//------------------------------// // A Certain Magical Sunset - Act 1 - 09 - Sunset - New Horizons Reprise // Story: A Certain Magical Sunset // by Babroniedad //------------------------------// Sunset - New Horizons (Reprise) Monday, August 18 - 2:45 PM Canterlot time The girls sat in their favorite booth at Sugarcube Corner. Rarity was enraptured, holding the rock up and giggling like a schoolgirl. Rainbow Dash was ecstatic. Applejack just shook her head and grinned. “Seriously you two,” Applejack laughed. “Ah figured you were prankin’ me hard when ya sent that text. Ah can’t believe ya two went to the moon.” Fluttershy looked up from the printed photo of Twilight and Sunset, both fully ponied up, flashing V for victory and grinning madly. They were scrunched together into the seat of the Lunar Rover. “This is incredible,” Fluttershy commented in amazement. “So did you drive around too?” “Nah! I wish,” said Sunset. “No surprise, but the batteries were completely dead. No joy rides for us,” lamented Twilight. “But next time we will! I took out the old silver-zinc potassium hydroxide batteries they had and replaced them with modern rechargeable batteries. Then, I hooked them up to a new solar array. It should be fully charged by the time we go back!” “I call dibs on the first ride!” called out Rainbow. “Nope! Twilight already claimed that!” laughed Sunset. “But you can have my turn, right after her.” Rainbow fist-pumped. “Yes!” Sunset turned to the rest of the girls. “So, wanna test out Twilight’s TACIT and spend some time on the moon? We plan on driving over to some of the other landing sites and maybe photobombing them!” A Chinese operator looked up from his console in shock. “哇!” he exclaimed. The other operators ran over to his display. There, on-screen in the distance, a vehicle could be seen bouncing over the terrain with what looked like an angel with rainbow-colored hair waving madly at the camera as she rolled by. When she disappeared over the horizon, they turned to each other. “Did you see that!?” asked the first operator. “I’m not going crazy, right? There was some crazy-haired angel girl driving the lunar rover past the site?” “Uh, yeah, that’s what I think I saw. But if you ask me again, I’m saying I saw nothing,” replied one of the other operators. “Yeah, what she said,” replied the second operator. “No one would ever believe that.” “I don’t know about that… I captured the feed. I’m so going to show it to my daughter. She always loved the stories of Chang’e. I’ll tell her we found her riding around having fun. It’ll make her day!” replied the first operator. “Oh! Yeah! Get me a copy too! My kids would love that!” the woman agreed. “And when did the lunar rover get solar cells?” Copies were made, and several children were happily amazed that evening. “Woo-wee! That there was some out-of-this-world fun!” laughed Applejack as she dusted off her stetson. “Ah can’t believe you actually created a transporter that can get us to the moon!” Rarity and Fluttershy were waiting in front of Twilight’s laser copier where several 8 by 12 photos were being printed. These showed the girls standing in front of the lander base, all crowded together smiling and flashing Vs. They were all ponied up and surrounded by a Teal and Magenta glow. The lunar rover was visible in the background with a new solar array attached to the back. When the copies were done, Fluttershy scooped them up and handed one to a very happy Rarity before passing the rest out to the girls. “No one will ever believe us about this! No one!” Rarity laughed as she held the picture. “Everyone will think we totally doctored these photos, and do you know what? I just. Don’t. Care! That was so much fun I don’t care who believes it or not!” “Right?” agreed Sunset, holding her own copy. “This one is getting framed and going up in my room. Best. Friends. Ever!” She laughed, then put the photo into her backpack. “So, that was super duper fun!” cheered Pinkie in agreement, “Where are we going next?” “I have an idea…” smiled Sunset. “But it’ll be a surprise for another day. You’ll just have to wait.” “Ah.. drat!” groaned Pinkie. “I love surprises, but mostly when I’m the one giving them. Guess I’ll just wait then.” She smiled. “Okey Dokie, Loki!” After the girls had left, Twilight and Sunset were alone in the lab. Twilight turned to Sunset with a smile. “Well, that was a fun and unexpected way to spend the holiday weekend!” Sunset smirked. “Yes it was, wasn't it?” Twilight leaned into her friend. “So, tell me,” she said with a wink. “Where do you think we should head next?” “That depends. Can you pair up multiple receivers to the same base?” asked Sunset. “Not currently, no. The base and receiver are quantum entangled with each other. I don’t have anything that could tune the pairing between different receivers,” Twilight frowned. “However, in theory, it could be done. And that’s going to be the next component I work on. Why do you ask?” “I’d just hate to have to give up our lunar playground just to try something else. No big deal though, I’ll do it if we have to,” answered Sunset. “Yeah. If you want to try something else, we’ll just have to use the one receiver for now. But I’m working on it. Maybe sometime soon we can have multiple destinations for the base. So seriously, where do you want to go next, Sunny?” Twilight asked. Taking her friend's hand, she wheeled out into the backyard and scanned the sky. “It should be out tonight. Let me see…” she turned, looking around. “Should be close to Venus about now. Hmm. “Ah, there it is!” Sunset pointed up. “Right there. See it Sparky?!” She was pointing to a faint red dot in the sky. “Ah! I see it. Yeah, that would be epic! Okay, let’s do it!” agreed Twilight. Sunset went into the shed while Twilight returned to her lab. A teal glow came from the shed followed by a bright flash. Sunset rolled out, still ponied up, wings folded. She looked up at the red dot, squinting. “Okay, I think I see where I want to go.” She rolled back into the shed which was followed by another bright flash. Wheeling back out, she rolled into the garage. “Okay. It’s done. I tried to pick a spot that’s not too close to the rovers so we don’t mess with their experiments,” she informed Twilight as she rolled up next to her. “Awesome! Okay, one more trip for the day. For Science?” asked Twilight. “For Science!” Sunset cheerfully agreed with a grin. Twilight walked around the landscape, taking in the sights. Both her and Sunset were fully ponied up, surrounded by a magenta and teal bubble. Sunset’s chair was suspended in a magenta glow, levitating over the red dusty landscape beneath them. In the distance a massive volcanic mountain rose up from the horizon. “So, should we go look for Mark Watney?” asked Sunset. “Huh? Who?” asked Twilight. “Nevermind. Inside joke. I’ll explain it to you later!” laughed Sunset. “So what do you think? Time to start building our Fortress of Solitude?” “Right? Totally!” agreed Twilight. “We can dig down into the regolith and seal it up, then move the receiver down there so we don’t need to pony up just to keep from dying every time we visit.” “Sounds good to me!” Sunset agreed. “And I definitely need some different tires on this thing if I’m going to be wheeling around in this sand,” laughed Sunset. “Yeah, no wheeling in the sand. Not a good idea,” laughed Twilight. “That’ll kill your bearings. We’ll get you some powered wheels and a cockpit.” “Nice! I like!” grinned Sunset. “Okay, just set me down somewhere level. I’ll get started with the excavation.” “Got it!” agreed Twilight. She set Sunset down on a large flat rock nearby. “Okay, it’s nearly time for the return trip. I’m going to get some supplies to get us started and come back. See you in an hour!” Her magenta bubble moved off as she left, headed back towards the TACIT receiver. Meanwhile, Sunset continued to work, surrounded by a teal glow. In the distance, Twilight stepped into the TACIT booth. A minute later there was a magenta flash and she disappeared. Sunset continued working on the excavation. She used her magic to fuse the crystalline sand into a ramp downward from her current perch on the rock. She sloped it gradually down into the regolith. At about 2 meters down she fashioned a crystal roof over the top of the slope. She continued working her way down, now tunneling below the surface. When the top of the tunnel was about 3 meters below the surface, she leveled it out and started broadening the area being excavated, making a room about 6 meters wide and 24 meters long. Joined to that room were 4 rooms off of each side, each about 6 meters by 6 meters with a meter wide doorway into each of them. She rolled into the first room on the left. “Okay, this will be the control room,” she mused to herself. “We’ll need a conduit to the surface for cabling the communications and the solar array.” She bored a 3 cm hole from the back corner of the room to roughly parallel the ramp into the base. Her magical bore came out at the surface about 9 meters to the left of the rock she had started from. She sealed up the opening with magic, then used her magic to test and harden the crystal making up the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room to completely seal it from the outside. “Time to move the TACIT indoors,” she thought. With a flash of teal, the TACIT receiver appeared in the back corner of the room. “That’ll work. Just in time, too. Twilight should be showing up soon.” Sunset placed a glowing sphere of magic in the corner of the room for light then went back out into the main room, placing light spheres in each of the corners. She sealed the ceiling, walls, and floors of the room and each of the side rooms in turn. She also magically sealed over the entryway to the ramp, then created an atmosphere in the room. She dropped her shield and took a breath. “Nice. That’ll work,” Sunset said in satisfaction. There was a magenta flash from the control room. “Wha… Oh! Wow, you work fast girl!” Twilight called out from the control room. She joined Sunset in the main room. “You got a lot done already! Sweet!” commented Twilight. Sunset nodded. “Um-hm. And there’s a conduit back up to the surface so we can set up the solar arrays and communications antennas when we get them.” “Good job! And guess what! I brought those too! I have one Ku band satellite transponder with a high gain external antenna and a large array of solar cells. I’ll go set them up. Be right back!” Twilight headed for the entrance to the ramp. “Oh, sync up!” She pulled out her phone. “The next automated return is in…” she looked at the phone, “2 hours 58 minutes and 15 seconds. Be on it or be a permanent resident!” She laughed when Sunset looked confused. “Just kidding! I actually placed it on a 3-hour loop. If we miss one we just have to wait 3 more hours. But anything in the booth will be going home”. “That’s good to know! Also, you did leave a note or message at least saying where we were, right?” asked Sunset as Twilight headed towards the ramp. “Yes, I left messages with the girls, as well as a note in the lab, but didn’t ruin the surprise by saying exactly where we are,” answered Twilight. “We’re covered.” Twilight left the room, passed through Sunsets' magical barrier and headed up the ramp. “Awesome!” said Sunset to herself. She checked over the Ku band transponder Twilight had left behind. Crafting a crystal bench for it and the rest of the control devices on the other side of the control room next to the conduit, she placed the unit on the bench. While she was examining the transponder, a bundle of wires pushed through the magical seal on the conduit, then snaked down to the floor. When they were about two meters in, Sunset gave a magical tug to the bundle and the motion stopped. Satisfied, Sunset went back to examining the transponder. A moment later Twilight reentered the room. “Thanks for that!” Twilight expressed. “I wasn’t sure how far they had gone and was trying to give it my best guess.” “You were spot on, Sparky!” Sunset smiled. “And always glad to help out.” Twilight opened her backpack, reached into the enclosed hammerspace with her magic, and pulled out a rack with an inverter and Nicholi household battery wall-mounted unit, which she cabled up to the bundle. She mounted the rack into the crystal floor in the back corner of the room just past the conduit opening. She went to the bench Sunset had crafted earlier and connected the cables and power to the transceiver. Checking all the connections, she flipped a switch. She grinned at the resulting green bars filling the front display. “Power check complete. Looking good!” Twilight reported with satisfaction. Twilight then mounted surge protectors along the back of the bench and cabled them into the inverter. She plugged the radio into a strip. “Okay,” Twilight reported while adjusting her glasses, “the transponder is installed and ready to go… as soon as there is something for it to talk to.” Sunset laughed. “Baby steps! Someone will put satellites up we can use… Eventually.” Twilight nodded. “Yup. Baby steps.” Twilight moved off into the next room. When she arrived she asked, “Want to help me set up the hydroponics? “Sure. lead the way!” answered Sunset, following Twilight out of the room. “Let’s keep the theme. We’ll use the next room for that,” Twilight decided on entering the room. “What theme is that?” asked Sunset as she followed Twilight. “Living space to the right, control and automation to the left,” answered Twilight, pulling racked hydroponic units from her backpack hammerspace. “Ah, okay. Works for me!” agreed Sunset. “What can I do to help?” “I need you to create a cistern to hold about 3000 liters of water. Create it under this room, far enough below that we don't lose the floor integrity, with two conduits to it, one on each side, please,” requestedTwilight. “You got it!” smiled Sunset. Her horn enveloped in a teal glow, a 5 cm hole appeared on one side of the room. The glow from her horn intensified as Sunset sat visualizing her work, her eyes shut and hands still on her lap. A few minutes later a similar hole appeared along the wall about 2 meters from the first hole. Sunset opened her eyes and reported, “All done. I made it a little larger than we needed. It’s sealed and good to go.” “Excellent!” nodded Twilight as she moved the units into place. Each rack was about a meter deep, with three stacked shelves. She placed them so there was a row along each sidewall, with a row in the middle, leaving about a meter and a half walkway between them. She also left a meter and a half walkway along the front of the racks. Power for the racks ran from a central power unit, which she also cabled up to the inverter in the control room through a conduit she had opened between the rooms. Sunset noticed each of the trays in the racks were labeled with what was growing (or to be grown) within them. The bottom tray on each of the racks was labeled ‘Pisces’. “We’re growing fish?” Sunset was compelled to ask her friend. “Yes, we are!” nodded Twilight, connecting up the hoses for the water and nutrient distribution. “The bottom shelf of each unit will contain an aquarium of different fish we will feed the leftover vegetable matter. They will supplement our diet with the proteins we need to stay healthy.” “Ah! Smart thinking! I like it!” agreed Sunset with a nod. “You’re really setting this up for the long haul aren’t you?” “You bet! Even if we don’t use it every day, it only makes sense to make this as self-sufficient as possible,” said Twilight. Twilight ran a pump hose through the rear water conduit to draw water from the cistern, needed by the hydroponics automation. “Can you please fill the cistern with water so I can get this started?” Twilight kindly asked her friend. “Sure thing, Sparky!” called out Sunset. She wheeled over to the front hole to the cistern and conjured a stream of running water into the opening, using her magic to sense how full the cistern was. When it was nearly completely filled, she crafted and threaded a crystal cap for the hole then modified the top of the hole to accept the threading. She tightened the cap over the opening. “All done!” Sunset called out. Twilight was sprinkling seeds into each of the units before shutting, locking, and enabling them from their front panels. Once she was done with all the units except the bottom ones, she flipped a switch on the main control panel for the hydroponics racks and pressed the ‘start’ button. The pump purred into motion. A soft gurgling could be heard in each of the trays in response. After a few minutes the gurgling stopped, and the mechanical sounds of the tending modules could be heard. “They are mixing the seeds into the nutrient bath,” Twilight informed, “then it will bathe them in harmonically balanced light for maximum growth.” “Except the bottom trays,” observed Sunset. “Except the bottom trays, yes. Those are special,” agreed Twilight. Twilight went to the first unit and opened the first bottom tray. She sprinkled a cup of round fish eggs into it. She then added some pellets that smelled like fish. She repeated this for each of the bottom trays. Once she was done, she locked and enabled each of the bottom trays. They hummed briefly then were silent. Green lights were displayed across the board. Twilight smiled at the result. “Okay, the ‘farm’ is loaded. Onward!” Twilight went into the next room. There she said, “This room will be our shower and bathroom. Please craft a communal bath in the back portion of the room with some showers in the front? Also some seats for washing - I’m going for a Japanese bathhouse vibe.” Sunset nodded. “On it, girl. Got this covered.” “Awesome!” Twilight smiled cheerfully. “Okay. While you finish that,I’m going to start stocking a storeroom in the last room. Then I’ll set up bedrooms in the right-side rooms.” She thought for a moment. “Except the first room. I think I’m going to set that up as a den. We’ll have a computer and large screen TV with surround sound stereo for whenever we want to veg out or have some fun. I’ll put three beds in each room so we all fit in the other three rooms.” “Sounds like a plan, Sparky! I can’t wait to see it!” agreed Sunset as she excavated the back half of the room for the communal pool. She also put two western-style bathroom stalls, each large enough to accommodate her chair as well as their other needs. She placed the shower heads along the front wall with the washing stools. The end one had a larger seat with handrails on the wall to accommodate her bathing. She also placed a manual lift along one side of the pool to raise and lower herself into the bath from her chair. She created a sump cistern below the floor to hold all the wastewater and connected all the drains to it. The showerheads, sink, and bathwater feeds were connected through a conduit to a second pump in the farm room that fed on the same cistern as the farm. “Done!” Sunset called out, then rolled out to see what her friend was up to. Twilight had already crafted shelves in the last room on the left side and fully stocked their storeroom with food, health, and emergency staples. “Dang, Sparky!” Sunset exclaimed in an amazed tone. “How long have you been planning this?”she asked. “How did you get all these supplies and systems together so quickly? This is amazing!” “Oh that’s easy!” called out Twilight from the last bedroom as she finished its furnishings. “I had all this already, I just packed it up and brought it here.” Twilight came out of the bedroom and headed into another room where she announced. “Game room time! Almost done.” Sunset followed her into the last room. “What do you mean, you already had all this? Where?” asked Sunset while Twilight cabled up a large screen TV on the far wall. She then mounted a power distribution hub on the back wall and cabled it up through a conduit to the previous bedroom, daisy chaining all the rooms back to the unit in the control room. “I had a shelter in my parents' backyard, under the shed. I figured it was better to be prepared than not, so I’ve been building it out and stocking it,” she answered as she put a couch along the back wall. She put a gaming console center with a PC alongside it. Lastly, she placed the sound system around the room. She mounted the speakers to the walls where needed. “Say what, Sparky!? You had your own shelter under your parents' backyard and you never told anyone? And you used the garage for your lab? Why? You could have used the awesomely cool shelter.” asked Sunset, flummoxed. Twilight laughed nervously. “Hehe.. uh, no. I never told my parents. They didn’t know it was there. I kind of kept it a secret. Eventually, it got to the point I figured I better not even bring it up. “So, no. Never used it and kind of pretended it wasn’t really there, though it did bring me comfort knowing that if I ever did need it, it was there and I could use it.” Sunset shook her head. “Twilight, girl, sometimes you still surprise me… Seriously. You could have told me! I wouldn't have judged! I’ll always have your back!” “I’m telling you now. Does that count?” replied Twilight sheepishly. Sunset looked at her friend, then sighed before she rolled over to her. Smiling, she pulled her friend into a big hug. “Yes, Sparky. It counts. Everything you do counts to me.” “Thanks, Sunny!” Twilight wiped away a tear as she returned the hug. A heartfelt moment later, Sunset rested her forehead against her friend. “Okay, Sparky! What’s left?” she asked, smiling. Twilight smiled back. “There’s still the power check and network setup and then we’re done here, unless you know of anyone running a communications satellite we can connect up to?” she grinned mischievously. “Nope! Kinda outta luck on that last one, at least until Nicholi Motors gets here and puts one up with their rockets maybe!” laughed Sunset. “Let's finish this.” With a final hug, she turned Twilight loose. “Okay, one second then!” Twilight checked the connections on the power hub and flipped a switch on it. The board lit green, as well green indicators as on all the surge suppressors. The TV and the computer both turned on and booted up. She pulled out her phone and paired it up with the entertainment system. “Serious, play Twilight playlist Rainbooms,' Twilight requested of the digital system. In response, the screen came to life, showing Connected to SparkysIP10, playing Never Gonna Get me Down! By the Rainbooms. “It works!” exclaimed Twilight. “Yeah it does!” agreed Sunset. “Do we need to do anything with the other rooms?” “Yes, but almost done,” promised Twilight as she stepped back out into the main room. “I’m going to make the back portion of this common area into a kitchen and dining area. The front part of the room will be turned into a lab slash meeting area. Give me a moment.” They moved to the back of the common room. While Twilight crafted the sink, Sunset created the conduit taking the drainage to the sump cistern, and second conduit to pull water out of the clean water cistern for the sink, using the pump that was currently supplying the showerheads and the rest of the bathroom. Meanwhile, Twilight added a washer/dryer combo unit, a dishwasher, and a large fridge/freezer with an ice and water dispenser. All were hooked into the water supply and wastewater systems. A counter was added, as well as an electric grill, convection/microwave combo oven, and of course, a coffee maker. “A girl needs her necessities!” declared Twilight. Sunset chuckled. Next came a table comfortably seating ten, along with seven chairs. Cabinets to hold the dishes and cooking utensils were added, as well as a small spice cupboard for condiments and spices. In light of Twilight’s confession Sunset was unsurprised to see that both it, the freezer, and fridge were fully stocked. The lab/conference area came next, consisting of counters along the walls for the lab equipment, and a large conference table was set in the middle of the room, with two large-screen displays on both the front and right side walls. A multimedia sound system was also installed in the main room, linked up wirelessly to the computer laptop on the main conference table. All of the systems were networked through a WiFi router Twilight had placed in the racks of the main control room. “Too bad no internet!” lamented Sunset. “You mean no internet yet,” corrected Twilight with a smile. “Huh? How are we going to get the internet here? We’re like 9 light minutes from Earth. That’s a heck of a lag, Sparky. Not to mention we don’t even have a satellite link-up yet.” “If I can make a transporter that works across parsecs with no noticeable lag, don’t you think it would be simple to create a digital link that does the same,” observed Twilight. “You know, kind of like this?” She pulled a USB fob from her pocket with a huge grin. “Sparky, is that what I think it is?!” asked Sunset, grinning ear to ear. “Yup! I designed this prototype when I was experimenting with entanglement for the transporter. Still works and the other side is plugged into the hub in my bedroom.” She laughed out loud. “I never thought I would be hosting an entire planet’s internet through my bedroom router!” she grinned. Twilight disappeared back into the control room. A minute later she returned with an ear-to-ear grin. “Okay, all set. Let’s give it a shot. Shall we MyStable the girls?” “Oh yes!” cackled Sunset. “And I know just how we’ll do it!” A few minutes later, Twilight and Sunset were sitting at the main conference table while Twilight got all the girls together on the call. “Sorry, darling. I was just heading for bed, so forgive the bags under my eyes,” yawned Rarity. “This couldn’t have waited until tomorrow dear?” she asked. “Not to be a wet blanket, but what Rares said. Sorry girls, Ah have a ton of chores to get to early in the morning. Can we make this quick? Ah need some shut-eye.” announced Applejack. “I’m sure whatever they have to say, it’ll be awesome,” nodded Rainbow with a yawn, her head drooped. She looked like she was about to fall completely asleep. Fluttershy smiled and nodded. Pinkie, however, looked ready to explode, with a grin so wide it was almost unnatural. “Not a word Pinkie!” said Sunset, grinning back. “I know you’re just dying to tell everyone what you're sensing, but just let us tell it. Please?” she begged. Pinkie smiled and nodded. She mimed zipping her mouth shut, locking it, and throwing away the key. Sunset smiled. “Okay then. I’ll make this quick. We moved the TACIT portal to a different place. We’ll go back to the moon eventually, but we decided to try someplace else for a bit.” Pinkie twitched like she was about to explode. Twilight continued. “We built a bunker. Here it is with a quick tour.” She spun the phone around the room in a quick once over, then turned it back to herself and Sunset. “It’s a little ‘Fortress of Solitude’ for us to enjoy. It has bedrooms for us to share, a game room, a kitchen, and everything we need to hang out for as long as we like. Oh, and as you can see, it also has the internet.” She laughed. “Here’s the kicker! Let me show you the view from outside!” Both the girls ponied up, causing some surprised comments from the rest of the girls. They passed through the magical barrier and headed up the ramp tunnel. Twilight took the lead, followed by Sunset in her chair. Both were surrounded by a Teal and Magenta bubble. “Why’d you need to pony up?” asked a groggy Dash. “Yes, dears. That does seem quite odd,” agreed Rarity, nodding. “You’ll see!” sang out Sunset and Twilight together happily as they continued up the tunnel. At the top, Twilight looked into the camera and smiled. “Check out the neighborhood! It’s out of this world!” She panned the camera around so the girls could see. The sun was just setting over the horizon, but noticeably smaller than usual, appearing less than half its normal size. Dominating the rest of the horizon was a large inactive volcano that soared into the sky. All around they were surrounded by rust red planes. Suddenly completely awake, Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Sweet crab cakes! You’re on MARS?!” she yelled out. “Yup!” grinned Sunset happily. Twilight nodded. “We have a bunker on Mars. With high-speed internet!” “Wait up! Wait up!” Dash called out. “I’ll be right over. Forget sleep! I’m coming now!” She dropped off the call. Applejack laughed and shook her head. “Well, I guess that happened! Great job girls! Ah can’t wait to check it out. But not tonight. Ah got work in the morning. But definitely this weekend, okay?” “It’s a date!” smiled Sunset. “Weekend sleepover at our new Fortress of Solitude! Try and get it cleared for Saturday night. Sounds good?” Everyone nodded and signed off. “That was epic!” laughed Sunset, holding her sides. “ I thought Pinkie was going to explode! And Dash… hahaha!” she laughed. “I guess I need to head back home and check on her, then bring her back over,” laughed Twilight. “Ugh, yes. And I need to call mom and explain why I won’t be home tonight,” agreed Sunset. “Oh Twilight, that reminds me. Now that you set up network access to your home network from here, do you think you can set the portal to trigger on-demand over the network instead of having to keep jumping in on a schedule?” “That’s a great idea! Yeah. I’ll set that up while I’m back picking up Dash. Then we can just trigger it when we need to from either side,” agreed Twilight. She checked her phone. “Still 4 more minutes until the next return event. “Okay, catch you later, Sunny.” Twilight stepped into the booth, sliding the door closed. She read her phone while she waited. Sunset rolled back out to the main room and dialed her mom. “Hi, Sunbeam! Getting kind of late. Are you heading home soon?” answered Celestia. “Hi, Mom! About that… would you mind terribly if I stayed with Twilight tonight and came home tomorrow? We were doing a few things and it got a bit late,” Sunset asked. “So you want to spend the night at Twilight's house?” asked Celestia. “I don’t have any objections, but you do have work tomorrow as I recall. You don’t want to miss that.” “No, I definitely do not want to leave Mr. Namori-san hanging. And not exactly. We’re not at Twilight’s house,” answered Sunset. “Not at her house? Then where are you?” asked her mother. “Well, probably better if I show you,” answered Sunset. “We are here.” She texted her mom the picture from their ‘front door’ with the setting sun and Olympus Mons in the background. Her mom’s jaw dropped. “You are kidding, right? Tell me you’re pulling my leg, Sunbeam. Tell me you're not on Mars!” Suddenly Luna’s head appeared just over her sisters. “Wait, what? You’re on MARS! Take. Me. There. NOW!” grinned her aunt. “Luna, not helping!” laughed Celestia. “Seriously Sunset. Where are you?” “No lie, Mom, Aunty Luna. Twilight built a working teleporter. We spent the day building a bunker on Mars. I’m on Mars now in the main conference room. I swear, it’s no joke. It’s awesome!” grinned Sunset. “Aunty Luna, I would have figured you would be more interested in the moon. That’s where we were this morning.” Luna gaped at her, speechless. Celestia laughed. “Sunshine, what am I going to do with you?” she shook her head with a smile. “Get your coat and overnight bag, Tia. We’re going, now!” answered her sister, disappearing from the screen, then reappearing in the background hightailing it up the stairs. “I guess you can spend the night. And, it sounds like we’ll be joining you,” laughed her mom. “See you soon, Sunbeam.” She signed off. Sunset laughed, then groaned. “I love them so much! But sometimes they’re like a couple of fillies!” she laughed. “Okay, got to call Twilight and let her know.” She dialed Twilight. “Hey, Sparky! Slight change of plans. We have two more visitors,” she informed her. “Yeah, Mom and Aunty Luna are heading over to your place now. Can you keep an eye out for them and bring them with you? Thanks!” Holy words, read and repeated, do not bring inner harmony, but good acts inspired by them bring harmony to all - The Celestial Teachings Mikoto - Academy City Covered in sweat, Mikoto leaned back against the phone booth glass, her terminal jacked into the hacked security system of her next target. “Crap,” she swore, seeing the labs and Datacenter there fully staffed. “They won’t fall for that again. I need to change it up.” Hacking into a different exchange, she left another distorted bomb threat, queued up it’s delivery, then jacked out. Putting her terminal back into her fanny pack, she looked through the glass at her next target three blocks away. “Payback time,” she said through clenched teeth, leaving the booth and entering the lobby of the building across the street. She emerged from the ducting of one of the roof AC units, carefully rolling over the twisted metal of the egress she had made and rolling to her feet. Crossing over to the edge of the roof, she lept, launching herself through the air to the roof of the neighboring building. Three leaps later, she was on the roof of the building for the Duchenne Dystrophy Research Center. She had washed the roof with an EMP pulse as she approached the building, knocking out the security measures before she landed. Looking over the side of the roof, she watched as the emergency response teams once again surrounded the building. Looking at her watch, she smiled. “Right on time.” Running to the center of the building, she launched two large EMP pulses, one from each hand, each sweeping through its quadrant, knocking out all electronic equipment. She turned 90 degrees and fired off again, frying the remaining two quadrants of the building. Running over to the central AC roof unit, she ripped an opening in the ducting, and disappeared down into it, entering the building unseen. Crossing over into the ducting for the floor containing the datacenter and labs, she crawled quickly through the ducts, glancing out from the air vents to see researchers and staff running through the halls trying to shut everything down and evacuate. She crossed into a duct supplying one of the central offices, and seeing what she needed, kicked the vent out and dropped down into the office below. There, she donned her mask, pulling on a white research coat with an attached badge. Buttoning up a few of the buttons to keep it on, she opened the door and joined the flood of staff trying to exit the building. When she got to the Datacenter, she pushed her way clear of the crowd, shouting “I’ll be right back!” She unscrambled the security lock and the door and entered when it popped open, pulling it part way shut behind her. Looking around, she thanked whatever gods were looking over her for her good fortune. The datacenter was cleared of staff, so she was free to unload on it with her full abilities. Once again running through the aisles arms extended, she arched lightning into every piece of equipment she passed, triggering the halon fire suppression system and destroying every server in the center in short order. As she exited the datacenter, another researcher ran up to her. “I wouldn’t go in there!” Mikoto advised the other researcher through her mask. “The fire suppression system has already been engaged! If you go in there now you’ll die.” The other researcher blanched, thanked her, and ran off again towards the exit. Smiling, Mikoto walked to the labs, entering the first one, where she saw panicked researchers trying desperately to salvage what they could. “What’s the hold up, people!” she called out loudly when entering. “We’ve been advised the labs are one of the first targets the terrorists are hitting! They’ve already hit the datacenter! You need to vacate immediately or risk death!” As she spoke, she surreptitiously fired off two EMP pulses at nearby equipment, exploding them both and starting fires. “Oh crap! It looks like they’re here already! Out! Out! Out!” she called, standing aside and waving the researchers through. As the last of them cleared, she shut the door behind them and ran through the facility, destroying everything in her path. Two labs and repeat performances later, she joined the last of the escaping staff in the final exodus, mask still on as she took the stairwell down to the ground floor with them then sprinted through the lobby to the throng outside, who were all safely distant from the building and watching in morbid, frightened fascination. From the back of the throng, Mikoto, deciding to give them a little show, quietly launched EMP pulses at the transformers on different floors, causing them to consecutively explosively blow out, shattering the windows of the floors they were housed on. Hearing screaming, and seeing them point in shock at the explosions, her task was done. She turned and ducked into a cafe on the bottom floor of one of the adjacent buildings. “I have to use the bathroom, sorry!” she explained to the hostess as she came to offer assistance. Ducking into the bathroom, she entered the stall under the ceiling duct. Taking off the researcher's coat, she wadded it into a ball. Pushing it into the adjoining stall, she sparked it into a ball of fire, consuming that bit of evidence. As it burned, triggering the fire alarms, she pulled the grating from the duct then entered, climbing rapidly to the roof, where she made her usual opening, running to the side of the building and launching herself away from her latest attack.