Chapter 7 – We've Arrived

"So…wait." Applejack said as she scratched her head under her hat, "The Defra…"

"De-Fara-Burah Tow Line." Blade aided in her tech speak.

"Yeah, is a laser that grabs onto and pulls anything like a rope?" she asked.

"Yes." he said, in a kind of huff that spoke of his frustrations.

"The De-Fara-Burah is only one of many tractor-like beams that were made for deep space salvagers." Twilight repeated. "Its predecessors include the Force Line Prototype and the B series Light Beam Tow Field."

Applejack let Twilight speak as she tried desperately to wrap her brain around it, "Well, I just don't git it." she said, and Blade nearly slammed his hoof into his face, "Y'all can't blame me, I grew up on a farm. I ain't into this tech stuff. But if it grows, I'm yer gall."

"Do you at least remember what relevance this conversation has?" Blade asked.

"Uh, any kinda tow beam or tractor laser is illegal in the race?" she asked, only partly sure of her answer.

Blade sighed in relief, "Close enough. That is correct." he said.

"Somethin tells me I ain't gonna be sayin much of anything durrin this race." she admitted, "I'll leave the rule callin to you."

"Well, at least we were able to get through most of them." Breeze said to his brother.

"Yeah, and there were a lot more than I thought there were." the grey pegasus said in response.

"How young are you again?" Twilight asked as she turned to the young Treeopon.

"I'm only seven cycles old, but I've had these rules memorized since I was only half a cycle." she admitted.

"How?" Blade asked quickly, "Treeopon's learn by experience, by doing things. There's no way you'd be able to even race until you were at least ten full cycles old."

Pilit shied away a bit at this, "Please don't hate me." she quickly said as she shrank into her own collar.

"Why would we hate you?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Everyone else does when they find out." the little Treeopon groaned softly.

"Is it the books?" Twilight guessed.

"Can't be, Treeopon don't learn very well by reading." Blade said, "It's not a part of their mental biology."

"Well, {snort} it is for her!" Tusks said as he entered the room. He had come in and out for meals every day of their trip, at least three times a day.

"Coach Tusks!" Pilit said as she shot up from her sating position, "Is it my turn to pilot the ship?"

"Nope, I finally figured out the autopilot {snort}." he said proudly, "We should be arriving at Bacromus in about an hour, {snort} plenty of time for lunch." This mention of a meal instantly put a smile on both Breeze and Pinkie, and they both brought out their cooking equipment and started discussing what to cook.

"Wait, so she can learn from books?" Blade asked to get back on track.

"Yeah, she's one of the rarest members of the Treeopon race, {snort} she has an Eidetic Memory."

"Really?" Twilight asked.

"Yah {snort}. It's usually looked down upon to {snort} have a memory like that." the larger Treeopon said, and the purple alicorn nearly choked as she gasped, almost forgetting to breathe, "You have to understand where our race stands, {snort} we value experience over everything else. An Eidetic Memory is thought to rob a Treeopon of that potential experience {snort}. But after all the time I spent on the {snort} Genesis Ark, I realized that that isn't the case {snort}. So, when I found her wandering the desert {snort} starved and dehydrated, I decided we would show {snort} our world, just how wrong they were."

"Oh, you poor dahling." Rarity said to the smaller Treeopon.

"Who would do that, leave a little girl to just wander the desert, and fend for herself?" Fluttershy asked as Breeze and Pinkie finally set down a bowl of soup made from vegies and what looked like cheese broth.

"A lot more than you know." Tusks said with a bit of depression in his voice, "Only one in {snort} a thousand or more are born with this special memory, {snort} and each time, they are abandoned. I wasn't going to let {snort} a special talent like that disappear again."

"I'm so sorry." Twilight said as she became somber.

"It's alright." Pilit said softly, and then lifted a hand to Tusks' shoulder, "If I hadn't been abandoned, then I wouldn't have met such a great coach, he's taught me a lot since he found me."

Tusks laughed a bit, "Did you know she built an entire N406 Burner Engine from the base parts when she was only just starting to learn?"

"Is that hard?" Applejack asked genuinely curious.

"It has 20,067 parts not counting the fastening bolts and some of the smallest were about the size of an apple core. If you get even one part out of place even by a few millimeters, it won't work." Pilit explained with a smile on her face.

"Did it or did it not have booster fuel injectors?" Rarity asked. Everyone turned to her with a questioning look, "What, it was all the rage in one of the later magazines." she said, "Looks horrid but it was supposed to improve performance."

"Well, yeah, but the fuel used would cause the engine to overheat to the point of nearly melting, the parts of that engine would have snapped in two after a few laps." Pilit said, "I opted for the A-cryic Pistons instead."

Rarity smiled with the approval of Blade, "Much better, not only will it perform better, but it'll look marvelous with a new case." the white unicorn admitted.

"You learned all of that just by reading magazines?" Twilight asked, "You have to give me those!"

Rarity smiled and used her magic to levitate one of the magazines towards her friend and watched Twilight's face stretch into such a big grin she was sure it would have snapped if she smiled any larger.

Tusks was brought out of his reverie when a single noise sounded, a low humming beep noise, "Oh, that sounds like we're here {snort}." he said and the two Treeopon's rose to their hooves to make their way to the front cabin. The pony's themselves lifted from the ground and made their way back to their chairs, Rarity's now more accessible thanks to Blade storing her luggage in a different place on the ship, a single bag resting on the floor under her seat. Suddenly, the ship lurched, the temperature rising ever so lowly as the outside of the ship lit up in a blaze while reentering the planet, and then steadied out as the ship itself began to correct its angle, and the window cleared of fire. And below them, the ponies could clearly see a planet like their own, not so vibrant in color but green with lots of plants and what looked like wildlife down below.

"Whoa." Rainbow Dash exhaled as she and the others finally were able to glance outside at the brilliance. As soon as they entered into a cloud, it was like they were transported to a different world, fishlike creatures swam on sail-like fins they flapped every once in a while, as they stayed aloft. Some being chased by other creatures that looked like puppies with fin-like wings instead of feathered or leather.

"So cute!" Fluttershy said as she watched some of the animals in the sky. She watched one of the flying puppies catch a fish, and then let it go as if playing with it.

"Must be playing instead of hunting." Blade said, "I'm glad, that means the atmosphere is stable again."

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Did they used to hunt each other?"

"Kind of." Breeze said in response, "Last time I was here, the atmosphere was still messed up and they would try to knock each other out of the clouds so they could eat the particles without having to share."

"How horrible." Fluttershy admitted as she turned back to the window.

"Yeah." Blade sighed as he reached one of his front legs around her neck and leaned in to hug her.

Just as suddenly as they had entered into the clouds, the clouds parted to make way for a large city, silver and white all coming together to shine in the light of the sun. It was large by comparison, larger even than anything Manehatten would have offered. The largest city in Equestria dwarfed by comparison. "It's huge!" Rainbow suddenly said as she pressed her hooves to the window.

"It's magnificent!" Rarity followed up.

"It's a bit frightening." Fluttershy added in only to have Blade squeeze her shoulders gently with his embrace.

"I'll be right next to you the whole time." he told her and winked with the biggest natural smile he could make.

"I SEE A BAKERY!" Pinkie suddenly shouted as she placed her face against the transparent wall. The bakery in question was rather large and seemed to be bustling with customers. A large face of a Treeopon with a long white mustache and beard to match was posted on the front, but the letters were unrecognizable to her.

"And a museum." Twilight pointed out. Rainbow would have scoffed and ignored it if it hadn't had a huge racing ship on top of it, one that had a fake green contrail jetting from the engine.

"This... is going...to be... awesome!" the rainbow pegasus whispered to herself.

"We're should get ready for landing." Breeze said, and then the wall went dark, changing back from clear to the white wall it was before. The ponies all gathered into their chairs once again, and soon after, felt a jar in the ship and heard a thud as they touched down.

The wall on the far side opened, "Welcome to Bacromus ponies!" Tusks said from over the intercom.