Sunset Shimmer was walking down the hall , microphone headset on and her tight green work uniform poorly put on. sleeves rolled up slightly and half the buttons undone. The unicorn was up all night like usual, it was rare for her to sleep. She was hoping she could put in some early hours before Twilight woke up, so that there would be no distractions from her visit. Placing a screwdriver in her mouth she kneels down in front of a sealed vent entrance placing down her tools. The Unicorns radio was constantly buzzing as other workers of Valuntas Station began their shifts, talking about their lives and work. Unlike Sunset they were all laughing and cracking jokes.
"Hey Soarin, cut down on the chit chat and get to work for once" Sunset said placing her hoof on her headset to talk. She shook her head as she hears the stallion on the other end chuckle. She slid into the vent entrance she had opened up turning on her shoulder light. "Unlike you. Some of us want to get paid , or maybe even get promoted"
"Promoted, please! You have been working this station, what, twelve years now? Don't you think they would have given it too you already if they were going to at all?" Soarin gives another chuckle over the radio followed by the sound of a fusion cutter. Sunset nodded in agreement, the captain wasn't too keen on giving out promotions.
"Didn't captain do seminars back in the day? Take my five step program, you can get mussel like me, that sort of thing?" Sunset shoved her driver into the screws holding a fan in place beginning to remove them. Her light flickers a bit and the sound of Soarins cutter stops.
"Yeah well I guess it did him good if he is captain of this place, some say he was secretly smuggling arms on the side. How else could he have gotten all the money to have this place under his control" Soaring says bluntly with a hint that he was joking, another stallion buts into the conversation.
"When somepony tries to block, sell him weapons so you can build a space station and escape the world, Iron Will approved"
"Cut that out! That is just ridiculous, knock it off!!" Sunset grunts as she had great respect for the captain, "Iron Will puts more time than all of us, keeping this place safe and secure" She pulls the fan out and moves it aside as she pushes deeper in the vent system.
"Yet your the one who fixes the vents so we can live here. Yeah he is doing a great job" Soarin says sarcastically as he ignites his cutter again and continues with his work. Sunset slams her hoof on her headset and grunts again.
"pfff~ why make an argument about this?" She reaches a ladder and begins to climb it as Soarin continues cutting. Her belt was slamming into the bars of the ladder when suddenly it came undone and fell down the shaft, She tried to reach but it was far gone. "SHIT!! Look what you talkative stallions did. Now I need to go back!" Soarin stops cutting and coughs loudly.
"What happened? Is everything alright up there?" the sound of him wiping powder off his suit can be heard over the radio as he coughs some more. Sunset lets out a long sigh and presses her head against the metal of the Vent shaft.
"Dropped my belt, my fricken belt is down the shaft and probably on a whole new section of the ship by now" She looks back down the dark shaft as she uses her magic to light her way down the ladder, "I'm doing this old fashion way, I'm going to see if I can find it down there" She begins down the ladder as Soarin was about to object to her going down into the maze she places her hoof on the headset as she reached the bottom of the ladder. "Sunset Shimmer, signing off" She clicked her connection off and slowly slid down a slanted vent shaft, the tools had to have gone this way otherwise they would have been right by the ladder. Her magic was a really bad substitute to her bright LED flashlight as she continued through the shaft. Thinking to herself on the last time she changed the batteries for her light, she really needed to stop drinking so she could remember to do the important stuff.
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Exiting the vent system with nothing but a screwdriver Sunset slowly sits down at the vent entrance as Soarin and a couple other Valuntas Station maintenance crew walk over to her with grins. Soarin chuckles to himself and stops in front of the Unicorn.
"If I had a dollar for every time you lost something in the vents, I would be retired" He says with pride as he is surrounded by the others, "You really need to get back up on your hooves, slacking off like that could get you hurt" the pegasus grunts and uses his wings to button up her outfit all the way, "Seriously"
" I have allot going on right now, you don't know what it's like to be me, none of you do" She moves away getting up, she never got along with the other workers. They all thought they were better than her, that she was the weakest link. Dropping the tools in the vent only fueled their thoughts of being so. The Unicorn levitates her empty bag onto her back and starts down the hallway. Soarin smiles and he and the others head the other way. Sunset had never felt this humiliated before, she never dropped her entire belt before. Only a couple tools once and awhile. "How could I have done that, I swear i was prepared. I guess I was wrong" Her eyes widen when her pager starts going off, looking down at it as it flashes the words 'Twilight'. She gasps and tosses her bag aside and starts to run, "I forgot about Twilight! No, no, no, no!" The unicorn quickly arrives to her room breathing heavily sliding her door key inside and barging in, "Twilight!"
"Hello Sunset, Is everything okay.." The alicorn yawned and stretched her wings looking concerned at Sunsets actions, she was unaware that she had forgot for she had just woken up.
"Twilight I'm so sorr...did you just wake up?" she blushes embarrassed and walked up to her, the Unicorn had a black smudge on her face from working the vents. Twilight raised a brow and smiled looking into her friend's eyes.
"What are you sorry for, this place is amazing, I have not slept that well in weeks~!" Twilight does a quick circle as she lets out a sigh of enjoyment. "When I woke up I was afraid i was going to be the one late on you! Luckily you got here as I woke up~!" She giggles and hugs Sunset Shimmer tightly, "Now, what are you sorry for?" Sunset coughed and hugged back as she shook her head quickly.
"Sorry..Uh, Sorry for not waking you up earlier" she lies to Twilight and her ears pin back knowing it was wrong to do that, "Should have been considerate and woke you up, sorry Twi"
"That's alright silly, I am glad you let me sleep in because now I can be ready for our big day together~! I am so excited I had dreams about it even" Twilight beamed a smile and moved to the door, "Come on, I am ready to see what Valuntas has to offer for my stay" Twilight presses a button and the door slides open. she walks up, "Take your time to get ready, you have a little something on your face" she closes the door behind her and sways over to lean against the wall, things were going to work this time. She looked around the hall, ponies walking all over the place. It's like this place is never quiet or empty. Somepony would always be walking the halls even in the middle of the night. Twilight walked over to a map on the wall and placed her hoof on it, "You are here, wow, we are at the bottom of this place" she ponders and rubs her chin slowly. "I wonder how long it would take me to go all the way too the top?" Twilight looked over to Sunsets front door and then back at the map, "Hmmmmm, I wonder" she smiles brightly and slowly starts down the hallway.
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Equestria was wonderful this time of year, even from space you could see where the snow was. The view was fascinating and you could see it all from the control room. Placing his hand on the motherboard and lifting his mug to his lips that reads 'Da Boss', he takes a sip of his coffee. Iron Will always had his coffee with him, it helped him calm his nerves and stay focused with his tight hours. "How does the meteor situation look? Are we still going to need our shutters closed when the time comes" The minotaur lightly taps his fingers on the arm of his chair as he leans back in it. "Tell me how it is, not how you want me to hear it" he grins looking over at the mare in charge of the radar.
"Well it still going to be here, we won't take damage from it but the station will be dark for hours tomorrow" she said as she began to bite her lip. Iron will slowly took a sip of his coffee again and began to stand up. Now walking over to the mare with a stern look in his eyes he moves both of his hands and places them behind his back. Looking up to him and him looking down at her there is a moment of awkward silence. It seemed like he was staring into her soul for an hour and he had just walked over there. She was extremely worried and he knew it.
"Alright, we will continue with closing the shutters tonight" he takes a sip of his coffee again before walking back to his seat. "Give me news on the vents. Were they fixed?"
"Fixed?" one of the control room ponies asked having no idea what the minotaur captain was speaking about. Iron Will places a hand on his own forehead and sighs.
"I was told there was a ventilation issue, we sent mechanics to go fix it. WAS, IT, FIXED?" he gets up and stares over at the stallion who had asked such a stupid question. He glares for a moment before the stallion shakes his head as his reply, no they were not fixed. The captain slowly points his finger at the stallion and then points to the door. "Go...please before I get mad" The stallion nods and runs out of the control room with some of his things. Iron will walks slowly up to the big window of the room placing his hand on it, "Besides the vents still having issues, is there anything else I should be aware about?"
"No sir, all faculties are up and running and every room is functioning correctly" one of the ponies states quickly. Iron Will grunts and stares out the window at Equestria, space had changed him. He was what some would say. An asshole at best and an unforgiving captain. However that is what has kept the station in orbit, his bad attitude. Valuntas Station was the largest of all stations that orbited Equestria, it housed 90,000 ponies, workers and civilians. It had yet to fall to bankruptcy, fraud, terrorism, or hijacking. He was determined to keep it that way.