melodiesoflife | Player Plot: No Bananas On The Moon

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Player Plot: No Bananas On The Moon

Who: Twilight Sparkle and those who expressed interest in going
What: After months of waiting, it's time to investigate what's on the Lunar Base!
Where: Starting on the Lunar Gate and continuing into the Lunar Base
When: forward-dated to 11/23
Warnings: None just yet.

It was finally time. After months of working, delays, in-fighting and all of that wonderful stuff, it was time to investigate the Lunar Base. To be quite fair, if anyone was excited for this, Twilight was. After gathering another group to join her, they all gathered at the Lunar Gate back in the Continent of Ruin. Alongside Twilight's other equipment, she sported a large airhorn. She was going to put some Heroes in their place with them.

"Alright, everyone, it's time we finally figure out what's up on the Moon." Twilight said. "I'm going to admit, I'm very excited for this - I've never been in space before." She let out a sigh. "I do want to put down one little bit of ground rule here: no fighting. We've spent so much time fighting with each other that it's time we put a stop to it. Unless you have a very good reason to object to something happening, I suggest not trying anything. We don't know what we're going to encounter up there and having a crisis of conscience if something needs to happen is something we don't need. Especially since it's space."

Straightening herself up, she smiled at the others. "Now, you guys ready to get going?"

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Ales had mixed feelings about this trip. On one hand, his skillset was perfect for whatever technology was on the Moon. He could not afford to be lazy and hope the others would handle things. On the other hand...Twilight Sparkles. Confronting his Shadow did nothing to negate the various reasons he disliked her. Not too surprising considering they were all related to leadership and the situation back home.

But a job was a job. He had to work with her, despite how it will be just as frustrating as when he had to speak well of the god-ruler of his world. That guy was a jerk.

However, his Shadow did bring up good points. Ales wanted to be heard, wanted his voice to matter in a society that ignored him. Maybe he was lonely and bitter deep inside, angry the unfair and illogical world. Pushing away people was unhealthy, and refusing to speak to Twilight would not solve anything.

He frowned and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Only if you promise to hold yourself to that standard. No yelling or arguing at people. Those that set down rules are not exempt from the responsibilities inherent. That's how you gain respect."

He waited for her answer. A voice told him not to get his hopes up, that she was just like any denizen of the Glade. But at least he tried.

Oh, Ales would get his answer sooner than later as Twilight approached him, leaning down to face him.

"You're right. It wouldn't be fair to think that I should be above such actions." Twilight said. "I know we've had our differences, but I hope we can change that starting now."

Twilight came to realize through her Shadow that the people here were vastly different than the ponies back home and she should have a bit more patience with them. And even though Ales is one of her bigger critics, she does want to heal that bond.

That was a lot faster than he expected. And a lot more successful that it should have been. He should trust her, but he couldn't commit himself to any sense of unfounded hope just yet. He shrugged and gave a lopsided twist of the mouth.

"You can start by not bending over to talk to me. It's quite rude. Don't they have short people where you're from? You know, that aren't children?"

Ales figured that was basic etiquette in most worlds. Even here, he knew Tarutaru would be upset if a human crouched to their level to converse.

It seemed the Heroes had brought a zombie with them. Akane was staring blankly at the Lunar Gate, seeing it, but not really comprehending it. She put a hand over her mouth and yawned for what felt like the millionth time that day.

It was her own fault, really, trying to face her shadow in the dead of night after everyone else but the two siblings had gone to bed. On top of that, the experience was draining physically and emotionally. She'd drifted off on the Enterprise during the flight over, so she'd managed to get some rest, but the temptation to just call in sick had been very strong when Keys Kupo arrived to wake her up for the expedition.

She adjusted the strap of her duffle bag of tools higher onto her shoulder and shuffled closer to the door. Maybe she'd perk up once she had something to concentrate on. There were a lot of repairs to be made, right? She was good with machines, and she'd equipped the Engineer job (albeit reluctantly, and without a Puppet) to give her that extra boost she might need.

"M'ready," she murmured with an automated smile. "Can't wait!"

Sheena was still sporting a couple of bandages after her Shadow encounter, but she wasn't about to let a few minor aches and pains stop her from being here. She had made a promise to Twilight, and by Martel, she was keeping it.

At least that was one thing she already knew about herself: that she was stubborn.

Shifting the weight of her bag that held the ExSpheres, she took in the Lunar Gate and nodded.

"Well, at least we know why we found those things hooked up to everything before," she said. "They were trying to do what we're doing now." It might be the obvious thing to say, but she wasn't going to fall back into her habit of not speaking her mind over things like this.

If she was wrong, she'd deal with it.

Aoi was coming along for two reasons. One, to keep an eye on Akane, and two, to help make a quick escape with his teleporting skills if it came down to that. He had not come along for a damn lecture.

He teleported away when the pony whipped out the airhorn, and reappeared a couple minutes later with to-go cups of coffee for himself and Akane. He handed the caffeine to his sister and gave her a commiserating look.

"Yeah, space. Let's get moving." He winked at Akane, and murmured to her, "It'll be great. In space, nobody can hear her scream."

Albel couldn't help it; he rolled his eyes. Why Cid gave the magic pony an airhorn was beyond him. But by his count, the heroes hadn't truly fought among themselves for a few months. What happened last month didn't count -- people were possessed (again). And if someone was a threat, Albel felt well within his rights to defend himself and those he cared about, even if that meant a "fight."

Otherwise, he largely ignored her, shifting the weight of his bag on his shoulder. He'd remembered the last time they investigated the Lunar Gate, the strange cannon and the items scattered all over from different heroes, different times. Different worlds. So when they were faced with the Interdimensional Rift and all of those portals, he was sure to bring back items from his world. Items that hopefully would be able to power this gate with the energy from their significance held in his heart.

"We must have succeeded at some point," he said to Sheena. "In the sage's future... Even if we changed events, that must mean it is possible for us to get it to work."

"Sorry, Ales...!" Twilight said, getting back up. Gosh, one step forward, two steps back. Augh, alright, enough of this!

"Alright, I think it's time that we got going." Twilight said, finally throwing the switch to activate the Lunar Gate. "Let's see what's beyond the door..."

With that, Twilight lead the group through the portal and into the new location. Upon arriving, once everyone was through, the portal would shut off completely. Nothing they could do right now would let them get back to Crystallis. There's also a bit of disconnect for those with the Teleportation skill - there's no way to teleport back to the planet.

The room itself looked quite bare - there was air and what monitors were on were more or less just focused on the deactivated portal. There were a number of sci-fi-like teleporters around, but they didn't look like they were powered up at all. Even more, there were nothing else powered here - the light in the room was being brought in by the sun itself.

The only other thing noticeable were a series of doors leading into tunnels and a gathering of space suits of all sizes near them.

"C'mon, Ales. We're all in this together."

She doesn't really feel like getting into an argument over it, and she knows the two disagree on some very fundamental things about how the world should be, but Levy at least knows that she and Ales respect each other on a sort of professional level as researchers. Or at least, she'd like to think that. The admonishment is accompanied by a flat look, and she's content to leave it at that as she walks toward the gate.

"Wow... this place is amazing! Are we really on the moon?"

Her usual energetic mood is back in full force as they emerge on the other side of the portal, excitedly looking around the room and especially out the windows. She's been here before in a sense, during the Sage's vision, but nothing beats seeing it with your own two eyes.

Ok, they're on the moon. That's cool. Aoi takes a long sip of his coffee, then sets his half-empty cup down on the floor of the sparse room.

"What do ya say to suitin' up before we move on?" He looks at Akane. "Odds are in our favor. If we need 'em and don't have 'em, we die. But if we have 'em and don't need 'em, it's not hurting us or anything."

Plus, who hasn't imagined themselves as an astronaut?

Sheena caught the roll of Albel's eyes and gave him an impish look. She could imagine what was going through his mind--since she had also noticed the air horn. Her thoughts, however, were leaning in another direction than "interrupting" any bickering that might happen.

Although, the ninja couldn't help but wonder if the thing was going to have to be used to break up Ales and Twilight at some point.

At least it wouldn't be the same kind of fighting that she had seen in the vision...

Okay, enough of that. Stepping away from the group, she looked at the monitors and then the teleporters. They were almost like the ones back home. "I wonder how far they go," she mused aloud before turning to Aoi.

"That's not a bad idea. And it looks like there's enough for all of us." A notion that had her suspicious from the getgo. "Almost like they knew how many would show up."

Ales nodded at Santa's suggestion. Better safe than sorry, he should say, though the ordeal of confronting his Shadow left him too tired to voice much of that opinion. He walked down the row of spacesuits, lined up from largest to smallest.

"Tarutaru-sized..." Ales muttered to himself near the far end. He'd have to take his hat off, obviously, but at least it could be stored in his hacking terminal. "There must have been a lot of people working here." He tugged on the suit before him and held it up for his viewing. "It still looks good."

He squeezed behind one of the teleporters, providing some sort of coverage while he took off his hat and slipped into the suit.

Twilight grunted as she fitted herself into a random space suit. "I wish my powers were at full. A spell to not need space suits would be wonderful right now." She said.

Once everyone was suited, she would lead the gang into what is the main portion of the base. Like the gate room, everything is powered down. There are some signs, though. One leading down another tunnel reading "Power Room" and one reading "Control Room". Of course, both are in Ancient, so...

"Ancient writing, huh? Looks like it's my turn!"

Levy grins widely as she steps up to read the labels on the doors out loud for the benefit of the non-Scholars in the group.

"We should probably head to the Power Room first so we can get this place up and running. The Control Room won't be very useful until we've done that."

Well this was... anticlimactic so far. Albel didn't even remember to hide the disappointment on his face. One room. One room with working monitors, and barely that. The Milky Way's Moonbase had been quite a bit more expansive and operational.

Then again, he had to remind himself, that station had been operated by Sphere. It wasn't "real," not to them, not when it was just a string of strange symbols and codes in their machines. The people who had built it thought they were creating something, maintaining something, but it could have been shut down at the touch of a button. This, as far as Albel could tell, was real. This was space. Not that the "space" back home would have been any less dangerous and deadly, but this base was likely a lot harder to run without any "help" from fourth-dimensional "gods."

This was too philosophical for him. At the end of the day, he'd simply expected... well, more.

"Alright," he sighed, leaving his bag by the control panel and going for the suits. Since it would appear the gate would have to be powered up again for their return, it was a good thing he'd brought more items from Airyglyph. This was ancient technology to this world, he reminded himself, not something in current use like the moon of "Earth." Perhaps there would be more to discover beyond the (admittedly intimidating) airlock. Now if only he could get past the suspicion in his gut about why the hell there was a space suit prepared for a pony.

Heading for the Power Room, they'll find that the place looks just as dead and lifeless as everything else so far in this place. They'll find both the emergency power device and the main power device - complicated for normal people, but easy for those used to advanced machinery or even Ancient tech.

"Hmm... this is certainly out of my reach." Twilight mused. "Anyone with an idea?"

"Ancient writing?" She chuckled ruefully. "I wonder if it's too late to learn that?" she asked thoughtfully. From her tone, it was clear she literally meant time-wise because of the Calamity and not out of some idea that she couldn't due to her intelligence.

"You know, if this is a repeat of something that's gone before, I wonder why no one's ever left a translation of all these things written in Ancient? We might have been able to reach conclusions faster if they had." And a repeat session would also explain the suit for Twilight. After all, she had said her friend Pinkie Pie had been there.

Once in the Power Room, Sheena once again looked around, her brows furrowing in thought.

"Remember when we went to the gate the first time and found all that stuff hooked into everything? Maybe there's something like that here to give us a clue where to begin."

"It would have been nice for whoever rebuilds this world to keep information from the previous cycle, but it's clear they're biased towards the Ancients. No surprise there." He shrugged and gave a small squeak. They had at least one person who could translated the writing.

Ales laid a hand on the power device, brushing off the thin layer of dust that either accumulated from years of neglect or from lazy cleaners. "Let me take a loot at this."

He turned on his computer, which projected a holographic screen in front of the Teensie. His first method would be to hack into the machine without touching its delicate frame, but it that didn't work, he had the old-fashioned mechanical engineering background to fall on.

Santa doesn't read Ancient, so he takes the time to put on his space suit. It's pretty cool. Too bad nobody's got a camera.

"You think we could shut off the artificial gravity in here?" Because that'd be kick-ass, being able to float around in Zero-G. He's not super useful at this point in the mission. If there's puzzles or some shit like that in the Power Room, it'll be his moment to shine. Crystallis doesn't have nearly as many puzzle games as he's used to.

"Honestly, I would really like it if there were notes of that sort around." Twilight said. "It's getting really ridiculous over the collection of stuff left to us and nothing saying how they work."

She chuckled at Santa's suggestion. "That would be actually pretty neat, but I don't think this place has any--"

She's cut off as Ales' work finally pays off, bringing light and power throughout the station...

...and sirens go off as red lights start to flash.

"WARNING! WARNING! T-10 MINUTES UNTIL WEAPON DISCHARGE! TARGET: CRYSTALLIS!"

And at that point, if anyone can look out the window, they can find a laser superweapon nearby, aimed at the planet. And it is charging its laser.

"...If we didn't have these problems before, I'd be more surprised..."

"Uh... Ales? Tell me we can shut that off!"

Levy darts over to where the Teensie has been working at the computer, looking around for anything like a user's manual.

Wait, a countdown until certain impending doom? They're getting to familiar territory now. Santa grins.

"Everyone, look around for clues or pages of instructions. They're gotta be some trick for shutting it off."

Good thing he's not near the window, otherwise he'd get hella distracted by the laser outside.

"How about power cords? Are there plugs we can pull on that?"

"...Really." Ales' flat voice is barely heard over the alarm. He wasn't sure whether the threat of explosions or Santa's casual attitude was more annoying.

"I'm going to see if I can shut off this program. Hang on." His eyes focus on the holographic screen, searching through command lines for the code that fires the laser. If he can cancel that or rewrite the code to shut it off, they can still restore power to the facility.

The glare of the light on his space suit helmet obscured most of his face, which was for the better considering how fast his heart is pounding. He knows he's capable. He can do this. Just...he doesn't want to blow up again. Especially since there's no way he'll be able to come back one more time.

Despite everyone thinking they can stop it here, they're not going to find anything in Power Room. Wherever the controls are to that superweapon, it's not in this room.

Ales will, though, find out that it's in the Control Room. And with the teleporters active, they can get there faster.

Sheena turned to the pony and gave a wry chuckle. "If this happened before, at least we know why they didn't leave any notes." Too busy panicking.

At Santa's suggestion, the ninja began a methodical search, starting from the back of the machine and running her hand slowly along the wall.

"I'm not finding anything yet. Anyone else?"

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