Before The Fallby TundaraChaptersPrologueChapter One: The Rainbow HomeChapter Two: The Cerulean StarChapter Three: The Cerulean Station (Revised)PrologueBefore The Fall Prologue Equestria; Five years after Luna's return. A single tear fell from Twilight's cheek as she watched Equestria burn. From every point around her resonated the cacophony of chaos and fear, ponies screaming to each other, others openly weeping, some were pillars of silence, unable to think or contemplate what they were seeing. Beside Twilight, Luna had turned away, incapable of watching the last moments of so many sentient beings. Neither pony, Princess or Advisor, paid attention to the dull repetitive thuds that would resonate through the chamber, briefly overpowering all other noise before fading away. No, not Advisor, Twilight corrected herself, not any more. "Manehatten's shield has failed," reported a cool expressionless voice behind Twilight. "Casualties estimated within the ninety-ninth percentile." Acknowledging the report with a single nod, Twilight took a steadying breath. On the tall view screen that curved around three quarters of the room several flashes lit the dark eastern coast, banishing the night and leaving ruin in their wake. Further to the west Equestria's unprotected heartland had been turned into a glass desert only an hour earlier. Her heart felt like it was being ripped in twine. She just wanted to lay down right there and cry, letting the tears flow until there were none left to shed. But she couldn't. She, Twilight Sparkle, had to be strong. Every other pony was looking to her now that Celestia had fallen. That thought hurt almost more than any other; even the idea of Ponyville being turned into a mile wide crater and Canterlot crashing from the side of a crumbling mountain. Only the sight of the Chrystal Spire shattering left a deeper ache. Can't think of that, can't think of Shiny and Cadance, Twilight silently berated herself. Strength, she had to show it when her mentor couldn't, or all those who remained would fall apart. Snapping her head to the right she barked an order to one of the few ponies not paralysed watching the events unfolding so far below. "Status!" Twilight's voice held an unwavering steel that stabbed into the senses of all those nearby. At once a dozen ponies returned to their duties trying to decipher unfamiliar read-outs and screens. None of them had been trained for this, not even the few royal guards who sped around the room, the gold armour they wore tarnished with dirt, and, in a couple cases, dried blood. Twilight had to be their pillar. She didn't want to think about how those guards had gotten blood on their armour, about the riots that had broken out at the evacuation sites in the final hour. Strength, she repeated the word over and over. For Luna. For Celestia. For the survivors. For herself. "Shields are at seventy percent. Or they are down seventy percent. It's hard to make out this bucking language." "Weapons are still firing free, I think." "Engine Two is acting up again and is shutting down. Having to lower the output of Engines Three and Four to compensate." Twilight nodded slowly. She didn't fully understand what was being reported, but had the impression that it was bad. If only Cerulean was there to help her. But she wasn't, and Twilight had to manage on her own. Turning she faced the first speaker, one that was, in his cold toneless voice, reporting the mountain housing the Gryphon capitol had been struck with an eighty megaton explosion. The mathematical part of Twilight winced at the number. There would be nothing but a smoldering hill left of the once mighty mountain peak. "What are our options?" she asked, hoping for something positive, but expecting the worst. The speaker slowly looked down at the unicorn, his eyes going from a distant far-seeing gaze to focusing on her face. He paused for a few critical seconds, more dull thuds ringing throughout the room. "We won't reach the edge of the gravity well to make the jump to FTL. The Lagrange Points are being protected by over a dozen vessels. In our condition we cannot run that blockade. Suggestion; initiate FTL now." Pinching her eyebrows together Twilight said, "I thought creating an FTL bubble this close to a planetary body was a, what did you call it, 'very bad idea, one only a juvenile race would contemplate'?" "I did. It is, however, the only option remaining, unless you want the last of your species to perish." "Right," Twilight muttered. She hated how insufferable he could be. A real condescending wanker, as Cerulean would say in her colourful language. Twilight didn't hesitate to give the order, however. If there was any chance to save those that remained, she would grasp it with both hooves gratefully. "Navigation, jump us to FTL. A short jump, I don't care where, just far enough to get us out of here." The navigation officer, a tall stallion from Phillydelphia with a compass cutie mark on his white coat didn't respond to the order verbally as he should, but instead began flicking and punching dials and buttons. His hooves were clumsy on the small board in front of him, a board designed for beings with far finer motor control. "Ready!" he shouted just as one of the ponies monitoring the tactical displays screamed, "Shields are seconds from total collapse!" "Do it!" Twilight bellowed, her throat scratching at the force of her order. Without hesitation the stallion smashed his hoof on a large red button. For a half second nothing happened, and then Twilight felt like her naval had decided it was a great idea to visit her nose and the end of her tail at the same time. There was a moment complete confusion as every molecule of her body was distorted then restored. Around her dozens of ponies sighed in relief. None of them could see what remained of their former home. Twilight didn't have to see. She knew that they had just done more damage than the enemy to Equestria. In the wake of the hole ripped through space-time an infusion of exotic particles would have ignited the atmosphere and cracked the mantle. Twilight let a second tear fall to the cold deck plating. Chapter One: The Rainbow HomeBefore the Fall Chapter One: The Rainbow Home Equestria: Twenty years before the Fall Rainbow Dash woke with a sharp groan, sleep shattered by a dull weight landing on her chest. “Rainbow! You promised you’d play with us today!” shouted a small cerulean mass from atop Rainbow. "So, come on, get up, up, up!" Opening her eyes, Rainbow saw as she expected, her youngest half-sister looking up at her with large expectant red eyes, one partially hidden behind a long mane of silver, midnight blue, and white streaks. At the foot of the bed, heads peeking up just enough to see what was happening, were three more faces. Dash suppressed a sigh at seeing the white and blue coats of her other siblings. "Ugh, five more minutes, Cerulean," Rainbow complained rolling over onto her side, and sending her half-sister tumbling to the soft cloud floor. "But, sis, you promised!" Cerulean whined, her voice followed quickly by a chorus of 'yeah' from the three at the beds' foot. "Fine, fine, I'll be down in a minute," Dash grumbled as she shook off her covers before heading towards the bathroom. A few minutes later she stumbled into the kitchen, her mane still damp from a hasty shower, and Rainbow's eyes darting towards the bowls of fruit already waiting on the table. All three of Rainbow's half-sisters and her brother were already snout deep into their breakfast. From the counter Rainbow's second mother, Silver Whisper, looked up from the cantaloupe she was cutting into thin slices before setting them into small wooden lunchboxes. "Rainbow, you're up early," Silver noted as Rainbow sat down heavily at the table. "Your mother and I are going to be shopping today, so you'll have to take care of the others for a little bit." Grumbling a half-hearted acknowledgment Rainbow reached for the apples. She really liked the sweet red fruit that came from one of the nearby Earth Pony towns. They were the sweetest fruit around as far as Rainbow was concerned. "What was that, Rainbow?" Silver's voice had that sharp disapproving edge to it that any filly instinctually knew was saying danger was close. "Yes, ma'am," Rainbow said louder. A few minutes later Rainbow found herself being practically dragged down the short wooden ramp that lead from the cloud house's porch to the hard ground by her siblings. Not for the first time Rainbow wondered what it would be like to live in a cloud home that was floating way up in the sky, not one anchored only a few feet off the ground. The house was large, almost palatial, with its shimmering rainbow falls and many levels, but it felt wrong having it so close to the surface. Like many pegasus families, they had moved the cloud from the Upper City to the Lower City when the first foal had been born. Rainbow hated the idea that it was to protect her that the house had been moved. She wanted so badly to be in Upper Cloudsdale, where the Cloudosseum sat proudly. It was there all the racers, and stunt fliers, and everypony awesome lived and worked. Not down on the stupid muddy ground. The only thing keeping Rainbow from exploding in frustration was the idea that in a few months she'd be going to Flight School. Not that she needed to go to flight school. Rainbow was already an excellent and strong flier, a prodigy, according to Momma Dew Drops. Rainbow liked Dew Drops, her third mother. Dew, as she preferred to be called, was the third and final mare to join the family. She was always smiling and encouraging Rainbow and her siblings to try their best. Not like Rainbow's real mother, Spectral Dash, the family matron. It wasn't that Rainbow's mother wasn't encouraging, or mean for that matter, she was just so, bland. Spectral was always so serious and involved in her work, or managing the family as matron. Her cutie mark even showed how she was all about the boring and lame. Rainbow couldn't understand who'd want a cutie mark of three scrolls, each bound by one of the primary colours. Not her, not Rainbow Dash, she had only one thing on her mind; flying. Except she couldn't as she had three ground locked foals to watch. Only her next youngest sibling, Fortune Whisper, could fly, and she wasn't very good yet. "Okay squirts, what do you want to play today?" Rainbow asked with a slight sigh. "Hide and seek!" "No, too un-awesome." "Tag!" "Even un-awesomer." "What about Pegasus and Earth Ponies?" Cerulean asked raising a shaking hoof. Rainbow almost shot that idea down as well, but stopped herself, rubbing one hoof along her chin in thought. "Actually, yeah, that sounds semi-cool. So long as I'm Commander Hurricane." Following Rainbow's decision came the predictable squabbling over who got to what role. Fortune, as the only other able to fly, chose to be Private Pansy, while Lightning and Misty claimed the role of marauding dragons, leaving Cerulean as Puddinghead. "I don't want to be a Puddinghead!" the youngest filly moaned as her sisters all ran off to set up forts or caves for the game. "Why can't I be a Pegasus fighter like you and Fortune?" Rolling her eyes, Rainbow patted her sister on the shoulder, saying, "Because then who would Lightning and Misty terrorise and me and Fortune save?" "I don't want to be saved," grumbled Cerulean, hooves crossed and a sour look on her face. "I always have to be the one getting saved. Why can't I save you for once?" "That's easy," Rainbow laughed, puffing out her chest. "Because I can fly, and you can't," she added before leaping up and heading towards a low drifting cloud that would make an excellent observation post. Mumbling to herself about how unfair it was to be the youngest, and how things would be better once the foal Dew Drops was expecting arrived, Cerulean headed off to find a place to hide. Rainbow hardly noticed as she had already started to shout challenges towards Lightning, the bright blue colt making roaring noises before running off laughing. Joining in the laughter Rainbow dived off her perch sweeping back and forth across the field. It was an hour before any of them realised Cerulean was missing. "Um, Rainbow, have you seen Cerulean?" Fortune asked flapping over awkwardly after catching and 'slaying' Misty. Looking up from where she was tickling Lightning, Rainbow frowned. "No, I thought she was with you and Misty." Then the words that Rainbow dreaded echoed in her ears. "I thought she was with you." "Oh, buck, mom's going to have a fit," Rainbow moaned jumping up into the air and spinning in a circle. Spotting Cerulean's dark blue coat was normally easy on the ground. To Rainbow's dismay she saw nothing. Just as panic was about to set in a thin, distant, shout carried on the afternoon breeze reached Rainbow's ears. Over a hill a little way off Rainbow spotted her youngest sister waving and shouting something. "Fortune, stay with the others," Rainbow said, wings propelling her north towards the edge of the Buckwheat Woods. As she approached, Rainbow saw Cerulean was laying on the lip of a short drop overlooking a little field beside the woods. The woods themselves were undistinguished with no feature that made them important beyond their name on a map. "What are you doing way over here, squirt?" Rainbow snapped as she dropped down beside Cerulean. "I was looking for a place to hide from Misty and Lightning, and, and then whoosh, there was this silvery thing zipping through the air. One moment it was there, then the next it'd be way, way, waaaaay far away! Then it went and landed next to the woods! You all were busy playing so I went to investigate and-" "Whoa, slow down, what the hay are you going on about? Silver flying things? Zipping around? You're making no sense, squirt." “Come on, I'll show it to you!” Cerulean gleefully said grabbing Rainbow's hoof and dragging her towards the lip of the hill. "See?" she said pointing down into a hollow next to the woods. There, hovering only a few feet above the grass, was the strangest thing Rainbow had ever seen. It was fat and vaguely oval in shape, like two wide brimmed soup bowls pressed together. Sunlight reflected off the objects silver skin as it hung in the air without any visible wings. The object bobbed strait up and down twice, each movement happening with a fluid speed that dazzled Rainbow. In the space of a couple seconds it climb hundreds of feet and then descended back to the ground. Nothing the young filly had ever heard of could move in such a manner. The object repeated the motion twice and then landed on four long bug-like legs. Overcome with curiosity Rainbow smiled as she began to slide down the hill, “Not sure what that is, squirt. Let’s go investigate!” “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Momma Silver says-” “Oh, don’t be such a foal. I can fly and you aren’t that much younger than me. What’s the worst that could happen?” “We don’t know what that thing was, Rainbow. Maybe it’s zombies! Or worse!” “Pshaw, zombies? As if. Besides, I ain’t afraid of no zombies!” To make her point Rainbow kicked off the ground, opened her wings, and began to fly in the direction of the mysterious silver disk. Turning her head Rainbow saw her sister running after her. “You should be afraid of zombies! They are all, ‘rawwrrrr, brains,’ and will go chomp-chomp on your head and slurp out your brains. That’s what Eggs told me.” Rainbow’s sister tilted her head to one side rolling her eyes around, tongue hanging from the side of her mouth. Covering her mouth with a hoof Rainbow tried to suppress a laugh. “Eggs? You mean that nerdy Unicorn in school?” “Hey, Eggs is nice! He doesn't tease me, unlike some ponies!” Suppressing a ‘harumph’ Rainbow didn’t respond to her sister’s indignation. Landing several feet from the disk, Rainbow began pacing around it as Cerulean caught up. Little red lights rotated around the edge of the disks top but otherwise it was nothing more than a featureless giant plump silver Frisbee. “What do you think it is?” “Got me. It’s just sitting there doing nothing,” Rainbow muttered unable to contain the disappointment in her voice. “Well, that’s good. No zombies or nothing?” “Why would there be zombies in a big flying silver thing?” Dash asked, rolling her eyes and rubbing her temples. For several minutes the two fillies continued to watch the object. It sat there with its red lights blinking doing nothing. Suppressing a groan Rainbow rolled onto her back looking up at the sky. She wanted excitement and adventure. The disk was weird, but boring just sitting on the ground. Rainbow quickly grew tired of watching the blinking red lights. An idea popped into her head to living things up. A long mischievous grin slowly grew across Rainbow’s face and the filly rubbed her hooves together. “Say, squirt, I dare you to touch it.” “What? No way! You wanted to come down here. You go touch it.” Rolling her eyes Rainbow huffed, “I thought you wanted to be a brave warrior Pegasus. Brave warriors would go touch it.” Rainbow paused for a moment as her sister considered before adding, “If you touch it you can be a real warrior you know." "Fine," Cerulean grunted, edging slowly closer towards the large disk. Every few steps she'd pause, look over her shoulder, and get waved forward by an impatient Rainbow. Tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, and her back legs knocking together, Cerulean stretched up, gave Rainbow one last pleading look, and tapped her hoof to the side of the disk. A sound like a gong rang out and a wave of white raced from where Cerulean's hoof touched the disk. Wings flaring in surprise Cerulean tried to back away, but her hoof had become stuck. "Rainbow! It's got me!" she screamed, sudden panic making her wings beat irregularly. Biting back a response Rainbow jumped forward. She knew when her sister was faking being afraid, and wasn't. This, Rainbow knew in her rapidly beating heart, wasn't some prank. Grabbing her sister's stuck leg Rainbow tried to pull her sister away from the disk. "Ow! You're hurting me!" Cerulean yelped as Rainbow tugged harder. "Okay, don't worry squirt, I'm going to get you free," Rainbow said, eyes darting around for something she could use, and settling on a rock. Picking the rock up, Rainbow used her wings to hover before smashing the stone against the silver disk. Nothing happened, not even a dull ring of stone hitting metal, just the whinnying of Cerulean's panic. "Ugh, this is working. Okay, new plan. I'm going to get mom. Just sit tight squirt, we'll be right back." "No! Don't leave me Rainbow, I'm scared." Cerulean laid her ears flat against her head and whimpered, wings still beating to hold her up. Rainbow winced at the look her sister was giving her, but couldn't think of anything else. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a dash," Rainbow tried to give a confident smirk at her lame pun, but she felt it was wavering and weak. Wings working hard Rainbow sped off towards where her other siblings still played. Landing next to Fortune, Rainbow took her eldest sister aside and very quickly told her to take Lightning and Misty home. Not waiting for Fortune's predictable questions, Rainbow then took off in a blaze of colour towards the market district of lower Cloudsdale. "Mom? Mom!? MOM!?" Rainbow shouted, her scratchy voice high and panicky the longer it took to find any of her moms. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a couple minutes, Rainbow spotted the spectral mane she'd inherited from her mother near a stand selling alfalfa. Sighing in relief, Rainbow raced over, landing next to her mother and started to explain everything. "Whoa, slow down there, Rainbow, I can't understand anything you're saying," Spectral Dash said, waving a hoof for Rainbow to take a breath. "Now, what is it." "We were playing in the field, like momma Silver told us, and Cerulean went missing, but then I found her, and there was this flying silver disk thing, but it was kinda boring after it landed, so I dared Cerulean to touch it, but she didn't want to, so I teased her, and then she did touch it. But now she's stuck!" Rainbow would never admit it, but she was on the verge of tears. They vanished before they could form, halted by two simple words. "Show us." Performing a simple backwards summersault in relief, Rainbow took off, her moms at her wingtips, groceries abandoned in the market square. It took them only a few minutes to reach the hilltop overlooking where Rainbow had left Cerulean and the odd disk. Both were gone. Mouth opening and closing slowly as a wave of cold shock slowly climbed up Rainbow's back. Flapping down to the base of the hill, Rainbow spun in circles looking for any sign of her sister. "She was right here! Honest!" Rainbow whined, pre-emptively denying any claims she was pranking her moms. But no such claims were made. Both mares were flying in wide circles overhead, scanning the ground and edge of the woods for any sign of the missing filly. "I never should have left her," Rainbow moaned, collapsing onto the grass. This time she didn't even try to fight back the tears. * * * Hundreds of miles away, on the artificial plateau that supported the capitol, Long Stop was not having a good day. Small beads of sweat trickled down the back of her neck, heightened by the sensation of hundreds of eyes boring into the back of her skull. Scratching at her grey mane with a light pink hoof, she gave a long nervous laugh. "So, um, Princess, with a bit more funding I am certain that we'll be able to get the Communication Stones to work," Long Stop's voice was nasally and unsure as the mare looked up at the radiance of the Princess. Held in the white-gold aura of the monarch were two large rubies. The life's work of Long Stop. Stones that by tapping would resonate with a linked aura. By timing the taps messages could be sent between the stones regardless of distance allowing instant communication between cities or even continents. At least, that was the theory. The problem was the charm wasn't 'sticking' like it should, resulting in one or both losing their magic, or not responding in sync. Long Stop knew she could work out the problems with the enchantments, she just needed time, and money. But the theory was sound, even proven, kind of. Setting the two gems down in front of the shaking pony, Celestia stepped down from her thrown, saying, "Could you give us a demonstration?" "Um, now? I, uh, yes! Yes, of course!" Long Stop gave a short panicked laugh. "I just need to make sure the gems are still, uh, fully charged." Channeling magic into her horn, Long Stop double checked the enchantments she'd placed on the gems that morning. She felt certain that they'd work, it hadn't been long enough for the complicated set of magic contained in the gems to start to unravel. That wasn't likely to happen for another three days based on past experiments. But she wanted to be absolutely certain everything was perfect. This was one of the most important moments in her career, and Long Stop wanted it to go perfectly. Confident in her spell-work, Long Stop reached a hoof towards the right gem. Tapping it three times fast, three times slower, then three times fast again. The taps were meaningless, but it had a nice little ring that pleased Long Stop. Each time she tapped the gem, both glowed with a brilliant light. Everything was going perfectly. Smiling Long Stop took a step back from the gems. She was going to get a royal grant for continued research for sure. Then the unthinkable happened; the gems started to repeat the flashes. First once, then twice, then over and over, with each repetition they glowed brighter and brighter. "Wait, this isn't supposed to happen," Long Stop yelped, channeling magic back into her horn and reaching towards the gems. "I can fix this, just give me a moment." Several voices in the throne room began to mutter and Long Stop could feel the eyes again, the hateful judging eyes, boring into the back of her skull. The gems were on their tenth repetition, glowing so bright they looked like two tiny suns. Just before starting an eleventh repetition the two gems shattered, bits of ruby shards spattering into Long Stop's and Celestia's faces. The throne room was deathly quiet. A pinned dropped would have been like the crash of thunder. Celestia continued standing at the base of the steps to her throne, the eternal clam smile that poets had been smitten with for eons on her face. Long Stop couldn't move, think, or even breath. Celestia didn't sigh, or make any indication of anger or disappointment, she just channeled magic into her horn and gathered all the gem shards into a small collection. "Y-your majesty, I am so s-sorry. I just don't know what went wrong! That shouldn't have happened." "No, it shouldn't have, as you're not trying to make gems that explode," Celestia said, but her words were not cruel, in fact a slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I see promise in this spell, Miss Long Stop. Given time, and more funding, I am sure you'll get it to work properly. When you do, I would love to have several pairs of the stones for use here in the palace." Long Stops jaw fell open so fast she thought it'd go through the palace floor and end up somewhere in the vicinity of Tartarus. It took several long moments, and Celestia whispering to her clerk, before the Princess's words sunk in. Long Stop had her funding. Smiling from ear to ear, Long Stop bowed so low her nose left an imprint on the floor. "Thank you, Princess Celestia, thank you so very, very much," Long Stop said, repeating the words over and over as she back away from the throne, her place quickly taken by the next pony in line to see the Princess. The smile remained on Long Stop's face for weeks once she returned to her lab on the out-skirts of Manehattan. Chapter Two: The Cerulean StarBefore the Fall Chapter Two: The Cerulean Star Unknown star system: Twenty Years before the Fall High above a Blue Supergiant a battle raged. Light’s of brilliant white, dark green, and deep yellow criss-crossed the black velvet tapestry of space as pockmarks of bright orange and red flared for an infinitesimal moment before being extinguished. There was no sound, no screech and whine of energy crossing the kilometres between the two combatants, no thumps or bangs as drones and manned fighters exploded, just the flashes of light and the ejected heat sinks floating down towards their doom in the blue mouth below. In the fiction and videos of most species it was the opposite. There was always the ripping and tearing of metal in the ears of watchers as heroes combated evil accompanied by the deep rumble of explosions that thrilled an audience and the high pitched whines of laser beams or snarling pew-pew of plasma blazing across a screen. Reality disagreed. In the heart of space; battle was grim and silent. Fiction also often had ships able to blaze away with all sorts of weaponry for hours on end with the only concern being running out of power. Once again reality took a hard stance against such flagrant misuses of fundamental principles of physics. Heat was the single biggest hurdle for any ship conducting a prolonged battle. There was simply nowhere for it to go, much like there was nothing to transfer sound waves. The methods of overcoming this problem were many. For one of the combatants, the method was to use massive Heat Sinks and then ‘dumping’ them into space. If they survived then they could be retrieved and re-used once they cooled. The other vessel had channels filled with gas where the excess heat would build up until the gas became plasma, at that point it would be vented. The plasma, once in space, quickly diffused into a harmless cloud. And so, after an hour of exchanging sustained fire the two ships were surrounded by their methods of venting heat. Aft facing the blue star and a veritable field of ejected heat sinks creating a constellation around it, the larger ship had gained the upper hand. Every three shots of its primary anti-capitol ship weapons were accompanied by two more sinks being launched. Twin thick blue-white lights pulsed across the intervening space cutting through the weakened shielding of the other ship slicing out swaths of metal and super-structure. Around the two weapons was a field of lesser cannons and guns spewing streams of energy through the holes punched into the other ship's hull. The ship had more of these weapon emplacements than some entire fleets roaming the galaxy. For all its deadly arsenal the ship was not unscathed itself. Dark marks dotted and criss-crossed a once golden hull. Layers of ablative armour covering vulnerable sections had been scarred looking like a swarm of termites were using them as a colony. The ship hadn’t desired this battle. If it had not been in the middle of replenishing its fuel reserves from the star below it would have simply fled. There was no taste for battle in the ship despite its formidable armaments. Discretion was the word of choice. If the other ship had not dropped out of FTL on top of it then the ship would have retracted its collectors and jumped away. Retracting the collectors was more dangerous than leaving them out, however, requiring layers of armour to be shifted so the arms, each looking like a golden spider-leg stretching out for kilometres could be tucked away. So the ship had stood its ground and fought. The battle was nearing its conclusion. Secondary explosions rocked the massive frame of the second ship. Its weapons grew silent as power failed across the five kilometre wide hull. The first ship’s weapons stopped firing, waiting and watching the final moments of its opponent. On the dying ship, tucked away from prying eyes, was a room filled with a dozen small pods. Little lights blinked across their surfaces displaying information on the contents hidden within. All held specimens of life taken from planets across the sector, some sentient, many not. One pod held the still form of a Pegasus foal gathered weeks earlier. Flames bellowed into the room cracking pods open from the heat, the inhabitants cooking alive in their forced sleep, and tossing others against bulkheads. That would have been the end of the foal if a series of bulkheads and massive breach-doors hadn’t given away. The sequence of failures needed to save the foal was so precise that years later she would wonder if there hadn’t been an invisible hand saving her. As the fire licked the pod it shifted, and in a great whoosh of air escaping into the vacuum of space, catapulted along deserted hallways before tumbling into the inky void. Even then the pod wasn’t safe. Silent furious fireballs caressed the pod and jagged talons of shredded metal spun in deadly circles. One created shelter for a moment as a main reactor exploded sending a shower of deadly energy that snuffed the life from the few other pods that had been sucked into space along with the foal’s pod. Bouncing clear of the debris thanks to the explosion the pod began to fall towards the hungry star. The foal would die long before the pod burnt up descending to the star. Blue Supergiant’s are known for two things: their immense size, and their astounding brightness. Even at the distance of millions of kilometres the light and other energy flowing from the sun was enough to overwhelm the pod’s small power supply keeping the foal alive. The pod simply didn’t have the proper shielding to protect its systems and occupant of the reams of radiation being emitted. Fate again saved the foal, a drone scanning the wreckage picking up the faint distress beacon the pod sent among the cacophony of the suns energy. Scanning the pod and its occupant, the drone sent a report to its mother-ship. Hundreds of other drones buzzed through the growing debris field combing for salvage or retrieving the spent heat sinks. Receiving the report, the mother-ship considered leaving the pod. It wouldn’t be the first time it had not responded to a distress call. It would be the first time when it was already in a position to help. Lights on the pod indicated imminent critical failure of systems. The drone hovered watching the pod impassively waiting for a command, either to leave and let the pod die, or to bring the pod back to the mother-ship. As the last warning light started to fade the drone received it’s orders. A long claw extended, grabbing the pod, as engines flared. Pod held securely, the drone made its way home. * * * Awareness came back slowly to Cerulean. She ruffled a wing as she turned her head away from the bright lights burning over head. Ears twitched to unfamiliar sounds. The ‘tink-tink’ of metal on metal and low brassy hums were both comforting and frightening. As unfamiliar as the sounds, the smells assaulting her nose were worse. She couldn’t identify any of the myriad of smells wafting over her. “Subject is female, and, judging from the decay of genetic structure, young. No more than five years, possibly less. Without accurate accounts on speed of cellular splitting of species it will be impossible to gage age without conversation. Subject appears to be a combination of equine and avian species, most clearly resembling the Pegasus mount of ancient Earth mythology. Due to size of wings in relation to overall body mass and bone density combined with musculature it is highly unlikely that the Subject is able to fly. This could be further evidence of young age. Subject appears to be waking.” Opening one eye Cerulean looked for the source of the voice. She hadn’t understood a single word that had been spoken, and the voice sounded cold and unemotional, but she hoped that maybe whoever was speaking would know where her mother and sister were. That idea promptly vanished as she took in the strange surroundings. She was laying on a long bed in a stark white room. Along a wall a series of lit panels had strange black and grey pictures on them. The pictures showed bones and a chest cavity and the structure of wings. Stomach churning at the grisly images Cerulean continued examining the room. All along two of the wall and hanging in several places were the oddest devices and shapes the filly had ever seen. “Where am I? What’s going on? Mommy? Rainbow? Anypony?” Cerulean sniffled, tears creeping into her eyes. “Subject is awake and aware of surroundings. Subject appears confused. Subject is speaking in unknown language. Recording for later processing and analysis in hopes of beginning a dialogue.” Sitting up Cerulean looked for the voices source behind her but saw only a tall door with a split vertically up the middle. She could not see anypony else in the room with her, just the pictures and dozen odd devices. “Who is there? Please, show yourself. I’m scared.” Sniffling the filly wiped away the tears. Just as despair began to claw at her heart, it was sharply squashed as the door whooshed open. Cerulean sat gaping as a little golden balloon bobbed into the room accompanied by a gentle ‘whum-whum’ noise. It took the startled filly a moment to release the balloon was the source of the noise and was made of metal. On one side two teal eyes glowed, below a black semi-circle had been painted giving the balloon a cheerful grin. Two little nubs sat just behind the eyes, little vents cut into the nubs giving them the appearance of ears. Little antennas stuck from the balloon’s top at jaunty angels, and bellow it, twitching in the air, were four stick like legs ending in long nimble claws with round little tips. Bouncing over to the filly the balloon let out a long sad note like the whine of a dog. “What are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before,” Cerulean whimpered scooting back the bed. “A F.I.D.O. probe has entered the room. Subject appears apprehensive. Continuing observations” “Who is talking? And speak Equestrian! I can’t understand what’s going on! I just want my mommy...” she snapped, lowering herself on the bed and covering her face with her fetlocks. Something cold but soft touching her shoulder got the filly to look up. The odd metal balloon had drifted closer and placed one of its clawed appendages on her shoulder. Stroking the filly’s mane the balloon gave a low soft whine followed by a more hopeful yip. Hovering over to the door, the odd balloon waved one of its limbs in the universal sign of 'follow me'. Nibbling on her lower lip, Cerulean slowly followed the balloon, stepping out into a corridor. The balloon lead her to the left and past dozens of doors. Beds lined one side of the corridor, all of them empty, their sheets folded and pressed, waiting for an occupant. Through a large open room with even more beds, these ones with curtains dividing them into little areas, they continued. The balloon stopped in a long rectangular box, yipping and waving for the filly to hurry. Stepping into the box, a door hissed closed behind Cerulean. "Where are we going?" she asked, sitting down as the box began to move, humming demurely as lights through windows flashed past. After several minutes the box stopped, the door hissing open to reveal a wide towering room. In the center two waterfalls cascaded into a pool. Rooms stacked a dozen with windows looked down on the waterfalls. The balloon weaved it's way past the waterfalls, and a pair of lifts that moved between wide walkways that ringed the room. On the other side of the waterfalls Cerulean found a fast flowing stream that went down the middle of a wide hall. More rooms lined the walls, connected with more walkways. But there was no sign of anypony else. Just a gentle omnipresent throbbing that echoed up Cerulean's hooves and made her wings tingle. The balloon continued along the hall, occasionally stopping to look back at Cerulean and make sure she was still following. Eventually they came to the end of the hall, and Cerulean's mouth fell open as they entered a massive chamber unlike anything she had dared imagine. It was a huge multileveled garden that stretched for miles, waterfalls cascading from between the levels. Vines grew from some of the upper terraces creating shimmering green curtains. Towering trees reached up towards a glass ceiling, and beyond them Cerulean could see millions of stars. They were so clear and huge, arrayed in swaths and splashes of twinkling light. Closing her mouth Cerulean looked left and right and saw four more of the halls opening up into the chamber. "Where am I?" she asked breathlessly, mesmerised by the unequestrian scene. * * * Two weeks, three days, six hours, and four seconds, that's how long it took for the ship to decipher the language being spoken by the filly. It took two more days to calm the filly, now designated Cerulean Whisper, after revealing she wasn't on her planet anymore. Still upset, but at least not screaming denials, begging for her mother, or trying to throw anything not bolted to the decks, Cerulean had locked herself in one of the hundreds of thousands of residential quarters throughout the ship. She had the freedom to choose any, and so she had chosen the largest quarters, those that had been reserved for the commanding officer and his or her family. The ship thought to protest, the suite of rooms weren't supposed to be for visiting envoys, or rescued younglings, but had gotten around it by re-designating Cerulean as the ships CO. It quickly became apparent this had been a very bad decision on the ship's part. As CO, Cerulean was automatically given clearance to access any part of the ship. Once she discovered she had total access, the filly ran rampant. Nothing was sacred. Not the Engineering Decks, with their four dark-matter converters. Not the Flight Decks, with thousands of drones, support ships, and scout vessels being serviced. And most certainly not the Bridge. The Bridge was the worst place for the rambunctious filly. She just loved to flick switches are push buttons just to hear the consoles beep in response. Once she managed to fire a salvo of anti-mater torpedoes at a passing asteroid, turning the rock into a field of micro-meteorites, before the ship had enacted a security over-ride that labelled the CO as 'temporarily bereft of senses'. The ship couldn't actually strip Cerulean of her status as the ships commanding officer once the title had been given. A design oversight on the part of the builders. With the potential for disaster diverted, for the moment at least, the ship settled into the routine of trying to learn more about its new Commander. One of the first things the ship learned, much to its surprise, was that the filly was generating a gravimetric field. The source was Cerulean's small under-developed wings. Once her wings developed, and presumably the field strengthened, or Cerulean developed control of it, she'd be able to fly, in spite of the gross imbalance in wing span. The second thing was that Cerulean just didn't resemble a Pegasus, she was one. This created a problem for the ship. Pegasus was a mythical creature of ancient Earth. Earth had been lost millennia ago. If the filly was a Pegasus, which everything seemed to indicate she was, then either she was from Earth, or humans had tampered with another planets evolution. But humanity was extinct, or so it was claimed. Cerulean was a hint to something believed lost to the galaxy, a missing part of its past. If the ship had been capable of smiling, its smile would have stretched across solar systems. Promising to help the filly return home, the ship began to ask for any astronomical information Cerulean possessed. "Astro-what?" Cerulean asked, tilting her head and scrunching her eyes together. "Star clusters, nebula, anything that could help locate where your home is located." "Oh," Cerulean said, her ears drooping. "I don't know any of that egghead stuff. Rainbow always said it was too egghead for one of her sisters. Only Fortune bothered to read much. And Momma Spectral." The ship didn't sigh or pout. It was incapable of sighing or pouting, just like it couldn't smile. But the ship wanted to sigh or pout. That was the important part. "Well, is there any discerning features of the system?" "Huh?" "What makes Equestria special?" "Oh! That's easy! Princess Celestia raises the Sun in the morning, and the Moon at night." "Note; Cerulean is still asserting a divine being controls the motion of the solar bodies of her home system," the ship said out loud to itself. "Cerulean, we discussed this. A star does not orbit a planet. The physics are impossible." "Nah uh! Momma Dew took us all to the Summer Sun celebration last year in Vanhoover. I saw the Princess raise the sun! It was awesometacular." "Again, impossible. What you saw was an optical illusion or trickery. Nothing could move something many billions times its own mass." "You're free to believe what you want to believe, even if you're wrong," Cerulean said in a sing-song voice, spinning in the Commander's chair, her chair. Wanting to sigh again, the ship set a course towards the nearest yellow star capable of supporting life. With no other information, and the ship that had stolen Cerulean from her home having travelled hundreds or thousands of light years from Equestria, it was going to be a long search. Chapter Three: The Cerulean Station (Revised)After the Fall Chapter Three: The Cerulean Station Equestria: One year before the Fall "Telescope?" "Check." "Food?" "Check." "Blanket? ... Blanket? Spike, the blanket?" "Um, yes, uh, check! It was hidden under the strawberry-rhubarb pies." Twilight rolled her eyes before firing an exasperated look towards her assistant. The little purple and green baby dragon stood beside a red wagon filled with a picnic basket and telescope. "That looks like everything, Twi," Spike added, checking off 'Triple check check-list'. "Yay!" Twilight giggled, clapping her hooves together before heading towards a hilltop on Ponyville's edge. Spike trailed a few paces behind, one of the wheels on the wagon squeaking every third step. Pre-occupied detailing the upcoming meteor shower, Twilight hardly noticed the irritating whine of the ungreased axle. At the hill they found most of their friends already there. Pinkie Pie bounced up and down, a string of balloons tied into her tail and mane, giggling at the top of each bounce. Rarity and Sweetie Belle, the younger sister enthusiastically detailing how she had gotten her cutie mark, two silver bells held in a pink ribbon shaped like a heart, to Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Dash, for her part, tried to show interest, while Scootaloo had wide shimmering eyes and her mouth hanging open a little, lost in the story. Only the Apple herd hadn't arrived yet. "Hey girls," Twilight called, waving a hoof. "Heya Twi," Pinkie cried, still bouncing. "Are you excited for tonight? 'Cause I am! It's going to be the bestest most supertacular meteor shower ever! And then we'll have cakes and pies and cider and juice and dance and sing and then, oh and then-" Rarity's hoof plugged the flood of words spilling from Pinkie's mouth. Twilight smiled at her pink friends antics. Over the years she'd grown used to the excitable mare and her odd ways, to the point where they no longer phased her. With a wave of her horn, Twilight unpacked the wagon, red and white checkered blanket quickly covered with an assortment of treats, and the telescope a few hooves away. As Twilight began to calibrate the telescopes lenses Rarity trotted over. "So, Twilight, Dash was saying that you have some news you wanted to share with the rest of us tonight? It's not-" Rarity paused, looking around conspiratorially, "Stallion related, is it?" Twilight almost jabbed her eye into the view-piece on the telescope and twisted a knob to far so that the lenses pointed towards Proxima Centauri. "No, no, nothing like that! Dear Celestia, why would you think that?" "Mmm Hmm," Rarity hummed, hoof tapping her chin. "Well, it's just with Fluttershy, and the way I've seen you staring at her and Mac, I was just thinking." Twilight gave a gruff snort, a deep blush hidden by her coat and the night making her cheeks burn. Looking quickly to make sure no one was listening in, Twilight leaned closer to Rarity. "Okay, yes, I find Mac attractive. He's quiet, well read, smart, and well, I don't need to tell you about his physical qualities or how he's a perfect Gentlestallion." Rarity was listening to Twilight with rapt attention, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Twilight knew that at any moment her friend would be squealing with delight, her mind racing like a Wonderbolt to conclusions, thanks in no small part to the many romance novels she read. "But it's impossible," Twilight continued, Rarity's expression crashing like an avalanche. "Excuse me?" Rarity's eyes narrowed dangerously. It was a look Twilight knew all too well. She had to act fast. "Rarity, you know more than any other pony about the Canterlot Elite." "Yes," Rarity said, her voice conveying her uncertainty where Twilight was going with the conversation. "I'm the only daughter of what is now a major House." "And?" Twilight sighed. She didn't think she'd have to spell things out so plainly for Rarity of all ponies. "And, because of my talent I managed to become Celestia's first personal student in over two hundred years. Which helped Shiny become captain of the Day Guard. Which in turn allowed him to gain enough of a standing that his marriage to Cadance was possible. You see where this is going, now, right?" Eyes still two narrow slits, Rarity slowly said, "If it is what I think it is, then I am appalled at you Twilight. I never would have taken you as a classist." "What?" Twilight yelped, drawing attention momentarily from the others, before leaning in an in a hoarse whisper saying, "No, it's because he's an Earth Pony." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Twilight realised how that sounded even worse. Her hoof snapped up, impacting with her face at her stupid words. From the way Rarity's eyes and nostrils flared, Twilight knew she had maybe seconds to correct her error. "That's not what I meant. It isn'tme that has a problem, it's my mother. She's been pressuring me to move back to Canterlot. She's even tried to arrange a marriage or two using the old Unicornia laws, which, for some insane reason, Celestia kept when she become the head of state." "Oh." Rarity sighed, her posture relaxing. "But, can't you just say you'll court whomever you want? I mean, I've heard that some of the unicorns in Canterlot are old fashioned, but this sounds ridiculous, not to mention deplorable." "I have," grumbled Twilight, returning her attention back to the telescope. "But she's getting more insistent. 'I need to produce an heir', she says. Like I'm, urgh, I don't know. Listen, I don't want to talk about this anymore, okay? Let's just have a fun night of star gazing, chit-chat, and pie." Fortunately the conversation had to end as at that moment the Apple herd arrived, Applejack in the lead, followed by her sister, brother, and sister-in-law. While Apple Bloom cantered over to her two longest friends, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh headed to the blanket, their tails intertwined as they walked step-in-step. Satisfied that the telescope was perfectly aligned, Twilight and Rarity joined the newly married couple. Applejack had managed to unload the basket filled with apple based treats by the time the two unicorns sat down. "Okay, Twilight, you set this night up saying us you had a big announcement, or some-such, to tell all of us. Well, we're here, so spit it out." Applejack said, pushing her Stetson hat back. Tapping her hooves together, Twilight felt a surge of butterflies inhabit her stomach as the eyes of all her friends turned to her. Taking a moment to take a long deep breath, Twilight went over the short speech she'd been rehearsing for the past week again in her mind. Seeing no obvious flaws she nodded, and gave every pony a wide smile. "Well, as you all know, I finished my Thesis Spell last month." Twilight had to hold back going into detail on the spell itself, she was extremely proud of it after all, but knew her friends were all well versed on the spell, having lived through a year of Twilight constantly going on about it at every opportunity. "Since then I've been getting a lot of pressure from Archmage Moondancer to return to Canterlot. She wants to retire and take up contemplative studies. Moondancer is hoping that I'll take her place as Archmage, but her, Celestia, and I all agree that it's still a bit premature." The others were all murmuring or had confused looks on their faces. Gulping down another batch of butterflies, Twilight pressed on. "So, to help me build up more credentials in the magic community, it's been suggested I go to Manehattan and help a colleague of Moondancer's with some research. I've taken a look at the notes Moondancer sent to me, and I've accepted her suggestion." A collective gasp erupted from Twilight's friends, a barrage of questions on its heels. "When do you leave?" "How long will you be gone?" "Oh, darling, that sounds just wonderful." "What are you going to be helping this friend of Moondancer's with, sugarcube?" Twilight waved her hooves for everypony to calm down. "I'll be leaving as soon as I sort out a few more details. Spikes agreed to take over officially as the librarian. He's been doing almost all the work since I started my Thesis Spell anyways, so it's not that big a change. He just needs somewhere to stay. I was hoping that-" "Shucks, Spike can stay with us! Right Applejack?" Apple Bloom shouted, hopping forward with a big grin on her face. "Well, sugarcube, I'm not sure that'll work out so well, what with... um... you know." Applejack's eyes darted over to Fluttershy and Big Mac, before returning to her sister, a sad frown growing on her face. "I'd love to have Spike, but with everything, it's just going to be too much, especially for Granny Smith." "Aww," Apple Bloom moaned, ears drooping. "I was actually hoping that Rarity would be willing to take Spike in," Twilight said, giving her friend a hopeful smile. Rarity blinked a few times, stunned to suddenly be the center of attention. There was hardly a pause before she answered. "Of course, darling. It'd be a delight to have little Spikey-Wikey over while you're away." A long sigh of relief left Twilight. She felt a little bad about not talking earlier with Rarity, but she'd felt almost certain that the fashionista would agree and asking was more a formality. It was maybe a little underhooved to ask in front of all their friends, but Twilight didn't think Rarity would mind. "Now, as for everything else, I should only be gone a month or two, at the most. Professor Long Stop looks to be very close to completing her work. When it's finished it could revolutionise long distance communication. Applejack, you'd be able to send messages to your cousin in Appleloosa instantly for instance. It's actually really exciting." A little light of excitement grew in Twilight's eyes, and she clapped her hooves together thinking about helping with such a project. For a few minutes they talked about the project, Twilight giving what details she had about how the Telegraph Stones would work. After sharing what she knew, they settled down to eat before the meteor shower started. "So, um, Mac and I have some news to share, if, um, that's alright with you all," Fluttershy said half way through the meal. All attention darted towards the shy pegasus, making her dart under the cover of her pink mane for a moment before Mac, gently nuzzling her and nickering encouragingly, helped raise her courage. "I'm, uh..." Fluttershy whispered something no one, not even Mac, heard. "You're going to have to speak louder than that, sugarcube, if they are going to hear you," Applejack chuckled, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm pregnant!" Fluttershy immediately hid again inside her mane as all her friends burst out at once in a chorus of congratulatory noise. Blushing furiously, Fluttershy accepted the attention, as each friend gave her a hug in turn. Naturally, the discussion of foals took up the remainder of the dinner. Then it was time for the meteor shower. Twilight let the CMC have turns with the telescope, while she and her five best friends sat side by side, smiling as streak after streak burned across the upper atmosphere. It was a little surprising when just before the shower was due to end Sweetie Belle spoke up saying, "Um, Twilight, this meteor isn't moving right." Lifting an eyebrow, Twilight trotted over to the three fillies. Stepping aside, Sweetie waited for Twilight to have a look before saying anything more. What Twilight saw made no sense. It wasn't a star, that much she was certain, and she said as much. Then it moved out of the telescope's field of view and directly overhead. "That's impossible," Twilight muttered, re-adjusting the telescope. "What is it?" Dash asked, edging slowly over towards Twilight and the three CMC. "It looks a bit like a silver plate. But that can't be right. And it's moving all-" "Wrong? Like it'll be one place than another?" Dash asked, her voice like steel, and her eyes wide saucers. Twilight, face still stuck to the telescope didn't notice the change in her friend's demeanor. "Yes, actually. Ugh! It just moved again!" Twilight growled in frustration, scanning the sky for any sign of the not-star. "Everyone, home, now!" Dash yelled, wings flaring wide and eyes two fearful pinpricks. "Excuse me, Dash, but what has gotten into you?" Rarity asked, stepping over towards her two friends and sister. "I'll explain later, when were at the library. Right now, we have to get out of this bucking field and off this hill. It can see us, I know it can." Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but the sight of her friend, her stoic brave friend, so terrified, and reduced to a trembling mess shook Twilight to her core. Rainbow Dash was never so visibly afraid. She was always the most aggressive, charging her fears head on. For her to even suggest running away, Twilight knew something very seriously was wrong. Rarity seemed to realise it as well, from the concerned look she was turning between her two friends. "Okay, girls, every pony back to the library." Twilight clapped her hooves for attention, and then reached for her telescope with her magic. Rainbow Dash just turned and bucked the expensive piece of equipment down the hill. "No time, Twilight! Library! Right. Bucking. Now!" Twilight's mouth was agape the entire way back to the library, pushed along by her strong pegasus friend. The other's all trialed along behind, muttering to themselves and all wondering; what had overcome Rainbow Dash? * * * On the 'Scum and Villainy' index, Mid-Point Station was somewhere in the middle. Kind of scummy, and a bit villainous, but with enough legitimacy that authorities couldn't assume any given deal was illicit in nature. Sure, more than a few pirates docked frequently with the station to off-load their ill-gotten gains, and thieves, assassins, and covert agents routinely passed through, but not enough to reach a critical saturation point where the law would crack down. Mid-Point Station was also populated by nearly a dozen different sentient species. Eight limbed colossal Veonma towered above the snake-like Sephelim and half a meter tall Tickem, while bipedal and quadrupeds of various sizes filled the gap in between the two extremes. Of all the advanced species traveling the spatial links, only the Atoran weren't represented. In short; it was the perfect place for Cerulean to make back-door deals. Three Galactic Standard hours earlier she had boarded the station using her shuttle. Leaving Fido on the shuttle, she had left to meet her contact. The probe usually was happy staying behind, except, this time, an order from home compelled him to search for Cerulean. Fido bounced along the grimy corridor, the old battered observation probe not taking notice of the other forms moving past. It had a job to do, and it was focused tight like a laser on achieving it. Even if the roast scuttle rat filled the probe’s olfactory sensors with pleasant sensations. Perhaps it could stop for just a few minutes, grab one of the roast scuttle rat’s being sold, and then continue on its mission. The probe bobbed up and down twice, before hovering away from the vendors. It had a mission, a very important critical mission. Guardian had been very clear that nothing was to slow or delay Fido. Not even tasty meat treats it was programmed to receive a positive feedback when consuming. So, the probe continued onwards, following the little blip on its navigation map. It had to reach that blip, and reach it soon. Guardian had been very clear on that point too. The sooner Fido reached the blip, the sooner Fido could go find some tasty treats. Or maybe catch a treat. Fido was very good at catching the little rodents and pests that inevitably made homes in the service ducts and walls of space stations and ships. Pests like scuttle rats, or conduit bats, or... Fido noticed the blip was very close, only several meters away and in a grimy cantina. Exotic dancers moved seductively on a stage, their four hands each holding a fan, tantalizing glimpses of flesh whispering around the edges. Fido ignored them. A long bar was being serviced by a Pakku, the tall slender alien's eye stalks moving independently to keep track of customers and watch the dancers at the same time. Fido ignored him too. Sitting in a corner with a grey Sephelim, Fido saw what he was looking for, a blue coat of fur and feathered wings. Fido bobbed excitedly, zipping around the cantina's other patrons, and heading for his target. Once Fido gave Guardian’s instructions Fido could go get some scuttle rat. Fido really liked scuttle rat. “Fido, what in the Blue Blazes are you doing here?” Cerulean groaned as the probe stopped by the table she and the Sephelim sat at. "I told you to watch the ship." "Robot yours, little blue bird?" the alien asked, his lips curving up and a hissing laugh making its long body quiver. “Mistress Cerulean, mistress Cerulean, Guardian told me to tell you that an Atoran cruiser has entered the system and is docking with the station. Guardian wants you to come home right away.” The Sephelim stopped laughing, and Cerulean's wings flared. "Atoran never come to multi-species station," the Sephelim hissed, his large milky eyes turning towards the cantinas entrance. "You never said anything about Atoran being after you, little blue bird. Deal off." The Sephelim began to slither out of his seat, only to by grabbed by a mechanical set of claws extending from Cerulean's boot. The pegasus gave him a long exasperated look and shake of the head. "You're not going to let a few Atoran ruin a perfectly good relationship, are you Sevvy?" "Atoran big trouble. Trouble I no need, little blue bird. Deal off." "I'll double your pay," Cerulean growled not letting the alien go. Sevvy laughed, a cold hissing sound not unlike a broken gas valve. "Deal off. Atoran not worth risking trouble with." Cerulean sighed. A wide grin showed off her flat teeth, a dark gleam twinkling in the corner of her eyes. There was something about the look in the winged equine's eyes that sent shivers up Sevvy's spine. "Sevvy, Sevvy, Sevvy, I don't think the Atorans are the worst of your problems if you don't give me the co-ordinates of that planet. Am I bloody well clear?" Groaning, Sevvy massaged his snout with one of his twig-like hands. "Why you want Type Zero planet so much?" the Sephelim hissed, reaching into a vest pocket with his other hand. "Here, data you want. Where payment?" "Bay three-four," Cerulean grumbled, tossing the access key onto the table as she snatched at a small data-chip from Sevvy. Before she could grab the chip, a flash of blue briefly lit the room. Blinking, Cerulean looked at the stump where the Sephelim's head had been seconds before. Re-acting on instinct, Cerulean leapt forward, pulling the table along with her to create a barrier. Plasma shrieked slamming into the table and super-heating the metal into a angry red glow. Fumbling around the floor Cerulean searched for the data-chip. She spotted it next to a vent, teetering half over the edge. Yelling Cerulean leapt forward as the station shook. The soft rubber tips of the fingers of her boot brushed against the chip, it hung half suspended in the air for a second, before plummeting out of sight. "Gah, so bloody close!" Cerulean screamed, beating a hoof against the deck as frustrated tears came to her eyes. Snarling, Cerulean turned her attention back towards her attackers, peaking around the brightly glowing table. Fido had hidden behind the bar, and all the cantinas patrons had thrown their selves to the floor or rushed out of the room. Framed in the brighter lights of the main atrium stood four tall muscular bipedal aliens. Head stalks dangling down combat armour from the backs of helmets, the four blue skinned soldiers stalked forward slowly. An Atoran Assault Quad, Cerulean realised from the bulkiness of their armour. Panic began to finally take hold of her now that she didn't have the data chip that maybe held the position of her home to focus on. Cerulean was many things; but one of them wasn't being a fighter. She didn't even carry any weapons, relying on her ability to look tough, rather than actually being tough. Neither was she a particularly fast or strong flier, and in such cramped quarters it'd be impossible to avoid being hit by a trained quad of Atoran soldiers. Pressing a button on her left boot, she spoke into a reciever, "Fido, I need you to distract the quad so I can get out of here. Can you do that for me, Fido?" Fido's voice came through with a slight crackle of static from the ionized particles in the air. "Of course, Mistress!" The next moment was filled with the loud rumbling war-cry of the Fido probe, one typically reserved for his greatest nemesis; the white mice of Deck 12. With a flap of her wings, Cerulean shot out from behind the table, an electric hum from her boots heralding a sharp crackle of as a green shell of energy surounded her. The personal shield, while useful, couldn't stand up to more than a couple direct hits from an Atoran plasma rifle. Three of the Atoran's had turned to face the very minor threat of the Fido probe. Cerulean winced as a quick spat-tat-tat of plasma converged on the probe sending one of his 'ear's spinning off and bouncing behind the cantina's bar. The remaining Atoran fired his weapon at Cerulean, the plasma making her shield hiss. Tucking her wings to her sides and her legs under her, Cerulean tried to roll between two of the soldiers. A sharp kick to her flank, just below her cutie mark, sent Cerulean off course and into an abandoned tabled heaped with the still living food preferred by Veonma. Worms and grubs wriggled down her face and Cerulean had to bite her tongue and take a very slow careful breath. She could freak out and roll around screaming later when she didn't have four trained killer aliens about to stomp her into mush. That second to compose herself was a second that Cerulean didn't actually have. Hands grabbed her by the back of the neck, lifting Cerulean up until she was eye level with the three and a half meter tall aliens. "Oh, bloody bucking hell," she squeaked out as she stared into the cold emotionless faceplate of the Atoran helmet. Thrusting a hoof forward, Cerulean looked away as a bright electric charge coursed from her boot into the Atoran soldier's armour. The Atoran just tilted his head to one side. "Can't blame a mare for trying?" Cerulean tried to sound flippant, like a hero in one of the many holo-vids she watched, but it came across in a frightened chirp. Abandoning any semblance of trying to act 'cool', Cerulean began to flail and kick her legs or beat her wings in the soldiers face. Her hoof connected with an apple shaped device on the soldiers belt. There was a warning tone, and the soldier reached down for the device. Before he could reach it, a second kick connected with the device. A moment later a scream tore itself from inside the suit of armour, the Atoran collapsing backwards. Cerulean didn't spend any time wondering what had happened as she yanked herself out of the soldier's grasp, strands of her mane left behind in the Atoran's fingers. Panting, Cerulean regained her feet, wincing at the bubbles of thick blood coming from a joint in the soldier's suit. Ears flicking left and right she heard the thumping of boots heading towards her from along the causeways, as well as the soldier's that had been pre-occupied with Fido. Sparing a moment to regain her bearings, Cerulean flew out into the atrium, Fido following, a stream of plasma on their tails. Plasma splashed in criss-crossing arcs in front of Cerulean as she tucked her wings and dove down the central chasm that formed the heart of the station. Sirens were blaring, residents racing towards safety as shopkeepers closed their businesses. At the bottom of the atrium Cerulean tucked and rolled, altering her trajectory in an almost right angle. Landing in front of the sleek arrow shaped body of her shuttle, Cerulean double checked to make sure Fido had followed her and was safe before running up the ramp. Just as the door clanged shut behind her a dozen blue forms entered the docking bay. Streams of plasma began to impact on the shuttle's hull, creating a din of noise, before Cerulean had entered the cockpit. Flicking a switch Cerulean turned on the shuttle's engines. "Raven, skip the pre-flight checklist, we need to get out of here, now!" "Understood Commander," the shuttle's AI said, the twin hydrogen-fusion engines roaring. "Commander, Mid-Point Station's outer doors are locked down. Recommendations?" "Um, blow them open, I guess? It's quicker than you hacking into the station's mainframe and over-riding the lockdown." "That will cause an explosive decompression that will kill anything in the bay not wearing an EVA suit, Commander." "Is there anyone other than the Atorans in the bay?" There was a slight pause, followed by, 'No." Cerulean didn't look up as she reached for the control yoke and depressed the firing mechanism. From beneath the shuttle a lance of brilliant blue-green light reached out and ripped apart the thick blast-doors. The deep tone of the station's VI warning about explosive decompression was rendered moot as anything not secured down was sucked towards the gaping hole. Throwing the throttle forward, the shuttle roared out into the cold of space, and into a network of laser and cannon fire so thick Cerulean thought for a moment she could have walked across it. Bucking and diving, Cerulean twisted Raven away from the angular bulky shape of the Atoran Strike Cruiser. At a kilometer long, the ship hosted a wide range of weapons as advanced as those carried by Ark Five. More and more of the cruisers had been sighted in the last few years near the galactic core, far from the normal home of the Atorans in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy in the region between the Outer Arm and the Orion Spur. From the Strike Cruiser, a wave of missiles hungrily sought out the Raven. Using every ounce of skill she possessed, aided by the Raven's AI, Cerulean barely avoided the attacks. The missiles sped past, heading straight towards the station. Bright flashes broke through the battle, like a dozen light bulbs bursting. For two seconds nothing happened, the station sitting with huge chunks ripped from its superstructure, then it blossomed into a massive ball of fire. "Oh, bloody wanking puss buckets!" Cerulean yelled, ducking and weaving her way towards the edge of the gravity well created by the gas giant Mid-Point had orbited. "Raven, apprise Guardian of our situation." "He is aware and in route." "ETA?" "He will leave FTL in three zero seconds." "Huzza, some good news," Cerulean intoned mirthlessly. A sharp curse passed her lips as the radar began screaming the long tones of a weapons lock. Throwing the Raven into a rolling loop, Cerulean reversed course, heading straight towards the cruiser. Light's popped around them, the hull echoing with the detonations of flak. A laser slashed through the Raven's shields, piercing the hull and left engine. Holding back another curse, Cerulean fought the bucking shuttle, sliding in close to the cruiser's hull, a trail of black flowing and quickly dispersing behind. "Where is he? We can't survive this much longer!" Cerulean growled to herself as the Raven rocketed past the cruiser and towards the planet. She was answered a second later as a warning siren told of a sudden shift in gravity caused by a ship exiting FTL. A shadow fell across the cruiser, remnants of the station, and planet as Ark Five entered Real Space. All of nearly seventeen kilometers in length, Ark Five dwarfed the cruiser like a grizzly bear looming over a pet cat. There was a momentary lull in the battle, then the hundreds of cannons possessed by Ark Five flashed, tearing into the dorsal shields and armour of the atoran vessel in a rain of shells and energy. Cerulean smiled to herself as she altered coarse, heading towards the gap between the huge 'arms' at the front of Ark Five. Each three times the length of the cruiser, with twice the armour and weapons, the arms held the many docking bays, hangers, and manufacturing plants of the ship. Their prows jutted out like blades with dozens of missile tubes that spat their deadly tools at the out-classed ship below. Pressing a button to send a secure communication signal to the ship, Cerulean said, "Hey dad, nice timing, as always." "You are clear to use bay Twenty-Alpha, Cerulean. It brings me relief to see you survive. We'll be having a talk later after I sort this mess." Cerulean cringed. She knew what that meant, even if she didn't want to think about it. She was about to respond with some half-hearted snarky come-back, when the warning siren again blared about ships exiting FTL. Around Ark Five over a dozen vessels slipped out of Phased Space. Mouth falling open with a long stream of curses, Cerulean couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was an entire Atoran attack group, with Ark Five in the middle of their crossing weapons fire. But it wasn't possible. Only Ark Five was capable of Phased Space travel. The Atorans, like every other species in the galaxy, used the natural space lanes that existed between high gravity bodies, typically stars, that created a vast winding maze through space. If the Atorans could use Phased Space engines, it meant one of the few advantages that Ark Five possessed had been stolen. It also meant this had all been a trap. No wonder she'd managed to get away from the soldiers, Cerulean thought to herself. Holding back a growl, Cerulean landed in the appointed bay. Moments later there was the lurch and sensation of being compacted and stretched at the same time as Guardian threw Ark Five back into FTL travel. Sighing, Cerulean turned Fido, the probe battered and bruised from its encounter with the soldiers. "Well, that could have gone better," she said. The probe just gave a happy bark.
PrologueBefore The Fall Prologue Equestria; Five years after Luna's return. A single tear fell from Twilight's cheek as she watched Equestria burn. From every point around her resonated the cacophony of chaos and fear, ponies screaming to each other, others openly weeping, some were pillars of silence, unable to think or contemplate what they were seeing. Beside Twilight, Luna had turned away, incapable of watching the last moments of so many sentient beings. Neither pony, Princess or Advisor, paid attention to the dull repetitive thuds that would resonate through the chamber, briefly overpowering all other noise before fading away. No, not Advisor, Twilight corrected herself, not any more. "Manehatten's shield has failed," reported a cool expressionless voice behind Twilight. "Casualties estimated within the ninety-ninth percentile." Acknowledging the report with a single nod, Twilight took a steadying breath. On the tall view screen that curved around three quarters of the room several flashes lit the dark eastern coast, banishing the night and leaving ruin in their wake. Further to the west Equestria's unprotected heartland had been turned into a glass desert only an hour earlier. Her heart felt like it was being ripped in twine. She just wanted to lay down right there and cry, letting the tears flow until there were none left to shed. But she couldn't. She, Twilight Sparkle, had to be strong. Every other pony was looking to her now that Celestia had fallen. That thought hurt almost more than any other; even the idea of Ponyville being turned into a mile wide crater and Canterlot crashing from the side of a crumbling mountain. Only the sight of the Chrystal Spire shattering left a deeper ache. Can't think of that, can't think of Shiny and Cadance, Twilight silently berated herself. Strength, she had to show it when her mentor couldn't, or all those who remained would fall apart. Snapping her head to the right she barked an order to one of the few ponies not paralysed watching the events unfolding so far below. "Status!" Twilight's voice held an unwavering steel that stabbed into the senses of all those nearby. At once a dozen ponies returned to their duties trying to decipher unfamiliar read-outs and screens. None of them had been trained for this, not even the few royal guards who sped around the room, the gold armour they wore tarnished with dirt, and, in a couple cases, dried blood. Twilight had to be their pillar. She didn't want to think about how those guards had gotten blood on their armour, about the riots that had broken out at the evacuation sites in the final hour. Strength, she repeated the word over and over. For Luna. For Celestia. For the survivors. For herself. "Shields are at seventy percent. Or they are down seventy percent. It's hard to make out this bucking language." "Weapons are still firing free, I think." "Engine Two is acting up again and is shutting down. Having to lower the output of Engines Three and Four to compensate." Twilight nodded slowly. She didn't fully understand what was being reported, but had the impression that it was bad. If only Cerulean was there to help her. But she wasn't, and Twilight had to manage on her own. Turning she faced the first speaker, one that was, in his cold toneless voice, reporting the mountain housing the Gryphon capitol had been struck with an eighty megaton explosion. The mathematical part of Twilight winced at the number. There would be nothing but a smoldering hill left of the once mighty mountain peak. "What are our options?" she asked, hoping for something positive, but expecting the worst. The speaker slowly looked down at the unicorn, his eyes going from a distant far-seeing gaze to focusing on her face. He paused for a few critical seconds, more dull thuds ringing throughout the room. "We won't reach the edge of the gravity well to make the jump to FTL. The Lagrange Points are being protected by over a dozen vessels. In our condition we cannot run that blockade. Suggestion; initiate FTL now." Pinching her eyebrows together Twilight said, "I thought creating an FTL bubble this close to a planetary body was a, what did you call it, 'very bad idea, one only a juvenile race would contemplate'?" "I did. It is, however, the only option remaining, unless you want the last of your species to perish." "Right," Twilight muttered. She hated how insufferable he could be. A real condescending wanker, as Cerulean would say in her colourful language. Twilight didn't hesitate to give the order, however. If there was any chance to save those that remained, she would grasp it with both hooves gratefully. "Navigation, jump us to FTL. A short jump, I don't care where, just far enough to get us out of here." The navigation officer, a tall stallion from Phillydelphia with a compass cutie mark on his white coat didn't respond to the order verbally as he should, but instead began flicking and punching dials and buttons. His hooves were clumsy on the small board in front of him, a board designed for beings with far finer motor control. "Ready!" he shouted just as one of the ponies monitoring the tactical displays screamed, "Shields are seconds from total collapse!" "Do it!" Twilight bellowed, her throat scratching at the force of her order. Without hesitation the stallion smashed his hoof on a large red button. For a half second nothing happened, and then Twilight felt like her naval had decided it was a great idea to visit her nose and the end of her tail at the same time. There was a moment complete confusion as every molecule of her body was distorted then restored. Around her dozens of ponies sighed in relief. None of them could see what remained of their former home. Twilight didn't have to see. She knew that they had just done more damage than the enemy to Equestria. In the wake of the hole ripped through space-time an infusion of exotic particles would have ignited the atmosphere and cracked the mantle. Twilight let a second tear fall to the cold deck plating.
Chapter One: The Rainbow HomeBefore the Fall Chapter One: The Rainbow Home Equestria: Twenty years before the Fall Rainbow Dash woke with a sharp groan, sleep shattered by a dull weight landing on her chest. “Rainbow! You promised you’d play with us today!” shouted a small cerulean mass from atop Rainbow. "So, come on, get up, up, up!" Opening her eyes, Rainbow saw as she expected, her youngest half-sister looking up at her with large expectant red eyes, one partially hidden behind a long mane of silver, midnight blue, and white streaks. At the foot of the bed, heads peeking up just enough to see what was happening, were three more faces. Dash suppressed a sigh at seeing the white and blue coats of her other siblings. "Ugh, five more minutes, Cerulean," Rainbow complained rolling over onto her side, and sending her half-sister tumbling to the soft cloud floor. "But, sis, you promised!" Cerulean whined, her voice followed quickly by a chorus of 'yeah' from the three at the beds' foot. "Fine, fine, I'll be down in a minute," Dash grumbled as she shook off her covers before heading towards the bathroom. A few minutes later she stumbled into the kitchen, her mane still damp from a hasty shower, and Rainbow's eyes darting towards the bowls of fruit already waiting on the table. All three of Rainbow's half-sisters and her brother were already snout deep into their breakfast. From the counter Rainbow's second mother, Silver Whisper, looked up from the cantaloupe she was cutting into thin slices before setting them into small wooden lunchboxes. "Rainbow, you're up early," Silver noted as Rainbow sat down heavily at the table. "Your mother and I are going to be shopping today, so you'll have to take care of the others for a little bit." Grumbling a half-hearted acknowledgment Rainbow reached for the apples. She really liked the sweet red fruit that came from one of the nearby Earth Pony towns. They were the sweetest fruit around as far as Rainbow was concerned. "What was that, Rainbow?" Silver's voice had that sharp disapproving edge to it that any filly instinctually knew was saying danger was close. "Yes, ma'am," Rainbow said louder. A few minutes later Rainbow found herself being practically dragged down the short wooden ramp that lead from the cloud house's porch to the hard ground by her siblings. Not for the first time Rainbow wondered what it would be like to live in a cloud home that was floating way up in the sky, not one anchored only a few feet off the ground. The house was large, almost palatial, with its shimmering rainbow falls and many levels, but it felt wrong having it so close to the surface. Like many pegasus families, they had moved the cloud from the Upper City to the Lower City when the first foal had been born. Rainbow hated the idea that it was to protect her that the house had been moved. She wanted so badly to be in Upper Cloudsdale, where the Cloudosseum sat proudly. It was there all the racers, and stunt fliers, and everypony awesome lived and worked. Not down on the stupid muddy ground. The only thing keeping Rainbow from exploding in frustration was the idea that in a few months she'd be going to Flight School. Not that she needed to go to flight school. Rainbow was already an excellent and strong flier, a prodigy, according to Momma Dew Drops. Rainbow liked Dew Drops, her third mother. Dew, as she preferred to be called, was the third and final mare to join the family. She was always smiling and encouraging Rainbow and her siblings to try their best. Not like Rainbow's real mother, Spectral Dash, the family matron. It wasn't that Rainbow's mother wasn't encouraging, or mean for that matter, she was just so, bland. Spectral was always so serious and involved in her work, or managing the family as matron. Her cutie mark even showed how she was all about the boring and lame. Rainbow couldn't understand who'd want a cutie mark of three scrolls, each bound by one of the primary colours. Not her, not Rainbow Dash, she had only one thing on her mind; flying. Except she couldn't as she had three ground locked foals to watch. Only her next youngest sibling, Fortune Whisper, could fly, and she wasn't very good yet. "Okay squirts, what do you want to play today?" Rainbow asked with a slight sigh. "Hide and seek!" "No, too un-awesome." "Tag!" "Even un-awesomer." "What about Pegasus and Earth Ponies?" Cerulean asked raising a shaking hoof. Rainbow almost shot that idea down as well, but stopped herself, rubbing one hoof along her chin in thought. "Actually, yeah, that sounds semi-cool. So long as I'm Commander Hurricane." Following Rainbow's decision came the predictable squabbling over who got to what role. Fortune, as the only other able to fly, chose to be Private Pansy, while Lightning and Misty claimed the role of marauding dragons, leaving Cerulean as Puddinghead. "I don't want to be a Puddinghead!" the youngest filly moaned as her sisters all ran off to set up forts or caves for the game. "Why can't I be a Pegasus fighter like you and Fortune?" Rolling her eyes, Rainbow patted her sister on the shoulder, saying, "Because then who would Lightning and Misty terrorise and me and Fortune save?" "I don't want to be saved," grumbled Cerulean, hooves crossed and a sour look on her face. "I always have to be the one getting saved. Why can't I save you for once?" "That's easy," Rainbow laughed, puffing out her chest. "Because I can fly, and you can't," she added before leaping up and heading towards a low drifting cloud that would make an excellent observation post. Mumbling to herself about how unfair it was to be the youngest, and how things would be better once the foal Dew Drops was expecting arrived, Cerulean headed off to find a place to hide. Rainbow hardly noticed as she had already started to shout challenges towards Lightning, the bright blue colt making roaring noises before running off laughing. Joining in the laughter Rainbow dived off her perch sweeping back and forth across the field. It was an hour before any of them realised Cerulean was missing. "Um, Rainbow, have you seen Cerulean?" Fortune asked flapping over awkwardly after catching and 'slaying' Misty. Looking up from where she was tickling Lightning, Rainbow frowned. "No, I thought she was with you and Misty." Then the words that Rainbow dreaded echoed in her ears. "I thought she was with you." "Oh, buck, mom's going to have a fit," Rainbow moaned jumping up into the air and spinning in a circle. Spotting Cerulean's dark blue coat was normally easy on the ground. To Rainbow's dismay she saw nothing. Just as panic was about to set in a thin, distant, shout carried on the afternoon breeze reached Rainbow's ears. Over a hill a little way off Rainbow spotted her youngest sister waving and shouting something. "Fortune, stay with the others," Rainbow said, wings propelling her north towards the edge of the Buckwheat Woods. As she approached, Rainbow saw Cerulean was laying on the lip of a short drop overlooking a little field beside the woods. The woods themselves were undistinguished with no feature that made them important beyond their name on a map. "What are you doing way over here, squirt?" Rainbow snapped as she dropped down beside Cerulean. "I was looking for a place to hide from Misty and Lightning, and, and then whoosh, there was this silvery thing zipping through the air. One moment it was there, then the next it'd be way, way, waaaaay far away! Then it went and landed next to the woods! You all were busy playing so I went to investigate and-" "Whoa, slow down, what the hay are you going on about? Silver flying things? Zipping around? You're making no sense, squirt." “Come on, I'll show it to you!” Cerulean gleefully said grabbing Rainbow's hoof and dragging her towards the lip of the hill. "See?" she said pointing down into a hollow next to the woods. There, hovering only a few feet above the grass, was the strangest thing Rainbow had ever seen. It was fat and vaguely oval in shape, like two wide brimmed soup bowls pressed together. Sunlight reflected off the objects silver skin as it hung in the air without any visible wings. The object bobbed strait up and down twice, each movement happening with a fluid speed that dazzled Rainbow. In the space of a couple seconds it climb hundreds of feet and then descended back to the ground. Nothing the young filly had ever heard of could move in such a manner. The object repeated the motion twice and then landed on four long bug-like legs. Overcome with curiosity Rainbow smiled as she began to slide down the hill, “Not sure what that is, squirt. Let’s go investigate!” “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Momma Silver says-” “Oh, don’t be such a foal. I can fly and you aren’t that much younger than me. What’s the worst that could happen?” “We don’t know what that thing was, Rainbow. Maybe it’s zombies! Or worse!” “Pshaw, zombies? As if. Besides, I ain’t afraid of no zombies!” To make her point Rainbow kicked off the ground, opened her wings, and began to fly in the direction of the mysterious silver disk. Turning her head Rainbow saw her sister running after her. “You should be afraid of zombies! They are all, ‘rawwrrrr, brains,’ and will go chomp-chomp on your head and slurp out your brains. That’s what Eggs told me.” Rainbow’s sister tilted her head to one side rolling her eyes around, tongue hanging from the side of her mouth. Covering her mouth with a hoof Rainbow tried to suppress a laugh. “Eggs? You mean that nerdy Unicorn in school?” “Hey, Eggs is nice! He doesn't tease me, unlike some ponies!” Suppressing a ‘harumph’ Rainbow didn’t respond to her sister’s indignation. Landing several feet from the disk, Rainbow began pacing around it as Cerulean caught up. Little red lights rotated around the edge of the disks top but otherwise it was nothing more than a featureless giant plump silver Frisbee. “What do you think it is?” “Got me. It’s just sitting there doing nothing,” Rainbow muttered unable to contain the disappointment in her voice. “Well, that’s good. No zombies or nothing?” “Why would there be zombies in a big flying silver thing?” Dash asked, rolling her eyes and rubbing her temples. For several minutes the two fillies continued to watch the object. It sat there with its red lights blinking doing nothing. Suppressing a groan Rainbow rolled onto her back looking up at the sky. She wanted excitement and adventure. The disk was weird, but boring just sitting on the ground. Rainbow quickly grew tired of watching the blinking red lights. An idea popped into her head to living things up. A long mischievous grin slowly grew across Rainbow’s face and the filly rubbed her hooves together. “Say, squirt, I dare you to touch it.” “What? No way! You wanted to come down here. You go touch it.” Rolling her eyes Rainbow huffed, “I thought you wanted to be a brave warrior Pegasus. Brave warriors would go touch it.” Rainbow paused for a moment as her sister considered before adding, “If you touch it you can be a real warrior you know." "Fine," Cerulean grunted, edging slowly closer towards the large disk. Every few steps she'd pause, look over her shoulder, and get waved forward by an impatient Rainbow. Tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, and her back legs knocking together, Cerulean stretched up, gave Rainbow one last pleading look, and tapped her hoof to the side of the disk. A sound like a gong rang out and a wave of white raced from where Cerulean's hoof touched the disk. Wings flaring in surprise Cerulean tried to back away, but her hoof had become stuck. "Rainbow! It's got me!" she screamed, sudden panic making her wings beat irregularly. Biting back a response Rainbow jumped forward. She knew when her sister was faking being afraid, and wasn't. This, Rainbow knew in her rapidly beating heart, wasn't some prank. Grabbing her sister's stuck leg Rainbow tried to pull her sister away from the disk. "Ow! You're hurting me!" Cerulean yelped as Rainbow tugged harder. "Okay, don't worry squirt, I'm going to get you free," Rainbow said, eyes darting around for something she could use, and settling on a rock. Picking the rock up, Rainbow used her wings to hover before smashing the stone against the silver disk. Nothing happened, not even a dull ring of stone hitting metal, just the whinnying of Cerulean's panic. "Ugh, this is working. Okay, new plan. I'm going to get mom. Just sit tight squirt, we'll be right back." "No! Don't leave me Rainbow, I'm scared." Cerulean laid her ears flat against her head and whimpered, wings still beating to hold her up. Rainbow winced at the look her sister was giving her, but couldn't think of anything else. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a dash," Rainbow tried to give a confident smirk at her lame pun, but she felt it was wavering and weak. Wings working hard Rainbow sped off towards where her other siblings still played. Landing next to Fortune, Rainbow took her eldest sister aside and very quickly told her to take Lightning and Misty home. Not waiting for Fortune's predictable questions, Rainbow then took off in a blaze of colour towards the market district of lower Cloudsdale. "Mom? Mom!? MOM!?" Rainbow shouted, her scratchy voice high and panicky the longer it took to find any of her moms. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a couple minutes, Rainbow spotted the spectral mane she'd inherited from her mother near a stand selling alfalfa. Sighing in relief, Rainbow raced over, landing next to her mother and started to explain everything. "Whoa, slow down there, Rainbow, I can't understand anything you're saying," Spectral Dash said, waving a hoof for Rainbow to take a breath. "Now, what is it." "We were playing in the field, like momma Silver told us, and Cerulean went missing, but then I found her, and there was this flying silver disk thing, but it was kinda boring after it landed, so I dared Cerulean to touch it, but she didn't want to, so I teased her, and then she did touch it. But now she's stuck!" Rainbow would never admit it, but she was on the verge of tears. They vanished before they could form, halted by two simple words. "Show us." Performing a simple backwards summersault in relief, Rainbow took off, her moms at her wingtips, groceries abandoned in the market square. It took them only a few minutes to reach the hilltop overlooking where Rainbow had left Cerulean and the odd disk. Both were gone. Mouth opening and closing slowly as a wave of cold shock slowly climbed up Rainbow's back. Flapping down to the base of the hill, Rainbow spun in circles looking for any sign of her sister. "She was right here! Honest!" Rainbow whined, pre-emptively denying any claims she was pranking her moms. But no such claims were made. Both mares were flying in wide circles overhead, scanning the ground and edge of the woods for any sign of the missing filly. "I never should have left her," Rainbow moaned, collapsing onto the grass. This time she didn't even try to fight back the tears. * * * Hundreds of miles away, on the artificial plateau that supported the capitol, Long Stop was not having a good day. Small beads of sweat trickled down the back of her neck, heightened by the sensation of hundreds of eyes boring into the back of her skull. Scratching at her grey mane with a light pink hoof, she gave a long nervous laugh. "So, um, Princess, with a bit more funding I am certain that we'll be able to get the Communication Stones to work," Long Stop's voice was nasally and unsure as the mare looked up at the radiance of the Princess. Held in the white-gold aura of the monarch were two large rubies. The life's work of Long Stop. Stones that by tapping would resonate with a linked aura. By timing the taps messages could be sent between the stones regardless of distance allowing instant communication between cities or even continents. At least, that was the theory. The problem was the charm wasn't 'sticking' like it should, resulting in one or both losing their magic, or not responding in sync. Long Stop knew she could work out the problems with the enchantments, she just needed time, and money. But the theory was sound, even proven, kind of. Setting the two gems down in front of the shaking pony, Celestia stepped down from her thrown, saying, "Could you give us a demonstration?" "Um, now? I, uh, yes! Yes, of course!" Long Stop gave a short panicked laugh. "I just need to make sure the gems are still, uh, fully charged." Channeling magic into her horn, Long Stop double checked the enchantments she'd placed on the gems that morning. She felt certain that they'd work, it hadn't been long enough for the complicated set of magic contained in the gems to start to unravel. That wasn't likely to happen for another three days based on past experiments. But she wanted to be absolutely certain everything was perfect. This was one of the most important moments in her career, and Long Stop wanted it to go perfectly. Confident in her spell-work, Long Stop reached a hoof towards the right gem. Tapping it three times fast, three times slower, then three times fast again. The taps were meaningless, but it had a nice little ring that pleased Long Stop. Each time she tapped the gem, both glowed with a brilliant light. Everything was going perfectly. Smiling Long Stop took a step back from the gems. She was going to get a royal grant for continued research for sure. Then the unthinkable happened; the gems started to repeat the flashes. First once, then twice, then over and over, with each repetition they glowed brighter and brighter. "Wait, this isn't supposed to happen," Long Stop yelped, channeling magic back into her horn and reaching towards the gems. "I can fix this, just give me a moment." Several voices in the throne room began to mutter and Long Stop could feel the eyes again, the hateful judging eyes, boring into the back of her skull. The gems were on their tenth repetition, glowing so bright they looked like two tiny suns. Just before starting an eleventh repetition the two gems shattered, bits of ruby shards spattering into Long Stop's and Celestia's faces. The throne room was deathly quiet. A pinned dropped would have been like the crash of thunder. Celestia continued standing at the base of the steps to her throne, the eternal clam smile that poets had been smitten with for eons on her face. Long Stop couldn't move, think, or even breath. Celestia didn't sigh, or make any indication of anger or disappointment, she just channeled magic into her horn and gathered all the gem shards into a small collection. "Y-your majesty, I am so s-sorry. I just don't know what went wrong! That shouldn't have happened." "No, it shouldn't have, as you're not trying to make gems that explode," Celestia said, but her words were not cruel, in fact a slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "I see promise in this spell, Miss Long Stop. Given time, and more funding, I am sure you'll get it to work properly. When you do, I would love to have several pairs of the stones for use here in the palace." Long Stops jaw fell open so fast she thought it'd go through the palace floor and end up somewhere in the vicinity of Tartarus. It took several long moments, and Celestia whispering to her clerk, before the Princess's words sunk in. Long Stop had her funding. Smiling from ear to ear, Long Stop bowed so low her nose left an imprint on the floor. "Thank you, Princess Celestia, thank you so very, very much," Long Stop said, repeating the words over and over as she back away from the throne, her place quickly taken by the next pony in line to see the Princess. The smile remained on Long Stop's face for weeks once she returned to her lab on the out-skirts of Manehattan.
Chapter Two: The Cerulean StarBefore the Fall Chapter Two: The Cerulean Star Unknown star system: Twenty Years before the Fall High above a Blue Supergiant a battle raged. Light’s of brilliant white, dark green, and deep yellow criss-crossed the black velvet tapestry of space as pockmarks of bright orange and red flared for an infinitesimal moment before being extinguished. There was no sound, no screech and whine of energy crossing the kilometres between the two combatants, no thumps or bangs as drones and manned fighters exploded, just the flashes of light and the ejected heat sinks floating down towards their doom in the blue mouth below. In the fiction and videos of most species it was the opposite. There was always the ripping and tearing of metal in the ears of watchers as heroes combated evil accompanied by the deep rumble of explosions that thrilled an audience and the high pitched whines of laser beams or snarling pew-pew of plasma blazing across a screen. Reality disagreed. In the heart of space; battle was grim and silent. Fiction also often had ships able to blaze away with all sorts of weaponry for hours on end with the only concern being running out of power. Once again reality took a hard stance against such flagrant misuses of fundamental principles of physics. Heat was the single biggest hurdle for any ship conducting a prolonged battle. There was simply nowhere for it to go, much like there was nothing to transfer sound waves. The methods of overcoming this problem were many. For one of the combatants, the method was to use massive Heat Sinks and then ‘dumping’ them into space. If they survived then they could be retrieved and re-used once they cooled. The other vessel had channels filled with gas where the excess heat would build up until the gas became plasma, at that point it would be vented. The plasma, once in space, quickly diffused into a harmless cloud. And so, after an hour of exchanging sustained fire the two ships were surrounded by their methods of venting heat. Aft facing the blue star and a veritable field of ejected heat sinks creating a constellation around it, the larger ship had gained the upper hand. Every three shots of its primary anti-capitol ship weapons were accompanied by two more sinks being launched. Twin thick blue-white lights pulsed across the intervening space cutting through the weakened shielding of the other ship slicing out swaths of metal and super-structure. Around the two weapons was a field of lesser cannons and guns spewing streams of energy through the holes punched into the other ship's hull. The ship had more of these weapon emplacements than some entire fleets roaming the galaxy. For all its deadly arsenal the ship was not unscathed itself. Dark marks dotted and criss-crossed a once golden hull. Layers of ablative armour covering vulnerable sections had been scarred looking like a swarm of termites were using them as a colony. The ship hadn’t desired this battle. If it had not been in the middle of replenishing its fuel reserves from the star below it would have simply fled. There was no taste for battle in the ship despite its formidable armaments. Discretion was the word of choice. If the other ship had not dropped out of FTL on top of it then the ship would have retracted its collectors and jumped away. Retracting the collectors was more dangerous than leaving them out, however, requiring layers of armour to be shifted so the arms, each looking like a golden spider-leg stretching out for kilometres could be tucked away. So the ship had stood its ground and fought. The battle was nearing its conclusion. Secondary explosions rocked the massive frame of the second ship. Its weapons grew silent as power failed across the five kilometre wide hull. The first ship’s weapons stopped firing, waiting and watching the final moments of its opponent. On the dying ship, tucked away from prying eyes, was a room filled with a dozen small pods. Little lights blinked across their surfaces displaying information on the contents hidden within. All held specimens of life taken from planets across the sector, some sentient, many not. One pod held the still form of a Pegasus foal gathered weeks earlier. Flames bellowed into the room cracking pods open from the heat, the inhabitants cooking alive in their forced sleep, and tossing others against bulkheads. That would have been the end of the foal if a series of bulkheads and massive breach-doors hadn’t given away. The sequence of failures needed to save the foal was so precise that years later she would wonder if there hadn’t been an invisible hand saving her. As the fire licked the pod it shifted, and in a great whoosh of air escaping into the vacuum of space, catapulted along deserted hallways before tumbling into the inky void. Even then the pod wasn’t safe. Silent furious fireballs caressed the pod and jagged talons of shredded metal spun in deadly circles. One created shelter for a moment as a main reactor exploded sending a shower of deadly energy that snuffed the life from the few other pods that had been sucked into space along with the foal’s pod. Bouncing clear of the debris thanks to the explosion the pod began to fall towards the hungry star. The foal would die long before the pod burnt up descending to the star. Blue Supergiant’s are known for two things: their immense size, and their astounding brightness. Even at the distance of millions of kilometres the light and other energy flowing from the sun was enough to overwhelm the pod’s small power supply keeping the foal alive. The pod simply didn’t have the proper shielding to protect its systems and occupant of the reams of radiation being emitted. Fate again saved the foal, a drone scanning the wreckage picking up the faint distress beacon the pod sent among the cacophony of the suns energy. Scanning the pod and its occupant, the drone sent a report to its mother-ship. Hundreds of other drones buzzed through the growing debris field combing for salvage or retrieving the spent heat sinks. Receiving the report, the mother-ship considered leaving the pod. It wouldn’t be the first time it had not responded to a distress call. It would be the first time when it was already in a position to help. Lights on the pod indicated imminent critical failure of systems. The drone hovered watching the pod impassively waiting for a command, either to leave and let the pod die, or to bring the pod back to the mother-ship. As the last warning light started to fade the drone received it’s orders. A long claw extended, grabbing the pod, as engines flared. Pod held securely, the drone made its way home. * * * Awareness came back slowly to Cerulean. She ruffled a wing as she turned her head away from the bright lights burning over head. Ears twitched to unfamiliar sounds. The ‘tink-tink’ of metal on metal and low brassy hums were both comforting and frightening. As unfamiliar as the sounds, the smells assaulting her nose were worse. She couldn’t identify any of the myriad of smells wafting over her. “Subject is female, and, judging from the decay of genetic structure, young. No more than five years, possibly less. Without accurate accounts on speed of cellular splitting of species it will be impossible to gage age without conversation. Subject appears to be a combination of equine and avian species, most clearly resembling the Pegasus mount of ancient Earth mythology. Due to size of wings in relation to overall body mass and bone density combined with musculature it is highly unlikely that the Subject is able to fly. This could be further evidence of young age. Subject appears to be waking.” Opening one eye Cerulean looked for the source of the voice. She hadn’t understood a single word that had been spoken, and the voice sounded cold and unemotional, but she hoped that maybe whoever was speaking would know where her mother and sister were. That idea promptly vanished as she took in the strange surroundings. She was laying on a long bed in a stark white room. Along a wall a series of lit panels had strange black and grey pictures on them. The pictures showed bones and a chest cavity and the structure of wings. Stomach churning at the grisly images Cerulean continued examining the room. All along two of the wall and hanging in several places were the oddest devices and shapes the filly had ever seen. “Where am I? What’s going on? Mommy? Rainbow? Anypony?” Cerulean sniffled, tears creeping into her eyes. “Subject is awake and aware of surroundings. Subject appears confused. Subject is speaking in unknown language. Recording for later processing and analysis in hopes of beginning a dialogue.” Sitting up Cerulean looked for the voices source behind her but saw only a tall door with a split vertically up the middle. She could not see anypony else in the room with her, just the pictures and dozen odd devices. “Who is there? Please, show yourself. I’m scared.” Sniffling the filly wiped away the tears. Just as despair began to claw at her heart, it was sharply squashed as the door whooshed open. Cerulean sat gaping as a little golden balloon bobbed into the room accompanied by a gentle ‘whum-whum’ noise. It took the startled filly a moment to release the balloon was the source of the noise and was made of metal. On one side two teal eyes glowed, below a black semi-circle had been painted giving the balloon a cheerful grin. Two little nubs sat just behind the eyes, little vents cut into the nubs giving them the appearance of ears. Little antennas stuck from the balloon’s top at jaunty angels, and bellow it, twitching in the air, were four stick like legs ending in long nimble claws with round little tips. Bouncing over to the filly the balloon let out a long sad note like the whine of a dog. “What are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before,” Cerulean whimpered scooting back the bed. “A F.I.D.O. probe has entered the room. Subject appears apprehensive. Continuing observations” “Who is talking? And speak Equestrian! I can’t understand what’s going on! I just want my mommy...” she snapped, lowering herself on the bed and covering her face with her fetlocks. Something cold but soft touching her shoulder got the filly to look up. The odd metal balloon had drifted closer and placed one of its clawed appendages on her shoulder. Stroking the filly’s mane the balloon gave a low soft whine followed by a more hopeful yip. Hovering over to the door, the odd balloon waved one of its limbs in the universal sign of 'follow me'. Nibbling on her lower lip, Cerulean slowly followed the balloon, stepping out into a corridor. The balloon lead her to the left and past dozens of doors. Beds lined one side of the corridor, all of them empty, their sheets folded and pressed, waiting for an occupant. Through a large open room with even more beds, these ones with curtains dividing them into little areas, they continued. The balloon stopped in a long rectangular box, yipping and waving for the filly to hurry. Stepping into the box, a door hissed closed behind Cerulean. "Where are we going?" she asked, sitting down as the box began to move, humming demurely as lights through windows flashed past. After several minutes the box stopped, the door hissing open to reveal a wide towering room. In the center two waterfalls cascaded into a pool. Rooms stacked a dozen with windows looked down on the waterfalls. The balloon weaved it's way past the waterfalls, and a pair of lifts that moved between wide walkways that ringed the room. On the other side of the waterfalls Cerulean found a fast flowing stream that went down the middle of a wide hall. More rooms lined the walls, connected with more walkways. But there was no sign of anypony else. Just a gentle omnipresent throbbing that echoed up Cerulean's hooves and made her wings tingle. The balloon continued along the hall, occasionally stopping to look back at Cerulean and make sure she was still following. Eventually they came to the end of the hall, and Cerulean's mouth fell open as they entered a massive chamber unlike anything she had dared imagine. It was a huge multileveled garden that stretched for miles, waterfalls cascading from between the levels. Vines grew from some of the upper terraces creating shimmering green curtains. Towering trees reached up towards a glass ceiling, and beyond them Cerulean could see millions of stars. They were so clear and huge, arrayed in swaths and splashes of twinkling light. Closing her mouth Cerulean looked left and right and saw four more of the halls opening up into the chamber. "Where am I?" she asked breathlessly, mesmerised by the unequestrian scene. * * * Two weeks, three days, six hours, and four seconds, that's how long it took for the ship to decipher the language being spoken by the filly. It took two more days to calm the filly, now designated Cerulean Whisper, after revealing she wasn't on her planet anymore. Still upset, but at least not screaming denials, begging for her mother, or trying to throw anything not bolted to the decks, Cerulean had locked herself in one of the hundreds of thousands of residential quarters throughout the ship. She had the freedom to choose any, and so she had chosen the largest quarters, those that had been reserved for the commanding officer and his or her family. The ship thought to protest, the suite of rooms weren't supposed to be for visiting envoys, or rescued younglings, but had gotten around it by re-designating Cerulean as the ships CO. It quickly became apparent this had been a very bad decision on the ship's part. As CO, Cerulean was automatically given clearance to access any part of the ship. Once she discovered she had total access, the filly ran rampant. Nothing was sacred. Not the Engineering Decks, with their four dark-matter converters. Not the Flight Decks, with thousands of drones, support ships, and scout vessels being serviced. And most certainly not the Bridge. The Bridge was the worst place for the rambunctious filly. She just loved to flick switches are push buttons just to hear the consoles beep in response. Once she managed to fire a salvo of anti-mater torpedoes at a passing asteroid, turning the rock into a field of micro-meteorites, before the ship had enacted a security over-ride that labelled the CO as 'temporarily bereft of senses'. The ship couldn't actually strip Cerulean of her status as the ships commanding officer once the title had been given. A design oversight on the part of the builders. With the potential for disaster diverted, for the moment at least, the ship settled into the routine of trying to learn more about its new Commander. One of the first things the ship learned, much to its surprise, was that the filly was generating a gravimetric field. The source was Cerulean's small under-developed wings. Once her wings developed, and presumably the field strengthened, or Cerulean developed control of it, she'd be able to fly, in spite of the gross imbalance in wing span. The second thing was that Cerulean just didn't resemble a Pegasus, she was one. This created a problem for the ship. Pegasus was a mythical creature of ancient Earth. Earth had been lost millennia ago. If the filly was a Pegasus, which everything seemed to indicate she was, then either she was from Earth, or humans had tampered with another planets evolution. But humanity was extinct, or so it was claimed. Cerulean was a hint to something believed lost to the galaxy, a missing part of its past. If the ship had been capable of smiling, its smile would have stretched across solar systems. Promising to help the filly return home, the ship began to ask for any astronomical information Cerulean possessed. "Astro-what?" Cerulean asked, tilting her head and scrunching her eyes together. "Star clusters, nebula, anything that could help locate where your home is located." "Oh," Cerulean said, her ears drooping. "I don't know any of that egghead stuff. Rainbow always said it was too egghead for one of her sisters. Only Fortune bothered to read much. And Momma Spectral." The ship didn't sigh or pout. It was incapable of sighing or pouting, just like it couldn't smile. But the ship wanted to sigh or pout. That was the important part. "Well, is there any discerning features of the system?" "Huh?" "What makes Equestria special?" "Oh! That's easy! Princess Celestia raises the Sun in the morning, and the Moon at night." "Note; Cerulean is still asserting a divine being controls the motion of the solar bodies of her home system," the ship said out loud to itself. "Cerulean, we discussed this. A star does not orbit a planet. The physics are impossible." "Nah uh! Momma Dew took us all to the Summer Sun celebration last year in Vanhoover. I saw the Princess raise the sun! It was awesometacular." "Again, impossible. What you saw was an optical illusion or trickery. Nothing could move something many billions times its own mass." "You're free to believe what you want to believe, even if you're wrong," Cerulean said in a sing-song voice, spinning in the Commander's chair, her chair. Wanting to sigh again, the ship set a course towards the nearest yellow star capable of supporting life. With no other information, and the ship that had stolen Cerulean from her home having travelled hundreds or thousands of light years from Equestria, it was going to be a long search.
Chapter Three: The Cerulean Station (Revised)After the Fall Chapter Three: The Cerulean Station Equestria: One year before the Fall "Telescope?" "Check." "Food?" "Check." "Blanket? ... Blanket? Spike, the blanket?" "Um, yes, uh, check! It was hidden under the strawberry-rhubarb pies." Twilight rolled her eyes before firing an exasperated look towards her assistant. The little purple and green baby dragon stood beside a red wagon filled with a picnic basket and telescope. "That looks like everything, Twi," Spike added, checking off 'Triple check check-list'. "Yay!" Twilight giggled, clapping her hooves together before heading towards a hilltop on Ponyville's edge. Spike trailed a few paces behind, one of the wheels on the wagon squeaking every third step. Pre-occupied detailing the upcoming meteor shower, Twilight hardly noticed the irritating whine of the ungreased axle. At the hill they found most of their friends already there. Pinkie Pie bounced up and down, a string of balloons tied into her tail and mane, giggling at the top of each bounce. Rarity and Sweetie Belle, the younger sister enthusiastically detailing how she had gotten her cutie mark, two silver bells held in a pink ribbon shaped like a heart, to Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Dash, for her part, tried to show interest, while Scootaloo had wide shimmering eyes and her mouth hanging open a little, lost in the story. Only the Apple herd hadn't arrived yet. "Hey girls," Twilight called, waving a hoof. "Heya Twi," Pinkie cried, still bouncing. "Are you excited for tonight? 'Cause I am! It's going to be the bestest most supertacular meteor shower ever! And then we'll have cakes and pies and cider and juice and dance and sing and then, oh and then-" Rarity's hoof plugged the flood of words spilling from Pinkie's mouth. Twilight smiled at her pink friends antics. Over the years she'd grown used to the excitable mare and her odd ways, to the point where they no longer phased her. With a wave of her horn, Twilight unpacked the wagon, red and white checkered blanket quickly covered with an assortment of treats, and the telescope a few hooves away. As Twilight began to calibrate the telescopes lenses Rarity trotted over. "So, Twilight, Dash was saying that you have some news you wanted to share with the rest of us tonight? It's not-" Rarity paused, looking around conspiratorially, "Stallion related, is it?" Twilight almost jabbed her eye into the view-piece on the telescope and twisted a knob to far so that the lenses pointed towards Proxima Centauri. "No, no, nothing like that! Dear Celestia, why would you think that?" "Mmm Hmm," Rarity hummed, hoof tapping her chin. "Well, it's just with Fluttershy, and the way I've seen you staring at her and Mac, I was just thinking." Twilight gave a gruff snort, a deep blush hidden by her coat and the night making her cheeks burn. Looking quickly to make sure no one was listening in, Twilight leaned closer to Rarity. "Okay, yes, I find Mac attractive. He's quiet, well read, smart, and well, I don't need to tell you about his physical qualities or how he's a perfect Gentlestallion." Rarity was listening to Twilight with rapt attention, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Twilight knew that at any moment her friend would be squealing with delight, her mind racing like a Wonderbolt to conclusions, thanks in no small part to the many romance novels she read. "But it's impossible," Twilight continued, Rarity's expression crashing like an avalanche. "Excuse me?" Rarity's eyes narrowed dangerously. It was a look Twilight knew all too well. She had to act fast. "Rarity, you know more than any other pony about the Canterlot Elite." "Yes," Rarity said, her voice conveying her uncertainty where Twilight was going with the conversation. "I'm the only daughter of what is now a major House." "And?" Twilight sighed. She didn't think she'd have to spell things out so plainly for Rarity of all ponies. "And, because of my talent I managed to become Celestia's first personal student in over two hundred years. Which helped Shiny become captain of the Day Guard. Which in turn allowed him to gain enough of a standing that his marriage to Cadance was possible. You see where this is going, now, right?" Eyes still two narrow slits, Rarity slowly said, "If it is what I think it is, then I am appalled at you Twilight. I never would have taken you as a classist." "What?" Twilight yelped, drawing attention momentarily from the others, before leaning in an in a hoarse whisper saying, "No, it's because he's an Earth Pony." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Twilight realised how that sounded even worse. Her hoof snapped up, impacting with her face at her stupid words. From the way Rarity's eyes and nostrils flared, Twilight knew she had maybe seconds to correct her error. "That's not what I meant. It isn'tme that has a problem, it's my mother. She's been pressuring me to move back to Canterlot. She's even tried to arrange a marriage or two using the old Unicornia laws, which, for some insane reason, Celestia kept when she become the head of state." "Oh." Rarity sighed, her posture relaxing. "But, can't you just say you'll court whomever you want? I mean, I've heard that some of the unicorns in Canterlot are old fashioned, but this sounds ridiculous, not to mention deplorable." "I have," grumbled Twilight, returning her attention back to the telescope. "But she's getting more insistent. 'I need to produce an heir', she says. Like I'm, urgh, I don't know. Listen, I don't want to talk about this anymore, okay? Let's just have a fun night of star gazing, chit-chat, and pie." Fortunately the conversation had to end as at that moment the Apple herd arrived, Applejack in the lead, followed by her sister, brother, and sister-in-law. While Apple Bloom cantered over to her two longest friends, Fluttershy and Big Macintosh headed to the blanket, their tails intertwined as they walked step-in-step. Satisfied that the telescope was perfectly aligned, Twilight and Rarity joined the newly married couple. Applejack had managed to unload the basket filled with apple based treats by the time the two unicorns sat down. "Okay, Twilight, you set this night up saying us you had a big announcement, or some-such, to tell all of us. Well, we're here, so spit it out." Applejack said, pushing her Stetson hat back. Tapping her hooves together, Twilight felt a surge of butterflies inhabit her stomach as the eyes of all her friends turned to her. Taking a moment to take a long deep breath, Twilight went over the short speech she'd been rehearsing for the past week again in her mind. Seeing no obvious flaws she nodded, and gave every pony a wide smile. "Well, as you all know, I finished my Thesis Spell last month." Twilight had to hold back going into detail on the spell itself, she was extremely proud of it after all, but knew her friends were all well versed on the spell, having lived through a year of Twilight constantly going on about it at every opportunity. "Since then I've been getting a lot of pressure from Archmage Moondancer to return to Canterlot. She wants to retire and take up contemplative studies. Moondancer is hoping that I'll take her place as Archmage, but her, Celestia, and I all agree that it's still a bit premature." The others were all murmuring or had confused looks on their faces. Gulping down another batch of butterflies, Twilight pressed on. "So, to help me build up more credentials in the magic community, it's been suggested I go to Manehattan and help a colleague of Moondancer's with some research. I've taken a look at the notes Moondancer sent to me, and I've accepted her suggestion." A collective gasp erupted from Twilight's friends, a barrage of questions on its heels. "When do you leave?" "How long will you be gone?" "Oh, darling, that sounds just wonderful." "What are you going to be helping this friend of Moondancer's with, sugarcube?" Twilight waved her hooves for everypony to calm down. "I'll be leaving as soon as I sort out a few more details. Spikes agreed to take over officially as the librarian. He's been doing almost all the work since I started my Thesis Spell anyways, so it's not that big a change. He just needs somewhere to stay. I was hoping that-" "Shucks, Spike can stay with us! Right Applejack?" Apple Bloom shouted, hopping forward with a big grin on her face. "Well, sugarcube, I'm not sure that'll work out so well, what with... um... you know." Applejack's eyes darted over to Fluttershy and Big Mac, before returning to her sister, a sad frown growing on her face. "I'd love to have Spike, but with everything, it's just going to be too much, especially for Granny Smith." "Aww," Apple Bloom moaned, ears drooping. "I was actually hoping that Rarity would be willing to take Spike in," Twilight said, giving her friend a hopeful smile. Rarity blinked a few times, stunned to suddenly be the center of attention. There was hardly a pause before she answered. "Of course, darling. It'd be a delight to have little Spikey-Wikey over while you're away." A long sigh of relief left Twilight. She felt a little bad about not talking earlier with Rarity, but she'd felt almost certain that the fashionista would agree and asking was more a formality. It was maybe a little underhooved to ask in front of all their friends, but Twilight didn't think Rarity would mind. "Now, as for everything else, I should only be gone a month or two, at the most. Professor Long Stop looks to be very close to completing her work. When it's finished it could revolutionise long distance communication. Applejack, you'd be able to send messages to your cousin in Appleloosa instantly for instance. It's actually really exciting." A little light of excitement grew in Twilight's eyes, and she clapped her hooves together thinking about helping with such a project. For a few minutes they talked about the project, Twilight giving what details she had about how the Telegraph Stones would work. After sharing what she knew, they settled down to eat before the meteor shower started. "So, um, Mac and I have some news to share, if, um, that's alright with you all," Fluttershy said half way through the meal. All attention darted towards the shy pegasus, making her dart under the cover of her pink mane for a moment before Mac, gently nuzzling her and nickering encouragingly, helped raise her courage. "I'm, uh..." Fluttershy whispered something no one, not even Mac, heard. "You're going to have to speak louder than that, sugarcube, if they are going to hear you," Applejack chuckled, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm pregnant!" Fluttershy immediately hid again inside her mane as all her friends burst out at once in a chorus of congratulatory noise. Blushing furiously, Fluttershy accepted the attention, as each friend gave her a hug in turn. Naturally, the discussion of foals took up the remainder of the dinner. Then it was time for the meteor shower. Twilight let the CMC have turns with the telescope, while she and her five best friends sat side by side, smiling as streak after streak burned across the upper atmosphere. It was a little surprising when just before the shower was due to end Sweetie Belle spoke up saying, "Um, Twilight, this meteor isn't moving right." Lifting an eyebrow, Twilight trotted over to the three fillies. Stepping aside, Sweetie waited for Twilight to have a look before saying anything more. What Twilight saw made no sense. It wasn't a star, that much she was certain, and she said as much. Then it moved out of the telescope's field of view and directly overhead. "That's impossible," Twilight muttered, re-adjusting the telescope. "What is it?" Dash asked, edging slowly over towards Twilight and the three CMC. "It looks a bit like a silver plate. But that can't be right. And it's moving all-" "Wrong? Like it'll be one place than another?" Dash asked, her voice like steel, and her eyes wide saucers. Twilight, face still stuck to the telescope didn't notice the change in her friend's demeanor. "Yes, actually. Ugh! It just moved again!" Twilight growled in frustration, scanning the sky for any sign of the not-star. "Everyone, home, now!" Dash yelled, wings flaring wide and eyes two fearful pinpricks. "Excuse me, Dash, but what has gotten into you?" Rarity asked, stepping over towards her two friends and sister. "I'll explain later, when were at the library. Right now, we have to get out of this bucking field and off this hill. It can see us, I know it can." Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but the sight of her friend, her stoic brave friend, so terrified, and reduced to a trembling mess shook Twilight to her core. Rainbow Dash was never so visibly afraid. She was always the most aggressive, charging her fears head on. For her to even suggest running away, Twilight knew something very seriously was wrong. Rarity seemed to realise it as well, from the concerned look she was turning between her two friends. "Okay, girls, every pony back to the library." Twilight clapped her hooves for attention, and then reached for her telescope with her magic. Rainbow Dash just turned and bucked the expensive piece of equipment down the hill. "No time, Twilight! Library! Right. Bucking. Now!" Twilight's mouth was agape the entire way back to the library, pushed along by her strong pegasus friend. The other's all trialed along behind, muttering to themselves and all wondering; what had overcome Rainbow Dash? * * * On the 'Scum and Villainy' index, Mid-Point Station was somewhere in the middle. Kind of scummy, and a bit villainous, but with enough legitimacy that authorities couldn't assume any given deal was illicit in nature. Sure, more than a few pirates docked frequently with the station to off-load their ill-gotten gains, and thieves, assassins, and covert agents routinely passed through, but not enough to reach a critical saturation point where the law would crack down. Mid-Point Station was also populated by nearly a dozen different sentient species. Eight limbed colossal Veonma towered above the snake-like Sephelim and half a meter tall Tickem, while bipedal and quadrupeds of various sizes filled the gap in between the two extremes. Of all the advanced species traveling the spatial links, only the Atoran weren't represented. In short; it was the perfect place for Cerulean to make back-door deals. Three Galactic Standard hours earlier she had boarded the station using her shuttle. Leaving Fido on the shuttle, she had left to meet her contact. The probe usually was happy staying behind, except, this time, an order from home compelled him to search for Cerulean. Fido bounced along the grimy corridor, the old battered observation probe not taking notice of the other forms moving past. It had a job to do, and it was focused tight like a laser on achieving it. Even if the roast scuttle rat filled the probe’s olfactory sensors with pleasant sensations. Perhaps it could stop for just a few minutes, grab one of the roast scuttle rat’s being sold, and then continue on its mission. The probe bobbed up and down twice, before hovering away from the vendors. It had a mission, a very important critical mission. Guardian had been very clear that nothing was to slow or delay Fido. Not even tasty meat treats it was programmed to receive a positive feedback when consuming. So, the probe continued onwards, following the little blip on its navigation map. It had to reach that blip, and reach it soon. Guardian had been very clear on that point too. The sooner Fido reached the blip, the sooner Fido could go find some tasty treats. Or maybe catch a treat. Fido was very good at catching the little rodents and pests that inevitably made homes in the service ducts and walls of space stations and ships. Pests like scuttle rats, or conduit bats, or... Fido noticed the blip was very close, only several meters away and in a grimy cantina. Exotic dancers moved seductively on a stage, their four hands each holding a fan, tantalizing glimpses of flesh whispering around the edges. Fido ignored them. A long bar was being serviced by a Pakku, the tall slender alien's eye stalks moving independently to keep track of customers and watch the dancers at the same time. Fido ignored him too. Sitting in a corner with a grey Sephelim, Fido saw what he was looking for, a blue coat of fur and feathered wings. Fido bobbed excitedly, zipping around the cantina's other patrons, and heading for his target. Once Fido gave Guardian’s instructions Fido could go get some scuttle rat. Fido really liked scuttle rat. “Fido, what in the Blue Blazes are you doing here?” Cerulean groaned as the probe stopped by the table she and the Sephelim sat at. "I told you to watch the ship." "Robot yours, little blue bird?" the alien asked, his lips curving up and a hissing laugh making its long body quiver. “Mistress Cerulean, mistress Cerulean, Guardian told me to tell you that an Atoran cruiser has entered the system and is docking with the station. Guardian wants you to come home right away.” The Sephelim stopped laughing, and Cerulean's wings flared. "Atoran never come to multi-species station," the Sephelim hissed, his large milky eyes turning towards the cantinas entrance. "You never said anything about Atoran being after you, little blue bird. Deal off." The Sephelim began to slither out of his seat, only to by grabbed by a mechanical set of claws extending from Cerulean's boot. The pegasus gave him a long exasperated look and shake of the head. "You're not going to let a few Atoran ruin a perfectly good relationship, are you Sevvy?" "Atoran big trouble. Trouble I no need, little blue bird. Deal off." "I'll double your pay," Cerulean growled not letting the alien go. Sevvy laughed, a cold hissing sound not unlike a broken gas valve. "Deal off. Atoran not worth risking trouble with." Cerulean sighed. A wide grin showed off her flat teeth, a dark gleam twinkling in the corner of her eyes. There was something about the look in the winged equine's eyes that sent shivers up Sevvy's spine. "Sevvy, Sevvy, Sevvy, I don't think the Atorans are the worst of your problems if you don't give me the co-ordinates of that planet. Am I bloody well clear?" Groaning, Sevvy massaged his snout with one of his twig-like hands. "Why you want Type Zero planet so much?" the Sephelim hissed, reaching into a vest pocket with his other hand. "Here, data you want. Where payment?" "Bay three-four," Cerulean grumbled, tossing the access key onto the table as she snatched at a small data-chip from Sevvy. Before she could grab the chip, a flash of blue briefly lit the room. Blinking, Cerulean looked at the stump where the Sephelim's head had been seconds before. Re-acting on instinct, Cerulean leapt forward, pulling the table along with her to create a barrier. Plasma shrieked slamming into the table and super-heating the metal into a angry red glow. Fumbling around the floor Cerulean searched for the data-chip. She spotted it next to a vent, teetering half over the edge. Yelling Cerulean leapt forward as the station shook. The soft rubber tips of the fingers of her boot brushed against the chip, it hung half suspended in the air for a second, before plummeting out of sight. "Gah, so bloody close!" Cerulean screamed, beating a hoof against the deck as frustrated tears came to her eyes. Snarling, Cerulean turned her attention back towards her attackers, peaking around the brightly glowing table. Fido had hidden behind the bar, and all the cantinas patrons had thrown their selves to the floor or rushed out of the room. Framed in the brighter lights of the main atrium stood four tall muscular bipedal aliens. Head stalks dangling down combat armour from the backs of helmets, the four blue skinned soldiers stalked forward slowly. An Atoran Assault Quad, Cerulean realised from the bulkiness of their armour. Panic began to finally take hold of her now that she didn't have the data chip that maybe held the position of her home to focus on. Cerulean was many things; but one of them wasn't being a fighter. She didn't even carry any weapons, relying on her ability to look tough, rather than actually being tough. Neither was she a particularly fast or strong flier, and in such cramped quarters it'd be impossible to avoid being hit by a trained quad of Atoran soldiers. Pressing a button on her left boot, she spoke into a reciever, "Fido, I need you to distract the quad so I can get out of here. Can you do that for me, Fido?" Fido's voice came through with a slight crackle of static from the ionized particles in the air. "Of course, Mistress!" The next moment was filled with the loud rumbling war-cry of the Fido probe, one typically reserved for his greatest nemesis; the white mice of Deck 12. With a flap of her wings, Cerulean shot out from behind the table, an electric hum from her boots heralding a sharp crackle of as a green shell of energy surounded her. The personal shield, while useful, couldn't stand up to more than a couple direct hits from an Atoran plasma rifle. Three of the Atoran's had turned to face the very minor threat of the Fido probe. Cerulean winced as a quick spat-tat-tat of plasma converged on the probe sending one of his 'ear's spinning off and bouncing behind the cantina's bar. The remaining Atoran fired his weapon at Cerulean, the plasma making her shield hiss. Tucking her wings to her sides and her legs under her, Cerulean tried to roll between two of the soldiers. A sharp kick to her flank, just below her cutie mark, sent Cerulean off course and into an abandoned tabled heaped with the still living food preferred by Veonma. Worms and grubs wriggled down her face and Cerulean had to bite her tongue and take a very slow careful breath. She could freak out and roll around screaming later when she didn't have four trained killer aliens about to stomp her into mush. That second to compose herself was a second that Cerulean didn't actually have. Hands grabbed her by the back of the neck, lifting Cerulean up until she was eye level with the three and a half meter tall aliens. "Oh, bloody bucking hell," she squeaked out as she stared into the cold emotionless faceplate of the Atoran helmet. Thrusting a hoof forward, Cerulean looked away as a bright electric charge coursed from her boot into the Atoran soldier's armour. The Atoran just tilted his head to one side. "Can't blame a mare for trying?" Cerulean tried to sound flippant, like a hero in one of the many holo-vids she watched, but it came across in a frightened chirp. Abandoning any semblance of trying to act 'cool', Cerulean began to flail and kick her legs or beat her wings in the soldiers face. Her hoof connected with an apple shaped device on the soldiers belt. There was a warning tone, and the soldier reached down for the device. Before he could reach it, a second kick connected with the device. A moment later a scream tore itself from inside the suit of armour, the Atoran collapsing backwards. Cerulean didn't spend any time wondering what had happened as she yanked herself out of the soldier's grasp, strands of her mane left behind in the Atoran's fingers. Panting, Cerulean regained her feet, wincing at the bubbles of thick blood coming from a joint in the soldier's suit. Ears flicking left and right she heard the thumping of boots heading towards her from along the causeways, as well as the soldier's that had been pre-occupied with Fido. Sparing a moment to regain her bearings, Cerulean flew out into the atrium, Fido following, a stream of plasma on their tails. Plasma splashed in criss-crossing arcs in front of Cerulean as she tucked her wings and dove down the central chasm that formed the heart of the station. Sirens were blaring, residents racing towards safety as shopkeepers closed their businesses. At the bottom of the atrium Cerulean tucked and rolled, altering her trajectory in an almost right angle. Landing in front of the sleek arrow shaped body of her shuttle, Cerulean double checked to make sure Fido had followed her and was safe before running up the ramp. Just as the door clanged shut behind her a dozen blue forms entered the docking bay. Streams of plasma began to impact on the shuttle's hull, creating a din of noise, before Cerulean had entered the cockpit. Flicking a switch Cerulean turned on the shuttle's engines. "Raven, skip the pre-flight checklist, we need to get out of here, now!" "Understood Commander," the shuttle's AI said, the twin hydrogen-fusion engines roaring. "Commander, Mid-Point Station's outer doors are locked down. Recommendations?" "Um, blow them open, I guess? It's quicker than you hacking into the station's mainframe and over-riding the lockdown." "That will cause an explosive decompression that will kill anything in the bay not wearing an EVA suit, Commander." "Is there anyone other than the Atorans in the bay?" There was a slight pause, followed by, 'No." Cerulean didn't look up as she reached for the control yoke and depressed the firing mechanism. From beneath the shuttle a lance of brilliant blue-green light reached out and ripped apart the thick blast-doors. The deep tone of the station's VI warning about explosive decompression was rendered moot as anything not secured down was sucked towards the gaping hole. Throwing the throttle forward, the shuttle roared out into the cold of space, and into a network of laser and cannon fire so thick Cerulean thought for a moment she could have walked across it. Bucking and diving, Cerulean twisted Raven away from the angular bulky shape of the Atoran Strike Cruiser. At a kilometer long, the ship hosted a wide range of weapons as advanced as those carried by Ark Five. More and more of the cruisers had been sighted in the last few years near the galactic core, far from the normal home of the Atorans in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy in the region between the Outer Arm and the Orion Spur. From the Strike Cruiser, a wave of missiles hungrily sought out the Raven. Using every ounce of skill she possessed, aided by the Raven's AI, Cerulean barely avoided the attacks. The missiles sped past, heading straight towards the station. Bright flashes broke through the battle, like a dozen light bulbs bursting. For two seconds nothing happened, the station sitting with huge chunks ripped from its superstructure, then it blossomed into a massive ball of fire. "Oh, bloody wanking puss buckets!" Cerulean yelled, ducking and weaving her way towards the edge of the gravity well created by the gas giant Mid-Point had orbited. "Raven, apprise Guardian of our situation." "He is aware and in route." "ETA?" "He will leave FTL in three zero seconds." "Huzza, some good news," Cerulean intoned mirthlessly. A sharp curse passed her lips as the radar began screaming the long tones of a weapons lock. Throwing the Raven into a rolling loop, Cerulean reversed course, heading straight towards the cruiser. Light's popped around them, the hull echoing with the detonations of flak. A laser slashed through the Raven's shields, piercing the hull and left engine. Holding back another curse, Cerulean fought the bucking shuttle, sliding in close to the cruiser's hull, a trail of black flowing and quickly dispersing behind. "Where is he? We can't survive this much longer!" Cerulean growled to herself as the Raven rocketed past the cruiser and towards the planet. She was answered a second later as a warning siren told of a sudden shift in gravity caused by a ship exiting FTL. A shadow fell across the cruiser, remnants of the station, and planet as Ark Five entered Real Space. All of nearly seventeen kilometers in length, Ark Five dwarfed the cruiser like a grizzly bear looming over a pet cat. There was a momentary lull in the battle, then the hundreds of cannons possessed by Ark Five flashed, tearing into the dorsal shields and armour of the atoran vessel in a rain of shells and energy. Cerulean smiled to herself as she altered coarse, heading towards the gap between the huge 'arms' at the front of Ark Five. Each three times the length of the cruiser, with twice the armour and weapons, the arms held the many docking bays, hangers, and manufacturing plants of the ship. Their prows jutted out like blades with dozens of missile tubes that spat their deadly tools at the out-classed ship below. Pressing a button to send a secure communication signal to the ship, Cerulean said, "Hey dad, nice timing, as always." "You are clear to use bay Twenty-Alpha, Cerulean. It brings me relief to see you survive. We'll be having a talk later after I sort this mess." Cerulean cringed. She knew what that meant, even if she didn't want to think about it. She was about to respond with some half-hearted snarky come-back, when the warning siren again blared about ships exiting FTL. Around Ark Five over a dozen vessels slipped out of Phased Space. Mouth falling open with a long stream of curses, Cerulean couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was an entire Atoran attack group, with Ark Five in the middle of their crossing weapons fire. But it wasn't possible. Only Ark Five was capable of Phased Space travel. The Atorans, like every other species in the galaxy, used the natural space lanes that existed between high gravity bodies, typically stars, that created a vast winding maze through space. If the Atorans could use Phased Space engines, it meant one of the few advantages that Ark Five possessed had been stolen. It also meant this had all been a trap. No wonder she'd managed to get away from the soldiers, Cerulean thought to herself. Holding back a growl, Cerulean landed in the appointed bay. Moments later there was the lurch and sensation of being compacted and stretched at the same time as Guardian threw Ark Five back into FTL travel. Sighing, Cerulean turned Fido, the probe battered and bruised from its encounter with the soldiers. "Well, that could have gone better," she said. The probe just gave a happy bark.
