The Mothership stood out from dark reassess of space. Although still attached to the scaffolding station, it was finally fully constructed and outfitted with the hyperspace core taken from the ancient starship. Despite the running joke about it looking somewhat like a giant metal banana, it was a beautiful sight, nothing less then a proud accomplishment for the Equestrians. Today was the day everypony had been waiting for, especially the Motherships 50,000 pony crew.
The bearers of the Elements of Harmony had come together in one of the starboard observation decks. The ceiling was covered in crisscrossing wires and tubes but otherwise it was a small room with a few chairs. The real view was outside the window, where one could see their planet in full view, as well as the occasional small ship fly by. It was where the bearers would spend most of their off time together.
“Isn’t the exciting.” Pinkie Pie shouted “I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited well except for that one time…” she paused briefly as she searched her memories “Nope I’ve never been this excited ever in my whole life.” she shouted with a big smile and a little bounce
“Well I’m glad at least one of us is,” Applejack said “I gotta admit that I’m a little nervous myself.”
“Don’t worry Applejack,” Twilight assured placing an arm over her friends shoulder “everything is running perfectly, there’s not a single flaw in the whole system. I honesty believe that nothing could possibly go wrong.”
“Well don’t jinx us now Twi.” Rainbow Dash said hovering a few inches of the ground, she would prefer to go higher but the ceiling wasn’t very much taller than themselves.
“Oh don’t worry your little head darling,” Rarity said “like Twilight said everything is going perfectly, you shouldn’t stress yourself out like this, I do say it’s bad for you complexion.”
“Well you know what they say about things that can go wrong.” Applejack replied “But I’m more worried about what’s gonna happen back home without us. I mean, I know we gave Sweet Apple Acres to our cousin since Applebloom and Big Macintosh are coming with us but,” she gave a exasperated sigh “I don’t know, I’m just worried is all.”
“It will be ok” Fluttershy said “I admit that I’m a little worried about the animals, but I’m confident that Snails can handle them.”
Twilight giggled to herself “Never thought those two would ever be given any kind of responsibility. If Rarity had told me that she would be giving away the Carousal Boutique to Snips several years ago I would have called her insane.”
“Well I couldn’t very well give it to a family member when their all coming with us now can I.” Rarity said “Speaking of family members, Applejack where is Big Macintosh?”
“Still on the engineering deck I reckon. I should have known he wouldn’t ever leave the second he was made chief engineer.”
“I still never can figure out all that math stuff he does,” Rainbow Dash said “He tried to explain to me how my ship worked, I couldn’t understand a single word out of his mouth, it was all ‘ion engines this and mass drivers that.”
Applejack gave Rainbow a flat look “Well he and Applebloom designed the thing I reckon he would take some pride in it, I swear since that filly got her cutie-mark they’ve been like peas and carrots with this whole ‘engineering design’ thing.”
“Is Applebloom still on the ship?” Fluttershy asked
‘”She should be on one of the Cryo-Trays by now,” Twilight said “along with Sweetie Belle, Scootloo and their families Correct?” she looked to Rarity and Rainbow Dash who both nodded in confirmation.
The nearby door uninterrupted them and the mares turned their heads to the steel-grey coated middle aged stallion with a dark grey mane, his Cutie-Mark was an anchor on top of a boat, ‘which is not where an anchor goes’ as Pinkie Pie would very often comment.
“Ladies,” Ironclad said with a deep voice “we are about to begin. If you would all report to your stations we can get this show on the road. Commander Rainbow Dash find your squadron and prepare to launch.”
Rainbow gave an exaggerated salute and flew out of the room while the others simply nodded and walked, except for Pinkie Pie who decided to bounce. None of them could contain their energy, they and the rest of the ponies on board had been training for years. Everypony was ready and eager to finally test the hyperdrive system.
………
“This is Princess Luna,” she said over the speaker system throughout the ship. Although she was fully conscious within her small Cylinder room, the wires that had been painfully implanted in her body restricted most of her movement. She didn’t need it however, she could use the interior of the room as a viewing screen to see whatever she wanted at any given time. Her preferred setting was to view all of the ships exterior cameras at once. Making it seem like from her perspective, that her body had replaced the ship and she was the large mass floating in space. Looking around she set her eyes to the large blue marble that would soon no longer be her home. She hoped that her sister could once again take care of their kingdom alone. But then she reminded herself that she had nothing to worry about, if Celestia can raise the sun and the moon while managing Equestria for a thousand years, she can probably do it again, and this time without the pain of knowing her sister was trapped in the moon.
At the thought of it, Luna then gazed upon her moon, she would definitely miss it. “Hopefully Earth has a moon” She thought “it just wouldn’t be the same without one.” She continued to admire the scenery until Ironclads voice broke the silence.
“Princess Luna, All personnel are accounted for. We are ready to begin.”
“Thank you Admiral,” she was glad nopony could see her blush after realizing that she caused a bit of an awkward silence. She summoned a group of windows to her display “All subsystem leaders report Mothership pre-launch status.”
“Command Center ready.” Twilight said
“Resourcing online.” Applejack said
“Construction systems online.” Big Macintosh said
“Life-Support functional.” a female pony named Leaflet said
“Cryogenic containment ready to go.” another male pony named Cold Storage said
“Fleet ready to launch.” Rainbow Dash said
“All systems green,” Luna said “Scaffold control stands by for release” the scaffold station released it locks on the Mothership as it powered its engines and began to slowly thrust forward. Everypony on board felt a shift in gravity as the ship flew several hundred meters away from station. At the same time, seven scout ships followed by a recourse collector ship launched from the starboard hanger
“The Mothership has left the Scaffold”
“We are away”
…………
Twilight and Ironclad stood next to each other within the Command Center. The room was filled with ponies staring intently at their respective monitors. In the middle was a large circular table which showed a three dimension holographic display of the surrounding area that the sensors could pick up. It was mostly used to see where ships, asteroids, and any hazards were located. Both Twilight and Ironclad were focused on the eight green dots floating in front of the Mothership.
“How are things out there Dash?” Twilight asked as she watched the line of green dots representing Rainbows squadron.
“Everything’s Awesome,” Rainbow answered “We’re ready to go.”
“Princess Luna we need to perform several trials before the test,” Ironclad said “can you give me a timeframe?”
“Hyperspace module is still charging,” Luna answered “the Mothership will be ready for the hyperdrive test in a few hours.”
“Good. Commander Dash you and your squadron are to engage in some combat trials before the test.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Rainbow yelled as she throttled forward with her squad following suite
“Meanwhile,” Ironclad turned to the mare next to him “Twilight supervise the mid-flight construction test.”
“You know you could say please.” Twilight teased as she made for the elevator
“I’ll work on that.” Ironclad turned his attention back the display “Commander Dash where are you going.”
“To do the combat things you said.”
“You’re going the wrong way.” Ironclad deadpanned
“Right… I knew that.”
Twilight giggled as the elevator doors closed and pushed the appropriate button. She arrived at her destination and made her way through the crowd of engineers and was greeted by Applejack and Macintosh. The room was the largest in the whole ship and was donned with currently motionless machinery and idle staff everywhere she looked. Because the Mothership was too big to land on a planets surface, the goal was to construct smaller ships that would transport the colonist down to the planet. And they could design whatever needed to be made for the situation on the spot
“You guys ready?” Twilight asked the apple siblings
“As we’ll ever be.” Applejack answered “What do ya reckon we build? Cause I’m thinking maybe a second harvester, can’t have to many in my opinion. What do you think Big Mac?”
“Eeyep.”
“Can’t argue with that. You heard him, one harvester.” Applejack shouted
Soon afterward every piece of equipment hummed to life, some machines smelted down raw material and formed it into the needed size and shapes, others fitted the pieces together. Some machines were completely automated, others were controlled by the staff, and some parts were made completely by hoof or with magic. Everything worked in flawless sequence as the ship began to come together and in a short hour it was sent off to the hanger.
“I never get tired of that.” Big Mac said with a big grin
“Wow. That was impressive.” Twilight said “What happens to it next?”
“They find it a crew and it gets to work.”
“Well, everything seems to be working in proper order. I should go tell Admiral Stoic, maybe it will get him to smile for once.”
“I wouldn’t try it” Applejack joke “His face might crack”
“We’ll just glue it back together.” Mac stated causing some of the surrounding ponies to chuckle
“Alright see you later then Twi.” Applejack waved to Twilight as the door closed
………….
Rainbow Dash sped toward the last target drone and unleashed a barrage of gunfire causing the object to explode. She wasn’t able to contain her smile, becoming a pilot was the best thing ever in her mind. It had flying, space, and explosions. And even though most suspected that her promotion to commander was purely due to her being an element bearer, it was impossible to question her natural flying abilities.
“Never gets old does it,” a feminine voice coming from one of Dash’s fellow pilots named Star Struck “I think I beat Skywards score this time.”
“Yeah right,” the stallion replied “you can barely fly in a straight line.”
“You’re just jealous that a unicorn just might be able to best you.”
“Hey Skyward.” Another female pegasus said “I was watching. She beat your score.”
“Thank you Aurora.”
“Yeah… well… you can just…”
“Watch it lieutenant.” Dash interjected “Besides, who holds the highest score?”
“Soarin.” Aurora deadpanned
“I meant in this Wing.” Dash said flatly
“We’re doing this more than once right?” a fifth, high-pitched voiced male asked “lets settle it in the next round.”
“2ndLt Spiz is right.” Ironclad said “so if you’re all done chatting then the second set of target drones should be in position."
……………..
“So far so good” Luna thought. The Mothership had been floating freely for a few hours now and the Hyperspace Core was almost charged. It wouldn’t be to long now. She felt eager, nervous, anxious, and a little sad, all at the same time. It felt like it was all happening to soon and not soon enough. Now that she had a bit of an idle moment went back to just staring at her world and her moon. Just staring, not thinking, just letting herself become immersed in the view.
A flashing text broke her concentration; the emotions came flooding back as she read it again and again. She forced herself to focus, the point of no return had passed years ago
“Hyperdrive fully charged, we are ready to engage quantum wave effect at any time.”
“Understood Princess Luna, all systems green, all trials passed. We are ready to for hyperspace jump at your discretion.” Twilight responded
Luna took one deep breath “Engaging Hyperdrive.”
All that could, watched as a large blue rectangle appeared in front of the Mothership and proceeded to engulf the large mass as it passed through. The Mothership disappeared into Hyperspace as the quantum wave closed. They could only hope that their luck would keep holding out now.
