Chapter 24: Ascension

The sound of overlapping voices slowly brought me out of the daze of sleep as I blinked the blurriness from my eyes. After informing Luna and Celestia of the finished repairs I had agreed to stay the night in a castle bedroom before leaving in the morning. Of course that was proving to be the wrong choice as I listened to the sound just outside my door, the sound of many many voices demanding questions.

'I guess I might as well get this over with... I don't want to cause a panic by just leaving with one of their Princesses without leaving some information' I thought as I grumbled and stood up, pulling on my clothes and walking to the door.

The room was simple, with a desk, chair, and a single bed atop a single colored rug. I grabbed the handle and opened the door slightly, peeking out and looking at the crowd of ponies trying to get past the two armored guards present in front of my door. I slowly opened the door and crossed my arms as they all looked up to me and stopped in an instant.

"This needs to stop. I will take ONE pony with me, to ask questions I CHOOSE to answer. Is that clear?" I asked getting them all to nod eagerly. "Alright... uhhh." I thought as I skimmed over all of the ponies present. "You! Come on in." I called out to a Unicorn mare off to the left of the group.

She made a little *Squee* sound as all the other ponies whispered some expletives.

"Alright, the rest of ya beat it!" I said pointing behind them, getting them all to start dispersing.

The pony I had chosen watched the rest of the reporters leave as she could barely contain her excitement.

"Uh... alright come in miss...?" I began as I made room for her to come in.

Said pony quickly made her way past me and jumped on my bed before getting comfortable. "Silver script!" She said with a smile. "Sorry I'm just excited is all! I never get in on big stories like this!"

Slowly nodding I walked over to the desk and pulled out the chair, setting it in front of her and pointing at it.

"My room, my bed." I said looking at her as she smiled sheepishly.

"Eh heh... of course..." She said quietly as she jumped down and got onto the chair as I sat on the edge of the bed.

"A few things I want to make certain first... one. Some things are classified and you are not allowed to know. Two. Some things I may just not want to answer, and if that's the case I I'll say no, and that's the end of it. Understand?" I said seeing her nod as she pulled out a quill and notebook. "Alright... begin."

"Where did you come from and what are you?" She asked curiously.

'I guess some of this should be okay to talk about'

"Well I'm a human, spelled H U M A N, and I'm... well to be quite frank I'm an alien." I said as she furiously scribbled down notes.

"Aaaalright um... what's that thing you came in on? Some kind of carriage powered by magic?" She asked motioning to the door.

"Nope... it's my ship, which is capable of space and FTL flight, also known as faster-than-light. It's how I got here. And where I come from magic basically doesn't exist to us so no, it's all tech."

For a few moments she just stared at me with the 'Are you fucking kidding me?' look before blinking and writing more stuff down.

"Um... herbivore or carnivore?" She asked somewhat shyly.

"Both, Humans are Omnivorous." I said getting her to shiver before writing some things down.

'Hey... I thought horses were omnivores...? Eh they are alien so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt'

Looking up to me with a slightly excited smirk, she asked the next question, which completely caught me off guard.

"Do you find yourself attracted to any of the Princesses? Luna in particular?" She asked.

I did a double take as I let that sink in. "...sorry what?"

"Do you have any feelings for Luna?" She asked as I shook my head.

"What! No! I mean... she's not ugly! She's actually gorgeous... I mean... she's... GAH!" I said stumbling over my words as I saw her scratching things down on her notepad. "Alright... yes she's beautiful... and yes I like her... but not like THAT." I said getting her to look up from her notebook.

'I should have just said no opinion...'

"I find that hard to believe..." She asked raising an eyebrow. "What with all the pictures and gossip of Luna's 'Beloved unknown biped' I just thought... you know..."

Shaking my head and placing my fingers on the bridge of my nose, I sighed. "Listen... that stuff was an accident. Just trust me on that... plus I wouldn't even think something like that would be legal for me to do..." I said getting her to give me a confused look. "Humans have this... law where were are not allowed to perform those... acts... to ani-" I quickly stopped myself.

'Oh god I almost said animal...'

"What was that?" She asked curiously.

"N-Nothing don't worry about it... just Luna isn't my cup of tea alright?" I said getting her to shrug.

"Alright... if you say so." She said in a sing song voice as she stood up. "Well that's pretty much all I wanted to know... I'll be on my way now. This has been enlightening. Especially now that we have solidified proof you like the Princesses in some way." She said waving her notebook in the air before running out of the room.

"... I walked into that one anyway. Hey who knows, while I'm gone with Luna maybe they think we'll get married and start a Lunar empire in the stars or something crazy like that..." I said aloud chuckling to myself.

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I walked down the hall leading to the landing strip of Canterlot as Luna trotted next to me. The air was thick and I could tell she was nervous about the upcoming trip so I stepped closer to her and put my hand on her back, making her jump a bit.

"Hey... calm down. It's gonna be alright... trust me. When we get up there you won't ever want to leave." I said as she looked at me with a questioning gaze.

"What makes you say that?" She asked as I chuckled and looked up into the sky as we exited the castle.

"Imagine the endless expanse of space and the millions of stars filling it. Now imagine how many of those have planets near them with other life on it? Don't you want to explore? I know I did... it's kind of been mankind's 'insatiable hunger' to traverse the stars." I said with a smile as she slowly relaxed and looked up into the sky. "There's also the fact that the stars are so calming. You really lose yourself out there... which is why I love the night so much..." I said quietly as I continued to stare off into the distance before shaking my head and looking forward, lifting my hand from her back. "Ahem... anyway. Are you sure your sister can handle explaining to the populace your sudden disappearance?" I asked looking to her as we neared my ship.

Nodding she gave me a quick glance. "Yes, she's told me that we should leave as soon as possible. We've delayed too much already. Also... there's something you should know but we'll talk about it when we get on board." She said as she trotted ahead of me and into the opening doors.

I hopped inside as the doors shut behind me and made my way to the cockpit. "Alright Lucy I'll be in there in a minute. Bring the ship out of the atmosphere and prep for FTL travel." I said getting an 'Affirmative' from Lucy as I turned to Luna. "Alright, what did you want to tell me about?" I asked as I could feel the ship take off.

Luna looked at me sheepishly and smiled. "Well... me and my sister have always been... linked." She said getting me to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Meaning...?" I asked urging her to continue.

"Well... it would be too difficult to explain to those with no knowledge of magic so... think of it as we can share thoughts with each other. But Usually it's a bit taxing from very large distances... but we're telling you this in case things... don't go well." She said shivering a bit.

Nodding slowly I agreed. "Yeah... just in case... but don't worry we'll be fine." I said with confidence as I walked to the cockpit with Luna close behind. "So Lucy, are we ready to go?"

"Yes sir, we just left the atmosphere now and the FTL drive is charged and ready for take off." She said as I sat in my chair, with Luna sitting next to me.

Nodding I gave a small smirk. "Alright... you know our destination so I don't need to say the coordinates. Luna... get ready for a view that's..." I began as I paused. "... out of this world..." I said smiling as she lightly smacked me on the shoulder while giggling.

The engines whirred up as the FTL drive kicked into action, and we were off in the blink of an eye. I looked up at the digital map showing a lot of uncharted territory between us and known space, along with what the current arrival time was.

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I glanced over to Luna as she slowly stood up with wide eyes and watched as stars streaked past us. She walked up to the cockpits window and lay her hoof on it, slowly turning to me. "You see this... every day?" She asked with amazement in her voice to which I nodded while smiling, causing her to stare back out at the shimmering expanse of space. "It's... beautiful."

I thought back to the discovery of the Verix, caused by humanity's own curiosity of exploring the stars.

"Yeah..." I whispered to myself. "Yeah it is..."

Author's Note

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