Where Will You Run to When Your Goddesses Are Gone?

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."

~ George Washington

—————

"Princess?"

Her unicorn apprentice's voice snapped her back to reality, or, rather, freed her from her frozen solid state.

The alicorn goddess breathed in her first breath since what felt like an eternity ago, having been stuck in her illusory imagination: an imagination that made her feel like she was a pony nobody could trust, a pony who could not even trust herself with what she knew. She imagined her entire nation, all of Equestria, in fact, hating her because of what she'd said and the truth she'd told—

"Princess Celestia, are you okay??" came a more worried voice, breaking her again from her swirling thoughts.

Thankfully, Twilight Sparkle was always a nosy and concerned little mare. She gave a small, amused smile and shook her head vigorously. The Regent of the Sun then gave a soft sigh before glancing down at her student with deep magenta eyes. "Twilight Sparkle... I'm afraid I do not know what this is, nor what its purpose is..." came the carefully crafted reply. She reluctantly let go of the object, setting it down on the ground. There was no safe way she could make it seem like nothing was wrong without taking it for herself, but she knew something like this was bound to happen eventually. Her own student, the most gifted, talented, and intelligent pony in all of Equestria that she had seen thus far, would find out exactly what it was. She had to take some precautions...

Eyes widening and feeling extremely crestfallen, the unicorn let out a held breath and nodded, taking the incredibly advanced thing back in her magical grasp. She didn't notice the close gaze her teacher had while she opened up a saddlebag, placing it inside, and closing it securely. When she looked back up at her teacher, she smiled a little. "How have you been, Princess?"

The alicorn was very happy to have had the topic changed. Letting her body relax now, she settled more into her comfortable floor-bed thing and began to speak. "Oh, it's just been so frantic here in the Castle. Ponies everywhere are putting up decorations all over the place, and most conflict with so many others... it's almost like it's anarchy in here," she smiled while speaking, but her smile faltered with the mention of... that word. She didn't want that, not in her castle, nor definitely out there in her nation. She almost dove into another thinking marathon but thankfully she saved herself this time around.

Twilight, who was on a lower level below her, seemed to notice that something was wrong, but she seemed to shrug it off and continue on with the conversation as if she hadn't realized anything. She smiled awkwardly up at her teacher before exhaling. "Um, Princess?" she asked.

The mentor turned her head to face her better. She smiled genuinely to her protégé and asked, "Yes, Twilight? What is it?"

"I was thinking, for the Summer Sun Celebration..." the lavender unicorn began. "I wanted to know what kind of decorations you'd want us to put up. You know, since we—I don't exactly know what to put up. I was thinking we could use some sun-colored ribbons or something?" She glanced over at the alicorn's flank for a moment, behind her large, feathery wing. "Something that reminds ponies of your cutie mark..." she thought.

Listening intently, the Solar Monarch gave a rather soft "Hmm..." before speaking her answer. "I think that's a great idea, Twilight. And if you can, bring a few more decorations with you. I think a banner with... 'Welcome to the Annual Summer Sun Celebration' would do just fine. Oh, and some balloons," she chuckled. "I know your friend Pinkie can help you with that!" The Princess seemed back to her old self

"Thanks, Princess," Twilight smiled and couldn't help but let out a giggle herself. She felt much better now, and began to relax. She nuzzled her mentor's snowy white neck, closing her eyes in content. "I'm happy we get to organize the decorations for this Celebration," she smiled.

"It wouldn't be the same without you," the Princess murmured, resting her head atop the little pony's. She let her eyes close, and was immediately greeted by her worried thoughts once more, which came around and taunted her. Her eyelids twitched and she tried to clear them away, but couldn't.

You know you lied to her! Now you can't do anything about what will happen next! one of her thoughts jeered to her.

Twilight Sparkle will find out and she's going to tell the entire nation about your lies to expose you!! You wouldn't stand a chance against your entire nation, let alone the one pony you love!! another sneered.

N-No! You can't just say that, I... I'm a Princess! A Goddess who controls the sun! the almighty Sun Goddess trembled, whimpering inwardly. She couldn't let her thoughts overtake her like this; she had to take control of herself and the situation, and fast.

A few moments passed, which seemed like hours to the quivering deity, until her student below her pulled away, smiling up at her. The purple unicorn stood up and smiled in determination. "Don't worry Princess, we'll get everything done without a hitch!" she nearly saluted to her, but seemed to change her mind, instead dipping her head deeply in a respectful bow. "I promise."

Princess Celestia gave her a convinced nod, her lips curving into an amused twinkle. "Well then, there's no time to lose! As they say, time is of the essence," she finished up.

Twilight nodded and smiled cheerfully at her mentor before turning and leaving the room, leaving the Princess alone within.

She gave a quiet sigh. Still in a comfortable position on her floorbed, her face turned solid and she began to think to herself once more, feeling safer now that she was supposedly alone by herself. All around her, the room was quiet and was bathed in the afternoon sun's light, and the silence was relaxing... had it not been for the Princess's ever-growing problem.

The wise Princess knew for a fact that her student would find out exactly what that thing was. There was no doubt in her mind that letting her keep the remnants of one of the first failed experiments' circuitry was a bad idea, but would it have compared to her openly taking it from the grasp of the inquisitive pony? So many questions floated in her mind, possibilities that could have been and the possibilities of what the future held. She began to think deeply about what lay ahead.

She also knew that Twilight Sparkle would come back with more questions that she would not be able to simply wave off or ignore. An intrigued Twilight was always a dangerous Twilight, especially if somepony tried to lie blatantly to her face. She knew the ins and outs of pony psychology, and even as an... elevated being, the alicorn Princess was no exception.

Shaking her head, she summoned a telepathic spell within her, her horn beginning to glow. Within a few moments she directed a very important, encrypted message to her sister, Princess Luna, immediately. Relaxing when she felt the message was complete, her horn lost its yellow glow as the magic ended. She smiled to herself in slight amusement. When the Science Department invented a radio transmitter she felt she had to create a spell that did the same, and so she did. Though it was still very slow for even interplanetary messaging, it worked very well for sending messages immediately to ponies she needed to inform immediately.

But she had gotten around the problem of even interstellar communication; she had done it personally a hundred years ago.

The regal Princess stood up from her floorbed and stretched out her long legs, making sure there were no blemishes in her golden horseshoes, before she left her room, exiting into the hallway. She glanced around, her magical hair waving around elegantly along, and when she saw and felt nopony nearby, she proceeded towards the staircase that led directly down to the basement. After leaving the top floors of the castle she entered the underground threshold, which was marked by a significant change in temperature. Immediately below where the ground should have been, it grew quite cold, and continued to do so as the Princess took slow steps down, down, and down into what looked like a spiraling dark abyss. Within a minute or two she could see her breath, and she smiled to herself as her body effortlessly kept its warmth.

She longed to see the catacombs. Even to this day, she could still retrace her steps to the secret meeting place with her eyes closed, and even enter the magical password at the dead end in the same way. She had held so many meetings ever since the initial confession throughout so many generations that it had been ingrained into her mind so she could never forget. It could have been either for better or for worse, but though she tried to convince herself that scientific achievements were for the better, she knew she was withholding the truth from the rest of her nation; not exactly the best of tactics.

But when she was in here, however, her thoughts began to slow down, which relieved her greatly. She continued along, going down the dim, torchlit hallways. The white bricks still held steady despite her more-than-2500-year absence, but some of them began to grow all sorts of different mosses, causing small cracks to appear every now and then, causing cool, natural air to flow into the winding corridors.

In front of her, the familiar, seemingly bottomless hole yawned in front of her. It was huge in diameter, at least fifteen to twenty pony-lengths wide, and the staircase that led down was a gentle slope. It would be a long walk down to the base of the mountain down this ponymade cylinder that led directly to true ground level, and the air only got colder.

She reached the bottom and turned to the door she knew was the one she needed to go through to get to her destination. Opening it, she walked through and went down even deeper below the ground.

When she finally got to her destination, she relaxed when she noticed a dark shape up ahead. It had a sleek, strong body with black onyx horseshoes and hair of one of the deepest, darkest nights. Princess Celestia smiled, trotting casually up to her sister, and the two shared an affectionate nuzzle before the taller pulled away.

"Did I startle you when I sent you that message?" she asked her younger, nocturnal sister. Her moderate magenta eyes had a glint of playfulness in them.

Princess Luna blinked at her question, and suddenly realized exactly what she was doing when she had sent her message. A faint blush showed up on her deep midnight blue cheeks while looking away nervously. "My dear sister, you interrupted a quite... private time for me... and that is all I am going to say about that," she mumbled. "I do realize the convenience of the spell, but truly, you must at least not send it to me while I am... playing Halo!!" she seemed to shout in a hushed voice.

Her older sister smiled in amusement. "Oh, so I see you still play that..." she murmured before turning to the business at hand. Loosening up her muscles, she exhaled a deep breath before placing her hoof on where the familiar, soothing magical disturbance lay. Feeling satisfaction well up from within her, she smirked and kept her eyes wide open as the lines led up the wall directly in front of them, opening the portal that led to the meeting room isolated underground from the rest of the hallways completely, deeper under the earth. It was what she always did; she enjoyed keeping her eyes open so she could gaze into the blinding lights before walking in.

And so she walked in, her little sister not too far behind her. When her eyes got used to the darker room in comparison, she breathed a sigh of content.

The place was just as it always had been, only it hadn't been used in just over twenty years. She had called off the secret meetings ever since Twilight Sparkle had been born, if only to be her overseer. She had always sensed immense magical power within the unicorn, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

She was also very clingy, and a personality like that could mean potential trouble if the Princess wasn't careful. So, she decided to abandon the meetings altogether, as she knew the little filly could easily find out what was happening.

"Now to attend to business..." her sister's voice wrecked her train of thought. The younger alicorn strode over to the table and sighed quietly to herself. "I can't seem to recall how this infernal piece of technology worked..." she muttered, half to herself.

"I'll take care of that, little sister," she snapped back into action, taking her sister's place. She sat down on the cold stone chair, her flank feeling mighty cold. But the solar princess ignored the feelings while she took the gold-plated horseshoe off from her hoof. She gingerly placed it down against a particular spot on the table, which triggered the familiar yellow line to beam towards the middle of the table where the embedded part-sphere glowed to life.

The hologram flickered to life and operated normally, as if it had just been yesterday that it was used. The Princess of the Sun smiled in contentment and looked up at the bright image of Equestria, with all its beautiful oceans and landmasses, her kingdom only a small part of a huge planet.

She narrowed her eyes a little. Luna sat down beside her on a smaller stone chair previously reserved for a member of the court, watching her closely.

"Big sister... Celly... are you sure this is the correct decision to make under these particular circumstances?" she asked in that familiar tone of voice and choice of words. Her sister had told her of her plans to do such a thing, but now she was aching to know if she would truly go through with it. After all, it was a bit risky...

Celestia heard her old nickname and chuckled a little. "Oh, Looney..." she shook her head in amusement. "You're always doubting me, aren't you?" she said in good humor, before sighing seriously once more. "Yes, this is how it must be. We need reinforcements in case a full scale threat comes to our doorstep..."

Looney flinched a bit at the nickname her sister had always called her to annoy her, another blush coloring her cheeks. "S-Sister, I am not... no, I most definitely am not doubting your resolve!" she breathed, but she was cut off by another laugh from Celly, whom she glared at. "I understand..." she murmured softly, resting her head down on the cold table without being bothered in the least bit.

The older sister nodded and sighed to herself. Using her magic to manipulate the controls, she zoomed out of the solar system until there was just a huge overview of one quadrant of the galaxy, the Orion arm, at which, they lived near the edge. She then narrowed her eyes to see a small footnote at the other end of the galaxy, and she took a moment before remembering what it was.

"They seem to have progressed a great deal during all these years," her sister's voice murmured from beside hers, making her nod in agreement. "It is almost a shame that we were stuck here on this planet unlike them, who advanced more than any of us could ever imagine..."

"Well said, sister," Celestia replied and zoomed in on an alien solar system. In the middle was a white dwarf which, according to their scientists' calculations, had been such for more than 3 billion years. Three planets revolved around it in close proximity, and another small note floated above one certain planet which looked similar to Equestria. Ceylon, it said.

This was it. Manipulating the map, she brought up a sidebar which prompted commands from her. Entering /contact amdtrpny[Ceylon], a dialog box came up and asked her, Are you sure?.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Luna nod. Taking a breath, she answered Yes with her magic, and immediately, a blank square one pony-length by one-pony length was overlaid over the visualization of the alien solar system. Something that looked like a rotating and dynamic mass of bubbles popping represented the loading sequence as a connection was established.

Her little sister giggled a little beside her when she saw the bubbles. "I remember adding those in on the one hundred and sixty-seventh meeting," she said happily. "I loved bubbles back then..." she reminisced.

Her sister only nodded absently, much more concentrated on the task at hand. She kept her eyes trained on the empty box, hoping they would make contact.

Just a few moments later, a pony's face appeared. It seemed to be some sort of video chat, and behind him was what looked like a laboratory in which chemicals were being prepared and... pony scientists were working, carrying things around. They were predominantly unicorns, with a few Earth ponies as well. There were no pegasi to be seen.

Had it not been for the blue hues that the hologram could only provide, he would have been a much more colorful stallion. By subtracting colors and assuming the lighting was how she expected it to be, he would have been a light brown pegasus with yellow hair... an odd combination. But a combination that was the truth, no matter how odd it seemed. These ponies seemed to have evolved into a state stronger and much more efficient than the traditional Equestrians.

The two stared at each other, the alien end in utter disbelief, and the Equestrian end rather silent. She had a message to deliver, but she did not know if he would understand her predicament. Or her rank. After all, she hadn't kept any extrasolar colonies in check.

Suddenly the stallion breathed a deep breath, recognizing who she was. He bowed his head down low. "Ya ikha salvat, Puelga d'Selestiumún," he murmured as his head nearly touched the ground. He seemed to be praising her for her current presence there, and the mere fact that he was speaking to The Princess Celestia.

Her eyes widened. Of course: they spoke the very same language the entire nation had during and before their departure from Equestria. She missed the langauge, now that she realized it, and hearing them once more made her heart tingle with excitement and her mind long for those days past to come back. But she had to speak back to him in Old Caballan, not Modern Equish. She had to find her words before she replied.

"Orianse. Poyus'ite ikhaemien fym?" she asked what his name was.

The stallion straightened up as she had ordered, and focused on her. "Ya'site Cerrelunbbru," he replied his name to her. "Obe'site alvolopag ikha akwentyan," he continued on, commenting on how it was a pleasure to meet her. Apparently she was considered the hero of ponies all throughout the galaxy. After all, she had sent the mission to colonize other stars, and it had been a success, mostly because she helped in deciphering the science behind it.

Beside her, Luna was much more acquainted with the language, having used it to speak to herself during her not-so-cozy stay on the moon. "Cerrelunbbru. Sky Shadow..." she translated the name to herself in a soft murmur. She continued to gaze at the alien pony intently.

"Lata. Chedon... ad'ikha pusidd alik malla nunti," Celestia said.

The stallion nodded, his face growing serious with her mention of bad news. He wondered what it could be.

"Únalum, yaemien alum... vet kunbet sirke'velitulún. Yem sirke. Vel... vet nun kunbaga..." she related to him about Twilight Sparkle finding out about the spacecraft part and how she would potentially find out the truth very soon... which was as serious as it got. She knew for a fact that if her country was going to descend into anarchy, they would rebel against her, maybe even Twilight Sparkle would, too... She had nowhere close to the required amount of magic to keep them put down, but either way, she didn't want to harm her own ponies.

Sky Shadow's brow furrowed in concern. "Lata... the'site malla. Poyus zhatte faset da?" he asked her for guidance. He didn't know what they would do if the Princess were to fall by the hands of her own subjects.

That was something serious. Hard to believe. The Princess, Princess Celestia... falling from power and potentially being hurt or killed by her own ponies. But it was a serious concern: a concern that had to be acted on immediately and no later.

The Equestrian Sun Princess had her answer all ready. This was the moment. "Praepare únforton'st et únkaputelae. Hert ele simatke wadt..." she whispered.

The mere mention of readying the freighters and capital ships made Sky Shadow's blood run cold. But he bowed his head down low in deep rest. "Tha'esite ominu da?" he asked.

"Yes. Tha'esite ominu. Antil, Cerrelunbbru..." the Regent of the Sun finished. The stallion on the other side of the galaxy bowed his head down low and ended the stream, knowing that was all he needed to know—and do— to fulfill his job. The Princesses stayed at the table, sitting down in silence while the hologram slowly rotated the planet known as Ceylon in its view.

"Well. It is done then, big sister," Luna murmured softly as she glanced over at the alicorn with the sterling white coat. "There is no turning back now..."

Princess Celestia didn't register her words as being in Equish, but she nodded nevertheless. "I wonder... what will happen?" she asked softly, glancing up at the hologram which projected the alien planet live before their eyes.

After a few hours of blank staring, she thought she saw an entire fleet of ships leave the atmosphere before they disappeared into hyperspace.

———

Twilight Sparkle breathed a soft sigh as she slowly exited the castle, approaching the entrance to the tallest tower where her room was on top. She walked inside, giving a slight nod to the two guards on either side of the door before she began the long way up the winding staircase.

She was still wondering exactly what the complicated... thing was. She had decided that she would study it to the limit of what her observations could turn up, so she would obviously be working on it for a while.

Not only was she wondering what it was and how she would go about finding out what it was and made of, but she was also wondering exactly why the Princess acted the way she had. She seemed so faraway, very distant, which was a trait she had never exhibited before, especially a few days before the Summer Sun Celebration would be held in her very own castle, in her own city. Maybe she was just overwhelmed with all the petitions she was receiving through the courts? It wasn't her choice to say exactly what it was.

Getting up to her room, she closed and locked the door securely, making sure nopony could get in. Spike still wasn't back yet, so it was evident to her that he was still looking for them. Looking over at the clock, she sighed to herself. It was already five o'clock and Spike still wasn't back. Either he had lost his way in Canterlot (which was highly unlikely since they had lived there for quite a while) or he had found the rest of her friends and was staying with them for a while.

Either way, this provided her the best opportunity to get studying. Taking the burden off her back, she placed them on the bed and opened the bag which contained the strange piece. Now that the lighting was comparable to what she was used to back at the Ponyville Library, she could see the details on it much better.

It was a green, almost completely flat board of strange lines. Wondering if it was a sort of ancient language spoken prehistorically, she almost stood up to scan through her book of Medieval Equestrian Languages before she stopped. There was no possible way it could have been writing: it just looked too neatly organized to be hoof-or horn-written.

Resolving it to be a part of a machine, she called on her memories to aid her in her greatest time of need.

"Let's see. So the only thing I've ever seen that looks somewhat like this was the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy when I inspected it behind their backs, but the lines were less sparse and it was a lot thicker... and heavier..." she thought aloud to herself as she investigated the strange thing with her magic.

A few minutes passed, and the unicorn was still hard at work trying to figure out exactly what the thing was made of. Unfortunately, she didn't have all the necessary materials so she couldn't directly experiment with it, but at least now she found that it interacted and manipulated electricity somehow, which she was able to discover by supplying it with arcane-generated energy. She was just about to discover something huge when suddenly...

BAM!

The unicorn yelped loudly and jumped where she was, utterly startled. She glanced behind her, at the door which had just opened; Spike had thrown it open without knocking (like he usually did), but this time she was more startled than usual. Was it the thing she was experimenting with that put her on edge like that?

"Twilight! We're back!" Spike said rather loudly, which made the unicorn completely lose her focus on what she was working on. Standing up, she looked over at the baby dragon and the five other ponies who were behind her, and all her worries evaporated immediately.

"You're back!!" she half-squealed, galloping over to her friends, who gave her a group hug. She smiled happily, squeezing them tight in her arms. "I missed you all!! Where have you been??"

"Oh, Twilight! We were having such a marvelous time over at Pinkie Pie's place! You see, she was able to rent out a space to open another Sugarcube Corner just a few days ago, and we were there having a bit of coffee and the like, you see? You really should have come sooner, oh, it was fabulous!" Rarity exclaimed as she squeezed her friend.

"Yeah! And we were having lots of fun eating this new thing I invented called CHOCOLATE RAIN! It's when you take a bunch of milk and add a whole LOT of chocolate mix into it, and then you take a blender and you add in lots and LOTS of dark chocolate, and then you add in the milk again because I don't even know who would remotely WANT to drink something that thick, at least add some milk! oh yeah, and then we added confectioner's sugar and, OHMYGOSH! The cotton candy!! We made the cotton candy ourselves, we got our own machine and all that and we added it into the chocolate rain to make it REAL CHOCOLATE RAIN and it tasted AWESOME! I got the idea from Discord when he invaded Equestria because I reallyreallyreallyreallyREAALLYY liked those clouds and the rain because it tasted like the best thing ever and TWILIGHT I've missed you!!" Pinkie Pie blabbered all of that within twenty seconds as she squished Twilight in her arms.

The lavender unicorn smiled as she hugged them all. "Oh, girls! Do we have anything planned for tonight??" she asked, having completely forgotten about all her worries regarding the alien object.

"Ah'm not really sure Twi, but the girls and ah were thinkin' 'bout, maybe a sleepover of sorts?" Applejack shrugged, noticeably quivering at the mention of a sleepover. At least, the kind of sleepover she was thinking was an incredibly girly sleepover such as her stay with Rarity during Twilight's first ever such event.

She smiled at her friends and sat down on the rug at the foot of her bed. "Oh, alright, I guess we could. Besides, our rooms are so close together anyhow, so I think it'll be fine!" Her mind was made up now, and there was no turning back.

Meanwhile, Spike had gone over to Twilight's workspace to examine the strange object. He picked it up gingerly in his hands, gazing and examining it all over, trying to decipher what it was made of—essentially the same things Twilight was doing earlier before they had come, but he reached a conclusion much quicker.

His eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, crap... Twilight's going to freak if she finds out!" he said in a strained, hushed voice to himself. He glanced around and set it back down (he was very afraid of the implications of an object like that on the world, let alone the closest pony to him) while all the ponies weren't looking. Their excited voices echoed all around the room before they turned to leave, heading towards Rarity's chamber a few floors down. The door closed shut, leaving the baby dragon alone to his own devices.

He sat down on the big queen-sized bed and began to think. His two short legs dangled off the side, and he swung them alternately and idly while his mind raced.

Seeing as he was able to identify the part as a piece ejected from a circuit board, he began to wonder exactly how he was able to confirm what it was. When he was much younger, he recalled always walking around the castle whenever Twilight would fall asleep trying to catch up on her studying. He would exit the room silently and sneak downstairs, past pegasus and unicorn guards alike, and make his way down the winding halls that led all over the castle.

On one occasion he trod down a longer hall than usual. Feeling his skin underneath his scales grow cold, he remembered the temperature of the placed and actually shivered. He shook it off and closed his eyes tighter, for he had to remember.

There he was, standing before a gigantic door. It was no ordinary door, wooden and rather fragile like most doors he opened, but it was huge, seeming about ten pony-lengths wide and twice that in height. It was made of a dark grey metal, something the baby dragon had never seen in his entire life. It was gigantic, and he could see no way of opening it anywhere... except for a small button right up there.

The button was on a panel a distance above his head. It seemed to be taller than even ponies, and this frustrated him: he just had to see what was on the other side. He treaded over until it was above him, and he bunched up his muscles, summoning all his strength to jump up and reach it...

But it was too tall for him to even be able to touch the bottom of the panel. Growling to himself, he chose to look for something—anything to throw at the small red button. He began to scavenge all around, looking for something large enough to throw at it.

Finally, he found something. It was a part of a crumbled white brick about half the side of his head. It was light, too: it was perfect! So he went over in front of the dashboard and summoned all his strength once more, throwing it with unparalleled preciseness. Needless to say, it hit the button—and triggered something that made him jump.

A large noise and the radiating of rotating orange lights above him made him curl up into a ball. But the blaring noise of the alarm was only a one-shot, and he found the seemingly immovable door began to rise up, and up, and up... until it was fully open.

He walked inside this new, undiscovered room, and glanced around with wide eyes. All around him were carriages... no, they were gigantic carriage-looking things... no, they didn't look like carriages at all. They looked alien: sleek, colored silver and white and black and all sorts of monochromatic colors which were the only colors he could sense in the extremely dim atmosphere. These things were easily over fifteen pony-lengths tall, and were contained within a room that expanded in unbelievable distances in both all directions, including up. The ceiling was more than five stories tall, and more than ten times that in length and width.

The baby dragon was completely astounded. Unable to say anything, he only was able to decide to explore one of them, which he did. Scrambling over closer to the nearest one, he noticed a rusting metal ladder leading up to a sort of opening surrounded by glass near the tip of one of the sleeker ends, some sort of driver's seat. He climbed the ladder, and for a minute of panting and grunting, he finally reached the top and leaped into the rather cramped seating area.

There was barely any room for a pony within the "driver's seat", and what was in front of him made his eyes widen. All sorts of instruments, most of them circular with a needle-looking thing pointing to a certain number, with some which looked like screens which were turned off, were there, laying dormant on the console sitting before him. Above that was a perfect view of what was in front of him—if he was taller.

He stood up and began to crawl down into the lower area where a pony's hooves made contact with pedals of sorts down below. Poking them curiously, he elicited no response from the system as a whole, even when he pressed one down all the way. However, a small orange light dimly lit his surroundings underneath the dashboard of the craft, which made him notice something when he looked up...

Green. Green circuitry underneath a clear plastic encasement, which was connected directly to the controls he had seen directly in front of the seat at head level. Boy, it sure was complex...

Spike's eyes flew open. He was back in Twilight's room, and he was heaving for breath. The pieces began to fit together now. The alien thing he had examined and had drawn conclusions from, charred and torn of from the rest of its parts, was once a component of a much larger system of circuits that formed the basis of a control system on a flying aircraft. This one must have been from a failed experiment in which the craft did go up into the sky, but encountered a malfunction high up into the air and exploded. Burn marks...

The Princesses must have been quick to act if they wanted to hide something of this magnitude. They would have cleaned up every trace of the wreckage they could find, except for this one, which landed in the Canterlot Forest. They wouldn't have been able to find it at all, since the forest was so vast and so easy to get lost in...

The little dragon shivered, and not from the cold wafting in from the open window beside the large bed. His body was trembling from the realization, and he knew he was possibly the only common being in Equestria to have known such a fact.

What would he tell Twilight?