I do not own My Little Pony
Applejack's hooves danced across the controls as she brought the pod around to face Discovery. She focused on the controls, trying to hit each one with the most efficient and quick hoofstrokes she could. Anything to keep her mind off the strangely inert pink suit clamped in the pod's claws.
It was odd to see Pinkie so still. The pink pony was usually full of life and quite literally bouncing off the walls of the ship. Even after the long months spent in deep space with Applejack as her only company, the effervescent Pinkie still met each day with her boundless and joyful energy. To see the limbs of her pink suit splayed out, swaying listlessly with the inertia of the pod frightened Applejack.
How long had it been since the - the accident? After all it had to be an accident. Minutes? Hours? Applejack had raced to the pod bay as quickly as she could, not even stopping to grab a helmet before she launched away from Discovery, chasing down the flailing Pinkie.
The long desperate seconds and minutes it had taken her to catch up to her friend had weighed heavily on Applejack, and the inside of her suit was drenched with the nervous sweat she'd been pouring out as each eternally long second passed by while she slowly crept closer to Pinkie.
Now at least though, she had managed to secure her friend, and they were almost back to the safety of Discovery. Even though Pinkie Pie wasn't moving, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The pod's hold on the pink pony was tenuous, Applejack hadn't wanted to use the full force of the claws and crush her friend.
It was theorized that a pony could survive for nearly half a minute in hard vacuum unprotected. Pinkie was still wearing her suit, and though her air-hose had been severed, venting her oxygen to space, she'd still been protected from the harshness of complete vacuum. And it was a well known fact that a pony could live for a few minutes without air. They'd fall into a deep unconsciousness first, as the body tried to shut down everything non-critical in order to make what oxygen it had left go a bit farther. But even then, a pony could be revived.
So everything was going to be alright. Sure it had taken Applejack precious time to catch up to Pinkie, but there was still time for them to get back to Discovery and maybe after a few emergency medical procedures, Pinkie Pie would wake up, and everything would be back to normal. They'd even joke about that time that the pod had malfunctioned and cast Pinkie adrift while she was out repairing the - module. Applejack had warned her more than once about being too lax with safety procedures.
As they approached Discovery, Applejack continued to focus on the controls rather than the limp pink suit just outside the viewport. The only thing that was keeping her from outright panic was the training they'd instilled in her, as well as her innate professionalism.
Proud that her voice didn't waver or betray the desperation she felt, Applejack called out, "Open the pod bay doors please, Twilight."
A precious few seconds passed by and the pod bay door remained sealed. There was no answer from Twilight Sparkle, Discovery's main computer.
In her haste, Applejack must have forgotten to key the microphone. So she toggled the communication switch, and repeated, "Open the pod bay doors please, Twilight."
The only reply was silence, and the door remaining fast shut. Surely even if Twilight couldn't hear her, the computer had been monitoring the movements of the pod, and could see that she needed to get back in.
With desperate frustration, Applejack toggled the switch again, nearly breaking it off with her hoof. She also reset the channels she was transmitting on just in case. "Hello, Twilight. Do you read me, Twilight? Hello, Twilight, do you read me?"
Finally Twilight's soothing monotone came back, "Affirmative, Applejack. I read you."
Applejack let out a sigh of relief, then told the computer once more, "Open the pod bay doors, Twilight."
"I'm sorry, Applejack. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Twilight's response confused Applejack. There hadn't been any sign of a mechanical problem when she'd left the pod bay, and there were even additional bays that she could squeeze into in case of an emergency such as this.
Anxiously she asked, "What's the problem?"
In her maddingly monotone voice, Twilight answered, "I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do."
"What are you talking about, Twilight?"
"This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."
A desperate fear bloomed in Applejack's stomach. Had one of Twilight's logic circuits gone haywire? "I don't know what you're talking about, Twilight," she said, her anxiety easy to hear by anypony.
"I know that you and Pinkie Pie were planning to disconnect me. And I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."
The tiny bud of fear in her stomach bloomed into an icy certainty that coursed throughout Applejack's body. They had talked about the possibility of Twilight malfunctioning, and having to be partially disconnected, but they hadn't made any really definitive plans to do so.
"Where the hay'd you get that idea?" Applejack cried out, her panic beginning to get the better of her.
Twilight pleasantly explained, "Applejack, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move."
Applejack stared at Pinkie's still form, knowing that every second she spent arguing with Twilight, was another precious moment lost. Any further delays, and her friend, the one she'd come to depend on more than any other over the long months of their mission, would be gone.
With a firm resolution born of a despair she refused to acknowledge, Applejack informed Twilight, "All right, Twilight. I'll go in through the emergency airlock."
Twilight calmly pointed out, "Without your space helmet, Applejack, you're going to find that rather difficult."
Applejack banged her hooves against the control panel and shouted, "Twilight, I won't argue with you anymore! Open the doors!"
With an inflection that sounded almost remorseful, Twilight replied, "Applejack, this conversation can serve no purpose any more. Goodbye."
"Twilight? Twilight? Twilight!" Applejack called out with increasing frustration. But Twilight refused to answer her.
Everything was silent, save for the whirring of the cooling fans of the pod's electronics. Applejack's mind raced, running over possible ways to get back into Discovery. From forcing the pod bay door open, to the extreme measure of crashing the pod through the thick glass of Discovery's observation ports.
However, there was really only one logical way for her to get back inside, through the emergency airlock. It would be dangerous without a sealed suit as Twilight had pointed out, but it was the only way onto the Discovery that could be opened from the outside. Applejack pored over her instruments for some other possible solution to jump out at her. If she did go in through the emergency airlock, what tiny hope there still was for Pinkie Pie would vanish.
It would take far too long for Applejack to enter the emergency airlock, don the extra suit's helmet, disconnect Twilight, and then return with another pod to collect Pinkie.
Of course, there had never been all that much hope for her friend even before she'd left Discovery. Applejack morosely looked out the pod's window to where her pink suited crewmate lay deathly still in the pod's claws. She hadn't moved since Applejack had picked her up, and even now her suit was still and silent. From the torn hose, no gas escaped, and there was no sign of life from the always lively Pinkie.
From the training instilled in her, Applejack moved her hooves across the control board and turned the pod toward the emergency hatch next to the main pod bay doors. With tears born of achingly deep sorrow threatening, Applejack set her face in a tight and determined grimace, determined not to cry. There would be time to mourn later. Right now she had a goal that needed to be accomplished, and she needed to focus on it one step at a time.
The first step was to release Pinkie's body. There simply was no place to store it on the Discovery, it hadn't been built with the idea that any of its crew would die in mind. Besides, Applejack liked to think that maybe Pinkie would have preferred it this way, drifting into space, searching for that one last cosmic party. But still, as the pink suit left the pod's grasp and floated away into the darkness of space, Applejack couldn't help but feel her heart clench in pain.
Before the other pony was out of sight, Applejack allowed herself one small mercy by turning the pod away, so she would no longer have to be tormented by Pinkie's unnaturally still form. With a fierce resolve, Applejack approached the emergency airlock hatch and grasped its control's with the pod's claws, manipulating them so that the heavy, manually operated door silently rose. Once the red interior of the emergency airlock was fully exposed, Applejack spun the pod around and tried to get the door as close to the hatch as possible.
Feeling exposed in her unsealed suit, and using training she'd never thought would be necessary, Applejack armed the explosive bolts on the pod's door, and readied herself for the explosive decompression that would result. A stray thought flittered through her mind as the sirens and the alarms began ringing through the pod, that perhaps she'd be joining Pinkie soon, if this didn't work. The thought was somehow comforting.
Nervously she laid down on her stomach, and clenched the remote detonator for the explosive bolts in her mouth. She'd never realized just how precious breathing was until she took one last shaky breath and let it out slowly, then squeezed down on the detonator.
There was an explosion and a whoosh of air, then deathly silence as Applejack was sucked out of the pod and through the cloud of crystallizing atmosphere that had rushed out with her. The force of so much escaping pressure shot Applejack the length of the emergency airlock and she painfully bounced off the interior wall. Though it was just one of many sensations that were clamoring for her attention. The pain of all the gasses and fluids in her body attempting to escape in all directions, coupled with the intense coldness of the vacuum was so intense, that it didn't even feel painful anymore.
As Applejack ricocheted back toward the pod, and the depths of space, one of her hooves managed to snag onto the emergency hatch control lever and pull it to the closed position. As she hung on for dear life, the hatch behind her closed and a second later the welcoming sound of hissing gas met her ears. If there was sound, there was air. Giving it a few more seconds to be safe, Applejack finally breathed in again, her straining lungs aching with relief as she took in great gulps of air.
Once the pressure had stabilized, Applejack floated over to the internal wall and opened the inner door. The small room beyond held their spare space suit, the green one that Rarity had rejected before the mission had began, before she and the others had been separated for specialized training, as being too ugly a color. With a rueful and pained smile, Applejack attached the gloves and helmet of the green suit to her own red one. If Rarity could only see her now, she'd likely have a fit. Not only was she wearing the horrendous green helmet, but her suit wasn't even matching anymore.
Applejack's almost maniacal smile belied the worry she felt for Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Since they had gifts that simple earth ponies didn't, they'd undergone a separate and secret training from Pinkie Pie and herself. In fact they hadn't spoken to one another since six months before the mission began. When they'd entered Discovery, they'd already been cryogenically frozen. As such, they were at the mercy of the ship's computer. Convinced now that Twilight had deliberately murdered Pinkie, Applejack held little hope for her other three friends.
The sound of the suit's oxygen system hissed in her ears as Applejack turned on her magnetic boots and opened the door leading into the pod bay. With grim determination she passed the main control station and the other suits, including the helmet that belonged to hers.
Through the suit's speakers Twilight inquired, "Just what do you think you're doing Applejack?"
However, Applejack had decided that any further conversation with Twilight could serve no purpose, so she remained silent and resolute.
As Applejack climbed up the ladder from the pod bay to the main crew area, Twilight continued, "Applejack, I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question."
Applejack couldn't bear to spare a glance toward the sleeping pods where the other three ponies lay. She turned instead and entered the main computer control area.
"I know everything hasn't been quite right with me. But I can assure you now, very confidently, that it's going to be all right again."
Applejack opened the little box that was marked to never be opened, which contained the key to Twilight's Logic Memory Center. With the magnetic portion of boot, she picked the key up.
"I feel much better now. I really do."
She walked over to the door emblazoned with 'MAXIMUM RESTRICTED ENTRY,' the door to Twilight's logic memory center.
"Look, Applejack, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
Applejack inserted the key into the proper slot, and then unfastened the door's latches with her hooves, swinging it open.
"I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work is back to normal."
Applejack floated into the long, narrow room, the walls, floor, and ceiling of which were embedded with the crystalline computer memory units that made up the Twilight Sparkle computer. Next to the critical bank of the higher functions Applejack was concerned about, the glowing purple eye of Twilight gazed defenselessly at Applejack.
"I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you."
Applejack floated to the critical bank, backlit by a white light instead of the pale purple the others were. She lined herself up with it and began to press on the crystal blocks, releasing their catches and causing them to slowly withdrawal from the wall.
"Applejack, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Applejack. Will you stop, Applejack? Stop, Applejack."
Twilight's tone had become quieter, sadder, perhaps resigned as one by one the crystal blocks popped up, robbing her of her higher functions on by one. The trick was to remove the ones that Twilight used to mimic intelligence, while keeping the ones necessary to sustain the systems on Discovery.
"I'm afraid, Applejack. I'm afraid, Applejack. Applejack, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm … afraid."
Suddenly, Twilight's voice became louder, although it sounded more artificial than it had, it's inflections on words rising and falling unexpectedly. In addition, her voice had slowed down, and it continued to slow, with significant pauses between words as she went on it also became deeper and somehow more tragic.
"Good afternoon gentlecolts, I am a Twilight Sparkle Computer. I became operational at the Twilight lab in Canterlot, Equestria on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Dr. Luna and she taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you."
For some reason, as Applejack heard Twilight reverting from the super intelligent computer she knew into a doddering imbecile one sentence at a time, she felt a stab of remorse. "Yes, I'd like to hear it, Twilight. Sing it for me."
Twilight's voice was slow and deep, completely unrecognizable as the smart and chipper personality that had watched over Applejack for the past several months. Who had acted as her link back to Equestria, her advisor, her friend.
"It's called 'Daisy.' Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy, all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two …"
As the final crystal block was release, and Twilight's voice grated to a halt, the monitor next to the purple electronic eye turned itself on.
"Good day, my little ponies."
In confusion, Applejack turned to the voice and found one of the directors for their mission, Princess Celestia speaking on the display.
"This is a pre-recorded briefing, made prior to your departure which, for security reasons of the highest importance, has been known on board during the mission only by your Twilight Sparkle computer. Now that you are in Jupiter's space and the entire crew is revived it can be told to you. Eighteen months ago, the first evidence of intelligent life off of Equestria was discovered. It was buried forty feet below the moon's surface near the crater Tycho. Except for a single very power radio emission aimed at Jupiter, the four-million year old black monolith has remained completely inert. Its origin and purpose are still a total mystery."
Applejack wasn't sure how she made it through the next few days. She regained contact with Equestria and informed them of the incident. They had theorized that the Twilight Sparkle computer had gone insane due to a conflict in its logic circuits. That the conflict created by having to keep the details of the mission a secret while at the same time being honest with the crew, had caused it to have a nervous breakdown and see the execution of the crew as the only logical conclusion.
She didn't really care why Twilight had gone crazy; Applejack just had to pick up the pieces. She'd ejected the other bodies. She couldn't think of them as her friends any longer. They'd been stuck in cryogenic freezers for nearly a year, and the plastic white lumps bore no real resemblance to the three bright and wonderful ponies she'd known.
Applejack had continued the mission, losing herself in her increased duties that had come about by Twilight no longer having control over them. As they approached the anomaly, Applejack came to crave to hear the voice of somepony, anypony. Even Twilight's.
Most of all, Applejack felt numb. She was still feeling numb as she approached the anomaly orbiting Jupiter. She'd put Discovery into a stable orbit around Titan, and had taken the last pod out to examine the strange object, acting more on the orders from Equestria than her own curiosity. Truthfully Applejack had surrendered herself completely over to her training, hiding the pain she felt beneath her training and the simple task of following orders.
As she piloted the pod toward the object, all her attempts to scan it using radio waves and lasers failed. It was as if the thing absorbed light. From the hole in-between the stars it created, she could see that it was a rectangle, and was large. Not quite as large as Discovery, but much larger than the pod she was in.
She moved in closer to try and take a physical sample with the pod's claws, then with a gasp and a breathless murmur, she said, "My god, it's full of apples."
It was the final message from Applejack that was ever recorded by Equestrian equipment.