//------------------------------// // Chapter 111 // Story: Voyage of the Equinox // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Board the Canterlot “You shouldn’t be leaving, Twilight,” Sunset said, from the other side of the docking bay. She might only be looking at her through a thin layer of glass, but it was still more than enough for Twilight to see her disapproval. “Seriously, you’re the captain. There’s no telling what could be waiting over there. You should send me instead.” Twilight was already wearing her suit, and she didn’t so much as turn around. As the airlock closed behind her, she answered Sunset over the radio. “You’re barely holding together, Sunset. But if something does happen to me, you’re qualified to command the Equinox. You can take over for me. If Spike allows it.” “We’ll see,” Spike said, before Sunset could answer. His tone was comedic, but his words were anything but. “I might go on a homicidal rampage after my captain dies. That seems like the sort of thing a ship’s computer should do, right?” “No,” Twilight said, annoyed. “I order you not to go on any kind of rampage. But nothing’s going to happen, because we have a crew already aboard the Signaler ship. They’ll make sure nothing happens to me.” “Sure will!” Node said. “Or… we can stop the highway relay from grabbing you. We can’t stop you from crashing into a wall, or lighting yourself on fire, or… doing other things organics seem to do.” Twilight made her way through the Prospector’s interior, wincing at the warped metal and smoke damage to the inside. They’d made enough repairs to make her fly again, though they didn’t have a prayer of escaping the way they had the last time. Whatever trick Rainbow had done to the engines reduced the ship to ‘painfully slow’ speeds. “Buck if that will happen,” Rainbow answered from the pilot’s seat, already strapped in. Rarity was in the other seat—Twilight’s entire crew for this mission. “I’m a better pilot than anypony else on this crew, metal or meat.” Node didn’t argue, and neither did Twilight. Rainbow’s last flight with the Prospector had shown enough of that. “Same as before,” Twilight said, once she was secure. “Nice and easy. We’re not trying to be heroes, just get us down there.” “I got you, captain,” Rainbow answered. “Nice and easy. Or… as easy as we can fly through a hurricane. Which isn’t very.” It wasn’t. As they passed into Proximus C’s atmosphere, they were rocked violently back and forth, enough that Twilight immediately felt the motion in her gut. There was no shield like the one on the Equinox, so they were forced to use all the same systems they’d rely on for any in-atmosphere flight. They wobbled and spun, with Rainbow staring straight through the windows with both hooves locked on the controls at all times. “It sees you,” Node’s voice came through the radio, heavily distorted. “And… bypassed. You know, if you had a modern navigational transponder, it would know your destination and not try to grab you. Just a thought.” “We’ll take twenty,” Rarity said. She sounded calm, but she had both hooves wrapped tightly around her straps. She barely even looked at the controls in front of her, and whenever she did what she saw there only seemed to make her feel worse. “We’re approaching the shield…” Rainbow grunted, pointing a wing ahead of them. “Twilight, you better get it to see us, or we’re about to be… dust.” “All we are is dust in the wind,” Node sung unhelpfully. She has Listener songs now? There was no time for Twilight to wonder about what other cultural artifacts she might be able to share, they were rapidly approaching the faint barrier of Canterlot’s shield. It was much smaller than it should’ve been, protecting only the lower ‘critical’ decks while the rest of the city had been left open to the storm. But the docking bay was critical, and so they’d need to get inside. Twilight reached out with her magic, as she’d done hundreds of times before. The shield wasn’t made to keep anything in or out but air, it wasn’t hard. It was exactly the same as before, in fact. Any hope that this might be a replica, or second ship was dashed as she felt the city respond to her. Its shield had a precise touch, one that she’d long learned to recognize. She met it, and the shield responded, enfolding them as they approached like one cell swallowing another. The ship stopped rocking instantly, and she could suddenly hear its exterior engines, as they switched to atmospheric mode. She felt gravity too, a distinct downward pull. Canterlot didn’t have artificial gravity, but it wouldn’t need it here. If anything, the station probably had to work hard to keep Proximus C from crushing them. “Looks busy down there,” Rainbow said, glancing at a little screen beside her showing a lower view. The landing back was positively packed with ships, with barely any room for even the prospector. While in space, thousands more could tether to them through a thin spiderweb of plastic passages—but not here. “Find us a spot,” Twilight muttered. “I don’t care where.” “There’s a space, Darling. Pretend we’re an emergency vehicle and park there.” “Right.” Rainbow put them down roughly, with the engines squealing in protest every moment. It didn’t sound like the prospector would be leaving again anytime soon. When they finally switched off, Twilight heard a distinct gasp of finality from the poor overworked machine. She could practically feel it dying around her. “Canterlot Station,” Rarity said, glancing out the front window. There wasn’t much to see out there—other than the “WELCOME TO CANTERLOT” mural that looked out over the docking bay, with Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks in faded ink. “No air out there,” Rainbow noted, tapping the readout with a hoof. “Get your suits on, ponies.” “We never took them off,” Twilight muttered. “We weren’t sure the seals on the Prospector would hold, remember?” Rainbow shrugged, pushing out of her seat with a few metallic clicks. “You know what I mean.” Twilight rose herself, before deciding on their destination. It was obvious, they should start with… 1. Central Computer. No faster way to learn what happened here. 2. The Bridge. We need the ability to make command decisions. 3. The Shields. Somepony is down there, or this ship wouldn’t still be protected. Let’s just ask them what happened. 4. Housing. Nothing is more precious to Equestria than its ponies.