A Stone's Throw Away

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Machine
Chapter 2: In Transit
Chapter 3: Approaching Danger

Chapter 1: The Machine

Despite it being evening the magical corridors of the Canterlot Academy For Gifted Unicorns reflected the few bright afternoon rays and spread them across their lengths, lighting them up as if it was day, contrasting the quickly approaching autumnal twilight outside. High Flier shut the wooden door adorned with countless engravings and symbols as carefully as he could, dragging his bag along the floor. Even after three years of attending classes here he still couldn’t quite let himself relax in the expensive looking environment like the other foals did. But even if he was a bit high strung over not accidentally tipping anything over, and the lessons exhausted him to no end, he was glad that he could attend at least some of the classes.

“Some, yeah..." High Flier sighed, and after having taken a deep breath and gathered his strength picked up the heavy bag with his right wing. The contents sending off a loud clang as they slammed against each other.

High Flier was a mellow orange pegasus with a long burgundy mane, quite disheveled and making him look as if he had never seen a comb in his life. On his flank rested a grey machine, sporting a gauge in the center and with pipes coming out of it, which leaked a rainbow colored goop. As far as he could tell he was the only pegasus in the entire academy, but he couldn't bring himself to be proud over it.

He somberly started to trot back through the halls of the Academy, he had hoped that the lesson would last longer. Sure he had books at home but having someone teach them to him always made them much more enjoyable.

By the time he had reached the main staircase the landscape outside was now fully in the grip of twilight, and the magical lamps lining the corridors kicked in, replacing the warm glow of the sun with a cold white. As soon as he reached the staircase,a grand flight adorned with gold and marble, he heard sounds of approaching hoofs from the floor above, and a familiar voice coming with them.

‘Oh no, why hasn’t he left already?’ High flier really didn’t want to risk going now and then having to deal with Shining Seeds taunts, so he hid behind one of the pillars next to the entrance to the main staircase.

“Yeah, and after my father signed the deal he was in a really good mood and told me I could throw a big party, just because he did what he always does. So you’re all gonna be invited and I made sure my father would order the biggest and best cake one could get in Canterlot." The high pitched-nasal voice belonged to the unicorn known as Shining Seed, son of Flying Cold. The pegasus who had taken a decaying noble family and turned it into the richest airship magnates this side of the ocean. High Flier had heard that every member born of their family had a cutiemark of an airship, and Shining was no exception, although he sure didn’t act like a dignified pilot.

“Wow, you’re so lucky, my dad never lets me throw parties like that!”

“Thank you Shining. My mom says that I can’t waste my time on something as wasteful as that, and she even forces my dad to say the same." One of the accompanying voices mumbled.

“Yeah!"

Shining Seed was almost never seen without his clique, and it was another one of the reasons High Flier was so annoyed by him. Since when in his group of noble foals he would always try to show off as much as possible. This would go on in and out of class, disrupting the lesson and annoying High Flier to no end. Glad on having avoided the loud group, High Flier let out a content sigh. He stood up and put the saddlebag back onto his wings, after it had fallen off. However, while he did so he didn’t hear the hoofsteps quickly approaching from below.

High Flier looked up and came face to face with the smug teal face, topped by short grey hair, of Shining Seed.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t the little pegasus who could?”

“Ah stuff it, Shining, I have to go home."

“Just gonna abandon me here? Why, I couldn’t imagine that a son of a nobleman could be so rude! If I didn’t know any better I’d have taken you for a commoner.” he laughed. High Flier wanted to end the conversation quickly and he knew that walking away would be the best way to do so. But he could feel the weight of a long day on him and the irritation was getting to him. He wanted to say something witty, something to finally shut that foal’s mouth once and for all. He fumbled his words but eventually stammered out:

“Well at least my father is actually accomplishing something and isn’t sitting on his bum doing nothing!” High Flier cringed the second after he finished his reply.

However, to High Fliers surprise Shining Seed didn’t fall down laughing at the awful taunt. Well, at first he did start to chuckle, but as he parsed the words his face lost all emotions before twisting into a grimace of anger.

“What did you say! My father, lazy? How do you even dare compare our fathers!” He shouted as he pressed himself closer to High Flier. High Flier was taken aback by the sudden rage of Shining Seed, never had he seen him in such a state. He tried to answer but it was as if the foal encroaching on him pressed that answer into a paste and forced it down his throat. High Flier swallowed.

“You can’t even defend yourself, but you try to compare yourself to me! You have no friends and just like your father you suck as a wizard. But the last part should be kinda obvious, don’t you think?” High Flier lowered his head, while still looking at Shining Seed. Whose face was currently regaining that smirk.

‘I am not a failure!’ He thought.

High Flier spat it out, all stutter now gone.

“You’re wrong, my father is no failure, I bet your father doesn’t even have a secret project he’s working on-" High Flier’s eyes widened and he cut off his speech before he could blurt out anything else. Shining seed didn’t seem to notice the sudden change in High Fliers voice and responded with just as much fervor.

“You’re lying, there is no way YOUR father has anything like that going on. He is a failure and that’s that!” Shining Seed insisted.

“Well I can prove it! Can you prove your father is doing anything now besides being lazy?”

“Oh yeah, let’s see this proof then!”

“Well come home with me and I’ll show you!” High Flier shouted. The two foals remained silent as they took deep breaths, calming down from the heated argument. High Flier then realized something, his shouting match had led to him having to spend more time with the bully.

‘Horseapples.’

The Canterlot inner district, defined as the district closest to the castle, and a place only the most wealthy or those with the right pedigree could afford. Every mansion had ample space between each other and gorgeous gardens around them, which were tended to during daytime by a veritable army of gardeners. The streets were lined with immaculate granite stones which were regularly cleaned by magic and when Luna’s moon started shining upon these streets they would light up from hundreds of obsidian encrusted lampposts and the dark would be broken by bright, but mostly empty streets, with only the occasional carriage slowly passing by. All of this under a dark, starry sky.

Shining Seed was miffed. Not only had he forgotten to take some warmer clothes for when he went home, he had to watch the pegasus magician of all ponies walk there in front of him in the cold fall wind. The feather on that pegasus warming him while Shining Seed shook from the cold. It didn't help that he had to abbandon his friends and probably be late to his party to follow said pegasus. If he wasn't so sure that High Flier would make a fool out of himself he'd just have ignored him and gone home.

Even though he was annoyed at that failure of a pegasus forcing him to trot all the way into the backend of the inner district just so the pegasus could come clean about his dumb lie, he could at least glance take the opportunity to stargaze. The sky today was especially beautiful, not only did the dark fall night force the stars to shine brighter, a vast space-cloud spread out on the dark canvas. So vast it’s arms fell behind the houses around him. The blues, reds, oranges and browns. It was beautiful. At least he and his father could agree on that.

Shining Seeds sightseeing got cut short as the rhythm of High Flier’s trot changed. Shining Seed took another look at his surroundings and saw the slopes of Canter Mountain extending sharply in front of him. They were getting close to the edge of the inner district, considered by many to be the worst part of the inner district. They stopped completely when they reached a small mansion, with plain alabaster walls and a tower sticking out of the left side. The garden was filled with nothing but grass, which at least looked maintained unlike the tattered roof, which was missing many of its shingles.

“So this is your house?” Shining Seed asked, lazily pointing a hoof towards the building. High Flier looked at it, and shrunk back a bit.

“Yeah." High Flier answered, staring at the tower. Shining Seed stared at the house too, and was about to ridicule it when the wind picked up speed and lashed out at his exposed coat. He fought not to let his discomfort show to High Flier, despite the other foal still staring at the house and completely ignoring him.

High Flier winced at nothing, but started walking towards the house, motioning with his wing for Shining Seed to follow.

The doors loomed ever closer to Shining Seed. He looked at High Flier, furrowing his brow. Despite High Flier having lied to him about some secret project High Flier wasn’t even nervous at being discovered. More than anything he looked, sad? Shining Seed had trouble telling. He shook his head, watching High Flier try to send out some of his magic into the lock on the door through his hoof, but struggling with it.

Shining Seed once again almost took the opportunity to ridicule High Flier but the pegasus’ demeanor continued to bother him. Someone on the verge of being discovered, especially that pushover, should have been trembling by now, and yet he was perfectly still. Shining Seed refused to believe that High Flier’s father could be working on anything that important, it simply wasn’t possible for that failure to have such a project. At most it would be some kind of useless trinket, but High Flier wasn’t dumb,and he wouldn’t have mentioned if it was just some useless trinket. So then why, why wasn’t High Flier cracking? Why was he just as calm as he had been when leaving the academy?

Once the doors opened they stepped into a rather plain hall for a noble family, the only distinguishing feature being a staircase leading to the second floor. At least the walls were of alabaster and not of stone. This time Shining’s quip was stopped by High Flier mumbling something akin to “stay here” and galloping up the stairs, leaving Shining alone in the hall. He looked around impatiently. There were no maids cleaning the house, no butler to welcome them home, and the house was devoid of the sounds of distant conversation and activity. It was empty, wrong, like an old haunted mansion, only this one was for some reason somepony’s home.

Shining Seed started tapping his hoof.

“Where is that pegasus? I’m starving and he’s making me wait… didn’t even have a servant bring me a snack." The foal felt his stomach rumble. “Thanks again for the late lessons, dad.”.

Thankfully, it wasn’t much longer until High Flier came back, carrying a small purple box similar to those one put wedding rings in.

“I hope you’re not gonna try proposing to me flier?” Shining Seed snickered, but High Flier’s face held its calm expression.

“Just come with me.” High Flier said, moving towards the wall behind the staircase. He looked back when he didn’t hear Shining Seed doing the same.

“So are you coming or not?” Hesitantly, Shining Seed fell into walking behind High Flier.

High Flier fumbled with the box in his wings and finally pried it open, revealing its contents. Shining Seed couldn’t see clearly what it was, but it looked like an orange string affixed to the inside of the box by a piece of tape. High flier carefully pressed the string against the wall and the box with it and then stood like that for a while.

Nothing happened at first, but then the wall started to glow and slowly turn transparent. Shining Seed stared in shock. The wall eventually disappeared completely, and both foals stood still, unwilling to take the next step. Before them lay a long winding staircase leading into the underground, the stair and the walls were of alabaster and an engraving of the sun and moon hung above the entrance.

It was Shining Seed who broke the silence.

“W-well then, let’s go and see this, “super secret project” or whatever.” He laughed and took the first step on the winding staircase, before looking back at the pegasus. High Flier remained silent and squeezed past him after a moments hesitation, leading the way.

They descended for what felt like hours. When they’d complete a circle around the winding staircase hidden lights would illuminate the next part of the way, bathing them in sterile white light, while the previous set of lights turned off. They continued to descend in their little pocket of light as the alabaster turned to stone, and a soft blue glow soon started mixing with the white light. The longer they descended, the stronger the glow would become and as it grew in strength the white light got weaker.

High Flier had been growing more and more jittery as they descended, and he was now practically jumping at every noise perceived as unusual, which in this unfamiliar stone environment was practically everything: The slow trickling of water against the stone steps, the echoed howling of a far off wind, and the fast steps of the unfamiliar insects around them.

Shining seed on the other hand was still shocked that there was some truth to High Fliers boast.

“Hey, High Flier?” High Flier ignored him. “Hey I talked to you...” Shining Seed didn’t get to finish his sentence as they suddenly arrived, and the sight before him stole all his words away from him.

Before them grew a cavern of massive proportions, two mansions the size of his own could comfortably fit in the space between them and the far of wall, and the roof was at least thirty meters above them. To the right of him blue crystals with an attached machine were dispensing glowing blue dust into a shaft going into the floor, and all around the cave similar shafts emerged from the walls and spewed forth the same dust, keeping the entire cave bathed in a soft blue light. Several industrial sized ovens were arranged at the far end of the cave, close to another tunnel which had been blocked off by a huge magical shield. The shield was in turn pierced in several spots by pipes coming out of the ovens. Unkown machinery and buildings were scattered all over the cave, but what truly stole Shining Seeds breath was the airship the size of a mansion laying in the middle of the cave.

‘No, wait, that’s no airship, where is the balloon, where are the propellers, this shape isn’t aerodynamic at all!’

The contraption had a long metallic hull consisting of an elliptic cylinder as the main body with two long pipes attached on either side of the body, both of which ended in some sort cones. Two hump like structures emerged from the top of the body, one of which had plenty of windows while the other one had none. Heading this beast of silvery metal was a spherical room attached to the main body by a circular corridor, metallic scaffolding and several metal poles. Besides this many spots along the hull of the ship seemed unfinished, with pipes and what looked like wiring still exposed, and the length of the ship was surrounded by scaffolding.

Shining seed didn’t want to believe it, but it was hard to deny a truth that was staring him right in his eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what this was, but it definitely wasn’t a useless trinket, in fact if the pony accompanying him was someone other than High Flier Shining Seed didn’t believe he'd be able to contain his excitement. Still, this was High Flier and he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing him lose his cool.

“So this is the “secret project” your father’s been working on?”

“Yes, now can we please go, I don’t want to be here any longer.”

“Please, my father has several things like this in his personal hangar, there’s no way this is something special. Unless you're saying that there is something more to this?” Shining lied, failing to keep the insecurity in his voice from poisoning his speech. High Flier hesitated, still rooted to the entrance of the cave unlike Shining Seed. Seeing as High Flier was hesitating Shining Seed started trotting towards the machine by himself, thankfully this was all the encouragement that High Flier needed and he quickly joined Shining Seed.

Upon closer inspection he could see that the construction was built over a crater and was being held up by three hydraulic pistons extending out of it, giving the impression that it was lying down.

“Hey High Flier, can’t your father even build a door?” He said, hoping High Flier knew where the door was. Luckily, High Flier did know and slid into the crater motioning with his wing for Shining Seed to join him under the hull. High Flier flew over to a small dome sticking out of the bottom, which was placed between the pistons, and stuck his hoof into it, after fiddling with it something clicked and a circular platform, roughly two meters in diameter spun slowly down to the ground, revealing a ladder into a shaft lit by dim red lights.

Shining Seed gulped, and hesitantly followed High Flier into the shaft. The shaft was covered in semi-soft padding and seemed to lead to a dead end. High Flier however, flew up the shaft and pressed a bright green spot. Shining Seed yelped as the ground under him rised up and the platform spun back up again. High Flier just hung onto the ladder and was relatively unbothered by the spinning. With a loud click the staircase locked the two foals in the badly lit shaft before a gas was quickly blasted in. Shining Seed coughed but the gas went away as quickly as it came. A long beep was heard in the tube and the end piece opened to let them into the machine, which seemed to be almost completely dark on the inside. As he climbed up the ladder he saw that High Fliers face was fixated on the long dark corridors, barely lit by tubes which glowed a dim red.

They had emerged into a dead end in a hallway, lockers decorated the walls around them and some sections of the floor still exposed wiring and tubing. This wasn't unique to the lockers, Shining Seed saw that the entire corridor was littered by unfinished sections and some of the lights were flickering or outright not working. Despite the ominous lighting the corridors were broad and tall.

'With the proper lighting these could sort of be comfortable.' Shining Seed thought.

The foals stood there, none of them sure of what to do, but then High Flier started walking forward. High Flier took a second longer and was about to say something, but in the end silently joined Shining Seed.

The foals walked beside each other, none of them wanting to get lost in the never ending dark corridors where each of their steps seemed to echo forever. No words were exchanged as the two colts wandered the corridors, a mixture of fear, awe and curiosity sealing their mouths shut. They passed many doors, ventilation shaft openings and even a few scattered clipboards, their hoofsteps on the metal floor constantly echoing back to them. Most of the corridors and doors seemed indistinguishable from each other, all but one.

Well, the door was like all the others, a plain slab of metal, but the colts could hear a loud humming sound coming from the other side. The foals curiosity was peaked, but both hesitated. Finally, Shining Seed pushed the green spot beside the door, relieved when it gave in and opened it.

On the other side was a large room illuminated by a bright, cyan light, which came from a huge glass sphere in the middle of the room. It lay on a metallic pedestal and had a massive cylinder connected to it from the roof. As Shining Seed got closer he saw that within the sphere was a shifting blue liquid with spots of marine blue scattered around. Surrounding the sphere were desks with several screens displaying readings and several smaller vials, which were connected to pipes going through the desk and into the floor. Each of these vials were filled with some kind of mysterious fluid, but the strangest one was a pulsing pitch black fluid that periodically let out pinpricks of blue and yellow light.

High Flier stared in awe at the construction in front of him and Shining Seed could feel those same feeling mirrored within him, but he had more self control than High Flier. The pegasus then galloped to look at a section of the desk which had its internal workings still uncovered. Shining Seed continued to stare at the machine, it was as if somepony had taken a sledgehammer to his entire worldview.

“Holy Celestia look at these runes, they aren’t even close to what we learn at the academy…” High Flier said, staring at one of the runic arrays within the desk but then snapping his head around to look at the screen above him instead. “and, holy, 50kCu from just this? Is that even possible?” High Flier went back to staring at the arrays, his hoof scratching against one as he did so.

While High Flier was gushing his heart out at all the technology around the room, Shining Seed stood speechless. Nothing in his father's fleet could compare to the machine in front of him. One look at the core and he could almost feel its power inside his bones, trying to twist him, destroy him, like an evil version of Celestia's sun. He trotted over to one of the intact desks. This one mostly had screens displaying text and graphs in green over a black background. He tried to decipher what was being shown but he couldn’t make heads or tails of what several screens were supposed to represent. Sure, he understood the simple ones like "energy output", "remaining fuel" and so on, but most of the screens showed weird things like constantly changing numbers, weird geometry and ever graphs of waves, all marked by weird names. What even was an “rpto” anyway? Suddenly the graphs and numbers stopped changing and a notification appeared in the top right corner of the screen. Shining Seed leaned in to investigate, but as he did so he heard a click.

There, under his hoof a yellow and black striped button was being pressed down. Shining Seed stared at it in horror and removed his hoof in shock. Realizing his mistake too late Shining Seed could only watch in horror as the button slowly went back to its original position.

An alarm started blaring, startling the foals and causing them to almost jump in shock. A deep metallic voice spoke from somewhere.

“Activating main reactor in 3 2 1....main reactor online.” When the voice had finished its announcement the noise from the orb increased, both foals were scared still and stared in fear at the orb as the cyan liquid was swallowed by the emerging marine blue.

“Error: no power output destination set upon startup, switching to default, powering all systems at default output.” The dim red light was replaced by bright white with a loud clack. The foals were blinded by the sudden change in lighting. When they regained their sight the entire room was now fully illuminated, and they could hear other lights around the ship properly turning on too. Several other weird noises joined the intensifying hum of the orb. A woosh there, grainy beeps from the other computers and the sound of turbines revving up, all adding into a deafening cacophony around the foals. Shining Seed clutched his ears and High Flier screamed.

“Warning: Overabundance of energy detected, exceeding safety limitations, attempting to vent. Surroundings unsuitable for venting, relocating.” The construction lurched, and the foals where thrown down from where they were standing. The sound of meta and wood crashing against solid rock could be heard coming from the outside. “Relocation unsuccessful attempting alternate relocation.” For a second there was no sound, no movement, nothing, even the hum stopped. Then, a pulsating sound began coming from under them.

“Preparation successful, relocating to destination: “org” in t-minus 5 minutes.” As the voice finished the lights slightly dimmed, the liquids in the vials began to flow into the pipes and the orb turned into a bright purple. The alarm resumed.

The foals ran, Shining Seed using whatever magic he could to try and fling himself forward and High Flier flapping his wings as fast as he could, but stumbling often and ending up about as far as Shining Seed. Despite the previously dark corridors being lit up it didn’t help them much, they were too identical and the panicking foals could barely understand where they were going. They ended up getting stuck in circles or running into dead ends quite often, but they still managed to make progress.

“T-minus 1 minute until relocation.”

High Flier shouted something to Shining Seed, the words being drowned by the panic and alarm, who after having turned around saw that High Flier was pointing at a sign labeled “emergency exit” which pointed to the right. Shining Seed quickly changed direction and galloped with High Flier beside him.

Finally Shining Seed saw it, the hatch out of the ship, at the far end of the hallway. They both threw themselves at it, lungs burning, tears in their eyes. Few seconds were left but Shining Seed was sure that they would make it.

“T-minus 10 seconds until relocation.” High Flier tried unlocking the hatch but it didn’t budge this time.

“Warning: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.” a sped up robotic voice said, coming from the button that High Flier had pressed. High Flier and Shining Seed couldn’t believe it. They both started pushing the button and pulling at the metallic trapdoor together but the message just repeated.

“Warning: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.”
“Warming: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.”
“Warning: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.”
“Warning: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.”
“Warning: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent relocation.”

“T-minus 5 seconds until relocation.”

Shining Seed thought of his home, his bedroom, his safe bedroom with his parents beside him, telling him it would all be okay.

“Error: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent-”
“Error: Airlock sealed shut due to imminent-”

High flier threw himself at the trap door once again, flailing at the thin layer of metal between him and safety.

“T-minus 3 seconds until relocation.”

“Warning: Airlock seal-Warning:Airlo-Warning:Airlock sealed”

“T-minus 2 seconds until relocation.”

“Warning:A-Warn”

“T-minus 1 seconds until relocation.”

“Wa-Wa-W-W-”

“Relocating.”

Author's Note

Feedback is always appreciated.

Chapter 2: In Transit

While the foals had been searching for a way off the ship, the ship itself was preparing. It began hovering in mid-air, slowly rising from its rocky bed and throwing off the sheet of scaffolding, kicking off clouds of rubble and stone wherever it hit. As the ship’s turbines began to rev up the ship aligned with a riveted metal gate on the same wall that had the entrance to the cave. Slowly, and with an ear-piercing screech, the sheets of metal slid apart, opening the way into a pitch-black tunnel. The ship ran its last-minute calculations.

“Relocating.” the ship's announcement system said, and the ship lurched forward. The ship’s body whistled as it quickly accelerated down the tunnel, squashing any insect unfortunate enough to have been in the tunnel at the time of launch. The roar of the engines joined the whistle of the ship and filled the tunnels and the cave behind them with a deafening cacophony.

The tunnel led to a hidden alcove etched into the sides of the great canter mountain, far below Canterlot, the exit another locked gate. As the ship approached the alcove rubble and dirt shook and a few fragile deposits of sediment even collapsed.

The second metal gate barely managed to open before the ship flew screeching past it, scattering the dirt that had been piled up on the gate across the alcove. The ship flew into the Equestrian skies, Canterlot turning into a mere white speck, and almost hitting Cloudsdale as it did so. The bright blue sky became darker and darker, and eventually, the ship became coated in flames for a few seconds before the sky turned pitch black just moments later. It continued to climb higher until Equestria was swallowed by the sight of the gargantuan planet upon which it rested.

A white field of distortion grew around the ship, hugging it like a second skin. Slowly it expanded until it formed an egg-shaped shield around it. The shield flickered and then, without so much as pausing to take a final look at the vast oceans, lush forests, and rocky mountains of the great planet behind it, the ship disappeared, leaving for parts unknown.

High Flier was holding onto the floor for dear life. Even though the ship wasn’t accelerating anymore, the sight of Shining Seed being slammed against the back wall when the ship first lurched was enough to dissuade High Flier from trying anything. The unicorn was now hunched against the wall, muttering something to himself.

The same hum that had permeated the reactor room was now everywhere, in the walls, in the floor, and beyond the hull of the ship.

The hum showed no signs of stopping and slowly but surely High Fliers iron grip on the floor loosened and he allowed his hoofs to slip out from under him. Now that he could finally form a coherent thought he could be sure that no longer did the acceleration of the ship threaten to smother him against the wall. Besides the pit in his stomach, everything seemed normal. He stood up, taking a deep breath of the stuffy air and took stock of his surroundings.

The lockers had remained rooted to the floor, but some of the loose panels in the corridor and the teal unicorn now lay haphazardly along the back wall. High Flier hesitated for a moment but decided to check if everything was ok with the bully.

“Hey, are you alive?” High Flier said, poking the unicorn, who in turn groaned and slowly opened his eyes, ceasing his muttering. For a moment his eyes stared into nothingness before the situation came rushing back to him, the foal's eyes narrowed and he began to breathe rapidly. High Flier kept staring at Shining Seed, unsure of what to do.

“Oh Celestia, what happened?” Shining Seed asked, staring pleadingly at High Flier, who in turn was taken aback by the sudden change in temperament. They continued to stare at each other until Shining Seed stood up. “Please tell me you know what happened! Where are we now, what does relocating mean? What does this thing do?” High Flier could see the edges of the Unicorn's eyes begin to water, and the longer he spent staring at those eyes, the same eyes that had once looked down upon him yet now begged him, the more he felt himself stiffen and frown. He sneered and turned away from the Unicorn.

“Why are you walking away! Your father's stupid machine has done Celestia knows what, now I’m trapped here, and my family is probably worried sick about me! How dare you walk away.” High Flier heard steps rapidly approaching behind him, and just as they were about to reach him he turned around, stopping Shining Seed in his tracks. He took a single step forward, pressing himself into the slightly taller unicorn, forcing him back.

“My father’s machine? You were the one to press the button Shining, you were the one who wanted to see it in the first place if it’s anypony's fault it’s yours!” High Flier said, punctuating each point with a hoof to Shining Seed’s chest. He kept a restrained tone, although some of his irritation seeped through. The unicorn shrunk under High Fliers gaze.

“Just shut up, Just shut up! Why did you have to bring us here?” The unicorn stared down and slumped against the wall, his head resting against an exposed pipe.

High Flier sneered, before huffing and staring down into the corridor at nothing in particular. Despite the storm of emotions raging within him, most of them aimed at the unicorn, he had to admit that he shared Shining Seed’s questions. He didn’t like being left in the dark, and he needed to know what exactly had happened to them and how to fix it. Luckily, unlike the unicorn, he did know a few pieces of info about their current situation.

He knew that the thing that Shining Seed called a “machine” was in actuality a spaceship. High Flier had known about his father’s secret project for quite some time. After all his father loved to gloat to whoever would listen without ridiculing him. Thus, he knew they were in fact probably traveling somewhere, but he didn’t know where. He grew irritated with his father again, if only he had shared something with his son for once. Then he would be able to fix this mess. High Flier felt irritation rising at the Unicorn, his Father but mostly himself. He chastised himself on giving way to the bully that had turned out to be such a wreck. He stared at the wall for a moment, wishing for once that he was back in his home.

He tried recalling any additional piece of information from his father, hoping it would shed some more light on his current predicament, but all his thoughts returned to the lingering feeling of irritation as it slowly boiled over into anger. Then High Flier remembered a particular detail about this ship, something that should have been obvious from the get-go to High Flier.

‘Father planned to assemble an expedition!’ Yes, if his father had intended for others to travel with him then he surely would have made his own study. A place where he could safely lock whatever he pleased away from prying eyes. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where it was. High Flier had resisted exploring the ship before besides sneaking in through the hatch to catch a glimpse of it once, the punishment he received had quickly discouraged any further expeditions. But now he had free reign of the ship, free reign of his father’s greatest project and free reign to comb through his father’s study once he found it.

At the realization all his fears and anxieties melted away, leaving only childish giddiness. He galloped off. He was grinning, excited at the prospect of finally having access to his father's secrets.

As he galloped away from the hatch, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Shining Seed stopped sulking and began following him. He was about to tell the unicorn to leave him alone but quickly forgot about it when his mind once again drifted back to the study.

High Flier wanted to start his search from the reactor, but he couldn’t remember the way for the life of him. He heard Shining Seed ask something behind him, but he tuned the Unicorn out, fixated on checking the walls for any signs like the ones that led them to the exit. He heard Shining Seed shout something angrily at him, but he ignored that too.

High Flier was so caught up that he didn’t notice that he entered a new room, connected to the corridors by a large doorless arch. High Flier snapped back to reality when he collided with a metal desk. Finally, after shaking off the collision, he noticed where he had ended up. As he looked across the room the study drifted out of his mind, this new room taking its place.

The room was circular, with several desks spread symmetrically across the room and cushioned chairs standing in front of each one. On every desk was a screen framed with metal displaying information in green and black, similar to the ones in the reactor. The walls had curved riveted sheets of metal covering the middle, contrasting the otherwise smooth walls. At the front of the room was a raised platform, upon it sat a sturdy looking chair and in front of it was a joystick. The desks that almost surrounded the chair were either covered in small switches or had rectangular outlines on them. Leading to the platform was a path outlined by ribbed yellow squares which were raised slightly above floor level. Above it all several oval lamps lit up the room in a pleasant glow. Unlike the corridors, this room looked complete.

High Flier's attention was caught by a couple of screens to the right of him, as they displayed the same data that the ones in the reactor did. Glancing at them High Flier was relieved by the absence of any red or any warnings. Another desk's screens were for keeping log of the individual components of the ship, and it seemed that despite the ship looking unfinished the screen stated that the vital components were present. But still, the percentage of completion displayed on one of the screens surprised High Flier, he knew the ship was unfinished, but how could it be only 30% finished when the vital components were present and the hull more or less finished?

“So, uh, High Flier, is everything okay with the machine?” Shining Seed asked, still reluctant to enter the room. High Flier wanted to make some snarky remark at first but found that his previous irritation had all but faded away.

“The ship has all of its components, so as long as we don’t crash into something then we could be able to make it back.” High Flier said. Shining Seed mulled over the words and High Flier went over to the raised section at the front of the room. He sat down in the chair and noticed that the wall in front of him was entirely covered by the metal sheets as opposed to only the middle.

“Wait, a ship? So you know what this thing is?” Shining Seed asked. High Flier swiveled his chair to the right, careful not to touch the joystick or any of the switches, and looked at the console. Below each of the levers there was an abbreviation etched into the metal and painted yellow.

‘This has to be the cockpit.’ High Flier thought, giving the room another once over, but this time with even more awe. For a second he imagined the desks staffed by all kinds of ponies and him sitting there as the pilot of the vessel. However, he came back from his fantasy when he noticed that Shining Seed was looking at him expectantly.

“Yes, my father wanted to use it to go somewhere.” High Flier said dismissively.

“That’s all?”

High Flier noticed that each screen had another functional side to it, and from the pilot's chair one caught his eye in particular. The screen displayed a plan of the entire ship. The ship was split into five sections, each being labeled and having each room within labeled as well. The first one was called “Main Deck”, and considering that it had a room at the front named “Command Center” that had a shape identical to the room he was in High Flier guessed that this was his current floor. Surprisingly it didn’t take him long to find the reactor and the hatch they had used to enter, but no sign of the study. But just then in the corner of his eye, he saw it, off on the opposite side of the main deck was a room labeled “workshop”.

‘Yes, that’s probably it.’ High Flier said and glanced at the plans of the other decks. Two were significantly smaller than the main deck, being labeled “Hangar Deck” and “Quarters” while the fourth section, named “Food and Water”, was roughly the size of the main deck. Additionally, next to the decks a veritable labyrinth of multicolored hallways was shown, which was called “Maintenance”.

High Flier was impressed, If his suspicions were correct then his father had managed to create a self-sustaining ship, which only made High Flier more excited to get into that workshop and lay his hoofs on the secrets within. He took a moment to commit the path there to memory and ran off, smiling and barely managing to contain an excited laugh as he did so.

He weaved through the metallic corridors, noticing that the closer he got to the workshop the more complete everything seemed: the wiring and plumbing weren’t exposed, the lights shined brighter and at one point the floor got a path of a blue material slightly reminiscent of plastic. The corridor also lost its cold and unfinished look and became almost arch-like with grey-beige walls. High Flier shuddered and then noticed the soft hum of an air conditioner. Shining Seed, who was following close behind High Flier seemed unsure but remained silent.

The hallway led them to a solid metal door, with a sign attached to the wall next to it.

Workshop

‘Finally, I’m here!’ High Flier let out a laugh, flying over to the door and pushing the familiar green button. The large room on the other side would have made him drool had he not had restraint. Shelves stood in rows, lined with tightly affixed reagents. His father had installed a personal library into the other side of the room, which was brimming with books. Blueprints and sketches were affixed to the walls, accompanying several almost completely filled out blackboards. In the middle of the room sat an empty table.

High Flier galloped into the room, taking note that tools and pieces of paper were strewn about close to the far wall. High Flier went over to the bookshelves, as he approached he noticed that the shelves had a long wooden panel that when attached to the sides of the bookshelf would cover a third of the books' height and keep them firmly in place on the bookshelf.

High Flier undid the flimsy lock with his wing and barely waited for the panel to slam against the shelf before diving for the books, grabbing more than he could carry and using the momentum of himself falling to glide over to the table and to drop them on it.

‘Yes, yes, alchemy, runes, wards, and enchantments! Seems my father wanted to be able to reference all of his books on his little trip.’ He opened the book about alchemy, which like the other books had a dozen bookmarks sticking out of it. Questions that he had had for several years now but denied to him were laid bare before him and he couldn’t stop himself from grinning. Then a hoof shook him, startling him out of his trance-like state.

“Wuh, uh” High Flier said, and saw that Shining Seed was staring back at him, angry.

“High Flier, why aren’t you getting us home! I have to get back to my family and you’re sitting here, enjoying yourself like this is some sort of vacation for you!” High Flier narrowed his eyes.

“Oh yeah, then mister heir, what am I supposed to do? If you haven’t noticed I’m not exactly an expert on spaceships.”

“Well, I expect you to not ignore me and to get your father's ship back to Canterlot. You were the one who was so intent on showing me this and you’re the only one who can fix it.”

“Oh really, now you need my help? Maybe it’s you who’s the failure.” at those words Shining Seed screamed and slammed the book shut, startling High Flier.

“You’ve just told me that we’re on a spaceship that’s flying who knows where, we’re miles away from our families and all you care about is to make fun of me?!” High Flier sneered at the unicorn's words.

“Oh so now it’s suddenly wrong to ridicule other ponies Shining?” Shining Seed broke, he grabbed High Flier with his hooves.

“You get me back to my family, right this instant! Or else I’ll, or else I’ll beat you up with my spells!” Shining Seed shouted, growing more confident by the second. High Flier stared at the unicorn, a growl escaping him, but he resigned himself. He told himself that he did not want to have to fight the unicorn because it could damage the books, however subconsciously he was also slightly afraid of what the unicorn might do to him.

High Flier started reaching for the books but Shining Seed cut him off, grabbing his hoof.

“How am I supposed to fix this and get you home if I can’t read my father's notes?” Shining Seed realized his mistake and let go, coughing awkwardly. The unicorn went to stand at the threshold of the door, keeping an eye on High Flier.

High Flier simply picked up the book about runes, surprisingly one of the bookmarks was titled “Relocation”. Opening the section revealed a multitude of drawings along with scattered notes explaining them, however, the notes were abrupt and often incomplete, only fully understandable to the pony that had written them. Despite the poor explanations High Flier began to get a picture of what had happened.

This “Relocation” was one of the main features of the ship and according to the notes allowed the ship to bend space around itself to travel across vast distances, distances so vast in fact, that High Flier could only stare at the numbers, unable to truly comprehend them. The book, however, didn’t go into the nitty-gritty detail of how relocation worked, rather it laid out different possible designs for runes that could be used to enhance it, and even there it was light on the technical details.

Several features ranging from keeping the reactor cooler during relocation to more ambitious concepts such as having relocation power itself without a reactor were suggested, accepted by a small v to the side or rejected, and crossed over by a large x. However, in this sea of notes, High Flier found something familiar. He had seen this rune before when inspecting the desk without the panel in the reactor. Reading what it did made his eyes widen.

“I got it!” High Flier shouted, and galloped out of the room, soon followed by Shining Seed. The satisfaction of having solved the puzzle propelled him forward at a breakneck pace through the slowly worsening corridors. High Flier stopped by the cockpit to look at the map. High Flier quickly found the reactor room again and went towards it as Shining Seed lingered for a second, taken aback by the map of the ship. But it didn’t take long for Shining Seed to notice that High Flier was disappearing. Unwilling to get left behind he ran after him again.

High Flier recognized the hallway, it was brighter than before but the hum was unmistakable and much louder than in the rest of the ship. He opened the door and stepped into the room, the nervous gaze of Shining Seed on him. As he entered the room he was bathed in the blue light of the reactor, the lights in the room having broken down. He strutted confidently up to the desks, searching for the exposed section.

He found the rune and put his hoof to it, but before he could start properly examining it he was interrupted by Shining Seed.

“Are you really sure you should mess with that? All of this was because… because of that orb thing.” High Flier stared at Shining Seed for a moment, before turning back and inspecting the rune closer.

“First off, it’s not an “orb thing” it’s a reactor and it’s what’s generating the energy for this ship” He tried tracing the etched lines of the rune with his hooves, only to be shocked and having to quickly jerk back his hoof. Shining Seed looked on in silence as High Flier rubbed his hoof and muttered something under his breath.

“Are you sure you know...”

“Yes, I’m sure!” High Flier cut the unicorn off, looking back at the rune and trying to find a point of entry.

“So what’s your plan?” High Flier gave up on the task, for now. Turning around to see that Shining Seed was standing uncomfortably close to him. He turned back to the rune, feeling irritation starting to rise within him.

“Relocation is basically a really powerful engine, and currently it is taking us far away from Equestria.”

“How, how far?”

“Far enough that we could spend thousands of years traveling and still not reach it.” If the unicorns gasp was anything to go by he had probably turned pale.

“So how are you going to fix it?”

“See this rune? It is something called a reversal rune, it stores all of the information the ship used to plot a course right here.” High Flier said, pointing to the glowing blue circle in the middle. “If this power is released then the ship would travel to its starting point by reversing the data stored within the mana.”

“But what about the planet's rotation?” Shining Seed asked. “If we went back to the place we had started from wouldn’t we be met by just end up in space?”

“Now see that’s the beautiful part of this rune” High Flier answered, looking back at the rune in question. “It’s based on the relative gravity of the location, so unless there is a location that has the same amount of planets with the same amount of mass and an exact copy of our sun within our galaxy then everything should go well.”

“And all of this was written in that book?” Shining Seed asked.

“However, this rune is, yes it was. As I was saying, it’s completely blocked while we’re traveling.”

“Are you sure?”

“I didn’t realize you were an expert on runes Shining Seed.”

“Well, are you sure? And what will happen if there is such a place?” High Flier seemed to mull it over for a second.

“I don’t know, but knowing my father it’d probably just not work, he was always one for backup plans.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t want to be torn in two because you thought everything would be fine.”

“Will you continue questioning my skills or will I be able to work on bringing us home? Or did you suddenly stop caring about your family?”

“Just shut up and fix this!”

“I’m trying!”

High Flier traced the impossibly difficult rune, then in a stroke of brilliance, he instead checked the other runes that surrounded it. Sure enough, each of them was connected to the reversal rune. He picked one of the surrounding runes at random, flooding it with the meager amount of mana that he had and directing it to the point where it connected to the reversal rune.

“Hey, what are you doing!” His mana fell apart and dissipated into the system from the sudden interruption. He looked at Shining Seed, irritation bleeding through his posture and eyes.

“I told you that as long as we’re traveling we can’t use this rune, and if I block one of the pathways to an essential system for relocation it should put us out of it and allow us to release the stored energy.”

“This can’t be the only way, you’re rushing this!”

“You have been nothing but unhelpful since we got here. You’ve done nothing but whine and complain while not trusting me to do what you threatened me to do!”

“You’re rushing this, what if the ship is not supposed to stop now and you’re just making everything worse?”

“Because, this ship's relocation system might run on liquid fuel for all I know and then it might, just might, be the case that my father chose not to keep an unfinished ship fully loaded with possibly flammable liquid. If that happens then we would be stranded millions of years away from Equestria.” Shining Seed fired back.

“Oh, so you looked at a book for ten minutes and now you think you suddenly know everything about this ship?” Both of the foals stared at each other for a moment.

Then High Flier snapped.

“Don’t question me!” He shouted, pouring mana relentlessly into the points of connection. Shining Seed stumbled back, and saw the reactor turn back to its original color. This only lasted for a single second, however, as the reactors shell next to the exposed runes shattered and an explosion erupted from within, blasting High Flier with the liquid and knocking Shining Seed off his hooves.

High Flier felt a wave of nausea hit him and his skin tingle, but he didn’t have the time necessary to react to it as the sound of the hull tearing apart could be heard for a second before all air started getting sucked out of the room through the open door. This also only lasted for a fraction of a second as doors quickly slammed against metal in the distance, stopping the flow of air, but the tearing of metal continued. The foals were thrown around the room like pebbles as the ship vibrated and turned erratically. Shining Seed collided with the pipes leading out of the reactor horn first, breaking them and causing a gas to be blown into the room. The foals choked on the thick gas, before colliding against each other and finally losing consciousness.

The foals walked beside each other, none daring to go ahead of the other, afraid of what might await them. There was no trace of the dark liquid on High Fliers coat, neither did Shining Seeds horn hurt and both foals looked fine, as if they hadn’t just been repeatedly slammed against metal.

Alarms had been blaring the same message over and over again since they awoke but they had long since tuned it out. Both their heads were buzzing and an uncomfortable weight had settled inside of them. Their hostility towards one another was forgotten, and when they entered the room that they had been dreading they could barely form a coherent thought.

In front of them, the cockpit was lit up by flickering lights, the metal sheets covering the middle had either retracted up into the wall or were floating off broken into space, revealing a long line of thick and clear windows. But what bothered them most wasn’t the beat-up exterior of the ship, no, it was what lay beyond it. A vast icy giant stretched out in front of them, storms visibly raging on the surface. To the sides, far in the distance lay a massive asteroid belt and a couple of moons. A red star lit up the surface of the frozen rock. The foals slumped against the floor, staring pleadingly at the planet. However, horror emerged on their faces as they saw the planet grow bigger in front of them, their fears validated.

The blaring alarms came back to the forefront of their minds along with the robotic voice which accompanied them.

“Warning: critical atmospheric entry in 3 hours. Warning: several critical systems have been damaged. Warning: critical atmospheric entry in 3 hours.”

Shining Seed started to cry, and honestly, High Flier was just about ready to do the same thing.

Chapter 3: Approaching Danger

Alarms blared, the hull groaned and yet the colts couldn’t so much as muster a single peep. Slowly, but surely, the planet took up more and more of their sight. As it grew the features, the very fine details of it came into view: the white peaks, basins, and the single massive raging snowstorm decorating the eastern part of the planet.

“Warning: critical atmospheric entry in 2.5 hours. Warning: several critical systems have been damaged. Warning: critical atmospheric entry in 2.5 hours.”

They were standing so close that Shining Seed could feel High Flier shake and feel his ragged breathing even reach his own fur. Shining Seed had long since stopped crying, but his tears still stained his sweaty fur. His legs were shaking too, he wanted to sit, he wanted to give in and lose control of them, but High Flier was still standing, and if he could stand then so would he.

Then, as if out of nowhere, while still staring at the planet, High Flier started falling. Slowly at first, but he quickly lost all pretense of control and collided loudly against a metal desk. Shining felt himself seize up for a second, that fall looked bad, yet High Flier himself showed no reaction.

Shining Seed breathed out, and sat down on the closest chair, he idly noted that it was surprisingly comfortable but it hardly mattered now. He looked back at the planet, and then to Shining Seed. He went over the scene playing out in front of him yet it just didn’t register with him. Everything felt wrong, why was he drifting towards his death, why was he here in the first place, and finally, why wasn’t he doing anything? He looked over the streams of data appearing on the nearby screen, despondently looking through them but all of it just flew through him, none of the data meant anything to him.

He eventually gave up, looking down at the desk as his breathing seemed to stop.

For a second he turned his head towards the planet, and when turning back he saw High Flier. Shining Seed once again saw the weird, meek outsider that he had always seen, rather than the detached yet determined colt he had talked to just a few hours, or maybe minutes earlier. Yet the deep red light reflecting off his vacant eyes, the same light that colored his once orange coat a few shades darker, seemed to highlight something else as well. His body was still shaking, his mouth slightly open and fixated on the giant in front of them. And then it hit Shining Seed, he looked down on his own shaking hooves and then looked to the planet, his vision was tainted red too. He choked out a quiet laugh.

He thought back to the academy, it had happened just a few hours ago and yet it felt a lifetime away. Shining Seed didn’t want to admit it, but he knew that if he had just shut up that one time he...no, they, wouldn't be in this situation. His father had always told him that a captain was responsible for his ship, and although this one wasn’t his, he had helped sink it nonetheless. He had done so much, worked hard every single day so that his father’s legacy would endure, but in the end, he had acted like a fool and ruined everything. He had failed.

“High Flier...” The other pony slowly turned his head and stared into Shining Seeds' eyes. Shining Seed fell silent.

Without so much as saying a word High Flier went back to staring at the planet, and Shining Seed did the same. He stared and stared and stared and stared.

It was oddly peaceful in a grim way, the clouds moving across the icy wastelands as their features grew more and more defined. It reminded Shining Seed of the clouds above his home, of when his father took him out on one of his airships. First on those small and old gondolas barely fit to be called vessels, and each time after those first few years on steadily bigger and nicer ones. Now, long since he had last flown with his father he was returning to the clouds.

Shining Seed jerked from the sudden noise. Turning around he saw High Flier on his hooves, shaking and looking down onto the ground. Shining Seed wanted to say something, yet each word stuck to his throat as if glued to his flesh. High Flier tried pushing on forward but something stopped him, freezing him in place. Then, with a jerk of his head, he stared straight ahead and walked forward. Just as his weird movements had come, so too did they cease, since when High Flier walked over to the pilot's seat he walked normally, in an almost relaxed fashion.

High Flier looked at the different buttons, staring at some before huffing in frustration while leaving others in disappointment without so much as a glance. High Flier even fiddled with the joystick next to the seat, but the ship didn’t respond. High Flier left the pilot's area much more irritated and at a faster pace than when he’d arrived. He soon obscured his body behind the screen with the map of the ship.

The sound of a keyboard emerged from behind the screen, refusing to be drowned out by the alarm, before a cry of frustration followed. High Flier ran to the windows on the left side of the cockpit and stomped the ground in frustration. Coming back he was physically crestfallen and slumped back against the ground without so much as a word. Shining Seed stared at him for the longest time before finally being able to ask his question.

“What is it?”

High Flier responded by staring at Shining Seed, he kept it up for a second before letting his head sink down.

“We’re doomed.”

Shining Seed had to take a moment to process what the colt had said. Somehow hearing the other foal saying it was miles worse than the obvious reality approaching them outside.

“What?”

“I said that we’re doomed! Do I really need to repeat myself?”

“How?” Shining Seed asked, but got no response. “Please, High Flier, I’m sorry for how I talked to you, I was, I was just teasing you, just tell me what’s going on! Please!” The words made High Flier stare daggers at him, and he flinched. High Flier shook his head, and his words took on a tone of hysteria.

“When I… when the gathering rune was interrupted the ship probably couldn’t tolerate such a fast deacceleration, I think. Because of this the ship’s hull, its body, imploded in several places. In other words, the ship is more or less crushed and split wide open.” High Flier took a moment to get his breathing under control. “When it broke down it seems to have been on a course towards this planet, and since the ship is broken we can’t alter the course.” The two foals didn’t say a word as the blaring alarm took over the room once more.

“But aren’t we on a ship? Can’t we just use our engines to correct our course? Or were those broken.”

“The map of the ship…” High Flier pointed a shaking hoof towards the screen by the pilot’s chair. “the live version, that’s supposed to show the condition of each room is cut off from the main engines, as are the controls by the pilot's chair.”

“But if there’s a chance they’re intact why can’t we just go there and check it out? Most of the engines on airships have a way to manually control them if the need calls for it, after all, I’m sure that...”

“I know that you moron! Are you even listening to me, I said that the ship was split open, what THAT means is that many rooms are currently filled with the cold vacuum of space which in turn means that we would die going there, so unless you have a magic spell to breathe and keep yourself safe from the temperature out there you can keep your mouth shut! And even if there was a possibility, just the faintest chance that we could reach them they would already have leaked out too much fuel for us to use them. I checked.” Shining Seed shrunk back as the other foal assaulted him, his crimson bathed form imposing on him in ways few had dared before. He looked back at the sun, the planet, the pieces of debris outside and opened his mouth in a grimace teetering on the edge of tears.

He needed to see them, the engines, his family was one of airship pilots after all! The kings of the skies and of all things that flew, if there was anyone that would know about engines here it would be him. The heir of the skies and the seed family.

He walked over to the nearby window, the eyes of High Flier still boring into his back. What he saw made him cringe. The entirety of the ship had been bent at a 45-degree angle, giving him a good view of the busted exterior of the ship as well as the insides of many rooms, which were slowly emptying their contents as the ship drifted along to its doom. The engine on this side of the ship, surprisingly, had gotten off easy, only having been punctured in a few places, which were now only barely leaking a sparkling orange fluid.

The longer he stared at the corpse that could barely be called a ship anymore the more he was filled with despair.

He jumped in shock as High Flier put his hooves around him, turning him to face him. He had once again returned to his meek disposition: his face was down, his body shook and he stuttered something under his breath. Then, with a surge of energy, he lifted his face and looked deep into Shining's eyes, his own on the verge of crying.

“Look, please just tell me that you’ve got an idea, something, anything! I don’t want to die. I’ve checked everything, but maybe you know something, something that I forgot to check! Anything!”

“Come on Seed, keep a cool head, and think!” He heard a voice from his past tell him.

He gathered his resolve and brought himself back, no, he would not cry now, his first ship would NOT be sinking. High Flier seemed to notice the change within Shining Seed as well, and calmed down, his lips beginning to form the outlines of a hopeful smile even as his eyes were still shaking.

He thought back to what High Flier had told him, going through the information and immediately discarding the easy plans that were already out of the question. But in the end, everything came back to the leaking engines, they would need them to live.

“Do you happen to know approximately how long we were out?” Shining Seed asked High Flier as he went back to scrutinizing the engines with a fervent glare.

“I didn’t feel that much head pain when waking up so I’d say a whil… oh...” High Flier didn’t even finish his sentence before joining Shining Seed beside the window.

“I told you, I checked. And with how little fuel is escaping from the tank I’d say that most of what we had has already left the fuel tanks, and is being obscured by the ship’s rotating body. ” the dejected look came upon his face again.

“So, how much fuel do we have? How much have we lost!”

“The fuel chamber should be pressurized and since it’s barely leaking anything, not much could be left in there. I can’t tell you the exact number since the main engines are disconnected.” High Flier said, annoyance worming its way back into his voice.

High Flier slammed his hoof down on the edge of the window, cursing his situation. But looking back at the fuel stirred a forgotten memory.

“Wait could that be?” He took another glance at the liquid drifting out in unstable bubbles. The shape, the form, the amber-like coloring, it had to be. “Isn’t that ex-fuel?”

“What is that?”

“Ex-fuel, I heard my dad mention some griffon investors were looking for ships using this sort of fuel, apparently it’s so strong that the main problem is preventing it from releasing too much energy and due to the danger it’s also banned in Equestria, but since we have so little maybe that won’t be a problem!”

“Which means that...” High Flier started

“We might have enough fuel to escape! And it makes sense for your dad to use this because my dad said that while it is dangerous, it is also extremely efficient and takes a long time to use up. Yes! That is definitely ex-fuel.”

High Flier let his smile fully form.

“It’s worth a shot.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long break. I was procrastinating like crazy.