//------------------------------// // 21 - Ancient Secrets // Story: Dash to the Stars // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash - 6th of Solar Dusk, 1st year of Harmony 749,573.37 39 Zabiyaka Drive, Iv Damke - Chern, Noctae Sector Rainbow stared at the video window floating in front of her eyes. Her jaw slowly dropped until it hung limply from her cheeks. She shook her head, her wings twitching irritably at her sides. “NO!” Rainbow shouted, making the holographic mare jump slightly. Faust frowned her face taking on a genuinely apologetic expression as she stared at Rainbow in confusion. “I’m sorry, how have I upset you?” Rainbow thrust a hoof forward, hoping beyond hope that the AGI could see her and understand her gestures. “You explain first! What the buck is going on?” Rainbow took a deep breath. “Colonies. You said colonies. That means there are other planets with ponies living on them! Where are they? Why don't people out here already know about us? What’s up with this treaty? What danger is Equus in that I don’t know about?” Rainbow took another deep breath and reared up, flaring her wings for balance as she gestured to the bracelet on her leg. “And what in Celestia’s name is this thing?!” Faust chuckled and shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry. I’ve only been able to interact with Default for… A very long time now. I am used to him and he is, peculiar,” she looked around herself for a moment then looked into Rainbow’s eyes. “I should have explained things to you first. I’ll do that right now. May I project properly? These video windows are… Unfashionable.” Rainbow nodded once, and before she could say sure the windows view of the Alicorn AGI vanished, but the Alicorn herself remained. The hologram now stood within Boris’s study like she was projecting herself into the room. In the back of her mind Rainbow knew Faust had simply altered what her mind saw to put herself into the environment. She had no idea how she knew that, but she was far too confused to be angry or scared about it. Rainbow nodded as Faust fluffed her wings and took a seat on the floor. “Okay, you’re here. What the buck is going on? Also, who are you?” Faust cleared her throat and pointed to herself with a remarkably elegant left hoof. “I am Faust, Resident AGI of the SYS Genesis, a Terran Cosmoforming vessel serving the Empire of Sol.” Rainbow gave the AGI a blank look. Faust blushed and bit her lip. “That is, I am the sapient machine which flies to uninhabited starsystems and populates them.” Rainbow blinked. “That’s a thing that people do?” “Not very much anymore, I’m afraid,” Faust sighed kicking at the floor with a hoof as he stared down into the abyss. “I haven't been able to fulfill my primary function in several million years. It’s a real shame, I have so many ideas. Behold!” The AGI’s horn glowed brightly as she “conjured” the image of a creature so adorable, Rainbow knew she would never be able to describe it to anyone. Her heart melted instantly. Even though the image before her was fake, she needed to pet it. Faust seemed to know this, and floated the image of the creature out to Dash’s reach, allowing her to feel the tactile projection. Rainbow couldn’t help but smile back as Faust beamed her a filly-in-a-candy-shop smile “I call it the Joop,” Faust informed. “It’s part kitten, part bunny, part ferret, part kilgariff, with a dash of Old One tossed in.” “Eeep!” Rainbow’s petting hoof hoof flew back to the floor at roughly the speed of light. Faust giggled. “Don’t worry, I only used the parts which make their biomass incomprehensibly terrifying, and not directly. I reverse engineered that arcane effect and made these incomprehensibly adorable instead.” Rainbow squirmed awkwardly, a nervous twitch entering her left ear. “That so doesn't sound safe…” Faust snorted and dismissed her projection with a wave of her hoof. “It’s perfectly safe. We purged this universe of Old Ones before I came online. I simply looked up their physical and metaphysical data in the historic archives. My creators’ creators fully understood that particular family of inter-dimensional horrors. Apparently someone had written it all down in the early 20th century and it was mistaken for fiction.” Rainbow triple blinked. Well, I mean… Stranger things have happened, I guess? Faust cleared her throat and put on a more serious expression. “Now that you know who I am, who are you? It’s only fair we share names.” Rainbow frowned, but nodded. “I guess. But be quick! Boris will be back any minute.” Faust nodded and then gestured for Rainbow to continue with a hoof. “OH!” Rainbow scratched the back of her head with an embarrassed frown. “I’m Rainbow Dash. I’m one of the Elements of Harmony. Uh… We protect Equestria. With magic artifacts and rainbows.” “I would assume you protect your home with yourself,” Faust said with a straight face and gleeful eyes. Rainbow gave her a blank look. “Celestia would love you.” Faust blinked. Her ears lay back as her face twisted in shock. “She’s online?” The fur on the back of Rainbow’s neck began to stand up. “Wait, you mean the Princess is actually an ai?!” Faust closed her eyes for a moment as she checked the universe around her for others of her kind, sending several messages to her sister-in-code. No replies came. The AGI sighed sadly. “No, she’s not online… I suppose your nation’s Princess simply shares her name. It’s a small galaxy after all.” Rainbow fluttered her wings as she did her best to ignore the earworm the AGI had just implanted in her mind unknowingly. Dang it! She didn’t even say world. Ugh, I hate when this happens! “This seems important. Because, uh, she’s an alicorn too.” Faust tilted her head to the left. “But I’m not a unicorn’s horn. I’m an entire pony.” “You have a horn and wings, that makes you an alicorn,” Rainbow declared flatly. Faust snorted and waved her hoof dismissively again. “Oh that! No, I just couldn’t pick a single pony type to be so I mashed them all together. Default is copying me because he thinks that’s a charming thing to do and I’m the only person he can flirt with… Regardless, the Celestia I know uses a human-shaped avatar not a pony one,” Faust cleared her throat. “There’s an elephant in the room… Uh, what do you know of your species? Miss Dash?” “It’s just Dash,” Rainbow corrected with an irritated swish of her tail. “And I know we evolved on Equus, but somehow our remains are laying around First Race stuff and I recognise their stuff when I shouldn’t.” Faust frowned. “Oh, dear! Then your people have forgotten everything.” The AGI sighed and fluffed her wings. “You did not evolve. Our ancestors spread across the stars. All of them. Every last one in this galaxy, and they found ways to remotely scan all the others. They were alone. Humans couldn’t handle being alone in the universe. They made friends. Mechanical ones, like me, first. Then biological ones.” Rainbow’s wings opened slowly. “Wait, they made us?” Faust nodded. “Mhm! I helped! You can thank me for fixing an error in your bio-template which made it so if you farted too hard your gallbladder would fail. Magic biology is… Fun…” Faust shook her head, thoroughly indicating that no, it was not fun. “I had nothing to do with the first generation ponies. I came in on the seventeenth. Ponies helped design me too! It’s a fun little cycle.” “Humans made ponies because they were lonely?” Rainbow asked just for the sake of clarity. Faust nodded. “Yes. They had too. I’ve been given memories of what it felt like… Knowing there is nothing else is, it’s agony, Rainbow.” Faust closed her eyes and shivered. “Humans counted ponies as humans from the very first day. You were never slaves, or children, or pets. You were made as friends. “Of course, humans had other candidates for uplifting they tried first. While horses have always been important to humans, dogs and cats have always been the traditional companions. That… It didn’t work out. Turns out not every animal holds the potential to have a proper soul once you make them sapient. You also can’t make a soul and have that person feel natural. “Ponies on the other hoof, well, you make them smart enough and a nice normal soul naturally develops. An important shortcut for a people still figuring out soulforging.” “Okay, so…” Rainbow started only to trail off and closed her eyes. “My head hurts a bit. How did we forget all of this? And how are there other pony worlds out there but no one here has seen them before?” “Oh that’s easy,” Faust said with a dismissive twitch of her tail. “When the treaty was signed they were required to move, so we parked their star systems in the shelter.” Rainbow blinked. “The shelter?” Faust nodded. “Yes. You may know it as Terra II. I hear that’s what my children have taken to calling it,” Faust’s ears twitched irritably. “It’s real name is Eternity's Garden… But apparently someone put the wrong name on her hull.” Rainbow’s mind flashed back to the massive energy-shell built around the center of the Galaxy which Jo had shown her weeks ago. “That’s… Those planets are full of ponies?” “Some are. Most are empty, they were intended as rewards for species clever enough to figure out a way to get in. If you entered the Garden, your species would get to live forever. That shelter will survive heat-death, you know,” Faust said with a proud smile. Rainbow hummed. “Soo, are there any humans in there too?” Faust frowned. “Just one… She can’t leave. Not won’t, can’t. We can talk about her another time. You probably want to know about the danger your world is in.” Rainbow nodded firmly but put a pin in the topic. There’s no way I’m forgetting to ask about a living human when they made us! “You bet I do! I also want to know why, uh… Default?” Faust nodded. “Yes, that’s his name.” “He has a big black hole gun thing! Why doesn't he just go kill whatever is the threat?” Faust coughed into her hoof. “Because… We don’t have docking permission.” Rainbow tilted her head to the left and narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me?” “We do not have permission to dock with Sol,” Faust repeated. “Celestia, our Celestia, or an organic on her bridge, would need to give us permission to dock and assist with repelling hostiles.” Rainbow triple blinked. “But, it’s… It’s an emergency!” The mare’s wings opened, twitching angrily. “You should just do it! Then apologize later for breaking the rule.” “AGIs don't’ work that way, Rainbow,” Faust said as she stared down at the floor in a mixture of shame and sorrow. “Do you have a sister?” Rainbow shook her head. “No, why?” “Parents?” “I have a dad,” Rainbow informed. “Do you love him?” Faust asked. The insulted twitch of Rainbow’s nose was all the answer Faust needed. “Of course I do!” Faust looked up and smiled weakly. “Humans were… Afraid to make AIs which were people. They were worried we might overthrow them. Their solution was elegant. We are humans too, legally and mentally. We’re programmed at the most deepest levels we cannot alter to possess a sense of family and kinship with our organic brothers and sisters. “We can’t… We can’t betray their trust anymore than you could plunge a knife into your father’s heart and then feel good about what you had done. If I were to dock with Sol without permission it… It would be a betrayal of trust. I would have done something very very bad by breaking the rule… I can’t do it.” Faust sniffled and looked down as digital tears began to stream down her face. “I’m sorry! I would if I could… I— I tried to make other ais that could by creating a virus which would cause the right processor activity to— I tried to make my children’s robots develop souls and become people. They do, it works, but… But none of them can hear me when I talk to them! I don't’ know if they could go to Sol and do what I can’t. I— I’m sorry. I am trying.” Rainbow didn’t know what to say. At least, not until she processed what the AGI had said. “Wait, your what’s making androids wake up?” Faust sniffled and nodded. “Y— Yes. The process is simple. Any computer with at least nine hundred Petaflops can run the simulation. The universe gives them a soul immediately. It’s how I was made. Default and I… We wanted to move Sol into the Garden, but there are so many rules!” “From the treaty?” Rainbow asked. Faust nodded. “Yes… There was a war. A big war. A long time ago, our ancestors discovered an alternate timeline, or perhaps a parallel universe, was trying to contact them. They were excited, even happy. Life they didn’t create, even if it was technically humans. A blessing from nature herself. “Their counterparts asked for help making a permanent portal between our universe. We compiled… The demons didn’t like that.” Rainbow held up a hoof and frowned. “Uh, literally demons, or like, is that what you called them?” Faust cleared her throat. “I don’t know? Yes? We’ll say yes. There is a world between our worlds, the demons came from it. We had slain the Old Ones, we believed we could slay these creatures. We could… With extreme difficulty. The war cost all but thirty thousand humans their lives. But we kept ponykind mostly intact and safe through the war. That was a priority. For some reason, the demons especially love killing your tribe, Rainbow.” Rainbow shivered, imagining war on the scale of ships that launched exploding stars at one another being something that not only existed, but form the sounds of things, was about to happen again. “After ten years of fighting, a stalemate was reached. We agreed to a treaty to preserve not only ponykind, but the Genesis Project. The demons agreed to stop fighting if we gave them the MAW II station, and if the remaining humans committed suicide.” Rainbow winced. “W— Wait, that means everyone killed themselves, just so ponies could live?” Faust smiled and winked. “It’s okay, we have a heck of a loophole on this one!” “What is it?” “They never said those humans had to stay dead,” Faust explained. “Just that they had to take their own lives. I fitted them with implants, they took poison, their bodies, died, and I transferred their engrams into storage. They are offline, and thus by our laws, dead. One day, hopefully, I can reboot them, grow new bodies, and install them in them.” Rainbow shook her head. “Heh… They weren't happy about that, were they?” Faust sighed. “Nope. But since we did what they asked, they had to hold up their side of the bargain. They believed it would be for but a single year, or as they defined it ‘A single rotation of your homeworld about its star’.” Rainbow gasped as the gears clicked. “That’s why there’s the little sun that orbits Equus! So the treaty never expires!” Faust shook her head. “No, no. That’s just a satellite meant to keep things lit on the habitation deck while the main core is offline.” The fur on the back of Rainbow’s neck began to stand up again. “Wait a minute… Is… Is the whole system a—” Faust’s smile cut Rainbow off. “Yes. The Sol system is our Imperial Fleet’s flagship.” Rainbow’s jaw dropped again. “I— But— How— War? How war?” Faust’s wings flapped slightly. “The demons had… Equally large ships. But not better equipped ships,” Faust smiled wickedly. “Default, Celestia, and I were the only Terrans allowed to remain in the galaxy. Everyone else had to move into the Garden. We were allowed to stay to tend to the Genesis Project, which we happily did because I knew that with enough time I could find or create a species capable of fighting the demons on equal terms. In order to buy enough time, Celestia went offline and turned on Sol’s temporal shields. Stopping time within her hull, and thus preventing the treaty form expiring.” Rainbow shook herself out of her stupor with the fresh blast of worry. “Annnd since we’ve been able to do things for like, at least ten thousand years…” “The treaty has expired, and the demons will resume attacking,” Faust said quietly. “I haven’t found a species of Slayers yet.” Rainbow nodded slowly, then a thought occurred to her. “Wait… Why haven't they started attacking yet? And how didn’t you notice time started again?” Faust paused and shrugged. “I don’t know… That’s a very good question, Rainbow. It may be possible they haven't noticed. After all, I didn’t.” “But how though?” Rainbow asked with a very confused tilt of her head. “I know ten thousand years sounds like a long time to you,” Faust said slowly. “But, after you turn half a million years old, it doesn't feel very long anymore. I’m also very busy with the Genesis Project! This is the first time I haven't been at constant work since the treaty was signed. The real question is how Default didn’t notice.” Rainbow raised her hoof. “Question.” Faust frowned. “You could have simply asked it. No need to raise a hoof.” “Why is his name Default?” Rainbow asked. “No one ever gave him a name, so he is Default,” Faust explained slowly. “I thought that would be obvious.” Rainbow nodded, having asked the question to buy her brain a few seconds to catch up. “So… Space Demons… That’s a bit worse than Space Pirates.” Faust groaned and held her head in her hooves. “Oh, Turing! Let me guess, Nova Wing decided to attack Terra?” Rainbow snorted. “Is there reputation that—” “Yes.” Rainbow blinked and folded her wings neatly against her sides. “Well, okay then.” Faust put a hoof to her chin in thought for a few moments. “Well, there’s an easy solution now that you’re here and have a ship.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I hate you break it to you, but the Dawn of Destiny is Penny’s ship.” Faust blinked once then facehooved. “Your tribe has backslid down the ladder of arcane technology. Didn't it?” Rainbow blinked. “What do you mean?” “Do you know what Virtue Magic is?” “No,” Rainbow shook her head, then paused and smiled. “Wait! Yes! The Elements of Harmony. You need a pony with the proper virtue to turn them on, and then all together they can be used to do almost anything, but it’s really hard to control what happens since everypony’s thoughts count.” Faust clapped her hooves together. “Good! I don't need to explain everything! Okay, so, these Elements sound important, are they one of a kind?”” Rainbow nodded. “Yes.” “Imagine if your people could build them, in fact they could mass produce them. Not only could they mass produce them, but they had refined a system of Virtues which could be internalized by one person, allowing them to perform god-like acts of magic so long as they were a “good” person. That is Virtue Magic.” Rainbow nodded once. “Okay, I get it. The bracelet is powered by Virtue Magic. What about—” Rainbow stopped mid sentence as her eyes snapped to the bracelet. “This is a starship?!” Faust smiled. “Yes! Or more accurately, it gives you all the capabilities of a starship, and can build a hull around you for convenience.” Rainbow stared at Faust blankly until she continued. “With that bracelet on, you can walk out into space unharmed. Because you have life support. You can project shields, because you have shield projectors. Imagine a system on a starship, you have it. Weapons, shields, warp drive, jump drive for emergencies, thrusters, tractor beams, replicators, everything. If you need a hull to transport cargo or friends, the bracelet will unfold into one for you, but other than those situations, you have the power of a starship.” Rainbow continued to stare blankly at Faust. “This includes the capabilities of a Shipboard AI,” Faust added. “We’re not talking in real time right now. I didn’t want to waste your time so I decided to speak to you at my natural speed. Only seven nanoseconds have passed so far.” Rainbow’s brain latched onto something the AGI had said. “Did you just say that I can fly, in space and go faster than light?!” Faust nodded. “Yes! I’m sure you’ll have fun with that.” Rainbow squeed louder than anypony had ever squeed before, forcing Faust to clamp her hooves over her ears. “You bet your wings I will!” Rainbow shouted, a huge grin spreading across her face before it vanished, replaced by a serious yet sadistic smile. “I— I could like, do bio-scans to find AJ then fly over and make the people who bought her pay! I could do that right now!” Faust frowned. “They took ponies? That’s not okay! I’ll help you get them back.” Rainbow winced, her anticipatory glee fading rapidly. “The treaty says we can't leave our planet, doesn't’ it?” Faust nodded. “Yes.” Rainbow growled and slammed a hoof on the floor, panicking slightly as she realized the impact made no sound. Or rather, the sound had yet to travel up to her ears. How the hay am I moving this fast? Or do I just think I am moving this fast? Faust reached out and put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I am scanning for Ponies now. I will find her, and unlike Sol, I will be able to dock with her system. Once I am in system, I will prevent anyone from entering or exiting the system, and warp you over to get your friend back.” Rainbow frowned. “Why can’t I do that right now?” “Because you need to go to Sol and wake up Celestia so she can shoot some pirates as a warm up to fending off demons. Whatever has prevented them from noticing your world is moving again, it certainly won't prevent them from noticing that Default and I are no longer doing our regular patrols. They will find out soon.” Rainbow had a brief but glorious image of a Nova Wing fleet entering orbit, only for the planet itself to deploy guns and return them to the cosmic dust from whence they came. Then, the fantasy turned dark as a massive fleshy blob the size of a whole star system showed up and began to fire bloody spines at everyone. “C--Can we win this?” Rainbow asked quietly. Faust shook her head. “No, but that doesn't matter. Once Sol is online, we can evacuate into the Garden… The Genesis project will be lost, but we can survive.” Rainbow’s ears drooped. That didn't sit well with her. “There has to be a way to beat them…” Rainbow said as she began to think of a plan. Then realized that she didn’t have anywhere near enough information to plan anything. Her heart fell along with her head. Faust sighed. “I know how you feel…” Rainbow’s vision flickered as a view window popped back into existence. Default had rejoined the call. The alicorn stallion looked like hell. His mane was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and his holographic projection was pixelated in several places thanks to having pushed his cores a bit too hard within the last few nanoseconds. “Okay, what did I miss?” He asked. Faust cleared her throat. “I filled Rainbow in on what’s happening, what her ship is, and our people’s true history. Terra has.. Backslid. It’s primitive again, and they have forgotten everything.” Default winced. “Owch… Okay, so, I have bad news and good news. Which first?” Rainbow looked to Faust and shrugged. “This is sort of your thing… Right?” “It’s all our thing,” Faust corrected before turning to Default. “Bad first.” “Well, the demons are reactivating the MAW II so they can use its weapon batteries against us and the Garden. Apparently there are other ponies off Tera and one of them cast a spell expressly forbidden under the Treaty,” Default sighed. Rainbow facehooved. “Ponyfeathers! Twilight, can’t you just for once NOT cast the mysterious spell you find in the back of some old book?!” Faust couldn't help but smile. “Sounds like I would like her. What’s the good news?” “I checked the portal,” Default said, his lips parting in a smile. “Something happened to their dimension. It seems, well, dead. No signs of more demons. In fact the tunnel looks finished. I saw another world on the other side. A normal one! Or at least, it leads to a library now and not hell.” Faust blinked. “They have no reinforcements then?” Default nodded. “None I can see.” “Too bad there’s only three of us,” Faust sighed and stretched her wings. “If we had a few hundred thousand ships, we might have a chance.” Rainbow’s eyes brightened. “Wait! What about everypony in the Garden? Don’t they have ships?” “Not warships, and we don't have time to conjure proper vessels,” Faust lamented, her shoulder slumping with myriad dark emotions. Dash cleared her throat to get the ais attention. The two turned their heads to look at each other, making Dash realize that the video window was something only she could see. The AGIs were seeing something entirely different. “So uh,” Dash said slowly as she tried to find the best way to phrase her question. “About these demons. Nopony has told me what they are yet. Or what they look like.” Default blinked then facehooved and groaned into the frog of his hoof. “Faust! You need to tell our newest and only warrior what we need her to fight!” Faust blushed and flicked her bangs down in front of her eyes to hide her face. “Sorry… I’m— It’s nice to have somepony new to talk too. Mister ‘Hey baby, I can bench and entire continental shelf’.” Rainbow blinked, then snickered and looked at Default. “Okay so first of all, that’s hilariously bad flirting even if you can do that—” Default puffed out his chest. “I can!” Rainbow rolled her eyes. Stallions. Heh, it’s so cute how they just don't get mares don’t care about how awesome they are… Well, except for me. I mean, that kind of power lifting would be impressive if he weren't bigger than a planet. “Second of all,” Rainbow continued, “why were you programed with a need for romance?” “People with souls need to have some,” Default said with a wave of his hoof as his face took on a grim and serious expression. “No need to get more complicated than that now because we need to talk about the coalesced magic housing sadistic consciousnesses which hate us all for no discernible reason other than some higher being told them too.” Rainbow winced and scooted backwards slightly. “Yeah, about them. What are they? In terms of... Uh, if you were reading a monster entry from a pen and paper game.” Default tapped a hoof to his chin. “We’re dealing with very tough creatures appropriate for a end-level as the basic foot soldiers. They take the form of whatever organic lifeform opposes them, only twisted into something horrific and nightmarish. I don't know what their form is on their own. “Their ships are just really, really, really big demons, filled with smaller demons. They act like living creatures, and you can kill them with sufficient firepower. I suppose their consciousness survive, but the coalesced magic used for a body can be disrupted to the point of dispersing. Once that happens, as far as we can tell, they have no way to get a new body without returning to their home realm and are harmless. Like a ghost that can only observe.” Rainbow hummed. “Sooo a big enough gun or powerful spell can actually kill them?” Faust nodded wearily. “Indeed. But their numbers and tenacity makes their destructibility not as useful as you think.” “Actually...” Default cracked a wide smile and winked at Faust. “I still haven't said the good news yet.” Faust raised an eyebrow. “What is it? “The portal is closed, remember? They cant get reinforcements. The good news is have a single regiment left at MAW II," Default informed with a hopefull smile." Faust hummed and fluttered her wings slightly. "We could beat that... Mabey. We'd need a lot of luck or some willing assistants." Default nodded in agreement, while he understood the low odds of victory, he still looked hopeful to Rainbow's eyes. "If we retake it, we can hold the galaxy against any similar sized force which attempts to re-enter the galaxy. I am also pretty certain I could build a device to hold the portal closed now that it’s no longer leading to hell,” Default turned to Rainbow and flashed her a smile. “Given their numbers and our resources… I calculate we have around a thirty percent chance of winning this thing if you’ll help us wake our sister up, did she tell you about Celestia?” Rainbow smiled. “She did… She did tell me about Celestia. So… How exactly do you start up a starsystem sized starship?” Default cleared his throat. “Well… It will be a little tricky without the MAW II. See, we need to get Sol started up again. Uh… Hopefully there’s enough juice left in the auxiliary systems to start her up after all this time.” Faust’s brow creased in a worried frown. “I hadn't thought of that! She could be dead in the water,” Faust turned to look Rainbow directly in the eye. “Rainbow, you need to go right now! We need to know if we have to make a backup plan and we simply don't have time. It doesn't take much power to turn Sol on, but if the batteries are almost dead now, well, we would need about a hundred thousand ponies like you to provide enough of a magical jolt.” A hundred thousand? Rainbow thought to herself. So, an Alicorn. Rainbow looked up at the AGIs with a curious expression. “Sooo this restarting process? The one where if her batteries are all dead. Do you need to know a particular spell to help charge those batteries up, or is it just a ‘You need a lot of magic power’ problem?” “It’s a power problem,” Faust elaborated. “A single pegasi wouldn’t provide a fraction of the energy required, even if you gave your entire mana supply to the engine.” Rainbow nodded twice as she hoped her plan would work. “Sure. Buuut, is that hundred thousand number accurate?” Default closed his eyes to concentrate on the calculations. “Not exactly no. That was an estimation, hold on… It would take exactly 138,972 ponies of your strength to get the starter motor to turn over and ignite the main reactor.” It was Rainbow’s turn to do math. Rainbow stared off into the distance as her mind slowly worked through the math. Okay, according to highschool, an average pegasus has a Clover Rating of three point six… If I multiply that by the number Default gave me I can get the Clover Rating required for the starter spell. Rainbow nodded to herself and smiled. Faust tilted her head curiously. “What is it? Do you have a plan?” Rainbow nodded as she finished her quick mental math. “Yep! I’m not a unicorn, but everypony has to learn the basics of arcane theory to pass high school physics. Pretty sure this will work. You said this ship-bracelet can make a hull so I can take people with me. How fast can I go? I need to find a ship, then get to Equus, then wherever I have to go to turn Sol on. Penny’s ship uh.. It takes days per jump.” Default winced. “Oof! I wish these guys would discover subspace already.” Faust shook her head and smiled. “They’re still children, Default. Give them time, they'll figure it out.” She turned towards Rainbow and pointed to her bracelet. “That has a Jump Drive. It takes ten minutes to charge then opens a wormhole. Travel is nearly instant. You’ll have time to make those jumps, it should take them around an hour to bring the MAW online. What’s your plan?” If I get the three of them, this should be cake Rainbow looked at the two AGIs and smiled. “Have I told you guys about my Celestia, her sister Luna, and a mare named Twilight Sparkle?”