//------------------------------//
// Relief & Uprising 
// Story: Adventures Across Space 
// by zalla661 
//------------------------------//

Daniels shook Archers hand firmly gripping the past Captains hand. Trixie stood silently by as the two humans exchanged. She kept her magic on her disruptor just in case. She glanced outside the porthole to the outside of the ship they were on.They were still orbiting the same planet as before, now there were several hundred stations like large claws with ships inside them. All of them shared a similar shape and design. Large dorsal saucer sections, twin naccells, and larger body portions attaching them.

Trixie surmised they were Starfleet ships. Although they seemed much larger than anything she’d seen thus far. “Trixie, come here I want you to meet someone important.” The sound of Archer's voice caught Trixie’s attention. She craned her neck to nod at her human friend, but glance once more at the porthole before walking back to Archer and Daniels.

“Trixie Lulamoon, this is Daniels. He’s a friend of mine,” Archer gestured to the the man next to him. Daniels bowed politely, but Archer gave a leering glance at him with a long exasperated sigh. “Because we’re both here I ASSUME  you know Captain Trixie?”

Indeed Daniels nodded confirming Archers suspicion.

“Yes, in fact the reason I brought both of you here is of the utmost importance.”

Daniels made a swift hand motion to follow. He brought Archer and Trixie to the porthole to show them the planet they were orbiting.

“We have much to discuss, but I don’t have a lot of time. Archer, the war is over but now there are elements pouring in from other realities trying to cause as much damage as possible,”Daniels paused and glanced around, as if he were expecting to catch someone watching them. He then leaned in and whispered to Archer and trixie pulling them close to him. “Listen to me Archer, remember the Temporal Cold War you stopped  a few years back?”

Archer nodded, and Trixie listened. “Yeah, what’s that gotta to do with anything? I thought it was over?”

Daniels gave Archer a discerning look. “You did. After the Temporal Cold War ended there was a new council established. They make major decisions concerning missions of Temporal Agents. However there was an unforeseen event as a result of ending the Temporal Cold War. Realities split. That’s why the new council was created. We make decisions based off these alternate realities and try to keep the timeline intact while monitoring these alternate timelines. The result has been disastrous. As you may have surmised the Solar Empire has made an appearance in your reality? Well, they were a direct result of you stopping the Temporal Cold War.” Daniels passed to recollect his thoughts. “Actually, I should say the other you, Archer.”

Now both archer and Trixie were confused, more Trixie than Archer. Trixie struggled to wrap her mind around the conversation, but now all this talk ot time agents, alternate timelines, realities, other Archers, it was overwhelming her. Archer himself, though quite familiar with these concepts already, was also struggling to make the connections, btu knowing Daniels it would be explained if he listened and asked straight forward questions.

‘What other me are you talking about? And what does this have to do with the Empress?” He asked.

But then Trixie butted in with several questions of her own. “What’s all this talk about alternate timelines? What’s a Temporal Agent? And where are we?!”

Archer attempted to calm the now twitching pony beside him.

“Captain Trixie, I know this is a lot to take in. Trust me, when I first learned about this it was overwhelming for me too,” Archer patted his pony friends shoulders reassuring her. “Don’t worry I’ll explain everything later, but knowing Daniels this is isn’t going to be a long conversation so I need to hear what he has too say. Okay?”

Trixie nodded slowly begrudgingly. “Okay.”

Archer stood up to face Daniels, and placed his hand across his chest and leaned against a support beam that curved with the ships shape.

“Archer, the other you I’m referring to is from the reality we refer to as, the Prime Universe. The source where all realities derive from. The Empress and her fleet were also from the Prime Universe, but they were from another galaxy entirely. So, they never encountered humans before in the Prime Universe. However, they were part of the Temporal Cold War. When the other you stopped the war a shockwave rippled across time and realities resetting many things that were directly resulted from that war.”

“The Empress and her allies escaped by jumping ahead in time. Covering themselves in a temporal wake. As a result the temporal shockwave passed over them. Essentially, they were shielded by the changes to time and reality altogether.”

“This did also removed many of the Temporal Agents from existence and left the Empress relatively unopposed as she moved her fleet between realites. She was set on attacking the Prime Universe in the early 21st century. Me and several other agents managed to plant false information in their ranks, thus resulting in them coming to this universe. I’m sorry, but it was the only way to stop them from attacking the Prime Universe.”

Those last words resonated with both Archer and Trixie. They knew the Empress had the power to destroy realities, but they did catch the importance of the prime universe.

“So, what would happen if the Empress were to destroy the Prime Universe?” Trixie asked out of the blue.

Daniels sighed pulling down his uniform from the waist with his hands. Turning to face the open port he gazed at the stars with a contemplative manner.

“She doesn't want to destroy it. Quite the contrary, she wishes to conquer it,” Daniels replied in a dark tone. “Just know the entity she possesses is what can destroy all life as she pleases. But she doesn’t completely control him.”

Daniels looked up again, this time with more concern. He looked back at his two friends and gave a simple short nod to them. “I know this is a lot. Please, be careful. Archer.” He nodded to the other human across from him. Archer responded with a silent nod of his own.

Trixie sighed accepting the fact she would most likely learn what happened in time. The future man turned to face away from his guests walking down the hallway as it curved out of sight. With one last glance he gave them sympathetic eyes that put them both at ease one. If only for a moment. He gave them a kind smile and tapped his hip twice before continuing.

“Captains, there will be a moment soon where you will have to make serious decision that will affect the outcome of many things to come. I ask that when that time comes, be very careful. There are forces at work to undermine our very way of life. And they have not stopped yet.”

Daniels looked above him causing Trixie to glance up above as well. Archer made no reaction to this however as the future human stepped back.

As he did the world around Trixie and Archer went dark. Then  in the blink of an eye they were back on the turbolifts from their ships. On the Hydra, Trixie looked around at the inside of the turbolift of her ship. She sighed feeling annoyed by what had transpired. Though she wasn’t sure if she imagined it after so many prolonged battles, or if she was just losing her mind. In either case she continued down to engineering as she planned.

Down in engineering, PInkie was having a ball. She was able to get the minor damage the ship sustained during the battle with the Klingons. Now she was passing the time with routine maintenance checks on the various systems. A service pony watched as the Pink commander curled up into a small pink ball and rolled into the jefferies tube like it was a hole in a pinball machine. The ponies in mina engineering were used to the commanders antics that seeing such behavior was no longer jarring to them. However it did raise questions about her upbringing in most of them, and whether she really was a pony or some alien hybrid.

Lt. Commander Pinkie rolled through the tubes, unhindered by the cramp space in the tubes. As if guided by some unseen force she rolled through tube after tube until she reached her destination. There she would unroll in this seemingly impossibly way and be laying on her back while she conducted her routine maintenance checks. After she finished her checkups the pink pony rolled up again and continued on her way.

After she finished every access point she exited the jeffries tubes she came into contact with a pony tripping them from under their hooves. The pony grunted as they fell atop of Pinkie pinning her to the ground under their weight.

Pinkie shook her head to stay off her dizziness when she realized who it was she tripped. Glaring down at her was Captain Trixie. The azure mare’s glare was intense enough to burrow a hole in Pinkie’s head. With a nervous giggle Pinkie lifted her CO off her and placed her gently on her hooves. Trixie’s glare never softened, in fact her eyes grew narrower at the Lt. Commander. Pinkie nervously grinned dusting Trixie’s uniform off. A quick swat to her hoof made the pink pony stop. Trixie’s glare softened only slightly as she walked away with a weary sigh. Lt. Commander Pinkie followed her Captain towards a console which brought up all power distributions to the Hydra.

“Lt. Commander, what’s the status of the ships ion cannon?” Trixie asked her pink officer.

“The power flow is now being properly managed with the fuses that repair station made, Captain,” She replied pulling the diagram up. “All the new fuses are fully functional and working properly. I gotta say it Captain, that station is a engineering marvel.”

“A term you don’t use lightly I hear,” Trixie said. “I would agree wholeheartedly.”

Pinkie nodded when the internal comm activated.

“Captain, the is the bridge. We’re in pursuit of the Imperial warship but we lost them.” Commander Octavia's voice said over the speakers.

Trixie turned away from the power relay console and looked around the engineering section. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular but she chose to settle her sight on the glowing reactor while she spoke.

“Any idea where they were heading?”

“Yes, their last course has them heading towards Sector S143-N. It’s an isolated system that borders our charted space.” Octavia replied over the speakers. “Aside from that we next to nothing about this sector. In fact the last known location of the Hyamaker was in this sector, now that I recall.”

Trixie thought about it. With both the Enterprise and Hydra fully operational they could easily get back home. However she was also interested in maintaining relations with the humans.

“Commander, open a channel to Enterprise. Ask if they’d be interested in continuing to escort us back home. I think the prospect of future relations would intrigue Captain Archer. And extend an invitation to the Captain to dinner. I’d like to speak with him in a more casual setting.” Trixie said.

“Yes, Captain. I’ll send word to Captain Archer. Commander Octavia out.”

When Octavia’s voice died out Trixie returned to the console behind her. She brought up powerflow of the disruptors. With Pinkies help.

*Hydra Bridge*

They were in pursuit of the Imperial ship for over an hour with the Enterprise. After an hour the Imperial ship managed to get too far ahead of them and they slowed their pace to not blow out their engines. The Enterprise continued tracking their warptrail while the Hydra followed. Since the Hydra had minimal scientific capabilities they were almost completely reliant on Enterprise to track the Imperial ship.

Commander Octavia was on the bridge rubbing the ridge of her nose. She was feeling a headache coming along again. She really had no idea why she was here anymore. Her parents told her that this wasn’t the career choice for her, but she didn’t listen.

“Ensign Lyra, open a channel to the Enterprise.” Octavia said.

“Aye, Commander!” The mint green unicorn saluted.

A few seconds later Archers face appeared on the main viewer screen. He looked well all things considered. His uniform had a tear in the shoulder area, but other than that he seemed well enough as far as Octavia could tell.

“Commander, what’s going on?” Archer said with his usual cheery disposition.

“We’re about to go into night shifts. The Captain wanted me to extend an invitation to you and your officers to join us on the Hydra for dinner, Captain.” Octavia said.

“We would be delighted. When should we be expected?” Archer asked smiling back at the grey pony.

“1900. We have a special order in mind. Please come hungry. I guarantee you won’t leave otherwise.”

“Looking forward to it. Archer out.”

The screen went blank and Octavia turned in her chair facing sideways to the viewscreen. She tugged at her tight collar, fiddling with her officer bars on the neck. She waited a few minutes drowning out all the sounds around her trying to calm her nerves. The idea that they could go into battle again at any moment terrified her. The Klingons were worthy adversaries, but the Imperials had a huge technological advantage over them. Even with the Enterprise they stood little chance against the small ship. Octavia thought about it and turned to Lt. Claw. The griffon was busy fine tuning the disruptor guidance array when he noticed the Commander staring at him.

“Is, uh, something wrong Commander?” He asked scratching his claw on the console frame.

Octavia didn’t answer him. She was in her own little world right now. The sounds of the ship and even the Lieutenant were drowned out to create a blank white room in her mind. However lt. Claws voice proved to be stronger than Octavia's will at the time. He called out to her again startling her out of her mindlessness.

“Commander!”

“Huh? What is it Leutantae?”

The griffon cleared his throat and leaned over his station to get a better view of Octavia.

“You were staring ma’am. Is something wrong?” He asked softly.

Octavia felt herself moved by how gentle his voice was. Every griffon she met had a hard loud and proud voice with a screech to match. It was unusual to her but a welcome change to all the fast pace action and yelling. She quickly realized she was staring again and Claw was waiting for an answer form her. To save face she diverted back to why she started to stare at the poor griffon in the first place.

“Lieutenant, were you able to get a detailed scan of the warship before it entered warp?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What did the tactical analysis come up with?”

Claw pressed a few buttons on his console and a tactical display of the ship in question came up. He read each line and spoke them aloud as he went down the list.

“Five powerful concentrated phasers, photon torpedoes, and two backup torpedo pods. Tehir shield output was off the scales. From what I can tell they easily outmatch us one to one.”

Octavia nodded and turned around to face towards Sunset Shimmer, with Esgin Vinyl. The two were working hard on their new weapon. Octavia unbuttoned her top button form her collar exposing the pull of the suits zipper. She pulled it down to loosen it around her neck and breathed a sigh of relief. She then pushed herself out of her chair and turned to Sunset Shimmer.

“Lt,. Sunny Smiles, you have the bridge.” Octavia said walking past the mare heading towards the turbolift.


Esgin Vinyl snickered and Sunset glared at her. “It’s, Sunset Shimmer ma’am.”

Octavia stopped and turned around facing the yellow fiery maned amre. She gave Sunset a polite apologetic bow. “My apologies Lieutenant. I’ll change the records to show that. Please take care of things here.”

Sunset smiled at Octavia nodding to her. “Thank you, Commander. Have a good night.” The mare said.

Octavia then turned to enter the turbolift. When she was in the lift she pressed the button for deck ten. She then unzipped her back left leg pouch and pulled out a small red lensed eye visor. The visor was a huge tear drop shaped earpiece that hung off her left ear and covered her left eye with a red transparent lens. Such devices were uncommon but they were given to commanding officers in the fleet. They were the replacements for the PDAs. Smaller, durable, and processed data quicker than any PDA at the time. However Octavia rarely used hers for anything other than to tell the time. She never went on away missions and she never got into situations where she really needed it, but she always kept it handy in case. With Trixie as Captain there was no telling when she would need it. In fact it was a most certain guarantee she’d need it soon, it was just a question of when.

Placing th evisor on she tapped a large button on the side and the red lens became filled with lines of text. Her eye became an optical reader and blinking was how she ‘clicked’ a text or command without using her own hooves or verbal commands. She pulled up a digital clock to show the time. It was nearly 1840 so she had time to freshen up before dinner.

When she reached deck ten she got off the turbolift and walked down the halls until she reached her quarters. Entering her quarters she fully unzipped her uniform top and slid it off throwing it on top of her bed. She then slipped off her boots and pants. Lastly she took off her visor and left it on the end of her piano and went to take a shower.

The bathroom was simple, white with a lavatory and a standup shower with a frosted transparent aluminum polymer structure. Octavia slid the door open and turned the nozzle for the hot water. After the water temperature rose to the perfect setting she stepped into the shower. The warm water running over her sweat matted fur was a welcoming feeling. After wearing her uniform for so long it was nice to let her body breath again. Despite the water being recycled it felt nice to be clean again. She used a lavender scented shampoo to give herself a nice aroma for dinner. Later she planned on having another duet performance in her quarters if trixie wasn’t too busy. After a long shower Octavia stepped out and dried off.

While she was drying her mane the chime to her quarters rang. She hadn’t been expecting anyone and it was still eight minutes until dinner so trixie should already be set. Then again, Octavia knew the mare was prone to doing things last minute. She sighed wrapping up her money quickly and went to answer the door. To her surprise Spitfire was standing there.

The yellow mare was leaning against the door frame wearing a black t shirt and an old brown leather flight jacket with her old Wonderbolt dog tags.

“Major, to what do I owe this unexpected meeting?” Octavia asked the mare.

“Hey Octy, just stopping by to say hi.” Spitfire said casually. “You got a minute?”

Octavia craned her neck back into her room to see her clock. The digital readout said 1880. There wasn’t much time but she could spare a moment. She turned back to Spitfire and stepped aside letting the pegasus mare into the room. Spitfire stepped over towards the piano and allowed Octavia the freedom to get ready for ehr dinner. Octavia rushed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a fresh uniform on her back. Spitfire shook her head as Octavia retreated to the bathroom.

Then she smelled it. A trace of lavender that filled the room. Spitfire got a cheeky grin and leaned on the piano flexing her wings.

“I can smell your special lavender scented shampoo. What’s the occasion? Gonna try and seduce Trixie in the officers mess?” Spitfire asked with a sly tone.

Octavia scowled at her yellow friend. Spitfire replied with a toothy grin. Octavia was unable to hold her scowl for very long and burst into laughter. Spitfire joined with Octavia on jovial laughter. For a good minute the two friends held onto their laughter. After which they were able to calm down, and Octavia playfully swats Spitfire’s shoulder. The pegasus mare cried out in mock pain rolling on the floor playing off as if she were in immense pain.

“Oh! The pain! The agony! Officer down! Send help!” Spitfire cried from the floor.

Octavia rolled her eyes and smiled watching Spitfire roll on the floor holding her arm. Octavia heard her clock chime then proceeded to walk on Spitfire to get to her old uniform. Spitfire grunted as Octavia unceremoniously stepped on her unprotected gut. Spitfire rolled onto her belly glaring up at Octavia as she slipped on a new uniform.

This time however she put on her visor and strapped a disruptor holster on her right leg. Spitfire watched as the grey mare then proceeded to her dresser. Opening it Octavia pulled out a large disruptor pistol. Spitfire stood up and looked over Octavia’s shoulder to see it.

“Still got that old thing?” she sadi recognizing it.

“Yes,” Octavia replied rubbing the weapon in her hooves. “It may be an old Mk II, but they were hard hitting and reliable in even the worst conditions. Simplicity at its finest.”

“What do you even need it for? Expecting trouble in the officers mess?” Spitfire asked seriously.

Octavia shook her head holstering the pistol in her hip-holster.

“No, I just want to be prepared. We’re in hostile space until we return home after all.” Octavia said walking towards the door. “What did you want to talk about, Spitfire?”

Spitfire followed the mare out of the room and down the halls of the ship. Spitfire stayed side by side with the earth pony while they traveled together to the officers mess.

“What? A friend can’t just say, ‘hi’ to another friend and escort her to dinner from time to time?”

Octavia scrunched her nose at Spitfire’s remark.

“What?” Spitfire asked nonchalantly.

Octavia sighed rolling he reyes. She stepped out the side when a passing ensign walked by after giving both mares a brief and nervous greeting. Octavia quickly realized it was the same ensign she yelled at back in the hangar in the power loader. She made a mental note to try and remember to talk to him about that sometime in the near future. For the rest of the walk both mares were silent as they entered the turbolift and headed to the Officers Mess.

*Sol Dios*

Empress Celestia was very upset.

That was putting it lightly. Everyone who stood in her way was either throw aside into the walls leaving sizeable intendations of their bodies in the metal alloys, or they were blasted aside as she rampaged through the halls of her master battle station. After reading the damage reports to her beloved station atop of her students untimely demise and the loss of most of her fleet and Discord, she was in a intensely foul mood. She stormed through hall after hall until she ended up in a large room with two ponies inside.

The ponies were a pegasus stallion and a unicorn mare. Both were still young adults with matching mustard yellow fur and dark amber manes. They both wore matching white lab coats and black framed glasses. They were completely engrossed in their work monitoring two different consoles with various gauges and graphs overlaid on digital displays. In Front of these consoles were two large glass capsules clamped to the walls on either side of the square room. Around the top of each capsule was four large coils that feed light blue energy into the capsules with a constant flow, never breaking the flow. The two ponies were chatting to one another, seemingly unaware of the Empress standing behind them. However, she stood behind them and waited patiently, despite being very irritated by the wait while they finished their work.

“-make sure the ether flow is constant sister!” the stallion said, fluffing his wings.

“Of course brother!” The mare across from the stallion snapped back. “Just keep the energy flow steady. Any fluctuation over .5% could release the entries!”

“I know! I won’t let the system deviate. Just keep the power regulate you dodo!” The stallion grunted glaring at the pony beside him.

The Empress sighed as the two ponies finished their calibrations. The beeps and clicks from their consoles played like a symphony in the Empress’s ears. She glanced casually up at the chamber pods. She looked closely at the left one where she was sure she could see a claw scraping against the pod, but it quickly subsided as the twins added more power to the containment field.

Finished with their work the two ponies turned to face the Empress. They bowed politely to her, and she gave a sharp nod of acknowledgement. As the two ponies rose from their bows the Empress walked up to the consoles and used her wings to fly up towards the pod where she saw the claw moments earlier.

“How is the containment field holding up, Gemini?” She asked, touching the pods surface gently.

The mare walked up to the Empress staring at the pod she was touching. She gave a confident smirk and nodded in affirmation. “Of, course your majesty. I guarantee the Douwd is perfectly secure!” She said confidently.

The stallion came up to his sister but with a less confident stride in his step. “THe other one, Eris, is proving more difficult my Empress.”

“How so?”


The twins glanced to each other. As if they were mentally connected they both nodded as a passing thought came through their minds and they returned their gazes to the Empress.

“Eris being a draconequus has brought with her a set of unique problems for us to solve,” Gemini said. “However we are able to adapt to her bodies fluxuations and keep her contained. My brother Gemini II was able to create a modular program that can rotate containment modulations in the computer without the need to pony interaction.”

The Empress glanced back at them and then to the pod. She squinted rubbing her hoof against the transparent polymer and used a spell to enhance her vision. She could barely make out the outline of the draconequus inside curled up into a ball.

“Very good you two,” The Empress said, stepping away from the pod. “Now, what if they escape containment?”

Gemini I reached into her lab coat with her hoof. She pulled out a small violet glowing vial and held it up to the alicorn.

“This is the solution to the draconequus,” Gemini I said.

“What is this?” The Empress asked looking at the vile.

“This my Empress is a vile of a behavioral adjusting potion!” Gemini I stated proudly.

“How does this program work?” The Empress asked.

The twins eyes met and they both smiled. Clearly they were very proud of themselves.

Gemini II spoke first, adjusting his coat over his body.


“The “potion”, as my sister calls it, is really a biochemical inhibitor. What it is is a series of inert strands of ribonucleic acids. Should Eris ever regain consciousness, the nucleic acids will activate and attach to specific strands of her DNA. Specifically the ones tied to her reality altering powers.” Gemini II explained. “These sequences will then arrange her DNA linking to her reality bending powers and rendering them inert.”

The Empress sighed glaring down at the twins. “Spare me you puedo-science techno babble. So, it will stop her from using her powers forever?”

“No Empress. By their very nature draconequus are creatures of chaos. Thus their bodies are as chaotic as their personalities,” Gemini I explained.

Gemini II stepped forward nodding at her brothers statement. “Essentially we can’t permanently take her powers away. But that’s not what the inhibitor is for.”

Empress Celestia glared down at the two ponies. She felt her patience wearing thin but she held back the urge to snap their necks. She wanted to hear what they had to say at least first.

Gemini II spoke nex. “The inhibitor prevents rsi from using her powers to cause chaos. Chaos is so integral to a draconequus existence  that if one were to suddenly stop-”

“-then the draconequus would disappear and cease to exist!” Gemini I finished.

Empress Celestia's lip curled with a cruel smile.