A Mirror of Stars

by Cyberdutchman

CH 8: Who Ordered the Fireworks?

"I can't believe I'm going back to a damn highschool," Liam muttered as he followed Sunset and Rarity to the front steps of CHS. He'd stared blankly at the wrecked statue from the parking lot for the past ten minutes by Sunset's count before he acknowledged the building with a scowl. The rest of their group had opted to stay behind and keep working on the farm or go home and explain their absence for the last few days in the case of Fluttershy and Pinkie.

"Darling, I still don't see what all the fuss is about," Rarity opined as they ascended the steps of the school. The usually busy grounds were quiet and empty with everyone out on summer break. "You'll fit right in-"

She paused to cast a glance over her shoulder at his choice of casual clothing: normal cargo shorts and an opened button-down and t-shirt were acceptable. But they were hiding a thin one piece article similar to those of the CHS wrestling team, only this one was crisscrossed in wires and nondescript disks. He'd called it a vitals monitor. She'd called it a crime against fashion.

"-well, mostly -and it will help you figure out how to return to your home. What's not to like?"

"Social cliques, hormones, egos, drama. I can keep going but I'll stop there."

Sunset tossed him a glance over her shoulder as she pushed open the door. "Why do you hate this place so much?" He switched his dark look from the school to her. "I mean, I thought you were just joking around but between what you said to Dash last night and then when Will came to talk-"

Liam cut her off with a sharp snort. "Look, I had a less than stellar experience at mine after getting turned into a walking physics anomaly. If there were any other way around this I would take it but Will just had to go and find things like 'logic' and 'reasons' for this shit-show of a plan so I'm stuck."

Sunset cringed at his choice of language but pressed on, even as Rarity tried to stop a violent coughing fit and blush that sprung up at the cursing, trying to understand what was bothering him so much. "So what happened at your school after you got your powers-"

"Sunset, I'd really rather talk about this another time when I'm not trying to stay focused on the bigger picture."

Well, she wasn't getting anything more out of him she decided with a sigh. She was growing tired of his moody dramatics since they'd met earlier that morning and judging by the way Rarity shook her head she was too, especially his new foul vocabulary. That was an unpleasant change for sure, one she hoped he would drop before starting classes next week or else everyone was going to give him the cold shoulder.

The trio walked the rest of the way to the administrative office in silence apart from Rarity pointing out some of the banners and other odds and ends she'd designed for the school. Her efforts to coax further conversation out of their guest were met with nothing beyond polite compliments and murmurs. Eventually she too fell silent as they rounded the corner to the hall where the administrative offices were located. Sunset knocked on the door labeled "Principal" then stepped back quickly as the sound of a chair scraping the floor was followed by footsteps quickly growing louder on the other side. The door swung wide to reveal a very disgruntled Vice Principal Luna pointing an angry finger at them.

"If this is another request about your 'investigation' I'm going to file- oh, Sunset Shimmer." She tried forcing a smile for them that completely failed to hide her visible annoyance and stress. "My apologies, I was expecting someone else."

"Uhhh... hi. Sorry to bother you, but is Prinicpal Celestia here?"

"No, she's out at a meeting with the school board. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, well, we met someone who needs to transfer in. He's new to the town," Rarity answered, motioning at Liam who stepped up closer behind the pair. Luna's eyes lit up and she nodded while flashing them a genuine smile this time.

"Oh good, that I can help you with! Do you have your documents ready? We'll need a copy of your birth certificate, your immunization record, and-"

"Sorry, I... don't have any of those," Liam interjected.

Luna paused in counting off the forms on her fingers with a frown then cocked an eyebrow at the three of them. "Excuse me? You mean with you now or...?

"He's... from out of town. Way out of town," Sunset replied apologetically. A few seconds passed before Luna's eyes widened in understanding and she pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

"Oh yes, just what we need right now. More students from 'abroad'. Dare I ask why he's here or why he needs to join the student body?" Before Sunset could answer Liam stepped past her, cutting her off.

Again.

She was going to start keeping a mentally tally from now on, just so that when she got the chance to do the same in return she could point out where the balance was. Though she probably shouldn't; Princess Twilight kept writing her pages of notes about successes she'd had in resolving conflicts and she tried to follow her example. Even if it was hard at times.

Like when I found Snips and Snails hiding in two of the lockers in the girls changing rooms just before the summer started.

She'd been proud of herself afterwards; she'd only put a little of the fear of her into the pair before notifying Luna of her discovery. The old her would have given them a lot of fear and kept it to herself to use against them. Hardly backsliding at all. But Liam was testing her resolve to do better which she did not appreciate in the least.

"Sunset and Twilight asked me to help them with some studies of the portal," Liam said in answer to Luna's question.

Suddenly her train of thought was shoved back on the rails as she realized her part of the convincing was coming up. She wasn't too worried about it though, it had the benefit of near total honesty and only left out the details of exactly where he was from. He had insisted on that part of the plan and she'd agreed even while still not completely seeing the need to hide so much. After all, they'd told him the Principal and Vice-Principal, and most of the school for that matter, were well versed in "unusual" students at this point. But he'd still insisted and so they'd come up with this.

Luna looked back and forth between them. "Wait, Princess Twilight or Twili- no, I'm not going to start that. Ms. Shimmer, is there something wrong with the portal we should be aware of?"

Sunset shook her head with a nervous smile while trying to quickly come up with a decent excuse. "We just, uh, wanted to make sure nothing had changed with it after the Friendship Games. Twilight opened up a lot of unstable holes around it and destroyed the statue on top as well. We just... want to make sure nothing's changed. That's all."

Vice Prinicipal Luna's expression slowly relaxed to blank and unreadable as Sunset progressed. When she finished Luna closed her eyes and covered them with a hand.

"... we're going to have another 'incident' soon, aren't we? No, don't answer," she added with a wave of her other hand as Sunset and Rarity both started to speak. She lowered the hand over her eyes and looked Liam over. She sighed heavily and gave the trio a deeply skeptical and tired stare. "Miss Shimmer, the easiest way for me to do this is to claim his as a relative of yours and use most of the information you gave us. Then we'll fill in the rest as best we can. I assume that will be fine with you since you're vouching for Mr...?"

When no answer came Sunset glanced back at Liam and found him looking strangely concerned. What now? she thought with growing exasperation at the whole situation.

"Liam!" Rarity whispered loud enough to almost be a hiss. Liam blinked rapidly and his face flowed back to normalcy. Really, it flowed in a long drawn out motion. It was the best description Sunset could come up with for how his expression smoothly changed from one state to the next. It looked unnatural and made her lean away from him slightly.

"Harcourt. Liam Harcourt," he said perfectly calmly. How does he do that? A minute ago he was fuming and now he's a statue. Will and his copies are less odd than him sometimes... and what does that say?

Luna arched a brow at the name. "Mr... Harcourt... then. Right."

Sunset looked over her shoulder at their new acquaintance who shrugged and gave her a dull grin that said, 'I didn't want any part of this so your call'. She gave him a half-lidded stare of 'thanks for the help' in reply. "Yeah, that'll be fine. I guess he'll be my cousin or something."

Luna bobbed her head and said, "Good, now is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, uh, that covers it. Thank you."

"Good. In that case I need to prepare the required documents for him to start next week," Luna said gruffly as she turned and closed the door behind her. Just before it closed completely a faint refrain sneaked through. "...and then find the closest liquor store. I shouldn't feel like retiring before fifty." Sunset and Rarity both winced softly.

"Well that could have perhaps gone more smoothly." Rarity muttered while Sunset gave Liam a questioning look over her shoulder. He ignored them both or rather didn't notice them, instead choosing to stare at the door suspiciously.

"That was too easy," he muttered.

Rarity looked between him and the door. "Hmm? Oh! Well I wouldn't worry over it. We've had quite the spate of happenings as of late. I think she and Principal are mostly just resigned to them at this point," she said said with an embarrassed laugh. Sunset mentally winced in kind. It was true that now a days one of their group going to see either of the Principals was usually met with a statement of "what is it this time?" more than anything else.

Liam's eyes turned to Rarity then closed as he let out a chuckle. "I guess I would be as well after all I've heard from Pinkie. Well, the pain's over so now it's on to business. Mind if we go go take a look at that portal?"

Something about the way he said that sent an faint, unexpected chill up Sunset's spine. "Maybe later. You still need to show us how your equipment works before we can actually do anything, right? Plus we need to get you school supplies and Will gave you that list of things to pick up in town for your ship."

Liam gave her a confused look for a moment and Sunset forced herself to not twitch a muscle as his eyes searched hers for a reason for the delay. Why am I delaying him? she wondered after a moment of matching confusion. Liam ended her immediate pondering by shrugging instead of probing deeper.

"That's fine. It would look pretty weird for us to be standing around staring at it when no one else is at school. That would lead to attention I don't want so you're right, better not to. So, supplies then?" His stomach chose that moment to make itself known with a faint growl. He glanced down then back up with a mildly embarrassed grin. "And maybe lunch? I didn't have much for breakfast."

Sunset nodded, glad for the change of topic. "Sure, there's a cafe and bakery we always go to because Pinkie helps out there. I'll call the others and they can meet us there." Sunset blinked in surprise as Liam's expression switched to beaming in an instant.

"Now that's a plan I can get behind! Some of my favorite moments have come from cafe shenanigans." Sunset and Rarity both half sighed, half coughed at the return of his theatrics. A glance over to a smirking Rarity told Sunset that they were both glad anyway that he'd switched out of his gloomy variety.

"It is rather good. I think you'll like it," Rarity said as they headed back to Rarity's car.

Liam chuckled as he fell into step with them. "Oh, I'm sure of that," he said with a laugh.

"How're we looking?" asked Jax as he looked over Darian's shoulder at the tablet in his hand.

"Not bad honestly. The prow was reinforced to take landing loads so it came through without too much damage. The lower radiators and drives are royally fucked but the main drive and ventral generators are good to go. We could take off without too much risk- knock on wood -by tonight if we don't find anything new. Just don't expect a lot of finesse."

"Huh. I was expecting way worse than that."

"So was I with you at the helm," Darian said while giving him a snide sidelong grin over his shoulder.

Jax rolled his eyes before giving his double a dead-pan glare. "Oh fuck off. You already know why why I'm the old girl's pilot and not someone else so I'm not going to even dignify that."

Darian tilted his head to the side while trying not to grin even more. "Isn't that what you just did? Besides, I'm not sure 'outlier-obsession' is a good metric for aptitude."

"You're right, that would be my thousands if not millions of hours flying around the system without a break," Jax replied smugly.

Darian gave him an equally smug grin in return. "Like I said, not sure 'outlier-obsession' is a good metric for aptitude."

"Heh. You can fly us out of here then. I'll take a nap at your station instead since you feel we don't get to see your piloting skills enough," Jax said with narrowed, predatory eyes while jabbing a finger into Darian's chest plate. Darian returned the look and quickly blocked the finger with his own, the two clashing back and forth like fencers looking for an opening.

"Sure, I like the sound of-"

"WOULD YOU TWO ACT YOUR AGES AND HELP THE REST OF US?!"

The shout caused both of them to cringe for a second before they turned in unison. Will stood to one side of the bulkhead between the bridge and the door, one hand covering all of his face apart from a single eye. "I'd swear you were both twenty and not closer to ninety if I didn't know better. I think you took Dad's 'never grow up' advice a little too close to heart."

Jax flashed him a Legionnaire "toothy smile", stretching the fabric over his mouth to its limits. "Hey, watch who you're calling old you geezer! I'm only eighty! That's spring chicken territory!"

Darian bounched the palm of his hand off his forehead with a metallic clink before pushing Jax towards their de facto leader. "We were working actually. You just managed to catch us as Jax was mouthing off."

Will rolled his eyes with returned humor. "Ah, so business as usual then?"

"Oh everyone's a critic..." Jax huffed.

"Yeah, and so are you by default. Welcome to the Legion. How're we looking?" Will asked Darian as he passed him the pad.

"Not too bad actually. We've got enough control to get to orbit and check hull and seal integrity so that's a plus. Not going to be able to take the meatbag with us of course. He's so busy enough with whining and moaning over the plan that I doubt he'll notice he got left behind anyway."

Will let out a short, sharp laugh and pointed the pad back at Darian. "Hmmmmmm... that sounds like you're volunteering to take his place and relieve him of that burden."

Darian's arms came up in an "X" so fast that they bounced off each other a bit. "Not a snowball's chance in hell! I remember highschool too and am very glad to be in the body type that precludes me going back to another one. Noooo thanks."

Will burst out laughing along with Jax. "Yeah, that's what I-"

He was abruptly cut off by the bulkhead door sliding open to the sound of, "Hello? You guys in here?" A frustrated and huffy Rainbow Dash walked around the corner, her face lighting up in relief when she saw the trio. "Finally! You need to put up some signs or something in here, I've been all over the place trying to find one of you!"

Will looked up with surprise at the unexpected intrusion. "Oh, uh, hey Dash. Is something wrong?"

Rainbow Dash gave him a distinctly "no idea" shrug and tossed a thumb back the way she'd come. "Maybe? Applebloom found a part of the ship lodged in the ground closer to the house. Granny wasn't sure if it would be safe to touch it or anything and we're going to be heading out to lunch soon with Sunset, Rarity and Liam. We were hoping you could help out?"

"Oh, uh, sure. That's fine. Lunch with the others huh?" Will asked awkwardly, still caught off guard by the unexpected intrusion of an organic human on the bridge other than Liam.

Rainbow didn't appear to take notice of his discomfort and nodded. "Yeah, they're done at the school. He's a student now - or will be come Monday I guess. So they're getting class stuff with him and then we're meeting them in town."

Will blinked a few times. "That was fast. Huh." He gave his head a quick shake and adressed the two duplicates with him. "We'll put her through a shakedown run later then. For now let's take care of whatever they found." They looked at each other then back to him with a nod. "Dash, we'll be out in a just a bit."

Rainbow Dash gave him a smile and thumbs up as she turned around to leave. "Cool. So how's the science-y repair stuff going?"

Will looked around with a calculating expression. "Well, we should be good to go by tomorrow morning at the latest. At least for getting her out of the ground and to somewhere better suited to the rest of the work."

Dash froze and cast an eye over her shoulder. "Wait, really? You're going to fly this heap by tomorrow?"

"Yes, this 'heap' is going back to where she's supposed to be. No more eyesore in the farm," Jax said gruffly. He was proud and protective of his charge and did not take insults to her lightly, especially from non-Legionnaires. Will would have to make sure he didn't tear off to orbit at max output just to correct her impression.

"Oh man, that's awesome! Don't leave without letting us know okay? I've gotta see that!" With that said Rainbow Dash just about sprinted out the door in a blaze of excitement. The three Legionnaires waited a few moments until the sounds of her footsteps ceased echoing back to them. Without turning to face them Will split the silence in a low, growling tone.

"First things first. That," he said in a deep growl while pointing at the space Dash had vacated, "is not happening again. Jax, go around and engage the bulkhead seals on every door to a room with a terminal. We can open them with manual overrides until we have something more permanent but from now on no one, not even them, gets to just waltz into a room where they can access all of our records, codes, and controls. Darian, add an encryption lock to all terminals and consoles before we leave. Dash just drove home how lax we've been with security since well before the damn attack. That. Stops. NOW."

The other two looked at each other then nodded back at him.

"Good, after that we'll go pull this hunk of hull or whatever it is out of the ground and get back to work."

Within five minutes of stepping into Sugarcube Corner with his escort Liam was both more relieved and more suspicious than he had been before he ate. The cafe was good, the baked goods memorable (he would have preferred a sandwhich but all they had were pastries and a couple salads) , and the chromatic clientele off-putting in the extreme. Especially when a couple other students he vaguely recognized from the movies came in and waved at his group.

What really kept bugging him though, even more than the people, was how unremarkable the pastries and drinks were. Not in any bad sense, just that there was nothing out of the ordinary with any of it. At all. On a world with completely different physics in another universe. No flavors he couldn't name, no combinations that wouldn't have been found at any cafe in most of his Earth. He hadn't had time to really think about it the previous night at dinner because of how much had been going on at the time but now that he had time to sit down and think the parallels were really bugging him.

"-what it's like?"

Liam looked up from the vanilla bean milkshake he'd been prodding at with his straw, blinking rapidly as his mind returned to the present and the group currently watching him.

"Sorry, spaced out a little. What was the question?"

Sunset snorted in amusement and leaned further in, arms crossed on the table. Liam noticed that everyone else had mostly finished their snacks and drinks while he hadn't really made a dent in his. "Normally you have to tell people to slow down when they come here, not to eat faster," Sunset said puckishly.

"Yeah, what's up? Is it not tastetastic enough? I was sure you'd like the Butter Pecan Butter Scones," Pinky said while her face slowly drooped more and more sadly.

In truth he'd thought it was one of the better scones he'd had and his stomach had demanded more even while his arteries were telling him to stop before it was too late. His brain had overruled the former to the immense relief of the latter while it contemplated the strangeness of everything. The shake wasn't bad either. Nothing special, but not bad. That said all the sugar was giving him a craving for a fried BL-green-T when he got back to the Celestia and he intended to make that his top priority.

"No, it's great! Really! Just richer than what I'm used to. Having to take it slower for once," he lied.

Did you really need to lie there? his conscience scolded him.

Yes, until I know that it won't get us pilloried by the people we need to help us, he hissed at the wheedling corner of his mind.

Hmmmm... so tell me then, what happens if they are the kind to condemn us like the rest of humanity... and keep pushing to know more? he got in return. He didn't have an answer.

Pinkie seemed to accept his excuse without any problem and bounced back to her usual, almost-bouncing-in-her-seat cheerfulness. "Oh! Well that's alright then. As long as you're enjoying it. Just let me know if there's anything I can add to make it less rich! We've got fudge, white chocolate, caramel, sprinkles..." she said while looking up at the ceiling, reviewing what was apparently a very long list judging by her concentrated look.

"Uh, those would just make it more rich, not less," Liam said while holding back a chuckle. Pinkie looked back at him, head cocked to the side with a frown.

"Wait, how do you make something less rich then? Aren't rich people always getting tiny little deserts with nothing on them? Wouldn't less rich be more stuff on top like icing and sprinkles?" she asked while her friends broke down laughing. Sunset reached up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll tell you later Pinkie when we're not in public. Need to protect everyone's eardrums." She looked to Liam again while Pinkie looked around in ever greater bafflement while her friends fought harder to keep their composure. "Anyway, what I asked before was could tell us a bit more about your world? You've seen and heard about ours but all we've heard about is you and... okay, first can we come up with a way to refer to Will and the others? Just calling them 'Legionnaires' seems kind of odd and cold." The others nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm except for, once again, Applejack who was the very image of disinterest. Liam tried not to let it bother him. It wasn't hard given her first question was one of the ones he didn't want to answer yet.

Stall and evade, stall and evade.

"Hah. I'll be interested in what you come up with. If you put five people from my home together in the same room and asked them how to refer to them you'd get six or seven opinions." He thought about it for a moment then snorted out a short laugh and added, "For that matter, you put five Legionnaires together in the same room you'd have fifteen opinions and a bad comedy routine within an hour." Twilight snorted against a laugh of her own while the others shook their heads at his personal brand of lousy humor. It was always a bit hit or miss but he was pleased to see he had at least one taker in the bunch it seemed.

"Riiiight," Dash said slowly with a roll of her eyes. "How many times have I mentioned before that you're bad at explaining things? I think we're up to three now." Liam choked back a cough on the sip of milkshake he'd been taking as the verbal knife slid in smoothly.

Come on, take a hint already! Ask something else! Hell, I'd even take questions on our tech over talking about Earth!

"Rainbow Dash! That's hardly polite to our guest," Rarity reprimanded as Liam found his breath again, tactfully waving away the concern of Fluttershy and Twilight.

"Hey, I'm just saying! We ask him questions and he jokes around or just confuses us with whatever he says instead," Dash said with a shrug. Rarity raised a finger to point out her error then paused with a conflicted grimace before slowly lowering it again. Dash licked her finger then moved an imaginary score marker in the air over once, earning herself a scowl from her opponent.

"She does have a point you know," Sunset said with a smirk as she leaned into the table a little deeper.

Liam looked around, forcing himself to calm down and breathe.

Guess I'm going to get away with it this time. Just remember to be careful, you can't afford not to...

"Right, sorry about that. Old habits I picked up from my Dad."

That jabbing inner voice ducked in again quickly. More lies? Dad always scolded us for beating around the bush when he asked us something.

His conscience was really starting to bug him. "So then, what specifically do you want to know?"

"Ooooh!" Twilight said excitedly before pulling out a different notepad than the one he'd seen before. A much thicker one... with a bookmark near the end.

Oh no... every part of his mind thought in momentary unity.

"It's right over here."

Will sighed in relief as he and the two other Legionnaires finally reached their destination. Applebloom tipped her head to the side and asked, "Y'all okay? I thought ya didn't get tired."

Will scoffed and said, "We don't, I'm just happy whatever you found was small enough we couldn't see it until we got... here..." He trailed off, eyes widening as he saw the object embedded in the ground. Oh. SHIT he thought in the depths of his crystalline brain. Jax and Darian noticed almost immediately afterwards and weren't able to stop themselves inhaling sharply. Applebloom failed to notice thankfully, focused as she was on the debris that had nearly toppled a tree at the end of a short trench it had dug out on impact.

"Sorry about this, Granny doesn't want us touchin' nothin' unless you say we can. Kinda silly if ya ask me. I mean, I couldn' move that thing even if I tried." She looked back and frowned at the shocked expression mirrored on all three synthetic duplicates. "Oh no, can you not get it out either?"

Will blinked rapidly then said, "No, it's not a problem. Just surprised how deep in it managed to dig itself. This might take longer than we thought. Would you mind letting Granny know we'll be working on it for a while in case someone needs to find us?"

Applebloom smiled and nodded. "Sure, no problem!" she said cheerily before running off towards the farmhouse. The three Legionnaires were silent for a long time as the sounds of the younger Apple sister grew fainter until they barely be heard anymore.

"Oh hell... if they were active before the launcher fell off..." Jax said at length. Will nodded without looking at his Legion brother, eyes firmly locked on the battered interceptor missile pod stuck door first into the ground, lights and faint electrical hum denoting the activation of the independent generator and control box.

"It'll be Damascus all over again," Darian added in a near whisper. Will shuddered then looked around quickly.

"Okay, first things first. Get an advanced kit and add an extra argon tank or two. Cutting into it's going to be a bitch and a half."

"Only a half he says. Try more like we melt through the wrong wire and the seekers are released, see nothing but dirt, and wreck half the farm and us with it at thirty thousand gees" Jax hissed angrily. Will shot him a critical look bordering on a glare.

"So we'll be careful." Jax scoffed then failed to duck out of the way when Will smacked him on the back of his head. "Okay, very careful! You know where we can find the unit's interconnect diagram right?"

Jax shook his armored head and said, "Yeah, bridge lock box along with the rest. We at least did that right."

Will nodded solemnly before turning his attention back to the potential nightmare that had fallen into their laps after falling out of the sky with them.

"Get Liam on the line, he'll need to know as well."

"Hmmmmm..." Twilight muttered as she tapped her pencil against her lip, brow furrowed in concentration. She flipped a couple pages in the notebook then looked up at a bemused and worn out Liam. This could take a while if he's getting tired already. We've only hit their understanding of the physics of their universe- minus anything about expansion fields but I'll have to keep trying for it- as well as, let's see... oh yes, their major sports and fashion styles, she ended with a bemused smirk, flicking her eyes towards Rarity as Liam tried his best to describe what people from his world wore. The fashionista was coming away disappointed as it didn't seem to be one of his knowledgeable topics. Dash however had been thoroughly satisfied with his description of the games that, strangely, seemed to be exact copies -minus some small rule variations- of their own.

"We probably have some news clippings or pictures from the last party I went to in Miami. Well... the only party in Miami I went to and that was as a favor- but that's not important," Liam said with a shake of his head to try to refocus in the face of Rarity's continued assault.

"Please, I hate to bother but if you have anything at all I could look at for ideas or inspiration I'd be eternally grateful! I'd be happy to name any lines I come up with to your benefit as well!"

"Wait, in our- no! No referencing us by name or anything! Please! If you do find something and still want to credit us then use... I don't know, something space themed. Use our home instead of us, that will be perfect," he said frantically.

"I thought Earth was your home?" asked Fluttershy. "I can't imagine living in space. It seems so... empty. I don't think I could ever live up there."

Liam slowly paused in trying to calm Rarity's enthusiasm, his eyes losing focus as he stared at her. She frowned, waving her hand in front of him a little before giving up. A small smile crept over his face and a soft sigh escaped his lips.

"Beautiful."

Rarity recoiled in surprise, looking around in shock at the sudden and unexpected turn of events. Her friends were giving her matching shocked or confused looks. She coughed as her face began to glow a rosy tone. "Darling, I appreciate the sentiment but it's so sudden and-"

"I remember swinging the Intrepid through the Huygens Gap between the A and B rings. Almost no scoring on the hull at all afterwards. We barely even had our nav systems matured and we thread the gap perfectly," Liam said wistfully, his eyes misty and tightened in what seemed to be sadness. At what, he didn't say.

"Oh!" Rarity said in understanding. "Oh," she added again with a deadpan look as she then realized her mistake.

Thankfully for her the rest of the group were too engrossed in listening to Liam now to joke at her expense. Twilight in particular barely noticed her embarrassment.

"What rings?" Twilight asked, hungry- no, desperate for more.

Liam looked at her without much focus then calmly pulled out his phone and began scrolling through it. Half a minute or more passed in near silence from everyone apart from an impatient cough from Rainbow Dash. Liam paused, smiling more deeply as turned the phone around for them to see. Twilight leaned in closer to see from across the table and-

Her breath caught in her throat.

The small screen was dominated by a yellow orange sphere surrounded by a thin disk, like one of Vinyl's old records that she brought out for retro themed dances at the school. She stared at it for what seemed like an eternity before a tightness in her chest reminded her that she needed to breath if she wanted to keep looking at the incredible image.

Liam swiped his finger across the screen and it disappeared. Before Twilight could beg him to bring it back it a new image appeared. The screen was taken up by clean interior, much like the halls and cabins of the Celestia but smaller than the rooms they'd been in, dominated by three seats in front and below of whoever was taking the shot. Liam's dark hair was visible over the back of the middle seat while the other two had the distinctive forms of Legionnaires seated in them. All of it paled in comparison to the glow coming through a segmented window at the front of the space. A long sweeping golden curve surrounded by a dim halo of grey against a pure black backing. He pressed his finger to the screen and it showed itself to be a video. Twilight's eyes grew larger still as excited murmurs drifted out the phone's speakers.

<"We're twelve-k kilometers out now, transit in one minute thirty seconds!"> Static laced cheers met the announcement as the golden arc expanded well past the edge of the ship's windows. Small beeps and hushed call outs flitted out of the phone as the golden disk grew larger and larger, the clean lines devolving into jagged edges with massive chunks standing out from among the rest of the speckled field. <"One-k out! Hold onto your butts, bringing up deflection wedge now!"> The view through the window wavered as if the ship were passing through a fog bank. The bronze-gold expanse became more and more broken and spread out, turning evermore white and radiant as it approached, countless large pieces and endless flickering clouds of dust between them. <"Passing through in three, two, ONE!"> In the blink of an eye the view went from blindingly brilliant to hazy to dark again as a dark, empty band of black expanded past the windows almost too fast to catch. The top of Liam's head swiveled around as the Legionnaires pumped their fists in the air or gave thumbs up to their doubles. He slowly turned around, glancing over the top of his seat. A small part of Twilight's mind noticed that he seemed... younger in the video. Not physically, he still looked the same on screen as he did sitting with them. There was just... more lightness to his expression, a sort of breathless wonder and excitement. <"So... I think we need to do that again. How about you?"> the video Liam asked whoever was taking the video. She found her smile transforming into what she was certain was a goofy grin but was powerless to stop it. Then the playback stopped, frozen on the cocky grin the younger man was flashing the camera.

Liam pulled the phone back towards him, looking down at the still image with a small smile. He ran the tips of his fingers over the back of the phone as if he were caressing it. He chuckled and put the greatest object of desire Twilight had ever wanted back into his pocket. "Space will always be the most breathtaking thing to see."

"Oh my," Fluttershy whispered breathlessly, breaking the spell of silence.

"Dude... I was starting to think you didn't know how to have fun but... dang! Can we go do that? Please please please please pleeeeeease?" asked Dash as she leaned over the table to be face to face with Liam. Meanwhile Rarity began looking around frantically.

"Inspiration! I just thought of- quick, someone, I need paper and a pencil! Oh, where're the proper materials when you need them... Aha! Okay, pencil down, just need something to write on... ohhhh, it'll have to do," she muttered before tracing lines and forms all over the napkins that had come with their food.

"What was that?" asked Twilight so softly that she almost couldn't hear herself over the exclamations of her friends.

"That was our shakedown tests of the Intrepid, one of our earlier ships. We barely had a system-wide navigation net in place and we thread the gap in the rings from an AU away at over two hundred and forty thousand kilometers an hour intercept," Liam said with a proud grin. Twilight had a vague idea of what he was talking about but her lack of in depth understanding didn't bother her in the least. What she'd just watched... it was everything she could have dreamed of. It was everything she had dreamed of for years. She'd just never seen a way to go beyond dreaming.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" She blinked, noting the small tears that pooled in the corners of her eyes with annoyance. She blinked a few more times to spread them out then finally faced Sunset and her concerned expression.

"I'm- I was just blown away. That was incredible! I never thought I'd get to see something like it," she said with full honesty if not the complete truth. "Do you have any-" she began to ask Liam before he fidgeted in his seat for a moment with a frown then drew out his now buzzing phone. He leaned his head to the side in confusion then held up a finger to ask for a moment.

"Will, that you? Yeah, I'm fine. Lunch has been good- okay okay, so what's up? Yeah... wait, repeat that... what came off? One of the- oh no," he said quietly, eyes going wide for an instant before his face shifted back to neutral. Twilight glanced around to find everyone apart from Sunset and herself too engrossed in their own conversations to have noticed his crude surprise. Before she could ask if anything was wrong he got up from his seat and wandered slowly to the far wall, brow pinched as he listened to his phone attentively.

"Okay, so how're you getting it out?" he asked just loudly enough for Twilight to hear. She tapped Sunset on the shoulder gave her a questioning look. She shrugged then focused back on their guest. "Okay... do you need my help or- got it. I'm guessing Applejack should be hearing from them soon then. Keep me informed." He walked back over and slid down into his chair with the kind of groaning and wincing she was more used to hearing from her grandparents when they visited.

"Everything alright?" Fluttershy asked him. He blew out his cheeks and gave her a tired grin.

"Yeah, I just should have known waxing nostalgic would call Murphy down on me."

"Who's coming? Wait, is someone threatening you now? " she asked with new concern.

Liam cocked his head to the side. "No, it's a... a rule from my world called Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. No idea where the name came from but it's pretty much prophetic as far as I'm concerned."

"Oh. That's a rather... nasty sort of rule. I take it something's wrong then?" Fluttershy glanced at AJ as she leaned towards Liam.

"Hold up, ya got a call from the farm right? What's goin' on?" she asked tersely.

"Applebloom came to get Will after she found a piece of the ship in another part of the orchard. Turns out that part has some hazardous materials in it so your family's heading into town for a bit while Will and the others move it back to the ship to contain it."

"Dammit, you bastards are never gonna stop bein' trouble for me and mah family are ya?!" she demanded angrily, bringing her fist down on the table hard enough to almost knock over Liam's shake. He hurriedly grabbed it then shot Applejack an annoyed look.

"Applejack, language!" Rarity said with an undertone of shock and disappointment.

Twilight wondered again what was going on with her friend. She could understand her worry about her home but didn't have a clue why she seemed to be taking everything so personally. It wasn't like they'd planned to crash there specifically.

Right?

That thought caused a brief chorus of worry and paranoia to sweep across her before she dismissed it. Applejack's worry was starting to rub off on now. She'd watched them come in the same as the rest of them had and saw how damaged the ship had gotten in the crash. Plus there was the matter of how determined Liam and his "family" were to return to their home. There wasn't any good reason for her friend's aggression that she could find no matter what angle she approached the issue from. Unfortunately Liam wasn't helping matters and in fact seemed fed up with the treatment.

"Hold up a moment, we're being responsible here! We could have tried to move it secretly but instead we warned your family to move to safety while we put ourselves at risk! If anything goes wrong then we're the ones in harm's way! But we're still doing it. We're in for the long haul in making things right by your family," Liam replied tersely. "According to Will the ship was just about ready to go so we would have been out of your hair by tomorrow morning at the latest if we hadn't put that on hold to clean up the rest of our mess."

For whatever reason Applejack inhaled sharply while her frown deepened into a full on glare. Liam didn't seem to care as he charged on.

"So would you rather have us gone or helping?" he declared with a narrowing of his eyes. Applejack's glare left little doubt about her answer. She and Liam locked eyes for a few more seconds before Liam exhaled slowly and shook his head. "Applejack, what is your deal with us?"

Applejack's eye twitched at the corner while her shoulders rose angrily. "Mah deal? Mah deal is Ah don't trust ya. Mah deal is since you showed up mah family's become reliant on your goodwill because we can't make it on our own now with the orchard the way it is!" Liam's eyes softened a little and he leaned backward a little in his seat, hands clasped loosely over his lap. "Mah deal is the first thing you did when we showed up was to try to nab us and shoot us instead of trying ta talk to us." Twilight wasn't sure but she thought she heard him wince quietly. "And to top it all off we can't get a single straight, honest answer outta ya like ya just proved again not five minutes ago. Everything you've done, everythin' about ya'll, it all screams trouble to me. And now mah family has to depend on ya'll to keep yer word and put everythin' right and not just go shootin' back off into the sky first chance ya get once ya figure out the portal?"

Her voice was wavering a little now, no less angry but with a rougher edge to it like she was having to fight to maintain it.

"No, Ah don't like it and Ah don't like y'all. Not after everythin' ya've done and failed ta do as well."

With that she slumped back in her seat, spent emotionally and trying not to show it. Maybe Liam wouldn't notice but Twilight did and so did the rest of her friends. Pinkie placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. AJ half faced her with a grimace then nodded in thanks. Everyone was silent for awhile and Twilight found her heart going out to her semi-new friend and her now open fears.

"I-" Liam began before sighing deeply, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "I failed to think things through. I guess I convinced myself that everything was fine because of how Granny and the rest of your family was treating us. But... I can appreciate how you feel. About not wanting to be dependent on us I mean. Really," he added when Applejack turned her scowl on him again. "That's what we've always prided ourselves on. Me, every copy of me, making it out there," he said, shooting a glance up through the ceiling and past the sky, "on our own in our own way. We'd chafe at suddenly being dependent on someone else too, especially if they were the reason we found ourselves like that."

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "And, admittedly, we did not make the best of first impressions. We were on edge after something that had never happened before and that made us defensive and paranoid. We should have announced ourselves first, tried to talk it out, but we didn't and I'm sorry for that. We screwed up there by you all. All that said, I have one more thing to say," he said, looking at each of them quickly before focusing on Applejack again.

"I promise you, we will not be leaving until we've made things right. The ship may go but we won't. Not till the farm is fixed and you can stand on your own again and never have to think about asking us or anyone else for help if you don't want to. Can you accept that?" he said, sticking out his hand toward her hopefully. Applejack squinted at his hand suspiciously for a moment then at his eyes for longer still.

"Applejack, I-I think you can trust him. I mean, trust him on this. I do," Fluttershy said while Pinkie nodded her encouragement from next to her. Twilight wasn't surprised at Pinkie's desire to turn them into friends but Fluttershy sticking up for him did surprise her. She usually only stood up like this for her closest friends. Though now that she thought about it it likely was more about helping Applejack work her emotions out.

Applejack looked at them both for a bit then cast her eyes down at the table. She looked back towards Liam then hesitantly, so very hesitantly, reached out and shook his hand once before quickly withdrawing her own.

"Ah'm holding you to that, God as my witness, Ah am holding you to that. Don't go thinkin' this means we're friends by the bye. That train left the station after ya shot me then failed to be honest with us and it ain't coming back again. The rest of mah friends seem ta like ya well enough so ah'll put up with having ya around when they want ya ta be but that's the long and short of it."

Twilight wanted to groan but forced it back down. They'd both had a chance to bury the hatchet on the mistakes and miscommunications of the last couple days and now AJ had all but rejected it. Or rather that's what she'd expected to happen until Liam gave one of his short, sharp laughs and nodded to her amazement. Though Twilight was almost certain she saw a brief moment of sadness pass over his face before he slipped a smirk on over it. She might have been mistaken though, she was still too shocked to be certain.

"That's fine, I can work with that. If you can keep putting up with us then we can bear with it and finish what we promised. I've had worse sentiments to work with before so it won't be a problem at all."

She was sincerely confused now since he'd made the good faith gesture and then had it thrown back in his face in all but name. Her impression of him had been much more blunt than accomodating. She was even more confused when he quickly downed the rest of his shake with a happy grin then bounced out of his seat.

"Unless any of you have other things you need to do let's go meet up with your family and check to see how Will's doing."

"I think that might be a good idea now," Sunset added. "We can grab your supplies on the way."

Liam's happy mood deflated like an old balloon. "Oh, right. The school supplies. You couldn't let me have even one moment could you Murphy?"

Back at Sweet Apple Acres Will was not having a great time. In fact he was having one of the most nerve wracking times he could remember in his long life. If he'd been capable of it he would have been sweating bullets, soiling pants, and all the other phrases humans used to say that things had gone FUBAR.

"Easy, eas- EASY! Watch it!"

Every muscle he had tensed up as Jax and Mercer tried to cut through one of the warped access panels that was thoroughly stuck in place. On the other side was the main controller bundle that connected the pod to its seven payloads. Each was multipurpose, capable of a drive field of twenty gees in atmosphere and twenty thousand gees in vacuum with a warhead field projector of thirty thousand across a thousand points filling the volume of a sphere a mile in diameter for an infinitesimal moment. Great for both knocking enemy missiles off course or destroying them outright from shear forces. Equally as great at destroying hardened structures if the targeting parameters were changed to ground strike. The farm definitely did not count as hardened and would be so much tissue paper if a single missile was active and went off, let alone seven.

With a faint pop Mercer bent the last stuck corner of the panel out of place along with the rest of the unit. The assembled Legionnaires all breathed a sigh of relief out of remembered habit rather than held breath.

"Okay, time to find out if Murphy's watching us today or not. Al, did they get off the farm like they said?"

Alphonse nodded weakly. "Yeah, saw the truck leaving on my way over. Three heads and a dog in the cabin."

"Good, glad we didn't have to force them. Though I'm not actually that surprised. Granny's a lot sharper than I thought she'd be," Will noted with a smirk.

"And we're all better off for it since Applejack wants nothing more than to scrap us for wrecking her parents' orchard," Darian added while handing a scan tool to Mercer. The rest of the group nodded in agreement while Mercer connected it to an open slot on the pod's board.

"Hey, focus. Her opinion of us definitely won't improve if we really do blow up the rest of the orchard and the farm with it."

"Yeah, but if that happens we won't make it either so at least we won't have to worry about it," Mercer said as he scrolled down the list of codes the scan brought up. "Hmmmmm... okay, let's see what we've got... main power bus is intact... slight under-voltage on the PCI connections which could be a problem... and current status is- fuuuuuuuuuuuck," Mercer hissed while his eyes shot open. "It's still registering a lock on an atmospheric target. Just about point blank in fact."

"Wait, what!? How!? The sensors are three feet underground!" Will demanded incredulously.

"It must have kept the lock on the bogeys from our mystery ship and adjusted for the sudden introduction of air through the gate. The back up controller should have registered that as a possible error and safed everything. Since it didn't it must still be in faildeadly mode instead of failsafe. Probably because of the undervoltage. Damn it, we always were better at physical design than electrical," Jax huffed as he quickly scrolled through the rest of the codes he gotten out of it. When he couldn't scroll further he slowly sat back on his rear with his arms hanging loosely over his knees. Will wanted to do the same but decided to postpone it till later.

"If you switch it over will it shut down?" Jax asked. Mercer looked at him then lowered a knee and began tracing lines in the dirt.

"It's looking for a signal to either fire or safe from the main controller but it's getting an unclear signal... either a bad connection or busted board... so an over volt would probably... hmmmmmm, I think we can. I need to bridge wherever the damage is that's giving us the undervolt and send the right signal pulse to the right line in the bundle. That should flip it from faildeadly to failsafe and lock the missiles inert. Then I can pull the plug and it'll go back to being a hunk of scrap."

"You think?" Will asked, arching a brow at the modifier.

"If the damage is at the connector to the payload deck then there's a chance anything I send it will short to the command line and we turn into a crater."

"Well. That's fantastic," Albrecht muttered. "Any way you can check that? We usually have a payload I/O port on the bulkhead of the laser-head launchers for inspections."

Mercer and Jax both wiggled their hands with a joint "Ehhhhhhhhh."

"The I/O port for this smaller model is on the same bundle as the command and safe lines. Any crosstalk and-" Jax expanded his fingers dramatically.

"Oh man, what idiots designed that mess?" Alphonse asked with a lopsided grin. The self-deprecation broke the tension and garnered a few much needed chuckles from the group. It lasted all too short a time until the gravity of the situation started pressing in again.

"Yeah, that's getting a revision," Mercer muttered with a roll of his eyes then started selecting tools from the numerous boxes they'd hauled with them.

"Mercer, give me the details. What're you thinking and what do the rest of us need to be ready for?" Will asked as he kneeled down next to him. Mercer bobbed his head side to side for a moment then looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm going to try to to safe it. The payload port has as much a chance of activating them as anything else and if I'm plugged into that then I won't be plugged into the main board where I might be able to do something if shit hits the fan. Plus the payload port requires we dig through more wreckage to reach it so nooooooo."

Will grunted. "Right, so what do we need to be doing?"

Mercer considered for a moment. "Praying? Figure we might have time to pick a couple gods before I try this, see if any of them work-" Will's backhand got a wince and glare sent in his direction. "Hey, I'm ninety nine percent serious! If this goes bad I'm not sure I can stop it."

"Mercer..."

"Okay, okay... ummmmm... wellllllll... we've got seven of us which is exactly how many we'd need to yank this thing up, tear the breakaway panels off, each yank a missile out, then rip the warhead and sensor suite off then let the rest plow itself into the nearest hill."

The silence that followed sadly did not get the cricket treatment it deserved.

"And how long would we have to do that?" Will asked slowly.

Mercer squinted at the sky for a second, mumbling to himself about spec sheets every now and then. "It'll continue to look for a confirmation and when it doesn't get it it will activate since it's not set to failsafe. Sooo... about thirty seconds."

Will's hand met his face at a very high velocity. "What if we skip the attempt and just try to dig the thing out now? It can't be any worse." Jax answered him this time with another "ehhhhhhhh".

"That's going to jostle things we don't want to jostle unless we absolutely have to." Will gave him a half lidded glare to which Jax returned a dramatic shrug. "Okay, let me put it this way. I'd give trying to safe it a fifty fifty chance of setting it off. I'd give moving it a ninety five percent chance given the state its in. You know why we made a faildeadly option. Nothing better to discourage tampering from anyone who isn't us." Mercer narrowed his eyes in thought then gave Will a nod of agreement.

Will's hand met his face only slightly slower this time. "Fine, I get the point. Let's do this."

Mercer waited till the other six Legionnaires all arrayed themselves near the dug in end of the pod then picked out a pair of leads from his kit. He spent a minute or two searching around near the payload bulkhead until he was sure he had the right places to connect. "Here goes nothing," he said, his voice tight and strained, as he set the voltage on his hand unit and hit the signal stud.

A light on the main board lit up green and Mercer threw up a fist in triumph. Will clapped him on the shoulder with a relieved laugh.

"Nice job. Can we move it now?"

Mercer looked at the new codes on his scanner for a moment. "Nope," he said, turning back to to Will with a sickly grin. "Because it just went active. On the bright side, I was wrong on that estimate. We've actually got forty five seconds."

There wasn't a single moment lost to hesitation. The six at the front end were already throwing up handful after handful of dirt while they searched for an edge to lift from. Mercer rushed in to join them, growling an uninterrupted sequence of curses on the way.

"Which one of us thought it was a good idea to give the 'armed' indicator a green light!? Who does that!?" Jax shouted angrily as he tore away at a root lodged into a corner of the casing.

"Less cursing, more digging!" Will yelled as the group cleared away the bottom lip of the pod and began straining to lift it up higher. They probably had twenty seconds before the missiles failed to get a safe signal and tried to break free. Probably half a second after that the warheads would activate and the valley Sweet Apple Acres rested in would pull an impressive reenactment of Mt. St. Helens. Will didn't have a lot of faith that the missiles would be wrecked by their initial plunge into the ground. The front shroud of each was hardened enough to act as a bunker buster. The only real limit it had was heat dissipati-

"Mercer! Set it back to vacuum!" Will shouted before he even finished the thought.

The long experienced Legionnaire didn't waist time asking for an explanation. He scrambled back out of the shallow hole they'd made and dove to his tools. Will motioned for the rest of them to grab what they could and started lifting. He could feel his muscles yanking on his metallic bones and fiber tissues as the combined weight of the pod plus the earth and roots fought them for every inch.

"Reset!" Mercer yelled just as the six finished tilting the pod up vertical. A second light on the board turned green and the pod pulsed a small ejection field to jettison the payloads. The six had just enough time to curl up and brace themselves before all seven were thrown away by the activation of the missile drives afterwards. They tore up into the sky too fast to follow.

It was the only thing that saved the orchard and them. With the drives not limited to atmospheric flight they tore through the air at twenty thousand gees, leaving a trail of impact plasma in their wake. They'd had less than half a second before their warheads were supposed to activate but by that point they'd shot over 24,000 ft straight up and hit orbital speeds. The unprotected missiles ceased to exist well before that. Only a burning trail of dust gave evidence to their existence at all.

"So how many planets have you visited?" Twilight asked excitedly as they all stepped out of the local Staplers store with binders and paper for Liam's start at CHS. Applejack had even helped collect some of it, though she'd handed it to Twilight instead of him afterwards. Still, he was calling it progress.

"One second Twilight. Where are we supposed to be meeting your fam-" Liam began to ask Applejack. A soft boom swept over the town, setting off a couple car alarms and causing windows all around them to rattle. It was followed by a rougher shriek that dissipated in mere moments.

"What in tarnation was that?" Applejack yelled with her hands clamped over her ears.

Liam spun around for a moment before he got his bearings and looked to the west. A thin line of white fire rose from over the distant hills then vanished almost immediately thereafter.

What happened to keeping me informed!? he thought desperately, grinding his teeth in worry and frustration. A frantic shuffle brought his phone to his ear. The dial tone was deafeningly loud in his ear and he only barely noticed the girls talking in the background.

"Oh man, that was the best firework I've ever seen! I've got to get some of those for the next Founding Day," Pinkie's voice called out with glee.

"Pinkie, I don't think that was a firework. I've been to one of the Wonderbolt stunt shows and that felt a lot like a sonic boom. So... you're right. We have GOT to get one of whatever did that" Dash's voice answered. Liam's eyes grew wider as he realized something even more terrible. It was at that moment that his call connected.

"Will?" he hissed as quietly as his nerves would allow which was not very quiet at all.

The voice from the other end of the line was raspy and the speaker was putting out a lot of static. It was clear enough to understand the words coming from the other end though. "Okay, so, things didn't go as planned," Will said sheepishly. Liam's eye twitched violently.

"You think?! What the hell happened?"

"Pod was stuck in faildeadly with a point blank atmo target."

Liam groaned as the scope of what they'd just tried hit him. The seven of them were lucky to be alive and-

"Will, are the others all right?"

"They're fine. We're going to need some repairs- again -but nothing serious. I swear though, this place has put me through more in two days than home did in years. Murphy must live here. Or at the least has a timeshare with our universe," he muttered. Relief washed over Liam at the snarky tone. If he could joke around then it wasn't too bad.

"So I'm guessing you weren't able to safe it then?"

"Nope, we tried but there must have been some crosstalk. That or Mercer isn't the munitions expert we all think he is and powered the wrong line." A brief cry of indignation from the other end of the call got a chuckle from them both. "Anyway, we didn't have time to get fancy. Mercer switched the environment back to vacuum and they toasted themselves into oblivion on launch."

"Yeah, we saw," Liam said gloomily. That display had been the exact opposite of the discretion then'd been going for. As far opposite as one could get without putting up a giant neon billboard screaming "Roswell's got nothing on this!" and an arrow pointing at the farm. "Heard it too, though thankfully town's far enough away that it was more of a dull thump than a-"

Oh no...

"Will," Liam said with deceptive calm. "Those missiles were moving with twenty-k gees behind them. I'm pretty sure that means they were supersonic before they even got a meter off the ground." Silence took over for Will. "How big was the shock wave?"