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"Are you sure you'll be all right by yourself?"
"I'll be fine, hun."
"I mean, I could call in, get somepony to cover me..."
"Blue, I'll be fine."
"M-maybe I shouldn't go, we have enough savings to last another week or two."
"Blue."
"This is a bad idea, I shouldn't have to leave my wife alone like this..."
"Blue!"
They're standing on the threshold to the street, plush carpet beneath their hooves and the rising sun peeking through the windows. Stella gently nuzzles the stallion hesitating at the door. Behind her comes the sound of pancakes on the griddle and the Monday morning Holopone.
Blue fidgets with his tie. "I... just." He's looking everywhere but her.
She kisses him, murmuring into his ear, "I know. But this will do you good. We've been cooped up in here for half a month. Go, get out there."
"But what about you?" He lays his neck over hers.
"I'll manage. Galaxy has school off today. I'll spend as much time as I can with her. Okay?"
They stay like that for a while, drawing comfort from the embrace. "Are we ever going to tell her?" He doesn't wait for a response, adding, "I hate this, I hate feeling like this."
"Like what, hun?"
"Useless," he mumbles. His voice is bitter. "Afraid."
"I've got the pills now," she reminds him. "The attacks won't bother me anymore. It was just that first time on our anniversary, and the hospital."
He is silent.
Eventually, he steps away. "I should go."
Stella offers him a smile, but he still isn't looking at her. She holds the door open for him as he steps into the morning and is swallowed by the sunlight. Leaning against the open doorway, she shifts her bathrobe against the breeze. It's a windy day today, and the family skimmer wavers a bit in air, before rocketing up and away into the metropolis of Everfree.
With a sigh, Stella closes the door and returns to the kitchen. Breakfast is almost ready. She flares her leathery wings, grabbing the spatula with the tips of the finger-like bones that make up the limbs and stirring the batter.
The Holopone is reporting the news for the moment. Pleasant background noise, really, but an interview with Lady Sparkle emerges, and Stella can't help but twitch a tufted ear towards the conversation.
"...truly remarkable, Your Majesty. What inspired you to initiate such an ambitious undertaking?"
"That's a fantastic question. I always knew there was more potential for the space program after ponykind returned to the Moon. Now, I say returned not because Princess Luna once dwelt there for a time, but also because it became the home of the lost pegasus tribe during Discord's short reign, ancestors of modern day nocturni, the Night Pegasi. It was actually Luna who brought them back when she returned, but for many years, we wondered what had became of the kingdom they left behind. After we re-established a colony there from ponies of all walks of life, I wondered if there was more out there. This program is intended to answer that question, once and for all."
"Fascinating. Are you at any liberty to discuss the progress your project has made?"
"Not entirely, save that this has been something I alone have worked upon for many years, and only recently expanded operations once I was certain the theories behind interstellar travel were sound, not to mention safe. The first launch is scheduled in three months, once we have finished testing the prototype craft and training the crew."
"Your Majesty, there are some among us who are wondering if there might be any ulterior motives to this program."
"Ulterior motives?"
"Yes. Would it be too much trouble to set rest to a few rumors?"
"Please, go ahead."
"Is it true that the secondary objective this program is to discover the location of the long lost Celestia and Luna?"
"..."
"Your Majesty?"
She blinks, realizing that somehow her attention had drifted to the Holopone. Something acrid makes her nose wrinkle, and glancing down, she gasps at the sight of the pancakes on the griddle. Blackened and scorched. Ruined.
"Ngghhhhh! You've got to be kidding me! Ffffffff---"
There is a small pegasus filly sitting at the counter, watching her with a curious expression.
"---ffffffuuuudge."
An awkward pause.
"Morning, Momma!" her daughter brightly chirps.
Stella sighs, scraping the mess into the incinerator. "Good morning, Galaxy. Did you sleep well?"
"Mhh-hmmm." The little scamp rubs at her eyes, stifling a yawn. "What was that?"
"It was breakfast." Stella presses a button on the counter, and the griddle descends, covered up by ceramic plates. Trotting around the counter, she ruffles the filly's mane. "I think I should leave the cooking to your father from now on. Want to go out for food?"
Galaxy's eyes light up. "Yusssh!"
"Okay. Wash up, and be ready to leave in ten."
Her daughter tumbles off her perch, small wings flapping excitedly. She giggles as her mother deftly catches her with practiced movements. "Can we do something fun today?"
"Hmmm?" Stella sets her down. "Like what?"
"I gotta new sim from one of my friends at school. It's the newest Daring Do!" Galaxy proudly announces, tail wagging with excitement. "I traded it for a bag of cookies!"
Stella's face crinkles with amusement. "Your father's cookies? I can't say this friend of yours has bad taste. Hmmm." She pretends to think hard for a moment. "Run along, and we'll use the link at the park to play. All right?"
"Yuppers!" The filly scampers away. "Love you!"
Stella watches her vanish down the hallway, before shaking her head with a mirthful chuckle. She notices she's still holding the spatula in her wing, now coated in charred bits of pancakes. Her faces sours for a moment, then relaxes.
"I know, baby. I know."
She never really got used to the feeling of a sim. Too much, too smooth. It was like she was forced into experiencing the world around her. She couldn't tune out if she tried.
Still, she reminds herself, at least this wasn't real. Horses of Heaven help her if it was, because she's terrified out of her wits as it is.
And the overly-enthusiastic commentary is not helping in the least.
"Ha-ha-ha-haa! Can you believe it? You're about to do something nopony has ever done before. Ever! You're dropping into the throat of a frozen volcano, mares! You're gonna ride the inside of Kilamarejaro --- nothing but pure darkness in there --- you're gonna be riding blind!"
A sharp warning siren blares from the cockpit of the vehicle, a pilot roughly smashing his hoof into some buttons a few times until it quells. Outside, nothing can be heard over the scream of the storm but the deafening chud-chud-chudding of propellers beating desperately at the air.
"...That's, that's rock'n'roll, mares, that's what it is, that is a deadly descent." The entire craft shudders violently, pitching the sole occupants in the rear passenger space about. "Heheheh, bet the only thing you two can think of right now is the sting of vomit in the back of your throat, eh?"
Stella places a hoof over her chest, trying to control how hard she's breathing. Her heavy winter ensemble flexes with the movement, more of a second skin than thermal protection. Her heart is absolutely pounding against the inside of her chest, and she fears it might actually break her ribs.
She turns to her daughter in wide-eyed disbelief. "This!? This is what you do for fun!?"
Galaxy is too busy rolling around the floor of the infernal machine as it sways in the wind. "Wheeeee! Oh, yeah, Momma, this is tons of fun! I do this stuff all the time! All we gotta do is make it to the bottom and grab the treasure. Just like Daring Do!" The filly staggers over to her mother, patting her on the shoulder. "I mean, if you don't want to do this..."
Stella takes one look at those big, glistening eyes and she knows there's no escape.
"Let's do this," she says uncertainly, stepping onto the board glowing at the center of the space. A long, thin, curved board materializes beneath her hooves, attaching itself by some unknown force. It has her mark on it --- two shooting stars --- something that seemed oddly comforting.
Galaxy joins her, a much smaller board forming underneath the much smaller filly.
"Are those flaming skulls?" Stella asks, eyeing her daughter's equipment.
"Yah-huh. Do ya like it? This is my custom ride. It's totes magotes the gnarliest plank that ever shredded that dopesauce pow-pow this side of the Crysties." She's positively wriggling with unrestrained joy.
"....What?"
The pilot's voice drifts back from the cockpit. He sounds like he's struggling to hold the craft in place. "Put it out of your heads and start your nerves. Prepare to drop on my mark!"
Galaxy hops up and grabs onto an overhanging bar above their heads with her wings. After a moment's hesitation, Stella does too, and with little time to spare. She gasps as a hidden pannel in the floor drops away, and nothing but the black, monstrous yaw of open sky below them. The howl of frozen wind that rips into the craft is deafening. Its almost like the mountain is roaring at her.
"Galaxy..."
"Shh, this is the best part!"
The pilot cries out. "Three..."
"Galaxy...!"
"Can't hear anything love ya buh-bye now!"
"Two..."
"Oh Tartarus screw my butt sideways with a flaming baseball bat."
"ONE!" Galaxy lets go and vanishes out the hatch, disappearing into the darkness with a stream of childlike giggles. A strong beam of light sparkles to life from the filly's head lamp, and Stella can see it swallowed up by the frozen mouth of the volcano.
Screaming in terror, Stella lets go and falls after her.
A split second later, the pain returns.