Chapter 6: Wing and a Prayer

There was a fanfare. An honest-to-Celestia fanfare. Yet as the regal white mare stepped out onto the largest balcony of her expansive castle, the crystal white walls adorned with royal flags and banners, the baying of the trumpets was, for once, not directed solely at her, nor her sister, who walked along beside her. Instead, this prestigious blaze of noise was being shared between all eleven ponies who stood just before the edge of the vast balcony overlooking ponies in their millions. The entire crew of Equestrian Explorers One was present, forming a rough 'V' shape upon the observation platform. The captain, a white coated, rust-maned alicorn stallion who had become a very popular face throughout Ponyville stood to Celestia's right, his ridiculous wings flared out in the upmost excitement as the shrill brass instruments ceased, and was instead replaced with a cacophonous roar from four and a half million pastel ponies.

Cantor stared down in sheer disbelief at the unfathomable ocean of brightly coloured equines. Even having lived in this world of magic, monsters and marvel, Equestria always seemed to have something up it's enchanted sleeve to take one's breath away. (But in all fairness, who couldn't stare in awe at this astonishing spectacle?).

Somewhere in the distance, a couple of miles away resided the spaceship itself, a leviathan of a craft, fit to take the nine brave ponies beyond the stars in luxury and style. Months of planning, hard work and relentless research had come down to this moment, and it was far more glorious than anypony could have ever imagined. The copper coloured inter-stellar spaceship was, in itself, a marvellous work of art: over one hundred feet of living, bathing, cooking, eating and sleeping quarters packed into this mother of all machines. The ship, known to many as 'EE1', stood on it's end, supported by some kind of bright red scaffolding connected to it's undercarriage, it's two large thrusters pointing directly at the Equestrian soil, a prestigious glass dome heading straight for the amber sky. Princess Celestia and princess Luna were working in canon to keep both of their celestial bodies just above the horizon, creating the perfect conditions for the photographs which would surely make worldwide headlines the very next day. Not to mention how beautiful the jet black clouds looked against the red-shifted horizon.

The electricity was tangible, one could almost taste the excitement in the air as launch time quickly approached, even the pair of sinister black mercenaries appeared out of themselves amid this astonishing event that was taking place. Catching Cantor's dazzled expression of elicity, princess Celestia discretely dipped her head to speak into white stallion's ear.

"Not what you were expecting?" She asked in a very amused tone, her great, motherly-proud smile was so fantastic, it could be heard in her voice.

"I-" Cantor stuttered, staring in absolute awe at the swarm of ponies far, far below. "It's unbelievable..." He replied, shaking his head in disbelief. "I mean, I knew this was going to be big, it couldn't not be, but... this feels like a dream, princess..."

Celestia merely chuckled. "Quite right, young stallion..." She mused, casting a lengthy glance down toward her adoring subjects.

History was about to be written, and the quill which would write it was in the grip of the entire nine pony team of explorers, and indeed everyone who had been involved with the project for their amazing spirit and persistence.

Turning to Celestia with bated breath, Cantor took his turn to speak up. "How many do you think there are?" He asked, his mind still incapable of taking in the sheer number of ponies below him.

The princess shook her head with appraisal. Cantor noticed how her fluid mane caught the appearance of a halo in her own dying sun. "Millions..." She answered vacantly. "And among those millions is a very proud mare..."

"Yeah..." Cantor sighed, unable to pinpoint the unique lavender coat from the cascade of lilac and blue tones. "I hope she'll be alright. She always says that when I go away, she has nightmares..." He added, still searching for those two unmistakeable purple eyes staring back, but he found none.

The pair of white alicorns met each other's eyes in a glance, the proud mare of the two empathising with the stallion's rich orange eyes. "I'm sure she'll be fine; she has her wonderful friends to keep her company, after all."

Cantor gave a brief nod of agreement and turned back to the hordatious crowd of ponies as Celestia did.

The pure white mare stood up straighter, placing her right hoof across her chest as she cleared her throat gently, and with all the grace and decorum a pony of her stature required as instinct.

"Mares and gentlecolts..." She bellowed in a voice which carried the strength of an entire city all screaming at once, yet sustained the soft, soothing tone of her usual speech, backlit by some sense of unmistakeable pride and urgency towards a joy she held deep in her heart. "We are gathered here on this prestigious evening to lay witness to the greatest achievement in equine history the world has ever seen!"

Cantor rolled his eyes in light of the princess' immodesty, smiling all the same. He felt a light tap on his flank, and turning around, he saw the royal blue doctor shooting him what could be regarded as a gloating gesture. Cantor simply snorted humorously and turned back to the crowd to listen to Celestia's speech.

"In less than twenty minutes, these nine ponies you see beside me will be the first beings from the world of Equestria, to travel far beyond the reach of conventional telescope." Celestia continued with her speech, every time she paused for breath, a silence like no other overtook the land. It was as if the millions of ponies stood below, gazing up with wistful eyes were holding their breath, listening to the first words of this awesome journey being spoke. The same words which would echo through the ages, bringing sensations of fantasy to whomever would be listening.

The tall white alicorn took a long, relaxing breath, recalling the words she had practiced tirelessly in preparation for this monumental day. "Looking down now, I see so many of you have come from far and wide to see off these heroes as they begin their month long journey to beyond the stars... They will take one month to reach Absencicy, where they will stay for one week to carry out all necessary research upon the planet's surface... They will then leave, taking another month to return home, ready to tell us about what new and wonderful worlds lie in the future... Who knows? Maybe even some of you foals I see in this audience tonight will become the next generation of inter-stellar explorers..."

The crowd briefly lit up with an inaudible murmur before it settled back down again to it's deathly silence to allow Celestia to continue. "...I cannot stress my appreciation for these ponies' bravery as they become immortalized in the history books. All I can do, is give them each an uninterrupted moment of glory before they depart from us... So, in no particular order, let us applaud these great stallions and mares who have devoted the last few months of their lives to make this project possible..."

The guardian of the currently deep orange sun turned to her right, and peered down at Cantor, who was still awestruck by the astonishing spectacle below.

"To Cantor, who's immense magical abilitirs will be used to power the entire voyage, I thank you..." Said Celestia with a very endowed smile as she stared at the stallion, waiting for him to do something. After a short while of nothingness, princess Celestia jabbed Cantor gently in the ribs with one of her polished to perfection golden shoes. The amber-eyed alicorn turned to Celestia with a dumbfounded expression and raised his eyebrows as if to say "What?"

"Wave." Whispered the princess discretely.

Cantor shook a little of the awkwardness from his body, and with a mild blush, raised his right hoof high in the air to be met with a roar of excited and appreciative cries and a ground-trembling stamping of hooves. The applause lasted only a few seconds, but the thought of millions of ponies cheering like this for him turned his face a beet red. He slowly lowered his hoof and the applause softened, but didn't quite die out even as the princess introduced her next pony.

"To Faith, who's tireless efforts in the training programme leading up to this event has greatly inspired others to achieve their goals, I thank you..." Celestia continued, glancing to her left, where a steel grey hoof was slowly, and what could be regarded as gracefully, waving back and forth, spurring the vast cluster of ponies to roar up again beside a midnight blue alicorn mare, whose starstruck mane billowed and danced adoringly in the cool evening breeze.

The princess' speech continued on for several minutes, pausing often to allow each of the nine ponies their moment of glory. With every second that passed, tension, awe and passion built until thoughts upon anything else other than the topic at hoof were completely diminished. Celestia gave a brief, but detailed summary of each of the crew member's tasks, and as it turned out, the two identical twin sisters, Titter and Flitter, were the scribes for this operation, and their job was to document and research everything they found on the new planet: soil samples, mineral analysis, the usual stuff. Luckily for Cantor, who still became muddled with the pair of unicorn's names even after his two weeks of hellish boot camp with them, the twins were allowed to wear their neck scarves over the bright orange space suits so as to keep themselves from mistaking each other with even themselves.

Getting a better look at the spaceship now that it was outside, Cantor could make out the cutie marks painted onto it's side between the two front windows. He could easily make out his broken shield cutie mark at the front of the ship, and he could just about see Faith's bright red crosshairs a little way back. The story about when Cantor first noticed the pegasus' special talent is an interesting one; he only clocked the red circle with long bars displaying a central dot upon the mare's flank when they were coincidently enough left alone in the waiting room for both their physicals. Talk of medical instruments quickly turned to the two winged equine's sexuality, which somehow ended up with the stone-grey pegasus presenting herself to Cantor for a quick fling while they were ensured half an hour of privacy. The alicorn decided that now would be the best time to make his relationship with a slightly popular mare from a slightly less-popular town named Ponyville known, which seemed to dent Faith's ego for some reason. Nevertheless, the iron-hard mare was back to her usual self later that same day: making all the common digs about Cantor's genitalia, which every other pony apart from the jokes' target thought were hilarious.

Nearer the end of the craft, a symbol of what looked like a red feather could be seen, it’s tip dipped in black ink, and in hushed conversation with his shipmates, Cantor discovered that this particular emblem indicated that the machine's purpose was that of exploration and research, as opposed to bloodthirst and war, which scarily not only existed, but was shown by a black quill dipped in blood. Each highly polished window reflected the pale light of the setting sun beautifully, and the great dome of glass at the head of the ship gleamed like the celestial ball of fire itself, and with every passing second, Cantor's, and the other crew members’ excitement grew to an unbearable level, and all nine ponies were itching to take their first memorable steps inside the enormous vessel that was 'Equestrian Explorers One'...

After the white alicorn mare had given a final prestigious statement about Red, who she referred to with his full name, and had also announced her undying gratitude towards the scientists, engineers and builders who were the backbone of the entire project, the sea of brightly-hued ponies quietened down to listen to the princess' closing sentence. "So, without further ado, let us hear one final cheer for these nine humble heroes who will take the first step to a great new Equestria!" Enthused Celestia, a frown of accomplishment and determination bolted to her pure white face.

Everypony below exploded into rapturous applause, their ferocious stomping of hooves making the very balcony beneath Celestia's hooves tremble.

Celestia turned from her subjects to Cantor, shooting him an endowed look of earnest. "It truly is a glorious day, is it not?" She asked, her awry grin widening uncontrollably.

Cantor laughed in agreement. "It is." He answered gleefully, listening to the cacophonous roar of the millions below. "There's just one thing I don't understand, princess..." He added with a barely questionable frown.

"What may that be, Cantor?" Celestia asked, leaning closer for a better earful over the applause.

"Well..." The alicorn began, peeking briefly over his shoulder at EE1 before continuing. "What I don't get is how you can have so much stuff on that spaceship; an artificial gravity centrifuge, magical dissipation thrusters, a forcefield, stuff like that... but... you didn't know what walkie-talkies were until I told you..."

"Ah." Celestia noted with a deep tone.

"What's up with that?" Cantor finished.

"Well I'm rather glad you brought that up, Cantor." Said the princess. "It's a very interesting topic, you see-"

"Launch in T-minus ten minutes..." Came a disembodied voice from unannounced speakers, the male-sounding words echoing around the valley and alerting ponies to a huge three-digit display projected onto the side of a flatter-looking mountain side. A forty-foot tall 9:58 appeared in bold red letters and gradually began to tick closer to zero as an excited din rose up from the valley floor.

The two white alicorns glanced toward the huge countdown then turned back to each other with worrisome eyes.

"I think that's your queue..." Chortled Celestia, trying to lighten the mood.

"I guess so..." Replied Cantor, his excitement replaced with unfriendly nerves. “Well... This is it..." He affirmed as the eight other orange-suited ponies left, only their heads, manes, tails and (if necessary) wings protruding from the tight fitting fabric.

Cantor went to follow them on, but was halted by Celestia's soft hoof. Ironic, how her touch seemed gentle, despite her hard hoof being covered with gleaming gold shoes. The stallion turned to see concerned indigo eyes staring back. He eyed Celestia carefully for a moment until she spoke.

"Be safe, Cantor." She said sincerely. "I'm sure you're aware Twilight will not be the only one worrying about you whilst you're away."

Cantor hopped up and squeezed the princess around her tall shoulders, feeling the white mare squeeze him back in a parting embrace.

"I'll be fine, Celestia..." He sighed as he dropped back to all fours. "All we're doing is going to some dusty old planet to collect some rocks and bring them back." He chuckled to himself. "I mean it's not like we're going to be battling aliens, are we?" He jested.

"No..." Muttered princess Celestia with a little sigh of relief. "Regardless, I know how accident prone you are, and the last thing I would want to hear is if something 'happened' to you..."

The orange eyed stallion shook his head dismissively. "That's not going to be a problem. I promise." He affirmed with a curt nod.

The princess slowly nodded her head, now a little more at ease with her second adopted child going into space for months. "Well, I suppose you should get gong then." Celestia continued, her previous smile returning quickly. "You don't want to miss your flight, now, do you?"

"No, princess." Cantor replied, beginning to trot back into the castle with a grin of his own. "Goodbye, I'll bring you back a nice big stone!" He joked as he disappeared into the shade of the dazzling white walls of Canterlot Castle.

The spectral maned princess began lookong out over her subjects, motioning for the two guards which accompanied her to leave her and her sister to some peace.

She waited for the clopping of armour clad hooves to fade away before she next spoke. "I know what you're thinking, sister..." She said without looking at Luna, the dark blue alicorn loosing herself for a moment at her older sister's unpredicted tone.

"I know that." Princess Luna replied, smelling the pre-night air. "And I want to know why you didn't say anything."

"Oh, it will just make him worry." The white mare answered quickly, glancing over her shoulder for visual confirmation that they were alone.

"Tia..." Luna mumbled with intensity. "That crystal is packed with enough dark energy to warp the universe as we know it. If something happened, and Cantor lost control of his demon..." She stopped her words, as if doing so would help catastrophe avoid reality. "You know more than I what would happen, but I know as well as you do the only two outcomes that would come from such a disaster."

"Our concerns have been clearly noted, Luna." Replied Celestia, glancing down at her sister with dark eyes.

"By who!?" The princess of the night cried.

"By. Us..." Her sister answered calmly and darkly, bringing her head down to the blue alicorn's ear, grumbling her next words with dangerous and forbidding intent. "If I were faced with a decision such as killing my child, or letting my kingdom die by his hoof, I would do the right thing in a heartbeat."

"And what would the right thing to do be?" Luna growled back with just as much venom, knowing full well what her sister had meant.

"Now that's something we both know would be difficult to do, should that time arise." Whispered the keeper of the sun deathly quietly. "But do not doubt me, or what I can do for a second."

"Then why have you taken the risk? Why couldn't you have found something better to power the ship with other than my best friend's life!?" Luna argued back, her voice growing to a frustrated shout.

"Because technology to equate to something like that would take thousands of years to come about, and maybe even I would not be alive to see this happen, and Cantor certainly wouldn't." Celestia spat.

"He's still my friend, he still saved your life, and he is still your son." The darker pony grumbled through barred teeth. "You're saying you would kill him without a second thought if he threatened your kingdom?"

"Firstly," Princess Celestia started in her own raised tone. "This is our kingdom. Secondly, I realise that he would willingly save my family and my friends at the expense of his own life, and thirdly, I never actually said I wouldn't give killing Cantor a second thought, but know that if torturing him, and in fact any pony, and liking it would save my kingdom, then I would do it without batting an eyelid."

Celestia turned to her sister, who wore a disgusted face. She waited for Luna to respond, but when no words came, she decided that enough biting was enough, and that it was time to make amends.

"There are two things that can be expected, dear sister." Celestia began in a slightly less than friendly tone, but the signature calmness had returned. "One: being in such close proximity to the Peripharous crystal for such a long period of time would be damaging to anypony's mind; Cantor even moreso. The only side-effects to absorbing it's energy is mild dementia and paranoia." Princess Luna's mouth fell even wider at this terrible point, and her eyes grew enormously, but Celestia continued regardless. "Two: as a result of this paranoia, Cantor will subliminally cause nightmarish hallucinations around other ponies when his mind is dormant; free to wander. In fact, the head doctor at Ponyville hospital informed me that when Cantor was comatose after suffering his heart attack, he experienced lifelike hallucinations of, and I quote: 'not unlike that of a nightmare.'..."

Luna stared aghast, unresponsive to what she was hearing.

"Sister," Celestia spoke whilst coming face-to-face with the other mare, her voice dwelling over the realms of compassion. "Do not misunderstand my concern for Cantor, he means a far greater deal to me than you could ever imagine. But the possibilities that could come from his magic are endless..." The white pony said, scouting around briefly before carrying on in a slightly more hushed tone. "Cantor goes far beyond the script of a god. He knows how powerful he is, and he knows how to use that power, but what he doesn't know is what scares me the most."

"And what's that?" Asked the younger princess, not really thinking about what she said, but subliminally fearful that her sister wouldn't give up a little more information without prompting.

"He can't control his demon, sister. None of us can." Celestia answered slowly, striding gradually back over to the pristine balcony, the rumble of the crowd seeming dampened. "Being who he is, Cantor cannot afford to become as you did. Not for himself, nor for the ones he loves: if Cantor looses control many more times during his life, he will begin to question his own reverence, and his heart will become as black as his hatred for himself... If he doesn't destroy everything, he will destroy himself, with, or without my consent, and to see someone as pure as him do that would ruin me."

Princess Luna appeared puzzled; one moment her sister was being maniacal in the state of mind in light of murder, the next, she was stressing how awful it would be to see Cantor in harm's way. She merely disregarded the white mare's conclusions; doubtless, both of the alicorn sisters accepted Cantor as family, and trusted him with even more certainty. It was accepted in Luna's mind just then that nopony is perfect, and that giving the young stallion the benefit of the doubt that he would not do anything to hurt anypony was the right thing to do.

Even if, as Cantor often said: "The right thing isn't always the best."

The nine orange dressed ponies hurriedly made their way across the bright red scaffolding, all the while keeping their anticipative eyes toward the great countdown now some distance away. From where they were now, even the gargantuan mass of ponies seemed miniscule compared to the mountains which surrounded them, and even Canterlot castle seemed non-existent. The once awesome castle was merely a white blur stuck to the side of a mountain, it's tall spires streaking slender black lines past the valley's summit as a resulting factor of the low-hanging sun.

Cantor was trotting along at the head of the group, every so often turning to climb the next slope closer to the entrance of the magnificent craft. The team had a little under three minutes to go until the rocket's engines would fire. And then who knows what would happen? Successful scale models had been made of the ship, but seeing the real deal sent shivers down Cantor's spine.

Needless to say nervousness was a common feeling at this point for everypony, but even moreso for the alicorn given that he was in charge. Either his head was completely empty, or far too full for anything to make sense. Either way, Cantor allowed his legs to carry him further up the tedious climb to the door to the cockpit without a second thought, or perhaps without a third: his first thought was ascension, the second neural message was keeping the fact that there was no turning back always fresh in his mind.

"Come on... we've only got... four more... flights to... to go..." Huffed Cantor from the front of the line of Equestria's first astronauts, keeping pace with himself, despite being so out of breath.

"Then get a damn move on!" Yelled the much fitter Faith from behind. "We've also only got two and a half minutes 'till launch too!"

"I know!" The alicorn panted back, turning sharply and speeding up a little as the door to the ship's mid-section came into view. They reached the modest steel door nestled a few metres before the huge glass dome of the spaceship, and with the prod of the small button to the door's right, the thick sheet of metal slid upward, allowing the ponies access to the ship's interior.

All nine of them rushed inside via a short yellow ladder and began to strap themselves to the end wall of the cylindrical room, which at the moment served as a floor in the spaceship's upright position, but soon could be the ceiling, or the floor again as up and down would no longer matter. It wasn't the most spacious place you could think of, but it was far from cramped; the room all the astronauts were currently waiting in was about five metres long and a constant four all around the circular walls. This particular area served no significant purpose, despite being so large. The room would be mainly used for entry and exit of the vessel, social meetings, and aside from the huge cockpit, observation through one of the three windows that lay on two opposite sides of the clinical white walls.

Past the back wall everypony was lying on was the living quarters for the crew, Cantor included. There really wasn't much to tell about that particular part of the ship; kitchen, beds, showers. It wasn't the most spacious part of the ship, nor the most interesting, though how the engineers had managed to get enough hot and cold running water to last every day for three months still baffled many minds to this day.

At the rear of the ship was the engine room; a small cupboard encased with the densest substance known to ponykind, harbouring the Peripharous crystal that could easily become the seed of the destruction of the universe if it ever fell into the wrong hooves, though this fact had been left undeclared to a certain alicorn's ears.

Cantor was the last pony to begin strapping himself to the floor, but halfway through pulling the restraints (which he wasn't all too happy about wearing) down over his head, he caught a glimpse of his grey co-pilot's dumbfounded expression

"What?" Asked the alicorn, loosely holding onto what appeared to be the safety guard on a rollercoaster just above his shoulders.

"Something tells me we're not gonna get very far with the door open." Faith replied in a mocking tone, grinning to herself as the white stallion flew up to the hatch, pressing a stout red button and making the door re-seal, cutting off the very last fresh breath of Equestrian air these nine ponies would ever breathe. Well, for about three months, at least.

He gently landed on the floor next to the pegasus, who wore some kind of a smug look as she lie on her back.

"I- I was going to shut the door..." Cantor jostled, as if his actions had been exactly as he had planned. "I was just... testing out the harnesses first."

"Yeah. Right..." The blonde pegasus agreed sarcastically as Cantor pulled the restraint over his head like some kind of huge plastic vest and clipped it securely into the floor between his hind legs.

A small display of the launch time could be seen slowly ticking down the last two digits in blood red numbers to the left of the entrance to the cockpit.

0:57...0:56...0:55...

The ponies all lay there in complete silence, the little 'bleep'...'bleep'...'bleep', the only sound filling the room, seeming to take an eternity to reach zero.

Cantor continued observing his new home for a while, taking note of the hoof-rails, cables, levers, switches and buttons that lay strewn along the walls in a somewhat tidy manner. He peered out of one of the small windows on the right side of the ship, seeing the blazing orange sky and jet black clouds scattered around it, the thought that he would never see this sight again for weeks, and weeks, and weeks hitting him for the first time, making him realise that this really was happening.

When you watch a clock, time seems to slow down a great deal than if you left it be - especially in times of great boredom, or intense nervousness. However, averting his eyes from the countdown for what seemed like a brief moment had caused forty seconds of time to disappear instantaneously, and he was only awoken from his trance-like state when he heard the definitive word "Ten" emanate from the ponies around him.

The alicorn snapped his orange eyes away from the similarly hued world outside to the display in front of him, and without even thinking, began the countdown along with his shipmates.

"Nine."

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six..."

Though four and a half million other voices were chanting along with him, the sound of his own shaky voice inside his head and the deafening tension blocked out any other sound.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three..."

Cantor felt a pressure upon his hoof, and turning to his left, noticed that Faith was clutching him tightly, something not quite fear in her eyes, but it was undeniable that she too, even the hard-as-nails, gritty warhorse known to many as fearless was... scared. This was a given; Cantor was terrified, though he wasn't showing it very well, and a small part of him wanted to teleport as far away as possible and forget about the whole thing. But he couldn't do that, not after all the excruciating work so many ponies had put all their heart and souls in to make this possible, and especially not after the young mare to his left had chosen him - over all the other ponies in the room to seek safety in.

Despite having Red (who, given half the chance, could lift the entire ship above his head) lying to her left, Faith had turned to Cantor in this paramount moment with that look of respect and loyalty in her eyes. Despite being able to beat the daylights out of pretty much anypony she met, being next to Cantor; holding his hoof... made her feel secure, and she could have sworn she saw her own expression reflected in the stallion's intense amber eyes.

"Two."

"One..."

A silence like no other befell the room. There was no sound, no hint toward anything existing. If one could know what it truly meant for 'time to stand still', they would think about a time like this. And as the invisible second ticked away, and the mighty engines began to fire, Cantor was the only pony in what might as well have been the entirety of Equestria to utter the final sentence...

"Blastoff."

A colossal roar of thunder ripped through the air as Equestrian Explorer One's two huge thrusters exploded into a vicious torrent of white hot flame. Even though the shockwave from the ignition sequence began miles away, the ponies on the ground felt the full force of the rocket's engines and their manes and tails flailed about as if they were caught in a hurricane. Despite this, the millions of equines met the deafening engine roar with their own thunderous cheers and applause as the goliath spaceship slowly began to rise into the air, leaving behind a quickly dispersing plume of silver smoke.

All the ponies on board the ship had their heads wrenched back into the wall as their large shuttle gained speed overly quickly. In a matter of seconds, the nine ponies were travelling way faster than the speed of sound; hurtling through the sky at thousands of miles per hour, tearing through layers of atmosphere like it was nothing. Black clouds darted past the windows in the form of dull orange blurs. Cantor's heart raced as his body became much heavier and his muscles had to tighten to keep his organs from bursting. He screwed his eyes shut and could hear his heart pounding in his ears like a jackhammer along with the sound of his clenched teeth jittering with the brutal vibrations.

As EE1 climbed higher and higher, it became faster and faster. The boffins in lab coats' predictions had been right: in ten seconds flat, the space-ponies were well into the five-digit speeds and rising, and soon, would be travelling faster than anything that has ever lived. The engines bellowed their chorus, like an unending rumble of thunder as the unholy crystal sent sparks of pure dark energy through every operating system the ship possessed.

The spacecraft's takeoff was timed to trigger each sequence of the launch to within a hairs width precision, and at 23,000 feet, the bolts holding fin keeping the vessel upright blew off and the large piece of metal fell back down with three red and white parachutes trailing it.

With the main guidance fin gone, the vessel began to tilt forward, taking some of the strain off of the ponies heads, and instead, forced all of the blood into their hind legs as their vertical ascent slowly started to even out.

Cantor managed to force his head to the right and tore his eyes open. He could see the sky darkening. Instead of a rich mango, the world outside was a darkening brown which soon came to bear tiny specs of light.

"Just a little more!" Came Red's deep voice, shaky from the harsh punishment the body it belonged to was taking.

Cantor tried to steal a breath, but his lungs had been compressed, and were now crying out for oxygen. Though he had been told this would happen, Cantor still began to panic, convincing himself that he was going to suffocate before they reached space. But his exasperation was short lived: as if by magic, (which, in a sense was what it was) the bumpy ride began to smoothen out, the pressure through everyone's body slowly fading until it was that of mere discomfort. The muffled grumble of the engines too, faded, and then could no longer be heard at all.

A second silence washed over the crew, but a silence that spoke of their accomplishment, like the hallowed quiet during the eye of a hurricane. Though it was now easy to inhale again, all the ponies held their breath, and began to try to comprehend what had just happened.

The captain's eyes gradually explored the room, waiting for something to happen, waiting for something to go wrong. But nothing did. The only thing to befall his ears was this unending silence and the deep pulsing of blood rushing around his own head.

Cantor lay there for several minutes, stunned and awed by the spectacle outside the window of the blackest of blacks, adorned with billions and billions of specks of light from giant burning balls of gas millions of miles away. During the extensive time everypony laid there, wondering who would dare to speak first, the only contact with the conscious world was their slowly softening breath.

The white alicorn's focus steadily made it's way into his head, and, though a little reluctantly, he shook the majesty that clouded his mind away and began to fumble with the strap which bound him to the wall. Oddly enough, the thick ropey belt between his hind legs was not cutting into his unspeakables like he had worried, and when he prodded the broad square button which marked the buckle release, he discovered why.

The black nylon strap fell downward in a manner not unlike that of slow motion - the smooth, plastic cord fluid in it's decent to the floor, the buckle giving a little flick as the belt it was attached to grew taught. The padded purple harness, too, slowly rose until it locked into place above Cantor's head, leaving the alicorn floating there, not moving, and to be honest, a little fearful towards what would happen when he did.

It didn't take a genius to work out that the anti-gravity was disengaged, but for the currently shaken captain, this conclusion took a few worrying seconds to come to. Feeling the cold wall behind him, Cantor gingerly pushed himself away towards the centre of the room. But when his venture unexpectedly turned upside down as a result of absolutely no anti-gravity training whatsoever, he panicked, flailing all of his legs out at once and sending him flying across the expansive room.

He noticed that his little bout of clumsiness had distracted the eight other ponies from the spectacular view outside, and that they were now laughing at his flustered expression and useless beating of the artificial air as he glided away from them all, who still had their restraints done up.

Cantor had forever wondered what zero-gravity would have felt like; not just the feelings and nausea, but how exhilarating it would be to meander freely through a space without the aid of wings. He had always envisioned such a marvel as a trivial, exciting and careless pursuit, but flying helplessly through the air, making inept, spasmic movements to try and stop himself made Cantor realise this wasn't entirely the case.

During the brief moment he was 'airborne', Cantor had crossed the entirety of the social atrium, and was headed straight for the hair-trigger button for the gravity control at the foot of the door to the control deck. His shoulders struck the oversensitive button which had been designed to be as such in case of emergency. In these circumstances, the directness of the gravity centrifuge caused more problems than it prevented. The large red coloured button sunk into the wall, firing up the unbelievably complicated device below the keel of the vessel, restoring gravity to the whole ship.

Artificial gravity shook through the room, and the eight ponies' laughter was cut painfully short. They all fell downward, including Cantor, though the impressionable alicorn only dove a few inches before he landed on his side on the ground. The other ponies on the wall dropped like stones, smashing tender parts of equine anatomy into the hard straps between their hind legs. A mixture of groans, wails, and even one or two screams rose up from the group of ponies as they found themselves supporting all of their body weight on vital organs.

Cantor was dazed for a few seconds, as he was unprepared for the loss of floatation, he was found to be a little disorientated. Not as disorientated (if that could be the right word to use) as his eight other crew members, mind you.

"Agh!" Cried Faith as she hoisted herself upwards, using the shoulder brace as some kind of pull-up bar. "Turn the damn gravity off!" She barked.

With barely a second to collect himself, Cantor struck the button behind him again, and the bright red light behind it, used to indicate that the gravity was on despite the obvious evidence, flashed out, returning the bright red bump to it's residing state of dark, opaque plastic. Once again, the room was purged of all pull, and everything not tied down became weightless and started to float upwards. Cantor managed to find one of the hoof-rails and hold on, so as to avoid becoming a meandering piece of space debris within his own ship.

Nopony could get themselves unbuckled fast enough, and the air rapidly became full of ponies in tight orange jumpsuits struggling to find a means of settling down.

Cantor cast a weak forcefeild over the top of the room and gradually pressed everyone down until they were either on the floor, or near enough that a fall wouldn't matter as much. He struck the large red stud again, causing it to light up and make the eight astronauts crumple to the floor. Every stallion lie there, clutching his nethers as the three mares who were paying any attention simply watched and failed to comprehend just what kind of pain was wracking male comrades' bodies at this moment.

The golden eyed one of the four mares, after helping herself up and brushing imaginary dust from her clothes, stormed over to the captain, who had barely been given time to stand up himself, and slapped him across the face with genuine intentions to inflict pain, rather than to simply show disgust.

Cantor's face stayed frozen in place, staring in shock to his right as the grey assailant thrust an orange-covered hoof menacingly at his eye. "That's for being so Celestia-damn accident prone!" She caught him in the face again, this time hitting his left cheek, returning the two to complete eye contact. "And that's for fucking me with a chair!" She added with fury.

"Sorry..." Cantor apologised, gingerly clutching the side of his face that hurt the most. "But it's kinda not my fault." He added.

Faith took a step back and gasped, oblivious to the moans and groans coming from the other crew. "You're the one who turned the gravity off!"

"Yeah, but I didn't do it on purpose!" The alicorn argued back with as much defence as he could muster.

"I don't care!" Faith snapped back, her eyes wild with an unnecessary anger. "My crotch's fucking killing me, and if it's still hurting in an hour, I'm gonna buck you so hard in the balls you won't be able to sit right for the rest of the trip! Got it!?"

Cantor suddenly sunk into submission. "Y- yes..." He whimpered, afraid to acknowledge the irony that his co-pilot was giving him orders instead of the other way around. In actual fact, Faith was far more suited as leader, and in some respects, Cantor trusted her more than he did himself.

Faith huffed and stormed away, leaving Cantor to his own business, the only sore spot on his body was both cheeks, which currently felt like they were on fire.

Reaching Red's side, Faith asked the juggernaut of a pony, famed for his unending strength and toughness, who was currently rolling about on the floor groaning in agony: "Are you okay?" As she hopelessly tried to hoist the huge brute to his hooves.

"Canterlot, this is Equestrian Explorers One, we're ready to continue. Come in, Canterlot." Spoke Cantor softly into a small microphone on the inside wall of the cockpit. After taking a substantial amount of time to take in the breathtaking scenery through the huge spherical window which consisted of a brilliant new perspective over Equestria, Cantor had radioed home as he was instructed to ask for confirmation that the expedition was still a go.

It was clearly noted that the equine inhabited planet bore far more land than water, and much of that land was covered in mountains or desert. It's differences to Earth struck Cantor as majestic, if indeed a little odd: like Earth, Equestria had tufts of crystal white cloud swirling above the surface, and also like Earth, the underside of the planet was smothered with snow and ice. But this thought was interpreted as strange by the alicorn captain in ways he could barely justify. Firstly, only the bottom of Equestria was caked in snow, and the tip was seemingly one huge desert.

Below this dusty north pole came the Sea of Siren, an enormous expanse of water several hundred miles wide and stretching all the way around the world like some kind of off-centre belt. Very few ponies who had ventured to the small islands scattered thought this place had returned, and the ones who had were mentally distorted and would refuse to talk about what happened. It was rumoured that the ones who met their fate were all led to a watery grave by dangerous and rare animals that lived under the eerily calm water.

The rest of Equestria was pretty much entirely land, with several gargantuan lakes and veins of woodland scattered throughout until everything became lost to the frozen tundra at the base of the world.

The sun was just peeking under the North-East edge of Equestria, giving the impression of a blazing diamond upon a slender ring of golden light that was encircling the planet. However the moon could not yet be seen.

Every single thing that was not Equestria outside the window were stars. An astounding landscape of tiny white eyes staring back at whomever chose to stare first. There were even a few colourful galaxies dotted around the infinite starscape, rotating impossibly slowly, bearing likelihoods of even more new planets like Equestria and Absencicy just waiting to be discovered. But that was for a different time.

"Cantor!" Came the distraught cry from the other end of the line, causing the white stallion to jump at the unexpected level of volume.

"Princess Celestia!" Cantor cried back in a panicked tone in light of the mare's own frantic voice. "What's wrong?"

"Is everything alright up there?" Came the reply, much quieter and calmer than before, though it still contained elements of fear.

"Y-Yeah. Everything's fine." Answered Cantor, frowning at the microphone, trying to picture Celestia's expression as he talked to her without being able to see her for the first time. The signal wasn't perfect, but it was far better than nothing, though the princess' voice came out slightly distorted and metallic sounding. "Why were you so panicked back then?"

There was a pause, and then Celestia answered. "I assumed something bad had happened; you were supposed to call twenty minutes ago. What were you doing?"

Cantor peered over his shoulder, once again taking in all of Equestria's marvellous features. "I was just admiring the view." He said with a contented smile.

He carried on gazing back at the world through adoring eyes for a matter of seconds before his absent-minded thoughts were interrupted by the princess' voice. "Is everypony okay? There are no injuries are there?"

"Well..." Cantor mused, rolling his eyes as some kind of personal anecdote was made.

"Well?" Celestia asked worriedly, breaking Cantor's train of thought yet again.

The stallion scoffed in mild amusement when the concerned nature of the princess' voice was heard. "It's nothing serious, princess..." He clarified with an impish grin. "But I don’t think we'll have to worry about fertility treatment for the next couple of months..." Only silence came as a reply. "Anyway..." Cantor continued, taking the long pause as the princess' inability to find the appropriate words to respond. "We're ready to carry on. Should we proceed?"

"Not just yet." Answered the princess, apparently clear of the confusing ideas within her head. "I have somepony here who wishes to talk to you."

Even though he was talking to a machine, Cantor could tell that Celestia was smiling behind her microphone purely by the tone of her voice.

"Who is it?" He asked, to be instantly met with the heart-warming voice of his most favourite mare.

"Hey, Cantor." Came Twilight's sheepish voice on the other end of the line. It was obvious that she was not best of spirits. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine Twilight." The male alicorn answered, the sound of his special somepony making him beam with a comforting pride. "How are you?"

"Not too good, I'm afraid..." Came the frail reply before a lengthy silence fell over the room, the muffled sound of pained voices were heard from the other side of the closed cockpit door. "I... I'm gonna miss you." The purple mare added with a depleted voice, clearly not looking forward to three months without her stallion by her side.

"I'll miss you, too, Twilight..." Cantor said into the microphone in a voice dampened by the unicorn's uncharacteristic tone. "Don't worry, though." He quickly continued quirkily, attempting to lighten the weightless miles of air between them. "I'll be back before you know it!" He added enthusiastically, but no reply came. "Hey... At least now you'll get some peace and quiet without me bending your ear with pointless information you probably already know." He joked, arousing a short giggle from the one speaker in front of him.

"I suppose so." Came the reply in a humorous tone, followed by a deep, well-rounded sigh. "Promise me you'll be safe." Twilight added with great empathy. "I don't want to loose you again."

Cantor exhaled heavily and closed his eyes. It pained him to hear Twilight speak this way, and it was only until now that he realised how hard she was taking this.

"Nothing will go wrong." He affirmed into the speaker, talking strongly, wishing to hold the purple mare's hooves as he did so. "I promise I'll be back safe and sound on one condition."

"What's that?" Twilight replied cluelessly.

"Don't you have that foal until I get back; I want to be with you when it happens." The stallion ordered forcefully, diminishing the possibility of failure on his behalf and putting Twilight a little more at ease now that she had a little role of responsibility for herself.

Before he had left the library, Cantor had kissed the unicorn goodbye, as was expected. She felt upset at the time, but seeing him sink to his knees and peck her plump stomach, whispering a soft farewell to their unborn child reduced Twilight to torrents of tears. And although she knew with every fibre of her being that he had to leave, she still asked him one last time not to go, but unsurprisingly, and knowing it was the best of both of them, he pressed his lips tenderly to hers once more and left without another word.

"Okay." Twilight replied with amusement. "I'll try."

"Good." Cantor said back, breathing a shallow sigh of relief. "Hey, maybe they have a gift shop on this new planet; I'll bring you back a fridge magnet." He added, trying to sound as serious as possible.

"Hm hm hm..." Twilight Sparkle chuckled softly from Canterlot many miles below EE1, for a brief moment feeling as if she were stood right next to the adventurous young alicorn, but as soon as that moment arrived, it was replaced by the chalky white finish of one of the castles marble pillars in front of her. "I expect you'll make some kind of entrance, then." She poked, her usual way of talking evident as she spoke.

"When I get there, or when I get back?" Said Cantor whilst grinning wildly.

"Probably both." Came the purple mare's unamused remark, listening to the returning laugh of the stallion. She waited for him to settle down before continuing further. "Goodbye, Cantor. Stay safe." She said, returning serious, though not at all feeling deprived.

"Will do." The rusty maned pony replied with a similar degree of sincerity. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Spoke Twilight with a relaxed portion of contentment as she stepped away to allow her mentor to conclude the conversation.

The next voice which came through the radio was princess Celestia's, and it was plain to hear that the two ponies' conversation had moved her.

"Needless to say I will miss you too, Cantor." She declared quietly. "And Faith as well. Could you put her on for a moment, please?"

"Of course." Cantor replied gently, stepping through the door and discretely ushering the grey mare into the cockpit with him. She trotted with haste across the room still adorned with sickly-looking stallions and met confused and still slightly vengeful eyes with her captain. He motioned toward the humble little speaker next to the door.

"It's Celestia, she wants to say goodbye." Cantor conveyed, following the pegasus around to in front of the microphone.

She wore an unusual expression of care and confusion as she spoke.

"He- hello?" She asked, glancing toward Cantor briefly before looking back into the device, being rather startled when she heard the familiar mare's voice reply.

"Good evening, Faith." Said the princess before finding humour in her own comment. "Though I suppose morning and evening does not matter to you up there!" She laughed her composed and reserved chuckle, and the golden-eyed pegasus awkwardly joined in. The next thing she heard was muffled, and barely understandable coming from the princess' side: something involving 'Twilight' and 'privacy'. There was then a long pause until Celestia next spoke, her voice unusually sweet. "Are you alone, dear?" She asked in a mother-ish tone.

For some reason, Faith became a tad reluctant to answer, but she brought herself about to respond. "No, Mom... Cantor's here with me."

Her iron persona seemed to always dissolve when placed alone with the princess. Maybe it was because she felt embarrassed calling Celestia 'Mom' in front of other ponies. But that was ridiculous; Faith never grew embarrassed over anything, or anyone, but for some account, her mentality shrunk into some kind of metaphysical cage whenever she spoke to this one parental figure in her life.

"Cantor?" Celestia called in a raised voice, diverting the alicorn's attention from the view outside. "Could you give Faith and I a moment alone, please?" She asked politely, expecting no other answer other than 'yes'.

The amber eyed stallion nodded deeply in understanding. "Of course, princess." He replied, promptly turning around and trotting out of the room, acknowledging Celestia's "Thank you" as the circular steel door closed silently behind him.

During the brief time he had spent talking to the princess and Twilight, the male proportion of the crew had recuperated to some degree, but still appeared a little worse for wear. As Cantor entered the largest room once again, he was met with sour, pain-stricken expressions, and although the crippling injury was barely of his fault, he still felt compelled to utter an awkward apology to the ponies who had nearly become sterilized.

"You're alone now?" Celestia asked, sounding somewhat relaxed.

"As alone as I'll be on this ship." Faith replied, smiling towards the door.

"Good." Said the princess with an air-clearing sigh that sounded like a burst of static. "There's just some things I'd like to talk about with you..." She didn't wait for her adopted super-soldier to reply before continuing, but the young mare wouldn't have spoken first anyway. "I've always looked upon you as a daughter, Faith. You're aware of this, aren't you?"

The grey pony nodded her head strongly. "Yes, Mom." She answered definitively.

"That's good to know." Celestia commented, her voice content, and in such a tone that summed-up her matriarchal role in the world. "I know we don't spend much time together, and that we sometimes don't see eye-to-eye, but I just want you to know that I love you as if you were my own blood, even if I don't show it. You must understand that if word got out about how valuable you are to me, there are some that may try to pony-nap you in hopes of recovering a ransom." There was a grief-stricken sigh. "If that ever happened, I..." In one of those legendary moments, Celestia's voice cracked and she lost her course of thought. But soon enough, she had recovered and continued as if nothing had occurred. "Well I don't know what I would do..."

Faith felt a strange sting in the corner of her eye, something she felt on very rare occasions, and something even the strong-willed pony like her could not control.

Celestia took the silence as a gesture to carry on. "I want you to promise me something, Faith." She said sharply, and in a manner which showed true care only a mother could possess. "Promise me you'll be safe. I know the likelihood of failure is barely anything, but... that doesn't mean your safe return is guaranteed. What you do out there is far out of my control, but just hearing you say you are going to be alright will..." The princess took a steadying breath, shivering slightly on the exhale. "It will help..."

"Okay, Mom. I promise I'll take care." Faith replied, providing the speaker with a respectful bow. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen? This is supposed to be a dead planet, right?" Enquired the pegasus, her voice a tad unnerved.

Silence was sustained for a number of breaths, only the gentle crackling of the princess' breathing could be heard over the airwaves. "Yes." Celestia eventually said. "That's correct; you shouldn't encounter any dangerous animals on your travels. But under the very unlikely circumstance that this should occur, do not allow your pride stop you from turning to Cantor for protection; he is far more powerful than you think, and I can tell that you underestimate him from how you have been behaving these past two weeks. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but know that I would trust Cantor with my life, and I expect you to do the same." Her closing sentence sounded harsh, and even a little diminishing. Nevertheless, Faith knew better than to question the white mare she called her family even in times of upset and angst, especially when the safety of herself or her friends was at risk.

"Alright, then." Faith complied. Unused to the ways of this talking and listening device, she dipped her head strongly in understanding, forgetting that the gesture went unseen.

The princess piped up almost immediately as the pegasus finished nodding, and her gentle and light tone reflected her aloof nature. "With regards to Cantor, he is a very approachable and caring pony pretty much all of the time, but for reasons best left unsaid, he is most certainly going to become hostile over insignificant things during your expedition; nothing serious, but... don't do anything to provoke him."

Faith frowned in confusion, her golden eyes trying to figure out what Celestia meant by the way she spoke. "Whadda' mean, 'hostile'? Why-"

"For reasons... Best... Left... Unsaid." The white mare cut in, halting Faith's questioning like some kind of brick wall.

"Sorry..." The pegasus mumbled apologetically, her ears falling behind her head.

"It's quite alright, Faith. Curiosity, especially to this matter, is expected." The regal alicorn declared with an understanding emphasis. "Just get to Absencicy, carry out your tests, then come back home, safe and sound."

"Right. Will do." The fair-maned mare replied in a tough, yet concern-dispelling tone. She pondered whether to find menial things to converse with the princess whilst they were spared this moment of intimacy, yet when it was swiftly decided in her mind that out here, there were no rules, no set lights out, nopony to tell her to mind her manners, and the recurring thought that she was living with a pony who can instantly create any kind of food conceivable, she quickly made the decision to chat about her adventure with her Mom once she had returned, and she actually had something to talk about other than how much she can bench-press at any given time. The sight of her world, much of which she had only ever read about, too seemed to beckon her away from the voice on the other end of the odd device bolted to the wall.

"I'm happy to hear that." Celestia answered in response, her easy smile invisible, yet somehow audible. "Before you put Cantor back on, I have just one more thing to say..."

"Oh?" Asked the winged pony, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"I love you."

Faith's shoulders fell relaxed, only just a little, though it felt as though she had sunk to her knees. For whatever reason, hearing just that sentence on it's own filled Faith with more pride than any set of muscles or any amount of badges and ribbons ever could. She knew a mother telling her foal that she loved her was a given thing, often accepted and unappreciated, but hearing those words come from the lips of somepony so significant to her made the orphan pegasus feel... normal. All her life, she had yearned to know what it would have been like if she were never abandoned, if she had grown up in a normal household with normal parents; led a normal life in a loving family. Truth be told, Faith felt exactly the same way towards Celestia, after all, she was the only family she had, and over the twenty odd years she had known her as a mother, the lonely young mare began to speculate upon whether Celestia was right: that family wasn't bound by blood, and instead, this sense of a family could come from anywhere and indeed, anyone.

She straightened up, blowing air from pursed lips to avoid tears forming in her eyes, allowing the thoughts to merge in her mind a while before replying in a somewhat satisfied manner. "I... love you, too... Mom." She said, smiling despite being conscious that her desire to squeeze the white mare tightly was separated by thousands and thousands of miles of sky.

"So," Started Celestia, exhaling as she did so to create some sense of urgency. "Now that we've both managed to say goodbye without the aid of tears, I propose you think about setting off. As you already know, you have three months of food, water and air to see you through. That should leave roughly three extra weeks of supplies as a safeguard. And though I can't see our conversation lasting three weeks, there is, as they say, 'no time like the present'." The princess spoke nonchalantly, but with an odd glimpse of haste reflected in her voice.

"Agreed." Faith confirmed before requesting Cantor's presence back with her so that Celestia could give the final order.

Once the white coated stallion had returned from seemingly unending apologies and explanations towards the peaky-looking crew, he swiftly took Faith's position in front of the telecom, hoping to wrap things up quickly seeing as the sudden desire to wrap his hooves around the control sticks had taken it's place in his brain.

"Ready to go, princess." Cantor informed, speaking with much pride; for the first time, he felt like he truly was captain.

"Very good, Cantor." The other white alicorn replied happily, entrusting all of the responsibility and authority onto the young stallion's shoulders. "From here on out, you are in charge. I trust you to look after your friends and return safely in just over two month's time. And if you remember your training, I'm certain you will have no problems."

"Thank you, princess." Said Cantor, smiling toward Faith with a notable amount of enthusiasm. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

Celestia's next words came out direct and to the point. "Understood. Canterlot out." And with that, the ambient hiss of the imperfect broadcast crackled out and was quickly replaced with the muffled clopping of hooves behind closed doors as the seven other crew members began to neatly file into the spherical cockpit, taking it in turns to gaze in astonishment towards that stone they called home.

"Magnificent…" Blue Bolt commented, shaking his head to emphasise his amazement. "Absolutely magnificent..."

Scooting around the team of explorers, Cantor planted himself in the padded, and surprisingly comfortable captain's seat and pulled the strange looking means of direction toward himself so the odd joystick-looking steering wheel was at a comfortable position above his lap, making sure that his legs were nicely out of the way and ready to pump the four pedals below whenever necessary.

The steering wheel struck Cantor as odd: it was like the kind of shape one would expect to see in a car back on Earth, except it appeared elliptical at the sides, and the top and bottom of the circle was missing, like some kind of weird 'H'. The curious manoeuvring device protruded from a central control hub, adorned with a multitude of various coloured buttons and switches, which Cantor could barely remember the purpose of. Pretty much all the controls for the ship were on this inter-stellar dashboard; everything from tilt negator sensitivity and solar wind deflectors to far more humble additions such as auto-pilot and air conditioning.

Cantor's vantage point was dead in the centre of the black floored room, his view consisted of whatever may be in front, at either side, or what lie above the spacecraft. Reversing wasn't a huge issue, so the rear of the ship was looked after by a series of cameras and sensors, which would take over the pilot if they thought he was being irresponsible. (As if giving an eighteen year old stallion the keys to several million pounds of thrust was at all a sensible decision.)

"Ready to go?" Cantor growled with the utmost excitement to no one in particular, tightening his grip upon the steering wheel, raring to literally shoot for the stars.

Issuing a breif headcount around the room, Faith took it as her duty to respond. "Yep, we're ready." She answered, taking the determined expressions of her shipmates as 'ready'. "You remember how to fly this thing?"

"Of course I know how to fly this thing!" Scoffed the alicorn, swiping his hoof playfully against the air. He sat up straight in his cushy yet firm chair and yanked the steering column toward him, hoping to roar off, leaving cosmic dust in the Equestrian atmosphere.

His cocky grin faded, however, when absolutely nothing occurred.

"I thought you knew how to fly it..." A predictable pegasus quipped, her smug expression audible in her tone.

"Uhhh... Um..." Cantor thought helplessly, re-checking all the settings on the main console, adamant that everything was in check to the highest possible degree. "Everything's fine." He finally concluded. "I don't know why it won't start."

Supplying the alicorn with a rough, infuriated groan, the blonde-maned pony whacked a proud red button positioned on the side of the control hub and twisted, causing the mighty engines to fire up, sending a deep rumbling hum through the entire ship.

Cantor stared up into those buttercup yellow eyes with bewilderment in his own. "What did-" He started, indebted in a weird sort of way to the mare for helping the captain start his own ship before she loudly and angrily interrupted.

"The primary ignition system!" She yelled, driving the stallion's own forgetfulness straight through his heart.

"Sorry..." Cantor sighed back empty-heartedly, shrugging his shoulders in his sitting position. "It's so simple I guess I kind of overlooked it..."

Faith grumbled a second degree of displeasure. "Well fuck." She sighed, frowning in distrust down at Cantor. "You're the captain, and you don't even know how to start your own ship that you did like three solid days training for. You know, that doesn't put a lot of Faith in me."

The rusty-maned stallion took this comment as a hostility, that was until, he discovered the light of the situation, as he usually did.

"Ha!" He mock-laughed, though the smile which accompanied it was genuine. "It's a name joke!" He commented foalishly.

Without waiting for the chemical signals in Faith's brain to comprehend what had just been said, he repeated his violent movements upon the steering column, causing everypony to stumble backwards, but not quite fall over as the craft tore off past the moon as it arced away from Equestria, quite rightly leaving an eerie cosmic mist in it's wake.

Faith, unfamiliar to manoeuvring her body within this unusually unstable environment, stumbled over to the captain's chair, casually resting her hoof upon Cantor's tensed shoulder. "Fuck me..." She slowly remarked, with an unusually impressed voice.

"How ladylike..." Cantor replied dryly, his mannerisms completely unchanged, despite being where he was at this exact moment in time.

"I see I do need to drive for you." The grey mare elaborated sarcastically, dipping her head toward a petite little square with an arrow pointing to the left, and a small red exclamation mark flashing in the corner.

"Oh?" Cantor responded, raising his eyebrows briefly. "And why would you need to do that?" He asked, receiving a despicably cocky grimace from the pegasus when he turned to face her.

She politely, in an obvious sense, too politely, came back with: "Because you're going the wrong way."

Though initially very loud; very distracting and somewhat of a hindrance, the great equine-made engines had, over the three weeks the ponies had been travelling, become simple background noise that had quickly disappeared from the conscious mind and joined in with the chorus of silence on the cold, desolate outside world.

Everyone on board EE1 had grown used to the sensation of weightlessness whenever it was in use. Some had even grown incredibly fond of it; opening every door in the shuttle, seeing who could get the fastest from one end of the ship to another. The pony who held the record for this slightly irresponsible sport was Titter, the blue-scarfed pony, her nimble antics placing her in the lead by a whole second. Everypony had a bash at the sport, including Cantor, who only had one or two goes, despite having the duty of monitoring the controls up in the cockpit. Even the pair of jet black mercenaries participated in this activity, going as far as to shed a smile for a few seconds before it dissolved back to a mildly amused stare.

Speaking of the blackened duo, Cantor was watching them carefully over the many days, very carefully. He had no real reason to distrust them outside their dislikeable attitude, but something about them just threw his concentration out ever so slightly; they would hardly ever speak to their other shipmates, and when they did, it was always on-topic or about their destination. There never came any banter from their lips unlike the other ponies, and whenever someone tried to joke with them, there would almost certainly be a very awkward silence to follow.

Over the training period for the group, which now seemed years in the past, Deathwing and Black Haze had proven themselves to be quite the fighters indeed, and one had to admit, they were quite the ferocious spectacle.. But, Cantor being Cantor, he could see that they were almost too good to have come from Celestia's training regime. Instead of fighting with precision and finesse like Faith and Red did, the two red-eyed ponies fought with unrelenting force and power, tearing their targets to shreds rather than just shooting them once to practice accuracy. He made the assumption that they were here for more than just an exploration mission. Maybe they were trying to steal some of the technology used over the project. Maybe they were planning something against Celestia. The former was the most likely assumption Cantor could come to, given that the latter was merely passed on as his stupid mind making far-fetched accusations that were impossible to believe.

Over the time the crew had been living in space, the positives and negatives of being secluded to a number of rooms had made themselves all too clear. One of the more beneficial attributes to living like this was that no one was more than a shout away, and that because of this, conversation was easy.

However, there were very few pros towards this level of proximity, and at least twice as many cons. The most obvious of these negativities, was that sexual tension was pulled very tight; even turning over in bed would sound as if someone were rustling a paper bag into a megaphone, deeming any kind of lustful activity utterly public. The few pones who had risked bringing themselves to climax might as well have done so in the main atrium with everypony watching whilst eating popcorn.

This fact was proven, as the youngest three mares: Faith, Titter and Flitter had found a still undisclosed way to spy in on Cantor's bedroom. And when the teenage male could no longer take the strains of not experiencing 'stimulation' for two whole weeks, one of the identical twins signalled to the other to disengage the gravity just when Cantor was about to finish.

The initial prank seemed hilarious at it's conception, but when the grey mare behind this 'joke' ended up with the stallion's produce all over her face when she burst into the room to declare her role in humiliating him, she wasn't at all impressed, and didn't speak to Cantor for the rest of the evening. Even when the alicorn refused to stop calling her names like 'Sticky' and 'Slimy', managing to turn his extreme humiliation onto her.

With Faith in mind, Cantor trundled down the permanently dark landing in the sleeping quarters of the ship, staring out at the smattering of bright stars ambling slowly past the rounded square windows. He had set the ship to autopilot for the night, and was now heading to his surprisingly comfortable bed at the furthest end of the craft. Just before he opened the door to step inside, he momentarily paused, stretching his tired forelegs out in front of him like a cat as he let out a very exaggerated yawn.

Feeling ever so slightly refreshed after his pre-sleep exercise, the dull orange-maned alicorn reached for the panel on the wall beside his door, but just before he made contact, the almost non-existent sound of hushed voices crossed his ears.

Turning his left ear around, Cantor found out that the sounds were coming from the bedroom on the opposite side of the corridor; Deathwing's room, to be exact.

He quietly strode over to the right hoof side of the hallway, gently pressing his ear up against the wall for a better listen.

"...And then we might not be able to go through with it." Deathwing growled under his breath, making sure to raise attention to his urgency in his tone, whilst still maintaining the aspect of stealth.

"Keep your voice down." Black Haze shot back, his harsh scowl portrayed in the way he spoke. "We don't want him finding out about..." His voice trailed off, becoming so ridiculously quiet that the only words Cantor could recognise from the unicorn's following sentence was "why we're not".

"And what if he did? Hm?" Came the pegasus' voice, gruff and grainy as usual, contrasting greatly with his partner's much softer and tempting mannerisms. "If he ever did, we'd both be dead before we even knew what hit us."

"That's why we need to get it done quickly. And the rest, too. We can't have them-"

Cantor felt himself slipping, and in his attempt to prop himself up straighter resulted in the alicorn knocking the door ever so slightly with his hoof: an insignificant little bump, but it was just loud enough to alert the two mercs to their uninvited presence.

"Did you hear that?" Asked Deathwing, sounding the tiniest bit panicked.

"I think somepony's listening who shouldn't be..." Haze replied in his eerily calm and cheerful voice.

"Shit." Cantor cursed under his breath as the sound of hooves hastily making their way closer to the door became clear. The alicorn backpedalled a few paces , straightened himself up and began walking back down the hallway just as the black pegasus' door slid upward to reveal a slightly pissed looking unicorn.

He cast a conspicuous glance up and down the dim-lighted landing before returning to Cantor's seemingly innocent eyes.

"Yes?" He asked bitterly, holding the stony, unimpressed look upon his face.

"Oh, nothing." Cantor replied, shrugging his shoulders deceptively. "I was just heading off to bed." He nodded briskly toward the door to his bedroom. "Speaking of which, why are you in Deathwing's room?"

"That is another thing that is none of your concern." Haze spat back harshly, provoking the alicorn.

Cantor drew himself up close, and through barred teeth, growled a warning into the black-maned unicorn's ear. "This is my ship, and whatever happens on this ship, however insignificant it may seem, must pass through my ears first. Understand?"

As the white stallion pulled slowly away, he caught sight of the pegasus further inside the room rubbing his eyes in an unusual fashion.

"On the contrary... sir." Haze grumbled spitefully, giving the white pony a disgusted look and lowering his voice so that the other pony sat on the blue-bice - quilted sheets could not hear. "Believe it or not, my partner behind me is feeling rather nostalgic; homesick, if you will. And knowing him for as long as I have gives me somewhat of an instinctual connection with him." Haze peered behind him, and Cantor followed his line of sight to a recluse appearing pegasus who had turned towards the wall slightly.

The jet black unicorn turned back to Cantor with sympathetic eyes. "This type of behaviour is very out of character. We've both had a rough life, but my um... friend, I suppose you could say, has seen some pretty messed up things. I'll spare you the details, but in short, I think he misses Equestria and the ponies there."

While the unicorn continued to stare up at Cantor, anticipating a reaction, the alicorn cast a second glance into the cream-walled room with a dash of remorse. He let out a, deep, understanding sigh and allowed his eyes to fall downward when the saddened pegasus came into view.

"I... I understand." Cantor admitted apologetically, bringing his amber eyes back up to Black Haze's red orbs. "I'm sorry for being so intrusive."

The unicorn shook his head, the dark mane barely moving as he did so. "Don't worry about it." He replied with a slightly less sinister voice, sounding almost cheerful. "I understand that you, as captain, need to know everything that is going on. But some things need to remain hidden." Haze shot Cantor an eerie grin, the white teeth something brighter than white against the pure black lips. "I'm sure you can understand."

Cantor nodded briskly, his blazing eyes falling slightly dimmer as he took a modest step away from the door. "I do." He answered. "Sometimes ponies just need a friend..." The alicorn took a final glance at the apparently disheartened pegasus before giving his last words to the other red-eyed pony. "I know this is a... sensitive moment... But, we're due to land on Absencicy early tomorrow morning, so try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Understood, sir." Haze remarked, turning into the mildly illuminated bedroom and extending a hoof towards the thin metal panel to the left of the door.

"Please," Cantor spoke, halting the unicorn's movement. Haze stared with some degree of impatience towards the white pony, hovering his left hoof inches away from the metal door's controls. "Call me Cantor." He finished with a reassuring smile, and maybe a little trustworthy wink.

Black Haze returned the sentiment with a curt nod of his own, even shooting the rust-maned stallion a wink back. "Good night, Cantor..." He said after a pause, and waited for the alicorn to turn around before he made gentle contact with the small switch on the wall slid shut with barely a sound outside of a gentle hissing of hydraulics.

With very little steps, Cantor turned about himself and placed his hoof firmly on top of the silver - grey-ish panel to the right of his door and slid the miniature switch that protruded from it upward. The door to his own dimly lit bedroom slid up into the ceiling, granting access to the alicorn's personal room, containing a wash basin, a stout wooden bedside table, where a glass stood now empty, and a sizeable single bed, enrolling as a seat for the young pegasus mare lying atop it.

Cantor just managed to stifle a scream that rose up from his chest before it could pass his lips in lieu of the unexpected form of a pony sat in his own personal room.

"Good evening, Cantor." Faith cooed seductively, flashing the stallion an unnecessarily 'friendly' wink as he lowered his hoof from his mouth, not noticing the door automatically fall closed behind him.

There was one thing the white pony did notice though, through the unusual appearance of Faith upon his bed, and the fact that she had unannounced her arrival, Cantor could plainly see that the bright-eyed pegasus was wearing his one weakness - socks. Thigh-length to be exact; his favourite. They were a thin banded stripy pink and hot pink all the way up from tip of her hoof to the bulge of her haunches, with a little white bow on top. All four toned legs were masked by the smooth appearance of the cotton, and Cantor shamefully found his mouth to be agape.

He quickly drew himself up, remembering his duty, and pulled his mouth closed. "Hey, Faith... What are, uh..." He cleared his throat awkwardly, desperately trying but hopelessly failing to avert his eyes from the mare's astonishing physique. "What are you doing here?" He asked, feeling a cold sweat coming on.

"Oh, nothing really..." The very inviting mare replied, whisking her head sideward to flick the two strands of off-yellow hair somewhat out of her field of vision for a better look of the stallion. "I just wondered what it's like to lay down on the captain's bed..." She sighed in felicity, rolling slowly over from her stomach to her back, splaying all four legs out across the wide mattress.

"Well, we've all got the same beds as standard, so... it's not really..." Cantor started, forcing himself to look away from the tantalizing socks which ushered the eyes towards the spot between her haunches.

"Why don't you come and sit next to me?" The heated mare enquired, her words more of a statement than an actual question.

"Um..." Cantor responded, casting his eyes downwards with intensity, changing his pressured thoughts to that of serious and dedicated ones. "Wh- why are you wearing those socks?" He asked, still facing the floor.

"Why the hell not?..." Came Faith's ridiculously seductive reply.

The tone she answered in left Cantor with no choice but to re-establish eye-contact, and once he had, he could barely breathe.

The dull grey pegasus had positioned herself upon her rump with her back facing toward Cantor, the vertebrae which formed her spine was clearly visible all the way down her curvy back until it disappeared between her unexpectedly round buttocks. Cantor could just see the edge of her red crosshairs cutie mark on each fantastic pillow of flesh. Her hind legs hung loosely over the edge of the pale bedsheets, making the tones of pink in Faith's delectable socks stand out like a sore hoof. She was propping herself up with her left forehoof, pushing her shoulder up to cover her mouth and nose, leaving only that breathtaking half-lidded stare of the purest gold visible to the helpless stallion. Her light blonde mane curled around her face, down her strong neck and poured out over her well-formed shoulders like a cascade of lemon topaz.

Faith raised a single eyebrow temptingly. "Do you like them."

Cantor, getting over the initial shock of the scene, began to think more clearly about the questions he was being asked. "They, uh..." He began, feeling the tell-tale signs of a blush forming over his whole face. "They're very, uhm..." He stared at the mare's enticingly curvy legs, the socks she wore reminding him very strongly of candy. "They look... tasty..." The very instant he said this, he realised his mistake, and cursed himself internally. "Crap! Why the hell did I say that!?"

Faith shook her head and smiled provocatively, her pale gold bangs of hair flicking gently from side to side. "How about a feel? They're so smooth..."

"Uhm, I don't think that I should... What I mean is... We shouldn't, that is, you shouldn't... Um..." The stallion stuttered, fully aware that his tongue was not the only organ he was loosing control of, the undeniable redness across both his cheeks showed this. "What I'm trying to uh... say here is, uh... you shouldn't be... you know... That is, what I think you're trying to-" Cantor cut his own ramblings short and cleared his throat, punching himself in the chest with a hollow 'thud' to un-trance himself. "Faith," He begun, empowered, with a voice far deeper than usual. "I don't think you can understand the calamity of the situation."

The mare dropped her alluring pose and raised her head slightly, frowning and shaking her head with parted lips as if to quite rightly say: "What...?"

Cantor scratched the back of his head and felt the heat over his face increase ten-fold. "Can..." He started with a helpless sigh. "Can I start again?" He asked with amused and hopeless eyes, a weak smile across his lips.

Faith nodded gently. "Sure." She said, sitting up and rubbing the spot next to her with the stripy pink sock. "Just sit here first."

Cantor originally opposed, however convinced that there was no way he could get a good night's sleep without first talking to the girl, he found he had little choice.

Muttering an obedient "Okay...", Cantor slowly paced over to the enchanting pegasus and planted himself on the edge of his bed - still some distance away from the grey mare, though she quickly closed the gap, bumping her rump into his.

"Okay," Cantor said with a refreshing sigh. "Hello, Faith. Wow, what are you doing here? Don't you look nice? Gee, I like socks - especially when they're on somepony so toned, but I must say I prefer a little more 'padding' on a mare if I do say so." He paused only for breath before continuing, noticing all too well the amused smile growing on Faith's lips. "Anyway, I'm really tired and as far as I know, your bed is free, so if you wouldn't mind taking yourself and your perfect ass out and getting some shut-eye for tomorrow, that'd be great..." He finished with a hopeful grin, and slightly out of breath, focusing on the pegasus' face as he waited for her to respond.

After an airy giggle, Faith shook her head again and spoke. "You're funny. You know that?"

"I try." Cantor remarked casually.

"You said I had a 'perfect ass'." Faith affirmed.

"Were you trying to be funny?"

"Yes... And no..."

"You like my behind?"

"I'm a large fan of all 'behinds'."

"What about behinds with socks on?"

"Ohh, y-yeah!" Cantor replied in a quivering voice.

Faith laughed. "Such a teenager." She jabbed. "Tell me, do you have a lot of female friends?"

"Yeah," Cantor sighed. "Pretty much all my best friends are girls... You should see them in heat. Not. Fun."

"Really?" Faith enquired with intrigued eyes.

"Oh, Faith, it's endless!" Cantor gasped. "It's like a whole month of rage and depression and... horniness..." He shook his head painfully. "You'd think it's fun to have six or so mares up for anything, wouldn't you? Every stallion's dream...? Nope." Cantor leaned backwards and sighed once again. "One of my friends actually tried to rape me: she set up traps and everything... (guess who that was...)" He added, staring at the wall, confusing Faith somewhat. Though the grey pegasus had far more appropriate issues to deal with.

"She tried to rape you?" She asked with a chuckle. "Talk about role-reversal: that doesn't happen!"

"Yes..." Mumbled Cantor, staring out the small window to his right at the slowly passing stars. "And prior to how she went about it, I always kind of fantasised bout being in that situation." It was only after saying it that Cantor realised how unbelievably weird and creepy that sounded. "Uh," He began awkwardly. "Forget I said that..."

"Not a chance." Faith responded with playful malice. "So, did you guys do it? Did she succeed...?" She added with a cruel grin.

"Obviously not." Said Cantor, now resting his foreleg over his large pillow. "But I kinda wanted to see what it was like. You know: 'never too late to try something new' - all that stuff."

At this point, Faith's golden eyes fell downward and her smile dropped slightly. When she looked back up and made contact with Cantor, however, the stallion found himself in a new realm of enchantment. Those eyes were astonishing - as though they could tell a million different stories through the depths of the emotions they concealed. And yet Cantor could see right past them.

"F- Faith...?" He asked softly as the young mare advanced on him, her stunning eyes half-lidded.

"Shhh..." She hushed, crawling ever closer to the stallion's face with her big, rich eyes. "You know what time of the year it is?" She asked, making a point of sending her hot breath into Cantor's hesitant face.

Before he could reply, the white pony was struck by a haze of the female's seasonal hormones, and his blush instantly flared. "Aww, shi-"

His profanity was cut short, though, when Faith lunged forward and locked lips with him, forcing her tongue into his mouth and forcefully sucking on the stallion's own.

Cantor's eyes widened in shock, and although he pushed Faith away as quickly as he could coordinate his muscles, he had to admit, it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

After several forceful seconds, Faith began to move away, and as she pulled out, a thin band of saliva stretched between the two equines' mouths and snapped in the middle once it became too long.

"...Whoa..." Cantor said with his eyebrows raised in surprise. He spent a minute or so just staring at Faith, catching his breath back from the shock. "That, uh..." He started, still rather short on breath from the incident. "That was... interesting..." He shot a brief smirk at faith before looking away and blowing air out from his cheeks with his spirit feeling heavy and damp.

The young mare, however, did not seem all to impressed. "You..." She began, her admirous eyes appearing lost and confused, the mannerisms in her tone reflecting feelings of emptiness. "You didn't kiss me back..."

"No..." Cantor said quietly. "No, I didn't..." It seemed obvious to him now as to 'why', but at the time, he was desperate to join in - lose himself within Faith's passion. "I'm sorry, Faith." Cantor apologised. "I don't know why I ever even entertained you..." He swivelled around and sat off the side of his bed, staring in completely the opposite direction to where Faith was sitting. "Please, just leave."

It was at that moment, Cantor heard a sorrowful 'sniff' from behind him, and despite what she had done: what she had tried to do, he just couldn't bear to turn a deaf ear and ignore the girl's apparent pain.

With a laborious sigh, Cantor sat up and put his foreleg around Faith's shoulders, pulling her in close to himself. Her strong hooves were still covered by her pink socks, as she covered up her face while she sobbed.

Cantor, not being a master at sensitivity - though experienced, nonetheless, allowed Faith to continue to cry until all that was left was shaken breathing from the warm mass beside him.

"...Finished?" He asked softly after several minutes of tears. Faith nodded her head, but would not let Cantor see her eyes. "Faith..." He started firmly, only to receive no response other than a wave of nostalgia as he continued. "Faith... Look at me." He ordered. Feeling helpless but to comply, the grey mare turned her gaze upward, meeting those gorgeous amber spectacles staring back down at her.

Cantor, hardly ever one for forced small talk, got straight to the point. "Why did you kiss me, Faith?" He asked. He could tell she wanted to look away, but something about him made her stop, something about the way he focused on her, something about the way he lightly furrowed his brow to show concern but not to intimidate. Despite the mare's apparent disability to look away, she could not bring herself to speak the words in her head.

"Come on," Cantor insisted, sounding stern, yet not at all angry or intimidating. "Why did you put all this stuff on, come in my room and try it on with me? Hm? I know what you were getting at; but what I don't understand is why." When she failed to reply again, Cantor grew irritated by her wordless stare, and snapped. "Faith!"

The pegasus reeled back, new tears streaming down her face as she cried out. "Because I love you!" She yelled, screwing her eyes shut and reeling back from the stallion. "Because you're the only pony I feel completely comfortable around. I feel as though I can tell you anything, and you'd understand! Isn't that what love's supposed to be!? It's not- I mean I can't find anyone like you! You're special to me, and I want to be with you! I know we're friends, but can we please be more than that? I want to protect you, and you... to protect me..." Her voice trailed off as her much needed release hit its damp note.

"I don't understand... It's just not fair..." She spoke, facing downwards and shaking her head. "All the other guys - they just- use me... they all just... say the right things, make the right moves... get me in bed so they can just, use me some more..." She sniffed again and wiped her nose on the back of her clothed hoof. "I'm tired of it. It's like I'm expected to be the girl who can take blow after blow and never get hurt... Well I'll tell ya', it does hurt. It hurts so much. Every! Single! TIME!!!" Her voice reached a volume to the extent that her words were just screams: nothing more than pain-stricken cries for help.

"When I met you, I-I knew you were different... I knew you were special, I just... I felt safe around you, like, I'd never though about it before, but I'm actually quite vulnerable: put me in a cage, and I'm helpless. But you," Faith continued, turning to look up at the stallion, his eyes firm and unrevealing. "You can do anything... I'm... I'm useless..."

Her head fell once again and she bit her lip in order to stop herself from making those horrible 'sobbing' noises. But after a while, she felt a hoof lightly touch the underside of her chin. Taking a moment to acknowledge the contact, Faith raised her head, and once again came face to face with those mysterious and chilling eyes.

"Why do you call yourself useless?" Cantor asked in monotone, acting as more of a concience figure rather than himself. After all, he knew as well as anyone that ponies listen to themselves more than others.

Faith was hesitant to answer. "...Because I'm a hopeless romantic." She said, disheartened. "And I can't hold down a relationship."

"But is that really a reason?" The alicorn asked with a slightly brighter attitude. "If you continue to worry about a problem, all you're likely to do is make that problem worse - especially with this particular subject." He scooted closer to the mare and made a point of nudging her shoulder slightly with his own. "If you want to get what you feel is 'true love' involved, then of course you're going to hit obstacles along the way... Truth is, you can't find true love, you have to wait for it to come to you, whether that be in the form of a stallion, mare or some kind of weird tentacle creature." Faith gave a small humoured snort, which actually managed to cheer her up a little.

Seeing he was getting to her made Cantor ease up a little, too, and an easy-going smile re-affirmed itself on his face. "Look," He started, wrapping a leg around the pegasus' shoulders once again. "I'm not trying to act like some kind of 'guru' for love, but I just want to be able to tell you that you are in charge of your own life. Everyone says you don't get long enough to live, and it's true. But what truly is 'dying'? When you stop breathing? Maybe. What about when your heart ceases to beat? Possible..." Cantor once again took a moment to pause: build his distinct tone. "Or what about this: One is only truly dead when they are forgotten by the people who care about them. Well that's just another opinion, isn't it...? Who's to say we ever die at all?"

Faith, who's tears had finally stopped flowing, appeared intrigued by the stallion's view, and remained silent for more. "Us, Faith: You and I, everyone on this ship, and everyone back home are special to someone. It's a nice thought, and a great situation in which to spend life: to experience true love, but in the end, all it comes down to is how you lived your own life. Dying doesn't matter: what's important is if you know you've lived a life you can be proud of."

Smiling warmly, like a father figure, Cantor reached up and nudged Faith's chin, turning her head to face out the window, to gaze at the endless black abyss and the stars trailing slowly by. "See the stars, Faith?" He asked, pointing at the many specks of white out in the unfathomable distance. "There's a whole universe out there waiting to be explored by ponies like us: whole worlds full of new life with which to make friends with. The universe doesn't revolve around any one of us, but in our own world that we label our life, we are everything that will ever matter..." He turned the mare's face back to his, delving deep into her eyes with his own. "...And everything that ever has..."

"Wow..." The awestruck pegasus started, her dilated golden eyes trembling beneath the direct ceiling light. "I never knew you were so poetic."

"I try." Cantor remarked with a mild smirk.

Faith chuckled. "Thanks for... you know cheering me up..." As she spoke, her smile died, and her expression became far more sombre. "...I'm so sorry for... for trying to seduce you..."

"Well, you did a good job..." Cantor replied with humour, but the mare's face did not alter.

"No..." Said Faith, cringing slightly. "This isn't funny." She continued, shaking her head disapprovingly. "I understand now that if we did end up sleeping together tonight, you'd come to regret it." She shuffled herself away from Cantor slightly before proceeding to sit cross-legged atop his bed. "I know you don't love me, but... aren't... aren't, if you're supposed to love someone, you want to make them happy?" She turned away slightly and hurtfully rubbed her upper foreleg. "It's come to the point now, so quickly I've realised, that I don't want to be with you: I know that it'll hurt you too much in the long run."

Cantor tilted his head slightly with contemplative grimace. "Actually, I was more concerned for Twilight." Faith didn't change her gaze. "You realise that if I slept with you, she may never forgive me - even if she was aware I knew it meant nothing." Once again, Faith didn't seem to respond much to Cantor's comment aside from a laborious sigh. "And in addition to that," Cantor continued, growing a little more intense in speaking. "I don't suppose you know, but Twilight and I are having a foal. There's no way I'm going to ruin its life before it's even born."

After a moment, and allowing her condition to deteriorate even more, Faith spoke up. "Wow... Now I feel like shit..." She said, turning away as she felt yet more tears sting at her eyes.

Cantor, after considering his next motion a while, swung his legs up and sat cross-legged himself in front of faith. He picked up her forehoof and with care, gradually pulled off the sock and tossed it to the floor. He guided her hoof to his own and gently clasped them together.

On faith's side, the pegasus noted how her dark grey hoof appeared slightly smaller than the stallion's. She peered past where their hooves touched and stared once again into Cantor's intense eyes, noting how they appeared to glow beneath his hair.

"In all honesty," Cantor began, smiling. "You are one of the bravest and most talented ponies I know, so don't ever think you're useless, or... don't 'mean' anything. Above anything, I can tell Celestia cares about you. And even now, she's probably thinking about you." He let go of the pegasus' hoof and wrapped his own forelegs around her, bringing their faces close.

Faith was hesitant at first, but she cautiously returned the embrace.

"You and I," Cantor started, speaking with a voice barely more than a whisper. "We're still friends, right?"

Faith exhaled warmly and her eyes came across understanding and empathetic. "Friends..." she answered with a smile.

Cantor made up the short distance between them and kissed her on the lips. It meant nothing in terms of 'romance', just a bookmark moment between the very dearest of whatever it was they had both called it just now...

Friends...

The aluminium door behind the newly re-enforced friends seemed to slide open far too quickly to be natural, presenting a certain blue-scarfed unicorn, who instinctively burst into the room without declaring her presence or stopping to see whether she was interrupting anything. She just managed to yell "Cantor!" before cowering to the floor as she noticed the pair practically sitting on top of each other.

"Oh, my!" She whimpered as she lay on the floor and covered her eyes with trembling hooves. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know you two were... I- I didn't mean to-"

The young lilac unicorn continued to gush her embarrassed apologies as Cantor and Faith turned from the unexpected arrival to each other, their faces plastered with the utmost amusement.

Following a distilled sigh, both Cantor and Faith dropped carefully from the bed and made their way over to the mortified mare.

"Come on, Tit." Cantor spoke with a friendly tone. "You didn't walk in on anything..." He affirmed, shooting a trusting smile in Faith's direction. He waited for the unicorn to stand up and collect herself before he moved the conversation onwards. "Why are you here anyway? Is it something important? I mean, most ponies knock before entering someone else's room." He added with a mild grin.

Though cleared of her apparent intrusion into something intimate, Titter still appeared beyond embarrassed, and continued to stumble over her words. "Once again, I'm... I'm really sorry for bursting in." Her bright and strong blush remained on her face as she spoke. "I- I don't know what I would have done if you uh..." She chuckled lightly. "If you actually... w- were doing something..."

"Well, we weren't." Faith replied curtly, but without sounding rude. "Now what's the problem?"

"Oh, right," Titter started again, shaking the embarrassment out through her forelegs. "Something's come up." She began, sounding precarious. "You know that we were supposed to be getting near enough to make preparations to land tomorrow?"

"That's right." Replied Cantor, taking one small step closer to the lilac pony who was wearing her signature blue scarf.

Titter appeared a little shaken: having rushed from checking the telemetry diagrams before she went to bed, she noted that something had gone crucially wrong, the young mare had entered a mild state of panic. Though she was doing remarkably well to cover that fact up. "Well, the plan's changed." She continued, sounding increasingly worried as Cantor's expression cycled through various degrees of concern. "I checked the telemetry before I went to bed - l-like I do every night, and when I looked, I found that we won't be entering the gravity field in ten to twelve hours..."

Cantor turned his head slowly and focused darkly on the unicorn with probing eyes, his fear and alarm rapidly intensifying with each passing second.

Titter swallowed her growing anxiety loudly and continued with a cautious tone. "W-we'll actually enter Absencicy's gravity in... in less than five minutes..."

Cantor's eyes widened, and immediately, he became agitated, flitting his focus around the room for something to help reassure himself. "You're telling me this now!?" He cried, swapping places with Titter and edging out into the hallway.

Once again, Titter grew more flustered. "I'm sorry." She said with apology. "I came as soon as I found out."

The alicorn captain threw a quick search up and down the hallway. Through the windows on either end of the atrium, he could note the bright object visible through the ship's large front window. He turned back to the lilac unicorn, fraught with a sense of dispatch. "And you're certain of this?" He asked with apt vigour.

Titter did not say a word, but instead, just firmly nodded with a dire expression. At this signal, Cantor turned about and began to hammer on everypony's bedroom doors, calling for them to "Wake up!" as he made his way staggeringly down the hall, opening up the first door to the expansive atrium and darting forward toward the cockpit entrance.

Faith and Titter, after standing in Cantor's room for a moment and observing concerned faces peer out from the many adjacent rooms, turned to each other with an awkward hush.

"So..." The young unicorn began, scuffing the floor and looking at Faith's chest rather than her face. "Were you two getting 'up to something' when I interrupted...?" She asked, turning to look into the older mare's golden eyes upon her note.

Faith didn't reply, but instead, just met the unicorn's remark with a curt sigh as she skipped forward and, rolling her eyes broadly, followed the captain into the control room.

"Cantor! What's goin' on?" Cried Red, sounding ever so slightly panicked as he and the six other ponies joined the captain and Faith in the cockpit. Their view of the outside world consisted of the usual clusters of stars and galaxies, as well as a much brighter object directly in front of them, rapidly growing in size and intensity.

Cantor was in his cushioned chair, gripping the steering shaft tightly, pushing forward with all of his might until the craft gradually started to slow down. Noticing the speed dropping, Faith breathed a private sigh of relief, believing for a moment that they were going to slam straight into the planet.

The alicorn captain gently eased off the odd wheel, exhaling as he did so, wiping a thick bead of sweat from his forehead and closing his eyes in post-panic relief.

"Don't worry, everypony..." He decreed with closed eyes, his hooves in contact with the wheel. "Everything's under control..." He added as he sunk back in the soft brown seat, listening to his rapid heart rate begin to decrease. For whatever reason, Cantor was aware that this event shouldn't have shaken him up to this degree, but he quickly decided to chalk it down to being in space for such a long period of time.

All the ponies began to quietly chat amongst themselves as to what just happened. Faith hung her foreleg over the back of Cantor's chair, practically resting her knee on his shoulder.

"What in Equestria is going on?" She asked quietly, sounding rather shaken herself.

Cantor shook his head, suddenly becoming aware of the din that had begun amongst his crew. "Titter!" He called out in a slightly raised voice, not trying to sound upset or angry with anyone, but the single word was regarded as hostile. Everypony silenced instantly, making Cantor feel a little disheartened by the thought that he had shown negativity, despite the lingering realisation of just what kind of authority he had. "How come we've only been able to detect Absencicy until just now? The sensors were supposed to tell us when we were a few hours from landing."

"I- I don't know..." The pale purple mare with the blue neck-wear started, sounding just as confused as Cantor, and maybe a little disappointed in herself. Though their priority for the mission was documenting; observations, mineral records, atmosphere consistency and so on, the unicorn twins would also aid Cantor with any navigation issues in deep space and on Absencicy itself.

Flitter stepped forward, hugging up against her sister in partial fear of what her twin’s mind was suggesting. "It..." She began, speaking for her ever so slightly younger sister. "It's as if... there was an unnatural cloaking device around the planet."

Cantor's eyelids flashed open, instantly forming a deeply concerned frown. Torturously slowly, amplifying the deathly silence in the room, he turned around in his chair to stare Flitter directly in the eye. Despite being the one to say it, the pony with the red scarf around her neck appeared just as shocked as Cantor towards the assumption. Cantor's face cycled through a number of nerve-wracking emotions before he felt a firm touch on his shoulder. It was Faith, she was shaking him gently to alert him to the very close sphere of planet that nearly filled the entire observation window.

Copying Cantor's scepticism, Faith too, turned to face the pale-looking unicorn. "That's a dead planet, and we're the only things out here..." She stated in a threatening tone whilst pointing toward the big brown rock, the dirty white clouds swirling around its surface giving it the appearance of some kind of marble. "How - and in Celestia's good name, why the hell is something intentionally hiding an entire planet?" Not long after they had set off, Faith had made up her mind that life outside of Equestria was a ridiculous theory, let alone a possibility.

"Here's a crazy idea..." Jostled Deathwing from the back of the room, his wry grin doing little to set aside the pegasus' anxiety.

"Don't even say it!" Faith snapped back angrily, moving her golden eyes from Flitter to those two red devils.

"Hey!" Deathwing shrugged, his smile becoming that of a the naturally bemused soldier that he was. "I don't mind shooting aliens as long as I get to shoot something!"

The captain shook his head, failing in clearing a lot of the daunting thoughts issued by that one word: 'unnatural'. He carefully replaced his hooves on the steering wheel, just as an enormous piece of space debris entered the right side of his periphery.

Cantor wrenched the steering control up and to the right, turning the spaceship on it's end, pulling it's metal underbelly level to the jagged piece of rock. Everypony fell backwards, either landing on their rump and sliding to the back wall, or taking flight from the floor all together and slamming into the wall. Either way, the experience was most unpleasant. Cantor observed with bated breath as the sharp edges of the frozen space article missed the bottom of the glass dome by inches. He frantically went about correcting the course, lining up the planet with the ship once again whilst still maintaining an appropriate degree of accuracy.

"Never. Do that. Again..." Seethed Cloud Nine, the female physician, trembling with rage after nearly being crushed by a giant red pony as a result of the captain's evasive manoeuvres.

"Oh, sorry!" Cantor cried sarcastically, half turning around in his chair. "Would you rather us all suffocate!?"

"Couldn't you have just turned the forcefeild on?" The magnolia pegasus enquired in a less furious tone as she aided her shipmates back onto their hooves.

Thankfully, Cantor could quickly turn away from the crew to avoid showing off his bright red blush of humiliation he wore across his face. He shrugged his shoulders, and in a voice as casually as possible, replied: "Yeah... I- I could..." He reached out over the multitude of dials and buttons, turning a knob three-quarters of the way around before flicking a shiny metal switch into the 'up' position. A shrill bolt of pain shot through Cantor's body, making him release his grip on the wheel and clutch his throbbing head. For one reason or another, the white alicorn had been experiencing these bursts of pain all too frequently since he began this voyage. And they always seemed to occur whenever he changed a setting on the ship, or used something which would drain a lot of power. It was as if he were connected in some way with the craft itself. But the pain wouldn't usually last for too long, so Cantor merely dismissed it as another effect of artificial gravity; he would have to get Dr. Stable to take a look at it when he got home.

A translucent azure grid sparked into life outside of the window, forming a feint glowing sphere around the fragile spaceship. Tiny particles of rubble locked in orbit with Absencicy began bouncing off of the pale blue shied that was protecting EE1 and it's inhabitants with bright little magical sparks.

"See?" Cantor called out, turning around to watch Faith slowly amble back towards the curved chair in the middle of the darkened room, a look of depletion about her face. "Everything's under control..."

Without so much as a hint towards what was going to happen, one of the primary computing towers fixed to the rear wall of the cockpit blew out, showering anypony nearby in thousands of shards of searing hot plastic and beginning to pour out great plumes of thick black smoke. Everything happened all at once, not making it easy for the ponies to determine what the problem is over the speed of which everything collapsed, and the panic which escalated with each catastrophic failure.

Several of the pipes under the floor burst, spraying scalding water up at the thin metal floor tiles, singing the hooves of anypony stood above at the time, making Titter, Flitter, Faith and Blue Bolt all leap to the side without thinking. Gauges popped, sirens flared and bright red warning lights illuminated the thick smoke with the very air of danger which was rapidly filling the cabin.

The air inside the shuttle filled with alarms, alerts, the sizzle of severed electrical cables, and the screams of nine ponies who struggled to find something safe to grab on to.

A few of the crew found refuge on the floor - away from the toxic smoke and away from any hazards at head-height. The smooth painted floor panels provided a reasonably comfortable surface to attempt to hug for dear life as the vibrating of the ship rattled bones and shook teeth in skulls.

Faith stumbled about aimlessly, completely blinded by the smoke as she scoured the uproarious room for Cantor. Despite not being in a relationship, the obedient mare remembered what her mother had said: she trusted Cantor with her life: and so Faith should do the same.

She stalked the area constantly until her hoof hit something warm and soft. She bent down, hacking up a lungful of melting plastic fumes as she did so, to discover a trembling lilac body below the thick layer of jet black smoke.

The steel-grey pegasus sank to her knees, and upon noticing how much visibility and quality of air increased once she was down there, addressed the rest of the room as loudly as ponily possible.

"EVERYPONY! GET TO THE FLOOR, NOW!!!" She screamed, satisfied with the subsequent muffled thumps she heard over the wailing sirens.

The smoke above her pulsed red as the emergency lights scanned across it, giving the wisps of fumes definition briefly before they returned to the looming shadow crushing down on them all.

Faith remembered being next to a pony; she returned her head to the left, and instantly knew who it was by the signature blue scarf.

"You doin okay, Tit!?" Faith asked, finding she had to shout to be heard over the deafening ambience. When the young unicorn mare turned around to face her, Her lilac face was streaming tears of terror.

"Faith, what's going on!?" Titter bayed in a grievous tone, seeing nothing but her own fear reflected in those golden eyes staring back.

"Don't worry!" Enthused Faith, giving a weak smile of encouragement. "We're gonna be fine!"

Titter put her teeth behind her lips and bit hard to prevent herself from screaming out of the pure terror and adrenaline coursing through her thundering heart. She turned to her sister, trying to reconstruct the pegasus mare's hopeful smile upon her own face, but all the life rushed out of her once she realised what Flitter was doing.

The pony with the red scarf had her hooves clasped together above her head, which was buried into the floor. Like her sister, Flitter's eyes were releasing torrents of tears, but unlike her sister's Flitter's eyes were sealed closed, and she was hyperventilating, blubbering out words a mile a minute with every frantic exhale.

"I'm Sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me, Celestia, I'm sorry! Please! Please! Forgive me, Celestia! Please, I'm sorry! I don't want to die! Please, I'm sorry!" Her mind was a mess, her thoughts scrambled, and her words somewhat instinctual as she begged fate for her life.

Titter could only watch her sister and best friend break down in front of her, and soon enough, her grievous screams escaped her and she pulled her praying sibling close, squeezing her tightly, remembering to never let go, despite how scary and hopeless it all seemed.

Cantor held onto the steering wheel with all his strength, pulling with every fibre of muscle in his forelegs to try to get the craft back on course. The spaceship had performed a one-hundred and eighty degree turn, and was now facing the same sight that had been permanently there for three weeks solid. The alicorn pushed down with his right hoof, at the same time, pulling up with his left, engaging the ship's 'pivot mode', where Cantor could more easily control the direction and angle of EE1 so he could at least see the planet he was hurtling towards.

However, once the white stallion gave the slightest twitch with pivot mode engaged, one of the two primary engines exploded, sending a catestrophic shock wave through the whole ship. As the craft jolted violently forward, everypony on the floor skidded forward, grabbing hold of anything within reach to stop themselves from being flung about the room like rag dolls, whether that be cables, storage units, or other ponies.

Cantor lurched forward violently in his seat as a result of the immense explosion, slamming his head into the rim of the control hub and jarring his neck painfully. He rocked back in his chair, being thrown about by the violent and continuous convulsions the ship was making as it entered the alien atmosphere. The captain persisted to struggle with the controls, trying desperately to regain control of the multi-billion bit craft and the irreplaceable crew within.

Faith, being her usual self and not giving in to physical restraints, grievously clawed her way along the floor towards Cantor's chair, so focused on reaching the stallion to help him, that she hardly noticed the molten plastic raining down on her back, sitting atop her hair for a brief moment before leaving a searing mark in her skin.

The gash in Cantor's upper forehead was pouring with blood, making it impossible to see out of one eye. Half blind, the speedy white pony continuously pumped the pedal to the far left of the four where his rear hooves lay, hoping to sustain a steady flow of power to the one engine which was working, but that effort was quickly proving to be fruitless.

The dark grey pony clambered around the captain's chair, gripping the back tightly for stability as she peered outside through the window at the milky brown world below. The initial shaking after entry through Absencicy's upper atmosphere had passed, yet the ship was still sending up vibrations through the entire crew as a result of it's malfunctioning engines.

The smoke around Cantor was becoming more of an issue with every passing second: he couldn't breathe, and now couldn't see. Using magic with just enough concentration, Cantor surrounded the majority of the smoke with a rich violet aura, depositing it within the atrium behind the cockpit; not the most ideal place, but it could be sorted out later. For now, Cantor was merely glad to be able to see the planet and take clean lungfuls of air.

Faith noticed the cut high above Cantor's right eye dying several thick lines of red into his hair all the way down his face, but decided not to say anything as the alicorn seemed to be entirely focused on keeping the ship pointing downwards.

"What the hell's going on!?" She yelled at Cantor just before EE1 breached the thick cloud layer and the entire view outside was swallowed up by a billowing rush of dirty white clouds.

"No fucking idea!" Cantor shouted back, not knowing what to do as visibility on a stellar scale was absolutely nothing. "The only thing I can do is hope to give everyone a rough landing! If I turn off the engines and divert the power to the forcefeild, it should protect us from impact!" He explained, still fighting against the resistance in the steering.

"You sure that will work!?" Faith asked back, staring out of the window as the ship pummelled through the thick cream clouds.

"Got any better ideas?" The alicorn commented, just as their craft exited the clouds, revealing a complex of black shapes and spires spanning several miles of the tan-red surfaced world far below The horizon was smooth, not a mountain, hill or tree to be seen, making it look as though this world was a perfect sphere.

Cantor and Faith stared downwards at the complex for several plummeting seconds, mouths agape, and eyes as equally wide.

"Is-" Faith started, her voice weak from shock. "Are those buildings!?"

Now finding initiative to make sure no one died, Cantor pulled the chord under his seat, instantly shutting off power to the one engine which was still in tact, and stopping the massive leak of energy pouring from the hole where the first engine had disintegrated.

A wave of blue opacity passed over the grid work of the forcefeild once again, re-enforcing it to it's strongest setting as Cantor pressed down on the strength control, turning it all the way back to the start to engage the emergency setting, which shut off everything but the life support system, pumping as much magical energy as possible into keeping the shield sturdy.

Cantor slid from the chair, aided by the rough downfall and rushed over to the wall. He punched in a three digit number into the large display and a sturdy looking red metal door swung open to reveal a thick black and yellow striped cord. The words "CRASH-LANDING PROTOCOL ONLY TO BE USED IN FATAL EMERGENCIES" written in bold white text could be seen on the rich blue wall behind the handle.

Stealing one final peek at the ground hurtling flat out toward his ship, Cantor reached inside the box and pushed down hard on the handle.

In an instant, the entire ship was covered in huge airbags which inflated from the floor, walls and ceiling, surrounding the ponies in a sarcophagus of bright white clouds. Even the joints in the metalwork for the window at the head of the ship burst open to reveal hidden airbags which protected the glass from bodies, and the ponies from the shattered panes.

Before anyone had any time to react to the drastic change, Cantor was already barking out orders.

"Everypony! In the corner; pile up!" He shakily walked across the lumpy, airy surface of cushions, noticing how it felt nothing like a real cloud before being reminded of the dire situation. "Red, you get down first, then the pegasi, then the unicorns on top!"

All the ponies complied, forming a sturdy heap of bodies in the corner furthest away from the main window. Only being able to roughly guess how fast the ship was falling, and having not the slightest clue how far away they were from the surface, Cantor made sure no time was wasted as the one thing he was certain of was that they would be 'landing' in a matter of seconds.

Once the pile of equines had made themselves steady in the corner, hugging onto each other tightly to stop them from moving around, Cantor joined them, laying on his back against the layer of pegasi, splaying his enormous wings out in an attempt to provide just that bit more support for the group as they neared the surface, gaining more and more speed with every fatal second.

"Unicorns! Cover your horns!" Cantor ordered loudly, not wanting anyone to be impaled by the sharp magical anatomy. He glanced around at everyone, sure enough, all the magic-wielding ponies, including himself, had their hooves clasped over the tip of their horns.

"Brace for impact!" The alicorn instructed finally, feeling the mass of bodies beneath him tighten in anticipation of the brutality that would soon follow.

Barely three seconds of the most strenuous pause in history passed before the ship's forcefeild collided with the first solid object, decimating the group and sending their bodies flying about the room.

Cantor and most of the other unicorns kept their hooves over their horns - if not to avoid spearing others, then to protect themselves from any lasting damage.

The barrage lasted only seven or eight seconds, but that time seemed to stretch on forever as the ponies collided with each other, screaming in pain and terror as faces were struck, limbs were smashed and teeth were chipped.

The last thing Cantor knew was the screaming of ponies, the havoc all around him, an iron blow to the back of the head, followed by a sickening crunch.

And then everything went black.