Meanwhile on the train, Northern was taking count of everypony. He draped his own cape over Firebox's back regardless of the stallion's stubborn protests, and with that, the group of ponies ran out into the rain. The Twilight loomed over them, rain pouring off of its upper decks. The boarding ramp was sliding all over the docks as the ship fought the oceans that held onto it, and the massive cables that kept it tied down were struggling to hold the ship steady. The group of ponies ran onto the boarding ramp, and the hydrophobic coating on it made sure that nobody slipped.
Finally, they walked onto the ship. North gave the command to close the heavy loading doors, and the heavy chunks of metal slowly closed in, sealing off the ship from the storm. They were safe, but only somewhat. The entrance hall for the ship was massive, and it led to a tram station of all things at the other end, though the tram wasn't working. Without any hesitation, Northern began to walk, leading Fluttershy into the ship. "This thing is just as big as I remember" Fluttershy said softly, smiling up at the walls of it. She remembered how proud of it Twilight had been, and she was glad to help it finally come together.
As they began to head for the deeper reaches of the massive ship, Polaris caught up to them. "Jeez, dad, you guys are soaked" He said, before he noticed the glowing mare on his other side. "F...Fluttershy?" He asked, his eyes wide. He hadn't talked to the mare much back when she was alive, but he certainly remembered her. She smiled a bit, saying, "It's quite the long story... Polaris, right?" He nodded, saying, "Well, if you don't mind, I'd love to hear it... is that Silver you're carrying?" He asked. Silver himself looked over, smirking just slightly as he said, "Yep, I wasn't gonna let a bunch of rocks take me out" Polaris couldn't help but grin, saying, "Well I'm glad you're here! Hell, I hope you know exactly how we're meant to power this thing".
"Well, I have an idea of it" Fluttershy softly said. "Is that the place?" She asked, nodding down to the end of the hallway they were in. A set of big doors with "POWER ROOM" were hanging open, and Northern nodded as they approached. "This is it, all right" he said. They walked into the room side by side, Polaris and Northern flanking the robotic mare. She held the key to everypony on the ship making it, after all. She walked up to the hole in the wall, and she peered into it. "This is it, all right" She said quietly. Silver finally slid off of her back, stubbornly standing up on his three legs. He looked at Fluttershy with worry written all over his snout, but he did glance back at the others.
Polaris had walked up to Tinker, and he poked his snout with a hoof. "You okay?" he asked, as the brown dragonpony blinked, slowly sitting up with a pained look. "Oh, I picked a _bad_ place to fall asleep, oww..." He groaned, stretching a little. Silver didn't care about either of them, though. He was staring at the cylinder on the table. Fluttershy gently poked him in the side, saying, "Silver, you've got to take it out, the ship needs it" in a soft voice. He hesitated a little, his mind racing as he managed to connect the last few pieces of a two-century-old puzzle. He looked to Northern, saying, "Hey, gimmie that thing" As he pointed to the table. Northern's magic floated it over to him as Fluttershy laid down, resting her head on her hooves.
Silver couldn't help but smirk, saying, "Well, now I get what she was planning!" "You do?" Polaris asked, sitting down next to North, while Tinker was trying to get out of the chair without hurting his poor back. "Yes, I do" Silver said. He opened the door in Fluttershy's side, and he grabbed onto the core. He met her eyes, they both nodded at each other, and he removed it. The room darkened as the light bled from her body, and Silver held the core with intense care as he lifted it, then shoved it into the socket on the wall.
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Deep underwater, another Earthquake had started. This time, a massive portion of land broke free from the side of an ocean trench, tumbling down into the depths as the ocean above churned and bucked. And the energy that was dumped into the water had only one place to go, outward.
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When the cell was inserted, the ship closed a thick glass plate over it, then the mechanism clamped down onto the cell. And then, it opened itself up to the power held inside. All throughout the ship, magic channels of light began to glow, as the power from the cell began to extend throughout the massive construct. The magic channels matched Fluttershy's colors, sending yellow and pink light throughout the entire ship.
And in the power room, Silver was the only one who tore his eyes away from the machines as they powered up. The not-a-power-core he was holding had begun to glow just like the real one, and he grinned even bigger as he slid it into Fluttershy's body. This time, the door retracted inside of her, since the panel to the side of the battery acted as the door. And the Antennas.
Just like the first time, Fluttershy's body began to glow, lighting up all over again as it booted up.
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Darkness. The moment Silver pulled out the core, Fluttershy was thrown into blackness. She couldn't tell if it lasted a moment or a millenium, but she suddenly began to feel things again as the world came rushing back to her. But the world was weird. She could feel massive, strange structures, instead of the legs and wings of her robitic body. She could see camera after camera, looking into different rooms of the ship, the rain battering the roof, the water underneath it.
She started to panic a little, getting overwhelmed with the amount of new sensations that were pushing against her, demanding her attention. Until she felt something familiar. Familiarity was exactly what she was desperate for among the ocean of computers and systems, so she went rushing towards it.
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Silver jumped a little as Fluttershy's body suddenly gasped, her eyes shooting open as her legs kicked a little. She looked like she was waking up from an awful nightmare, as she carefully sat up and then latched onto Silver, hugging him tightly against her. He had a hard time speaking, but he managed to ask, "W-What happened...?" When she found her words, she said, "Oh, it's... it's awful, it's like being in that machine, but instead of confusing, it's overwhelming..."
"Is she supposed to control the ship?" Polaris whispered to his dad, making Northern's eyes go wide as he also made the same realization. In fact, all three of the stallions at the other end of the room realized what Twilight had done. Instead of giving her ship an AI, Twilight had elected to transfer Fluttershy herself into the power cell she had created, and then place her into the ship she had built, along with a body for her to use. It would have been an incredible breakthrough, had she managed to finish it alive.
She hadn't, but Silver had. Still, it wasn't over yet. When Fluttershy let go of him and stood up, he climbed onto her back once more, since he didn't want to try walking on his hurt leg. "Now what?" He asked, looking over to Polaris. "We uh, we take off?" He said, smiling a bit. Northern spoke up, saying, "If the ship is actually powered right now, then we need to get it into space now."
"I... I don't know how..." Fluttershy said, looking over at them with an anxious expression. "The bridge" Tinker said, having gotten up. Polaris nodded, saying, "Yeah! Maybe she can do it from there?" "Are the trams up now?" Northern asked, walking out of the door and into the hallway outside. "Should be!" Polaris said, and the four ponies left the room, following behind the King. The ship's network of trams was indeed online, and Northern called one to the nearest station. "Thankfully, these things should take us right up to the bridge" He said, and as soon as it showed up, the five ponies climbed onto it.
The bridge, meanwhile, was a bit of a mess. Saphira still couldn't interact with the ship, but she still had some sensors of her own mounted to the outside of it, and she was panicking at what she could sense happening underwater. Not only that, since Polaris left to find North, she was the only one on the bridge. All the UnderWorld royalty had left to help organize their respective populations, so that left Saphira and a few guards that generally looked very concerned.
The trams weren't something to sneeze at- a walk from one end of the ship to the other would probably take hours, but the tram did it in a minute. Once they got to the nearest station, the five ponies headed straight for the Bridge. Fluttershy wasn't talking, but Silver could tell just from the way she walked, she was nervous. Scared, even. After all, she told him flat-out in Sparkle Labs that she was rather timid, so it made sense that she was getting worn out with being the center of attention for so long.
He didn't want to interrupt, so he hugged onto her a little tighter, resting his head against her neck. When they got to the bridge, the first thing she noticed was how big it was. The room was incredibly spacious, with huge windows looking upwards and outwards, and computer screens and chairs all throughout it. Oh, and one very frantic mare that looked a lot like herself. And Indeed, Saphira was actually Twilight's inspiration for the concept of Fluttershy's remotely controlled body. Back in the 2090s, Saphira's first body had died. It was a mare body, but with the brain swapped out with a computer that allowed her to control it, and feel through it. The mare was someone who had succumbed to a nasty concussion, so it allowed a second life for the body that would have otherwise simply gotten buried (or studied).
When it died, Polaris began to look into building a new one, and Twilight actually helped somewhat. Saphira's body was rather different though, since Polaris had been working on it little by little over the years, while Fluttershy's was the finished model of Twilight's design. "Polaris!" She barked as he came in the room. "I still can't talk to this thing! It's just, it's a whole different kind of computer!" she said, looking anguished that she couldn't do anything about their situation. Instead of the blue stallion though, Fluttershy spoke up. "T-That's because I'm the ship now... somehow" She said, walking out into plain view. Saphira took a moment to process the new information, then she swapped right away to a grin as she said "o-of course! Like me, right? You're running on the ship, and your body's accessed wirelessly?"
Fluttershy nodded, and Polaris cut Saphira off before she could talk again, saying, "She's gonna tell us about it all later though" "Oh! Right, okay, Fluttershy, do you see these?" Saphira asked, waving her over to one of the screens. On it, she could see a model of the ship, along with four massive rockets at the bottom and some sort of box at the top, and all of them were highlighted in green. "I don't know how, but these are the rockets you need to activate to get us out of here, before the tsunami hits"
Immediately, both Northern and Polaris said "Tsunami?" Saphira snapped at them, saying, "Yes! You would know, if you hadn't run off!" The two blue ponies began to explain everything to the AI, while Tinker took a rest in one of the chairs, hoping to see the liftoff. Fluttershy was starting to panic again though, and as Silver climbed off of her, she looked at him with fear clear in her eyes. In a hushed tone, Fluttershy said, "S-Silver, I don't know what I'm doing, this thing is huge... I-I can feel all sorts of systems, a-and components, and I don't know how to interact with them or..."
Silver gently cut her off, saying, "Can you uh, try to focus on one of them? Like, if you can figure out which one is the rockets, maybe you could try to use them from there? The mare whined a little, saying, "I-I... maybe? There's so many, I don't..." "Uhhh, guys?" Polaris said, looking at a display, then out the window. The ocean had retreated from the docks, exposing the sand below it. The ship was still afloat in a dug-out channel that was designed specifically for it, but the lack of water wasn't the danger.
It was what it meant. Saphira came over to say something, but Silver waved a hoof at her, saying, "No, go, we'll figure it out" With a frown on his snout. She hesitated, but she relented, heading to the windows with Northern and Polaris. Silver looked back to Fluttershy, who had started to shiver a little. "S-Sil.. I..." she said, followed by another whine as she closed her eyes, trying to focus.
She opened them just in time for Silver to grab onto her, pulling the robotic mare into a kiss.
Just like any normal pony, the sudden kiss blanked out her mind, making her go silent as she wordlessly put her arms around his. And this time, she could focus. Silver felt her begin to return it, and he kept his eyes closed, holding onto her. He didn't know if his plan would help, but at the very least, he could say that he managed to kiss the mare he loved before the ship met its end. Thankfully, he was right. Now that she was focusing, Fluttershy managed to run power to where it needed to go, and the ship began to shudder beneath them.
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In the distance, the SS Celestia had begun to rise into the sky. Its massive rockets shone bright with magic power, and tears ran down Celestia's face as she angrily dumped her power into the ship's main engines to give it enough power to lift off. She had been forced- the cradle the ship rested on had begun to crumble beneath it during the most recent earthquake, and her only choices were to either take off now or doom her ponies inside of it.
She couldn't see it, but the ponies on the bridge did, and her headset buzzed. "Hey! I think they did it! Well, something is making it move higher..."
Then, another voice. "No, you're right, those are the engines! Wait, holy- look at that wave!"
The first voice again. "It's as big as the ship! it's gonna hit it!"
"No, it has time! Look, the engines are firing, you can see em now!"
"Yeah, but it's not going fast enough, the wave's gonna..."
The line went silent for a short time, but before they entered the clouds, before their vision of the Twilight was cut off, one of them exclaimed- "Wait, the Twilight has WINGS!?"
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It took a ton of focus for the poor mare, but Fluttershy had managed to understand at least a little bit of the ship. The rockets were firing with as much power as they could, but they were barely lifting the ship off of the ground. Saphira and the two stallions were starting to panic about the approaching wall of water, but she barely registered them at all. Her focus was on takeoff, and she was ignoring everything else. Well, except for Silver.
As the ship reached a certain altitude, something opened up to Fluttershy. It had to be related to liftoff, so she poured power into it as well as the rockets. And on the top of the ship, two powerful magic generators flickered to life, casting their spells as a massive, purple, glowing set of wings slowly unfurled on either side of the ship. And then, Fluttershy put them to work.
The combination of the main thrusters alongside the massive wings helped the ship gain altitude much faster than it had been, and they were well clear of the Tsunami by the time it crashed into the docks, wiping out every building it came into contact with. As the ship continued to ascend, the wings started to lose effectiveness, thanks to the atmosphere growing thin. However, by the time the ship was that high in the sky, it had already escaped the raging storm clouds, and the thrusters were growing more effective.
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As soon as the ship got high enough in the sky to escape the planet's gravity on its own, Celestia pulled herself free of the magic conduit that had been holding her horn. She swayed for a moment as she regained her balance, but she made it crystal clear that she wanted to get to the bridge immediately.
Commandeering the nearest inner-ship tram, Celestia and the guard she was with headed straight for the bridge, and as soon as she entered the room, the mare who had been talking to her pointed to one of the windows. Running over to it, Celestia couldn't help but smile as she laid eyes on the Twilight, which had actually managed to somewhat catch up to her ship. "She did it..." She said, her eyes misting with tears as she stared at the massive purple ship, and the winds stretched to either side. As she watched, the wings slowly closed, folded up to either side like a pony would do. Then, they slowly disappeared, fading away until they would be needed again.
Celestia watched the ship until it had fully escaped the Atmosphere, and it wasn't until then that she finally listened to the stubborn nurse behind her, who demanded that she rest after launching the ship. She could be annoying, but that's why she was the royal nurse, because Celestia would rather be bossed around by a nurse than get hurt because they were too scared to tell her what to do.
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On the moon, a phone rang. "Oh, hey Luna, what is it?"
"Cady, do you have your telescope pointed at home right now?"
"Oh, yeah, why?"
"Have a look at the Twilight..."
"Where? Oh, wait, they're aiming it... woah"
"Yeah, woah"
"Are those wings?"
"I think so... I suppose they figured it out, huh?"
"Oh, I'm so glad... hopefully Sis is doing okay"
"Yeah, she was worrying herself sick over it, I don't have the heart to tell her but I know she's started to look at that ship as if it were Twilight"
"Well, sure looks like it with the wings, but I know what you mean"
"Oh, are the landing sites for those two ships ready?"
"Yeah, we'll get 'em on the radio once they're close"
"All right, see ya in a bit then Cady"
"See ya Luna!"
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Slowly, Fluttershy and Silver parted. They opened their eyes, taking glances around the room. Thankfully, it seemed all of the others were glued to the windows. In a hushed voice, Silver whispered "I love you", smiling at the robotic mare. She smiled back, saying, "I love you so much..." Still, both of them were excited to see what she had accomplished. Carefully, the two ponies got up, and Silver climbed onto Fluttershy's back once more. As he did, she looked back at him, saying, "When we leave this room, it's straight to medical by the way", and all he got in return for his dramatic pouting was a grin.
The view from the windows was amazing. Far below them, Equestria broiled underneath a thick mat of clouds, but if they looked up, all they could see were Luna's stars. Saphira was the first to realize they were at the window, and she grinned over to the pair as she said, "Y-You did it, Fluttershy..." Both Polaris and Northern looked over, smiling about as much as Saphira was. "Landing on the moon is probably going to be a lot easier than it was taking off..." Polaris said, giving her an encouraging smile. His dad nodded, saying, "And while we're there, you can figure out the rest of the ship at your own pace before we all go"
Silver decided to look to the other end of the room, since he thought there had been somepony else in the room. Tinker was still there, but he was just sitting at the other end of the room, staring up at the stars through the glass ceiling of the bridge, his tail curled around him. He didn't say anything, but Silver agreed with him anyway, as he turned his own eyes to the windows.
Outer space was beautiful.