In AD 2101 war was beginning...
* * * *
A massive explosion rocked the star cruiser Canterlot Secundus, and its captain had to fling her hooves to the rests on the side of her command chair to keep from being thrown to the deck. “What happen?” captain Celestia asked.
“Somepony set up us the bomb!” replied a unicorn sensor operator, while her aquamarine hooves flew over the controls of her station.
“We get signal,” the earth pony at the communications station reported.
“What!” Celestia exclaimed, shocked at the rapid movement of events.
The unflappable brown pony who'd spoken up simply pressed a few controls. “Main screen turn on,” he replied, and then turned the bridge's main holoemitter on. The sinister form of a black alicorn soon resolved itself above the center of the bridge, hanging in mid air. Her mane and tail looked like animate pieces of the night sky as seen from a planet's surface, and they wrapped around her body like a cloak. The right side of her face was covered in cybernetic implants, including a triangular sensor on her forehead that replaced the eye on that side. She retained a pair of long fangs, though, which only added to her frightening visage.
Audible gasps filled the bridge, and Celestia could only shove an accusatory hoof towards her old nemesis. “It's you!”
Nightmare CATS grinned evilly. “How are you gentlemares!” she condescendingly asked. Then the grin devolved into a sneer, and her tone dripped with smug confidence. “All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.”
“What you say!” Celestia asked, dumbfounded.
“You have no chance to survive make your time,” Nightmare CATS replied, and then threw her head back and mockingly laughed as her image slowly faded out.
Silence purveyed on the bridge, and Celestia could only lean forward and cradle her head between her hooves as she contemplated the terrible implications of the conversation just past. Eventually, though, one of the ponies on the bridge couldn't take the silence anymore. “Captain!” the young stallion called out, desperate for any direction.
The pleading tone drilled through Celestia's momentary self-pity, and she snapped her head up. Fire raged in her eyes as she raised a foreleg and cast it forward to give weight to her next command. “Take off every 'Zig'!”
* * * *
Alarms sounded in the belly of the Canterlot Secundus, and six young mares were amongst the many who ran through the corridors to the fighter launch bays. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity arrived ahead of the rest, however, and quickly donned their flight suits. They spared barely a moment to wish each other well before they ran to their personal spacecraft and climbed into the cockpits. Each mare buckled herself in, even as the “ground” crew finished fueling and arming their Z-1G fighters, and then retreated from the launch bay once their job was complete.
Twilight sparkle looked down at her console as she turned the ship's computers on and set it to launch mode. Scarcely had she done this when the communications console lit up, and a tiny hologram of Celestia—merely a bust instead of a full body picture—appeared in front of her. A glance to the comm readout showed that it was a broadcast to all of the ponies in her squadron. The captain's eyes were grim but lively, and she gave a little toss of her head before she spoke. “You know what you doing,” she said, heatedly. “Move 'Zig' for Great Justice!”
Twilight beamed at that, but had no time to reply as the hologram died out, and the fighter was hurled into the void beyond the Secundus' hull. A quick glance to her console showed that her friends and wingponies were out with her, and she breathed a quick sigh of relief.
Said relief did not last long, however, as another explosion rocked the Equestrian star cruiser. Twilight watched it occur through a camera on her fighter's tail, and gasped when she saw that the launch bays had been ripped apart; no more fighters would be joining them.
Grimly, the unicorn turned her attention back to flying, and she set her squadron's course to head for the heart of the Everfree Asteroid Field, where Nightmare CATS had her nefarious fortress of doom.
* * * *
“Rainbow Dash!”
The addressed pony halted her story and froze in mid-air, save for her wings, which continued to flap. Rainbow slowly turned her head to the side to face the pony who had yelled at her. “Yeah, Twilight?” she asked, curiously, even as she lowered her hooves from the positions she had put them in to help tell her story.
Twilight Sparkle sighed as she sat on her haunches and brought a hoof up to rub one of the temples on her head. Why, oh why couldn't Fluttershy have come with me instead? she asked herself. “That is not the story of how we defeated Nightmare Moon, and you know it,” the alicorn flatly stated. Do not lose your temper in front of the foals.
“Aw, c'mon Twi,” Dash replied, as she dropped to the floor of the foals' ward and her hooves clacked on hospital linoleum. “I'm just spicing it up a bit with cool spaceships and stuff.”
Twilight shook her head. “We went into a wild forest full of monsters to face down dozens of terrifying obstacles and a maddened alter ego of princess Luna drunk on magical power; I don't think it needs any embellishment.”
“Aww,” came a soft but attention grabbing sound of disappointment, and Twilight turned her head to evenly regard the thirty or so injured or sick foals that were the reason she and Dash had made the trip to Canterlot. They all looked up at the relatively new princess with pleading eyes. “Can't we hear miss Dash's story?” the little colt who'd spoken up asked. He wasn't alone in his desire, and several other foals nodded their heads.
The alicorn of magic found herself suppressing a wince as she became the focus of so many pitiful, adorable faces. Not fair! Nopony said that a charity appearance would have a risk of cardiac arrest! After a moment, Twilight sighed again, and then nodded. “Alright, we'll listen to Dash's story some more,” she said. Her proclamation brought great cheers from her subjects, and Twilight couldn't help but smile widely as her heart felt like it was going to melt at seeing the happy faces of little foals.
“All right!” Rainbow exclaimed, and then jumped to do a little mid-air somersault before she landed again. “And hey, after I'm done we can still tell them the real story,” she added, magnanimously.
Twilight smiled again, this time one shared between friends. “Alright then,” she replied, and then brought up a hoof. “There's just one more thing, though,” she added.
“Huh?” Dash uttered, and then frowned as Twilight simply waved her over with the raised hoof. Curious, the athletic pony hopped into the air once again and then flittered over to where her friend remained seated.
A canary-eating grin spread along Twilight's muzzle as she leaned forward and whispered into Dash's ear. “Don't think I didn't recognize the game you're basing your story on,” she said, and then chuckled as her pegasus friend blushed. “Your progression to the geek side is going well, my young apprentice.”
Rainbow Dash's face was torn between mortification at her geekification and the giddy joy a fan feels when something they like is referenced. After a moment, she smirked and shook her head. “I'll never join you,” she countered, and then turned to flitter back to her audience with a chuckle.
Twilight echoed the chuckle, and then shifted a bit to better seat herself as she listened to Dash take up the story once more.
And then they had cake.
Author's Note
I have no idea. Honestly, I don't. I was just sitting around and suddenly the idea of doing AYB with ponies entered my head.
I'm pretty sure someone has done something like this before, either in art or story, but I couldn't help myself.
And if—God forbid—you are unaware of the AYB thing, go to this site.
Edit: If the last line doesn't make sense, it's because of a comment from Super_Big_Mac that amused me. Enjoy t3h l33t.
