Having take the time to rest and eat, the two stood in fluffy robes found in the break room. They paused there, waiting at the door, Selene's voice coming through the intercom above. "Yeah, found these in storage. Don't ask just how far back. This next room is a bit colder than the other rooms so I figured you two would want something nice for the time being." She clapped her hands together. "So, the room is ready now, I shall open the door and you two can come on in and make yourselves comfortable."

With that, the door opened and the two cautiously walked in. They were in a blank white room, white tiled floor, white walls with a few square large metal looking slabs along the wall and a grey ceiling with florescent looking lights. Three plush looking chairs sat in the middle facing each other with a small table in the middle and a Flat screen TV sat just off to the side on a small nightstand.

Selene sat opposite of the two chairs, legs crossed, lab coat free of any wrinkles, hair done up in a ponytail with big round goggles wrapped around her forehead. She invited for them to sit with cups of tea being presented to them. Both lovers glanced at each other with odd looks as they went over and sat down, neither one touching the tea.

Selene stirred her own cup, took a sip and set it down. "So, here we are again. You have questions and I have answers. This is final room. Here you will be tested on the will of the mind. Will you be able to take the truth that is given to you? Will you be able to continue with the knowledge that you have gleamed? A great reward lies ahead of you but only if you are willing to accept everything that gets laid out before you. But before we begin, I am bound by a promise made long ago to give you two the options."

She cleared her throat.

"Option 1: You take the truth as it is given and attempt to process it, hopefully accept it, then move on with this knowledge in tow.
Option 2: You decide not to take it and go back to doing tests, continue doing what you two have always done. No change needed and nothing learned that may effect you both in a negative way."

She held on her hands, waiting for an answer.

Button sighed then glanced at Sweetie. "We have had one heck of a run so far, I don't know what she means but, I am ready to find out what all this is about. But I am also willing to forgo that if you want. Whatever you chose, I am beside you all the way."

Sweetie gently placed a hand over to Button, realized she was just out of reach, scooted the chair closer and next to his before placing her hand over his. "I want to know what this is all about too. I don't care what crazy truth does to us. I am ready to find out everything together."

The two nodded and turned to her. "Tells us everything, we want to know." They said in unison.

Selene smiled and leaned back. "Then let me start at the beginning. You two both signed up for a massive almost two year long expedition into space. It was supposed to be a few quick jumps followed by 18 months of exploration then returning back home.

We learned how to teleport long distances through space but the power and magic it took was intense so we had to make it with a few days of recharge time in between. Our original mission was to spend 3 weeks jumping to this new planet that was discovered, a large planet mostly made up of water with bits of large islands scattered about. It had everything needed to sustain life and the desire to explore the stars and start setting up new places to roam outwards was just too great not to explore. You two already look confused to let me finish and I will help fill in some gaps."

She took a deep breath and continued. "We got about two weeks in when suddenly during a stop, a storm of asteroids came upon us. We did our best but our convoy of ships took some major damage. Our ship in particular, a ship designed to help train a batch of explorers, managed to come out mostly unscathed. However, this ship was meant to piggyback off of another ship that could allow both to jump. We only have basic navigational function. Enough to keep us moving and known location of the planet our destination was intended for. The ship towing us was nearly destroyed. Most got out but in the aftermath, we lost a few good souls that day."

She stopped and took another sip of her tea. "In the aftermath, our ship had become detached and we had two choices on our hands. Continue or go back. It was decided by you two and myself to go forward, while the others worked their way slowly back. The jump ability of the ships had been damaged and well, it was going to be a few hundred years either way. The ships that went back would have statis pods but this ship had nothing like that built into it. We did however, have the ability to clone and replace. We were already researching imprinting things on DNA, a recording of memories and abilities to be used next generation to generation. So it was decided that you two would be altered slightly. You two became the first to use this process as we slowly began making our way to this new planet."

She flicked her fingers to the large metal objects that slowly began to move upwards, the two turned and their jaws dropped. The slabs stopped moving, revealing a black and stary sky past some thick looking windows. "Welcome to the Star Ship Explorer. I am its soul captain and operator Selene. You two are our only crew mates. It has been several hundred years now and we are now only about 5 years left to go before we finally reach the planet. Congrats, you two will be the first generation to actually see and hopefully populate this new planet."

Button looked deflated with eyes like deer in headlights while Sweetie was struggling to process all of this, her expression practically blue screening.

The stallion managed to barely grab hold of his sanity, by his pinky, as he sat up. "Hold up, how long have we been doing this? If I am to understand all of this, we have been cloned, reset, cloned again multiple times in order to help train some future generation to help survive on an alien planet. Also why don't we remember any of this?!"

Selene held up her hands. "Steady there now, we still have a bit more to go. But to answer your questions: Its been at least 300 years. You two made the decisions to reset each time."

Sweetie Belle finally managed to restart her brain as she shook her head. "I'm sorry. WE decided to reset?"

"Yep, the mind is a crazy and wonderous thing. It can also be damaged in many ways. Its only recently I was able to get it to a point where your minds might be strong enough to remember things. Dying is a tough thing for any mind to process. The fact that I have recently made it possible for your minds to not die when your bodies do is a marvel to say the least. Your memories and brain functions carry over each time but being able to remember everything leading up to your deaths can be a strain on the mind, so before we had the ability to take that strain into account of each wake up, we had to reset.

In order to make the process even smoother, we also made a few modifications to your memory upon awakening. They are still there mind you, just blocked off until a chain is made. You will slowly start to remember some things before your dip into the vats but everything that came during each life though, those memories have been stored elsewhere for testing purposes. However, the data is still there on your DNA each time. Its why things feel familiar without the memory actually being there, at least not fully."

Button stood up, walked over and gazed out the nearby window. "So up till recently, whenever we would perish, we would forget everything up till that point. Its only recently we were allowed to keep our minds intact. This is why whenever we did perish in the experiments, we were able to jump back in. Is that why we were also not taken aback by dying so much?"

Selene shrugged. "Could be. I just figured you two had other things to worry about. This recent ability certainly had me curious as well. I will say that you two are easily the horniest of the bunch so far. Your past lives certainly didn't hold back to say the least but I would say that you two may be already close to breaking some records. You two certainly have gotten farther than most. Though the ability to remember and correct things right away I would say made a large difference."

She pulled out some notes and looked them over.

"Now before you go into hysterics about how these clones work because I do remember the last time we had this conversation..." She cleared her throat again. "The clones themselves are just empty husks, copies taken right there at the time this whole thing started, then preserved. They are essentially suites waiting to be piloted by your minds once entered. We can preserve an empty mind within an empty body, but one full of memories and life is another issue. This was the best option we had at the time."

Sweetie stood up. "This is a lot to take in." She glanced back at her lover then back to Selene. "So now I have a question. Is anyone else coming or is it just going to us. Are we going to be alone?"

Selene crossed her arms. "I mean, I am here and some of your past lives have called me a friend. Heck, maybe even a bit more than that in one case. But yes, its just us three. Others may come eventually but they are still a long ways off. I have been sending plenty of data back but this too will take time to travel back. Home may be a different thing entirely for all we know. The fact that I haven't received anything back in at least 200 years is odd to say the least and may be due to something world changing back home but I cannot say for sure. All I know is that we have a chance to start something amazing on this new world, I hope you two are willing to help start that even now."

Button turned back, quickly walking back over and sat down on the edge of his seat. "Alright. I can safely say this going beyond anything I could have imagined. So I am guessing we were farther along than my memories said we are in terms of space travel and stuff. Going to assume another alicorn was born back then too."

Selene shook her head then smiled. "Born wouldn't exactly be correct. I was created in a special machine that combined the DNA of Luna and another I am not allowed to discuss. I was grown within a special device where I ate, slept and learned. It took a little over 20 years but eventually I was able to leave the device. I came out looking like this, a woman with extensive knowledge, a body and mind ready to take on the many hundreds of years of helping to grow this new planet. The plan back then was different but the goal is still the same. I am a lab created Alicorn but I want nothing more than to help create new life and give it a chance in this new world. My wings may not give me flight and my telekinetic powers are limited, but I have the longevity and youthful form that should be able to outlive the four digit year mark on our new calendar once we reach the planet."

Both lovers collapsed onto their chairs as the information dump seemed to hit them like a tidal wave.

Button sighed. "So all this time, we have been playing the part of a science experiment, we signed up for, decided to take a few hundred years to ride towards a planet to help build a new society on it, all this time we have been dying and reviving in specially clone bodies of ourselves at a point I can only assume when we decided to start doing all this, and now it seems we are close to the finish line after all this time. Does that about sum this all up?"

Selene nodded and lifted up a damp looking bag. "I have a feeling part of you still doesn't believe me."

Sweetie slowly nodded. "Its a lot to take in and a lot to process to be sure."

She reached in and pulled out a disk. "I had you two retrieve these earlier. I hid them myself for a fun test during another one of your past lives but figured it was time to dig these up." She shook off some of the dampness from the disk then stuck it into a tray beneath the TV. The tray went in and the TV turned on.

Two faces appeared to come into focus, they were Button and Sweetie Belle but they looked slightly different. They were wearing white jumpsuits and lab coats. Sweetie also had a unique looking flower in her hair while Button had on a gold ring. His hair was a bit longer too. Looking closer, Sweetie also noticed a gold ring on her hand as well.

"Hello." The Sweetie Belle on the screen waved. "If you are watching this, then hello to ourselves." The Button on screen laughed as she continued. "We have decided to undergo a crazy experiment and knowing ourselves, we didn't think we were going to believe it. So we decided to record this. This is us. We are both doing this. I know this is going to all sound crazy but trust in yourself, this is something we really want to do. We are sad because the us you see on here, well they will be long gone. I don't know how we are going to be viewing this, I know that we could be possibly at least a few hundred years old yet somehow less the wiser. But please, as one simple request from the you of possibly several hundred years ago, lets do our best, love each other and help build a really amazing world."

Button on the screen leaned in. "What my wife is trying to say is, we hope you are willing to trust us and our good friend Selene, she will be and hopefully has been, taking care of you... Er us. So be kind to her, thank her for us, and most of all, try to make the most of this new life." The two smiled and hugged each other, the video shutting off.

Selene felt a tear run down her face as she took the disk out. "I have watched that one many times. The others are just instructions made by them for the purposes of running things smoothly for you, your likes and dislikes, and any other information they thought might help. Even made a few notes for each individual room that I have done my very best to preserve."

Button nodded, slowly starting to believe all this while Sweetie Belle looked between them then down to her hand. "Hang on, so is it due to all the written DNA stuff that Button and I are so close? Because I am pretty sure I heard Button say wife just now."

Selene shrugged. "DNA coded, love that extends across time and space, perfect chemical match, at the end of the day, you two have always had this thing that binds you. In every life you have had, your relationship has mostly stayed the same. With the exception of one where you two extended that relationship outward in order to include me, those times I still cherish to this very day."

Button looked shocked but Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Yeah, I could see that. I thought you looked super hot the first time I got to see you in the flesh."

The stallion glanced back to her and then at Selene, looking her up and down. "Ok, you know what... I can kind of see it too."

Selene stood up. "In any case, what do you both say? You have a choice now. You can either continue the mission, enjoy the next five years with complete free reign of the ship till we land and start setting stuff up. Or you can reset, and start all over. Forget everything and do this whole adventure and see where you see yourselves at the end."

Button took a step back. "I don't want to forget... I mean, even if we still end up together, I still don't want to take any chances." He turned and held onto Sweetie Belle's hands. "Whatever comes our way next, I want to face it with you, together."

Sweetie nodded. "I feel the same, and who knows, maybe this new adventure on an alien planet may be just the things my soul has always been looking for. But either way, I am glad I get to face it with you. Lets enjoy our time together, then see how this new world treats us." She turned back to Selene. "We are continuing the mission."

Selene fell back into her chair. "THANK THE GODDESS. You have no idea how hard it has been lately. I hate having to put you through all this, I just want to hang out with you two and have fun. This ship has a freaking water park, did you know that? Also a movie theater and a spa area. It gets lonely when I have to say goodbye to you two each time."

She grunted. "Oh yeah, forgot to mention those cloned bodies only last about 40 years max each, so that is why you have so many past lives. You won't age, or get sick. It just sorta... Expires. But there are other ways to perish earlier though. Including anything like you two perishing from drowning, experiments gone wrong or in one case, going through a strange dimensional warp of some kind and getting your brain turned to mush. Still have no idea what galaxy we went through but it looked like a scary place not worth sticking around for. At very least, it seemed to spit us out a great distance away from that galaxy once everything was said and done.

The two glanced at each other. Selene shook her head. "Don't worry too much about it. We have a special body for each of you once we reach the planet. Everything will get transferred over, no more memory amnesia, and the best part, these ones should last much longer and won't have the blockers, meaning you to are free to help add some new life to the new world."

The pair exchanged another look and a shrug. She gestured to herself and then the door. "Come on you two, lets go get some dinner. I can help fill in any blanks you may have afterwards." She glanced back. "Sorry but clothing is really hard to come by right now, you two have gone through so much fabric over time. I've tried 3D printing new outfits but these things are super fragile. We'll have to see what we can come up with and what kinds of resources we can find planet side. Till then, you two never seemed to mind too much in the past."

The two lovers got a chuckle out of that as they made their way through the door, new adventure soon on the horizon.

Author's Note

And thus ends another fairly long story. This was a good distraction to help me through some issues that unfortunately seemed to be not looking so great. I will continue to write when I can though and hopefully things will start looking up in the future. Expect a bonus chapter eventually. May need to cover anything I missed. The problem with Sci-fi or anything close to it is that you can overlook some things or make things seem more darker than you originally intended.