Treehugger is selected by raffle for the RESA interstellar mission, but not everything goes as planned...
Bloomberg and Treehugger are no better than strangers before a raffle sends them to space on a brand new equestrian space agency rocket. Fitted with all the luxuries a pony (and tree) could desire. This ship is the height of equestrian majesty until the unthinkable happens. Somepony’s disappeared! Now tasked with solving this mystery, treehugger and bloomberg blossom into more than strangers into the folds of love.
“Woah! A trip to space? That’s, like, totally rad!” Treehugger thought as she read through the official letter from Princess Celestia. A month ago she had entered into the new Royal Equestrian Space Administration to become a cosmonaut aboard its interstellar vessel. There really was nothing like this in all of Equestria’s long history, finally ponies would be able to travel beyond the stars without magic or even wings! Packing up her crystals, she left immediately and reported to RESA’s headquarters in Canterlot.
The shimmering building put the more traditionally styled Canterlot buildings to shame. What symbolised progress and ingenuity made Treehugger very upset.
“This feels kinda, like, not great for the animals. Did they make this out of trees and stuff? This is totally messing up my vibes.”
With a mix of hesitation and excitement, she entered the RESA building and sat down to wait with the other ponies chosen by raffle. Across from her seat, she caught sight of her friend, Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy!” she called. “I totally didn’t expect to see you here! Far out!”
“Oh, hello Treehugger. Were you chosen by the raffle?” her friend replied.
“I just got the letter this morning, man. You’re going too?”
“Oh, no. I’m just here to welcome everypony. Princess Celestia asked us to help her greet the guests and send them off.”
“Right on! Kinda bummed that you can’t come but I, like, totally respect that.”
“Good luck on your journey!”
“Blessings.”
Having just parted from her friend, a voice called her to the desk. She was promptly verified and was directed towards the lift. The lift’s aura was wack but Treehugger knew what she had to do. She confidently smashed the button for the 25th floor and the lift roared to life. Treehugger felt her body compress a little from the force but quickly expanded as she travelled up the 25 floors at breakneck speeds. Soon enough she had arrived and heard the sounds of jubilant conversations.
“Welcome everypony! We hope you have a safe and comfortable journey! Hello!” Treehugger approached Twilight, who stood by the entrance greeting guests. “Twilight! So good to see you!”
“Treehugger! Welcome to RESA! I can’t believe you were selected for the journey!”
Applejack trotted toward the two carrying a large bag on her back.
“I don’t know about this Twilight. There’s lots of other ponies out there who can go on this here spaceship. I just don’t think I’m the right one for the job. Couldn’t Rainbow Dash go in my place?”
“You know what Celestia said. The ponies will all be chosen by raffle. You can’t give your position to somepony else.”
“Come on, Twilight! Applejack doesn’t want to go; I do! Space is like the most epic place anypony can go! And I’m the most epic pony! Why should she be the one going?”
“We already went over this Rainbow Dash. You’re not going.” Twilight turned to Treehugger, “Sorry about that. It’s usually much calmer around here,” she said, smiling.
“No worries! You just need to relax your aura and peace out.”
“I’ll- uh… keep that in mind. In the meantime, you’d better get going. And that means you too, Applejack. Good luck, both of you.”
Bidding farewell, the cosmonauts began their short trek to the ship. Treehugger looked around at her future companions. Most of them seemed mediocre but a few of them would make wonderful travel mates. She was looking forward to the serenity of space more than her companions though, and soon enough, she’d be there.
To a lesser pony, the rumbling of that mighty ship’s engines would indicate the end of the world, but this was the future; this was the triumph of science. With everypony on board, the ship was able to make its ascent into the heavens. This was by no means the first mission, but it was the first of its calibre; no prior expedition had this much ponypower. With a whoosh and a wham, the ship entered a low earth orbit, the first phase of the journey.
Everypony was slightly rattled from the rapidity of the ascent, but luckily, nopony was injured. This new experience shocked Treehugger greatly, so she decided to ground herself by examining the ship in greater detail. It was a large ship, befitting the equestrian status, and furnished with all the things a pony of high taste could possibly desire. Treehugger did not like it, but she did find herself intrigued by one of the crew members: Bloomberg. Oh, he was the most magnificent tree that she had ever seen; the mere sight of him filled her with a great joy, one which the desolate metal casket she stood in lacked.
Suddenly - clamour! uproar! All the ponies were running about in terror; she could scarcely ascertain an iota of information from the maws of the screaming ponies. Eventually, a white pony with striking blond hair and a vividly blue jumpsuit told her that somepony had gone missing. WHAT? Just the thought of such a calamitous event taking place so soon after departure filled Treehugger with alarm.
Before she had time to think, she was ushered into a room with the rest of the cosmonauts. The clamour rose to the rooftops and prevented anypony from having an independent thought. The pony in the dashing blue jumpsuit brought the meeting to order.
“Quiet! We’re never going to find Applejack at this rate!”
The room immediately fell silent, and everypony turned to face her.
“What could have happened to her?” cried Matilda, stomping her hooves on the counter. Stygian stood by her side, patting her gently on the back.
“It’s okay. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”
“But how? There isn’t even a trace of her!” cried Limestone Pie, glaring at the pathetic, puny pony.
Treehugger thought for a moment, but all the arguing was messing with her vibes. She stepped aside for a moment, gathering her crystals: quartz and selenite for clarity. In an instant, she found herself in possession of the clearest mind of the crew. She immediately took action, raising her hand to speak.
“Man, we all need to take a few deep breaths and chill our vibes for a moment. All this chaos is really bumming me out. We need to, like, find out what happened. If any creature can help me search for leads, that would be totally radical.”
With a rustle of his boughs, Bloomberg spoke with perfect, genuine intent. He had volunteered to help with the investigation when no others would. Could this be? The wonderful Bloomberg wanted to help Treehugger? It was like the mello tunes of a sitar washing over her soul, making all things more tranquil.
Her fellow cosmonauts looked on with confusion as the mare thanked the seemingly mum apple tree. But she knew, with an unimaginable knowledge of the inner workings of nature, exactly what the tree was telling her.
Pulling Bloomberg in his wheel–equipped pot, she exited the canteen to begin her search. But where to begin? The ship was vast, its many rooms seeming to stretch on for aeons; nopony could investigate every one without finding themselves lost in a maze of delicate machinery. After thinking for a moment, she decided to meditate and search for the frequency of her vanished compatriot.
Alas, the helter-skelter vibes put off by the cosmonauts interrupted her at every moment of near breakthrough. She scarcely was able to repress her own anger as she tried and tried again in vain.
Then, in an instant, she felt the world around become tranquil. It was Bloomberg; he had allowed himself to flow with the auras around him, causing him to gently rustle his handsomely veined foliage. The magnificent tree single-handedly offset the energy of the ship, providing a perfect environment for her meditation!
Treehugger desperately wanted to thank Bloomberg, to share with him her infinite appreciation, but at this moment, she could not, for now was the time to concentrate. She focused for a long while on finding her crewmate’s frequency amidst the cadaverous auras of the starship’s synthetic components. There! A faint trace from the centre of the command room revealed itself to her, one which perfectly matched the frequency of her pal, Applejack.
She turned to the tree and nodded, sensing its understanding of the situation. The two headed to the room to investigate, Treehugger wheeling her quiet companion through the lifeless halls which led to their destination. She could not help but occasionally glance over her shoulder to admire him a bit as they went, after all, who could not wonder at so magnificent a being?
At last they arrived at the command room. Treehugger took a deep breath, preparing for the great discoveries which awaited her beyond the sliding double-doors. With a swipe of her ID card, the doors hissed and slid to the side, revealing the anticipated room.The two cosmonauts gazed into the rarely used chamber before marching in to explore.
The companions searched high and low, but found the room to be perfectly clean and nearly empty. At this, the two were entirely befuddled. The last trace of Applejack had now faded, proving to the crew that she would never be found, but this raised a new question; she must have died, but how?
With a new purpose, Treehugger and Bloomberg decided to check the room again, this time on a spiritual level, for even when one cleans a room, the auras still remain. She sat under the boughs of Bloomberg to survey the area in this way, yet even with an hour's meditation, no other traces could be found.
Curses! That dastardly knave must have used white chalcedony! No other crystal could have cleared away the energy of the culprit which, without a doubt, was entirely negative. It could make a perfect weapon too, she thought, if the case turned out to be a murder.
It was true. The crystal held such powerful cleansing energy; it could have easily erased the energy of so evil a pony. Plus, with its hardness of seven, it surely held great bludgeoning power as well.
With this in mind, Treehugger thought back to her own crystals, but quickly realised that none were missing from her collection, and thus none of hers could have been used here. This left one option for the origins of the stone: Limestone Pie.
This valuable discovery sent her towards the door in a hurry, but in this rush, the artificial floors worked against her, and she was sent sliding uncontrollably to her doom. Yet no, she stayed above the ground; she had fallen gracefully into the boughs of Bloomberg. She looked up at him, his sturdy boughs breathing life into the empty void around them. It was like the Big Bang, creating a whole new universe within Treehugger. Was this…?
She shook the thoughts from her mind and returned to her more relaxed self. She thanked the tree after letting herself drop to the ground, then continued to pull him along with her to the next refuge of evidence: Limestone Pie’s cabin.
A long journey through the lengthy corridors brought the pair to the home of their rock-loving comrade. Following their calls, Limestone Pie opened the door and let them in, glaring at them as they did so. Treehugger looked around and closely examined the pony’s collection of rocks and crystals alike. Like many on the ship, Treehugger had already seen the collection at the invitation of Limestone Pie, however she was the only one who had really paid attention to them. No doubt Bloomberg would have done the same, had he been invited, however nopony seemed to take the time to get to know the tree - a shame considering his rich personality.
With a thorough scan, Treehugger found a gap in the neat row of gemstones atop Limestone Pie’s Rock collection. Before she could ask, however, Limestone Pie spoke to her, using her usual aggressive tone.
“I don’t know what you’re up to here, but you better not even think of touching one of my ro- Hey! Somepony’s stolen my rock!”
Aha! The rock had been stolen! Immediately. Treehugger began searching for traces of another pony there. Alas, the energy of the crystals overpowered that of all the ponies that had entered the room, and any traces of those who had once been there had vanished from the room. She had no choice; she would have to call a meeting amongst her compatriots and ask them directly.
All had gathered in the great canteen of the starship. Creatures all in a panic looked toward Treehugger, who, as the leader of the meeting, was expected to hold the answers to their questions. Bloomberg sat next to her, gazing on with the utmost serenity as she called the meeting to order.
“This is like, not groovy, but I can’t feel her vibes anymore. Applejack is dead.”
Every creature gasped, even Bloomberg, despite knowing the situation already. Treehugger raised a hoof to request their silence as she continued.
“Somepony has stolen one of Limestone Pie’s crystals, which is totally ungroovy. We need to chill out a bit and figure out who’s taken it. So, like, has anycreature here checked out Limestone Pie’s cabin lately?”
After a moment of uncertainty, three ponies raised their hooves: Sugar Belle, Surprise, and Stygian. It was, of course, acknowledged that Applejack, too, had visited Limestone Pie’s cabin, however it was so implausible that she had killed and disposed of herself that the idea was entirely disregarded. Bloomberg agreed; it was time to interrogate them.
Sugar Belle was the first to be pulled aside, solely due to the fact that she had sat closest to them during the meeting. She, accompanied by Treehugger and Bloomberg, was brought to the small storage room to the right of the airlock, where they sat her down at one of the many large storage crates which filled the room.
This meeting, though it could hardly be called such, as it consisted only of a relaxing chat over a cup of herbal tea, proved to be quite useful in finding who didn’t do it: Sugar Belle. In this, more accurately, “evening tea,” it was revealed that Sugar Belle had spent the entire period in which Applejack was suspected to have gone missing, in the cabin of Auntie Holiday, and in fact, it had not been since several hours earlier that she had witnessed the rocks of Limestone Pie.
In their moment of rest after the meeting, Bloomberg and Treehugger thought over the new information and came to the conclusion that there was nothing that would lead one to believe that Sugar Belle had been the murderer. Bloomberg, however, brought up an important point: the murderer might never have entered Limestone Pie’s cabin in the first place; an accomplice could have stolen the rock for them. Not only that, but it occurred to them that a creature could have stolen the rock without their knowledge, sneaking in while no creature was looking. Knowing this, their interrogations were pointless. Still, they thought, a thorough questioning of every creature aboard the ship might reveal some useful information.
Having finished the interrogation, the two left the room, sending off their guest. Just as Treehugger was about to retrieve the next cosmonaut, however, Bloomberg violently shook his boughs, catching her attention. She turned to him and listened closely, for he was normally a quiet fellow, yet now he seemed to scream at her. Just across from them, the airlock was left open to the outside. Somepony must have used it. It didn’t appear to her at first, but as Bloomberg then pointed out, the killer must have used it to eject the body.
At last, a solid lead! She looked to her partner. This could be it: the final piece of evidence to find who had slain Applejack. Bloomberg’s foliage seemed to her to gleam against the endless void of space behind him, mesmerising her with his radical aura. She thought to herself that she must have been blessed by Nature herself to find such a perfect partner.
Much as she wanted to perform the final check and find the final clue, she could not… not before this.
At last, she succumbed to her yearning; she leapt at the tree, her delicate lips clasping tightly around his rough, weather-worn bark. It was the perfect moment, his boughs wrapping around her as they held each other just outside the storage room.
Bloomberg rustled his leaves in a sign of mutual attraction, his gentle aura seeming to communicate the very message which treehugger had longed to convey from the very beginning.
“Bloomberg… I, like, totally dig you,” she whispered into his leafy aural cavity, stroking his foliage as their auras seemed to blend into a perfect, harmonious mix.
But now, Bloomberg pushed back - not in a conflict of emotions, but out of necessity. As now was the time for them to finish their task - the very incident which had brought them together in the first place. Now was the time to finally check the airlock.
Hoof in bough, the two approached the door and pulled the lever to the door. With a faint hiss, the doors drifted apart like two lovers destined to follow separate paths; a fate which none but the closest of creatures could overcome.
They marched inside and settled on the floor where Treehugger began her meditation. This time, nothing could get in their way. The white chalcedony would have been sentenced to the abyss before it could eradicate the energy of the murderer. With the assistance of the handsome tree at her side, Treehugger could finally discover the culprit.
Opening all of her chakras, she picked up the traces of every creature that had ever come to that room, but one frequency, so vile and so repulsive, shone above the rest.
Limestone Pie.
The very pony who so boldly declared her crystal to be pilfered had been the culprit all along. Bloomberg and Treehugger turned to each other, nodding in a reciprocal understanding before finally taking off to return to the canteen for a final meeting.
“Limestone?!” shrieked Matilda, bewildered by the idea of so heartless an act being performed by one she had once felt was an admirable friend.
The cosmonauts turned to face the killer, all keeping their distance as they did so. She, however, only glared at them all, as if they were just fools that got lucky in coming here.
“You idiots! Did you really see her as a friend? I know none of you were there, so I’ll explain for you. Applejack does nothing but encroach upon others’ territory and meddle in everypony’s business. When she came to my farm, she nearly destroyed Holder’s Boulder! You may have been too busy with your own trivial matters, but I know she was going to take over this ship while nopony was looking. What happened to being a crew, everypony? Do you plan to ditch me after I’ve worked harder than all of you to protect this ship?”
“ Could you, like, take it down a skosh? I’ve always really digged your vibes, man. But now, you’re really bumming me out,” said Treehugger, attempting to clear her chakras.
“Everypony!” shouted Surprise. “I’ve always been in favour of forgiveness, but here, I don’t think it’s possible. It’s far too dangerous. I think it’s best we send her off on her own. Everypony in favour of launching Limestone Pie off in the shuttle, raise your hoof!”
Almost simultaneously, all but two creatures other than Limestone Pie raised their hooves: Treehugger and Bloomberg. This was not, in the case of Bloomberg, for lack of hooves. After all, a lifted bough would hold the same meaning. Like Treehugger, Bloomberg saw the potential for goodness in all creatures, but alas, a vote of seven to two had only one possible outcome.
Shortly after the meeting, the ponies gathered in the dimly lit room near the base of the ship. The event which led to the occasion had cast a pall over the entire crew, and now, they sought to lift this veil of gloom through removal of the unwanted. Bloomberg and Treehugger looked on at the event, watching as they forced Limestone Pie into the escape shuttle and blasted her into the infinite chasm of the cosmos. They knew it was totally not righteous, that Limestone Pie could have been rehabilitated, yet they said naught, for they saw clearly how none so much as batted an eye at the sight of their own friend being cast aside in such a way.
Their only comfort lay in each other. Bloomberg carefully wrapped his brambles around his beloved Treehugger and shielded her eyes, while Treehugger embraced him, weeping at what had been lost. Indeed, it was a blessing that two creatures, so perfectly matched in frequency, could find each other like this - some call it destiny. Whatever it was, Treehugger felt his groove every time she was around him, and whether the other ponies felt any remorse for the loathsome fate they had sentenced their friend to or not, they could make it through each day knowing that nothing could separate them.
