The Saga of the Tennyson Empire: The Downfall of Equestria

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Departure
Chapter 2: Arrival
Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm

Prologue

Celestia's sun shone brightly over the world, not a cloud in the sky on this warm summers day. The tiny river that snaked through the small little hamlet of Ponyville flowed calmly, the birds were singing a merry little tune, and all the flowers and all things green were in full bloom. From the cakes’ bakery, the smell of freshly baked pastries wafted through the streets of the town that mingled with the scent of the previously mentioned flowers and green things to produce an aroma most unique and fragrant. In city hall, the bell in the tower chimed back and forth as though Mayor Mare had called forth some urgent meeting of the gravest of import that required a great deal of the town’s participation that was probably blown out of proportion by her own imagination, or that of her aides, or of any number of equines that resided within the town if one were to be perfectly honest.

It was the picture of serenity. All that was missing were the little ponies that inhabited the town bustling about in their usual endeavors. But there was no bustling, nor endeavoring, nor ponies of any kind. Not anymore. Not unless you were one to count corpses amongst the living, which would not be an adequate way of looking at things in this situation. Not yet anyways.

For the population of Ponyville had taken a drastic decline in the last seven minutes. Where once there had been a town filled with ponies of all ages filled with the life and exuberance that was so typical of their race, of their entire world, now stood a veritable graveyard above the depths of the earth.

But this was no attack born of the savage and untamed fury of the various beasts that inhabited the nearby and oh so often-unchecked darkness of the Everfree forest nor of the unfathomable greed of the diamond dogs. It was too clinical, too surgical, too neat for the former and left much more lying still on the ground than the latter.

The only evidence as to who or what perpetrated this seeming crime in every possible meaning of the word, were the burns, too narrow and focused to be caused by the breath of dragons, that were found etched into the skin of most of them and the shards of diamond like crystal imbedded inside some of them. That, and the thousand or so beings that had set up a square shaped perimeter around the town.

Bi-pedal they all were, a pair of arms each to match their legs. Eighty percent of them were clad in some sort of silver shaded suits of armor. If not for the weapons they carried which resembled long, slender, grey tubes with barrels at the end and grips for their hands (for they did have hands) and the fact that their armor gave off the appearance of being highly advanced and sophisticated, many an inhabitant of the town might have legitimately mistaken them (or jestingly) for monkey versions of the knights of yore that once roamed from Equestria to the Griffon lands. Like wise, they may have mistaken the other twenty percent for dragon food, or outfit accessories, or diamond chandeliers, or ice-sculptures, or just gemstones dug up by diamond dogs that had somehow gained limbs, a head, and a face thanks to some animation spell gone terribly wrong.

They would not say anything now. They were not permitted the luxury, even when they could. Such was the extent of the speed with which they struck, their mercy’s limits far, far, far below.

Inside the town’s sole library, ‘Books and Branches,’ which was unscarred by the slaughter laughingly called a battle like most of Ponyville’s structures, a lone figure stood upstairs, gazing towards the town from the large window in front of him. For he was a he. Unlike eighty percent of the forces outside, which he belonged to, he wore no helmet and thus, his gender was clear to those who laid eyes upon him. He was flanked on either side by a pair of these knights, who stood at attention with their strange weapons and bore a symbol that resembled a figure eight turned on its side on their chest as well as their helmets like all of their brethren. He held his arms behind his back, his hands held behind his back as well as the lime-green and dark grey cape he wore.

He took it all in. All of the terror and horror he had inflicted upon these innocent, unwitting equines in their final moments on this mortal coil. He took of all of the foals. All of the children, now bereft of their energy, eyes closed or gazing up towards the sky before their time. All of the special occasions never to be celebrated. All of the friends and loved ones never to be had nor cherished. All of the experiences, good or ill, never to known.

Not a single identifiable emotion could be picked up on his face, even by someone who was particularly adept at reading them. Not a single sense of surprise was given away when he noticed two Pegasi fly out from somewhere else in town and make a break for the heavens to escape the hell he had made of the ground below. He made no snarky commentary on the futility of such an attempt to get away as he asked one of the knights for a weapon. He cared not for the fact that other, much younger passengers encumbered the both of them. He cared not for the fact that one of them had a cutiemark comprised of bubbles and the other of butterflies.

He just readied the barreled end of the weapon towards them, aimed down its sights, adjusted his posture accordingly, and depressed a trigger on the bottom with his right index ringer.

Two streaks of ruby light shot forth at the speed the word light would imply.

Chapter 1: Departure

A Word From the Author:

In case anyone is wondering, here are what the native names for aliens featured in this chapter amount to.

1. Vaxasaurians: Humongosaurs.

2. Petrosapiens: Diamond Heads

3. Arburian Pelarotas: Cannonbolts

4. Vulpimancers: Wildmutts

5. Pyronites: Heatblasts

6. Ectonurites: Ghost Freaks

7. Galvanic Mechamorphs: Upgrades

8. Kinecelerans: XLR8s

9. Galvan: Grey Matters

10. Piscciss Volanns: Ripjaws

Appoplexian: Rath

The Saga of the Tennyson Empire: The Downfall of Equestria

By: VunderGuy

Chapter 1: Departure

Space. The works of many a writer born on earth, old and new, often romanticized it as an analogue for the days of yore when empires took to the sea in search of new discoveries, profit, and the spread of their own ideals over that of their rivals. For the most part, they were correct with such assumptions. For was indeed, essentially, just the age of exploration expanded upon to heights both infinite and eternal. It will continue to be viewed as such by the general populace of the planet even after the culture from the many aliens that have moved there have rubbed off on them.

I myself am guilty of holding romantic notions of space. In fact, I myself am guilty of holding romantic notions about the sea in an age where one can hicc on the coast of Bellwood and up on the sands of Hong Kong via watercraft commercially available and affordable to even the poorest of the masses. Traveling to other Universes, to other versions of earth have allowed me to maintain these views and, in the case of the latter, gain a few. I can only imagine what work will come about when father or mother decide to make craft designed for commercial trans-dimensional travel legal. I have little doubt after he or she finally set their minds to a single universe for us to conquer that it will be, with the proper regulations such a thing would require of course.

At the present though, as I gaze upon it, I do not view space as a place of expedition, the commerce of goods or services, or the commerce of ideas. I view it as an endless void where the stuff of comets, asteroids, meteors, moons, planets, stars, nebulae, and the wreckages of ships lie in a desperate and futile attempt to fill it with some semblance of substance. I view it now as I reckon the sailors of yore who have ever lost something when moving through a hurricane did. As a cruel place where one moment, whether you respected or feared or not, the live giving light from a nearby sun could suddenly be snuffed out by a whim of probability, leaving what lied below to suffer terribly. Not as a fantastical place filled with limitless possibilities and opportunities that is blessing to be able to master, but as a necessary evil. A place where I had lost someone very dear to my heart. A place that swallowed up my little brother and has refused to give back even a hide or hair of him.

I am Max Tennyson, son of Emperor Benjamin Kirby Tennyson and Empress Julie Yamamoto, and I feel nothing but anger for space now, its desolation and ability to desolate, mocking me.

But…perhaps, like the palace aids and my mother, I am worrying too much. Perhaps I have simply forgotten the faith I have placed in junior. Sure, out of all ten of us, he may have been the weakest and least experienced, but for a Prince of the empire, he who is the smallest is still like a mountain compared to the problems he is likely to face…shouldn’t he be?

I shake my head and smirk wryly to myself. “What do ya know? I AM starting to worry like mother.”

Such thought would do me no good now. Junior was alive. Plain and simple. He had to be. Though my family often joked that he was a chip off the old block (in the negative connotations of that statement as well as the positive), he was much too well trained. Too well learned. Too clever. Too well equipped. Too savvy in the arts of combat and war despite being a mere decade old. He was fine. Either I, or Kevin, or Carl, or Keone and Yuri would probably end up finding him on some back water version of earth or some other world in some other Universe having conquered the local populace there, made them build him a giant sandcastle that doubled as a water park, and soaking in the sun while on a foldout chair sipping a smoothie while servants fanned him with giant leaves. With everything he had to go through to even be CONSIDERED having his own personal flagship (much less the fleet behind said vessel), I wouldn’t put it past the little rascal.

I take a deep breath. A deep. Calming. Breath. It would all turn out all right. It had only been a few hours since junior’s ships were reported missing from orbit and would take only one for father and his team of engineers to construct the gateway device over Mars. I stand here now, in one of the many dry docks in orbit over the planet, awaiting its completion.

In essence, it is quite similar to the portal he and Uncle Kevin had built for Project Omniverse, only on a scale that would allow for the passage of spacecraft through and much less self-contained. In the simplest of terms used by commoners, one could say it was a giant needle like tower floating in space that fired off a bolt of green energy that expanded into a rift between dimensions at about a hundred miles (a hundred and sixty one kilometers) ahead of it.

I chuckle.

“Father and Uncle BOTH would see my head stomped into the ground by the heel of a Vaxasaurian for such a gross oversimplification.”

Indeed, they probably would. Something I find to be very ironic considering how father was said to and still HAS a tendency for simplifying the unimaginably complex.

I am brought out of my musings when I hear the characteristic footfalls of armored feet behind me. Turning around, I find a Forever Knight, part of the crew I requested for this mission, running towards me.

“Prince Maximillius!” He says before coming to a halt and bowing on one knee. “Mi Lord.”

“Rise Lieutenant Felonious.” I say, absentmindedly waving my hand. “Why have you come to me?”

Getting back up to his feet completely, he said, “Me and some of the boys are gettin’ a little testy waitin’ for that there gateway to finish being built, and were just wonderin’ if we could maybe, possibly, order some take out while it’s bein’ done and all.”

I fix him a stern glare.

“You want me to allow you and several other Knights to breech military protocol on a highly sensitive mission, perhaps the single most important mission you or I have ever been on, just to sate your desire for biochemical sustenance?”

Felonious scratches the back of his helmet with one of his armored hands, the sound metal on metal ensuing.

“Uhhh…yes…Mi Lord.”

I maintain my glare, intensifying it to the point that I feel Felonious begin to feel like that armor of his is akin to a frying pan over a fire. Suddenly, I let up on my gaze, reach into a pocket on my royal regalia, and tossed a credit chit towards him. It came as a surprise to him, if the way he fumbled about before catching it was any indication.

“Very well then. Get me something too. But make certain that whatever take out you get involves chilidogs. At least ten. Understand?” I ask him.

Felonious stares at me for a few second beneath his visor before he snapped to attention and saluted me.

“Chilidogs were exactly what we had in mind, Mi Lord!”

I waved him off and with audible glee, I heard him run down the gunmetal grey corridor, make a right, and disappear. I huff and, despite myself, I smile. Turning back towards the window, I continue gazing, this time with a small ember of renewed optimism burning in the pit in my stomach. Or perhaps, it is merely the anticipation of the feast soon to come. Either way, for the moment, I feel a bit more content and at ease than I did before.

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“Attention all personnel newly assigned to the E.T.S. ‘Dagger of Damocles’! Boarding begins in T-Minus now, so get your rears in gears ya lousy stinkin’ maggots! Cuz let me tell ya something grunts--” Said the Appoplexian intercom announcer.

Exactly one hour later, construction of the gateway device had finished and I begin to make my way towards one of the loading airlocks, a pair of chilidogs clenched firmly in each hand. This was one of many such airlocks designed for the boarding of the…smaller races that crewed the ship. The humans that comprised the Forever Knights, the Petrosapiens, Arburian Pelarotas, Vulpimancers, Pyronites, and Kinecelerans that would join them in a scrap, the Ectonurites and Piscciss Volanns that would offer support on the ground, and the Galvan and Galvanic mechamorphs in charge of keeping the ship and everything mechanical running smoothly. Below, I could see one of the immense cargo bay doors opening to allow for the passage of vehicles, supplies, equipment, and the…larger members of the final race to find themselves serving under my command today. Seven of them. Merely as a…precautionary measure, of course. Though I a no doubt my own prowess, that of my men, my ability to command them, or there ability to follow orders, it has never hurt my family to be prepared. In fact, from the tales they have told me, lack of preparation has only ever hindered them in near fatal ways (and often times, others, in ways just plain fatal).

Stepping aboard the ship, I say, “Bridge” and, a moment later, appear in that location within the vessel. There are several consoles manned by Knights and Petrosapiens and a few by Mechamorphs who were fused with their workplace or chose to perform their tasks without doing so. I pay little attention to them though, as I make my way towards the command throne in the center of the room. I am surprised when I find that the rear end of another is already planted firmly on it.

“Greetings Max. I take it two of those are for me?” Said the black helmeted Petrosapien in front of me, a small emerald triangle between his eyes serving as his visor.

Fixing him a glare, I take a large bite out of all four of my chilidogs and, say, with a rather un-princely amount of food in my mouth, “Grand Admiral Tetrax. What a…delightful surprise.”

“Talking with your mouthful again I see. Isn’t that considered rather rude not just by your people’s standards, but those of most of civilized galactic society as well?” He says with a mild hint of sarcasm.

“That depends.” I respond, taking another bite from one of the dogs. “To what do I the pleasure of your company this…fine, galactic, morning?”

“Simple. High command has ordered me to—“

“—by which you mean, my mother sent you.”

“Well…no. Actually. I was sent here by your father…and your mother, to—“

“—ensure that I, a baby, is properly sitted upon.”

He huffs, humored. “Well, that’s certainly one way to look at it.”

I scoff, not amused. “So you admit it then.”

“Admit what?”

“That neither father nor mother trust me enough, I, their oldest and most battle hardened of sons to—“

He holds up a hand and stops me right there. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Looking around the bridge, I see several workers rapidly turn their heads away from me and back to what they were doing, whistling suspiciously forced tunes. I look back at Tetrax, chew, swallow, and open my mouth to speak once more. “Alright. Fine. I no longer speak with a full mouth. Now as I was saying—“

He holds up his hand and stops me right there again, much to my visible chagrin this time. “No. I wasn’t talking about that.”

I quirk a brow at him. “Really? Pray tell, what were you referring to?”

“The fact that your bad mouthing your old man and old woman.”

I am taken aback, and then angered. “Bad mouthing my…you senile, antique store item looking fool, how dare you claim that I--!?”

“—Max, I’ve known you since you weren’t even smart enough to figure out how to crawl on all four of your limbs. I know what you meant behind what you said and I know you would have regretted saying it. Which is why I didn’t want you to finish.”

With a snap and a hiss, he took off his helmet and placed it on one of the throne’s armrests. “Look me in the eyes and tell me, with a straight face, that I’m wrong.”

My eyes match his yellow ones and hold onto them. For a while, we stay there, locked in an unseen test of wills whose tension could have snapped the tethers of one of those old landmark bridges that few people used anymore in twine. I move my lips to speak, but stop halfway into forming the first syllable. I tighten my jaw shut. I am the first to look away.

I prepare myself for a berating comment along the lines of “Thought so”, but Tetrax utters no such words. Instead, he says, “The other reason I stopped you before you went too far, is because I am not, in fact, here to baby sit you.”

My head perks up at this.

“I was sent here by your parents as a concerned friend of the family’s and as a man with decades more military experience than you do under my belt. I am here to offer any and all advice and assistance I can offer you and your men, whether you like it… or not.”

He rose up from the throne, looking down at my head, a whole two feet below from his. “Technically and officially, that means my role for this mission is analogous to that of Co-Captain, and yours, to that of the real thing. Whether that holds true in reality, is up to you…sir.”

He snatched two of my chilidogs from my hand, walked to the right of the throne and said, “My Quarters”, disappearing in a brief flicker of blue light.

There are few words in all the various tongues of man and alien that can describe the emotions feuding for dominance over my facial features. I am at once ashamed for what I had uttered, for what I had thought, as I am surprised at how I mistook this development for being much worse that it was (presently) and at the fact that Tetrax just up and snatched my chilidogs from my hand. I still wear this odd look when he reappears in another brief flicker, carrying a sword in a sheath with him.

“Here.” He said, throwing it towards me. As I catch it out of reflex more than actual thought (understandable at the moment), he says, “You forgot it at the palace. I swear: absent-mindedness, purchasing exorbant amounts of comfort food for immediate consumption…if it weren’t for the fact that you were you, I would have mistaken you for Julie for how much you’re worrying.”

Surprise wins out the skirmish on my face when I take a closer look at the sword and its sheath and recognize it…as…my own…

“Excalibur!” I yell out, looking to my hip where once I thought it was, only to find nothing there but the clothe of my regalia. Looking back at Tetrax, I grin more sheepishly than the flock that had taken residence amongst the ruins of something once called, The National Mall. Before I have the chance to speak, and thus exponentially increase the odds that I shall humiliate myself further, he places one of his crystalline arms on my shoulder and gives me a solemn look.

“We’ll find him Max, and if we don’t, than your brothers will. He might be the runt of your litter, but he’s a tough runt.” He said before smirking. “Not tough enough to survive your mother’s wrath when she’s done with him, but he should be able to live through whatever environment he’s found himself in and the trip back home.”

I cannot say I completely agree with him, no matter how much I wish to. Instead, the most I can utter without mistruth is, “I hope so Tetrax.” I return the smile while going on to say, “I wouldn’t want to miss the look on his face after he leaves the Imperial throne room for anything, after all.”

His smirk depends. “Neither would I.” He says.

Fastening my blade’s sheath to its rightful place, I turn to address the personnel on the bridge. “Has everything that needs to be on this ship been accounted for?”

Like well oiled machines (including those that were melded with actual machines), the crew snaps to attention, one of them saying, “Sir yes sir.”

“Good.” I say, dropping onto the command throne like a sack of bowling balls. After a short bout of stretches, I then say, “Well? What are you waiting for?” and make a hand gesture signaling forward motion. “Let us debark.”

All of the personnel saluted and shouted, “Sir yes sir!”

With that, they requested clearance for the removal of the gargantuan clamps keeping us within the dry dock. The airlocks hiss closed and the cargo bays slammed shut. The other men aboard stopped what leisurely activities they were doing to pass the time and resumed their assigned duties with a seriousness and sternness that was expected of a soldier in his majesty’s service. Receiving the go ahead, the locks unclamp and we are off towards our mission, the dry dock and the planet it orbited soon specks behind our invisible ion trail.

Whatever destiny has lying in store for us, one thing is certain. The throne I sit upon is com-fy. Small wonder why Tetrax was sitting on it.

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In one, single row of metal, four ships are positioned. Spaced horizontally and separated by a few kilometers, Kevin’s ship lays to the far left, Carl’s within the inner left, Yuri and Keone’s within the inner right, and mine to the far right. I take notice of their vessels of choice and think the words, “How fitting” for each of them before my eyes draw towards the bow of my own. There, not even a single kilometer outwards, a bolt of green hurled through space by the gateway expand, stops and splashes the bridge with light intense enough for us to look away for a moment. Our vision returns to normal, and we see the sphere begin to cause ripples in the continuum before transforming into an emerald rift that would have literally swallowed the ship whole had their been and atmosphere for wind to push us. It is of similar intensity, but of the kind we can actually see, and in some cases (excluding my own and Tetrax’s, of course), gaze in wonderment at.

“Cooool.” Said one of the Forever Knight crewmembers.

Soon after, a Mechamorph one said, “Rift is open and stable. All systems remain green across the board.”

Not needing to be told by me, the members in charge of ship movement command the engines to push us forward into the rift. The gateway device back at project omniverse could produce such a thing that could allow for the instantaneous transport of matter from one Universe to another in the time the average human could count to one. Though the device my father and the engineers managed to build was greater by several magnitudes of order, it was still the product of what amounted to meticulous jury-rigging. Masterfully crafted and executed meticulous jury-rigging, mine you, but jury-rigging that still lead to a drastic increase in travel time in order to compensate for a few factors. The energy needed to open and maintain not just one, but four rifts of such immense size and the transit mass of the ships being the most prevalent.

For now, a trip that would once split a second, would now do the same for sixty. I steal one more glance at the three other ships beside mine and wish them a silent farewell and good luck. Once again, despite myself, I dare to hope.

Tens seconds after the ships has completely passed inside, I, along with the rest of those aboard the bridge, am shaken from a tremor that suddenly and inexplicably erupted from the bowels of the ship. The blaring of claxons and sirens is not far behind.

“Report!” Tetrax and I bark out in unison, much to my dismay and his amusement.

“Something’s happened below deck!” Responded one of the Forever Knights.

“I think that’s a given at this point!” I yell back, struggling not to call him an incompetent moron for making such an obvious statement. “What and where!?”

“A series of explosions in the drive room.” Says a Mechamorph melded to one of the consoles.

“What!? How!?”

“Though I can’t answer the how, I can show you the who via a live security feed I’m currently tapped into.”

“Then hurry up and bring it on screen man!”

A holographic projection, not unlike a large two-by-four rectangular window, appears in front of me. On it, I see the perpetrators of this attack, of this crime aboard my vessel, running through the hallways somewhere beneath my heels like rats running for their lives in a maze. As well they should. For not only do my Co-Captain and I recognize them as rebels from the blasted Null Void, traitors in every sense of the word aboard my ship and not captured or otherwise indisposed of by the negative signs adorning their headbands, but he also recognizes them as something worse. Something far, far worse.

“The Vreedle brothers.” Tetrax says, with a venom in his voice I knew he reserved only for a select few before my time (as well as the thankfully discontinued Alien X smoothie from Mr. Smoothies).

I quirk an eyebrow in vague recognition of what he says. “The Vreedle brothers? You mean, those same Vreedle brothers that—“

“—Yes.” Tetrax interrupts me. “Stay here. I’ll deal with them, personally.”

He is about to speak the words that will teleport him towards wherever those two wastes of and insults to sapience everywhere so that he can give them what they deserve for all of their troubles. A flash of cerulean from the projection stops him however. Blue electricity that was not normally supposed to do so, flows through several of the consoles, shorting them out along with shocking whatever Mechamorph was unlucky enough to be melded with one at the time, and causes one or two consoles to explode violently, pushing back any crewmember caught in the blast radius. The projection blinks from tangibility.

It is not long before the same light that was shown seems to permeate from the very ground at our feet, apparently doing similar things to all of the Mechamorphs fortunate to not have been melded with any equipment as those that had been.

“EM interference!” I yell out, feeling a distinct tingling in my teeth.

“Those psychopaths must have started a chain reaction with the warp drive!” Tetrax yells out. “It’s gonna—“

Too late. Before those words can even be uttered, the warp drive does what he said it would. It blows up. It blows up spectacularly. Not only are our eyes awash with an overloading sense of cerulean, but so to is the ship (in a more literal of ways). As though this were any other of countless times in normal space, my vessel is quickly covered in it, the light signaling a warp jump about to commence. But this is not one of those times. My vessel lays within a rift between Universes. Any number of scenarios could play out, many of them I’d tread carefully to avoid even with father present (especially, you could say), much less with the drive overloading as it now.

“Stop it! The drive from overloading! One of you! Now!” I command to the crewmembers.

“We can’t stop it!” Yells back a Petrosapien. “The interference knocked out our controls, and the first explosions knocked out the restraints it has if this kind of thing ever happened!”

Solemn is how my face becomes. “So, what your saying, is that we are about to make a jump, blind, and that there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Yes.” He replies simply, eyes closed and fists clenched.

I sigh and slink back into my command chair. I look to my right to find Tetrax, his face as impassive as ever at the news. But I can tell. I know. Despite the rough exterior of stoicism he has managed to maintain, he feels much the same way I do. We’re it not for the fact that he was in command and would find it difficult to do so physically, he would be shaking in his boots like I wish I was. But I cannot. I have to be better than that, better than the average serviceman around me. I am there leader. I had to set the example. Even in a situation like this, I am there leader.

“Well then,” I say, masking my defeat well, I think, with the certainty that comes with fooling yourself into thinking you had planned for something unexpected, “let us…boldly go forth into the unknown and see what we find.”

I look towards the porthole to my front. There, at the very tip of the ship’s bow, the cerulean rushed down and up towards, like two rivers of pure blue, coalescing at one point to form a bubble. A bubble whose color was progressively corrupted by the intrusive emerald of the rift as it expanded. It eventually mixes into an ugly kaleidoscope that had taken residence not to far from the vomited up remains I tend to create of whatever creature(s) had been unlucky enough to find themselves in my Great Grandfather’s cooking whenever he pays a visit, or I do.

It is this vast array of wild clashing and nausea inducement that is the last thing burned into my mind before I blackout. I feel the jump as it commences.

Chapter 2: Arrival

The Saga of the Tennyson Empire: The Downfall of Equestria

By: VunderGuy

Chapter 2: Arrival

The stars are out in full force tonight. Like twinkling little diamonds in the sky, they shimmered in all their radiant splendor. Twilight Sparkle’s time of waiting was over. For now, un-obscured by the light of Luna’s moon, she could gaze upon a rare site that could only be viewed on the one night of the month when the Alicorn of the Night decided that her celestial namesake need not be visible to the all but the most trained of pony eyes. The one night of the month where a special constellation of her design, added into the velvet quilt of the heavens as a request to the Princess, could be viewed via telescope.

That is, if she could get the darned thing to work right!

“Spike!” She yelled out from the balcony on the second floor, into the wooden interior of her home. “I thought I told you to go and get me a new lens for my Star-Searcher 10000 while I was away!”

Earlier in the day, after returning home from some light grocery shopping, her number one assistant had suddenly belched forth in that fiery manner of his, a letter addressed for her. However, it was not, as she expected, from Princess Celestia. Nor was it from Princess Luna. Heck, it wasn’t even from the Canterlot or Ponyville area. Rather, it was from a fellow…colleague in matters of the arcane that Twilight had trusted enough to take her words of grave and dire urgency seriously and drop whatever plans she had for the day to go visit.

“All for a bunch of hooey and nonsense.” She thought to herself. “Now I’ll have to find someway to schedule in octuple-checking my checklist for the list of ingredients I’ll need for the lab soon for Tuesday instead of earlier which will cut into my—“

Before she can continue her mental rambling, she stopped herself, shakes her head, and once again yells out, “Spike!” into her home, only to, once again, receive no answer back. “Oh for the love of…” She grumbles, trotting back inside. “Spike!”

Looking down towards the foyer of the first floor where all her books were kept, she found neither scale nor tail of the baby dragon anywhere. “Where could he—“ She thought before her mind came to the sudden and very likely conclusion that it did. With a disappointed frown, she made her way towards her room and, in particular, to a small wicker basket lying at the foot of her bed. Her horn glowed with the magic of a levitation spell as she ripped away the blanket there. “Spike! Don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping since this afternoon and didn’t even bother to do this one, little, thi—“

She paused mid-sentence, seeing that Spike was not in fact in his own bed, dozing off, as she suspected. “Hmmm…Now just where is he now?” She asked out loud to herself, putting a hoof to her chin. She spent the next ten or so minutes searching every nook and cranny of her home for him, calling his name all the while. Doubling back towards the center of the foyer after investigating her lab, she began pacing around her couch with her face scrunched up in thought. “Hrmmm…it’s not like him to be out this late…where is he?”

As she made her dozen concentric circle or so, she stopped when she heard a sound that was not at all like keratin clanging against wood. Looking down, she found a small cardboard box, about the same size as the kind a bar of soap would come in, pressed beneath her right fore-hoof. Stepping off of it and using her magic, she levitated it up in front of her face and discerned the small print lettering adorning it:

STAR SEARCHER-10000 Space Magnification 6 inch diameter Convex Telescopic Magnification Lens.

Smiling widely to herself, she tore the box open, tossed it into the nearby trashcan with pinpoint accuracy, and levitated the glass right next to her as she skedaddled back up the second floor and towards her awaiting telescope on the balcony. She had forgotten her concern for Spike’s location. She reasoned that he probably just decided to sleep over at Rarity’s after being talked by her into being an impromptu model for some new grand experiment in fashion that had gone on longer than he had expected after he had come back with the lens. It wouldn’t have been the first time and it certainly wasn’t likely to be the last.

After an expedient replacement of the old, fractured lens, with the new one, Twilight tossed the former over the railings and quickly put her eye into the eyepiece. Or rather, she realized that she had been looking through the new convex lens she had just put in and, sheepishly, twirled the telescope around to its proper place. Now, certain that what was in front of her was, in fact, the eyepiece, Twilight looked into it and finally managed to see the constellation she was so anticipated to gaze upon. Despite herself, she couldn’t help but give a big goofy grin and let a few heartfelt tears streak down her cheeks at the site.

“Beautiful. Just, simply, beautiful…” She said under her breath.

Her admiration for whatever modern masterpiece layed on the cosmological canvas, however, did not last long beyond this. For soon, and for a brief few seconds, the night sky was stabbed by light an odd and sickly color that made the minds of anypony who stared at it too closely for too long feel nauseous, dizzy, and hurt at the same time. Right before the set of stars Twilight was peering through with her STAR SEARCHER-10000, the greatest commercially available optical telescope in all of Equestria…

Groggily, slowly, as though the light had burned her usual late night insomniac tendencies out of her, her eyelids began to droop. She backed away from the telescopic and began moving haphazardly about in a manner that, to everypony else but her at least, would have made her form of dancing look dignified in comparison.

“Uhhh…” She moaned, both out of way she felt and her stunningly reduced sense of motor control.

Eventually, she found herself drawn back next to the telescope, on her hind legs, and tried to lean on it with her fore-hooves in an attempt to stop herself from losing balance. Instead, she found herself hitting the side of it with more force than she had anticipated and found the mechanism swiveling around to knock her over the edge of the railing and right into the ground below, back first. She let out a short, “Ahhh!” before she hit and briefly saw stars of the imaginary variety.

*************************************************

Inside of her room within the confides of the Sugar Cube Corner, a pink coated and even darker-pink haired mare’s eyes opened suddenly and abruptly as though they were mechanical. For a while, she just lay there, beneath the quilted blanket of her bed, and stared at the ceiling with eyes as wide as cake pans. She did not blink. Her eyes did not wander elsewhere. Not a single lock of her curly mane was shuffled out of place. She didn’t even breathe. All that could be heard was a sound, not unlike that of a kettle in use, rising to the point where the steam inside would no longer be able to be contained without fear of bursting through the sides in an unintended manner. A sound that, as it neared its ultimate crescendo, was accompanied by the mare’s coat taking on a reddish complexion that grew deeper and deeper with the rising sound.

Then, with what ponies all across town heard to be like a train whistle, she rocketed forth through the roof as though she had suddenly become a Pegasus instead of an earth pony and was gone.

For a few moments, she stayed up in the dark sky, casting a shadow on an adjacent dwelling…right before reaching the apex of her ascendant and crashing down with tremendous force like she was a boulder hurled by some giant monster (or she was an Alicorn princess, in some circles).

*************************************************

Her eyes fluttering open haltingly at what sounded like the sound of snapping wood, Twilight Sparkle turned on her side to see a house, once standing completely and perfectly, if her memory served her right (which it usually did), now lying as nothing but a pile of splintered boards not half as tall as it used to be. It’s lone owner, an earth pony stallion with an hourglass cutie mark rose up from the wreckage of his home, put a hoof to his chin, and said, “Oh dear. I’m afraid this problem is a bit too much for duck tape to fix” right before his eyes rolled over in his head and he fell backwards into the land of dreams he was no doubt already experiencing before his rude awakening in a much more violent manner.

Not a split second was wasted before the form of another pony exited the pile of scrap lumber, albeit by shooting up about a hundred feet (or two) into the air like a loaded cannon. This pony, somehow seemingly and miraculously unharmed by the house that surely must have collapsed around its head, then suddenly crashed down into the ground between the stallion’s house and Twilight’s present position. Though the stars were not as adept at illuminating what lay beneath in the stead of their milky smooth neighbor, Twilight could make out just whom this pony was. As well she should. She only ever saw her nearly everyday since arriving to this town and hung out with her what must have been nearing a hundred times by now.

“Pinkie…?” She asked, dazedly.

Pinkie Pie, however, was far too busy to answer the question or voice any concern for her friend lying on the ground. Instead, she did so while shooting into the sky once more. “TWWWIIILLLIIIGGGHHHT!? WHHHAAATTT HAPPPENNNENED TOOO YOUUU!?”

She landed amidst Twilight’s house, creating an ensuing shockwave that had a different effect on it than the other one. For where the stallions had collapsed inwardly, Twilight’s tree did so in the opposite direction. Exploded in a crescendo of fragments and splinters is more like it. The force was so strong, that she found herself lifted into the air, performing cartwheels that would have made the kingdom’s greatest acrobats jealous (especially given her status as the town’s resident egghead), and crashing head first through a window on the second floor of a boutique designed like a carousel. Her momentum came to a sudden halt when her horn embedded itself in the wall facing the mirror on the other side of the room. A bedroom. One as fashionably and lavishly décored as the building’s owner, would have it. An owner whose head snapped up from beneath her blanket upon hearing Twilight’s rather dramatic and unanticipated entrance.

“WHOSE THERE!?” Rarity panicked, receiving a rather pained groan in response. Lifting the sleeping mask off of her eyes, revealing that to be the single area on her face that was covered in another, greener mask of mud, she put her fore-hooves to her mouth in shock at Twilight’s battered form. “Twilight!? Goodness gracious! Whatever happened to you darling!?”

She tossed her cover aside in a rather rushed and un-lady like fashion and made for her brainy friend. Halfway there though, the sound of more destruction heralded in and the floor began to rumble and she tripped, face smearing it with her green mask. As she sluggishly made her way back up, the mud now more evenly distributed, she heard the distant cry of, “My oven! How will I make my muffins!? NOOOOOOOO!” from elsewhere inside Ponyville.

In the meantime, Twilight’s eyes rolled around in her sockets, counting all of the various stars she had only caught a glimpse of when she had fallen off her balcony. Now, they were orbiting around her cranium. In perfectly precise corresponding heliocentric order no less!

Regaining her balance, Rarity managed to hoof it to the rest of the way and, using a bit of the ol’ telekinetic grease, pulled Twilight’s horn free and placed her gently on the floor (as gently as she could, given that another tremor passed through the moment she did). Talking over the following cry of, “My leg!” Rarity asked, “Twilight? Are you alright dear?”

The brainy mare gave her a glazed over look as her eyes continued moving in ways they shouldn’t have, her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. “F plus V minus E always equals two where F equals the number of faces, V equals the number of Vertices, and E equals the number of edges.” She drawled.

Rarity’s eyes widened for a bit before she struck Twilight with her nose raised in confusion. “I’m not sure if that’s just gibberish from whatever bump to the noggin that ghastly entrance you made or whether that is actually some mathematical fact.” Putting a hoof to her head to assuage the aching in her own cranium after hearing what Twilight had said, she said, “Frankly, I’m afraid of the answer to that.”

“The square root of banana is fish!”

“Ah! Gibberish it is then.” Rarity said, with a satisfied smile on her face.

Said satisfaction was immediately replaced by a look of abject terror on her face when a pink projectile crashed through her ceiling, the floorboards beneath her hooves, and the floorboards on the first floor beneath that. A look of abject horror at the implications as to what this meant for her and her shop replaced that.

She could only respond accordingly.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Her constant, unimpeded shrieking snapped Twilight out of her funk and she shook out what mental cobwebs she had gathered, asking, “Rarity? Where am I?”

Putting a hoof up to assuage her head, Twilight’s answer came in the form of intensified shrieking from her as Pinkie Pie made a series of holes parallel to the ones she made coming in as she jetted out.

“Oh my gosh! Pinkie!”

Jumping to her hooves, Twilight ran over to the window to see her friend make a wreck out of City Hall before turning to a still shrieking fashionista. She put her fore-hooves on her shoulders and tried shaking her into quieting down and being calmed. It didn’t seem to be working all that effectively, so she then said, “Rarity! Pinkie’s gone crazy! Crazier than normal! I need you to calm down so that you can help me stop her! DO. YOU. UNDER. STAND. ME!?”

Twilight’s methods eventually got through to Rarity, and the unicorn managed to ask (albeit frantically), “But how? Why? WHY!? Why would Pinkie do this to my life’s work!? MY LIFE’S WORK!”

The two of them turned to the sound of their more-manic-than-usual friend totaling another property. “My carrots!”

“No time for that!” Twilight said, turning to face Rarity and then galloping out the door leading to the stairs. She though she heard the unicorn call out, “Wait, I can’t go out with my curlers on” as she made her way to the front door and, rather than let the fashionista use up precious seconds that could safe somepony else from the headache of a massive repair bill, she teleported back next to her and levitated her next to her as she made for the front door again, ignoring the shouts of protest she was given in response.

Just in time too. For a good, crater sized chunk of the road in front of the boutique disappeared into a cloud of dust beneath the back of a sullen Pinkie Pie. Letting Rarity drop to the ground rather uncouthly, Twilight shouted, “Pinkie! What in Celestia’s name do you think you’re—“ The opportunity to complete the sentence did not arise, for, soon, Twilight found herself using her levitation spell to keep Pinkie from bouncing away again. The veins sprouting along her forehead and Ms. Pie steadily rising and rising by the volitions of some unseen force was a testament to how much it was taking to accomplish such a feat. “Rarity! Help!” She called out between gritted teeth.

Forgetting about her own woes for a moment, Rarity’s horn glowed with the aura of her magic as she came to Twilight’s aid, her levitation spell mixing with Twilight’s like oil and vinegar around Pinkie. The veins and the chomped together teeth appeared on Rarity’s person much earlier than on Twilight, for her magic was not as potent or as refined as her sense of style or her personal beauty (well…during that day at least for that last one).

“I’m so sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry!” Pinkie went on and on as the two unicorn’s combined attempt at stopping her showed the first signs of growing lax, the sounds of a train whistle reaching greater and greater heights. “With whipped cream, and sprinkles, and chocolate chips, and caramel, and marshmallows, and pretzels, and gummy bears, and peanut butter, and those little lentil things that I can never tell if they’re made from mint or just covered in mint but still taste like dark chocolate anyways, on—“

A bursting dam. That was comparable to what happened when Twilight’s magic gave out, swiftly followed by Rarity’s. A bursting dam that had built up to the point where the small cracks running through it could no longer keep the building pressure at bay. Pinkie skyrocketed again, climbing more hastily to untapped heights than before. It was as though all her friends had really done was turn Pinkie into an even more dangerous shot, their magic providing the tension for the unseen sling that had taken a hold of her.

As she lay on the ground for what must have been the third time tonight, Twilight saw as Pinkie disappeared through the cloud layer…and came back down through it not long later. Though her mind was as weary as her body, she still managed to calculate that the pink pony’s angle of descent would take her…straight…amidst…the crowd of ponies…who had been awaken by the noise…and had gathered…to see…what all the hubbub was all about…

“Oh no.” She squeaked.

She tried to erect a barrier that would protect them, all of the stallions, and mares, and fouls, but trying to keep Pinkie earthbound had drained her of most of her arcane reserves. She tried to teleport all of them away to a safer distance, but the most she could ever do with the spell was three mares and Spike, and that was under life-threatening duress. Even if she could perform one that could zip away that many ponies, she ran into the first problem as her first choice. She tried to just use a simpler teleportation spell that would take her amidst the crowd so that she could hopefully push them away, but she had not the magic even to perform even that. Plus, she doubted she would be able to get them out of the way in time anyways with that option.

All she and Rarity could do was look on, helplessly, as their friend dove towards the unsuspecting crowd. All too soon, they would have been very suspected and very something else…if not for a shadow dropping down from the night sky and intercepting her about ten feet above their heads.

Twilight and Rarity gasped out, “PRINCESS LUNA!” in unison.

The crowd heard their astonishment. It was not long before they took note of the struggle going on right above them and parroted those words, along with, “PINKIE PIE!”

The Sovereign of the night forced out a grin as she struggled to hold the pink mare in her fore-hooves. “Greetings and glad tidings my subjects.” She said, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. “A most resplendent night, is it not?”

Jerkily, the two of them darted across the air with no sense of direction, knocking over street lamps and such and causing the crowd to scatter for their own safety (as rightfully they should). After the fifth or so time they crashed through a wall, Luna asked, “Ms. Pie, I don’t mean to be rude or frighten you, but, WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS THE MATTER!?”

The two careened out the hole in the building they had created when entering and cratered a small chunk of the road in front of Twilight and Rarity’s heads (off by a hair). The two crawled backwards with the appropriate looks s Pinkie answered, “I don’t know Princess Luna! Honest! One moment, I was in my bed, dreaming of a land filled with candy cane forests and gum drop and truffle boulders and mint grass and licorice vines hanging from the candy cane forests and marshmallow clouds and lots of other stuff that’d make it heaven for someone with my kind of sweet tooth when all of a sudden my tail started twitchin’, my ears started floppin’, my fur started standing on end, and a bunch of other things without me moving at all! Well, except for a rumbling in my tummy, but at the time, I wasn’t sure if I just wanted a mid-night snack or had to go to the little filly’s room. I mean, what silly pony would think that their stomach growling at the middle of the night would make their bodies go on a crazy out of control rampage across town? Not me! That’s for—“

Pinkie shot up into the air again, Luna holding on tight, landing inside the town’s nearby river. “—sssssuuuuurrrrreeeee…” She bubbled beneath the water.

At first glance, one might think that this was a turn for the worse. After being educated with the fact that breath (among other things) was not a concern for Alicorns as it was for ponies that were mortals, one would realize this turn for the boon that it could be, and was for Luna. After about a minute, the bubbles stopped spitting forth from Pinkie’s gaping maw, and her eyes fluttered shut. Luckily for the Sovereign of the night, this simple earth pony, though possessing some strange power great enough to move her around against her immense will, was still just that. An earth pony. One who, like all others, needed air in order live.

Remembering this, though she hoped she didn’t too late, Luna flew out of the river and landed back in front of Twilight and Rarity. Quickly, she stomped on Pinkie’s stomach. Though a small stream shot out from her muzzle and got her in face, the pink mare began to resume normal breathing as she lay there, no doubt back in whatever fantasyland she had envisioned when last she slept.

Letting out a sigh of relief, and wiping her face clean of excess water, Luna turned her head towards the two and said, “Now then Twilight, Ms. Rarity, perhaps you would like to—“

When she opened her eyes however, she found the two of them lying on the road, every bit as unconscious as their pink friend. Her mind then recalled that, when she had landed in front of them while holding onto Pinkie before, the impact may have, sort of, kind of, knocked them into the trunk of a nearby tree.

“Oh dear…” She said aloud, hoof pressed firmly against her face as she shook it from side to side.

*************************************************

With a groan, Twilight felt a dagger of sunshine stab her in the eyes. With premeditation and practice, she rolled over onto her other side to ease this annoyance keeping her from her fitful slumber and found, thankfully, much less ample lighting. She took a sigh of contentment.

“Wait a minute…” She said, raising a mental eyebrow. “Sunshine?”

Rolling back over, she bared with the annoyance as she opened her eyelids to find that she was back home, in her bed, and that it was morning. With a groan, she stretched and her hooves touched the wooden floor. She made her way to the bathroom mirror in a bit of a daze, recalling, bit-by-bit, the events of last night. Finally, after checking that her hygiene was in order and her mane properly combed, she made her way down the stairs in that usual way she did and stopped when she heard what sounded like two familiar voices in the middle of a conversation and…the kettle on?

“How do you take it?” Asked what sounded like Rarity, coming from the kitchen.

“Just plain tea would more than suffice Ms. Rarity.” Responded what sounded like…Luna?

“Are you absolutely positive? I mean, I wouldn’t want to disappoint royalty, not would I?”

“Well…I suppose one…NO! Seven sugars! And three….No! Five teaspoons of cream! And jimmies!”

“Uh, jimmies? Princess?”

“Oh…what was that word you modern ponies use more commonly for them now? SPRINKLES! YES! A dash of sprinkles!”

“Errr…I’ll see what I can scrounge up here.”

It was then that Twilight stopped in the open threshold between the kitchen and elsewhere inside the tree and asked, “Rarity? Luna? What are you two doing here?”

“Ah! Twilight! How—“ The other unicorn and the alicorn said as they turned to greet her, only to stop mid-sentence as though they had just seen a ghost move past them riding a tricycle and honking the horn. One that had sprouted an extra head for each honk too,

“What?” Asked the brainy mare.

“Uhmmm…Twilight…why don’t we head on towards the couch, hmmm? I believe it’d be best if you sat down for this. I’d know I’d certainly wish to.” Rarity said, ushering Twilight towards the living room.

At the behest of the other unicorn, Twilight planted her rump onto the sofa as per instructed and Rarity soon followed.

“Now…uhmmm…how to say this nicely?”

“Say what nicely Rarity?” Asked Twilight, confused.

“Well…errr…” Rarity just sighed a levitated a hoof mirror in-between herself and Twilight, the back end towards the latter. “Here, I think it’s best if I just show you.”

Levitating the mirror around, the sight that greeted Twilight caused her eyes to almost fall out of their socket. “Wh—wh—whhhaaa…?” Was all she could manage to stammer out.

“It’s not…that bad Twiligh—“

“Not that bad!? I look…I look….I look like even more of a deranged maniac than that time I cast that spell on my smarty-pants doll!”

This was true. Where once, she thought she had made her teeth sparkling white and her hair as kept as it usually was, she saw that her mane was now like a tangled thicket and that the toothpaste she had used now served to make it seem like she was frothing at the mouth.

“Hmmmph.” Rarity said, sticking her nose up into the air. “Well, that’s certainly no reason to yell like an even more deranged maniac. Really dear! All you need is to spend a little time in front of the mirror, and you should look good as new. There’s no need to be a drama queen about these sort of things.”

“But I did spend time—“ Twilight said before huffing. “Uhhh…never mind. Is Spike here?”

“Why wouldn’t he be darling?”

Twilight fixed Rarity with a quizzical look. “Wait…wasn’t he with you?”

*************************************************

“Max! Max! Maximillius Yamamoto Tennyson! Junior!”

What racks my body as I awake is not entirely pleasant, but not entirely unfamiliar either. It is comparable to all those times I spent sparring when I was a younger lad as a normal human or a weaker than human alien. Unlike those times though, I am a bit more certain that whatever bruises I may have sustained, however unlikely that it is I have received them, will heal faster. Uncle Kevin wasn’t here to deliver them, after all.

I find my head leaned at an uncomfortable angel against one of my arm rests, a small puddle of drool gathered there from when my mind skipped however many beats it did looking at the ugly rift. Cautiously, I try to return my cranium back to its normal position but wince and find myself back on the armrest. I am tempted to find an easy solution to this dilemma, of which, I can think of quite a few. Instead, I grit my teeth and, like a proud Prince of the Tennyson line, crack my neck as fast as I can. I feel some sense of pride well up in the pits of my stomach. I only yell out in agony a little at this course of action. Just a little.

Stretching out my shoulders, legs, and other parts of mine that need stretching, I find the owner of the voice standing in front of m. Arms crossed over his chest, Tetrax asked, “So, how did you sleep Junior? I wouldn’t know since I looked away and used my arms to shield myself unlike some others I could name.” He says, flashing a cheeky smile towards me and a scowl towards some of the bridge crew, who were also recovering just as I was.

“Uhhh….of course you did.” I say, closing my eyes to try and relieve the migraine I’m undergoing. They open with a start. “Though, now that I think about it, call me junior once more, I and I will personally see to it that you know exactly how I slept.”

My ensuing grin is cheekier.

“Maybe later. Right now though, we have a bit of a…situation…”

“What kind? The Vreedle brothers? Are they still—?”

“No. A couple of cooks managed to jump them in one of the pantries in the middle deck. The kind of situation I’m referring to—“ He pauses, taking a few steps to the side and pointing somewhere in front of us. “—involves that.”

I follow his finger outside of the porthole and notice something outside that I hadn’t before. The unmistakable sight of viewing a world, verdant and blue, from somewhere in its orbit.

“Ah.” I respond simply. “I can see that.”

Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm

A Word From the Author:

In case anyone is wondering, here are what the native names for aliens featured in this chapter amount to.

1. Vaxasaurians: Humongosaurs.

2. Petrosapiens: Diamond Heads

3. Arburian Pelarotas: Cannonbolts

4. Vulpimancers: Wildmutts

5. Pyronites: Heatblasts

6. Ectonurites: Ghost Freaks

7. Galvanic Mechamorphs: Upgrades

8. Kinecelerans: XLR8s

9. Galvan: Grey Matters

10. Piscciss Volanns: Ripjaws

11. Appoplexian: Rath

The Saga of the Tennyson Empire: The Downfall of Equestria

By: VunderGuy

Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm

Stress. Unbounded and unlimited. This was what Twilight Sparkle was feeling as she lay atop her bed inside Ponyville hospital. This, she mused, must have been similar to what Rainbow Dash must have been feeling the time she had broken her wing and found escape from her boredom within the pages of her first Daring Do book. Boredom however, was not the same as stress.

In her conversation with Rarity in which Twilight had hid her minor freak out quite well, she thought, the brainy mare had claimed that Spike was indeed with her (conveniently out shopping or whatever it is baby dragons do) and that she had forgotten because her mind was on the fritz. After explaining why that was (her fall off her balcony which began the abuse she had endured last night) and allowing her fashionable friend to mull over the evidence for a second or two, Rarity had urged Luna to take Twilight to the hospital as quickly as possible in light of this new information. Having a permanently damaged brain inside such a brainy mare would be counterproductive, after all.

Before the Prince of the Night could fly out the nearest window though, Twilight had asked, “Excuse me, Luna?”

“Yes?” The alicorn asked, looking back towards her.

“Ummm…if you don’t mind me asking, what happened to Pinkie Pie after I passed out last night?”

“Do not worry Twilight. She is safe and sound within the walls of Castle Canterlot, under careful observation.”

“Castle Canterlot?” She asked, eyes furrowing her brow as well as the bandages wrapped around her head. “Why is she there?”

“For her own protection as well as that of anypony unfortunate enough to be affected by her should she be placed elsewhere. Fret not. You have my word as a Princess that she is safe and that I, as well as my sister, are doing everything within our power to find out what has gone wrong with Ms. Pie and find a way to return her back to normal. Or, at the very least, less destructive.” She smiled.

Twilight returned the smile. Luna had turned to go when a sudden thought struck her. “Princess Luna? Last night…did you happen to see a flash of light come from out of nowhere inside a constellation? Right before Pinkie’s Pinkie sense started going crazy?”

The Sovereign of the night put a fetlock to her chin. “No…I can’t say that I did. I believe I was occupied with lending my aid to a pony requiring it to overcome a recurring nightmare. I was just on my way to another when I saw Ms. Pie and swooped in when I did.” Hrmmming to herself, she asked, “Might I inquire as to which constellation it was?”

“I…” Twilight began, wracking her injured cranium. “…don’t remember…exactly.”

“Exactly?”

“Not at all, actually.”

“Ah.” The Sovereign said simply. “Luckily, I am sure that you were not the only pony out stargazing on that most eye drawing of nights…I hope…and perhaps I might find out from whence this flash came. I hope.”

“Oh, I’m sure there were other ponies looking out at your hoofy-work.”

“Thank you Twilight. I do wish I…shared your optimism. Anyways, too-da-loo and rest well!”

With that, Princess Luna jumped out of the window and sped off towards the Capital, leaving Twilight as she stressed as she now was. Stress over the fact that one of her friends was missing and the other, essentially a prisoner that was probably within the dungeons of Castle Canterlot, over something she could not control.

She sighed and levitated a mirror and brush over towards her. If she was going to be stuck here for how long the doctors said she would, she could AT LEAST try and tame the untamable growth that her mane had become.

************************************************************************************

“Anything?” I ask after the bulkhead in front of me was lifted up from its closed position by a single diamond like hand, revealing Tetrax, standing in the threshold with a grimace.

“No. The Vreedle brothers managed to resist my attempts at squeezing out what they knew.” He says, taking a step forwards and letting the door slam down behind him. He raises his other hand, which I noticed is shaped like a mace and freshly stained with greenish black blood. “And I was very thorough.”

He shifts that arm back to normal and I shake my head. “Figures. From what I’ve heard, they are a rather rough and tumble pair. You ruffing them up was probably nothing they haven’t been through before.”

“Oh no.” Says Tetrax. “I made absolutely sure that being interrogated by me was an experience they’d never forget. Them being rough and tumble didn’t have as much with them refusing to divulge anything as you’d think Max.”

“Oh?”

“Despite but what stories you may have been regaled with, though the Vreedle brothers are arsonists, gun nuts, and nihilists in most sense of the word, they are still quite susceptible to pain and telling whoever is dishing it out to them what they want to know, just like your typical lowly criminal pond scum. Unless of course—“

“—they think that the benefits of keeping their traps wired shut would outweigh the risks by a considerable margin.” I finish for him.

“Precisely. And that’s what frightens me exponentially more than having those two aboard. Whatever they were planning, and probably still are planning, must have some big payoff for them in the end, and something a lot less pleasant for us.”

I put my hand by my chin and consider this for a moment. “Hrmmm…well, at least we know that they lack the sufficient mental capacity to pull something like this off with help, though they’d probably or already have denied it. That’s something.”

“What was your first clue?”

Huffing humorously at this, I continue. “At the present though, I think it would be in our best interest to send—“

“—a scouting party to that world we’re over?” He says, taking the words from right out of my gaping maw as I had him.

“Of course. Did you happen to see any other world that looked remotely as habitable in this system?”

“No, but then again, I think it would be in our best interest to stay put and wait for the techies to restore all systems above basic life-support and artificial gravity so we can jump back to our Universe and sort things out there.”

I place my hands over my chest as I quirk a brow. “Really? And how long until then again?” I say without giving away that the question is purely rhetorical, for I already know the answer.

If he had been green, this would have been where we huffed in annoyance. Apparently, I was not as smooth in hiding the true nature of my query as I thought. “Unknown, or so they’ve told me, and you as well.”

“Precisely.” I say with a satisfied smirk. “And since we’re stuck here for the time being, we might as well look into things there on that world. Who knows? Perhaps young Benjamin junior is stranded upon this world instead of the one we were originally supposed to check first and we might have just ended up wasting our time in father’s choice of Universe.”

For a while we stand there, like back on the bridge earlier before we had even set sail for this fiasco. He stares at me with that poker face he always seems to wear while I look back with a clean-shaven smile that is most dashing if I do say so myself. This time, it he that breaks eye contact first. This time, it is he that relents.

Shaking and sighing his head, he says, “I don’t suppose I could convince you not to go by telling you how needlessly reckless and endangering that would be.”

“What can I say? Isn’t it practically the written duty of the Captain to do such things while the Co-Captain professes duly noted worries that usually don’t stop him?” I say.

“Well, you know that old human idiom about curiously and the bat.”

I smile. “My friend, right now, I wonder if you know that idiom. Word of advice: the animal mentioned within it begins with the third letter of the alphabet.”

I walk away down the corridor, picturing the mental gymnastics he must be undergoing as he racks that crystalline brain of his to remember precisely which letter I had mentioned. Looking back, I say, “Who knows Tetrax? This entire turn of events might just turn out to be a happy accident.”

************************************************************************************

“What!? Spike’s missing!?” Yelled Fluttershy, spitting out the tea she was sipping as she sat on a couch.

Not five minutes ago, Rarity had stopped over for the usual Tuesday Tea Time the two had this early in the morning. It had started off normally enough with the typical pleasantries and other such small talk being exchanged when, in the middle of the conversation involving how full in bloom the daffodils were, she had just up and vomited two words from out of her mouth. Spike’s missing.

Doing her best to wipe away the jasmine with a hint of ginger out of her face and mane, Rarity said, “It’s true darling! I heard it from the horse’s mouth herself…so to speak.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Well…Twilight didn’t say so in as many words, but when she started yelling, “OF COURSE SPIKE IS HERE WITH ME, WHERE ELSE COULD HE BE? I MEAN, IT’S NOT LIKE HE DIDN’T COME HOME LAST NIGHT AND THOUGHT HE WAS WITH YOU. BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE SILLY! LIKE A SQUIREEL THAT CAN EAT ANYTHING AND VOMIT OUT BLASTS OF MAGIC!” while waving her hooves frantically about, it’s kind of difficult not to suspect such a thing.” Rarity said prior to taking a long deserved breath. “Poor dear’s lucky to not be in a much worse condition after all of the excitement last night. She probably thought we’d all freak out and tear our hair at this bit of bad news in her addled state. As if I’ve ever been one to lose a cool head in such unfortunate happenstances.”

She took a sip of her tea.

“Well, he certainly isn’t with me, right Angel?” Fluttershy said, turning her head towards her pet bunny, who shrugged his shoulders before going back to reading the latest edition of the Ponyville Gazette.

Rarity sighed and hung her head. “Oh…I thought as much. Would you mind checking Rainbow Dash’s house for me while I trot over to Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Sure Rarity.” Accepted Fluttershy, pouring herself another spot. Suddenly, as soon as the china touched her lips, a thought about something Rarity had just told her hit her like a ton of Realization brand bricks. “Wait, what excitement last night? And what happened to Twilight?”

As soon as Rarity was done recounting the events of the night before, Fluttershy sat there, mouth agape, before falling off the couch and feinting on the floor. The cup of tea she was holding flew out of her fetlock and soaked a still drenched Rarity even further, except this time, with liquid that was much more scalding.

************************************************************************************

I stand watching with my arms crossed. Before me are a dozen or so Petrosapien, Arburian Pelarota, and Vulpimancer soldiers struggling to lift up a single bulkhead. I do not blame them. For this bulkhead, like all of its type within the ship’s hanger bays, was intended to protect the interior of the vessel from exposure to the rigors of space in case the energy shielding lacked sufficient power. Ironically enough, it was this very same deficiency that prevented the doors from being opened remotely and prompted this attempt at opening them the good ol’ fashioned, manual way.

Behind me, barely able to be made out in the dim green glow of the emergency lighting is a Tachyon-10 tactical insertion troop transport. Nothing too big or fancy. Just a height of ten feet, length of twenty, and wingspan of thirty. Inside, it was only good for carrying about ten troops plus a couple of pilots, or in my case, nine of the former and one of the latter.

I begin to tap my foot. Not because those in front of me are struggling with a door that could flatten the craft I’ll be taking into an exquisite metal pancake with how much it weighs, but rather, because the nine brave souls that I had requested to accompany me on this small expedition of sorts has not yet arrived.

“Prince Maximillius!”

Speak of the devil. I turn around and find non-other than Lieutenant Felonius at the head of a group of seven knights including himself and two Petrosapiens. All of them give the customary salute, which I return. “Well, you certainly took your sweet time getting here Lieutenant. I know this vessel is not exactly easy to maneuver even with the power back on unless you hold a high enough rank, but for empire’s sake, I was beginning to tap my foot here!”

The Lieutenant immediately drops to his knees and grovels out, “Please forgive me Mi Lord! Finding soldiers willing to accompany you in light of recent events has been most trying, especially in these conditions.”

“Rise. I’m not going to punish you Felonius.” I sigh. “I was just getting a little…antsy is all.”

This was true. So in true in fact, that it is one of the few traits no one, even Tetrax, would say was inherited from my mother side. Boundless impatience is apparently a hallmark my father was famous for and still is, to a lesser degree.

“Thank you Mi Lord!” Said Felonius, doing as I instructed. “Shall we be off then?”

I look over my shoulder back at the gaggle of troops by the bulkhead. For the fifth time, it slams shut once more and knocks them all backwards. “Of course. As soon as they manage to open that door. And the one after that and the one after that one.”

The entourage of my expedition, without a word uttered from my mouth or theirs, walk around me and approach the men attempting to lift the bulkhead. With their strength added into the mix, they managed to raise it high enough for my vessel to pass through and keep it there with two thick pillars of crystal off to the sides.

Nodding my approval, I say, “Hrmmm…I’ll get knighted up and get the engines warm.”

As both groups make their way to the second blast door, I myself ascend the drop down ramp at the rear end of the transport and don the set of standard Forever Knight armor I had placed on one of the seats, sans the helmet. After planting my rear firmly into the pilot’s seat, I look out of the window in front of me and see that they have already managed to open up the second blast door. Engaging the ignition sequence, the bird hovers off of the ground as the landing props pull back into its armor. I fly over them, turning my head back towards the open ramp so they can hear me better. “You have the thanks of your Prince for your efforts men! Now, to those of you not flying air Tennyson today, I suggest you head back behind the first door you managed to open at once. To the rest, climb aboard!”

Not needing to be told twice by me, I moved the ship closer to the ground so that my entourage could enter, the rest, making a beeline back deeper into the bay. “Strap yourselves in boys!” I yell, gaining height and turning the bird around. “Things are about to get loud in here!”

With a press of a button, two missiles raced out of mounts on both of the bird’s wings, streaking towards four individual targets that I had already locked onto. The pillars keeping the first two blast doors went up in a shower of crystal, the doors themselves slamming shut and scattering the shards further. Turning the bird back around to the last door, I say to my co-pilot, “Take control! This last one is mine!”

I unhook myself from the harness keeping me strapped to the pilot’s seat and the Lieutenant takes the wheel. I jump off the ramp and land with a thud. With a thought, the device attached my wrist on the genetic level glows dark green, bathing me in its light and transforming me into a Vaxasaurian. “HUMONGOSAUR!” I yell out. I run towards the door, growing to a height of sixty feet as I do. I find purchase on it and with a mighty heave, push it open above me. The sensation of space sucking out whatever air was in between blast-door number three and blast door number two surrounds me and I see the small form of the Tachyon-10 fly past me and into the void.

My work done, I took two quick steps to join them, the door slamming shut behind me. Using it now as a jumping off point, I shot towards the vessel, whose ramp was still lowered. I transform back to my human self, finding, much to my surprise, that I am s helmetless and chugging on vacuum. Taking a firm hold of the ramp with both hands, I pull myself inside, hanging on to the harness keeping a knight secure in his seat. Felonius immediately presses a button that raises the ramp shut and with even greater expedience, presses one that activates the craft’s life-support. “Where is my helmet?” I ask as I begin to take grateful gulps of the air now flowing inside.

“I think I saw it fly out of the back when the Tachyon entered space, sire.” Said the Knight whose harness that, even now, I hang onto like my life depended on it.

“What?” I cough out.

“Forgive me sire. I shall speak louder.”

As the knight repeated what he had just said, albeit in a greater volume, my mind recalls that before I had leapt out and changed into the Vaxasaurian, I had indeed not bothered to put on my helmet and had instead placed it to the left of my seat. Placed in tandem with the knight’s testimony, it was obvious that it was now chugging on more vacuum than I just did. I lay my head back and keep it there for a while, catching my breathe.

************************************************************************************

“Alright everypony. Think!” Yawned Rainbow Dash, flying back and forth inside the barn on Sweet Apple Acres. “Where would that little half-pint run off to?”

After Rarity had made quick use of Fluttershy’s shower to freshen up after having lukewarm tea spitted at her followed by hot tea dumped on her, Rarity had returned to Fluttershy’s living room to find the yellow Pegasus recovering from the bombshell that had been dropped on her, pun not intended. After making sure that she was okay, the two headed off to the friend that they were supposed to ask if Spike was with, expecting, hoping, that the baby dragon was with the one they chose to visit. It didn’t exactly go swimmingly.

Now, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, were gathered in the second’s barn to come up with something, a sure fire way to find their missing mutual friend.

“I dunno.” Replied Applejack, turning to regard Rarity. “Did Twilight mention any spats between her and the little critter big enough for him to just up’n leave like this?”

“I’m afraid not Applejack. The poor dear seemed about as surprised by this as I was. More so in fact, now that I think about it.” Rarity said, placing a hoof to her chin. “Though, now that I think about it even further, perhaps that could have had more to do with the three or so bumps to the noggin she took last night. Brain damage and all that.”

“Pfff...puh-lease!” Said Rainbow Dash. “That girl’s gonna be fine! She’s taken A LOT heavier hits than that and walked away from them before! I’m more worried about Spike here.”

“Ya sure ya ain’t confusin’ Twilight for you yerself whenever ya get into an accident when practicin’ there sugarcube?”

“If by that you mean I’m a punching bag, then thank you Applejack.” Rainbow Dash said with a victorious grin that quickly turned into a look of confusion. “I think. Hey…wait a minute!”

As Applejack snickered at Rainbow’s late realization, Rarity said, “Girls, please get back to focusing, would you? This is serious!”

“Ah calm down Rarity. I’m sure he and the Crusaders just got together and decided to have a sleepover in that tree house of theres. Nothing to worry about.”

“Ummm…Rainbow Dash?” Asked Fluttershy. “Weren’t you listening? Applejack and Rarity said that the Crusaders haven’t seen him either.”

“Huh…this is serious then.” Rainbow Dash said, stretching. “Well, I’m bushed—errr…--stumped.”

“Well maybe if ya didn’t sleep in everyday till noon, you’d be used to being up and about this early for ya Rainbow.” Said Applejack with a roll of her eye.

“Aw give me a break. You try working on the weather team and training half as much as I do!” Rainbow Dash yawned.

“Girl, your brain must be as fuzzy as a whole herd’a sheep if ya think I don’t work at least double as hard as you do on a bad day since I was a filly!”

“Hey! You callin’ me lazy?” Rainbow said, shaking her hoof as though thems were fightin’ words.

“Nope. Just not a mornin’ pony is all.”

Rainbow Dash tried thinking of an argument, but eventually used so much of her limited brainpower in her bed-headed state (some would say in any state period), that her eyes began to get droopier than they were already and she crashed onto a bundle of hay, completely and utterly in REM before she had even landed.

“I rest my case.” Smiled Applejack, proudly.

Fluttershy and Rarity turned to face one another and looked down at the dirt as they thought of a means to locate their missing friend. “Hmmmm…” They mumbled in unison.

Fluttershy was the first to look back up. “Maybe we should head into town and see if anypony’s seen him?”

“Darling, that was my thought exactly!” Said Rarity, happily.