Rarity hummed gently to herself as she ran the two lengths of fabric simultaneously down her sewing machine, allowing it to join the two pieces together with a perfection that was second nature to her. While her business of hoof-made garments had degraded to being more of a niche market over the years, she was still able to regularly keep herself busy with at least one commission. This current garment was of particular importance, its soon-to-be owner being one Amethyst Melody. She was to be head bridesmaid at the wedding of her friend, and Rarity’s younger sister, Sweetie Belle.
Rarity had already made two matching dresses for Sweetie's older friends Applebloom and Scootaloo, both of whom were also to be bridesmaids, but narrowly missed out on the honor of head bridesmaid. Whilst they were indeed her oldest friends, the sad facts of life meant that they’d drifted gradually apart as they aged through no fault of their own, and Amethyst took her place at Sweetie’s side as her closest friend shortly before the pair had moved to Canterlot together.
Sweetie was very fortunate, as her talent of singing had turned itself into an incomparable career, making her one of the biggest celebrities in Equestria. She’d first met Amethyst only a few years ago, during an alcohol fueled karaoke night in the Crooked Chimney Pub in Ponyville. Sweetie had knocked back more than a few hard ciders, and had grown tired of all the drunken stallions singing love songs to their special someponies in the audience. She'd proceeded to rapidly down several shots of dandelion vodka before walking straight onto the stage and bringing the house down with her rendition of "Somepony That I Used To Know". She'd then got the shock of her life when another equally drunk pegasus pony with a pale blue coat and a vibrant purple mane joined her on stage, and turned it into a mare-on-mare duet with singing that was just as impressive.
The pair had moved to Canterlot a few months later, into an apartment generously funded by Amethyst's parents, where they began a career as singers in the various nightclubs scattered throughout the city. Eventually they were noticed by talent scouts, and soon they became singing sensations touring all across Equestria and into the lands far beyond. It brought a tear to her eye as Rarity reminisced about the days when Sweetie would spend all day with her friends, trying every conceivable activity under the sun in vain efforts to earn their cutie marks. It was just hard to accept that her sister was no longer a filly.
Her mind may have drifted away to distant memories, but her motor functions were on autopilot, and the dress was beginning to take shape. Like the ones she’d made for Applebloom and Scootaloo it was pure white, sewn together with strands interwoven with gold flecks and finished with a trim of diamonds that adorned the hem. The bridal gown she’d made for Sweetie herself was similar, but while the bridesmaid dresses were one-piece, the bridal gown was far more elaborate. The skirt of it consisted of several layers that alternated pure white and cream, the entirety of which was covered in tiny gems that sparkled beautifully but subtly in the light, shimmering but not blinding. It was truly a wonder to behold, as Rarity had taken everything she’d learned over the years and pushed herself to her creative limit. It was worth it though, to see Sweetie’s reaction when it had been unveiled to her.
It was as she sewed the last pieces of the skirt together that her eyes wandered to the clock at the edge of her workstation. She was stunned to learn it was approaching ten o’clock at night. She’d been working on the bridesmaid dresses for five straight hours. She had luckily been uninterrupted for the duration of that time, but it was getting extremely late and it was due for her to call it a night. She was approaching a deep level of fatigue from her work, and she hadn't even made her nightly report yet. Sighing, she gently laid the half finished dress on the mannequin next to the other dresses, before she went about removing the thread from the sewing machine and returning it to one of her many drawers.
The small television built into the wall above her workstation was playing another dreary talent competition where everypony tried to gain sympathy and progress forward with pathetic sob stories, but as was the norm for Rarity, she’d only had it on as background noise. She quickly turned it off and returned her work glasses to the small case she kept on the worktop, and made sure everything was packed away where it belonged before she made her way across the large room.
The room itself fell into an eerie silence as the surround speakers attached to the television cut out, the only noise being Rarity’s hoofsteps as she stepped off the carpet and onto the polished metal which served as a clear division between the two sides of the room. On the one side was where Rarity would spend the majority of her day. It looked quite simply like a modern apartment. A deep shag carpet covered the majority of it, except the small kitchenette which was floored with marble tiles. The large carpeted area, which was open plan, consisted of several different sections. Rarity’s workshop against the back wall was the biggest of these, containing several workstations, a couple of storage closets, and more mannequins than most ponies would know what to do with. In front of that sat a lounge area, with a large sofa and a flat screen that dwarfed every other piece of furniture around it. Next to that was the small kitchenette, crisp and modern with its marble tiles and the carbon fiber finish on the cupboards. It wasn’t the most elaborate kitchen in the world, but it was adequate and suited Rarity’s needs. To finish off was the large but rarely used dining table that sat on the edge of the room divide. In all the time she’d spent here, she’d only used it once when she’d first arrived and prepared a large buffet for her and her friends. It was a fine table made of sturdy dark mahogany, and though it was almost never used, Rarity enjoyed it being there both as a filler of empty space and for a decorative purpose.
For the long hours she spent in the room, Rarity was thankful for the comfortable surroundings. The other side of the room was a strong contrast to this, as it was almost completely bare, save for the computer array at the far end.
The console itself was several meters across, with a wide variety of controls that had taken a lot of practice to master. It was a sleek console, all the controls being touch sensitive, so when powered down it just looked like a metal slab, save for the screens around it, of which there were countless. At least, Rarity hadn’t yet attempted to count them. On top of that, it was never easy to monitor them all at once, as some were tuned into local news stations, whilst others were displaying live satellite feeds of weather patterns, and some were feeding various strings of numbers that were still extremely bewildering to look at, even after her extensive months of training.
As complex as the computer was, Rarity was beginning to manage it. It was worth being aboard, simply for the view out of the three large windows behind the console. To put it in Rarity’s words, out of the windows she could see everything she ever knew; the great continent of Equestria, the countless miles of desert in the Mild West, the grassy plains of Germaneigh. She could even follow the coastline with her eye, and without using the computer, see the Cloven Sea and work out the rough location of her home on Harmony Island. All of it thousands of miles away on the planet below.
She sat down at the swivel chair in front of the console, which she pulled in and proceeded to tap at a few of the touch sensitive buttons. A small screen rose up out of the back of the console right in front of her, which clicked into place as it began to display a flashing phone icon. The screen flashed like this for a few seconds, after which it was replaced by the smiling face of Twilight Sparkle as the video chat began.
“Well, good evening Rarity,” she said cheerfully. “Nice and on time, as always.”
“I’m sorry darling,” she replied, easily spotting the sarcastic undertones but making a careful effort to disguise her own. “I was working so hard on Amethyst’s dress, and I just lost track of time.”
“That’s fair enough, just please try not to make a habit of it. From now on it’s half nine every evening, as we agreed. Anyway, everypony down here’s getting really excited for the wedding.”
“I can't tell you how often I'm surprised by how quickly the time seems to fly by. I mean, there's barely even a week to go now. Is Sweetie there yet?”
“Sadly not,” Twilight said apologetically. “Her flight from Shanghay was delayed, but it’s not too bad. She’s due to be arriving in Baltimare early tomorrow morning, where Rainbow Dash will be waiting to pick her and Amethyst up. She'll be flying them back here in one of our jets."
Rarity sighed. She’d been hoping for a quick chat, but it could wait until tomorrow. "When did the flight leave?"
"She called me at... I think it must have been about half past two, our time. To quote her exactly, she said the ordeal had been bad, but no worse than whenever she got roped in to be a live model for you."
"Age doesn't seem to have affected how cheeky she can get," Rarity replied with a smirk.
"I figured you'd say something along those lines. But when she called, she said they were boarding at last. To tell you the truth, she sounded a bit flustered, but that doesn't really surprise me. Shanghay to Baltimare is at least a sixteen hour flight, so I imagine she'll be in a bit of a state when she finally gets here. They've got first class tickets, of course, but I don't see that making things any less stressful."
“Well, the stressful part is behind them.”
“Sixteen hours plus a four hour layover in Saddle Arabia?”
Rarity shrugged. “Well, you can’t win them all.”
“I thought you knew about the layover. Didn’t you go to Shanghay a few years back?”
“Yes, but I took the train for the most part. I’ll tell you, the scenery just a few miles out from that city is simply breathtaking.”
“Mmhmm, I’m sure Sweetie would calm right down if the scenery was nice.”
“Well, they can relax for the second leg of the flight, so that should calm her down to a bearable level by the time they land. What about the bridesmaids, have they made it to the island yet?”
“Well, like I said, Amethyst will be flying in with Sweetie. But Applebloom’s been here a week now, and Scootaloo got here yesterday afternoon.”
“I suppose Scootaloo’s been with Rainbow Dash ever since?”
“Yep, we saw them at dinner last night, but we’ve barely heard from them since.”
“She hasn’t taken her for a flight?”
Twilight shook her head. “I’ve told them, Wonderbird 1 stays in its hangar. If it’s needed on a rescue, I’ve promised Scootaloo she can ride along in the co-pilots seat, but leisure flights are out of the question. That goes for Applejack, Applebloom and Wonderbird 2 as well. Mind you, that hasn’t stopped them playing around inside the flight decks.”
“Well, as long as they stay grounded, surely there’s no real problem there?”
“I suppose, but it’s fair enough for me to be over cautious when grown mares start playing around like fillies in priceless one-of-a-kind rockets. Before I forget, let’s talk business for a couple of minutes; is there anything significant to report?”
Rarity glanced at the various screens around her, listing off the different situations each one displayed. “There’s a typhoon developing in the Antlertic Ocean a few hundred miles north of Hoofgorod, but its current trajectory means it’ll wear itself out before it has the chance to make land. There’s a forest fire in the Griffon Kingdom, but they seem to have it under control. And finally, Dappleshire is experiencing gale force winds, but local emergency services are currently able to cope just fine with it.”
“Nothing that needs our attention?”
“There doesn’t appear to be anything, no. I’ve just about got the hang of these computers, so if anything new develops, I should be able to figure out whether or not it merits our attention. But no, nothing for us today.”
Twilight sighed. “It’s nice when it’s quiet, but it also leaves me on edge. Make sure you keep tabs on the typhoon though.”
“I’ve set it to priority alerts until it dies out, so don’t worry about that. Besides, something will come up soon, there's no doubt about that.”
“Yeah, it always seems to. Anyhow, you’ve got a day left of your first shift, so how’s Wonderbird 5 doing?”
“She’s doing magnificently dear. I must say, you did a marvellous job on her.”
Twilight gently facehoofed. “I meant in a more technical sense.”
“Oh, sorry,” Rarity said with a blush, before she started tapping at the console.
The screen directly above her flashed with a schematic of the massive satellite, while the one to the side of it began to list various statistics.
“The fusion reactor is holding steady, the oxygen recycler is working perfectly, the radiation shields are maintaining, the artificial gravity is stable, and the station is holding a stable geostationary orbit of twenty two thousand, two hundred and thirty six miles above the planet. How’s that for technical, darling?”
"Good, good," Twilight said, nodding. "But what about your vital signs?"
"Darling, I do the checks every morning just as you asked me to. All the precautionary measures you took are working just fine. My pulse and breathing rate are normal for somepony my age, my sleeping pattern is fine, and so far I feel no different than I would do if I was stood next to you right now. Except for the way my heart flutters every time I look out the windows, that is."
Twilight grinned, slightly relieved. “That’s great Rarity. What about you though? I mean, how's day-to-day life on board suiting you?”
Rarity leaned back in her chair, smiling. “I simply love it here darling. I’m barely at the end of my first shift, and I can't think of anything that would make living up here better. It’s so peaceful, which means I can get work done easily. But nothing compares to the view I get out of the windows. It makes all the hardships worthwhile.”
“Yeah. We got a letter forwarded to you here the other day. I didn't open it of course, but I could tell pretty much right away that the writing on it belongs to Fancy Pants.”
“Hah!” Rarity laughed. “Crawling to me for money, no doubt. He’s been trying to get a portion of my dressmaking profits ever since I divorced him. He hasn’t succeeded yet, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.”
“Well you’re happier away from him, that’s the important part.”
“Thank Celestia we didn’t have any children, then I’d have been stuck with him.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I just want to make sure you know how everything’s going to go down when we come to get you in a couple of days.”
“Well, I plan to have everything packed and ready to go before tomorrow night.”
“Good, because Pinkie will be taking off in Wonderbird 3 at seven in the morning, meaning it’ll be there just after eight. I want you to have everything you need packed and waiting by the airlock for half seven, which should give you plenty of time to get the computers running on automatic before they get there.”
Rarity nodded, making a mental note of everything Twilight was telling her. The computers automatically recorded all calls, outgoing and incoming, so if she slipped up on any of the details, she could easily play the conversation back to herself. “What about food?”
“You’ll be bringing supplies back up there on the return journey. Okay, so Wonderbird 3 will be docking just after eight, and I want you all to be ready to make your way back by nine.”
“Us all? So it’s not just going to be Pinkie coming up here then?”
“No, Rainbow Dash and Applejack will be there to help you pack up and shut down the main systems, so you should have plenty of time. This will become a regular thing for you, so you may as well get it down to a fine art.”
“An hour to get everything loaded and shut down? That doesn’t sound like too much trouble.”
“Well, I don’t want the reactor going full power when you’re not there, so on the day I’ll be talking you through getting all but the essential systems shut down for the week. I see no point in wasting power. The procedure is a bit complex, so it should take most of the hour to do.”
“Okay, that makes sense. Anything else I need to know?”
“Nothing that won’t be told to you as and when you need to know it. If it all goes well, you’ll be back here, debriefed, and relaxing by the pool by half ten.”
“Excellent. I do love it here, but I do also miss lying in the deckchairs at the poolside. A nice book, a pina colada, and some of Gary Barnlow’s songs playing on my little CD player. It really is the textbook definition of paradise.”
“Still scared of swimming?”
Rarity's once tranquil expression immediately dissolved into a menacing scowl as she was snapped out of her state of delirium by one of her less pleasant memories. “I thought we agreed never to speak of that again,” she almost whispered as Twilight burst into a fit of giggles.
“Well,” Twilight said between chuckles, “At least next time you’ll pay more attention when I announce at dinner that Rainbow Dash will be doing a test flight early the next morning.”
“I repeat my previous statement,” Rarity said, her scowl deepening as the laughter on the screen continued.
“Okay okay, I’m sorry,” Twilight said as she wiped a tear away from her eye. “Have you done yourself a gown for the wedding?”
“Not yet," she replied, quietly overjoyed about the change in topic. "But I’ll have a few days when I get back, so I’ll be able to come up with something. Actually, that reminds me. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask to you about. I’ve been looking over the guest list. There’s going to be ponies from all over Equestria and beyond coming, but only a few of them are a part of Equestrial Rescue. What if an emergency call comes in?”
Twilight moaned softly. “I’ve been asked this a dozen times now. I should have held some kind of conference call about it. Only members of our organisation will actually be staying on the island beyond the wedding day. Everypony else will be flown to and from the mainland on the day via Celestia’s private plane.”
“So they spend the least amount of time possible on the island?”
“Exactly. If a call comes in the day before or the day after, then we’re fine. I know it’s hard, but if a call comes in on the day, we’re just going to have to ignore it.”
Rarity mulled this over for a few seconds. “We could have just had the wedding relocated to somewhere more convenient. Wouldn’t that make more sense?”
“It would, yes, but I promised Sweetie Belle we’d have it here, and we’re going to. That’s going by the original plan though; we weren’t meant to start operations until after the wedding.”
“Well, we have you to blame for that,” Rarity said semi-seriously. “You just had to send us out to that fire.”
“I still stand by my decision. We were capable of making it to the danger zone, and we saved over seventy lives that day. It means we started operating earlier than as was originally planned, but it was a better choice than sitting back and letting them die.”
“I was joking, darling.” Rarity answered supportively. “I agree that we did the right thing, and I dare anypony else to say otherwise.”
"Thanks," Twilight said, looking away from the camera distantly. Even though Rarity had limited knowledge of the layout of Twilight's office, she knew exactly what her friend was looking at, in a small photo frame next to her computer.
"He'd be proud to see you darling," Rarity said gently, taking great notice of the glassy look in Twilight's eyes. "Everything you've done, and everything you've helped us accomplish."
A single tear rolled down Twilight's cheek as Rarity continued.
"And think of everything that we'll be able to do, all the lives that we'll be able to save, all because of you."
"I just wish he could be here to see all this."
"He's watching it all from a better place."
Twilight tensed slightly. "I'd rather he was here watching with us."
"Well, if he was here, we wouldn't be," Rarity replied, sitting up straight in her chair. "I know it was hard for you, losing him, but if you hadn't lost him where would we all be? I know for a fact that we'd be back in our old routines living the same miserable existences."
"Yeah," Twilight replied, forcing a small smile. "Things didn't exactly work out, did it? Not for any of you."
"Exactly. He would be proud to know that his death inspired you to take the steps to put us in a position to save countless lives over the coming years. And I for one am so thankful for my new life back with you and the girls."
Twilight smiled again, with a lot less force behind it. "You're hardly 'with us' at this moment, are you?"
"But I'm hardly completely pulled away from you. A week of every month to relax with you all on the island, and when I am up here I'm frequently in a video call with at least one of you. My life may have hit a few rough patches over the years, but thanks to you and the girls, I think it's beginning to smooth out again."
Twilight smiled, before letting out a suppressed yawn. “Well,” she said, stretching her wings out, “I think it’s time we were getting to bed, both of us.”
Rarity nodded. Her eyes were beginning to droop, and she was aching for her pillow. “Good idea there, Twilight. I’ll check in with you on time tomorrow night, half nine on the dot. Make sure you have Sweetie there with you, I’d love to have a chat with her before I come back down.”
“Will do, and make sure you get your packing all done by then. Better safe than sorry.”
“F.A.B. Sleep tight, Twilight.”
“And you too.”
The screen went black and whirred itself back into its hiding place at the back of the console. Rarity stretched out, her back audibly clicking under the strain, before she tapped at the controls of the console, setting the computer to night mode. It would automatically track existing potential threats, as well as monitor for new ones. If existing threats no longer became noteworthy, it would stop monitoring them. Anything serious enough to demand Rarity’s personal attention would set off an alarm in her sleeping quarters. Yawning again, she trudged her way out of the control room, which automatically dimmed the lights as she stepped out, turning right to walk down the circular corridor towards her sleeping quarters.
Wonderbird 5 was comprised of three circular sections. The first and innermost housed the fusion reactor, and was detachable in case of any kind of an emergency caused by the reactor itself. The second was the habitation ring surrounding the reactor pod, which housed the main computer systems, living quarters, control room, and airlock systems. And finally was the outermost ring, which served as a powerful electromagnet to deflect any dangerous space debris. Both rings and the central pod were accessible by walkways, though the outermost was only accessible via airlock, as the electromagnets were too large to allow for movement within the ring.
Rarity stepped into her sleeping quarters only a few moments after stepping out of the control room, the close proximity of the rooms allowing her quick movement between them if she were to be awoken by a late night emergency. Her quarters were small, with just room for a large double bed and a wardrobe, but everything else she needed on board could be found in the control room, so she had no reason to complain. She unzipped her jumpsuit, stepped out of it and tossed it into the laundry chute, smiling slightly as she got it in one throw. She then trudged into the small attached bathroom to brush her teeth.
Her tiredness was rapidly catching up with her as she levitated the toothbrush to her mouth, forgetting to add the toothpaste. All she could think about was the snug mattress in the adjoining room. She wasn’t too bothered about forgetting the toothpaste, especially when she could just brush properly in the morning.
Returning her toothbrush to the small cabinet next to the door, she marched back into her bedroom, made sure the bed was neatly tucked in, and slid in from the top, being careful not to disturb the sheets as she went. Something about getting into bed really hit hard in the OCD area of her mind, as she'd used the same method to keep the sheets neat all her life. Sighing contently, she was surprised how drowsy she was, and before she knew it, she was completely lost in the recesses of sleep.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sirens aggressively pounded Rarity’s ears as she was dragged mercilessly from her slumber by a deafening wail. Panicking slightly, she racked her brains as she tried to recall which alarm this was. Any incident on the planet below serious enough to merit her attention would set off an alarm, this was true, but this was a completely different alarm. Having only paid attention to the alarms in occaisonal drills back on Harmony Island, she desperately tried to remember what this particular alarm stood for. Mere seconds after it had woken her, the alarm quietened down to allow a computerized voice to talk instead.
“Incoming projectiles detected! Proximity warning activated!”
Rarity’s eyes widened in horror as the alarm continued in its reduced volume. She bolted straight out of bed towards the door, before charging down the corridor towards the control room. The lights slowly began to turn themselves on as she made it through the door, but due to her panic with the situation, by the time the lights had reached their full brightness, Rarity was already at the computer console.
One of the screens had changed to a radar display, showing a small cluster of objects approaching the station, whilst a countdown timer indicated that impact was only fifty seconds away. She tapped the controls furiously, changing some of the screens in front of her to the external cameras. She scanned them quickly, soon finding the one she needed.
Tapping the controls again, the camera zoomed in and refocused itself automatically, revealing the cluster of rocks approaching the station rapidly. There must have been a fault in the electromagnet, because in every other emergency that could happen on board, the rocks would have been deflected long before now.
As the countdown timer hit twenty seconds, Rarity reached forward to the very center of the console, lifting up a small flap and pressing down on the button underneath, the only real button on the whole computer. As she did, a small microphone popped out from the front of the console. Rarity knew that the moment she’d pressed the button, it would have set off a series of alarms on the island below, and that when she spoke into the microphone, she’d be broadcast live to everypony there.
She grabbed the microphone as the timer hit fifteen seconds to impact, the radar and external cameras both confirming that the rocks were getting dangerously close now. She spoke as clearly as she could, knowing that help would come.
“Mayday, mayday, Wonderbird 5 to Harmony Island. Electromagnets have failed, repeat, electromagnets have failed. I have a meteor shower coming in for an imminent collision, require immediate assistance. Repeat, I require immediate assistance.”
Rarity dropped the mic, knowing there was nothing else she could do now, and stood up straight to face the screens above, as a computerized voice announced five seconds until collision. She whimpered slightly, letting out a single tear. She’d accepted this role because she knew she’d be of no use during an emergency any other way. This job, far away from the action in the peace of space, was far better suited to her. This had seemed like job where nothing could go wrong, at least, not until now.
She knew help would come. There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in her mind that her friends would come to help her. But what they would find, or even if they would find anything left of her, that was uncertain. That’s what scared her most. She closed her eyes as the timer read one, and her whole life flashed before her eyes in the duration of that single second, before the station exploded around her.