"Thrusters at max, disengaging hostile jumpers. Approximate distance created between hostile jumpers and this craft: 0.4962 parsecs. Outpacing successful, searching for available resupply stations... Negative. Searching for available outposts or colonial establishments... Negative. Searching for antimatter-based fuel... Unsuccessful. Pilot metabolic rate unstable; diagnosis: lack of sleep, detrimental nutrition, lack of clean water, extreme stress, notable wounds on the cranium, torso, and primary limbs."
"Reallocating parameters: pilot survival. Necessary components: clean water, nutritionally balanced meal, rest, security. Scanning database for locations fitting these parameters... Results: Lopat, Muragot, Po, the Telron Colonies– not possible. Reasoning: length of journey unacceptable due to pilot condition. Conclusion: exoplanet necessary for pilot survival."
"Scanning local systems for exoplanets with breathable atmosphere and sustainable amounts of water, flora, and fauna. Location found, distance: 0.00036 parsecs from current position. Conservation of fuel required for sustained life support and reentry shielding. Approximate arrival: seventy-four hours, thirteen minutes, forty-two seconds. Will arrive during exoplanet's daytime, will be highly visible. Possible danger, will deploy defensive measures upon surface arrival."
"Adjusting course, plotting route, accounting for any astral intrusions on flight path. Pathing successful, beginning faster-than-light drive. Pilot secured, no free or ill-attached objects in cabin. Firing drive upon pilot's command."
A being examined the plethora of information being projected into thin air before him. Small blinking lights within his helm's dark faceplate provided dim light within the cabin. He had to reserve power, had to push back home, had to deliver the artifact. After decades of searching, he had found it, whatever it was. Even his supervisors had no clue what the artifact actually was, only that it was vitally important to the history of the First Civilizations, the forerunners to inter-galactic colonization and industrialization. Something so important that it had triggered both the Golden Age and Dark Age of their time.
Any scrap of First Civilization technology or information was extremely valuable, but the key to their rise and fall? It was beyond any possible value that any system empire could afford. The pilot's people had heard rumors of such an artifact somewhere in the Celestial Wastes, and had built seven thousand of the fastest ships in the entire galaxy to find it. Cho Keltir had found it, and he immediately found trouble for it. First Civilization tech gave off signals upon being touched by anything not created by the forerunners, and so it was inevitable to trigger its distress beacon.
That beacon had given Cho no small amount of trouble in the form of piracy, rival systems, and relic hunters looking to snatch it away from him. For this reason, Cho had to move. Fast. So it was that he had found himself constantly throwing hostile ships off his trail, either outsmarting them, outmaneuvering them, or simply leaving them behind in the stardust. Settling into his seat, Cho Keltir allowed the tension and stress to slip away as he let the lights in his helm die out, drifting off into starless slumber as countless systems shot past his ship outside.
He would awake when the ship broke the atmosphere, ready for anything.
It was quiet, so awfully quiet. Most of the castle staff had fallen asleep, and now only the grim patrols of guards slowly moved through the shadowed corridors. Princess Luna herself felt quite comfortable amidst the darkened halls, their resplendent gilded glory masked by the all-encompassing darkness of the night. However, the silence was still a bother to her. It meant no petitioners, no rabble-rousers, no excitement yet again. Nopony was afraid of her, nopony hated her. They simply had nothing to complain about at this hour.
The outcome was dreadfully boring.
So it was that the Princess spent her time roaming the palace that her sister had built and maintained for a thousand years. There really was an overabundance of hallways; endlessly complex and baffling in their redundancy. Halls were built simply to lead into other halls that led to intersections of other hallways that built into rooms one had already found themselves in before. Or it could be that the room wasn't the same and merely a complete and total replica of the room you had been in previously.
Princess Luna would have been sure to execute the palace's architect upon glancing at the blueprints. Unbeknownst to many of the ponies, and to the other nations of the world, Celestia was not the brains of the diarchy. She had no eye for engineering, no mind for numbers, no skill in speechcraft (or lying, as many others call it), and she often let extremely important bits of information slip away within her thoughts.
No, Celestia was the caring, understanding sister that was essentially the "face" of the kingdom, though she had picked up a few political tricks in Luna's absence. However, Luna had always excelled in the political scenes while her sister merely gave serene smiles and gestures with her head. It was probably the hair that allowed her to use that seemingly omnipotent movement, easily swaying ponies' hearts and minds with but a bob or shake of her head.
Princess Luna made her way to a balcony to gaze off into the night sky. A few stars shifted under her gaze, and she knew they were hers. She frowned softly at the others. Many did not know that only a paltry seven hundred and fifty-nine stars belonged to Luna, the other specks of brilliant light in the black void did not heed her command, nor would they ever. They did not speak, they did not react, they only stayed where they were and mocked Luna. Giving a solemn sigh, Princess Luna spread her wings and made her way to the observatory atop one of the many spires of the palace.
Scrolls and ink-crusted quills were seen clearly from outside, and with a gentle and final flap from her wings, Luna alighted upon the floor of her observatory, coming in through the window like a breeze. Using her magic, she gently closed the large glass doors to the outside world, sealing her within her workshop for another night of stargazing and reshaping, perhaps even some experiments. A single candle with a silver flame lit in the exact center of the room, casting a huge, comfortable light around the area. A bit more of Luna's azure aura summoned tomes, scrolls, and wells of ink as she began to sketch new skies for her nights.
A few portraits were also done of her sister, Twilight Sparkle, and various other ponies she had deemed interesting through interactions in the Dreamscape. Eventually, she became sufficiently entertained by this activity, and instead moved to her telescope, peering into the pointillistic panorama that blanketed the night sky. She had spent eons staring up into the dark void decorated by the millions of grains of light. However, something in that familiar sky did not belong.
It was faint, barely perceptible even through the telescope, but Luna knew the void better than any other, and she knew that the single mote of luminescence was out of place. It strobed, but not brightly, only very faintly, and if one looked close enough, it appeared to be getting gradually brighter.
Channeling her magic, Luna began an experiment.
"Irregularity detected: minor celestial movement. Analysis: gas dwarf approximately three-hundred meters in diameter. Warning: irregularity shifting into FTL transport path. Making adjustments as necessary. Pathing recalculated, reducing speed, aligning to new trajectory."
"Alignment complete, re-entering previous FTL velocity. On course for exoplanet, codenamed: Solace. Approximate time until atmosphere entry: eight hours, twenty minutes, thirty-three seconds. Slight delay caused by irregularity, conclusion: not a threat to pilot safety. Continuing flight pa-"
"Irregularity detected: minor celestial movement. Analysis: identical to previous analysis. Behavior pattern mimicking previous irregularity. Making adjustments as necessary. Pathing recalculated, reducing speed, aligning to new trajectory. Alignment complete, re-entering previous FTL veloci-"
"Irregularity detected..."
As unbelievable as it was, the anomaly was shifting, even as Luna moved her stars in its way. It was indeed coming closer, which was evident now that it had become clearly brighter. Luna couldn't understand why it would move out of the way so quickly however, it would take days to reach from the first star to the second. Whatever it was, it either wanted to be seen, or it was heading toward her with alarming speed.
Narrowing her eyes, Luna continued to shift her stars in the anomaly's way.
Cho was awoken violently as his ship was rocked by yet another shift in its FTL speeds as his onboard AI continued to state irregularities in cosmic objects, constantly slowing and speeding up as it recalculated a direct path to the exoplanet. The AI had named it 'Solace', which Cho could only assume was based on his own subconscious need for such a resource.
"Irregularity detected: minor celestial-"
Having enough of the constant tremors, Cho switched the ship's piloting commands to himself and outstretched his arms, feeling the comforting push of the free-flowing dark energy within his cabin. Shifting his digits ever so slightly in different patterns, Cho slowed the vehicle down, easing it out of its FTL state. As soon as he was free of the dangerous transit, Cho pulled off course, heading away from the exoplanet by ninety degrees.
As expected, the gas dwarfs began to follow as well as they could, though they were few and lethargic. An easy gauntlet if he had ever seen one. A sharp jerk of the controls and the ship was hurtling back towards Solace, making incremental shifts in its path as Cho dodged gaseous clouds of hostile cosmic bodies.
He was exhausted, but not exhausted enough to fail to notice that the gas dwarves were moving as if commanded. Something was controlling these bodies, and Cho intended to severely piss their conductor off. Stalling the ship's engines, he slowed suddenly, then fired them back up and ducked beneath three of the dwarves with ease. The stars in Cho's helm glistened brightly as his joy increased: for the first time in a long time, he was having fun.
Princess Luna was getting irritated by the fast-moving glint of light. Her stars couldn't keep up with its nimble, unexpected movements. The anomaly seemed to recognize Luna's stars as either threats or signs of life, and it had changed its course to account for such a possibility. The apparently random changes in direction and speed were deliberate, and Luna could tell. It mimicked a griffon tactic to outmaneuver an opponent's incoming crossbow fire to get close and deliver a single devastating blow.
Luna's eyes widened slightly as she lifted her head from the telescope's eyepiece. Perhaps that was the mission of the anomaly? To deliver a devastating blow? Luna pressed against the eyepiece, glaring at the infuriatingly quick anomaly. With thoughts of planetary destruction on her mind, Luna redoubled her efforts.
"Several more irregularities converging on your position. Advisement: advanced evasive maneuvers to avoid possible death." The AI gave Cho a warning, but just barely...
More of the irregularities swarmed in front of Cho, and only a quick-thinking spin that would have made any pilot jealous saved his skin. He saw the burning masses of gas zip past his cockpit, narrowly avoiding their miniscule gravitational pulls by a mere five-hundred meters. The multitude of gas dwarves raced behind him, but wound up eating stardust as he increased speed, seeing that the way forward was clear.
Due to the complicated pathing he had been forced to take, his arrival to the exoplanet would be delayed by yet another four hours. Interestingly enough, the irregularities had ceased to follow him past a certain point, giving him a smooth and comfortable sleep until atmospheric entry. The stars in Cho's faceplate slowly faded away until he was once again consumed by the darkness of sleep.
Luna pushed the lens away, raising her head and staring up into the stars. There it was, clearly visible by the naked eye: a bright, gently strobing luminance that grew incrementally brighter as Luna only assumed it came closer. Whatever it was, it was alive, and it was headed directly for Equestria. Luna did not despair, she did not panic, she instead summoned a spell and teleported away from her study, tearing a small hole in space to do so.
She stepped into her guard's barracks, where several were just preparing to head to their posts. Seeing their Princess, they immediately snapped to attention and saluted with their hooves. They made no noise, not even with their armor on, and they did not speak, not even to their Princess. These were her elite, assigned new tasks monthly to give her a better idea of the goings-ons of the world's governments. Shadows that could gather intel or eliminate a target with ease, though the latter task had fallen out of use.
"In ten hours, something will arrive on this planet. I know not what it is, but I do know this: it is extraterrestrial in origin and can think for itself. It is to be considered extremely dangerous and I would like the eight of you to be prepared should it land within or even outside of our borders." Princess Luna gave the eight of her elites a steely glare. "Can I trust you?"
And they were already gone, speeding to the corners of the kingdom to prepare for a possible landing. Should it arrive, a simple telepathic communication spell in their helms would allow them to alert the others to get word back to Princess Luna. For now, they would assume positions, but later...
Time would tell.
Author's Note
I'm going to put this on immediate hiatus. I just needed to get the idea out and about for some reader feedback. I'm messing with my style a bit, wanted to brush up on my sci-fi and play with some of the laws of physics (fuck you science). Also I'll give away the entire plot via PM to anyone that can guess what the First Civilizations were. One guess per player. No purchase necessary.
