Beneath Distant Stars

by PeppyJoe

Archive Ten

Florence Flask blinked back into existence inside what presumably served as a prison barracks, given the heavy-set metal door and barred window, but was by all other accounts a perfectly nice living space. The room was spacious, housing herself and the nine other ponies comfortably, and was well-appointed with carpets, wood-paneled walls, comfortable-looking beds, and a kitchenette. It even had a beautiful view of the night sky and Canterlot cliff-side through the window.

Despite the above-average housing situation, however, the mare felt a pit growing in her stomach. This was not the kind of treatment she would have expected.

The rest of the ponies, now encompassing the whole of both crews from Eris, were still getting their bearings as well. Before any of them could begin to address what had just happened, their thoughts were derailed by the terribly exaggerated clearing of a throat by the exit.

Ten heads turned as one to see Discord, floating over the sheer cliff in a sitting position on the other side of the now de-barred window, looking disappointed with his head cupped in his hands and his elbows resting on the windowsill. The bars from the window, now shaped into a stick-figure, stood in silent judgment as it leaned against the adjacent wall.

"You ponies sure know how to ruin a punchline, you know that?" Met with a sea of awestruck and confused faces evidently unprepared to respond, he continued, "You were all doing fantastically until you went too far with that poor guard. If you'd just let him fly away..." He sighed, looking sincerely upset.

"I had a whole surprise reveal planned out for when you got back to your ship in orbit. It would have been hilarious, but instead I had to tell Celestia. Me, stopping a joke and snitching. Don't you know what snitches get?" Discord sat up, briefly pulling an embroidered blanket from behind his back and wrapping it around himself, shivering at the thought. The cartoonish quadrupedal blue alien creature pictured on the blanket seemed to animate, mirroring Discord's actions with a blanket of its own.

Florence looked nervously over the rest of the ponies, and saw they were all just as confused as her. Thatch's mouth was moving silently, as though trying to form a coherent thought. Crystal Clear was frozen, stock-still, halfway into a bowing position. Amethyst just stared inscrutably ahead, her gaze unfocused and her face a mask.

At their continued silence, Discord gave a mirthless chuckle. "There's nothing worse than having to explain a joke, but I guess I can make an exception if it means I get a monologue instead. It's been so long since I had a good monologue."

---

Twenty minutes had been enough for Discord to address the most immediately important topics, and for the gathered ponies to start to relax around him. They now sat in a semi-circle around the bed, where Discord had spent most of his time sprawled, and had begun asking questions prefaced with fewer and fewer Your Majesty's. He began with assurances that Buzz, the pony shot during their panicked escape, was not in fact dead. Discord had been watching, popcorn in claw, until that moment, and had intervened to stabilize him before the stallion had even hit the ground. After all, he explained, nothing is more boring than a corpse. Nopony seemed entirely satisfied with that, though, and Crystal pointedly observed to Amethyst that this did not make things right.

After that, Discord moved on to assuring them that Equestria really was as saccharine and innocently idealistic as it seemed. He explained that the stained glass window to which he had brought their attention -- as well as the accompanying placard he had delicately mistranslated for them -- depicted his being turned to stone, not killed, and that he had thoroughly provoked them into doing so.

The introduction of that last detail was when the conversation started to go awry, because there existed exactly one logical follow-up question to that.

"What do you mean, provoked?" Patch asked, retaining the skeptical look she had worn for much of the conversation.

"Oh, you know," Discord said with a dismissive wave. "Just the normal fare. Standard friendship... magic... pony... provocations." He finished meagerly, his flair for improvisation losing out for once in the face of what harm might be done by further misinformation. "It's all really boring, anyway. Now that you know these ponies didn't try to hurt me-"

"I just don't get it," Thatch Roof cut in. "You were their rightful ruler. What grounds could they possibly have had to turn on you?"

"Yes, well," Discord pushed his newly materialized eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose. "'Rightful' is such a strong word."

"Wait, yeah, that doesn't make sense. You wouldn't have been their ruler, because..." Crystal paused for a moment, working through this new information. "Why did you even come to this planet in the first place? And why were there ponies here? And if you weren't their ruler, why not just leave?"

Discord gave a laugh, relieved for the shift in topic to something he felt would be less contentious. "That's actually a great story. You're going to love this." With a snap of his claws, an image styled after a children's drawing appeared in the air before him, depicting a blue-green circle. "Behold, Equus."

With a wave of his paw, a bunch of small sketched-out ponies appeared around the circumference of the circle, first clustered into small homogeneous groups and then spreading out around the world and intermingling. "A long time ago, the ponies were divided and angry and attacked by windigos, and then they discovered the power of friendship and stuff." Discord spoke this first part in a bored tone, gesturing with a hand and causing the animated ponies to accelerate their movements.

"...And then I showed up!" A smiling Discord appeared in the center of the circle, as he continued speaking rapidly, "And I played all sorts of jokes, and invented the color blorange, and some ponies liked it and some ponies didn't, but that's not the point! Because that brings us to..." As Discord trailed off, he brought his hands together in a slow pressing motion and the drawing shrank to a singular point, seeming to zoom out.

"...Eris!" A new dot appeared, and Discord brought it into focus, failing to notice the mood of his audience shifting. Crystal Clear was glancing between Discord and the now-distant point of blue representing Equus, her expression one of dawning horror. White Noise bore a look of strained disbelief, watching the draconequus intently as if hoping for some exonerating word. Several of the others were murmuring between themselves, trying to figure out if they'd mixed something up.

"At least, that's what I gather you ponies call it. I actually named it Discord." He paused for a moment, now taking in their unimpressed looks. "After myself," he added. At their continued silence, he sighed, and gestured back toward Equus in a beckoning motion, drawing forth a number of animated ponies to the shimmery green-blue form of Eris as he depicted it.

Crystal asked through gritted teeth, "And then you left?"

Taking in her demeanor, Discord hesitated a moment, electing to summon a balloon animal in a desperate attempt at levity that immediately, literally, blew up in his face. Finally, "Technically, I never went there. I just sent some ponies ahead; didn't want to spoil the joke for them when I turned up."

"But you didn't turn up," Stem Bolt glowered.

"And that isn't Eris. This is." Crystal's horn lit up, superimposing a three-dimensional satellite image of Eris over the place where Discord's drawing had been. Unlike the crude sketch, there was little green or blue to be found on this world, consisting mostly of desert. "You might've known if you'd been."

Scoffing, Discord protested, "Please, I knew it was safe for them before I did it. And I was planning to go right over and surprise them, but some things came up. It may have slipped my mind... And then I had an unexpected appointment with a millennium's worth of pigeon posteriors."

"That doesn't excuse it!" Florence yelled, her own horn lighting up and conjuring dozens of graphs of drought records, death tolls from the planet's wildlife and uncontrolled weather, pictures of the aftermath of numerous battles, and finally several images of a vibrant forest burning as the cratered ruins of a sprawling metropolis sat smoldering in the background, a sickly green mushroom cloud looming over it.

Discord cleared his throat, now grasping the scope of his error. "Yes, well, uh." Looking across the crowd of angry faces, Discord tugged on the scruff of fur around his neck like a collar, paused for a moment, and then vanished with a flash. The moment he was gone, the window's bars were back in place and the two unicorns' illusion spells winked out as an evidently previously-disabled magic dampening field turned back on.

For a long moment, nopony could say anything at all, and then at once all ten of them burst out alternately crying, raging, or hurriedly discussing the implications. This wasn't an alien planet they were visiting. It was the home from which their ancestors had been stolen.

---

Hours passed, and the commotion slowly died out as everypony came to grips with all the meaningless suffering their people had endured, and the beautiful paradise they had been denied. The dialogue only momentarily touched on thoughts of escape; any will to resist was utterly sapped by this point, after the hurt they were feeling and the knowledge that they had been in the wrong to begin with. One by one, they split off to find a corner and curl up to sleep. This room, while nice, was not equipped for ten ponies.

The last two awake, Crystal and Florence Flask, had shakily transitioned away from darker topics and toward a discussion of favored books. It felt hollow... it was hollow... but it was better than dwelling on reality for the moment. Even that conversation, though, was winding down as neither could stop yawning.

"I didn't want to be sleeping when they came for us, but... they sure are taking their time," Crystal said with a sigh.

"Yeah, it must be-" Florence halted, glancing out the window at the night sky. "...Huh. This has been a long night."

With a grim, mirthless smile, Crystal nodded. "Yeah, it has at that."

"No, I mean..." Florence gestured out to the stars, "It's been a long night. It should be morning by now, shouldn't it?"

Crystal frowned, tilting her head in thought. "You're right. There was a clock in that hotel, and when we left it was already close. It's been..." Another pause, and then, "A good few hours at least."

With a final nervous glance shared between them, Crystal and Florence turned to stare out at a sky curiously deprived of daylight.

---

The last hour aboard the NPSA Valiant had been absolute chaos. The return of their first crewed extrasolar vessel, premature by several decades, would have been enough. The realization immediately afterward that it was hurtling away at escape velocity and showing no sign of slowing down was another matter entirely. The only good news was that its direction of travel was at least close to the equatorial plane, and traveling prograde.

The Valiant, being the closest ship to its point of arrival, received hastily confirmed orders from the ground to rendezvous, as well as authorization to employ their auxiliary engine. The deployed fighters, still awaiting confirmation to resume their war-game, were immediately recalled. Within a minute, the last of them had completed their combat landing, coming to an indelicate stop in the hangar bay as fast as equinely possible.

Once the deck chief confirmed all were aboard, the ship's main engine lit up, burning hard to match velocity with the Guiding Wing. It took half an hour at full thrust to get up to speed. With a minute left until their speed would be exactly matched, the ship's main lights dimmed as a series of purple-hued cage-lamps embedded in the walls lit up and a three-note whistle echoed through the ship. A dull hum began to build, barely audible over the roar of the engines.

With thrust matched, the roar of the main engine died, leaving only the now pulsing rhythm of the jump drive. Within a moment, the ship blinked away, appearing roughly a kilometer behind the Guiding Wing. It was a sensation most of the crew had never experienced before, despite it being installed on many of the fleet's newer ships. The technology was usually reserved for emergency disengagement or maneuvering during combat scenarios, and seldom used given its obscene energy requirements.

It had only taken a few minutes to scramble a team to fly over, using one of the Valiant's two multipurpose support shuttles. Now parked just a few meters away from the newly returned ship, the pilot and medic waited aboard the shuttle as their accompanying squad went EVA and boarded the Guiding Wing.

"Airlock's clear. Inputting the provided override codes now," their leader reported, sounding vaguely tinny through the communication gem mounted in his helmet. "Codes worked, it's open. We're cycling in now."

A minute passed. Two. "We're inside."

"Copy," came the captain's voice back aboard the Valiant. "What do you see?"

"Ship's a mess, sir. There's debris floating loose in the hallway, and- Red, go check the engine room. -Not clear yet what... Huh."

"Repeat your last?"

"There, uh. Sir, no sign of the crew yet, but there's somepony else here... Horn and wings, both biological as far as I can see. I think she might be dea-" A pause. "Scratch that, just unconscious. Breathing shallow." As the pony spoke, several others could be heard in the background calling out "Clear!" and at the very end, "All clear!"

"Red?"

"No crew aboard, no sign what happened. Might have a clue about how they got here, though... They've got a plastic container filled with glowing sludge jury rigged into the engine, and the energy it's radiating fried my hoofcorder when I tried to scan it."

After a long pause, "Command, please advise."

"Standby one," and after several more minutes, "We will be relaying additional override codes shortly. You are to input them in the helm to allow remote override of the ship's trajectory, leave the improvised power source alone, and then return to the Valiant with the aberrant pony." With a sour note, the captain added, "Ground's ordered us to hoof it and the Guiding Wing over immediately. I'm not sure which they're more keen to study."

Comments

[Xanderfox]

I imagine Luna having a "discussion" with Discord in the royal Canterlot voice as she tries to get Celestia's sun to listen to her. A discussion of her she plans to HARM him.

[Walpurgisnacht]

What a lovely clusterfuck!

[Midknight Defender]

Yeah, I figured that's what happened when she cut out last chapter.

[Yutah123]

Ten heads turned as one to see Discord, floating over the sheer cliff in a sitting position on the other side of the now de-barred window, looking disappointed with his head cupped in his hands and his elbows resting on the windowsill. The bars from the window, now shaped into a stick-figure, stood in silent judgment as it leaned against the adjacent wall.

Finally, he's here. Time for some good old exposition for the crew.

He began with assurances that Buzz, the pony shot during their panicked escape, was not in fact dead. Discord had been watching, popcorn in claw, until that moment, and had intervened to stabilize him before the stallion had even hit the ground. After all, he explained, nothing is more boring than a corpse.

Thank Celestia! Or is it thank Discord?

After that, Discord moved on to assuring them that Equestria really was as saccharine and innocently idealistic as it seemed. He explained that the stained glass window to which he had brought their attention -- as well as the accompanying placard he had delicately mistranslated for them -- depicted his being turned to stone, not killed, and that he had thoroughly provoked them into doing so.

To me, at least, "The Vanquishing of the Villain Discord" doesn't imply killing him that much, though I suppose that in combination with pictures and misconceptions that it'll seem like that.

Also, I wonder what the ponies first brought to Eris would think if they hear that the being who messed up thier lives is now worshipped by thier descendants. Quite ironic, wouldn't you say?

Nopony seemed entirely satisfied with that, though, and Crystal pointedly observed to Amethyst that this did not make things right.

Unfortunately for Amethyst, that we can agree on. I'm fine with the other crew since they're being mostly rational in a peaceful way, in fact, I might even like them. As for Amethyst, we'll see, we'll see...

Similar beings have been forgiven, after all.

Discord cleared his throat, now grasping the scope of his error. "Yes, well, uh." Looking across the crowd of angry faces, Discord tugged on the scruff of fur around his neck like a collar, paused for a moment, and then vanished with a flash. The moment he was gone, the window's bars were back in place and the two unicorns' illusion spells winked out as an evidently previously-disabled magic dampening field turned back on.

Hey, you can't just leave like that! You're the fundamental cause of this madness, you need to do something.

Anyway, I'm sure the crew could use some comfort, that's one hell of an information dump they just got; I'm sure their heads are spinning wildly.

"Standby one," and after several more minutes, "We will be relaying additional override codes shortly. You are to input them in the helm to allow remote override of the ship's trajectory, leave the improvised power source alone, and then return to the Valiant with the aberrant pony." With a sour note, the captain added, "Ground's ordered us to hoof it and the Guiding Wing over immediately. I'm not sure which they're more keen to study."

Oh no, this situation just got more delicate. It needs to be handled with the utmost care, if peace is to be made soon. Princess Celestia, I hope you can keep calm; you know, judge not a book by its cover...

And Discord, this your chance to contribute! If you can transport several ponies to another world, then you can surely transport yourself to said world. You need to relay facts and ease any tensions, which I suspect there will be from Celetia accusing the other ponies of being responsible for a murder and an act of war.

[BeardedRedMane]

I don't understand what happened here. Celestia decided to fly the ship back and made it there in record time but is unconscious because lack of magic or even she has to eat?

[PeppyJoe]

9248054
In the previous chapter, Thatch Roof activated the ship's jump drive when Celestia arrived, before she started teleporting ponies away. She was unaware of this, and did not leave the ship fast enough. The reason for her unconsciousness has not been addressed, but you're on the right track.