Rainbow looked out one of the portholes. From inside the darkened International Space Station, the stars of the cosmos seemed to shine more brightly than usual. She looked down to see the dark side of the Earth. A glow on the horizon signaled the coming sunrise, only minutes away.
“Whatcha lookin’ for?” asked Applejack, gliding over. Her tone was light as she attempted to make conversation that wasn’t depressing. There had been too much of that in the past few days.
“I’m just waiting on the rescue capsule,” said Rainbow. “It’s not due for a little while, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping.”
Applejack nodded. “Listen sugarcube, we really need to talk about what’s goin’ on between you and Twilight.”
Rainbow looked at her friend. “What is there to discuss?”
“Tarnation, Rainbow!” the earth pony hissed. “Why are you bein’ so hardheaded about this?”
“I don’t know why Twilight wants to fight me,” answered the pegasus.
“Use your head!” Applejack told her. “You’ve got that fancy U.S. Navy rank and you think it means somethin’ to the rest of us. We ain’t just part of your team, Rainbow. We’re your friends.”
Rainbow opened her mouth and closed it again. She’d been made Mission Commander for a reason, and felt qualified for the job. But what if she wasn’t?
AJ watched the pegasus's face shift through a series of emotions; mouth tightening and ears moving distractedly as Rainbow wrestled with her emotions.
“The capsule gets here in ten minutes!” shouted Taylor, his voice bouncing off the bulkheads and echoing its way through the dark space station. Twilight drifted near the Australian astronaut, doing whatever she could to help. With the more experienced astronauts around, that wasn’t much. The nervous unicorn hovered nervously in the compartment, waiting and watching.
“Are there any problems with the rescue capsule?” Twilight asked Zimin, who floated nearby.
The cosmonaut shook his head. “No. It will be here soon. Once it arrives, we can begin the process of capturing the satellite.”
Twilight knew the Russians had donated an old weather satellite. With the electricity its core could produce and some supplies being delivered by the Rus rescue capsule, the station’s systems would be able to keep running long enough for a more permanent solution to be found.
The unicorn began putting on her pressure suit. She would be part of the capture team. Taylor was nearby and helped her with some of the suit’s fasteners. Twilight glanced at him. “This plan is, quite frankly, ridiculous.”
The Australian shrugged. “We’re just going to have to trust the support team. They say catching a satellite and bringing it over here is the fastest way to restore electricity to the station. As soon as we get the power back and get rid of this Nightmare thing, we can work on a more permanent solution.”
Dr. Flack drifted by and laughed darkly. “I think we can all agree that no matter what happens, this situation will be over soon.”
Twilight heard a small noise from Fluttershy. The timid pegasus had been constantly on the verge of tears for the past several days. Twilight wished she could say something to reassure the yellow pony, but Flack’s words rang true. They would learn their fates, happy or tragic, very soon. There was not enough oxygen and electricity left for a second rescue attempt.
Pinkie’s mane seemed straighter than usual, but her signature smile still clung tenaciously to her face. She took Fluttershy by the hoof and pulled her towards the kitchen area. “Come on, let’s get some ice cream! That’s one advantage of an emergency situation; nopony cares how many sweets you eat!”
“Regardless of how this turns out, I’m never going so long without a shower ever again,” moaned Rarity. Twilight gave her a look, but decided to say nothing. There was no point in antagonizing any more of her friends.
The Canadarm hung useless after the incident that had stranded the visiting astronauts on the station. Dr. Flack carefully maneuvered a backup robot arm into position to help the rescue capsule join with the airlock. This time the docking went smoothly.
The hatch swung open to reveal the rescue crew. The two cosmonauts looked worried about the condition of the station, but they knew their job and quickly began unloading the capsule.
Twilight and Rarity got into position to receive the cargo from the Rus. The two unicorns quickly and efficiently took the cargo from the capsule and brought it inside the station. Rarity muttered, “I’m so glad we rehearsed this.”
The other pony nodded. Once the ground crew had decided how the procedure of saving the station should be done, the astronauts had gone painstakingly over every detail. Unfortunately, that also meant that Twilight knew what would happen next.
Rainbow appeared, her pressure suit already on. The purple pony ignored her, pulling the last few pieces of cargo out of the capsule. Twilight was dreading locking herself into the capsule with the pegasus. The ground crew wanted the two of them together, and the unicorn should have said something while the planning was going on, but now it was too late.
There was no more time to delay. Once the cargo was transferred, the two ponies moved through the airlock to join the Russian crew. The four of them strapped in.
“Good luck!” called Pinkie. The other people and ponies echoed similar sentiments as the airlock swung closed.
Rainbow bumped Twilight’s shoulder and pointed to the intercom control. The unicorn set her own dial to the same channel.
“We need to talk,” said the pegasus.
Twilight glanced forward, but the cosmonauts gave no indication that they were listening in on the private channel. She turned as far as her helmet would allow to look at the other pony. “Talk about what?”
“You know what,” the pegasus shot back.
“We don’t have time for this, Rainbow!” Twilight took a deep breath. In a slightly calmer voice, she said, “This is too important to let our personal feelings get in the way.”
“We have a few minutes,” the other pony insisted.
Twilight‘s suited hoof pressed against the viewport of her helmet in frustration. “I don’t believe this. You’re acting like a little filly.”
“Only because you’re treating me like one!” shouted Rainbow.
“I am? Tell me, how am I doing that?” demanded Twilight.
“It’s like you only see me as old Rainbow Dash from Ponyville. You ignore everything else that I am. I’ve matured, Twilight. Have you?”
Twilight was stunned. “What do you mean?”
Rainbow’s glare was clear through her helmet. “There’s more to me than just ‘goes fast’ and ‘is loyal.’ Have you ever stopped to think what else I can do? I went to school for engineering and I’ve got more than a decade of leadership experience in the military. Don’t you think I might be best qualified to take charge when we’re fighting for our lives in space?”
“Defeating the Nightmare takes magic,” Twilight retorted. “And if I wasn’t a good leader, Princess Celestia wouldn’t have put me in charge of the entire army during the Zebrican War!”
“This is a completely different world,” Rainbow reminded her. “I know more about it than you do. Is it hard for you to accept that, Twilight? That I know something you don’t?”
“Wow,” said Pinkie’s voice. “Both of you really need to take a chill pill.”
Twilight looked around wildly, not seeing the pink pony inside the capsule. Rainbow pointed to a radio control that linked their intercom channel to the space station.
“What the hell were you both thinking?” demanded Taylor. “Your stupid argument could have killed us all!”
“It’s not—” Twilight began.
“Hush!” demanded Rarity. “Stop this right now. You both have work to do.”
“I’m glad I changed the channel to let you all listen to this,” said Rainbow, shooting Twilight a look.
“You ain’t off the hook, Rainbow!” shouted Applejack. “You shouldn’t have let this fester between the two of you.”
The multicolored pegasus’ eyes widened at the rebuke. She’d only planned to expose Twilight’s problem. She hadn’t realized that she had one, too.
“Please be nicer to each other,” said Fluttershy gently. “You are friends, after all.”
Rainbow reached out and turned off the radio link. Her eyes turned to the pony sitting beside her. Twilight opened her mouth, but the pegasus was already speaking.
“I’m sorry.” The Rus capsule had just about the best communication technology that money could buy and it delivered every nuance of Rainbow’s apology to Twilight’s headphones. Even if it hadn’t, the look on her face made it clear that the pegasus meant every single bit of her confession.
Twilight looked at the other pony. Surprise was etched on the unicorn’s face at the realization that she too had played a part in creating the rift between them.
“I should have realized how much you’ve changed,” said Twilight. “I…I didn’t think about how much you’ve done with your life. You’re not just the weather pony anymore, and I can’t treat you that way.”
“I’m a hypocrite,” Rainbow admitted. “I accused you of trying to take over, but really I was afraid of losing control.”
One of the Russians came in over the capsule-wide channel. “We are approaching the target.”
“That’s your cue,” said Rainbow. She switched off the private channel. Twilight nodded and looked out the porthole as the Rus came alongside the satellite. Grabbing it with her magic, Twilight pulled it closer.
“Left a little…there. Okay, up some…no, too far. Good.” Rainbow’s voice came over the intercom in brief snippets as she peered carefully out the viewport at the satellite. Under the pegasus’ guidance, Twilight adjusted the satellite’s position until it floated gently alongside the Rus, safely away from the spacecraft’s rocket exhaust as the ship made the trip back to the station.
Several minutes later, the capsule was locked down to the ISS once more. Working with the robot controls, Dr. Flack took the satellite from Twilight’s grasp. Applejack looked up from her observation window as Twilight and Rainbow floated through the station airlock. “Ah don’t mean to alarm y’all, but Ah can’t see the stars anymore.”
Fournier drifted to another viewing port. “The Earth is hidden!”
“The Nightmare must be completely surrounding the station,” said Twilight. As if to punctuate her statement, the lights flickered.
Rainbow nodded. “I guess it’s time we finally started working together to finally solve this problem.
The purple unicorn smiled at her. “I’m so glad to have good friends who can make me happy in the most dire situations.”
The other ponies crowded around the pair. Denisov pushed a box towards the six of them. Twilight opened it, revealing the Elements of Harmony.
“Let’s do this!” cheered Pinkie.
Outside the station, the Nightmare shivered. Something was wrong, it thought. Something was very—
There was no time for thought as a brilliant wave of energy burned through the dark cloud, glowing with all the colors of the rainbow. The Nightmare writhed. It thrashed. And as the light died away, taking the creature of darkness into the oblivion of space, the Nightmare tried—and failed—to scream.
The reentry procedures went according to plan, and the capsule began its decent through the atmosphere. Rainbow closed her eyes for a moment. It felt like so long since she’d been able to relax. After putting things right with Twilight, she figured that she had earned it. Soundly defeating the Nightmare had been a great bonus.
The ride got rougher as the spacecraft dropped through the thickening air. The predawn darkness came rushing up to meet the capsule. From the window, Rainbow could see a rim of orange on the horizon, signifying the coming sunrise.
As the parachutes deployed, the craft stabilized and the decent slowed. The Russian tundra offered a wide, clear landing area. Airbags deployed and brought the vehicle to a stop solidly on the ground.
Rainbow climbed out with the others. Off in the distance, the sound of a helicopter could be heard, coming to pick them up. The pegasus turned to the east, feeling the dawn on her face. As the sun rose, so did her spirits. She had her friends, and that was all that mattered.
Author note:
Oh my God, I can't believe it's finally done. HUGE thanks to Fernin. Depending on how you score it, he contributed 30-50% of this story, so that makes him more of a coauthor than just an editor.
Thanks for reading.