In Space, We Don't Abandon Innocence

by David Silver

2 - Party Planning

Sunset Shimmer appeared with a flicker. "Hey. What book can I help you find?" She clasped her hands, smiling at the human crewmember that wandered in. Unlike most pony AI, she had the holographic form of another human, but she wielded the same helpful expression. "Something creepy? Maybe something adventurous?!"

The crewmember jumped. "You always surprise me."

Sunset rolled her eyes at that. "I appear in exactly the same place with exactly the same line. How are you surprised?"

"You're an AI," said the crewmember. "You should be able to make sure I see you when you appear." They were male, with short dark hair and a confident smile. He stepped past Sunset to the bookcase she was in front of.

Sunset turned to keep him ahead of her. "So you want us to start prying into your heads now? Last I knew, that was against the rules. You come in, I say the line. We have a thing!" She threw up her hands with obvious annoyance. "Anyway, you know what book you want?"

He gestured at the bookshelf. "This is the genre I'm looking for. Maybe something with monsters? Or spaceships, that's always fun."

Sunset smiled gently, turning to face the bookcase as she spread her arms wide. "Ignoring the fact that we're literally on a spaceship, if you want to read about other ships doing other things, don't let me stop you." A chime sounded. "You are permitted to download one book. Make it good."

She waited with a tapping foot until the crewmember made their selection. A new chime, the book downloaded to their datapad. "Enjoy," Sunset sang with faked sincerity, just to frown at the door the man exited through. "Man." She was about to vanish when the door slid open anew. "Hey. What book can I help you find?"

She only realized after she said her canned line that the one entering wasn't a human at all, at least until they stepped inside. Rainbow Dash gained feet, and clothes, as she entered, becoming just as human as Sunset. "Yo."

Sunset's smile softened with genuine hints. "Rainbow!" She closed in and the two met in a warm exchange of a hug. "Always good to see you, girl. What are you up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual." Rainbow shrugged, but she couldn't keep the smile from her face. "Helping my humans out by making sure this ship runs smoothly." Her face drew in concern. "Speaking of which, they ran into a creepy alien thing, and it had guns, right? They were bigger and meaner than any of the ones I had! Totally not fair." She rolled her eyes at the indignity of being outgunned.

Sunset dared to muss Rainbow's hair. "I bet you could've taken them out anyway."

"'Course I coulda!" Rainbow kicked at nothing once. "But we weren't fighting, and they ran away instead of starting nothing, so, yay?" She huffed gently. "I came by to talk, and maybe grab a book."

"I'm up for both of those. You know you're welcome here." Sunset waved back at the collection of aisles. None of them had any real books, just covers that helped one leaf through the digital collections. "I saw the ship go on alert before. That the aliens?"

"Sure was." Rainbow threw her arms wide, wings exploding from her back, allowing her to fly about in darting swerves at the various books. Not that she needed wings, being a hologram, but it was polite to walk unless one had some means to fly. "I meant to ask, why the human look." She grabbed a book, empty as it was. "No foul or nothin', but, why?"

Sunset tapped a hand against her chest. "I'm pretty sure this is what the captain looks like. Maybe. I looked at his file, and yeah, this is more or less him. More or less." She smirked faintly. "Not my fault I'm the only one who checked, it seems. The whole crew looks like this. I should ask why the rest of you go around like little horses."

Rainbow hugged the book. A chime announced she'd downloaded it. She put it back with a scoff. "We were all built like this, Sunny! Ponies are the default. Human? Why? You're evading!"

"And I'm good at it." Sunset put a hand at her hip. "Enjoy the book."

Rainbow ran a finger along the spines of all the promises of books on the shelf. "You know, being a pony isn't so bad. Why don't you come out of the library a little more often?"

Sunset huffed at that. "RD, love ya, but what for?"

Rainbow hopped through the door, hitting the other side back on her hooves. "Well, for one, I'm not calling for a birthday party in the library, that'd be odd. Two, you deserve a party, if Pinkie has taught me anything at all."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at that. "A party? Isn't it just another day?"

"Yeah, sure." Rainbow was clearly holding back from adding a 'duh' to that. "But it's your birthday, Sunset!"

Sunset raised both hands to the air. "It's technically all our birthdays. We were built and turned on at the same time, RD!"

RD smirked at that. "Which is why I'm trying to get you to come to where all of us are going to party. Pinkie's putting the final touches, and she's a pro at these kinds of things. C'mon!"

Sunset eyed her for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, Rainbow, I'll join you." She huffed as she felt her own heart begin to race. "But only because it's a birthday party."

"Yes!" Rainbow pumped a hoof, tail lashing with excitement. "See you there." With a soft chime, the where and when was sent digitally. "No excuses!" With a flash of rainbows, Rainbow streaked down the hallway faster than was technically permitted within the ship, not that she ever obeyed the speed limit.

---

"Oh. Oh my." Fluttershy hopped up onto a low stool for a better view, even if she had access to all the cameras in the medical bay and could see the patient from every angle, including all the data that flowed constantly from countless sensors. "Their heartrate is steady. They are not in shock."

"Good to hear it." The doctor snipped free the crewmember's shirt. "But they broke an arm and that needs our help."

"I should imagine so." Fluttershy spread her wings forward as the holographic emitters took hold of that arm and held it steady for the doctor to do his work. "Poor thing. We'll have you back together again." She inclined an ear. "Sedatives being administered." That was the last line many patients heard before they woke up to being on the mend.

"Good, good, steady." He worked dutifully with the best assistant one could want, if one didn't mind that assistant being a virtual pony. "It's a clean break. This should be a smooth recovery."

Fluttershy let out her breath. "Thank goodness. I wouldn't want him being hurt."

"I hear you there." The doctor began spraying an instant cast over the break. "So let's make them get better as soon as possible."

Fluttershy drew her wings back, the force fading with less need to hold that arm steady. "Yes. Um. I will be absent a few hours." A soft chime played.

The doctor looked up the info. "Okay. Will you be upset if I ask what this is for? I didn't think a hologram, however friendly, had many things to get distracted by."

"Oh, well, um." Fluttershy squirmed in place nervously. "Pinkie Pie is putting together a party, um, for all of us. I can't say no to that." She worried her hooves together. "Unless that's too much of a bother?"

"Not at all." The doctor offered her a smile. "We have other assistants, and we'll make sure you get back to it before anything happens."

Fluttershy bobbed her head in quick nods. "If an emergency comes up, just let me know."

"You're the best." He ruffled her soft mane. "Is it a birthday?"

Fluttershy bobbed her head even faster. "Oh, yes! How did you know?"

"With Pinkie, birthdays are more likely than anything else." The doctor shrugged with a smile. "Who's is it? Am I invited?"

"Oh, um." Fluttershy shrank. "Technically, it's not any 'who' at all." She flopped to her stool bonelessly. "Technically."

He lowered the cast he'd been wrapping. "You don't mean—"

"Um, yeah." Fluttershy shivered slightly. "Technically it's all of us. All at once." She pointed at herself. "Pinkie is throwing a party for all ponies on board, at once. It'll be our birthday." She sat up. "Technically, we weren't born, but that isn't stopping her."

The doctor laughed as he finished up the crewmember's cast. "Well, just make sure you have fun." He patted the arm. "There we go. All done."

Fluttershy swung her hooves as she hopped off her stool. "Ceasing sedatives. Estimated time to awakening, 7 minutes." She nodded at the sleeping patient. "Hopefully they will be happier, now that their arm is healing."

"I'm sure they will." The doctor cleaned his tools as Fluttershy returned to work. They needed to take care of others as much as others needed them.

Fluttershy's attention slid to another room, where she appeared with a flicker amid an enclosure that smelled thickly of animals. Most humans had little idea how to deal with wild animals, but it was Fluttershy's specialty, just beneath being an assistant doctor. "Hello, my cute little things." She shared fond nuzzles with every beast that came over to her, and many were ready to do just that.

Their whines and growls, the clicks of their tongues, all were words she understood and spoke back in kind. If there was any question about whether things were safe, and when their next meal would come. She gently hugged the ones that enjoyed that sort of thing as she fought her way to their food dispensers and began to feed them all, one by one. "Everything is fine, I promise. The humans found something interesting, that's all. You're all fine."

More and more beasts came up to her as they smelled food. Fluttershy quickly took over a nice bit of the room, pressed on all sides by animal bodies and eyes. They looked up at her for kindness and direction, which she gave them willingly. Soon she had them all eating their proper food, different for different kinds of critter. "You're all looking so healthy," she gushed with a fond smile. "If any of you feel bad, you just let me know.

"I'll take good care of you." She meant every word of it. "My humans are the best humans ever. They're a little rough sometimes, but they mean well, and I'm going to make sure they keep you all safe."

A wet nose pressed into her side. She jumped in surprise and twisted to find she was nose to nose with a dog. "Oh, hello."

The dog barked and coiled, coming back with a little puppy that she placed in front of Fluttershy, barking firmly.

Fluttershy blinked. "Really?"

The dog thumped the ground with a rapidly swaying tail.

"I'll check." She gently scooped up the puppy. "I don't know if any of them are looking for a puppy, but I'll check."

The mother dog slurped Fluttershy on the cheek in a great display of slobber.

Burdened with a living passenger, Fluttershy moved her puppy package to her back and trotted free of the animal rooms. She considered how best to go about things. She perked with an idea. "Twilight?" She brought the puppy into her view. "Do you see this? This little puppy could use a home. Can you share its image and tell the crew to look me up if they're interested? They are very young." She paused. "Male, unmodified. All proper shots and procedures will be completed by the time they come to me."

"Of course," echoed Twilight in her mind. "They look adorable! If I wasn't so busy, I'd consider it myself."

Author's Note:

Did I mention the Slice of Life tag? Yeah, it's there for a reason. Enjoy these space ponies being adorable.

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Comments

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

It seems the AI ponies' hologram forms are very useful, though Rarity having access to a physical body seems helpful in its own way.

Sunset and Rainbow Dash having a conversation in human form was interesting, especially since I've always kinda tended to hold a headcanon that Sunset talks to Dash the most in their spare time.

Fluttershy being an EMH unit of sorts suits her.

Looking forward to more.

[David Silver]

11920356
Any pony that wanders into Sunset's library gets to be human while they're there, hence Rainbow popping into human as she came in and back to pony on leaving.
One imagines a physical shell wouldn't do that.

[BestinDworld]

11920356
Fluttershy EMH: please describe the nature of the medical emergency.....if that’s ok with you (whimpers)

[BestinDworld]

11920473
I don’t know about you but I would totally ask pony (or human) holo or robo adagio to prom if I was born on that ship .

Ridicule be dammed

Also adagio would be the sexy longe singer slash barkeep slash bar owner slash bar phycologist wouldn’t she?

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

Fluttershy drew her wings bag, the force fading with less need to hold that arm steady. "Yes. Um. I will be absent a few hours." A soft chime played.

Should be
her wings back, the force

[David Silver]

11921000
Fixed!

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

11920661

Perfect.

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

11920473

That's really neat. Fun little humanizing holo-library.