Confronting the second Swarm front was the first priority for the Pegasus. As expected from previous experience at the blockade, the Swarm already knew about Shining Armor’s ramming tactic, and their ships were arranged in a pattern that was not conducive to providing satisfactory returns from a similar maneuver. Therefore the alicorn concentrated most of his energy to shielding the Federation ship while reserving some for attacks upon any Swarm ships that appeared to be ganging up on individual fighters.
“I’ll protect all your ships one way or another,” Shining promised the Admiral.
The battle was more extended than the first because half the Swarm had not been felled in one blow as had happened during the first engagement, but with the Alicorn of Protection on the job, there were no major casualties this time. If the Swarm’s first sortie had not been so much bigger than the second, Boyce would have questioned the wisdom of using the ramming technique considering the outcome, but sheer numbers certainly altered the probability of damage or destruction of the fighter ships. The point was moot as that tactic would likely not be able to be used again.
With long-range drone scouts placing the next wave of Swarm ships over a week away, the Pegasus headed back to Chakastra. Shining Armor, however, used his comm to hitch a teleportation ride to Equus to prepare for the Admiral’s arrival in a more conventional manner. By the time the Federation warship had made its way through the portal and reached Equus orbit, Gisela Path, Lord of House Path, was ready to meet with Boyce and finalize an agreement with him acting on behalf of the Federation. Of course, the hippogriff did not sit on her pony plot just waiting for the human. She had already ordered production of special equipment and started a recruitment drive for pilots. Shining Armor, acting on behalf of the House, had already established the framework with Boyce during his time on the Pegasus, and all that remained was to iron out the details and sign a formal agreement. Meanwhile, the Federation bureaucrats continued their painfully slow negotiations with the Equus Council representatives.
Alexa was updated on House Path’s direct dealings with the Federation each day by Penumbra. Whatever agreements were made with House Path, it would ultimately be up to her to ensure that they would be woven into the treaty that was being forged between their two governments. On the one hand, she was appalled by the short-circuiting of formal procedure, but on the other hand, she recognized the necessity of swift action. The Swarm was not going to wait for the negotiations to come to a conclusion, and it was the Federation that was primarily at risk. The price that House Path was asking was trivial in the face of that.
The recruitment drive for pilots started in Griffonia, the home of House Path but more importantly, the site of the biggest pilot training facility on Equus. Griffons were sought foremost because although many ponies matched their skills, the catbirds had one advantage that the equines could not match – hands with an opposable digit. Or at least finger-like talons that could manipulate the controls of Federation fighter ships. Despite the huge variety of species that was encompassed by the Stellar Federation, every one of them had hands and fingers that could push the buttons of various devices. Pony craft obviously had workarounds for hooves, but the ships that they were being recruited to fly did not have them as yet. Thanks to information and designs submitted by the Cosmic Lotus’ crew, plans to build their own space fighter craft were well underway, but despite advanced magitek, they would not be ready for a considerable time as yet. Modifying existing craft was a quicker and more practical approach.
Nevertheless, the House soon got its first wave of recruits which included a fair number of ponies. Because all species would first need to undergo training on the ships that they were expected to fly, setting up simulators with the required adaptations for hooves was a simple task, and the ponies were readily accepted into the program.
One of the places where the recruiters visited was the headquarters of the Wonderbolts. The modern aerial stunt team was vastly different from over a century ago, welcoming any winged species to fly alongside the pegasi that originally comprised the group, as long as they had the required skills. House Path wanted those skills too. Many of the current squad had progressed from their previous jobs to the Wonderbolts and, after having reached elite status, saw this as an opportunity to go one step higher. One of them, in particular, was quite familiar to Warmaster Blue Streak whose task it was to interview and assess all the applicants.
Blue saw the name on the top of the first application form and one eyebrow raised in mild surprise. He did not need to read the rest of the résumé as there was nothing in it that he did not know already. “Send in Mach Spectrum,” he said over the intercom.
A snow-white hippogriff swaggered into the Warmaster’s office. Six primary feathers on each wing were colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet; three feathers formed a red, orange, and yellow crest; and his tail tuft was equally tricolored with blue, green, and violet. His magenta eyes twinkled and he gave the stallion a grin as he sat down in front of the desk. “Howdy, Blue Streak. Good to see you again.”
“I should have expected you to apply, Mach. How’s your mother?”
“She says to tell you that she can still kick your butt in a race: anytime, anywhere.”
Blue Streak chuckled and nodded. “Yes, that’s your mom alright. Rainbow Dash will be on her deathbed before she concedes the title of Equus’ fastest pony.”
Mach Spectrum spread his wings and said, “I aim to claim that title then.”
Blue frowned a little at the boast. “Are you planning to challenge me again? You’re not the only one who has been honing his special talent.”
“Yeah, but Mom’s been training me, so it might be best that you concede right now. Family pride, y’know?”
The earth pony just had to shake his head in resignation. Like mother, like son. Everyone had been surprised when Rainbow Dash had fallen for a griffon cock that her friend Gilda had introduced to her. The pair had hit it off immediately and despite her Wonderbolt duties, Rainbow had found the time to form a relationship with Thunderclaw, eventually agreeing to marry him. For the first time in her life, the pegasus mare relented her tomboy image to become a mother, but both parents shared equally in the task of raising their foal. Thunderclaw’s death during a battle had devastated Rainbow, and she had resigned from her role as the Captain of the Wonderbolts to be able to devote more time to raising her son. She stayed active with the Wonderbolts though, spending much time as a trainer to them, and later to Mach who eventually joined the squad. There was one critical difference between mother and son though.
“You have never seen active duty in a war,” Blue said with his most serious expression. “You went straight from hanging out with the Wonderbolts to joining them and becoming one of their elites. Most of the others saw combat in the Equestrian forces before peace enabled them to pursue their higher aspirations. What makes you think that you’re ready to be a fighter pilot?”
“Is anybody really ready to fight a war for the first time?” Mach’s expression had lost its good humor for the first time as he sought to convince his old mentor of his seriousness. “The Wonderbolts aren’t just for show, and Mom always made it a point to ensure that I understood that I might be called upon to defend Equus someday. That day has come, and I’m ready to do my part.”
As an honorary uncle to the hippogriff, Blue had watched the colt grow up. While he was as brash as his mother had been at his age, he was just as skilled and loyal. His time in the Wonderbolts had given him the necessary discipline without quelling his boisterous spirit, and Blue could see no problems with accepting Mach’s application. His one qualm was the prospect of sending the sole child of his long-time friend into a war. However, that was what people like him had to do for the benefit of those who could not defend themselves. While war was not at Equus’ doorstep as yet, it would be better that it never came at all. Their best hope of that was stopping the Swarm in Federation territory, protecting their new allies at the same time. “You’ll get that chance, Mach. Welcome to the Equian Star Force.”
There were several other Wonderbolt volunteers. Among the pegasi was a diminutive pink mare named Hummingbird Song and she had been among the first to sign. Although far from the strongest, she had the most remarkable aerobatic skills of all her squad and had regularly pulled off 20G turns with a smile on her face for the sheer thrill of it.
An intense Old World thestral mare named Savage Dark was the most intimidating of the group. Her flying fox coloration and prominent fangs did nothing to diminish that impression. However, she talked softly and asked Blue to call her ‘Sava’. “I do what I do because I’m built for it and I want to protect my family and friends, but I’m not really as scary as I look,” she confessed.
A seasoned veteran male griffon named Stratus Skytalon was the largest of the volunteers and the powerhouse of the group. He barely made it onto the team due to the size limitations of the Federation fighter ships.
Outside of the Wonderbolts, the House still got plenty of competent volunteers, several of whom were changelings from the Red Hive. Ever at the forefront of defending Equestria and then the Greater Equus Union, Queen Carpacia had assigned several warriors to the cause. One Red Changeling was a volunteer though – a princess of the hive and sibling to Fidelitas, Blue’s half-sister. But while Fifi was a strategist, Honesta was a field general. Blue Streak marked her down as a possible fighter squad leader if the changelings proved to be good pilots. Networked ’lings could fight more efficiently than even the most well-drilled team.
When the final applicant had been dismissed, Blue Streak leaned back in his chair with a large degree of satisfaction. They had acquired a few more than they had hoped for, and all of them were very good prospects. Training would weed out those unsuited to the task, although Blue suspected that there would be few if any dropouts. Now all they were up against was time – time to train them on Federation craft, and time to build some fighters of their own. The Warmaster was a realist though – the Swarm was unlikely to grant them much of that precious commodity. He hoped that there would be other solutions found because, against the unrelenting Swarm, it would be a war of attrition, and they would inevitably lose such a campaign.
Wandering was a little bored. His wife was indulging herself in lots of astronomical work, occasionally visiting various Federation facilities to see for herself the methods that they used to observe the universe. She also occasionally played host to their astronomers who wanted to see the TESS in operation with its virtual optical lens of 450 meters. Far Sight’s magnified optics spell refracted all wavelengths equally, thereby eliminating aberration and providing visible-light images of unprecedented magnification and clarity. In addition, because the spell focused light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays, astronomers from all over the Federation were trying to get in contact with Starry.
All the other scientists on the Cosmic Lotus were also working their specialties, most of them on Chakona. Even the apprentices were there at the moment, taking special classes at Dewclaw University as part of an exchange student initiative. It left very little for a starship captain to do. Fortunately, Goldfur contacted him and asked him to teleport down to their home. Once there, the chakat introduced him to a newcomer.
“Wandering Path, I would like you to meet Chakat Swiftwalk,” Goldfur said.
Wandering held up a hoof to shake the hand of the black and cream furred skunk-patterned chakat. “So you’re the teleporter that Goldfur told me about. Good to finally meet you.”
Swiftwalk grinned. “I wish Goldie had told me about you sooner. An intelligent pony race sounded awesome as soon as I heard about it, but to meet one in person… wow!”
The stallion chuckled. “Yeah – we said that too when we encountered your race.”
Swiftwalk giggled. “It’s a mutual admiration thing, I suppose. Anyway, I was asked if I would like to help you out for a while. I said, ‘Twist my arm, why don’t you?’ What can I do for you?”
“Goldfur tells me that you can teleport absolutely anywhere you’ve visited before irrespective of distance. Is that right?”
“Yes. Makes me quite valuable to the Star Corps.”
“I can’t teleport all the way to our home planet of Equus, but my brother Destined Path can. Like you though, he has to have been there in person previously or home in on a mana beacon.”
“What’s a mana beacon?”
“A magical device that sends a signal throughout the universe that powerful teleporters like Des can lock onto. House Path would like to be able to get to various worlds extremely quickly in an emergency, and I would love to see some new worlds. I am proposing that we visit every planet that you can reach and I will install a beacon there plus some surveillance equipment, as well as look around a bit.”
“Hmmm… sounds like a lot of work,” Swiftwalk said thoughtfully.
“We’re willing to recompense you, of course.”
Swiftwalk smirked at the stallion. “Actually, I have the perfect way that you can repay me. You want to see new worlds – I want to visit Equus. Goldie told me about hir visit, and I can hardly wait to see it for myself.”
“You have a deal. Are you sure that you can teleport 18,000 light-years though?”
Swiftwalk blinked. “How far? 18,000 light-years?! Wow – I’ve never gone anywhere near that far before, but then again I haven’t found a limit to my range yet. Anyway, if I get there and find that I can’t manage the ’port back, I’ll just have to go back the way I came.”
“Then we can get started immediately?”
“Not quite. I just got home and my mate and I would like to spend a little time with my family.”
“Of course. I need to make arrangements with Destined first too.”
Wandering ended up spending the rest of the day at the chakat clan’s home. He met Goldendale, Swiftwalk’s lifemate and adopted identical twin to Goldfur. How that was even possible took a lot of explaining but made for a fascinating evening of conversation. Wandering went to bed that evening filled with excitement, and very much no longer bored.
For the next few weeks, Wandering visited world after world. On each one, he installed mana beacons somewhere that they would not be damaged or interfered with. He also set up special instrumentation designed to detect the presence of the Swarm. On the inhabited planets, by previous arrangement, he also left a crystal comm with someone in authority to enable instantaneous communications. When Swiftwalk tired as shi reached hir daily limit for teleportation duties, shi rested up hir psionic ability and they spent the rest of the day sightseeing. With the behind-the-scenes help of Star Fleet by way of Admiral Kline, Wandering quickly built up an early warning system encompassing a few hundred worlds as a safety measure in case of a Swarm incursion. They were only limited by the number of locations that the chakat had previously visited and fixed in hir memory. If the enemy came to an inhabited planet, House Path would learn of it immediately, and if Swarm ships visited any of the new worlds still being explored, the House would know of that too.
Despite the seriousness of the task, Wandering was having a blast. Eighty-seven days later though, the first warning ping came.
Destined Path materialized on top of a tall hill overlooking a broad valley. In his company were Shining Armor and the swiftest available House Path pegasus. After a quick assessment of the area, Destined nodded to the pegasus who shot up into the sky and was swiftly out of sight. Shining Armor then put up a special shield and the remaining two ponies shimmered out of view. They settled down to await the report from the scout.
Shining looked around curiously. “So – not one of their colonies, I take it?” he eventually commented.
Destined shook his head. “This planet doesn’t even have a name as yet. It’s one of the outermost worlds that Star Fleet has discovered, and the Star Corps has just recently established an unmanned forward base here to facilitate a full exploratory expedition later.”
“If the Swarm is here, this world is already lost to the Federation.”
Destined sighed. “I know, but what concerns me more is that this planet is nowhere near either of the new fronts. If we confirm the presence of the Swarm, that indicates that they are flanking us from several directions. We’ll be in for an even bigger fight than we face already.”
“We’ll know soon enough. Jetstream may not be quite Rainbow Dash class, but she isn’t far behind.”
“How close?” Destined asked with slightly nervous curiosity.
“She did her first supersonic flight a year ago. She’s been getting faster ever since.”
“Hopefully she doesn’t go supersonic on this scouting mission. Nothing like a sonic boom to draw attention.”
Shining Armor chuckled. “Usually she counts on that.”
Conversation lapsed as they waited for a report from Jetstream. Eventually, Destined’s comm beeped and the pegasus’ voice came to them.
“Presence of Swarm ships confirmed. I count at least thirty. They appear to be in the middle of unloading cargo.”
Destined replied, “Acknowledged, Jetstream. Return immediately.”
“Just taking a few photographs for the Warmaster, sir.”
“For Celestia’s sake, don’t let the Swarm spot you!”
“Oops! I think it’s too late. One of the ships is rising and turning in my direction. Returning now!”
Destined did not waste his breath or Jetstream’s time by telling her to hurry. He would have words with Blue Streak later about the task he’d given the scout unknown to either of the others. This was supposed to have been a covert operation, not a reconnaissance mission. Now the Swarm had reason to believe that their presence had been detected already.
“There she is!” Shining announced, his binoculars picking up the mare on the horizon.
Destined spotted the pegasus’ shimmering trail – she was going faster than the speed of sound. It would not be enough. The single pursuing Swarm ship was much faster even within the planet’s atmosphere.
“I see the pursuing Swarm,” Shining confirmed a moment later.
“We need to go meet her halfway, otherwise she’s not going to make it!”
Destined leaped into the air and headed in the scout’s direction, closely followed by Shining Armor as soon as he dropped the invisibility shield. They both flapped as hard as they could, but neither could match Jetstream’s speed. Destined knew that she was not going to be within the range of his teleportation ability in time.
“Can you shield Jetstream?” he yelled to Shining above the noise of their rush through the air.
“Too far!” Shining confirmed Destined’s fear.
Then the Swarm fired upon the defenseless pegasus. She managed to dodge the first and second shots, but the third found its target.
“NO!” screamed Destined. Then he did something that he hoped never to do and drew on his special talent. The time-stream opened for its master and the two alicorns plunged into the disorienting realm of timelessness.
Shining Armor was totally bewildered, but the Alicorn of Time could sense his destination. Abruptly they burst back into normality and they both spent a moment reorienting themselves.
“FLY!” yelled Destined, shooting away at top speed.
Shining followed as quickly as he could, wondering why until he spotted the impossible. Jetstream was hurtling towards them, far closer than before. She started dodging fire from the Swarm ship, but this time Destined was in range to fire back, a blast from his horn badly damaging the ship. However, as always and despite the crippling blow, the Swarm was absolutely relentless. Wobbling somewhat, it still pursued Jetstream and continued firing.
“SHIELD!” screamed Destined.
Shining Armor did not stop to think. He threw out his farthest shield, blocking the killing strike. A follow-up blast also splattered harmlessly on the alicorn’s force field. Then the mare was within range of Destined, and he enveloped all three of them in his magic and teleported them away.
They all reappeared in the sky above the Griffonian headquarters of House Path. Jetstream’s velocity had been cancelled, and all three took a moment to establish a hover in place.
“Phew! … Thanks … Your Highness,” Jetstream panted. “I thought … I was … a goner.”
“You were,” Destined replied with a frown. “You were supposed to just confirm the Swarm’s presence and return. Didn’t I tell you to come back immediately?”
“Warmaster Blue Streak gave me orders to reconnoiter any Swarm incursion, sir.”
“The Warmaster needs to be reminded who has seniority here.” Destined was sure he and his brother would have quite an argument later, but Blue Streak was probably justified. Information about the enemy was critical at this time. Speaking of which… “Report to the Warmaster and give him those photographs that you nearly died for. Then when he’s finished with you, take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned it.”
“Thank you, sir.” Jetstream then shot away at her customary breakneck speed.
Shining regarded Destined coolly for a moment before saying, “You took us back in time, didn’t you?”
Destined sighed. “I have sworn to stop any meddling with the time-stream, but I didn’t hesitate a moment to do so in order to save Jetstream.”
“It makes a difference when you are responsible for someone’s life, doesn’t it?”
Destined wordlessly nodded.
“You do realize that in spite of your power, you won’t be able to save everyone in this war?”
“I know, and I hate it.”
“Now you know a little of what it’s like to be the Alicorn of Protection, except I’ve had to try to save thousands at a time. If we get deeper into this war with the Swarm, you’re probably going to have to confront this situation again and again. Don’t let your fears stop you from doing the right thing when the time comes.”
Destined gave him a half-smile. “Thanks, Uncle Shining. It’s been a while since I’ve fought in a war, but I will remember my duty to our ponies and all the other Equians who look to us for protection. Meanwhile, let’s go give the Council and the Federation representatives the bad news.”
The pair started to gently dive down to the House which sat placidly among well-tended gardens and neatly mown lawns, belying the tempest that was yet to come.
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