Carry On

The air inside the helmet was pure, lacking any mutations that would come from the congested, sharp, sandy air. However, it was a dull purity--nothing interesting would ever come of the basic filters of the black, multirole armor. Open Sky reflected on this duality while on her trek, leading the immortal company beind her.

Two sides of a coin, she summed it up succintly inside a wandering mind inside an enclosed suit surrounding a wandering body.

The pegasus would occasionally take flight, wings moving remarkably fluidly within the plated enclosure. She'd given Discord a marker bead, a sort of tracking device, in order to stay with them while she moved. He could see where the shuttle was, as could Open Sky with her own systems. That allowed the pilot to do a bit of aerial reconnaisance.

Once more the pegasus took a running leap and spiraled upwards. A curious sense of being lifted followed her, as Open Sky couldn't feel the wind against her coat, black-and-yellow mane tumbling with it, or the air against her feathers. She continued to climb through  thickening layers of muck, each one's particles increasing in speed while Open Sky moved up. Small dingdingding noises of tiny grains were occasionally accompanied by heavy whoop sounds of rocky chunks impacting and scratching the armor.

Wind whistled past with growing ardor, hissing by like a snake but as though someone had lowered its pitch. The great dialouge of it was eery and frightening as it threw Open Sky around like a ragdoll. She fought for control over this great beast. She was reminded of being plunged under the waves on the beaches of her home, the sensation of drowning despite being so near the surface. Despite having air this time, the lack of control was far greater and frightening.

Open Sky rolled like a barrel cast from a sailing ship, yet thankfully the mass of dust she was in was so thick she became buoyant in it, rising. In pain and acutely aware of the danger, Open Sky leveled herself, and the moved up further. Even now, though, air was pounding against her advance, relentless.

Her wing on the right side slipped an inch.

Shit, was Open Sky's only thought before once again being violently kicked around thanks to her mistake. She tried to move down. Immediately, another blow came. Not helping.

Now she was simply falling back to ground, failing in her mission.

Except... a strange feeling began to fill her as she popped out through the low end of the clouds. With a snap, a purple-black rope bound her up from nowhere. Open Sky became totally paralyzed. The tempo of her heart and breath was so fast it threatened to fail. Something had happened, something she had no control over, and it was about to kill her unless she could just free her wings. Slow her descent. Dodge death. Miraculously save herself.

  Suddenly, Open Sky burst through the dirt clouds--at the top this time, the massive star blinding her with a startlingly leviathan presence. Had she just... teleported? It was something she'd barely even heard of, spoken in harsh whispers only in the deepest corners of the most sacred halls of the greatest magical institutions.

The visor of her helmet dimmed to a near-opaque level, only mildly compensating for the beautiful power and ferocity of the dying thing far above. The throes of its horror seemed to drive it to monstrous size.

Open Sky settled on a cloud, and observed the impressive silence of the world about her. Nothing stirred. Her heart settled. The fear left her bones. Far, far below, she could see the point of the shuttle beacon and Discord, each nearly ten thousand meters down. Without her armor, she'd be unable to breathe or to survive the temperature, marked at -85, in spite of the massive star.

With a deep inhalation of her pure, dull air, the pegasus reclined supinely on the soft cushion below her, and looked out at the thousands of others all around, densely packed, as far as the eye could see. Forever. Perpetually stretching out, hardly moving, locked into place while being totally free of chains.

It did no good for the purposes of her "reconnaisance," however. Couldn't see shit from this wonderful view. Oh well.

Steadily, the numbers on her HUD ticked below her, indicating Discord at least was still going. Slow, but moving ever closer. The party was probably about five kilometers out. Open Sky closed her eyes and exhaled, weary from the events of the day. In the space of six hours she'd landed on her ancestor's homeworld, seen some of her good friends vaporized by some unknown hostile force, found four immortal beings in reconciliation, been teleported (still puzzling) and just now was starting to process it all. Open Sky wanted to weep with grief and cry out in a feverish joy, but the two seemed to cancel into mute apathy.

"Nice up here, isn't it?"

Open Sky jumped from her cloud bed, spinning about. Oh thank Celestia, it was just--

Celestia. Oh.

"Y-yeah. I guess it is," Open Sky replied hesitantly. She certainly wasn't expecting company. "How'd you get up here?"

Celestia licked her bare lips, which shone crystalline white in the golden cold. "Discord saw your beacon was erratic and then had stopped moving, so I teleported up here to check on you."

"You can teleport?" Open Sky said incredulously.

The princess looked a little bit bemused, as a mother would when instructing a child--firm, but light. "Yes, of course. I am probably one of the most powerful living beings in existence--at least, on my own. Naturally, I have to draw power from the sun to survive; actually, I'm killing the star. However, were I to die it would fall as well. We were born interlinked."

The pegasus was blank for a moment, unsure of what strain of conversation to pursue first: the star or the teleport. "See, funny thing. I actually started to fall when I was coming up here. Then, all of a sudden, I blinked and boom, here I am. Was that... you?"

Princess Celestia shook her head. "No. There are only two who ever lived capable of external teleportation; that is, moving something a long distance instantaneously without touching it and without going with it. Both are long dead, and I am fairly certain their descendants are unaware of their heritage, they are dead, or they are so far diluted in their genes it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. As for who it was that moved you, I cannot say. You talked about your friends disappearing before your eyes. Was it like that?"

Open Sky shook her head vigourously. "No, not at all. I was encircled by black strands, but they were consumed in blue, and they were killed. Comparatively, theirs was far more gradual. Not to mention, there were more of them and there was a source." She felt very disconnected as she said it, almost as though her mouth was moving of its own accord.

"Hm." The lack of emotion seemed to consume even the former monarch now, who was looking down, pondering. "Well, I have no ideas. Anyways, aren't you supposed to be scouting ahead for us?"

The pilot huffed. "Heh. I guess there isn't a whole lot of a view up here. Down, then?"

"Down," Celestia replied.

"Race ya'!" Open Sky called.

However, just as she was about to dive headfirst into the clouds and back to the ground-based group, a thunderous roar filled her ears, and the helmet shut off its external audio recievers. The sudden sound made her eyes snap shut, and when she finally opened them again, a storm of massive black craft were swooping down like gigantic birds all around her.

Celestia cried out towards Open Sky, but got no reply. She tapped her shoulder and yelled again when the pegasus turned to her.

The pilot nudged a knob on the side of the helmet, staring into Celestia's face and trying to read her lips.

"--are those things?" The dialouge came in, and even from that snippet Open Sky knew what Celestia was asking.

"It's the destroyer and frigate flotilla that was docked with the Morning Star," she yelled back, trying desperately to be heard over the incoming spaceships. "I have no clue what they're doing here!"

Celestia became very serious quite quickly. "We need to get back down and get to your shuttle, and with some haste!"

"Agreed. Let's go!" Open Sky replied, wasting no time. Her military mind started to work with a clocklike efficiency. A nagging nugget of anxiety kicked at the rough layers of training, and Open Sky tried to ignore the fear that she'd fuck something up.

Pushing the thought aside, the pilot held her wings to her side and dove after the Princess, who had already begun sailing lower through the clouds.

Once more the mass of dust and debris assaulted the pegasus. She was starting to lose control again, and was furiously waging war with her wings against the onslaught. Gusts threatened to send her flailing and into a deadly spiral. With a practiced ease, she moved with the currents, yet all the while under the impression her training had not prepared her for something.

Open Sky hit the lower layers of the pack of matter that seemed to constitute clouds. Things were a slightly more relaxed here, but she still stayed attentive.

Finally, light bloomed. She was out, out, out, away from the mess of threatening sky. The earth raced forward to meet her fall. Open Sky's wings pulled out slowly, and with a frightful snap caught the wind. More steadily, now, she descended, still at a rocketing pace, yet slower and more controlled. She was probably at terminal velocity, at least.

Once the immortals became figures at the edge of her vision, she countered gravity with her wings, pushing up yet still dropping. Now, though, her speed was almost gone.

They were still moving forward below her. Open Sky tucked herself together and let the armor do its job. A last thump brought her to a stop a good twenty meters ahead of the group.

She rose, waiting. A few moments passed and the group was with her.

"I explained exactly what you told me," Celestia reassured Open Sky. "They know in some sense what is going on."

"Good," was the pegasus' only response.

Chrysalis chimed in sarcastically. "By 'in some sense' she means 'none at all.'"

"To be honest with you, I don't know much either. All I know for right now is that that group of ships was the Morning Star's support flotilla. We need to get to the shuttle, and find out what's going on," Open Sky tried to list her priorities.

"So we have a plan?" Luna asked.

"Tentatively. When we find out more it will evolve," Open Sky replied.

"A static plan is no plan at all," Luna said, rather sagely.

***************

"Sir, I have readings from the remaining sensors. There are at least ten contacts descending from high orbit, maybe more and possibly less, I can't tell. From size and shape they appear to be the Wings of Harmony flotilla," Wesley said from his post in the compact shuttle.

"They're here? Oh thank Celestia, we're saved, it's over, yes!" Harrier called from his hiding corner.

"Marine, I get the feeling the shows' just about to begin. Don't mean to be the downer, but don't get your hopes up," Captain Ares said flatly. "Wesley, can you use the point-to-point and get a signal to one of the ships?"

Eastley chimed in quickly, blue fur appearing from nowhere, voice rattling. "The odds of hitting the relay on a moving target of the sizes present is astronomically low, something like one in one thousand. No, exactly one in one thousand eighty three point four," the unicorn did all of the calculations in his head while his eyes stared blankly off into nothing.

"Like he said, sir, they're too fast and too small to get a straight shot." Wesley continued.

"Distress beacon is wide-range long distance. Possible to reroute the signal? Failure could destroy beacon and point-to-point laser relay, rendering communication impossible," Eastley's mouth moved at an incredible rate, spewing out words.

Ares nodded thoughtfully, and said, "Wes, it's your choice. The beacon is shot, but we might be able to repair it. If we fail it's toast. We could scrap it immediately and send our message through it. Your call, since you know more about this kind of stuff."

Wes bit his lower lip and pondered, sucking in breaths periodically. "We'll reroute the signal. East, could y-"

"Done," Eastley said, still telekinetically holding bits of metal.

"Alrighty then. I might just be able to make this work..." Wesley said, and his horn's magic pressed furiously on a holographic keyboard.

Several minutes passed in complete silence, aside from the out of place beeps from the keyboard being tapped.

"Almost there... got it!" Wesley cried out triumphantly, front hoof raised. "I've tricked the beacon and the point-to-point computers into thinking they are compatible--which they are, thanks to Eastley's speedy tinkering. I can say anything to them, Captain. What's the word?"

"Send them our coordinates and explain everything that has happened since landing. If possible, get me a connection."

Wesley typed at a furious, breakneck pace. When he was done, one reply appeared on screen:

WINGS OF HARMONY SHUTTLE 2 INBOUND FOR PICKUP

Then:

ETA TWELVE MINUTES

"Nothing after that, sir. Cuts right off," Wesley stated the obvious.

"Well, we'll be out of here soon, at least. I, for one, am ready to leave."