> Through The Starry Sky
>  by Valtyra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Liftoff
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia sat on her throne and looked down at her science advisor, her calm exterior hiding her boredom. She ruffled her wings slightly, their muscles cramping from the long hours clamped to her sides.

"So, that's how we figured out the fluctuations in the gravity field." The unicorn looked up at Celestia proud of his latest discovery and saw the Princess staring out of the stained windows overlooking the metropolis of Ponyville.

"I should have changed the name centuries ago..." The Princess thought, sighing.

"Princess, are you okay?" Her advisor asked, "I can come back later if you'd like?"

Celestia turned back slowly and shook her head, taking a second to breath deeply. "As much as I like to hear about your... Theories, Brain Surge. I'd much rather listen to how we could use these materials?" She thought for a moment, "How would they impact life on Equis?"

Surge opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked down and thought about it. After a few minutes, he looked back up to see the Princess patiently waiting with that motherly look she so often had. He only had one word to reply with, "Space!"

The Princess blinked, "I'm sorry. What do you mean, space?"

"Well, the minerals exquisite properties mean that they affect a sub-level of reality. Their affect differs on how we use them, but almost all of the ones we have found have somehow warped space, nullifying mass." He paused to let the Princess process this information.

A few seconds later he heard a quiet, "Continue."

"Okay. Basically because of that property, if we use enough of the minerals, we could break the atmosphere, even travel through space."

The princess raised an eyebrow, "You mean to say, we could travel to the moon?"

"Yes, we could travel anywhere really... But of course, this is just a dream at the moment. We'd need to research it some more..." Surge rubbed the back of head and blushed, "Sorry for getting carried away."

Celestia smiled and rose off her throne, "Thank you, Brain Surge. I'll talk to more soon." She turned to her guards, "I'm going to my chambers, tell everypony to come back tomorrow."

The guards saluted and walked out the door. A chorus of whines could be heard as Celestia exited the throne room.

~~~

Celestia laid on her bed, wings out by her side, "Travel anywhere..." she whispered, shivering as a breeze passed over her. "Shame I can't leave..."

She rolled over and jumped back screaming as she came face to face with Luna, "Luna, what the hell!" Celestia picked herself up off the floor and glared at her sister, who was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"I'm sorry Celly, you know how I get on a full moon." Luna grinned and patted the bed next to her, "I decided to spend some time with you rather than night court."

"You really shouldn't, you know how the public get if there isn't a court."

"No, I don't. Nopony still comes to mine, remember." Luna's glare was enough to stop Celestia from replying. Instead she laid down next to her sister. "Either way, I got word on your advisors new discovery." Luna grinned, "Exciting isn't it?"

Celestia sighed, "I guess, for our ponies. Not so much for us." 

"What do you mean? Surely we'd be the first to travel the stars, I've never seen them up close..." Luna stared off into the distance, imagining what other planets would look like.

"No, we wouldn't. We have to stay here to make sure the sun and moon move correctly, remember!" Celestia huffed, "We can't have something nice, for ourselves can we?"

"Careful sister, this is what I thought."

"I... I know, I've been doing this for so long. Why can't I get a break."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Celestia removed herself from the bed and walked over to the window, looking up at the moon.

"You know, this planet only needs one of us..." Luna whispered into her sisters ear, walking over and  massaging her shoulders. "We could take it in turns?"

While it was more of a suggestion, Celestia still felt a need to reply, "I don't know, what would the ponies think?"

"Screw the ponies, they are not us. Our word is law, they couldn't stop us if we both wanted to leave." Luna stopped her massage for a second, "You do want a break."

"I do," Celestia agreed. She looked back at her sister, "How long would our breaks be?"

"Hmm..." Luna placed the tip of her hoof under her chin, "How about... One hundred years?"

"Come now, we couldn't spend that long away from each other after... You know."

"My possession, you can talk about it you know. I'm not going to be angry; it's been long enough." Lune have half hearted smile and nuzzled her sister, "Okay then, ten years?"

Celestia thought about all the possible things she could do and how Equestria could change in only ten years and nodded, "That seems reasonable. We should increase our science spending then..."

"I'll go do that on my way to night court. If I'm going to be alone for the years, I had better learn." Luna turned and trotted to the door. Opening it, she turned her head back and smiled at Celestia, "Good night, sis."

"Good night," Celestia whispered, a long needed smile making its way onto her face.

~~~

Celestia had long been anticipating this day. The day she would finally say goodbye to this world for ten long years.

It had taken three long years since that night with her sister, but finally she could see the stars she had helped move not so long ago.

She rose from bed, her hair frazzled and tangled from a night of uneasy sleeping. Luna had done verifying in her power to help her, but couldn't beat all the worries that were natural after watching over a nation for centuries.

Celestia walked over to the window and pulled open her curtains and smiled at the mountain sized ship docked next to Canterlot. Of course, there had been ships launched before, survey ships and experiments, though they paled in comparison to her majesties.

At a glance, one could assume she had gone crazy and ordered a luxury liner, but the size was only due to the amount of life support and maintenance that would be needed to keep her majesties flagship afloat.

"Your majesty?" A voice called out from behind her door, "Are you awake?"

"I am indeed," Celestia replied, a grin now adorning her face, "Come in."

The door opened and her personal maid walked in, "I hope that grin stays for the entire journey." She said, pulling a cart in bedhind her. "It looks good on you."

"Thank you, Dust. It's been too long." Celestia pulled her attention from her ship to her maids, "You're coming with me, right?"

Dust nodded, "I am indeed. somepony needs to make sure you look good, Luna know's you don't."

Celestia chuckled, "Good, How did your family take it?"

"They... wern't happy. But they know it's only for ten years, so I'll see them again."

"There's pods in the ship if you change your mind, they'll fly you right back," Celestia said, sitting in front of her vanity. She closed her eyes as Dust picked up a brush in her magic and started brushing the Princesses mane.

"Don't you worry about me, I'll be fine as long as we don't meet any scary aliens." Dust went for a few strokes. "Do you think there are any?" She asked.

"Any aliens?"

"Well, yeah?"

"Possible, the universe is big..." The Princess thought for a moment, "I'd like to think they'd be nice. It would be rare you meet a a new species in space."

"I'd like that as well." Dust finished off brushing the Princess and stepped back, allowing her to stand. "All done."

"Thank you."

"I have one question," Dust asked. The Princess nodded. "Why did you name it, HMS Twilight?"

Thr Princess looked away, back to her ship. For the first time that day, her smile wavered. "She... She would have come with me." Celestia closed her eyes to hide her tears, "In a way, she is."

~~~

Celestia walked along the cobbled street, her subject's mouths agape at the sight. She looked out at the noon sun and breathed in the relatively fresh Canterlot air.

She had chosen the path around the outside edge of the city; where rock met open air. There would be less ponies about.

Alot had changed in the time since the elements. One of the changes was that Ponyville had gotten larger, rivaling Manehatten for size, it all but took up the east skyline.

Canterlot didn't expand outwards; instead it expanded vertically. It reached the bottom of the mountain and spread out while the tip almost reached the upper cloud layer.

The castle managed to stay relatively unchanged, only because the Princesses shot down all petitions to modernise or change it. "There are too many memories in the stone," was the reason they gave. No pony argued.

Ponies stopped and bowed for her, like they had always done and Celestia smiled down at them, like she always did.

Celestia carried on past a group of ponies that stopped and asked her for her autograph, not giving them a thought. "They act as if I'm a TV star..." She shook her head and wandered her way through the city till she reached her destination, the docks.

She could hear the shouting of ponies from streets away and sped herself up, she needed to see it for herself.

Turning the last corner, her eyes widened at the sight of HMS Twilight in all its splendor. The pale blue side was lit up with hundreds of spotlights, highlighting where each panel of its hull intersected.

Celestia trotted past various ponies lifting and moving crates and made her way towards the cargo dock. She stopped infront of the quartermaster's booth and tapped on the window, seeing the pony taking a nap in his chair.

"Excuse me, sir," She said, tapping again.

The pony jolted up and turned, angry his nap had been interrupted, "Who is i-" He stopped and hisbeyes widened, "Y-your M-majesty, how c-can I h-help you?!"

Celestia smiled, "I would like to help."

Thr quartermaster blinked, "I'm sorry, you want to help?"

"Yes, is that a problem?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh no, of course not. Why would you want to though?"

"You've all helped me so much, I'd like to help you. Even though it's small..."

"When you put it that way... Come on, I know what you can do." the pony left his booth and walked around the Princess, "So, how much can you lift?"

~~~

Celestia sighed and relaxed. It had been a long time since she'd use that much magic in one day, let alone one hour.

She sat back in her chair and looked around her private room. Unlike her room back in the castle, this room was plain and streamlined. Her eyes passed her mementoes that hung on the walls and sat on her shelves; memories she couldn't bare to part with: the elements.

They sat on her shelf in glass cases, lit up from behind. "I can almost hear their laughter," Celestia thought, imagining their reactions to such an occasion.

"Pinkie would probably throw a party..." Celestia laughed.

"Applejack wouldn't leave her family, not without Rarity."
Celestia smiled.

"Rainbow would say something along the lines of 'still not as fast as me!'"
Celestia frowned.

"Rarity would call it ugly and want more gems welded on."
Celestia closed her eyes.

"Twilight... She'd probably want to pilot the damn thing..."
Celestia choked back her tears.

"Why... Why can't she be here with me!" She shouted lashing her magic out, flipping her table and smashing the glass counter. She looked over and rose, moving into her bedroom.

She flopped down onto the king sized bed, spreading herself out over the silk sheets and gazed out of the window. "Is that...?"

She rushed over to the window and used her magic to magnify her vision and sure enough, she could see her sisters room from where she stood. Outside on the balcony sat her sister with her own student waving goodbye .

It raised her spirits but did nothing for her mind. She reached out for Luna using their bond and felt a connection.

"Luna."

"I'm here, sister." Luna replied. "What is the matter?"

"She should be here..."

"I know, I miss her as well." There was a pause. "I didn't tell you; I wanted it to be a surprise, but... I found Spike."

"How is he, is he unhurt?!"

"Tell him yourself, he's onboard."

Celestia could almost feel the smugness from her side and shook her head, "He's coming with me?"

"Yeah... Though I had to agree to a date with him... You're welcome."

Celestia chuckled and asked, "Where did you find him?"

"In the Everfree heart, he'd been there all along. Since..."

"Yeah."

"It's almost time for your departure." There was a long pause this time. "Come back..."

"Of course; I love you."

"I love you too, Celly."

Celestia broke their link and lowered her head, feeling the vibrations from the engine start to increase. She braced herself for the acceleration and watched as her sister, her city and her world slowly sped away from her past the cloud layer.

"I'll come back to you, Twilight," she whispered a tear making its way down her cheek, picturing Twilight's grave.

> Chapter 2: Tea with company
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Princess on deck!" One of the guards escorting Celestia shouted, causing all ponies working on the bridge to stop what they were doing and stare.

A large earth pony wandered over, looked Celestia over and said, "Well well, do my eyes betray me?"

"Captain, I hope not." Celestia replied, smiling as usual. "How long till we reach the moon?"

"Not long; maybe a few minutes." The captain turned and headed back to his chair, sitting down and sighing. "Please call me Fog, ma'am."

"Of course, thank you for taking this position."

"Hah!" he slapped the chair, "I wouldn't miss this for the world." He gazed out of the front viewing screen, "A chance to see the stars that you and your sister helped shape," a grin made its way onto his face, "They won't change during our voyage, right?"

"No, capt- fog. My sister promised not to meddle with her stars."

"Good... Good." He glanced down at a pony sitting behind one of the control panels, "Change our heading to match the moon's jump point."

"Fog, is the jump point working correctly?" Celestia asked, standing next to him. She gave him a worried look. "They weren't having very positive results last time they ran the tests..."

"Don't you worry, Princess. They sent me confirmation of a successful test earlier." He looked over, "This wouldn't be flying if it wouldn't work."

"If your sure..."

Celestia turned back to the front and watched as the moon came into view. Several of the ponies on the bridge gave 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.

As they neared the surface, Celestia spotted numerous buildings set next to one of the craters. A large circular disk ran around the edge of the crater, lights blinking every couple of meters.

On the screen in front of everypony, a smaller window popped up, showing a Brian Surge and a frazzled old pony next to him.

"Capt- oh ma'am. I didn't expect you to be on the bridge."

"I got bored," Celestia replied, giving a little nod. "Please continue."

"Okay. Sir, we've double checked everything and the jump point is fine on our end." Surge was tapped on the should and he turned around to talk to somepony.

The pony next to him continued, "As Surge explained, the machine is working at ninety nine point seven percent efficiency."

"Thank you."

"You welcome, ma'am."

Brain Surge turned back and nodded, "We're ready when you are, Captain." He used his magic and typed on the keyboard, "The Arcane intelligence is programmed to open the jump point again in exactly ten years, unless told otherwise by your sister."

Celestia nodded, "Open it, I'm sure these ponies want to see the stars."

The screen cut off, giving an unrivaled view of the crater. A small blue like ran around the edge, gaining speed as it went. By the fifth rotation, it was too fast to see and sparks sprang from one side of the ring to the other.

All in all, it only took a few minutes, but once the light blue light bathed the bridge, it felt like an eternity to Celestia.

The once grey, lifeless surface of the moon lit up for all of Equestria. Even from the planet below, it could be seen as a large blue hole in the moon.

Celestia's mouth hung open. "I never thought I'd actually be going..." It hit her, She'd be gone from her world, her sister for ten years. She could feel her heart rate increase, her vision go fuzzy as she felt the acceleration kick in, moving them towards the jump point.

The captain reached over and tapped a button on his control, "Attention all crew, we are about to leave our solar system. I've been told this may feel weird at first, but it will get better. Let's hope we have a good ten years." He tapped the button again and looked over to the Princess, "Ma'am!"

He jumped out of his seat and rushed over to Celestia as he saw her collapse, "Guards, get the medical team!"

"Yes sir!" they saluted and rushed off.

"Stay with me, Celestia!" He held her and waited. The last thing the Princess saw was unfamiliar stars before her vision faded to black.

~~~

"Urgh..." Celestia groaned as consciousness returned to her and she opened her eyes. She closed them and covered her eyes with a hoof, the lights annoying her.

"About time you woke up," A male voice spoke up, tension evident in his voice.

Celestia opened her eyes and squinted about, "Who is this?" She asked. She frowned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten my voice?" the guy said. "She always said you could be forgetful..."

Celestia froze and looked over to the corner of her bedroom. "Spike..."

"Celestia."

"How are you?" She asked, honestly caring.

"Been better," he replied shrugging.

Celestia's vision returned properly and she could finally see how Spike had grown up. He now stood as tall as her, horn not included. His body rippled with muscles that his younger self lacked and he gained an aura of confidence that she'd only seen once before; now it seems to be permanent.

"I heard you were in the Everfree heart..." Celestia said, trying not to star at his improved physic.

"It seemed like the best place for me," he answered, coldly. His gaze looked around the room, "I see you don't have her picture, typical."

Giving no room for a reply, he rose from the seat and walked over to the door. He pressed a pad next to it and the door slid open. "I can go, now you're awake."

Spike walked through and closed the door, leaving Celestia to sit there to process what happened. A few seconds later she broke down in tears and fell back. "After all this time, he still hates me..."

~~~

Celestia stood out in one of the hallways admiring the view. This was one of the hallways on her floor where almost the entire side of the deck was made to be a viewport. She marvelled at pony ingenuity and smiled at all her children had accomplished.

The ship had passed by a small asteroid belt earlier on its way to the first charted planet on it's predestined course: Vg-159.

Celestia had no idea who named it, or even what it meant. But apparently it's surface was liquid methane and was surrounded by it's own cracked moon. There had been various artistic renders made just for this mission so the Princess could see what to expect, but she knew from experience that most stuff is better when viewed in person.

"Ma'am," A pony next to her said, bowing.

Celestia turned her head and saw a small blue Pegasus with a bright yellow mane. The princess bowed back and asked, "What is your name?"

"Star charmer," She replied. "I just wanted to say, it's an honor to have you aboard, we'll do our best to keep you comfortable."

"That means more than you know, Star." The Princess smiled and asked, "What do you work on?"

"Oh nothing much; just a maintanance worker for some of the autocannons..." Star rubbed the back of her head and blushed, "It's boring, really."

"Nonsense, would you like to stay and have tea?"

"Me, h-have tea with y-you... Oh my," Star swooned, but was quickly caught by the Princess in her magic. A few onlookers raised their eyebrow at the scene, but soon enough returned to their work.

The princess wandered around the deck with the unconscious Star Charmer in her magic, trying to find the cafeteria. Luck was on her side as she quickly found a map and made her way down a deck and across half the ship.

She pushed the pad next to the doors and they slid open to reveal the cafeteria in all of it's grey splendor. It felt surprisingly lifeless to Celestia, even though it was inhabited by at least a hundred ponies that only took up a small portion of the seating.

She passed ponies of all shapes and sizes laughing and joking. It made her smile.

They found a relatively empty portion of the seating and sat. Celestia placed Star down on her own seat and used her magic to wake her up.

"Huh, what!?" Star shouted, making a couple if nearby ponies laugh. She saw the Princess and blushed, looking down. "I'm sorry Princess, you shouldn't have had to carry me."

"I didn't..." Celestia replied, looking around at the other ponies in the room.

"What do you mean?" Star tilted her head, "If you didn't, how did I get here?"

Celestia's lips curled ever so slightly, it was almost invisible, "You fly in your sleep..."

Star Charmer's eyes opened wide, "I haven't done that since..." she caught sight of the princess's smirk and gave her a deadpan look. "I didn't sleep-fly did I?"

"Gotcha..."

Star calmed down and giggled. "The ponies I worked with always did say you were a joker." Star smiled and glanced over to the food line, "Stay here, I'll get us some tea..."

Star got up out of her seat and walked around to stand in line. Celestia didn't mine waiting, but it was the stares that got to her.

Sure, she was used to running a country, but these stares were different. They were excitement mixed with something else that she couldn't quite place, "fear, maybe", she thought.

Star Charmer returned with their tea, balanced on her back, "Here you go." Celestia picked them up with magic and placed them on the table. "Thanks."

The two of them sipped theirntea in comfortable silence until the Princess spoke up, "I wasn't expecting any guns on the ship."

"Oh, we'd need them incase an asteroid blocked out path or was heading towards us. Our shields are not strong enough to withstand anything over ten tonnes hitting them, even if the hull can."

"I see..." Celestia sipped her tea with practised precision and nodded. "Another question, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Star nodded.

"What do you think about aliens?"

"A-aliens, whatever do you mean?" Star asked, surprised by the question and placing her cup down.

"Well, do you believe in them?" Celestia raised an eyebrow, waiting for Star to answer. She sipped her tea again and quickly took a glance about, seeing her present company also waiting for Stars answer.

"I... haven't really thought about it, I didn't come along to see if they exist. I can along to make sure you would be alright..." 

The Princess blinked at that. Her surprise at the honesty turned into a smirk, then into full blown laughter. "You came alone to... To make sure I would be... Be alright!" her laughter died down to a quiet chuckle, "Miss Charmer, I'm a multi-century old Alicorn who's immortal... I should be making sure you get home okay."

Celestia grinned and returned back to her tea, thankfull the stares had stopped. For better or worse, she wouldn't know.

~~~

Celestia quickly left the shocked Star Charmer and made her way through the ship to the deck above. She stopped on the side that would be orbiting thr planet for a couple of days and stopped.

"You'd enjoy this, Twilight." The Princess thought to herself as she passed a group of ponies. She stopped about halfway down the hall and took in the sight of the star of the current system they were passing through onto the next jump.

It glowed a bright red, bathing the deck and relaxing Celestia. She placed her head on the railing that separated the hull from the deck proper and sighed. 

> Chapter 3: Books, hangers and Surprise!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So this is it..." The Princess thought to herself, looking down upon the frozen world from her own personal cabin window.

The world below, a light blue drop of liquid methane reflected the systems sun, momentarily blinding Celestia.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Fog spoke up, making the Princess Jump. He chuckled, "Sorry..."

"Yes, it is..." Celestia replied, turning back to the planet. "I'm sure the ponies on board are all unimaginably excited."

Fog let out a deep laugh. "You don't even know; they are all lined up on the viewing decks."

Celestia smiled and sighed, "Good." She looked back at Fog who was examining the Elements. "How far are we away from Equis?"

"About three hundred light years. We're going for another jump soon; reaching around one thousand two hundred." He replied, keeping his attention of the elements.

"What should we expect?" Celestia walked over to her chair and sat down. Lifting a cup of tea from the newly fixed table.

"We won't know till we jump. We've got some crew out making the jump point right now."

Taking a sip, Celestia gently stopped the captain from touching the element of laughter with her magic and said, "Please captain, sit."

He wandered over and sat down, "Ah yes, I wanted to see how you are doing?" He softened his look, "You fainted as we passed through the gate, it didn't hurt you did it?"

"Oh no, I was... being silly." Celestia laughed, "I'm better now." She saw the look that Fog was giving her and shook her head, "Honestly, I'm okay."

"If your sure, the doctor did say you seemed okay..."

The Princess took another sip of her tea and sighed. "If you'd excuse me. I have a Pegasus to see." She stood up and opened the door, turning back she rolled her eyes upon seeing Fog looking at the Elements, "No touching, I'm warning you."

His head shot around, "Got it, no touching!"

~~~

The next week went slowly for the Princess. She regularly met up with Star charmer and had small visits from the captain to see how she was doing, but Spike never seemed to come around.

It reached the day where the ship was planned to jump to the next system and Celestia watched as the construction crew docked back into the ships hanger from the viewing decks window.

She wandered down the hall and into the elevator, squeezing in just enough for two other ponies to join her. The princess didn't mind them bunching up against her chest, but strangely the two ponies were blushing as they jumped out.

The princess walked out with a small smile of her face as the doors closed behind her. She looked over to a small map of the deck on the wall. "Deck twelve," she said to herself, mentally creating a route to the hanger.

She walked through hallways and side passages till she reached her destination and touched the panel next to the door. They slid open with a small "woosh" and revealed the bustling hanger bay.

Trotting in, her mouth went from a smile to a full blown grin. Her hooves touched metal and she dowb to see herself about four decks up on the highest area of hanger.

She leaned on the railing and watched as the construction ships were decontaminated and scrubbed down; the crews stretching and talking together.

Celestia took in the ships they used and couldn't quite place where she had seen them. They had an almost rectangle frame with a tractor beam and welder on the front for the non unicorns. The unicorn variant had an amplifier for their horns allowing them to do everything under their own power.

The hanger itself was quite spacious, taking up four decks and spanning almost half of the decks themselves. The other half were quarters for the crew and their families.

Almost all of the hanger was made of metal, giving it a sterile look, but a necessary one. The bulkheads to the outer space were made of heavy duty titanium; specially created to harden under pressure.

Celestia smiled as she watched her ponies joke and laugh together, warming her heart and making her think of back home. She looked down and swallowed, hearing claw scratched from behind her.

"Something the matter, Princess?" Spike asked, standing next to her and leaning on the railing.

"Just thinking of home..."

Spike didn't say anything to that, deciding to let silence settle around them.

"You've been gone a long time," Celestia whispered, afraid he would leave again.

"This week or before?" Spike asked, hid voice full of sarcasm.

"Both."

"I had some things to think through." He held a serious expression in his face, no hint of his cheerful ex-self that Celestia knew from before.

"What kind of things?" Celestia turned and saw Spike staring down at the ponies with some sort of disgust evident on his face. She frowned and looked away not wanting to get into an argument.

"Luna didn't tell you why I was here, did she?"

"No... She only told me you were here on the day of the launch." Now Celestia's interest was caught, she turned back to Spike, "Why are you here?"

"Luna's... A worrer," He replied, a small smile making it's way onto his face. "She wanted me to look after you."

"Look after me?" Celestia looked at him incredulously. "I can't die, remember."

"Unlike some ponies," he muttered. "Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean you can't be hurt."

"Well, yeah. But what's going to hurt me on the ship?"

"She just said to look after you, so that's what I'm going to do." Spike looked down to see the ponies leave the hanger. "Looks like we're going to jump. You should go and check it out."

"What about you?" Celestia asked, moving a hoof over to him.

Spike jerked back and turned away, "I have things to do." He gripped the railing and vaulted over, falling four decks and hitting the steel floor. He rose from a crouch and walked off, leaving Celestia as the only being in the room.

~~~

Celestia rushed down the halls trying to remember where Star Charmer worked before stopping and face-hoofing. "I can just track her..." She thought and chuckled.

With a blast of magic, a small sparkly line ran along the route straight to Star. Celestia galloped down it till she ran into a door and pressed the pad.

The door slid open and she walked in, looking around the small maintanance hall.

"Princess?" Star asked from behind.

Celestia turned around and looked confused for a second before she shook her head, "Star Charmer, I would like you to accompany me while we jump."

"Um... I have to finish the maintanance..." Star said, afraid she had upset the Princess. "Not that I wouldn't want to!"

"Oh... okay..." Celestia gave a half-hearted smile and started to walk away.

"Okay, I mean sure!" Star shouted. "Oops..." she giggled. She watched the Princess turn her head, "I'll finish up so I can complete the rest tomorrow and come to your quarters."

"I was thinking somewhere a bit more familiar to me." Celestia's smile returned, "The library on floor fourth three should do fine."

"Sounds great, I'll, see you soon."

The Princess walked off, making her way up to the library. She made it to the library and entered, pushing the heavy wood doors aside with her own hooves rather than magic, preferring to feel the wood.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Prefect," she whispered, a smile being born on her face.

Opening her eyes again, she saw it was exactly like she had hoped and specified in her documents. Celestia had specifically asked for the library to be a perfect replica of the Golden Oaks library from Ponyville. "Almost perfect," She whispered sadly, walking over to the table and running her hoof over the wood.

Making her way into the kitchen, she looked about for the cupboard that held the cups and saucers. Spotting it, she walked over and pulled two of each out and filled the kettle.

After she had made the tea, she levitated them back into the main room and sat down. She waited for almost twenty minutes for Star, keeping her tea hot with magic before the pony rushed through the doors.

"I'm sorry I'm late!" She shouted, her breathing deep and labored. Star had patches of grease and mechanical fluids down her coat, patches of her fur were sticking up in weird angles and her mane was a mess.

Celestia shook her head, "It's alright. You're here now." She nodded to the other chair, "Please sit."

Star walked over to the chair but hesitated before sitting, "Could you..." she asked, motioning to the grease.

"Of course." Celestia charged her horn and lifted the grease off of Star and teleported it out into space. "There."

Star sat and melted into the seat. "ooohhh," she moaned, relaxing.

"Comfortable?"

"Very." Star reluctantly leaned forwards and picked her tea up, sipping it slowly. She looked at the Princess, "No offense, Princess. But why did you ask me to join you here?"

Celestia looked split between answering honestly or answering in a way that would appease Star. She sighed, "I'm... Lonely."

Star kept her gaze but didn't say anything.

"Believe it or not, I don't know many ponies and have even less friends. I know the captain and Spike, the dragon." The Princess looked down to her rapidly cooling tea and swirled it with her magic, "Out of the four thousand ponies, I know three. Even then, I doubt I know Spike that well anymore..."

"I guess it's hard being a Princess..." Star said.

"You have no idea." Celestia chuckled, "That's why I came out in the first place; to get away from everypony... I guess this is what i get for being a bit selfish for once."

Nopony said anything for a few seconds before the Princess coughed, "Anyway, enough about me. I can feel we're about to jump. We should see the new system."

"S-sure," Star replied, a bit surprised at how quickly the Princess changed the topic. "Wait, you can feel that?"

Celestia stood up and walked towards the door, "Yeah, I can feel the vibrations in the frame. I'm surprised you can't."

Star gave a shrug, "Oh well."

Together, they walked out of the room and went down a few decks to a viewing window just in time to see the ship pass through the gate.

The gate itself revolved around and passed through the portal, shutting itself off after. The hanger opened and the same rectangular ships flew out to deconstruct the jump point.

"Wow!" Star said, amazed at the glowing white dwarf that they were currently passing by. "It's beautiful!" She pressed her face against the thick glass.

"Yeah, it really is-" The Princess was interrupted by a series of alarm sirens and bright red lights going off.

"What's going on!" Star shouted, looking up at the Princess in shock.

Celestia covered Stars and her ears with a magic filter and made their way to the lifts. As they were about to enter one, a recorded message played through the ship.

"Attention crew, the ship will be under a code violet until further notice. Please will the Princess go to the bridge!"

"You'd better go first!" Star shouted, backing out of elevator. "I can make my own way to maintanance!"

"Okay, I'll see you soon!" The doors closed and the Princess was all alone as the red light blanketed the cramped box. Celestia breathed in and out, calming herself, "Don't worry, it's probably nothing... I hope."

The images her imagination conjured up didn't help her as the doors slid open. She rushed out and galloped down the hallway straight to the bridge; ponies jumping out of the way of their ruler.

She burst into the room and looked around for the captain or somepony that could tell her what was going on.

"Took you long enough," Spike said, standing up from the captains chair. "Come on." He walked around Celestia and out of the doorstep had nearly demolished.

Celestia huffed but followed, "What's going on, Spike!"

A few ponies were rushing about, "Get back to work!" Spike shouted and they scampered away. "Everypony is waiting for you on the flag bridge!"

"Why!?"

"They've found something!" He answered with a toothy smile. "We're here!"

Spike pulled open one of two large metal doors, "After you!" Celestia walked in and squinted, her eyes having to go from red light to full blown white.

There were ponies in suits congregated around a large table in the center of the room. The center of the table hosted a hologram of the current system with a small red area highlighted next to the only planet: a gas giant.

"Ah Princess, nice you're here," Fog said, getting up and walking around the table to greet her.

Celestia turned off the filter and bowed, "Didn't seem like I had a choice." she looked at each of the ponies in the room and raised an eyebrow, "Spike says we've found something?"

Fog nodded and returned to his seat. Upon pressing a button on the table, the hologram zoomed into a close up of the gas giant.

"This, is what our sensors picked up when we sent them through earlier." Fog pressed another button and the red area fizzled and it seemed to be what appeared to be a cracked moon within an asteroid field orbiting the planet.

"Okay..." Celestia said, moving closer. One of the ponies offered her their chair, but she refused.

Fog grinned before pressing another button, "And, this is what we saw when we jumped."

The moon faded out and was replaced with Celestia could only describe as a field of torn and broken crystals. At the center was one larger crystal with multiple warnings emanating from it.

"What are they?" Celestia asked, worried for her ponies. "Is it dangerous!?"

"No, at least we don't think so..." Fog sighed, "To be honest, we won't know what they are until we get closer. But we do know there's powerful magic resonating from inside, as ludicrous as that sounds."

He recieved a number of nods from the other ponies and one spoke up, "Should we initiate first contact, just in case?"

"First contact?" The Princess asked.

"For when the object is undoubtedly Alien, or alien made." Fog shook his head, "General Taylor thinks it is."

The mare in question turned to the Princess and saluted, "Ma'am, I do. No other creature on our planet can do magic, even the Zebra use alchemical ingredients and not pure magic. This, in my opinion is alien." she thought for a minute, "Maybe the magic was there to trick sensors, like an illusion spell?"

"Why would they need to trick sensors, let alone anything else?" Fog asked.

"Look at it!" Taylor pointed at the field of crystals. "That looks like a battlefield!" Her gaze softened at the picture, "Maybe their hiding?"

"I'm still not convinced. Princess, what do you think?"

The Princess was shaken out of her daze and looked at Fog, "I want to take a closer look." She looked at Taylor, "If this is an alien battlefield, It may be dangerous to stay here."

"Ma'am, I'll have some of your best ponies accompany you."

"No need. Spike and Taylor will be all I need." The Princess spoke with absolution, giving no room for compromise.

Fog hesitated before sighing, "As you wish, your majesty."
> Chapter 4: What could possibly go wrong?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia spun around in he specifically made space suit. It had been created out of the lightest, but most secure materials that ponies could engineer.

She looked herself over and grinned. "This is so cool!" Celestia lifter her wings and could barely believe how light and flexible the material was on her body.

The suit started on her hooves as carbon fibre horseshoes that sectioned off into panels, making their way up her legs and ending under her chest. It then curved and was supported by rows of mithril plates that attached to her underside and wrapped around her body, keeping that section together.

After that, the wings. The wing sections attached to the body using a sealed lock that could freeze the limbs if the user so desired. The length of the wings were wrapped in a case of clear crystal and were heat and kinetic resistant. The edge of the wings had a row of metal keeping the crystal shell in place.

Taylor nodded, "It's very nice, ma'am."

The Princess looked back at her after inspecting the underside of her wings, "Where's your suit?"

"I won't be needing one, I'm not going into what might be an alien craft."

"But, I hoof picked you to come with me." The Princess frowned, "Should I get somepony else?"

"Of course not, Princess," Taylor replied, wandering over to the small shuttle that had been laid out for the group. She walked up the steps and turned back, her hooves already in the ship, "I doubt either of you can fly one of these though..."

The Princess blinked, said, "Oh yeah," and face-hoofed herself.

The door opened and Spike walked into the room. "Let's go, we're wasting time," he said, throwing Celestia's helmet over to her. She caught it in her magic and gave him a glare.

"Thank you, but we were waiting for you."

"I had things to do," he replied, walking over to his own suit and slipping it on.

His suit was much more streamlined. It was plain black and skin-tight. He retracted the claws on his hands and feet and buckled up the suit, making it air-tight.

Slapping the last buckle into place, he walked into the shuttle and sat down, pulling the belt around himself.

Celestia joined him after and sat down. She fiddled with her belt for a couple of minutes, having some trouble before Spike sighed and helped her. "Thank you," she mumbled.

The next few minutes were silence, save for Taylor clicking and pushing buttons on the control dashboard. She raised the door and it sealed with a hiss, blowing warm air into Celestia's face.

Taylor placed a headset onto her head and pressed another button on the console, magically sealing the front of the ship from the back. "HMS Twilight, this is meet and greet, we are on our way to the party."

The sound of de-pressurisation could be heard as the hanger vacuumed the air out into the rest of the ship. Once the sound died down, the bulkheads slowly opened with small lights flashing to signal the event.

Taylor pulled up on the controls and the shuttle rumbled as the engines roared to life. Celestia held onto her belt as hard as she could while the craft lifted of the pad.

Taylor jerked the controls back and the shuttle slowly moved backwards out of the hanger and into the void of space.

Everyone shivered as they passed through the magical shield around the ship. Celestia let her grip go and found herself gently lifting off of her seat.

She looked over to Spike and found him floating in the same position, slightly above his seat. Celestia rolled her eyes and nudged him with a bit of magic.

He turned back, "Yes?"

"Did you forget to have fun while in that forest?"

Spike glared and faced the front, "I had no contact with any pony for over three hundred years, what do you think?" He clenched his hands and hopped she would be quiet for the rest of the journey; no such luck.

"I heard how Luna got you on board..." Celestia teased.

"Oh yeah, what did she lie about this time?"

Celestia blinked before smirking, "She said you are going in a date with her." she leaned over and tried peering around the chair in front of her, but couldn't and fell back into her own seat.

"I'll have words with her when we get back."

The way Spike said those words made Celestia shudder. She didn't know if he would actually be angry with her, but seeing their history, it wouldn't be surprising and it would end up bloody.

"If she's lying, she only meant it as a joke..."

Spike kept quiet as the ship floated forwards, powered only by the momentum that it generated earlier. Throughout the flight Taylor could hear everything that had transpired, yet didn't show it.

"We're nearing the field of debris," She said, tilting the screen slightly to adjust for the glare bouncing off the crystals. "I will sit tight after I drop you in the main craft. I want you to come back if anything happens, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," Spike said as he gripped the handles above him and moved himself over to the door.

Celestia decided to stay in her seat as moving around would be too disastrous with hooves.

The shuttle entered the field of debris and Taylor tinted the screen and turned off all lights and communication. "Just in case," she said, seeing Celestia give her a questioning look. "We don't know if anything is what we'd consider alive."

Celestia nodded and looked out of the one tiny hole that the shuttle could call a window and gasped.

She saw their own shuttle reflect off a nearby crystal millions of times as it was refracted and bounced off of other crystals nearby.

The shuttle passed by one massive crystal that easily dwarfed Canterlot with room to spare then passed into open space again. Celestia watched as all the far off crystal ships reflected the light, making them look like glittering stars, encircling the alien ship.

"Beautiful..." Celestia mumbled, pressing her face closer to the small hole, trying to get a better view.

Gradually the ship slowed to a stop, docking alongside the alien vessel. Taylor spun her chair around and took off the headset, "This is where it gets tricky. We couldn't see any discernable docking hatch or hanger bay, so... I had to stop beside an exposed section of the interior."

Celestia nodded, "Alright. How much air do we have?"

"You should have about five hours each, the magic enchanted in your suits will convert the carbon dioxide back into breathable oxygen." Taylor motioned to her head, "If you press there, you will be able to talk to me. You'll talk to each other by default."

The two nodded and Taylor swirled the chair back around, "Put on your helmets."

Spike and Celestia did that and both of their suits hissed as they were sealed. 

Celestia's helmet came up with a large number of displays of maps and sensor readings, while keeping her general line of sight unobstructed. 

Spike's displayed his and Celestia's health vitals and numerous readings about emotional state and their environment.

The door to the shuttle hissed and the air was sucked out of the compartment and back into a different section of the ship. 

The door opened and the two were greeted with a mass of destroyed compartments that looked bare, by pony standards.

"Remember, come back if anything happens!" Taylor said over the intercom.

Celestia unbundled her belt and slowly drifted over to Spike who caught her and gently put her down. "Got it," she replied, nodding.

"Let's go," Spike said, stretching his body as if uncomfortable. He stepped forwards and placed his boot on the crystalline surface of the alien craft, not noticing anything strange. Spike waved Celestia over and felt her weight push him as she jumped over.

"It's too clean..." Spike said breathlessly as he checked the visors displays. "No fluids of any kind... Strange." He thought as he looked over to the Princess who was panting, "Are you okay?"

He checked Celestia's health on his screen:  Heart-rate: elevated. 

She nodded, "Yeah, this magic is extremely thick though." Celestia used her magic to bring a small three dimensional map of the area onto both of their displays.

"We should follow this line if we want to get to the centre of the ship," Celestia said, a small holographic line appearing on the floor.

"I'll take point, don't wander off."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she mumbled, keeping close to Spike as the two walked through the corridors.

Each corridor seemed exactly like any other and Celestia was sure that if they didn't have the map they wouldn't find their way out. 

They passed by several walls that had alien inscriptions on them that looked like hieroglyphs from pre-Equestria. 

The two of them stopped and Celestia ran her hoof over the pictures with amazement, "This is amazing, real images of aliens!" She used her magic and let it wash over the pictures, capturing them in a magical photograph.

She squinted at the first proper section, "This is some sort of... it looks like you, Spike!" She saw Spike's blip on the map next to hers stop and carried on. "It stands upright and looks to be opening something, a box maybe?"

The Princess pointed towards the box, which was intricately carved, more so than the entire wall and it was obvious that an extreme amount of care was taken in creating this.

Her eyes widened, "This must be something akin to their religion or..." Celestia held her excitement in as her eyes travelled to the next section. "This part, the box is open and a stream of something is floating out." Her breath sped up in anticipation for the last part but was stopped by Spike.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "The centre is close, we should go." Celestia looked at Spike and back at the wall, "Now."

The Princess rolled her eyes and nodded, "Fine, I'll look at it later."

Spike took point again and they made their way ever forwards towards the centre of the ship. They passed a few more walls, which seemed to increase in variety, the closer they got. Each time a new one popped up, Celestia would take a snapshot of it and carry on.

Eventually the pair reached the only thing that resembled a door on the ship; the only thing to try and restrict their movement. It was a different color than the rest of the ship; a pale gold that contrasted with the deep purple that the rest of the ship was made of.

Spike walked up to it and pushed, receiving a forceful blast backwards and landing on his back. Celestia rushed over and helped him up, checking his suit for any damage.

He shook her off after a quick diagnostic test and looked the door over. He glared at the display and saw it wasn't registering on any of the normal readouts and the ones that it was, we're barely able to sense it.

After a tense few minutes, he stepped back and said, "I'm stumped, you can try."

Celestia shook her head and paced forwards, looking the door over. Around the edges were some sort of glyphs; tiny etchings that anyone not skilled in the art of magic would miss. "No wonder Spike missed them..." she thought with a small smirk, before leaning in to read them.

The impact that aliens, outer-space aliens used the same language for magic wasn't lost on her, but she decided to push that to the back of her mind for now, seeing as they were ever so slowly running out of air and worrying about it wouldn't help.

Celestia read along the side of the door and put the pieces together. She turned and looked at Spike, "It's a sealing spell and probably the cause for the magic our ship sensed." She frowned and looked back at the door, "But, this is the biggest one I've ever seen. If it's around this section, then it's either stopping something getting out, or stopping a whole load of things from getting in."

Her voice grew deep and she looked around at the destruction that had made its way through to the centre of the ship, "It would take several armies to break through this..."

"We don't have several armies; even on Equis." Spike remarked.

"No, but you have me. Back up and around the corner."

Spike frowned, "Did you really compare yourself to several armies?" Celestia turned her head and gave him a glare, making him back up.

She lit her horn and channelled all of her magic into a dispel spell. She had only done this spell once before, when Twilight had made the entire population of Ponyville enamoured with her doll using an extremely strong mental shift spell.

This brought back memories of her and Celestia felt the twinge in her heart; setting off alarms in Spike's suit.

Celestia: Emotional distress. Spike read the words and blinked through the tear inducing light to see Celestia, head down and eyes shut. He looked away, his thoughts and emotions muddled themselves up.

Celestia screamed as she discharged her spell at the door, the magic being absorbed by the unknown substance. The princess fell to her knees and gasped for breath as a pair of arms wrapped around her barrel and gently kept her from hitting the deck.

Spike looked at the door with amazement and then anger, "What the hell!" He placed Celestia down and walked up to it, "We came all this way and it doesn't even open!" Balling his fist, Spike reared back and punched the door leaving a large dent in it.

He blinked and looked at his fist then back at the door. Slowly he pressed his palm up to the door and smiled when he wasn't blasted back.

"Spike, help me up..." Celestia croaked from behind. Trying and failing to get to her hooves.

Wordlessly, he walked over and helped her to her hooves. He looked away as she groaned and charged her horn, launching white hot magic at the door.

The metal glowed and sizzled away before exploding outwards as a rush of air made its way past the pair.

Spike gripped the Princess with one hand around her barrel and held onto a pillar with the other. He gripped tighter as the air flow increased and ripped chunks of metal way and blew holes in the side of the ship.

"What's going on?!" Taylor screamed at them over the intercom.  "I have pieces of the ship flying out everywhere!"

"Settle down, we opened an air-tight section of the ship," Spike replied, double pressing his helmet. "We're fine, by the way."

Taylor blushed, "Good. I take it you're carrying on?"

"Yeah," Spike confirmed as he placed Celestia down. "We're in the central part now."

"Alright, I'll message the ship and tell them we won't be much longer, Taylor out."

Spike heard a click and glanced at Celestia who seemed fine with what happened.

She returned the look and said, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

The pair walked through the hole and into a whole different world. The floor was made of tiled marble of different shades, the walls were wallpapered with stars and planets and several granite pillars held the ceiling up. All in all, it looked like something out of roam.

In the middle of the room stood a large box, not unlike the one Celestia saw on the hieroglyphs and two small glowing cubes next to it.

Spike noticed that they were more weighted here and didn't feel the need to waste their power using the magical boots and horseshoes to stick to the floor.

Celestia ruffled her wings as she looked at the small cubes laying next to the box. She walked over and inspected them. There were a number of glyphs around them as well, but these ones she couldn't make out and instead turned her attention to the box.

Looking it over, she couldn't see any discernable glyphs or traps, but she hadn’t had to deal with any in some time. She used her magic and poked the box, expecting something to happen.

When nothing did, she raised an eyebrow, "Must be a normal box..."

"Are you sure?" Spike asked as he moved closer, an eye on the door and his map. "Make this quick, we only have twenty minutes of air left."

Celestia nodded, then decided the best course of action would be to open it and find out what was in the box; if it was dangerous she would leave it and if it was anything else, she would take it with her.

Lifting a hoof up, she placed it under the rim on the box and grunted as she lifted, finding it surprisingly heavy for something so small. As the top came up, a golden glow emanated from within, causing Celestia to squint and then close her eyes altogether.

A series of high pitched alarms rang on Spikes suit and he spun around to see Celestia suspended in some sort of golden glow. He read the alarms and saw: Celestia: Mental Trauma, Celestia: Imminent death.

Running forwards he hit into a force field stopping him, "Celestia!" Spike screamed as he smashed the force field with enough strength to crush boulders, being rewarded with a series of ripples passing over the force field.

The glow brightened as Spike's suit blared out the final warning, Celestia: Deceased.

> Chapter 5: This is what went wrong!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pure. Pure was what Celestia felt like. Before Discord and before Nightmare moon, she was pure.

Then those monsters came and destroyed her. They didn't hurt or torture her, they did something much worse, they changed her.

Gone was the honest and naive Princess and in her place was what everypony else saw, the lonely, cold and calculating Princess.

Everypony saw a mask, a facade, that she put up for them because if they saw the real her it would be seconds before they executed, banished or locked her up and she'd let them.

To say this was bliss would be an understatement and Celestia didn't know what this was; every nerve was on fire with sensations racing all over her body, leaving her feeling raw.

The only thing she would compare it to would be a hundred million orgasms racing through her mind, blotting out existence or a single morning, waking up and seeing Twilight smile.

As fast as it happened, the sensation ended and she reluctantly opened her eyes feeling exhausted and cold.

She looked around and saw she was in some sort of morgue or examination room. There was a distinct smell of disinfectant and the room looked to be scrubbed down to a mirror shine.

She looked down at herself and found she was covered in some sort of blue cloth and made to move it but found her limbs stiff and sore. Bearing the discomfort, she pulled the cover off and screamed at the grotesque "Y" shaped scar that ran along the length of her chest.

She stared at it, her breath catching and her heart-rate skyrocketing. She scrambled back and fell of the table with a large clatter as a table next to her fell to the ground, spilling instruments and notes over the sterile floor.

She hit the ground with a dull thump and groaned, the force knocking her out of her panic attack. 

Celestia shook her head and moved her hoof over her chest, feeling where the stitches were still embedded in her chest and dangled down.

Feeling fine, other than the scar, Celestia rose and stretched her wings, making sure they still worked correctly. She opened them to her full wingspan and fluttered them, frowning at the preening she would have to do later after she gets some information and a hot bath.

Looking down at the clutter, she picked it all up in her magic, which had changed from the yellowy gold, to a more sparkly bronze color, placing it back on the now upright table.

Looking over some of the notes, she came across: Princess Celestia: passed away after extreme mental and magical trauma. Medical teams tried multiple resuscitations, but nothing was successful."

"I died... But..." Her thoughts died when a noise from outside the room alerted her to the presence of another pony. She stood up straight and waited for the pony to find her, hoping she wouldn't boot too horrible to anypony else.

The double doors opened and a mare walked in. She was dark grey with a white mane and tail sporting a lab coat which covered her cutie-mark.

Trotting in, she spotted the Princess and froze, her eyes going wide. She slowly rose a shaking leg up and promptly fainted, flopping to the floor in a heap.

The Princess rolled her eyes and lifted the mare off of the cold floor and onto her back. "Let's see if anypony knows something..." she thought as she walked towards the doors.

Just as she was about to push the doors open, she clichéd her head with a hoof as a migraine pushed through her and made her close her eyes.

After a few seconds the migraine passed, leaving Celestia dizzy and lightheaded. She opened her eyes to see a glow in front of her.

Yelping. She jumped back as she charged her horn, holding the pony on her back with her wings. The glow hovered there, slowly gaining in size and brightness before it collapsed in on itself and a moderately sized orb took its place.

The orb fizzled and cracked, shattering into a billion glistening stars, leaving behind a slightly smaller being. It stirred, glowing in time with Celestia's breathing and shook.

The being wasn't entirely organic and wasn't entirely ethereal, somewhere in-between and looked like something Celestia had seen from a mathematics book on multi-dimensional shapes, a hexacosichoron.

"I'm awake..." it said, the voice leaving it's body and from inside Celestia's head at the same time. The voice sounded young, but that could have been her mind playing tricks and she frowned, uncharging her magic, for now.

Coughing, she asked, "Uh, hello... What are you?"

The being hovered in silence for a second and then answered, "I am."

"That... doesn't answer my question..." She shook her head and carried in, "Let's try something else, what's your name?" Surely this was something it could answer, it knew our language after all.

"I haven't used names in such a long time," It answered, sounding partly dispondant but cheering up, "My race has no need for names, at least not for a while now." It bobbed slightly, glowing bright, "Organic beings are fond of names, would you like to give me one?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow, "Well, I need to know what race you are then maybe I can find something to call you."

The aliens glow receded slightly but didn't fade completely, "Our race was named Tetra."

"Was?"

"I am the only one left, our enemies destroyed these vessels, like what I currently inhabit." It sounded depressed and the glow faded, showing it's hollow body once more.

"I-I don't know what to say..." Celestia stood there, horrified that an entire race could be killed off. She swallowed and nodded to herself, "I... can't bring any of them back, but I can protect you. As Co diarch of Equestria, planet of Equis, andromeda galaxy, I hereby offer my ship, my country and any needed assistance to you and anymore of your race that request it, wherever they may be."

She finished and looked at the alien to see it shining brightly, a miniature sun in front of her. "Thank you, Celestia." The alien lowered itself for a few seconds as some sort of bow and Celestia copied, bowing her head.

"I take it you were on the ship?" Celestia asked, rearranging her cargo.

"Indeed, I was sleeping when you woke me."

"What happened?" Celestia closed her eyes trying to remember the series of events before waking up in the morgue, "I opened the box and then... nothing."

"You saw my original form that organics cannot handle, even ones as... robust as you."

Celestia couldn't hide the miniscule blush that made its way onto her face and shook her head, "What do you mean original form?"

"This is simply a vessel made from magic I and siphoning from you." It saw the shocked look on her face, "Do not worry, it is nothing malicious. It was done to save my existence and my race have become very efficient at minimising the amount of magic we consume with these forms. It hovered silently before continuing, "I did not expect an equine to open my seal... It was strange." The alien said the word in such a way that Celestia assumed he had never felt confused before.

"Who did you expect to find you and why do you need my magic to exist?" She asked with a hint of agitation.

"I'm sure you saw our scriptures on our vessel?" Celestia nodded. "They prophesised that our masters and creators would come back and bring us to the next universe," he explained with a sigh at the end. "Your race are not our creators... But you are kind and powerful, like they were."

The alien shook and the glow diminished, "As for your second question, I absorb magic passively to exist in this vessel. Without it I would pass over, back to the end."

"The end?" Celestia asked.

"Of course, organics wouldn't know..." It mumbled, still as loud as before. "The end is what you would call the place after your passing. There only is in the end, no time, no space. You only are."

"It sounds horrible."

"It is unimaginable for something of this universe. For us, of the end, it is pure torture nor to be able to experience reality." The aliens voice began to waver as he continued, "That is why I use your magic, to simply exist."

Celestia covered her mouth with a hoof as a tear dropped to the floor. "I won't stop you," she whispered.

"You have my infinite gratitude... Friend?"

Celestia gasped and hugged the tetra, pulling it close to her chest. A sphere flared around the being keeping Celestia away from the main body.

"Celestia, please..." It said, being ignored.

Celestia nuzzled the top if the sphere and released it. "There."

"While that maybe what your kind does, it would be my turn to show my gratitude in my races way." A small brown magical aura leaked out of the side of its body and hovered in front of Celestia. "Use your magic and hold mine."

Celestia let out a controlled lead of magic and wrapped it around the aura, immediately sighing as she closed her eyes. Her whole body felt like it was being hugged and her neck was being nuzzled, "This is my species' way of showing affection." The being said, a small chuckle making it's way into it's voice. It echoed inside Celestia's mind as she opened her eyes.

Celestia held a genuine smile of her face and she felt energised, ready to take on the universe, "Did I really die?" She asked, her smile never leaving her face.

"Indeed, a most unfortunate side effect of opening the my seal, I apologise."

"Then... How am I alive?"

"It shames me to say that I do not know. Though, I know that since our joining, there will be benefits to both of us. As little as that will help, it is a boost if nothing else."

"I suppose... Do you know what benefits they might be?"

"I do, but that would spoil the surprise," The alien replied, with an ethereal laugh.

The princess poute then remembered where they were. "Everypony thinks I'm dead!" She shouted and checked on her cargo, "Still asleep, good."

"It would be best if I stay out of sight for the time being." It said, turning into a magical aura and flowing down the Princess's horn.

She shivered and a small headache pulsed through her mind before it faded "I have entered your mind... It's cluttered..."

The Princess closed her eyes and asked, "How?"

"One of the benefits..." She could actually feel its chuckle inside her head.

"Oh, okay." Celestia took a deep breath and pushed the doors open and trotted through. The corridor looked quite spacious and lead to a small table with a computer and documents piled up neatly just in front of a large wooden door.

Celestia ignored the table and went straight towards the door and used her magic to enhance her hearing. She heard nothing behind the door, wall or around her and assumed it was safe.

She opened the door and walked through into a metal stairway. "Which way?"

"I can look for the information, if you'd liked. I need your permission."

"...Sure."

She felt a small itch coming from within her head for a fraction of a second and then it was gone.

"For something so cluttered it was extremely organised... As for the way, go up. We are two floors under where Star Charmer works, East side."

As Celestia climbed the stairs she asked, "Do you know how long I was dead?"

"I," There was a small pause, "do."

"Well?" She huffed, climbing ever further up.

"Based with how much magic I used while keeping myself alive... I'd say about one week, with an eighty nine percent accuracy."

"One week!" She shouted. "How could I have been dead for so long." Celestia whimpered as her climbed stopped with a few stairs left, "I've... never died before."

She felt a soothing warmth around her and for a moment could feel and smell Twilight snuggle up to her before realising where she was. Celestia built mental barriers up around her memories and emotions and snarled, "Don't you ever do that again!"

"But... It brought you joy, did it not?"

Celestia's anger slowly seeped out of her and she hung her head. "I apologise... Those memories are all I have left."

"I apologise, it shall not happen again."

The Princess rose her head and made the final few stairs up and onto the floor where Star Charmer worked, the autocannon maintanance bay.

She walked through, gaining stares and fainting from all of her subjects and in turn smiled back at them the best she could.

Star Charmer came into view and Celestia trotted up to her while her back was turned. Tapping her on the shoulder, she grinned as Star turned around, screamed something about a "zombie princess", promptly threw a spanner at her head and fainted.

The spanner hit Celestia on the nose and bounced off with a clang. She scrunched her nose up and shook her head, straightening up her mane.

With an amused chuckle in her head, Celestia fed a small spell into her and waited for the spell to take effect.

Star woke up with a groan and looked up at Celestia with wide eyes, "P-princess?!"

"Yes, my little pony," she replied with practised grace that these situations demanded.

"Oh Princess!" Star shouted, hugging her. She started sobbing intoned chest, dampening Celestia with her tears. "They said you di-I-ied!"

"I got better."

Star laughed and hiccuped, nuzzling Celestia's chest. "I'm glad, I wouldn't have made the trip without you. Everypony is so mean now..."

Celestia was surprised at how much Star's crying affected her, causing her chest to ache and how everypony is suddenly mean."

"Star, come with me. I'll need you for support." Celestia wanted to say "For moral support" but she just couldn't bring herself to be even that open with somepony.

Together, they walked out of the maintanance bays with hundred of stunned ponies in their wake, some crying, some praying but all ecstatic about their Princess's recovery.
> Chapter 6: Alien encounters.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star and Celestia took the elevator up to the deck which held the bridge and walked out, receiving stunned stares and ponies bowing. Soon enough, the whole floor was bowing and Celestia had a smile on her face as she realised things might get better.

The two passed a pair of guards patrolling and they stopped, mouths hanging open before their training kicked in they fell behind the Princess.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" One of the guards asked, receiving a glare from his partner for the question.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" The Princess answered, the corners of her mouth turning up. "Do I look unwell?"

"Of course not, Princess." The guard replied. "You look radiant, as usual."

Star looked up at the Princess, moving out of the way for some ponies that had stopped to look at Celestia, "How did you come back to us?"

"That doesn't matter, all that matters is that I am back." Celestia didn't take her eyes off the far end of the hall where the doors to the bridge sat closed.

"Celestia, am I sensing a little bit of tension?" The tetra whispered, so not to distract Celestia too much. "If you'd like, I can remove it?"

"No, this is my mess and I'll sort it out." She replied, giving a silent an almost invisible shake of her head.

The four ponies stopped in front of the bridge and Celestia turned to her Guards-ponies. "Stay here, no pony comes in unless they work here," she ordered, receiving a salute.

She opened the door with her magic and walked in with Star Charmer in tow. The bridge carried on as if no pony had entered until one of the ponies on the navigation controls spotted her, gasped, got out of her seat and bowed.

The captain looked over and frowned, "What are you doi-" her followed to where she was bowing and saw Celestia, "M-my Princess!"

He jumped out his seat and ran over, prostrating himself at her hooves, "It's a miracle!"

"Please, Fog. It's no miracle." Celestia raised his head up with a flicker of magic and gazed down at his wide eyes, "I'm immortal, remember."

"But-"

He was cut off by the Princess placing her bare hoof on his lips, "Please, Fog. Leave it at that."

Fog found it hard to stop the blush forming on his face and nodded. The Princess retracted her hoof and looked about, finding all of the ponies bowing and uttering praises to Luna for bringing her sister back.

"Another immortal?"

"Yes, my sister." Celestia rose all of them with her magic and seeing all of them gaze at her with wonder opened her wings, "I promise not leave you again, my little ponies."

The ponies on the bridge ran over and hugged the Princess, who had fallen to her knees to receive her ponies. She closed her eyes and pulled Star close, nuzzling her.

Star's face ran red as she wrapped her legs around the Princess's neck, "I missed you!" She started shaking and was held by Celestia leg as it rubbed her back.

"Shh," She cooed, "I'm not leaving."

~~~

"Princess," Taylor said from behind the Princess. She thanked the guards and walked into Celestia's chambers. Looking around, she walked up to Celestia who was looking out of the window towards the wreckage of the ship.

"Sit," Celestia ordered. She had been told to keep her regalia off forth time being and instead had a simple robe around her body to keep the scar from affecting anyone else. She turned around and saw Taylor sitting in the seat opposite, looking nervous.

"I take it you know why you're here?" Taylor shook her head, "Well... I want to apologising doe putting you under such stress."

Taylor sat still as a statue while she heard this, her mind processing this information. She slowly opened her mouth and said, "I let you down..." then she dropped her head down and into her waiting hooves.

"No, you didn't. Believe me, ponies have let me down before... You didn't." Celestia sat down and sighed, "We had no idea what we were going into. I could hear your voice while I was in that light, you did everything you could..."

"Why would you lie to her?" The alien asked, confused.

"Because it's the right thing to do." "I have nothing but praise for you; while you could have said no and not come with us, you didn't and looked out for us. Thank you." as Celestia finished, Taylor's head rose and she looked at the Princess with teary eyes.

"Y-you’re too kind..."

Celestia smirked, "I can't let one of my best commanders retire, now can I?"

~~~

Celestia was sat sipping some green tea in the library, she liked the peace and quiet compared to the hustle around her room or the bridge.

She locked the door with a silent spell and said, "You can come out."

A brown aura fizzled out of her horn, making her shiver as an even smaller headache passed through her head once more and faded. "Must it hurt every time?"

"Apologies," the alien spoke as the aura compressed itself into its correct body shape: a hexacosichoron. "It will lessen as you get used to me entering you."

The Princess nodded, "Okay." she sipped her tea and sighed, "I was wracking my brain to think of a name for you."

"I saw, and? I'm highly intrigued to hear what name an organic would think could suit me?"

Celestia rose her eyebrow at the wording but said nothing about it. Instead she placed the cup down and looked at the alien, "I couldn't think of a normal name suiting you, but seeing as you are  possibly   the last of your species..." she emphasised "Possibly in such a way that she hoped he/she/it wouldn't be offended and carried on, "I saw it fitting to name you simply Tetra. It could be something one would name their foal on my planet, maybe a bit unusual, but possible."

The glow from Tetra rose from a dim spark to a small sun once again and it flew around Celestia, "I is simple, yet describes me perfectly. I like it." In a split second, Tetra pulled its aura out and wrapped it around Celestia's horn eliciting a yelp as she felt warm and hugged.

Celestia closed her eyes and smiled, "I could get used to this..."

"Impossible, the sensations are sent directly to your brain." Tetra said, its glow dimming.

"It's an expression."

"Oh right, apologies." 

As the sensation wore off, Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at Tetra, "I have to ask, how you know our language? I'm the odds of our two species having the same is something astronomical."

"Ah, a good question. I took the information directly from your head as I was waking up."

Celestia looked shocked, "Did you take anything else?!"

"Nothing private, only some mannerisms which are useless in this form." Tetra bobbed and floated closer, "I assure you."

Celestia sighed and nodded, "Alright, I'll have to believe you." She thought for a second before choosing to ask, "Why were you in that sealed room?"

"You mean the sanctum. It's the first room on the ships to be built, think of it as our bridge." Tetra floated around the room, looking at all of the books, "I was sealed in because of the battle," Its voice deepened with hatred, "when the invaders found us, I was sealed up as the prime candidate. I was the summon of the emperors and that meant I had to be kept safe." It sighed, "Seems kind of pointless now."

"What do you mean summon?" The Princess asked, intrigued.

"I guess it would be like your... foals?" It wasn't exactly a question but Tetra didn't know if Equestrians used the common terms. "I was summoned several thousand years before."

"You're immortal too?"

"In a way. My vessel doesn't break down like organics, it gets more complex. The longer I exist, the more my body changes. Most of my race don't live past three hundred thousand." Tetra floated down and over to Celestia, "I was to inherit the throne and rule, I guess I did..."

Celestia's mouth hung open, "T-three hundred... thousand !" Her mind shut down, unable to comprehend anything living that long. She couldn't imagine her species living that long.

"Did I say something wrong?"

~~~

After that little discussion in the library, Tetra went back into Celestia's mind and the two of them travelled to the Flag Bridge to talk to the commanders and Fog about Tetra.

She had just arrived on deck when the doors to the elevator opened. The princess walked out and down the hall. "I'm not sure about this..." She said, turning around.

"Do not worry, they cannot do anything to me. My shell is impervious to all but pure energy."

"It's not that I'm worried about." Celestia stopped and moved to the side of the hallway. Looking out of the window, she saw the remains of the vessels and gazed at them, ignoring the spontaneous hugging she received after the event on the bridge got out and heard by the crew. "Not every pony is so excited about meeting an alien."

"Why not? There aren't a lot of friendly species out in this universe. I would have thought it would be nice... And it is."

"You're the first species we'll have come across."

"Do not worry, it will be alright."

Celestia couldn't help but have her spirits uplifted by Tetra’s confidence and nodded her head. She waited for the pony currently wrapped around her leg to stop nuzzling her and slowly moved her leg out of her grasp; slowly walking to the flag bridge.

She walked passed two guards at the doors and nodded. Their magic pushing the doors aside and letting her through.

She looked around and saw Taylor, Fog and a few other ponies talking next to a whiteboard. Fog saw the Princess and shush every pony else.

"Princess, so good to see you. What do we owe the pleasure?"

Giving the other ponies a look, the Princess turned to Fog and asked. "I have something... Someone to show you."

The ponies in the room looked confused before Celestia walked over to a spacious part of the room and her horn lit up.

The brown aura flowed out of her horn and coalesced into Tetra. This time, the Princess didn't feel anything and smiled.

"Every pony, I'd like you to meet Tetra. She saved me from death."

All of the pony's eyes in the room widened and they shook. "Is that an a-a-alien?" Fog shouted and pointed a hoof.

"Indeed, a pleasure to meet you." Tetra said, bobbing.

The ponies in the room stood statue still and it went silent. Celestia coughed and looked between the ponies and saw varying degrees of fear.

"Don't worry, Tetra's not here to hurt any pony," she said reassuringly and walked over to Fog. "Are you alright?" She asked, brushing a wing down his back soothingly.

He blinked and looked up to her, then nodded. "This is... Wow..."

One of the commanders in the back spoke up, "Thank you for saving the Princess!"

Celestia could actually feel Tetra's attention on her and she said, "Go with it, it'll help them to like you."

"The pleasure was mine."

"So Tetra?" Fog saw it, "What are you...?"

The next hour was every pony asking questions about her race and how she saved the princess's life, which the pair refused to answer or didn't know.

~~~

The next few days were a blur to the pair. Celestia and Tetra had to fill out mountains of paperwork which had somehow already been on board, attend commander meetings and arrange broadcasting events for the crew on Tetra's appearance.

Overall, Celestia was exhausted. She meandered into her bedroom and fell sideways onto the bed.

"Are you okay?" Tetra asked, floating over. "Shall I retrieve assistance?"

"No," Celestia groaned as she lifted her head. "I'm just tired. It's been too long since I've actually done anything useful... my country kind of runs itself, for the most part."

"I would have had to rule several systems. It's semi-automated though, as we inherited it from our creators when they passed on."

Celestia laid her head back down and smiled, "They sound wonderful..."

"They were. Do you want me to show you?"

"Show me, like a vision?"

"Something like that." Tetra floated close and held out her aura of magic close to Celestia. "Let me show you."

Celestia looked to the magic and back to Tetra. "Will it hurt?" She asked, a bit nervous.

"Not unless you fight it."

Celestia swallowed and nodded, a trail of her own magic intertwining with Tetra's. She closed her eyes and said, "Do it."

A blinding light from within Celestia's eyelids caused her to shake and struggle, feeling her eyes burn before the light faded and she was left with a mild stinging.

The first thing she noticed is that she couldn't move her legs. This worried her, before her vision cleared up, revealing a blurry mess of images that made it hard to look at.

The second thing was that she couldn't move at all, not even her eyes. She was beginning to have a mild panic attack and a voice entered her head, "Do not worry, Princess. This is my memory, the first to be precise."

"The first?" She asked, feeling weird to talk without moving her mouth. "Is this where you got summoned?"

"Yes, it is. What you would call parents are just in front of us."

Celestia's vision cleared even further and she could clearly make out two shapes in front of her; one being an almost exactly copy of Tetra and the other one being a slightly more complex version.

Tetra let out a sort of whimper and it took Celestia to realise it was from the present one and not the memory. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"I will be okay, thank you."

From what she could see, the memory was in some sort of chamber. The floors were made of an intricate design that gave Celestia a headache to look at. There weren’t any walls, only pillars that travelled upwards past her vision.

The two beings floated forwards and moved their auras over Tetra in some sort of embrace before they floated away. The Tetra in the memory followed them through an archway and out into the blue light.

Celestia gasped as she saw the city. It was sitting inside a massive crater that could easily swallow Equestria whole and spilled out over the side into one of the canyons that ran past.

The ground was a dull brown color with splashes of green that streaked through the city at random intervals. Celestia marvelled at the sheer height of the buildings that stretched higher than Canterlot highest peaks and way, way past the cloud layer.

The sun in the sky took up at least half of the horizon and gave off a dull blue shine that made everything permanently darkened. Celestia found herself trying to shield her eyes even though she had no eyes.

"It's beautiful..." she said.

"It was. Until they  came."

The memory fast forwarded in a haze until it stopped. Tetra was talking with some other beings in one of the cities courtyards. It was quite low in the city and a dark shadow was cast over the main area. Hanging gardens were strewn all over the buildings, giving them much needed color.

"Back then, it was peaceful, no one passed on..."

A red laser passed through one of the buildings, slicing it in half with a deep crack. The top fell sideways with a screech as metal slid against metal and shattered from the heat.

More lasers passed around Tetra as building after building fell filling the sky with smoke, blotting out the blue sun.

Cries were heard from fleeting beings as they realised their home was being invaded and torched.

Tetra flew off as fast as possible towards the palace, stopping only to see it burning like the rest of the city. By the time the automated defences had activated, the tallest buildings bad been dropped.

"They didn't talk, only try and exterminate us." Celestia heard a whimper, "This went on for centuries and we fought back... barely."

"We developed better ships and upgraded technology that our creators left us, but at our heart we are a peaceful race."

"That's why there weren’t any guns on your ships..."

"Yeah, we used out magic to simply teleport them away... If we wouldn't kill them, we'd outlive them and their race."

The memory came to an end and Celestia was pulled back into her own body and gritted her teeth against a barrage of senses. Her whole body had the feeling of pins and needles and nowhere was quite as bad as her horn, which made her stomach churn.

"I'm guessing you've never share memories with someone?"

"N-no..." She groaned, sitting up. "No I haven't."

"It gets easier. I found it surprising at how easy I could interface with your race as compared with some others."

"There's other species?" Celestia asked, shocked.

"You didn't think it was just you me and the invaders, did you?" Tetra tilted to the side and laughed, "There are countless in this galaxy alone, some more advanced than others; some equine races as well, though none like you." There was a pause, "You are quite literally one of a kind, Princess."

Celestia felt a small blush appear and looked away, "T-thanks... Anyway. It's should be time to jump, do you want to say goodbye to your fleet?"

Tetra bobbed and chuckled, "We jumped half an hour ago and I already have."

"But you talked with me..."

"I transferred all of my memory instantly and then talked to you out here. The equine brain is faster than most... It usually take minutes for a memory..." Tetra muttered on about memory speeds and different species as Celestia fell back onto her pillow.

> Chapter 7:  The Nightmare begins...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia sat at the window in her room as she watched the construction craft bring the parts of the jump gate back into the ship and sighed. She had been through death and somehow gained a new, what she would consider friend. But something was bothering her.

“Can you remember where any of the invader planets were?” She asked Tetra, a concerned look on her face.

“Not entirely, we didn’t exactly try to find them.”

Celestia nodded, “I see… what’s the chances of meeting them out here?”

“I wouldn’t be able to say, we’d have to hope that I was in that box for longer than their race could survive but something tells me I wasn’t.”

Sighing, Celestia nodded once again and sat down in her chair that faced the door, “I don’t like the sounds of that…”

“If they are out here, I’m not sure what they would do.” Tetra moved over to the other seat and hovered, “Apparently they were only aggressive to my species.”

“Alright, I’ll tell the captain to keep an eye out for anything strange.”


The next couple of days went by pretty fast with nothing to report in terms of activity in the surrounding space. It was the morning of the third day in their current system when Celestia was woken up by a savage banging on her door.

Groaning, she pushed the pad next to the door and it slid open, depositing the culprit on the floor. “Yes?” She asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning.

“Ma’am, we’ve detected something!” The pony looked towards Tetra who was floating on the chair in the corner and said, “You and Tetra had better come look.”

Celestia nodded and made her way out of bed and slipped on her usual top, making sure not to spear it on her horn and walked out of the room with Tetra close behind. The three of them made it to the bridge with nary a word and nodded to Fog who was sitting in the captain’s chair with a bead of sweat running down his face.

“What’s going on, Captain?” Celestia asked, knowing the right time for protocol. “I’ve come to believe we’ve detected something.”

“Take a look…” Fog nodded to one of the ponies working the consoles and the front window zoomed into what looked to be a half-moon with hundreds of tiny lights sparking on the front bow.

Celestia’s eyes widened as she saw it turn to face her and quickly turned to Fog, “Hail them, quickly!”

Fog pressed a button on his chair and the next few seconds were spend in complete silence; no pony in the room even breathed or tapped buttons as they waited for some sort of rely.

The sound of static rang in every ponies ears, making some of them cringe before a voice could be heard, “Die.”

Tetra let out a whimper and fled into Celestia’s mind as the ponies sat stunned. Fog leaned forwards and asked, “What species are you?”

The only reply he received was, “Die.” Fog leaned back and cut the hail. Now he was sweating profusely and turned to Celestia, “Ma’am, I think it’s best if you get to a pod. It’s not safe for you on this ship.”

Celestia shook her head, “I’m not leaving my Ponies to selfishly run away!”

“Please, I won’t ask you again.” The look on his face was serious and Celestia was thinking about reconsidering when an idea popped into her mind.

“How long does a jump gate take to build?”

Fog was confused by her question, “I, uh… an hour if we use every pony, why?”

“I’ll buy you some time, tell Taylor to meet me at pod one.” With that, Celestia walked out of the bridge leaving a stunned Fog and crew.


Celestia stood in front of the pod she was going to use and sighed. “What’s the chances this will work?”

“Unknown to me, I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be pulling you along to help my ponies.” She shook her head, “It’s selfish of me…” She felt a small zap fry the end of her horn and yelped.

”That’s for lying. It’s not selfish at all; you want them safe.”

Celestia rubbed her horn and grimaced. She stopped once she heard a ponies hoof-steps and turned to face them. She saw Taylor in a skin tight space-suit and her eyebrow raised, looking her over.

“Take a picture, Princess, It’ll last forever!” Taylor joked as she bowed.

The princess looked away as a tinge of red made its way onto her face and she coughed. “Do you want to know what we’re doing?” She asked, watching Taylor pull open the door to the pod.

“I know we’re going to save our ship, but that’s it and that’s all I want to know.”

“Why?”

Taylor stopped and went to say something but closed her mouth. Instead, she simply went inside the craft and shouted, “Let’s go princess, I doubt the aliens are going to wait for us!”

Celestia shook her head and stepped onto the pod. As the door was about to close, it was stopped by a claw. “Spike!” Celestia said, shocked he was actually deciding to do something other than avoid her.

“I’m coming with you,” He said, stepping inside. He was wearing his suit and carrying his helmet under his arm. Sitting down, he avoided the princess’s gaze and found the floor especially interesting.

Taylor pressed some buttons on the console and the pod shot out into the space, using its thrusters to slow down and turn towards the alien vessel. She pressed a couple more buttons and the ship sped up, flying past the MHS Twilight. “Where do you want her, Princess?”

“A quarter of the way between the ships and put your helmets on.”

The craft quickly made its way between the two ships; Taylor and Spike wordlessly put their helmets on and the former looked towards Celestia for guidance.

She nodded to herself and said, “Vent the air.”

Taylor frowned, “Vent the air?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Now do it.”

Taylor looked shocked but nodded slowly and pressed a few buttons. A couple of seconds later, a harsh hissing sounded out and the console displayed the quickly reducing air supply.

Spike looked Celestia in the eyes and she nodded before the counter ran out and the air was vented.

”Time to do this I guess…” She thought, Taking solace in the fact that some…one would be there for her when she eventually passed out. She walked over to the door and disengaged the lock, pushing it open.

Spike rose and gripped her leg, “Stop!” he tried to say, but she chose to ignore it and carry on.

Moving his hand away, she made her way onto the top of the craft and gripped the floor as best she could. Twin lights signalled her to start her plan as she saw the beams travel closer to the ship behind her.

Charging up her horn, Celestia cast a shield spell around her and the ship behind her, stopping the two beams and nullifying them upon contact. Celestia felt the shock of the impact and coughed up blood which floated off before freezing.

”Celestia, I recommend returning to the ship, you won’t survive this.

”I know… but I have to save them!” She begged as another two beams smashed into her shield, making cracks that ran along the length. They quickly healed, but left behind magical scars that weakened the entire spell.

Celestia shut her eyes and grimaced as another two beams blasted a hole into her shield. She fell forwards and vomited blood, freezing upon contact with the hull and staining it crimson. ”I won’t lose her!” Celestia cried as she strengthened her shield as the alien craft began to inch forwards, choosing to target her instead of the larger vessel.

She shook as twin beams of hellfire crashed upon her golden shield, bathing her in deep red light for seconds at a time before fading, leaving her white again.

The HMS Twilight turned to face the enemy craft and lowered its underside to show off its impressive armament of auto-cannons. The 200mm semi-automatic cannons started spinning as a blast caused Celestia to fall onto her side; bleeding from her nose and showing signs of magical whiplash as liquid mana started draining from her horn.

Still, her shield held as the cannons launched their first volley at the invaders, crashing into the enemy shields and making them light up a bright blue hexagonal segments. The enemy fired back, hitting Celestia’s personal shield and shattering it completely, making her silently scream out and curl up. Blood was now pouring out of her horn instead of mana, the latter was exhausted long ago. She was using her own life force to power the shield, turning it from a golden yellow to a deep crimson.

Twilight launched a second volley that impacted and cracked the enemy’s shields, making them slow and stay at a distance.

The enemy fired another two beams at Celestia. Just as she thought she was about to get hit, Spike stepped in the way, taking the beams in the back, causing him to let out a blood curdling scream and falling to the floor, his back melting.

Sparkling tears floated away from her as Celestia rose from the deck and stood up on shaking legs. Her horn shone red, her coat covered with her own blood and that of Spikes and she floated upwards, wings outstretched.

She shot up to level with the deck of HMS Twilight and linked her mind with Fog’s. ”Tell Luna I love her…”

She cut the connection and opened her eyes, light shining through the darkness towards the alien craft. It launched two more beams of light at her which she simply batted away, the light bending in both directions.

Celestia looked down at the charred body of Spike and cried, she let out a century and a half of anguish, pain and lose. She let it change her.

She was always told by Luna how intoxicating the nightmare could be. How much power it could give and how much more it would promise. Now, Celestia realised, she could be so much more.

She cried tears of blood and gradually neared the enemy vessel. ”Celestia, what’s going on, it hurts!” Cried Tetra as she let out a pained groan and promptly cut off.

The vessel shot two beams in rapid succession, each one turning more ultraviolet and hotter. Celestia bounced them away as well and stopped half way between the alien ship and where Taylor and Spike sat.

She charged her magic and using her instinctual link with her sister to teleport the HMS Twilight back to Equis along with Taylor. Having done her primary objective, she moved on to the issue of the alien craft and charged her horn back up.
Finishing what her instincts had urged her to do; save her ponies. Celestia gasped as her strength left her and she was forced to float above her own craft.

The last thing she saw was a bright light and the alien craft nearing her and Spike.

~~~Some time later~~~

Celestia found her consciousness return and screamed in pain. It felt like her insides had been pulled out and then tortured. She tried looking about but found her vision covered and started to hyperventilate.

She found it hard to breath and pain coursed through her entire being, urging her to vomit though she could only dry heave.

The sound of tapping brought her out of her shock and her ears turned to face the sound. "Ahh, it seems the being has woken up..."

The voice made Celestia grimace, almost as if it was walking through a mouth full of saliva.

"Let's carry on with the examination then," The alien said, picking a scalpel up. Celestia pain fueled screamed echoed throughout the room as the alien pierced her chest and ran the scalpel down and through her ribcage, cracking and outright snapping many of her ribs.

Celestia laid there sobbing as it stopped and placed the scalpel down. It then picked up a retractor and jammed it through the cut and spun the handle to pull apart her ribcage, snapping the remaining bones.

Being immortal meant she couldn't die from this, but she could feel every shred of skin tearing, every bone break and every drop of blood that was spilt. She let out another agonising scream as her voices began to ache.

She started coughing as the examiner sighed and picked up the scalpel again, brining it to her neck. He gripped her neck and jammed the blade into her throat, bringing it around the voice box and back out. 

Celestia's tears tell out from under her mask and dripped down onto the floor, mixing with her blood and urine.

The alien gripped Celestia's voice box and yanked it out with a wet tear. She felt unbelievable pain and passed out, hearing, "About time..."

> Chapter 8: A little payback... 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia awoke with a startled gasp upon hearing the strained sounds of whoever was cutting at her ribs this time. She grunted as another piece of flash was cut from her skeleton and thrown aside.

She didn't know how long she had been here, on the cold, hard table, laid bare for everypony to see. Like many times before, she raised her tail up to cover herself and like before, her strength failed her.

"It seems the subject has remarkable regeneration. It has survived burning, hemorrhaging, blood loss, acid and numerous other tests that out scientists have thought up."

Celestia's ears flicked at the voice, swiveling around the room to get a better idea of where it would be stalking from today. Unlike the other times though, she felt a cold finger pull at her blindfold and rip it away from her face.

Celestia's eyes burned as the bright light torched her retina, throwing stars and blurring her vision. She gritted her teeth as she felt one of her ribs crunch and snap away.

She tried moving her head to look at whoever removed her blindfold but couldn't; her hair having been tied up behind the table.

"We expect you are in some... discomfort, yes?" The being asked, stepping forwards into the light.

As Celestia's vision returned, she finally saw what race had captured and tried to massacre her ponies. "What are you?" She asked, taking in the full length of the alien.

It held itself on two legs, almost as tall as she on four and hunched over slightly. If not for it's small four arms, beady eyes and dark blue skin, it could have been mistaken for a wildling, a creature native to the griffin forests.

"We are Nazzrul, you have met Fadsl," It replied, placing a hand on it's chest before motioning to another of it's kind digging around in Celestia's chest cavity. "We have come for a proposition."

Celestia

Celestia's eye twitched as she felt her nerves being played with. "I have nothing to discuss with, ugh, you." She let out a small, almost indistinguishable chuckle, which left her almost breathless, "You must need something from me..."

"We offer you your freedom."

Celestia held her stare at the being and watched as it picked up a small device off a nearby tray. It was then that she took a look at the room she was in.

White tiles filled each wall, slowly fading to become crimson. Three other upright metal tables lined the room with various instruments placed around them, ready for anything unlucky enough to be brought in.

The floor was littered with various parts of herself. Feathers, skin and blood surrounded her and gave the impression that nopony had cleaned the room in quite a while.

Celestia!

Celestia let out a grunt and closed her eyes for a second when she felt a small prickling sensation enter her head. She opened her eyes and glanced to the alien that was now sitting at a metal chair on front of her.

It held the small device and had it's thumb on the trigger. Each slight movement brought a new round of pain for the Princess, each worse than before.

"Celestia!" Tetra cried as their link was reformed, "Answer me!"

"T-Tetra..." Celestia answered, gaining the aliens attention.

"Who?" It asked, nearing her. When Celestia blinked without an answer, it slammed it's thumb on the trigger, causing Celestia to shake and sputter in pain as her brains pain center was assulted with five hundred thousand volts.

"Celestia, let me help!" Tetra shouted, shielding herself, poorly, from the pain.

Celestia didn't have to reply to allow her to help. Tetra would have forced herself to take over anyway, she wouldn't let her only friend stay on the enemy ship.

Celestia felt her consciousness slip away as her vision was dragged back into her own head. She could see, smell and feel everything that was going on, but she wasn't in control of her body. "Tetra, what are you doing?!" She shouted, hearing her echo bounce around her head.

"I'm saving you before they break you."

Celestia didn't wait long before it became clear that Tetra meant business. She felt her horn charge up, breaking the inhibitor that once glanced the pearly white ridges and blew Nazzrul back into the wall, scorching his face and chest.

The alien digging around Celestia's chest pulled back with a look of horror as Celestia's magic grabbed him and tore him limb from limb. Tetra deposited the body around the room and directed her magic over the shackles holding her in place and felt them liquefy and run down her body.

Celestia moaned as she fell off the table and onto the cold, damp floor. "I'm sorry for not being here before..." Tetra said, sighing and picking Celestia's body off the blood stained floor.

She quickly gathered up all of her internal organs and stuffed them back inside, muttering, "They'll sort themselves out..." and burning the skin flaps back together with a grunt of pain.

"No,  you shouldn't be apologising. I'm the one who hurt you by becoming that... that thing."

"You did what you had to." Tetra walked over to the middle of the room and flared her wings out, sighing at the state they were in. Parts of her skin were hanging off, feathers were pulled apart and out of place. Tetra retracted them and shook her head, "How long was I gone for?"

"It was hard to tell the time..." Celestia mumbled, "It could have been weeks. I kept blacking out from pain."

"Okay..." Tetra replied, looking for a door. Once found, she made her way towards it and pressed a hoof to the pad, sliding the door across with a soft,  "swoo" sound. Taking one look behind her, she grinned and walked out into a dingy, rusted walkway. 

Frowning, she turned around, looking down the other end and found a similar way. "Well this is strange..." she muttered, taking tentative steps down the walkway. Her hooves clattered against the metal floor, making her breathing quicken. She didn't know where any of the aliens could pop out of in this strange place. 

She had made it halfway down the hallway before a loud screech echoed out behind her. Turning around, Tetra saw one of the aliens, armed with some sort of weapon that resembled a pole running at her.

Activating her magic, she ripped off a small piece of the handrail and flung it at the alien. It flew through the air at subsonic speeds and tore through the chest piece and subsequently the body of the poor creature, ripping it open. It fell to the floor, blood pouring out of the wound as it gargled. 

Tetra turned around and carried on walking through the dark, metal hallways of the ship, narrowly avoiding fights with some of its inhabitants. "This place is massive..." she mumbled to Celestia. 

"Yeah... The ship was bigger than ours..." she replied, as the ship shook violently. "What was that?!" she screamed, feeling herself hit the railing. 

"I don't know, but it can't be good!" Tetra responded, watching hundreds of aliens rush past her corridor and down several passages.

Instantly, the area in front of them, a main walkway, was torn open as pieces of rock and metal shredded the interior, throwing Tetra back and then sucking her outwards into space. 

Reaching out, she managed to grab hold of a partially intact cooling tube and let out a small groan of pain as her hoof slowly froze. Looking around, Tetra painfully and begrudgingly climbed her way back into the corridor she was in, dodging metal and shrapnel as it whizzed past, just managing to clip her. 

Making it back inside, Tetra turned around to see that a massive hold had been torn out of the side of the ship, revealing the HMS Twilight hanging above them. 

She gazed up at the ship before red filled her vision, then shot out towards the ship. Watching on, horrified, Celestia prayed that their shields held against the lasers. Her prayers were answered as the lasers were deflected off into space, a tiny, almost microscopic shield appearing before the ship. 

"Sister!" Celestia cried while Tetra let her have control back, "She's come to save us!" Celestia ran through several corridors and found one alien not dead yet. It was running towards an escape craft as Celestia grabbed him with magic and placed her horn on him. She ignored his screams as she charged her magic up and searched through his head for any signs of where Spike could be. 

She was about it give up hope when she found a small snipped of memory. It was the alien absentmindedly looking into Spike's enclosure. Celestia traced it back to the laboratories section and let the begging alien go. He scrambled off as fast as possible and shot out one of the escape crafts.

Finding her way back, Celestia walked into the laboratories and found them predictably empty. White-wash walls and floors all round, except this time they didn't have blood stains.  There were several tables scattered around, upended beakers and jugs of chemicals were scattered and smashed due to the impact. 

Following the memory, she walked around the chaos, to the other end of the room and took the door into the second area. This was much the same, except for one special door that has several of what she could only assume to be safety signs. Ignoring them, she tore the door off and walked inside to see Spike chained up against the wall. 

Letting out a small whimper, she rushed over and placed a hoof on his chest to find that he was sleeping. "Spike!" she said, nudging him awake. 

"No more!" he screamed, before laying eyes on a bloodied and bruised Celestia. He whimpered and started crying as she ripped his bonds out of the walls, letting him wrap his arms around her neck. "I didn't tell them..." she muttered, quivering against her. "I didn't tell them..." 

"Shh...  I know you didn't," Celestia replied, whispering into his ear. "We have to leave, Luna is going to blow this ship apart!" 

"O-Okay..." Spike muttered back, emotionless. 

"Celestia, we have to go..." Tetra pleaded as the pair rushed out of the containment area. "Even we can't survive their engines detonating!" 

"Yeah, I'm going as fast as I can, Tetra!" She shouted back, frantically moving around the debris in the labs. "Come on,  Spike!"

Spike simply smashed through the relatively flimsy tables and equipment, eager to break something as well as escape.

The pair made it back to the door and Celestia quickly formed a sphere of air around Spike's head, letting him breath for a short time. "We'll have to use one of their escape ships and fly back to ours!" she explained, rushing down and back to where she probed the alien. Finding the place deserted, the pair ran over to one of the remaining shuttles and piled in, somewhat uncomfortably. 

The interior wasn't much bigger than a normal automobile and left Celestia and Spike bunched up against each other in somewhat undignified positions. 

The panel nearest to Celestia's head housed the controls for the craft. It was slick and smooth with various buttons on it for a species with smaller digits. 

Celestia looked over the controls and balked at the complexity. "I've never piloted one before... Especially like this... " She groaned. 

Her horn lit up and Tetra slowly slivered out. "But I can... Just let me interface with it..." she said, phasing into the panel and disappearing into the complex mass of electronics. "and... There!" she muttered as the doors shut violently. 

A pair of explosive bolts exploded and threw the craft into space, end over end. Tetra eventually righted the craft with a small mumble of an apology and aligned it with the HMS Twilight. "It should only take us a few minutes to get there." 

The pair shifted around so that they both could view out of the doors and watched as the alien craft was bombarded with several medium sized asteroids that even their shields couldn't deflect. 

Their red lasers flared to life and aimed past Luna to hit the Twilight directly, burning through the hull and vaporizing several rooms in either side of the ship. 

Celestia let out a sob at the sight of her ponies dying and turned to the panel. "Faster!" she screamed, moving awkwardly around Spike to press against the door.

The shuttle narrowly missed a second laser barrage and passed into the docking Bay of the ship. The ponies in there frantically rushed out while military personnel flooded the room and aimed their weapons at the craft. 

"Step out, calmly and quietly!" A familiar mare's voice shouted, while the other ponies cocked their weapons. 

With a sharp hiss, the doors slid aside, letting Celestia and spike exit the craft. Tetra slivered out of the ship and back into Celestia, sighing at being back somewhere cozy and warm. Celestia carefully took a step out and smiled. 

She made her way around the craft, her head high and regal as the ponies in the room stared at her. Celestia sighed and leaned against the craft and smiled at Taylor. "Come and help Spike out!" she shouted, making several ponies bow at her. 

Taylor blinked and nodded.  "At ease!" she shouted, "I want a medical team down here now!" Rushing down the stairs, Taylor galloped over to Celestia and smashed into her chest. She started sobbing as Celestia gently hugged her back and ran her hoof through her mane. 

"Shh, I'm sorry for making you worry..." Celestia whispered and nuzzled the top of her head. She moved her back a bit and gazed down at Taylor with a forlorn expression. "I can't stay, my sister is out there...." 

Celestia turned and made her way back into the craft.  Tetra closed the doors before Taylor could get on and powered the craft up again. She closed her eyes, trying to block out Taylors hooves as they banged against the glass. "Go..." she whispered. 

The shuttled rose into the air then shot backwards out of the docking Bay and back into space. It aligned with Luna and sped towards her, barely avoiding another laser barrage. 

Luna could be seen deflecting lasers to and fro, shooting them back at the alien craft or out into space. She did very much the same thing as Celestia and stood in top of her own shuttle with her shield up and her mane waving in some unseen force. 

Celestia closed her eyes and called out to Luna as her craft slowed beside her.  "Sister, I am here..."[\i] 

Luna turned and stared at Celestia, shock and happiness on her face. She grunted as another laser hit her shield and pushed her back a little. 

It wasn't long before both sisters were standing side by side, a wing around each other. Luna affectionately nuzzled Celestia and sighed with happiness and relief. 

Her thoughts turned back to the aliens and the pair of them braced themselves for another hit. It smashed upon her shields and washed them with red light. Fading, it showed various spiderweb crisscrossing the shield. 

Luna wrapped a leg around her sister and charged her horn for a teleport. They reappeared in the medical ward with a crash and it took a moment to realise that Celestia needed attention. "I'll be back soon!" Luna reassured her sister then teleport up to the bridge. 

She burst through the doors and into the room. "Are we ready for a jump!" she asked, sitting in the captains seat. 

"Just about, Ma'am!" one of the officers reported, looking up at her. "Just say the word." 

"Do it!" she ordered as everypony's vision blurred.