//------------------------------// // Offensive // Story: The Price of Citizenship // by Colgate is best pony //------------------------------//          ECY 1008.12 Ponyville, Home The train pulled in to Ponyville station, releasing a smattering of ponies onto the platform and some smoke into the air. Applejack watched it rise with pain in her heart. it wasn’t the smoke that made her sad-- it certainly wasn’t good for the environment that the trains had been forced to switch back to coal, for sure, but she had other things on her mind. The train would leave in twenty minutes. She would board it soon enough, and by the next morning, she’d be in Appleoosa. With Apple Bloom. Somehow, that fact did not make her feel much better.         She had arrived in Ponyville three days ago, and bumped into Fluttershy, of all ponies, minutes after disembarking the train. The poor girl was a wreck, with saggy skin and a dazed look that spoke of despair. Fluttershy refused to admit to it, but she hadn’t been eating anywhere near properly for weeks, and Applejack felt ashamed that she had let things get so bad for her friend.         The thought was ridiculous, of course, given the fact that Applejack had been on the other side of the galaxy for almost a year, but she felt it all the same. She had vowed to never forget her friends after the incident with Rainbow Dash, and Applejack did not break promises. Usually, at least. With 18 months of back pay in her account, Applejack had no qualms about taking Fluttershy out to eat right away. Over heaping plates of food, the pegasus told her about everything-- her job at Sweet Apple Acres, Big Mac’s call up, Apple Bloom’s departure. Applejack was both saddened and relieved to know that she hadn’t missed her sister getting her cutie mark, but the news that the farm would be empty when she got there was met with indifference. She’d been anxiously avoiding the idea of facing her family again, and the reprieve was strangely welcome. With train services to Appleoosa running so infrequently, she’d have a few days to wait before trekking west to meet the sister that had no doubt grown tremendously in her absence. After forcing Fluttershy to eat a third helping of hay fries, Applejack had trotted to Sweet Apple Acres. Again, she was filled with indifference over the new fence the government had erected around what was once her land-- what did it matter who owned the farm if all of ponydom could starve, anyway? She bucked a hole in the fence, snuck into a secluded part of the orchard and found a hidden cellar that she’d buried long ago for emergencies. She emptied it and dragged the contents-- a month’s worth of apple preserves, flour, popcorn left over from the Discord incident, and cider-- and dragged it to Fluttershy’s cottage. She let Fluttershy have the lot, on the condition that she not give it all to the animals. Applejack even made Angel promise to keep her honest. She also, somehow, took Angel aside and showed him where in Fluttershy’s garden she hidden half of her savings account, so that he could give it to Fluttershy once she’d left town. At least that way, Applejack reckoned, the shy pony wouldn’t have to make a scene about refusing it. And so Applejack sat, waiting to board the train. No other ponies waited with her. She looked at her watch, and then raised her head to find herself staring into the eyes of a barely familiar jet black unicorn. She gasped in realization. “Twi. . .” The mare shoved a hoof in Applejack’s mouth. She took the hint and waited in silence. The mare looked around suspiciously, and motioned for Applejack to follow her off of the platform. She sighed and followed slowly. “Somehow, I knew I wasn’t getting on this train.” ----         The carriage door shut automatically behind Twilight as she sat down across from Applejack. With a flourish of energy from her horn, the unicorn shed her disguise. Applejack gasped. Her friend looked worse than Fluttershy-- her mane was in tatters, with bits of paper tangled in it, and the wrinkles under her eyes stretched well beyond her face. Her ears twitched at the slightest sound, and her wide eyes, red with stress, refused to blink.         “You okay, sugarcube?”         “Fine, fine! Just great, Applejack. Balancing four hundred things in the air at once, but still great!”         Twilight smiled. Applejack nervously reflected it.         “And how are you, AJ? Been a while since Celestium!”         “Uhh… I’m okay, I guess. Being grounded has its advantages, I suppose.”         “Great!” Twilight’s voice shrieked as she spoke. She fidgeted in her seat.         “Too bad you aren’t grounded anymore, though!”         “What?”         “Isn’t it great! Shining Armor even requested you specifically!”         “Your brother? Isn’t he the Supreme Commander now? What would he want with me?”         “I can’t tell you! But it must be really, really exciting! You even have a new pilot, specially requisitioned for your new mission!”         “What happened to Rainbow Dash?”         “She’s on assignment with the 5th fleet, and they wouldn’t give her back! So you get Spitfire instead. I hope. . .”         Applejack cut her off.         “Spitfire? The Spitfire? The Wonderbolt?”         Twilight nodded.         “I thought she retired!”         “She did! But before she did, we used her to test the Friendship class, including Daring. She probably knows how to fly it just as well as Rainbow Dash!”         “Fair enough, but why me? I almost got Daring captured, remember?”         “I don’t know! Which is weird, because I know pretty much everything else! But Shining Armor definitely has a reason!”         Applejack failed to wrangle any more information out of Twilight after that. She worried about her friend as the two sat awkwardly across from each other. She worried just as much about Rainbow Dash, even though the two had hardly spoken since that night in the Captain’s quarters. It pained her to think so, but she was relieved that Rainbow would not be joining her on whatever mission Shining Armor had in mind.         The carriage stopped on the outskirts of Canterlot, touching down near a small spaceport. Applejack hadn’t even known it existed, and she guessed that very few did; it was surrounded on all sides by the orbital cannons she had seen going up all those months ago, and the launch pad was recessed deep into the ground. Twilight opened the door for Applejack, but she did not join her friend on the tarmac.         “Not joining me, Twi?”         “Sorry, AJ, we’re heading in different directions. I’ll see you soon, though, I’m sure!”         “But I don’t even know where I’m going. . .”         “Oh, well, there’s only one transport down there. And you’re the only passenger. So just head on down, I suppose. Have a nice flight!”         “But. . .”         Applejack’s question was cut off by the slamming of the carriage door and the swift kick of its engines. She rose a hoof to keep her mane from flying about as it took off, only momentarily feeling the subconscious desire to hold on to her long parted with hat. She watched the carriage depart. It did not head towards Canterlot. ---- Celestium A week later, aboard EqCom’s new flagship Harmony, Applejack quietly found her seat in the rear of the ship’s large briefing room. Shining Armor did not acknowledge her entrance, which was understandable, considering the dozens of ponies intently focusing on him as he spoke.         “. . . this is going to be a quick turnaround between Equus and New Fillydelphia. We don’t know what kind of sensors they’re using, but we aren’t going to take any chances.”         The screen behind him changed, now showing a closeup of a system labeled “Deneb.” He pointed to the left side of the screen, where a virtual representation of the Deneb-New Fillydelphia portal deposited dozens of white ovals into the display.         “The Fifth Fleet will enter Deneb en masse and engage the garrison here. We are estimating over ninety capital ships on the other side of the portal, and all of their guns will be pointed at us from the moment we exit the portal. This would normally be a problem, but with the Hive Connection Disruptors in place we shouldn’t have to worry, at least for a few seconds. Once you’ve entered the system, get moving right at your targets. As we’ve discussed, we anticipate a standard three-tiered defensive line, thirty ships long and three high. “Sword” group will attack the left flank, “Hammer” will feint at the middle and then join “Sword”, and Shield will occupy the right. With luck, we can overwhelm the left and destroy it before they can reform. Once we’ve secured a foothold, the strike team will jump in and head for Vega. Once we know they’ve destroyed the artificial portal, we mine the Deneb side and bug out. Questions?”         One captain spoke immediately.         “What good will mining the portal do? They can just blow it once we leave, right?”         “We’ve designed what is called a self-replicating minefield. If a mine is triggered, it replicates an identical nearby. Eventually they’ll figure it out, but it will slow them down long enough for our fleets to rebalance themselves on our side of the galaxy.”         A hopeful murmur filed through the room. Eliminating two entry points to Equestrian space, even temporarily, would provide some desperately needed respite for the Celestial Navy. With the added need to patrol the Beta Eridani system after the discovery of the artificial portal, the three functioning fleets left in the Navy had spent months taxed almost to the breaking point, leaving the Vasuda and Orion blockades vastly undermanned. Shining Armor had even resorted to dressing up cargo freighters as destroyers in order to fool Antaran scans. It was his idea, then, to attack the Antarans. The idea was incredibly unpopular-- especially so soon after Ant Hill-- but incredibly necessary; if the status quo held, EqCom was going to eventually overstretch its resources. Once roll of the dice could both buy time to repair the aging hulks currently guarding the colonies and free up assets to properly blockade the critical jump points. It was a roll Shining Armor was glad to take.         The meeting parted soon after, with a few of the captains asking questions that Shining had already explained dozens of times. He answered them without actually engaging his brain (Twilight wasn’t the only one in the family with a superior intellect, after all) and scanned the room. He spotted Applejack, trying her best to act like she understood what was going on, idly leaning a hoof on her face. Her adjourned the meeting, and she walked down the terraced aisle towards him. She saluted.         “You asked to see me Admiral?”         “Captain. Good to see you.” He returned the salute, but brought his hoof down when he saw that the two were alone in the room.         “I’d let you call me Shining, but I’m still trying to get used to people calling me Admiral. Cady says I need to embrace it, but…. never mind that, how are you?” He beckoned her towards the rear of the room and into his office. As far as offices go, it was certainly fit for the supreme commander of the Equestrian Navy, but the papers and food wrappers covering the place made it feel much more plebian. Shining Armor motioned to a seat, which the mare took.         “Sorry about the mess. The worse this place looks, the less people want to spend time in it. Lets me get some work done.”         She smiled nervously, so the Admiral decided to get straight to business.         “My apologies for cutting your shore leave short, but this is fairly urgent. As Twilight probably told you, we need you to take Daring on a mission for us deep behind enemy lines. We need you, before you ask, because, despite the fiasco of a few months ago, you proved that you can handle Daring. And the crew seems to like you, so that’s always a plus.”         Applejack blushed.         “So you want Daring to jump to Vega and destroy the artificial portal?”         “No, actually. That task force will be a few Victory class destroyers and smaller frigates. I have something much more. . . sensitive for you to handle. Which is why I had to talk to you directly. This doesn’t leave this room, understand?”         “Understood, I suppose.”         Shining Armor sat behind his desk and leaned in close to Applejack. He spoke slowly.         “The Antarans have started taking prisoners. We don’t know why, nor do we know how many they have. What we do know is this: one of our research stations was attacked, and several of our top science minds, including the one responsible for the HCD concept, were captured. Very few people know that the research team even exists, let alone that it’s MIA. We have reason to believe that they are still alive, and being kept in a prison facility in Beta Cygni. We need you to get them out. I wouldn’t say that this operation is entirely designed as a diversion for you to run the Deneb-Beta Cygni blockade, but it certainly was part of the decision making process. With me so far?” Applejack blinked a few times and nodded blankly. “Good. Daring will follow the fleet to New Fillydelphia. After we’ve made the jump to Deneb, engage your cloak and follow through. Turn off your IFF so nobody knows you’ve arrived. When you arrive we should be fully engaged with the Antaran fleet, giving you the chance to jump to Beta Cygni. When you get there, find the scientists and get back. Be quick about it though-- we’re only sticking around long enough for the Vega strike team to do their thing and return. Maybe 36 hours at most. It’s a small window, and I can’t hang around for long. Once the minefield is up, you need to find another way home.” “Fair enough. But why all the secrecy?” Shining leaned back and rolled his eyes. “EqCom doesn’t think sending Daring on a rescue mission is the right call. TO be honest, they aren’t convinced that the prisoners are even alive. They don’t think it is worth the risk, and they’ve officially denied the request. But I know things that they don’t, and we need those scientists. Trust me. Besides, what kind of supreme commander would I be if I let people tell me what to do?” Applejack sat silently for a moment. Shining was not sure what was going through her mind; it looked like contemplation, but, as he had learned, one could never be sure with mares. She looked up at him and exploded. “All due respect, sir, but I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. You cut into my leave time, drag me out here and then tell me to risk my life, and my crew’s life, for a mission that is near suicidal, and we don’t even know if the scientists are still alive? I’m sorry, Admiral, but I don’t see how I can do this. If you want me to help win this battle, I will, but risking everything for your pet project is not something I’m willing to do.” Shining Armor tensed up, but his voice remained calm. “This is an order, Captain, if I wasn’t clear.” “An illegal one, Admiral. It would be my duty as a soldier to report you, some might say.” “You wouldn’t dare, Applejack.” “Try me. When was the last time you were on Home? Ponies are starting to get tired of the draft, of the war rationing. How would the newspapers like to get a story about the supposed supreme commander wasting resources like Daring, not to mention a hero of Antara and the last living Wonderbolt on a suicide mission while the rest of the fleet did some real fighting?” Shining Armor fumed on the inside. She was right, of course. The whole mission was a massive gamble. But, just like the Deneb operation itself, it was a call he had to make. He sat back and let the anger consume him for a second. Then, as Cadance had taught him, he released it, and came back to his senses. Rubbing his temple, he spoke with eyes shut. “Fine. What do you want, Captain Applejack?” “Beg pardon?” “I’m bribing you. I’ve got a thousand other things to take care of right now and I can tell that you won’t be swayed by me just saying ‘trust me.’ It’s a risky operation but the end product is completely worth it. I can’t tell you why now, but, well, you have to trust me.” “Why can’t you just tell me?” “It would compromise you and the mission. Let’s just leave it at that. I need you completely focused on this, understand?” “Fine.” She paused and closed her eyes, thinking for a second. “I want Big Mac.” “Your brother?” “Yes. He’s been drafted into a Mobile Infantry Unit. You know, a replacement for the ninety percent casualty rate they sustained on Anatara.” “I understand, but I can’t just get him out of the military.” “Then put him somewhere else. On Home. In Appleoosa, preferably.” “Are you sure, Applejack? That is your big favor?” “The moment I see his transfer orders is the moment I jump to Deneb. Not a second before.” Shining Armor put his hooves together. “Fine. I’ll see that he is transferred. I can’t promise Home, but he’ll be off the front lines.” Applejack sighed, then smiled at him. She leaned back. “Then you’ve got yourself a Captain.” ---- Eight days later, Shining Armor strode into Harmony’s bridge. Dozens of expectant eyes followed him as he strode to the admiral’s station. Hearty, Harmony’s Captain, greeted him with a salute. “As you were, Captain. Are we ready to get underweigh? “ “Aye aye, Admiral.” “Good. Get us into position, and she’s all yours, Captain.” Donning a headset, Shining Armor activated his command station. A three dimensional diagram of all 72 ships in the fifth fleet came to life. “All bridges, this is Admiral Shining Armor. We will be jumping to New Fillydelphia momentarily. All battle groups report.” He counted off as a comm mare counted off. All seven groups, each anchored around a heavy cruiser, reported in. “How are our carriers?” “Ingram and Lapide have launched our picket screen,” said the officer. “All others report ready.” “Good. Lets go then.” The officer looked at him. “Would you like to address the fleet, Admiral?” “No. They know what the plan is. But put me through to Daring, please.” “Aye aye.” When the connection was made, he spoke quietly to Applejack. “You ready, Captain?” “Yes, sir. We are right behind Winsome.” “Good. Remember, you’re on the clock from the moment we hit Deneb. Thirty six hours at most. Best of luck.” The connection clicked off. He nodded to the captain. Hearty cleared his throat. “Helm, engage subspace drive.” The trip from Equus to New Filydelphia took three hours. After arriving, it took fifteen minutes for every ship’s engines to cool off, but as soon as each battle group reported in, Shining Armor ordered the fleet back into subspace. This time the fleet only needed to wait two hours. Ten minutes from the portal exit, he spoke into the headset. “All vessels, prepare to engage the enemy. Designated ships, launch your HCDs. Remember, we need to get in close as soon as possible, so don’t hang around once we exit. Good luck all. I’m moving to the CIC. Armor out.” Streaks of gold flew forward from the armada, carrying the HCDs out ahead of the fleet. If they didn’t work, Shining Armor caught himself thinking, this was going to be a very short trip. He rose from the Admiral’s chair and nodded to his comm assistant, who took up the space. Flashing a salute to the bridge crew, he exited the room, which had grown dark in as the ship moved to general quarters. In the hallway directly opposite the bridge, guarded by two saluting stallions, lay the Command Information Center. Derived from the same cloth as Normandy’s matrix, it was going to be Shining Armor’s home for much of the next few days. He entered the room and cracked his neck, then activated the small console in the center of the darkened space. The room lit up, with navy hued light strips outlining the walls. “Testing,” he spoke into the headset. “Bridge, you hearing me?” “Aye, aye, Admiral.” “Good. Bringing up the matrix.” He punched in a control on the console, which sunk into the floor. Little points of orange light took shape all around him, shimmering for a few seconds before solidifying into holographic representations of each ship under his command. He touched one at random, at it changed color to green. “Mustangia, this is the Admiral, CIC test, do you copy?” “Yes sir, all good on our end.” “Good. I’m going to run some test maneuvers.” He dragged the ship’s avatar to the side, and cued up a three dimensional map of the Deneb system. The next few minutes were spent ordering putting the system through its paces. While the CIC could not physically take control of a ship, it allowed Shining Armor an incredible view of the battlefield. He could either set waypoints for a ship or designate a destination and let it find its own path, and switch to designating targets (from fleet level down to individual fighter craft) with minimal effort. For the next few hours, Shining Armor could, if he chose, make almost every single decision for the Fifth Fleet’s vessels. That was not his plan, though. Antara was doomed to fail once the enemy fleet had appeared, but he felt that more ships could have survived had they not been so micromanaged. Celestia was effectively dictating half of the fleet, and her destruction left Luna completely overwhelmed. Shining Armor had faith in his captains, and would let them do what they needed to do-- until he found the moment to strike. “Admiral, we’re reading green on all CIC screens here.” “Great, thank you. CIC out.”         Shining took a deep breath and cracked his neck. A timer appeared, counting from sixty seconds. He thought of Cadance, whose memory gave him strength. As the timer hit ten seconds, he found a smile creep across his face. The room shuddered as Harmony dropped back into normal space. Telemetry began filling the CIC from the instant the jump completed, with the amount increasing exponentially as thousands of small probes were launched from various ships in the fleet, their combined mass ringing the battlefield and giving Shining Armor the information he needed. Within five seconds of entering the system, he had holographic representations of all seventy two of his own vessels and, as he had both anticipated and feared, ninety Antarans. He strode between the two holographic fleets and watched as the orange of his own charges organize themselves as planned. Turning his back on them, he observed the Antaran ships hanging motionless. He allowed a few seconds to pass, and, when their positions did not change, his smile grew. He hoofed the toggle to talk to all ships. “All craft, the HCDs worked. Let’s get in there. Full speed ahead!” He closed the channel and got to work. ----         Daring slipped into Deneb without so much as a shudder. Spitfire had insisted on flying the ship through sub-space, and Applejack was happy to oblige her. The two had briefly met before the war at the Wonderbolt Academy, but they had little in common, and they hadn’t talked much since Applejack had returned to her post. The earth pony mostly kept to herself, despite the crew’s (and First Lieutenant Reign’s) assurances that they were happy for her to be back.         While she waited for the FTL drive to warm up, Applejack observed the battle in progress. Shining Armor’s plan was equal parts bold and dangerous. She didn’t understand how he could risk a third of his fleet to allow the rest to gang up on a third of the enemy’s-- as she spoke, in fact, two arms of the fleet, led by Harmony and Canterlot B, had converged on what Shining had designated the Antaran’s left flank. They were having success, by the look of it, but it was coming at a price, with their rear being guarded by the very exposed “Shield” group.         Reign buzzed her on the comm.         “Ready to go, Captain.”         “Full speed ahead then, Spitfire.”         “Aye aye.”         As far as combat zones were concerned, Deneb held little excitement for Daring’s crew. Spitfire zipped away from the battle, and soon enough, the unguarded Beta Cygni jump point appeared. Daring exited Deneb as quietly as it had arrived.         Two hours passed before the vessel dropped from sub-space again. The ship was immediately hit by a smattering of automatic beam cannons guarding the portal, but Spitfire was able to weave in and out of the formation at just the right speed-- fast enough to avoid the oncoming fire but steady enough for Daring’s gun crews to eliminate their attackers. When Reign and Beakerman assured her that the turrets hadn’t given away Daring’s position, Applejack set a course for the center of the system.         “Stealth systems online.”         “Roger,” said Reign. “Captain, you’ve been informed of the improvements to the heat exchange system?”         “Affirmative. We’ve got a few more hours to work with. Let’s hope we don’t have to use them.”         The trip to the twin star of Beta Cygni and Albireo (why the system wasn’t named “Albireo,” instead of the clunky “Beta Cygni,” remained a mystery to Applejack) took up three more hours of the missions allotted time. Sensors confirmed that no planets existed in the system, but a small chain of asteroids lay dangerously close to the star complex at its center. A dozen small Antaran signatures patrolled the formation.         “Beakerman,” radioed Applejack, “can you get some long range scans going?”         “Yes, ma’am. Let’s see. . . four Rakshasa class vessels, plus a few frigates and fighters. Not exactly an engagement we’d be likely to win.”         “Understood. What about the rocks? They have what we are looking for?”         “I can’t tell from this range. Need to be a couple hundred light years closer. But if the Antarans have twelve ships guarding it. . .”         Spitfire chimed in, her smile obvious even over the intercom.         “. . . they must have something they don’t want us to get our hooves on.”         Applejack nodded to nopony in particular.         “Full speed ahead, Spitfire, if you please.”         The crew sat in silence as Spitfire guided the ship towards the asteroids. Twice, she had to drastically change trajectories in order to miss outgoing patrols, but the Antarans remained in the dark about their position. Daring was equipped with a complement of HCDs, but Applejack did not want to use them until they had to escape the system-- hopefully with the science team safely aboard.         With that thought in mind, she broke the silence and radioed down to Beakerman.         “Lieutenant, how exactly do the HCDs work?”         “Well, Captain, I’m not exactly sure. They certainly aren’t telling ponies like me how the most important weapon we’ve developed in decades actually functions, unfortunately. . .”         “Sorry, Beakerman, I didn’t mean to. . .”         Reign cut her apology off mid sentence.         “The HCD overloads the output processors of any individual Antaran. It fills the transmission vehicle with so much useless information that the thing short circuits. Even though its an organic device, the HCD frys it. Unfortunately, they can fix themselves quickly. But before it does, the Antarans become individuals. The ensuing chaos usually cripples a ship for at least a few seconds, and it takes even longer for them to figure out what happened.”         Applejack stared at her first officer with a raised eyebrow. The pegasus mare looked back and shrugged.         “What? First officers hear things every now and again, you know.”         “Fair enough. Beakerman, you have a scan for me now?”         “Aye, aye, Captain. I’m not getting any pony life signs-- the shielding on the asteroids is too thick to get through-- but look at this.”         On her command console, a representation of a large asteroid came into focus, with a large device embedded in the side highlighted.         “That machine is obviously not a natural growth of the asteroid. That doesn’t tell us too much vis a vis prisoners, but wait until I do this. . .”         The image changed from solid green lines to a blur of colors, none of which Applejack knew anything about. The machine, though, was glowing a vastly different color from much of the asteroid.         “I’ve run the image through the long range spectrometer. What you are seeing is the different types of elements present in the asteroid. Nickel, cobalt, that sort of thing. But this construct is producing two elements in abundance-- nitrogen and hydrogen. And it is producing them in the exact same ratio that ponies breathe to survive.”         “But Antarans breathe the same air we do, right?”         “Not necessarily. For example, when we invaded Antara, as you probably recall, you had to take a nitrogen hypospray before you touched down. They don’t need as much of it, so there was less on Antara. But this mix is almost identical to Home’s atmosphere. Unless they’re trying to grow some poison joke, we’ve found our prisoners.”         “Great,” said Applejack. “Spitfire, bring us in close, but stay quiet-- you know the drill. Reign, get a shuttle ready and have the marines meet me in the shuttle bay, you have. . .”         “Captain, I don’t think you need to go down. . .”         “Lieutenant, I appreciate the concern, but I’m probably the only one on this ship that has actually seen a live Antaran, let alone gone toe to claw with one. I’ll go with the Marines.”         Reign frowned.         “Yes, ma’am.”         “Your objection will be noted in my log. You have the comm.”         Applejack felt giddy with excitement as she strapped on her firearm and boarded the shuttle. She hadn’t felt like she’d made a contribution to the war effort-- a real contribution, not a supply dump raid-- in a long time. Her excitement waned a little, though, as the shuttle landed on the asteroid. Sure enough, a small airlock was embedded in the side of the rock. She switched on the comm and addressed every pony on the net.         “Alright, we know what we came for. The strike team will go extravehicular and put a force field around the airlock so we don’t space everypony inside. After we blow the door, we won’t have much time to make this count. We get in, grab the scientists and anypony else, then get out. Spitfire, stay hidden as long as you can, but don’t use the HCD until you are ready to come pick us up. Any objections?”         None were raised. Applejack closed the channel and nodded to the marine next to her, who opened the shuttle’s airlock. Holding down her nausea, Applejack stepped into the void and pushed herself towards the floating rock.         By the time she reached it, the eight pony marine team had established the force field generators and sealed a second airlock-- complete with atmosphere-- around the original. She waited as charges were set to blow the door, eyes closed the avoid the vertigo of free fall that she had come to hate in her days on the gravity-less Venture Gambit. Had it really been barely a year ago when she was just a private in a doomed company?         She shook the thought from her head as the marines signalled their readiness to blow the airlock. As she was about to give the order, though, something banged on the inside of the hatch.         Nine guns pointed at the door, and Applejack held her breath. If they’d been discovered already, things were about to get very bad, very quickly.         Whatever banged on the interior of the door did so again. And again. Applejack began to pick up a pattern.         She removed her helmet and put an ear up to the door.         “Soft, loud, loud. Soft, loud. Soft, soft. Loud. And again. What in the. . .”         She thought for a few seconds before it came to her.         “It’s code! Horse code! Reign, you hearing this!?”         “Yes ma’am,” replied the First Officer, with more excitement than usual. It says. . . ‘wait’.”         “Okay, but we haven’t got. . .”         “No! Captain, the message says ‘wait’!”         Applejack facehooved.         “Great. So what are we waiting for?”         As if in answer, lights around the door flickered on, and the hatchway began to retract sideways. Before Applejack-- or the eight marines with her-- could react, a powerful force crashed into the captain, squeezing her with the strength of a dozen ponies. Applejack, disoriented from the surprise, recoiled and tried to grab at her attacker. Her hooves stopped short, though, as her brain realized that she was not in fact being attacked. She looked down to see a face beaming back up at her.         “Pinkie Pie!?”