Pony Veracity (the Crystal Empire)

by keithsterling

Chapter 2

Back at the Castle of Friendship in partially excavated Ponyville, sitting in a small seating area in one of the corners of the textile laboratory were Miss Rarity Radiance, Head Archivist Cadence Sparkle and Miss Sunny Starscout. The three mares were having a wonderful conversation while drinking a brilliant green tea with a slight grassy taste called matcha.

Since being regenerated, Miss Radiance feels out of place in this new Equestria to help alleviate his friend and godmother to his foal's mood. Justice helps Rarity transform a part of the textile laboratory into her old workroom at the Carousel Boutique; the exact copy help Rarity feels more at home. Unbeknownst to Rarity, Justice, with the help of his grandmother, Ophelia created an Adult version of her little sister Sweetie Belle Radiance a kind android using Imperial Alicorn technology.

At first, Rarity wanted nothing to do with that Sweetie bot, but as time passed, the Sweetie Bell android proved her worth to Rarity. After Rarity finally accepted the android of Sweetie Bell as her enhanced little sister, Sweetie bell went to work reminding Rarity that Justice cares much about her, which is why he created her. Before long, Rarity started to cry; yes, she was upset with Justice for not telling her that he was making the Sweetie Bell android, but he was doing it because he cared very deeply for her. At that moment, Rarity rushed out of the textile laboratory and went to talk to Justice to renew their friendship.

"Excuse me, sister…but that client that wants two hundred units of your new clothing line is blowing up my phone lines again," Sweetie explains as she runs the invoice through her optic sensors.

“I already told that client we have production delays…That earth pony mare from Maretime bay that owns that old factory is trying to nickel and dime me to death on buying her factory. I am not going to pay more than it is worth!" Rarity said bitterly as she took a drink of her matcha from her cup.

"So what should I tell him, sister?" Sweetie asked, waiting for an answer.

"Tell him we are sorry, but as explained before, we have production delays." Rarity explains, taking another drink from her matcha tea.

“Huh?” Sweetie exclaims

"What is wrong, Sweetie?" Rarity asked

“In coming message from high command… All personnel report immediately to the great hall for deployment." Sweetie said as Rarity, Cadence, and Sweetie Bell ran out of the textile laboratory, followed by Sunny Starscout, who got caught up in the excitement and went horn siren sound throughout the castle.

Sunny Starscout followed the three mares through a golden-framed green glass fan-lighted door into a large twenty by twenty-eight square foot room, formally the throne room of the castle of friendship. Now transformed into the great hall (meeting hall), at the front of it was a three-leveled tiered platform; on the top were Justice Silverlight and his wife Celestia Silverlight, both were wearing Daisho on their side.

Sunny Starscout was confused with Celestia Silverlight moving her fingers in empty air as she passed through the door into the great hall. She suddenly gasped; once in the room, Sunny saw huge monitors floating in mid-air in the space, flashing red light as the horn sirens continued sounding. As Sunny maneuvered through the slowly increasing crowd, she spotted Rarity and Sweetie Bell at the front of the room and joined them.

Sunny gasped once again went she saw Celestia Silverlight in front of her moving her fingers over what looked like a keyboard in front of her. As she continued looking around the room on the lower platform, Aurora Silverlight, Flurry Heart sparkle, Cadence Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle and Blueberry Swirl Silverlight, like Celestia, were typing on a keyboard. She soon spots Lara Borealis, like the other six mares; she was typing on a keyboard, looking something up on the opposite side of Justice.

The only two missing family members were Somnus Silverlight and Luna Borealis; Sunny figured that both family members were out on assignment for Silverlight Antiquities and Heritage Research team. As the last personnel take their place in the great hall, the door closes behind them and lights dim. Soon holographic planet of Equus forms in mid-air over the heads of the gathered crowd, and Sunny reels with astonishment.

She figured Imperial Alicorn was more advanced than Equestria but never guessed that they were this advanced. A smile formed on Rarity's snout went she saw Sunny get a childlike wonder with all the new technology and began to explain it to her as Sweetie Bell downloaded the mission brief for Rarity.

"Listen up, ponies! Our Recon team discovers what might be an Imperial Alicorn-designed shuttlecraft from the reading; it is quite old! Before Miss Borealis and I arrived on the Planet of Equus. Miss Borealis has gone through the Great Library Citadel Station files and found no match for the shuttlecraft! So this is an unknown shuttle craft; this discovery is a top priority secret! All the ponies in this room will go into cover-up mode! No one outside this castle must know about the discovery! That goes for you as well, Miss Sunny Starscout!" Justice explains as he looks directly at Sunny, who nods her head as her stomach knots.

"For this mission, it will be the primary team! Rarity, I want to take your sister on this team; she will be invaluable! (Rarity nods her head) Miss Starscout, you coming along on this mission as well! As for the rest of you, your sector chiefs will hand out your assignments! Miss Sparkle and Miss Radiance are in charge of the castle! All correspondence for this mission will pass through them! We must keep a tight lid on this!" Justice explains as the personnel files out of the Great hall and the primary team, Sweetie Bell, heads to Quartermaster to gear up for the mission.

It has been forty-five space cycles since a Galactic Combat Technician found her way through pitch darkness to the large crystal reactor core aboard a long-abandoned citadel class space station in the Southern Star sector. The Galactic Combat Technician activates her magnetic boots and sticks to metal deck plates in front of a large computer system in main Engineering.

She floats a small portable holo computer off her shoulder as the gravity control system of the space station is offline with the Crystal reactor core offline. She grabs hold of the small holo computer floating about with her gloved hands and plugs the holo computer into the central holo computer system. She begins tapping on the holo keyboard in front of her trying to get the Crystal reactor core back online. The central computer sounds an alarm as she is about to bring the crystal reactor core back online.

“Attention! Attention! Crystal power core! Critical fault! Huge crack detected in main power crystal! Evacuate Immediately! Estimated time till power crystal shatters five Space Cycles!" The crystal reactor core computer sounds like the vast power crystal at the heart of the reactor begins to develop several cracks across its face.

The Galactic Combat Technician quickly deactivates her magnetic boots and uses her silver bio-mechanical metal bird wings to propel herself through the emergency lighted corridor of the long-abandoned citadel class space station back to the station docking bay. As the crystal power core begins spinning faster and faster, causing more stress on the badly damaged power crystal, the Galactic Combat Technician speeds down the corridor.

As large and small electrical explosions occur throughout the station in the corridors, she reaches the emergency engineering conduit and quickly inputs numeric code into the numeric keypad. Went she puts the last digit into the numeric keypad, a morph-size door slides open, revealing the emergency engineering conduit; she quickly runs through the tube as fast as possible.

Using her unnatural imperial Alicorn strength, she forces open the door and leaps out of the emergency engineering conduit just as a massive power surge electrifies the whole tube that would have killed her if she remained inside. Unable to catch her breath, she quickly gets to her feet as the cracks worsen on the power crystal. Malfunctioning instruments shower the docking bay with sparks.

The force field airlock is still in place, and sitting on the platform was her Interceptor fighting falcon aerospace fighter. Suddenly the unmistakable sound of metal shearing and snapping echoes in the bay before a massive metallic crash blocks the Galactic Combat Technician from her ship with a precious second ticking away.

Through the dust, bright blue light can be seen, and the sound of metal being sliced in half can be heard. As the dust cleared in her gloved hand was her energy katana blade; with one slice, she cut the large metal beam in half. She runs to her ship with her path clear and leaps into the cockpit. She clears the docking bay just as the abandoned citadel class space station explodes in a spectacular display of destruction.

The damaged power crystal reduces the abandoned citadel class space station to pretty sparkles in the darkness of space that quickly fades away. The Galactic Combat Technician sets course to meet up with her duty station 'IAS Stellar Eclipse,' a super combat carrier-class warship that is part of the main Royal Battle fleet. As the smaller Interceptor fighting falcon aerospace fighter arrives at the rendezvous point, a six hundred thirty meters long Imperial Alicorn-designed warship appears from the darkness.

Several multiple colored lights activate from the warship's top deck, guiding the small aerospace fighter onto the carrier's flight deck. As the small fighter nears the flight deck, an antigravity bubble system activates, slowing the spacecraft's speed down and allowing the ship to safely land on the flight deck.

The antigravity bubble quickly floats the fighter to the nearest small combat elevator; once on the elevator, the magnetic landing feet stick the fighter to the metal deck plate. Once the landing feet are locked there, a soft click and elevator begin lowering the fighter through the force field airlock into four-level lower decks of the carrier.

In the bowels of this carrier, each deck is equipped with one whole squadron of aerospace fighters (24 ships) that belong to the crown of light aerospace battle group under the command of Galactic Knight Major Erato Aureola. Mixed with these aerospace fighters are numerous small utility ships ranging from one large shadow cat recon plane, small space shuttles and many one-man repair vessels with arms for repairing the ship.

As the combat elevator stop on the bottom level, the magnetic landing feet disengage from the metal plate as the antigravity bubble system once again lifts the aerospace fighter off the elevator, allowing the small combat elevator to ascend back to the flight deck. Waiting on the lower level was an alluring cool gray imperial Alicorn mare with red-orange mane and tail. Her toned 6ft 2in equine figure was attired in a form-fitting peach-colored space suit.

A pair of peach-colored form-fitting boots were on her cool gray bare feet, and folded on her back were her silver bio-mechanical metal bird wings. This Imperial Alicorn mare was Galactic Knight First Officer Clio Quasar, the first officer aboard 'IAS Stellar Eclipse,' a super combat carrier-class warship and first officer for Imperial Prince Justice Silverlight.

As the canopy opened on the Interceptor fighting falcon aerospace fighter climbing out of the cockpit was a stunning dim gray imperial Alicorn mare with orange-yellow mane and tail. Her physically fit 6ft 2in equine figure was attired in a form-fitting periwinkle-colored space suit.

A pair of periwinkle-colored form-fitting boots were on her dim gray bare feet, and folded on her back were her silver bio-mechanical metal bird wings. This Imperial Alicorn mare was Galactic Knight Major Erato Aureola, the commander of the crown of light aerospace battle group and Aerospace fighter ace.

"You know, Major, Justice would have a fit if he knew that you did that stunt…waiting for the very last second to escape the explosion," Clio said, reprimanding. A claw from the ceiling picked the fighter up from the fuselage and placed the ship on the third level to allow Galactic Mechanical Engineers to begin repairing the damage from the explosion.

"Well, number one…I know you will not tell Justice about my stunt." Erato said with a smile on her snout as the two mares bumped their fists together.

"That is for sure, Erato…I am not going to be giving another lecture on the protocol." Clio replies as the two mares walk off the docking bay to the turbo lift.

"But anyway, Erato, what did you find out on the abandoned citadel class space station?" Clio asked as the two mares climbed onto the turbo lift to take it to the upper decks.

"The logs in the communication room of the space station picked up the distress beacon about a week ago and relayed it automatically to Infinity Palace. I tried to get the emergency power up to find out where the distress beacon came from. The power crystal was so badly damaged from the supernova that it started to crack." Erato explains as she got off on the crew quarters deck to head to her room to take a shower and begin her sleep Cycle.