Void Trials

Vanguard Station. A gigantic structure floating above Equus, working place of almost 800 ponies and home to a fourth of them, but most importanly, it was the port for all Equestrian extraplanetary travel. The living places and storage were shaped like an oktahedron, a double-sided pyramid with four edges. Each edge in the middle connected to an outer ring, containing the actual port, where spaceships could dock, be maintained, repaired and take off again.

Inside the plastic walls were ponies hard at work, pegasi were pushing big crates through the narrow, but high corridors. The crates were build with small magnets at the bottom, anchoring them lightly to metal tracks build into the ground, even in the weightlessness of space.

This was necessary to stop the crates from blocking the traffic above their heads, where ponies navigated their way using metal rods for earth ponies and unicorns, used their wings if they were pegasi, and the changelings just walked along the flat ceiling. To the untrained eye, it looked like utter chaos, but in reality, there was a strict order to it: big objects stayed at the bottom, keeping the space above them free for the busy workers to rush to their next assignment. Visitors, ponies on break and passengers were of the lowest priority, and so had to wait for the corridors to empty before making their own way to their destinations.

This did not count for royalty however. As princess Twilight Sparkle made her way through the station, she was met with ponies hurrying to clear the room for her. Twilight did not mind as she rushed past.

It was the 6th century of Twilights rule and her body has filled out over the years. She now stood at the same height as her co-rulers and towered over normal ponies. Although her mane did not yet have the flowing, magical properties, only an occasional ribble going along it, she looked impressive and regal, a symbol of what every young unicorn wanted to be. Next to her, a robot, shaped almost like a pony, but unmistakenly made of metal, with flexible white tubes making for mane and tail. Its rhinestone eyes were covered by a glass visor. The loud thumping of its brass hooves announced the coming of the princess and her personal robot assistant far ahead, which, by giving them a fair warning, possibly contributed to all the ponies managing to get out of the way in time.

"Twilight Sparkle, you appear troubled" the machine said in an artificial, but definetly female sounding voice.

The alicorn rolled her eyes.

"Am I to read your lack of an answer as confirmation, Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight groaned, but gave a nod.

"You gave her a choice. I know you hoped your daughter would choose another way, but-" Twilight intercepted her.

"I sat down with her, Turing. I know what she wants" Twilight said.

"But you dont agree" Her robotic friend said.

Twilight bit her lip.

"Im just worried about her" she said after a long pause. "I mean, policing a colony is not as dangerous as a battlefield, and she´s a fully trained soldier and literally born for this ..."

The alicorn fell silent.

A few moments later, she shot a look at the Robot, which walked silently by her side.

Turing turned her head, seeing her friends expression. "My apologies, Twilight Sparkle, I assumed you were still reassuring yourself"

Twilights eyes shrunk to tiny slits. It had always been hard to detect whether the robot was joking or not, and her unique sense of humor had only gotten more obscure over the years.

As they stepped out of the tight hallways into the much more spacious dock, Twilight let out a breath she didn´t know she´d been holding.

Through a large glass window, they could see a large spaceship, almost two thirds the size of a normal cargo freighter boat, connected with the station through a steel tube, leading into the cargo space. A whole team of pegasi was pushing the freight into the ship, while most of  the crew, except for the captain and his most trusted lieutenants, were still off in the station for a bit of entertainment and real food, one of the biggest luxuries in modern space travel.

Away from the main traffic, sitting ontop of black plastic trunks, was a group of three ponies,  a young brown earth Pony mare and two unicorn stallions of the same age, a taller one with teal fur and a smaller one in red. Just by themselves they would have looked like normal ponies, but with the numerous pegasi serving as comparison, Twilight could not overlook the differences. These ponies were taller than any of the pegasi, even the mare reaching an inch above the tallest of them. They had a broader frame and there didn´t seem to be an ounce of fat on their bodies, the payoff of many hours oftzraining in addition to their genetics. Yes, those ponies had  been  "improved", their DNA modified to allow their bodies to surpass the limits of most normal ponies, all to make them excel in the one practise Twilight despised more than any other.

War.

Swallowing down her feelings and putting on a smile, Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof and waved to her daughter.

"Shetty!" Press hissed at the earth pony, interrupting the other unicorn. He jumped up from his trunk.  "Princess!"

The other two quickly got up, standing at rapt attention and turned to the waving lavender alicorn. The other unicorn, Saw Blade, was taken aback by the sudden appearance of royalty. His lips silently formed the word "Wow"

The mare however bit her lip and raised her hoof to unenthusiastically wave back. "Hey, Mom" she said, earning a stunned look from Saw, but Press quickly silenced him by poking his side.

"Hello Shetland" Twilight said hestitantly.

They both exchanged fake smiles in silence, before Twilight tried to break the ice.

"I just wanted to wish you farewell, Shetty"

The pretense of a smile dropped from Shetlands face. "You could have done it on Equus, mom. why did you come all the way into space for it?"

"I... I was angry. I didn´t want you to follow in your father´s hoofsteps-" Twilight began, but Shetland interrupted her with an angry whinny.

"Im not  following in his hoofsteps, he had nothing to do with this! nothing!"

"I gave you a choice!" Twilight said, speaking louder to drown out her daughter. Behind them the carriers stopped to watch the debate unfold.

"You shouldn´t have! and it´s too late now!" Shetland shouted, her face becoming tinted with red.

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but, with enough volume to completely drown out the two, the robot to Twilights side shouted

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone in the room pressed their hooves or wings on their ears to drown out the voice echoing through the corridors.

In the sudden deafing silence, Turing spoke to Shetland in a normal volume. "Is it so weird that your mother wants to see you a last time before you depart to guard a faraway colony for months? She just wants to see you a last time before you go. And so do I"

Shetland looked at the robot, all traces of red vanishing from her cheeks. "Im... sorry" she said and moved towards the machine, embracing it in a hug.

"Do not be," Turing said, gently patting her back with her cold brass hooves. "but you should tell it to somepony else." And with that, she withdrew from the hug, leaving mother and daughter to themselves.

They both looked unsurely to each other, spreading their legs as if to embrace on another, but seemingly decided otherwise and lowered their limbs again.

They settled on bumping hooves.

"Despite everything, Shetty," Twilight said "I´m... proud of you"

Her daughter bit her lips. "Thanks" she simply responded, without meeting Twilights eyes.

"Your highness," Press´s calm voice started, causing both mares to turn their heads towards him. "I think our guide just arrived"

He pointed to a short changeling mare who has been watching the princess awe-struck, but now cleared her throat and said shakily. "Y-yes, w-we need to move on, or we risk delaying the start"

"Well, then i can´t stand in your way" Twilight said, taking a step back. She turned to Shetland. "Make some friends there, will you?"

"Will do, mom, will do" Shetland said, shaking her head with a smile that finally reached to her eyes.

"Wow" Saw Blade whispered, his eyes staring at the back of Shetlands head "I get to do my graduation with the princesses daughter!"

"We really need to get moving!" The changeling said, her tone less shaky and more professional than before. "Come on!"

They picked up their luggage (which had been fixated on the ground with small magnets), and followed the smaller mare into the tube connecting the station to the ships side door. On the last step, Shetland turned around and saw her mother and Turing wave their hooves, and she waved back. She wouldn´t meet them again for a while, after all.

As a passenger, the start of a spaceship was remarkably unexciting. Shetland, Press and Saw were simply led to their cabins, a tiny room with three bunks only Shetland could use without her hooves sticking over the edge. In the small free space, they decided to push their trunks together to make for a makeshift table. The changeling told them to make themselves comfortable, to which Saw snorted and received a glare from Press. She then ordered them to stay in their room so they would not be in the way.

"We wouldn´t be in the way!" Saw protested, but the changeling had already left the room. He groaned. "We´re on a spaceship, and all we get to see is this little closet"

"Relax", Press said "We get to see more when the complicated part is over. Like a plane, you can´t walk around in those either before they´re in the air"

Saw pondered on that for a moment. "Yeah, but Spaceships are way more exciting than planes" At that, he turned to Shetland, who had made herself comfortable on her bed. "Hey, your mom practically invented these things, did she ever tell you how they work?"

Shetland snorted "Are you kidding? She would never shut up about it! When your mom told you good-night stories, mine would ramble on about insanely complicated magic stuff"

"Well, thats great" Saw grinned. "Let´s hear it then"

Shetland chuckled. "It´s not like i understood much" she rubbed her bare forehead. "And mom´s not the best at keeping it simple"

"But you gotta know something, Shetty. Can i call you Shetty?"

She rolled her eyes  "Alright. And yes, you can. Now give me a moment, this stuff would be complicated even if i knew more than half the words she used..." She rubbed her forehead with her hoof for almost a solid minute. Just as Saw started wibbling impatiently, she spoke up.

"So, you know teleportation? pop out of point A and show up in point B without crossing the space inbetween?"

Both unicorns nodded. Despite having heard it several times already, Press leaned in, his ears cocked.

"So, apparently, this ship is doing something similar"

"But we´re not teleporting" Saw said. "We´re not traveling instantly and it would take way too much power anyway"

"The only thing im sure of," Shetland said, her brow deeply furrowed "is that the magic part doesn´t make the ship faster. Technically"

"But how-" Saw started.

"Instead, mothers spell transforms us into a state of near-teleportation, reducing the significance of the space we´re crossing" she finished with a sly grin.

Saw stared at Shetland, wondering if she was making fun of him. "That explanation was crap" he said after a few moments.

She just shrugged in response "It´s the best one you´re ever going to get from an earth pony"

"Fair enough" he grumbled.

"One thing, though" she added "Traveling somewhere with this method leaves some kind of invisible line, connecting the two place, and every time you travel across the same line, the spell gets more efficient"

"Basically," Press said. "Every ship is faster than the one before"

"Yeah," Shetland said, unfaced by the interruption. "The first colony ship took almost a month to get there, while we only need a little less than two days, despite using the exact same method"

Saw whistled, then he turned to Shetland. "Your mom´s a nerd"

She rolled her eyes. "The biggest"

"Hello, Crew"  The captain´s strict voice came from a speaker from the ceiling. "Our flight to Eggnor 4 will start in ten minutes. I want to hear an all-clear from all ponies in position by then. Passengers, strap yourselves to your beds. The transition can cause nausea, especially for unicorns"

All in all, it was quite uneventful. They spent the next few minutes strapped down, listening to ponies rush around, then the engines activated.

Shetland lamented their lack of windows.

Only a bit later, they got the all clear from the speaker and were allowed to unstrap themselves again. Press, whose face had turned a shade of green, quickly rushed to a bucket standing in the corner, a feat of wise preparation.

The next few hours they spent playing one of Shetlands board games ontop of their trunks. She had just managed to connect her two villages with a street, and simultaneously wall Press into a small corner of the playfield, as someone knocked on their door. It opened a tiny crack, and the solid blue eyes of the changeling mare from before appeared.

"May I come in?"

Press jumped up, ignoring the start of his turn. He beamed a wide smile at her. "Sure you can, Sweetie" He shuffled further into the corner to make place for her beside him.

"Wait, Sweetie?" Saw asked. "You know her?"

Shetland chuckled. "She´s the reason he´s even on the ship, the big romantic doofus that he is"

Press just rolled his eyes and ignored her comment. Instead, he turned to the changeling. "Hon, this is Saw Blade. Saw, this is Ciloa Pie, my marefriend"

"Pleased to meet you" Ciloa said in the echoing voice of changeling mares. She extended her hoof towards Saw.

"Just as I am"  he responded and shook her hoof. "But now im curious, Im here because I need to do some real guarding duty before I can graduate to a real soldier, but why are you here?"

"It´s the same for me" Shetland said. "Press has already done that last year however"

"I just want to be stationed at the same place as her" Press said as he lowered his head to kiss Ciloas´s cheek.

She pushed him off, but then nuzzled his jawline playfully before turning to Saw. "I graduated from the Manehattan university of Mineralogy a while ago. Im here to help analyse the yields of the mines, find more valuable mining spots and hopefully discover some alien elements.

"oh, rock science..." Saw said with a complete lack of real enthusiasm. "Thats cool..."

"You don´t have to fake it" Ciloa said earnestly "Most ponies don´t find rocks as exciting as I do"

"Hey, I would definetly prefer studying rocks over soldiering" Saw joked. "If I had the chance, I would be an architect. What about you two? what would you do if you had a choice?"

Press sighed. "Probably cooking. I would like that. But there´s no use discussing that"

"Says you. Shetty, what would you do?"

Shetland leaned back and took a deep breath. "This"

"Seriously?" Saw asked incredulously. "Even if you had a choice, you would still want to go risk your life?"

"My mom gave me a choice" Shetland replied evenly. "Said she could bend the rules for me. Allow me to do whatever I wanted. I refused. THIS is what I want"

Saw opened his mouth with a rebuttal ready, but Press cut him off. "Saw, she has had this conversation with her mother over and over, don´t make her do this again"

He grumbled, but chose to lay off. an hour later,  they decided they would go to bed, as there was nothing for them to do.

"Tomorrow I could show you around the rest of the ship and explain how some of the things work" Ciloa offered.

"You understand the technical mumbo-jumbo?" Saw asked. "Impressive"

She chuckled. "Not really, but I can give you the simplified explanation I received"

She turned for the door, but Press pulled her closer to himself. "You could stay with me over the night, hon~" he said, nuzzling her horn, which earned him an echoing giggle from her.

"No funny business though, big guy" She said.

"Wouldn´t dream of it"

They had some trouble fitting themselves on a bunk which was honestly not even big enough to accomodate Press by himself. As such Ciloa ended up pretty much lying ontop of him.

As they switched off the lights, Saw mumbled. "Im jealous of you guys"

"Why so?" Shetland asked sleepily.

"You all got ordinary names. You know how tiring it is to have a name that basically already indicates a weapon?"

"it could mean you´re a lumberjack" Shetland said with a chuckle.

"yeah, sure" Saw said, grumbling.

"Dont worry" Press said with a yawn. "you´re not alone. Mine´s short for Precision Shot. And now shut up and let us sleep"

"Oh... alright" Saw said, his tone just a bit lighter as they fell asleep.

"Warning!" the speaker from the ceiling roared in an artificial voice, sending Shetland and Saw into shock, while Press tried to calm down Ciloa, who awoke screaming. "An unidentified ship is blocking our course"

They looked at each other in confusion as the speaker fell silent.

"Could it be Aliens?" Saw asked, just to be swatted lightly by Press.

"Maybe the colony just send a ship back to the station-" Ciloa started, but Press shook his head.

"If that was the case, we could identify it. And its definetly not aliens" he said with a look to the red unicorn.

The Speaker switched on again, this time with the voice of the captain.

"We have recieved a message from the ship, and it is indeed hostile. Everypony ready yourself. They are going to board us"