//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - The Reasons Why // Story: Finding our Way Back Home // by DragonsHeart //------------------------------// Twilight wakes up, and instantly regrets it. Her muscles are killing her, and they feel worse than yesterday. “I guess this is what happens if you use your muscles before they are ready,” mutters Twilight, groaning. Twilight continues to lay there for who knows how long, feeling sorry for herself until the door opens and Alastair enters. “Twilight are you awake?” he asks, approaching the bed and holding something in his hands. “Yeah, but I wish I wasn’t,” she replies, with a bitter smile on her face. “The pain should ease after you walk for awhile,” he notes, looking down at Twilight. “But I don’t want to move,” whimpers Twilight. “Tough luck, it is your punishment for yesterday,” he smirks, he then places something on the end of the bed, “We managed to dig up some old female Tiskat jumpsuits from storage. They even have adjustable tail holes.” “Oh, thank you,” she says, looking at the jumpsuit, then as an afterthought, “Tiskat, who are they?” We can answer that in a minute,” he says, heading for the door, “Now get dressed and meet me outside.” With that he leaves the room, closing the door behind him to give Twilight some privacy. Twilight climbs out of bed and groans, her legs complaining at the treatment. She picks up the jumpsuit and examines it, it does seem to be battle salvage with mended holes and what looks like badly washed blood stains. She sighs and starts putting it on, I mean it is better than a sheet. It doesn’t come with a bra or underwear, but beggars can’t be choosers and at least it has a tail hole, but sadly no wing holes. After she puts it on she examines herself, it is a bit baggy and rough, but her fur acts as a natural padding, so it is alright. She makes sure to put on her amulet before she leaves the room and meets Alastair outside. “Thanks for the clothes,” Twilight says, smiling. “Yeah, sorry about the size but when the Assembly escort picks you up you will probably be able to get some better clothes,” he says, returning the smile. “The Assembly?” Twilight asks, confused. “The ruling party of the United Galactic Federation,” he explains, yawning, “They rule this part of the Galaxy.” “And they are picking us up?” Twilight says, nervously, “Are we in trouble?” “Nah, you’re an unheard of race and they just want to be in the loop and look important,” he says, smirking. “So they are friendly?” Twilight asks, hopefully. “They are harmless and let’s just leave it at that,” he smiles, reaching into his pocket, “Also to make sure I am not throwing you in blind I have something for you.” He pulls out a small tablet and hands it to Twilight. “What is it?” Twilight says, examining it. “It is a GIT,” he says, yawning again. “Excuse me?” Twilight says, wondering if he heard him wrong. “It is a G.I.T, a Galactic Information Tablet,” he explains, smiling, “You can look up all sort of stuff on it, great for a newcomer like you.” “Really, thanks!” Twilight says, thankfully, at last she won’t be as lost as she thought she would be. “Try it out and say Tiskat to it,” he says, pointing at the GIT. Twilight does and the GIT lights up, within moments words appear on the screen. Author’s note: You may skip over GIT entries if you want to for they are only favor texts and anything important will be said in the story. Thank you, continue to read. GIT Entry: Tiskat. Hailing primarily from the world of Tarkrit, the Tiskat is a race comprised entirely of noble families and aristocrats, with no lower or middle class. While such a system would normally lend itself to bigotry, ineffectual government bodies, nepotism, petty power struggles and glory seeking military, the Tiskat are only marginally guilty of the first. This state of affairs occurred before the Tiskat had achieved galactic space travel, their homeworld was struck by a planet wide epidemic, and only the nobles and the very rich could afford treatment, resulting in the death of almost all of the planet's middle and bottom population. While the Tiskat aristocrats had initially celebrated the death of all the rabble, they soon realised that they no longer had anyone to boss around and do all the menial labour. Faced with the horrible possibility of folding their own underwear, the Tiskat launched into action. The few Tiskat left that could hold a spanner the right way around were quickly snatched up by the various noble houses, and tasked with constructing machines to do the work that they were unwilling to perform, with the promise of becoming nobility themselves. This spawned a conflict of sorts, where skilled individuals, such as engineers, soldiers and doctors were taken in by noble families in order to bolster their power and standing, while the new robotic work force was brought in to handle all unskilled labour. As skill and intellect became just as valuable as blood and wealth, the Tiskat nobility steadily became a more efficient, and became solely focused on the betterment of their race and collective gene pools. To that end the various noble families banded together to form a collective planet wide government, where a noble family is voted in and their current head or heir becomes the monarch. This was the birth of the modern Tiskat kingdom. The current ruling family is the House Tacitus. Reptilian in nature, Tiskats have an average bipedal build, with a partially scaly hide and no extraneous limbs besides a large reptilian tail. their heads are decorated with large manes of spines that protrude from their scalp, they are also feature large reptilian eyes, fanged canines, slits for noses and no ears. Thier races most unusual feature is their ability to shift out of the visible spectrum (i.e become invisible), it is believed this ability is magical in nature, but apart from this, the Tiskat, like most races, have no aptitude for magic. Another unusual part of their culture is that they have largely forsaken natural birth and have taken to growing children within their gene labs, so as to remove any perceived flaws in their genetic makeup as well as strengthening all desirable genes. As of today the Tiskat one of the founding and leading races of the assembly, and also leading in the areas of espionage, robotics and genetic engineering. End of entry. Twilight frowns, “That was interesting but brief… is that really all there is?” Alastair smiles, “It tells you all you need to know about them. It does have more information on it about subject but you have ask for it, otherwise it will brief.” “I see,” Twilight sighs, before smiling, “Thank you again Alastair, I imagine this will be very helpful.” “You’re welcome,” he smiles, before walking off, “Now let’s pick up your friends. I have already dropped off the clothes for them. Afterwards let’s get something for you to eat…. also if you get tired of carrying the GIT, it can hang off your suit.” “Great, I am really hungry,” Twilight says, happily, catching up with Alastair while attaching the GIT to her suit. “Yeah, we better put some meat on those bones of yours,” he smirks, giving Twilight a gentle poke in the arm, “After the treatment you have barely any body fat left.” Twilight rubs her tummy, she is right now the skinniest she could ever be without being dead. “That’s probably a good idea.” They head off and pick up her friends one after the other, also managing to meet Devil at Rainbow Dash’s room. Where they’re arguing. “You are a total arsehole!” Rainbow Dash yells, to the smirking Devil. “You are just upset because I won’t be carrying you today,” Devil smirks, crossing her hands. “Why would I ever want to be carried by you again!” yells Rainbow Dash, gritting her teeth, “You made me look an idiot in front of my friends!” “Speaking about making you look an idiot in front of your friends,” Devils says, turning towards the approaching group of ponies and Alastair. “Sorry to interrupt your lovers quarrel,” Alastair says, managing to keep a straight face, “But we have three more to pick up and I ain’t waiting for you two to finish.” “We are not having a lover's quarrel!” yells Rainbow Dash, angrily, stomping her hoof. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to go out with a weakling like her anyway,” Devil says, looking annoyed at thought of going out with someone weak. “I’m not a weakling!” yells Rainbow Dash, glaring at her. “Oh, want to prove it then?” she says, bending over and placing her finger under Rainbow Dash’s chin, “And if you win maybe we can have some fun afterwards?” Rainbow Dash knocks the hand away and glares daggers at the Pictlander, flushed a little, “Why would I want to do anything with with you? You’re an alien!” With that Rainbow Dash chases after her friends who have already walked off, leaving behind the Pictlander. Devil smirks, “These aliens sure are fun.” Devil then runs after and catches up with the group. “I notices that you two are not wearing any face paint today?” notes Rarity, looking at both Alastair and Devil, who faces are clean beside the pointed cross in the middle of Alastair face, which is a tattoo. “Couldn’t really be bothered, cause I just had a shower before I went to pick you girls up,” he says, scratching his beard, “It takes a bit of time to put on the old face paint.” “I only sometimes put it on,” Devil smiles, lightly patting the sides of her face, “It is not got for one's skin to always wear it.” “That too,” notes Alastair, frowning. “Why does your race wear face paint?” asks Rarity, curious. Alastair shrugs, “It is just a cultural thing, and I guess we never found any reason to stop.” “I think we are here,” notes Devil, looking around, “Your stowaways are kept near here.” “I will go get them,” Alastair says, walking off. “Good, cause I’m ready to give them a hiding of a lifetime,” Applejack says, frowning, clapping her hands together. “It is weird to think of them all grown up,” sighs Rarity, shaking her head, “What will our mother say.” “I guess the stasis pod must have malfunctioned and didn't stop the aging process,” Twilight guessed, who had thought about this. “How long were we in the pods for, anyway?” asks Rainbow Dash, turning towards Twilight. “I will have to examine them to find out,” Twilight says, shrugging, “But maybe a few decades.” “Something like that,” agrees Alastair, coming back with the three once fillies hiding behind him, deciding that Alastair is a lot less scary than their sisters right now. “Get out here!” yells Applejack, angrily, pointing at the floor in front of her. “No way,” Applebloom says, sticking her tongue out, “You are just going to yell at us.” “Darn tootin I am,” Applejack replies, glaring at them. “Look, I am going to kick all your arses in a minute if you don’t shut up,” Alastair says, glaring at them all, “Let’s just go to the cafeteria and talk this over with something to eat.” He waits for them to agree or nod before turning to Devil, “Which cafeteria you think is safe right now?” “I think cafeteria 2 is pretty empty right now I think,” shrugs Devil. “Let’s head there then,” Alastair says, walking off. The walk is pretty quiet with the Cutiemark Crusaders avoiding the glares of their sisters, until they finally reach a cafeteria. As they enter the cafeteria they notice that it is pretty empty, especially compared to the one yesterday. The only other Pictish here are a group of them watching two arm wrestle each other. “This will do,” Alastair says, patting a table that is pretty far from the other Pictlanders, “Sit yourselves down and I will get something to eat… herbivores right?” “Yes, that is right,” Twilight says, surprised that Alastair knew. “Thought so, sit yourselves down,” Alastair says, walking towards the counter. The girls have a bit of trouble getting on the chairs, considering they are twice as tall as they are used to. They will have to sit on their knees, cause the table is twice as high as well. Alastair comes back carrying back a large tray with various items on it. “Here we go,” he says, placing the tray in the middle of the table, “I picked various fruits and vegetables that will not kill you.” “Kill us?!” Twilight says, looking at the produce horrified. “They come from Pictland and a lot of things there are poisonous to other races, but these ones are safe,” Alastair explains, smiling and sitting down next the seated Devil. “If you are lucky,” smirks Devil, resting her head in her hands. The girls stare at the fruit, like bomb waiting to go off. Until brave Pinkie reaches forward and grabs one, placing it in her mouth and taking a small bite. She chews slowly. “Well, is it alright?” Applejack asks, nervously. Pinkie stays quiet for awhile for before nodding and saying, “Tastes weird, but it is alright.” The girls sigh in relief and all grab some fruits. Alastair satisfied, pulls out a bottle from his coat and takes a swig from it. “Is that alcohol?” Sweetie Belle asks, with child like curiousity. “Is it? I noticed you drink before,” Twilight asks, will feasting on a large fruit. “I did say we Pictish like to drink before,” Alastair says, putting the bottle away, “It helps Pictish concentrate and calms down.” “But only if they don’t drink too much,” add Devil, smiling, “Otherwise they go crazy.” “That sounds weird,” Rainbow Dash says, frowning, “So small amounts of alcohol is good for a Pictlander?” “Yeah, especially if you are doing something that requires a steady hand,” explains Alastair, smiling, “Engineers and Doctors Pictlanders always have some on hand.” There is a silent after this since no pony has anything to say after this, but it is quickly filled by another question. “Where did you get the tattoo, mr Alastair?” asks Scootaloo. Alastair rubs the bridge of his nose where the tattoo is with a pondering look on his face, “I’m not quite sure, I have got a lot of tattoos in my life, but I believe I got this one after I finished medical school.” “You should see some of the tattoos I got,” smirks Devil, nugging the pony beside her, which turned out to be a unimpressed Rainbow Dash. “Girls are you not asking these questions to avoid having us talk to you, would you?” Rarity asks, frowning at the once fillies. “Maybe…” Sweetie Belle says, avoiding her sister’s eyes. “What are we going to do with them, Twilight?” asks Rainbow Dash, looking at Twilight. “I guess we will have to take them with us,” Twilight sighs, shaking her head. “What! We can’t, it might be dangerous,” Applejack yells, horrified at the thought of her sister getting hurt. “Well, what do you supposed we do then?” Twilight yells back, “We can’t send them home remember, and we can’t leave them with Alastair.” “That we can agree on,” Alastair says, nodding his head. Applejack throws a quick glare at Twilight and then at the Cutiemark Crusaders, but doesn’t say anything. “But what can they do, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash yells, leaning forward, “We all trained for this, they didn’t.” “I don’t know!” Twilight yells, slamming her fists on the table “I never planned for any of this!” “Calm down the lot of you!” yells Alastair, also slamming his fist on table, shutting everyone up. “I would like to know why you girls were in space in the first place, since I get the feeling you are new to space travel?” They all look at Twilight, waiting to see what she will do. Twilight sighs, I guess they owe it to Alastair to explain some of it. “We are on a journey to save our homeworld,” Twilight starts to explain. “Should I leave?” Devil asks, surprising Twilight, she forgot she is here. “No, let Devil stay,” suggests Alastair, shaking his head, “She is a bit of dimwit but trustworthy enough to keep a secret.” Twilight nods, “If you say so. Our homeworld was attacked by unknown alien race,” Twilight says, her face saddening, “At first we tried to defend ourselves, but they could also use magic and managed to block a lot of our attacks.” “So you can use magic?” Devil says, looking surprised before then smiling, “Can you get any more interesting.” “Quiet Devil!” warns Alastair, slapping Devil on the back of her head, before gesturing Twilight to continue. “We soon realized we were fighting a losing battle and that they didn’t plan to invade us, but destroy us!” Twilight says, shivering a bit at the memories. “Sounds like the Magi,” Alastair sighs, shaking his head. “That is what I thought,” Devil says, glaring at Alastair and rubbing the back of her head. “Who are the Magi?” Twilight says, confused. “Most likely the race that attacked you,” Alastair explains, “They are known to hunt down magic using races and annihilate them. They have already destroyed the Angels and have tried to attack the Rooyins many times before.” “Angels and Rooyins?” Twilight says, confused. “They were magical users,” Alastair sighs, crossing his arms, “The Angels were wiped out thousands of years ago, back in the early days of the federation, and the Rooyins while able to use magic sadly have forgotten, cause of hundreds of years of enslavement to Bardics.” “That’s sad,” Twilight says, shocked by all this. “And they might have wiped out who knows how many other magical races as well,” add Devils, for once serious. “What is this federation doing about this?” asks Applejack, frowning. “Actually the federation was formed to fight the Magi threat,” Alastair explains, “The Magi are too strong to fight by oneself.” “That is what we are doing out in the middle of nowhere,” adds Devil, sighing, “Patrolling for them.” “But we have gotten off track,” Alastair says, turning back to Twilight, “So what did you do after you found out that you were losing.” “Our most powerful unicorns and alicorns erected a powerful shield that forced them out of our planet and protected us,” Twilight says, her eyes sparkling when she remembers the massive shield being summoned, “But it would not last forever and they still attacked us. So we planned to escape. I was tasked to build the first Equestrian ship that would carry a small crew of ponies on a mission to move the entire planet of Equis somewhere else, where we could have time to prepare.” “God damn, how do you plan to move entire planet?” Alastair says, frowning at Twilight. “We worked something out…” Twilight says, avoiding Alastair gaze. Alastair sighs, seeing that Twilight won’t tell him, “So what happened next?” “I built the ship,” Twilight says, smiling, “I was quite proud of it.” “You were proud of that lump of junk?” Devil says, raising her eyebrow. “What do you mean lump of junk?!” Twilight says, angrily. “Afterwards I think I will take you to see your ship,” Alastair says, sighing again. Twilight doesn’t like the sound of this. “So what happened afterwards,” Devil asks. “Once it was done we left, with three unwanted crew members,” Twilight says, looking the Cutiemark Crusaders, who are looked sheepish, “We went to sleep and Equis was... put somewhere safe.” “Somewhere safe, eh?” Alastair says, giving Twilight serious look. “Somewhere safe,” Twilight repeats, continuing to avoid his gaze. There is a long silent before somepony spoke up. “I got a question, Alastair,” Sweetie Belle says, breaking the silence. “Hmm?” Alastair replies, turning toward her. “What happened to our hair?” Sweetie Belle asks, pointing at her short hair. With that an outroar is created. “Yes, why is my hair like this!” asks Rarity, angrily. “Yeah, who gave me this buzz cut!” adds Rainbow Dash, also angry. “Argh, I knew this would come up sooner or later,” grumbles Alastair, rubbing his head, “Look I actually I shaved you bold, it was only because I had Regrowth that you have as much hair as you do.” Rarity looks wozy at the thought. “But why shave us at all?” Twilight says, confused. “I can’t perform carnal surgery on a head full head of hair,” Alastair explains, instantly regretting it. “YOU DID SURGERY ON US!!” they all yell, causing Alastair and Devil to block both their ears. “Don’t you find it strange that you can understand Devil and me?” Alastair says, unblocking his ears. The girls pause at this. He is right, it is kind of weird to think that they would be speaking Equestrian. “All members of the federation at birth are implanted with a chip that lets them understanding other races as if they were speaking their native tongue,” explains Alastair, pointing at his head, “But this chip needs to be implanted in their brain, so I did a bit carnal surgery.” “But what if you did something wrong?” Twilight says, scared that something might have, “You might have really mucked us up!” “Twilight, I am a professional,” Alastair says, smiling, “I made sure of everything before I started opening up your head… also I had a machine do the work.” He holds up his large hands, “These are bit too big to be doing brain surgery on such tiny heads.” There is akward silence after this, until Alastair sighs and gets up. “Look I check afterwards there is nothing wrong with your brain,” he says, shaking his head, “But now, since you seem to have finished eating let’s go check your ship, it is in the hanger.” “That sounds like a great idea,” Twilight says, trying to get rid of the imagine of Alastair poking around her brain as she climbs off the bench, nearly falling over since her legs are numb because she was kneeling on it. “Just let me finish this,” Pinkie says, shoving the last of the fruit in her mouth and munching it down, before jumping off the bench and doing a little cartwheel. “They weren’t bad were they?” comments Fluttershy, getting off the bench. “They were ok, I guess,” Rainbow Dash says, flying off. Soon everypony is off the bench and heading out of the cafeteria. Just in time too, the arm wrestling has got intense... and by intense I mean they were punching each other in face by now. Twilight just stares, frozen, her mouth hanging open at what lay in the hanger. “It used to look cooler,” notes Scootaloo, staring at the wreck. “It is not so easy on the eyes now, is it?” Rarity says, staring at the ship. “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SHIP!?!” yells Twilight, unfreezing, “It was not like this before!” She says this while looking at Alastair as if to defend herself. “Hate to say it Twilight, but Devil was right, it is pretty much a hunk of junk,” Rainbow Dash says, staring at wreck. To describe what the state of ship is in, imagine this. Imagine a spaceship, now imagine a large chunk of it is missing, now imagine some smaller chunks are missing, now imagine some small holes here and there, now imagine that the thrusters and cockpit are destroyed, finally imagine bits of metal sticking out of it. There you now have a basic idea what it looks like. Now imagine it worse. “What could have done this?!” Twilight asks the world in general. “I have a an idea about that,” comes a voice from below them. They look down from the platform they are standing on down on to the hangar floor, where they see a Pictish look up at them. “What’s up, Burner?” Alastair greets the Pictish known as Burner. “Nothing much, Blazing Angel,” he greets back. “Blazing Angel?” Rainbow Dash says, confused. “Another time, Rainbow Dash,” Alastair says, waving her off, “So what’s your idea, Burner?” “It depends on whether or not you had an automatic maintenance system on board?” Burner asks, rubbing his oily hands on his armour. “Yes, we did,” Twilight answers, of course they would have to have one, they were asleep for the entire journey. “Then it is most likely that it run out of parts, and started stripping parts of the ship that was not a high priority to maintain,” he says, now rubbing his less greasy hands together, “It sometimes happens.” “But I packed a lot of spare material so this wouldn’t happen,” Twilight says, confused. “Hey, don’t tell me, I just told you want I think happened,” Burner says, shrugging, “I could be wrong.” “Thanks for your time, Burner,” Alastair says, smiling. “Yes, thanks for the theory,” Twilight says. “No problem,” Burner says, walking to the other end of the hanger, “If you need any help with the ship me and Blunt Force are going to be around here for a while.” “What kind of title is Burner and Blunt Force?” Rainbow Dash asks, as they climb down, off the platform and onto the hanger floor. “The kind you get when you use a starfighters thrusters as an improvised weapon, or when you use the bluntest weapon you can get your hands on to fight with, in this case it was another enemy,” Devil explains, smiling. “Pictish titles are weird,” Pinkie says, giggling. They continue to walk towards the ruined ship, until they reaches its side. “How do we get on board?” Twilight says, looking for a ramp or something. “This way,” Alastair says, reaching down and picking up Twilight, temporarily surprising her. “Thanks Alastair,” Twilight says, as she is placed down on the ship, “I can’t really use my wings.” “You could of always made holes in it like your colourful friend did,” Alastair says, watching Rainbow Dash fly onto the ship, “It wouldn’t of bothered me.” “Maybe I should have,” Twilight laughs, rubbing back of her neck. It makes sense to think that Rainbow Dash would have made sure it had wing holes. Alastair and Devil help the rest of the ponies on broad of the ship, before pulling themselves up and onto the ship, where they sit on the edge. “You girls can check things out and we will stay here,” Alastair says, pulling out his bottle, “I don’t really like walking around small corridors unless I have too.” Devil nods her head in agreement. “Is it safe to go in?” asks Fluttershy, looking inside the ruined interior of the ship. “I don’t know,” answers Alastair, he then turns towards the distant Burner, who is working on something, and yells, “Oi Burner, is it safe inside the ship?!” “Probably!” Burner yells back. “Probably,” Alastair repeats, taking a swig from his bottle, before offering it to Devil, who takes it and also takes a swig before handing it back. “That sounds reassuring,” sighs Rainbow Dash. “Let’s just go,” says Twilight, walking inside the ship. The ponies follow her. The inside of the ship is a mess with bits of metal and wires everywhere. All the ship’s lights seem to have blown out, luckily the Pictish seem to have set up lights all over the ship. “It used to be a lot neater in here,” notes Rarity, stepping over some scrap metal. “What ever happened to all the robots you made, Twilight?” asks Applebloom, looking around. “I don’t know,” Twilight says, confused, “But they should be here?” “I think the Pictish entered through there,” Applejack says, pointing to door that was forced open. “Why didn’t they just enter through the way we came through?” Scootaloo says, confused. Twilight shrugs, “Don’t know, the Pictish are a strange people.” “I think I found one of the robots!” declares Pinkie, who standing by the door and pointing at something on the ground. The girls approaches Pinkie and their eyes widen. “This doesn’t look like any robot I made,” Twilight says, looking down at the disabled robot. “Actually Twilight, it looks like a lot of robot you made. Just mushed together,” Pinkie says, just staring at the robot. “Maybe they tore each other for parts until there was only one left?” suggests Rainbow Dash. “But I left them lots of parts to maintain themselves,” Twilight says, getting more confused. “So what happened then?” asks Applejack, tapping her hoof, annoyed, “Since you keep shooting down everyponies elses ideas.” “I am not shooting down everyponies ideas!” Twilight snaps back, “I am just having trouble believing this.” “Ok, let’s us just calm down,” Rarity says, stepping between Applejack and Twilight, “Twilight is there anyway you can find out how long we were asleep for?” “I guess we could check out the stasis pods, but I heard that the interface is broken or something,” sighs Twilight, “But maybe we should check anyway. I remember that the stasis room is near here.” “It is over here, Twilight,” calls Pinkie, standing by another forced open door. The girls walk through it and see that this room is most likely the most intact in the ship. It still looked like it was airtight, but the stasis pods are a mess, with bits of wires and most of its parts sticking out, also the glass cases are broken most likely from when the Pictish got them out. The spare stasis pods are all gone except the three that once held the fillies, although they look even worst than the original ones, with huge amounts of the components pulled out in what looks a like a hasty repair job. “The pods are a mess,” notes Rainbow Dash, looking around the room. “Are these the ones that held Applebloom and her friends?” Applejack says, walking over to the last of the spare pods. “They have to be, all the others are gone,” notes Twilight, walking up to Applejack. “Anyway to tell why they are now full grown mares now?” Applejack asks, crossing her arms. “Let’s see what I can find,” Twilight says, looking at one of the control panels, but it doesn’t work, “No all the control panels are burned out.” “Anyway to fix it?” asks Applejack. “Maybe, if I had the right tools and materials, but it would take time and there is no guarantee that the data will be uncorrupted,” Twilight sighs, shaking her head. “What do you mean by corrupted?” Applejack says, confused. “I mean that considering the state of the pods I am not sure if they were still recording data or just running on automatic,” Twilight explains, “And if was running on automatic then it would stop recording and just focus on maintaining the pods.” “So there is no way to tell how long we were in the pods for?” asks Rarity, frowning. “I didn’t say that,” answers Twilight, shaking her head, “We just can’t from here.” “Maybe we should check on the storage room?” Rainbow Dash suggests, “To check if anything is left.” “Good idea,” agrees Twilight. “Actually I remember that I made some clothes for our journey, so we will be able to hopefully get some better to wear,” Rarity says, smiling at the thought. “Let’s get going,” Twilight says, heading out of the room. The girls found it tricky to find the storage room, since there is barely any lights and the ship is in shambles, but by following their memories they eventually find the door to the storage room. But now they find themselves with a new problem. “The door is sealed shut,” notes Applejack, checking the door. “But our stuff is on the other side,” whines Rainbow Dash, “Like our weapons and armour.” “And our clothes,” add Rarity, also looking displeased. “Instead of whining why don’t you help me open it,” Applejack says, trying to force it open. The girls all try to open the door together, but it won’t budge. “I think it is welded shut,” pants Twilight, giving up opening the door. “Are you girls alright in there?” yells the voice of Alastair, “It sounds like you are struggling with something?” “Yeah, we are fine,” Twilight yells back, “We just can’t open the door to the storage.” “Ok, I will get one of the boys to help,” Alastair yells back, “They are great at forcing open stuff.” They then hear Alastair shout, “Can one you two help the aliens open a door?” “Depends where the door is?” Burner yells back. “We are here!” Twilight yells, trying to catch his attention. “I will get it,” comes a new voice that must be Blunt Force, he sounds nearby, “I think I am on your side of the ship. Let me just go through this door.” Twilight waits patiently and then she realizes something, “Wait, there is no doors on this side of the ship.” Suddenly the door in front of them is torn open, and Blunt Force looks in on them, “Ok, where’s the door?” “That was it…” Twilight says, shocked. “Oh, that was easy then,” he says, smiling. “Wait, what happened to the storage room?” Twilight says, trying to look past him. “There is no room there,” he says, moving out of the way, “It just leads outside.” The girls are once again shocked, for the storage room is gone. It is like it was removed, for they can still see signs of it once being there, it is like it was taken apart. “What happened?!” Twilight yells, once again confused. “Well following on what Burner said, when your automatic maintenance ran out of parts and things to take apart for parts, it started taken apart the ship itself. Guess which room it would take apart first?” Blunt Force says, looking Twilight. “The room that no longer has any use,” Twilight answers, shaking her head. “But what happened to the clothes?” Rarity asks, horror appearing on her face. “And our weapons?” Rainbow Dash adds. “I guess they used the weapons for parts and dumped the clothes so they can use whatever was holding them for scrap,” guesses Blunt Force, placing his hands behind his head. “No, I really liked the weapons,” Rainbow Dash moans. “Who cares about the weapons, all my clothes I worked on, ruined!” whines Rarity, placing a hand dramatically on her head. “Well excuse me, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash says, sarcastically, “When the Magi attack and when we have no means of defending ourselves, I am sure the loss of the clothes will be noticed!” “No need to act like that, Rainbow Dash,” huffs Rarity. “Let’s not fight guys,” Applejack interjects, “Right now, the Magi and clothes are the least of our worries. Twilight you got any other idea now of how long we were in space for?” “It must have been for a long time,” sighs Twilight, her head shagging, “For things to turn out like this…” Suddenly Twilight eyes shoots open in realization, “Wait the power room, it’s where the mainframe is located!” “So?” Applejack says, confused. “The power room is the most sturdiest part of the ship, so it might still be in alright condition,” Twilight starts to explain, “Also the mainframe and powercore was built to last, and the mainframe is connected to the long range magical scanner, so it would have been taking reports from it, and those reports will be dated!” “So as long as the mainframe still work we can find out how long we been asleep for, right?” Applejack says, trying to understand. “It may give us a rough idea,” Twilight says, smiling. “Let’s go then,” Pinkie says, happily. The girls rush to the power room, leaving the bemused Blunt Force behind. Of course they face the same problem, another door, but this one is huge. “This one is also sealed shut,” sighs Applejack, laying her hand on the door. “Hey, Blunt Force are you still there!” Pinkie yells, back down the way they came. “Yeah, need another door open?” he yells back. “Yes please,” Pinkie answers, happily. “Give a second, if it is the power room I will need help,” he says, sounding like he walking off, “It has major blast doors.” “Pictish are so helpful,” Pinkie smiles, turning back to her friends. “Yes they are,” agrees Fluttershy, smiling. “Nice too,” Sweetie Belle adds. “So what with the large doors, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asks, leaning against them. “Beside the stasis room this room is the most important,” Twilight says, placing her hand on the door, “Actually it may be more important since without it nothing will work! The Dynamo Core keeps everything working, from our stasis pods to the thrusters.” “I think I remember you saying it was a nightmare to build,” comments Applejack, chuckling. “Well a magically driven perpetual motion generator is no easy fast. I was quite happy about it, unlimited energy and it doesn’t wear down so it could technically last forever,” Twilight says, proudly. “So it would of been easy to maintain, right?” Applejack ask. “You would basically have to change the wiring, and that does need to happen often,” Twilight says, smiling. “I am back,” says a voice behind them, which turns out to be Blunt Force. He has to crouch to get through the hallway, “Damn this, I hate hallways like this.” “So what did you get to help?” asks Twilight, as they get out of the way of the large man. “Another Pictish,” says the voice of Burner, behind Blunt Force. “What, no tools, just another Pictlander?” Rainbow Dash says, surprised. “The only tools we need are these ones right here,” Blunt Force smirks, flexing his muscles. “Out of the way ladies, this may get messy,” Burner says, smirking. The two Pictish grab both grab the bottom of door and start grunting and pulling. At first nothing happens, and the girls wonders if they were just wasting their time, until they hear the sound of metal complaining. A gap appears at the bottom of the door, that is slowly getting bigger, but something soon gives way, it is door. The door shoots up, the mechanism holding it has broken. “Ok, let us just weld this so it stays open,” Burner says, pulling something from his belt, and after a few minutes the door has been welded into place. “Job well done,” Blunt Force says, nodding his head, he then looks inside the room and his eyes widen, “Hey, is the a Hyper Motion Generator?” Everypony looks at the main feature of room, a large glass cylinder that extends to the floor to the roof, a pulsing ball floats in the middle of it, around it five rings of metal float around the ball, spinning around it at extreme speeds and in different directions, energy arcs off the ball and rings onto two small rods that are placed on the roof and floor of the cylinder. This is the Dynamo Core. “No they look different, but it is definitely seems to be a perpetual motion generator,” Burner says, having trouble wiping the surprise off his face, “But I have never seen one this small before… who knew that this hunk of junk had something so powerful.” Twilight feels a small amount of pride at what they are saying, that even to this alien her power core is impressive. “It is pretty good isn’t it? I am quite proud I made it,” Twilight says, smiling. Her smile fades when she sees the serious looks on the Pictlanders face. “It would be probably better if you don’t mention what you said to anyone else,” warns Burner, shaking his head. “What, why?” Twilight says, confused. “If some people knew you could make something like this,” Blunt Force says, pointing to the core, “Then they would stop at nothing to get there hands on you, cause it would tell them that you are magical and powerful enough to make something this powerful by yourself, it will also make it easier for those that hunt magical races.” Twilight just nods and hangs her head, she remembers what Alastair said, keep the fact that you can use magic to yourself. I guess saying you made something like this is a dead give away. “Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone, just be careful,” Blunt Force says, giving Twilight a very light pat on the back. “Yeah, if anyone asks about it say you got it from an Ancient’s ship,” suggests Burner, smiling. “Who are the Ancient and why are they aloud to make things like this and not get in trouble?” asks Pinkie, pouting and crossing her hands. “Because they are not around anymore,” Burner answers. “Huh?” Pinkie says, confused. “She has a GIT right,” Burner says, pointing at Twilight, “Look it up yourself, it will probably tell you better than we can.” “Huh, Twilight has a git?” Pinkie says, still confused. “Later Pinkie,” Twilight says, waving Pinkie off, “Thanks for advice.” “You’re welcome,” Burner says, smiling, “But didn’t you say you have something similar?” Rarity asks, curious, “A Hyper… something?” “A Hyper Motion Generator, yes it is also perpetual motion generator and to answer your next question, yes it is magical,” Blunt Force says, sighing. “But where do they come from?” Rarity asks. “They are made by certain manufacturers and are very expensive,” Burner explains, “I mean the place you would find one in the Pictish fleet is on a Halbert capital class ship, and only on special ones, and definitely not a Tomahawk class ship like this one.” “But why don’t they get in trouble?” asks Pinkie, curious. “Because it is Magitech, it is made by using machines that harness magic rather than a person, so it not that special, just very expensive,” explains Burner, “Get it?” The girls don’t get it, but Twilight notes to look up Magitech later. “Since that is all, we will leave you girls to do whatever you were doing and we will take a break,” Burner says, smirking. The girls watch the two Pictish leave and crawl their way out, and leaving them alone again. But before they can start anything, one of the Pictish yell something back at them. “Also if it is possible when you finish could you disable the ship’s power or something?” Blunt Force yells, “For safety, you know. There is a lot of exposed wires on this ship and we got to move it to the Assembly’s ship when it arrives.” “Ok, I will try,” Twilight yells back. “Thanks,” he yells, before he disappears. “So where is the mainframe?” asks Applejack, walking into the room. “It is here by the wall,” Twilight says, leading them to a screen by the wall, “I hope it still works.” Twilight flicks a switch, and nothing happens... until a low humming sound is heard. Suddenly the screen flickers to life and awaits input… “Thanks Celestia it works,” Applejack says, wiping her brow, “For a second there...” “Told you it was made to last,” Twilight says, happily. “So what can you get from it?” asks Rainbow Dash, hurrying Twilight up. “A lot, but we don’t have time to look through it,” sighs Twilight, moving her hands to the keyboard, “So we are just trying to find dates and the scanner will hopefully have it.” Twilight inputs ‘SCANNER_LOGS’ into the mainframe, it makes some worrisome noises before the screen changes and shows a long list of logs with dates, the first one being the day after they launched. Twilight starts moving down towards the more recent ones. “How far do you think these go for?” Rainbow Dash asks, looking at the long list. “The scanner is supposed to scan monthly for any signs of high concentration of magics and homes the ship onto them,” Twilight explains, continuing to scroll through the list, “So the list could go on for awhile.” Suddenly the screen flickers and the words new entry appear on it, before forcing Twilight to the top of the list again. “What just happened?” Fluttershy asks, concerned. “Don’t worry, the scanner must of just activated and recorded a new log,” Twilight explains, happily, “Which is good so then we will know exactly how long we were in space for… but sadly it means I will have to start scrolling through the list again.” “Just hurry up, egghead,” Rainbow Dash groans, faceplaming. Twilight starts scrolling through the list again. The years start adding up, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years… “Those are a lot of years,” Applejack says, her eyes widening. “Twilight, how close are we to the bottom?” Rainbow Dash asks, concerned. “I have no idea,” Twilight says, worried about the high numbers appearing on the screen, “We just have to get to the bottom.” 100 years, 150 years, 200 years, 300 years, 500 years! They have been in space for exactly 500 years! “Five hundred years… we have been asleep for five hundred years…” Applejack says, too shocked for words. “Well no wonder the ship is so messed up,” Rainbow Dash says, shaking her head in disbelief. “It is no wonder our clothes were destroyed,” Rarity says, kind of horrified to think that she is now over 500 years old. “Does that mean we can drink now?” Applebloom asks, before she is whacked on the side of her head by Applejack. “Twilight, are you ok?” Fluttershy asks, patting the shocked Twilight on the shoulder. “I just… I just can’t believe it…” Twilight finally says, turning off the mainframe and slumping down, “We been in space for five hundred… and we found nothing…” “Calm down, Twilight,” Applejack says, trying to pick up the fallen alicorn, “It will be fine, we are alright and we can still look, right?” “But I didn’t know what to do, we have be asleep for so long! I didn’t plan for it!” Twilight cries, burying her head in her hands. “We will just have to wing it, right, like usual,” Rainbow Dash says, smiling and patting Twilight on the back. “Together,” Fluttershy says, hugging Twilight. “Yeah… you’re right, we will just have to wing it together,” Twilight says, calming down, “Sorry about that.” “It’s cool, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash says, smiling, “I mean we are all pretty shocked about.” “I just never expected to be up here for five hundred years,” Twilight says, shaking her head, “It is no wonder that everything fell apart, we never had enough supplies to last that long.” “Thank Celestia for the Pictish finding us otherwise we may have be toast,” comments Pinkie, not a care in the world. “So nothing else, Twilight,” Applejack asks, looking at the now turned off maneframe. “No, we found out what we wanted to know,” Twilight says, she then looks at the Cutiemark Crusaders, “Well nearly everything, and I think we left Alastair and Devil waiting long enough. Let me just turn off the ship’s power.” Twilight walks over to the Dynamo Core, she pulls a lever on the side of the cylinder, which causes the metal rods on the top and bottom to retract. Soon any remaining lights in the room turn off, showing that the power is now off. “Ok, let’s go,” Twilight says, leaving. The girls leave the room and head back to where they left Alastair and Devil. “Finished then,” asks Alastair, has they approach him. “About damn time,” Devil says, yawning. “Yeah, we found out how long we were asleep for,” Twilight explains. “Really, how long?” asks Alastair, curious. “Five hundred years,” Twilight says, shaking her head. Alastair eyes widen, “Five hundred? Forgot what I said before, you were in fucking great condition for being five hundred years old.” Twilight awkwardly laughs and rubs the back of her head, “I still don’t know what happened to the stasis pods to end up like we did…” “Well, I suppose it will have to be a mystery that you will have to solve later,” Alastair says, getting off the ship, “Since now you have to see the Captain!”