• Published 13th Apr 2013
  • 910 Views, 24 Comments

New Equestria: The Harmony Age - Roguewire



Long ago, ponies migrated to a far away galaxy through a wormhole, which trapped them within. Follow the adventures and trials of six intrepid ponies who have risen to a league above all else, and who dodge danger and intrigue with their every step.

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Chapter 5

Rarity wished that the tug drone would move just a tad faster. The drone had latched onto her capsule and was taking a rather languid pace toward her waiting ship. She understood the concept of being fashionably late, but now it was becoming ridiculous. She was certainly not angry at Sweetie Belle for her lost time; she loved her sister more than anything.

Finally, the drone settled her beside the ship that Applejack had promised to fit and assemble for her and their friends. In appearance it was dreadful, but it was necessary for Harmony's continued operation.

The Retriever-class mining barge was a large, rectangular and flat mining ship used by many of the serious asteroid miners of New Equestria. Large mining lasers were fitted into the dorsal and ventral hard points of the ship; known as "strip miners", these lasers were designed to extract as much asteroid ore as possible in one sitting. Given time, strip miners could reduce swathes of asteroids into scattered bits of gravel. For industrialists like Harmony, who made many of their products and goods out of asteroid minerals, these tools were essential.

Rarity maneuvered her capsule to an open hatch on the Retriever's top, and she lowered herself into the massive ship. In a few moments of time, she connected herself to the mining barge. It had the feel of a dusty relic, and she had the feeling of wearing a gown multiple sizes too large. She would handle the feeling, however, and would accompany her friends to their mining outing as promised.

She cycled through the camera drones of the Retriever's interior, inspecting all of its holds and rooms visually and with her sensor systems. Nobody wanted a repeat of the incident involving Pinkie Pie's Buzzard, and that day stung more for Rarity than the others. She did, after all, lose an eye to an assassin.

Satisfied with finding nothing out-of-the-ordinary, she undocked and allowed the tug drones to tow her out of the station. Despite the sheer size of her Retriever, it easily fit through the cavernous confines of the station. She had to admit it; the Caldari built their stations for maximum docking capacity, and still had room to fit a huge industrial complex within as well as lodgings for half a million souls within.

Traffic at the Moon 15 facility was uncommon. The Malariya Constellation was mostly ignored by travelers, with the Aunenen and Kinakka Systems playing no small part in that regard.

"Traffic Control to Rarity," spoke the traffic controller as she was towed out of the station, "station traffic is non-existent. Safe-distance to warp has been rescinded. Fly safely."

The tug drones released her Retriever and darted back into the station. Wasting no time, she aligned her ship to the Elanoda stargate and activated her warp core.

She saw a number of mining barges moving back and forth through the stargate as she arrived. Harmony was not the only corporation in the Malariya constellation which participated in mining activities. These corporations were on cordial terms with each other, and they also followed a common courtesy of not intruding on another corporation's mining activities, particularly where rare asteroid ores were involved.

Passing through the stargate, she found that Elanoda was quite busy that day. Elanoda had asteroid belts which were prime for mining, and there was always someone in those belts mining for their income. Harmony would occasionally mine these belts as well as belts in the other systems of the constellation. However, when pockets of rare asteroid ores appeared, they were not hesitant to enter low-security systems to mine.

She rotated her ship to the Ohbochi stargate and warped. At the end of her short warp she was surprised to find Applejack making her way toward the stargate in her massive Orca-class industrial command ship. The Orca, a capital-sized starship and rightly huge, was a key component of mining fleets, greatly assisting in the arduous task of corporate mining.

"Applejack, you're still here," Rarity spoke with a small hint of surprise. "I thought you would be in Ohbochi with everypony else."

"Well," Applejack began, "ah was gonna get goin' right away, but then ah saw Applebloom, and a' course we were missin' each other while we were away and, well, sorry fer bein' late."

"Applejack, there is absolutely nothing with spending time with your sister, especially after missing you for the time we were away," Rarity answered. "I too spent some time with Sweetie Belle after our meeting. By the way, how is your sister?"

"Ya know how we're beginnin' to suspect that Applebloom's talent might be in puttin' things together? While we were away she took apart a whole minin' laser with her bare hooves."

That impressed Rarity. Industrial construction of starship modules was a complex process, and even with highly-trained construction crews and automated machinery the construction of ships and modules had to be carefully supervised to ensure that nothing went wrong during the process.

"She wasn't done with it, now. When ah dropped in she was tryin' to put the thing back together. Had it halfway there, too."

"Applejack, I assure you that your sister has a special talent for industry. She may even design the next Tech-III modules and ship systems if she continues to pursue it."

"Yeah, well she's so dead-set on findin' that special talent with her friends that she'll try anythin'. One second she's takin' apart a minin' laser, next second she'll be swingin' around on some hover trapeze or somethin'."

Rarity passed her Retriever through the Ohbochi stargate. It was a mostly empty system, although there were a few small outposts located here and there. Pinkie Pie made sure that the system was empty before they embarked on their mining trip. As Ohbochi was a low-security system, such precautions were necessary.

"Howdy, everypony," Applejack transmitted. "We're here now, and ah'm gonna hang out at the stargate. We wouldn't want anythin' to happen to the Orca, now."

Rarity aligned herself to the asteroid belt and entered warp. Upon landing, she found her friends already mining the belt's asteroids, their strip miners gouging into the massive rocks.

"Nice of you to join us, Rarity," Twilight Sparkle spoke, "There are still a lot of asteroids to go around."

"Why thank you for leaving some for me. I was afraid that there would be none left if I came any later."

"There wouldn't be any left if we took Hulks," Rainbow Dash spoke up, referring to the largest and most powerful of mining vessels. Hulk-class exhumers could easily pull up an entire asteroid belt in a single day, but they were very expensive to produce, and losing a Hulk was a far greater blow to the wallet than losing a Retriever.

Rarity maneuvered her Retriever to the nearest Arkonor asteroid. Her strip miners swiveled in their mounts to lay their sights upon it, and bright beams of energy lanced out, scoring and blasting the asteroid.

The mining laser and its larger strip miner cousin were genius innovations when they were discovered. The laser itself was arranged like a cylinder instead of a solid beam, and as the ore was vaporized into a plasma gas, the pulsing of the laser generated a rotating magnetic charge, similar in form to a drill. This pulled the ore into a device which used frequencies of light to sort the ore, enabling highly efficient ore mining to be performed.

It did not need to be said repeatedly that asteroid mining was one way to gain vast riches. While one had to stick their neck out into potentially dangerous situations, the payoffs could be massive.

Rainbow Dash transmitted a yawn.

"Why does mining take so long?" she asked.

"Rainbow Dash, coaxing the riches of an asteroid requires a gentle touch and a great deal of patience. Roam wasn't built in a day, as they say," Rarity replied.

"I know, but, why can't we just blow up the asteroids? It would be a lot faster than this."

Rarity sighed at Rainbow Dash's remark. "Rainbow Dash, for the umpteenth time we are not going to replicate Caldari special operations sabotage methods for use as a mining tool." She cited the origins of the Minedrill corporation, which had its roots in sabotaging Gallente mining operations during the Gallente-Caldari War. "Also, if we were to mine asteroids with explosive charges, how exactly would we collect all of the ore once it is sent scattering to the four corners of New Equestria?"

Rainbow Dash was silent. While blowing up the asteroids to mine them had seemed like a good idea, the process of collecting the scattered ore was something she had completely forgotten about, and it would have probably taken a lot longer than using strip miners and mining barges.

Twilight and Fluttershy aligned their Retrievers away from the asteroids. Their movements were graceful despite their ships being so large and boxy.

"Our mining bays are filled with ore. We are going to drop off what we mined with Applejack. Do you know where she is?" asked Twilight.

"She should still be on the Elanoda stargate," Rarity replied. "She thought it would be better to hover on the gate in case there were any incidents as we mined."

"Yeah, as if anything happens out here," Rainbow Dash quipped. "My hold is almost full, too. I'll follow you two out."

They left Rarity mining as they warped away. The hum of her strip miners reverberated through her Retriever's hull. It was actually quite relaxing and calmed her into a slight trance as she mined.

Elsewhere in the system, Pinkie Pie sat in her Buzzard. She would periodically activate her directional scanner as well as the combat probes she laid about the system. The scanners would determine the number of objects within a certain radius around the ship, but it was too general. The combat probes, specialized space probes designed to detect the exact locations of ships and objects, were designed for hunting down ships hiding around the system. She had found nothing this far.

She could not help but be amused by the sensation of the hydrostatic fluid which surrounded her body and protected her from impact, shock and cynosis. It was cold and slimy, but not unlike a bowl filled with gelatin. She particularly enjoyed gelatin as a dessert, and wondered if this is what a piece of fruit felt like when it was in gelatin. Then there were the gelatin flavors she liked and could make, such as strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, huckleberry, and even...

Twitch.

She felt her left ear twitch. She voided her mind of all other thoughts, and just focused in the twitching.

Her right hoof twitched. Then her right eye, and then her right hoof again.

The phenomenon known as the Pinkie Sense was a means that Pinkie Pie had of detecting immediate danger in her surroundings. Her friends, as well as the rest of Harmony, not only believed in the Pinkie Sense but lived by it. When she started twitching, ponies stopped and listened.

Right eye brow, right ear, left hoof, mane, tail, right hoof, left nostril, left hoof again, more and more twitching as Pinkie Pie began to panic.

She rapidly cycled through her directional scanner and her probe scanner. Her sensors were clean, and they detected no ships other than the ones that her friends had brought into the system.

But the Pinkie Sense never lies.

"Um, girls?" she transmitted, voicing her growing anxiety.

"What is it, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight returned with concern.

Twitch twitch twitch. Twitch twitch twitchy twitch.

"Ambush!” she yelled. “We're about to be ambushed!"

"Applejack, jump the Orca into Elanoda! Everypony, warp hard to the Elanoda stargate and get into the other side!" Twilight barked out commands to her friends with rapid focus, the fleet commander in her rising to the surface. "Rarity, where are you?"

Rarity received the transmission from Pinkie Pie and Twilight, and sighed inwardly from frustration.

"Again? Yet another ambush?" she asked with no small amount of exasperation in her voice. "First we are accosted by a pirate battlecruiser in Aunenen, and now this? What could possibly be next? Assault ships? Cruisers? Stealth bombers?"

A Manticore buzzed the prow of her Retriever at full speed with an active microwarpdrive. Space distorted in front of her, and a second Manticore stealth bomber uncloaked in view of her camera drones.

Why, Celestia? She thought. Why could I not just keep quiet?

She aligned to the star gate as quickly as she could, but her displays flashed and projected error notifications as she attempted to warp. The yellow squares in her field of vision turned red as the stealth bombers began to interrupt her warp computer. Their warp disruptions were accompanied by grating klaxons.

"Girls, they are warp scrambling me! Get out of here, I will hold them off!"

She banked her Retriever hard, a graceful maneuver which would have been impossible in an atmosphere, and faced the stealth bombers. She decided that as a properly raised and tutored Gallentean mare she would respond in kind. As soon as her targeting computer had locked her adversaries, she released the drones.

A mining vessel's only line of personal defense was a small swarm of drones, unmanned ultralight fighter craft controlled by its parent vehicle. Drones were a popular offensive and defensive choice with the Federation Navy, and as a capsuleer Rarity was also versed with the use of drones.

The group of Hobgoblin-II drones zipped toward one of the Manticores. As much as the stealth bomber was faster and more maneuverable than her Retriever, Rarity's drones had the speed and agility of a swarm of angry hornets. Light combat drones, in particular, were designed to be used against small warships, like stealth bombers.

The drones orbited the Manticore faster than it could outrun or outmaneuver. Every turn and bank was answered by a harsh sting from the drones' blaster cannons.

The stealth bomber aligned towards Ohbochi's star with a quick bank, its shields broken and armor tattered. It warped away, and Rarity began to savor her small victory.

A Naga-class battlecruiser, bristling with huge railguns, nearly collided with her as it landed from warp. All vestiges of her potential celebration were immediately pronounced dead.

Rarity banked her Retriever hard to port. She felt the support beams of her ship creak and groan from the physical stresses placed upon her ship, performing a maneuver which as not supposed to be performed on a regular basis lest the ship be shaken apart.

The two stealth bombers had only held her down for the beastly battlecruiser to take the kill. Not a single one of them had launched their powerful torpedoes at her Retriever.

Her sensors detected its target lock and her Retriever's camera drones focused on the Naga, whose railguns, meant to be mounted onto lumbering battleships, were deliberately rotating to aim directly at her.

She braced herself within her capsule.

The railguns flashed, and less than a split second later four hundred and twenty-five millimeter-wide antimatter charges slammed into her Retriever with force that would rattle a battleship. The whole vessel jerked violently as it was subjected to both physical impact and explosions from matter-antimatter annihilations. Her shields offered no resistance to the onslaught. Alarms and klaxons blared within her head, and a display intruded into her eyes showing no less than half-a-dozen hull breaches.

The second salvo came with absolutely no warning. She could feel one of the railgun shells punch through the top of her Retriever and continue out the bottom. So many impacts blew huge chunks from her poor space vessel.

A panel on her ship blew away and her capsule shot out into space. The sudden disconnection from her ship left a stinging sensation across her body.

Her camera drones focused on what was left of her Retriever. An antimatter charge streaked across her vision, leaving a blinding white tear in space. It impacted with her mining barge and tore into it, accompanied by a massive explosion. Tritanium girders and armor plates flew off in all directions as what was left was consumed in a massive fireball. Small fragments of the ship bounced off of the shields of Rarity's capsule.

She quickly turned her capsule to the Elanoda stargate, desperate to warp away to safety. She activated the warp engines of her capsule...

...and an all-too familiar klaxon blared in her ears.

An enraged, unladylike howl left her mouth as she turned her camera drones toward the Naga. She gazed straight down the barrels of its railguns.

She cried out. It was a cry of rage, defiance of her adversary, and frustration that a perfectly good hooficure was about to be obliterated.

A blinding white light consumed her vision. It consumed her thoughts, consumed her rage and anger, and consumed her senses. There was no visual, no sound, and no feeling. There was only serenity.

She heard a sound. It was muffled and unintelligible, and suddenly she wondered what that noise was, the first thought which entered her head throughout the whole experience.

The voice became clearer and clearer, and as it did, so too did the light. It shifted slowly from white to blue.

A piercing, painful blue.

"Good morning, capsuleer," spoke a computerized, female voice.

Rarity was silent, caught in a sudden stupor. She tried to close her eyes, tried to turn her head away from the light. It was so bright that it hurt.

"Good morning, capsuleer. Do you know what day it is? What is your name?" asked the voice again.

Rarity groaned faintly, and attempted to turn her head. She found that her head was physically unable to move. Her hooves and legs were also incapable of being moved. She realized she was in an upright position.

"What is your name?"

"Rarity," she moaned. Speaking required too much effort. She knew where she was.

A Clone Resuscitation Unit. The mechanical womb of a capsuleer, and the place of their rebirth after death.

The voice was an automated mechanism asking questions intended to stimulate her brain. As she answered questions, the blue light scanned head for brain functioning as the other CRU systems checked for vital signs.

After several minutes of questioning, Rarity was as elated as her newly-reborn self could be to see a similar face through the window of the CRU, although she was too exhausted to show it.

Doctor Callosum was the chief specialist of the Moon 15 space station's cloning facility. The wizened unicorn's job was to assist capsuleers in their rebirth and resuscitation. While the job seemed quite menial, it was a job that was in extremely high demand; capsuleers were resurrected on a continual basis, and without assistance they would not be able to continue living.

"Hello there, Rarity. I think that will be enough interrogation from the CRU. You should have enough neurological functioning to be able to walk on your own four hooves. Let's work on getting you out of there."

He stepped away, and a moment later the door to the CRU slowly opened with hissing and mechanical whirring. The light was still too bright for her eyes, but they had become accustomed to the bright light as she lay in the unit, and right now any light was better than that blue light.

She remembered why she could not move her head or her limbs. Her hooves were restrained in place to prevent undesired movement in the CRU. Her head was not so much restrained as it was connected directly to the unit. Connected into the steel socket at the back of her head was the jack which held her head in place, and through that jack Rarity's mind was downloaded back into a new clone body. Everything which made Rarity Rarity was placed into her new body upon death.

To answer the question, it has been long confirmed that if a capsuleer died, then it was the same pony that left the CRU. There was none of the instances of another pony running around with the memories of the original pony while said pony was truly dead.

"Alright," he spoke, "let's get you out. First we are going to disconnect you from the unit. Brace yourself." He turned away and telekinetically tapped at the control console of the CRU.

A grating whine erupted from behind her head as the jack rapidly unscrewed itself from the back of her head. She clenched her eyes and shuddered from the downright revolting feeling of her new body's first rapid disconnection.

Her head lurched forward as the plug released itself, her neck muscles too weak just yet to hold up her own head. Callosum watched with stoic concern as she struggled to support herself.

"Do you require a stimulant, miss Rarity?" he asked, a lime-green aura surrounding his horn and an injector gun levitating beside him.

She shook her head at his offer. She wanted not to rush getting out of the CRU, no matter how badly she wanted to be free from its grasp.

"Right, we will get the rest of you out of that unit now," he replied as he turned back to the console.

The restraints holding Rarity's hooves and legs snapped open, releasing them from their tight grasp. It took some effort to flex her new muscles as she gingerly tested her legs.

"Are you ready to get out?" he asked.

Rarity took a deep breath. It was the first of such breaths she would take with her clone body, and it calmed her down immensely.

"Yes," she spoke. "Get me out of this contraption."

Callosum telekinetically grasped one of her hooves, and a younger Earth Pony assistant came to the doctor's aid. With an amount of struggling, the pair were able to help Rarity climb completely out of the CRU.

It was cold in the cloning facility. The whole room smelled of antiseptic and hydrostatic ectoplasm. The lights were not so bright now, particularly as she got used to the brightness.

Her head hung low, her muscles still getting used to the feeling of holding her up on their own power. Her flowing mane was not in her face like it normally was.

"Give me a mirror," Rarity croaked quietly, a cold pit forming in her stomach.

"Miss Rarity, you have just been resuscitated. I'm sure that it can wait-"

"Blast it, Corpus Callosum, you will give me a mirror right this instant!" she roared.

Callosum gave her a stern glare. He sorely disliked when anyone other than his wife and mother used his full name in that tone. He was well aware, however, that not brining Rarity the mirror she wanted would result in consequences he would rather not deal with at that time.

"Get her a mirror," he spoke to the assistant.

He ran off and returned with a small mirror in his teeth. A light blue aura tore the mirror from his mouth and hovered it in front of Rarity's face.

What she saw horrified her. Her tail was barely existent, a small crop of her indigo hair remained. Her two eyes saw that there was more to speak of about her tail than her mane, which was a buzz of purple hair on her white coat. In short she was a complete mess.

All thought processes stopped when she realized that where there was once an empty eye socket for the past month was now occupied by a beautiful, gorgeous azure eye.

All of her disgust and horror for the loss of what was once two of her most prominent features was completely subsumed by the wave of joy overtaking her at the sight of her new eye. A smile began to creep onto her face, and a soft giggle left her lips.

It transformed into a maniacal cackle resplendent of a Gallente pulp action movie villain.

Callosum and his assistant traded confused looks as Rarity laughed herself silly.

"Why is she laughing?" the assistant whispered to Callosum.

"Many things go through a capsuleer's head just after they are resuscitated," Callosum replied. "Don't let it get to you, some seem slightly crazy at first."

Rarity placed the mirror on a tray as she happily sauntered out of the cloning facility. Discovering that her eye had been returned to her by the medical wonder of cloning was the best thing that had happened to her in the whole month, and it left her feeling overjoyed and rejuvenated.

The feeling lasted just until after the doors of the elevator had closed, and she quickly felt as if she had been stepped on by an MTAC. Her happy pace was gone, replaced with a groggy trot as she dragged herself to her lodgings in the residential area.

She placed her hoof against the biometric scanner without looking and waited for the doors to open. After nearly a full minute she realized that they had not opened. Had her biometric locks not been calibrated to recognize her biological signature after she had just been cloned?

She looked up, and saw that there was nothing wrong with the biometric locking pad. In her fugue her hoof had missed the pad completely.

She tried again and managed to get the door open, and as she walked into her apartment she was greeted by an alarmed Sweetie Belle.

"Rarity! What happened? Your mane is all, um..."
"Sweetie Belle," Rarity interrupted, "your older sister has had an exhausting day, and would like to lie down." She spoke with a languid, lethargic tone.

She trotted to her bedroom and collapsed onto her very large bed. She felt the fatigue take hold of her, and her eyes fell closed as she drifted to sleep in her very comfortable bed.

Seconds passed before her telephone began to ring. She slowly turned and saw the time on her phone's display. Many hours, not seconds, had passed since she had fallen asleep.

She languidly took the phone with her telekinesis and brought it to her ear.

"Who is calling me?" she groaned.

"It's me, Twilight," spoke Twilight Sparkle. "I'm just checking up on you. You aren't usually this late."

"Twilight, what makes you thing that I would want to get up this early when I had such a terrible day yesterday?"

"Because the representative from the Protection Services is coming to inspect the station today, and you were going to give her a tour of the manufacturing facilities? You didn't forget about that, did you? Hello? Rarity?"

Rarity could not respond. The pillow she had shoved into her face was muffling her screaming.

Author's Note:

And thus we have the first casualties of our fanfic: Rarity's mane and tail. Don't worry, a capsuleer can't truly die unless you kill them and their clones all in one go.

Keep reading, the action is just beginning! A bigger plot is slowly unfolding, and this was just the start!