//------------------------------// // To Southern Equestria, Finale // Story: A new chapter // by Ponelover //------------------------------// Twilight stared at me, her face not very happy as she shifted her gaze, firstly towards me, and then towards the newspaper she’s holding by her horn. I may not be a reader of the Ponyville Times, but considering her reaction, I can easily guess what the headlines are. “So I'm assuming that we’re talking about the near disaster?” “... yeah? Just what happened there Daring? Alright, credit where credit’s due, you averted what could be a disaster, sinking potentially millions of bits into the drain, but how in the world did you not detect this whole disaster in advance?!?” “Twilight, i’m not a know-it-all okay? I literally just arrived mere days before the rocket testing was about to go off, what do you expect me to do?” The Princess let out a groan of physical frustration as I responded with that, she knows i’m right, but I can sense that there is a frustration building up within her that I must address. Yes, this is a disaster, and Twilight is rightfully confused, angry, and most of all, maddeningly curious. How in the world did someone manage to infiltrate a Rocket Site, install that spell, and have that spell avoid detection for so long? It is something that warrants further investigation, which is why both of us are standing within a nondescript looking room, in a location that I cannot fully disclose. Okay, it’s the Friendship Castle, in case you’re curious. “Alright Daring, now uhh. How do I even tackle this? Buck, can you maybe start at the beginning?” I turned towards the seemingly blank glass, knowing who is behind all that, and I sighed. “Is Sunset the one who encouraged you to ask those questions?” “Well… I can’t tell you that, but that’s still a good question, right?” I bit my own tongue at Twilight’s reply. The fact that it makes perfect sense makes it even more frustrating for me. “Alright, perhaps we can begin at where Silverstream started getting close to Poindexter, let me tell ya, if that Pink Hippogriff sets her sights onto something, she will get what she wants, no matter what the cost.” The first time we bumped into Silverstream was when we were finally making progress. Poindexter decided to choose the Rocket Assembly building for our little excursion, and, with a little bit of worker privileges, we managed to get in. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence or fate that we bumped into Silverstream while we’re there, but it made the investigation a lil bit more complicated. “Poindexter? What are you doing here?” She asked, clearly curious as to why a Life Support Scientist was somehow within the Rocket Assembly Building. “And who’s that pony besides you?” The White Pony was almost startled when she saw the Pink Hippogriff. She was supposed to be investigating the matter with me personally. Poindexter was not sure about her suddenly entering into the fray. “Heeeeyyy Silverstream. What’s it hangin?” She responded awkwardly, the intonations of her voice clearly indicating nervousness and just a little bit of fear. “This is my friend, uhhh, Compass… Point?” Good one Pointy. “Yes, Compass Point. Nice to meet you.” I greeted Silverstream. “As you can see, I am here with Poindexter because we’re following up on your request to her.” “Oh, really? Wow, didn’t expect that you’re following up on my request. Wait, who… who are you? You do seem similar to some novel I just read…” Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag. I approached her and flashed my ID, a move that was followed by an imminent explosion of emotions from the Pink Hippogriff, an impending explosion that I put down immediately. “No, not right now. Please.” I begged her. “I don’t need everyone to know that I’m Daring. Not when I’m so close to wrapping the whole thing up!” Oh dear, it could turn out that this Silverstream girl could just explode any minute now. Her face and various small movements in her body indicate that she’s a fan of my works. In the least opportune time at that. Sometimes I wonder if I just have the most rotten of luck. Luckily, she calmed down. And after some polite attempts by myself to make sure she wouldn’t tell anyone of what we’re doing here, she, mercifully, went away. Quite an energetic woman, a diametric opposite of Poindexter for sure. I wonder how in the world she got this job. Seems like the last Hippogriff on this planet that could get the job that she did, based on what Poindexter told me anyway. “Hey Pointy.” I called her, now formally searching the room for any potential interference. “How did you get to work for her?” “What? Why do you ask?” “I’m just wondering. She seems like the complete opposite of you. You’re calculating and calm, and she’s… well, I don’t want to be mean to her. But she’s not that.” “Sometimes I wonder about that same thing myself, Daring. And to be honest, I have no good answers. I wanna say that it’s just bad luck that I was assigned to someone who’s the opposite of me. But honestly, I don’t know, I really don’t.” “Interesting.” I responded. Looking intently at one particular rocket. “So you hate Silverstream?” “Hate’s a… pretty strong word, so no, I don’t hate her per se. I can hang out with her sometimes, and we can connect on some stuff. I find it pleasing that both of us are technically proficient in what we do, but it’s just… ugh, it’s just her personality that irks me. She has way way way too much energy for me to handle.” “I can understand that. But… maybe, I don’t think you’re giving her much a chance to begin with.” I then stumbled into something rather interesting on this particular rocket, it’s super faint, but I can definitely sense someone has etched something into this thing, might need some time to figure out what it is though. Call this my intuition or SMILE training, but I feel like something feels wrong here. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean, you don’t like Silverstream right? But is it caused by her intensity, or did you feel some instant repulsion of her when you first met her? Despite not knowing who she is or what she’s working on?” There wasn’t much of a response from her. “The second one, not sure why I felt like that though.” “Ah, you remind me of myself during a certain adventure with a friend of mine. She was also the opposite of me, athletic, for sure, but much more brash, clumsy, and not as methodical in her wit or her charm, nor was her personality compatible with mine. But, I gave her a chance, and she turned out to be the most loyal friend a pony could ask for.” “Maybe your assumptions of Silverstream are poisoning your relationship from the start. So perhaps… maybe give her a chance?” I finished, still trying to figure out heads or tails on the etching. There wasn’t much of a response, but I did hear hoofsteps coming closer and closer to my location. “Hmm. I’m not sure, but I think… I think you might be right Daring, I have always avoided her, never giving her a chance. And, yeah yeah yeah. No, you’re right. Gosh, how will I make it up to her.” “Hey, we can talk about that later. Pointy, do you know what this etching means?” The white unicorn took a slight glance at it, and predictably nodded. “Well, that’s weird. Never seen a rune ordered in that way before. Can you scoot over? That is definitely not a standard rune that we use.” She was busy analyzing the contents of the rune when all of a sudden, I heard the door opening up. That garnered my attention, what garnered my attention even more though, was their topic of conversation. “Hey, so we’re testing that new rocket over there tomorrow right?” “Oh yeah, the tourists are going to be flocking the beaches and wherever they can find space for their cameras. I’m sure it’s going to be pretty awesome, the damn thing’s practically our latest project in terms of showcasing our engineering chops. Heard that a Princess is planning on seeing the launch of the rocket.” “What? You’re joking!” “Ummm I don’t know Rocket Boom, Princesses can show up anywhere, if my encounter with Twilight is anything to go by.” And what would you know, both ponies are headed our way. “Umm, Poindexter, have you finished with doing your analysis thing yet?” I whispered. “In case you don’t know…” “Yes yes I know, just give me a second.” She whispered back. The sound of her activated horn being ever present. “Hey, Boom. Do you hear that?” “What’s up?” “It sounds like… a unicorn’s horn. Near the test rocket.” Crap. “Yep. I’m done.” Poindexter curtly responded. “Got any ideas on how to get out of this?” “Do you know an invisibility spell?” I rapidly asked. Those hoofsteps are getting closer and closer. “I know something better.” She replied, and her horn lighted up. For a moment, I was in a void, senses all turned off, seeing nothing, hearing nothing. And then, a rapid rush of your senses as you quickly adjust yourselves to your new surroundings. Did we just teleport? “Ah, back in the train station, just as I’d planned.” Poindexter smiled. Yep, definitely teleportation, and if my experiences with Twilight taught me anything... “Pointy, you know how loud teleportations are right?” I asked, a question Poindexter replied with only a sly smile. “That’s the difference. Did you hear anything?” She pointed out, her smile widening, much to my casternation, which then turned into fascination. She’s right, whenever I teleported with Twilight, there’s always a loud bang, which then followed by our arrival. I didn’t hear as much as a pop from Poindexter. “Silent teleportation spell. I learned it from my mom. She was a former soldier during the war, and had to improvise such a spell when she was caught behind enemy lines.” I can only offer blinking eyes as a response. “I never thought that such a spell was possible, pretty creative of you to think of that on the spot.” “Yeah, now uhh, what do we do? I think I know what that etching is, but it doesn’t make much sense as to why someone would put it there.” I tapped my hooves for a moment, “Why don’t we discuss it further in your house? Silverstream said to take your time right?” Well, I think it’s safe to say that we have progressed to new levels of bafflement.. We arrived at Poindexter's house, and she calmly explained how that rune works. It’s a simple rune, a bit too simple for my liking really. It essentially changes the gravity of a rocket, changing it’s trajectory mid flight. This would’ve been a significant cause of concern. But there’s one thing that she mentioned that put my mind at ease, the fact that there are other runes active on the rocket that would help guide it into the desired trajectory, a failsafe if you will. We have been trying to make sense out of the whole plan, with both of us theorizing into the night, and even after some sleep (Pointy was generous enough to let me borrow the couch), we still have a hard time deciphering what the intent of the rune placer is. But then, in the early morning, as we tried our best to understand what was going on, a visit from Silverstream changed everything. “Honestly, I think we should just let the rocket launch happen and then we’ll figure out what that damned rune is there for.” Poindexter argued, much to my disagreement. “Pointy, the last thing we want is to have a ballistic missile barreling down on the nearby city. If anything, the rune could be pointing that whole thing to land in a city.” “But I told you Daring. We have other spells at work within that rocket to prevent such a thing. You know I couldn’t just waltz into the director’s office and tell him to cancel a rocket launch because of some flimsy excuse like that. It wouldn’t work!” “And now we are ETA 2 minutes from the test launch of the new rocket model, the Luna 3 Rocket.” The radio interrupted. “It’s going to be a great day for Equestrian spaceflight should everything go well.” I cringed at the announcement, as much as I am concerned, Pointy is right. This is an important rocket launch, and we couldn’t stop it lest some divine intervention occur. Then there was a knock on the door . “it’s open.” Poindexter replied, and the door then swung to reveal Silverstream. Kinda groggy, but nonetheless fully awake and carrying a bunch of paperwork. “Heyyy there Pointy, Daring.” She greeted, sauntering herself into the living room where we were discussing things. “I don’t know if this will help your investigation or whatever, but I’ve got some paperwork for you to think about. Wow, never thought that my simple request would turn out to be such a big deal huh?” “Yeah, yeah it is. But honestly, I don’t know at this point. The rocket’s about to launch, and I’m not sure if our intervention is going to do anything.” “Oh, you’re investigating the rocket? Sweet! Oh, and by the way, I just got a phone call from the director. Today’s going to be a ‘no magic’ launch day. So they’re going to test the rocket without any spells or runes on. Don’t want our spells to fail when we were in space, so we’re testing them without any spells today!” A palpable silence falls into the room. A silence only betrayed by Silverstream’s unknowing smile. “Silverstream.” I calmly responded. “You said, no runes or spells?” “Yep! What? What’s wrong?” “Yesterday, when we were investigating the rocket. I noticed a gravity changing rune etched on the side of the rocket, it barely emitted any magical signature at all and it required a ton of magic to fully analyze the damn thing. If what you’re saying is true, then…” Everything seemingly clicked for all of us. “Wait! WHAT?!? There’s a rune in the Rocket?!?!?” The Pink Hippogriff screamed. “Wowowowow, that’s DANGEROUS! What happens if it hits the city?!?” I don’t want to think about that. The consequences of that happening is… immense. Maybe a bit too immense. “Hey, Silverstream, you have a car?” I asked. “Yeah, I’ll try to drive as fast as possible. C’mon, get in!” I’m not gonna lie. The rooftop of the hotel had a really good view. Sonata and Starlight were over there, talking with each other, while myself and Tempest were a bit occupied with baking ourselves in the southern sun. The rocket’s about to launch, and it seems like Silverstream’s going to ‘join’ us when this is over. This seems to be a little bit too easy, and a part of me says that something very wrong is about to happen. I just can’t figure out what it is. “Hey there. Umm, do you mind if I put my chair over here?” I heard someone say. “Um, yeah, sure. No problem.” I responded. 30 Seconds to launch. “Ah. This should be good, Tempest. Watching the rocket launch while we lay back and relax here. Never imagined this to be part of your mission right?” “It is… unusual, I’ll give you that. But I don’t hate it.” She responded. “Now hush, I want to sunbathe and enjoy the rocket launch.” “Heh, me too Tempest, me too.” “3. 2. 1. And we have liftoff!!” The radio next to us announced. Much to the cheering and amazement of the other ponies in the crowd. Alright, once this is over, let’s get to Silverstream’s house and- Wait. What’s that? “Tempest. Look.” I said, throwing off my sunglasses and looking at a bright red light on the side of the rocket, a bright red light that, not sure if it’s correlated, but it’s turning the rocket into our direction. “Uhh… Oh crap. Tempest? Starlight?” I said, turning my heads into the group. My face quickly turning pale as I saw the ever increasing pandemonium. “We have to shoot that thing down, NOW!” A burst of electrical energy came out of nowhere, hitting the rocket, and it didn’t even change the trajectory of the damn thing. “Buck! That’s my best shot!” I heard Tempest scream. “Sunset, if you have an idea, I’m very much open to it.” “Starlight, Tempest, you know the spell you use to hold things right?” “Yeah, but… oh, I get it. I’m not sure if we can do it on something that big and that fast though.” Starlight commented. Her eyes eyeing both the chaos and the incoming rocket. “Well. It’s the only idea that I can come up with, and it’s worth a shot.” I responded. Activating my horn and trying my best to ‘grab’ the rocket. A red aura surrounded the rocket’s tip, but I can barely budge the damn thing. Starlight then assisted me, her cyan glow accompanying mine, and Tempest’s similarly coloured light blue glow came as well. C’mon… C’mon!!! Move that damn thing to the OCEAN!!! And… thank goodness, I’m seeing movement, the rocket’s budging, and yet I don’t think it’s enough. It’s going to hit the city’s outskirts at this point! Oh gosh, if something doesn’t improve soon, then I don’t wanna know the consequences of this. Please for Celestia’s sake. BUDGE!!! “Let me help you.” “What?” A golden glow then filled the entire rocket. Complementing all the magical aura colours as finally, thank goodness finally, the rocket started moving towards the ocean. It splashed just off of the beach, creating a huge explosion as a mini tidal wave made everypony in that beach a bit wetter than usual. But when it’s all finished, a disaster was narrowly averted. I sighed, we all did, as a disaster that could’ve cost thousands of lives ended in some ponies having to dry off a little bit. But wait. Who’s the Unicorn with the golden aura? “Whew. Thank goodness. I thought I was a goner.” I turned my head and saw the hooded figure taking off her cloak. And dropping the whole thing entirely. “That is a really ingenious plan. I guess some props to you are in order.” Wait, pink coat, colourful hair, and wings? “Are… are you Princess Cadence? You looked a lot different than I thought.” “Oh, no. I’m Flurry Heart. Daughter of Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”