New Equestria: The Harmony Age

by Roguewire

Chapter 1

The buzzing of the alarm was grating against the ears. The metal confines of the cabin caused the alarm to echo, making it all the less comfortable.

06:45. A hoof reached out and landed on the alarm, silencing its blaring spleen before it curled back under the covers. Just five more minutes.

07:30. The alarm rang out again. Again a hoof reached out and landed on the timekeeper, silencing it once again. She just wanted five more minutes.

A ringing noise sounded deep within her ear. This was not the grating discomfort of the alarm but the more comfortable yet equally authoritative ping of the implants in her head stimulating her audio nerves. She was receiving a phone call--she would not be able to escape to the lovely embrace of sleep any longer.

Her hoof went to her ear this time, a gesture which was vestigial--these sorts of implants were activated in ways that the user desired. Her preference was to reach for the call in her ears.

A soft double-beep echoed in her ear as she answered the call. She mumbled something, but whatever she said was clearly heard by the recipient due to the subdermal microphone implanted in her throat.

"Rise an' shine, buttercup!" spoke the voice on the other end. "Ah've been waitin' for ya to get up so we can make a move-on with these precious metals. Can't get through Aunenen on mah lonesome now, can I?"

A pair of magenta eyes opened, thankful that there were no windows in her sleeping quarters and the lights set to lowest ambience.

"Applejack," she groaned softly, "it's..." she looked at the alarm clock.

09:17. Rainbow Dash groaned.

"...time to get up."

•••

A quick shower later and Rainbow Dash was ready to move about the station. She did not have the greatest concern for her appearance, as her mane and tail were always unkempt. Why would she want to spend so much time on personal appearance when her line of work ruined any style jobs she attempted?

She zipped up her bomber jacket and placed her headphones on her ears. While the neurotransmitter model of music players, capable of transmitting music and other audio channels directly into one's brain, were all the rage, she preferred the tried-and-tested method of piping it directly into one's ears.

She set her music player to play the fast-paced, high-octane speed metal that she preferred over the more popular electronic new-wave. As she stepped to the door of her stateroom it automatically opened, triggered by motion sensors built into the door.

The lights of the hallway were bright, but in the time it took to get this far her eyes had adjusted to bright enough lights. The hallway was very long, and many such doors similar to the one Rainbow Dash walked through were on either side. The station was a factory, so available lodgings were spartan, and she was not averse to this. Many others milled about the long corridor; Earth ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns and even the occasional Griffon were walking about, some chatting with each other as they went about their business.

She hopped up and took flight with her wings. She decided that instead of walking down this very long corridor, she would make use of her wings and fly.

She flew at a high speed down the corridor, attracting the looks and glares of many of the others walking by. Some of them were alarmed, and others disdainful. She looked back at them tauntingly until she almost flew right into a security guard. She was thankful that she kept her wings in shape as she stopped on the spot, hovering in midair.

The security guard was a huge armored griffon. He wore body armor standard for Lai Dai security guards, and had a bulky-looking sidearm strapped within quick reach. His beak was in the form of an unhappy scowl. He said something but the sound was lost in a screaming heavy metal riff flowing into her ears. She removed her headphones and hung them around her neck.

"I said get down," he said with a deep, commanding voice, "flying is not allowed outside authorized areas."

"What are you talking about? There's nothing here that says I can't fly!" Rainbow Dash protested.

The guard's scowl only grew, and a half-gloved talon pointed to the wall. Bolted to the wall was a sign which clearly read "No Flight Permitted In This Area."

"This is for your safety and the safety of others. No flying is allowed in this area, or any other areas in which it is not explicitly allowed. I'm sure your kind should be able to find those areas out, but I'm not holding my breath," growled the guard.

Rainbow Dash dropped back down to the metal floor, but gave the guard an annoyed look as he turned his back and walked further down the corridor on his patrol.

He doesn't have to be such a crab, she thought as she replaced her headphones upon her ears and trotted down the stateroom corridor. Just another five hundred doors to go.

•••

Applejack was a patient pony, but even she was wondering what was taking so long. Rainbow Dash was never late—often—when it came to corporate business, but this was a bit much.

She stood by the massive window of the space station. This was one of many lounge areas, intended to serve the workers of the factory station when they were on break. She was here on working hours, so few people were actually here, but an hour earlier the lounge was teeming with workers and other figures.

The lounge itself was just as spartan as the station, but it was large enough to accompany a huge number of people at once. The window that Applejack looked through was one of many reinforced panels which gave a good view of the first world of the Nonni system.

Nonni I was classified as a temperate world, capable of supporting life with the assistance of terraforming facilities. In typical Caldari fashion, the surface life was predominately the manufacture of high-end goods en masse. Applejack had been down there once before; the Caldari griffons were a tough, industrious people, but life was hard. The corporate part of Caldari life was ever present, and it was often the corporations who were responsible for them; sometimes the support for their “employees” was disgustingly apathetic.

Applejack was glad that she had grown up in the Gallente Federation and not here. In the Federation, where free enterprise was sacred, her family's business was booming. She had grown up only worrying about whether or not their apples were of good quality when they were harvested, not whether or not a corporation decided that her family’s basic needs were outside their profit margins.

"Oh, Applejack," a familiar, cultured voice spoke next to her, "I've heard of being fashionably late, but really, where is Rainbow Dash?"

Rarity was a pony who always had with her the latest fashion of stylish clothing, and sometimes Applejack wondered if she carried a whole wardrobe with her on her travels. Today the well-cultured unicorn wore a slate-colored over shirt with a spartanly-short dress, cut high enough to expose her hind legs beneath the hocks. Her violet hair was worn over one of her eyes, concealing it from view. She dressed like a corporate executive, and might not have fitted in well in a lounge meant for the lowly workers. Rarity would have agreed: her style of lounge was many levels above, where corporate executives were given access to all shapes and manners of luxuries and pleasures, both innocent and vice.

"Not sure, Rarity," Applajack replied. "It's not usual for her to not show up. Could somethin’ ‘ave happened to her?"

"Well, when we walk about these space stations there are always risks, darling. I'm sure that Rainbow Dash is just as prepared as you and I, Applejack," she said as she slightly tossed her hair back.

Applejack caught a glimpse of her eye patch as she tossed her hair. A month ago, an assassin had ambushed them as they left a meeting between their corporation and another. Several members of the other corporation were killed, and the assassin had taken her right eye. Then Pinkie Pie's Buzzard exploded after it exited the station. Pinkie Pie was in it. Needless to say the day ended poorly.

"Oh, there she is now," Rarity spoke as she saw Rainbow Dash galloping towards them.

"Sorry I'm late, had to take the slow way. Can you believe the station guards won't allow flying in here?"

•••

The last of the precious metals were finished being loaded into the Iteron Mark V-class industrial ship that Applejack used to transport goods between their home systems and the rest of the empires. While it could not hold a candle to the larger space freighters in terms of quantities of goods carried, it was certainly faster, intended for the trip they were about to make.

Applejack graciously tipped the loading staff several hundred interstellar credits each. While that was barely notable as pocket change to Applejack, she gave them each the equivalent of tens of thousands of bits. The one who recognized the magnitude of her generosity beamed with delight; the others would be in for a huge surprise when they received their next paychecks. For some, such sums of credits were the only thing capable of distancing Caldari employees and their employers, who had no other means to leave. This gesture was something that Applejack always did, as she knew the hardships suffered by the common worker. Rarity did not usually make this gesture, although she was usually too caught up in the glitter and glamour that came with status.

Rarity had come to the station in not much else but a Gallente shuttle. She was picking up items which were small but expensive: implants, packages of blueprint copies, and several datacores. These items were small enough that they could be loaded onto the shuttle by Rarity herself, and with items this valuable she did not entirely trust the loading staff, even the high-class staff.

Rainbow Dash was in her quarters, but not the one she had woken up in. She was in the living quarters owned by those of a select breed of pilots, renowned for not only their fame and fortune, but their immortality.

At one end of the quarters was a door that led right out to a gangway. This gangway led to a balcony which opened up to a great chamber connected directly to the station's spaceport. An energy field, sustained by advanced technology as Twilight explained it, kept the breathable oxygen inside the living quarters and separated it from the rest of the station. The grandest object of interest rested at the end of the balcony.

A capsule sat open and waiting, like a hungry beast awaiting its next meal. A sickly-colored, gooey fluid half-filled the open pod. Wires and cables ran through the back portion of the capsule's interior, some glowing softly with an eerie light.

Even thought she had done this many times, Rainbow Dash always had a sense of trepidation when she looked at that pod. If all failed, it would be her lifeboat back to her home system, and possibly her spiritual chariot as well.

She ran a hoof through her multicolor mane and felt the socket at the back of her head. The cold metal of the socket reminded her every day of the power she had, and how it was never to be misused.

She sighed, attempting to calm the butterflies in her stomach. She had no idea how Fluttershy found this to be so easy. How such a timid, easily frightened pony could step into a diminutive, claustrophobic capsule as the only barrier from the cold of space, and not feel the slightest twinge of nervousness, would forever be a mystery to her.

Taking cautious steps forward, she stood at the edge of the capsule. She would have never stepped forward into that capsule if she did not force her hoof to lift up and step into the amniotic goop while reminding herself that no matter how gross it was, being in the pod was far more manageable than getting in the pod.

Her hoof sank into the capsule's fluid as she took another step. It was cold and thick, it clung to her coat and made her skin crawl. It had a funny smell and she sure as hay did not want to taste it.

She now had all four of her legs in the capsule, now there was only one thing left to do. Forcing herself to do it quickly, she sat down and laid herself into the fluid. It surrounded her, encapsulating her in a slimy sensation that made her want to vomit. She held her breath and leaned her head back, allowing the pod's automatic systems to take over.

A cord snaked its way out of the back of the capsule. It slithered its way to the back of her head where it found the metallic socket which connected capsuleers to their ships. It slowly made its way into the socket, and with a loud and keening whir screwed itself in tightly.

Rainbow Dash gasped sharply as the capsule connected to her, her eyes opening wide with the sensation of capsule-capsuleer interface. Her whole body tensed up, and she used every ounce of self-control to keep her wings from flying open.

The sensation was a rush that she would list among the top five. It was the surge of information and the feeling of leaving one's body which was just as quickly replaced by a serene calm and a feeling of weightlessness. The feeling always reminded her that getting into the pod was always the hard part; the rest was second nature.

Her prior anxiety replaced with a serene calm, she closed her eyes and willed the capsule closed. In immediate response to her thought, the capsule's doors closed shut. When they did, the rest of the pod flooded with ectoplasmic fluid, entombing her in its hydrostatic embrace. She never actually felt herself be submerged in ectoplasm.

She opened an eye that was not her own. A small camera drone mounted to her capsule came to life, transmitting what it saw to Rainbow Dash's vision. Through this one, and the many camera drones mounted in the inside and outside of a ship, a capsuleer could see all around him and within his vessel, transmitted directly to his brain. Her capsule only had a few camera drones, but that was sufficient.

She willed the capsule to be released from its gantry. At her mental command, the capsule was released by the gantry's locks and her capsule began a lazy drift into the station. She activated the small auxiliary thrusters of the capsule, pushing it closer to the mammoth hangar of the space station.

A tug drone latched onto her capsule and carried it into the hangar. Looking around, she saw more than a dozen other such capsules being carried in the grasp of a tug drone. Each one carried a capsuleer such as herself.

She passed many ships of all sizes on her way. Frigates, cruisers, battle cruisers, industrial ships, and more were kept secure in the grasp of the station's docking bay. One such ship she was aiming to board was a frigate, a fast and powerful one as well.

The Blue Thunderbolt was Rainbow Dash's frigate. It was a Rifter-class frigate, painted sky-blue. A rainbow pattern was painted onto the starboard wing of the frigate. Other than the paint job, her Rifter was built closely along the original Minmatar design—very fast and hard-hitting. A trio of multi-barreled autocannon turrets rested inert on the hardpoints of the frigate, each one capable of delivering a withering hail of solid projectiles. The Blue Thunderbolt was one of the fastest frigates that Rainbow Dash had flown. Despite the fittings and design not being entirely unique, this Rifter was hers.

The drone pulled her capsule into a position directly above the Blue Thunderbolt. As it released her pod, a hatch at the top of the Rifter opened, an invitation for her to enter and take command. She willed the capsule down, slowly entering the confines of the Rifter. As soon as she was fully within, the hatch doors closed, sealing her within.

A vast legion of starships in New Equestria were manned by living crews from all races, species and walks of life. Many of these ships also had pilots and captains who were not capsuleers, and relied on their crews for all ship-related matters. A capsuleer was not bound by such restraints as mortal crews, however. Their starships were directed by the power of thought alone, responding to their every mental command. Rainbow Dash did not have a single soul aboard her Rifter other than herself, and she liked it that way—with her in command, the Blue Thunderbolt could perform maneuvers that could kill mortal crews, while she barely felt a thing thanks to her capsule.

She felt the capsule connect with the Rifter, and through it felt the Rifter connect to her. Her legs became its wings, her bones became the tritanium girders which made the Rifter's skeleton, her wings became its thrusters, her heart became its power core with its throbbing warmth. Through the connection that the capsule gave her, Rainbow Dash became the Blue Thunderbolt.

She viewed her ship through its camera drones. Inside and outside she inspected her ship, and found everything to be in order. The paint job looked fine, the interior was clean, and nobody had snuck aboard and was planting bombs all over her ship. Everything was good; now all she needed to do was leave the station.

"Station control," Rainbow Dash spoke through her ship's radio, "this is Rainbow Dash requesting permission to undock from station."

Requesting permission to dock and undock was not a hashed-up Caldari regulation, but a procedure which maintained the safety of everyone entering and leaving the station. If everyone tried to come and go at once, there would be disastrous accidents. The only issue that Rainbow Dash had with Caldari stations was that the traffic controllers served everyone, including non-capsuleers, of which there were many. She was once made to wait almost an hour at the Jita system just to get into a station, and another to get out.

"Station control to Rainbow Dash, permission to undock granted" a voice said at the other end in a surprisingly short time, "tugging your ship to the exit now."

A number of tug drones latched onto her Rifter, and the Blue Thunderbolt was released from its docking clamps. The drones' powerful engines pulled her frigate out of its bay, slowly moving the one thousand metric ton frigate to the station's entrance. Many other ships were doing the same, requiring many more drones than her ship needed to be pulled into the station.

The gaping maw of the Caldari station's docking bay loomed into view. This was her cue to idle her frigate's engines. She felt the powerful thrusters of the Rifter engage, and the feeling was no different than spreading her own wings.

The drones suddenly released her ship and darted back into the confines of the station. "Station control to Rainbow Dash, you are clear to depart, maintain current heading for ten clicks," the voice of the traffic controller spoke.

"Roger that, Rainbow Dash out," she replied.

Immediately in front of Rainbow Dash was nothing but void, painted with uncountable numbers of stars and brushed with the wispy clouds of the nearby nebula. An infinite expanse which felt just beyond her grasp, despite her entombment in the very heart of a Rifter-class frigate. It was a wide-open infinity which was begging to be flown through, and Rainbow Dash would happily oblige.

Data streams from the Blue Thunderbolt crossed over Rainbow Dash's vision, displaying her ship's current speed: a measly one hundred meters per second. This speed was too slow for her--she needed more, and willed her frigate to more. Soon she was moving at over five hundred, but this was still not fast enough. She knew how to get more.

Installed onto her Rifter was a microwarpdrive module. This module would envelop her ship in a small warp bubble just strong enough to move her ship at blistering speeds through real space. The speeds that could be attained with a microwarpdrive were legendary, and the things that could be done were perfect for an uncrewed, pod pilot-controlled frigate.

Rainbow Dash willed the microwarpdrive to life, and the effects were instant. In seconds her ship was thrusting forward at four thousand meters per second. This was the speed that Rainbow Dash hungered for, and she loved every ounce of it.

Playfully she rolled her Rifter, her physical wings opening from the excitement in her pod as she performed all manners of astronautic maneuvers the likes of which the captain of a manned ship would never dream of performing. Rolls, flips, inside and outside loops, drifting in all directions; this was the sort of thing that made Rainbow Dash feel alive.

"Oh Rainbow Dash? Would you be a dear and not fly off through Aunenen without us?" spoke Rarity over the NEOCOM. Her portrait appeared in the corner of Rainbow Dash's field of view along with Applejack's, signifying their being part of a formation and indicating their part in the conversation. Normally video was displayed as well, but that was not possible due to their being incased in capsules, just like Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash rotated her camera drones and zoomed in on the station, spotting Rarity's shuttle and the Iteron Mark V of Applejack. Both were already past the ten-kilometer safety zone and aligning to the Aunenen stargate.

She aligned her Rifter to the Aunenen stargate, and with a few megawatts of power diverted to her warp core she willed her starship to warp. In milliseconds, her ship had accelerated from kilometers per second to astral units per second. Every second, she was crossing the distance from old Equestria to its sun three times. In no time at all she had warped halfway across the Nonni system. She barely felt the transition, as her hydrostatic capsule kept her safe from the effects of cynosis, a neurological disruption caused by the effects of warp transit. Prolonged periods of cynosis could cause all manners of nasty things to an unprotected pony, but Rainbow Dash could make hundreds of warps and jumps in an hour with no effects.

The bubble of her warp field collapsed, and she was sitting in place beside the Aunenen stargate. The massive structure resembled a blue-grey cylinder with hundreds of lights twinkling from it. Contained within the cylinder was an artificial wormhole through which ships passed from star system to star system. This particular stargate had seen many ships enter, but few ships came from the other side. On occasion, the ships which entered never returned.

Rarity's shuttle exited warp, drifting to a stop beside the Blue Thunderbolt. Applejack's Iteron did the same a moment after.

"Well, let's get ahold of the others," Applejack mused. Rainbow Dash opened a communication channel to the other ships in their fleet.

"Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, we are on the gate, how copy?" she spoke.

"Your bright, big blue eyes of the cosmos here!" announced the cheery voice of Pinkie Pie, "the Aunenen system is clear, there's not a single thing in here! No ponies, no griffons, no zebras, nothing! Except maybe a few rogue drones, actually there's a lot of rogue drones in here, and there's a lot of asteroids, maybe a few gas clouds, there's not as much stuff going on in here has in Kinakka! You're lucky you're not going through-"

"Pinkie Pie, please. Now is not the time," spoke Rarity, the exasperation clear in her voice. It would be terrible if they lost their window of opportunity because Pinkie Pie got carried away.

"Okie dokie lokie!" she replied.

"Anythin' on the Nonni gate, Fluttershy?" Applejack asked.

Light years away, Fluttershy was hovering a few thousand kilometers off of the Nonni stargate in the Aunenen system. The stargates facilitated faster-than-light communication, allowing for instantaneous text, audio or visual conversations from anywhere in the galaxy.

"Negative, Rainbow Dash," spoke the quiet voice of Fluttershy, "nopony here."

"Alright then! Everypony, let's jump through!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

She turned her Rifter to face the open maw of the stargate. Dull white energy coalesced within its cylindrical expanse, capable of allowing through all but capital ships. She willed the Blue Thunderbolt forward, towards the waiting opening of the stargate. As she entered the gate, she felt the feeling of being pulled inward as she entered the stargate's artificial wormhole. With a bright flash of light, Rainbow Dash was gone.

Author's Note:

I had to look back at this and found a number of errors which I should have seen. I'll be touching up this chapter and the others.

What do you think for a first chapter? I hope you enjoyed what you read, there is plenty more to come!

Comments

[Concordokken]

The buzzing of the alarm was grating against the ears.

inb4 EVE has sound