//------------------------------// // Chapter 10. Cyclonic Motion // Story: The Epsilon Pegasus // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// It turns out we aren’t alone aboard the Gulfstream. Two men stand up once we board. The older man steps forward, extending a hand to Lightning Dust, “Miss Dust, I’m Dustin Trent. I’m your State Department representative.” Dust frowns as she shakes his hand, “State Department?” He nods, “Yes, you are going to be talking to foreign ponies on behalf of the United States of America.” Dust shakes her head, “I don’t need any official capacity here, Mr. Trent. They are fellow Equestrians.” He smiles, “If this plane is to take off, you must. The State Department doesn’t currently have any ponies in ambassadorial positions. You have had a good relationship with the US government and come highly recommended. You will have an advisor,” he points to his chest, “in me. All I need is for you and your companions here to sign a confidentiality agreement.” Dust cocks her head to the side, “What about vetting us?” He smiles, “You have already been fully checked out. Your previous interactions with the US Government have led you to be considered a trusted resource. As for your friends here, all you have to do is vouch for them. Due to the time pressure here, we are bending a few rules.” Dust looks back at Moon Shadow, Kendra, and I, then back at the human, and shrugs her wings, “Okay, Mr. Trent.” She takes a pen in her mouth and signs where indicated. While she’s doing that, I can hear the engines of the plane start up. A voice comes over the PA, “This is your pilot. We will be flying to Okinawa. The trip is estimated to take a bit over ten hours, barring any pegasi problems. As some of the passengers are pegasi, we have taken the measure of disconnecting the seat phones for the pegasi, due to the fact that we don’t really care to have our flight abilities criticized. And also, for the pegasi, please don’t decide to open the emergency exits, which are clearly marked, mid-flight. While you don’t have much problems with high altitudes, we humans and other pony tribes aboard tend to lose consciousness without sufficient air pressure. So, please be considerate. We do have a galley aboard, so we will be feeding you, though we keep a limited amount of hay aboard, so I hope you like actual food.” Dust snickers as she grabs the seat belt in her teeth and takes a moment to buckle in. I copy her as Kendra and Moon Shadow use their magic to strap in as well. I watch the unicorn service member light her horn, and the door closes and latches. I smile. I fly myself. I can enjoy this. Even though, I would prefer to be flying this plane myself. I look out the window, “Hey, Dust. What are these windows made out of?” Dust taps her window, “It’s pretty thin, so I’m guessing these new planes have a lot of the innovations that Sugarberry came up with. The windows are probably transparent aluminum. I do know they have a lot of composites in the structure of the new planes. I think Sugarberry is one of the richest on the planet because of her work on materials sciences.” I look at the window. It’s nearly perfectly transparent, so it’s hard to gauge its thickness, then I put my hoof against it. Yes, it’s really thin. I look back at Dust, “This is the same kind of glass as the phones?” “Yeah, your phone. I don’t need a ponypod, and that glass is nearly indestructible, but it’s also pretty expensive to produce. Not all that many unicorns have the abilities to make it. From what I’ve heard, Sugarberry is still working to simplify the spell so more unicorns can use it, but it’s not easy to simplify such spells.” We are all pressed into the seats as the plane accelerates, bumping over the runway. After a surprisingly short time the plane rotates and everything gets smooth as the wheels leave the runway. I can hear the doors underneath the plane open and feel the landing gear clunk into place. Less than an hour later, my hell begins. Dust looks at me, “You poofed up, Loopy.” The plane shudders, causing me to look out the window. The wing is flexing nearly four feet up and down as the turbulence bounces the plane around. After a moment of this, the pilot comes over the PA, “Sorry bout that, folks. Found some turbulence there. We should be through in a few minutes.” I grumble, “They could have…” Dust cuts me off, “I know your flight senses are going nuts, but you have to remember, the humans can’t feel the air currents and go with them. These planes have to bull through them.” I look at Dust, “How come you are taking it so easily?” Dust looks mournful, “The weather and flight senses are part of our magic, Loopy.” I feel myself deflate, “Oh, sorry.” She reaches out a wing and touches my cheek, “It’s okay, Loopy. I am living with my disability.” Kendra, who was sitting behind Dust, reaches out a hand and touches her withers, “Thank you, Dust.” Dust looks back at her with a quizzical look, Kendra looks at Moon Shadow and smiles. Dust looks confused for a moment at Kendra and Moon Shadow, then looks at the smile on Moon’s face, then she blushes slightly and mutters, “You are quite welcome, Kendra.” I look at all of them, confused. Dust smiles, “Loopy, Moon Shadow and Kendra are able to walk the dream.” I look down for a moment, then I look back at Kendra, “All of our dreams?” “Oh no, Loopy. We are bound by the same rules that doctors are when it comes to patients. I’m not discussing your dreams in front of Dust, nor am I discussing Dust’s dreams in front of you.” Moon Shadow smiles. The PA system activates again, “For you pegasi aboard, if you look out the left of the plane, you’ll see the Calgary Stampede: over two and a half million humans, two hundred thousand horses, and Celestia knows how many ponies. If you don’t have pegasi sight, we have pony-friendly, one hundred power binoculars aboard at two hundred dollars each.” I look outside my window. It’s July, so the cloud cover is fairly sparse, but I can see it. Squinting slightly enhances my vision, a speedster capability. I whistle softly, “That is cool.” I look back at Dust, hastily refocusing, to find her smiling at me. “I was involved with that a few times over the years. It was a learning experience for Fidget. Mischief and most of the others weren’t interested.” I smile, “Fidget? I’ve heard the name a few times. Who is she?” She grins, “You know I had two more foals after Mischief, right?” I nod. “Well, Fidget is the youngest, actually the last born of the herd. She only moved out a couple of months before you changed.” She smiles fondly, “I think she was the hardest. She is a unicorn… strong willed… and there are times I thought that Mindy was her mom.” She sighs, “She’s very special.” Tears are starting to form, “It was hard on me when she moved out, but she’s in college on the other side of the nation.” “Where?” “Cornell.” I grin, “Where Hannah teaches?” She nods, “She’s got Hannah for one of her classes, and is a headache for her. If you ever get over there, you should meet her.” I look down, “As a human, I grew up in New York City.” Her ears perk forward, “Really?” I nod. “So, when your parents were killed, that’s when you moved to Kansas?” I nod again, “With my grandmother.” “Mom’s side? Or Dad’s?” “Dad’s side. My mom was born in Kagoshima; she was an exchange student when she met my dad.” I smile, “Her parents were very traditional, and they were not at all happy when they found out she was going to marry an American. But they were happy, and it was wonderful growing up in the City.” Dust sighs, “I’ve never been much for big cities. I was born as a human in Corpus Christie, Texas. It’s not a small town, not like some towns in Montana, but even when I worked in the DFW Metroplex, I still lived out of town, in the country.” She chuckles, “It’s funny, since I grew up in Baltimare as a pony, which was as big city as they come, next to Manehattan.” “And you are a master electrician?” She nods, “Yes, I still own Lightning Electric, though my staff does almost all the day to day duties of the company, I still show up from time to time.” She chuckles, “I’ll still go out with a crew every so often, to help.” “You like being an electrician?” She extends a wing slightly, looking at it, “Yes, I love it. It’s a bit harder to do without flight or my magic, but helping with a wire pull, carrying conduit, or troubleshooting a PLC… it’s all fun.” I lean back in my seat and push the button to lean my seat back, which surprises me by going back much further than an airline seat. I look back at Moon Shadow, who is curled up in her seat, sleeping. “I guess I had better get some sleep.” I glance out the window, deep blue water is easily visible among the puffy clouds. I suppress the desire to be flying out among them. Dust leans her own seat back, “Good idea.” In minutes, she’s snoring, and I finally let sleep claim me. *** Sunshower lands heavily on the island. She carefully folds her wings over her large saddle bags and trots over to the two earth ponies working the rocky soil. “I’ve got seeds.” she whinnies as she shrugs off the bags. Mint Leaf smiles, “Wonderful! We can start growing pretty quickly; we’ve got about a hectare ready to be planted. We should be self sufficient when it comes to food pretty quickly. Seaweed isn’t really all that agreeable for me. Did you find any hay? Or vegetables?” Sunshower noses open the saddle bag, “I did. I couldn’t carry much hay, but I also got some vegetables.” Caboose comes over and pulls out the seeds, “This is awesome!” Rainbow Swoop slams into the ground. “Ponies, this is going to get rough.” he growls. Blueberry Muffin trots over to Rainbow, “What’s going on?” He sighs, “Well, Japan and China sent research vessels to check out the new island. When we buzzed them, and let them know that the island was occupied, they backed off… Though I think they are waiting for reinforcements. But Taiwan already has their reinforcements here.” Blueberry pales a bit, “Their Navy?” He nods, “Looks like a warship. I'm no expert on the type. It was big, and looked mean.” Blueberry looks at the other ponies, “Should we just abandon this island? Let them fight over it?” Crafty Crate slams down a hoof, “No! We found it. It’s ours.” Helia comes over from the small structure they have built, some salvaged wood and mud, not much more than a place to sleep out of the elements. “I agree with Crafty, this is our home now.” Blueberry looks around at the other ponies, “We have no way to defend it.” Crafty looks out at the shape on the western horizon, “We will find a way, I’m tired of hopping from home to home. We need to keep our home, here.” The other ponies nod, and Blueberry sighs, “We can hope and pray, but right now, that’s all we’ve got.” *** I’m awakened by the short scream of the tires as the plane touches down. I look out the window as the plane slows down and finally turns off the runway. In moments we are stopped and the unicorn steward opens the door. I follow Lightning Dust down the stairs and look around, “Oh, that’s cool.” She smiles at me, “Yup, we are flying in style. Gonna take an Osprey over to the Reagan from here.” She trots towards the rotary winged airplane, and soon it’s taken off. Three hours of flight time is all it takes and I can feel as the nacelles of the plane rotate as we slow down. I look out the window and can see the decking of the aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan. The Osprey gently sets down on the deck and the rotors start winding down. The rear hatch is opened and we are escorted to the island. In a matter of minutes, we are on the bridge of the enormous aircraft carrier. A pony is sitting in a large seat. I remember her, she was on the video with Dust. “Lightning Dust!” She exclaims as she hops off the chair and trots over to us, then hugs Dust enthusiastically. “Blue Lagoon, I know you’ve met her on video, but these are Loop de Loop and her friend, Kendra. And I know you’ve met Moon Shadow.” Blue Lagoon smiles at all of us quickly, then her face darkens, “I wish this were under better circumstances. There are three nations that want that island, and they are all aware of the pony presence there. China has deployed several vessels towards the island, as has Japan. Taiwan already has a destroyer there with two more on the way. We are three days out, ourselves.” I look around the windows and can see three vessels around the Reagan, “How many ships are there here?” She smiles, “This task force is twelve ships, counting the Gipper.” “The Gipper?” “This ship is named after a former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Before he was President, he was the Governor of California. And even before that, he was an actor in movies.” She giggles, “Well, long story short, he had a line where he said, ‘Win one for the Gipper’ and it stuck. The official nickname of the Reagan is the Gipper, the nickname of the Theodore Roosevelt is the Big Stick, and other ships have nicknames like that.” Dust chuckles, “You squids are weird.” Blue laughs, “Don’t get me started with the submarine traditions, Dust. You think us surface dwellers are crazy, but those that go underwater, they are the weird ones.” Before long we are shown two staterooms. Moon and Dust take one, Kendra and I take the other. It’s been a long day, and Kendra is stretched out pretty quickly. I look at her sleeping, but the bunk is rather small to crawl in with her. I’ve had trouble sleeping alone since the change, so I’d much rather sleep close to a friend. Dust has told me it has to do with our herding instincts as ponies, and Kendra doesn’t mind it. I walk slowly out of the stateroom and head down the hall. Soon my nose starts to twitch, and I find I’m hungrier than I thought I was. I follow the smells down the surprisingly narrow corridors of the aircraft carrier. I turn and find an open hatch into a large relatively open space. Tables and chairs are everywhere, and delicious smells are wafting through the room. A pegasus pops his head up and looks at me, “Hi!” he says, waving a wing. It looks like several ponies are all sitting together around the table. I start to thread my way between the tables, then I see the look on the pegasus’ face. I facehoof and extend my wings. Hovering over the tables, I make it to him quickly. “Duh, you are a pegasus! Think over, rather than through.” I shake my head, “I’m sorry, I’ve only had about a month to get used to this.” He cocks his head to the side, “So, you aren’t Navy?” I shake my head, one of the other pegasi sitting there looks at me, “You were aboard the Osprey from Japan today?” I nod. She nods, “The civilian specialists for the mission.” I furrow my brow, and my unasked question is answered. “It’s a small ship, even with nearly five thousand aboard. Everyone knows everything about everybody.” “And everypony.” The first stallion says softly. The ponies all laugh. “So, how many ponies are here?” The stallion smiles, “We’ve got forty-five pegasi, nineteen unicorns, and eighty-three earth ponies aboard.” That produces a low whistle from me, “When I visited Fort Inkwell, I was told a lot of ponies joined the Navy.” The stallion nods and extends a hoof, “I’m Crescent Moon. I was Equestrian born, but a lot of the ponies aboard were born here.” I shake his hoof, “I was told pegasi mainly do search and rescue.” Crescent shakes his head, “That’s only a small part of what we do. Today’s Navy has ponies integrated wherever we can be of benefit. A pegasus is excellent for combat roles. We may not be able to carry thousands of pounds of munitions, but we can designate targets faster than any drone ever could. We are also more survivable in heavy combat situations. Radar can see us, but hitting a pegasus, especially a speedster, is pretty hard. We’ve lost a couple in engagements over the years.” His ears fall for a moment, then he perks up, “But we do what we can to protect our home.” I look around, “Anypony here from New Beginnings?” About half the hooves are raised of the ten ponies sitting here. I smile, “I just moved there. It’s awesome.” The smells intensify and I look around, four stewards are coming towards us, large pans in hand. All the ponies watch intently as the pans are set down. “Pizza.” I breathe. Crescent leans over to me, “Over in Quantico, there’s a pizza joint. It’s pretty much the official restaurant of the 520th. Well, when a lot of ponies started being assigned to the Reagan, the quartermaster went to them and got a lot of their recipes.” He takes a moment to wipe his mouth, “Since the pegasi of the 520th liked them so much, they make a lot of the same pizzas here. Most of them are human and pegasus friendly. They even have a few that the other tribes really enjoy.” The steward sets a plate in front of me. Two large slices are sitting on it, and I find myself drooling. Crescent chuckles, “That right there is the pegasi special. It has anchovy, barbecue chicken, and green peppers with caramelized onions, topped after baking with fresh diced alfalfa sprouts and spinach.” “Oh, I’m not a big fan of anchovies.” He grins, “As a human?” I nod, “Never tried them as a pegasus.” “Remember, you're a pegasus now. Your tastes have changed a lot, and I guarantee you’ll like this.” I sniff the slices before me, inhaling the aromas as I close my eyes. I take a bite. I feel a hoof poking me in the side. “See, what did I tell you?” “This is amazing.” I murmur as I quickly down both slices. I look around, “Any more?” Another slice is slid over to me, “Oh, you’ll like this one, it’s called the shredder…” *** Dizzy Twister walks through the gate and finally can see their destination. Her tail clamps to her rear and her ears fall. She looks at her two friends, “Are you sure this is a good idea, girls?” She moans. Berry Breeze hip checks Dizzy, “Oh, it’s easy. We’ll be with you the whole time.” Zap Apple giggles. “This will be fun!” she says as she prances. Dizzy snorts, “So says the pegasi. Who can fly.” The foals make it up to the old bi-plane. It has extra wires and other equipment on the top side of the wings. Dizzy looks on as a human closes the cowling around the engine and turns and looks at them. “Hi there,” Zap Apple says, “My maw said that you are the best crop duster around here?” He reaches behind himself and pulls a rag from his back pocket, he wipes his hands on the rag, “Yeah, since the ponies do most of their own pest control, a lot of smaller crop dusters have had to fold. But I’m still here, because I’m the best.” Zap smiles, “I know, that’s why we hire you.” She looks down, “I love watching you buzz the trees with that plane of yours.” He smiles and looks over at the crop dusting plane. With low wings and a large body, it’s custom built for crop spraying, “Yeah, she’s fun to fly.” Then he kneels down, “So, what can I do for you?” Berry and Zap push Dizzy forward, “Our friend here wants to learn how to wing walk.” He blinks a few seconds, then looks at Dizzy, who blushes and looks down. But after a moment, she nods. “Scared?” She nods. He reaches out and strokes her cheek, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Your friends had me get a harness sized for you. I won’t be flying fast enough to actually blow you off the plane, and you’ll be perfectly safe.” “Yeah, Dizzy. As Berry said, we’ll be up there with you.” Dizzy grumbles, “Yeah, the pegasi who can just cling to anything flying, and can fly themselves.” She turns and gives Zap the biggest eyes she can, “But you can’t fly fast enough to catch me if I come loose.” “It won’t happen, trust us.” Berry says. The two pegasi clap their hooves in a high hoof, “Cutie Mark Crusader wing walkers are a go!” They shout. Dizzy waits a few seconds, then puts her hoof up with the other too, “Yay.” She grumbles. *** “Reactor is operating at fifteen percent.” The lab tech calls out. Lightning Storm looks at the readout and adjusts a dial, “Excellent. We’ve got the plasma injectors set. Let’s see if we can start the reaction without my magic.” The tech smiles, “Cross your fingers.” Stormie looks at her hooves, “I don’t have any.” He growls as he pushes the button. The pegasus and the human look intently at the readout, watching for the needles to twitch. A high pitched whine starts to build. Getting twin smiles from the two scientists. “It worked!” He crows, “One percent, three… eight.” He watches the readouts, “We are holding at eight percent.” Stormie pushes a few buttons then pushes the throttle forward a little bit, “We’ve got the ion drive working. Human physics say it’s impossible, but it works. Let’s see if we can push a little more out of this.” “Wait, this is just the testbed, we need to…” A loud bang echoes throughout the small building, Stormie groans and sits back in the chair, “Damn, I thought we could get her more efficient, Steven.” Steven stands up and opens the door into the bunker where the experimental engine is, he looks back and gestures for Stormie to come to him. She hops off her chair and walks into the bunker. As she looks around, she gives a low whistle, “That was, what? Ten percent?” The walls of the test bunker are three feet thick. There is a system for the plasma exhaust of the ion engine to be cooled and evacuated, but the cradle that held the test engine is empty. She looks where the engine was pointed, seeing a large hole is in the concrete. Steven pulls out his phone and shakes it to turn on the LED lights. He points it into the hole, “Damn. Stormy, the engine is eight feet long, right?” “Mhh-hmm.” “Well, ten percent was enough to break loose the mountings, drive it through three feet of concrete, and push it through another six feet of earth. Take a look.” She extends her wings and looks at the smoking metal of the test engine. Then she lands and howls in delight, “I was right!” Steven looks down, “Looks like I owe ya.” She whaps him with a wing, “I told you the reaction would be at least four times what your math predicted.” They both look at the ruined engine, “How long to build another?” “Six weeks, maybe more. Most of it we can fabricate here on site, but the lead time on the compressor disks is something like four weeks from Crystal Dynamix.” “Well, better get ordering. We’ve been able to start the ion reaction without magic, and now we need to build something to actually fly with it.” Stormie looks at the hole in the concrete for a long time, “This is going to put the entire solar system within our reach. You know that, right?” He nods. Stormie walks out of the room, “Now all we have to do is unlock the stars.”