“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HIVE!” well, shit.

" I didn’t do anything! I swear! I had absolutely no control over it! Something happened to the ship! All i could do was get out before it hit the ground! I swear i didn’t know we were gonna hit anything!” This seemed to calm its burning rage, but that rage turned to thoughtfulness.

“So this wasn’t a sneak attack, they knew nothing of it.” Wait who are they? Who is this bug talking about? Before i could continue my train of thought it spoke again. “My name is Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. What should i address you as creature?” Goddamn it.

“I’m sorry mam, I’ve been having a sort of memory issue even before the crash, i don’t know my name, but as far as im aware I’ve been addressed as Fluffball.” This seemed to puzzle her, actually she seemed dead confused, i could practically see the gears turning in her head.

“Why?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why are you called fluffball? You have no fur.”

“OH! Right! Almost forgot. This isn’t my skin mam, this is a suit im wearing over top it. I assure you i have WAY to much fur underneath the suit.”

Immediately after this clicked in her head she turned hostile again. “Though you may not be personally responsible for the destruction of my hive somebody shall bear the blame, and no survivors were found among your so called “ship”.”

Immediately after she finished her sentence her horn started to glow a sickly green, almost dripping down to the dusty ground. Realizing what was happening just in time i dove to the side, quickly coming back up and pointing my gun at her head, and let loose 2 bullets. One whizzed right on past her while the other sparked off her horn. Letting out a roar of agony she reeled back and launched 2 more blasts at me, not moving in time one blasted across my chest, launching me backwards and draining my shields by half. While the other completely missed. Quickly taking stock i realized that in the fight i had dropped the ammo back somewhere, and i only had 3 shots left in the mag.

Rolling back with the momentum i ended on my feet and lifted my pistol again, letting off 2 more shots. Again the first shot whizzed past her head, while the other shot also hit her horn, but this time hitting it dead on and lodging inside of it. I could tell she tried to use her magic but found it blocked by the damage the bullet had done. Walking up to her i raised my gun to her head. " Go ahead, do it.” she said weakly, but instead of pulling the trigger I moved the gun to the magnetic holster and clicked it on. “I’m not a monster, I’m just a fox. I didn’t come here to kill anyone, I promise you that. And as i said all this was a complete accident. Crawl to your subjects little queen. But know that you cant beat me. Try again, and lets just say, Second chances don’t come easy.”

Stepping away from the now injured queen I collected my Rifle and holstered it. And than i went over to the ammo bag and slung it over my shoulder again. Opening the zipper i pulled out a pistol mag, Pressing the release the old mag fell out of the pistol, I bent down to pick it up and put it in the bag. “With how we are now, we cant afford to waste ammunition. Even if its just a single bullet.” Sliding the zipper shut i holstered the magnum and continued the march to the ship.

Half An Hour Later

The Front end of the Arctic Freezer looms on my right as i walk around the Wreck/Hive. I’ve officially spent the last 5-10 minutes looking for a viable way in, until suddenly i spot something. Jogging up to the jagged wall i smile. “Hey Winter.”

“Yeah fluffball?”

“wanna bet i can climb this?”

“it certainly seems stable enough.”

“welp, im gonna give it a shot.”

“good luck fluffball! I'm gonna keep looking through the files on this codex, its all strongly encrypted. I’m gonna see if i can crack it.”

“good luck to you too than Winter. I’m gonna see if i can get us in. Once we’re in though your gonna have to point me towards a ship manifest or something.”

“Well, there might be something.”

I perk up at that. “Hmm?”

“Well the box that your suit was in wasn’t originally there, you weren’t originally on the ship either. I figured I’d ask you about that later on but you mentioned earlier something about a memory loss.”

“yep,” I respond. “I know i died or something and ended up in this body, but i don’t have any idea how this body got on that ship. And stuff from my previous life is starting to fade a little. If i can i wanna start writing stuff down, but it’d need a book to do that.”

“wow!” she exclaimed “so you really have no idea how you or that stuff got there?”

“nope! In fact i don’t know anything about myself now, i don’t even know my own name. I know i had a name before but i don’t remember it, and i doubt it would even apply to who i am now.” I lean on the wall as we talk, guessing we are probably gonna be here for a while.

“well, im not all that creative but i cant keep on calling you fluffball. So how about i name you?”

“You name me? Well, i guess its not totally out of the question. But i want you to wait a while.”

“what? Why?”

“well, I figure it would be best to name me based on who i am now, based on how i acted in my last life and how i act now, well its safe to say there’s drastic differences. I want a name that stands for who i find myself to be in the next few days, not how i am now, not how i was than.”

“That seems fair, alright i can wait. You should probably get moving, we cant sit out here in the open all day, plus we got work to do.”

“that we do winter, that we do.”And with that I use my hand to grab on to the first piece of jagged rock and i pull as hard as i can, only to find that it was actually pretty easy. “Huh, kinda expected climbing a rock wall to be harder, eh its probably just a slope.”

“Actually fluffball, that’s a 90 Degree angle. Your going straight up. Your saying its easy?”

Wait 90 degrees? Holy shit. “Yeah,” huh guess im still learning things about myself. “Welp, no time to question that now, new me is probably in alot better shape than old me, ha.” I give a little laugh at my joke, though i wasn’t completely joking. Feeling my muscles tight under the suit i can already tell im way stronger than i was before. Anyways back to the task at hand.

One rock at a time i quickly moved up the wall, reaching the top i put my paw on the ledge and heave myself up, only to find myself accidentally doing a one arm hand stand. “Uh, i didn’t mean to do this but screw it, style points!” With that i push off with my arm and do a little flip in the air, landing on my paws i stand up and look at my arm. “OK, i totally didn’t mean to do that, did me trying to pull myself up give me enough momentum to end up vertical facing the other direction? Damn, i must not know my own strength yet. Gonna have to be careful not to use to much strength and accidentally break something.”

Giving a nod as if agreeing with myself i push onward. Only to come to a complete stop, about 3 feet above me is a broken hanger door, on side half slid open while the other side is all the way in the middle giving enough space for 2 people side by side to walk in. Doing a little fist-bump i bunch my legs and launch myself up, trying to use slightly less strength just in case my legs are awesome to. And wouldn’t ya know it i didn’t even need to use my arms, i arced perfectly up into the gap and landed on my feet inside the ship. Guess i ended up in some sort of vehicle bay.

Sitting on the landing platform in front of me, though it was slightly tilted and its rear right landing stilt seemed broken, sat what looked like a ship. Suddenly it clicked in my mind what it was, and why i recognize it. Holy shit that’s the pelican from halo 3! Did game universes from my old life combine to create whatever the heck this universe is? If so than what if the covenant is here? Well shit, gonna have to worry about that later. “Winter, how broken is that drop-ship?”

“Scanning” After a few moments she replied back. “That drop-ship seems almost fully operational, aside from a broken landing stilt, which can easily be repaired, its perfectly flyable.

“good, because that’s gonna be our ride out of this wreck, if we do this right we can load up everything we need into that ship and fly somewhere relatively safe. Just gotta fix that stilt and find a way to open that door.”

“that’s. A surprisingly good plan”

“what, you thought that just because im fluffy and adorable means im not smart? Ha! No. I'm pretty crafty when i need to be.” Walking around to the back of the ship I crouch down to get a good look at the broken stilt. “Huh, looks like the hydraulics snapped from the pressure of the landing. Cant really blame it.”

“that’s, actually accurate. How do you know so much about this kind of thing?” Wow, shes actually surprised i know this stuff?

“well back in my old life i had hobby’s, and 2 of my favorite hobby’s were mechanics, and aviation.” This seemed to satisfy her as she didn’t raise any more questions. Well this is the kinda thing that would need replaced at some point, so the ship has to have some replacement parts for it around here somewhere. “Winter can you make a to-do list?”

“sure! What do you need me to add to it?”

“Number one, find replacement part for the landing stilt on the pelican drop-ship. Number 2 replace said part on the pelican drop-ship. Number 3, figure out a way to open the door. Number 4, scavenge any and all resources we need whether their parts weapons ammo food or just normal supplies. Number 5 Fly out of the wreckage and find someplace safe to land and set up camp. And that’s about it for now.”

“got it! To do list made, you can access it on your codex, for now im gonna focus on decoding all this information. There should be a cargo manifest for the ship on the panel by the door to storage.”

“thanks winter! Good luck decoding that, it could be useful. I'm gonna go find us some shit.” And with that i entered the hallway that had a sign on the floor that said STORAGE and than pointed in a direction.

A good 5 minutes later i had found the storage room and opened up the panel that said Cargo Manifest on it. I than proceeded to spend the next hour and a half scrolling through it, noting locations of food water power-cells aswell as the replacement part i needed for the pelican. Having Winter place a way-point on each location in the storage room as i go.

A good 5 minutes later i come across this thing that peaked my interest, something called the Multi-Bot. Prompting Winter she replied saying that that definitely hadn’t been there before, it must be one of those things that arrived with me. Agreeing with her i had her mark it on my HUD, guessing that i can take a look at it before i begin loading everything else onto the pelican.

It took me a few minutes to get over to it but when i walked up it was obvious which box contained the thing, mainly because it was the only snow white box there with neon blue text reading MULTI-BOT on the side. Putting my hand on the screen it scanned it, and than dinged with a green flash. Huh, guess its keyed into my hand-print, cool! Sliding the top off i looked down at it and grinned like a kid in a candy store. “WOW! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

The Multi-Bot had a curvaceous obviously female figure. Its digitigrade legs with hooked knees ending in metal hooves, up towards its thighs the metal seemed to part, allowing me to see underneath the plating, holy shit this thing must be strong, i mean look at those hydraulics! Between the legs a slim tail matching that of a cartoon demon tail, i mean look at its tip! That’s straight up a spade! Its torso was slim and its chest was flat save for the upside down triangle that seemed to be its power source. Its fore arms were sleek in their design, the palm of its hand had a circle on it, not quite sure what it does but it obviously does something, up towards its head it didn’t have a face. Just a sleek head matching the head of a stalker from the game P.A.M.E.L.A. Also in the box laid A paper with instructions on it.

Opening the paper pamphlet i began to read aloud. “This Multi-bot can be used for construction of equipment and buildings, aswell as transport of heavy cargo. Its able to lift a maximum of 2 Tons. It can be remote controlled but in the back of its head lays a slot for an AI Chip. Huh, that’s convenient. So according to this you can be slotted into this thing Winter! How would you like to have your own body?”

She was silent for a moment, contemplating her choice carefully. “I would absolutely love to have my own body! And this way i can help you better with physical labor! I can always decrypt this stuff later. Sign me up fluffball!”

Reaching around i take the AI Chip out of the Codex and than lift up the head of the Multi-Bot, Reaching behind it i find the slot and plug Winters chip into it. Setting it back down i look back to the instructions. “To power on, flip the small switch above the AI Chip slot on the back of the head, ok simple enough.” Reaching behind the head again i find the switch and push it, and the whole bot started to whir as power flowed through it.

“woah, this feels weird!” woah, is it just me or does she sound even MORE feminine in that thing? Maybe its just the speakers or something.

“how do you feel winter?”

“I feel great actually!”

As she finished her response she began to sit up in her new body. The front plate on the head turned pitch black and a neon blue feminine face appeared on it, anime eyes and everything. “Woah! So this is how you experience the world.”

“yep! Try standing up.”

I heard the hydraulics in her legs hiss as she went to stand, swinging her new legs over the side of the box she stood up, immediately the tail shot backwards, hah, guess she’s gotta use it to keep upright.

“its a little strange but I’ll get used to it.”

“ready to get to work?”

“hell yeah i am!”

And with that we both walked off towards the manifest station. Turns out she still had access to my suit and codex from the bot, like Bluetooth or something, so she could still give me way-points and stuff. Deciding to split the workload i started walking towards my half of the storage room while she went off towards her half.

About 4 hours later we had fixed the pelicans stilt and completely loaded it with parts and supplies. And let me tell ya I was EXHAUSTED. Winter told me i could take a nap while she figured a way to open the hangar bay doors. I handed her my pistol and told her to wake me if something happened. And with that i climbed into the back of the pelican and laid down on the floor.

“Fluffball wake-up!”

“GAH!” I shoot up onto my feet and run out the back of the ship, jumping out with a stylish roll if i do say so myself i turned towards Winter to see she had the pistol i gave her drawn and pointed out the now wide open door.

running up i called out “Winter what happened!”

“i had just finished opening the door when i spotted them coming straight for us!”

I turned to what she was pointing at and squinted, and to my surprise my visor zoomed in, huh must be linked to me somehow, questions for another time though. Looking through the scope i let out a deep breath and relax.

“chill out Winter they're friendly!”

“how do you know!?”

“I spoke to the blue one in my dream! She’s friendly! They’re probably here to look for survivors!”

What i had said clearly confused her, and to be honest i don’t blame her, i hardly understand it myself. But either way as they flew closer they changed course, heading for the open hangar door.

A few moments later a golden chariot pulled by 2 white Pegasus ponies pulled up to the hangar, barely able to fit into the space on the floor beneath the landing pad. A tall blue horse i recognize as Luna aswell as 7 others i don’t recognize stepped out of the chariot. All of them clearly on alert, The light blue Pegasus seemed off-put by me and Winter. Shit i should probably say something.

“uh, hiya! Welcome aboard the Arctic Freezer! Or, uh, whats left of it at-least!”

All of them seemed to calm down because of my friendly welcome, although luna looked confused, scanning the room for something. Than i realized that when we met in the dream realm i was completely nude. Wait, shit, i was nude when i met her. That’s embarrassing. Welp guess i gotta take this sweet ass helmet off now.

Un-clicking my helmet it depressurized with a hiss, and i got my first taste of fresh air on my tongue. Luna’s eyes flashed in recognition and she began to walk up, seeming much more calm now that she’s seen my face.

“I almost didn’t recognize you in that suit of yours, it looks comfortable.”

“it really is! Its super high tech too.”

The purple unicorn seemed extra confused now, walking up behind luna she looked at me and back to her.

“why are you two talking as if you’ve known each other for a while, i thought this was first contact!”

“Why hello there purple one, your technically right! This is first contact for you! But me and luna met in the dream realm while i was still up in space. So technically we do know each other, just not all that well.”

“oh. Well that makes more sense. Anyways, my name is Twilight Sparkle! Whats your name?”

Oof, again with the name thing. “Well, i don’t have one yet, that’s the confusing part about this, i have a sort of, memory problem. Stuff is slipping away faster than i can recall it, while my skills and instinct are sticking around everything else is sorta hazy. Everything from when i woke up in space though is clear and crisp, the older ones though are acting like they arnt my memories, although technically the arnt, they’re the old me’s memory’s. See I’ve been sorta re incarnated into this body and everything is sorta unclear at the moment, not set in stone you dig? If you want any of your questions answered your best bet would be my friend Winter over there, say hello winter!’

To my surprise she actually seemed to understand everything i just said, the same however cant be said for her friends. They were all looking at me with deep confusion in their eyes. Accept for the pink one, the pink one also seemed to get it. Twilight gave a nod and trotted off to talk with Winter, and the two dived into a deep conversation. Meanwhile me and luna continued ours.

“well my friend it seems like you did ok in getting down alive.”

“well i almost didn’t, got ambushed on the way to the ship from the escape pod.”

This seemed to concern her greatly. “Ambushed?”

“well it turns out we accidentally crushed a bug hive in the landing, that’s what we’re sitting on, and the queen wasn’t to happy. She came at me wanting retribution or some shit, i kicked her ass and sent her scrambling for her subjects. She wont be showing her face anytime soon.

Luna’s eyes widened, and i mean widened, like in an anime when the main character is super surprised.”YOU DEFEATED CHRYSALIS?!?!” she yelled, drawing the attention of everybody in the room.

“i mean, yea? I mean she wasn’t all that tough, i mean she got a few good hits in don’t get me wrong but it wasn’t exactly all that hard to get rid of her. Why? Is that surprising?”

Everything was silent for a few moments, until finally twilight spoke up. “Chrysalis nearly wiped out Canterlot! How in the name of Celestia did you defeat her?!”

I hesitated for a few moments, until i drew my pistol, and grabbed it by its barrel. “With this, i mean its the smallest caliber here, it was pretty easy, only took like, 4 shots? And i missed 2 of them.”

Everybody save for winter seemed to back up from me, as if i was holding the most powerful weapon they’ve ever seen. “Wait you guys seriously had trouble with her? Come on you just gotta dodge the lasers and shoot the horn. I mean for goodness sake.”

Luna to her credit actually seemed to take this as a credible answer.”if you managed to temporarily disable the use of her magic i can see how you would have won the fight. Are you sure you will be fine here?”

“Actually we were just about to leave. We don’t exactly want to live on top of a ruined changeling hive and we just finished loading up this smaller ship here, we cant go back to space with it loaded how it is and even if we could it cant make slip-space jumps so we’re kinda stranded here. I was honestly planning on looking for you once we got in the sky.”

Luna nodded, accepting my answer.”in that case fly north from here, but turn slightly west. There will be a city on a mountain and a village below it, the village is known as ponyville, it is where twilight and her friends live. Land somewhere out of sight though, the ponies there are very xenophobic and it takes a while for them to trust some-pony they don’t know is safe.

“Understood, Hey Winter! Take note of those directions!”

“Already done!”

“Alrighty than, you guys have a safe flight than, we’re probably gonna beat you there, it probably wont be hard to spot the ship when you land.”

This seemed to confuse Twilight but before she could speak her pink friend piped up. “OH OH WE CAN THROW YOU A WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY!!! WAIT NO IT SHOULD BE A WELCOME TO OUR PLANET PARTY!!!!! WAIT!!!! A DOUBLE PAR-”

“PINKIE PIEEEEEEEEEEE” Twilight interrupted, to the thankfulness of my ears. “Sorry about that mister, she can be like that, im just worried about how she’s gonna struggle with the party with you having no name and all.”

“Actually!” Winter piped up. “I think i know a good name for you!”

“you do? Well than im all ears!” I say pointing to my ears, hoping some-pony gets the joke about the big ears.

“How about Frosty!”

“Frosty?”

“Well, when you confronted Chrysalis you were stone cold, almost fearless, but when you interact with friendly creatures like me and these pony’s your super kind and cheerful, and back home there was a holiday celebrated in the frostiest time of the year about being super kind and cheerful. So i took the stone cold bit and the cheerful bit and came up with frosty!”

“that’s, actually pretty good! I like it! In that case, every pony! Call me Frosty! Frosty the Arctic Fox!”

Author's Note

Finally! this chapter is done! it took me forever but i finally got something written and published. I hope you enjoy my story and keep on enjoying it as it progresses!