"Princess on deck!" One of the guards escorting Celestia shouted, causing all ponies working on the bridge to stop what they were doing and stare.
A large earth pony wandered over, looked Celestia over and said, "Well well, do my eyes betray me?"
"Captain, I hope not." Celestia replied, smiling as usual. "How long till we reach the moon?"
"Not long; maybe a few minutes." The captain turned and headed back to his chair, sitting down and sighing. "Please call me Fog, ma'am."
"Of course, thank you for taking this position."
"Hah!" he slapped the chair, "I wouldn't miss this for the world." He gazed out of the front viewing screen, "A chance to see the stars that you and your sister helped shape," a grin made its way onto his face, "They won't change during our voyage, right?"
"No, capt- fog. My sister promised not to meddle with her stars."
"Good... Good." He glanced down at a pony sitting behind one of the control panels, "Change our heading to match the moon's jump point."
"Fog, is the jump point working correctly?" Celestia asked, standing next to him. She gave him a worried look. "They weren't having very positive results last time they ran the tests..."
"Don't you worry, Princess. They sent me confirmation of a successful test earlier." He looked over, "This wouldn't be flying if it wouldn't work."
"If your sure..."
Celestia turned back to the front and watched as the moon came into view. Several of the ponies on the bridge gave 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.
As they neared the surface, Celestia spotted numerous buildings set next to one of the craters. A large circular disk ran around the edge of the crater, lights blinking every couple of meters.
On the screen in front of everypony, a smaller window popped up, showing a Brian Surge and a frazzled old pony next to him.
"Capt- oh ma'am. I didn't expect you to be on the bridge."
"I got bored," Celestia replied, giving a little nod. "Please continue."
"Okay. Sir, we've double checked everything and the jump point is fine on our end." Surge was tapped on the should and he turned around to talk to somepony.
The pony next to him continued, "As Surge explained, the machine is working at ninety nine point seven percent efficiency."
"Thank you."
"You welcome, ma'am."
Brain Surge turned back and nodded, "We're ready when you are, Captain." He used his magic and typed on the keyboard, "The Arcane intelligence is programmed to open the jump point again in exactly ten years, unless told otherwise by your sister."
Celestia nodded, "Open it, I'm sure these ponies want to see the stars."
The screen cut off, giving an unrivaled view of the crater. A small blue like ran around the edge, gaining speed as it went. By the fifth rotation, it was too fast to see and sparks sprang from one side of the ring to the other.
All in all, it only took a few minutes, but once the light blue light bathed the bridge, it felt like an eternity to Celestia.
The once grey, lifeless surface of the moon lit up for all of Equestria. Even from the planet below, it could be seen as a large blue hole in the moon.
Celestia's mouth hung open. "I never thought I'd actually be going..." It hit her, She'd be gone from her world, her sister for ten years. She could feel her heart rate increase, her vision go fuzzy as she felt the acceleration kick in, moving them towards the jump point.
The captain reached over and tapped a button on his control, "Attention all crew, we are about to leave our solar system. I've been told this may feel weird at first, but it will get better. Let's hope we have a good ten years." He tapped the button again and looked over to the Princess, "Ma'am!"
He jumped out of his seat and rushed over to Celestia as he saw her collapse, "Guards, get the medical team!"
"Yes sir!" they saluted and rushed off.
"Stay with me, Celestia!" He held her and waited. The last thing the Princess saw was unfamiliar stars before her vision faded to black.
~~~
"Urgh..." Celestia groaned as consciousness returned to her and she opened her eyes. She closed them and covered her eyes with a hoof, the lights annoying her.
"About time you woke up," A male voice spoke up, tension evident in his voice.
Celestia opened her eyes and squinted about, "Who is this?" She asked. She frowned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten my voice?" the guy said. "She always said you could be forgetful..."
Celestia froze and looked over to the corner of her bedroom. "Spike..."
"Celestia."
"How are you?" She asked, honestly caring.
"Been better," he replied shrugging.
Celestia's vision returned properly and she could finally see how Spike had grown up. He now stood as tall as her, horn not included. His body rippled with muscles that his younger self lacked and he gained an aura of confidence that she'd only seen once before; now it seems to be permanent.
"I heard you were in the Everfree heart..." Celestia said, trying not to star at his improved physic.
"It seemed like the best place for me," he answered, coldly. His gaze looked around the room, "I see you don't have her picture, typical."
Giving no room for a reply, he rose from the seat and walked over to the door. He pressed a pad next to it and the door slid open. "I can go, now you're awake."
Spike walked through and closed the door, leaving Celestia to sit there to process what happened. A few seconds later she broke down in tears and fell back. "After all this time, he still hates me..."
~~~
Celestia stood out in one of the hallways admiring the view. This was one of the hallways on her floor where almost the entire side of the deck was made to be a viewport. She marvelled at pony ingenuity and smiled at all her children had accomplished.
The ship had passed by a small asteroid belt earlier on its way to the first charted planet on it's predestined course: Vg-159.
Celestia had no idea who named it, or even what it meant. But apparently it's surface was liquid methane and was surrounded by it's own cracked moon. There had been various artistic renders made just for this mission so the Princess could see what to expect, but she knew from experience that most stuff is better when viewed in person.
"Ma'am," A pony next to her said, bowing.
Celestia turned her head and saw a small blue Pegasus with a bright yellow mane. The princess bowed back and asked, "What is your name?"
"Star charmer," She replied. "I just wanted to say, it's an honor to have you aboard, we'll do our best to keep you comfortable."
"That means more than you know, Star." The Princess smiled and asked, "What do you work on?"
"Oh nothing much; just a maintanance worker for some of the autocannons..." Star rubbed the back of her head and blushed, "It's boring, really."
"Nonsense, would you like to stay and have tea?"
"Me, h-have tea with y-you... Oh my," Star swooned, but was quickly caught by the Princess in her magic. A few onlookers raised their eyebrow at the scene, but soon enough returned to their work.
The princess wandered around the deck with the unconscious Star Charmer in her magic, trying to find the cafeteria. Luck was on her side as she quickly found a map and made her way down a deck and across half the ship.
She pushed the pad next to the doors and they slid open to reveal the cafeteria in all of it's grey splendor. It felt surprisingly lifeless to Celestia, even though it was inhabited by at least a hundred ponies that only took up a small portion of the seating.
She passed ponies of all shapes and sizes laughing and joking. It made her smile.
They found a relatively empty portion of the seating and sat. Celestia placed Star down on her own seat and used her magic to wake her up.
"Huh, what!?" Star shouted, making a couple if nearby ponies laugh. She saw the Princess and blushed, looking down. "I'm sorry Princess, you shouldn't have had to carry me."
"I didn't..." Celestia replied, looking around at the other ponies in the room.
"What do you mean?" Star tilted her head, "If you didn't, how did I get here?"
Celestia's lips curled ever so slightly, it was almost invisible, "You fly in your sleep..."
Star Charmer's eyes opened wide, "I haven't done that since..." she caught sight of the princess's smirk and gave her a deadpan look. "I didn't sleep-fly did I?"
"Gotcha..."
Star calmed down and giggled. "The ponies I worked with always did say you were a joker." Star smiled and glanced over to the food line, "Stay here, I'll get us some tea..."
Star got up out of her seat and walked around to stand in line. Celestia didn't mine waiting, but it was the stares that got to her.
Sure, she was used to running a country, but these stares were different. They were excitement mixed with something else that she couldn't quite place, "fear, maybe", she thought.
Star Charmer returned with their tea, balanced on her back, "Here you go." Celestia picked them up with magic and placed them on the table. "Thanks."
The two of them sipped theirntea in comfortable silence until the Princess spoke up, "I wasn't expecting any guns on the ship."
"Oh, we'd need them incase an asteroid blocked out path or was heading towards us. Our shields are not strong enough to withstand anything over ten tonnes hitting them, even if the hull can."
"I see..." Celestia sipped her tea with practised precision and nodded. "Another question, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Star nodded.
"What do you think about aliens?"
"A-aliens, whatever do you mean?" Star asked, surprised by the question and placing her cup down.
"Well, do you believe in them?" Celestia raised an eyebrow, waiting for Star to answer. She sipped her tea again and quickly took a glance about, seeing her present company also waiting for Stars answer.
"I... haven't really thought about it, I didn't come along to see if they exist. I can along to make sure you would be alright..."
The Princess blinked at that. Her surprise at the honesty turned into a smirk, then into full blown laughter. "You came alone to... To make sure I would be... Be alright!" her laughter died down to a quiet chuckle, "Miss Charmer, I'm a multi-century old Alicorn who's immortal... I should be making sure you get home okay."
Celestia grinned and returned back to her tea, thankfull the stares had stopped. For better or worse, she wouldn't know.
~~~
Celestia quickly left the shocked Star Charmer and made her way through the ship to the deck above. She stopped on the side that would be orbiting thr planet for a couple of days and stopped.
"You'd enjoy this, Twilight." The Princess thought to herself as she passed a group of ponies. She stopped about halfway down the hall and took in the sight of the star of the current system they were passing through onto the next jump.
It glowed a bright red, bathing the deck and relaxing Celestia. She placed her head on the railing that separated the hull from the deck proper and sighed.