//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - All Aboard The Bad Idea // Story: Ponies and Lasers and Clankers, Oh My! // by Tekket //------------------------------// 10:43 A.M. Dining Hall, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot The entire group of assembled ponies had been quite shocked when the metal Captain uncovered his proposal to the princesses. The princesses and/or whomever they chose, would be allowed to take a full tour of any non-hazardous areas of the Dawn of Dusk in an effort to be made aware of all the advances and advantages that joining the Confederacy would bring them, both technological and social, as well as political and military. Celestia was familiar with dealing with warlords and diplomats alike, and so was no stranger to the first part of the droids' plan but didn't realize the Captain had a second part to his plan, simply because there was less incentive for the droids to behave themselves while they had very valuable ponies on their ship than there was to hold them hostage and use them as leverage. Because the plan was indeed twofold. The first part involved allowing the princesses the chance to see just how large of a force the droids had, as well as how much of a superior technological advantage they had over the ponies without actually divulging any of their technological secrets through the tour or directly threatening them. The second part was that it would show that the droids were capable of diplomacy and were willing to negotiate with very strong leverage against their steep terms, though the extent of what ‘joining the CIS’ would mean for the ponies was generally dodged whenever the topic came up. After the bombshell proposal that the Captain had come up with, the princesses had invited the droids to accompany them for breakfast to discuss just exactly what the "tour" would entail, and which ponies would be decided to participate. When all had been seated it was then that the ponies learned something new about their guests. They found out that the droids didn't, and in fact couldn't, eat. While the princesses discussed the implications quietly and listened as the captain tried to explain that droids were in fact artificial beings while doing his best not to imagine what all the delectable foods that were laid out on the table might taste like, Pinkie was being tended to by Twilight and Fluttershy, having fainted at the thought of not being able to eat cake or ever know "how deliciously yum-tastic it is". "So just to clarify," Princess Celestia said, clearing her throat and swallowing her pancake as the Captain paused yet again in his explanation for questions, "when you say 'manufactured', how exactly are you built? I understand you said that you jroidz are artificial, but the way you have explained it leads me to believe you are made on an assembly line, rather than built with care and precision. I cannot comprehend how something as advanced as your species could be built by anything less than professionals and taught how to do the jobs you do without a tremendous amount of instruction and training. Just to raise a child in Equestria takes many years of nurture and care, and they learn things at a gradual pace as they mature." The Captain shook his head and gestured to the protocol droid in a way that the solar princess didn't understand, before continuing. "No, see, I can't think of a better way to explain it, but basically we're built to do a specific job or set of jobs and have the knowledge of how to do them already um... sent into our uh..." The Captain had a short discussion with the black boxy figure on his left before returning his attention to the two princesses and continuing. "Brain! That's the word; you organics have brains! We already know how to do everything. We can technically be taught how to do additional things but it's easier to uh, learn it near-instantly the same way it's done when we're first activated." The Captain glanced over at his boxy companion, the 'Colonel', who continued to stare flatly at the discussion happening on the other side of the table, where Trixie was trying to decide whether to wet herself in fear of the invaders or put on her 'show face' and try to awe them with a demonstration of her powers. Starlight was at her side trying to dissuade her from doing either, keeping an eye on the conversation at the head of the table, while glancing around at her other friends. Rainbow sat on her opposite side in a wheelchair and grumbled while she ate a small salad and glared at the blackish droid guards. Next to her, Applejack kept a keen ear out for the conversation between the Princesses and the droid Captain, annoyance flickering over her face every time the alien leader spoke. Pinkie had finally regained consciousness and was being fanned by a relieved Fluttershy, leaving Twilight to fawn over the design of the droids and squirm in excitement over meeting aliens! Rarity, on the other hand, ate her breakfast quietly without talking to anyone, although Spike sat next to her and chowed down on a bowl of gems with gusto and tried to lift her mood by recounting a time when he single-handedly fought off a swarm of wood-paper-peckers that were intent on devouring Twilight's collection of books, even though it was clear the unicorn was not interested in being there in the slightest. Princess Luna, still in her battle armor, seemed to have droned out most of the conversations happening around the table, and now sat with her arms crossed over her chest, deep in thought. Nothing had been said out loud yet, but Starlight already had a sneaking suspicion that Princess Celestia was going to ask Twilight and her friends to be the ones to accept the droid Captain's invitation and go on the starship tour on her behalf. When the princess of the sun brought her sister into the conversation going on between herself and the jroid leadership, she gave a small start and looked up, while Starlight rolled her eyes as she heard the Diarch include her plans for the element bearers. "Lulu? Are you listening?" "Huh? Sorry, I got lost in thought," the dark alicorn shook her head and returned her attention to her sister and the Captain. "What were we discussing again?" The solar princess gave a small, tinkling laugh and covered her mouth before resuming. "I said, would you be willing to accompany Twilight and her friends? I trust them in being able to adequately report on their experience and formulate a decision on whether a union between our two governments would be beneficial, but as the leaders of our people we should have some experience seeing these droids in their natural environment as well. Since we cannot both go and leave our ponies leaderless, would you go on behalf of both of us and tell me your views on this decision when you return?" The dark alicorn blinked several times and stammered a bit, while Starlight’s eyes narrowed and she read in between the lines. You have experience they don't and may be able to pick up on things they might overlook in their excitement. You can tell if it is indeed foolish to try and stay independent or not and whether it would be better to join forces with them. Composing herself, Princess Luna sat up straighter and nodded once before turning to look straight into the blank eyes of the droid Captain, and the lilac unicorn across the table gave a glance at Twilight, who seemed to have missed the hidden intention. If she didn’t get the message, then it’s a good thing Luna’s coming with her to see the jroidz. Jroidz, jroiz, droiz, however you say it! Starlight shook her head, why do they have to have such a strange name? The sound of Princess Luna’s voice, however, brought her back to the present as she continued to half pay attention to Trixie as she rambled on about what first impressions were all about and half to the two princesses and the jroiz. "Very well, Captain. I would most graciously ask to come along for the tour of your starship, as well as several guards of my choosing. Is that alright with you?" The Captain bobbed his head and made a chattering sound, which the silver droid promptly translated. "Yes, yes of course! We would be delighted to have one of the rulers of this land on board the Dawn of Dusk! We can leave whenever you and the rest of your group are ready, and we are willing to wait several days if need be, in case you wish to bring in experts from around your land." The Captain nodded his head and looked very pleased with himself, which the ponies found very strange since it did not have the ability to move its facial features in any way. "I believe we will be able to accompany you as soon as breakfast finishes," the dark alicorn responded, getting to her hooves gracefully before moving to the door. "I just have a few other ponies to inform of the tour as well as change into something a bit more comfortable." As she exited the room, the black droid Colonel straightened up and leaned over to whisper something to the Captain, while nearly everyone else around the table had been enraptured by Princess Celestia’s request. After a few moments, a tiny squealing sound could be heard, before it resolved itself as coming from between Twilight's teeth as a joyous yell escaped her lips. "Yes! Thank you, princess! We won't let you down!" Realizing she had stood up on her chair, Twilight blushed and sat back down, giving a small cough as she tried to ignore the chuckles of her friends, but noticed that they too leaned forward in anticipation as she addressed the solar Diarch. "I mean... my friends and I would be happy to go with Princess Luna to ascertain whether the jroiz are being genuine in their claims of having technology and advancements to share in exchange for us joining their 'Confederacy'." *** About an hour later, the entire group marched back out of the main gates and down the steps to the waiting shuttle, while the droid army continued to stand at attention, before the Colonel raised a hand to his head and muttered something. To Twilight, it looked like the entirety of Canterlot had turned up just outside the castle gates, as tons of ponies could be seen watching in trepidation, camera flashes going off every few seconds and hushed whispers carrying over the dead silence of the courtyard to reverberate off the hull of the strange alien craft. When the droid Colonel had spoken however, a collective gasp came from the crowd as the army of skinny droids turned as one and began to file back into the massive landing ship. The tall blue chattering droids jumped up and stuck their legs out in front of them, before starting to fly lazy circles around the courtyard in preparation for takeoff. Princess Celestia and several guards accompanied Twilight and her friends to the shuttle, where the droids boarded first and the solar princess magically amplified her voice to be heard over the crowd at the gates. "Loyal subjects, please do not be afraid! Princess Luna and I are working to resolve this issue, and I ask that you all return to your homes and businesses! Princess Luna and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony will be travelling with our guests to resolve a problem and attempt to avoid any conflict between them and our peace-loving nation!" Turning back to the group of ponies chosen to go on the tour, Celestia felt tears attempt to enter her eyes, but forbade it and composed herself before smiling and giving each of her ponies a curt nod. "I believe in you all, and I know you will do the right thing and make Equestria proud." Catching the somber look her sister gave her, she gave an imperceptible nod and looked over all who would be going. It was a rather large group, but that hadn't seemed to bother the droid Captain. Princess Luna stood in her regular regal wear, a sparkling blue dress with a slit halfway up one side, and an open back that allowed her wings to fully extend and move without interference from the fabric, and next to her were the four elite royal guards she had picked, all of them wearing steely gazes and sparsely decorated, highly functional armor. Twilight Sparkle (who, after several wobbly steps on her own had insisted that she didn't need a crutch anymore), Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash (who still had some bandages but refused to be confined to a bed or wheelchair and made no indication that walking gave her any difficulty) stood in a group of their own, all giggling, with Spike stealing unsure glances at the last two members, who stood a bit farther than the rest of the ponies. Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon stood off to one side, again looking as if they shouldn't be there, but complying with the Princess' request to keep Twilight and her friends out of trouble. After the droids had finished walking up the ramp into the shuttle and the ponies could hear a slight whine coming from the machine, they too followed up, waving good-bye to Princess Celestia as she stood on the ground, a line of royal guards holding position just beside her. As the ramp folded up and the doors to the shuttle closed behind them, everypony, even the guards, rushed forward past the black droid guards to see out the limited view of the forward viewport, where they crowded just behind the Captain and the Colonel. The ship lifted off and they felt the rumble in the deck below their hooves, while the droids stayed completely silent, allowing the ponies to simply observe as the large blue droids swarmed over them in dazzling patterns and showed off feats of flying that could only be described as acrobatic skill. When they sky quickly began to darken and the blue droids became harder to see, they resumed flying in normal patrols next to the shuttle and the massive landing craft that trailed behind it. Before long, the twinkling of stars could be seen and everypony (everypony who could see through the viewport at the time, as the shuttle was rather filled to capacity) gasped as they saw a single silver speck in the distance begin to grow larger and resolve into a strange craft that hung in the blackness like nothing they'd ever seen. "It looks like... a silver cob of corn," Twilight eventually remarked, generating some nods from the other Equestrians while others squinted and turned their heads this way and that. Sweat forming on her brow, Princess Luna turned to the Captain and asked, "Shouldn't we slow down? We are headed towards it quite fast. We don't want to get too close and end up hitting it by accident." However, the Captain simply waved a hand and the translator could be heard from the back of the shuttle's cabin calling out the translations. "Not at all! We're actually still quite far away from the ship. I think you'll be quite impressed, actually." "That's what I'm afraid of..." The Lunar Princess muttered to herself. As it grew larger, the trepidation in the shuttle grew palpable. They were now flying over the surface of the massive starship, which stretched before them like an enormous fish in space. Here and there, Twilight and would point out turrets or masts that seemed to jut out from the hull of the ship at random, before a gaping hole greeted them and they could see the interior of the hangar for the first time. Before anything more than a cursory glance could be made however, the Captain turned around and started shooing the ponies back from the cockpit and back to the passenger area while the shuttle descended and landed in the hangar of the Separatist Dreadnought. *** Starlight and Trixie, by merit of having basically been at the back of the group the entire trip, were now at the front as the doors opened to let the passengers off, and the ramp lowered, showing what appeared to be hundreds upon hundreds of droids standing at attention on either side of the shuttle, in neat squares, while an equally large number of a new type of droid could be seen alongside them. Unlike the skinny beige droids that had been in the army in the courtyard, and the six bodyguard-type droids that accompanied the leaders, these were just as tall as the others, but instead were a dark grey color, and much thicker and tougher looking than either of the previous two types. They didn't carry any black devices in their hands, but instead held one arm up so that their fists were level with their shoulders and looked as if they had their arms pulled back, like a boxer ready to punch something. Forced to be the first ones down the ramp, Starlight and Trixie clung to each other and tried not to look intimidated as the blue insectile droids flew in from the massive gaping hole in the ship's hull and landed farther off in the empty space, before 'jumping' up and socketing themselves in strange racks in the ceiling while the massive airship slid slowly into the hangar behind them. The clamoring of hooves on the deck behind them told the two mares that the rest of the hastily thrown-together delegation was now coming down the ramp, and pushing them forward as each pony tried to take in everything inside the hangar at once, inadvertently shoving Trixie into the closest of the lined up grey droids. Blushing like mad, the blue unicorn gave a squeak as she tried to right herself and get off the legs of the hard metal thing that had tilted its entire upper body to look at her. Trying to prevent her friend from causing any more accidents, Starlight jumped forward, embarrassed and scared as she helped her friend to her hooves. Surprisingly, the bulky grey droid offered a three-digit hand as well, making a deep grunting noise as it did so. Trixie and Starlight exchanged a glance before the showpony accepted the offered hand and was quickly hoisted onto her feet with enough force that she nearly toppled over again in surprise. Thanking the grey droid in line quietly, the two backed away to the rest of the group, who were completely oblivious to their small plight as they were taking in the wonder of space just beyond the forcefield, and the intricacies of the droid ship. As the droid Captain followed the ponies down the ramp into the hangar, his entourage by his side, Starlight started shaking as she realized Trixie had just embarrassed herself in front of an entire army. Quickly glancing around to the droids standing at attention, Starlight hurried back to the rest of the ponies, trying to discern if any of the strange things were silently laughing shaking their heads at how foolish the two of them had just made the equestrian delegation look. After a short time during which the Captain had begun droning on about something again, Starlight realized that the army standing at attention had not moved at all since they arrived, with the sole exception of the grey one that had helped Trixie to her hooves, and the fact that they had no facial expressions, gave the unicorn pause. What are these things? They really are like statues. Giving a small shiver and feeling Trixie tug on her arm, Starlight returned her attention to the present just in time to see herself being dragged behind the group while the droid Captain started leading them through the columns of soldiers towards a large open door in the far wall, the translation getting lost in the echo of the huge space. *** Laugher shook his head and stared at Rabid, both of them having seen the proceedings in the main hangar through the open slits in a vent cover. “Are you serious?” Laugher sighed, shooting his superior officer a disgusted look through his helmet. “Yeah. I’ve never seen aliens like them before, but if we can capture one, or a couple, then we can negotiate terms to them. They’ve got to be Separatists… they didn’t look like prisoners to me, unless droids have started treating their prisoners way better in the last week,” Rabid replied. “Okay, even if we go with this crazy idea of yours, how are we supposed to get anywhere near them? If it wasn’t obvious, we’ve got half a ship of angry clankers between us and them, and there’s something crawling in the vents with us.” Rabid thought for a moment before peering back down into the hangar, where droids were going about their regular duties and most of the assembled guard had dispersed back into other sections of the gargantuan warship. “Alright. I got it. Those aliens arrived on a shuttle. We create a distraction on one side of the dreadnought to draw the security forces away, then nab the aliens and escape on the shuttle. We’ll hold them hostage to stop the droids from blowing us up as we leave, then send out a signal to the Empire that there’s a Separatist holdout here and make our way to the nearest Imperial planet. Got it?” Laugher shook his head slowly before looking up to his corporal. “You know, there’s a hundred ways this could go wrong. And a hundred ways we could end up dead before we even reach the shuttle. But I’m gonna be honest, your plan finally includes us getting off this boat alive, so I’ll go along with it.” “Thanks, Laugher. We’re gonna have to work fast to make this work.” Rabid replied, a small chuckle coming through his helmet. “As soon as it falls apart though,” Laugher interjected, “I reserve the right to remind you this is still a terrible plan.” “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now quit your griping and follow me, I’ve got an idea for what a good distraction could be…” *** Starlight tried her best to stop Trixie and herself from squealing at every new thing they saw along the corridor, while Twilight’s friends mostly failed at doing the same with the purple princess. Droids clanked past them going about their business as the Captain and his entourage guided them through a dizzying maze of corridors and rooms. At one point, they had to take a detour, as one of the corridors had been blocked off and red lights strobed around the closed metal door, so the group had been led through an area with massive metal racks that descended from the ceiling and joined up with large tube-like machines that had one end pointed out enormous blue windows. Starlight had taken a few steps inside and felt her jaw drop when she saw numerous droids working in seats attached to the machines, while others hefted large red and grey cylinders into the racking via catwalks above. Realizing that the group of ponies were getting left behind once again by the oblivious droid Captain as he walked over to the far wall where another of the automatic doors that littered the alien ship was situated, Starlight took a quick look at her own group. At this point in the journey, Twilight wasn’t the only one to have lost her cool at the sheer size of the ship and all it contained. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were staring out of the open views as they hurried along to keep up with the much taller droids, Rarity and Fluttershy were stopping Pinkie from climbing up into the chair of one of the massive tube-machines, and Starlight noted with some small apprehension, that even the pony guards and Princess Luna could not hide their shock and wonder. Leaving the large room behind, the droid Captain once again led them through several turns in the ship, effectively making them all lost once more before coming to a set of wide vertical tubes set in the wall of a corridor. Turning to the assembled group, the Captain began chattering and the translator instantly began relaying his words. “These are elevators. Since they’re too small for all of us to fit in one we’ll go up in groups. I’d like several droids to be with each group of you so that you know which level to arrive on, and so no one wanders off. Once we step off these lifts we’ll be able to start the first leg of the tour of my ship, beginning with the bridge. I will need a moment to get ready once we get there but then I hope you’ll be able to appreciate just what joining the Separatist Alliance will bring to your small planet.” As if on cue, the sets of doors opened and the Captain motioned for the delegation to enter, with the droids quickly sorting themselves behind the ponies and leaving the guests with no choice but to split up and enter the somewhat cramped compartments. Starlight found herself separated from Trixie as she was stuffed next to Applejack and Fluttershy, as well as two of Princess Luna’s guards, followed by the black boxy “Colonel” and several of the intimidating droid guards. It was at that point that the lilac unicorn mare suddenly realized how easily their “hosts” had split them up, and how much easier it would be to subdue the groups as they were on their own, rather than together. As the Colonel turned its back to the ponies and pressed a lit button on the inside wall, Starlight felt herself tense up while the doors closed and she felt her weight shift slightly. Ready for whatever the astounding droids were planning, Starlight looked over to Applejack, who seemed equally tense but hid it far better, crossing her arms over her chest, and Fluttershy, who seemed timid (as was normal) but none too suspicious of their sudden circumstances. After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting for their hosts to turn into captors, the ceiling emitted a soft chime and the doors opened into an identical corridor, the colonel stepping out immediately, followed by the droid guards, none of whom spared so much as a glance at the ponies behind them. Poking her head out of the elevator doors, Starlight looked to the side and found herself face to face with Trixie once more, doing the exact same thing from her own lift while Princess Luna, a guard, Twilight, Rarity and Spike stepped out behind her, following the Captain. Waving the rest of the group back together, the leader of the party made his way along the length of the hallway to yet another set of closed doors, but instead of opening into another hallway, this one opened into a large room with massive slanted windows, and soft green lights set in the floor and ceiling, while seats and glowing green pads were laid out in lowered slopes radiating outward from the center of the room. Even though it was not their first time seeing the vastness of space from the windows of the ship, the ponies couldn’t help but take a few seconds to gape once more as they saw the edge of the planet through the bottommost viewports below them. Turning at a sudden buzzing sound from behind them, the group of ponies saw what looked to them to be a red wastebin with arms slowly wheeling itself down the hallway towards them, before completely ignoring the gathered Equestrians and heading over to one of the droids sitting in a seat and making several whistles and chirping sounds. This was apparently important enough to warrant the attention of the Captain, who stepped over to the glowing screen that the red-cylinder-thing was sitting next to and started chattering with it and the other skinny droid, before grabbing a small cable from the underside and looping it up to his head and plugging it in. Starlight opened her mouth to ask what was going on with the Captain when Twilight beat her too it. In response the boxy Colonel redirected its flat gaze to the purple alicorn, as did the silver translator, but no one said a word. Well, no one, that is, until the Captain began speaking in the ponies’ language for the first time, while removing the plug and handing it to the Colonel, who followed suit and plugged it into the side of its head. “Just a little upgrade is all. I can’t be having my only translator repeating everything for me while we flesh out the details of this deal. It would be much easier if multiple droidz were able to understand and speak your language, so I asked one of the maintenance workers to take a copy of the library that TL-90,” he gestured to the translator droid, “uses to talk to you and make it compatible with the rest of our systems! Once I order all the droids to get the upgrade we’ll be able to communicate much more efficiently.” Twilight scratched her chin and tilted her head, a very confused look on her face, while Rainbow Dash shook her head and motioned with a wing. “What does that mean for those of us that don’t speak egghead?” “I had the crew make something that allowed me to put your language into my head. Now we don’t need to have a translator along for every single conversation or question!” At that moment, the Colonel unplugged itself and turned to the gathered ponies while the squat, bunny-looking droid was next in line to “upgrade”. The black droid turned to Princess Luna and spoke in a deep and unmistakably male monotone. “Now it will be much easier to get our point across, and give you ample opportunities to see why refusing our offer would be… problematic.” Stepping forward and clasping his hands behind his back, the Colonel took to staring intently at the Lunar Diarch, until it walked over to a free workstation and pressed a button. The sound of static buzzed for a second from the ceiling, and then the Colonel’s voice, magnified several times, blew through the ship as he began saying something in the alien language. Starlight could not understand the intent behind it, as it all came through at a single pitch, but when the Colonel finished the Captain nodded towards him and, looking very pleased with himself, raised his arms in what looked like a hugging motion. “Now that that’s all taken care of, I hope everyone is ready for the tour! Welcome aboard the Confederate vessel, the Dawn of Dusk!” As the droid leader spoke, two flights of the same blue insect-looking droids raced past the viewports and the deck shuddered slightly beneath their feet, while several bright red beams of light shot forth from underneath the hull and blasted forward into the empty blackness of space. While the blue insectile droids continued to do acrobatics in the vacuum outside, the Captain hopped forward and began strutting back to the corridor from whence they’d arrived. “Now this here, is the bridge. It’s the command center of the ship and where I spend most of my time giving orders. All the droids here do important jobs, like navigation, monitoring communications, uh… keeping an eye on the power… er, lots of stuff! Very important stuff! Now next down this hallway we have the escape pods!” As the droid continued down towards the hallway, gesturing towards large metal circles set in the walls on either side of the hall, Starlight gave a questioning glance to Trixie, who was looking back at her with a similar expression, and the unicorn heard one of the guardsponies grumble about how the Captain couldn’t even explain the functions of his ship. *** “Alright, everything ready?” Rabid asked as he saw Laugher puffing his way towards him through the larger floor vent, crouched uncomfortably the entire way. “My job’s done, so as long as yours is, we’re good to go.” “Alright,” Rabid replied, looking down at his hands and then lifting the cover of the vent grate just a fraction to peek outside. “Coast is clear, be ready to run like there’s a vengeful Jedi chasing you.” “Don’t worry,” the other clone sighed, shaking his head slightly, “it probably won’t make too much of a difference if anything gets in our way. Let’s just hope the shuttle is easy to take.” Lifting the grate slightly higher, the clone corporal checked around to make sure that there were no droids coming down the corridor. “Alright. Best case scenario, we kill two birds with one stone and capture some Separatist aliens while we’re at it. Worst case scenario… well, at least this ship won’t be a danger to anyone anymore.” Rabid pulled himself out of the vent and then stopped to help Laugher out, before bringing up his hand, along with the small remote in it. “Let’s start the fireworks,” He said, and activated the remote. *** Princess Luna had been listening intently to the tour ever since the jroid Captain had managed to somehow instantly learn the pony’s language, I’ll have to have a word with him about that... the princess of the night thought momentarily; and was starting to realize that the Captain was almost certainly being genuine in his attempts to placate the ponies and make them see the good in joining their “Confederacy”. Luna surmised all of this from the Captain’s generally cheery attitude and the fact that although he knew about his own ship, it was clear he was completely incapable of recovering from an unexpected situation. Such as when Twilight asked the Captain repeatedly why they couldn’t see the “reactors” that supposedly powered the ship, and the best answer she got was that it was “delicate equipment”, but he couldn’t give any of them a reason for why that would prevent them from even seeing it. Another reason Luna was under the impression that the Captain wasn’t very bright was that he commonly got flustered by questions that were not specifically about exactly what he was attempting to show the ponies at any given time. Considering Twilight had a near-constant stream of questions for him, the jroid leader most of the time passed her along to his intimidating companion, the Colonel. While the Captain was goofy, good-natured, and seemed rather disorganized with the tour, taking ponies all throughout the ship and changing direction on a whim, the Colonel seemed the exact opposite. When any of the ponies had questions that the Captain couldn’t answer, instead of going into long-winded explanations full of jittery remarks and tangent conversations, the Colonel gave a short, curt reply, that while did answer the questions, volunteered as little information as possible. After yet another question on why there were so many types of jroid on board the ship (the group had just a moment earlier passed by something that seemed to be a bronze wheel rolling down the corridor under its own power), they passed through another doorway and found themselves on a catwalk suspended high above the floor of the main hangar, where dozens of shapes lingered, and the dark shapes of the insectile jroidz were twitching and chittering in their racking above. Princess Luna recognized the familiar shape of several of the skinny beige ones down below and the more heavily build grey jroiz, though there were also many that she had never seen before, including one that looked like some sort of red-brown spider, and something that she couldn’t figure out if it was yet another jroid or a vehicle of some sort, as it was very large, and moved around on two enormous hoop-like wheels that were situated on either side of a squat body. Turning to the Captain, she was about to ask what they were doing back in the main hangar, when the deck under her hooves shook slightly, just before she found herself flung violently towards the ceiling fifty feet above her. Giving a shout of surprise, she quickly crashed into the ceiling, narrowly avoiding the blade-like leg of a blue jroid and found herself becoming the cushion for Rainbow Dash, who grimaced at the impact, while Pinkie Pie bounced into an empty racking slot next to her. Hearing the clatter of metal on her other side, the Lunar Diarch saw that the Captain had fallen upwards with them and was shaking his head while getting to his feet once more, now oriented upside down. Seeing that every one of the ponies and droids in their group had fallen towards the ceiling and landed roughly among the various structural struts, before noticing that all the droids and unsecured objects in the hangar deck four hundred feet below the catwalk had also begun falling towards the ceiling, and more importantly, towards them. Princess Luna especially noticed the large, wheeled vehicle-thing falling straight towards where she was pinned by the immobile Rainbow Dash. Before she could even utter a sound at the sudden and strange circumstances she found herself in, the Princess felt gravity change once again and found herself falling towards the catwalk once more, Rainbow clutched tightly in her grasp. While she had been caught wholly unprepared the first time, this time she was ready and spread her wings out wide, allowing herself to glide towards the walkway just as the large wheeled thing crashed square into it on its way back down, taking most of the suspended platform with it. As the ponies began screaming as they flailed and fell, Luna watched with horror as droids fell nearly from the ceiling to the floor and smashed straight into the floor with the sounds of smashing and the tortured shrieks of metal twisting. Using her magic, she growled quietly in determination and grabbed every one of their party in the hold of her magic, bringing them all to the door from which they had entered the hangar and deposited them all just inside the entrance. Taking one last glance back at the carnage in the hangar, her breath caught in her throat as she saw some of the jroiz missing limbs and attempting to stand after the sudden catastrophe. Whirling back towards the Captain, a snarl on her lips, Luna found herself surprised when she saw the Captain already on his feet and barking orders at the Colonel and the few jroid guards, holding one hand up to the side of his head. She watched him silently as the others responded to his orders and began checking the ponies for injuries, asking if they were hurt and whether they were fit to move, when suddenly the ship shook violently and threw them all to the ground. Feeling herself get thrown away from Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna had enough time to turn in order to see the jagged edge of a hoop-wheel on the hangar floor rush up to greet her. *** “PRINCESS!!” Twilight shouted, her arm outstretched through the empty doorway to the hangar. She had seen the princess of the night get thrown clear through the doorway when the ground had quaked hard enough to send everypony to the floor, and had dived in order to catch her, but the shaking of the ship caused her to overshoot and slam into doorway with her shoulder, helpless to do anything but watch as Princess Luna fell down towards a pile of debris four hundred feet below them. “Princess! Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!” She yelled down to the dark unmoving figure far, far below, but got no response aside from the deck of the ship groaning beneath her and the whizzing of the blue jroiz ejecting themselves from their racking and shooting out either hangar door. Somewhere in the background, she belatedly noticed as a siren had begun to blare, and the droids and ponies were chattering, trying to figure out what had happened. “What did you just try to pull on us, you skinny freaks?” Twilight heard one of the pony guards begin yelling, but was too shocked by what she had just witnessed to register that the ponies and jroidz were levelling weapons at each other, at least until she heard Fluttershy raising her voice. “Stop it, both of you! They were kind enough to invite us onto their space ship, I don’t think they want to be having any accidents while we’re here, so if everypony would just calm down…” “No time to be calm!” this was the voice of the Captain, and it seemed urgent and frenzied, and not in any way Twilight had ever heard before. “All of you need to be evacuated immediately, and I need to get back to the bridge to find out what’s happened. I’m sorry that we’re going to have to cut the tour short, but you all have to leave in order to be safe. Colonel!” he called over to the black jroid, who looked over at him expectantly, his arms clasped behind his back while the Captain chittered something to him in the alien language. Nodding, the Colonel turned his attention on the group of ponies before grabbing Twilight’s arm and forcefully yanking her to her feet. “Listen everyone, you are going to be evacuated back to the shuttle and we are going to return to your city as quickly as possible. An emergency has occurred and we cannot deal with it properly while you are all onboard. Follow me please, and stay close.” “Wait!” Twilight yelled, drawing the attention of everyone gathered. “Princess Luna fell into the hangar! We need to find her and make sure she’s okay!  I’m not leaving her!” The Colonel regarded her with a stare for a moment before turning and walking away, talking over his shoulder as he did so. “The hangar is where we’re heading, as it’s the closest place with any escape craft. We will find your leader and take her with us, but we need to leave now if you want to leave unharmed.” Twilight didn’t know whether to take that as a threat, but realizing that yes, indeed, the shuttles would still have to be in the hangar, and she allowed herself a breath to tried to calm down for a few seconds, following the Colonel and his guards to a set of elevators, hoping against hope that the princess was alright. As soon as the group stepped out of the elevators onto the lower level, Twilight heard yet another alarm go off as the ship shook and shuddered even more, groans and shrieks echoing throughout the hull. Chunks of metal catwalking and pieces of alien racking and architecture cracked off and fell from the ceiling with each tremor, adding to the debris strewn across the large expanse that was the hangar. Adding to the din, the purple alicorn heard the sound of one of the chattery voices of one of the skinny beige droids begin issuing unintelligible orders over the ship’s intercom. Although she didn’t understand the words, she realized it was a general alert of some kind, and the fact that the Colonel paused to look up at the ceiling told her that it was not a good sign. “What’s going on? What did he say?” she asked, using the Colonel’s arm for support as she looked up into his blank face quizzically. “The Captain has just issued a general order to all droids on board. Abandon ship.”