//------------------------------// // S1Ep6: Running on Empty // Story: High and Dry // by Artaelian //------------------------------// “All ponies to the helm! I repeat, all ponies to the helm, this is not a drill, and I don’t have one with me otherwise I’d give you an example of a drill!” Pinkie shouted through the Aurora’s intercom system. Rainbow Dash, who was headed to the helm anyway, just rolled her eyes. -- “So let me understand this right,” Applejack held a hoof to her chin, “the Aurora ran on engines like any ship, except now they’re not working and we’re adrift.” “Correct” Twilight answered. “And despite the map showing the location of everything, even the source of the murderous AI you defeated, it doesn’t show where the engines are.” “Two for two.” Twilight replied. “And to top it off, the only information we have of them is that they ran on a naturally sourced power?” “All three correct.” Twilight sighed. “Please tell me Blueblood isn’t even in charge of a pencil. He’s got the mind of a squashed tomato, mixed with dung being kept away from a priceless artifact by a one hole sieve.” Applejack smiled in hope that she’d learn the prince was as useless as he’d so far proven to be. “Actually, Prince Blueblood is in charge of borders and land disputes.” Twilight answered. “Well how can he be so good at that, and so bad at leaving what we need to know about this ship to get us home?” Rarity questioned. “I’m not sure, his work with maps is astounding, and yet his work with designing the Aurora is like asking a foal to design a cool looking cart, and ending up with a one-wheeled cart that has spikes on the wheel and jet rockets on the side. But that’s beside the point, we’re adrift and if we don’t find those engines soon, we’re stuck here until we’re rescued or dead.” Twilight answered. All the ponies and Spike looked at each other, none considering the dying option. “So we split up and search the ship individually?” Fluttershy asked. “Good a plan as any, let’s go!” Twilight said cheerfully, leaving the helm. None of the others noticed as Fluttershy mentally ran through all the bad things that could happen to her alone on the ship, and sink to the floor, shaking in fear. -- Pinkie hopped along a very open area of the Aurora. Metal walkways suspended by metal rods filled the area, and with the open space, her hoofsteps were amplified. Despite hopping, she wasn’t singing or humming, rather, she was worried. She wanted the ship to get going again, maybe then it’d be enough of an excuse to throw a party. She soon came across an open door which only showed a silhouette of a pegasus. The door was open, and slowly, she pushed it open. Beyond the door was a clean silver room, in the middle of which was a giant wheel connected by rods, cogs and gears to a machine. She giggled to herself. “That must have been one giant hamster!” she chuckled, before resuming her search. -- Five minutes passed, and Twilight walked across the metal walkways, soon coming across the room Pinkie had dismissed as a giant hamster cage. She looked at the machine, and quickly came to the conclusion that it was the method of powering the Aurora. “Well that’s great, on top of everything else, the whole ship is powered by running? I better find Applejack, she can run for a bit, that may be enough for power for a while.” She left the room, seeking Applejack, who she found near the bottom of the ship. Together they returned to the room. “So, all Ah have ta do is run on this fer a coupla minutes, and that’ll set us off again?” Applejack questioned. “It seems that way. Sorry Applejack, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t the only way.” Twilight replied, shuffling her hooves. “Doncha worry none Twi! It’ll just take a second,” Applejack walked to the wheel and attempted to stand in it, only to fall through, “what the hay?” Twilight walked closer, pressing a hoof to the wheel. It felt like clouds. She said nothing as her eyes glazed over in a rage induced thought. Of course, the idiot would choose a cloud wheel powered engine, on a ship where he’d hired exactly zero pegasi crew. -- Twenty minutes later and the friends had all gathered back at the helm. Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash looked concerned, while Pinkie was laughing at how she had assumed there could ever be a giant hamster as a pet for the crew. “Well, the engine was found. And as expected, it’s empty.” Twilight stated. “Alright, so how do we power it to get going again?” questioned Rainbow. “In his infinite wisdom, Blueblood had a cloud wheel engine installed to power the ship,” Twilight answered, watching as Rainbow rolled her eyes and Rarity looked eager to hear how he had managed to make this not make any sense, “on a ship where none of the crew were pegasi or earth ponies and unicorns born in Cloudsdale to pegasi parents.” Rarity burst out laughing right away, falling to her back. Choosing to ignore her, Twilight continued. “I know its not something that should have been asked, but we need you to run on the cloud wheel, Rainbow, so we can get the ship going.” Twilight said. “I’d like to, but its time for my nap, see ya!” Rainbow replied, attempting to fly away, only to be caught in Twilight’s magic. “Element of loyalty my plot! How about instead of a nap, we just get you energy drinks? A lot of pegasi use them apparently so they don’t have to sleep as much.” Twilight offered with a smile. “Caffeine, really? I don’t know, you can get addicted to that stuff.” “We just need you to run for a few minutes, it might be enough to get us back home.” Rainbow sighed, she couldn’t just leave her friends when they needed her. “Alright fine, get me plenty of those drinks though, I doubt one will be enough to work on my awesome self.” -- “One drink wouldn’t be enough she said.” Twilight muttered, a hoof over her eyes. Standing in the wheel, irises small as possible, teeth bared and chattering, and darting her head around faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar high, was Rainbow Dash, roughly fifty empty energy drink cans lay discarded beside the wheel, the amount she had deemed would “be enough” for her “awesome self to afford missing a nap”. “Sweet Celestia, what have we done? Fluttershy, be a dear and find any defibrillators would you? With that much caffeine in her, her heart could very well stop.” Rarity added. “Uh, Rainbow?” Applejack asked aloud, causing the pegasus to look at her. “Everypony thinks I like mares! I don’t, I like Soarin’! Soarin, Soarin, Soarin, Soarin. Hehehehe.” Rainbow shouted, her eyes zoning out more than they had been before. “That’s nice and all, but could you please run on the wheel now?” Rarity asked. “Run? ‘sfor Losers. I can fly! See? Six limbs, I’m like an insect. Hehe, buzz buzz.” All eyes turned to Twilight, hoping she could come up with a way to make Rainbow use her caffeine high for powering the ship. Twilight simply nodded. “Rainbow?” Twilight asked cautiously. “My pee will be full of blood after all that caffeine!” Rainbow exclaimed. Twilight grimaced at Rainbow’s comfort of indulging too much information, but also at the truth of the statement. “Listen, you had a bet with Applejack that you could run for longer on that wheel than she can, but for us to know who’s better, you need to start running.” “Oh,” Rainbow answered, her caffeine high seemed to end suddenly, “alright then.” Rainbow looked at the wheel, and licked her lips, her eyes showing the caffeine high hadn’t ended, but it remained to be seen if this was a good or bad thing. “LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!” Rainbow yelled. And ran. And ran, and ran. She ran for ten minutes easily before the caffeine high really had ended, causing her to fall asleep and collapse on the wheel. The momentum of her running on a high however kept her spinning perfectly in place where she had fallen. Twilight went to a monitor and checked the fuel levels, finding they now had enough fuel for another month. “Alright, I’m sure none of us want to see her behave like that again, so we best locate all the energy drinks and hide them. Let’s get to it.” Twilight said, walking out of the room. “Um, girls?” Fluttershy called after them. Only when they all paused did she continue. “Shouldn’t we wait for the wheel to stop first and make sure Rainbow is okay?” “Oh yeah,” Twilight paused for a moment, “Fluttershy, while we find and hide the energy drinks, you wait for the wheel to stop, check her pulse and find the on-board hospital.” Fluttershy sighed, they had a good reason to hide the energy drinks, they should have at least waited to see if Rainbow’s heart hadn’t exploded from the ordeal. Her worries that Rainbow might be dead were quickly put to rest when Rainbow snored. Fluttershy couldn’t help but laugh slightly, still spinning at half the speed she’d been running at, often upside down, Rainbow was peacefully asleep. “ZZzz, no Fluttershy… I won’t join you and Discord, especially not for that!” Rainbow mumbled. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. She cast a quick glance at the spinning wheel, before flying out of the room as fast as she could to help hide the energy drinks.