To the Stars, and Beyond

Chapters

I: Leaving
II: Old(ish) Friends
III: (Back)Story Time
IV: Bats in the Cradle
V: Visions
VI: Past
VII: War
VIII: Betrayal

I: Leaving

Chapter One

This was it. He was finally leaving his homeworld LHS 3447. After working odd jobs for the past five years, Record had finally saved up enough bits to get a shuttle ride to the nearest starport, Dalton Gateway and then buy a small ship. As the shuttles had no frame shift drive allowing faster than light travel, the ride from the planet to the starport took a few hours. He decided that some rest would be nice before his departure from the system and he noticed as we left the atmosphere by extension, the only home he’d ever known.

But sleep could not be found, due to a distant explosion rocking the shuttle. It only took a small look outside the window to realize that somepony was attacking the station that he was to be arriving at! It looked to be a Core Dynamics Eagle MK.II, covered in pirate markings, a truly horrifying sight for him and the other passengers in the unarmed, and unarmoured transport shuttle. But only a moment after the initial explosion did the station’s defenses in front of the entrance (what is more commonly referred to as the mailslot) open up, destroying the attacker in mere seconds. Record had frozen in place in his seat, realizing that he was not even a day into space and had already seen death and destruction.

“So much for the welcoming party, eh?” The pony in the seat next to him said, bringing him out of his frozen state. He turned his head to the side to see a light purple bat pony mare, clad in old and worn brown bomber jacket that was covered in various military patches. And a faded, almost white, yellow scarf was wrapped around her neck. She had dark blue mane with a faint purple stripe and she was looking out the window at the cleanup that was just starting to take place.

“Makes me wonder what their goal was.” Record replied.

She looked at him with a sad expression, “Pirates will do just about anything to gain a few bits, even if it may be certain death, like what that just was. The name’s Lunar Sky, You?” she asks holding out a hoof to him.

“Record Shatter, or just Record.” He replied, accepting her hoofshake.

“Huh, that name reminds me of that one DJ from Equiis, a long time ago, what was her name?” she asks looking away and shutting her eyes in concentration.

“Vinyl Scratch?” he offered.

“Yeah! That’s the one!”

“I think that’s what my folks were going for, or at least what they told me.” he said rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof in embarrassment.

They made small talk for the rest of the two hours that it took to clean up the wreckage and soon parted ways after they got into the station. Record soon made his way over to the shipyard. Going into the dealership where he was greeted by a salesman.

“So,” said the overly eccentric salespony unicorn after a brief introduction, “What kind of ship are you looking for? I actually have a gre-”

“What will this get me?” Record interrupted, throwing a sizeable sack of bits on the table.

“I think,” he said, taking and weighing the stack of bits on a scale, “I have just the thing for you, my friend. Follow me if you will, Mister…”

“Record... Just, Record.”

He was led over to a smaller ship, which he recognized immediately. It was an Eagle Mk.II, just like the one that had gotten decimated outside the station. He immediately locked up, as memories of the day’s earlier events went through his mind. The small fighter was a dark green, with many scratches covering its hull, revealing some glimmering white and chrome paint.

“What do you think sir? Uhh, sir are you okay?”

He finally poked Record in the shoulder lightly, making him come to. “I’ll take it.” he said after briefly shaking his head.

“Only the best value for you, of course! We'll even throw in a free nameplate for you. Now go ahead and take look around, I need to go and finalize the purchase in the office.”

Record walked up the small staircase that also served as a forward landing gear, and pressed a button on the side of the door, opening it. He walked inside and made his way to the cockpit, setting his things down on the floor haphazardly. He opened his bag and taped down a small picture to the top of the dashboard. Looking out the window, Record realized the real scale of the ship he had just bought. He had flown all of the small trainer ships in order to get his Commander’s License, but this was a lot bigger, even though it was on the smaller scale of ships. Oddly enough there was a small rear-view mirror in which he saw himself. A light gray unicorn, with a messy black mane with thin neon green highlights in it and a unkempt tail to match. Finally he looked back to his cutie mark, a vinyl record from the days of old, with a green stripe surrounding the hole in the middle. He turned around at the sound of knocking behind him, he looked over his shoulder and saw the salespony holding a box with his magic.

“Here we are, one flight suit and helmet, one blaster pistol, cartridges not included, and a box of tools for internal ship repair.” He said dropping the box down with a resounding thud.

“Now, what would you like to name your ship? He said with a smile. Record looked at the floor, trying to think of something.

“Huh, I never really thought what I would call my own ship.” He came and sat down in a passenger’s seat, chuckling softly and shaking his head.

“You won’t believe how often that happens, kid. I wouldn’t really recommend naming your first ship anyway, if you are planning to get rid of it and move on eventually. Is that what you’re gonna do?” He seemed slightly deflated as he said this, but Record could not figure out why.

“Yeah, that was my plan, actually.” Record said looking back out the window, not that there was to much to see, it was a small hanger underneath the main flight area.

“Listen here kid, I got a proposition for you, if you’re interested that is.”

“I’m listening.”

He immediately seemed to get more nervous, “W-well, you see, the market for selling ships is kinda, less than nominal right now…” Record merely raised an eyebrow at him.

“So I may have doing some, less than legal... activities, and got found out just today.”

“And you need me to help you?” Record deadpanned.

“Exactly!”

“What do I get out of it?”

He threw back the sack of bits he had been given. “You can take these back for starters, now go ahead and power up the ship.”

Record returned his gaze back to the console of the ship. There were many buttons and levers, way too much for any novice to ever learn in a day. He looked it over for a bit and saw a button that did not match any of the rest as it was made of gold, clearly an aftermarket addition. It had an engraving on it that read “INCENDIUM.” He harked back to his Equiish classes back home, and realized that it was the old language, of the time before Princess Luna’s banishment. He pressed it and instantly, the cabin was lit by the light of a dozen warnings and signals of flashing buttons and monitors. But, as soon as it had been alight it was dark once more, except for the console itself, which glowed orange with holograms. The one to the left was of the station we were currently in, the middle seemed to be a 3D map of sorts with blips marking other ships. And finally the one on the right was on the ship with a health indicator under it that read 100%.

“Good job son, all systems are nominal it seems. Now see that lever beneath the throttle? Flip up the cover and press the button.” Record did as he said. There was a whir of sorts that filled the cabin, and he looked behind himself to see that there was a large cannon on top of the ship behind the glass of the cockpit.

He looked back at the salespony and asked, “Is that a plasma accelerator?”

“Indeed it is, you also have two beam lasers underneath the nose, for taking out shields, and if you get me out of here alive, it’s all yours.”

Record gaped at him for a moment “You’re serious?”

He nodded with a small smile before replying, “Dead serious.”

“Consider it done! Now how do we get out of here?”

“You probably should get your flight suit and helmet on first… I’ll wait outside.” He went back down the stairs to the hangar floor, leaving him to his thoughts for a moment. Record took a quick look in the rearview mirror again, and saw that he was very faintly blushing. “Welp,” He thought to himself, “You are now helping a wanted criminal, and you made a slight fool of yourself. Good job, go me.” The flight suit was quite snug on record, leading him to make a mental note to acquire a bigger one when he had the chance. At least the helmet was a good fit. Record went down the stairs after him. The moment the salespony saw him he started snickering into his hoof and said, “Uhh, whoops, I seem to have gotten you a small. Sorry ‘bout that.”

Record grumbled at him and said “Just get in the ship.” he jumped back a bit in fright, as he spoke the helmet distorted his voice, making it deeper and filled with a small amount of static.

“Lead the way, Commander.”

They went back up into the cabin, still glowing with orange light. “Alright,” he pressed a button on the console, bringing up a menu that covered the window entirely. “Here is what you will spend most of your time looking at while you are docked.”

“It’s, uh, confusing to say the least.” Record said taking it all in

“You get used to it,” he said while getting back into his passengers seat from earlier. “It’s touch sensitive, so, see that button that says, return to surface? Go ahead and hit that.” Record obliged him, and immediately they were moving forward on the platform, above them there was a large slab of metal moving backward revealing the large open flight area of the spaceport. The platform reached the end of the hangar corridor and started moving slowly up, before stopping when it was level with the floor.

“I believe you know how to do the rest, just jump to the farthest populated system you can and I will be on my way.” The salespony said, looking nostalgic about the whole experience.

Record nodded at him, tuning into the traffic control on the internal helmet headset and speaking. “This is Commander Romeo, Echo, Charlie requesting permission to head out.”

A voice replied, “This is Tower, Commander, you are good to go, safe travels.” Record flipped on the main engines switch, and they roared to life with such a ferocity that it ‘almost’ frightened him! He hit another button and the landing gear lock disengaged, and they were floating. “Landing gear retracted.” Said a female computer voice inside his helmet. He used the docking thrusters to get the ship perfectly in line with the mailslot before glancing back at the salespony, who mouthed, ‘Oh no.’And then, without warning, Record pushed the throttle to the max, in an instant they raced through the mailslot at a blistering speed into the vastness of space.

II: Old(ish) Friends

Chapter Two

“Well, while that was fast, you could’ve done better.” Said the salespony. Record turned in his seat and saw the salespony grinning at him.

“How could I have gone any faster than that?”

“Well, ya’ see that big red button that says boost? I think that right there is your answer.” A loud clunk is heard as Record attempted to facehoof through his helmet.

“Now that you are out of the station, let's get out of the system, first, select which system you want to jump to, in example, as far from here as possible!”

“Alright, farthest populated sector chosen.”

“Good, now just flip that yellow switch and we are a go!”

Record flipped the switch and a voice was heard. “Frame-Shift-Drive charging.” The engines somehow seemed to get louder, until they reached a peak. A tone came in through his helmet, “Please align with escape vector.” A light blue circle also appeared on the ships heads-up-display (HUD).

“Bah,” Record scolded himself, starting to pull back on the stick slightly, aiming for the center of the circle. “Like an amateur.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself kid.” said the salespony as the tone came through again, “3, 2, 1,” There was a sound of thunder. The digital speedometer kept jumping back and forth between 2000c and 8000c, and the ship was shaking violently. Looking out the window, one could see various stars passing by stuck in place as their light could not reach us fast enough. It dawned on Record that, ponies, had become the fastest things in the Universe. They passed various nebulae, their swirling clouds and psychedelic colors mesmerizing, before falling out of the line of sight. It was truly a beautiful sight to behold.

They could not admire this natural beauty for long though, for they were soon thrown forcefully back into “low gear” frame shift, still traveling faster in light, but slow enough to see where they were going. Record set a course for the nearest starport and turned the ship around, setting the speed to a calm cruise. He tried to break the uneasy silence that had filled the small cabin.

“So what do you plan to do after I drop you off here?” Record asked.

The salespony thought for a moment. “Hmm, I don’t know, what I really want to do is to settle down somewhere nice. Maybe I’ll return to planetary life, maybe I’ll just keep, going, ya know? Just wherever fate takes me.”

Record merely nodded, for he knew not what to say. The rest of the voyage remained unfortunately, very quiet, aside from the occasional blip on the map, ship passing by, or cruise excursion advertisement appearing on the HUD screen. The ship eventually started slowing down on its own as they neared the station. The ship dropped out of lightspeed and immediately a message tone sounded off, “Ship scan detected.”

“This can’t be good.” Said the salespony grimly looking out the front window of the cockpit.

“This isn’t protocol is it?” Record asked.

“Absolutely not. Something is happening in there. Something bad.”

A hail came in from the station, “Who are you, what are your intentions here?” Asked a very distressed sounding, gruff voice.

“This is Commander Romeo Echo Charlie. I am just here to refuel, then maybe pick up a mission, then I will be on my way.” Some chatter that sounded like arguing was heard, then a loud bang followed by what sounded like a blaster shot.

A new calm, smooth voice came on, a very stark contrast to whoever was on the comms earlier. “Sorry about that, this station is under some, uh, new management. Come on in, your landing pad will be number… One! Enjoy your visit Commander.”

“T-thank you.” Record replied in a shaky voice, pushing forward on the throttle flying slowly through the airlock and going to the back of the docking area, where a golden hologram glowed the number 01. He made touchdown with little difficulty, as the ship was surprisingly easy to maneuver, and quickly retreated into the hangar area underneath.

The salespony spoke first after the engines were powered down. “I think, we have have made an error in which station we chose.”

“Yeah, my sentiments exactly.”

“Well, it can’t be all that bad, I suppose I should get out of your mane now.” Record took off his helmet and rose from the pilot’s seat to follow him out of the ship, but was stopped when the salespony embraced him.

“Thank you, Record, you saved my life.”

“Yeah uh, no worries.” he patted his back, trying to console the grown stallion.

He released him from his bear hug and made his way down the ramp with Record following suit. As much as Record hated the thought of leaving the ship by itself, he simply HAD to get a new flight suit, it was too tight for him to bear any longer. They went through the corridors of the station and found our way to the main shopping strip, where much to his annoyance, he embraced Record once more before he started to walk away.

“Wait!” Record shouted, “I never caught your name.”

“I never threw it, kid.” He said as he continued walking, chuckling softly.

Record just stood there for a bit, watching him as he went, before he regained his senses, and started making his way to a suitable shop to replace the flight suit.

He later found himself in front of a store with a flashing neon sign that read: Commander’s Emporium: A Federation Store.

“Well, not very subtle is it?” He thought to himself, as he managed to make his way through a particularly large mass of ponies, griffons and deer alike, and started looking for a flight suit that actually fit. He eventually found a basic one that finally fit him and catered to what he needed. He traded in his old one and saved himself a few bits. After that he started to make his way back to the ship, but was stopped as he heard somepony start to call out his name,

“Hey Record! Remember me?” He spun around ninety degrees and turned his head to see that none other than the first
pony he ever talked to in space. Lunar Sky was trotting briskly over to meet him.

“Oh hey, what a coincidence we both went to the same place huh?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, say is this the way you were going?”

“Uh yeah, I was just going back to my ship, did you want to see-Wah!” he was cut off a she pulled him around a corner and pinned him against a wall, covering his mouth with her hoof.

“We need to get out of here, fast, do you understand?” Record nodded. “Good, now, let me explain, Pirates have taken over the main controls of this station. As we speak thousands, possibly millions of pirates are on their way here, to murder and pillage as they please.” She removed her hoof from his mouth.

“So, let’s go then?” he suggested

“That’s the main problem here, they shut the main doors to the station, no-one is getting in or out until the cavalry arrives.”

“What do you suggest we do then?”

“Ugh, lemme think here.” She turned and sat against the wall next to him, holder her head with her hooves as she
thought. He stayed quiet as she did so. Muted, he was starting to think himself, all those hours of researching station plans and schematics coming back in an instant as a blur in his mind.

“I’ve got it.” She stated, having a eureka moment. “We could hack the hangar elevator and take an auxiliary exit and skedaddle. How’s that sound?”

“Would that even work, think of all the firewalls you have to bypass, all those security codes, it would take forever!”

“It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? She said giving me a sly grin. Record just groaned as he got up and motioned for her to follow him back to the hangar.

“Glad you’re with me on this, but we gotta keep low, there are armed guards patrolling the corridors now, making sure those who leave their ships don’t get to return to them.”

“Got it, low, slow, and quiet, right?”

“You catch on quick, I like that.” he grinned at her and started making his way through the winding corridors with her following close behind. All of a sudden he heard her stop walking, he looked back to see her looking down a hallway they passed, her ears twitching intently. Her head snapped toward him and she mouthed the word ‘guard’. Record looked at the floor, thinking of a plan before shrugging and moving to the corner of the intersection of hallways, pressing himself to the wall and waiting. The guard soon came to the intersection looking to the hallway opposite of the duo and then looked at their hallway, where his eyes went wide.

“Peek-a-boo!” was the last thing he heard before he received a swift punch between the eyes, effectively knocking him out.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Lunar half whispered, half yelled, still staring at the peacefully passed out pony pirate.

“I went to a public high school.” Record muttered making his way past her. She quickly trotted to his side, her head looking around wildly, before pulling them into a corridor and throwing a small metal disc to the ground, from which a hologram lit up. The only problem was that they could clearly see through it. Lunar seemed to notice his doubts, and most likely very frightened face.

“It’s a lot more convincing from the other side, trust me.” Lunar whispered. Record stayed still, not believing this for one second. But to his and Lunar’s relief the guard walked on by as if they weren’t there. As soon as the coast was clear, she retrieved her hologram maker and motioned him ahead of her again to lead the way. After a few more close calls they reached the hangar and she started toying with a control panel on the floor.

“Ah, the majestic Imperial Eagle. It’s kinda rare to see ‘em around these parts.” she remarked looking at the ship

“What?” Record asked. “This is just a normal Eagle.”

“Kid, I’ve been a commander longer than you’ve probably been alive. I know an Imperial Eagle when I see one.”

“And just how exactly can you tell?”

“Well, for starters, there’s a big ass spoiler with engine pods on the back, there’s extra engine pods on the wings, and the olive drab paint isn’t the original color, in fact it’s chipping off enough that you can see the original white and chrome. Any more questions?”

“Huh, I didn’t notice that wing before. But I did feel that something was different about the paint.”

“Yeah, the paint also isn’t in the right shade. Hey do you have a toolbox? If so go grab it, just using my hooves and wings isn’t going to be enough.” Record was in awe. She told him all of this without even taking more than a five second look at the ship, as well as working on hacking the system to let them use the auxiliary exit. She sometimes would make small noises of confusion while sticking her tongue out in concentration, occasionally asking him to levitate her a tool.

“Finally! That was slightly easier than I thought. Go and start the ship, because in order to get this elevator moving I need to be out here.”

“Affirmative, right away ma’am.” He remarked sarcastically, giving a mock salute.

She giggles softly before saying “Just get going.”

But before he can even get to the ramp, she stops him. “Oh wait, you’re a unicorn, you can do it. Just connect that blue wire to the yellow one.”

“Oh yeah, Even I forgot about that.”

“Who’s a silly pony, you are!” She says in a way one would say to a pet.

“Please don’t.” he implores her, with his face heating up giving away that there’s definitely a blush plastered across his cheeks.

“Aww, is somepony blushing? That’s adorable!” He just sighs and gives her a small glare. “Okay okay. I’ll stop.” She steps past, sticking her tongue out at him as she goes up the ramp into the ship. He can’t help but shake his head and smile as he follows her, taking his place at the controls and putting his helmet back on.

“Welcome and thank you for flying Shatter airlines. I, Record J. Shatter, will be your pilot today. Please fasten your seatbelts, this may prove to be a bumpy flight.”

“You sure you know how to fly this thing?” asked an unfamiliar masculine voice. Record turned the seat around in fear, feeling they may have been compromised. But all that greeted his gaze was Lunar Sky, still wearing her bomber coat, but now with a respirator strapped to her muzzle.

“What?” She asked, “I can’t stand helmets, and flight suits are too revealing for me.”

“Your entire lower half is showing.” Record deadpanned. He could see in her eyes that the gears were turning, but after a few moments, all that came out was,

“Shutup.”

“Sure thing” he replied, pressing the ignition button, the engines roaring to life once more.

“Someone really cared about this ship, the exhaust system doesn’t sound original.” Said Lunar, finally taking her seat. Record remained silent, still being focused on powering on all the necessary systems. Once they were all powered, he closed his eyes, channeling all his focus into his magic. He could see. Not with his own eyes, but with a sort of ‘third eye’. His view traveled outside of the ship, if he turned it around he could see himself and Lunar in the cabin

He found the circuit box. “Here goes nothing.” he thought to himself, and connected the two wires. The power went out and the hangar platform buckled slightly. He opened his actual eyes, and looked back to Lunar, confused.

“Okay, so I reeeealllly didn’t want the pirates to have this station, so I set up a station-wide power outage. The oxygen is still on, but everything else is offline for the time being, including the hydraulics for this hangar. You should be able to use your landing thrusters to push us down and out the exit. You have fifteen minutes before the backup generators come online.” Record gave a nod of compliance.

Doing as she said, he set the landing thrusters to a slow burn. The platform groaned, but started to give way, moving downward slowly. This went on for a few minutes, with him having to give a few small corrections to keep the platform from grinding on the sides of the chasm. Eventually the platform stopped moving, coming to a stop with a thud. Ahead of us was a ship sized corridor leading to empty space. he flipped a switch and a familiar tone chimed in, “Landing gear raised.”

“Lets go!” Came a determined voice from behind him.

“With pleasure.” he replied coolly, looking at the controls in front of me. Within seconds of each other he set the main engines to full and with a grin, pressed the big red button.

Inside the station, Many civilians were holding on to each other to keep from floating off towards the ceiling. If they were to look out the window, they would see what looked like a small comet going past, A fiery red trail blazing behind a dark green object that was slowly fading to a gleaming white as pieces of paint were being sheared off and falling away or being melted away altogether by heat.

III: (Back)Story Time

Author's Note

Here it is, my longest chapter yet! Sorry 'bout the wait.

III: (Back)Story Time

Chapter Three

Not long after the boost had weared off the ship gradually fell to its main top speed. They cruised for a little bit, waiting for the FSD to charge only to be interrupted by a hail from a large ship that was approaching at a very rapid pace.

“Stop your ship and cut the engines, this is the system police!”

“Affirmative sir, proceeding to do so now.” Record replied swiftly. Throwing back the throttle controls to zero percent. The ship pulled alongside mine until the cabins were across from each other, each commander staring at the other. The other ship appeared to be an Anaconda, one of the larger ships a seasoned commander could buy. The nameplate on the side read ‘Grey Ghost’

“Identify your callsign immediately!”

“This is Commander Romeo Echo Charlie, I come in peace.”

“We did not ask about your intentions. We are detecting another lifeform in the vessel, what is it?” Asked a more calm voice. Most likely being the copilot of the vessel.

Lunar stepped beside Record in the cockpit and picked up an old looking microphone. “This is Commander Lunar Sky, My ship is still in the station, under pirate control.”

There was a long period of silence before he responded to Lunar. “You may proceed to the nearest station that is not this one. You are to have your apprentice give a full report of what happened in there, Captain. Have a good day.”

The Grey Ghost began to lumber off toward the station, it’s engines growling as it slowly slipped off out of view.

Record was in awe for a moment before he started to question Lunar. “I’m sorry but, did you know them or something?”

“Eh, I’ll tell you later.” She said as she started to walk back to her seat.

“Hmph, you better. I hate being out of the loop. Also what did they mean by apprentice? I am NOT in need of tutelage.”

She just giggled.

There was not much talking on the way to the other starport, which turned out to be just a small orbital station around a rocky moon of a gas giant. The planet was enormous, with its swirling clouds above its surface. They did have to wait a considerable amount of time before they could land with the sheer amount of police ships that were coming and going. The pair was eventually given permission to land, which went off without a hitch. The ship descended into the station to the sound of some distant cheering and hoof stomping. Record powered down the systems, only to hear a ‘clunk’ come from outside the ship.

Looking out the window he mused, “That’s odd, I didn’t order them to refuel us.”

“Hmm, it must be complementary. How nice.”

“I’m going to go have a look. Care to join me?”

“Yeah, why not. Nothing much to do in this ship anyway.”

They descended down the ramp where a group of ponies and oddly, one hippogriff were waiting. The hippogriff was quite large in comparison to the ponies, and to some of the griffons Record had previously encountered. He was also curiously colored, being all white with blue stripes horizontally across his legs, and a yellow beak. And his tail was pure black except for a blue stripe running the length of it. Around his waist was a belt that held a sword on one side, the hilt being partially covered by his wing.

“Ah, Lunar! You escaped, and rescued somepony. Congratulations!”

“Officer Gerret, good to see you again, and no, Record here helped me escape. This is his ship, after all.” We all looked at the ship to see that it looked completely different than before, being a white and shiny chrome instead of the dull green it had once been.

“So it is.” He mused as he made his way toward Record slowly, the soft clicks of his razor sharp talons hitting the ground could be heard as he walked. Their eyes met and he stared Record down, making him immediately freeze in place. His eagle-like eyes seemed to see right through him, judging everything he had done in his life up until this very moment, weighing his soul like the legend of Anubis, seeing if he was even worthy of speaking with him. Record was sweating in fear, but held his ground until they were beak to snout with each other.

Lunar rolled her eyes and spoke sternly, “Gerret, leave him be.”

He pulled away and looked at Lunar sadly, “Aww, relax, I was just having some fun.” He looked back at Record with a softer expression than before and offered his talon to shake, “Chief Officer Gerret Whitewing, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Commander Record Shatter, and likewise” he responded, accepting his hoofshake.

He smiled, “We are just topping off your fuel, free of charge, now come along you two, I was promised by the captain of the Ghost that I was going to get a full, detailed report on the events on that station.”

It was horrible. It took at least two hours, and Record had to tell EVERYTHING that he had done from the moment he entered the station until the encounter with the Grey Ghost. After that, he was not allowed to leave and had to sit there while Gerret and Lunar talked, catching up and just talking about this and that. Just as he began to doze off Gerret decided that his torture was over.

“Alright,” he began, “Record, we are going to bring your into the Federation. You seem like a good replacement for one of our more recently… retired commanders. What do you say?”

“I’d be honored to join.” He received a smack upside the head from a less than pleased Lunar, reminding him that he forgot something. “Ow, sorry. I’d be honored to join, sir.”

“I am glad you accept, now your first mission is a supply run to the station called Hutton Orbital, in the Alpha Centauri system.” Lunar looked mortified, but relaxed and casually asked to go to her locker to grab some things and Record was told he could go back to his ship.

He returned to the ship to find it had been modified a bit. In a short amount of time the fuselage had been extended slightly, making room for a co-pilot’s seat directly behind the pilot’s. There was a note on the dashboard that read:
Commander Record Shatter, We at the Federation are pleased to hear you have accepted the offer to join us. In accordance with our laws, your ship now partially belongs to the Federation itself. As such we have taken the liberty of upgrading your ship slightly. We hope you like it.
Safe travels, The Galactic Federation

“Huh, I should’ve read the contract, oh well.” he thought to himself.

He decided to catch up on some much needed sleep while waiting for Lunar to return. He awoke to her roughly setting her saddlebags on the ground.

She spoke as she put her respirator on, “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

“What’s the matter?” He asked

“The matter is, they are pranking us for your first mission.” She said as she sat down in the newly installed co-pilot’s seat. He went to his seat and thought of the mission details in his head, still not catching on to what she was talking about.

“Just forget about, you’ll catch on soon enough.” she said after a while.

He shrugged and took her word for it and pressed the button on the HUD to go up to the top of the hangar. He powered on the systems and took off, luckily, Alpha Centauri was relatively close to the system they were in, so only one jump was needed to get there. Upon arriving, Lunar was setting up a waypoint for him to follow, as she had been given her own holograms to use. He swung the ship around toward the waypoint and his jaw dropped.

“I-is that distance real?” Record asked to no one in particular.

“Yep, point twenty two light years to Hutton Orbital, and you get to fly the ship for those two hours.” She said, setting up what looked like a tablet to the hologram in front of her.

She put in some earbuds and started to watch a movie, leaving Record to make sure the ship stayed on course.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Now we go back a thousand years, back when all the ponies, griffons and deer were still back on the home planet of Equiis. There were two sister Princess’ Who ruled over the ponies and raised the Sun and Moon. Among the ponies that were ruled over was one who went by the name of Starswirl, who looked to the night sky, and wondered what could lie beyond the small planet they called home. He studied what was already known, pondering and musing over various ideas in his head. He eventually made a plan to go up there, to see the heavens with his own eyes. The two Princess’ caught wind of this, and invited him to be the new royal scientist. He accepted, but with this new position, he had to give up on his old plans and dreams.

Things went from bad to worse for Starswirl, though. A rumor had spread through the kingdom, that the younger Princess of The Moon was having ‘relations’ with the young wizard. The young Princess Luna would have none of this. Feeling underappreciated and disgraced, she snapped. A new form had taken hold, turning her into Nightmare Moon. She made threats to bring eternal night upon Equiis. The eldest Princess of the Sun, Celestia intervened and banished Luna to the Moon. Feeling lost, Starswirl wanted to save her, turning to the deer of Whitetail for help. He gave them one of his journals, all of his plans, calculations and dreams for space travel. But what it also contained was the truth.

The deer were furious that they had been kept in the dark. Celestia was also enraged that Starswirl had betrayed her, and declared war on the deer. A war that was devastating on both sides and lasted a century. The Equestrians eventually won a hard fought victory. Starswirl, devastated that he had lost his love and started a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, disappeared from public view, and was never seen again.

About one thousand years Nightmare Moon returned from her exile, seeking to carry out her plans from a thousand years before. But six ponies stood up to the threat, and returned her to her former self. The Sun and Moon ruled together once again. The de facto leader of the six who rebelled eventually became a Princess herself, the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle.

But all this bliss would not last, however. An archaeological expedition exploring the Whitetail woods, came across a small earthen hut seemingly in the middle of the woods with the remains of a unicorn and a small chest inside. The chest contained various articles of clothing, numerous letters, and a number of journals dating all the way back to before the war. Everything the ponies knew was a lie.

The Princess’ had known of Starswirl before they had recruited him to the castle staff. The Lunar Princess had been watching his dreams, keeping track of his thoughts and ambitions. As soon as he had a good enough plan for space travel, the diarchs stopped him. The scandal was not planned, but they worked with it. Luna would scare everyone from looking at the sky with her Nightmare Moon character. In truth, she was not banished to the Moon. She stayed on Equiis and out of public view, still communicating with Starswirl through his dreams. Somehow she had let it slip to him that they did not actually control the Sun and Moon, but only said so to receive worship from the dull minded ponies.

Feeling betrayed, Starswirl turned to the deer to expose the diarchs. Luna knew he would this, and told Celestia who sought to stop the deer before they could let everypony know, by killing them. When the Equestrians won, he knew Celestia would do everything within her power to track him down, leading him to leave the only home he had ever known.

Revolution was brewing in the hearts of the Ponies after the archaeologists made this knowledge public, with Twilight being the tip of the spear, for she was left out of the loop, being a scientist. The castle was stormed. Celestia, knowing there was no way out, fled. Luna accepted her fate and was allowed to live. Now leaderless, the ponies sought democracy and held an election. Oddly enough, though she wasn’t even running, Twilight was voted in unanimously by the population.

At the behest of her subjects, Prime Minister Sparkle heavily invested into research of space travel, leading to the first space flight after three years, and then the first Moon landing just five years after that. It was a renaissance of sorts, around two hundred years after the initial flight, they had the technology to travel to other systems and land on other planets with the Frame-Shift-Drive, based on sketches and predictions from Starswirl’s journals.

The planet Equiis’ leaders all came together and unified the planet under one flag and leader, Prime Minister Sparkle, and started spreading her influence across the galaxy. Though this was not without some opposition, of course. Those still loyal to the original two leaders set off to start their own government led by none other than Princess Luna (now Queen Luna) herself with Princess Cadence, Luna’s niece. It was peaceful at first, but when the two factions borders clashed, it led to the First Interstellar Border War that ended in stalemate.

Now that leads us to present day in the year of 3303. Prime Minister Twilight’s Federation and Queen Luna’s Imperial Family both controlling half of colonized space, each vying for more control of the other’s territory in a war-but-not-really-a-war kind of way. The Federations HQ being on a neighboring planet to Equiis called Concilii in the system of Sol, and the Imperial Family ruling from the system Capitol on the planet Nova Equiis. And Equiis is now just a popular tourist destination, a monument to how life used to be before the planet became enlightened.

Still no one knows where Celestia, Sol Invictus, disappeared to. The search efforts on Equiis still go on to this day, with barely anything turning up, and any evidence deemed useful by the federation will net you a sizable amount of bits. Some say she might have died, others say she is among us in disguise, living out the rest of her near-immortal lifespan as a commoner. A sad fate for someone who had been royalty their whole life, but then again, no one is really quite sure.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Lunar set down her earbuds, “Well, that wasn’t the worst movie I have ever seen, but it certainly wasn’t the greatest either. How you doing up there Record?”

Some grumbling was heard but not much else.

“That’s how I was when I first came here too. Your head gets used to it, but your backside never does.” She remarked, shifting and stretching in her seat.

“You act like you’re older than me.” He said staring at the star they was heading towards, a faint shimmer of light was orbiting around it. The target was in sight.

“That’s because I probably am kiddo.”

“What? No, impossible. I refuse to believe that.”

“You better believe it kid. I am about to be fifty in a few months time.”

“Jeez. I just turned twenty. You look good for your age. I guess that’s what ponies want though.”

“Yep, it does take a lot to stay looking like this, so any and all praise is appreciated darling.” She said in a Rarity-esque manner, earning a chuckle from Record. It was still weird to him hearing her use her respirator, and also hearing his own voice come through the helmet. He laughed softly at the thought of what it might sound like without context, two gruff ponies complimenting each others looks and giggling like fillies.

It was quiet for the rest of the time, Lunar stared out the window and did periodic maintenance checks while he flew the ship. Finally after another thirty minutes of flying, they arrived at the isolated, well, truck stop for lack of better term. The ship made touch down and entered the hangar where they were being waited on by a group of worker deer who right away set about unloading the supplies from the back of the ship.

“Huh, even in this day and age the deer are still mostly isolated from the rest of society.” Record commented.

“Maybe they like it that way. Being just with their own kind.” Lunar replied.

“You’re probably right. Say, do you know why I barely see any other bat ponies like yourself?”

“Oh that’s because most of us turned to exploring, only returning to collect their reward and then they’re back to isolation among the stars.” She said looking nostalgic.

“That sounds like an adventure.”

“You think you’d be up to it? That’s a long time to be out there, not to mention the danger along with it.”

“Such as?”

“Oh ya’ know, running out of fuel because you find too many brown dwarfs you couldn’t scoop fuel from. Having a chance meeting with another lone traveler with a bloodlust who knows that nopony can hear you scream that far from civilised space. And there's also the possibility of aliens out there.”

“You really believe in that nonsense?”

“You never know.” She said in a sing-song voice before leaving to oversee the unloading. Record shook his head at the thought. There was no such thing as aliens, all of the sightings that he heard about are from ponies who have been out of contact with society for too long. Ponies who are obviously crazy. Or at least that’s what he thought.

IV: Bats in the Cradle

Chapter Four

The deer had finished unloading the supplies from the cargo area. Upon receiving the rather small payment Record retreated back into the ship to relax for a time before embarking, either back to the Federation base or wherever a mission would lead him. Lunar came in after a small while.

“What took you so long?”

“Some deer out there was trying to sell me a mug. He wouldn’t let me leave until I threatened to report him to the system police for obstructing justice.” She laughed as she sat down and turned on the screen.

“How strange.”

There was a short pause before Lunar spoke up. “Hey, Record.”

“Yeah, what’s up Lunar?”

“Do you wanna go home?”

“Nah, I mean, I just got into spa- wait, what do you mean?”

“There’s a good paying mission here that goes to Sol if you wanna go.”

“How far away is it?”

“Just the next system over, you know the system we’re in is the closest one to Sol.”

“Oh, right. I knew that. Yeah, go ahead and accept it.”

A few seconds after she hit the button, more deer workers arrived and carefully began loading the ship with dozens of wooden crates that read ‘HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE. HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION’ in bright red letters. After a few moments processing that information, Record slowly turned in his chair to look at Lunar who was smiling happily.

“You look pleased with yourself.” he stated flatly, glaring at her.

“I am, actually. Consider this a test of sorts. If you don’t get us killed I’ll put in a good word for you with the Federation.”

He turned back around in his seat and sighed, knowing this was going to be a long and stressful mission. He made a mental note to get her back for this, that could wait till later though, he had to focus on the current task at hand, which was making sure that the deer strapped down the cargo securely and not blowing them up spectacularly before they got to the Solar System. He got up and triple checked the explosives before finally convincing himself to relax and taking back the helm of the ship.

“Here goes nothing.” he half sighed as he pressed the button to leave the hangar.

“Oh lighten up would ya’? I’ve probably done thousands of these before. Never had any problems.”

“Never?” he asked, not believing her.

“Well, I mean, there was that one time in Polaris where I lost half my ship…”

“Wait, what!”

“Just messin with ya. No problems.”

“Thanks for the mini heart attack.”

“Anytime, Record.”

Record sighed again as they took off from the small outpost, leaving it’s exclusion zone and began to charge the Frame-Shift Drive. A quick glance in the obligatory rear-view mirror showed that Lunar looked like she wanted to say something, but seemed to be having trouble saying what it was. Record had no idea what it could’ve been. She eventually stopped glancing around and looked out the window almost sadly as the FSD jumped us into the next system, Sol, the cradle of life. The very place that all life as they know it came from. It was, but at the same time wasn’t hard to think that they were going to the same sun that had warmed our ancestors. The same sun that was claimed to be under control of a single being, Celestia. The same sun, that would one day in the far future, explode in a spectacular way, and incinerate the cradle.

They came home with a tremendous bang, slowing down and coming to a complete stop in front of the Sun. Lunar went to work plotting a course to the station they were to drop the explosives off at while Record stared in awe at the sight before him. He felt very small and insignificant in that moment.

“I figured you would like this, as this is your first time here, you get to go to the station orbiting Equiis, The Orchard.”

Record had heard of this particular station before, It was the very first of the Coriolis stations ever put into an orbit. A test of sorts to see how plant life reacted to being in orbit, a ‘space arboretum’ if you will. He charged the FSD again and pointed the ship at The Orchard and went into low shift drive. He tried to take in as many sights as he could, craning his neck to see the first planet in the system, a small rocky planet that was behind the Sun relative to Equiis. Unfortunately he did not see it, but did catch a glimpse of the second planet, a yellowish-green world near the same size as Equiis, covered in clouds of toxic gas that rained acid on the ground below. There had been plans to make a landing attempt on its surface, but they still did not have the technology required to withstand the high temperatures and acidic rain.

It finally came into view, everypony’s homeworld, Equiis. Its vast oceans a bright blue, jagged mountains dotting the surface, the tallest of all being home to the former capital, Canterlot. The deserts of the former countries of Zevran and Saddle Arabia. But he could not look any longer, as there would be time for that later, Record had to put all his focus into not exploding the ship on touchdown, requesting a landing pad and carefully guiding the ship through the entrance of The Orchard, paying close attention to all the nearby ships. They landed safely, amongst the various trees of the station.

Record groaned and said out of breath, as he had been holding it without noticing, “Oh please, never again.”

Lunar got out of her seat and embraced him quickly, “I knew you could do it! I understand if you are mad at me, I probably deserve it.”

“What do you mean probably?” he asked laughing.

“Well at least you don’t want to kill me, I noticed that blaster pistol earlier, what’s that about?”

He pressed the button to go into the hangar. “Oh that? I got it with the ship. There isn’t any ammo for it though.”

“They gave you a gun with your ship? I’ve never heard of that happening before.”

“I wouldn’t know, This is my first ship after all.”

“Just keep that on the down-low, some systems have personal defense weapons banned, and you can get arrested for owning one and bringing it into a station.”

“Duly noted.” he replied as the platform came to a stop. He brought up the screen and called in that the explosives were available for pickup. The large amount of bits were immediately deposited into his account. It was enough to cover expenses for converting the ship into an explorer. In truth the ship was made for fighting, and fighting only basically. The FSD was already good enough to get us very far in just a few jumps. Whoever had owned this ship before had really done a lot to it already. Record silently thanked him in his head for not making him pay for upgrades out of his own pocket.

“Hey, I can book us a shuttle to Equiis if you wanna go.”

A chill ran through Record’s body as the memory of the first shuttle ride came back, before saying, “Yeah, go for it”

Lunar looked at him quizzically and asked, “Hey, you doing okay? You can tell me if somethings wrong.”

“I’m fine, let's get going.” he said as he got up and trotted past Lunar, still giving a skeptical look, before she stepped after him down the ramp.

They boarded the shuttle with about thirty other ponies, it was even more cramped than the first one understandably, this was a cheap tourist excursion after all. Record was supposed to have the window seat of the row they were assigned, but after a mildly frightening experience in which he got to see Lunar’s batpony fangs in crystal clear detail, he switched to the dreaded middle seat. Luckily the pony next to him was more interested in reading a book, a true rarity nowadays.

A tone was heard, followed by an automated voice. “Hello and welcome passengers please fasten your seatbelts, we will be arriving on Equiis in a short thirty minutes. Thank you for flying with us.”

As soon as the message ended a jolt rocked the ship and detached from the station. The internal gyroscopes kicked in and they rotated to face the planet and began to move forward. There were headphones in front of every passenger, some even had them on already. Record levitated them up to his ears and heard the voice of Prime Minister Sparkle giving a lecture on the history of Equiis. He set them down and glanced at Lunar, who had already slumped down in her seat, fast asleep.

Just as they were about to enter the atmosphere, everypony, including Lunar (who had to be woken up by one unfortunate stewardess, because Record knew better than to wake the sleeping batpony) was subjected to a safety guide on the general ‘dos and don’ts’ on Equiis. But they were informed that they would get more information at the hub, the central gathering place for shuttles and bullet trains that shipped tourists all over the planet to wherever they wanted to go. The shipped slowed immensely and angles toward the planet, and the fasten seatbelts sign lit up with a soft ding. There was a great amount of turbulence and the windows became bathed in red as the ship entered the atmosphere. It was strangely quiet until they hit the lower levels of the atmosphere where the wind could be heard. The ship righted itself and began to casually drift through the skies as if it had not just came from outer space. It was a truly strange and exciting experience, but Lunar looked either bored or sad. Record could not tell which it was.

Record noticed that for a planet that was in all respect, a tourist attraction, a lot of ponies still lived out their whole lives there, as if nothing had changed in a thousand years. They landed and opted to take the train to Ponyville, a small town with a very colorful history Including, but not limited to, the remains of what used to be a library inside of a tree! There was a small plaque next to it retelling a story of an old battle with a supernatural being. A myth, probably. They continued on past the old castle of the Princess of Friendship, now in disuse, as the government was moved to Concilii after it was terraformed. In the distance, Canterlot, the former nerve center of the monarchy could be seen glimmering in the sunlight.

Record enjoyed talking with some of the locals, who filled him in on some of the history that ‘that they don’t teach in the history books.’ He still couldn’t tell what they were saying was true, but decided to take their word for it, as he was inclined to believe any and all members of the generations old Apple family that he met.

Lunar spent her time looking around idly, talking with very few of the townsponys, before she took to the air and looked off into the distance, before coming back down and asking Record, “Ya wanna go to the Everfree?”

“Didn’t the specifically tell us NOT to go to the Everfree without a guide? He asked back, a bit bewildered.

“C’mon, we’re adults, we’ll be fine. Trust me.”

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea Lunar.”

“Very well then, as your superior commanding officer, I order you to come to the Everfree with me.” Record opened his mouth to protest only for her to interrupt, “And before you start saying I can’t do that, I absolutely can.” He stood silent for a moment before sighing and agreeing to go with her.

“I always wanted to come back here.” Lunar remarked as she walked.

“You’ve been here before?”

“Wha- No, no! I’ve been to Ponyville before, I mean. I just never got to go into the Everfree.” She said giving a sheepish grin. He gave her a skeptical look back before continuing on the path, to which she quickly took the lead, her head looking around casually. They continued walking until Lunar gave a gasp of surprise and ran off the path.

He called after her, “What? What is it?”

“I see something! Come on!” she called from a short distance. He carefully followed her into a small clearing with trees surrounding us in an almost perfect circle. In the center like a bullseye was a rotted tree stump. As he approached Lunar kicked over the stump and motioned him over to her.

“Are you seeing this?” She asked excitedly.

“Seeing what?” Record asked, confused.

“This!” She exclaimed before dipping her head into the small chasm underneath the stump and come back out with a very dirty, twisted piece of metal.

“Ew! I’d put that down, you don’t know what’s been crawling on that for the past few centuries!” Lunar spat the thing out of her mouth and asked,

“Can you clean this?”

“Well, probably. There was a river back th-” he stopped himself when he saw Lunar tapping the top of her head, reminding him that he had a horn. He lit his horn and performed a quick cleaning spell on the ‘thing’. After the light had faded, what lay in front of us was the famed tiara of Princess Celestia herself.

Record promptly fainted.

V: Visions

Chapter Five

Record woke up to water from the river being splashed on his face.

“Huh? Where am I” he asked.

A concerned yet calm voice that he did not recognize came from behind him. It was a soothing, almost motherly tone that seemed to flow like silk, and made him feel like everything was going to be okay. “Please do not scare me like that again, Record.” This was followed by a small gasp and a small flash from the voices owner.

“W-who’s that?” he turned to look back at the source of the voice, only to find Lunar looking at him in a quite flustered way.

“You know who this is, you’re next to the river we passed earlier, and it’s been about 10 minutes since you scared the livin’ daylights outta me. It wasn’t fun dragging your fat carcass over here, let me tell ya.”

“Was there someone else here? I heard another voice, I think.” This seemed to catch Lunar off guard a small bit as her pupils dilated a small bit.

“No, you must still be in shock, it’s just me here.” she said with a small forced smile.

“Huh, I coulda’ sworn, wait, did you call me fat?!”

She smirked and said, “We should be getting back soon. The shuttles don’t go forever.”

Record glared at her for a moment before he got to his hooves and suddenly remembered the reason why he passed out in the first place.

“Do you still have… it?” he asked hesitantly

“No, but you do.” she said, confusing him before there was a sudden weight upon his head that he did not feel before.
He grabbed the object with his magic, and brought it into his vision, confirming that he had indeed worn the Crown of
Celestia for a few moments. It almost felt like a sin, wearing the crown of the former ruler of this land. It made him feel uneasy.

“Yeah, we should go. But wait, shouldn’t we bring this to someone, you know, immediately?”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re going now, silly.” She said, ruffling his mane. He slipped the crown back into her saddlebags she had brought with and they started making their way to the entrance of the forest, arriving at the shuttleport shortly afterward. Making their way to their seats, Record started to feel nauseous, as if he had caught a fever.

Lunar noticed this, “Hey, you doing okay?

“Y-yeah, must’ve just caught something. Should be gone soon enough.”

“You should just get some rest, I’ll wake you when we get to the station.”

He gave her his thanks and proceeded to doze off.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

It was a blizzard, his visibility of the area was severely limited. He looked around, and he could not see himself. But very faintly in the distance he could tell that he was surrounded by trees, a forest, like the one he had just been in. He called out, but all that replied to him was the wind in the willows. Breathing could be heard, breathing that was not his own. A tall figure, an alicorn, was approaching, running at full speed and looking behind itself, like it was being chased. It tripped in front of him, landing with a thud. It lifted it head, to reveal the face of the Princess of the Sun. Her magenta eyes seemed to look right at Record, as if searching for something she could not find. His vision was slowly clouded by the blizzard.

Vision returned to him some time later, this time with his body visible. An inky blackness surrounded him, with a deep purple sky above and the moon of Equiis shining down upon him. He took a hesitant step, The feeling of stepping on marble greeted his hoof, but when he looked down, small ripples appeared where he had stepped. When he looked back up, His pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads. There before him was the reigning monarch of the Imperial Family, Queen Luna. Record fell to a bow, but a gentle hoof under his chin brought him back to his hooves. She looked down at him with a warming smile and said, “What you have found, bring to me.” He nodded his compliance, before she giggled and dissipated before his eyes.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Record awoke and sat bolt upright scaring Lunar.

“Gah! You ok Record?”

He replied in what seemed to be a rehearsed, almost automated manner, “We need to go to Nova Equiis.”

“Wha- why!? Don’t you know thats the capital of the Empire?” She asked a little too loudly, earning a glare from some of the fellow passengers.

“We’ll discuss this later.” He stated.

She opened her mouth to protest but quickly shut it after a firm glare from Record that even he didn’t know he could produce. They rode out the rest of the shuttle ride in silence, with Lunar occasionally looking over at him, giving a glare or look of concern. Upon arriving back at The Orchard Record immediately set off on a brisk pace toward the hangar area where the ship was, with Lunar trying to keep up.

“Hey, wait up!” She called after him, making him slow his pace a small amount so she could talk to him. “Alright, now will you tell me why we have to Nova Equiis?”

“After I dozed off,” he began, “I started having visions, Queen Luna came to me, and asked me to bring the tiara to her. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you’ve heard stories about her, then you’d know that she can enter the dreams of anypony at will.”

“Yes, I am aware she can walk the dreamscape but-” she was cut off by a beeping noise coming from inside her bomber coat. She took out a small device with a monitor and speaker and pressed a button.

“Commander Lunar Sky speaking.” She said in a low flat tone

An familiar sounding mare’s voice came from the device. “Yes, uh, hello Commander. I trust you know who this is, yes?”

If Lunar’s eyes could have gotten any wider, they would have at that moment. “O-of course Prime Minister! To what do I owe the pleasure of this call, if I may ask?”

“I am calling you because I would like to seek an audience with you, i-if that’s alright with you, of course.” Record couldn’t believe what he was hearing. First the Prime Minister of the Federation personally called Lunar, second she seemed almost frightened when speaking with her!

“It would be an honor, Prime Minister Sparkle.”

“Perfect! It seems you are already in Sol, I will have a ship sent out to retrieve you shortly. Toodles.” She hung up before Lunar could reply.

“She makes house calls?” Record jokingly asked

“I wonder what she wants with me.” Lunar said softly to herself, still seemingly in shock.

“I couldn’t tell you. But you better get going, that ship won’t take long to arrive.”

“Wait, you’re not coming with me?”

“No ma’am, she asked specifically for you, not your lacky. I’ve got to keep making bits anyway, maybe when you’re done with that meeting I’ll have a bigger ship!”

“Y-yeah, where are we going to meet up next?”

“You have those Federation tracking skills, you’ll find me.”

“Right, well, I’ll catch you later Record.” She said almost solemnly, turning and walking away toward the flight bay of the station. After she took a few steps, Record carefully lit his horn and levitated the tiara out of her bag and trotted briskly over to the ship, making sure nopony got a good glimpse of him or the precious cargo he was carrying.

Record thought to himself that this was going to be a long journey, made even longer by the fact that he was once again, traveling on his own. Though he did not to dwell on it too much and made his way into the ship, covering the crown jewels with some spare blankets he had lying in the back, making sure it would not be damaged during transit. There came a noise from outside the station, a low tone that droned on for a few moments.

“That must be a capital ship, nothing else sounds like that in the galaxy.” he stated to himself. Excited that he got to see his first capital ship, he got into the pilot seat and quickly pressed the button to move the ship into the main flight area. Then it came into view, a dark moving mass was blocking the view out of the mailslot. It eventually slipped out of view around the right side of the station. Record powered on the engines and zoomed after it, keeping a safe distance away. The ship was MASSIVE! The battlecruiser spanned at least half of the station’s length and was as wide as the main flight area was. And then it dawned on him that this was no normal battlecruiser. This was the Prime Minister herselves personal one, the name Golden Oak written on either side of the top of the ship.

“Is Sparkle really getting Lunar in that thing?” Record wondered to himself. He decided not to linger any longer and set off to get away from the stations gravity and started plotting a course to Nova Equiis.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Lunar sat and grinned at the sight of the massive ship docking with the spaceport. She grinned even wider at some of the ponies staring and murmuring to themselves. A unicorn guard came into the lobby floating a sign with her name on it. She trotted over with a smile on her face as he escorted her to the airlock.

“Take a seat Commander, Prime minister Sparkle will call you in when she is ready.”

Lunar obliged him and sat in a rather childish, but oh so comfy bean bag chair that was in the vestibule outside of Twilight’s personal office aboard the ship.

It seemed like Lunar was waiting forever. She had already looked at every nook and cranny of the room. Twice. She was half tempted to look through the keyhole of the office doors to see what was taking Twilight so long. But as soon as she stood up, she heard Twilight call out in a sweet voice, “You may come in now!”

Lunar straightened out her form, and gathered all the courage she could muster and strode into the office with military precision. There she stood in front of a very normal looking Twilight pacing around the room, with a few stray locks of hair sticking out here and there. She thought back to the first time she had spoken to Twilight. They were were under less than ideal circumstances, with Twilight almost being assassinated by a small group of anti-alicorn fanatics. Perhaps that was why Twilight was so hesitant during her call, any other sane pony would be too after seeing what Lunar did to those would be assassins.

Twilight finally took a seat and smiled at Lunar before saying, “At ease Commander, no need to be so rigid around me.”

Lunar relaxed herself, “Thank you, Prime Minister.”

Twilight shook her head, “Just Twilight, please. Even being called princess back then was to much of a mouthful for me, let alone making people call me prime minister. Just think of us as equals, you and I.”

“Of course, my apologies, Twilight.”

“Now you are probably wondering why I ‘personally’ came to get you, right?” Lunar nodded her head. “Well, I simply
could not wait to speak with you about a certain, uh, matters.”

“Matters such as?”

“Well, it involves your recent trip to Equiis…” Twilight said uneasily. Lunar gave her an unamused look. Twilight continued, “Right, I shouldn’t beat around the bush with you, sorry. You Found something on Equiis. Something powerful. You know what I’m talking about?”

Lunar went wide eyed. “How did you kn-”

She was cut off by Twilight who spoke in a serious tone, “It doesn’t matter how I know you got it, what matters is that you hand it over to me immediately, It contains more power than one can imagine. You have it on you, correct?”

Lunar nodded with a frightened expression. She looked into her saddlebag and started rooting around it frantically, before looking up, anger clear on her face.

“Record!”

“Something wrong Lunar?”

“It’s not here.”

Twilight’s stoic face faltered. “What! Where is it then!?”

“My traveling partner has it.”

“Do you know where he is going?”

“Capitol. More specifically Nova Equiis.”

“Y-you’re kidding right? You’re kidding!”

“I’m dead serious.”

Twilight froze for a moment, her eye twitching, before getting up and walking through a door labeled ‘Freakout Room.’ Muffled screaming could be heard for a few minutes while Lunar stood outside. Twilight came back out eventually, looking a lot more exhausted than normal. She pressed a button on her desk and spoke into an accompanying microphone, “Set course for Capitol. Full speed.” Almost instantaneously the ship jerked away from the starport and began rotating.

Twilight looked at Lunar, and gave a weary smile, “Would you like to see the bridge?”

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Later, 4,000 LY away from Sol

Record reclined in his bunk, and sighed. He could not find sleep at the moment, so he was content with thinking to himself for the time being. He thought about all the sights he had seen and the ponies he had met on the way to this specific outpost where he decided to rest before continuing to the Capitol system. He felt uneasy as he thought about Lunar, and how he had deceived her. He slowly sat up on the bunk and levitated the tiara from it’s resting place to his bare hooves. He held it there, staring into the light purple jewel in the center.

“What secrets do you hold?” He asked the object aloud, “What stories could you tell?”

Silence, and the gentle hum of the station was all that responded to Record. he floated it back over to it’s previous perch gingerly and laid back down. It was all quite calm, despite the storm that was about to unfold.

VI: Past

Chapter Six

Record did not find sleep that night. He stayed tossing and turning, for about five hours, before finally giving up and taking an energy shot that would last a while. He got back in the pilot seat and took off once more toward the faraway system of Capitol. He had to make multiple stops to refuel the ship, silently cursing himself for not removing the weapons to save weight and installing a bigger fuel cache. Better safe than sorry he supposed. At least the jump range of the ship was good. “4000 light years down, a shit-ton more to go.” he said to himself in an annoyed tone.

He continued on for an hour or two, and midway through one of the jumps, the dashboard suddenly glowed a deep red, showing multiple alerts and a tone talked into his ear along with a message on screen, “Alert! Interdiction detected! Align with escape vector!” He cursed loudly, he had heard of pirates gaining the use to interdiction technology. They would wait for some poor soul to travel by, and yank them out of lightspeed, catching them off guard and killing them and stealing whatever they had on board.

He yanked the stick hard to the right, and then up and over to the left, trying to fight the interdiction and keep with the escape vector. But try as he might, he simply could not keep with it, and was flung into empty space. He immediately flipped the switch on the weapons panel, and heard the plasma accelerator move into place along with the lasers in front of the cockpit. He snarled quickly swung the ship around and looked for the bastard who interfered with his mission. And there he was, a Cobra MK III, a well armoured ship, with one more medium sized gun than what Record had.

Record was outgunned, so he used the Eagle’s maneuverability to his advantage, quickly speeding past him before the pirate could get his guns on target. Record turned around to face him but the pirate was already speeding close to him, trying to pull the same move Record had done. He slipped out of Record’s vision and before he could turn the ship around, his shield was already taking hits from the pirate’s weapons! But Record managed to lock a few of his guns on target and quickly hit him with a few shots from the lasers, bringing the Cobra’s shield health down to fifty percent. Then as he sped away, he pulled a maneuver that Record had forgotten about. He turned off his flight assist and boosted while turning his ship, making it turn faster than normal.

Record shot another volley of laser shots at him, and grinned when he saw a majority of them connect with his shields, finally taking them down. He managed to lock on for a split second and fired a lucky shot from the plasma accelerator, which tore clean through the top of his ship to the bottom, leaving a gaping hole in the middle, effectively putting it and it’s pilot out of commision. No escape pod launched. Record’s breathing was ragged, he felt lightheaded and sick to his stomach. He hadn’t wanted to do that. Not in all his life. But as his father said, “We must carry on. Leave the past behind and live for the future.”

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Meanwhile, aboard the Golden Oak...

“He can’t have gotten far, right?” Asked an exasperated Twilight, to a bored looking Lunar.

“You would be surprised how fast an Imperial Eagle goes, even with a rookie pilot such as him.”

“That’s what he’s in? Ugh! We’ll never reach him in time!” She gave a sigh before continuing, “Well, if you need me, I’ll be in my chambers, thinking of what to say to The Queen to get that Tiara back. Oh and Lunar,”

Lunar Looked up at Twilight, “Yes Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight straightened her posture and announced, “I hereby appoint you as my personal bodyguard. You have been relieved of all your other responsibilities. Your new uniform has been delivered to your quarters, which are now adjacent to mine. Good night.” she turned and walked out of the bridge, leaving Lunar with an open mouth, staring at where Twilight had once been.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Record had been attacked a few more times before arriving, though seemingly less and less as he got closer to Capitol, as his ship blended in better with all the other Imperial ships patrolling the area. The ship had taken a beating, but had held up surprisingly well.

He beamed into Capitol at long last, and only moments later was flanked by two other Imperial ships. He was hailed by one of them, “Greetings Commander Shatter, we are to escort you to the station closest to Nova Equiis.”

A little annoyed, he replied, “Yeah, I coulda’ used that a few systems ago!”

“Our deepest and deepest apologies Commander Shatter, but the Queen said she would not send anyone, despite our protests.”

He harrumphed and said, “Please just call me Record.

The pilot continued, “If you would please follow us in to the station, sir, we will get you the fastest transport possible to Nova Equiis.” Record complied with them and fell in line with the two Imperial Fighters heading towards the a coriolis port called Dolorem, The port orbiting Nova Equiis. He caught a quick glance of the planet before his view was obstructed by the starport. It was a landscape very similar to Equiis’ with various hills, lakes and deserts. The main feature was the large singular ocean, Tychonis Oceanus, which was filled with islands of various sizes.

They arrived and Record was quickly put into a vehicle to transport me to the other side of the station closest to the planet. It was an odd feeling to him, if he looked up he could see the tops of vehicles on the other side of the station on pathways like ours. They stopped and headed to the shuttle lobby, which made Record feel slightly embarrassed, as he was the only one being escorted by two burly batguards in front of all these everyday civilians, who gave him inquisitive looks for a few moments before going back to their business.

Eventually, a sleek looking private shuttle arrived in place of the normal civilian ones. When this happened Record was given a gentle nudge, by one of the guards to move forward.

“Wait, that’s what we’re going in?” he asked.

“Indeed.” Replied the guard on his left, “Is it not up to your standards sir?”

“N-no! It exceeds them, very much so even!” He just nodded and gestured me toward the terminal and stood where he was. He took this as a sign that he was to go alone, and cautiously walked into the terminal and onto the ship, where he was greeted by an empty passenger area, with a small seating area, a bed and a minibar. The door shut behind him and with military precision the ship left the station and was speeding toward Nova Equiis. Record pressed a button which flipped down a hidden television in the ceiling, already tuned to Galnet, The galaxy's own personal third party news network.

The anchor spoke, “And in breaking news, a large fleet of Federation ships led by the Prime Minister’s own personal ship, has been spotted heading toward Imperial space. We tried to get more info from the Federation, but they declined to comment. Stay tuned for more.”

Record whispered quietly to himself, “Oh, that can’t be good. She must have found out I took it.”

There was a loud ‘thud’ as the shuttle landed in what seemed to be a densely wooded forest, the only clearing being the one made for a landing pad which he landed at. The door on the side opened, and he stepped out into the and was greeted by another pair of batguards, this time both female.

“Greetings Commander, we are to escort you to Her Majesty's chambers.”

Record’s eyes went wide, and his knees began to tremble, “Oh, I am actually going to be meeting her?”

“She said She would be hurt if you didn’t see her.”

He gulped in fear, straightened his posture and stepped out the door.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

“Well,” said Lunar in her cabin, “I certainly wasn’t expecting this to happen.” She got up from sitting on her bed, and walked in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror and examined herself in her new uniform. It was a black button up, with a deep purple collar and cuffs to match. Part of her wondered whether Twilight had made this specifically for her or not, for she had not seen any of her other personal guards wearing anything like this.

There was a small flash of purple light on the dresser nearby, startling Lunar. She walked over to the source slowly and found a two pieces of paper stapled together. She read the top one out loud.

Dear Lunar

Please come up to the bridge at your earliest convenience. We still have some small, albeit difficult matters to talk about. Preferably in the flesh, and alone.

Prime Minister, Twilight Sparkle

P.S. I apologize, but I did some digging on you. You were so cute back then!

“Digging? What does she mean by that?” She said flipping over the first note to reveal a picture of herself, back when she was in High School. Her hair was longer and messier, and the secondary purple color was a lot more prominent as well. Her signature bomber coat was still there, even if it was a lot less tattered. Next to her were some ponies of which she recognized very few.

She whistled, “We were a cool bunch of rebels, weren’t we? Damn, I looked good back then.” She thought a moment, walked back to the mirror and looked at herself. “Eh, I still don’t look that bad. Could use some work though.” She set the picture down, and smiled, before heading out the door, toward the lower decks away from the bridge.

“Twilight can wait a few minutes, can’t she? I mean, I need to look somewhat professional.” she thought to herself, before stepping into the barber’s.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

It was a bit of a walk to get to the throne room, but there was lots to see on the way. Various exoitic wildlife, massive imported trees making up the vast forest and finally the massive light purple castle of the Imperial Family. The guards following Record took their posts at the silver colored main doors and left him to find his own way. He walked down the main hall towards the throne room where a deep blue and light pink thrones stood, both were unoccupied.

A guard posted near them spoke, “State your name please.” Record gave him his name and he just pointed down the left hall and said nothing more. Record walked down the dimly lit hall, not sure what to do. All the doors were unmarked as were the hallways leading off. Then he heard a voice, not speaking, but singing and humming. It was too far away for him to make out any of the words being spoken. He went to go investigate, following the beautiful voice through hallways, up staircases all through the maze that was this wing of the castle.

Then he came to a dead end, literally. The voice was coming from right in front of him, but only that couldn’t be possible, as the only thing in front of me was a solid wall. He could hear the ancient equestrian language clearly now. He stared in disbelief, wondering how this was possible. He went to put his head against the wall to think, but his head went through, and a hologram flickered around it. He recoiled back immediately before leaning down and picking up the clever hologram maker from the floor.

He went inside, but it felt as though he was stepping into a cold nighttime landscape. Then it hit him, this was the same place as the earlier dream. He took a step on the solid surface, and it looked like he was stepping on water, ripples coming from where his hoof made contact.

The singing stopped, “Ah, you have made it. I knew you would.” He recognized the voice as the Queen’s own, he stood at attention and stared forward, unblinking. She stepped out from a very cleverly designed curtain that blended in with the surrounding walls.

She turned to look at Record and giggled, “You can be at ease commander, come, take a seat, please.” she said, seemingly reclining in midair. He tentatively walked over to her, when a small table, a chair and a loveseat occupied by the monarch all seemed to distort the illusion. He took a seat in the chair and shifted around uncomfortably.

She made a small pouting face and asked, “You seem tense, would you like some refreshments? We have just about anything you could think of.”

“Water, please.” Record said nervously. She nodded her head and a glass appeared on the table in front of them.

“There you go. Now, I trust you have the item in question?” Record nodded, and floated the Crown Jewels out of his saddlebag and onto the table. Her eyes went wide, and she froze in place, staring at it. She shook her head and picked it up with her magic and started to examine it, muttering something about how it was remarkably intact.

“You have substantially exceeded my expectations,” she began, “Tell me, where did you find this?”

“It was back on Equiis, my uh, ‘superior’ took us walking in the Everfree. She ran off the path and when I found where she went she already had pulled it from the ground.”

“Who is your superior?”

“Lunar Sky. Why do you ask, your Highness?”

“I must check something, and just Luna is fine.” She closed her eyes and lit her horn. She looked deep in thought and stuck her tongue out in concentration.

“There is no ‘Lunar Sky’ in the dreamscape. How odd, wait! That can only mean…”

“Mean what Your ma- I mean Luna?”

“Her.”

VII: War

Chapter Seven

“Full reverse on those thrusters! Battlestations! Ready the guns! This is NOT a drill!” barked Twilight over the intercom, before she pressed a button on the console, turning on a klaxon alarm that rang throughout the whole battlecruiser.

She turned swiftly to one of her officers and asked brusquely, “Where is that dreadnought? We need all the power we can get for negotiations.” He was about to speak but a loud noise that sounded like a foghorn cut through and silenced all noise present. She looked past the frightened officer to the window, where a ship, larger than her own cut through space itself before getting in formation with her own ship.

“Well, there’s your answer, Prime Minister. But what exactly are we negotiating?”

“That is for me to know, only.” she stated flatly walking past him to the window.

He started sputtering profusely, “B-but, I am one of your highest ranking officers, I have the right to know what we are fighting f- HRK!” he was cut off by Twilight lifting him up with her magic by the throat and floating him face to face with her.

“You, dare, question MY authority, whelp?” It was silent, before a cough was heard from the entryway. Twilight roughly dropped the poor stallion to the ground upon seeing Lunar standing in the doorway, a very surprised look gracing her face. She looked very different than she had before. Her hair was now a very clean looking mohawk, her once shaggy tail now cut short and neat. And finally her new uniform graced her features.

“Ah, Lunar! You look good. Did you see the dreadnought come in? That’s the Sonambula.” asked Twilight gave a nervous giggle, looking back at the now unconscious stallion laying on the ground, then back to Lunar. Lunar’s head was spinning, this wasn’t the Twilight she knew. The one she had always known.

“Come! We are going to the Sonambula. It is safer on there. Grab your things, we leave in five.” Lunar snapped out of the funk she was in and nods her compliance, falling in line behind Twilight and splitting off when they got close to her quarters. She got into her room and closed the door, locking it… not like it would help though

“I need to get out of her, but there’s no way I can leave without being spotted. Okay, just play it cool. Twilight trusts you, let not lose that.” She was steadily panting, her heart rate far higher than normal. She grabbed a standard issue duffel bag and haphazardly threw most of her belongings in it, making sure to set her bomber coat on top with care, before zipping the bag shut and slung it across her back.

Stepping outside her door she patiently waited outside Twilight’s quarters for a few moments before The Prime Minister stepped out in full battle dress. Black plastic armour, with small amounts of purple graced her features, similar to the colour scheme of Lunar’s own uniform. Twilight topped it off by floating a helmet onto her head, it was unlike anything Lunar had ever seen.

Twilight started in her now mechanical voice, “They are attempting to flee, we are going down there to find them. We have about an hour before bombardment of the planet begins.”

Lunar Gasped “What! That’s insane! That would be a declaration of war!”

“I know, I hate that it may have to come to that but we have no choice, Luna knows the power she now possesses, I have no doubt she will use it to bring ill will to the citizens of this galaxy. Now let’s go.”

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

“Your friend, Record, is not who she seems.”

He stood awestruck at the notion, that Lunar, my only real trusted friend in the universe, may have been lying to me this whole time. He was about to speak again but he was cut off by a blaring alarm ringing throughout the castle.

“And there, they have started their invasion. We need to go.” Luna says as she picks up Record, the Crown, and a small bag she was hiding with her magic and bolts to the door at a full gallop.

“Ah! Hey I can walk!” Record protests, feeling the cool aura surrounding him.

“While that may be true, my dear Record, but I can fly. Now brace yourself!” She accentuates her point by flaring her wings and blowing a whole through the hallway wall with her magic and sprinting through it, gliding swiftly to a small building hidden by trees. She landed and dropped him to the ground unceremoniously.

“C’mon, we gotta go!” she yelled at him, grinning wildly.

“Why are you smiling?! This is fun to you?!” he yelled back, picking himself up off the ground.

“Indeed it is! I haven’t done anything like this in years! Now let’s go!” She then bolted off into the building, leaving the door open behind her as Record followed close behind, heading through the door and following her down some stairs.

They both stepped into a hangar larger than any Record had ever seen before, and at the center of it all was a large ship, an Imperial Cutter, it’s graceful curves and glistening white and chrome paint bathed in red by the dull hangar lights. Then a loud clunk was heard as Luna flipped a switch, letting the hangar door above open, bringing in the natural sunlight from outside, along with small bits of soil, as the door was hidden below the ground. Luna stepped under the craft and pressed a button, letting the boarding ramp drop to the floor, motioning her head for him to follow.

Record didn’t see this though, as he was too busy staring in awe at the magnificent ship before him, the light making it seem angelic almost. Luna smiled and shook her head, lighting her horn to drag him inside.

“Come along now Record, you can stare at the pretty ship later. We have to hurry.”

“But it’s so cooool!” he said in mock frustration, willingly getting dragged into the ship by her magic.

Finally stepping up the ramp and into the cockpit, he actually felt a small amount of fear, this was one of the biggest ships a commander could fly alone, and here he was in the cockpit after only having flown a small fighter, being watched by the Imperial Queen herself! he hesitantly took the middle seat and started looking at the controls.

Luna spoke up, “Oh right, you were in a smaller ship, this must be overwhelming a bit… but you certainly would be a better fit for a pilot than me.”

“Y-yeah, I’ll get it soon enough.” he read the labels quickly, flipping switches and starting the engines. Over all this sound, a loud thud was heard as an escape capsule hit the ground nearby, smoking slightly from entering the atmosphere.

“Record! Pull the ramp back up! They’re here!”

“Oh no…” he slammed a small button labeled ‘ramp’ and heard a clunk come from behind him. The engines soon were producing a deafening roar, the ship’s exterior light fixtures producing a soft blue glow. The door of the capsule opened, revealing Lunar Sky and a pony that oddly had the same color scheme as the Prime Minister, except she had on a strange outfit like none he had ever seen. Luna calmly took a seat next to me and flipped the arming switch, klaxon alarms ringing and a hum could be heard as the guns locked into place.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

A few minutes before

Twilight and Lunar clambered onto a small skiff and flew over to the Dreadnought, getting a view of the forested planet below and the massive armada that was behind them.

Lunar spoke, staring at the spectacle, “Holy shit… Did you call the whole fleet Twilight?!”

“Language, Lunar! And I would say about sixty percent of it, if my calculations and fleet knowledge is up to date.” Lunar stood in awe at the prospect, thinking that more than half of the Federations fighting force was there in front of her. All because she didn’t see Record take the crown when she walked away, and she mentally berated herself for her mistake.

They arrived on the Sonambula, going into their respective rooms and unpacking, Lunar finishing first and waiting patiently for Twilight to get out of her room, before they both scrambled into an escape pod and rocketed down to the planet’s surface, trying to find Record and Luna before they could escape, and before the planetary bombardment began.

“Brace yourself Lunar, these pods are not made for comfortable landings!” Twilight yelled above the roaring wind as they entered the atmosphere roughly. The window across from Lunar was filled with only glowing red light, not letting any sight of the forest world come through. Lunar nodded her acknowledgement closing her eyes and steeling herself for the inevitable rough landing that was to come.

Lunar stepped out of the capsule groggily, shaking her head as she hit the ground. Her eyes went wide as she saw the gaping hole before her. Inside was a gleaming white Imperial Cutter, with Record at the controls and Queen Luna beside him, flipping the switch to bring out the guns. A clank was heard beside her head as Twilight landed beside her, not phased by the landing, her visor glowing a deep blood red.

Twilight spoke in an amplified voice, “Pri- I mean, Your Highness Queen Luna of the Imperial Family, I have come personally to negotiate the surrender of the Crown Jewels of one former Princess Celestia!”

The ship started to hover and gradually rose out of the hangar, staying at level with the two ponies on the ground. Luna teleported herself to the top of her ship in front of the cockpit, speaking in the long unheard Royal Canterlot Voice, “And why should we negotiate with with any of the likes of you!? Whoever you are!”

“My apologies, I forgot I was even wearing this.” Twilight took off her helmet, her mane billowing in the wind created by
the engines. “And to answer your question, because if you do not surrender the crown, we will wipe this planet out of existence. With you on it!”

Lunar watched in horror. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She looked into the cockpit of the ship and saw Record staring at her with an expression to match hers. Terrified.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Luna looked surprised, but eventually calmed her demeanor, “My my, the Prime Minister herself, came down to my little world to talk to me herself. I feel almost honored, but it’s too bad she has a temper. But that wasn’t always the case was it, Twilight Sparkle? I might’ve been willing to work with you, but since you brought a whole armada with you and have terrified my poor citizens! The time for peace has passed.”

Record was hypnotized by the way Luna spoke, her words flowed like silk yet had the sting of a wasp. He also couldn’t help but notice that she stamped her hoof when she wanted to emphasise a point, sending her tail into a frenzy, letting him get a quick peek at what lay beneath it, adding a small blush to his face. Then, looking past her he gave Lunar a quick wink just as Luna teleported back into the ship, he flipped the weapons switch and set the thrusters to full, bolting away from the two on the ground at lightning speed, leaving the atmosphere as he set the FSD to charge, hoping for a quick getaway from the armada.

“Where are we going?” Luna asked as she took her seat and strapped herself in.

“Far away from here, does this ship have a tracker in place?”

“No, this is my personal ship. I need absolute secrecy whenever I travel.”

“Good.” he says as he puts on a helmet and glanced at her, noticing she wasn’t doing the same. “Uh, did you need a helmet, or a respirator?”

“Nope! I didn’t need one on the moon, so I guess I can breathe in space.”

“That’s, odd. But if you say you are fine.” he said right before the ‘woosh’ of the FSD kicks in, sending them to another system, away from Luna’s world and the swarm of angry ships hovering around it.

A few systems over, they went to an isolated station, far away from the sun they appeared at. Retreating into the large hangar and planning to turn in for the night. Then things got a bit awkward,

“Uhh, Record, we’re going to have to share, I only have one bed on this ship.”

VIII: Betrayal

Chapter Eight

“Cancel the bombardment, they got away. Over.” Twilight put the comm device away and turned to Lunar and put her helmet back on, “I really don’t know how I didn’t see that coming, honestly. Lunar?” she looked around for Lunar, finding her staring at the now damaged castle, Imperial ships escaping into space in the distance behind it.

Lunar spoke, “I never would have imagined our rival’s home to look so, magnificent.”

“Magnificent as their terraforming and architecture may be, it does NOT excuse the fact that they, along with their leader are nothing but lying, thieving, slaving scoundrels!”

Lunar winced at Twilight’s words, “Luna wouldn’t be their leader anymore though. It is stated in their constitution that in the absence of their queen, the next in line will take over until the first returns.”

“And who would be next in line then?”

“I would believe that to be Princess Cadance, your grace.”

Twilight stopped, “Would she still be here? No, no, she would have escaped by now. Mayb-” she was cut off by a bright orange flash in the sky, as one of the armada’s ships exploded, and a massive battle began to form, one massive force against the other in the first battle of the Second Interstellar War. A sort of, shot heard ‘round the word, except this was an explosion, and it was heard around the whole of populated space.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Record awoke on a bed, a very comfortable bed in fact. He laid still, staring at a darkened white wall in front of him, trying to piece together where he was. He felt something shift behind him, feeling fur pressed against his own back fur, a stretching noise and a dark blue wing being draped over his neck area. It all came rushing back at that moment, he cursed myself for passing out, again. He brought a hoof up to facehoof himself, only then did he realize that he didn’t have his flight suit on either. So he was in bed. With the queen. Naked. Record’s mood was changing rapidly at the concept. He was content with just laying there, until she shifted again, rolling over on to her other side and wrapping her forelegs around him, spooning him and her head resting atop his.

He decided to speak quietly, “L-luna? Are you awake?” He received no response, other than she pulled him closer to her, enough that he could feel her teats pressing against his back. He felt his face heat up as she did this. He called her name a bit louder, still getting no response. Record started to wiggle his way out of her grasp, his hooves hitting the floor with a soft ‘clunk’, and he made his way carefully to the door.

But as soon as he got halfway out the door, her voice called out softly, “Record?”

He stopped moving, before replying, “Y-yes Luna?”

“Please stay…” His heart skipped a beat at that moment. The Queen, was asking him to come back to bed, with her… This had to be a dream. He walked backwards back into the room, crawling back onto the bed and back into her embrace, this time facing her. She pulled him close again, his face going into her soft chest fur, filling his nostrils with her sweet scent.

Record asked, “Am I dreaming?”

“No Record, this is very real. This doesn’t bother you does it?”

He thought for a moment, letting that revelation run through my mind, before he answered, “Not at all.”

This lead her to hug him tighter, my blush only growing as he felt his sheath press against her bare underbelly fur. Record wanted to speak, but he decided it would be best to just stay quiet for the time being. He tried to will myself to not let his length slip out, but it was a losing battle, as she kept trying to press herself tighter against him, nuzzling his sensitive horn with her cheek, further providing stimulation for the unicorn. It proved to be too much, as he soon felt something warm and hard press against his stomach and hers, the soft fur of her underbelly tickling it, making him twitch.

She noticed it too, pulling back slowly and smiling, “It seem my actions have you… excited. Should we do something about that?”

Record blinked at her slowly, “O-only if y-you’d like to… L-luna.”

“Mmm, I’d love to, my little unicorn.” she accentuated her point by dragging her belly upward across his length, making her fur brush against it. When she reached his head she took his horn into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it and moaning softly. Record’s breath caught and he started to breath more raggedly, never having felt this before.

Luna giggles at his reaction and stopped, leaving a wet trail on his horn and leaving Record confused.“Mnah?”

She silenced him with her hoof, “Shh, you just relax now, I’m going to have some fun.”

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

Night fell on the planet, and it was time to escape. Lunar and Twilight had been in hiding the whole day, watching the guards come and go from the now empty and damaged castle from their perch in a densely wooded forest. The battle above them was now more apparent, explosions and streaks of light from beam lasers could now be clearly seen from the planet below. But even with all this, there was no way to tell which side was winning, which made Twilight want to get back to her flagship even more.

The plan was reasonably simple, very simple for Twilight the former scientist and mathematician. Wait till darkness covered the world, sneak back out into the open and steal a ship and somehow make it back to the Sonambula or the Golden Oak, that is if either of them still existed, not to mention trying to get back into friendly space in an enemy spacecraft without being fired upon.

They started to move, Lunar taking the lead and scouting ahead, while Twilight cast an invisibility spell on herself and trailed along behind Lunar. Lunar used everything she had to her advantage, taking to the air for a few moments and using her bat-pony echolocation to spot guards that were otherwise hidden by the darkness, then gliding silently back down to the ground.

Lunar knew Twilight and her couldn’t escape without having to incapacitate a guard or two, because she also knew that they knew the pair were still on the planet, itching to steal a ship and escape. Lunar moved stealthily toward the nearest landing pad, keeping low and slow as she snuck up on an unsuspecting guard. Moving into a bush right behind him, as soon as he even showed a small amount relaxed behavior, she struck, jumping out, giving him a swift bite on the neck, her fangs sinking into his unprotected flesh, but not killing him. From her fangs she secreted a quick acting sedative, knocking him unconscious before he even made a sound.

Just as she was about to move onto the second guard at the pad, she heard a muffled scream. Wheeling around, wingblades extended, she saw Twilight, spearing the second guard with a dagger. That was it, she had to say something. In a harsh tone, she whispered,

“Twilight! What are you doing?”

She looked amused, pulling the knife out and cleaning it on the ground as she spoke cooly. “Taking out the guards, like you were.”

Lunar visibly recoiled, raising her voice, “Well, yeah, I can see that, but I wasn’t gonna kill ‘em!”

Twilight raised an amused eyebrow, sheathing her knife and taking a step toward Lunar, speaking in a sarcastic tone, “And why not? These fools should be thanking me for freeing them from a life led by the Empire.”

“And why would they do that? You speak as though the Federation is better.” As soon as she said that, she regretted it.

But to her surprise, Twilight seemed calm about the whole situation, “But it is! You see, unlike these filthy Imperials, we do not have an economy fueled by drugs and slave trade. We have industry, a free market!”

The fuse was lit, there was no going back now for Lunar, “That doesn’t matter! It’s not about how the economy is, it’s about who runs it! And as far as I know, The former Queen did NOT choke out one of her senior officers, or kill one of your guards in cold blood! And I know YOU know that Princess Cadance would never do a thing like that!”

Twilight stood there, her mouth agape till her sister in law’s name was mentioned where she winced as if she had been struck. She hung her head down in shame, her tail tucked between her legs like a scared puppy. For a moment, she had forgotten who she was, but only for a moment. She was the prime minister, and she would not be lectured by her underling, who was still talking, no, pleading with her, “Twilight, please, be the better pony. This isn’t how I remember you.”

“You, will not be giving me orders!” Twilight unsheathed her blade once more and took a righteous swing at Lunar, who dodged it expertly, rolling to one side and extending her wing-blades. Twilight was immediately on her again, slashing wildly at Lunar who would either dodge or deflect the blows with her own weapons, using them only defensively. But Lunar knew this couldn’t go on forever, so as soon as Twilight let her guard down, panting and out of breath, she struck, jumping into the air and landing a roundhouse kick to the side of Twilight’s face.

A few minutes later, Twilight lay unconscious, hidden away in the bush they had been hiding in before. While in the distance, Lunar took off in a stolen Imperial ship, escaping the atmosphere and quickly switching to silent running mode to avoid any conflict with the battle happening close by. She had to find Record, and by extension, Luna, to stop this war before it got any worse.

~<>~~<{}>~~<>~

“We’re almost ready, your highness.” Record spoke, checking the gauges and dials of the spacecraft, watching the fuel percentage rise gradually.

Luna was sitting behind him, playing a game on a small touch screen device held by her magic, “Excellent! I’ve always wanted to see the stars up close and personal.”

After they had their ‘fun times’ (and a snuggle session followed by a nap) they had decided that they would lay low for a
time and explore what the galaxy had to offer, at least until the war blew over and it was safe to return. But they had also considered the possibility that the Federation could win, and how a large scale marehunt would ensue, with Commanders hellbent on tracking Luna down and collecting the bounty that would likely be placed on her head by a certain vengeful Prime Minister.

“Wait, Record,” Luna began, “You’re gonna need an alibi. People are gonna get suspicious that you’re flying this ship, unless you look the part.” She set down her phone and walked back into the bedroom. She returned a few moments later, with a pristine white and blue flight suit that matched the exterior colors of the ship.

“Here you are! It’s the only one we had, luckily it was in ‘your size’.” she said with a giggle, floating it over to his magical grasp. He smiled and rolled his eyes, taking off his old flight suit and putting the new one on while Luna watched intently. Fixing the cuffs to the top of his hoof and straightening the collar, he turned to Luna, “Well, how do I look?”

“Not bad, now let’s get going!” She commanded, pointing triumphantly toward the front of the ship, and taking a seat on the co-pilot’s chair, with Record following close behind and taking his own seat. By then the ship had been refueled and the engines had finished warming up, Record pressed the button on the HUD, the large hangar platform groaning under the weight of the craft it was supporting, moving into place before finally being lifted into the flight area.

“Well,” Record spoke, “Here goes nothing, right?”

Luna looked out to the vastness in front of them, grinning, “To the Stars, and beyond!”

Author's Note

Cliche? Yes! is it the only way I knew how to end that chapter? Also yes! sorry for the wait, been dealing with RL issues.