Twilight left Rainbow Dash in her quarters, pinging a message to Rarity about what she’d arranged and asking the other unicorn to get Fluttershy to cooperate. She included the fact that the Warden felt ignored and marginalized, mentioned that she’d mostly worked it out, and sent a summary of the apology she wanted Fluttershy to offer in response to Rainbow’s. She received a quick reply from Rarity, telling her that the white-coated unicorn would take care of her end and, satisfied that things with her two pegasus friends were well in hoof, threw herself into her immediate business. They’d gotten a flood of information from the Tazaft fleet, and even better, they’d gotten the aliens’ electronic data coding methods down on the planet, so they could actually read it. Eklsee had provided as complete a map of the border the Tazaft shared with the Baltornic Council as she could assemble, complete with data on fleet movements and major staging areas. They’d also been given basic data on Council electronic communications, codes, and best of all, languages. They would actually be able to talk to the Council next time they encountered them, or at least take a shot at talking to them. She looked at samples of the languages provided; there were at least five species represented there, given the massively different phonetic structures involved, and none of them sounded even a bit like Modern Equestrian. That was a bit of a disappointment; Twilight had hoped that she might find representatives of Duran’s people during their voyages, but that was looking less and less likely. Other interesting facts stood out; the Council used electronic tech like the Tazaft did, rather than arcane tech like Equestria used, and they used a different kind of drive. The Tazaft used a system very like the Library Core’s K-F drive, making instantaneous jumps of limited distance with long charging periods in between, but the Council instead used some kind of wormhole system. It didn’t have to be charged like the Tazaft drive, or Equestria’s Tethinar-derived Gate drive, but it actually had a speed rather than being instantaneous.
The Tazaft dossier told Twilight vastly more about their erstwhile enemies than ponykind had been able to assemble on its own, but it only raised more questions. This was clearly a multispecies government, and the Tazaft records showed that their initial contact had been peaceful. Why had that changed in Equestria’s case? There had been numerous nonviolent contacts between the Council and the Tazaft before the latter had started a fight, but there had been none with the ponies, only missile fire. It was baffling, frustrating, and disheartening. Why was their behavior so inconsistent? Did the Council just hate them that much? Why?
Twilight called her friends together once more in the meeting room, planning to present them with her findings. She’d made sure to route the information to the various experts aboard the Dauntless before doing so, hoping that it would prove useful.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was far more relaxed than the last time they’d all gathered. The tension between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, though still present, was greatly reduced, and the others all seemed happier about it.
“Well,” Twilight began without preamble, “I’m sure you all know that we got a great deal of interesting data from our new friends.” She nodded thanks to the yellow pegasus. “Thank you, Fluttershy, for helping make that work.”
Fluttershy ducked her head modestly. “Oh, I didn’t do much. It was mostly you that time; I just gave you a few nudges.”
“They were good nudges, though, and I think it made everything go much smoother than it might have otherwise. So thank you.” Fluttershy smiled again, accepting the thanks. She looked around the table in a quick glance, her manner a bit shy like she’d been in her youth. The others all smiled or nodded, acknowledging her contribution. Even Rainbow Dash gave her a sober nod, a fact that seemed to set the quieter pegasus aback.
Twilight cleared her throat, reclaiming her friends’ attention. “What we need to decide is where we go from here. This,” she brought up a projection of Baltornic space, assembled from the Tazaft data, “is the area we know they consider theirs. These,” red dots appeared on several star systems, “are fleet bases. And these,” arrows drew themselves from system to system, “are the fleet movements our allies are aware of. Suggestions?”
“Is this all of their territory?” Rarity asked, examining the map closely.
Twilight shook her head. “Almost certainly not. This is just the part the Tazaft are aware of, and there are only two heavily developed systems in this grouping.” Two of the stars glowed gold, at the far edge of the mapped space. “These two. Given that, if the languages they’re known to employ are any indication, there should be at least five species on the council, that suggests that there are a bare minimum of three more heavily developed worlds out there somewhere, assuming that these two are homeworlds rather than mature colonies, which they may very well be.”
Fluttershy nodded. “This may just be frontier space, then, assuming they even think in those terms.” She sighed. “It’s hard to figure out how they think when we can’t get any firsthoof experience.”
“I know.” Twilight had already experienced that problem herself, trying to figure out the bizarrely contradictory behavior the Council had already exhibited. “Does anypony have suggestions about how to contact them that might not result in an immediate battle?”
Rainbow Dash coughed. “I may have some ideas.” Her voice was a little tentative, like she half-expected to be expelled from the meeting.
“Let’s hear them, then.” Fluttershy’s voice was calm, her manner interested. The others nodded, and Rainbow drew herself up, a bit of her normal confidence creeping back in.
“Well, the thing is, if this is a frontier we probably don’t want to show up at the major bases.” The indicators for the Council fleet stations and depots flashed in response to Rainbow’s commands to the network. “Those are their homes, and they’ll want to defend ‘em. I would, at least.”
“Yep,” Applejack put in, “Besides, they may have heavy-duty defenses and stuff that we don‘t want to get close to. Our frontier bases sure do, and they’ve got some pretty strict rules about comin’ and goin’, and who can do it.”
“Exactly.” Rainbow nodded. “We really want to stay away from here,” the two gold dots that represented the developed systems flashed, “because if they’ve got a lot of squishies there they’re gonna be even more defensive.”
“Squishies?” Fluttershy asked, arching an eyebrow.
Applejack cut in before Rainbow could respond. “Normal folks. Not fighters.” She glared at her fellow commander. “It ain’t a term we encourage.”
The cyan pegasus’s grin was a little abashed. “Oops, sorry. Slipped. So anyway,” she raised her voice a hair, clearly hoping everyone would forget what she’d said, “I think the best idea would be trying to run into one of their patrols. Meet ‘em somewhere like here,” several systems along the illustrated Council patrol routes flashed, “someplace with no development. If there’s nothing to defend, and they haven’t gone looking for us ready for a fight, we might run into someone who won’t be hostile. It’ll depend on the local commander.”
“That’s not a bad thought, actually.” Rarity’s voice was contemplative as she looked at the systems Rainbow had marked.
“Oh, um, another thing,” Fluttershy added, “if the Council and the Tazaft are fighting, shouldn’t we pick someplace away from the Tazaft? They might be less jumpy then.”
Rainbow nodded. “Good point. So what do you guys think, here maybe?” She highlighted a system on a Council patrol route far away from the Tazaft border. “I mean, this place is marked as having life, so even if we don’t run into any Council ships it might still give us someone to talk to.”
“That sounds good to me,” Fluttershy remarked. The other three nodded.
“So you’re all in agreement, then?” Twilight asked.
“I think so, darling,” Rarity said thoughtfully. “It sounds like a good plan.”
Twilight smiled. “Right. Then let’s get to it!”
The unicorn kept to herself how delighted she was that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were working together. They weren’t completely out of feud-mode yet, but they were heading that direction. It made her happy.
They sent the information about where they planned to go to Eklsee before the Tazaft fleet began accelerating, and received an acknowledgement in response. The aliens still didn’t think it was a terribly good idea, especially since their destination was several jumps from the nearest Tazaft base and would thus be out of range for quick reinforcement. The aliens asked them to check in with one of their outposts in a few days, just to be sure their new allies were still alive. Twilight agreed, thanking the alien leader for her thoughtfulness.
The run outsystem didn’t take long; the star was small, and its interference radius correspondingly reduced. They reached the edge of the sphere without further incident, powered up the Gate drive and disconnected everypony from the link, and jumped out.
The system they found themselves in looked quite a bit like home. The star sitting in the center was a yellow dwarf just like Celestia’s sun, though a tiny bit larger and brighter. There were gas giants on the outer edge of the system, and a survey found several rocky worlds closer to the star. One of them had the spectrographic indicators for liquid water and atmospheric oxygen, and was almost certainly the life-bearing world the Tazaft charts had indicated resided here.
Dauntless made a careful circuit of the system, taking more than a day cruising slowly around the perimeter and keeping her acceleration and velocity relatively low, searching for any signs of a Council patrol they could contact. There was no sign of any such activity, however, the system proving completely devoid of radio activity apart from that generated by natural processes, and the few thermal traces they found proving only to be slightly warmer-than-normal asteroids that had passed close to the star and hadn’t yet shed the heat they’d accumulated to the void.
After long consideration and consultation with Captain Silver Stars, Twilight Sparkle decided to move into the system to investigate the life-bearing world.
They proceeded carefully and slowly, their sensors sweeping the system as they moved further inward, but still they saw no sign of other ships. That wasn’t terribly surprising; from what the Tazaft dossier had reported, Council ships swept through on patrol on about a weekly basis. The Tazaft scouts had seen a patrol here when they’d surveyed the system, but that was by no means a guarantee that they were here constantly.
Still, it was a chance to investigate. Though there was no signal traffic, there was still a chance that there was something on the world ahead. Twilight privately hoped for some kind of civilian outpost: a mine, a research station, something along those lines that would give them a chance to speak to Council noncombatants. Even something like an automated refueling depot, storage center, or agricultural station would tell them something about the society they found themselves at odds with, though Twilight rather suspected that any such installations would be constructed up in space rather than on a planetary surface.
Nothing showed itself during their careful approach, and they found no traces of the Council on the world once they reached it.
“No traces of the Council,” though, did not mean “nothing at all.”
“This is fascinating.” Twilight magnified the projection over the meeting table, examining the small, neat village. “Not to mention unexpected!”
“And pointless!” Rainbow exclaimed in exasperation. “Look, the guys we’re looking for have spaceships and FTL. These guys live in freaking huts with grass roofs. They aren’t going to know anything, and trying to figure out how to talk to them is a total waste of time! We should head out, check the next-best location.”
“We don’t know that they know nothing, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy retorted. “If they live on a world whose system the Council patrols, they may have been contacted. We can’t be sure until we try talking to them.”
“If these Council guys had talked to them, wouldn’t they have better stuff than stone tools? I mean, there’s not even any metal down there, is there?”
“No refined metal,” Twilight corrected, and Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Right, ‘cause iron ore is so useful when you’re chipping freaking flint. Fine, no actual metal that anyone could use for anything, just red rocks that have metal in them. Seriously, they’re not going to know anything, we should head out.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Fluttershy said again. “Even if they don’t, though, it could be good practice. Talking to people like this, who don’t have any kind of technology that could help to communicate, would be the most difficult thing we could do.” The yellow mare smiled gently. “Besides, I’d like the chance to meet new people. I’ll take a small team down; most of my ponies are busy looking over the information we got from Eklsee.” Fluttershy did a surprisingly good job of pronouncing the Tazaft fleet leader’s name, something that Twilight just absolutely could not manage. “Studying that could give us a better chance at talking to them once we meet them, and we might as well just orbit here for a few days while they do it.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight, and the unicorn shrugged. “She’s got a point. We may have gone ahead a little faster than we should have, and it shouldn’t hurt us to take a few days to study the information we have. She might as well try contacting the creatures who live down there, on the off-chance they might know something.”
Rainbow sighed, resignedly. “Yes, Commander. I’ll put a team together.”
“No.” Fluttershy interjected flatly. “We won’t be taking any of your ponies along.”
The other pegasus frowned. “Fluttershy, I get that you don’t like my crew, but we’re here to keep you and your ponies safe. Look, I understand that you might be worried about me being there. If you don’t want me there, I’ll stay up here,” Rainbow was clearly not happy at the prospect, but she swallowed it and kept going, “but you should have at least some guards.”
“No,” Fluttershy said again. “I don’t want any Wardens along this time. These aren’t dangerous aliens; they’re simple creatures, they won’t be dangerous. If things go badly, we can just run for the shuttle and lift off.”
Applejack shook her head. “Darlin’, I’d think twice about that plan if I was you. Those folks got spears, at least; they ain’t harmless, and if they decide to take offense to something you say I don’t know for sure you could get away.”
Fluttershy pointed to one of the aliens in the village. The creatures were vaguely reptilian, with brilliant, colorful scales and patchy clothing that was dyed in similar brilliant colors. “We’ve watched them from up here, Applejack. We know how fast they can run, and we can run faster. We also know that they don’t have anything like a bow; once we get out of reach, we’re safe. Honestly, we’ll be fine.”
Twilight rubbed her eyes. Fluttershy had a point; they’d clocked the aliens’ running speed, and it was significantly slower than the average pony, and they hadn’t seen any missile weapons. “Fluttershy has a point, girls. If her ponies run, there’s a good chance that those creatures won’t catch them, and she is generally good at not making strangers mad.”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack leveled frowns at Twilight so identical that she had to stifle a snicker. “Sugarcube, the chance may be low… but it could be nothin’ with an armored Warden or two along for the ride.”
Fluttershy shook her head adamantly. “No. We saw before that a Warden can potentially hamper my work, and I don’t want them there.”
“That was me, Fluttershy, not the other Wardens,” Rainbow said quietly. “If I hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t have been a problem. I admit it, I screwed up. Please don’t let that make you do something dumb.”
Fluttershy’s eyes flashed. “I am not doing anything dumb. I am making a considered, reasoned decision. Just because it doesn’t agree with yours doesn’t make it dumb.”
“That’s not what I…” Rainbow started, but Twilight cut her off.
“Rainbow, Fluttershy’s presented her reasoning, and it seems sound to me. I’m going to authorize it.” She looked at Fluttershy. “As long as you make sure that your entire team can keep up if you have to run, and you leave any heavy equipment on the shuttle where it won’t slow you down.” Fluttershy nodded.
The cyan pegasus stared at her blankly, then sagged in defeat. “I… yes, Commander. I won’t send any Wardens along.” Applejack looked troubled, but she nodded with a sigh. The two Wardens shared a glance that Twilight couldn’t interpret.
“Oo, can I go along?” Pinkie Pie bounced up from her seat. “I already got to record one bunch of aliens, and now I could record another! Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure you can keep up, Pinkie?”
“Abso-super-duper-lutely! I can run zoomy-fast when I need to, don’t you worry your purple mane about it!”
The unicorn nodded. “Okay, you can go along. But I want both of you to be careful.”
Fluttershy nodded. “We’ll be careful, Twilight, don’t worry. I’ve even been able to go into griffon settlements without making them angry; I’ll be able to handle this.”
“All right. I’m going to go back to studying the Tazaft data, but I’ll be on the bridge when you land.”
The group broke up, heading in their various directions, though Rainbow pulled Rarity aside for a moment to talk to her. The pegasus looked troubled, as did Applejack, but Twilight was confident she’d made the right call.
Twilight decided to do her work on the bridge, since she doubted it would take Fluttershy long to load her lander. Sure enough, she was in the middle of reviewing Tazaft projections on Council capabilities and FTL speed not quite an hour later when Fluttershy pinged the bridge with a request to launch. Rainbow trotted in moments later, along with Rarity, who was looking a little tense.
Twilight brought up a feed from the shuttle’s pilot on the bridge’s projectors, giving them a nice big view of what was going on. The shuttle eased down to low speed in the lower atmosphere, gradually moving up on the village they’d chosen to contact, taking its time so as not to scare the aliens.
The natives spotted the shuttle as it came in, just as Fluttershy had intended. The entire village abandoned their tasks, leaving pottery half-made, food half-cooked, cloth half-woven as they gathered at the edge of their settlement to stare in awe at the shuttle easing down before them.
The pilot set the vehicle down gently at the edge of the large clearing that surrounded the alien town. She’d carefully avoided anything that looked like it could be cultivated, taken care to avoid damaging anything that could potentially be someone’s property, and made sure to give the contact team room to open a lead if they had to run. The ramp eased down, and Fluttershy and her small party walked out, approaching the clustered aliens slowly and carefully.
The aliens’ reaction wasn’t hostile in the slightest. One of them, the tallest and least brightly colored, let out a loud whoop, and the creatures lifted long arms to the sky, beginning a song that was beautiful to hear. They chanted and danced in place as Fluttershy stepped out in front of her ponies.
“See, Rainbow?” Twilight said gently, “Fluttershy has it under control.”
“Hmph.” Was the pegasus’s only reply.
She was quiet while they watched the creature who had set off the singing and dancing approach the ponies with an air of reverence. The reptilian spoke in quiet, gentle tones that Fluttershy replied to in kind, though neither understood the other. Fluttershy’s translation systems went to work on the alien’s speech, but they would need a much bigger sample before they gave any kind of results.
“I don’t like this,” Rainbow said suddenly.
Twilight frowned. “Don’t like what?”
“That.” Rainbow brought up a pointer on the screen, indicating where the aliens, still engaged in their oddly hypnotic dance, had started to move closer to the ponies onplanet, spreading out to look at them from all sides.
“It’s all right, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, trying to reassure her friend. “Look, they’re peaceful. Fluttershy knows what she’s doing. Just relax.”
“I still think we shoulda had Wardens along,” Rainbow grumbled. On the main screen, the feed from the landing party zoomed in a bit to show the details of the brightly colored, scaled aliens singing joyfully, stretching their arms to the sky as they danced. Fluttershy and her aide were still trading soft words with what now appeared to be the tribal leader, giving their translator systems as big a sample as possible.
“You know why Fluttershy refused that, Rainbow.” Twilight chided.
“Yeah. I know, I was outta line, but it’s still stupid to have no guards at all.” Rainbow glanced at the screen again. “And something about this is giving me the creeps. I don’t like how they’re moving around Fluttershy’s group.”
“I can’t imagine why that would bother you, darling, they seem like lovely people.” Rarity spoke up, shooting a sidelong look at the pegasus. “Though I do have to thank you for actually following orders this time.”
Rainbow hung her head again. “I get it, Rarity. I’m not used to not being the one in charge, so I over…” On the screen, one of the reptilian aliens leaned down to embrace one of the first contact team. Rainbow’s eyes widened. “That’s not good. That’s not good! Get ‘em out of there, Twilight!”
“What? Why?” Twilight looked at the screen in puzzlement, just in time to see the alien draw a long claw across the throat of the unicorn mare it embraced. Blood fountained from her neck as she stumbled to her knees, and the song of the rest of the tribe reached a new crescendo. There was stunned, unbelieving silence on the bridge and among the rest of the diplomatic team.
Rainbow barely even paused. She whirled on Twilight. “Twi, can we teleport down?”
Twilight blinked, as a chorus of screams erupted among the diplomats and the bridge crew looked at each other, wondering what in the world to do. “Uh… no, I don’t have the range…”
Rainbow snarled a curse and whirled toward the exit. “Rarity, I’m going, don’t try to stop me!” Without another word, the pegasus galloped out into the corridor.
Rarity finally managed to make her voice work, and croaked out, “The Wardens have full clearance.” A nearby communications officer nodded, turning to speak quietly to her console.
Twilight rushed to follow Rainbow, but the Warden Commander was unbelievably quick. By the time the unicorn made it out into the corridor, she saw the lift doors closing. Rainbow had been fast in her youth, but with her cybernetic enhancements she bordered on the supernatural. Twilight made a snap decision, and with a quick focusing of her thoughts teleported into the lift next to Rainbow, who barely batted an eye at the lavender unicorn’s appearance. “Hey, Twi, if we can’t teleport down, can you teleport me to the shuttle bay?”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “Well, yes, I think I could…”
“Do it. Seconds count.” Twilight was taken aback by the curt tone of the order, especially since she was the one who was supposed to be giving the orders on this mission. Still, speed mattered. She focused again, drawing on her knowledge of the Dauntless’s internal layout, and in another flash of power transported the two of them to the main shuttle bay. Several Wardens staggered in, carrying their equipment, not having had the time to put it on yet.
“Wintergreen,” Rainbow snapped, “Which shuttle?”
“That one Comman- Lieutenant,” the enormous, pale green earth pony mare leading the group responded, pointing to one of the shuttles. Twilight recognized the name and voice of the mare who’d been leading the escort squad on the last world they’d landed on. Looking at her now, it was clear that the armor wasn’t the only thing that had been making her look that big.
“Right. Everyone onboard, now.” Rainbow paused, and Twilight felt the ghostly sensation of arcane communications as the multicolored mare interfaced with the data net. “We’re ready for launch, let’s go people!”
“But what about the rest…” one of the unicorn Wardens started to say, but she was interrupted by the shuttle bay’s speakers activating.
“They’ve just killed another, Rainbow,” Rarity’s strained voice said, “please, please hurry.”
“Dammit. We wait for the rest of the squad, and ponies die.” Rainbow said, grimly. “Move it!” The Wardens hustled into the shuttle, lugging their equipment. Rainbow turned to Twilight. “Are you coming along? It might be a bad idea…”
Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m coming.”
“Fine. No time to argue, come on.” Rainbow hurried up the ramp, Twilight close behind. The pegasus banged on the door to the pilot compartment. “Everypony’s aboard. Go!” She then hustled over to help her troopers don their gear as the boarding ramp hissed closed and the shuttle started to move. None of them had their powered armor; the heavy battle suits took time to power up and don, and evidently none of them wanted to take that extra time. Instead, they had weapon harnesses, many of which needed to be straightened out before being put on. “Dammit,” Rainbow muttered again, making Twilight wish once more that she hadn‘t picked up that particular habit from Duran. “Why didn’t I have a squad standing by in armor for a combat drop? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should’ve been ready.”
“It isn’t your fault, Rainbow, you couldn’t have predicted…” Twilight said soothingly, but the cyberpegasus cut her off.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. I dropped the ball, now there’s dead ponies and there might be more because I wasn’t ready.” Rainbow tightened the strap on Wintergreen’s weapon harness. “You good, Wintergreen?”
“Sure am, boss.” The mare took the grip of her weapon in her teeth, moving it carefully to test its fit. “Good to go.”
Twilight had brought up a feed from the ground team, and closed her eyes in agony. Another pony had just been murdered. The locals were surrounding them now, preventing them from escaping. Fluttershy and Velvet Glove were desperately trying to talk to the aliens, trying to find out why they were doing what they were doing, but there were only four ponies left alive and they weren’t making any progress.
“Dammit!” Rainbow swore again. “We’re not gonna get there in time! Desperate measures time.” She pulled open a wall locker, retrieving a breathing mask that fit over the head and ears, attached to a small air tank. Quickly, the Warden Commander slipped the mask onto her head.
Wintergreen moved up to block Rainbow’s path. “Boss. You’re not thinking of doing what I’m thinking you’re thinking, are you?”
Rainbow glared at the big earth pony mare, her wings flaring aggressively. “Get outta my way, Wintergreen. Right now.”
“What are you doing, Rainbow?” Twilight asked. The shuttle was clear of the Dauntless, and starting its descent, but nowhere near landing.
“She’s gonna do a free drop.” Wintergreen explained, not looking away from Rainbow’s eyes. “Which is stupid for a bunch of reasons, including the one that she’s unarmed.”
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed behind the clear visor, and she raised a forehoof, wicked metal talon-blades sliding free of the cybernetic limb. “I am never unarmed, sergeant. Now move, or I will move you. My friends need me.”
“A free drop? Without armor?” Twilight gasped. “But that’s…”
“It’s borderline suicidal.” Wintergreen interrupted. “Commander Dash is the only one who’s ever even tried it…”
Rainbow interrupted. “I’ve done it. Twice. I can do reentry faster than the shuttle can.”
“Can you do it and be in any shape to help at the end of it?” Wintergreen didn’t back down. Instead, she pressed forward, glaring into Rainbow’s eyes and ignoring the savage glint in the pegasus‘s rosy irises. Twilight considered it one of the most courageous things she’d ever seen; Rainbow was in a killing mood, and Twilight didn’t think she’d have had the courage to stand in the pegasus’s way right now, friend or not, let alone try to stare her down. “I’ve been there both times you’ve tried this, boss. You got messed up bad. Both times.”
Rainbow ground her teeth. “I’ll either be in shape to help, or when I hit I’ll distract ‘em for a few seconds so you can fly in to the rescue. Now get. Out. Of. My. Way. You’ve got five seconds.” The rainbow-haired mare’s voice was so flat and cold it gave Twilight chills.
Wintergreen glared for another frozen moment before finally stepping aside, shaking her head. “Your funeral, boss. Hope this thing has a broom onboard so I can sweep up the bits.”
Rainbow flashed a savage grin. “Maybe one of the maintenance bots has a wet-vac. You and the team be ready to go in hard, just in case I go in a little too hard.” The earth pony nodded soberly.
“Good luck, boss.”
Rainbow hit the airlock control, and was in and gone before Twilight could formulate a protest of her own. The lavender unicorn turned to Wintergreen in horror, as the Kestrel started to shudder in the first wisps of the upper atmosphere. “T-tell me she didn’t just do that. Tell me one of my best friends didn’t just jump out of a shuttle. Outside the atmosphere.”
The Warden shook her head. “‘Fraid I can’t tell you that, ma’am. Commander. Since that’s what she did.” She looked morose. “Celestia, I hope she does better this time.”
“What happened the other times?!” Twilight asked incredulously. “When were the other times? I never got a report on this!”
“It’s ‘cause the Commanders decided it was a really bad idea.” Wintergreen observed, glaring at the orange-coated pegasus Warden that was staring at the closed door, the only pegasus in the squad who had made it to the shuttle in time. “Which means you’re not following her, Blaze.” The other Warden glanced at the big mare guiltily, then went back to securing her weapon. Wintergreen turned back to Twilight. “She crashed both times. Hard. Couldn’t slow down fast enough.” She heaved a sigh. “Broke all six limbs and all of her ribs the first time. And yeah, that includes the metal ones and the bone reinforcements since she already had ‘em by then. Plus skull fractures and a bunch of other stuff. Miracle she didn’t die. She would have if we hadn’t had a med team right there, ‘cause I was sure something was gonna go wrong. Took her almost six months to recover; there was organ damage, and her muscles were just shredded on top of the broken stuff.” Twilight gasped in horror, and Wintergreen smiled thinly. “And then she goes and does it again two freaking months after she gets out of the hospital. Second time was almost as bad; all four legs, one wing, and only half her ribs, plus more skull fractures, like those matter to Commander Dash.” The green mare shook her head again. “She swears she figured it out, but Applejack stopped the tests after the second time, told Dash never to do it again, and told me to just pick her up and slam her against the wall until the wall broke if she tried since that’d probably hurt her less.” The green mare paused. “Aw, dang, Gramma’s gonna be mad at me. There’s not even a dent in the wall.”
The last bit, said with gloomy certainty, made Twilight blink, even in context with the other shocks Wintergreen had just piled on her. It took the unicorn a moment to realize that this was probably another of Applejack’s descendants; she’d been the only one of the Bearers to have foals, and she had dozens and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren by now. Probably great-great grandchildren, too, Twilight hadn’t been to her family gatherings in a while.
“So, you’re…” Twilight tried to think of a way to put it delicately, trying to distract herself from the fact that they might land to find Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie dead and Rainbow Dash nothing but a red crater. Wintergreen interrupted her.
“Commander Applejack’s my grandam, if that’s what you’re trying not to ask. And yeah, I know I don’t look much like her or grandad,” Applejack’s stallion, an earth pony named Ivory, had been rather small and slender for a stallion even in his youth, and Applejack, though solidly built, wasn’t terribly large either. Wintergreen, by contrast, was huge for a mare. She’d be big for a stallion. “I kinda take after great-uncle Mac, or so I’ve heard.” She did, at that. Unless Twilight’s memory was slipping (it wasn’t, she’d tested that) Wintergreen was actually bigger than Applejack’s brother had been. She had a trace of the Apple clan’s distinctive accent, too, just barely enough to notice when one knew to look for it.
Twilight shook her head, focusing back on the situation. Her horn glowed as she connected to the shuttle’s communications system, bringing up an illusory screen with the feed from the landing party. Wintergreen sidled up to look over her shoulder. (Actually over her head) Twilight spared a glance for the huge mare. “You… may not want to watch this.”
Wintergreen snorted quietly. “Commander, I may be a sergeant on this run, but back home I’m a major with twenty years in the Wardens. I’ve seen ponies die before.” She sighed. “We try our best to make sure it doesn’t happen, but we don’t always succeed.”
Twilight started to respond, but she was interrupted by a babble of voices coming from the screen as the audio feed connected. Fluttershy and her assistant were still trying desperately to communicate with the aliens but were clearly getting nowhere, Pinkie was looking around desperately, shaking, and the other member of the team that still survived was crying, huddling behind the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy had one of the aliens pinned in her deadly glare, but she could only look one direction at a time. Other aliens were closing from the sides, still singing and dancing almost ecstatically. Three ponies lay dead, two with their throats neatly slit, the third sporting wounds on her face and shoulders as well. She’d tried to fight, but had been overwhelmed.
“How long will it take Rainbow to get there?” Twilight asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
“Anywhere from about thirty seconds from now onward.” Wintergreen replied, levelly. “The longer it takes her, the better the chances she won’t just splat.” Twilight’s heart stuttered in her chest at the thought. She brought up the shuttle’s ETA on the screen: four and a half minutes.
Twilight and Wintergreen watched the screen grimly as the Kestrel bucked and shuddered, smashing its way through the atmosphere. Thirty seconds passed. No sign of Rainbow. Thirty-five. Next to Twilight, Wintergreen relaxed almost imperceptibly. Four seconds after that, a line of rainbow-colored light streaked down out of the sky and smashed into the ground, and a massive dust cloud blotted out the view for a moment. The alien song stopped abruptly. Wintergreen tensed again. “Auntie, oh Celestia, no…” she whispered to herself, her voice agonized.
The dust cloud settled, revealing Rainbow standing crouched between the first contact team and the bulk of the alien tribe. She was breathing hard, but didn’t appear to be injured. The knot in Twilight’s stomach relaxed, and Wintergreen let out the breath she’d been holding. "Oh, thank heavens..."
Rainbow angled her head to speak over her shoulder without taking her gaze from the aliens. “Stay close to me,” she instructed in an undertone, before turning back to face the aliens squarely, and growled, “Mine!”
The aliens erupted in a chorus of ululations, stamping their feet. Fluttershy stepped close to Rainbow, and Twilight could barely hear her voice over the feed from the lenseye. “Rainbow, where did you come from? I thought you were still on the Dauntless! Are you hurt? That landing was hard…”
“I’ll be fine,” Rainbow replied. “I flew out of the shuttle on the way down. They’ll be here in a minute, just stay close until they land.” One of the aliens stomped forward, and Rainbow stamped a forehoof, glaring at him. “Mine!” She growled again, loudly.
“They can’t understand you, Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy said, quietly.
“They’ll learn.” The cyan pegasus snarled. The alien gesticulated wildly, howling something, but Rainbow held her ground, staring the creature straight in the eyes.
The alien let out a screech and rushed her, but Rainbow was ready. She reared up and hopped to the side in an oddly unsteady motion. One cybernetic forelimb batted the alien’s arm aside, its extended claws swiping harmlessly at the air and twisting the alien to one side, and Rainbow turned the motion into a grapple, seizing the creature around the neck from the side as it stumbled off balance. Her other forelimb extended out to the side, the long talons sliding free and crackling with discharge as the disruption field generators activated. Rainbow slammed her talons home in the alien’s chest, the impact of the strike crushing the creature’s ribcage and driving her talons deep into its body, and gave a quick twist of her forehoof to dig the wound wider. A crisp twist of her shoulders threw the now-lifeless body back at the line of aliens. It rolled limply as it hit the ground. Rainbow’s talons snapped back into their housing, and she dropped back to all fours. “Mine!” she growled again. The entire fight had taken maybe a second and a half.
Beside Twilight, Wintergreen drew a sudden breath. “She’s hurt.” The big mare turned to the orange-coated pegasus she’d rebuked before. “Blaze, we’re low enough. Go. Now.” Her voice was strained. The other Warden gave a curt nod, ducking out the airlock quick as a blink, as though unencumbered by the bulk of the weapon she carried.
“She’s hurt?” Twilight asked, “I didn’t see that thing even touch her! Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Wintergreen replied with certainty. “Not the fight, the landing. Her leg’s hurt; right hindleg, looks like, maybe both hindlegs. She probably took the impact with her back legs so she’d have the front ones free to fight.” The earth pony shook her head. “She’s trying to hide it, but it’s there if you know what to look for. Her left wing isn’t moving right, either.”
Twilight chewed her lip. She could see that the aliens were getting ready for another rush, and if more of them attacked, then Rainbow might not be able to hold all of them off if she was already injured.
The creatures made a fake-rush, either nerving themselves up or trying to draw Rainbow out of position, but she didn’t fall for it. They fell back, and then two of them charged. Rainbow set herself, getting ready to receive the attack, but she didn’t have to. A brilliant bolt of arcane power streaked out of the sky, striking one of the aliens squarely in the torso and literally blowing its body apart in an explosion of singed blood and tissue, and the second screeched in dismay and fell back. Rainbow glanced up, and the lenseye (Pinkie’s lenseye, as she suddenly realized) that Twilight was looking through had just enough field of view to pick up the orange pegasus Warden hovering over the group of ponies, weapon stock gripped in her teeth, watching the aliens closely. Rainbow nodded calmly in greeting.
“Nice timing, trooper.”
“Thanks, Com- Lieutenant.” The flying pegasus didn’t relax, and the aliens fell back, clearly cowed by the bolt that had obliterated the attacking creature.
“Okay, troops,” Wintergreen said to the rest of the Wardens in the shuttle, “We’re landing in twenty, but it looks like hostilities are abated. Be ready, but we don’t need to go in shooting.” The shuttle shivered as it transitioned from level to vertical flight, and the Wardens nodded. Wintergreen turned to Twilight. “Probably be best if you stayed behind us, Commander.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like I’m helpless, you know. My friends and I have been dealing with monsters and such since long before you were born, sergeant. I can handle myself.”
Wintergreen nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I understand that. But we’re less important, and you haven’t worked with the Wardens in quite a while, so I’d just rather we did the fighting so we don’t trip over each other. And with us in front, if anything does go wrong, we can take the brunt.”
“A fair point.” She hadn’t worked with the Wardens in a long time. Almost forty years now, actually, they had plenty of mages of their own nowadays and didn’t need to borrow her expertise. “All right, sergeant, I’ll stay out of the way. But I’m not staying behind in the shuttle.”
Wintergreen saluted. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.”
The Kestrel settled to the ground, and the ramp hissed down. The Warden squad galloped out, surrounding the terrified contact team, leaving one unicorn to guard the ramp. Under the Warden ponies’ watchful eyes, the remaining diplomats hustled to the ramp and up onto the shuttle, Fluttershy sparing a look at Rainbow Dash, who hadn’t moved from where she’d landed. Twilight stopped to speak to the pink-haired pegasus and the earth pony who was sticking near her. “Pinkie, Fluttershy, you okay?”
Pinkie was silent, wide-eyed, and Fluttershy nodded. “I’m not hurt. As to whether I’m okay…” she shook her head. “I’m… I have no idea why this happened. I thought it was going to be peaceful. I thought…”
Fluttershy’s aide, Velvet Glove, stepped up next to her. “I don’t think any of us expected that, miss.” The pegasus stallion’s voice was low, pained. “That came out of nowhere. They were happy and peaceful, and then…” He trailed off. Fluttershy nodded wordlessly, and she and Pinkie followed him and the other survivor up the ramp. That had been a very close thing.
Twilight followed Wintergreen over to where Rainbow stood, still glaring at the aliens, who hadn’t retreated far. Struck by a thought, Twilight glanced under the Kestrel, but didn’t see any bodies. That was something, at least; with the hurry the Wardens had been in, she doubted the shuttle pilot would have cared a bit if she’d had to land on one or more of the aliens.
“How bad you hurt, boss?” Wintergreen was asking, barely loud enough to be heard.
“Bad.” Rainbow replied shortly. “Not as bad as I’d expected, but you’re gonna have to carry my butt outta here, and from the way they’re acting I think they’ll attack when you do.”
“What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash? Can I help?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow glanced over her shoulder, meeting Twilight’s eyes. She could see the pain that the pegasus was trying to bury. “Not unless you’ve got a cybertech kit with you.” Rainbow replied. “Got a torn tendon in my left wing, and my left hindleg’s jacked up. That’s not so bad, but my right hindleg feels like it’s half-separated. I can feel blood in the joint, and it hurts pretty bad.” She bit her lip and shot a look at Wintergreen. “I’m half-afraid it’ll fall off when you pick me up.”
“Oh, Celestia, Rainbow.” Twilight exclaimed. She looked closely at the artificial limb, and this close she could see the damage. Parts of the limb had twisted and bent with the force of the cyan pegasus’s landing, and several of the artificial muscle attachments had torn free entirely. There was a noticeable gap in the components around Rainbow’s hip, and a looseness in the joint that was seriously frightening. Twilight could indeed see blood welling in the gap, suggesting that the interface between the mechanical limb and Rainbow’s body had been badly, badly damaged.
Rainbow ignored the outburst. She glanced over her shoulder. “Okay, troops, I think they’re gonna rush us when Big Green here picks me up. Be ready.”
There was a chuckle from the Wardens. “Aw, c’mon, boss, just have the Major carry the shuttle over here!” One called.
“That’s enough, trooper.” Wintergreen said calmly. “And I’m a sergeant on this run, just like you’re not.” There was a general, cheerful grumble that surprised Twilight, considering the bodies that lay around them. “Let me know when you’re ready, boss.”
“No.” Twilight interjected, drawing a surprised look from the huge green mare. “I’ll carry you, Rainbow. I can lift you without putting stress on your leg. What’s more, if those creatures charge us, let me handle it.”
Rainbow sagged slightly. “Thanks, Twilight. I was… a little worried about having Wintergreen lift me.” A tiny bit of relief tinged her voice, telling Twilight how frightened she must have been, and for good reason. If the cybernetic leg did fall off, the subsequent blood loss could prove fatal in very short order. Twilight nodded.
“Whenever you’re ready, Rainbow Dash.”
“No reason to wait.” Rainbow glared at the aliens again. “Okay, troopers, only fire if the enemy gets close. Let Twilight handle it otherwise. Fire Blaze, you keep watch until we’re aloft, then rejoin.”
A murmured chorus of assent ensued, and Twilight focused her energy. A soft violet glow engulfed Rainbow Dash, and the unicorn carefully, gently lifted her friend off the ground, starting to move her slowly to the shuttle. The aliens pointed at Rainbow’s levitating form hanging limply in the air, talking angrily among themselves.
With a sudden howl, the aliens charged en masse. Twilight felt a rush of rage that she hadn’t felt in decades, knowing that these creatures wanted to hurt her friends, to take advantage of Rainbow’s injury, evidently thinking that with the pegasus out of the way there was nothing to stop them.
They were wrong.
A rush of power filled the unicorn. Her horn glowed white as she fed magic into it. A shockwave blasted outward, flowing smoothly around the Wardens, not even ruffling the ponies’ manes with its passage. The violet light slammed into the charging aliens with the force of an onrushing train, hurling them off of their feet and flinging them backward through the air, slamming them into the row of huts behind them hard enough to crack the wooden walls.
Twilight wasn’t done.
She tweaked the energy subtly. As it contacted the huts, it adhered, molding itself against the wood. Before the creatures could fall from where they’d smashed into the walls, shoots of green grew from the splintered wood, wrapping themselves tightly around the creatures’ limbs. The creatures on the other side of the shuttle, or those who had missed the huts, skidded along the ground until they too found themselves snagged and engulfed by growing plants.
Twilight felt a slight flicker of pride. A hundred and thirteen hostile aliens, immobilized simultaneously by a combination of two spells, the second being one spell cast dozens of times in the space of a heartbeat. Practice, after all, made perfect.
“Damn, Twi.” Rainbow shook her head in awe. “I forget sometimes just how good you are.”
“Thank you, Rainbow.” Twilight responded calmly. “And please don’t curse.” Rainbow just shook her head again.
“Whatever you say, Commander.” Rainbow sagged in Twilight’s telekinetic grip. “I’m… I’m gonna… pass out now…” The pegasus’s eyes rolled back, and she went limp.
Twilight was frightened for a moment, but she saw Rainbow’s sides still moving as she breathed and sighed in relief.
“You two,” Wintergreen snapped at the pegasus still hovering over the scene and the earth pony next to her, “watch them and blow them away if they get loose. No screwing around with warning shots. You two,” she pointed to the two unicorns, “check the fallen and recover the bodies. Move it!” The two unicorn Wardens darted forward, while Twilight carried Rainbow back to the shuttle and the other armed ponies watched the trapped aliens through narrow, angry eyes.
“Alive!” one of the unicorns called, “I’ve got a live one! All our medics are still aboard ship! Can anypony do a stasis spell?!” Twilight’s head whipped around and saw one of the injured ponies moving, though her movements were growing more sluggish. The Warden was standing over the wounded pegasus with a desperate grimace on her face, her horn glowing as she frantically tried to force a healing spell, but her cutie mark was a spear superimposed over an eye and healing was clearly not one of her talents. Twilight focused, closing her eyes and concentrating on not dropping Rainbow Dash as she wove the spell that would freeze time around the wounded pony’s body, finally releasing the threads of power to snap shut around the dying diplomat.
The Warden’s head jerked up and her eyes met Twilight’s. “Thanks, Commander.”
“That spell won’t last forever! Everypony on the shuttle, let’s go!” Twilight trotted back up to the shuttle, trailed by the unicorn Wardens who passed the wounded pony up first, followed by the dead ones. The Wardens didn’t like to leave fallen ponies behind, and in this case Twilight was in complete agreement; she didn’t want to leave those poor diplomats on an alien world.
Twilight settled Rainbow’s unconscious form on the deck, being very careful not to jar her damaged leg. The cyberpegasus lay limp on the floor, her breathing slow and regular, and Twilight bit her lip as she catalogued her friend’s injuries. She hadn’t gotten a scratch in the fight, but that landing had been another matter. Her left wing wasn’t folding properly, indicating that the torn tendon had been attached to the adductor muscles, and her left leg wasn’t moving right. Her left hip might be dislocated or cracked, which fit with the damage to her right leg. With that much damage to her hips and hind legs, there was a good chance her lower spine had been damaged as well… it was a miracle that she’d been able to move like she had. Though she’d probably made the damage worse by doing so.
She glanced aside at the wounded diplomat, frozen in time with a hideous wound on her neck. The expression of fear and despair on her face made Twilight shudder, and she looked away again as Wintergreen and the other two Wardens on watch backed into the shuttle. “Okay, pilot, go!” The sergeant snapped, keeping her weapon trained out the door. “Commander Dash is hurt, burn atmo back to the ship!”
“Confirmed, turnin’ and burnin’.” The pilot’s calm voice came back, the shuttle lifting even as the ramp closed. A short distance away, the other shuttle was doing likewise, lifting off to return to the Dauntless. Twilight sent a dispelling pulse toward the alien village, disrupting the spell that held them, though a spiteful part of her wanted to leave the creatures trapped like that forever.
The shuttle streaked back up to the Dauntless at full power, atmospheric friction making its nose and wings glow while Twilight and one of the Wardens held Rainbow Dash still against the deck, trying to keep the Kestrel’s vibration from making the damage to her artificial hindleg worse.
The hangar deck swarmed with activity when they arrived. Medics flooded into the Kestrel the second the hatch opened, ignoring the heat radiating from the shuttle’s nose, taking the wounded diplomat out first to try to save her life before the stasis spell wore off. Others surrounded Rainbow Dash, fitting an oxygen mask to her face and attaching various biomonitors to her body. One of them grimaced, examining the damage to her right hindleg. “Celestia’s horn,” the unicorn stallion said softly. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen a cyberlimb damaged that didn’t just rip it off.”
“Is that a danger?” Twilight asked him, with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie hovering anxiously behind her.
“It absolutely is.” The medic shook his head. “We’re going to have to be very careful moving her.” He glanced up and watched the others carry the diplomat out. “Cast! Bonesaw! Help me get her out to the carry field, we’re going to have to be seriously well-balanced here!” Two other unicorns lowered their heads, and the three of them very gradually lifted the unconscious Warden in their telekinetic grip, shuffling their feet and clearly concentrating hard as they shepherded her out. Twilight followed.
Every Warden in the ship was crammed into the hangar. Not just the ground troops with their red rank-bands, but blue-banded engineers, green-banded support personnel, even the gold bands of bridge crew and command-level officers. Pegasi hovered in the air or stood in the high spots, while unicorns and earth ponies crowded the main deck. They had already opened a ruler-straight channel to the exit, allowing the medics to move freely.
Their expressions were stricken, mixing worry and fear in equal parts. Many had tears in their eyes, including the grim-faced Wingblade who Twilight could see perched on a nearby shuttle, her gold rank-band making her stand out.
The medics placed Rainbow Dash in a carry field generated by a medical drone, hooking the monitoring gear that studded her body to the drone’s input systems, and started carefully guiding the machine out. As one, in perfect unison that the Royal Guard would have grudgingly approved, the Wardens filling the hangar slammed to attention, legs straight and heads held high.
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie watched them go. They didn’t follow; none of them could help, and they’d only get in the way. Twilight intended to go by the medical bay immediately, though, as soon as the bay cleared.
The Wardens were stock-still and utterly silent until the medic team had left the bay. Then they spoke among themselves, voices low and hushed as they filed out, headed back to their stations.
Twilight felt someone approaching, and turned to see Applejack, an angry expression in her green eyes.
“Applejack,” Fluttershy said, “I’m so, so sorry, you were…”
The orange-coated mare ignored the pegasus‘s words, glaring at Twilight. “Maybe next time you’ll buckin’ listen to us instead a’ blowing us off.” Applejack’s voice was a growl, and Twilight felt a sudden wrenching spike of guilt. Barely a day after she’d made that promise to Rainbow, and she’d done exactly what the pegasus had accused her of, and done it so thoughtlessly that she hadn’t even been aware of it. She’d broken her promise, betrayed Rainbow just as the pegasus had betrayed her when the Tazaft had landed. She cringed inwardly, closing her eyes, knowing what a terrible mistake she’d made.
Applejack’s gaze flicked aside to Wintergreen. “Wintergreen. Good work out there.”
The huge mare ducked her head. “I didn’t do much, gramma. Auntie Dash did all the hard work.” She glanced guiltily back to the Kestrel. “The wall isn’t even broke. Sorry.”
Applejack snorted. “Ain’t none of us perfect. I’ll let you off the hook this time, youngun, but next time there better be a hole in that wall, or I'll tan your hide.” She flashed another glare at Twilight and Fluttershy, neither of them able to meet her gaze, and settled on Pinkie, giving her a much gentler look. “You okay, Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah. I’m not hurt.” Her voice was small, quiet.
Applejack eyed her. “Not hurt ain’t the same as okay, sugarcube. You want to talk, you come find me, hear? Any time, day or night.” Pinkie nodded wordlessly, and Applejack turned to leave.
“Applejack.” At the sound of her name, the earth pony stopped and turned back to Twilight. “I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. I ignored your input, and ponies died because of it.” Twilight’s mouth twisted. “And right after I promised Rainbow Dash I wouldn’t do that.”
“You were right,” Fluttershy added quietly. “You were both right, and I was wrong. I should have had some of your ponies with me.”
Applejack sighed. “Well, ‘tain’t nothin’ we can do about it now. Y’all just remember goin’ forward that sometimes Rainbow and I give good advice. Maybe not all the time, but don’t just ignore us.”
“I won’t.” Twilight said firmly, echoed by Fluttershy. The unicorn sighed. “Look, I’m going to go down to the medical bay and see how Rainbow Dash and the survivor are doing.”
Fluttershy said quietly, “Her name’s Summer Breeze. I’m going too.”
“Reckon I’ll go along too.” Applejack cracked a very small smile. “Can probably teach you two about waitin’ around for somepony to get outta surgery.”
The three turned to leave, but suddenly a intraship comm window popped up in front of Twilight. Chatterbox, the ship’s comm officer, looked anxiously out of it. “Commander! Sorry to bother you, I know you’re busy, but this could be important!”
Twilight cocked her head. “Yes? What is it?”
“Well, ma’am, I was running through the information on the Council’s encoding schemas, and on an impulse I ran the stuff we got from those stray comm lasers that brushed us after the battle. Most of it was too garbled to make anything out of, but I did get this!” A second window appeared, with a schematic of a solar system in it.
“Okay, so they were sending a map to their ships?”
“Yes, ma’am! It’s got coordinates marked, this is just a tiny part of a large message. We don’t have their coordinate system, unfortunately, so we can’t read that. But! The star was tagged with its stellar class and luminosity! I had to dig into the message some to find it, but that’s one of the few parts that aren’t garbled!”
“So what are you saying?”
Excitement crept into the stallion’s tone. “Ma’am… I think this is a rendezvous location, and with the information on the star, I was able to find it! It’s one of the ones on the Tazaft charts!” He grinned. “Best of all, it’s not a base or depot location! Weren’t you trying to find a place where you could encounter a Council fleet?”
Well, a fleet that they’d already fought wasn’t exactly ideal… but it was an opportunity to see if they could communicate with the new information they’d gotten. “Cross-reference that location with Council speed projections. When will they get there?”
There was a pause. “It looks like they got there a few hours ago, ma’am. We might still be able to catch them!”
Twilight nodded, and opened up another window to the ship’s captain. “Silver Stars, set course for the jump limit. Get the destination coordinates from Chatterbox, but don’t jump until I get there. I need to check on Rainbow Dash and Summer Breeze, so it may be a while.”
The ice-blue unicorn nodded. “Understood, ma’am. Can I make a suggestion, ma’am?”
“Go ahead.”
“This is near the end of the shift. Might I respectfully suggest that we spend off-shift lingering at the system edge, and have the off-shift crew run readiness checks? We could jump at the beginning of the next main shift.”
Twilight blinked. Oh. Right. Ponies need sleep. “I’m not sure if this is time-critical or not… but it would probably be a better idea to go into it rested. All right, we’ll do it your way.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Silver Stars disconnected.
Well, we have a destination, at least, Twilight mused as she trotted off to the medical bay, Fluttershy and Applejack close at her heels.