"You guys go ahead. I'll head up to the bridge and monitor the important stuff, and send Sweetie Belle down to help." Scootaloo said as Stellar and Applebloom headed for Engineering after getting off the Alpha Fighter. Scootaloo flew off fast, heading for the lift shaft and the bridge. "Let them do the hard work. After all, it needs magic, and mine's not what they need." She said to herself as she dropped to the floor before the lift doors and waited for them to open...

Trixie and Shining Armor looked on as Twilight and Starlight were making something... unusual. They were about ornate cylinders about fifty centimetres in diameter and thirty centimetres high, and had a smooth glass covering embedded in the lid. As the alicorn-unicorn team completed laying the spells into one of them and sealed it, the top began to glow as mana was pulled out of the floor of the castle into it.

"Wow, that's soaking up a heap of mana, Sis." Shining Armor said to his sister.

"Yes, even we can feel this from here." Trixie added as she watched Starlight place a second one on certain marked spots in the casting room floor.

"That's because they're meant to do so." Twilight explained. "These are mana beacons, but as you can see, they're a lot bigger than the personal ones your troops use in the snowy areas, B.B.B.F.F."

"Yeah, a lot bigger." Shining agreed. "They're not very practical for personal use."

"Ah, but they're not for personal use." Starlight told them, grinning. "These aren't going to attract pegasi on Search, but a ship out in the middle of unknown space."

Shining blinked with surprise, but Trixie's face lit up. "Trixie gets it! You are going to send these out, like you did Stellar and the young mares, out to the limit of that transport spell. When they arrive there, then they will be detected by those on the ship and they will know where the point they arrived at is."

Starlight grinned and slipped a forehoof around Trixie. "You're getting better, Love, at understanding what we do here."

Trixie smiled proudly. "Tr... I am not ignorant of the schools of more powerful magicks... they are simply not where my talents lie." She said in a calm, not arrogant tone.

"Very true, Trix-fix." Starlight agreed. "Not all of us can be First Violiners in the orchestra; some of us still have to push wind through the trombone." She said to Trixie, who nodded and giggled.

"I do not know where you heard that, but I am no tromboner." Trixie replied. "A drummer, maybe." She added with a sly grin.

Starlight grinned back and nuzzled Trixie affectionately. "My little drummer mare." She said back softly. "You make my heart pound like a drum at times."

Shining smiled at the pair of mares as he came up beside Twilight. "Those two seem to have a real thing between them." He commented. "If Cadance was here..."

Twilight giggled as she checked the filling mana beacons. "Yeah, she'd squee and be all over them like a rash." Twilight agreed. "As it is, I don't think they need any help expressing how they feel any longer."

"Good to see." Shining replied.

Twilight picked up one of the mana beacons, checking its state. "Well, these look like they'll do the trick. Hopefully, Stellar can send some of those mana accumulators back with her next letter. They would be very handy in flash-filling my mana wells for rapid-transporting of these out there."

Shining nodded. "Well, however it's done, at least we'll be able to show Stellar and the CMC which way to head home."

"And that's the main thing." Twilight agreed.

Stellar, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were working to put the crystals in the frames' housings for them, carefully aligning the crystals inside them so they would intersect with the center crystal. With the Magicirium caps locked over the end of the long crystals, they were quiescent as they were handled by the young unicorn and older alicorn into place, as Applebloom checked the sliding mechanisms for each section of framework. Stellar herself set the center crystal in place, the thirty-four-sided crystal being carefully aligned to receive the others into the triangular slots in each face. As each crystal was locked into place, it was slid in and out within its assembly, making sure the mechanism would work easily. Since each crystal spire would always be in alignment with all the others, the travel and activating mechanism was fairly simple, but quite precise as the Adamant and Arcanite housings moved in and out along the rails.

Once the mechanisms were fully tested, and the frame assembly completely tested as a single unit, Stellar began disassembling it into its individual sub-assemblies and taking them into the reactor housing. After aligning the first one with the uppermost point of the reactor's housing, she put its opposite in place and the center crystal's housing, which completed the core assembly. Then came each upper and lower crystal housing frame, and the center housing, forming one complete segment of the assembly. "Like an apple core an' the slices you can make from tha outer section once it's been de-cored." Applebloom remarked. "But you're puttin' it back together again, inside tha housin'."

"Very good, Applebloom." Stellar said as Sweetie Belle hefted over another frame segment in her magic. "You still handling things okay, Sweetie? I know these frame segments aren't exactly light."

"I'm... doing okay, Stellar." Sweetie Belle answered. "Since you give me a break between each segment, I'm recovering well between each lift."

Stellar smiled proudly at the young unicorn. "You're doing well, Sweetie. But remember, call out if you're feeling it getting too hard." She cautioned Sweetie. "We have a few spare crystals, but I'd rather not waste one."

"Understood." Sweetie Belle replied as she hefted another lower segment to Stellar.

Stellar looked at Applebloom. "Applebloom, if you wish, you can take these scroll pages and get out the Magicite powder inside them. We're going to be making some more accumulators out of what Twilight sent us, and we need to do so before we power up the reactor properly." Stellar told her, bringing out two scroll pages with storage circles printed on them.

"Sure thing, Stellar." Applebloom took the pages and headed around to the furnace housing in the section before the reactor. It took Applebloom quite a while to heft out the two hundred ten-kilogram sacks of Magicite powder, placing a hundred of them into the furnace housing. She waited for the sacks to come to a stop in the center of the furnace housing, as the slightly-reversed gravity inside the housing made them drift there. Once the sacks were gathered and stationary, Applebloom sealed the furnace and began powering up the heat cannons.

In the section of Engineering with the reactor housing, Stellar slotted the last of the thirty-four segments in place and locked the assembly solid within the housing. "Okay, Sweetie, activate the systems and see if the crystals all move together."

"Roger, Stellar." Sweetie Belle replied as she pushed the lever on the control panel forward, and Stellar observed with her magic senses as all thirty-four crystals slid forward and connected with the core crystal, making them one huge mana crystal assembly.

Stellar made a few small adjustments to several of the crystals, making sure they all were orientated properly and held fast by the frame's housings. Once she was satisfied, Stellar looked at Sweetie Belle. "Okay, Sweetie Belle; bring them out and back in again."

"Roger, Stellar." Sweetie said, and she did as asked.

Stellar observed as the housings in the frames slid out to their maximum distance from the core and slid back in again, as smoothly as she'd hoped. She had Sweetie Belle cycle the crystals in and out over fifty times, stopping them mid-way from time-to-time and at various positions, checking out how the housings' movement systems handled the stop-start motions and change of direction. Once she was fully-satisfied, she had Sweetie retract the crystals right back to their maximum extension and locked the Magicirium caps onto their mounts at the outside of the frame. Next time the crystals slid in, they would fully-activate instead of being quiescent.

Stellar sealed the reactor housing, then joined Sweetie Belle, as they heard the furnace sound out that it had completed its cycle, and the heat-cannons cycled back. "Okay! Sounds like Applebloom's been busy. Let's go pull the Magicirium out of the reactor and start making more accumulators." She grinned at Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle replied enthusiastically, and the pair trotted off together, heading for where Applebloom was.

Trixie was standing beside Starlight as they watched Twilight working on the Arcanite that Stellar had sent back. A sliver-thin ring of the precious metal was cooling after Twilight had taken a small amount of the Arcanite, heated it and shaped it into this ring, barely a millimetre thick and two centimetres tall. "So... this is what you want Tr... me to test, then?" Trixie asked, a little nervousness sounding out in her voice.

"That's right." Twilight smiled at Trixie. "This is where your... Um..." Twilight was trying hard not to say in a bad way that Trixie's lack of magical power was perfect for experimenting with the Arcanite.

"...Specialisation...?" Starlight helpfully offered.

"Yes. Your specialisation with Magic, Trixie, makes you the perfect candidate to test this on." Twilight finished after grabbing Starlight's offered term with both hoofs. "Starlight and I could test it ourselves, but we'd probably overwhelm the Arcanite way too easily." Twilight explained to Trixie. "Your subtlety with Magic means we can gauge the improvement this Arcanite should make far more effectively."

Trixie nodded, her nervousness quickly disappearing as her bravado pummelled it into the dust. "Then I will endeavour to help both of you to the best of my abilities!" Trixie proclaimed as she grinned at Starlight.

Starlight grinned back as Twilight looked the ring of Arcanite over. Even using the lightest magical touch she could manage, Twilight could still feel the metal's touchiness as she held it. Any variation in her 'grip' was enough to try and shove the ring off in whatever direction her grip was weakest, with barely any warning. "There's one more reason you're the perfect candidate to try this, Trixie." Twilight told her. "You've been influenced by the Alicorn Amulet." Twilight held up a hoof to forestall any negative reaction from Trixie. "In this case, Trixie, we can make good use of that." Twilight went on. "Stellar and I suspect the Amulet is made of this very same material, but we think its corrupting influence is not endemic to the Arcanite itself. Since you know what that feels like, as well as how you used the Amulet to magnify your magic, then if this ring feels the same way as you use it, yet doesn't feel like it is controlling your thoughts like the Amulet did, then it answers two very important questions about the Amulet and Arcanite." Twilight concluded.

Trixie slowly nodded. "So... you do not think this will cause Trixie to harm anypony as she wears it, like the Amulet did?" Trixie asked, her nervousness making her 'third-person' speech come out again. "Trixie is not proud of what she did that day. It was wrong, and she is still ashamed of how she let her desire for revenge control her and..." Trixie lowered her head, "... And how she abused those who should have been her friends."

Twilight moved to Trixie and hugged her gently, as Starlight did the same. "We've already said you're forgiven, Trixie." Twilight told her. "It's good that you're still repentant, but don't dwell on it, or it's going to eat at you as badly as your desire for revenge did." She gently lifted Trixie's head. "Now you have friends again, and many more out there in Ponyville and beyond." Twilight smiled at her. "Remember the Friendship Festival? Didn't even the Princesses comment on how 'great and pleasing' your performance for them was, after you performed for everypony there?"

Trixie then blushed, something that made her face twice as cute as it normally was, as far as Starlight was concerned. "Yes. Their praise made Tr... made me very happy and thankful." Trixie replied. "Even the aftermath of the Storm King did not make me feel that I had done badly in their eyes."

Starlight hugged Trixie to her. "So cheer up, then. This time you'll be helping, not hurting." She told Trixie.

Trixie nodded. "Then let us do this. I am ready." Trixie proclaimed.

"Okay... but outside, though. I don't want you doing a Flurry Heart, and blasting holes in the castle ceilings." Twilight gave a subtle dig at Trixie, who took it as the joke it was, and all three mares giggled as they headed outside.

Shining was outside with Spike as the three mares joined them in Twilight's outdoors testing ground. "With Shiny here, if anything goes wrong, we should be able to stop you hurting anypony accidentally before we can take the ring off." Twilight told Trixie. Shining smiled and nodded at Trixie as he took up his station to one side of Trixie, where he could get the best angle to put a shield about her if something went wrong. Twilight nodded to Trixie as everypony sat down, positioned around Trixie. "Now, Trixie, I want you to relax. Clear your mind of thoughts just like you do in meditation class. Be calm, be placid, and just let your magic relax as well." Twilight encouraged Trixie.

Trixie nodded and closed her eyes, seeking that place of calm she'd found inside herself in the recent past. As the others watched, her breathing steadied, her demeanour relaxed and Trixie felt her heartbeat steady and slow to its fully-relaxed rate. She gave a soft nod at Twilight without opening her eyes. Twilight then gently moved the Arcanite ring onto Trixie's horn and slid it almost to its base...

Trixie gasped and her eyes flew open, glowing internally with the power of her magic. She settled down very quickly, however, as her body adjusted to the increased flow of mana coming in through her horn. "This... this feels familiar." Trixie told Twilight. "The ring increased the flow of mana into me through my horn... not quite exactly as the Amulet did, but it was on my chest, not my horn." She closed her eyes again and breathed steadily and slowly. "The... the feeling of magic amplification is very similar... yet Trixie feels no... no nasty thoughts, no bad compulsions. She... I... I don't feel it trying to make me do anything. I know I can do nothing, or something, but I do not feel compelled to use the power I can feel it channelling." She opened her eyes and looked at Twilight and Starlight.

Starlight was smiling softly, as Twilight nodded. "Good, good. I think that's at least some confirmation that the Amulet compels the wearer to express their more aggressive thoughts, and exaggerates them." She told them all. "Now, let's see how well it amplifies your magic." Twilight said to Trixie, as Shining moved several large rock dodecahedrons into place before Trixie.

"Trixie is supposed to lift... these?" She asked in surprise. "Surely they are too heavy."

Shining snorted, then lifted three of them into the air at once and rolled them around in a figure-eight pattern. "They are four hundred kilograms each, Trixie." Shining told her. "Every guard in the Royal Crystal Guard can lift two of these, even the mares."

"And remember, your magic's a lot stronger now, with the ring in place." Starlight reminded Trixie.

Trixie looked askance at the manufactured 'boulders', but she reached out with her magic and tentatively picked one up, barely lifting it as she gauged the effort needed. To her surprise, it felt a lot lighter than she thought, to her horn's magic. Gripping two others, she lifted them off the ground with only a little more effort. "This... is remarkable." She looked at Twilight and Starlight. "They don't feel like they weigh so much." She tried lifting two more, and Shining matched her. Grinning, Trixie slowly rolled them around in the air, as Shining smiled and matched her. Eventually, Trixie put the boulders back down as Shining did, and shook herself out. "I... have never lifted so much in my life." She declared.

Twilight nodded. "You matched Shiny very well there, Trixie. I think that shows the ring is magnifying your capacity for basic lifting by around Ten-fold, which is what I would have expected." Twilight was making notes.

"Is... there any other tests we need to make at this time, Twilight?" Trixie asked.

"Well... if you think you're up to it, there's an exercise that's extremely hard and draining of mana." Twilight told Trixie, and Shining nodded.

"Very few unicorns can do this little trick of mine, but it really tests your control and endurance, Trixie." Shining added. "But, if you can do it, it puts you right up with the top five percent of unicorns for power levels."

Trixie nodded. "What is it?" She asked, her face showing eager anticipation.

"Watch." And Shining closed his eyes in concentration. A little ball of shield-energy appeared before him, and slowly expanded to be a sphere about ten centimetres in diameter. It looked hollow, but Trixie could see the strain this was having on Shining. "What.. what is so hard about that?" She asked her friends.

"That ball, Trixie, is completely empty of everything, even air." Twilight explained. "It's holding back everything, and inside is a vacuum. He's holding that against all the air pressure around us; several tonnes of pressure, to be precise."

Trixie's eyes widened out incredibly, and she scanned the little ball of force-energy. She gasped as she realised how true Twilight's statement was. "That... is incredible! I have never seen such power before..."

"You have generated a shield like that before, Trixie." Starlight then said. "When you surrounded Ponyville in that shield while you were using... 'it'." Starlight reminded Trixie.

Trixie nodded. "Very true." She agreed. "But it was not... like this." She pointed to the shield-ball, which Shining had allowed to collapse to it's un-hollow state.

"But I'm betting you can do it." Starlight told Trixie.

Trixie smiled warmly at Starlight. "With such confidence in Trixie's ability... how can she not attempt such a great and powerful feat as this?" Trixie stated.

"I have an idea." Twilight then said. "Let's all do it. It'll be good to check just what our power levels really are."

"I'm game." Starlight agreed.

"Okay then." The four then stood in a cross-formation, facing one another, and all three of the mares formed force-balls, like Shining's. Once they had their balls stabilised, they began to pull them apart, expanding them until the spheres were hollow and they were all straining near the same level as Shining was.

Spike got out a pair of calipers and measured the spheres. "Shining's at ten centimetres." Spike set as the standard. "Starlight, you're at fourteen centimetres."

"Great!" She replied with a strained voice.

"Trixie, your sphere's at twelve centimetres, but it's wavering a little." Spike told her.

"This... is... not... easy..." Trixie said in a strained voice.

"No, it isn't." Shining agreed. "But you're doing well! Try reducing the size to the same size as mine." He suggested.

Trixie did so, and the sphere stopped pulsating. "Ten centimetres, and holding firm." Spike declared.

"Good." Trixie told him with a smile to Shining.

But when Spike went to Twilight's sphere, he found "Whoa! Your sphere's at twenty centimetres, Twilight."

Twilight sat there, eyes closed, as she concentrated. Spike could see she wasn't straining quite as much as the unicorns were, but the glow from her horn was much brighter. "That's good." Twilight replied softly. She opened her eyes to look at her sphere, but it wavered as she lost concentration for a moment, and it collapsed with a BANG! "Blast!" Twilight exclaimed. She closed her eyes and reformed the sphere as she regained her concentration.

Starlight giggled with Trixie, as Shining chuckled. "Looks like my LSBFF still hasn't quite got the hang of handling her alicorn power levels yet." He suggested.

"Meh." Twilight replied. "It's getting there..." She added.

Starlight was the next to lose full control of her sphere, and it collapsed in front of her. "Ponyfeathers." She stated softly.

Trixie giggled. "I would say that means you are buying us dinner." She said slyly.

"Oh no! Twilight was the first to lose control." Starlight said back.

"True enough." Twilight actually assented. "Dinner is on me."

"Yes!" Starlight grinned. "Oh... wait... that means Hayburger."

Shining chuckled at that, as his magic wavered and he allowed his force-sphere to slowly collapse. "That's the risk you run, dining out with Twilight." He said.

Twilight grinned. "Well... I was thinking of maybe taking us to that new Sushi restaurant up in Canterlot." She suggested. "We could meet Cadance and Flurry Heart there and really make a night-out of things."

"That sounds... much better." Trixie agreed, as Starlight nodded as well.

"Don't like Hayburger that much, Trix-fix?" Starlight asked Trixie.

"There is... nothing wrong with hayburgers, but we have eaten there five times in the past three weeks. It is time for something much better." Trixie declared.

"Can't disagree with that." Spike added his two bits. "While they always serve me great gems, something else for a change is a great idea."

"A great and delicious idea." Trixie echoed Spike's sentiment.

"Okay, okay, I said I was taking us there, wasn't I?" Twilight asked.

Everypony and Spike chuckled as Shining moved to look at Trixie's sphere. "You're holding that well, Trixie." He told her.

Trixie nodded. "Now... now that it is stabilised, it is not that hard to maintain it." She agreed with Shining. "But... it is draining. If it were not that the ring allows me to draw far more easily on the local mana, I think... I couldn't hold this at all." She stated. "Not for... this long... blast!” Trixie exclaimed as her sphere collapsed with a BANG!

Twilight allowed her sphere to shrink and dissipate, like Shining had done. “That was great, Trixie!” Twilight told Trixie as she moved to the unicorn mare and gave her a hug, something Starlight had to join in.

Trixie smiled softly. There was little she enjoyed more than being hugged by her closest friends, save for the adulation of the crowd when she performed well. “Thank you, my friends.” She said softly to them.

“Okay! Let’s get cleaned up and changed, and we can really make a night of this.” Twilight said, as she, Shining and Spike headed for the castle.

Trixie gently nuzzled Starlight as they moved off together. “Now we can really start training you properly.” Starlight said to Trixie.

Trixie sighed, though. “Maybe. I do not think Twilight will let me keep this ring.”

Starlight smiled. “We’ll see.” She told Trixie as they moved to catch up with the others.

As the eight-hour work period came to an end, Stellar and the CMC were finishing up putting the new accumulators in place in the racks. A hundred of the mana accumulators now graced the framework at the front of Engineering, and Stellar nodded at the girls. "Okay, that was a good day's work." She told the Trio. "We'll have something to eat, then we'll do the power-up tests on the Mana Reactor. If that goes well, then we know we're ready to head home when we find the course to follow."

"Yeah!" The Trio grinned and headed for the elevator back to the bridge, Stellar following. She would have preferred to test the reactor immediately, now they had enough accumulators to contain the mana produced, but keeping the routine of 'shifts' she'd started the young mares on was more important. It was part of their training as crew that they had to keep to their shift roster, no matter what, unless it was an emergency, so Stellar restrained herself and followed the Trio up for Dinner.

And after all, she was hungry too...

Later, as Applebloom monitored the accumulators, Stellar slowly slid the crystals out of the end-caps along their frames. As soon as the crystals slid off the stubs that meshed with their interior, each crystal gave a flare of mana energy that made the reactor interior glow with power. "How's that for power levels, Applebloom?" Stellar asked.

"Accordin' to tha read-outs, it's about nine hundred and eighteen megawatt/hours." Applebloom replied.

Stellar nodded. "Interesting. Each crystal's supplying twenty-seven megawatt/hours when at 'idle'. That's about a thousand times what they would put out without the Arcanite sleeves." She surmised as she looked back at the reactor. "Okay, I'm going to put them all the way in." She told Applebloom.

"Ready." Applebloom declared, and Stellar started sliding the crystals closer to the center, as well as each other.

"Ten percent in." Stellar declared.

"Ah got about forty thousand Megawatt/hours, I mean forty Gigawatt/hours here." Applebloom declared.

Stellar nodded. "That's a big jump, but not unexpected." Stellar replied. "Twenty percent."

"Eighty Gw/h." Applebloom replied.

This went on for most of the readings, the reactor going up in increments of forty Gw/h per ten percent, until the crystals touched the central crystal and it powered up as well. "Ah got three thousand Terawatt/hours!" Applebloom exclaimed.

"A much bigger jump, with the central crystal now active." Stellar agreed. "Here we go for full power..." And Stellar watched with her magic as the crystals slid into full-contact with the core crystal.

"The reading's now seven thousand." Applebloom stated. "The accumulators are at fifty percent and rising steadily."

"That's very good." Stellar looked at Applebloom. "That's more than the power level we need to keep the fold drive running when it's activated; and two thousand Terawatt/hours more than I initially calculated." Stellar slid the levers back, and the crystals retracted back to their 'Idle' setting.

Applebloom smiled. "We can run on this power level without needing the fusion reactors, if we had to." She told Stellar.

"That's excellent." Stellar replied. "Looks like our power needs have been met." She gave Applebloom a big grin, as the younger mare was standing up on her hoof-tips and back down again; a habit Stellar now knew meant that Applebloom was excited, but trying to keep control. "Now all we need is for Twilight to finish her project, and for me to send her the six accumulators she asked for. Hopefully, we'll be on our way home within the next day, Applebloom." Stellar moved to Applebloom and hugged her, Applebloom returning the embrace with much enthusiasm.

Twilight, Shining, Cadance, Flurry Heart, Trixie and Starlight were gathered at the new sushi restaurant that had opened in Canterlot. They were all enjoying their meals, with even Flurry Heart munching happily on a long roll, when there was a puff of green smoke, a flash of energy, and a scroll appeared above them. This time Cadance caught it before it could fall into the soy sauce, and passed it to Twilight. "Thanks, Sis." Twilight replied, grinning.

"I take it that's from Stellar?" Cadance asked.

"Uh-huh." Twilight confirmed. "Hopefully, it has with it the new equipment I need to upgrade my casting room's power systems."

"Oh? What's she sending you?" Cadance asked.

Everypony else grinned. "Well, I think you're the only one here who doesn't know..." Twilight told Cadance. "My TSBFF is sending me some of the mana accumulators she's making on the Xerxes, so I can charge up my mana wells a lot faster. With the generators she's also left me, I can power my spells from the wells, then recharge them from the accumulators, which will be charged by the generators."

Cadance looked a little confused. "So... why don't you just charge the wells directly from the generators?" She asked.

"We've been doing that already." Twilight said. "But it's harder doing it that way, because we have to wait for the generators to recharge the wells, and that takes time. With the accumulators in the middle, I can dump a full charge from them into the wells in seconds, whereas otherwise it takes nearly ten minutes for the generators to recharge the wells directly because they can't work at full power while doing so. The generators can be recharging the accumulators constantly as well at a higher rate, instead of lying idle once the wells are full, which is more efficient for the way they work."

"Makes sense." Shining stated.

Cadance just nodded. "It seems you've got everything under control then, Sis." She said to Twilight.

"Yeah, between her and Stellar." Starlight added.

Twilight lifted a small plate of salmon cutlets to her. "Well... after what happened, I'm just glad all our adventures and idea-development's worked in our favour this time around." She replied. "There's so many things that, if just one of them had been missing, then there would have been no way of gaining safety for the quartet, or establishing contact, or passing things back and forth. It's just amazing how everything's come together to make this possible."

"Almost makes you think somepony's out there, making all this happen for us." Starlight commented before taking a deep draw from her iced green tea. Then she noticed everypony looking at her. "What?" She asked.

Then everypony started to giggle and chuckle. "Yeah, right." replied Twilight. "As if."

"We don't need anypony out there doing that." Trixie stated.

"Yeah; we have enough trouble with Discord doing that from time to time, behind our backs as well, I'm betting." Shining added. Then he blinked with surprise, as he felt a weight on his back. All the others saw a small Discord lying on Shining's back, playing with puppets of them all. Shining turned to look behind him, but the Discord moved with his mane, keeping the small Discord out of sight.

"Yes, as if." Discord echoed, making Shining start with surprise. "I don't need to make you Ponies do anything to get into trouble; you do a fine job of it on your own." He agreed with Trixie as he slid off of Shining and grew to his full size. "But... I have been keeping tabs on what has been going on... and this has been truly remarkable. My 'Firmament' barrier was supposedly impenetrable to Equestrian magic. To find out your transportation spell punctured it like Thunderbird Three through the sound barrier..."

"What?" Everypony there asked.

"Never mind, another show." Discord answered. "The point is, Twilight, your magic is growing in ways I must admit I never imagined it would." He smiled at them all, but especially Twilight. "Maybe it is time that Ponies finally found their way out into the Great Beyond..." Then he was face-to-face with Twilight, staring into her eyes. "But be warned: Some of the horrors out there are not as easy to recognise as someone like Tirek is, or as easy to defeat. Some are more-versed in the ways of deception and trickery than even I am. If you venture out there, Twilight... or any of you, keep your friendship close to you, and be careful whom you offer it to. Sometimes the prettiest and most easy-going beings can be the nastiest... if you don't treat them properly." He told them all as he moved back from Twilight.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Cadance asked, not liking Discord one bit.

"Just what it means, my Pretty Princess of Love." Discord gave Cadance a smile, as he handed Flurry Heart a puzzle toy he knew was called a Rubik's Cube. The young alicorn filly squealed in delight and grabbed it with both fore-hoofs, as she began to work out how it worked. "Stellar's discovery of that ship is the last act of a very nasty war in another part of the Galaxy. Whether or not it brings new prosperity to Equis, or ends up dragging it into a renewed and nastier conflict, is all up to her and yourselves. The true test is not whether you can use what it brings, but whether or not you can stand the consequences of doing so. So far, Stellar's passed a number of the tests put before her. But can you follow her example?" Discord asked.

Twilight thought on this for a moment, then nodded. "We can but try." She answered.

Discord chuckled. "Oh, but there's the problem, my little Princess of Friendship: in this game, you either Do, or Do Not. There is no Try..." And with that, he got sucked into Flurry's parfait glass and disappeared...

Twilight and the others blinked at that, then Shining snorted as Starlight face-hoofed. "I hate it when he does that..." Twilight said into the silence.

Author's Notes:

Okay! Sorry this one's been a bit late, but the ending needed Discord's input to make it work. He only popped into the story tonight, as I was trying to work out where things were going from here.

So far, so good for our intrepid explorers and friends back home. Now let's see if I can get them together again without Trixie finding me hiding behind the authorial curtain...

EDIT: and thanks to Stainless Steel Fox for some timely observations and some awesome maths to correct a few details.