To the Stars, and Beyond

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.