There is a pretty old saying...
'Be careful what you wish for'
You might want something but when you get it might be more than you expected...
Like a chance of a new life far different from what you had before...
And you'll want a redo on your wish...
But sometimes you need to work with the hand that your deal even if it's a very bad hand...
After all, sometimes a bad hand can easily be turned around...
You just need an ace...
"Do you miss it?"
"What?"
"The bright blue skies of Earth with floating white clouds?"
"Yeah I do... sometimes I even miss the ocean seeing the waves crash against the white beach of Flordia with the soft sand under my feet,"
"Really but you're afraid of the water,"
"Not really I was afraid of drowning... but now? I'm more scared of those things than drowning,"
"I would imagine,"
Turning to him from the 'window' the AI construct and the hoist sat in a void of cyberspace sitting on a small window post looking out into a recording of space. Holding her legs against her chest the AI while the two sat deep in thought, they had been doing that a lot since letting him dream would allow him to be exposed to those nightmares again.
So she pulled his mind into cyberspace with her while his body remained asleep so she could keep an eye on his mental state more closely.
"I wish you could have experienced it," The AI turned to her partner who didn't keep his eyes off the window. "Earth was so beautiful before the moons and I had to flee on the Ark,"
He shook his head.
"We were so stupid thinking we could escape those things but of course, once you are exposed to something like that you can't escape it," The AI shifted in and moved one of her legs down nudging his own leg.
Looking up at her she smiled.
"Guess I saved you from that," This caused the other to smile.
"Wish everyone agreed to that program... but some people don't like having the thought of an AI inside their heads," He grabbed her leg before looking back to the void of space. "Glad I signed up,"
"I'm glad they paired me with you,"
Chuckling the two looked back to the void...
"Hey Tao?" The fox-like ears of the AI perked up. "Wake me up,"
--Real space
Feeling the numb side effect of the stasis fade from his body the hoist within pushed himself up as the small lid lifted off the stasis pod while the armored being got up feeling the weight of the suit return while the numbness quickly faded away. Standing up from the pod he walked up from the room he was in and entered the small area that would have been the cargo bay but had been converted into a small personal workshop. Dust covered everything from the workbench to the armor station and even the replication device had a thick layer of dust this time.
How long was he out this time?
Passing the doorway into the cock pit of the Wai Lao-Class shuttle, sitting at the console which gave a small steady blinking red light before he activated the device.
"Ahhh it's so good to stretch my legs~!" Next to the console was a small holographic image projector that fired up an image of the fox AI stretching her arms.
Her actions made her partner chuckle slightly.
"Alright pulling up the sensor reports... you know I can show you these back inside the pod," He turned to her looking through his helmet.
"I know but you are not the only one that needs to stretch their legs," The AI gave a chuckle before snapping her fingers while the ship's reports appeared on the main screen of the console. "Thank you,"
"Not a problem..."
Looking at the reports he breezed though most of them but he froze at one point seeing the start date.
Two years... he been in stasis for two years.
Seems like time flies when your mind is away, looking at the status of the ship, then something caught his eye when he saw that about a week ago the shuttle experienced a minor malfunction on the right engine coupling.
"Tao?"
"Hmmmm?" Tao looked at her partner who was looking at the report before her ears flopped for a second. "Ahhh that... don't worry it's nothing,"
"Tao... why didn't you tell me," The AI's avatar touched her forefingers together before giving a shy smile.
"As not to worry you,"
"I remember telling you not to hide this stuff from me all we have this ship if something happens to it were both screwed," This caused the AI to look away.
"Sorry,"
Looking at her he thing looked back to the report.
"This doesn't look too serious but we can't really spare repairing it in Zero gravity... Tao?" The AI looked up at him still feeling bad about not telling her partner about the damage. "Are there any nearby planets with stable gravity?"
"Give me a second..." Holding the side of her head taking a few seconds before her ears perked up. "Yeah and... whoa,"
Shifting in his seat her partner titled his head at her.
"It's perfect... The perfect atmosphere is almost a 1-1 of earth and it has water along with Florida... the gravity is 12.12% less than earth's own," Tao held her chin. "Curious I'm getting strange energy readings,"
"What kinda?"
"Unknown but it's nothing harmful probably some low-level magnetic field of perhaps can't really tell up here," Lifting her hand from her chin she looked up at him. "I'm also detecting something else but the strange energy is preventing me to get a better read,"
Looking at her then to the report he then spoke.
"You say the energy reading is harmless,"
"Yes I believe it wouldn't have any harmful effects on you, me, or the ship," Tao crossed her arms to look at him. "I know that look... I set a course to the surface of the planet for repairs,"
"Bring us in Tao,"
Smiling she turned and popped her fingers before the ship began to turn while the human felt the ship rock slightly as it turned to a planet causing him to flinch slightly.
It did look like Earth.
--Planet side
"You know this planet could be our new home," The AI spoke to her partner through his implant.
"What do you mean?"
"Look we can't be out floating in space forever and where far far away from those moons no like they can find us out here hell I have no idea where we are,"
Opening the ramp the ship's airlock opened up allowing 'fresh air' to fill the cabin before the armored being stepped out onto the ramp as the two looked at the area around them.
"Your sure this isn't earth?"
"I'm pretty sure... wow... look at this place... oxygen levels are... perfect but I'm switching to the filter just to be safe,"
Walking down the ramp he looked down at the grassy field in front of him before lifting one of his metal boots and taking a step.
'One small step for man,'
Pushing his other foot off he took his second step on this alien planet.
'One helluva leap for mankind... whatever is left of it,' Turning to the ship he began to before climbing onto the engine to get to work.
"Let's see the problem," Opening the hatch the advanced visor scanned the interior and scanned for the problem.
"There is something in the coupling,"
"Yeah, I see it. Here we go,"
Reaching into the machine he went in blindly using his sense of touch to look for it.
"Huh no wonder I can get any read on this planet from space it that energy is building up in the higher atmosphere making something of a natural jammer to mask most scans,"
Not taking his attention off his current task he spoke.
"How is that possible?"
"Were on an alien planet anything is possible but... hold on let I'm picking up something," Tao spoke while her partner found the jammed object and started to pull.
"W-what is it?" Grunting on how stuck the obstruction was but he could feel sense the AI's uneasy feeling.
"I don't know... wait I'm getting clear read,"
Pulling the object he looked down at it seeing it was a small space rock but he snapped his head up feeling the AI's panic.
"Something is coming!"
"What?"
"Something coming in fast right for us,"
Putting the space rock in his belt he pulled out his trusty plasma cutter.
"Tao starts the ship," Shutting the cover he got down before holding his plasma cutter out and walking backward on the ramp, but he then something in the distance.
"Hold on... damn it the system is being difficult again it might be a second,"
"Tao..."
"Give me a second," Narrowing his eye his vision zoomed in to see it wasn't just one thing but a few things.
"Tao!"
"I'm... damn it! It's now rebooting goddamn it!"
Raising his weapon the three blue tracer lasers came to life as he pointed them down at the approaching things in the distance. Only to lower it when he saw that one of them was being chased, he didn't know what to make of it but it looked like a couple of mangled beings running after one.
"Tao..."
"I know-!"
"Hold on I don't know what that leading thing is but it seems to be running from whatever those things are,"
"I... wait for a second... damn it... I'm giving you the gun get ready,"
A panel opened on the side of the airlock as a large heavy pulse repeater moved out to with a robotic arm while the eight barrels snap out. Six blue lasers pointed out with a holographic sight opened up, spinning up the fleeing creature looked up at him before stopping in it's tracks.
"I really hope that it can understand me... GET DOWN!" Yelling out to the creature who to his surprise understood what he was saying and hit the deck.
The barrels of the mounted weapon roared firing out cutting down the living mauled creatures into bloody munch, in only a few seconds over twenty thousand rounds were fired leaving the monster-like creatures in complete pieces. Letting go of the heavy weapon he pull out his plasma cutter before going down the ramp to the creature who was fleeing but was now currently screaming her head off.
Looking down at the creature still baffled by it's appearance he then looked back to the horizon, grabbing the creature's shoulder he pulled her up before guiding the creature into the ship.
"Tao get us out of here..."
"What are you doing we don't even know what that thing is!"
"Tao!"
"Alright... damn it the system isn't full responding but I can at least get us in the air,"
"That's good enough for me," Shutting the airlock and pulling back the ramp the armored cyborg moved the terrifying creature to one of the seats and sat it down before bringing the flight harness down over it's shoulders.
Hoping into the pilot seat he warmed up the ship's secondary engines as it took off into the air while Tao picked up more hostile creatures rush to the area they were at. Luckily the ship once in the air was out of the area before they even got to their landing spot the three were in silence after what had just happened.
--A few moments later
Moving in his seat to look at their 'guest' that sat in their seats.
It was a very strange creature.
Equine in nature, bipedal, and blue short fur most likely a coat of some kind with white hair and tail along with the obvious horn poking out right in the middle of it's forehead.
The creature looked back at him with purple eyes, while the two stared at one another in silence.
"Where are you taking me,"
Backing up at the creature's ability to speak perfect English the hoist and AI blinked at the same time.
"Well at least we don't have to worry about a language barrier," Tao joked while her avatar appeared on the projector.
"What in Faust's name! NOW GHOSTS!" The alien creature yelled in a female voice trying to get the harness off her.
"Whoa whoa calm down Tao isn't going hurt you look just calm down your safe here,"
Getting up the creature shivered in fear before he stood up.
"I haven't been safe in weeks ever since those things showed up and began eating everypony in sight!" The creature nearly screamed. "First Zombies! Now robot aliens and ghosts!"
"Zombies? I- Look calm down and take a breathe," Letting her breathe the cyborg then spoke up again. "What's your name?"
"I'm... t-t-the great and powerful Trixie and I demanded you tell me where you're taking me! Your mothership so you can open my brain and perform experiments on me?!"
"Wow... someone has been reading too many comics,"
Turning to his partner he lifted his hands out.
"Not helping Tao," He then gave a sigh before closing his eyes and letting his helmet unfold.
"Trixie right? We're not going to hurt you or anything," Looking at him with fear in her eyes the cyborg placed his hands on his chest. "I'm Delta... can you tell us what happen down there?"
"What kinda dragon are you?"
"What?"
Author's Note
Man, really hope you guys like this.
This is very different somewhat from Isekai/displace or whatever you wish to call it.
But I really hope you like it, I mean I made the cover for this story (mostly because I was messing around with this poster maker app on my phone) as a kinda call back to the cover that one of my followers made for my original dead space crossover story awhile back.
It was my first time making something like that since high school, ironically it was a lot easier than the system I used for my school project! XD
Besides that why do you think Trixie called him a dragon?
Can you guess?
Can't really spoil much but a certain other series had special cybernetics that can completely alter one's appearance.
Again can't really spoil much for this alternate timeline of dead space and MLP.
--Sometime later
These past weeks had been hell for Trixie...
At the beginning of the month, she was helping Starlight with a science project, and now?
Everything she knew had been turned upside down ever since that meteor shower that popped up out of nowhere followed by a horrible real nightmare.
She was in Equestria's capital when she first heard of a strange new sickness that was going around that seemed to have spread when one of the much larger meteors hit the griffin isles.
Word got around that it was zombies or something but the griffins the prideful bunch that they were keep denying there was a sick or a meteor that hit their lands. The denying didn't last long when it began to spread out into the mainland, from yakyakistan then into the changing lands and the sickness poured into the crystal empire's borders.
Rumor had gone on that Shining armor was able to put up his shield before any of the infected got into the empire itself but somehow the infection got in. It was when word got around that the royals of the crystal empire fell to this infection that Twilight finally took action, the entire nation was on full on quartine with marshal law and strict crufue.
Ponies on the other hand thought it was all a big Hoax since Twilight had just become queen and before the virus had put new rules and such many ponies didn't agree with. Along with Twilight being kinda new to being a full leader, she didn't have the experience to deal with such a crisis since friendship couldn't really help with a biological virus and a bunch of angry ponies who not hold had to deal with non-ponies but they had to ration out food and couldn't do what they wanted anymore.
Riots poured out which caused Twilight to stop it but the infected broke through, Trixie couldn't really recall what happened that night the ponies were all bunched together in one spot where the infected go into the capital. All she remembered was packing her bag and the next thing she remember was waking up in the everfree, where after three days of living in the forest she came face to face with an infected.
Then leads up to her current predicament...
In a spaceship with a weird robot dragon and a ghost fox lady explaining what had happened and what she went through.
Looking up at 'Delta' who was looking down at her with those strange unnatural orange eyes.
"I'm sorry about your home," Delta stated giving her his condolences. "No one should see their home like that,"
The tone in his voice sounds like he was speaking from experience walking over to her he pulled the harness off her before Delta and held out a hand to her.
"You hungry?"
Trixie answered but not in the way she wanted as her gut gave a loud growl causing Delta to chuckle.
"I'll take that as a yes," He waved for her to follow.
Handing her a bag of 'freshly' cooked space noodles to the starving equine to which right away the light blue pony creature reached forth and snatched the warm plastic bag before drinking the soup through the bag's straw. In seconds she draw the whole bag of chicken-flavored ramen he watched the Equine squeeze the bag for more of the broth or remaining noodles.
"Damn I have never seen someone down an entire bag of chicken noodles," Tao's avatar appeared next to Delta who was sitting in a supply crate.
Trixie went wide-eyed at Tao's sudden appearance before lowering the bag from her lips.
"How did you do that?" Trixie asked.
Tao blinked at her.
"Do what?"
"Get bigger? You were like seven inches tall a few moments ago," Tao seemed confused by the question before giving a slight laugh.
"OH! That! My avatar is currently being projected from that," Point her hand up at the protection device on the ceiling that moved everywhere that the AI's avatar moved too.
"Avatar? So you are a ghost?" Trixie asked before the fox-like AI shook her head.
"Not quite... As an AI I don't possess a physical form so I use the ship's holographic display systems to project my avatar whenever Delta is close enough to the ship," Tao explain which didn't really seem to answer Trixie's question.
"I... don't get it... so your not a ghost but you don't have a body?"
"No, I kinda do... um... but not in the normal sense I... Delta helps me out here," Tao asked the heavily implanted 'human'.
"Her body isn't physical which is kinda similar to a ghost but she never died in the first place," Delta brought his ramen bag to his lips before taking a sip of the liquid food and lowering it. "Plus she currently lives inside my body though my many many implants as a sorta 'cyber-symbiote' to put it simply,"
Trixie looked at the AI's avatar who currently smiled at her then to Delta who was drinking from his bag.
"Wha-... okay! What kinda bucking dragon are you!?" Trixie spoke getting up. "Trixie has never a dragon like you before!"
"Did she just talk in the third person?" Tao asked through their link.
"She did... guess it's common here maybe?" Delta responded back to her while Trixie couldn't hear linked minds.
"I'm not a dragon... well technically I'm not but that would be cool though,"
"Explain," Trixie demanded in a somewhat expecting tone but probably from all the stress and what happened she need some answer to understand what was happening to her.
"I wasn't born like this," Delta pointed to his face before taking another drink of his soup. "This is what you get after two major surgeries and a few minor ones... what I'm saying is you can say I looked a lot different before I got this handsome mug,"
"Wait someone turned you into what you are now?" Trixie sounded horrified at the notion. "Did they do this without your consent?!"
"No... I sighed up for the program that did this to me," Delta took another drink of his soup while the equine couldn't believe what she heard.
"You 'sighed up' to look like that?!" Trixie nearly screamed standing up. "WHY!?"
"First of all: Calm the fuck down lady and second: Survival," Delta gave her a serious look. "My race kinda had something similar happen to our world where these creatures called nercomorphs flood our work in a mass worldwide outbreak because of a device known as 'Marker',"
Giving a sigh he took one last drink of his soup before twisting the top back on it.
"Neromorphs were reanimated dead corpses similar to what you would call a 'zombie' but they were more deadly when a corpse is infected it breaks itself down to form natural weapons designed to kill living beings as to make more corpses and more necromorphs," Turning to Tao the AI didn't have to hear his thought before she brought up a blue holographic image between Trixie and the two of the most common type of nercomorph: the Slasher.
"What in Celestia's holy name!" The blue equine backed up.
"You think that's bad that's the one you'll mostly see trying to kill you," Tao explained before Delta looked at the hologram.
"These things were nasty but they weren't the true threat... the marker was," Delta explained.
Trixie looked away from the hologram before sitting back down.
"You said that before... what is this 'marker' thing,"
"Markers are these alien-like devices made by what I can only describe as the devil's who angels of death... these things at first seemed to be a device that could lead up to understand the secrets of evolution but in reality held a much darker propose. Creating Nercomorphs to birth a new brethren moon," A hologram of a marker and a brethern moon took the Slasher's place. "What was worse about it was that could infect the living by giving off a signal that in a nutshell would turn anyone insane given time,"
"Hallucinations, Suicidal tendencies, Self-harm, Increased aggression, Insomnia, and of course Madness," Delta explained further. "And Markers have a way of playing with the minds those who are influenced by their signal by making them experience things like seeing a dead loved one or tricking them into blowing them out an airlock and what's worse even if you do somehow escape a marker with your life, you can never be free after it marks you,"
"What happens then?"
"Same thing but followed by the urge to find a way to make a new marker... I believe," Delta gave a sign before hitting his chest plate with his fist. "But that is why I'm like this,"
The 'dragonoid' gave Trixie a determined look on his face.
"My body isn't as weak as the rest of my race... natural armor, reinforced metal bone implants, synthetic muscle tissue, and of course AI Implant," Delta explained. "This transformation not only protected my body but my mind too... my friends and I were to be the future of our race survival against the Nercomorphs threat,"
"Trixie feels a 'but' coming on," Trixie asked making the former human chuckle slightly at how close these equines were to humans.
"Some of my race believe me and my fellow 'converted' were heresy to their belief seeing how they saw the Markers as a gift from god and the nercomorphs were the true step in human evolution," Delta gave a sign. "Right in our war for survival, we had a goddamn civil war between our government and the 'church of unitology safe to say a people divided in the middle of a war between hell made sure no one but the devil's army,"
Resting his arms on his legs the cybernetic being hung his head.
"And those damn moons shallowed our planet like it was a ripe piece of fruit," His AI partner turned to him sensing his heart rate dropping before lifting her hand but knew she couldn't touch him here in real space.
Trixie sat in silence for a moment before speaking up.
"How did you survive?"
"We ran," Tao answered. "Halfway during our the sudden civil war my fellow AIs and myself included determined that there was a 98.99% chance that the species would be whipped out in a manner of weeks or a month if we were lucky. So we planned on escaping with as many people that we could but due to the short amount of time most of us were lucky to make it out with a single personal space shuttle with whatever we could gather,"
Turning to her partner who stood up to look at her.
"Delta and I could only get this ship and enough supplies to last us years and even longer if Delta remained in stasis and the shuttle was in stand-by mode drifting in space," Tao stated before looking at the equine. "But hopefully my kin and their hoists were able to escape with others but sadly I have not heard from any of them in over a century,"
Going wide-eyed Trixie couldn't believe she just heard, to which Delta noticed her surprised expression.
"Yeah we are most likely older than your great-grandparents," This caused the pony's jaw to drop while she was trying to process this information.
After a good few minutes, Trixie had finally collected herself before asking one final question.
"Why are you telling Trixie this?" Trixie asked.
"You told us about your world and it's only fair we tell you some of our worlds in exchanged... but also to tell you that we experience almost the same thing with our own home," Delta responded. "But never forget this... Trixie"
Standing up he then held out his hand out to her.
"You're not alone in this maybe we can save your world unlike our own,"
Looking at his hand the pony then saw the slight smile he held on his face before she reached out and took the hand she was offered.
"Trixie will remember that,"
Author's Note
Okay, first off, sorry for the slight delay... I finished dead space 1 and now I'm going to see if I can beat it on impossible! (So far so good as of right now 08/23/2022)
Now as for the story?
Hope this sheds some light on what's happened to Earth and why 'Delta' is what he is but don't worry I'll explain in future detail later on. I mean this is a story just tell you out right kinda defeats the point of a story...
I was somewhat inspired by a few things of Delta's design but I'll let you guys to guess.
As for how fast the strange virus spread across Equis so fast?
Well mostly because Equis never had such a plague like this before...
That and Twilight didn't know how to handle the undead, since a virus doesn't really care for friendship.
Tell me your thoughts and see you all in the next one!
(Also I was going to have the food differently to reference another SciFi movie but I decided differently and used a real-world example of space food since that movie has nothing to do with zombies... or even dead space for that manner)
