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Chapter 1 - Equis3,092 words
Chapter 2 - Transfer3,177 words

Chapter 1 - Equis

It had been half a year. On that day, six months ago, a war was fought between species. A war that started in an instant, and ended just as abrubtly, with the blow of a hammer from the great skies above, which shook the ground to its core. It had gone down as the most cruel and gruesome war in all of Equestrian history, eventhough the fighting only lasted a couple of hours. Several dozen Equestrian Royal Guards were lost that day. The enemy suffered two casualties. For the invaders, it was nothing more than a strike, a mission to retrieve a single citizen. For Equestria, it was the end of an era.

"Y'all sure about this?"

As they stood there, on the tarmac of Camp Ebony Airbase, they didn't really know if they were sure about it. They were about to leave their planet, and in a few days, go further than anypony had ever gone before. Aside from the Princesses and the 4 Guards that had been with them, nopony had ever even left the atmosphere of the planet that the other civilization had dubbed 'Equis'.

"To be honest Applejack, no, I'm not. What about you Fluttershy?"

"Well... I don't really know Twilight. We... We have to go, right? To... make friends?"

"Yeah..."

As they were talking, Rainbow Dash, Minister of Defence, walked up to the group, slightly startling the yellow pegasus of the group. She didn't mean to sneak up on them, but with the roar of all the spacecraft landing and taking off, you couldn't hear any form of speech short of yelling.

"Hey! Twilight, Fluttershy, I'm glad I was able to find you two before you left! When I told the Ministry about this whole plan, almost all the Defence-Secretaries began nagging about how it's too dangerous! Can you pleeaaase go and tell them that you'll be fine? They don't believe me!"

"I'm sorry Rainbow, but I can't, we are leaving in a few minutes!"

"Awh, come on! We need you!"

"Look, Rainbow, we'll only be gone for a few days. When we get back, I'll talk to them, okay?"

Rainbow sighed. She knew there wasn't enough time to go all the way to Canterlot and back in just a few minutes. Camp Ebony was just too far away. "Well, just... Argh, just get back soon, okay?!"

Twilight couldn't help but laugh at that. "Don't worry. We'll be back before you know it!"

At that moment, like it was planned, someone emerged from behind a parked EU55C Hornet. "Hey there! Are you two 'Twilight Sparkle' and 'Fluttershy' by any chance?"

The four ponies all looked towards the source of the voice, finding that it came from a human wearing what they thought to be a formal attire. As with every other human, she looked intimidating, given how tall she was relative to a pony, but something about her appearance made them all feel at ease.

"Hi! Yes, I'm Twilight Sparkle, Minister of Science and Education. These are Fluttershy, Minister of International Affairs..." Fluttershy shrunk a little, "...Applejack, Minister of Industry and Agriculture..." Applejack gave a quick nod, "...and Rainbow Dash, from the Ministry of Defence."

"And who are you?" asked Rainbow, now slightly annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I had introduced myself! I'm Alexa Wittenberg, and I'll be your guide for the coming days!"

Twilight immediatly turned to shake hooves with the human, but remembered just in time that pony and human customs were obviously very different. "Ah! Uhh, great to meet you Miss Wittenberg!"

"Please, call me Lex. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long?"

"Oh, it's not a problem at all Lex! We were just talking about a few things... Anyway, how long until we leave?"

"Hold on, let me check..." She lifted her arm, taking a look at her VisionAR. Twilight still didn't understand those machines, or any of the more advanced machines the humans posessed, but that was exactly what she was hoping to fix with this trip. "Okay, it seems our transport is almost here. In fact, it should be landing right about now..."

And indeed it was. From their relatively calm, albeit noisy, part of the hangar, they could see how a large white-and-grey craft, with the letters "UEE" boldly printed on the side, gracefully touched down on the hardened runway, speeding along it at a speed that would leave most pegasi in the dust. Steadily it slowed down, before turning to leave the runway somewhere halfway, while still going at a decent pace. Out of all the ponies, Rainbow Dash was probably most impressed by these machines. Their ability to reach speeds that would rival her own, was something she never imagined anyone or anything would achieve, let alone a large metal box, yet the humans seemed to be able to do so for more than 200 years.

The large craft, which Lex introduced as an H250A Dagger, rolled up to where they were standing, stopping just a few meters away from them. Rainbow had already began to head for the vehicle to inspect it more closely, when Lex quickly pulled her back, yelling at Rainbow that it was too dangerous to get near it at that point. All of the ponies present moved back a bit, slightly scared by what Lex was saying. In an effort to calm them, she quickly corrected her mistake, explaining that she meant that the engines suck in a lot of air while active, and that they might get sucked in if they were too close. She didn't need to explain how that might be bad.

After a few minutes, the crew of the H250 had shut down the engines, and one of the crewmembers opened a ramp on the rear. He looked over at the ponies, took a quick glance at Lex, and then said, in his full Southern accent: "So, y'all 'r them ponies we meant'a transport?"

"Wot in tarnation..." mumbled Applejack.

"Good to see you too, Rick..." Lex sighed, and introduced the ponies. "I'd like you all to meet Rick Stoner, our shuttle-pilot. But don't worry about him, he will only be taking us up into orbit, where we will dock with a bigger ship that will you to our solar system! Are you all as excited as I am?" If anybody at the Council ever asked why she acted like that, she would tell them that she wanted to impress the ponies. The fact that it helped even slightly to avert attention form Rick was simply a welcome bonus.

Applejack had walked up to the Dagger, and slightly brushed the side of it with her hoof. "So this here thingy goes up in the sky? How's that work? Don't see no propellor-thingies on it." She was ofcourse reffering to the fact that all matters of machine-flight she ever knew, were performed using propellors. Things like the airships that frequented Canterlot, for example.

Seeing how Applejack seemed to show interest in his spacecraft, Rick slowly shuffled towards her, hands in his flight-suit's pockets. "Well, since ah like yer accent, I reckon I oughta tell ya a bit 'bout 'er!"

"You can tell them later!" Lex interjected. "We have to leave now, or we'll miss our connecting flight!"

"Ah, we'll be fine-"

"Please..." Her voice had a slight hint of fear to it. "Please, just leave it and bring us to the Hermes, okay?"

Rick looked at Lex. He saw her fear, hidden behind her mask of joy and excitement. He had known her long enough to know that he shouldn't press the issue any further. "Fine. If y'all 're ready to leave, we oughta get y'all some suits!"

Twilight had seen the suits they were talking about. Due to UEE-Regulations, everyone needs a spacesuit if they want to leave the atmosphere. Apparantly, if you went into space without one, you would boil to death. Or so she was told. Normal human suits didn't have a chance of fitting on a pony. Therefore, with the help of some Equestrian clothes-designers, the UEE's Department Of Spaceflight-Safety was able to construct some prototype pony-spacesuits. They were supposedly produced by something called the 'Olympus Organization', whatever that might be. She made a mental note to ask about that later.

After they entered the Women's locker-room, Lex took her spacesuit, a beautifull white-and-grey graphene and carbon-fibre suit, designed by the Parallel Clothing Company. Several darker-grey lines could be seen where the nanofibres were molten together trough molecular assembly. For Twilight and Fluttershy, she was able to get the latest model of Equine spacesuits. These suits would be able to protect them incase of an accident, but they still looked relatively nice. Whether a certain fashionista would agree, is still up for debate.

"Okay then, here you go." Lex handed them their suits. She then pointed at one end of the locker-room."Over there are some stalls where you can get changed. I'll be there aswell, so if there's any trouble getting the suit on, I'll be able to help you!"

Twilight took the suit, and said: "Sure, but we don't need to get a stall for that, do we? We can just get changed here, right?"

"Uhm... Yeah, if that's what you want, then I suppose it's fine..." Lex said. She thought that it was a tad strange that they wanted to change out in the open of the locker-room. She managed to remind herself, after looking at the two ponies in front of her again, that they weren't wearing clothes to begin with. Thinking back, none of the ponies were, she realized. She simply added that to her mental list of cultural differences: 'They do not mind being naked around each other.' Good to know. After that awkward moment, she made her way to an unoccupied stall, and began to take off her formal attire. The Council had requested that she dressed up in her most formal and official way possible, but considering that the ponies seemed to not wear clothes at all, she decided that she could just wear normal clothes once they arrived.

After a few minutes of fumbling and tumbling, Twilight had managed to get the suit on. The suit was designed to be stept into, and then pulled upwards, where a zipper on the back would close it airtight. It was probably not the most efficient design, but it was the best that designers could come up with on such short notice. Finally having managed to put on her own suit, she then helped Fluttershy, who was having quite a few problems putting it on, considering it was hard to do without hands or magic.

"Are you two ready?" Lex walked out, carrying her previous attire in her briefcase, and with her spacesuit on. As she went around the corner towards the central area of the locker-room, she saw Fluttershy, rear up in the air, desperatly trying to fit her rear in the suit. "Oh, uhm... You... Do you need help?" She did her best to try and remain official and professional, though she couldn't help blushing ever so slightly.

"Y-yes, please..."

It took some pulling and pushing, but a few seconds later, both ponies were wearing their spacesuits. The designers had thought of (almost) everything: There was a special pocket for the tail, room in the neck and around the head for the mane, magnets on the hooves for zero-G maneauvring, and the majority of the face was still exposed, to make sure that both mares and stallions could use them, given their different facial-shapes. They only had one thing left to do before they were ready to fly.

"Okay, I just have to activate your thermal regulators. It will fill the suit with a thin layer of liquid-silicone, which will harden into a sort of jelly after a few seconds. You know, to make sure that your temperature won't change dramatically, and it will make the suit a lot less itchy and uncomfortable. Just.. Give me second... Where's the button... Ah, there it is!"

A soft humming eminated from the small devices on the front of Twilight's and Fluttershy's suits, as the soft and cold substance began flowing trough them. It filled the space between the outer and inner suit, creating an isolation layer. While Lex always enjoyed this feeling, the two ponies in front of her were clearly taken by surprise.

"Heh. Don't worry. I'm pretty sure I know just how you two feel right now." Lex said, trying to comfort the two very clearly startled ponies. "The thermal silicone should be dry by now. How does it feel? Does it fit well?"

Despite the uncomfortable experience, their suits did feel a lot better. "It feels... pretty good. Kinda nice, actually!" said Twilight.

"It... It DOES fit quite nicely..." Fluttershy said. "It feels a bit like being hugged by a big fuzzy bear!"

Now it was time for Lex to be confused, but given that their flight would depart soon, she decided not to press the issue any further. "Okay, not going to question that... Now, are you two ready?"

"Ready!"

"Alright then, let's get you two seated in the Dagger! Oh, before I forget though, here are your helmets! I'll let you know when to put them on." Twilight and Fluttershy were both given a large helmet. The front was a curved, made from glass with graphene coating, with a slight outward bubble for the muzzle, and equipped with some internal and external lights. The back and top of the helmet was made from a solid white material, a compound of graphene and carbon-nanotubes, strong enough to be capable of withstanding a bullet.

As they turned the corner to enter the hangar, the first thing that the three of them noticed was an orange earth-pony sitting behind the controls of the Dagger. The second thing was the blue pegasus standing atop the same craft, with a human sitting next to her with what Lex determined to be the widest grin in the explorable universe.

"Hey, Twilight! Can you believe this guy?!" Rainbow flew down from the H250, landing just a few feet away from the trio. "He says that those clunky things can go twenty-five times the speed of sound! And you said I can only go three times the speed of sound!"

"Yeah, so what?" said a nervous and jumpy Twilight.

"SO WHAT?! There's no way that that hunk of metal over there can go faster than me!"

"Actually." said Lex. "As much as I don't want to agree with Rick, he's right! The Dagger can reach speeds upwards of 10 kilometers per second when entering the atmosphere! Our fastest spaceships however, are the ones with the Warp Drive, which can go just below lightspeed! Although, they reach their destination faster than light, so it depends on what you mean by 'lightspeed'! I'll explain it later. The Hermes isn't going to wait forever!"

With the flightsuits on, the pilots ready, and the majorit of issues on Equis handled, the two pony ministers and their human guide set foot, or hoof, in the passenger compartment of the H250A Dagger. They each went to their assigned seat, with Twilight and Fluttershy sitting down in modified double-seats, which allowed them to lie down on their stomach, with special seatbelts safely tying them down.

"Oh, quick question: What's this planet's gravity?" asked Lex.

Fluttershy thought about it for a few seconds as she layed down on her seat, adjusting the seatbelt ever so slightly to make herself more comfortable. "Gravity? Uhh... I'm not sure. Twilight, do you know?"

"Huh?" Twilight was too occupied with listening to the start-up procedures to hear Fluttershy's question. Before Fluttershy had time to ask again, the sound of the engines had grown too loud, droning out all other sounds, including Fluttershy's question. "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IT'S TOO LOUD!"

It took Rick and his co-pilot a few seconds to get the noise-cancelation operational and configured. It had to adjust to the atmosphere of Equis, which is considerably denser than that of Earth. In fact, the atmospheric pressure of Equis is exactly 1,542 times that of Earth at sea-level. It explains why Pegasi can fly, even with their relatively tiny wings. It also made re-entry very violent, given that drag was immense, even in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Having finished configurating the noise-cancelation, the Dagger's cabin was nearly silent, safe for the occasional click and whir. Fluttershy tried again: "Lex asked what out gravity is?"

"Gravity? I'm not sure... I'm more experienced with magic than with science..."

"I suppose I could check if the planetary data has been uploaded yet. Give me a second..." Lex lifted her left arm, bringing the VisionAR up to her face. With her right hand, she shifted between several menus and selections, eventually selecting 'Equis' from a long list of planets. Her AR-display was invisible to Twilight and Fluttershy, but Lex could see everything through her contact lenses, including the planetary data which had been collected over the last month.

"Says here that it's 7,73m/s². I knew walking felt lighter! 7,73, so that's... 0,8g? Something like that. A bit lower than on Earth, but more than on Mars." Lex said, mostly to herself.

"You'll explain all that later, right?" Twilight asked, interested in whatever it was that Lex was saying.

"Wh... Uh, yeah, sure! Okay, Everyone ready?"

Twilight gave a nod. "Yeah, I think so!"

"I.. I suppose I'm ready too..." Fluttershy said, still uncertain about this whole endeavour. She knew that, once that ramp was sealed shut, there would be no way back.

And with a hiss, the ramp of the Dagger was sealed. With every passenger seated, and all systems checked and checked again, it made its way onto the taxiway. At this point, Fluttershy spoke up to ask the one question that had been bothering her for days. "Is... this going to be scary, or painfull?"

Lex looked at her. She saw the fear in her eyes. She recognised someone in those big, round, cyan eyes. The way she was scared on her first flight. That one day where she first left Earth. Where she first experienced life beyond the ground she had known. She had been scared. But once she was up there, in the deep blue of space, looking down upon the entirety of her previous world, she instantly knew one thing.

She was going to show others what it was like. No matter what she had to do.

Author's Note:

I hope you are all as excited as I am about exploring the United Earth Empire! Along the way, we'll be exploring Sol, or atleast the most important planets.

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