It had been nearly a full month now. The crew of The Dome (which it had been officially christened when thanks to Dandy’s own recipe for Moonshine, Twilight smashed a bottle of wine against the outside of it… okay it was Ponyville’s entire store of wine… including all the vintages… Alicorns and 100% alcohol don’t mix kids, don’t try it at home.) were settling in, thankfully the Avenged had been fixed up and was jump worthy. So they weren’t stuck to Equus’ orbit as Chotl and Oxoloc fixed the continually mounting issues with the ancient systems of The Dome.

“How the fuck has this thing survived so long? It’s like a bucket with a hole in it! WORTHLESS!” Chotl growled slamming his head into the desk he and his brother had set up.

“It’s huge… and well, Einuli could have been jerry-rigging the system to work…” Oxoloc tried to reason.

“He fucked it all up! Gods… useless for a starship…” Chotl muttered.

“But I’ll be damned if he isn’t good for reverse engineering anything he comes across! I mean look at this jump-core! It’s fucking amazing! This is from a Hunter-Class cruiser! And then look, the systems are built around it! He knows some serious shit.” Oxoloc retorted. “Look, we just don’t know what he did to do this. So…”

“Our best bet is to start from square one. Break the entire jump-drive and engines down… and install new ones.” Chotl sighed. “Yep… and we’re out of Durasteel, Telebrium and there’s no Solarium or Penumbrite in this system. Not to mention all the other shit we’ll need to even make the jump drive work!”

“Hm… it’d be a good learning experience for the newbs… I’ll go talk to Dandy, and we’ll see if some of those ponies are still willing to help us out… hell, if it doesn’t work, the Avenged can always use this as a homebase. There’s a nice peaceful planet under it that’s friendly towards us… it’s perfect!” Oxoloc shot up. “I’ll go alert Dandy to our needs, and we’ll see what he’ll do.”

“Alright… I’m just… I need something to eat… let's see if I can’t make some Feather Food…” Chotl got up and walked out of the engine room… or the remains of it after the two had been tearing it apart piece by piece for at least an hour now.

Later On:

Dandy had gathered Suzy, Spike, Ayaka, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, Starlight, Femati, and Einuli in the main area of The Dome.

The Bunk rooms had been started, as had a new mess hall. A few other structures were being built as well, namely a new library, and a larger teleporter room that just lead to various points in Equestria, mainly so a few trusted ponies could come and go.

“So, I’ve gathered all of you here for one reason…” Dandy began. “Oxoloc and Chotl have found out that the engine is FUBAR. No chance it’ll be able to be repaired. So… they want to build a new one. FTL and close range jump-drive and all. But, we don’t have the required materials. This system doesn’t have them either, we’ve already scanned the uninhabited planets and moons. Now. We’ll need to use the Avenged Sevenfold to jump to another system and explore planets, moons, and whatever else is in the systems to find the materials. Namely, Durasteel, Telebrium, Solarium, and… drumroll please…”

Ayaka gave him a joking drumroll. “Penumbrite! That’s right, we’ll have to dive right down into insanity central.” Dandy said. “But, we also have a list of materials from Nightbloom. He needs… uuh, where is it…” Dandy searched around for a moment, “Ah! Yes, he’ll need… Zerchesium, Protocite, even more Penumbrite, and Volium. Whatever he’s making… wheew baby. Someone’s gonna love it.” He chuckled. “Now, I know quite a few of you gathered will go on this mission regardless. But, I’ve gathered the others…” He looked to Dash, Applejack, Twilight, Starlight, and Spike. “To ask, would you be willing to come with us? Of course, we won’t be leaving now… and you’ll have plenty of time to th-”

“Yes!” Spike and Rainbow Dash said.

“Sure.” Applejack shrugged.

“Exploring a new planet, count me in.” Twilight grinned.

“I mean… besides nearly dying and all the killing… it’ll be fun to get out there and see something new.” Starlight added. “Guess we’re all going, right?”

“Well… that was easier then expected.” Dandy said, then he turned to Einuli. “What about you, bud? You feel like tagging along?”

Einuli let out a small sigh, “I’d honestly just…”

“Don’t you say that. You got that matter manipulator thing. It’ll be indispensable if you come along. Means we can dig up more ores faster without resorting to wasting mech fuel.” Suzy said. “Plus, we can pack a few teleporters along, allowing us to safely evacuate if anything comes up when we need to go underground.”

Einuli gave a small smile, “Sure. I’d love to go along.” He nodded.

“Great! Now, we need to get the newbs some EPP’s and get them use to haulin the things around.” Dandy said.

“Right. Um, I know Dash and Applejack will be able to handle it… I still haven’t gotten any scans of you, Spike… and I’ll need to get bodily scans of Twilight and Starlight, just to make sure their bodies can support the additional weight… if need be, we can wait a week or so, and… well if you’re serious about coming along, I can make sure you’ll be able to support the weight and then some…” Einuli explained.

“Yah mean… give us augments too?” Applejack asked.

“Yes…” Einuli nodded slowly.

“If it means seeing more things… a bit of time in a hospital bed isn’t much of a concern.” Starlight said.

“I’d love to get some augments…” Spike muttered.

“It’d be… interesting to say the least. I’ll have to think about it…” Twilight said.

“Ah saw the way yah took care of Dash, so… if yah need ta do some surgery on me. Ah won’t complain.” Applejack said.

“They have been really nice to have. I feel less tired when flying… I’ve been able to keep up with Suzy and Femati when they do workouts… and it’s great to listen in one somethings I’d otherwise never be able to understand. Other than the discomfort at the beginning… it wasn’t so bad… but, I think I’ll stick with the ones I have.” Dash smiled at Einuli. “Unless the doctor thinks I need more.” She joked.

Einuli chuckled a little. “You’re fine just the way you are.” He grinned. “Well… um, I’ll be in my lab if anyone needs me. I’ve got a few things I need to extract… namely more carbon. Can’t ever have too much carbon for the lab…” He muttered walking out. “Everything requires carbon…” He vanished down the hall.

Author's Note

And so we begin... no year long wait for this season! (Or a two year wait...)