Outside the Reaching Sky

by Karazor

Enemies

On first examination, the system that was the evident destination of the Council fleet was empty.

That came as no great shock; at this distance, ships would be difficult to resolve unless Oculus knew exactly where to look, and radio traffic would be faint and attenuated. On the bright side, Twilight mused, they hadn’t managed to impossibly jump into the middle of another pitched battle. Out of sheer curiosity, she’d run the odds on that happening, and it had surprised even her with just how unlikely that had been.

Instead of giving up, Twilight ordered Oculus and Chatterbox to make a careful survey of the system, while Dauntless lingered on the system outskirts, recharging the Gate drive and keeping her velocity and emissions low.

The thorough search didn’t reveal hundreds of Council ships, but it did reveal something better. A pair of radio sources in the inner system… which, upon closer examination, proved to be two ships, considerably larger than the Council warships that they’d seen, orbiting one of the inner planets. The traffic was encrypted, so Chatterbox couldn’t decipher it, but it was omnidirectional radio traffic, which almost certainly meant that the two ships weren’t expecting hostilities.

This was perfect. It was just two ships, not enough to pose a threat to Dauntless by a long shot, sitting in the inner system where there would at least be a chance to try to talk to them, since they couldn’t engage their FTL drives that far in. Council FTL, as Twilight had learned, actually had to be engaged farther from the local sun that the Equestrian Gate drive, and it couldn’t be close to a big gas giant, either, something the Gate drive didn’t care about. One way or another, Twilight would get a chance to speak to those two ships… and if they had to shout at them while the alien vessels were running madly for the system’s edge, so much the better. It would be a chance to show that the Dauntless genuinely meant no harm when the cruiser didn’t fire.

They crept in slowly, still holding both their acceleration and their emissions down. Twilight didn’t want to spook the Council ships before they got close enough to talk to them. Oculus watched the rest of the system like a hawk as they cruised inward, keeping a careful eye out for any sign of more Council ships, who might conceivably be doing what Dauntless was doing and holding their emissions down.

None appeared.

The tension on the bridge was palpable as they approached the planet, coiling around the bridge officers. Twilight spared a brief glance at Peppermint Punch, the unicorn ensign from engineering who had been assigned to finally give Wingblade an assistant gunner. The young unicorn looked like she was handling the stress well, Twilight was pleased to note, calmly cycling through weapons displays and trading terse comments with her superior. The two Council vessels were still lazily circling the little world, chatting to one another on the radio frequencies without a sign of concern. They gave no indication that they’d seen Dauntless creeping up on them, made no alterations to their orbit.

Twilight drew a deep breath. She’d already contacted Fluttershy, and the pegasus was waiting tensely to hear the results of the contact attempt. At a range of several light-seconds, they were within the outer edges of missile range, even the shorter range of Council missiles. She’d wanted to be this close so the communications delay would be minimal, but even so she wouldn’t have risked it if there had been more ships. She was just about to order Chatterbox to try sending a greeting, when Oculus interrupted her.

“Detection!” the tan-coated mare called out, “Multiple contacts! Multiple… Celestia’s mane!” The unicorn’s voice squeaked at the exclamation.

Twilight could understand her shock. The sensor plot showed dozens of Council ships emerging from the planet’s shadow at extreme range… and more from behind one of the other planetary bodies they’d passed on the way in. Dauntless should have seen those ships; they must have been deliberately using the planet to conceal themselves. The two larger ships instantly changed course, lumbering away from Dauntless and seeking to hide themselves in the shadow the Council fleet had just emerged from, moving to the side opposite the emerging fleet so as to stay clear of any exchange of fire.

The bottom dropped out of Twilight’s stomach. They were reading more than two hundred Council warships directly in front of them, and exactly the same number behind, more than twice the number that had withdrawn from the battle with the Tazaft, and more than enough to kill Dauntless. This was a trap. How? How could they have known? Wait… they’d gotten the coordinates from a communication laser. One that had just happened to brush the Dauntless, and which had just happened to have these coordinates in it. I’ve been such a fool.

She’d made so many mistakes on this voyage. So many.

Twilight ground her teeth. Buck it, she wasn’t going to make another one. They were going to talk to the Council, someone from the Council, whether they wanted to or not. And that meant acquiring a captive audience. Or just a captive. “Take us around the planet opposite the Council fleet,” she barked, “keep it between us and them as long as you can… and get me close to those ships that baited us.”

“Baited us?” Fluttershy’s voice came over the comm system, sounding as shocked as Twilight felt. “What do you mean? What did you just detect?”

“It was a trap, Fluttershy. There are hundreds of ships here, moving to box us in. I’m going to have to disconnect; there are things I have to do.” The unicorn terminated the connection before her friend could reply.

“How close, Commander?” Silver Stars, at least, was still calm, or was managing a good approximation.

“As close as you can. I also need you to get me a full map of their ship with a focused sensor pulse, as accurate as you can. I don’t care if it gives them headaches.” Silver Stars blinked in surprise at the request, but nodded and turned to issue the necessary orders. Twilight hadn’t ordered full immersion yet, and wouldn’t until the missiles started flying. She wanted to give her crew as long as possible before subjecting them to that stress.

The unicorn brought up a comm window, paging Rainbow Dash. The pegasus answered immediately, a puzzled look on her face. “Yeah, Twi? What’s up? Need me for something?”

“I need somepony who can fight in close quarters.” As she spoke, the preliminary alarm sounded, alerting the crew of the Dauntless to suit up in expectation of combat. The bridge crew was already yanking suits out of lockers set close to their stations and climbing into them with practiced haste. “It was a trap, but I think we can still get someone to talk to. We’ll just have to kidnap them in order to do it.”

Rainbow’s eyebrows shot up. “Kidnap them? Okay, fine, where do you need me?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I need someone at the top of their game, lieutenant, not somepony who was nearly crippled yesterday. Contact your best fighter and send her to the bridge.”

“I may have gotten hurt, but I’m most of the way fixed up, and I’m still better than anypony else in close.” Rainbow’s voice was flat. “Ask A.J. I’ll get in my armor.”

“There’s no time.” Twilight opened a second window. “I’m paging Applejack now. If she says something different, you’d better have somepony else in mind.”

“She won’t. I’ll get in my suit, then. It’ll keep me from flying, anyway, which is probably a good thing right now with my wing half-busted.” Rainbow didn’t close the window, and Twilight saw her yank an armored suit out of a nearby locker and start climbing into it. Reminded, Twilight opened the locker under her chair and started donning her own suit.

Applejack answered while she was halfway through the process. “Twilight? Need me for somethin’?” The orange mare was already wearing her suit, and her green eyes were curious behind her helmet’s faceplate.

“I need an evaluation of Rainbow’s abilities.” Twilight kept her voice calm and even and not pausing in pulling her suit on. “I need somepony to board a hostile ship, and she insists she’s the best choice, even counting her injuries. Is that correct? Is there anypony else who might be better in close quarters?”

Applejack chewed on her lip, thinking. “You know, she might actually be the best we’ve got. She ran a qualification course right out of the hospital one time, hurt way worse than she was yesterday. She scored in the top five percent even though she’d been hurt bad and hadn’t recovered from it. Those cybernetics of hers are pretty dang impressive, and her natural abilities were settin’ records long before she got ‘em. Honestly, if she says she’s the best for it, she’s probably right, even hurt.”

“Told ya.” Rainbow interjected smugly. A glance at the screen showing her now-helmeted face told Twilight that she was in one of the lifts.

“Wait, she’s listening?” Applejack asked, covering her face. “Shoot, I’d never have said it that way if I’d known.” She raised her voice. “Don’t you let that go to your head, Rainbow Dash! You ain’t all you think you are!”

“Yeah, whatever. You know you meant it.” Rainbow laughed.

Twilight glanced at the sensor screen, which showed the Council fleet adjusting course, trying to close before Dauntless could slip behind the planet, while the second detachment suddenly increased their acceleration to what she suspected was its maximum. The two large ships who’d served as bait were accelerating harder, too, though they were far more sluggish than the two Council fleets. They were slowed further by the frantic evasion pattern they threw themselves into; they were well within Dauntless’s missile range, and their pilots were random-walking in an effort to throw off the Equestrian targeting solutions, even though the exploration cruiser had yet to fire a single missile at them. Interestingly, they were within Council missile range as well, and the big ships hadn’t fired a shot. Were they unarmed?

“You have command, Captain,” Twilight snapped, “don’t fire on those two ships. Get us within a thousand miles of one of them and hold us there, as long as you can.” Twilight judged that she wasn’t needed on the bridge right now as a commander, but her abilities were absolutely necessary to make the boarding mission work.

“How close?” Silver Stars asked, stunned. Twilight’s teleportation range was incredible, far beyond any other unicorn’s, but in space combat terms it was miniscule.

“You heard me, Captain. Do it!” The other unicorn nodded, and Twilight turned to Oculus. “Where’s that scan?!”

“Just completed, ma’am.” Twilight nodded as a schematic of one of the alien ships flashed onto her screen. It would probably have been unpleasant, almost stunning, actually, for the crew of that ship. A focused aetheric scan pounded its target region with arcane energy, but it could see through almost anything, and had astounding resolution. Twilight rotated the schematic on her screen, noting the silhouettes of machinery, seats, even crew. There were some strange shapes there, things that they’d have to pore over later. The unicorn picked her target and started weaving a careful, complex spell. “Rainbow Dash, get up here!”

The door slid open, admitting a suited Rainbow, who flashed her friend a grin as the comm window linking them closed. “That quick enough for you, boss?”

Twilight nodded. “Get over here.”

The pegasus raised her eyebrows, but stepped over to Twilight’s commander’s seat. She craned her head to the side, looking at the schematic. “What’s the mission?”

Before Twilight could answer, Oculus snapped, “Incoming missiles!”

“Full alert!” Silver Stars turned to Twilight, as the alert tone sounded throughout the ship. “We’ll get you there, ma’am.” The bridge crew fell silent, still, all of them focusing their minds entirely on the systems they were responsible for guiding as they linked with the bridge network. Icons flickered with lightning speed over the displays projected in front of each of them, far too quickly for an unlinked mind to interpret.

Twilight looked to Rainbow, still gently weaving together her spell in her mind. “Rainbow, we’re going to teleport on board one of those ships. I’m going to be using an anchored partial teleport spell, so I won’t be able to do anything; you’ll have to keep me safe, and you’ll also have to subdue and capture one of the aliens on board. I’m going to be jumping us into a room with what looks like eight of them, so you may have to deal with those, plus as many as come running. As soon as we have a captive, get them to me, and we’ll jump right back to here. And make it fast. Understand?”

The pegasus nodded crisply. “Guard you, take one captive fast as I can, got it. Can I kill the others if I need to?”

Twilight bit her lip. “If you have to. I’d rather you didn’t, but if it’s unavoidable, then do it.”

Rainbow nodded again. “Understood. I’ll keep you safe.”

The confidence and professionalism in her friend’s voice was reassuring, allowing Twilight to concentrate on the spell she was weaving. It was complex and energy-intensive; she would be displacing them to the room she hoped was the alien ship’s bridge, but at the same time maintaining a magical link to this spot on Dauntless’s deck, and tuning the spell’s energy to match the cruiser’s shields so it wouldn’t be blocked by the arcane barriers. She’d have to pour energy into it constantly, and the instant she lost her focus or stopped feeding the spell they would snap back. Twilight would have to “grab” their captive, too, once Rainbow had acquired it, in order to bring it back with them.

The pegasus stepped up close to Twilight, pressing her side against her friend’s. Twilight had carried Rainbow through a teleport before, and the Warden knew that physical contact made the trip easier. It was thoughtful of her, and it was comforting besides, even through the armored material of both ponies’ suits. Twilight took a deep breath, and watched the distance to the alien ship tick downward rapidly, while missiles flashed from the Council fleet into the teeth of Dauntless’s point defenses. The anti-missile systems were actually functioning at full efficiency for the first time since the mission’s start, with both weapons officers able to guide them for maximum effect. They tore apart the Council salvos, swatting down huge numbers of incoming warheads, and the ones that leaked through were unable to do so in sufficient numbers to punch through the shields. For now, at least. Return fire leapt back at the hostile fleet, Wingblade firing short salvos in an attempt to conserve their dwindling store of ammunition.

Finally, they were close enough. Grimacing in concentration, Twilight completed her spell, making here and there temporarily the same place. The lattice of energy the unicorn had woven stretched out, touching her destination, then smoothly slid Rainbow and Twilight into place.

There was a flash of light, and a sense of disorientation, and the two ponies appeared in a spacious room. There were numerous monitors and screens, keyboards, and panels set in front of comfortable-looking seats. There were nearly a dozen creatures, of two distinctly different species; one that was small and cat-like, with forelimbs that sported two elbows, long necks, and large, wide eyes, while the other species was large, wide, and low-slung, a good bit bigger than a pony, with what looked like a chitinous or bony carapace across its shoulders and back. All of the creatures were clad in sober-colored loose clothing, festooned with pockets, close enough in cut despite the differences in body structure to be clearly intended as a uniform.

The aliens on what had to be the ship’s bridge froze, stunned by the arrival of the two ponies, staring at them wide-eyed.

Rainbow Dash, by contrast, didn’t freeze.

The nearest alien was one of the big armored ones. Rainbow sprang toward it instantly, landing on its back and using her weight and speed to slam its head into its console. It flailed weakly, hunching its back and trying to duck its head under its shell, but Rainbow caught the back of its skull with her forehoof before it could do so and smashed its flat face into the console again, hard enough to break the instrument. The creature spasmed and collapsed, though its limbs moved sluggishly.

The creatures exploded into motion, but the pegasus didn’t give them a chance to organize. Rainbow hurled herself toward two of the catlike beings who were sitting in close proximity as the aliens tried to leap up out of their chairs. The pegasus went over the console that separated them from her, powering the two creatures back into their seats with her body. She swatted one in the side of the head, smashing it back into its seat, and the other turned, trying to claw at Rainbow with its long-fingered hands, fighting to pry her off of its compatriot, but she shrugged its efforts aside and slammed the leading edge of her suited wing into its throat. The armored material of the environment suit Rainbow wore enclosed her wings and prevented her from flying, but didn’t prevent them from moving, and the pegasus was quite capable of using them as weapons. The creature gagged, sticking its tongue out while its hands flew to its neck. Its compatriot lolled senselessly, evidently knocked half-unconscious by Rainbow’s blow to its head.

The other creatures in the room, to Twilight’s surprise, were mostly trying to get away, not charging the two ponies. The catlike beings scrambled out of their chairs and ran for the door, and the bigger, armored ones did likewise. One of the big ones lunged out of its seat and turned toward Rainbow, lumbering across the room ponderously. The pegasus quickly hooked the senseless felinoid from its chair and hurled it over the console toward Twilight, not pausing to see it land before she darted toward the big, armored alien. It adjusted its course, its arms reaching out for the semiconscious creature Rainbow had thrown, but the pegasus went low and smashed into its knees. It overbalanced, dropping on its face and hunching its shoulders, tucking its arms under its body for a moment as it slammed into the deck. Rainbow kicked it with a hindleg, but she wasn’t looking at it and instead of catching it squarely her blow skidded across its armored shoulders, though even the indirect bow was strong enough to shove the creature nearly a meter across the floor to slam into a wall.

Two of the bigger creatures had wedged momentarily in the door, having tried to get out at the same time, and shouts came from outside the room as they fought to get clear. The catlike creatures were piled up behind the two door-blocks, pressing their backs to the obstacle formed by the bigger aliens and staring in clear terror at the pegasus. Rainbow paused, not charging, just staring, her head low, her wings half-flared and her body tense.

After a frozen moment, the two aliens in the door managed to fight clear of one another, and the rest of the aliens scattered as a newcomer came through. It was another of the big, armored creatures, but it was wearing a different uniform and had what was clearly a sidearm in its hand.

Rainbow was already charging before the creature leveled its weapon. She ducked under its aim, smashing the top of her helmeted head into its arm and shoving the weapon toward the ceiling, then somehow wrapped her foreleg around its upper arm while she stood on her hind legs, trapping its limb against her neck, and twisted. There was a hideous snapping, tearing sound as the pegasus wrenched the creature’s body around, violently dislocating its arm in the process. The alien screamed, a horrible high-pitched sound. The weapon flopped loosely in its hand, pointed back through the door, but the creature’s limb was clearly so badly damaged that it could no longer grip the firearm properly.

Another creature came through the door with a sidearm, this time one of the catlike beings. It aimed its weapon at Twilight, and the unicorn’s heart almost stopped. There was no way she could shield herself or dodge, not while she was holding the spell, and Rainbow looked tangled up with the larger alien.

Rainbow’s lightning-sheathed talons severed the creature’s arm before it could pull the trigger, a flashing motion so fast Twilight couldn’t even see it. She hadn’t realized those talons could even extend that quickly. In a blur, the pegasus cut off the cat-being’s head, then slammed her other set of blades through the chin of the armored creature she was tangled up with, killing it instantly. The motion was so fast that it was clear she’d been deliberately holding back before. She eeled her way clear of the armored being’s now-limp body, twisting around and kicking it as it fell, hurling it back into the door to block it, but it didn’t look like any more were trying to enter. The remaining felinoids had darted out the door the instant it was clear.

The pegasus watched the door for a moment before turning around. There were four aliens still left in the compartment, two of each species. One of the armored creatures rested motionless in its chair, unconscious or dead, its head slumped against its ruined console. The other cringed on the floor where it had skidded, watching Rainbow with its deep-set eyes, its arms tucked underneath it and its shoulders hunched up to protect its head and neck. Its breath was fast, panting. The felinoid whose throat Rainbow had struck was still clutching at its neck, slumped in its chair, but it was conscious, watching the two ponies with wide eyes without moving. Its compatriot lay limp on the floor.

“Which one of these do you want, Twi?” Rainbow asked calmly. Celestia’s mane, she’s not even out of breath! The pegasus glanced at the unmoving large alien in the chair. “May not want that one, I might’ve hit it too hard. Think I broke its head.” Her unworried, callous tone was a little frightening.

“Let’s take one of the smaller ones, Rainbow Dash. Might be easier to manage.” Twilight’s voice was strained with the effort of maintaining her spell. She was seriously concerned, actually; none of the beings in the room were wearing suits, and she desperately hoped that nothing in Dauntless’s atmosphere was toxic to them. They would have to take that risk, though, if they were ever going to have a chance to talk to these beings. The unicorn glanced back at the two bodies by the door. “Did you have to kill the crippled one?”

Rainbow grimaced. “Damn, sorry about that. Didn’t really mean to. Reflex.” She stepped over to the unconscious creature and scooped it up with her foreleg, throwing it over Twilight’s back.

The other felinoid made a strangled sound and started to scramble out of its chair, but Rainbow was there in a flash. She planted a forehoof on the creature’s chest and shoved it back into its chair, snarling wordlessly at it while her wings flared in threat. The felinoid cringed in the shadow of the pegasus’s wings, drawing its back limbs up and covering its face momentarily with its long forelimbs. It pointed at the creature on Twilight’s back and trilled something, but stopped when Rainbow lifted her other foreleg, her talons extending from the cybernetic hoof to point directly at the creature’s face. It trilled again, its breath coming fast, and pulled its arm back slowly, the fingers of its hand spread wide, showing its palm. It was shaking, its body trembling violently.

“Ready to go, Twi?” Rainbow growled, not breaking eye contact with the creature she held pinned to its chair.

“Just… about…” Extending the spell to the unconscious creature on her back was proving more difficult than anticipated.

Rainbow folded her wings and pulled back from the felinoid, who trilled again, extending its hands palm-out in what looked like a begging motion. It pointed briefly at its companion slung over Twilight’s back, then went back to the same posture, trilling in its own tongue again. Rainbow backed up, her gaze darting from the felinoid to the prone armored being, but the latter didn’t seem interested in moving. The felinoid glanced over at it, murmuring something, but it just shuddered and ducked its head. The felinoid looked back to Rainbow, its gaze pleading.

The pegasus kept her eyes on it, but didn’t respond other than that. The creature continued speaking quietly, while Twilight finished wrapping her spell around the unconscious alien on her back. She sagged in relief as she released the spell, allowing the energy to drag her back to Dauntless, with Rainbow Dash and the unconscious alien coming along in her wake.

---

They reappeared on the Dauntless’s bridge, the crew still immersed in the network and silent at their stations. Twilight heaved a sigh; at least the ship was still okay, and she didn’t see any damage on the screens, though it looked like the shields were starting to strain. She sent a weary thought-pulse through the network to Silver Stars, telling the captain to get the ship out of the system as fast as possible. She received an instant response, and the vectors on the sensor plot shifted as Dauntless surged to full power, fighting to keep the planet between herself and the nearer Council fleet as she headed straight “down” relative to the system ecliptic. The two large, lumbering ships continued on their way, though the one they’d boarded was no longer random-walking in an evasion pattern. It would have been effortless to obliterate the ship; at constant acceleration on a straight-line course, Dauntless’s beam weapons would be able to hit it from essentially any distance, but Twilight was relieved to see that Wingblade was still following her orders and not engaging the two ships. It would be pointless to do so anyway; it was transparently clear at this point that the two ships were either totally unarmed or completely unwilling to fire, as Dauntless hadn’t taken a single shot from either ship.

Twilight watched the sensor plot intently. She didn’t want to go into full immersion right now; the teleport spell had taken a lot out of her, and as it stood she doubted she could contribute much. Besides, she trusted Silver Stars to run the ship; Twilight was in overall command and responsible for setting mission goals, but Silver Stars was the captain and perfectly capable of working out how those goals could be achieved. The vector shifted, overlaid with the vectors of the Council fleets, and the nebulous spheres around each group of ships that indicated weapons range. The unicorn sighed explosively; the Council forces had clearly underestimated Dauntless’s peak acceleration, and the second force wouldn’t be able to close to engagement range before the Equestrian cruiser exited the system. From what she could see, the enemy commander agreed, and the first force was already thinking about breaking off the engagement. Barring terrible luck, they would be in the clear in the next ten minutes.

They’d dodged a lightning bolt. This had been a cleverly-arranged, well-planned-out trap, and the only reason they were going to survive was that their enemies had simply underestimated their speed and had placed their two converging elements too far apart. Twilight let her eyes close for a moment, feeling the pulse of magic through the room and just letting her mind shut down, just for a second. The past few days had been brutal.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow asked quietly, “what do you want to do with that?” Twilight opened her eyes, and saw that the pegasus was pointing at the felinoid alien on her back. The unicorn shook her head, marshaling her thoughts.

“Here, take it,” she said, turning aside so Rainbow could move the creature, “Find a spare room of some kind and lock it up for now. Once we’re out of danger, I’ll get Fluttershy to see if she can talk to it.”

Rainbow nodded, shifting their captive onto her back with a quick motion of her foreleg and wings. That extra set of limbs must be awfully nice to have, Twilight mused. “Right, I’ll find a place to stash this one.” She stretched one wing a bit. “Then I’ll probably head back to the medbay. Think I screwed up some of their repair work.”

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said, as her friend was turning to leave. The pegasus looked back at her. “Thank you. You saved my life at least once over there.”

Rainbow flashed a grin. “Hey, any time, Twilight.” She left without a further word.

Only moments later, the fire coming from the Council fleet stopped, and the enemy ships changed their course, headed back to the planet they’d come out from behind. The other detachment altered their course as well, clearly heading to meet up with the first jaw of the trap, no longer seeking to pursue the Equestrian cruiser.

The bridge crew dropped out of immersion moments later, most of them sighing heavily and many rubbing their heads to relieve the headaches that always followed prolonged network contact. Silver Stars looked over at Twilight. “Reporting successful engagement, ma’am. No damage to the ship, about twenty hostile ships destroyed before they broke off the engagement. It doesn’t look like they’re going to be able to catch us.”

“I’m down to five percent of my missile ammo, though,” Wingblade put in. “We’re not going to last any time at all in another fight before we’re down to beams.”

“So you’re saying that we need to go back home?”

The young pegasus nodded firmly. “If you plan on getting in any more fights, yes, ma’am. I was holding way back in that one and still almost shot myself dry. We need more ammo, and we need it bad.” She paused. “And later ships of this class seriously need more magazine space. If you don’t mind me saying so, ma’am.”

Twilight nodded wearily. “I don’t mind at all, and I’ll definitely keep that in mind when I’m laying down the next exploration cruiser. I want to survey one more system, then we’ll head back to report.” She also wanted to give Fluttershy time to talk to their captive. Hopefully, that would give them at least some information on the creatures they faced, something she could report to the Princesses other than, “There’s this huge, powerful interstellar organization that seems to hate us for no apparent reason.”

Twilight watched the sensor readout as Dauntless headed out toward the Gate limit. The two Council fleets linked up, and followed them. Evidently, the enemy force was shadowing the Equestrian ship, just in case their engines failed or something.

Silver Stars approached her shortly before Jump, saying quietly, “Commander, there’s something you need to be aware of.”

“Oh?” Twilight blinked. There didn’t seem to be any concerns on the sensor readout.

“It’s a crew issue. Do you mind if I put up a privacy screen?” The Commander shook her head, and felt the captain link to the bridge systems. An invisible screen popped up, blocking any sound waves from reaching the other crewmares. “I had to put Wingblade on report this morning,” Silver Stars said once they were separated from the rest of the bridge crew.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oh? For what?”

“Because she was confronted by three of the diplomatic team.” Twilight blinked in surprise. “They’d evidently heard about the way she’d talked to Fluttershy, and, well, they weren’t happy about it.”

“Goodness!” Twilight looked over to where the grey-coated pegasus sat calmly monitoring her weapons displays. “Was she hurt?”

Silver Stars shook her head. “No, ma’am, ‘Blade wasn’t hurt at all. Two of the three diplomats had to be sent to the medbay, though.”

The Commander frowned. “She attacked them?”

Silver Stars shook her head again, sighing. “No, ma’am. They started it. They probably didn’t realize what they were getting into; ‘Blade’s a nasty customer when she gets mad. She’s normally fairly cool-headed, but she’s got a mean streak a kilometer wide when her blood’s up. Turns into a whole different pony.”

Twilight couldn’t help but frown again. “Wait, they cornered her, they attacked her, and you put her on report?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Silver Stars paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Ma’am… she wasn’t cornered. They confronted her in a corridor. She should have just turned around and left, and from what it looked like on the security recording she could have, but she gets mean and stubborn when she’s really angry. Honestly, she needed to get smacked down for that, it showed some poor judgment and way too much aggression. She just refused to back down when those ponies pushed her.” The Warden made a frustrated noise. “Ma’am, this isn’t just about ‘Blade being in a fight. It’s a symptom of a bigger problem; it’s not just this particular incident. The Wardens are nearly fanatical about Commander Dash. Applejack too. A lot of us know one or both of them personally, and there’s a lot of loyalty in this organization. Fluttershy’s ponies feel the same way; she’s worked with most of them for a fair part of their lives, and they’d move heaven and earth for her. Fluttershy and Commander Dash have been fighting for years, and a lot of that has leaked onto the ponies that work with them, so there is a ton of tension. Three ponies tried to hurt ‘Blade because they heard she’d been nasty to Fluttershy, and I stomped on her because I don’t want to see my ponies doing the same thing. The longer we’re on this ship without this being addressed, the worse it’s going to get.”

Twilight thought furiously. She should have seen this coming, should have recognized it from the blatant hostility in the weapons officer’s attitude in the medical bay, and from the tension in the other two Wardens, as well as their lack of argument. Wintergreen had never said Wingblade was wrong, just that she should be less confrontational, and even Night Breeze, who seemed much less aggressive and much more rational than either of the other two, had said the same thing. Silver Stars was right, this was a major problem, and Twilight should have recognized it sooner. Argh, I’m a terrible choice as a commander. The Princess should have picked somepony who was better with others, or more social, or something. She may not be as isolated as she had been in her youth, but Twilight still had trouble sometimes when trying to deal with other ponies’ points of view.

Of course, now that she had recognized the problem, she had zero ideas about what to do. She rubbed her forehead furiously, nearly hitting her horn with her hoof. “Argh. This is even more frustrating because Rainbow and Fluttershy aren’t even fighting right now. They made up yesterday.”

Silver Stars shrugged. “That might help some, once it gets around.”

Once it gets around… Twilight felt a light dawn in her brain. There was a fantastic way to make sure it got around! If she could get the two of them working together on something high-profile… “Thank you for telling me this, Captain. I think I have a possible solution in mind.”

Silver Stars raised an eyebrow. “You do, ma’am?”

“I do indeed!” The lavender unicorn beamed at her subordinate. “Did you have anything else you needed to tell me?”

Silver Stars looked at her commander askance, clearly wondering what was on Twilight’s mind. “No, ma’am, that was pretty much it.” Shaking her head slightly, she dismissed the privacy screen, stepping back to her station.

Smiling triumphantly, Twilight paged Fluttershy. The other mare answered after a few moments, with a soft, “Yes, Twilight?” Her teal eyes were worried.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight began without preamble, “have you heard all of what’s happened?”

The pegasus blinked. “No, I thought you were calling to tell me.”

“Oh, okay.” For some reason Twilight had thought that someone had kept her friend informed. “Long story short, I was dumb, this was a trap, and the Council tried to kill us with a little over four hundred ships.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock. “But that’s not the good part!” That made the pegasus raise an eyebrow. “The good part is that Rainbow Dash and I teleported onto the bridge of one of the bait ships and kidnapped one of their crewmares!” Twilight beamed. “Or, er, crew…things,” she finished, awkwardly.

Fluttershy blinked slowly. “I… that… is good news.” She said with transparently false enthusiasm, while looking at Twilight with an expression that suggested that the unicorn had lost her freaking mind. “I am just… so delighted to hear that! You… uh… must be very proud!”

“I thought you might be happy!” Twilight exclaimed happily, completely missing the pegasus’s incredulous look. “I wanted you and Rainbow Dash to work together and talk to it, try to find out why these people are acting like this.”

Fluttershy blinked. “You what?”

“I want you and Rainbow Dash to work together,” the Commander repeated, “You might find her more helpful than you’re thinking, and she can be there to make sure the captive won’t try to hurt you.”

The yellow pegasus stared blankly into the screen.

Twilight smiled back.

Fluttershy tried to smile encouragingly, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Twilight… this… is insane. I’m so sorry, I really am, and I don’t want to upset you, but that’s all I can think of to describe it! You want me to talk to someone you kidnapped, and you want Rainbow Dash to help. Okay, we’re trying to get along, but the problem this time isn’t me, or her, it’s the fact that you want her to be involved when I talk to this alien, and she’s the one who kidnapped them!” Fluttershy rubbed her face with her forehoof, her long pink mane falling briefly in front of her eyes. “I don’t… how am I supposed to be an ambassador to a captive?”

Twilight sighed. Her friend was right, this was a little crazy… but it had to be done. “Fluttershy, we have to know something about these people. They have enormous power, and we haven’t been able to find out hardly anything about them except second-hoof from the Tazaft, whose information was rather limited. Worse, they know where our homeworld is!” Twilight felt a sudden chill. Oh, Celestia’s name! They know where we live, they are willing to send hundreds of ships to attack Dauntless, and now they know we have starships. Oh, no, oh no, are they going to attack our home? They wouldn’t do that… would they? “Fluttershy… we have to learn at least something about them. We’re in danger, our home is in danger, everypony and every zebra and every buffalo and every griffon is in danger, and we have to find a way to save them!” Desperate tears were starting to form in the unicorn’s violet eyes. “I know, I know that this is a hard request. I know it’s crazy. And I know you don’t really want to work with Rainbow, but that’s another issue; there’s a lot of tension between your ponies and Rainbow’s, and I need the two of you to work together to show them that it’s possible. Please, Fluttershy, please, I need you to do this. For all of us.”

Fluttershy nodded heavily, sighing. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I know this is important. It’s just… I was so hoping I’d be able to talk to someone who wanted to talk to me. Having to settle for a captive, who may not even know anything…” the pegasus shook her head, “I’ll do my best. And if you want me to work with Rainbow Dash, I will, just… please, just ask her to be as nice as she can, okay? Especially if there’s any reason this creature might be afraid of her. It would make it much easier if the creature wasn’t frightened.” Fluttershy lowered her head a bit. “I don’t like scaring creatures, or seeing them scared.”

“I will. And Fluttershy… thank you. I appreciate it.” Twilight signed off, wiping her eyes. She drew a deep breath, and pinged Rainbow Dash, glancing at the display that showed the Council fleet still following them, though the huge collection of warships was steadily losing ground.

Rainbow answered almost instantly, a benefit of being directly tied into the ship’s systems in a way that only unicorns and ponies with neural implants could manage. “Hey, Twilight. Got the cat-thing stashed in a supply closet; it’s got a lock, and a light, but not much else. Didn’t look like it was having any problems breathing, so there’s that worry out of the way.” She snorted. “If you’re planning on keeping it longer, you might want to have the engineers rig up a lock on a normal room or something, ‘cause there’s no toilet in that closet. Gonna get smelly fast.”

“Good point; I’ll see what I can arrange.” Twilight winced. “And please, don’t call it a cat-thing.”

“What do you want me to call it, then?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head.

The unicorn opened her mouth to respond, and paused. They had no idea what the creature’s species was called, and it didn’t really look like anything they’d seen back home, so there weren’t really any good labels that came to mind. “Cat-thing” was only marginally less palatable than the label that occurred to Twilight, which was “Cat-monkey.” Monkey-cat? No, that sounded derogatory too.

“Let’s just call it an alien for now,” Twilight finally said. “Have you had a chance to get to the medical bay yet?”

“I’m there now,” Rainbow responded cheerfully. “You interrupted the doctor yelling at me for stretching the tendon she just fixed.”

“I may just let it heal on its own if you’re going to keep injuring it!” came an exclamation from off-screen.

“Aw, c’mon, you know you like me,” Rainbow replied. “Doctors always like me. I give them something to practice on.” Twilight heard a frustrated, wordless noise, and Rainbow grinned.

Twilight stifled a giggle. Fighting to straighten her face, she said, “Well, when you’re done there, I’d like you to head back to where you left the alien.”

“Sure thing, Twi. Although if you want me to stand guard, I’ve got a ton of Warden troopers with nothing to do. I could tie a guard to each of its legs and have a dozen more ponies around it in a ring, and I’d still have bored troopers.”

“Actually… I want you to help Fluttershy talk to it.”

Rainbow blinked. “You do?”

Bracing herself for an argument, Twilight nodded. “Yes, I do. You’ll be able to keep Fluttershy safe if the alien gets violent, not that I’m terribly worried about that given how small it is, and…”

“Woah, woah!” Rainbow exclaimed, waving a foreleg to interrupt. “Hey, you don’t need to push me into it. You’re the smart pony, and you’re the Commander. You want me to help, I’ll go help!”

“Oh. Good. Thank you.” Twilight deflated a little bit. Then she cocked her head. “You know, I didn’t notice before, but the comm system doesn’t seem to transmit that annoying noise your legs make.” Her eyes widened as she realized what she’d said, and she covered her mouth with both forehooves. “Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean… I mean, your legs are perfectly functional, I don’t mean to disparage… they could be taken as real most of the time…!” I’m just digging myself in deeper, why can’t I stop?

Rainbow bit her lip, her nose scrunching up a bit as she listened to Twilight’s stammered apologies. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore… but instead of yelling angrily as Twilight had expected, she burst out laughing. “Ha ha, you mean, ha, you mean like this?” Rainbow gasped, and suddenly Twilight could hear the familiar teeth-grating whine. “Ha ha, oh man, I thought you knew! I got ‘em to put noisemakers in ‘em. Y’know, since they’re all mechanical and stuff, I thought they oughta sound like it!”

Twilight blinked. “You mean… you mean to tell me, that that noise, the one that’s been driving me insane every time I talked to you for sixty years, is something you could have turned off whenever you wanted?!”

Rainbow dissolved into fits of laughter again, actually falling over backward in the grip of hilarity. It took her quite a while to get herself back under control, during which time the unicorn could see her friend’s legs waving helplessly in the air, and Twilight got curious glances from several of the bridge crew; Rainbow was laughing more than loudly enough to be heard quite some distance away, even with the muffling effect of the comm link. Finally, the pegasus was able to stand up, wipe her eyes, and say, “Whoo. That’s funny. I had no idea it bugged you that much, but yeah, I could’ve turned ‘em off any time you asked. I shut ‘em off whenever I’m out in the field anyway; having my legs whine would make it freaking impossible to sneak up on anything, which was the other reason I made ‘em give me noisemakers. Scootaloo… remember her?” Twilight nodded. The orange pegasus mare with the flight problem, who’d joined the Wardens early on, the unicorn recalled. She’d been Rainbow’s aide and right-hoof mare for years. “Yeah, it drove Scoots nuts that I kept sneaking up on her by accident and scaring the hay out of her. At one point it was happening like three times a day, even with her watching out for it. She wanted me to have something that made noise whenever I was in a town, ‘cause she figured having me giving older ponies heart attacks by accident probably wouldn’t be good for our image. It was easier to stick noisemakers in my legs that it would have been to learn to make noise while I was moving again; I’m too used to moving around as quiet as I can.”

Twilight facehoofed, at herself and at Rainbow. She heaved a deep sigh. “Well, in the future, could you please leave the noisemakers off while you’re visiting me, or I’m visiting you? I’d appreciate it.”

“Can do.” Rainbow grinned, clearly fighting back another attack of the giggles. There was a gleam in her eye that made Twilight worry a bit, but she brushed it aside.

“Thank you. As soon as you’re done there, could you meet Fluttershy to talk to the alien?” Twilight glanced at the sensor plot briefly. “We’ll be jumping out soon, but we’re heading to an empty system to give you two a chance to work.”

“Can do,” Rainbow said again with a firm nod. “Hey, I could actually be helpful. Could you send me a link to those Council language files we got?”

“Oh… yes, of course.” Twilight linked herself into the network for a moment, her holodaemon quickly retrieving the files she needed, and with a thought she sent a datalink to Rainbow’s implant. The pegasus would be able to serve as a translating node for the ship’s daemons, much like some of Fluttershy’s linguists had done with the Tazaft, speeding the translation process immensely.

Rainbow’s eyes flicked to the side, an involuntary physical reaction that frequently occurred when a pony accessed the datanet, and she nodded. “Got it, thanks, Twi. Huh, I wonder…” Her gaze went distant for a moment. “Oh, okay, cool. This thing’s language is part of the files. That’ll make it easier.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight gave her friend an incredulous look. “How in the world do you know that?”

“‘Cause I just checked the stuff that its friend was saying back on their ship.” Rainbow pointed at her artificial eyes. “These are tied in to my interface implant; I usually record fights so I can watch ‘em later and see what I could’ve done better. My audio boosters are tied into it too, so I get full sound.” The pegasus grimaced. “It was saying that the one we took was its friend, begging me not to hurt him.”

“Oh.” Twilight grimaced, too. It had been a lot easier to think about the creature as a captive, rather than a person who had friends. “Well, it’s a good thing we don’t want to actually hurt him.”

“Yeah, no kidding. I never like hurting things that can talk, but I really hate it when their friends are right there.” Rainbow sighed, glancing back over her shoulder. “You about done there, doc?”

There was an indistinct grumble that Twilight couldn’t quite make out, but she thought she heard the words, “taken for granted…” mixed in there somewhere.

Rainbow turned back to the comm screen. “The doc’s almost finished here, so I’ll meet up with Fluttershy in a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you, Rainbow. We’ll be jumping in a little while; make sure you’re not connected when we do.”

“Got it, boss.” The pegasus flashed a grin. “I didn’t get more than a headache last time, but I’ll still be careful.”

Twilight disconnected, pleased to note that the short conversation with her friend had raised her spirits more than she expected, and watched the gigantic mass of Council ships crawling across the system behind them like jackals, hoping Dauntless would stumble and fall.

They continued to pursue Dauntless, up until the ship reached the Jump limit and vanished elsewhere.

Comments

[zaponator]

This is not good.
Plan 18 (or was it protocol 18?) sounds like something we don't want to happen.
Hopefully the cat-monkeys were the ones in charge of that ship and not the bug things.

[Samdamandias]

Okay, long-term exploration ship without the ability to gather raw resources and process them into useful components?

And once again, manual PD?

[musicluvr1974]

That section about why Dash's artificial limbs have motors that whine was one of the funniest things I've read in a while. Nice work!

[Smoker]

So. .. it's not the humans?

Huh. Fully expected the big twist to be that the ponies had accidentally allied against the humans.

[DragonMaus]

1517407
Keep in mind, this is a fledgling space-faring race, on their maiden voyage; there'll be lots of kinks for them to work out over the next few decades. (This also applies to many of the other silly decisions they've been making.)

[Stainless Steel Fox]

1515925 Plan 18 from Outer Space? That's twice as bad as Plan 9! Personally, I think it's the code for 'glass the planet'. In which case the Invaders are going to get reamed. They're going to have thaumotechnologically boosted alicorns throwing swarms of relativistic asteroids at them.

[The Good Boy]

5823130

thaumotechnologically

that fucking word

[Norad2]

I want to express me admiration for the maneuvers and battle in this chapter and for the sheer brilliance that is RD's noisemakers. Respect.

[Dinode]

Honestly, I thought one of the races was going to be the changelings. That would have been amusing to see their reaction, but this is okay.

[erictheblue]

7551920
i've seen at least one other comment guessing that the "infiltrators" where Changelings...