• Published 21st Apr 2015
  • 1,508 Views, 43 Comments

Troubleshooters: Tia and Twily - ultra1437



Since Equestria no longer needs their princesses, some of them have found new roles, others are just starting their new journey.

  • ...
9
 43
 1,508

Sunrise

Twilight poked at a message she’d received. “Anomalous readings from these coordinates. Please investigate.”

Should we even go? This message came from an anonymous, throwaway account. It may very well be a trap.’ She pulled up the coordinates, noting that it was a three week-long trip for the Celestia if she couldn’t teleport. As it stood, it was several days slow-boating from the edge of known space. ‘It’s so far out into unmapped space. We’ll have to go slow when we hit the edge of currently mapped space…’ As the moments dragged on, she mentally weighed the pros and cons of even going after the coordinates.

She would later claim that she jumped only slightly when two hooves wrapped themselves around her from behind. Her fiance, Celestia, had stealthily wandered up and decided to help break Twilight out of her mental battle. Celestia nuzzled up against Twilight’s cheek, reading over Twilight’s shoulder. “What’s this?”

“I received this message a few hours ago, asking us to investigate some anomaly out in dark-space.” Twilight’s ears folded back, the tip closest to Celestia brushing against her own. “I’m not sure we should go. The account that sent it was a throwaway, and it’s almost a week round-trip slow-boating from the edge of known space. It’s gotta be some kind of trap.” She brought up her projections and showed the math to Celestia. It all checked out.

Celestia seemed to perk up. “Oh? I can certainly see why. But you’re forgetting one thing.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow toward her fiance. “And that would be…”

“The variable for boldly go. Your adventurous spirit.” She waved the math away. “Let’s go check it out. Sure, it could be a trap, but it could also be something that sparks a breakthrough or some other intelligent species. We could make some friends!”

Twilight sighed softly. “Statistically, the odds are astronomical to find aliens whom immediately become friends with us.”

Celestia swiftly crushed the intrusive thought that she should cuff Twilight upside her head for that. Instead, she switched tactics, hugging Twilight gently, “I’ll make a deal with you. Let’s ask the crew.” A hoof turned Twilight’s head so she looked into Twilight’s eyes. “If they vote to go check it out, then we go. If not, then we don’t. Simple as that.”

Twilight was silent a moment before she replied, “I… that’s fair. They’re getting involved in this too, so they should have input.” She quickly opened up her communicator and started typing furiously. “I’ll send them a message now. I’ll set a deadline for a week or so from now. Those that don’t vote won’t be counted.”

Scarcely a minute later, the message was sent.


The votes had been tallied, and it was almost a unanimous vote to go search for the anomaly. The Celestia’s crew had stocked their ship, packed extras, just in case, and set off.


“How close are we?” Celestia’s voice cut in, as she entered the bridge. As she sat down next to Twilight, she whispered, “You may have been right, Twilight. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Twilight nodded. Celestia’s gut feelings had saved them both multiple times back when they were princesses. Whenever it happened to ‘say’ something, Celestia usually listened to it. “Should we turn back? I wanted to check the metal planet.

That may be for the best. If you want to check it out, I think we should leave afterward.

Considering Celestia’s gut instinct, Twilight ‘hmmm’ed as she looked out the front viewports from the bridge. “The message said it should be around here. Maybe they’re pointing to something on that planet.”

Helm piped up, “That’s not a planet.”

“Hm?” Twilight looked over to the pegasus questioningly. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s got a metallic sheen.” Two questioning gazes turned to the helmsmare.

“We’ve seen metal worlds before. They shine almost like second suns in some solar systems from the right angles,” Twilight refuted. She looked back to the planet, subconsciously attempting to calculate the angle necessary for the local star to have such a powerful secondary glare.

“No. Not like a metallic world where the uneven metallic terrain produces uneven light refraction.” She pulled up a zoomed-in view, where the terrain was completely flat, with no protrusions.

“Then what is it?” Twilight asked, squinting at the metal ball.

“A ship or space station of some kind. Not sure how it moves, or if it’s capable of doing so, but every so often, I can see some seams on the high-res scans.” The scans appeared and floated over to both alicorns’ sides.

Celestia’s questioning gaze softened to a small smirk. “I see. You think the flat terrain is what… armored plating for a starship the size of a planet?”

“I know it sounds kind of crazy, but the more I look, the more it seems right.” As she looked back to the ball, she blinked twice. “Was… was it always that big?”

Celestia’s gaze snapped to the planet. “What do you mean?”

Twilight’s voice was hard as iron. “It’s moving. She was right. It’s a ship.” She quickly made her way to the captain’s console and keyed up the systems. “It’s headed straight at us on an intercept course. We might be in serious trouble soon.”

She keyed the intercom. “All crew. We found the anomaly. A ship literally the size of a planet is going to attempt to intercept our path. Be prepared for anything.” Almost as an afterthought, she changed the alert level to general quarters. The lights in the bridge instantly shifted from a bright, neutral white to a soft orange.

“Helm. Full speed. Let’s see if we can outrun this thing if we have to fight.”

“Aye cap’n. Full steam ahead.” The ship seemed to hum as it picked up speed.

She turned to the comms officer. Try and open a channel with it. See if we have any common basis for a language.

“I’ll head down to the supercharger. I’ll get us ready for any combat teleports we might need.”

“No. Stay here for now, Celestia. You know more languages here than anyone else. Work with Comms if they are able to connect.”

“C-captain? The video screen is online and transmitting already, I never touched the panel!”

Before anyone could react, a voice interrupted their conversation. “There is no need to do any of that. I can perfectly understand your language, and you can understand mine.”

A face appeared on the video screen. An alicorn, whom looked surprisingly like Celestia. White fur, but instead of a slight pink tint, there was a tiny bit of orange mixed in, giving her fur an almost shimmering quality. The most pronounced changes were in her face and hair. Her hair flowed like Celestia’s, but appeared to be made of solar fire, a deep, fiery red surrounding several blues, purples, and whites. Twilight noticed that her mouth had two fangs poking down from the upper set of teeth. Her eyes were the most intriguing thing, though. Dark red sclera with glowing yellow irises, inset with almost lightning-bolt shaped brown pupils. These eyes didn’t look natural on anypony, and they were glaring directly at Celestia.

The mare smirked cockily. “Allow me to introduce myself.” She held a hoof to her chest, showing off an armored boot covering it. “I am Daybreaker. I’m here for one thing.” She licked her lips. “That great, big, white battery there.”

Celestia spoke first, habit slamming her mask down to cover her emotions. “Where is this battery you speak of? I see none here.”

A snort left Daybreaker’s mouth, before she laughed like Celestia had told the greatest joke she’d ever heard. It took several moments for her to calm down.

“I was talking about you, little Celestia.” Before anyone else could speak up, she stated her demands. “Turn the battery over to me, and I will spare your lives and ship. Failure to do so will have… dire consequences.”

Thoroughly confused, Celestia just had to ask. “Before we do anything… just who are you?”

“A fitting question, battery. I’m you. But hotter.” The screen pulled back slightly as Daybreaker showed off her cutie mark. What was undeniably Celestia’s sun surrounded by a layer of orange fur as if it exuded solar fire. “See? I did not lie. I am you. But I’m hotter.

Twilight immediately suppressed the thought that her fiance could be like the alicorn on the screen. Unfortunately, her wings twitched, drawing Daybreaker’s gaze.

“And what do we have here. Another little alicorn? Hm. I may not be able to use you as a second battery, but you look positively… delicious enough to eat…” Daybreaker’s smile showed off her sharp teeth. “I think I might take you, too.”

Twilight physically recoiled in her chair at the hungry gaze Daybreaker levelled at her.

Fed up with this mare, Celestia stepped between the screen and Twilight. “I’m afraid you can’t have either of us. We will not bow to your demands.”

Daybreaker smirked. “You’re not in any position to refuse, battery. You will come with me, else I’ll destroy that tiny little ship of yours to get at you.”

Her horn lit and a white beam washed over the Celestia’s tail end after that. The shields held, barely. “That was a warning shot, little battery. I will not hold back on my next shot, and it looks like that little toy of yours won’t survive.”

Twilight had keyed up the supercharger’s banks and started feeding them to the shields facing Daybreaker’s ship. She noted that they’d have enough juice to take a few more hits at that power, but didn’t know how they’d hold against a full-strength hit.

Twilight whispered discreetly to Celestia, “We need to get out of here. I don’t know if the Celestia will survive until you can get to the teleporter. If you can stall her, I can get there and ‘port us away.

Celestia nodded. “Daybreaker. How am I to know you will not go back on your word and destroy my friends?”

That was Twilight’s cue to get up and take a few mugs, shaking her head and acting like she was getting more coffee. As soon as the door closed, her horn lit and she created an illusion of herself and the mugs, set about to return in a minute or so, so not to reveal the plan too quickly.

Blinking slowly, Daybreaker replied, “You will have to trust me. I have not lied to you yet. Why would I start now, if it keeps you the most compliant?” Those unsettling eyes met Celestia’s again.

“If we surrender, how are we to get to your ship?”

“You will fly over, of course.” Daybreaker’s voice was condescending, almost as if talking to a child, “I trust you know a spell to wreathe an air bubble about your head?”

Celestia nodded once as the door opened. Twilight returned and set the mugs down. Almost immediately, Celestia leaned down and pretend to whisper in the illusory Twilight’s ear.


During that time, the real Twilight had made her way over to the supercharger and started charging the matrices. ‘Hopefully they can give me a minute or so… I don’t like having to make a blind jump back to known space, but we can’t afford to be stuck near Daybreaker right now.


Twilight nodded. “Very well. We will surrender, but we will not leave until we have your word that this ship and crew will remain unharmed and unmolested.

Smiling devilishly with her teeth on full display, Daybreaker nodded. “You have it. As soon as you are aboard, your ship is free to leave.”

The illusion and Celestia shared a look and nodded. “Very well. We shall fly over.”

At that, almost the entire bridge erupted in chaos. Several voices shouted in unison, “No! You can’t go!”

Looking over the crew, Celestia spoke softly. “If it is to protect all of you, I will gladly give my life up.” A tear in her eye slid down her cheek. “Know that I treasure each and every one of you.”

Several of the crew were on the verge of shouting again, but a shake of Celestia’s head calmed them somewhat.

“Blah blah blah, we get it. You’re sad that you have to leave. Get a move on!”

Everyone in the room scowled at the mare. Only Helm kept doing her duty, keeping as much space between the Celestia and Daybreaker’s ship as she could. The shipwide intercom clicked twice before there was a blinding flash.


The Celestia flashed back into existence. Twilight’s illusion had faded during the teleport, but her voice came over the intercom. “Status report? I just teleported us away from her. I do not know if she can follow us if she can traverse multiple dimensions.”

Comms called out, “No pings, we don’t have anything in range to talk to.”

Engineering replied, “Shields down from the ‘port, but recharging smoothly. Should be up in less than thirty seconds.”

Helm called out, “I don’t know where we are, the stars are in odd positions. You better get up here, Captain.”

“Roger that, I’m on my way back.”

Celestia reached out to her sun, gathering her bearings. The link was distant, but tugged her.

She strode up to the helmsmare before pointing. “Helm, proceed in that direction. I feel my sun off that way.”

Helm nodded and directed the ship in that direction just as Twilight reentered the bridge.

A flash on the viewscreen blinded everyone who was looking. As they recovered, Helm was already trying to maneuver around the now much, much closer ship in their way.

You dare?! I shall incinerate the lot of you for that!” Daybreaker had apparently followed them.

Author's Note:

Lord it feels good to be back writing again. I also blame Fuzzyfurvert for inspiring me to write this. Chronologically, this takes place between Syzygy and Wedding.

Wrote this ditty over the weekend, and am so jazzed how it turned out. I've already started on the second part, of possibly three.

This is also rather unedited past cursory scanning, so if you find anything odd, do let me know!