Shadowbolt Chronicles: Codename Prism

by RDDash

5: Spaceships Are Time Machines

Rainbow Dash fought on the autopilot. Shoot, dodge, deflect, shoot, shoot, shoot, reload, toss the grenade. She fought and fought until she couldn't fight anymore. Rainbow knew that even with the cloaking device engaged that old pony was still following her around. He didn't break her stealth, and she was grateful for that. Whichever reason he is even here Rainbow doubted that this stallion wanted to do a tea party with Daleks.

Yes, she was rude to him, that was true. At the same time she was extremely neutral towards him, and well, if he was willing to help her out then just maybe she could pull it off. Rainbow Dash wasn't stupid, and despite what she said she was right about to reach her limit of her bravado. Those two old stallions and that mysterious pony that had been following him were her back up plan.

Whether she like it or not the best policy was to nuke it from high orbit, however, this was her home planet Equus, and nuking Equus for any reason would result in a huge scandal, which would then will result in her shortest career ever. Simply because when the brass is going to burn bridges, then it would be Rainbow Dash who would get a court-martial, plus her name would be put on the wall of shame. That's just how it works.

Rainbow Dash thought that right now it was a good idea to test the theory, for some reason Daleks completely ignored those two, and focused their undivided attention to her. It was true that Rainbow was making all the noise, but surely those tin cans weren't that blind.

"So did the brave and fearless soldier finally decided to join us?" said Missy

"Are you still on about that?" Rainbow Dash quickly dismissed her. "Lady, I don't know who in Tartarus you think you are, and frankly I don't care! What I care about is why are you two doing here in the middle of nowhere on the alien base. If I was you I would have chosen my next words very carefully Mistress from Gallopfrey! And yes, before you ask, I know who you are an intergalactic criminal in forty-five galaxies, one of the top three most wanted."

Missy was about to reply but Doctor stopped her.

"I and my companion over here are simple travelers. While it's true that she is very dangerous criminal, it just so happens that I am her warden. It just so happens that by a small chance of probability that we, how should I put it landed here."

"Aha? Well then, you excuse me, but I don't actually believe you."

"Which part, me being her warden, or is that we just happen to be here by accident?"

"The second part, you see what I've managed to figure out them, those aliens have a pathway, and they just so happens to all share their collective hatred towards one particular individual, they call Doctor. But here is the problem? Individual called Doctor standing right in front of me."

"Me a Doctor, how exactly did you come to this conclusion?"

Rainbow Dash laughed, "Sorry! Sorry! It's just you said something funny, you see, this Doctor prefers to travel in a spaceship called TARDIS, can always be recognized by a what others might call public police call box."

"A time machine."

"Excuse me?" Rainbow asked.

"A time machine, my dear! Calling it a spaceship just way too primitive."

Rainbow Dash sighed "Ignorance, that what it is, plain ignorance! FTL travel basics one oh one. In order for an FTL capable space ship to perform a procedure called Jump it first needs to activate the time warp circuit. After that, the ship just passes right between two points in space time." Rainbow took a piece of paper, folded and punched right through it with the combat knife. "Like this!"

Doctor Whooves wasn't phased at the attempted insult at his TARDIS. "Surely this type of travel is a one-way street?"

"The ignorant could say that, but you see." Rainbow casually spun around. "The space ship vast computational power can find every single point in time of the targeted planet, and then..."

"And then, what?" Doctor asked.

"I'd rather not say, it's classified."

"Huh, typical excuses!"

Rainbow ignored the jab, "Buh! But I am serious about the classified part. Before I forget I repaired the chameleon circuit in your time machine." Rainbow glanced at Doctor to observe his reaction.

"You did what!?"

"I repaired your's TARDIS chameleon circuit. Your welcome by the way."

Doctor groaned, "For what exactly."

"For eliminating such an obvious weakness of course."

"But it's not a weakness, it's a charm for good luck!"

"Yeah good luck for others, you just painting yourself as an easily recognizable target. Say, Doctor whatever you use for stealth it's seems to be working."

"It's called perception filter, and I don't think it's that powerful."

"You don't think it's that powerful," said Missy "Are you serious, perception filter is the most powerful stealth technology ever made. I am surprised that you never used that before."

"Well, whatever! Let's just go blow them up," Rainbow Dash said occasionally swinging an umbrella shooting at nearby Daleks. "Somehow I think this whole situation is very ridiculous."

"You think?" replied Doctor.

"Yeah, what gives it away, invasion of robots from outer space?"

"They are cyborgs! I thought..."

"You thought what?

"It's nothing but if we get invaded by a different kind of cyborgs I will be pissed."

"They are? Anyway, the point is that they managed to get here, and nobody did notice it. What's next, the invasion of stone statues? And the catch is that you can't blink. Actually, I'll take it back this is kind of scary."

"I thought you just going to drop a nuke from orbit?" asked Missy.

"Haha, this is so funny, you are a great comedian. I can't do that, you sadistic piece of garbage. Even though it would've been the easiest thing to do," Rainbow sighed.

---

Meanwhile...

---

"Any interesting stories?" asked Sweetie Belle asked.

"Like what?" replied First Officer Flash Sentry.

"Like any stories at the Academy?"

"Well since you are asking, there were several legends had been going around from the early space exploration era."

"Okay, "Sweetie Belle nodded. "Please tell me more!"

"So, like ponies used to build and fire it directly from the planet surface. Now they just do it from the moon. One of those old rockets had been built, and then when they fired it, the rocket started to spin."

"Spinning rockets sounds problematic."

"Yeah! And then it's started to wobble and shake."

''Ouch! So how did it end up?"

"Nopony really knows, ponies decided to abort it. So then they scrapped the whole design. And just attached the new two and a half meter model."

"So, it went well?"

"Apparently to well, the first stage at least. When it separated the rocket went for a circularization burn with the second stage, and then it failed to engage the engine. When somepony finally figure out to press the override button the engine had been re-engaged."

"Okay, what happened next?"

"The rocket overshot target apoapsis by forty kilometers while downing the periapsis thirty kilometers deep into the atmosphere, and well it's quickly going down."

"That's kind of embarrassing! What happened next?"

"They decided to swap the engine for the second stage and fueled a rocket by 90%. After that the next problem came, protective aero-shell have been ripping off the solar panels, so then the technicians had a field day for trying to fix the problem."

Author's Note:

---

With that another chapter is done, the next chapter will finish story ark of the Daleks. To be fair I am that close at trying to write a mature level story, at least I am thinking about it.