//------------------------------// // 17 - Welcome to Chern // Story: Dash to the Stars // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash - 6th of Solar Dusk, 1st year of Harmony 749,573.26 A.H. Shielded Landing Station 12 - Chern, Noctae Sector The Dawn of Destiny shook and jolted as it came out of FTL, entering orbit around Chern like a rock falling into a toilet full of mercury. The very moment the ancient ship entered the aberrant star’s system, everypony aboard could tell something was wrong. Rainbow clenched her teeth and gripped her seat’s armrests tightly as the ship threatened to throw her to the floor with its violent shuddering. Jo ducked down and braced herself on all fours, half her balance processor needing to dedicate itself to keeping her from falling even on her hands and feet. Pan was thrown from his chair, hitting the deck with a loud thud. Penny rolled her eyes as she bounced in the captain’s seat, restrained by her crash-harness. “Blin! I told you debils to buckle up,” Penny sighed as she tapped a few commands into the chair’s console. “You okay, Pan?” “NO! What the buck is wrong with— OW!” Pan shrieked as he rolled onto his back to clutch his head and curl into a ball. Jo scrambled forward as best she could with the ship shuddering. “What’s hurt?” The android asked as she quickly, though no nimbly, made her way to Pan’s side. “Aspirin! Please!” Pan begged, tears starting to form in his eyes. Penny and Jo frowned in unison. “What?” Rainbow almost joined them, then she felt it. A sharp throbbing pain right behind her eyes, and just above the bridge of her nose. Rainbow yelped and clenched her teeth against the sudden migraine. “OW! What the buck is with the mana here?!” Penny’s head snapped over to Rainbow, her worried frown turning into a perplexed almost blank stare. Pan whimpered from his place on the floor. “It’s like— AA! Bucking tartarus! It’s like… Dark Magic! When teacher tried to demo it and— OW! Failed!” Penny finished typing in her commands and the Dawn’s gravity drive began to compensate for the intense stellar winds. The ship stopped shaking, permitting Jo to stand up and run for the bridge’s medical kit. Rainbow closed her eyes tightly, doing her best to ignore the pain coming from what she recognised as her Forecaster glands. The three glands allowed pegasi to sense the mana currents around them and played a big part in their ability to understand the local weather. That being said, it was nothing compared to even a newborn unicorn foal’s mana sight. If the mana flow is so messed up I can feel it, he must be in tartarus right now. Rainbow thought as she timidly stood up from her chair. “Jo, I need one too. But uh, give Pan like five.” Penny unbuckled herself and rushed to Pan’s side. “What is it? Can I help?” “Mana…” Pan moaned. “Mana is bad. Not dark. Not bright. Bad. Like… Like when somepony messed something up bad.” Rainbow closed her eyes for a moment, both to help block out some of the pain and to try and think back to any time she might have felt something similar. “I remember when the weather factory tried to make sheet lightning. This feels like that… How did they contain that?” Rainbow muttered to herself. Penny gently picked Pan up and held him in her lap. “Pan? What can I do?” “What do you mean by mana?” Jo asked as she returned with the med kit. Pan moaned, unable to speak through the pain. Rainbow bit her lip as she realized she would need to explain it, and had not paid much attention in Arcana 101. “U— Uh… It’s an energy that is just everywhere and in everything. No! No not energy, um… It’s the little bitty thing that is what the energy is. Like how lightning is a bunch of electrons. Mana is like that but I forget what it’s called.” Penny quickly linked herself to the Dawn’s systems and checked the shields. “We should be blocking Pripyat’s radiation… Da, we are.” Jo opened the med kit and fished out a bottle of pain relievers and began counting them out to get correct dosages, mentally performing the math needed to estimate both ponies body mass. Rainbow tilted her head. “Pripyat?” “Da, our sun.” The gears in Rainbow’s head began to turn, slowly making an answer take shape. “Sun… The sun emits a lot of mana! Do your shields block magic?” Penny blinked, then shook her head. “Nyet, no psion is powerful enough to effect a whole ship. Can we block it with shields?” Rainbow nodded. “Yes! Twilight’s used shields to block spells. I’ve seen her do it. In comics, they uh… mod— Modify? No, modulate! They modulate shields to—” Jo almost dropped the bottle of pain relievers. “Of course! Modulate the shield harmonics to change their frequency. Penny, can the Dawn do shield rotation?” Penny nodded once and closed her eyes in concentration. “She’s not that old. Pan, tell me if the pain stops.” Penny quickly cycled the Dawn through all seven thousand shield frequencies. Modern ships had more settings, after all a shield was useless if your enemy's particular choice of wavelength for their laser based weapons could pass through your shield as if it weren't there. Pan continued to whimper and moan as the Dawn’s shields rotated through the basic frequencies. Then the frequency settings entered the range belonging to lower powered UV based lasers and the pressure behind Rainbow’s eyes vanished. Rainbow blinked and gently shook Penny’s shoulder. “I can’t feel anything now. I think we're good.” Penny opened her eyes and looked at a still whimpering Pan and frowned. “UV lasers… Mana is higher energy, ey?” She focused for a moment and adjusted the ancient ship’s shields to block everything it could from the UV spectrum. “Pan? Are you okay now?” Pan nodded slowly. “Y— yeah… Pressure’s gone. Still hurts though…” Penny gave Jo a look and the android gently pushed the palm of her left hand and five small tablets against Pan’s lips. “Take these.” Pan licked up the tablets and shuddered. “That… sucked…” Rainbow nodded and gently hugged the stallion with her left wing. “Yeah… He’ll need about ten minutes or so. Uh, if he’s anything like other unicorns I know.” Penny nodded once. “Okay… Does things like this happen a lot?” Rainbow sighed. “I don’t think so? I’ve seen a few unicorns react like that when I was in college. Usually when they messed up a spell really bad.” “The mana’s bad…” Pan mumbled. “It’s like getting your horn snapped off. Like, almost exactly the same.” Penny winced and gently ran her fingers through Pan’s mane. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would be a problem. Do you know what caused it?” Pan shook his head. “No…” Rainbow hummed and rustled her wings. “I felt it, so either it was super powerful, or it’s weather related. D— Does space have weather?” Jo hummed and sat down in a chair next to Pan’s to use the Dawns’ sensors. “Space does have weather of a sort. Solar wind, cosmic rays. That sort of thing. I’m not certain if that constitutes weather but—” Jo stopped talking and whistled. “—  Wow! I knew Chern was radioactive but this is nuts!” Penny sighed. “Da, her nickname is a good one.” “It really is like a nuclear warhead is going off all the time,” Jo marveled, her processor glowing as she raced through every last bit of info on Chern, Pripyat, and local space she could find. “This is definitely the Empire of Atomic Bombia. Why did you call it anything else?” Penny shrugged. “Our ancestors lived on an irradiated world. A reactor called Chernobyl melted down, made everything go bad. Honestly, the sun should have been called Chern, because the town of Pripyat is a place where they believed there was an artifact that granted wishes. Chernobyl was the thing spitting out radiation. But we did it the other way around… Look, what’s the problem?” Jo pointed to the holoscreen infront of her and tapped on a small graph. “Probably the way that star is spitting out more radiation than anything of its size should be… And is green if I am reading this right. The solar wind it’s putting off is incredibly intense and… Well, weird!” Penny nodded slowly. “Okay. I understand.” She closed her eyes and sent a few commands to the Dawn. “Pan, I’ve programmed the Dawn to set our shields to block mana every time we plot a course to Chern. This will not happen again.” “Thanks,” Pan said quietly as the pain finally started to fade away. “Those aspirin are really fast acting.” Jo’s cores tingled as she realized she could finally make a joke she’d been holding onto for her entire existence as an awakened AI. She turned around in her seat and flexed her right arm as if to show off her bicep. “Nanomachines, son!” Pan blinked and slowly sat up. “What?” Jo’s cooling pumps wined sadly. “It’s a— Nevermind, skip it.” Rainbow looked out towards the Dawn’s front window which was still covered by the steel shutters. “Is it really a green star? That sounds cool, can we look at it?” Penny nodded and sent the ship a command to open the shutters. “Da. Sorry, I was distracted.” Jo blinked. “Wait, you manually open the shutters? It’s not automatic?” Penny nodded as she shutters began to retract into the hull. “Da, the auto-close works, the auto-open broke.” Rainbow turned her attention to the window as the steel curtains parted. Pripyat hung in the void before her like the sparking tip of a welder’s torch. The Dawn’s shields and auto-tinting windows protected her eyes from the anomalous star’s rays, but did nothing to hide the obvious strangeness present in every spark of plasma flying up from the star’s surface. Pripyat was indeed green. A bright green, the sort of green everypony who had ever seen a comic book in their life associated with the magic kind of radiation that gave a pony super powers. Or mutated them horribly. Massive solar flares launched up from its surface constantly, forming impossibly huge arcs which made the star look more like a stylized picture of an atom with one proton and dozens of electrons than a star. The solar flares spat globules of plasma which drifted through the corona for a short way before dissipating into apparent nothingness as they became solar wind. Rainbow winced. She knew nothing about stars, but she could tell Pripyat was not normal in any way, shape, or form. The star looked angry, or perhaps in pain. Each flare was like a limb lashing out, or maybe desperately reaching for a weapon to put an end to its misery. The green ball of chaos made her uncomfortable on nearly every level. It was time to look at something else. That something else came in the form of a Chernin space station. The station was truly massive and resembled an umbrella with a huge sheet-like section of alloy panels forming a 15 kilometer across oval of protection. A huge cylindrical section connected to the disk’s center and formed a dock with distinct bays and linking spots for ships of all sizes to dock at while remaining in a “shaded” area, free from the star’s deadly radiation. However, the station had one other feature, one which caught Rainbow’s eyes immediately. Engines.  Specifically, surf drive emitters. At the opposite end of the shaft from the shield were eight massive nacells which clearly housed very powerful FTL drives. Rainbow had done enough reading up on starships to know that the small opalescent nodules on a part of the ship were its drive emitters. This prompted the obvious question. “Penny? Uh, is that a space station or a starship?” Penny glanced out the window. “That is Salyut Twelve. Is where papa is going to pick us up. It’s a station.” Rainbow pointed towards the massive generator and projector nacelles on the back. “But… It’s got a surf drive? A HUGE one!” Jo nodded without looking. “All Chernin space stations are really just huge starships. Hey, come to think of it, why is that? Is it because you guys started as asteroid miners back when in system flight ate up a ton of fuel?” “Nyet,” Penny dismissed as she stood up along with Pan. “Is for the sbor vsey sem'i.” Pan tilted his head. “The what?” Jo frowned. “That didn’t translate.” Penny blinked in surprise. “Ey?! But it’s the most important holiday in our whole culture! How could it not—” Penny huffed and closed her eyes to think of other ways she could translate the name. “You have a holiday where you move space stations?” Rainbow asked, her head tilted nearly onto its side. “Why?” Penny took a deep breath. “The… The get together. It’s a bad translation, but… Ey, blin! I won't degrade it like that,” Penny took a step back so she could look at everyone at once. “The sbor vsey sem'i hasn’t happened yet. If it had, I’d know. We’d all know. One day, when we find any evidence at all of our ancestors, the Chernin who has found it will call home and tell them what they have found. That day will be the sbor vsey sem'i. “On the sbor vsey sem'i, everyone will go to wherever that evidence was found and everyone will be shown what that evidence is and asked to help find more. We’re all explorers, we’ve all seen things no one else may have seen. One of us will understand what to do next. It will be the start of our journey to our old home. How— How do you not know this?” Pan blushed. “Well, I’m a pony soo… Yeah.” Penny snorted and waved her hand. “Nyet! Not you, or Blue. Jo. How do you not know about the sbor vsey sem'i?” Jo cleared her throat. “Uh, well, to be honest your people never interested me that much… Sorry?” Penny smiled. “Ey, is okay. I understand.” Rainbow turned to look backout the window. The Dawn had gotten much closer to the Salyut Twelve while they had been talking. As far as she could tell they were moving towards a smaller hanger bay near the station’s engines. As Rainbow’s eyes once again beheld the station’s engines, the enormity of what Penny had said hit her like a ton of bricks. “Wait! If your stations have engines for that, when you say everyone, you mean literally everyone?!” “Da,” Penny nodded. “Everyone.” Jo slowly turned around, a blank look on her face hiding the terror maxing out her systems. “Uh… All— All six-point-two trillion of you?” Penny’s eyes narrowed as she put on the most serious face that Rainbow had ever seen. “Did I stutter?” For a brief terrifying moment Rainbow had a terrifying vision of innumerable Penny’s swarming a planet and leaving behind a literal ocean of spilled vodka and shell casings. Rainbow shuddered. “Maybe that’s why it doesn't translate… Public safety,” she said under her breath. Jo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that sounds terrifying.” Penny rolled her eyes. “It would take a few years for everyone to get there, we’re all over the galaxy.” The Dawn’s computer chirped three times, alerting everyone aboard that the docking sequence had begun. Pan cleared his throat. “I uh… Rainbow? We should go get into the rad suits Penny made for us.” Penny’s eyes widened. “Nyet!” She turned and began jogging towards the Dawn’s workshop. “Not until I make their shields block mana!” Rainbow’s mouth formed an ‘o’ as she turned to give Pan a knowing nod. “That sounds like a plan, doesn't that sound like a plan?” “Yes,” Pan nodded. “A great plan.” Rainbow watched Penny leave the bridge and hummed to herself. She knew it would take Penny about ten minutes to get the shields changed. The Chernin woman was very fast when it came to fixing up or modifying equipment. Fast. The opposite of what this visit would be. Rainbow frowned. Penny did mention this trip could take a few days, or even a week… Rainbow’s mind turned to the last week of her life. She’d spent most of it crying after they had failed to find even a single Nova Wing operative on Sananda. The pirates had cleared out sometime before the planet cracking operation started. The mine’s security forces had been happy to show Rainbow the stripped bare base when she’d asked about the Nova Wing. Then, even worse, the company wouldn’t let Rainbow dig the pony’s remains out of the Terranite tomb it had been encased in. Penny hadn’t been around when Rainbow asked for that favor. If she had been, she might have been able to help but as it was, Rainbow felt like a double failure. Then, out of nowhere, Rarity had sent her a letter. Just a letter, no video, no audio, only text. ODIN wasn’t a prefect network. Where were a few dead zones and some places where any large data packets would be scattered to the cosmic winds. The Dawn’s course back to Chern had taken it through one of those zones. The plain text letter hadn’t survived the transmission well. It took Pan four days to find a way to unscramble it, and when he had, half the letter was unreadable simply because half the data hadn’t even been received. Rarity’s letter, incomplete though it was, snapped Rainbow out of the depressive spiral. Rarity was safe and had either been adopted by a rich guy, or married a wealthy alien. Twilight had been picked up by some of Penny’s fans and joined the search for the others. Fluttershy was apparently working for someone Rarity knew as some sort of assistant. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news. Nopony knew where AJ and Pinkie were. A group called the Gopnik Armada had a lead, but when they arrived, nothing was to be found. But, that had been a week ago. Rainbow had managed to get Twilight free, even if indirectly. That alone had gone a long way to prevent her from panicking. Someone far more competent and capable was on the job now too, and had a whole week to work. Hey! We’re not in a dim zone anymore! Rainbow realized as the doors closed behind Penny. She turned and looked at Jo over her shoulder. “I’m going to go check my mail, in case Rarity sent anything else, okay?” Jo smiled and shook her head. “You can check it right here, you have the implant.” Rainbow blushed lightly. “It uh… It feels weird to not read letters in my room, okay?” Jo nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll finish docking. Pan, please help me with the docking paperwork.” Pan sighed and trotted over to the communications station and sat down. “Sure.” Rainbow walked out of the bridge, then jogged to her cabin. She knew she didn’t have much time before she would need to leave the ship, and she couldn’t check her mail for a while after leaving. After all, she needed to make a good impression on Penny’s father if she wanted to secure his help finding AJ and Pinkie. The moment rainbow entered her cabin she summoned a holoscreen displaying her inbox. The window into the digital realm immediately assaulted her with thousands upon thousands of messages. As far as Rainbow could tell, over seven hundred individual people had emailed her, all of them from the same ship, the GA Chebureki. Why anyone would name their ship after a deep fried bread-pocket full of meat and onions, Rainbow had no idea. Much like how she had no idea why what she assumed was an entire ship’s crew would want to message her. Rainbow told her comm to push those messages into the spam box. Three hundred messanges survived the purge. Rainbow scanned over the names. Half of them were advertisements for various products mostly transformatives and VR vacation packages. The other half were all from Rarity. Rainbow frowned. She didn’t have time to read all of them. There was only one thing to do. Read the last one. Dear Rainbow, Sorry for being so panicky in the last three dozen letters. I’ve just been informed that your ship is very old and may not be able to receive messages in certain areas. If I know you, and I think I do, you’ll have skipped everything to read the last one I sent first. (I remember how you like to sort through your mail. Remember when you had that big stack of letters when I came over for tea?) To sum up the situation, I am alive and well. Twilight is alive and mostly well. She seems to have become much more aggressive, and has physically transformed. She resembles an alicorn now. She’s also got a special somepony, an alien pony named Zuul. She is very creepy, but do be polite if you meet her. She is very nice under the terrifying surface. Fluttershy isn’t okay, but is safe and happy. She’s been given many transformative drugs for the sake of her current job. She consented to the changes, but I have started getting everything needed to turn her back ready for when my new grandfather can purchase her freedom (You do not want to know what she was purchased to do. While Fluttershy may enjoy it, the fact she has no choice makes the whole situation toxic in my mind.). I’ve been doing a lot of work to find Pinkie and Applejack. I have what amounts to unlimited money, but I do not trust the majority of mercenaries and private investigators which I can contact. They seem suspect, to say the least. So far, I have three bounty hunters looking for them. This is in addition to Twilight, who joined the crew of the GA Chebureki. Excellent work getting those people together to help! I hear the dreadnaught and her crew are already making a big stir in the underground. Apparently they destroyed a pirate haven while searching for Applejack. I found your bank account. I’ve given you a trillion credits. I don’t know if that’s very much. I make more than that in a week on bank interest. But if fifteen trillion can buy two large ships then it must be enough to help you with anything you need wherever you are. I believe you are the key to the six of us all being free again. Yes, I would have regained my freedom without you, but if you had not gotten out here somehow then I wouldn’t have ever learned about Penny’s fans, and they would never have gotten their ship. Twilight would have remained trapped on a burnt out rock forever. I’ve always thought you were the bravest and most capable of us. Message me when you can and don’t be afraid to ask for more money when you need it. With love, Rarity Belle Rainbow read the letter twice, focusing on the bit about Fluttershy extremely closely the second time she read through it. It sounds like Shy’s a sex slave… Rainbow mused. The Pegasus smirked and shook her head slowly as memories of the night Rainbow had walked a drunk Fluttershy home played back in her mind. “I— “ Fluttershy hiccuped. “I don’t get why he said no…” “Because you’re drunk,” Rainbow said as she steered Fluttershy around the street sign with her wing. “Noooo,” Shy giggled. “He wanted to rut me!” Dash winced as Shy announced that little fact way too loud. “He just… He didn’t want to do it like I like,” Shy said, her wings hanging limply at her sides. Dash frowned, the desire to ask the obvious question was irresistible “Uh… H— How do you like it?” Fluttershy’s cheeks turned a bright pink. “Hehe! So um— I— … Words! Uh…” She took a deep breath. “I like it when I’m a puppy and they’re my owner, you know?” Dash’s eyes widened. I did NOT need to know that! “Uhhh, okay! So um—” “You’d think colts would like a filly what likes when she’s ordered to stuff!” Fluttershy grumbled, her shoulders slumping. “I take… Cat? Cake? Care! I care for so much! … I want to be cared for like that… By somepony sexy. With a dick! You know, preferably. Also magic, for ki— Uh… smexy tra— tre— stuff! You know! Zap, zoop, more sloot!” Dash cleared her throat and gently put a hoof over the shouting Fluttershy’s mouth. “Hey, how about next time you only have half a light beer?” Fluttershy blinked slowly and stumbled as she turned to look at Rainbow. “That was light beer? I thought it was… Uh… What’s it— Soda! Yeah, soda!” Dash shook her head. I can’t believe she’s so drunk from so little! Dash’s smirk turned into a slight smile. Something tells me that Fluttershy doesn't mind being owned for that at all. Or transformed. In fact, she’s probably thrilled. Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as a spark of rage took hold in her heart. But I’m still going to buck her owner’s teeth in then lecture them about consent! Rainbow took a deep breath, managing to calm down right as her comm buzzed in her ear. “Blue, Pan? Your suits are ready,” Penny said proudly. “Though, uh… I won’t know if they work until you try them… Blin. I’ll take toolbox with me.” “It’s okay, hon. I know you’re doing your best,” Pan said with obvious worry in his voice. Rainbow cleared her throat. “I’ll go outside first. I only got a headache. Pan got, you know.” “Thanks, Dash!” Pan exclaimed in relief. “No problem,” Rainbow said as she turned around to leave her cabin. As she turned, the bracelet she had taken from the dead pegasus caught her eye. She’d set it on one of her cabin’s shelves and not thought about it for the whole week. She’d been too distraught. Now, with her spirits heightened knowing some of her friends were okay, a thought occurred to her. You know, a pegasus was using that bracelet. I’m a pegasus. Maybe I can figure out what it is… I also don’t want to lose it. What if someone robs the ship while it’s docked here? I should take it with me. Rainbow reached up, grabbed the bracelet in her teeth, opened her saddlebags with her forehooves and dropped the bracelet inside. Slinging her bags over her back, Rainbow trotted out of her cabin, ready to go down to Chern. 749,573.30 A.H. Fleet Command, Cheeki Breeki -- Chern, Noctae Sector Admiral Flota Iesha Vasiliev was not having a good day. This was nothing new. The woman was the head of the Chernin Armed Forces. All of them. Every branch. Iesha Vasiliev was one of the greatest tactical geniuses of her time. She held her rank through merit. She’d fought in over eight thousand simulated wars and only lost five of them. No one else had come close to her performance in simulated conflicts. She’d never fought in a real war. There simply hadn't been one in the last two hundred years. From the day she had been born through her entire life, Chern had known peace. Sure, there had been pirate raids, but that was Star League’s jurisdiction. Iesha Vasiliev had accepted her appointed rank when the Tzar promoted her from Lieutenant directly to Admiral Flota, and never once used her abilities for the common good. She was a public servant who hadn’t ever gotten to serve her people in two centuries. A fact which wore on her very soul. Today, she sat in her office, holographically attending a meeting as her Majesty Tzar Katya Ivanov’s attendant. Iesha could say nothing, nor do anything. Not without the Tzar asking her for advice as her military Commander in Chief. The Federation had called this meeting to deal with an operation apparently being conducted by the megacorp Steele Enterprises Limited. Steele Enterprises Limited was currently fortifying a star system in the K3 sector. While megacorps were not exactly a part of the government, they were still close enough to make some of the more nervous leaders worry about what they were doing. Especially when the corporation insisted that everything was not their fault and that their current VP, Xiisha Steele, had gone rouge. The Emergency Council had decided to try and call Xiisha Steele, and scare her into stopping her operation by having her see that the Federation was aware of her actions, and did not approve. Amazingly, she had answered their call. Astonishingly, the Vice President was acting to protect a species of primitives native to the star system from the infamous Nova Wing pirates. Incredulously, those primitives took the form of adorable quadrupedal equines you just wanted to snuggle with and never let go. Impossibly, Xiisha Steele had brought their Princess onto her starship to participate in the call and make a plea for aid. Which made this meeting the worst thing possible for Iesha. There was a race of cute floofy people who needed snuggles; pirates wanted to hurt them, and she, Admiral Flota Iesha Vasiliev, perhaps the greatest tactical mind in the galaxy, could do nothing to stop them. She couldn’t even apologize to Princess Celestia for her inability to act. All Iesha could do was sit at her Tzar’s side and stare apologetically into the Princess’s lavender eyes. “I do not understand why you cannot help us,” Princess Celestia said with anger visibly burning behind her diplomatic mask. “We have already explained ourselves, Princess,” Imperious Torgar, the Overlord of Prai, said with an irritated sigh. “Indeed we have, and it is not difficult to understand,” Matriarch Anigav, the Elder of the Irgsin, agreed with a slight frown. Celestia nodded. “Yes, you have explained you fear invoking the anger of a yet more powerful people by interfering in the area you believe to be their home. I understand the need to ensure your citizens safety. That is my top priority.” Tzar Katya Ivanov raised a hand to her lips and cleared her throat to get the about-to-be-irate Princess’s attention. “Your Highness, while we cannot send any ships to you, as per the laws binding our Federation, I will happily send a fleet of hospital ships to the edge of the K3 sector. “If Miss Steele’s fleet can evacuate your people, they are welcome on Chern… Assuming you can survive on our world, of course.” Iesha visibly winced at the thought of such adorable creatures withering and dying under Pripyat’s anomalous rays. Her wince was all Celestia needed to see. The alicorn steepled her hooves on the meeting table. “Excuse my ignorance, your title is Tzar, correct?” “It is.” The Tzar replied. Celestia stood up and rustled her wings. “I have been so busy for the last few weeks that I have been unable to reply to letters from agents I have out looking for a group of ponies vital to the defense of my people. I have just learned the world is far bigger than Equis, become the leader of my entire world via the newly formed Confederation of Equis, gotten a crash course on our civilization’s technological capabilities, military tactics, and fortification. “I have learned my planet will soon be a wasteland, and all of my people will be enslaved as a fleet of pirate vessels are going to assault my world any minute now. I hope you will understand when I inform you that offering to give my people refuge on a world deadly to us is an insult, Tzar Ivanov!” The Tzar sighed. “I apologize, Princess. I have but one world, and while my people possess many space born habitats, we have nowhere else we could put a planet’s worth of refugees. I meant no insult.” “The Chernin have never colonized any worlds other than Chern. The Tzar has nowhere else to offer your people shelter,” Prime Minister Keith of Vali, the current PM of the Legri quickly informed in the hopes of preventing a long-winded diplomat ‘fight’. Celestia frowned. “I see. In that case, thank you for your offer.” “At the very least, I can offer your people medical attention and assistance in finding a place to resettle,” the Tzar offered. Celestia sighed. “I accept that offer, however, I still request military assistance. I understand your fears, but do you not think a fleet of warships bombarding a planet within this… First Race’s territory will anger them? These are the people who, as I understand it, made the framework on which your civilization depends for survival and did so as a gift. This is not the action of a war-like race.” “Many people believed as you do, Princess Celestia,” Prime Minister Keith explained calmly. “However, we have encountered one of their vessels. An automated repair craft known as the SYS Admin. It’s primary weapon collapses a star and uses the resulting supernova to create a laser of stellar mass. It is very much capable of annihilating entire planets with a single shot. “This is a First Race repair ship, Princess. Not a war ship. A ship they use to repair broken communications nodes. In light of this ODIN is not a normal gift, it is a fenced off yard. They clearly gave us this space to live in so they would not be bothered by us.” Admiral Flota Iesha Vasiliev screamed internally as that most hated argument was brought up yet again. This was the first time it had been brought up in this single meating, and it had never made any sort of sense to her. Blyat! The First Race’s messages left in ODIN are nothing but friendly and welcoming! Did you forget they seem to have vanished in a massive war, debil? Of course their ships are all armed with weapons we can’t even conceive of! They fought something dangerous to them! A threat to god-like beings requires god-like weapons to fight, cyuka! Princess Celestia’s eyebrow peaked as she looked into Iesha’s eyes, seemingly sensing Iesha’s barely restrained rage. “If this race is as powerful and fearful as you claim them to be, if they did not wish for my little ponies to live on our world, we would not be living on our world,” the Princess insisted. “It is clear they wish us to be here. It’s also clear, since I have no knowledge of such people, that the First Race isn’t interested in interfering with us. Perhaps their territory is smaller than you believe. “Maybe they do not live in our sector of space at all. Then again, maybe they do. In any case, they do not interfere with us. My world has nearly been destroyed a dozen times in my own lifetime… Admittedly, that is six thousand years. But we have seen many near-extinction events. The First Race clearly want us to be here, but do not want to help us. The only logical reason behind this is they want us to stand on our own. We cannot do this. Not yet.” Celestia turned to look at all twenty representatives in turn. “I am immortal, though not indestructible. My people have many valuable resources we could trade with your respective empires. We can also exist just fine on our own, indefinitely, if need be. “Help us, and I will remember you and your people if we survive the coming war. Refuse to help us, and I will remember your face when it comes time to share our bounty in the future.” Iesha screamed internally again. This was the tenth time Celestia had made such a threat. The meeting was looping. It will not end. IT WILL NEVER END! Iesha’s implant gently pinged her, letting her know that someone had entered her office in the real world. Thank god! The Admiral Flota mentally sobed. Please be mind numbingly mundane paperwork. Iesha closed her eyes. the Tzar replied. Iesha switched the simulated conference hall to her subconscious, allowing her conscious mind to return to her small, dark, but nicely decorated office in the capitol city beneath Chern’s crust. A taller Chernin man dressed in the Fleet’s black and white uniform, wearing the long great coat of a ship’s Kapitan had entered her office. At the moment, the Kapitan was standing at attention, one arm bent in a salute which made the three stripes on his coat sleeves, and the large gold star button on his cuffs form the Fleet’s emblem over his heart. “Admiral Flota!” The Kapitan greeted, his eyes unwavering from the perfect attention pose, even though Iesha could sense great anger behind them. Oh, god… What now? Iesha took a deep breath. “Kapitan Surovih,” she greeted. “Come in, sit down.” The Kapitan frowned at her informal greeting, and stepped further into her office but chose not to sit. He stood at ease in front of Iesha’s desk. “Admiral Flota, I am here to confirm your orders in person and request permission to act.” Iesha sighed. She knew exactly what this was about. “Was your leytenant unclear? The CA Chebureki is not to be reclaimed.” Kapitan Surovih frowned in surprise. “Then… The ship really is a part of a Stalker operation, Admiral Flota?” Iesha remained completely still. “Kapitan, you know I can not answer that.” Cloth rustled as the Kapitan shook his head. “Nyet! I am a Kapitan. I am entitled to know the details of any Stalker operations which affect my ship’s operations. The Chebureki was in my patrol sector. It’s restoration into a weapon of war and subsequent use by civilian forces is my responsibility! The destruction of the pirate haven Velis Prime is a good turn of events, but that ship has become a pirate vessel. It is an armed warship in civilian hands, and it is my responsibility to stop it. I need to know if this is part of a Stalker Operation.” Iesha raised an eyebrow. They took down Velis Prime? With one ship? Blyat! What kind of guns did they put on that old hull?! Iesha took a deep breath. “The Admiralty does not permit anyone, not even myself, from disclosing information relating to a Stalker Operation if the information could harm or prevent the operation from occurring if leaked. In short, I do not have to tell you anything. The ship was stolen. You are not to pursue them. Understood?” Kapitan Surovih closed his eyes and thought for half a second about just how much he hated Top Clearance operations. “I understand… Do you understand the hit my reputation is taking from letting them go?” “Da,” Iesha replied with a solemn nod. “We all swore to uphold the common good at any expense, Kaptain. Even personal glory. You are dismissed.” The Kaptain saluted again. “Ma’am,” he said as he turned and walked away. Iesha waited until his footsteps were out of earshot, then removed a datapad from her desk drawer. It wasn’t her work pad, but rather her personal one. Amusingly, her personal pad was far more secure than her work pad, for fear of her peers stumbling onto her private conversations and learning that her stern and professional mask was exactly that. A mask. It’s a good thing no one dares question anything they think could be a Stalker Operation too closely. It’s even better that no one aside from Tzar herself could order me to give them a straight answer instead of deflecting the question… Blyat… Why is this the only worthwhile thing I have ever done? Admiral Flota Iesha Vasiliev switched on her datapad and appealed her request for vacation time for the tenth time today, then switched over to a chat room with a sigh, and began to type a message to her friends. Maybe they have something to help me feel better. FuzzyLittle: :c They still won't let me take time off work. Timuri: Aww, that sucks! Don't’ worry, we’ll probably not find AJ or Pinkie till the weekend. We uh… We lost some handy backdoors with a security patch that got rolled out this afternoon. The locator I made is slower now. FuzzyLittle: I want to help so bad… I could do a lot if my boss would let me. LifeBeat: #HugsForFuzzy :c Captain djthomp: If you get time off, we’ll come pick you up. We need more people. I sent everyone who couldn’t handle the thought of killing someone for real, home. If we deploy “marines”, we’ll have to run the ship on a skeleton crew. We can’t fight ground and space at once. This could cost a pony her life. Twilight Sparkle: Can’t we just go get Fuzzy? If you want to help that bad, quit your job. I’m sure Princess Celestia will give you a new job for helping us if you asked her for one. FuzzyLittle: I can’t quit. I can only be discharged. Bytechrodu: 😢  #HugsForFuzzy ConspiracyTeenz: Wait, you’re a real soldier? What are you doing hanging out with us then? FuzzyLittle: I’m not allowed to talk about my job in detail. But I can say that my position isn’t exactly one I like. Or does anything for anyone. I sit in meetings and get mad I can’t help people. That’s my entire job. #ChairJocky ConspiracyTeenz: #HugsForFuzzy Timuri: Owch. Been there, done that. #HugsForFuzzy FuzzyLittle: Do you have any video of wiping out Velis Prime? I’m in the worst meeting ever and would love a little vicarious enjoyment. Captain djthomp: We do. Captain djthomp has linked Tactical Recording 001 Captain djthomp: If you don’t mind, I’ve been retired for 30 years. I would appreciate the advice of an active duty soldier to help me get back into a proper tactical mindset. Our victory was predominantly luck, not skill. FuzzyLittle: I’m not the best tactician in the galaxy, but I’ll see what I can do.