Chapter 6 – Brought Up to Speed
The group slowly boarded the ship, Blade, and Fluttershy first as he lifted the luggage for both of them. Rarity still spoke to Spiral Chain, "Just remember Spiral, don't overdo it on your first try." she told the other mare.
"Got it Rarity, I promise the Boutique will be in good hooves." she said in response.
"I'm sure." Rarity said with confidence and turned to walk into the ship with Spike carrying her luggage.
"Don't ya think that might be too much Rarity?" Applejack asked as she watched the small dragon struggle with the load.
"Oh, Applejack, I would never take more than I needed." Rarity said in assurance, even though there were probably twenty big boxes of luggage on Spike's back.
"If ya say so." the orange earth pony said trying not to start an argument, and only looking back at the single brown saddlebag and box of food she had brought.
"Thanks for letting my friends come along Tusks." Rainbow Dash said.
Tusks, smiled sadly as he let the defeat sink in, "Yeah, no problem." he said.
Suddenly, as the last of the others stepped hoof into the ship, Twilight Sparkle appeared. "Sorry I'm late." she said as she ran up to Rainbow Dash, "I guess I got caught up with the list again."
"You always have a list Twilight!" Rainbow told her, and the purple alicorn blushed in admittance, "We got ya on this!" and the pegasus wrapped one of her forelegs around the alicorn's shoulders.
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash, and thank you Tusks for letting us cheer her on." Twilight said, as the three of them made their way into the ship, and stopped when they ran into the backside of Rarity. She stood there with her mouth agape in shock, and now Twilight could see why. The entire inside of the ship was basically filled to the brim with parts and junk. Rarity looked to the floor, "What is all of this?" Twilight asked.
"Ewwww." Rarity squealed.
"This place is a mess, even by my standards!" Rainbow said.
"I did say that I wasn't expecting many guests." Tusks said, and moved towards the front of the ship, and stopped when a pile of junk suddenly started moving by itself towards the back of the ship. Blade suddenly emerged, pushing the pile as it moved until all the piles seemed to merge into one, and he pressed a button that Tusks hadn't seen before. A blast door shut from the top, some of the debris getting pinched beneath it. "How…"
"Look, this ship is obviously Meltackian, and I've built Meltackian ships before." Blade said as he moved across the wall and pressed some hidden buttons on the wall to lower a few seats that no one else could see, "And that's all I'll say about it."
"Well…" Tusks began to say, "The engine isn't Meltackian!" was his only defense.
"I know." he whispered as Fluttershy sat down next to him. The seats themselves seemed to hover over the ground, and shined a blue light from the back. The moment she sat down, the lights from the half rings beside her turned on, and she could feel herself become pinned to the chair, but when she jumped from it during her sudden realization of the feeling startling her, she seemed to be able to move freely.
She waved her hoof around the chair, and nothing happened. "The lights are like the seatbelts from the ship Pinkie hijacked." Breeze explained.
"Ooh." Twilight awed, and began getting into the chair and then stepping down from it, fascination running through her mind.
"Ah feel so secure!" Applejack said and watched as Rarity attempted to touch her own chair while holding onto a disgusted face, Applejack instantly saw what Rarity was fussing about, a single small grease mark on the chair itself, "Oh fer Peet sakes!" she said, and climbed down from her seat, offering it to Rarity so she'd stop fussing.
"Oh, why thank you Applejack." Rarity said as she sat on her friend's offered chair, not a spot in sight. Pinkie bounced into her chair and then kept bouncing until she felt it was comfortable, Spike sat next to Twilight with nothing more than a giggle of excitement, while Breeze and Rainbow Dash sat next to each other.
"Awesome!" Rainbow said as she felt the chair basically hug her with light.
"Ready?" Tusks asked, only to have Discord enter it with a flash of light.
"Sorry I'm late!" he called out. On his back, he sported a pack that could have barely fit into the cabin of the ship, "I just couldn't decide what to leave behind, I hope you don't mind."
Fluttershy giggled at his antics, "Actually…" Twilight started to say as she tried to move the pack from her face.
"Don't tell me you're leaving me behind." he said nearly threateningly as he pressed his nose to hers, then stood straight up with his hands to his hips, "You always get to hog the fun parts for yourselves." He quickly heard a growl from behind him and turned to spy an angry-looking Tusks glaring at him, "Oh, heh. No offense."
"Discord." Everyone heard from outside, and there stood Riida, "I could actually use your help on a few projects if you would be so kind?"
"But…" he began to argue.
"Projects that could use your particular talents and insight." she said.
Discord couldn't win, and he knew it, so he snapped and slumped at the same time his pack disappeared, "Fine." he said in a small huff, and turned to the others, "But I expect lots of souvenirs when you all get back!"
"Of course, Discord." Fluttershy said, "We'll bring you back lots of fun souvenirs, and who knows, maybe Rainbow Dash will be holding a big first-place trophy."
Discord was satisfied with this answer and made his way off of the ship. He turned to wave as the door slowly closed before the ship lifted up from the ground, and took off with a trail of green light stretching behind it, "Ok, so what projects were you talking about?" the draconequus asked the light blue alicorn.
"You surprised me when you let me play in your little war scenario, not many can do that with all I have experienced, I was wondering if you had some other games to play. I'm very curious to see what you can actually do with your magic." she said.
Discord's face fell into surprise, then lifted into a starstruck smile, "You…really liked my game?" he asked in sheer joy. He received a large smile from the tall alicorn as his answer.
Even with the chairs holding them in place, the ponies could all feel the pressure during takeoff, each reacting differently as their luggage became secure under their chairs by the same light that secured them. Suddenly the pressure stopped, and when they all opened their eyes, each of them found the far wall become transparent, and again, they saw the vision of space. Then the front opened up, revealing not Tusks, but another of his kind, a female. She, like Tusks, had colored her hair like Rainbow Dash's. She was shorter than Tusks by quite a bit and had no signs of anything even beginning to poke out from her mouth. She also had a smoother face, shorter and smaller snout with a thinner build, and small shoulders. "Hi everyone!" she said, and Twilight gasped.
"WOW! Another pig-person! And a girl!" she said and nearly jumped from her chair, "What is your species name, do you snort like Tusks does, I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!"
The smaller girl leaned back, nervous as Twilight made her nearly fall over backward, "Sorry about her!" Spike said as he pulled his caretaker away from the frightened alien.
"Uh, hi." she began again and swallowed in fear as Twilight started to breathe heavily.
"Breathe, Twilight, you're scaring her…and me." the baby dragon said to calm her down.
"Sorry." the alicorn apologized, "She's just a new alien and I haven't been able to ask Tusks anything yet and it's DRIVING ME CRAZY"
"She's called a Treeopon, she's from the planet Bacromus and she's female. Females don't grow tusks of any size from their mouths, this lets them communicate without the snorts and they tend to grow up without an overabundance of total aggression." Twilight heard Blade tell her as he and Fluttershy approached from behind, "Just a small piece of advice, you still don't want one angry at you, they have a different way of getting revenge."
"What's yer name sugar cube?" Applejack asked as she walked up beside Rainbow Dash and Breeze.
"Uh, Pilit." the smaller Treeopon answered.
"Well, ah'm Applejack." she introduced, "This is Twilight Sparkle, Galaxy Blade, Cosmic Breeze, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Fluttershy and…" the white unicorn didn't seem to appear as she introduced her friends, so Applejack looked back at the mare's chair, and found it on top of several boxes of luggage.
"I think I may have brought too much luggage." Rarity said as she looked down and tried to find a way down.
"That's Rarity." she finished and went to help her friend down from the mountain of fancy boxes.
"Sorry about scaring you Pilit." Twilight said as she turned back to the Treeopon, "I just get so excited when I get to learn something new."
"We're all excited to be here." Fluttershy said as she kept by Blade.
"Especially me!" Rainbow Dash said as she lifted up into the air, "Tusks just recruited me as the pilot for this race."
Pilit's eyes suddenly shot open wide, "Wait, you're the one that beat him in speed on the Genesis Ark?" she asked and suddenly Rainbow could easily see the fangirl come out from such a shy persona, a very high pitched squeal escaping from her nose as she grinned like a fool, "Oh my gosh! Coach Tusks has told me so much about you and your NanoPack! I can't believe I'm in the presence of the galaxy's Fastest Racer!"
"Well, actually, Jetwing isn't here right now." Rainbow said with a bit of nervous confusion.
"That's fine if you left it back at home. We're not really allowed to race with tech we don't find on our planet's surface anyway." Pilit said, completely missing the downtrodden look on the pony's face.
"No, I mean..." Rainbow started to say and could feel the tears form as she began to remember the events of the war.
"Our NanoPacks separated from us a long time ago." Blade suddenly said, "They're now protectors of our planet, no form and never seen."
Rainbow looked at him in curiosity, "Oh, ok." Pilit said with confusion, but somehow understanding it was a touchy subject. "I got a lot of magazines to read if you want!"
"Did you say magazines?" Rarity asked in curiosity and was a little upset when Pilit brought forth some tech magazines, each of which seemed to be clean at least.
"Yeah, I'm learning all I can to be the best mechanic/racer ever! One day, I'll have my own race team to race in the Terranuil Race for myself, and we'll win. Just like you guys will!" she said in excitement.
"Now let's not get too far ahead of ourselves." Applejack said as Rarity took the top of the magazine pile and opened it up for some kind of semblance of fashion. "We haven't even got to the startin line yet, and in case y'all have fergot, we're ponies, I doubt yer racer's gonna be built fer us."
"Oh, I guess you're right." Pilit said as she let her confidence fall. Rarity walked to the back with the magazine, somewhat surprised, most of the ships in the pages she was flipping through at least looked presentable, a different kind of beauty she guessed. Even the parts she saw had some appeal, and there were a lot of articles that spoke of counterfeits or faults. She learned about this her own way.
"How long do we have to get there?" Blade asked in a serious tone.
"Coach Tusks says it'll take about a week in your time." Pilit said.
"I guess it's a good thing I brought my entire kitchen with me!" Breeze said as he moved to his luggage, a few large boxes that looked like coolers, and his scarf. Once he pulled out one of the boxes, everypony could see several different vegetables and three gallons of what looked like apple juice. "The other box has fruits in it." he smiled as he reached to grab a small cooking stove and a pan. Pinkie was able to move to be right next to him and pulled out a small oven and some baking supplies. The two smiled at the confusion the others showed.
Blade chuckled a bit, and turned to the small Treeopon, "So, what are the official rules of the race, we're going to need to be caught up so we don't constantly call foul." This caused Pilit to smile, a large proud smile.
