Wiimeiser
Opening the door was hard. There was nothing to turn, so she had to use her implants. Blackjack told her what to do. She quickly got the hang of it. Imagine her hooves as the middle fingers of her imaginary “hands”, and do… Something with her imaginary “thumb” to get the door to work.
After a while, though, it started to become second nature to her.
As Puppysmiles left the bedroom, she thought she still couldn’t get over the fact that all but two of the grownups were fast asleep. Her parents were always awake when she was put to bed, and always awake when she got up. Did grownups need to sleep too?
Outside the room was a small, brightly lit corridor. So brightly lit one couldn’t tell if it was day or night. The clocks being different from what she was used to didn’t help, though it’s not like she could read anything to begin with. Except for her own name, anything with more than four or five letters had to be spelled out for her. Thinking about the time wasn’t helping calm her nerves in this new location, though, so she decided to think about something else.
The first thing that came to her mind was walking. Walking had never been difficult for her, despite the fact her legs were… Apparently deformed. According to Reisen, her right cannon bone was longer than her left by a measurable margin, and her front legs were noticeably shorter than her back legs overall. Apparently it wasn’t just something wrong with the regeneration, either, since this was noticeable in her ghost form, too. How weird. They did say it was a deformity, most likely something she was born with. But just thinking about it weirded her out majorly. Was she really born broken? Why would anypony want a broken filly? Mommy loved her, but was that why she was being treated so bad lately?
This saddened her, so she quickly shifted her mind to something else. Unfortunately, her heart came up next. It was almost all that had remained of her original body. And she’d always had this tiny machine in it that made it work. She knew that, Mommy did something to help her.
She tried thinking of something happy, but the happiest thing she could think of was when she was licking an ice cream only for it to fall on the ground.
Seeing if a door would be hiding anything fun, she opened the one nearest to her. Just a closet, with a preserved metroid and some pickled netch tentacles. This creeped her out, so she quickly closed it. At least she got some more practice in.
The door next to it was the Mess Hall. Even the name was silly! But it was where the others sat and ate. Puppy remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast the day she first got her suit, except for some medicine to help calm her down earlier, so she was really, really, really hungry.
“Oh, you hungry, little ghost?” Puppy knew that voice. It was Dinky. She had a pretty deep voice. Not stallion deep, but she sounded like a colt twice Puppy’s age, similar to that unicorn colt in her room with the bullet cutie mark, Slug. Even Mommy wasn’t that deep.
Dinky was shorter than most of the strange biped ponies, but she was heavily built. Her breasts, which were on her chest for some reason, were really big. As big as Puppy’s Mommy’s breasts! Puppy wanted to be that big when she grew up.
“Here, have this.” Dinky handed the filly a strange looking cookie, “It’s a ghostly cookie to keep your ghostly energy up. You’ll have to slowly adjust to eating again, so it’s just something small for now.”
Puppy didn’t care. She scarfed the cookie down. It tasted like really bland gelatin, but after weeks of starvation anything tasted amazing to her.
“You like?” Dinky asked.
Puppy nodded. “It’s alright.” she said nonchalantly.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Well, I want help with that mmmm kuh sound?”
“Mqìbüê?”
“Yes, that’s the one!”
“Eh, it’s not too hard once you know how to make the sounds. I’ll show you how.”
Puppysmiles took in the instructions pretty quickly. While making the starting “Mmmm” sound, she set her tongue in just the right position. The next part was tricky, she had to open her mouth, stop breathing for a split second, and snap the front part of her tongue. This was followed by an “ee” sound. The second syllable was much easier, just a simple “Bwuh”-like sound. Mqìbüê.
“Mqibüe.”
“You need to mind the tones, too,” Dinky stated, “It’s Mqìbüê. The ‘ee’ goes down and the ‘uh’ or ‘eh’ is higher pitched.”
“Mqìbüê.”
“That’s a little better. Just work on it. You’ll get there eventually. You’re young enough that you should pick it up pretty fast.”
Feeling satisfied, Puppy trotted back to her room, chanting “Mqìbüê” over and over like a broken record. “Biscuit”, it meant.
Opening the door was easy. Everypony except Blackjack was asleep now.
As Puppy turned towards her bed, she got the biggest shock of her undead life.
She was still in there.
But how? Was she dreaming?
Turning to the mirror, she saw a ring hovering above her head. Had she died in that short sleep?
Walking up to her and looking closely, the filly on the bed was audibly breathing. She was definitely alive.
What was going on? Was there another Puppysmiles?
Feeling a sudden cold flush wash over her, she knew the “ghostly cycle” was coming. She knew she had to stay calm, but everything happening around her made that impossible for such a young filly to handle.
She snuck out of the room and ran down the corridor, only stopping when she crashed into Flurry Heart, a young intern member of the ship’s crew.
“Ugh, what’s your quzybuk, curse voosh?” Flurry didn’t speak English too well, she was only learning.
“There’s another me in my room!” Puppysmiles screamed in panic, “You have to help me!” She grabbed Flurry’s tail and pulled her back through the corridor.
“Okay, then, I guess…” Flurry sighed. The anthro princess-turned-intern reluctantly allowed the filly to drag her across the ship.
(Foil Hat)
Part 2. It begins.
Opening the door was hard. There was nothing to turn, so she had to use her implants. Blackjack told her what to do. She quickly got the hang of it. Imagine her hooves as the middle fingers of her imaginary “hands”, and do… Something with her imaginary “thumb” to get the door to work.
After a while, though, it started to become second nature to her.
As Puppysmiles left the bedroom, she thought she still couldn’t get over the fact that all but two of the grownups were fast asleep. Her parents were always awake when she was put to bed, and always awake when she got up. Did grownups need to sleep too?
Outside the room was a small, brightly lit corridor. So brightly lit one couldn’t tell if it was day or night. The clocks being different from what she was used to didn’t help, though it’s not like she could read anything to begin with. Except for her own name, anything with more than four or five letters had to be spelled out for her. Thinking about the time wasn’t helping calm her nerves in this new location, though, so she decided to think about something else.
The first thing that came to her mind was walking. Walking had never been difficult for her, despite the fact her legs were… Apparently deformed. According to Reisen, her right cannon bone was longer than her left by a measurable margin, and her front legs were noticeably shorter than her back legs overall. Apparently it wasn’t just something wrong with the regeneration, either, since this was noticeable in her ghost form, too. How weird. They did say it was a deformity, most likely something she was born with. But just thinking about it weirded her out majorly. Was she really born broken? Why would anypony want a broken filly? Mommy loved her, but was that why she was being treated so bad lately?
This saddened her, so she quickly shifted her mind to something else. Unfortunately, her heart came up next. It was almost all that had remained of her original body. And she’d always had this tiny machine in it that made it work. She knew that, Mommy did something to help her.
She tried thinking of something happy, but the happiest thing she could think of was when she was licking an ice cream only for it to fall on the ground.
Seeing if a door would be hiding anything fun, she opened the one nearest to her. Just a closet, with a preserved metroid and some pickled netch tentacles. This creeped her out, so she quickly closed it. At least she got some more practice in.
The door next to it was the Mess Hall. Even the name was silly! But it was where the others sat and ate. Puppy remembered she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast the day she first got her suit, except for some medicine to help calm her down earlier, so she was really, really, really hungry.
“Oh, you hungry, little ghost?” Puppy knew that voice. It was Dinky. She had a pretty deep voice. Not stallion deep, but she sounded like a colt twice Puppy’s age, similar to that unicorn colt in her room with the bullet cutie mark, Slug. Even Mommy wasn’t that deep.
Dinky was shorter than most of the strange biped ponies, but she was heavily built. Her breasts, which were on her chest for some reason, were really big. As big as Puppy’s Mommy’s breasts! Puppy wanted to be that big when she grew up.
“Here, have this.” Dinky handed the filly a strange looking cookie, “It’s a ghostly cookie to keep your ghostly energy up. You’ll have to slowly adjust to eating again, so it’s just something small for now.”
Puppy didn’t care. She scarfed the cookie down. It tasted like really bland gelatin, but after weeks of starvation anything tasted amazing to her.
“You like?” Dinky asked.
Puppy nodded. “It’s alright.” she said nonchalantly.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Well, I want help with that mmmm kuh sound?”
“Mqìbüê?”
“Yes, that’s the one!”
“Eh, it’s not too hard once you know how to make the sounds. I’ll show you how.”
Puppysmiles took in the instructions pretty quickly. While making the starting “Mmmm” sound, she set her tongue in just the right position. The next part was tricky, she had to open her mouth, stop breathing for a split second, and snap the front part of her tongue. This was followed by an “ee” sound. The second syllable was much easier, just a simple “Bwuh”-like sound. Mqìbüê.
“Mqibüe.”
“You need to mind the tones, too,” Dinky stated, “It’s Mqìbüê. The ‘ee’ goes down and the ‘uh’ or ‘eh’ is higher pitched.”
“Mqìbüê.”
“That’s a little better. Just work on it. You’ll get there eventually. You’re young enough that you should pick it up pretty fast.”
Feeling satisfied, Puppy trotted back to her room, chanting “Mqìbüê” over and over like a broken record. “Biscuit”, it meant.
Opening the door was easy. Everypony except Blackjack was asleep now.
As Puppy turned towards her bed, she got the biggest shock of her undead life.
She was still in there.
But how? Was she dreaming?
Turning to the mirror, she saw a ring hovering above her head. Had she died in that short sleep?
Walking up to her and looking closely, the filly on the bed was audibly breathing. She was definitely alive.
What was going on? Was there another Puppysmiles?
Feeling a sudden cold flush wash over her, she knew the “ghostly cycle” was coming. She knew she had to stay calm, but everything happening around her made that impossible for such a young filly to handle.
She snuck out of the room and ran down the corridor, only stopping when she crashed into Flurry Heart, a young intern member of the ship’s crew.
“Ugh, what’s your quzybuk, curse voosh?” Flurry didn’t speak English too well, she was only learning.
“There’s another me in my room!” Puppysmiles screamed in panic, “You have to help me!” She grabbed Flurry’s tail and pulled her back through the corridor.
“Okay, then, I guess…” Flurry sighed. The anthro princess-turned-intern reluctantly allowed the filly to drag her across the ship.