Everything was in order, all that was left to do was simply build a platform to receive the Titanite, and then it would be sent down.
I couldn't just use a resource receiver though, as there was no way it could catch a chunk of Titanite from orbit. The destructive power of something like that hitting the ground... could actually be pretty useful.
There may be some merit to using the satellite to attack things, though orbital strikes are heavily frowned upon by almost all prospectors. Still, if it really came down to it, I could always just send a Titanite chunk down onto anything I wanted.
Back to the receiver though, it's design was simple enough. A large platform to hold the mechanism and an array of 'catching' fields that would slow the chunk down until it stopped. It even communicated with the satellite so that it was even more accurate. It was also wide enough to account for deviations in the Titanite's trajectory too, but not all of them.
It had to be super accurate, or else a chunk of Titanite traveling faster than terminal velocity would impact the area around it, not a good thing. All I had to do now was actually build it.
Before I was able to even begin clearing a space for it, a blue indicator appeared on my radar, it's shape told me it was Twilight, and she was walking pretty fast.
A moment later, she nearly galloped out of the trees, quickly dashing towards my tech as soon as she spotted it.
"Tecka! Tecka! Princess Celestia has requested an audience with you!" She shouted from across the clearing.
Turning to 'face' her, I waited until she made it within a good speaking distance of my tech.
"Oh? When is this meeting? Do you know what it might be about?" I asked, genuinely curious,
Twilight paused to catch her breath, then spoke up again.
"I don't know, but it's effective immediately, the transport is already on it's way!" She exclaimed.
That was strange, could my recent escapades have caused that much of a disturbance? I mean, flying a rocket is certainly eye-catching, but I don't think I did anything wrong. I would've expected a meeting in time, but one that was happening right now made me a bit nervous.
"How long until the transport gets here?" I asked
"Probably ten minutes or so. You must be really lucky to get an audience so fast." Twilight commented.
"Right," was all I said, "There is something I have to do real quick,"
I drove back down into the ravine, gathering specific resources. This meeting was out of the blue, and was really suspicious, I had no reason to distrust the Princesses, but then again, I've been burned for misplacing it before. I wanted a security measure.
I looked through all the weapons I had available, which was pretty much all of them, to an extent. I had to find something non-lethal in case things went South during this meeting. Of course, I wouldn't just be barging in guns blazing, but having a backup plan really helps.
The only thing that was close to non-lethal was the sonic lance, which would probably be the most effective against organic beings anyway. I would definitely tone it down though, I would not be using this to kill or maim.
After about five minutes, I had successfully hidden the large weapon within the bowels of my tech. With just the simple movement of one block, it would uncover it, allowing it to fire. I also made sure to recharge my batteries, just in case.
Driving back out, Twilight was pacing back and forth on top of the ravine, looking a bit frantic.
"There you are! We have to go now! I just saw the transport fly overhead!" she shouted down.
I reluctantly began picking up speed, and began driving to the forest's edge where I was picked up last time. Twilight followed behind as well, but was quickly outpaced by my tech. Sighing internally, I stopped and let Twilight get on, before speeding off once more.
Upon making it to the forest edge, I could see the team of Pegasi that were supposed to be airlifting me, along with a squad of guards. There was no chariot for Twilight though.
Speaking of Twilight, she looked rather frazzled from the quick trip in the forest, with several twigs and leaves in her hair. She hopped down and trotted up to the guards.
"Excuse me, is there a chariot for me to ride in?" she asked.
"The individual known as 'Tecka' is the only one being transported today, please keep your distance ma'am" The guard stated clearly.
Twilight looked shocked, but didn't press the issue, she just mumbled a bit and backed off.
I simply just drove onto the platform, and was quickly secured, with probably more ropes than necessary. All of this was making me uneasy. No Twilight, a squad of guards, and an emergency meeting with the Princess. This was all leading to something bad happening. We soon took off.
Only the sound of wings permeated the air during the trip, and after an hour or so of flying, Canterlot came into view. It was a pretty cloudy day, with a grey sky that darkened the whole area, it wasn't raining, but it looked like it could start at any moment.
The platform landed at the dock, this time, there were no bystanders, it was completely empty. After being unstrapped, another squad of guards came to help escort me to the castle once again. The stark white of the castle almost blending in with the light grey clouds behind it.
There were no other ponies outside besides the guards, even the castle entrance was empty. I was led down the same path I took last time, everything was much more quite however, no conversations of ponies nearby, no ambience of nature, nothing. Something was definitely going on, and not just the weather either.
The large doors of the throne room loomed before me, and a large amount of guards were stationed around it. The two squads escorting me nodded to the ones at the door, and it began to open.
The large room looked the exact same as it did before, but this time there was no beams of light shining through the windows. If it got any darker, they would probably have to start using artificial lighting.
Princess Celestia and Luna stood at the throne, not sitting on it. Celestia was expressionless, while Luna looked a bit confused.
"Hello Tecka, we have some questions for you, you would do best by answering truthfully." Celestia said coldly, skipping introductions.
"Very well then, I'll do my best to answer," I said, not liking where this was going.
"First, have you lied to us about anything?" Celestia asked, her gaze solely on my tech
"No," I answered.
"Do you have anything to do with the flying light seen last night?"
"Yes," I said, of course they saw the rocket, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be so flashy.
"What was its purpose?" Celestia demanded
"It was a form of transport" I admitted
"Was?" Celestia asked,
"It was a one way trip," I explained
"What was it transporting?"
"Mining equipment,"
Luna fidgeted a bit, but kept silent.
"Where was this equipment going?"
I hesitated a bit, before answering
"To the moon"
Luna shifted a bit more, and looked a bit upset. She kept silent though. Celestia's gaze hardened.
"So you intended to steal from my sister and me?" she more stated rather than asked.
"Not intentionally, I assumed the moon was unowned."
This time Luna did speak up.
"UNOWNED! I am the PRINCESS OF THE MOON! What gives you the right to take what's mine?" She shouted
"Do you have proof of ownership?" I asked, intentionally sounding a bit smug
Luna stomped her hoof, earning her a glare from Celestia, though she didn't back down.
"I move it through the sky! My connection to the moon is mine and mine alone, it gives me the right to use it how I please!"
"Do you have the deed?" I asked
Luna looked mad.
"I do not need a deed for the moon!"
Celestia quickly interrupted, probably to stop Luna from going too far.
"That is beside the point, Tecka. We didn't call you here to argue about mining on the moon. There are still some things we need to know." She said, defusing the situation, Luna still looked a bit mad.
"What do you need to know?" I asked
"How did you travel to the moon? The record for highest flying is not even close to that height." Celestia said
"I cannot tell you, the Federation forbids distribution of technological advancements, I'm sorry." I explained
Celestia looked a bit miffed, but kept her cool.
"Can you tell me about this Federation?" She asked,
"The Federation is a government formed from several species, in the past it used the unique developments from each of the species to conquer a large amount of land. Now however, large corporations hold more power than the government, they used their immense profits to take control of the Federation, and now everything costs money," I deadpanned,
Celestia took in that information slowly, going over everything I just said, she asked another question.
"What is your role in the Federation?"
"I am a prospector, I scout out new lands to find resources to send back to the Federation and allow it to grow, it makes me quite a lot of money." I explained
Celestia thought for a bit.
"You are a very good liar Tecka," She stated.
"Excuse me?" I said, baffled.
"You say this 'Federation' is very large and expanding, yet in all my time I have never heard of anything like that on this world. You were able to say those things without pause or flaw, it is impossible to know if you are speaking the truth unless we know all of the facts." Celestia explained, a bit smug.
"You think I'm lying? I may not be giving the full truth, but I am not lying." I said coolly.
"Then why have I not heard of this 'Federation' before? Explain to me that you are not lying." Celestia demanded.
"You want the truth? Then I'll give you the truth. You haven't heard of the Federation because it doesn't exist on this planet. It's full name is the 'Galactic Federation', and it spans multiple star systems. I prospect new planets, and right now, I'm trying to save this one." I explained.
Celestia's gaze hardened,
"You are not from this world?" She asked coldly, ignoring the rest of my explanation.
"No I am not," I said.
The whole room suddenly got darker, as if the sun had moved out of the way. Celestia's horned glowed as she took a step down the throne.
"You are not the first off-worlder to come here," she spat,
"Sister, what do you mean by that?" Luna asked,
She was ignored as Celestia took another step, her horn glowing brighter as my entire tech was lifted off the ground.
"Your kind bring nothing but misery and destruction, I should have never allowed you to roam free." She said,
"Sister?" Luna tried again
The grip I was in began to constrict, and my entire tech started to get crushed under the immense power of Celestia. The repair bubble did it's job however, and managed to keep the tech together. It wouldn't last forever though, once the battery ran out, I would be crushed.
Ever so slowly, I carefully removed the block covering the sonic lance, and immediately fired.
A visible shockwave of sound emitted from the front of my tech, knocking both Celestia and Luna back. Several stained glass windows shattered. With her concentration broken, my tech dropped back onto the floor, and I tried to speed off.
Celestia recovered quickly though, and this time shot a few blasts towards my tech. Some missed, but those that hit completely destroyed the blocks they hit, not even giving the repair bubble time to repair. I had to escape.
Seeing no other option, I drove towards one of the stained glass windows, quickly reorienting the sonic lance, I turned it into a makeshift booster.
Firing it once more had my tech launching into the air, and then sailing through the stained glass window. There was a long drop below me, as I apparently picked one of the windows that overlooked a garden. It was at this point where the batteries ran out, and my repair bubble shut down.
Once again, my tech fell down several stories. Thankfully, a large piece of hedge cushioned my fall a bit, preventing anything from being outright destroyed.
Moving all the wheels a fast as I could, I slowly inched my way off of the hedge, and then sped off into the maze, nearly hitting a strange statue.
It was at this point that hundreds of guards appeared from the castle, the Pegasi taking flight in an attempt to catch up to my tech. I had to find a way out of this castle and soon.
The maze proved to be more advantageous for me than the ponies, as the ground restricted ones were forced to follow the walls, while I could just drive right through them. My radar certainly helped, it allowed me to dodge larger groups heading my direction, but I knew I couldn't keep this up.
Driving back towards the main gate, I crashed through the outer maze wall and was now out in the open courtyard. The gate was visible from my location, but it looked like the ponies were prepared for that, as they began to close the gate.
I drove as fast as I could towards the gate, and a small hail of arrows and energy bolts struck the ground around me. Whether they meant to damage or delay me I couldn't tell. The doors continued to close, and it was getting to the point where I was actually unsure if I'd make it.
Then I stopped, a yellow glow surrounding my tech and once more lifting it off the ground, the wheels spinning uselessly below.
Looking around, I could see Celestia standing there, she looked really mad, and I could see a small amount of blood coming from one ear. I reoriented the sonic lance once more, but wasn't able to fire as a bolt of energy knocked it off, destroying it.
Celestia brought me closer to her, and looked right at the center of my tech, thankfully my cabin wasn't visible.
"DO NOT THINK YOU COULD ESCAPE SO EASILY." She spoke, a bit loud, probably from the burst ear drum I gave her. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR KIND TO CONTINUE HERE."
This tech was as good as gone, there was no hope of getting out now. Oh well, time to think of an awesome one-liner before Celestia 'killed' me.
"You cannot k...crzzzztt!" The speaker was cut short as it was crushed, along with the rest of my tech.
Switching control back to the plane, I was a bit disappointed at being interrupted, but there were more important things at stake. Celestia had a general idea to where I resided, and Twilight knew exactly where I was. I needed to get up and moving, and fast.
Using the left over large wheels, I created a massive tech capable of holding all the essentials plus some resources and blocks from my base. I couldn't bring everything of course, so I had to leave a lot of standard blocks. I would have to use some anchor blocks to get up the ravine, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Driving back out, I was faced with another large problem. The huge chunk of Harmonite that was rooted to the floor of my base. I had attempted to dig it out before, but it's roots were simply too deep, almost like a tree. In a last ditch effort to secure my immense fortune, I simply tried to push it out using the tech.
The Harmonite seemed to repel my force however, and I wasn't able to move it at all. It was always a gamble with how weird Harmonite behaved, it was almost like it was sentient. There nothing else I could do to move it, so I'd have to leave it behind. The good thing about it though, was that if I couldn't move it, neither could the ponies, so it should be safe for now.
Making it to the top of the ravine, I packed up all the Luxite chambers and began moving towards the one place I knew was secure, the plateau I had found earlier.
My tech plowed through the forest, tearing down trees left and right in my attempt to escape. Right now I didn't care if I left a trail, my main priority was to simply gain distance.
After tearing through the forest, I made it to one of the many fields that surrounded it, which is where I got my next idea. In this field there were train tracks, and I knew that tracks lead to the plateau. Train tracks also didn't leave as much of a trace as tire tracks either.
Quickly setting the Refinery and Fabricator down, I made as many Train Foundations as I could, then began to reassemble the massive tech into a long train. Completely forgoing aerodynamics, I simply piled stuff onto each cart until the weight limit was reached.
Thankfully, I managed to fit everything from the tech onto the train, and I took control of it. As the train began to pick up speed, I could see a large amount of flying objects closing in on the forest, all of them looked to have originated from Canterlot.
By the time I was speeding down the tracks faster than any normal train, the whole swarm of guards had landed in the clearing. I couldn't make out much more, as the train cleared a hill, blocking my sight from the rest of the commotion.
I really hoped I was traveling in the right track, I was hoping that all the tracks were connected, so I chose to travel down the direction closest to the plateau. It would probably take some time to reach my destination however, as it was almost a day's flight away.
I was in a really bad position right now, I had made an enemy of the local government, which meant I would not be getting support from them any more. I had to leave behind my greatest fortune ever, though I was sure in the future I could reacquire it.
As the train traveled down the track at blinding speeds, I realized one thing. It was about to get a lot harder to secure this planet.
To Be Continued?