“P.p.princess Luna!?” Rainbow stammered, her face still marred by the deep crimson blush she still sported. Luna hummed in acknowledgement. “How did you get behind me!?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

“Oh it’s simple dear rainbow, magic.” Luna replied, causing Rainbow to groan and Twilight to giggle.

“Specifically shadow magic, which I developed, It is a form of silent teleportation. I do so enjoy being stealthy it’s so much fun.”

An object as big as a pony's head zoomed into the room and stopped in front of Twilight. Its body was surrounded with glowing rings with what looked to be magic shields in the center of each ring, the front of it looked like the beak of a bird of prey. It was a dark grey, shiny and had a curved and sleek body.

“Mistress Sparkle, the prototype Aurora, has been finished and is ready for the first shakedown cruise. Project Daedalus is fifty percent completed” informed an unnatural sounding female voice. Which caused Rainbow to jump out of her coat,

“What in Tartarus is that thing!?” Rainbow demanded,

“Responsive Info Collection Technology or RICT for short, is an advanced AHI Artificial Hivemind Intelligence I created to act as a liaison between me and my various factories she also serves as bodyguard and my assistant, and before you ask project Aurora is a space faring vessel, which I designed with the goal of being the first ponied space flight leading to the creation of colonising ships to colonise planets in our solar system. Currently, it is propelled by mana engines with a mana reactor as its power source that can reach just near light speed. Our first target is colonising the moon. the aurora will act like a vanguard delivering supplies and colony components and pony power.”

“But why would you need to do this?” Rainbow asked,

“Well Rainbow, the world is dying very slowly, but inexorably. Ponies controlling the weather and the celestial bodies is merely a bandaid on an amputated limb. Terraforming technology will enable every species to survive on a new world. That is where project Daedalus comes in, it is an arc/coloniser and terraformer ship.”

“The world is dying?” Rainbow repeated as she tried to process the news.

“But how? Why?” Rainbow asked quietly, Twilight shot the mare a look of sympathy.

“It started even before the wendigos, it was a problem inside the planet’s mantle at the time it wasn’t a huge issue, but when Discord tried to usurp Celestia and Luna’s rule. His brief time as a ruler exacerbated the problem inside the mantle of the planet, with all his chaos. It is projected that the strain will eventually tear apart the tectonic plates, ending life on the planet. When the earthquakes start is the signal that we have at best ten years or less left.” Twilight explained with a solemn look on her face,

“Still we are luckily ahead of schedule, thanks in no small part to a discovery of ancient ruins of an advanced forerunner race that had mastered space flight. In fact a lot of technology we have today is reverse engineered from these ruins. Soon after the discovery of the first we found more and more. Mostly in the remote lands on Equus.” Twilight finished,

“RICT, retrieve my friends and escort them quickly to the aurora docks, time is of the essence, prep for launch, we’ll meet you there.” Twilight ordered the floating machine, which gave a short beeping acknowledgement before speeding off.

Celestia nuzzled against Twilight’s neck as she stood up, “Mnnn, I love it when you take charge.” she complimented and Twilight kissed her.

“I know dear.” Twilight replied smiling before climbing on Celestia’s back,

Rainbow was about to ask why but the question died on her tongue when she yelped, and she felt herself being lifted and placed on Luna’s back. Her blush returning in force as Luna giggled and leaping out of the room from the balcony and dived down towards the Aurora’s docks in lower Canterlot, followed by Celestia both of them were now wearing their regalia.

As we landed RICT’s drones linked up and circled rapid above ground a cylinder of faint blue light glowed with a flash the rest of Twilight’s friends appeared disorientated, Rarity recovered fast enough to see that Twilight was on Celestia’s back, She began spluttering about the indignity of it. Celestia got this look in her eyes, almost twinkling in hidden mirth. She leant down and locked lips with Twilight leant into the kiss before she remembered herself, “‘Tia! I thought you wanted to keep it a secret!? Rarity will blab to everypony she can!”

The rest having recovered from the transportation, froze up at the sight of Twilight admonishing Celestia who had a mirthful smile on her lips.

“Oh come on dear, I think your friends can keep a secret, right?” Celestia replied playfully.

Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy all did the motions and spoke the pinkie promise, Rarity however was still frozen stiff.

“Er yer Majesty, what exactly are we keeping secret? If’n you don’t mind telling us,” Applejack asked cautiously, Celestia smiled warmly down at them,
“My little ponies, Twilight is my betrothed, my affianced, My love” Celestia explained as she nuzzled Twilight, “go ahead dear show them,”

Twilight released the glamour that Twilight had reapplied during flight, “This is my true form,” Twilight’s increase in size and musculature shocked all of her friends, “How in Tartarus are you bigger than your brother!?” Rarity blurted out, Twilight looked sheepishly away and rubbed her neck.

“Magical bio modification therapy, so I could survive play time with ‘Tia,” Twilight said blushing,
Which was mirrored by her friends,

“Luna! Please my ear is not a chew toy!” Rainbow complained, trying to swat away the playful princess. Who giggled and dodged Rainbow’s flailing hooves.

Everypony, turned to see Luna nibbling on Rainbow’s ear again and was just in time to see her let go only to pick her up and kiss the rainbow mare on lips, Rarity and Fluttershy faint with matching blushes and Applejack covered her face with her trusty cowpony hat.

Pinkie was celebrating, and talking about a ‘congrats on getting hitched Twilight and getting a marefriend Rainbow.’ party,

“Moving on,” Applejack said trying to steer the conversation into less dangerous waters, “So why are we here Twilight?” she asked,

“I brought you here for the maiden voyage of the Aurora spaceship,” Twilight said as she trotted off and opened a door to an elevator, they all stepped inside with Rarity and Fluttershy being carried inside with magic, overall the journey took 30 minutes, they could see outside of the elevator that led down underground, when they reached the bottom floor they were met with the sight of a huge hanger, that dwarfed Twilight’s private workshop like it was nothing. Inside sat a sleek ship that was sitting on landing gear. The ponies unfamiliar with ships of such scale balked at the ship as tall as Canterhorn mountain it was easily wider than four of the mountain laid side by side, they strained their necks trying to take in the beast as they walked over to a stationary, car. They all climbed in, it sped off towards the entrance to the ship.

They got a good look at the ship it was pure white, shaped like an arrowhead thinner and sharp at the front and wider and thicker behind, behind the ship sat four large thrusters, which were complimented by thrusters under the ship and on top. Below it a large elevator bay was being filled with cargo and smaller single seat ships, pistons attached at the four corners of the platform, leading to a large room in the ship. Around the edge of the wings a solid line of blue light glowed.

Once the car stopped at a red carpet, we all stepped out, the carpet was flanked by EAS soldiers who saluted us, Spitfyre came out to meet us and saluted,
“Meet space battleship Aurora first in her line and flagship of the EAS fleet Admiral Sparkle, Your Highnesses. Element Bearers. She is prepped, and the last of the cargo is loaded.” Spitfyre greeted,

“What!?” Everypony except the Princesses and Twilight exclaimed,

“Thank you Captain, perform pre-flight checks, when ready take us out slowly.watch the paintwork,” Twilight ordered.

“Aye. Aye Admiral!” Spitfyre dashed up the escalator.

“Admiral Sparkle!?” Twilight’s friends exclaimed,

“Oh didn’t I mention that? Ops must have slipped my mind, hurry up and get on the ship we can talk about it later on,” Twilight said as her friends grumbled but complied most went up the escalator first, then Rainbow who was still held captive by an amorous Luna and then Celestia and Twilight.

The airlock shut and decontaminated them, just in time for the engines to roar to life, the hidden doors to the hangar opened revealing the sky and the ascending Aurora slipped through the opening and slowly gained speed as they made their way towards the stratosphere, before speeding up to escape velocity.

We made our way to the bridge, when we reached it, a crewman blew on a whistle and said “Admiral on bridge!” The crew stopped and saluted Twilight.

“At ease, stallions. Stay on course and activate the view screen,” Twilight ordered, the screen turned on showing the space outside and the view of the moon and Equus,

Which was accompanied by the awe filled gasps of her friends, “We are currently in low orbit around Equus, we shall be prepping the moon's initial colony site.”

Author's Note

Posted this early, for those who were waiting patiently.