Princess Twilight had to admit, the view was fantastic in ways she could never have imagined.

Below the Starship, Equestria turned, a large ball of greens, blues, browns, and yellows, above which the starship hung suspended. It still amazed her just what they'd accomplished from studying that technology from both the Storm King's airships and what the Crystal Empire had sent to Equestria's capital of Canterlot, especially in such a short time. Just a few short years ponies had gone from pony pulled carriages, coal powered locomotives and hot air lifted airships, to automobiles, arcane powered locomotives, and antigravity Airships and Starships. All in less than a decade.

Now Equestria even had a colony on Luna's Moon, Princess Luna had been absolutely ecstatic when the idea was proposed and had authorized it almost without even reading the full details of the documented plan. While Twilight was glad she was around to see Equestria during such an important stage in its development, she was more excited to be the first Princess to visit another Solar System, officially. The starship she was on, was called New Dawn, for it hailed Equestria's development as an Interstellar capable Kingdom. The location had been decided ahead of time without any input from herself, the homeworld of the Akun, Vanov. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna felt it best to not risk going into the unknown with the recent hostilities that had been shown by the Zetans, last Twilight had heard, Celestia had sicked Discord on them to keep them out of the solar system, and from the reports she had read he was having an absolute blast of a time doing it.

Twilight double checked the readings on the screen before her, looking over to the crew who was to pilot this small starship. "All readings are optimal, all systems are within expected parameters, we're ready to activate the Harmonic-Drive."

"Yes, Your Majesty." One of the crew members stated, before flipping a series of switches on a command console, and then pressing a large purple button. The entire starship began to hum with arcane power as the Harmonic-Drive spooled up, spinning faster and faster in the hull of the ship before finally it reached full power, and launched the starship at speeds even Rainbow Dash had to respect. The windows outside for fifteen seconds showed nothing but a white void of nothingness, and as Twilight was about to begin worrying that the Harmonic-Drive had failed and left them stranded, their ship exited FTL as the drive powered down, and before them sat a sparse solar system with few planets, and a red dwarf star at the center.

From what Twilight was able to gleam, their Harmonic-Drive wasn't as powerful nor advanced as the Crystal Empire's Faster Than Light Drives, but the Harmonic-Drive was based on the same design using arcane principles rather than electronic, the entire starship was based on arcane technology, all of Equestria's technology was matter of fact. She wouldn't focus on that for now, she was too focused on the world she saw rapidly approaching. It looked just like the photos she had seen, a large rocky world smaller than Equis by only a little, mostly a desert in appearance. Twilight wasn't fooled however, she had seen photos of the world itself from the surface, it had plants and animals just like Equis did, but adapted to the hot dry environment the Akun loved to call home. The radio began crackling with a tinny, hissy sounding voice that was speaking Equish. "This is Vanov Starship Control and Command Center, your orbit is acceptable, please proceed to the central Starship Port in the Imperial City of Vonolla, sending coordinates now." The computer pinged as it updated the map showing where to land the craft.

From what Twilight managed to research about this world, as well as questioning that one Akun for hours on end, this species had existed for longer than even Equis had been alive with life, their space technology had been advanced for their species before the Crystal Empire annexed them. Their old starships had a form of artificial gravity, but no antigravity. Their shuttles and most spacecraft had been almost completely automated, with pilots in a shuttlecraft acting as little more than an organic backup system. Most of their systems still did this, they where remarkably reliable and Equestria had been in the process of designing its own version of the Akun Shuttlecraft. The crew in the command deck of the Starship bustled about to complete their little mission, slowly the ship entered the atmosphere and flew through alien skies with ease as the starship port came into view, a newly constructed structure compared to the ones around it. New Dawn came to rest upon a slab of concrete with the grace of a butterfly landing upon a flower.

Twilight's excitement was through the roof as she made her way down the corridors of the starship, and before she extended the exit ramp and opened the magically locked door, she cast a quick spell on herself to ensure she would stay at the perfect cool temperature and that the outside weather wouldn't cook her inside her own fur. With that done she pulled a lever on the wall next to the door that caused it to slide open, and a rubber padded ramp to extend all the way to the ground. She walked slowly down the ramp, and as her hooves met the ground of an alien world, Twilight knew joy like no other, to be the first Equestrian pony to step hoof on this world, was a high honor. And since she was royalty, she would be treated as such seemingly, since an Akun Motorcar awaited her arrival, the driver holding up a large printed photo of herself. When she walked up, the female, as Twilight had studied this species extensively she had learned to tell male from female, spoke. "Are you Superior Female Twi-light Sparkal?" She had butchered the name a little, but it was more than acceptable.

"Yes, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you may just call me Twilight."

Both eyeturrets swiveled to focus on her. "It is improper to not address a Superior by their title, Superior Female." She used an emphatic cough to make a point. Twilight relented, she wasn't going to be rude and offend these people after all.

"Alright then, let's be on our way then!"

The female bent into the posture of respect. "It Shall Be Done." And with that, Twilight's little adventure on Vanov began.

-------------------------------------Holy Hegemony Fleet----------------------------

Commander Nelnos glared down upon the fleet before her, stamping a hoof on the metallic floor below her in the command deck of the fleets Flagship, aptly named the Empress Yavak. Reports were not good, the Third Holy Fleet had been eradicated, with only a few thousand enemies killed in combat, and those had seemingly been automated unshielded drones being shot by the Fleet's Anti-Starship defense guns. Not once in any report had any actual living beings been seen dying on the enemy's side. That was disheartening, but it was her duty to the Goddess that she fight this war in the name of her Empress, whom communed with the Goddess regularly, passing her wisdom and word. "Retract the Solar Sails, and fire up the Holy-Drives, I want us at the system in fifteen minutes as its only a lightyear away."

The crew rushed to obey her, of course they would otherwise they'd be punished as if they were a mere slave species, you obeyed those above you or bad things happened to you, and likely anyone you gave a damn about. Thankfully, the only ones above Commander Nelnos was the Empress and the Goddess, in that order. Within two minutes the sails at the front of the starships in the fleet retracted in unison, and space was replaced by an eerie ruby colored tunnel that seemed to give off an air of hostility. Nothing had happened thus far once a Holy-Drive was fired up, it was just unnerving experts said, on an instinctual level. Within minutes they dropped back into normal space, and as they did Commander Nelnos began to rethink her career choice. A fleet numbering in the thousands hung in the void before her, the colony world they had been sent to protect being bombarded by large beams of plasma.

"Seeing as direct conflict hasn't helped this war effort at all, try opening a communication channel and see if we can negotiate, its clear they want the planet intact since we've seen recordings of what those beams can do to starships, let alone small moons, hopefully they will be reasonable, if not we shall do as the Empress has commanded, and exterminate them in the name of the Goddess." A channel was swiftly opened, a video channel too. "This is Commander Nelnos, of the First Holy Fleet in the name of the Goddess, you are in Holy Hegemony territory, you have senselessly attacked us, our people, and our industries, for what reason do you have to do this? What do you gain, territory? Resources? Life bearing worlds to settle for yourself?"

Commander Nelnos was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them, the only reason anyone went to war was because they wanted something someone else had, more often than not, they could be halted by simply giving them what they wanted. However she didn't expect a harshly synthetic male voice from the speaker, as its vidscreen was a solid blue line. "Your Extermination."

That caused Nelnos to almost rear up in surprise, but she held herself back and remained on all four legs. "Be reasonable now, what reason do you have to wish for our absolute extermination? Surely you could gain more by working with us, together in unity we could do so much more than alone." It was a gamble, sure, but greed was one vice almost all species shared.

"Your species has enslaved a total of five sentient species. Your species has caused the direct extinction of two species, you subject your 'slave' species to abhorrent conditions of which the Crystal Empire shall not stand by and watch complacently. Only the dead have seen the end of war, so fear not you shall soon join them, as will your entire barbaric race." The vidfeed cut out abruptly.

As the feed cut out, Commander Nelnos watched in horror as escape shuttles launched from the colony worlds various space ports, only to be shot out of the void by the enemy starship fleet hanging in low orbit. "All starships are authorized to fire at will, concentrate fire at the same time on a single ship, overwhelm their shields!" The starships as well as her own moved to obey her command, firing their golden colored lasers at a medium sized starship. It's shields flared up showing a hexagonal structure, but the enemy's shields held. When they returned fire, several starships ceased to exist as the beams of pure energy struck them, shattered their shields and then the ships beneath them as if they were mere insects not worth their full attention. As the Holy Fleet got close enough, they fired nuclear tipped torpedoes. Each one struck with the force of 50 megatons, one of the smaller ships shields went down and it too was vaporized as another warhead blew, the crew began to hope they could actually win this fight. Then the crew ceased to exist as the Flagship of the Holy Fleet, the Empress Yavak, was struck by a direct energy beam. Molten hot plasma shattering its shields and the ship itself being melted to slag which rapidly cooled in the airless void of space. As Calculator watched the feed of the robotic combat units planetside, he'd smile if he could. But not having an actual face made that a rather difficult endeavor to manage.

Sure, he lost a few starships, that was fine though as they contained no living beings. All of them were automated, commanded directly by him or AI's designated to obey his every command in this effort. He wasn't worried about his destruction either, should his ship be destroyed he had a direct link back to the Crystal Empire's AI mainframe set aside just for him, so he would be safe as ever even if this ship fell into the gravity well of a star and turned to pure slag. The Planetside fedan population was just about extinct, and this had been one of their slave worlds! He had managed to free a hivemind insectoid species that almost looked like bipedal earthly ants. It was good progress.

----------------------------Crystal Empire------------------------

Watching as dragons slowly filtered into the Empires walls, was a nice sight. It seems they had made someone a de facto ruler in a sort of tribal manner before Vomo had picked up the staff, triggering the instinctual response to find the wielder of the staff, and obey. So that's who I was waiting for in my throne room, currently.

I didn't need to wait long as someone I recognized from when I used to watch the show walked into the room, armored suit and all. Ember. Her armor was filled with various scorch marks, scratches, and dents in the once pristine metal. Ember flared her wings as she removed her helmet with a huff, hooking it to a leather belt at her waist. "I'm going to get right to the point, why should the Dragons as a species and a people follow you? You hold the staff, and thus have command over us true, but what makes you better to lead than a fellow dragon?"

Smiling at her bluntness, I had expected something different, someone else, but I could work with this. "Simple, Progress."

That seemed to confuse her, so she tilted an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean 'progress'?"

"Your species has existed almost longer than any other on this planet since more than one sentient species evolved, yet what do you have to show for it? A few big piles of gold, gems, and other shiny shit? A reputation for being mindless beasts who do nothing but hoard and steal, and fight among all including themselves?" Ember looked offended, but I continued. "By now your species should have colonies on the Moon, tall shining cities that outshine all before them, and weapons so devastating that they dare not be used less they wipe out all life! But no, your species sits, squabbles with itself and never invented anything useful."

Now she looked angry. "Technology would make us weak, it's by our own strength we didn't all die off when that mad diamond dog attacked us with poison gas."

I shook my head in disappointment. "No Ember, if your species would stop fighting themselves and everyone around them, and bothered to invent rather than crush and destroy, your species would have been able to repel that Diamond Dog Invasion with minimal losses, living under my rule offers you this, it offers you safety in a way never before seen for your kind." Pausing to take a sip of tea from a tray being held by a Mr.Handy, I continued. "Your species could spread to the stars, and none could stop you under the Crystal Empire's banner, my Empire has spread to the stars, it has thrived, even if it hit a few hiccups along the way, your kind could thrive too, given you follow a few basic laws, regulations, and regular plain ol rules, you'll be fine."

Ember's anger seemed to die down as she pondered the possibility of dragons as a species, spreading across uncountable trillions of stars within the galaxy, no natural predators to hunt their young like the Roc's on Equis did during Molt Season for the younger dragons. Not even a minute after she began thinking, she had an odd fire behind her eyes. "Alright, I shall accept your rule over the Dragons as a species, but you will need to command them to follow the laws, and regulations you have set in place for them to obey at first, since Dragons are not used to 'law and order' as you, or ponies are. We just do our own thing, and I can see your point with how well that's worked out so far."

"Glorious, we shall begin now!" I stood up and walked to the same balcony I had used the last time, Ember following slightly behind me given she had no idea about the layout of the Palace, and thus relied on me to get anywhere in here for now. I really needed to have a map installed for people.

Author's Note

If you're curious about what Equestrian starships look like, they look like this but without the symbols on them, replace that with the Equestrian flag, and the colors to be mostly just white and golden.