Prologue

In the beginning, Equestria was home to ponies and many others. All lived in harmony, and all was good.

In Equestria, the ponies beheld a golden era of expansion and influence. Equestria grew, and with it came a curiosity which had just begun to grow: a desire to touch the stars. Through both magic and technology, the ponies were able to attain their newfound desire, and expanded beyond the world of Equestria; space was now within the reach of ponykind.

As they expanded, they realized that a time was approaching where Equestria would no longer be able to support those who lived on it, due to exponential population growths during their golden age. They began to colonize other worlds in their solar system, but soon even those colonies became overpopulated. The question arose of how ponykind would be able to expand beyond their home system and reach stars like and unlike their sun. They realized that they had no magic which could take them to other worlds and stars--it was simply beyond their grasp and control.

One day, the ponies made a discovery which would permanently change ponykind as they knew it: the discovery, within their own systems, of a wormhole. The greatest astronomical minds of ponykind would name the wormhole "FAUST."

Scientists attempted to study the wormhole in a bid to learn its secrets. How had it formed? Can it be stabilized or replicated? But most importantly: where did it lead to?

The ponies launched a probe through FAUST, and they were astonished by the information that the probe sent back. On the other side of FAUST was a whole galaxy, just waiting to be explored. It was the greatest discovery that ponykind had ever made, and they named their new galaxy "New Equestria."

With the discoveries made by scientists, a special structure was erected on both sides of the FAUST wormhole, stabilizing the wormhole and preventing it from collapsing. Millions upon millions of ponies, zebras and griffons poured through the FAUST Gate in a gold rush to claim as much territory in the galaxy as fast as they could.

One fateful day, the course of history was again changed. Without any warning, the FAUST Gate collapsed, and the entire FAUST Gate system was obliterated. Only a solitary planet and stargate survived the shock waves of energy which continue to emanate from the collapsed FAUST Gate. For the ponies who remained in New Equestria, there was no turning back. The fate of Equestria was forever lost, but the path was clear for ponykind--rebuild, or die a slow, wasting death.

New Equestria was brutal and unforgiving. Many colonies which had established themselves starved and died, as they needed the assistance of the corporations which previously sponsored them from the other side of the FAUST Gate. There were others, however, which yet survived their ultimate test, and these grew to become empires which dwarfed old Equestria in size and power.

The first was the Amarr Empire. Ponies of noble upbringing and unyielding stature, the Amarrians were very religious and highly conservative. They worshipped the lost Princess Celestia as a goddess, and they prayed to her for fortune and success. However, over time the original identity of Celestia was skewed, and the Amarrians began to openly practice slavery; first, criminals were enslaved, but it was when they began to believe that slavery could bring them closer to Celestia, and thereby a step closer to harmony, that they began to enslave whole populations of conquered foes, in particular the zebras. The ability to expand their reach was in the fact that it was the Amarr Empire which first re-discovered warp travel, and through this became the first of the spacefaring empires.

The Gallente Federation were ponies who rebuilt on the world of Luminaire, and had evolved to respect the notion that freedom was the key to harmony, and that the individual had rights which, while Celestia had granted them, none could take away. The economy of the Gallente Federation flourished under their free-market system, and they discovered that an empire of the scale of the Federation was better ruled not by the hoof of one pony, but by the hooves, hearts and voices of all. Thus, the Federation became the first of the empires to be ruled by a democracy. They decided that they would also use their vast wealth and resources to help those that they could find. While they are humanitarian by policy, one could also see the Gallente as pompous, self- righteous and greedy misers due to their wealth.

Just after the Federation raised its wings to the stars, another force entered the foreground. In the Luminaire system, on the world of Caldari Prime, a colony predominately populated by griffons also attained the means to sail the stars. The Caldari State would become a very powerful economic and military force, all while next door to the Gallente Federation. While the Federation upholds freedom and a free market, the Caldari State was a stirct and rigid hierarchical society. It was the megacorporations, eight of them, which controlled the state, and the needs of the many were set aside for the needs of their corporations which almost owned their citizens. This was a recipe for fierce animosity between the Gallenteans, who saw their neighbors as dictators and corporate overlords, and the Caldarians, who saw the Gallente as greedy and power-hungry. While both sides are correct, the people of the State are not to be trifled with--they are a fiercely competitive and patriotic people who will lay down their lives for the State if the need arose. It was through patriotism and the corporation, thought the Caldari State, that were the keys to harmony.

The zebras of the Minmatar had the misfortune of being immediate neighbors to the Amarr Empire. As such, they became the first of the ponies of New Equestria to be placed into bondage in such a fashion. Consisting of multiple tribes, the Minmatar were enslaved in entirety until just after the Battle of Vak'Atioth, in which the Matari zebras staged a massive rebellion, which resulted in the formation of the Minmatar Republic. An empire ruled by a parliament, it is the most numerous but the weakest in strength. However, alliances with the Gallente Federation make a simple Reclamation, a crusade of conquest by the Amarr Empire, far too difficult to perform. The zebras believe that one pony is capable of anything, no matter the size and difficulty of the task. It is through strength, they believe, that one can attain harmony.

The Jove Directorate was the fifth, and possibly most powerful of the empires to exist in New Equestria. Originating from a far-away colony of the crystal ponies, the Jovians became one of the most technologically advanced empires in the galaxy. Their power was demonstrated at the infamous Battle of Vak'Atioth, where a crusading Amarrian fleet, several hundred ships large, was intercepted and obliterated by a small contingent of Jovian warships, including a mothership-size warship. While the Jovians had unparalleled military strength, they did not use it to conquer their enemies. Instead, the Jovians used their technology to better the rest of the galaxy--they gave to the empires the technology of using the capsule to integrate a single pilot with a warship, and gave them the technology of cloning to make the capsule pilots effectively immortal. Their technology took a great toll upon the Jovians, however; in an attempt to reduce the flaws within their race, the Jovians genetically modified themselves repeatedly. This led to a genetic disorder dubbed the "Jovian Disease." While it was not contagious to other races, the Jovians with this disease wasted away in a severe depression, eventually losing the will to live. With pressure from both the outside and the Jovian Disease, the Jovians retreated back across their own borders and shut down their stargates. To this day, the people of the Jove Directorate have never been seen outside their territory.

It was not until about a hundred or so years ago that the Divine Sisters, Princesses Celestia and Luna, suddenly appeared within the borders of the Amarr Empire. Their arrival almost caused a complete upheaval, and prompted the emperor of the Empire to abdicate the throne and offer it to Celestia, who found that the was revered and worshipped as a goddess. Reluctantly, seeing as it may be the only way to prevent the galaxy from consuming itself in chaos, Celestia took the throne of the Empire. She released a message to the ponies of New Equestria that she and her sister would remain to safeguard harmony within the reach of New Equestria, and that the Amarr Empire would coexist peacefully with the other empires of the galaxy. Naturally, this was received with some suspicion, and was not well-received by the people and nobility of Amarr, who were a crusading and conquering herd. As such, Celestia enacted a mandate that forbade the gathering of any more slaves from outside of the Empire; all slaves traded within the Empire had to come from within, not without. While Celestia was less than popular with the nobility, the religious parish of the Empire worshipped and adored her like a deity, and accepted her decree with open hearts and hooves.

Today, New Equestria is kept in a tentative peace, one that cannot quite be called harmony. With the establishment of CONCORD, a paramilitary entity tasked with keeping the peace between capsuleers and empires, the parts of the galaxy tightly held by the empires are some of the safest places in New Equestria. However, there are still places of backwater which are owned by the empires, but are too far-flung to be properly secured by the empires or by CONCORD. Finally, there are the areas in which the empires have no reach. It is a lawless, hostile wilderness where only the strong survive. The areas of null-security space are far from lifeless, however; countless groups of pirates, miners and capsuleers alike roam the vast expanses of these regions, forming alliances of their own with strength and power comparable to the empires. Regardless of being a minority, it is the capsuleers that are the most powerful force in the galaxy, and it is they who will change the face of New Equestria and bring about the next age of harmony.

Chapter 1

View Online

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

09:17. Rainbow Dash groaned.

"...time to get up."

•••

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Okie dokie lokie!" she replied.

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 2

View Online

With a bright flash of white light, Rainbow Dash rematerialized in the Aunenen system. Aunenen's star cast a yellow glow, not quite as bright as the star of the Nonni system she just departed from. The system did not share Nonni's wispy nebula, but its stargate was close to a planet. Other than that, the system had a feeling of hostile emptiness.

Rainbow Dash scanned the space around her with her camera drones first, then used her directional scanner set to maximum distance and a three-hundred and sixty degree radius. Aside from the customs offices installed by CONCORD in low orbit around the nearby planets, as well as a Kitsune named Gentle Butterfly, there was no-one in the system. She hovered for a few seconds to make sure that no jumpy pirates would deactivate a cloaking device and attack her, but she found nothing.

"Okay girls, the gate is clear. Jump on through," spoke Rainbow Dash.

The gate flashed, and the Gallente shuttle of Rarity materialized. Its narrow form was accentuated by it long wings, giving it the form of a sparrow in flight.

"Finally!" Rarity exclaimed. "I thought we were going to be stuck there for a whole week!" There was some validity to her comment; they had been waiting in Nonni for two days because of pirate activity in Aunenen. It was no secret that Rarity was becoming impatient, even if it was masked by her indulgence in the luxuries of the Caldari corporate elite.

The gate flashed again as Rarity aligned her shuttle to the Otalieto stargate. The Iteron of Applejack appeared, its huge length failing to betray its capacity for transportation.

"Okay, now let's get a move-on and git back home," Applejack spoke as she began to align her industrial transport toward their destination.

The gate flashed again.

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise. Her directional scanner detected a fourth ship among them.

"Um, girls? Did...did you bring somepony else with you? Because if you did, then..."

"What? We didn't bring anypony with us," Rainbow Dash replied as she panned her camera drones, until she saw it.

A Hurricane-class battlecruiser, bristling with multi-barreled projectile cannons, was aligned toward Applejack and closing fast. It most certainly was not a friend of theirs.

"Horseapples! Move your flanks!" Rainbow Dash shouted. The Hurricane was not there before they landed, so it must have followed them through the gate.

"No! Not again! These things cost a fortune!" Rarity shouted in protest, dismayed at the sudden turn of events. The cargo of her shuttle—implants, data cores, blueprint copies—was worth a hefty sum of interstellar credits, which did take quite some time to earn.

"Rarity, git on outa here! Nothin' you can do anyway!" Applejack spoke sternly as the Hurricane set upon them. All of them had alarm klaxons blaring into their ears, indicating that they were being targeted by the Hurricane.

The dorsal cannons of the pirate battlecruiser opened fire simultaneously, hurling a wave of four hundred and twenty-five millimeters of hot death. Rarity had warped away just as the barrage entered the space where her ship was supposed to be.

Applejack had finished aligning toward the Otalieto gate, ready to activate her warp drive and make herself scarce. She was just about to donate some of her capacitor charge to the warp core when lines of data streamed across her vision, with an icon depicting a digitized warp core surrounded by a light teal circle around them. It was a display which captains and capsuleers alike feared—the Hurricane was scrambling her warp core, leaving it dead in space. She rotated her camera drones, and she could see the looming Hurricane's autocannons rotating to face her Iteron.

"Sorry Rainbow Dash, ah don't think we're gonna make it through this time," Applejack spoke apologetically.

"Over my dead body!" Rainbow Dash replied with vigor. She hammered the microwarpdrive as hard as she could, zooming in between Applejack and the most recent assailant.

"Hey birdbrain! You're about to get your flank kicked in!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she turned her own guns on the Hurricane and unleashed her own stream of bullets. Phased plasma shells tended to get the message across quite effectively, particularly the kind produced by the fleets of the Minmatar Republic.

Her bullets erupted in blasts of green-hued plasma where they struck the shields of the Hurricane. It's shields shimmered just slightly as it absorbed the hits. While not causing much damage to the Hurricane's shields, the battlecruiser ended its attack on Applejack and turned its autocannons onto the Blue Thunderbolt.

She zipped closer to the Hurricane, buzzing under it as its ventral cannons opened fire. Just barely missing, the cannons were intended to be used to assault much larger and slower ships. However, given the close-combat nature of projectile combat, there was just enough speed in the rotation if the cannons to make Rainbow Dash worry.

On a second salvo, she felt her Rifter shake as it received a hit from one of the cannons. The shell exploded against her shields in a bright flare, causing her frigate to rock slightly, a disruption which Rainbow Dash was quick to recover from. The Hurricane was using nuclear ammunition, and if she let its attention lapse back onto Applejack it would shred her in short order.

Observing Rainbow Dash orbiting the Hurricane while trading shots with it, Applejack did what best she could to escape from the pull of the warp disruptor. She was almost out of its reach—the effective range of the standard warp disruptor was twenty kilometers, a distance which she had almost placed in between their attacker.

The Hurricane turned towards Applejack and its engines erupted with bright fire, and it charged toward Applejack faster than before. In a few seconds it had gained enough distance on Applejack to make escape seem impossible. At this point, the Hurricane was toying with her.

Rainbow Dash continued her spiral around the Hurricane, firing her cannons as fast as she could. Her guns were not large enough to make any serious dent in the shields of the pirate battlecruiser.

She sensed her ship shift violently as it was suddenly slowed to a crawl. The Blue Thunderbolt's sensors were detecting a heightened gravitational disturbance around her ship, indicating that she had suddenly been caught in a stasis webifier, a device capable of drastically reducing a ship's velocity. Without her speed, she would be an easy target for the Hurricane.

The broadside of the Hurricane erupted, impacting into Rainbow Dash's frigate hard. Her shields were instantly stripped away, and she could feel explosions tearing into the Rifter's armor. She braced herself for the salvo which would obliterate her small craft in an instant.

"Hey, mah warp core is back online!" Applejack exclaimed.

The salvo never came. The stasis webifier was no longer gripping to the Blue Thunderbolt, which shot off like a rocket.

"I'm sorry!" a frantic voice squeaked over the radio, "I'm sorry! I took too long to get here!"

Rainbow Dash panned her camera drones, and highlighted on her display was a Kitsune-class electronic warfare frigate. Fluttershy had jammed the Hurricane's targeting sensors with her frigate's electronic warfare modules, freeing Applejack and Rainbow Dash from the grip of its warp disruptor and webifier.

"Not a problem, Fluttershy! Not a moment too soon, either. Ah'm gonna warp out and leave," Applejack said as her Iteron Mark V finished aligning to the Otalieto stargate. She invested some of her capacitor's energy into her warp drive, and was off without a trace.

This left Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy alone with the Hurricane. The Hurricane turned and aligned for a point in space, clearly readying to warp. Rainbow Dash took the initiative, and activated her own warp scrambler against the Hurricane. The Blue Thunderbolt was meant for finishing the battles it started. Not having a means of preventing one's enemies from escaping was silly.

Her own warp scrambler was a degree more powerful than the warp disruptor of the Hurricane—warp scramblers also disabled microwarpdrive systems as well as conventional warp drives. This brought the Hurricane back to its full speed without the assistance of its microwarpdrive, which Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could easily keep pace with.

Sensing the futility of an escape attempt, the Hurricane slowed to a crawl. Fluttershy took this opportunity to hail the Hurricane.

"I'm sorry I had to jam your sensors and weapons, but I was not going to let you hurt my friends" she said over the local channel, maintaining the shallow quietness of her voice which was characteristic of the shyest pony of her group of friends.

"Curse you, blasted mare!" was the reply. "You had no place in this fight!"

"I'm warning you, now," Fluttershy spoke, her tone becoming serious, "if I ever catch you trying to hurt my friends again, you'll be sorry."

"Next time you will die!"

"Next time," Fluttershy murmured, "I'll bring an Astarte." Fluttershy's shy demeanor made that comment all the more terrifying. There were few things that were more terrifying than a matter-of-factly tone coming from a capsuleer, particularly a threat to bring a battlecruiser capable of shredding the Hurricane before her in moments.

"Rainbow Dash, just let them go. Nothing they can do against us today."

Awed by the forceful tone of Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash shut down her warp scrambler, and watched as the Hurricane warped off into oblivion.

Fluttershy hailed her on a private channel.

"Um, Rainbow Dash?”

"Yeah?"

"Was...was I too assertive?" In the blink of an eye Fluttershy had gone back from being a terrifying monster to the shy, timid Pegasus that she was. Rainbow Dash could not help but laugh, out of relief that the wrath of an angry Fluttershy had subsided.

"No, Fluttershy, you did just fine! Now let's get out of here before more of them show up."

•••

As the pair warped through space, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to make a more thorough check on her Rifter. Her shields had recharged to full, but her armor had taken a serious beating. Fortunately there were no hull breaches in her ship, but another salvo would have sliced it in half. The armor was mostly blasted away where it hit, demonstrating the powerful effects of Nuclear ammunition. She was lucky that Fluttershy had warped in when she did; otherwise, she would have been without a Rifter.

"Fluttershy, thanks again," Rainbow Dash spoke.

"It's what friends are for," she replied.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Light up a cyno! Light me up a cyno!" Pinkie Pie enthusiastically shouted over the NEOCOM.

"Pinkie Pie, we're warping out and we let the guy go. We drove him off," Rainbow Dash said, wary of Pinkie Pie's request to ignite a cynosural field, a target which capital-sized ships can use to make their own jumps between star systems multiple light years apart.

"Aww, it's over? I ran all the way to Daras as fast as I could when that Hurricane showed up, and I went and grabbed the Chimera and I got everypony ready to go, and now we're floating out in front of a space station in Daras where someone could hot drop us so can I get a cyno please pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?"

Rainbow Dash heard Fluttershy sigh.

"Rainbow Dash, you go on through ahead of me. Pinkie Pie, I'll give you a cyno."

She heard Pinkie Pie squeal with delight at the prospect of bringing her Chimera-class carrier ship out to fly around. It was a very large warship capable of carrying many small, manned fighters capable of bringing destruction to targets ranging from cruisers to battleships, even to larger warships when used in sufficient numbers. They were armed with very powerful anti-ship weaponry, and could lay waste to cruiser-sized ships in less than sixty seconds. The destructive power came at a legal cost, however; capital ships were forbidden from entering "high-security" areas of the empires, and needed cynosural fields to jump across these systems.

Rainbow Dash carried on without Fluttershy, who warped off once again when they arrived at the Otalieto stargate. Using a cynosural field generator would leave Fluttershy's Kitsune vulnerable, as the field generated an energy signature detectable across the entire star system, and required that the ship using it shut down its engines to maintain its operation. The destructive power of Pinkie Pie's Chimera, however, would be more than enough of a deterrent against anyone looking for an easy kill.

As she flew through the stargate, she was greeted by Otalieto on the other side. The system's star had a brightness that was welcoming, a beacon which indicated to travelers that this system, and the systems which lay beyond, were a safe haven from the sea of deadly space which surrounded it. These systems were Rainbow Dash's adopted home, and the home of those who were her friends.

Rarity's shuttle floated in space near the stargate, silently awaiting someone to come through and confirm the outcome of their battle.

"Rainbow Dash, you're safe! By the Sisters your Rifter is a mess! Where is Fluttershy? Don't tell me..." Rarity exclaimed with excited anxiety.

"Relax, Rarity. Pinkie Pie really wanted a cyno for her Chimera. Anything that can tackle a Chimera is nowhere near Aunenen." Rainbow Dash spoke, calming Rarity's anxiety.

"We'll then, let's get headed to Uesuro. As much as I may be a capsuleer, I do so very much need to get out of this capsule. Maybe a trip to the spa to calm the nerves would be a good idea." Rarity spoke, returning to her refined attitude. "You should also get that frigate looked at, it looks like it is about to fall apart."

They warped through the Otalieto system, and entered the Endatoh system. Applejack was here, unloading the cargo of precious metals to be expedited to the surface of the planet, where an array of factories converted the materials to parts and commodities that were needed by all. Specifically, Applejack's cargo was being used to make components for use keeping control towers operational. Their corporation owned several control towers, each one capable of maintaining an outpost built by the capsuleers themselves.

The next system, Aivoli, was the last stop from their destination. Aivoli was a bare system, and no interstellar entity had found reason to construct a space station here. However, this left the system comfortably empty, which meant that those who cared to enter it—Rainbow Dash's corporation—would have all of its mineral wealth to themselves.

The last stargate was entered, and finally they were home; Uesuro, a nexus of activity in the Malariya constellation, and the headquarters system of the corporation known as Harmony.
Harmony was a joint creation of six intrepid ponies: Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle. They were a small but well-known corporation, and had substantial ties with all four of the empires of New Equestria. The empires welcomed them, but mostly that good standing was on paper—ponies were still suspicious of griffons, griffons were suspicious of ponies, and zebras received suspicion from both.

The Lai Dai Protection Services Assembly Plant of Uesuro V was the place where Harmony was headquartered. While the Lai Dai Protection Servces corporation still owned the actual station, the whole station had been bought out from them by Harmony, who now maintained administration of the station. It was under this agreement that Lai Dai allowed Harmony to make the rules on this little patch of space, but fortunately for all who stopped here, this station was a place with a friendly welcome. Here, even those who worked for Lai Dai were given far better treatment than other places in the Caldari State, and this reflected positively on the numbers.

Twilight Sparkle was hailing them both. No doubt she had heard by now that they had run into trouble in the Aunenen system.

"Rainbow Dash, Rarity, I'm glad to see you made it back. I hear you got jumped in Aunenen. What happened? Are you alright?" Twilight asked.

"It was dicey until Fluttershy showed up. We would have been toasted if she had not been watching us on the gate." Rainbow Dash replied.

"I'm just glad to see you all made it back with your ships in one piece. Come on in, we've got some things to catch up on."

•••

The tug drones had pulled the Blue Thunderbolt into the station, and had nestled it into its docking position among Rainbow Dash's other ships. A Condor-class, Atron-class frigate and a Tanaris-class interceptor, as well as a Hurricane just like the one that had shot at them earlier. Each one was similarly painted, only now there was a moderately-damaged Rifter sitting among them.

"What the hay did you get yourself into, Rainbow Dash? Did you fly directly into a swarm of rogue drones or something?" Twilight exclaimed, clearly surprised at the level of damage sustained by her Rifter.

"More like a swarm of autocannon shells. I'll explain when I see you."

Rainbow Dash disengaged her capsule from the Blue Thunderbolt now that her ship was safely docked. A hatch slid open, and her pod left from the top of the ship. As a tug drone latched onto her, she could clearly see the damage her ship sustained, and she herself was impressed at how much abuse it was able to take, particularly for a Rifter.

The drone pulled her to her private capsule gantry, which she expertly maneuvered her capsule to. As soon as the capsule was docked, she willed her capsule to release her.

The capsule opened like a beast opening its great maw, and Rainbow Dash felt the capsule disengage from her. She felt herself rush back into her body like an empty bottle opened within a deep pool, surging back into herself all at once.

She thrust her head out of the ectoplasm, gasping as she took in a deep breath of air, opening her eyes to the barely-tolerable light of the station's capsule gantry lights. Her wings opened reflexively, as if they had a life of their own and wanted out of the capsule as bad as Rainbow Dash. Some of the ectoplasm got into her mouth—it tasted as wretchedly as she knew it would.

Slowly she got back onto her hooves. She was completely covered—from head to tail—in capsule goo. Her mane and her tail were matted and hung down, and the feathers of her wings were soaked, completely preventing any flight until she cleaned herself.

Shaking her mane out of her face, she stepped out of the capsule and onto the gantry, dripping ectoplasm with every step as she walked to her quarters. A small drone followed her, thoroughly scrubbing the floor as it cleaned up the mess she left behind. Her quarters had a ceramic tile pathway to the bathroom, which was the only thing on her mind; personal hygiene was not at the top of her list—not necessarily low on that list either—but she absolutely had to get rid of the ectoplasm that she was covered with.

She reached the bathroom, and did not bother to close the shower door before she turned on the shower. The hot water was refreshing, counteracting the slimy cold of the ectoplasm which was being washed off. She spent at least a half hour in the shower, determined to get rid of every single bit of capsule goo from every inch of her body. She spent another half-hour letting the hot water relax the muscles of her body. While combat itself was not as taxing, it was the mental shock of combat which shook her up. When she was caught in that Hurricane's barrage, she felt every hit as if her own body was struck by those cannon shells; it hurt, particularly because she was mentally integrated with the Rifter at the time of the battle. Getting out of her pod reminded her of her own vulnerability, and how easy things could go from bad to worse. The combined realization shook her up a bit, but she had found from previous encounters that a long, hot shower usually calmed her down faster.

After she finished cleaning herself and unwinding in the shower, she dried herself off and retrieved a bomber jacket hanging from a coat hook. The jacket was an old relic from her days in the Caldari Navy, before she was discharged for "reckless conduct." There were other memories of the past which decorated her quarters—a model of a Crow-class interceptor, her squadron photograph, a picture of her and Fluttershy after she left the Navy to join the Sisters of Equestria, and some assorted Wonderbolts memorabilia. Something that also stood out was a picture of her and her father when she was a filly. Her father had not been fond of her becoming a capsuleer, and was also not fond of her decision to join the Navy. She had lost contact with him after she was discharged, but it was a story which Rainbow Dash did not share with everyone she knew.

After donning the jacket, she wished the picture a silent goodbye and left her quarters. The access hallway was more luxurious than the captain staterooms of the space station back in Nonni, with a polished granite floor and marble walls. Multiple places in the walls and the floor were decorated with the Protection Services insignia, and occasionally here there were plaques with Harmony's insignia hanging on the walls. There were multiple other doors here, each one leading to the private quarters of the founders of Harmony. Being directors and founders of a corporation had undeniable benefits in New Equestria.

She hopped up and flew the short distance to the elevator, happy that there were no jumpy security personnel to stop her. The elevator directly connected the director's quarters with the station's corporate offices. Its polished steel doors had a mirror shine, and she got a good look at herself, satisfied that she had managed to preserve her typical unkempt hairstyle she was known for.

She pressed the button which would summon the elevator. After a few moments of waiting, the door opened with the accompaniment of a soft chime. She stepped inside the elevator, and the doors silently closed behind her.

"Harmony executive offices," Rainbow Dash spoke, and the elevator chimed once in confirmation at the recognition of her voice. She felt herself be pulled downward slightly by the acceleration of the elevator. Slowly the elevator stopped, and the door chimed as it opened.

"Level 19: Harmony Executive Offices," a soft voice came from the elevator sounding her arrival. She trotted out of the elevator to the security desk.

Fleet was a light-green Pegasus with a cerulean mane. He was hired as the security officer for the front desk of the executive offices, which while appearing to be a dull and dreary job gave him plenty of time to catch up on the news, text chat with his fillyfriend and other distractions which would not interfere with the job. Twilight was rather lenient on what was the limit for on-the-job diversions.

"Hey Rainbow Dash, I heard that you got jumped on the way back," he said with chipper tone.

"Yeah, a Hurricane followed us through the gate. I held it off until Fluttershy came and bailed us out. Anyway it's a story for layer, Twilight wants to see me."

"No problem, Rainbow Dash. Tell me about it later," Fleet said as he pressed a button on his desk, unlocking the security door to let Rainbow Dash through. The glass doors opened for her as she walked through, and closed behind her.

The Harmony executive offices were sedate, with various office staff sitting at their desks and processing corporate information. She returned a few greetings as she made her way to a particular door. Next to the door was a steel plaque mounted on the wall.

"Twilight Sparkle: Chief Executive Officer."

Rainbow Dash pushed the door open and walked in. Twilight Sparkle was sitting at her desk, telekinetically typing away on a keyboard. The holographic display projected her words directly in front of her, which gave her a clear view of the multi-hued Pegasus entering her office.

"Rainbow Dash, scuttleflank tells me that you got ambushed by a Hurricane on the Aunenen and everyone got back in one piece," Twilight spoke without formal greeting. She waved a hoof in front of the display, and the hologram shifted to the right side of her desk, out of her line of sight. "You have got to tell me how you got out of that one," she said, leaning forward at her desk and smirking like a teenage filly about to ingest very scandalous gossip.

Twilight's smirk was reciprocated by Rainbow Dash, who sat down on a cushion positioned in front of Twilight's desk. This story was going to be a good one.

Chapter 3

View Online

Sabar was not happy. The ambush had begun without a hitch. He knew that the ponies had eyes in the Aunenen system, which is why they had followed them through the stargate instead of waiting for them on the other side. Everything had gone to plan until the Kitsune showed up, and their whole plan went belly-up. They lost the shuttle, they lost the Iteron Mark V, and they lost the opportunity to get payback.

The dark-brown griffon ran his talons through the feathers on the back of his head. He was being paid to scrap ships in order for the rest of his pirate team to come in and collect, but now they had nothing. His employer would not be pleased.

Sabar was no capsuleer, and the Bloodclaw, the Hurricane which Sabar was the captain of, was no pod-pilot's ship. Each system was maintained, manned and cared for by a living breathing being, and was a genuine ship instead of an extension of someone else's body. Right now the crew was at rest, but they were on a razor's edge; they could not settle down, because at any time they could be called to general quarters and be out of the station.

He called his employer through a video call. If he answered with a video call, he would be displayed on the screen. He swore to himself when he did.

A midnight-blue unicorn with black mane appeared at the other end of a desk. His front hooves were on his desk, and his piercing ice-blue eyes made for a disconcerting contrast to his dark surroundings. The shadowy lighting made his face difficult to make out, leaving only his bright blue eyes.

"I don't understand why you are calling me, Sabar. You were to move in with the clean-up crew after you destroyed them. So have you?" He asked coldly.

"That's the thing. They got away," Sabar replied. "A Kitsune swooped in and jammed me. There was nothing I could do."

The unicorn's eyes narrowed. He tapped a hoof on his desk, pondering his next words.

"I gave you one job, Sabar. One. Job." The unicorn's tone alone could be used to commit murder. "Do you know what that job was?"

Sabar swallowed.

"It was to hit commerce coming through the Aunenen system."

"It was to hit Harmony's commerce, Sabar. That was your one job and it appears that you have failed to deliver. At this time my ponies are supposed to be sifting through the wreckage of their ships looking for something of strategic value, and instead of paying them for a successful job they are being paid to sit on their flanks." The unicorn sighed quietly. "There is not much more that can be done in the Aunenen system, we are pulling you out. Fortunately you have not failed me before this time, so you will receive a reprieve from such action. As soon as Harmony's Chimera has left the system, you will report to me. No later. We will send in a carrier to extract you. I am certain that you know the price of failing twice? I advise you not to let it happen again. Are we clear?"

Sabar was no moron. He knew that he was dead if he failed again, and he also knew that sometimes this unicorn preferred his failing agents to be alive and conscious as they suffer.

"Yes, sir." He answered, keeping the contempt out of his voice as best as he could.

"Then we have an understanding. You will contact me when Harmony's carrier is gone, and we will send in ours to extract you. Don't fail this time."

The unicorn abruptly hung up.

Sabar exhaled the breath he did not realize he had been holding. Dealing with that pony, as well as the ponies he had been paid to deal with, was becoming increasingly difficult.

•••

"Um...Pinkie Pie?"

"Yeah?"

"How long exactly are we going to wait here for that Hurricane?"

Pinkie Pie was silent. Her Chimera-class carrier sat lie still in space, a squadron of Firbolg fighters orbiting lazily around the carrier in a loose patrol. It had been close to an hour since she had opened the cynosural field to allow the carrier, aptly-named Party Boat, into Aunenen. While there was not much partying to be had on a warship manned by hardened mercenary pilots, the party starts when the Party Boat is hot dropped into the action.

"You mean you don't know where he is either?" Pinkie Pie asked playfully.

"No, Pinkie Pie. I've tried to scan down the Hurricane, but I've had no luck in finding it."

Fluttershy thought for a minute about the possible whereabouts of the Hurricane. There was nothing on her directional scanner, which was capable of detecting objects in a selectable range and radius. There was also nothing that could be detected by her scan probes, which she could launch into a star system and precisely retrieve navigation data. Certainly, the Hurricane was not equipped with a cloaking device, which would have rendered it invisible to all scanners and scan probes, and had not left the system through other means. A cynosural field would have shown up on the sensor systems of every ship in the star system, and there were no detectable fields at that time.

"If it's ok with you, I'm going to dock at a station. Maybe he's hiding there," Fluttershy spoke.

"Gotcha covered Fluttershy!" was Pinkie Pie's cheery reply. The squadrons aboard her Chimera would keep her company until their next move.

Fluttershy chose the Joint Harvesting Mineral Reserve station orbiting Aunenen V. With any luck, the station would have the Hurricane which attacked them. Although, what Fluttershy really hoped for was that the Hurricane had just gone home; she did not want to threaten anyone else. Sometimes she even frightened herself with how threatening she could be.

Entering warp, many of the features of the Aunenen system whizzed past her Kitsune on its way to the station. The Aunenen system was dimmer than the other systems that she had flown through before, which gave the entire system a foreboding presence. On top of that, the Aunenen system had a nasty reputation for being a pirate system, and that point was accentuated by her friends being attacked by a Hurricane on their way into the system.

As the Gentle Butterfly approached the station, the Kitsune's navigation computer collapsed the warp bubble keeping the ship in warp. The ship came to a gradual halt in front of the station. The mammoth structure was horizontal in construction, with several large exhaust stacks spewing flaming noxious gas into space. This station was intended as a Caldari mineral reserve station, and inside it was a highly-secured building. Outside, the structure stood alone. Being a low-security area, the State did not have the time to place sentry cannons near the stations and stargates, and CONCORD, the interstellar police element , did not have the resources to allocate police elements to the system. These stations were the only safe bastion from nefarious and cutthroat pirates.

"Fluttershy, requesting permission to dock," Fluttershy spoke shyly into the radio.

"Permission granted, hold position and wait for tug drones," replied the traffic controller.

Several objects, which Fluttershy's displays and camera drones identified as tug drones, gathered to her ship and latched on with mechanical limbs. The powerful engines of the tug drones moved her to the station's docking bay at a rather fast pace, slowing down only once they entered the cavernous space within.

As she passed multiple ships that were moored in their docks, she took note of their class and their registered affiliation if they had one. She saw several Badger-class industrials owned by Joint Harvesting. Several frigates of various empire and capsuleer-owned corporations, a Thrasher-class destroyer owned by no particular corporation, and...
A Hurricane-class battlecruiser.

It was identical to the Hurricane which had attacked them earlier. No, Fluttershy realized upon looking up its identification number, it was the Hurricane which had attacked them. Of the corporation which employed them there was no indication.

It was moored securely to the station, and its many guns were retracted into their assemblies, clearly deactivated. Her camera drones spotted maintenance drones making passes across its hull, and she zoomed in on an airlock corridor. Its transparent walls revealed personnel moving in and out; some were dressed like Joint Harvesting station personnel, some had the haggard look of a pirate. One of them was a brown-furred griffon, and it was staring right back at her. Her drones could see the absolute disdain on his face, and she felt like he was staring right back at her through her drones.

•••

Sabar recognized the Kitsune. It was the same one which had interfered with his ambush. Why was it here though? Did it come in a gesture of gloating about ruining his day? Or, did it dock here to scout his presence, and relay his position here for allies who would no doubt want a piece of his battlecruiser. He knew that the ships he had attacked were piloted by capsuleers, and he knew how cruel and merciless they could be. To them, living creatures and starships worth hundreds of millions of interstellar credits were merely toys to be broken and replaced.

He knew that the camera drones of the Kitsune were upon him, gauging his every move. He did not want to think about what kind of pony could be the pilot of that ship, as to him they were all the same—cold-blooded murderers with god complexes who cared nothing for the "mortals" around them.

He stared down the Kitsune for a few minutes, in the way that a predator and its prey stare down before the chase. Just as suddenly as it docked, the tug drones latched into the frigate and pulled it out of the station. Already it was leaving.

Sabar saw the Kitsune as a rabbit, and saw himself as a patient hunter waiting to strike. While this rabbit ran, Sabar chose to wait, and let it go. There was no doubt that the Kitsune was likely baiting him, hoping that he was too jumpy to remain inside and lure himself and his crew to a swift death. Hunters chose their prey, and they dictated how their prey was caught.

Sixty seconds had not passed after the Kitsune had left before a Thrasher-class destroyer loomed into his view, pulled by tug drones. He knew exactly what this Thrasher wanted to do; it wanted to claim the kill. He would have tried to warn the captain of the destroyer just how bad an idea it was to go after the Kitsune right now, but did pirates ever listen to advice from pirates?

The answer to that question was yes, and the still-alive pirates are testament to that fact.

•••

Fluttershy had bolted from the station after spotting the Hurricane. Half of it was out of the anxiety that she was being used in an active scouting role when her ship was an unarmed electronic warfare frigate. Another part of it was the desire to leave the Hurricane alone, as she had done enough to upend its day and did not want to be rude by upending it more.

As her Kitsue was pulled out of the station, the traffic control issued to her the usual protocol involving undocking procedures. She willed her engines to full power flew straight ahead as she opened a channel to Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Pie? I found the Hurricane."

Instead of a coherent reply, Pinkie Pie was loudly singing a song in Gallentean, presumably with the pilots of the Firbolgs, who were former Federation Navy pilots themselves.

"Pinkie Pie? Pinkie Pie?" Fluttershy repeated politely, failing to get Pinkie Pie's attention. She sighed to herself, then heard the alarm claxon.

The capsule's systems directly stimulated aural nerves, and overrode the radio systems when the alarm sounded. A yellow box appeared in her peripheral vision as a threat indicator, causing her to wheel her camera drones directly behind her.

The yellow box was around the Thrasher which was previously docked in the station. It was an indicator showing that it was targeting the Gentle Butterfly. Suddenly the box turned red, and she spotted the Thrasher's many cannons, more than the Hurricane before.
All of its cannons flashed, and with a tremendous shudder half of her shield were stripped away.

She yelped and dove downward, sending her Kitsune into an evasive spiral dive. Another salvo of shells knocked off another quarter of her shields. Just as quickly, another alarm sounded indicating that her warp core had been suddenly disrupted.

Thoroughly panicked, she activated her shield boosters to give herself a few moments more of survival. With each cycle, the shield boosters injected additional energy into her shield projector. The shield booster was very intense on a ship's capacitor, however, and an inexperienced pilot or captain could quickly drain his own capacitor and be defenseless and dead in the water.

"Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!" She shouted, desperate to get Pinkie Pie's attention.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked, the concern apparent in her voice.

"Thrasher! Getting shot at! Help me Pinkie Pie!"

"Percheron group! Captain Tonnerre! Get out there and give Fluttershy cover!" Pinkie Pie ordered.

A howitzer shell impacted squarely with Fluttershy's frigate, removing the shield which had just been recovered by her shield boosters. She was running out of time and options, and Pinkie Pie was running out of time. Another salvo impacted the Gentle Butterfly, leaving her devoid of valuable defenses.

With a whoop and energetic chatter in Gallentean, five Firbolg fighters in a delta formation swooped over her Kitsune at full speed. Their blaster cannons flared, ovoid packets of supercharged plasma pounding away at the offending Thrasher with speed and ferocity.

Their strafing run had given the Thrasher palpable pause, and it began to target the fighters with its cannons. The small, agile fighters were a very difficult target for the larger destroyer, whose shots were frequently missing.

One shot found its mark. The wing of a Firbolg was smashed to pieces, causing the hapless fighter to spiral out of control. The cannon which landed the shot continued to track the spinning fighter.

The whole cockpit assembly ejected from the fighter just moments before a titanium sabot obliterated the Firbolg. The pilot had decided to eject instead of sharing the fate of its fighter. The compartment drifted through space, slowly tumbling through the void.

The Thrasher aligned to one of the planets of the Aunenen star system, and it warped away. Aggressive Gallentean chatter filled the radio, and the four remaining fighters warped off in hot pursuit.

It all happened so fast that Fluttershy was completely overwhelmed. Suddenly she was left with the drifting debris of the Firbolg, and a spaced pilot whose time and oxygen were dwindling rapidly.

•••

"That cockroach got Saule!" Captain Rafale bellowed over the radio to his Gallentean pilots. "When we get that little insect we're going to stomp him good. Everypony got that?"

The three remaining wingponies issued their concurrence, and their formation broke as soon as their warp bubble collapsed. Their destination was exactly where the Thrasher was that they were in pursuit of. Today was absolutely not going to be his day.

The Thrasher had taken some damage to its armor, but a combination of speed and insane maneuverability had kept it from taking any real damage. Rafale cursed inwardly as he saw that it had regenerated a good portion of its shields.

"Hey Tonnerre, if we get his shields down you have to deliver the killing strike," Rafale radioed to their soon-to-arrive compatriot.

"You get his shields down so we can do this in one run," was a deep, gruff response.
"Right then. Let's go to work everypony!" Rafale declared as they drove through the cannon shells the Thrasher desperately threw at them.

Their blaster cannons discharged with fierce energy. It was harder to beat down the shields of the Thrasher with just the four of them, and the destroyer's cannons were firing faster and more accurately than before. While the Thrasher was no easy opponent, fighters could overwhelm cruisers given time.

"I'm almost there, do you have its shields down?" Tonnerre inquired.

"Yes, yes its shields are down. Get your flank in gear and show this bug the power of a Cyclops!" was Rafale's strained reply.

The hulking shape of a Cyclops fighter-bomber, easily the size of a frigate, lazily floated into the battlefield. It made one pass over the Thrasher before peeling away.

The midsection of the Thrasher was blown to smithereens by the force of Tonnerre's thermal contact bomb. The fore section swung forward, disconnected from its aft section which was annihilated in a massive fireball by its fusion core going critical. Sent tumbling by the explosion, the fore section slowly rotated, its cannons falling quiet and lifeless.

"And yet another glorious starship reduced to a scrap heap by the amazing Captain Tonnerre and his Cyclops," Rafale announced like an emcee on a holovision gameshow.

"You're just jealous," was Tonnerre's reply.

A small door opened at the top of the fore section, and a capsule slid out into the void of space.

"Hey, we have a capsule here. Pinkie Pie, should we engage?" Rafale asked over the radio.

After a few seconds, in which the capsule had aligned to warp away, Pinkie Pie replied.

"Meh, let him go. He just learned what happens when you crash a Pinkie Pie party."

There was a palpable silence which hung in the air. Nobody wanted to think about what happened to their fellow pilot, Saule.

•••

Fluttershy gently pushed her Kitsune to the lifeboat. Her ship did not have any tractor beam modules on it, so she had to manually pick up the lifeboat. It was an easy task for someone who was a capsuleer as long as she had been, but there was little margin for error.

The cargo hold opened, and she slowly moved forward. The lifeboat drifted into her cargo hold lazily, and her camera drones focused on the lifeboat.

The pilot within was responsive, and was looking around the interior of the cargo hold. Medical scanners in Fluttershy's hold delivered data, pertaining to the pilot in the life boat.

Earth Pony. Female. Blood pressure: elevated. Heart rate: elevated. Rate of breathing: elevated, due to elevated heart rate and limited oxygen. Neural activity: elevated. Subject stress levels within nominal parameters. No serious physical injuries detected.

As far as Fluttershy could detect, the Firbolg pilot had survived unscathed, and was just shocked and shaken. She did, of course, had to let the mare out of the lifeboat before she suffocated on low oxygen.

Genty, Fluttershy turned up the artificial gravity in the cargo hold, bringing the lifeboat down slowly to the deck. After closing the cargo hold doors, she repressurized the hold with oxygen from one of multiple backup storage tanks. After a moment, it would be safe for the pilot to leave her lifeboat.

"Um...you can come out now," Fluttershy said over one of the many intercoms in the ship. "I turned the gravity back on, and there is plenty of air in the hold as well as the rest of the ship. You don't need to worry anymore."

The cockpit door of the lifeboat swung open, and a fully-suited Earth Pony clambered out of the lifeboat. She landed on the floor in gravity just strong enough to make her landing gentle, and removed her helmet.

The pilot took a deep breath of air, even though it tasted heavily recycled. Her coat was grey, and her green mane was cut short enough to fit in her helmet. Her coffee-brown eyes darted about, taking in her surroundings.

"Thank you, Madame Fluttershy," the pony spoke to Fluttershy. "My name is Saule, and if you can get into contact with my squadron, please tell everypony that I am unharmed."

"I'll do that right away," Fluttershy spoke before muting the input to the Kitsune's intercoms and opening a channel to Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Pie? There is a pony her who I picked up from her lifeboat, her name is Saule, and I think she is from the Percheron group. Can you tell them that she is unharmed?" she asked.
"Well, why not tell them yourself?" Pinkie Pie asked cheerily.

"Um..." Fluttershy began to protest, but before she could finish the radio channel had been switched, and the voice of Captain Rafale was heard.

"Madamoiselle Fluttershy, you have something to tell us?"

Fluttershy was overcome with shyness for a moment, her natural reaction to the sudden injection of an in introduced person into a conversation. She regained her composure, and replied in a shy, quiet tone which was characteristic of the timid Pegasus.

"Your lieutenant, Saule...she is unharmed and safe in my ship."

There was an audible sigh of relief from Rafale, as well as some additional Gallentean chatter.

"Merci a thousand times, Madamoiselle. We cannot thank you enough," he proclaimed.

"You're welcome," was her humble response. She could sense herself smile in her capsule, happy that she was able to save a life instead of take life away, as was the impulse of many a capsuleer.

"And you know what this calls for?" Pinkie Pie asked enthusiastically. "A Fluttershy-rescued-somepony-who-could-have-died-in-a-fireball party! But first, can you light me a cyno in Daras? I need to get this party boat back there because that is where I keep it in case we need it and I also keep the spare fighters there so that when somepony's fighter gets blown up..." Pinkie Pie carried on enthusiastically. She kept talking even as Fluttershy warped to the Otalieto Stargate.

Jumping into Otalieto, she warped to the stargate leading to the Daras system. The Daras system, just like Aunenen, was a low-security system. However, it was populated by friends of Harmony, who often cooperated with them on regular roams through the Black Rise region in order to clear out pirates and other undesirables.

As she landed on the gate, it flashed once and revealed a Harpy-class assault ship, a frigate with power rivaling most cruiser-sized warships. She recognized the ship and its pilot, who was a member of their ally corporation.

"Hello there, Fluttershy," greeted the pilot over the radio.

"Hello, Duster. What brings you out here?" She asked him.

"Well, the Deacon needed to rebuild his Paladin, and needed me to get tech-two beam laser cannons for it. I'm headed through Aunenen to get them, because you cannot get them in the Malariya Constellation. So, wish me luck," Duster replied. It did not seem to him like a chore—"the Deacon" was a hardened capsuleer who had seen many fights in his time, and was also an Amarrian priest until the way of the capsule entered his life. It never stopped him from spitting fiery sermons at times, and his priestly life did nothing to prevent him from ruining his security status with CONCORD in the name of purging the galaxy of pirate filth.

"Oh, you don't have to go all the way through Aunenen. I'm sure Twilight Sparkle would be more than happy to lend some to you. If that's ok with you, I mean."

"Well that is mighty nice of you, Fluttershy," Duster replied, "but the Deacon already bought them on the regional market and asked me to go pick them up. I don't need another sermon about sloth and laziness and this and that."

"Well, we did just clear out Aunenen after I got ambushed by a Thrasher. Pinkie Pie's Firbolg pilots really know their stuff. You should be safe when going through."

"Well, thank you again, Fluttershy, and if I ever catch that slimy eel that ambushed you, I'll make sure he hurts for it. Gotta run now, see you next time," Dusty said with some cheer as he warped towards the Aunenen gate. Fluttershy was not all that shy around these pilots, because she knew them, as well as her friends knew them as well."

She entered the Daras system and warped to the sole space station in the system. This was a common place to activate cynosural fields, as the station's sentry guns allowed someone to hover near the station in relative safety.

Just as she ignited the cynosural field, she received an email from Twilight Sparkle.

IMPORTANT: Please come to Lai Dai, we need to discuss matters important to Harmony. From: Twilight Sparkle. To: Applejack. Cc: Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity.

Pinkie Pie's Chimera tore a hole in reality as it jumped into the system in a bright display of lights. She would hover outside the station until Fluttershy's cynosural field generator turned off. Fluttershy would then drop off the stranded pilot, and then both would fly back to the Uesuro system.

As much as Pinkie Pie disliked it, their Fluttershy-rescued-somepony-who-could-have-died-in-a-fireball party would have to be postponed.

Chapter 4

View Online

Twilight Sparkle sat at her place at the head of the conference table. The table itself was made of mahogany from the home worlds of the Amarr Empire, and it was worth over a hundred thousand bits due to its size and embellishments; it was one hundred thousand bits earned from hard work and good fortune, not the work and fortune of others.

When the six of them founded Harmony, their "conference room" had been a small storage room on an obscure level of the space station. Now, they were holding a corporate meeting in one of the most well-decorated conference rooms in the station.

The decorations of the table were simple by comparison to what was spent on a conference room in one of the "Big Eight," the elite corporations of Caldari leadership, but the decorations themselves were finely crafted right into the mahogany of the table. They were inlays of fine crystal mined from various locations in New Equestria, and some of the crystals were mined by Twilight and her friends themselves. Each of the executive founders had their own places at the conference table, decorated with a crystal formation of their own cutie marks. The other positions at the table were decorated with the insignia of Harmony, also arranged with crystals.

Twilight sat at her place at the head of the table. A holographic screen hovered in front of her, and various data sheets rested neatly in front of her on the table. She took in corporate data and information pertaining to both Harmony and the station itself with ease and clarity.

Beside her sat her faithful assistant, a young purple and green dragon named Spike. Spike sat at a small terminal next to Twilight, typing away at a holographic display. He was her assistant and would perform his tasks dutifully for her. Fortunately, she never asked him to do anything unreasonable. Right now he was compiling information regarding Harmony into a more digestible format which could be read by the common pony. Even though the six ponies before him were anything but common, reading all of the information gathered about the corporation was very time-consuming and confusing. Even though Twilight Sparkle was a logistical genius, even she needed an assistant, and Spike was the perfect companion for her.

Rainbow Dash sat at her place, a hoof to her ear and conversing to a pony who was not present. She got good use out of her subcutaneous phone, and would commonly use that instead of most other forms of personal communication. Today she had grown bored while waiting for everyone to show up, and had called a fellow pilot for a time-killing chat. Rainbow Dash was responsible for maintaining the combat readiness of the pilots of Harmony. Her Caldari Navy training had been harsh but highly constructive, and used similar training methods on her fellow pilots to teach them to succeed in combat; so far, her methods were working. She was also responsible for coordinating low-security space operations with corporations who were friendly to Harmony, and many times these operations went well, even when Twilight was not their fleet commander. She may have been an easily bored and occasionally lazy pony, but she was still a hard-working Pegasus, and deserved whatever downtime she could get her hooves on.

Pinkie Pie sat quietly across from Rainbow Dash, staring into space with her characteristic smile. A neural viewer rested on her head, a popular Gallentean accessory which transmitted information directly into the hearing and visual centers of the brain. This innovation bypassed the use of heads-up displays and listening devices, allowing for a far clearer image and sound resolution. Pinkie Pie was the reconnaissance and surveillance expert of Harmony. She would normally fly a Buzzard-class covert operations frigate fitted with cutting-edge scan probes, which could be used to search for anomalous signatures in a star system. Being Pinkie Pie, she could find anything and usually everything within a given system. She also had uncanny alacrity when it came to current events in New Equestria.

Rarity was chatting with Fluttershy, who was humbly listening to her speak. Despite losing an eye to an assassination attempt, Rarity was an avid cosmopolitan and fashionista. She wore her hair across the right side of her face, a style she had maintained for a month or so. The dress that she had chosen for today was stitched together with an assortment of blues and an accent of smoke grey, and it was the fitting image of a corporate executive. She wore an eyepatch which sported a bit-sized sapphire set in a ring of titanium. Fortunately, her disfigurement had no effect on her work as the industrial director of both Harmony and the assembly plant of Uesuro V, Moon 15. It did, however, interfere greatly with her depth perception, and as such she had taken a rest from crafting any of the dresses she made and sold. Doubtlessly there would be some unhappy customers, but it was not something that Rarity would kill herself over. Not that she could with any meaningful result.

Fluttershy sat across from her at the table, listening humbly to Rarity as she talked. Her mane was worn in her typical style, which today included a hair clip of Harmony's insignia set in semiprecious stones. She wore a uniform similar to those worn by the aid workers of the Sisters of FAUST, the most prominent humanitarian organization in New Equestria, but her outfit was a light pastel green with a pink butterfly sewn into the lapel and embroidered onto the outfit’s flanks instead of the bleached white of typical medical uniforms. Fluttershy was a capsuleer who preferred to help and protect ponies and other creatures of New Equestria instead of destroy things. This typically placed her into a support role when the six of them went out in their ships, such as an electronic warfare ship. However, she excelled at the use of logistics ships, and she could repair ships better than most logistics pilots who had been repairing armor and replenishing shields for years.

Applejack had just trotted into the conference room. She was wearing an overshirt that an asteroid miner would wear for the job, with her sleeves rolled up and a bandanna around her neck. A cowboy hat was on her head, something of a trademark item she wore when out of the pod. While she may have had other hats, she only wore the original at this particular station. Applejack was the director of, as Twilight put it, "resource procurement." This typically meant managing resources collected by structures on the surfaces of planets, buying raw materials on the market, and most importantly, mining. She was also in charge of managing the mining activities and similar operations of Harmony. Given that there were quite a number of ponies, zebras and griffons in Harmony alongside the six executives who occupied the room, mining activities were happening around the clock.

Applejack took her seat next to Rarity. While they had narrowly avoided being blasted apart by a Hurricane earlier that day, it did nothing to prevent them from being themselves. They were a strange bunch compared to the rest of New Equestria—the galaxy was fraught with peril, but the six of them never lost their hearts, which kept them their friendly selves even in the face of danger. At least, that is what they hoped for.

Slowly their side conversations died down, and Twilight readied her notes and documents for their meeting. She brushed aside her holographic display with a hoof and levitated her datasheets as she arranged them on the table in a way that would be easier for her to conduct the meeting.

"So yeah, Goldie, I'll meet with you later about a roam into Villasen next time. Got to go now, bye," Rainbow Dash spoke as she ended her phone call with another pilot. Twilight's "tell" was that telltale shifting of papers before a meeting, a way of organizing the flow of the conversation. Rarity's conversation with Fluttershy quieted in readiness for their corporate meeting.

"So, now that everypony is here, we can begin our monthly meeting. On time, I might add," spoke Twilight. The six of them were chronically late in organizing these meetings. Last month, their meeting was a week late; the month before that, two weeks late; and they almost missed their meeting entirely the month before that one. It was refreshing for her to have an organized meeting on time; capsuleers were notorious for either razor-precision or complete unreliability.

"I can say for certain that, with the exception of recent events, Harmony has been operating quite smoothly for this month. So, let's start with you, Applejack. How has mining been this month?" Twilight asked.

"Well," Applejack spoke as she removed several data sheets from her saddlebags, "our asteroid minin' groups have been pullin' up a hundred thousand cubic meters of asteroid ore, each, per day." She looked back to her data sheets on the table as she read from them. "With support from the Orca, an' mah mind-link," she tapped her head with a hoof, "the ore that we can pull up from minin' is nearly triple that. Ponies like minin' with the Orca 'cause it assists with the process, so they'll stay out longer. Ice minin' is going strong as well. The pilots we have pullin' in ice are a real different set 'a miners, 'cause ah catch 'em out there minin' ice all day long." She added heavy emphasis to the last three words. "The four of 'em sit there an' harvest ice every day for eight hours a day. They reel in a hundred and fifty blocks of ice, each, a day, which adds up to nineteen thousand ice blocks they harvested." Applejack's tabulation of the quantity of ice harvested surprised the ponies. It was an absolutely astounding quantity of ice harvested, and it would possibly take almost as long as it took to harvest it all to transport it back to their station. Mining the massive ice asteroids which were scattered around New Equestria was the easiest way of attaining very valuable compounds required to power orbital control towers for private outposts, as well as other pieces of hardware.

"Now normally ah would be movin' all of this ice from Oishami to here, but Rarity, Rainbow Dash an' ah were stuck in Nonni for the past few days waitin' for the pirate blockades to move on. Sometime after we're done here ah'm gonna go dust off mah Obelisk." Applejack sounded annoyed by the prospect of having to move the quantity of ice which had built up over time. A freighter-class starship could carry tremendous volumes of cargo, but blocks of ice were outrageously large, and there would still be a lot of trips back and forth to transport all of it.

"How long would it take you to move all of that ice?" Twilight asked,

"Well, all that ice is gonna take at least three weeks of non-stop haulin'," Applejack replied, an annoyed determination in her voice.

"Applejack," Rarity interjected, "I can help you move those blocks of ice."

"That's nice, Rarity, but-"

"No, Applejack, I won't take no for an answer. You perform great quantities of work for this corporation, and I will not allow you to be burdened with all of the strain required to maintain our presence. When we are finished here, I will undock my Charon and I will assist you in relocating the ice." Rarity spoke with a conviction which surfaced when her friends needed her help. "Besides, I did mine some of that ice as well, so I should be helping you."

"That's mighty thoughtful a' ya, Rarity. Ah will be movin' it all later, if that ain't a problem for ya."

"That is quite considerate of you, Rarity," Twilight spoke. "Is there anything else you need, Applejack?"

"Yeah, we need more Hedbergite crystals. Pinkie Pie found a belt loaded with Hedbergite, but we ran outta' crystals."

"Need more crystals..." Spike spoke to himself quietly as he typed notes for later. "How do you spell 'Hedbergite?'"

"H-e-d-b-e-r-g-i-t-e" Applejack spelled out. "Other than those crystals, ah think ah'm good for now."

"Alright then, let's move on to you, Rainbow Dash. Can you give us the score for our latest low-sec activity with SilentStorm?" "Low-sec activity" was Twilight's way of describing a roam into low-security space. Occasionally, capsuleers would become bored and leave their stations and outposts to look for a fight. This was the sort of action which CONCORD, Consolidated Cooperation and Relations Command, which acted as a police element for capsuleers, was founded to combat. However, CONCORD's long arm of the law did not reach into low-security space, and those areas were battlegrounds for pirates and pilots looking to cause trouble or settle their problems the old-fashioned way. Their ally corporation, SilentStorm, was one such group of rabble-rousers who hunted ships in low-security space for sport. Harmony and SilentStorm were on good terms, however, and had agreed to stay their lasers and high-velocity missiles when encountering each other.

"No problem, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed enthusiastically, producing a datapad from one of her jacket's pockets.

"We managed to blow up a dozen ships last roam. Mostly frigates and a few cruisers. Then we found the battleship," she spoke, a grin slowly forming on her face.

"Yeah, that Dominix," Twilight spoke with a falling tone. The Dragoon-class destroyer which Twilight had piloted on the roam had been obliterated by a well-placed strike from the blaster cannons of a Dominix-class battleship.

"Twilight, I'm so sorry about your Dragoon. I was trying as hard as I could to repair your ship, but that Dominix was causing too much damage," Fluttershy said apologetically. Fluttershy was a skilled logistics pilot and flew ships capable of repairing her friends' ships, but there was not much that could be done between a destroyer and a battleship.

Twilight had a thing against losing ships in combat, not because they were expensive to replace or because losing ships tarnished a pilot's combat record. She hated losing ships because she preferred to fly her ships manned with living, breathing ponies. Every time she went into combat, she put the lives of other living beings at stake. Losing any of her ships would be a tragedy.

"It's ok, Twilight. At least this time you chose to fly an unmanned ship," Rainbow Dash said encouragingly. She plugged her datapad into a slot in her terminal, and a holographic display came to life above the table. It was a side-by-side comparison of the kill data of both Twilight's ship and that of the Dominix. Her name was highlighted on the Dominix's kill information.

"Besides," Rainbow Dash said proudly, "Duster may have gotten the final strike on the Dominix, but you were dealing the most damage to it! No wonder it was in such a hurry to blow you up!"

Sure enough, under the "Most Damage Dealt" superlative, there was Twilight's name and capsuleer portrait. The statistic read "64.3%"

"Out of more than a dozen ships, I dealt sixty-four percent of the total damage?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"You betcha! The colts at SilentStorm also want to tell you that they were really impressed with how you did, and they wanted us to fly with them again on more roams they planned for next month. We also got thirty million credits each for the loot that we were able to secure from the roam, but they decided to give you an extra twenty for that Dominix."

Rainbow Dash raised her hooves above her head. "Girls," she exclaimed triumphantly, "we are officially awesome!"

Twilight's friends cheered for her with the exception of Pinkie Pie, who kept a happy yet blank stare directly forward.

"Pinkie Pie? You ok there?" Applejack asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm totally fine. I've just been watching the meeting from every possible angle!" she replied cheerfully.

"Every possible angle?" Twilight asked quizically.

"Well, yeah!" she said as her own holographic display appeared over the table, displaying a video feed coming from across the table’s far side. "I've been watching from here," she said before swiping a hoof across the image to scroll to another angle; "here," she changed the angle, again and again, "and finally here!"

As she changed to the last angle, Rainbow Dash saw that she was looking at herself from the front. She quickly realized that the last angle was being streamed directly from Pinkie Pie's eyes. It was certainly random, and random was Pinkie Pie. She was unable to contain her surprise, however, and the other four of them could not help but giggle a little.

"Okay Pinkie Pie," Twilignt asked after a refreshing round of silliness, "have you found anything interesting in the constellation?"

"Well, of course! We've got small pockets of rogue drones in a bunch of systems, and a pretty big group showed up in a low-security system. I found some rare asteroids, and it is also better that we brought Applejack's cargo through Aunenen instead of the Kinakka System because the Kinakka System is camped up the flank! There was no way we would have been able to get her through that, ever! Then there's the Isie system..."

Pinkie Pie's account of the goings on in the Malariya constellation and its neighboring systems in the Black Rise region lasted for a full half-hour. While everyone was thoroughly tired of the vast minutiae of her report, Spike was still taking notes. This information would still be useful for later, and the rest of Harmony's miners would want to take a look at the asteroid belts she uncovered.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie fell silent, and her friends wondered if she had actually run out of things to say.

"Is that everything, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, I just remembered!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. She swiped a hoof across her display, and the image changed to an asteroid belt, filled with very large asteroids.

"Well I'll be," Applejack spoke, "that there is an Arkonor belt. How and where did ya find this? Actually ya don't have to say how, 'yer just that good at it." Pinkie Pie was uncannily proficient at finding things, and because she was so good at that and at surveillance she was made the corporation's premier explorer.

"Thanks, Applejack. I found this in the Ohbochi system. I know it is low-security space, but we just have to mine it! I'm not sure how long we have because those things get tossed around and scattered from gravity and solar wind and other stuff so can we mine it? Can we? Can we? Please please please?" Pinkie Pie was hopping in place as she asked. She was very excited to mine them with her friends, and Arkonor was a very rare asteroid ore, with very rare minerals within as well. If they did not refine it for its minerals, they could sell it for a hefty sum.

They looked to Twilight to make the decision. They were all friends, but they had all chosen her to be the CEO of Harmony, and through that their leader.

"I guess it would not hurt to have a small mining group for those asteroids." Twilight's reply was returned with a happy smile from Pinkie Pie. "Applejack, do you think you can have a small fleet of Retrievers set up for us soon?"

"Yeah, ah think ah can have 'em fitted and ready within an hour," she replied.

"Ok, we will mine those asteroids right after we are done here," Twilight announced. "Rarity, do you have anything to share with us? I hear you got some nice and expensive things."

"Why, that I do, and expensive they were. Whether or not they were nice depends on the pony," Rarity spoke and levitated a parcel, neatly wrapped in white cloth, from her embroidered saddlebags. "And again, Applejack, I'm sorry for leaving you back there when that Hurricane accosted us."

"It's nothin' much ta worry about, Rarity. Mah Iteron would've done just as much against it as yer shuttle," Applejack replied. "Now what've ya got there now?"

Rarity placed the parcel on the table and unwrapped it, revealing a number of data disks. The budding industrialist in Twilight recognized them immediately for what they were.

"These blueprint copies were not the cheapest, and not the easiest to acquire, either. You would not know just how easy it is to get caught in a scam when you are shopping through the commerce capital of New Equestria," Rarity spoke with a measure of pride.

Twilight levitated some of the blueprints to herself. One was an Archon-class carrier, and another was an Apocalypse-class battleship.

"I attained the Archon blueprint because we have the resources to build capital ship components, but we cannot just drop Celestia-knows how many credits for an original blueprint. It would cost a fore and hind leg to get one. As for the smaller ships, we should be able to build them with the resources we have now. You should also be happy to know that I also acquired a number of newer implants in case we need to install them in new clones."

"It is always good to plan ahead," Twilight spoke. "With that, all that is left is you, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy rose up slightly, startled out of a bashful reverie. The five if them looked to her for her part of the meeting, except for Pinkie Pie, who watched the meeting from one of many angles.

"Um, well," Fluttershy started slowly, "I was not able to find out anything about the Hurricane that attacked us when we came into Aunenen earlier. We didn't know who they are or who they worked for, if they were not alone," she spoke meekly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't you worry a thing now, sugar cube," Applejack said to her, "If it weren't for you we would’ve been smoked, an' half of us would be resuscitatin' instead of sitting here now."

"And you rescued one of my Firbolg pilots!" Pinkie Pie chimed. "You still owe us a Fluttershy-rescued-someone-who-could-have-died-in-a-fireball party!"

"We will be sure to have a party later. For now, we should focus on keeping everything together, which also means tightening up. Karita is coming tomorrow, so let's make sure that everything is in order," spoke Twilight.

Pinkie Pie almost choked on a soft drink which she had produced from nowhere a few seconds before.

"Karita? As in the Karita, representative of the Executive Board of Lai Dai?" Pinkie Pie questioned, a panic slowly becoming apparent in her voice.

Her five friends nodded in unison.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, "that ruins all of my plans for a party! We have to think of something else!"

"Pinkie Pie, it's only Karita," Twilight attempted to reassure Pinkie Pie. "She only wants to inspect the station. We are the ones managing it, not them. Besides, what is stopping you from throwing her a party?"

"Twilight," Pinkie Pie protested, a small scowl forming, "the last time I threw a party for her, she threatened to rip me apart and eat me. She tried to throw me out the station's airlocks, and threatened to light me on fire too! There isn't a single fun bone in her body!"

"Well Pinkie Pie, you did throw her a surprise party which was completely unexpected," spoke Rainbow Dash, "and I think the dancing MTAC walker went over the top."

"Although, in your defense," spoke Rarity, "how were you to know that she hated the color red?"

"Don't worry," Twilight spoke reassuringly, "we can think of a plan for a party while we mine today."

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe I can try blue this time! That's Lai Dai's color anyway!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as her fun-loving, party-minded attitude instantly rematerialized.

"That's a good idea! Alright, let's conclude this meeting. Applejack, try to have those Retrievers ready to go as soon as you can. I will be ready in about an hour. Let's all fly safe today," Twilight spoke as she focused back to her data sheets as she levitated them in front of her, and several holographic displays came to life in mid-air.

"Spike, please compile a summary of our meeting and forward it to everyone in the corporation."

•••

Rarity exited the elevator and trotted into the hallways of a more private area of the station. This was a section of the residential area of the station reserved for higher-ranking executives of Lai Dai Protection Services, and Rarity had a set of quarters all to herself. While she did live in an area mostly populated by corporate royalty, this was purely by choice; she had no problems with her friends living among other pilots and less wealthy ponies.

This hallway was lavishly decorated with various scenes from Caldari history. Some scenes depicted great cities and economic splendor, while other scenes were of conflict and battles against ponies; those scenes Rarity found less than savory for her tastes. As a Gallentean, Rarity was out of place on a Caldari space station, but as a well-known executive she was treated with cordial respect by all.

It was an odd trait of the Caldari griffons which became more apparent as one climbed the corporate ladder; while they turned their beaks and scoffed at the Gallenteans as they blamed them for their social and economic problems, they were trading with them extensively and making high-return economic deals with them at the same time, often behind the backs of every pony and griffon they fed their anti-Gallente rhetoric.

Rarity reached a highly decorated door, which was encrusted with a synthetic crystal formation of her own cutie mark. A small pad of the approximate shape and size of a hoof was built into the wall beside the door. Four small dots of yellow light were above the hoof-shaped depression.

She pressed her hoof into the depression and the four yellow lights turned green in succession. These lights flashed blue as the door hissed open for her. Biometric locks grew more and more expensive as their complexity increased, but this one was cheap compared to what lay on the other side of the doors.

To describe Rarity's lodgings as "lavish" would be an understatement. Rarity lived at the height of luxury, enough so as to cause Amarrian nobility to turn heads and give pause. The floor was arranged in patterns of the Harmony insignia, the Protection Services logo, and her own cutie mark, each a hand-made mosaic of multi-colored stones. Tapestries hung from some of the walls, depicting scenes of wealth, beauty and virtuous glory; one scene was a depiction of the ancient Equestrian city of Canterlot. Another was of a beautiful scene in space, in particular a nebula far off in the cosmos. A third tapestry was a stylized depiction of an Earth Pony, resting in a cloud and reaching a hoof to the extended hoof of the head of the Amarr Empire and religious figure, Princess Celestia.

There were yet more pieces of extravagance in her quarters; a grand window gave her a luxurious and breathtaking view of the fifteenth moon of Uesuro V as well as the System's star, polarized by the window to prevent damage of the eyes while preserving the view of the moon; a huge wine rack held bottles of exotic wines worth thousands of bits each; plush velvet couches arranged in a circle around a flower arrangement surrounded the technological wonder of the room, a sphere of water held aloft by tractor beams and antigravity generators, within which several very expensive and colorful koi swam idly.

Rarity took the bits and credits which she made from hard work and converted them into luxury life. While her friends certainly had the capacity to live as luxuriously as she did, she was the one who did.

There was one thing in her lodgings that was worth more than anything else in her possession, and it was running to her with exited glee.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle shouted with happiness as she hugged her sister.

"Sweetie Belle, I missed you so much," she said as she returned her hug. "How have you and your friends been?"

"We were getting really bored waiting for you all to come back. There is not much to do here, and I know that Fluttershy was trying really hard to keep us occupied."

Rarity had to give credit to Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle and her friends were real handfuls, and they could easily get into serious trouble if they were not close watched.

"Rarity, I was working on some new songs when you were away. Would you like to hear them?" asked Sweetie Belle. She had been writing songs for a while now as a hobby, and she also had a pretty singing voice. There were talks about singing being her special talent, the kind of talent that earns a pony his or her cutie mark.

Rarity had already promised her friends that she would mine with them shortly. However, this was her sister, and her sister meant a lot to her.

She weighed her options. She could tell her sister that she could not and that her friends were waiting for her help. Or, she thought, she could stay and listen to her sister's songs and be late to their mining session. She did want to help her sister's potential musical career flourish.

She made her decision, and smiled to her sister.

"Sweetie Belle, I have not seen you in days, and I would love to hear your new musical works."

Sweetie Belle excitedly ran to get her music player.

Chapter 5

View Online

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rainbow Dash transmitted a yawn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twitch.

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

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

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

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

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

But the Pinkie Sense never lies.

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

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

Twitch twitch twitch. Twitch twitch twitchy twitch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She braced herself within her capsule.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A piercing, painful blue.

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

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

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

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

"What is your name?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Who is calling me?" she groaned.

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

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

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

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

Chapter 6

View Online

Admiral Brass Gauntlet stood at the command platform of the Golden Light, a modified Armageddon-class battleship awarded to only the greatest ponies of the Amarr Empire. One of the finest examples of Amarrian starship engineering, it was superior to a run-of-the-mill Armageddon in every way, outmatching its mundane counterpart in performance, resilience and firepower.

Gauntlet watched his crew hustle about the bridge in precise, disciplined patterns as he levitated a cup of rehydrated coffee before him. The crew of this ship were all of a military sort, each one having served time in the Imperial Navy. He had to admit that Twilight Sparkle had a good eye for recruiting highly proficient crewponies.

He was not an admiral in the Imperial Navy, and had not been one for some time; an injury to one if his hind legs had seen to his retirement. None of the ponies on the Golden Light were enlisted in the Navy either, but those who were had been serving on it since before it was awarded to Twilight Sparkle "for excellence and intellect" by the Empress herself. Each one had served their time with the Navy and on the Golden Light, and they were all highly experienced.

"Admiral Gauntlet," Twilight's voice rang through an intercom speaker, "Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are coming through the Aunenen system now. Thirty seconds until they land at the Otalieto stargate."

"Thank you, Miss Sparkle," Gauntlet replied, sipping his coffee his coffee.

"All ponies," he announced through the warship's general intercom, "get to your stations. We are having visitors in 30 seconds, so everypony better be looking sharp.”

Throughout the battleship, six thousand Amarr ponies hustled about as they scrambled to general quarters. Their hoofbeats made the entire ship shudder just subtly enough to be missed by the common sailor but perceivable by a capsuleer. Everything was running like a highly-organized machine, and that was just how Twilight liked it.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were escorting their guest through the Aunenen system. This was to ensure that the situation which had befallen them the day before was avoided. Pinkie Pie was also in the system with her Chimera, her fighter squadron at full readiness.

This left Twilight, Applejack and Rarity to greet them in Otalieto. Rarity had chosen to fly a Myrmidon-class battlecruiser that day; it was actually a surprise that she had come out at all that day. She had complained about how she was in absolutely no condition to meet with any corporate representative, but had decided that showing up in a warship would not be the greatest hassle if she did not have to be seen physically.

Applejack piloted a Maelstrom-class battleship of Minmatar design. It was an intimidating vessel armed to the teeth with cannons, and its solar panel arrays gave it a threatening visage. Applejack was a fearsome fighter, and when not piloting mining vessels she was in command of equally fearsome warships.

The stargate before them flashed, and the first pony through the gate was Fluttershy. Today she was in command of a Falcon-class recon vessel, a ship based on the more common Blackbird-class cruiser but designed for electronic superiority. The combination of cutting-edge technology and a very powerful signal generator made the Falcon a frighteningly effective electronic warfare vessel.

"She is coming through now," Fluttershy transmitted in her timid voice.

A moment later, the stargate flashed again, and the gate revealed a Tengu. This one did not belong to Rainbow Dash.

Twilight cleared her throat, and began to speak.

"Harmony would like to-"

"Surprise!!" shouted Pinkie Pie as she uncloaked her Nemesis stealth bomber and barreled at full speed at the Tengu, pulling away at the last second. Crackling balls drifted in her wake before they burst into a brilliant display of light and color.

Where she had gotten starship-sized fireworks launchers was anypony's guess, but it was not nearly as farfetched as her starship-sized snowball launcher.

Twilight froze. If Pinkie Pie was supposed to be in a Chimera in Aunenen, why was she in Otalieto in a stealth bomber? Why was she testing the patience of a pilot who a few months ago had threatened to kill her in nasty ways?

When the colorful flashes stopped and the sparkles and fires died out, Twilight focused her camera drones on the Tengu to find that its missile launchers were tracking every move of Pinkie Pie's Nemesis, and Twilight felt a chill at the understanding that if this were a low-security system, the Tengu would have opened fire.

"Are you finished?" a harsh female voice transmitted after a few moments of tense silence.

Twilight laughed weakly, attempting to break the thick tension.

"That would be a rather surprising demonstration of our expert black ops pilot," she attempted to explain.

"You mean, 'amateur' black ops pilot. If she were an expert, we would all be dead," transmitted Karita, corporate representative of Lai Dai Protection Services. The condescension in her voice could melt steel. "If we are done here, let's proceed."

"Yes, well, follow me!" Twilight spoke as she quickly turned her Armageddon to face the Endatoh stargate in a rushed maneuver.

In her nervous haste, she turned the vessel too quickly. Her crewponies struggled to maintain their balance as they were jolted about the warship. She felt several heavy thuds as cargo containers in her hold slammed into bulkheads after skidding about.

"Miss Sparkle," Brass Gauntlet spoke forcefully into his intercom, "please warn us before you attempt such a maneuver again."

"My apologies," Twilight quickly apologized.

"Still," Gauntlet spoke, "Karita sounds like a tightly-wound one."

"Karita is always difficult to deal with," Twilight replied with little enthusiasm. "She always assumes that we are at our worst. Pinkie Pie wasn't very helpful either."

The rest of their flight was uneventful, and their flight through the constellation to Uesuro was tinged with a tense silence. Already their meeting with Karita was turning sour, and Twilight was worried that she would finally have it with Harmony.

They landed before the Moon 15 station at a close ten kilometers, giving them enough distance to visually scrutinize the station itself.

"I must admit," Twilight spoke while trying to break the tension with small talk, "this station is an exemplary piece of Caldari engineering. More than half a million souls residing within, and there is still ample room for docking stations and a full-sized manufacturing center."

"I must admit, I'm surprised that it is still in orbit, no thanks to you ponies," Karita replied with no small amount of sarcastic condescension. "Like the dozens of stations that Lai Dai has set up, including the hundreds of others built by all Caldari, we build stations which will hold up to the rigors they are subjected to."

The station's tug drones towed the representative's Tengu to the station, and the others were towed in as well, one at a time.

"I will perform the inspection on my own. Do what pleases you, but stay out of my way," Karita transmitted.

"She's quite a happy soul," Applejack jested to Twilight on a private comms channel.

"Let's just hope that she is more impressed with the state of the station itself," Twilight replied worriedly.

•••

Three hours later, the six founders of Harmony sat anxiously in their conference room. They kept to themselves, occupied in various ways to stifle their nervousness.

As Twilight flipped through holographic displays, Rarity put her new eye to use in stitching an embroidery that she had out aside after the eye in her old clone body was put out. Rainbow Dash was yet again on her implanted cellular phone with Goldie from SilentStorm, and Spike read a comic on his datapad.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, "what's taking Karita so long? She's been gone for hours now."

"Karita wants to make sure that nothing is out of order with the station," Twilight explained. "Besides, we are all ponies and only two of us are Caldari, so I don't think she is particularly thrilled that we are running the station."

"It sure would be different if you were all griffons," Spike mumbled and turned back to his illustrated story of brave capsuleers rescuing damsels in distress from Zazzmatazz the pirate lord.

"So, what does it look like for a roam into Black Rise?" Rainbow Dash asked her confidant on the other end of the line.

"We're gonna have to ask Silent Storm about that," replied the stallion on the other end. "Chances of yes, equal chances of no. Hopefully something interesting happens, yes?"

Goldie's Amarrian accent was chiseled and refined, the sort of voice which could only be cultivated by the ultra-elite of the Amarr Empire.

"Also, Silent Storm heard news about something going down in Black Rise. More activity than normal, so a roam is still questionable."

"Any idea who it is?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"No idea," Goldie replied. "Could be pirates, could be SCUM, could be the bloody Pandora Legion for all we know. We're heading out in frigates, so we won't be doing too much fighting. Sorry to leave you behind."

Rainbow Dash groaned inwardly. She particularly enjoyed flying with SilentStorm's ponies, and it was disappointing that she would be unable to fly out with them today on account of a very temperamental corporate representative.

A chime rang on the console next to Twilight. She pressed the answer button quickly with her hoof.

"Who is it?" she asked with professional tone.

"Fleet here," replied their security desk Pegasus, "Karita is coming, and she doesn't look happy."

"Since when is Karita ever happy?" Twilight replied with mixed frustration and sarcasm. "Thanks for the heads-up."

"Hey Goldie, gotta go, talk to you later," Rainbow Dash said before she hung up her call.

The ponies anxiously took up a corporate posture as they readied themselves to greet Lai Dai Protection Services' corporate representative.

A pony opened the door from the outside, and a chocolate-furred griffon with similarly colored feathers stormed into the conference room. A sour expression hung on her raptor's beak.

Karita took a seat at the conference table and produced a datapad from her jacket. A moment of tense silence hung in the air.

"Was everything found to your liking?" Twilight asked as professionally as she could while hiding her nervousness.

"Where do I begin?" Karita announced, having much to tell and little of it good.

"There are hundreds of homeless migrants located in Hangar 33. Hangar 47 is filled entirely with garbage. Half of the manufacturing staff are overpaid by a factor of three."

She placed down her datapad and leaned over the table, her claws scratching at its surface.

"What is an Altassian Condor doing with a nest in a wide-open tramline intersection?"

"Um," Fluttershy nervously stammered, all heads suddenly turning toward her. "Polly doesn't mean any harm. She's trained not to pick up anypony and fly away with them."

Karita blinked.

"You own an Altassian Condor, a predatory bird known to pick up ponies and fly away with them, and you named it Polly?" Karita asked, attempting to register that what Fluttershy said was not a joke.

The gryphon sat back down and flipped through her datapad with a sigh.

"There are at least a thousand reasons why I want to tell the board that you are incapable of managing this station," Karita proclaimed, "but unfortunately they were right about you."

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight, puzzled by her sudden contradiction.

"Of at least a dozen similar stations," Karita began to clarify, "this one outperforms them all in manufacturing capacity and output by threefold. Although the security on this station is lacking, there have been next to no instances of crime on this station in the past three months. I'm honestly amazed that you are able to keep everything going as long as you have with this station. Tell me, how do you manage all of this."

Twilight smiled at Karita, encouraged by her sudden complement.

"If you noticed, we have more recreational parks and facilities than other stations, and we have also invested heavily in improving life conditions for everypony on this station. We have been doing what we can to keep everypony here happy," Twilight spoke with resolve.

"Yes, we do also pay the workers here well above the average salary," Rarity interjected, "but those bits are coming out of our own coffers. We too work hard as capsuleers, and why should we hoard wealth when we can assist those who need it more than we do?"

"We improved the hospitals here as well, if that isn't a problem," Fluttershy meekly spoke. "When there is an accident, the workers want to be able to have the best medical care they can have access to."

"And if everypony works as hard as they can, at the end of the month we throw a huge party!" Pinkie Pie spoke energetically.

"Business is a lot more than just numbers," said Twilight, "it's about getting everypony to want to work hard, not just getting them to work harder."

Karita considered that statement. As much as she had heard about business techniques, the idea of making citizens want to work harder was a new one.

"Interesting. I'll have to remember that one." Karita began tapping through her datapad again. "Anyway, I have one other task to ask of you. Lai Dai Protection Services wants to set up another station in the Villasen System. As you might already know, it is in low-security space and is also fairly dangerous. I'm asking for one of you to provide a meaningful escort to that system to ward off possible threats."

Karita reached the capsuleer profile that she was interested in.

"Rainbow Dash," she spoke, eliciting an interested response from the Pegasus, "excellent victory ratio in combat, minimal overall losses, glowing certificate reviews. Four years in the Caldari Navy. I would like you to accompany me to Villasen. Get into a ship and I will issue you double the normal loyalty points befitting an escort mission. I will be ready in a half-hour, and we will depart a half-hour after."

She cut off the conversation as she stood up and tucked the datapad into her jacket. She walked to the door and opened it to leave, but turned to the six ponies.

"Thank you. This inspection has been more stimulating than I expected," she said, closing the door behind her as she left.

Rainbow Dash didn't know whether to be flattered or upended by the mentioning of her Caldari Navy service, which was a touchy subject for her. She was just as surprised as her friends that she had been chosen to escort Lai Dai's representative to Villasen.

"Go ahead and git some air in yer space wings, Rainbow Dash," Applejack encouraged, "we got some cleanin' up to do around here. Never thought somepony would leave a whole hangar fulla' trash around here."

"I'm not in much condition to go anywhere, myself," Rarity added, "why don't you go show Miss Karita how a Harmony pilot clears a path in Black Rise."

Rainbow Dash perked up at her friends' encouragement.

"Yeah, it's not every day that anypony gets to see how awesome I am. I'll show Karita just what a Navy-trained pilot can do!" Rainbow Dash's answer was filled with proud enthusiasm.

Ready or not, Karita would get to see her in action first-hoof.

Chapter 7

View Online

Rainbow Dash left the station in her Stabber-class cruiser, ready to take on anything. A cruiser of Minmatar design, the Stabber was sleek and slender with very powerful engines for a ship of its size. It was perfect for Rainbow Dash.

The Blue Monsoon was hers. It was fitted with rapid-fire two-hundred and twenty millimeter autocannons and numerous other modules and advanced components ideal for the operation of a sleek and efficient war machine. Each of these were improved beyond the performance of their standard-built counterparts through ingenuity and many hours of trial and error.

Karita waited outside with her Tengu. In all forms it was superior to the Blue Monsoon, but Rainbow Dash was intimately familiar with this particular cruiser. In fights between capsuleers, she who was most familiar with her ship wins the day.

“Ready to go?” Karita transmitted. “Take us to Villasen.”

The warp to the Ohbochi System was uneventful even after yesterday's incident, but it was not the only system they were bound to deal with.

“So, what exactly does Lai Dai want with Villasen?” Rainbow Dash asked, banking her cruiser toward the Raihbaka stargate after arriving in the Ohbochi system. “Don’t you already have a station there?”

“The executives want to search for another place to set up a station." Karita spoke as they warped across the system. "Since most of them are too afraid to take any real risks, they started with Villasen. Where we already have another station.” Karita’s words dripped with disapproval. It was clear that the Protection Services representative did not like any of the griffons on the board of directors, and also disapproved of their decisions.

They made the jump into Raihbaka Upon exiting the stargate Rainbow Dash activated her directional scanner, searching for anything in a three-hundred and sixty degree radius around her for several million kilometers. The only objects that she was able to detect were Karita’s Tengu and the stargate itself.

“We have to be careful around here. There are lots of pirates that like to hang around here,” Rainbow Dash warned Karita. This system, as well as the other systems of the Urpiken Constellation, were low-security systems which were the home and hunting ground of notorious pirate groups. She was hoping they avoided encounters with any substantial pirate fleets.

“What? A veteran of the Hikkonen Ambush afraid of a few pirates?” Karita spoke with a teasing tone.

“First off, it wasn’t a few pirates in Hikkonen,” Rainbow Dash shot back with rising temper, “it was a Pandora Legion fleet! More than a hundred mixed ships versus two dozen! We lost more than half of our ships in that ambush!”

“And you flew away with fifty-seven confirmed kills,” Karita replied, ignoring the tone of Rainbow Dash’s outburst. “Oddly enough, you didn’t score a single podkill. That honor went to your wingmare, who almost matched your ship kill total in capsules alone.”

That observation left a pall in Rainbow Dash’s gut. The Hikkonen Ambush as a whole was a fiasco that Rainbow Dash did not enjoy talking about, nor did she seek to reenact it anywhere else.

The two of them made the jumps through the Iralaja and Martoh systems in silence, until Rainbow Dash broke it with a question.

“Why did you want me to come along? I mean, that Tengu looks like it could take on anything.”

“I would prefer being led through pirate-infested low-security space by someone who knows the way there,” Karita replied. “Plus, it’s a lot easier to get carried away in a Tengu than you think.”

They finally made the jump into Villasen. The first thing that Rainbow Dash noticed was an abundance of activity on the local communication channels. That was not a good sign for her.

“Alright, we’re here,” Karita spoke. “Let me lead you to the station itself. It’s not too far.”

The two of them aligned to a planet and warped away.

“It’s not so much a station more than an outpost,” she continued. “They wanted to start cheap instead of actually trying.”

They landed from warp to find what would have been an outpost had they arrived half an hour earlier. Clouds of debris floated lifelessly where there had once been defensive installations. The outpost’s control tower had been blown in half, its upper half burning uncontrollably. Several structures had been blown apart, their contents scattered about.

More than a dozen pirate vessels darted about, attempting to loot whatever they could from the wreckage.

“What,” Karita barked over the local channel, “in Tartarus are you rats doing to my outpost?”

Rainbow Dash’s and Karita’s overlays lit up with yellow squares. Their camera drones showed ships turning in their direction, their weapons extending from their compartments and pointing directly at them.

“I think we have an answer, Karita,” Rainbow Dash replied, revving her autocannons and diverting capacitor energy to her microwarpdrive. “You take the cruisers, I’ll handle the small fry.”

The pirates before them were mostly frigates and a few destroyers. In particular, a Thorax-class and an Omen-class cruiser flew among them.

Karita could care less about the makeup of the pirate fleet; she was already locking targets. Energy was being siphoned to her Tengu’s shield modules, and she channeled hydrazine fuel into her afterburners. Automated loading systems filled her missile launchers with fresh Scourge-type heavy missiles, and held onto the load which would follow.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Both cruisers rocketed off toward the pirate vessels. Rainbow Dash’s Stabber left Karita’s Tengu in her microwarpdrive-enhanced engine wash, but their enemies were well within the effective range of Karita’s missiles.

Karita fired the first shots, launching an opening salvo of missiles toward the Thorax. Scourge missiles relied on physical kinetic impact to destroy whatever they hit. While this would be highly effective against other warships, Gallente vessels such as the Thorax specifically calibrated their shield and armor systems to ward off kinetic impact weapons.

The thunderous impacts of Karita’s Scourge missiles were absorbed by the Thorax’s shields. The small cluster of missiles earned the attention of the Thorax, who turned to face Karita at close range and activated its own afterburners.

Karita’s sensor systems detected new incoming contacts: drones, and plenty of them. Hammerhead-type drones were drones of intermediate size, intended for use against cruiser-sized targets such as her Tengu or Rainbow Dash’s Blue Monsoon. While Rainbow Dash may have been able to outrun the Hammerheads with her microwarpdrive, Karita’s Tengu was limited to an afterburner system. The drones caught up to her in moments, and began their deadly dance around her cruiser, launching blast after blast of charged plasma from their blaster cannons.

The attacks of the drones had little effect, splashing harmlessly against her Tengu’s shimmering shields. Caldari warships were not designed to be particularly fast or well-armored. They were designed to do two things: to possess an unyielding shield defense system, and to launch missile after missile into anything in their way with little pause between barrages.

Karita launched another salvo of missiles at the advancing Thorax, followed by another, and another. The void between the two warships was filled with Scourge missiles, creating a dazzling display of lights and violent impacts. The Thorax’s shields failed in a flash, and its armor began to take the full force of Karita’s onslaught.

The Thorax’s engines burned brightly as the pirate cruiser desperately attempted to close the distance between it and Karita and bring her Tengu into its weapons' effective range. Its efforts were in vain as Karita easily outpaced the Thorax with her Tengu’s afterburners, keeping it well within the range of her Scourge missiles while remaining outside of the reach of the Thorax’s weapons.

After a few more salvoes of kinetic-based hell, the Thorax’s armor failed, and its superstructure was destroyed by a final swarm of Scourge missiles. The Thorax exploded brilliantly, leaving behind a cloud of twisted wreckage and a capsule.

Karita quickly completed a target lock on the capsule. Despite her job in a corporate role, she had committed the basics of capsuleer combat to memory, and had locked the small green spheroid and brought about her missile launchers, ready to launch a finishing blow.

“Rainbow Dash,” Karita called, “should I get the pod?”

“Leave it!” Rainbow Dash commanded. “There’s more where that came from!”

Kartia spent a scant few seconds on considering Rainbow Dash’s reasons for sparing the capsule. One reason might be a sense of honor preventing her from destroying the capsule of a defeated capsuleer; Karita, as well as many other capsuleers in New Equestria, saw this as a weakness which could be exploited. The other reason might be a sense of urgency, that those ships capable of using weapons were greater threats than capsules.

Physically shrugging, she deselected the capsule as a target and selected one of the pirate frigates, a Merlin-class. Her missile launchers rotated, and already she was igniting one of her Scourge missiles.

Rainbow Dash’s Blue Monsoon punched right through the formation of pirate frigates, her autocannons spinning madly as they readied to fire. Stabbers excelled up close, where their autocannons could tear a target into shreds.

Her autocannons roared with a blazing fire, torrents of Navy-grade plasma shells pummeling the ships around her, exploding against their shields in green fire before tearing into their armor.

One of the frigates she poured fire into, a Breacher-class frigate, was blown to pieces as plasma shells breached its hull and destroyed its power core. A Merlin-class frigate was subjected to her fury and its hull was breached. Its engines were disabled, leaving the crippled pirate vessel drifting and burning.

Her Stabber suddenly lurched as its speed was brought to a standstill. Klaxons sounded loudly, and warp scramble and webifier alarms blinked to life in her overlays. Tritanium girders and metal plates of the Blue Monsoon groaned painfully from the stress of sudden deceleration.

Railgun charges punched hard into her shields and plasma blasts burned with greater precision as her enemies’ weapons suddenly became far more accurate than they were a few seconds ago.

“Karita, I’m being webbed!” Rainbow Dash transmitted. “I need some help here!”

“Which one?” Karita replied.

Rainbow Dash cycled through her sensors and overviews, panning her camera drones in search of the offending ship. There were already a half-dozen frigates circling around her, and in the heat of combat she almost missed it.

“That one!" Rainbow Dash shouted,"the Executioner!”

Karita locked the Executioner-class frigate, an Amarrian ship with a double-hull and huge engines. She cycled her missile launchers to unload its current payload of missiles and replaced them with “Precision” Scourge missiles. The Precision type of missiles had a shorter overall range and smaller warhead, but their enhanced guiding and maneuvering systems allowed for attacks against smaller ships, such as frigates.

As soon as her overlays indicated her launchers as ready to fire, missiles were streaking away, covering the distance between her Tengu and the Executioner in seconds. The impacts of her missiles were simultaneous, and the Executioner was smashed into pieces in a spectacular fireball.

Rainbow Dash felt the webifier lift as her Stabber surged ahead. She locked a Cormorant-class destroyer and readied her autocannons against it. Her guns made the Stabber vibrate as plasma shells flayed the destroyer’s armor from its superstructure.

Something, more like a whole swarm of somethings, hit the Blue Monsoon. Hard.

The simultaneous impacts collapsed through her shields as if they were never there. They punched straight through her armor and breached her hull in more places than she cared to have. Alarms and klaxons rang out as her capacitor suddenly drained to zero, and her ship’s speed hemorrhaged quickly.

Alerts filled her vision. There were six hull breaches in the Blue Monsoon, two of which were caused by the same impact. Multiple synaptic pathways, her link between her capsule and the Stabber, were destroyed. Her capacitor had been destroyed, and her engine systems had been smashed. The systems controlling life support were destroyed, and she was thankful that she did not bring a crew with her ship.

Her camera drones were operating on their own backup power as she panned them around her ship to look for whatever it was that ambushed her.

A Naga-class battlecruiser appeared in her overlay.

Her ship was a sitting duck drifting through the void. The frigates which surrounded her peeled off of her Stabber and moved off to a more threatening target—Karita’s Tengu.

Several more frigates warped into the battlefield, surrounding Karita like a hungry pack of wolves. Their weapons began to pick away at her strategic cruiser’s shields, but they failed to make a serious dent as her own active shield systems turned away their attacks. Karita lashed out against them in kind, smiting them with salvo after salvo of high-velocity kinetic missiles.

Her shield boosters flashed with intensity, bolstering her shields with enhanced strength as they replenished her battered shields. They held fast for a few moments more before they were battered again by the Naga's railguns.

The frigates around Karita held down her Tengu with webifiers and warp scramblers, removing her speed advantage while the Manticore bombers and the Naga wore down her shields. It was a losing battle and both she and Rainbow Dash knew it.

"Do you have any more ideas?" Karita transmitted to Rainbow Dash.

One of the frigates exploded in a flash of colored light. Another was torn asunder by what Karita was quick enough to perceive as blaster bolts.

They followed the incoming fire back to its source: a small group of familiar assault ships.

"Silent Storm told us that something was up around here. Naturally, we came to check it out," spoke Duster, his Harpy's blaster cannons rotating to rain charged particles onto more targets.

"But we come here to find, what?" Goldie transmitted, his Retribution's laser cannons glowing with energy. "Our friends getting dog piled by a gaggle of worthless pirates? That's not something we will tolerate at all. Oh, and a Naga? I'm shaking in my gold-shod hooves now! What do you say, boss?"

A familiar Raptor-class interceptor and a Hookbill-class frigate loomed between the two assault ships. Numerous rocket launchers on the latter loaded full payloads as it turned to attack.

"Do it," sounded a grim, coarse order from the Hookbill's pilot.

"My good gentlecolt," transmitted Goldie as he rolled his Retribution into an attack dive, "I thought you would never ask."

Three frigates dove to attack the pirates surrounding Karita. The fourth frigate, the Raptor, instead made a beeline for the Naga at full burn.

Duster's Harpy moved somewhat ponderously for a frigate, but that did not make it any less lethal against the pirate frigates around him. His blaster cannons laid onto a target as one, violently discharging gouts of antimatter at one particular vessel. The beating it received was horrendous, its shields collapsing and armor peeling away in the same salvo.

Goldie dove directly into the fight, his pulse lasers lashing out at everything around him at once. He was suddenly the most dangerous target in the fight, and the pirates redirected their fire onto him. His frigate's shields dropped quickly, but Goldie had planned for that, and welcomed the opportunity to put his ship's armor to test.

He engaged his armor repair modules, and armies of nanomachines swarmed to the scars and holes in his armor, repairing any damage that the pirates could dole out. Goldie's armor was also heavily reinforced, and shrugged off most of the pirate vessels' impacts.

The Hookbill weaved through the action, its afterburner module providing needed speed to out-turn and out-maneuver the pirates' weapons. As the Hookbill made graceful but erratic maneuvers, balls of flame spat from it launchers as unguided rockets leapt from them with great frequency.

Small-caliber rockets did not have the punch that larger missiles could bring, which is why they were launched in vast swarms.

Rocket after rocket shot from the Hookbill's rocket launchers, and all that the pilot needed was for his prey's shields to drop before launching withering salvos guided into the critical areas of a vessel: engine couplings, weapon systems, even the bridge itself.

The Raptor had largely avoided the extreme action of its companions and flew directly toward a bigger target: the Naga.

Its Microwarpdrive hummed at full capacity as it propelled the interceptor through kilometers of space every second. The Microwarpdrive itself radiated immense amounts of radiation, registering on the scanners of the Naga as a large target.

A frigate charging a Naga at full speed was far from an easy fight. The battlecruiser turned its cannons to the Raptor and opened fire.

Four-hundred and twenty-five millimeters of antimatter charge crossed space in less than a heartbeat, passing through the point where the Raptor had been a heartbeat before. The Raptor wove and rolled, skillfully evading the Naga's fire as it aimed to take advantage of the Naga's weaknesses at close range.

The Raptor buzzed past the battlecruiser, its own railguns firing provocatively as if to taunt. Railgun charges far smaller than the Naga's flashed harmlessly against the large battlecruiser's shields.

The railguns of the Naga were slow to track the Raptor, having been designed to be used against larger, slower targets.

The Raptor kept flying in a straight line away from the Naga, executing a lazy roll as a parting taunt as the Naga's railguns lined up for a killing shot.

"Rose Red just broke two hundred! Warp to Rose! Warp to Rose!" commanded the Hookbill's pilot.

The Hookbill, Harpy and Retribution turned toward the Naga and zipped off in rapid succession as their warp engines fired to full speed. They landed mere thousands of meters from the Naga.

In seconds it had been targeted, warp scrambled and webified. Rose Red's Raptor had turned around, and the four ships tightly orbited the Naga, putting as much concentrated fire as they could while flying too fast for the battlecruiser to keep up.

Their weapons nipped at the defensive shields of the Naga, a ship designed to put out as much damage as possible but not designed to take it.

It would have been exceptionally bad news for the Naga that Kurita had shaken off her assailants, and there was a salvo of Heavy Scourge missiles rapidly burning to rendezvous with it, physically.

In short order the Naga had been stripped of its shields, exposing its weak armor to the punishing blows of the assault ships' weapons.

The railguns of Rose Red's Raptor punched neat holes into the Naga while Duster's blaster cannons left messy scars where charged antimatter washed against tritanium plating. Goldie's laser cannons sliced away the dying battlecruiser's armor plating with beams of burning light as a chef would fillet a fish. The Hookbill dove past the Naga, strafing it as it unleashed a typhoon of armor-piercing rockets into the finished warship.

The Naga could take no more abuse, and with a muffled crump its starboard nacelle came apart from the main hull to disappear seconds later in a raging conflagration as antimatter charges chain-reacted to release their volatile payload. The shockwave of the violent eruption battered against the shields of the assault ships and smashed apart what was left of the Naga.

A capsule lept from the twisted wreck, testament to the resilience of capsuleer systems. The small ovoid warped away before anyone could react, leaving the remaining pilots in a state of tenses alert. They finally relaxed as no other ships warped into the battlefield.

What lay before them was a drifting scrapyard. A score of what used to be starships rested silently, blasted apart by a now-extinguished conflict. Vestiges of what were one Lai Dai and pirate vessels still desperately clung to their respective owners in the form of blasted-away paint jobs. The Blue Monsoon was intact, barely, and had just enough power to connect its camera drones to the ship's capsule systems.

"Is everypony alright?" asked the pilot of the Hookbill. "Rainbow Dash? Are you okay in there?"

She stirred slightly in her capsule. She was not okay; her Stabber had been halfway blown to bits by a pirate battlecruiser. She felt railgun charges pierce her hull in more ways than she wanted to, and felt them as if her own body had been pierced by high-velocity projectiles.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Rainbow Dash spoke despite the circumstances. The Caldari Navy had beaten into her that if she can breathe and feel her own heartbeat, she was okay enough to pilot a ship. "My Stabber is kind of scrapped, though. Let's see what Fluttershy can do to fix it."

She opened a channel to Fluttershy.

"Hey Fluttershy, can you give me a hoof?" she asked as soon as Fluttershy opened the channel.

"Oh, ok. Um...what happened?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"Karita and I went to Villasen to see the new station," Rainbow Dash spoke," and when we got to the station it kind of wasn't there, and now I'm kind of wrecked so can you please bring the Basilisk to help me out here?"

"Oh, I'll see what I can do," Fluttershy spoke quietly.

"And can you get Appkejack over here with the Noctis? There's a lot of wrecked ships out here. Bring Rarity and Twilight out here too, we could use some protection.”

“Um, sure,” Fluttershy answered, and the channel closed.

“I’ve heard about you,” Karita transmitted, “but I wasn’t expecting to be rescued by Silent Storm himself.”

The Hookbill made a close pass by Karita’s Tengu. Their camera drones scanned across the other’s ship; one was the pinnacle of warship design, the other an icon of Caldari frigate designs.

“We received a concerned request from Pinkie Pie to render our services,” Silent Storm replied stoically. “She gave us a jump in exchange for a cynosural field. A few dozen or so pirates are nothing compared to a small group of seasoned capsuleers.”

The still-smoldering wreckage of the Naga was evidence of that. Silent Storm and his aptly-named corporation had seen a combined century of capsuleer experience, which lead to a very impressive combat record. The pilots he had brought with him today were only three of many; if he wanted to, he could bring to bear more firepower than a dozen fleets of any empire, combined.

“So, you got her to give you a jump?” Karita asked with suspicion.

“Well,” Pinkie Pie spoke energetically, “who else would be fast enough to go from Uesuro to Daras, get all of Silent Storm’s friends in one place, load them all into a Chimera, jump them to Ohboch, jump them again to Villasen, drop them off here and still have time to plan a party?”

The Party Boat warped directly into their midst, the multi-hued pink Chimera creating an imposing image among the remaining warships. “The cynos are still burning, so I can have Applejack and Fluttershy and everypony else here in ten seconds flat!”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash protested. “That’s my line! You can’t use my line!”

•••

Fluttershy's scan of the Blue Monsoon did not tell her nice things about Rainbow Dash's Stabber. She had hoped that the stricken cruiser could be repaired, but bringing her Basilisk-class logistics ship was turning out to be a waste of time.

"Well, Fluttershy? How bad is it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy sighed, and looked away from the crippled warship. Her camera drones turned to Applejack's Noctis as the large salvager vessel pulled wrecked ships toward it. Thin white beams of light reached out at the wreckage as salvaging lasers separated still useful components from the wreck before they were pulled into the Noctis' cargo bay by tractor beams.

"I can't fix your ship, Rainbow Dash," she spoke meekly.

"What? What do you mean ‘you can't fix my ship’?" Rainbow Dash protested.

Fluttershy sighed again.

“There are six breeches in your hull. Forty percent of your armor is gone. Your Stabber’s CPU terminal is destroyed. Critical power couplings have been smashed to pieces. Your overdrive injectors are locked up from the impact, and if we feed any power at all to your microwarpdrive, it might explode. If we turn on your power core, it might explode. Half of your critical systems, if turned on, might explode. Two of your autocannons are missing, and right now if we try to use nanopaste on your remaining weapons they might explode too.”

Every item that Fluttershy listed deflated Rainbow Dash little by little, and she began to give up hope that the Blue Monsoon was salvageable at all.

"...I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy apologized timidly.

Rainbow Dash felt defeated by her cruiser being all but destroyed. She had been involved in many encounters with pirates and rogue drones, and had travelled to many star systems in her Blue Monsoon, but sadly it seemed that this could be her cruiser's last flight.

"I might as well just eject and let Applejack salvage what is left of my cruiser," she said dejectedly.

"Now hang on a minute there, sugarcube," Applejack transmitted. "Ah know that yer Stabber there's been pounded on harder than a hoofball player in the Sugar Bowl, an' that it can't fly on its own, but that there is still a working warship! Pinkie Pie can pick it up and send it over to the repair ponies in Isie. An' ah know how ya don't like flyin' around in just yer capsule, so..."

The titanic hangar doors of the Chimera opened dramatically, and from within its confines a familiar frigate drifted into the void.

"I brought your Rifter!" Pinkie Pie happily announced in a sing-song tone.

Rainbow Dash smiled gleefully as she ejected her capsule from her crippled Stabber and made as fast of a beeline as her capsule could take her. She flew a tight ring around her Rifter to inspect it, and was very happy with what she saw. Her Blue Thunderbolt had been damaged quite harshly in the previous fight with a Hurricane, but it had been repaired to perfect condition. It was even painted sky-blue, and the wing had her rainbow paintjob.

"Those griffons at Isie know exactly what it is they're supposed to be doin'," Applejack transmitted. "There's little to nothing they can't put back together once they get their claws on it!"

Rainbow Dash nestled her capsule into her Rifter, and the connection with her frigate felt like snuggling into a favorite cloud. It was comfortable and clean, and its control systems had the tightness and intensity that she preferred in a frigate. Pinkie Pie deftly maneuvered her Chimera over the stricken Stabber an scooped it into her hangar bay.

“Well, ah still need some time to pick up what’s left of this fight. You ponies went to town on those pirates! Karita, do you want me to pack up the starbase parts as well?” Applejack asked as she pulled more wrecked ships toward her, leaving a cloud of scattered debris around her.

“Yeah, take everything left as compensation. This base is a total loss as is. Can Pinkie Pie carry it all?” Karita asked.

“Absolutely! But don’t go away just yet! We’re holding a party in Fluttershy’s honor in Daras and everypony is invited!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

After a few moments of silence, the Lai Dai Protection Services representative broke it.

“I’ll come as long as I get to meet Silent Storm in person.”

Chapter 8

View Online

To say that he was surprised was reasonable. To say that he was underprepared was not entirely accurate. To say that he was unhappy was a dire understatement.

Flare was furious.

He had convinced quite a gaggle of miscreants to come along with him. They were the generic pirates and all-encompassing scum who were looking for a quick credit and the cheaply-gained jolt of ill-gotten adrenalin. It was a complete mistake to let them take the opening shots.

That outpost was not owned by Harmony but by Lai Dai Protection Services. Why else would Harmony’s hot-shot Pegasus be followed by a Protection Services Tengu? They had routed the collection of ships that he had picked up, and as soon as he had to physically interfere with the fight he was ambushed by a group of ponies from SilentStorm.

Villasen was just one jump over from the Korasen system, where he was now floating in his capsule. He counted himself as fortunate that by now he had not been chased down by their freelance dogs.

He called his boss. Video calls would be useless for a capsuleer, who was floating in a sealed capsule of ectoplasmic goo. This call was audio-only.

The connection required a minute or so.

“Executive office,” came the highly nasal voice of his boss’s secretary. It was a voice that made Flare’s bile rise. Of all of the many ponies, griffins and assorted intelligent creatures that his corporation owned and employed, one of, if not his least favorite his boss’s secretary.

“It’s Flare,” he spoke through ground teeth. “I need to talk to Scelus.”

“Mister Sceleris is unavailable right now,” she spoke with condescension, adding emphasis on the “mister” as if to chide Flare for informality. “He is on a business call at this time. Call back later.”

Everypony in the know understood that the secretary of Scelus Sceleris used the business call excuse when he was occupied with whatever depraved self-indulgent vice he was enjoying at that hour. He really did not care whatever or whomever Scelus was in, Flare needed to talk to him right this minute.

“I need to talk to Scelus right bucking now. If I have to come down there in my capsule and buck his door in myself, I’m bucking you through it.”

There was a minute of silence on the other end of the phone. Sceleus’ secretary was not intimidated by Flare; nopony could intimidate Scelus’ secretary, not even Scelus himself.

“Transferring you to Scelus,” she spoke, and her nauseatingly nasal voice was replaced with the slow, soft tones of a synthesized alto saxophone playing a jazz tune.

A telephone receiver was picked up.

“Flare, what happened?”

Scelus’ voice said everything: some poor pony was the subject of a highly sadistic pastime that Flare was interrupting, and that this call has better be very important.

“Get a bunch of local pirates, you said. Offer them some bits for blowing up a Harmony starbase, then off them, you said. Two problems. One, that starbase wasn’t owned by Harmony, it was a Lai Dai starbase. Two, parasprites are smarter than Black Rise pirates!” Flare let his anger seethe through his words. He was an angry pony by nature, and Scelus, who had worked with him for years, knew better than to dike his ocean of bile.

“Did they send a response?” Scelus asked.

“Two ships. One of Harmony’s, one of Lai Dai’s,” Flare answered. “Harmony sent a mare with a Stabber. Easy target, scrapped the thing in one shot. A Tengu was with her. Yes, I know; how did Lai Dai Protection Services get a bucking Tengu? Well, they sent one with her. Those idiot pirates were too eager to get some action out of one of the most sophisticated ships in the galaxy.”

“And then?” Scelus continued.

“SilentStorm is what happened,” Flare spat, “A bunch of hotshot noponies who don’t have enough on their hooves to try and stay out of somepony else’s business.”

There was a pause on the other end.

“I presume that your Naga is now everywhere?” Scelus asked.

Flare accessed his NEOCOM, and composed an email to Scelus. He enclosed within the email his Naga’s killmail, a document sent to both members of a conflict about whose ship was blown up by whom and how much in the hole that pony was.

“There’s the killmail,” Flare spoke as he sent the email to Scelus. “Now get somepony over here to Korasen. I’m in a pod and I don’t need to come home the fast way.”

“I’ll send Quera to get you, but we will need to get our cynosural pilots into position. We’ll need a few hours to move you around. Now, if we are done here, I have business to continue,” Scelus finished with a mix of authority and impatience.

“We’re done.” Flare ended the connection.

Somepony was about to turn from the subject of Scleus’ depravity to the subject of Scelus’ fury in nothing flat. Flare felt absolutely nothing about it; it was better somepony else than him.

Now he had to wait. In a capsule. In the middle of space.

Horseapples.

•••

The Ishukone Watch Assembly Plant orbiting over Daras III was the only space station in the entire Daras System, and its presence at a system of low-security directly adjacent to high-security space made it a haven for traders, explorers, arms dealers and pirates alike. It was SilentStorm that kept them all in line.

SilentStorm owned a considerable amount of office space on the station, which they had converted into a clubhouse for its pilots. The only space which had real corporate office use was in the rear.

The entire SilentStorm clubhouse was decorated with multicolor balloons, streamers and confetti. There was a large cake which was assumed to have enough for at least one piece per pony in attendance. While Pinkie Pie would have opted for pin-the-tail-on-the-dragon, the SilentStorm pilots had set up several ping-pong tables for games of ciderpong. The capsule-shaped piñata did, however, inspire plenty of mirth.

There was a great deal of life to the Fluttershy-saved-somepony-who-could-have-died-in-a-fireball party. Aside from Harmony and SilentStorm, the latter invited more ponies that they were friendly with, and Karita had come to the party on the promise of meeting Silent Storm himself.

An hour or so into the party, things were looking successful. A few ponies had gathered near the ciderpong tables, where they were treated to Rainbow Dash repeatedly forcing the unfortunate unicorn on the other side to drink cup after cup of cider. Rarity had wandered off with a few socialite-seeming capsuleers, and Applejack and Fluttershy had melted into the party.

Twilight Sparkle passed the booth which was occupied by Short Wave, the unicorn electronic countermeasure extraordinaire of SilentStorm. His hooves danced across a turntable, and a pair of small but powerful speakers blared airy electronic melodies loud enough to be at the forefront of one's ears.

The party was a light break from corporate activities, but Twilight had a pressing matter to attend to: the destruction of Rarity's Retriever, as well as the possibility of the event being corporate sabotage. After perusing the killmail from the Naga kill and a Manticore destroyed in Villasen, Twilight discovered a connection to the two events that stuck out like a sore hoof.

As she searched for Rarity, she trotted past a cluster of ponies that she recognized as Pinkie Pie's Firbolg pilots and SilentStorm's premier interceptor pilot, Rose Red. The attractive Earth pony made whispered something inaudible into the ear of the younger Pegasus pilot, eliciting plenty of teasing laughter when his wings unfurled and his face turned as red as an apple. Suddenly the red and pink mare was physically dragging him toward a side room to the sound of teasing in Gallentean from his squadronmates.

Twilight found Pinkie Pie dancing energetically to the party's music. She knew that if there was a pony who would be in the midst of celebration and still accurately pinpoint who was where, it was Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie Pie, have you seen Rarity anywhere?" she asked over the music.

"Oh yeah, she went to Roc's room. It's too bad that she isn't a party pony like everypony else here is! Oh wait, there's Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie zipped away with that. At least Twilight got it out of her before she bolted away.

Still, Twilight questioned what Pinkie Pie considered enjoying a party; an intoxicated unicorn stumbling away from the ciderpong tables, SilentStorm's cynosural pilot burying his face into a small pile of Exile, occasional sounds of sensuality emanating from a side room. Despite these all being side effects of inviting all of SilentStorm and friends to a Pinkie Pie party, it still was not Twilight Sparkle's kind of party.

A door in the back of the clubhouse opened for Twilight, and after trotting through it closed behind her, muffling the electronic music in the party room. The thumping of the bass beat was still audible through the door, muffled as it was.

A silver-maned Earth Pony with thick glasses came out of a door in the hallway. An insulated mug of steaming liquid was held in a hoof.

"Twilight Sparkle," she spoke, "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Hello, Silverfin. Everypony came. I need to talk to Rarity, have you seen her anywhere?"

"Rarity went in back with Karita and Rocardo, and whatever young female he is paying to be his escort tonight," Silverfin said with a hint of annoyance. "Don't even get me started about the party. I'm trying to reinvent a Paladin, and everypony in the corp decided to turn on some loud music, snort some potent narcotics, get wasted, and wake up in the morning with neither any recollection of the night before nor clothing."

She took a sip from her mug. Twilight could see that Silverfin's eyes were bloodshot, and her ear twitched like it did when she drank too much coffee.

"Should you tone down the coffee a bit? You're all bloodshot," Twilight said with friendly concern.

"Nah, I need it to focus. I can't focus with the music coming through the walls. It's Amarrian dark roast, special preserve. The Deacon knows where to get this stuff. Good horseapples," Silverfin spoke with the focus of a pony who was only awake because of the coffee. She offered the mug toward Twilight. "Want a mug?"

"No thanks, but maybe later," Twilight said as she continued to trot past Silverfin.

"Suit yourself, just don't stay too long. If this party goes any longer I'm going to start shooting."

As Silverfin retreated back into the room she came in from and as Twilight continued down the hallway, she passed through a second automatic door. As it closed behind her, all sound from the other side of the door fell silent. The only sounds to accompany her through the hallway were her own hoof beats on the carpeting of the floor and from the door to her left.

The door was stained wood with an emerald-colored frosted glass window dominating the upper half. A brass doorknob was decorated with twisting engravings and set with crystal in its center. There was a sound of muffled conversation emanating through the door.

Twilight telekinetically twisted the doorknob and opened the door, stepping into the room that was frequented by one griffon in particular.

The room looked like an old-fashioned smoking lounge from a time long gone by. One wall featured a stocked liquor bar, the bottles catching the soft light coming from the shelves. Oak paneling skirted the walls of the room, and many oil paintings of various scenes in New Equestria hung on the green felt of the walls like one would see in an art museum; landscapes, works of architecture, ships and famous ponies and griffons. Another wall was lined with bookshelves filled with books which, much to Twilight's amazement on her first venture into the lounge, were genuine books containing far more than articles on space travel and other infomorphological studies on capsuleers. A large copper model of a Rokh-class battleship rested on a pedestal; to the side was a crystal case containing dozens of medals and commendations of Caldari origin.

Rarity easily stuck out in the room, her off-white coat and regrowing indigo mane and tail contrasting against the dark brown panel of the walls and emerald velvet carpet. Reclining on a sapphire-blue chaisé lounge, she was accompanied in the room by three other seated individuals.

Karita was at the party after being invited by Pinkie Pie, but she retreated directly to the rear offices upon entering the SilentStorm clubhouse. Rather than lose herself in the stupor that was the party room of the clubhouse, she instead chose to personally acquaint herself with a Pegasus that was somewhat of a celebrity in the Malariya Constellation.

A dark blue Pegasus with an unkempt mane and a tail of many hues of blue sat in an attentive but stoic posture. Silent Storm was the CEO of the namesake corporation, and beneath his calm exterior was a natural-born killer ready to take flight. His flanks were criss-crossed with lightning bolts, the tattoos hiding his cutie mark, which Twilight herself had never seen before.

"So after doing away with the pirates blocking the stargate, I turned to leave when I spotted a cargo container floating among the wreckage. I scanned the container to determine its contents and was surprised to find life signs within. By curiosity I retrieved the container and opened it personally when I returned, and who would have known that the zebra within would become our most proficient stealth bomber pilot?" The gruff and aged, yet highly cultured voice of the room's fourth occupant spoke to the other three.

Rocardo was an aged, grizzled male griffon who frequented the posh lounge in SilentStorm's offices. He wore a robe that the ultra-rich tended to don while relaxing in front of a fireplace, and held a considerably large pipe in the talons of one hand. The aged Caldari Navy veteran was an icon in stereotypical imagery of old and retired military officers with nothing left to do but sit, drink and reminisce.

"The lesson to be learned is that there is a potential for greatness in all beings of New Equestria, and well as the potential for unbelievable incompetence. I should cite the Empire's Prince Blueblood."

"Oh, do not get me started!" Rarity interjected as she levitated a snifter of amber liquid. "That stallion is most likely the most egregious, snobbiest, least gentlecoltly oaf to ever enter the Amarr court of nobility. It is a wonder that he ever rose to any sort of stature whatsoever!" She punctuated her statement with a sip of her drink.

"Mostly because he is the nephew of the Empress, which puts him as next in line for the heir of House Celestia," Twilight spoke in an agreeing tone, showing her equal distaste for the Amarr noblestallion.

“Ah, Miss Sparkle,” Rocardo greeter her cordially, “have you come to join our soirée away from that noise outside? Care for a drink as well?”

“Maybe just a coffee, thank you,” Twilight replied as she sat across from Rarity on a very comfortable cushion.

Rocardo left his large plush seat and moved to the bar, upon which was also a coffee pot filled with a deep-brown steaming brew.

“I hope that you don’t mind a less bitter Matari cut of coffee. That rocket fuel that Silverfin drinks is bad for the digestive tract, as well as one’s heard,” he spoke as he poured Twilight a cup. “Rarity was telling us of the encounter she had the other day with a Naga. Mining barges do not hold up to warships very well.”

“That is actually the reason why I am here,” Twilight explained as she levitated the cup from Rocardo’s talons. “I did some digging and some double-checking, and I think there is a connection between the other day and today. I analyzed the killmails from Rarity’s Retriever and Silent Storm’s Naga kill, and I found that the Nagas were actually the same one.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “There was something else that I noticed. Rarity, there were stealth bombers following the Naga that attacked you, right? Karita, there were stealth bombers among the frigates that attacked you in Villasen, correct?”

Both capsuleers nodded.

“Again, same ships and same pilots. But, they were from a different corporation than the Naga that attacked us, which means that I’m going to have to have a talk with a certain unicorn.” She let that last part come out particularly maliciously, and took a sip of her coffee.

•••

“No, Pinkie Pie, really, it’s fine,” Fluttershy meekly protested as Pinkie Pie gently but firmly pushed her toward the conversing Firbolg pilots. “You don’t have to introduce me.”

“Really, I insist!” Pinkie Pie replied. “After all, we threw this party because of you, and I’m sure that Captain Rafale would love to meet you!”

Some more gentle pushing brought the two ponies face-to-face with Pinkie Pie’s pilots.

“Hey, everypony! I’d like you to meet Fluttershy! Fluttershy, this is Captain Rafale, Captain Tonnerre, and their wingponies Glace, Saule, who you rescued, Érable, and where is Oie?”

“Oh, Oie went to get some air. He should be somewhere by the atrium,” spoke the pale-amber Pegasus among them.

“I’ve got to find him! He shouldn’t be missing a great party!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she shot for the door of the office, complete with a sound similar to a bullet ricochet.

Fluttershy bashfully dragged her hoof at the steel floor, unsure how to begin conversation with the fighter pilots.

“He’s not really at the atrium,” spoke the same Pegasus. “Rose Red dragged Oie into one of the side rooms for a bit of her own brand of fun. We probably won’t see them for the rest of the night, and we just bought you some time. Pinkie Pie can be quite overbearing at times.”

“Oh, thank you, um…” Fluttershy stammered quietly, barely audible over the party.

He took her hoof and shook it cordially. “Captain Rafale. Once again I cannot thank you enough for saving Lieutenant Saule’s life. All of my pilots are one-of-a-kind, and to lose even a single one of them is an irreparable tragedy.”

The grey Earth Pony—Saule—stepped forward.

“Fluttershy, I cannot thank you enough for rescuing me. Capsuleers have a reputation for a complete disregard for the lives of others, but you are truly different.”

“Thanks,” Fluttershy replied meekly. “I just want to help as many ponies as I can. That’s why I became a capsuleer.”

“Yes, I heard that you were a member of the Sisters of FAUST for a time, is that correct?” Rafale inquired.

Fluttershy nodded. The Sisters of FAUST was an organization that, not unlike the Amarr, held Princess Celestia to have a divine nature. They were also the primary humanitarian organization in the entire galaxy. With an influence that stretched from end to end of New Eden, they brought food, medicine and aid to as many ponies as they possibly could.

The grey-blue Pegasus, Glaice, looked at a wristwatch near the end of his hoof. It’s holographic display came to life as he raised it to his eyes.

“Oie has been in there a long time,” he commented with a sly grin just forming.

“Yes, but he is a very charming young stallion. I’m sure he could charm any mare he wanted to,” the great Earth Pony, Captain Tonnerre, replied to Glaice’s speech.

“Well,” Glaice spoke with smugness, “I’m sure that with the moves that he knows he can get legions of mares following him around.”

“Glaice,” Saule quickly interjected, “wherever he learned those moves it certainly was not from a letch like you.”

Before Glaice could fire back what Fluttershy was sure would have been a witty comeback, a loud snort projected from the grape-purple Unicorn pilot, followed by roaring laughter. She rolled onto her back from the intensity of her laughing fit, broken intermittently by mirthful shouting in Gallentean.

Rafale turned to Fluttershy. “That’s our Érable. Just about anything gets her going after a few ciders, and nothing gets her going like ribbing at Glaice.”

Glaice turned to Rafale and spoke defensively in Gallentean, only for Rafale’s reply to send the rest of them into bouts of laughter and Érable into an even harder fit of laughter.

As much as she would have enjoyed their company, Fluttershy’s Gallentean was terrible when she did not have access to a universal translator, and she slipped away quietly. Maybe she could talk to them again, but for now there was a different pony she was searching for.

•••

Four hours later, Twilight Sparkle stood waiting in an alley in a lower-level commercial block on the Moon 15 station of Kakakela VI. The Kakakela System, while in one of the fringes of the Lonetrek region, was a system that bustled with activity. Being only a few jumps away from the Jita system, the largest trading center in the galaxy, Kakakela saw many pilots and ships come and go.

She had come there to meet a very specific pony that she knew was partly involved with the recent attacks on her friends, even if it was by association only.

Twilight wore a camouflage poncho of many shades of grey. Accompanying this was a baggy jumpsuit and a mask that mid her face and altered her voice. Her aim was to be as anonymous as possible, to avoid alerting the pony she was meeting with.

A similarly-garbed pony trotted cautiously down the alley. Twilight let the pony come far enough into the alley before she stepped out of the shadows. Her mark stopped in its tracks, but seemed unperturbed. So far, her disguise was working.

A blue hoof reached up and pulled back the poncho hood, revealing a unicorn with an electric blue mane.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to know why such a hard-to-find place was chosen to meet about a simple task,” she spoke, her voice soaked with pompous air.

“I’m here to discuss more than just a job,” Twilight spoke, satisfied that the mask had distorted her voice considerably. “I want names.”

“Names?” Trixie asked with arrogance. “What names? Why should I give you any names?”

“Some of my confidants were assaulted the other day in their ships. I know that Trixie’s Dragoons were involved. Give me the names of your pilots and the names of those who hired them, and we can forget that this exchange ever happened.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not give the names of her pilots, neither does she give the names of those who hire them,” Trixie spoke with superiority as she turned to leave. “If you really think that Trixie will simply disclose privileged information to a ruffian on the street, you have misunderstood Trixie!”

Twilight allowed Trixie to gain some distance. She figured that it would come to this.

“Fine, have it your way,” Twilight spoke as her horn glowed softly in the darkness.

A trash can, filled to the brim with garbage, rested conveniently on a steel girder above the alley. Twilight reached out with her telekinesis and gave it a soft push.

Her timing was perfect, and the trash can landed directly on Trixie’s head with a loud crash of garbage and aluminum. The contents of the trash can exploded outward as the can deformed around the unicorn beneath it, who collapsed to the ground and lay still.

Twilight paced to Trixie’s still form and pressed a hoof to Trixie’s throat. She felt a pulse, and was relieved that the trash can had not killed Trixie, which would have made the entire trip a waste. Satisfied that the pompous braggart was not dead, she grabbed Trixie’s rear hooves telekinetically and dragged her out from under the trash can.

As she dragged Trixie down the alley, she wondered to herself about how she should have dropped a trash can on her from the start.

New Equestria: The Harmony Age

by Roguewire

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8