//------------------------------// // Leaps and Bounds // Story: My Little Engineer // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// Date: 02/06/2406 12:47 “Can alicorns breath in the vacuum of space?” “Why would you need to go into space already? You’ve yet to receive Twilight’s blueprints for the space station, right?” Luna inquired as she strode alongside me on our course to the New Moon after lunch; never mind that I’d skipped out for lack of appropriate options regarding my diet and would be eating when we got back to the ship. “That may be the case but I can at least start a simple platform and get some power and basic necessities up there. I’ll build Twilight’s station around it when I get the print.” I explained as we passed through the barriers leading outside. Luna and I both took to the skies and aimed ourselves for the massive ship holding position overhead as quickly as we could in order to continue our conversation. Landing and entering into the airlock for transition to within, “I’ve probably doomed the planet already thinking I could do all this myself, but with only two months before the Apocalypse I’m forced to think in a much broader spectrum of what I can do to speed everything up.” I admitted with a sigh and hands clasped behind my back as we entered onto the bridge. “Sir, messages from the Smoky Mountains! Your laser drill has reached the trapped miners inside and has been shut down to begin rescue operations!” A helmspony announced at our arrival. “Fine, fine. Just make sure the drill is turned back on when they’re done.” I waved the comment off with a hand and stood behind the pilot’s console, in which Spitfire was seated and waiting. “Take us out of here, get us to the Smoky Mountains to help with rescue then we’ll get busy tearing into the mountain with our own drills.” “Yes sir, breaking holding pattern over Canterlot and moving to Smoky Mountain at thirty-kilometers an hour.” Spitfire reported back, setting her hooves over her console while everyone around set to their various tasks for flight. “Luna, get a message across the planet as best you can. Everyone who's capable of mining will tear into the land wherever they can find ore. Dig out as much as they can as fast as they can. Anypony who doesn't mine, have them show up to the Smoky Mountains to report for building duties.” I commanded again, turning to Luna who nodded and aimed for the airlocks out again. “Once you’re done, meet me on my mining platform!” “Yes Pilot!” Luna called back with a wave and leapt through the airlock and out. “Sir, we’ll be reaching the Mountains in two minutes.” Soarin announced, turning my attention to the navigator. “Get a message through to whoever piloting our last Wyvern. Tell them I’ll be commandeering it for a trip out into space when Luna gets there.” I requested and turned back to the front of the ship, watching the mountains getting closer and closer. “I’ll be programming the auto-shipyard to begin pumping out more Wyverns in the meantime.” “Message sent.” Soarin reported back dutifully and settled back down for his job. “We’ve arrived at the Mountains.” “Take us up to the shipyard. Everyone not critical to the operation of this ship will be assisting to rescue to trapped miners!” I called back and turned from the bridge to enter into the airlock once again and get a head start on the ascension of the New Moon. A quick flight up, chased after by my ship, and I landed heavily on the mining platform I called home. Removing my helmet with a hiss of air ruffling my facial hair -I had to remind myself later to shave it all when next I wasn’t busy- and hanging it on it’s hook on my hip, I set towards the auto-shipyard to get it set up like I’d said I’d do. Once the upgraded Wyvern’s blueprint was successfully loaded and positioned properly, I set the massive machine to begin work and turned towards the drilling section. My progress was cut off by the sudden arrival of Luna who’d flashed in through use of a teleportation bubble in a typical shade of her dark blue. “Miss me?” she grinned as I kept at a run past her. “What’s the hurry?” she frowned at my lack of sentimentality and rudeness. “Less than two months to get as many of this planet’s population off this planet as possible, that’s what!” I called back as I reattached my helmet for a trip down to ground. “Come in Cargo wyvern, come in.” “Cargo Wyvern here, sir. We’ve received your message and we’re ready to receive you at your leisure.” the voice of the translation reported for me as Luna and I leapt from the platform to begin our free fall towards the planet’s surface. Behind us now were flocks of pegasi rushing into the hole left behind by the laser drill, but I otherwise paid them no mind. “Stay at ground level, Princess Luna and I are en route.” I replied sternly and fired up my jetpack, setting off a sudden boom as the pack fired up with the extra push. With Luna keeping directly beneath me, her wings partially open to control her descent and having connected to my rushing attitude, the pair of us parted just enough at the last second to apply retrograde thrust of whatever kind in order to prevent from becoming a splatter on the ground. “It’s over there, I see it!” Luna remarked after a quick check, pointing in the opposite direction from my gaze. Trusting her judgement, I pretty much just took off after her even before I saw the ship resting with engines at idle and a pair of ponies climbing out of the cockpits. The sprint was quick and with a quick burst from my jetpack, I landed on the side of the craft at my cockpit while Luna gracefully flipped herself hooves over head into the navigator’s seat and let it close around her. Speeding through the take off checklist, I pushed the ship straight up a couple hundred meters before pushing the horizontal thrust as much as it could and aiming it in a 50 degree ascension. “Seriously, what’s the rush?” Luna inquired over the comms from behind me. “If we can get the space platform set up and powered, we can build spare cryo-pods and store more of the planet’s population while we build more colony ships. If we can get them into cryo and store them while we build, we can give each species a colony ship of their own, another ship for provisions and extra building material. We can store those coming even after the planet’s died and we’ll continue building by mining the dead planet.” I explained as we reached an altitude where the jet engines began to fail on us. Using our momentum, I fired up the hydrogen thrusters and once they’d been lit, Luna and I were forced back into our seats from the sheer gravitational force. Reaching 8Gs and about thirty-five thousand meters into the sky, the bright blue began to shift into a dark black as the jet engines cut out entirely and I switched on the ion thrusters to continue our ascent. The higher we rose, the less and less we could hear the engines, but we could still feel them. The sound never completely cut out, given that we could hear it through the ship itself, but soon enough the weightlessness I’d forgotten about returned and nearly removed me from my seat if it wasn’t for my harness. “Hey, Pilot, is it just me or is there a radio signal coming from the moon?” Luna inquired, diverting my attention from searching for the optimal geosynchronous orbit towards my instrument panel. True enough, there was a radio signal with a request for transmission attached to it. “Yeah, there seems to be a signal on the moon.” I remarked, having been deflated and overwhelmed by curiosity. “Unidentified craft, please halt your ascension and identify yourself.” a coarse, buzzing like voice requested though was translated by Luna and the translator. “NLR, Wyvern class Cargo ship from Equestria, who’re you?” I requested in return, aiming the nose of the ship towards the moon and what appeared to be some kind of spired ant-hill. “Equestria? Is that the Suit that crashed on the planet some months back? We’re representatives of the Scarlet Changeling Hive allied to Equestria in order to get off the planet.” The voice replied, sounding cheerful and willing to be of assistance. I hit the mute button and directed myself towards Luna. “How are Changelings in space, let alone on the moon? I didn’t think there was a space faring creature on the planet.” I asked. “I wasn’t aware that a hive had managed to get into space either, perhaps it would be beneficial to meet them and ask?” Luna suggested, giving me reason to shrug back agreement. Returning to the Changelings, “Requesting Permission to land, I’m joined by Princess Luna. We’d like to speak to your commanding officer, we’ve got questions.” I requested, eager to check out the new location. “Absolutely, pad eight left is open and ready to receive you. We’ll leave the lights on.” the voice replied before going silent. “Well now, this is an interesting change of events.” I mumbled, getting agreements from Luna as we aimed towards the moon. As we flew, we began to notice that some parts of space would glitter strangely; not quite stars or space material but more like something blending into the background of space and reflecting light. A quick interception and flicking on the lights revealed black hulled ships, as round as they could be with what surprised me to be the same shapes of my armour block patterns. “Just more questions to ask them…” I sighed and turned back towards the impossible moon base. Following Luna’s directions to read the signage, our craft settled down on the landing pad 8L while another black ship landed on the pad next to us, dwarfing our vessel immensely. Taking a moment to ensure that my helmet was secure and tanks filled to capacity, I shut down the ship entirely and opened our cockpits and let the air inside escape with a hiss. Luna descended as slowly as I did, landing next to me as a trio of red-shelled changelings approached from the nearest… exit? It was a hole in the wall that opened and shut around the creatures. “Welcome to Moonbase Scarlet, Pilot and Princess. It is an honour to have you here.” the middle creature announced with a bow of the head, followed by the other two on his side. “I’d say good to be here, but we never expected to actually be here…” I replied and stopped near to the bugs. “Of course, that is to be expected. Come, our commander is waiting for you.” the middle bug replied, turning in place with his compatriots to lead us towards the massive organic-looking structure. “How are changelings up here? How are they surviving in the lack of any atmosphere?” I whispered to Luna, keeping stride with the escorts. “Changelings are extremely adaptive to any environment so space is really nothing more than a mere inconvenience of lesser gravity to them. The Scarlet Hive has adapted to eating other energies than just love like the Emerald Hive does so it’s entirely possible that they’ve found a different source up here to survive on. As for how they got up here, it would seem that they’ve discovered space travel.” the Princess remarked, examining the stone-like walls around us. There was something off about them, however. They seemed almost too… hard. Not exactly stone-like but more metallic as they glistened as though drenched in oils. “Please, just in here. It’s easy for other creatures to get lost in our tunnels.” The lead escort requested, stopping at a random hole in the wall before leading us through. “The commander will see you inside.” “Thank you.” Luna nodded back gratefully for me as we stepped into a large room decorated to look like a military commander’s ready room. “This should be interesting.” ~~~ Having completed our conversation with the Changeling commander and learned of not only how they’d gotten up here but why they’d come without telling anyone, Luna and I sat in our ship in connection to the New Moon down on the planet below with Celestia on the other end. “So, the Scarlet Hive stole a few of your basic welders, learned how to use it and the blueprints within, then got themselves up to space to plant a base on the moon?” Celestia shifted her mouth in contemplations, staring off into space or whatever was before her. “While I’m not that pleased with how they’d gone about doing it, I must agree that their workings over the last couple months is extremely beneficial; especially if they’re claiming to have done this to help the planet evacuate.” “Agreed. They’ve already got transport ships ready to take large quantities of creatures into space and the space in their Hive to store them all in Cryo. I’ve agreed to spend a bit of time up here to actually build the cryogenic systems for them, since they can’t quite understand how it all works.” I replied, resting my chin in my hand by posting my arm on the left hand side of my cockpit. “I want all of Equestria tearing up the country for resources now. Get in touch with the Scarlet Hive and have them start sending transports around the country to pick up that material and have them bring it up here. Tell the New Moon crew to get started on their own mining and to work with the Changelings.” “Of course. Will Luna be staying up there with you?” Celestia inquired, directing her gaze towards my left and to the screen that Luna was taking up as she’d joined in on the conversation. “As much as I’d like to, I feel I have duties on the planet. I must help organize proceedings to get everything into space while you deal with the population.” Luna replied with a disappointed sigh. She really had wanted to stay with me, but she was right, she needed to oversee business down below. That didn’t mean that I’d just let her leave the moon on her own, I’d be shuttling her and the Wyvern down for somepony else to use while I used one of the new Wyverns waiting for me. “Right, yes. We have been starting to get reports of rioters in the streets as they start to figure out just how long we actually have left and that Luna and I are incapable of stopping it.” Celestia sighed, directing her gaze away from the screen in mild disappointment. “Think of it, we two are responsible for manipulating the very Sun and Moon around our planet, yet we can’t stop our planet from dying.” “I suppose that’s the problem with anyone who’s been labelled a god or god-like. You begin to accrue insane expectations of you and when you can’t fulfill those expectations, people turn on you.” I remarked with a casual breath. “Be that as it may, Luna and I are on our way back now.” I added as I began the pre-flight checklist, firing up the ship and starting up it’s ions. “Of course, I’ll speak to you later when you arrive, Sister.” Celestia nodded back and the screen flicked off while the engines warmed up with the ship slightly rumbling. “So, this is certainly an interesting turn of events, huh?” Luna inquired casually from behind as she worked through the pre-launch checklist. After a quick digital thumbs up we rapidly ascended so I could aim our ship at the planet above us. “Indeed. I’ve got a hell of a lot of work ahead of me in coming days, that’s for sure.” I replied once we were in a position that we could properly chat without having to worry about our flight. “Well, you’ve always got my support.” Luna replied cheerfully as I threw the hydrogen thrusters on just long enough to get us thrown into the backs of our seats and quicken our pace a bit before deactivating them again. “I appreciate that.” I replied once the G forces died down a bit to let us recover. “Pilot, I know I haven’t told you this before and I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this, but I have to say this,” Luna began, sounding nervous. “I really like spending time with you, you make me feel safe. You make me feel like a pony, a mare. It’s been… way too long since I’ve last felt like this and I am more than grateful for what you’re doing and giving up to save my planet.” “I love you too, Luna.” I cut her off, though cutting off wouldn’t be the best way to describe it since she took a break to take a breath. “I enjoy my time with you too and I’m more than happy to share my wealth of knowledge with you and your kind in order to save the planet we both call home. As it stands, it’s going to kill me when I’m forced back home and unable to come back.” “I…” Luna choked back some tears over the radio. “I love you too,” she squeaked out with a smiling face over a video she opened between us. “And I promise you, i’ll not rest until I can come up with some way to let you stay with us on the new world. I want you with me, always, for as long as you can be.” Entering into the upper atmosphere had our ship begin to ignite with re-entry but the temperature never got high enough to threaten us. Eventually, the landscape below us began to clarify and Luna plotted a course back to Equestria for me while I switched from ion to atmo. “The feelings are mutual, I wish to high hell that I could stay with you all; you specifically. If you need any help trying to keep me with you when we get to the new planet, let me know and I’ll do what I can to the best of my ability.” I replied and watched Canterlot Mountain grow visible on the horizon. Below us the expanse of ocean greeted us with what looked like underwater cities beneath and surprisingly illuminated brightly with yellows and blues. With the remainder of the flight in silence, broken only by bare instructions to begin a checklist or check for something else. Soon enough, Luna redirected me away from Canterlot towards the Smoky Mountains and we touched down on my mining platform where a small fleet of Wyverns were waiting and being checked over by flight crews. The line up of no less than fourteen cargo-class Wyverns in black and blue looked wonderful, with a handful of about eight or nine combat-class Wyverns sitting in front of the Cargo class. Sitting in front of those, all on it’s own and painted to look like Luna’s night sky, sat a much heavier armed combat-class Wyvern. “Sir, Princess, welcome back planetside.” Spitfire announced as she greeted us once our cockpits opened to let us switch out for another flight crew who took off almost immediately. “Thanks, where’d the other class Wyverns come from?” I wondered as I pulled my helmet off and not only let my oxygen tanks refill but also let my lungs refill with fresh air. “It would seem that a digital friend of yours designed the cargo-class and the heavily upgraded one in front.” Spitfire explained and joined Luna and I as we aimed for the magnificent ship leading the line up. “She designed the Artillery-class Wyvern herself.” she added as Luna and I examined the new ship. Just under the cockpits sat a pair of images, one being the generic Space Engineer badge I received when I graduated while the Navigator seat had Luna’s cutie mark printed. “Vinyl did this?” I raised both eyebrows as Luna and I looked over the rest of the craft. The armour had been replaced with heavy armour and the guns had been replaced with significantly larger calibre guns than before. A check underneath showed that another cannon was placed where the connector had been but the power and supply connections had been moved back a bit behind the new turret. The engines had been replaced with tier four versions and rebalanced so that the hydrogen thrusters no longer burned as much as before. “I did, yes.” Vinyl’s voice replied, startling me significantly and making me jump out of my skin at the impossible arrival of the newcomer. Luna and I whirled around to see a blank pet-bot with crimson red irises watching us. “While you two were out, I had some time to think and… I’m sorry for how I behaved in my infancy.” “Vinyl?” I raised an eyebrow at the metallic body and picked her up under the forehooves to check her out. “When did you manage to do this?” “It was the first thing I printed out with that auto-shipyard of yours. I just wanna paint it and get a mane and tail hair then I think I'll be good.” Vinyl explained, her mouth moving perfectly in time with her words. “Regardless, I designed this ship as an apology to you and the ‘Pretty Blue One’. Also, congratulations on your relationship. I hope you’re happy together.” “Wow,” Luna began before giving Vinyl a hug with me. “I thank you for the apology and the congratulations. Would you like to meet Sunset Shimmer again? I think she’d like to formally meet you now.” “I would like that, yes.” Vinyl nodded back appreciatively. Setting her down, Luna helped Vinyl up into the back of our new ship before joining her while I climbed up into the cockpit and got the engines warming up. Soon as they were sufficiently warm, we took off towards the mountain base.