//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 (Rewritten) 
// Story: Just Like Magic of Old 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

By the time she hit the bridge the following morning, Short Flight was feeling lucky.  Her body still stung a little, but it didn’t mind pressure once again- and that was all of the strange pain still in effect.
“Short Flight to Orbital Control.”
And of course, Control responded immediately.  “Short Flight, proceed.”
As she spoke, she went through the motions of unlocking her engine controls…  and signalling her intentions to other vessels in her area.  “Can I get a reentry clearance to the main landing pad?”
“Ahh…  From standard Fleet orbit two, is that?”
She glanced at the sidebar on her navigation display to double-check.  “Yeah.”
“Roger.  Hmm…  Reentry burn strength?”
A check on the engine displays this time.  “One point two three.”  She didn’t particularly want to turn her ship around to use the main engines for the reentry burn; the maneuvering thrusters would be more than enough for that.
“Alright then.  Reentry burn is eight-three in two-six seconds, mark.”
“Burn eight-three retrograde in two-three seconds, mark,” she read back.
“Readback is correct.”





Reentry and landing went smoothly.  It rather helped that her computer knew perfectly well how to fly in-atmosphere on its own; she even switched it into hover mode for a VTOL landing.  All the airbreathing engines on it were electric, so it didn’t even burn any of her fuel!
She took a deep breath, and pushed the button to activate the program she’d set before she left the bridge.  Her entire ship immediately went into full systems lockdown, all three reactors effectively shutting down.  The inner airlock door closed and sealed behind her, before the outer airlock door opened in front of her.  It would require her ID to release that lock, or to open anything other than this one exterior door.
She stepped out onto the boarding ramp that also extended at the same time, and took another deep breath.  This was her first time breathing planetary air in about six months, and she planned to enjoy it.
Those plans broke apart in mere moments, though, when her deep breath- intended to savor the fresh air- ended abruptly in a hacking cough.  She’d forgotten about pollution.
“Ugh,” she groaned, coming back up from it, and looking towards the control tower…  and the Guards galloping across the pad to meet her.  She really wished she didn’t need those to keep her safe on the surface.  She trotted down the ramp to meet them at the bottom, the airlock door closing tight behind her.
“Princess, Ma’am!” the Guards greeted her, saluting in perfect sync.
She bowed her head.  “Thank you.  I’m just headed to the control tower, and plan to be headed for space again by tonight.”  She knew they didn’t like having to guard her either; there was almost always someone trying to do her in, and they keep expecting her to act like the filly she is.
“Understood, Princess!”  They saluted again, before falling into formation behind her as she headed for the tower at a brisk trot.  She was wearing her Hands, even though she hadn’t used them yet that day.  It was just so much easier to use the strange new Hands-like effect on her hooves- but she didn’t particularly want to tell the world about it yet, though, so she’d actually use her Hands in public.





The receptionist and other office staff on the ground floor greeted her cordially, but when she ascended to the Control Deck, her good mood went right out the window.
There was that couple she’d anticipated coaching today…  making out in front of their beeping comms panels.
She heaved a sigh, and trotted over to an empty panel next to the third controller on duty today.  It was a normal slow day, so three should have been enough…  assuming those two actually did their jobs.
She tapped the panel, waking it directly into admin mode, thanks to the ID chip embedded in her leg, and quickly popped open the time logs.  “How long have they been at it?” she asked the startled controller, gesturing towards the two.
The mare- who, unlike those two, had come in on time today- jumped, almost as if struck, and glanced at them.  “Um…  An hour, I think…?”
She glanced at the logs again.  “Well, they showed up about an hour ago.”  Which would have been about half an hour late.  She heaved a sigh, and abandoned the panel; it locked itself again as soon as she turned away.  She stepped a little closer to them, in the middle of the room.  “You two!” she barked.
They paused to look at her, then resumed, ignoring her.
“You two!” she repeated.
They hardly twitched, and continued ignoring her.
She tried calling them by name.  “Bright Sunlight!  Broad Daylight!”
They glanced briefly at her, before giving her the silent treatment again.
She looked wonderingly towards the dark-furred stallion in the room, who she rather suspected was Shooting Star- he was also on duty today.  Unlike them, she’d never had an opportunity to meet him before now.  “How thick can they get?” she muttered.
He shrugged nervously back at her.
She looked back at them, shaking her head.  “Sergeant!  Slap them!”
The senior of the two guards trotted over from the door and, balancing briefly on his rear hooves, slapped both of them at once, before coming back down to all four hooves.  “Your Princess wants your attention,” he informed them sternly, when they whirled back to face him, before drawing back to take his station behind Short Flight.
They snorted at her.  “And what’s she going to do?”
She closed her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath, and let it out, eyes open.  She could almost feel the Sergeant inflating with rage.
She opened her mouth first.  “You’re fired,” she informed them.  “Now, get out of my tower.”
They snorted indignantly at her.  “You can’t do that.”
She put out a hoof to stop the Sergeant.  Then she walked calmly right up to them…  and rose up to slap them both across the muzzle with her Hands, rather than hooves.  Both Hands drew blood- and both earth ponies were thrown to the ground by the blow.  Funny, she had never been that strong… and she should have been thrown as well, but she hardly felt it.  She rather hoped she hadn’t damaged her Hands too badly.  “I’m the Princess,” she yelled.  “I can do whatever I bucking want to!  Now, GET OUT!”  Her last two words echoed through the room, as if she’d bellowed them into a megaphone.
Both of them scrambled to their hooves and fled in the direction of the door.  She watched them go- and crash into the door.  She then snorted derisively while they tried to push the door open; they seemed to have forgotten it was a pull door.  Finally, they pulled the door open and scrambled through it.
She waited until the door landed closed again, before taking a deep breath and smiling around at everypony left in the room.  “Sorry, I didn’t realize I could yell that loud.  Carry on.”  She trotted to the nearest unoccupied control panel, being one of the ones that had just been vacated; they’d automatically logged out when they fled.  She officially fired the two, resulting in a very sudden increase in comms activity for the one remaining controller, and started running down the list of off-duty dayshift controllers.
She had a lot of dayshift controllers; she needed a lot for a busy day.  Fortunately, those were pretty easy to find.  Finding one that was willing to come in on their day off, however…  She sighed, and hit the speed-dial for the first one.  Her Hands were still functioning, fortunately- but they were noticeably bent.  She didn’t miss when the stallion, completely without prompting, switched his panel to Backup Mode and started accepting regular traffic control calls in the gaps between his Emergency Engineer duties.  She glanced at the sidebar on her admin screen- yep, that was Shooting Star.  Something else to commend him on that night.
Eventually, she found one pony, and one pony only, that was willing to come in to help on his day off.  He’d demanded that he be paid for it; she’d immediately reminded him that he was full time and paid by the hour, so he’d automatically get paid time and a half for it.  He’d been humbled by the reminder, and possibly her irritated tone, and hadn’t pressed for more.  She let out a sigh, and looked out across the room.  The Sergeant had returned to his place next to the door.  “I really am sorry about that,” she muttered, as both engineer and controller worked frantically to keep up.  “Controller High Trajectory should be here to help in about fifteen minutes.”
Then she turned back to her panel, and started calling evening shift controllers to see if there was one willing to come in early.  She had even more evening shift controllers than dayshift, even though they were harder to find; she needed more during the evening shift, on average.  Not one of the ones scheduled for today wanted to come in early.  By the time she switched to calling the ones not scheduled for today, to see if they wanted to come in for a dayshift today, High Trajectory had already arrived- and as a result, the frantic rush had abated.
She eventually found somepony, and breathed a sigh as she finally turned away from the panel.  It was about half past one- giving her a mere half an hour to prepare for Night Skies’ interview.  She’d anticipated having a few hours to prep herself, to go in with a positive attitude.  She made her way out of the room, trotting out to the breakroom, where she got a hot chocolate from the machine and tried to relax.
Break time ended way too soon, though.  It still felt like she’d only just arrived when her earpiece chirped to indicate the desk receptionist was calling her.
She heaved a sigh, reaching up to tap it with a hoof.  She didn’t trust her damaged Hand not to accidentally spear her ear right then.  “Short Flight,” she greeted.
“Uh, Hi,” her receptionist responded.  For some reason, the mare always got really flustered anytime she talked to her, but was simultaneously really good with anypony else.  “Night Skies is here for an interview.”
She glanced up at the clock, and suppressed a chuckle.  The filly was five minutes early- which she was not surprised by, given how much assistance she’d obviously gotten from Pony State’s career services.  “Alright.  Gimme a couple minutes, then send her in.”
As soon as her receptionist disconnected, she chugged the remainder of her drink, discarded the styrofoam cup, and trotted out towards her office, where the interview would be taking place.  On her way, she glanced out the window in the door to the lobby, but she didn’t notice anypony new; they must have been waiting on one of the benches not visible from there.
Finally, once she got into her office, she activated her control panels, logging in instantly once again, and sent a note to the receptionist that she’s ready, before taking a deep breath.  “Come on.  You can do this.  Be happy.”
She was still performing breathing exercises when a soft knock sounded against her door.  She looked up, releasing her most recent deep breath.  “Come in.”
The receptionist then opened the door.  “P-Princess Short Flight,” she greeted, before gesturing somepony into view.  “Night Skies.”
Short Flight very nearly blinked.  Even before the filly finished entering her office, looking very much like she expected to be told to go back where she came from, she knew she was almost certainly going to hire her.
Night Skies…  was a thestral.  Less than one in a thousand ponies are born thestrals, and the ancient legends put them up to having the same abilities as regular pegasi.  They’d often been ridiculed and discriminated against for their leathery wings.  But there was one piece of their ancient history that they had held onto, against all odds:  They were, by nature, nocturnal.  That normally made it even harder for them to find employment, as they tended to have difficulty staying awake through a normal day or evening shift.
But that was a feather in her cap here, where she was being hired for the night shift.  Besides, Short Flight never believed in discrimination of any sort, even if her father believed that thestrals were perfectly okay to be discriminated against.
Stinking Unicorn supremacist.