"Space. It's cold, it's dark and it sucks. Seriously. You wouldn't believe how dangerous it is. Most ponies who don't know better think it's all about riding ships to new planets. Truth is, its filled with these viruses that are way worse than anything we ever imagined. It nearly destroyed Equestria after we first came back. Now, ponies like us are sparse but we survive. We always survive..." Captain Showtime reminisced over his apple cider, thinking how it never tasted the same as when he was a child... back on Equestria. "Are you going on again about space again!?" The bartender yells at him, "you scared off half a dozen of my customers with your tales of viruses and dead planets!" He says as he shoves Showtime out the door. "Take your stories and get!" Showtime looks down through the cluttered shanty town that made up the space port. He stumbled drunkenly through the streets towards the decontaminate hangers where his ship was docked. Just next to the shipping docks is the sign up booth for ponies and aliens to work aboard the ships. "Anypony signed up for The Spartan?" He asks over the counter. "I'm over here." Says the clerk as Showtime asks the coat rack. "Oops, sorry miss." He says to the coat rack before stumbling over to the clerk, "That lady is rude. Didn't even say hello. You should have words with her." "Yeah, I'll get right on that..." Says the clerk as he rolls his eyes. "What crew members were you looking to sign up?" "Uh..." Showtime thinks before pulling a piece of paper from his satchel, "Uh... okay, Navigator, Co-piolet, Doctor, Engineer and arms spacialist..." He rereads the paper, "Make that specialist." The clerk shakes his head is disapproval. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere... or vomit on anything..." He adds before walking into his booth to get the records.
After paying for his drinks the Pegasus in the same bar as showtime leaves after the drunken Pony after all he was out of work. He goes up to the Pony "you hiring?"
Captain Showtime eyeballs the new pony up and down. After the room stop spinning he steadies himself and asks, "What are your set of skills?" He asks and adds on before the other Pegasus has a chance to answer, "Come on, come on, don't have all day, what are you? pilot? doctor? table setter? Monkey butler? Out with it." He says as he also gets ready to vomit from the urge he feels from the back of his throat.
Keeps some what out of range of the drunk pony's vomit range "I'm a fair pilot and i can use a weapon." He looks over the captain feeling some pity for this pony "i also don't have a care in were we end up its all the same to me." he still remains hopeful that he can get this job.
"Got any reference?" He asks before vomiting in the corner, "Sound good." He answers even though the other Pegasus didn't say anything. "Welcome aboard pilot. Your gateway to adventure begins now..." He vomits again, "Okay make that now." He stumbles into the decontaminate zone and turns. "Say hello... to the Spartan." He says pointing to an empty hanger space. then his hoof drifts over a few other magnificent looking to ships and stops at an old clunker at the end of the line.
"heh it looks like its seen some adventure of its own." He looks over the old junker "it'll be fun i know it."
"Junker!? who said junker!?" Showtime looks around accusingly at everyone then stops, "Oh right I did..." He starts to stumble over to the Spartan "Whats your name by the way pilot?" He asks as he hits the side near the open door button. He hits it again then a third time after needing to concentrate at actually hitting the button.
"Well Gain Lighting," he says as the door opens and he trots in. "I'm Captain Showtime. Always Captain. We've been asked to take..." he pauses as he takes a second to think, "some stuff... somewhere..." as they walk in there isn't much to the Spartan. A communal area with cooking facilities that had some living quarters off of it. Down a corridor was the engine room and weapons/storage hold. At the end of the corridor was the cockpit. Around the place were strung war medals and old clippings showing the Captains past. He was a war hero, and a celebrated one at that. One that had been reduced to this. A drunk in charge of a junker. He nearly fell into a couch in the communal area as he sat on it. "Makr yourself at home." He said as he grabbed a dirty mug and going to take a drink before realizing it was empty.
nods and looks over some of the medals before putting his saddle bag in an empty room "i think i'll take a look at the cockpit there captain." he then heads there to check out the the layout and get a feel for everything
By the time Grey had spoken Showtime had passed out on the couch. The ship was dark and dank and kinda smelt like stale cigars. The cockpit itself was out dated, very outdated. It was a class DF-19 class Frigette most of which had been decomissioned years ago. A voice then comes from nowhere, a voice very similar to princess lunas, "Hello Grey. Welcome aboard." The voice said calmly.
looks around the cockpit area not expecting another pony to be on the ship "who is that and were are you?" the darkness of the ship making it hard for him to see.
"I am Spartan. Class DF-19 Frigette." The voice responds as various screens flash with data. "Did I hear you say earlier that your nsme was Grey Lightning?" The voice asks. It sounded more natural than most on board intelligences. Like it was actually curious. Robots and AIs were still science fiction, so why did this one sound so...aware? "Did the old crew leavr the Captain?" It asked aswell in its calming princess luna voice.
casually talks back to the AI "its nice to meet you yes my name is Grey lighting." he trots over to the pilots chair and sits down "as for the former crew i don't know i'm the new pilot." looks over the systems to learning over the systems "but i am wondering how you sound just like Luna?"
The computer responds sharply, "I was programmed to have this voice. It was said to be informative yet trustworthy. The Captain let me chose it myself." It said. This made it all the more unique as it had no proved it can make its own decisions too. Not just logic decisions but ones that show a personality. "Have you been briefed on our mission?"
thinks to him self "well this is new an AI that can talk back." he looks back into the conman area "no the captain may have passed out before that part, what is the mission?"
"A shortage of water on Plant Keth in the Arvenell system has caused a merchant here to need us to transport 20 gallons of fresh water to the main city. Flight is an estimated 10 hours at top drive." The AI answers him. Keth was known for being a no where little desert planet filled with pirates and fugatives.
He starts a pre-flight check "well if the cargo is in we should head out then uh besides spartan do you have a name?"
It went silent for a moment, "Some crew used to call me Luna." It responded as it seemed to actually be doing the flight check with him. "I don't mind what name beings choose to call me, as long as they are respectful."
"Alright Luna is the cargo on the ship?" He should of asked before he started the flight check. "Don't want to leave with out it now."
