Nothing like screaming klaxons and strobing lights to wake you up in a hurry. With the bright flashing yellow lights half blinding me, I still managed to reach over to the bedstand and grab my augmented reality glasses. Even though they weren’t anywhere near as good as a ‘glas system, they worked in a pinch. While they booted, my fingers were busy with a release on the bulkhead next to me. It only took a moment to free the pulse carbine from the rack. Despite being clad in only my boxers, I was armed and connected to some of the ship’s systems.

“Rose, what’s going on?”

Naturally, that’s when the hatch to my quarters beeped that it was unlocking, as the inset panel lit up. Kneeling next to the bed, I brought the carbine to my shoulder. The soft rubber buttpad gripping firmly on my bare skin as I settled the sight’s glowing dot at chest height in the doorway. With one final beep, the hatch slid open to reveal nothing.

“Friendly coming in.”

Or a petite redhead in a crimson bikini holding a carbine that matched mine. That works too. If it weren’t for the alarms, I’d think she was trying to be kinky. A second or two later, Rose was inside the quarters with the door firmly securing behind her.

“We have at least one boarder found so far, with probable red level injuries. I’ll stay here with you until the frames secure the ship. One is attempting aid on the casualty while two through four sweep the ship.

“Oh, and this isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted you to point your big weapon at me, Alex.”

Refusing the urge to facepalm or enjoy the view as Rose took cover directly in front of me, as if to shield my body with hers, I tapped a panel on the wall to open what worked as my dresser. With Rose covering the door, it only took a few seconds to slap a ‘glas around my wrist and don a limited ‘oh shit’ kit. Little more than a set of ballistics plates in a carrier that also held an emergency rebreather, they are still handy in a pinch.

“So what are we looking at anyhow?”

Through the AR glasses, Rose displayed an assortment of video cameras. Three of them were moving through the ship, which made sense. If you weren’t sure about the internal security systems, only trust the direct ones after all. The fourth stream showed a pale green unicorn that seemed to be lapsing in and out of consciousness. It only took an embarrassing handful of seconds before I realized why. That unicorn was well… embedded in one of the troop bay tables.

‘How the fuck?!”

“I’m not entirely sure myself, Alex. My guess is a teleportation accident, but you understand about as much of magic as I do. Can’t say whoever that is planned on being inside of a table though. One second please.

“Princesses Luna and Celestia are on approach with a contingent of guards, with Celestia teleporting them into the field outside. It appears that the injured unicorn is our only unexpected guest, so I am rescinding the lockdown. We probably want to get down to the troop bay and let the royals in though. They’d know more about how to heal their kind and all.”

For being a giant pain in my ass, Rose is pretty reasonable sometimes. Of course, she’d make sure to put a little sway in her hips as we headed to the bay.

“Shouldn’t we stop to put on something more than armor and underwear?”

“Nope. Not really enough time for that, unless you want me to handle all of this over comms.”

Damnit, she had a point. Let’s just hope they don’t ask why I’m wearing dark grey armor and bright pink boxers. Or more importantly, why Rose has seams in her synthskin. Kinda awkward.

By the time the royal and guard contingent reached the massive airlock at the rear of the Corvus, it was already open and waiting for them. As then entered, Rose’s soft voice spoke from one of the inset terminals letting the group know that all was under control, but there was a severe injury that needed assistance. As always, patience was needed while the airlock cycled.
Internally, Celestia just hoped that the injury wasn’t Alex, as he had already suffered a few injuries in his short time on the planet. Luna on the other hand wished not to see a pony with a hole blown through it after the ‘conversation’ with Rose. However, neither were prepared for what they saw as the inner airlock doors opened.

The first trio of guards through the door flinched on coming face to ‘face’ with a duo of the machines that crewed the ship. Moreso given that they were wearing armor and heavily armed. That was quickly forgotten as the room was lit up with a burst of sparks and loud hissing noise. A moment or two later, the light and sound stopped, with the frames stepping back to reveal a grievously injured pony. The poor unicorn was partially embedded in one of the large tables that crossed the room. It was supported by one of the frames holding it upright with one arm and keeping an IV aloft with the other.

While Celestia immediately set her guards to work attempting aid on the pony, Luna was taking in the whole scene. How both Alex and Rose appeared to be in a state of undress, wearing things that would have been considered scandalous to a pony, especially given the tones of the fabric. More importantly though was how one of the frames always kept itself between the ponies and Alex. All that was forgotten as the guards tried to magically cut the unicorn free without much luck. Celestia was the first to ask the right question.

“Alex, what is this table made of?”

Apparently aluminum was not the expected answer, as all of the assembled ponies gaped at the answer.

“We’ll talk about that later however. Do you have a more efficient method of freeing this pony?”

After a moment of explanation and confirming that the unicorn was stable, the assembled group turned away from the aliens. Seconds later, the light and sound show began again, with the loud hissing filling the troop bay. One guard attempted to subtly turn to see how the table was being cut, but was promptly and gently nudged into looking at the airlock again.

To the assembled ponies, it seemed like forever to be staring at a wall, but in reality, it was only a minute or two before the noise stopped and Rose broke the silence to tell them it was safe. Held within the arms of a frame was the unicorn. The unfortunate irony of which was the compass rose cutie mark on the stallion’s flank. Well, that and the realization that the IV was connected to a patch of white fabric in the middle of a shaved area on the pony’s chest.

“He appears stable at this time, but we don’t know enough about pony physiology to do more. Hopefully your doctors will be able to do more.”

With little more than a ‘thank you’ and nod, Celestia, her guards, and the injured pony vanished in a flash of light. This left Luna and her guards alone with Alex and Rose. Alex mostly seemed to be fidgeting uncomfortably as he shifted his weight from foot to foot, before whispering something in Rose’s ear. It only took a minute for her to start to grin while trying to force back a laugh as Alex headed towards a hatch deeper in the ship.

“Alex will be right back, and yes Luna I do owe you an apology. I’ll wait for Alex to get back though, as I know he’ll have words for me.”

Seriously, you have no idea how hard it is not to adjust your… bits until you really really need to and absolutely can’t. The moment the hatch shut, lets just say ‘sweet relief’ and leave it at that. Taking a moment to bolt to my quarters, I grabbed a pair of shorts and a shirt off the floor, as well as grabbing a bathrobe so Rose could wear something. While it wouldn’t be the best choice, it was at least something. I certainly wasn’t expecting Rose to chime in though.

“Not that robe, please. Let’s just say it has some ‘marks’ on it from the other night with you. Yeah. Oh and you’ve got to hear this about the aluminum table. I’ll patch you in while you get stuff.”

Long story short, apparently despite having skyscrapers and the like, the planet’s aluminum refining abilities were similar to Earth’s in the early 1800’s. So we’d just sent a pony to the hospital with a literal fortune embedded in them. The exchange rate was hilariously lopsided as apparently between all the industrialized countries, they could only make under fifty pounds of somewhat refined aluminum a year. So we literally had probably a year or two worth of aluminum production just sitting in the troop bay as one of the several tables. Princess Luna was just offering to negotiate to buy the damaged table when I finally made it back to the troop bay. Clothed at last, and Rose will be too after I tossed a robe at her head.

“Welcome back, Alex. While I had planned on having this conversation on the morn… er… in the morning, it might as well be done while it is fresh in mind. Rose and I had a rather unpleasant conversation earlier tonight that we’ve both agreed you needed to be informed about.”

Well shit. What happened now?

“Apparently, my abilities and titles did not come across properly between languages. The key point in this one is how I am called the Princess of Dreams. While I can see how that is easy to confuse with an abstract, in this case it is more of a literal. Trust me when I say that Rose and I have ‘had this out’ already, and by her insistence I am apologizing and wanting to make amends by you. It is my duty to watch over the dreams of those in my realm, which includes you, at least so I thought. So when you had nightmares or I even wished to learn more about you, I touched your mind as you slept. Up until tonight, there was nothing coherent, but Rose was there to stabilize your dreams apparently.

“I did not realize that the sense of self was so vitally important to your kind that there would be a visceral reaction to my doing so. It was explained that in the pursuance of my duties, I could have accidentally violated your sovereignty. No ill was meant and I am positive that no damage was done, BUT it was still against something you hold dear, known or otherwise.

“So, should you want recompense or otherwise, I will abide by your wishes. Please accept my sincere apologies as well.”

I… you… what?! Apparently the confusion was evident on my face because Rose summed it up pretty well.

“Princess Luna means that she can dreamwalk and thought she could learn more about you, and help with your ‘Vergon VI’ dreams. I kinda… maybe… sorta… overreacted a little bit and threatened her with the main guns. And the rest of the country.”

Have you ever facepalmed hard enough to knock your glasses off? Yeah. Those AR glasses just went bouncing off the deck and across the troop bay. At least Rose had the presence to look ashamed when I looked up. The mixture of guards looked rather stunned at Luna’s words as well.

“Princess Luna, would you mind giving us a moment of privacy please? A spell or just stepping into the airlock will do.”

A second later, her horn lit and a bubble of blue energy wrapped around the ponies. While Luna’s lips were moving, I couldn’t hear a word she said. Good enough for me.

“What do you mean you threatened to blow up the Princess and her country? What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Apparently those were the wrong words as Rose’s eyes lit up red as she stepped towards me, getting nose to… collarbone practically.

“She was in your head watching a scene by scene replay of what we did on Virgon VI. That’s still classified, Alex. Not only that, she’s been in your dreams a few times, including one that apparently caused a pretty horrific nightmare about me ripping your dick off, if she’s to be believed. So pardon the fuck me for trying to protect you! Jesus!

“Yeah, I overreacted by threatening to burn the planet, but she was in your fucking head. Not like what I do in your head, but seeing your memories and tweaking dreams. That’s something that I don’t call kosher. I already apologized to her and we’re going to have a talk later with just the two of us if that’s okay with you. It doesn’t help that I haven’t had time to acclimate to this damn chassis. Everything is so intense, half the time I’m not sure if I want to slap or fuck you senseless.”

So that’s the other shoe that was dropping. Okay. She wasn’t prepared for me to wrap my arms around her and hug.

“Okay, I get it. Sorry for yelling, and it didn’t click for me, okay. We’ll have to see if we can find a way for her to forget what she saw. Fuck if I know what the UTE would do if they showed up, don’t even know if there’s a reg for mind reading.

“I’m disappointed in you for seriously threatening to blow up a country, even if it’s cute when you are joking. I get the why, but I still have to punish you, especially since you haven’t had a chance to integrate the chassis systems completely. So here’s what’s going to happen. For the foreseeable future, barring emergencies, you’ll either be running in your chassis or the Corvus. One or the other at any time, preferably the chassis so you can get used to how it changes your behavior. It’s something you’ll need to know how to control and all. If Princess Luna wants some kind of community service, you’ll be doing that too, okay?”

A muffled reply against my chest was about all I got.

“It’s not all bad though, you’ll get to spend a lot more one on one time with me. Or that could be bad, I’m not sure really. Despite looking out for me the right way, trying to blow up a planet is the wrong thing, so getting a grip on those emotions is important. Like priority one, okay. Please don’t cross me on this, I don’t want to make it an order.”

A soft nod was her response. Looking up to the Princess, after a moment of eye contact Luna lowered the barrier.

“Before you say anything, could we continue this conversation in the morning? I know it’s rude, but between the unicorn in the table, you being able to be in dreams, and Rose wanting to light stuff on fire, I just need a while for this to sink in. I promise we’ll be here in the morning, Princess.”

With a reluctant smile, she nodded.

“Very well, Alex. We shall meet you for coffee in the morning. I hope you get some rest, as I know you’ll have questions for me come daylight.”

Squeezing Rose a little bit as the ponies shuffled into the airlock, I gave the Princess a soft ‘Yeah, I probably will’ before the doors cycled. Once they were sealed, my bare feet demanded I get off the steel deck and onto the carpet in the crew quarters. There was one idea on my mind. Bed. Well, somewhat. It only took a minute to cross the ship. While we walked, Rose set the Frames to pair off with two as wandering patrols throughout the Corvus, and two doing the same outside the ship.

“So you remember how I said that you need to learn to control your emotions, right?”

Rose stopped a step or two into my quarters and turned to me with an uncertain look on her face, as if she half expected me to yell at her. My solution was much more elegant, stepping close to her, grabbing the belt of her robe in a free hand, and yanking it free. If my mind wasn’t a million miles away, the stunned look on her face would have been hilarious.

“While I don’t approve of you threatening to burn a populated country to ash, I do have to reward you for doing your best to protect me. So it’ll be a mix of punishment and rewards for the next hour, minimum.”

There wasn’t even a chance for Rose to complain as I grabbed a handful of her hair, pulled her close, and kissed the AI a lot harder than she expected, biting her lip softly when I finally pulled away. Knowing she was completely off balance at my behavior, it was far too easy to push her towards the bed.

Adrenaline is a useful bastard.