Ponystar Equestria: The Last ponystar

by Commander Celestus

Chapter 5: Suddenly Homeless

Chapter 5: Suddenly Homeless

The crew of the Ponystar Equestria were numb as they heard the destruction of the colonies unfolding on the communications channels. One by one the Colonial channels fell silent, first the military and then the civilian. At last just the Cyponian channels were operational, and the Imperious Leader’s voice alone could be heard.

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” she said. “The destroyer of the old and the maker of the new. Thus ends the age of ponykind, and begins the age of the Cyponians. I reign supreme, my foes perish!”

“Turn that crap off,” Colonel Pie ordered cantankerously. “We don’t need to hear some crazy Cyponian gloating over how she’s killed billions!” And get the buck back to the fleet, maybe we can save something out of that.”

Celestus sat on the deck and watched the instruments. The war was over, he thought; but in the worst way possible. The Cyponians had won; tactically it had been brilliant, a false offer of peace, a traitor within, and a surprise two-pronged attack risking the entire Cyponian military machine. Tactically brilliant and ethically monstrous. If they could salvage something from the fleet in the Cimtar system, then perhaps they could counter-attack, but for what? The Colonies were gone, cities burned and turned into nuclear wastelands. There was nothing left to fight for but life, and then not so much life as bare existence, he corrected himself. Was this the end? The end of ponykind at the hooves of their own creations?

“Commander?” Colonel Pie trotted over to her old friend and CO; she did not know what to say; what could you say when the world had ended?

“I refuse to admit that… that thing has won! The Cyponians are life-forms, but so are we! I refuse to be defeated by… by her! We go back to the fleet, pick up what we can, and jump away. By the gods, if the only surviving ponies in the universe are on board this ponystar, we will survive!” Celestus stood, suddenly energized by the will to survive. “We will survive, even if it’s just to stick it to that genocidal robot! We are Ponies; our ancestors travelled to the Colonies from the dying planet Olympus, braved the perils of space not knowing where they were going, and established our twelve colonies. Now we are as they were, survivors of a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions, and we shall not disappoint them. For them, and for all who died in the fall of the colonies, we shall go on!”

“So say we all!” Colonel Pie shouted. “So say we all!”

“So say we all!” the CIC crew shouted as one. “So say we all!”

“So say we all!” Commander Celestus added his voice to the defiant chant.

Colonel Pie wondered what the Hades they were going to do after the initial enthusiasm had worn off; they could not just keep on running, they would have to find a home where the Cyponians could not come. That would mean running, and running was something that soldiers did not take to well. But that would be later, for now they had to return to the fleet, to save who they could. Then would be the time to take stock and to deal with the reality of being the last survivors of dead worlds.

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Between Gemena and Caprica: Just before the Fall

Moonlight looked out of the viewport of the Colonial starliner Element at the star field outside and she smiled. It was beautiful to see in her opinion, like diamonds scattered on a velvet backdrop, diamonds arranged in shapes that intrigued and led ponies to make patterns of them.

Moonlight was an astrophysicist in the Colonial military, and was on her way back to Caprica from a science fair on the Colony of Gemena, and had spent much of her time there contemplating the stars in a more scientific manner. If Gemena was poor, it was also home to an excellent university; if not for the rest of the planet she might want to move there.

Another ship, a decidedly unglamorous refinery vessel, moved into view. Moonlight sighed and sat back; that was the trouble with the wartime rules about ships going in convoys, it meant that all too often the view from the liner was obscured by something, and usually something ugly, a utilitarian mining ship or one of those ugly escort destroyers.

“I know; such ugly ships they build these days. I feel ill just looking at them sometimes!”

The voice was cultured, superior, and to Moonlight’s ears just a bit annoying. It belonged to a white unicorn with carefully coiffed purple hair and a superior expression to match her voice. She wore purple eye shadow, a feather-trimmed cape, and a large white hat with a broad brim. The unicorn’s cutie mark was a needle and thread, which made a lot of sense.

Moonlight was a quiet purple unicorn with a white mane and a telescope as her cutie mark. She wore a simple jacket with a patch indicating that she was a member of the military’s scientific division.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, you were thinking about how ugly that refinery ship is, weren’t you? No poetry in modern ship designs; they’re just designed to do a job. Before the war, when this ship was built, they did things differently; designers had pride in their work. I’m Gloria, by the way. My grandfather worked in space liner design; in fact this was one of his designs.”

“Moonlight. I’m an astrophysicist with the military.”

“Oh, you poor dear!” obviously Gloria thought that being associated with the military was a terrible fate. “But at least they didn’t make you travel on one of those awful military transports! I think I’d be ill if I had to travel on one of those. I’m a dressmaker on Caprica, of course. I was on Gemena visiting a client. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get around sometimes! I shall be so glad when we finally have peace. Can you imagine it, darling; a universe where ships don’t have to travel in these awful convoys?” Can you imagine private space flight? Space yachts? There used to be space yachts, you know, before this awful war?”

“So I hear,” Moonlight replied. Gloria could get annoying quite quickly, she thought. The white pony clearly thought herself a cut above the rest; probably she was from a good family on Caprica, and definitely an artistic family.

“Darling, this war is destroying everything worthwhile! I am so glad that it’s finally over! Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand the idea of living with those awful Cyponians; chrome, what were they thinking? But no more war, peace, why, I’m so happy I could almost sing!”

Moonlight hoped that Gloria could contain herself; the idea of the very superior pony singing horrified her; hopefully her sense of propriety would keep her mouth closed.

Thankfully, Gloria did not sing, she only went on talking about how awful the war was, and how it had made the Colonies so dull and so difficult for a talented designer like her. Moonlight got the distinct impression that Gloria thought she was the best designer in the Twelve Colonies.

“… And another thing, those uniforms; what were they thinking? That shade of blue; and leather collars? What was wrong with the classics, the old uniforms of the different Colonies, their variety, their charm? Oh, but the modern world doesn’t care about old-world charm and vales, does it? No, it’s all about efficiency, and not a thought for the old values.”

She sounded sad, Moonlight thought, as if the impact of the war on fashion and design really hurt her. The war had been hard on everypony, of course, and that was why they were so glad that it was coming to an end.

Gloria used her magic to turn on the television in the back of the seat in front of her. The programme that came on was a news broadcast from Caprica; a reporter stood in the middle of the great Plaza of the city, while all around final preparations were going on for the celebrations that would follow the signing of the peace accord.

“This is Star Cast reporting from the Plaza in Caprica City, where the final preparations are being made for the celebration of peace. Although interference from a cosmic storm is blocking communications with the fleet, we know that even now the peace accord is being signed aboard the Starliner Olympia. The new dawn for Caprica City will be a new dawn for all of the Colonies, the dawn of peace at last.”

“Really,” Gloria commented. “Who writes the scripts for these newsreaders?”

“A message is expected from the President as soon as the interference clears. We are hoping for a joint press conference with both our President and the mysterious Cyponian Imperious Leader. The whole city is full of excitement over the new peace. Excuse me,” the reporter turned to an alicorn who was organising a group of unicorns in decorating the Plaza. “Star Cast, Colonial News Network, what are your thoughts on the peace?”

“What do you think, Miss Cast? I’ve lost two brothers in this war, both on the same Ponystar. I’m so glad that the war’s over; the Cyponians have a right to exist, and we treated them badly, but now we can put all that history behind us and co-exist at last!” he smiled happily.

“Thank you, sir,” Star Cast turned back to the camera. “Well, there you go, forgiving and forgetting. Excuse me?” she stopped an elegant white earth pony with a curly blonde mane. The pony was wearing a red dress that Gloria thought vulgar, and she smiled a little mockingly at the reporter pony.

“Yes?”

“Star Cast, Colonial News Network. What are your thoughts on the peace?”

“On the peace?” the pony smiled. “Oh, that peace, the one being signed on the Olympia. I don’t worry much about that. Look up there.”

The camera angled upwards, and a couple of flashes appeared. Moonlight frowned, recognising them at once as ships jumping into orbit. By the size of the flashes they had to be as big as ponystars.

“What’s happening?” Star Cast asked. “Studio, is there any report from the military? Is there any…” the newscaster was suddenly cut off, the picture replaced by static.

“What happened?” Gloria asked.

“Nothing good, I’m afraid,” Moonlight answered. The blonde earth pony’s manner, the flash of ships jumping into orbit, the signal cut off; all were ominous signs to her.

“Attention all passengers, this is your captain speaking,” the pilot’s voice came over the tannoy system; Moonlight thought she could detect worry in it, and she thought it was coming right on cue. Maybe he had received some word from command on Caprica about what the things she had seen on the news cast meant.

“What is it?” Gloria sounded apprehensive. “What is it?”

“Probably the explanation for the newscast.”

“We are receiving confusing transmissions from Caprica… if there is a military officer with Silver clearance on board, please report to the cockpit.”

I have Silver clearance, Moonlight thought; it was the result of her job. She was a scientist, she’d never been in action, but she was a major in the Colonial military. For a minute she thought about not letting on, hoping that there was another officer on board with Silver level clearance, one with actual combat experience and not a scientific specialist, but nopony got up. Moonlight took a deep breath and got up.

“I… I have Silver level clearance,” she said quietly to the cabin steward.

The steward hurried on ahead of Moonlight, hooves sounding on the steel deck. Moonlight felt her heart rate quicken; the only reason that a senior officer might be wanted in the cockpit was a major emergency, and with the newscast she had a terrible fear what that emergency might be.

The unicorn flight attendant opened the cockpit door and showed Moonlight in. The co-pilot was flying the liner, the other crew members in their places, while the captain was facing the door, his expression deeply worried.

“Major Moonlight,” she used her telekinesis to show him her identity card. “I… I’m really just a science specialist, but I have Silver Clearance, and… I saw the newscast from Caprica City.”

“Oh, thank the gods! Major, it’s Caprica, it’s being attacked.”

“Attacked?” It was just as she feared. Moonlight ran to the pilot’s station. He turned on the speakers, and a cacophony of panic spilled out. If the television broadcast was down, apparently a lot of radios were still working. The messages that were coming through were truly horrifying.

“Thermonuclear bombardment from space…”

“Baseships attacking, swarms of raiders…”

“Total systems shutdown… like someone turned them off!”

“Missile launch systems inoperative… “

“The city is burning! The city is burning! Oh gods…”

“Caught us completely by surprise! They’re landing! Oh gods, they’re landing! Planetary defences are not working!”

On and on they went; snatches of panic, snapshots of the fall of Caprica. In some of the broadcasts the sound of gunfire could be heard, in others the sound of bombing. One by one the broadcasts were being cut off, as Cyponians tracked down the signals and destroyed their sources with a ruthless efficiency. Moonlight listened in horror. Suddenly she took a pull at herself; she was the senior officer here, she had to take command.

“Get high command on Scorpia!” she ordered him. “Ask what’s going on?”

“I can’t! Scorpia command has been destroyed! Commander Blacker on the Antigone is in command of the convoy; it was his order to get senior officers on the civilian ships in charge.”

“But if the Cyponians have launched an all-out attack on the Colonies, what are we going to do?” Moonlight was lost; this was far, far outside her training, let alone her experience.

“Element, this is Blacker on the Antigone,” the voice came over the bridge speakers. “Who’s in command now?”

“Major Moonlight, sir,” she lifted a telephone with her telekinesis.

“Then you’re the most senior officer in the convoy. My orders in the event of a Cyponian attack on our destination are to take the convoy to a safe rendezvous point which I’m transmitting to the Element’s computers. Hopefully we’ll all make it there, but I have no illusions that the Cyponians are not genocidal. They’re launching thermonuclear attacks on every Colonial city, I can only assume that the fleet has been ambushed on its way to the peace conference, and possibly destroyed. All that means that the Cyponians will be coming after us; we have to be ready to fight. This is a convoy, and my mission is to protect the civilian ships at all costs,” his tone was deadly serious.

“I… I understand, commander,” Moonlight was scared now. This was Armageddon, she thought, the end of everything at the hooves of the Cyponians.

“Spool up your FTL drive and get out of here on my signal,” Blacker ordered. “We’re on a recognised approach path to Caprica, and it’s only a matter of time before the Tin Cans send their own ships along our flight paths to deal with us.”

The crew of the liner began to prepare for FTL jump. Moonlight paced the deck, knowing that Blacker was right and there would be Cyponians searching the system for Colonial ships.

“Major!” the officer at the scanner control called. “Incoming contacts!”

“Identification?” Moonlight cantered over to the station. She saw the contacts, no transponders, and coming in fast.

“Missiles!” she cried. The range of these civilian scanners was less than that of the military models, and had not been increased because of the escort destroyers. There had to be a baseship out there that was firing on them.

“Jump!” she ordered, almost panicking. “Jump!”

The starliner shook, and the view from the bridge windows changed. They had jumped across space, and with them the rest of the convoy, escorts and all. Moonlight sighed in relief; there was no way to track a ship’s FTL jump, which was why it was vital that they all jumped to the same co-ordinates.

“All made it,” Blacker’s voice came over the speakers. “We’ll stay as long as we can to see if any other ships survived the attack.”

“Commander?” Moonlight was a little confused; nopony could track an FTL jump, so what was the alicorn officer worrying about?

“This location is a standard rendezvous point. If the Cyponians capture one of our ships, they could get the location from its computer, and then all Hades will break loose. If that happens, I need you to lead the civilian ships to safety whilst we hold the Cyponians off.”

“Commander, I’m an astrophysicist, a science specialist. I’m not a leader,” Moonlight protested. “I’ve never been in battle in my life!”

“That’s going to change,” Blacker said firmly. “The Colonies have been destroyed, somepony sabotaged defences. That means that the only survivors of the attack who can escape are those who were travelling in FTL-capable ships at the time. Everypony else is toast.”

The alicorn officer’s tone sounded harsh, and Moonlight was about to complain when she realised that it was his way of coping with the unimaginable tragedy that had hit the Colonies.

“The Colonies… are gone?” it seemed unreal, impossible. The Colonies had existed for millennia, now they were destroyed in hours?

“Yes, destroyed by a Cyponian sneak attack. The Tin Cans fooled us all, Major Moonlight, made us think they wanted peace, and then they did this, destroyed everything. What’s worse, they couldn’t have done it without a bucking traitor in the military someplace. Planetary defences were down, de-activated. The Cyponians didn’t do that, and there’s no way our defences would have let the attackers through if they’d been on line.”

“Sabotage!” Moonlight reeled at the thought, but it made perfect sense.

“Exactly, somepony has betrayed us. That’s another reason why this location isn’t safe.”

Suddenly an alarm went off on the bridge of the liner. Moonlight looked over to the earth pony who was operating the scanner.

“It’s a Colonial ship… no, a small convoy, eight Colonial ships. Two escort destroyers, one seems to be damaged.”

The ships were visible from the spacious bridge of the starliner. One of them was a Colonial government ship, the sort used to ferry about dignitaries. One of the escort destroyers was badly damaged, ventral gun turrets wrecked, a huge gash torn in one side.

“Contact the government transport,” Moonlight ordered. The ship’s communications officer obeyed. He started and looked back at Moonlight.

“You need to take it, sir, since you’re in charge.”

“Very well,” the unicorn scientist picked up the telephone handset. “Hello? This is Element actual.”

“Well, thank you,” the voice was that of a cultured mare of middle age, it was a kindly, if concerned voice. “I’m Cheerilynn, Minister of Education. I was on my way back from a conference on Taura when the attack happened. A group of Cyponian raiders ambushed our convoy. Commander Vellin was protecting us, but his ship was destroyed along with two other escorts.”

“Major Moonlight. Minister, I’m a science specialist, not a military commander. Our convoy commander is Blacker; you really need to speak to him rather than me…”

“I’ve already spoken with Commander Blacker, Major; you’re the second most senior officer in your convoy. I’m glad you’re a scientist. I’m grateful to our military, of course, but I need a more… objective mind, like yours.”

Moonlight felt flattered by the Minister’s description of her, but she also felt that Cheerilynn had a rather rosy view of scientists.

“We’re none of us very objective right now, Minister; the Colonies have been destroyed by the Cyponians, and we’re probably next on the list.” she pointed out.

“Agreed, all ships need to be ready to jump at once, send a new location to all ships in the fleet. And thank you, Major.”

“No problem, Minister, but… fleet?” Moonlight was puzzled by the use of the term. Thirty-two ships, including eight destroyers, were not much of a fleet in her opinion, more like a large convoy.

“Yes, Major, the fleet; the last fleet of the Colonies. In the meantime we need to wait to see if any other ships arrive here.”

“That might not be a good idea, Minister. Ships have been known to accidentally jump to the same exact co-ordinates, and the result is always fatal.”

A flash and the bleeping of an alarm alerted them to the arrival of another convoy, a large one, fifty ships, most cargo vessels, but with several that were immediately recognisable as passenger craft, one a huge liner that carried ten thousand passengers. There were two botanical cruisers, a couple of container ships, and a huge vessel that had once been a luxury liner, but now bore the marks of a prison ship.

More ships, Moonlight thought, that meant more survivors, and perhaps a greater chance that their race might survive after all. That was, if the Cyponians were not just deliberately herding all of them into this small area of space to finish them off with a missile.

Apparently the destroyer commanders were talking to one another, for the ships were now starting to take up defensive positions on the edges of the ad hoc fleet, waiting not for if the Cyponians attacked, but when.

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Notes:
1. The story of the Civilian fleet begins here!
2. Several ponies who may seem familiar have started showing up in the civilian fleet.
3. The convoys are based on World War 2 tactics, a large number of civilian ships escorted by at least five destroyers. Yes, this means that right now Equestria is not the last surviving warship. Yes, this also means that you should not get too attached to Commander Blacker.
4. Only the warships in planetary defences have Altair’s ‘Back Door’ for the Cyponians. Convoy duty is handled by another department, like the main battle fleet.