Prologue - Beginning of a journey

Prologue

A sigh was heard in the empty room, it sounded nervous, but also a bit relieved.
Laughter was heard in the background, but it seemed distant as the young mare was brimming with different thoughts of the task that laid ahead. The officials had reported that it would be safe, but just the thought of there being a military ship along with the Von Braun on it's maiden voyage made her uncertain. The mare shook off her uncertainty, she had decided this last meeting with her friends before the voyage would be a joyful one, but she just had this uncanny feeling.

“Twi, are y’all alright?”

The mare turned around, a bit startled, and saw her friend standing in the doorway with a concerned look. “I am fine. Just thinking about the trip ahead of us.” she said with a sigh and looked down at the floor. The mare in the doorway moved closer to her and put a hoof under her chin, making her look up at her friend. She saw a smile, but as she looked into the eyes of her friend, she saw mixed emotions in the green orbs.

“We'll be alright sugarcube, as long as we are all together.” Her friend said with a thick accent filled with concern and certainty.

She looked up at her friend with a smile. “Yeah, we have done a couple of unbelievable things together I guess. Let's not make the others wait anymore.” She gave her friend a quick hug and took the tray behind her containing some drinks for the group, this was why she had gone to this room at first anyway.

She found herself in a living room which had quite a lot of books and study material, her own living room where she had spent much of her time studying the last couple of years. But now it was not the books which drew her attention. Around her couch table she saw four other mares of different colors, all her friends. She smiled at the sight as she sat down with the drinks, one last careless night for a while would be alright.

The apartment was filled with laughter until the late night when they all had to part. It was a heartwarming goodbye, but also kind of sad, they wouldn't be able to meet as much within Von Braun, but they would always be close to each other.

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The night had gone by in the blink of an eye, but had felt like an eternity, at least for the lavender mare Twilight, who had some of the worst nightmares and light sleep of her life. She didn't want to think about those dreams, they were disturbing and would probably be lingering in the back of her mind anyway. She looked into the bathroom mirror, indigo eyes with bags under them looking back at her. 'A shower and some coffee will hopefully wake me up, I don't want the others to worry about me' she thought for herself as she went for the shower.

The nice, cool water rained down upon her. It felt nice as the water almost ripped the drowsiness away from her. She slowly turned the heat of the water up so it went from a waking chill to a nice and warm summer downpour. After she was done she dried herself with a towel and went for breakfast. Nothing special happened this morning.

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“Name and registration number please.” A sturdy gray stallion with a grayish blue mane said to her as she was boarding the ship.

“Twilight Sparkle, G65434-2.” She stated quickly and was given an access card and ID for the upcoming mission.

“Name and registration number please.” The stallion continued to the next pony in line, this one Cyan with a multicolored rainbow mane.

“Rainbow Dash, sharpest sharpshooter in the Marine, registration number P65728-7” The mare said with a grin. Twilight chuckled quietly at this, Rainbow was always quick to brag about her abilities, but to her defense, she didn't brag about something that wasn't true.

“I am glad we get to work together at least Dash” She said to Rainbow Dash as they were now walking towards their work area to check it out before settling down, they had no luggage as all they needed had been transferred before all the personnel got there.

“Yeah, it's a great relief, I mean, so you don't have to be lonely that is! I can take anything you know.” Rainbow answered with a confident smile. Twilight just smiled at her friend as they continued.

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The tour of the Rickenbucker, the military ship that was docked to the Von Braun to protect in case of something going wrong, went by quickly. The Rickenbucker was a state of the art ship, nothing one would want to meet in a fight, even with a fleet, especially now that the ship had the best military personnel too.

The two friends started walking towards the military crew quarters to check their rooms. They had to check so they knew how to get to them so they didn’t get lost.

“It makes me a bit nervous that we get such a big first mission, the Rickenbucker of all ships to, it's kind of big.” Twilight said with a slight shiver as she looked back in the corridor of the ship while.

“Nothing is too big for me, and this isn't my first mission you know.” Rainbow shrugged.

'That's right, Dash had completed her training early so she had a mission before this one.' She thought while looking at her friend.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Rainbow asked after a while. “Do I have something on my face?” She asked as she tried to look around for a mirror or a reflective surface.

“No, no, I was just thinking, that's all. About us and our friends, I do hope they are fine.” Her eyes suddenly had a slight sad glimmer to them, she did not like the feeling she still had from her dreams.

“They are fine, I bet we will see them at lunch in a couple of days at least, otherwise you can always send an email.” Rainbow said.

Twilight smiled at her a bit and suddenly realized she was at her room. “Well, this is my room, I will make sure I am settled in alright and then we can go and check out the Von Braun together as we said earlier, okay?” She said to Rainbow who just nodded and went further into the corridor. Too bad they didn't have their rooms very close to each other but it was good that they were in the same quarters at least.

She went into her room and looked around a bit, her little bit of luggage was on her bed, she had only brought a few clothing changes, all other things she needed she could get on the ship. Her thoughts went back to her friends as she got things ready, she hoped they were OK.

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“Name and registration number please.” The stallion asked.

“F-Fluttershy.” she almost whimpered, there were so many ponies around her and she felt uncomfortable. She felt a slight nudge from behind, she looked back and saw her friends, this made her a bit more comfortable and made her think of the line building behind her. “Fluttershy, registration number H65614-8” She said quietly, but steady. She smiled a bit as she got her ID and access card, she was done and now she could just wait in the background.

The process went quickly with her three friends that were with her, she knew they would split up soon but was glad they had prepared to meet on their way in. It was a bit sad that they didn't get to meet Rainbow and Twilight this morning, but she understood it as those two were military personnel for the Rickenbucker and not for the Von Braun. They would get to meet in time though.

Fluttershy's thoughts went back to her school a bit, she had went to med school so she could take care of all the ponies that were hurt. She was glad she got this job, it wasn't easy to get but she did it with some strings being pulled by Twilight. That mare had impressive contacts.

The small group was quiet while walking towards the ship, they knew they had lots of work ahead of them and that they wouldn't be able to spend as much time together as before. It saddened them all a bit but they cheered up almost as quickly thinking about that they still had each other.

They all got to their quarters after saying goodbye and agreeing on a time and a meeting spot for some touring later. After they had settled in the friends felt a slight shiver and an uncanny feeling. What would this journey bring them and what would it take away?

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The alicorn stood on her balcony looking out towards the majestic city, her kingdom, laying below her.
It was a magnificent sight, Canterlot, the head capitol of Equestria.
The city was almost never quiet or dark, the mechanical inventions were everywhere these days.

“Are you certain they will be able to accomplish this mission sister?”

The majestic white alicorn turned towards her sister, she hadn’t noticed the smaller alicorn entering the balcony. Looking back towards the city she answered “If there is one thing I know, it’s that their friendship will give them the power to push through anything as long as they are together.” She was confident in her personal star student and said student’s friends, they kept each other safe. Her sister seemed to quiet down for a while.

“I sure hope you are right, as you usually are sister, it’s just that I have this peculiar feeling about this mission..” Luna said after a silent moment and went forward to her sister.

“I sure hope so too...” Celestia mumbled quietly to herself.

Chapter 1 - The journey starts

Chapter 1

“Hurry up Rarity! I don’t wanna be late for the meeting!” The pink party pony supreme said with an irritated tone towards her fashionista friend. She wasn’t a pony known for being late alright!

“I am doing the best I can darling! It is just hideous how they handled my belongings!” Rarity called out in distress. Her precious luggage had been carelessly thrown around before transported to their room, at least she thought so. She had to personally check all of her things and make sure they were alright before she would budge.

“But we need to hurry, you can check your stuff later!” Pinkie called out. She didn’t wanna be late! She had even said so to Rarity!

“Just a moment darling.” Rarity stressed as she was picking among her things.

Pinkie sat down on her bed with a sigh. She looked at Rarity, the white unicorn was doing her best at hurrying up. She let out a quiet giggle as she watched her stress about, she was adorable. Trying to hurry her up more would just make things worse. She just had to look at the bright side of things, she shared a room with her and they would soon get to meet two of their other friends again. They would understand why they were late.

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“What in tarnation are those ponies up to? They’re almost an hour late!” Applejack said loudly while stomping her hooves at the ground and looked at her yellow pegasus friend while trying to vent out her irritation.

“I-I’m... s-sor..ry...” Fluttershy whispered as she quickly shied back and whimpered slightly from getting such a stern look.

Applejack quickly realised what she had done and let out a sigh. “Ah’m sorry sugarcube, ah’m just a might irritated at them, is all. It’s not yer fault.” She said to her friend and nuzzled her slightly to calm her down. It seemed to work as Fluttershy stopped whimpering.

“Oooh, snuggle party!” Somepony called out. They fell into a pile on the floor as they were tackled by a pink blur.

“Pinkie, what the hay are you up to?” Applejack yelled at the party pony as she struggled to rise from the pile before they had more attention than they already had. Which didn’t go very well.

“I just can’t let you have all the snuggly fun, can I?” Pinkie giggled as she wrestled with her two friends.

“P-Pinkie....” Fluttershy struggled half-hearted, it was nice to hug, but embarrassing in such a public area and that it looked like a wrestling match.

“Stop this nonsense Pinkie, you are a lady and should behave as such!” Rarity complained at her friend as she saw the scene. Before she could react she was dragged into the wrestling match.

“Awww, don’t be such a Grumpy McGrumpypants Rarity, join the fun!” Pinkie giggled as she pulled her friend into the pile. This was quite the scene now. The pile in the middle of the crew quarters floor started to draw quite much attention.

After a good five to ten minute “brawl”, Applejack finally got out of the pile. She looked at the commotion the group had made, about twenty five ponies stood around while snickering and whispering amongst each other. “OK, enough is enough, the show is over everypony!” She said loudly to the surrounding group as she watched the pile for a good timing. There it was. In an instant Applejack shoved her front hooves into the pile, grabbed a momentary pink blur and dragged out Pinkie. The pink pony didn’t try to resist as she was grabbed and just let it happen while she was giggling immensely. The other two ponies stood up, looking embarrassed as they tried to hold their faces.

“Thank you for saving us, dear.” Rarity said to Applejack and then turned to the Pink giggling pony in her friends hooves. “That was just awful Pinkie! Wrestling us down upon the floor in such an uncivilised matter!” Rarity continued as she scolded Pinkie, which didn’t seem to react very much as she just continued giggling.

Applejack let go of Pinkie just to see her friend fall down on the floor and starting to laugh louder now, her eyes tearing. ‘What in tarnation might be that fun?’ She thought with a sigh. A smile crept up on her lips, it was kind of funny to see Rarity all fuzzed up like that, her mane was tangled and messed up, and scolding Pinkie with that look didn’t seem very serious at all. Pinkie had obviously not been gentle with the fashionista.

“And what are you smiling about?” Rarity said to Applejack as she had seen the smile creeping up on her friends lips.

“Oh don't fret about it.” Applejack answered quickly. “It’s nothing you can’t handle.”

At this Rarity just frowned. “Of course I can handle this, you will just have to wait a few more seconds while I go fix it.” She said with contempt and went to the mares room.

Pinkie continued to laugh for a bit as her friends just looked at her, all of them smiling at her. She could certainly bring a smile to anyone. “What?” She said after she stopped her laughing fit, still wearing a great smile. Her friends just continued to look as they started laughing, and Pinkie continued to laugh with them. This was going to be an awesome trip.

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“So, when do we depart?” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight. They had just gotten back from their tour of the ship, which didn’t take long. They didn’t really need to look around much as they knew most of the ships layout already. Now she was laying on her back on Twilight’s bed. The room was a small single room with just a bed, a desk with a sitting cushion and some digital frames on the walls. The frames all had different paintings, but they were just the same old boring classical stuff that was so typical of Twilight.

“Well, in the report we got an hour ago they stated that we would be departing at 0800 hours.” Twilight answered matter-of-factly as she rechecked her wrist PDA, standard issue in her division. “Didn’t you get it?” She said as she looked back over at Rainbow who was now sitting up on the bed, who replied with a sigh.

“Yeah, I think I got something about an hour ago.” She said as she laid down on her back again. She didn’t really care to read some message she got unless it was something important or urgent. Or if it was something from a friend of course. Her friend just stared her for a bit.

“You don’t read the messages from the military department?” Twilight asked slightly dumbfounded. She knew Rainbow was a bit lazy, but not caring to read the messages from their military department? That was a bit too much.

“Urgh, don’t you start this with me, you know I don’t like reading!” Rainbow exclaimed as she sat up again. “Besides, I read the important ones.” She added quickly before Twilight could answer, she did not want this argument started, especially not with her egghead friend.

“Only the important ones?” Twilight said loudly as she moved closer to her friend. “How could you know which ones are important if you only read some of them?!” She exclaimed, this was absolutely absurd, all messages should at least be checked quickly!

“I read the ones titled ‘Important!’, those should be the only important ones!” Rainbow called out irritatedly and stood up right in front of Twilight, she would stand further back if there was room for it. She looked as irritated as she sounded.

Twilight was dumbstruck, her mouth slightly ajar as she simply stared at her cyan friend. This was probably the most stupid thing she had heard for quite a while. She shook her head, bringing her hoof to her forehead. “So. You say that the only messages important enough to read is the ones titled ‘important’? That is so stupid, so... Irresponsible!” She almost yelled at this point, she knew Rainbow was irresponsible, much because of laziness, but this much?

“I will not take this from you! I’m out of here!” Dash yelled back at Twilight as she stomped out from Twilight’s room. Sure, she didn’t read all the messages, but that did not make her stupid in anyway, irresponsible, sure, but not stupid!

Twilight just stared after the rainbow blur leaving her room in a dash. She quickly realised what she said and sprung towards the corridor outside her room. Seeing a rainbow colored tail rounding a corner further away she already knew it would be futile to try and follow, her friend was simply too fast. She decided to send Rainbow a message hoping that she would read it and then she decided to do some reading about the mission, she had already read about it a few times but repetition brings perfection.

Rainbow went to her room and locked the door behind her not really feeling to do anything so she laid down on the bed. It was getting late and it would be good to get some sleep anyway, even though she wasn’t really that tired. ‘Stupid Twilight, I’m not stupid..’ She thought as she lay there. The bed wasn’t very comfortable, far from her cloud standards anyway, but it would have to do. She felt an incoming message, but brushed it off.

Dash looked around in her room, it was exactly like Twilight’s but mirrored and the digital frames on her walls had much cooler pictures, switching between her favorite Wonderbolt fliers, Spitfire and Ice. Spitfire in her regular Wonderbolt suit while Ice had a weird attachment on his back which allowed him to fly, the engineers called it jet pack. Spitfire and Ice, the electric lead duo. So graceful and exciting to see in action when they worked together. It was a rather fun thing, Ice was an earth pony and still had a part in the Wonderbolts, a lead part too. It was a wonder what the engineers could create with some metal and magic. Well duh, they did have spaceships. She looked at the shifting pictures as she continued drifting towards her well deserved sleep.

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Dash woke up from her dreamless sleep when she heard knocking at her door, still rather drowsy she looked over at her clock, 0700. It was an hour left before they would depart, she could manage half an hour more of sleep and tried to get back to sleep, not really caring for the knocking. That was, until the knocking began again, louder this time. Hoping the visitor would leave she put her pillow over her head to muffle the sound. But the knocking kept on going, now closer between each knock too. Rainbow Dash sighed and threw herself off the bed. “I’m coming, you can stop knocking now!” She said as she walked towards her door to open it. “Oh, it’s you..” She said with a bit of resentment as she saw Twilight on the other side of the door.

“Yeah, it’s me, may I come in? I would like to tell you something.” Twilight said quietly as she looked down on her hooves, not wanting to look her friend in her eyes at the moment.

Dash noticed Twilight’s weird behaviour and decided to go with it. She had been a bit rude just losing her temper and running away from Twilight like that, probably for not sleeping very well the day before, what with saying goodbye to everypony and such. She waved at Twilight to enter and sit down somewhere, which she did quickly, and then waited for her friend to talk.

Twilight looked around her friends room a bit as she went in to sit down on the cushion that laid in front of the desk. Dash had some frames with the Wonderbolts on her wall, nothing unusual. She quickly realised that she was supposed to continue her talk. “Well, I got a new mission update and.. I won’t be able to be with you for the duration of this mission.”

“Why not?” Dash asked her friend while staring at her.

Twilight couldn’t rise her head right now, she didn’t want to see the look on her friends face, she had to continue before looking. “As you know I’m in the special OSA agency and the military officers decided that I was to enter cryogenic sleep.” She said as she looked up at her friend with a forced smile, it was unnerving, she had never entered cryogenic sleep before and she was quite nervous as it was still rather new technology.

Dash just continued to stare at her friend, she could see how nervous Twilight was and how fake her smile was, but she couldn’t really react, it felt as if she was stunned by some unknown force. The lavender mare stood up and started to move towards the door.

“Well, now you know, and I’m sorry for calling you stupid, you're not stupid.” Twilight said, looking over her shoulder to give a final smile before going to the cryogenics. What she saw made her smile turn from nervous and trying to real and sincere, Dash had stood up and walked over to her, Twilight turned around as her friend hugged her.

“I can be stupid sometimes, I’m sorry too Twi.” Being sentimental wasn’t really her thing but as she saw how nervous her friend was she felt she had to do something. “I’ll follow you to the cryo-thingy, ok?” She continued and patted Twilight on her back as they started walking towards the cryogenics. “So, why do you need to..” How would she put this without disturbing her friend.. “Go to sleep?” And that was not a good word apparently as her friends winced at her choice of words but didn’t comment it, which Dash was glad for.

After that blunt use of words Twilight winced, she didn’t really want to think of it too much as it was right now, she was still glad Dash was with her for this. “I am sorry Dash, it’s classified information..”

“Oh, ok, that’s too bad.” Dash answered, a bit disappointed. She was quite protective about her friends and made a great deal out of doing all she could for them.

A sudden realisation hit Twilight, if Dash followed her to this she would be late for her own station assignment! “Dash, you don’t need to come with me, you will be late!” She continued quickly, dropping all her earlier nervousness as she looked at Dash and almost shook her. Dash just seemed to shrug it off.

“No worries, I can take the punishment for being late if it’s for a friend, you know, loyalty and all!” Dash answered with a big grin, this was nothing, she did this kind of thing all the times and her officer would have to deal with it, she was their best after all.

Twilight was glad she had such good friends to rely on, she smiled back at Dash and then continued forward, the rest of the journey towards the cryogenic chambers were in silence. Not bad type of silence but a content one, silence between two good friends.

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“Well, this is goodbye for a while then..” Twilight sighed to Dash, they were at the cryo chambers now, her cryo-chamber to be exact. She looked at the infernal machine once again, it looked like a huge rectangular metal pod, almost like a mechanic coffin.

Dash could see how reluctant Twilight was and gave her another hug, it would probably be a quite a while before they would see each other again so she hugged her tightly. They stood like that for almost half a minute before they let go as the grunt of the medic who handled the machines interrupted them.

“Agent Sparkle, your cryo-chamber is ready, please enter.” The stallion in a lab coat ordered in an uninterested manner and slightly pointed towards it with his horn. “You will be asleep instantly and the technology is in principles perfected, there is nothing to worry about.”

Dash gave the stallion a slight glare before looking back at her nervous friend. “It’s gonna be alright Twilight, We’ll see each other again soon.” She comforted and walked back a bit so she wouldn’t be in the way. She watched as her friend walked towards the pod and get in.

Twilight was glad she had Dash with her, it was a huge support. She went towards the giant metal coffin which would hold her for as long her superiors wanted it to. She didn’t know how long that would be and didn’t want to think about it either. A few stairs was attached to the side of the device to help her ascend into the maw of this mechanical beast. She looked back at her friend who was holding her hoof up towards her, a goodbye, she smiled at her friend, new confidence acquired. She looked forward and went into the open machine, laying down on her belly on the surprisingly comfortable bottom of the machine. She rolled around so she lay on her back instead as it was needed for the machine to correctly work and make everything easier. The medic stallion from before went up the small stairs and proceeded to attach various medical supervision equipment so they could have her statistics on the monitor.

“Everything will be alright, just be calm and take deep breaths agent Sparkle, we will see you later.”

And with that the stallion went out Twilight’s peripheral vision and the the machine started to slowly close down upon her, locking her out of the world outside. She started to breath slowly and in deep breaths, as she had been told by the medical staff, and her psychologist. She hoped that she would go to sleep quickly. She had a slight case of claustrophobia, slight as in calling a waterfall a slight downpour.

The door closed, it was dark now, total darkness and only her slightly quickening breathing in the darkness. That horrible darkness. She closed her eyes, but who was she kidding? That wouldn’t do any difference. She had gone through the procedure in theory with the staff but it was still as unnerving if not more so now than she thought before. Now another sound started besides her breathing, something subtle. She knew what was coming next and tried as good as she could to prepare. She twitched as she felt a cold, thick liquid starting to rain down upon her, she had prepared but this felt bad. The liquid was rising quite quickly and Twilight was almost hyperventilating as she tried to stay still and breath calmly.

‘Breath Twilight, breath, good girl, don’t start hyperventilating, this will be over soon’ She thought quietly to herself, trying to calm down. The liquid was now above her stomach and still rising, now touching her muzzle, she took a deep breath as the liquid rose above her mouth, she knew that she was supposed to breath in the liquid but her panic started to kick in. She tried to struggle against the horrible machine as she felt her lungs starting to crave fresh oxygen. She wanted to cry but not a tear could leave her eyes, she wanted to scream, but couldn’t let herself to open her mouth, all thanks to this liquid. Her whole body started to hurt as she was getting out of breath and punching against the lid of this infernal coffin. Everything seemed to slow down, seconds becoming hours, the time itself seemed to agonize her. It was getting worse and worse until she finally heard something, it was quiet, but loud enough to touch her. It soothed her as she finally let her used up air out of her lungs and calmed down. She slowed down as she started to breath the liquid and quietly fell to sleep, her lips showing a quiet thank you. The darkness embraced her.

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Rainbow Dash waved goodbye, she felt sad for Twilight, going to be confined in such a crude machine. She stood there quietly and watched the staff putting all kinds of wires and such on what she presumed was Twilight, as she couldn’t see her from there. When the lid closed and she wouldn’t be in the way she went forward to the pod. She wanted to be there for Twilight in case something would happen. She just stood there quietly leaning against the big machine. After a while she heard something from inside it, like something, somepony, hitting against the inside. Was Twilight having an attack or something? “Hey, what is wrong with Twilight?!” She yelled to the staff as she instantly stiffened and looked up at the control bridge stationed above and flew up to it.

“We cannot say, she just suddenly started to have a panic attack, we are trying to calm her down but she won’t listen to us and she is hurting herself!”

“Why don’t you just open it then?!” She almost screamed at the staff, how stupid could they be?

“If we open it now we could risk hurting her more then she is hurting herself right now!” The lead staff member yelled back at her.

Quick as a snap of the fingers she bolted towards the controls and pushed the staff away, she looked around, not caring for the screams of those she pushed, and saw a microphone. “Twilight, you need to calm down in there! Or else your going to hurt yourself and I don’t want you to hurt yourself!” She screamed into the microphone, hoping that Twilight heard her. The lead staff member walked up to the monitors.

“S-she is stabilizing!” He called out in a happy voice.

Rainbow Dash sighed and sat down on the floor as she herself calmed down, she was glad it turned out alright, she didn’t know what she would have done if something went wrong with Twilight. Without saying anything she started to walk towards the military department while reading her PDA mail. She was not stupid, she would read all the mails she got from here on, starting with the one from Twilight the night before.

Chapter 2 - Liftoff

Chapter 2

A small quartet of friends had gathered in the crew quarters, ready to say their farewells for the night.

“Thank you all darlings, this day has been simply divine.” The white unicorn of the group began as the others nodded in agreement, especially the pink party pony nodded with excitement.

“YES! I totally agree, this has been such a fun day! It couldn’t be more fun then this, except if Twilight and Dashie was with us that is, but they had work to do so they couldn’t and so that makes this the most fun it could be at the moment while not being the most fun it ever could be! But if we count with..” Pinkie Pie rambled on.

“Yes Pinkie, it was fun.” Applejack said slowly, cutting off her friend so she and the others could say something. “First I would like to thank y’all for the day, it was all good an’ fun. But speaking of Twi and Dash, we should be sure to contact them tomorrow when we get the time for it, we don’t want ‘em to think we forgot about ‘em.”

“What about a voice message?” Fluttershy suggested.

“That is an awesome idea! Let’s do it together right now in case we don’t have time later so we can send it to them later!” Pinkie agreed as she bounced up and down in place.

“Let’s do it right now then.” Applejack continued as the friends gathered to record a message to send later.

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“This night was really fun, not like regular fun but a super kind of fun! Right?” Pinkie said while bouncing along Rarity towards their room. It was getting late and they needed to get up in the morning so they had said their good nights after doing the voice message together.

“Yes dear, it was quite superb if I may say so.” Rarity answered with a slight smile, it was just too bad that not all of them could be together.

“Of course you may, silly filly!” Pinkie said. “You don’t need to ask me to say anything.”

“Oh Pinkie, you know what I mean.” Rarity giggled slightly. “You are the silly filly.”

The two friends continued to giggle as they got into their room.

“Well, good night Pinkie. Sleep tight.”

“Oh you with your silly words, I don’t want to sleep tight, it would be too hot.” Pinkie giggled once again. Rarity just sighed, a smile on her lips as she slowly fell asleep. Just in time before Pinkie started to snore.

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“I am glad we share a room Applejack, I don’t what I would do if I didn’t have a friend with me on this trip. They didn’t even let me bring Angel along.” Fluttershy said with some worry to Applejack as she was making her bed ready before laying down. Her friend had just jumped into her own bed as soon as they got in.

“Ah’m just as glad as you are, Fluttershy. And don’t fret, ah’m sure Angel is just fine with Apple Bloom at the farm, she might be a bit small but she has a big a heart as ah do.” The orange mare said with a soothing voice. Talking about the farm made her think back to her family, she hoped they were fine without her and would make it through. She quickly diminished the thought, big Macintosh was still there and he could be relied on, her big brother was really good at what he did.

“It was really nice of her to do that for me, I just hope that Angel wont be too much trouble..” Fluttershy continued as she laid down under the cosy cover of her bed, it felt nice.

“Nah, mah sister probably has her friends to help her while trying to get a cutie mark for it or sumthin’.” Applejack shrugged and chuckled a bit at the thought, those fillies always got into all sorts of trouble, just the week before they left, Apple Bloom had gotten some weird cutie pox and all. She shook her head slightly as she turned to her side. “Well, time to sleep. G’night Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked over at her friend and smiled a bit too, she was glad to have such good friends. “Good night Applejack.”

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Day 1, Tuesday 0700 hours - Fluttershy and Applejack.

Applejack had awoken a couple of minutes ago, it was cosy to stay in the bed for a little while in the morning. She laid there and listened to her friends gentle breathing, she could even hear a slight snore at times. It felt like it would be a good morning.

The alarm clock started to ring and Applejack slapped it quiet. 0700, time to get ready, this was no pleasure cruise after all.

The other alarm clock in the room rang for almost half a minute before the covers of the other bed was shoved away. Under it was Fluttershy who quickly shut the alarm off before dragging the covers over herself as she stuffed her head under the pillow.

This was a sight Applejack never thought she would see, it shocked her to a degree. So Fluttershy was no morning mare then? Applejack rolled out from her bed and onto the floor, starting to walk towards her friends bed. “Fluttershy, it’s time to wake up and get ready.” She said as she gently shook the mass under her friends covers. The only answer she got was a grunt and a hoof that shoved her away before going under the covers again. “Oh, so you wanna do this the hard way.” Applejack chuckled before grabbing one corner of the cover with her mouth and pulled away the cover in one swift movement.

“Noooooo... Stop it.. I want to sleep...” Fluttershy whined quietly as she curled up into a ball, still with her head under the pillow. Her tail and what could be seen of her mane was rather messy, a big mess of pink laying around her yellow body.

“Ah’m sorry sugarcube, but we have to get to work in about.. fifty minutes. I thought you were a mornin’ pony like mahself.” Applejack continued as she nudged the fluffy ball.

“I am a morning pony.. I just need my animals to wake me... I dislike this.. artificial feeling I get.. here.....” And she felt comfortable enough curled up like that to fall asleep again, apparently.

Applejack sighed and grabbed the pillow, pulling it away from the sleeping pony, she really hoped this wouldn’t be routine, however cute and adorable she might be. Fluttershy flinched the instant the pillow was pulled away and reacted with curling up even more, was that even possible? She put her tail over her head so the mane and the tail covered her head completely.

Applejack sighed once again. Now she really had to do this the hard way. She positioned herself at the end of the bed and reached her mouth for the pink tail and pulled. The yellow and pink ball uncurled rather quickly as she now was dragged down onto the floor with a thud.

“W-w-what happened?” Fluttershy nearly screamed, this was something she certainly was not prepared for, but she was awake now.

“Ah’m sorry, but ah told you we would have to do this the hard way. Now get up and prepare for duty girl, we only got about half an hour left!” Applejack looked sternly at Fluttershy so she wouldn’t go for the bed again, which she didn’t.

Once Fluttershy finally was up they both got to readying themselves for their work, it didn’t take long. Fluttershy started with brushing her mane and tail, it hadn’t been this fuzzy in quite a while. They both walked out from their room together as they both were done.

“Have a good day at work sugarcube, we’ll see each other later.” Applejack said and smiled at Fluttershy. “And please tell me that this morning thing won’t be a routine, ah would much like to have breakfast in the mornin’s.”

Fluttershy blushed slightly at this. “Of course not.. Have a nice day Applejack..” And with this the duo parted and they went to their respective work sites. Fluttershy went for her job at the medical bay and Applejack went for her job at the Engineering bay.

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Day 1, Tuesday 0700 hours - Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

Rarity and Pinkie both woke up almost simultaneously as the alarm clocks rang in their room. They turned their alarm clocks off and started to get ready almost immediately. They washed up and got ready to get some breakfast. Pinkie was unusually quiet, but Rarity didn’t say anything as it felt nice with some quiet in the morning, not bouncing into things directly as you wake up.

Their morning was nice as they got breakfast and idly chatted before going to their working areas, Pinkie in the food court and Rarity in the equipment department.

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Day 1, Tuesday 0810 hours - Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash reporting for duty, sir!” The cyan pegasus saluted before her commanding officer, General Walter Coltchak. The stout stallion turned around and looked at the new arrival.

“So we decide to show up now?” The military clad pony asks, his ice blue eyes piercing right through Dash.

“Sir, I had some incidents sir!” Dash answered, still in salute.

“What incidents are big enough to dismiss duty soldier?” Walter said harshly towards the smaller pony.

“Sir, no incidents should be in the way of duty sir!”

“That’s right soldier, now move to your station. We will continue this talk later.” And with that he turned around again and continued giving out his orders.

The bridge was filled with machinery and personnel, about a third of them was unicorns who engineered and sustained the different machinery. Then it was mostly earth ponies, except the individual pegasus here and there. Dash eased up and went to work, this would be a long day and she did not look forward to the scolding.

The ship had started it’s liftoff.

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Day 1, Tuesday 0730 hours - The docks.

The docks was filled with ponies of all shapes, colors and sizes. There were families of the voyagers taking farewell to the giant ship, tourists who wanted to see the new lifting ship. At the highest point of the docks, a balcony of sorts built for this occasion, sat the royalty of Equestria. Celestia, princess of the sun and Luna, princess of the moon, even prince Blueblood was there.

“This is a grand day in the evolution of our science dear sister, if this voyage succeeds it will bring us much closer to the knowledge of all things around us.” Celestia said with regal manner to her sister. Truly, she could lift and lower the moon and the sun, and even send peoples ethereal beings to the moon, but she could not do interstellar traveling.

“Yes, who knows what will be found at the edges of this universe, are there other beings like us out there?” Luna pondered. She had been at the moon, but not in person, her body had been locked away as she was ‘stored’ in the moon, like an inescapable prison. “With the technology of FTL (Faster-Then-Light) we will be able to traverse so much more of those unreached regions.”

“Yes, there is much to learn. I just can’t shake this feeling about this voyage, something just seems.. off.” Celestia shuddered. She wanted to be happy, her star student was on the trip with a special assignment and all but she just couldn’t shake this feeling off.

“Lighten up sister, everything will be alright.” Luna put a hoof on her sisters back. “Let’s just sit back and watch the show now.” She continued as she pointed her other hoof towards the ship.

The sisters relaxed and moved their attention towards the spaceship. There were multiple platforms surrounding the huge vessel and on each platform there was around twenty ponies, all of them unicorns. Celestia counted to one hundred and twenty unicorns in total and she knew they were not the first, they had to switch between two teams each couple of hours. And this was not counting all of the ponies aboard the ship. The primary objective for the teams on the platforms were to fill up and ready the ship with magic to fill the empty machinery. They would also spark the liftoff and help launch it. Celestia and Luna had wanted to help out but the teams felt that they were the ones who wanted to make this work, without royal help. She understood this, the only difference would also be that it would get filled quicker and they couldn’t do anything special about it.

The platforms started to sink as the second team came forward, both teams uniting in making the ship lift into space and beyond. All two hundred and forty unicorns stood all around the ship as they concentrated immensely. The ship got a silver hue around it as it started to shiver, more and more for each second passing. Silver streams of magical flames started to flow from the rocket engines of the ship and pushed it higher and higher. The silver hue around the ship brightened one last time and the whole ship shook as all unicorns pushed it upwards at the same time.

“This is really something else, isn’t it sister?” Luna said in awe, this beat many of the royal performances she had been to, and would probably stay high in her list for a long time. Her sister just nodded in silence and continued to watch, not averting her eyes even the slightest.

The huge spaceship was now quickly lifting upwards towards the infinite blue sky, the clouds had been removed this day because of the flight taking place. The silver stream of magic left a big trail after the ship as it moved further and further into the air, straight up. Before long the ship had gone out of everyponies eyesight, except for the royal sisters who had enhanced their eyes so they could view this sight for a bit longer.

The audience had roared the entire time and the unicorns at the launch site was lying down and catching their breath, it had taken a huge amount of magic to pull this off. It was a success.

“Good luck Twilight and everypony else, I hope you will come back safely.”