Chapter 1
EES Cosmic Lotus
Time: Six years after the defeat of the Swarm
Location: Three days out from Chakona
Radiance Point, chief engineer of the Cosmic Lotus, was off duty, in his cabin, with his ‘herd’ as he liked to call them. The ‘herd’ being his chakat wives Flamepaws and Nightmare, and his children Riverside, the fully chakat daughter of Flamepaws and Nightmare, Nightmare being the sire, and Mira, his half-chakat, half-unicorn daughter of himself and Nightmare. The two cubs, at about a year and a half old, are getting to the age where their innate curiosity about their home has already caused a few problems aboard the Cosmic Lotus. Riverside, the blue-green and brown chakat, has caused some problems with the chickens while Mira, the black and dusky red mixed breed, has had one magic surge already that threatened to flood the Linear Park. All by accident, of course. The incidents are what has prompted Radiance Point to resign his commission with the Equestrian Exploration Group and accept a position as a full-time professor of Engineering and Warp Technologies at Dewclaw University in Berdoovia, Chakona.
Radiance was sprawled on the bed, with Riverside grooming his mane (and making a mess of it, but he didn’t mind) and Mira snuggled between his forehooves, looking up at hir father’s face while he looked at his little miracle with love and wonder.
Riverside, the older of the two cubs by twelve Chakonan days, spoke up. “Wan’ story, Daddy!” shi squealed, joined by hir sister. “Yeah! Story!” Mira chimed in with, her horn sparking some with little red motes.
Radiance used his glow to snuggle both cubs at once. “Okay, girls! A story you want, a story you’ll get! Listen up, big ladies, because this story I have not been able to tell. Until now.”
Flamepaws and Nightmare became very attentive. “We’re listening, love!” they said together.
Radiance dipped his head in thought. “Many, many, many years ago, it was a dark and stormy night,” he started.
“How many?” Riverside asked.
“About eighty-two years ago, Equestrian calendar, give or take a hoof-full of days, but that’s beside the point, big one. We had just pulled out of Vanhoover on the Gowanus Herald…”
Radiance Glow was in the Lounge of the good ship (*hackcough*) Gowanus Herald. As Second Engineer, he had overseen departure from port from the Engine Room, making sure all was working adequately when they had pulled out. Captain Yellow Tail had insisted they depart at their scheduled time, despite the approaching storm that had the pegasi aboard apprehensive.
Glow was basking in the peace and quiet, feeling the ship take some low rolls as they made their way down the coast to Seaddle. He was thinking about his date last night with the lead cook, Delectable Dinner. He had let her coax him into it through outright bribery, she promising to make him his favorite oatcakes and jam for breakfast every morning until they arrived in Seaddle. “She was a good lay,” he thought as he sipped on a beer. “Three rounds were nice and calming. Now, to see about who next to sleep with. I know we hired on a new pegasus mare, but I don’t know her by sight yet. Ahh, she’s Deck division, not Engineering.”
Glow looked around the rather run-down Crew’s Lounge. Only two other ponies were there, that new pegasus mare he was just thinking about and one of the older engineers, Wide Load. Glow and Wide Load got off to a rough start coming aboard but matters soon smoothed between them. Three years ago, Wide Load was the one who put Glow’s name up for consideration for Fourth Engineer status. The word of the grizzled earth pony, along with all the non-officer engineering hooves, was enough to make Glow an officer. Naturally, Glow took the bit in his mouth and ran with it.
Suddenly, an alarm horn rang out throughout the ship, followed by Captain Yellow Tail on the shipwide annunciator. “Rogue Wave to starboard! Turning ship to meet it, but I don’t think we have the time!”
Radiance Glow raced to a porthole on the starboard side of the Lounge. Dimly, he could see a wall of water nearing the ship. He knew there was absolutely no chance of taking the wave cleanly on the bows, it was too close. It was going to hit the ship almost broadside.
Making sure that porthole was dogged shut, along with the three others in the bulkhead, he shouted to the other two in the Lounge, “Get to the port bulkhead and HANG ON! Rogue Wave!”, before dashing over to the port bulkhead and ducking under a table that was bolted to the floor, gesturing for the others to get there as well.
“How bad is it, Glow? Wide Load asked.
“Remember that one wave we took off Zebrica four years ago?” Radiance Glow asked. At Wide Load’s nod, he added, “This one’s a LOT bigger!” as the wave struck the ship broadside.
The old freighter groaned as it took the hit, slowly rolling to port, loose items sliding or flying around the compartment. Glow put up a low-level shield to ward off debris. The angle of the roll steadily increased as the water pushed against the side of the heavily laden ship. When the angle passed forty-five degrees, Wide Load muttered, “We’re going to capsize. Twenty-six thousand tons of iron ore in the holds. I can hear the load shifting.”
“I hear it too,” Radiance said as the ship heeled over quickly, settling keel up. Up became down, down became up, and a lot of noise was heard from items breaking, the ship groaning, and the thuds followed by a hissing noise, which signaled the loss of the iron ore through broken cargo hatches. “This is so not good.”
When the ship stabilized, Jerdian looked directly in the Second Engineer’s face. “What can we do, sir? I don’t want to die yet!”
Jerdian can see Radiance’s eyes constrict to mere pinpricks for about ten seconds before they dilated to normal. A look of calm came over Radiance’s face. “Not if I have anything to say about that, young filly. First, let’s get down to the ceiling. Load, get ready, you’re going first. You, young filly, fly down. First job is to get to the annunciator.”
Jerdian tumbled out from under the table, caught some air with her wings, and landed roughly on the ceiling. Then, Radiance took Wide Load in his glow and set him down. Last, Radiance lowered himself onto Wide Load’s back before dropping himself.
Radiance made his way to the annunciator. Using his glow, he grabbed the microphone and punched up the general announcement circuit. “Attention, all hooves who can hear me. This is the Second Engineer. Everypony, get to the power room aft. If somepony is hurt, help them along. Check in via annunciator. I’m going to get you off this ship before the deep sea claims you! That is all.”
It was not long before ponies called in from all over the ship, from Engineering and Berthing, mainly. The ship’s doctor, White Wrap, called in from Medical saying she needed help getting the door open, so Radiance sent Wide Load after her. The ship’s Fourth Officer, Star Glory, a young pegasus, called in as well, from her cabin, saying she had broken something when the ship rolled and needed help, so Radiance sent the young pegasus to help, after giving directions. Radiance, meanwhile, went to the power room. What he found there made even the young brash, confident unicorn pause.
The main mana crystal that powered the ship had broken free from its mountings and had smashed the regulator equipment on its way down to the ceiling. Arcs and sparks of stray mana leaped all through the compartment. The on-duty engineer, Twin Spin, a burly earth pony mare, looked on as well. Some marks were evident on her hide, evidence of a rather rough fall. “You got something in mind, Radiance?” she asked.
“Yes, and I don’t like it. We should be within twenty miles of Vanhoover. I have enough range to teleport every pony there,” Radiance said, a look of grim determination on his young face.
“Teleport? The ship? To Vanhoover?” Twin Spin said incredulously.
“No, not the ship, the crew. One at a time. The ship is a total loss,” Radiance sighed, the sigh being punctuated by the groaning and creaking from the keel of the ship. As the holds emptied, the uneven stress put more strain on the keel. It was going to snap, and Radiance knew it.
“How you going to manage that?” Twin Spin asked as ponies made their way to the power room.
“An old spell I read about a few years back. It should allow me to tap into the stray mana flying about in here, and use it for a productive purpose, that being to teleport everypony to the pier we were at in Vanhoover,” Radiance said, his voice filled with resignation, not brash confidence, as was usual for him.
“Now, I’m no unicorn, but even I know that THAT idea can be rated up there in the ‘that’s totally stupid’ category!” Twin Spin protested.
“It is. If you can come up with another way to get everypony safely to shore, tell me now. Otherwise, shut the buck up and let me concentrate,” Radiance Glow snapped.
Twin Spin nodded as ponies made their way to the power room. “Now that’s the Radiance Glow we know.”
The chestnut unicorn stepped in to the power room, horn aglow, his red and white mane starting to fly about from the static present. He turned around to face the door and called up the spell.
Twin Spin, and the other ponies in the doorway, saw Radiance Glow’s eyes light up with a white nimbus, followed by the rest of his body. “One at a time, step in.”
One by one, the ponies stepped over the hatch coaming, Radiance shot a beam of light from his horn, and the pony vanished. The arcing and sparking grew more intense as the sound of the ship going down intensified. When the mess crew, Delectable Dinner and Smoker Sauce, passed through, they gave Radiance a soft, gentle look before being teleported. The last two to arrive were Star Glory and the newbie. The smell of burning flesh and hair permeated the power room as Star Glory was teleported, leaving only the newbie. “Sir, will you be all right?” the young mare asked.
“No, but YOU will be,” Radiance said, teleporting her to Vanhoover. Then and only then, once he was alone, the ship going down around him, he said five words. “I want to go home.”
The power crystal failed then, sending a surge of energy out that tore through the weakened structure of the ship. In that blaze of light, Radiance Glow vanished as well.
Radiance Point paused at that point, because the two cubs were asleep. Carefully, with his wives’ help, he put them to bed. “Think they will remember the story?” he asked.
“Probably not, but you have to admit, they were an attentive audience,” Flamepaws replied.
Nightmare snuggled up to Radiance. “Now, why don’t you tell us what happened afterwards?” shi asked.
Radiance sighed at the request. They knew it made him uncomfortable, but he knew that if he didn’t go on, they would not only nag him about it, they would get the foals involved as well. “Okay, then. What happened next, in Vanhoover, is that all twenty of them appeared on the dock where the Gowanus was tied up at, in a driving rainstorm. They waited for me for about ten minutes, then the need to seek shelter and help for the injured took over. The unicorns there thought they felt something about five minutes after Jerdian appeared, but the happening was too fleeting, and they all soon forgot about it.
“Five days later, House Path got a request from the Baltimare City Guard to help identify a strange unicorn stallion that had appeared in the waterfront district, one that was badly burned all over with mana burns, and had no idea who he was, just saying ‘I need to get home,’ in a low hoarse voice, over and over again.
“By that time, news of the sinking of the Gowanus Herald had made headlines, and the stories of the survivors all agreed that it was the Second Engineer, a Radiance Glow, teleported them all to the dock from fifteen miles out to sea, but at the cost of getting consumed by stray, uncontrolled magic energies.
“It took the House Path doctors and psychologists the better part of two years to put me back together again, to a point where I could leave the Ponyville hospital and be a functioning member of society. Tales of Radiance Glow’s heroism had the tendency to put me back into shock for a while, remembering the incident. Fortunately, by the time I was released, the news flurry had ebbed.”
“Then Jerdian Lighthoof wrote and published the song about the sinking. I bet that sent you right back into shock again,” Nightmare told Radiance, holding him close. Flamepaws held him from the other side.
“She did, and it took some time before I actually listened to the song from start to finish. When I did, I went right back into shock. Fortunately, I had been given some mental conditioning, which included instructions to contact House Path and get the help I needed. The first time, I spent two weeks in Griffonia, recovering. After that, all it took was for me to hear the opening chords before I did my best to get out of earshot FAST. Actually hearing the lyrics would send me into shock again.”
“What prompted you to join the Cosmic Lotus program?” Flamepaws asked.
“When I heard about it, they were taking applications. I called in and applied, seeing by then I had three doctorates, two in Engineering and one in applied magics, and here was an opportunity to leave Equis and my past behind completely. Fortunately, they accepted my application, in part because some of the screeners knew of me, and others knew of my reputation of fixing broken items with anything at hoof and making it work again. I left Equis shortly after the Lotus’ keel was laid down and I didn’t look back.”
“We’re glad you did, because if you didn’t, we would not have met, and we would not have two delightful cubs to raise,” Nightmare said to him.
“With more to come, we hope,” Flamepaws emphasized.
“Rest assured, there will be more. Princess Twilight gave me the compatibility charm and told me that I had better use it!” Radiance said with a laugh.
“I’ll get it, put it on you, and we’ll see if Flamepaws catches tonight, okay?” Nightmare purred, Flamepaws lightly skritching Radiance.
“If not, there’s always tomorrow!”