Chapters Twilight Accidentally Teleports To Some Crazy Rimworld Colony.
Twilight was astonished, she did it. After months of research, she finally developed a teleportation enhancing device. The first ever magical device that can enhance magic without the use of curses or physiological manipulation.
"I did it, Spike! I did it!" She flailed her limbs and spun in circles like she was trying to shake off an eagle that was clawing her eyes out.
Spike wasn't nearly as enthused. "Alright, you did it. Calm down. I'm right here."
Twilight was visibly shocked at Spikes lack of excitement. "Do you not realize what this means?!"
Spike rolled his eyes. "I get it. You made a magic enhancing thing. I understand that you're excited, but you need to quiet down before you wake up all the neighbors."
Twilight ignored him. She wanted to test it out immediately. "Spike, get me my supply bag!"
"Wait, you're doing this now? What if something bad happens and we won't see you again for a long time?"
Twilight's smile dissipated. "That's exactly why I need a supply bag. It's a safety precaution."
Spike tossed the pack onto the floor. "Alright, well, I just want you to know that if I never see you again...
Twilight giggled. "Spike, I'm going to be fine, really. You don't have to worry."
Spike relaxed a bit. "Okay, you know what you're doing." He started walking to the door.
"Where are you going?" Twilight asked, confused.
"Rarity's. I'll be home before you get back."
Twilight nodded and opened her bag. "Alright, 48 hours of food, check. Tent and sleeping bag, check. Toolkit, check. Tailoring kit, check. Flashlight, check..." She continued like this for a while until she started pondering whether or not she should bring more. "I guess I could bring more water, in case I end up in a hot, dry area." she thought about worst case scenarios. The word "desert" stuck out in her mind as something she would hate to be sent to. Without realizing, she muttered the word "desert" under her breath, completely forgetting about the device strapped to her horn.
BLEEP - "Teleporting to desert" Twilight's eyes bulged open.
BLEEP - "Location 'desert' not specified. Selecting random desert location." BLEEP
"No! Wait!" She instinctively hugged her open bag, trying to close it as fast as possible to avoid losing any precious supplies before everything went black for what felt very long.
*** Hour 12, Day 1 of Jugust
Twilight awoke to a blinding light and an irritation in her skin. She felt the course, rough sand under her body. Already she started to feel thirsty. "Where...?" She looked around, all she could see was sand. Miles and miles and miles of sand. "No..." Her heart was racing. "No!" She got up from the ground. "Spike!" She screamed. "SPIIIKE!!!" Tears were forming in her eyes. She was terrified. She had no idea where she was and was uncertain if she could survive long enough to find any sign of life. Her breathing was sharp and each breath caked her throat with dry, dry air. "What do I do?! Where do I go?!" She touched her horn. The device was burnt out. She looked around. Absolutely nothing could be seen, except completely flat, dry hot sand. She strained her eyes, she could see the small amounts of dry clouds in the sky moving in one direction. It was a stretch, but maybe they were leading to a large body of water somewhere. She reached down to pull up her bag. "What?" Her bag was light. About half the weight that it was before. "Why is my bag so light?" It suddenly dawned on her. "It... It can't be." The realization almost made her collapse. She was on another planet. A planet with half the gravity of Equus. Questions hammered away at her brain. "Does this planet even have life?! No, it has to, otherwise I wouldn't be able to breath. But what if that life is so far away that I'll never reach it? Is a life without anyone else even be worth living? Will I ever get home?!" She grabbed her bag and ran off in the direction of the clouds. At least she can run faster under her new weight.
*** Hour 16, Day 1 of Jugust
She was almost entirely out of water. She has been running for hours, stopping only to urinate. She was slowly, but steadily loosing all hope of finding anything. Even if something was there, the sun's radiation would likely cover it up anyways, which is exactly what happened. Something tripped her and she collapsed, filling her mouth with sand. "BLEAGH!" She tried spitting it out, but her dry mouth stuck to it like glue. She used the last of her water to wash it out and spit it into the ground. "What was that?" She turned around to look at the ground. It was covered with a massive trail of hoof prints. Her ears perked and she smiled for the first time since she got here. "Ponies..." She immediately took off, following the trail in the direction the prints were going.
*** Hour 18 Day 1 of Jugust
The sun was starting to set, it was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it will become colder, but she wouldn't be able to see as well. She was so thirsty that she wouldn't care too much anyway. The ground was beginning to feel clumpier. Hopefully, this was a sign that it would become wetter as she progressed. She started seeing cacti, dried weeds, and dirt. It was a dream come true. She considered drinking cactus juice, but she decided not to. She had no idea if they were poisonous or not. Once, the light was gone completely, she turned on her flashlight. She wouldn't dare go to sleep without getting something to drink first, otherwise, she might never wake up.
*** Hour 19 Day 1 of Jugust
It was now completely dark, her mouth was starting to crack and bleed. Her eyes were unfocused and her skin was sunburned. She was minutes away from just collapsing and giving up, until she saw a light in the distance, emanating from behind a structure. She saw an opening in a large granite brick wall, surrounded by sandbags. She was saved. She ran into the opening.
*BEBEEP* Five automated machine gun turrets all spun around to face her.
Twilight Accidentally Teleports To Some Crazy Rimworld Colony.
*** Hour 19, Day 1 of Jugust
It was like something out of a movie, hails of bullets came flying from every direction, pounding at the dirt and walls, narrowly missing Twilight as she desperately stumbled back through the opening and collapsed behind the sandbags. Her ears were ringing and a trickle of blood poured down the side of her head. She stayed motionless for about 5 minutes before the adrenaline wore off allowing her to feel any pain. "Ahhh..." She squealed under her breath. She reached her hoof up to her ear. She felt nothing but a soaked lump of twisted cartilage. "Why...?" She wanted to cry, but her body was so dehydrated that she couldn't.
***Hour 20, Day 1 of Jugust
Engie sat at his workbench, grinning maliciously as he stitched together his new cowboy hat. "This is what you get for refusing to clean, you worthless druggie." He snickered, looking over at his acquaintance. "How do it look?"
Clam looked up from her medical bed, using the one eye that's not hanging out of it's socket. Her voice sounded like she drank fossil fuel. "You do know we have an entire room stored with dozens of different kinds of animal leather. Why do you have to use human skin to make clothes. No one else wants to wear that shit."
He laughed loud enough to hurt Clam's damaged eardrums. "Whatever, more nice clothes for me."
Jon entered the workshop carrying what looked like a piece of bloody purple skin. "Hey guys, I found this laying in our killbox after the turrets discharged. We need to hunt whatever animal this belongs to immediately. It's been a while since I've eaten meat that wasn't from a person or a giant ant. Engie sneered and threw a bolt action rifle at Jon.
"You're the best shot in the colony. You do it, we got more important things to worry about." Clam looked at Jon.
"You're saying this animals is new? We should investigate. Maybe it could produce some sort of natural fuel that we could use for out generators. Or maybe it has a horn we could sell for a lot of silver."
Jon wasn't paying attention. He was already out the door, mouth watering for the fine meal he visioned himself preparing. He made his way over to the killbox and opened the front door. He flipped the switch to turn off the turrets and walked out over the sand bags, smelling the fresh air for the first time in a while. Even though it was 50 degrees outside, I was still nicer than the barracks. He heard panicked breathing coming from behind him. Fearing the worst, he spun around, pointing his rifle at the source. What he saw puzzled him. It was a small purple equine creature with wings and a horn, but that wasn't what he found confusing. She was staring at him with intense fear. Not an animal's fear, but the expression of a person who's life was about to end. He didn't know why he did it, or what he was expecting, but he uttered his favorite phrase.
"Howdy..."
Twilight's expression changed from sheer terror, to worried confusion. "Uhhh... Hi?"
Jon should have been shocked, but after years of living on this crazy planet, fighting armies of hundreds of capybaras, and getting solar eclipses the lasted for days, nothing surprised him anymore. "You look thirsty."
Twilight's eyes fluttered with hope. "You're Celestia damned right I'm bucking thirsty."
Jon crouched down and offered her his flask. Twilight drank the whole thing, only stopping to talk breaths.
"Thank you. Thank you so much..." She hugged him tightly. This time Jon was actually shocked. He hasn't been hugged for hundreds of years since before his mother died on the urbworld he grew up on. It was the first time he's ever been shown any affection on the rim.
"Umm... You're welcome?" He pushed her off and starting rummaging her bag, his eyes lighting up upon seeing the packaged survival meals stored in her bag. "Bingo."
Twilight looked appalled. "Hey! That's my stuff!"
Jon giggled. "Sorry, lavender. Out here, people take what they want because nobody can stop them. You best learn to deal with it." He shoveled Twilight's daisy sandwiches into his mouth.
Twilight Accidentally Teleports To Some Crazy Rimworld Colony.
***Hour 10, Day 2 of Jugust
"And this is our prosthetics bench, where we make limbs to give our colonists." Jon said, pointing at the rectangular table.
"You mean to tell me that people get injured here so frequently that you thought it was necessary to construct a production table just to counter it?" Twilight inquired.
"Yeah, we even have another one for our animals. My girlfriend's dog has only one good leg left." Jon said, snickering.
"How is that even possible?! Kind the buck kind of stuff happens here?!" Twilight yelled.
"Well, yesterday. Our base got attacked by elephants. They stormed in the front gate and destroyed our solar panels, before they died from bleeding to death by their bullet wounds. Unfortunately, we were so busy repairing and rebuilding, we forgot to butcher the carcasses. Literal tons of food perished in the heat." Jon said.
Twilight grimaced at the gruesome depiction. "I take it you are all omnivores, correct?" Twilight asked. Jon nodded.
"I'm getting the impression that you are having trouble producing food. Have you tried growing vegetables?"
Jon groaned. "You think we haven't thought of that? The soil here is so dry and toxic, we wouldn't be able to grow anything."
"Have you tried making hydroponics?" Twilight asked.
Jon stared at the wall. "Well, we considered it, but we don't have enough steel to build the basins, and the cost of maintaining a sunlamp would be too taxing on our limited power supply. Not to mention the amount of effort it would take to fertilize this poisonous earth would not be worthwhile, especially since we haven't even attempted to collect any seeds or cultivate the local plants yet."
"You seem well educated. How could someone like you stand to live in a place like this?" Twilight asked, glancing at all the bizarre machines in the room.
Jon snickered. "To be honest, I prefer this place to the urbworld I used to live on."
"Urbworld? Wait, you used to live on another planet?! How could you even live long enough to travel from one habitable planet to another?!"
Jon smiled proudly. "Funny you should mention that. I'm actually 721 years old. Although I was frozen for most of it." Twilight shook her head, that was a question for another day.
"What in that door over there?" she asked, pointing at the large double door in the end of the hallway.
Jon laughed nervously. "Uhh... That's our prison."
Twilight tensed up. "Prison? For who?"
"For the people who attack us."
"Why would anyone attack you?" Twilight asked nervously.
"Because they want our shit."
"Can't you convince them to just leave you alone? Wait, why do you even hold on to them in the first place?"
Suddenly, a dark thought entered Twilight's mind. "You... You don't hurt them, do you?"
Jon started sweating. "Well, I don't personally."
"What do the other colonists do to the captives?" Anger was growing in her voice.
"Well, you know how I said it was hard to get food?" Twilight's heart stopped.
"You don't..." Twilight's eyes were wide. Jon sat down on his ostrich leather armchair and scratched his neck.
Twilight's legs started to wobble and she grabbed the side of the marble table. "That's so..." She started to retch, but she hasn't eaten in 24 hours, so nothing came up.
"You... Lock them away... So you can... You can... Keep them fresh..."
"Hey, a man's got to eat, you know." Jon was taking offense. He couldn't understand what the problem was. He was here for so long that the thought of eating another person was nothing more than a necessity. Something he could justify.
A string of bile exited Twilight's mouth and splatted on the smooth stone floor. "That's so... Horrible." Tears started pouring down her face. Her breathing was becoming pained. "How?! How could you do something like this?! How could you treat a fellow human being like livestock?!"
Jon gave Twilight a stern look. "Look, you have no right to tell us what we can and can't do. This is the Rim, there are no rules here. Only the strong can survive. You need to toughen up."
Twilight stumbled away. "I need to lay down..."
Twilight Accidentally Teleports To Some Crazy Rimworld Colony.
*** Hour 9, Day 3 of Jugust
Twilight sat at the dinner table. All of her new comrades already ate their meals and went on with their days. She stared at the simple meal in front of her. It was a hunk of human leg. After going almost 3 days without eating, it almost looked appetizing. This did nothing make Twilight feel terrible about herself. She lifted the fork and knife with her shaky magic. It took her 30 seconds to cut off one peace. She was sweating profusely out of every part of her body. The fork came towards her mouth. Disgust, shame, guilt and despair was all she feel. Her jaw was trembling. "I'm... Sorry... Nameless man..." She bit down on the meat. It tasted delicious. She hated how wonderful it tasted. She hated herself. She wished she was the one getting chopped up instead. After about 45 minutes, long after the food got cold, she finally finished. She looked at her empty plate. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She cried for hours.
*** Hour 13, Day 3 of Jugust
Twilight has been hiding in her room for almost the entire time she's been on this planet. Her dazed condition for the most part, went unnoticed by the colonists.
"I still think we should put her to work, otherwise she's just eating our food for nothing." Rickie said, while chopping up granite chunks for building material.
Clam nodded her head. Her new bionic eye was the only thing lighting up the room. "We should at least make her haul or clean. You don't think she's incapable of dumb labor, do you?"
Jon chimed in. "Actually, while I was getting to know her, she seemed to give off the impression that she was very intellectual person. Maybe we could have her researching new technologies for us."
Rickie laughed. "You're just saying that so you can do something else. I seriously don't think this alien child can be smarter than any of us."
Jon spit a tooth out of his mouth. It wasn't his. "Actually, she's 27. And apparently she's also royalty where she comes from."
Rickie turned off her machine and walked over to twilight's dorm. "No wonder she's such a whinny cunt."
She slammed on the door. "Hey, purple! If you're going to be staying here and eating our food, you better be pulling your weight! Jon has some schematics he wants you to look at! Get out here!"
*** Hour 16, Day 3 of Jugust
Twilight's hair was messy with strings popping up from every angle. She looked at the blueprints laid out on the table. "What the buck is this supposed to be?" She asked without any care for Jon's feelings.
Jon scowled. "Well, it's a design for a ground penetrating scanner. We couldn't find enough ore inside the limited hunks of sandstone scattered around the region, so I thought, maybe we could dig deep down into the ground if we just knew where the ore pockets are."
Twilight sighed. "I'll look it over and see if anything stands out as a flaw to fix."
Jon walked to the door. "Thanks, Twi." Twilight winced at the nickname. It reminded her of her friends. How she'll almost certainly never see them again.
"Oh, and by the way, I found a cargo pod of some beats a couple hours ago. Nobody here likes beats, so you can eat all of them. They would probably last you about a week."
Twilight wheezed out a pained laugh. She wouldn't have to eat the flesh of another sapient creature again. At least not for a while. "Thank you, Jon."
