> Civilization: Beyond Equestria
>  by May I Cut In
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1.) The fall of Equsteria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credit List:
Co-author: Architect



"If one has to sacrifice themselves to ensure the survival of others, they are obligated to do so. No matter what the cost. But one must make it worthwhile or the act may not mean anything. A foolish mistake made without any foresight is not only useless, it can lead to the downfall of those it was supposed to protect" ~Princess Celestia .





Canterlot Castle

Celestia was enjoying her afternoon cake and tea with Luna in the castle gardens, while pondering a most unusual sequence of events. One month previously, a radio pulse had reverberated through the planet, shaking the world to its foundation and informing its inhabitants that they were very not alone in this universe. When Luna had traced the signal back the signal, they’d found a planet, ravaged by natural disasters and covered with the remains of countless civilizations.

The inhabitants of that world, the ‘humans,’ as they called themselves, were leaving, packing their best and brightest into giant flying ships, and preparing to send them deep into the void of space. When Luna had observed them more closely, she found out that they were leaving after an incident they only referred to as ‘The Great Mistake' and that their world was fading, unable to support them anymore.

Normally, seeing a race brought to such lows would only make the observers feel superior, proud of themselves for not falling into the same traps. However, the royal sisters had felt an unexpected surge of pity for the unlucky species, as well as wonder at their accomplishments. 

After much thought, Celestia had finally decided she wanted to try to help the humans, and was pondering the best way to broach the subject. She was just about to open her mouth when she felt a massive drain through her link with the sun that orbited Equestria. She could feel her magic -- no, her very life-force-- ...being sucked out of her like she was the victim of the world’s most overzealous blood donation nurse.

Luna, meanwhile, only saw her sister freeze mid-conversation, struggling not to faint. It was almost as if somepony had suddenly dropped a mountain on her back. At the same time the sun, the source of their light and life, flickered, dimming and brightening in a disturbing cadence. She saw her sister's horn light up, casting a spell that seemed only to add to the weight. After several agonizing moments, the glow finally faded, and the sun returned to it’s usual brilliance as Celestia slumped in her seat. Celestia looked up wearily at her sister as Luna rushed to her side.

“Sister, what happened? You look like you went to the ends of Equestria and back. And the sun! I’ve never seen it do that before.” Luna anxiously looked her sister over, who was obviously exhausted by the ordeal. Her mane had lost its ethereal waves and shading, and her wings hung limp at her sides instead of their usual full spread.   

After resting a short while, Celestia finally managed to answer “It’s happening, sister, at long last. The sun is dying.” Another few seconds passed before she continued. “Our time is up... The only reason why it still shines is its link to me. It’s feeding off of my life to keep itself burning.”

Luna looked at her sister for a while. “Nice try, Tia, tricking me to think that you might die just because the sun ran out of juice. You have to try better than that to pull one off on me.” She started to laugh before noticing her sister was still not looking too well. “Wait, this is not a prank? Tia how can this be possible. I thought this was resolved when unicorns first started raising the sun.”

“So did, I, Lulu,” Celestia replied. “But it seems they were mistaken. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say we’ve got 10 years until the sun expends my power, 11 if we’re lucky. I just wish there was a way to save my little ponies.” Luna was somber for a moment, then her eyes sparked and a slightly crazy grin adorned her features. “Lulu, what are you planning...”

“I’m not sure yet,” said Luna, “but I think I might have a way. I’ll need to speak to Twilight posthaste.” She turned and, after making sure one last time that her sister was ok, flew out of the gardens and set a course for Ponyville. Her idea was wild, cuckoo, crazy, completely bonkers, and so insanely stupid it just might work.


“You’re serious!?” exclaimed Twilight, staring at Luna like she’d grown a second head and an extra wing. “Do you have any idea what it would take to build one those things? I sure don’t! We’d need decades of breakneck research to get even a simple orbit, let alone something capable of flying to another star!”

“Well, you have 10 years.” declared Luna. “If you can’t pass this test, when our world dies we die with it.”

“But how am I supposed to design, invent and build all the necessary science and infrastructure to have a shot at achieving this technological wonder? I like a good challenge but this is way beyond me, Princess,” Twilight replied, a few strands of hair sticking out of her mane. 

“Did it not occur to you that I did not say you will be doing it alone? You will henceforth be known as the Princess of Science, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of our understanding and getting us into orbit. Just say what you need and Tia and I will provide it. After all, everything we hold dear is at stake.”

Twilight thought for a minute, then a stream of orders came out of her mouth, rapidly filling a scroll with the personal and equipment required. The most important item was a scrying lens, to allow her to spy on the human’s engineers as the they worked.



“I'm sure we can get all the best scholars and engineers in the world to work on it, but given how far behind the humans we are when it comes to technology, it is going to take us several years to reach the estimated level we’d need to be able to carry out construction on such a scale.”

“Well, you have a few more years than several, Twilight,” Luna replied with an air of finality, before adding, “Remember, the fate of our kind and all others on Equus now rests in your hooves. Tia and I will do our best to manage your duties and the population, and keep any potential trouble from disturbing you so you can focus on the task at hand. Now if you'll excuse me I need to return to Canterlot to raise the moon. I bid you good night.” After striding to the balcony of Twilight’s castle, she took off, leaving a rather bewildered Alicorn princess behind as the importance of her task started to sink in. Twilight spent the entire night after the meeting drawing up plans, speeches and schedules. Pausing to wipe her brow, she said, “Save all of Ponykind? Yeah. No pressure, Twilight.”


Celestia concentrated, and raised the sun for the last time. By having the unicorns control its movements, and later herself, Equestria had managed to buy itself a few thousand more years of life. But now that time had ended. The last morning’s light shone upon their work, a massive fleet of spaceships, ready to launch their precious cargo of sentient life on a journey to the world the humans had decided to settle. While this may have been the end of Equestria, it wouldn’t be the end of the Ponies, or the Griffins, or the Minotaurs, or any of the other sentients who called this planet home.

Despite her weakened state she still managed a smile. Twilight Sparkle, her faithful student has outdone herself once again. She had, with the time limit of only a short decade, completely revolutionized the entire land’s industrial and scientific community, uniting them towards a common goal. 

Her smile widened a bit as Twilight’s friends rose to the surface of her mind. Each and every one had proven herself as a just, moral, and competent leader over the years, and had in time earned Twilight’s reward, and ascended to Alicorn-Hood themselves. Normally this would have been cause for a nationwide celebration, but with the world’s end so close, there just wasn’t the time or money to spare.

“We’re ready, Celestia,” came an all too familiar voice. 

“Twilight? It’s good to see you again,” Celestia replied said as she turned to look at her. Princess Twilight was as young and chipper as she’d been when she first finished Starswirl’s final spell, bar a minor growth spurt. Celestia, by contrast, was a shadow of her former glory due to the sun’s continuous sapping of her energy. She had shrunk considerably, and now stood even with Twilight and Princess Cadance. Her mane no longered shimmered eatherialy, reverting to it’s original, normal form and pink color. With every step she took, her legs would wobble and threaten to give way under what little bodyweight she still possessed.

"Well... I guess this is goodbye then Celestia. Thank you, f-for everything." Twilight said, tearing up. " Who would have thought? Us leaving our peaceful world to explore the depths of space like those humans we found." They stared at each other, teacher and student, yet also Princess and Princess, before the hugged, long and hard, as they wouldn’t see each other again. Celestia could not leave her star behind, any more than she could harm one of her subjects.

They separated after what felt like eons, and looked down from the balcony, gazing out across the rockets that would bring the crew and supplies up to the actual spaceships they would be using to travel. Five other sites, each filled with ships and cargo, and each supplying a different starship, were scattered all over Equestria, near major cities like Manehatten and Cloudsdale. Each of Twilight's friends was overseeing the preparations at each site. It was a sight both sad and beautiful, the promise of death and the hope of rebirth tied into the hulks of steel and plastic. 

"Princess Celestia, are you ok?" The question snapped her out of her bittersweet contemplations. Twilight was looking at her, an open question on her face. "I’m fine Twilight. Just thinking about what you’re about to do." she replied.

They heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching before the door to the balcony opened, revealing Princess Luna. “Twilight, may I have a word with you?” she asked. 

Twilight excused herself and followed Luna inside. Luna stopped in the corridor outside Celestia’s room, and turned to face her. " So, what is it Luna?”

"I just wanted to thank you on behalf of our entire population and my sister for all you have accomplished. Even Star Swirl the Bearded didn’t make such an impact." Luna started.

"It was nothing really Princess Luna,” Twilight interrupted, blushing under the praise, “I couldn’t have done it without my friends, who stood by my side through everything we faced. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible." 

"Then I hope to see that your friendship shall continue to serve you and bond you and your friends closer together. You will need them in the coming trials." Luna continued, her voice taking a slightly darker tone “I have seen over the years how close bonds among ponies shatter due to clashes of ideals, i do not wish for you all to go down the same path that have plagued many explorers.”

“I understand your concern Princess Luna, but i’m sure my friends and i will stick it through thick and thin no matter what. Even Discord can’t-” Twilight began before she was interrupted when a certain draconequus simply popped into existence right between the two princesses.

"My my, how time flies when you spread a little chaos in alternate universes. Did I hear that you are all leaving? Why so soon?" Discord said just as a robot appeared behind him in a flash. It started saying exterminate over and over again before Discord snapped his claws, causing it to disappear. "Don't mind him, that robot was chasing me the whole darn time while I was trolling a bipedal creature that called himself the Doctor. You know all the fictional universes that our writers make up? Turns out there are alternate dimensions where they’re real. Who knows, our world may simply be the product of anypony that liked something fictional when they were young and decided to make something cool with it. That or this world will have a war sometime in the future and I'm simply here as comedy relief. Oh there are so many alternate universes involving you, dearest Twily in a romantic relationship anypony and everypony, and of course I can’t forget Woona here leading another kingdom called, I forget exactly, The Lunar Democracy? The Lunar Oligarchy?" He rambled, not noticing the unamused expressions Luna and Twilight were throwing him. 

"What are you here for Discord?" Twilight started "We don't have time for your annoying pranks or shenanigans anymore. I have a schedule to-" . She was cut off as Discord placed a claw on her mouth. 

"Follow? Oh you haven't changed at all Twily. Always sticking to a timeline. I’ve got to say your desire for things to be organised is a little obsessive. Kind of like Celestia and her cakes." A miniature 6 tiered cake and Celestia appeared to Discord's left. The miniature Celestia then jumped into the cake face first while squealing "Cake!", sending cream and cake bits flying everywhere. Discord snapped his claws again and the whole mess vanished. "Anyway, I came back to wish Miss Fluttershy a safe journey. Would you happen to know where she is? I’ve been a little out of touch." He held a black and white poster with Fluttershy’s face on it, looking confused, and the words, ‘Have you seen this mare?’

"She’s in Las Pegasus overseeing the western launch sites. And it's Princess Fluttershy to you Discord!" Twilight replied snappishly, clearly irritated by the conversation. If Discord noticed, he didn’t let it show. 

”So Fluttershy is a princess now? Well that’s rather interesting. I knew she had it in her even before you did.” He flicked Twilight’s muzzle, causing her to screw up her face. “Wait, let me guess. I’m getting a vision here. Oh, oh! I see, I see. Wings! six pairs. and six horns.“ He gasped, “Are all your friends are princess as well?”. When no reply came from the two alicorns in front of him, he simply said: ”Well fine then, I guess some pony’s caught the snob bug. I can tell when I’m not wanted. Ta-ta!.” He teleported away in a puddle of jello, leaving a golden cane with a bust of Twilight’s face on the top and a giant red gem embedded in the base. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the object on the floor. 

With that debacle taken care of, she said farewell to Luna, and made her way to the launch site. The crew had already boarded each of the rockets meant to take them up to their individual starships, and were waiting on her signal. Unlike their initial launches, there would be no ground control, as they weren’t leaving anypony behind. Looking back, she saw Canterlot with the setting sun in the background. The last sunset that Princess Celestia would ever make. A wave of nostalgia hit her as the memories of her time as a filly in Canterlot surfaced. She stood on the ramp, rooted to the spot, reliving all the bittersweet memories for  what felt like hours, but wa probably only a few minutes, when a voice snapped her back to reality. "Princess Twilight, are you ok?". Shaking off the last vestiges of her trance, she looked at her second in command and replied "Yeah, I’m fine Captain Trixie. Just reliving some old memories. Could you make sure we get one last good look at Canterlot on the way up?." 

“Sure thing, Princess Twilight. Just make you’re there to see it. The launch is in 5 minutes.” Trixie replied before fading back into the depths of the machine. Twilight gazed back at the setting sun over Canterlot, taking one last look at the city she had called home for most of her life, before she turned, and stepped into the spaceship. The doors closed behind her, the clang of metal striking metal echoing out into the open air .

For five minutes, all was quiet. Then came the rumble, a slow, low, powerful sound that shook your legs, then your whole body and the last, best hope for the survival of an entire planet took flight, signaling the end of Ponykind’s time on Equestria. They had left the cradle of their homeworld, and with a final salute towards the planet,  they watched it fall into the sun, which then burned out, becoming dim enough to look at directly without protection. Their home was gone, but they lived on, and so they prepared for the long sleep, and aimed themselves at a distant speck of light, the one they knew held the best chance for a civilisation beyond Equestria.
> 2.) The journey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credit List: 
Co-Author: Architect



“A journey is not about the destination, rather it’s about the lesson one has picked to learn along the way.” ~ Princess Luna.





Life on the starship was predictable. No, it was worse than predictable. It was horribly, awfully, dull. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go, and once you’d explored the ship, no new ponies to meet. To alleviate the boredom, Twilight will often spent her time reading all the book they had brought along or tinker in her lab with various inventions. Most of her crew (being mortal, unlike her) had gone into cold sleep, only leaving a few awake at a time to keep the ship running and on course.

After spending an afternoon messing around with a computer (or as she put it 'wasting my time'), she headed to her cabin. Stifling a yawn, she swiped her keycard on the reader, but her pager buzzed before she could step inside. " Princess?” It was the on duty navigation officer for the current shift rotation. “Can you come to the bridge? There is something here you need to see.". Finally, something different to do, she mused to herself.

"This better not be about another meteorite in our path Officer Lyra!" Twilight shouted when the double doors opened to reveal the bridge. Not after the last 15 times you called me up here, she added in her head. Lyra was already standing at attention when Twilight walked in, and marched forward to meet her. "No Princess, I called you up here because our initial target is not what we expected." she started before she continued "It's inhabited by humans. If you look at the screen over there, it seems that they are currently at war with each other. I would advise not settling here and instead head for another uninhabited planet." 

Well, this is an interesting turn of events Twilight thought, "I'm surprised Lyra, you haven't freaked out after seeing humans in real life. You have a Phd in Anthropology after all,”she said teasingly, smirking. Come on, Twilight! she thought to herself, even Pinkie Pie would have made a better joke than this. Sigh, I wonder how the others are doing. 

“Oh, I got over that obsession after I broke into your lab several times to read your notes and use that scrying lens in your observatory. But still, it would be nice if I could catch one so i could study them in, person.” Lyra replied as she smiled seductively. Twilight snorted at her joke, while also remembering the time she’d caught Lyra in the act. Lyra had apologised on the spot multiple times but Twilight, seeing the untapped determination in her, instead welcomed her into her circle of researchers. Lyra had proved to be a very helpful pony, often staying up for days in the observatory monitoring the humans, copying their schematics and sketching the blueprints of certain parts of their spaceships, raw data that proved highly useful in advancing their understanding and ability to replicate it.

Turning to view the screen Lyra had indicated earlier, she saw it was focused on a battle taking place on the planet below. The two sides, while similar in shape, had strikingly different designs and color palettes. One of them was composed of blocky power suits, reinforced by the occasional much larger mecha, painted in red and gold and clearly piloted by a human soldier. The other was bare steel and neon yellow, streamlined and fluid where their opponents were sturdy and immovable. They didn’t seem to have any humans at all, and operated completely independently, but were still perfectly synchronized. It was both eerie and impressive to say the least.

As the armies clashed, and metal flew, Twilight decided that this wasn’t the best place to land. “Lyra, set a course for the next planet on our list. After that deploy a communications beacon to inform the other starships."

"Will do Princess," Lyra replied.

Andromeda Alpha, Year 253 A.P. (After Planetfall)

"General, progress report on our war with the Slavic Federation. I expected our new Aegis units to turn the tide, and they don’t appear to be helping. How are we supposed to make this planet into a new Earth at the rates things are going?" Suzanne Fieldings, was ranting again, strutting back and forth like an angry pea-cat while she vented at her military officers.

"I’m sorry to say this, Miss Fieldings,”The general replied, “but our enemy has developed a new unit of their own. They call them CARVRs and they’re wreaking havoc with our Battlesuits. They can also tank a few hits from the Aegis, and are canceling out what would have been an advantage. Instead of us crushing them like we should be, we’re only forcing a stalemate." 

Turning to the science advisor, she asked: "How long is it before our anti-gravity drives are compact enough to able to fabricate those LEV Tanks?"

“A few more months, at least,” he answered, flipping through some information on a tablet, “And another few after that before we can one up and running.”

Suzanne swore under her breath, then got control of her anger, “Contact the Federation, and offer a mutual ceasefire, with emphasis on the fact that there are no bonuses for either side. If we keep fighting like this we’ll lose all our forces, and then one of those Harmonists could take us both out. I do not want our demise to come at the hands of those nature freaks.” She spun on her heel and stormed out of the room as her subordinates saluted.

As Suzanne stomped towards her office, her secretary came running out to meet. "Miss Fieldings, you need to take a look at this! This is a live feed from the deep space telescope just east of Liberty. An unknown spaceship is approaching the planet! Early analysis concluded that while it is similar, it’s definitely not one of ours." The secretary passed her the tablet computer she was holding. 

Suzanne snatched it from her it and stared at the screen. A ovaloid blob that was way too uniform to be natural sailed through space past the moon. The whole ship was tinted a light shade of purple and on the side of the ship was a marking, which consisted of a six-pointed pink star surrounded by five smaller six-pointed white stars.That marking looks like a flag she thought. Seeing a strip of what looks like a windscreen on the starship she tapped on the screen to zoom in.

On the other side of the glass she could see 2 creatures. Although it wasn't clear, she could make out the shape and colour of one of them. The first thing that struck her was the creature's colour, namely that it was bright purple. Then the telescope focused, and she could see it clearly, a quadrupedal creature with a horn on what appeared to be its forehead. The silhouette of the creature reminded her of the ponies she had coloured ìn her colouring books when she was a little girl. However, before she could get a good look at the area around it, the ship turned away, obscuring it from view.

The starship detached something with what looked suspiciously like an antenna from one of the rear ports, then accelerated rapidly away from the planet.

"What is that? Is it a homing beacon?" she asked. Turning to her secretary she said : "Get the boys down at Liberty to monitor the device. If there are any other unidentified spaceships approaching, I want them to scramble the missile rovers in preparation of an anti-orbital strike."

It took a week for them to conclude that the ‘aliens’ sighted were not hostile. Two more starships, one which was colored cyan and another white had shown up in visual range of their deep space telescope. Initially, they were worried about a possible alien invasion but after seeing how the starships had upon getting into range of the beacon left behind slow down before turning away, concluded that that was not the case. They’d also picked up a repeating signal from the beacon, although they had yet to translate it. If ARC could make contact with these aliens, then maybe it would provide the boost they needed to finish remaking this world in Earth’s image, and that was a chance Suzanne was willing to take.

S.S. 20% Cooler, 10 years I.T. (In Transit)


"Princess Dash? Princess's Twilight's starship is in front of us. It’s currently in orbit around the secondary target," the navigations officer briefed Rainbow Dash as she enter the bridge after being woken up from a rather pleasant dream of coming in first in a race against the former captain of the wonderbolts, Spitfire. As such,she had been rather irritated when the darned intercom in her room came to life, asking for her presence on the bridge. Someday, I’ll break that infernal contraption. It’s been nothing but an annoyance this entire voyage, she thought as she recalled last month when she was rather rudely woken up by Derpy Hooves after she had accidentally steered the ship into an asteroid field.

“What about it?” she said somewhat snappishly at Scootaloo, her second in command, “Since when is her ship orbiting around a planet is such a big deal?”
“She’s not just orbiting,” The Nav. Officer replied, “She’s making planetfall.”

“WHAT?” Rainbow shouted, “We were supposed to have a meeting before any of us landed to make sure this was the right place, what is she thinking?”

“What are you asking me for?” said Scootaloo. “She hasn’t been responding to my calls.”

“Well, what are you waiting for then? If she is going down, than i’m following her down there!” Rainbow yelled in reply before getting her composure back. “Sorry Scoots, I’m just worried about her. Just get everyone ready and sorry about the outburst earlier on.”

“Will do Princess Rainbo-” Scootaloo said before she was cut off by Rainbow Dash. 

“Scootaloo, there is no need to call me Princess, you can just call me Rainbow Dash. It’s feels wrong for me to ask my god-sister to refer to me so formally” Rainbow smiled. Scootaloo blushed in reply at the attention she was getting before heading to the ship’s intercom control to order the currently working ponies to wake the other up and to prepare for plan
> 3.a) Planetfall (Twilight)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credit List:
Co-Author: Architect, Brother Malachai



"A new word we approach. We, the refugees from a doomed world went towards a new world still in it's infancy. Let's keep it as pristine as possible. The worst thing we can do is to start destroying this world." ~Princess Twilight Sparkle





Planetfall. A rather tricky maneuver, even at the best of times. With wind speeds stronger than any tornado a team of weather pegasi can generate, it became near impossible. Worse still, due to the limited amount of fuel on the lander, a large section of the landing procedure would have to done using the “dead stick” technique. One small miscalculation, and one Princess and a great multitude of colonists, native equestrian flora and fauna, and supplies would be done for. The tectonic scanner had spotted a collection of unusual orange crystals near the equator, and Twilight wanted to set down next to them. Lyra was cursing her decision now as she struggled to keep the rocket upright in a tropical storm, fighting gale-force winds and sudden updrafts and downdrafts.

“3000 meters,” droned the computer.

“I know that,” she snapped, “I can read, you know. Brace yourselves fillies and gentlecolts. We’re three clicks up with nowhere to go but down! I’ll attempt to aim for the eye. Hopefully there’ll be less turbulence there and it will be easier for us to use our retro-thrusters.”

“2500 meters,” The computer replied, not responding to her sharp tone.

Lyra just growled, jerking the lander hard to the right to avoid a particularly intense thermal. Behind her, Princess Twilight was chewing on one of her hooves, strapped in tightly to one of the crash couches. The other crew had buckled down as well, with Bon-Bon ready to step in if something happened to Lyra.

“2000 meters.”

The coastline came into view, a mixture of plants and fungi that were the world’s dominant life forms looming out of the gloom. The place was amazingly much more lush than they had expected. It would’ve been the vision of a paradise to admire at if they weren't so occupied with not crashing to the ground.

“1500 meters.”

Lyra fired the repulsors, spinning neatly around a waterspout and starting to decelerate the landing vehicle.

“1000 meters. Deploying landing gear.”

The landing legs popped out, preparing to catch the falling city.

“750 meters.”

They’d slowed down considerably now, and Lyra was putting the finishing touches on the landing. Despite this, a bead of sweat started to trickle down her forehead.  

“500 meters.”

They’d left the storm behind them, at least for now, and the winds had died to tolerable levels. Still, the Hurricane was on the move and the calm of the eye would be gone soon enough. 

“400.”

Lyra angled the repulsors to bring them straight down.

“300”

She brought up a view of the landing area. Twilight tried to focus upon it the best she could despite the constant and jarring rattling of the landing craft.

“200.”

She picked a suitable spot to set down, and angled towards it, lips pursed in concentration.

“100.”

“Brace for impact, everypony!” she shouted.

“50 meters.”

“Almost-there!,” Lyra growled through gritted teeth.

The craft landed with an almighty thud as the repulsors cut out. It wobbled a little on its feet, then stabilized, standing tall and proud. Lyra wiped the sweat from her brow and turned to face the crew. “All right, who wants to step outside first?”

......

Twilight Sparkle gaped in wonder at her surroundings as she trotted under the alien canopy. Since she had nothing to do (at the moment), she was heading for the orange-yellow crystal formation they had spotted from orbit. The rest of the crew were busy dismantling the starship, as the parts would be required to build their first city. Twilight had ordered them to get a basic laboratory going as soon as possible in order to start analysing the new fauna. The sooner they could determine which plants were edible and develop new vaccines, antibiotics, and medical procedures to deal with the microorganisms native to this planet, the better.

She had the sudden urge to squee, and didn’t quite succeed in suppressing it. They’d done it, she was on an alien world! Oh, the things she could learn, the things they could do! She danced a little as she moved, her happiness spilling out of her like a shattered glass spills water.

A little ways onward, when her professional attitude had returned somewhat, she stepped out into a clearing, and into the shadow of the looming crystal formation. She whistled as she looked up at it, plans already forming for the tests she would conduct. She used her telekinesis to break off a small part of the crystal, noting the clean break and slight shimmer it gave off as she did so. Putting the sample of the crystal into a small vial, she walked off, oblivious to the native creatures watching her from the green fog on the horizon.

Back at the site of the now budding city, Twilight catalogued the samples she had collected. They consisted of various pieces of vegetation and animal leavings, in addition to the orange crystal. As she stepped into the hallway, she had to flare her wings and backtrack hastily to avoid colliding with Trixie. Trixie had initially joined the program under a false name, her deception only being revealed after her exemplary work had grabbed Twilight’s attention. Given her new attitude and obvious skill, she had quickly gained the Princess’s trust, and was now her right-hoof mare.

"Princess Twilight, I’m so sorry!" she gushed. Trixie had gotten over referring to herself in the third person in order to maintain her cover, and hadn’t picked the habit up again after she was exposed. "I just wanted to let you know the assembly will be happening soon. I’ve got your speech all typed out already, but I need to know our new city is going to be called. Have you come up with a name yet?" 

Twilight’s face scrunched up in thought as Trixie looked on expectantly. Hmm, Spike Central? No, that’s stupid. Phoenix’s Perch? Maybe, but I should think on it more first. "Let me get back to you on that," she finally said. Trixie nodded and walked off, allowing Twilight to return to her quarters to unwind a bit.

Back in her room, Twilight laid down on her bed in her recently refurbished cabin in the new city. I wonder if the others have arrived yet, she thought, turning her gaze skyward just as a small ball of light streaked across the sunset, moving east since this new world rotated counterclockwise. For a moment, Twilight found herself entranced as she recalled the last time she’d had the pleasure of seeing one, back in her room in Canterlot. Her eyes eventually wandered, which allowed her to notice the gold tiara perched in her glass cabinet. It belonged to Celestia. She had sacrificed herself to ensure survival... That's it! I’ve got it!

......

It’s not like Twilight to be late for something, Trixie thought to herself as she trotted down the hallway leading to Twilight's quarters, I wonder what's keeping her. She has seemed a little down ever since we landed, maybe that has something to do with it. Reaching the door, she raised her hoof to press the doorbell when the door swished opened and an excited Twilight barreled out. Trixie barely had time to blink before she got run over, causing them both to fall the floor with a cascade of meaty thuds. Twilight was the first to recover her higher cognitive functions after their little tumble.

“Trixie, were you looking for me?” she asked sheepishly.

“Yeah, I came to tell you you’re late for the assembly. It’s starting soon and your speech isn’t ready yet.”  Trixie replied with an even and slightly cold tone. “Also, the radar operators reported that another one of our ships has landed. We are still trying to establish radio contact with them but whoever it is, they haven’t had time to set their equipment up.”

“Oh, one of my friends is already here? That’s nice. I haven’t spoken to them in years. It will be great once everypony had landed safely here.”
Twilight replied. She then remembered what she had thought of while in her cabin. “Say Trixie, what do you think about naming this city after Princess Celestia? You know, as a way of honouring her.”

“Celestia? That seems nice but a little weird coming from you. You were always so keen about new things. Always pushing for change while we were back in Equestria. What made you think of that?” Trixie asked, with a questioning tone.

“Well, I don’t want our future generations to not remember their roots Trixie.” Twilight replied with a slightly edgy tone.” Don’t you think it is simply wrong to forget what Princess Celestia has done for us? I know how much I pressured ponies back in Equestria for change, but do we discard any of our Equestrian ethics and moral values for progress? I feel that we should remember her and honor her memory and sacrifice at least. How she had died to ensure we would all continue on.”

“I apologize, Princess. I should not have questioned your ideas. It’s is a nice name, at least.” A now nervous Trixie replied, her eyes staring at the floor, being taken aback by Twilight’s unusually angry demeanour.  

Seeing Trixie’s reaction hit Twilight with a wave of nostalgia as she remembered back when she was still a unicorn staying in Canterlot. She’s just like me back when I was Princess Celestia’s student. Always trying to do her best. If only we can return to the carefree life we had in the past. She sighed. It’s all a daydream now.

Having realized she may have been too hard on her student and assistant, she smiled and said, “It’s ok Trixie, it’s good that you question everything. That means you are inquisitive, and that's a virtue that I’d like to instill in everypony in the colony. It’s wrong for me to be so harsh on you for doing your job, and I apologize for that."  “No, no, it’s quite alright, I assure you,” Trixie nervously replied. In an attempt to change the subject matter and to improve the mood, Twilight levitated her computer tablet and said, "Send me the latest draft for the assembly, i want to add a personal touch to it."

“Right away, your Highness!”


......

The walk to the auditorium was a relatively quiet one, the silence only broken by the constant clicking coming from her computer tablet. Twilight was busily rewriting certain parts of the speech and building on others, in an attempt to make as good as possible. She secretly wished that Spike was still around to be her personal assistant but Spike had insisted that Trixie (as her new student) should take that role. No, he would continue to assist from behind-the-scenes much as Owlicious did. Or at least as much as he could now that he’s grown. Plus, she noticed that now that he was older, a wanderlust seemed to have hit him much as it did other dragons that were his age. As such, he now took a more “proactive” role in the government. In fact, he insisted that he join the initial scouting party that explored the surrounding landscape. While she was concerned for him, she had to accept that he wasn’t a baby anymore and had to respect his wishes in the matter.  

Rounding the last bend, Twilight continued walking, the doors to the auditorium looming at the end of the main hallway. Pushing the doors open, Twilight saw the auditorium was packed with all the ponies put under her charge. Walking down the path, she saw some familiar faces among the crowd, including Senior Human Technology Researcher Lyra and Head Space Travel Researcher Time Turner to name a few. She remembered how she had met them back in Equestria and recruited them into the program to bring them to other worlds after they showed some talents in their later assigned fields. They had become a well-knit team and Twilight had personally asked them to join her group which to her delight, they gladly accepted.

“My fellow ponies, changelings, griffins, dragons, zebras, and other colonists. This day marks our first week in a brave new world,” Twilight started. “ We may have left Equuis behind, but her legacy lives on!” The room suddenly became extremely loud as everyone in respond shouted and clapped in agreement with Twilight’s statement. This lasted for several seconds before Twilight signalled for silence. “In the beginning, things will be harsh for us. Our knowledge of this world is limited, and our city is minimal at best. But I believe that with enough hard work and advancements in the sciences, we can overcome these challenges. Remember, we are the Sparkle Scientific Union! Whatever mysteries or challenges we encounter, we will unravel them! Our motto is: ‘To push the boundaries of Science!’ To venture into the unknown and to bring back advances for the good of every single race from Equestria! That has been the aim of our union and look at everything it has brought us. It saved the inhabitants of Equestria from the death of Celestia’s star. It brought convenience into our lives. It represented a shining beacon of light and hope in the darkest moments in our history. And here on this new world, that beacon will glow brighter than ever! We will require everypony’s helping hooves to make this dream a reality, but a reality it can become. We will represent the pinnacle of the evolution of our species, and build a new paradise for ourselves and for our children and our children's children! LONG LIVE THE S.S.U. !” The assembled crowd broke out into a deafening cacophony of cheers and applause. After they quieted down, Twilight continued her speech, “ I have some plans for the first city for our union.” As she said that, the holographic projector flickered on in response. Turning to the nearly completely formed hologram, Twilight slipped the hologram communicator onto the side of her ear. It had a small see-through display, but it tracked her hoof movements, allowing her to directly manipulate the hologram being displayed. It was always her favourite way of presentation back on Equus, and stayed her favorite after they’d left as she found it a good way to illustrate her points.

The hologram revealed a completed layout of their first city. Twilight had a tendency to be extremely careful and had always triple checked her work. The hologram was showing a overall view of the blueprints and concept art for the city, giving both an idea of how it was now, and how it would look later. Twilight gestured to a section of the city plan and the hologram in reply zoomed in on the particular section. After zooming in, the hologram displayed all the notes written by Twilight, filling the entire stage with holograms of charts, notes and building models.

“Ok, I want this part of the city to house all the research and development facilities. The Analysis labs will be located near the planned maglev rail system to facilitate transportation of alien samples. Mechanical Research and Fabrications go over by the Military Academy to minimise disturbances to any research taking place in the Electronics and Material Application facilities. There are sensitive electronics in there everypony and I don’t want our first solar collector to fall out of the sky. We’re running low on resources and losing one of those satellites so early on will cost us greatly.” Seeing some confused looks among the crowd, Twilight then gestured at a box of text somewhere at the top of the the mess of boxes. The hologram then pulled the highlighted panel to the middle to display a model of the solar collector along with the related notes. “For those who do not know, a solar collector is a basic satellite with numerous solar panels fixed on it. The satellite will generate electricity before beaming it down to a receiver on the ground at certain intervals. It is designed to stay up for 20 years before its orbit decays and it crashes back to the surface.”  She then moved the picture of the Hologram to another part of the layout. “This area will be for agricultural use and the raising of animals for those of us who are not vegetarians, such as the griffins. Early on, we’ll be dependent primarily on hydroponics and greenhouses, as well as aquaculture for fish. After we figure out what is safe and unsafe to eat from this world, as well as finish making our own plants and animals able to survive outdoors, we will start to establish fields, pastures, and fish ponds on the outskirts of the Southern Sector. For the time being, we’re working on research to fully develop the experimental Sonic Fencing to protect the borders of our town from any potential hostile native wildlife.”  The Princess stopped for a moment to let the information sink in, then continued with her speech. “Now, before I let everypony here go back to their assignments and set up our new home away from Equuis, I wish to inform you what I have decided to name it. Now, we have all lost much: loved ones, families, friends, and homes. I will always have a special place set aside in my heart for my mentor and second mother, Princess Celestia. However, she was not a mother only to me, but to all the citizenry of our old Empire. Therefore, in honor of her memory, I have decided to name our first Colony after her. From now on, this city shall be known as Celestia!” With that, after a moment of silence, there was a slow clap that eventually broke out into a roaring noise of clapping and stomping of hooves in approval of the name given to their new home. She allowed herself a sad smile. While her mentor may be gone, her legacy and memory would live on. “Let us and our descendants never forget where we came from, or who we are. Even in this new home,” she said with a mixture of pride, joy, and sadness. She then shut off the hologram and concluded, “Now, back to work, everypony! dismissed.” After a brief applause and more cheering, the crowd dispersed and went off to their assigned tasks.  

While the group dispersed, Twilight was escorted by a squad of Royal Guards back to her quarters. When she entered, she finally broke her composure and exhaled deeply. She allowed herself to slouch a little and some of the fatigue brought on by her responsibilities shown through. She levitated a chair from nearby and put it in front of the display case holding Princess Celestia’s old crown. She then trotted over to the chair and collapsed onto it, sighing heavily. She gazed at the crown with sad eyes, barely able to hold back the tears. “You favorite student did good, Princess Celestia. I got us away from the dying world and was able to transported us to a new home. But now, the real struggle beings.” She then put her hoof upon the glass case, as she looked deeply into the crown, as if doing so would somehow give her the solace she sought. It was then that she heard a beeping noise, only to be followed up by Trixie Lulamoon speaking. It seemed the communication system was up and running. “Princess Sparkle, I hate to bother you,” she started, “but we just received word that Princess’ Dash and Fluttershy have made landfall. We are trying to contact them now, but so far, we haven’t been able to get a clear signal from either landing party.” 

“Any guess as to when we may be able to talk to them?” Twilight asked. “Not really, no. I’m sorry,” Trixie in turn replied sadly. “I understand,” Twilight said, “I’ll be at the office before going to the meeting with the researchers in about an hour. I need a moment to freshen up and to get a quick bite to eat.”  

“Understood,” Ms. Lulamoon acknowledged, “I’ll be there when you arrive. Trixie, out.”
> 3.b.) A rushed landing (Rainbow Dash)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai, Architect
Editors: Savoured Thoughts



“I don’t know what we’ll see when we reach our new home. But I have no doubt it will be awesome! Just as soon as I give Twilight a piece of my mind” ~Princess Rainbow Dash’s log. Day 1





The Princess of Loyalty entered the hibernation chamber and walked over to the console in the middle of the room, tapping at a few of the controls. As soon as she cleared the huge array of security scans and passwords, the statis system powered down and the individual pods begin to open up.  

“Wake up!” Rainbow yelled. Seeing the rest of the suspended crew had woke up just fine, she pulled up her tablet, typing orders to the current crew that was maintaining the ship to prepare for landing. “Rise and shine everypony,” she barked, “There’s no time for recaf. Twi’s gone off the deep end again and we need to find out what she’s up to! Move, move, move! We need to get to the surface, pronto!”  

“Princess, there’s no way we can get the lander ready in less than an hour,” replied Scoots as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves.

“Scoots, you got twenty minutes… tops,” Rainbow Dash replied back, “Also get the other Princess’ on the line and tell them what just happened. I’m pretty sure AJ will insist on going ahead of the others to make sure it’s safe for them and to check on me and my ‘impulsiveness’.”

“I’ll, do what I can,” Scootaloo replied back with a sigh and a quick, curt bow before she galloped off.  

As the now awake medical crew went to tend to the ponies that were waking up from stasis, Rainbow trotted across the ship to her cabin. Stepping inside, she looked at her collection of mementos, things that were little mementos from Equestria: the array of badges from her time in the Wonderbolts, her collection of Daring Do Novels, pictures from Cloudsdale, Ponyville, and Griffonstone, and so on. She only hoped that Twi’s experimental grav-manipulation technology would work and keep her valuables from flying everywhere during landing. She didn’t exactly have much time for packing after all. 

She sighed deeply in nostalgia and went to her personal locker, performing a series of quick taps upon the door’s number pad. It popped open with a pneumatic hiss, and Rainbow removed her space suit and before closing the storage unit back up. Hurry made donning the suit more difficult than usual, causing her to fumble and fume as she messed with the snaps and zippers. A knocking on her chamber door came just as she finally managed to get her wings into their slots, allowing her to spread them even if flight was no longer possible.

“Who is it?” She grumbled as she worked to get the last parts of her suit on, “Ponyfeathers, this buckin’ thing is always such a pain in th-”

“CO Scootaloo requesting permission to enter,” Scootaloo yelled from the other side of the door.  

“Granted,” Dash yelled back as she performed a last-minute check of the seals on her suit.
Scootaloo trotted into the room with her own space suit on and a dataslate strapped to her belt, along with a small sidearm. A Silenced “Changeling 11” variant of some sort from what Dash could see of it.

After setting up the last parts of her suit and doing a quick stretch, Rainbow asked, “ You here to give me that status report, Scoots?”

“Yes ma’am, I am,” she confirmed, “Jeez, I’m rhyming like Zecora, aren’t I?” She groaned, causing Dash to snicker.

After a slightly annoyed snort followed by a grunt to clear her throat, Scootaloo grabbed her dataslate and continued, “The techs and engineers said they still can’t get the pod ready to go in twenty minutes or less, but they said that if they push it, they can be ready to go in forty-five minutes. Also, the other crews are waking the remaining Elements now, and will inform them of the situation as soon as they regain consciousness.”

“Glad to hear they’re waking up,” Rainbow mumbled while pulling on one of her boots with her teeth “and while I can’t wait to see their expressions when they hear of Twi’s latest faux pas, we need to land asap. Keep pushing those eggheads to get the lander up and running,” Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo, who nodded sharply. When she didn’t say anything else, Rainbow blinked and continued, “If that’s everything, you’re free to go.”

“Right away, Princess,” Scootaloo replied with a bow as she rushed out the door, which came within two inches of closing on her tail in her haste to shut it.  

After doing a last minute check of her suit (yes, it was excessive, but she didn’t want a repeat of what came to be known as the “vacuum bed incident”), Rainbow Dash quickly exited her room and shut it behind her, then kicked the button that reset the entry codes.

A group of armed Royal Guards were waiting for her a few feet down the hall, and they fell into step around her as she started to walk off. While a part of her old self hated having to be protected, she knew it was a necessary evil that came with the title of Princess. She was just grateful that she actually got to know the guards that were assigned to her, and that they were very good at their job. Indeed, she personally oversaw many of the reforms made for Wonderbolt and Royal Guard training after several incidents involving the changelings (the most memorable of which involved Discord and a very large puddle of gelatin).  

One of the guards cleared his throat and said, “Your Highness, the Armory is fully functional. Gilda and Greta are on standby and are waiting for you to show up. They want to make sure all troops have their firearms and other necessary gear out before landing.”  

“Glad to hear at least something’s staying on schedule around here,” Rainbow Dash replied, “I want to go check on that, hang a left up here.”

“As you wish, your Highness,” said the guard with a curt nod, not so much as slowing down as they turned the corner.

After walking down a series of hallways with her retinue, Rainbow Dash finally approached the armory. Behind the bars that were used to protect the weapons, ammo, and other equipment was her old friend Gilda, and another griffin by the name of Greta. “About time ya showed up ‘Princess’,” Gilda replied with a smug smirk, hefting a box of ammunition onto the counter.

“Well, you know me Gilda, I kinda have my hooves full here, running this band of refugees I’ve been put in charge of. I’ll let you advise me on how to do my job after you pass the qualification exam for a leader of a nation-in-exile,’” Dash replied with a slight frown that indicated she was not in the mood for dealing with Gilda’s usual pile of griffin feathers.

“Yeah, well maybe I’d be in a better mood if I hadn’t been woken up so early from induced hibernation due to Twi deciding to go all ‘Daring-Do’ because her curiosity overrode her common sense, or lack thereof, in her case,” she quipped as she went searching through a rack of rifles on a nearby wall.

“Rest assured, I feel the same way. Egghead will have some explaining to do when I find her,” Rainbow Dash replied in agreement. “So do you have my gear ready?”

“Yeah yeah. Hold yer horses, Princess. We’re diggin’ your stuff out right now,” Gilda grumbled as she and Greta were checking the various assorted weapon racks in the Armory.

After several minutes, Gilda found Dash’s preferred weapons of choice: a Griffinikov Rifle, a Desert Griffin Pistol, and a saber. “You know the drill, Highness, read off the serial numbers on the weaponry,” Gilda said.  

Rolling her eyes, Dash replied, “It’s still the same serial number it’s always been on all three. Charlie-Lima-Romeo-One-One-Zero because...”  

“They were custom made for you, I know,” Gilda finished, “Look, don’t be a hard plot Dash and just fill out the Sun-cursed paperwork.”  

“Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s your job,” Dash replied with a snarky grin. Greta chuckled a bit as she went to rearrange the weaponry in the back.  

Gilda grumbled and handed Dash a tablet with the armory forms displayed. “Sign your weapons out… please,” Gilda said through a gritted beak.

“For a friend, sure,” Dash said with a smile and a wink as she signed out the weapons. She continued, “Gilda, make sure whatever isn’t signed out is…”  

“Locked down for the landing! I know! We’ve done drills for that for years, you don’t have to remind me” she fumed.  

“Hundreds of times,” Dash agreed, “I’m just making sure because that’s my job. If any of the stuff here goes off while landing...”  

“Rest assured, I know what will happen. More than you do in fact. Remember the asteroid that gave us a glancing blow two years back? It knocked a rifle loose which almost took my head off,” Gilda griped, then commented, “Here… five 30 round mags for the Griffinikov and five 20 round mags for the Desert Griffin. Sign them out as usual,” she said as she handed out the ammo magazines and swiped to another form on the tablet..

Dash quickly pressed her hoof against it for her signature and after another quick inspection of her weapons and ammo, she said, “Thanks Gilda. I got to get to the bridge now, be there for landfall and all that. I’ll be expecting to see you there as soon as you’ve finished.”  

Gilda smiled back and said, “Of course I’ll be there. We’re flight sisters, remember? Signed in blood and bathed in flames? Although I would argue that I got the good looks of the family.”

“Of course you would,” Dash chortled as her guards and she left the Armory.  

After doing yet another check on her own and her guards’ gear, and performing a last minute field inspection of her troops and the landing craft; Dash and her retinue went to take their positions on the bridge. The operation had taken longer than she liked, but the lander was finally ready, and her hooves were itching to walk on the surface of a real planet again. After putting her personal weaponry into a nearby weapons rack, locking said weapons down, and doing a last-minute check of her suit and its vacuum-seal locks, she strapped herself into her command chair. She looked over at Gilda (who had somehow managed to beat her to the bridge), Scootaloo, and the others, then took a deep breath, and exhaled, counting to 4 in her head to ease the tension.

“Systems check,” Princess Dash ordered.

“Air mixture is nominal,” Scootaloo replied, “Air pressure is nominal, no sign of leaks, etc… all lights are green.”

“Gilda-” Rainbow Dash started to ask.

“I know, I know,” Gilda interrupted, “Greta’s assured me all the gear is locked down and she’s strapped down in a seat in the Armory. She’ll be there to babysit our stack of ‘dakka.’”

“Right, let’s get to it, then,” Dash commented with a nod. “Scoots, start the countdown.”

“You heard the mare,” Scoots barked to the pilot and co-pilot, “Start the countdown!”

Spitfire replied, “Aye ma’am! Put all stations on orange alert! Starting atmospheric entry in ten…”

Rainbow Dash looked calmly upon the others around her, there was no going back now.

“Nine!”

Gilda, as usual, was all bluster and bravado on the surface. Whether she truly felt that way on the inside was another matter altogether.

“Eight!”

Scoots was busy turning dials and pressing buttons, as well as typing in commands on various touch screens.

“Seven!”

Dash noticed that Spitfire and Thunderlane were also quite busy making last-second adjustments prior to detachment.

“Six!”

Rainbow heard a slight hissing noise as various hoses and other attachments started to detach themselves from the lander.

“Five!”

The landing craft started to drift away as it went into position for entry.

“Four!”

Various thrusters went off outside as it adjusted itself into the proper angle and position needed for entry.

“Three!”

Rainbow Dash looked upon Spitfire nearby, who was nervously typing onto a keypad, making more last-second calculations with the lander’s AI, making sure the route they took through the atmosphere was the safest one, and that enough fuel was left for the retrorockets to cushion the landing.  

“Two!”

Rainbow quickly yelled out, “This is it everypony! Brace yourselves!”

“One!”

The Princess of Loyalty continued, “Commend our souls to the Two Sisters.”

“Beginning entry,” Spitfire yelled out as the craft started to jar, shake, and warm-up upon initial contact with the alien planet’s atmosphere. 

……

After eight long and tense minutes of the craft shaking as it descended, they touched down in a mountainous region. It was pretty close to where Twilight’s colony had landed hence for them deciding to land there. As soon as she landed, she left Scootaloo to oversee the initial setting up of their city. “I’ll do my best!” Scootaloo had replied enthusiastically, not wanting to disappoint her idol. Gathering some supplies, she took a small group of the soldiers under her command and set off.

‘Twilight has been getting a little too adventurous recently. She was supposed to wait for us before landing. What the buck was she thinking? That’s usually my thing!’ Rainbow thought to herself. ‘Either way, I’ll find out later.‘

Rainbow Dash spread her wings to fly. The pegasi among the detachment sent to accompany her also started to fly. Rainbow Dash took off, her larger wings allowing her to quickly accelerate into the sky. She streaked into the air, her first real flight in over ten years. She closed her eyes and flew up higher and higher, wanting to see how high can she go. Back in Equestria, she was usually able to fly up to a height of six times the height that Cloudsdale hovered before she ascended. She was grateful Twi taught her spells that allowed her body to function temporarily without oxygen for the upper parts of the atmosphere, and to shrug off the effects of extreme cold and wing icing. Feeling a familiar strain she often felt whenever she was about to reach her maximum flying height possible, she opened her eyes to survey the area.

Only one small problem. Despite being an alicorn, she was to her dismay only hovering at one third of the maximum flight height she achieved back in Equestria. The air already here was rather thin, hence not allowing Rainbow Dash to generate enough lift to be able to fly higher. She looked down and saw that her guards were much lower than her trying to fly up to where she is. They were barely managing to get up to where she is. ‘Well then, it looks like flying is out of the way. Dammit. The best we’re going to be able to do is skimming treetops and flying over bodies of water. Still better than nothing.


“Okay then guards, form up on me. Make a defensive circular perimeter.” Rainbow Dash shouted to the detachment that followed her. “I’m going to try teleportation.” She landed and the guards all stood in a circle around her. In her mind, she visualised the runes and thought of the destination as Twilight has shown her. Seeing the runes in her head, Rainbow started to channel her magical energy… only to her dismay to find out that she is unable to charge it to the required energy to teleport. What the hell is going on. I need to check with Twilight if this is normal.

“New plan, we’re walking there. Looks like advanced magic and flight for us is out. Only short teleports and hovering.” Rainbow Dash said to her guards. "The sooner we get to Twilight, the faster we’ll know what’s going on."

For the next few days, they travelled. Rainbow Dash noticed several things about the land. For starters, natural resources like copper and titanium, which back in Equestria required deep mines were readily out in the open. There was also these weird glowing rocks that were levitating in the air. Initially, she had yelled out for Discord to show himself as it reminded her way too much of when they took him down. But after an hour of fruitless searching for the God of Chaos, she gave up. Instead opting to with the help of a guard's pocket knife, chip off a chunk of the rocks to let Twilight study. 

Soon Twilight's city lay in sight. Already, Rainbow Dash could see a few farms and generator facilities already built and running. One of them there noticed Rainbow Dash and immediately bowed. 

"Where is Twilight Sparkle?" Rainbow Dash asked after they were done greeting her.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle came by a few hours ago to check on our facilities before heading back to the city. Would you like us to take you there?" The manager asked.

"Yeah sure. Err... what's your name?" Rainbow asked.

"Name is Lemon Hearts, Princess Dash." Lemon Hearts replied. "Follow me! I'll take you to her." She turned and advanced towards the city.

The group walked with her. As they headed towards the center, Rainbow dash could see that Twilight had sectored different parts of the city for different purposes with everything organised based on what they do. Geez, it’s like Twilight’s in city form. Her OCD is flaring up again after we left.

Lemon Hearts brought Rainbow Dash towards the research sector. She pointed towards the main building and said, "Princess Twilight is in there. Check with her assistant Trixie. She will try to schedule you a time with Princess Twilight. It’s nice seeing you again Princess Dash. Hope you visit again after you’ve settled down." Lemon Hearts saluted before heading back.

They stepped into the building. In front of them was the reception area. Two guards were stationed at the opposite end of the room. Upon noticing Rainbow Dash, they walked over and saluted. 

"Welcome Princess Rainbow Dash. I am Captain Flash Sentry." The orange pegasus guard identified himself. "Princess Twilight Sparkle is currently in a discussion with her senior researchers. She should be out soon."

"So Flash Sentry huh, how's the posting so far? You enjoying it?" Rainbow Dash teased. 

Flash Sentry started to blush. "Err, Princess Dash, can we please keep it professional?" The other guards started to snicker among themselves. Twilight's crush on Flash was well known among the guards back in Equestria. With him posted to be in charge of ensuring Twilight's security, that made him the target of much teasing.

Thankfully, before they could continue teasing Flash, the doors to the room opened. Twilight strolled out with her retinue of scientists. When she noticed Rainbow Dash standing there, a smile broke out of Twilight as she ran up to hug Rainbow.

"It's good to see you again Dash." Twilight happily said.

"Yeah, it’s good to see you again Twi. Hey, can I talk to you for a sec. I need to ask you some things." Rainbow Dash replied.

"Okay. The meeting room is cleared up, maybe we can talk in there?" 

"Fine by me."

Twilight and Dash entered the meeting room, their guards staying outside. As soon as the door was closed. Rainbow Dash started the conversation

"Okay, there are some things I want to ask and show you, Twilight.” Opening up her saddlebag, she pulled out the sample of rocks she took. "We found this while on our way here." Looking at Twilight's now surprised look, she guessed that she also didn’t know what were these rocks. "Yes, it’s floating. I thought at first Discord was back, but after spending an hour looking for him, I gave up. Thought you eggheads would know why."

"It's... it’s defying the laws of gravity itself! I've never seen something that is able to create an anti-gravity field without a source of magic!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yeah, go figure how it works." Rainbow said. "Secondly, our magic seems to not really work here." 

"Really?" Twilight asked. "Everything seems to work just fine." To prove her point, she levitated several of the chairs in the room.

"Yes, telekinesis still works, but try teleporting or any of the advanced spells that you know. I couldn't teleport here." Rainbow Dash replied

"Why would you even want to teleport here if there is the holographic meeting system that was packed into all our crafts? You could have just set it up." Twilight asked.

"That brings me to my third question." Rainbow said, "What in Equestria were you thinking! You were supposed to wait for all of us before agreeing on what to do! Do you know how BUCKING WORRIED I was when you flew off like that without telling us first!? Being the impulsive one that charges to the front first is my job, not yours! Who knows what could’ve happened to you down on this strange, new planet while I was still trying to get here!?”  

“I- I truly am sorry,” Twilight stammered, taken aback by Dash’s fuming rant. The scientists and other workers also stopped for a moment and looked on in silent shock at the fury of the enraged Blue Alicorn. Twilight’s Guards slowly gathered around her and Dash’s Guards responded in kind.  

“Stand down,” Twilight ordered to her troops, “she has every right to be angry at me.” Twilight’s Royal Guards then started to slowly back away and Dash’s troops did the same. Twilight then cleared her throat and continued, “Dash-I-I really am sorry. It’s just here was a whole new planet and my curiosity and desire for knowledge overcame me and-”

Seeing how Twilight really was upset for making Rainbow Dash angry and worried, the cyan princess put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, and with a knowing smile sighed and said, “I should’ve known. Typical Egghead Twi. That always was you, always eager to find out something new, even if you didn’t always think through about what the consequences of it could be. Sometimes, I think we have more in common at times than either of us would care to admit.”  

Then the most unlikely thing happened, Rainbow Dash started to chuckle. This in turn started to make the purple alicorn chuckle. This in turn led to both of them bursting into outright uproarious laughter and to them both hugging each other. After they wiped away the tears from their eyes, Twilight commented, “Heh heh… well, you may have a point there, especially after I started to get you in turn interested in reading way back when you started to encourage me to do laps with you after my ascension. Still, now that you’re here, let me lead you to my office where we can catch up and plan out what we should do next.”  

“Sounds good to me Twi’,” Dash agreed as she and her guards in turn followed Princess Sparkle, her own guards, and the remainder of her retinue.

The next day, Rainbow Dash was off. Twilight had shown to Rainbow Dash some of the new prototypes in the lab that her group had started working on. They spent the day before that touring the budding city and catching up with each other. Soon it was time to bid farewell. Before she left, she marked out the location of her city so that they could send supplies to each other.

The next few days of travelling was uneventful. Nothing has changed much on the route. The only thing that changed much was that a green fog had appeared over the horizon. Upon reaching the city however to her surprise, her godsister wasn't among the ponies that welcomed her back. Instead she found Scootaloo at the newly set up clinic. 

"Hey squirt, what happened?" Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo ìn respond pushed herself upright on the hospital bed. After a small burst of coughing, she replied, “I'm fine, just accidentally inhaled some of the green fog that appeared yesterday to the north."

"The green fog? What were you doing there?" A concerned Rainbow Dash asked.

"I didn’t go there on my own accord. I went there to find Derpy Hooves. She went in there yesterday to explore, and when the fog moved in, she did not come out. I went in to save her. She was unconscious." Scootaloo replied, tilting her head to the direction of the other bed before coughing again

The mare in question was lying down on the other bed sleeping with an oxygen mask strapped to her.

"The doctor said that she’ll be fine. Just have to clear out any of the fog in her system. She mentioned the air smelling a bit like muffins when she regained conscious about five hours ago." Scootaloo said behind her.

‘Oh Derpy, what have you gotten yourself into this time?’
> 3.c.) What is that thing (Fluttershy)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: Brother Malachai
Co-Author: May I Cut In, Architect



“A brand new world, where new fauna awaits us. The potential things we can learn from co-existing with them is a venture we need to explore.” ~Princess Fluttershy





Fluttershy awoke from her long slumber a bit more suddenly than she liked.  She was told that awaking from the induced hibernation cycle would be a bit rough on the system, even for an Alicorn, but this was even harder than she originally expected.  After getting an okay from several Doctors (and a few shots of recaf), she went to go meet her two technical and scientific officers.  She was informed of Princess Sparkle’s unusually brash behaviour and her insistence on an immediate landing upon the new world and of Rainbow Dash’s immediate pursuit.  “Oh my, they are landing already?   Prepare the colonization pod for immediate landing,” she replied in turn as she, Angel Bunny, and her retainers rushed forth to get the supplies she in turn would need for landing. 

While having a bunch of ponies and various other sentient races rushing around her, trying to set up and put away equipment for the rushed departure she saw a familiar face.  Ordering around and supervising the ponies and other people was a familiar minotaur in a space suit, and was in turn accompanied by his retinue of goats, who were also in space suits.   “Iron Will wants you to get a move on lil’ ponies!  Iron Will says, ‘Don’t Delay!  We need to land TODAY!!!’,” shouted the familiar minotaur as he checked off some items on a clipboard.  Upon hearing the bleating of his goats, he turned around to see Princess Fluttershy and her retinue of Royal Guards approach.  “Your-your Highness,” he blurted out as he and his band of goats made a series of quick bows.  Unfortunately, Iron Will inadvertently dropped his clipboard while doing this.  After it dropped on the floor and clattered across it a few more times for good measure; it landed at Fluttershy’s hooves.  Iron Will nervously cleared out his throat and then quickly muttered out,  “Erm, sorry about that Princess.”  Immediately afterwards, he kneels down, grabs the clipboard and then quickly dusted himself off after he got back up.  The then did a quick check of his suit to make sure nothing was torn.  After all, what good was a space suit that couldn’t hold air?  

While he was doing this, Fluttershy replied,  “It’s quite all right Iron Will.  I do apologize for the sudden call for a last-minute landing procedure.  It seems Twilight was unusually brash in her insistence on landing first.  Almost to the point of being Rainbow Dash brash, even.”  

Iron Will then did some random flexing and replied,  “Never Fear!  Iron Will is HERE!  I can guarantee you that we will successfully land our colony today or you will get your bits back!”  
In the background, a familiar bodybuilding pegasi flexed a muscle of his own and yelled his Equestrain famous, “YEEEEAAHHHHH!!!!!”  “YEAHHH!!!!  Now that’s the spirit,” Iron Will yelled back to the pony that was obviously a kindred spirit of sorts.  

While she was taken a bit aback by the odd scene in front of her, she was running short on time and Fluttershy had to take care of a few more things before they attempted landing.  “Uhm...I hate to interrupt, but I was wondering if you could tell me where we were landing?”  Iron Will, realizing that he may have overreacted a bit yet again, blushed a bit but then quickly recomposed himself.  

After clearing up his throat, Iron Will pulled out a tablet and handed it over to Fluttershy.  “The maps are on here.  We’re going to attempt to land on this plateau,” he started as he pointed to the plateau on the tablet’s image, “It has a large lake on top of it that turns into a waterfall on one of the edges of the plateau.  In turn, this waterfall feeds a river that flows to a nearby coastline.”  After snaking his finger along the path of the river, he tapped the tablet briefly and it showed a closer shot of the plateau from one of the orbital photos the spaceship made.  “As you can see, there’s a lot of vegetation in the area.  A mix of trees and giant fungi.  It seems the plateau itself has a lot of both jungle and swamp land. We’re going to be very dependent on you and Zecora to help us starting out as both of you know a lot about the outdoors,” Iron Will concluded as he put the tablet away.  

Fluttershy put a hoof up to her chin and then replied, “Yes, but that was on Equestria.  Still, rest assured, we shall do our best to ensure the survival of the colony.”  

“Well, I would expect nothing less from a former student of mine,” Iron Will in turn replied with a smile,  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got to get back to work.  Move it everypony!  Clocks tickin’!”  And Iron Will stomped off, with his motley of goats in tow.  

Fluttershy sighed, smiled and shook her head.  That old minotaur has hardly changed a bit.  Still, who would’ve suspected he was a family person?  Sure, he was driving the ponies and other beings under him hard, but he wouldn’t ask of them what he couldn’t do himself.  And, as it was with the other beings her, the stakes were high for him too.  He had not only to be concerned with his well being, but that of his wife and son as well.  She remembered him jokingly telling her that he hoped to set up a new Labyrinth for him and his family at some point when they finally got a bit more settled down on the surface after the initial chaos that will initially come with colonizing a new world.   Still, the Princess hoped no one would snap under his supervision.  The results would be a bit...unpleasant, to say the very least.  Still, such concerns would have to be dealt with in the future.  For now, she had to make sure everything was properly prepared for the landing and initial set-up of the colony to come.  

After a hectic several hours of preparation and a tense landing procedure, her colony was able to make touchdown within a mixture of swamp and rainforest on a large continental mass.  The swamps and forests were a tangled mass of fungi, incredibly large trees, and a morass of vines, weeds, and grasses. However, certain parts of the place were covered in a dense green fog. It had an ominous feel to it to say the least. and it seemed to be alive with the soft pulsing movements within it. The fog was initially covering their landing site but as their landing craft approached the ground, the fog backed away as if told to do so. Nobody paid attention to it though as they were captivated by the sight of the ground approaching them. Everypony was excited about their tasks except for Fluttershy. She still had her hooves covering her eyes and shivered in fear when the landing craft had finally safely touched down onto the ground. 

It took her second in command, Zecora,several minutes to convince her that they are now safely on the ground. “My dear Fluttershy, now is not the time to cower.” Zecora started ‘ You are a princess, not a wilting flower.” That was all that was needed to get her to snap her out of her cowering state and for her to start helping the others with setting up the city. 
For a princess Zecora thought to herself with a smile She is still as shy as ever. 

……


After a few days of dismantling the spaceship for parts needed to build their first colony, Fluttershy stood alone in the meeting room in front of the camera system. In front of her was 5 hologram emitters arranged in a curved formation. Her crew had landed far away from where Rainbow and Twilight has landed, hence the need for the communications systems Twilight had created while back in Equestria. Pushing the button on the desk, the desktop monitor booted up, displaying the status of the system. Moving the mouse awkwardly with her telekinesis, Fluttershy selected the “contact all” option. After waiting for about 10 minutes while the system connected and sent notifications to the others, finally one of the indicators under the hologram emitters turned green and a hologram of Twilight appeared in real-time. 

“Hi Fluttershy!” Twilight beamed, “It’s so good to see you! It’s been such a long time since we  last spoke. How was the trip?” 

“Oh, it was a little boring. I spent most of my time in suspended sleep, so I did not know much of what happened.” Fluttershy replied. At the same time, a second indicator for another emitter lit up and Rainbow visualised right next to Twilight. “Sup egghead. Hey Fluttershy, hows has it been?” Rainbow said. Twilight in reply to Rainbow’s teasing rolled her eyes. 

‘Girls please. Lets not starting teasing each other just as soon we meet. It’s been years since we were together.” Fluttershy replied, glancing at Rainbow. 

Rainbow simply snickered. “Oh Flutters, you're still such a big softie. I thought you would be more hardened after dealing with those faction leaders. Those troublemakers…”

“Rainbow” Twilight said, arching an eyebrow. “ There will always be other ponies that will always be resistant to change, but they will eventually see the way. Of course, it helps to show them the way.”

“Honestly, I think that we should build those ‘re-education’ camps that Starlight Glimmer build in her little village a long time ago.” Rainbow Dash replied . “Best way to get them to stop disrupting you Twilight . I lost count on how many times i was awoken from the middle of sleep just to deal with another possible raid on one of your Research Facilities.”

“Remember on how we agreed on not talking about that period anymore girls.” Fluttershy finally interrupted. “I believe that they were simply lost and I feel that it is up to me to guide them back with kindness. And that worked out well in the end.”

“Ok. This is going nowhere of any practical use” Twilight concluded. “Now, lets get down to the technical stuff.” On the live feed of Twilight, Fluttershy saw Twilight levitate her tablet computer from off screen and there was the sound of it being slid into place on the monitor on her side. A stylus held in her telekinesis appeared as well and moved to where the tablet was. A few taps here and there and then a report appeared on Fluttershy’s monitor. 

“Here’s the lab reports on some of the samples on the wildlife and materials we managed to collect.” Twilight summarised. “ Most of the local flora is edible although it is not exactly as tasty as back in Equsteria. The yellow crystals scattered around on the surface have a unique property. It’s is extremely unreactive, existing in its pure form naturally. It also has properties similar to silicon, a semiconductor that we widely used back in Equestria for our computer parts. Given time, we can incorporate it into our computers, allowing for more advanced and much more powerful computers. One more thing, do not walk into the green fogs that appear from time to time. We haven’t had the chance to collect a good sample of it but it is harmful to us.” She paused after seeing Fluttershy’s confused look. Sighing, she nudged her head in the direction of Rainbow. 

Rainbow simply said: ”Eh. Derpy flew into one of those green clouds. Breathed in a lot of the fog but it seems to not really do much damage to her. A few days later and she will be fine. Warned everypony to stay out of it just in case.”

“Oh. I’ll warn everypony about it as well.’ Fluttershy trailed off, remembering what happened earlier on...

(12 hours after landing)

“Zecora, can you manage everypony for a while? I want to go check out the fauna on this planet” Fluttershy asked.

“Fluttershy, take heed. You know I can lead,” Zecora replied with a smile, “Now go.  Find out more about this mysterious plateau.”

She flew off from the budding city. After flying for a while, she saw a herd of the alien wildlife that the lifeform scanner had picked up before they landed. She landed behind a small group of bushes to observe them with the patience of a bird watcher. She was so busy observing them that she did not notice the green fog rolling in behind her. Only when the fog engulfed her then she finally noticed it. With a yelp, she jumped up to fly away but not before she inhaled a good amount of the green fog.

Flying back to the city site, she landed with a thud. Hearing the loud thud, Zecora rushed to her side. “ What do we have here? It seems our Princess has returned in fear.” 

“Oh Zecora! The green fog just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It startled me.” Fluttershy whimpered.

“This fog, I do not see. What you saw, to me, is a mystery.”  Zecora said, gesturing in the direction where Fluttershy flew from. True to the Zebra’s word, the location where Fluttershy was showed no signs of any of the green fog. 

“It just came up. Where did it go?” Fluttershy said in surprise. Not having an answer, Zecora replied,  “Where did it go?  That, dear Princess, I do not know.” 

After a while, Fluttershy got over her fright. She however felt uneasy, almost like if there was somepony or something watching her, observing her…

The Present, Fluttershy’s Conference Room-

“Oh one more thing, Fluttershy. Can you send us the coordinates of your city? We don’t exactly have our satellites capability up and running. I would like to know so that we can start trading whatever excess resources with each other.” Twilight asked.

“Ok. Will do Twilight, i’ll get someone to do it. Im sorry, i’m still not used to these em… new technologies.” Fluttershy apologised, her meekness evident on her face.

“Hey, Twilight, before we end this session, how long is it till your eggheads in your labs finish up those prototype repulsor satellites? I don’t want another repeat of what happened to Derpy out there.” Rainbow quickly interrupted.

“The miasma repulsor? It still a concept Rainbow, we managed to finally find the right frequency for the energy pulses to dispel the fog. But we still haven’t manage to simplify the design to make it feasible to deploy on a satellite.” Twilight answered.

“Aww, come on. What taking ya so long? That thing been creeping closer and closer to my border, too close for my liking.” Rainbow said. “I don’t like it one bit.”

“It will be done Rainbow. I Pinkie Promise that as soon as we finished the first repulsor, i’ll put on the first trade convoy going towards your city. Cross my eye, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.’ Twilight replied, as she accidentally jabbed her eye. “Ow! Why do I always forget this part. After all these years...”

Rainbow on her part just snickered before saying goodbye. Twilight also bade farewell to Fluttershy still rubbing her eye. After they disconnected, Fluttershy left the meeting room. In the hallway she ran into Iron Will. Amusingly, he looked rather shaken up. But he quickly snapped into attention once he noticed Fluttershy. “Princess Fluttershy, there has been an incident in one of our farms at sector 2F. Nobody was hurt but the whole facility is rendered unusable.” He summarised, still standing at attention.”

“What happened? Was anypony hurt?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

‘No one was hurt, Princess Fluttershy. But we agreed you need to see what happened to the place.” Iron Will replied. He replied with the air of confidence he was known for but Fluttershy could see that he was frightened by whatever happened down there.

“Show me what happened. I also want to know how it happened,” Fluttershy replied.

“Of course Princess. Follow me,” Iron Will acquiesced with a bow. 

Fluttershy, accompanied by Iron Will, his goat retinue, and several Royal Guards exited out the conference room and went down several hallways and flights of stairs in what passed as her Royal Palace and HQ in the new colony. While heading towards the exit, Fluttershy asked, “Iron Will, what is the status of the breezies that travelled with us?”  

“Last I checked,” he started, “which was about several hours ago.  We still have them in suspended animation per your orders.  We didn’t want to awake them too early, especially in this hostile landscape.  Sure, we could just keep them indoors, but there’s a good chance of them getting a bad case of Cabin Fever and things going downhill from there.  If I may say so Princess, I think it is best they remain in  artificially-induced hibernation for the time being.  Especially considering...recent events.”  

“While I still do not know what you are talking about,” Fluttershy started, “I do agree that they should not be awoken too soon.  They are a very fragile species and we need to make sure that the colonies we have set up for them are suitable and safe for their use.”  

“Again, apologies for keeping you in the dark,” Iron Will nervously replied as he rubbed the back of his head, “but any report I can give really wouldn’t give a apt description of the situation.  It’s better you see it for yourself.  If anything, we hope that your skills in dealing with flora and fauna might aid us in this...situation.”  

By this point of the conversation, the loose band of leaders, advisors, and military personnel were already heading down one of the dirt paths that barely qualified as streets in the newly founded town.   As they headed down the street they saw troops rushing forward to where this mysterious “incident” supposedly took place as well as some conscripted citizens equipped with what little weaponry and armor that could be scrounged together on short notice.  Unarmed ponies were seen fleeing in the other direction.  Some walking calmly while others galloped away screaming in terror.  

“Oh dear...this doesn’t look very good at all,” Fluttershy commented nervously, “I’m glad I left Angel Bunny at the palace.”  


As they got closer to the farm, she started to see a plume of smoke.  

“How bad is the fire,” Fluttershy asked.  

One of her guards replied,  “We already have fire brigade over there putting out the flames and the EMT’s treating and evacuating the wounded to our Clinic. The Royal Guard are providing additional help and security to make sure that the native lifeforms don’t attack them any further.”  

“Wh-what do you mean any further,” Fluttershy stammered.  

“Princess, it’s probably just best that you see for yourself and ask the people who were there,” the Guard continued with a saddened expression on his face.  While the comment was perplexing and a bit confusing to her, she has learned to trust her guards on matters such as these.  They served her well in their multiple roles of defense, law enforcement, and intelligence gathering.  Still, she could tell from the look on his face, as stoic as it may be, that whatever it was that happened was bad.  Very, very bad.  As she and the others left the outskirts of the town and started going down a path surrounded by fields, barns, and houses, the plume of smoke became larger and larger.  They stopped for a moment as one of the guards held his hoof to his ear, listening in on his headset.  

“Yes...yes, I understand.  Silvertip out,” the Guard finished. “That was once of the technicians at the scene Princess.  They tested out some samples of the smoke.  While inhaling plain smoke is obviously not good for you, the good news is that there’s no artificial mystery chems in the air either.  We’ve been cleared to approach the area.”  

“Very well then, take me there immediately,” Fluttershy ordered.

“Understood Princess,” Silvertip in turn acknowledged with a quick salute.   

They then finally reached the location of the disabled farm. Fluttershy had expected something like a raging fire or that there would be a whole stampeding herd of the alien beetles she saw. What she saw however was shocking. Right in the middle of the farm there was a gigantic, smoking trench right in the middle. The central building was badly damaged, with half of the building left which was leaning precariously into the trench. Seeing one of the ponies who was in charge of maintaining the farm nearby, she walked over to her. 

In response the pony tried to stand up, her face wincing in pain. “Princess Fluttershy...” the pony started.

“No need to stand, you’re hurt Carrot Top. Rest and tell me what happened.” Fluttershy said.  Two other ponies then rushed towards the Princess.  These were two ponies Fluttershy knew rather well from her Ponyville days.  They were the ex-florists-turned-farmers Daisy and Lily. 

“It was awful,” Lily exclaimed.  

“A disaster!  A horrible, horrible disaster,” Daisy in turn yelled.  

Fluttershy could tell the others were a bit panicked, but she had to maintain calm.  The worst thing to happen in an emergency would be for her in turn to panic.  She too was a bit terrified, but she had to do her best to be the center of stability in a chaotic situation.  It was then that she did something she rarely did, even as a Princess, she raised her voice.  She yelled at them,  “Daisy!  Lily!  Calm down!  I know something bad happened, but I need to know exactly what happened!  Now CALM DOWN!”  

Despite all that has happened, Iron Will couldn’t help but smile at his friend Princess Fluttershy.  She has grown up so much over the years.  Having been caught off guard, the other two ponies finally recomposed themselves a bit.  

Daisy started,  “Yes, apologies Princess, the stress of the situation kind of got to us.  Still, it’d probably be better if we told you instead of Rose as she’s pretty banged up at the moment.  Well, you see, we were out here with Rose and we were planting daisy seeds when we heard this low rumbling coming from the ground. We were worried. Then the noise got louder and the next thing I know this thing burst up from the ground and everything was destroyed. Half the central building was gone and i was hit by some of the debris.” 

“What came up from the ground?” Fluttershy pressed on. 

“Something big and scary. It was like an armoured worm with spikes.” Daisy continued

Iron Will then came over. “Princess Fluttershy” he started ”I pulled up some of the security footage from the farm. You might want to take a look.” Holding up his personal tablet, he passed the device over to Fluttershy, a video that was currently paused onscreen. 

Fluttershy took it and and unpaused the video. The scene was calm at first but as the video went on, she could see the recording shake. After a few seconds of this shaking, the ground suddenly exploded up, the twisting body of the worm described earlier on appearing in the trench it now made. Parts of the building fell into the trench as the foundations were destroyed by the worm’s tunneling. Several ponies jumping out of the windows as the section of the building they were in fell into the trench. It was chaos.

Fluttershy could only think of one thing. What is that thing?

> 3.d) A Radient Idea (Rarity)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai



“The beauty of this planet is there, if hidden. It will be nice to bring it out, though the task remains a daunting one. But such deeds are the stuff of legend, are they not? ” ~Attributed to Princess Rarity shortly after landing.





The new planet came into view as the S.S. Opal slipped into orbit, the sphere’s green and blue surface sparkled in the sunlight. To an ordinary pony, it looked just like any other planet, but to Rarity, it was a chance for a fresh start. Her craft’s cargo consisted of many of Equestria’s old artifacts including the Elements of Harmony themselves. The Tree of Harmony could not be uprooted to take with them but somehow Twilight and Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, managed to coax it into giving up the gems. Celestia had believed that with the magic infused into the gems, they would be able to regrow the tree, helping them to establish a foothold on their new home.. 

The transmission she had received from Twilight earlier that day was good news. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had all made it safely and were settling in quite nicely. Now it was her turn.

Preparations for landing were already done. Everypony was at his or her stations, and the ship’s computer was tilting the craft for the final approach. 

“So this is where we are starting a new world isn’t it?” Sweetie Belle, her sister asked.

“Yes Sweetie. Our journey is at an end, You can finally see Scootaloo again and possibly Apple Bloom when she and AJ land,” Rarity replied, looking at the planet. Earlier on, she had with the first pictures from the cameras mounted on Twilight’s recently launched solar collector decided to land in what appears to be a grassland biome. It was relatively flat with a small mountain range to the north.

“It will be great to meet Scoots again. We have so much catching up to do!” Sweetie Belle happily said.

"I also wonder how Twilight and the others are doing as well. But I wonder why did they gone on and settled down that quickly." Rarity said.

"Must have been something that interested them I think." Sweetie Belle replied.

Rarity was about to reply when the craft started shaking as it entered the atmosphere. ‘The conversation can wait.’ She thought.

Eight minutes later, they successfully touched down. Shortly after touching down, the crew got to work, dismantling the ship for useful parts to build their first city. Roughly an hour after they had touched down, convoys from Twilight and Rainbow Dash arrived with some extra supplies. Sweetie Belle was happy of course when she found Scootaloo among the convoy that came from Rainbow Dash. As soon as they met, they began discussing reinstating the Cutie Mark Crusaders club again. Rarity overheard them and thought to herself with a chuckle. ‘At the rate things are going for them, they are not going to find their cutie marks any time soon. Sweetie Bell really needs to work with what she is already good at if she wants one.‘

......

"Hey Scoots, I can't wait till Apple Bloom lands. It’d be like the old days when we’d go crusading for our cutie marks!" Sweetie Belle excitedly said once they were out of earshot of the adults.

"Me too. We literally haven’t had a meeting in years! We had pretty much done all we can back in Equestria, how about trying anew here. Maybe here we can help others get their cutie marks!" Scootaloo replied.

The two crusaders had went about a kilometer away from the landing site on a small hill that overlooked a plain. They were discussing how to continue the club now that they were rather far away from each other

"So what do you think, how should we manage the club now? Do we now run our own branches of the club with where we are, or do we try to meet everyday through the hologram thingy that my sister has?” Sweetie Belle asked

“How about asking our sisters to make the Cutie Mark Crusaders club an official organisation?” Scootaloo suggested.

“I don’t think they will do it, but maybe they could… it sounds like a good idea. Hey, why don’t we go check with them?” Sweetie Belle replied

Both of them continued talking about it. What should their potential new club be called? Who should be in charge of the administration or what? They continued on and did not notice the sun starting to set.

……

“Well I guess we can call it a day everypony. A city doesn't get built in a day but we are on track! Have a good rest, we will continue tomorrow.” Rarity announced to the others as the sun started to set over the horizon. Tents were set up and the food was distributed to them. 

‘I wonder where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo went off to?’ I haven’t seen them since the afternoon. Better start looking for them.’

Spreading out her wings, she took off to look for one of her assistants. She spotted one of them, Coco Pommel having her dinner.

Landing right next to her, the startled assistant looked up to see her princess. “P-princess Rarity?” She stammered. “H-how can I help you?" 

"Have you seen my sister Sweetie Belle around? It's sunset already and she’s nowhere to been seen," Rarity asked, concern etched into her face.

"I think I saw her and the really young mare, Scootaloo head of to the hills towards the north." Coco replied. "Is something wrong?" 

"Nothing really, but could you be a darling and start looking for them?" Rarity asked. That was when she heard a shriek coming from the hills. "Did you hear that! It came from the hills!" 

Before Coco could react, Rarity took off, leaving a rather confused Cocoa wondering what was going on.

......

Sweetie Belle was the first one to notice the setting sun. "Oh dear, we better get going. Rarity will kill me if she finds out that I am not back by sunset."

"Yeah, we best be going." Scootaloo said, getting to her hooves

It was then an alien came into view. It looked like a gigantic green beetle with spikes. However, unlike a beetle, it had a spiked tail with a club on the end and was a quadruped. It was more like a monstrous cross between a beetle and a reptile. If there had been any elderly humans on the planet at the time, they would’ve commented that these creatures (like the ones on the planet they were colonizing), looked more specifically like a cross between a beetle and a extinct Earth animal called a Ankylosaur. The “beetle” was keeping a good distance from them, unsure of what kind of creature Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were. Still, the gigantic mandibles it had made the two ponies doubt it was most certainly not herbivorous. 

While the beetle kept looking at them, both the crusaders were thinking of what is the best course of action to do. Not having any form of weapons to use; the fight response was unavailable. Hence they picked the flight response, and ran away from the alien with a scream.

......

Rarity flew as quickly as she could, the flying lessons from Rainbow Dash proving to be useful. She spied one of the guns from the guards from Rainbow Dash's convoy and yanked it out of the guard's hooves with her telekinesis with an accompanying sorry being said in the guards direction. After a few minutes, she found Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo being chased by what appears to a giant beetle pack. Swooping down, she place herself between the fleeing ponies and siblings. The lead beetle upon noticing another, but much larger version of the potential prey it was chasing stopped and eyed the alicorn.

What do I do next? Sweetie Belle is still not a safe distance and any movement will result in it attacking. The beetle in response decided Rarity was an easy kill and decided to attack. Rarity saw the beetle charge at her and tried to fire off a simple beam of magic. A beam did fly out and struck the beetle, but it shrugged it off and resumed its attack. With a potential mauling almost about to happen to her, she had no choice but to use the gun she had the foresight to ‘borrow’. With the gun in her magical grip, she pointed it at what she assumed was its head and telekinetically yanked on the trigger. 

A burst of bullets flew out and it struck the creature in the head. That did some damage and it brought the charging beetle down. The rest of the pack, having seen seeing their alpha being downed, decided that the ponies were an actual threat and fled.

With the threat over, Rarity looked at the two crusaders. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were looking at her in awe and shock. "What? You did not expect me to just stay there and fight it hoof to hoof did you? Anyway, what are you doing out here on your own!”

“We kinda got sidetracked by our conversation… you’re not mad at us now are you?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently

“I’m not angry or what darling. It’s just that I wonder if you even know that we are worried for your safety.” Rarity replied.

“You know we are almost full grown mares now right. Also Scootaloo here has been training under Princess Rainbow Dash. I’m sure she can defend herself,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Well no matter, you are all safe now and it is getting late. We will talk about it tomorrow.” Rarity said, spreading her wings and crouching to give Sweetie Belle a ride. Scootaloo prefered to fly herself and both of them headed back to base.

...

The next few days passed by relatively quickly. The whole ship had been completely dismantled and the new city of Radiant had been built. Rarity was in the holo-conference chamber, setting up the system for the scheduled meeting with the others. The only ponies missing now were Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

A few minutes passed before she managed to successfully activate it, allowing the static on the screens to clear up. Immediately, the projectors illuminated to show Twilight and Rainbow Dash waiting for her.

“Hi Rarity.” Twilight was the first one to speak. “How’s the trip?”

“Everything’s fine, but a tad bit boring I must say.” Rarity said.

“Yeah, kicking some major alien flank shortly after landing was soooo normal. Really, Rarity? Scoots told me about it.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Wait, you killed an alien?” Twilight said in surprise. 

"Not intentionally, but it was attacking Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I had to protect them." Rarity said defensively.

"I'm not saying that’s a bad thing Rarity. I was hoping to get the body so that we can do an autopsy to learn more about its species." Twilight said reassuringly. The word 'autopsy' however started painting a scene in Rarity's mind of Twilight in a surgeon outfit, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and excitement as she began cutting up the giant alien beetle with several scalpels, dissecting its individual organs and taking tissue samples. That send shivers down her spine for some reason. In fact, the thought of her taking apart an alien as part of a medical study disturbed her more than the time she literally caught on fire due to her frustration at Pinkie; the one time she was “tardy” in giving a report to the late Princess Celestia; or that time Cheese Sandwich gave her a gigantic quesadilla. Rainbow Dash appeared to have had the same slightly disturbing thoughts as well, but she still managed to keep a straight face. Probably her military training kicking in, Rarity assumed. 

"So, Rainbow Dash. How’s the prototype repulsor satellite working?" Twilight now asked. Her horn then lit up and the sound of a stylus being used on a screen could be heard in the background.

“Well, I’m not sure if any changes to the miasma fog is due to your invention or not, but there have been some signs of improvement. The thing has stopped spreading closer, so that is something at least.” Rainbow Dash said. “Derpy is also back to normal now.”

“Well that’s good news for Dr.Time Turner. He’s been worrying himself sick about her after he found out she had gone into the fog. I think he hasn’t slept in days. He keeps bugging me to send him there to check on her when he isn’t rambling about silence into his pocket watch.” Twilight said as she finished writing down the short summary on the initial deployment of their first prototype. “Well, expect him there in a few days time. He’ll be on the next trade convoy to check on her as well as the satellite.” With a low mutter she continued, "after three days of consistent pestering, even in the middle of the night, I’ll be glad to be rid of him for a bit, good worker or not."

“Where is dear Fluttershy? Isn’t she supposed to have this meeting as well?” Rarity asked.

“I think she mentioned that she is having some trouble with the native wildlife. Not to mention her location contains a lot of that miasma fog. We haven’t been able to find a way around it to get to her physically yet.” Twilight said.

“Don’t worry about her, I’m sure she will be able to reach some form of understanding with them. Her talent is after all communicating with animals.” Rainbow Dash added on. "Maybe I can even get some new exotic pets for Tank to play with."

“Well, everything is going well so far. Apart from some of the recent alien intrusion which was most unfortunate. I just received notice that AJ will be arriving soon. Looks like our goal of rebuilding Equestria is right on track girls. With all the spare building supplies from AJ, we can begin rebuilding our heavy industries to start producing materials like steel and composite materials. The natural resources here are all out in the open, easily accessible. It’ll be easy to process them for useful resources.” Twilight happily pointed out.

“Well, that will be useful I think. Much less physical work needed to mine everything we need” Rarity agreed. "Speaking of which, do you mind taking some of the old artifacts off my hooves. They do take up quite a lot of room."

" No problem. Might also be a good idea to use them to figure out why the magic field here is so weak." Twilight replied

"Yeah, get to that soon Twily." Rainbow Dash cut in. " These wings ain't gonna exercise without any intense flights."



……

The meeting was finally over. As Rarity looked out of the window of her quarters, she saw the construction crews going about building generators and farms. She sighed to herself. As much as she liked being a Princess and having other ponies listening to her, she sometimes wished things to be back the way it was. To be carefree and only worry about meeting order deadlines. But duties are duties as she would say. She has ascended and now it is her duty to lead the ponies under her charge. Still, it will be good to be able to return things to back the way it was.

“Hey sis? You ok?” a voice asked as the sound of the door opening was heard.

“Sweetie,” Rarity replied, “It’s nothing really.  I’m just doing some reflection on my past.”

“You want to talk about it sis?” Sweetie Belle said

“Why thank you dear for your concern. Let me get some drinks for us.” Rarity said as she moved away from the window.

Sweetie Belle patiently waited as Rarity went to the kitchen to get some refreshments. In a few moments, there were a small assortment of biscuits and tea on the coffee table as both sisters now sat at the table.

"What were you thinking about just now Rarity? Was it about how everything was before you became a princess?" Sweetie Bell started.

"Life was so simple back then. I had never envisioned that all these will happen in a decade." Rarity said as she gestured towards the window. "So much has happened. Everypony is looking up to me. But I sometimes wonder if I am qualified to lead them. I'm not a natural born leader like Twilight and Rainbow Dash." 

"You are a good leader sis.  You learned a lot of leadership during your time running your various businesses and after you became a Princess. We wouldn't have made it to where we are now without you!" Sweetie Bell reassured.

"But everything we have now was all done by Twilight. Rainbow Dash helped defend us while we built. Fluttershy went on on expeditions to help find and preserve all the plants, animals, and other lifeforms in Equestria. Even finding what was once thought to be extinct plants and animals. Applejack oversaw the construction of the ships. And all I did was attend parties and smile and waved." 

"But you did help influence a lot of ponies to give support to the programme. And what about all the times when you went off to help your other friends with their projects?" Sweetie Belle pointed out to her sister.

“It really wasn’t much to do. And just between you and me, Rainbow Dash prefered to not let me help her after the rather disastrous incident overseeing one of her outposts.”  Rarity said.

“But still, you did help out a lot big sis. For instances, the cultural preservation project that you lead when Twilight was too busy with her sciency stuff. We would have lost a lot of our artifacts including the elements without your help.” Sweetie Belle said

"Those were things that we could have lived without though. I would like to someday be remembered for doing something grand and wonderful. Something to be my masterpiece.” Rarity pouted.

Sweetie Belle looked around her sister's room. She noticed how she had arranged everything like back in Carousel Boutique. With all the furniture along of the side of the room. She must miss everything back in Equestria. Learning to pick up how her sister felt was easy. She had learned that her sister best expresses herself in whatever she does. That neat trick was picked up from the time where Rarity made dresses for the others for the Gala. It was obvious how the quality of the dresses had dropped after she had went off the deep end. Since then, she had been rather observant of her sister’s mood. And right now, she was feeling homesick.

“Hey Rarity, how about building the place to be like how it was back in Equestria?” Sweetie Belle suggested. “You know, just like how it was?”

“Pardon me Sweetie Belle.” Rarity said. “But remember what happened last time when I tried to design everything the way I wanted it to be. I sometimes feel that the others do not appreciate what I designed.”

“But instead of building your dream city, how about rebuilding the place to be like how Equestria was. You know, like how Canterlot is.” Sweetie Belle suggested

The idea seemed to perk Rarity up as she now sat upright in her chair contemplating the idea. Rarity then exclaimed, “Why, that a marvelous idea Sweetie Belle! To rebuild everything that we have lost. After all isn’t the reason for us to settle down? To rebuild Equestria! Why Sweetie Belle. That may be one of the best ideas I had ever heard from you.”

“Glad you like it… I guess,” Sweetie Belle said while slightly surprised that her random idea was easily accepted by her sister. She did not have much time to think though because she was promptly hugged by her sister, “Gaah. Rarity...too tight”

“Oh. Sorry,” Rarity quickly released her sister from her grip, “Still, this is a most splendid idea! Get me a pen and some paper! We must get to work drawing up some plans and blueprints immediately!”

“Sure thing sis,” Sweetie Belle replied back with a bright smile. 

> 3.e.) The apple's will (Applejack)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: Brother Malachai
Co-Author: May I Cut In



”This new world is like a brand new patch of land, waiting for us to plant the seeds of civilization ”~Princess Applejack while planting the first saplings from Equestria





Applejack waited in the stasis chamber. Waking the whole crew up before landing was the procedure that Twilight had written out for them. She was also particularly looking forward to meeting her whole family again. Save for the wizened elder, Granny Smith who had passed away while the ships were being built.  

She walked to where Big MacIntosh and Apple Bloom were. They like most of the crew were just waking up from cryo-sleep. They were also disoriented as well from being frozen for so long. She levitated the two cups containing a hot drink from her back and passed it to Big Mac and Appleboom.

"Thanks big sis," Applebloom said as she gripped the cup in her hooves. Big Mac took the other cup without much word and the 2 recently awoken Apples spent the next minute warming themselves up.  

“Think nothin’ of it,” Applejack replied with a tired smile, “Ah’ll be honest, my throat and lips are a bit dry mahself after being asleep fer ah don’t know how long.  Ah’ll have t’ ask th’ technicians how long we’ve been out later.  Ah, mean, if I’m thirsty as an Alicorn, ah can’t imagine how thristy you two are.”  “Eeeyup,” Big MacIntosh agreed in turn with his usual Laconic manner-of-speaking.

While stretching out her wings and legs, The Element of Honesty heard a beeping noise coming from a nearby holo-projector.

“Oh, fer bucks sake,” she exclaimed at the noise,  “Ah just got up an’ ahm getting a message!  Well, it looks like ahm startin’ work early.”

While Applebloom and Big MacIntosh were sitting nearby eating some apple fritters and drinking some water; Applejack was reading a message that appeared on the Holoprojector.

“Dangit Twi, why ya go off an’ do a fool thing like that,” Applejack exclaimed some more as she continued to read the letter that was sent her.

“Sis, what happened,” Applebloom asked with a bit of concern in her voice.

“Well lil’ sis, it seems Twi let her curiosity get th’ better of her an’ she decided to land on th’ planet without tellin’ any of us,” Applejack said in a very grumpy tone.

Upon hearing this unfortunate news Applebloom replied,  “Well Sis, th’ others ain’t gonna like this none. Not one bit. Ain’t that right Big Mac?”

“Eeeyup,”  confirmed the large, red stallion.

“Ahm well aware of this,” Applejack replied as she took another sip, “but we don’t have much of a choice sis.  Ahm already been told that Dash is goin’ after her.  An’ well...Dash bein’ Dash she’s not gonna be happy with ‘er one bit.  Ahm sure they’ll be exchanging words when Dash finally finds ‘er.”

After finishing their breakfast as quickly as they could; they got to work and went to check on the crew running the bridge and started the initial waking cycles for the remainder of the crew and colonists. While they needed to land as soon as possible, they couldn’t afford to cut corners or to sacrifice safety.  They only had one shot at landing and the stakes were literally life and death.


While the crew was going about doing last minute checks on the bridge and other parts of the ship and made sure everything was locked-down and secure for landing, the Princess of Honesty was doing some last-minute checks on some dataslates given to her.  They showed satellite and ship pics of various spots they could land and of maps based upon those pictures.  She picked up one of her dataslates and tapped on it.  

“This is th’ site.  Site Twenty-One Beta, coordinates forty-ninety bah twenty-seventy-two.  Site has a river an’ is mix of forest an’ plains land.  This is th’ ideal site fer orchards and farms.  We’ll land here,” she said with finality.

“Understood,” replied Sweetie Drops who was standing nearby,  “What few troops and scouts we have will be parceled out gear and prepare for your further orders upon landing.  For the future of the exiles of Equestria.” She then quickly readjusted her sunglasses, snapped to attention, did an about face and headed off to issue the updated intel reports to the Commanding Officers of the troops and scouts that were preparing for landfall. AJ was glad she appointed her as leader of the Scout Company. She was sharp, professional, and had no shortage of field experience.

After putting away the dataslates into a nearby bin on a wall that was locked shut, the orange alicorn looked over to cousin Braeburn who was operating the main piloting consoles. His co-pilot on a different terminal was Cherry Jubilee.

The Orange Princess asked Braeburn,  “Braeburn, how long we have until we can launch?”

“Well, erm...Princess,” Braeburn started, “Th’ inspections should be done in about ten minutes an’ if everything checks out, we can launch in another five.”


Applejack then motioned for Fiddly Faddle to turn the communication system off.  
After the comm system was turned back off, Braeburn said to AJ,  “Princess, they’ve just finished th’ final inspections and checks.  Everythin’ looks good, we’re just gettin’ everypony suited and buckled up right now fer jettisonin’ from th’ ship and landin’.” She nervously cracked her front hooves. It was now or never. They had to land the colony and somehow avoid getting burnt up or falling to their death in the process. She only hoped the landers would do their job and that the calculations on the newfangled computers were accurate.

“Right then,” the cowpony-turned-princess replied, “Let’s git this show on th’ road then.  Start th’ countdown procedure fer landin’.”  

……

After a approximately tense ten minute landing procedure, Applejack and the other colonists started to get to work on setting up the initial tent city around the lander that would end up becoming their future city. While not the most pleasant structures in the world, tents would have to make do for the time being. Alas, Twi’s attempt to figure out a means of mass-producing quick field assembly shelters had come to a standstill. The Princess of Honesty heard that as part of this project, both before and during the trip (between Hibernation Cycles) that Twi was using what little spare time she had doing research on crystals she took from the Tree and Palace of Harmony, as well as from the roots of her old tree library. She was hoping that by researching them that she could figure out means of growing buildings en masse for living in. 

So far, her attempts to figure out how to speed-up the growth of the regular tree, let alone the crystals, have been unsuccessful. She did mention she could potentially research some of the writing of the infamous King Sombra, but she has tried to avoid it out of fear of potential “side effects.” Applejack had decided not to press Twilight on the matter of what the said “side effects” were; as she was afraid that even hearing of them might damage her very mind let alone her soul. Still, for the time being, they would have to make do with tents until they could gather enough materials to build more permanent shelters out of.  

While leaving the tent that was assigned to her as her personal quarters and heading over to the HQ Tent for her initial status reports; she saw that Big MacIntosh was having problems pulling a cart loaded to bear with supply crates. “What’s th’ matter Big Bro?  Ya usually have a much easier time movin’ heavy loads like these!”

Big Mac stopped for a moment, took a few deep breaths, and started to speak,  “Ah don’ right now.  Ah just feel a bit...weaker, ever since ah landed.”  

“Hmmm...lemme take a stab at it,” Applejack replied.  She quickly harnessed herself to the cart and gave it a few quick tugs. She noticed that even with her enhanced strength, it was much harder to pull it then it was on Equestria.  She then tried to “pull” the cart with Alicorn Magic.  Even that was a bit of a struggle. While she wasn’t nearly the prodigy as Twilight was; she learned enough to know that it shouldn’t be that hard for an Alicorn to push or pull such a cart with magic.  She then shook her head and sighed, “Ah was afraid o’ this. Twi warned that when we land on a new planet, it may have very little or no magic on it, and it would force us t’ use the magic our bodies naturally produce instead.  Applejack turned to Cherry Jubilee (who was standing nearby) and replied,  “Put out a new announcement fer th’ citizens and troops. It seems our magic isn’t as powerful as it used to be now that we’re on a new planet. Tell them we’re goin’ t’ have t’ be more dependent on our vehicles and other machinery t’ git things done fer now on.  Let’s just hope we can find a way t’ either produce more magic or an alternate power source to compensate for th’ lack of magic on this world.”

“Ahm on it now,” replied Ms. Jubilee as she tapped her hoof on a pad she was carrying with her.  “If ah can contact Twi, ah’ll tell her mahself. Don’ worry about writin’ up a report fer me,” the Cowpony-turned-Princess replied.

“Ah understand, Princess,” Cherry acknowledged with a nod.

After another short walk with her guard and staff retinue, Applejack finally arrived at the tent that was their temporary HQ and Command Staff Center. “Attention,” yelled out the Guards that were inside when she trotted in. 

“As ya where,” AJ replied with a hoof-waive. “Ahm just grateful ya lot ain’t givin’ me ‘sniper-check’ salutes when we’re outside,” she grumbled. Much like Dash, she didn’t care much for formalities, but knew they were a necessary evil in her line of work. “Any luck contactin’ Twi or th’ others?” Looking up from the communication station was two of her old foes turned into somewhat unwilling allies, Flim and Flam. But then again, politics and the desperation that came from survival situations and emergencies made for strange bedfellows.

“Absolutely,” started Flim.

“Positively,” continued Flam.

“Confirmed,” finished Flim, “However, it’s really staticy and could break up at any time.”  While she wasn’t thrilled about having them, the Princess of Honesty wanted to give them a second chance.  Plus, she needed extra staff to give Fiddly Faddle time off from running the comm systems for the colony.  “Very well.  Put me on tha horn,” ordered Applejack as Flim handed over a earpiece.  She took the earpiece and put it in her ear and tapped on it a bit.  “Howdy...uhh...is anyone on,” she asked aloud.

A garbled and static-y hologram appeared on a nearby table of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash sitting at a folding table. “Yes-we are getting you jus-barely.  You recivi-over,” asked the somewhat garbled up image of Twilight.

“Sorta,” replied Applejack, “Your image and messages are fadin’ n’ and out.  Ahm afraid ah got some bad news. There seems t’ be ah lack of magic in the immediate area we’re in, if not th’ entire planet and it’s affectin’ our ability t’ work effectively. It’s not as bad as when Tirek drained everyone of th’ energy drain field Chrysalis made that one time, but it’s really bad.”  

“Yes. Rainbow Dash here and the citizens at-*crackle*-colony have told me similar things,” the Hologram Twilight confirmed, “I can understand there being planets-lack-magic.  But this planet has both an arid atmosphere and heavy gravity. The gravity-from being slightly closer orbit to its suns and- slightly bigger than Equestria. That shouldn’t-*bzzt!*-scientifically possible. Heavy gravity planets should-heavier-thicker atmosphere. Still, this planet is relatively young and the magnetic fields may not be fully-*crackle*-developed and/or stable.  The twin suns of this system may have stripped off a bit of the atmosphere with their solar winds. Still, for-most part-magnetic-seems-holding and should strengthen and stabilize over time with age. Atmosphere still breathable and capable of supporting life.  I’ll-examine more-later. To be on-safe side.”

Next to Twi’s hologram, the holo-Rainbow Dash made a slight yawn and covered her open muzzle with one of her hooves. AJ stifled a chuckle. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. While part of her wanted to be cross at Dashie for not fully paying attention to information about a potentially life-threatening situation; even she had to admit that Princess Sparkle could be pretty cut n’ dry at times.  She knew Rainbow learned the hard way (from Rarity of all ponies!) the dangers of missing too many details about what was going on around her.  The lesson she had learned from Rarity had actually saved her in combat several times.

The Orange Alicorn then asked, “Ya two think ya can give me th’ coordinates t’ yer colonies so I can attempt t’ find a means of reachin’ y’all?”

“Oh sure Ap-,” Twilight replied,  “Sending coordinate for my and-*hiss!*-now. Closest-*hiss* Rarity’s.  We will head over-meet you at her-village.”

“Flim. Flam.  Did ya two get th’ infermation packets,” Applejack asked. The two nodded in confirmation. “Good,” she replied,  “Twi, ahm gonna try t’ see if mah scouts can fin’ a way t’ git t’ Rarity’s colony.  AJ out.”

“Look forward to-  See ya then,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Please be careful Applejack.  I hope to see you soon.” concluded the Purple Princess as the holograms fizzled out and disappeared.  

…...	

After heading to requisitions to acquire her armor, personal weapons and other supplies and scrounging together a squad of troops and a crew to operate and accompany a Scout Rover, AJ gave a brief report to them on the situation and headed out with them. After giving them the briefing and the bad news about their reduced abilities (although some already noticed due to the combination of higher gravity, less air, and the lack of magic upon the planet itself); they headed out to explore the immediate exterior of their planet. The planet was an odd mixture of the familiar and yet the alien.  It had flora and fauna, and yet it looked nothing at all like the creatures they knew on Equestria. This was the case except for a gigantic Tatzlwurm-like entity they saw in the distance and a Manticore-esque being that took some shots at them with it’s tail stinger before they ran off. 

Applejack wanted to stay and fight, but she figured discretion was the better part of valor. They may have accidentally stumbled onto the beings territory and they didn’t know if they were strong enough to defeat it. Not to mention she didn’t know how Fluttershy would react to this. They also learned early on the dangers of being exposed to the green fog in the area.  They had to take a brief stop after fleeing from it to repair their gear and give the ponies and other beings with them medical treatment.  Fortunately, the damage didn’t seem to be lasting (for the most part), but the gear and medical patients would have to be examined more closely when they got back.

After stopping yet again for another rest in the four days journey, AJ took a brief look at a tablet she was taking with her and replied,  “We should be gettin’ close now. Accordin’ t’ this, we should only a few klicks away from th’ initial colony Princess Sparkle set up. Rest time’s over everypony! Form up an’ move out!”

Upon hearing her orders the troops and other personnel with her got up and proceeded to follow her as she led them further south towards the colony.  

While trotting along; the group’s Second-In-Command, Little Strongheart, replied, “Princess, do you sense what I’m sensing?”
“That whar bein’ followed,” The cowpony confirmed,  “Yeah, ah do.  I can hear th’ skitterin’ an’ I see the shadows in th’ nearby fog.  Tell th’ others t’ prepare t’ engage if need be, but only act if whar attacked upon.  We just landed here and I want t’ avoid goin’ t’ war wi’ Celestia knows wut so soon after arriving!”

“Understood Princess,” replied Strongheart with a nod.
Applejack looked nervously around at the shadows in the nearby fog following them.  While it was hard to make out shapes and shadows in the fog, the creatures seemed chitinous.  It was almost as if they were a unholy cross between a Changeling and a Timber Wolf, but with more legs.    

It was then that AJ noticed that they were stuck on one tiny path surrounded by miasma; it was a trap!

She growled lowly, “Troops, turn off safeties an’ keep weaponry at low ready.  Prepare t’ engage.”

“As you command, Princess,” replied Little Strongheart in turn quietly.

As the troops formed a small circle around the Princess and took a knee; the skittering around them came to a stop. The shadows could be slightly better made out now within the green fog. The creatures did truly look like something out a nightmare. Gigantic bugs with multiple legs and giant pincers on their mouths. Green ichor drooled from their mouths and they clamped their pincers together, as if anticipating what was to come.  And then, there was deafening silence, for an ever so brief period of time. And finally, after that all too brief split second; all Tartarus broke loose and the monstrosities charged forward.

“Open fire,” yelled Applejack as the strange creatures charged forward...

“Just mah luck!  It figures ah’d get assigned t’ th’ detail that had t’ engage in th’ first fight with th’ wildlife,” Troubleshoes grumbled as he fired off a few shots with the assault rifle he was equipped with.  

If there was an upside to the situation, it was that the creatures were packed so close together even Troubleshoes couldn’t miss.  But that was also the downside to this nightmare, they were outnumbered, if not necessarily outgunned. Despite their best efforts, the creatures kept coming.  It didn’t matter how many times they fired at them or how many they mowed down; they kept swarming. It was almost as if they had knocked over a gigantic mound for ants or Changelings. That was how these strange creatures reacted.  

“So this is it,” Applejack thought to herself as she bucked a few of the creatures away with her hooves.  
She would’ve attempted to zap some of them with her horn, but she wasn’t nearly as good as Twi or Rarity with magic; let alone she was weakened when it came to magic use in this new world.  She cursed herself for being so foolish to fall to such a simple trap, as she was so eager to get to Twi and Rainbow Dash that she ignored the risks around her.  She had (ironically) made the same mistake Rainbow Dash used to so often make.  She only hoped Applebloom could run things with her gone.

“Ma...Pa.  Ah’ll be wit’ ya soon,” she said quietly to herself as she made her peace with what seemed to be her final moments. She then barked out the command, “Troops!  Fix Chain Bayonets and prepare t’ engage up close! Commend our souls to the Twin Princesses!”
While she was fixing her how bayonet, she heard a slight rumbling in the distance. At first she thought it was mortar or rocket fire from her own troops, but the sound itself, let alone the direction and distance was off. But then the rumbling became louder and louder, and eventually became so loud; even the rabid bugs themselves finally started to notice. It was then that she saw it.

The ground burst open, announcing the presence of a different alien. It was what was best described as a gigantic Tatzlwurm with chitinous armor plating and spikes. From the earth-rattling screech it gave off  it did not sound friendly. At least it seemed to do a good job with intimidating the now cowering giant bugs. Still, it did not seem like good news for the now obviously outmatched group of scouts.

"Of course.  Just mah luck t’ have mah good ol’ friend, Murphy's Law to show up," Troubleshoes mumbled.

The small scout group all gazed on in sheer shock and horror as the titanic monstrosity roared its defiance at the nearby group of giant bugs. Upon seeing what they were facing off against, the creatures slowly started to back away and disappeared into the fog. The troops would’ve aimed their rifles and other assorted weaponry upon the gigantic beast, but they were still in shock over the strange and recent turn of events.  What happened next was even more confounding. The creature slowly lowered its head and the upraised parts of its body back to the ground. After it did so, a familiar face proceeded to fly down from the top of it and was accompanied by friendly troops and scientists from another colony. This familiar face just happened to be an Alicorn Princess who specialized in dealing with various types of fauna.  

“Fluttershy!  You made it,” Applejack exclaimed in relief as she galloped towards her,  “Ah wasn’t sure if you safely landed or not!”

Fluttershy in turn “eeped” slightly as Applejack more or less crashed into her and gave her a gigantic bear hug.

Fluttershy then replied,  “Uhhh...I’m happy...t-to see you too.  But, I kinda like...breathing?  Even in this suit and as an Alicorn you’re still crushing me just a tad.”

Applejack then quickly let go and stammered, “Oh!  Uhhh...sorry ‘bout that.”

“It’s quite all right,” Fluttershy commented as she put her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, “The main thing is that you and your troops are okay.  They-they are okay, aren’t they?”

That was when Applejack made the horrid realization that she didn’t know the status of her troops after the fierce fighting.

“Swiftheart, ah need a status report,” Applejack quickly barked out,  “Did anypony get hurt?  Did...we lose anyone?”

“I’ll find out right now,” Strongheart replied as she did a quick inspection of the troops and tried to impose some sort of order upon the dying chaos that was the aftermath of battle. The xenos may have been chased away, but there was still a great deal of confusion in the recent battlefield.  She quickly grabbed what commanding officers she could and medical personnel to do a quick status check upon the personnel.

After spending some time talking with the various officers and medical experts, she quickly replied,  “About five compound fractures, twelve lacerations and gashes from the bugs, and one grazed shoulder from friendly fire, but no casualties.  We’re still going to need a medivac though.”

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy replied, “Zecora, gather what medical personnel we have with us and have them help out.” 

Zecora the nodded and said, “Of course Princess. We will leave no medical task unfinished.”

As Zecora trotted off with some other medics to check on the injured troops, Applejack replied to Fluttershy, “This is problematic, we need t’ get immediate treatment for mah injured ponies an’ other folks, but ah think we’re closer t’ Rarity’s village than we are to our own.  Not t’ mention, wherever we go, it’ll take us a long time t’ move them on hoof.”  

“Well, I think I know a way,” Fluttershy replied in a rather hushed tone.

“Yer not serious,” Applejack replied as she raised an eyebrow, slightly incredulous that Fluttershy was was proposing what she thought she was proposing.

“Now now,” Fluttershy scolded, “I’ll have you know that Mr. Cthulud is very sweet once you get to know him. He is the friendliest creature I’ve met on this planet and really helpful.”

Upon hearing this, the gigantic worm gently nuzzled its beak against Fluttershy.  While she knew the beast wouldn’t harm her friend, Applejack couldn’t help but shudder a bit on the inside.  Still, she remembered being taught not to judge by looks and that she should reserve judgement until she got to know a pony or other being better. The mishap from Zecora’s early days in Ponyville should’ve taught her that ages ago.

"Well, ah' guess we don't have much of a choice huh," Applejack said as she looked up at the cyclopean monstrosity. While she was still uncomfortable with the idea, she knew she had to let practicality win the day, and she trusted Fluttershy’s judgement in the matter. She was the expert on handling wildlife; not her. “Alright Flutters, you lead the way.”

…...

True to Fluttershy’s word the worm (or “Mr. Cthulud”) had carried them to a break in the fog bank. After the worm stopped and they climbed off the group climbed over the final hill. Over the horizon they could see a small city. There was no doubt as to who’s city it was. The sense of “style” and fine art.  The “frou frou” (as AJ would call it) decor and such-it all practically had Rarity’s signature touch on it.  With the journey’s end in sight, they went forward with renewed vigour. It was then they saw flashes of light heading towards them in an arc. “Get down!” Swiftheart yelled as the lights got close enough to be identified as missiles. Applejack yelled into the comms attached to her earbud,  “If anyone’s recivin’ this, hold yer fire!  We’re friendly!”

“Applejack is that you?” came a slightly formal reply.  

“No, it’s buckin’ Tirek!  Of course it’s me dangit,” Applejack yelled back.  She was going to yell she was Chrysalis, but she decided not to as Chrysalis was a shapeshifter and they may have took her comment literally and sent another salvo.

Meanwhile, the missiles struck the worm on it’s side. Luckily, the worm’s natural armour managed to stop most of the shrapnel from the missile from hurting it. Still, it was obvious the worm was hurt from the hit due to the heat and concussive force of the blast.

Having seen Mr. Cthulhud being hurt Fluttershy became outraged. She made a grab for AJ’s comms and shouted into it “Rarity! Stop shooting Mr. Cthulud!” 

“Fluttershy,” came the surprised reply, “Is that you?”

“Yes it’s me! Stop firing your guns at us,” Fluttershy replied angrily.

“Sorry for that Flutters. My guards were a little edgy after the recent alien intrusions,” Rarity replied. 

Fluttershy after finishing her outburst dropped the comms onto the ground before flying over to check on her friend. Meanwhile, AJ picked up her dropped comms and place it back on her head.  
After readjusting it, Applejack then dusted herself off and replied,  “Well, if whar done bickerin’ ah got some injured troops on th’ back o’ that thing-”

“Mr. Cthulhud,” corrected Fluttershy.

“Mr….Cthulhud,” Applejack continued after the correction, “and they need medical treatment.  Rarity, if ya don’ mind, ah need some of yer personnel t’ transfer them t’ one of yer medical facilities fer treatment.”

“Of course,” Rarity agreed,  “Sweetie Belle!  Grab some troops for us and transfer those injured ponies off of Mr….Mr....Cthulhud and get them to the clinic; will you?”

“Sure thing sis,” Sweeite Belle replied as she motioned for some nearby soldier to follow her and slowly approach the strange creature.

As they slowly approached, the creature started to grumble slightly.  Fluttershy flew up to the creature and gently patted it.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy gently cooed as she patted it’s beak, “I got them to stop.  You have to realize you’re very big compared to them and they’re scared of you.  Still, I do think they should give you an apology.”

She then glared back at them very angrily.  It wasn’t her full-force and infamous “stare,” but as an Alicorn who had more or less become a living force of nature (albeit one that fortunately tended to be a bit more shy and reserved most of the time) she was still a frightening being to behold when enraged.  Sweetie Belle, a bit perplexed about this situation and knowing she didn’t really have much time for debating decided to conceed this point. After all, her sister had obviously taught her a thing or two about decorum and diplomacy.

“Uhm...sure?   We’re quite sorry about that Mr….err, Cthulud.  No offense, but we do find you a bit intimidating due to your size and strength,” Sweetie Belle said.

The creature merely made some slight grumbling noises and then looked away and laid its head upon the ground.  It almost appeared as it was about to take a nap and do some sunbathing.  Sweetie Belle was certain that if Twi was out here she’d take notes upon this behaviour and wonder if this was merely the creature doing it because it liked the heat or if it was cold-blooded.  Still, from what she remembered from Twi’s lessons she doubted that a creature that was that large and could move that fast was exothermic.  

Taking advantage of the quiet time that had finally shown up, Applejack typed up a quick report and a map of the terrain the explored so far.  She made sure to put upon the map a line showing a way through the miasma and a side note warning of the strange creatures she ran into there.
She then trotted up to Rarity and replied,  “Say, Rarity?  Ah was able to draw up a map of th’ terrain ah’ve been explorin’ an’ ah got a file an’ some notes fer ya.  Ah also need t’ forward this t’ Twi’s colony.  Ya think ah can’ use yer comm room t’ send it?”

“Oh, sure thing darling.  Also, I do appreciate you sharing this information with me,” Rarity said in turn, “Follow me.”

After Applejack and her guards followed Rarity and her own guard detail through a series of dirt paths that passed for streets in her new colony, they arrived at a nearby tent.
After entering and going through the proper decorum for the entry of high-ranking officers and royalty, Rarity then walked up to Octavia.

“Yes Princess,” Octavia asked.

“Darling, it’s rather important,” Rarity started,  “I need you to send this information to Twilight’s Colony.”  She then handed over to Octavia a small information stick that had the files on it.

“The unusual atmospheric conditions have been making communication a bit more difficult than expected, but I am sure we can get this through your Highness,” Octavia said.

“Good.  I’m glad to hear that,” Rarity replied with a slight grin,  “Now, if you will excuse me, I must show Applejack where our Clinic is located.  I know she will want to check on her troops and I heard that Zecora and Fluttershy were all ready sent over there.”

“Of course Princess,” Octavia nodded as she got to work downloading the files for transmission.

As she was being escorted to go check up on her assigned detail, Applejack had time to think to herself.  She did not like how things were going at the moment.  While she knew setting up a new life for the Equestrian refugees was going to be rough on a new planet, she did not like how relations were already getting a bit strained from the start. While she tended to agree more with Rarity about the need to defend themselves from the creatures native to this planet; she knew Fluttershy would not go along with this.  Alas, that was always one of the kind pony’s few personal blind spots; even as an alicorn!

She had a tendency to forget that she was often the only pony that could actually get wild animals to back down and peacefully leave an area.  Even after all the times she has been asked to speak to creatures ranging from the smallest snake to largest dragon.  Sure, every once in a while she wouldn’t succeed (such as the girls’ first trip to the Grand Galloping Gala), but most of the time she could get animals to listen to her.  Still, she remembered what Twi said to Discord during their first big battle with him, “Friendships are hard at times, but they are worth keeping!”  It was something along those lines anyway.  She just hoped that those friendships would remain intact as they tried to figure out how to survive upon a new, alien world.
> 3.f.) A housewarming party(Pinkie)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Architect, Brother Malachai



“Come on everypony! Shake off your sadness and have some fun! It’s a new world and a brand new day!”- Princess Pinkie Pie’s impromptu speech to her crew immediately after landing.





The message Twilight sent earlier on let Pinkie Pie knew her other five friends had already landed, so that left a bunch of icky butterflies in her stomach. But everything was fine. It was a brand new day, they were about to land in a new world and her Pinkie sense told her nothing is going to be wrong.

“Hi Maud, how was the sleep?” Pinkie Pie asked as she entered her sister’s room.

“It was fine Pinkie,”  Maud yawned in reply, “I dreamt of finding a whole new kind of rock on the planet.” The sleepiness from the induced static sleep was something that affected everypony. To a normal outsider, Maud would seem like she did not care at all. But Pinkie, being her sister, knew how excited she was about the landing. Hence for the energetic hug she gave to her sister.

Maud did flinch a little at the hug. Pinkie Pie being an alicorn now meant her hugs can actually hurt now. ‘Pinkie Pie, I think you can stop now. It’s a little awkward for a princess to be hugging others.”

“You’re my sister! It doesn't matter.” Pinkie happily replied. “However, I really think I should be going. We’re landing soon! Get ready, Maud, it’s a new world out there.”

After meeting her sister, she went over to the command center. The odd occasion glance she got from skipping over to the command center was nothing short of the occasional glances she got back in Ponyville when she was still the party planner there. Granted, being an alicorn she should worry about her public figure. But after some thought, she decided to keep her old habits. Being herself cheered up so many ponies hence Pinkie decided to still be herself.

Everypony she passed were preparing for the landing in someway. Some were cataloguing the building materials they had while others prepared the tools and did last minute checks on the machinery. Her section of the royal guards were in the armory, checking their weapons.

The doors to the command center opened. Her second-in charge Vinyl Scratch was already directing the final maneuvers before planetfall. While Pinkie Pie was a bit more 'random' as her friends put her, the former DJ was able to focus on the task and manage them effectively. Her past experiences running a nightclub no doubt helped a bit, but Vinyl will always say it is was her fussy roommate that taught her how to organise everything decently. She wasn’t wearing her trademark shades at the time thus allowing most ponies to see her red irises (or were they actually purple?  Did she wear contacts?  She always liked to keep the others guessing, even Octy). 

Pinkie Pie’s group were the last to arrive. Twilight and the others had landed before them and set up their own starting cities, Celestia, Cloudsdale, Everfree, Radiant and Ponyville. Twilight and the others were waiting at her arranged landing site. 

Well after being away for so long from each other, Pinkie Pie planned to throw a party. A “We -are-on-a-new-world-and-we-are-back-together” party, hence for her spending the whole day earlier on setting up her trademark party ordinances with the help of Cheese Sandwitch. With the preparations all done, even for the party, all Pinkie can do now is to wait and see.

……

The other 5 friends waited at a nearby hill, Rainbow, AJ, Fluttershy and Rarity were all looking to the sky, scanning for any signs of Pinkie’s ship landing. Twilight Sparkle opting instead to look at her tablet which was connected to a portable radar system set up right next to her. The radar picked up Pinkie’s ship descend and Twilight let out a delighted cheer. “Any second now girls. We may be able to see her ship at any moment, she just started re-entry.”

They looked to the sky. Initially, they saw nothing. But as the seconds pass, they saw a small streak of light coming down. Relieved that the most dangerous part of the journey is done, they began speaking in excitement on what do they do next. That was until the tablet beeped and Twilight looked at the data before saying: “Girls? I think there is something wrong.”

The other 4 friends did not reply. Instead they looked at the sky with a sense of dread as several unknown objects broke away from the now visible landing ship.

……

“Ok Princess Pinkie. We have completed the initial phases of re-entry. It should be safe now to do whatever you have planned.” Vinyl Scratch announced.

“Great” Pinkie Pie said. Taking the walkie talkie, she switched it on and said into it. “Ok Party Favour, release the party packages!”

“Yes ma’am!” came the reply from the two-way radio. 

……

“Erm, girls. I think we should get going…” Fluttershy was the first to say. Looking around, she noticed that everypony were still in a state of shock. It was at that moment where she remembered Princess Luna’s favourite method to command attention. “I said. Girls, we better get moving!” Fluttershy said using the Royal Canterlot Voice.

That had the desired effect as it snapped the other four shocked alicorns out of their trance. “Wha… what?” they said. Looking up, they can now see that one of the ‘parts’ of the ship was heading clearly right for them. “Oh, horseapples,” was all that  AJ could say before they started running away from it.


The object however managed to land in front of them, as if it had predicted where they were going to be and aimed a few strides in front of them. The thing instead of just being jammed into the ground like any old debris, it exploded with pink smoke everywhere. The next thing they knew, there were party hats on them with a table set up with some party food nearby, the whole floor littered with confetti. Around them, the other detached objects also exploded with pink smoke, leaving completely set-up party food and games everywhere. In the middle of the now set up tables and party games, a large banner that read “Welcome to our new planet and being back together party”. Twilight realising what just happened, facehooved, filing it in her memory as yet another (How many was it now?  5,202?  5,203?) “It’s just Pinkie Pie” incident.

……

The ship finally landed after a few minutes. Twilight and the others stood in front of the exit ports, waiting to welcome Pinkie Pie. They were also rather relieved that their near death incident did not end up with any injury of whatsoever apart from the initial mental shock of nearly being crushed by a giant party bomb. Pinkie Pie however appeared right behind them. With an energetic sound she said: " What you waiting for friends?"

The other 5 turned jumped in fright as Pinkie Pie had managed to yet again suddenly appear right behind them, just like her popping out of nowhere back in Ponyville. "What are you doing down here Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked wearliy.

"I'm waiting for the show! Duh," Pinkie said.

"What show?" Rarity asked.

The ship's hatches in response opened up, revealing Pinkie's whole crew. Vinyl Scratch was behind everypony at a hastily set up DJ booth. The music started playing with the crew breaking out into a musical. Somehow, stage lights had been set up which now dimmed.  Somehow, within each of the ponies that were in the area they knew they were going to start an old tradition anew on this new planet.  That of the traditional pony singalong.

Musical Lyrics:
(*Winter Wrap Up Tune)

Ten years of hard work; our survival on the line.
Our glorious princesses lay down the wire, to ensure that we can thrive.
The journey now complete, and a new world awaits us too.
The road ahead will be hard; there's just so much for us to doooo!
It’s time for us to make a new home and make new history.
But we must also say goodbye to the old life we leave.
What shall we do?  It’s time to plan you see.  What shall everypony do?
This world lacks magic.  And how this planet works-we haven’t got a clue!

Landing Wrap-Up!
Landing Wrap-Up!
Let’s celebrate landing here!
Landing Wrap-Up!
Landing Wrap-Up!
Because tomorrow we’ll work here!
Because tomorrow we’ll work here!

Time to gather some hard rain.  We’ll do the best we can.
Our flight is very weakened, but we can get it done!
With hard work and technology at our side the pegasi will once again flyyy!

Chorus

Ponies no longer hibernate.  It's time to start anew. 
We need to rebuild our world. We have all the things we need.
To help us build new homes and grow crops here below.
All we need's a little teamwork and life will grow!

Chorus

It’s not easy plowing the earth and planting tiny seeds.
With water and sunshine it will provide our needs.
Apples, carrots, and celery stalks.
Other crops too.
We must do our very best.
And, work our hardest too!

Chorus

Now that we landed here and found a new place.
I will do my very best with every task I face.
How will I do with weakened magic?
Doing things the Earth Pony Way?
My Kingdom needs me, so I’ll do my best today!
Do my best today!

Chorus

The musical then ended as abruptly as it started. Twilight and her friends (even though they still sung along) were still partially in disbelief that they just participated in a musical number.  Then again, they did it multiple times in Equestria (except for the more cranky amongst the griffins and donkeys for some reason), so why would it be different here?  The ponies who followed the five friends along found the musical quite enjoyable.  It reminded them a bit of home afterall-even if it was a tad bit bittersweet in the memories that came back up. Octavia in particular was surprised that her former roommate knew how to play music that was not (yet again) another form of dubstep.

Pinkie Pie was sitting there clapping in applause. She stopped clapping and looked to her friends, who were shooting confused looks at her. "What? I can enjoy the show from up here, right?" she innocently replied. Her reply was met with several facehooves.

......

Despite the dose of Pinkie randomness, the party went on without a hitch. It was safe to say that that was the first time they had fun in a long time. It was also the first time that some of them meet up again after years.

......

"Wow Vinyl, this is the first time I seen you play something other that dubstep." Octavia said with a slight mock.

"Really Tavi? I may have been the world famous DJ-PON3, but I can still do normal, boring songs. Best part, I can take them and wubify them." Vinyl replied.

"Not that I look down on you, but you doing normal songs seem... out of place" Octavia commented

"Hey, remember the wedding back in Ponyville a long time ago? I managed to do a great job with the music" Vinyl pointed out

"Touché."

......

" Bon Bon!" Lyra called out in excitement.

"Lyra! It is so good to see my best friend again" Bon Bon replied with delight. “So how has it been my best of friends?”

“Oh nothing much. Apart from some interesting research on the fauna, there isn’t much. My job spying on the humans to understand their technology is done. I just mostly help out in the lab if anypony needs help with their project.” Lyra said with a shrug.

‘Well than Lyra, I hope you can find something useful to do.” Bon Bon said. “It was the best way to keep you distracted from your weird humans phrase.”

“Don’t remind me about it. But it was good to see my theories turning out to be correct.” Lyra returned the answer with a smile

......

“My my Derpy. Look at  how the time that has passed since we were last together,” Time Turner commented as he placed a foreleg over Derpy as they sat at one of the tables loaded with muffins.

“I know Doc,” Derpy said dreamily as she looked at the evening sky while eating a chocolate chip muffin, “I really wish that we could have stayed back in Equestria to settle down though”

“Don’t worry my dear sweetheart,” Time Turner replied, “We have all the time in the world now.”

……

While the party went on, the six friends gathered at a nearby table. Being away from each other so long, they were looking forward to chat when they were finally face to face.

“Well, looks like everypony landed safely at last,” Twilight started.

“Yup,” replied Applejack

“I agree,” confirmed Rarity.

“Things are moving along just fine so far. Everything is on schedule,” Twilight continued, “Only problem I see is the miasma fogs that pops up every now and then that hinders our transports. But I should be able to build another repulsor satellite as soon as the mining equipment that AJ brought along arrives for my group to mine up the needed resources ”

“Erm, Twilight?” Fluttershy spoke up. “I don’t want to be rude, but won’t that affect the native fauna? Maybe we should understand what the fog does before we do anything drastic? Just like when the vampire fruit bats invaded Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Yeahhhh...no,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “That fog had left Derpy unconscious for a few days. I don’t want anypony to be knocked out by that fog.”

“I agree. That green fog will impede our progress,” Rarity continued on, “Also Fluttershy, as a friend, my opinion is that we should focus on rebuilding our homes first before we pursue other ventures.”

“But what is the point of rebuilding if we don’t understand the local fauna. We just came to this world and start claiming land from them. I feel it is right to seek their understanding, not shoot every single alien you see,” Fluttershy rebutted.

“Ah kind of agree with you there Fluttershy.  It just ain’t right to come and steal all their land from them by force,” Applejack agreed.

Oh noes!  This is bad! They are arguing about something! Quick change the topic! "So, girls" Pinkie started, "Maybe we should try some of the games I set up earlier on?" Unfortunately, the others did not hear her attempt to change the topic and continued on...

“I did not shoot that alien Fluttershy, it came up of nowhere and gave my guards a good shock when they saw a giant creature. The beetle incident was because it was trying to attack dear Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.  They were acting in self-defense,” Rarity countered.

“I still don’t think you should have just empty the entire gun into one critter. We should also have buried it like it deserves. Not to cut open to study it” Fluttershy said as she looked at Twilight.

“The alien was already dead,” Twilight said defensively, “I just wanted it’s corpse so that we could study it to see if they have any helpful use to us.”

“Oh, Fluttershy do let bygones be bygones. What’s done has been done darling. The thing to do now is to move on,” Rarity said. 

“I still feel that isn’t the way to go in our new world…,” Fluttershy ended.

"What are we even talking about this little incident for? Don't we have better things to talk about," Rainbow Dash interrupted.

That comment ended the little argument they had there, much to Pinkie's relief. After a brief round of apologies they started discussing their plans, co-ordinating the resources that they had and sharing what brief experiences that they had with the wildlife. 

The party lasted throughout the night. Apparently, Pinkie Pie had done some slight changes to her ship that allowed it to auto-assemble into a respectable outpost so there wasn’t any dismantling needed. Twilight seemed interested in the feature, so Pinkie Pie gave her the schematics of the modifications she had done. Twilight’s reaction to it were along the lines of “No way…  How can this be done?  This breaks everything!”  If she recalled correctly. It wasn’t really that difficult to build it in, she had done even more complex things. A pedal-powered helicopter, Portable compact party cannons, Two-way slides, the list goes on. Admittedly, the auto-build feature was done on a much larger scale than her other unique creations, it was still much less complex than her seemingly ‘Physics-breaking’ inventions. No one really understood her back in Equestria; they just assumed everything she made as another ‘It’s just Pinkie’ moment. That comment did hurt initially but she has learned to ignore it over the times. It actually lead to fun moments like when Twilight tried to study her Pinkie Sense...

…...

The next day came. As Pinkie Pie watched her friends go back home, her body suddenly started shuddering involuntarily. That’s odd, my Pinkie Sense hasn’t acted up in such a long time. And a doozy? What is the unexpected thing that is going to happen? 

She looked at the slowly vanishing convoys in the distance. I hope nothing bad is going to happen. This twitchy-twitch feels really, really bad.

> 4.a) Projects and Power shortages (Twilight)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author:  Brother Malachai



“The world is for us to explore, to prosper in. Now onwards to progress everypony. The union does not rest till we have pushed all ventures of Science and Magic beyond the scope of our wildest imaginings.” ~An extract from Twilight’s speech as she sent the first explorer out to chart the new world




The little party that Pinkie managed to put on with their still limited supplies was fun. After years of nothing but ground-breaking scientific research, inventing and organisation, it was a really nice break from the rather stagnant routine.

Twilight was startled out of her thoughts when Celestia, their bright new capital, finally came into view. Looking out the window, she saw some work crews already at work laying down roads to aid transportation between their cities, and just beyond that, Twilight spied the rocket that would send their first satellite relay into orbit. The large tower’s frame was already finished; it just needed the equipment installed. Everything was proceeding as planned so far, although Twilight wondered if that just meant some unexpected delay was creeping up on her.

When her convoy finally reached the city, Twilight went straight for her headquarters. Opening the door to her office, she walked over to her desk and logged into her computer. The computer immediately chimed with all the emails that she had missed.  If this had been Spike’s old mailing system, the dragon would’ve had a major case of indigestion. Being the studious pony that she was, she liked to have everything documented, unlike Rainbow Dash, who hatred of paperwork had become legendary.  Still, Dash had learned that red tape was unavoidable during her time as a Wonderbolt and the Princess of Loyalty, so at least she never put it off like she had the first time. In fact, the computers were still sending back errors whenever somepony tried to access data from what Twilight had dubbed, “The great bottleneck.”

Let’s see…. the clinic staff want to discuss something with me. Twilight thought with a glance at her schedule. Looks like I can meet up with them at 8 P.M. after dinner to see what they want. She typed a quick reply to them as she updated her planner. Ok, now the next one…  The work never seemed to end.  Alas, bureaucratic maneuvering was a different beast from the studying and research she loved so much.  Whereas studying and experimentation were means of discovery, the bureaucracy was just the means of keeping the government going.  Even then (the government being the government) it was very inefficient at times.  Still, it was a necessary evil in any modern society, and she couldn’t wait for the day she could turn it all over to an A.I.

……

Dinner was nothing fancy, just regular hydrated hay with some fresh native plants. While a few farms were set up already, they required time to grow. With only a hoof-ful of edible native plants available, they had to conserve their limited supplies as best they could. The good news was that, according to her calculations, they wouldn’t need to carry out rationing until the first batch of crops came in.

Just then Spike sat down with a crash next to Twilight, placing his tray on the ground in front of him. Spike had grown quite a bit since his early years, as his “tray” was about the size of a cafeteria table.  Fortunately, he had grown “properly” this time around and was able to avoid most of the downside of his Spikezilla persona. He also had finally grown a pair of wings, in addition to his spikes being larger. The Lavender Princess took a mental note that she needed to set up a proper table for Spike later as she gazed at him fondly. “Oh, hey Twi.” Spike replied with a slight rumble. While his voice had a much deeper bass and was somewhat louder than his younger years, his friendliness still showed through.

“Oh, hi Spike,” Twilight replied,“How was your day so far?”  

“Good,” Spike told her. “Nothing much happening on the borders. The native wildlife is keeping far away from us so far.” Spike then took a bite out of a piece of firaxite that was on his tray. “Want some?” he asked as he handed over a rather large chunk in his massive claw. 

“Erm, no thanks,” Twi replied back with a simple hoof wave.  

“Suit yourself.” Spike shrugged as he took another bite of it. “Hmm… A this one’s a bit spicier than usual,” he mumbled, “Maybe it has some extra properties...” He drifted into thought as he bit down on another piece.

The only reason why Twilight had let him eat these crystals in the first place was because there weren't any other forms of crystal available on this planet. It turned out Equestria was unusually rich in gems and crystals, and on just about any other world no creature would be able to eat them because they just weren’t enough to make the effort. Since gemstones were a large part of a dragon’s diet, Twilight had reluctantly allowed Spike to eat the orange crystals. Testing the Firaxite had shown that it had properties similar to silicon, but they have not figured out how to use it in their computers just yet.

“What are your plans for the city now Twilight?” Spike asked as he polished off the last crystal. 

“Oh, I have so many!  I plan to send out some explorers to chart the world, build up our orbital coverage. But first there is a meeting with the clinic staff after dinner,” Twilight replied,  “They said there were major supply issues and they needed me to make some important executive decisions.  Par for the course in a frontier colony I’d suppose.”  

“I don’t envy your job Twi,” Spike admitted, “It’s not as free as mine; where I am somehow able to soar the thermals of this world, despite the lack of magic and my rather large size.  But, I am here for you nonetheless.  Don’t worry, I know you’ll do the right thing.”  Spike then put out one of his massive claws.  Twi then put her much smaller hoof within it.  Oh how times have changed.  Twi remembered when Spike was a baby and her own hoof was so much larger than Spike’s clawed hand.  

“Thanks Spike, you’ve always been a good friend,” Twi replied with a smile.  

“Hey, it’s what I do,” Spike said with a shrug as he shot her a smile of his own.

……

“And this is why Princess, I foresee that we cannot serve both the medical needs of the civil workers and the military. We simply don’t have the resources to fulfill all of them in the near future.” the clinic staff head summed up to Twilight at the meeting

Why does everypony think that I know the answers to everything!? Is this what Celestia always had to deal with back in her day court? Twilight groaned inwardly. She maintained her neutral look and asked: “So what do you think is the best move to do?”

“My Princess, there are two possible outcomes. On one hoof we can prioritise medical care to the civil workers to ensure that they are at their peak condition to develop our colony. On the other hoof, we can prioritise the soldiers as they are necessary for our security.” The clinic head answered.

“Well, the choice is obvious.” Spike nonchalantly spoke. “Prioritise the military. The aliens may be docile now but I get the feeling that we might have to start scraping with them soon. We can’t defend well ”

“If I may speak my thoughts. The assistant of the Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle feels that it is best for the civil workers to receive this additional medical treatment.  We cannot run a strong military without the civilians producing the food, energy, and materials they need,” Trixie in turn replied.  

Spike merely grumbled slightly at a low growl at her suggestion. He then looked at her with his eyes half closed and with a slight snarl which gave him a look that indicated a lack of amusement.

Twilight walked back and forth a bit with her head looking down upon the floor. Afterwards she brought up one of her front hooves and put it under her chin. “Hmmm,” she murmured, “The thing is you both have valid points. However, in this case I will have to side with Trixie.  We need a strong infrastructure to keep our military and law enforcement running.  And, for that we need to keep our workers healthy.”  


“I understand, Princess,” replied the clinic head as she passed Twi a Data Slate and a stylus.  “I will need you to sign here,” the head doctor replied as she pointed to a blank line on the data slate.  

After thoroughly reading the document for about a minute or so, the Princess of Friendship picked up the slate and stylus via unicorn telekinesis and signed the document.  She then used that same telekinesis it to pass it back to Moondancer.  

“Very well. It shall be done,” the clinic head replied with a bow after she put the stylus in her lab suit pocket and the dataslate under one of her front legs, “However, I must beg of you my leave. I have other matters to attend to.”  

“Of course ,” replied Ms. Sparkle, “Don’t be a stranger though, Minuette.  And would you mind keeping tabs on Moondancer for me? I don’t her going hermetic on me again as she was back in the day.”  

“Sure, I’m sure we will run into her in the chow hall or the hoofball court at some point.  I could say the same for you as well, your Highness.  You’ve been pretty busy as of late as well,” Minuette replied with a slight smile.” She continued, “However, this will have to be farewell for now.”

“Rest assured, you will see me on the hoofball court at some point.  Dismissed,” the lavender alicorn replied as the doctor in turn bowed and trotted off.

As he trotted away, Trixie went over to Spike and put one of her hooves upon his arm.  She would’ve put it on his shoulder, but he was too tall for her to reach, even if she was standing up and he was on all fours.  “While the great and powerful Trixie is grateful to have won the debate she is still sorry someone had to lose.” she replied with a slight frown.  
Spike merely looked down upon her and smiled slightly.  He then replied,  “Hey, ya win some ya lose some.  Rest assured, while I may have my reservations and disagreements on the matter I still trust the Princess to do the right thing for our colony.”  

“Trixie is pleased to hear this.” the Blue Unicorn in turn commented with a rather large grin.”  She then continued, “Tell me Spike, how would you feel if the great and generous Trixie helped you find some Firaxite after work today with the spell Rarity and Twilight taught her?”  

“Really?” Spike replied with an almost childlike glee,  “You’d take time out of both or our work schedules for me?”  

“Of course Commander Spike,” Trixie replied as she got her trademark hat off of a nearby hat hanger, “I am not known as the great and generous Trrrriiixxxiiieeeee for nothing!”  Spike and Twi had to chuckle for a bit at that.  Fortunately, Trixie was too busy with her theatrics at the time to notice.  

“Sounds good to me Trixie,” Spike replied with a rather large grin.

……

Path Tracer was trembling with excitement as he waited at the barracks. After a few rounds of selection, he had been chosen out of about 30 hopeful candidates  to operate the explorer module to carry out expeditions. It was a difficult process. The scientists had been looking for a candidate that has the scientific knowhow to be able to accurately carry out scientific expeditions while the military ponies were looking for someone who could hold their own in a fight.  Having spent his time working in both the Signal Corps and the Combat Engineers back in Equestria ensured that he more than qualified for the job. 

The door opened to show Cpt. Flash. “Sergeant Tracer?” the captain called out.

“Yes Sir!” The corporal replied as he stood at attention and saluted.

“Follow me.” the guard captain ordered as he turned around and started walking into the corridor he came from.

They travelled in relative silence. Ponies who spotted them waved, wishing him good luck knowing he was the first pony going out to chart the world. Turning into a room, Flash pushed the door open and pointed in. “The scientists are in there, they want to show you something.” Flash Sentry said. After a little hesitation, he said: “Good luck out there soldier.”

Path Tracer walked into the room. The couple of scientists and engineers were there doing some final checks to a giant rover in the middle of the makeshift workshop. One of the scientists, a yellow orange mare with a red and yellow mane looked up and noticed the young sergeant. “Ah, Sergeant Tracer I presume?” Sunset Shimmer asked. “ I’m Sunset Shimmer, Princess Twilight’s scientific and human diplomacy adviser. You been called here for us to show you the features on the explorer probe that will be provided for your expedition needs.” 

Tracer nodded in reply as he eyed the all terrain drone in front of him. 

“ Now, your job is fairly simple really. All you need to do is to map out the lands you explore. If you come across something of archaeological importance, all you need to do is to set up a site by assembling this module here.” Sunset explained as she pointed to a white compartment on the back of the craft. “ In there is a tripod ground radar, a few analysis instruments and some spare ammunition.”

She then walked to the front of the vehicle and entered the pilot seat. Pointing to the various dials and buttons she began to explain what each of them did. “Now, this probe however does not have the room for any tactical weapons, so you are going to have to defend it as well. We are sorry that we can’t fit any weapons on it but that’s what your military training is for.”

“You mean it’s just me and a rifle against the aliens,” Tracer asked

“That just about sums it up Sergeant.” A voice came from behind him. Everyone turned to the source of the voice revealing Princess Twilight. “If you spot any sites of interest do try to investigate them, however don’t put your own life at risk. Whether it is too risky to approach or not I’ll leave up to you.”

Everyone started to bowbowing but Twilight held a hoof up and continued,  talking: “No need for thatbowing everypony. Especially you Sergent, what you are doing is both brave and necessarynessecaryrather brave and daring to do. The least I could do is to show some respect right before we sendt you off.” She looked at him and saluted.

Tracer was at a loss of words. Here was the princess of the colony saluting her, something that should n’ot even be happening. “I... “ he stammered “Thank you Princess.  You usually only salute a commissioned officer, but thank youI will take the compliment.  I promise I will do the Union proud.”

Twilight smiled. “I’m sure you will on’t Sergeant.  May Celestia watch over your mission.”

“Thank you Princess” Tracer said as he gathered his weapons, then saluted her and left.

……


In the city management office on another side of the city, Moondancer was hard at work ondoing her paperwork trying to allocate sufficient resources for the multiple improvements being builtd. With limited resources from their landing ship, it fell toon her to ensure that there weren’t any bottlenecks with allocation. Right now though, she had a problem.

Somepony knocked on the door. “Come in. The door is unlocked.” Moondancer replied. The door swung open with a lavender glow, revealing Princess Twilight.

“You wanted to discuss something with me Moondancer,” Twilight asked. She squinted at the near darkness as Moond Dancer had only switched on her table lamp.

“Yes Twilight. I wanted to talk to you about the current infrastructure in place.” Moondancer replied. “Take a seat Princess.” she said as she closed the door with her magic.

Twilight took at seat. “So what would you like to talk about Moondancer?”

“Well” Moondancer thought for a moment. “Firstly I would want to talk about the power situation we may be facing soon.”

“Power situation?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. It is my recommendation that we try building one of those reactors with the materialsresources we have onat hoof at the moment. We don’t have the resources for large scale solar arrays yet and there aren’t any nearby sources of petroleum. yet.” Moondancer replied.

“Do we really need to? yet,” Twilight asked. “There are still many things we don’t understand about the place. The researchers would need more time to study all the samples they took. And everything is still running as far as I could see. Mind if I take a look at your charts and diagrams to see if something is wrong?”

“Twilight, I’m pretty sure my charts aren’t wrong. The reason why we haven’t suffered a blackout yet is because we are just reaching the max output our salvaged ship generator can provide.” Moondancer pointed out.

As if to emphasise Moondancer’s point, the power suddenly cut off, knocking out the only light in her room. Both of them quickly casted light spells. Moondancer simply sighed. “The 4th Engineering Wing must have gone just went online...”. She looked at Twilight who by now was looking a little embarrassed.

“I think I might have went overboard with setting up all our research facilitles,” Twilight said sheepishlyy said, “I’ll get the engineers started on the reactor.”  

“Please do,” Moondancer replied with half-closed eyes.

(“Yes...erm,  Moondancer,” Twi continued,  “Me and the other alumni from the old college were wondering if you’d be willing to take up a few rounds with hoofball with us later?”
“Yes...I suppose so,” Moondancer answered as she cracked her neck a bit, “We are on a new planet and I don’t want to get too soft.  A emergency might come up where I may have to get a move on pretty fast.”  

“Thanks Moon,” Twi replied as she gave her a big hug,  “I don’t want things to go back to the way they were when I first left Canterlot.”

Taken aback a bit by being hugged by the much larger alicorn the much smaller unicorn stammered,  “S-sure Princess!  Could you lighten up a tad though?  You’re kinda making it hard to breathe.”

“Oh!  Sorry,” the Princess exclaimed with a bit of shock as he let her go and then nervously scratched the back of her mane.  Twilight then cleared her throat and continued,  “The pPoint is please get out and see us some. Don’t be a stranger. Promise?”

“Promise,” replied Moon Dancer in turn with a matching smile.

> 4.b.) Old Memories (Rainbow Dash)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: Brother Malachai
Co-Author: May I Cut In



“A bad memory serves two as things to a soldier. It teaches them how to avoid similar situations and itagain. But it also reminds them why fighting is never the prefered solution.”-From Rainbow Dash’s Preface for “War Stories From Tartarus: Time Spent On The Colonial Front Lines.”/i]




Visions. The collapse of the standard rules of physics and magic. The normal and mundane becoming extraordinary. These are the sort of things dreams are made of. Or Nightmares.  Also,nd, betweenwith Luna’s… absence, gone and the stresses of leading a colony the nightmares have become more commonplace. They also became much, much, worse. The cyan alicorn with the rainbow mane tossed and turned in her bed; taking rather unpleasant trips down memory lane.  Instead of thinking of more pleasantpleasanter days such as joining the Wonderbolts or earning her horn; she remembered… well, she didn’t really want to talk about it darker days instead. Indeed, she was having a rather unpleasant memory at the moment. The time where she was nearly lost to her friends and she nearly lost them in return. But, then again the road to Tartarus was paved with the best of intentions.

“Come on out ponies! I will make you pay for what you have done to me,” roared the infamous Tirek, his horns casting grim shadows across the ground.  

Behind him was a battered Cerebus. The Princess of Kindness had quietly teleported behind him and teleported out with the massive canine. Indeed, Tirek was too distracted at the time by dealing with the Princess’ of Honesty and Loyalty.  

“Ya gone too far this time,” Applejack growled,  “Celestia has finally given us th’ permission we needed t’ put ya down like th’ mad timberwolf ya are!”

“Yeah, that means the buckinpunching shoes are off,” Rainbow Dash in turn replied with her usual cavalier attitude. Or at least, that’s the attitude she used to have back in those days.

“Fah!  Don’t make me laugh,” Tirek bellowed at them,  “I crushed Discord and your Princess Sisters like the weaklings they are!  What makes you think you’re going to win?  Some silly nonsense about the magic of friendship?”

“It beat ya before an’ it can do it-,” Applejack started.  
However, she didn’t get to finish.  Tirek had zapped her with a bolt of his magic from his horns.  
“Save your speeches for someone who cares,” growled Tirek as he started to stomp towards her.

Rainbow Dash, terrified at what she saw, yelled out, “AJ!”  She then rushed over to her side and helped to get her up.

“Funny. They usually say yer th’ mouthy one,” Applejack replied with a slight cough as Rainbow Dash slung her over her shoulder and started to fly off.  

Enraged at seeing his quarry flee Tirek roared and charged after them and fired off more bolts.
“C’mon AJ!  Hang in there,” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath as she dodged the bolts being fired at her.

Rainbow Dash was then brought back to the present and the waking world via a rather loud alarm clock.  She woke up with a start and a cold sweat.  Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead.  She wiped it off with a hoof and tried to recompose herself.  She tapped the top of the alarm clock and took a deep breath. Time for another day at work she thought to herself. Other than the fact that she slept alone, she had a rather Spartan quarters, lacking in luxury items. She didn’t want to have too many perks. It was unfair for the other troops and citizens after all. After doing a quick checkup of herself in the mirror she went off to put on a sweattop with a hoodie. She then went digging through her medicine cabinet. There they were, the daily prescription antidepressants she took to combat the traumas she had in the past and will probably still receive in the future (as well as a few painkillers).  She had to give up the bottle ages ago. As much as she enjoyed drinking cider with AJ in the past she saw what happened to her soldiers that hit it too hard. It wasn’t pretty. Indeed, it took an intervention from her own friends to wake her up a while back. Then again, the warning signs were there. It went as far back as the first time Flim And Flam came to Ponyville. She gulped down her usual cocktail of uppers and painkillers and then proceeded on her way to the PT training grounds.

After spending time training with the regular troops, spec ops, and doing some laps, Rainbow Dash was practicing her katas, sweat dripping off her face as she spun, struck, and parried. Due to her position of leadership she didn’t have as much personal time as she used to enjoy, so what little she did have was focused on training. Sure daily PT and combat drills with her guards helped, but she still needed some extra “oomf” to make sure she kept her edge. Without that drive to be the best she wouldn’t be Rainbow Dash, Princess or not.  
“Oh Twi, why didn’t you tell me how much power you carried within you when you changed,” she thought to herself as she continued her movements, now landing a series of bucks and punches to a nearby punching bag. Indeed, after her own change she found it harder to control her power than to let it all out. But still, she learned the consequences the hard way of letting her power run loose during the Nightmare Prism incident.  
“Never again,” she told herself that day, and she stuck to that promise ever since. It was an odd sensation, being so powerful you could be a danger to the ones you cared about, and yet practically helpless in other situations. But, then again, that’s why she trained. She trained to better control her powers and to build up the areas where she may have been lacking. Although she may have wanted to, she couldn’t just train or fret about the recent disagreements between her and the other Elements. She had a colony to run after all, and they depended on her leadership for survival.

Satisfied with the devastation she had inflicted upon the boards, bricks, and punching bags around her, Rainbow Dash stopped to do some cooldown exercises and some stretches. A routine she learned the necessity of the hard way early on during her athletic training in Cloudsdale. Whether she’d want to admit it or not; she was glad the girls introduced her to the spa. While she may have not cared for the more “frilly” aspects, the massage therapy and hot tubs were pure bliss on sore muscles after a long day of training. She will definitely try to get one set up in the colony when time permitted (but she would probably end up publicly denying having a hoof involved). “Scootaloo, get the shower ready for me, will ya?” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “I’ll never hear the end of it if I show up to my ‘royal duties’ smelling like a laundry bag filled with week-old gym socks that was left in the rain.” Scootaloo had just arrived at the quarters mere moments ago to brief Rainbow Dash on the upcoming events of the day, as well as help her equip her royal armor and regalia.
“Sure thing, Princess!” Scootaloo replied, “Wow!  I’m still amazed at you though!  You did both regular and Elite Guard PT this morning AND you did combat drills AND you flew several dozen laps before you even started on your martial arts training!”  

“I know,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Twilight did a similar routine with the others and I when she first got her Crystal Palace back on Equestria. She was trying to avoid going back to her new home at the time, so she literally spent several days training with me, digging holes for Applejack, and working with the other girls. All without hardly breaking a sweat! She still had a nasty case of sleep deprivation though. I’ll admit, it was still pretty funny when she rambled things like, ‘I’m Princess Pancake!’ in her sleep deprived haze.” That elicited a giggle from Scootaloo as she gathered towels and other items for Rainbow Dash to use while cleaning. “Don’t tell her I said that though, ok?”  Rainbow Dash shot her a wry look, “She’d die from embarrassment if she knew I was still telling that story.”

“Deal,” Scootaloo promised with a smile.  

After a quick shower, cleaning up her teeth, mane, and hooves and a quick inspection of her Royal Regalia and Body Armor, she suited up and headed over to the Chow Hall. After dealing with the usual series of salutes, bows, and various Guardponies yelling “Princess on Deck,” and having to tell the various personnel to go back to their duties, she finally got to sit down for a brief moment and enjoy some breakfast. Accompanying her was her retainers and advisors. They included (but were not limited to), her old Wonderbolt alumni Lightning Dust, Soarin’, Fleetfoot, and Spitfire, as well as Gilda, Scootaloo, and Daring Do amongst others beings both Wonderbolt and non-Wonderbolt. In many ways, this was a dream team for her, for it put many of her old friends (and even a few rivals) under one roof and under her direct command. 

“About time ya’ showed up Dweeb-o,” Gilda replied while munching on some Griffinstone Scones.  The other Wonderbolts (except for Lighting Dust, who was laughing at the insult) and Scootaloo glowered at her. 

The Element of Loyalty merely smiled at her knowing and replied back: “Dweeb-o’ or not, I’m still the one that pays you.”  

“But I haven’t been paid.” Gilda replied back.  

“Exactly. I’ll pay you when you actually earn something,” Rainbow shot back with a ponyfeather-eating grin.  

“Hah! Shots fired,” Lightning Dust laughed some more as she saw the griffin turn red in the face and frown at Rainbow Dash.  

“You’re lucky we’re friends Dashie,” the griffin growled through a gritted beak.  

“Heh, what are friends for,” Rainbow asked as she started to eat an insanely high and large stack of pancakes.  

“Heh, who’s Princess Pancake now,” Scoots asked.  

“Scoots!” Rainbow exclaimed.  

“Oh, sorry,” Scootaloo exclaimed in a near panic.  

The griffin leaned over and asked Scootaloo, “Now tell me, is there something you want to tell your ol’ Auntie Gilda?”  

Scootaloo waved her hooves in front of her in a near panic and exclaimed  “It’s nothing, I assure you! It’s a loooong boring story!” Rainbow Dash merely glowered back at Gilda with her eyes in a slight squint and snorted in annoyance. Gilda wanted to press the issue, but decided to let it drop, for as much as she liked to tease Dash, she didn’t want to deal with an enraged Alicorn that was also the fastest being from their homeworld. 

“Suit yourself,” the Griffin shrugged as she went back to eating her scrambled eggs.  “Still,” she concluded, “that sounds like one interesting story.  Whatever it is.”

After breakfast, Rainbow Dash decided to make a quick stop by a newly-established Barber Shop. There was something she had to take care of before starting her work day at the office.

“Mornin’ Sharp Cut.” replied Rainbow Dash.

“Well, hello Princess! It’s about time you showed up! I figured you were overdue for a regulation manecut,” the barber exclaimed. “So what do you have on your mind?”

“Well, I know my usual short cut from both my civilian and Wonderbolt days were usually up to snuff, but I’m thinking of something different. Maybe a flat top? Something to let the troops know that I am serious about us going on a war footing if we need to and that I’m not letting myself go.”

“Princess, you are renowned around here for both your long training hours and hours in the office. I doubt anypony would accuse you of ‘slacking off,’” the barber replied in turn.  
“Nonetheless, my mind is made up. Go ahead and give me a standard issue Flat top,” the Princess replied as she got into the barber chair. “If that’s what you want,” the barber shrugged as put the cape around the front of her and turned on the electric razor.  

…...

“Hmmm, what do you think is taking Dash so long,” Gilda inquired as she started looking through a stack of papers.  

“Beats me.” commented Spitfire as she went through her own stack of files,  “I can’t imagine what a mess both the paperwork and computer files are going to become when this colony gets-”

“ATTEN-SHUN,” Scootaloo yelled out, having noticed that Rainbow Dash had finally arrived.

“As you were,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, as she just wished the others would stop making a fuss and get back to work.
Alas, the staff in the office was taken aback a bit by her new haircut, for it was now on display since she had took her helm off.

“Highness, you got a new cut-,” Scootaloo started.

Rainbow Dash hoofwaived this and replied,  “Yeah yeah. I know. I got it because I wanted to look a bit more professional. That I was taking my leadership of this new colony more seriously. You know?”

“Of course, Princess. I think I for one at least can understand that,” replied Spitfire as she put her pen down for a second.

“Hey, as long as you’re happy with it ma’am,” commented Gilda in turn.

“Heh...I was just hoping ol’ Squirt here would be happy now that we got matching manecuts,” Rainbow chided as he tousled the top of Scootaloo’s mane.”

“Awww, Princess!  Could you please stop embarrassing me in front of the staff,” Scootaloo pleaded.

That comment in turn got the whole office to burst out into uproarious laughter.  The guards outside of the entrance could only look at each other in confusion over what was going on inside.  

After a long day of work and diffusing several issues amongst the troops and civilians, Rainbow Dash was finally on her way back to her personal quarters.  As she was on her way back she heard a familiar voice coming from the back. “Princess Dash!  Wait, I need to speak to you!”  

“Yeah Squirt, what is it,” she asked as she slowly turned around to see Scootaloo.  

“Well, I’m just here to give you the final updates of the day, Princess.” Scoots replied.  

“I see” Dash commented. “Well, considering the sensitive nature of some of the info you probably have, let’s continue this talk in my quarters. 

After entering, Scoots continued, “The initial troops have armed up at the armory and are performing guard duty and patrols in town and we are presently working on training more troops and an explorer team. Our team of scientists are working on developing the tech needed for Sonic Fencing and building more colony transports, as you requested. Also, about earlier…”  

“Oh, you’re still worried about that,” Rainbow laughed,  “Scoots, my second or not, you are still a card!  I’ve forgiven you already!  It was an accident and I understand.”  

“Oh, thank you Princess!  I really do appreciate this,” Scoots continued until she was interrupted.  “Jeez, here we go with the ‘Princess’ again,” Rainbow started,  “I told you, unless we’re in public or on military ops, it’s just ‘Rainbow’ or ‘Dash.’  You are my godchild after all.”  

“I-I know Dash,” Scootaloo continued, “but it’s-”  

“Military Decorum, I know,” Dash completed the statement.  After all, she’s heard it before on so many occasions from Scootaloo and so many others it wasn’t even funny.  Dash then said, “Look, Scoots.  As I’ve said; we’re not on the clock and we’re not in public here.  So, just call me Dash for the time being.  Okay?”  

“Uhm, sure Dash,” Scoots replied,  “By the way, we stumbled on some actions that Princess Fluttershy has been doing involving the local wildlife.  Certain actions we figured you would probably find...unreasonable.”
Dash sighed as she slowly took off her body armor and crown.  She then looked over at Scoots, and with much resignation replied, “Continue.”

> 4.c.) The Price of Vengeance (Fluttershy) 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chap 4.c) The Price of Vengeance. (Fluttershy)



Author: Brother Malachai
Editor: May I Cut In



“We must not respond immediately with force against the alien wildlife. Rather we should seek to understand why did they do that. They, like us, deserve a little kindness”- Princess Fluttershy right before she presented a siege worm to her fellow colonists




Thanks to Mr. Cthulhud, Fluttershy’s convoy reached their city safe and sound through the miasma fog that surrounded Everfree. Reaching the city limits, they led the worm to a specially cordoned off area for it to live in. “Thanks for your help Mr. Cthulhud. It was nice of you to lead us through the possibly harmful fog.”

The worm “rumbled” in response; only Fluttershy understood that it meant “No problem.”

Waving a hoof at the worm, they headed towards the city. Zecora had been doing a good job with setting up their facilities. She could see several farms and solar arrays as they went over the hill. As they went pass, several of the ponies who were working in the facilities noticed the little royal convoy and waved. Going further along, they passed the site of the first farm where the worm first appeared.  With a smile, Fluttershy recalled how they had first met the siege worm.

……

“Cordon off the area! Get the wounded to the city clinic!” Iron Will shouted towards the small regiment of soldiers they had. “This is a crisis zone!”

Fluttershy could only stare at the gaping chasm that the alien had left in it’s wake. At the building rendered half demolished. Clearly the alien here was much more stronger than any other animals back in the Everfree Forest. Oh dear, how are we going to deal with this problem?

(1h later at the clinic)

“All together there were only 6 ponies who were injured.” The doctor, Tender Cure said. “All of them will be back to normal after a few days of rest.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing: “However, there is one who may not be able to walk properly ever again.”

“Oh dear. What happened?” Fluttershy asked with concern.

“It might be best if you see for yourself my Princess.” the doctor replied as they reached the ward. “After you Princess.” Tender Cure said while holding the door open.

As soon as she stepped in, the various injured patients that were resting on their beds noticed their beloved Princess and they tried to stand at attention as well as they could. Fluttershy went over to each of their sides and wished them a speedy road to recovery. Finally reaching the last bed, she cringed. The stallion had lost his right hindleg. In due time, he would be getting a prosthetic but for now it looked rather painful for him.

“How are you doing today Mr. Daddy McColt?” the doctor asked.

McColt looked at the doctor and the Princess. 
He coughed and started speaking, “My princess. Ahm perfectly fine. However, there is one thing I would like to ask of you.” He stared at the princess. “Promise me that you would go after that thar abomination of a worm!” 

“I…I can’t promise you that. Perhaps it was an misunderstanding?” Fluttershy offered. “After all, we can’t just simply figure out which party is right without understanding the whole situation.”

McColt looked at Fluttershy in the eye. “Princess. I understand what took place a long time ago between the Hooffields and my family was due to us not even taking time to understand each other and immediately jumping to conclusions. But no.  Ah can’t do it this time. This time it’s personal. I had traded my life fer my hindleg when th’ great worm showed up. And this pony will not rest until I have hunted th’ Siege worm! I’ll will not rest till I hunt the Ground Eater,” he finished with a determined look in his eyes.

Fluttershy could see that he would break out into the armoury just to fight the worm, so she reluctantly replied: “Ok. I’ll...consider your...proposal.”

Still, Daddy McColt knew that “consider” was the Princess’ nice way of saying “no” or that she would postpone it indefinitely (especially when it came to matters that would harm wildlife).  Not that there was much of a difference.  After getting out of the hospital later that day, he used his collection of bits and contacts within and without the family to arrange a meeting with certain...shady individuals. Everything was arranged and within a few days he was to met their contact within a newly established saltlick saloon in the shady part of the colony. This part, due to the lack of scrap metal to go around and the difficulty in quarrying rock and chopping logs with a rather small population was simply known as “the Tent Quarter” or “Tent Town.”  Not a particularly fancy-schmancy name, but accurate. It pained a master builder like him to see this part of town in this condition, but building supplies, workers, and tools were stretched thin. This was something he hoped his clan of architects, mercenary combat engineers, carpenters, and construction workers could fix...in time.


He walked up to the grimy and dinged metal table that passed for a bartop and hopped up onto a nearby crate that served for a stool. He then said said to the nearby barkeep, “Two blocks of saltlick.”  He then shoved forward a decent sized pile of bits and continued,  “And the extra is fer keepin’ yer yap shut about what goes on here.”  
The barkeep merely nodded and grabbed the bits. 

As Daddy McColt helped himself to a few licks from his block, a brown and white Palamino Earth Pony mare with a raven-colored mane and chestnut eyes trotted up to him. The pony’s Cutie Mark was that of a rolled-up scroll with a red wax seal and a purple band upon it. 

“Well, hello Blue.  What brings you to this part of town,” she asked.  She then quickly adjusted a tan newsboy  hat that she had on top of her head.
From his previous meetings with his contacts, he knew this comment would be the contact’s way of confirming that she was who she said she was.  He then prepared the response that he was to give in turn (according to the contacts he had) to confirm that he was the one they needed to speak to.
“Ahm just ‘ere fer th’ salt n’ music,” he said with a rather low growl.  With most ponies this would be intimidating or hostile, but the growl in his voice was just a normal thing for Daddy McColt.
“Oh, but I heard...differently,” the Palomino Earth Pony continued,  “I heard you had a little...worm problem and would like some help taking care of it.”  

Daddy McColt merely stared down for a moment at the salt lick before him and then briefly looked down at the stump where his leg used to be and sighed.  He then continued,  “Well, alot of ponies say alot of things, Missy.  But...let us assume that it’s true. Can ya help me?”

“Theoretically, yes,” the other pony continued, “But, it will be dangerous.  This will not be cheap. Whether we use the growing black market, attempt to infiltrate the armory, or both.  We will be putting our lives at great risk. We will demand a rather healthy...donation to our own cause. Even then, why not use the contracted gear given to your combat engineering corps?”

“We will,” Daddy McColt continued, “but it’s not enough fer that giant thing.  Hide’s too thick.  We do have a few mortars, n’ rockits, but most of our arsenal are traditional six-shooters n’ a few repeater rifles, shotguns, an’ grffinikovs.  Just enough t’ protect ourselves when doin’ construction werk in fruit bat country, but not enough fer th’ hunt whar goin’ on.”

“Very well then,” the Palomino continued,  “We will grab what we can for you on the black market and will attempt to knock out some of the perimeter on the agreed time. If we do manage to get some items for you on the black market, where and when do you want to pick them up?”
“Warehouse Twenty-Seven about twenty minutes after we rush in and grab what we can from the armory. If you can pull it off.”

The mysterious Earth Pony then took a lick from her own block and continued,  “If certain measures were in place it would most certainly be more difficult. However, the colony is still very new and they have yet to set up proper hoofprint, eyescan, DNA, and shapeshift scanning technology.  They are still mostly dependent on armed guards, tagging wargear in and out, and ID badges.  We can just grab a few guards on the outer perimeter and take their ID’s and uniforms.”
“Ah want casualties t’ be avoided if ya can,” McColt interrupted,  “Mah feud is with that thar armored Tatzlwurm.   Not th’ local troops!”
“Of course.  But no promises though,” the Palamino replied as she looked around, “But we do agree that offing too many guards would be...bad for business.  It would put too much heat on us.  We will use weaker doses of our stinger venom and other weapons.  You know, tazers, smoke bombs, and the like.  However, I can’t guarantee we won’t lightly...snack a bit...during our infiltration attempt.”
Mr. McColt merely shuddered a bit at the comment of “snacking” and then warily slipped the strange Earth Pony a decent-sized bag of bits.
“As agreed,” the much shorter stallion commented,  “Half up front an’ half when yer done.  At th’ warehouse.”
The Palomino Pony then weighed the bag in her hand, opened it up, and bit one of the bits that were inside.
“A real pleasure doing business with you, Blue,” she concluded with a hoofshake, “Take your positions outside of the armory in about four hours and wait for the doors to open.  If it’s not open by about twenty minutes past the arranged date, consider the op a wash and go to the warehouse to pick up what we can find for you on the black market.”
“Rest assured, th’ pleasure’s all mine,” the blue pony replied in turn; even though he seemed a bit less than eager to shake the hoof of the Palomino. 

A few hours later, Daddy McColt had taken his small band of kinfolk hunters, trackers, and mercenaries and had set up shop in a family built dorm across the dirt and rock street from the armory.  Daddy McColt peered across the street at the armory from his balcony with a telescope.  So far, nothing.  But then again, they had about a few more hours before the deal was officially a bust.  Still, the closer the deadline came the more nervous he became.  It was then that he jumped at hearing a series of knocks at the door.  He recognized that the number of knocks and the speed it was done at was the agreed upon code indicating that the person on the other end was friendly.  He quickly got up upon the shoulders of a nearby Earth Pony and looked into the peephole.  It was the mystery pony that had finalized the contract mere hours before.  Daddy McColt quickly indicated for guards to flank both sides of the door as he got down from the Earth Pony and slowly started to open it.  
“Quite a party you got here Blue,” quipped the mysterious Palamino as she entered.  She then handed over a earbud to one of the guards and replied,  “I wanted to hand this over to you before you patted me down for weapons or a wire.  It’s the earbud I’m using to communicate with the troops on the ground.  You are free to inspect it of course.”
“Sparky McColt, is it clean,” asked Daddy McColt as another much younger Earth Pony gave it a look over.  While this was taking place, the mare was being given a quick pat down, although she obviously seemed less than thrilled about it.
“Yeah Paw, it’s clean,” he commented back,  “It’s a heavily modified earbud with multiple frequencies and a jammer, but no tracer or tracking device.  I see a place where they may have been installed earlier, but it seems it was removed.  Ahm goin’ t’ guess it was because our new...allies knew how concerned we were about bein’ ratted out.”

“You are very astute, little larvae,” replied the Palamino as she dropped her disguise and slowly shifted into her true form.  Dropping the multi-colored fur coat for black chitin.  She then stretched and continued,  “I hope you don’t mind.  Having to hold a disguise for a while can really make you stiff after a while.”  “I’ll take yer word fer it,” replied Daddy McColt as he handed her back her ear bud.  
She then proceeded to talk on the ear bud,  “Yeah, I’m at the contract site.  Go ahead with the infiltration op.  You all ready found a mark?  Where?  Good.  Go ahead.”
“Blue...I mean, Mr. McColt.  If you have a pair of binoculars or telescope with good quality thermals or night vision, I’d suggest looking on the nearby corner of Wolf Beetle Run and Manticore Lane.  Big Daddy McColt grabbed in binoculars again and proceeded to do so.  He noticed what seemed to be a rather attractive young mare talking to a nearby guard.  The Guard was probably just going on Night Patrol when he was distracted by the lovely individual.  It was then that he noticed another ponies sneak up behind him, put a cloth over his muzzle and dragged him into a nearby alleyway.  He then saw what looked like the same Guard pony trot out and re-adjust his armor. 

The Changeling, now back in her disguise, trotted up next to him and commented,  “The guard you see is actually one of our operatives in disguise.  The original has been bound and gagged and stuffed in a box in the alleyway.  We used to put them in dumpsters or trash cans, but we had unfortunate incidents where they were accidentally thrown into dump trucks.  I shouldn’t have to tell you what happened next.”  
The smaller male Earth Pony only shivered in a bit of slight horror as he imaged what happened to those unfortunate few.  He then watched as the Earth Pony walked up to the Armory’s Guard Shack, got into a bit of a conversation with the guard, and presented him with some paperwork and cards of some sort.  He then saw the gate go up and the pony walk in.
“Well, I’ll be Discord’s missin’ fang.  That little sunnuva gun got in.  Still, we haven’t got our weapons an’ ammo yet.”
“Patience is a virtue,” the Changeling in turn replied as she looked through a pair of binoculars.
After about another five to ten minutes, the Changeling motioned for Daddy McColt to look up at the top of the roof of the main building.  On top was the disguised Changeling, who had opened the door on the roof to the main stairwell.  About a dozen or so Changelings then quietly flew down from the sky and landed on the roof and followed him in.  A few minutes after that, a green fog was seen flowing out of building and it eventually enveloped the entire facility.  Guards and civilian personnel were seen gagging and coughing until they finally fell over and lost consciousness.  
“Don’t worry, as you requested, it is non-lethal,” said the mysterious Changeling that was next to Daddy McColt,  “We will need to move fast before reinforcements arrive.  While I do hope you have gas masks I also took the liberty of telling my troops to carry spares on them.”

Daddy McColt and his band of ponies rushed across the street with the Changeling hiree taking point.  They all wore gas masks, except for the Changeling, who was handed one by one of the disguised guards as she approached the gatehouse.  
“We predict you got about fifteen to twenty minutes tops until the other troops start getting worried and sending reinforcements to investigate.  Grab what you can and run,” advised the Changeling with the Trilby hat and gas mask.  Her voice was now a quasi-garbled mumble due to the gas mask she had on, but Daddy McColt got the gist of it.  He nodded and took his hunting party with him as he rushed into the armory.

After packing as much as they could into a nearby wagon with what little time they had, the mixed force of Changelings and ponies fled the armory and went down a maze of alleyways and dirt streets until they arrived at the agreed upon warehouse.  When they arrived, there was another group of Changelings waiting them,  they also had a wagon of their own, loaded with crates that had Changeling, Minotaur, and Griffin text upon them.  
“This is what little we could scrape off the black market in short notice,” the lead changeling replied,  “However, once we get everything inside I do think you will find the results most satisfying.  After getting their collection of ill-gotten gains within the warehouse, the McColts started opening the crates and inspecting them.  As they said, the results were indeed satisfactory.  It was a mix of assault rifles, rocket launchers and mortars.  And more than enough ammo, gun oil, manuals and cleaning kits to keep them up and running.
“Very well, a deal’s a deal,” the short blue pony replied,  “Here’s the other half, as promised.”  He then handed over to the mysterious female ringleader another bag of bits.  She weighed it in her hoof, took a peek in the bag, and bit one of the coins.  She then smiled and replied,  “This will suffice.  Consider our contract fulfilled.  If you need our services again, you know how to contact us.”  She and the rest of the Changelings then ran and flew off into the night.
After the McColt Clan looked on for a few seconds, Daddy McColt then grumbled and barked out,  “C’mon!  Get a move on!  We’ve got to get this gear out of here!  We got a hunt to go on and I want us to get out of town before we get in more trouble!  Move move MOVE!”





……

After a few brief and intense trips down various alleyways and streets, the newly armed and equipped hunting party was able to make their way out of town and managed to get out into the fields that made up the farms that made up the “frontier” of the new colony.  Daddy McColt stopped for a brief moment to look sadly at the ruined fields and buildings that now surrounded him from the recent attack.  It was then that he heard some trotting behind him.  He drew out a six shooter and spun around.  Behind him stood “Ma” Hooffield.  The Clan Matriarch of his Clan’s former rivals.  
“‘ave ya come t’ stop me ‘Ma,’” he growled as he pointed his pistol out here.
“Naw.  On th’ contrary.  I’ve come t’ ask if I could come along.  In case ya forgot, this land ‘ere is ours an’ I lost crops, shelter, prime farmin’ land, an’ a few o’ mah own kin are in th’ Clinc now due to that dern thing!,” she cooly answered as she unslung a Hoofchester ‘87 Rifle from her back.  As she did so, more Hooffields started to creep out from the ruins and trees that surrounded the farm land.  
“Heh...it’s been awhile since we agreed on anythin’ Ma,” Big Daddy chuckled,  “Very well!  Brick!  Mortar!  Git these ‘ere Hooffields armed up!  We don’t ‘ave much time ‘afore th’ Guards from th’ Colony start tryin’ t’ chase us down!”
“Wait...wut Guards,” Ma Hooffield asked with a tinge of concern and suspicion.

After explaining the situation the Hooffields still agreed to go along and were armed up with better gear.  After all, they too lost much in the situation and were frustrated by Fluttershy’s refusal to take action due to her love of nature.  Indeed, they were the largest faction of farmers in the entire colony.  Due to this, they also gained much influence within the political structure that made up the frontier of the town.  “While ahm not thrilled about it ah do agree we need t’ take action.  It’s just a shame it took you havin’ t’ take such extreme actions t’ git th’ weapons we need,” Ma Hooffield concluded with a nod.  
“Yup.  Ya can only push a stallion...or a mare...so far before they snap,” Big Daddy agreed in turn,  “But enough chewin’ th’ cud.  We gots t’ git goin before dem Guards git here t’ detain us.”  Ma nodded in agreement and went to round up the kin that agreed to join her own war party and made sure they were given sufficient equipment from the ill-gotten gains of the McColts.

Big Daddy cleared up his throat and then started to address the ponies that surrounded him, “Alright Hooffields an’ McColts!  Listen up!  Me an’ Ma agreed to split our party into two groups. We are goin’ after that infernal giant worm that tore up our farms!  That ruined th’ buildins that we built an’ th’ land ya’ll tended!  We cannot allow this insult upon our pride go unanswered. Now, we will be into two war or huntin’ parties.  The last we saw of that infernal critter he was goin’ due west.  Therfore, that’s whar we goin’.  The Hooffields will take up the left side and we’ll take up the right.  We’ll try t’ pin that overgrown earthworm between us an’ take ‘im down wi’ mortars an’ rockits.  Now let’s get movin’!  McColt Regulators!  Hooffield Wildcats!  Move out!”
Upon hearing the orders, the assembled ponies hooted and hollered and proceeded to run forward to the Western Treeline.
Meanwhile, from a nearby nearby hut, a hidden Daisy and Lily whispered to each other.
“You think this counts as awful,” asked Daisy.
Lily nodded.
“And disastrous,” Daisy continued to ask.
Lily again nodded.
“Then we got to notify Fluttershy then,” Daisy concluded.
“I agree,” Lily finally said,  “Even if that creature did harm poor Carrot Top; I still think picking a fight with it is a bad idea.  I would rather our Princess try to talk it down first, as she had done with animals back in Equestria.  Let’s flee to town and warn her after the hunters have left.”


After spending most of the night and a good chunk of the morning tracking down the creature; the Hooffields and McColts noticed a pattern in the creature’s movements.  It would often sink below the surface, but would inevitably rise to the surface.  They were unsure why, but it reminded them of what a whale would do.  Of how it would often come to the surface to breathe after swimming the mysterious dark depths of the seas back home.  Whether it needed to surface to actually breathe or for some other reason was unknown.  Nonetheless, they agreed that that was a matter for scientists to figure out, not them.  Something the scientists will have plenty of time to do once the creature has been turned into a stone cold dead corpse.  
After following the creature for so many hours it had surfaced next to the lake.  “This is our chance,” roared the short, blue, Stallion,  “Regulators!  Wildcats!  Pin ‘em in an’ OPEN FIREEE!!!!!”
Mortar teams rushed to set up their batteries while rockets and various assorted firearms open fire from the surrounding mass of ponies.  The large monstrosity raised up several stories into the air and let out a ear-splitting roar.  
“Keep firin’,” yelled Ma Hooffield,  “We ain’t gonna git a second chance!”
The creature then let out another roar and was starting to rear up even higher; it was preparing to strike with the massive trunk that made up its body.  It was then that a massive flash of light appeared out of nowhere between the worm and the ponies, and blinded both.  From the flash of light roared another loud voice; screeching, “BEEEEE STILLLLLLL!!!!!”  The voice was that of a unusually loud Princess of Kindness.  Both the worm and the surrounding ponies recoiled in pain from usage of the Royal Equestrian Voice.  Behind the band of backwoods ponies charged and flew a band of Fluttershy’s Royal Guard.  Accompanying them were Zecora and Iron Will in a flying chariot.

“Put your weapons down now,” growled a unusually angry Fluttershy.   Anger was a rare thing for her, but even she had her limits.  
But then Hooffield in turn yelled at her,  “But Princess!  That infernal thing took mah leg an’ destroyed th’ buildin’s ah built!”  
Ma Hooffield then added,  “An’ it ruined mah crops!”
Fluttershy then took a second to recompose herself, but still spoke with a tinge of frustration and anger,  “Look.  I’m sorry about what happened to both of you, especially you Mr. Hoofield.”  She then sadly looked down at Big Daddy’s leg and continued,  “But you risked the lives of my Guards and stole government property for the sake of fulfilling a GRUDGE!  You risked the lives of fellow colonists for a grudge!”
“Only because you ignored us,”  yelled back the McColt Patriarch.
“I was NOT ignoring you,” Fluttershy then yelled back,  “I was going to talk to the creature and attempt to get it to leave us alone!  But you couldn’t wait for me to do it!  Could you!?”
Daddy Hooffield then looked down at his leg and replied,  “But my leg…”
Fluttershy then got a bit misty-eyed and put her hoof upon the short stallion’s shoulder,  “I know what it did was wrong, but killing it is not going to give you your leg back.  Even if it was still within it, it’d probably be digested and rotted beyond repair now.  Look, I know Princess Sparkle is having some of her scientist researching cybernetics and my own scientists are doing research into cloning body parts.  I will see if I can find you a replacement.”
“It’s not the same…,” Daddy McColt growled.  He then turned away and look at Ma Hooffield.  She merely nodded in silent assent.  “Ponies! stand down,” Daddy McColt barked out,  “Turn th’ stolen weapons back over to the Guards!"  Fluttershy then ordered her Troops, "They are not to be arrested.  They are also to be allowed to keep the contraband as long as only their combat engineers and guards are the only ones to be equipped with it.”

Iron Will then slightly objected,  “But Fluttershy!?  Why apologize when you should criticize!?”
Fluttershy then put up a hoof and chided,  “Now now.  While what they did was wrong it was only because they felt I was ignoring them.  My decision stands.  No jail time for any of them.  Now excuse me; I must go try and talk down the worm before it attempts to attack us some more.”
As she walked away, Iron Will angrily stomped towards Ma Hooffield and Daddy McColt.
“She may forgive and forget, but I will not,” he growled,  “You owe this colony big time for the trouble and damage you caused.  I will be expecting discount on your farming and construction contracts for a long time.  Remember, you and your kin are only one warrant away from an arrest.”He then pointed as his eyes and back at them several times before he in turn stomped off to accompany Fluttershy.  Zecora merely shook her head at both the rebellious ponies and the angry minotaur and in turn went to go accompany Fluttershy.

“I really hope I can do this.  I never talked to a critter from another planet before,” Fluttershy whimpered a bit to herself.  
“You can do this Fluttershy!  Don’t back down now,” Iron Will commented,  “Remember my main rule for negotiations.  ‘If somepony tries to block.  Show them YOU ROCK!!!”  
Zecora then cleared her throat and added,  “Remember too that kindness is your strength.  Show some restraint.”  Fluttershy looked back at them and nervously smiled.
Having finally recovered from the combination of the bright flash and loud screech of the strange extra-terrestrial creature the gigantic worm started to rear up and roar again.  Various troops from the Guard, Hooffields, and McColts started to grab weapons and raise them, but Fluttershy yelled, “Stand down!  I will take care of this!”  The assembled ponies nervously lowered their weapons in response.  The creature started to coil back.  From Fluttershy’s time in the Everfree forest and elsewhere she noticed this as a stance often used by serpents who are preparing to strike.  While she wanted to talk to the creature she realized she was running out of time before it attacked.
“Mr….erm...worm Sir,” she started,  “I’m sorry about what my ponies did but…”
The large worm then lunged towards her.  The surrounding ponies neighed and screamed in horror over what was happening.  Just as the ponies were about to break her orders and attack, there was another flash of light.

They then saw what she was doing.  She was using a combination of a restraint spell and her own main weapon:  The Stare.  Sweat was forming upon her brow and she grunted a bit in pain.  Even though she was an alicorn she too felt the consequences of being on a planet that lacked magic.  It was a test of wills:  Alicorn Vs. Giant Wyrm.  After staring at each other for what seemed an eternity both sides started to back down.  The worm coiled up with it’s back against the edge of the lake and growled angrily and Fluttershy landed and huffed a bit.

She then continued to speak,  “Now...Mr. Worm.  Now that I got you to stand down and I’ve called off my ponies, are you willing to talk?”
The giant beast gurgled in what passed for language in its bizarre and limited mind.

After several tense minutes, Fluttershy managed to arrange an agreement with the creature.  That it would stop attacking the colonies in exchange for its own parcel of land.  After Fluttershy agreed to this, a band of Guards was assigned to send the Hooffields and McColts back home.  The other guards surrounded the new creature and guarded it while Zecora and Fluttershy examined its wounds and injuries.  It was around this time that Iron Will came to Fluttershy and requested that she speak to him in private.  Zecora continued the medical exam with some combat medics and scientists while Iron Will and Fluttershy walked off.
Iron Will said,  “Fluttershy.  It’s important.  Princess Sparkle wants to talk to you.  She’s trying to arrange a meeting between the Elements.  And she’s got some news about Applejack.  She’s hasn’t heard from her in a while and she and her forces are going through some rough country.”
“I understand,” Fluttershy nodded.  She grabbed a earbud from Iron Will and put it in her ear.  Fluttershy then asked the Princess of Friendship,  “Hey Twilight!  What is this about you arranging a meeting and Applejack going missing?  This sounds very, very bad.”
> 4.d.) Vanishers (Rarity)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Authors: Brother Malachai



“The aliens provoked us and think that we are pushovers. Well, I’ll show them. With Celestia as my witness, I will vow to eradicate them when they dare to get too close!”~Extract from Princess Rarity’s diary. Dated 5 December, 2115 AD (After Discord) as provided by Duchess Sweetie Belle.




Another day rolled over. As the uncontrolled sun went over the horizon, the light crept into Rarity’s home. Sweetie Belle was the first to wake up, the sunlight startling her awake. Sitting in her bed, she could see her sister still asleep. She got off the bed and walked towards the kitchen, determined to try and cook her first breakfast on a new world and to surprise her sister.

……

Rarity woke up to the smell of smoke. Waking up with a start, she saw the smoke originating from the kitchen. Oh Sweetie Belle, Not again! Rarity though. Scrambling to her hooves, she quickly headed to the kitchen. Once she stepped in, she was greeted with a sight of Sweetie Belle with a singed mane. A frying pan was on the stove with a small fire coming from it. Pancake batter was on the floor. But unlike her last failed attempt a long time ago, this time the orange juice wasn’t burnt. 

Sweetie Belle saw her sister walk in, sheepishly smiled, and said, “Sorry. I messed up again. But I swear, my magic just fizzled out while I was holding the frying pan. It’s like my magic became weaker.”

Rarity fired up her horn and got to work cleaning up the mess. Within minutes, the kitchen was cleaned up and a roughly cleaned Sweetie Belle and her sister was at the table eating the remains of Sweetie’s attempt. 

“I’m really sorry for the mess big sis-,” Sweetie Belle started. 

“It was nothing darling. Twilight has been telling me that the magic field here is much more weaker than back in our world.” Rarity interrupted. “To be honest, I was expected this to happen.” Sweetie Belle started to protest but Rarity held a hoof up and continued, “ But it’s nice to know my little sis still cares about me so much,” She finished with a smile.

Sweetie Belle blushed and she tried to hide it by eating her breakfast. Rarity decided to lay off the light teasing for the moment and instead take the moment to levitate her day planner over. As her colony was still rather small and developing, there wasn’t much for Rarity to do just yet, but in due time, the administrative work will pile up. 

Finishing off the last pancake made from the unspilled batter, Rarity cleared the table and Sweetie Belle did the washing. “So Sweetie, how are you planning to spent your day?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know really sis, I was thinking about helping the engineers or maybe the farmers but they didn’t seem to really want my help yesterday,” Sweetie Belle replied with a shrug. “I don’t know, maybe walk around and see who needs help.”

“Well, I hope somepony would appreciate your help.” Rarity encouraged. Note to self. Try to get Octavia to distract her for the day later. She thought to herself inwardly.

“Thanks sis. I’ll see you later tonight” Sweetie Belle answered in response as she got off the chair and headed straight for the exit. Rarity spent a few minutes properly arranging her bed before heading out as well.

…...

“You want me to keep your younger sister distracted and away from any trouble,” Octavia asked with a surprised and rather shocked tone.

“I do hope it won’t be much trouble Octavia,” Rarity replied, “I do trust my sister now to not land herself into trouble like how she does last time but you can never be sure right?”

“No no, it won’t be any trouble at all Princess. If I could handle Vinyl Scratch in the past after one of her wild late night parties; I think I could look after a young mare.” Octavia reassured. But inwardly, the grey mare was wishing it was Vinyl Scratch she had to deal with instead. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were rather notorious a long time ago back in Ponyville. She still remembered when the crusaders tried for “Classical Music Cutie Marks”. It took her days to get all the tree sap out of every nook and cranny of her favourite cello.

“Thank you Octavia.” Rarity said, oblivious to the dread the earth pony was feeling. “Sweetie Belle can sing decently.  Her talent is along those lines after all. Maybe give her some singing projects?”

“Thank you for the suggestion Princess.” Octavia answered with some relief

……

“Let me get this straight. The bone-headed Blueblood wants to purchase the artifacts I have in storage for his personal collection?” Rarity growled in annoyance, “Well you can tell him to bite my plot. I’m going to display them to the public. Those relics deserve to be shown to the public. It’s is a reminder of our old world, not as a collectable for his collection!” 

“I’ll let him know right away that his rather bad offer was declined by you, Princess,” Coco said with a hint of relief. She also heard from Rarity about her experiences with the short-sighted and vain noble. Hence, she shared with Rarity some of the dislike of Blueblood.

“Do let him know as soon as possible,” Rarity replied. With a smirk she then added, “If possible, could you maybe hide a video camera somewhere on you, so that you could tape his reaction to the news? It would be such a shame to give up such an opportunity to delight in making him squim a bit due to his ‘master plan’ failing”

“Consider it done Princess,” Coco replied with a smile.

…...

Evening finally came. Today was surprisingly more interesting than she expected. After her guards escorted her to her home, they bade farewell to the Princess. Rarity stepped into her apartment to find Sweetie Belle in her bedroom looking through some programs on her personal tablet. 

Sweetie looked up from her screen and saw her sister walking in, “Hey big sis. How’s your day?”

“Oh. Today was simply smashing darling! There was that meeting with Blueblood about the artifacts that was to be open to the public. But I refused his request and it was oh so lovely to see his reaction to that news,” Rarity replied nonchalantly. Pretending to be interested, she asked, “So how was your day Sweetie?”
“Oh, Octavia came to me and we did some musical pieces together. We had a good time together with me singing most of them,” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Well, that’s delightful to hear. Could I possibly look forward to hearing a performance from you,” Rarity asked.

“ I… I don’t know sis. You sure you want to hear it? It’s still kinda rough,” she said with uncertainty,  “Please excuse me sis.  I need to be alone for a bit with my thoughts.  I’m going to go take a walk and get some fresh air.”  “Sure, just don’t travel far,” Rarity replied, “We are in a very hostile land and I don’t want you getting hurt.”  “I’ll be careful sis,” Sweetie Belle said back in half-thought as she trotted off down the hallway that was connected to her room.  Rarity could only look on with a face that was a mixture of deep thought and concern as she watched her sister leave.  She then looked down upon the floor and put one of her hooves under her chin.  “I wonder what’s gotten into her,” Rarity mused to herself as Sweetie Belle left.

…... 

I just don’t know what in Equestria is wrong with her! She thought to herself as she wandered the dark corridors. Rarity still always thinks I’m going to screw something up again! I’m not a filly anymore, why can’t she realise that? Or at least I and the other Crusaders wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for that “incident!” O Fates! Why are you so cruel!? She fumed to herself. It’s always, “Sweetie darling, Do go to a corner and let the adults handle this,” She just doesn't trust me well enough as a sister to not doubt me when I say I can do it.  I may be in a foal's body, but I still have the mind of an adult! I wonder, when will it be the day when she ever  finally trust me enough to do things on my own as she used to do? She finally looked around the corridor that she was in. “Oh dear, I think I’ve wandered too far away,” She said to herself. And that’s when she heard the sound of something breaking.

“Who’s there?” Sweetie Belle called out as she casted a light spell. Due to the planet’s weak magical field, it was much more taxing for Sweetie Belle to maintain the light’s intensity despite it being able to illuminate no more than a few meters in front of her.

A scurrying sound brought her attention to the living quarters on her left. Pressing the doorbell, she asked out loud: “Hello? Are you ok in there?”. She placed her ears on the door and listened. What came was the sound of a scream and a scuffle taking place. Oh no, looks like somepony is in trouble. Taking her access card, she swiped it on the card reader to open the door. The doors slid open and all of a sudden, Sweetie Belle wished she had instead went off to get help.

What was staring back at her was best described as a gigantic amphibian like creature. It was completely black and had several spikes along the spine of its body. It’s head was best described as having nothing but a large jaw and what appeared to be it’s nose. It’s tail also had a horrifying, cresecent-shaped, stinger that curved above it, ready to strike.  The colors of the creature also seemed to change subtly to better blend with the darkness.  It was a monstrous cross between a gecko, scorpion, and newt, but it didn’t neatly fit into the categories of any of them. What was most disturbing however was the lack of eyes. After making a few “clacking” noises with its fang-filled maw, the creature turned its head towards her and made a move for Sweetie Belle quickly. The creature’s quick agility and speed did not give her much of a chance to escape the room except to scream for help. The creature grabbed her before heading towards the broken window and jumping out with it’s prize.

……

The corridor was in chaos. Rarity looked at the swarms of guards walking around the scene. The alert had came to her right in the middle of the night. While she was used to having to work deep into the night to fulfill her orders back in Carousel Boutique, the call came right when she was in the middle of a rather delightful dream. Furthermore, Sweetie Belle wasn’t in her bedroom when she checked before she left. But as of right now, there was something that required her attention. A guard came up to her to inform her of the situation.

“Princess Rarity.” The night guard introduced himself. “My partner and I were patrolling the corridors nearby when we heard a scream for help. But by the time we arrived, the doors were open and ponies staying here were all gone. We are not sure as to what happened but I hazard a guess that the possible intruders entered through the broken window.”

“I see,” Rarity replied, “Any idea as to how many ponies are currently missing?”

“Well, the records show that a family of a stallion, a mare and two colts were residing in this quarters.” The guard replied. “My partner there is currently trying to pull up the surveillance videos to see what happened.” He gestured to another guard who had a cable plugged from his portable computer into a security camera.

“Verifying permissions... And we are in,” The other guard announced. He started looking through the video logs. “Ok, time was approximately zero-hundred hours, err, on in the morning... Ah ha, there you are.  And there’s the footage now.” The guard turned to Rarity. “Princess, here’s the video log of what happened. If you would like to take a look,” he said as he detached the computer from his foreleg. 

“Thank you.” Rarity said as she levitated the device over. Unpausing the video, she saw how several hideous creatures broke into the apartment and foalnapped the residents. She was about to close it to issue orders when the door opening in the video caught her attention. On the other side of the sliding doors stood Sweetie Belle with a look of fear on her face. The alien creature then quickly grabbed Sweetie Belle before making a beeline for the broken window. 

Rarity stopped the video. Her guards saw the look of fury in her eyes and instinctively took a step back. With a brute telekinetic toss, she threw the portable computer at the nearby wall. It would have shattered were it not for the owner to catch it in his own magic. 

She looked at the guards who had addressed her earlier on, “You two, go wake the Captain up. Tell him that he is to report to my office in five minutes.”

“Err Princess Rarity,” The first guard started to ask.

“What! Didn’t I tell you to go get the Captain?” An irrated Princess snapped back

“Yes Ma'am. It’s just that well…” He gestured to the nameplate next to the door. “That was the captain that was foalnapped.”

“WHAT!? Oh, very clever of you monsters to go after the captain first. Well, who says that we don’t have replacements available.” She said to no one in particular. Looking at the two guards she raised her voice at them. “Well? Go get a search party ready. The more we delay, the further they could be! I’ll go find somepony else to head the guards. Maybe train them up to be the secondary captains.”

…...

The creature had finally dumped Sweetie Belle onto the ground after what seemed to be an eternity of non-stop running. They were in a cave possibly several kilometers away from the city. The family that was kidnapped as well were also unloaded onto the cave floor without much ceremony. All five of them backed towards the wall as the group of amphibious abominations crept forward, baring their teeth at their prey.

“Dad? What’s happening,” one of the colts asked nervously as he and his brother moved closer to their mother.

“Just stay calm son. Dad’s got this,” the Captain answered back as he pulled out his pocket knife and assumed a fighting stance. “Darling, if I don’t make it, please remember that I had always loved you and the foals. It has been the best decision of my life to be your husband.”

“Don’t leave us behind Swordblitz! We can still make it to the cave entrance if we run,” his wife called out in desperation as she placed their children on her back.

“We won’t be able to make it, but I can buy you all some time,” The captain replied, never letting his gaze leave the monsters standing in front of them, “Dutchess Belle? It has been a honour to serve under your sister Princess Rarity. May Celestia’s spirit bless her in all her future endeavours.”

“Thank you, Captain Swordblitz.” That was all Sweetie Belle could say before she felt too choked by her emotions to continue speaking. The captain then charged at the aliens that cornered them. Sweetie Belle and the mare running away from the animals towards the exit.

Swordsblitz easily dodged the first swipe the first alien threw at him. As the paw passed by, he gave it a quick swipe with the knife in his mouth. The alien in response roared in pain as it sent another claw to kill the captain, but it missed and slammed onto the ground. Cpt. Swordsblitz having jumped over the second claw, leaped forward and trusting the blade into the front of the creature’s neck. Green blood immediately began gushing out as the victim stumbled backwards before falling on it’s side. The quick takedown however was short lived as the pocket knife was thrusted rather deeply into the flesh, requiring the captain to spend some time to try and recover the blade. That few seconds however was enough for the other aliens to attack him, with one managing to rake it’s claws on the captain’s barrel. 

A searing pain scorched through the captain’s body as the flesh was torn open by the claws. Grimacing, he managed to pull the knife out from the dead alien and began to slowly walk backwards, with each movement aggravating an already painful wound. Looking at the remaining two aliens in front of him, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to make it out alive. Killing another one was out of the question. The most he could do was to cripple one of them. And that was what he decided to do.

With a battlecry, he ran at the second alien, trying to ignore the pain he felt due to the physical exertion. He ducked the swipe the alien had send. The second alien, wanting to avoid a similar fate as his comrade, tried to push the charging pony away, but that was what the captain was hoping for. Angling the knife, he struck the palm of the claw before leaving it there. However, that wasn’t enough to stop the momentum of the claw from striking him and it sent him flying, hitting the cave wall. Already now weak from the excessive blood loss from the first wound and a possible concussion, his vision was blurry”. With a grim satisfaction, he knew that the second alien wasn’t going to be able to run anytime soon and that short fight has brought sufficient time for Sweetie Belle and his family to escape. He closed his eyes, feeling satisfied that his family was able to live and that his children were able to continue to have a long life.

The Captain’s family and Sweetie Belle managed to run out of the cave. Climbing ontop of a boulder, Sweetie Belle could see the distant city where they were taken from. “Come on! If we get close to the city, the guards will be able to spot us easily and rescue us.” She glanced at the mare behind her and decided to help her carry one of her foals. They tried to put more distance between them and the cave but after a while, they could hear the sound of the aliens pursuing them again. Frighten, both the mare and Sweetie tried to run faster but Murphy’s Law had decided to finally pay them a visit. Sweetie Belle tripped on a rock and fell on the ground. The colt whom she was carrying flew off her back and landed a few feets in front of her. “Go! Get to your mother! I’ll be fine,” Sweetie Belle shouted as she used her telekinesis to get him up quickly. The colt needed no other instructions as he quickly ran.

The alien stopped in front of Sweetie Belle. If it had any expressions, it would be extremely frustrated. The creature was about to attack Sweetie Belle when it suddenly started howling in pain. It stopped what it was doing and clutched it’s head with it’s claws as if there was something hurting it’s ears. At the same time, a pulsing sound came from Sweetie Belle’s wrist computer.

…...

“So are you sure this would work,” Rarity asked as the technicians whom were hard at work tweaking the colony’s communications systems for an idea they had.

“If our adjustments are sound, the network’s coverage should be able to detect your sister’s portable wrist computer if she’s within a 10km radius starting from the city limit,” one of the technicians, Radio Effects, responded. “How’s the long-range receiver doing partner?”

“It’s almost done ma’am, just syncing it with the network for our computers,” came the reply, “Try it now.”

Radio Effects focused on the terminal in front of him, “Her wrist computer’s address was 1q:2w:3e:4r:5t. Key it into the system and lets hope we get lucky.” He mumbled to himself. Luck was smiling on them as the system managed to register a hit. 

“I think I’ve found you sister your highness. She’s about 3km away from the city limits, south-west. I’ll activate it’s beacon from here so your guards will have an easier time to find her.” The technician said.

“Thank you darling,” Rarity replied. She then ran out of the room; her guards following her at a full gallop. 

…...

Sweetie wondered why did the creature not attack her at all. She got up to her hooves and started to back off. The creature made an attempt to follow her but it could only move forward a little before whatever caused it pain made it back off. She glanced at her wrist computer and held it in front of her. The effect was immediate and the alien backed up even more.

Sweetie Belle started to walk backwards while holding the pinging computer in front of her. Her idea worked as it kept the alien a good distance away from her. After about five minutes, she could hear the sound of guards running to get her. The native creature upon seeing its prey’s reinforcements decided to flee. She would make it out alive.

…...

Approaching the line of troops that were doing the overwatch at the cave was a rather large Earth Pony Stallion that was loaded head to hoof in standard full battle rattle and also wore a gas mask and what seemed to be a few items of gear that was standard for the fire brigade, but was in a camo pattern.  On his belt he carried a gas mask and on his back was a large air tank.  The air tank was connected via hose to what looked like a very heavily modified welding torch.  Upon his combat helmet was a pair of night vision goggles and in his mouth was a freshly glowing cigar.  “Someone called for an exterminator,” growled the rather mammoth sized pony as he approached the Princess.

“The civilians are clear!  Light ‘em up,” yelled out Octavia.  “You got it,” yelled back  Master Sgt. Tunnel Rat, still chomping on his cigar.  He make a few quick experimental “puffs” with his modified welding torch turned flamethrower before letting loose a full stream of flame onto the cave entrance.  There were yowls of horror and shock from the strange creatures that hid inside as they spasmed in the flames and died.  “First squad, cover me!  We’re breaching this cave an’ going in!  I’m sure there’s a whole nest of this xenos scum that will need to be purged,” he yelled behind him as he and the others started to march in, making sure they completed the job.  


Meanwhile back in the city, as soon as the guards returned with the rescued ponies, Rarity was the first one to run up to the arriving guards. Finding Sweetie Belle, she trotted over at a reasonable pace and hugged her sister. “Where did you go. I was worried sick about you,” she started.

“I’m sorry big sis,” Sweetie Belle replied, “But, I heard something coming from one of the rooms and I was curious. I didn't know that there were monsters in there.”

“You shouldn't have place yourself at risk Sweetie Belle. You're my only sister left. I just don’t know what I’ll do without you! Promise me you won’t do these things again” 

Sweetie Belle nodded and said, “I promise sis. I was afraid that I would die back in that cave. I shouldn't have been mad at you. You were just looking out for me.”

“I do admit I’m rather overprotective but I think I should have trusted in you more. If you want, you could go help out the work crews tomorrow. You did prove that at you could handle yourself in that dreadful situation,” she replied in turn as she gently put her hoof under Sweetie Belle’s chin.

Sweetie Belle tensed up at that response, “I… had help. The captain tried to hold back the aliens while we escaped. I...I… I don’t think he made it.” She looked down at the floor, her ears drooping.

…...

After making sure Sweetie Belle and the other survivors were okay, Princess Rarity rushed back to check on the progress of the squad, watching the footage that was being shown from their helmet cams. For the past 15 minutes, the squad has been checking every inch of the caves both for any of the aliens now named ‘Vanishers’. They had come across a wounded vanisher which had a small knife struck in one of it’s claw. The knife no doubt came from the missing captain. They were now following the blood trail left by the now expired creature. 

The squad rounded a corner into a large cavern. Rarity saw the same thing that they were seeing. A slump corpse of a Vanisher lying in a large pool of it’s blood. They shone their lights around the room. Tunnel Rat then found a small trail of red blood flowing from between two stones towards the middle of the room. He slowly walked over and saw what happened

"Bad news Princess, ya better see this," Tunnel Rat murmured as he tapped his web cam.  He looked down and showed him the remains of the Captain. He put his hoof up to the bloodied remain’s throat for a quick pulse check. "I'm sorry Princess, he didn't make it."

Rarity looked at the wounds sustained by the captain. To say it was a horrid mess was an understatement to describe what she saw. The gash wounds was cleanly cut as if it was done by an axe or a sharpened butcher knife. As for the captain, he had an eerily peaceful look upon his face. 

To see the loyal captain that had served her well back on Equestria to end up like this, set something off in her. In that moment, she realised that ever since they had landed, the native wildlife had been nothing but aggressive. If the peaceful approach doesn't work, it is time to use sticks. she thought to herself.

“Recover the captain’s body and torch the cave. He deserves a proper burial. After that, I think it’s time our military be restructured to deal with our enemies.” She ordered through the mike.

> 4.e.) Operative Extraction (Applejack)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai



“We shouldn't decline help just because they did us harm in the past. Why cling on to these grudges. Also, as a saying goes ‘What goes around comes around.’ So why not trust them on this.”





The scouting party arrived back home a few days ago. After the long R&R at Rarity’s capital, the journey home was much easier. That and the location of the alien nests provided by Fluttershy made it all the more easily to avoid trouble.

Their first city has been going along just fine. In the time that they had been away, a proper headquarters has been set up in the city alongside with a proper clinic and depot. A few generators, farms and plantations were also set up around the budding city.

Applejack was impressed by how quickly the settlers were able to set things up while she was away. Certainly the close family spirit she often encouraged amongst the ponies under her charge helped in getting them to finish their tasks. There was no wonder as to why she was put in charge of the construction of the ships back at Equestria.

After the soldiers were debriefed, she headed towards the headquarters. Over there, she found Applebloom waiting at the front lobby for her. Her sister saw her and ran over to welcome her home.

“Howdy big sis! How’s the others doing,” Applebloom asked after they hugged.

“They’re doing just fine.” Applejack answered. “Fluttershy had apparently made a new friend with a giant worm for some reason. Rarity’s city is just going along fine.”

“Did ya managed to say hi to Sweetie Belle for me,” Applebloom asked.

“Sure did sugarcube,” Applejack said as she ruffled Applebloom’s mane. “She wanted me to pass this memory card to you. Something about yer ol’ crusader club.”

“Thanks big sis!” Applebloom said as she grabbed the card that was levitated from Applejack’s bags. They headed to the elevators to go up to their apartments. It had been a long trip and she wanted to rest for the night before having to tackle paperwork.

……

The next day came. After breakfast, the other Apples went off to their assigned jobs. AJ headed to the room marked as her office. Her secretary, had kindly shown her to her office and showed how the personal organizer and messaging system worked. Not that AJ was planning to use them. Well, maybe the message system thingy could be useful.

She sat down on the chair provided and got to work on clearing all the admin matters. Most of them were proposals for the various construction projects that were planned and only required a few minutes to look through.

A hour went by and the end of the section dedicated to all the incoming matters was in sight. Applejack had just finished reading the report for the lab and moved on to the next one. But when she opened the next one up, she was met with a wall of random letters.
[i[What the hay is this? she thought. Looking at the intercom on her table, she pressed the button for her secretary.

“Ah need some help with this thing. There’s a wall of letters here that make no sense.” She said through the intercom.

“I’ll be right there princess.” Her secretary replied. A minute later, she was right next to Applejack and also saw the exact same wall of random letters.

“I have no idea what’s going on.” She admitted. “This looks like some prank email or a corrupted one. I’ll get your best tech ponies on it.”

“Thank you Closed Ledger”.

……

Apart from the weird message, nothing else extraordinary occurred. AJ decided to call it a day and to go help out the workers. She headed back to her apartment to drop off her personal mobile communication device as she did not want it to be damaged by the hard work later.

When she opened the door, she felt her hooves kicking something on the floor. Looking down, she could see an envelope on the floor. Picking it up with her magic, she opened the letter and pulled the paper inside out. Opening the folded paper, she found another bunch of letters arranged in random patterns again. Only this time, there was a logo on the bottom of the paper.

“Erm, Princess Applejack? What the matter?” A voice behind her made the orange alicorn jump. Turning around, the source of the question was revealed to be Bon Bon.

“Well, that was mighty convenient.” AJ said. “Did you see whom had slipped this under the door?” she asked.

Bon Bon studied the paper. She noticed the logo at the bottom of the paper and exclaimed. “Is that the Cupler Cell?”

“The Culper wot-now?” AJ asked both curious and confused.

“It’s a spy organization back in Equestria. The ESS(Equestrian Secret Service) had limited information on them. We only know that they were mercenary spies for hire. So what’s a encrypted letter doing here? Or how did they even managed to get here.” Bon Bon pointed out.

“Ah don’t know. Earlier on, I found a messed up letter in my office messaging thing and now this?” AJ said. She looked at the earth pony and asked. “Do you think you can get to the bottom of this?”

“I can take a look at trying to decrypt the messages,” Bon Bon offered, “but it may take me a while. With your approval of course.”

“Go ahead. I’ll get the tech ponies to send you the message Ah’ received later. Ah want you to find out what it says.”

……

Three days later saw the princess outside of the former special agent’s quarters. After receiving the jumbled up message and letter, she had locked herself in her living area for the whole time. 

She pressed the doorbell and waited. No response. She knocked on the door and to her surprise the door swung open a little. Applejack pushed the door open to reveal the darken room. She took a step in and looked around. Nothing.

The room was in a mess. Papers with different half-deciphered paragraphs littered the floor. A computer can be seen at the back of the room cycling through a long list of words. Overall, the room gave an abandoned feel.

Applejack strode into the room, watchful of the area. She approached the computer and looked at the program it was running. She had no idea what it did though.

A voice came from behind her, “Is that you Princess Applejack?”

She turned around and saw Bon Bon with a small knife held in her mouth. Bon Bon noticed the look the orange alicorn is giving her and said: “Always be alert. What I learnt back in the academy. About the message, I managed to crack the code about a few hours ago.”

The former special agent went over to the computer terminal and plucked out a memory stick hidden in her mane. Keying in some commands, the computer stopped running whatever it was processing. Bon Bon inserted the memory stick into a port and loaded up the decrypted message. 




>To: Princess Applejack.
>>Subject: -/Redacted/-
>Sender Address: (#?/{&{}$] ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)g@) *Error! Address cannot be found.

>Greetings leader of the Sweet Apple Cooperative. I’m Queen Imago of the Cupler Hive. We are in need of your assistance.
>One of our operatives is in a dangerous position and we are not able to extract them. We decided to contact you as we trust that you would keep this operation anonymous. If you choose to help, we would be extremely grateful. A letter would be sent to your quarters by our operative stationed in your colony. The deciphering key for it is attached to this message.

>With regards.
Queen Imago.




“Decipher key?” Applejack asked. “I don’t remember seeing any key.”

“No. It’s not the physical kind of key. It’s a pair of instructions that would tell you how the letter is jumbled up so that you can arrange the letters back properly to read the message. Sort of like a key to a lock. With the lock being the way the letter is messed up. I can’t believe it. We’ve haven’t even been on this planet a whole year yet and somehow someone already set up an unchartable area to our rudimentary network,” Bon Bon explained.

“Ah I see.” Applejack said. Meanwhile, Bon Bon had scrolled down to reveal the second decrypted letter.





Hello Princess.

If you are reading this, it means that you shown interest in helping us and we thank you for that. This letter contains the details of the situation.

The operative is stationed within the Federation of Awesomeness. Recently, they had been monitoring the leader of the Equestrian Protectorate. We fear that they may notice one of our past operations which was to assist a certain member of the Protectorate acquire some weaponry. Hence, we like to withdraw all our operatives in both factions but we are not able to make contact with the ones in the Federation. What we would like your help is to establish communication with the operative and if needed, help extract them from the area. 



As a sign of goodwill, we will reveal the operative that we stationed within your faction. Just say ‘Imago, Code Orange’ over your broadcast system and she will go to your office to speak with you.



“Well…” Applejack said: “ Ah appreciate when somepony would try and be honest with us. But should we help them out?” 

“I don’t feel I can give you good advice on it. There are rumors is that it is created from the remains of Queen Chrysalis's hive after her daughter took over. Nopony has ever met the daughter.” Bon Bon said.

“Chrysalis’ hive,” Applejack asked. She then continued, “Now that I think of it, I still remember that mess from Cadance’s wedding...and other incidents. This might be bad news fer us.” 

“Well, I’m sure you would need to worry about that. The Culper Cell is more of a mercenary spies organisation from what I heard back in Equestria.”

“So what do you think? Should we help them? I would like yer honest opinion on the matter, seeing how much you know about them.” 

“I will admit I’m a bit...weary, with the proposal,” Bon Bon started, “As far as we know this could be a trap for their own political maneuvers or for someone else they’re contracted to. Nonetheless, you’ve seen the storm clouds coming over the horizon. The old bonds are fraying. If we are going to get through this mess, we’re going to need whatever advantages we can get. Princess, let me take the lead on this mission. I have a few seconds on standby in case anything...unfortunate should happen to me. If things go well and this isn’t some sort of trick or a trap, then I am sure they will demand a more face-to-face meeting between you and their leader at some point. But for now, let me take the risk on this.”
“Ah’d hate t’ lose ya if this goes South,” Applejack started, “But yer right.” She then took a deep sigh, “Very well, this is yer op. But know this, if this is a trick, that Imago feller is gonna regret rilin’ me up by messing’ wi’ one o’ mah best mares.” 
BonBon blushed for a bit but then quickly cleared her throat and recomposed herself. She then replied, “Well, if you’ll excuse me Princess, I’ve got to prepare for the mission at hand.”
“Sure, get a move on,” The Princess of (ironically) Honesty replied, “Yer dismissed. An’...be careful.”
“I always am,” Sweetie Drops replied as she looked back briefly at the Orange Alicorn one final time before leaving.



<A few days later…>

The convoy headed straight for the depot as soon as they reached Rainbow’s capital. Pulling up to the gate, the guards at the gate halted the convoy.

“About time you got here. We have been expecting you to arrive since yesterday. What’s the hold up?” the guard asked.

“Some bad road conditions,” came the reply from a mare with three sweets for her cutie mark. She hooved over a stack of papers. “Here’s the usual permits and cargo lists.”

The guard scanned the papers for a moment before passing them back. “Everything checks out. We really needed the heavy machinery you guys are bringing in. Could have used them for groundwork instead of us soldiers,” He said before motioning for the gate to be unlocked.

“Hey. If we had a proper road, we could have gotten them here sooner. As is, this road is basically an over-glorified patch of mud shaped into a crooked and curvy line,” Bon Bon replied. The convoy drove into the compound.

……

As soon as they entered the depot. Bon Bon knocked on a crate. The lid popped open and a orange mare popped out. 

“Alright. We’re here. Now where is that pal of yours?” She asked the disguised changeling as she climbed out.

“She was positioned as a weapons specialist in the 3rd Marine Corps.” the changeling Askari answered.

“And how do you plan to get to her? It would take a few days to get the proper clearance to go into their military base. And we need to be leaving by tomorrow. ” Bon Bon asked.

A grin appeared on the disguised changeling. “You up for a little secret infiltration tonight?”

<Later that night> 

The base lay ahead. Both of them were currently on a rooftop of a nearby building. 

“You take a look at the left side of the base. I’ll monitor the right side. We need to understand the guard routines.” Askari said.

“I know the basic ‘case the joint’ thing. I’ll manage just fine.” Sweetie Drops growled as she pulled out her night-vision binoculars. She however stopped when she noticed the changeling starring at her binoculars.

“Standard issue back in Equestria. Able to read a newspaper from 30 km away. Works in light levels of 0.00004 lux. Thermal imaging capability. Onboard camera with 70GB of storage and a spark battery life of 5 days continuous useage.” She said with a smirk.

The changeling simply just said nothing and took out a pair of shades. “Magnification for objects 40 km away. Night vision capability of 0.000025 lux. Thermal capability. 90GB storage with a battery life of a week. Looks casual too.” Askari said with an attempt at being nonchalant. 

If there were any amount of jealousy, she did not let it show. They resumed their observation of the base. 

“You see that air vent on the wall there?” Bon Bon asked. 

“Yeah. I see it. Thinking of a way to get there.” Came the reply. A few minutes went by in silence. “ There’s a timeframe of about 30 seconds where we can cut through the fence without being seen by the patrolling guards.” The changeling said.

“That’s cutting it a little tight. Only so much a wire cutter could do in a short time.” Bon Bon muttered.

“What’s that about a wire cutter?” the changeling smirked. “ Don’t worry about it. I can get through the fence in 10s.” She took out a extendable metal rod. It had a odd two pronged part that was at a 90° angle to the stick. 

“What’s that?”

“CO2 laser.” She pressed a button on the handle of the stick and a red beam of light shot out from one of the prongs to the other. “We should get going soon.”

They approached the fence. Careful to keep away from the perimeter lights. Approaching the fence, Askari took out the laser and positioned the fence wires between the two prongs. With one swift motion she cleanly cut a line in the fence. Pulling the halves apart, both pony and changeling quickly climbed through the hole. With a little telekinesis, Askari positioned the folds back properly to make it look like nothing happened to it.

Approaching the building, they saw the vent in question. When Askari realised that her partner would have trouble getting there, the changeling agent started rummaging through her gadgets but Bon Bon stopped her. “I got this.” She gestured to the old fashioned grappling hook hanging at her barrel.

While Bon Bon looked for a suitable ledge to throw her grappling hook. Askari flew up to the vent. She took out her screwdriver and got to work unscrewing the vent cover open. But just when she was about to remove the last screw, a crowbar was suddenly jammed between the vent gate and the wall. With one swift motion the crowbar dislodged the vent cover and it fell into the waiting hooves of a certain mare.

“What did you do that for?” Askari asked as soon as both of them made it into the vent.

“You were taking too long. I just sped things along.” Came the short and quick reply.

After they sealed the grate behind them, the Changeling dug up a datapad from one of her suit pockets and tapped on the screen a few times, “Here, here is the location of the her personal room that these vents go above from the data we managed to get. Since it’s the weekend, his friend should be out at the local canteen getting sloshed. This should give us sufficient time to have a quick talk with her, get the intel, and get out.”

“Yeah, unless her friend comes barging in on us mid-meeting,” Sweetie Drops continued. 

“Don’t worry, we have contingencies set up for that,” the Changeling spy continued, “We are masters of emotional manipulation after all.”

After doing some more crawling, they finally got to the vent grate above the room of their contact. The contact, a seemingly normal grey stallion unicorn was listening to some tunes from a nearby radio when he heard a “psst” from above him in the grate. 

The grey unicorn then said, “There must be parasprites in the vents.”
The Changeling above him then replied, “They don’t have cake for them up here.”
The unicorn then commented, “Glad to see they actually gave you the proper passphrase for the challenge. So are you here for the usual intel report?”

“No, we think the Protectorate is getting suspicious of your operations. We’re getting you out before they figure out you’re the spy,” continued Askari, “Hang on, let us get this open for you.”

He noticed Bon Bon dropping down from the vent. “And who is she? She’s not a changeling.”

“She’s with me” Askari said. “We had to come out of the dark to get help. But it was going to happen anyway if our Queen’s plan continues.”

“So what’s the plan of escaping? I can’t walk out the front gate. The guards would recognise me.”

“That’s why we plan to smuggle you out in the convoy. We planned to hide you amongst the crates of guns that will be headed to Sweet Apples Cooperative.” Bon Bon said.
“If they found out you aided a spy in escaping, they not going to be so eager to trade weaponry any more,” the ‘unicorn’ continued.
“Let Princess Apple worry about that,” Sweetie Drops continued, “Let’s get going, we’re wasting time here!”

The changeling pulled out a memory stick that was marked with a small red line. She passed it over to her fellow drone. “You know what to do with this brother.”

“Thanks sister. Give me a few hours to erase my data from the records though.” He said.

“We’re going to have to babysit you for SEVERAL HOURS?” BonBon growled in frustration.

“No, no. Can you just stay low for a while and meet me in the trade depot in about four hours,” he asked, “I’ll come to it in this form and I’ll shapeshift into a different form if you wish once you got me loaded up into the convoy.”

“Fine,” Bon Bon further grumbled in frustration, “Just hurry. The longer we stay here the harder it will be for us to escape!”

“I know, I know,” the unicorn snapped back as he saw the Changeling and the Earth Pony climb back up into the vents.

Bon Bon and the Changeling Agent she was assigned to stayed low for several hours. They changed back into their old disguises from when they drove into the colony and went about being “useful” in an attempt to blend in. Moving supplies, filling out forms using their fake identities, and the like. It was then that they were approached by what looked like yet another civilian forklift operator. He replied, “They’re working us to the bone.”

Askari replied back, “Well, you should see the Clinic then. It’s about time you showed up.”
It was about then that Bon Bon realized that this was yet another coded phrase used between Changelings to confirm their identities when in disguise. She took a deep sigh and resignedly stated, “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this. C’mon you two, let’s get going while we still can. And, I thought you were coming to see us in your previous form.”

“I had to change into something more...appropriate for the situation,” the “forklift operator” continued, “My roommate saw me walking over here and he was starting to sober up from his usual weekend festivities. I don’t know how much time we have until someone starts to add two and two together.”

While Askari was taking their “package” to be loaded up into one of their trucks, Bon Bon barked out to the other workers, “All right! Enough loafing around! We got other packages to deliver! Let’s get a move on! Union Break over!” Some of the “workers” grumbled and complained, just as they had rehearsed. The more realistic this operation appeared the better. If what the other Changeling said was true, they may not have much time. Indeed, why would a Marine on the weekend off go to a place as unfestive as a storage facility for trade goods? No, it was in their best interest to get a move on...immediately.

“We done yet?” she asked in irritation. 

“Yeah almost. Just strapping something in.” A worker replied, strap in his mouth as he fastened the last crate down. After he signaled he was done. Everyone got into the convoy and they started to move out. The guards at the gate gave them no second look and let them through.

As soon as they were out of the city, Sweetie Drops gave a quick knock from her seat on the passenger side of the front of her five-ton truck and opened the metal panel that allowed her to check on the storage area. 

“So, how are you too” Sweetie Drops asked to the Changelings in the back. 

“Much better now that we’re out of there and can relax and change back into our ‘natural’ forms,” replied back Askari, now back in his ‘natural’ glossy back form and stretching his legs. 
“Well, it looks like we may be working together a lot more now,” Sweetie Drops continued, “or at least we will if the negotiations go well. And for both our sakes, I hope it does. I don’t want us to be having some odd standoff just because things go south at the capital.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” replied Askari back, a twinge of concern in his voice. After all, the Changelings had a rather large escort of “workers” in the back with them. Sweetie Drops wasn’t dumb after all and Askari knew that even with his and his fellow drone’s abilities and training that they couldn’t take out a whole squad of former special ops troops by themselves. At least, not in these circumstances.

“Let us hope the negotiations go well indeed,” Askari concluded, “For both our sakes.”


While the operation was going on. Applejack has been trading messages with Imago. 
Eventually, a meeting of two leaders in secret was decided to take place on the day the trio returned.

A heavily disguised AJ went down a dark alley, her wings hidden under a worn trench coat and her face covered by a very worn stetson. Of course, she didn’t come alone. On both street level and the rooftops were Royal Guards and the former members of the ESS in disguise, ready to go at a moment’s notice. AJ knew it’d be very foolish for this “Imago” entity to try something, but it was best to not take any chances. 

After going down the alleyway, she gave the coded phrase she was told to give to indicate she was here. “Th’ delivery pony knocks twice,” she started. 

“But the pizza pony knocks thrice,” completed another pony as she walked out of the shadows. While this Sea Green Earth Pony may have looked normal, The Princess of Honesty knew it was a front. And that in actuality, this pony was probably a Changeling. 

“So, are ya Imago or one of ‘er proxies,” AJ inquired. 

“Well, I could tell you, Princess,” the Earth Pony started, “But even then, how could you be sure? I am a shapeshifter after all.” The Sea Green Pony then looked around and replied, “I told you to come alone.”

Applejack shrugged and replied, “Ahm th’ leader of a new Kingdom. You really expect meh t’ go anywhar alone?”

“No. I suppose not,” the strange pony countered, “But then again, neither did I.”

It was then a band of what seemed to be normal ponies started to appear out of the shadows and rappelled down down the side of various buildings. AJ’s own band of disguised troops and spies then started to slowly move forward to intercept. AJ also heard the clicking of various weapons from both sides both on ground and rooftop level.

Applejack then held up a hoof and hissed, “Stand down, we don’t want to start a scene. I sense our ‘guests’ are merely trying to make a point.”

“You are correct,” the Earth Pony replied, “And, also a demonstration of our unique set of...skills.” 

The Orange Alicorn in disguise then grumbled, “Well, if th’ saber-rattlin’ is over, can we git t’ startin’ negotiations?”

“Yes, let’s,” agreed the strange entity in front of her, “We are most certainly looking forward to doing business with you.…”

> 4.f.) Aquatic Hazards (Pinkie)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-author: Brother Malachai
Editor: Curious Quill




“A bigger boat isn’t going to help my sister out there. It needs to be the biggest, most giant-rific boat. I’m talking so big, we can build Ponyville on it!”- Pinkie Pie in a meeting with her colony’s engineers the day after the rescue.




Over the course of the next few days, while her friends started to deal with their own problems, Pinkie had nothing to do. In short, she was utterly bored. She had already tried to help out her fellow colonists but after a few incidents they were rather wary of her help. They still completed their work (often ahead of schedule) despite the ‘accidents’, though the looks of horror in their eyes whenever she approached to help discouraged her from trying again. So, she had nothing to do.  And an idle Pinkie Mind was Discord’s Workshop, or so the saying went.

She could have, maybe, talked to her sister Maud, if Maud hadn’t already set off on an expedition to study the underwater geothermal vents off the coast of their first city. Pinkie had,of course, provided the best seismic monitoring equipment she could get her hooves on. 

So there she was. Bored. But old habits die hard, and she spent the time drawing schematics. While back in Ponyville, it would either have been improvements to her contraptions or new ones entirely. (Her idea of converting her party cannon to “proper” howitzer and mortar use was the basic foundation that the magitech artillery pieces used by their army were based on). Now it would be — hopefully — more peaceful ideas that would improve the lives of her citizens.

Another day, another one spent on nothing but doodling. The hours crawled by with excruciating slowness, but she eventually found herself sitting against a backdrop of the setting sun. 

Packing up her blueprints, she headed back to her personal quarters for the night. Lying in bed, she gazed at Boulder, which was on the bedside table next to Maud’s bed. Goodnight, Maud, she thought as she climbed into her bed, I hope you’re having more fun than I am.. Closing her eyes, she felt her heavy eyelids closing—

“Nose Twitch, Wing flap, Pinchy Knee,” Pinkie said aloud to no one in particular, sitting up in her bed, “followed up by an itchy front left hoof and a floppy left ear! This must be quite the doozy!”  She immediately got up and started to trot around in a circle. She did not understand the front half of the combo but she recognised the second part. She had had it once before, back in Equestria. And that had been when her family’s rock farm was attacked by Tirek. She quickly grabbed her phone and called the communications team. 

“Call my sister’s boat now,” she said as soon as the call connected.

…...

“You said my sister is calling me,”  Maud asked while pulling up a probe containing rock samples from the side of the Explorer. 

“Yeah, she is,” replied Blue Maelstrom, holding the phone out to her. “You’d better get on the horn.  She seems rather discombobulated.  Even for her.” 

Maud quickly packed the samples into a nearby crate and headed to the bridge. She picked up the phone. “Speaking.”

“Maud, you’re ok!” Pinkie exclaimed on the phone.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Pinkie. What is it,” Maud inquired in her usual monotone.

“Maud! I need you to listen to me! I just got a really big do—” Pinkie started, only for the signal to start breaking up, and for a faint roar to sound off in the distance—a roar which was steadily getting louder—and closer.  The strange beasts that were in tow looked mainly akin to giant fish, but also has a pair of horrific mandibles.  The look in their eyes indicated extreme rage--and hunger.  And it seemed a metallic vessel filled with ponies from another planet was on the menu.  The light of the alien suns glimmered off the strange blue-green scales that made up the armor of these cyclopean monstrosities.  Drool dripped down from the mandibles into the water below.  The eyes of the sea beasts bugged out, eager to chase down the meal that was before them.

“I see some aliens coming. I guess that is what you’re warning me about,” Maud stated.

“Get moving now, sister!” Pinkie exclaimed desperately. But the phone had already been left there hanging. 

Maud ran over to the controls and pushed the engine lever to an all-ahead full. The boat lurched forward, but stopped in place with a loud “thud” due to the still-lowered anchor.  Another pony nearby, a rather aged stallion by the name of Ol’ Salt merely nodded and rushed over as fast as his arthritic limbs could take him to the anchor controls and pulled on the lever to raise the anchor.  It was then that a pink Earth Pony in a heavy diving suit came up to the surface and climbed up onto the anchor as it was being raised.  

She then waved at the ponies above and exclaimed,  “Hey guys! I just got a nasty case of the twitchies below, so I came up to the surface as fast as I could without getting the bends to tell you and then—AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

The same Pink Pony, loaded for bear in diving gear, somehow ran up the side of the ship, across the deck, and dived into a hatch to flee further below in sheer terror.

“Brace yourselves!” Ol’ Salt exclaimed as he saw a series of uncomfortably high waves coming towards the explorer vessel.  He felt as if his actions were akin to those of a moronic landlubber greenhorn and outright horrible for leaving the pony below and forgetting to get her, but well, they were kind of in a bad situation and tensions were high.  He was sure Maud felt even worse; even if it didn’t show on the outside.  He could chew himself out later.  If they survived this mess.

The vessel started to move forward. They tried to keep ahead of the pursuing aquatic aliens. But they could not outpace the natural born swimmers. Despite their best efforts, the beasts were closing the gap. Fast.

“They’re getting closer, Captain!” a sailor called out.

“No need to state the obvious,” Ol’ Salt said. He checked the map display for the route that they took previously, “Tie everything loose down quickly! Batten those infernal hatches! I’m going to try and lose these forsaken animals at the archipelago nearby! And you lot better hurry, it’s going to get rough!”

“Aye aye, captain!” came the reply. The captain executed a forty-five degree port turn and headed straight for the group of islands.

The sea creatures were still closing the distance. By now they were just six hundred metres from being able to scrape the hull. “Prepare the harpoon guns! We need to slow them down!” he ordered

Shouts of confirmation came as various firearms and harpoons were passed around. They started to fire at the incoming school of sea dragons. A pair of sailors had the idea of tying ropes to two different harpoons and landed both shots into two different animals, making them crash into each other. But despite that, there were no signs of them being deterred.

By the time they could see the chain of islands, they had run out of harpoons. It was extremely difficult to maneuver at the speed they were moving, but they could not afford to slow down. Ol’ Salt started to look for narrow waterways to thin the hoard chasing them. It was dangerous, as the narrower waterways were flanked by cliffs and small boulders jutting out.

“Captain Salt,” Maud, who had been relatively quiet, said, “See the loose rocks on that cliff?” 

“Aye, lass, I hope ye got a plan if I’m doing it!” he exclaimed.  He put a hard starboard turn on the steering wheel and proceeded to head towards the cliff. 

They sped closer to the cliff, the aliens close behind them. The narrow waterways had thinned out the horde considerably, but they still had some stragglers on their tail. Maud stood at the bow of the craft with a small rock in her hooves. Peering at the pile with a discerning eye, she saw and started to aim at the keystone that was keeping the rocks there. With practiced ease, she slung the large pebble at the identified weak point with a smooth motion of her hoof. 

The pebble hit the base of the rock pile and caused it to shatter into pieces. Maud’s shot had dislodged a larger rock, making the pile of stones loose and cascade down the cliffside.

“Almost there,” Old Salt grunted as he tried to get past the avalanche before it hit the ocean and the pursuing sea predators. With inches to spare, they barely cleared the avalanche. The waterway was blocked, cutting the native wildlife off.

The crewmates on the deck started to cheer at the successful escape. The cheer spread everywhere and soon most of the sailors were in joy, thankful for the captain’s expert sailing.

Ol’ Salt remained neutral. He had been on the seas long enough, both in Equestria and on this world to know not to celebrate too early.  Like his old landlubber buddy Troubleshoes would say, “If it can go wrong it will.  That is the Law of Murphy.”  It was then that he heard another loud rumble, not from the beasts they were fleeing from nor from the falling rocks or the choppy waves they produced (which were now starting to calm down).  No, it was from an “island” directly in front of them.  

“Princess Sisters, how I hate being right,” he grunted under his breath as he made a sharp turn to starboard.  He then proceeded to yell behind him,  “Maud! You got any more of those rocks on ya!?  I might need you to attempt to make another avalanche!”

But there weren’t any. They had already sailed out into the open sea. The ‘island’ in front of them started to flip backwards, revealing a titanic mass of tentacles and a cavernous maw filled with monstrous fangs and drool.  It was then that the Captain remembered an old trick from his younger and more daring and risky days.  Yes.  It was an idea so crazy it just might work! 
“More fuel on the fire! We’re going in!” the Captain yelled into his headset.

“Are you loco in the coco!?” exclaimed the pink Earth Pony who had made her way to the deck, now out of her diving suit.

“Maybe, but desperate times call for desperate measures,” the Captain yelled behind him as he turned back towards the living island and stared it down.

“Steady...steady,” he murmured to himself as he made a seemingly full charge toward the beast in front of him, with the other two titanic horrors in tow on his aft side.

“Almost...there!” he growled again as he stared down the mountainous sea best. “Just a bit...closer!”

“HANG ON!!!!,” the Captain yelled aloud as he made a hard turn to the right.  He gritted his teeth as he heard the ship screech and buckle under him. “Hang in there darling...we’re almost there!”

As he made his right turn the creatures that were in pursuit still went forward, unable to stop or turn due to both their greater mass and speed and collided into the “island” of tentacles.  He heard a monstrous cacophony of screeches, splashes and the clashing of fangs on rock hard chitin.  It was then that he heard a roar, but it wasn’t from the beasts.  It was the waves that the fight was causing.

“INCOMING CHOP!!!!” he yelled out yet again as he kept going all ahead full.

Meanwhile, back at Carnivale…

The dockmaster shouted out an order, “Get a move on everypony! We’ve got lives on the line here! The sooner we get this ship refitted and seaworthy the better!”

“But Sir,” one of the dockworkers replied in a gruff voice, “This ship wasn’t supposed to be ready for another week!”

“I know! I know!  But this is an emergency,” he snapped back. “Just make it happen!”

“Aye Sir,” the worker half-grumbled as he went back to welding.

Pinkie Pie was constantly prancing in place. Wishing that they would just hurry up. It had already been, what? Six minutes? And the fleet still wasn’t ready…

“I can’t wait any longer! I’m going to find my sister,” she announced before taking flight, leaving her guards behind.

Sighing, the captain turned and asked the engineer, “So, can you get the boats ready in four minutes?”

...

“BRACE YOURSE-!,” was all the Captain could get out as the ship was pummeled by a series of tidal waves.  He saw the glass slowly crack and give way as the ship was hit by the violent waves.  Water slowly started to leak into the command tower and he saw the ship slowly list to its port side.

“Cap’n, whar takin’ water,” the engineer barked on the comms.

“Bail as much as yae can!” the Captain yelled back on his personal set, “‘An if we don’ make it, ‘twas an honour servin’ wi’ ya all.”

“Sir...something’s showing up on-radar,” one of the crewmembers replied.

“Is it th’ sea beasts?” the Captain asked.

“No...no.  It’s too small...and it’s flying towards us at Supersonic speeds,” he continued.

“I’m...I’m getting th’...twitchies!” the Pink Pony exclaimed aloud as she started to shake and bounce about the deck, “Floppy ears, all four knees pinchy, bouncing off the hull...it’s-!”

“Our sister,” Maud nonchalantly murmured as she trotted up to the bridge.

……

Pinkie was grateful for the pointers Rainbow Dash had given her about Supersonic Flight back in the day; she had to push herself to get to her sisters in time. She was slowly but surely adjusting to her weakened state upon this new world. Still, it was going to make helping the ponies on the ship a bit...problematic. 

She hovered at the spot, trying to gather up the magical energy she needed to keep the waterlogged and damaged ship from going under, as the crew was busy trying to repair their vessel and keeping it sea worthy. Help was coming. But, she didn’t know how far away they were. She just knew that they were making last-minute adjustments as she left.   

Focusing, she froze the water near the hole on the ship’s hull. It did the trick and set up a temporary plug to keep more water from going in.  It even floated as it was ice. Problem was that it was going to melt at some point. 

“Captain, get that patch set up and get the ship moving,” Pinkie said in a tone much more serious than usual. She then flew in between the ship and the brawling sea beasts. The ship slowly limped and chugged away as Pinkie set herself up to join the fray if one or more of the creatures decided to chase after the ship. It was then that Pinkie heard the whirring and revving of engines behind her. She took a quick look behind herself to see that the first of the newly-built torpedo boats and a few tugboats had arrived. 

Some of the torpedo boats formed a firing line under her while the others accompanied the tugboats as they helped tow and push the banged-up research ship back to one of her coastal colonies. Pinkie and her escort of torpedo boats were preparing for a fight, but all they saw was the giant Kraken drag away the two creatures it had just fought. Or, rather, the remains of the two creatures it had fought. 

After it went off past the horizon line and disappeared, Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief and tiredly replied,  “Alright, everypony. Let’s go home.” She landed on the research ship. The fight and the fact that she had been flying at supersonic speeds for a while in the magic-poor environment had made her really worn out. 

“I’m glad you are safe, Maud,” Pinkie said tiredly and with a rather goofy grin on her face.  Mere seconds afterwards she fell onto the deck with a loud “thud” and fell asleep.  She started snoring rather noisily.

Her sister who was already next to her gently picked her up and brought her to the cabins. In that moment, if anyone was looking at the Pie Sisters, they might have thought they had seen Maud smile.  

“Sleep tight, Pinkie,” she said in her usual flat voice as she gently put her in a bunk in an unused cabin and tucked her in for the day. It might not have shown outwardly, but she was practically crying on the inside, grateful that she, Pinkie, and the others, were okay.
> 5.a) A unexpected find (Twilight)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: May I Cut In
Co-Author: Brother Malachai




“There are so many things that we can still discover about this planet. But something just came up. An alien device. It's purpose unknown. Only one thing we know for sure. I don’t think we are alone in this dimension.” Twilight’s Personal Log. Dated Day Three, Month One, Year Zero.





A few days after the rather awkward meeting with Moondancer, Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the Union found herself conducting some minor experiments. Someone had pointed out that their current trajectory programs were not suitable for use in the current environment. With most of the scientific staff busy analysing samples of the local flora. Twilight herself had volunteered to run these old fashioned experiments and tests. Right now though, she was trying to contact anypony who was able to help her run another experiment that she had devised. 

She did not contact Fluttershy nor Applejack as she had no idea of the distance between their cities, a crucial fixed variable that she needed. Rarity was currently busy with some matters (as she found out from Sweetie Belle).  Pinkie Pie was occupied with a special project of hers. So that left Rainbow Dash.

The hologram flickered to life as soon as the connection was established. “Hey Twi. What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Hi Rainbow,” Twilight said as she looked at the hologram. I need to ask for some help with an experiment I want to do.”

“What kind of experiment?” The cyan alicorn asked 

“Well, it's more of a mathematical experiment. I’ve need you to measure the degree of the sun’s ray relative to the surface of the planet. What I need you to do is to plant a 30m pole perpendicular to the ground at the center of your city. Then, at a predetermined time, I need you to measure the angle of the shadow cast.” Twilight explained.

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight as she tried to understand what she said. “So you want me to stick a pole in the ground and measure it’s shadow with a protractor? Yeah, no biggie. I’ll get it done.” 

“But you need to do it at the right time.” Twilight said before she was interrupted. “We just do it during high noon...” Rainbow Dash said.

Meanwhile, at Ponyville. Braeburn suddenly stood up and started scanning the corridor he was in for targets. His right hoof ready to pull out his revolver. “It’s high nooonn!” he caught himself saying.  After staring down the corridor for five seconds or so he however stopped. “Wait. Why am I doing this?” he asked aloud to no one in particular. He got back on all fours and continued walking. “I swear, I thought I heard somepony said high noon,” he muttered to himself.

……

After she concluded the meeting, she headed back to her private studies to continue her calculations. Now with the only factor being the little measurements that she had devised. All she could do is only wait till tomorrow. She spied her personal tablet and decided to check on the no doubt large pile of emails waiting for her.  

“Lemme see,” she muttered to herself, “Moondancer’s update on the power output, Trixie’s updates on dealing with the various citizens’ legal cases, Sunset’s own report on one of our explorers finding an unknown, possibly artificial device...wait. What!?”

After recomposing herself, she shouted over her shoulder to a resting Spike, “Spike!  Fetch me Sunset immediately!”  

“Ugghhh...give me five more minutes,” murmured Spike from a nearby gigantic bunk bed. Twilight, not in a mood for games yelled back, “NOW Spike!” Yanking the bedsheet, and by extension Spike, off of the bed.

“Ugh...okay okay.  Sheesh,” grumbled Spike as he slowly got up and rubbed his head.

Twilight sighed,  “Look I’m sorry Spike, but this is really important Spike.  I need to talk to her about this in person.”

“I know I know,” Spike replied with a claw wave as he lumbered over to the restroom to give his fangs a quick brushing, and to put on some deodorant and cologne before he had to fix his bunk up to military standard and then fly off.

……

As per the orders given by Cpt. Flash, Tracer kept himself away from most of the curious native wildlife as he went about to map the terrain. For the past few days, he had mapped out the area between Princess Twilight’s colony and Princess Rainbow Dash’s. Nothing out of the ordinary has shown up apart from more of the orange crystal formations, floating rocks and one or two bubbly green ponds (He did not stick around to see if it was water). So it was a pleasant surprise when he found what appeared to be polished stones. After a few days of letting the ground radar scan the site and digging up anything the radar showed (Most of them were just metal ores with high amounts of metals that the radar picked up). He finally found something unique and worth sending to the scientists back at base to take apart.

After reaching communications range of the city, he sent his report of his findings and was told to wait for help with unloading. So he waited on a nearby hill. With his rifle incase the wolf beetles from a week ago decided to say hi again.

It was then that he heard somepony trot up behind him.  He turned around to see Dr. Sunset Shimmer trot up with a pair of Marines in tow.  She had a few bottles of water, a communicator, some scientific instruments and a notepad with pen. Sunset levitated one of the bottles and passed it to the the sergeant who accepted it and started drinking.

“This is absolutely amazing,” Sunset started, “To think that we may have found evidence of even more lifeforms out there. The only question is though, where are they?”

“Well, ma’am,” Tracer replied, “I have no idea. All I found was a clearing with some polished stone jutting out of the ground and I thought it a good of a place to check out.”

Ms. Shimmer put away her etchings into her rucksack and tapped the “chin” section of her helmet; her mind was deep in thought. “We just need to figure out what this artefact is

“Well, I’m sure between you, Dr. Glimmer, Dr. Trixie, and Princess Twilight you’ll be able to figure it out,” Tracer replied as he gave his personal rifle a quick glance-over.  He continued,  “Ma’am, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m out of testing modules.  After this, I will have to return to base for some replacements.”

“I understand,” replied the orange unicorn, “You can accompany us back to our main colony.  Besides, I think you earned a short rest after our recent discoveries.”  

It was then that a large shadow enveloped them and they heard a loud whooshing noise from above.  They looked up to see a rather large and purple dragon flying down towards them.

“Twilight would like to see you once you are in the city.” Spike rumbled as his flapped his wings a bit.  “Excuse me,” he continued, “I just needed to give them a good stretch after that long flight over here.”

“Fortunately for you,” Sunset replied, “we were just about to start packing up our new artifact to bring it back.  Besides, the Explorer needs new modules for field examinations.”  She then continued,  “Inform Twi we will be back as soon as possible.  However, the drive over and loading and unloading will take a bit.  By the way, why didn’t you just call us?”

‘Well, I prefer to fly here to check on you all myself.” Spike murmured. He wiped his brow off before continuing. “Whew!  I tell you, this unusual combination of lower than Equestrian standard of oxygen, lack of magic, and slightly stronger than homeworld gravity is taking a toll on my flight.”

“It is on all of us big guy,” Shimmer replied with some sympathy as she gently patted one of his front leg.  She would’ve patted him on the shoulder, but he was a bit too tall for that now.  Such a far cry from the unusually intelligent and loyal “baby” assistant assistant dragon she met so many years ago. 

Both dragon and pony went to the explorer and pulled out the case labeled artifact. “So, this is the thing that he found huh?” Spike said, looking at the weird device. The thing consisted of a V-shaped base. 2 small, similar constructs were attached to the middle of both arms with a larger central structure on the middle of the ‘V’ base.

“This… device does look intriguing and fascinating. And obviously not natural,” Sunset said. “We would need to take it back to the main colony anyway for proper examinations, scans, and testing.  Spike, you mind getting on the horn with Twi and tell her we’ll start going back as soon as we got this object packed up and secured? And to possibly send us some reinforcements for the security detail? The wildlife seems to have been more...twitchy than they had been recently.  Not that they were friendly to begin with.”

“Right. I’m on it,”  Spike then tapped the side of his helmet and started to speak,  “Twi.  Yeah, it’s me.  I made contact with the tangos.  They said they will return to base and Shimmer will personally come visit you for debrief.  Yes.  Yes.  They will be bringing the artifact over.  The one who found it, Sgt. Tracer…?  Yes, he’ll be needing a refill for his rover.  So far he only mentioned exam kits, but he might need a refuel and checkup, yes.  Yes, I’m sure we can arrange a debrief for him too if you want to speak to him.  Right.  Uh-hmmm.  Okay.  Say, can you arrange for the Sgt. to get a few days R n’ R before he goes back out?  I mean, he did find something very important?  Good.  Glad to hear you’re being reasonable about this.  Ha-ha.  Very funny.”  Spike then snorted in slight derision and annoyance and continued, “Oh yes!  Sunset requested reinforcements for the security detail back.  Yes, I know we’re understaffed at the moment, but still, this is a very big artifact and even though I’m not a techie, I can tell this is very important.  Very well.  We’ll take what we can get.  Yes, we got the tracker on so they can find us.  Yes, I’ll forward you a text right before we leave.  Look, I’ve got to go ok?  All right.  Spike, over and out.”

“Wow, that conversation sure was...lengthy,” Sunset commented.  

“Yeah, you should’ve seen her when she found out about this,” Spike replied,  “She was like a foal on Hearthswarming Morning in front of a tree surrounded by presents.  Alas, due to shortages of troops and other personnel, she could only sent a squad of Marines over and another dozen or so scientists and technicians to help you out.”

“I understand,” Sunset nodded,  “We’ll take what we can get.”  She then looked over to Tracer and commented, “Tracer, how long until we can get this device loaded up and moving?”

“At present, about two more hours, give or take a few minutes,” he replied.

“Good, I don’t want to be out here after dark,” she continued, “This place is Wolf Beetle Country.”

……

The artifact was quickly brought to the labs. It was put safely behind a large ballistic glass barrier in a heavily-armored laboratory chamber. There they began to disassemble the artifact to study each part closely. But after a few days, they were stuck with a problem. A small capsule detached from near the base of the main structure, it was hard to open both normally and by force. Scans also showed nothing inside. It could have been dismissed as an useless part but the other parts of the artifact showed no clues as to how it was possibly used. 

Throughout the week, Tracer was constantly questioned of where he found the device and technicians trying to disassemble more and more of the device. But still no clues or ideas surfaced.

“Thanks for your team's help and findings” Twilight told Shimmer.  

“Sure thing Twi.  Still, it’s a shame we can’t discover more about what this...thing...is,” Shimmer admitted.  

“I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it...in time,” Twilight said in consolation as she patted her on the shoulder, “For now, both of you get some zzz’s.  I’m going to head to my quarters in a bit after doing something.”

“Ok. See you around Princess.” Sunset replied before heading out of the lab to call it a day. Twilight stayed behind to finalise the updated formulas before sending them over to the scientists at her friends colony. Turning towards the door, she too wanted to trot out of the research wing when she saw the artifact behind the glass. 

Without any control, Twilight walked up the the armor-resistant plexiglass and put her hoof upon it, deep in thought. 

“What in the blown-up Tartarus are you!?” she thought to herself. “What were you made for and who made you?”

She whispered to herself. “In Celestia’s name, one day I will find out what you are.  I Pinkie Swear on it."
> 5.b) Marines (Rainbow Dash)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author:
Co-Author:
Editor: Curious Quill



“Whoo-whee!  Look at how far that round went!  I’m glad we finally got some way to put distance between the aliens and us!”-attributed to famed Mortar and Sniper Spotter “Big Boom” Braeburn.


“What do you mean that an entire armoury worth of weapons disappeared?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I’d understand if a huge amount of local wildlife were sighted near her place but come on!  Even that is a stretch!  How could they even sneak in to take them, let alone know how to use them!?”


“Well, according to our sources,” Spitfire began, “It was the Culper Cell that took the items.  Even then, Fluttershy was able to find them and reclaim them.  It seems some of the colonists were less than thrilled with her soft-handed approach to handling the wildlife and decided to take matters into their own hooves. The Culper Cell were just hired hooves within that plan.”


“This is worrying. We need to sweep our ranks to find them. I don’t know how they got here and I don’t want to find out what they plan to do.” Dash said. “I hope that no one was replaced just to make room for one of their agents.”


“Should I start an investigation of the staff?” Spitfire asked.


“No need for that, I trust the loyalty of my ponies. But we need to be careful of them.” RD said. “How is the prototype heavy guns doing? Are the eggheads done with it?”


“They finished a prototype, but it’s still not suited for mass production,” Spitfire said. “The wildlife’s been getting rather curious recently. The work crews are getting uncomfortable”


“All the more reason to get our arsenal upgraded,” Rainbow Dash replied, “The sooner we can assuage our colonists’ concerns over safety from the hostile lifeforms, the better.  So, is it ready for a field test?”


“The last report we received said yes, Princess,” Spitfire replied as she took a quick glance down to a dataslate she was holding, “The Lab facility is just waiting for us to assign the first several produced units to field teams for a proper baptism by fire.”


“Very good,” commented Rainbow Dash, “Do you have a particular unit in mind?”


“As a matter of fact,” answered Spitfire, “Yes.  Yes I do.” 


She put three datapads onto Princess Dash’s desk.  Spitfire cleared her throat and continued,  “Due to the weight of the weaponry, I stayed mainly with Earth Ponies and Bison, although I am willing to assign unicorns, Pegasi and other races if they qualify.  The Spotter is Major Lee Triggered.  He’s an unusual combination of sharp eyes and a sharp mind well-versed in advanced math and Hooftonian Physics.  Before leaving Equestria, he earned a reputation as a trick-shot artist.  


“The loader is Sergeant Steel Sabot.  His record isn’t extraordinary, but he is amongst the top One Percent when it comes to passing the PT Exams and is known for entering Strongstallion Competitions on the side.  


“The Trigger Pony will be Col. Eagle Eye.  He’s a grizzled Bison vet who was already an excellent shot with a quick and steady draw, and top-notch tracker and scout even before he joined our military.  He earned his third Crystal Heart Commendation during the Battle to relieve AJ’s forces when they were ambushed by the local wildlife.  While he’s not thrilled by your pro-active approach to the native fauna, he’s a pragmatist and loyal.”


“You sure about his loyalty?” Rainbow Dash asked as she read the slates.


“Without a doubt.  I’d stake my personal reputation on it,” Lightning Dash countered.


“Very well,” Rainbow Dash acceded,  “While I do need loyalty for troop cohesion I also need them to think for themselves as well.  Nothing but disaster can come about when you're surrounded by nothing but ‘yes-ponies.’”  The Princess signed off on the individual slates with a light pen.  “Very well, considered them reassigned.  Inform them of the news and have them sent over to the eggheads for training immediately.  You are dismissed.”


“Yes, ma’am!” replied Spitfire as she stood at attention, did an about-face and marched out.


…...


“Can you believe it?” grunted Steel Sabot as he adjusted the ammo pack on the back of his power armor,  “After several weeks, we finally get to give this thing a proper field test!”


“Yeah, it’d better work, though,” Triggered replied, “I don’t want a cooked round exploding on us because we didn’t properly clean out the bore the previous day.  I’m not sure if even our armor could handle that.”


“You and me both,” agreed Eagle Eye, “We’ve been forced to carry so much ammo that we didn’t have room for a fire extinguishing kit.”


“I’m just grateful the tech ponies had enough sense to leave us enough room for gun oil, cleaning solvent, and a cleaning and zeroing kit in our rucksacks,” Triggered continued.


“I swear, even with this exo-suit, this ammo weighs a ton!” complained Sabot.


“Alright, enough chit chat!  Look sharp, I see the Company we were assigned to up ahead!” Eagle Eye said as they trotted up towards a formation of Marines in an encamped circle.


“It’s good to see you, Sir,” said one of the Marines who came forth to shake Eagle Eye’s Hoof,  “I hope you don’t mind me avoiding doing a salute out here.  We’re not sure if the local life forms are sentient enough to comprehend the concept of a ‘sniper check’ or not.”


“I understand,” replied Eagle Eye,  “Anyway.  If everyone is assembled could we possibly go out on patrol now?”


“I’m ready if you are Sir,” replied the representative, “Since you are now the highest rank here, you call the shots now.”


“Maybe, but I prefer to let the NCO’s do their thing and I stay out of the way.  I merely indicate what point A and B are,” the Bison chuckled,  “And you already have your orders form Dash, so we should get a move on.”


“Sounds good to me, Sir,” replied the armored Earth Pony, with a curt nod.


…...




They were on a road march, a company of Marines doing guard duty for a construction crew trying to build a new roadway between the newly found outpost of Fort Loyal. 


They wanted the new roadway build to speed up supply lines between the capital and outpost to develop it faster. But so far, progress had been slowed due to constant skirmishes with the native wildlife.


It was then they heard some yells and screams of terror from the nearby construction crew. Arthropod Xenos were starting to dig up from the ground around the construction site.


“Troops! Round up the wagons! Circular formation around the civilians!” yelled Eagle Hoof, “Sabot! Triggered! Get that high-calibre rifle assembled and loaded!  DOUBLE TIME!!!!  MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!!”


“You heard him. Let’s move!” Sabot said. 


“On it.” Triggered grunted as he lifted the heavy gun and began moving.


“Over there is a good spot. Set up and prepare to fire.” Sabot pointed. The three soldiers got in position and began to set up.


“Gun ready to go!” Sabot announced.


“Trigger. Calibrations?” Eagle Eye asked as he got into position to man the rifle.


“Range is approximately one klick.  Elevation, negative twenty metres.  Windage more or less three kilometers going from northeast to southwest.” replied Triggered.


“Steady ponies, bison, and others,” growled Eagle Eye.


The creatures started to crawl towards the formation slowly.


“Steady,” Eagle replied.


The creatures were getting closer and growled more.


“Steady,” Eagle growled at the anxious troops and workers.


The creatures then roared and charged.


“Open fire!” Eagle yelled out as he drew a bead on one of the larger bugs and squeezed the trigger.


The rifle let out a loud and thunderous report as a Sabot round flew from the rifle and hit the creature in a neck joint.  The beast fell over onto the ground with a loud “thud” and let loose a death rattle.


“RELOADING!” Eagle Eye yelled out as he pulled back on the bolt to get a fresh round, “Trigger, keep your eye out for high priority targets!  I’m going to put another round in the big one on the right!  Sabot, have fresh magazines and coolant on standby!  And watch our six!”


“Yes, Sir!” yelled out the other two crewmembers.


And that was how it was for most of the battle.  The new Heavy Weapons Team using their high-calibre sniper rifle to take out harder targets while the infantry provided covering fire.  The troops functioned as one, akin to a finely tuned machine or a phalanx of ancient times.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  There were relatively few stoppages, but they would have to put them in their field report back to HQ so the rifles could be fine-tuned for mass production.  So far, other than that, the rifles seemed to work properly.


“Well, this should put a smile on Dash’s face.” replied Sabot, “She’s been even more strict than usual after the recent incidents.”


“Yes, I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.  That there were another path.” replied Eagle Eye.


“I know Sir, I know.” replied Triggered as he gently patted the massive power-armored bison on the shoulder, “Let’s just focus on the task at hand and check up on the troops and civilians, shall we?”


Eagle Eye solemnly nodded in agreement.


……


“The first field test was a success Ma’am. Actual casualties suffered was substantially reduced from estimated casualties if no support was given.” Lightning Dash announced as she passed her a report.


“That is some good news. It’s about time we came up with a way to deal with these ‘raids’ What are your recommendations, Captain?” Rainbow Dash inquired after skimming through the after action report.


“We recommend the creation of a new branch dedicated to purely operating these long ranged weapons. The engineers are confident of their effectiveness at long ranges.” Spitfire said.


“How long will it take to be implemented among the other colonies? I know that Princess Rarity has been dealing with a lot of the rather aggressive aliens.” Rainbow Dash asked.


“It will take three to four days for us to compile a detailed operating manual and training guide, let alone develop proper instructors for both the front and backline units.  I would suggest pulling back our initial squad after they get some more time under their belt to aid in this, if they live long enough.  Plus, the ponies in the lab coats are going to need feedback for fine-tuning the final product.  As for the fabrication of the weapons, it depends on their end. Production-heavy colonies like Princess Applejack’s can probably make enough for an entire unit in two to three days while for the more ‘peaceful or ‘culturally’ focused’ like Princess Fluttershy it might be faster to construct and send it to them…”


Rainbow Dash took a moment to think before agreeing. “Hmmm.  Fluttershy will be less than thrilled about us making and sending her a new weapon to deal with the Xeno problem.  However, as a friend I do have to at least say I tried to offer her a chance to accept something new to defend her colonists with. Especially since many of them have been asking for the same thing.  Alright. Get started on it. I’ll let the captains in the other colonies know about the new branch we’re developing. You are dismissed.”


“Yes, Ma’am!”