Prologue
The stars gleamed that night, bright and alluring, as they had every night before. But on this night, some-pony had taken particular interest in them. The lavender mare lay in her bed looking out the window at the sky above, wondering about the world beyond. The bright lunar orb that softly lit up the streets of ponyville below was, of course, governed by the Royal Princess of the Night, Luna, just as its daily counterpart was commanded by her sister Celestia. But there were countless stars in the night sky, too many for anypony to even begin to count. Even Star Swirl the bearded, great astronomer as he was, had only been able to document so many in his astronomical almanac. A scholar to the soul, Twilight yearned to know more about what lay above the land of Equestria.
Sighing, she brought her head back to rest against her shoulder, preening her wing-feathers gently. Idly feeling the light blades of her quills against her tongue and teeth became a habit for her whenever she grew pensive. A few of her feathers were badly bent in one spot, evidence of her mid-air collision with the young mare Scootaloo earlier in the afternoon. As wild and energetic as her idol and mentor Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo had been the scourge of the skies ever since that fateful day her wings finally matured and gained the ability to keep her aloft. Ruffling up her wings with a good shake, Twilight settled back into her bed, returning her gaze to the skies above. They seemed to beckon to her, every twinkle in the heavens calling her name, the bright shapes in the sky were a part of her very essence. Her cutie mark itself bore their resemblance, and showed that she was destined to reach the stars. Leastwise, that had been her dream since she was a filly.
Unable to sleep, she stood, carefully stepping over Spike, curled up at the foot of the bed, as was his habit. Quietly she made her way down the stairs and into the foyer. A pair of large, round, yellow eyes stared at her from the corner of the library. “Hoo-who?” inquired Owlicious, perched upon a small stack of books. At a nod from Twilight he silently took wing, crossing the span of the room like a ghost and landing inaudibly on her back. Twilight picked up a heavy leather-bound tome with an aurora from her horn, placed it in a saddle bag on her side, and walked to the door. Unlatching it, she stepped out into the cool night, shivering lightly at the cool breeze. Carefully locking the door behind her, Twilight spread her large alicorn wings and, with a light hop, ascended into the night sky.
The night was beautiful. Majestic. Serene. Twilight ascended above ponyville slowly, her eyes turned downward as the town grew slowly smaller beneath her. A light was on in Carousel Boutique, a sign that her friend Rarity was hard at work with another order for Sapphire Shores, or perhaps working on repairing Rainbow Dash’s wonderbolt uniform for the hundredth time. As skilled a seamstress as the purple-maned unicorn was, Rainbow Dash was, well, Rainbow Dash, and managed to tear her coveted outfit quite frequently. And every time, she would show up at Rarities door on the verge of tears, stammering about how sorry she was to bring work to the poor unicorn so late, but how the team had a competition the next day, or a race or a photoshoot, and how the outfit had to be look awesome and cool and…. And Rarity would lay a hoof over her friend’s mouth and tell her “It will be fine darling, I’ll have this sown up in two shakes of a tail!”
Now Twilight slid quietly over the orchard of sweet apple acres, neatly levitating a ripe apple from the top of one of the trees with a shimmer from her horn, and tucking it into her bag aside her book. Owlicious hooted at her softly, spinning his head around slowly, surveying the landscape below. Climbing higher, she rose into a thick cloud cover, which gently swirled around her, cold air raising several goose bumps on her haunches. And then, she emerged on the opposite side of the cloud bank, and the puffy white fog lay before her like a carpet, stretching out as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance the Pegasus city of Cloudsdale sat under the moonlight, glowing slightly as the bright beams reflected off the misty buildings.
Twilight’s horn lit up, and she scrunched her face in concentration for a moment, then relaxed as her hooves took on a light, violet shimmer. Gently touching down, she landed on the clouds, bouncing slightly as her hooves made contact with the vaporous floor and were repelled by the skillfully cast cloud-walking spell. Nightly walks on the clouds had become a routine for the alicorn princess, a quiet repast from her diplomatic meetings and royal duties. The cool gaseous spread underhoof helped her think, as did the escape from the ponyrazzi and the fawning attention of her subjects. She missed those quiet days, her ponyville adventures before she was burdened with the title of princess and her co-ruler Celestia appointed her in charge of foreign affairs. Now she was absent from her home for weeks on end, traveling from one corner of the world of Equus to the other, visiting Reinsyvania, Saddle Arabia, Coltlumbia, constantly greeted with servile hospitality and the most regale accommodations. It was exhausting, and quite stressful. She always had to keep up the most charming of attitude, and as an ambassador of friendship from a foreign land she had to make the best possible impression on the regal equines of distant countries, in order to maintain the balance of trade between Equestria and the other lands across the globe.
Slowing her pace slightly, Twilight came to a comfortable looking cloud hill, with a particularly soft-looking nest of sorts woven out of the vapor. She smiled to herself as she recognized it as Fluttershy’s tender hoofwork, natural, gentle and peaceful. She settled into the pile of neatly clipped cumulus clouds, shaped into the most luxurious cloud cushions ever made by pegasi hooves. Mist welled up in the hallow, cool air currents gently stirring the coat of her underbelly. Twilight extended her wings and tucked the feather tips under her, forming a cocoon of purple plumage to keep out the cold. Gently pulling the star almanac from her bag, she spread it out before her, leafing through the pages until she reached about midway through. A quill pen floated out from the bag as well, and began scratching out notes as Twilight made careful observations about the heavens above, as ponies had done for hundreds of years, and would be doing for hundreds more.
“Because understanding stars,” she whispered softly to Owlicious, who had, at this point gone to sleep on her back, “is the first step to reaching them.”
Chapter 1- Taking Wing
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* A terrible cacophony of noise filled the small apartment. A purple mare pulled a pillow up over her face, biting it with annoyance.
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* The horrible din continued, the sound of hollow metal being struck with a heavy blow, repeated quickly and emphatically, jarring the pony’s mind some semblance of conscious and sparking in natural instinct to seek and destroy the source of the racket.
On the opposite end of the room there sat a curious contraption, pieced together with bit of junk and various kitchen utensils. A thick wooden mallet spun on a revolving arm, striking a steel frying pan which voiced its opposition to the mistreatment with explosive protests. The clock beneath the violently battering arm flashed 7:00. The pony, grumbling, got to her hooves and walked over to the improvised alarm clock, ending the wild commotion with a well place blow of her hoof. Sighing in relief, she trotted to the bathroom in order to get her morning underway.
As water streamed over her light violet coat the mare began to relax, even started to hum a little as she ran a hooffull of shampoo through her mane. The steam rose thickly out the top of the shower, fogging up the paneled glass door and making its way across the room to blanket the mirror as well. Hot drops of water ran down the pony’s neck and flank, trickling their way across a phillips screwdriver and conflicting standard screw head emblazoned on her side. The mare’s waterlogged tail hung low, rivulets of water streaming through the magenta strands and spilling to the tiled floor, washing the thick sudsy bubble mounds floating down off her mane down into the pipes below. Smiling up at the showerhead with eyes shut tight against straying bubbles of shampoo, she let loose a long-drawn of sigh of contentment as the warm spray washed over her face.
*Briiii-eet* *Briii-eet* “You have an incoming call from –Sweetstrings -. Would you like to take this pony’s call at this time? To accept sa-”
“Answer call, but leave the camera off,” the mare responded, cutting the videophone’s monotone dialogue short. The foggy mirror lit up a faint blue, and underneath the condensation a short digital animation of a galloping pony played across the screen as the other party’s videofeed was established. She pulled open the shower door and grabbed a towel from the rack beside the mirror, rubbing it over her coat and crumpling it against her mane to wick away the shower’s damp.
“Screwloose!” A stallion’s voice rang over the apartment’s sound system, warm and melodic, and very excited. Pause. “Why’s the camera off?” questioned the voice belonging to Sweetstrings, a co-worker and class-mate of the mare now vigorously running a brush through her tail to pull out the clumps.
“Eecauth I wath thaking a thower.”
“What?” Sweetstrings replied, obvious confusion at the unintelligible response.
Spitting out the brush, Screwloose repeated “Because I was in the shower Sweet. Give me a moment.”
Shrugging on a soft, downy-white robe, Screwloose lifted the now damp towel to the glass, rubbing the face of the mirror from bottom to top, revealing a handsome, chestnut-colored earth stallion grinning expectantly beneath the fog. “Camera on.” A small pop up box in the corner of the screen appeared, showing Screwloose’s face. A pretty light purple mare with a dark purple mane, which still hung rather limply over her eyes. She shook her head slightly, catching a majority of her bangs behind one ear. A large pair of eyes appeared behind the purple curtain, one hazel, one red, which focused on the screen. She playfully stuck a tongue out at Sweetstrings, “What are you calling so early for anyway?”
“Early? It’s seven-fifteen, that’s not early.”
“It is for civilized ponies,” she teased, “a gentlestallion would know it’s no proper to call before at least eight-thirty.” Sweetstrings chuckled, and gave a sheepish grin.
“I wanted to know if you were interested in meeting with me this evening.”
Screwloose’s heart beat a little faster, and she grew just the slightest bit flushed. “S-sure. What’s the occasion?” she responded, as nonchalantly as she could manage.
“Study group. For the AEROE. If we don’t get in we’ll have to wait another five years or more for the next flight.”
The Astro Exploratory Research Operation Exam, or AEROE, is a rigorous test for potential cosmonaut ponies looking to apply to missions for the Areion Academy, the first and largest interstellar observation administration in Equestrian history. Founded 35 years ago by Princess Twilight Sparkle, its goal was to train and send crews of ponies on scientific voyages into space in order to gather data on the surrounding stars, planets and other astronomical phenomena of the surrounding galaxy. Only four missions had been launched so far, but already a mass of surprising information had been gained. For example, all of the suns belonging to the neighboring planets seem to orbit the planets by gravitational force alone, without the aid of Alicorn magic to guide them. As such, the stars orbit the planets at a much slower pace, rendering most of the other worlds uninhabitable due to the deadly blistering days and sub-zero nights. Similarly, the other planet’s moons similarly circle them in vain, with several of them criss-crossing the outer atmosphere in their orbit, causing severe fluctuations in gravitational and tidal forces. At times, the surface of such a planet might be dry and host to very strong gravity, and by nightfall one of the moons will have cut across the sky and flooded the land while simultaneously causing a gravitational pull so weak a pony might be able to leap across an entire acre of land with a single bound. Or would be able to, if she weren’t underwater at the time.
But it wasn’t planetary gravity that the upcoming stellar voyage was looking to study. Rather, the ponies at Areion were curious about a much stronger, much less definite source of gravitational pull. The Cepheon quadrant of Euos Galaxy, where the world of Equus’s hung suspended in space, had recently been displaying very unusual phenomena, which nopony had quite been able to explain. Stars in that quadrant often appeared to waver, sometimes even distorting into great lengths of bright ribbons in the sky as the light they emitted was tugged and yanked on by an unknown force. This was a very rare astrological occurrence, one not documented since 1000 years before the kingdom of Nyx and Aither, the ancestors of the equestrian royal family and predecessors of the twin rule of the great sisters. In those days, superstitious earth ponies claimed it was the Ursa-Mega, the great star bear of the universe, clawing holes in the sky in order to dim the night’s shine so that he might hibernate in a great sleep. Of course, this was all fantasy nonsense, in reality it was an immense gravitational pull, known as quasar, a powerful source of raw magic, radio waves and visible light that encompassed a black hole strong enough to break apart the stars and pull their burning bodies towards a focal point before they winked out of existence. Or at least this was the most current theory of the most respected astronomical minds since Star-swirl the bearded entertained in the court of Dawn, over 500 years back.
Because of this undeniably strange occurrence, the Areion Academy was determined to discover what it forces might be at play to cause such a powerfully focused quasar of such a peculiarly small size. Thus, the during the following year, they intended to launch a shuttle up to the disused Helios 1 station, the first orbiting research lab ever made, which had remained unoccupied since the last group of science ponies had returned from the lab ten years ago. The ponies on the shuttle would repair any issues with the Helios station, reboot the life support systems and attach a large pair of booster rockets to the rear of the vessel. They would then move into the station and travel towards the Cepheon quadrant’s Quasar, reaching it in approximately 2 weeks, at which point they would discover as much as they could about the phenomena for as long as they could maintain a suitable living environment aboard the Helios 1. After an estimated 3 years they would return with as much data as they could glean, as well as any potential dark matter samples they were able to collect in their time investigating the source of the irregularity.
The expedition was set to depart in a little over a year, and at this time the academy was looking to assemble the most intelligent and most skilled crew for the station they could. Physicist ponies, medics, pilots, mechanics, skilled spell-workers and frequency specialists. The reason for the last two categories lay in the manner in which the minds at Areion devised to protect the Helios Station from being ripped apart by the gravitational pull. Powerful unicorn magic would encompass the station as it approached the point of matter collapse, where the specially designed heart of the Helios, known as the concert room, would be opened. Within the concert room, large frequency generators would emit sounds waves focused at the correct pitch to mimic unicorn magic, which would effectively increase the shield spell’s power exponentially. Once the enhanced shield spells were in place, the station would be guided into a holding pattern over the quasar, reflecting the sound waves and radio waves it emitted and manipulating them with correct pitch and tone, which would play back inside the station, vibrating the shuttle at a frequency high enough to negate the effects of the black hole.
And thus was the reason for the AEROE. Each pony of the Areion Academy looking to join the expedition had to pass the rigorous litany of written, oral and performance test in order to apply to the program. It was a dangerous mission, and without the proper crew, the operation would end in death for all aboard the Helios. There was no doubt about it. Nopony could survive the cold vacuum of space, and all that separated the crew from certain death was a few inches of metal, plastic and wiring, and their skill. Sweetstrings, Screwloose and their friend and fellow classmate Brightbarrier knew that the exam was the biggest obstacle separating them and the heavens above (with the exception of the distance of course), was the AEROE. They had been training of course, studying and practicing like mad, but it was a difficult exam, one even the genius princess Twilight respected for its thoroughness in every possible scenario, and it was far more likely that they would understudy than the possibility of being too prepared. The exam’s date was set for next week, at 8 am sharp Saturday morning. Classes at Areion concluded today, Monday, in order to give the applicants a few extra days to focus solely on the test material. And so, nearly everypony who hoped to apply to the next exploration were cramming and practicing like mad. Screwloose had disassembled and pieced back together every mechanical device in her home, and had even started practicing on several large components from the disused Pegasi II, one of the early space craft that the Academy kept on display in the air and space wing. Naturally, this wasn’t technically allowed, but while the Academy had a state of the art security system, it was easy to bypass with a little inside knowledge. Screwloose had worked on the volunteer security patrol several years back, and knew every loophole in the alarm system. With a few careful alterations to her Academy ID, and a modified electronic strip copied from one of the Dean’s own cards (this had taken some work to pull off, but Screw had managed to place a specialized chip reader on the bottom of the Dean’s office keypad, and one unsuspecting swipe later the security strip’s data had been duplicated) she could go wherever in the school she wanted. Of course, this was only useful at night, when the air and space wing was empty, so she had been staying in the school after dark by hiding in the mare’s room, then sneaking out and slipping into the display atrium unnoticed.
“Right, right” Screwloose stammered nervously, trying not to sound disappointed. It wasn’t like she was expecting anything less from Sweetstrings, who seemed to have his head in the clouds more often than a Pegasus, but still, a mare can dream. And Sweet was dreamy….. Shaking her head to clear the distracting thoughts from her mind, Screw focused her attention back on the screen, where Sweet was looking puzzled over her unusual behavior.
“Are you-” he started, before Screwloose cut him off with a nearly unintelligible jumble of words
“YesI’llbethere, I’llbringtheworkbooksandpracticeexamsheetstoo, meetyouat4:30inthework shopgoodbye.”
With a quick stamp of her hoof, Screwloose disconnected the call, sitting down on her bathroom floor with a thump. She groaned, loudly, the noise echoing across her tiled bathroom walls loudly. Why did all her interactions with Sweetstrings end like this, with him confused and oblivious, and her flustered and desperate for Sweet to notice her for something more than a foal-friend he grew up with? She slumped forward, burying her face in her hooves.
*Beepbeepbeep* The mirror rang once more, and a text message popped up on the damp glass, glowing blue letters standing out from the shiny background. "Are you going to wake up BB or should I?"
Screwloose stood on the front step of an apartment, prodding the doorbell with her hoof for the third time. As before, an echoing chime could be heard from within the front hall, but nopony could be heard within. She sighed. This is what mornings with Brightbarrier were like. Peering through the frosted glass the bordered the door frame, Screw hoped she would see the silhouette of the sluggish mare dragging herself up to answer the door. No such luck, her eyes were met with a dim, empty hallway, and Bright was nowhere to be see. “Bright,” she murmured to herself, as she looked over her shoulder to make sure nopony was watching, “if you miss one more day of classes before finals, there’s no way in Tartarus that you are going to make it on the list for the Helios flight. And I’ll be banished to the moon before I let that happen.” Slipping a look over her shoulder to make sure no pony was watching, she reached into her saddlepack and pulled out a pair of small metal rod, one straight, and one with a tiny crook on the end. Neatly sliding them into the lock, she held her breath as she delicately raked the picks over the tiny metal pins within. *Tic* (pause) *Tic* (pause) *Tic* One-by-one they receded with tiny pops, until all six locking pins had been jimmied into their respective recesses. With a gentle turn of the head, Screwloose twisted the picks until she heard the door’s bolt slide home. With a satisfied grin, she returned her lockpicks to her bag and pushed the door open.
Making her way back to the rear bedroom, Screw heard a familiar hum, punctuated by a shrill repeating beeping, and rolled her eyes at Bright’s carelessness. She pushed open the door, and gave a slight, satisfied nod at the scene that met her eyes. On the bed lay a cream-colored unicorn mare, her golden-blonde mane spread out in a shiny stream behind her, her head tucked into the crook of her foreleg. From her horn issued a light, lime green jet of magic, which extended for several feet before spreading into a bubble-like force field that surrounded the bed. And just outside of the shield Bright’s alarm clock continued to emit its stern admonition, which continued to fall on deaf ears as it merely rebounded off the unicorn’s magic. Screw tapped on the field with a hoof, idly, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Exasperated, she turned and walked to the corner, faced the Brightbarrier and her protective charm, and scrunched up her face, concentrating.
Screwloose was not a unicorn, which was apparent to anypony looking at her. However, she did remarkably possess a very slight amount of naturally imbued magic. Highly unusual, but entirely true. Duskglow, her gradeschool teacher was one of the first ponies to observe this phenomena. Screw was just a filly at the time, but already had a knack for dissembling and repairing her and her classmates toys, despite how many intricate parts they might be made of. Three of the rougher colts, who had a reputation for being trouble makers and bullies, had “accidentally” stomped on Brightbarrier’s new Daring Do action figure. The unicorn filly was bawling her eyes out, naturally, when Screwloose quietly slipped up with a tube of craft glue and gathered up the pieces of the destroyed action figure. With deft hooves, exceedingly skilled for a filly her age, she pieced the toy back together, dripping a few spots of glue into the neck hole, popping the adventurous mare’s head back into place, reattaching the legs, and cleaning the mud off the toy with a few rubs against her handkerchief. Tapping the distraught filly on the shoulder, she presented the repaired toy to Bright, who stared in awe at the now whole figure. However, no good deed goes unpunished, and the colts who had initially destroyed the toy returned to focus their ire on Screwloose.
Duskglow was just stepping out onto the front porch of the school house to call the foals back inside for lessons, when she heard a loud trio of hollers, followed by loud shrieks of pain and no small amount of crying. Galloping around the corner of the building, she was shocked to see Screwloose standing possessively over Brightbarrier, eyes closed tight, face muzzle scrunched up in concentration. Before her were three colts being chased by a small squadron of hornets, who had somehow coordinated themselves into a neat attack pattern and were divebombing the unfortunate bullies relentlessly. As she rushed over to try and shoo the attacking insects away, they suddenly withdrew, regrouped themselves into the shape of a filly sticking out her tongue at the colts, and vanished with a bright flash and a soft *pop*.
After applying a liberal dose of both sting-soothing salve and a tongue lashing lecture to the bullies, who were still quite shaken up, she sent them home with a promise that their parents would be getting a call from her shortly. Duskglow then focused her attention on the young repair-pony, who was idly shifting from one hoof to another apprehensively. “Screwloose.” She looked up, nervously. “Did you have something to do with those colts getting stung?”
The filly hung her head, nodding slightly. “I just made the hornets to scare them off, but they were being mean to Bright, and meanie-ponies need to be stood up to,” she declared emphatically, with a stamp of her little hoof. Duskglow looked at the filly quizzically.
“You say that you made the hornets? How did you do that?” “Oh, that’s easy, I just think really hard about them, and they will show up. I can do it now if you want!” she chirped, scrunching her face up with concentration.
“No no no! That’s fine, I don’t need hornets in the schoolhouse!” Duskglow replied hurriedly, keen on preventing a swarm of stinging insects from appearing just to test the filly’s ability. “How about something nicer? Can you make something nicer? Like, maybe a balloon?” The lavender filly nodded solemnly, once again wrinkling her nose up into an unusual face of intense focus.
A bright purple balloon suddenly appeared, hovering a few inches above her desk. The astonished teacher mare prodded it gently with her hoof, and it bobbed back in response, lightly ascending towards the ceiling. “That’s incredible Screwloose!” she marveled, unable to take her eyes off the colorful orb, “How in Equestria did you do that?” With a light pop and a flash of light similar to the hornet’s disappearance, the balloon was gone. The filly’s eyes popped open, one hazel, one red, somewhat obscured by the unkempt purple shock of mane that hung over it.
“I can’t talk and keep the stuff I think about here. If I think about what I’m saying, I can’t think about what I’m thinking about, and the thing will disappear” the filly said, nodding slightly as if what had happened was a wholly unremarkable occurrence for an earth pony. The teacher stared at the young pony, who stared back with a slight worried look. “Am I still in trouble? Aunt Screwball says I shouldn’t make things when I’m out with other ponies because they won’t like it. But I see the unicorn foals doing it sometimes! I don’t think it’s fair that the unicorn foals get to make things and I don’t.”
“I think it’s ok for you to ‘make things’ when you have a mare or stallion’s supervision, but you can’t use your magic to hurt other ponies again ok?”
“Magic? Is that what I’m doing? Can I do magic like a unicorn? Like Princess Twilight?! ” the young filly exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly.
Duskglow thought about this for a moment. “It’s not unheard of for a pony to be born without a horn if one of their parents is a unicorn and one isn’t. Sometimes they have a little bit of magic. Is your daddy or mommy a unicorn?” Duskglow knew as soon as she asked that that was an unwise question. She had forgotten Screwloose lived with her Aunt, and her mother, an earth pony, had been incarcerated in the Equestrian Mental Hospital since just before Screw was born. Nopony knew who Screw’s father was, and her mother’s sister remained tight-lipped on the topic. It was possible that her father might even be a royal alicorn prince, who had been careless enough to impregnate a common-mare of ponyville in some secret rendezvous.
“Mommy’s not a unicorn. I’ve seen pictures of her in Aunty Screwball’s photo albums. She’s an earth pony like you and me.” The filly’s voice got hesitant. “I don’t know about my daddy. And I can’t mention him around Aunty Screwball. She gets awfully mad and says cross things. She says it’s his fault mommy got sick, and that’s why she can’t live with us.” The filly got really quiet, and she looked like she was about to cry.
Changing the topic quickly, the teacher-mare suggested that the young mare try and make more balloons. “I don’t want to right now. If I think too hard my head starts to hurt. May I be excused? It’s almost time for supper, and Aunty said she was going to make oatcakes with strawberries and cream for dessert! I don’t want to be late.” Duskglow smiled and nodded, cautioning the filly to be careful walking home since it was getting dark. The young filly jumped up and hugged her teacher, grabbed her book saddlepack, and pranced out the door, pausing to bid her teacher farewell. Duskglow watched out the window as she grew smaller in the distance, occasionally stopping by the side of the road to pick a few daisy she was no doubt bringing home to her Aunt.
“That filly is going places…” she said to the empty classroom, “and by Celestia nopony is going to stop her from getting there…”
The now-grown mare stood, focusing all of her concentration on the sleeping pony before her. Her face was tightened up into a scrunched scowl, beads of perspiration dripping from her brow. It was far easier to focus all of her mind on “making” things when she was just a filly. Back then it was far easier to empty her mind of everything but her objective. But now, as a full-grown pony, there was a lot more mind to neutralize before she could focus on summoning something into existence. Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes tighter, Screw’s efforts were rewarded when her ears were met with a faint *pop*. A single white feather materialized inside the force field, gently drifting down until it landed on the sleeping unicorn’s nose. The pony on the bed muttered slightly, stirring in her sleep, and for an instant, the green shield wavered. Screw picked up a throw pillow that was lying on the floor in her hoof, hefting it slightly to test its weight, and then returned her focus to creating another feather. After a moment, her concentration was rewarded by a pair of soft down quills, which glided down onto the unconscious mare, one landing directly in her ear. The sleeping pony rolled over, waving a hoof at the offending intruder, and in that instant the green bubble blinked out. With a grunt, Screwloose threw the pillow with all she had. Like a feather-filled missile, the pillow sped through the air, connecting with the unfortunate unicorn mare, who awoke with a yelp and tumbled off the bed. “Is that you Screw?” ventured a sleepy, confused voice from the pile of tangled sheets, now firmly wedged between the bed and the wall.
“Of course it is, who else would go to all this trouble to get you up for class?” Screwloose chortled playfully. “Now get your lazy flank out of bed and get your bag.”
“Do I have time for a shower?” the unicorn mare complained, “My mane is a tangled mess.”
Screwloose, looking at the clock on the bedside table huffed. “Not if you want to avoid a tardy. Come’ on, you can just use the gym showers after Prof. Meadow ’s class.” The lethargic unicorn reluctantly left behind the sanctuary of her bedsheets and followed the lavender-coated earth pony out the front door, pausing to grab an oat muffin from a bag on the kitchen counter on her way by.
Trotting at a brisk pace towards the Academy, Screw told Bright about her and Sweet’s study session down at the workshop on her Aunt’s farm. “Sounds like a good plan.” she responded in her drowsy, monotone manner, a sure sign that she was still only semi-conscious.
“We can stop by the library after classes to pick up a few books on frequency focus and melody resonance shielding for reference.”
“Alright.”
Raising an eyebrow slightly, Screw continued. “Then I figured we can stop in at Canterlot for tea with Princess Twilight and Princess Luna.”
“Sounds good.”
Screw sighed, rolled her eyes, and went for broke “Once we’re in the castle, Sweetstrings will subdue the guards. Then when the royal sister’s guard is down, you will throw the tea pot at Princess Luna, and I’ll tackle Princess Twilight. After we tie them up with table cloths and tea towels, we can hold them ransom for the carrot cakes in Equestria!”
“Ok, that’s fine.”
The lavender mare let out a long sigh, rolling her heterochromiatic eyes in annoyance. It was pointless to talk to the cream-colored unicorn before ten AM. To say she was not a morning mare was the understatement of the century. Brightbarrier spent most of her life in a half-lidded fog of sleep.
As the two ponies trotted to the top of a hill, Areion Academy could be seen spread out before them. It was a very large complex, divided into two campuses. The underclass campus was on the left, and considerably smaller than the graduate campus and research labs. It was composed of the Twi-lunar wing, which housed the undergraduate classrooms, the Air and Space wing, a museum dedicated to the first ponied spacecrafts ever constructed, a dining hall, a gymnasium complete with an indoor pool and outdoor track, dormitories for on-campus residents and the offices of the faculty and staff. On the right was the much larger Areion Air and Space program. The pride and joy of Equestria, and founded by Princess Twilight herself, the campus housed several well-renowned aeronautical research facilities, several spacious warehouses used for testing and calibrating the propulsion of rockets, the first ever inter-stellar communications array dish, and the largest telescope ever created by pony hooves. But the crowning jewel of Areion aeronautical division was the Pegasi II. The gleaming white rocket towered over the campus, casting its long shadow over the quad every afternoon as the sun sunk in the hills behind it. Built ten years ago for fourth and latest expedition, it was capable of carrying a crew of twenty ponies and twenty-five tons of cargo. The Pegasi II carried the Helios station up to orbit and remained docked to it for four months while it was being assembled, and another three months while the station was tested to see if it could support pony life. The sleek white shuttle was capable of reaching speeds up to 20,000 miles per hour, just over 900Gs of force.
Descending the slope towards the academy, the two mares could make out the form of Sweetstrings laying under one of the oak trees that bordered the road. Tucked beneath his chin was a slender violin, supple bow gripped in his teeth. His nimble hooves wound their way up and down the neck of the instrument, and sad, sweet notes issued forth like clear spring water. Screw felt a chill go up her spine as the haunting melody washed over her. The stallion remained in intense concentration, even as Screw and Bright approached. It wasn’t until the last note died away that he opened his eyes.
“Morning Screw. I see you managed to pry Bright out of her bed at last.”
“It wasn’t easy. If she was half as good at focusing her shield when she’s awake as she’s is asleep, she wouldn’t have any need for you.” Screwloose ribbed good heartedly.
Sweetstrings and Brightbarrier worked together as a shield duo, Bright providing the magic and Sweet using frequency generators to keep the shield focused and enhance its strength. When it came to the Astro Exploratory Research Operation Exam, in addition to the written portion the two would perform together in an Aptitude Assessment, to gauge whether or not their combined shielding capability was high enough to be considered for ARION missions. Bright blushed at her friend’s teasing, kicking a clod of dust idly with her hoof as she walked.
“It’s not my fault; I’ve been studying shield enhancement spells all week for the exams. I was up half the night trying to master a new ward charm, one that is more receptive of frequency augmentation. I’ve practiced casting that bucking spell so many times it’s a wonder I wasn’t projecting it in my sleep."
Screwloose caught herself from laughing at the last moment, turning her mirth into a loud throat clear. Sweetstrings met her gaze and winked but said nothing. He had taken turns trying to wake the narcoleptic unicorn before, and it was never as simple as it sounded.
