Date: 04/26/2406 21:21
“Who in Tartarus ordered that this be moved out of storage!” The shrill screaming of Twilight from behind her door warned the pair of us that Twilight was in... less-than-amicable of moods at the moment. A lack of response said she was likely in some sort of call with another department, another technology that had been hastily set up for easier communications. “Well then fire them out the airlock! She’s not in command, I am!” she screamed and threw her headset against a wall before letting out a pained scream of fury.
Leaning down to Luna to whisper into her ear, “Maybe telling Twilight now wouldn’t be the best idea. She seems a bit occupied.” I suggested quietly.
“What would you suggest then? We came out this way so that our friends could meet you in your new body.” Luna whispered back and turned to face me fully into tuck herself into my body and hide her voice that way.
“Pass me off as an assistant or something and tell Twilight that I sent us to check on how things were going.” I shrugged back, working off the first thing that came to mind. “‘Sides, I’ve got a set of plans for the shipyard to print out that I’ve been meaning to pass along to Twilight.” I added the comment in a passing thought and dug up the holographic blueprints from the computer on my arm to show to Luna.
“What kind of ship is it? What does it do?” Luna’s eyes went wide as she viewed the 1:1000 scale replica of a fairly advanced planet cracking ship of my own design.
“It’s a planet cracker, like I remember explaining to you some months back. Breaks apart entire planets, moons and asteroids and processes them down to basic resources.” I explained and stood back up, dropping my arm to my side again and faced the door once more. Luna’s eyes went wide again, though this time out of worry for the planet near to us. I knocked with a talon and waited.
“Do you mean to crack our planet once it’s dead and gone?” she whispered in fear. I remained silent as Twilight let out a screamed “What?”
The doors slid open and Luna stepped inside first before I did, trailing in behind and having to duck down to fit the ¾-sized door before stepping aside from Luna while Twilight fought to regain composure.
“Princess Luna!” She exclaimed and worked at flattening down the stray strands of hair in her mane and tail. “Sorry for yelling like that, it’s just been a hectic few days and I’m getting very frustrated.”
“It is quite alright, I can understand how tensions may be flaring knowing that in a few short weeks, our planet will suffer Ragnarok.” Luna nodded back and stepped up to Twilight’s desk to take a seat on one of the cushions on the floor. Nearby, currently sitting a potted plant, was the chair that I normally used when I was human, but as of yet remained out of use.
“Ragnarok…” Twilight sighed and wiped at her forehead below the horn with a hoof and collapsed on her desk with hooves over her head, looking ragged. “You know, we never even had that word until your boyfriend showed up. Had to explain what the word meant through pictograms and repeated demonstrations. I think that final one of the image of the planet blowing up really stuck with ponies.”
“Certainly explains all the riots and chaos on the planet above, yes.” Luna sighed and shifted around on her forehooves where she sat while I merely remained waiting near the door. I gave a fake cough into the crook of my elbow to remind Luna why were were apparently here. “Oh, that’s right! The Pilot has a set of blueprints he wants printed out in the shipyard.” A hastily typed out message in accompaniment of the blueprints was sent to Luna’s fetlock-mounted device so that she could add, “Oh, after the last colony ship has been built, of course.”
“Fine,” Twilight sat herself up, flinging her hoof around to stare at portions of her desk before retrieving her own small computer from a drawer and let Luna hook a patch cable between the two and make the exchange. “Let’s see it.”
Twilight retrieved the file and loaded it up onto the computer screens behind her to get a look at the scale of the beast.
“That’s big.” she mumbled when she saw how the ship itself would be just over 1.6Km in length. “What’s it for?”
“Mining, apparently.” Luna replied, shooting a cautionary glance back at me while Twilight tried to wrap her head around the design. “It’ll come with us while we’re in cryo to mine resources that’ll help go into building our new colonies when we reach the new world.”
“That scale of this thing…” Twilight muttered back under her breath as the gears in her mind went to work. “It could… It could mine entire asteroids… Maybe even small moons and dwarf-planets.” she added, sounding more than a little put off by the notion.
“I said the same thing.” Luna growled back at me though I merely shrugged in return, otherwise remaining silent.
“No offense to your lover, Princess Luna,” Twilight turned back to face my girlfriend, which snapped Luna back to the conversation instead of glaring at me. “But I can’t condone the act of mining entire planets for our gain. Imagine what would happen if word got out that we could destroy entire worlds with one ship?”
“I know, which is why the Pilot firmly expressed his desire to never, never use the device on any planet.” Luna gave her best false grin while I merely groaned in reply. “He said it, not me.”
After a minute of trepidation and thought, glancing between the pair of us, Twilight looked at me square on in inquiry. “Who’re you anyways?”
“This is Nova Eclipse. He’s assisting me on my tasks for today, escorting me around as security.” Luna introduced for me, gesturing back towards me with a hoof. “I have things to do all around the base and the current ships so he’s helping to lighten the load.”
“He’s pretty damn big for a Griffon.” Twilight noted as she rounded past her desk to approach and size me up. She barely reached my chest standing as tall as she could.
“Certainly dissuades any potential attackers, yes.” Luna grinned back over Twilight’s head to me. “I feel safer already.”
“You and me both.” Twilight agreed and turned back to Luna. “Never tell your boyfriend that, though…”
“Oh I think it’ll be fine.” Luna smirked back at me, and I smirked back with a wink while Twilight returned to her desk to look over my blueprints in greater detail. “I think we’ll be off, we’ve still got so much to do today.” my princess announced, standing and turning to the door.
“Sure sure, I’ve got a plotful of work yet to get through.” Twilight waved her hoof at us as we left, having collapsed back onto her desk to cover her head with her hooves and stare down at the screen in her desk. I stepped out into the glass hallway with Luna and let the door slide shut behind me.
“Next stop?” Luna looked to me and followed me towards Tower Control.
“Rainbow Dash. I haven’t talked with her in weeks, wanna see how she’s doing.” I announced and released a yawn. “Man, I don’t remember working this hard since the Academy. I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Let’s get through our meetings with our friends and then we can aim for bed and get some rest.” Luna agreed with an echoing yawn before stopping me with a hoof to manually climb up onto my back and drape herself over my back and get ahead start on the resting.
“Come on, we’re supposed to do this together.” I whined with a weak smile, looking over my shoulder at the beautiful form of my bride-to-be. I don’t think that little fact had quite hit yet: I was going to be getting married. “I wanna nap too…” I added and aimed for the stairs upwards. At least if I had to walk, she’d not get any rest through each and every step of the way.
It took a couple minutes of climbing the stairs, and even with my new and much more fit body, I was still huffing and puffing by the time I’d gotten to the airlock that lead into the Command Center where Rainbow Dash should be.
“Come on,” I gave Luna light jolt to get her up again, apparently she’d somehow managed to actually fall asleep given that she softly whined in complaint. “We’re here and it wouldn’t be very princess-like for you to be riding on my back.”
“I really don’t care about that, to be honest. I want to sleep.” Luna mumbled back and even went so far as to pull her legs up and under herself, basically curling up on my back as best as she could. “Just…” she waved a hoof forwards dismissively. “Just do your thing and let’s go.”
“Fine, but I warned you.” I shrugged back and hit the button to cycle the airlock. The doors slid open and I stepped in with Luna before cycling it once more.
The doors swung open and I was met with raised firearms as the door guards failed to recognize me as I entered into the building.
“Halt! Identify yourself!” the guard to my left demanded. Since I knew better, considering that I told every guard to keep their weapons loaded, I remained still and with hands up.
“Nova Eclipse, previously the human Pilot leading this project.” I announced, my voice clear and in Griffic. The entire room went silent and everyone turned in their seats to look at me in astonishment. “Also, Princess Luna on my back.” I smirked as the guard’s heads all moved to look at my back and notice how comfortably curled up their Princess of the Night was.
“Sir?” Spitfire’s voice brought me to face the owner of the voice as she approached in the new blue and silver uniforms that Luna and I had devised. All officers had to wear this new outfit, including the ex-Wonderbolts who’d protested that their outfits were just fine. I had to explain how I wanted a proper military-like crew and not a show crew. “What happened to you?”
“Princess Luna was kind enough to build me a new body. I chose a griffon’s body because I like being able to fly and having opposable thumbs.” I explained, addressing the mare with the fiery mane and tail. The guards near to me, having apparently accepted my voice, lowered their weapons and returned to their posts at the door.
“What was wrong with your human body?” Rainbow Dash inquired next, approaching from my right with a bit of a hop given a lack of rear leg.
“Nothing, but when we get into Registered Space and someone recognizes that our ships look to be using Galactic technology, they’ll ask questions. The story will be that instead of surviving my ship’s crash, I died and the Equestrian leadership reverse-engineered the technology to share and get everyone off-planet before Ragnarok.” I went on to explain with a casual shrug. “As for the name, that was a combination effort between Luna, Celestia and myself.”
“Huh, well I gotta say,” Rainbow took to her wings and tucked her one good rear leg under herself. “Damn!” she grinned as she flew around me, evaluating my body. “I think if you weren’t dating the Princess, you’d have a whole line of females after your tail feathers.”
“You included?” I smirked with a narrowed eye. Rainbow didn’t even blush and merely grinned back.
“Nah, you couldn’t handle the likes of me. Even with only three legs, I’m still too much for you.” she teased back, making Spitfire’s eyes roll in entertainment before she returned to her own duties.
“You do realise that I’m engaged to one of your immortal princesses, right? I can handle quite a lot.” I teased back and made the subtle announcement all at once. There was silence for a moment as words were processed, then Rainbow’s eyes went wide at the same time that she drew in a heavy gasp.
“Oh my gosh! Did you just say you and Princess Luna are engaged?” she demanded, taking my face in her hooves and squishing my face with a massive smile. I nodded back in silence. “Holy crap! Congratulations!” she announced, with the rest of the room echoing the well-wishes.
She quickly let me go and rounded behind me to approach Luna who was now wide awake and grinning like an idiot. “Congratulations, Princess! This is huge!”
“I know! It’s quite a life changing event, especially for me.” Luna replied, now sitting back up with forehooves crossed over on my spine. “Having never married before, I feel like quite a young filly again!”
“I can’t believe it! Are you going to get hitched before we leave Equestria or after we get to the new world?” Rainbow looked remarkably eager for this even, despite that it wasn’t really in what I’d call a “Rainbow level of interest” for her. I would’ve expected this from Rarity, not Rainbow. Still, she was a girl, so this could be some kind of internalized thing for her…
“In all probability, it shall be when we get there since the entire Equestrian race that’s coming is already sleeping and will want to be the predominant race at the royal wedding.” Luna explained before giving a wide-mouthed yawn, failing to cover it with a hoof like she usually did before dating me. She’d really let down her Princess facade around me and it seems she doesn’t even really care anymore.
A sudden siren broke up the merriment, consoles all around us, typically illuminated in blue and green, were now lit up in red and orange lights.
“Sirs,” Soarin spoke up from his position at a console. Rainbow high-tailed it back to her own station while Spitfire, Luna and I all surrounded a large holographic table in the middle of the room. “Sorry to interrupt but i’m starting to get some really nasty looking readings from the planet.”
“Any idea what’s going on?” Luna demanded, having resumed the role of an important figure in this endeavor once she’d climbed off my back. “Is it time?”
“Probably.” I winced at the thought of what was potentially happening below. “Call Celestia and the rest of the Mane Seven up here immediately, Priority Alpha.” I instructed and poked at the table before me to change a few settings and bring up a holographic representation of the planet.
Along the sides of the “screen” were statistics and readouts of the planet of Equus. All the normal numbers and listings began to shift from blue to red as everything from core temperature, surface temperature, seismic activity and even atmospheric make-up began to wildly shift.
“Call all remaining transports from the surface immediately! I don’t care if they’re still half empty, get them off the planet immediately!” Luna bellowed. The entire room went into an uproar, communications patching through my orders at a thousand miles an hour and tactical evaluating what the potential death of the planet would do to the station or the completed ships around the moon.
“Luna,” I turned to my wife-to-be and she glanced up at me with a frown. “I’m going to need the power of your sister and you in a short bit.”
“You’ll have it, I guarantee it.” Luna nodded back affirmatively before resuming her tasks.
A few minutes later and the room was further filled with those of the Equestrians still awake, all wondering what the commotion was about.
I had had Luna gather everyone to the bay windows overlooking the planet for the final declaration of the planet’s death and even had a broadcast being sent to the moon base.
“So, who’s this big fella? I ain’t never seen him around Command before.” Applejack wondered to Rarity who merely shrugged while gazing up at me from where they’d all lined up for the announcement.
“I’m not sure, but he seems to be very familiar with the Princesses.” Rarity whispered back. I took the opportunity to step before the crowd and cameras with Luna and Celestia on either side of me, shushing conversations.
“Ladies and Gentle-creatures.” I began commandingly, the faces of the girls all dropping in recognition. Twilight looked to be on the verge of a conniption, having realised that everything she’d said about me was said in front of me. “I stand before you all today with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as Princess Twilight behind the camera.
“It seems that today is the day of your greatest loss as a combined species, the death of the planet you had lived on for millennia appears to have decided on today and is now in its final throes of life.” whispers began to course through the crowd, no doubt the same being said across all ships and stations connected to the communication network. “Today, we bear witness to the termination of a planet: an event that has never been seen in a first hand scenario by my previous species and would have never thought to have happened in anyone’s lifetime.
“I ask that the princesses on both sides of me, the two beings who for over three thousand years have kept the sun and moon in safe orbit around you planet, to focus their combined energy to stabilize not only this station and the ships around it, but to also stabilize the moon.” I continued, turning first to Celestia then to Luna who both nodded compliance.
“We ask that all the members of the surviving species, please remain calm in this time of mourning and not to panic while this event takes place.” Luna spoke up next and I could see in the reflection of the overhead consoles on the opposite end of the room that the planet was already starting to change.
Massive magmatic fissures began to form, draining oceans and evaporating lakes and rivers in a flash. Entire mountains split and I had no doubt in my mind that already, billions of lives had already been lost; hundreds of settlements had already fallen.
Celestia and Luna both fired up their horns, Celestia’s glow encompassing not only the sun itself, but also the ships around the station. The Station and the Moon were both wrapped in Luna’s warm embrace, washing everything in a blanket of calm despite the activities going on behind me.
“Sir,” the only griffon at a console replied somberly, looking up from his displays. “Planet death in-” I held up a claw to silence the male before turning with everyone else to face the planet’s death head on.
The station was silent. The Moon was silent. The planet below… I couldn’t hear anything given distance and lack of atmosphere between us, but I was absolutely certain that the entire planet was crying out in pain as massive orange and red cracks formed along entire continents as countries fell into the mantle of the celestial object.
“Sir! There’re still seven personnel transports on the planet’s surface! They can’t take off because of riots!” the griffon at the console shouted hurriedly, worriedly. Before I could even lift a finger or say a word, Vinyl shot out of the room before I could protest.
A minute later and a combat-class Wyvern tore through space towards the planet. I leapt over the heads of everyone assembled with the assistance from my wings and slid before a comms panel. Holding a headset to the side of my head, I opened an open channel to the Wyvern.
“Vinyl! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded angrily.
“Sorry sir, but you and I already know that as soon a we enter Registered space that I’ll be tracked down and exterminated by the Intergalactic Police.” Vinyl’s synthesized voice replied over the loud speakers, allowing me to hang the headset around my neck with the mic up near my beak. “At least this way, my death will mean something.”
“No!” I roared back, turning back towards the glass and the dying planet. “You get back here, that is an order!”
“Sorry, no can do, Captain. Cool thing about evolving into an AI is that I get to make my own choices now, so I choose to save those transports.” Vinyl chuckled half-heartedly to herself. A quick look once I’d reached the group watching and listening showed that Sunset was quite distressed by all this, having broken into tears into the comfort of her friends.
“But the Wyvern won’t be able to power back up once you’ve done so.” I muttered back and placed a claw against the glass to the right of the windows. A hoof appeared on my shoulder, showing Rainbow had appeared hovering next to me. “Only the transports have a chance at getting off planet now…”
“I know…” Vinyl’s voice had dropped all attempts at cheer and all that was left was defeat. “I’m expecting that.”
A minute of moderate silence, ignoring the sniffling or all out crying of everyone gathered, Vinyl continued, “Sir, it’s been an honour serving with you.”
“It’s…” I sucked back a breath of my own and held it a moment. “It’s been likewise a pleasure serving with you, Vinyl.”
“Sir, I’d like to make a final Log, if I may?” Vinyl requested.
“Sure. I’ll make sure it makes it into the colony ship’s computers.” I squeaked back through escaping tears.
“AI Log
Equus date: 04/26/2406
Time: 22:16
“Let the log show that at 21:57, planet named ‘Equus’, the planet on which my pilot and I had crash landed on, had begun it’s termination.
“At 22:03, Communications showed that a handful of personnel transports had failed to launch as ordered due to rioters on the planet below.
“22:04, I, AI Vinyl Scratch, took it upon myself to commandeer a combat-class Wyvern to fly to the planet and provide assistance. I do not planet to survive the venture.
“22:20. I’ve entered into the atmosphere and have engaged all turrets on the ship. I’m reading multiple, massive groups surrounding the transports and I am moving to engage.”
At this point, all we could do was listen as we’d long since lost sight of the small ship. Celestia and Luna looked to be struggling but after I’d done my best to calm myself down, I stepped between the two and planted a hand on their backs. The unicorns in the room all fired up their horns and pushed as much power into the two Alicorns as they could, with the glow around Twilight’s and Sunset’s horns glowing in three overglows each.
“For sake of research material, the atmosphere has changed from an Oxygen-Xenon composure to more of that of a Class-X planet; that of a Volcanic planet or similar. I can’t engage the atmospheric engines as they’ve all become clogged up and so I’m relying on the hydrogen thrusters.” Vinyl continued, sounding like she was becoming more and more scared by the moment and was just talking to calm herself.
“Hydrogen reserves are running low.” she stopped to audibly choke down a sob of her own. “I’m in range of the riots around the transports and have opened fire.
“There are so many creatures down here, all trying to get onto the ship.” She reported, her voice raised and crackling over the call. Turning my hearing around, all I could hear were the mournful sobbing of everyone gathered; myself not withstanding. “They all look so scared. They’re all trying not to breath the toxic atmo and using everything they can to accomplish that.”
At this point the call began to grow with static, Vinyl’s voice becoming less and less clear.
“There’s… There’s families down here, entire groups all huddled together just… just waiting to die… There’s nothing we can do for them and they know it.” Even Vinyl sounded like she was actively crying, but with a mechanical body, that wasn’t physically possible.
“There, the riots have stopped and the ships are taking off.” Vinyl reported, at least giving something positive to think about. “Quick scans show that they’re all almost empty. Only at most a hundred or so made it on.”
“I’m out of hydrogen now. I’m setting the ship down just outside of Canterlot, or what remains of it anyways.” I glanced to the Princesses and the ponies behind me. I think it’s safe to say the mood here was desolate. “Entire sections of the city have fallen to the ground below and spires of the castle are gone or still falling.”
I knelt down to Luna and did my best to wrap her in an embrace without disturbing her casting. She leaned into me as best she could, her eyes remaining closed but actively running with tears.
“I’ve landed now, just in time because the ship’s shut itself down because of the environment. It wasn't built for these conditions.” The sound of the cockpit opening was heard, just over the static and a new sound, the sound of extreme wind, began to take it’s place. “It’s hot. It’s so, unbelievably hot.” she reported. “There’s a crack forming near me, I can feel the heat of the planet coming from it.”
After a moment of silence, “Personal Log, Time: 22:43. Let the record show that I performed my duties as designed and that I hold no regrets. The crack is getting close to me and a chunk of land just fell. I’m probably next to go and I just wanted to say-”
The communication broke off there, ending in nothing but static until the griffon at the console cut comms and let the line go dead. In it’s place, active mourning and wails filled the air for many long minutes.
Ahead, the planet continued to form new cracks, the molten mantle and deeper now clearly visible. Slight shakes in the station as the planet broke apart, it’s gravity shifting the station and moon as I’d planned the only physical signs of anything actually happening.
Then, almost all at once, everything just… stopped. The planet stopped spinning, the shaking stopped and the cracks seemed happy with how they’d formed.
“Captain’s Log:” I began weakly, hitting the miniature console of my suit to begin recording. “Date: 04/26/2406, Equus-” I held myself short at this. “Station time: 22:52.
“Planet Equus has finished its initial termination stages. Readings show that the remaining body is finally stable but is no longer generating a sphere of gravity. Computer’s estimate that the Moon will lose its orbit in only a matter of days as the core cools and the gravity dies away.
“Princess Celestia and Luna have successfully protected Sun, Moon, Station and completed colony ships as requested and once they’ve recovered, I’ll have to ask Luna to move the Moon and ships further away from the planet so that there won’t be a possibility of loss of orbital stability.
“My AI Unit, Vinyl Scratch, was terminated only minutes ago and already I feel the emptiness without her. The immeasurable loss of life on the planet is felt by those who survive them on this station and on the base down below on the moon.” Celestia and Luna’s horns, in accompaniment with the other unicorns of the room, all died off and let the owners finally rest. Almost all of them collapsed to the metal floor with the strain and fatigue, only to be helped back up by the other ponies, griffons and various creatures in the Command room.
“The transport ships, I’m reading, successfully managed to escape the planet and are en route with the Moonbase for offloading the... Hundred creatures who’d gotten on board.” I turned from the window and searched the faces of those watching me in silence, noting the confusion, the sorrow and loss on their faces all at once as they searched me for any answer. I had nothing.
“I’m…” I stumbled for a selection of appropriate words but had nothing come up. “I’ve got nothing, there’s no more to say. End log.” I finished of with a touch to the pad on my wrist and sat down in front of everyone assembled, the cameras included as they continued to roll without stable operators.
I looked up to the cameras once again, silent but somehow stern. “Because of what we’ve all just bore witness to, and the sudden lack of a clock to rush against, all staff are allowed a week of grieving and rest. Please finish your assigned tasks before you take this break.” I announced before signalling to cut the communication. All the cameras went off, their little red lights blinking out one after the other.
I turned back to the Princesses, surrounded by our friends and circled around behind Luna to drop down and join in the group mourning, Luna burying herself in my coat/feathers. After that, we all just cried.