Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai
“The beauty of this planet is there, if hidden. It will be nice to bring it out, though the task remains a daunting one. But such deeds are the stuff of legend, are they not? ” ~Attributed to Princess Rarity shortly after landing.
The new planet came into view as the S.S. Opal slipped into orbit, the sphere’s green and blue surface sparkled in the sunlight. To an ordinary pony, it looked just like any other planet, but to Rarity, it was a chance for a fresh start. Her craft’s cargo consisted of many of Equestria’s old artifacts including the Elements of Harmony themselves. The Tree of Harmony could not be uprooted to take with them but somehow Twilight and Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, managed to coax it into giving up the gems. Celestia had believed that with the magic infused into the gems, they would be able to regrow the tree, helping them to establish a foothold on their new home..
The transmission she had received from Twilight earlier that day was good news. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had all made it safely and were settling in quite nicely. Now it was her turn.
Preparations for landing were already done. Everypony was at his or her stations, and the ship’s computer was tilting the craft for the final approach.
“So this is where we are starting a new world isn’t it?” Sweetie Belle, her sister asked.
“Yes Sweetie. Our journey is at an end, You can finally see Scootaloo again and possibly Apple Bloom when she and AJ land,” Rarity replied, looking at the planet. Earlier on, she had with the first pictures from the cameras mounted on Twilight’s recently launched solar collector decided to land in what appears to be a grassland biome. It was relatively flat with a small mountain range to the north.
“It will be great to meet Scoots again. We have so much catching up to do!” Sweetie Belle happily said.
"I also wonder how Twilight and the others are doing as well. But I wonder why did they gone on and settled down that quickly." Rarity said.
"Must have been something that interested them I think." Sweetie Belle replied.
Rarity was about to reply when the craft started shaking as it entered the atmosphere. ‘The conversation can wait.’ She thought.
Eight minutes later, they successfully touched down. Shortly after touching down, the crew got to work, dismantling the ship for useful parts to build their first city. Roughly an hour after they had touched down, convoys from Twilight and Rainbow Dash arrived with some extra supplies. Sweetie Belle was happy of course when she found Scootaloo among the convoy that came from Rainbow Dash. As soon as they met, they began discussing reinstating the Cutie Mark Crusaders club again. Rarity overheard them and thought to herself with a chuckle. ‘At the rate things are going for them, they are not going to find their cutie marks any time soon. Sweetie Bell really needs to work with what she is already good at if she wants one.‘
......
"Hey Scoots, I can't wait till Apple Bloom lands. It’d be like the old days when we’d go crusading for our cutie marks!" Sweetie Belle excitedly said once they were out of earshot of the adults.
"Me too. We literally haven’t had a meeting in years! We had pretty much done all we can back in Equestria, how about trying anew here. Maybe here we can help others get their cutie marks!" Scootaloo replied.
The two crusaders had went about a kilometer away from the landing site on a small hill that overlooked a plain. They were discussing how to continue the club now that they were rather far away from each other
"So what do you think, how should we manage the club now? Do we now run our own branches of the club with where we are, or do we try to meet everyday through the hologram thingy that my sister has?” Sweetie Belle asked
“How about asking our sisters to make the Cutie Mark Crusaders club an official organisation?” Scootaloo suggested.
“I don’t think they will do it, but maybe they could… it sounds like a good idea. Hey, why don’t we go check with them?” Sweetie Belle replied
Both of them continued talking about it. What should their potential new club be called? Who should be in charge of the administration or what? They continued on and did not notice the sun starting to set.
……
“Well I guess we can call it a day everypony. A city doesn't get built in a day but we are on track! Have a good rest, we will continue tomorrow.” Rarity announced to the others as the sun started to set over the horizon. Tents were set up and the food was distributed to them.
‘I wonder where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo went off to?’ I haven’t seen them since the afternoon. Better start looking for them.’
Spreading out her wings, she took off to look for one of her assistants. She spotted one of them, Coco Pommel having her dinner.
Landing right next to her, the startled assistant looked up to see her princess. “P-princess Rarity?” She stammered. “H-how can I help you?"
"Have you seen my sister Sweetie Belle around? It's sunset already and she’s nowhere to been seen," Rarity asked, concern etched into her face.
"I think I saw her and the really young mare, Scootaloo head of to the hills towards the north." Coco replied. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing really, but could you be a darling and start looking for them?" Rarity asked. That was when she heard a shriek coming from the hills. "Did you hear that! It came from the hills!"
Before Coco could react, Rarity took off, leaving a rather confused Cocoa wondering what was going on.
......
Sweetie Belle was the first one to notice the setting sun. "Oh dear, we better get going. Rarity will kill me if she finds out that I am not back by sunset."
"Yeah, we best be going." Scootaloo said, getting to her hooves
It was then an alien came into view. It looked like a gigantic green beetle with spikes. However, unlike a beetle, it had a spiked tail with a club on the end and was a quadruped. It was more like a monstrous cross between a beetle and a reptile. If there had been any elderly humans on the planet at the time, they would’ve commented that these creatures (like the ones on the planet they were colonizing), looked more specifically like a cross between a beetle and a extinct Earth animal called a Ankylosaur. The “beetle” was keeping a good distance from them, unsure of what kind of creature Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were. Still, the gigantic mandibles it had made the two ponies doubt it was most certainly not herbivorous.
While the beetle kept looking at them, both the crusaders were thinking of what is the best course of action to do. Not having any form of weapons to use; the fight response was unavailable. Hence they picked the flight response, and ran away from the alien with a scream.
......
Rarity flew as quickly as she could, the flying lessons from Rainbow Dash proving to be useful. She spied one of the guns from the guards from Rainbow Dash's convoy and yanked it out of the guard's hooves with her telekinesis with an accompanying sorry being said in the guards direction. After a few minutes, she found Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo being chased by what appears to a giant beetle pack. Swooping down, she place herself between the fleeing ponies and siblings. The lead beetle upon noticing another, but much larger version of the potential prey it was chasing stopped and eyed the alicorn.
What do I do next? Sweetie Belle is still not a safe distance and any movement will result in it attacking. The beetle in response decided Rarity was an easy kill and decided to attack. Rarity saw the beetle charge at her and tried to fire off a simple beam of magic. A beam did fly out and struck the beetle, but it shrugged it off and resumed its attack. With a potential mauling almost about to happen to her, she had no choice but to use the gun she had the foresight to ‘borrow’. With the gun in her magical grip, she pointed it at what she assumed was its head and telekinetically yanked on the trigger.
A burst of bullets flew out and it struck the creature in the head. That did some damage and it brought the charging beetle down. The rest of the pack, having seen seeing their alpha being downed, decided that the ponies were an actual threat and fled.
With the threat over, Rarity looked at the two crusaders. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were looking at her in awe and shock. "What? You did not expect me to just stay there and fight it hoof to hoof did you? Anyway, what are you doing out here on your own!”
“We kinda got sidetracked by our conversation… you’re not mad at us now are you?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently
“I’m not angry or what darling. It’s just that I wonder if you even know that we are worried for your safety.” Rarity replied.
“You know we are almost full grown mares now right. Also Scootaloo here has been training under Princess Rainbow Dash. I’m sure she can defend herself,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Well no matter, you are all safe now and it is getting late. We will talk about it tomorrow.” Rarity said, spreading her wings and crouching to give Sweetie Belle a ride. Scootaloo prefered to fly herself and both of them headed back to base.
...
The next few days passed by relatively quickly. The whole ship had been completely dismantled and the new city of Radiant had been built. Rarity was in the holo-conference chamber, setting up the system for the scheduled meeting with the others. The only ponies missing now were Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
A few minutes passed before she managed to successfully activate it, allowing the static on the screens to clear up. Immediately, the projectors illuminated to show Twilight and Rainbow Dash waiting for her.
“Hi Rarity.” Twilight was the first one to speak. “How’s the trip?”
“Everything’s fine, but a tad bit boring I must say.” Rarity said.
“Yeah, kicking some major alien flank shortly after landing was soooo normal. Really, Rarity? Scoots told me about it.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Wait, you killed an alien?” Twilight said in surprise.
"Not intentionally, but it was attacking Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I had to protect them." Rarity said defensively.
"I'm not saying that’s a bad thing Rarity. I was hoping to get the body so that we can do an autopsy to learn more about its species." Twilight said reassuringly. The word 'autopsy' however started painting a scene in Rarity's mind of Twilight in a surgeon outfit, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and excitement as she began cutting up the giant alien beetle with several scalpels, dissecting its individual organs and taking tissue samples. That send shivers down her spine for some reason. In fact, the thought of her taking apart an alien as part of a medical study disturbed her more than the time she literally caught on fire due to her frustration at Pinkie; the one time she was “tardy” in giving a report to the late Princess Celestia; or that time Cheese Sandwich gave her a gigantic quesadilla. Rainbow Dash appeared to have had the same slightly disturbing thoughts as well, but she still managed to keep a straight face. Probably her military training kicking in, Rarity assumed.
"So, Rainbow Dash. How’s the prototype repulsor satellite working?" Twilight now asked. Her horn then lit up and the sound of a stylus being used on a screen could be heard in the background.
“Well, I’m not sure if any changes to the miasma fog is due to your invention or not, but there have been some signs of improvement. The thing has stopped spreading closer, so that is something at least.” Rainbow Dash said. “Derpy is also back to normal now.”
“Well that’s good news for Dr.Time Turner. He’s been worrying himself sick about her after he found out she had gone into the fog. I think he hasn’t slept in days. He keeps bugging me to send him there to check on her when he isn’t rambling about silence into his pocket watch.” Twilight said as she finished writing down the short summary on the initial deployment of their first prototype. “Well, expect him there in a few days time. He’ll be on the next trade convoy to check on her as well as the satellite.” With a low mutter she continued, "after three days of consistent pestering, even in the middle of the night, I’ll be glad to be rid of him for a bit, good worker or not."
“Where is dear Fluttershy? Isn’t she supposed to have this meeting as well?” Rarity asked.
“I think she mentioned that she is having some trouble with the native wildlife. Not to mention her location contains a lot of that miasma fog. We haven’t been able to find a way around it to get to her physically yet.” Twilight said.
“Don’t worry about her, I’m sure she will be able to reach some form of understanding with them. Her talent is after all communicating with animals.” Rainbow Dash added on. "Maybe I can even get some new exotic pets for Tank to play with."
“Well, everything is going well so far. Apart from some of the recent alien intrusion which was most unfortunate. I just received notice that AJ will be arriving soon. Looks like our goal of rebuilding Equestria is right on track girls. With all the spare building supplies from AJ, we can begin rebuilding our heavy industries to start producing materials like steel and composite materials. The natural resources here are all out in the open, easily accessible. It’ll be easy to process them for useful resources.” Twilight happily pointed out.
“Well, that will be useful I think. Much less physical work needed to mine everything we need” Rarity agreed. "Speaking of which, do you mind taking some of the old artifacts off my hooves. They do take up quite a lot of room."
" No problem. Might also be a good idea to use them to figure out why the magic field here is so weak." Twilight replied
"Yeah, get to that soon Twily." Rainbow Dash cut in. " These wings ain't gonna exercise without any intense flights."
……
The meeting was finally over. As Rarity looked out of the window of her quarters, she saw the construction crews going about building generators and farms. She sighed to herself. As much as she liked being a Princess and having other ponies listening to her, she sometimes wished things to be back the way it was. To be carefree and only worry about meeting order deadlines. But duties are duties as she would say. She has ascended and now it is her duty to lead the ponies under her charge. Still, it will be good to be able to return things to back the way it was.
“Hey sis? You ok?” a voice asked as the sound of the door opening was heard.
“Sweetie,” Rarity replied, “It’s nothing really. I’m just doing some reflection on my past.”
“You want to talk about it sis?” Sweetie Belle said
“Why thank you dear for your concern. Let me get some drinks for us.” Rarity said as she moved away from the window.
Sweetie Belle patiently waited as Rarity went to the kitchen to get some refreshments. In a few moments, there were a small assortment of biscuits and tea on the coffee table as both sisters now sat at the table.
"What were you thinking about just now Rarity? Was it about how everything was before you became a princess?" Sweetie Bell started.
"Life was so simple back then. I had never envisioned that all these will happen in a decade." Rarity said as she gestured towards the window. "So much has happened. Everypony is looking up to me. But I sometimes wonder if I am qualified to lead them. I'm not a natural born leader like Twilight and Rainbow Dash."
"You are a good leader sis. You learned a lot of leadership during your time running your various businesses and after you became a Princess. We wouldn't have made it to where we are now without you!" Sweetie Bell reassured.
"But everything we have now was all done by Twilight. Rainbow Dash helped defend us while we built. Fluttershy went on on expeditions to help find and preserve all the plants, animals, and other lifeforms in Equestria. Even finding what was once thought to be extinct plants and animals. Applejack oversaw the construction of the ships. And all I did was attend parties and smile and waved."
"But you did help influence a lot of ponies to give support to the programme. And what about all the times when you went off to help your other friends with their projects?" Sweetie Belle pointed out to her sister.
“It really wasn’t much to do. And just between you and me, Rainbow Dash prefered to not let me help her after the rather disastrous incident overseeing one of her outposts.” Rarity said.
“But still, you did help out a lot big sis. For instances, the cultural preservation project that you lead when Twilight was too busy with her sciency stuff. We would have lost a lot of our artifacts including the elements without your help.” Sweetie Belle said
"Those were things that we could have lived without though. I would like to someday be remembered for doing something grand and wonderful. Something to be my masterpiece.” Rarity pouted.
Sweetie Belle looked around her sister's room. She noticed how she had arranged everything like back in Carousel Boutique. With all the furniture along of the side of the room. She must miss everything back in Equestria. Learning to pick up how her sister felt was easy. She had learned that her sister best expresses herself in whatever she does. That neat trick was picked up from the time where Rarity made dresses for the others for the Gala. It was obvious how the quality of the dresses had dropped after she had went off the deep end. Since then, she had been rather observant of her sister’s mood. And right now, she was feeling homesick.
“Hey Rarity, how about building the place to be like how it was back in Equestria?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “You know, just like how it was?”
“Pardon me Sweetie Belle.” Rarity said. “But remember what happened last time when I tried to design everything the way I wanted it to be. I sometimes feel that the others do not appreciate what I designed.”
“But instead of building your dream city, how about rebuilding the place to be like how Equestria was. You know, like how Canterlot is.” Sweetie Belle suggested
The idea seemed to perk Rarity up as she now sat upright in her chair contemplating the idea. Rarity then exclaimed, “Why, that a marvelous idea Sweetie Belle! To rebuild everything that we have lost. After all isn’t the reason for us to settle down? To rebuild Equestria! Why Sweetie Belle. That may be one of the best ideas I had ever heard from you.”
“Glad you like it… I guess,” Sweetie Belle said while slightly surprised that her random idea was easily accepted by her sister. She did not have much time to think though because she was promptly hugged by her sister, “Gaah. Rarity...too tight”
“Oh. Sorry,” Rarity quickly released her sister from her grip, “Still, this is a most splendid idea! Get me a pen and some paper! We must get to work drawing up some plans and blueprints immediately!”
“Sure thing sis,” Sweetie Belle replied back with a bright smile.