Star Ocean: A New Frontier

Chapter Two

Escaping The Hospital

The lesser fellpool slowly began to regain consciousness. She snuggled into what she could guess was a bed she was in, trying to fight off the urge to fall back to sleep, but thanks to the sunlight hitting her face, she was able to slowly pull herself from slumber. As her vision began to clear up after rubbing them, she found herself in what appears to be a room inside of a hospital. A rather nice looking room compared to the cold and colorless hospital rooms back at HQ. As she admired the room she was in, she soon noticed that she was still wearing her armor, though the holes that were blasted into her had bandages placed on the skin parts that were showing, and her weapons were gone. Save for the gauntlet on her right arm.

“Guess Vi’s idea actually worked.” Nelsha said as she was about to pull herself up and out of bed, only to feel her right arm restrained. Looking down she saw that her right wrist was in shackles as she jerked it a bit to test its strength. “Yeah, nice way to welcome someone into their community.”

“Well you did tell me to make sure that they wouldn’t take your stuff off you.” said a familiar voice the lesser fellpool grins in delight. “Nice to see you’re awake, Nelsha. You’ve been knocked out for a good twenty-four hours. Which it was for the best given as to what happened to you yesterday in the forest.”

“Nice to see you’re okay. Especially after shocking me with my own gauntlet. Thanks for that by the way.”

“It was the only way to get the life forms on this planet’s attention. And it did work in both our favors. Sadly I couldn’t stop them from taking your weapons away while you were sleeping. But I did make sure they didn’t try and take your uniform off you.”

“Great, you think they wouldn’t have means of disarming me while I was knocked out. Are my weapons nearby?”

“Currently located inside a giant house in the shape of a tree. The one who took it was a humanoid like female similar to the one in the forest. But her skin was brown, brunette hair with a streak of purple and magenta, had pointy ears on her head.”

“How developed is this planet? Technology wise?” She asked while flexing her finger as a bobby pin appeared from out of her gauntlet as she began to tinker with the lock to her shackle on her wrist.

“Development wise...Surprisingly weird. While you were asleep, I was able to hack into their system to collect some information. Which surprises me that this planet would have technology similar to that of Earth’s. In a matter of life cycles or so, they might be on par with The Pangalactic Federation...I will do more investigation into this matter. But for now try to find a way to get your gear back.”

“Working on it. Just trying to get myself unshackled from this.” Nelsha said as she grins upon seeing the shackle open. “Haha! Got it!”

“Do keep your voice down. We don’t want them to know you’re awake. It also doesn’t help that I’m doing repairs on your universal translator.”

“What the hell happened to it?”

“That would be my fault on that. Apparently your modified gauntlet fried some of the circuits in the device. It’s gonna take a while for the repairs to be done fully. But you can understand what they’re saying, so that’s a good thing.”

“Swell,” The lesser fellpool pulled herself out of the bed she was in, as she carefully made her way over to the door. Once she was there, she opened the door to her room to see two guards wearing gold armor standing off to the side with a spear in hand. She looks up at the tip of the spear to see another guard standing to the other side of the doorway. The alien lets out a low groan of annoyance as she quickly pulls herself back and closes the door silently. She soon has an idea as she walks over to the window and tries to open it. To her misfortune, it was closed shut.

“Problem?”

“Two guards are standing outside the door. Don’t think I can get out through the front. And the windows are shut tight.”

“Hm, might I suggest the vents. That is if the room you're in has any kind of ventilation system.” He asked as the lesser fellpool looked up at the ceiling to see a vent.

“Yep, there's a way to get inside the vents.” She said before hearing some voices coming from the door. “Shit, looks like they’re letting someone in.”

“It’s your choice if you want to stay or leave this place. But bare in mind that as long as your weapons aren’t on you, they can be activated by others. Mainly your pulse rifle.”

“...Fuck it. I’ll try to figure out an apology when I can get the chance.” She said before jumping towards the vent and pries it open. As it opened, she quickly made her way inside and closed it silently. Once inside, she turns around to see who was entering the room. To her surprise six colorful looking people enter the room. One of them sticking out the most due to the description of what Vi said about who took her gear.As the group entered the room, they all blinked in surprise at seeing the room being empty.

“Um...Fluttershy? Didn’t you say that the kid was in this room?” Applejack asked as she and the others began to search the room for the alien.

“Yes, she was in here when I rushed her over to the hospital yesterday after finding her in the Everfree Forest.” Fluttershy said while looking underneath the bed. “She shouldn’t have been able to walk or move from the holes in her legs and arm.”

“Well she’s obviously not in here Shy.” Rainbow Dash said as she looked over to pull on the windows. “She couldn’t have gotten out through the windows. Especially since we’re on the third floor.”

“I’m wondering how she could’ve taken the shackle off. It’s not like she could use magic given how she’s a donkey.” Starlight said as Nelsha was about to say something, but stopped due to remembering where she was and continued to watch...though she will make a mental note on getting the girl with purple hair and a mint color highlight in her hair.

“I don’t think she’s a donkey.” Fluttershy said while looking through the closet of the room they’re in. “From what I can tell when I brought her here, she has ears like a rabbit and a tail and teeth like a cat...Something doesn’t seem right about her.”

“Maybe she's an alien from beyond the stars. Here to try and take over the world and make us into breeding slaves for their species!” Pinkie Pie yelled as everyone looked at her with deadpan expressions on their faces. “What?”

“....Okay now that’s racist towards aliens.” Nelsha whispered as she made another mental note on this.

“To be fair, she’s not wrong about that...to some degree. It just depends on the alien and I doubt you’re anything like that given your...lesser qualities.”

“Oh fuck you ya bodiless sound bite!” She said before turning her focus on the girls in the room.

“Pinkie Pie, darling. We’ve been over this. There are no such things as aliens. You really need to stop watching those late night alien movies.” Rarity said as she bit the nail on her thumb. “What I’m curious about is to what somepony as young as she is would be doing in the everfree forest?”

“She couldn’t have gotten far so let’s search the building. Let's search around the hospital and see if she’s hiding somewhere. Make sure she doesn’t escape.” The girls nodded in agreement before they each exited the room along with the guards, only for Pinkie Pie to pause and look up at the vent that Nelsha was looking through. The lesser fellpool paused and held her breath upon making eye contact with her. The girl winked at her with a smile before leaving the room.

“...She might be a problem.” Nelsha said as she began to make her way through the vents.

“Seventy-five percent chance that she might know you’re in the vents. Might want to keep your stun gauntlet ready if she appears and tries to catch you.”

“I kinda figured as much. But I doubt she can fit through the vents given her size. Looks more like they were all in their mid twenties. What kind of species are they? They almost resemble fellpools, but their features are that of a horse.”

“I’m a bit busy trying to fix your universal translator. So forgive me if I’m not fully focused on telling you what they are.”

“Starting to wish I brought a second translator if I knew this was going to happen.”

“I’ll be sure to make a mental note of that for future planning when going to different planets...And possibly make it more resistant to electrical damage.”

“How far are you on fixing it?” Nelsha asked as Vi went silent. “Vi, how far are you on fixing it?”

“...Promise not to get mad?”

“That depends on how far you are at getting it fixed. Now please answer me or else I’ll mess up your visual appearance module.”

“....it’s only at five percent.” Vi answered as it caused the lesser fellpool to pause.

“I’m sorry, I thought I misheard that...did you say five persent fixed?”

“Yes...the damage to the device is more severe then I had anticipated.” He said before noticing Nelsha went back to crawling through the vent. “I take it you’re mad.”

“Mad doesn’t begin to describe how I’m feeling right now...My anger is being directed at that stupid bug horse humanoid creature. If it wasn’t for her, then I wouldn’t be in this mess in the first-” Before she could finish, she heard the sound of metal falling down onto the floor below her, followed by a scream. “-place...you don’t think they know I’m in the vents do you?”

“She’s in the vents! Don’t let her get away!”

“Does that answer your question?” He asked as the lesser fellpool was about to reply, only for her to see a light skin girl with rainbow color hair and cyan color pony ears appeared through the open latch to the vent.

“Don’t even think about trying to escape, kid!” Rainbow Dash said as she was about to pull herself into the vent to chase her, only to get face full of electricity as Nelsha quickly used her gauntlet to stun the humanoid pegasus as she let out a yell of pain before falling face first onto the ground. The girls circle around the spazzing girl before Applejack looked up at the vent and glared up at Nelsha.

“You even think about coming after me, and you’ll end up just like that rainbow haired girl. Got it?” Nelsha said as she noticed the mixed expression on the girls faces.

“They can’t understand you. Remember? The translator is still being repaired.” Vi said as the alien rolled her eyes.

“So what do they think I’m speaking?”

“Gibberish if I’m being accurate.”

“She’s speaking in an alien language! I told you she was an alien!” Pinkie Pie yelled as she felt Applejack smack her upside her head.

“Will you calm down? We're trying to get her out from there and not fear us. Do not do the opposite and scare her.” The farm pony side as she looks back at Nelsha. “Now sugarcube, we’re not here to hurt you or anything. We just want to talk to you so we can get an understanding as to what happened to you and where you’re from. Now why don’t you come down here so we can talk and-” Before she could finish, the lesser fellpool quickly turned around and quickly began to crawl through the vents. “Hey! Get back here!”

“You guys head towards the exit.” Starlight said to the two guards as her horn began. “We’ll lure the kid there for you. You make sure to catch.” The guards nodded as they teleported towards the entrance of the hospital. The moment they left, Starlight used her magic to start teleporting sections of the vent out of the ceiling and onto the floor with ease.

“Not good, not good!” Nelsha yelled as she quickly crawled through the vents while looking behind herself to see sections of the vent vanishing. Due to her being distracted, she felt the ground disappearing from underneath her as she fell face first through a hatch that led into the kitchen of the lunch room in the hospital. Just before she hit the ground, she quickly stopped herself from falling through as she was a few feet away from falling into a pot of soup.

“It would appear you found the kitchen in the hospital. Though I doubt you would want fellpool soup.”

“Haha, very funny.” Nelsha carefully made her way around the cooking pot of soup and landed onto the floor. “Okay, kitchen. Good place to be seeing how they’ll never expect to find me here. That and I can snack on a few things in here.”

“Wouldn’t this be classified as stealing?”

“It’s only stealing if I don’t pay for it in return.” She said before reaching into her pocket to pull out a small bag of fol with a card on it. “That should be enough to cover for the food I’m about to eat...or at least try to eat.” The lesser fellpool began to search around the kitchen for anything that she might be able to eat. To her disappointment, there wasn’t that much to eat besides fruits and vegetables. “Where’s the meat in this place!? All they have are fruits, vegetables, grass, and hay.”

“To be fair, you are on a humanoid horse planet. It shouldn’t have surprised you that their diet is mainly that of a herbivore. Well possibly ninety-five percent of their diet is that of a herbivore. There’s a pack of eggs off to the side.”

“Fucking hell. So the only thing they have for me to eat is fruits, vegetables, and fucking eggs that I can’t eat raw...well I can eat them raw, but it just taste awful and feels gross in my mouth.”

“Well it’s not like you can make food appear out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, if only I can do that.” Nelsha closes the refrigerator before fantasizing about her favorite food. “I miss how Lumina would always take time out of her schedule to make me those mochi bunnies. They were so soft, sticky, and had so many different flavors hidden inside them. What I wouldn't give to have-” before she could finish, the lesser fellpool felt something appear in her hand. Looking down she noticed there was a green color ball in her hand as she pulled it up to her nose and sniffed it.

“...I’m not the only one that notices this...am I?”

“Vi, scan this if you have the time? This can’t be what I think this is...right?”” She asked. The AI quickly scans the pastry ball before speaking up.

“This is no hologram or illusion of any kind. This is one-hundred percent actual food.”

“How is that possible!? I don’t recall ever learning any symbology to make something like this.”

“Technically there isn’t any symbology that allows you to make food appear out of nowhere...this might have something to do with the change in your D.N.A. that I mention the other day.”

“...So I can pretty much make any type of food I can imagine?”

“In theory yes, but if it’s anything like symbology. It all depends on the user. I would recommend trying to bring some food with you before-”

“You think the kid fell in there Starlight?” said a familiar southern voice as Nelsha tensed up.

“From what the janitor said, the vent the kid was in leads to the kitchen. So it would be a safe bet that she’s in there munching on food.” Starlight answered as the two entered the kitchen. Just as they entered, Nelsha quickly jumped onto the ceiling of the kitchen and watched them while moving to make sure they didn’t see her.

“Vi, options please?” Nelsha asked as she kept an eye on Applejack and Starlight.

“You’re going to have to knock the symbologist out of commission if you want to escape. Given what she did while you were fleeing, she’s a major threat.”

“Was hoping I didn’t have to use force to get out of this. But if that’s the case, then I have no choice but to use force.” The pupils in Nelsha’s eyes became cat-like as her nails became sharp and pointy. Her focus was set on Starlight as she released her hold on the ceiling and landed right onto her back. The humanoid unicorn lets out a scream of panic and begins to try and get Nelsha off of her back.

“What in tarnation!?” Applejack turned her attention at Starlight before covering her eyes from the electricity coming off of the alien’s gauntlet. Starlight lets out a cry of pain before falling to the ground and spasms a bit from being hit. “You’re going to regret that sugarcube.” Applejack said as she tried to tackle her, only to stagger backwards from being hit in the face by the mochi ball that Nelsha made moments ago. “What in the world is this stuff!?”

“Sorry about this lady, but I’m not in the mood to be captured.” The lesser fellpool quickly lunged herself over to Applejack as she placed her hand on her face, and delivered a high voltage of electricity through the farm girl’s body. Nelsha smirked for a moment, but blinked as she felt Applejack slowly placed a hand on her wrist.

“You really shouldn’t have done that little missy.” Applejack said while increasing her grip on her wrist. “Now you are going to come with me so we can get some answers.”

“Vi, scan this girl and increase the voltage of the gauntlet to the appointed voltage to knock her out.” She said while trying to resist by pulling away from the farm girl. As she did this she noticed a bowl with some strange red power. She sniffed the air and noticed it was a bowel of some kind of spice, which gave her an idea. The lesser fellpool used her tail to grab the bowl while using her free hand to grab a tomato from the side of her as they walked by and tossed it at Applejack’s head. The farm pony paused as she turned around and glared at the lesser fellpool, only to be met with a cloud of spice as she released her hold on Nelsha, and recoiled back from the pain she felt from the spice hitting her eyes and filling her nose.

“GAH! MY EYES! I CAN’T SEE!”

“Adjustment complete. Time for her to go to sleep.” Vi said as the lesser fellpool launched herself towards Applejack to shock her again. The farm girl let out a loud scream of pain from feeling the electricity flowing through her body. In a matter of seconds, Applejack dropped to the floor like a ton of bricks.

“That didn’t kill her, did it?”

“No, she’s knocked out as requested. She’ll be knocked out for a few hours or so, but now would be a good time to get out of there and fast. Though I suggest finding an alternative route then going through the front door.”

“Right, because they’ll suspect me of going through the front door due to me not knowing other exits in this place. Think this place has a back door?”

“They should have one. This is the kitchen after all. Try checking the back to see if there is one.” Vi suggested as the lesser fellpool began to make her way towards the back part of the kitchen. Once there she quickly scanned the area as her eyes laid upon the exit sign on the door.

“Perfect. Once we’re outside, I need you to tell me where that dark skinned girl’s home is so I can get my gear Vi.”

“With the tracking device on your pulse rifle, it shouldn’t be that hard to guild you.” Nelsha grinned in excitement as she quickly headed towards the exit, and out of the hospital. Just as the alien left the hospital, Starlight slowly staggered to her feet as she winced from the pain she felt in her head.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we got dropped by a kid.” Starlight said as she soon noticed a knocked out Applejack face down. Her eyes widened as she quickly rushed over and pulled her up to examine the state she was in. To her surprise, it didn’t look like she was badly hurt, though she does need to see a doctor due to the redness around her eyes and nose. “Twilight is not going to like this one bit.” She said before levitating the unconscious farm girl next to her as she slowly made her way out of the kitchen and towards the others.