Aces In Exile

**Chapter Two:

First Contact**

"Report!" Called out commander Artemis to the rest of the crew on the bridge. "Sir! The FTL cores have overloaded and are currently undergoing emergency cool down and medical is reporting some light injuries to a few crew members who couldn't get secured in time, other than that, we're fine." Replied the captain.

"Sir!" Called the navigation officer. "None of these stars match any known charts and the planet we're now orbiting is unknown."

The commander gave this a thoughtful huff. "Very well, drop a distress beacon and have it broadcast on all channels and see what engineering can do about the cores, but tell them they don't need to do a rush job this time, we're safe for now. Lastly try and find out our position."

"Aye sir!" Was the resounding reply from the officers around him as they got to their jobs. The commander rested his head on his had as he rubbed his temples. 'Just what have we gotten ourselves into?'

Equestria:

Princess Celestia was currently in her study, going over a few bills that were put forward during her session in the day court. None of them were very interesting being that they were mostly thought up by stuffy nobles, all looking to pass laws and such to further their own businesses and standing, and to be truthful, the mighty princess of the sun was growing tired of it.

'Honestly, I would think that they would have better things to do than to waste my time on things like this.' She thought to herself as she read over one such bill put forth by a noble who was looking to pass a law saying that only those of noble blood could own land, and that 'commoners' should pay taxes on the land they lived on to said nobles.

Sighing she used a stamp to deny it, (said stamp was fairly new yet was already being worn down from over use) and rolled it back up and set it in the organizer to be collected and sent away later.

Just as she was making to get up and finally go to bed, a wisp of ash and smoke blew in through her window and materialized into a scroll which dropped onto her desk.

'A letter from Twilight at this hour? It couldn't be another friendship report, she only sent me her most recent one a few days ago.' Celestia thought as she opened it up and looked over its contents, but it became clear very quickly that this was no ordinary letter.

"Hmm.. Why doth we even bother, not one of thine subjects ever graces the night court with their presence." Luna, the princess of the night said to herself.

So far, her statement had been true, very few ponies had come to the night court since its re-institution into the daily happenings of the royal castle in Canterlot.

"This is always such a bore, We wisheth that something of interest would..."

Luna never got to finish that sentence as the doors burst open and her sister, the princess of the day quickly entered the throne room.

"Sister dear, what is the matter? Thou acts as if the has seen a ghost, I believe the saying is."

"You're slipping into the royal we again Luna, but that's not important, you must read this." Stated Celestia as she handed the letter she carried in her magic grip to her sister.

"Really Tia? One of your student's friendship reports at...this...hour..." Needless to say, that train of thought soon left the station.

Dear princess Celestia,

While viewing the meteor shower tonight with my friends, we have witnessed an extraordinary event.

At the finishing of the shower there was a flash of light in the sky which puzzled us all greatly, but soon after, the radio that Spike had brought with him to listen to during the even played a broadcast that I believe to be from an alien vessel that had caused said flash.

The nature of the broadcast leads me to believe that their transport has suffered some type of damage and that they currently cannot leave, and are currently orbiting our planet.

Signed your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

The princess of the night read over the contents again and again before slowly bringing her eyes back up to her fellow ruler.

"I suppose that we should see about welcoming our new guests dear sister?"

The Pride

"So what's the word lieutenant? Do they know where we are?" Asked Lynne to her flight commander.

"Unfortunately no, they're still working on that, but until they do, all flights have been put on standby orders, just in case." Alzack answered her.

"Ahh jeeze, standby orders? That is the worst." Said the junior of the flight, a young pilot by the name of Nathaniel. More commonly known as Nat, for his short stature of just over 5'.

"Relax" Replied his wing leader, the oldest of the group. "Pretty soon they'll get the Cores fixed and then we can be back underway." He said hopefully.

Unfortunately, that hope was not well placed.

"What's the word from engineering? Asked Artemis to his communications officer. "Sir!" He replied. "They said that a lot of the wiring and circuitry's been burnt out from the intense energy build up, it'll need extensive repairs before they can get it operational again which is going to be hard because a lot of the parts needed just aren't on board."

"Damn it all..." Said the commander before turning away and pacing around the bridge. 'Damn it, we have no clue where we are, our FTL is offline with not much chance of repair. We're going to need a miracle if help doesn't arrive.' Little did he know, a miracle was what they would soon be getting.

Equestria:

"P-PRINCESSES!" Exclaimed the radio station manager as the nations rulers entered his office, causing him to immediately stand and bow.

"Arise, there is something that we require your aid with, or more specifically this new radio station of yours." Said Celestia

"Yes your majesties, how might we be of service?" He asked.

"It has come to our attention that your broadcast was interrupted late last night by an unknown source." Celestia inquired.

"Yes your majesty, we assume it to have been somebody pulling a prank by hijacking our signal somehow." The manager answered her.

"I assure you that it was indeed no prank." This reply shocked him, and he looked at his rulers, puzzled. "What do you mean your majesty? If i may ask." The sun princess' gaze never left his face.

"Good sir, we require the use of your radio station... To make first contact with an extra terrestrial entity." Celestia simply stated.