A Bridge Over Troubled Spaceby SinaquaChapters1. Another day, another dime2. A whole new, well, everything.3. The thing about the night...1. Another day, another dime"Welcome to Avalon Technologies, Mr. Oakfield," the speaker next to the door boomed in a quirky, feminine voice--far too cheery for its otherwise unimportant job--"a package has arrived! I do believe that Mr. Slade requested that you get to work on it immediately!" "Oh, great, my FAAAVorite," said James. James Oakfield was one of the many experimental technologies engineers for Avalon Tech--his badge said that he was "The Head Engineer," but that was a load of bull. He was a fairly thin 25-year old, with sandy blonde hair and a fair complexion, he stood about 6'1" and weighed about 200 flat. Today was Monday, and like usual, he had spent the day before out with the guys--In short, he had a hangover. He was not about to put up with the overly cheery AI that ran the prime functions of Avalon, nor the asinine requests of "Mr. Slade" to sort his paperwork, if Slade was going to be that lazy, he could wait another week. James picked up his toolbox and headed toward the overly-pristine marble staircase that led to his domain. Avalon Tech was the kind of place that focused on first impressions, this was obvious by the pristine marble and granite that seemed to fill the very air. The first level of Avalon was the reception hall--with the receptionist--a middle-aged woman named Christine that everyone seemed to avoid. James never found out why nobody likes Christine, but wasn't the kind of person to start trends. He whispered a quiet "Hullo" to her and continued on his way to the industrial section. On his way there, it began to become obvious where he was heading: burn marks on the walls, the cracked tile in the middle of the floor, the dead plants nobody ever tried to water, and finally Hangar 52-B, his workplace. Hangar 52-B--affectionately nicknamed "The Barracks" or, if the assignment was important,"The Front Lines,"--was the section devoted to experimental Spaceflight designs. It was a large Hangar on the third floor, with two observation rooms on either side of the main hatch. Beyond that, there were rooms for storing tools and spare parts, but not much else. It was usually so dead that the workers would joust with wrenches, screwdrivers, and Creepers, or they would play basketball with the makeshift hoop someone made eons ago, among other things. But not today. No, today the room was filled with very important-looking people in suits, labcoat scientists, and a starship like none he had ever seen before. Something was going on, and it was something big. James grabbed the first person he recognized and asked the obvious question, "What in the hell is going on?!" The man immediately recognized James and shouted, "He's over here!" towards the center of the group. Cue every single eye in the hangar turn to stare directly at James. Just as he was about to crack a joke about washing his hands and looking like he pissed himself, when Dr. Adrian Avalon, Owner of Avalon, came up to him. Dr. Avalon was almost the same height as James, but about twice as wide. He wore a nice suit and a stetson hat. An originally southern man, Dr. Avalon spoke as such. "This here, this is the main engineer of Hangar 52-B, what's yer name again, boy?" Dr. Avalon seemed to be talking to a camera crew that James hadn't noticed originally. "J-James Oakfield." "Ah, Yes, that's it. Well ya see here, Mr. Oakfield, we did some digging and found out that you have some flight training, Now ain't that somethin'?" It was true. James originally wanted to be a pilot for the Intergalactic Federation's Navy, but had to drop out due to some, unfortunate circumstances, mainly, the Federation's breakup. "Now we have developed a new ansi-somethin' and we have decided to let you take the first test run!" bellowed Avalon, this caused a wave of applause from the crowd. "Now git over to them science nerds and have them explain what'cha gonna do." James was shoved over to a waiting group of scientists, and they immediately began rattling off all sorts of technobabble, something about needing to keep the stasis field up. James decided that he was done being in the dark about all of this, "Hold up! Just one second here, what the hell is happening!?" One of the scientists piped up, "We are going to be testing out an Ansible-Drive. It's similar in theory to a warp drive, and you happen to be one of the only people that has had any training with warp drives." "What do you mean 'in theory,' and how am I the ONLY one?" asked James. "Well to put it simply, an Ansible-Drive works off of the same principle of the Ansible, but for objects." "What the hell is an Ansible?" "Instant communication device." "Okay, I understand that you want me to fly this thing, but wouldn't someone, I don't know, MORE QUALIFIED be better?" "That would be the case," stated an irritated scientist, "but our first pick crashed into a tree last night, he's still in the hospital." James noted to never ask this guy for sympathy. "And," started another scientist, "the sensitive nature of this experiment does not allow us to hire outside of the facility." "So, I'm THE option." "Unfortunately." "But," started yet another scientist, "enough with the formalities, we need to give you a tour of the ship." The scientists led James into the starship, the interior was far more spacious than it seemed, but it had all the amenities of a ship: storage, galley, med-bay, bridge, and a main room. Situated in the main room was a large cuboid standing on one end. It looked like something taken straight out of TRON, with light markings over the entire surface except for one circular panel. The hull of the machine was darker than anything James had seen before. It seemed to suck the light right out of the room. After about three hours of briefing, being told how to fly the ship, and finally been given a packet to explain the tests he was to preform on the ship; he found himself in the bridge of the ship. He was to fly it to low orbit and then-- and only then--open the packet, preform the tests, and then write down his observations. This was going to be fun, thought James sarcastically. James pushed the "Activate" button on the console, and the ship came to life. He tested the engines, and they seemed to idle perfectly. So he decided to open the hangar and launch off. The massive doors began lowering until they were even with the ground, klaxons blaring warnings to nobody in particular. The door finally fell with a mighty CLANG; James was free to take off. The Ship flew like many others, it responded instantly to the slightest of movements, and it wasn't long at all before James was in orbit. First things first, he tore open the packet to get his first instruction: Fly a distance of 200m. I've done that by now, thought James, What's the next one? Preform an Aileron Roll. James smirked, "Did it just tell me to do a barrel roll?" Onto the next, and the next, and the next. Nothing exciting, nothing new. He put the packet down on the table, only for it to fall to the floor, scattering papers everywhere. James groaned and began to clean them up when a paper caught his eye. James picked it up, and read it: Engage the Ansible drive, fly a distance, disengage, then return. Now were talking, thought James. Back in the bridge, he punched in the security codes to the Ansible drive and heard something Click, then a humming was heard throughout the ship. James went to see if a micro meteor had punched through the ship, until he saw the cuboid--it became clear what the noise was. The cuboid had opened and now seemed to be orbiting itself. Each and every piece of the cube that was outlined before was now orbiting some central device James couldn't see. James observed as the cube seemed to drift back together, the float apart until it looked like an angry swarm of bees. Bees made of metal and plastic. "Well, the sooner I find out what this thing does, the sooner I get home," said James. "ANSIBLE SYSTEMS ENGAGED; BIOLOGIC DETECTED," the machine stated, "BIOLOGICS ARE REQUIRED TO STAY A MINIMUM OF -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE ACTIVE." Startled, James stated the only thing he could, "What!?" "REPETITION ACKNOWLEDGED; BIOLOGICS ARE REQUIRED TO STAND A MINIMUM OF -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE ACTIVE." "This thing can understand me?" "AFFIRMATIVE; BIOLOGIC IDENTIFIED: JAMES TREVOR OAKFIELD, IDENTIFICATION NUMBER 13545-22354; HEAD ENGINEER OF AVALON TECHNOLOGIES, PROMOTED FROM ENGINEERING FOLLOWING DEATH OF THOMAS J. EVERNIL. IS THIS INFORMATION CORRECT?" "Uh, Yeah, I guess?" "DEFINE 'GUESS'" "Nevermind, The information is correct." "AFFIRMATIVE; JAMES OAKFIELD IS THE PILOT OF TEST VEHICLE." "Pilot?" thought James, "well, if I am the pilot, we need a better name than 'test vehicle.' But what?" He could name it after his dog, skittles. No--skittles was a ridiculous name for a starship. What about from his favorite videogame? Yes that'd do. "Machine, rename the ship: The Crimson Lance," stated James. "AFFIRMATIVE: SHIP PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS 'TEST VEHICLE' SUCCESSFULLY RENAMED 'CRIMSON LANCE" Satisfied with the rename, James decides to get back to his task. But, how does one activate a machine they've never seen before? "Machine, how do you work?" "CLASSIFIED" "Okay, how do I use you?" "WARP DRIVE ENGAGED, ANSIBLE ENGAGED, CHOOSE LOCATION AND ENGAGE POWER SYSTEMS." "What?" "ENGAGE POWER SYSTEMS." James stood by the machine, puzzled about what it wanted, when it hit him. He went back to the bridge and engaged the warp drive. "SYSTEM AT FULL POWER; CHOOSING LOCATION AT RANDOM--LOCATION FOUND--LOCATION CLEAR OF SOLID MATTER--APPROXIMATELY -200- KILOMETERS FROM LOCAL PLANET--ENGAGING MAX ANSIBLE JUMP." James didn't have the time to tell the machine to stop before he felt the world lurch from right underneath him, in an instant he found himself zooming away from the galaxy without a ship. Panic gnawed at his sanity, the world, nay, the universe as he knew it fell from him. Just as he felt he was going to pass out from the stress, he fell back into the ship, unscathed by the event. James promptly found the nearest bathroom and vomited. "ESTIMATED DISTANCE TRAVELED: 5,427,708,944,356 PARSECS," the machine stated, "INSUFFICIENT FUEL TO MAKE SECOND JUMP; ENGAGING AUTO-LAND SEQUENCE ON NEARBY TEMPERATE PLANET; PLANET IS HABITABLE FOR KNOWN BIOLOGICS, TROPICAL ZONE: THIRD LATITUDE." James comes out of the bathroom, shaky on his feet, but alive. "Where could we land? What planet even is this?" "UNKNOWN; UNEXPLORED SPACE; UNKNOWN SECTOR. STRUCTURE DETECTED. LAND NEAR STRUCTURE?" "Define 'structure." "SIMILAR IN APPEARANCE TO A CITY. BIOLOGICS DETECTED WITHIN. EXTRAPOLATION DICTATES IT MAY BE AN ALIEN CITY; LAND NEAR THE CITY?" "NO. We don't even know if the things in the city are friendly, last thing we need is to piss them off somehow." "AFFIRMATIVE. SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATE TOUCH-DOWN LOCATIONS." "You do that, I'm going to get something to eat." Author's Note This is my first story, so expect errors. I am open to constructive critique, not dickish trolling. 2. A whole new, well, everything.James begins working his way towards the galley, wondering what has happened over the last day. He goes to work, like any other day, he heads to the engineering sector, like any other day, and now he's beyond the observable universe, not knowing whether he's going to ever make it back. It was a problem best saved for later, thought James, food awaits. The galley was a medium sized room, with all the furnishings one would expect a ship's galley to have: chairs, table, fridge, stove, and another fridge. In the far end of the room was an odd-looking machine, but since the last odd-looking machine put him in this situation in the first place, James decided to avoid this one. He goes to the first fridge and opens it--nothing. Same with the second fridge. The thought of including a galley without stocked fridges was shocking to say the least. Cravings overriding his fear of machines, James decides to try it. "Hello?" he asks the machine. "ONLINE; REPLICATION MATRIX 001 READY FOR OPERATION." Well, might as well try it, "Can you make a sandwich?" "CAPABLE, INITIATING REPLICATION MATRIX--POWER IS AT FULL. WHITE OR WHEAT BREAD?" "Wheat--I guess." "CONFIRMED. HAM OR SALAMI?" "Salami." "CONFIRMED. REPLICATING." A short hum was heard from the internal workings of the machine, and a few seconds later, a sandwich comes out of an opening. Wheat bread and salami, exactly what James wanted--but, alas, James' mealtime was interrupted by a voice in the speaker system: "TOUCHDOWN LOCATION FOUND, CAPTAIN TO BRIDGE." James sighed, picked up his sandwich, and headed for the bridge. Upon entering the bridge, James immediately went to the cube. "What do you want?" "IRRELEVANT; LOCATION FOUND: A FOREST CLEARING LARGE ENOUGH TO HIDE THE SHIP IN. SUGGESTED TO MOVE DURING THE PLANET'S NIGHT CYCLE TO AVOID DETECTION BY THE LOCALS. IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?" "Y-yeah, sure. Just don't burn the forest down or something." "CONCERNS NOTED. ENGAGING LANDING PROCEDURE." The ship slowly begins descending through the planet's atmosphere, through the cloud layer, and eventually begins to gently hover towards the forest, eventually stopping above the clearing, about two or three miles away from the city. All in all, the planet was very pretty, even at night; the grass stretched out in all directions, except for a small grove of trees near the city, in the distance mountains scraped the sky, and there was smoke coming up from the valley from, what James mused, might be a train, the only thing beyond that was the planet's full moon. James noted that the moon had a very peculiar pattern on it that somewhat resembled a sickle. All this was soon obscured by the trees, and soon, there was nothing more than the light above from the moon. James checked the planet's atmospheric readout and concluded that the atmosphere was breathable. He opened the docking hatch. When the hatch finally opened all the way, James stepped out. The world seemed oddly colorful, like everything had been slightly oversaturated; it made James feel strange, almost happy, and then he remembered just how far up shit creek he was. I'll mull over it in the morning, thought James, right now, I'm going to bed. Sometime during the night James awoke to voices, seemingly from just outside the walls. "D'ya think it's sick?" says one with a feminine voice, clearly accustomed to shouting. "No, it can't be, it's made of metal." Another, more enunciated voice. "Well, it can't be doin' too good, otherwise it'd be breathing or somthin'." A third said, this one with a southern accent. "I think it's a machine," says the second voice, "some kind of flying machine, look, it's got wings." "Who would need a machine to fly?" another voice this time. "Somepony not a pegasus," another stated matter-of-factly. "Oh, that'd make sense." "Umm, guys... I think that it is, um, open over here." a quiet voice stated, closer to the hatch. Shit, thought James, I never closed the hatch! "Good find flut--" the voices trailed off. Shit, shit, shit, I need to do something fast! thought James. "Close the hatch!" he shouts toward the cuboid. "CLOSING HATCH. PLEASE STANDBY." The hatch closes with a THUD, and soon the voices are back. "I think it came from over here!" Something hits the side of the wall. "Don't hit it!" One of them shouts. "What? I didn't dent it or anything." Shouty says, defending herself "Would y'all just shut up?" This time, the southerner. "Girls, girls, let's not fight, I understand it's late, but we need to figure out what this thing is before it ends up flying away, or whatever it does." matter-of-fact's turn "Sorry." three of the voices stated. "Hello," the matter-of-fact voice stated, "is anypony in there?" Shit, what do I do, thought James, For all I know, I'm trespassing in their territory or some shit. "You must be scared, don't worry, we won't hurt you." Yeah, I'm going to believe that. "Well, we don't want to." Hopefully, these things can't read my thoughts. James gets up, goes over to the cube, and asks, "Are there cameras on this thing?" "NEGATIVE." "Any weapons?" "THERE IS A KNIFE IN THE GALLEY. THIRD DRAWER FROM THE ENTRANCE." "No, something on the outside." "ACCESS DENIED - SAFETY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED" Well, shit."Can you tell me how many things are outside the ship right now?" "PLEASE SPECIFY." "The things that have been talking." "UNKNOWN - VOCALIZATIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE DURING THE ENTIRE NIGHT-CYCLE." "The most recent ones; come on computer they speak fucking english!" "PREFORMING SCAN... ... ...THERE ARE SIX LARGER BIOLOGICAL BEINGS OUTSIDE THE QUARTER'S WALL... ... ... ONE APPROXIMATELY 10 METERS ABOVE THE SHIP... ... ...THREE OTHERS ARE DETECTED APPROXIMATELY 1/2 MILE AWAY." "Can you tell if they are armed?" "NEGATIVE, ALL SIX APPEAR TO BE UNARMED, AS FAR AS CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS." "Do you think that I should trust them?" "CAUTION IS ADVISED. UNKNOWN SPECIES, UNKNOWN PLANET, UNKNOWN SYSTEM. IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THEY WOULD LIE, GIVEN THE EVIDENCE, EXTRAPOLATION SUGGESTS THAT THEY HAVE A CURIOUS NATURE." "And what does--" "CAUTION ADVISED FOR PROLONGED EXPOSURE, MINOR TRIONIC READINGS ARE DETECTED ON TWO OF THE CREATURES." James heads back to the quarter-wall, and begins, "How do I know I can trust you?" "HEY! THERE'S SOMEPONY INSIDE OF IT!!" If this is my death, I will never stop haunting Avalon. "Open the hatch." "CONFIRMED, OPENING HATCH. CAUTION ADVISED." As the hatch opened, James had a sight to behold: Four little horses were clustered around the entrance. The one closest to the hatch was purple except for one fuchsia stripe running through her mane, a horn jutted out of her head, and a tattoo of sparkling stars decorated her flank; the next one was white with a purple mane--also with a horn--this one had a tattoo of three diamonds; the next was bright pink with an equally pink, frizzy mane, three balloons decorated her flank, it was worth noting that this one did not seem to stop moving. The next was dull orange, blonde mane, and wore a hat; James couldn't see her tattoo. The other two were out of view. That accounted for all six that the cube mentioned. "You can come out now," stated purple, "we don't want to hurt you." James carefully walked out of the ship, the night was still running strong, but it was quite warm out. There were sounds of the forest, and as soon as James was out of the ship entirely, the hatch began to close. It was nothing but him and six unknown beings. "I'm here, now what?" stated James curtly. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay! I mean you were inside of the thing, and it did fall from the moon!" spoke pink. "I didn't fall, I landed here because my ship ran out of fuel. Had I have fallen, we would-" "What about the other guy?" asked orange. "What other guy?" "The guy who said 'closin' hatch' like it was some big thing." "That was the computer." "Ah. Wait, what's a--" "Anyhow," began purple, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. This is Applejack," she gestures towards orange,"Pinkie Pie," Pink, "Rarity, " White, "And up there is Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was around here somewhere." James looks up to see a blue pony flapping on wings, a prismatic mane, and a cloud/lightning-bolt tattoo on her flank. "And you are?" Twilight asked. "James, James Oakfield." "Well, James, it seems that you're going to be here for the night, since--what was it--your 'ship is out of fuel', and Celestia isn't up until dawn." Although the air quotes had no way of being actually gestured, James still felt the small horse was skeptical of the whole thing. So was James, as a matter-of-fact. And who the hell was Celestia? "Oh, you'll find out in the morning, for now we should try to move your ship somewhere safe; the Everfree Forest is well known for making things vanish." Stated Twilight, somehow knowing the question on his mind. "I can fly it somewhere." "Ah thought you said it was stuck?" Applejack chimed in "Worth a shot. We're not going to carry it far, only God knows how much it weighs." At once, the ship's hatch opens. James gestures toward the ramp, then gets in himself. The ponies follow, except for Rainbow Dash. I'd rather fly my own way back was her reasoning. James takes his position in the seat near the cube. "UNIDENTIFIED CREATURES ONBOARD, FRIEND OR FOE?" "They're friendly enough." "CONFIRMED." "So, where do you want to go?" he asks Twilight. "Just to Ponyville." "Where?" "The nearest city." "Cube, make it so." "AFFIRMATIVE, ENGAGING FLIGHT. ALL BIOLOGIC ENTITIES MUST MAINTAIN A DISTANCE OF NO LESS THAN -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE IN FLIGHT." "Well, what did any of that mean?" Rarity asked. "Don't get near the spinning thing." "Oh." The ship begins ascending, then the engines reorient, and fire. They are landing in the main square within five minutes. The hatch opens with a loud CLANG on the cobbles below. It was an odd city, every building seemed to be no higher than two stories, and the doorways seemed to be oversized, considering the intended inhabitants. James could easily fit into the buildings. Then James turned to lay his eyes on the biggest tree he'd ever seen. It seems that it was a building of it's own right, complete with a door, windows every so often, and lights galore. "Well, if y'all don't mind, I'ma head home for some shuteye," Applejack said. "Yeah, as much excitement as it has been, the morning is a better time," Rarity's turn. "Yeah, I'll um, see you guys tomorrow." This one must've been Fluttershy, James doesn't remember seeing her get on. "Do you need somewhere to stay? I have some spare room in the library if you need," Twilight offers. "No, I'm good. I got a room in the ship." "Alright, sleep tight-" "BEDBUGS HAVE BEEN ERADICATED, DO NOT MAKE MENTION OF THEM," The computer chimes. "Okay then." James and Twilight say in tandem. With the excitement and oddity of being welcomed by several small horses to a world that James couldn't even fathom, and a promise of yet more excitement the next morning, James heads to his quarters, hoping to wake up from this insanity. 3. The thing about the night...James awoke to find himself back in his studio apartment. This was strange, to say the least, as his last memories were of bedbugs and irradiation. Or something like that. He stands up, goes to his closet, and puts on a shirt--even the closet was exactly as he remembered it, disgusting and disorganized. But everything felt surreal, like it wasn't really there. "Well, I must just be tired," thought James, "I did have the weirdest dream last night," but the odd feeling didn't leave. He felt as though he were being watched, but as he turned, there was nobody in the room with him. Just him and the bed. James checked his Bonsai tree, nothing out of the ordinary, no hidden cameras, nothing. Nothing in the closet either. James looked around very closely, trying to spot something out of place, something hidden, anything really. There was his TV, a mini-fridge that was always unplugged, the Bonsai, and his computer. Wait, a computer? James never owned a computer, he could never wrap his mind around how they worked, nor did he have the patience to figure it out. "Yeah," James' thoughts began, "I own a PS8, not a-" "Do not be afraid." A voice emanated from the walls. "Whointhewhatnow?!" asked a very startled James, "Have I actually lost my sanity?" "No, thy mind is safe, but we doth need thy help." "Okay, talking wall--no, I've dealt with enough insane B-S." James stated bluntly. "You dare to defy us?" said the wall threateningly, "We could turn thy dreams into eternal nightmares!" "Ooh." James shook his hands sarcastically, "I'm so very scared. A fucking wall is going to give me nightmares." "How dare--" "Listen, wall, it was good talking with you and all, but uh- things are a bit too weird for me right now." "You dare to inter-" "G'bye" Immediately after James finished talking, he forced himself to wake up the only way he knew how--Remembering walking in on his grandparents when he was eight. "AAH--holyshit, I'm up." James shuddered, thinking that maybe some repressed memories served a purpose. If nothing else, it would stop any morning wood from growing. James went to the galley to fix himself a cup of coffee. James stood at the--um machine that replicates food? The Replicator? Sure, why not? James stood at the replicator, trying to get it to function. "Hey, machine. Do you know what coffee is?" The machine kicked on. "AFFIRMATIVE, WOULD YOU LIKE A -CUP OF COFFEE-?" "Hell, yes." "INITIATING REPLICATION MATRIX... LOADING MATERIAL CONFIGURATION: COFFEE... INITIALIZING... COMPLETE." An opening in the machine produced a cup of pitch-black elixir. James spent no time getting it out of the machine's opening. "CAUTION ADVISED: LIQUIDS MAY BE HOT," chimed the machine. "Yeah, yeah." James sipped his coffee as he went back to the bridge. He sat down at his chair, turned to face the cube, and spoke, "What time even is it?" "CURRENTLY 04:30. THE LOCAL AREA IS STILL IN A NIGHT-CYCLE." "Thank you." "AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE DONE SOME SCANNING OVERNIGHT, WOULD YOU LIKE THE RESULTS OF THE SCAN?" "Um... sure?" "DURING YOUR REST, THERE WAS 124,873 DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CHANGES--" "Cube, cut it to the interesting parts, please." "ACKNOWLEDGED. THERE HAS BEEN AN INCIDENCE OF TRIONIC INDUCTION WITHIN 1/2 MILE OF THE SHIP. FURTHER SCANS HAVE INDICATED THAT TRIONIC INDUCTION IS HAPPENING ACROSS THE PLANET'S SURFACE AT SEEMINGLY RANDOM LOCATIONS. HIGH AMOUNTS OF TRIONIC INDUCTION HAS BEEN OCCURRING WITHIN A STRUCTURE ON A NEARBY MOUNTAIN." "Is Trionic watchucallit dangerous?" "NEGATIVE, BUT IT WILL INTERFERE WITH ELECTRONIC SCANS AND LONG-RANGE SENSORS." "Why is this important then?" "TRIONIC INDUCTION DOES NOT OCCUR NATURALLY. TRIONS ARE A BY-PRODUCT OF A HYPER-FUSION REACTION, CAUSED BY SMALL QUANTUM ANOMALIES WITHIN THE REACTOR CORE. FURTHER SCANNING RECOMMENDED." "Alright, I'll make it a point to do sometime, until then, is there a way I can get some weaponry?" James asked, knowing that his luck was bound to run out eventually. "THERE IS A KNIFE IN THE--" "I know about the knife, something with more of a kick, like a plasma thrower or somethin'" "THE REPLICATION UNITS IN THE GALLEY HAVE AN EXTENSIVE LIBRARY OF TEMPLATES, WITH SUFFICIENT ENERGY AND MATERIALS, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A FIREARM WITH SUFFICIENT 'KICK'" "Did you just use my own words against me?" "NEGATIVE, I JUST USED THE WORD METAPHORICALLY, SIMILARLY TO HOW YOU DID." "Fair enough. What materials would the replicators need to make a 'thrower?" "MOST REQUIRED MATERIALS ARE ALREADY ON BOARD. WOULD YOU LIKE A LIST OF MATERIALS NEEDED?" "Yes." The cube begins to spin around, twisting suddenly, then returning to a neutral state. It does this repeatedly, until a list is printed out of one of the many openings in the cube. James looks at the list: ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR A MK-I PLASMA DISCHARGE FIREARM -GOLD, 1.5 mg -COPPER, .5 Kg -EXODIUM -PETROLEUM -CARBON Noticing the missing amounts on several columns, James asked, "Hey, cube, how much exodium would you need?" "ANY AMOUNT VISIBLE TO YOU WOULD BE A SURPLUS FOR THIS PROJECT." "Alrighty then." James folded up the list and put it in his pocket. Exodium was a dark metal typically found near Sathium deposits. Sathium was usually found in asteroids. This would be fun--but before he could ask the cube to scan for Sathium, it blared out "PLASMA IONIZATION IS OCCURRING IN THE LOCAL AREA--WEAPONS SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN ARMED... ENGAGING EVASIVE MANEUVERS." The ship suddenly lurched from its perch in the center of town, throwing James to the floor. He heard the telltale sound of a plasma barrage firing past the hull of the ship. It seemed to miss entirely, whoever fired it didn't expect the ship to suddenly catapult itself up. "RAISING SHIELDS... SHIELDS ARE AT 100%. SCANNING FOR IONIZATION..." the cube chimed. "Are there ANY fucking weapons on this thing?!" "DIRE SITUATION PROTOCOLS ENGAGED... JAMES OAKFIELD, AS CAPTAIN OF THE CRIMSON LANCE, HAS BEEN GIVEN FULL USE OF ANY AND ALL MACHINERY. ENGAGE RETURN FIRE?" "YES, DEAR GOD YES!!" Not before the second "YES" James heard a plate, no, several plates shift on the outside of the hull, then the sound of machinery, followed by the sound of plates once more. Then the sound of plasma casters warming up, followed by the cube "LOCATION IS POPULATED BY CIVILIANS, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?" "Move the fight or something!" "AFFIRMATIVE." The back engines roared to life, just as James managed to stumble into his chair. He looked out the windscreen for any indication of what they were being fired upon by. In the night he couldn't make out much, it was basically useless to try to see anything, anyway, with the ship bobbing around. The ship flew about a mile before re-scanning the area. A barrage of plasma hit the rear shields, followed by the soft thumping of returned caster fire--the cube had seen something--another barrage hit the top shields, and James got a look at their assailant. It was a dark blue horse-thing, with large black wings. It wore blue-ish armor on it's head, also where a long, smooth horn jutted out. It was larger than the previous ponies James met earlier, and it's hair seemed to be made of stars. James told the cube to lock on to it, but the cube failed. A caster barrage flew into the field below, igniting the dry grass. The thing turned in the air, it's horn lit up, and a barrage hit the forward shields. James had an idea, didn't the cube say that trions were detected in the local area? "Cube, scan for trionic distortions!" The cube hummed, then locked on to the creature. The creature turned to make another attack, but the cube was faster--the soft thump-thump of the casters was met with a shrill screech as the creature's shield broke. The thing fell a distance before it flew back into the air. It made a circle around and seemed to be trying for another barrage, but the cube met it halfway. Another screech as its shield broke once more, and it fell. It seemed to fall a farther distance before flying once more, this time away from the ship. It turned, trained its horn to the sky, and pointed it at the ship. "HYPERMATTER WEAPON CHARGING, ENGAGING SHORT-DISTANCE ANSIBLE JUMP," chimed the cube before all was black. The suffocating blackness was all that James saw before all senses came back to him. They were behind the creature now--and not a moment too late--the area they were in was blasted with a massive beam of energy. The creature turned towards the ship, but before James could give the order, before the creature could react, two bright blue balls of plasma hit it directly in the chest, a third grazing the top of its body. The thing fell, smoking, to the ground. The cube scanned the creature. "UNKNOWN CREATURE IS THE SAME SPECIES AS THOSE WE MET EARLIER. THIS ONE IS NOT DEAD, MERELY UNCONSCIOUS. RECOMMENDED ACTION: CONTAIN UNTIL FURTHER INFORMATION CAN BE GATHERED." "How the hell are we going to contain something that can fire plasma at will?!" "A CARGO BAY CAN BE SET WITH AN IONIZATION INHIBITOR AND A FUSION SHIELD IN APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES." "See to it then." James sighed, almost dead two times now?
1. Another day, another dime"Welcome to Avalon Technologies, Mr. Oakfield," the speaker next to the door boomed in a quirky, feminine voice--far too cheery for its otherwise unimportant job--"a package has arrived! I do believe that Mr. Slade requested that you get to work on it immediately!" "Oh, great, my FAAAVorite," said James. James Oakfield was one of the many experimental technologies engineers for Avalon Tech--his badge said that he was "The Head Engineer," but that was a load of bull. He was a fairly thin 25-year old, with sandy blonde hair and a fair complexion, he stood about 6'1" and weighed about 200 flat. Today was Monday, and like usual, he had spent the day before out with the guys--In short, he had a hangover. He was not about to put up with the overly cheery AI that ran the prime functions of Avalon, nor the asinine requests of "Mr. Slade" to sort his paperwork, if Slade was going to be that lazy, he could wait another week. James picked up his toolbox and headed toward the overly-pristine marble staircase that led to his domain. Avalon Tech was the kind of place that focused on first impressions, this was obvious by the pristine marble and granite that seemed to fill the very air. The first level of Avalon was the reception hall--with the receptionist--a middle-aged woman named Christine that everyone seemed to avoid. James never found out why nobody likes Christine, but wasn't the kind of person to start trends. He whispered a quiet "Hullo" to her and continued on his way to the industrial section. On his way there, it began to become obvious where he was heading: burn marks on the walls, the cracked tile in the middle of the floor, the dead plants nobody ever tried to water, and finally Hangar 52-B, his workplace. Hangar 52-B--affectionately nicknamed "The Barracks" or, if the assignment was important,"The Front Lines,"--was the section devoted to experimental Spaceflight designs. It was a large Hangar on the third floor, with two observation rooms on either side of the main hatch. Beyond that, there were rooms for storing tools and spare parts, but not much else. It was usually so dead that the workers would joust with wrenches, screwdrivers, and Creepers, or they would play basketball with the makeshift hoop someone made eons ago, among other things. But not today. No, today the room was filled with very important-looking people in suits, labcoat scientists, and a starship like none he had ever seen before. Something was going on, and it was something big. James grabbed the first person he recognized and asked the obvious question, "What in the hell is going on?!" The man immediately recognized James and shouted, "He's over here!" towards the center of the group. Cue every single eye in the hangar turn to stare directly at James. Just as he was about to crack a joke about washing his hands and looking like he pissed himself, when Dr. Adrian Avalon, Owner of Avalon, came up to him. Dr. Avalon was almost the same height as James, but about twice as wide. He wore a nice suit and a stetson hat. An originally southern man, Dr. Avalon spoke as such. "This here, this is the main engineer of Hangar 52-B, what's yer name again, boy?" Dr. Avalon seemed to be talking to a camera crew that James hadn't noticed originally. "J-James Oakfield." "Ah, Yes, that's it. Well ya see here, Mr. Oakfield, we did some digging and found out that you have some flight training, Now ain't that somethin'?" It was true. James originally wanted to be a pilot for the Intergalactic Federation's Navy, but had to drop out due to some, unfortunate circumstances, mainly, the Federation's breakup. "Now we have developed a new ansi-somethin' and we have decided to let you take the first test run!" bellowed Avalon, this caused a wave of applause from the crowd. "Now git over to them science nerds and have them explain what'cha gonna do." James was shoved over to a waiting group of scientists, and they immediately began rattling off all sorts of technobabble, something about needing to keep the stasis field up. James decided that he was done being in the dark about all of this, "Hold up! Just one second here, what the hell is happening!?" One of the scientists piped up, "We are going to be testing out an Ansible-Drive. It's similar in theory to a warp drive, and you happen to be one of the only people that has had any training with warp drives." "What do you mean 'in theory,' and how am I the ONLY one?" asked James. "Well to put it simply, an Ansible-Drive works off of the same principle of the Ansible, but for objects." "What the hell is an Ansible?" "Instant communication device." "Okay, I understand that you want me to fly this thing, but wouldn't someone, I don't know, MORE QUALIFIED be better?" "That would be the case," stated an irritated scientist, "but our first pick crashed into a tree last night, he's still in the hospital." James noted to never ask this guy for sympathy. "And," started another scientist, "the sensitive nature of this experiment does not allow us to hire outside of the facility." "So, I'm THE option." "Unfortunately." "But," started yet another scientist, "enough with the formalities, we need to give you a tour of the ship." The scientists led James into the starship, the interior was far more spacious than it seemed, but it had all the amenities of a ship: storage, galley, med-bay, bridge, and a main room. Situated in the main room was a large cuboid standing on one end. It looked like something taken straight out of TRON, with light markings over the entire surface except for one circular panel. The hull of the machine was darker than anything James had seen before. It seemed to suck the light right out of the room. After about three hours of briefing, being told how to fly the ship, and finally been given a packet to explain the tests he was to preform on the ship; he found himself in the bridge of the ship. He was to fly it to low orbit and then-- and only then--open the packet, preform the tests, and then write down his observations. This was going to be fun, thought James sarcastically. James pushed the "Activate" button on the console, and the ship came to life. He tested the engines, and they seemed to idle perfectly. So he decided to open the hangar and launch off. The massive doors began lowering until they were even with the ground, klaxons blaring warnings to nobody in particular. The door finally fell with a mighty CLANG; James was free to take off. The Ship flew like many others, it responded instantly to the slightest of movements, and it wasn't long at all before James was in orbit. First things first, he tore open the packet to get his first instruction: Fly a distance of 200m. I've done that by now, thought James, What's the next one? Preform an Aileron Roll. James smirked, "Did it just tell me to do a barrel roll?" Onto the next, and the next, and the next. Nothing exciting, nothing new. He put the packet down on the table, only for it to fall to the floor, scattering papers everywhere. James groaned and began to clean them up when a paper caught his eye. James picked it up, and read it: Engage the Ansible drive, fly a distance, disengage, then return. Now were talking, thought James. Back in the bridge, he punched in the security codes to the Ansible drive and heard something Click, then a humming was heard throughout the ship. James went to see if a micro meteor had punched through the ship, until he saw the cuboid--it became clear what the noise was. The cuboid had opened and now seemed to be orbiting itself. Each and every piece of the cube that was outlined before was now orbiting some central device James couldn't see. James observed as the cube seemed to drift back together, the float apart until it looked like an angry swarm of bees. Bees made of metal and plastic. "Well, the sooner I find out what this thing does, the sooner I get home," said James. "ANSIBLE SYSTEMS ENGAGED; BIOLOGIC DETECTED," the machine stated, "BIOLOGICS ARE REQUIRED TO STAY A MINIMUM OF -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE ACTIVE." Startled, James stated the only thing he could, "What!?" "REPETITION ACKNOWLEDGED; BIOLOGICS ARE REQUIRED TO STAND A MINIMUM OF -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE ACTIVE." "This thing can understand me?" "AFFIRMATIVE; BIOLOGIC IDENTIFIED: JAMES TREVOR OAKFIELD, IDENTIFICATION NUMBER 13545-22354; HEAD ENGINEER OF AVALON TECHNOLOGIES, PROMOTED FROM ENGINEERING FOLLOWING DEATH OF THOMAS J. EVERNIL. IS THIS INFORMATION CORRECT?" "Uh, Yeah, I guess?" "DEFINE 'GUESS'" "Nevermind, The information is correct." "AFFIRMATIVE; JAMES OAKFIELD IS THE PILOT OF TEST VEHICLE." "Pilot?" thought James, "well, if I am the pilot, we need a better name than 'test vehicle.' But what?" He could name it after his dog, skittles. No--skittles was a ridiculous name for a starship. What about from his favorite videogame? Yes that'd do. "Machine, rename the ship: The Crimson Lance," stated James. "AFFIRMATIVE: SHIP PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS 'TEST VEHICLE' SUCCESSFULLY RENAMED 'CRIMSON LANCE" Satisfied with the rename, James decides to get back to his task. But, how does one activate a machine they've never seen before? "Machine, how do you work?" "CLASSIFIED" "Okay, how do I use you?" "WARP DRIVE ENGAGED, ANSIBLE ENGAGED, CHOOSE LOCATION AND ENGAGE POWER SYSTEMS." "What?" "ENGAGE POWER SYSTEMS." James stood by the machine, puzzled about what it wanted, when it hit him. He went back to the bridge and engaged the warp drive. "SYSTEM AT FULL POWER; CHOOSING LOCATION AT RANDOM--LOCATION FOUND--LOCATION CLEAR OF SOLID MATTER--APPROXIMATELY -200- KILOMETERS FROM LOCAL PLANET--ENGAGING MAX ANSIBLE JUMP." James didn't have the time to tell the machine to stop before he felt the world lurch from right underneath him, in an instant he found himself zooming away from the galaxy without a ship. Panic gnawed at his sanity, the world, nay, the universe as he knew it fell from him. Just as he felt he was going to pass out from the stress, he fell back into the ship, unscathed by the event. James promptly found the nearest bathroom and vomited. "ESTIMATED DISTANCE TRAVELED: 5,427,708,944,356 PARSECS," the machine stated, "INSUFFICIENT FUEL TO MAKE SECOND JUMP; ENGAGING AUTO-LAND SEQUENCE ON NEARBY TEMPERATE PLANET; PLANET IS HABITABLE FOR KNOWN BIOLOGICS, TROPICAL ZONE: THIRD LATITUDE." James comes out of the bathroom, shaky on his feet, but alive. "Where could we land? What planet even is this?" "UNKNOWN; UNEXPLORED SPACE; UNKNOWN SECTOR. STRUCTURE DETECTED. LAND NEAR STRUCTURE?" "Define 'structure." "SIMILAR IN APPEARANCE TO A CITY. BIOLOGICS DETECTED WITHIN. EXTRAPOLATION DICTATES IT MAY BE AN ALIEN CITY; LAND NEAR THE CITY?" "NO. We don't even know if the things in the city are friendly, last thing we need is to piss them off somehow." "AFFIRMATIVE. SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATE TOUCH-DOWN LOCATIONS." "You do that, I'm going to get something to eat." Author's Note This is my first story, so expect errors. I am open to constructive critique, not dickish trolling.
2. A whole new, well, everything.James begins working his way towards the galley, wondering what has happened over the last day. He goes to work, like any other day, he heads to the engineering sector, like any other day, and now he's beyond the observable universe, not knowing whether he's going to ever make it back. It was a problem best saved for later, thought James, food awaits. The galley was a medium sized room, with all the furnishings one would expect a ship's galley to have: chairs, table, fridge, stove, and another fridge. In the far end of the room was an odd-looking machine, but since the last odd-looking machine put him in this situation in the first place, James decided to avoid this one. He goes to the first fridge and opens it--nothing. Same with the second fridge. The thought of including a galley without stocked fridges was shocking to say the least. Cravings overriding his fear of machines, James decides to try it. "Hello?" he asks the machine. "ONLINE; REPLICATION MATRIX 001 READY FOR OPERATION." Well, might as well try it, "Can you make a sandwich?" "CAPABLE, INITIATING REPLICATION MATRIX--POWER IS AT FULL. WHITE OR WHEAT BREAD?" "Wheat--I guess." "CONFIRMED. HAM OR SALAMI?" "Salami." "CONFIRMED. REPLICATING." A short hum was heard from the internal workings of the machine, and a few seconds later, a sandwich comes out of an opening. Wheat bread and salami, exactly what James wanted--but, alas, James' mealtime was interrupted by a voice in the speaker system: "TOUCHDOWN LOCATION FOUND, CAPTAIN TO BRIDGE." James sighed, picked up his sandwich, and headed for the bridge. Upon entering the bridge, James immediately went to the cube. "What do you want?" "IRRELEVANT; LOCATION FOUND: A FOREST CLEARING LARGE ENOUGH TO HIDE THE SHIP IN. SUGGESTED TO MOVE DURING THE PLANET'S NIGHT CYCLE TO AVOID DETECTION BY THE LOCALS. IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?" "Y-yeah, sure. Just don't burn the forest down or something." "CONCERNS NOTED. ENGAGING LANDING PROCEDURE." The ship slowly begins descending through the planet's atmosphere, through the cloud layer, and eventually begins to gently hover towards the forest, eventually stopping above the clearing, about two or three miles away from the city. All in all, the planet was very pretty, even at night; the grass stretched out in all directions, except for a small grove of trees near the city, in the distance mountains scraped the sky, and there was smoke coming up from the valley from, what James mused, might be a train, the only thing beyond that was the planet's full moon. James noted that the moon had a very peculiar pattern on it that somewhat resembled a sickle. All this was soon obscured by the trees, and soon, there was nothing more than the light above from the moon. James checked the planet's atmospheric readout and concluded that the atmosphere was breathable. He opened the docking hatch. When the hatch finally opened all the way, James stepped out. The world seemed oddly colorful, like everything had been slightly oversaturated; it made James feel strange, almost happy, and then he remembered just how far up shit creek he was. I'll mull over it in the morning, thought James, right now, I'm going to bed. Sometime during the night James awoke to voices, seemingly from just outside the walls. "D'ya think it's sick?" says one with a feminine voice, clearly accustomed to shouting. "No, it can't be, it's made of metal." Another, more enunciated voice. "Well, it can't be doin' too good, otherwise it'd be breathing or somthin'." A third said, this one with a southern accent. "I think it's a machine," says the second voice, "some kind of flying machine, look, it's got wings." "Who would need a machine to fly?" another voice this time. "Somepony not a pegasus," another stated matter-of-factly. "Oh, that'd make sense." "Umm, guys... I think that it is, um, open over here." a quiet voice stated, closer to the hatch. Shit, thought James, I never closed the hatch! "Good find flut--" the voices trailed off. Shit, shit, shit, I need to do something fast! thought James. "Close the hatch!" he shouts toward the cuboid. "CLOSING HATCH. PLEASE STANDBY." The hatch closes with a THUD, and soon the voices are back. "I think it came from over here!" Something hits the side of the wall. "Don't hit it!" One of them shouts. "What? I didn't dent it or anything." Shouty says, defending herself "Would y'all just shut up?" This time, the southerner. "Girls, girls, let's not fight, I understand it's late, but we need to figure out what this thing is before it ends up flying away, or whatever it does." matter-of-fact's turn "Sorry." three of the voices stated. "Hello," the matter-of-fact voice stated, "is anypony in there?" Shit, what do I do, thought James, For all I know, I'm trespassing in their territory or some shit. "You must be scared, don't worry, we won't hurt you." Yeah, I'm going to believe that. "Well, we don't want to." Hopefully, these things can't read my thoughts. James gets up, goes over to the cube, and asks, "Are there cameras on this thing?" "NEGATIVE." "Any weapons?" "THERE IS A KNIFE IN THE GALLEY. THIRD DRAWER FROM THE ENTRANCE." "No, something on the outside." "ACCESS DENIED - SAFETY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED" Well, shit."Can you tell me how many things are outside the ship right now?" "PLEASE SPECIFY." "The things that have been talking." "UNKNOWN - VOCALIZATIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE DURING THE ENTIRE NIGHT-CYCLE." "The most recent ones; come on computer they speak fucking english!" "PREFORMING SCAN... ... ...THERE ARE SIX LARGER BIOLOGICAL BEINGS OUTSIDE THE QUARTER'S WALL... ... ... ONE APPROXIMATELY 10 METERS ABOVE THE SHIP... ... ...THREE OTHERS ARE DETECTED APPROXIMATELY 1/2 MILE AWAY." "Can you tell if they are armed?" "NEGATIVE, ALL SIX APPEAR TO BE UNARMED, AS FAR AS CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS." "Do you think that I should trust them?" "CAUTION IS ADVISED. UNKNOWN SPECIES, UNKNOWN PLANET, UNKNOWN SYSTEM. IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THEY WOULD LIE, GIVEN THE EVIDENCE, EXTRAPOLATION SUGGESTS THAT THEY HAVE A CURIOUS NATURE." "And what does--" "CAUTION ADVISED FOR PROLONGED EXPOSURE, MINOR TRIONIC READINGS ARE DETECTED ON TWO OF THE CREATURES." James heads back to the quarter-wall, and begins, "How do I know I can trust you?" "HEY! THERE'S SOMEPONY INSIDE OF IT!!" If this is my death, I will never stop haunting Avalon. "Open the hatch." "CONFIRMED, OPENING HATCH. CAUTION ADVISED." As the hatch opened, James had a sight to behold: Four little horses were clustered around the entrance. The one closest to the hatch was purple except for one fuchsia stripe running through her mane, a horn jutted out of her head, and a tattoo of sparkling stars decorated her flank; the next one was white with a purple mane--also with a horn--this one had a tattoo of three diamonds; the next was bright pink with an equally pink, frizzy mane, three balloons decorated her flank, it was worth noting that this one did not seem to stop moving. The next was dull orange, blonde mane, and wore a hat; James couldn't see her tattoo. The other two were out of view. That accounted for all six that the cube mentioned. "You can come out now," stated purple, "we don't want to hurt you." James carefully walked out of the ship, the night was still running strong, but it was quite warm out. There were sounds of the forest, and as soon as James was out of the ship entirely, the hatch began to close. It was nothing but him and six unknown beings. "I'm here, now what?" stated James curtly. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay! I mean you were inside of the thing, and it did fall from the moon!" spoke pink. "I didn't fall, I landed here because my ship ran out of fuel. Had I have fallen, we would-" "What about the other guy?" asked orange. "What other guy?" "The guy who said 'closin' hatch' like it was some big thing." "That was the computer." "Ah. Wait, what's a--" "Anyhow," began purple, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. This is Applejack," she gestures towards orange,"Pinkie Pie," Pink, "Rarity, " White, "And up there is Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was around here somewhere." James looks up to see a blue pony flapping on wings, a prismatic mane, and a cloud/lightning-bolt tattoo on her flank. "And you are?" Twilight asked. "James, James Oakfield." "Well, James, it seems that you're going to be here for the night, since--what was it--your 'ship is out of fuel', and Celestia isn't up until dawn." Although the air quotes had no way of being actually gestured, James still felt the small horse was skeptical of the whole thing. So was James, as a matter-of-fact. And who the hell was Celestia? "Oh, you'll find out in the morning, for now we should try to move your ship somewhere safe; the Everfree Forest is well known for making things vanish." Stated Twilight, somehow knowing the question on his mind. "I can fly it somewhere." "Ah thought you said it was stuck?" Applejack chimed in "Worth a shot. We're not going to carry it far, only God knows how much it weighs." At once, the ship's hatch opens. James gestures toward the ramp, then gets in himself. The ponies follow, except for Rainbow Dash. I'd rather fly my own way back was her reasoning. James takes his position in the seat near the cube. "UNIDENTIFIED CREATURES ONBOARD, FRIEND OR FOE?" "They're friendly enough." "CONFIRMED." "So, where do you want to go?" he asks Twilight. "Just to Ponyville." "Where?" "The nearest city." "Cube, make it so." "AFFIRMATIVE, ENGAGING FLIGHT. ALL BIOLOGIC ENTITIES MUST MAINTAIN A DISTANCE OF NO LESS THAN -2- METERS FROM THE ANSIBLE WHILE IN FLIGHT." "Well, what did any of that mean?" Rarity asked. "Don't get near the spinning thing." "Oh." The ship begins ascending, then the engines reorient, and fire. They are landing in the main square within five minutes. The hatch opens with a loud CLANG on the cobbles below. It was an odd city, every building seemed to be no higher than two stories, and the doorways seemed to be oversized, considering the intended inhabitants. James could easily fit into the buildings. Then James turned to lay his eyes on the biggest tree he'd ever seen. It seems that it was a building of it's own right, complete with a door, windows every so often, and lights galore. "Well, if y'all don't mind, I'ma head home for some shuteye," Applejack said. "Yeah, as much excitement as it has been, the morning is a better time," Rarity's turn. "Yeah, I'll um, see you guys tomorrow." This one must've been Fluttershy, James doesn't remember seeing her get on. "Do you need somewhere to stay? I have some spare room in the library if you need," Twilight offers. "No, I'm good. I got a room in the ship." "Alright, sleep tight-" "BEDBUGS HAVE BEEN ERADICATED, DO NOT MAKE MENTION OF THEM," The computer chimes. "Okay then." James and Twilight say in tandem. With the excitement and oddity of being welcomed by several small horses to a world that James couldn't even fathom, and a promise of yet more excitement the next morning, James heads to his quarters, hoping to wake up from this insanity.
3. The thing about the night...James awoke to find himself back in his studio apartment. This was strange, to say the least, as his last memories were of bedbugs and irradiation. Or something like that. He stands up, goes to his closet, and puts on a shirt--even the closet was exactly as he remembered it, disgusting and disorganized. But everything felt surreal, like it wasn't really there. "Well, I must just be tired," thought James, "I did have the weirdest dream last night," but the odd feeling didn't leave. He felt as though he were being watched, but as he turned, there was nobody in the room with him. Just him and the bed. James checked his Bonsai tree, nothing out of the ordinary, no hidden cameras, nothing. Nothing in the closet either. James looked around very closely, trying to spot something out of place, something hidden, anything really. There was his TV, a mini-fridge that was always unplugged, the Bonsai, and his computer. Wait, a computer? James never owned a computer, he could never wrap his mind around how they worked, nor did he have the patience to figure it out. "Yeah," James' thoughts began, "I own a PS8, not a-" "Do not be afraid." A voice emanated from the walls. "Whointhewhatnow?!" asked a very startled James, "Have I actually lost my sanity?" "No, thy mind is safe, but we doth need thy help." "Okay, talking wall--no, I've dealt with enough insane B-S." James stated bluntly. "You dare to defy us?" said the wall threateningly, "We could turn thy dreams into eternal nightmares!" "Ooh." James shook his hands sarcastically, "I'm so very scared. A fucking wall is going to give me nightmares." "How dare--" "Listen, wall, it was good talking with you and all, but uh- things are a bit too weird for me right now." "You dare to inter-" "G'bye" Immediately after James finished talking, he forced himself to wake up the only way he knew how--Remembering walking in on his grandparents when he was eight. "AAH--holyshit, I'm up." James shuddered, thinking that maybe some repressed memories served a purpose. If nothing else, it would stop any morning wood from growing. James went to the galley to fix himself a cup of coffee. James stood at the--um machine that replicates food? The Replicator? Sure, why not? James stood at the replicator, trying to get it to function. "Hey, machine. Do you know what coffee is?" The machine kicked on. "AFFIRMATIVE, WOULD YOU LIKE A -CUP OF COFFEE-?" "Hell, yes." "INITIATING REPLICATION MATRIX... LOADING MATERIAL CONFIGURATION: COFFEE... INITIALIZING... COMPLETE." An opening in the machine produced a cup of pitch-black elixir. James spent no time getting it out of the machine's opening. "CAUTION ADVISED: LIQUIDS MAY BE HOT," chimed the machine. "Yeah, yeah." James sipped his coffee as he went back to the bridge. He sat down at his chair, turned to face the cube, and spoke, "What time even is it?" "CURRENTLY 04:30. THE LOCAL AREA IS STILL IN A NIGHT-CYCLE." "Thank you." "AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE DONE SOME SCANNING OVERNIGHT, WOULD YOU LIKE THE RESULTS OF THE SCAN?" "Um... sure?" "DURING YOUR REST, THERE WAS 124,873 DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CHANGES--" "Cube, cut it to the interesting parts, please." "ACKNOWLEDGED. THERE HAS BEEN AN INCIDENCE OF TRIONIC INDUCTION WITHIN 1/2 MILE OF THE SHIP. FURTHER SCANS HAVE INDICATED THAT TRIONIC INDUCTION IS HAPPENING ACROSS THE PLANET'S SURFACE AT SEEMINGLY RANDOM LOCATIONS. HIGH AMOUNTS OF TRIONIC INDUCTION HAS BEEN OCCURRING WITHIN A STRUCTURE ON A NEARBY MOUNTAIN." "Is Trionic watchucallit dangerous?" "NEGATIVE, BUT IT WILL INTERFERE WITH ELECTRONIC SCANS AND LONG-RANGE SENSORS." "Why is this important then?" "TRIONIC INDUCTION DOES NOT OCCUR NATURALLY. TRIONS ARE A BY-PRODUCT OF A HYPER-FUSION REACTION, CAUSED BY SMALL QUANTUM ANOMALIES WITHIN THE REACTOR CORE. FURTHER SCANNING RECOMMENDED." "Alright, I'll make it a point to do sometime, until then, is there a way I can get some weaponry?" James asked, knowing that his luck was bound to run out eventually. "THERE IS A KNIFE IN THE--" "I know about the knife, something with more of a kick, like a plasma thrower or somethin'" "THE REPLICATION UNITS IN THE GALLEY HAVE AN EXTENSIVE LIBRARY OF TEMPLATES, WITH SUFFICIENT ENERGY AND MATERIALS, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A FIREARM WITH SUFFICIENT 'KICK'" "Did you just use my own words against me?" "NEGATIVE, I JUST USED THE WORD METAPHORICALLY, SIMILARLY TO HOW YOU DID." "Fair enough. What materials would the replicators need to make a 'thrower?" "MOST REQUIRED MATERIALS ARE ALREADY ON BOARD. WOULD YOU LIKE A LIST OF MATERIALS NEEDED?" "Yes." The cube begins to spin around, twisting suddenly, then returning to a neutral state. It does this repeatedly, until a list is printed out of one of the many openings in the cube. James looks at the list: ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR A MK-I PLASMA DISCHARGE FIREARM -GOLD, 1.5 mg -COPPER, .5 Kg -EXODIUM -PETROLEUM -CARBON Noticing the missing amounts on several columns, James asked, "Hey, cube, how much exodium would you need?" "ANY AMOUNT VISIBLE TO YOU WOULD BE A SURPLUS FOR THIS PROJECT." "Alrighty then." James folded up the list and put it in his pocket. Exodium was a dark metal typically found near Sathium deposits. Sathium was usually found in asteroids. This would be fun--but before he could ask the cube to scan for Sathium, it blared out "PLASMA IONIZATION IS OCCURRING IN THE LOCAL AREA--WEAPONS SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN ARMED... ENGAGING EVASIVE MANEUVERS." The ship suddenly lurched from its perch in the center of town, throwing James to the floor. He heard the telltale sound of a plasma barrage firing past the hull of the ship. It seemed to miss entirely, whoever fired it didn't expect the ship to suddenly catapult itself up. "RAISING SHIELDS... SHIELDS ARE AT 100%. SCANNING FOR IONIZATION..." the cube chimed. "Are there ANY fucking weapons on this thing?!" "DIRE SITUATION PROTOCOLS ENGAGED... JAMES OAKFIELD, AS CAPTAIN OF THE CRIMSON LANCE, HAS BEEN GIVEN FULL USE OF ANY AND ALL MACHINERY. ENGAGE RETURN FIRE?" "YES, DEAR GOD YES!!" Not before the second "YES" James heard a plate, no, several plates shift on the outside of the hull, then the sound of machinery, followed by the sound of plates once more. Then the sound of plasma casters warming up, followed by the cube "LOCATION IS POPULATED BY CIVILIANS, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?" "Move the fight or something!" "AFFIRMATIVE." The back engines roared to life, just as James managed to stumble into his chair. He looked out the windscreen for any indication of what they were being fired upon by. In the night he couldn't make out much, it was basically useless to try to see anything, anyway, with the ship bobbing around. The ship flew about a mile before re-scanning the area. A barrage of plasma hit the rear shields, followed by the soft thumping of returned caster fire--the cube had seen something--another barrage hit the top shields, and James got a look at their assailant. It was a dark blue horse-thing, with large black wings. It wore blue-ish armor on it's head, also where a long, smooth horn jutted out. It was larger than the previous ponies James met earlier, and it's hair seemed to be made of stars. James told the cube to lock on to it, but the cube failed. A caster barrage flew into the field below, igniting the dry grass. The thing turned in the air, it's horn lit up, and a barrage hit the forward shields. James had an idea, didn't the cube say that trions were detected in the local area? "Cube, scan for trionic distortions!" The cube hummed, then locked on to the creature. The creature turned to make another attack, but the cube was faster--the soft thump-thump of the casters was met with a shrill screech as the creature's shield broke. The thing fell a distance before it flew back into the air. It made a circle around and seemed to be trying for another barrage, but the cube met it halfway. Another screech as its shield broke once more, and it fell. It seemed to fall a farther distance before flying once more, this time away from the ship. It turned, trained its horn to the sky, and pointed it at the ship. "HYPERMATTER WEAPON CHARGING, ENGAGING SHORT-DISTANCE ANSIBLE JUMP," chimed the cube before all was black. The suffocating blackness was all that James saw before all senses came back to him. They were behind the creature now--and not a moment too late--the area they were in was blasted with a massive beam of energy. The creature turned towards the ship, but before James could give the order, before the creature could react, two bright blue balls of plasma hit it directly in the chest, a third grazing the top of its body. The thing fell, smoking, to the ground. The cube scanned the creature. "UNKNOWN CREATURE IS THE SAME SPECIES AS THOSE WE MET EARLIER. THIS ONE IS NOT DEAD, MERELY UNCONSCIOUS. RECOMMENDED ACTION: CONTAIN UNTIL FURTHER INFORMATION CAN BE GATHERED." "How the hell are we going to contain something that can fire plasma at will?!" "A CARGO BAY CAN BE SET WITH AN IONIZATION INHIBITOR AND A FUSION SHIELD IN APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES." "See to it then." James sighed, almost dead two times now?
