Canderous lead the lieutenant to his personal quarters, who ordered the marines to stand guard outside of the door. The lieutenant took a seat on the couch, so Canderous sat in a chair nearby. The lieutenant cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Well mister Nord, it has come to my, and the Federation’s, attention that you have been probing down and selling the locations of wormholes to some... private customers. Is this true?”
“Y-...err...yes.” Canderous’s face became red with nervous heat. He can only wonder as to what trouble he may be in for selling valuable merchandise to wanted men.
“Well...then I came to the right man.” The lieutenant said with a smile. He stood up from the couch and began pacing around the room. “Mister Nord, I have been over-looking your file, from which I happily obtained from Concord police, and I must say that I am quite impressed by how well you do your job. You have found dozens of wormholes, narcotics sites, and even pirate hideaways that cannot be detected by a ship’s standard system scanner. You can do in minutes what our even our most advanced scanners do in hours.”
Canderous was taken aback. A Federation Navy lieutenant was complimenting him on his work?
“I think you know where I am going with this mister Nord. I want you in my division as our forward scout.”
Canderous was shocked at the sudden offer. This was something only trained military personnel were offered to do, not a simple ship pilot who has never flown anything bigger or mightier than petty frigates. This could be his big break. He finally has the chance to do something worth while in his life other than sitting on a couch each day waiting for his “paychecks” to come in. A lazy freelancer’s dream come true.
The lieutenant perked up, “Oh, and not only will you be our new forward scout, but as an enlisted man of the Federation Navy, you will be given some of the best equipment and clothing the Federation has to offer. This, and more, await you... should you decide to join of course.”
Was this really true? Is he really being offered a fresh start? A chance to use his skills to assist the proud and powerful nation to which he belonged to (and maybe pocket some extra cash)?
“Well mister Nord, what do you say? Care to leave your old life behind for a new one?” The lieutenant extended his arm, palm open, towards Canderous.
Canderous stood up from the chair with pride, walked over to the lieutenant, and firmly shook hands with the official. “Sir, I would be honored.” Canderous raised his arm to his forehead in a salute.
“The honor is all mine mister Nord, glad to have you aboard.”
“So when do we um... leave sir?”
“Tomorrow actually. I will have a marine from my division escort you to the Navy’s private hangar bay. You will board a shuttle and be taken to the Nyx supercarrier, the FNS Iron Giant, outside of the station.”
‘This day just keeps getting better and better’ Canderous thought to himself. “You mean, the Iron Giant?”
“The very same. I hate to end this off early mister Nord but now is the time that I take my leave. See you onboard." The lieutenant walked to the door, uttered something to the marines standing by, and left the room, the door closing shut behind him. Canderous could only sit there, taking in the big change that has just occurred in his life. Nothing, not even when he first obtained his pilot license in flight school, could compare to this. Now, he was a military man, and no longer a low-life freelancer. He no longer had to deal with the harsh attitudes and complaints of his “customers” every day.
‘Speaking of customers...’ Canderous thought to himself with a devious smile.
Canderous grabbed the holo-tablet from the couch and opened the contact list. He scrolled through the menu until he found Malak’s tablet ID. “I’m in the Navy now. Might as well let the bastard know that I wont be doing his stupid jobs anymore.” He typed up a small message and sent it away. “Here’s to you asshole.”
It read as follows:
Malak,
F**K YOU
-Nord
~~~~~
The observatory was a bit too noisy for the purple bookworm, the continuous banter of scientists and astronomers filling the room. In one part of the room, a pair of astronomers were discussing the possibility of using magic to travel at light-speed through space, while another pair were arguing about who gets to see the discovery first. It made her feel good knowing that some of them were interested in what she has found.
“A bit nervous are we?” Celestia whispered into Twilight’s ear.
“Very. D-do you think they will like what I have found princess?” uttered Twilight in a nervous tone.
“You are one of my best and brightest students Twilight. If I have confidence in you, then I can assure you that everypony here does too.”
Twilight smiled, blushing at the same time. “Thanks princess. That means a lot to me.”
“You very welcome Twilight. Oh, it is time for your presentation. Go out there, and knock em’ dead, not really of course.” Celestia ended off with a wink and a laugh. That was all the confidence Twilight needed.
The lights in the observatory dimmed to a faint glow, the low light and starry landscape style of wallpaper set the perfect mood for the unveiling of a big astronomical discovery. Twilight stepped out and onto a podium set at the base of a giant, silver telescope in the middle of the observatory. She looked out into the crowd, the same feelings of nervousness started to creep up onto her again. She tried to let out words, but her mouth had sealed itself shut, preventing her from speaking at all. Twilight felt as if she was about to give out, until she noticed the familiar smiling face of her royal teacher near the back of the room. Twilight’s confidence returned immediately at the encouraging sight of her royal mentor. She cleared her throat and began to speak.
“Scientists and astronomers of Canterlot, as most of us may already know, we still have little to no information on what lies behind the magnetic storm, or as it’s current name is, 6-CZ49.” One of the astronomers in the back coughed loudly, sending a little comedic spark through the air. “But that hunt for an answer ends today everypony, for I have discovered what lies behind the veil! But I don’t think telling you would be enough, so why don’t I just show you.” Twilight’s horn began to glow with a bright-greenish hue, gaining luminescence with each passing second. The glow continued to grow in size until a bright, blinding flash of light ceased it all. When it was all over, the astronomers and scientists shook their heads and rubbed their eyes in agony, trying to figure out as to what the hay just happened.
“Oh no, oh dear! I am so sorry everypony! I didn’t mean for that spell to be so bri-” her apologies were meet not with angry verbal swears, but with the ooos and aaaws of several amazed ponies. Twilight’s spell had created a large, three-dimensional map of the known cosmos. Tiny, white specks of light came together to form constellations and distant galaxies. Brightly colored specks grouped together tightly to form nebulae and dust clouds, both sides of the map coming together to form a beautiful and vibrant display of colors, but one dust cloud on the map stood out from them all. A dust cloud much larger and brighter than all the others was hovering above the telescope itself, and above Twilight, almost as if she had cleverly placed it there for dramatic effect.
“Oh, well then. That worked out better than I thought it would. Now if you would all direct your attention to the dust cloud above me...” Everpony focused their gaze onto the spot above Twilight’s head, some stepping in a bit closer to get a closer look, their eyes wide and mouths agape.
“...well, it is not really a dust cloud, that is the magnetic storm, and yes their is something behind it, or rather inside of it.” This bit of information caused confusion amongst the group. One of the astronomers in the back perked up.
“Inside of the storm? Preposterous! Anything inside of that monstrosity would be torn apart in seconds!”
“That is what I thought at first as well sir, but upon further analysis, I have discovered that the object within is incredibly large. From what my best guess is, it may be a planetoid that has grown large enough to stabilize itself in space.”
Another astronomer perked up, closer to Twilight this time. “So a random planetoid just happened to stop at a random position in the galaxy and form it’s own gravity field, inside of a deathly magnetic storm? Highly unlikely.” Debates of question began to spring up from within the crowd. Twilight needed Celestia’s support, but for some odd reason, she was nowhere to be seen. Twilight was about to give out in front of half of the Canterlot science community, until a familiar voice next to her caught her attention.
“She’s right. Something is there.” Celestia somehow appeared next to Twilight without anypony noticing. Celestia stared very closely at the representation of the magnetic storm cloud, her eyelids lowered, focusing her eyes directly at the cloud. “But it is not a planetoid.” Celestia’s horn-tip began to glow a bright-red, sending out a beam of crimson light, scanning the storm cloud hologram. As the scan proceeded, sections of the cloud started to drift away from the core. Twilight could feel the tingle of excitement in the air as she and the other ponies watched in awe as the storm cloud was being peeled like one would peel an orange, until an object, no larger than a grape, came into view. Celestia directed her magical beam towards the object, magnifying it’s size. When the object was large to be viewed clearly by everyone, she stopped her scanning spell, taking deep breath before joining the other ponies in awe at the revealed object.
The object Celestia magnified had no definite shape. It was not spherical like a planet or a bumpy oval like an asteroid, it was a large hollow circle with two pylon-like structures attached to the “sides” of the object. The group moved much closer to the circular object now, Twilight and Celestia moving aside to make way for the eager scientists.
“I don’t believe it! Princess, that is definitely not a planetoid, or an asteroid or... anything! I don’t even know what to call that.”
“Neither do I. This needs to be looked into a bit further. A team will be formed to delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding this object.” At those words, Twilight’s face grew into a large smile. She was shaking with glee and anticipation in hopes of leading the science team further into the discovery.
“Can I lead the team princess? Can I, can I?!” Twilight jumped up and down with joy.
“Actually Twilight, I think I will need somepony else for this job.”
“But why princess? You know how much time I have spent on finding this thing. And with my expertise in astronomy, I think that I can-.”
“There is a reason why I don’t want you working on this right now Twilight. You said you have spent quite some time finding this object, but that is just it. You have spent too much time on this. You have been in Canterlot for over a month, and you have not been spending any time with your friends in Ponyville. And what about Spike as well? He must be getting terribly lonely in the library without you.” Twilight sighed at the sad, yet slightly irritating, truth. Maybe she has been spending too much time in Canterlot, not to mention that she was slightly neglecting her friends. And of course their was Spike to worry about. He has been all alone in the library for the past month with nopony to keep him company.
“And have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?” Celestia conjured up a small mirror and held it up to Twilight’s face. Twilight had bags forming underneath her eyes, and her coat looked as if it was rubbed with a rubber balloon for a few hours, giving it a frizzy look. She giggled at how ridiculous she looked.
“Maybe your right princess. I think I do need a tiiiny break from all of this.”
The mirror vanished into a shower of sparks. “I will send a carriage to pick you up and bring you to Ponyville tomorrow. Your belongings will be delivered there as well.”
“Thanks princess” Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and yawned loudly, “I think I need to get some shuteye.” The two bowed to each other before Twilight left the room. She made her way down the observatory corridors until she stopped at the open door of a comfortably lit bedroom, but the light didn’t come from candles or electricity. It came from an entirely different source. As a special treat for whoever spent the night in the observatory, with the princess’s permission first of course, was a bedroom with a custom-made skylight. It brought forth gleaming rays of golden sunlight in the daytime, and cool waves of silvery moonlight in the night. Twilight sluggishly walked to the four-post bed, climbed in, and pulled the silk blanket over her tired body. She closed her eyes, and drifted off into a well-deserved slumber.
~~~~~~~~~~
......
I got nothin'
Thanks for reading!