Scootaloo was yawning occasionally as she kept going through the mathematics testing she was engaged in doing at that moment. It was really fascinating... but also a bit boring being alone as well. Normally, she'd have her friends and other classmates to help keep her non-focussed mind occupied, but not today, so she was starting to feel the boredom.

Then the door to the bridge opened and Stellar walked in, followed by Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, who were talking up a storm. Scootaloo saved her place in the testing and grinned at them. "Heya guys! How'd it go?"

"Just incredible!" Sweetie Belle and Applebloom said together, to Scootaloo and Stellar chuckling. "We helped Stellar make the mana accumulators we need, and we're going to be installing them after Lunch." Sweetie Belle told Scootaloo.

"Yeah, great. That's just... great." Scootaloo said as Stellar reached her.

"Feeling a little left-out, are we?" Stellar summed up the situation very quickly in a soft voice to Scootaloo, as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom headed to wash up.

Scootaloo sighed. "That, and a little bored, too." She admitted.

Stellar nodded. "I can imagine, Scoots." She replied in a sympathetic voice. "Well, things would go faster if you wanted to give Sweetie Belle a hand, once the accumulators are mounted in position." Stellar hinted. "You could attach the accumulators to the grid with cables, while Applebloom and I work to hook them into the rest of the power grid."

Scootaloo grinned widely as she realised she could help. "Sure! I can do that." She agreed quickly.

Stellar smiled at Scootaloo. "And, to start, you can help me by assembling Lunch while I go and wash up." She said to Scootaloo. "Go and get some of the supplies out of the Pockets over there... maybe Pocket Number Three today." Stellar suggested as she gestured to the sheets of paper with the Pocket-Circle interfaces on them that were stuck to the walls; the pockets that held food and drinks.

"Sure thing, Stellar." Scootaloo replied as she took off over the consoles and headed for the numbered sheets.

Stellar smiled happily as she headed for her cabin and the private washroom within. A nice quick shower and groom would feel wonderful right about now...

Building a frame to hold the accumulators in place from what they had aboard the Xerxes took a little longer than Stellar had anticipated. There wasn't that much space in Engineering to fit them, which also didn't help, but eventually, Stellar found a spot for them: right above the original accumulators. It seemed that the humans had left that space unoccupied, why Stellar didn't know, but it came in handy now. There was room in the space for three rows of sixteen accumulators stretching along the wall above the older models, and Stellar and the C.M.C. didn't waste time in putting a frame together. It took only twenty-four hours of solid work over three days (Stellar not wanting the younger mares working more than eight hours a day, then studying for eight as well) to fit the frame in place and rig up all the cabling and infrastructure to support the new additions.

Scootaloo was quite tired after the third day's work, but seeing the new accumulators in their banks really made her feel she was part of the team now, instead of just watching from the sidelines. She was standing next to Stellar as Sweetie Belle tested all the connections and safety guards for the power-storage system they'd all help put together. "You did well today, Scoots." Stellar told her as she looked down at the younger mare. "Now, do you feel confident with executing our first major manoeuver with the Xerxes, when I fire up the furnace to make our Arcanite?" Stellar asked.

"It's not a difficult manoeuver, Captain, but Sweetie Belle and I have been over it a dozen times without any variance in the schedule." Scootaloo answered.

Stellar nodded. "Good to hear, Helmspony Scootaloo." Stellar replied with a grin. "Of course, you are right in saying that this is not like manoevering in a combat situation, or formating with a fleet of other vessels, or even docking with a station would be. But it is most critical we reverse course with an utmost degree of accuracy, in order to go back to where we were when we teleported out here." Stellar reminded Scootaloo. "However, if you feel that you and Sweetie Belle have our new course plotted and ready to be executed, then I will trust that this is so." She smiled confidently down at Scootaloo.

"I thank you for your trust, Captain." And Scootaloo saluted Stellar, who returned it with a speed that told Scootaloo she'd done the right thing in addressing Stellar as her Captain.

Thery looked around as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom returned to where they were. "Everythin's connected an' tested, Cap'n." Applebloom reported after saluting.

"I can concur, Captain. All tests show every connection is locked solid and conductivity is at a-hundred-and-fifteen-percent of expected values." Sweetie Belle confirmed Applebloom's report.

"Excellent! You've all done well." Stellar congratulated the trio. "Now, let's go have something to eat, and then it's rest period. Tomorrow, we start phase two of the plan."

"Aye Captain!" The trio said back in strong voices, saluting Stellar snappily. Stellar returned their salute, and they all headed for the bridge once again.

Stellar and the Trio were resting on the bridge. Even though the girls had their own rooms in the bridge tower now to sleep in, they still preferred to occupy the bridge and sleep together with Stellar, who'd aquiesced to their desires to remain together, and joined them in snuggling together as they slept.

They hadn't quite settled down after Dinner, when there was a flare of green magic and a large puff of smoke, which coalesced into a large box. Stellar just caught it in her magic as it dropped towards Scootaloo's head and she set it aside. "Wow! What is it?" The Trio asked.

"Yeah, and who's it from?" Scootaloo asked.

Stellar read the label. "It's from Rarity, to all of us." She told them, to Sweetie Belle grinning and bouncing in place, the others crowding Stellar as she opened the attached letter-style envelope, rather than a scroll.

To: Stellar Light Sparkle, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom

From: Rarity Belle of Rarity Creations

To the Captain and crew of the Xerxes, we of Rarity Creations have a debt to settle with you, so we felt it was fitting that you should look the part of a ship's crew. After seeing the designs of the uniforms the 'Humans' wore, we have attempted to make similar designs for use as the uniforms for the crew and captain of your fair vessel.

In this package you will find four 'standard' style uniforms for each crew member, two 'formal' dress uniforms with cape, and four sets of protective work overalls with under-shirts made out of the hardest-wearing cloth we could find to suit.

{A change in the tone suggests Rarity drops her formal wording at this point}

I must thank you again, Stellar, for looking after my sister and the sisters of my dearest friends; not to mention keeping them out of trouble and making sure their studies do not lapse. As a thank you, I have put together these for you and them to wear, when and as often as you feel appropriate. While I know you probably haven't been wearing anything to this point, there are certain rules Ship's Personnel usually follow (If the Airship Service is anything to go by) that require uniforms and work clothing. So I have sent these to you, with the help of my lovely Spikey-wikey, as further incentive to return to us again.

I can hardly wait to see you in them when you get home. Celestia, Luna and Twilight are going to get such a surprise when you walk out of your ship, dressed in your finery. They will see that you are a ship's crew, dedicated and proper, and it WILL impress them.

Take care, my friends and family, and come back to us safely.

Yours sincerely,

Rarity Belle

Owner of Rarity Creations.

"Wow..." The Trio said as Stellar pulled out the parcels with their names on them, and they saw the beautiful uniforms that were made just for them.

"Never let it be said that Rarity didn't have the finest eye for fashion for any occasion." Stellar stated as she held up one of the formal uniform jackets, in purest white, like any naval uniform. There was real gold braid, gem-encrusted insignia and the billowing capes looked beautiful draped along the back of the uniforms. There were even optional pants to wear, with their cutie marks done in the finest coloured threads and, in Stellar's case, real gemstones for the Sparkle Star, the Crystal Heart, the Sun-Disc and the Lunar Crescent. Even little black, highly-polished hoof-shoes completed the formal ensembles, Rarity taking the copying of the Human uniforms to the utmost parity.

"Dang! If'n these don't look better than tha Royal Guards' formal get-up." Applebloom said as she looked her uniforms over. "An' tha work-gear is really great, too! I've never seen such strong-lookin' gear before." She commented as she slipped into the overalls and undershirt. She even found that, like the formal uniforms, comfortable and hard-wearing fetlock-covering boots were part of the work gear.

Stellar chuckled. "Okay, if we do meet any humans out here, we can at least conform to their dress-standards and help convince them we're not just animals." She slid the peaked cap Rarity had made for her down over her horn and set it properly on her head. Making a mirror-oval illusion appear before her, Stellar looked at how it looked on her, and nodded. "Beautiful." She commented, as the Trio got into the uniforms. Stellar nodded as she looked the Trio over. "Looking sharp, Girls; really sharp." Stellar commented as she slipped into her uniform.

"Thanks!" All three younger mares said as they took turns looking at themselves in the mirror.

"Yeah, real sharp." Scootaloo echoed Stellar with a big grin.

Stellar grinned at the Trio. "Okay, we can leave these for later. We have work to complete if we're ever going to show these off to our friends back home." She told them.

The Trio turned to Stellar, looking very sharp in their dress whites, and saluted her. "Aye, Captain!" They said crisply and in perfect synchchronisation.

Stellar snepped to attention and returned their salute, then nodded. "Okay, put your uniforms in your quarters, then let's get busy. Scoots, you and Sweetie get ready for the big manoeuver. Applebloom and I will be down in Engineering, making the first big batch of Arcanite." Stellar told them.

"Aye, Captain." The three young mares replied, saluting again before racing off to their quarters.

Stellar chuckled as she also went to her quarters and stowed her uniforms and other gear... until she looked at the work clothes Rarity had made. Smiling softly, she slipped into them and checked them over in the mirror. "Yeah. Sharp as a blade." She said to herself. She left the cap behind, but headed out in the work gear for Engineering.

While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were on the bridge, getting ready for their first major manoeuver, Stellar and Applebloom were loading the reactor-furnace with the Carbon-14 and Magicite powder. Stabilising the two-hundred sacks in the middle of the reactor body was harder than moving them inside, but soon they were all hovering in the center of the reactor, and Stellar closed the door, sealing it. She moved to where Applebloom was readying the heat-cannons, checking that everything was ready for this extremely-dangerous process. "Everything ready, Applebloom?" Stellar asked.

"Aye, Captain. Everything's ready to go... if the checklist is comprehensive enough." Applebloom replied.

Stellar chuckled. "It should be." She responded to the unsaid question.

"Then we're ready to go." Applebloom said with a big grin. She lifted her head and the helmet of her space-suit dropped onto her head, the armor wrapping around her as she lowered her head again. Stellar donned her own armor, and then moved to one of the panels.

After doing her final checks, Stellar contacted the bridge. "Okay, Scootaloo. We're ready to go down here. Get ready to turn the ship around to face back the way we came. Sweetie Belle, plot us a reciprocal course for Scootaloo to follow." She ordered, as Applebloom was getting the reactor-furnace ready to fire up.

"Aye, Captain." Came the pair of replies.

Stellar nodded. "All right, Scoots. When I give you the signal, fire all the main thrusters and every other thruster facing to the rear." Stellar said. "If I yell at you to fire everything, I want you to add every thruster the ship has that isn't facing forward."

"But won't that send us tumbling?" Scootaloo asked.

"If we fire all of them at once, they should just cancel each other out, save for those facing backwards." Stellar explained. "But it's going to be easier dealing with any directional changes than dealing with the accumulators overloading. I'm not certain Twilight has calculated the output from this fusion reaction perfectly, so I'm making provision for just such an eventuality." She explained. "If we have to, we can fire every energy cannon on-board as well. There's no-one out here to hit, after all."

Sweetie Belle linked the weapons-controls into her board. "Okay, Captain. Weapons and shields are on-line and ready to activate, if we need them." She said. "I have the cannon turrets firing as close to directly forward and aft as we can." She reported.

"Excellent, Sweetie." Stellar complimented her. "Okay, Helm, turn us around." Stellar ordered.

"Firing thrusters." Scootaloo reported, the ship shuddering slightly as the thrusters fired bow-port and starboard-stern, and the Xerxes slowly rotated around in her flightpath, to face a hundred-and-eighty-degrees to her line of travel. "Turn successful, Captain." Scootaloo reported, once she'd stabilised the ship facing to her new course.

"Excellent. Get ready to fire main and secondary engines." Stellar ordered, as she moved to where Applebloom was powering up the reactor-furnace's systems. As Stellar watched over Applebloom's shoulder, she saw the heat-cannons fire into the mass of carbon and Magicite, heating it all and melting the Magicite. As soon as it was all molten, Stellar wrapped it in her magic and stirred the mixture, to even out the carbon within the mass, and once she sensed it was ready for transmutation, Stellar said "Scootaloo, fire engines!"

"Rojer! Firing engines." Scootaloo said, and the ship shuddered as all the engines came on at full power. The ship slowed down dramatically, the inertial dampers taking the strain and drawing even more power from the accumulators.

Stellar watched the power levels in the accumulators drop, then as they reached where she wanted them, she cast and fired the alchemical transmutation spell into the mass of metal. The mass glowed brilliantly, the temperature rising to nearly six thousand degrees... then there was an enormous bloom of energy from the mass. The reactor sphere managed to capture all of it and funnel it into the accumulators, but Stellar was shocked at how fast they were filling. She noticed the control systems starting to funnel the power into her magical accumulators as well, and they were filling too quickly as well. "Fire everything!" Stellar yelled down the intercom.

"Roger!" Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle replied and activated all the secondary systems they had prepared, as well as powering up anything else on the ship they could think of, including every light fixture, every environmental system, anything that used power. "Everything's on." Sweetie Belle replied.

"Rojer that." Stellar said in a calmer voice, as the flow to the accumulators dropped to within the predicted levels.

Outside, the Xerxes was ablaze with light; all her engines and thrusters were firing, save for those pointing forward; her lights were all on; her energy cannons all firing, both fore and aft. Her shields were glowing brilliantly with the energy coming through them from the cannons and engines. She came to a halt in her backwards trajectory, then started heading forward again, gaining acceleration and momentum very quickly.

Stellar turned her attention to the reaction mass, as Applebloom started carefully watching the accumulators. It was as all the accumulators reached ninety-nine percent charged that the light slowly died away from the mass inside the reactor, and Applebloom turned down the heat-cannons to just maintain the mass as molten. Stellar breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the accumulators hadn't maxed-out, then she called the bridge. "Okay, Helm, Engineering; you can shut down everything now."

"Rojer." Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle replied, and they shut down everything, starting with the thrusters, the energy cannons and the main engines, until they were once again drifting along on course, dark and steady. "Captain, the manoeuver was successful." Scootaloo reported. "We are steady on reciprocal one-eighty course; speed: a steady one-hundred-thousand kilometres-per-hour."

"Very good, Scootaloo." Stellar complimented Scootaloo. "Hold her steady and keep us on-track."

"Aye, Captain." Scootaloo replied, then turned and high-hoofed Sweetie-Belle. "All right! Our first major manoeuver, and we did it right!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle agreed. "Maybe we can really fly this ship, after all."

Below, in Engineering, Stellar carefully gathered a sample of the transmuted metal in her magic, delicately separating it from the mass and bringing it out of the reactor. The glowing greenish metal was incredibly-touchy to her magic, she noted; a good sign that the process was successful. Arcanite amplified magic so powerfully that it had to be handled as carefully as nitro-glycerin while in this state. As she drew it out of the reactor sphere, her armor ignoring the heat, Stellar tentatively probed the molten mass and gave a soft sigh, grinning at Applebloom.

"Is that...?" Applebloom asked.

"Yeah, Applebloom. We have Arcanite... two tonnes of pure, stable Arcanite." Stellar confirmed to the young mare.

Applebloom let go a cheer of "YEEEE-HAWWW!" And pronked around the catwalk.

Stellar laughed as she watched Applebloom celebrate, as she moulded the kilogram of Arcanite into a hexagonal bar and dunked it in the trough to cool it into a solid mass. Stellar took her time to wrap the Arcanite bar in a sleeve made of Magicirium, which would make it much easier to handle since the Magicirium would protect against the Arcanite reacting to being handled magically. Once that was done, she began drawing out and shaping into bars the rest of the Arcanite within the furnace housing. Only a few of the one-kilogram bars were slid into Magicirium sleeves, Stellar putting the rest onto a number of heavy, powered trolleys for storage and later use. Four of the wrapped bars would be going back to Equestria, for perusal by Twilight, the Princesses and both the Guilds of Mages and Engineers. "Maybe I should have Twilight send out the next tonne of Magicite. Some more accumulators would definitely come in handy, as well as more Magicirium to be ready for other uses." Stellar made a note to herself.

Later, as the four Ponies relaxed on the bridge, Stellar was doing calculations as the three fillies looked on in awe at the first bar of alchemically-created Arcanite they had ever seen, safe to handle in its Magicirium sleeve. Stellar smiled at them. Very few Ponies in the modern age had even heard of Arcanite, let alone seen it. The Royal Treasure Depository only had a couple of pieces of naturally-occuring stable Arcanite, and those were more like a crystalline matrix, rather than a pure metal. The only other examples of smelted and forged Arcanite were the four swords known as 'The Clover Leaves', which had been made under the direction of Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever, as Clover's main weapons. Stellar had been privelaged to be allowed to study them and their construction, which had led to her being able to create her mana generators using Arcanite. Her own swords were similar in power levels to the Clover Leaves, but their power came from the Light Runes impressed into them, rather than Arcanite. Stellar wondered how much more powerful a sword could be, if it had an Arcanite core, an Adamant shell and the Light Runes carved or pressed directly into the Arcanite...

Apart from that, Stellar was still puzzled by the amount of Arcanite she'd obtained from the fusion process. Instead of the two tonnes of Arcanite she expected, there was a little over one thousand and sixty-three kilograms. She wondered why this was for a while, but nothing came to mind. "The experiment was a success... so where did the excess mass go?" She asked herself.

Putting those thoughts aside, Stellar turned to the C.M.C and said "Well, it seems Twilight was under-reading the power of the reaction by nearly five percent. Then again, this is the first time, that we know of, that such a powerful alchemical fusion process has ever been done."

"So... what does that mean, Stellar?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"By my calculations, if I'd had the materials to make just two more accumulators, they could have soaked up the entire energy production of the reaction without needing the engines or other systems to be engaged." Stellar answered Sweetie Belle. "But, on the flipside, without that one extra accumulator I did make, it would have been too much... and we'd be without a ship again."

The three fillies winced. "Ah'm glad ya did take tha extra time ta be so careful, Stellar." Applebloom said.

"Yeah. After everything... if we'd survived, it would have been the worst thing possible." Scootaloo agreed.

Stellar nodded. "I agree, Scoots." Stellar stretched, then shook. "As it is, we've proved that not only can Arcanite be created and stabilised, but we've got the process to make stable Magicirium." Stellar grinned. "Once Twilight has the mana crystals I asked for made and shipped to us, then we can put together the power core for the reactor and get us the power we need to head Home. We have enough power in the accumulators now that we could run the ship for several months, even under full thrust and battle conditions... just not enough to run the fold drive for the time needed to get us Home again. But that will come, once we get the crystals."

"And do we know which way Home is?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Stellar smiled at Sweetie Belle and the others. "I have a plan." She replied, to their grinning faces.

Twilight was reading through some of the technical documents that Stellar had sent back, as well as a spell that allowed Twilight to understand and speak, read and write English. The thrill of learning a new language was almost as fun as reading through the very technically-sophisticated documents Stellar had given her. The science was WAY beyond her, Twilight realised, but Stellar had thoughtfully sent her along a series of primer-books on something Stellar had called a 'E-book'. After reading through the manual (which was in print, fortunately), Twilight took to it like a fish to water. "An entire library in one small, neat package? What's not to love?" She told Starlight as she shared it with her friend and former student.

"I'll admit, this thing is amazing." Starlight perused the E-book after using the language spell and reading the manual. "Hopefully, she'll send some more of them back." Starlight looked at Twilight. "Did you manage to get the charger for this to interface with the castle's power system?" She asked.

Twilight grinned. "It took a little time, some adaptation... and about three damaged charger units..." Twilight looked sadly sheepish. "But Stellar had sent a dozen charger units with this E-book reader, so at least I got things to interface properly before I burned all of them out." She said, grinning. "So, hopefully, Stellar will send us some more very interesting bits of equipment before too long."

Then there was a curl of smoke, a flash of light above Twilight's head, and another scroll dropped down out of thin air. Starlight caught it before it could bop Twilight on the head. "I guess Spike's asleep." She said as she handed it to Twilight.

Twilight, nodded. "Yeah... I guess we should be, too, but who can sleep when there's so much to learn?" She asked, grinning her 'I'm totally stoked on learning new stuff!' grin.

Starlight chuckled as Twilight opened the scroll. She started reading out the letter from Stellar:

Dear Twi'-Sis,

Things here have been going apace. The spells worked perfectly, and now we not only have a new metal: Magicirium, which is a stable metallic form of Magicite, but we have created here on the Xerxes the first amount of stable arcanite metal ever made artificially. While I am sorry to report your calculations of the energy released when the Magicite and Carbon-14 underwent fusion were underestimated by about five percent; luckily I had made enough accumulators from the Magicirium that, with the help of turning every energy-using system aboard the Xerxes on, at full, all at once, we managed to keep the ship from blowing up due to overload. But I am going to need some more Magicite ore to make more accumulators if I plan on making more Arcanite. So please, Sis, another tonne would be appreciated.

I have included five more E-book readers in a H-S pocket for you to use, as well as two laptop computers for you and Starlight. They're in an Adamant box, to make sure the mana release doesn't fry their systems, like the first E-book I sent. Hopefully taking the damaged one apart was of some interest and use to you, and that the second one arrived safely. You'll find your cutie marks on the tops of the laptops. I've loaded an outline of my plan for you to help us find exactly where we were transported to on yours, Twilight. We've reversed course successfully and the Xerxes is now headed back along the course we've been drifting along, so we're going to need some way of finding that exact spot again, and I think you'll find my plan to be sufficient to locate that spot. As of now, the only thing we're lacking are the thirty-five mana crystals we need for the reactor. Hopefully the crystallimancers of the Crystal Empire can pull their heads together and get them finished soon.

I've also included four one-kilogram bars of Magicirium and four bars of Arcanite in Magicirium sleeves for you in the same pocket as the Adamant box containing your new toys. Keep the Arcanite in the sleeves as much as possible, and they won't react to being handled magically. One bar's for you, the other three are one for the Princesses and one each for the Mages' Guild and Engineers' Guild. Plus the bars are safe to handle, if you know what I mean, so don't worry about giving them to the Guilds. If those little problems we read about rear their ugly heads again, we can take care of them without a problem, no matter the size or complexity. Have fun and above all: BE FRACKING CAREFUL WITH THE ARCANITE!

Hoping to be Home soon,

Your loving sister,

Stellar

Starlight chuckled. "She isn't kidding around with the safety warnings, is she?" Starlight asked.

Twilight shook her head." No, and I understand why, too." She told Starlight. "I've actually handled Arcanite. I know how powerful it is." Twilight explained. She carefully extracted the four bars of Arcanite and the four bars of Magicirium from their pocket. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief when the Magicirium-wrapped Arcanite bars didn't react to her magic at all. "Looks like Stellar really did solve the problem of handling Arcanite like this, at least."

"I've never seen this metal before." Starlight said as she stroked the Magicirium carefully, then gasped as she felt it start to feed on her mana. "That's incredible." She exclaimed. "But... it doesn't feed on the mana in the air, or on your magic, Twilight; just on... processed but unpurposed mana."

Twilight nodded. "It's a fabled metal, this one, almost as much as Arcanite is. Only this metal was never given a proper name before, because it degraded so fast, it was almost impossible to keep in one form." She explained. "If the Magicite was already unstable, the metal made from it would break down in hours. If it was stable, which is rare, then it could be months, maybe a few years, but it would always break down and crumble, no matter what you did to try and hold it together." Twilight scanned one of the Magicirium bars more closely. "I think... it's the mana." She looked at Starlight. "The unstable Magicirium must have a saturation point. Once it reaches that, it breaks down into half-a-dozen other things, probably other 'elements', as Stellar tells it."

"And because this Magicirium is so stable as a metal, its saturation point must be far higher than the previous attempts." Starlight suggested.

Twilight grinned and nodded. "Yes! I believe you're correct with that assumption." She agreed with Starlight, which made the unicorn mare's face light up again as widely as Twilight's was. "Oh, this is going to be So. Much. Fun!" Twilight exclaimed. "Finally, I have somepony to work with who's right at my level." She said to Starlight.

Starlight actually moved to Twilight, and the pair hugged with affection. "Yeah... I know how you feel, Twi'. I know how you feel." Starlight said with the affection the pair had come to feel for each other fully expressed.

From the door came a sorrowful snort. "And where in this tryst of the minds does Trixie fit in?" Trixie asked, in a hurting tone.

Starlight and Twilight looked at each other, then giggled. Gesturing, Starlight led Trixie in to them with a gentle spell. "Right where you should always be, Trix-fix. With us." She told her mare-friend.

Twilight smiled slyly at the pet name Starlight had called Trixie, then she sighed happily. "Never let it be said that we're leaving you out, Trixie." She told the blue unicorn mare. "I know, sometimes we can go off the deep end talking magic and science, but you're always welcome to sit and share company with us." She reassured Trixie.

Trixie blushed a little. "Trix... I am... My heart is gladdened to hear that... Twilight." Trixie slowly replied. "I know... I am not a 'big brain', such as you two are... but I am heartened by your acceptance of us... and what we feel for each other." Trixie gently nuzzled Starlight, who returned the affection with a hug, which Trixie reciprocated whole-heartedly.

Twilight chuckled softly. "I know, I know. I gave you two a hard time when you first started showing your affection for each other, and I apologise again for that. Far be it for me, as Princess of Friendship, to interfere with such a good friendship as you two now have. I guess I still have a lot to learn about how diverse friendship can be, and how... how..." Twilight faltered.

"How impossible, yet wonderful some friendships can be?" Trixie put forward in a helpful, not snarkily-toned voice.

Starlight held back a giggle as Twilight chuckled. "Yes, Trixie. Friendship can traverse both the sublime and the seemingly-ridiculous, the wonderful and the wacky. I have to keep that in-mind more often that not, now." Twilight admitted.

Starlight grinned at Twilight as she held onto Trixie. "Maybe there's hope for you yet, Twilight." She said, the grin on her face becoming something more as Twilight stared at them, then she broke into giggles, as did Trixie. Starlight just held Trixie close and basked in her much-happier friend's love and affection.

As she waited for the mana crystals to be delivered, Stellar was not idle. She was making an elaborate frame out of Adamant, in pieces small enough to fit through the door of the reactor housing. Part of each piece was a sleeve made of Arcanite and Magicirium, rings of Adamant allowing the sleeves to slide along the rails that were part of the frame.

"So... these are gonna hold the crystals inside tha reactor once we get them." Applebloom said as she lifted one of the frame segments onto her back, ready to carry it inside Engineering to the second reactor housing.

"That's right, Applebloom." Stellar confirmed with a smile for her Engineering cadet.

"An' these hold tha crystals." She tapped one of the sliding segments. "Tha Arcanite amplifies tha mana tha crystals produce, an' all of them will fill tha reactor with mana." Applebloom said as she worked it out in her mind.

"Quite correct again, my cadet." Stellar replied with a prouder smile.

Applebloom was puzzling this out in her head. "So... why do they got... er, have to slide in an' out like that?"

"Well... you know that we can't have the reactor running at full power all the time. We have to switch it off now and again, as well as lessen the power output..." Stellar led Applebloom gently on, hoping she'd come to the proper conclusion by herself.

"So..." Applebloom's face scrunched up as she thought hard. "If'n tha crystals can slide in an' out from tha central core crystal... an' the crystals' power output lessens tha further away they get from each other..." Then her face lit up. "Tha frame's the throttle!" She exclaimed. "By movin' tha crystals away and towards each other, you can decrease or increase the power output of the reactor the same way you can throttle up or throttle back the engines!" Applebloom said in her 'clear' voice, free of her accent, in her excitement.

"Excellent!" Stellar told Applebloom, her face one big grin. "You're learning to think properly and analytically, Applebloom." Stellar moved to the teenage mare and gently nuzzled her, something that had Applebloom crooning softly. "We do need a way to regulate the reactor; and the frame, as you figured out, will allow us to do just that."

Applebloom nodded. "And these Magicirium end-caps?" She asked Stellar. "Since you have these at the opposite end of the frame-segments' travel, I take it they're somehow involved with deactivating the reactor completely?"

Stellar nodded. "Exactly. When the crystals reach the end of their travel away from the core, the ends will lock into these end-caps and the crystals will stop producing mana, shutting down the reactor completely." Stellar confirmed.

Applebloom nodded as she lifted the section of frame she was to take to the reactor. "So... once we get tha crystals an' fit them in tha frames, then install them in tha housin', does that mean we'll be ready to go home again?" She asked Stellar.

"Almost, Applebloom; almost." Stellar answered. "All we then need to do is find the point where we emerged here again, find the course back to Equis, and we'll be on our way." She grinned at the smiling filly.

"Fantastic." Applebloom said as she exited the construction area...

It was two days after Twilight had received Stellar's last letter that the mana crystals finally arrived from the Crystal Empire. But what was a pleasant surprise was that they arrived not only with an escort of Crystal guards, but Twilight found herself being hugged by "B.B.B.F.F!" Shining Armor chuckled as he hugged Twilight to him, then noogied her mercilessly. "Hey! Stop that, Shiny!" Twilight tried to get her brother to stop, while Spike collapsed to the platform, laughing, and even Starlight had a smirk on her face, trying to stop herself from laughing via the means of a well-placed hoof.

"Got to keep up traditions, Sis." Shining replied, but put Twilight down gently before nuzzling her lovingly. "After all, I don't see you often enough... so I made time out to do so, since these were coming here to you." He gestured to the armored wagon that sat between the two guards' accomodation wagons attached to the rear of the Crystal Express.

"You got them finished already?" Twilight asked with glee on her face as she headed for those wagons.

"Sure did." Shining answered. "The crystallimancers were a little bit... non-plussed about having to make such... unsophisticated crystals, but when they saw the size and shape Stellar wanted them to be, as well as the core crystal, not to mention how much power she was expecting from them, they were intrigued to see what they'd be doing, to say the least." Shining informed his L.S.B.F.F. The guards opened the door to the armored wagon after exchanging security codes with the guards inside, and Shining escorted Twilight inside.

Once her sight had adjusted, Twilight saw forty long cylindrical containers sitting in racking, and two much smaller square boxes before them. She moved to one of the long containers and, getting the go-ahead from Shining after giving him a questioning gaze, opened and slid out of the padded container a long mana crystal. Five metres long and forty centimetres wide at one end, the crystal looked almost like a needle, in some ways. Tapered from the large domed end, the hexagonal crystal eventually changed to a triangular spear-like point at the other end. Twilight could feel its potential, but the crystal was quiescent, the energy flow it would have normally been producing held in check by a cap of metal over the domed end, that Twilight could see also had a cylindrical extension that went into the end of the crystal as well. Twilight brought out a pair of calipers and measured the crystal at certain points along the length, nodding once she was satisfied the crystal matched Stellar's specifications. "Are they all like this, Shiny?" She asked her brother.

Shining nodded. "Yep. They're all pretty much identical, right down to the mana patterns generated inside the crystals." Shining confirmed. "There's only two crystallimancers in the Empire with the precision and the... well, the willingness to make such perfect, yet basic crystals like these." He informed Twilight. "Most of the others scoffed at doing something that some of them would consider 'drudge-work'." He sighed frustratingly. "Many of them are so busy trying to out-do each other in how many things they can make crystals do, and in how many forms, that they forget that sometimes you just need crystals that do only one or two things. Most of the 'lesser' crystals we export and custom-make are done by the 'second-tier' of crystallimancers: those with lots of experience, but who realise that it's not about how many things you can make a crystal do, but making them do what is needed perfectly. Peridot Glint and Mercury Crust do some of the most perfect crystals I have ever seen; these ones are some of their best for uniformity and power. Yet they're still considered only minor masters at the craft, because they don't exhibit the 'flair' for inventiveness the current Masters feel is a hallmark of the trade." Shining shook his head.

Twilight nodded her head as she slid the long crystal back into its padded case. "I guess every trade has its standards and innovators, as well as those who make it work for the others." She replied. "Anyway, Stellar is going to really appreciate receiving these. It'll allow her to hopefully make the mana reactor she needs to power their ship enough to get them all home again."

Shining nodded. "That's going to be incredible. An actual starship, here in Equestria." He chuckled. "You know Star Charter is going to want a full tour."

Twilight giggled. "Of that, I am sure everypony wouldn't bet against." She replied to Shining. Twilight picked up the entire rack in her magic, unfurled one of the parchment pages with the circle defining a H-S pocket inscribed on it, and as Shining's eyes widened, Twilight pushed the rack against the page and the circle expanded to swallow the entire rack in one slow motion.

Once the page and circle had returned to their usual appearance, Shining moved to it and touched it with a tentative hoof. "That was... incredible." He said softly. Looking at Twilight, he added "I thought that... a circle couldn't do that."

Twilight smiled a very smug smile back at Shining. "Stellar might be better at creating and inscribing circles and arrays than I am, but that doesn't mean I'm totally without knowledge and some talent in that particular field." She explained. "I've been able to modify one of the three types of storage circles Stellar uses to allow the circle to open up so it can take in much bigger objects... as long as they don't weight over a tonne. That's about the limit at the moment that we can fill a pocket to and still be able to send them via Spike Express." Twilight told Shining. "While the pockets might be able to hold more in weight and volume, we found that we can't get them to travel using Spike's magic if they're any heavier than about one-point-zero-seven tonnes of cargo weight each. But that does allow us to send a great deal of cargo from point-to-point; and for more, we just use multiple scrolls and circles. While it does mean we can't send really big equipment, raw materials and things like the crystals are easily sent across what we now know are vast distances."

Shining nodded as he followed Twilight out of the boxcar, the internal guards now disembarking as well since there was nothing to guard, now. "Wow. I guess we're making advances in all different types of areas, now that we've got something to motivate us." He said to Twilight as they headed off the platform, the Crystal Express starting to move off slowly behind them as four of the Crystal guards followed along behind Shining and Twilight, the rest having returned to their car before the train pulled out. "And how have you been, Spike, Starlight?" He asked, now that the formalities were out of the way.

"Doing great! Thanks for that new comic series you found from that author in the Crystal Empire, Shining." Spike answered Shining. " 'Crystal Knights' is one of the hottest-selling new series; and it sells out so fast, the store here in Ponyville hardly gets enough issues to satisfy even the really hard-core fans. If you didn't keep sending me my own issues... and thanks for getting them signed for me, too. That gets a huge amount of points for my collection with the others." Spike grinned.

Shining chuckled. "Glad to help, Spike. Does Thorax get his comics as well?" He asked.

"Yep. Almost as soon as the shipment comes in, I send him a message; and if he doesn't turn up himself, Thorax sends one of the other changelings to pick them up for him." Spike explained. "Of course, they get a lot of other stuff to take back while they're here." Spike told Shining.

Shining nodded. "Glad to hear Thorax is doing so well, now." He replied. "And what of you, Starlight? Things going well?"

Starlight looked a little coy. "Uh, well, you know..."

Shining grinned. "Is Stellar sending lots of wonderful stuff for you and Twilight to peruse and lose yourself in?" He asked.

At that, Twilight hid a giggle behind a hoof as Starlight just nodded, before she replied "Well, yeah. She's even sent us some electronic goods for us to use." She told Shining. "It took a bit to make adaptors for the castle's power system, but now we can use them without blowing up their power transformers."

"And we've learned a lot by taking the other transformers apart too, B.B.B.F.F." Twilight added. "Starlight is working on designing transformers that can use the power system without blowing up or needing another adaptor."

"It's a challenge." Starlight admitted. "But the books Stellar sent back about these 'electronics' are pretty easy to understand, once you get used to the names of all the components, what they do and how they work together. It's a very orderly system."

"Glad to hear it." Shining said as they approached the castle. "Oh, Twily, Cadance and I wrote a letter for you to send to Stellar and the others as well. Can you send it with the others?"

"Of course." Twilight answered with a smile.

Once they were inside and Shining had followed Twilight to her study, he hoofed her over the letter and Twilight assembled the next letter to Stellar as Shining watched. "So... they're doing all right out there?" Shining asked Twilight.

"Better than most would be able to do, of that I'm certain." Twilight answered Shining. "Stellar's drive and adaptability is carrying her through challenges that I'm not even sure I could handle... at least, not in the same way. If it had been me, I'm not sure I could have been as resourceful. I might have discovered the ship, like Sis did, but actually trying to get it functioning again and bring it back..." Twilight shook her head. "I don't think I could have done that. Use it as a base to work out how to teleport back home again; that seems more like what I would have planned." Twilight admitted. "Maybe I could have simply worked out how to reverse my teleport again, after I'd emerged at the point where Stellar found herself. But I doubt I would have done things this way. After all, I'm not Stellar." Twilight then smiled at Shining. "But maybe it's for the best that it was her caught up in this accident, instead of me. I might not have been able to keep the Cutie Mark Crusaders alive out there. But what's done is done: Stellar's out there, she and the Trio are safe and secure and working out how to get home again. And with these crystals, they now have the best chance of doing that, far more than anypony else I could think of."

Shining nodded. "You would have found a way, Twily; of that, I am totally sure." He declared his confidence in his younger sister. "Maybe, as you said, you might not have found that ship and be bringing it back with you, but you would have found a way back home again, and with the Trio as well." He smiled and nuzzled Twilight gently. "Stellar's just doing it her way, as usual. 'Doing it in style', I believe is how she'd put it." Shining added.

Twilight laughed. "Oh yeah! That's her to a 'T'." Twilight agreed. "She's almost got Rainbow Dash's 'awesomeness' as well as her loyalty." She shook her head. "We couldn't want for a better sister. She's got a good deal of both of us in her, as well as smatterings of my friends thrown into the mix as well. I'm... I'm just glad we're going to get her back."

"As are we all, Twily." Shining admitted as he hugged Twilight close.

Stellar had reached an impasse in their preparations: Everything now relied on getting the crystals from Home to power the ship's fold drive. The cradles were ready; the frames were ready; the control systems were tested and ready for installation. She was helping Scootaloo and Applebloom install two of her little mana generators and converters into one of the 'Alpha' fightercraft to see whether or not they could power the sleek craft, when there was a floomp of magic smoke and a 'pop' as another scroll appeared above them in a flash of green magic.

The two younger mares held their breath as Stellar caught the scroll and opened it. Once she'd read the header page with Twilight's letter, Stellar sat back on her haunches and smiled at Scootaloo and Applebloom.

The pair were on tenterhoofs, not really reading Stellar's expression well. "Well?" They both asked at once, almost ready to jump out of their hoofboots.

Stellar chuckled. "We're good to go. The crystals are right here." She declared.

The girls' eyes widened with delight, and they both yelled and bounced with sheer excitement. Stellar laughed with them, then sighed happily. Now they'd see whether all the preparation, all the hard work, all the innovation, would be worth it.

Now they'd find out whether or not they could go home...

Author's Notes:

And the last pieces fall into place. Will things work as Stellar hopes? Or will there be more complications she hasn't forseen yet? Will Sweetie Belle be called upon to tutor other students when they make it back to Equestria and the teachers find out how much she and the others have learned? Will Scootaloo get Equestria's first pilot's licence? Will Star Charter find that his ideas of Starships need updating, or will he feel totally justified in his models of ships?

All this and more will be answered next time....

Maybe.