3483976

"Orion?" Her radio crackled. Orion opened her eyes, staring up.

"Here."

"Come back to the conference room."

A circle crackled, and she teleported into the room, right behind her Twilight. The two ponies were unfazed, and handed her documents to carry. The Guards, however, did bristle ever so slightly.

Orion took the files and folded them under her wing, keeping them safe. "We're going, then?"

"Yes, we are." Twilight drew a larger Circle, looking and judging the location of their ships. "Hold on."

They disappeared in a flash.

Orion clambered into her cockpit again, closing the canopy and taking off immediately. The Threshold keyed its engines, taking off and moving out of the hanger.

"All wings, one Interceptor and one Threshold entering defensive field. Callsigns Alpha Ace and One. Provide cover and return to your ships."

"Nav, coordinates uploaded. Bring out the warp gate."

"Accounting for lesser mass... We will reach the planet in three minutes if we warp."

The spine of the Eternity opened up, allowing planes to land. Orion waited until the Threshold was down, before commencing her own descent.

Just as she passed into the metal valley, she spied the massive ring floating out from one of the CBS. It flashed blue, and ships began to fly through.

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"Well, they're very self-dependent," Luna remarked.

"Yes, they are," Star said. "Tough group of warriors, the lot of them."

"Serenity, Unity, ready to open wormhole on your mark."

The three alicorns and one pegasus stood on the bridge of the Princesses' personal flagship, prepared to leave. The other Equestrians had already began their jump procedures.

"Unity, ready for departure. Open wormhole. 6th Fleet, ready to move out."

"Opening."

"Serenity, 6th Fleet, copy, jumping into position."

Several ships appeared alongside them to escort them. A laser lanced out from Unity, opening a wormhole in front of them. They passed through, and once the group of ships left, Unity closed the wormhole behind them.

Seconds later to them, they flew out into space around the orbit of a moon.

"I suppose we shall wait for a little bit," Luna said, waiting by the window of the bridge, admiring the view.

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Orion spent the three minutes moving to the Command Bridge.

"Ending FTL in three... two... one..."

The entire deck flashed blue as the disruption wave rolled over it.

"Who the fuck parked that there!"

Orion felt the entire deck shudder as the massive thrusters on a nearby CBS ignited, rolling the ship just enough to miss the laser mast of Unity by thirty meters. Again.

The Eternity slowed to a stop in front of the orbiting station, as well as the rest of the smaller and more maneuverable ships.

The CBSs vented propellant as fast as possible, twisting the massive spikes away from the Station and flying past it safely. The fifteen kilometer long ships settled into a stable orbit around the moon.

"All green, except for several loose cargo containers after that small scare."

"Al ships, orient towards planetary body and go for orbit." Twilight spoke. "Prep drop of Orbital Lifts for those damaged ships which cannot guarantee safe atmospheric transit."

Orion watched the next load of supplies take off, spiraling downwards through the atmosphere, turning into a bright red dot in seconds.

"Drop nearly complete to preselected city." Orion ticked off her list. "Last is for us to go down there and check it out."

"We should ask them if they want to come along and see if what we're doing is fine."

Orion raised her earpiece. "I'll ask now."

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(Unity didn't follow through.)

"Orion's inviting us to come along," Star said to her group. "Who would like to go?"

"I believe our purpose in coming here was to see them off to their new home," Celestia said. "Which would mean that invitation extends to all of us."

"Just say where, Orion."

"Serenity, 6th Fleet flagship Starlight, further orders?"

"Spread around in orbit. Scan the planet once more. No harm in triple checking the premises. Provide assistance if requested."

"Affirmative."

"Ships detected on sensors!" someone called out.

"What sensors?" Star asked.

"Ships are in FTL. Bearing indicates they're headed this way. One of length 3 kilometers, one of length 2 kilometers. Dropping out in five seconds."

They waited as two ships exited into space.

"This system is under restricted access and the Equestrian Commonwealth 6th Fleet is currently in orbit," Luna said. "Identify yourselves."

"Dimension ID reads Equestria-34."

"Apologies. This is the freighter Everfree Express IV and escorting us is destroyer Maple Timberwolf, coming from Equestria-34. We got word of newcomers and decided to give them a little welcome. You know, like a housewarming."

The ponies stared at each other, figuring out what to do.

"No one is allowed entry into this system without permission," Luna said to her sister. "They must leave."

Celestia waved her off. "No... Let the new Equestrians choose what to do."

"Very well then."

3495447

Orion moved over to the Ops Console, and looked at the feed on the screen.

"Two ships?"

"Yes, Admiral. Analysis and prediction says there is one freighter-type and one destroyer-type ship, 3 and 2 kilometers respectively."

"Firepower?"

"None detectable on freighter. Destroyer is carrying kinetic weaponry as well as varied missile tubes."

Orion mulled it over. "Send some Corvettes to initiate comms."

Three of the sleek arrow-shaped ships split off from the orbiting ring, heading towards the two new ships in a standard formation. The leader stopped in front of the two ships, while the other two soared closely past the hulls, checking out the ships, before looping back around and joining the leader.

"Identified ships as Everfree Express IV and Maple Timberwolf. Initiating comms uplink."

A small forward facing missile tube chuffed, launching a hoofball sized projectile at the ships. When it impacted against the hull, it burrowed in, using nanites to connect to the ship electronics.

"Freighter Everfree Express IV. This is Admiral Orion of the Equestrian Combined Armed Forces. Speak your intentions."

"Wha... Er... Hello, Admiral! We are from Equestria 34, and we heard that you ponies were moving in, so we decided to drop by and deliver some gifts, like a housewarming."

"Received, Everfree Express." Orion leaned over, tapping on the console. "Unfortunately, at this time, we have no facilities to accommodate ships of your tonnage. If you have hanger facilities, I can dispatch some Dropships to your service?"

"Certainly. We will get the items ready for departure."

"Corvettes, launch Thresholds and hold near ship until further notice. When they give the signal, land, pick up the goods and return to fleet."

Orion turned. "City construction?"

"At seventy five percent for main living sector. Halfway for reactors, and they are just done with the Space Elevator. They'll begin building the Space Dock soon. Material usage within expectations."

"Eternity helm, pull up to Unity Capital Ship, establish handshake protocols and prepare for visitors. Once VIPs are onboard, prepare for atmospheric descent to New Trost." Orion swept back to her side of the Command Console.

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"What are you reading there, Captain?"

Star looked up to find Princess Luna beside her. "Oh, Everfree Express's cargo manifest. They sent it over to Serenity without even being asked. Suppose being the princess' flagship does that. But uh, yeah. It's a lot of small niceities. Eight of their twelve cargo holds are simple house items alone. The rest are infrastructure things and the like." She looked back up to Luna from the tablet. "In fact, it's not just a shipping manifest, it's an entire prepared document. 'Welcome Package'. Who are they? I think I missed the report on them. Who's their leader?"

"Ah, yes, Equestria-34," Luna answered. "They are the most recent newcomers, having settled with us just two months ago. Fairly advanced space-faring race. Very peaceful. Surprisingly very good at freighter and cargo ship construction and operations, given the state of their space-going endeavors at the time. Space-faring for barely a century, yet they have one of the better FTL drives, and we're inclined to believe they could have eventually derived a controlled, systematic dimension-jumping capability similar to FRIENDSHIP from it. They had outposts and colonies established on farther planets.

"Unfortunately, they had no contact with any other races in their universe, so they hardly had much reason to build warships, other than to defend themselves from possible attacks like from the griffons or whatnot, and so weapon technology didn't advance greatly. That being said, they were soon attacked by a highly advanced race. Outposts were immediately wiped out. Their military was hardly enough to slow it down. When Unity found their universe, Equestria itself was close to being attacked. Their Cadance, assigned to govern farther planets, was already killed in an attack by then.

"It was fortunate we found them, but it was almost too late. As you can imagine, evacuating an entire planet is a massive operation. On the final day of our operation, the alien fleet had arrived around the planet. Their Celestia stayed behind to rally the last stand as the last of the planet was taken here, practically sending Luna away from her side on the last ships out. Therefore, Luna is their leader, very affected by Celestia leaving herself behind. None of the original Element bearers, but their descendants are present."

Star took in the story. "Huh. Explains the note here. 'Especially for those not fortunate enough to leave their home with the comforts of home.' Must be Luna's way of compensating for her loss."

"Perhaps. They did, after all, have ample time to evacuate and were able to bring along many of their belongings. But losing a sister is something that can never be replaced." Luna looked to her own.

"Princesses, Eternity hailing us. Requesting you come aboard with them to go down to the surface."

"We shall oblige gladly," Celestia answered. "Should we just beam aboard their ship?"

"If they'll let us, we'll probably want to know the location of the bridge," Twilight said.

"I guess this makes them Equestria-35 then," Star said to Luna.

"Yes, it does. I'm curious to see what they've been able to accomplish on the ground so far."

3502991

Orion tapped some keys, sending the general location of the bridge over.

"Clear space!"

The air crackled, perfectly on the spot she indicated. When it was over, Orion looked at the three alicorns and one Pegasus.

"Evening, Princesses, Captain." Orion gestured over to the holoprojector, more precisely, the chairs surrounding it. "Take a seat and strap in, it will be bumpy."

When the four were ready, Orion moved away.

"Helm, plot course for Trost Bridge. Comms, send Bridge control our manifest and request priority."

The view on the screens rotated, looking back at the planet. The sun was just perfectly silhouetting the faraway stalk with all the ships orbiting around it.

"Control responds affirmative. We go whenever is good for us."

As the Destroyer approached the facility, the scale of construction began to dawn upon those who never had the chance to see the plans. A Capital Battleship floated nearby, dwarfed in size by the sheer bulk of the Elevator.

"The Space Elevator is divided into two halves." Orion explained. "That way we can save a bit of energy by using the falling weight of one half to pull the other up for some distance."

"They are opening the port." A massive hole opened in the tube, revealing a carriage system, with clamps for up to ten small ships at once, or one CBS. Eternity slid itself into one of these, loud metallic thumps coming from the outside as the clamp grabbed it.

"Prepare for drop." Orion strapped herself in. "Three.. two... one..."

A feeling of weightlessness, as several thousand tons of weight was released. The carriage dropped freely, magnetic fields keeping it from moving from the center of its tube.

"Descending through atmosphere."

On the inside of the tube, they were protected from the friction burn as it was completely evacuated of air. Every now and then, a large section of clear wall would appear, allowing them to see the ground approaching.

"Landing procedures."

The magnetic field began to reverse itself, pushing instead of pulling. The carriage slowed exponentially, before coming to a quick stop inside a chamber. Overhead, massive blast doors closed.

Air filled the chamber. The clamps released all ten ships, and another large port opened.

Eternity nosed from the chamber, coming out in a plains area. The facility dedicated to running the Elevator sprawled across thirty kilometers, with the massive reactors required in plain sight.

"There's New Trost." Orion pointed into the distance, where glimmering skyscrapers were being built.

Eternity soared slowly over the landscape, coming to a stop just outside Trost. Other random Destroyers and Frigates were parked nearby, using microjets and repulsor technology to stay in position.

"It'll be easier if we take a Threshold." Orion unstrapped herself. "This way please."

The Dropship soared over the wall, entering the city proper. With not flashy, lacking the vibrate colors and sounds of a real city, Trost was shaping up to be one.

"It's a military city." Orion fiddled with the controls. "As in, there are many small hidden areas where our troops can come from, if we get attacked. In any case, ponies are already starting to move in."

A massive set of parallel valleys came into view. Already, there were several ships sitting in it. Sparks flew as tiny drones flitted about, carrying armor plates and parts. "Our ship facilities, capable of repairing forty ships per hour, and building twenty per day."

She pointed to a building which looked to be two weirdly shaped prongs. "That's a Cradle building. It'll hold a Destroyer in an upright launch position, whist still serving as accommodations or whatever it was built for. We have about a hundred, scattered in the city."

Another building, this one with a large dish on top. "That's our Shield Array building. It projects a dome shield, capable of stopping ELE strength asteroids."

Finally, the tallest building. This one had several spires rotating around it, hanging in seemingly anti-gravity. It also shimmered as millions of hexagonal plates coated the outer surface. "That's the main building, for everything government related. In a pinch, it also functions as a giant Positronic laser, focused by a rare gem on the very top. The Spires can become the aiming tools, and the plating serves as protection and solar panels."

Orion banked the Threshold. "It isn't complete, but for now, it serves its purpose. Any questions, or any where in particular you want to go?"

3504897
"Well, you guys build quickly," Star remarked.

"It's all very... calculated and pragmatic," Luna said. "Fittingly enough for a military city, but I expect that future residences will be much more... homely?"

"At this rate, they'll have sprawling cities in a matter of months," Twilight said. "Whole planet in a year maybe."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Twi," Star said. "They've got to boost their population first, which I'm sure will be one of the less stressful ordeals they'll have to face, heh heh."

Smiling, Twilight rolled her eyes. "Regardless, after everything before this, I wouldn't mind anything that didn't involve having to be in combat. Speaking from experience."

"I don't really think there's much to ask to see," Celestia said. "Like Luna said, it's fairly utilitarian, at least to us. If you have anything special, anything of particular interest you'd like to show us, by all means."

"Anything alluding to your culture before things went downhill?" Twilightt asked. "I'd like to learn more about what your race was like prior to being driven away."

"Any griffons, for example?" Star added. "Diversity is a curious indicator of what a universe was like. Or, on another topic, is there anywhere in the city just made to look nice? I mean, my god, we've told you that you're essentially free from conflict, yet this place feels like a military installation. I don't know if that'll be taken care of later, but nonetheless, how do you all plan to wind down?"

3505189

"Its all pre-planned." Orion started. "We just program the nanites and they go buckwild with the materials we feed them. We can build monuments in seconds, cities in minutes, ships in hours."

The Threshold turned, boosting towards a fairly stout building. "In truth, we made these plans for a quick rebuild on our colonies after the war. Back in our system, there were still places being prospected when the war began. We decided that if we won, we would try our best to spread out and rebuild. The defenses were in case we didn't do such a stellar job."

"There isn't much to see." Orion flared the Dropship, landing in the empty parking lot. "But I think whatever you're looking for may be in the Altar. Except for fun. We've got to work that one out slowly."

Dropping the rear ramp, Orion got out. "This place holds records, relics, most of which were from before the war." She scanned her eye, allowing the party access. "Pony manifest, creature manifest, all accessible in here. Even a realistic recreation of Old Equestria."

3505669
"Well, you know, fun is subjective..." Star said, giving a glance at Twilight.

The alicorn calmly took the invitation. "It's likely the most interesting thing you can show us at the time. Lead on."

"So Orion, approximately how many ponies do you have as of now?" Star asked.

3505720

"Well..." Orion did some math in her head. "We have roughly two thousand small ships left, six carriers, four CBSs and numerous Corvettes... That puts the number at about... a bit over two million?"

A holographic screen popped up in front of her, as it did for the others. Coming from the hundreds of hidden projectors scattered inside the room, each pony got her own.

"As for other species..." Orion pulled up the manifests. "We have some Griffons, a handful of Horses, some Dragons, Buffalo, a sprinkling of lesser species. At the time of evacuation, only us Ponies and the Griffons had any spaceworthy and FTL ready ships. The rest of the species died, either cause their ships weren't advanced enough, or they simply refused to leave, ready to fight so we could launch our armada and take a pyrrhic victory. The Griffon Buster-class and Hellborne-class were some of the finest we had, until they split off from our main armada on a coup of sorts for their admiral during one of our FTL breaks. We could only watch as several Destroyers obliterated them as fast as they exited FTL on the other side of the system we were in."

She tapped the hologram.

"Beginning projection."

The floor disappeared, leaving a glowing blue marble in the center of the room.

"Old Equestria." Orion stepped aside. "Go ahead."

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"That's some serious BSG shit," Star mumbled.

"What did you say?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, nothing... Wish Dusty was here." Star kept walking around the hologram. It was... Equestria. Earth. "It's as wonderful as any home, Orion."

It was quite possibly as common as many of the Equestrias they'd seen, but each one always had its own touch. Little webs of light of cities were different from place to place. Sometimes forests were in places, sometimes not. Each one was always special in its own way.

Star walked back to Orion. "I'm real sorry about all that you had to go through." She looked around. "This place isn't the same as your old home, but it's the best we could do. I hope it's enough. It's not exactly easy for us to give ponies a planet, essentially having to say, 'this is your home now.'"

"It never feels like enough," Celestia finished from behind the projection. "You're the thirty-fifth Equestria we've taken in, and it never feels like enough. The universe is big. The multiverse even more so. We do what we can."

3505837

Transcript of Vocal Journal Log number 2664.

It has been nearly seven years since we were granted a new chance at Mid-questria, as the analysts have taken to calling the site of our final battle. So far, we haven't encountered any trace of...

Opposition?

[HUMS]

No. Enemies is a far better word.

There has been plenty of opposition, mostly from the Unity Council. Something about 'having a massive fleet for nothing'. Whatever, we live and breathe combat. Seven years still has not dulled our edge, and finding out that that asteroid field had massive amounts of titanium didn't help either. As it stands, our fleet was ranked right behind that of Main Equestria in terms of firepower, even with a ship count puny to match. They are also concerned about our research into 'AWBH'. I had to give them a speech about how we weren't researching anything of the sort, and our current research was into efficient fusion reactors. Supermassive Black Hole generators aren't to be joked about after all.

[SIGHS]

Well... Half-truths are probably still better than lies.

I think.

We just completed one, and several others already are drowning in cobwebs down under New Trost. I hope we never have to pull them out, but I also don't think we'll have much qualms about pulling them out.

[PAPERS SHUFFLING]

I haven't seen Star for a long time. Probably off saving some new galaxy in a different continuum. Our intelligence reach has yet to penetrate Main, but we are making headway. In other news, we've finally managed to map all the Equestrias into a Star Map, so transit is no longer so touch-and-go.

Hold a minute.

[BACKGROUND NOISES, YOUNG VOICE]
<Running Scrubbing Protocols, refining track>

... I told you, be careful with that...
But mooooommm....
No means no, Gemini! Those are dangerous!
But Aunt Dust said...
Aunt Dust? Really? Come on, little girl...
Puleeese? I'll be careful!
... Fine. Two minutes, then the Simulator goes off and you go to bed.

[RUSTLING, CREAKING NOISES]

Sorry, where was I? Ah yes, Transit. So far, the other Equestrias don't mind our armed ships coming and going, only Equestria-14 says no outright. A small matter, but gotta log them all into these records.

Personally? I've seen better days. Gem's a hoofful, and with another coming in about four months, I don't know if I can babysit both the foals and the fleet. Twilight has been around, Gem always looks forward to her coming every other day, and I have to look forward to cleaning up after the two.

[SIGH]

Not that I will ever complain. Rigel helps out whenever he isn't flying, and lately he's been quite protective. Don't know why, just because I'm beginning to show a little bit doesn't warrant holding my hoof every morning like I'm invalid, thank you very much.

Well, I guess that's all I have to report. Really though, who is gonna sit and listen to one cranky me talking about the development of the fleet, New Equestria and my children for... What? Nearly two thousand records?

Meh.

Admiral Orion.
End JL 2664.

3825377
Strange. I thought about this for the first time in a while this morning. Creepy.

Fair enough. Any plans for future continuation elsewhere?

3825934

Anything's good.

3826826
Want to give a shot at the GDocs idea?

3827272

You go ahead and set it up?

3827496
Ok. Here's something then.

3827496
I'm assuming we're making different ones for each then?

3828077
Prolly?

3828100
Are we going to do anything with this specific RP? Or maybe just reuse characters and stuff?

3828442

Dunno, but we should:

1) Start using the PM instead of this thread.
2) Find at least one other. (Because face it, two RPers isn't fun after a while, people become predictable.)
3) Work from there.