"Equestria, our most beautiful homeland. It is for the express reason that we love this land so much that we mustn't cling to it so desperately. It is true what you may have heard, that this planet's magic reserves are overburdened. I propose that we establish settlements, a home away from home, outside of the atmosphere. If we do this, we will allow our planet the time it requires to recharge its magical energies.

"I beseech you, my fellow Equestrians, for the good of all of us, to cast off the shackles which weigh you down to this planet. Everypony must come together to create a better tomorrow for all of us, and afford us the opportunity of continued prosperity on Equestria. Thank you all for your time."

*thunderous applause*

*blip*

The hologram of the stately blue unicorn stallion giving his address to the assembled ponies faded out of sight of the light blue unicorn mare, who smiled to herself.

"Yes, father. Your vision is becoming a reality, and it will be I, your great and powerful daughter, who sees it through to the end. First, those who took you from me shall be made to pay, then, I shall have to deal with those troublesome holdouts."

She stood suddenly, walking over to the bench upon which rested her silver helmet, picking up the object and placing it upon her head.

"This coming new world is no place for those whose souls would be weighed down by gravity. They will see the light of outer space, or I shall see that they have their existence terminated. If I have to take each and every one of them on in my Pillion to see it so, then I shall."

Lieutenant Illusion, report to the bridge, please.

With that, the mysterious mare exited the room, the purple cape attached to her ornate blue uniform billowing behind her, leaving the space in total darkness.

#

Satellite Five - Designation: "Cloudsdale"

"Pillion unit SR-04, real test flight sequence number one, ready to launch."

"Roger that pilot Spectrum, catapult launch sequence initiating."

The overhead hatch opened, exposing the artificial blue sky of Satellite Five to the young pegasus pilot. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as the excitement of the moment truly began to sink in.

A computerized voice entered the fray as the engines could be heard and felt setting themselves into motion.

"Five..."

Here it comes.

"Four… Three..."

Finally in the air.

"Two… One..."

Awwwww yeah…

"Zero… Launching."

All engines roared to life with gusto, as the metal platform the large machine sat upon hurled upwards toward the atmospheric blue at the end of the tunnel. Upon reaching the top, the brash young pilot slammed on the control levers, throwing the Pillion up into the sky. The unit's wing attachments snapped open, and it began soaring parallel to the path laid out by the brightly coloured pylons set below.

The Pillion SR-04, SR denoting it as a part of the prototype Sky Rider series of machines, was an impressive sight in size alone, a humanoid machine that standing straight up measured roughly 16 meters, over ten times the height of the average pony standing on all fours. In terms of design, it was less impressive, being an early experimental build. Cold, metallic grey was its primary color, with small, bold red stripes on the arms and legs and it had a glowing goldenrod yellow emitting from the visor on its head.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO! Man, this feels good! The Dash is back in the sky again, baby!"

The same mare's nasally voice from before the countdown came through the communications line once again. "Please focus on your flight path, Rainbow. We don't want you missing any of your checkpoints, now, that would be extremely disappointing."

"Aww chill out, ya nerd. I could hit all of those checks in my sleep, I ain't in this program for nothin', ya know?" groused the cocksure pegasus.

Just then, another older, refined, voice came over the line, this one clearly belonging to a stallion. "Alright Ensign Dash, I'll not have you insulting our researchers so casually. Now complete your exercise and return to dock quickly, are we clear?"

Rainbow let out a chuckle. "You got it, Major. Speed is my middle name, I'll have this course cleared in ten seconds flat. Now check these sweet maneuvers, Moony!"

"I told you before not to call me that at work, Ensign," the scientist mare's voice chided, somewhat playfully. "Now focus."

"I hear ya, babe."

With that, the thrusters of the 04 kicked in and the Pillion went blazing along its path, speeding by the checkpoints. Rainbow, ever the show-off pulled off some rather flashy barrel rolls, pitching this way and that and spiraling in place, not yielding in its blistering pace for even a second.

Too bad I don't have enough airspace to break the sound barrier here, and there wouldn't be any such barrier in space if I went out there. I gotta get down to the surface some day and try that out. Maybe I could make a vacation of it, and take the good doctor with me.

These present thoughts caused Rainbow's wild grin to grow even wider and brighter, as her flight continued. Before long, she was winding her path back around and heading back towards the observation bunker near her point of origin the dock rolling into sight amongst the cloud surface of the Cloudsdale satellite.

Dash could see the members of the research and development team through the bunker's clear glass windows. At the front of the pack was her favourite unicorn, the scientific prodigy known as Moon Dancer; she was a highly talented engineer, mathematician, physicist, and mechanic, among other skills. She had a grayish-yellow coat, With a three-toned mane and tail of amaranth red, purple, and violet, and the most gorgeous dark purple eyes, over which she wore thick, black, horn-rimmed spectacles. Her cutie mark was a deep purple crescent moon, surrounding three smaller, lighter purple diamond-shaped stars. Being a unicorn scholar, she was also well-versed in the art of pony magic, a major help with developing the Pillions in a way that utilized the internal magic of their pony pilots. The holder of multiple doctorates was incredibly intelligent, and Rainbow found it sexy as hell - that form fitting lab coat didn't hurt either, in Rainbow's eyes - which was probably a positive thing, since they were dating. Rainbow could see the subtle glint in her mare's eyes even at this distance; she knew that after she landed and received her debriefing, she would be bombarded with Moony's particular mode of enthusiasm that came with any successful test or exercise, which she was looking forward to immensely.

Not far from Moon Dancer stood the old Major, a stallion called Fancy Pants. He was a regal white unicorn stallion, with a light azure mane and tail, and the same colour of eyes. His cutie mark was three golden crowns with a purple diamond set into the middle of each. Apparently he was a member of old Canterlot nobility from their society's time on the surface. Upon the migration to space, he'd decided to put his military training and education to use and found himself assisting in the development of the Coalition of Equine Space's new mechanical weapons. The older stallion was a fair, but firm Commanding Officer. Working under him, Rainbow Dash had been given many opportunities to challenge herself and push her own limits, which was all alright with her.

#

A matter of minutes later, Rainbow Dash had taken the Pillion back down the launch shaft and docked at the bottom of the tunnel. She disembarked from the machine, removing her pilot's helmet as she did so, allowing her multicoloured mane to fall free.

As she climbed down the steps to the hangar floor, she was greeted by Moon Dancer briskly trotting in her direction, her face lightly overtaken in a genuine smile, her eyes positively glowing.

Heh, but Celestia she's cute. Rainbow's face once again broke out into her trademark cocky grin.

"Rainbow, that was wonderful!" The bookish mare proclaimed, levitating along a clipboard which her observations, calculations, and figures had been quickly but neatly scrawled upon, she brought the board in front of her face and began to scan it. "Your velocity was well above optimal by at least three meters per second, how did you pull that off?"

Rainbow stepped up to her marefriend confidently, still wearing that some cocksure grin. "Eh, you know me babe. And sometimes it just don't pay to question these awesome mad skills." She brought up a hoof and lightly pushed the clipboard obscuring the unicorn's face out of the way, subsequently leaning forward and quickly giving her a short, chaste kiss.

Moon Dancer jerked back reflexively. "Dashie, I thought we agreed to cut back on the PDA at work!" she complained, her face erupting in scarlet.

Dash leaned forward again, this time smirking playfully. "And I thought we agreed not to be using the pet names at work, either. Or has that little rule been revoked, Moony?" She spoke her mare's adorable pet name with purpose, her eyelids lowering somewhat suggestively. "Now, I guess we gotta go for debriefing now. But afterwards we should find someplace quiet, and-"

At that moment, she finally noticed that Major Fancy Pants had entered the lower hangar, striding in the direction of the two young mares with gusto. "A marvelous showing, Ensign! But I'll have to reprimand you and give you a reminder on keeping your conduct professional when on facility. As wonderful as your relationship with Dr. Dancer is, it simply won't do to have all of our personnel subjected to such adorable exchanges at all times." This last statement was spoken with a playful, half-mocking tone.

His sunny disposition quickly evaporated. "Now, if you both would follow me to the conference quarters, we have some important guests who are most interested in our program. They were in audience for that test flight and showed a particular interest in the pilot." Rainbow's ears perked up at this, and a fire lit in her eyes at the ego-stroking implications of that statement.

About time somepony recognizes my awesomeness. But I wonder who it could be… oh my gosh, maybe it's one of the-

"Come along now Doctor, Ensign." Rainbow Dash was snapped out of her reverie as the Major began to turn and move toward the staff elevator. She quickly saluted and followed suit, Moon Dancer not far behind.

#

In the conference room, three ponies waited, two unicorns and one pegasus.

The first unicorn was a well-built, relatively youthful white stallion with a sapphire mane, with two-toned stripes of cerulean and darker blue, and light cerulean eyes. On the breast of his dark sea green uniform rested an insignia of two parallel-set vertical golden bars, noting his military rank of Captain. He was sitting upright in his chair, eyes fixed on nothing in particular as he wordlessly awaited their hosts' arrival.

The second unicorn was much younger, this one a mare. She had a coat the shade of lilac, with moderate violet eyes, and a mane of dark sapphire, with stripes of light violet and brilliant rose pink. She wore glasses similar to those of Moon Dancer, but with a more angular rim design, and an off-gray lab coat with a plain black turtle-neck as an undershirt. She was clearly a science-minded pony as well, but did not belong to the Cloudsdale research staff.

The last pony in the room, the pegasus, was a gamboge-orange stallion with a two-toned blue mane and eyes that were currently closed and further obscured behind his gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, as he leaned boredly and nonchalantly against the wall. On the popped-up collar of his deep-brown leather flight jacket was pinned a row of single silver rod with a gold star laid in the center, signifying his unique rank of Commander. Certainly he was some sort of ace pilot.

The purple mare could not tear herself from her own calculations and observations she had made on her own writing pad, upon witnessing the SR-04's test flight. The figures were impressive, she couldn't wait to meet the pilot who could push the systems of the Pillion this far without overloading them. She wondered what they would be like, would they be a modest business-like soldier? Or would they be an abrasive, cocky, hot-blooded airhead like her orange pegasus companion?

Without opening his eyes or even turning his head in her direction, the pegasus Commander spoke up suddenly. "Y'know doll, I'm startin' to think your head really could explode from you overloading it with all those numbers n' junk. Ya oughta just chill out a bit."

The unicorn stallion's head snapped about, his eyes casting a warning glare at the pegasus. "I'll implore you to watch the running of your mouth, Sentry, and that you address my little sister in a more respectful manner, thank you," he spoke in a cold, authoritative tone. "You do have a point though," the Captain added under his breath.

The unicorn turned toward the younger mare, placing a strong hoof upon her slender shoulder. "C'mon, Twiley. You can take your mind of the science for one single moment, can't you? Just relax, you can ponder the business stuff once our company gets here." He gave his little sister a small, comforting smile.

The purple mare let out a sigh. "Okay, Shiny. I'll try to relax, I suppose," she then deadpanned, "and Flash, when I want your input on my life, I'll ask you for it."

"Hmph." The Commander simply let out a grunt and resumed his apathetic stance.

Before long, the door to the room opened, and in walked Major Fancy Pants, closely followed by Ensign Rainbow Dash and Dr. Moondancer. "So sorry to keep you waiting friends. I have with me the ponies you inquired after. Allow me to get you all acquainted. With me are Ensign Rainbow Dash, test pilot codename Spectrum, and Dancer, one of the lead researchers on our Pillion development team." He turned to the two young mares who accompanied him. He turned back to the guests and gestured to each of them in turn. "Ladies, these esteemed ponies before you are Commander Flash Sentry, Captain Shining Armor, and Doctor-"

"Twilight Sparkle?" Moon Dancer blurted out, subsequently blushing and smiling sheepishly as everypony turned to her at her outburst.

The Major attempted to speak again. "Dr. Dancer, if you would please not interrupt."

"Oh no, that's okay Major. Moon Dancer and I went to school together. It's been awhile, feels like so long ago now, with how things have changed over the past few years," Twilight spoke, attempting to diffuse the situation.

Captain Armor spoke up. "Yes,well. As good as that all is, I feel we should get down to the reason we're here," he turned to look directly at Rainbow. "Ensign Dash, we're here to represent a frontline project in the development of elite class, higher grade weaponry, including special Pillions. We have need of more pilots to get the project moving, and would like to extend you an invitation to join."