Sword of Equestria: A Sword of the Stars II Crossover

by ForceUser

With Chaos

Sword of Equestria: A Sword of the Stars II Crossover

Chapter 7: With Chaos

Silence fell over the three ponies in a confetti strewn bathroom in a small cottage on the edge of the dark and foreboding Everfree forest.

'A deadly silence', Dash though as she eyed the unfazed pink party pony known as Pinkie Pie, 'soon to be formerly known as that is', with a burning fury in her eyes, her face red from anger.

“Ooh, Charades! I love this game!” The pink pony in question was bouncing up and down happily, Managing to laugh in the face of physics by not slipping once on the slippery and soapy floor. Physics was not amused but after having to deal with for to many years of Pinkie Pie completely disregarding it and hurting it's feelings in the process, it had very much given up on caring.

Stopping right in front of the rainbow maned mare she ceased her hopping and put a hoof under her chin. Squinting her eyes and considering the situation for a few seconds her face lit up victoriously. “Oh Dashie you're making this too easy! You're doing a perfect impression of Twilight when she tried to understand my Pinkie Sense! But that's funny; you never met her, not to mention you weren't even there or even born. Well the old Dashie was there of course but you're not her, I mean you're as close as I could find in the whole universe to the old Dashie who was there and you look like her and you have her cutie mark and- Ooh! Maybe you share her brain! Okay maybe not her brain but like her mind or something like that time Princess Twilight cast that spell- oopsie you weren't supposed to know about that but that doesn't matter, its not like it can happen twihmp-.”

With what was quickly becoming the norm with Pinkie Pie, a hoof -cyan in color this time- was valiantly putting itself on the line to save the ears of the ponies in hearing distance of the bubbly and energetic pony. With the tsunami of words temporarily held at bay, Dash could hear the soft laughter coming from Fluttershy. Just like the warm bubble bath had soothed her sore muscles and itching wings, the heavenly laughter soothed Dash’s anger at the pink pony for ruining the moment, and probably any action she would have liked to get. It was hard for anyone to stay angry with the amount of kindness radiating off of the yellow and pink Pegasus and even Physics decided to call it a day on trying to keep Pinkie Pie in check.

Defeated Dash exhaled long slow breath through her nose and let her hoof-impersonating–a-cork fall down to the ground. Walking over to the towel rack she grabbed a towel and starting drying her hair off and looked over at Pinkie Pie smiling. “So what's up Pinks?”

0ooOoo0

Apparently quite a bit was up as Pinkie Pie energetically tried to convey through a combination of charades, props, an impressive orchestral piece and perhaps one of the most complex and expertly choreographed song and dance numbers Dash has ever seen.

'Admittedly, my bar for those kinds of things is set rather low. Never really was a fan of musicals but I'm sure that Hiver production with the… cheese counted right?' Dash shook her head trying to get the thought out of her head, muttering under her breath, “what is it with Hivers and cheese?” Her breath condensed into a cloud of vapor into the cold of the night as they waited on the train platform for the midnight train to Canterlot.

Next to her Fluttershy, packed away behind multiple layers of clothing and scarves, let out a soft ‘eep’ as the single light they were waiting under flickered on and off for a split second. Rolling her eyes a somewhat more moderately clothed Dash merely hopped from hoof to hoof to keep the blood flowing and her extremities warm. While they were for all intents and purposes full blooded Pegasi and according to the short report from Twilight were meant to be able to stand up to the cold better, the planet was quite a bit colder than the standard temperatures that SolForce had on their ships. Combined with the fact that their bodies were still somewhat new then having a few layers of clothing over their already insulating fur helped quite a bit in regulating their still unfamiliar internal temperatures.

Pinkie pie on the other hand was enjoying the cold and foggy breath far too much to be bothered by a silly thing like Temperature. Much like it's close cousin Physics, all Temperature could do in the face of Pinkie was to go sit in a corner and cry.

“Say Pinks, I've been meaning to ask;” Rainbow Dash said as she continued to stomp her hooves, “when we were back home-,” she frowned and corrected herself, “I mean back in Sol and I first met you, you were human right. I mean sure you had that freaky bouncy pink hair and… stuff but you still looked human. How'd you do it?”

With a giggle Pinkie jumped down form the top of the station building where she had been playing Pony Pirate of the seven star clusters as 'lookout'. “Oh I didn't do that.” She said innocently as she did a little cartwheel, jumping up and down with joy after landing a perfect somersault at the end.

Scratching behind an ear Rainbow Dash frowned and looked at Pinkie, “I don't get it, you were definitely a human and now you've turned back into a pony. I though Twilight told Shy that we were stuck this way permanently.”

“Yiperoony Looni!” Pinkie Pie sang as she hopped up and down in front of the two bundled up mares coming to a sudden stop right in front of Rainbow Dash. With barely contained mirth twinkling in her eyes she whispered conspiratorially on the Pegasus’ ear, “my special somepony helped me!”

Raising an eyebrow Dash cocked her head to the side a bit, “So what, like your boyfriend- or I guess in your case coltfriend or marefriend right? Like a powerful unicorn?”

A soft muffled sound came from Fluttershy but without any further sound or movement Dash figured she was just clearing her throat.

Pinkie tapped a hoof to her chin. “Well Dashie, if he was a pony then I guess coltfriend would work but that's why I call him my special somepony because he's not a pony! Of course,” she winked at Rainbow, poking her in the ribs with an elbow “He's as good a kisser as any colt I've met-“

Another muffled eep came from the bundled up pony next to her but with Rainbow Dash getting more and more interested in the details of Pinkie Pie's mystery friend she brushed it off and failed to see Fluttershy trying to lean in closer to the conversation.

“-and let's just say the rest of him isn't bad either! I especially love his big yellow c- Oh hay they train is here!"

With a squeak Fluttershy fell to her side, stiff as a board as Pinkie Pie pointed into the distance at the light from the approaching train.

With the spell broken a worried Dash noticed Fluttershy struggling to get back to her feet, mostly from the sheer mass of the bundled clothes keeping her warm. Quickly moving to Fluttershy’s side the worried blue Pegasus helped her back to her feet. “Hay, you okay there Flutters? Wow, you feel a bit warm, you're not coming down with something are you?” she said as she was unconsciously hovering a few feet of the ground flitting from one side to the other of the blushing pony.
“No- no I'm okay Dash it's just that um- Pinkie was telling about her special somepony and well um-“ relief flashed over her face as the train stopped at the station and with a flurry of words and yellow feathers she dashed on to one of the train carts, “ohlookthetrainI’lljustgoinandfindaspotokay.”

Scratching her head and trying to piece together what just happened, her train of thought was rudely derailed by an airy ‘Dahling!’ behind her. Turning around she saw a very large heap –almost a small hill really- of boxes and bags stealthily floating in a light purple aura towards the train. Leaning a bit to the left she managed to spot the sources of the voice and presumably the floating bags.

A strikingly beautiful alabaster white mare with expertly curled purple hair made her way up the station steps while managing her bags. On her flank was the image of three blue diamonds that immediately lit the spark of recognition from Dash's talk with Fluttershy earlier in the day.

“Oh my gosh Councilor Ra'irtei!” Dash said as she rushed over to give the unicorn mare a hug.

“Captain!” returned Rarity with somewhat of an accent “I am so glad to see you are back on your hooves as it were darling. We were ever so worried after the landing,” giving Dash a last squeeze she added before letting her go, “and please, call me Rarity.”

Pushing the Captain back to and going over her with a critical eye the Councilor gasped dramatically; “Good heavens Captain, I never thought it would be possible for your hair to get even messier. This is a crime against fashion!” Rolling her eyes but breaking the hold on her just to be on the safe side, Dash put just a tiny little step between her and the aspiring fashionista before she got any ideas into her head. "My hair is fine and don't even think about offering my a makeover you crazy bird lady." A mock gasp and a smile was all part of the little routine between Rarity and Dash.

“All aboard!” yelled a brown coated pony leaning out of the engine car at the end of the tracks. Rarity quickly piled in her floating belongings with seemingly practiced ease and followed closely after into the passenger's car. Dash followed as well and settled in next to Fluttershy with a somewhat reluctant Rarity settling in next to the energetic Pinkie Pie. While they were good friends, even as a human, being near Pinkie was very much a danger to any coiffure.

For the first hour or so of their trip to Canterlot the four ponies exchanged their experiences they've had so far since landing on Equestria and sharing what information they have been able to pick up both from the locals and their interactions with the Princesses. It was after all the Sun Monarch herself that had summoned them to Canterlot. Pinkie though was particularly unhelpful even if she had access to the most information. Rainbow Dash was sure it wasn't out of spite or malice but rather that there was a reason for it, even if it was just a Pinkie Pie reason.

Pinkie did however correct them here and there, most notably when they were talking about the level of technology of Equesrtria or lack thereof. It turns out that Equestria and her two sister colonies had managed to maintain a relatively stable technology base since the unification of the three pony races. Pinkie didn't have all the details of the history but she did share an old folks tale called hearth warming eve and how ever since then with the two princess sisters at the head of the government they were able to keep the ponies and nature in balance enough to both advance to basic interstellar travel without turning Equestria into a second Earth and even advance further in the last couple of centuries.

While interstellar travel was still a relative rare event there was at least a monthly trip to and from the sister colonies and the ability for Princess Luna or Empress Cadence to return to Equestria on short notice.

This news did lift Dash's spirits a bit as there might be a chance that the Indomitable might see space yet but Rarity was a bit more pessimistic on that idea. The Morrigi have had more experience with landing and taking off of planets than any other race and their cruisers were in fact designed to be atmospherically compatible. According to her even the great Morrigi Dreadnoughts were never designed to make planet fall and getting one off the ground would be a monumental task even with the technology available.

After an hour of talking, the day's events caught up to Dash and even Fluttershy was starting to nod off. With an exaggerated and less than lady like yawn Rarity poked Pinkie in the side, “Oh my goodness but just look at the time! It is dreadfully late and I really should be getting my beauty sleep, don't you think so too Pinkie dear?”

With an innocent smile Pinkie shook her head from side to side, “You don't need beauty sleep silly! You're already like super duper beautiful.”

“That's very kind of you to say dear but I think we should both get some rest,” she looked at Pinkie and motioned her head over to the Captain and Fluttershy, “if you know what I mean.”

Pinkie scrunched up her face in concentration and with sudden insight her face lights up. “Ooh I get it! But,” again her face takes on a contemplative form, “I didn't know you liked me that much Rarity, or that you were into girls! Though I guess with you Morrigi only seeing males every now and then with them being Travelers and all I can see how you’d want to spi- eep“

With a yank Rarity pulled Pinkie's tail -and the mare attached- out of the seat by her mouth, releasing it and smiled at Rainbow Dash and a very tired Fluttershy. “If you'll excuse me Captain, I'll go see Pinkie to her bed, alone and I'll be in my bunk, alone.”

As Rarity dragged Pinkie to the back of the cart Dash could hear a harsh whisper from Rarity, “I don't want to bed you Pinkie, I just want to give those two some privacy,” before disappearing into the next car.

She could have sworn she heard a sad ‘aww’ just before the door slammed shut.

With a sigh Dash pinched the bridge of her nose –a rather impressive feat with hooves- and laid back in her seat, closing her eyes. 'Sleep does sound pretty good right about now', she thought. A soft nudge from next to her though brought her back to wakefulness from her near sleep. She looked at Fluttershy and right into those deep crystal blue eyes of hers and it felt like her heart stopped beating and promptly took up residence in her throat. Seeing the bags under Fluttershy’s eyes though, and feeling her own eyes having grown heavy with weariness, she smiled and planted a small kiss on the doe eyed Pegasus next to her.

“It's okay Shy,” Dash said, almost reading her mind, “I'm tired too so we should get some rest before we get to Canterlot since it'll be a few hours till we get there.”

A small whine, almost like a little puppy whose food bowl got taken away came from Fluttershy and her lower lip started quivering.

A barest hint of a mischievous smile played at the corner of Dash's mouth as she put a wing around the Pegasus next to her, pulling her in close against her body. “Doesn't mean we can't cuddle right?”

A content 'yey' replaced her whine as Fluttershy snuggled into the soft feathery embrace of the lightning blue Pegasus next to her. 'Best. Feeling. Ever.' Dash's heart sang as she contemplated how things could get any better.

“Awwwww”

Buck you Murphy.

Slowly looking back at the previously closed doorway with a snarl on her face she saw for a split second two very apologetic faces, one white and one pink, before they quickly disappeared as the door closed again.

'Much better', Dash thought as blissful sleep overtook her, with a warm yellow Pegasus snuggled tightly against her.

0ooOoo0

Despite not having slept a full eight hours the group of four ponies were nevertheless bright eyed and excited when they stepped off the train at Canterlot Station a few hours later. With relatively little fanfare a large group of guards were waiting for them at the station to escort them directly to the palace; it seemed that the news of their arrival, on the planet in general and in Canterlot specifically, had preceded them and a significant crowd had gathered in and around the station.

'Sentient beings really are all the same, no matter the race.' Dash thought with a smile as she regarded what few ponies she could see in crowd of ponies on the other side of the guards.

Rarity, having a very sharp eye for architecture, was keen to point out how the Equestrian architects were able to integrate very sophisticated technology with classical styles. Dash wasn't sure if this was part of the original Colony plan to try and keep the natural beauty of the world intact as much as possible but from what she could remember from history lessons the state of earth after the wars and the Hiver attack had to have influenced the design decisions. The praise from Rarity was also quite surprising since the Morrigi females were masters of architecture and especially the art of hiding technology making it nearly invisible if you didn't know what to look for.

The castle, while perhaps not quite as impressive and big as some of the buildings on the major Morrigi worlds, earned an especially critical praise from Rarity. She assured them that it wasn't the size that mattered, but rather the technique behind the construction and she was very impressed. With the normally planet bound females responsible for all the architecture and construction, including the beautifully designed and built Morrigi 'war yachts', Dash knew that such words were indeed high praise.

Arriving at the castle proper and with the crowds of ponies outside the large reinforced wooden gates the majority of the guards resumed their duties while the group, escorted by a singular solar guard, entered the huge structure. Marveling at the ornate construction, most of it dating back at least a millennium, Rarity was beside herself as she rushed unladylike from statue to archway. "Oh my goodness, just look at these designs! And these furnishings! Oh and will you look at these murals!" Looking around she spotted Pinkie admiring a glass stained window depicting a strange chimera like creature with various bits and pieces of different creatures and quickly dashed over to her. In a dramatic fashion she placed a hoof on her forehead and fainted into the bouncy pink pony.

Dash just rolled her eyes and shook her head as she walked past the fainted white and purple mare. "You're such a drama queen Rarity, it's good to see some things never change."

With a huff Rarity picked herself off of Pinkie, the Earth pony managing to pull of a nearly expert impersonation of a fainting couch, and haughtily resumed her admiration of the architecture and murals. "Well, I am sorry I have at least some appreciation for the stunning art and architecture. How do you suppose they managed all this with out, you know, opposable thumbs?"

From an adjoining room to the corridor they were walking through a voice piped up "Actually the anatomy of Earth ponies are really quite interesting, especially their hooves. They're very malleable, more so than Pegasus or Unicorn hooves, allowing them to pick up and hold tools like hammers and paintbrushes relatively easily."

Rainbow Dash lifted an eyebrow and peered into the room, nearly smacking her face right into that of Twilight, or more accurately, the book on Equestrian Histories vol. XI she was holding in her purple and pink magic aura in front of her. Peering out from behind it she gave a bright smile and closed the book, replacing it in one of the nearby book shelves where it was removed from. Turning back to Rainbow Dash she gave her a quick hug; "Captain! It's so good to see you up and about." Releasing the Pegasus she motioned for the party to follow her, dismissing the guard.

"So Twilight, any idea what the Princess called us for? Not that I don't mind seeing everyone, or the Princess for that matter, it just it sounded serious..." Rainbow trailed off as she looked at the worried expression on Twilight's face.

Continuing down the sunlit hall, various colored lights playing of the walls and murals from the stained glass windows positioned high up, Twilight had a contemplative look on her face; "I'm really not sure Dash, the Princess has had me catching up on Equestrian history, especially on the Elements of Harmony, ever since she returned from the last visit to the Indomitable," she looked at Dash with a deep worry in her eyes, "she said there were Zuul on the ship."

With a slightly worried smile Dash just shrugged at Twilight; "Don't worry Twi, we sorted them out. The Princess told me she was sure she killed all of them and I got a few of the vermin myse-"

"Dash, you know what happened at Geidi Prime," Dash could hear the worry creep into the Unicorn's voice, "if just a single one of them survives it could infect an entire world, the ponies won't stand a chance!" Twilight was visibly shaking by now with tears in her eyes. "We can't do anything about it either, our weapons are useless to us and we don't even have a ship and- and-" she closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, trying to fight back the tears. "I'm just being stupid again..."

Suddenly Twilight felt two strong hooves embrace her pulling her into a tight hug, quickly followed by another pair, and another. She opened her eyes to see all her friend around her, even the timid Fluttershy, embracing her.

Dash was the first to speak, continuing to hold twilight as she did, "we know Twilight, and I'm worried too."

"It's okay to be worried," cooed Fluttershy.

"Yea Twiley," chirped Pinkie Pie, "those Zuul are big meanies!"

"Besides," said Dash as she held Twilight out to hoofs-length "you should have seen the Princess, man she blasted one of those larvae things right out of the air with her horn right as it came at me, it was awesome!" She punched the air to punctuate her point.

Fluttershy shyly let go of Twilight and half hiding behind her mane looked at Twilight encouragingly; "and I saw the weapon Dash had when she rescued me, the- the Princess did some something to to make it work for ponies."

Rarity patted Twilight on the shoulder. "You must have noticed that these Equestrian ponies are far more technological advanced than they like to appear. I am sure that they would be able to easily handle a tiny little infestation without even getting their hooves dirty."

"Ah hate to interrupt your little get together girls but the Princess is mighty anxious to see us." Came the familiar southern drawl from the end of the Hall. The orange head, mostly obscured by the iconic brown Stetson hat and long blond mane, was all that showed of the Chief Engineer as her head poked out of two tall and ornate doors that presumably lead to the throne room.

"Hay AJ! We'll be there in a sec." Dash said as the Earth pony gave a nod and disappeared back into the throne room. Looking at Twilight she gave a worried smile, "You okay then Twilight, we're good?"

Wiping away the last of her tears Twilight gave Dash a heartening smile, "Yes Rainbow, I'm okay; sorry for freaking out like that."

Dash waved her hoof and rolled her eyes. "Please Twilight, you're in the psi corpse, if anyone has a right to freak out about Zuul it's you guys." Motioning with her head towards the large doors she turned to start off with her crew, 'more like friends', in tow. "Let's go see what has the Princes's panties in a bunch."

"Dash you're so silly," piped Pinkie, "the Princess isn't wearing any clothes." A gasp from Rarity at both their comments merely earned another eye roll from Rainbow 'more like the most awesome friends ever'.

As they entered the throne room what immediately struck Dash as odd was just how different it was to everything else she had seen since she left the ship and at the same time how familiar it was from before they arrived on this strange planet. Instead of the expected archaic and royal throne room she was expecting to see, the entire hall was a dizzying array of holographic displays, consoles and communication arrays that rivaled the command centers of most colony worlds back 'home'.

In the center of the room was a giant circular holographic tank with what looked like Equestria in the middle and her lone natural satellite orbiting around her. Dash could also make out quite a few pony made satellites indicated on the display including a ship still on approach to the planet and what looked like shipyards and a station in orbit.

On the other side of the holographic tank Applejack and Princess Celestia were waiting for them. The Princess looked on the surface to be calm but Dash could see the nervous twitch of her ear and the shadow of a frown on the monarch's face. Spending as much time as Dash had around aliens she knew that certain displays of nervousness were universal and that no matter how well trained, they were hard to hide. With a soft glow around her horn the Princess shut off the Holographic display and motioned for the ponies to follow her. As she turned to leave the holographic tank slowly retreated into the floor while a panel with the same look of the floor covered the projectors and that once the tank was flush with the floor it was almost impossible to make out the faint circular outline.

"Thank you for coming my little ponies, I realize the summons came at a late hour but it could not wait. I expect my sister Luna to be here within the hour." Looking at Rainbow Dash she gave a genuine smile. "It is good to see you are whole Rainbow Dash, particularly after the ordeal with those distasteful vermin."

Rainbow dash just shrugged; "It takes more than a few baby Zuul to bring down someone as awesome as me."

A vigorous nod from Flutterhsy wholehearted agreed with that assessment. "It's true your Highness, I've seen the scars," she pauses with a hoof to her chin, "actually, I've stitched up most of them too."

A nod from the princess and a smile confirmed that the princess would not dream of doubting Fluttershy for a second. "I am afraid I will have to be brief so we can finish before my sister ar-" She paused as her ears twitched and rotated towards the spot right next to her. A sudden large puff of purple smoke, materialized next to her and with an audible pop, dissipated revealing a very out of breath dark blue Alicorn. A thin film of perspiration glinted off her coat and she took a few deep breaths to calm her ragged breathing. The ever composed Princess Celestia merely regarded the panting Alicorn with practiced calm before addressing her "Luna dear, did you teleport down from Orbit... again?"

While her words would indicate she was displeased, Dash could tell Celestia's tone contained more concern than disappointment for her sister, perhaps even a tiny spark of pride. The feat of the Princess of the Moon teleporting down from orbit, a good few thousands of kilometers straight up was not lost on the rainbow maned Pegasus either.

Having managed to bring her breathing under control, the Lunar Princes merely huffed and pointed her nose up and away from her solar counterpart in a display that mimicked -but that could never hope to surpass- the haughty indignation that Rarity could display. "Please dear sister, this meeting is important and I would not be late for it. Besides, "a mischievous smile crept into her haughty display of affront, "I did not 'Teleport from orbit'; the Relentless was much farther out than that."

With a sigh that sounded well worn and only slightly on the exasperated side -probably due to the practice- Celestia just shook her head and smiled at Luna, giving her an affectionate nuzzle. "Please take a shuttle next time Luna, It is dangerous teleporting such great distances of space, regardless of you affinity to the stars."

Nuzzling back Luna acquiescent with a nod "You worry needlessly, but I will try and keep your wishes in mind."

A nervous cough from Rainbow Dash broke the two royal sisters out of their bonding moment causing Luna to blush profusely and Celestia to merely smile at the ponies arrayed in front of her. 'Wow,' Dash though, 'she's good.'

Celestia pointed an upturned hoof at her sister. "I believe you have all met Luna? I asked her to use her rather unique ability to introduce herself in your dreams and help where she could as her physical presence was needed on New Trottingham." A chorus of nods answered and she turned to her sister, "I am happy that you are here but your quick arrival will make the next introduction... eventful."

Before Luna could process a reply there was a bright flash of light right in the center of the group and the sound of, strangely enough, fingers snapping together. When the light dissipated and Dash was able to see again the strangest though naggingly familiar, creature was standing triumphantly in front of them. Dash was able to identify only a few of the seemingly random creature parts arrayed on the creature but the sunglasses and a Hawaii shirt seemed, strangely enough, to be from Earth.

"My my, back already?" Stretching with load popping sounds emanating from every joint the creature dropped the sunglasses a bit and looked around until he spotted Rainbow Dash peering at him. "Mon Capitan! It is so good to see you again! Why after that last dreadful little incident I wasn't sure you'd make it here in one piece." Dash just stared at him with a blank stare on her face while he scanned the rest of the room until his gaze settled on Luna. "Oh dear, hello Luna, you're not supposed to be here for another half hour." He stared intently at his watch-less arm.

For Luna though it took a few more seconds for her brain to catch up with what her eyes were seeing but once she recognized the figure in front of her she sprang back with a gust of wind from her powerful wings and blue sparks started flying off her horn. In a very load and very royal sounding voice she boomed; "Discord! How dare thee show thy face! I will not let thee escape retribution a second time!"

Discord, rightly fearing for limb -but not life- did his best 'hay look I'm a statue again' impersonation by not moving so much as a muscle while everypony else had their hooves over their ears to protect what little hearing they had left. The Royal Canterlot Voice was definitely not an inside voice. 'I'm pretty sure it isn't even an outside voice,' Rainbow thought ruefully as she wondered if the ringing in her ears would ever stop.

Celestia meanwhile had face-hoofed hard enough that if Luna had not used the Royal Canterlot Voice everyone in the caste would have heard it and probably some outside as well. Luckily for her everyone was far too distracted by the sudden turn of events to notice the momentary slip in decorum. Composing herself and slowly walking over to place herself between Luna and the new arrival she softly laid a hoof on Luna's shoulder. "Luna, dear, I know we talked about this and I know you blame Discord for taking Pinkie away, but-"

"He bewitched her! He cast a spell and took her from us! He-" Luna's voice cracked as she fought back tears, "he took away the only other pony who remembered her- who remembered my-" she stopped, unable even to say her name.

Slowly, carefully and most surprisingly; silently a roitious pink mane peeked out from behind the nervously sweating Discord -a Draconequis as Dash would later find out- followed by two large blue eyes. "Luna?" Squeaked a tiny voice, "please don't be mad at my little Discord."

Walking in a strikingly uncharacteristic slow and non-bouncy manner up to Luna, Pinkie Pie put her hooves around Luna's neck and hugged her tightly. "I know I left you guys so soon after the old Dashie passed away but she wouldn't want you to be all frowny mcpoopy face," Pinkie moved her hooves to hold Luna's face and stared into her downcast eyes, "now would she?"

Luna's shoulders slumped in defeat, her tensed muscles relaxing and a small sniffle was all that was heard as she turned her eyes to meet Pinkie's. With a small smile she nodded at Pinkie. "You are right Pinkie, she would not want me to be sad, particularly now that you are back. I had missed you so."

"Aww I missed you too Princess Moonbutt!" The energy quickly returning to Pinkie she hopped over to a visibly relieved Discord and wrestled his head down to her level. "And I want you to meet my special somepony! I know you already know him, but you know him as 'Previously Lord of Chaos and only recently reformed friend of Fluttershy' Discord and not the 'You are my very special somepony' Discord or the 'I have a very special mission for you' Discord or even the 'Ooh do that thing with your big yellow claw' Discord although I hope you don't know him as that because that would be very awkward and OH! The mission!" Letting go of the slightly blushing Discord she hopped over to Rainbow Dash and stared into her eyes. "Princess Celestia has a very important thing to tell us!"

A small cough drew everyone's attention back to the Princess "Pinkie Pie is right, I have very distressing news and an even heavier burden to lay on your shoulders." The crew of the Indomitable was disconcerted to see the normally serene monarch look genuinely concerned as she moved up the steps to her throne to address the ponies. "Captain Rainbow Dash, many years a go I asked Discord to use his unique abilities to find new bearers for the Elements of Harmony. The reason for this is unfortunately quite grave."

Lighting her horn with her signature glow she activated the Holographic tank once again, the floor opening and the projectors uncovering as it raised from the floor. The ponies in front of her turned around as the lights in the hall dimmed while the Princess continued to address them. "I had sensed a presence many years ago, slowly approaching from deep space. How it came to be here in our little corner of existence we do not know but I believe you are quite familiar with it." The tank lit up and a once beautiful creature, now twisted and warped by it's own disfiguring sciences and cold greed for immortality was displayed in the holographic tank. What was once a pure and innocent creature of Muur, a creature who would sooner end it's own life before taking that of another, a child of the Liir, was now a colossal space dwelling creature without a soul or a heart, an enslaver of worlds and a murderer of billions.

Rainbow Dash forced down the lump in her throat.

"A- a Suul'ka"

Author's Note:

Finally! This chapter was quite a learning experience for me for many reasons and I am very happy how it turned out even if it took far longer than I would have wanted. I hope the extra length makes up for the wait.

A quick note: This marks the end of the 'prelude' of the story, or what I originally intended to be a few paragraphs foreword to a SotS2 TAR. I will soon be starting on that as well and it will be taking place about a year after this chapter (give or take).

How will this work? How will it affect the story? How will any of this make sense or fit together?

I have no idea, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I've managed to come this far right!

ps. This story will continue so don't worry about that.

Comments

[Masked_Frenchman]

This story seems interesting, normally, I only read big time stories to try to learn how to express emotions better and how to intensify certain scenes. But this story sounds really interesting, and may give me ideas for future stories, I haven't been able to read it yet due to my writing schedule, but gosh dang I plan on reading this no matter what! but ether way, I love the idea for this story and I strongly look forward to reading this with much anticipation

[ForceUser]

Haha, try not to over-hype it. It is my very first story ever after all!

Still I hope you will be able to take something from it.

[Masked_Frenchman]

2848117 and holy crap do I love your profile picture. It is so cute and adorable my heart kinda exploded alittle bit seeing it

[Dragonfox]

Wow! Now it looks like things are going to happen. I can't help but to whon't to see the next chapters. Keep up the grate work.

What was discord, when he was in the human world looking whit Pinkie Pie for the new elements bearers?

[ForceUser]

The first 1300 words are down for the next chapter, yey!

[ForceUser]

Ok, so I realized something while half way through writing this chapter, I've written a lot of stuff. Stuff I need to start keeping track of. It's kind of cool really, having written so much that I need to start making timelines, writing down numbers and other important facts so I don't get my wires crossed.

Now for the two fans I have (hi mom!) that are dieing to get a new chapter I will get to work on the time line and get that out first. It might not seem like much but I think it's important and will hopefully be at least something and help me keep the story at least semi-coherent. After that I need to decide on who the big bad is going to be, get a few pictures and finally get a screen cap of the Indomitable (need to research dreads, flagship, AM, etc. in my sots2 game).

Oh and finish the chapter, somehow

I um, might also be making some small changes to all the previous chapters. No work is ever perfect but with all the writing I have done I feel I can subtly improve the sentence structure and word choices of some of the more awkward parts of the previous chapters. There won't be any new information so you won't have to re-read any of the chapters. This will mostly be for anyone who hasn't read it before.

And again, I don't think I've said this enough; Thank you everyone who liked and fav'ed my story, it really does mean the world to me!