Transformers: Deep Space Exploration Team

by TcogArchitect


Chapter Eleven: Skybreaker and Royalty

Published January 8th, 2013
Chapter eleven: Skybreaker's Lament

The next morning, Dark Lance woke up early, rousing the rest of his team so that they could get to work. Bunker headed straight for the engine room, while Skybreaker took one of the stealth cameras out to set up near the Decepticon ship. Dark Lance set up the video feed while Burnout went to town to get Twilight. When it came on, he could see Skybreaker's face looking at the camera.

"There. That should do it," he heard over the comms channel. The scout then moved out of frame, and the image shifted while he aimed the camera at the part of the mountain they knew the Decepticons' ship was located, though it was still cloaked. "How's that look?" he asked, still making some minor adjustments.

"That'll do, Skybreaker," Dark Lance replied. "We should know about any moves the Decepticons try to make now. Come on back, and get ready to go. If we can get an audience with the Princess, you're coming along too."

"What?" Skybreaker complained loudly. "Why do I have to go and put up with the boring royal people?" He had dealt with the upper echelons of other societies, and he had always come to the same conclusion: they were more boring than scrap. No exceptions.

"Two reasons: one, I don't want to be on my own if something happens and I need more firepower. Two, If something happens down here, I want to be able to get back and assist the others. You're faster than either Burnout or Bunker, and while Bunker is a better fighter, you are still fully capable of handling yourself in a situation where we're outnumbered."

Skybreaker went silent at that, unable to find a decent counter-argument. Dark Lance, as always, had a perfectly valid point. He was the fastest, and he was perfectly capable of fighting multiple opponents at once. His commander's ability to come up with debate-ending arguments was something that the scout had come to severely dislike. Not because it was bad, just that it was annoying how he could never win in a disagreement because of it. He finally sighed in defeat.

"Alright, boss. I'll be back soon." Dark Lance shook his head, smiling with understanding as he remembered a time when he was just as inept at verbal duels. His reverie was quickly interrupted, however, as Burnout returned with Twilight, the small dragon creature riding on her back.

"Hello, Lance, nice to see you again," the purple unicorn said as she walked in, smiling warmly.

"Hi Twilight. I wanted to talk to you about this 'Princess Celestia' you mentioned. I was wondering if it would be possible to meet her, so that we can talk about what my team and I will be doing while we're stuck here." Twilight perked her ears forward at this, and nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course. I'm sure she wants to meet all of you, as well. When did you have in mind?"

"If possible, I'd like to see her today. Sooner rather than later, preferably." Twilight nodded, and turned to the dragon.

"Spike, if you would," she said politely. Spike nodded, then reached into one of the bags across her back, pulling out a quill and ink. Having procured the correct items, he looked between Twilight and Dark Lance expectantly.

"So, who's it going to be from, exactly?" Twilight looked at the commander, raising her eyebrows questioningly.

"Me," he said, taking the hint. Spike started writing almost immediately after he started talking, obviously having a good deal of experience in this sort of work. "Princess Celestia, I am writing to you via your student to request an audience. I am from off-world, and my team and I are currently stranded here. I would like to discuss with you what my team will be allowed to do while we're here, as well as answer any questions you may have regarding us. I would like to meet with you soon, as the ones who damaged our ship are currently incapacitated. Awaiting your response, Dark Lance." When he was finished, the dragon rolled up the parchment, and wrapped a ribbon around it to keep it from unrolling. He then held it up, and took a deep breath before engulfing it in flames. Dark Lance was more than a little surprised by this.

"Why did you just burn it?" he asked, which drew a small giggle out of Twilight.

"He didn't burn it. He used a special magic link to the princess to send it straight to her." This merely confused the Autobot even more, but before he could say anything, Skybreaker walked in.

"Hey, I'm back. Hi Twilight, how's it goin'?" he said nonchalantly.

"Hi Skybreaker. Alright. We just sent a message to the princess asking for a meeting. It shouldn't take long for her to get back to us, so we just have to wait a little bit," she replied, smiling warmly.

"Cool. Let me know when you find out our schedule," he said as he walked to the elevator to the lodging corridor.

"It's not going to take that long, Skybreaker," Dark Lance said with a slight warning tone. He knew better than to let his subordinate go to the lodging corridor when they were waiting for something. Last time, he had had to go down and get him up personally. The scout stopped, his hand halfway up to the call button, and sighed.

"Alright," he replied, his entire body slumping slightly in defeat. He turned around, and walked over to sit down backwards in the gunner seat. A moment later, Spike belched, and a small roll of paper materialized from the cloud of vapor that came from his mouth. He caught it, and undid the ribbon holding it together. Scanning over it once, he cleared his throat before speaking.

"'Dark Lance, I would be more than happy to meet with you today over lunch. I have never had the pleasure of meeting an alien race before, and would love to find out more about you. Twilight, please escort them to Canterlot right away so that we may meet face-to-face. I will await your arrival in the feast hall. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.' Looks like we're going to Canterlot, huh?" Spike said as he re-rolled the paper and stuffed it in a saddlebag.

"Yep," Twilight replied, grinning. She then turned back to Dark Lance "Whenever you're ready to go, just tell me." He looked over at Skybreaker questioningly, and received another sigh and a nod in response.

"Actually, we're ready to head out now," he replied. Twilight smiled at him again.

"Okay, then. Let me get my stuff back to my house, and we can leave. C'mon," she said, turning around and heading back out the door. Dark Lance motioned for Skybreaker to follow, and they both changed to their alt-modes, following Twilight out of the ship.

After returning what she didn't need at her house, and dropping off Spike at Rarity's since he didn't really have to go, they started heading north.

"Okay, so we aren't going to just walk there, right?" Skybreaker asked after a minute, worried that they would be on the road for such a long time. Twilight giggled slightly before answering.

"Of course not. We're going to take the train!" As she said this, they turned a corner, and a large locomotive was sitting in front of them at a small station, waiting to go. Twilight went up to the ticket counter, and asked for tickets,tossing over some gold coins before grabbing the tickets with her magic. She floated two of the tickets over to Dark Lance and Skybreaker, who grabbed them in their mouths before turning to get on the train.

Skybreaker spent most of the ride staring out at the scenery passing by, while Dark Lance and Twilight discussed various topics of their two cultures, comparing and contrasting the differences between them. He caught a couple glances of their destination as the train made its way up the mountain, passing through various tunnels of rock on the way. As was expected, the palace itself stood out, even amongst the highly-decorated city surrounding it. He sighed again, thinking about every other world leader he had met. He hadn't come face-to-face with many of them, but they were all, without fail, the most boring and uptight beings he had met.

^Just a few hours, Skybreaker,^ he thought to himself. ^A few hours, and then you can go see if Rainbow Dash has that course ready. Then, you can run it as many times as you want, as fast as you want, and not have to worry about a single piece of etiquette until at least the next planet. Just make it a few hours, and you're a free Autobot.^ He continued to repeat the phrase 'just a few hours' to himself until the train stopped. He sighed one more time, and followed his two companions out of the train.

The city itself was a sight to behold. Large, ornate buildings lined the cobblestone-paved streets, and even Skybreaker had to wonder how beings with no natural manipulators could build such impressive structures. He then saw unicorns levitating objects as they walked by, and mentally smacked himself.

^Right after seeing Twilight do that, too.^ He shook his head at himself, disbelieving of his own forgetfulness. He returned to looking at the city, and soon noticed that his group was getting some curious glances from the snooty, uptight ponies they passed. He glanced around once to make sure he hadn't imagined it, and found that several of the ponies behind them were also looking at them with confused faces. He picked up his pace a bit so that he could whisper to Dark Lance.

"Uh, boss? We're gettin' some weird looks over here," he said. Dark Lance looked around, and noticed the extra attention they were attracting.

"Don't worry about it for now. Just act like it's normal. We should be there soon." The commander continued walking, resuming whatever conversation had been taking place between him and Twilight previously. Skybreaker returned to his place a few steps behind them, and spent the rest of the walk going through his list of probable etiquette procedures. He was so lost in thought that if Twilight and Dark Lance hadn't been standing slightly to either side, he would have walked right into them. Looking up, he found himself in front of a pair of ridiculously tall double doors.

^Okay, let's see. Obvious palace? Check. Unnecessarily large doors? Check. Guards who get paid obscene amounts of money to literally stand around and do nothing?^ He glanced to either side of the doors as they opened, finding the individuals in question. ^Check. Now we just need some statues, a hedge maze, gardens that have no real purpose, and a nice, big throne room that makes anyone who stands in it feel small and powerless.^ Sure enough, he spied all items of his mental Checklist of Boring Royal People on the way to the meeting. ^Why do they all have the same junk in these places? Most of it doesn't even get used half the time!^ His mood was slightly improved when they were lead into the dining hall, which had a table covered with vegetables in it. He was surprised to see that it was not one of the typical 1000-seat tables they were usually shown, but a short, 10-seat table. ^Well, at least they don't have one of those stupid, uselessly long things that make it so you can only talk to about three or four people.^ At one end, there was a large, white pony, about twice Dark Lance's size, sitting comfortably with a small plate of food in front of her. She had a flowing, multi-colored mane, while the dark blue and black pony at the other end had a mane that looked like the night sky, stars and all, flowing in an equally imperceptible wind. ^What is doing that?!^ Skybreaker wondered, completely at a loss as to what could be making the manes and tails of the ponies in front of him move how they did. His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the larger of the two.

"Greetings. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna. Please, sit down. We have quite a bit to talk about."