Later, as the young mares slept again, Stellar retrieved the book Twilight had said that Celestia had sent her, sat down with a nice cup of hot chocolate and started to read. Celestia had said that the ramifications of returning Arcanite into Equestrian Society might be way beyond anything Stellar might have considered, and offered the book's accounts as proof of this... or at least food for thought.

As she read, Stellar felt her faith in her fellow ponies slipping a little...

I watched today as the 'Prince's Cadre' marched down the streets of our fair city, assaulting any non-unicorn who failed to give him and his troops 'proper respect'. Their horns had rings of a glowing green metal on them, and the Prince's own horn had a complete cover made of the metal. It seemed to amplify his magical strength far beyond any that I have ever seen, or felt, for that matter. He picked up groups of multiple Earth Ponies and literally tossed them into the air, throwing them from one ring-equipped trooper to another, and they were dumped outside the gates of Canterlot. Not even the strongest of the Earth Ponies could beat even the smallest of his troops. Pegasi that tried to stop him were literally pulled out of the air and pinned to the ground by their wings, as if nailed to the stones.

Then Luna came.

Her fury was beyond imagining, as she shattered the rings of power around the horns of the unicorns and broke the horn clean off the Prince himself. The Pegasi were released, but many with broken wing-bones and damaged or missing feathers. Luna's troops took the unicorns who had done this away... and I will write here that I never saw any of them again.

The Prince was screaming as his magic leaked out of his now-broken horn, as Luna ground the broken part into dust before his eyes, then crushed the horn-cover into a small ball. The shattered pieces of the rings had been carefully gathered and given to the Princess of the Night as well. Then the Prince did the unthinkable: even with his horn shattered, he charged at the Princess, as if to gore her with his non-existent horn. She threw him away from her as he closed with her, slamming him into a wall and rendering him unconscious. Luna's troops picked him up and carried him off towards the keep of the castle that was under construction at the time. To think that a princess who is only a teenager herself, could be so powerful as to best so many super-powered unicorns... it shows why they are to be our new rulers.

I heard later from a friend who was serving in the castle that the Prince had gone on trial before his mother, Princess Platinum. My friend told me that she had condemned her son to death for his treason to the throne, as well as attacking one of the young princesses. The execution was held three days later. Although the Earth Ponies clamoured for the Prince to be hung, Platinum and Celestia relented on this point in a different direction. Since no Earth Pony was actually physically hurt during the rebellion, but many pegasi suffered grave injuries, the young prince was killed using a particularly Pegasi method, which calmed Commander Hurricane and his entourage. The Prince was struck by a tremendous bolt of lightning, and I saw him literally fried before my eyes. The sight was horrific, the stench coming from his dead body almost sickening; but after his body was removed, the mood between the three tribes' leaders mellowed greatly. Commander Hurricane bowed to Princess Celestia in recognition of her status, and her wisdom in handling this crisis. Chancellor Puddinghead also bowed to Princess Celestia and reaffirmed that she recognised Celestia's and Luna's standing as the new rulers of the Alliance.

The one proclamation to come from all of this was one that declared the green metal, now called 'Arcanite', had to be surrendered to the Throne. All of it was now declared 'Royal Property', and would only be given out to those who could be trusted by all those who govern us. I may be a unicorn, but even I can honestly say that I am glad this 'Arcanite' is no longer in public hoofs.

Stellar thought long and hard about what she read there. "I bet if I scanned the Alicorn Amulet, it would probably be made of Arcanite as well." She said to herself. "But Arcanite itself can't be corrupting on its own. I've had my little mana generators for years now, and they haven't affected me in any way that could be called 'corrupting'." Stellar reasoned. "Maybe I need to do some more testing before I commit myself to this."

Stellar sifted through the book a little more, and found another interesting account from three years before Poppy Blossom's account...

Today, we have gained a supply of the metal known as 'Magicorum', although a new name for it, 'Arcanite', has been tossed about by the younger members of the Wizards' Guild for a few years now. Although its magic-enhancing properties are well-known, the actual limits of this enhancement have never been truly tested. With this in mind, I and a group of my fellow senior wizards will be attempting to map the limits of magicorum's ability to enhance unicorn magic, and to see what other forms of magic it might give the ability to either control or use, beyond what unicorns can do so already.

Day Three:

Today we have managed to push the limits of unicorn magic using Magicorum way beyond what we felt it was capable of in the past. It seems that a complete horn-cover of magicorum yields far greater results. One of the weakest wielders from the testing group has shown levels of power close to a hundred times his normal limitations, and even a standard ring made of the metal has raised a unicorn's power to ten times that measured during normal use. This is a great breakthrough in expanding our abilities for use against the enemies of Unicornia... I mean, the Alliance of the Tribes (I must remember we are entering a new age of co-operation now. Such opportunities to study the magic of the Other Tribes is far easier when we are at peace, I have to admit).

Day Five:

An immense breakthrough in our studies has occured! Magicorum-equipped unicorns have been shown to be able to wield the magic of the other tribes. One of our members, who was equipped with magicorum leg-rings around his fetlocks, has shown that they can walk on clouds, like a pegasus, after touching one who was already on clouds. He then stepped out onto the captured cloudbank by himself and continued to stay aloft as long as he kept his mind on doing so. Admittedly, as soon as he was competely distracted, he slid to his barrel on the clouds, his legs falling through, then he slid through the clouds to the floor five minutes later.

Still, this shows that magicorum can allow unicorns to wield the magic of the other tribes successfully. We are planning other experiments now, to see what other abilities might be able to be wielded, depending on what forms of magicorum-artifacts can be made and equipped.

"Interesting..." Stellar mused as she read ahead a little ways...

Day 15:

I have experienced something amazing.

With the help of Bronze Scales, one of our brightest Artificiers, we managed to make a set of Magicorum shoulder-guards that have given me an experience no unicorn has ever had before now: I have flown like a pegasus.

Well, having said that, I have to admit a pegasus foal could fly better than myself. But the spells cast into the shoulder-guards, reinforced by encasing pegasi wing-feathers in the guards, produced a pair of ethereal wings that would do any pegasus proud. And I was able to glide successfully with them, after some practise, from the top of our tower down to the courtyard below. The Pegasi magic that radiated from the guards was easily-felt and manipulated... but difficult to control, although I have to say I think this is just a lack of experience and proper tuition in using such wings. I did manage to induce proper flapping protocols at times, including effective back-wing braking for a less-than painful touchdown after two somewhat embarrassing 'landings' from a minimal height.

Subsequent manifestations of Pegasi magic included accelerated healing, with my bruises from those rough landings disappearing within hours instead of days; and instances of being able to float above the ground without even thinking of it. I found that out when I walked out of the tower once beside Radiant Light while wearing the vest. As we chatted on without thinking of walking down the stairs, Radiant descended down the stairs; I did not, and found myself 'walking' out into mid-air, as if on clouds. Her cry of surprise as she reached the bottom of the stairs distracted me and cancelled the effect, leading me to plunge down fifteen steps' height; but thankfully my ethereal wings opened and flapped hard, leading to a soft landing on my hoofs. It seems that sheer panic can lead to greater control than studied efforts.

Many of my fellow wizards want to experience this thrill, now that it has been accomplished. Others are speculating what other abilities vests such as these might allow us to control; could we eventually be able to control the weather ourselves, and finally dispense with the fickle accomodations of Pegasi to our needs for crop production and other such necessities? Only time and more experimentation will tell.

"Oh, I can see what reaction the Pegasi would have to flying unicorns trying to 'play' with the weather." Stellar said to herself. "Not to mention hostile unicorns being able to access the cloud-fortresses of the Pegasi. The Pegasi would really want to knock them out of the sky for that." She sighed. "No wonder the Pegasi and Earth Ponies wanted Arcanite banned. That and the account I read before really show how things were back then." Stellar said to herself. "But... hopefully a thousand years might have had some effect on the ponies of today. Hopefully things like this won't happen again."

Stellar then snorted. "Yeah, right. If I'm going to bring back Arcanite, I'm going to have to find a way of idiot-proofing it against deliberate abuse. Otherwise, Celestia is never going to allow its wide-spread use in Equestria, except under the tightest of controls." She looked at one of her mana generators, one of the ones she had retrieved, now that the fusion reactor they had active was supplying the Xerxes with some power. "How do I make Arcanite easily-suppressible or removeable if abused by fanatical or idiotic ponies... and not just unicorns. I am betting that a pegasus or earth pony could use Arcanite as well, if moulded and configured the right way."

Stellar retrieved her Tome and started to leaf through it, after adding the contents of Celestia's little book to the tome's archives.

Twilight had also finished Celestia's little book of tales from that time, and it took her a great amount of self-control to not go running around, trying to fix the problem. "Arcanite's dangerous... but we need it for Stellar to get home... but we can't let other ponies use it... but it could revolutionise Equestria's power production..." Twilight paced on and on, getting higher and higher above the floor in her chambers, until she butted her head on one of the ceiling sconches. Letting go a squeak of pain, she just stopped herself dropping to the floor below. "Stellar's right. I have to stop doing that." She said to herself as her hoofs touched down once again and she furled her wings. "There's got to be a way of having our Arcanite, and keeping control of it, too." Twilight said to herself, as she started looking through her archives again.

A series of small explosions outside made Twilight race to the window and look out, but she relaxed as she saw it was merely Trixie practising her new show's routine outside, away from the Castle. Starlight was helping her as well, and an audience of Ponyville's foals were watching, awestruck, as Trixie made her entire caravan disappear before them. Twilight saw Trixie do the 'Sideways Shadow' spell quite well this time, the caravan completely turning invisible as it slipped into the Shadow Realm. As Starlight dropped the curtain, the foals cheered and stamped their hoofs in applause to Trixie's tricks, getting a huge grin from the mare, who bowed and thanked them. Twilight smiled brightly, then returned to her books, cheered up enough that she actually felt hopeful instead of anxious at the task she and Stellar faced ahead of them.

Twlight sighed. "How are we going to restrict this? How can we restrict this? How can we make sure that no-pony is going to abuse Arcanite the way they did a thousand-plus years ago...?" She bapped her head on the desk, keeping her horn from slamming into the wooden surface through long practise. "I hope Stellar has some ideas..."

Stellar was reading through her Tome, checking on some references to metal forging she'd read before from Brilliant Plates' book: The Art Of Steel, Gold and Bronze. That had led her to some older texts on forging metals with spells to prevent them from shattering in extreme conditions. Then, as she read through another of his books called: Using Metals For Buildings: A Treatise Of Modern Construction Methods, Stellar found a reference to a builder using rivets designed to shatter when a certain spell was used upon them, for removing support frames from constructed sections of buildings once the sections were completed and the frames were no longer required. "Well, well... imbuing metal so it shatters when a certain spell is cast upon it. How interesting." Stellar said with a sly smile. She started making copious notes...

Later, down in Engineering, Stellar unloaded the H-S Pockets of their precious cargo and checked things over. Smiling, she took out some of the magicite powder and the carbon powder, measuring them precisely with some of the scientific instruments the young mares had found for her. She made two clumps that weighed a kilogram each, then placed one in the reactor furnace, holding it in the center as she powered up the furnace. Once the mix was melted and stirred, she fired the alchemical spell Twilight had checked over and returned into the mix. After three seconds, a massive flare of energy blasted free, captured by the reactor's energy-absorbing coating and was transferred to the accumulators. Very carefully, Stellar retrieved the mass of glowing green metal and shaped it into a hexagonal bar. While the metal was beautiful and felt proper to her senses, Stellar wondered why the bar only weighed just over a kilogram, not the two kilograms she was expecting. "Oh well, look into that later." Stellar said as she moved the bar of molten metal towards the workshop area. Dunking it into an oil bath, Stellar waited until the metal had cooled, picked it out with a pair of tongs and put it on a bench, then carefully probed it with a very weak glow-spell.

The results were incredible. The bar glowed intensely, more powerful than even a sodium-arc search-lamp, with an intensity that out-shone even a blue-white star. Stellar's visor had flared and turned opaque just before the brilliance could dazzle her, but even then she could still see the brilliant light glowing through the almost perfectly-opaque metal visor. Then it slowly died down after five minutes. Stelar raised her visor when she could see safely again, then went "Whoo... five minutes, thirteen seconds... not bad for a three-second glow-spell. This is even more powerful than the metal I made from the unstable Arcanite. I'm going to have to re-write all the calculations..."

She played with the bar very gingerly, using micro-second bursts of magic to tease out its potential as she sat, re-writing the Alchemical spell she used to make it. After five hours of writing and re-writing magic phrases over and over again, Stellar settled on what she hoped was the best re-writing of the fusion spell... with a new safeguard built-into it. "There... hopefully if I've written this properly, not only will it give me a way to control the Arcanite's 'distribution', but without anypony realising that this little addition is in the bigger spell." Stellar said to herself as she put the bar of Arcanite into a custom-made Adamant case. Once sealed inside, it was safe from 'going off' at the wrong touch.

Heading for the furnace once again, Stellar repeated her experiment using the re-worked spell. Nothing seemed different about the second bar of Arcanite she had on the bench after everything was done. It even scanned the same as the first bar to the sensors in the metallurgy lab: two bars of what the system labelled as pure Ununpentium metal, Element 115. They even looked identical, weighed identically at one-point-zero-six-three kilograms each and handled magic exactly the same, with no variance. "Okay, now to give these two bars a bit of a prod..."

Stellar cast a spell from the School of Light Magic she knew so well. 'Light Of The Heart', it was called: an obscure spell that she'd only mastered five years after starting her study of the School of Light Magic. The brilliance of the light from her - not just her horn, but her whole body - gently flooded the room and washed over the two bars. The spell's effects were ecstatic to Stellar: it filled her with a radiance that engendered hope and strength of a purity that made it seem to her as if anything was possible. No negative emotions could survive the power of this spell. As it faded, Stellar let go a sigh that relaxed her and allowed her to regain some of her self-control again. She couldn't help but smile as it flooded her with the best of emotions and charged her with a powerfully-positive outlook.

Then Stellar checked over the bars of Arcanite.

One was unchanged, still solid and ready to amplify any magic it encountered above a certain threshold. The other one, though... Stellar saw that the metal was no longer metal; it had crystallised completely and randomly as well, she could tell by the scans from the metallurgy-lab scanners. Putting the unchanged bar away, she cast the same glow spell she'd used before over the crystallised bar... and it crumbled into a green crystal dust. Stellar grinned. Now, if somepony misused the metal for... neferious uses, she could destroy it in a way that would not harm the wielder or anything else. Better yet, it could be focussed on a single pony or the entirety of Equestria, if needs be. "Perfect." Stellar said to herself. "Now, to write a letter home to Twilight."

Twilight was moping while slowly eating lunch. There was nothing wrong with the fish salad Spike had made, but her heart wasn't in it at the moment. The concern about Arcanite was consuming her entire attention span, and her motions towards consuming lunch were purely automatic. Sighing, she pushed the almost empty plate aside and rested her head on her fore-hoofs. While she was one of the most learned ponies in Equestria, Metallurgy wasn't one of her strong areas. That was one of Stellar's interests, not hers. She slid from the table and headed back to her study.

As Twilight opened the door to her study, there was a 'pop' above her, and a scroll landed end-on on her horn. Blinking in surprise, Twilight headed inside as she removed the cheeky scroll, grinning and sighing with relief as she saw Stellar's Winged Sparkle Star on the seal. She carefully opened it and locked it down on her desk, before starting to read...

Hiya Twi' Sis!

I bet you've been worrying your big heart and bigger brain out over the problem of Arcanite. Well, it got me really perturbed for a while, too. Those accounts in the copies of that little book Celestia gave us gave me some real food for thought, I can tell you! And also horrified and intrigued me. The experiments they were doing into applications for Arcanite are fascinating, but the abuse of it... yeah, finding a way to control how Arcanite is used is definitely a major priority.

Having said that, I think I have found at least one way to remove Arcanite from those found abusing it. What I need you to do is burn the Alchemical fusion spell we crafted for making Arcanite from your records and replace it with this new one. I just re-wrote it to include a special safeguard, and all the copies of the old spell should be destroyed and replaced. It is imperative to do so, so no-pony or anyone else can make Arcanite themselves that doesn't have the safegaurd built into it.

Yes, I know you hate the idea of destroying ANY information, especially magic information. But this is not something we can quibble about. I'll keep the only copy of the older spell safe in my Tome, and even if someone does get their hands on a copy of the new one and recreates the way to manufacture Arcanite, the safeguard will still be in place. Somehow, I don't think you'll give me much of an argument on this, Sis. Arcanite is indeed too dangerous to be allowed back into circulation without a safeguard built into its creation process.

I have tried the spell myself, both of them, and I can confirm they both work brilliantly, in all aspects. So, after some more preparations, I'm going to start making enough Arcanite that we can get this ship's reactor working again. Hopefully the mana crystals I need won't be long in coming.

I hope things are going well for you back there, Sis. Go and have a Spa Day on me, would you? You were right that the showers we all had once the water systems were charged was the most relaxing time I have had, since returning from that campaign through the Great Southern Desert. But at least I didn't have half a ton of sand to groom out of my coat this time!

Be home soon, Twilight.

All my love,

Stellar

Twilight sighed happily. The stress and tension she'd felt all morning just slid off her like the mud from the spa as you climbed out of the mud bath... "Yes. A Spa Day sounds divine." Twilight grinned. She put the letter in her collection and placed the new spell Stellar had sent in her 'priority' box. Taking out the 'old' version of the fusion spell, Twilight tossed it in the fireplace and burned it thoroughly with a normal firestarter, not a spell. That way it was almost impossible to reconstitute using magic. After the parchment was ash, she sealed it in stone and teleported it out over the Celestial Sea, letting the stone sink into its depths. "There. That's that safely disposed of." Twilight said to herself, then she headed out of her study.

She found Starlight and Trixie outside, cleaning Trixie's new caravan off. Unlike her old wagon, this one had steel wheel-hubs with vulcanised rubber tyres fitted to it, and Trixie found it was a lot easier to pull along than using the old wooden carriage wheels. "Hey, you two. Up for a Spa Day?" Twilight asked in a loud voice.

Starlight and Trixie looked up and grinned. "Yeah!" They both said together as Twilight laughed, then all three headed for the Ponyville Spa. There was much relaxing to embrace and friendship to enjoy...

Applebloom was watching as Stellar loaded up the modified reactor chamber with the first tonne of Magicite ore. "So, what's this gonna be fer, then?" The teenage filly asked.

"To explain, Applebloom: when I smelt the Magicite and Carbon together and hopefully fuse them at the atomic level into Arcanite, there's going to be an enormous out-put of energy. It'll be much greater than all the fusion reactors could produce, when we can fuel them up." Stellar told her. "And all that energy is going to have to go somewhere. I'm not sure if even the major accumulators on this ship will be able to handle it. So, I'm going to smelt half of the Magicite ore into the Magicite metal they use in the drive system here, now that I know how they did it. Once that's done, I can use the metal to make mana storage arrays, very powerful ones." Stellar demonstrated to Applebloom via illusion. "Once I have them carved and set, I can gather them in housings and make accumulators and converters, which will convert the energy into mana and back again, allowing us to safely store the energy made from the conversion process without it overloading the ship's systems."

Applebloom nodded. "So how are ya makin' all of this happen, Stellar? I ain't never heard of half this stuff in tha engineerin' manuals in tha Canterlot Archives." She asked.

Stellar chuckled. "Some of it I've made in the past, like the energy storage arrays. Some of it I'm sourcing from the engineering data the Humans left on-board this ship." She revealed to Applebloom. "And a bit of it I'm making up as I go along, using what I've learned and what I already know. Y'know, adapting their technology to our magic where I can and have to, in order to do what we need to do to make this work."

"Oh, right." Applebloom replied. Now she knew where Stellar was getting all her information from, and it finally made sense. "So... we're in new territory with learnin' this stuff, yeah?"

"Pretty much." Stellar agreed. "But that's where the fun is." She grinned at Applebloom, whose expression showed she agreed most heartily.

Stellar came out of the modified reactor housing after putting the Magicite powder right in the center, holding it there with her magic until the gravity in the reactor dissipated, leaving it gathered there. As she stood behind the control console, Stellar grinned at Applebloom. "Okay, here we go..."

Applebloom nodded. "You betcha!" She replied.

Stellar grinned with Applebloom as the six mana generators fired up their heat arrays and blasted the Magicite powder with the equivalent of nearly two thousand degrees. Stellar also fired another of her alchemical transformation spells into the melting mass; one that forced the Magicite to form a stable metal matrix, instead of the unstable one it usually formed whenever others Ponies had tried to forge the metal before. Thanks to the notes the Humans had left about the process gleaned from the technology of the Robotech Masters, Stellar had made this spell matrix work with Twilight's help. After scanning the mass of molten metal, Stellar told Applebloom "Okay, shut it down!"

Applebloom responded almost immediately, the generators shutting down and leaving the molten mass floating in the middle of the reactor housing. "Did it work?" Applebloom asked Stellar as the older mare moved to the reactor and scanned the mass in more detail.

Stellar grinned as she turned to look at Applebloom. "Oh yeah! We got metal!" She declared.

"Yay!" Applebloom cheered as Stellar moved to open the reactor door. In her armor, she was protected from the intense heat, and she wrapped the mass of molten metal in a force-field before slowly drawing it out of the reactor-furnace, shaping it into a long cylinder about fifty centimetres in diameter and a little over ten-and-a-half metres long. Applebloom was moving back as her suit powered up as well, but it wasn't as efficient in protecting her from the heat as Stellar's Adamant armor was. She stayed back and watched as the Magicite metal, which Stellar now called Magicirium, cooled noticeably as Stellar drew the heat away from it. As it turned a dark grey, Applebloom moved over to beside Stellar and looked at the alicorn. "Did it work?" She asked again.

Stellar gently touched a ball of spell-light to the mass of Magicirium metal, and the metal softly started to glow, until it was glowing the same as the spell ball. Stellar then grinned at Applebloom. "Yeah... it worked exactly as it should." She told Applebloom.

Applebloom beamed and pronked in place. "Awesome!" She said over and over, until Stellar gently stopped her.

Stellar chuckled and gave Applebloom a hug. "Thanks for your assistance, Applebloom. It made this a lot easier."

Applebloom grinned as she retracted her vacc-armor and took off her helmet. "Does that mean ah can help ya when ya make tha Arcanite?" She asked.

Stellar grinned back as her own armor retracted. "Of course! I'm not going to leave my engineering cadet out of the loop when we make History."

Applebloom grinned and moved to Stellar, getting a big hug from the alicorn as they sat together. Stellar was surprised to feel Applebloom sob, then her shoulder felt wet as Applebloom started to cry. Stellar smiled down at Applebloom and said softly. "I know you're missing your family, Applebloom... I'm just hoping I'm doing the best I can to do what they'd do in all the trouble we're caught up in."

Applebloom snifled. "Yeah... I think you're doing fine, Stellar." Applebloom replied, her accent diminishing under the stress until her speech was as clear as any Canterlot-educated Pony. "I know we've made a lot of mistakes..."

"Shhhh..." Stellar hushed Applebloom. "That's not important now, Applebloom." Stellar told her. "Mistakes can be forgiven. Accidents are only useless if you don't learn from them. And while you three need to learn a few more lessons on what's smart to do and what isn't, at least you're all alive still to learn those lessons." Stellar looked at Applebloom with a serious look this time. "The next time, you three might not be so lucky. The last thing anypony wants is for any of you to be seriously injured or killed by your rashness." Stellar gently nuzzled the fifteen-year-old filly-cum-mare. "I think it's about time you three started properly training under me, in how to think before you act and to recognise the consequences of your actions before you do them." Stellar stated to Applebloom.

Applebloom nodded, looking a little contrite. "Does that mean we hav'ta join tha Guard?" She asked, her accent returning as she started feeling better.

Stellar grinned. "Maybe... or maybe you'd rather become part of the crew of this ship instead."

Applebloom's face lit up like a thousand Hearth's-warming lights. "Oh yeah! I'd love ta be crew, an' proper crew, too."

Stellar nodded. "Then we'll start all three of you on training as we work to get back home again, Applebloom." Stellar told her. "Now... I need you, Cadet, to go and bring Sweetie Belle down here for me, since the coms are still patchy. I need her magical assistance for the next step."

"Aye, Captain!" Applebloom gave a credible salute, then cantered off towards the lift. Stellar chuckled as she began doing calculations for a few sets of equipment she felt they'd need, before she started working on making Arcanite.

Applebloom was so excited, she was rocking herself up on her hoof-tips and back down again as she rode the lift up to the Bridge level. She rocketed out of the lift and down the corridor to the Bridge. Pulling up on the apron before the bridge controls, she grinned widely at her friends and said "Sweetie Belle! Captain Stellar needs your assistance in Engineering."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had looked up as Applebloom had raced onto the bridge, then they looked at each other. "She needs me?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, yeah. You're tha one that can use magic, and she needs your assistance to do magic." Applebloom explained.

"Okay!" Sweetie Belle brightened up as she slid off her seat to the floor, and moved to Applebloom's side.

"See you guys for lunch!" Scootaloo called out to them as she returned to her helm lessons.

Down in the flight bay ahead of Engineering, Stellar was carefully using one of her thinnest blades to slice the Magicirium cylinder into flat plates three centimetres thick. The blade she used had been an experiment she'd conducted a few years ago: It was so thin it disappeared from sight when viewed edge-on, since it was only a few atoms wide. Only Adamant had the incredibly-powerful atomic integrity to allow such a blade to be made without falling apart. But it also meant that she wasn't cutting like other tools would have; the blade was literally separating the Magicirium atoms from one another in a straight line, with no waste, leaving the smoothest surface ever behind. The dark-grey plates were almost perfect mirrors as Stellar stacked them up on top of each other.

Stellar had cut thirty of the discs when Applebloom and Sweetie Belle came into the bay. "You wanted to see me, Captain?" Sweetie Belle asked with a snappy salute.

Stellar returned her salute and smiled. "Indeed I do, Cadet Belle." Stellar replied. "I need your magic to help me put together some pieces of equipment we need badly, if we're to get home again." She directed Sweetie's attention to the discs. "These are made of Magicirium." Stellar told Sweetie, whose eyes widened in realisation.

"That's..." She gently touched one, and gasped as she felt the magic in them. She felt the metal seeming to be slowly drawing her mana out of her and into itself.

Stellar gently took Sweetie's hoof off the disc. "Careful, Sweetie." Stellar told her. "These plates are natural mana sinks. What I need you to do is to engrave this circle onto the flat sides of all the discs I create." Stellar explained, holding out a large piece of paper that was rolled up. "You know how to engrave circles onto objects, don't you?" Stellar asked Sweetie Belle.

"Oh yeah, Stellar." Sweetie Belle replied. "I learned that the first year of High School, in magical arts class."

Stellar smiled. "Good. Now, this needs to be engraved on both sides. You see each disc has a square notch and a v-notch." She showed Sweetie. "The v-notch is the top. The paper has a mark to show the top and bottom of the circle. If you align those marks with the notches before you cast the engraving cantrip, then you shouldn't misalign the circle. Is that clear?" Stellar asked.

"Yes, Stellar." Sweetie replied. "Align the marks on the sheet with the notches and keep it in the center, then cast the engraving cantrip on the circle. And do both sides."

Stellar grinned. "Excellent." She told Sweetie. "Now, I'm going to keep cutting the discs. Once you've engraved them, set them in groups of ten. After I've cut all the discs we need done, I'm going to cast some housings for them to be set into." Stellar then looked at Applebloom. "Okay, Applebloom, come over here."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Applebloom replied, grinning, and followed Stellar.

Stellar led Applebloom to a large number of parts bins on the floor arrayed in a large circle, each one containing parts from the ship's stores. "This is what I want you to do, Applebloom." Stellar said. "You see these frames?" Stellar pointed to a pile of roughly cubical frames on a pallet. Applebloom nodded. "Okay. You're going to assemble power converters from these parts. You see that each bin has a diagram on it? If you start with a frame, walk to the next bin and take out the part or parts contained in them and follow the diagrams, once you've gone around the bins in order, you should have a functional power converter at the end of the circle of bins." Stellar explained. "When you're done, lock it in the testing bench like this," And Stellar showed Applebloom how to do so, "Then test it. If it comes back as functional, put it on the pallet there. If it comes back as non-functional, put it aside and keep going, until you have thirty working converters. Then your first part is finished. Okay?" Stellar asked.

"I got this, Captain." Applebloom answered, grinning confidently.

"Good mare. Now, go to it." Stellar told Applebloom, who started at the beginning of the run, grabbed a frame, and started walking. Each bin-station had the tools she needed to put the parts in place, and she found it was quite easy to follow the instructions.

Stellar checked up on Sweetie Belle, watching as she aligned the diagram on the disc and cast the engraving cantrip. The circle on the page glowed, and once it stopped glowing, Sweetie Belle removed it to show the circle had been engraved on the Magicirium disc's surface perfectly. "Perfect, Sweetie. Keep going just like that." Stellar told her.

"Yes, Ma'am." Sweetie Belle replied.

All three of them continued work. Stellar sliced more discs off the cylinder, until she'd made three hundred of them, using up almost all of the Magicirium cylinder. Once she'd done that, she checked up on the work done by the two younger mares. Satisfied they were still doing what she'd assigned them properly, Stellar started casting Adamant housings for the discs. Sweetie Belle stopped and watched as Stellar produced a mold for the solid metal housings in mid-air out of her magic, sculpting it until every section and line was exactly as she wanted it to be. Then a very small opening in space revealed a HammerSpace pocket that glowed with silver light and radiated heat. Stellar quickly connected it up with the mold and molten silver metal poured out of the pocket into the mold, stopping only when it was full. Sweetie Belle gave a sound of total awe as she watched Stellar dunk the mold into a container filled with some sort-of viscous oil, the liquid hissing and bubbling as Stellar released the metal casting into it, the mold sliding out of the container untouched by the oil. After sliding the cooled casting out of the oil and draining it off, Stellar made another one, then checked how the halves fitted together. Satisfied they were as she needed them, Stellar started making more.

"That's incredible!" Sweetie Belle said in an incredulous voice, as even Applebloom had stopped to watch.

"Yeah!" Applebloom agreed with Sweetie Belle. "Can you just make anything by using your magic like that?" She asked.

"Within reason." Stellar answered. "I was taught to mold parts like this when I was taught how to make armor by the best armorsmiths in the business." Stellar told the pair. "This is how I make my armors and my swords."

"That's... Wow!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "Could I do that?" She asked.

"I don't see why not." Stellar replied. "But you have to be able to hold a visualisation of the mold and the part you're trying to make in your mind as you form the mold, then hold it as you fill it and wait for it to harden." She explained to Sweetie Belle. "The only reason I can talk to you and do this at the same time is that I have a LOT of experience in holding the mold and form from years of practice. But when we get home, I'll coach you, if you want to learn." Stellar offered.

"Oh yeah, I'd love to learn." Sweetie Belle said, her eyes shimmering with awe.

Stellar grinned as Applebloom sighed. "What's the matter, Applebloom?" Stellar asked.

"It's nuthin'." Applebloom said back, eyes downcast.

"Don't tell me: you wish you could do this too." Stellar said as she dunked the most recent casting in the oil.

Applebloom looked ashamed, but nodded. "It's just... Ah know it's silly... But it's times like this that ah wish ah'd been born a unicorn, too." She looked at Stellar with sad eyes. "Ah'd LOVE to be able ta make things as easily as you do."

Stellar nodded as Sweetie Belle looked at her friend with sympathetic eyes. "I can understand that, Applebloom." Stellar said as she moved to the earth pony mare and gave her a hug. "Just remember: I was taught how to work metal by earth ponies like yourself." She reminded Applebloom. "You might not be able to do it as easily as I can, or how Sweetie Belle might be able to, once she's trained; but you can still do it, if you feel you want to learn. You'll just have to do it without magic... which is how it was done for a very long time, long before these techniques were created by unicorns." Stellar smiled down at Applebloom as she lifted the last casting out of the oil and waited for it to drain off. "Sometimes, all you need to do is find the way, regardless of what you do or don't have; what you can or can't do. If you want to do something so badly, then you'll find your friends will be there to help you find the way you can do what you want to do... as will I." She gave Applebloom a soft kiss on the forehead.

"Thanks, Stellar." Applebloom said as she gave Stellar a smile.

"Good. Now, no more moping. We all have work to do." Stellar said, as she returned to making castings.

"Aye, Captain!" The pair answered, and went on with their assigned tasks.

After several hours, Stellar finished up as the two young mares watched her finalise the assembly of thirty long, cylindrical mana accumulators. "There we go. With these, we should be able to capture the power of the reaction from creating the Arcanite, and not just let all that energy go to waste." She told the pair.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle grinned as they walked along with Stellar. Then Applebloom frowned. "Are ya sure we got enough of these, Stellar?" She asked.

Stellar looked down at Applebloom. "Well, according to the calculations that Twilight did on the energy release from the fusion process, these plus the normal power accumulators the Xerxes is equipped with should be able to handle it, especially if we use that time to turn the ship around, brake our progress and head back to our original location at the same time. That will use a lot of the energy as well..." Then the pair saw Stellar frown as she reached the end of the line of thirty accumulators. She turned and looked back along the line, then said "Maybe one more. We've got enough Magicirium in reserve to make one more accumulator, so let's do it." She grinned at the pair, who grinned back. They trotted back along the line, then started making one more accumulator...

Author's Notes:

This is a longer chapter than I'd like, but to break it up leaves two chapters that were smaller than I'd have wanted. So you get a bigger one this time. Have fun reading!