Chapter 45 – In the Middle of Nowhere

"Where the hay are we?" Rainbow asked, the two ponies panting from the exhaustion. The area ad changed in just a few miles, from curved rocky cliffs and a dirt track to a desolate wasteland filled with rubble and ruins. The remains of what was a once-great civilization, now reduced to a few broken stone walls and a tall tower in the middle that looked about ready to fall over. She quickly looked down at the console, the screen clear of any other connections, so with a quick tap of her hoof, brought up a screen of her friends back at the garage.

"Where are you?" was the first thing she heard, a question from the slightly angry Galaxy Blade.

"Don't know, but you can find us, right?" she asked as she tried desperately to stay awake.

"Just a second." he said, and Pilit came on screen.

"I got your position, looks like you're almost twenty miles from the track. I don't think anyone's been out there for Cycles." the Treeopon exclaimed.

"Bring Twilight." Rainbow said as her eyes started to close by themselves, "She's gonna…wanna…see…" and with that, she slipped into unconsciousness.

It wasn't long until they found them, Breeze, even through his exhaustion, had been keeping the two of them shaded. The sun had reached its peak and then some as he waited for them to show up and he had wanted to keep Rainbow Dash from getting heatstroke. The Rainbow Trail had been placed on the ground and he had placed Rainbow Dash underneath the machine, her jacket spread out to keep her from having to lay down in the dirt and his scarf bundled up for a pillow. "Finally." he said as he watched them approach. From what he could see, they were now piloting the ship that they had used to arrive on this planet. He lifted himself from the ground, and unsteadily wobbled over to wave them down, 'Ulg, my forelegs are still so tired.' he thought to himself.

"Sorry, it took us so long." Writch said as she exited the ship, Fluttershy and Hulon coming out right behind her, "Blade and I had to make sure the new engine in this thing was running to specs, otherwise it might have exploded on the way over here."

"I'm just glad you made it at all!" he said as Hulon looked him over for injuries, "It's more in my forelegs." he told her, "I'm exhausted." The Hylop nodded and began massaging his forelegs to see if there was anything that may have been hurt from the stress.

Suddenly the purple alicorn appeared in a flash of light, the smaller Treeopon at her side and with a gasp of excitement said, "The ruins, of an ancient Treeopon civilization!" she said, and Breeze could easily see the excitement in both of their eyes.

"I CALL DIBS ON TOWER INVESTIGATION!" Pilit announced as she lifted her hand and then ran off at her personal top speed.

"WHAT?" Twilight asked in surprise, "No fair, I was gonna call dibs!" she called back as she chased the excited little Treeopon.

Back at the garage, Rainbow Dash snored softly, her breath easily moving in and out as she dreamt. It had been a long time now, and she still slept, until her stomach growled loudly, just like last time. Her eyes shot open, and up she rose with lightning speed, but this time, she could smell the food. "Huh?" she asked and looked around. There were all sorts of food around her, a large table set up for it, and just waited for her. She didn't think, she just grabbed the food and started eating. It took some time, but she was able to finish the food on the table, though she was still hungry. She ventured out of her room, trying to find the kitchen. She walked into the garage, and spotted Blade, grumbling to himself as he worked, removing the second of the two wings. She tried to sneak past him, not wishing to be scolded for her decision.

"There is a special place in Tartarus for you!" she heard him say. She stopped as he spoke, and turned to him. He glared right at her, "What was one of the things I told you NOT to do at that speed?"

"Uh…" she tried to think, "Turn?" she said, hoping that she had picked the correct answer.

He nodded, "So what…in Celestia's name…made you think that stopping would have been any different?" he asked, his voice getting angrier and louder, "You damaged every joint in both wings and warped the connecting arms. You were lucky that both wings didn't just fly off!"

"I had to do something!" she countered, "If we'd have gone much further who knows where we would have ended up?"

"One of these days Rainbow Dash, that luck of yours is going to crash and burn, and I hope you have the common sense to not be there when it does!" the pegasus said as his anger faded. The blue pegasus looked to him, and then down in thought, though the thinking didn't last long as she smelled the cooking from the kitchen, and followed it. He shook his head as she exited the room, "So what do we do?" he asked the air. Writch came out from behind the cockpit.

"You sure you wanna leave her with those words?" the large Treeopon asked.

"I'll talk to her later, right now we gotta figure out how to keep this from happening again, I've got a feeling she'll be using that speed boost more often now." he said.

"Yeah, considering we could only find one type of fuel that could actually be used with…whatever that stuff is." Writch said in response.

"I hope Pinkie and Piks can find a vendor for the booster fuel, it's not like that stuff just magically appears, and too bad it's found off-world." the pegasus said to himself.

Rainbow Dash was definitely expecting somepony, this was the kitchen after all. Either Pinkie Pie or Breeze, maybe even Applejack to be cooking whatever smelled delicious in there. What she didn't expect was a Hylop, and not their own. There he stood, a large brown male Hylop with a white lab coat slung over his shoulder. At the moment he wore a thin form-fitting blue t-shirt with long loos tan jeans and an apron that was clearly one of Pinkie's designs. he hummed to himself as he watched whatever was in the frying pan closely. "Umm…" she began, startling the Hylop out of his vigilant watch.

"Oh, hello!" he said in greeting and was answered not by Rainbow Dash, but by the sizzling of the dish, and he turned, before panicking a bit, "Oh dear Egas!" he breathed and quickly pulled up a spatula that Rainbow had somehow failed to notice in his other claw. With ease and obvious practice, he scooped up the dish and turned down the heat before placing back what looked to the pony like a flat piece of bread with cheese and grey broccoli on it back onto the pan, though the bread had the consistency of a fluffy egg.

"Who…" she began asking and turned when she heard another voice.

"Dad!" she heard Hulon say and the little Hylop rushed right by the blue pegasus to embrace the much larger cat-man in a giant hug. "When did you get here?" she asked as she finished trying to crush her father in her embrace.

He laughed heartily, and turned to the confusion on Rainbow Dash, "I'll explain later, right now why don't you introduce us?" he said, getting his daughter to turn to the cyan pony.

With a small embarrassed chuckle, she turned to her friend, "Rainbow Dash, this is my father, Healer Kalin, and one of the greatest healers on Bacromus. Dad, this is Rainbow Dash. Our slightly reckless but always reliable pilot."

Rainbow Dash was about to interject but stayed calm this time as she listened to every word the Hylop had said, and just shrugged her shoulders to the phrasing. "You forgot to add 'Awesome!' to that list." she announced as she reached out with her wing so that they may shake in greeting. This action took Kalin by surprise, though he shook her wing never the less.

"I had no idea you ponies were so dexterous with your wings, normally a wing can't bend like that." he said as he examined the appendage before releasing it back to her. He then turned right as the pan began sizzling again, and quickly pulled the concoction from it to place on a plate.

Hulon gasped in surprise, "Tukrik!" she said, right before he handed the plat to her, "It's been so long!" she exclaimed and grabbed a fork before digging in.

"I figured no one knew my secret recipe!" he said out loud.

"DID I HEAR SECRET RECIPE?" they heard Breeze asked from out in the garage, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

Both Twilight and Pilit grinned wildly as they carefully traversed through the old ruins, each of them taking notes or snapping pictures with their pad. "I can't believe we've discovered history." Pilit announced, "There's so much to learn, like what kind of civilization was it? Where did they go to work and how did they work? What kind of pets did they have? Did they even take care of pets?"

"I know right?" Twilight asked in the same excitement, and hopped from hoof to hoof in excitement while she squeed in delight, "I can't wait to analyze this back at the garage! How old is this plate?" she asked as she picked up a small dinner plate made from mud and clay in her magic, "What was this used for?" she asked again as she picked up a scrap of material that was probably no bigger than the top section of her horn. Again, she bounced in place, "Ooh so many questions and so many discoveries!"

Pilit chuckled in excitement as the two of them explored some more, and finally reached the top of the tower. It looked as if the entire place had been charred by fire, the inner walls black as the night sky with no stars or moon, except for one piece somewhere near the middle, a rather tall spear that stood stuck in the stone. In fact, it was just a small bit taller than Pilit. The most interesting part about it was that it seemed to be made of some kind of crystal-like substance, that had the most brilliant of light shining from it, and yet the light itself never seemed to escape its confines.