Midnight Rising

"The Empress Twilight cometh~! Behold! Behold! A glori~ous new daaawn! Behold, behold, BEHOOOLD!!"

As my vessel approached Orthros the communicator came to life, a mare's voice coming through. She sounded calm and cool, but there was an edge in her voice, likely brought on by living on such an alien world at the edge of the most dangerous star system known to pony kind. "This is Scientific Survey Station Dash, of the Greater Equestrian Empire. Unidentified vessel, we have logged your vector as an approach on our planet. Identify yoursef, or face Her Majesty's might."

"This is Righteous Destiny, callnumber 101921, commanded by Meteor Shower. Identification number RRRH172" I answered in reply, slowing my ship's speed to a stop, holding outside the killzone as I'm sure they'd ask me to.

"Please stand by while we run your ID tags..." the mare said, pulling away from her microphone. I leaned back as we waited, idly looking at my hoof, the Shining Armor AI playing a holographic game of Solitaire, the cards projected from its horn like a movie theatre. The mare came back to the microphone a minute later, her voice hesitant. "By the Empress... Welcome to Orthros, Royal Hunter. We will have the appropriate accomodations ready for your visit."

"Don't bother, I won't be here long. Be advised, though, that I have company with me. A robotic AI. It is NOT a Starborn. Do you understand?" I asked of the operator.

"Y-Yes, yes sir. Welcome to Orthros" the mare repeated as I drove the ship in, guiding it into a docking bay where a clamp grabbed hold of it. I rotated the vessel around in the dock, ensuring my entrance hatch on the lower deck would be lined up with the terminal's vacuum-sealed tunnel. I rose from my seat, Shining AIrmor's game disipating in a haze of static as it turned to follow me.

"I'm an 'it', now?" my mechanical ally questioned.

"Well you ARE an AI consciousness housed in the body of a robot. Neither buck, nor mare" I said matter-of-factly as we descended into the lower deck, heading for the exit hatch. As expected, a pressure tunnel snaked beyond where the hatch ended, connecting my ship to the station.

"I may be a robot, but I still have everything that made me a stallion" the Shining Armor AI commented, causing me to pause and tilt my head back, perturbed.

I never did find out if that was a joke.

As we made our way through the halls of the scientific survey station wonder, confusion, and fear were in the gazes that followed the Shining Armor AI and myself. We were heading towards the control tower, where the head scientist and soldier would be at. At my arrival both ponies would be in the tower, like suspecting that I was here for a report on their findings.

"What exactly goes on here?" Shining AIrmor asked.

"Monitoring of the Starborn. Even after the last war against the Starborn ended Empress Twilight deigned to keep tabs on them. Wisely so, given what we've learned they've been up to the past 20 years. They've been trading resources for weapons and materials. Likely to build ships. And, strangely enough, they've been trading for water filters and farming equipment" I explained, watching as the Shining Armor AI looked at me.

"What possible use could a species of robots have for water and food?"

"We've never found out. But given Flurry Heart's recent reappearance I suspect they're tied in with her."

We entered an elevator at the end of the hall and I pressed the button for the tower, the two of us idly watching the display as it counted up the four floors to the tower. A ping sounded our arrival and we stepped out, a short hallway leading to a door flanked by two Royal Startroopers, an evolution of pre-Ascension Marines. Their expressions remained neutral as we approached, but I could tell they were tense at the sight of my AI ally. They allowed us entrance without pause, and we entered the tower.

The control tower housed the usual array of computer banks, terminals, and monitoring equipment. A bank of monitors showing a feed of the stars above Orthros lined the back wall. The head scientist, a mare named Flower Harvest, and the military commander in charge of security, a buck named Hollow Point, were there to greet us. "Sir! Welcome to Orthros. Apologies for the poor accomodations; we were not expecting your visit" Hollow Point said with a salute, which I returned.

"Don't worry about it. I already told the comms operator that I wasn't going to be here long. My ally and I are here on an official matter. A Hunt, of the most sensitive nature, seeking a target outside the norm; a fellow pony. She is working with the Starborn, and we have determined that she has fled here to ascertain some object the Stars built for her" I explained.

Flower Harvest looked at me with mild alarm, and she stepped forward. "Sir. From where did you learn this information? We have detected nothing of the sort in monitoring the Starborn" she said.

"We learned it from the target herself. She told us. She plans to take this device, and presumably the Starborn, to Equus to kill Empress Twilight and end the Golden Age. We are running short on time; have you tracked all traffic coming through here, and where they're heading?" I inquired.

"Of course, sir" Hollow Point chimed in. "We keep logs of all traffic in and out of system. We've been tracking the Starborn's largest ship, as it's been coming and going at an increased rate in the past week. It's been travelling to Etherea each time it's entered the system. I'll have one of the techs offload the traffic data to a disk, along with all the data on the Starborn they've accumulated since your last visit."

"Thank you, commander. We'll make good use of it" I said. In truth, the traffic data was irrelevant now that we knew where Flurry Heart's little device was likely held. Still, it would benefit Her Majesty to have updated data on the Starborn's traffic and going-ons. "Is there anything else we should be made aware of?"

Flower Harvest shook her head. "Nothing outside of what we've seen thus far, sir. The Starborn's fleet has increased by two in the past year-and-a-half, but they're both relatively small additions. Frigates, or what have you" the mare told me.

I nodded, thanking the two. I turned my gaze to the monitor banks, idly watching the stars beyond, as Hollow Point trotted off to get me the data he promised. While we waited I mulled over Flurry Heart's ambitions, and I felt as though we were missing one vital piece of the puzzle.

Facsimilies of the Element of Harmony, friends and allies of the Empress from before Her Ascension, and devices and machines by the Starborn. Water filters and hydroponics, and the Starborn's alliance to the mad Princess. What are we missing?

The beeping of a nearby computer terminal jarred me from my thoughts and I turned to look at it, Flower Harvest trotting over to investigate. She pressed a few keys and her eyes widened slightly, looking up and scanning the control room. "Hollow Point! Contact, breaching the far radar belt!" she called out. I approached her side, looking at the terminal. There was a read-out of technical data that I didn't understand, but I did notice some coordinates that looked fairly close to Orthros.

Hollow Point came back over, nudging Flower Harvest to the side as he took a look at the terminal. He looked up after a moment, his eyes travelling up to the monitor banks. "Put the defense cannons into standby, and have half of the security force don combat rigs" Hollow Point declared. A second, more intense, alarm sounded and the two ponies looked back at the terminal. "Second radar belt breached..." Hollow Point uttered. "Scratch the last order; arm all defense cannons and have all the security force don combat rigs!"

"Starborn? Or Flurry Heart?" the Shining Armor AI asked of me.

"Both" I suspected. I looked up at the monitor banks and saw a shadow amongst the stars moving, slowly coming into view, obfuscated by a field of asteroids that surrounded Orthros. As it neared I realized it was the Starborn flagship, its black hull acting as camoflauge. I saw flashes on the monitors as the defensive cannons opened fire, explosions marring the Starborn vessel, but doing little damage. Alarm klaxons sounded in full as the Starborn ship turned, its own guns opening fire on the station. The floor beneath me shook as the shots hit, an alarm for hull breaches sounding. The Starborn ship turned and raced away, disappearing from view. "Damage report?" I asked.

"The damage was minimal, sir, but...it appears the docking bays were targeted" Hollow Point answered, prompting me to raise my brow. Hollow Point turned to another terminal and input some commands, feeds of the various security cameras being displayed to him. "Your ship was destroyed, sir."

I was pissed. No ship meant I was obviously stuck. "I MUST follow that vessel! Are there any other vessels I could use?" I demanded, adrenaline seeping into my blood. Every second Flurry Heart had on us was a second she could use to enact her sick plans.

"There's a decommisioned fighter that we use for long-range survey and to collect samples. It has no weapons, but it does have a Starcore; you could follow the Starborn with that. I'll have the emergency pit teams ready it for you! It's in an old launching silo. Hollow Point, take them to it!" Flower Harvest declared, earning a nod from the security buck.

"This way, sir!"

"Deep into that darkness, peering. Long I stood there, wondering, fearing..." the Shining Armor AI stated as we once more race acrossed the stars, seated in an ancient Starwing fighter jet, the stars around us a blur as the Starcore took us back to the Horsehead Nebula. We weren't exactly following Flurry Heart's vector, but it wouldn't matter; she was going to one place and one place only; Canterlot.

"I've about reached the end of my patience for this. I'm tired of this ignorant traitor being one step ahead of us. We're putting an end to this insanity, once and for all" I declared.

As promised Hollow Point had led us to a launch silo, an antiquated means of launching a fighter jet into the void. The silo's catapult had additional rocket boosters that would aid the fighter in defeating a planet's atmosphere, back when fighter jets couldn't do it on their own. Being that Orthros had very little in the way of atmosphere the additional thrust wasn't needed, but Empress Twilight couldn't justify spending the bits to outfit the station with a more modern vessel, plus the means to retrofit a separate dock dedicated to housing said vessel.

As it stood, the old Starwing would be more than adequate.

"What's the plan? Boarding mission, or could we just ram her engines? I mean, we wouldn't survive, but I don't think that would matter much to either us" Shining AIrmor said, prompting me to shake my head.

"Knocking the ship's engines out would trap it in Equus's gravity well, and the ship would fall right onto Canterlot. Plus, if I'm going to die today, it's going to be with my hooves around Flurry Heart's neck, and only after I've tossed Moondancer out an airlock" I responded.

The blur turned to stillness as we arrived in the Horsehead Nebula, Equus coming into view. The fighter's instruments showed a contact only about 700,000 miles out; Flurry Heart's ship. She was fast approaching Equus, the vessel turning to align itself with the planet to hold in geosynchronous orbit with Canterlot. I banked as we rocketed toward the Starborn vessel, swinging around to get a look at its side, searching for an opening. There were numerous docking ports and hangar bays, but most had their blast doors closed.

"That engine-ramming suicide mission is looking more and more like our only option" the Shining Armor AI commented as we circled.

"Like Tartarus it is" I said. The hull would be virtually impregnable by simple ramming, but the blast doors were a necessary structural weakness. They would have extra reinforcing, to be sure, but they could be weakened. "I have a plan. Your hooves, they're magnetized, right?" I asked.

"Of course!"

"Alright. I'm going to take us in close, and depressurize the fighter. Once that's done I want you to climb out onto the wing and use your horn to blast one of the hangar bay doors. That should weaken it enough to let us punch through" I explained. "My suit is vacuum sealed; I'll be alright."

"You're insane, Meteor Shower, but I think it'll work!"

I reached over with a hoof and depressurized the cockpit, turning it into a vacuum. With the pressures equalized I released the cockpit hatch, the sound silent in the void. I slowed the fighter a hair as I watched the Shining Armor AI clamber out of its seat, stepping over onto the right wing. With the fighter lined up the robot had a perfect shot, even at our distance. My mechanical ally charged its horn and released a beam of magical energy, the blue lance streaking out across the black pitch of the void, a brilliant flash spreading as it struck Flurry Heart's ship. The bright beam bridged our two vessels in the void, the blast door sagging and glowing as it was softened. Satisfied, the Shining Armor AI crawled back into the cockpit and I sealed it in its wake, leaving the chamber depressurized as I increased our speed, rocketing across the void. The defensive cannons of the vessel came to life at our attack, their shots guided with the precision one would expect from an AI. I pitched and rolled and yawed and banked, dodging the shots as they detonated soundlessly in the vacuum.

As we neared the mad Princess's ship one of the enemy's shots detonated near us, scorching a wing but leaving the thrusters intact. Normally a damaged wing would spell an aircraft's doom, but in the vacuum of the void we didn't need the flaps or ailerons; just the thrusters. I gritted my teeth as we approached our target, praying to Her Majesty that we would survive, silent explosions spraying us with shrapnel as we approached. My eyes never once left the hangar bay we were careening towards, hoping beyond hope that the Shining Armor AI had weakened the blast doors sufficiently. I closed my eyes as my vision filled with the sight of the hangar, now close enough to see the Starborn inside, racing around as they took up defensive positions.

And we rammed the ship.