Two yellow dots show up on my E.F.S. as Rose and I approach the intersection. Pressing myself against the wall, I inch closer to the edge before setting down the duffel bag with whatever supplies we could salvage to my side. Which includes a broken mirror shard that I pull out and hover around the corner. In its reflection are two Rangers guarding one of the vault doors leading to the silo. After an hour of sneaking around the place, this is, by far, the most lightly guarded entrance we’ve come across.

Still doesn’t make what we have to do any less risky.

Placing the shard on top of the duffle bag, I pull out my makeshift EMP grenade and take one long look at it. Really, it is just three mangled MFCs duct taped together, with a mess of wires feeding into each of the extremely overcharged cells. With a big red wire acting as the pin for the entire thing. It looks rather intimidating for something that I whipped up in a moment’s notice.

Though, with it being something that I made, there isn’t any guarantee that it’ll work as intended. Or at all. And if it doesn’t knock out those two guards, we’re probably not going to get another shot at this.

“I really hope this works,” I mutter to myself.

“Relax, we got this,” Rose reassures me before picking up the mirror shard and looks into it. “So how many are there?”

“Two,” I answer back before checking the two other EMP grenades inside of the duffle bag. “And I’m not sure if I can hit both of them with this.”

“We know you’re over there,” one of the guards shouts. “Come out nice and slow now. We promise not to gun you down if you do.”

Of course, that was assuming they hadn’t noticed us already.

“Leave them to me,” Rose whispers as she fixes her mane up before blowing a kiss to her reflection. She then tosses the mirror shard away and gets up before looking back at me. “Don’t read too much into this. When you get the chance,” She points to my grenade. “Use it.”

“Ok?” I raise my eyebrow at her before checking my PipBuck. “I mean, S.A.T.S. is fully charged now, so we don’t need to-” I look up to see nopony next to me. “Rose? Rose??”

Dear Luna, what is she doing now?

Once again hovering the mirror shard around the edge, my heart beats faster as Rose moves towards the two Rangers in a very, very sultry way. I tilt my head at the way her hips and tail sway seductively before slapping myself across the face.

Gah! Stop that! What the hay am I doing?! No, scratch that! What the hay is she doing?!

“Don’t shoot, you caught me,” She says. “I guess it isn’t surprising that two strong and commanding stallions would notice a pretty little mare like me walking around.”

She stops moving when the Rangers point their rifles at her, with the one to the left saying “That’s far enough.”

“Alright, alright. So how is this going to go down, colts?” Rose asks as she brushes her mane back and I swear I can barely see her bat her eyes at the Rangers as she does so. “Are you going to drag me over to some room, hold me down, and interrogate me?”

An incredibly uncomfortable feeling washes over me as the tone of her voice makes my ears and cheeks burn in embarrassment. She isn’t.

“U-Uhh, umm,” The Ranger to the right stammers before the other, more experienced sounding, Ranger cuts in with “Just stay right there. The Star Paladin will be here soon and she’ll decide what to do with you.”

“Well, I’d rather just mess around with you two,” Rose says in the same sultry tone as before while tilting her head slightly. “But if you really want to watch while another mare handles me…”

She is.

The experienced Ranger motions to the other one towards my direction before walking up straight up to Rose. His power armor along with the size difference between the two gives him an air of intimidation as he looks down at her. “That’s enough out of you.”

“Ooo, tough stallion aren’t ya?” Rose rubs her hoof on the chest of the Ranger. “I just love it when a strong stallion plays rough with me.”

Ok, we’re done here!

Ripping the red wire out, I teleport the sparking and whining EMP grenade right in between the two Rangers before pressing my hoof against my forehead to deal with the severe headache it causes. The loud electrical explosion that rings in my ears afterwards only makes it worse.

Oww, ok, that grenade went off quicker than expected. This plan better have worked.

Slinging the duffle bag onto my bag, I cautiously lean around the corner to see the burnt remains of my grenade on the floor, still cackling with leftover magical energy. Some bits of it managed to stick onto the power armor of the two Rangers collapsed on the floor nearby, with Rose cautiously peeking over the one she apparently took cover behind.

“Well, that happened,” She says while touching a cut on her cheek before looking at the blood staining her hoof.

I rush to her side. “Are you alright? You didn’t get caught in the blast, did you? I-I didn’t expect there to be shrapnel when it exploded and-!”

She presses her hoof against my lips. “I’m fine, just a few scratches, that’s all,” she says before motioning towards the two Rangers with her head. “Now let’s take care of them first before more show up.”

“G-Go ahead! Do your worst!” The stammering Ranger, no, definitely not going to keep calling him that. Junior, the junior Ranger declares. “The others will make sure you’ll pay for what you’ve done here!”

“Oh really?” Rose teases with that uncomfortably sultry tone from before. “And what are you hoping that I’ll do to you?”

“Did you really have to say it like that?” I ask irritably while removing the rifle from the experienced Ranger’s battle saddle. Just in case his power armor starts working again somehow.

“Sorry,” She gives me a sheepish smile. “But he did leave himself open for that one.”

“W-Wait, you mean, all that stuff you were doing before? Y-You were acting?” The junior Ranger asks in surprise… and is that a hint of disappointment in his tone too?

“Afraid so, colt,” Rose answers in a matter of fact tone. “No offense, but you and your buddy here never had a chance with me to begin with.” Then a sly smile appears on her face as she glances over at me. “I bet you’re relieved to hear that, Intrepid.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say while pouring all of my focus on searching for some kind of explosives holding compartment.

“Come on, a hot mare like me throwing herself onto a couple of other stallions in a very seductive way,” She leans on me, making me feel uncomfortable yet again. “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel just a little bit jealous that you weren’t the one I was throwing myself at.”

“Sweet Celestia, kill me now!” The experienced Ranger says suddenly.

My thoughts exactly.

“Hmph, I wasn’t talking to you now, was I?” Rose thankfully gets off of me and walks over to the other Ranger before messing around with his power armor. “So what are we looking for?”

I give her a shrug. “Not sure. Just something that looks like it will carry a few explosives in it.”

“And why are you looking for explosives?” The experienced Ranger asks.

“Home improvement,” I say dryly before looking over at Rose. “Any luck over there?”

“Nope,” Rose says before prying the junior Ranger’s rifle from his power armor. She then pulls off the junior Ranger’s helmet, revealing a yellow stallion underneath, and points the rifle to his head. “Alright, spill it: where are you ponies keeping the explosives.”

The junior Ranger pupils shrink as he stares at the rifle. “W-We don’t have any!”

“That’s bull and you know it,” Rose places the muzzle of the rifle right in between the Ranger’s eyes. “Everypony knew there were hellhounds here. You don’t come to this place knowing that without packing some serious heat.”

The junior Ranger glances between the experienced Ranger and myself with a pleading look in his eyes as sweat starts running down his face. It’s enough to decide to end this now. “Umm, Rose-?”

“He’s telling the truth,” The experienced Ranger speaks up, catching me off guard and causing Rose to pull the rifle away slightly. “We were ordered to lock them up once we understood what was going on here.”

“Then where did you put them?” She asks. When the experienced Ranger doesn’t answer, she presses the rifle’s muzzle harder onto the junior Ranger’s forehead. “You do care about what happens to him, right?”

“I-I knew the risks when I joined,” The junior Ranger hesitantly mutters as bullets of sweat run down his face. “S-So go ahead! Shoot me! Y-You won’t get anything from us!”

They both glare at each other, the Ranger in defiance and Rose in annoyance. The air grows tense with every passing second before she glances over at me. Our eyes meet and, for once, I’m not sure what to do here. We need to get inside that control center. But… I slightly shake my head. We can figure out another way to get in there, we don’t need to kill anypony to do it.

She doesn’t immediately respond to that, though, and instead returns to glaring at the Ranger with the same intensity as before. Doubt starts to worm its way into my mind and I open my mouth to tell her to stop when she tosses the rifle to the side.

“I don’t even know why I bothered,” she says before looking over at me. “Let’s go, Intrepid. We’re wasting our time here.”

“Right,” I say, relieved that she didn’t go through with her threat, as we begin to leave the room. We both stop when an odd rumbling sound starts coming from the hallway ahead. Almost like something with tracks is heading our way. A red dot then shows up on my EFS, though the fact that the junior Ranger looks more confused than relieved tells me that that dot isn’t on their side either.

Rose jumps back and grabs the discarded rifle again as I take cover behind one of the Rangers. The air becomes incredibly tense as the sound gets louder and closer with every passing second.

Then, for the second time today, I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing things as an armless light blue Sentinel enters the room. The exact same one I used against Lupa.

“What the hay is that thing doing here?!” I blurt out. “No, better yet, how did it get here?! Lupa smashed its head in! It shouldn’t be operating at all!”

“Oh, yeah, I guess I forgot to tell you,” Rose says while rubbing the back of her neck. “Some of the ghouls brought that thing back with them. They said they wanted to fix it up while they waited for everypony else to get ready for the launch. Hardwire told them to knock it off, though. I guess they didn’t listen?”

“Apparently. But why is it showing up as red on my E.F.S.?” I ask, cautiously moving out of my cover to get a better look at the Sentinel. “It’s not like it is a threat with its arms gone. Those were the only weapons it had.”

“Intruders detected!” It screeches at us through its damaged speakers before its chest compartment opens up, revealing the missile launcher nestled inside of it. “Prepare to be eliminated, zebra scum!”

I immediately stop dead in my tracks. “Oh right, forgot about the missile launcher.”

Seeing the Sentinel turn towards me, I press a hoof on the Ranger I was hiding behind and quickly teleport us to the other side of the room just as it launches a missile. The explosion reverberates through the air as I collapse onto the ground, clutching my forehead from the stabbing pain going through my head while trying to keep myself from vomiting.

Buck it all! As if things weren’t bad enough already! Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Struggling to pull the duffel bag off of my back, I pull out another EMP grenade before stealing a glance at Rose to see her lying prone on the floor with her hooves covering her head. As the Sentinel slowly turns to face me again, she takes one look at me before glancing between the new crater on the floor and the vault door. She spreads her wings and jumps into the air, positioning herself in front of the door before firing a few shots at the Sentinel, drawing its attention to her.

Desperately digging into the bag, I pull my second grenade out and yank the red wire off before tossing it at the Sentinel. The grenade bounces on the ground and rolls to the treads of the Sentinel. But it doesn’t go off right away and my heart stops as I watch the Sentinel launch a missile towards Rose.

With a cocky smile on her face, she skillfully dodges out of the way of the missile, causing it to fly past her and ram right into the vault door. Another explosion shakes the room and almost drowns out the EMP grenade going off at the same time.

Barely hearing the Sentinel slur some kind of gibberish in the background, I force myself onto my hooves just as Rose lands right in front of me. “And that is why I’m awesome,” She proclaims while brushing herself off. She reassuringly pats me on the shoulder and then has to catch me when I nearly collapse because of the gesture. “Woah there! Don’t pass out on me now!”

“Easier said than done,” I mutter before turning my head to see the results of Rose’s rather reckless move.

Sadly, the door still stands, now sporting a new black mark on it where the missile had hit it. Which is to be expected, in all honesty. It does lead to the silo after all. And given the similarities between this door and the one to the control center, this proves that our plan of blowing up the door might not work.

Though, seeing how hard Rose is glaring at the door, it’s probably best not to voice that particular observation to her.

Speaking of, Rose’s ears suddenly perk up and soon I hear faint shouts coming from outside of the room. Along with a few red dots appearing on the edges of my E.F.S..

Great, the cavalry's coming. And they’re cutting off our exits too. Well, not all of our exits.

I motion towards the door and, with Rose’s help, we move over there. She then points her rifle to the only other exit out of this room while I look the door over. “Can you get it open?” She asks.

“Umm,” I glance down at the handle labeled ‘emergency override’ near the connection seam at the bottom of the door but quickly shake my head. The locks are probably still engaged, so pulling on it would be a waste of time. Even with Rose’s knack for opening doors, it’ll still take too much time to rip off the panels of the hatch to access the locks manually. So there has to be another way to disengage the locks.

Maybe faking an unlock signal will work? But the lights on the power box are out, which means there’s no power and where there’s no power, there’s no magical current to hotwire a signal through to unlock the door. Then again, it’s a miracle the missile didn’t do more than rip the box off the wall. Even more so considering that it’s still attached to the wall and door. Though, with the wires being exposed like that…

Touching my horn against the box, I try to funnel some magic into it only to immediately stop when my head starts spinning and the stabbing pain comes back in force. Ok, this isn’t going to work.

Going back for my duffel bag, I drag it over to the door and take out my last EMP grenade along with some tools. Pulling some of the wires out causes my improvised grenade to spark a small bit before it settles down again, letting me know that this is an incredibly stupid idea. But given the alternatives…

Please don’t blow up, please don’t blow up, please don’t blow up.

Hearing the shouting outside doesn’t help calm my nerves. Not when I am guessing which wires to connect from the box into my rather volatile grenade. It takes all my willpower not to toss the thing away every time magical energy sparks from the thing. Thankfully, the light turns on with a green hue once the last wire is taped in place. Good, now to figure out which one of these wires controls the locking mechanism and-

“Sentinel’s disabled! Get in here before-” The junior Ranger manages to shout before a gunshot fires off near me. I turn to see smoke rising from the rifle’s muzzle as Rose glares at the now silent and, thankfully, still unharmed Ranger. Though hearing all of that might motivate the calvary to get here faster.

I place a hoof over my beating heart and take a deep breath. Alright, don’t worry about that. Focus on finding the right wires. Which are definitely not these ones. Nor those ones. Or even those two. Honestly, how many wires are in this thing?!

Hearing metal hooves stomping against the floor, along with Rose’s rifle discharging next to me, gets my attention. Two Rangers are trying to push the Sentinel out of the way, only backing off when one of Rose’s shots flies past their visor or strikes their helmet. But the rounds are too weak to puncture their thick armor and they seem to know this, if their unwillingness to back off is anything to go by.

That’s it then, our luck finally ran out. Dang it, Luna! After everything you put me through this last week, was it really too much for you to give me a few more seconds with this?!

Rose and I drop to the ground when a third Ranger pokes around the corner and fires off a few shots at us. I cover my head, desperately trying to not get hit by the shots flying over me, while Rose immediately goes prone and blindly shoots at the Ranger. She ends up hitting the Sentinel’s head instead. Quickly lining up another shot, she pulls the trigger only for the rifle to not fire anything.

Just as she starts to swear again, the Sentinel blares out more gibberish and the sound of screeching metal pierces the air as it turns. The Rangers nearby immediately bolt out of the way as it fires a missile in their direction.

Umm, thank you Luna?

As if in response to my thanks, a hail of bullets starts tearing into the Sentinel. Seeing that my few extra seconds are almost up, I immediately push myself off the ground, grab two more wires at random, and utter a silent prayer as I connect them. A beautiful, magnificent sound of the door unlocking reaches my ears and a big grin forms on my face as it slowly moves upward. It gets a few feet off the ground before stuttering to a stop and magical sparks start to fly out of my EMP grenade.

Almost instinctively, I tear the grenade away from the box and throw it towards the entrance. Which scares away the one Ranger that pokes his head around the corner, no doubt trying to shoot at us again, before violently exploding like all the others.

I grab the duffel bag and shove it through the small gap between the door hatch and the floor before attempting to squeeze under it myself. It’s a tight fit, but I manage to force myself to the other side just in time to see Rose slips effortlessly under the door. That smug look on her face as she swiftly moves to my side just rubs me the wrong way. Until the metal hoof swiping after her from behind the door clues me in on whom that look is actually for.

Pulling the bag away from the Steel Ranger’s reach, I throw it over my shoulder before we run deeper into the silo itself. The sound of our hoofs striking against the metal catwalk echo throughout the massive chamber as we approach the guardrails. As we look out over the launch pad, I marvel at the giant makeshift rocket before us, softly humming and vibrating with unseen power.

“Woo, it got real dicey back there,” Rose wipes her forehead before looking back at the door. Our ears stand to attention and we quickly turn our attention to my PipBuck as it clicks and crackles. “Umm, what’s going on?” She asks.

“That would be my Rad Counter,” I tap the PipBuck, a fleeting thought about how that Scribe managed to fix it crossing my mind, before looking at the rocket. “Apparently, this rocket is leaking some magical radiation.”

She looks it over with some uneasiness. “That’s not a sign that this thing is going to fall apart on us, is it?”

“It better not,” I mutter before looking around the chamber for some idea of what to do next. Still, my worries about what will happen if this rocket doesn’t make it to the moon creep back into my mind. The damage it could cause, the lives that could be lost, the permanent scar that it could leave behind on a recovering world.

This rocket could do all those things. But the funny thing about ‘could’ is, well, it could also make it to the moon. And I have a good feeling that it’ll get there in one piece. I just wish that good feeling would drown out all the anxiety from my mind right now.

Rose taps my shoulder before pointing to a set of windows almost directly across from us. It takes a few seconds before I fully recognise the interior of the control center. Alright, enough pointless worrying.

“Hold on,” I press my hoof against her side and start to channel my magic. Pushing past the pain, I focus in on one spot in that room and try to teleport the both of us there. Only to feel the spell fizzle out.

A hatch door opens somewhere below us and Steel Rangers run onto the deck. One of them shouts something at us but I push all of that out of my head and focus on trying to cast the spell again.

But again, the spell fizzles out halfway through.

“Hurry up, Treppy,” Rose says as now the sound of the door behind us being forced open reaches my ears. Pouring as much magic into the spell as possible, I clench my teeth tightly from the pain as I try one last time to cast the spell.

And this time I can feel the spell finally working as it envelopes Rose and I and-

Something slams into me as the spell finally goes off, the momentum of which sends me flying into a wall upon reappearing. My head is swimming as I struggle to stand back up, barely recognizing my surroundings as that of the control center, before I start dry heaving from the overwhelming pain and dizziness that sets in.

Ok Luna, I get the hint: no more magic until I fully recover. Now please make my body stop hurting so much so I can figure out who or what just joined us for that trip!

A very loud scuffle catches my attention and, wiping the tears from my eyes, I turn to see Rose standing off against a white mare wearing Steel Ranger fatigues. Wait, that’s Diamond Shard! Ugh, of course it would be Diamond Shard! Who else could it possibly be?!

“Rose,” Diamond says curtly, giving her a cold glare.

“Miss Snooty,” Rose says just as curtly.

“That’s Star Paladin Shard to you,” Diamond growls.

“I don’t care,” Rose cracks her neck. “I got a bone to pick with you.”

“I imagine,” Diamond deadpans before motioning towards me with her head. “Hoof over the unicorn and I’ll double whatever he’s offering you. Plus compensation for how we treated you and an acquittal for your role in all of this.”

Rose taps her chin. “Hmm, let me think about this, yeah no,” She slams her hooves together. “We had a deal. You don’t beat up my only friend and think that I’ll just let you get away with that.”

“Ignoring all the details you neglected to mention during your part of that deal,” Diamond says coldly as her glare intensifies. “Your friend here lashed out at me with some kind of blood magic and nearly beheaded me over something I didn’t do. He’s dangerous.”

“Does it look like I care?” Rose asks with some annoyance in her tone. “Look, Intrepid happens to be the only pony I like in this stupid place, so just take your deal and shove it up your-”

Diamond tackles Rose to the ground, pushing the two into a nearby console, and lifts a hoof to strike before Rose bucks her off. As Diamond reels back from the blow, Rose gives me one look then motions towards the controls at the front of the room. “I’ll take care of Miss Snooty, just get this thing out of here already!”

I barely nod my head before Diamond lunges forward, hitting Rose square in the face before getting uppercutted herself. As the two brawl, I grab my duffle bag and drag it over to the main controls.

Looking through the large observation windows, I bite my tongue when I notice that the launch pad is devoid of any Steel Rangers. Figures they would have realized what just happened. So I have however long it takes them to get here and figure out how to hook the terminal to the door back up again. No pressure. I got this.

It doesn’t take long to type in the admin user and password into the main console. It beeps before the ‘locked by administrator’ message is replaced by familiar sets of data on all of the screens. See? Simple. Now to remember what to do next.

Well, that silo hatch needs to be opened first if we’re getting this rocket out of here. Scanning the console, I find a switch labelled ‘hatch control’ and move my hoof to flick it up when I get yanked away and thrown to the ground. Fire rages in Diamond’s eyes as she stands above me. Her hoof poised to smash my head in until Rose tackles her into the console. Scrambling to get back onto my hooves, I watch as Rose wails into Diamond before getting her head slammed into the keyboard a few times.

The fight soon becomes a deadlock, the two rolling around on the console as they struggle to get the upper hoof on each other. The intensity in which the two fight feels like that of two tigresses trying to murder each other for the last scrap of meat. I slowly back away before Rose finally gets under Diamond and uses her hindlegs to throw the Star Paladin off of her. Diamond lands on the ground hard and, seeing Rose quickly coming after her, throws a chair at my partner before backing off to a better position.

As Rose ducks and adopts a more defensive stance towards her opponent, I move back to the console and flip the switch. The hatch groans to life as it opens, revealing the clear night sky and a bright full moon that illuminates the launch pad in its light.

With that out of the way, I look over at the screens to double check that everything is still alright. I feel the blood drain from my face when certain fields that had data displayed in them are completely blank. Because Of Course It Would Be!

I shoot a dirty look over at the two fighting mares before some shouting from outside, what little can be heard through the thick door and over the fighting taking place, reminds me that time isn’t on my side.

Ok, think. How do I get this data back quickly? Obviously, there has to be some kind of backup, right? So just replace what’s missing with that.

A few taps on the dented keyboard, however, reveals that this system is a lot more complicated and less straightforward than I expected. The banging on the door adds to my anxiety as I try to figure out how to search for a backup on this terminal. But even with my educated guesses, nothing shows up. I slam my head into the keyboard while the little pony in my head screams bloody murder over the situation.

“Intrepid, don’t do that!” Rose calls out. “Please, don’t do that now!”

“Well if somepony didn’t decide to roll across the keyboard and delete half the data from this thing!” I answer before looking back to see Rose in a headlock.

“Not my fault!” She snaps before biting into Diamond’s foreleg, freeing her from the headlock and allowing her to throw Diamond off of her.

“Is it too much to ask that you keep her off of me while I work?” I ask and instantly regret doing so.

Rose shoots me a very nasty look. “Do you want to fight her instead?”

Before I can answer, Diamond rams into Rose and the two tumble across the floor before they start beating into each other again. As much as my instincts are telling me to go help Rose, my little pony reminds me that I’m not in any shape to fight and that I really need to get that missing data restored.

But if I can’t find a copy of the data on this system then where…. Wait a minute, does my PipBuck still have that copy of the data I made days ago? Going through all the files on it, I confirm that, yes, my PipBuck still does. Another cursory glance over the console doesn’t reveal any obvious place to jack in at, so I pull out a screwdriver from my duffle bag and remove one of the forward facing panels to the console itself. The wirework inside is a complete mess and it takes most of my concentration just to avoid accidentally yanking an important wire out as I try to directly connect my PipBuck to it.

Carefully pulling myself out of the guts of the console, I get back onto the terminal and manage to find the option to upload new data into it. Alright, let’s get this started and, umm, huh, that’s a lot of options. Ok, I want to upload from an external source. Type in the account and password again. Thank Luna, it recognises my PipBuck. Now please upload this and- no, no, no, we don’t want to replace anything that’s already there! It’s bad enough that I have to resort to this backup instead of a more recent one! Ok, and… done! Finally!

“Enough!” Diamond shouts and I turn just in time to see her throw Rose away from her. I barely manage to move out of the way as Rose tumbles across the floor and her upper half goes right into the exposed inners of the console. Bloodied and bruised, Diamond looks outright intimidating as glares at me with the kind of heat that could melt steel. “Step away from the console, Intrepid. Now.”

“No,” I answer back irritably with a glare of my own. That glare quickly vanishes when she starts walking towards me and I then say in as much of a firm tone as I can muster “I-I’m sending this rocket to the moon, Diamond. Where it can’t hurt anypony. That is what we both want in the end, right?”

Diamond charges forward with righteous fury in her eyes. A jolt of pain courses through my head as I instinctively try, and fail, to teleport away and instead raise my hooves up to defend myself. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, Rose swiftly tackles her to the ground and sends the two rolling away. They both get in a few hits before scrambling to get off each other. Rose places herself between Diamond and I before brushing off a few hanging wires from her mane. Wait. Wires?!

Dread washes over me as I hesitantly look back at the console. With most of its inner wires ripped out of it and all the screens currently turned off.

“For the love of Luna, WILL YOU TWO QUIT MAKING MY LIFE MORE DIFFICULT!” I snap. “IS IT REALLY THAT HARD TO-”

My blood instantly goes cold as Rose gives the kind of irritated and unamused look that every stallion instinctively knows not to cross. I shrink back and clear my throat. “Umm, sorry, I’ll just stay quiet now.”

A hissing sound soon captures my attention along with some sparks when a hot blue flame cuts its way through the vault door. As the flame begins to slowly move along its edge, I duck into the inner guts of the console and try to recall the schematics I studied for this thing. Thankfully, most of the important looking wires are either intact or easy to hook back up. I think. Still doesn’t remove the feeling of uneasiness while I try to put everything back together again. That feeling grows when I’m forced to resort to using whatever wires are still in the duffle bag to make certain connections.

‘Why are you still trying to do this?’ The little pony in my head frantically asks. ‘You’re nearly spent, half the data that rocket needs to fly got replaced with an old copy that probably isn’t correct, and now you're guessing where to stick wires based on your memory of a schematic that you barely studied for fun!’

I ignore the little pony and hook up the last wire before pulling myself out of the console. With some of the screens flickering to life, I decide that’s good enough and slam the big red launch button on the console.

Nothing happens.

Biting my tongue, I look back to see Diamond pinning Rose to the ground and the Steel Rangers are almost done cutting through the door. Ducking my head back into the console, I frantically try to figure out what I did wrong here. Did I stick a wire in the wrong place? Obviously! But I followed the schematic to the best of my memory, so which wire is it?

Looking through all of the different colored wires, including the red one that I connected to the launch button, I… wait, back at the propulsion test facility, the wire connecting to that launch button was yellow! I immediately switch the red and yellow wires around and pull myself out just in time to see the door fall to the ground.

In that split second, as Rangers begin to pour into the room, I mutter “Luna, please let this work,” to myself before slamming the launch button for a second time.

The room shakes violently, causing everypony to hit the ground as the rocket roars to life. Shielding my eyes from the intense light, I watch in pure amazement as it blasts off the launch pad and soars into the sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind. As the smoke clears and the room stops rumbling, Salt Cube and a Steel Ranger Scribe join me in looking out the window, both with astonished looks on their faces. The room remains silent as the three of us intently search for the rocket. After a few minutes, Salt Cube exclaims “There it is!” with a smile on his face and a hoof pointing to a tiny rocket silhouetted against the bright night sky.

“Track it,” Diamond orders in a half dazed tone. I am then ripped away from the console as Diamond forcefully takes my place and more sternly orders “Track it!”

Salt Cube and the Scribe both salute and Salt Cube points the Scribe to a set of terminals on the other side of the room. He starts typing something into the console, then pauses and looks inside the console. He grumbles something under his breath before going in there and rearranges some of the wiring inside.

While my pride takes hit after hit with each wire pulled, Rose quietly sits down next to me. Her mane is a mess, her face has bruises and cuts all over, but her eyes seem to sparkle with a sense of awe and wonder as she looks out the window. Those same feelings wash over me when I join her in watching the tiny rocket slowly shrink into a glowing dot before it finally disappears.

And even after it disappears, my eyes linger on that spot while ponies shout numbers, degrees, and other things all around me. The feeling is only dispelled and my senses brought back to reality when Salt Cube says “If this is correct then that settles it: They’ve successfully escaped orbit. They are finally going to the moon.”

“T-Then we did it?” I ask softly, my voice gradually growing louder as I continue. “W-We actually did it? No sudden explosions? No chance it’s going to crash back down to Equestria? No ponies are going to die? We, we actually managed to get it to the moon? Hehe, hahaha, WE DID IT ROSE!” I hug Rose tightly, shaking us back and forth, unable to contain my excitement. “WE DID IT! FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, I ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING RIGHT! A-AND I COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU! WE’VE LITERALLY DONE THE IMPOSSIBLE HERE! WE… we…umm, Rose?”

I stop and let go while Rose stares at the sky in quiet horror. Confused, I watch as she gets up and slowly makes her way up to the front of the room. Salt Cube quickly backs off to make room for her while Rose fixes her gaze straight at the moon. Then, suddenly, it finally dawns on me what she’s horrified about as she takes a deep breath and screams:

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF LUNA, THEY FORGOT TO PAY US!!!”

Quest Completed: Aim For The Moon.