Chapter 7: Pony Odyssey

"Computer, start up the engine reactors."

'Starting reactors.'

"Hey mister computer! Can you make me a chocolate cake?" asks Pinkie.

'I'm sorry, please enter the appropriate commands.'

"Hey!"

You chuckle. "Haha, I'm afraid its not made for that Pinkie."

Lets see now, its been a while you piloted a ship like this, but it would be fine. Its like riding a bicycle, wait, not really.

"I should totally fly next to it!" says Dash while flying around the cockpit.

"Dash, how high can you fly?" you ask.

"Huh? At the same level of the clouds?"

"But have you ever flown far far above the clouds?"

"Uh, no."

"Stick around, I'll show you what its like."

Cheers and excitement all around. Except from Fluttershy. You assure Fluttershy that it will be completely safe and that the view will be amazing.

You sit on the pilot's seat and go over the procedures.

You didn't get constantly shouted at by some meathead wearing a shitty hat for forgetting some of them for nothing.

"Computer, set this general area as point of return. Plot auto-pilot to reach an altitude that shows popular near space scenery."

'Plotted, would you like to activate auto pilot now?'

"Only when I say so."

"By the way, do you ponies have other ways of flying?" you ask the ponies.

"Other ponies often use hot air balloons or get help from other pegasi." says Applejack.

Hot air balloons, cute.

"You will soon see the difference. We'll start out slow, okay Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy nods, she still must be nervous.

You help the ponies on the seats and their seat belts. Rainbow Dash complains but you tell her its for her safety.

The ship slowly lifts up and starts hovering.

The ship gains altitude a starts flying over Ponyville.

Now that you see that the ship is working perfectly and that you still can pilot this thing, you activate auto-pilot. You hear mixed reaction from ponies as they feel the gravitational force.

Pinkie is treating this like a rollercoaster ride. Fluttershy is covering her eyes.

"Here we are." you switch the ship to hover mode.

The ponies watch the from the front windows the scenery of near space altitude.

First thing they see is the border that shows the limit of the planet's atmosphere

"Is that black part outer space?" asks Rainbow Dash.

"Yes, WE are flying in midst the BOUNDARY of your planet's welcoming skies and the DARKNESS of the endless void beyond."

You say that in the most dramatic way possible.

Heh, that was fucking corny, but you really liked saying that part.

"Beautiful..." says Rarity with amazement.

"Check this out, computer, show us the view of the planet below."

You show them the view of the planet below through the viewers.

"That is Equestria?" Dash asks.

"Seen from far far above, told you its something you have never seen before."

"We are not falling...." says Fluttershy.

"Told you it was safe."

Wow, this must be how it feels to be a teacher leading kids on a school trip. Even Fluttershy is amazed by all this.

After about 10 minutes you decide to turn back to Ponyville.

You land the craft a near the town this time.

"Hope you enjoyed the flight!"

"WooHoo! AGAIN?" Pinkie jumps around.

"I shouldn't work the ship too hard for now, maybe some other time."

"Okie dokie! I really should get back to Sugarcube corner too!"

You exit the ship with the 5 ponies happily discussing their little school trip.

"Oh, I'm sure I need to tend to the animals, thank you Anon." says Fluttershy.

"That was an exquisite experience! But I really should get back to the boutique, see you later dear!" Rarity waves at you.

"It was one heck of a ride, Anon. My granny is probably looking for me, you know the way to the castle?" asks Applejack.

"Pretty hard to miss."

"We should race with the ship later, okay? Bye!" says Dash before zooming off.

The ponies head back to where they belong.

You probably should get things sorted out too.

The ship is awfully spacious and quiet with you being the only one inside.

You try not to get depressed, you wash your face and look in the mirror.

All of this is hard to keep up with.

You also start to think. Were the deaths of your friends your fault?

If you hadn't decided to play the goddamn hero, maybe none of this would have happened.

"Fuck me."

You need a beer.

You walk to the common area, reach the fridge, grab a can, drink up and-

You spit out the liquid like an cliched comedy act.

What the fuck, something is wrong with this beer.

You check the fridge, all of the leftover food is dust or ashes. You check one of the ration containers, yep, the same.

Its like every organic material, except you, disintegrated the moment you came here. You need to ask the ponies for food from now on.

You check the basic equipment locker room.

The ship you are on is a patrol ship, these days it means it also acts as a first responder for disasters. Its fitted for aiding than damage.

You have various tools for dealing with disasters. From basic fixing tools to advanced robotic arms. Nothing seems damaged here, fortunately.

Next, the weapons locker and the emergency med-bay.

This isn't a battleship, you don't exactly have an armory here. You have a few basic military gear and equipment, plasma assault rifles, beam pistols and energy batteries for the guns. That's about it.

You got enough batteries you think. You probably wont need guns in Equestria, just look at this place.

But your training tells you should at least pick up the pistol. Ignoring your training almost got you killed earlier today.

And the two laser rifles the pirates were carrying, modified laser tools, you stashed them there not too long ago. Weak but easier to make, can't even penetrate modern combat gear so it is used against soft targets. You guess you can't just dump them in Ponyville, some pony might get hurt.

Emergency med-bay, where Faith used to stay and work on her little botany projects. Her plants and projects were disintegrated as well. Real shame, you liked that bonsai tree.

Only other places you need to check are the crew quarters, emergency teleporter room, and the storage room. Crew quarters are as you left them, clean and empty, you clench your fist and move on. Teleporter room, used for mostly emergency evacuation, nothing wrong here.

Storage room, lets see here. A few Space suit containers, some extra rations(ashes now), big ass weapon cases, a small hovercycle.

Wait a sec, big ass weapon cases?

Oh right, the weapon cases your ship was supposed to deliver to a military base after your patrol was over. There was a bureaucratic incompetence and they were sent to the research station. You never really checked what was in there.

Curiosity killed the cat, but whatever. You swipe your identification and open it up.

HOLY SHIT, this is some destructive force of super-science here. You open up another one, dear god.

What retarded bureaucrat decided to send these things to a civilian station? You close them. Ponies wouldn't like to know how these things work.

You decide its a good idea to head to that castle. You also need to tell ponies you need food for a while. Maybe you should get a temporary job or something, you can't rely on their hospitality for too long.

Ponies stare at you as you walk among them, at least they don't seem to be afraid of you, much.

Some younger ponies follow you around at a distance, you feel like being a man inside a stupid animal costume working at a park. When you look at them, they scurry behind something to hide.

My god, these creatures are too cute to be real.

When you reach the castle gates, Twilight busts out of it.

"ANON, good timing! We must talk about certain things, please come in."

This should be good.

"I sent a letter to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about you, they didn't respond to me yet but they probably will soon."

"Princess Celestia? Luna?" you ask.

"Oh they are Princesses that look over Equestria. Well, we are supposed to look over together, I mean..."

Twilight suddenly mumbles.

Huh, the Princess thing earlier wasn't just a slip of the tongue.

"Am I in presence of royalty?

You try to do that ancient bowing thing you saw on a shitty holo-movie.

"Hmm how should I say this? Oh right, forgive my ill-manners before...your highness."

Really, monarchy? Interesting. You don't know if the concept itself still exists from where you come from, even on earth.

"Please don't do that, it still makes me uncomfortable, please just refer to me as Twilight." Twilight says that as if you are embarrassing her.

"As you wish, princess."

"Anyway, I think they would really want to hear more about your species, your world, and your science and magic!"

"Magic?"