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Prologue3,336 words
Chapter 13,329 words
Chapter 23,621 words
Chapter 34,514 words

Prologue

Space Case Prologue

Brilliant. The Dark Matter Reactor was on the blink, again! This was the third time this week. Now you couldn't warp until you could get a technician out to your ship. So you were stuck idling at a way-point between two warpgates somewhere between Alpha Centauri and the Terran Solar System. Well, at least the ship broke down outside a warp tunnel. This time. You make your way from the reactor room back to the cockpit of your small cargo frigate, hitting your head on the too low entrance of the cockpit.

“God damn! Every time!”

You were still getting used to this new ship. Nursing the bruise on your head, you sit down in the pilot seat. The displays flare to life as an androgynous face appears on the main screen.

“Welcome back Lieutenant Commander Anonymous. Have you determined what is wrong with the spacecraft?”

“What isn’t wrong with this thing? The reactor's acting up again. I think it's the Magnetron shorting out. Not quite sure. There's also a load of sensor arrays that are faulty. Send out a sub-space message to Maintenance. They'll know how to fix this rust bucket. Also, let the Heavy Dreadnaught class flagship Stalwart know that their shipment of supplies will be delayed.”

The A.I. pauses for a moment before speaking again.

“Maintenance has been alerted. They will be here within two Terran standard hours. Heavy Dreadnaught Stalwart has also received the message and has extended the delivery window out two standard Terran cycles.”

“Good. Now let's get this junker off the main shipping lanes. Bring the auxiliary reactors online.”

As the A.I. starts up the reactors, you can hear the whine of the ship coming to life around you. God, you love that sound. After a few moments, your displays read all green for thruster systems. You ease forwards on the thrusters and... nothing.

“Seriously? How the hell was this junker cleared to launch?”

The A.I. appears on your main display.

“External sensors are reading that the auxiliary thrusters are not receiving power. Sensors cannot determine what the cause of the malfunction is.”

Your day just got infinitely better. Not really. Because the only way to fix anything wrong with the auxiliary thrusters is to go outside the ship. And you hated spacewalks because of the spacesuits that were issued to non-combat pilots. The spacesuits are old second generation relics of the Terran Navy and relied on constrictive pressure to counteract the void of space.

Basically, it was like wearing a giant rubber band that constantly squeezed you. The only good thing about these suits is that they somehow have more ablative plating than the suits issued to combat pilots. The only downside is those plates weighed a good hundred and fifty pounds. Add in all the other things these suits came with, such as the reactor, thrusters, and the onboard computer suite, the suit got to be pretty damn heavy. It didn't mean much in zero gravity, but on the ship, gravity was set to Terran standard and would not turn off unless the airlock already vented. And to top it all off, the entire suit is colored a garish hazard orange.

So with a sigh of resignation, you make your way to the airlock. You have to get this ship out of the shipping lane one way or another. You didn’t want to be hit by another ship. It took you some time, but you eventually get into the suit, put on all the ablative plates, and make sure all the seals were good. Pushing a button near the neck joint on your suit, you feel it constrict around your body, forming skin-tight contact and becoming form fitting. You also strap a tool belt onto the suit in case you can fix the thrusters.

Hitting a button on the wall of the airlock, you start the decompression sequence. You feel yourself lighten as the artificial gravity turns off. The air siphons out of the airlock and you hear the ventilation ports seal up in your helmet. With a slight hiss, you feel the rebreather unit on your back engage as air moves across your face inside the helmet.

The display on your helmet's visor lights up, showing you several different readouts, such as interior air quality, exterior pressure, exterior air content, gravity, approximate operating time for the rebreather, and vitals. You step off into space and fire up the small thrusters located across the suit. A small 3D rendering of the ship appears in a corner of the visor with the thrusters highlighted in red and your position highlighted in green. You maneuver along the length of the ship until the auxiliary thrusters are visible. Nothing obvious seems wrong with them, so you move over to an access panel. As you reach out to grab the latch, electricity arcs out and shocks you.

“Aah! Shit!”

As you back away from the craft and curse like a madman, a warning message fills your visor with big red letters.

[DARK MATTER REACTOR CRITICAL]

[ABANDON SHIP IMMEDIATELY]

“Aww, hell...”

You look at the gravity readout on your visor and see it slowly rising. You are so fucked. The reactor is starting to collapse into a black hole and there is nothing you can do to stop it. And you can't possibly outrun a black hole in a space suit.

“Fuck it, I'm getting the best seats in the house to watch oblivion.”

You fire up the thrusters and move backwards from the ship so you could get a better view. After a few moments, you get a few hundred meters away from the ship so you can get a better view. You can feel yourself drifting closer to the craft as the gravity starts to increase in intensity. Suddenly, the gravity starts skyrocketing on your display. The ship begins to collapse in on itself and you are pulled towards where the reactor should be. Soon enough, the ship completely vanishes and the light distorts into streaks centered on the tiny hole in reality when it becomes visible. With the ship gone, you start racing towards your oblivion with an ever increasing sense of falling. You stare at the black hole and await for your inevitable ionization.

And wait.

...And wait...

The black hole isn't getting any closer, but you still feel like you are falling. You look around and see streaks of light in every color imaginable. And then it hits you.

You’ve gone plaid!

But seriously, you are in a wormhole. You remember that wormholes are basically shortcuts between two places in the universe or something like that. They are very similar to the warp gates that were used to go into subspace. Supposedly, wormholes were proven to be false by scientists ages ago. If only those bean counters could see you now.

As you are pondering this, a brilliant flash of light blinds you. After your eyes adjust from the sudden increase in light, you find yourself in a vast expanse of... static? It looks like static from those ancient Terran cathode ray tubes. Except, it is everywhere. Your visor display catches your attention. It's fluctuating wildly on all of its readouts. Wherever you are, your suit's computer is getting scrambled something fierce.

“What is that thing?”

‘The hell is that?’

It sounded like a woman's voice, but slightly muffled. You look around, but see nothing except more static.

“I don't know, but it looks funny.”

‘There it is again! Another muffled female voice!’

You look around frantically, but still see nothing but static.

“Hey Leo, did you bring this thing here?”

“Nuh-uh! I bet it was Cancer that did it.”

As another muffled female voice joins them, something clicks in your mind. You finally figure out where the voices are coming from. They’re coming from inside your head.

“Wasn't me.”

“Then how did that thing get here?”

A fourth muffled female voice now. Are you actually dead right now? Is your afterlife to be spent listening to voices argue in your head?

“Hey Taurus. Do you know how this thing got here?”

“How would I know? Go ask Virgo. She's the smart one.”

A muffled male voice now.

‘Wait a second. Virgo? Taurus? Cancer? Leo? Those were the names of the Zodiac.’

“You figured that out rather quickly. Good job. Don't worry everyone, I'll handle this.”

You hear other voices mutter some things you don't quite catch. This voice was much clearer than the previous five. Perfectly clear, in fact. It sounds like a deep female voice.

‘What the fuck is going on here?’

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

‘The fuck? Can these things hear my thoughts?’

“I can. The others cannot though.”

‘What others?’

“The other Zodiac. We are not things by the way. We are more akin to spirits.”

‘What? That's impossible. Spirits don't exist.’

“Well, you are here. And we are talking. So I would say it is pretty possible.”

‘Here? Where's here? And who are you?’

“Oh my, where are my manners? I am Virgo. You are currently in the Astral plane where the Zodiac reside. And you are?”

‘My name is Anonymous.’

“Charmed to meet you.”

‘Is this where people go when they die?’

“Die? Why would you think you are dead?”

‘I fell through a black hole and into a wormhole. That's how I ended up here.’

“Oh my, how unfortunate. But I can assure you that you are not dead.”

‘Okay then, if I'm not dead, then what do I do? I can't live in this Astral Plane forever.’

“The answer I have for you is one you may not like. Would you like to hear it?”

‘Might as well. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.’

“I'm afraid that we Zodiac are incapable of sending you back to where you came.”

‘Okay....’

“However, our Mistress may know of a way to help.”

‘Your what now?’

“Mistress, dear. Who we as Zodiac answer to. Our Mistress' name is Princess Luna and Mistress is the Ruler of the Night.”

‘Wait, what? Ruler of the Night? As in, she only rules when it's night out?’

“No dear, but you are close. Our Mistress holds power over everything associated with the night.”

‘Uhh... hold on a second. This is taking a moment to parse...’

“I believe that reality may operate much more differently here than where you came from, Mister Anonymous.”

‘I think you might be correct.’

“Moving along then. Our Mistress has ruled over the night since the beginning of time itself along with her sister Princess Celestia, who is the Ruler of the Day. However, our Mistress had a little...mental breakdown a thousand years ago. Princess Celestia banished our Mistress to the moon. Our Mistress is still there currently.”

‘....’

“Anonymous?”

‘My mind is full of so many fucks right now.’

“As I had stated previously, reality may operate differently. This seems to be the case.”

‘I'm just going to stop trying to comprehend things now...’

“That may be for the best. Understanding will come with time. Now, would you like to speak with our Mistress? As a Zodiac, I am able to send you to her.”

‘...Sure.’

“Very well then. Goodbye Anonymous, and good luck.”

‘Why would I need lu-’

Your vision flickers and you find yourself standing on an off-white expanse of powdery ground with a star filled sky. Judging by what you retained from your conversation with the voices in your head, you are on the moon where this Princess Luna is supposed to be. As you take in the beauty and tranquility of the terrain before you, a message pops up in green on your visor.

[EXTERIOR AIR QUALITY AND PRESSURE WITHIN ACCEPTABLE PARAMETERS]

[OPENING VENTILATION PORTS AND PURGING REBREATHER SYSTEM]

With a loud hiss, the ventilation ports in your helmet open as the rebreather forcibly cycles clean air through it to purge itself of any bad air.

“Okay, so apparently I can breathe in space. This is apparently perfectly normal. No need to freak out. I am perfectly fine.”

You say this as you scream internally. Well, since you can apparently breathe in space, there's no need to wear the visor. The skyrocketing vitals would just distract you from staying sane. Unsealing your helmet, you take it off and cradle the helmet under one arm. Now that you had your helmet off, you can hear how truly silent the moon is. You listen to the oddly soothing sound of the void of space as someone cries in the distance.

It really does wonders for your frazzled nerves- wait, what? Someone is crying? Concentrating a bit more, you can hear that someone is indeed crying. The sound is echoing, so it's possible that it's a fair ways off. And this suit is heavy as hell. Then again, moons tend to have pretty weak gravity as a rule of thumb. Tentatively, you take a few steps forward. To your great pleasure, the gravity of this moon is very weak. The suit weighs practically nothing here. It's just extra bulk.

Continuing forward, you listen again to the sound of the crying to try and determine where it is coming from. As best as you can tell, it is coming from directly in front of you. As you trudge onwards, the soft lunar powder hindering your progress slightly as your suit's boots sink in. You eventually hear the sound of the crying grow louder. You were definitely getting near. Trudging further along, you notice that the ground turns into a small crater not too far away. By this time, the crying has turned into soft sobbing. The sobbing sounds like it is coming from the crater. Once you reach the rim of the crater, you look down into the crater and see- what the hell is that?

On the bottom of the crater’s surface is some form of four legged creature on a stone dais with a stylized golden sun emblem emblazoned on it. The creature had a golden chain attached to a similar collar around its neck. The creature itself was vaguely horse shaped and looked to be somewhat small. It was black all over, except for a whispy blue mane and tail that blew softly in a breeze that you couldn't feel. On closer inspection of the creature, you notice four interesting things. The creature is wearing jewelry, has wings has a horn, and the creature's hair and tail is full of stars. What the hell is that thing?

As you observed the creature, it seemed to sense your presence and lift its head to lock eyes with you. As you stare into the creature's silvery blue eyes, you find that you are incapable of looking away. Something about its eyes are just...captivating.

“A-are you... real?”

It spoke. And it sounds female. And it sounds really scared. It is probably best not to startle it.

“I think I am. Are you real?”

The creature just stares at you with a look of curiosity, confusion, and fright.

“I'll take that as a yes.”

You slowly raise your free hand and point at the creature. It, or she rather, recoils slightly and backs away from you. The look of fear in her eyes increases.

“You wouldn't happen to be Princess Luna by any chance, would you?”

Your words seem to calm the creature down as the tension in her body visibly diminishes.

“H-how do you know my name? And w-what are you?”

“I am a human. My name is Anonymous. I was sent by Virgo.”

Princess Luna perks up at the mention of Virgo.

“Virgo sent you? How did you meet Virgo?”

“Well, the short version of my story is that I got sucked into a wormhole and ended up in the astral Planes where Virgo and myself had a nice little chat. She then sent me here because she believed that you could help me.”

As you finished, Luna had a look of deep sadness on her face.

“I am afraid I cannot help you. My powers are sealed by this chain.”

Well, that's just great. Your only chance to end this nightmare is a bust. With a sigh of frustration, you set your free hand to rest across your tool belt. Looks like you hit a dead end already.

....Wait a second.

Tool belt! You look through the contents of the tool belt and find a handheld plasma cutter/welder. It's about time your luck took a turn for the better.

“I think I have something to cut that chain. I'm coming down.”

Hopping just a tiny bit, you launch yourself a good three feet into the air and propel yourself forward. You end up overshooting the stone dais and land on the opposite side of the crater floor. As you step up the side of the dias, Luna scrambles away from you again until the chain snaps taught. The look of fear has returned to her eyes greater than before. You see that she is smaller than you by a wide margin. Perhaps that is why she is scared of you? Or, it could be the fact that, you know, you're an alien. Focusing on the task at hand, you speak to Luna in what you can only hope is a soothing voice.

“Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to try and cut the chain. Now, close your eyes and turn your head away. This is going to get very bright”

Luna grudgingly follows your advice. You put your helmet on again and line up the plasma cutter with the chain before you pull down the welding visor on the helmet. You turn on the plasma cutter and see the still-brilliant light through the now dark visor of your helmet. It is slow goings, but you manage to cut through a single link of the chain. Pulling the helmet off your head, you wipe the sweat off your brow from the heat of the plasma.

“All right, that's one link down. Are you okay Luna?”

Luna keeps her eyes clamped shut and is shaking slightly.

“Luna? Are you alright?”

Her eyes shoot open and shine with a brilliant white light.

“Oh yes, I'm feeling wonderful! I haven't felt this good in a thousand years!”

Wait, that's not Luna's voice. The collar around her neck disintegrates into dust as Luna begins to grow bigger. She is nearly looking you in the eyes after she's done growing. Oh shit, this is not looking good!

“You have my thanks, Anonymous. You have aided me in attaining what is rightfully mine. As a reward, I will spare you from what is to come! For all shall remember the name of Nightmare Moon, and my eternal night!”

Laughing madly, Luna's mane and tail wrap around her to form a blue blur. The blur flies off into space, leaving you alone with the echoes of mad laughter. At a loss for words, you just stand there for a moment, staring out at where Luna flew off into space. The helmet slips out of your grip and lands in the lunar powder with a muffled ‘whumph’.

At this point, the memories of recent events wash over you like a tidal wave. In the span of roughly an hour, you managed to get sucked into a black hole, successfully managed to traverse a wormhole, got thrown into the Astral Plane, had a conversation with a Zodiac, and jailbroke a mentally unstable immortal horse princess. You can think of only one thing to say.

“I must have really pissed something off in a past life.”

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