With a flinch, I opened my eyes to see a swirling vortex of color and the ground swayed beneath my hooves. Grasping my head with a foreleg, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly in an effort to prevent headache. It took a few moments, but when I opened my eyes again I was able to see where I was. A lavender foreleg partially blocked my vision as I lowered it back to the rock. A smoky smell wafted through my visor and suddenly a voice called out, electronic and effeminate.
Radioactive Protection at 100%
I flinched at the sudden volume in the almost palpable quiet. Shaking my head to clear the almost painful echo of the voice, I caught a view of something in my vision. A small meter next to a symbol I recognized, and blinked as I noticed is crawling backwards. My protection seemed to be losing power, yet, the heartbeat icon was moving so slowing I almost couldn't tell. Reaching my arm up, a catalogue of items leaped on my vision. A small grouping of 'technology' and otherwise empty slots.
"Where..." I rasped out, nearly coughing as the air scratched my throat. I swiped my hoof left and another list came into view. 'Ship'? A mechanical vehicle of some sort appeared on my visor, along with some stats. I peered at the technology and motioned over some, allowing it to show me how to repair these odd installations on the ship. Better to get it done and then figure out where I am, and what I'm doing here, and I mean here as in the place, not existing. I finally swiped out of the menu and saw a name I had never seen before, as far as I knew.
"Ravinvendunak?" I muttered, what an odd name. I turned my head to look behind me and was greeted by a slightly awful sight. The ship from my visor smoked in the background and the thrusters in the back looked cracked. I walked over to it slowly, lifting my hoof to examine it. The visor blared and I opened it to see the tech prompting me to use Carite Sheet times 4 for the Launch Thrusters and an isotope to charge it. The other engine, a pulse engine, required... 200 Heridium, 2 Carite Sheets, and 20 zinc, also requiring an isotope.
I looked around at the barren wasteland and pulled out the multi-tool which was apparently charged, my luck seemed to have changed. I passed out of the crater and looked out towards the odd coral-like structures in the distance meandering towards them by jumping and gliding over crevices. I touched down and lined my multi-tool at it, pulling the trigger with my... magic? I felt an odd sensation around my horn and the device hit the coral, blasting it to pieces and the visor notified me.
"36 Carbon?" I muttered. It was an isotope, which was good, but I needed iron. I peered through my multi-tool's scope and it said nothing, I flicked into the menu for the tool and winced. The Scanner and Analysis visors, which were likely what I needed to find the materials, were broken. I turned to the large rock and coral and kept blasting them. After the area was clear I flicked open my suit's menu and let out a happy chuckle. "Two stacks of iron, and almost three of carbon!" I jumped and switched to my multi-tool and repaired my scanner and analysis visor, grinning as it notified me of different materials.
After this I switched back to my ship and managed to pull up the crafting menu which my hoof, selecting the Carite and crafting 5, leaving me with a stack of iron. My suit blared at me with that voice once more and I was reminded I had 50% on my radioactive protection. The life support was well around 90% and I felt safe, so I hit it again, setting off towards more resources. The most notable was a grouping of the isotope elements, which I discovered granted me Plutonium, allowing me to charge my launch thrusters, yet I still needed the Heridium and Zinc, so I followed the only other symbol in the immediate area, a vial.
A massive pillar of a blue material with a silvery sheen stood before and seemed to bore into the ground a fair ways. After blasting it, I realized it was the Heridium I needed and I was pretty happy since it was so close. A few minutes later I had an entire two stacks and I raced back to ship, sending the stacks into the ship inventory and I was even more excited to realize it could stack 500 in each slot. I let out a cheer as I clambered into the cockpit and grabbed the controls, hitting what I assumed to be the launch button and the ship lurched from the ground and I glided off before seeing a landing pad off in the distance racing towards it and hitting the landing gear.
Each button, I discovered, was actually labeled for me. The most interesting was one that seemed to be missing, indicating a technology I had yet to acquire. I examined the cockpit further noting each and every control I could, especially the weapons. I also could see other ships flying off into the distance and some cruising down from the skies. After I landed I jumped out of the ship and noted some of the things around but what garnered my interest was the door ahead of me. I entered slowly and was greeted by... The creature before was weirder than anything I had seen yet.
A beak protruded from its face and beady eyes bore down on me. It was clearly an alien, or perhaps I was to it. This planet didn't have the feel I would expect of something I could call home. I approached and it spoke in a guttural clicking language. I watched as it indicated the plants around, then gestured at me. Maybe it wanted something from them? I approached and the plants dropped some carbon, which caused me to frown. I hadn't used my multi-tool. Ignoring it, I turned to the beast and handed some of the new carbon, which I managed to remove from my suit.
A happy guttural click came from it and it handed me a small electronic chip which I placed in the suit and received a notification.
Technology Acquired Radiation Deflector Sigma
Recipe Acquired Bypass Chip
I forced myself not to squeal, both in delight and interest as the beast looked at me. IT spoke again and then gestured towards its own mouth. I frowned and suddenly my suit flashed another message.
Learned Vy'keen Word for 'traveler'
Learned Vy'keen word for 'Carbon'
The cheers finally escaped. I didn't know this world, universe, whatever it was, but there was definitely something painfully interesting about it. I remembered little of my imagined home, beyond some names, but this one could hold some knowledge I could learn and take back with me. I nodded to the creature and turned to the device on the wall. It booted up and my visor flashed a bunch of words on my screen, including "Welcome to the Galactic Market Provision Matrix" and "//USER/admin>Twilight Sparkle/stat" and a further amount of things which moved past and then it asked me something more intriguing.
"Sell Items from Inventories or Buy Items from Galactic Trade Network?" I tapped the second option, perhaps I could acquire some of the Zinc I needed. It pulled up a very long list of devices and materials I didn't recognize and after scrolling I tapped on Zinc with a hoof. I finally realized all it did was sense my decisions when I thought them, not my hoof's movements. Placing it back on the ground, I thought of buying 20 pieces of Zinc and was notified of acquiring it and losing... 1,022 units?
"Units? Are those the currency? How odd," I muttered before stepping back as the menu disappeared and switching to my ship, restoring the 'Pulse Engine' and almost cheering again until it mentioned that I would need to acquire 'Thaumium9' to charge the device I had just fixed. I could guess that it must be an isotope, since it was used for fuel, yet I had only seen Carbon and Plutonium. It must not be here. I nodded to the creature which simply looked back to the device in its hands as I made back out to my ship. Maybe once I learned more I could figure out what it was using and use it myself.
My ship lurched beneath me after I entered and hit the launch again. A buzz and flash on my visor told me the thrusters had a 50% charge now. It required more fuel than I would have thought, which was also inefficient to me. Maybe I could find more technology to cut down the cost. I leaned the wheel, as I could best describe it, back and hit the boost for the ship as I launched into the sky. I cut through the clouds and gasped as I entered the space far above the planet's surface.
"Amazing," was all I could mutter at the sight before me. Multiple planets drifted lazily in the distance, closer than I could have believed otherwise, each as different from each as the planet below me was from them. The system's star glared from the side of my vision as I directed my ship towards one of the other planets, smashing through some asteroids which, even weirder, gave me the Thaumium9 I needed for the ship. My visor buzzed and I saw multiple notations appear next to each planet, and an odd symbol appear indicating, as it said, a 'Space Station'. While I felt in awe of what I could see, something tugged at the back of my mind. How did I get here and why am I here? Maybe, just maybe, the stars would tell?
Author's Note
Welcome to the launch of the NMS story! I hope you all like it and it goes well. I'd also like to add, yes, I will explain why Twilight is here later on in this fic, a lot later on, actually, so keep watching for little hints I might be dropping later. Until then, the stars await a new adventure!