The First Equestrian Starliner

by computerneek

Chapter 15

She tip-hooves past her parents’ room. She’d lied about them being out drunk- and about Beta Four. She’s not sure what it is- just that her parents had never mentioned it, and she hadn’t seen anything about it when they’d made her read the ship’s instruction manual. She’s fairly sure it does more than allow Orbital Control to use her as a comms relay; that’s Charlie One.

In any case, she slips carefully into the escape pod. They’re supposed to be out cold right now; she did drug their dinner today, and she’s not sure if she used the right amount. She locks the door carefully, watching the clock. Orbital Command had been very specific about when she should launch- and if her sensors were telling the truth, for very good reason. This ‘Starship Athena’ she’s meeting is on a perpendicular orbit. She… She hopes their ‘sudden acceleration’ isn’t impact acceleration.

She watches the clock. Sero seven thirty six and zero… One… Two.

She arms the escape pod at three. It’ll take exactly fifteen seconds to arm- and up until the moment she launches it, her parents will still be able to abort the launch, should they wake up and make their way to the control panel.

The pod is also more than a little noisy in its arming sequence.

She listens to the various clunks, banks, and clanks as it arms- then the hatch finally opens. She glances at the clock- it took about thirteen seconds to arm, not the fifteen it normally does. Whatever.

As it hits eighteen seconds, she hits the launch key, blasting herself free of the ship. She watches out the front window as she accelerates. Hopefully, her parents won’t shoot at her. Her ship isn’t a regular warship- but it is armed nonetheless. Not enough to even begin to threaten a warship, but enough to shred unarmored escape pods by the dozen.

Her pod’s little engine runs dry. She doesn’t move, instead looking sideways… Ahh, that must be the Athena. It’s… Her sensors never gave her an idea of exactly how huge it is. Sure, they offered general numbers, but…

She’s lived in cities that were smaller.

Though… She squints at it. She’ll be passing way behind it… and, unless she misses her guess, be nowhere near it the next time her orbit crosses its.

Then everything changes. She spots a sudden sparkle on the red-hot ship- and, at the same time, her pod lurches, throwing her against the wall. She was still braced, as instructed, so she wasn’t hurt- but the sideways acceleration had been unexpected. She looks out both the side windows but, as near as she can tell, there is nothing touching her pod.

---

Some time has passed. She doesn’t know how much; the electronics were not designed for sudden, lateral accelerations, so the power cell came loose. She’s reseated it, but the clock has stopped running. As near as she can tell, she’s still at orbital velocity, at least- so she won’t be plummeting to her death on the planet’s surface. Her pod is not designed for that- a cost-cutting measure her parents had imposed on the fleet.

She has made a curved trajectory, thanks to that unending sideways force, even as her pod rotated slowly in space. She’s now approximately joined the Starship Athena in orbit, overtaking slowly- with her sideways velocity dying out rapidly.

Then the force changes very suddenly, accelerating her pod forwards instead of sideways… then, after a few seconds, it stops altogether.

She watches as her pod overtakes the ginormous ship. She’s experiencing microgravity- but she’s keeping herself braced, in case that strange acceleration comes back.

It does, eventually. Only after a little tiny white rectangle on the side of the Athena appeared, while she’s up alongside. It’s not as strong- and it’s mostly pusing her towards that rectangle.

Somewhere along the way, it flips to go the other way.

Oh. As it turns out, that rectangle was a door. A very large bay door, big enough to fit her entire ship inside. The strange force goes down to almost nothing as she drifts in the door. There’s something spinning in the back, on the wall.

She crashes to the floor as her pod crosses the threshhold, then rises to her hooves, staring out the window. This thing has gravity in it? But- but that’s impossible! The door eventually closes behind her pod and, rubbing her forehead next to her horn in an attempt to ward off the building headache, she waits for the external pressure readings to reach safely breathable ranges before opening the door. The big yellow and green lights in the corners did help with that.

The headache steps up a notch. “Woah,” she mutters. “What is going on?”

Nopony answers.

She lets out a sigh, stepping into her open hatchway, and looking to the sides. “In any case, if they’re sending a shuttle up, I’m going to want to get out of the bay before it arrives.” She hops down to the bigger ship’s decking.

She thinks she heard somepony talking during that short drop, but if they were, they were instantly blotted out by the headache. It practically explodes through her head, blasting throughout her form… then it’s gone. She stumbles on the decking, catches herself, and looks around. “What the hay just happened…? Anyways, door. Don’t want to be explosively decompressed.” She turns and gallops to the door out of the bay, which slides open before she reaches it. She’s met by a wave of heat- but it’s nothing unmanageable. She stops in the passage, looking both ways. “Um, hello? Anypony there?”

No response.

She looks back at the bay. “Do I wait here, or… Wait a minute.” She looks down at her back.

“Affirmative.”

She lets out a yelp, positively jumping into the air as she searches for the speaker. She lands back down just as quickly as she went up. “Wha- Who’s there? Where are you?”

No response.

She forces herself to calm down. “Who spoke?”

Nothing.

Sigh, before she turns back to her back. “Musta been imagining things. How…?” She lifts one hoof to touch the anomaly.

It’s… a wing. A feathered wing, just like a pegasus.

But she’s a unicorn. She checks the other side. Yep, there’s one there too.

She touches it. She can feel it. She pulls it out, feels the muscles. She repeats on the other side- and tries flapping them. The pegasi she’s known could produce a decent breeze that way- like their own, personal fan.

She lands on her back, on the hot decking. Speaking of which, it is getting hot in here again. Again, nothing unmanageable. She scrambles upright again, reaching up to touch her horn- yep, still there. Just as she knew it would be, too; she can still feel it on her forehead.

The door to the bay closes. She glances up at it, then looks out the windows in the passage, back into the bay. The green lights have turned yellow again… Oh, it must be depressurizing. The shuttle must be coming. She looks back at her wings, and flutters them carefully. Then a little stronger. And a little stronger.

Then she falls on her side.

Which hurts. Her wing was fully extended- so it just pointed ‘up’ to her. Not something she can’t do herself, but it hurt to push it there like that. She scrambles back upright, stretches out the muscles, and tries again. Somewhere in between those last two efforts.

By the time the shuttle is performing an engine-less landing in the bay, she’s floating an inch or so above the ground, legs spread wide, and wobbling constantly while she tries to stabilize herself. By the time the bay is fully pressurized again, she’s started hovering pretty reliably- but drops back to the decking. Pegasi can’t fly, and she’s pretty sure her wings aren’t any bigger than theirs, so whatever caused this new ability, she’s pretty sure showing it off would be a bad idea. She trots out the once again open door to the shuttle… The empty shuttle, as near as she can tell, though the cockpit door is sealed tight. She takes a seat in the front of the passenger bay and buckles herself in. “Okay, ready.”

The door closes.

This journey is fairly typical, she decides, as the shuttle descends smoothly into the atmosphere and travels to wherever it’s headed.

But she’s free. She’s escaped her parents- and if she can hide effectively, she can stay escaped.

Oh. Also if those defensive nodes are anywhere near as effective as she hopes they are. That’s one of the main reasons she’d “accidentally” called on Traffic Control to assist in the coordination of an attack on the same.

She’d been disappointed, at first, by their apparent cooperation. Especially after they got that other controller on the line; she was so cooperative she could swear she was actually going to help guide the attack!

Then she had asked for Beta Four. Her computer had given her a warning on the prompt, but she hadn’t understood the code- and all it said otherwise was “Beta Four Authorization”.

Hopefully, this other controller is a really good actor- and cooperating with the local defence force. Which, if the intel was correct, is mostly automated, anyways.

The shuttle lands. She hops right out of her seat- then pauses, looking back at the seat, watching the seatbelt retract on its springs. She’s pretty sure those things don’t normally unlatch themselves- and that she hadn’t reached down to release it. She does tend to miss that step.

But whatever. She trots out to the opening door, waits for the stairs to unfold, and walks slowly down them, looking around the landing apron. This isn’t her home docks, so nopony will offer her any extra reverence- and she has to be careful.

It would seem somepony is watching out for her anyways. An earth pony approaches, pausing short of the staircase. “Short Flight?” he asks.

She blinks. “Uh, yes, that’s me.”

“Right then. Follow me.”

She nods, and follows.

Up until he sends her through a door without him, that is. She steps through it.

Oh, hey. She’s not the only pony on the planet with both wings and horn! … This one’s purple, though, and its- her, she thinks- horn looks to be damaged.

She wonders mildly if this purple one can fly as well.

The pegasus in the room notices her first. “Well hello. Who would you be?”

She blinks, tearing her eyes away from their surveyance of the room. “Um, Short Flight, Ma’am.”

The purple one trots over. “I thought you said you were a unicorn…”

She hangs her head. “I was…” She glances back at her wings. “They just appeared when I got out of the escape pod.” She blinks. “What do you call a pony with both…?”

“Alicorn. Um, you don’t happen to be a princess, do you?”

She drops her jaw. “How… How’d you guess?”

Sigh. “Ascension does tend to happen to princesses more often than not.”

Blink. “Then…”

Sigh. “Yes, I am. Princess Twilight Sparkle, of Equestria. If we ever get back there.”

Blink. “Wait. Did you just say Equestria?”

Twilight blinks. “Uh, yes?”

“Like, the Equestria, where ponies can… Can do stuff, without these bothersome hands?”

“You’ve heard of it?”

She averts her gaze. “Not… Not really. The… fleet. They’re from a micronation formed almost two hundred years ago, where every pony- citizen and official alike- is dedicated to finding the magical land of Equestria.” She sighs. “The way I hear it, a scout on the surface here heard a rumor about a pegasus that could fly… So they’re attacking. I think the plan was to drop a bunch of troops down here to find out if the rumor was true and, if so, find out how they gained that ability.” She blinks, and almost glances back at her own wings. “Um… Does it- the rumor, that is- have anything to do with that giant ship?”

A soft female voice breaks in from nowhere- sounds like that second controller did, but this is the control room and it’s coming from the speakers. “Fleet vessels acquired, secure connections. Downloading databanks.”

“Awesome!” The unicorn states. “Can we keep them from shooting?”

Whoever it is speaks up again. “All hostile action has been neutralized. The Fleet has not been made aware at this time.”

“Nice,” Twilight states, at the ceiling, before looking down. “Sorry, um… Right. Um…” She glances at the other two ponies in the room. “It might,” she relents.

She blinks, then excitedly jumps into the air, flapping her wings to stay aloft. “Really? I’m not the only one?”

Twilight blinks. “Not the only one… what? To be a bit clumsy… Oh.” She looks at the other two ponies in the room, both of which are staring. “Right. On this world, pegasi can’t fly.” She looks back at her. “Um, no, you’re not the only one. I can fly, Fluttershy can fly, and back when Rainbow had both her wings, she could actually fly faster than sound itself.” Grin. “Now that was a rare case of noise being beneficial to research.”

She drops back to the ground, blinking. “Oops…”

Twilight shrugs. “No, we’re fine.” She looks to the other two ponies. “We’re not going to go crazy in here or go telling everypony on the street, right?”

The pegasus and the unicorn both blink in sequence, before shaking their heads.

“No, most certainly not,” the pegasus states. “Though I do wonder, if she got wings and the ability to fly by stepping aboard your ship…”

Twilight blinks. “True…” She looks at the ceiling. “Um, Athena?”

“Simulations suggest local ponies will adapt to shipboard thaumic levels immediately upon physical contact, or gradually on atmospheric contact; simulations suggest such adaptation will consist of the addition of standard Equestrian thaumic capabilities.”

The pegasus blinks. “Uh… Meaning?”

“Meaning,” Twilight states slowly, “she thinks you would gain the normal pegasus magics.”

An eyebrow raised.

Nod. Twilight jumps into the air. “There’s the obvious one, flight- but there’s also the hoofgrip…” She removes one of her hands, holding it with the flat of her other hoof.

Short Flight looks quickly down at her own hooves, and back up again.

Twilight puts the hand back on, dropping back to the ground. She made flying look way easy. “There’s also the weather magics.” A smile. “Back in Equestria, pegasi control the weather.”

The unicorn nods. “What about unicorns?”

Twilight almost sighs. “That would be the unicorn magics… the ones I lost when I broke my horn. Everypony has the hoofgrip, unless they’ve lost a limb or something- but unicorn magic is… Well, I’ve used time travel spells before, so… Oh- Short Flight, have you tried using magic yet?”

“Huh? I can’t- erm, except the fly thing I guess…”

Twilight scowls. “I’ll take that as a no. Um, here, then.” She removes her hand, and drops it on the floor. “See the hand?”

Nod.

“Right then. Close your eyes- then see it again, in your mind’s eye.”

She blinks. “Uh, okay.” She closes her eyes, and pictures it in her mind’s eye, right where it was. “Okay?”

“Alright. Now, picture a hoof- or a hand, if that works for you- reaching out to grab it.”

She does. She’s not entirely certain how this would help. “Okay?”

“Uh… Picture it harder? Make it grab it- and picture it as firmly as you can. Push it into the world.”

She tries that. Something starts tingling on her forehead. She opens her mouth to speak.

“Good! Now lift it.”

She tilts her head, and pictures it moving up a few feet.

“Excellent! Now open your eyes.”

She opens her eyes.

The pegasus and the unicorn are staring at her, jaws hanging. Twilight is beaming at her.

The hand is not on the floor.

The hand is three feet up, floating in a shroud of golden energy.

Her jaw drops. The hand follows suit, the shroud simply disappearing.

Comments

[Xanderfox]

Another Alicorn... Maybe with enough Twi can fix her own horn, and Tempest's when they get home.

[LostArchivist]

I'm now envisioning some sort of plan to cycle the planet through the ship, or otherwise copy whatever magic field it picked up. Probably with the governmental spies going first, of course. :P

Also now curious why it causes ascension to everyone silly enough to board it, when it didn't to the Mane Six.

For that matter, what was it that they did that caused it to pick up that magic field anyway?

[computerneek]

9397998
Note that the ascended have something in common. What is it? (Hint: Twilight mentions it upon meeting Short Flight)

What caused it to pick up that magic field? Proximity to Equestria. It jumped into a region of really high thaumic density without first dispersing it by shield projection or something, resulting in instant, full penetration. Same as in the Equestrian Starliner, in which it then took the absorbed energy back home.