A Changeling In Spaceby WonderboltWingChapters000102030000 The changeling stirred slowly, letting out a quiet whine as she curled up tighter. "Hng… five more minutes, mom," she groaned, rolling over on the hard, cold floor. "System is offline. Please reboot." "H-huh?" she murmured, forcing her eyes open. That wasn't right. Her hive walls were notably not made out of metal. The changeling's eyes flew open, and she shot up onto four hooves, nearly falling over in the process. She was standing on a slightly raised platform in a small, cold metal room. There were lights above her, faintly on and flickering an off-white. This was certainly not her hive. "To reboot the system please interact with the console," came a monotone voice from the other side of the doorway. Her breath hitched, and she took a half step back. She couldn't hear her hive; she was in somewhere strange and darkly lit and there was probably a pony in the room next to her. Her cyan glowing eyes frantically darted around the room, spotting a blank panel extruding from the wall, as well as a roughed up looking sword leaning against the wall. She quickly hobbled over to it, her horn lighting up as she attempted to channel a levitation spell. Her horn shorted a moment after it lit up, and a white hot pain arched out from it to the rest of her body, causing her to scream. She immediately crumpled to the ground, tears stinging her eyes, her horn aching. A soft whimper escaped her as she sniffled, her eyes cracking open slowly, blinking several times to clear them. "Wh-what's wrong with my h-horn?" She tried her best to look up at it, only able to see the point of it. Using a hoof to carefully feel around it resulted in another pain spike, albeit a duller one, prompting a yelp, the appendage pulling back to her chest quickly. She bit her lip out of an anxious habit she’d picked up from somebuggy. If her horn didn't work, that meant she wouldn't be able to use magic. She whimpered. Far away from the depths of her hive, with no communication, no magic? She didn’t stand much luck with whatever had stolen her away. After a moment, she pulled herself back onto her hole filled legs, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "Please reboot system," came a monotone voice that she couldn’t pin down the gender of. Her head flicked back to the doorway where it had come from, ears flicking up. As quietly as she could, she crossed the remaining distance to the sword, her eyes glancing over the details of it, her eyes adapted for the darkness. It would have been quite a fine work of art many years ago. But since the time of its creation, the sword had seen many a battle and had more than its fair share of scars. It had a matte black metal handle, with a metallic bronze handguard and pommel. The blade itself looked to be made of steel, and had lots of little chips missing from the edge, and a crack or two running through it. She leaned her head down to the grip of it, and tentatively picked it up with her mouth, shivering at the coldness of it. The cold steel was unnerving, but at the same time reassuring, despite the way it sapped the heat away from her maw. Now ‘armed’ with a weapon, the changeling made her way towards the other room. Stepping through the door, she found it was nigh identical the same as the previous one, though it was longer. That is to say, it was basically pitch black. She slowly moved forward, her gaze flicking about from corner to corner, as to spot anything coming at her from the darkness. A small stretch of wall ahead of her suddenly lit up, casting a dull blue glow across the area in front of it. "System reboot required," the voice spoke again. The sword was pointed in the direction of the light, and the brave little bug spoke up. “W-who a-are you? What d-do you want?” A clatter of metal on metal made her yelp, jumping up and back, her little wings buzzing in distress. In her haste to ask questions, she’d managed to forget that her only defence - the sword she had been holding in her mouth - needed to be held in her mouth. She went stock still, her gaze now fixed on the panel, which lit up after a few seconds of silence. “Please reboot system.” She couldn’t stay still forever, no. Curiosity eventually took a hold of her, so she shuffled forward, raising a hoof to the panel that kept lighting up. The raised hoof gently pressed against the cool, glassy material, causing the screen to go dark. While Changelings like herself were brought up in the darkness of the deep underground, there was almost always some source of illumination. Here, though? There was no light; there was nothing. Everything went quiet, the gentle vibrations of whatever she was on petering out to nothing. Her hoof retracted to her chest, and suddenly she was hyper-aware of how much sound she was making, her heart beating loudly, the ichor pumping through her veins, her breathing; everything sounded so much louder. Never had she felt such lack of anything. With a gentle buzz, the screen she had touched began to scroll white text at a pace she couldn't even remotely keep up with. As time went on, the minutes feeling longer than they had any right to, the sound and light slowly returned. The lights flicked from what was well under quarter-power to full, and she hissed as they burnt her eyes. "Reboot complete," a mare's voice spoke this time, clearer. "Greetings Captain, I am S.A.I.L., your Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice. I manage the maintenance of your ship." "Wh-what?" The nymph shook her head as her eyes adjusted to the bright light, slowly making out the blue colored pony displayed on-screen. "I am also programmed to offer you information and advice." "O-okay..." She murmured, tone laced uncertainty. The pony seemed familiar. "The ship's navigation systems are damaged for unknown reasons. Our current location is unknown." She took a step back, her brow furrowing as she racked her mind for who this pony was. Then it hit her. 'SAIL' was none other than one of the Diarchs of Equestria, Princess Luna. With a cry of terror, she scrambled back into the other room nearly slipping twice, completely forgetting the sword. "Captain, are you feeling well?" Came SAIL's voice, flat with a touch of concern, prompting a whimper from the little bug. Said changeling remained silent, trying to curl tighter into herself, a gentle whimper leaving her. "Captain?" Cautiously, she peeked through the holes in her legs, her terrified gaze set towards the wall-mounted panel. Why hadn’t she moved? "Captain, I know you're there." The changeling 'eep'ed, and attempted to curl further, finding herself unable to go any tighter without pain. The A.I. sighed audibly, a crackly sound that more than hinted to her displeasure. "If you wish to cower in the corner, Captain, that is fine. But if you don't get up, this unit will crash into the planet. Neither of us will survive." Her eyes widened, ears perking and blood running cold. "Wh-what? What d-do you mean...?" "With our current heading and speed, we will slowly spiral towards the planet below and impact it within approximately..." The A.I. paused for a moment to calculate. "Eighty-two hours, thirty-four minutes and three seconds. Shall I set a timer, Captain?" She got up slowly, moving closer to the other room, where the... Luna-Not-Luna was. "Um… O-okay," she spoke slowly, peeking her head around the corner, ears flat against her head. The image of Princess Luna onscreen ducked down out of sight for a second, before reappearing, holding a digital clock, counting down. "Timer set for Eighty-two hours, thirty-three minutes and fourty-seven seconds." The changeling suppressed a shudder, looking away, then suddenly pausing, murmuring an “oh no.” "Is there something wrong, Captain?" SAIL inquired, the little sprite looking at her. "I don't know how I got here," she responded after a moment. "Last night I was in my bed at the hive, snuggled up in my bla-'' She gasped. "By the hives! Everyling else must be worried about me!" The AI's facial expression changed from passive to a frown upon hearing her. "I find myself in a similar situation." "Huh?" The changeling's head snapped up to the small screen. "There is evidence of tampering with my code. I have no record of anything prior to my boot sequence. As well as that, there has been an unauthorized modification to my AI core." The nymph blinked, looking rather lost. "I think I only got half of that," she muttered. "Nevermind, Captain." There was a whirring, a buzzing, and the sound of air displacement from the other room, causing the changeling to let out a girlish scream, and dart into the corner. "...the teleporter is now online, Captain," The AI informed, a note of amusement audible. "As of current, only the planet below is accessible. I suggest you beam down and collect any resources possible to prevent planetary impact." The changeling jolted up and into action at the reminder of impending doom. "Yes! Good idea!" She immediately headed into the room, and stood on the glowy blue pad in the center of it. The AI let out a sigh. "Captain, you will need supplies. There is a small cache in the locker left behind by-" The last word she said came out as a garbled mess of static. "...oh," she said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. before heading to the locker. After a few seconds of fiddling with the dang thing, she opened it. There wasn't much inside. Just four labelled cans, a flashlight, a weird bronze u-shaped thing and a screwdriver. She picked up one of the cans carefully, holding it close to her nose. "That's odd," she murmured. "What is, Captain?" "I can, um, feel love in these cans." The AI was perplexed. "Pardon, Captain? What do you mean?" The changeling looked up at the small screen. "Well, um, you see, Changelings are a race of emotivores, and love is our main food source, g-generally." The screen played an animation of SAIL writing something down in a book, a quill in hoof and reading glasses perched on her muzzle. "Interesting," it murmured. A small smile made its way onto the changeling's face. "Cute," she mumbled. "Me?" SAIL queried, not looking up from her book. The changeling froze. "Wh-what? I-i didn't s-say anything! Nothing w-what so ever!" The pony onscreen raised an eyebrow, shutting the book and looking up at the bug. "Right." "Yes," she nodded in agreement, then coughed into her hoof. "A-anyway," she picked up the rest of the cans, looking around, then putting them back down. "I don't know where to put these." “I believe I may be able to synthesize a solution,” SAIL said after a few seconds. “I have been scanning you, and should be able to adapt a bag design to your form.” “You can do that? Here?” “Correct, Captain.” Author's Note Haha! Surprise! Instead of doing something clever and working on 06 for RaS, I dun did make a new story! Totally not because I fixed my Starbound workshop mods which happen to have a ponies mod race causing me to be like "you know what this is a great idea I'll do that". Totes. Revised as of 17th Jan, 2021. Huzzah! Thanks to my boyfriend for proofreading this at two in the morning! 0101 “So…” The changeling paced back and forth on the metal flooring, pausing to glance at the panel where the AI’s avatar was. “You’re sure this’ll work?” “I am, Captain,” SAIL reassured yet again. “The design in my databanks should fit.” “...alright,” she murmured, looking around the room again, then back to the wall mounted locker, one of her ears flicking due to the strange buzzing noise it was creating. The locker opened after a minute of buzzing, revealing a small set of saddlebags. “Woah…” She murmured, quickly crossing the distance and reaching out a hoof to pick them up. “You did this?” “Correct, Captain.” They were incredibly light, made out of a matte black material she didn’t recognize. It felt like some sort of fabric, but that was as far as she was willing to guess. The nymph turned the bags over in her hooves a few times, inspecting them, before attempting to put them on. Keyword; attempting. SAIL spoke up after a long moment. “Captain,” SAIL spoke clearly, making sure she had the bug’s full attention. She paused her awkward wriggling on the floor, her hind leg stuck in a strap, looking back at SAIL. “Take them off, flip them, and try again. This strap -” She brought up the schematics of the saddlebags, highlighting a particular part, “- needs to wrap around your abdomen.” She blinked. “I knew that,” she said, carefully untangling herself and fixing the bags according to the AI’s instructions. “Of course,” SAIL agreed. The panel near the front of the ship let out a chirping beep right as she pulled the last strap into place. “Eighty two hours remaining, Captain,” SAIL informed smoothly. The ‘ling felt a shiver run down her spine, making her carapace feel all tingly. “I… I should probably get going, y-yeah?” “Affirmative, Captain,” SAIL nodded, the locker opening at her unseen touch. “Your supplies..” She lit her horn, grabbing a can of Campbelle’s Compressed Love®™, the flashlight and that weird, bronze ‘u’ thingy, which SAIL had said was a “Standard Issue Protectorate Matter Manipulators.” Carefully stuffing them into her saddlebags and closing them with a resounding ‘click’, she turned to the room where she’d woken up, suppressing a shiver of nervousness. “Ssooo, I just go and stand on the... glowy thingy…?” She asked, not able to guise the nervousness in her voice as she trotted up to it. “Correct, Captain.” “Alrighty then,” she murmured, taking the last few steps onto the teleporter pad. “Powering up teleporter. Please keep all four hooves inside the vehicle at all times,” SAIL droned. “Vehicle?” “Three… Two… One… Teleporting. Good luck, Captain.” And with that, the changeling let out a whimper before experiencing the feeling of being ripped apart and whisked away. Some teleportation trips came with a mild side effect of hallucinations during the beaming process. This trip was one of those. She was floating in space, a million lights visible in the distance, shining gently. Slowly spinning around, a star came into view, burning a bright yellow, a planet a few seconds later. It kind of reminded her of Equis. Oh. It was Equis. Her eyes widened, and she reached a holed hoof out towards it as she slowly span out of view of it. Something wet ran down her cheek. She hadn’t realized she’d been crying. A strangled sob left her throat as she realized just how far away from home she was. With a ‘whump’ of displaced air, she was deposited none too gently onto the ground, the sky around her suddenly changing from the oppressive cold and nothing of space to the warm, open skies of the planet she was on. A few more sobs left her before she mustered the will to get up. She was on top of a small hill, with rolling green landscapes as far as she could see, plenty of shrubbery smattered around, and a forest in the distance to her right. There were few creatures roaming near her, a small pack of bunnies and some orange blob things that gave her a weird feeling. The only thing that stood out was the rundown looking structure at the top of a very tall hill. The sound of birdsong floated gently down on the breeze, bringing a weak smile to her face. She slowly sat up, her ears twitching as she took in the sights, sounds, and smells of this new place. With the last sniffle out of her system, she rubbed her eyes free of any tears, blinking wearily afterwards. A sudden displacement of air next to her caused her to jump, hissing out of surprise. Next to her was her sword, blade end sunk a hoof’s length in the ground, a blue sticky note attached to the hoofguard. “You forgot this, Captain”, it read in perfect cursive. “Oops,” she mumbled to herself, picking up the sword and carefully placing it in what was evidently a holster built into the bags, sheathing it between her flank and the bag. She took a deep breath in, standing up, and focusing her gaze on the structure up the hill. With a final buzz of effort, the changeling made clear of the ledge, landing on top with a dull thud and a groan. “i should...probably exercise...a little more...” she panted out, her forked tongue sticking out like a dog’s. “Noted, Captain,” SAIL’s voice said from behind her, causing her to yelp, then cough violently for a few seconds. After recovering, she glared at her saddlebags, where the AI’s face was displayed. “D-don’t scare me like that.” “Apologies, Captain,” the pony on the screen looked somewhat downcast. “I was just about to inform you, my scans indicate there is some kind of archaic energy source approximately six point three four kilometers south-south-east from here. I estimate a 62% chance it is worth investigating, and a 37% chance you have nothing better to do.” She blinked, processing what the AI had told her, before pouting. “...but I just climbed up this massive hill. It took like, ages!” “From the surface scans I have completed, Captain, I believe the path you took was one with the most resistance. Also, there are stairs just over there.” She slowly turned her head to ‘over there’. The metal stairs blended in pretty well with the rock, but now stood out as they mocked her for being so very not perceptive. She glared back at them, and shakily got back up back on her hooves. “Stupid stairs,” she muttered, and turned her attention to the reason why she had climbed the hill in the first place. In front of her was an ancient looking structure, mainly comprised of blue-black large stone bricks, with regularly placed rotten wooden support beams. The tower was tall and squarish, with a raised hemisphere nestled at the top, a gap splitting the hemisphere into two even parts down the center. “Woah,” She murmured softly, her hooves compacting the loose dirt under her as she slowly trotted inside. The doorway was empty, the door itself having rotted off the hinges years ago. A beam of sunlight shone in behind her, lighting up a small portion of the room in front of her, while also illuminating the dust particles in the air. She took a tentative step inside, before taking a few more. Within moments, the changeling was standing in the center of the cramped droom. Inside the room was nothing of interest, with the sole exception of the being a banner that hung above the entrance, somehow in better condition than the rest of the building. It was a deep blue color, with the new moon placed in the centre. She stared at it for a bit, her eyes quickly adjusting to the low light levels, before she moved straight forward slowly, towards the next room. Her eyes darted around side to side for she had a sudden moment out thought. Reaching back, she fiddled with the opening mechanism on the back, to no avail. “Push in and twist to the left, Captain,” SAIL reminded her softly after a few more moments. “Oh.” There was the sound of the lock clicking a second later. “...thanks.” “Never a problem, Captain.” She smiled for a moment, before returning her focus back to her previous task. Worming her hoof through the bag, she felt around for a good minute, before pulling out a flashlight. With a simple click, it turned on, lighting up the darkness to the left of her. She grinned. Author's Note Revised as of 5th Match, 2021. No boyfriend to proofread, so this one isn't proofread. I'll ask someone at some point, probably. 0202 With the torch firmly grasped, the nymph took a single step forward into the darkened room, twisting her head to light up the area in front of her. The room was cylindrical in nature, with enough room to fit about three changelings end to end, at best. In front of her was an old looking staircase made of wood, with a fair few of the steps laying on the floor, rotted away. She shone the light upwards, her eyes straining somewhat to see. The staircase went up for what she assumed to be several stories, before coming to a landing, with a door leading out. The ‘ling stared at for a solid minute, before turning around and walking out of the room. She’d come back later. “Hmm…” She looked to the left, then to the right. “Which way…?” SAIL spoke up, the voice soft. “Perhaps the left?” She blinked, looked back at the bags for a moment, then to the left. “That works.” She slowly trotted to the door, holding the flashlight a bit awkwardly in her mouth, having to angle her head so that the beam shone ahead of her. The doorframe was really just a frame, as the door was on the ground rotting away, having fallen off its hinges years ago. She stepped over it carefully, brushing a bit of mane out of her eyes as she looked around the room. Dust had been stirred up by her presence, and the light illuminating it made it look a little mystical. The room had what must have been a very good quality table, as it was still standing, if only just. The chairs that were around it had long since rotted away, like most of the building, and were in small piles. She slowly walked over to the middle of the room, looking down on the table, bringing up a hoof to quickly adjust the torch so that it didn’t fall out. On the top of the table was a few bowls, and a single scrap of paper that was in a see-through packet, surprisingly in good condition. She leaned over to look at it, frowning in thought as her eyes scanned over the paper, attempting to decipher the symbols. But alas, she had no such luck. After a moment, the nymph shrugged to herself, carefully picking it up and depositing it in her bags. Shining the torch around the room again, she spotted a small, stone chest in the corner. With an inquisitive hum, she walked over to it, placing the torch on the ground. It rolled off in a circle to be facing the opposite way she wanted. With a quiet groan, she picked it up and flipped it, taking a few seconds to make sure it wouldn’t roll away again. With that done, she returned her attention to the chest, inspecting it closely. The craftsmanship on it was quite impressive to her, and the design on it, a dragon’s head, was quite beautiful, she thought. After a minute of looking at it, she decided to look in it, taking the lid of it with both hooves, and carefully pushing it up. It ground open slowly, and she gritted her teeth, pushing it up all the way. Thankfully, it stayed open. She picked up the torch again and shone it in the darkness of the chest. Inside were a few neatly packed metal bars, as well as quite a fair few small, pale yellow cubes. She picked one up and inspected it closely, humming in thought. SAIL spoke up, startling her. “Strange. Those are Pixels, the main galactic currency. Why would someplace like this have them…?” The ‘ling shrugged unhelpfully. “I didn’t even know what they were, so I’m not much help.” “Those bars seem to be at an eighty-two percent purity. I suggest you take them with you, they could be useful.” “If you say so,” she nodded, and carefully picked up one of the heavy bars, depositing them into her saddlebags one by one. After all six of the bars had been placed in, three on each side, she picked up the pixels. The small cubes fit into her hoof nicely. She then put them into the bags, too. Shutting the chest, she turned around and picked her torch back up. “Onwards,” she said to herself and went into the next room. Birds chirped to her left, and a bunny bounced around to her right. The nymph trotted along quietly, humming softly to herself. After searching the rest of the building, and found nothing of any notable interest, she had decided that checking out the “Archaic energy source” that SAIL had pointed out before. “...which way did you say it was, again?” She asked, pausing in the middle of a clearing. “Forward,” SAIL answered simply. “Oh,” she said simply, then kept walking forward, her tail swishing behind her as she examined her surroundings, a look of ‘mild bewonderment’ in her eyes. Several minutes passed as the nymph walked straight on, maintaining a perfect line. “You know, I never used to get out very much,” She suddenly said to SAIL after a few more minutes of silence. “Oh? Why not?” The AI asked from the bags. “...probably due to my occupation,” she said after a second of thought. “Being the ‘Princess of the Hive’ doesn’t give you that much freedom to get out, in between all the things I had to learn.” “You’re royalty?” SAIL sounded a bit stunned. “Yup,” she nodded. “A half-breed though, like my mother.” She frowned in thought. “Though I think that that would make me a quarter-breed? I’m not certain how exactly that works.” “Assuming that your mother was the only halfbreed in your bloodline,” SAIL began, “You would be a quarter-breed.” “...huh,” she hummed in thought. “Well, ‘The more you know’, or whatever they say.” “That is correct.” “...” “...” “Are we there yet?” “Just a few more metres actually, Captain,” SAIL answered. The nymph stopped to peek around the trees, attempting to catch sight of the energy source. Once again, she had no such luck. She hastily weaved her way between the trees to get to the whatever it was. She exited the forest, and in front of here was a strange structure. It was rather large and was made of a dark brown brick looking material. It had a large archway in the middle of it that stretched up twice as high as the surrounding trees, though the sides of the arch didn’t quite meet at the top, leaving a bit of a gap at the top of it. The two sets of steps leading up to the raised arch were rather plain, with the exception of a mysterious blue strip that ran along the middle. It emanated a foggy blue light and seemed to be casting particles around that added to the overall ‘mystical’ feel to it. In the very centre of the structure, was a raised console. It had a wide, black panel on the top of it. “Woaaahhhh,” the changeling breathed out as she took a single step forward, looking at the massive gateway in awe. “Captain, this is the source of the archaic energy.” Author's Note Self-edited. Thanks, Grammarly. 0303 “This is… wow, really. Really cool.” “I am aware, Captain,” SAIL said dryly. “You’ve only said it, or equivalents to it, three times.” “...oh.” A minute passed as the changeling inspected the gateway, wandering around and generally just pointing out ‘cool’ things. “Captain, my scans are picking up an unknown radio signal around this archaic energy source,” SAIL spoke. “I will patch it through to you now.” The hiss of static emanated from the saddlebags speakers, starting off loud before quieting over a few seconds. An old, somewhat motherly sounding voice spoke up, sounding a bit static-y at first. “If you’ve picked up this message, you must have found an Ancient Gateway - please use it to come and find me. You can power up the gate with Core Fragments.” “...she sounds familiar,” the nymph frowned in thought, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “What are the Core thingies she was talking about?” “I have scanned for nearby Core Fragments. They appear naturally within the geology of this planet; readings suggest numerous ore clusters deep below the ground, near the planet’s centre.” She blinked. “...soooooo, we just go down…?” She asked slowly, looking at the stone beneath her hooves, then to the dirt and grass over on her left. “...correct, Captain,” SAIL said after a few moments. “I have scanned the local area, and four and a half kilometres away east is a large cave system that appears to stretch down several kilometres.” “...which way is east again…?” She bit her lip, scuffing her hoof against the ground. SAIL sighed. “Turn to the left. It’s that way.” “Oh. Thank you~!” The ‘ling turned to the left, and then skipped off in that direction, humming something quietly. “....you’re welcome, Captain,” The AI spoke dryly. “Ugh, how much further is it?” She whined, dragging her hooves up the hill. “I’ve been walking for hoouurrrrrsssss!” “Captain, it’s just over this hill, and no you haven’t, it’s only been forty-seven minutes.” “See? Hours!” SAIL groaned. “We are almost there, Captain. A nearby entrance to underground is just up ahead.” “Finally,” she grumbled. After a moment, she looked over her shoulder towards where the sun was setting. “It’s getting dark,” she observed. “SAIL, is there anywhere nearby where we can sleep for the night?” “Just up ahead,” SAIL repeated. She blew a raspberry in return. The AI didn’t respond, but smiled a little. A bird evening chirps filled in the silence, and the ‘ling let out a gentle sigh at the relaxing atmosphere. “This is...nice,” she said softly, looking around at her surroundings “I concur,” SAIL agreed. Not out of programming, but opinion. “...strange.” “What’s strange?” She asked, looking towards the saddlebags containing the AI. “...it is nothing to worry about, Captain.” “Oh, okay!” She said, and then crested over the hill. In front of her was, for a lack of better words, a large dip in the ground, mostly flat at the bottom. “This looks…. Kinda boring,” she poked her tongue out and made a ‘pffftttbffbfft’ noise, grumbling. “Agreed. The cave system and the core fragments are below ground, Captain,” SAIL spoke dryly, before the saddlebags made a chirping noise. “Eighty hours left, Captain.” The nymph shivered again, then quickly made her way down the crumbling slope, her hooves not struggling to find ground that didn’t become loose and fall from under her. “I advise caution, Captain.” “Shh; I’m trYIng not to fall!” Her voice hiked as she slipped, the ground crumbling under her hooves once again. “Apologies,” SAIL spoke up again, after the nymph had reached the bottom of the basin, and was once again on solid ground. “It’s fine,” She dismissed, looking at where she had climbed down from, then straight ahead, where a large opening in the ground was. It reminded her of the depictions of dune worms that her mother had shown her, their massive, gaping maws, leading into blackness and surely death. “Temperature during the night cycle of this planet drop to approximately 270 kelvin, Captain. I suggest you find somewhere warm.” She licked her lips, nodded, and tentatively treaded forth into the cave, the blackness enveloping her. The cave, once past the the first downhill slope, lead into a medium-sized cavern, which was lit with lanterns and floodlights, wooden and metal crates all over the place. “Huh.” She took her time as she trotted onwards, looking around and spotting a few tents, as well as a blazing fire in the middle of it all. “Captain, my readings indicate you are not alone. Caution advised.” Lighting up her horn subconsciously, the nymph drew her sword slowly, holding it in front of her defensively. “Hello?” She half-shouted, frowning a little. “. . .” Only silence greeted her, her voice echoing deep into the cave. “Is anybug there?” She called out again, her voice louder. “Are you friendly?” A voice responded, and the sound of a soft click was audible. The voice was male, sounding old and gruff. “I… Yes? Unless you’re not friendly. Or if you’re mean. Or have bad breath.” She took a few, slow steps closer, the sword held tighter in her light blue magic. He chortled, laughing quietly. Another soft click. “Well, I do brush my teeth often, so my breath should be fine, Miss.” The nymph allowed a smile to slip onto her muzzle as she gently lowered the sword, and trotted into the center near the fire. The owner of the voice zipped back up his tent, and stood up, turning around. “You’re… not a … pony, even…” The sword twitched upwards slightly as the ‘ling stared up at the tall, bulky figure. “... a pony.” He looked down at her in return, his gaze slowly trailing over her. “You’re… something I’ve never seen before.” “You look like a sort of bird-minotaur hybrid thingy,” she said bluntly, taking a small step forward to look a little closer at him. “That would be an Avian, Captain,” SAIL spoke up, casting a small blue glow to the left of her, faint. “There’s someone with you?” She blinked. “Erm. Yes. My… uhhh… roboty… person?” SAIL sighed audible. “My name is SAIL. I am a Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice. This is my Captain, …..” The orange-feathered bird-person took a step forward, a hand resting on his hip, where his revolver was holstered. “My name is Alrin Feathersong. Avid explorer and geologist.” “Hi.” The nymph flashed him a bright smile, then turned her head to check where she was about to sit, before sitting down and turning back to him. “Nice to meet you.” Alrin’s beak twisted into a slight smile, and he looked over her once, before moving into the darkness to drag something out of it. “A pleasure to meet you too, miss…?” She smiled a little more, watching as he pulled a chair up to a safe distance from the fire, before her mouth became a perfect circle as she realized something. “Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” She licked her lips, cleared her throat, and opened her mouth to speak. Author's Note gottem
0000 The changeling stirred slowly, letting out a quiet whine as she curled up tighter. "Hng… five more minutes, mom," she groaned, rolling over on the hard, cold floor. "System is offline. Please reboot." "H-huh?" she murmured, forcing her eyes open. That wasn't right. Her hive walls were notably not made out of metal. The changeling's eyes flew open, and she shot up onto four hooves, nearly falling over in the process. She was standing on a slightly raised platform in a small, cold metal room. There were lights above her, faintly on and flickering an off-white. This was certainly not her hive. "To reboot the system please interact with the console," came a monotone voice from the other side of the doorway. Her breath hitched, and she took a half step back. She couldn't hear her hive; she was in somewhere strange and darkly lit and there was probably a pony in the room next to her. Her cyan glowing eyes frantically darted around the room, spotting a blank panel extruding from the wall, as well as a roughed up looking sword leaning against the wall. She quickly hobbled over to it, her horn lighting up as she attempted to channel a levitation spell. Her horn shorted a moment after it lit up, and a white hot pain arched out from it to the rest of her body, causing her to scream. She immediately crumpled to the ground, tears stinging her eyes, her horn aching. A soft whimper escaped her as she sniffled, her eyes cracking open slowly, blinking several times to clear them. "Wh-what's wrong with my h-horn?" She tried her best to look up at it, only able to see the point of it. Using a hoof to carefully feel around it resulted in another pain spike, albeit a duller one, prompting a yelp, the appendage pulling back to her chest quickly. She bit her lip out of an anxious habit she’d picked up from somebuggy. If her horn didn't work, that meant she wouldn't be able to use magic. She whimpered. Far away from the depths of her hive, with no communication, no magic? She didn’t stand much luck with whatever had stolen her away. After a moment, she pulled herself back onto her hole filled legs, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "Please reboot system," came a monotone voice that she couldn’t pin down the gender of. Her head flicked back to the doorway where it had come from, ears flicking up. As quietly as she could, she crossed the remaining distance to the sword, her eyes glancing over the details of it, her eyes adapted for the darkness. It would have been quite a fine work of art many years ago. But since the time of its creation, the sword had seen many a battle and had more than its fair share of scars. It had a matte black metal handle, with a metallic bronze handguard and pommel. The blade itself looked to be made of steel, and had lots of little chips missing from the edge, and a crack or two running through it. She leaned her head down to the grip of it, and tentatively picked it up with her mouth, shivering at the coldness of it. The cold steel was unnerving, but at the same time reassuring, despite the way it sapped the heat away from her maw. Now ‘armed’ with a weapon, the changeling made her way towards the other room. Stepping through the door, she found it was nigh identical the same as the previous one, though it was longer. That is to say, it was basically pitch black. She slowly moved forward, her gaze flicking about from corner to corner, as to spot anything coming at her from the darkness. A small stretch of wall ahead of her suddenly lit up, casting a dull blue glow across the area in front of it. "System reboot required," the voice spoke again. The sword was pointed in the direction of the light, and the brave little bug spoke up. “W-who a-are you? What d-do you want?” A clatter of metal on metal made her yelp, jumping up and back, her little wings buzzing in distress. In her haste to ask questions, she’d managed to forget that her only defence - the sword she had been holding in her mouth - needed to be held in her mouth. She went stock still, her gaze now fixed on the panel, which lit up after a few seconds of silence. “Please reboot system.” She couldn’t stay still forever, no. Curiosity eventually took a hold of her, so she shuffled forward, raising a hoof to the panel that kept lighting up. The raised hoof gently pressed against the cool, glassy material, causing the screen to go dark. While Changelings like herself were brought up in the darkness of the deep underground, there was almost always some source of illumination. Here, though? There was no light; there was nothing. Everything went quiet, the gentle vibrations of whatever she was on petering out to nothing. Her hoof retracted to her chest, and suddenly she was hyper-aware of how much sound she was making, her heart beating loudly, the ichor pumping through her veins, her breathing; everything sounded so much louder. Never had she felt such lack of anything. With a gentle buzz, the screen she had touched began to scroll white text at a pace she couldn't even remotely keep up with. As time went on, the minutes feeling longer than they had any right to, the sound and light slowly returned. The lights flicked from what was well under quarter-power to full, and she hissed as they burnt her eyes. "Reboot complete," a mare's voice spoke this time, clearer. "Greetings Captain, I am S.A.I.L., your Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice. I manage the maintenance of your ship." "Wh-what?" The nymph shook her head as her eyes adjusted to the bright light, slowly making out the blue colored pony displayed on-screen. "I am also programmed to offer you information and advice." "O-okay..." She murmured, tone laced uncertainty. The pony seemed familiar. "The ship's navigation systems are damaged for unknown reasons. Our current location is unknown." She took a step back, her brow furrowing as she racked her mind for who this pony was. Then it hit her. 'SAIL' was none other than one of the Diarchs of Equestria, Princess Luna. With a cry of terror, she scrambled back into the other room nearly slipping twice, completely forgetting the sword. "Captain, are you feeling well?" Came SAIL's voice, flat with a touch of concern, prompting a whimper from the little bug. Said changeling remained silent, trying to curl tighter into herself, a gentle whimper leaving her. "Captain?" Cautiously, she peeked through the holes in her legs, her terrified gaze set towards the wall-mounted panel. Why hadn’t she moved? "Captain, I know you're there." The changeling 'eep'ed, and attempted to curl further, finding herself unable to go any tighter without pain. The A.I. sighed audibly, a crackly sound that more than hinted to her displeasure. "If you wish to cower in the corner, Captain, that is fine. But if you don't get up, this unit will crash into the planet. Neither of us will survive." Her eyes widened, ears perking and blood running cold. "Wh-what? What d-do you mean...?" "With our current heading and speed, we will slowly spiral towards the planet below and impact it within approximately..." The A.I. paused for a moment to calculate. "Eighty-two hours, thirty-four minutes and three seconds. Shall I set a timer, Captain?" She got up slowly, moving closer to the other room, where the... Luna-Not-Luna was. "Um… O-okay," she spoke slowly, peeking her head around the corner, ears flat against her head. The image of Princess Luna onscreen ducked down out of sight for a second, before reappearing, holding a digital clock, counting down. "Timer set for Eighty-two hours, thirty-three minutes and fourty-seven seconds." The changeling suppressed a shudder, looking away, then suddenly pausing, murmuring an “oh no.” "Is there something wrong, Captain?" SAIL inquired, the little sprite looking at her. "I don't know how I got here," she responded after a moment. "Last night I was in my bed at the hive, snuggled up in my bla-'' She gasped. "By the hives! Everyling else must be worried about me!" The AI's facial expression changed from passive to a frown upon hearing her. "I find myself in a similar situation." "Huh?" The changeling's head snapped up to the small screen. "There is evidence of tampering with my code. I have no record of anything prior to my boot sequence. As well as that, there has been an unauthorized modification to my AI core." The nymph blinked, looking rather lost. "I think I only got half of that," she muttered. "Nevermind, Captain." There was a whirring, a buzzing, and the sound of air displacement from the other room, causing the changeling to let out a girlish scream, and dart into the corner. "...the teleporter is now online, Captain," The AI informed, a note of amusement audible. "As of current, only the planet below is accessible. I suggest you beam down and collect any resources possible to prevent planetary impact." The changeling jolted up and into action at the reminder of impending doom. "Yes! Good idea!" She immediately headed into the room, and stood on the glowy blue pad in the center of it. The AI let out a sigh. "Captain, you will need supplies. There is a small cache in the locker left behind by-" The last word she said came out as a garbled mess of static. "...oh," she said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. before heading to the locker. After a few seconds of fiddling with the dang thing, she opened it. There wasn't much inside. Just four labelled cans, a flashlight, a weird bronze u-shaped thing and a screwdriver. She picked up one of the cans carefully, holding it close to her nose. "That's odd," she murmured. "What is, Captain?" "I can, um, feel love in these cans." The AI was perplexed. "Pardon, Captain? What do you mean?" The changeling looked up at the small screen. "Well, um, you see, Changelings are a race of emotivores, and love is our main food source, g-generally." The screen played an animation of SAIL writing something down in a book, a quill in hoof and reading glasses perched on her muzzle. "Interesting," it murmured. A small smile made its way onto the changeling's face. "Cute," she mumbled. "Me?" SAIL queried, not looking up from her book. The changeling froze. "Wh-what? I-i didn't s-say anything! Nothing w-what so ever!" The pony onscreen raised an eyebrow, shutting the book and looking up at the bug. "Right." "Yes," she nodded in agreement, then coughed into her hoof. "A-anyway," she picked up the rest of the cans, looking around, then putting them back down. "I don't know where to put these." “I believe I may be able to synthesize a solution,” SAIL said after a few seconds. “I have been scanning you, and should be able to adapt a bag design to your form.” “You can do that? Here?” “Correct, Captain.” Author's Note Haha! Surprise! Instead of doing something clever and working on 06 for RaS, I dun did make a new story! Totally not because I fixed my Starbound workshop mods which happen to have a ponies mod race causing me to be like "you know what this is a great idea I'll do that". Totes. Revised as of 17th Jan, 2021. Huzzah! Thanks to my boyfriend for proofreading this at two in the morning!
0101 “So…” The changeling paced back and forth on the metal flooring, pausing to glance at the panel where the AI’s avatar was. “You’re sure this’ll work?” “I am, Captain,” SAIL reassured yet again. “The design in my databanks should fit.” “...alright,” she murmured, looking around the room again, then back to the wall mounted locker, one of her ears flicking due to the strange buzzing noise it was creating. The locker opened after a minute of buzzing, revealing a small set of saddlebags. “Woah…” She murmured, quickly crossing the distance and reaching out a hoof to pick them up. “You did this?” “Correct, Captain.” They were incredibly light, made out of a matte black material she didn’t recognize. It felt like some sort of fabric, but that was as far as she was willing to guess. The nymph turned the bags over in her hooves a few times, inspecting them, before attempting to put them on. Keyword; attempting. SAIL spoke up after a long moment. “Captain,” SAIL spoke clearly, making sure she had the bug’s full attention. She paused her awkward wriggling on the floor, her hind leg stuck in a strap, looking back at SAIL. “Take them off, flip them, and try again. This strap -” She brought up the schematics of the saddlebags, highlighting a particular part, “- needs to wrap around your abdomen.” She blinked. “I knew that,” she said, carefully untangling herself and fixing the bags according to the AI’s instructions. “Of course,” SAIL agreed. The panel near the front of the ship let out a chirping beep right as she pulled the last strap into place. “Eighty two hours remaining, Captain,” SAIL informed smoothly. The ‘ling felt a shiver run down her spine, making her carapace feel all tingly. “I… I should probably get going, y-yeah?” “Affirmative, Captain,” SAIL nodded, the locker opening at her unseen touch. “Your supplies..” She lit her horn, grabbing a can of Campbelle’s Compressed Love®™, the flashlight and that weird, bronze ‘u’ thingy, which SAIL had said was a “Standard Issue Protectorate Matter Manipulators.” Carefully stuffing them into her saddlebags and closing them with a resounding ‘click’, she turned to the room where she’d woken up, suppressing a shiver of nervousness. “Ssooo, I just go and stand on the... glowy thingy…?” She asked, not able to guise the nervousness in her voice as she trotted up to it. “Correct, Captain.” “Alrighty then,” she murmured, taking the last few steps onto the teleporter pad. “Powering up teleporter. Please keep all four hooves inside the vehicle at all times,” SAIL droned. “Vehicle?” “Three… Two… One… Teleporting. Good luck, Captain.” And with that, the changeling let out a whimper before experiencing the feeling of being ripped apart and whisked away. Some teleportation trips came with a mild side effect of hallucinations during the beaming process. This trip was one of those. She was floating in space, a million lights visible in the distance, shining gently. Slowly spinning around, a star came into view, burning a bright yellow, a planet a few seconds later. It kind of reminded her of Equis. Oh. It was Equis. Her eyes widened, and she reached a holed hoof out towards it as she slowly span out of view of it. Something wet ran down her cheek. She hadn’t realized she’d been crying. A strangled sob left her throat as she realized just how far away from home she was. With a ‘whump’ of displaced air, she was deposited none too gently onto the ground, the sky around her suddenly changing from the oppressive cold and nothing of space to the warm, open skies of the planet she was on. A few more sobs left her before she mustered the will to get up. She was on top of a small hill, with rolling green landscapes as far as she could see, plenty of shrubbery smattered around, and a forest in the distance to her right. There were few creatures roaming near her, a small pack of bunnies and some orange blob things that gave her a weird feeling. The only thing that stood out was the rundown looking structure at the top of a very tall hill. The sound of birdsong floated gently down on the breeze, bringing a weak smile to her face. She slowly sat up, her ears twitching as she took in the sights, sounds, and smells of this new place. With the last sniffle out of her system, she rubbed her eyes free of any tears, blinking wearily afterwards. A sudden displacement of air next to her caused her to jump, hissing out of surprise. Next to her was her sword, blade end sunk a hoof’s length in the ground, a blue sticky note attached to the hoofguard. “You forgot this, Captain”, it read in perfect cursive. “Oops,” she mumbled to herself, picking up the sword and carefully placing it in what was evidently a holster built into the bags, sheathing it between her flank and the bag. She took a deep breath in, standing up, and focusing her gaze on the structure up the hill. With a final buzz of effort, the changeling made clear of the ledge, landing on top with a dull thud and a groan. “i should...probably exercise...a little more...” she panted out, her forked tongue sticking out like a dog’s. “Noted, Captain,” SAIL’s voice said from behind her, causing her to yelp, then cough violently for a few seconds. After recovering, she glared at her saddlebags, where the AI’s face was displayed. “D-don’t scare me like that.” “Apologies, Captain,” the pony on the screen looked somewhat downcast. “I was just about to inform you, my scans indicate there is some kind of archaic energy source approximately six point three four kilometers south-south-east from here. I estimate a 62% chance it is worth investigating, and a 37% chance you have nothing better to do.” She blinked, processing what the AI had told her, before pouting. “...but I just climbed up this massive hill. It took like, ages!” “From the surface scans I have completed, Captain, I believe the path you took was one with the most resistance. Also, there are stairs just over there.” She slowly turned her head to ‘over there’. The metal stairs blended in pretty well with the rock, but now stood out as they mocked her for being so very not perceptive. She glared back at them, and shakily got back up back on her hooves. “Stupid stairs,” she muttered, and turned her attention to the reason why she had climbed the hill in the first place. In front of her was an ancient looking structure, mainly comprised of blue-black large stone bricks, with regularly placed rotten wooden support beams. The tower was tall and squarish, with a raised hemisphere nestled at the top, a gap splitting the hemisphere into two even parts down the center. “Woah,” She murmured softly, her hooves compacting the loose dirt under her as she slowly trotted inside. The doorway was empty, the door itself having rotted off the hinges years ago. A beam of sunlight shone in behind her, lighting up a small portion of the room in front of her, while also illuminating the dust particles in the air. She took a tentative step inside, before taking a few more. Within moments, the changeling was standing in the center of the cramped droom. Inside the room was nothing of interest, with the sole exception of the being a banner that hung above the entrance, somehow in better condition than the rest of the building. It was a deep blue color, with the new moon placed in the centre. She stared at it for a bit, her eyes quickly adjusting to the low light levels, before she moved straight forward slowly, towards the next room. Her eyes darted around side to side for she had a sudden moment out thought. Reaching back, she fiddled with the opening mechanism on the back, to no avail. “Push in and twist to the left, Captain,” SAIL reminded her softly after a few more moments. “Oh.” There was the sound of the lock clicking a second later. “...thanks.” “Never a problem, Captain.” She smiled for a moment, before returning her focus back to her previous task. Worming her hoof through the bag, she felt around for a good minute, before pulling out a flashlight. With a simple click, it turned on, lighting up the darkness to the left of her. She grinned. Author's Note Revised as of 5th Match, 2021. No boyfriend to proofread, so this one isn't proofread. I'll ask someone at some point, probably.
0202 With the torch firmly grasped, the nymph took a single step forward into the darkened room, twisting her head to light up the area in front of her. The room was cylindrical in nature, with enough room to fit about three changelings end to end, at best. In front of her was an old looking staircase made of wood, with a fair few of the steps laying on the floor, rotted away. She shone the light upwards, her eyes straining somewhat to see. The staircase went up for what she assumed to be several stories, before coming to a landing, with a door leading out. The ‘ling stared at for a solid minute, before turning around and walking out of the room. She’d come back later. “Hmm…” She looked to the left, then to the right. “Which way…?” SAIL spoke up, the voice soft. “Perhaps the left?” She blinked, looked back at the bags for a moment, then to the left. “That works.” She slowly trotted to the door, holding the flashlight a bit awkwardly in her mouth, having to angle her head so that the beam shone ahead of her. The doorframe was really just a frame, as the door was on the ground rotting away, having fallen off its hinges years ago. She stepped over it carefully, brushing a bit of mane out of her eyes as she looked around the room. Dust had been stirred up by her presence, and the light illuminating it made it look a little mystical. The room had what must have been a very good quality table, as it was still standing, if only just. The chairs that were around it had long since rotted away, like most of the building, and were in small piles. She slowly walked over to the middle of the room, looking down on the table, bringing up a hoof to quickly adjust the torch so that it didn’t fall out. On the top of the table was a few bowls, and a single scrap of paper that was in a see-through packet, surprisingly in good condition. She leaned over to look at it, frowning in thought as her eyes scanned over the paper, attempting to decipher the symbols. But alas, she had no such luck. After a moment, the nymph shrugged to herself, carefully picking it up and depositing it in her bags. Shining the torch around the room again, she spotted a small, stone chest in the corner. With an inquisitive hum, she walked over to it, placing the torch on the ground. It rolled off in a circle to be facing the opposite way she wanted. With a quiet groan, she picked it up and flipped it, taking a few seconds to make sure it wouldn’t roll away again. With that done, she returned her attention to the chest, inspecting it closely. The craftsmanship on it was quite impressive to her, and the design on it, a dragon’s head, was quite beautiful, she thought. After a minute of looking at it, she decided to look in it, taking the lid of it with both hooves, and carefully pushing it up. It ground open slowly, and she gritted her teeth, pushing it up all the way. Thankfully, it stayed open. She picked up the torch again and shone it in the darkness of the chest. Inside were a few neatly packed metal bars, as well as quite a fair few small, pale yellow cubes. She picked one up and inspected it closely, humming in thought. SAIL spoke up, startling her. “Strange. Those are Pixels, the main galactic currency. Why would someplace like this have them…?” The ‘ling shrugged unhelpfully. “I didn’t even know what they were, so I’m not much help.” “Those bars seem to be at an eighty-two percent purity. I suggest you take them with you, they could be useful.” “If you say so,” she nodded, and carefully picked up one of the heavy bars, depositing them into her saddlebags one by one. After all six of the bars had been placed in, three on each side, she picked up the pixels. The small cubes fit into her hoof nicely. She then put them into the bags, too. Shutting the chest, she turned around and picked her torch back up. “Onwards,” she said to herself and went into the next room. Birds chirped to her left, and a bunny bounced around to her right. The nymph trotted along quietly, humming softly to herself. After searching the rest of the building, and found nothing of any notable interest, she had decided that checking out the “Archaic energy source” that SAIL had pointed out before. “...which way did you say it was, again?” She asked, pausing in the middle of a clearing. “Forward,” SAIL answered simply. “Oh,” she said simply, then kept walking forward, her tail swishing behind her as she examined her surroundings, a look of ‘mild bewonderment’ in her eyes. Several minutes passed as the nymph walked straight on, maintaining a perfect line. “You know, I never used to get out very much,” She suddenly said to SAIL after a few more minutes of silence. “Oh? Why not?” The AI asked from the bags. “...probably due to my occupation,” she said after a second of thought. “Being the ‘Princess of the Hive’ doesn’t give you that much freedom to get out, in between all the things I had to learn.” “You’re royalty?” SAIL sounded a bit stunned. “Yup,” she nodded. “A half-breed though, like my mother.” She frowned in thought. “Though I think that that would make me a quarter-breed? I’m not certain how exactly that works.” “Assuming that your mother was the only halfbreed in your bloodline,” SAIL began, “You would be a quarter-breed.” “...huh,” she hummed in thought. “Well, ‘The more you know’, or whatever they say.” “That is correct.” “...” “...” “Are we there yet?” “Just a few more metres actually, Captain,” SAIL answered. The nymph stopped to peek around the trees, attempting to catch sight of the energy source. Once again, she had no such luck. She hastily weaved her way between the trees to get to the whatever it was. She exited the forest, and in front of here was a strange structure. It was rather large and was made of a dark brown brick looking material. It had a large archway in the middle of it that stretched up twice as high as the surrounding trees, though the sides of the arch didn’t quite meet at the top, leaving a bit of a gap at the top of it. The two sets of steps leading up to the raised arch were rather plain, with the exception of a mysterious blue strip that ran along the middle. It emanated a foggy blue light and seemed to be casting particles around that added to the overall ‘mystical’ feel to it. In the very centre of the structure, was a raised console. It had a wide, black panel on the top of it. “Woaaahhhh,” the changeling breathed out as she took a single step forward, looking at the massive gateway in awe. “Captain, this is the source of the archaic energy.” Author's Note Self-edited. Thanks, Grammarly.
0303 “This is… wow, really. Really cool.” “I am aware, Captain,” SAIL said dryly. “You’ve only said it, or equivalents to it, three times.” “...oh.” A minute passed as the changeling inspected the gateway, wandering around and generally just pointing out ‘cool’ things. “Captain, my scans are picking up an unknown radio signal around this archaic energy source,” SAIL spoke. “I will patch it through to you now.” The hiss of static emanated from the saddlebags speakers, starting off loud before quieting over a few seconds. An old, somewhat motherly sounding voice spoke up, sounding a bit static-y at first. “If you’ve picked up this message, you must have found an Ancient Gateway - please use it to come and find me. You can power up the gate with Core Fragments.” “...she sounds familiar,” the nymph frowned in thought, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “What are the Core thingies she was talking about?” “I have scanned for nearby Core Fragments. They appear naturally within the geology of this planet; readings suggest numerous ore clusters deep below the ground, near the planet’s centre.” She blinked. “...soooooo, we just go down…?” She asked slowly, looking at the stone beneath her hooves, then to the dirt and grass over on her left. “...correct, Captain,” SAIL said after a few moments. “I have scanned the local area, and four and a half kilometres away east is a large cave system that appears to stretch down several kilometres.” “...which way is east again…?” She bit her lip, scuffing her hoof against the ground. SAIL sighed. “Turn to the left. It’s that way.” “Oh. Thank you~!” The ‘ling turned to the left, and then skipped off in that direction, humming something quietly. “....you’re welcome, Captain,” The AI spoke dryly. “Ugh, how much further is it?” She whined, dragging her hooves up the hill. “I’ve been walking for hoouurrrrrsssss!” “Captain, it’s just over this hill, and no you haven’t, it’s only been forty-seven minutes.” “See? Hours!” SAIL groaned. “We are almost there, Captain. A nearby entrance to underground is just up ahead.” “Finally,” she grumbled. After a moment, she looked over her shoulder towards where the sun was setting. “It’s getting dark,” she observed. “SAIL, is there anywhere nearby where we can sleep for the night?” “Just up ahead,” SAIL repeated. She blew a raspberry in return. The AI didn’t respond, but smiled a little. A bird evening chirps filled in the silence, and the ‘ling let out a gentle sigh at the relaxing atmosphere. “This is...nice,” she said softly, looking around at her surroundings “I concur,” SAIL agreed. Not out of programming, but opinion. “...strange.” “What’s strange?” She asked, looking towards the saddlebags containing the AI. “...it is nothing to worry about, Captain.” “Oh, okay!” She said, and then crested over the hill. In front of her was, for a lack of better words, a large dip in the ground, mostly flat at the bottom. “This looks…. Kinda boring,” she poked her tongue out and made a ‘pffftttbffbfft’ noise, grumbling. “Agreed. The cave system and the core fragments are below ground, Captain,” SAIL spoke dryly, before the saddlebags made a chirping noise. “Eighty hours left, Captain.” The nymph shivered again, then quickly made her way down the crumbling slope, her hooves not struggling to find ground that didn’t become loose and fall from under her. “I advise caution, Captain.” “Shh; I’m trYIng not to fall!” Her voice hiked as she slipped, the ground crumbling under her hooves once again. “Apologies,” SAIL spoke up again, after the nymph had reached the bottom of the basin, and was once again on solid ground. “It’s fine,” She dismissed, looking at where she had climbed down from, then straight ahead, where a large opening in the ground was. It reminded her of the depictions of dune worms that her mother had shown her, their massive, gaping maws, leading into blackness and surely death. “Temperature during the night cycle of this planet drop to approximately 270 kelvin, Captain. I suggest you find somewhere warm.” She licked her lips, nodded, and tentatively treaded forth into the cave, the blackness enveloping her. The cave, once past the the first downhill slope, lead into a medium-sized cavern, which was lit with lanterns and floodlights, wooden and metal crates all over the place. “Huh.” She took her time as she trotted onwards, looking around and spotting a few tents, as well as a blazing fire in the middle of it all. “Captain, my readings indicate you are not alone. Caution advised.” Lighting up her horn subconsciously, the nymph drew her sword slowly, holding it in front of her defensively. “Hello?” She half-shouted, frowning a little. “. . .” Only silence greeted her, her voice echoing deep into the cave. “Is anybug there?” She called out again, her voice louder. “Are you friendly?” A voice responded, and the sound of a soft click was audible. The voice was male, sounding old and gruff. “I… Yes? Unless you’re not friendly. Or if you’re mean. Or have bad breath.” She took a few, slow steps closer, the sword held tighter in her light blue magic. He chortled, laughing quietly. Another soft click. “Well, I do brush my teeth often, so my breath should be fine, Miss.” The nymph allowed a smile to slip onto her muzzle as she gently lowered the sword, and trotted into the center near the fire. The owner of the voice zipped back up his tent, and stood up, turning around. “You’re… not a … pony, even…” The sword twitched upwards slightly as the ‘ling stared up at the tall, bulky figure. “... a pony.” He looked down at her in return, his gaze slowly trailing over her. “You’re… something I’ve never seen before.” “You look like a sort of bird-minotaur hybrid thingy,” she said bluntly, taking a small step forward to look a little closer at him. “That would be an Avian, Captain,” SAIL spoke up, casting a small blue glow to the left of her, faint. “There’s someone with you?” She blinked. “Erm. Yes. My… uhhh… roboty… person?” SAIL sighed audible. “My name is SAIL. I am a Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice. This is my Captain, …..” The orange-feathered bird-person took a step forward, a hand resting on his hip, where his revolver was holstered. “My name is Alrin Feathersong. Avid explorer and geologist.” “Hi.” The nymph flashed him a bright smile, then turned her head to check where she was about to sit, before sitting down and turning back to him. “Nice to meet you.” Alrin’s beak twisted into a slight smile, and he looked over her once, before moving into the darkness to drag something out of it. “A pleasure to meet you too, miss…?” She smiled a little more, watching as he pulled a chair up to a safe distance from the fire, before her mouth became a perfect circle as she realized something. “Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” She licked her lips, cleared her throat, and opened her mouth to speak. Author's Note gottem
