//------------------------------// // Star Ponies // Story: The Thousand Year Change // by Darthvalgaav //------------------------------// Eagle Eye, his guards, and Celestia stood in the middle of a long silver hallway. Both the floor and the ceiling were flat, but there was a curve to the walls. Every once in a while, one of them would see a blinking green, blue, or yellow light on the wall that would come out of nowhere. On the note of light, no one within the group seemed to know what was illuminating the hallways. Luna, meanwhile, was watching them all with a small smile. She had wanted to make a big impression on them, and it seemed that this did the trick. “Crescent Hope,” said Luna to the group, “is one of the Lunar Republic’s top projects. Its purpose is to navigate and transport large numbers of ponies to other worlds. Our goal in this is to gather resources from these other worlds and to set up colonies, while at the same time, exploring the endless sea of stars. However, it is still incomplete as we have yet to perfect an engine that will allow this vehicle to travel at the speed needed to get to these destinations in the course of a normal ponies life. Are there any questions?” “What do you mean by ‘other worlds’?” asked one of the griffon guards. “What do you mean by ‘sea of stars’?” asked another. Luna blushed slightly as she realized her error. She was still used to dealing with ponies who understood these concepts. The idea that there were other planets besides this one, it appeared, was either unknown or just not common knowledge. “Perhaps it would be best it I showed you,” said Luna as she turned around. “Please follow me and be sure not to touch anything.” With that, Luna began to walk forward with the rest of the group in tow. As the group began to walk, Eagle Eye found himself in a very interesting position. From where he was, he had an excellent view of Luna’s plot. Now, he had heard of other griffons talking about pony plot before and he never seen the appeal. He had seen them before and they were, in his opinion, too plump. He just didn’t find large plots appealing and it seemed that a lot of ponies had them to varying degrees. Princess Luna, however, was different. He had been smitten when he had seen her face, her mane, and her entrance. Now, seeing her from behind, he could see that even that was appealing. It was tight with a little bit of fat. Either she watched her weight, or she worked out on a regular basis. Seeing that her armor had some light scratches on it meant that it had been used before. Perhaps she kept in shape by training in it every once in a while. As they turned a corner, the emperor thought he saw Celestia looking his way. Instantly, he straightened his posture and moved a bit faster, so that he was now walking next to Princess Luna. Moving his eyes only, he looked over to his side to see that Celestia had moved to Luna’s other side and still seemed to be watching him. “Here we are,” said Luna suddenly, stopping in her tracks. The entire group stopped with her, finding themselves in a hallway that looked just like the one they had begun at. Celestia looked at her sister as if this were some kind of joke. ‘Luna, what are you thinking,’ thought the sun princess. ‘I was expecting you to take us to a room or something. But, you just took us to another hallway. Are you lost or something? I could understand that since all these hallways look the same and there would be no shame in saying so.’ Luna turned her head to look at her sister. As she looked into Celestia’s eyes, she smiled as if she had just read Celestia’s mind, before walking past her. The moon princess then raised her left hoof and touched a spot on the wall and then took a step back. Quickly, the wall seemed to vanish, only to be replaced with what appeared to be a window. While that was surprising, what they all saw outside the window was shocking! Every griffon felt their beak drop as they stared out into open space. From this point of view, they could see the moon amidst a starry background. But, it wasn’t like the moon they saw from the planet, for it was much, much bigger. “W-what is this?” asked the emperor in confusion as he slowly reached out with a claw to touch the window. “This is an outer display console,” replied Luna. Looking at their confused expressions, Luna decided to elaborate and explain it in a way that they could understand without dumbing it down too much. “Think of it like an illusion on the wall. Outside of Crescent Hope are thousands of tiny devices that are recording images around the ship. Those images are being sent to this area of the wall and other areas like it.” “So, this isn’t a window?” asked Celestia, tilting her head a bit. “No,” said Luna as she fought to roll her eyes. “That would be unbelievably stupid to have a glass window on this ship. If there was glass, a single crack could spell disaster for the entire ship. Some of my little ponies thought it might be interesting to have energy fields in place of glass, but if they failed, it would result in the same thing happening. So, it was decided that this was the safest thing to do.” While the rest of his guard looked on in confusion, Emperor Eagle Eye lowered his claw as it dawned on him the dangers of being here. Judging by what Princess Luna had just said, the area outside of the ship was a very unsafe place to be. Thus, if anything bad happened to it, then they might all die. As he thought this, he became very glad that Goldie was back home, instead of here. Despite this, however, he couldn’t help but admire both the bravery and ingenuity of Luna’s ponies. Wherever they were on the planet right now had to be dangerous, yet the ponies of the Lunar Republic did not let it stop them. Instead, they found ways to continue to across these areas that were beyond impressive. “Amazing,” declared Eagle Eye after a moment. Luna grinned. “Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet,” she noted before clearing her throat. “Computer, magnify image by one hundred and fifty percent.” “Command accepted,” said a female voice that seemed to come from the walls. Instantly, the image before them changed so that the moon now seemed to take up most of the screen. In the corners, there was a bit of blackness mixed with a few stars, but no griffon or pony was paying attention to that. Instead, they were all staring at a city on the moon’s surface underneath a large dome. Celestia stared and marveled at the sight before her. She had never seen any of the Republic before. Even when she teleported into Luna’s castle, and later shot out of one of their cannons, she hadn’t really seen any of the buildings. Even she had to admit it was impressive. “The star ponies,” said Eagle Eye quietly. “What did you say?” asked Celestia as both she and Luna turned their heads to look at the emperor. Eagle Eye turned his head from the screen with a look of wonder in his eyes. “About two hundred years ago, a griffon astronomer named Star Chart created the most powerful telescope at the time,” began the emperor, looking back towards the moon city. “As he began to map the stars, he noticed something shining on the moon. Curious, Star began to focus on the spot when he saw a city. “At first, no griffon believed him. It seemed impossible to believe that anything could be alive on the moon. Many griffons laughed at him, saying that he had been listening to those foolish pony stories about Nightmare Moon. So, to prove them wrong, Star Chart began to map out the surface of the moon as best he could. He even began to work on an even more powerful telescope, so that he could get a better picture. “Sadly, he died before he could finish his research. But his son, Winter Skies, carried on his legacy. Once it was done, he brought all of their findings to Empress Tiger Eye. At first, she dismissed it as a joke, but when Winter offered her his life if what he said was false, she decided to see for herself. She and her guards made their way to his telescope and saw with their own eyes that there was cities right where the maps said there were. “At first, we believed that only griffons could have made cities like that in such a harsh environment. It wasn’t until my father’s reign, when a new and more powerful telescope was created, that we learned the truth. Ponies were living on the moon. For a while, we wondered what we should call them. Then, my father thought it only fair that we refer to these ponies in honor of Star Chart, who had first discovered their existence. Thus, they were named the star ponies.” “This is the first time I have heard this,” admitted Celestia as she began to feel a little ashamed. She had seen Empress Tiger Eye several times and she had never once mentioned it to her. In fact, she hadn’t heard anything about any of this, other than the fact that they had built several large telescopes. Eagle Eye shook his head. “I’d be surprised if you did,” he said. “Our two nations aren’t on the best of terms. We rarely trade goods, let alone information. Besides, even if one of your ponies did hear about it, they would assume it was a place ruled by that Nightmare Moon of yours.” “Star ponies, hmm,” said a thoughtful Luna. “While it does have a nice ring to it, I think that calling us lunar ponies is a bit more accurate.” “I-” began Eagle Eye, but stopped when he realized what Princess Luna just said. ‘She just said “us” right there. That would imply that she is one of them! She also told that computer, whatever that is, to increase the image of the moon by a hundred and fifty percent. But, if we were back in the Empire or Equestria, then it would have to be several times more than that to get such an image!’ It was like watching all the pieces to a puzzle just fall into place with incredible ease. He now realized just where the Lunar Republic was. “Hmm, I thought you knew,” said Luna with a bit of a sad smile. The poor griffon looked a bit shaken and unable to participate in this meeting. Turning back to the wall, Luna touched it and caused the image of the moon to vanish. As the white wall of randomly blinking lights reappeared, she began to search the wall for something. After a moment or two, it seemed that she found what she was looking for and pressed it with her hoof. Almost instantly, the griffon guard saw a red earth pony with a short, light brown mane running towards them. Once he was a few yards away, he tried to stop, but instead tripped over nothing, sliding the rest of the way on his face. As they watched him get to his hooves, one of the guards noticed his very odd cutie mark. It looked like three white ponies with one of them crossed off. Once the poor stallion was up, he gave Princess Luna a salute. “Private Red Shirt reporting for duty, your highness,” he said. “At ease,” instructed the Princess of the Moon, leaving Red Shirt to do as he was told and lowered his hoof. “I want you to take our griffon guests here to the crew quarters and give them a room, so that they can unwind for a bit. Once you are done with that, please tell the chief to have a meal ready for all of us in an hour or so.” “It will be done,” said Red Shirt. He then turned to look at the griffon. “Ok, please follow me, and if you don’t know what something does, then please don’t touch it. We still haven’t put labels on everything and I’ve almost been ejected into space three times in the last hour. It’s not fun.” As Red Shirt began to lead them down the hallway, Celestia noticed that Eagle Eye turned his head around to look at Luna once more before continuing. When she saw this, a bubble of emotion began to rise in Celestia’s stomach for a moment. An emotion she never thought she’d feel: jealousy. It wasn’t that she was interested in him in a romantic way, but she had known the emperor since he was a hatchling. Yet, in the short time that he had known Luna, Celestia had caught him staring at her sister several times, and- “He reminds me a bit of Valiance,” said Luna, breaking Celestia’s train of thought. “What?” asked the sun princess as she looked around. The two of them were now alone in the hallway. “General Valiance,” said Luna, motioning Celestia to follow her. “You remember him, don’t you?” As the two immortal princesses walked down the hallway, Celestia began to dig through her mind for the memories of that one griffon. As she thought about it, slowly the memories began to return to her. She had first met the griffon a few years after she got her cutie mark, a period in time known as the Minotaur Wars. The minotaurs at the time had built a large nation surrounded by a maze that was enchanted, so that no pegasus or griffon could fly over it, forcing ones who wanted to enter the city to solve the maze first. At the time, they had built one of the greatest nations the world had ever seen, since Equestria was still being organized by Molten Fury and Oceania, while the Griffon Empire was recovering from a plague that had nearly wiped out a third of its population. In their pride, the minotaurs believed themselves to be the most superior beings, and thus felt justified by raiding the outskirts of the two other nations for slave labor. The griffon emperor at the time was furious at this and declared war. Sadly, it was General Valiance who approached the emperor to inform him that war right now was an unwise move, since they didn’t have enough soldiers. If they went to war as they were, there would be a greater chance they would lose and that their empire would fall. He did, however, recommend going to Equestria, so to see if they would fight alongside each other. Seeing no other option, the emperor agreed sending both of his offspring to Equestia: his daughter, Gentle Eyes, and his son, Valiance. Their visit was a short one. Molten Fury refused to assist them. In fact, he wasn’t going to fight at all! He was already talking to Highlord Strongfight to have his ponies returned to him, in exchange of gold or gems. At the time, both Celestia and Luna believed that their father was wrong, but didn’t speak up in fear of what their father would do to them. General Valiance was a different matter. He declared loudly so that everypony in the room could hear him call the alicorn king a fool. By berating Molten Fury for his lack of fury that his own subjects were being taken against their will and sent into forced labor. He also pointed out that there was no guarantee that the raids would stop if he paid them. Molten Fury held firm on his decision and order the two griffons out. As they were being escorted out, Celestia turned to look at her little sister, only to see that she had a strange look in her eyes. Luna’s eyes held firm on Valiance as if he were the only thing in the room. She began to move towards him, but Celestia stopped her before their father could notice. After that, relations between the two nations became strained. Things didn’t get any better as the war began and went on for ten years. Once it was finally over, General Valiance found out that Molten Fury had paid the minotaurs three times during the war, which helped fund their war efforts. A few years later, Valiance went on to marry Gentle Eyes and became the new Emperor. For the rest of his reign, Valiance made sure all knew his hatred of Molten Fury and Equestria. Personally, she didn’t know what Luna was talking about. Valiance and Eagle Eye were barely alike in any way. Eagle Eye was a calm leader, who always put his griffons first. Valiance always looked for a military solution, even when he became emperor. Not even their coloration was similar! Celestia had to pause her thoughts for a moment as Luna stopped suddenly. The solar princess watched as Luna pressed a part of the wall again, causing a door to open in front of the two. Celestia raised an eyebrow looking inside on the room. It was small, maybe enough to fit just the two of them. Luna seemed to ignore Celestia’s confused look and walked in. Sighing, Celestia did as well. Once they were in, Luna touched a part of the wall again, causing it to close before the room began to move. How it was moving, Celestia had no idea. All she knew was that they were going up really fast. There was a sudden ‘ding’ sound, right before the room stopped moving and the door opened. The two alicorn walked out of the small moving room and into a larger rectangular room. Near the door, Celestia saw a there was something that kind of looked like a birdfeeder, with what appeared to be a magical illusion above it of Crescent Hope. In the room, there were several ponies who were working about at stations along the wall. At the opposite end of the room was another display of the outside, much like the one they had seen earlier. In the middle of the room sat a blue earth pony mare with a black mane, which has a white stripe running through it. In front of him were two more ponies, who were working at stations in front of his seat. As soon as he heard the door open, the mare turned her head and then rose to salute. “The Princess is on the bridge,” she said. All at once, all the other ponies stopped what they were doing to salute their ruler. “At ease, Captain Starway,” replied Luna. “C-Captain?” stammered Starway as her eyes widened. “But, I wasn’t aware that I’d be in charge of this ship permanently. I thought this was a one-time thing!” Luna chuckled. “And you have been doing a fine job,” replied Luna. “Besides, I will need a commanding officer on Crescent Hope sooner or later. Captain Shadow Blade recommended you for this promotion and feels that you are the pony best suited.” “T-thank you, Princess Luna,” said Starway as she saluted Luna. “I promise I won’t let you down.” “I’m sure you won’t,” said Luna before motioning Celestia to follow her. The two alicorns walked across the room as all the ponies got back to work. They stopped in front of the large screen. Ahead of them was a seemly endless darkness with only the stars that seemed to float in it. “Princess Luna, what did you mean by Eagle Eye being similar to Valiance,” asked Celestia. A smirk appeared of Luna’s face. “It’s their eyes,” she said. “They both have the same passion and love for those they wish to protect. I saw it in Eagle Eye the moment we met. Perhaps he is holding some of it back, due to his experience as a ruler. And…there’s something else.”