Frayed Wires saw nothing but darkness. everything for miles was as black as ink, with no sign of light anywhere. She felt worried, scared, alone.
“Hello?” she called out. “is anypony here?” There was no response. It was just her, and the sea of infinite shadows that stretched on ahead of her for eternity.
She held her head in her hooves and began to sob. Frayed had just been born into this mysterious world only a few moments ago, but she was already prepared to submit to its cruel gloom and wither away.
So distracted was she by her sadness, that she failed to recognize the growing speck of light that had appeared beneath her floating form. By the time she took notice of the luminescent hole beneath her it had grown from the size of a tiny dot to that of a large waterwheel. As Frayed examined the ever expanding fissure she came to realize that it was not growing in scale, but in shrinking in distance.
Before she could react, Frayed fell through the bright opening and into a completely new dimension. Gone where the black shadows of nothingness, and gloom. Replaced by a bright blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, and a shinning sun.
For a single moment, she felt relieved. She was in a place that felt natural, that felt real. She hadn’t even seen anypony yet, but she knew she was no longer alone. Then the truth dawned on her, sending an unnatural chill down her spine.
She had fallen through the hole, and into the open sky. There was nothing between her and the ground bellow.
She tried in vain to stop her drop; but she had no wings to slow herself, nor a horn to magically cushion the fall. she madly flailed her arms and legs in an attempt to stop her descent , but to no avail. she let out a blood curdling scream before she hit the ground with an audible *THUD*, and fell back into the darkness that now served as her eternal resting place.
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“Free fall simulation: complete.” said a monotonous voice. “Results: miniscule improvement from previous test.”
Frayed’s eyes snapped open as the last of the robotic words died away. She was met with the familiar sight of a gloomy white room filled with various machines and monitors. Looking down, she was relieved to see her hooves slowly settle down on the metal grating that separated her body from the massive fan that was used to propel her body upwards. Frayed let out a thankful sigh as all her memories came flooding back to her.
“it was just a test…..just a test……it wasn’t real…wasn’t real” she repeated to herself.
“Frayed Wires.” came a static voice from the intercom positioned above her. “That was a pretty rough test, are you feeling alright? Are any of your regular symptoms present?”
Frayed had just undergone a “free fall therapy session.” She had to enter a skydiving simulator every day and re-live the traumatic experience over and over again. It wasn’t bad enough that she had an intense phobia of heights, but she was also required to run the test until every day until her body adjusted to it.
She hated it with a burning passion; it caused her heart to beat at an unhealthy pace, her lungs would flare up and burn for hours afterwards, and it gave her intense migraines. It was the worst thing ever.
“I’ve got all of them,” she replied sourly. “But this time they feel twice as bad.”
A few incoherent mumbles where heard from the intercom before the raspy voice of the doctor returned.
“I’m sorry miss, but you failed again. Reaching a total of nearly sixty unsuccessful tests. If I where you, id give up trying to pass. Even if you did manage to exceed the exam you would still have to spend two week in Vacuum Analysis. We will be returning to Equestria by then.”
Frayed ran a brown hoof through her creamy white colored mane. She had hoped to go on at least one moon walk before the ship, the DIVUMVILLA, returned from its mission to the moon. Unfortunately her fear of heights and lack of experience in zero gravity wouldn’t even permit her to exit the ship and maneuver around its exterior.
Frayed sighed as she slid out of her practice garment and into her engineering RIG. It was a dark brown jumpsuit with several pieces of bronze plating covering her chest, back, arms, and legs. It was relatively dull, and the only other color on it besides auburn was the light blue beam that ran down her spine which displayed her health status. If she sustained an injury while on the job the beam would decrease in size and change from blue, to yellow, to red. If the beam was completely gone, that meant she was dead.
“Thankfully that has happened….. Yet.” Frayed said to herself as she finished zipping up her suit. Now that she had completed her daily failure, it was time to go to the mess hall and grab some grub before receiving her next assignment.
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Silver Badge idly poked at his meal. Usually he was ecstatic about eating the food served on the DIVUMVILLA, mostly because it tasted a lot better than the rations he was served back in Equestria. But today, instead of relishing the thought of eating gourmet cuisine, his mind was pondering other things. Most prevalently, returning to his home. It had been precisely forty-nine days since he and ten-thousand other ponies lifted off from earth and ventured where nopony else had gone before without the aid of magic. They had spent close to two weeks flying through space until they reached their destination, the moon.
At first the experience was exciting, but Silver had soon grown unenthused by the long hours of patrolling hallways and laying in bed with nothing to do. As a security guard he didn’t have too many responsibilities. His only tasks were to make sure everypony was kept in line, and that the scientists were kept safe. Besides those two things he had nothing else to do, he wasn’t even allowed to exit the main ship and walk on the moon. No, only the higher-ups, like the Wonderbolts, had that privilege.
On top of that, his bosses were real hard-asses. They wouldn’t permit the guards to talk to anypony while on duty, including other guards. Nor where they allowed to visit decks they weren’t assigned to, or exchange shifts. And to top it all off, everything was run on a minute-by-minute schedule. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a limit to how much time he could spend in the bathroom. It really got on Silver’s nerves, even working at the royal palace in Equestria wasn’t this strict.
“Yo, Silver!” shouted a familiar feminine voice. “Hello, anypony home?” Silver looked up from his meal and into the emerald eyes of his close friend, Med Kit. She was a white mare with a fiery red mane that nearly touched the floor. Both her eyes and smile shone like stars in the eyes of all those who were fortunate enough to see her. Silver couldn’t help but get a lump in his throat every time they met. He had known her for a quite some time, but only now did he start to develop these feelings of affection.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he responded. “just doing some thinking is all.”
“What about?” persisted the lovely mare. Silver let out a forlorn sigh before answering.
“Nothing much, just about going home. I really miss my family and my old job.” those were a few words Silver had never expected himself to say. He used to always dream about getting away from his boring job as a guard, and his small house located in the middle of nowhere. He had always yearned for adventure, and had hoped signing up to travel to space would have satisfied that feeling. Alas, he hadn’t found what he was looking for, and only now did he realize that being stuck in outer space was even worse then being back on his home planet. At least there he could escape to the local pub where he could drown his disappointment with a few glasses of hard- cider. “This whole space traveling thing just isn’t all that it cracked up to be.” Med Kit shot him a sympathetic glance before finding a way to cheer him up.
“Well, at least we have the wedding to look forward to when we get back, right?” Silver had almost forgotten about that. The DIVUMVILLA was scheduled to return by Princess Cadence’s wedding. All crew members were given admittance to the occasion, and would receive a place of honor during the reception. It was to be a splendid event filled with merriment and festivities. After all, it wasn’t every day that an immortal princess married the infamous captain of the guard.
“Yeah I guess your right,” said Silver. “in the end it’ll all be worth it!”
They sat together and continued to talk for a while. Silver informed Med Kit about the on goings of the captain and what the Wonderbolts were doing, while in turn Med Kit told him about all the interesting things that happened in the med-bay. It was a perfect moment, just two friends sitting together, chatting the minutes away…..
…….
…until Frayed Wires arrived.
The angry mare sat down and slammed her tray onto the table with a loud THUD, instantly breaking up the pleasant conversation between the two other ponies.
“Everything alright?” asked Med Kit even, though she already knew then answer.
“I failed my simulation test again.” Frayed growled through clenched teeth. “the doctor says that even if I do pass the next one I still wont be able to go on a walk.” Silver reached a sympathetic arm around and patted her on the back.
“I’m sorry Frayed, I know how much you wanted to do it. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t get to go on a moon walk either.” Frayed shrugged Silvers arm off of her shoulder and punched him in the arm.
“that’s because you’re military, idiot. I'm an engineer, I'm supposed to go outside and stuff, not stay locked in the ship for two months and run vent maintenance.” Silver rubbed his arm in an attempt to dull the pain from Frayed’s hit. Even though he was wearing his tough blue and grey security RIG he was certain his skin would bruise.
“Hey! I was just trying to lighten the mood!” he laughed. “no need to get all huffy with me!” despite Silver’s efforts, his good attitude didn’t rub off on Frayed. All it served to do was annoy her.
“Look, I know your trying to make me feel better, but right now im not in the mood. So can you please just leave me alone and let me eat?” But regardless of Silver’s response, Frayed wouldn’t be able to relax.
“Frayed Wires, this is head engineer Silver Wrench.” buzzed the com-link attached to Frayd’s wrist. “We had to switch around some working schedules due to an unexpected hospitalization of one of our guys. I need you to head down to the engine room and repair one of the vents that’s backed up. Engineer Metal Gears will be waiting for you with the equipment.”
“This day just gets worse and worse.” Frayed mumbled to nopony in particular as she pushed herself out of her seat and stomped away.
“Poor girl,” sighed Med Kit. “going on a moon walk must’ve been really important to her.”
“Yeah it sucks,” replied Silver. “I think the only reason she went on this flight was so that she could do just that. Unfortunately, she may never get to do it now.”
