//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Books, hangers and Surprise! // Story: Through The Starry Sky // by Valtyra //------------------------------// "So this is it..." The Princess thought to herself, looking down upon the frozen world from her own personal cabin window. The world below, a light blue drop of liquid methane reflected the systems sun, momentarily blinding Celestia. "Amazing, isn't it?" Fog spoke up, making the Princess Jump. He chuckled, "Sorry..." "Yes, it is..." Celestia replied, turning back to the planet. "I'm sure the ponies on board are all unimaginably excited." Fog let out a deep laugh. "You don't even know; they are all lined up on the viewing decks." Celestia smiled and sighed, "Good." She looked back at Fog who was examining the Elements. "How far are we away from Equis?" "About three hundred light years. We're going for another jump soon; reaching around one thousand two hundred." He replied, keeping his attention of the elements. "What should we expect?" Celestia walked over to her chair and sat down. Lifting a cup of tea from the newly fixed table. "We won't know till we jump. We've got some crew out making the jump point right now." Taking a sip, Celestia gently stopped the captain from touching the element of laughter with her magic and said, "Please captain, sit." He wandered over and sat down, "Ah yes, I wanted to see how you are doing?" He softened his look, "You fainted as we passed through the gate, it didn't hurt you did it?" "Oh no, I was... being silly." Celestia laughed, "I'm better now." She saw the look that Fog was giving her and shook her head, "Honestly, I'm okay." "If your sure, the doctor did say you seemed okay..." The Princess took another sip of her tea and sighed. "If you'd excuse me. I have a Pegasus to see." She stood up and opened the door, turning back she rolled her eyes upon seeing Fog looking at the Elements, "No touching, I'm warning you." His head shot around, "Got it, no touching!" ~~~ The next week went slowly for the Princess. She regularly met up with Star charmer and had small visits from the captain to see how she was doing, but Spike never seemed to come around. It reached the day where the ship was planned to jump to the next system and Celestia watched as the construction crew docked back into the ships hanger from the viewing decks window. She wandered down the hall and into the elevator, squeezing in just enough for two other ponies to join her. The princess didn't mind them bunching up against her chest, but strangely the two ponies were blushing as they jumped out. The princess walked out with a small smile of her face as the doors closed behind her. She looked over to a small map of the deck on the wall. "Deck twelve," she said to herself, mentally creating a route to the hanger. She walked through hallways and side passages till she reached her destination and touched the panel next to the door. They slid open with a small "woosh" and revealed the bustling hanger bay. Trotting in, her mouth went from a smile to a full blown grin. Her hooves touched metal and she dowb to see herself about four decks up on the highest area of hanger. She leaned on the railing and watched as the construction ships were decontaminated and scrubbed down; the crews stretching and talking together. Celestia took in the ships they used and couldn't quite place where she had seen them. They had an almost rectangle frame with a tractor beam and welder on the front for the non unicorns. The unicorn variant had an amplifier for their horns allowing them to do everything under their own power. The hanger itself was quite spacious, taking up four decks and spanning almost half of the decks themselves. The other half were quarters for the crew and their families. Almost all of the hanger was made of metal, giving it a sterile look, but a necessary one. The bulkheads to the outer space were made of heavy duty titanium; specially created to harden under pressure. Celestia smiled as she watched her ponies joke and laugh together, warming her heart and making her think of back home. She looked down and swallowed, hearing claw scratched from behind her. "Something the matter, Princess?" Spike asked, standing next to her and leaning on the railing. "Just thinking of home..." Spike didn't say anything to that, deciding to let silence settle around them. "You've been gone a long time," Celestia whispered, afraid he would leave again. "This week or before?" Spike asked, hid voice full of sarcasm. "Both." "I had some things to think through." He held a serious expression in his face, no hint of his cheerful ex-self that Celestia knew from before. "What kind of things?" Celestia turned and saw Spike staring down at the ponies with some sort of disgust evident on his face. She frowned and looked away not wanting to get into an argument. "Luna didn't tell you why I was here, did she?" "No... She only told me you were here on the day of the launch." Now Celestia's interest was caught, she turned back to Spike, "Why are you here?" "Luna's... A worrer," He replied, a small smile making it's way onto his face. "She wanted me to look after you." "Look after me?" Celestia looked at him incredulously. "I can't die, remember." "Unlike some ponies," he muttered. "Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean you can't be hurt." "Well, yeah. But what's going to hurt me on the ship?" "She just said to look after you, so that's what I'm going to do." Spike looked down to see the ponies leave the hanger. "Looks like we're going to jump. You should go and check it out." "What about you?" Celestia asked, moving a hoof over to him. Spike jerked back and turned away, "I have things to do." He gripped the railing and vaulted over, falling four decks and hitting the steel floor. He rose from a crouch and walked off, leaving Celestia as the only being in the room. ~~~ Celestia rushed down the halls trying to remember where Star Charmer worked before stopping and face-hoofing. "I can just track her..." She thought and chuckled. With a blast of magic, a small sparkly line ran along the route straight to Star. Celestia galloped down it till she ran into a door and pressed the pad. The door slid open and she walked in, looking around the small maintanance hall. "Princess?" Star asked from behind. Celestia turned around and looked confused for a second before she shook her head, "Star Charmer, I would like you to accompany me while we jump." "Um... I have to finish the maintanance..." Star said, afraid she had upset the Princess. "Not that I wouldn't want to!" "Oh... okay..." Celestia gave a half-hearted smile and started to walk away. "Okay, I mean sure!" Star shouted. "Oops..." she giggled. She watched the Princess turn her head, "I'll finish up so I can complete the rest tomorrow and come to your quarters." "I was thinking somewhere a bit more familiar to me." Celestia's smile returned, "The library on floor fourth three should do fine." "Sounds great, I'll, see you soon." The Princess walked off, making her way up to the library. She made it to the library and entered, pushing the heavy wood doors aside with her own hooves rather than magic, preferring to feel the wood. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Prefect," she whispered, a smile being born on her face. Opening her eyes again, she saw it was exactly like she had hoped and specified in her documents. Celestia had specifically asked for the library to be a perfect replica of the Golden Oaks library from Ponyville. "Almost perfect," She whispered sadly, walking over to the table and running her hoof over the wood. Making her way into the kitchen, she looked about for the cupboard that held the cups and saucers. Spotting it, she walked over and pulled two of each out and filled the kettle. After she had made the tea, she levitated them back into the main room and sat down. She waited for almost twenty minutes for Star, keeping her tea hot with magic before the pony rushed through the doors. "I'm sorry I'm late!" She shouted, her breathing deep and labored. Star had patches of grease and mechanical fluids down her coat, patches of her fur were sticking up in weird angles and her mane was a mess. Celestia shook her head, "It's alright. You're here now." She nodded to the other chair, "Please sit." Star walked over to the chair but hesitated before sitting, "Could you..." she asked, motioning to the grease. "Of course." Celestia charged her horn and lifted the grease off of Star and teleported it out into space. "There." Star sat and melted into the seat. "ooohhh," she moaned, relaxing. "Comfortable?" "Very." Star reluctantly leaned forwards and picked her tea up, sipping it slowly. She looked at the Princess, "No offense, Princess. But why did you ask me to join you here?" Celestia looked split between answering honestly or answering in a way that would appease Star. She sighed, "I'm... Lonely." Star kept her gaze but didn't say anything. "Believe it or not, I don't know many ponies and have even less friends. I know the captain and Spike, the dragon." The Princess looked down to her rapidly cooling tea and swirled it with her magic, "Out of the four thousand ponies, I know three. Even then, I doubt I know Spike that well anymore..." "I guess it's hard being a Princess..." Star said. "You have no idea." Celestia chuckled, "That's why I came out in the first place; to get away from everypony... I guess this is what i get for being a bit selfish for once." Nopony said anything for a few seconds before the Princess coughed, "Anyway, enough about me. I can feel we're about to jump. We should see the new system." "S-sure," Star replied, a bit surprised at how quickly the Princess changed the topic. "Wait, you can feel that?" Celestia stood up and walked towards the door, "Yeah, I can feel the vibrations in the frame. I'm surprised you can't." Star gave a shrug, "Oh well." Together, they walked out of the room and went down a few decks to a viewing window just in time to see the ship pass through the gate. The gate itself revolved around and passed through the portal, shutting itself off after. The hanger opened and the same rectangular ships flew out to deconstruct the jump point. "Wow!" Star said, amazed at the glowing white dwarf that they were currently passing by. "It's beautiful!" She pressed her face against the thick glass. "Yeah, it really is-" The Princess was interrupted by a series of alarm sirens and bright red lights going off. "What's going on!" Star shouted, looking up at the Princess in shock. Celestia covered Stars and her ears with a magic filter and made their way to the lifts. As they were about to enter one, a recorded message played through the ship. "Attention crew, the ship will be under a code violet until further notice. Please will the Princess go to the bridge!" "You'd better go first!" Star shouted, backing out of elevator. "I can make my own way to maintanance!" "Okay, I'll see you soon!" The doors closed and the Princess was all alone as the red light blanketed the cramped box. Celestia breathed in and out, calming herself, "Don't worry, it's probably nothing... I hope." The images her imagination conjured up didn't help her as the doors slid open. She rushed out and galloped down the hallway straight to the bridge; ponies jumping out of the way of their ruler. She burst into the room and looked around for the captain or somepony that could tell her what was going on. "Took you long enough," Spike said, standing up from the captains chair. "Come on." He walked around Celestia and out of the doorstep had nearly demolished. Celestia huffed but followed, "What's going on, Spike!" A few ponies were rushing about, "Get back to work!" Spike shouted and they scampered away. "Everypony is waiting for you on the flag bridge!" "Why!?" "They've found something!" He answered with a toothy smile. "We're here!" Spike pulled open one of two large metal doors, "After you!" Celestia walked in and squinted, her eyes having to go from red light to full blown white. There were ponies in suits congregated around a large table in the center of the room. The center of the table hosted a hologram of the current system with a small red area highlighted next to the only planet: a gas giant. "Ah Princess, nice you're here," Fog said, getting up and walking around the table to greet her. Celestia turned off the filter and bowed, "Didn't seem like I had a choice." she looked at each of the ponies in the room and raised an eyebrow, "Spike says we've found something?" Fog nodded and returned to his seat. Upon pressing a button on the table, the hologram zoomed into a close up of the gas giant. "This, is what our sensors picked up when we sent them through earlier." Fog pressed another button and the red area fizzled and it seemed to be what appeared to be a cracked moon within an asteroid field orbiting the planet. "Okay..." Celestia said, moving closer. One of the ponies offered her their chair, but she refused. Fog grinned before pressing another button, "And, this is what we saw when we jumped." The moon faded out and was replaced with Celestia could only describe as a field of torn and broken crystals. At the center was one larger crystal with multiple warnings emanating from it. "What are they?" Celestia asked, worried for her ponies. "Is it dangerous!?" "No, at least we don't think so..." Fog sighed, "To be honest, we won't know what they are until we get closer. But we do know there's powerful magic resonating from inside, as ludicrous as that sounds." He recieved a number of nods from the other ponies and one spoke up, "Should we initiate first contact, just in case?" "First contact?" The Princess asked. "For when the object is undoubtedly Alien, or alien made." Fog shook his head, "General Taylor thinks it is." The mare in question turned to the Princess and saluted, "Ma'am, I do. No other creature on our planet can do magic, even the Zebra use alchemical ingredients and not pure magic. This, in my opinion is alien." she thought for a minute, "Maybe the magic was there to trick sensors, like an illusion spell?" "Why would they need to trick sensors, let alone anything else?" Fog asked. "Look at it!" Taylor pointed at the field of crystals. "That looks like a battlefield!" Her gaze softened at the picture, "Maybe their hiding?" "I'm still not convinced. Princess, what do you think?" The Princess was shaken out of her daze and looked at Fog, "I want to take a closer look." She looked at Taylor, "If this is an alien battlefield, It may be dangerous to stay here." "Ma'am, I'll have some of your best ponies accompany you." "No need. Spike and Taylor will be all I need." The Princess spoke with absolution, giving no room for compromise. Fog hesitated before sighing, "As you wish, your majesty."