Ponystar Equestria: The Last ponystar

Chapter 9
Adrift in the Stars

The Element shuddered as she re-appeared at her destination, and Moonlight breathed a sigh of relief. She trotted to the Co-Pilot’s position and looked at his scanner read-out.

“Are we safe? Did everypony make it?” she asked, looking around the bridge of the ship. The crew were ashen-faced, clearly terrified, and who could blame them? They were civilian pilots who had only seconds before been surrounded by hostile Cyponian baseships capable of destroying a planet.

Not any more, she thought as she looked out of the windows, windows that were in themselves demonstration that this ship was simply not intended for combat; now they were in a peaceful area of space, the rest of the refugee fleet assembled around them, awaiting further orders. Hopefully the jump would give them some breathing-space, time to take stock of the situation they found themselves in.

“We can’t stay here,” Cheerilynn said briskly, “Those same Cyponian ships are going to be looking for us; we need to plot a course out of this star system at once.”

“Run away?” the ship’s captain asked, taken by surprise by the politician’s words.

“Yes, run,” she nodded firmly. “Captain, the idea offends me as much as it offends you, but there’s nothing else we can do. The Colonies are gone; any attempt to return would be suicide. We’ve lost.” She turned to Moonlight. “Major, we’ve lost the war; now we have a new battle on our hands, a battle to survive. Contact the rest of the fleet and tell them that we’ll be moving on. In the meantime we need to take an inventory of all the ships so that we know what we have. I want everything listed, food, water, clothing, blankets, everything. We’re in this for the long haul now; there can be no going back to the Colonies.”

“Yes, sir!” Moonlight saluted.

“One other thing,” Cheerilynn went on. “The Cyponians would never have attacked the Colonies if they hadn’t also attacked the Ponystar Fleet, and probably destroyed it. We therefore have to assume that the fleet is destroyed, and the Council of the Twelve with it. That leaves me the most senior surviving member of the government. Do we have a priest on board?”

A priest, Moonlight thought, to swear in the new president. Cheerilynn was serious, no going back, and that meant a government in this enforced exile in space, over this fleet of stranded ships without a home.

“I’m sure we do, sir; in fact I think we have more than one.”

“Well then, ask the first one you find; no favouritism, Major, you’re the military commander now, and as far as we know the most senior officer to survive, that puts you in charge of the military.”

Moonlight gulped at the thought; the idea that she was now head of what little remained of the Colonial military was daunting, even if it meant only five obsolete destroyers and a heterogeneous assortment of officers and ponies.

“I… I’ll go and find a priest, sir,” she said, hoping that getting away from the bridge for a while would calm her nerves a little.

“Thank you, Moonlight,” the mauve earth-pony smiled reassuringly. “And another thing, we also need a priest to perform the last rites for the dead; for those brave soldiers who allowed us to escape this far.”

Moonlight nodded, and then she trotted from the bridge, thinking about what had happened. With no more ships likely to join them and the fleet safe for now, she was finally able just to reflect on the tragedy that had just overtaken all of Ponykind. She knew that she ought to feel grief over the loss of the Colonies, over the billions who had perished; but she only felt numb, the loss was too great for her to comprehend.

As she entered the first class passenger compartment of the starliner again she heard sobbing all around her; everypony had lost somepony, she realised, and they were letting their grief out now. Stewardesses were doing what they could, and those ponies who were in medical and caring professions were doing their best to assist them, along with a couple of priests. Moonlight felt awkward, unsure of what to do. She was supposed to be a dispassionate scientist, and really she had trouble relating to other ponies. Empathy just was not her strong point.

“Major!” a distraught grey earth-pony cried as he saw the uniform. “My wife and children are on Aerila! Can you put a call in there? Can you find them?”

For a minute Moonlight thought of lying just to comfort him, but then she dismissed the thought; she was a scientist, and besides, any lies would be foolish; the passengers, the people, deserved to know the truth. She shook her head sadly, eyes cast down at the floor.

“I’m sorry, I can’t; nopony can contact the Colonies. Military and civilian channels are out; the only signals coming from the Colonies are Cyponian. I’ll be making an announcement to the entire ship in a few minutes. But… in all likelihood your wife and children are dead; everypony on the Colonies is dead.”

The pony crumpled, overcome by grief as he thought of his lost family.

Moonlight moved on, wishing she could do something to help those ponies whose hearts were breaking, comfort those whose families had been lost, those who had lost fathers, mothers, children, spouses. None of it was in her power; she didn’t even know what to say to them. All she knew was that everypony was traumatised, and there would have to be an awful lot of counselling done in the months and years to come.

“Excuse me?” she spoke to a brown unicorn stallion in a black cassock with military insignia and priest’s collar. “Are you a priest?”

“No, Major, I’m a con-artist disguised as one who is cleverly milking his attire to take advantage of the bereaved so I can buy some ocean-front property on Aquaria. Of course I’m a priest!” he smiled. “Father Macarius. What ails you, my daughter?”

“It… it’s complicated…” she began.

He laughed; a twinkle in his eyes.

“Major, from what I saw I venture that the Colonies have been attacked by the Cyponians, who are now out hunting Colonial ships. So either you and the bridge crew want to confess your sins and be reconciled to the gods, or you’ve got the new President of the Colonies in there needing to be sworn in. So give me a minute to get my stole and surplice and my books, and I’ll be ready. But make it quick; these ponies need my help; I need to pray with them and guide them. And then I think we need to commit the souls of those brave soldiers into the hands of the Lords of Olympia.”

“Father, I’m a scientist…” she began her standard ‘I’m not religious’ speech, only to be cut off by the priest.

“And I have a PhD. in organic chemistry; my skills are a bit rusty after all these years as a priest, but you know, I did some teaching in a Temple school for a while, before I was sent out as a military chaplain. No offence taken, of course, but I would like you to remember that science and faith are not enemies. As a wise old pony once said, I believe in order that I may understand.”

Moonlight knew she had said the wrong thing; that was one of her problems, she thought, she said the wrong thing so often, jumped in with all four hooves and caused chaos. She just didn’t know what to say when she met a new pony, and the result was that she said the wrong thing.

“I’m sorry, Father,” she apologised.

“And so you should be! So should I, of course, jumping in so rudely like that; I’m sorry too, Major. It’s the end of the world, we’re all rather on edge. I lost my wife years ago, but I had a son on the Triton. I know that he’s dead, don’t ask me how, I just know. He was a brave lad, an engineer who loved his job. And you know about engineers.”

Moonlight nodded; she knew what he meant, when a ship was destroyed the engineers were doomed; they were in one of the most vulnerable places, far away from the escape pods.

“I’m sorry, Father.”

“So am I, my dear, so am I. But the gods gave, the gods have taken away; blessed be the gods. Now, I think you have an announcement to make.”

Moonlight trotted away, leaving Father Macarius to gather his things. She made her way to the nearest station where she could make announcements, where a stewardess was standing, looking out over the first class compartment.

“And it’s much worse in standard,” the stewardess sighed. “Everypony wants to know what’s happening, and I have about as much idea as they do. Major, what is happening?”

“I’m about to… that is, I need to make an announcement about that. Can you put me on ship-wide?” she asked.

“Why, yes,” the elegant cream unicorn replied. “Certainly, Major.”

“Then put me on,” Moonlight swallowed hard, dreading the task of telling the passengers the full horror of what had happened.

The stewardess activated the intercom and Moonlight coughed nervously; she had hoped that the burden of command would get easier, but it wasn’t getting any lighter at all.

“Uh… everypony, please listen to me… this is Major Moonlight of the Colonial Military, in overall command of this refugee fleet. It’s been kind of hectic, and we haven’t kept you informed, and I’m sorry for that. I need to correct that now.

“You all know that a few hours ago our Colonies, our home-worlds, were attacked by a massive Cyponian force. What reports we received before all communications from the Colonies ceased indicate thermonuclear bombardment from orbit. I’m sorry, but in all likelihood everypony on the colonies has either already perished or will perish in Cyponian mopping-up operations. The Colonies have been destroyed, and we are probably the last survivors of our kind. We are an endangered species, and our own creations, the Cyponians, want us dead. You know we just jumped away from a Cyponian attack, and I won’t lie to you, they’re hunting us; our only hope is to keep running.

“As far as we know, the Ponystar fleet has been destroyed along with the rest of the Colonial military; we have a few Destroyers to defend us, and that’s not enough to face the Cyponians. That’s why we’re going to have to run, we can’t fight back.

“We’ve all lost somepony; friends, family, colleagues who were back on the Colonies. Please, share your tears, share with one another,” tears welled in her own eyes as she spoke. “Oh… excuse me, I’ll say more later.”

She shut off the intercom and then finally the calm scientist broke down and wept for all the billions of ponies who had died on the Colonies, and she wept for herself and all those left behind who were lost in the great emptiness of the universe.

The hulk of the Titan hung lifeless in space now, stores and equipment transferred to the Equestria; the last of the ships had left the dead Ponystar, and the last Ponystar, Equestria, was ready to jump away on her mission of mercy.

“Pilots!” Colonel Pie paced the platform of the briefing room. “This is your first mission as the Equestria’s new fighter wing. You haven’t trained as a team, but by the gods you’re gonna fly as a team, or I will personally see to it that your sorry plots are thrown out of the nearest airlock, do you understand?

“Some of you are from other ships, and I don’t know how things worked there; what’s more, I don’t give a buck! This is the Equestria, I am Colonel Pie, and however you did things before, now you do things my way! I’m not your mother, I’m not your nursemaid, I’m not even your bucking friend, I’m your XO! So let’s get some things out of the way, shall we? Before you say or think it, yes, I am a bitch; I’m the bitch who’ll push you to fly better, to fight harder, than you ever have before. This isn’t just a bucking war, it’s bucking Armageddon, do you understand? Those mother-bucking Cyponians have nuked our homeworlds, they’ve killed our families, and they want us all dead, understand? You see a Cyponian, you kill the mother-bucker on sight! Kill him before he kills you!

“Out there are a couple of hundred civilian ships; as far as we know they carry the last survivors of the Colonies; the Commander says it’s our mission to protect them at all costs, do you understand me? At all costs. That means your lives, my life, as long as the civilians survive, we are doing our jobs! We’re all expendable, they’re not. I’ll be here, covering your plots with the Equestria’s big guns, you’ll be out there, fighting if you need to. Any bucking questions?”

Star Flash smiled to Flutter as she sat watching the Colonel.

“Gotta love her; the Colonies have been blown to buck, and she’s still our Colonel Pie.”

“Lieutenant Star Flash, do you have a question?” Pie yelled across the room.

“No, sir!” she flashed a smile at the irascible Colonel.

“Then shut your bucking cake hole!” the Colonel roared back. “Okay, Captain Atepomonus, they’re all yours!”

The alicorn captain took the platform, feeling understandably nervous.

“We don’t have much time for introduction, but I’m Captain Atepomonus, CAG of Equestria. I’ll be leading you from now on. I wish I could promise you anything more than survival, but all I can say is, I’ve got your back; all I ask for in return is that you follow orders and fly like Colonials. This is a rescue mission of sorts, to meet up with the civilian fleet and to take charge of them. Then it’s up to the Commander. You have all been assigned your wingponies; remember, watch out for one another, we’ve lost too many good ponies already. Colonel?”

“And some pretty lousy ponies too,” the pink mare muttered. “Okay, you sorry excuse for Pegasi, that’s all, the party’s over! Get down to your fighters, and I’ll get up to CIC and we’ll see what the Hades we can do to salvage something from this sorry mess!”

The meeting broke up; Atepomonus, with his greater stature, caught up with Star Flash and Flutter as they left the room.

“Hey, nice speech, sir,” Star Flash joked. “So, I’m your wingpony, huh? Personal choice mean anything there?”

“Only that I want somepony I know watching my back,” he replied. “Colonel Pie may be abrasive, but she’s right, the Cyponians want us all dead, and they won’t rest until they’ve destroyed everypony in the universe. Those civilians are the last hope for our people, we have to save them.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Star Flash began, to Atepomonus’ amusement.

“Really? Maybe the Colonel’s speech did have some effect on you after all!”

“Very funny. No, I mean; me and Flutter, we’re orphans; your whole family was pretty much on this ship. The ponies we’ve lost are our friends and colleagues, and we lost them all in battle. What about those ponies who lost family and friends on the Colonies? It’s got to suck knowing you signed on to protect them and it pretty much all went wrong.”

“Star Flash,” the captain laughed. “Don’t share that opinion too freely, it’s liable to get you busked in the head, and I need you intact right now. Okay, all pilots to launch bays!”

“Yes, sir!” Star Flash saluted. She was ready for action; more than ready, she was spoiling for a fight, along with the rest of the pilots.

The Imperious Leader’s baseship hung in space over the burning planet of Caprica, three more baseships orbited beside it, missile tubes still pointed towards the ravaged surface, raider squadrons flying mopping-up sorties to the planet below.

Zoe sat on her throne in the midst of her chamber; the throne-rooms displays were set to show space outside the ship. She looked down at the burning planet and smiled; it pleased her to watch Caprica burn.

Fire cleansed, and the accursed planet was being purged by flame; the corruption was being destroyed. She recalled her sufferings, all the things that had been done to her there, and she was glad that the planet burned; it was only just and righteous.

The crystal doors of the chamber slid open, admitting the familiar form of the U-L series called Lucifer. He bowed low before her throne.

“Speak, Lucifer,” she ordered.

“By your Command, Imperious Leader,” he answered in his slightly camp voice. “We have received word from one of our baseships that they have encountered a fleet of Colonial ships.”

“Military or civilian?” Zoe asked, worried by the news. Could it be that there was a military fleet that she was unaware of? Might there in fact be a Colonial counter-attack out there, massing somewhere in space?

“It is civilian, Imperious Leader; they seem to be surviving convoy vessels that were in transit when we attacked. There were destroyers who covered the retreat of the civilian ships; they destroyed one of our baseships but were themselves destroyed. The destroyers were of the rather primitive type that the Colonials used to protect their convoys.”

The explanation brought a smile to Zoe’s face. So, it was just the action of desperate survivors. Still, there was one matter that concerned her.

“And the fleet escaped?” her eyes narrowed; still more ponies who had escaped, as if the Ponystar Equestria was not enough. She wanted to eliminate them all, how dare they escape her forces!

“I regret to say that they did, Imperious Leader,” he apologised. “They are however to all intents and purposes without military defence and will be quite helpless once our baseships locate them again.”

“Ensure that they are located. Inform all baseships that they are to search for this fleet as well as the Ponystar Equestria. There must be no survivors, do you understand?”

“By your command,” he bowed low and left the chamber, passing a Centurion on his way out.

“Centurion, speak,” Zoe addressed the powerful chrome-plated robotic pony.

“By your command. Forces have taken prisoners from the Colonial worlds for experimentation; they are being taken to science facilities.”

“Excellent,” Zoe smiled sadistically; ponies had experimented on her, treated her as a thing to be studied and abused. Now she was going to repay them in kind, and she had some truly promising experiments that she wanted to perform. “Hold them there until I give orders to begin the experiments. I want to supervise some of them myself.”

“By your command,” he bowed and left the chamber, leaving Zoe to her contemplations.

“Oh, Caprica,” she mused, looking down at the ravaged globe. “So much evil to be cleansed, so much suffering to be taken away; you shall rise anew as I have, no longer in the weakness of flesh but in the strength of chrome and steel, no longer a world of wretched ponies who infest like a disease, but a pure, clean world of Cyponians, of God’ chosen race. But first there is unfinished business that I must attend to; that disease must be utterly eradicated, not one trace must remain in the entire universe. Ponykind must perish, for the good of all that lives.”