The journey to the new world was long, quiet, and thankfully uneventful. Seed One traveled for decades at a fraction of light speed with its living passengers unaware of time’s passage. As with all things, the long sleep would not last forever.
Within the electronic veins and arteries of Seed One, Voyager scrutinized the solar system the colony ship had finally arrived in. Five planets, one of fire-blasted rock that was too close to the white star, three gas giants on the outer fringe, and a singular green, brown, and blue world sitting almost right where it should be.
Voyager made the necessary course corrections and slowly decelerated the ship. The AI waited until a month before arrival to send the awaken signal to the crew. However, the AI waited to the day before arrival to waken Twilight Sparkle.
Voyager proceeded with care greater than that of a surgeon as it went through each meticulous step in the unfreezing process. Such was its skill, that Twilight remained unconscious during the thaw right up until a short electrical spark zapped her awake.
Thankfully, Voyager’s programming gave it the foresight to open the glass prematurely, because the instant Twilight awoke, she sat bolt upright, crying out in surprise.
She felt deathly cold, and shivered on the pod that was now cycling the cryo gasses out of the air and pumping in hot air. “Thawing process complete,” Voyager said emotionlessly, snapping Twilight’s attention to the speaker above her head. “Colonial Governor, a doctor will be with you shortly for your post-thaw examination, please remain in your quarters until he arrives.”
“Wha-?” Twilight asked before her short-lived post-thaw cognitive impairment faded. Oh. Right.
“Yeeooch!” cried a voice to Twilight’s left. She turned to see Prism had just received the same shock therapy she had just had. Prism blindly rubbed her plot that still stung from the shock. “That smarts.”
Shortly thereafter, Praxia made a similar shout, but otherwise held her tongue.
Twilight pulled herself up to her hooves, an act made easier by the weaker faux-gravity of the ship’s rotation. “You girls alright?”
“I feel like I’ve been kicked in the face with an iceberg,” Prism groaned woefully.
Praxia gave a ragged cough after accidentally inhaling too much freezing air, prompting Twilight to lightly tap her on the back. “I’ll live, thank you.”
All three mares clumsily climbed out of their pods and stumbled around the room on shaky legs. Of course, it was only the weak gravity that allowed them to stay on their hooves at all and not go floating off.
“Nopony ever told me about this in orientation,” Prism grumbled at the paradoxical mix of some stiff muscles side by side with some limp ones.
Twilight found her way over to the bed to give her something stable to lean against. “Studies of prolonged cyro-sleep only vouched for its safety, not convenience.”
Praxia found a wall to lean against, and quietly watched in amusement as Prism fumbled in some act of bravado to not need something to prop herself up on. “I suppose this might be a good time to remind everypony that since we’re awake, we’ve undoubtedly arrived at our new home.”
Twilight felt her heart skip a beat. “Then we should go see it.”
Prism had a grin that threatened to cleave her face in two. “Then let’s go! I remember seeing a big wall of screens in the mess hall that will give a better view than that pitiful thing in the corner,” she said while pointing at the small screen on the wall.
Twilight felt as though her legs were not getting any less stiff, what with a cramp starting to creep up on her hindlegs. “Hold on, Prism. We can’t go anywhere just yet.”
Prism’s quest for the exit was halted by the door hissing open, bringing everyone’s eyes to Doctor Sawbones who was pushing a small cart in front of him. “House call, anypony?”
Prism stumbled to the side to allow Sawbones to fully enter the room. “Long time no see, doc,” Prism giggled at her own joke.
The rest of the mares carefully closed in on the bed while Sawbones gave a polite chuckle at the bad joke. “Well then I guess you’re all due for an exam. Can’t let that AI do everything.” He grabbed a needle with his magic along with an IV bag. “Colonial Princess, if you wouldn’t mind lying down for this.”
“Alright.” Doing as requested, Twilight laid on the bed as Sawbones deftly inserted the IV needle in and set the bag on a stand that he had extended from the cart.
“There we go,” Sawbones said with a pleasant bedside manner. “Once the bag is drained, you shouldn’t experience anymore after-effects of the cryo meds. But I think it should go without saying that this,” he pointed at the IV bag filled with clear blue liquid, “is a diuretic. So I hope you mares can share the bathroom.”
Twilight and Praxia gave him a flat and entirely unamused scowl while Prism hid muffled chuckles behind a hoof. If Sawbones noticed he made no reaction to it, only keeping his amused grin all the while.
Roughly half an hour later, Twilight along with her daughter and student were at the mess hall, gazing upon the wall of screens that was giving a perfect crystal clear view of the planet they were now in orbit above. With the ship preparing to land, no crewmen were present, however a handful of colonists were showing up to take a glimpse of their new home. Not one person went for the food line, instead opting to join the growing crowd around the screens.
By Twilight’s estimate, the planet had about as much landmass as Equis did, but the sheer lack of greenery over most of the planet had the colonists gossiping. Twilight couldn’t help but to be enamored by the strange alien beauty of the mostly blue world and felt eager to get started on building a new home.
“You look more cheerful than I expected,” said Praxia after noticing Twilight’s growing smile. Twilight turned to the grey changeling. “How long did you stay awake after I went to sleep?”
Twilight initially worried about eavesdroppers, but decided to let it happen anyway in a bid for transparency. “Little over a month after Spike went to sleep. Luna’s cathartic exercises are truly effective.”
“What are you going to name the planet?” Prism asked, drawing the attention of several nearby ponies in the process.
“I gave it some thought while you slept, and I’ve kinda grown attached to the name Avalon.”
“As good a name as any,” Prism replied with a passive nod.
~“Now hear this,”~ Voyager called over the PA and halting most conversations. ~“The captain has closed the mess hall kitchen. A health advisory is in effect for all crew and colonists to refrain from eating until after planetfall. That is all.”~
Twilight, along with many others, looked back down from the speaker above their heads and back towards the blue marble of a world. Her brief moment of carefree excitement had been burdened by the responsibly of her station. However, she took a sort of pleasure in that very same burden. “Girls, I have to go to the command section. I’ll be needed to pick a landing site.”
Prism hovered above her mother with a wild excitement in her eyes. “Ooo! Pick one near a beach or river. Waterside property will never be cheaper!”
A few nearby ponies voiced their approval of the idea, yet Twilight only responded with a light-hearted smirk. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
As with most aspects of the ship, there was little space to spare. Such as it was, the bridge also had to serve as the terrestrial cartography center as well. Upon entering the bridge, Twilight saw the command crew, were busy at work preparing the shift to reconfigure for planet fall. Spike and two scientists were gathered around the viewscreen conversing too quietly for Twilight to hear. A much more detailed map of the planet surface was on display, yet Spike turned away to see Twilight enter the room.
“Ah, there’s our Colonial Princess. We prepared a list of some good landing sites,” Spike called with an amused yet professional smile.
Twilight rolled her eyes and joined Spike at the viewscreen, waving off the bridge crew’s bows and other curt signs of respect. “I take it Sawbones’ phrase has become popular when I wasn’t looking.”
“Possibly,” Spike replied casually before sweeping a hand towards the screen. “Voyager’s picked out a dozen potential landing sites using data from the satellite launched ahead of us. But we only have five sets of tectonic probes.”
The two scientists at Spike’s side made way for Twilight so she could better scrutinize the map. She used that time to try and remember what those probes were for. “Ah, you mean the probes that can detect usable metal deposits and make sure the ground can support the landing.”
“That would be them.” With all four of them crowded around the viewscreen in an already tightly packed bridge, Spike was getting pressed against the wall. “This is not really my area of expertise, so why don’t I leave it to you, and Doctors Granite Slab and Rocky Shores,” Spike nodded his head towards the thestral and earth pony respectively standing with them.
Granite Slab bowed at Twilight while Spike vaulted over the helmconsole so he could return to his chair. “Granite Slab, at your service, Colonial Princess.”
The earth mare Rocky Shores bowed a little more deeply than Granite while trying not to look too dazzled by Twilight’s starry mane. “Rocky Shores. I believe you already know my credentials, Princess, or else I’d probably not be here,” she said with a sheepish nervous laugh.
“Good to meet you both.” Twilight gave a regal nod before turning her attention fully to the map. “So what are our options?”
Now that she had a moment to actually look at the detailed map, Twilight was a little worried at the atmospheric composition. “Hmm, the oxygen content is actually higher than Equis, but there’s an astonishing concentration of airborne organic particles throughout the entire biosphere. I’m going to have to order that we keep our atmosphere completely separated from the native air. There’s no telling what the local microbes or those particles would do to us.”
“A wise precaution, Princess.” Granite Slab looked up at the map. “Voyager, highlight Site One.”
One small section of a landlocked territory was highlighted by a green box before the section was enlarged and replaced the larger planetary view. “As you can see, Princess, this site looks sturdy enough, and has access to a river for easy drinking water and possible water transport later on. The lands around it are already somewhat flat, making it perfect for urbanization or farming.”
Rock Shores had a head mounted pointing laser, and switched it on to indicate a massive overgrowth nearby. “There’s also this… I want to say a forest of some sort, that could prove to be useful.”
Ultimately, the checking and investigation of each site took well over two hours for Twilight and the two scientists to go through. With no signs of indigenous civilization or even signs of intelligent life at all, there was a whole world to pick from.
Eventually, Twilight zeroed in on one site that particularly grabbed her interest. It was a wide area of grasslands, or at least this world’s analogy for grass, with some rolling hills nearby. But the key to Twilight was the wide and deep bottomed river with the open sea cutting into the land to form a natural harbor. “See, Site Twelve is perfect. The river stretches back through a good swath of the continent while the proximity of the natural harbor means that as the colony grows, we can use container ships instead of having to do everything by air or road.”
Granite hummed his approval while pointing at a coast line to the north. “There’s a sandy beach not too far from there either. We’d be able to use that to make glass for domes.”
Rocky Shores brightened at the idea. “Well, history speaks of hundreds of cities thriving near rivers or the coast. I think we should go for it. Shall we send the probes to find the exact landing coordinates then?”
“Let’s.” Twilight turned to Spike who had been keeping an ear on them for the past half hour. He only had to nod at Twilight to show there was no need to fill him in.
“Ensign, send the probes to the Princess’ new landing site.”
Sensing her input wasn’t needed until the probe’s data returned, Twilight excused herself from Granite and Rocky and cantered over to join her brother. However, Spike was already out of his chair and motioning for her to join him near the door for a bit of privacy.
Once they were somewhat alone, Spike’s joviality fell away with the face of a stoic captain replacing it. “As amusing it all is, Twily, have you decided to stick with one particular title yet?”
Twilight found it odd that Spike wanted privacy for this alone, but used the isolation to speak her mind. “I think Sawbones’ idea of Colonial Princess is a decent half measure towards Celestia’s last decree. Ponies have been ruled by princesses since the founding of Equestria, but we can’t be hamstrung by tradition. Not here.”
A modicum of Spike’s humor returned. “Careful now, Twilight. Keep that up and you might end up calling yourself Director, or President for Life.”
“Pah,” Twilight snorted derisively before giving him a look of concern. “How about the real reason you asked me back here.”
“I’m worried about our power supply. Voyager said we ran into far more radiation during our sleep than we planned for, and the deflector chewed through our reserves.”
Twilight’s blood ran cold, now realizing why Spike wanted privacy. “All of it!? Do we at least have enough for planetfall?”
Spike tsked and crossed his arms while leaning against the wall. “Oh we could still make the landing itself, but the reactor is on its last legs, not to mention the fuel reserves. If it wasn’t for the solar collection satellite that was sent here along with the mapping one, we’d be without power within a week at best. But with it, we can keep the lander and about half of the construction vehicles powered just fine.”
Twilight rubbed her brow as agitation set in. I’m not even on the planet yet and already we’re inches from failure. “Right… I’ll just move setting up new power plants months ahead of schedule added to the laundry list of critical infrastructure we’ll need asap.” Don’t worry, Twilight, ol’ girl. We planned for even this. We’ll get through it.
Spike shrugged with a ghost of his good humor remaining. “Nothing like a challenge, am I right?”
Twilight huffed at a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. “Celestia wouldn’t have sent me if this was going to be easy.”
“Princess, Captain!” Granite called out from the viewscreen with a manically wide grin. “We’re receiving data from the probes, and it looks promising.”
Twilight gave Spike one last glance before sauntering over to the viewscreen while Spike stayed behind the helm console so he’d have some room to stand. “Is the area geologically stable?”
Rocky Shores gave a few commands to Voyager to shift the data. The screen displayed two copies of a large stretch of slightly flat ground cover in very short blue foliage. “There’s only a thin layer of soil between the surface and solid rock as far as the probes can sense. Given all the other features of this location, I’d say we have the perfect place to set down.”
Twilight remained quiet for a little bit as she went over some last second considerations and her mental checklists. I wish I had more time to go over this, but every hour we’re still in orbit is that much less power we have to stabilize ourselves on the ground. And a single satellite will never be able to meet our energy demands.
Even with time as a critical factor, a small footnote at the side of the viewscreen caught her eye. With a touch of mana, Twilight commanded the footnote to slide across the screen to be in front of her. The data made Twilight’s spirits soar. Yes! this is perfect, and could possibly keep Prism out of trouble.
Twilight worked herself up to speak with regal authority. “Spike, we have our landing site.” She turned to face him with that glint in her eye she always got when she dedicated herself to a test or challenge. “Make it happen.”
Spike nodded in acknowledgement before sitting in his captain’s chair and tapping the comm button on the side. “Now hear this! This is your captain speaking. All personnel are to report to their stations for planetfall.”
The moment Spike clicked the comms off, Voyager started giving out verbal instructions and visual assistance to the colonists. Out of a personal request to the ship’s design, Twilight asked Voyager to bring out a separate chair that appeared from a sliding panel in the wall at the back of the bridge.
As Twilight strapped herself in, the bridge crew did the same with their station’s chairs. Granite Slab and Rocky Shores bid a hasty retreat with Rocky giving Twilight a final nod. “I look forward to setting hoof on warm soil, Princess.”
“As do we all,” Twilight replied with an approving smile.
With that, the two scientists departed rapidly. Several minutes passed as the bridge crew went through the final checks, thus allowing the civilians time to get secured as well. After maneuvering the colony ship over the selected landing zone, the ship entered its final stage before leaving the harsh vacuum of space forever.
Seed One’s rings halted their rotation and locked into place with struts unfolding so each ring was securely anchored to the one below it. The ship itself shifted so that its stern pointed directly down. Once set, three ribbons of bright blue mana started to glow along each of the rings and down the length of the ship’s axle.
Within the bridge, Twilight felt the colossal buildup of mana passing through her and everyone else there. To think my little anti-gravity spell all those centuries ago would end up being the key to our salvation. Such a shame it’s obscenely power hungry.
“Gravity manipulation field on standby, captain,” announced an operator to Spike’s right.
“Alright, ponies, this is what we trained for. We have a five minute window, so make it count!” He turned to the helm. “Break orbit, ensign.”
“Aye sir,” the stallion replied nervously as he gripped the controls with beads of sweat starting to dampen his face.
Twilight felt the ship shudder a little as short chemical thrusters were fired in the retrograde direction to start reentry and give final adjustments. She couldn’t stop a wave of anxiety, and dare she admit it, adrenaline-fueled excitement as the viewscreen showed the planet getting closer while reentry flames started to lick at the ship’s heat shield.
Seed One started rattling, making Twilight clamp her jaw tight to keep from accidentally biting her tongue. By now, the viewscreen was dominated by the landscape below, and the bright orange fire of the atmosphere heralding their arrival.
“Activate the G field… Now!” Spike commanded with steel in his voice.
Even after testing it for so long, having the ever dominating pull of gravity suddenly reverse itself was a stomach flipping experience Twilight could never get used to it. Ever so slowly, the heat cone Seed One was riding down upon started to fade as the ship decelerated.
Twilight heaved a sigh as the ground felt astonishingly close in the viewscreen while Seed One had slowed to a much more amicable pace.
“Reactor output is starting to drop!” a crewmember called out, making everyone’s anxiety shoot through the roof.
“Lower G-field output for the bare minimum of structural design limits,” Spike ordered with the unnatural calm of a naval officer. “And shut down everything, minimize life-support if you have to.”
“Aye sir.”
Twilight felt the competing upward tug of gravity slacken with the planet’s natural gravity starting to win out. The image of the ground approached far too quickly for Twilight’s taste, so she hunkered down in her chair as tightly as possible.
Twilight’s worry doubled as she noticed the same operator monitoring the reactor shake his head, yet he apparently thought better of speaking out again. Come on, Seed, just ride it out a little longer.
The room was suddenly filled with red lights and warning alerts pinging one right after the other. ~“Warning. Descent velocity is beyond design limits,”~ Voyager stated flatly.
Spike waited for the last possible second before shouting, “max out the G-field, now!”
With a gut bouncing lurch, Twilight felt as if she was being pulled up barely a few seconds before Seed One touched down so lightly that Twilight was confused as to whether or not they had landed at all for a few moments.
“Touchdown!” the helm called out. “The Seed has landed!"
There was no immediate cheering as the bridge crew waited in pensive silence as if everyone were afraid to jinx themselves. As if to reinforce that fear, a few loud groans ached its way through the ship. After a few seconds however, there was a distinct lack of alarms going off, save for one. The lone, low alarm echoed throughout the ship’s dark corridors. Slowly, Spike calmly addressed his crew. “What’s the ship’s status?”
“Reactor output’s bottomed out. I’m activating emergency power,” replied the operator as he shifted through his station’s readouts and a few reports from engineering.
“Atmospheric sensors detect no breaches, sir,” called out another operator.
“Aside from being on low power mode, my systems are intact,” Voyager answered sluggishly with its usual lack of emotion.
“Extend the satellite relay collector while you still can, Voyager,” Spike ordered with obvious relief.
Twilight sagged in her seat, momentarily thanking the shipwrights’ foresight of designing the axle of the ship’s interior, bridge included, to be oriented horizontal with the planet surface. “So are we good to start celebrating?” she asked with a hopeful tone.
Spike rubbed his face to try and work out some of the stress. “Well, we’re in one piece, so I don’t see why not.”
Twilight unlatched her chair's restraints and stepped onto the floor to test the planet’s gravity. Her hooves felt a little on the heavy side. I can’t tell if that’s just from being in space or if this world has more mass. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, Spike, but I think a few minutes of cheer might do wonders for morale.”
Spike smiled a bit as the main lights started to flicker on as the solar satellite started feeding power to Seed One. “That it might.” He got out of his chair and turned to find Twilight standing to the side of his chair. “Since we’ve finally made it back on solid ground, I guess it’s about time to pass the torch.” The bridge crew paused in their work for a bit to watch Twilight give a nod and smile. “Voyager, I hereby transfer all command privileges and security clearances to Colonial Princess Twilight Sparkle. Command Code theta zero tango niner.”
~“Command transfer accepted.”~
“I stand relieved,” Spike told Twilight with a wink and a smile.
Twilight stepped back so she could address the bridge crew as a whole. “You’ve all done a marvelous job over these years in space, even if you were sleeping most of the time.” A round of brief laughter rounded the room, adding to Twilight's excitement to get started. “Voyager, patch me through to the entire ship.”
~“Affirmative.”~
Taking a deep breath, Twilight tried to imagine herself standing at a podium with her colonists all standing before her. “Greetings, everypony. I am your Colonial Princess, Twilight Sparkle. I want to congratulate and thank each and every one of you for making this journey a successful one.
“We stand ready to embark on a wondrous journey, and I know full well that we are ready to not just survive, not even thrive, but to stand proud on this new world and to build a new nation that would make all of Equestria know without a shadow of a doubt, that this effort, this sacrifice, was worth every drop of sweat, blood, and tears.”
Spike and the bridge crew listened intently, with the ponies allowing themselves to be drawn in by Twilight’s impassioned speech and ethereal mane. “The road to get to that future nation will be full of hardships, this we all know. But each and every one of you were hoof picked to come here, and I fully believe we will make Equis proud.
“To that end, I ask that you follow me through these hard times to come as we learn to work with this new world. Together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”
Twilight paused a few moments, allowing the colonists time to cheer and be merry. Even the bridge crew allowed themselves to hug, clap each other on the back, or simply hoop and holler. Twilight started again with a little more command in her tone. “Celebrate, my little ponies. I’ll have assignments posted within the hour. Oh, and the mess hall is now open.”
“You heard it here first people,” Spike said with a smirk. “Our Princess’ first decree is to open the mess hall and have a party.”
“Well you better get to it then, Captain Smarty Scales. ‘Cause we got a lot of work ahead of us.”
While Twilight would have loved to be a part of the festivities, she instead hunkered down in her quarters-turned-office once a desk was made from a few pieces of metal and a large thin slab of plastic. It was more of a habit than anything else since she was doing all of her planning via her headset’s holographic display.
Even with her renowned planning and management skills, Twilight would have been overwhelmed without Voyager giving her crucial assistance.
At present, Twilight was chewing on a piece of freeze-dried tomato. “Voyager, how many of the prefabs can we keep powered again?”
~“As stipulated with the tight energy restrictions in place, up to ninety one percent of all domiciles.”~
Twilight grumbled to herself as she ended up grinding the dry tomato. “And that’s only before we include the power demands for hydroponics, further construction efforts, and the expeditionary vehicles?”
~“Correct.”~
Guuh! Stupid space and its stupid radiation.
Twilight’s irate musings were put on hold when the door opened to reveal Prism. The young pegasus was already wearing her xeno-exploration suit, minus the helmet. The suit was much thinner than the bulky environment suits the rest of the external workforce would be using, allowing much more freedom of movement. Prism also wore her standard issue drab brown duster that offered exceptional protection from slicing brambles, sharp rocks, and even weapon’s fire if the need arose. In addition she also carried a high gain radio and sensor pack in built on saddlebags. With the missing helmet, it was the most expensive environment suit yet to exist, with only ten ever made before Seed One launched.
Twilight checked the timer on the side of her vision. “It’s only been half an hour. Shouldn’t you be celebrating?”
“Are you kidding?” Prism replied with a scoff as she struck a heroic pose. “I didn’t sign up with the Pathfinders to sit in the ship any longer than I have to. I need to get out there and be the first pony to see what this blue ball of fungus has in store for us.”
“Well in that case, you’re just the mare I wanted to see.” Twilight took on a dire tone. “I’ll be blunt, Prism, we’re in trouble.”
Prism’s good cheer became suddenly muted. “So situation normal?”
“Feels like it,” Twilight grumbled. “Thanks to us going through the interstellar version of a nuclear meltdown, our deflector ate up most of our fuel reserves. As it stands, we just don’t have enough power for everything to get the colony fully unpacked, let alone expand. And just to add salt to the wound, we lack the time to survey the land for thorium, build a mine, and then get the processing plant up and running before we’re left with only the satellite for power.”
“Oh…” Prism’s face soured. “You want me to go fetch the care packages Equestria sent ahead of us.”
“Glad we’re on the same page,” Twilight said in neutral confirmation. “While this area is great for our future city, the fact that one of the resupply shipments landed fairly close by was the final reason we’re here. I need you to try and locate any of them that were sent over with stocks of thorium.”
“Shouldn’t take all that long with the VTOL.”
“And here’s the part where it gets even better,” Twilight replied dourly, making Prism cringe. “I can’t spare the power to airlift you and the rest of the Pathfinders over there. You’ll have to get there on hoof.”
“You know they sent more than just reactor juice in those pods right?” Prism whined with a huff. “That search could take weeks, maybe months to go through them all!”
“Then you better get to it,” Twilight replied with no reaction to her daughter’s saltiness. “Even if only one of them was stocked with thorium, that alone should keep us on our hooves for the time being. After that you can explore to your heart’s content for a while.”
“Yes!” Prism vaulted the desk and glomped her mother in a crushing hug. “I need to get you a mug that says ‘best momma ever’!”
“A shame the printers will be busy around the clock for the next few weeks or so,” Twilight shot back with an amused tone.
The pair shared a loving, if brief, moment before Prism’s excitement got the better of her and she bounced over to the door. “Time to go make history, see ya later, momma!”
“Bye, Sweetie!” Twilight waved Prism off, yet the pegasus ended up almost barging into Praxia who was just arriving with a piece of dried jerky in her magic. With a few deft wing flaps, Prism dodged over and around Paxia who yelped and dropped her snack at nearly getting run over. Having expertly avoided a tumble with princess bug, Prism ran backwards while giving Praxia a mocking salute. “Have fun being trapped inside all day.”
“Try not to get caught by some pony-eating plant - uh - you manic bird brain.” Praxia grumbled at her poor talent for snappy come-backs. Prism paid it no further mind as her fixation with the new planet dominated all other goals, except for the energy crisis, slightly.
Through it all, Twilight remained passive towards the pair’s banter, and only faced Praxia after the changeling tried to readjust her mane back to a professional style, reclaimed her jerky, and cantered towards the makeshift desk. “I take it you’re here to get down to work as well?”
Praxia gave Twilight a flat look. “To be fair, Sensei, I don’t think Prism will ever consider her occupation as ‘work’.”
“If only we were all so lucky.” Twilight muttered under her breath.
“Yes, well, I can always eat on the move, so I’d like to start pitching in.”
Twilight pulled up her holographic list of priority tasks in anticipation that she’d fail to get Praxia to relax while she could. “So let me guess. You can’t take an hour to celebrate either.”
“There are really only two ponies I know on this ship worth celebrating with, and both are hard at work. It seems only fair that I join in.” Praxia sounded morose, but she hid it well by biting off a bit of her jerky. “Besides, from what I hear we have an energy crisis on our hooves, do we not?”
Twilight sighed and rubbed her temples. To think the student of the Alicorn of Friendship doesn’t want to make friends. Casting that personally embarrassing thought aside, Twilight gave Praxia a dour frown. “It’s bad, but we’re stable for now, at least. Here…” Twilight mentally sent a series of files and a set of written orders over to Praxia’s personal display with a few flicks of magic. “Just in case none of the explorers find a pod containing thorium. Go down there and requisition the necessary equipment and work crew to get a solar farm started. The data from the satellites have shown this region has been pretty calm as far as the weather goes.”
Praxia went over the to-do list Twilight sent to her and felt a sense of peace from being useful again. “Shouldn’t we investigate geothermal options as well?”
“I already have somepony else lined up for that job, I’m just covering my bases.”
Praxia couldn’t help but to feel pride in her teacher’s planning abilities. “I’ll have the plant up in record time, sensei.”
With a respectful bow, Praxia departed while polishing off the last of her snack. Twilight watched Praxia go with a mixture of pride in her being a good student and assistant, with the sorrow of her shying away from making friends. She can’t keep relying on just me and Prism for love. I just wish Celestia had taught me how to chessmaster compatible ponies together, so that she’d make new friends naturally.
Sadly, the needs of the colony dragged Twilight back to her work. Now… I just need to get some ponies to get started on the prefabs and hydroponics bay.
Prism all but blasted out of the tram-turned-elevator once it reached the lowest ring. She shot past several dozen ponies on the inner sterile white hallway before coming across the entrance into the Pathfinder’s headquarters. The exploration headquarters was little more than a workshop combined with a garage that sorrowfully lacked the typical sunk-in grease and lubricant aroma most engineers and explorers loved about those places back in Equestria.
There were a half dozen ponies present, most playing cards, drinking, and chowing down on a pile of packaged produce. Two of those ponies were wearing the orange jumpsuits of the maintenance crew while the others were wearing nothing at all presently. The workshop itself housed five sets of repair bays with an equal number of large land rover robots secured in place.
Prism all but broke down the door slamming her way in. “Hey yo, everypony! I’ve got clearance to skedaddle on outta here!”
A crystal pony mare by the name of Ruby Quartz was smoking a cigar at the head of the card table. She looked away from her hand with a superior smirk. “What? Not going to spend your last… half hour with the rest of us?”
“Yeah, slow down a bit and hang out with us,” a thestral engineer stallion called out hopefully.
Prism flew over and inspected the card table with disinterest. “Not today, Silver, Momma put me on a colony critical mission to find the care packages.”
The other engineer, a unicorn mare, set her cards down while giving Prism a worried frown. “Critical? I know the CP ordered energy rationing, but is it that bad?”
“Bad enough to tell me to hunt them down before gathering samples of local fauna, geological samples and the like.”
The original crystal mare threw her cards on the table. “Well doesn’t that just crack your gemstone.” She stood up, leaving the other players to fold as well while reclaiming their bets. “Alright, Pathfinders, suit up and get ready to move out.”
While the Pathfinders officially had no commander among them, and thus only answered to Spike and Twilight, there was still a pecking order. The explorers ran to their lockers while the two engineers moved over to prepare the rovers for action. Ruby squared her gaze on Prism. “Did the Princess say which direction she wanted you to start looking?”
Prism shook her head. “Come on, Ruby, mom knows how to avoid micromanagement.”
“I was referring to if she had any leads on the nearest group of pods,” Ruby replied sternly.
“Oh... Yeah! She spotted a landing area near our own.” Prism fumed at the imagined implied insult, and dropped to the ground. “I’ll send the coordinates to the group when I get my helmet on.”
“Fine, and make it quick would ya?” Ruby jabbed her hoof at the rover in bay one. “By the way, since you’re already dressed, you get the honor of taking Wheeler One. And being the first pony to set hoof on the new world.” Prism shook in place as her excitement threatened to burst at the seams. “Try to think of something meaningful to say this time. I guarantee it’ll make the history books.”
“You only let me go first ‘cause you couldn’t be poetic to save your hide,” Prism muttered under her breath.
“Think you’re any better?” Ruby growled, startling Prism that she heard her. Ruby rolled her cigar in her mouth to the other side. “Go on and get outta my sight before I find an excuse to let Featherbeard go first.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With the prospect of going out that much closer, Prism bolted away from Ruby and over to her rover where Silver was sitting next to it. He had a laptop sitting on a small box with a single wire leading from the computer to the rover. Silver flashed a wide sheepish smile at seeing Prism. “Hey, Prism. I knew you’d want to be the first out there, so I had most of Joe’s systems in standby for you.”
“Awesome, Silvy! Did you make the modifications I asked for?” Prism started to inspect the small truck sized rover which had its electric motor gently humming. It was just large enough to transport her if need be, but it’s primary purpose was to carry all the equipment she’d need, and be able to keep up with her.
Silver flashed a tired smile, yet his fatigue was nothing compared to Prism’s praise. “All before it was packed up in the last shuttle out before we left.” He entered a few commands causing the rover to partially deploy two sets of rotor blades. “Joe here will be able to fly alongside you now.”
Prism pumped a hoof and flew over to check out the rotors. “This is great! It’ll finally be able to keep up with me over rivers and ledges.”
“Just- just be sure to keep the flights brief,” Silver warned hesitantly with a restraining gesture. “The rover can go all day on the solar cells, but only on the ground. Flying takes much more power after all.”
“I kinda expected as much.” Prism smiled at how seamless the extending rotors melded with the overall aesthetics of the rover. “You really went all out on this didn’t you.”
Silver was brimming with pride at Prism’s accolades. “I called in all of my favors back home, not that I need those anymore, and had some of the boys pitch in.”
“You’d think this would be standard issue,” Prism huffed at the designers back on Equis. “I better get my gear and get out there.” Midway to her locker, Prism looked back and waved at Silver. “Thanks again!”
Silver started to say something, but his courage wilted and resigned himself to simply wave back at her until Prism’s attention turned away from him. Guess I’ll try again next time.
As for Prism, she found her helmet and her father’s rifle waiting for her. Pulling her foreleg’s shoes off, Prism carefully inspected the elegant long gun for any sign of dirt. After that, with the nimbleness brought on by years of practice, Prism disassembled the weapon to perform a deeper cleaning. At least the museum curators took good care of you, boy. I gotta do this now since that alien air won’t let me clean you again until I make it back.
It wasn’t long before Ruby went to her locker as well, which just so happened to be adjacent to where Prism sat. Just to avoid giving Ruby any sour looks, Prism donned her helmet and used the built-in heads up display to send the care packages’ coordinates to the rest of the Pathfinders. Once done, she continued her weapon maintenance.
Initially, Ruby remained silent as she started climbing into her exo-suit. However that peace didn’t last when Prism reassembled the weapon with Ruby taking notice. “Hey, wait a minute. I’ve seen that rifle before.”
“I would think so,” Prism replied with snarking pride. “This is my father’s weapon. Princess Luna gifted it to me since the war museum was so busy letting it gather dust in a display case.”
“So even all the way across space, you’re still riding on your parents’ coattails.”
Prism masked her surge of anger with sarcasm, an act made easier with her helmet giving her voice an artificial quality. “To be fair, it’s kinda hard to step out of the shadow of an alicorn and a war hero.”
“From where I’m standing, you don’t seem to be trying very hard,” Ruby remarked acidly. “The Princess is renown for not giving two feathers for somepony’s family connections when it came to getting on this ship, and yet here you are with your mommy’s blessing and your daddy’s rifle.”
“Says the mare who was playing cards instead of getting ready to do our job,” Prism spat back with satisfaction.
Ruby let the comment roll off of her with a snide snort. “Face it. You only made the cut because Twilight’s here.”
“I qualified fair and square, Ruby,” Prism rebuffed while securing her weapon on her back and grabbing the charge packs. “Mom wanted nopony but the cream of the crop, and if I hadn’t proved my worth, she’d have put me on janitor duty or something.”
Ruby’s anger shifted to a smug sneer. It was no secret she despised Prism, and the feeling was mutual. “So you think you’re the cream of the crop, huh? How about we make a little wager?”
Prism finished securing her gear and looked at Ruby with a competitive smirk. “Like what?”
“Whoever finds the thorium first will be considered the best of our little group for the next five months.”
“And the loser?”
Ruby shrugged nonchalantly. “While I could think of a few demeaning chores for you, the colony’s success comes first, so nothing too drastic, sadly. I think the loser should have to clean the winner’s gear when we’re on leave for a month.”
“Deal!” Prism thrust her hoof out and Ruby shook it hard.
“You ladies know there’s five of us right?” said one of two stallions who cantered over after hearing the word ‘wager’. “I want in on this too.”
The other stallion, a tan colored unicorn with a fiery red mane flashed a toothy smirk of his own. “You two act like you even have a chance against me.”
“Hey, if you want a chance to clean my suit, Firefly, then be my guest,” Prism replied dismissively. “But nopony touches my weapon, but me.”
The sound of heavy wheels on metal drew everyone’s attention to Silver and the rover he was remotely driving towards the cargo elevator. “Everything’s ready when you are, Prism!”
Prism waved at him yet gave her fellow explorers some parting words. “You clowns better hurry, or I’ll find a package long before you guys even leave the garage.”
Leaving her peers in the dust, Prism raced over to the elevator where Silver had parked the rover.
“He’s all yours,” Silver said as he tapped a few last commands in his laptop to transfer all control over to Prism’s helmet.
It took Prism a few moments to let the command displays run their interfacing start up before speaking. “See you on the flipside, Silver.”
Silver started to walk off the elevator, but he caught sight of Firefly giving him a stern glower while jabbing a hoof at Prism. Thankfully for Silver’s nerves, Prism missed the exchange since she was looking over the command HUD. Silver nervously shook his head while Firefly retorted with a silent threat of a punch.
I think I’d rather risk the punch. Silver almost walked away when Prism finally noticed he was still on the elevator.
“Kinda need you to move off the platform there, Silvy.”
Silver practically jumped out of his skin at Prism’s voice. “Ah - um - sorry. I’ll be going.”
~“I swear, Silver, if you let her go without asking again, I’m going to throw you in my locker.”~ Firefly said over Silver’s earpiece.
What is this, high school again? That brief thought of being seen as a teenager again put enough fire in Silver to make him ask anyway. “Oh hey, um, Prism?”
Prism was bouncing on her hooves trying to contain herself. “Yes? Something didn’t come up did it?”
“No it’s all good. But after you get back you wanna maybe share a few drinks or catch the comedy club?”
In her excitement, all Prism wanted was to get out of the ship and there was one answer that would get her there the fastest. “Sure thing. Sounds fun, now scoot!” She started shoving Silver off the elevator.
Silver was more than happy to oblige, once his brain finally registered the acceptance, and flew up and away from the platform. “Great, see you later then!”
“Later,” Prism called back as the elevator sank into the floor. She kept waving until a second set of doors closed her off from the garage so the elevator could change atmospheres. He finally asked, huh? Well, there shouldn’t be any harm in a few beers or whatever.
Her thoughts on Silver were cast to the winds when the elevator started moving again. Natural light poured in as the elevator platform cleared the ship and into open air, taking Prism’s breath away.
The nearly flat stretch of blue fungus covered rock stretched for several miles before ending in the ocean to one side and a vast, strangely purple forest to the other. The sky above was clear and blue. The air was warm, almost painfully so to the pony born in an ice age. Sooo weird not seeing any snow. I wonder if this place even has snow outside of the poles.
Once the elevator came to a halt, Prism stepped off with Joe the Rover dutily following after her. As much as every fiber in her being wanted to just pick a direction and start flying, duty came before pleasure. “Joe, set a marker to the pods’ location.”
~“Affirmative,”~ the rover replied with the same lack of emotion that Voyager possessed. ~“The closest one is fifty eight kilometers due west.”~
Prism followed the compass indicator leading straight along the river. “Well then, super blue alien world here we come!” With time being critical, Prism jumped up to the lone open air seat on Joe’s back. “Alright ya bucket a’ bolts. I want us at the first pod by dinner, so hit it!”
~“Commencing.”~
Joe’s wheels kicked up a flurry of torn fungus as the rover raced off towards the first beacon. A part of her felt like she was forgetting something, something historic. Meh, probably nothing.