//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Emergency Cancellation 
// Story: Spacebound Equestria 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

	A few days after the search, the ship had been repaired, and ponies from all over Equestria were slowly filing in. A young filly trotted up to Celestia. Looking up at the towering Princess, she asked, "Are we ever gonna come back?"

Celestia sighed. "Maybe one day," she replied. She turned back towards the ponies doing the final inspection before takeoff. "Are we ready?" 

One of the larger members of their group turned and nodded his head.


~~~{Hours later...}~~~


Celestia and Luna sat down in the cockpit. Celestia's eyes met with Luna's. "Luna," she whispered softly, "Earlier, a filly asked me if we may ever come back, do you think we ever will?"

Luna shook her head. "Sadly, I think that we will never see our homeland ever again, at least, not in one piece." She pressed a button on the dashboard, and a large display rose out of the panel. "I personally hired some technicians to specially equip our craft with weapons, lest we encounter any horrors down the line. You see, if we leave Equestria to Sombra, he too will eventually build a fleet of spacecraft, and we would then have to battle it out in the heavens, thus we must rid ourselves of Equestria as a whole.

Celestia shot a cold glance at Luna. "I am NOT going to blow up the land that I love, Luna."

Luna shrunk back into her seat. "But Sombra..."

Celestia cut her off. "No, Luna, and I mean it.

Celestia pulled a lever on her section of the dashboard. "Ready for liftoff?" Luna nodded. The rockets shuddered as the ship began to cycle through a final initialization and self-check. A robotic voice echoed throughout the cockpit.


ROCKETS: FULL POWER


INHABITANTS: ALL PONIES, GRIFFONS, COWS, ETC. ACCOUNTED FOR


BLAST SHIELD: ENABLED


GENERATORS: ONLINE


NETWORKING: ONLINE


DONUTS: SERVED


Luna glanced over at her sister on hearing the last check. Celestia was currently chewing on a chocolate-frosted donut, and she was leaving crumbs all over the dashboard. "Tia, may I have some?" Celestia nodded, and handed over a box of donuts.

As she bit into a strawberry-jelly donut, an extremely loud, and very irritating, siren began to blare throughout the cabin.


WARNING: INTRUDER DETECTED


ENTERING HIGH-SECURITY MODE


The ship jostled as the rockets shut down. Celestia sighed. "And to think that we were about to launch..." She got up from the cake she was eating, and picked up the ship-wide intercom module. "Attention, citizens of the Equestrian Pride, be on the lookout for any and all suspicious behavior."

Almost immediately, the report storage system began to spit out report after report, many of which were sent from fillies who weren't allowed dessert for the day. "Urk," Celestia groaned, "First an emergency landing before we even lift off, and now THIS?!"