>Luna 0932 hours
So her sister - oh wait; Commander Princess Celestia had requested to meet her in a featureless room adjacent to the Bridge. In the quarters; a table, two stools that were large enough for Ponies to sit on properly, an AI terminal, two TV screens and a big white Alicorn with a pale, multicolored mane that constantly blew in the wind, even when there was no wind. Just like hers.
On one of the screens played an image of Derpy, being supervised by Corporal Zecora and some random squaddies she didn’t know.
Clumsy Mare. Be careful Zecora, she might dropeth a bucket of soapy water on thou too.
It had taken no time at all to dry herself off with her Alicorn magic.
An image of what was left of the Halo artifact and the gas giant Threshold played on the other screen.
“Well sister, shall we begin?” Celestia asked with her ever so soft voice.
Still had the smug air of authority to it though.
Celestia had a white coat and super long legs. Mane and tail; oversized. Hooves clad in gold shoes similar to her own silver ones. Gold tiara much taller than her black one. Golden harness kinda like the black one she wore. Huge wings, huge horn, and a smile that said; I’m ready. Are you ready?
She was ready; “Of course. We hath nothing new to report however.”
“That’s quite alright. It’s just nice to finally spend some time together. How are you finding your time in the UPSC?”
The two of them had spent an equal amount of time serving in the UPSC. She worked on the ground, taking the fight to the Griffins while her elder sister made decisions from a safe place.
“To be honest sister, it is not as fun as you described it.”
“Oh Luna, you need to learn to step out of your comfort zone. Only then can you experience the true excitement this job has to offer.”
Luna thought to herself: Really? I hath been everywhere but my comfort quarters, and I’m still not having fun.
Then she spoke, “Huh, that’s easy for you to say, sister. All you have to do is sit here and tell us what to do. Hath thou even seen a Griffin up close?”
“My decisions are important to our victory sister. They will win us the war. You just need to have faith.” Celestia was oblivious to Luna’s annoyance. Either that or she was just messin’ around.
Neither of them were in the UPSC when it had been founded.
Ponies and Griffins shared the same planet along with a bunch of other races. The fact that Griffins had become space farers before Ponies was nothing short of an astonishment.
When Celestia had, rather politely, asked the Griffins to share their technology with Equestria, they responded by yelling “NO. Get your own,” before blasting off into space, colonizing other worlds, and laying siege to the Ponies. Cos, y’know, Ponies are soo lame.
Battle after battle, the Ponies had recovered much Griffin tech, learned from it, and made their own. And while vehicles and field weapons hadn’t been developed as well as their original counterparts, the star ships had.
Only the Griffins would make weapons.
It was a wonder why the Dragons of their home planet hadn’t followed suit.
Anywho, back to the whole “faith” thing.
“We do hath faith in you, sister, but we also have fear. Fear for our subjects.” And then, “You do care for our subjects, do you not?” Now it was her turn to be annoying.
“Yes, Sergeant. Of course I do.”
Teehee, take that sister.
“Discord…”
Flash, and the ship’s AI appeared with a tuneful; “Tadaa!”
"Ugh, not this guy."
"What's the matter Luna? Am I not good enough for you?" More light consumed the AI for a second as he transformed into a tall, jet-black Alicorn with old timey armour, fluid purple mane and tail, cat eyes and a purple version of Luna's cutie mark. "How about now?"
"Gah!" Luna screamed, backing up and shielding her eyes. "No! Go away!"
Celestia interjected, "Discord! Change back at once!"
The Draconequus disguised as a Pony chortled. "If you insist, Celestia."
He went through the same, split-second process to return to his true form, which was less frightening to Luna, but still a little freaky.
She peeked cautiously over her shielding hoof before lowering it slowly, trying to hide her slight shakiness.
Furiously, she barked at Discord, "Do you not know what kind of trouble thou could have caused?!"
"If by "trouble" you mean "eternal night" then that's all on you."
Grinding her teeth, she growled at him.
"Doh, relax Princess. We're in space! It's always night time in space! All your dreams have come true."
"Excuse me..."
The holographic monster and Alicorn Princess rotated their heads to face Celestia, who now had a stern look on her face.
"I would very much appreciate it if we could get down to business."
Obliging, Luna and the AI stood straight and kept quiet.
“Go on Discord,” whispered Celestia, like a teacher encouraging a shy Philly to go on stage.
Luna missed their old AI, Cadence, who just happened to be based on her niece; Princess Cadence. They had little in common, but she was much nicer than this Discord guy, both to look at and to speak with, and although all AIs never always told you what you wanted to hear, Cadence told it straight. No stalling, no joking, and no secrets.
Discord, however:…
“Ok, so here’s the scoop,” he magiced up a spoon and took a scoop out of the pink stripe of Celestia’s mane and gulped it. “Mm, chocolate,” he chucked the spoon over his shoulder, where it turned into a snail and shot away like a rocket.
An image of a Pony star ship began to play across the left screen.
Discord was totally aware that Celestia was glaring at him, but he continued with a big smile that showed of that giant fang of his.
“The escape pod was launched from the Pony Lisa no more than six hours ago.” He brought his Lion paw up to the image of what must’ve been the Pony Lisa. “The Pony Lisa is a prison ship. A freighter that has been converted to carry some of the naughtiest of Ponies, as well as materials needed to make those amazing weapons you all need.” He rolled his eyes at “amazing,” then grinned a smug, toothy grin towards Luna at “need.”
Proceeding, he said, “The Bridge is at the top, at the front of the ship. And the engines are somewhere below, near the prison cells.” Sounding excited, Discord went a little high-pitched, then back to his normal tone. “Ships like this don’t normally have many weapons on board, in case there’s a riot of course!”
Ha, he liked the sound of that.
The holographic Draconequus zipped over to Luna to link arms with her, his right to her left, and looked romantically into her eyes and cleared his throat before continuing. She didn’t approve, but he didn’t care.
“They usually rely on an escort in those situations. But, alas, the poor girl doesn’t appear to have one…” His "ye olde" acting then turned ominous. “At least not anymore.”
Luna had had enough, and pushed Discord away from her. Folding his arms, he blew a raspberry at her. Mature. And this is the AI running the ship? Dear sweet Celestia. What ever happened to Cadence? AIs deteriorate after seven years, and Cadence had only been in service for three. Discord; much longer. It didn’t make sense. But as Discord would say: “What fun is there in making sense?”
We are not here for fun, Discord... Hmm, why are we here?
The good Commander spoke, “Discord…”
Celestia wanted to get down to business too. Good. Or was it bad? She’d find out soon enough.
Discord; “Oh yes. Commander Princess Celestia here, orders you to take a squad in a Pelican…” a snap of the fingers, and a Trojan Pelican perched on his left wrist, “And investigate the Pony Lisa.”
Luna’s blue eyes alternated between Discord and her sister for a moment before she asked; “Are those your orders, sister?”
To which Celestia replied, “Yes, Luna.”
Hm… why couldn’t thou tell me yourself?
Discord shook his bird violently, making it squawk. It quickly transformed in to a bouquet of black roses, which he immediately stuffed in to his face.
“Discord and I shall organize a squad for you, and update you with the details later. Good luck my sister, dismissed.”
You know what you can do with your luck. She brought a hoof up to her head to salute, turned and opened the door, and just as she was about to leave:
“Oh and Luna…”
“Yes, Celestia?”
“I love you.”
D’aaww, how sweet. Celestia could be… difficult, and her decisions were sometimes… questionable. But she was her sister, and she loved her like one.
Too bad Discord was there to ruin the mood; pointing a finger down his throat and saying; “Urgh, gag.”
They both ignored him.
“I love you too, sister,” and with that, she turned and left.
>Celestia 1003 hours
Discord had watched Luna walk out, and had his back to Celestia. Celestia knew however, he had eyes in the back of his head.
So she stared at him. Turn around. Look at me when I talk to you.
He did.
“What?” He smiled innocently, palms held out saying what he had already said.
She didn’t buy it. “You know more than you have told me.”
“Well I know that one plus one equals two, and I didn’t tell you that.”
“You know what I mean, Discord.”
He snickered, “Yes, I suppose I do.”
“Do you know what is on the Pony Lisa? I don’t like being kept in the dark, especially when it comes to deploying my little Ponies. And especially when my sister is involved.”
“Kept in the dark you say? But there’s plenty of light in here.”
Darn it Celestia. Don’t use metaphors. Never use metaphors.
He always knew what she meant. Always knew how to wind her up too.
“Besides, you’re the Princess of the sun, are you not? Make it brighter.” Another snicker.
“Discord. Tell me what is on that ship. Tell me what it is doing here. Tell me what we are doing here.”
“We are here, Celestia, to do recon,” skipping the first two questions, “And to find, well, whatever there is to find.”
She already knew this. Risking the lives of her subjects to “find whatever there is to find.”
Halo’s debris played across the screen again. A colossal ring, so big it had terrain on the inside surface. Mountains, oceans, deserts, ice caps, jungles, all with working weather. Well, not now of course. Now it was in shatters. The surface; a mosaic of red, orange and black.
All she knew about Halo was; Griffins found it first, but it wasn’t theirs. The UPSC Philly of Autumn stumbled upon it after fleeing Reach; a world colonized by Ponies, a world now lost to the Griffins. A Spartan super Pony known by his or her rank of Master Chief had fought the Griffins on that ring, and destroyed it when he or she found out it was a giant doomsday device.
She had hoped to meet this Spartan. To knight him or her. Find out whether it was a him or a her. Oh, so much to discuss! But, ruler of her race or not, she had orders. And she would follow them.
Celestia interrogated Discord. “What is the Pony Lisa doing here?”
He shrugged and hummed an “I dunno” at her.
Yeah right, as if he didn’t know. Discord was hiding something.
Frustrated, she sighed.
“Reach has fallen Celestia. Our backs are against the wall.”
Snap, and Celestia was thrust against the wall, standing on hind legs. Discord leaned in for some quality face time. The yellow whites of his eyes and different sized, red pupils almost burnt lazers through her. He kept his hands clamped behind his back.
“Extreme measures are necessary to ensure our survival,” topped with a smile.
He then teleported to a spot above her and patted her on the head with his Lion paw. “And don’t you worry your pretty horsey head about wittle Woona… or should I say… Nightmare Moon,” giving her a nuggie and messing up her mane. “There’s nothing Princess loony can’t handle, am I right?”
A long pause that Celestia spent struggling, then another snap of the fingers to put her back on her seat.
Where did that come from? What was that all about?!
Discord sure had the nerve to treat a Commander, Princess, and ruler of Ponies in such a way. And she wasn’t too happy with him calling her sister "Nightmare Moon" and "loony," even if they were both sort of true.
“Discord! How dare you-”
“Hohoho, lighten up, Celestia! Be thankful I know what I’m doing.”
Pointing at the screen that showed the half mopped floor of the cargo bay, he snapped his fingers, just as Luna and Private Derpy entered the frame from separate directions. Derpy carrying a fresh bucket of water. She dropped it, and it landed on Luna, again. The TVs were muted at the moment, but Celestia could still hear her sister’s royal Canterlot voice over Discord’s chortling all the way up from the cargo bay.