Dash stared up at a half-constructed building, currently covered in a dense layer of metal struts and gantries. Automated cranes swiveled back and forth. Robotic arms jabbed at the understructure with massive arcwelders.
She pushed a button on her headset. “Hey, is it done yet?”
Jack’s voice crackled back. “Nope.”
Dash took to the air and circled around the structure, landing on the opposite side. She watched Jack’s SCV hover in the air beside the gantry. She was shuffling huge metal plates back and forth.
“Soooo... when is it gonna be done?”
“Soon.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said before.”
“I know.”
Dash stepped in place rapidly, and glanced around. “Hey, I’m gonna check on the command center. Just in case.”
“S’cool.”
Dash trotted away but spun around at the last second and came back. “So how soon are we talking, here? Real soon, or just regular soon?”
“Dash, I’m tryin’ to work here.”
“Right. Right. Sorry. You’re... yeah, prolly.”
Dash watched as one of the cranes spun around, picked a metal box off the ground, and dropped it into the middle of the structure.
“Hey, is it done?”
“Yes.”
“Eeeee!!” Dash ran in little circles. “Man, this is gonna be so freakin’ awesome! I can’t wait to build our first tank! Do you think it’ll look cool? I mean sure it’s got that giant artillery cannon, but I bet it’d be even cooler if it had missile launchers and stuff! Or better yet: stealth invisibility! Nopony expects a tank to be invisible! And maybe put a bunch of thrusters on the bottom so it can hover around: if we can get buildings to fly, we can totally do the same thing with a tank, right? Or maybe we can have it transform into a robot with a pair of giant laser guns! Pew-pew-pew!”
She ran over to the building and waved up at the SCV. “Hey, are you listening? Can you do all that? Flying, invisible robo-tank with missile launchers and laser-beams and flame throwers and giant claws that pick up the enemy and smash ’em together, and... and...”
Dash paused to look at the construction gantry.
“Hey.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You said it was done.”
“Yes, I did say that.”
Dash pouted at the SCV. “You lied to me.”
“If you can plainly see whether it’s finished or not, you don’t need to ask me about it.”
Dash turned away, tossing her mane. “That’s it. I’m going back to the command center... all by myself.”
“Yes’m.”
“In fact, I don’t even want you to tell me when it’s done. I don’t even care anymore.”
“If you say so, ma’am.”
“Hrmph.” Dash marched back to the command center.
Jack paused her work and peered over the top of the building, just long enough to see Dash enter the command center. She let out a sigh of relief. As soon as she did so, a blast of rainbow-colored light streaked out of the command center and landed on a nearby crane.
Dash leaned towards her, bright eyed. “What was that? Did you say something?”
The front of the SCV’s head—a faceless, rectangular chunk of featureless metal—turned to look at her.
“Soooo... now is it done?”
Rainbow Dash sat in the main bridge of the command center, with her chair reclined all the way back. She stared at the planetarium-sized display screen that covered the domed roof: the display showed a random patch of rocky, craggy dirt. A herd of large, armored herbivores meandered about, chewing on thorny bushes.
Dash’s eyes narrowed. Don’t worry... you’ll get yours.
Jack’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Job’s finished.”
Dash bolted upright. “I wasn’t sleeping!”
“That’s... great. It’s good to set goals.”
Dash waved her remote at the roof and moved the viewpoint back to their base: a command center, a barracks, a half-demolished bunker, and a single pastry depot. She nudged the view over slightly, and saw a new structure: a big, boxy building made of a lighter, more polished metal. It had one large ramp and no windows, and its surface was peppered with exhaust ports.
Dash leaned back in her chair. “Eh. Took you long enough.”
“I built the whole thing in exactly eighty standard galactic space-seconds, just like I said I would. Anyways, I’m gonna build our first real dude now. You sure you don’t want to be here for it?”
“It’s just a big metal boxy thingy, just like all the other thingies around here. Hardly cool at all. Though I might show up if you apologized...” Dash paused to examine her hoof. “No promises.”
“S’cool,” Jack said, cheerfully, “I’m sure you’re busy with all sorts of important commander duties. I’ll take care of this myself.”
Jack winced as a whirlwind of air and color buffeted her and sent her mane whipping to the side. She looked up from the factory’s front door and saw Dash standing behind her, grinning.
Jack pulled her mane back and re-tied her ponytail. “So. Commander. Would you care to inspect the new facilities?”
Dash rolled her eyes and pushed past her. “Well, if you insist.”
They went inside, marveling at the massive interior: the main area was dominated by a gigantic conveyer belt, surrounded on both sides by a rows of mechanical arms. Giant cranes hung from rails attached to the ceiling, and the walls were coated with giant engine blocks and exposed machinery. They walked to the middle of the factory, staring all the way.
Jack stopped by a control panel and paused to admire it. “Whoa.”
“What are you so excited about?” said Dash. “Didn’t you build the whole thing?”
“I guess... but it seems different now that it’s done. I’ve never actually been in a factory before.”
Dash wiggled her eyebrows. “So! Taaaaanks?”
Jack grinned at her, and threw a switch. The factory came alive all at once; cranes slid back and forth on their rails and mechanical arms stood at attention with perfect synchronicity.
Dash turned in place, watching the machinery in awe. A moment later, an alarm played and the machinery came to a halt. Dash glanced at jack. “What the...? What’s going on? Make with the tanks already!”
Jack flipped the switch several times, rapidly. “I don’t get it! This should work!”
Dash stamped a hoof. “Well, fix it!”
Jack pointed at her. “Well you’re the commander, aint’cha? There must be somethin’ you can do to figure this out!”
“Aaaargh! I gotta do everything around here, don’t I!?” Dash took out her remote, tapped it agaisnt the floor of the factory, and squinted at the tiny built-in screen. “Requires... a... machine... shop? What the heck is a machine shop?”
Jack glanced around. “I thought this was a machine shop!”
“It’s some sort of thingy,” Jack said. “Go build one, and let me know when it’s done.”
“But I... I don’t even know what a machine shop is!”
“Well figure it out. And this time, don’t waste my time.”
“Waste!?” Jack pointed at her. “I worked my legs to the bone to build this thing in record time! If this thing is broken, it surely isn’t my fault!”
Dash spun around and pointed a hoof at her. “How am I supposed to save the galaxy if you can’t even build me one stupid tank!? Every time I give you an order, you come right back with some stupid excuse that turns it around and makes it all my fault: First we need a thingy! But we can’t build a thingy until we have minerals! But we can’t collect minerals unless we have some weird kinda worker-dude! Nopony ever told me about any of this, and we could all be attacked by horrible face-eating aliens any second now, and I don’t have a clue how any of this junk even works!”
Rainbow Dash reared up and held her remote control aloft, trembling with rage. She stopped before actually hurling it to the floor. She clenched her eyes shut. A tiny tear beaded on the corner of her eye.
Eventually, her breathing calmed. The tension in her muscles faded. She dropped down and stared at the floor. “So, what can we build?” she said, quietly.
Jack worked her jaw back and forth. “Aw jeez, Dash. I didn’t—”
Dash cleared her throat. “Just tell me what we can build.”
“Yes, commander!” Jack ran to the console. “I managed to bring along the schematics for my old ride back when I was a sheriff: the Buzzard. It’s a hoverbike, and it’s quick as a flash! Ya like quick things, right?”
Dash watched the conveyer belt move. “What’s it do?”
Jack threw a switch and the factory churned to life again. “It’s designed for patrol work and quick response. It’s faster than anything, and it even has a nitro-boost that lets it jump over obstacles: you can use it to hop up cliffs and across rivers. Cool, huh?”
Dash walked further along the conveyer belt and watched as a vehicle chassis moved through it. Each set of arms added a new component or a new layer of armor. “What’s it got for guns?”
“Concussive grenade launchers,” she said. “Good for lightly armored units, like infantry, but it’s not tough enough for a stand-up fight. You gotta hit ’n run.”
“That’s... not too great, actually.”
“Don’t you worry,” she said, “it’s got one more trick up its sleeve!”
The vehicle reached the end of the assembly line and rolled onto the floor: It was a long, needle-nosed chassis with a pair of heavy turbines on the back. The vehicle drifted gently t oa stop, hovering a meter off the ground. Jack jumped into the seat and threw a switch. The rear of the vehicle opened up, and a small turret unfolded from the top of the rear chassis.
Dash tilted her head. “A turret? But where’s the gun?”
Jack leaped onto the turret and leaned back against the railing. “It’s a gunnery platform! A single infantry dude can hop on and catch a ride, and shoot to their heart’s content! It even has a weapon stabilizer that increases accuracy and automatically reloads.”
Dash walked around the Buzzard: She watched as Jack used a pair of pedals to rotate the turret. “So... it basically lets infantry zip around, super fast?”
“Yup! And if the buzzard gets blow’d up, the infantry pops out safe and sound.”
Dash stroked her chin. “I guess that’s... kinda cool.”
“It’s really versatile,” she said. “If you need a different kinda firepower, all you have to do is load up a different kinda infantry dude.”
Jack hopped off the Buzzard and walked over to Dash. “Wanna go for a ride?”
“That’d be cool. I guess.”
Jack gave her a pat on the back. “We’ll have tanks soon. I promise.”
Dash managed a faint smile.
The sleek buzzard bolted out of the factory’s main door and landed in the dirt clearing, kicking up a cloud of dust. Its twin-turbines roaring like a jungle cat and its mega-loudspeakers belting out country-western music. Jack let out an ear-splitting whoop as the bike arced through the air. They swerved between the outpost’s few buildings, leaning and tilting like a standard motorcycle
They streaked out of the base at top speed and headed directly for the edge of the island. Jack pointed the nose of the vehicle directly at a nearby river, and pulled a lever at the very last second. The engines roared even louder and left behind twin trails of searing hot fire: a violent explosion of raw force knocked the vehicle high into the air, and they sailed over the river.
They landed on the small island ahead with a shudder, and the rear of the vehicle slammed against the ground with a spray of sparks and a cloud of dust. Jack spun the nose of the bike around for a sharp turn, and the vehicle slid sideways.
Dash braced her hips against the gunnery turret’s railing and tried to keep her Impaler gauss rifle steady. It was surprisingly easy: the gunnery turret had a robotic arm that clamped onto the weapon and supported its weight. She pressed her hoof against a floor pedal and rotated the turret around so she could see the driver’s seat.
“Heeey!”
Jack turned the music down and glanced back at her. “Yeah?”
“You know that whole nitro-jump-thing? With the flaming trails?”
“What about it?”
“It’s actually pretty radical.”
Jack grinned.
There was a rapid beeping noise. Dash fumbled with the inside pockets of her armored vest and took out her remote control. “What the...? What is it now?”
“Is the base under attack?” called Jack.
Dash squinted at the tiny display screen. “The computer says there’s something approaching the planet. Whatever it is, it’s coming in fast... and it’s sending out a distress signal!”
“That can’t be good! Any idea where it’s headed?”
“It’s landing in our ‘zone’, whatever that means. Maybe we can—”
Her voice trailed off as the clouds parted above them and a massive black object descended from the heavens. It was shaped like a colossal metal gyroscope: a central disk with curved struts ringing it’s circumference, all conforming to the shape of a sphere. Large segments of it were red-hot from entering the atmosphere, and a vast trail of oily black smoke billowed from its hull. Massive chunks of it crumbled away and burned into dust. The noise of the Buzzard’s twin turbines seemed to fade into insignificance as the space station plummeted towards the ground, shrieking like a chorus of twisted metal.
Dash pointed at the far end of the island. “Go, go, go!”
Jack swallowed a lump in her throat and kicked the Buzzard into overdrive. They streaked across the terrain like a hawk going into a dive, racing the crashing vessel to ground zero. Its colossal size gave it the illusion of ponderous slowness, but Jack knew better: the space station was no doubt plummeting at nine times the speed of sound.
“We gotta take cover!” she shouted. “Even if we get there in time, there’s nothing we can do!”
“Don’t give up now! Whoever they are, they need our help!”
She watched as the station neared the surface. She clenched her teeth, and swerved the Buzzard hard to the side: the vehicle skidded sideways and landed right behind a rocky outcropping mere moments before the station touched down. Jack leaped out of her seat and tackled Dash to the ground, covering her with her own body. They never saw the impact directly: they only heard the meteoric explosion, like an erupting volcano, and felt the force of the blast-wave as it scoured the terrain and surged against their rocky cover.
Two full minutes passed before the dust storm subsisted. Dash and Jack peeked out from behind the rock: a massive mushroom-cloud of smoke and debris obscured the far half of their narrow island. The cloud slowly drifted in the wind, revealing the very tip of one of the station’s curved spires.
Jack glanced at the devastation between herself and the impact site. “We... we should—”
Rainbow Dash bolted over the rock and flew towards the crash site.
Jack reached after her. “No, wait! We don’t even know what’s—”
Dash’s voice crackled through her headset. “Take the Buzzard back to base and load the SCV onto it. Bring it back here as fast as possible, and start doing some emergency repairs!”
“But... but what about you!?”
“I’ll circle the area for hostiles, then see if I can’t find a way in. If there’s any survivors, I’m their only hope!”
Jack watched Dash’s rainbow trail grow ever more distant. There station let out an booming alarm loud enough to vibrate the earth. A voice-recording, electronically distorted to the point of gibberish, echoed across the plains... something about an imminent core meltdown.
Jack leaped onto her Buzzard, gunned the turbines and headed back for the command center.
Rainbow Dash circled over the fallen space station, taking care to avoid the pillar of dust and smoke that hung in the air. Huge chunks of the station were twisted and broken and patches of the armor plating were still ablaze. The central disk seemed mostly intact.
She scanned the surface of the hull but saw no obvious doors or entrances. She noticed a hull section that had been torn open, and dove towards the makeshift entrance. The jagged metal edges were hot as a furnace and stank of acrid chemicals. She lowered her goggles into place and pressed on, slipping through the opening and into a small storage bay.
“Hellooo?” she shouted. “Anypony down there?”
She yelped as a massive bulkhead slammed shut behind her, blocking off the entrance and plunging her into total darkness. Tiny neon lights blinked to life all around the room: nearly every surface was covered with flickering buttons and bleeping consoles.
“Oh… kay.” She walked further inside. A second wall slammed shut in front of her. there was a loud hiss, and a thick cloud of white mist filled the area. Dash ran to the wall, kicking frantically. “Hey, what gives!? I’m tryin’ to rescue you!”
She fell to the floor, coughing violently. Eventually, the mist faded away and the wall retracted. The sweltering heat was instantly replaced by a blast of chilly air. The sheen of sweat on her hide suddenly felt clammy.
She stared at the corridor ahead, wide open. “Kay... so. I’m coming in. Is that cool?”
A faint, metallic sound reverberated through the station, followed by a low gurgle.
Dash swallowed, hard, and walked forward. The entire station was slanted at an angle, and the metal floors were much smoother and cleaner than she was used to. The lights were all off but the tiny neon lights gave her a rough layout of the area.
Dash tapped the side of her headset. “Hey, Jack? Are you back yet?”
The headset produced a quiet hiss of white static.
“Great.” Dash went to a nearby panel in the wall and pressed a few buttons at random. “Hey, anypony listening?”
The panel bleeped at her. She pushed the buttons harder, with the same results.
“Great. Just great. Best rescue plan ever, Dash. I can’t imagine how this could possibly get any w—”
A shape flitted across the very edge of view, perfectly silent. Dash froze in place and held her breath for a minute. Her eyes darted back and forth.
“H-h-hello?”
A second blur. She spun around, drew her P-22 Machine pistol, and pointed it back the way she’d came. She backed up and bumped against the wall behind her, and there was a wet, gooey splorch. What the...!? She looked up, very slowly, and saw gooey green slime dripping down from the ceiling.
“D-d-don’t make me use this thing, okay? I’m not afraid to use it!” She bolted into a side room and slammed the door shut behind her. “You think I’m afraid of you!? Well!?”
A raw, primal roar pierced her ears and slammed her back against the wall. She let out a terrified shriek as the creature drew close: its huge, circular eyes glinted white from beyond the shadows, and its deafening voice rippled the very air. The sound was a tangible, crushing force that paralyzed her limbs and stole the breath from her lungs.
The sound cut out abruptly. The silence that followed was absolute. Dash lay on the ground helplessly as the glinting eyes drew near.
“Who... are you?” a voice whispered, smooth as velvet.
Dash clenched her teeth. “D-d-d-Dash! C-c-c-commander Dash!”
“Commander? Who sent you?”
“I d-d-don’t—”
“Answer me!” she roared. “Who sent you? Why are you here!?”
Dash scrunched her eyes shut and looked away. “I-work-for-the-Confettiracy-and-I-saw-your-ship-crash-and-I-thought-you-might-need-help-so-I-came-to-checked-it-out-but-you-seem-to-be-okay-so-I’ll-just-leave-you-alone-and-please-don’t-eat-my-face-off!”
“The Confettiracy? A rescue mission?” The creature’s eyes tilted slightly. “Are you Commander Rainbow Dash, by any chance? Are you in charge of the nearby military outpost?”
“Yes! Totally! Please don’t eat my face off!!”
She heard something click rapidly against the floor, and a moment later the lights turned on. The ‘creature’ walked towards her: A purple unicorn wearing a long, shiny labcoat with a high, rigid collar that obscured most of her neck. She was wearing a large pair of electronic sensor-goggles, and there were a pair of odd-looking pistols hovering in the air nearby: sleek, metal weapons tipped with tiny satellite dishes.
“You... you’re not... an alien!?”
“If I am, you’ve got much bigger problems.” The unicorn lifted her goggles and smiled down at her. “Sorry about the dual dubstep emitters. Can’t be too careful, these days.”
Dash stared at the pistols. “...Sonic stunners? Are they non-lethal?”
“The technical term is ‘reduced lethality’,” she said. “This is dubstep we’re talking about, after all.”
She holstered the weapons, then levitated a heavy saddle bag onto her back. “I’ve been locking down all the thermal cores, but it’s only bought me some time. We’ve got about twenty ticks before the reactor goes critical and lemme tell ya, that’ll ruin your entire day. Deploy an SCV so I can coordinate some emergency repairs.”
Dash stared in shock as objects levitated around the room, each surrounded by a faint aura of pink sparkles. “You... you’re a unicorn!”
“An astute observation. How’s that Scee-Vee coming?”
Dash frowned at her. “Hey, you can’t just boss me around like this! I’m the freakin’ commander!”
The unicorn levitated a gadget and tapped several buttons in rapid succession. “Command center alpha, override code alpha-niner-niner. Issue emergency command protocol ‘Vae Victus’ and transfer all command privileges immediately.”
“Hey!” Dash bolted upright and stamped her hoof. “You can’t do that!!”
The gadget beeped, and a calm robotic voice spoke. “Command privileges transferred.”
“Clearly, I can.” The unicorn offered her a shrug. “Your grasp of logical causality needs work.”
“Oh yeah? Well whaddya think of this!!”
Dash reared up and drew her machine pistol, and a sparkly aura of light pulled it out of her grasp. She swiped at it several times, but it danced through the air just out of reach.
“Hey! Gimme! No fair! Mine!”
The pistol flew to the unicorn, who took out a toolkit and tinkered with part of the mechanism. “Let’s review the facts, shall we? You don’t have the technical skill, the practical knowledge, or even the brute power required to stop me. Why should I listen to you?”
“Well.. because... I’m the commander!”
“And why are you the commander?”
Dash glared at her. “Because I just am. That’s how it is in the military! Chancellor Pinkie Pie made me a commander, and if you don’t like it you can take it up with her!”
The unicorn watched her intently. Her eyes were cold and calculating.
“Good. That’s exactly the sort of attitude we need our commanders to have. ”She closed up the pistol and tossed it back to her. “It should fire on full-auto now, without overheating so quickly. Might want to carry a few extra magazines from now on.”
Dash stared down at the gun. “Lady... seriously. Who are you?”
“Professor Twilight Sparkle, chief science officer of the Confettirate deep-research division. Your command center’s computer indicates that you have accumulated a small supply of Vespene gas. Is that correct?”
Dash chased after her. “Yeah, but we don’t have much. And to be honest, we don’t really know what it does. Do, uh... you have any idea?”
Twilight Sparkle stopped in her tracks. “You want to know... what it does?”
Dash shuffled in place, nervously. “Um. Yeah.”
She looked back at her with a predatory grin and lowered her goggles into place over her eyes. “It does the science.”