Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai, Architect
Editors: Savoured Thoughts
“I don’t know what we’ll see when we reach our new home. But I have no doubt it will be awesome! Just as soon as I give Twilight a piece of my mind” ~Princess Rainbow Dash’s log. Day 1
The Princess of Loyalty entered the hibernation chamber and walked over to the console in the middle of the room, tapping at a few of the controls. As soon as she cleared the huge array of security scans and passwords, the statis system powered down and the individual pods begin to open up.
“Wake up!” Rainbow yelled. Seeing the rest of the suspended crew had woke up just fine, she pulled up her tablet, typing orders to the current crew that was maintaining the ship to prepare for landing. “Rise and shine everypony,” she barked, “There’s no time for recaf. Twi’s gone off the deep end again and we need to find out what she’s up to! Move, move, move! We need to get to the surface, pronto!”
“Princess, there’s no way we can get the lander ready in less than an hour,” replied Scoots as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves.
“Scoots, you got twenty minutes… tops,” Rainbow Dash replied back, “Also get the other Princess’ on the line and tell them what just happened. I’m pretty sure AJ will insist on going ahead of the others to make sure it’s safe for them and to check on me and my ‘impulsiveness’.”
“I’ll, do what I can,” Scootaloo replied back with a sigh and a quick, curt bow before she galloped off.
As the now awake medical crew went to tend to the ponies that were waking up from stasis, Rainbow trotted across the ship to her cabin. Stepping inside, she looked at her collection of mementos, things that were little mementos from Equestria: the array of badges from her time in the Wonderbolts, her collection of Daring Do Novels, pictures from Cloudsdale, Ponyville, and Griffonstone, and so on. She only hoped that Twi’s experimental grav-manipulation technology would work and keep her valuables from flying everywhere during landing. She didn’t exactly have much time for packing after all.
She sighed deeply in nostalgia and went to her personal locker, performing a series of quick taps upon the door’s number pad. It popped open with a pneumatic hiss, and Rainbow removed her space suit and before closing the storage unit back up. Hurry made donning the suit more difficult than usual, causing her to fumble and fume as she messed with the snaps and zippers. A knocking on her chamber door came just as she finally managed to get her wings into their slots, allowing her to spread them even if flight was no longer possible.
“Who is it?” She grumbled as she worked to get the last parts of her suit on, “Ponyfeathers, this buckin’ thing is always such a pain in th-”
“CO Scootaloo requesting permission to enter,” Scootaloo yelled from the other side of the door.
“Granted,” Dash yelled back as she performed a last-minute check of the seals on her suit.
Scootaloo trotted into the room with her own space suit on and a dataslate strapped to her belt, along with a small sidearm. A Silenced “Changeling 11” variant of some sort from what Dash could see of it.
After setting up the last parts of her suit and doing a quick stretch, Rainbow asked, “ You here to give me that status report, Scoots?”
“Yes ma’am, I am,” she confirmed, “Jeez, I’m rhyming like Zecora, aren’t I?” She groaned, causing Dash to snicker.
After a slightly annoyed snort followed by a grunt to clear her throat, Scootaloo grabbed her dataslate and continued, “The techs and engineers said they still can’t get the pod ready to go in twenty minutes or less, but they said that if they push it, they can be ready to go in forty-five minutes. Also, the other crews are waking the remaining Elements now, and will inform them of the situation as soon as they regain consciousness.”
“Glad to hear they’re waking up,” Rainbow mumbled while pulling on one of her boots with her teeth “and while I can’t wait to see their expressions when they hear of Twi’s latest faux pas, we need to land asap. Keep pushing those eggheads to get the lander up and running,” Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo, who nodded sharply. When she didn’t say anything else, Rainbow blinked and continued, “If that’s everything, you’re free to go.”
“Right away, Princess,” Scootaloo replied with a bow as she rushed out the door, which came within two inches of closing on her tail in her haste to shut it.
After doing a last minute check of her suit (yes, it was excessive, but she didn’t want a repeat of what came to be known as the “vacuum bed incident”), Rainbow Dash quickly exited her room and shut it behind her, then kicked the button that reset the entry codes.
A group of armed Royal Guards were waiting for her a few feet down the hall, and they fell into step around her as she started to walk off. While a part of her old self hated having to be protected, she knew it was a necessary evil that came with the title of Princess. She was just grateful that she actually got to know the guards that were assigned to her, and that they were very good at their job. Indeed, she personally oversaw many of the reforms made for Wonderbolt and Royal Guard training after several incidents involving the changelings (the most memorable of which involved Discord and a very large puddle of gelatin).
One of the guards cleared his throat and said, “Your Highness, the Armory is fully functional. Gilda and Greta are on standby and are waiting for you to show up. They want to make sure all troops have their firearms and other necessary gear out before landing.”
“Glad to hear at least something’s staying on schedule around here,” Rainbow Dash replied, “I want to go check on that, hang a left up here.”
“As you wish, your Highness,” said the guard with a curt nod, not so much as slowing down as they turned the corner.
After walking down a series of hallways with her retinue, Rainbow Dash finally approached the armory. Behind the bars that were used to protect the weapons, ammo, and other equipment was her old friend Gilda, and another griffin by the name of Greta. “About time ya showed up ‘Princess’,” Gilda replied with a smug smirk, hefting a box of ammunition onto the counter.
“Well, you know me Gilda, I kinda have my hooves full here, running this band of refugees I’ve been put in charge of. I’ll let you advise me on how to do my job after you pass the qualification exam for a leader of a nation-in-exile,’” Dash replied with a slight frown that indicated she was not in the mood for dealing with Gilda’s usual pile of griffin feathers.
“Yeah, well maybe I’d be in a better mood if I hadn’t been woken up so early from induced hibernation due to Twi deciding to go all ‘Daring-Do’ because her curiosity overrode her common sense, or lack thereof, in her case,” she quipped as she went searching through a rack of rifles on a nearby wall.
“Rest assured, I feel the same way. Egghead will have some explaining to do when I find her,” Rainbow Dash replied in agreement. “So do you have my gear ready?”
“Yeah yeah. Hold yer horses, Princess. We’re diggin’ your stuff out right now,” Gilda grumbled as she and Greta were checking the various assorted weapon racks in the Armory.
After several minutes, Gilda found Dash’s preferred weapons of choice: a Griffinikov Rifle, a Desert Griffin Pistol, and a saber. “You know the drill, Highness, read off the serial numbers on the weaponry,” Gilda said.
Rolling her eyes, Dash replied, “It’s still the same serial number it’s always been on all three. Charlie-Lima-Romeo-One-One-Zero because...”
“They were custom made for you, I know,” Gilda finished, “Look, don’t be a hard plot Dash and just fill out the Sun-cursed paperwork.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s your job,” Dash replied with a snarky grin. Greta chuckled a bit as she went to rearrange the weaponry in the back.
Gilda grumbled and handed Dash a tablet with the armory forms displayed. “Sign your weapons out… please,” Gilda said through a gritted beak.
“For a friend, sure,” Dash said with a smile and a wink as she signed out the weapons. She continued, “Gilda, make sure whatever isn’t signed out is…”
“Locked down for the landing! I know! We’ve done drills for that for years, you don’t have to remind me” she fumed.
“Hundreds of times,” Dash agreed, “I’m just making sure because that’s my job. If any of the stuff here goes off while landing...”
“Rest assured, I know what will happen. More than you do in fact. Remember the asteroid that gave us a glancing blow two years back? It knocked a rifle loose which almost took my head off,” Gilda griped, then commented, “Here… five 30 round mags for the Griffinikov and five 20 round mags for the Desert Griffin. Sign them out as usual,” she said as she handed out the ammo magazines and swiped to another form on the tablet..
Dash quickly pressed her hoof against it for her signature and after another quick inspection of her weapons and ammo, she said, “Thanks Gilda. I got to get to the bridge now, be there for landfall and all that. I’ll be expecting to see you there as soon as you’ve finished.”
Gilda smiled back and said, “Of course I’ll be there. We’re flight sisters, remember? Signed in blood and bathed in flames? Although I would argue that I got the good looks of the family.”
“Of course you would,” Dash chortled as her guards and she left the Armory.
After doing yet another check on her own and her guards’ gear, and performing a last minute field inspection of her troops and the landing craft; Dash and her retinue went to take their positions on the bridge. The operation had taken longer than she liked, but the lander was finally ready, and her hooves were itching to walk on the surface of a real planet again. After putting her personal weaponry into a nearby weapons rack, locking said weapons down, and doing a last-minute check of her suit and its vacuum-seal locks, she strapped herself into her command chair. She looked over at Gilda (who had somehow managed to beat her to the bridge), Scootaloo, and the others, then took a deep breath, and exhaled, counting to 4 in her head to ease the tension.
“Systems check,” Princess Dash ordered.
“Air mixture is nominal,” Scootaloo replied, “Air pressure is nominal, no sign of leaks, etc… all lights are green.”
“Gilda-” Rainbow Dash started to ask.
“I know, I know,” Gilda interrupted, “Greta’s assured me all the gear is locked down and she’s strapped down in a seat in the Armory. She’ll be there to babysit our stack of ‘dakka.’”
“Right, let’s get to it, then,” Dash commented with a nod. “Scoots, start the countdown.”
“You heard the mare,” Scoots barked to the pilot and co-pilot, “Start the countdown!”
Spitfire replied, “Aye ma’am! Put all stations on orange alert! Starting atmospheric entry in ten…”
Rainbow Dash looked calmly upon the others around her, there was no going back now.
“Nine!”
Gilda, as usual, was all bluster and bravado on the surface. Whether she truly felt that way on the inside was another matter altogether.
“Eight!”
Scoots was busy turning dials and pressing buttons, as well as typing in commands on various touch screens.
“Seven!”
Dash noticed that Spitfire and Thunderlane were also quite busy making last-second adjustments prior to detachment.
“Six!”
Rainbow heard a slight hissing noise as various hoses and other attachments started to detach themselves from the lander.
“Five!”
The landing craft started to drift away as it went into position for entry.
“Four!”
Various thrusters went off outside as it adjusted itself into the proper angle and position needed for entry.
“Three!”
Rainbow Dash looked upon Spitfire nearby, who was nervously typing onto a keypad, making more last-second calculations with the lander’s AI, making sure the route they took through the atmosphere was the safest one, and that enough fuel was left for the retrorockets to cushion the landing.
“Two!”
Rainbow quickly yelled out, “This is it everypony! Brace yourselves!”
“One!”
The Princess of Loyalty continued, “Commend our souls to the Two Sisters.”
“Beginning entry,” Spitfire yelled out as the craft started to jar, shake, and warm-up upon initial contact with the alien planet’s atmosphere.
……
After eight long and tense minutes of the craft shaking as it descended, they touched down in a mountainous region. It was pretty close to where Twilight’s colony had landed hence for them deciding to land there. As soon as she landed, she left Scootaloo to oversee the initial setting up of their city. “I’ll do my best!” Scootaloo had replied enthusiastically, not wanting to disappoint her idol. Gathering some supplies, she took a small group of the soldiers under her command and set off.
‘Twilight has been getting a little too adventurous recently. She was supposed to wait for us before landing. What the buck was she thinking? That’s usually my thing!’ Rainbow thought to herself. ‘Either way, I’ll find out later.‘
Rainbow Dash spread her wings to fly. The pegasi among the detachment sent to accompany her also started to fly. Rainbow Dash took off, her larger wings allowing her to quickly accelerate into the sky. She streaked into the air, her first real flight in over ten years. She closed her eyes and flew up higher and higher, wanting to see how high can she go. Back in Equestria, she was usually able to fly up to a height of six times the height that Cloudsdale hovered before she ascended. She was grateful Twi taught her spells that allowed her body to function temporarily without oxygen for the upper parts of the atmosphere, and to shrug off the effects of extreme cold and wing icing. Feeling a familiar strain she often felt whenever she was about to reach her maximum flying height possible, she opened her eyes to survey the area.
Only one small problem. Despite being an alicorn, she was to her dismay only hovering at one third of the maximum flight height she achieved back in Equestria. The air already here was rather thin, hence not allowing Rainbow Dash to generate enough lift to be able to fly higher. She looked down and saw that her guards were much lower than her trying to fly up to where she is. They were barely managing to get up to where she is. ‘Well then, it looks like flying is out of the way. Dammit. The best we’re going to be able to do is skimming treetops and flying over bodies of water. Still better than nothing.
“Okay then guards, form up on me. Make a defensive circular perimeter.” Rainbow Dash shouted to the detachment that followed her. “I’m going to try teleportation.” She landed and the guards all stood in a circle around her. In her mind, she visualised the runes and thought of the destination as Twilight has shown her. Seeing the runes in her head, Rainbow started to channel her magical energy… only to her dismay to find out that she is unable to charge it to the required energy to teleport. What the hell is going on. I need to check with Twilight if this is normal.
“New plan, we’re walking there. Looks like advanced magic and flight for us is out. Only short teleports and hovering.” Rainbow Dash said to her guards. "The sooner we get to Twilight, the faster we’ll know what’s going on."
For the next few days, they travelled. Rainbow Dash noticed several things about the land. For starters, natural resources like copper and titanium, which back in Equestria required deep mines were readily out in the open. There was also these weird glowing rocks that were levitating in the air. Initially, she had yelled out for Discord to show himself as it reminded her way too much of when they took him down. But after an hour of fruitless searching for the God of Chaos, she gave up. Instead opting to with the help of a guard's pocket knife, chip off a chunk of the rocks to let Twilight study.
Soon Twilight's city lay in sight. Already, Rainbow Dash could see a few farms and generator facilities already built and running. One of them there noticed Rainbow Dash and immediately bowed.
"Where is Twilight Sparkle?" Rainbow Dash asked after they were done greeting her.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle came by a few hours ago to check on our facilities before heading back to the city. Would you like us to take you there?" The manager asked.
"Yeah sure. Err... what's your name?" Rainbow asked.
"Name is Lemon Hearts, Princess Dash." Lemon Hearts replied. "Follow me! I'll take you to her." She turned and advanced towards the city.
The group walked with her. As they headed towards the center, Rainbow dash could see that Twilight had sectored different parts of the city for different purposes with everything organised based on what they do. Geez, it’s like Twilight’s in city form. Her OCD is flaring up again after we left.
Lemon Hearts brought Rainbow Dash towards the research sector. She pointed towards the main building and said, "Princess Twilight is in there. Check with her assistant Trixie. She will try to schedule you a time with Princess Twilight. It’s nice seeing you again Princess Dash. Hope you visit again after you’ve settled down." Lemon Hearts saluted before heading back.
They stepped into the building. In front of them was the reception area. Two guards were stationed at the opposite end of the room. Upon noticing Rainbow Dash, they walked over and saluted.
"Welcome Princess Rainbow Dash. I am Captain Flash Sentry." The orange pegasus guard identified himself. "Princess Twilight Sparkle is currently in a discussion with her senior researchers. She should be out soon."
"So Flash Sentry huh, how's the posting so far? You enjoying it?" Rainbow Dash teased.
Flash Sentry started to blush. "Err, Princess Dash, can we please keep it professional?" The other guards started to snicker among themselves. Twilight's crush on Flash was well known among the guards back in Equestria. With him posted to be in charge of ensuring Twilight's security, that made him the target of much teasing.
Thankfully, before they could continue teasing Flash, the doors to the room opened. Twilight strolled out with her retinue of scientists. When she noticed Rainbow Dash standing there, a smile broke out of Twilight as she ran up to hug Rainbow.
"It's good to see you again Dash." Twilight happily said.
"Yeah, it’s good to see you again Twi. Hey, can I talk to you for a sec. I need to ask you some things." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Okay. The meeting room is cleared up, maybe we can talk in there?"
"Fine by me."
Twilight and Dash entered the meeting room, their guards staying outside. As soon as the door was closed. Rainbow Dash started the conversation
"Okay, there are some things I want to ask and show you, Twilight.” Opening up her saddlebag, she pulled out the sample of rocks she took. "We found this while on our way here." Looking at Twilight's now surprised look, she guessed that she also didn’t know what were these rocks. "Yes, it’s floating. I thought at first Discord was back, but after spending an hour looking for him, I gave up. Thought you eggheads would know why."
"It's... it’s defying the laws of gravity itself! I've never seen something that is able to create an anti-gravity field without a source of magic!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Yeah, go figure how it works." Rainbow said. "Secondly, our magic seems to not really work here."
"Really?" Twilight asked. "Everything seems to work just fine." To prove her point, she levitated several of the chairs in the room.
"Yes, telekinesis still works, but try teleporting or any of the advanced spells that you know. I couldn't teleport here." Rainbow Dash replied
"Why would you even want to teleport here if there is the holographic meeting system that was packed into all our crafts? You could have just set it up." Twilight asked.
"That brings me to my third question." Rainbow said, "What in Equestria were you thinking! You were supposed to wait for all of us before agreeing on what to do! Do you know how BUCKING WORRIED I was when you flew off like that without telling us first!? Being the impulsive one that charges to the front first is my job, not yours! Who knows what could’ve happened to you down on this strange, new planet while I was still trying to get here!?”
“I- I truly am sorry,” Twilight stammered, taken aback by Dash’s fuming rant. The scientists and other workers also stopped for a moment and looked on in silent shock at the fury of the enraged Blue Alicorn. Twilight’s Guards slowly gathered around her and Dash’s Guards responded in kind.
“Stand down,” Twilight ordered to her troops, “she has every right to be angry at me.” Twilight’s Royal Guards then started to slowly back away and Dash’s troops did the same. Twilight then cleared her throat and continued, “Dash-I-I really am sorry. It’s just here was a whole new planet and my curiosity and desire for knowledge overcame me and-”
Seeing how Twilight really was upset for making Rainbow Dash angry and worried, the cyan princess put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, and with a knowing smile sighed and said, “I should’ve known. Typical Egghead Twi. That always was you, always eager to find out something new, even if you didn’t always think through about what the consequences of it could be. Sometimes, I think we have more in common at times than either of us would care to admit.”
Then the most unlikely thing happened, Rainbow Dash started to chuckle. This in turn started to make the purple alicorn chuckle. This in turn led to both of them bursting into outright uproarious laughter and to them both hugging each other. After they wiped away the tears from their eyes, Twilight commented, “Heh heh… well, you may have a point there, especially after I started to get you in turn interested in reading way back when you started to encourage me to do laps with you after my ascension. Still, now that you’re here, let me lead you to my office where we can catch up and plan out what we should do next.”
“Sounds good to me Twi’,” Dash agreed as she and her guards in turn followed Princess Sparkle, her own guards, and the remainder of her retinue.
The next day, Rainbow Dash was off. Twilight had shown to Rainbow Dash some of the new prototypes in the lab that her group had started working on. They spent the day before that touring the budding city and catching up with each other. Soon it was time to bid farewell. Before she left, she marked out the location of her city so that they could send supplies to each other.
The next few days of travelling was uneventful. Nothing has changed much on the route. The only thing that changed much was that a green fog had appeared over the horizon. Upon reaching the city however to her surprise, her godsister wasn't among the ponies that welcomed her back. Instead she found Scootaloo at the newly set up clinic.
"Hey squirt, what happened?" Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo ìn respond pushed herself upright on the hospital bed. After a small burst of coughing, she replied, “I'm fine, just accidentally inhaled some of the green fog that appeared yesterday to the north."
"The green fog? What were you doing there?" A concerned Rainbow Dash asked.
"I didn’t go there on my own accord. I went there to find Derpy Hooves. She went in there yesterday to explore, and when the fog moved in, she did not come out. I went in to save her. She was unconscious." Scootaloo replied, tilting her head to the direction of the other bed before coughing again
The mare in question was lying down on the other bed sleeping with an oxygen mask strapped to her.
"The doctor said that she’ll be fine. Just have to clear out any of the fog in her system. She mentioned the air smelling a bit like muffins when she regained conscious about five hours ago." Scootaloo said behind her.
‘Oh Derpy, what have you gotten yourself into this time?’