A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW

Chapters

Discovery
Puzzles
Power Down
Adjustment
Curiosity and Observation
Disaster and Choice
Choice
Treason!
Safe in Orbit

Discovery

Author's Note

I got to wondering how the many forms of magic that ponies use routinely could exist at all. Just fantasy? What if their magic is the manipulation of what we regard as constants? What would it do to a space craft if G e and such physical constants that our whole technology depends on suddenly became VARIABLES? This story explores that notion a little.

Discovery

Star Admiral Hissin gazed down at the green, serene planet below. There was civilization there, which made it far more of a prize. A new inhabited world to add to roll of Imperial Slaves.

An aide, an Irritoki, a long necked, gray scaled member of one of the Empire’s oldest and most trusted slave species, interrupted his serene contemplation of the planet that they were orbiting. “Sir and Master, I fear to bear bad tidings but this particular world will not be the easy conquest that it appears.

“We have been conducting the usual preinvasion survey. There are some glaring anomalies. We have found NO nuclear activity signatures beyond the natural ones. In spite of that, There are signs of blast activity in the Gigatonne range and some smaller ones.

“The two biggest ones produced craters over thirty kilometers across. One caused a MOUNTAIN to simply melt and flow into the crater, creating a crescent shape. The other is nearly perfectly circular with a central peak caused by debris rising straight up and falling back. Both have filled in with water and become lakes. They are ancient, around two and a half thousand years old.

“There is another smaller one, only five kilometers across on the shore of this large bay. It is only about seventy years or so old, certainly less than a century.

“Besides that, in this remote area, there are about twenty craters that are far younger. It appears to be a test range.”

Contemptuous, Hissin glanced at the evidence. “On this whole world, we have found but few air or space fields. They have nothing to deliver their weapons with, if they are weapons!”

Biting his lip enough to draw blood, a sure sign of serious upset in the Irritoki, the aide replied, “Sir and Master, that is wrong. They do have at least some air/space vehicles. We have tracked them from several hidden bases.

“We found the first one totally by accident. It appears to be an air breathing hypersonic vehicle, though we did not realize that until later. It launched from a hidden underground hangar, already airborne when it emerged.

“Through luck alone, we had cameras aimed at the right place to see it and begin tracking it. It aimed upward at about a thirty degree angle and accelerated with nearly unbelievable speed. Its engines only quit when it hit air too thin for them to use.

“The vehicle coasted in a sub orbital hop under perfect control. It reentered and decelerated over the open sea between these islands here, and this large mainland. Operating at subsonic speeds for stealth reasons, it flew to this remote area where it joined three others like it and five of a different sort.

“The various aircraft are not hostiles, as we have seen avoidance actions that follow clear rules. They are circling this barren area here, well to the north of that large and densely populated area. We are guessing that they are there to observe some event at the center of their circle.

“Local aircraft are flying there in considerable numbers and are about what we would normally expect of this sort of culture. Those locals are under observation and do have some airfields. One is near the event center.”

Just then, the ship made a course correction great enough to feel. Irritated, Star Admiral Hissin snapped, “That is the third correction in under five orbits! Why can’t you hold the ship in a stable orientation?”

The pilot just pushed away from his console and snapped right back, “If you think it is that easy, YOU try it! The space around this planet and moon system isn’t like anything in my experience! It keeps changing. Not even G is constant here!”

That did get the Admiral’s attention. Not the outburst, the pilot was a Rakki and such was expected of them, but they were the best technicians known and utterly reliable slaves. It was the idea that G was not a constant here. There were so many things about this system that did not line up with normal knowledge.

Somewhere in this system, the dreadnought Chain of Empire had gone missing. Their mission was to find her or her wreck. Finding the planet was a plus. A very big plus.

Carefully, he asked the pilot, “What would happen if we simply established an orbit, like this planet was a normal one?”

The pilot, realizing from the form of the question that he was off the hook, as it were, replied, “We would circle the planet perhaps four times before we crashed. We would almost certainly either strike the planet or swing past, so close that we would burn some before exiting the orbit by slingshot.” His brows furrowed in deep thought.

“Perhaps that is what happened to the Chain. If the computer can be relied on in this situation, almost any such slingshot will put the vessel into gravitational reach of the satellite.”

The bridge crew was really very well trained. The sensors technician heard the suggestion and shifted the aim of her sensors. In only a few moments, she reported, “I have a metallic mass on the surface of the satellite. It is in the proper size range to be the Chain of Empire and is emitting slight signals consistent with life support operating on stored energy.”

She paused, examining her readings and refining her search. “I have confirmation. We have found the Chain of Empire. She appears to have suffered a catastrophic Displacement Engine failure.

“There are signs that the landing was a controlled crash using auxiliary power to mitigate the worst damage from the wreck’s hard landing.”

Admiral Hissin was digesting the idea that the main star drive of one of the Empire’s most powerful vessels of war had malfunctioned disastrously. That spoke of massive computer failure in a multiple redundant system.

The floor of the ship suddenly shifted and tilted! With artificial gravity, that should be impossible! The pilot was frantically applying massive amounts of auxiliary power, trying to regain control of the ship! Throughout the entire vessel, emergency alarms were screaming!

The pilot began switching down systems while damage control assessed the automatic reports. Breathing a sigh of relief, he reported, “Control regained, Admiral. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE AT ALL should we use the Displacement Engine.”

Accepting the pilot’s assessment, Admiral Hissin demanded, “What just happened?”

The pilot replied honestly, “I have no idea, Sir. Something seized the ship and both flexed and twisted it. It made a massive alteration of the orbit that we were trying to follow. Our ship appears to have returned to normal without damage after the event.”

Astrogation looked up, and offered, “We have experienced most of our difficulties when our path takes us between the planetary surface and the moon. This event did not damage the ship because we are embedded in the local space-time complex. What ever it was warped the entire local space-time complex, and us with it, on a scale of kilometers or less, instead of the usual millions of kilometers to light years.”

Puzzles

In Canterlot, Princess Luna was swearing in both X'ibian and Rom as she stared through the eyepiece of her beautiful and very precise telescope. Princess Celestia looked up from her own observations, which were going very well. The last “adjustment of the heavens” had done exactly what was needed for the world of Equestria.

Apparently, Luna’s adjustment of the orbit, rate of rotation, precession, axial tilt and alteration of the plane of the moon’s orbit relative to Equestria had not gone as planned.

Mildly, Celestia stretched her big white pinions and asked, “What happened, Luna? Is it another big metallic mass like last time?”

Growling more swear words under her breath, Luna paused in recording her adjustment results long enough to reply, “Yes! Not quite as massive as the first one! At least it did not throw a big burst of random energy like that first one did.

“This one is still up there, in orbit, not like the first one. It hit the moon. This one being in obit is going to make it a total pain to be sure that it does not interfere with my next correction! It keeps applying power and shifting its orbital elements!”

Luna’s teeth ground together in her rage. Still steaming at the damage to her delicate but enormously powerful application of Creator Magic, she sat at her working desk and pulled out her big circular slide rule. Sighing, the Dark Alicorn, Princess Luna of Equestria, Midnight among the Rom, began to reduce her observations.

Princess Celestia of Equestria, Alicorn of Day, known as Tia among the Rom, stepped close and used her magic to massage the knotted muscles of her sister. Luna sighed in relief and remarked, “Thanks, Sis. That does make this easier.”

Her swearing reduced to nearly inaudible, Luna returned to her task, setting the scales on some circles and flipping the hairline about to read answers on other scales. Entering results into tables, turning tables to graphs and assessing the graphs by different functions, Luna began to see how the ruin of her hard work could be salvaged.

Celestia nudged her sister Luna gently. “Time to put the maths aside, Midnight. The Mong Superweapon Test is going to happen soon. We need to go to the Thrones Room.”

Reluctantly, Luna put down her quill and nodded. The two left the observatory, carefully locking it behind them. A courtier, hiding behind a hanging, cursed quietly as another possible opportunity to obtain a Scroll of Creation was thwarted. The lock could not be picked. That had been tried. The door itself, by some unknown magic, was fused to the frame, though the Twin Rulers of Equestria opened it easily enough.

The sisters paused just long enough for Luna to take out her irritation on the hapless Count hiding behind the tapestry. He began to whine and blubber tears, gripped in the waking nightmare that Luna gave him.

She leaned close and whispered, “If you think this mere DAY DREAM is bad, wait until you try to sleep!”

Chuckling, Celestia inquired, “What will happen to him when he goes to sleep?”

Luna smiled but it was ghastly to see as she explained, “Nothing. He will have a pleasant, gentle dream. It will still be a nightmare, but only because he will keep looking for something horrible.”

Chuckling, they retired to the Thrones Room to await news of how the Mong Superweapon test preparations were going.

//////////////////

Star Admiral Hissin ordered, “Make for the wreck of the Chain of Empire. We will pick up survivors and document the wreck. A Displacement Engine failure not due to an Enemy action is unheard of. After we recover what and who all that we can, I wish to return to orbit around the planet, however difficult that may be.

“Whatever has drawn the attention of that many aircraft operating under stealth protocols is likely to be of importance.”

The sensors technician raised furry eyebrows at that. “May I inquire what about it could be of importance? It could help me to prepare for recording the event.”

The Star Admiral smiled at the sensors tech. “An hour ago, I would not have worried about anything here. Apparently, some of the natives have the power of flight, like any of several other winged species that we already know of. All of the other natives rely on what appears to be primitive machines that travel on surface roads or trackways. Some even pull carts themselves. There was no obvious sign of any technologically advanced culture on the planet.

Since then, we have learned that the natives have hypersonic aerospace planes with completely hidden bases. Something that was not even aimed at us as a weapon caused a massive distortion of the local space-time complex, nearly wrecking our ship in the process. We cannot maintain a proper orbit because not even G is constant here.

“With the whole world using surface transport of many primitive sorts, they posses hypersonic vehicles capable of flight half around the planet or more with major amounts of loiter time?

“The ancient blast craters might account for it. Perhaps a wrecked society recovering unevenly from a disastrous nuclear war? Unfortunately, that does not fit observed data either. There is no sign of the radiation that should still linger.”

The Admiral pointed to innocent looking world below. “Something here totally fails to fit our understanding. We need to learn as much as possible.”

The sensors tech nodded sagely. “I shall set my arrays as wide as possible. While checking out the wreck of the Chain of Empire, I have found a small thing of possible interest.”

“And that is?”

“The natives have visited the surface of their satellite moon. They appear to have had a permanent colony there. The colony structure is abandoned now, but the vegetation and weather cycle have continued to function.”

Admiral Hissin’s eyes widened. “On an airless globe?”

Power Down

The tech nodded. She put the image up on a screen. A circular area about fifty kilometers across was covered by green plants. There was a small castle close to a little lake at the center of the area.

The Star Admiral’s jaw dropped. “What confines the air? How can a weather cycle work on so small a scale?”

The sensors tech shook her head. “I can detect nothing at all holding the air in place. It might as well be magic, for all that I can guess.”

The whole bridge crew chuckled. The pilot, though, got done with setting his course and the ship turned smoothly to its new heading for the moon.

////////////////////

Luna removed her eye from the telescope’s eyepiece and let lose a string of curses in Zebra and Saddle Arabian. Celestia inquired mildly, “They moved again?”

Luna paused in her stream of foul language to reply, “Yes! At least this course will take them to the moon! I suspect that they are seeking to rescue survivors from the other vessel. If they are, maybe I will have time to get this correction done properly.”

Concerned, Celestia inquired, “How sure are you that they are space craft? I mean, if they are, what of the lives of the beings on board them?”

Luna turned to her sister and asked bleakly, “Why do you think that I am so upset? Both of these vessels are armed for war. One is still fully operational.

“What kind of species would send a warship fully ready to conquer unexplored planets by force? What about the eighteen known intelligent species here? I HAVE to make this correction or our own will suffer. Father always told us, and the Hearthwarming Invasion underlined it, ‘Readiness costs little. What we cannot do is allow our own to suffer for the lack of it.’

“I have been learning to Dream Read the aliens aboard the wreck. Only THREE of them were free beings as we understand such things. All the rest, thousands of them on the first vessel and over a thousand on this new intruder, are SLAVES. Our feudally based system of governance allows far greater freedom for our subjects because our laws are benevolent and take into account the needs of those below us in station. Theirs do not.”

Thoughtfully, Celestia nodded. “They are not creatures of Mother’s Creation. I see why that upsets you so. For them to have such a precious gift as life itself and to have so little respect for it must be awful. Especially for you, who can touch their dreams and feel it all.”

Nodding while hugging her sister of the Day with her midnight magic, Luna replied, “Thank you, Celestia. That helps. Now, I need to finish this calculation and balance the Inequality Matrix as fast as possible. I think that I can still save this correction.”

She nearly leaped to her desk and the big circular slide rule.

Celestia smiled at her sister’s energy and pointed out, “You work, Luna, I will go and put a note in the Chronicle for Dad to find. I am sure that he can do something about keeping that ship on the moon until your correction is done.”

Absently, Luna replied, “Thanks, Sis. I should have thought of that myself.”

////////////////////

Aboard the wrecked Chain of Empire, Supreme Star Admiral Hassit watched through rage slitted eyes as the Emperor’s Lash settled down to the bare lunar regolith beside the wreck of his ship. The worst part of the whole situation was that he and his crew’s survivors had seen the Lash struck by the same unknown force that had wrecked the Chain. Somehow, the Lash survived. For some unfathomable reason, the Lash was operating solely on auxiliary drives. Her perfectly functional Displacement Engine was not emitting from its array at all.

His communications slave opened a channel to allow speech and video transmission and reception. He opened without preamble, “Hissin! You must recover me and turn your vessel over to me! We were attacked by an unknown weapon that destroyed our Displacement Engine! We are going to return, weapons blazing and fry them for the insult to our Empire!”

Hissin waited until the Supreme Star Admiral ran down and replied, “No, Hassit, Sir. No to all, if necessary. Your wreck was due to faulty scouting. That is an Admiral’s failing, not the failing of our slaves.

“You were not struck by ANY weapon. We do not know yet what it WAS, but we do know that it was oriented toward the satellite moon that we are presently on. We also know this about it. Without any form of Displacement Engine signature, it was a massive warping of the local space-time complex that we both had the misfortune to be in the path of. You had your space-time warping Displacement Engine on line. The degree of power in that local space-time warp is shown by the fact that the Displacement Engine of the Empire’s most powerful dreadnought was simply destroyed by it. Not disabled, as would be the case from a 100 megatonne near miss. Destroyed entirely.

“The races on the primary only appear primitive. Since we became aware of the many anomalies about this planet, my sensor slave set her detection as wide as possible and as sensitive as possible. There is a near continuous background of minute ripples in the local space-time complex. The only way that it can be accounted for is the routine use of some form of minute space-time warping by huge numbers of beings.”

Hassit interrupted, “Utterly impossible! Your slaves have lied to you to cover their failings! My pilots and astrogation even tried to tell me that G was not constant here! I executed the lot of them for those lies.

“G is the UNIVERSAL GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT. UNIVERSAL! It is the same EVERYWHERE!”

Hassit was interrupted in his interruption. A new and strange creature was speaking from their screens . “Nope, Hassit, old asswipe. You are wrong. Hissin is correct. His respect for those serving him has paid off rather handsomely, really.

“I mean, look at your relative positions. Hissin has a working star-ship. You have a total wreck. Hissin has a functional crew. You executed yours because you were a pissed off idiot.

“Look around you. Even if the Chain was flyable, how many slaves do you have left who know how to do it? I will save you from any effort at thought. Not really your specialty, that. You have none. You executed them all.”

The interrupter, an apparently old blue furred creature with a short single horn and white forelock, mane and whiskers paused, “Now I have to change the topic, I am afraid. You each have two choices and only two choices for now. You MUST totally power down. Even life support. It will only be for about two hours.

“The choices come to this. Either YOU do it or I will. Take your pick.

“If I do it, any mistakes might be a problem later. One that you will have to fix. If YOU do it, the consequence is the same but you will already know what is wrong. Much easier to fix.”

Hassit snarled, “My shields are still in perfect order! You cannot shut down the Chain of Empire!”

Suddenly the interrupter was standing beside Hassit, on the remains of his bridge. The panning of the camera to follow him, showed that the bridge slaves were at their stations when they were executed. Shattered control panels, blood stained control chairs and ruined equipment showed as the elderly blue quadruped, now shown to have some design on his flanks and a flowing white tail, trotted about, tisking.

“You REALLY don’t think, do you, Hassit? I suspect that even if your damage control team was still alive, they could not fix the mess that you have made here. Pity that they got killed when your Displacement Engine blew.”

Pale blue light grew around the stranger’s horn. It reached into the shattered and broken equipment. Systems began shutting off. Hassit began shooting wildly at the blue alien on his ship. The projectiles passed harmlessly through the quadruped but not harmlessly through equipment behind him!

He looked up in mild irritation. “Didn’t you learn anything from shooting your bridge slaves at their stations? I would ask what sort of idiot you are but there are so many kinds to choose from and they ALL apply to you!

“Now let me go on shutting you down in an orderly fashion. I grant that letting you destroy the controls is WAY faster.”

Adjustment

Over on the Emperor’s Lash, Hissin’s sensor slave caught his attention. “Sir and Master, I am getting small space-time disturbances from the Chain. I believe that their origin is from blue being that is shutting them down.”

Hissin made up his mind. “Communications! Tell all stations to shut down all power in an orderly fashion. Even emergency lights need to be shut down. Let the ones who might be upset by the darkness know that it is for a period of only about two hours. We must endure it.”

////////////////////

There was a diffident tapping at the Observatory door. It was a pegasus in the Royal livery. He hoofed over a sealed note and offered, “You set me to watch the Chronicle for any messages from De Writer. This was placed there not five minutes ago. Baron Nagoodny tried to tell me that it was nonsense and to not deliver it. By your order, I have brought it to you.”

Celestia smiled and said, “You have our thanks, Flegair. You may choose what you wish from the pies and drinks in our Kitchen.”

Opened, the note said, “I have got you a two hour window, Luna, dear. Both the wreck and the Emperor’s Lash are fully powered down. Love you both. I wish that some loophole in the Exile allowed us to see each other again.”

“So do we, dad, we miss you.” the Twins sadly responded to the personal part of the note.

Celestia promptly took one of Luna’s complex Inequality Matrices and began reducing it to a solution. Luna looked up from her work and softly said, “Thanks, Tia. I never forgot that I love you, not during the Nightmare Wars nor during my Exile to the Moon. It was something that I clung to. It kept me sane.”

Celestia drew a deep breath and shaking her head, replied, “Same here, Luna. All of those years after you were sent to that exile, I had to do some horrible things. I was a flat out tyrant for two centuries. Knowing that I loved you and that you loved me was all that kept me going.

“Here, this matrix is done. I love that solution. Purely elegant use of angular momentum.”

Luna smiled. “I thought that you would like that. I think that you can use the idea when you are working on Axial tilt corrections.”

Opening the totally sealed, thick walled steel cabinet that held prepared Scrolls of Creation, Luna took out one, resealed the cabinet, and began to transcribe their joint mathematics onto it.

Finished, Luna paused only long enough to double check that the transcription was perfect. Spreading her huge wings, cupped to help focus the powers about to be unleashed, Luna began to read the mathematics aloud in the extremely ancient Language of Creation taught to them over 3000 years ago by the Titan of Life Creation. Power grew and built in a spherical form that elongated out through the now open top of the Observatory.

This time there was nothing in the way of the enormous Creation Magic pulse that twisted the very nature of space itself. It gripped the whole lunar orb and performed several alterations of the moon’s orbit, its axial tilt, rate of rotation and the space around it. The massive but precise adjustments lasted for almost an hour.

When she was done, the sweat drenched Luna sat back and heaved a sigh. “It felt good. I think that it went well. As soon as I rest a moment, I will check.”

Celestia sympathetically began to rub her sister down with damp towels. Luna stretched and luxuriated to the ministrations for a few minutes.

“Thank you, Tia. I will go check on the corrections now.”

Staring through the eyepiece, this time, Luna began to make neat notes while humming the ancient Rom air, The Two Green Vines.

Celestia heard he sister’s happy humming and sighed in relief. She knew that all was well with this correction.

Curiosity and Observation

In the total darkness that ruled the wrecked Chain of Empire, Supreme Admiral Hassit snarled at empty air, “Why in the name of Empire do we need to shut down even the lights? That makes no sense!”

From the darkness came the calm voice of the blue furred creature, “I am trying to keep you alive, Hassit, old nutcase. Let me put it to you this way, perhaps you can actually think it through. If you massively warp space on very small scales, is G the only constant that will go down the drain?

“Not at all. All of your electrical junk depends on e, right? C too? Distort space severely and all of that goes out the window. I remind you that there is a hard vacuum on the other side of the window in this case. Every conducting wire or energy handling device will find itself unable to function. The energy, though, will remain. It will have to go somewhere. Those conductors and devices will become bombs. I guarantee that concussion and fragmentation will still function.

“Got it now? Or do I need to give you an infant foal’s formula bottle?”

“Our ship is already wrecked! What worse could happen?”

It was not necessary to see the blue creature to gather that he was grinning. “Hassit! Really? Don’t you know better than to ask that? You are far too likely to find out!

“Bye the way, you and all of yours, prepare for a very rough ride! Your ship was taken out by a grazing hit from what is coming. My sweet foster daughter is about to correct a number of factors connected to the moon that you are sitting on.

“It will be harmless because you are embedded in the local space-time complex. However, the distortions will be so great that you will be able to see things only a few meters away seeming to distort in bizarre ways. Gravity will do funny things too.”

Moments later, on the bridge of the Lash, Hissin got the same warning. He sent some of his bridge crew to feel their way throughout the ship to deliver the warning.

The pilot, on his return, asked, “Respected blue creature, one of engineering’s Rakki has a question. Would it be safe for us to use burning objects for lighting? They will not use electrical or displacement energies. They should pose no threat to our air supplies for the short duration of this emergency.”

The creature replied, “That is an excellent idea. The light output will vary as certain subatomic constants become variables but none should go into the ultraviolet or infrared. We call them candles. Since you were so polite, I will get a box of them and help you to light them.”

The old blue one vanished silently and quickly reappeared with two boxes. Holding them out in a field of slightly glowing pale blue, he explained, “One box is holders that will catch any wax that drips from the candles. The other box is the candles. They go together like so.”

The pale blue field supporting the boxes altered slightly and both boxes opened. One longish cylinder floated out and a small tray with a cup thing on it came from the other. The cylinder socketed into the cup part. A blue spark seemed to come from nowhere and lit the candle.

Its soft yellow light filled the chamber. To dark adapted eyes, it seemed bright. The pilot carefully fitted a set together and lit it from the flame of the first. Bearing the light and carrying the boxes, he set out to give the gift of light to the rest of the crew.

Shortly the Correction began. The floor appeared to be tilting though the candle in its holder stayed secure. At an angle at first. Then Hissin noticed that the other end of the bridge was twisted like a corkscrew to upside down and stretched away in an impossible fashion.

The old blue creature appeared to fold and flex but was not, apparently, bothered by it. That helped Hissin and his crew to take the sudden shifts and changes. Sometimes they seemed impossibly light or heavy. Through it all, the candles, though they appeared to shift about, stayed stable but the flames did change colors from time to time.

After a particularly weird twisting accompanied by a huge alteration in weight, the old blue creature smiled and commented, “Oh, that was lovely! She used the core’s angular momentum to cause the crust to adjust. Truly an elegant solution!”

As things appeared to be settling down, Hissin asked the creature, “Respected One, what was this that has just happened?”

The being made a fairly deep bowing of his head in return. He replied, “My foster daughter, Luna just made a correction to this moon’s orbit, rate of spin, angle of axial tilt and a whole peck of other factors. More than a hundred of them in the usual correction.

“Once it is safe to power up, have your astrogation verify what I just told you. You have the moon’s orbital elements in your computer just to get you here. Compare them to the present.

“Pilot, the problem that you identified with orbital decay? It applies to this moon, too. By the time that we could get on the problem, it took almost 75 years to get it here where it belongs. Keeping it here is a pain, too!”

Lights began to come on. Some instruments came to life. Hissin issued no orders. His crew knew what to do and how to do it best. It was not long before the Emperor’s Lash was back up to fully operational.

Somewhat puzzled, he turned to the blue being. “You let us restore our ship to operation, knowing us for a potentially deadly warship. Why?”

The being flexed his shoulders in a shrug. “If I HAVE TO, I can destroy your ship in under a second. I would rather not. I prefer let you live. I have been watching your Empire for a goodly while.

“You represent the best in your species. You treat your crew and any other slaves with respect for their skills and persons. Hassit and his like are far too common. Bye the bye, your laws require you to take him in chains to a tribunal on the loss of the Chain of Empire. Don’t let him buffalo you into having any preferential treatment.”

The old blue being quietly vanished again. Sensors reported, “He did it again, Sir and Master. However he does that, there is NO Displacement Signature. I was checking him in other ways too. He was not a hologram or other projection that we understand but represents a paradox. He was both there and not there at the same time.

“I got most curious about him when we saw him appear on Supreme Star Admiral Hassit’s bridge. Hassit shot five bullets at him. They all should have hit him but none did. In the process, I recorded this set of images of the bridge. Hassit executed his bridge slaves while at their stations. His bullets did so much damage to the controls that he totally lost ability to maneuver at all. He was lucky to manage the controlled crash here on this satellite.

“I have taken the liberty of making permanent recordings of the damage and all contacts with Supreme Star Admiral Hassit. The Chain might have been salvageable if not for the destruction of the bridge controls by Hassit.

“According to Engineering, the Chain is good only for scrap. For that use, we would have to be able to recover the wreck. Due to the dangerous nature of the locality, we cannot even do that.”

Hissin shook his head at the dismaying news. “It cannot be helped. Prepare for a vacuum rescue of the Chain’s surviving slaves and Hassit. He is to be treated as a hostile and taken by force of arms. He may not enter this ship’s pressure without being in manacles. Put him in the brig as a prisoner to be returned to the Empire for trial.

“He is to be charged with the willful destruction of the Chain of Empire through both faulty scouting of the local space and direct destruction of maneuvering controls while in orbit around a possibly hostile sphere.”

The complex rescue was carried out after several nerve wracking hours. The rescue of the valuable skilled slaves was delayed by Hassit demanding to go first. By screen, Hissin informed him, “Sir, you must be disarmed and in irons before I can allow you into the Emperor’s Lash. You are charged with the willful disabling of your vessel while in potentially hostile space. You are further charged with being the direct cause of the loss of the Chain of Empire through faulty scouting.”

“Ridiculous! We were attacked in a cowardly manner by an unknown weapon! We fought them off for several orbits before taking a hit to the Displacement Engine array that triggered an engine explosion! We suffered major losses in the engagement and retreated to this satellite for recovery!”

“Sir, that whole tale is a total lie. We have done a full flight log recovery from the Chain of Empire. The automatic recordings of control settings shows exactly when your reckless bullets destroyed operational controls. Our recording made while speaking with you, show the condition of the bridge. Only Free beings can posses handguns. Yours was the only one on the bridge.

“More, we have video of you shooting at and hitting the blue furred being that came to assist us. Luckily, he was not harmed by your stupidity. Your bridge lost the entire environmental control panel that was behind him. He saved our ship and kept yours habitable in spite of your foolish hostile actions toward him.

“You will be disarmed and in irons or you will be dead. Those are your ONLY options.”

Not long after, the Lash was headed back to Equestria. Hissin pointed out an exact spot and told both his pilot and a trainee from among the rescued slaves, “We need to maintain this spot under surveillance. It is of interest because there are NINE stealth aircraft circling that area. They are of two distinct types. Both have supersonic capabilities which they are not using. These,” he pulled up one of sensor’s pictures, “are hypersonic and have sub orbital ability which we have observed. Even more interesting to me is this, they have flown to position and been loitering for over a day without refueling.

“What has drawn so much well concealed attention, I wish to observe. Sensors has set her systems as widely as possible.”

Sensors looked up from her many displays and asked politely, “If it is practical, can we simply hold our position over the target by application of auxiliary power systems? It will make our data gathering far better.”

Hissin simply nodded acceptance. “You both know the area to avoid. We do not want to pass over that region on the other continent at all if it can be avoided. Somewhere in that area seems to be the origin of the dangerous space warping.”

The pilot, using his headset, conferred with both engineering and sensors before agreeing, “Sir and Master, we can hold our position over any designated spot on auxiliaries alone. We will coordinate with sensors and maintain the position for best observation of the target.”

“Very good, pilot. Do it, please.”

////////////////

The Emperor’s Lash hovered unseen by those below, over one hundred and fifty kilometers above the bare patch of desert between cradling hills. In the center of that stony valley stood a tall, gangly tower, apparently of iron or steel construction.

Sensors turned to face Hissin, who was watching her video displays with fascination. Both she and he knew that the real information was on other screens, showing as everything from graphs and charts to constantly shifting columns of numerical data.

“Sir and Master, besides what we see, there are the stealth aircraft and a variety of both ground and air vehicles that do not show, due to the scale of the image. I thought that you would wish to know what is not shown.”

Hissin nodded a courtesy as he replied, “I thank you for the information. Can you flag the watching aircraft in some way? I am not too concerned about ones delivering or removing personnel from the zone.”

She was just reaching for her display controls when she was rudely shoved out of her seat!

Disaster and Choice

Supreme Star Admiral Hassit, snapped, “I want to watch this primitive thing that you are so afraid of, Hissin!” He started to shove his overweight bulk into Sensor’s seat.

Hissin placed his ceremonial but totally functional firearm against Hassit’s head. “You will remove yourself and allow a trained slave operate her station! If you do not, I will kill you and we will drop your carcass to burn in the atmosphere below!”

Hassit, being quite sure that Hissin would kill him, started to pull himself insultingly slowly from the sensor station’s seat.

Sensors called out in dismay, “It is starting! I need my controls!”

The whole bridge was watching the scene between Admirals unfold. Now they shifted their attention to the big video screen! Sensors was trying frantically to reach past Hassit to reset equipment! Hassit was striking her away when Hissin’s gun fired once.

Hassit looked in unbelieving shock at his hand and whole first joint of his arm spinning across the deck, ripped off by Hissin’s bullet!

On the screen they all watched aghast as the event began.

The spark was near instantaneous. Remote air pressure sensors played a sound that roared like a thousand enraged dragons as the spark grew to ball of light shot through with billows of paler, darker flame. Hurling a huge obscuring ring shaped cloud of debris before it, it continued to expand, filling the whole valley. Even the debris ring cloud, rising thousands of meters was lit from within by the released inferno. Its growth slowed but did not stop at the cradling hills. It took less than seconds for the hills and land about to vanish under the dark cloud that was trying to out race the expanding waves of heat and shock.

Cradled within the roiling curtain of debris picked up from all that it touched, the monster of flame inside it hurled a huge fan of glowing vapor high above the original point of detonation. The enormous reaction raised a dome shaped incandescent cloud, with a ring of points hurled above it like a diabolical crown.

The interior fire, brighter than any sun, winked out. The raging heat and shock waves did not die so easily. Their rising fan of death continued upward, dimming a good bit at the last.

Debris in the form of molten drops of all sizes had been hurled skyward and now were falling back. All around the huge debris ring cloud, a patter of craters formed.

Sensors was possibly the only being not watching. She was attempting to preserve her precious data!

Hissin bodily dragged Hassit out of the seat and hurled him to the deck! Glaring about, he demaded, “How did this PRISONER get out of the brig?”

Fearfully, a slave near the bridge door spoke. “He wished to be on the bridge. He is both a Master and a Supreme Star Admiral.”

Hissin focused his gaze on the speaker. “I do not recognize you. Are you one of the Chain survivors?”

Cringing deeply, the slave replied, “Sir and Master, I am.”

Hissin nodded slowly. “I see. Your lapse was regrettable but understandable. Hassit ruled by fear and brutality. Understand this. He has NO rank. He lost his vessel by criminal misconduct and stupidity. He is a PRISONER being transported for trial.”

Sensors interrupted, screaming, “Incoming! We have solid debris from the event!”

Pilot was only beginning to try maneuver when they all felt the impacts begin! It was over in only about a half minute. Emergency sirens and gongs were sounding throughout the Lash! Damage Control’s board was lit up with the blue of disaster and the yellow of warnings!

Even wounded and cast down, Hassit sneered, “So much for your soft treatment of slaves! Look at this mess!”

Hissin stomped a foot down on Hassit’s torso, keeping him from rising. He grabbed Hassit’s crest and slammed his head to the deck twice!

He hissed in Hassit’s ear, but loud enough to be heard over the whole bridge, “You did this! You threw Sensors out of her seat and refused to let her operate her station! That is WHY we had no warning of this!

“This is the SECOND SHIP IN A ROW THAT YOU HAVE WRECKED BY SIMPLE STUPIDITY!”

Pilot just said, “Sir and Master, we cannot maintain any safe orbit about either the planet or its satellite. Damage control reports that we do not have enough auxiliary power to get us safely to a solar orbit. Only a solar orbit will be safe enough to for us to carry out operational repairs. What should I do?”

Hissin thought for only a moment. “Do we have enough power to establish an eccentric obit tilted enough to keep us from coming between the planet and the satellite?”

The Pilot, Astrogation, Sensors, Engineering, and Damage Control conferred, putting up data and figuring frantically.

Pilot looked up and reported, “Sir and Master, we can do that for up to four days. It will require two adjustments of the orbit so great that we are going to have to shut off artificial gravity for the whole vessel to have enough energy to manage it. After four days, our reserves will be gone.”

From his place on the floor, Hassit tried to snap, “Not good enough! What are you afraid of? These mere primitives?”

Even before Hissin could reply, the one who had inadvertently allowed Hassit to the bridge kicked him in the jaw to silence him. Glaring down at the fallen Hassit, he snapped, “Yes! These PRIMITIVES who move whole worlds without damaging them!

“They destroyed the Chain of Empire without even noticing that one of the Empire’s three most powerful dreadnoughts was there! Your interference here caused the wrecking of this ship by those same PRIMITIVES.

“Whatever that detonation was, it was powerful enough to hurl destructive debris straight up 150 kilometers with enough force that our shields were overcome! We took so much damage that we cannot even get away from this world.

“AND THE SO-CALLED PRIMITIVES STILL HAVE NOT EVEN NOTICED OUR PRESENCE!”

They were interrupted by the all too familiar dry voice of the blue quadruped. “An excellent summation, there! Not quite accurate, but pretty close.”

The elderly creature had quietly appeared on the bridge again.

Almost not surprised, Hissin turned to the newcomer and made a gesture of equals. He was even less surprised when the blue creature returned it.

“In what particular was this slave incorrect? We are most curious to know.”

The blue creature replied, “Mind if I sit? Happy to tell you.”

He folded his legs, using Hassit for a cushion. “While it is true that my foster daughter Luna did not know that the Chain of Empire was there, before the adjustment that she was doing, that mass of conducting material, active circuits and a running Displacement Engine made itself known! The uncorrected energy release when the Chain’s Displacement Engine blew totally ruined her Lunar adjustment. She was pissed, too.

“She made sure that the Chain was down on the moon’s surface, where its presence could be accounted for in her re calculated second adjustment. Your ship happened by just in time to foul up that one.

“I made sure that both of your vessels were totally inert for her third try, which went exactly as it should.

“My foster daughters DO know that you are here, now. They don’t like it, either. In spite of that, Luna is offering you your choice of a lift out to your chosen solar orbit or letting you crash without interference except that she will make certain that you hit an ocean to minimize local damage.

“Your pick, Hissin.”

Choice

Hassit tried to demand something but a quick flick of pale blue locked his jaws shut!

Mildly, the blue creature told him, “Your name is not Hissin. YOU have no right to speak on this bridge at all.”

Hissin simply asked, “Will we need to shut down all electrical and Displacement equipment again? I did order all of our candles to be saved as long as we remain near this globe.”

The blue being nodded. “I am afraid so. This won’t take long to do, though. A ship like yours is WAY smaller than even the moon! Have Astrogation consult with Engineering and Damage Control about the necessities of your orbit.

“I will let the Twins know what you come up with and, most likely, it will be Luna but could be Celestia that moves the ship for you.”

Hissin simply nodded to his slaves and said, “So be it. Please do as the Respected One has asked. All three, nodded silently, already putting up information on a shared screen. It was really not long at all before Pilot brought the blue creature a sheet of densely written mathematics.

“Respected One, can your, um, daughter, understand our mathematics?”

Smiling, the blue being nodded. “No problem at all, Pilot. It was considerate of you to ask.” He slowly faded away to nothing, taking the sheet with him.

//////////////////

The Twins opened the door of the observatory at once when they heard the soft tap of the page Flegar on the panels. Luna graciously took his envelope and repeated her suggestion, “Thank you for delivering this note. Please go to the Serving Kitchen and have your pick of the pastries there or a helping of the Sweet Clover Tops.”

After shutting the door in the face of the Baron Nagoodny, who was trying to push his way in while the page was giving them the note, both Celestia and Luna almost collapsed in a giggle fit.

Carefully spreading out the paper so that she could reproduce what was needful in their ancient and powerful mathematics of inequality, Luna chortled, “Equations! How quaint!”

Celestia popped her head over Luna’s shoulder to stare! Snickering, she said, “Really now! imagine someone so backwards that they would use EQUATIONS for navigation around planets or between stars!”

It only took Luna a few minutes to reduce the equations to a usable Matrix of Inequality and have a reply put into the Chronicle.

////////////////

Sensors looked up from her station and spoke to the strange blue creature who was still resting on Hassit, holding him down firmly. “According to my screens, Respected One, you disappeared for a few milliseconds. Did you go somewhere?”

He held up a sealed envelope in the blue field emanating from his horn. Opening it, he even let Sensors make an image of the note and an accompanying sheet. He watched her for a few moments before replying, “I went back to the planetary surface to get this reply to the request for Luna to assist your ship. You are very sharp at your work to have noticed my absence. Hissin is fortunate to have you on his bridge.”

Hissin curiously asked Sensors, “What was his Displacement Signature like, when he vanished and reappeared?”

Sensors replied with absolute confidence, “I have reduced the Respected One’s period of absence to picoseconds. The Displacement Signature is a flat line at zero. However he transports himself, it is not by either Quantum Teleportation or Displacement.

“I am getting a disturbance in the local space-time complex that I HAVE located to him.”

The blue being nodded briskly. “As I said before, VERY good at your work. Lacking the manipulative digits that you all use in one form or another, all of the variants of my kind use such small and controlled space-time disturbances to manipulate the world around us.

“The cumulative effect of Billions of beings ALL doing that is one of the reasons that this whole volume of space-time is so unstable. It requires constant adjustments of the world and moon system just to keep the world habitable.”

Both Sensors and Hissin nodded understanding. It was Sensors who put it into words. “So, what we see as appearing primitive is actually the result of a highly developed technology that is absolutely alien to ours. Our forms of technology cannot coexist.

“I do remember what you told Hassit on the bridge of the Chain of Empire about wires conducting energy becoming bombs. Am I correct in extrapolating that to other devices that channel controlled energies, like for instance our Displacement Engines and our beam weapons?”

The old blue being shifted his weight, digging his leg joints into Hassit’s obese form as he nodded. Replying to Hissin, he stated, “You really do have a VERY good bridge crew, especially this Sensors operator. She is exactly spot on in her analysis.

“Now, I need to change the topic. We have about an hour to shut down all conductive energies, for exactly the reason that Sensors, here deduced. Will you need more candles?”

It was Engineering who replied, “No, Respected One. Following Sir and Master Hissin’s orders, I had all of the candles and holding devices saved while we remain in this dangerous space. I feared that we might need them again.” He got busy at his board and speaking through a headset designed to hang stably from his three short horns.

Hissin watched the smooth functioning of his bridge crew even in the face of a disaster of this magnitude. Astrogation was setting up her controls and orbital checking to verify the final orbit and storing the data before shutting down. Sensors was sadly closing down all of her complex equipment and displays. She so badly wanted to record what was about to happen but knew that she could not. Pilot stabilized the vessel’s orientation before shutting down. Life Support double checked all operational systems, verified that oxygen levels were sufficient and shut down.

Engineering reported, “Sir and Master, some of our systems cannot be properly depowerd. The debris hits have disrupted the controls.”

The creature asked the one now guarding Hassit, “Would you do me the favor of keeping my cushion from moving about? It almost appears to have mind of its own, sometimes. I am needed to assist Engineering in shutting down some systems.”

Smiling in a most unpleasant way, the guard replied, “Respected One, I shall do that.”

The old blue creature simply vanished.

He appeared just behind the Engineering crew in their vacuum suits, preparing to cut through a bulkhead to get at a main supply cable. The arc suppression switching gear for it was a melted ruin partly embedded into a blob of still warm glassy stone.

They heard the voice of the strange blue furred alien that had been coming and going so freely on their ship. “What, exactly, do you need to do here? I can assist you in powering down if you tell me what you need to do.”

One pointed to the bulkhead. “We need to cut through here. When we do, this compartment will become a vacuum area. The arc suppressing switch gear was destroyed by that hit of whatever it is. One of us will have to get to the cable and cut it. The arc that results will kill him but, I understand, will save the ship.”

The blue furred one nodded, “I see. Open to letting me do it for you? None of us needs to die or get exposed to vacuum that way.”

The crew leader replied, “How can you do it? That is a solid metal partition.”

The creature shrugged, “Not that hard for me, not really. Here.” A blue nimbus grew around his horn. It stretched out to the bulkhead and appeared to simply sink into it.

The crew were watching their test gear in amazement. “Look at the size of that surge! Nowhere near to what an arc should produce! There it goes! Power is down!”

They turned to thank their odd visitor but he was gone.

Treason!

The page Flegair tapped firmly on the panels of the observatory door. Behind him were three Unicorns of the Court. One, Merten, was a Count. The other two, Nagoodny and Faultin, were Barons. They pushed Flegar into the observatory and barged in after him. Their magic was reaching ahead, a pen in the grip of it!

Celestia’s delicate seeming Alicorn magic froze the lot of them! She seized the pen but did not move it from its place, almost to the open Scroll of Creation! It was poised to overwrite Luna’s neatly written Matrix of Inequalities needed to move the damaged space craft to the safety of a Solar orbit.

Celestia’s gentle seeming but powerful Alicorn magic picked up all three of the nobles. They were struggling futilely and trying to lash out with their magic. Celestia was blocking it effortlessly if it looked to cause any damage. She did not even bother to cap their horns.

She did request, “Luna, dear, please double check that the Scroll of Creation is not only intact but uncontaminated. Lock it away and meet us in the Thrones Room.

“We have a trial for Crimes Against the State and possible High Treason to put under the Royal Wing.”

Turning to the now quaking page Flegair, Celestia kindly offered, “You have so far served us well. Your presence in our observatory was the result of force by others who did gain entrance. You are excused of any wrongful intent. We do need you for a witness. For that reason, please report to the Thrones Room. Thank you, Flegair.”

The relieved page trotted off to the Thrones Room. Celestia and her unwilling nobles followed him. She was joined by Luna soon after. The Great Doors of the Thrones Room were opened by heralds who called, “Make way! The Royal Princesses of the Realm of Equestria are coming to sit in judgment on recent High Crimes!”

The buzz of comments about the unscheduled Court died suddenly upon the announcement. Celestia advanced to the dais of the Throne of the Queen, carrying the three struggling nobles in her magic. Luna accompanied her.

Celestia left the three at the foot of the Queen’s Throne and took her place on the throne to the right of the Queen’s Throne. Luna took her throne to the left of the Queen’s Throne.

Luna began, “Before we begin this Trial Under the Royal Wing, my sister Princess and I have some simple questions for all of you. Any who cannot or do not answer the questions correctly, will be excused from Court and from Canterlot until such time as they can answer correctly.

“First, what is any attempt by any means at all to alter the contents of a Scroll of Creation?”

As the assembled nobility were looking at each other in consternation, the page Flegair spoke up clearly. “Attempting to alter a Scroll of Creation Magic is High Treason!”

The nobles all quickly agreed.

Luna cast a jaundiced eye at the nobles who were beaten to the answer by a page. She asked again, “What is any attempt to enter the Royal Observatory without Our direct leave?”

The embarrassed nobles got the answer to that one immediately. “Attempting to enter or influence what you do in the Royal Observatory is at least a Crime against the State and may be Treason.”

Luna nodded, “Correct. Now, the last of the questions. Our beloved foster father De Writer often leaves Celestia and I personal notes in the Chronicle. Those notes are to be brought to us, regardless of any other pony’s thoughts or belief about the contents of them. What is any attempt to interfere with our receiving those notes?”

It was the page Flegair who got the answer first! “That is a Crime Against Your Highnesses Persons!”

Celestia pointed her hoof to the page Flegair, asking, “Were you bringing us a note from our foster father, De Writer?”

“Your Highness, I was. Count Merten took it from me by force. He opened the delivery envelope, read your note and then shredded and burned it. He said that it was gibberish of no consequence.

“I did try to dissuade him from the destruction by telling him that the note related to a project of your Highnesses. He would not hear the argument of a mere page and he boxed my ears for my effrontery.”

Celestia nodded and smiled gently at Flegair. “You did serve us well and your clever warning to us by the coded door rap saved us from having to destroy a precious Scroll of Creation Magic, ready to use.”

Merton could not contain himself! “The Evil Twin of Nightmares bungled her work THREE TIMES IN A ROW! You were even then preparing yet another Scroll! We had a single and simple answer to all of that forever to come!”

Luna put a hoof over her eyes. “Dear Queen, our mother, in creating life, did you really have to create Merten? I would ask how stupid he can possibly be but that answer is showing so clearly!”

Celestia nodded and then offered, “Let me guess, Merten. It went something like this:

“The Moon is commanded to stay its proper and natural courses in the sky, with no more corrections needed ever again.

“Am I close?”

Merten grinned meanly as he replied, “Since it is so simple, why have you not done it long ago? The answer is that you use these so-called corrections as a means to overawe the populace! We noble unicorns are not deceived!”

Luna stared at him like he was an interesting but extremely ugly bug. “You said that I bungled the last three corrections. As evidence, you point to our preparing another Scroll of Creation Magic. Tell me, did it ever cross your tiny speck of a mind that the Scroll that we were preparing might have had a different purpose altogether?

“You recently did a demonstration of a new type of plow. It is an excellent design, allowing a pony to plow a fourth more field in the same time. How many times did you bungle the demonstration?”

Merten frowned and replied, “I did NOT bungle the demonstration! During the first showing the plow struck an unforeseen nest of stinging ants!”

Luna smiled serenely as she asked, “And the second bungle?”

He snapped, “It was NOT a bungle! The plow pony inadvertently disturbed a nest of hornets! These were simply unforeseen events! Nothing more!”

Luna nodded briskly. “Odd, that. Something unforeseen happens to what you are doing and you say that it is NOT A BUNGLE. If something unforeseen happens to what I am doing, you say that IT IS A BUNGLE. What is the difference? Only this. One happens to YOU and the other to ME.”

Celestia quietly hoofed over coin. “You said something earlier that disturbs me more than the effort to fix the moon and, incidentally, put yourself on Mother’s Throne. You called my sister, Princess Luna, the Evil Twin of Nightmares.

“Take this bit, Merten. On one side are both of our portraits. On the other, the denomination. Simply separate one side of this coin from the other and keep it as a whole coin.

“That cannot be done, can it? So it is with Day and Night. True that Luna rules the Dream, both good and bad. She also rules the path of the moon in the sky. If ever you bothered to notice it, the moon is in the DAYTIME sky almost as much as it is in the night sky. We SHARE the paths of the heavens.”

Luna added in a soft voice, “More than that, we are of one heart, my sister and I.”

Her voice hardening like an iron bar, she added, “Sister, we waste time. All of the other charges carry the possibility of forgiveness. The Unforgivable Treason of attempting to alter a Scroll of Creation Magic is the sole thing that we need consider.”

Merten sneered, “You will never know what that note said! I will take the secret to my grave!”

The page Flegair made a deep bow to the Thrones. “Your Highnesses, following the wise instruction of Princess Luna, I read and memorized each note that I have given you from your foster father. She feared such circumstances as this might interfere with the delivery of a note.

“It said, 'The damaged vessel Lash of Empire will need the safe haven of the solar orbit whose elements have been already given to you. I am seeing to the powering down of the ship so that you may move it with minimal damage to its systems.’ What that may mean to your Highnesses is not for me to judge.”

Celestia smiled at him and said, “Well done, Flegair. Well done indeed. You shall be rewarded for your loyal service to us.”

Luna offered, “Merten, Nagoodny and Faultin did force their way into the Royal Observatory, a Crime Against the State. Further, Merten attempted to write alterations to a prepared Scroll of Creation Magic, an Unforgivable Treason. Nagoodny and Faultin were accomplices in the Treason.

“I did witness the listed Treason. Further, we have the word of both the Page Flegair and of Merten himself, that he did destroy a note from our foster father, De Writer. This is a Crime Against our Royal Persons.

“I say guilty. I am open to extenuation. Sister, what say you?”

Celestia paused to think. “I did stop Merten’s pen but ten centimeters from the Scroll.

“I too, say guilty. Merten has earned the Traitor’s Drop.

“Merten is Vacant! The County shall be properly filled according to the laws of succession! Remove from his person his Pectoral of County, his Chains of Office and all of his Badges of Duty! They are to be placed before the Throne of the Queen.

Luna awaited the Royal Guardsponies carrying out Celestia’s order before stating, “The Barons Nagoodny and Faultin were accomplices in this Treason. They did know both the crimes that they were committing and the penalties for them.

“I say, guilty. Sister, how say you?”

Heavily, Celestia agreed, “Guilty. I hate to be the agency of death. Mother is the Titan of Life Creation. This must be done, though.”

Faultin quietly asked, “Your Highnesses, may we ask one small boon? Nagoodny and I would like to be granted the dignity calling our baronies Vacant. We will remove our own Baronies, Offices and Duties and lay them before the Throne of the Queen.”

Luna nodded soberly. “That was well said, Faultin. You and Nagoodny are granted that final dignity.”

Turning to Celestia, Luna said gently, “Sister, this heavy duty will not be yours alone. I too shall hold and release them.” She sighed. “The sentence that I have given, I shall help to carry out. I too, wish that they had not done such a Treason.”

Gentle seeming magics of both the midnight sky and the soft pastels of the day gathered up the three plotters and carried them to the balcony known as the Traitor’s Drop. Luna placed a comforting wing over Celestia’s back as they let the traitors fall.

Safe in Orbit

Back in the Observatory, Luna located the wreck of the Lash of Empire in the field of her telescope. Looking up, she commented, “As bad as things got here, after the Mong bomb test, these poor folks got it far worse! Take a look, Celestia!”

Celestia put her eye to the eyepiece and tweaked the focus a tiny bit. “Dear Mother!” she exclaimed. How did they mange to get plastered like that? Let’s see … The Displacement Engine’s driver array is about half gone. They have three hull breaches that I can see. Only one seems to be leaking air at the moment. There, now that I can see the propulsor array, it is no wonder that they need help! I can only make out two of the array pylons left!”

Luna snickered, “Gee, you would think that we have never seen a Displacement Engine space craft before!”

Celestia nodded sarcastic agreement. “Right! Total mystery, here! Gee, what holds it up, Miss Alicorn of Science? What is this? The fifth or sixth one?"

Luna sobered some. “Counting the one that we DID NOT see in time, there on the moon, it is six. These two were the only warships, though.”

Luna retrieved the new Scroll and thoughtfully double checked every bit of it, to be certain that it said what it was supposed to. She placed it into the stand to hold it unrolled to her exact place.

She invited, “Want to play, Celestia? This will be fun.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, Luna. I enjoy watching you do work like this, though.” She settled herself on a big cushion to watch.

Having Creation Magic of her own, Celestia could literally see the beauty of Luna’s magic as it developed.

Luna reared, spreading her wings like a big cup to help contain, form and launch the spell. She began to chant the ancient mathematics of the Language of Creation, as taught to them by the Titan of Life Creation. The exacting dance of mathematical expressions creating, manipulating, and interacting, controlled her precise working. When all was exactly as Luna wished it to be, she sent it on its way.

//////////////////

Aboard the Lash, drifting in her uncertain orbit with all power off, the only lights those of candles, Hissin listened with pride as the strange distortions began. None of his crew were giving any voice to fear. They might not understand how it was being done but they knew that a friendly Power was moving their crippled vessel away from that deadly planet below and into safe space.

The distortions settled down. The blue creature gently tapped Sensors. “Power up, Sensors. Get all the data that you can. You are so good at it.”

She spared him a smile as she began to power up her station.

Pilot and Astrogation were both busy too.

They looked up in awe. Pilot reported, “We were placed into our desired orbit with all of the specified elements, orientation of the vessel and orbital tilt in a single maneuver with no corrections needed.”

Engineering reported, “Our power up is going well. We have some sections that were damaged too badly to be safe for repowering. Aside from the 70% loss of our auxiliary maneuvering systems and it still being unsafe to use any form of Displacement equipment, including our primary weapons, we have a safe platform to begin repairs.”

Life Support reported in, “Our air regeneration equipment is down by 30% and our waste recovery systems are at 75%. This is within standard battle damage safety limits. Life support is safely operational.”

Hissin approached the Respected One, still lounging on Hassit. “We thank you for your assistance, Sir. Without it, our ship and our news would have been lost to the Empire. Is there anything that we can do for you?”

He nodded in what was now recognized as agreement. “Let me go over all the data that Sensors picked up from that weapon test. Due to other necessities, I missed quite a bit of it. I do know how good she is and trust that even with my cushion’s interference, she got most of it.”

Hissin nodded assent and asked Sensors, “Is the situation stable enough to give the Respected One his request at this time?”

She replied briskly, “Sir and Master, we can now do that. I have all routine hazard scans running on automatic. They are set to override and deliver warnings if needed.” She began to work at her station.

Apologetically she explained, “Due to the interference of, um, your cushion, Respected One, we only got the opening one half second of the event in visible light. It is impressive but not terribly informative.”

“Quite all right, Sensors. You did an amazing job, considering the problem that you had.” He watched the whole detonation sequence through to the incoming masses of still molten debris striking the ship. He then examined all of the data that was in other forms.

“You really did do excellently, Sensors. Hissin should commend you in his reports. In fact, this whole bridge crew should be commended. You all handled the emergency perfectly.

“Now, I need to go and give belated birthday gifts to some friends. I thought that keeping you all alive was a tad more important. I am sure that both Eris and Cy would agree.”

Hissin gave his strange visitor an almost puzzled look. “I shall recommend that the Empire stay away from here. We see the physical world in one way. You have a a very different point of view.”

The old blue unicorn slowly faded away.

~THE END~