Tempest and Starlight trotted through the streets of bright lights at night. There was noise all around them, from the traffic above to the many people speaking in the crowds. Many of them were speaking languages they had never heard of before. The pair eventually found a place to stay, a tall apartment complex. A Besalisk at the front desk gave them their key and taking the lift up to the apartment. They went down the hallway until they reached their door.
“Here it is Floor 2010, Apartment number 10-10,” Starlight announced as she opened the door with the keycard. They trotted inside. The apartment was simple: it had two beds, a desk with a computer console and chair and a refresher. It had a window view of the city skyline.
They both stared out the window, watching the crisscrossing airspeeder traffic. “You know, I’m used to heights, but I’ve never been in a building that is this high before,” Tempest commented, looking at her companion. Starlight nodded her head, agreeing with her. “I should alert Twilight.” She turned on the comlink, putting it on the secure channel.
It was just after noon in Equestria. Twilight was checking up on things in the School of Friendship when her comlink began beeping. She entered a nearby room, retrieved her imagecaster and clicked on her comlink. A hologram of Tempest appeared.
“Hello, Twilight,” Tempest greeted her. “Starlight and I have made it to Terminus.” The princess sighed, being informed of some good news.
“How was the trip?” she asked them.
“Um… good,” Tempest quickly responded, slightly blushing.
“Oh, it was good, alright,” Starlight commented. “I mean I had fun it being my first time through hyperspace. I don’t know what took me so long.” She put her hoof on her friend. “But Tempest here was the one that had a really good time.” Tempest nudged her.
“That’s great to hear,” she said, a tense sound in her voice. Tempest could hear something was wrong from her tone.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Starlight was standing right beside her.
“The Empire might be aware of our activities,” Twilight told the duo.
“Great,” Starlight said sarcastically. “So what now?”
“Stay on your hooves,” the princess replied, “I’ll keep you informed about any updates here at home. I need to leave for a meeting.” Twilight disappeared from the transmission.
At a landing platform at Canterlot, a Lambda-class shuttle was coming in for a landing, folding up its wings. Its front landing ramp was lowered. Vera walked out of the ship, followed by a few elite death troopers and shadow troopers. They flanked her as she went to the castle and made her way to the throne room, where she had organized a meeting with the pony royals to discuss some recent matters.
The pony royal guards let her into the room. The princesses were seated in a semicircle. Princess Celestia was in the center, with Luna on her right, followed by Twilight. Cadance was to her left, followed by her daughter, Flurry. All of the princesses were physically there except for Cadance and Flurry Heart, who were still on their diplomatic mission. They were transmitting via hologram.
“Greetings Moff, you wanted to see us?” Celestia asked.
Vera didn’t bow to them as she thought it was beneath her. If anything, they should bow down to her because she had more power than they did. She could give the order to have entire cities leveled.
“Yes, there are some recent rumors that I want clarified,” she replied. “Are you sending your citizens out on missions to search for the Rebellion?” Celestia showed genuine surprise on her face.
“Excuse me? I let my loyal subjects go out and explore the galaxy on their own, but if any of them defected to the rebels, they have done so on their own. I personally have nothing to do with it.” Luna had an expressionless face while Twilight was trying her best to not show any emotion.
“And if you did have knowledge of such treason, you would inform me immediately?” Vera asked.
“Of course,” replied Celestia. “And I would never authorize such a thing myself.”
“Very well.” She walked out with her escort and back towards her ship. She didn’t believe her in the slightest.
She had received earlier confirmation from the Victory II-class star destroyer over Veredusiko that it had witnessed a YU-415 freighter with similar markings to the Song of the Siren entering hyperspace. She ordered fleets to be on the lookout for it when they entered the next spaceport.
The Moff’s shuttle circled and landed at the Imperial base. Vera walked down the ship’s ramp. An officer met her at the entrance of the base.
“Moff Bavindi, we have been notified that a ship matching that of the Song of the Siren was spotted in the Terminus system,” an officer informed her.
“Excellent, prepare a nearby cruiser to be sent to that system,” she ordered.
Despite everything that has happened to them so far, Starlight and Tempest decided to take a look around the city. Being in a planet-wide city was new for the both of them. They were trotting on the sidewalk as landspeeders and speeder bikes went past on the street. The ponies had a map so they wouldn’t get lost and to stay out of the seedier parts of town. Still, they noticed a few scantily clad women bringing male patrons into the private locations. They also saw a man holding something for sale.
“You want to buy some death sticks?” he said.
Starlight sighed and commented to Tempest, “Seems like this map hasn’t been updated recently.” Being a shorter species, they got separated from each other in the crowd. Starlight was pushed further away from her companion. She didn’t really want to attract attention by using magic. She decided to teleport herself to another part of the crowded street. It didn’t help her as she got knocked down.
A deep voice came from behind her, “Well well, what do we have here?” She glanced up to see a male Nikto staring down at her. A female voice spoke up next, “Aww, it looks like someone lost their pet.” Starlight looked for the source of the voice. There was a female Zeltron standing behind him.
“I’m not anybody’s pet,” she replied, furrowing her eyebrows into a scowl.
The Zeltron remarked, “She can talk and is cute too.” Starlight backed up into a male Ishi Tib and another Nikto. “My daughter would love to have a pet like you.”
“You’re a long way from home. Your royals might pay a pretty credit to get you back,” the other Nikto commented. Before Starlight was able to react, she felt a stinging sensation in her neck and blacked out. He picked her up from the ground and placed her in a nearby airspeeder. “She’s heavier than expected.”
Tempest was looking all over the street for Starlight when she witnessed her being put into a speeder. “Starlight!” She pushed through the crowd as fast as possible, but the speeder was already in the air making its getaway when she reached her. “No!” She picked up the map that Starlight dropped. She began galloping, glancing down every so often at the map to try to find the local authorities. She eventually bumped into someone, knocking herself to the ground. She looked up to see a Weequay male wearing a helmet and goggles.
He spun around, looking at her. “What’s the rush, my little friend?” he asked her.
She got on her hooves and apologized, “I’m sorry about that, but my friend was just taken and she—“
“Kidnapped!” He interjected. “Not to worry, I, Hondo Ohnaka, will help you get your friend back!”
Tempest said in reply, “Oh thank you.”
“Of course, the only problem is, do you know who took her?” Hondo asked.
“They had a skull with fangs over two crossed tridents on their jacket,” Tempest informed him.
He put his hand to his chin and said, “Ah yes, that would probably be the Black Blood Ravagers. They are a recently formed pirate gang that started up sometime after the war.”
“Do you know where they are located?” she asked.
“I do. Their base isn’t far from here in the Duhma system. They will be no problem for Hondo and it will be profitable,” he declared, folding his arms.
“Profitable?” Tempest asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Ah well, you see they took a few things that were originally mine and I’ve been meaning to get them back. Follow me!” Tempest Shadow followed after Hondo to where his ship’s hangar was.