Magic Effect

Chapters

Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The Princess and her team of guards were in the forest until dark,
interrogating the disgusting creature with little success, when Luna
arrived after bringing out the night. She was much more cruel to him
than Celestia. She wasn't afraid to get her hooves dirty, either.

"You will-” a bloody cough interrupted him, “-regret your rash
actions, ignorant native. My kind will be back for revenge, and for the
riches of your planet," he said, blood dripping from his mouth.

Luna was facing away from him, looking up at the alien sky. "Please,
call us ponies." She turned back to him. "Do you know what we have
crafted, Batarian? It has been millennia since I last heard a story told
of what war is. What it was."

The batarian spat. "Weak. You are all weak. We will crush you with
eas—“ A stick across his forehead interrupted him. Luna's eyes narrowed
in a glare.

"We're a million times worse than anything you could imagine! There
was a time when we had to fight. Ages and ages ago all of ponydom was in
danger. Understand that you aren’t the first to threaten us. Do you
know what happened to those that came before you?" The batarian started
to speak, but she struck him across the face. Small streaks of green
smeared across his face from the leaves still attached to the crude
bludgeon. "They don't exist anymore! There's a reason no one ever foals
around with us anymore!” A guardpony approached her.

"Ma'am, the chariot has arrived," Starbuck whispered in her ear.
Above them a chariot descended, two pegasus pulling along a pair of
unicorns. The two of them stepped off carrying a doctor's bag and moved
over to the large alien sprawled across the ground.

Princess Luna," The white unicorn with bright red hair bowed before her and spoke with a heavy accent.

"Ah yes, Doctor Dustov; glad to see you could make it. He doesn't seem to want to answer our questions."

"I am glad Princess think so highly ov mine skills," she said. “But I
do not know vhere ve vill be vorking vith him. This place is too dirty
for scientific vork.”

“I’ll prepare him for transport. We’ve been out in the fields long
enough,” she said, a smile creeping across her face from feelings of
nostalgia. “I know just the place.”

Utter darkness. The batarian could feel himself lifting into the air
again. Pain screamed at him with each small movement of his broken
limbs. He lost track of time, fading in and out of consciousness, the
dreams mixing with reality, until reality rudely awakened him. He found
himself staring up at a blue-tinged light hanging down at him. He moved
his head to inspect his surroundings. The walls of the room were a
seamless dark grey-blue color, the only openings he could see were a
couple vents and a door to his right. He seemed to be strapped to a
table--not that he dared to move his arms or legs. Shock had dulled the
pain of his broken elbows and knees, but that didn’t stop the fear from
the terrible knowledge that he was now incapable of escape from creeping
into his psyche. The small natives were surprisingly strong, and he had
not counted on their brute strength overcoming his shields so easily.
Now that he thought about it, he was sure that the kinetic limits were
too high for melee combat, and he had been a fool to forget that
vulnerability. No one in the universe continued to use hand-to-hand
combat since the advent of mass-effect projectile weapons.

He racked his brain, thinking he recognized the form these natives
resembled. Perhaps a much, much lighter and pastel-colored version of
the elcor, but with hair. They were still unbelievably smooth; they
lacked the small, odd peculiarities of true organic material. It was as
if their skin had no texture to it, and when they turned, the edges of
their bodies blurred into fine curves. He had dismissed it before as a
trick of the eyes, but now he was sure. The evidence of this reality,
the pain he still felt in his chest and limbs, confirmed this wasn’t a
dream. His reverie was broken by the sound at the door.

The dark one with the long blue horn stepped through the opening,
followed by several other natives of a range of pastel hues. All of them
were wearing tissue across their faces, with goggles resting awkwardly
on their small foreheads.

“...Und here is patient,” he could hear the heavy accent in her
voice. He had been surprised that, despite the apparent lack of
spaceflight by inhabitants of this planet, they still spoke common quite
well. He spotted a couple large bags carried in the mouths of two that
followed behind her. They set it at the base of the table, their eyes
fixated on him. The dark blue one, obviously in charge, now stood over
him, looking down into his eyes. He gained a small amount of amusement
from her indecision of which eyes to look at.

“I am Princess Luna. You may address me as Princess if you wish,”
she spoke down to him in a commanding tone, “Now, we have some questions
for you that we would be most pleased if you answer, but I doubt
without proper motivation your tongue will loosen.”

"Are you going to torture me? That is against galactic law, native.”

“Torture?” she chuckled, “Stars, no. You see, we don’t hate you;
ponies are incapable of hate, darling. But we are curious...” Her eyes
drifted down to the other ponies at the end of the table. They had
opened their bags and were setting small silver tools on a tray, the
accented one directing them. One of them held a scroll mid-air and a
feather danced behind it, its end scratching against the parchment. A
smaller bag floated up, opening to reveal a sparkling pink powder.
“Doctor, please,” Princess Luna said as she looked at the white pony.
“If you give him the knock-out powder,” she paused to look down at him,
“he won’t be able to answer me.”

“Yes, mine Princess. Please, ask avay.”

“Oh, I think I’ll wait and watch a bit before starting the questions. Please, continue the procedure.”

“Yes, mine Princess.” The doctor moved nearer to his head and looked
at him. The goggles now covered her only set of eyes. “Now, for record,
are you colt or filly?” Another pony beside him with another quill and
scoll, scratched furiously on the parchment. The sounds grated in his
ears. “Und please,” she continued, “stay very still for moment, ve must
make picture of you.”

“I will never submit to your kind,” he said defiantly, “all your efforts are in vain.” Princess Luna looked down at him again. Her hair seemed to sparkle
and shimmer, flowing despite the stillness of the air in the room; from
his point of view the galaxy looked back at him from within it. “I can’t
give you the powder until you start talking, darling.” He felt
incredible, piercing heat on his chest. They were removing his armor,
exposing his bare chest.

“Now, ve will start vith ze epidermis, followed by ze muscular and
skeletal systems,” the doctor started, looking back at the others on the
other side of him. They listened to her intensely as she outlined what
they were about to do to him. His stomach turned at the prospect of
enduring any of that without anesthetic.

“You fools will kill me before I talk. You will never get your precious information!”

“No, dear,” Luna spoke again, her lilting voice filled with a false
affection, “we have become very, very good at keeping our patients
alive. We’ve had a long time to perfect our medicinal magic and
sciences.”

“Now, mine assistants,” the doctor spoke loudly, “ ve start at ze
right forearm. Please make notes very detailed as ve begin.”

Celstia walked slowly down the halls. The stale, sterile air down
here had remained undisturbed for many thousands of years, but she still
remembered the layout. Each wing for every specific purpose, each of
them part of this vast relic of ages past. How many years had it been
since something so drastic was required? How many years since anypony
had even dreamed about such wonders that were kept in this place? She
and Luna were the only ones who had lived long enough to
remember--remember why this was necessary, why these artifacts and
terrible things had been perfectly preserved. But she had recognized the
need, and realized that now was the time to dig them up again. This
place had miles of hallways and chambers, reinforced vaults and safes,
labs, workshops, and libraries filled to the rafters with books of
forbidden knowledge--at least it had been forbidden--and instruction
manuals and blueprints galore. It pained her heart that all of ponykind
would have to endure this again, but she was confident that they would
make it through. The power of friendship had seen to it before, and it
would see them through hard times again.

The librarian of Ponyville arrived home late. She had spent the day
reading in the park, followed by another party at Pinkie Pie’s house. A
large, formidable-lookinig pegasus pony clad in golden armor stood just
outside her door with a large package on his back. She walked up to him
and apologized.

“Sorry! Sorry I’m late. I hope you haven’t been waiting very long for me here.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am. I only just arrived,” he spoke in a deep,
guttural voice uncommon to most other ponies. He unhooked the package
from his back and handed it to Twilight, who floated it next to her.
“Princess Celestia sends her regards. Please take great care of this
parcel, ma’am.”

“Oh, of...of course...Thank you sir,” she responded hesitantly. It
wasn’t normal for Celestia to send a messenger, even moreso that Spike
hadn’t coughed it up earlier. The heavy package was wrapped in burlap
and bound with a thick leather belt. She made sure to close the door
behind her before unclasping it, revealing a small letter alongside the
spine of a large book.

No, she thought, this isn’t just a book, it’s a tome.

Gold filigree arced across the front and back page between the gold
trim, surrounding a unicorn symbol carved out of shiny obsidian set in
the front cover. She unrolled the scroll that bore the Royal Seal and
began to read it.

Twilight, my most faithful student,

I hope this finds you well. I had to be sure that it reached you
personally. Something very big is about to happen, something that will
effect all of Equestria. You will find this letter attached to a copy of
an ancient tome of pony history, and I ask you to read it entirely as
soon as possible. Please share the stories and secrets of this book with
your closest friends when you finish. However, its secrets must stay
secret until I write you again. Please, as you read, keep an open mind,
and understand that nothing remains the same forever.

Your teacher, Princess Celestia.

Princess Celestia didn’t often keep secrets as far as Twilight knew;
but then, the best-kept secrets are the ones you don’t know even exist.
She took the book up to her bed and got comfortable, setting the book
across her pillow. Twilight felt excitement at the length of the table
of contents, looking forward to a long night of reading what she knew
was a very rare book. This book wasn’t just any history book; it began
at a point several millennia ago, thousands and thousands of years
before the ordeal with Nightmare Moon, even before Equestria existed.
The pages turned faster and faster as she became more enthralled with
its epic tale, not even noticing Spike’s return to the Library.

“Twilight, are you ok?” Spike asked from the lower level. “Twilight!”

“Huh?” she replied, realizing her eyes had filled with tears. “Yes,
Spike, I’m, uh...I’m fine.” The secrets within this book truly were
terrible, and while she was flattered that the Princess had deemed her
worthy of this knowledge, she now wanted nothing to do with it. She
understood already why this had to be kept under lock and key, away from
the curious minds of innocent ponies. The book had a warning on one of
the earlier pages, advising the reader of something called “memetic
hazards,” but she had thought nothing of it; there was very little to
worry about in the realm of knowledge held by ponies, but now she knew
better.

She knew, and the burden to infect the minds of her friends weighed
heavily on her. But she trusted that whatever Princess Celestia had
planned kept the best interests of her subjects in mind. What could have
happened that would require the staining of her mind like this?

“Twilight, are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’m fine, Spike, really. Just go to sleep. I’ll tell you all about it in the morning.”

“But it is morning. You’ve stayed up all night reading that book!”

“Well just let me finish it. Princess Celestia sent it to me and told me I needed to finish it as soon as possible.”

“Oh, ok. Want me to bring back something from Sugarcube Corner?”

“Yes. Thank you, Spike.”

Her sigh was ragged as she flipped another page. How long could she hold out to tell her friends?

Chapter 4

The technology recovered from the Batarians had been brought back to the
ancient labs and analyzed, and it became startlingly clear to her from
the reports the difference in their weapon-design paradigms. A pile of
report scrolls lay piled on the floor next to her bed, all originating
from somewhere deep inside the mountain. One of them detailed the
operational theory of the weapon, its origins, and its inner workings
complete with detailed sketches of the disassembly. Another carried a
transcript of the Batarian’s interrogation and the degree to which he
faltered as they administered the surgical procedures upon his
completely alien biology--there was another scroll for that, covered in
more sketches and notes outlining the procedures and every note and
diagram of his anatomy, along with speculations of theorized female
constructs. All of them were copies; the originals were headed for the
Royal Archives for safekeeping.

Celestia remembered the day that she had begun mentorship of
Dustov: like most of her students, only Celestia had recognized the
potential where others only cowered in fear and ignorance. There had
been some concerns about her after her cutie mark had been revealed to
be a scalpel across a threaded needle--there were so few surgeries
performed or even needed in the soft world of Equestria--but she showed
incredible talent in her field. She was meticulous, reliable,
methodical, and above all, curious. Celestia could not ask for a better
pony for the job. Dustov had been personally assigned by Celestia for
the wet-work down in the labs, and her notes showed annoyance at Luna’s
presence and interference during the dissection. She sighed; she’d talk
to Luna later about it, but there was nothing to be done about what had
already happened.

The...probe, as he called it, levitated in front of her. She had
removed it from the small sealed room they had kept it in, since it had
been revealed that it was ever-watching, but now she wanted to talk with
The Illusive Man again, a human. She recalled the description the
Batarian had given them of humans: ambitious beyond their capability,
racist, manipulative, deceitful, conniving, both morally restrictive and
evangelical, and bred like vermin. They were a blight upon the galaxy.

She considered his words with a grain of salt. It had been
hundreds of millennia since she had been required to deal with
inter-species and galactic politics, and the petty squabbling of mortals
gave her such a headache. It was safe to assume, however, that this
galaxy was not a safe place to wander about. She needed details,
specifics.

“Guard,” she called, “please summon Quill for me.”

“At once, your highness,” he replied through the door. A short
moment later, the unicorn pony known as Quill knocked once on the door
and bounded into the room, a bright smile on his face. A quill across a
scroll was branded on the flank of his light-brown coat, and as he
trotted gleefully into the room, his frazzled blond hair bowed up and
down. He carried several scrolls in one side of his saddlebags and a
bundle of quills with several bottles of ink in the other.

“Yes, your highness? What can I do for you?” he started. “Shall I
take a letter? An essay? A memo? A list? Speaking of lists, I just
recently completed one abou-”

“Please, Quill,” she interjected, “A transcript will be fine.”

“Of course, Princess.” He whipped out his writing equipment, horn aglow. “Classification?”

“Top Secret, Code White. I will be speaking to someone through
this device, Quill. Anything it says is to be labeled as ‘Tim.’” Quill
nodded slightly.

Her hoof tapped against the glass a couple times above the square
bubble. She knew he could see her. The thing flickered to life.

“Hello, Princess.” Tim sat against the multi-colored backdrop of
what Celestia thought was a star of some kind. Only his silhouette was
visible and two blue dots glowed from inside his head.

“Greetings, Tim. I have considered your offer of assistance, but I believe you will want something in return.”

“That’s true, Princess. Not much in the galaxy is free after all,
but I think we can reach an agreement that benefits the both of us.”

“I’m sure we’ll see.”

“Now, I’m not sure exactly what you want. Maps? Weapons? Basic
technology, like computers?” He paused to take a drag. “We’re not
exactly sure about your technological progress,” he exhaled, light blue
smoke drifted in the air in front of him. “If you dealt with the slavers
that easily, I’m sure you can make do.”

“Maps and weapons will be fine, Tim.” She thought for a moment before asking “What do you mean by ‘computers’?”

“Electronic information systems. We use them for just about everything. Do you have anything like that?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“That’s fine. This probe has an empty VI in it. I can send the
information to him and he can explain everything.” Another puff. “That
is, once our negotiations are complete. I have yet to explain my part of
the bargain.”

“I’m listening,” she said with a smile.

“Your world is full of precious minerals and resources that my
people want, Princess. Jewels, diamonds, eezo, and, most importantly,
magic. Not just any kind, the kind that actually works. I’d like to
trade some knowledge. These abilities can be very useful to my
organization.” He put the smoking thing back up to his face.

“And just what will that entail, Tim?”

“I’ll send a small delegation of representatives of my people to
your planet. You can train them for me in exchange for the VI’s data.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow theatrically, “You’ll have to do
better than just basic technological knowledge then, Tim. If you can
include the secrets of space-flight with us,” add a smile, “we’ll gladly
train your friends in the use of magic!”

“Done. You’re going to need it. I’ll send the data now. The VI
will explain everything you need to know. Also, the probe will serve as a
beacon for my crew’s ship to land, so you’ll need to put it in a proper
landing zone when they arrive in a couple days.”

“We look forward to making new friends, Tim.”

“Good. I expect this relationship to benefit us both,” he said right before the square bubble went black again.

Celestia placed the object back inside the closet and looked at Quill.

“Did you get all that?” she asked.

“Yes, Princess,” he replied, still scratching feverishly on the parchment.

“Take a note. There’s a scroll with a list of names marked with a
cog on the end; I want you to send summons to the ponies on that list.”

“Yes, Princess.” He paused, then looked up at her. “Are we really going to teach them magic, your highness?”

“Don’t be silly,” she said with a smile, “if they haven’t already
learned how to use it, they lack the capability.” They certainly did
not lack the capability for manipulations and lies. But here was another
opportunity for study. Here an opportunity to learn more about these
humans first-hand presented itself; she couldn’t let this chance for
testing them slip away. “And take another letter to Doctor Dustov, same
classification. Tell her to prepare for much more work; she’s going to
have new specimens to study in a few days.”

Gregor looked down at the map. The ship sped toward the traverse
faster than light itself, to a small, pastel-colored rock afloat in
space. Around him stood the rest of his team. They were going over the
mission details but Gregor thought the crew was trying to play another
prank on him. “So let me get straight,” he spoke with a thick Slavic
accent, “people on planet are all ponies. Ponies from Sol?” He crossed
his arms.

“No, Gregor.” It was Robin who spoke at him. Her amazing looks
had cooled his anger throughout the trip, even though she annoyed him
greatly. She always seemed to speak down to him, but he thought the view
from below made up for it. “They only resemble ponies from Earth.
Surprisingly, they speak common and seem to have social values
resembling our own. The Illusive Man thinks they can train us in magic.”

“Magic? From pony?”

“I heard that they move their own sun around their planet.”

“Sound like crazy story from back home. I think you speak too big
of pony’s talents. And what about magic? Magic also fairy tale. I say
we arrive and see biotics.”

“It doesn’t matter, Gregor. You’ll do as the boss says.”

“Anyway,” Mark interrupted, “regardless if magic exists, once we
land we are to present ourselves to their leader.” Mark was the team
leader in title only. That spineless man thought too much for his own
good, and Gregor knew that his place was back in the safety of his lab.
Once again, it was up to him to carry the team through. “But that’s not
our only objective here. The boss also wants us to observe and record
everything about this place. Social hierarchies, customs, technological
level, population density...the list goes on and on. Just keep your
armor’s recorder on and we’ll review our findings each night in the
shuttle.”

“What? We’re staying in the shuttle?” Robin sounded almost
indignant. “I thought they would arrange for us to stay in the Castle.”

Mark looked at her with disgusted surprise. “Yes, we’ll just let
them all watch us in our sleep while we go over the details of their
civilization.”

“Just suck it up, Princess. Ship life ain’t so bad,” Emily stated
proudly. She was new to the team; Gregor didn’t quite know what to make
of her. She was their tech specialist; the things she could do with an
omni-tool were far beyond anything Gregor had seen, and he’d been
through many a desperate situation. He knew, deep down, beneath the
rough exterior lay a soft and sensitive soul. She had opened up to him
at the chow tables late one night, something about living on a ship her
whole life like a Quarian. She probably liked him, and he intended to
make the most of it.

“Don’t you have something to calibrate, sweetie?” Robin shot her a glare.

“Eat a bag of dicks, Robin.” Emily retorted, with the finger as a
bonus. This woman was growing on him, Gregor thought to himself.

“Guys, guys.” Mark tried to regain control of the meeting. They
turned their heads to him as if he had interrupted with trivialities.
“You all have the plan at your personal consoles. You should study them
before we land. Uh...any questions?”

“Yeah, can we go now?” Emily asked.

“Meeting adjourned.”

Gregor turned to leave without a word. The first one out the door
was John. He didn’t speak much, or make much noise at all, really.
Gregor had only heard him speak when he introduced himself to the ship’s
captain, and even then it was only his name. He had heard that the man
was an assassin of the highest caliber and had received personal orders
from The Illusive Man. Gregor could respect a man who kept to himself,
kept quiet, but this man went out of his way to keep his voice low, and
the armor he wore was custom. He avoided him as much as possible.

“Hey, uh, Emily,” he called her out in the corridor. “Maybe you
and I could go over mission plan together. You know, be sure we know
plan better than others.”

She smiled at him, her soft green eyes narrowed and one eyebrow arched in suspicion.

“Sure, Greg. We can study together if you like.”

“Good. My quarters or--”

“Oh, uh, just so you guys know,” Mark popped his head out of the
briefing room, “We make the jump in eight, so get some sleep
beforehand.”

“Sure, Mark,” Emily walked towards Gregor, passing Mark’s face.
She smiled and gave his cheek a couple of pats as she did. “We’ll spend
plenty of time ‘sleeping.’” Gregor turned and grinned widely at his look
of confusion.

The Captain of the Guard burst into the barracks early that
morning. The stern look on his face had, for a moment, caused Starbuck
to worry someone had squealed that he had been the one to take the last
apple tart in the break room. He knew how much Captain Brickwall loved
treats, and whenever Apple Fritter would send his squadron a bundle of
her very own apple tarts, he would only begrudgingly follow her specific
instructions that he should share them with the rest of his men. He had
told them he had come from a farm not too far away from a small rural
town called Ponyville, and that had been where he met Apple Fritter,
whose picture he kept on the desk in his office. Starbuck and the rest
of the ponies in the royal guard had come to notice that whenever they
were called inside, if her photo was face-down on the desk, they were in
for it. He looked like he had come from a farm; his muscular bulk
filled the door frame, covered in the gilded heavy plate armor that had
been custom-built for his size.

“Starbuck!” He barked, and every head in the room turned to face
him. One of the ponies in the back of the room winced when the force of
his voice caused his delicate four-story house of cards to collapse.

Starbuck slammed shut the book laying open on his bed and thrust
it into his hooflocker, scrambling over to where the Captain stood.

“Sir!” He barked in return, standing in front of him at attention.

“Starbuck…” he growled as he started to circle him. Starbuck
could feel the captain’s eyes inspecting every inch of him; but his eyes
were fixed ahead, listening to the deep thumps of the captain’s hooves
stalking around him. “Hrm…Yer armor seems ta’ be up ta’ snuff, Starbuck,
but what…” Suddenly his face appeared in his field of view, inches from
his face. “…is that I see on your flank?!” His voice was deafening from
this close. “Have ya’ forgotten yer basic hygiene, Guardpony? Didja’
roll ‘round the yard earlier and miss a spot in the baths? DO AH NEED
TUH WASH YA’ MYSELF, STARBUCK?”

“No sir! The blemish is my cutie mark growing through. My
scheduled visit with the bleachers is in one hour.” His cutie mark, a
red five-pointed shooting star, was starting to grow back. Each of them,
when they volunteered to be in the Royal Guard, had submitted to
bleaching their coats pure white and dyeing their manes in shades of
blue. They gave up the showing of their cutie marks when they joined as a
symbol of the personal sacrifice they made in service to the
Princesses. Eventually all of them would grow back, and regular trips to
the bleachers were required.

“Really, Starbuck? Well I got some news for ya’. Take that stuff
off and get going there right now!” His frown turned into a grin in an
instant, his accent becoming less thick. “Princess Luna has *personally*
requested your transfer to the Nightguard!” Starbuck’s mouth fell open,
but only for a moment. He had only volunteered to stay after dark with
Princess Luna after Celestia had gone. With all the guards there at the
same rank, she’d taken to giving him the commands, and he had followed
them without question, as he would have with Celestia. Whatever he had
done, she’d taken notice to him. “Tell the bleachers you’d like a shade
of Knightmare purple!” His hoof came up and smacked against his
shoulder, nearly toppling him over. “And while yer at it, turn that
set’a armor back in. You’ll be wearing silver in a night or two.”

“Y-Yes sir!”

Ivory Clockwork and Cog had been in the same master’s degree program
at the Manehatten Institute for Technology when Princess Celestia
called upon their teacher, Professor Pushbutton. Graciously he had
suggested they could help as well, and now the three of them were here,
under the castle.

Well, not technically under it, but underground near it. Ivory
had promised absolute secrecy before she had been allowed to even enter
the enormous underground complex. Bookshelves upon bookshelves and racks
of scrolls filled the room in which she stood now. Pushbutton had sent
her for a book on experimental kinetics, a subject she had learned about
early on in her coursework, but they regarded it as something with
little application in the real world. An area of theory and conjectures,
fit only for the mathponies and their giant chalkboards. But the
Professor thought differently.

She returned to the lab with the book. The Professor stood in
front of a large green chalkboard, equations and diagrams of what she
recognized as collision maps, vector diagrams, and various calculations
of mass and velocity. On the table in the middle of the room a large
metal object sat on the table. The lights in the room reflected off the
gleaming, newly forged metal. The thing was roughly rectangular, with a
protrusion at an obtuse angle at one end, and at the other, a hollow
cylinder.

“That’s called a ‘Gun,’ Ivory.” The Professor looked at her. He
had noticed her entrance and turned from his board to interrupt her
stare.

“A ‘Gun’...” she worked the word in her mouth. She had never heard the word before. “What does it do”?

“Well, according to our books,” the Professor said as he walked
over to his desk, stacked high with books and papers, chalk still
levitating in front of him, “It’s a kind of weapon. A mass accelerator.”

“A weapon?” Her eyes fixed upon it as she brought the book over.
She had been briefed on weapons and their functions, but this was the
first time she had seen one of them outside of sketches.

“Yes, a weapon.” He took the book from her and browsed quickly
through it. “ The earth ponies down in the shop built it to the
specifications given by the VI Adam. They had to use a strange substance
called ‘eezo,’ a material we’ve never encountered before.”

“Have you used it yet?”

“No, we’re going over the plans the earth ponies had sent us
right now. Team Five’s testing results are over there.” He pointed to a
small stack of papers near the gun. Team Five had been the team tasked
with testing the weapon on various materials and in differing
environments. She had been to the hay hall with some of them; this was
the thing of which they had talked excitedly about assembling and
testing.

“What are we supposed to do with it?”

“Princess Celestia has tasked us with testing its limits of
operations and any defenses we can suggest for it not already posited by
the VI. We don’t want to have to rely on Roughspace tech for defense.”

She pulled up a piece of canvas with a schematic diagram. This
object used magnets to accelerate a small shaving of metal to incredible
speeds within less than a second. She had once done a study on magnets
and their possible applications to pony life, but this was simply
ingenious. There wasn’t anything like this in any of the university labs
she had used anywhere in Equestria. She mentally kicked herself for
overlooking something so simple. “What did the VI have to say about defenses?”

“Well, they use devices of varying size that generate fields
about their bodies. Hardly completely effective, they wear off after
taking only a few rounds. And they’re useless against slower-moving
projectiles; that’s why it was so easy to incapacitate the Batarians
back in the Everfree Forest. Team 10 said they found a much larger
version in the vehicle they recovered in that scary place.”

“What do they call them?” she asked. She felt a twinge of jealousy
for Team 10, who had been assigned to deconstruct and reverse-engineer
the small spacefaring vehicle. Team 10 consisted of several dozen ponies
of all kinds, and they spent all their time talking eagerly about the
things they had discovered while disassembling a totally alien craft.
Others in the complex held them in high regard and almost all of them
shared in Ivory’s feelings. “The devices, I mean.”

“Oh, they call them shields, or kinetic barriers. They use the
material called Eezo too. Speeding objects turn them on, but otherwise
don’t block anything. A good idea, too, so the wearer doesn’t
suffocate.”

Cog opened the door to the room, wheeling in a large steel block
from the forgery. On one side concentric circles were set into the
metal, and behind him an armor rack borrowed from the Royal Guards’
armory followed, covered in a golden-colored robe.

“Here’s the stuff you asked for, Professor,” he said in an eager
voice. “The block was a bit of trouble at first, but I found some wheels
for it--we can take them off for the test if you want. And, uh, who’s
gonna wear this?”

The model was a unicorn pony and set at the base of its horn was a
thick gold ring, as if someone had sliced a cylinder width-ways, with
two prongs that sat on either side of the model horn, shaped and colored
like lightning bolts upside-down. Their points almost touched the tip
of the horn, and cloth straps ran down the back behind the ears to
attach to the main portion. The robe on the back of the model hung
loosely; strips affixed with small diamonds swayed and swung with its
movements through the room, and strips of shining purple runes
crisscrossed across its entirety.

“Why, Ivory of course,” Pushbutton said. “She is the most adept at magic among the three of us.”

“B-but, Professor,” she began to argue, “I don’t--”

“No buts about it, Ivory. I know you’re not a magic specialist,
but you’re better at it than either of us and you know it. Just put on
that clearance outfit and we’ll get started.”

“Is that what this is?” Cog asked loudly, eyeing the clothing up
and down. “The pony down at the armory said this thing had been covered
in dust where he found it and had no idea what it did. What does it
amplify?”

“It allows amplification of a certain kind of magic the user
casts. For this model, it will be lightning strikes. Go on, put it on.”

“Lightning...” she sighed. She had never been very good at magic,
even as a unicorn pony. There were plenty of other ponies in Equestria
who were much better than her; she knew some of the best magic users
were in this complex somewhere. And lightning strikes? She could cast
little more than a little spark or shock from her horn at some of her
friends as jokes, but only when she was near enough and concentrated
deeply. In fact, telekinesis was the only kind of magic she could use at
all, and even then it was only on things like clocks, watches, books,
and locks. Engineering had been the obvious choice for her career.
Reluctantly, she levitated the ring down around her horn and fastened
the straps around her body. The cloth clung to her lightly and, save for
the weight of the device on her horn and the diamond fasteners, she
could hardly feel its presence.

“Good. Now Ivory,” Pushbutton said in that tone of a teacher he so
enjoyed using, “I want you to focus on the space right in front of the
block. I’m going to throw something at it, and I want you to strike it
with a lightning bolt as fast as and hard as you can.”

“Professor,” she started to object, “I’m no good at this kind of
magic. I can barely make a spark at something standing still. How am I
supposed to get something in motion?” “C’mon, Ivory. I know you can do it!” Cog encouraged.

Professor Pushbutton sighed and his horn started to glow as a small
metal pointer levitated over from the table near the large green
chalkboard. It came to a stop about two feet from his face, hanging in a
light purple glow. “That outfit will increase your magic exponentially,
regardless of your talent. I’ve read of the magic testing from when you
were younger, and I can say with certainty that you’re suited for this.
Now, focus on your horn, feel the power lent by the suit; it has been
enchanted by both Princesses themselves to help ponies increase their
magical strength. Try and hit this pointer with a bolt of lightning.” She concentrated on the feeling of the suit and the ring with the
lightning bolts on either side of her horn. Her horn began to glow, and
she felt lighter; like a burden of which she had been unaware had been
lifted from her shoulders and back. She felt she could jump and fly out
of the room. Imbued with confidence, she now focused on the pointer in
the air before her, the endless possibilities of her new abilities
overshadowing the feelings the suit had initially effected on her.

In an instant, a tiny thundercloud the size of her own head was
summoned from aether above the pointer and fired a string of blindingly
bright light at it.

It only lasted an instant, but the pointer now glowed red-hot, sending curls of white smoke into the air.

“I knew you could do it Ivory!” Cog shouted, leaning back to clop his hooves together.

“Good, Ivory,” Pushbutton smiled widely. He turned to Cog. “Hold
this while I fetch the goggles.” The other pony’s horn glowed in
response, keeping the glowing rod from touching anything while the
professor retrieved the protective eyewear.

Ivory blushed. It had to be true, then, that this outfit she now
wore was enchanted by the Princesses of the Day and Night. She swelled
with pride, standing a little taller.

The Professor returned with a set of goggles for the two of them,
his pair already covering his eyes. “Here, put these on, Ivory. You’ll
be doing much more than just heating things up here. Much more.” Cog’s
eyes widened and he smiled at the idea. Ivory slid them on and giggled
at Cog, who’s goggles were a tad too big for his face and fit awkwardly
on his head. The Professor let out a small cry as Cog’s concentration
broke on the pointer, levitating it himself when the struggling pony let
it drop.

“Cog, you should be more careful,” the Professor chided warmly.
“Now Ivory, I want you to focus on the space in front of the block--put a
cloud above beforehand if you wish. I’m going to throw this pointer at
the target, but I want you to use lightning to prevent it ever reaching
it.

“But, um, how am I going to do that with nothing but lightning,
Professor?” she asked, flabbergasted at the very idea. “It won’t affect
its direction or velocity.” She created a small dark thundercloud above
the area in front of the block as she spoke. She looked over at Cog for
help, but he was listening intently to the Professor.

“I’m not asking you to do either of those things, Ivory. Think
about what I asked.” She looked to Cog for help again, but he just
returned a blank stare. He was as stumped as he was. She turned to look
at the space in front of the block, thinking hard of ways she could use
the lightning to move the pointer as it flew in the air. Perhaps she
could create opposing magnetic charges in the block and the pointer to
repel each other--no, she had no idea how to use lightning to do
something that advanced! Today was the first time she had been able to
make a proper bolt at all, much less this!

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she caught the
mischievous grin on the Professor’s face as he threw the pointer, still
red-hot from earlier, like a dart at the block next to her. In
desperation she chose to simply make this bolt as powerful as she could
muster, her horn now blazing with a purple light. Her eyes couldn’t move
fast enough to keep up with the pointer, and she closed them tightly in
concentration.

She could feel the blast rock her back onto her hind legs; even
from behind her eyelids, she could see the flash, and the sound was
deafening in the large room. When she opened her eyes some of the tables
had been knocked over and loose papers were strew across the entire
room. She spotted Cog first when his head popped up from behind an
overturned lab table, his head swaying dizzily. The Professor stood up
in front of another, his legs shaking as he did, but a wide grin on his
face despite what had happened.

“Much better than I expected,” his voice was faint even in her
ears despite his shouting. “Princess Celestia will be most pleased at
our progress!”

“What progress?!” she shouted in reply, “We’ve only proved that the
suit works!” She trotted over to help Cog back to his hooves.

Pushbutton had a hoof up to his ear as he inspected the face of the
metal cube. His eyes widened in realization. “Oh wow! Ivory, come look
at this!”

Specks of red-hot metal peppered the entire side. Here and there
larger bits of molten metal faintly glowed, but the rest had already
blackened and cooled into dust inside the tiny pits made by their
impact. The surface was perfectly smooth in the three innermost circular
markings.

“Do you realize what this means?” the professor’s eyes were wide,
and a smile stretched his open mouth. “Ivory, take the robes and the gun
to the testing chambers on level 48. Cog, follow her and bring the
block. I’m going to stop by the metal shop and get my hands on a barrier
generator!” His sudden exit into the hall caught him in the path of two
other ponies passing through, carrying stacks of papers on their backs.
Stumbling into their sides, the loads were scattered about the hall in a
flurry of black ink on white parchment. With a quick apology, the
Professor’s body struggled to catch up to where his mind was taking him.

Cog looked closely at their target as Ivory focused on the gun in
front of her. He expected her to take that three levels down? She could
barely hold the book in the air on the way back from the library, much
less something almost as big as her head. Perhaps she could convince Cog
to pull it on top of the cube, she could move that far easy. Calming
herself, she focused on lifting it.

It sprang into the air, perfectly suspended at eye-level. She raised
an eyebrow and turned her head for a moment, expecting it to start
sinking, but there it remained. She turned to look at Cog.

“Wow! Great job, Ivory! Maybe that suit makes you better at telekinesis too!”

She smiled and nodded her head, deciding not to point out his oversight.

Chapter 5

Celestia spied Luna as she walked into her throne room talking to one of her Royal guards. The sun was setting, sending soft orange and red shades onto the walls and bathing the room in gentle colors. She gave her head a quick jerk to the side when her sister noticed her entrance, and they walked casually into her room.

“My, I can see you’re taking quite a liking to that pegasus, my sweet little sister.” Celestia chuckled. Luna blushed.

“Starbuck is quite a pegasus, big sister.” She smiled to herself. “I’d like to ask you to transfer him to my own personal guard. I am sure he would not mind the change of coat.”

“Or the new company,” she smiled back. The doorframe to Celestia’s room passed overhead as they made their way to the mirror. “He’s yours. I’ll tell him when I get back. Now,” her horn started to glow slightly, causing the mirror next to her to flash to life, “I have something to show you.” Stars appeared across the mirror and streaked as she moved it’s view around in the sky far above the world. Luna looked on in genuine interest; she had abandoned the use of her magic mirror when the night had only revealed darkness wherever ponies were sleeping, so this ability had become fresh in her mind again after its long absence.

The view turned to face the moon, aglow in its early rise, and centered on a small silhouette. From this distance it looked like a small prickly object, and only uglier as the view came closer and closer: two pockmarked orbs, full of little lights and rectangular holes and thin pointy spikes and scratches and burn marks and what she could only guess was red lettering, were bridged by a metal latticework that surrounded a smaller shaft that solidly connected them, with orbs and boxes and drooping wires scattered about its length.

This horror was a blot upon her beautiful moon.

“I found it this morning. This is the thing that the creatures of Rough Space use to travel the great distances between worlds, sister. This is what the Batarian was calling his ‘ship.’ And there are more of his friends inside it.”

Luna looked at her in disbelief. “They have remained? What possesses them to stay so close?”

“I don’t know, Luna. Whatever the reason, it probably isn’t in our best interests. You’re going to need to wake up Dusk and go ask them.” She closed her eyes in a grin. “I sure hope they’re friendly!”

Luna’s eyes widened at the mention of Dusk. How many years had it been? Her time on the moon was fleeting compared age of that name. After a second, the fond memories of Dusk came flooding back to her; a torrent of sights and sounds of the adventures they had experienced together.

“I have already selected a group of friends to power her, Luna. They’re waiting for you to show them down to the storage area.”

“And a compliment of Pegasi?”

“I’ve already made arrangements for your ‘Vigil Nocte’ to be reestablished. They’ll be waiting for you.”

Twilight Sparkle trotted quickly to Carousel Boutique, Spike bouncing along on her back, grinning ahead eagerly. The white and purple pony was found inside humming in front of her sewing machine, the walls lined with dresses on pony models in varying stages of completion. Several objects floated in the air around her surrounded with a light blue aura. Her focus wasn’t broken when Twilight’s entry rung the bell at her door.

“Um, hello?” Twilight asked, unsure if she should be interrupting.

“Oh! Twilight, Spike!” Rarity blinked. “I didn’t hear you enter. How long have you been standing there? I’m so sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Oh, we just got here.”

“H-hey Rarity,” Spike waved at her, a dreamy look in his eyes.

“Hello, dear,” Rarity replied, completely ignoring the longing looks.

“So, are you…” Twilight looked about the room, “…busy?”

“Why, yes actually. I’m afraid I’m behind on a couple orders.” She returned to her sewing for a moment to finish a stitch in the fabric, then looked over her glasses to see Twilight still looking at her. “Oh, I’m sorry, did you need something?”

“Yes, I need you to come with me over to the library. I have something to tell everypony and it’s...kind of important.”

“Well, I always have time for my friends, Twilight. What is it? Some news?” She started to put away the objects she had suspended back into various cubbies and drawers throughout the shop.

“It’s, uh, complicated. I had hoped to explain it all when the others get there.” Twilight turned to leave.

“Others? Who else is coming?” Rarity asked, trotting quickly over to her side.

“Well, I saw Applejack earlier and she said she’d come,” Twilight turned to face Rarity when they both were outside. “And Rainbow Dash too, but she’s getting Fluttershy. All that’s left is-“

“Hey!” Pinkie Pie’s nose pressed up against Twilight’s, sending her head back a few inches in surprise. “Hi Twilight! I saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all going to the library earlier, so I thought I’d find you and see what’s going on? Are you having a party? Is it somepony’s birthday and I just forgot? I usually don’t forget anypony’s birthday, except for sometimes my own, like that one time I-”

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight interrupted, “I was just going to go looking for you. I need you to come with me to the library too. I’m not having a party, just an, um, get-together.” She laughed hesitantly at Pinkie Pie’s stare.

“Okey-dokey-lokey! Sounds like fun! We could make it a party anyway! Look, I even brought some streamers and other party stuff!” She reached behind her and pulled out some party whistles from out of nowhere, unfurling them among a rain of confetti.

“I’m not sure that would work, Pinkie. This isn’t a party, I just need to talk to you all. Really.”

“Oh dear, I hope it’s not bad news.” Rarity put a hoof up to her chest. “It’s not bad news, is it Twilight? That would just make my day simply awful.”

“Okay, I think everypony’s here,” Spike said, fetching the book Celestia had sent from Twilight’s bed. The ponies had finished gathering around the book in the center of the library, giving both Twilight and the book quizzical looks.

Twilight sighed, both nervous and sad at the prospect of the task ahead. A wise pony had once said: “The pony that increases in knowledge, thusly increases in sorrow.” At first she had thought little of it, that it couldn’t be that bad, but now she knew all too well. There were things that were better forgotten. But the Princess herself had charged her with telling her friends about this, about the history of Equestria forgotten to all the but the oldest of dragons and the immortal Rulers of Equestria. Where should she start? The origins of Equestria? The Unfortunate Enemies? The Great War? She doubted any of the ponies with her could even grasp the very idea of war, much less that ponies had any hoof in it.

Another thought occurred to her: how would each of them receive this? Being ponies, the Blessing of The Sisters was on each and every one of them, herself included. She hadn’t succumbed to the ideas presented in the book, and she had grown up reading books on (what she thought at the time) every conceivable subject, and she was fine. Antisocial, but fine. Fluttershy worried her. The sensitive pony would probably cry her eyes out. What about Rainbow Dash? She knew the blue pony was very competitive, almost aggressive, but nothing tragic had come from it; would the ideas of-

“Twilight!” Spike called, poking her shoulder. She shook her head.

“Uh, Twi? You ok?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash interjected, “What’s this book you gotta tell us about? Are we gonna have to sit through a lecture?” She crossed her forelegs, hovering just above the floor.

Twilight took a deep breath. She had to do it, the Princess had told her to. It was now or never, she told herself.

“Well girls,” she started, “Princess Celestia sent me this book a few days ago and she said that I would need to tell all of you about it.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “You asked us over here to listen to a book report?”

“No,” Twilight quickly responded, shaking her head, “Well, not really. I just have to-“

Spike’s burp interrupted her. A letter bound with red ribbon and bearing Celestia’s seal floated among sparkles in the air.

“Oh, a letter from Princess Celestia!” Spike instantly grabbed it out of the air and opened it, her previous train of thought completely gone.

“Dear Twilight, my most yadda yadda…” he began, reading ahead silently, “You and your friends are hereby summoned to Canterlot, and are to leave as soon as possible!”

“Canterlot?” Rarity squealed in delight. “My my my, what for?”

“Ooh! I love guessing games!” Pinkie Pie shouted, bouncing up and down on her hooves. “Is it a party? A Royal Party?”

“Aw yeah, a trip to Canterlot! The Wonderbolts are having an air show there in two days!” Rainbow Dash pulled in one of her fore-hooves. “I’ll be-I mean, we’ll be able to go see them!” Pinkie was still bouncing up and down beneath her making guesses.

“Now hold on there, Pinkie. He hadn’t said what the invitation is about.” Applejack put a hoof on Pinkie Pie’s chest, keeping her on the ground. “Go ahead, Spike.”
“Hmm…” Spike eyes narrowed, “It doesn’t say. Just that transportation will be provided at-“

A loud knock sounded on the door, startling them. Twilight walked over and opened it with her horn to see two white, gold-covered pegasus ponies. “Oh, um, hello sirs.”

“Miss Sparkle,” the one on the right addressed her, recognizing her instantly. Twilight wished she could do the same for the guardsponies, but they all looked the same to her. “We are here to give you and your friends transport to Canterlot, immediately.”

“We have provided a chariot to bring your friends without wings,” the other said.

“The Princess has told us to prepare for four. Is this correct?” The first one asked.

“Yes, that’s correct,” she replied, unsure which one she should answer. She supposed that Spike could just sit on her back in the chariot.

“We are prepared to leave whenever you are ready, Miss Sparkle,” the second one answered.

“Um, excuse me sirs, but you’ll have to give me and my friends and few minutes to prepare.” She turned and looked at her friends, the same faces of wonder and excitement that they wore when they arrived now had a different reason. She sighed; she hadn’t been able to tell them yet. She had no idea how to summarize it in the few minutes they did have, and most of them needed to make some preparations for their responsibilities here. Time had run out for her, and the Princess would be so very disappointed. “Well, are any of you ready to go to Canterlot? I’m sure that there are some things you have to take care of first.”
“Oh, darling, nothing says importance like getting behind on orders because of Royal Business,” Rarity said, all smiles, “I can make time in my schedule.”

“Big Macintosh can take care of the farm for a day or two,” Applejack said.

“I always have time for the Wonderbolts!” Rainbow Dash did a flip in the air, “I mean, uh, the Princess.”

Pinkie Pie gasped, then sped out the door and between the guards without a word. Twilight looked at Fluttershy, who simply nodded.

“Well, I guess that’s everyone who’s going,” Twilight told the two guards. “I think a couple of us need to pack first.”

The guards turned and trotted back to the chariot parked near the library where two more waited, already in the harness of the chariot.

“Twilight, I simply must get my best clothes to go see the Princess,” Rarity told her, “I just have to run back to my shop and-“

“There! All packed!” Pinkie Pie shouted, reappearing next to them. A pair of saddlebags dropped from her mouth on the ground in front of them. Applejack’s and Rarity’s saddlebags, fully-packed. “I wanted to go right now, so I just stopped at Rarity’s and Applejack’s house to get their saddlebags on the way so we wouldn’t have to wait! Look, they’re all full of the stuff they need, plus I have my own too, see?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the pink pony. “Pinkie, Carousel Boutique and the Apple Family Farm aren’t on the way to Sugarcube corner.”

“Ah, thanks Pinkie Pie!” Applejack walked over and picked up her saddlebags, setting them on her back. Rarity opened her bags, picking out a scarf and some stylish wind goggles before donning them too.

Twilight put her face to her hoof; she knew better than to ask how she did it.

Starbuck’s eyes stung a little. The dye still burned on his coat, and rubbing his eyes only brought him tears. He trotted down the marble and gold corridors of Celestia’s castle to the armory and felt pride when the ponies that passed him left their eyes on him a little too long—it had been quite a long time since anypony had seen wings of purple that close to black, save Nightmare Moon, and he was among the first in a thousand years.

He made an effort not to smile at anypony. It was easy as a guard to be stone-faced all the time, but here, deep within the Palace and off-duty, the absence of warm greetings between the members came off as sullen, even pouty. A toothless, closed-mouth smile in return would let the others know he was in pain, then they’d ask what was wrong, and he’d have to open his mouth.

Mason was already waiting for him at the chow hall, wearing his gleaming light-purple Knightmare Armor. The curves of his flowing plates ended in accentuated points. His helmet helped keep his mane, which looked like a purple and blue wing of a bat, standing upright, and the metal swept into points at the end of his snout. The sides of his ornate purple shoes joined together along a tall edge at the front, and at his chest dark purple, nearly black, swept forward from the base of his wings to join at a clasp that looked like a light blue iris with a slit pupil.

Which was also the most noticeable alteration: Mason’s eyes were a dark gold and had the same slits for pupils.

The line of ponies extended past him around the walls of the room, chatting amongst themselves and the ponies already standing at the tables nearby. Every now and then he’d notice one of the groups stop talking for a moment to look at him and Mason, who was motioning him over to the head of the line.

“Starbuck!” Mason called, “Glad to see you could make it in time for dinner, thought the operations might take a little longer than expected. Mouth still sore?”

Starbuck had seen him last only this morning, but the success of today’s operations on him were as plain as day, and he showed no discomfort from either the alterations nor the looks his open mouth garnered in the crowded room. Starbuck’s head still throbbed from the recent changes and he didn’t want to risk cutting his tongue again, so he simply nodded.

“Well, that’ll pass with time. You’d better get used to using your mouth more, Knightmare!” He turned and walked into the doors leading into the kitchen, a quick tilt of his head telling Starbuck to follow. They passed through many chef ponies who blustered and neighed at the strangers’ blundering walks; while they had learned to move through the kitchen with ease, Starbuck and Mason blundered between the cramped counters, ovens, and vats nearly knocking over several trays of food and a few pots of soup. Mason’s armor didn’t make it any easier on them, but they reached the trot-in refrigerator without incident. A purple unicorn pony with a large chef’s hat met them with a queasy look.

“Mason, I presume?”

“That’s right. Me and Starbuck here need a couple plates of dinner. Extra rare, please, and hold the steaming,” Mason replied confidently, ignoring or oblivious to the scrunching brow of the pony in front of him. A couple slow nods and the chef disappeared into the fridge for a moment, while Mason led Starbuck over to the a folding table near the back of the kitchen the chefs used as a break area. They each sat down on either side and, beyond the view of so many ponies, Starbuck allowed himself to open his mouth to ask the questions pressing on him.

“Is this some kind of special food for us?” he asked.

“Yes,” Mason answered as if he had been waiting for Starbuck ask, “and tomorrow’s special order will the the last one served to you in a kitchen, if I have anything to say about it.”

“What do you mean? And what’s ‘Rare’? Some kind of weird spice or sauce?” He hadn’t ever heard of something like that, even living within the palace with the nobles and the Princesses’ with their exotic meals of strange flowers, vegetables, and grasses imported from all corners of Equestria—-but then, the life of a guardspony didn’t really involve regular meals of gourmet cooking.

“Ha!” Mason guffawed, “Spice! That’s pretty good, Starbuck.” He paused for a moment, brining a hoof up to his chin. “Those new teeth probably hurt your mouth, don’t they? Bet’cha cut your tongue on them a few times already.”

Starbuck nodded in agreement.

“Do you know why you got that operation?”

“Well, I suppose I-“

“Ah, the food is ready!” Mason interrupted, turning to look at the plate floating near to his table. Starbuck turned to look for his chef, and spotted the unicorn’s glowing purple horn on the farthest side of the room, one hoof over his nose. Strange, he thought, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chef pony make something that stank before--maybe it’s the extra Rare on my food.

He turned back to inspect his plate, and his own nose shared its opinion with the chef who left as soon as the plates hit the table. His head pulled back a little at the sight, then up to Mason, his own mouth agape to ask questions with a lost voice.

“Eat! You’re a Knightmare now, you’ll eat like one!” Mason barked at him, pointing a hoof at the disgusting dish.

Starbuck looked down at his plate again, his mouth still hanging open. An identical meal sat on the plate opposite him, in front of Mason, who stared at him.

“Is…is this what I think it is?” Starbuck managed to ask.

“Yes. Now stop talking and start eating! I know you’re hungry, they don’t let you eat or drink for a long time before operations, and lemme tell ya’ that the stuff on this plate and another one just like it is the only thing you’re gonna eat today.”

Lemon Hearts was nervous as she followed the Princess of the Night through the ancient underground corridors. Behind her five of her friends trotted on in silence; their day had been long already before they had been voluntold to help Luna. The permanent illumination of the warmly lit, cream-colored halls had thrown their sleep schedules out of order, and they could see the small dark circles under their eyes in the brass-covered pillars that extended from floor to ceiling and hugged the walls down every corridor. Luna, however, stood in stark contrast; light didn’t quite reflect off her dark blue coat, but rather fell against it and drowned. She maintained the same shade regardless of shadows or light, and Lemon wondered if she would turn invisible in the dark. If darkness existed anywhere in this labyrinth of halls. She hadn’t spied any windows or markings of any sort in their descent into the mountain, and had lost track of the time entirely. Behind them all followed several Knightmares: ponies in the Night Guard dedicated to protecting Luna. Reflections of the halls glinted off their brightly polished armor, and underneath were their coats of an unnatural gray. Swirling arcs were engraved above their eyes on their helmets, flowing up to meet the bat-wing manes on top. They had seemed nice enough, but then again, most of the Royal Guards didn’t talk much when on duty.

After such a long walk, they stopped abruptly in front of a large, ornate door in the side of the hallway. The dimensions of the passage had been slightly expanding since the turn so far back, but she hadn’t noticed it until now. Silver filigree twisted and curled at its edges against flawless obsidian, and she estimated that perhaps ten ponies would have to stand on each others’ backs to touch the top. Luna’s horn glowed as she operated a small lever at normal pony height. The door opened with a hiss, letting out a small breeze past her and her friends; her ears felt the decrease in pressure in the hall, like going up too fast in a balloon.

“My dear ponies,” Luna smiled, “please enter.” She gestured with a hoof to the door, and the three of them obeyed. Now the walls were a light purple, or maybe blue, with sweeping curves carved in the stone for doors and windows. Luna continued to lead them deeper and deeper into what Lemon was sure was Luna’s private wing of the castle. As they trotted, lights began to flicker on here and there from out of the dim light of the corridors, filling the halls with soft illumination.

The room they stopped in had a short pillar in the center, with smaller ones surrounding it. A large throne with a crescent moon for its back sat on the opposite side. It reminded her of the small outdoor theater seating she had helped create back home. A large dome of a ceiling topped it off, and every surface had certain parts made of black stone; the podiums were topped with a slate of it, the inside of the dome was inset with it, and on the throne the armrests were covered in it. The floor stepped down surrounding the pillar in the center like an angular bowl; Lemon was reminded of a small outdoor theater they had once made back home.

“Wow...” Lemon’s voice faded. “What is this place?”

“Thou stands before the Center of Command,” Luna started proudly, “it shall serve to control the entirety of my Sky Palace. But first, we must awaken it. Please, come hither.”

“A-awaken it?” Roseluck started. Luna led them up around the pillar at the bottom, where she sat down on her haunches in front of it.

“Gather and join thine hooves,” Luna commanded, “Now, close thine eyes and dwell on thoughts of thy friends, thy sweet memories of companions and good times had by all.”

It seemed like an odd thing to do, but they did as they were told. Lemon looked around, across the top of the stump of a column, before she closed her eyes at her friends with her: Bumblesweet, Roseluck, Cherry Spices, Lillyblossom, and Sugar Grape. A fuzzy feeling crept into her after a moment. These were the friends she had grown up with at the edge of Manehatten, her best friends that had been with her through thick and thin, who remained her friends even when she had been cold or uncaring or made mistakes. She began to remember the things they had been through together, the fond memories of their adventures, their sleepovers, tea parties, and everything else about them that made her feel increasingly warm inside.

Light flashed beyond her eyelids, and she opened her eyes in time to see Luna’s horn glow, firing a small spell into the point at the center of the dome overhead. Her friends’ smiles turned upward to watch the fizzles and sparks of the spell’s aftereffects that sprinkled down around them. Lemon looked around the room, and she could see small motes of light begin to sparkle on top of the podiums in sharply-defined shapes of Equestrian runes.

“Good evening, Princess Luna. It’s been a long time,” Lemon heard a sweet voice behind her say. It didn’t sound like any of her friends, and as far as she knew, they were alone in here. She turned back to find its source and saw it in the middle of them all.

Between them stood what appeared to be a unicorn comprised entirely of magic light: her form looked semisolid, as if glass with a deep blue tint; only her green eyes (that which they could see) looked like anypony else’s; and light reflected and shimmered off of glitter that danced around inside her, beneath her skin. Lemon spied the sign of a sunset on her flank, colored deep red.

“Dusk!” Luna shouted happily as the crystal pony jumped down to hug her, “So, very, very long!” She seemed solid enough.

“I guess I should be thankful I can’t count that high, Luna,” Dusk smiled. She looked over Luna’s shoulder to the other ponies in the room. “Hello! Who are you?”

“Dusk, these are the ponies we used to wake you. Their friendship brought you forth from your eternal slumber!” Luna was all smiles at this point, a marked difference from her usual demeanor.

“What are you?” Cherry Spices asked bluntly, “Why do you look so different?”

“Heh, it has been a long time Luna. That’s a good thing, I guess.” She looked at Cherry and the rest of the group as she spoke, “My name is Dusk, and I’m the pilot of this Sky Palace.”

Chapter 1

The Great and Powerful Trixie trotted back to her wagon, away from the strange and terrible-looking ruins deep in the forest, brushing aside her things on the open stage to make way for the scroll. It's length spilled from the planks and onto the ground, and even in the bright light of her lanterns, the paper and black text upon it seemed under a shadow, the words difficult to read. The Great and Powerful Trixie smiled. This was the scroll she had read about--the magic spell that had been eradicated from knowledge for its forbidden power.

It was the spell worthy only for the Great and Powerful Trixie. What the spell actually did escaped her, but it didn't matter what it did. She would master it, and she would show them all. That accursed Twilight Sparkle and all the plebeians of that hic town would remember her name forever. The Great and Powerful Trixie would be known throughout Equestria as only second to the Princess-Godess herself. Ponies everywhere would speak her name in hushed reverence at her memory, or jubilant celebration at her arrival.

Luckily for The Great and Powerful Trixie, the pony language didn't change much over the centuries. Despite its age it remained intact and legible; the strange paper's magical preservation had kept it safe in the bog waters of the Everfree Forest where she had found it and where she beheld it now.

The Great and Powerful Trixie decided that she should try it out now, removing any chance that the scroll might fail in front of her adoring fans. There was power in these words; her voice deepened considerably as they escaped her lips. Her horn shined even brighter in the night of the Everfree forest.

Celestia awoke. She had a sense of dread the likes of which she hadn't felt since her sister rose up against her more than a millennia ago. Rushing over to her mirror it flashed here and there rapidly, from ponyville to Appleloosa, through the Everfree Forest until she found the source of this great disturbance: Trixie. She looked closer at the scroll in the center of the growing whirlwind.

Her mind reeled at the sight of it. Memories long suppressed and regrettably retained flooded her thoughts. This was a relic of the Time Before--back when all of Equestria hadn't been peaceful, ages and ages ago, when the unicorns of the land had been powerful beyond imagining.

Back when there wasn't a need for her willful suppression of magic. Back before the infection.

The boastful pony had succumbed to anger and thoughts of revenge. She had found the last surviving copy of the scroll, with the incantations meant to empower the reader. Trixie was far, far out of her league here.

"Guards!" She called as she galloped to the door. Two dark-grey unicorns clad in gold armor slammed open the door, on full alert from the uncharacteristically dire tone of her voice.

"Come with me, prepare to jump!" They nodded gravely and motioned over two pegasus guards to join them next to her. They knew what this meant: their day had finally come. All the training, the psychological conditioning, the mental and physical hazards they had volunteered themselves to suffer through for honor of protecting their Princess-Goddess. It had been generations since her Royal Guard had been more than just for show, but now the time had come to pony up. Their hearts raced within their chests, their straight faces hiding the eager smiles just beneath at the thought of what lay on the other side of the white flash of light.

The wind swirled about her, picking up leaves, branches, and speed as she spoke. The wagon trembled and shook, her beautiful curtains flapped wildly, and her small camp was soon swirling all about her. Adrenaline coursed through her veins at the sight of her own power. The scroll held its place in front of her when the wagon picked up and joined the hurricane of debris forming around her.

Harsh, sharp shadows blanketed the forest in front of her in contrast to dazzlingly white in a flash.

"Trixie! Stop!" she thought she heard behind her. But her thoughts and eyes were darting quickly between the dark words on the paper and the dark spot forming in the air near her.

The sight shocked Celestia and her guards when they blinked into existence just outside the tempest of wreckage. It was working despite only one pony reading it! She had to save her before it was too late.

"Stop her." She quietly commanded. Her guards gave each other a slight nod before dashing to each side of Trixie's whirlwind. They danced around trees, occasionally using them for cover from the larger pieces swirling about. The storm kept the pegasus ponies from flight, and they kept low to the ground. There, in the center of it all, Trixie's horn glowed brighter and brighter with each passing second. Celestia made her way through, using her magic to deflect the debris.

One of the unicorns bounded through the wall of wind and reached Trixie, but the spot had grown too large. He looked at it for a moment before screaming.

"It's...It's empty! It's all empty! So much NOTHING!" His hooves dug into the ground while he stared and tried to escape, but his quivering mass soon joined the rest of the wreckage. The second lunged to tackle her, but misjudged his timing and was caught by the wagon.

Celestia and her pegasus guards reached her in the eye of the hurricane and stomped the scroll to the ground. But Trixie continued chanting, and Celestia could hear the deep guttural voice grinding within her throat now that she had come close. The princess looked at her and saw it was too late for the poor pony. The recursive magic had already begun and would not free her until the spell was complete.

The world was going white. The Great and Powerful Trixie couldn't stop herself now. Her mouth spoke on it's own. She could feel herself getting weak. No, this was more than weak. She was getting weary, as if somewhere deep inside her very life was being sucked away. The scroll disappeared, and in it's place Princess Celestia appeared. She looked right at her, her face seemed sad and, even worse, disappointed. Trixie could feel her voice getting hoarse. She knew it was too late. She had made a terrible mistake.

Celestia looked into Trixie's glowing eyes. Around this quiet place the storm raged. She stood next to her and wrapped a wing around the small pony. She could feel Trixie's body getting thinner beside hers. Tears dripped from the pony's eyes, her expression still fixed in an unblinking, forward stare. Her voice was little more than wheezes now, her head lowering slightly as her muscles twitched around her brittle bones to keep her upright. Celestia pulled her close and held her up during her final moments.

"Oh, Trixie, I'm so sorry..."

Rarity's focus broke for a moment as she sewed late into the night. The seam had meandered far to the right of her marked lines.

"Oh dear, just look what I've done! I never should have taken an order that large," She sighed. "Perhaps I should--"

The world blinked. She looked around her shop for a moment before rubbing her eyes. Something felt wrong. Very wrong indeed. Maybe she had worked through too many late nights. This was the last large order she would put off until the very last moment, she promised herself.

"Applejack? Applejack!" A small voice asked, silhouetted by the light in the hall. Applejack turned in her bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Huh?" She spotted Applebloom at the door. "What's all the fuss about, sugar-cube?"

"Ah had a nightmare." Her large eyes glinted the moonlight in the dim room and Applejack could see her lower lip raised to a sad face.

"Ah reckon' you'll want to sleep with me then. Well, come on." She replied wearily.

Twilight awoke suddenly. Something felt wrong. She looked around her darkened library, but the only sound she heard was Spike's light snoring. For a moment she had felt cold, chilled to the bone, but only for a split second. She wondered if it even happened.

"Spike? Spike, wake up!" She whispered loudly. He mumbled something about his mommy and rolled over in his bed. "Come on, Spike. Something is wrong, I just know it!"

He sat up begrudgingly. "What is it, Twilight?"

"Did you...feel anything just now?"

"Just you waking me up..."

"Oh, ok...Nevermind then, guess it was just a nightmare."

"Ok Twilight." Spike laid back down and pulled the blankets over his head. Twilight remained awake for a long time, wondering what that terrible feeling meant, if she had just dreamed it.

Celestia sat on her throne for a long time, deep in thought. She moved to her mirror and looked through Equestria, checking to see if anypony had noticed anything. Her kingdom seemed to be taking its normal morning routine, business as usual everywhere she looked. Except for her guard's padded cell. In the corner a small fort of pillows and blankets shook slightly from the pony within. He continued to mutter and ramble in his madness about "the void" and "the nothingness beyond." Nurses cared for him day and night deep within her castle, sworn to secrecy. This was the first pony in thousands of years to actually go mad, and its implications of this situation should never be spread.

She looked up at the last glinting stars in the early morning sky. Soon some of the unicorn ponies would notice what was out of place, and it was only a matter of time until her favorite student discovered what had happened. She was always very diligent and often times single-minded. She had uncovered the old tomes of prophesy and had taken the learning of esoteric knowledge well. If anyone could be trusted with the truth, it was Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

They had a thousand years to figure it out anyway.

The Illusive man took another drag, and the smoke had a slight blue tinge from his glowing eyes in the darkness. He tapped the console on his chair, bringing up a hologram of the pastel-colored planet. No one had ever visited that planet before, at least no member of any of the space-faring races. Well, discounting the probe they had sent. What had returned, though, was something beyond anyone's wildest dreams, even for the man who saw the dark underbelly of the galaxy and things no other man could imagine.

Here was something beyond biotics, some source of unknown power and potential. Something the humans could use, or exploit, in their war against fate. On a planet that could easily support human colonization, no less. The flora and fauna were of the same chemical make-up of Earth's biosphere, save for the one dominant species. The ground, however, contained unimaginable amounts of raw materials seemingly sparse in the rest of the galaxy: rare metals, diamonds and isotopes galore, and (when it would come down to it) labor from the inhabitants.

The planetary system was the strangest by far: instead of planets orbiting a star, it seemed that, in this system at least, the star revolved around a planet. At first his scientists had thought it to be a frame-of-reference mistake, but the probe they sent confirmed their original observations that this system defied conventional physics. No star charts of maps of any kind had noted this system's existence, which at first would be understandable given it's location beyond citadel space, but no one else had noticed it either. No other races were concerned about this deviation from the laws of the universe, this treasure trove of resources, no word from any of Cerberus' spy networks about it whatsoever. It was as if it just appeared out of nowhere.

Another tap on his console summoned a gentle female voice. "Yes, Tim? What can I do for you?"

"Get me a science team and a diplomat, on the double. A sociologist too."

"Yes, sir. Right away."

He stared at the planetary display while his secretary went to work, thinking of all the plans he had in store for this untapped potential contained on this pastel-colored rock.

"Finders, keepers."

Chapter 2

Celestia moved to face her magic mirror. She had raised the sun and
dealt with her few royal duties, and now she had a chance to rest for a
bit. Smoke and sparkles appeared and danced and swirled in the air next
to her, congealing into a letter. It was from her faithful student
Twilight Sparkle, but she already knew that. She also knew what its
subject, and it read:

My Dearest Teacher,

It has come to my attention that none of the stars in the night
sky are properly aligned. I have tried every rotation and inversion of
the known constellations, but I can't find how they've been moved. None
of the deep space objects I've been observing remain unchanged either.
It's almost as if someone has replaced the sky, or, more alarmingly, we
no longer occupy the same place in the universe as we did before. I know
your powers are great Princess, but hundreds of years of documentation
and study of the constellations above Equestria have been undone. But
all I ask is for your reassurance that it is all for the best. Who am I
to question your wisdom?

I anxiously await your reply.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia began to write a response when a messenger knocked on the
door to her room. She opened the door to greet him. The unicorn
levitated an object in the air before his face and brought it to her.
She moved a table to him and he set it down before reporting.

"Princess, this arrived at the palace late last night. A pony said
she found it on her farm in a field, in the middle of a big hole in the
ground. She also said it was smoking when she found it, and that it
changes color when she touches it, so we've been moving it with magic
ever since."

"Thank you. Please stay for a moment..."

Celestia looked hard at it. It looked...rough. Jagged. Dull. It was
about half the size of a pony and somewhat oval-shaped. Bits of dirt
still clung to it around the hairline cracks that traced its surface.
She lifted it in the air for careful observation. One end of the grey
thing was blackened badly and there in the center something peeked
through behind dark glass. She rubbed a cloth over it, revealing an
arrangement of circle- and square-shaped bubbles behind. A small red
bubble blinked red for a moment before the square one lit up.

"Hello, Princess Celestia."

She was taken aback; the guard twitched at the sudden movement of
the object as she jerked it away for a moment before pulling it close
again. A figure, silhouetted by multicolored flames, looked back at her
with glowing blue eyes.

"I'm sure you're wondering just who and what I am, but I assure you we mean no harm," the thing spoke again.

"Who am I speaking to?" she asked warily.

"People call me 'The Illusive Man,' but you can call me Tim for
short. I represent the greater interests of humanity. I already know
your name; we've had the cameras recording since this landed."

"I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of All Equestria." she said,
continuing with formal introductions anyway. Faint memories nagged at
her--something about this creature seemed familiar. "Where are you? I
have never seen a creature like you before."

Tim raised a limb with a small white stick burning at the end near
his eyes for a moment before responding with a puff of smoke, like a
dragon. "Lots of people would like to know that, but where I am isn't
really important. What's important is the safety of your people."

"What do you mean 'people'? Equestria is a land of Ponies, Tim."

"Ponies, then. When your system appeared suddenly on the fringes of
the Traverse, we had to investigate. Do you know what happened?"

She looked at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes. He just stared back.

"I take it you do, and just aren't going to tell me." He puffed
again. "Well, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about in the future.
You see, I'm trying to warn you. Your ponies are in great danger. All of
them. I think we can help each other out."

"Equestria hasn't known true danger in millennia. Are you threatening me?"

"No. Consider this a gesture of goodwill. I didn't have to send this probe out to contact you."

"Your warning, then?"

"In about a day, your time, a ship will try to land on your planet.
The people inside are slavers and have only their own interests at
heart." He paused again to let out another puff of smoke.

"A...ship? And what do you mean 'slavers'?"

"They're coming from the sky to take your ponies away from you;
either to work for them for the rest of their short lives, or," another
puff, "worse, sell them to someone else like tools."

"How do you know this? Did you send them yourself?"

"No, our monitoring systems in this probe picked up their chatter on
the way here. They'll be heavily armed and greedy. You'll have to
defend yourselves."

"Why should I trust you?" She asked softly.

"You can wait for them. When you see what kind of universe you've
entered and want some help, tap on this object a few times and I'll be
in touch."

The square bubble went dark.

Starbuck paused. He knew something was wrong. Princess Celestia had
ordered them into the Everfree Forest without her carriage. They were
flying low, and fast. The Princess hardly ever flew anywhere herself,
much less with a squad of four pegusus ponies armored to the teeth. The
light gold armor held fast to his body with straps, he could fell the
wind rushing through the gaps faster than he had experienced since his
entrance exam to the Royal Guard. No announcement had been made when she
left. No ponies other than her own guards there to see her off. This
trip wasn't planned, and Princess Celesita never left Canterlot without
notice.

This flight was testing the limits of his abilities. Taller trees
now stabbed out of the ground below him; the Princess moved through them
almost effortlessly, but him and the rest of his group struggled to
dodge them all. When they passed over a clearing, he took a moment to
look at the sky above and beyond her. There, in the sky, a small grey
and white object fell gracefully to the ground, small blue lights here
and there on it's surface. More trees, he turned his attention back to
the Princess in the lead, doing his best to keep up.

The Everfree forest was the sprawling untamed area of Equestria.
Here, things worked differently than the rest of the world: strange
animals lived here, weather acted on its own, and the creatures that
came out from time to time were often "taken care of" by the Royal
Guard. Here was the only place in all of Equestria that evil could occur
naturally, and from it's depths exploration teams funded by the Crown
reported the discovery of vile things that threatened the innocence of
Her people. There was no telling what he'd see when they got to wherever
she was leading them, but he would be ready, whatever it was.

Suddenly, she slowed and desceded under the canopy and touched down.
Her guards took up positions around her, and she motioned silently for
them to move foward. They moved quietly, their years of hard training
finally paying off, making not a sound as the approached an unnatural
clearing. In the middle a very large slab of dark metal lay surrounded
by odd--rough, really--looking creatures moved immense boxes. None of
them stood on their forelegs. They all had rough, dark-colored hides and
small, strange things on the end of their forelimbs. He couldn't make
out the details of what he assumed were their heads, but he could hear
their stern tones as they yelled at each other. Each of them must be at
least as tall as the Princess herself. They walked around buildings and
columns as they did, moving boxes and waving around long contraptions
that looked like a combination of sticks and boxes. She motioned for
them to exit the trees and into the clearing. One of the creatures
immediately noticed the Princess's brilliant white coat and flowing
colored hair.

"Halt! Who goes there!" one of them yelled out of what Starbuck
could only assume was its mouth. In its hand a small box with a tube
coming out the end was pointing to Celestia. The Princess bowed her head
slightly, keeping her eyes on it. Starbuck was surprised that it spoke
their language.

"I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of all of Equestria. May I ask what you are doing here in Everfree forest?"

"We came here for mining operations." His voice was guttural, and
his teeth looked like a tangle of curved needles. All four of the eyes
in his head blinked for a moment. "If you know what is good for you,
native, you will leave this place."

"Where did you come from?" The Princess replied, unfazed by these strange sights and sounds. "Do you live in this forest?"

"Are you stupid? We do not live in an ugly place like this." The box
thing, tube still poked out at Celestia, shook at the end of his limb.
"We did not come from this planet, we came to it! We are taking your
natural resources, you ignorant peasant. Now leave this place before I
have to hurt you."

The second the threat passed his bulbous, disgusting face two of
Celestia's guards were in front of her, wings spread to cross in front
of her. The other strange creatures pulled boxes of their own and tubes
of all different sizes were pointed at them.

"Where are you taking them?" She asked.

"All you need to know is that we are taking them off-planet and there is nothing you can do about it!"

"Please leave. I do not want you to take our anything away from Equestria."

"What did you just ask me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't speak loud enough. I asked you to please leave Equestria."

"You are a fool." He replied, and pointed his box at Graphite, who glared at him with practiced stillness.

Graphite's head jerked back suddenly and he fell limp, collapsing
onto the ground. Blood poured out onto the dirt of the clearing and
Starbuck knew now just what those small boxes did. He dug his hooves
into the ground, keeping his bearing.

Princess Celestia looked down at the corpse by her hooves without
moving, and for a moment he could see for the first time in his life,
hints of anger on Princess Celestia's face. Her horn flashed and in an
instant each small box in sight had split longways along the tubes.

"Save the one in the front!" Celestia yelled. The couple of seconds
they inspected the dark-colored flowers in their hands, Starbuck and his
companions sprung into action. Six of the evil creatures, save the one
who had spoken, were now their responsibility. The first one he rammed
head-on. Standing on only two legs, the creature was easily knocked onto
the ground. Landing on his chest, Starbuck reared back on what he now
realized was armor of their own--but the creature's face looked soft.
The gold-plated shoes that adorned his hooves were more than just for
show; they were very heavy, and very sharp. The angles were well-hidden
by the sculpting, and most ponies wouldn't even know what to do with
something like these. But he knew what they were for, and how to use
them. It was for this he suffered through all that training, for this he
had sacrificed the single greatest thing a pony could have: to protect
Princess Celestia, and through her, the balance of all the world. He
held open his wings and pushed them up, increasing the downward force
and sending his sharpened hoofwear into the thing's face. And again into
his throat. An arm swung on his side and knocked him off, but he tucked
and rolled, satisfied that this one was going to be to occupied with
holding in all the blood coming from his head, and moved to the next
one. The second one was using the ruined box as a club now, and moved to
swat Starbuck right out of the air. He tucked his wings in and dove for
the ground in front of it, using his forelegs as an anchor, his body
executing the move without thought, muscle memory taking over and
swinging him around to buck at the creature. They had joints that bent
forward at about the right height, but he hadn't seem any of them bend
them backwards. Using his whole body as a spring, his plated hooves met
the plate armor with a dull thud. A crunch and scream followed and the
huge creature collapsed in a heap, grabbing for his leg. Starbuck took
the opportunity and bucked again, aiming for his face. His hooves caught
the thing's chin, sending its head curving back, the rest of his body
following.

Princess Celestia strutted slowly toward the one who has spoken to her.

He panicked, looking around to see his friends getting pummeled by
the armored pegasus. Her horn glowed again and he felt himself lifting
off the ground. He looked back to her, her huge pink eyes boring into
him.

"Why didn't you leave when I asked you to?" Her soft voice lilting through the cries of his friends. "I asked you nicely."

His hand shot up to his earpiece. "Get back to the ship you fools!"
The engines fired to life, blue flames pressing against the brown earth.

The tall white creature in front of him raised an eyebrow at him.
"Ship?" A smile spread across her face, "Oh, I don't think you're going
anywhere." The noises from the ship died, and for a moment, there was
complete silence, punctuated only the by the sputtering coughs of his
comrades. The other ponies, about half her size, now hovered around her,
splatters of blood arced across their hooves, armor, and faces, all
glaring silently at him. A low rumbling started from the ground below
him, and for a moment of hope he thought the shuttle's engines had fired
back up again. But then she spread her large wings and lifted off the
ground as it sunk like sand beneath her. He struggled to look around,
but there wasn't really anything stopping him from observing the
sinkhole below him, drawing the entire clearing to a center point
somewhere below the ship. Voices yelled and barked at him through his
earpiece; the shuttle was dead and they were sinking into the ground.
Corpses and their equipment rolled and bumped into the shuttle from the
increasing incline, and the two that still lived were clawing in
futility at the sides of the rolling dirt, mud caking with the exposed
blood spread across their hands and body. Eventually the ground
swallowed them all up; dirt came to the surface like water and grass
grew instantly. The clearing looked as if they had never even been
there.

"This creature has requested an audience with me.” The princess
spoke in a cheerful, matter-of-factly voice. Starbuck knew what that
meant in this situation. "Please make sure he's prepared,” she said as
she lowered him to the ground.

"Bow before the Princess of all Equestria!" Starbuck barked.
Twister, his jaw hanging slack and dislocated from the fight, drooled a
little blood as he bucked him in the knee. Starbuck followed suit, and
the creature crumpled in howls of pain. The pegasus ponies helped him
into a kneeling position before her, pushing him forward onto his
forelegs. Celestia released him from her magical grip and summoned a
scroll and quill.

"I have some questions for you. Please, try and answer them honestly,” she said through a smile, “nopony likes a liar.”