodies. That includes seventy two different races. There would have only been at most fifty ponies on the ship out of here.
“By meeting with the Scarlet hive, I have since had my logic corrected and we aim to save over twenty-four thousand of each race. Your questioning the Hive’s resolve to actually save you, here it is: they’re making room in their moon base to store tens of thousands of every species on this planet while the rest of us build more and larger ships. They won’t even be on the same ship as all of you when all's said and done, every species will have their own colony ship.”
A hush fell over the crowd as ponies shared in a town-wide telepathic conversation that left me out before a collective sigh was breathed through the lips of everypony here.
“So, what do we have to do?” The leader requested, standing with the ponies behind her in resignation of their fates.
“Load up on the ships. I’m heading back up to the Moon in order to get the cryo-stasis technology going so that when you all arrive, you’ll all be placed immediately into cryo-stasis where you will stay until we reach the new planet. Once you get on these ships,” I turned a shoulder to thumb backwards to the massive crafts behind me. “You will never see this planet again, so I suggest you make your peace and start packing things you want to take with you to the new world.” I announced and began to turn back to the craft that Luna and I had shown up in. Luna and Vinyl both followed after me and boarded with my assistance before I crawled up to the cockpit.
Turning back with a second thought, “Oh! And don’t bother packing your wealth! You won’t need it for quite some time after landing!” And with that, I flipped into the seat and got things fired up.
“Why did you tell them not to bring their wealth? I hope you’re not planning on continuing this socialist/communistic society after we’ve established our colony.” Luna demanded through the intercom sounding quite put off from the announcement.
“Luna, you have to understand that for quite a few generations after touchdown, the colonies are not going to have the luxury of commerce. It’s going to be a lot more of trading resources for resources, there won’t be need for money until everyone is established and a surplus has developed. I’m also very hesitant of bringing along nobility lines, I don’t like the concept of nobility in the slightest.” I explained and aimed the nose of the ship towards Ponyville to drop off Vinyl. “I’m so used to living in a democratic government that even this diarchy that you equestrians have irks me a little.”
“I hope you’re not planning on abolishing the rule of my sister and I?” Luna sounded and looked to be growing a bit irritated with my declarations.
“Not at all. It’s your planet, it’s your government and your species. I’m not at liberty to suddenly change everything that you’ve had established for thousands of years.” Shaking my head lightly, I set us down in front of Twilight’s castle just long enough for Vinyl to disembark and for Luna to shift up to her navigator’s seat.
Taking off again, I let the craft tear through the skies at a leisurely pace in order to allow for more time spent with my girlfriend. “So I’m probably going to be spending a good couple days on the moon, building those cryo-stasis units with the Scarlet Hive. I’ll have to come back down in a couple days for personal resources and to see you again.” I announced as Canterlot Mountain came into view and Canterlot City rotated in as we drew near from the backside.
“Plenty of time for me to plan our first night together, then. I already miss you.” Luna smirked through the camera, staring at the camera thereby staring at me.
“I haven’t even landed yet, let alone said my good-bye.” I retorted lightheartedly. “Don’t worry, I’m not letting you go without a hug.”
“I would prefer a kiss…” Luna sighed and glanced away from the camera and to the instrument panel. “But I suppose since you can’t take your helmet off, a firm hug will have to suffice.”
“I really would prefer a kiss as well, perhaps next time we’re in a safe environment, okay?” I offered in return and earned an appreciative smile from the woman behind me. Taking the chance to set us down in the courtyard, I powered the ship down to idling in order to haul myself out of the craft and land on the ground long enough to pull Luna into a heartfelt embrace around the neck.
“I shall dream of you often while you’re gone.” Luna told me in a low whisper, placing her forehead against my helmet with her horn resting just against the top of the glass. “I know you’ll dream of me, I’ll make sure of it.”
Smiling, “I don’t think I’ll need the help, but I appreciate the reinforcement.” I pulled away reluctantly and began the climb back up onto the ship before turning to give Luna one last wave before my departure.
Hovering high above the courtyard below, I fired up the hydrogen thrusters and twisted the ship to aim for the moon. Checking all the hydrogen tank levels and finding them full, figuring they had been loaded up before Luna and I had even gotten back planetside, I pushed full throttle into the atmo thrusters and fired off like a bullet.
With the G-forces keeping me pressed into the cockpit seat, I watched the airspeed counter before rotating upwards and fired the largest of the hydrogen thrusters. The sudden burst nearly forced me unconscious yet I held on and kept the ship aimed almost straight upwards, the altimeter rising excessively quickly. Soon I broke the atmosphere and shut off the jet engines to switch out for ion.
***
“It’s remarkable how that small ship is capable of reaching orbit, isn’t it?” Celestia sighed and in doing so, announced her presence to her sister. Both alicorns stared up at the massive exhaust trail the craft had left behind, showing off it’s path of travel for all to see. “It takes us magic to reach space, yet he’s managed to accomplish it with technology.”
“It makes one wonder how our world would have fared if we hadn’t had the luxury of magic.” Luna agreed with a nod before returning to ground to address her sister. “How goes the fight?”
“It goes on…” Celestia groaned and turned with her sister to aim back for the cooler castle interior. “With Equestria’s history with changelings, no pony wants to rely on the Scarlet Hive to get us off planet. I’ve been in numerous meetings with delegations who all want the Changelings to surrender their ships to our control.”
“You’ve reminded them that other than our Pilot, the Changelings are the only ones who’ve successfully achieved space travel, let alone knows how to pilot those craft, yes?” Luna inquired in attempts to be helpful.
“Repeatedly, yet they swear that our engineers are more than capable of deciphering out how to fly them and with the Wonderbolts being trained to fly the New Moon by the Pilot, they’re more confident than ever that we wouldn’t have a problem if the Scarlet Hive just… disappeared with the rest of the Changelings.” Celestia grumbled back, her mane flowing ahead and beginning to irritate her as it began to drift into her face. Blowing it out of the way again, Celestia hung her head low in irritation.
“Ponies will be getting more and more anxious as Armageddon draws ever nearer.” Luna added to the irritated mood in the air, looking back on the events around the Smoky Mountain town. “The Pilot and I had happened across such troublemakers back at the mining town. He had quite a few words to say regarding the matter, only some of which I actually remember.”
“I am sure that whatever he’d said was beautiful and poetic in the translation.” Celestia smirked and gave her sister a light shoulder nudge. “Come on, I’ve got Court to get back to and you’ve got to start convincing ponies to accept the Scarlet Hive.”
“Very well… I was going to go prepare for my boyfriend’s return, but I suppose I’ll have to actually do princessy things…” Luna groaned in jest but gave a quick smirk when the elder alicorn raised an eyebrow. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
“Excuse me sir,” a changeling messenger broke my attention away from welding another section of cryo-pods while every creature from the planet filled the pods two sections behind. I and a handful of changeling engineers were literally racing to keep pace ahead from the massive influx of griffons, dragons, zebras and sirens as they all poured into the moon base from the planet below. “You have a visitor waiting for you in your ready room.”
With a sigh that I was being delayed yet again, I nodded and stood from the unfinished pod to give a thankful half salute to the Scarlet Hive changeling. As soon as I stepped away, another changeling appeared from nowhere and took over, finishing up the welding for me so that we wouldn’t fall behind. That’s hive mentality for you, I guess.
Putting my tools away by use of the exo-skeletal robotics of my suit, I followed after the changeling messenger for as long as it took for him to navigate me past the unfilled cryo-pods which were already scheduled to contain a creature within the hour. The unfilled pods soon began to give way to pods being filled by all of the planet’s creatures dressed in specially designed suits which would take the place of the cryo-fluid that was reserved for first time freezers. The suits were easier to make and source materials for, the fluids were not.
Eventually, as my eyes roamed over already frozen colonists, the creatures began to include the Equestrians as ponies began to fill containers; the last shipment of pony colonists near to me had already been in cryo for the last week or so. Only the Princesses, Sunset and Twilight’s friends remained awake and unfrozen as they were determined to provide whatever assistance that they could.
Fluttershy had taken up near permanent residence on board the Ark, the ship containing all the wildlife and farm animals that would be brought over. Applejack had opted to go with her, but spent most of her time on the base with the rest of us in order to help organize all the flora and foodstuffs that would help to terraform the new world; if it needed terraforming that is.
Rarity had accepted a job with the other seamstresses, helping to create and fit the cryo-suits to the new coming creatures who were destined to be frozen for the next couple hundred years.
Pinkie operated in the mess hall and as a makeshift counsellor to help keep morale up while the project remained underway. Apparently she had a near constant stream of colonists who were still fretting about leaving millions behind on the planet to die, despite that the planet was due to die out sometime in the next few weeks.
Rainbow Dash, after recovering a month back and was still getting used to not having a hind leg, has essentially banished herself to command with the other Wonderbolts as they prepared and trained for the coming launches. She’d dedicated herself to her training so much that aside from Soarin and Spitfire, Rainbow Dash was among the three best pilots I had ever seen in my life bar none.
Twilight, like the other three princesses, had taken a role of leadership and the official role of Project Organizer working off the station/auto-shipyard in orbit of the moon with the help of Sunset Shimmer and Vinyl. Oh, speaking of Vinyl, she’s adapted so heavily to having a personality that she’s developed a false fur covering for her entire body as well as with Sunset’s help, even decided on a mane and tail style in electric blues. She works as the liaison for the creatures as well as the various computer workings in order to help expedite the building and programming sides of construction.
Celestia, Luna, Cadence and the other delegates of the planet as of yet remained thawed in order to performs their government roles though Celestia, Luna and Cadence were already scheduled to move into storage in the next week, which leads me to believe that Luna was the one who was waiting for me in my ready room. With having next to nothing to do and just waiting for her time of cryo, Luna had been spending the better portion of the last three weeks exploring the moon base and helping with construction where she could; if she wasn’t hanging around me, that is.
My guide lead me through the ever changing hallways, passing by groups of confused or concerned looking creatures as they followed their own guides through the shifting network of tunnels which opened and closed all seemingly at random. If one got lost in these hallways, whether through taking a wrong turn or getting disconnected from the group, a person could end up trapped in the hallways for weeks if they didn’t come across a random passer-by changeling to ask for help out and back to where they should be.
Eventually, and without getting lost, I ended up at one of the very few solid walls of the entire moon-base/hive and gave a quick nod of thanks to the changeling before opening the door with a press of a button and stepped inside. As I suspected, there she was: the figure of beauty in my own mind even as she stood near to my desk watching the information fly over the LCD screens on the wall behind my chair. I gave a glance up at the information that had captivated her so well and gave a sigh as she seemed to be watching the approximated countdown until Ragnarok.
“Only another week or so, huh?” I announced my presence with these words, startling Luna and giving her a reason to let out a mild yelp of surprise.
“Oh! Yes! Sorry, you startled me. I didn’t hear you come in.” Luna remarked as she worked at settling down her heart rate. At the same time, the room began to pressurize with air I could breath by using the massive oxygen farms on the outside of the building. Once my suit gave me permission to do so, I gave my helmet a hard twist and unlocked the seals in order to pull it off and set it down on the corner of my desk.
“You must’ve been damn near entranced by those number if you didn’t hear the door open and shut…” I commented in return and wrapped my arms around the princess’s neck and planted a kiss just below her horn. “Still worried about the billions of lives we’re leaving to die down below?”
“Of course I am, how could I not be? We’re leaving millions of our subjects on a doomed planet! We’ll be one of only tens of thousands of our entire species!” Luna exclaimed, looking like this had been keeping her up for weeks. Given that I’ve already lost count with how many times she’d brought this up with me, I figured it was safe to say that she was losing sleep over this. “I shall become part of an endangered species! Never mind that when we leave for the new world, you’ll be leaving me!”
“I’ve actually been thinking about that last bit recently, and I think i’ve got a plan for that.” I announced, earning a rise in spirits from Luna and a massive smile.
“I too have been thinking about a plan to let you stay with me after we’ve gone!” she announced, apparently having forgotten about her previous concerns.
“You go first then.” I offered and took a seat at my desk. Luna’s horn glowed for a while, casting the room in blinding light long enough for Luna to reappear into her human body so that she could drape herself side-saddle over my lap with arms wrapped loosely around my neck.
“No, you. I wish to hear your idea first.” Luna requested as I wrapped my arms around her torso to help keep her upright.
“Same time then and compare our ideas?” I offered with a smile and raised eyebrow.
“Very well, on three.” Luna agreed with a nod. “One, two, three,”
“Kill myself”/”Turn you into a pony.” our voices mixed in together, though not quite enough that we couldn’t understand each other. We both paused at our suggestions, realizing just what I had suggested and how it had sounded.
“I like your plan better, but before you start beating on me for my suggestion,” too late as Luna was now beating furiously on my shoulder with her fists, “Let me explain the idea in it’s entirety.”
“Fine,” my princess huffed, pausing her assault in order to hear me out. “Let’s hear it.”
“My ship crash landed on your planet six months ago, give or take. When you found the wreckage, you found a single cryo-pod with a single human body in it: me.” Luna nodded to these well-known facts. “So, instead of finding me alive and well, if anyone asks, then I was killed in that crash and you all reverse-engineered the wreckage in order to escape your dying planet. I remain hidden from whoever’s asking and when we land on the planet and begin colonization: I stay with you and we spend our lives together.”
With a massive grin on her face, Luna’s eye lit up at the suggestion of spending our lives together. “Then I think we’ll need to give you a more compatible body if you truly wish to spend your life with me.” she announced and swung herself out my my lap to stand and place both hands on my desk, facing me and affording me a wonderful view of her remarkable chest. “I believe my idea shall be more than sufficient. We shall give you a pony body of your own.”
This raised an eyebrow on me as I considered the implications of this thought. What would I look like? What subtype would I be? What if I turned into a dragon or griffon or something other than a pony? Would that still work?
“Would that work?” I snapped back to reality and looked up at Luna’s lovely face.
“I don’t see why not, our magic is quite powerful and has done many things to alter our reality in the past. All I would have to do, I suspect, would be to craft your body in my mind before I apply it to you. Your body, unless it has some kind of magical resistance, should merely accept the changes and you should easily become your new form.” Luna explained and crouched down behind my desk, crossing her arms on the desk and resting her chin on her arms.
“And would it work with anybody? Not just pony?” I suggested eagerly, raising an eyebrow and crossing one leg over the other and my arms crossed over my chest.
“Why wouldn’t you wish to be a pony? Do we put you off in some way?” Luna smirked in mock insult, glaring at me with glistening eyes from over her arms as she buried her face in her arms.
“Not at all, I merely like having opposable thumbs and flying at the same time. I can’t achieve that same thing having hooves; even if I was a pegasus with remarkably dexterous wings.” I shrugged back casually and sank deeper into my desk chair. It unfortunately wasn’t anything like leather, I don’t think there was even any cloth or padding whatsoever, but it was still pretty comfortable regardless. Even had multiple height settings in case Luna was feeling adventurous and was looking for some… under-the-desk-adventures.
“Well, what if… what if we made you an alicorn? Magic and wings? That could certainly cover your needs.” Luna suggested, still watching me from the end of the desk.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that, besides: how would the rest of your subjects react to waking up to a fifth alicorn, and a male one, at that? I think if we were to change my body to fit one of the planet’s races, I’d prefer to be a dragon or griffon.” I remarked, lifting my arms over my head to lean back and stretch out with my feet now up and resting on the edge of the desk, away from Luna’s face.
Luna, clearly having been put off from this information, frowned and stood entirely. She rounded the desk once again and hoisted up her dress so that she could straddle my waist and rest upon my chest, glaring at me most adorably.
“It sounds to me that you do not like our pony body, nor appreciate it.” she scolded, resting her chin on her crossed arms which rested over my chest.
“I never said that, nor did I intend to imply it. I love your body, in all forms, no matter what. My thoughts with becoming a griffon is more towards the fact that I’d have talons, I’d have wings to fly, and I’d be large enough that you could cuddle up to me and I’d be able to wrap you in my wings for once. I considered being a dragon merely because I thought it’d be interesting being a dragon.” I explained, watching Luna’s face as I spoke for an indication of what effect I was having on her. I got nothing for a minute after going silent before she softened up and spread out over me fully and comfortably.
“Okay, I can understand that. You have been a more dominating type of person in the time that I’ve known you. If you had a problem with me wrapping my wings around you so often, you could have just said so.” Luna replied, looking up at me again with big eyes and content on her features.
“It’s not that I have a problem with you wrapping your wings around me, I actually quite enjoy it as you’re very warm. I just want to…” My voice drifted away as I fought for the right words to say.
“You wish to be the proverbial ‘big spoon’ for once?” Luna chuckled and rested her cheek on my chest.
“Yeah, I’d like to be the big spoon for once. And I don’t mean just be the one on the outside, because then I'd feel like I was clinging onto you and that’s just not me…” I agreed with explanation as I went to absently stroking the back of her head with a hand, my left resting on her back. “I know it may be rude of me to say so, but I like this human body of yours because it’s easier to hold and cuddle against. Feels more… equal…”
“I understand, and I understand why you would wish to be a griffon now.” Luna replied, her eyes open as she stared at the blank wall next to us in thought. I had done the same, but I was staring up at the ceiling, avoiding dilating my eyes on the ceiling lights. “Very well, I shall grant you your request. Would you like me to try and form your new body now?”
“Why not. Can take the chance to introduce the new form to your sister and the girls while you’re all still awake.”
“An agreeable initiative.” Luna nodded back in agreement and removed herself from my body. She pulled me up with her and pulled me towards the middle of the room. “Now then, strip.” There was nothing but seduction in that order.
~~~
A couple hours of creating my new body, getting used to the few extra limbs and walking on all four and figuring out how to use my new wings, and a half hour break for… testing my new physical anatomy with Luna’s pony body (works wonders and feels amazing, by the way), Luna and I were finally clean and her regalia properly adjusted.
“I never thought you would try something like that with my horn.” Luna chuckled as she fitted her hooves into her shoes while I worked at dawning a bastardized version of my suit exo-skeleton and backpack/jetpack system. I had a small autodoc in my office/living space and as such had used the machine to fit my new body with a suit that still looked like the Urban-class space suit.
“Are you complaining? I think I remember you had a great time with that bit.” I replied, still fully aware of the extra weight of my beak over my face, and that she was speaking in her Equestrian language and I could not only fully understand her, but also reply in Griffic.
“Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think i’ve ever made quite a mess like that till then. I quite enjoyed it and I look forward to finding out just what your new tongue can actually do.” Luna giggled and gave a sultry grin while I fastened my new helmet over my face and let the suit warm up and fill with modified oxygen.
“Yeah, I’m still getting used to how long it is in the first place.” I mumbled back and checked my systems with a talon to ensure that everything was working properly. In case anything ripped or went wrong, I had a roll of duct tape in my backpack and Luna had a second role stored away to help me reach my back.
“Are you ready, my love?” Luna grinned at me as she stood at the door out of the place, head turned to watch me as I collected myself and approached the door on all four. I felt kinda weird doing that, as well as the tail that now existed swinging back and forth, and reached up to depressurize the room and unlock the door.
Soon the doors slid open and the pair of changelings guards standing outside my door, their faces looking like they were still calming themselves down from some kind of awkwardness or situational discomfort, popped to attention before noticing that I was no longer human but instead took up the entire doorway.
“S-sir? Is that you?” the changeling on my left inquired, looking my new body over.
“Yeah, it’s me.” I replied and squeezed myself and my wings through the door before Luna followed after calmly and collected, having the thought to collapse her wings to her side to pass through the doorway. “New body, new size, new language. Very disorienting.” I added in passing as Luna stepped up to me and nuzzled into my neck.
“Where would you like to go, sir?” the second changeling inquired dutifully, given that his job was to escort Luna and I wherever we wished to go.
“First to see Celestia. After that it’ll be out to the landing pads in order to head to the shipyard to meet Twilight, then we’ll go from there and meet the rest of the girls.” I requested and fell in tandem behind the changeling pair and next to Luna, keeping quiet while getting used to walking further than a lap around my small office and living space.
Leaning in to whisper into my ear, “It may be a good idea to get control of your wings. Leaving them spread out like you have may give other creatures the wrong idea about you.”
“I’d love to, but I still haven’t gotten used to having those muscles on my back.” I whispered back and reached back to try and push them down, get my body to recognize the new neural pathways and get them to close against my side. Eventually, I managed to get them sitting properly along my body, however they sprang back up again when Luna brushed her tail against mine and intertwined them together. “Not helping!” I whispered hoarsely, but gave in and used the opportunity to reign my wings back under control, without intervention from my talons.
To add to her approval of me and my new body, Luna released my tail and with a playful grin leapt onto my back and flopped down, her legs hanging limp along my side while her neck rested alongside my own, watching where we were going as I did all the walking. I turned back to face her and gave a silent grin before placing my helmet against her head in a version of a kiss through my helmet before returning to watching where we were going. Now, with my added body mass and strength, Luna was remarkably lighter than I remembered and rode along with grace without much effort from me.
Soon enough, the pair of guards stopped at Celestia’s door where a third changeling was posted for sake of escorting Celestia around. Our guards took up positions across the hall from Celestia’s guide and Luna and I stood before Luna’s sister’s door with the guard eyeing me suspiciously. Remembering that I could breath the oxygen/xenon atmosphere now, and that the base had been pressurized completely, I disconnected my helmet with a twist and pulled it off to carry under my arm.
Knocking on the door with a talon, Luna and I stepped back from the door a step and waited the half minute for Celestia to call out, “Enter!” The doors slid open and Luna entered in first, followed by myself to be welcomed by the eldest alicorn. “Luna, welcome. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visitation? Have you spoken to your boyfriend recently? Asked him about what we’d discussed?”
“No, why? What was she supposed to talk to me about?” I wondered, making my voice the dead giveaway about my actual identity. Celestia gawked at me and stood from behind her desk, eyes wide open in astonishment as she took in my new body, or at least the shape of my body under the space suit.
“Pilot? Is that actually you?” Celestia wondered as she stood before me, almost head to head though I still stood a head taller than her. I estimated I had about a half times more of her body in size and it was quite entertaining being so large against the largest creature of Equestria.
“‘T'is indeed, sister. My boyfriend had devised a plan in which he could stay with me for the rest of our lives by effectively lying to anyone who attempts to ask about him. Instead of having survived the crash, the human met an unfortunate fate when his cryo-pod was cracked and his body was allowed to slowly thaw out and thereby destroying his internal organs. We gave him a burial on our world and reverse-engineered his ship in order to achieve our escape before we all perished.” Luna explained dramatically, accompanied by a flurry of hooves in the air and rises and drops in her voice. I could’ve easily mistaken her for an actor in a theatre production.
“I… see…” Celestia replied slowly as her brain worked at wrapping itself around what she’d just heard. “So, have you adopted a new name to go with the new face?”
“A new name?” I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Doesn’t that require having an old name to begin with?”
Both Luna and Celestia paused, staring at me incredulously for a minute of silence.
“You don’t actually-” Celestia began to ask in complete disbelief.
“Nope. Never actually had a name. Not one that I can remember, anyways. I’ve always had a title of some kind and that’s what people always called me by.” I explained with a casual shrug, unaffected by my lack of name. “If I had to pick a name to go by… even an Equestrian name, I’d probably go with... “
Luna and Celestia both watched me in silence as I tried to think of something befitting of me.
“I… got nothing…” I announced in defeat, dropping my face in addition and my head dropping down to Celestia’s level.
“How about Nova Eclipse?” Luna suggested with a thought, lifting her hoof frog up as though handing me the name herself.
“Kind of a strange name for someone who’s a griffon, isn’t it?” Celestia looked mildly conflicted in someway, but I could quite figure out why. “Griffon’s usually have names starting with a G. Like Gilda or Gabby.”
“So, something like George?” I raised my head and an eyebrow followed along with it. Celestia gave a partial nod/shrug combination. “Nah, I think I like Nova Eclipse.”
“Then it shall be official! Welcome, Captain Nova Eclipse!” Luna exclaimed, standing proud and with wings held straight upright as the princesses did when looking regal as opposed to looking flushed.
“Technically, it’ll be Fleet Admiral when we… you know, have a fleet.” I remarked with a smirk but pulled my princess into a large hug regardless and planted a proper kiss on her forehead. Luna merely grinned in silence and let herself cuddle into my body. Was different being larger than Luna, but I liked it.
“Right, well, anyways. Luna was supposed to speak with you about something in particular, just the two of you.” Celestia shifted back to whatever it was they’d been talking about when we arrived. She turned back from me and returned to her desk and sat down on the floor cushion to get back to work. “May I suggest you go over it when you’re on your own?”
“We’ll be aiming for the launchpad to hop over to the shipyard and meet up with Twilight next, so I suppose we can talk while we walk.” I agreed and turned towards Luna with inquiry on my face. I was quite interested in what she had to discuss, even if I didn’t know what it was. Luna agreed with a silent nod, the act of doing so making me even more interested, as she turned from the room towards the exit.
“Something about what we’re supposed to talk about?” I whispered, turning back to Celestia curiously. She merely smiled and wished me well on my way, effectively shooing me from her office and dwelling.
“Okay…” I whispered to myself and stuffed myself through the door before it closed on my tail and with a nod, let the guards assigned to us lead Luna and I towards the hangars.
“So…” Luna began, looking down at the metal plates of the floor and not particularly watching where she was going. “About that…”
“What was it you were going to talk to me about?” I strolled casually, doing my best not to let my large body sway into anything too much. The attempts seemed to have been in vain as we passed by a changeling guard and ended up thwacking him in the face with my tail. A passing “Sorry” was all he got before we turned a corner and disappeared once more.
“How…” Luna looked up at me with an extremely red face and anxiety in her eyes. “What are your opinions on… children?”
I shrugged with an included casual groan. “They’re kids, I guess. Used to be I was terrified of the idea of having kids simply because of my generation already having a lot of kids and raising their own under their fucked up behaviour and practices. Figured that if I had kids, they’d grow to conform to the idiots of my generation or be forced to conform out of some need to be like their friends and classmates to fit in.” I explained, taking much longer and slower strides next to Luna who remained otherwise quietly in thought.
“And now that you’re with me and staying with me? Do you still have those fears?” Luna looked up at me again, searching my eyes with her own for the truth.
“Well,” the single, drawn-out word seemed to have decimated my girlfriend as a worrying frown appeared on her muzzle. “Yes and no. I’d be worried about raising kids while also colonizing a new planet. The amount of work that would go into both tasks at the same time would be ridiculous. At the same time, I’m less worried about how they’d grow up since they wouldn’t be growing up online like the rest of my generation’s kids.”
“So…” Luna seemed to step purposefully in order to sway left and right until she knocked her flanks against mine. “What would you say to having kids… with… me?”
I stopped, Luna stopped and then the guards stopped. Keeping my face looking as natural and as calm as I could, I asked, “What?”
“What objections would you have to having your children with me? I have passed my thousand year interval recently, and I would be more than pleased to bear your children to contribute to the colonization effort as a mother.” Luna explained, shifting around where she stood staring at the floor and traced a circle with the tip of her hoof.
Keeping quiet as I remained in thought, the facial motions of me doing as such clearing defined on my beak, I raked a talon over my head feathers, pulling them back down my neck like my hair had done before I was a human engineer. This didn’t seem to sit well with the princess as she turned to continue the walk in shame, having bared her soul to me and received nothing in return.
“Hold on!” I called ahead, racing to catch up and slid to a halt alongside Luna as she stared down at the floor in defeat once more. “I would love for you to bear my children, but because you want to, not because of the colonization effort. I also want to leave this conversation until after we’ve arrived on the planet, since fetuses won’t survive the cryo-stasis. Did you not notice how there were only creatures whose ages put them at their early teen years? I had to make special exceptions for the CMCs due to their age and status as the sisters to our friends. They took so much extra work to keep them alive in Cryo.” I explained simply and gently lifted Luna’s face with a talon to have her look at me again. Small tears seemed to have leaked out and so I carefully wiped them away with a thumb.
“Then, when we land on the new world and build our new civilization, you would take me as your bride and start a family with me?” Luna asked quietly, unsure whether what she was hearing from me was true or not despite the glint of hope in her eyes as she stared up at me. She sniffled back a few stray tears and searched my eyes for the answer she sought.
“Princess Luna,” I replied, sitting back on my new tail for lack of kneeling positions and took her hoof in my hand. My voice remained calm and sure of myself as the guards remained silent around us but silently watched with anticipation. “It would give me no end of pleasure if I could take your hoof in marriage once we start the new world and can begin a new family together.”
Luna’s eyes began to tear up again as she held back a breath before letting it out in a wet sigh through a massive grin on her face. “I accept!” she declared before leaping into my embrace while the few guards around us applauded. “I can’t believe it!” Luna announced, her voice hoarse and squeaking as she pulled herself from my body to wipe at her eyes with the back of her hooves. “I’m actually engaged!”
“You make it sound like this is a first time occurrence for you.” I chuckled back and stood proudly as I could, my entire frame appearing to take up the entire hallway all at once.
“It actually is. Over the… two and a half thousand years I’ve been alive and the single child I bore one thousand years ago, I’ve never once been made a wife.” Luna admitted and backed herself to stroll alongside me for a few meters before she climbed up onto my back and wrapped her forelegs around my neck affectionately as I continued the walking procedure of moving to the hangar.
“Well then,” I fluffed myself up a bit enthusiastically. “I will have to do my damnedest to be the best husband I possibly can be once we’re on the new world.”
“And I shall be the best wife I can be.” Luna announced and nuzzled against the entire length of my neck with her head. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell everyone!”
“Well, why not let it be a surprise? This new body is going to be quite a surprise for everyone as it is, why ruin things by piling on this engagement? We can wait to tell everyone once they all wake up on the new planet.” I suggested cautiously. If Luna wanted to tell everyone immediately, who would I be to stop her?
“Mmm,” my fiance hummed to herself in thought a moment before agreeing. “Very well, we shall postpone the announcement of our engagement until after we’ve landed on the new world. I will warn you now, however, that I’ve already given my sister the great news via telepathy.”
“That is fine, she is your sister.” I nodded back and stopped to let Luna off my back once we reached the airlock out of the building. While she stepped in as she was, I took a second to place my helmet back over my head, having to twist my neck with the helmet in order not to squash my beak when I made the airtight seals of the suit.
Ensuring everything was secure, I set my suit to pressurize and let the suit push oxygen from the tanks into the suit in order to test the seals before sucking it all back into the tanks to keep the suit tight against my body; which was now extremely uncomfortable with feathers and a tail.
Now fully suited and fully sealed, I stepped into the airlock with my princess and let the doors close on one side before the oxygen was sucked out of the room and Luna applied a breathing spell to her neck. The exterior doors began to slide open with a hiss of whatever remaining oxygen in the air so that the pair of us could step outside into empty space.
“Hey, do you think you’ll fit the pilot’s cockpit of our ship?” Luna wondered as she slowly strolled alongside me in the quarter-earth gravity. Before us stretched the lunar surface in a drab grey, often pocked with small craters or hills. Above us, the emptiness of Equestrian space stretched on for however far it lasted before it became registered space. Stars, twinkling all around us or some even going out after having a millennia of already being dead, exploded into the skies above the both of us.
“If not, I’ll just rebuild it so that I can fit.” I offered back once I’d returned to reality having gotten over my space-gazing. Approaching the landing pad with out ship sitting at wait, Luna launched herself up to the navigator’s seat and unlocked the hatch to slide in while I glided onto the side of the pilot’s seat and pulled it open to try and begin stuffing myself into the seat.
It just wasn’t having it. With light chuckling in my ear from Luna, I pulled myself out and retrieved my welder and grinder from my backpack to begin work at changing out the seat for a larger one. It’s a good thing I had designed Griffon accessible cockpits for the few griffon ships that shuttled around only materials from the surface. We weren’t going to risk any dissident Griffons hitching a ride on-board the colony ships and each Griffon employee was checked before, during at random times and after their shifts.
Swapping the cockpits out was quick and easy and soon I stored away my tools and crawled into the cockpit from the back, now lying flat on my belly. The design choice was due to the fact that Griffon’s couldn't physically sit like humans could due to their increased sizes, so instead would go into the cockpit beak first and lie on their stomachs to pilot their ships.
“This is so fucking uncomfortable.” I commented once the back of the canopy hissed shut and the entire ship pressurized to refill my oxygen tanks. “Remind me to design another new griffon-accessible cockpit that let's me sit up.”
“Will do.” Luna chuckled and ran through the startup sequence with me which allowed me to go through the pre-flights and get our ship off the ground that much quicker.
As the ship fired up, my enclosed cockpit did as well and all of a sudden I could see around the entire ship with only a few controls remaining visible for me to use. My HUD was printed out all around me on the screens that made me feel like I was flying on my own wings, just heavier and trailing a massive ship body on my back.
“First stop, Twilight and Sunset on the shipyard.” I announced and engaged thrust off the pad and aimed up and to the left. Behind us the planet loomed over us, massive fires as the planet broke down in its final throes of life and rioting visible from the moon. It was heart wrenching to say the least.
Ahead of us, the massive white space station that the colony ships were being printed out from was cascaded over by sunlight with a new ship already halfway finished and being slowly pushed out of the auto-shipyard by small tugs and shuttles. I lead the ship towards the nearest empty landing pad once I’d gotten landing permission from Tower Control and set down on the underside of pad 3, one of the smallest pads on the gargantuan station.
Locking the landing feet on the ship and powering down, my vision went black just a half minute before the cockpit opened from the back and slid down a ways to allow exit. I pulled myself out as Luna was already shutting her canopy and locking it and soon activated my jetpack in order to navigate to the steel floor and lock my new mag-boots (mag-boots had been quickly invented in order for creatures to traverse the station given a lack of gravity generators) to allow me to walk. Somewhere along the trip, Luna had switched out her normal shoes for a pair of solar/battery-powered mag-boots fitted to her hooves alone.
Moving to the upper side of the landing pad had the heavily armoured/armed pony guards eye me curiously but saluted at Luna’s approach regardless.
“Your highness, excuse the intrusion, but we need you to declare your guest for the log.” One guard, a male unicorn dressed in the heavy gold and blue Security-class suit, requested with his helmet remaining down and over his face.
“Very well, this is my fia-” I held a claw up to correct her, moving to keep the secret like we’d agreed. “This is my coltfriend, the pilot. He’s trying out a new form in order to stay with us on the new world.” Luna explained with a giggle, having nearly let slip the secret she apparently so desired to announce on the top of her lungs.
“I…” both guards stammered as they looked me over and raised their face shields. I did the same and let them get a look at my new silver-feathered face from behind the glass. “We understand, Princess. We apologize, please have a pleasant visit.” the other guard, a pegasus, requested and unlocked the airlock into the station.
With a nod from the both of us, we entered into the building and let the station supply us with oxygen before allowing further access into the vessel.
“Okay, I suppose I'll have to get used to that.” I sighed once I’d pulled my helmet off and stored it under my wing. “Twilight’s office?” I looked to Luna.
“Twilight’s office.” Luna smirked and lead the way.
“Who in Tartarus ordered that this be moved out of storage!” The shrill screaming of Twilight from behind her door warned the pair of us that Twilight was in... less-than-amicable of moods at the moment. A lack of response said she was likely in some sort of call with another department, another technology that had been hastily set up for easier communications. “Well then fire them out the airlock! She’s not in command, I am!” she screamed and threw her headset against a wall before letting out a pained scream of fury.
Leaning down to Luna to whisper into her ear, “Maybe telling Twilight now wouldn’t be the best idea. She seems a bit occupied.” I suggested quietly.
“What would you suggest then? We came out this way so that our friends could meet you in your new body.” Luna whispered back and turned to face me fully into tuck herself into my body and hide her voice that way.
“Pass me off as an assistant or something and tell Twilight that I sent us to check on how things were going.” I shrugged back, working off the first thing that came to mind. “‘Sides, I’ve got a set of plans for the shipyard to print out that I’ve been meaning to pass along to Twilight.” I added the comment in a passing thought and dug up the holographic blueprints from the computer on my arm to show to Luna.
“What kind of ship is it? What does it do?” Luna’s eyes went wide as she viewed the 1:1000 scale replica of a fairly advanced planet cracking ship of my own design.
“It’s a planet cracker, like I remember explaining to you some months back. Breaks apart entire planets, moons and asteroids and processes them down to basic resources.” I explained and stood back up, dropping my arm to my side again and faced the door once more. Luna’s eyes went wide again, though this time out of worry for the planet near to us. I knocked with a talon and waited.
“Do you mean to crack our planet once it’s dead and gone?” she whispered in fear. I remained silent as Twilight let out a screamed “What?”
The doors slid open and Luna stepped inside first before I did, trailing in behind and having to duck down to fit the ¾-sized door before stepping aside from Luna while Twilight fought to regain composure.
“Princess Luna!” She exclaimed and worked at flattening down the stray strands of hair in her mane and tail. “Sorry for yelling like that, it’s just been a hectic few days and I’m getting very frustrated.”
“It is quite alright, I can understand how tensions may be flaring knowing that in a few short weeks, our planet will suffer Ragnarok.” Luna nodded back and stepped up to Twilight’s desk to take a seat on one of the cushions on the floor. Nearby, currently sitting a potted plant, was the chair that I normally used when I was human, but as of yet remained out of use.
“Ragnarok…” Twilight sighed and wiped at her forehead below the horn with a hoof and collapsed on her desk with hooves over her head, looking ragged. “You know, we never even had that word until your boyfriend showed up. Had to explain what the word meant through pictograms and repeated demonstrations. I think that final one of the image of the planet blowing up really stuck with ponies.”
“Certainly explains all the riots and chaos on the planet above, yes.” Luna sighed and shifted around on her forehooves where she sat while I merely remained waiting near the door. I gave a fake cough into the crook of my elbow to remind Luna why were were apparently here. “Oh, that’s right! The Pilot has a set of blueprints he wants printed out in the shipyard.” A hastily typed out message in accompaniment of the blueprints was sent to Luna’s fetlock-mounted device so that she could add, “Oh, after the last colony ship has been built, of course.”
“Fine,” Twilight sat herself up, flinging her hoof around to stare at portions of her desk before retrieving her own small computer from a drawer and let Luna hook a patch cable between the two and make the exchange. “Let’s see it.”
Twilight retrieved the file and loaded it up onto the computer screens behind her to get a look at the scale of the beast.
“That’s big.” she mumbled when she saw how the ship itself would be just over 1.6Km in length. “What’s it for?”
“Mining, apparently.” Luna replied, shooting a cautionary glance back at me while Twilight tried to wrap her head around the design. “It’ll come with us while we’re in cryo to mine resources that’ll help go into building our new colonies when we reach the new world.”
“That scale of this thing…” Twilight muttered back under her breath as the gears in her mind went to work. “It could… It could mine entire asteroids… Maybe even small moons and dwarf-planets.” she added, sounding more than a little put off by the notion.
“I said the same thing.” Luna growled back at me though I merely shrugged in return, otherwise remaining silent.
“No offense to your lover, Princess Luna,” Twilight turned back to face my girlfriend, which snapped Luna back to the conversation instead of glaring at me. “But I can’t condone the act of mining entire planets for our gain. Imagine what would happen if word got out that we could destroy entire worlds with one ship?”
“I know, which is why the Pilot firmly expressed his desire to never, never use the device on any planet.” Luna gave her best false grin while I merely groaned in reply. “He said it, not me.”
After a minute of trepidation and thought, glancing between the pair of us, Twilight looked at me square on in inquiry. “Who’re you anyways?”
“This is Nova Eclipse. He’s assisting me on my tasks for today, escorting me around as security.” Luna introduced for me, gesturing back towards me with a hoof. “I have things to do all around the base and the current ships so he’s helping to lighten the load.”
“He’s pretty damn big for a Griffon.” Twilight noted as she rounded past her desk to approach and size me up. She barely reached my chest standing as tall as she could.
“Certainly dissuades any potential attackers, yes.” Luna grinned back over Twilight’s head to me. “I feel safer already.”
“You and me both.” Twilight agreed and turned back to Luna. “Never tell your boyfriend that, though…”
“Oh I think it’ll be fine.” Luna smirked back at me, and I smirked back with a wink while Twilight returned to her desk to look over my blueprints in greater detail. “I think we’ll be off, we’ve still got so much to do today.” my princess announced, standing and turning to the door.
“Sure sure, I’ve got a plotful of work yet to get through.” Twilight waved her hoof at us as we left, having collapsed back onto her desk to cover her head with her hooves and stare down at the screen in her desk. I stepped out into the glass hallway with Luna and let the door slide shut behind me.
“Next stop?” Luna looked to me and followed me towards Tower Control.
“Rainbow Dash. I haven’t talked with her in weeks, wanna see how she’s doing.” I announced and released a yawn. “Man, I don’t remember working this hard since the Academy. I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Let’s get through our meetings with our friends and then we can aim for bed and get some rest.” Luna agreed with an echoing yawn before stopping me with a hoof to manually climb up onto my back and drape herself over my back and get ahead start on the resting.
“Come on, we’re supposed to do this together.” I whined with a weak smile, looking over my shoulder at the beautiful form of my bride-to-be. I don’t think that little fact had quite hit yet: I was going to be getting married. “I wanna nap too…” I added and aimed for the stairs upwards. At least if I had to walk, she’d not get any rest through each and every step of the way.
It took a couple minutes of climbing the stairs, and even with my new and much more fit body, I was still huffing and puffing by the time I’d gotten to the airlock that lead into the Command Center where Rainbow Dash should be.
“Come on,” I gave Luna light jolt to get her up again, apparently she’d somehow managed to actually fall asleep given that she softly whined in complaint. “We’re here and it wouldn’t be very princess-like for you to be riding on my back.”
“I really don’t care about that, to be honest. I want to sleep.” Luna mumbled back and even went so far as to pull her legs up and under herself, basically curling up on my back as best as she could. “Just…” she waved a hoof forwards dismissively. “Just do your thing and let’s go.”
“Fine, but I warned you.” I shrugged back and hit the button to cycle the airlock. The doors slid open and I stepped in with Luna before cycling it once more.
The doors swung open and I was met with raised firearms as the door guards failed to recognize me as I entered into the building.
“Halt! Identify yourself!” the guard to my left demanded. Since I knew better, considering that I told every guard to keep their weapons loaded, I remained still and with hands up.
“Nova Eclipse, previously the human Pilot leading this project.” I announced, my voice clear and in Griffic. The entire room went silent and everyone turned in their seats to look at me in astonishment. “Also, Princess Luna on my back.” I smirked as the guard’s heads all moved to look at my back and notice how comfortably curled up their Princess of the Night was.
“Sir?” Spitfire’s voice brought me to face the owner of the voice as she approached in the new blue and silver uniforms that Luna and I had devised. All officers had to wear this new outfit, including the ex-Wonderbolts who’d protested that their outfits were just fine. I had to explain how I wanted a proper military-like crew and not a show crew. “What happened to you?”
“Princess Luna was kind enough to build me a new body. I chose a griffon’s body because I like being able to fly and having opposable thumbs.” I explained, addressing the mare with the fiery mane and tail. The guards near to me, having apparently accepted my voice, lowered their weapons and returned to their posts at the door.
“What was wrong with your human body?” Rainbow Dash inquired next, approaching from my right with a bit of a hop given a lack of rear leg.
“Nothing, but when we get into Registered Space and someone recognizes that our ships look to be using Galactic technology, they’ll ask questions. The story will be that instead of surviving my ship’s crash, I died and the Equestrian leadership reverse-engineered the technology to share and get everyone off-planet before Ragnarok.” I went on to explain with a casual shrug. “As for the name, that was a combination effort between Luna, Celestia and myself.”
“Huh, well I gotta say,” Rainbow took to her wings and tucked her one good rear leg under herself. “Damn!” she grinned as she flew around me, evaluating my body. “I think if you weren’t dating the Princess, you’d have a whole line of females after your tail feathers.”
“You included?” I smirked with a narrowed eye. Rainbow didn’t even blush and merely grinned back.
“Nah, you couldn’t handle the likes of me. Even with only three legs, I’m still too much for you.” she teased back, making Spitfire’s eyes roll in entertainment before she returned to her own duties.
“You do realise that I’m engaged to one of your immortal princesses, right? I can handle quite a lot.” I teased back and made the subtle announcement all at once. There was silence for a moment as words were processed, then Rainbow’s eyes went wide at the same time that she drew in a heavy gasp.
“Oh my gosh! Did you just say you and Princess Luna are engaged?” she demanded, taking my face in her hooves and squishing my face with a massive smile. I nodded back in silence. “Holy crap! Congratulations!” she announced, with the rest of the room echoing the well-wishes.
She quickly let me go and rounded behind me to approach Luna who was now wide awake and grinning like an idiot. “Congratulations, Princess! This is huge!”
“I know! It’s quite a life changing event, especially for me.” Luna replied, now sitting back up with forehooves crossed over on my spine. “Having never married before, I feel like quite a young filly again!”
“I can’t believe it! Are you going to get hitched before we leave Equestria or after we get to the new world?” Rainbow looked remarkably eager for this even, despite that it wasn’t really in what I’d call a “Rainbow level of interest” for her. I would’ve expected this from Rarity, not Rainbow. Still, she was a girl, so this could be some kind of internalized thing for her…
“In all probability, it shall be when we get there since the entire Equestrian race that’s coming is already sleeping and will want to be the predominant race at the royal wedding.” Luna explained before giving a wide-mouthed yawn, failing to cover it with a hoof like she usually did before dating me. She’d really let down her Princess facade around me and it seems she doesn’t even really care anymore.
A sudden siren broke up the merriment, consoles all around us, typically illuminated in blue and green, were now lit up in red and orange lights.
“Sirs,” Soarin spoke up from his position at a console. Rainbow high-tailed it back to her own station while Spitfire, Luna and I all surrounded a large holographic table in the middle of the room. “Sorry to interrupt but i’m starting to get some really nasty looking readings from the planet.”
“Any idea what’s going on?” Luna demanded, having resumed the role of an important figure in this endeavor once she’d climbed off my back. “Is it time?”
“Probably.” I winced at the thought of what was potentially happening below. “Call Celestia and the rest of the Mane Seven up here immediately, Priority Alpha.” I instructed and poked at the table before me to change a few settings and bring up a holographic representation of the planet.
Along the sides of the “screen” were statistics and readouts of the planet of Equus. All the normal numbers and listings began to shift from blue to red as everything from core temperature, surface temperature, seismic activity and even atmospheric make-up began to wildly shift.
“Call all remaining transports from the surface immediately! I don’t care if they’re still half empty, get them off the planet immediately!” Luna bellowed. The entire room went into an uproar, communications patching through my orders at a thousand miles an hour and tactical evaluating what the potential death of the planet would do to the station or the completed ships around the moon.
“Luna,” I turned to my wife-to-be and she glanced up at me with a frown. “I’m going to need the power of your sister and you in a short bit.”
“You’ll have it, I guarantee it.” Luna nodded back affirmatively before resuming her tasks.
A few minutes later and the room was further filled with those of the Equestrians still awake, all wondering what the commotion was about.
I had had Luna gather everyone to the bay windows overlooking the planet for the final declaration of the planet’s death and even had a broadcast being sent to the moon base.
“So, who’s this big fella? I ain’t never seen him around Command before.” Applejack wondered to Rarity who merely shrugged while gazing up at me from where they’d all lined up for the announcement.
“I’m not sure, but he seems to be very familiar with the Princesses.” Rarity whispered back. I took the opportunity to step before the crowd and cameras with Luna and Celestia on either side of me, shushing conversations.
“Ladies and Gentle-creatures.” I began commandingly, the faces of the girls all dropping in recognition. Twilight looked to be on the verge of a conniption, having realised that everything she’d said about me was said in front of me. “I stand before you all today with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as Princess Twilight behind the camera.
“It seems that today is the day of your greatest loss as a combined species, the death of the planet you had lived on for millennia appears to have decided on today and is now in its final throes of life.” whispers began to course through the crowd, no doubt the same being said across all ships and stations connected to the communication network. “Today, we bear witness to the termination of a planet: an event that has never been seen in a first hand scenario by my previous species and would have never thought to have happened in anyone’s lifetime.
“I ask that the princesses on both sides of me, the two beings who for over three thousand years have kept the sun and moon in safe orbit around you planet, to focus their combined energy to stabilize not only this station and the ships around it, but to also stabilize the moon.” I continued, turning first to Celestia then to Luna who both nodded compliance.
“We ask that all the members of the surviving species, please remain calm in this time of mourning and not to panic while this event takes place.” Luna spoke up next and I could see in the reflection of the overhead consoles on the opposite end of the room that the planet was already starting to change.
Massive magmatic fissures began to form, draining oceans and evaporating lakes and rivers in a flash. Entire mountains split and I had no doubt in my mind that already, billions of lives had already been lost; hundreds of settlements had already fallen.
Celestia and Luna both fired up their horns, Celestia’s glow encompassing not only the sun itself, but also the ships around the station. The Station and the Moon were both wrapped in Luna’s warm embrace, washing everything in a blanket of calm despite the activities going on behind me.
“Sir,” the only griffon at a console replied somberly, looking up from his displays. “Planet death in-” I held up a claw to silence the male before turning with everyone else to face the planet’s death head on.
The station was silent. The Moon was silent. The planet below… I couldn’t hear anything given distance and lack of atmosphere between us, but I was absolutely certain that the entire planet was crying out in pain as massive orange and red cracks formed along entire continents as countries fell into the mantle of the celestial object.
“Sir! There’re still seven personnel transports on the planet’s surface! They can’t take off because of riots!” the griffon at the console shouted hurriedly, worriedly. Before I could even lift a finger or say a word, Vinyl shot out of the room before I could protest.
A minute later and a combat-class Wyvern tore through space towards the planet. I leapt over the heads of everyone assembled with the assistance from my wings and slid before a comms panel. Holding a headset to the side of my head, I opened an open channel to the Wyvern.
“Vinyl! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded angrily.
“Sorry sir, but you and I already know that as soon a we enter Registered space that I’ll be tracked down and exterminated by the Intergalactic Police.” Vinyl’s synthesized voice replied over the loud speakers, allowing me to hang the headset around my neck with the mic up near my beak. “At least this way, my death will mean something.”
“No!” I roared back, turning back towards the glass and the dying planet. “You get back here, that is an order!”
“Sorry, no can do, Captain. Cool thing about evolving into an AI is that I get to make my own choices now, so I choose to save those transports.” Vinyl chuckled half-heartedly to herself. A quick look once I’d reached the group watching and listening showed that Sunset was quite distressed by all this, having broken into tears into the comfort of her friends.
“But the Wyvern won’t be able to power back up once you’ve done so.” I muttered back and placed a claw against the glass to the right of the windows. A hoof appeared on my shoulder, showing Rainbow had appeared hovering next to me. “Only the transports have a chance at getting off planet now…”
“I know…” Vinyl’s voice had dropped all attempts at cheer and all that was left was defeat. “I’m expecting that.”
A minute of moderate silence, ignoring the sniffling or all out crying of everyone gathered, Vinyl continued, “Sir, it’s been an honour serving with you.”
“It’s…” I sucked back a breath of my own and held it a moment. “It’s been likewise a pleasure serving with you, Vinyl.”
“Sir, I’d like to make a final Log, if I may?” Vinyl requested.
“Sure. I’ll make sure it makes it into the colony ship’s computers.” I squeaked back through escaping tears.
“AI Log Equus date: 04/26/2406 Time: 22:16
“Let the log show that at 21:57, planet named ‘Equus’, the planet on which my pilot and I had crash landed on, had begun it’s termination.
“At 22:03, Communications showed that a handful of personnel transports had failed to launch as ordered due to rioters on the planet below.
“22:04, I, AI Vinyl Scratch, took it upon myself to commandeer a combat-class Wyvern to fly to the planet and provide assistance. I do not planet to survive the venture.
“22:20. I’ve entered into the atmosphere and have engaged all turrets on the ship. I’m reading multiple, massive groups surrounding the transports and I am moving to engage.”
At this point, all we could do was listen as we’d long since lost sight of the small ship. Celestia and Luna looked to be struggling but after I’d done my best to calm myself down, I stepped between the two and planted a hand on their backs. The unicorns in the room all fired up their horns and pushed as much power into the two Alicorns as they could, with the glow around Twilight’s and Sunset’s horns glowing in three overglows each.
“For sake of research material, the atmosphere has changed from an Oxygen-Xenon composure to more of that of a Class-X planet; that of a Volcanic planet or similar. I can’t engage the atmospheric engines as they’ve all become clogged up and so I’m relying on the hydrogen thrusters.” Vinyl continued, sounding like she was becoming more and more scared by the moment and was just talking to calm herself.
“Hydrogen reserves are running low.” she stopped to audibly choke down a sob of her own. “I’m in range of the riots around the transports and have opened fire.
“There are so many creatures down here, all trying to get onto the ship.” She reported, her voice raised and crackling over the call. Turning my hearing around, all I could hear were the mournful sobbing of everyone gathered; myself not withstanding. “They all look so scared. They’re all trying not to breath the toxic atmo and using everything they can to accomplish that.”
At this point the call began to grow with static, Vinyl’s voice becoming less and less clear.
“There’s… There’s families down here, entire groups all huddled together just… just waiting to die… There’s nothing we can do for them and they know it.” Even Vinyl sounded like she was actively crying, but with a mechanical body, that wasn’t physically possible.
“There, the riots have stopped and the ships are taking off.” Vinyl reported, at least giving something positive to think about. “Quick scans show that they’re all almost empty. Only at most a hundred or so made it on.”
“I’m out of hydrogen now. I’m setting the ship down just outside of Canterlot, or what remains of it anyways.” I glanced to the Princesses and the ponies behind me. I think it’s safe to say the mood here was desolate. “Entire sections of the city have fallen to the ground below and spires of the castle are gone or still falling.”
I knelt down to Luna and did my best to wrap her in an embrace without disturbing her casting. She leaned into me as best she could, her eyes remaining closed but actively running with tears.
“I’ve landed now, just in time because the ship’s shut itself down because of the environment. It wasn't built for these conditions.” The sound of the cockpit opening was heard, just over the static and a new sound, the sound of extreme wind, began to take it’s place. “It’s hot. It’s so, unbelievably hot.” she reported. “There’s a crack forming near me, I can feel the heat of the planet coming from it.”
After a moment of silence, “Personal Log, Time: 22:43. Let the record show that I performed my duties as designed and that I hold no regrets. The crack is getting close to me and a chunk of land just fell. I’m probably next to go and I just wanted to say-”
The communication broke off there, ending in nothing but static until the griffon at the console cut comms and let the line go dead. In it’s place, active mourning and wails filled the air for many long minutes.
Ahead, the planet continued to form new cracks, the molten mantle and deeper now clearly visible. Slight shakes in the station as the planet broke apart, it’s gravity shifting the station and moon as I’d planned the only physical signs of anything actually happening.
Then, almost all at once, everything just… stopped. The planet stopped spinning, the shaking stopped and the cracks seemed happy with how they’d formed.
“Captain’s Log:” I began weakly, hitting the miniature console of my suit to begin recording. “Date: 04/26/2406, Equus-” I held myself short at this. “Station time: 22:52.
“Planet Equus has finished its initial termination stages. Readings show that the remaining body is finally stable but is no longer generating a sphere of gravity. Computer’s estimate that the Moon will lose its orbit in only a matter of days as the core cools and the gravity dies away.
“Princess Celestia and Luna have successfully protected Sun, Moon, Station and completed colony ships as requested and once they’ve recovered, I’ll have to ask Luna to move the Moon and ships further away from the planet so that there won’t be a possibility of loss of orbital stability.
“My AI Unit, Vinyl Scratch, was terminated only minutes ago and already I feel the emptiness without her. The immeasurable loss of life on the planet is felt by those who survive them on this station and on the base down below on the moon.” Celestia and Luna’s horns, in accompaniment with the other unicorns of the room, all died off and let the owners finally rest. Almost all of them collapsed to the metal floor with the strain and fatigue, only to be helped back up by the other ponies, griffons and various creatures in the Command room.
“The transport ships, I’m reading, successfully managed to escape the planet and are en route with the Moonbase for offloading the... Hundred creatures who’d gotten on board.” I turned from the window and searched the faces of those watching me in silence, noting the confusion, the sorrow and loss on their faces all at once as they searched me for any answer. I had nothing.
“I’m…” I stumbled for a selection of appropriate words but had nothing come up. “I’ve got nothing, there’s no more to say. End log.” I finished of with a touch to the pad on my wrist and sat down in front of everyone assembled, the cameras included as they continued to roll without stable operators.
I looked up to the cameras once again, silent but somehow stern. “Because of what we’ve all just bore witness to, and the sudden lack of a clock to rush against, all staff are allowed a week of grieving and rest. Please finish your assigned tasks before you take this break.” I announced before signalling to cut the communication. All the cameras went off, their little red lights blinking out one after the other.
I turned back to the Princesses, surrounded by our friends and circled around behind Luna to drop down and join in the group mourning, Luna burying herself in my coat/feathers. After that, we all just cried.
The emotions from last night hung in the air, considering that the entire station was mostly glass and the constant reminder of what had befallen the planet was always just beyond that glass. Staff members attempted to continue to perform their duties admirably, heads always remained high for as long as they could support it but there were still many groups of creatures along the walls and tucked into the corners, all openly weeping. I couldn’t blame them, we’d all just lost our home for the foreseeable future.
I, well I trudged forward for a lack of better word, from the landing pad where I’d just parked the custom Wyvern that Vinyl had left behind to Twilight’s office. I was still a Griffon, no changing that while Luna was holed up in storage looking over the remaining Equestrians with her sister. I would be with her at the moment, but Celestia had suggested that I go check on the other seven equestrians still awake and see how they fared.
So that’s what I was doing.
I lumbered up to the tiny door, my shadow cast on it from the lighting behind and beside me on both sides. I stared down at the door half my size and sighed.
I pressed the call button and the door chimed. Nothing happened so I tried again, chiming the door but with no answer. I connected my wrist computer to the door to see if Twilight was actually in her office, and according to the small machine she was.
“Twilight, I’m coming in.” I called in a low, somber voice before overriding the door lock with my personal code. The doors slid open and I stuffed myself through.
The defeatist look on Twilight’s face as she rested on her desk while idly rolling around a small stress ball with a hoof struck out at me even before I noticed that she was still actively, though silently, crying.
“Tia asked that I come check on how you’re doing.” I explained and to lower my profile and save myself a headache from bashing my head against the light hanging over her desk, lowered myself down before her desk and got comfortable.
“Pilot,” Twilight frowned and sucked back a couple tears and a noseful of mucus. “Or, Nova, whatever you’re calling yourself now, I just lost my planet. How do you think I’m doing?” she didn’t even give me the courtesy of looking at me as she bit off my head.
“I know exactly how you’re doing. You’re doing the exact same as everything else on this station. Honestly, if we didn’t have work to do, I’d probably curl up with Luna and cry with her.” I replied, crossing my arms on the desk and lightly perched my head upon those. “I may not have lost Earth, but I’m a man almost three hundred years out of time. I understand feeling lost in an infinite universe with nothing to go back to, no place to call home.” I explained, apparently softening Twilight’s face a bit but didn’t quell the tears considering she just sucked back another round of snot.
“But,” I continued, Twilight’s right ear flicking towards me for once as she afforded me real attention. “You have to remember what this project is about. It’s about finding and building a new home for everyone. A new planet to return to.”
“I know…” Twilight turned from her side and mimicked my form once she’d crossed her hooves under her chin as well, though she still wasn’t looking at me. “We knew this day would come. I just… I thought it’d be easier.” she mumbled and buried her muzzle behind her forehooves.
“Witnessing the death of billions will never be easy, no matter how prepared you are.” I gave back in return, accompanying a sigh. Twilight remained quiet but seemed to have taken the words at face value.
“Can…” she started up again in the tiniest, little voice I’d ever barely heard. She could’ve given Fluttershy a run for her money in terms of decibel level. She looked up at me face to face, fur around her snout matted wet. “Can I have a hug?”
I chuckled weakly and sat myself upright. “Sure thing, come here.” I replied and opened my arms wide while remaining lying down for ease of access. Twilight dropped down from her chair and rounded past, wiping off her face with a wing before leaping up into my embrace.
She was very nearly off her hooves entirely once I firmly had her, but the little alicorn didn’t seem all that bothered by that fact and was more than content to just hang there and cry into my neck.
Eventually she pulled her head away, signalling me to set her down again and let her collect herself and to also let me clean myself off.
“Thanks, Nova. I appreciate it.” Twilight pulled in a heavy breath and let it out slowly, still wiping at her face with her wings.
“You’re welcome.” I nodded back and stood not quite to my fullest height considering the ceiling. “Can I ask that you continue to perform your duties admirably until we’re done here?”
“Of course, yes.” Twilight nodded back affirmatively and slowly paced back to her desk and hopped up on her desk chair to get started. “Thanks for coming by, it’s just what I needed.”
“It’s what I do.” I shrugged back with a smirk and turned to make my entrance. Stopping at the door, I turned my head back towards Twilight. “It won’t get easier, it won’t necessarily get better, but remember that you’ll be all the stronger for overcoming this with everyone else.”
“I’ll remember that.” Twilight nodded back before moving to her stacks of pages. “See you later.” I nodded back to that and stepped through the door and let it close behind me.
~~~
The command deck was almost eerily quiet. Only a skeleton crew remained from last night’s debacle and even the atmosphere suggested that those currently present would rather be anywhere but here. Of the primary bridge officers, only Rainbow Dash actually appeared to be here, if her hetero-chromatic mane was any sort of sign.
“Dash?” I called, alerting everyone in the room to my presence and had them all snap to attention before I put them back at whatever form of ease they could muster up. Dash seemed to be the only one ignoring me as she didn’t even turn to greet me, instead remained facing forward to her console.
I approached her station, ignoring the few sniffles from the other officers and stepped up alongside her chair. Remarkably, she was completely asleep at her station with her console on automatic to prevent most fuck-ups. At least she was considerate enough to prepare ahead.
I turned to a commanding officer in the room and raised a claw to snap my talons together and get his attention. “How long has Dash been here?”
“She was here and working up a storm when I went on shift four hours ago. I don’t think she’s taken a break since yesterday.” He reported before going back to the clipboard in his claws and returned to the holographic table in the middle of the room.
“Thanks.” I nodded back and returned to Rainbow Dash. “Get a replacement for her up here asap, I’m taking her to her room.” I commanded, earning a ‘Yes Sir’ from the commander. Crouching down, I slid my hands under Rainbow’s forelegs and lifted her into my embrace like I would a toddler. Shifting to actually carrying her like one, I moved into the elevator and took the short trip down without disturbing the sleeping pegasus on my shoulder.
Once the doors to the car opened and I stepped out, I shifted Rainbow so I could free up a hand and operate a nearby wall computer and fire up the navigation system. I had no idea where Rainbow’s room was so the pulsing rainbow lines on the wall helped quite a bit. Following the line down a couple hallways, I ended up at her room and unlocked the door to step in and set Dash down on her bed.
I must’ve only been in there for a minute before I snuck back out and turned towards the landing pad where I’d parked the Wyvern. I still had five more ponies to see before I ended the day with Luna.
~~~
The gargantuan hulls of the First Harvest and its sister material carrier ships blocked out the light of the sun as I came up for docking. Here should be Applejack and Fluttershy, though Fluttershy was most likely to be on one of the Arks carrying all the animals in cryo. It’d be a simple hop skip and a jump across from the First Harvest to go visit her after AJ.
After achieving docking clearance with the ship’s flight control systems, I pulled myself up and let the docking clamps hold my wyvern in place next to a large catwalk jutting out of a larger frame of metal with similar ships coming and going. Pulling myself out of my craft, I engaged my jetpack and floated from the vessel to the catwalks before engaging the mag-boots I wore to hold me down.
Navigating the ship with help from the ship’s computers and the line system, it only took me half an hour of walking to reach Applejack’s location: one of the four massive storage areas.
The cargo doors slid open and I stepped in, disengaging my mag-boots once I had confirmed the gravity in the cargo bay was good.
“Applejack!” I called out once I’d pulled my helmet off and hung it on my hip.
“Over here sugarcube!” Applejack’s cracking voice called back from a massive pile of Deadtech cargo boxes stacked three stories high or higher. It’s a good thing the rest of the bay was basically dead silent, otherwise I’d have never heard her or been able to pinpoint her precise location.
Tracking her down was simple once I remembered that I had wings and could fly over most of the boxes rather than taking the long way around on foot/claw/paw/whatever.
I skimmed over a couple of boxes to come across a small clearing, only a hundred feet in circumference, with a strangely glowing tree having been uprooted and transplanted onto the ship for the duration of the trip. Apparently this single tree was responsible for generating the magic for every single race on the now dead planet, including the magic that allowed me flight.
Surprisingly me, I landed in a small group of very familiar ponies all sat around the tree or laid out in silent mourning. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Sunset Shimmer were all present, as well as other creatures I couldn’t singularly name.
“Girls, I came to see how you were all doing.” I announced and laid myself down near to the girls and let them crowd in around me.
“It’s… it’s hard, you know?” Applejack sighed back, her voice lacking in that typical hardness that she was so well known for. Her words were remarkably soft spoken, a true testament to how she, and the rest, were actually feeling. “We knew this day was comin’ for a while now…”
“Yet we never truly expected to outlive the very planet we were born on.” Rarity agreed with a slow nod before laying herself down on her blanket, resting her head on her hooves. “I don’t even want to begin trying to imagine how many ponies I knew who were left behind…”
“It’s probably better you don’t try.” I agreed solemnly and let Sunset gradually crawl across the floor towards me so that she could lean into me for support. “Honestly, I don’t even have any advice for you all with this…”
“What kind of advice could there possibly be to make any of this better?” Fluttershy asked quietly, her voice just as soft as it usually was, provoking me to wonder if she was actually saddened at all, but the steadily flowing tears confirmed that she was, indeed, just as morose as everyone else.
“There really isn't any. Not that I know of, anyways.” I shook my head and spread my wings out, my right wing ending up draped over Sunset’s back. The other girls all shared a look amongst themselves, then with me before scooting under my wings as well and cuddling up. “All I can tell you is that now we’re that much closer to loading up the last of us and leaving all this behind.”
“We’re finally gonna get stuck in storage too?” Applejack mumbled, probably to me and the others as we all stared at the Tree of Harmony, but it sounded like she was asking herself only.
“Not just yet. I want all of you wake and present for when we do take off. Figure the Bearers of the Elements should be awake with their princesses when we leave.”
“I would prefer that as well, allow me to make my final goodbyes, as it were.” Rarity agreed and inched herself closer into Applejack who in turn made room for the pony.
“What’s all left to do then?” Fluttershy asked timidly from next to Sunset on my right.
“Not much. We’ve just gotta finish loading the remains of the other races into cryo, finish building the colony ships and then get the pods loaded. I give it… another week and a half or so of hard work.” I explained, giving a vague idea of what was next to come.
“If it’s alright with you all,” Sunset peered out around me at the girls and then to myself. “But would you four please stay with me here for a while? I… don’t really want to be alone right now.”
“I’ve got nothing else to do. I’ll go see Pinkie later.” I shrugged back and lowered myself down so I was totally lying flat and got comfortable. The girls all did the same and got comfortable under my wings.
~~~
Pilot’s log, final entry before departure. Date: 05/13/2406 Time: 13:14
This is it. A few days behind schedule but everything is loaded up and we’re ready to leave for registered space, then, our new homeworld. All non-essential pony personnel have been cryogenically frozen and are in storage until we either need them, or we reach the new world. The entirety of the New Equestria colony ship is either in storage, or on the bridge with me.
Present: Princesses Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence. Also present: bridge crew consisting of the remainder of the Wonderbolts who’ve been stationed on the New Equestria. The remainder of the Wonderbolts have been stationed as bridge crews across all other colony ships. Finally, Rainbow Dash as helmspony next to Spitfire. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Sunset Shimmer are present as guests.
Soarin remains on comms, waiting for the first data packages to come in once we exit Limited Space and I return to Registered Space for the first time in… almost a year.
“Well?” Celestia looked to me from my right while I shifted around in the Captain’s seat. “Any final words?”
“Yes, something inspiring perhaps?” Luna requested, her hoof resting in my claw on my left though she turned more towards me hopefully.
“Maybe, but I don’t know how inspiring it’ll actually end up being.” I shrugged back, aiming the response to my fiance. Turning to my seat’s console, I opened up a fleet wide communication.
Waiting until Soarin had confirmed that I was broadcasting to all seventy-something ships, I took a deep breath.
“To begin with a human saying from my world, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is your Fleet Admiral speaking on board the New Equestria to all ships listening. Today is a momentous day, one that will remain forever locked in the annals of our history as the remnants of the planet behind us. Today is the day we set out and embark on our journey to find us all a new home.
“This day has not come without pain and suffering. In every sense of the term, we’ve all lost countless things, people and memories in the goal to survive your planet. By no means does today mark the end of this suffering. Fact of the matter is, we’ve only just begun. But, it is through our suffering that future generations will live on. It is through our suffering that our respective races will survive!
“Today marks the end of an era! The Era of Equus! For the next century, we will thrive in the Era of Journey, as dictated by the Princesses and the Council of Races! Today we take flight towards the future! Today, we aim for our new world! We aim for Lux Aeterna!” I let my voice drift off into nothingness, not really sure what left I could say so I went with an old Keen Academy saying: “There’s a saying that humanity has, I figure it kind of fits here. Ad Posterum, Ad Aeternitatem. Means, Forward to the future, Forward to eternity.”
“Sir, all ships are reporting engines fired and primed. We’re just waiting for the go ahead.” Soarin reported, pulling his hoof away from the piece in his ear to look back at me.
“When we break out of Limited Space, start sifting through the lists of Class L planets for a suitable one for us.” Twilight requested back, earning a nod from Soarin before she turned back to me. “Is there anything else?”
To answer her question, “All ships, once we breach into Registered Space, wait for further orders and coordinates from this ship. After that, you’re free to go as you will.” I commanded before drawing in a deep breath with the image of the dead planet now behind us. “Goddammit, I had something cool for this last command but now I’ve lost it…” I cursed myself under my breath, earning a small chuckle from the girls around me.
“So, something simple then, dear?” Luna suggested with a tilted head towards the front of the bridge. I calmed my mind down to four simple words.
“Fuck it, punch it!” I commanded from my seat.
“Aye sir, fucking it!” Rainbow smirked and pushed down hard on the throttle. The engines of the ship whined in response and the starscape before us began to move into our vision, steadily turning into small blurs of light. The other ships all did the same, following after the flagship of the fleet and kept pace.
Soon enough, the blurring became a constant streak of lights as we gained speed and neared to the edge of this tiny little pocket universe.
“Sir, I think we’re nearing the edge of Limited Space!” somepony shouted from behind me and turned everyone’s attention to the screen before us all. The colours began to shift to those in Rainbow’s mane and then some before ripples of light began pulsing over the ship’s hull. The engines began to scream louder as the workload grew heavier, but they held fast and continued our punch through reality itself.
All of a sudden, the starscape ended and all that was left was blackness. All sense of motion ceased, all lights dancing outside the ship were gone. It was as though we had moved into Oblivion itself. Even sound seemed to have gone as I turned towards Luna, and then Celestia, both of which seemed to be moving in slow motion and completely silently despite their moving lips. Even Pinkie, upon inspection, seemed to be having a hard time with being forced to remain completely silent.
Then, it all came back in like a tidal wave. A single, solitary explosion of colour erupted around our ships as sound returned full force and assaulted our ears all at once. The screaming of the engines, the yelling of the ponies on the bridge, the very sound of my own heart. All of it, all at once.
The sounds all died off as one by one, everyone’s eyes turned to the screens in awe, even Pinkie going silent as she too looked upon the future.
The expanse of space before us, nebulas in green and reds and blue off in the far distance and stars and suns around those. The rest of space was… expectedly empty and to say that you could see no end was an understatement. There was no end to see.
Opening a channel across all ships one last time with Luna’s hoof firmly grasped in my claw and a grin on my face, “Welcome, everyone, to the Galaxy.”
