> The Endurance
>  by LunasFury
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue x
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My name is Clarissa Ryker, and this is my story.

The impossibly loud voice over the intercom awoke me from my peaceful sleep. It was as if someone took a canary and threw it into the hull of the ship every morning, except this time the voice came with a tone of urgency I had not heard since the war.

Captain Ryker, your presence is requested on the bridge immediately.

Sighing heavily, I got out of bed and threw on my uniform. As I was buttoning up the heavily decorated dress coat I looked myself over in the mirror. I have pure white hair and shinning blue eyes, my figure was slim but fit, my somewhat pale skin tone going with the rest of my looks nicely. I was never one to boast about my appearance, however LOTS of the crew members apparently found me attractive, according to my friend Mike that is. I myself paid it no mind, men never really interested me anyways.	

It was my hair that gave me the nick name "Mira Korthal" in Vandull, which translates to "The White Witch". The day I heard about it I went out with some friends and celebrated, I had just became a figure of fear to the Vandull, and to top it off I had the dry dock paint my ship with my insignia in white so I would be recognized by the Vandull during battles, a white skull with angelic wings coming off the side. The thought of being recognized in such a way always brought a smirk to my face. I couldn't help it, I hated those damn reptiles just as much as the next guy, we've all lost something to the hands of the Vandull's harvester ships.

I pushed those thoughts aside as I brushed my hair down from its bed-head mess and grabbed my side arm off the night stand. My weapon was an older model multi-purpose laser pistol, painted pure black with a single white line down the side with my father’s hand written signature engraved just under it. I had been offered a newer model when I was promoted but I respectfully declined. It was my father’s pistol after all and it carried lots of memories for me, so I kept it and it quickly became one of the last things I had left of my past, a past that was best left forgotten.

5 minutes later I was in the elevator going up to the bridge. I was on board the capital ship Endurance, The crown jewel of the 2nd Battle Fleet, Over 2 kilometers long and equipped with enough firepower to blow up small moons, it was my pride and joy. I still remember the day I was commissioned the ship by the navy, consider it my promotion gift if you will from the battle of Terra.

I had taken command of the "Reliant". A slightly smaller dreadnought I had been serving on 4 years back after the captain was killed in a gas explosion mid battle.  While in command, I single handedly took out 3 Vandull Harvesters and defended the colony we were in orbit over. I was a hero, I saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of colonists.

While the media buried the details of the battle in my success stories and how I was this big shot, I could never truly forget, they say I had won the day but I still don't feel that way. Even after I had taken command the scene before me had been a nightmare from hell itself. We lost more lives than we saved, 2 carriers, over 20 escorts, and 5 dreadnoughts, and yet I am still the hero...We lost over three hundred thousand men and woman and I am still somehow a hero?

My thoughts were pushed aside as the elevator doors opened and two guards on either side of the doors saluted me before returning to their Stoic posture. Immediately my presence was known as the entire bridge went silent. I walked forward and sat down in the central chair looking over the details of the fleet’s status before turning my attention to the rest of the room.

"What is the situation?" I asked

My first officer, Eric who was in a smaller chair with consoles next to me responded. "Sir, our scouts have found a very odd space anomaly exactly 20 light-years from our position. Upon closer inspection we discovered its giving off readings similar to that of a black hole but with no gravitational pull of any kind. It also seems to be radiating very high energy readings that are way off the charts."

I thought over what my officer just told me for a moment before responding. "Do we have images of the anomaly?"

Eric looked back at his screens. "Yes Sir, it seems to look like some kind of electrical storm...in space"

As he said this he put the image of the anomaly on the screen in front of us. It looked exactly like he described, a very large lightning storm in space. Except for the fact that Purple and yellow lightning arched off in random directions, and in the center was a bright blue sphere. It seemed to be rotating and the lightning seemed to be completely random with no real cause in sight. The rest of the crew stared in horrified fascination. It looked like something from science fiction movies, dangerous and completely unknown.

I loved it

After a minute of admiring the image I had made my decision. "I want 4 Idris-s class frigates to meet up with  The Endurance  and be prepared to enter quantum space. I want us placed within observational distance of the anomaly and notify the hanger to prepare a pair of science vessels for closer inspection after we confirm it's safe. Also set the ship status to condition one and spool up the quantum drive."

Immediately the bridge crew went to work. Calling different parts of the ship and alerting the rest of the fleet to the new plans. The Endurance would go with the 4 escorts to the anomaly alone to avoid risking the rest of the Fleet. We would Observe and record whatever we could from the anomaly without getting too close. If we could deem it safe from that distance than one of the escorts with the science vessels would approach the anomaly and find out what they could and if possible find a cause and or purpose.

Normally I would send one of the battleships instead of the capital ship dreadnought of the fleet. However I wanted to see this thing up close myself and it had been far too long since we have had any action.

The Endurance pulled away from the rest of the fleet with the 4 escorts. The entire crew of the ship was buzzing with excitement at the discovery. Even if it turned out to be nothing, at least we had an excuse to get off our asses for a change instead of sitting in the middle of empty space...

"Give me the helm" I commanded. Almost instantly the controls for the ship popped out of the arm rests next to me. I always liked to pilot my own ship when it came to traveling or when we were in smaller battles. I enjoyed being in control of the ship, as it made me feel a bit safer and more in control of the situation. However in large fleet battles I respectfully give control to the helmsmen so I can focus on the battle itself.

After taking the controls I spooled up the engines and prepared the ship for quantum flight. The Idris frigates next to us matched our speed and did the same. Looking over the consoles in front of me and the readouts on the big screen I made sure that the ship was prepared, it was good to see that we hadn't lost our touch. The whole ship had been ready to go mere minutes after I gave the order to set condition one. Battle stations were ready, shields were up, crews were on standby, the medical wing was prepared to receive, and engineering was reporting an all green. 

For some reason it made the day that much better.

I gave the order to enter quantum space and begin the jump process. The hum of the engines could be heard from the bridge, and the entire room went silent as we prepared for the jump. It never got old really, a bright white light briefly engulfed the ship as we shot into Quantum space. The stars and planets nearby shooting past us as we traveled 1/10th the speed of light, entire solar systems going by in the blink of an eye before completely disappearing behind us.

As quick as it started another bright light engulfed us before everything came back into focus as we exited quantum space. Shortly afterwards the 4 escort ships came out with us and immediately started launching their small detachments of SABRE fighters.

At first everything seemed normal, we exited quantum space, began our launch process, and looked upon the giant glowing ball of death in front of the ship...

"Wait what?"

Not even a kilometer from the front of The Endurance was the giant glowing blue sphere from the image. We were right smack in the middle of the purple lightning storm. Alarms started blaring and people were shouting in confusion as a shudder went through the ship’s hull.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?!" I yelled frantically.

"Were not sure sir! We set the distance for well over 500Mm from the anomaly but it seems something threw off our systems mid jump!" Someone yelled from the left.

"SIR! Massive energy build up warnings are coming from right of the ships bow!"	

Right than a giant purple lightning bolt went off right next to The Endurance and struck one of the Idris escorts, which then flashed right out of existence.

The entire bridge went into shocked silence at the spectacle, no one said a word as we tried to comprehend what we just witnessed.

Seconds later my brain kicked itself into overdrive. I grabbed the controls and started turning the ship around, multiple energy overload warnings going off all over the ships interior. Even more reports of fires and electrical overloads, medical was overwhelmed and half of the ships systems were down.

Halfway through the lengthy turn 2 more bolts of lightning went off. One struck another escort, flashing it too out of existence and the other hitting The Endurance directly. Instead of the ship being destroyed however it hit the ships shields hard. The entire ship shaking violently and sparks and electrical shortages going off all over the bridge.

Chris, my engineering officer yelled out. "Sir! Shields are down and weapons systems have been destroyed. We have lost communications with the fleet!"

Pushing the ships situation to the back of my mind I activated the ships "EEWD" Or emergency experimental warp drive. Which is designed to instantly throw ships short distances forward. In this case just anywhere but where The Endurance currently was.

Practically slamming down on the controls the drive was activated and a wormhole appeared in front of the ship. The Endurance was practically thrown into the wormhole, leaving behind the monstrosity and to a unknown destination.

My vision went black upon entering the wormhole but I could still hear my crew yelling frantically around me. It felt like my body was being mutilated while I was conscious. The entire ship groaning as bright lights flashed by the ship. If this was what using this drive was like then I already hated it.

Soon my crews voices started to fade too as if I was blacking out. Before they completely dissipated I heard "Get her to the escape pods!", then everything faded into darkness.
	

	
> Chapter 1: The Awakening x
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Those who play with the devils toys
Will be brought by degrees to wield his sword.

R. Buckminster Fuller

Chapter 1: Awakening


Part 1


I floated in the total blackness that had consumed my vision. It was silent and eerie, as if someone had sucked the life out of everything around me. There was nothing but black as far as I could see, and upon trying to look down I found that I couldn't move or see myself. In fact, I had not sense of direction whatsoever. 

I remained there for an unknown amount of time. Minutes? Hours? Days? I had not the slightest clue. The only thing I did know was the presence of an odd ringing sound. It had started a short time ago and had been increasing in volume for the last several minutes, or at least what I had assumed was minutes. 

The ringing kept growing more intense as the moments passed, to a point where it was almost unbearable before disappearing completely.

Replacing it was a bright light that shone brilliantly in front of me; and with it a sudden urge to go towards it. I tried with all my will power to hold back, but I didn't even know why I was holding back. what was the meaning of all of this? Where was I, and why am I here?

Still the light grew closer and closer despite my best efforts, the ringing returning with more volume than ever before. The light, so intense that I thought I would burn.

Just before I thought I would die from the crushing sound, the light rushed at me before engulfing my entire vision, and Just like that I could feel again. The grass beneath me, the overpowering smells of the flora around me, and...smoke?

I tried to open my eyes, which I immediately regretted. The bright sun was way too much for my now sensitive retinas, causing me to wince and grunt in pain. The ringing was still there in full force as I waited there for a few more moments and then something became painfully obvious.

There was Something very wrong here, besides the obvious ringing. I felt...Different, my face felt longer, and my nose was DEFINITELY more sensitive than usual. I was fairly certain grass didn't smell like lettuce greens before. In fact I wasn't even sure how I knew it was grass that I was on top of.

Again, I tried to open my eyes with a bit more success this time; my vision was blurry and distorted. The light was still giving me a skull splitting headache but it wasn't unbearable.

Blinking a couple of times I realized I was lying flat on my stomach, and after waiting for few more moments my vision cleared.

why is my nose white? Why the FUCK is it white?!?!? What...the...actual  "FUCK!"

Somewhere in the back of my mind I registered that I said that out loud but I had more...pressing concerns. My first thought was some kind of bacterial disease or maybe something I fell in, therefore turning my nose white but that led me to the second discovery. It wasn't just white it was much longer and shaped differently; also it was covered in...Is that fur? The white on my nose was actually white fur on my nose...Which was now a muzzle by the looks...

Looking around a bit I noticed I was next to a wreckage of what appeared to be a Type 34 escape pod which is standard issue on the Endurance. Which meant either the ship was destroyed or I was prematurely launched from the ship. Looking back it was most likely the first option witch made my stomach twist itself into knots.

At this point I knew I had to be dreaming. I just had to be right? This couldn't be happening to me. That's when it occurred to me to check the rest of my body. Upon trying to stand I promptly fell over and onto by back which also felt MUCH different. It felt like I had something attached to my backside but it felt soft and strangely comfortable. This realization stopped me from looking down, if my nose alone had changed so much and I definitely have something new on my back than what has happened to the rest of me? 

I steeled myself and gathered what little courage I had left in me and looked down.

The first thing I noticed was that my arms and hands were all gone. Replaced by hooves...actual hooves. The next thing was that I was covered in a brilliant white fur that seemed to reach every part of my body, if I could even call it that anymore considering I knew nothing about it. 

The other thing was on my ass cheeks, there was something colorful on both of them. I craned my neck to get a better look which I immediately noticed was much longer than normal and could rotate practically all the way around. This probably should have bothered me too but I found it strangely convenient to be able to look all the way around my body without strain. Also I still a bit delusional and completely out of it at the moment due to the crash I was apparently in.

Returning my attention to back to the problem I noticed right on the sides of my ass was a mark or symbol of some kind. It depicted earth with two golden swords crossed over it, brilliantly colored and detailed as if it were a tattoo. Strangely though? It didn't feel like one, It felt like it was a part of me somehow... My vision started blackening and I realized I was passing out...

Great was the last thing I thought before I blacked out completely.





I woke up with a start, my head jerking painfully due to something holding me down.

I opened my eyes to see that I was in a dimly lit room in what appeared to be a hospital bed of some kind. The only difference was that I was strapped down to the bed and my surroundings did not really appear to be hospital like. More like a living quarters.

A very nice living quarters at that... I thought Idly.

As if on Que the largest horse I have ever seen walked...or rather trotted into the room. Except it wasn't a horse I realized...It was a fucking unicorn with wings.

My brain went into full blown panic mode at this point. I know real professional.

"Who the hell are you? Where am I? What are you?!? AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SHIP!" The last part came out more in desperation rather then confusion and anger. I had no idea where I was who this winged unicorn was. I had no knowledge of what happened to my crew or the ship and I am strapped to a bed. I could no longer control the tears now streaming down my face.

This was it, I was officially having an emotional breakdown.

The white winged unicorn seemed very surprised and confused by my outburst and almost seemed to try and recompose itself before it spoke.

"I am princess Celestia of Equestria, I am an alicorn and I am not sure what this "ship" you are referring to is," She responded in a deathly calm tone. It was clear she had done something like this before as those words immediately made me calm down a bit.

"What...Alicorn...What is...what..." My brain was practically frozen at this point. Doubt and confusion circling through my brain like a intense tornado of emotions.

"Please calm down my little pony," She continued. A tone of concern ringing clear in my ears.

I managed to calm my breathing and my racing mind until I caught on to the last part she said.

"...Pony?"

That's when everything of my last awakening came back to me in a flood. I looked down to see nothing had changed and I was still...well I guess I'm a pony according to this alicorn as she called it.

Thankfully I did not freak out as bad as last time but I did manage to show the shock on my face which the alicorn in front of me immediately picked up on.

"Is something wrong?" She inquired. Probably more out of curiosity than concern at this point.

"I...What am I? How in the 9 hells did I end up like this?" I asked. At the same time I met the alicorns eyes once again and the look of concern and curiosity on her face was now replaced with one of complete shock.

"You mean...You were not like this before?"

My brain seemed to be un-thawing a bit and some of the rational part of it started coming back to me, instead of being in full blown panic mode.

"No! I was...well...not a pony before." I couldn't help the anger in my voice as I continued, "AND WHY THE HELL AM I STILL TIED DOWN DAMMIT!!!" At this I collapsed back down onto the bed and closed my eyes. Trying to calm my once again racing mind.

"Well if you were not a pony before then what were you?" Celestia asked doubtfully.

"Human...I was human...Also where in the hell am I?"

Celestia could not have been more shocked to learn this information. Her normal calm posture replaced with one of confusion and disbelief. "You mean, humans exist?" Celestia had heard of them before but only in legend. Everypony thought it was just that, a legend.

I opened my eyes and looked back at her, "You mean you have heard of my kind before? Do you have a ship so I can get back to the fleet?!?!" It was clear even to myself how desperate I was becoming.

Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath before responding. "Here,  let me get those off you so we can talk in a less...awkward state. You were only tied down so you wouldn't hurt yourself in your sleep. The doctors said you kept thrashing around and would have gotten hurt should it have been allowed to continue. I apologize for the confusion," Celestia explained.

Upon finishing her explanation Celestia's horn started glowing and the restraints undid themselves from her hooves letting sit up in a more comfortable position.

My eyes grew wide wide disbelief as the restraints were removed with no clear force behind it. The restraints hovering in a gold aroura before being dropped on a near by table. 

"I...how?"

Celestia looked at me with a curious expression, "Have you never seen magic before?"

I looked at her like she grew a second head, which quite frankly would not surprise me at this point. The look on her face made me realize she was completely serious. "Magic? You have to be kidding. Magic doesn't exist, everything "magical" that happens has a scientific explanation to it."

Celestia's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean your kind doesn't use magic?"

I gave her a look, "Um no?" I stated as if it was obvious.

"Then how does your kind even survive?!" Celestia clearly seemed confused by this information.

Now I was also confused as all hell. Not that I wasn't before but this just tops it all off. I tried to come up with an answer that would not reveal to much about earth and HQ but satisfy whatever the hell this thing was. It was clear that they have never dealt with a situation like this. Let alone humans or Vandull. 

"Um..Science and technology I guess? Seems to me your kind has not developed all that far in the technology department but even so some of this stuff looks up to date around here architecturally wise while clearly...at least from what I have seen so far there is a lot that is extremely far behind compared to my race." I paused for a moment regarding Celestia and her appearance before continuing. "is it fair to say that you are some form of a leader to your people? You resemble a queen or the like quite a bit. Judging by the flashy gear your wearing."

Celesita, still trying to get over the no magic thing briefly thought of a certain student who would think this as crazy if not more crazy as she did. She would have to send her a letter. "Well yes and no I suppose. I am the princess of this nation. Not necessarily a queen. I share the burdens of my royal duties with my sister Luna."

I was about to respond but she cut me off. "Before you say any more I just would like to know what the last thing you remember is. Maybe that way we can figure out how you got here. Although if what you say is true and that you were... human before then this is going to get much more complicated," She explained.

There was a certain tone in her voice that I recognized. She was holding something back and I was almost sure of it. But her expression was like looking at a stone wall.

"Not until you tell me the full truth. You know something about my ship don't you?" It was a wild jab in the dark but I was becoming more  desperate for information on my crew as the time passed.

To my surprise she actually sighed. "Again I have no Idea what this "ship" is...However You were found in the middle of the forest next to some sort of cylinder. That is all we know, we are not even sure what it is."

My eyes widened and a spark of hope formed in my chest. I was almost certain she was talking about that escape pod I somehow ended up in. "Where is it?!! Please I must get to it!" I pleaded.

"What is it? Is it a weapon?" Celestia asked cautiously.

I was about to respond but than it hit me that she was only being cautious. If I was in her position I would probably be asking the same questions. So I decided to take the more tactical approach.

"no, no it's not a weapon. It's something called an escape pod. it's a emergency method of transport should the ship be destroyed. I somehow ended up in one but if my ship is still out there then the pod can track it... Please let me see it. You must understand, I just wan't to make sure that my crew is safe."

Celestia raised her eyebrow, "Your crew? Were they human as well?"

I was starting to get really impatient with this alicorn already but the question made me snap. "Yes! There was almost nine thousand men and woman on that ship and I need to make sure they are ok! You of all people should know! Your a leader of an entire country possibly an entire world! How would you feel if you were taken away from your home and had no knowledge of anyone you knew was ok?!?!? IF THEY WERE EVEN ALIVE!" 

Tears were streaming down my face again as I yelled at her. The reality and Absurdness of the entire situation finally settling in. I was yelling at a fucking winged unicorn in the body of a alien creature!

"Please..." I mumbled barely above a whisper, "Please..." I slumped back down into the bed I was in and started crying. That ship was practically where I grew up. It was my home, and it's crew were my family and I had no idea where they were or if they were ok. It felt like my entire world was falling apart around me and there was nothing I could do about it.

I could hear some hoof falls and then a soft wing wiping the tears away from my eyes, much to my surprise.

I opened my eyes to see Celestia now sitting next to my bed on her haunches, wiping my tears away with her wing.

"I am truly sorry...I did not mean to-" She began before I cut her off.

"No its ok..*sniff* I'm just c-confused and want to make sure my *sniff* c-crew is ok...Or at the very least find out if they a-ar-are dead or not so I can m-mourn them," I practically choked out the last word.

I used to be the most bad ass captain in the fleet and now look at me. The white witch reduced to a sobbing, confused...alien. Nothing seemed real anymore, it just felt like a really really bad dream but deep down I knew otherwise. The names of many of my crew members started flowing through my mind along with my closest friends. Then my mind drifted to all the people I did not know or had forgotten and now I have to live with the fact that their death is all on me now.

I must have been laying there contemplating for a while because celestia started nudging me with her wing. Her voice finally getting through the cluttered emotions and running thoughts.

"Are you ok?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Y-yeah...I think I will be ok," I lied through my teeth but I didn't want her to see that. Hell I barely even know this...pony. Wow that is going to take some time to getting used to.

She seemed to take note of this but did not push the subject any further for which I was grateful. However that didn't stop her from asking further questions.

"So you say you were originally human and you woke up like this?" Celestia asked hesitantly.

"Y-yeah, I was trying to pilot my ship out of some kind of anomaly and then I ended up here somehow as a pony...Wow that sounds way more weird when you say it out loud." I chuckled softly. Some of my persona returning to me once more.

Celestia shared in the small laugh as well before continuing. "Well do you have any questions about your new...well...race?" She asked.

"Um..." I laughed nervously. "How do I walk?"

At this Celestia laughed again, as many questions as she had for this former human. They could wait for the moment. "How about we start with the basics"





After getting help from the alicorn I could finally walk steadily without falling over so much. She said If I stayed like this long enough she would get a friend of hers to give me flying lessons on my wings.

During these lessons she brought me a mirror to look in and my inner fan girl came out of its hole for the first time in years.

I was by far the most adorable thing I had ever seen. It made everything a little easier to take in at least. At this point I had almost accepted it but was still having a hard time believing it was all real. Especially when she pointed out my new wings which was what I was feeling on my back earlier. It was almost like a fairy tale as I looked myself over in the mirror.

I was fairly evenly muscled with quite large wings. My coat was a brilliant white, which contrasted my eyes and-

"what was it again? Mane? Yeah that was it"

"-mane which was a sapphire blue color with 3 cyan blue streaks running through it. My eyes were a beautiful bright green and were the largest things I have ever seen. Which considering the situation is ironic sense their MY eyes..."

The tat on my ass is apparently called a cutie mark and is actually apart of my very being and could not be removed permanently without killing me so that's nice. According to Celestia it represents what I am good at and/or what my passion is. So after some private investigation on my part I'm thinking it probably means that my passion is protecting earth or maybe just worlds in general which would be true to some extent.

I turned to Celestia to see her writing on a scroll with her magic, (which I was also still getting used to) before she cast some sort of spell and it just kind of dissipated in a green flame as if she burned it.

Noticing my curious expression she turned to me with a small smile. "I sent a letter to my fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle. It was letting her know to expect a very special guest soon." She paused for a moment, obviously thinking about something before she continued. "I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to tell them the special...circumstances of your current form"

As I mulled that decision over I realized that she never said if she would let me get to that pod or not.

As if reading my mind she continued, "and yes I will let you get to your...whatever it is. As long as you answer all my questions, no exceptions."

So at the cost of the possibility that I might have to tell her things that are normally classified I can find out the real situation of the Endurance...

This was honestly a hard decision. More than anything I wanted to find out the status of the ship, however I would be breaking protocol by doing so at this point. On the other...Hoof? Ok wow this is weirder then I thought it was going to be. If I do answer all of her questions I can have a peace of mind. Also if the Endurance was still out there then I need to get back to it somehow and make sure the ship and its crew are ok and hopefully make it back to the fleet.

Of course that's when reality got the jump on me. "Your still a pony dumbass," said a small voice inside my head.

I sighed in defeat. If my crew is alive I need to be there for them somehow. Alien or not.

"Ok...I'm in"




	

	

	
		

	
> Chapter 2: A new day, a new problem
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



 “I am the wisest man alive; for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” 

― Plato, The Republic 



-----28 hours after crash landing------


A New Day, A new problem


Light filtered through the large window in the room. The bright sun coming up over the horizon, chasing its counterpart across the sky as the moon lowered.

I lay there with my eyes opened. I was awake for most of the night and so I watched the sun rise, which after finding out that a sudo goddess controlled it on her own with ease, became much more interesting to watch.

I groaned and pushed myself out of bed, my new wings stretched themselves out wide on their own. The joints cracking as I got out the morning stiffness.

I briefly wondered why they did that but then put it off as just reflex.

After getting up, I stumbled over to a mirror in the room that I occupied in the palace. I wanted to leave for the pod immediately but Sun butt insisted that I stayed a night and got some rest. This in all honesty was not really a bad idea, I was just eager to find my crew.

A cheesy grin spread across my muzzle at the thought of my new nick name for Celestia. If I was being honest with myself I was grateful for her help so early on but I still don't trust her any farther than I can throw her. And I don't even know how far I can throw anything anymore. For all I know, I can lift semi's and throw them across a city block...

I entertained that thought for a moment before chuckling and dismissing it for later.

My stomach chose that moment to make itself known to the world, growling in a rhetorical protest to its owner.

"Yeah yeah fine, I’ll feed you. You unquenchable beast," I mumbled, Still trying to clear the sleep from my eyes with a hoof.

Considering I woke up before the sun even rose I had plenty of time to think, and I came to a single conclusion.

This was completely insane.

My situation, my new body, all of it. Completely. Insane.

I groaned as I went over my situation again. I was stuck in a world filled with talking ponies and god knows what else. My crew and my ship are missing, I have the body of said multi-color pony, AND to top it all off my intro to this world was an emotional breakdown in front of one of the most important ponies in this world.

Smooth Clare, real smooth.

Shaking my head, I made my way over to the front door of my room, eager to start the day so I could get to that damn pod already. As I reached for the handle however a soft knock came from the other side, followed by a muffled, regal sounding voice.

"Ms. Riker? Are thou awake yet? We would like to invite thee to our morning meal."

I looked at the door for a moment before shrugging and clearing my throat. I opened the door to reveal a slightly smaller alicorn then Celestia. She was a dark indigo blue with large wings and a moon for a cutie mark. What was really interesting though was her mane. It shined a soft light, filled with brilliant stars, like staring into the night sky itself.

She seemed to catch on pretty quick at what I was staring at. Chuckling slightly she said, "We do not know why we have such a unique mane. Sister says it is simply part of who we are, being the controllers of the sun and moon do that to a pony I suppose."

"Huh...cool," I responded. Still in a bit of a trance from the mane that seemed to be defying all laws of physics.

"Are thou hungry?" she asked.

"huh?, oh sure I guess."

The night alicorn nodded in satisfaction before turning left down the hallway. "Please follow us then. Sister is waiting for us."

I nodded and began following her down the hall, closing the door behind me. I was a little hesitant at first to go but fuck it. I have no idea where I am, or in reality what I am, so the way I see it, these ponies are my only chance.

We made our way down the large hall to a single pair of large double doors. Their surfaces covered in unique designs and depictions of battles and moments in history.

The night alicorn strode forward with confidence as she pushed open the large doors with her magic, the very action still causing my brain to hurt.

Inside there was a very large dining hall, a large gold and silver table taking up the majority of the space in the room. At the head of the table was Sun butt herself. A plate of eggs and what appeared to be hash browns in front of her, and a tall glass of something in her magical grasp as she took a sip.

When she saw us come in she put the glass down and put on a small smile. "Good morning sister, Good morning Ryker," she greeted.

"Please Celestia, just call me Clare." I said, rubbing my temples with my hooves in mild irritation.

She nodded her head in understanding, "As you wish"

Luna took her seat on the left side of her sister with me taking the opposite. I barely sat down before the doors opened again and a butler with a convoy of trays behind him came over to the table. He cleaned off what was there with his magic, before setting a steaming plate of eggs and hash browns in front of me.

I looked at the plate questioningly. Trying to figure out exactly how I was supposed to eat this with hooves.

The night alicorn across from me chuckled softly, noticing the problem I was having, "Try using thy wings"

I lifted one of my wings, giving the alicorn a questioning look.

She lifted up one of her own wings and picked up a fork between two of her primaries. With practiced ease she twirled the fork around in her wing before setting it back down again.

I looked at my own wing and tried to move some of my feathers. To my surprise they actually bent back as if I was making a fist. It was like having my hands again, except larger and placed differently, and also extremely awkward feeling. 

Curious, I moved my wing over to my fork and slid it between my two largest feathers. I tried to keep it there by putting pressure on it but the fork slid off and back onto the table. Looking at the fork in determination I tried again and again...and again, until finally I got it held firmly in my wing.

"Aha! Got ya!" I yelled triumphantly as I lifted the fork with my wing. It was a little wobbly but I could probably get used to it eventually.

Upon that thought I cringed on the inside. The thought of being stuck like this hadn't really sunk in yet. I guess I was just hoping to wake up in my room back on the ship and for this whole thing to be over...But maybe...maybe this isn't so bad.

I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else for now. Those thoughts could wait for later.

The night alicorn across from me smiled at my eating attempts before continuing to eat her own meal, putting the table into silence.

I lowered my wing and stabbed a piece of hash brown with my fork bringing it up to my muzzle and eating it. As I chewed my eyes widened in wonder; these were without a doubt the single best hash browns I have ever had. 

After that little revelation I began digging into my meal with the eagerness of a starved creature, the cheesy eggs practically melting in my mouth as I moaned in bliss. The two alicorns at the table looked on in amusement and morbid curiosity as I tore away at my meal.

After several moments I realized I was being stared at and I slowed down considerably, smiling sheepishly.

The night alicorn cleared her throat, "We don't believe we have been properly introduced. We are Luna, princess of the night."

I nodded in understanding, "Do you always talk like that?" I asked, wincing internally at the brashness of my curiosity.

Luna simply smiled, "Yes, normally we do. It is hard to break one of such a habit after using it for a few hundred years."

"Huh, intre- wait...A few hundred years!?!?" I exclaimed.

Luna chuckled, "yes, we have...lived for well over a thousand years technically speaking. We alicorns are immortal you see?"

Wow, one thousand years...it’s crazy just trying to think of living that long. Let alone all the things you would experience in that time, and not mention the amount of death you would witness. I shivered involuntarily at the thought.

"So..." I drawled, trying to find a discussion topic that got my mind off of the pod and my situation. I looked at Celestia, "You said there were more of you?"

"Yes, there are two more besides myself and Luna. Twilight Sparkle, who was once my personal student at one time, and our niece Cadence," Celestia paused a moment before continuing. "I would like to ask some of those questions we talked about if you feel up to it."

Huh, even after I agreed to the whole deal she is still willing to wait it seems...There is really no more delaying the inevitable if I want answers though. 

"Ask away"

Celestia paused as she thought of what her first question would be.

"How advanced is your race?" Luna cut in.

I groaned on the inside at the question. Of course it had to be one of the more classified questions for first contact protocol. But at this point, fuck protocol. I want my crew back.

"Very very advanced in relation to you...where do I even start?" I asked.

"How about the greatest invention your people have come up with?" Celestia asked curiously.

"Well...probably our quantum drives. There is one in every single star ship the human race have ever created as far as I know."

Celestia and Luna just looked at her as if she just spoke in another language.

"Err right...how do I explain this?...Basically it allows our star ships to go about 1/5th the speed of light, Allowing us to travel vast distances without the need for cryo sleep or long voyages across space."

The two princesses looked like their brains were about to melt but it seemed Luna at least got the idea.

"So thou are saying you can traverse the stars?" Luna asked in disbelief.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. That and much much more; I guess you could say my race has a knack for ingenuity." I stated proudly.  

"So then what are these star ships you speak of?" Luna continued.

Oh boy...

And so it was known as the single longest conversation I have ever had. Covering everything the humans have ever invented since the light bulb. Granted my history was fairly vague but I could at least give them an Idea. I explained how the  Endurance  was one of these star ships I kept referring to except it was built for the military specifically.

This seemed to put the two on edge, but for good reason I suppose. Knowing that the very ship I was looking for was designed for war in mind. I had to constantly remind them that I was the one lost and confused and had no intention of harming them in any way.

One of their questions during this conversation made me stop though.

"Would the humans, for any reason, attack us?" Celestia asked. Doubt clear in her voice after hearing about my ship in detail.

I had to stop and think for a moment. I was...well...used to be, proud to be human like the next guy but that doesn't mean we don't have our faults and it also doesn't mean we are free from corruption.

"The UEE and its according fleets would never attack anyone out right unless provoked or attacked first. We have a rule that goes without saying with first contact...don't fire unless fired upon. This is more or less a sacred rule in human history sense as far as anyone can remember really." Celestia seemed content with that answer and lay back again.

"However..." I continued. "I cannot speak for the other military contractors and races. Especially not the Vandull, those slimy bastards try to kill anything that moves these days." Immediately Celestia was tense again and sitting up strait.

"The Vandull?" Luna questioned.

"Yeah...Monsters with technology beyond their understanding. No respect for moral values, and want nothing more than to harvest every planet they come across. They move in hoards and raid colony's to survive, treating the humans and other species like live game that they get to hunt," At this point I was grinding my teeth and seething in anger. Flash backs of some of my more gruesome battles going through my head.

Instantly that all fell away when I felt a soft wing on my hoof, breaking me from my reverie. I looked up to see Luna with a concerned look on her muzzle, her wing lying gently on my hoof.

I looked down and realized I had at some point stabbed the table with my fork.

"Sorry...The humans don't exactly have the best track record with them..." I stated glumly. Luna took her wing away and the table descended into an uncomfortable silence.

Celestia was the first to speak, "I am sorry...I realize we must have brought forth some terrible memories. We can continue this discussion another time. First though, I must hold up my end of the bargain..."

Celestia rose from the table "I will begin making arrangements for transport to your "pod" and contacting Twilight about housing. In the meantime, make yourself at home. I ask that you do not leave the palace quite yet though."

My visual acknowledgment came in the form of a dismissal grunt, My memories still too vivid to create any solid mental process.

The screaming, the burning city's, the giant ships descending from the sky, cannons ablaze, lighting up the landscape in fire and death.

"Clare? Are thou alright?" Luna asked.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. Focus Clare, focus. I need to focus on the situation at hand...hoof...GAH!

I stood up from the table abruptly and started walking in a random direction, leaving Luna confused at the table. I had no idea where I was going but anywhere would do at this point.

I left the dining room behind and walked down the vast corridors of the palace, my mind a blank canvas as I tried to block out the images trying to force their way into my head. I had barely even noticed I ended up on a balcony until I was at the railing.

I looked up at the scene before me and felt my jaw drop. It was probably the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

A crystal blue river cut right through the middle of an immense forest. Mountains towered on either side, the tips coated in a pure white snow. Off in the distance I could barely make out a group of Pegasi pushing clouds around and arranging the weather for the day.

It's one thing to hear about how flying horses pushed clouds around and created the weather. It was a completely different thing to actually watch them do it.

I sat there watching them go about their job, taking in the fresh air around me and relaxing for the first time since I had arrived here.

I looked up at the clear blue sky, Pegasi flying around going about their daily lives. Occasionally you would spot a small foal on a mothers back as they flew towards the building areas below. The sight brought a small smile to my face as I looked on, unable to tear myself away from the beautiful scene. I guess in a way, I wished earth could go back to this. Instead of the high tech commercial metropolis it has become.

"It is truly beautiful is it not?"

On instinct I spun completely around and went for my sidearm...which wasn't there, the very action causing me to fall flat on my face with my wings spread wide.

"Fuck..." I mumbled.

A small chuckle came from in front of me as I was lifted back on my hoofs by an unseen force.

Standing in front of me was Princess Luna, Her mane flowing in the wind, giving me an amused smile.

"Are thou alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine..." I grumbled, totally embarrassed by the fact that I tried to reach for a non-existent side arm and then ended up wiping out onto the floor for no good reason.

This only caused Luna to laugh again as she joined me on the balcony I had found myself on. She looked over at me with a curious smile. This then turned into concern as she looked into my eyes.

"Are th- Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.

I smiled at her little correction. She was probably doing it to make me feel more comfortable.

"Yeah...Yeah I'm ok, I just need some more time to process this I guess...I'll be ok though," I responded.

The balcony descended into a comfortable silence after that for a few minutes before Luna spoke again.

"We never got to inquire but...what is thou world like? If you don't mind us asking of course."

I looked over at her and sighed, "Well...which one? I personally don't live on a planet. My place is inside an asteroid field called the Henge Cluster in the Terra system"

"You mean to say your kind occupies more than one planet??" she asked.

"Yeah, the human race occupies...oh I'd say about 40 systems. Each system averages to about two to three planets more or less." I explained, my hoof waving around in pointless emphasis.

It still felt so weird referring to my hoof as a hoof and not a hand. It feels so foreign yet...strangely comfortable. 

Luna's mouth was practically at the ground in a hysterical manner. Her eyes twitching as she tried to comprehend the scale.

"If what thou say is true...then how large is your population?"

I laughed, "Honestly I don't think anyone really has an answer to that. We are well within the billions though, More than likely trillions."

I smirked a bit at her boggled expression. "Either way, to answer you previous question I will start with Terra which is the closest planet to my place." I paused, trying to think of where I would even begin before settling for something simple. "It is a fairly clean world, although the military factories are starting to create air pollution. They haven't gotten around to putting in the atmosphere towers yet as the planet is fairly un-colonized besides the military."

"It's ok though, some fairly beautiful areas in the wilderness. I haven't really gone out and explored, not much of a point really since it's mostly the same on any planet." I looked over the green valley before me, my smile growing a little wider.

"Although after seeing this place, I might go do some freelance exploring if I ever get the chance again." A hint of sadness crept into my voice at those words. The thought of never seeing that planet again or any other planet besides this one struck home.

"I believe thou will find a way home, If not on your ship then perhaps by other means." Luna said determinedly. 

At that, something suddenly occurred to me. "Why are you guys so eager to help me? I haven't done anything to get treated like this or to even receive help. Hell, I half expected to wake up on a random street and disregarded as a lunatic when talking with Celestia yesterday" I stated honestly.

"Why would thou think that? I don't think we could ever just leave somepony on the street. Especially if thee were in the same position as thou are in"

"Really?" I asked doubtfully.

"Well yes, our kind values friendship and kindness above all else. It might as well be a valuable resource to us." Luna replied.

"So you’re helping me...simply because you want to?" I asked, completely baffled by the statement.

"We suppose so yes, or rather we feel that you deserve to have at least something go right for you. So far all thou have had is bad luck, the least we can do is try to make it tolerable and try to help in anyway we can," Luna concluded. Her voice completely filled with a determination that I have never really come across. Like she had made a promise to herself that she was currently trying to uphold.

"Well...thank you then. I don't even want to know where I would be right now if it were not for you and your sister."

"Hmm, thou are most welcome. Now come, it is starting to get cold out here no? Let me show you around the castle, then perhaps later we can convince sister to let us explore the city a bit?" Luna suggested. There was almost a hint of mischief in her voice and her smile grew wider. I couldn't really place it but I almost felt like a kid again, about to do something I wasn't supposed to.

"Eh, sure why not?"





"Now let us flee!" Luna-in-disguise yelled as we bolted from the palace kitchen. Luna decided it would be fun to dress as commoners with a little magic and do some kitchen raiding and I must say so far it has been the most fun I have had in a long time. Although I did not need the disguise it sure was a trip to watch Luna change into an entirely different pony.

The chef was yelling a string of profanity in some other language at us as we fled the kitchen, pastries in tow, both of us laughing uncontrollably.

We ran through the halls, trying our best to keep the goodies secure on our backs as we made our way back to the balcony which has become a sort of a rally point. As it turns out, the balcony I ended up on was Luna's private balcony. Woops.

Once we were inside, Luna closed the door behind us and we made our way onto the balcony, laughing practically all the way.

"The look on that guys face was hilarious when you took his hat off him!" I laughed.

"Yes that was a good one was it not?" Luna said as she used her magic to turn back to her normal self.

I collapsed down on the ground on the balcony, a cupcake held in my hoof. Throughout the day Luna had been helping me get more accustomed to my new body, which thankfully had been a little easier than I thought. Throughout the day she had been teaching little tricks to help me around.

We sat on the balcony watching other ponies fly by going about their lives, eating our pastries. Every once and a while, Luna would have another question about my life or where I was from. 

Eventually the sun started to hit the horizon, creating a beautiful sunset which cast an orange glow across the entire valley in front of us. Me and Luna watched as it hit the horizon and slowly started to disappear.

Around this time Luna had stood up and her own horn was glowing. I could only watch in awe as she bowed her head and slowly raised it, the moon slowly coming with it from the opposite end of the balcony. Her mane glowing, the stars in it shinning brighter than ever as the moon rose with her horn.

I looked on in astonishment as I watched the very basis of everything I knew being torn to pieces by what I was witnessing right then.

Eventually the moment ended and Luna sat back down a few paces from me on the balcony. However all I could do was stare at the spot she had been standing, my mind still trying to catch up with my emotions.

"I...wha?" Was all I managed to get out before Luna started laughing.

"It is quite a sight is it not?...Oh! I almost forgot," Again she stood up, her horn glowing again. One by one starts started to appear above us, a nebula spinning faintly into view, and the moon getting slightly brighter. It was like watching an artist paint a landscape, a very beautiful landscape at that. 

"Bu-b-b-b-b-but...that....no....I" I put my hooves on my temples, completely at a loss of how to even react at this point. 

"Is everything ok Clare?" Luna asked, clearly confused by my reaction.

"I...uh...remember I'm not exactly used to this whole magic thing...I just witnessed every law I thought I knew shoot itself in the head...so yeah...I guess something is a bit wrong," I responded, my hooves still rubbing at my temples.

Luna brightened a bit at that, "Oh, right of course..."

I stopped rubbing my temples and looked at Luna curiously. Was she...upset? Did she think that I thought it was bad?

"Luna are you ok?" I asked, honestly curious as to why she had looked so down.

Surprised, she turned towards me before her surprise quickly turned into a look of sadness. "We... I am sorry. I thought that you were criticizing our night in some way..."

"What?! No not at all!, I may not understand this world at all but that doesn't mean I don't think it's beautiful. Especially your night Luna, honestly it's the most beautiful thing I have seen so far!" That was true,  Her night was elegant beyond words. I just didn't understand how she manipulated celestial bodies like that...Or any of it for that matter, still, why would she think that?

"Why would you think that?" I asked, deciding to voice my question.

"Well...When…I was very young, I was jealous of my sister because of how our subjects loved her sun. While I…well my night was barely glanced at. I was jealous because I felt it was unfair how nopony got to enjoy my night as they did her day.” She explained.

At first I was a little confused, first of all, who doesn’t enjoy the night? And second, why would that make her think I thought it was bad?

Luna seemed to catch on to my expression quickly enough as she continued speaking. “I was so jealous and hateful that darkness itself consumed me, and turned me into a pony known as nightmare moon” she shivered as she spoke the name, the name clearly bringing forth bad memories.  “She and I, technically, were the same pony…However we were a split consciousness if that makes any sense at all” 

I thought over the words for a second, a bit boggled by the story. “So…darkness consumed you…like dark magic? Then it created a manifestation of itself within you and created a split persona of you known as nightmare moon…wow...”

Luna nodded solemnly, “Back then I was young and arrogant. I never listened to anypony, not even my sister who tried to warn me where my path was leading me.” She looked up at the moon as she continued speaking, “In my rage as Nightmare moon I tried to create an Eternal night…Before I could do so, my sister banished me to the moon for over a thousand years using a weapon known as the Elements of Harmony…and now…well now I’m here. Reformed by the elements and no longer the arrogant, selfish fool I was,” she finished.

I was left a bit slack jawed next to her, my brain playing a hysterical game of catchup.

“A thousand years…so when you said that you had lived for well over a thousand years…You spent that long trapped within your own moon?” It was…well cruel to say the least. It seemed extremely overkill. Then again, I know nothing about dark magic or magic in general really. Maybe it just took that long for her to be “reformed” again, as she called it.

“Yes I was…” Luna replied.

The balcony descended into uncomfortable silence after that, the only noise being the occasional bird that flew by.

Eventually I decided to break the silence. “So…you’re good though now right?” I tried to put as much of a joking tone in my voice that I could manage in the hopes that I could bring her good attitude back.

At first she just continued staring out over the balcony as if she hadn’t heard me, which worried me at first. However after a few moments I noticed the corner of her mouth twitching up ever so slightly.

I rolled my eyes, “See now your just pulling my leg here.” At that she promptly rolled over onto her back and started laughing hysterically.

“Har har har, laugh it up Luna, just know I am going to get you back for this.”

After I said that she almost immediately stopped laughing and gave me the most serious glare she could manage, “Challenge excepted” she said.

I stuck my hoof out towards her, “To the death!”

She returned her hoof and shook firmly “Let the best prankster win!”

We held our serious glares for no more than a few seconds before we both started bursting out laughing again.

After we could catch our breath I turned back to Luna, my expression switching back to concerned “You ARE ok though right?”

“Yes Clare, we…I am fine, it was a long time ago after all” Luna replied while continuing to look out over the balcony.

After a moment, Luna abruptly stood up. “Clare, thank you for today. It was nice having fun with someone as me and not…well… Royalty ” She practically spat the word as she replied.

“Yeah of course, that was the most fun I have ever had in years…I know what you mean by the way, being treated differently because of who you are?”

Luna raised an eyebrow, “Really? How?”

I shifted a little bit from my place on the floor, trying to get comfortable. “Well I guess I never really mentioned it…but back where I’m from people look up to me, to them I’m someone who deserves respect or special attention because of one event that took place years ago.”

Luna merely sat back down and raised her ears, taking in every detail.

I smiled a bit at that “I was barely an officer at the time, serving on a relatively small dreadnought fittingly called the  Reliant . The Capitan was dead and the crew was panicking, the fleet was in a state of disarray and rest of the fleet was either destroyed or retreating...” 

“Everyone thought we had lost and that we were finished, but I wouldn’t stand for that. A long time ago I promised myself that I would never surrender to the enemy ever again. That I would rather die fighting than give myself up to those… things ”

“I went right up to the deck and took command of what little was remaining of the fleet, directing our firepower and what resources I had to defend the planet…” I trailed off for a moment as I remembered what that was like.

In reality I was scared beyond compare, 3 giant harvesters and a thousand other ships bearing down on the crippled fleet. It looked like the end of all things, coming to kill us all.

But fear is good; fear keeps us alive, fear is that instinct that keeps you on your toes when everything hits the fan. If I was being honest with myself I would say that primal instinct is what kept us alive that day.

“How did you beat them?” Luna asked, “You were clearly facing a force so much greater than your own and yet here you are still standing here,” She continued.

I laughed a small bitter laugh, “I wouldn’t say we won, more like barely survived. The only reason I am still standing here is because Admiral Bishop of the 86th attack fleet arrived to save our asses.”

I sighed as I took a bite out of my cupcake, mostly as an excuse to stop to recollect my thoughts again.

Luna continued to watch me, not with trepidation or fear of what I may have done. No, she looked at me with a look of curiosity and worry. A look that said “I can relate”, at that moment I didn’t worry about the how, but the fact that she could sympathize and seemed to at least understand on some level what I went through calmed me down considerably.

I took a deep breath before continuing, “By the time the admiral showed up, we had lost almost our entire fleet. The  Reliant  was a floating steel coffin at this point, the rest of my ships were not in much better shape, at least what ships were left…”

“We started with almost  10 dreadnoughts with an escort fleet of 20 or so frigate class ships and 3 bangal carriers. By the time he got there we were down to 1 carrier, 4 escorts, and the  Reliant ...Almost 10,000 lives were lost to those bastards…”

There was a long pause after that as Luna was presumably taking in what I had said.

“I’m sorry…no one should have to go through that.”

I sighed, “Yeah…to the people I was a hero, I saved the lives of everyone on the planet. When I got back home I was commissioned the Endurance and a small fleet, a generous stipend of pay and the rank of admiral…”

”You didn’t feel like you deserved it”

“No! They were the ones who sacrificed their lives for the fleet! They were the ones that won us the war and what do they get? Absolutely nothing! Most of them didn’t even get so much as a damn hole in the ground!” I yelled.

The whole time Luna simply sat there listening, not judging or trying to convince me otherwise. Just. Listening. 

“Better?” She asked after some time.

“Yeah…a little” I responded, finally calming down a little.

Luna gave me a small smile before standing back up “Well we think that thou could use some sleep yes? It has been a long day. We have some royal duties to attend to” Luna started towards the door.

I smiled at her little switch back to the old voice and followed suit, bidding good night to Luna and heading towards my quarters for some much needed rest. Hopefully the next day I would be able to get to my pod.
> Chapter 3: Welcome to Ponyville! (Almost) x
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next morning went by in a breeze, got up, ate breakfast, and met with Celestia, where we talked about transport to Ponyville and how things would proceed.

First I would go to ponyville and meet the "Elements of Harmony" as she called them, some group of heroes of this world or another. Then I would be given a place to stay, and spend the night there before heading over to my pod the next day.

I was currently walking down the main corridor to the front gate of the palace where transport was supposedly waiting for me. So far, things were looking up as far as finding some form of evidence of my ship or some sign of human life. The pod was reported by the royal guard that found me to be mostly intact, or at least as far as they could tell.

As I trotted down the pathway through the front gardens, taking in the scenery around me. Flora of every kind littered the garden with beautiful bushes of flowers and vines creeping up lamp posts which would light the area at night.

The whole garden reminded me somewhat of a sanctuary, a peaceful place where someone...Somepony could come and relax away from the life of a politician or in this case, the life of royalty. Honestly I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to manage a entire country. I realize its probably not all that much different from running the fleet but still, you have to worry about so much more when you're a monarch...at least I would think so, maybe I should ask Luna about it later...

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized that I had reached the front gate. In front of me was a golden Carriage with 4 pegasi harnessed to it up front.

"You have got to be kidding me..." I mumbled as I looked over the not-so-stable looking contraption that was supposed to take me to Ponyville. 

"Well...might as well" I said to myself and walked up to the guard near the door to the carriage.

As I approached, the guard seemed to look me over before giving me a small nod and stepping aside for me to enter, opening the door to the chariot/carriage for me in the process.

I gave him my thanks and climbed inside, the door closing behind me. The interior of the carriage was nice enough, plush red cushions on the seats and the walls lined with some kind of high quality fabric. This was about all I got before I noticed the indigo blue alicorn sitting across from me.

"L-Luna?! What are you doing here? I mean not that I am complaining or anything but I thought that you had duties to attend to in the castle?" I asked.

"We thought we would accompany thee on thy journey, we have yet to see this contraption that you came in and are curious." She explained simply.

"Huh, well it will be nice to have some company I suppose." I responded.

The carriage suddenly lurched forwards, being unprepared for the sudden movement I fell forward and landed ungracefully in to Luna's lap, who, to my embarrassment, was now laughing hysterically.

As I picked myself up I shot a half-hearted glare at Luna "You could have at least warned me" I mumbled as I took a seat, my face practically glowing red in embarrassment.

Luna continued to laugh for a bit before finally composing herself. "S-sorry we couldn't help ourselves" She said as she tried to stifle her giggles with a hoof.

I just rolled my eyes and turned my attention back out the window, however I couldn't stop the large smile on my face as I watched the scenery pass by below us. The physics of this world were still so confusing, it was like I was in a giant fairy tale, flying carriages? Like really?

Luna and I talked a little more about trivial things before she actually fell asleep mid-sentence, she must have been really exhausted, probably from all the work she had been doing. I certainly couldn't talk, I have fallen asleep during meetings all the time, much to my embarrassment.

Now however, a little more shuteye before we got there didn't sound so bad.

I shifted a bit in my seat before laying down against the window next to me and letting my mind drift off into a dreamless sleep. 





I awoke with a start, the carriage jerking as we hit the ground, I guess we were there. I looked out the window and was greeted with the sight of a massive castle, which seemed to be entirely made of crystal. It was so large in fact that I had trouble distinguishing the top of the structure from my current vantage point. How such an architectural feat could exist I had no idea, much like many other things in this world, I had little understanding of it all.

I looked across from me to see that Luna was also awake and looked ready to pass out again, she gave me a small smile before the door to the carriage was opened and the guard from earlier bowed as he opened the door for us.

I was still getting used to the whole royalty thing, I guess meeting them first had been a god send, it probably saved me a huge amount of trouble.

Luna stepped out first and I quietly followed suit, the guard closing the door before quickly yet efficiently re-preparing the carriage and taking of behind us, leaving us alone with the massive castle in front of us.

"So...what now?" I asked curiously.

Luna looked over at me, "now we knock" As if to emphasize her point she walked forward to the massive castle doors in front of us and quite simply, knocked.

Knocking, really? You would think she would have like guards at the front or something, being a princess and all. Although in this place it doesn't really look like there would be anything to guard from except the occasional scuffle or something.

As Luna knocked on the massive doors in front of her, you could practically feel the echo it caused on the inside, and after waiting a short moment the door opened to reveal a baby dra-

"GAAAHHHHHH!" like a bolt of lightning I shot backwards in shock.

In front of me was an actual, living, dragon. Although It appeared small in size, emphasizing that it was still young, it still surprised the crap out of me.

For a long moment we just stared one another down, as if daring the other to make a move, until finally the dragon rolled its eyes and looked to Princess Luna with obvious annoyance.

"Foreigner?" he asked the princess

"Yup" Luna replied flatly, as if this was a normal everyday occurrence.

"Thought so" he then looked to me with slightly new found interest. "Well, why don't you come in and I will get Twilight for you" offered the dragon as he opened the door all the way to reveal the inside.

Walking through the large doors, the only thing I could do was stare in wonder at the entrance hall.

The room was absolutely massive, towering up above us to form a sort of arched roof with crystal chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling. A massive staircase was at the end of the hall which went up a ways before splitting off in two different directions, leading too two other doors.

At first I honestly couldn't move for a second as I stared wide eyed at the hall in front of me, never mind the dragon. 

As a girl I had always wanted to live in a castle, of course that was just a dream but now that I'm actually here...It was a incredible feeling to say the least, almost nostalgic as I thought back to my youth days before the military and before the war.

Before I could continue to gape at the ceiling any longer a strong cough from the dragon broke me away from the little daydream I was having. Looking over I saw the little green and purple dragon with a large grin and a look that said "This never gets old".

"So...can I get you mares anything to drink?" he asked, surprising me with his sudden shift to politeness.

"Ummmm....coffee?" I asked hesitantly.

The dragon's smile became a bit more natural before nodding and turning to Luna, "Princess?"

The Alicorn shook her head to keep herself awake before responding "Coffee as w-well please..." she swayed a little on her hooves and a large yawn escaped her muzzle, causing the dragon, and myself to giggle a little before the dragon wandered off to get the beverages.

I looked over at Luna, "So....what's got you so exhausted?" I asked, trying to start some form of conversation.

"Hmm? Oh we uh...we are supposed to be asleep right now so technically -Yawn- we are actually staying up late as of now." she responded, yawing again behind a hoof, "we also did not get much sleep yesterday so there's that as well."

"Wait so...you mean the whole time we were hanging out, you were supposed to be sleeping?!?" I exclaimed.

Luna simply nodded before she stumbled again on her hooves, "We didn't want you to feel abandoned or lonely walking alone around the castle all day. So we decided to stay up and teach you some more about your body and in the process, have a lot of fun" She smiled at me.

I couldn’t help but smile back, "Thanks Luna, that really means a lot," I replied truthfully.

Luna nodded before making her way over to one of the many couches in the "lobby" so to speak.

She laid down, belly flat on the couch and stretched out, much like a cat would. Before I even got to the couch across from her she was already snoring, it was actually kind of adorable.

I sat down across from her on the matching plush velvet couch, thinking about how in the hell I got so lucky to end up on a planet as friendly as this one.

I looked around the lobby/entrance hall in wonder, I may be a capital ship captain, but that didn't mean I didn't know my architecture. A place like this shouldn't be able to exist. Hell, the ceiling shouldn't even be able to hold itself up like it was currently, it actually made me a bit nervous.

Just when I thought about calling for someone because it was taking quite a while, the little purple dragon came from one of the many doors in the room, carrying what appeared to be a server tray with two cups of coffee and 2 pots, also filled with the delicious nectar.

I briefly wondered why there were 2 pots of coffee, but I just put that thought aside, thinking maybe it was just courtesy that he do that.

Spike wondered over to the center table sitting between me and Luna and put down the refreshments, curiously he took one of the pots of coffee and held it as if it was his mug.

Again I dismissed the thought upon seeing the coffee in front of me, I grabbed one of the mugs and took a sip. It was perfect, pure black just how I liked it.

"Twilight will be down in a moment, she just woke up not long ago and is just now getting her own coffee" The dragon explained.

I nodded at the dragon in confirmation and looked over to see that Luna was in fact, still asleep. A mischievous grin spread across my muzzle as I thought about what I was going to do to wake her up. I looked over at her cup of coffee and a very evil plan formed in my head.

Setting down my coffee I got up and walked around to Luna's side of the table, the Drake at the end merely watching in curiosity of what I was going to do next.

Using my wing I carefully picked up Luna's cup of coffee and walked over to the edge of her couch. Lifting the cup I slowly brought it close to her nose and waited, sure enough, the still sleeping Luna tried to inch her head closer to the wake up medicine. But as she inched forward I backed the cup away, I then slowly waved the cup back in forth in front of her muzzle, causing it to twitch in response to the smell.

Luna opened one eye blearily and, in a half asleep stupor, tried to use her hoof to snatch the coffee from my grasp. Again I backed the cup away from her which cause her hoof to miss it and flop uselessly back onto the couch.

I desperately tried to stifle my laughs as I brought the coffee back to her face again. This time Luna tried to get up and after a moment of half asleep, not-so-much-coordination, she tried to pounce me to get to the coffee.

However considering she might as well have still been asleep, she actually just fell forward, past me, and onto the floor, rolling to a stop next to the table.

At this point both Spike and I burst out laughing, unable to contain ourselves anymore as Luna grumbled in irritation on the floor. Eventually Luna managed to get up and finally snatch the coffee from my grasp with her magic, grumbling in irritation.

After me and Spike finally managed to settle down and get back to our coffee, I noticed a small smile on Luna's muzzle.

"We shall admit, that that was a good jest," She said, looking at me over her coffee.

I chuckled lightly, "no problem Luna, it was all in good fun"

Luna mumbled something about getting revenge under her breath before returning to her coffee.

A few minutes went by in comfortable silence after that, simply enjoying our coffee when something kind of important came back to me.

"Uhhhh Luna? I have a small question"

"Hmmm?" She responded.

"Well..." I glanced over at the drake that was now engrossed in a comic book. "What does this Twilight pony know?" I whispered.

Luna looked up from her now empty cup of coffee, "Well, all she knows is that you are a "consultant" on alien technology and that you are here to examine the "artifact", she is quite excited to meet you," Luna explained carefully.

"Oh joy..." I mumbled.

"She also thinks you are from Canterlot and that you are a researcher on the subject" She continued

I gave her the most deadpan look I could manage

"*Sigh* I realize that you are not a scientist but anything you say will sound advanced to her," she assured.

Luna walked over and sat down next to me, placing her wing over my back, and leaned down so she could whisper into my ear, "do not worry so much, she is very friendly, you don't have to tell them now but the sooner the better I think, especially if you end up stuck this way"

She paused a moment before adding, "Your also going to need a new name"

I looked at her quizzically, "why would I need a new name?"

"Well your name isn't exactly...normal here, it might raise early suspicion that could make things a bit more difficult," Luna explained.

I looked down at my empty mug in thought before I craned my head up to Luna's ear, "If we find my ship were going to have to tell them anyway, and I still have to somehow prove to my crew that its me...assuming they are still alive"

Luna looked back at me with a sympathetic look and rubbed my back slowly in comfort,

"But...your probably right...let me think on it for a bit"

She was about to say something else when one of the doors at the top of the stairs opened and a very disheveled looking lavender Alicorn made her way down the stairs, cup of coffee held in her magic.

She seemed fairly oblivious to the world until she got to the couches where everyone else was, setting down her coffee she made a half attempt at a bow before plopping down in a cushion and chugging the rest of her coffee.

Luna and I simply sat there watching in amusement, wondering when she was going to notice who she was sitting in front of.

As if reading our minds, the little dragon came over and sat next to us, "Just give her a minute, she probably still has a bit of a "bookworm hangover" as I like to call it," he explained.

I nodded and went back to watching the mare chug her second cup of coffee, she was smaller than the other two alicorns I have previously met. A simple lavender coat and dark purple mane with pink stripes running through it, along with light purple eyes that were currently a bit bloodshot.

As her third cup of coffee was being set down on the table, she finally took the time to examine who was in front of her, her eyes wondered from Spike to Luna than to me. When she saw the latter her eyes widened to the size of bowling balls and she practically flew over the table in between us to get to me.

Faster than I could blink, Twilight was in front of me shaking my hoof vigorously, to the point where I thought it was going to be ripped from its socket. 

"Youmustbethealienartifactexpertohmygoshitsahonortomeetyoumynamestwilightsparklefriendshipandmagicexperticantwaitoworkwithyou!!!!!" Twilight paused to take a long breath, but before she could continue a blue hoof kept her mouth closed.

"Twilight," said Luna calmly, "Why don't you and spike go get the room ready, and maybe start making a list of things you will need for your expedition to the crash site?"

Twilight tore Luna's hoof away from her muzzle and gasped suddenly, "Oooooo yesyesyes, SPIKE!"

"Ow, Twilight I’m right here!" Spike exclaimed, rubbing his now throbbing ears.

"Oh uh...sorry Spike" Twilight apologized.

"Its fine, I’ll get the bedding"

"Ok! I will make sure the room is clean" Twilight's horn glowed before she disappeared in a flash of light.

Spike rolled his eyes before heading towards the stairs, "geez it’s like she was possessed by pinkie all of a sudden" he mumbled.

I, was still sitting on the couch, my left eye twitching slightly. It wasn't until I felt a wing on my back that I snapped out of it.

"Wha..." I tried.

"Sorry about her, she gets a little...enthusiastic sometimes," Luna explained.

"No kidding..."

"Come, let us see where we are staying" Luna got up from the couch and started walking over to the stairs that led to the doors.

I nodded in agreement before following after her





I didn't take long to reach the room, however, it was quite the winding path to get to it. I had absolutely no clue how Luna knew where she was going, but I didn't ask, I didn't really want to pull the pin on that explanation grenade.

When we went through the slightly ajar door, my jaw nearly hit the floor for the umpteenth time sense arriving here. The room, was absolutely gorgeous. A large king size bed dominated the left side of the room, a night stand on either side of it. A closet took up the little space in between the wall and the right side of the bed, however still allowing enough room for Luna herself to slip in between.

To our right was a doorway with no door, which led straight into a full kitchen that had another door leading into what appeared to be a living room. Straight across from us were a pair of sliding glass doors which led onto a balcony.

Overall I felt like I just walked into a high rise apartment on Terra.

"Well this definitely isn't lacking," I stated obviously from the doorway.

Luna's head popped out from around the doorway that led to the kitchen, "This is nicer than my room in the castle!!!" she exclaimed.

I nodded dumbfounded as I walked slowly into the room, I took a minute to regain my bearings so I could look over the room again in a more tactical sense.

2 entrances counting the balcony, lots of large windows, that could be a problem, living room looks secure enough...except for the unnecessarily large window that takes up a entire wall...fun...bathroom off of the kitchen, full bath and shower...nice...1 bed...wait...

"Uh...Luna?" I asked cautiously.

"Hmm?" She responded, her head half buried in the fridge, most likely looking for something to eat.

"Are we both staying in here?"

Luna looked up at me from her position at the fridge, "Well yes, is that a problem?"

"nonononono not really a problem" I clarified, "it’s just that there is only one bed" I finished.

Luna simply shrugged, "we could just share it, that bed alone is pretty much the size of some condos"

I thought about that for a minute, "Yeah...fair point actually"

I continued to look around for a moment before realizing something, "Hey wait a minute, Luna! You stopped speaking in the ol' tong!" I stated.

"Huh? Oh...well you look at that," she smiled sheepishly.

I leveled a glare at her, "you never had the habit did you?" I asked.

She started backing up into the living room cautiously, strawberry in hoof, "well I uh...you see...hehehe"

I continued to hold my glare, matching her pace through the kitchen.

"I had it at one point...ummm...It mmmaaayyy have been a joke Celestia wanted to play on you, she said it would uh..."loosen you up", hehe" She was now in the living room, while I was at the fridge next to the doorway.

"Celestia’s idea huh?" I asked accusingly.

Luna visibly gulped, "Ok so maybe it was my Idea...I thought it would be funny..." Luna was backed up against the couch, trying to disappear into it. 

I had stopped next to the fridge when I asked my previous question, raising an eyebrow at her, "So this whole time that I have been trying to decipher the way you talk, you have been playing one big prank on me?" I pressed.

"Luna looked like she was actually trying to pass through the couch when she mumbled in a small voice, "yes..."

I continued to stare her down with a raised eyebrow, trying to figure out why she thought that would be funny. I looked over at the still open fridge and noticed the bowl of strawberries that Luna had gotten hers from, at which point a very evil and very very childish idea came to mind.

Luna seemed to take notice of the large grin now plastered on my face, and for a second I'm pretty sure she was actually concerned about my mental state.

Reaching over, I grabbed the bowl of strawberries with a wing, using the convenient little handle on the side and pulling it in front of me.

Luna looked from the strawberries, to me, back to the berries, and back again, before her eyes grew wide in realization. "You wouldn't dare..." She said.

I grabbed a strawberry and balanced it on my hoof, "I'm not sure what you’re talking about," I stated innocently.

"Now let’s not do something you might-" Began Luna.

SPLAT!

Before she could finish her sentence a red strawberry hit her square in between the eyes, before slowly sliding down her face, and into her lap.

"-regret..." She finished.

I grabbed another strawberry in my hoof and struggled to keep my laughter in check as she wiped the strawberry off her muzzle and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath.

In a deathly calm tone she opened her eyes and said, "Oh, you have made a terrible mistake young one"

My laughter instantly stopped as I looked at her death like expression and gulped.

Oh boy 





Twilight trotted down the hallway towards Luna and the artifact expert's room, she had yet to get a name due to her erratic actions this morning, which she still had to apologize for.

She had a skip in her step however as she levitated her notebook next to her and thought about all the questions she was going to ask them.

She would have teleported to the room after she got her stuff but she figured if she took the small amount of time to walk it would give them some time to settle in the living quarters.'

Twilight turned the corner and noticed the door slightly ajar, trotting the last few paces Twilight came up to the door with a large smile on her face.

However as she came to the doorway, she yelped and ducked as a bright red strawberry went sailing over her head and into the wall behind her.

Twilight looked back up to see the most horrifying, odd, and amusing scene she had ever witnessed.

"You will never take me alive dark night!!!" Shouted the white Pegasus mare from behind the overturned dinning room table.

"I will drown you in darkness you Red Atrocity!" Luna yelled back from behind a now very stained couch.

Strawberries and for some reason, black berries, were being thrown back and forth between the two mares, both of which were laughing uncontrollably while throwing berries and mock insults at each other.

The entire room was completely stained from floor to ceiling in strawberry and blackberry juice, random furniture, overturned and used as improvised cover.

Clare popped back up for another shot, only to be smacked right in the chest by a blackberry, splattering all over her already stained white coat.

"GAH! NOOOO! I've been hit! The dark night has beaten me!" Clare yelled out as she fell to the ground with a wet squish, further smearing the fruit on the floor.

Luna popped back up in ceremonial victory, "YES! I have defeated the red atrocity!!! HAHAHAHA THE WORLD IS MINE!" she yelled out.

The white Pegasus on the ground groaned in mock pain before sitting up slightly, a strawberry held in her hoof, "TO MY LAST BREATH!" She yelled, before throwing the strawberry and hitting Luna right in the gut.

As if she was hit by a hundred pound weight, Luna doubled over in mock pain and began to slump to the ground, "Curse you Red Atrocity!" She managed to get out before she collapsed to the ground with an over exaggerated last breath.

Clare pumped her fist in the air, "Yes *cough* but alas, I am mortally wounded! I pass knowing I did a great deed this day!" and then she too slumped back onto the ground and closing her eyes slowly.

Twilight just stood there, completely at a loss of words for what just happened

Luna, on the other hoof started laughing on the ground, clearly trying to suppress it to maintain the illusion of being dead.

Due to Luna failing miserably, the white Pegasus on the ground also started laughing, and before long both of them were laughing uncontrollably on the ground.

"Oh..oh man I- *HA* I haven't had that m-much fun in so long," Clare managed through her laughing.

"M-me neither" Luna replied.

"Uhhhhh" Twilight finally managed to get out.

This got the attention of the two berry throwers who immediately stood up and hid still intact berries behind their backs, as if there wasn't enough evidence in the room, aside from the fact that Twilight witnessed half of it, to point to them as the culprits to the now newly "painted" condo.

Twilight shook her head and tried to gather her thoughts, taking her fore hoofs and rubbing her temples gently in circles. "You know...I won't even ask, just PLEASE get this cleaned up and meet me in the study" Twilight said before turning around and promptly walking back down the hallway.

The two mares stood there for a little bit before Clare looked over at Luna

"Your fault," Clare accused.

"WHAT?!?!"





I stood under the shower enjoying the feeling of the warm water running down my back, it was almost nostalgic really, even though it was a really nice shower I kept having flash backs of taking a shower in my quarters back on the ship.

I was also in a different body, on a different planet occupied by said species, and I am sharing my room with royalty of the same species.

Please, someone, pop out of a wall somewhere and tell me this all some weird dream... I looked over through the slightly open door, Luna was standing in the middle of the room, her horn glowing. All the stains were cleaning themselves up as her magic worked through them slowly, she was humming a happy tune with her eyes close, her head bobbing back and forth.

but do I really...want it to be a dream?

I blinked suddenly at the thought, bringing everything to a halt

My crew could be dead, I could be totally alone in this world and I just admitted that I like it here?? What is wrong with me?

...but I'm not alone here...I have Luna now...Don't I?

She’s always been there for me…ever sense I got here she has done nothing but help me settle in and get used to things so they are at least...bearable

And what did I ever do for her? Nothing. I have done nothing for her and all she has done...is be my friend when I needed it most.

I smiled softly and turned off the water before stepping out into the bathroom. I looked at the towel on the hanger and my smile was immediately replaced by a frown.

"Oh this will be fun" I mumbled.

I grabbed the towel with my teeth and brought it into my fore hoof, looking at it as if it just assaulted me.

*Sigh* "How in the world am I going to do this?"

A small knock came from the partially open doorway, "Need some help Clare?" Luna's voice said through the crack.

"Uhhh...*sigh* yeah...I do..." I replied

The door opened all the way and Luna made her way inside with a small tired smile on her muzzle.

I smiled sheepishly at her, "sorry" I mumbled.

"It’s ok, I'm not sure how a Pegasus or an earth pony manages without magic either" laughed Luna.

Luna grabbed the towel with her magic and started running it through my coat and mane...Just thinking about how I had those things was weird but...it didn't freak me out anymore...it didn't feel nearly as alien as it did before it felt...almost as if I had this body all my life.

The probably should have scared me, or at the very least weird me out a bit, but honestly I'm not so sure anymore.

The towel continued to dry out my coat before she slowly started working through the feathers on my wings

Truth be told I had totally forgotten about my wings, obnoxious things at times, you would think I would remember having something like that.

"Hey Luna...you think we co- *Gasp!*" A wave of some of the most intense pleasure shot through my body, my wings shooting outward and my entire body locking up on its own.

"Oh stars, I'm sorry Clare! I didn't mean to I swear!"

"Wha...what...just...happened?" I asked, still in a complete daze, my face completely red and a VERY familiar heat in between my legs.

"I accidentally touched your flight muscles...I-it’s a p-pleasure zone for pegasi...I'm sorry I didn't mean too" She apologized.

"N-no it's ok...I had no idea that's how this worked...well...the more you know r-right?"  My wings were still completely stuck out at my sides and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get them back down.

"Um...Luna...how do I get my wings to stop...well...doing this?" I asked hesitantly.

"Err well usually...um..." Luna tried.

"I think I get it and no, no way, I am not comfortable with doing...that in a body I am still getting used to"

"I figured you would say that, here" Luna put her horn above my back and cast some form of spell. 

Immediately my back loosened and I stopped feeling so...aroused, at least enough that I could get my wings to cooperate.

I turned around and looked at Luna, "why did my wings do that?" I asked.

"It’s an um common sign of arousal for pegasi..." Luna said quietly, her face a new shade of bright red which stood out heavily against her blue coat. The towel still held awkwardly in her magic.

*Sigh* "hey it’s ok, it was an accident, let’s just...forget this happened ok?"

"o-oh ok...here" Luna took the towel and started to dry out my mane properly.

As the towel worked through my mane I shook my head and laughed softly, "I can't believe I am saying this but...for the record...that felt really nice..." I said softly, my face practically on fire. Why did I just say that?

The towel only paused for a minute before continuing on my mane, not saying a word, Luna finished drying my mane before hugging me from behind, and taking me by surprise, I could only stand there frozen. 

Smirking she whispered softly, "That comment aside...I'm so sorry you had to go through this Clare..."

I put my fore hoof over hers, "its ok...this may be...completely absurd," Luna chuckled lightly, "but...with your help I'm getting through it...you are one of the best friends I've ever had." I told her truthfully.

A blue wing came down in front of me and wiped a tear away from my eye that I didn't even know I had, "really? What about back on your world?"

I craned my neck to look back at her, "sure I had friends but...not like this...I've known you for barely two days and you have already brought more happiness to my life than anyone short of my parents sense their death all those years ago...Thank you Luna...for everything...even that blackberry you threw at my chest... I probably deserved it"

At this we both broke out laughing, Luna still hugging me lightly from behind.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, but however long it was I enjoyed every second of it.

Eventually though, Luna let go, much to my disappointment, "well...as much as I would love to just throw more blackberries at you, we shouldn't keep Twilight waiting any longer"

I chuckled lightly, "yeah... probably not, I don't think she would appreciate another war zone in her castle" I stated matter-a-factly

"Yes, probably not..." Luna said as she started towards the door, "let's go then shall we?"

Smiling like a school girl I followed her out the door, wondering what a meeting with the crazy lavender princess would bring.





So answering my previous speculations it turns out that a meeting with a crazy Alicorn princess is a very...tame event surprisingly.

"Thanks," I told Twilight as she set down a cup of coffee in front of me.

Normally I would prefer scotch or maybe vodka, but I don't know how these ponies would react to someone asking for liquor, or if they even have liquor.

Twilight smiled cheerfully, "of course!" The small Alicorn walked around and sat herself down across from me at the large crystal table. Luna excused herself moments ago, saying she had some royal matters to attend to.

I had my own suspicions but she left before I could say anything, clever mare.

"So um, I never got your name?" she asked.

I thought about it, what would be something that would fit in this world, yet be...meaningful and not something I would regret later?

All of a sudden I got a flashback from the incident that landed me here. The ship, my crew...the lightning...

Lightning... That was it, as far as I could tell the pony's names here were mostly objects, or emotions...at least for the most part in some way or another.

What felt like at least a few minutes for me was really only a couple quick seconds for her as I thought over my answer.

"Lightning Streak...My name is Lightning Streak," I said, more to myself than to her.

"Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Lightning," Twilight said before she started rearranging papers on the table and maps of a forest.

"So, do you have any Idea what this thing is?" Twilight asked, sitting back down across from me.

"Well sure I have a few...Ideas but I can't really say anything with any degree of certainty without actually seeing it" I stated, trying to sound as dignified and scientific as possible.

Which in other words resulted me just trying to talk like I had a stick shoved up my ass like all the other scientists in the UEE but that's beside the point.

"True," Twilight conceded, "we will be going out to see it tomorrow! I can't wait!" She exclaimed enthusiastically.

I smiled softly at that, she was like a child who just got her new favorite toy for Christmas, it was honestly really refreshing after everything that had been going on recently.

"So with this thing landing so close to your castle, how were you not the first one at the site?" I asked curiously.

Twilight looked down at the table, turning red with embarrassment, "well uh...yeah...I was um...busy?" she tried.

I almost laughed at the poor woman's expense, I knew this look WAY to well from certain officers who were showing up late to duty or not responding to calls.

I smiled mischievously at her, "you were out with some handsome stallion weren't you?" I asked rhetorically, already being about 90% sure of the answer.

At this she blushed furiously and started stuttering almost uncontrollably, trying to form something of a coherent response.

I finally let the laugh building in the back of my throat out, breaking my serious composure, "its fine! Happens all the time where I'm from, but I do have one question for you," I leaned in across the table man I am enjoying this way too much 

"Yes?" she squeaked out in a tiny voice, her fur the color of hot lava.

The grin from before got even wider as I stared her down, pausing dramatically "...is he cute?" I asked.

The reaction was pretty much immediate, her wings shot out from her sides and she fell backwards out of her chair.

I fell out of my chair too, except for a completely different reason, I was on the ground laughing like a mad-woman while Twilight tried to pick herself up off the floor.

Once she got up off the ground she tried to throw a glare down at the laughing mare but couldn't keep the small smile off her muzzle.

I got up off the floor and sat back down in my chair, and looked back at the mare across from me.

Twilight, to her credit, managed to hold the half-glare at me before the rest of the smile overtook her and she rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Ok I will admit, that was pretty good." Twilight stated truthfully.

"Yup! But you never answered my question.." I pressed.

Twilight raised one eyebrow at her before sighing dramatically and plopping back down in her chair, "I am afraid that is privileged information Ms. Streak," She said professionally, however she was not able to keep the smile of her muzzle in the slightest.

I smirked, "oh we can play this game, but for now I offer a cease fire for the sake of our little..."project" we have going on here."

Twilight chuckled lightly, "Of course! I accept your truce," Twilight brought over one of the maps of a forest area, which I assumed was the forest infamously known as the "Everfree" where my pod was found.

"I thought we could go over the layout of the forest and plot a route to start," Twilight said, taking a marker and started making labels and marking things, while a notepad took notes to her right.

"Yeah sure, works for me," I replied, not fully knowing what I was in for.





"8 hours...8...hours..." I stated numbly from my place in the large bed in the room I was sharing with Luna.

Luna was just walking in from the balcony where she had raised the moon from just moments ago, "Yes, she can get a bit...overzealous sometimes"

"A little?" I asked.

Luna sighed as she plopped down on the opposite end of the bed, "ok so maybe it can get REALLY out of hoof sometimes, but you got to give her some credit, she’s very thorough," Luna pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true, I'm just surprised she didn't try to do a full background check on me or something"

Luna laughed lightly, "fair point," she conceded.

Luna settled down in the bed, pulling the covers up over her with her magic, "sleep well Clare, we have a big day tomorrow"

I smiled at the Lump of covers that covered Luna before settling in myself, using my mouth to pull the covers up a bit higher, "good night Luna...wait, I thought you were nocturnal?" I asked, suddenly realizing.

A laugh came from the lump of covers across from me, before a blue hoof came out from under the covers and swatted at me half halfheartedly, "I will explain that tomorrow or something, to tired," she mumbled.

I chuckled before turning and laying on my side, making sure I didn't pinch one my wings doing so or something

I really need to ask her about flight lessons at some point...

"Good night Luna," I said one more time.

“‘Night," came the mumbled reply from under the covers.

I closed my eyes and hummed in contentment, who would have thought that I would end up in a place like this? What are the odds that I would get stranded on a nice planet. Every movie ever states otherwise so why me?

Not that I was complaining really, just crazy to think about.

I shook my head slightly, letting my mind drift off into sleep, the promise of finally getting some answers at the forefront of my mind.

Tomorrow , I thought before finally slipping into the land of unconsciousness. 

	

> Chapter 4: The Everfree forest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning went by very quickly, Hopping out of bed to find Luna already eating cereal in the kitchen, munching away like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Turns out her sleep schedule is all out of wack from all the "activities" lately, so she had been up for the past couple hours waiting for me to wake up so we could go meet Twilight together.

After our morning greeting and having some cereal we decided to go down to go to the main dinning room in hopes of finding Twilight, and getting our "expedition" underway.

I knew at some point she would have to know the truth, hell, pretty much right when we get to the pod It's going to be fairly obvious I'm not from around here. I walked with Luna towards what we hoped was the dining room, neither of us rightfully knowing which was the correct identical crystal hall to go down.

After quite some time we finally did get down to the dinning room, and not only did we find Twilight, but also all the gear she was bringing with her on the trip. It almost looked like our own U.E.E. scientists were behind the huge pile of scientific instruments on the table, maps scattered about randomly with the occasional crate or box littered among the pile.

Twilight was fast asleep, face down on what appeared to be another map of the Everfree. Her wings twitching behind her every so often along with her soft snoring as she slept away at the table. The scene was almost to much to bear as I struggled to hold in my inner 12 year old who wanted nothing more than to snuggle the adorable sleeping alicorn.

Luna chuckled softly before walking through a set of doors just next to us, presumably to find some coffee if I had to hazard a guess.

Figuring that I might as well look at the map one more time to make sure I had the location down and surrounding landmarks, I sat down and grabbed the map, studying it closely. It wasn't long before Luna came in with two cups of coffee and sat down next to me, gently passing one of them to me.

"Thanks..." I mumbled as I accepted the coffee, still focused on map for the most part.

Luna smiled and nodded before looking over at twilight for a moment in thought.

It was some time before she spoke again, a sigh escaping her lips.

"She always does this you know," Luna said, sipping her coffee.

Looking up from the map I took a glance at Twilight before looking to Luna, "do what exactly? All night study sessions?" I laughed.

Luna simply shrugged before responding, "well yes...But its more her habit of staying up all night, over-preparing for something, then forgetting to take care of her own needs like sleep"

"Oh..." I said lamely, not really knowing how to respond to that.

After a few moments I looked back at Twilight, still snoring away face down on the table.

"Do you think she will wake up anytime soon?...I'm...kinda eager to get there..." I admitted truthfully.

"I know you're eager cl-" Luna cut herself off, clearing her throat before continuing, "Lightning...but if we were to just leave her here then it would look a bit odd don't you think?"

"That's...a fair point" I acknowledged, deciding against saying anything about the name correction. It just felt a little off to be called something other than my actual name or even my rank. I guess I would just have to get used to it...had to admit though, it has a nice ring to it.

"So...What do we do then?" I questioned.

"Well...I suppose I could just...shock her awake..." Luna responded, taping her hoof against the table in thought.

"Isn't that a bit...I dunno, extreme?" I asked.

"Well to be honest I'm not sure anything short of that will wake her up anyway...it's not exactly easy to wake Twilight when shes like this..."

"hmmm...well...let me try something first before you do that," I said, getting out of my chair and walking around the table.

Back on the ship there was almost always someone sleeping on the job somewhere on the ship, and one of my favorite ways to wake them up was coming to mind as I came up behind Twilight.

Wrapping my forelegs around the back legs of the chair I made sure I had a firm grip. nodding in satisfaction I looked up at Luna and gave a small smirk.

Luna's eyes went wide as she realized what I was about to do, her hoof moving to her muzzle to try and stifle her laughter.

Tightening my grip I yanked backwards, and with one smooth motion the chair flew out from under Twilight.

The reaction was immediate, Twilight's eyes snapped open as she fell backwards, shouting a yelp of surprise as her wings flared out and she went tumbling to the ground. The map she had been laying on dragged down with her, and quite comically settled on top of her as she laid there muzzle first into the hard floor. 

At this point both myself and Luna were dying with laughter, trying so hard to not laugh at the poor mares expense.

Slowly, Twilight pushed the map off of her and rose to her hooves, tumbling slightly due to the disorientation she no doubt experienced after taking the fall.

Directing the strongest glare she could manage at me she sighed before grabbing a new chair and sitting down, a cup of coffee magically appearing out of nowhere next to her.

After a few minutes me and Luna had finally calmed down enough to act civilized, sitting back down and waiting for Twilight to get her bearings.

Twilight sat there with her coffee for a bit, downing 4 cups of coffee in under 2 minutes like it was water. The cups disappearing before reappearing again, refilled with more coffee.

Before I could ask where the endless supply of coffee was coming from Twilight set her cup down and looked back at us, a small smirk on her face.

"I will admit, that was a pretty good one," she conceded, taking another sip from her coffee before continuing. "You were probably right to wake me up anyway, I was up all night trying to get all this together by this morning and then I couldn't find my travel journal, which was followed by one of the maps disappearing and when I couldn't find that I started freaking out and taking everything apart trying to find it before finally realizing that it was on the table the ENTIRE time and then...." She trailed off, looking at Luna who's eye was twitching slightly.

"He he...sorry, it uh...doesn't matter now, what matters is that we are ready!" she declared loudly, hoping up from her chair and grabbing the pile of equipment in her magic. "Let's go find us a alien artifact!" Twilight exclaimed loudly.

Luna made as if to stay something but it was too late as Twilight was already walking out of the room, science equipment in tow.

"Well...I guess were going then" Luna said as she got up to follow her.

I merely shook my head in amusement, downing the rest of my coffee before getting up and following them out.

Twilight brought us outside and then promptly started walking straight towards the forest.

"Uh, Twilight? are you going to carry all that stuff the WHOLE way through a dense forest?" I asked.

That made Twilight stop in her tracks as she looked at all the stuff she was carrying.

Luna went up and started taking things from her magical grasp. "Twilight, perhaps it would be a good idea to just take the necessities. Leave the detail work to a group instead of just yourself perhaps? Its not like were going there with the intention of excavating the thing outright. Lets just get a feel for the situation before mounting a full blown expedition hm?"

Twilight made as if to retort but a stern glare from Luna silenced her. She sighed before grabbing a couple of things from the pile of equipment now on the ground before teleportation the rest of it to god knows where.

"I suppose your right..." She conceded, continuing on her original path towards the forest.

We walked in silence for a while before something suddenly came to mind.

"Hey guys? Shouldn't we have some guards with us? I mean I realize you guys are all powerful Alicorns and all but isn't there like a whole ecosystem of aggressive wildlife in there waiting to bite out heads off?"

"Oh, I thought the whole dying thing was all apart of the plan?" Joked Luna poking my side with a wing. "Of course we will. they are waiting for us at the forest entrance, the guard refuse to let us go anywhere without protection anyway." She continued, seeming slightly annoyed at the whole idea.

"Alright alright, no need to tease me about it" I responded poking her back with my own wing, I was getting a lot better at this whole wing thing.

Luna simply chuckled and continued to follow Twilight, who was currently looking back at us with a look of..Surprise? I guess it must be odd to see her princess acting so casual. Luna and I certainly have been acting more like old friends recently and less like two people who just got to know each other.

However as far as ranks are concerned Luna and Twilight should be equals right? So why would she be surprised that Luna is acting like this? Don't they do this together to? Or is their relationship more professional? I would have to ask Luna about that later.

The rest of our journey to the forests edge continued on in mostly silence. Broken here and there by the occasional banter between Luna and I, or questions from Twilight which I mostly deflected or tried, once again to act knowledgeable about.

I felt a bit guilty for lying to Twilight like this, she seems like a fun person to be around. Really friendly and a curiosity that was almost refreshing. I found myself wishing that I could go back to being as innocent as she was...Disregarding recent events, Ive always been a stubborn, quiet woman. I had to be, for the sake of my crew, and before that for my own survival.

I shook those thoughts out of my head, I had to focus on the mission at hand.

The guards Luna promised were in fact waiting for us at the forests edge. They stood at attention, a hoof resting on their sword hilts, their dark armor neat and polished, yet not lacking a history. Many scuff marks and deep scars marked the armor, giving off the impression that the armor, and presumably the guards wearing it, have seen many battles. With what? I could only guess.

"This is Captain Night Scepter of my Lunar guard, and his Lieutenant, Artemis" They both bowed towards their princesses and exchanged greetings.

These two guards were much different than their golden counterparts I was used to, not only was their armor of a completely different design, but they were not even the same sub-species based on my limited knowledge on the subject. They almost resembled bats with their leathery wings and small fangs poking from their muzzles.

Furthermore, as far as I could tell, They looked almost identical to each other. Save for one of them being a mare and the other a stallion. Was this done on purpose for the uniform? I would assume so, unless every guard in this world was related somehow. How this was done, I could only assume magic was involved.

"Captain, Lieutenant, this is Lightning Streak, our leading expert in alien artifacts" Luna continued. 

"A pleasure to meet you Captain, Lieutenant," I greeted, making to salute them but decided against it. As far as anyone is concerned save for Luna. I have no military background and would just embarrass myself. 

"and to you as well...Professor?" Responded the Captain somewhat hesitantly.

I chuckled, "that works, technically no official title, you can just call me Lightning"

He nodded in understanding before turning to Luna for his report.

They reported nothing had occurred, except for the eerie silence that seemed to blanket the forest. This was unusual for the Everfree apparently. Luna said that at the very least you would hear a pack of howling timber wolves or a Manticores roar. 

Twilight however, seemed determined to go in there, despite how nervous she seemed to be about the silence. Her wings shuddered, and I swear I could see her hooves shaking every now and then.

Luna didn't seemed all to bothered with the forest as we began out trek in. I had to admit though, It was a very odd and creepy place, I didn't like the feeling I was getting at all.

"How much further to the...Artifact?" I asked, after at least thirty minutes of walking through the dense undergrowth.

Artemis, who was to the left of me spoke up, "Not much further, maybe another 5 minutes"

Not much longer after she said that, I heard something snap behind us.

The reaction was almost immediate, I spun in place and got into the best grounded stance I could manage, my wings flaring on their own accord.

The two guards had heard it too, and had similar reactions, drawing their swords with their mouths and looking for the source.

A moment of silence passed before I heard another noise, this time from the opposite direction, and then another to our left. It didn't take me long to figure out what was happening.

"Were surrounded" I said, my eyes searching through the undergrowth for any sign of movement.

Artemis nodded in apparent agreement, facing to our left. The Captain, who was at the front of the group, had taken up stance in that position watching our front. Luna had summoned what appeared to be a sword made of pure energy and had taken up a similar stance facing out right.

Within seconds we had formed a circle around Twilight, who seemed to be a very confused Alicorn, looking this way and that, trying to understand what was going on.

"There is a clearing up ahead where the artifact was found, If we are quick enough, we might be able to get into the clearing and face whatever wildlife wants to take a bite of us" Said the Captain, motioning to the forest in front of him.

"With respect sir, I don't think this is wildlife we are dealing with here" Whispered Artemis, peering into the forest. "There is literally no movement that I can make out, which is completely unlike timber wolves and other pack life, who circle their pray before striking." She paused before adding, "and they are never this quiet"

A long tense moment passed, our ears being met with complete silence

"M-maybe there is nothing there after all?" Spoke up Twilight, her ears pinned to the back of her head.

A rustling of leaves to our left silenced that possibility, followed by a sound that made my heart stop.

Cla-Clack

It was quiet, but I heard it loud and clear. There was no mistaking that sound, someone just chambered a round.

"Oh no..." I said quietly

"What is it?" Whispered Luna.

"We're fucked"
> Chapter 5: The Reveal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My brain rapidly switched gears, clearly whoever had us surrounded had access to modern weapons. I would recognize that sound anywhere, A ballistic rifle, this narrowed down the list significantly considering our location.  

In fact, the more I thought about it the more it started to make sense. We're barely 5 minutes away from the escape pod I came down in. Our supposed assailants have been extremely quiet, they also haven't opened fire yet, or tried to communicate in any way. Which means they either want something, or they are trying to keep us here.

Or possibly away from a certain pod near by.

If it wasn't for the mistake of one of their group, we wouldn't have even known they were there. Who knows for how long they have been tracking us? Its also no coincidence that they are this close to the pod, the chances of this being an expeditionary team from the ship, or perhaps whats left of it god forbid, Just rose significantly.

A little bit of hope returned to me, along with an absolutely terrible idea

I went into a more relaxed stance. I attempted to fold my wings back, but of course they were refusing to communicate with me. Luna looked at me in concern, no doubt wondering just what in the hell I was doing.

To be honest I'm not sure even I could answer that, but it didn't stop me.

"My name is Captain Clarissa Ryker of the UEE Endurance, whoever is out there please do not shoot. I am unarmed, and request to speak with whoever is charge of your team." The silence that followed was deafening, from both my group, and whoever was hiding in the trees around us. This was a huge gamble, throwing myself out like this could have huge consequences, especially if it isn't my crew in those trees. 

The tension in the air could be cut with a butter knife. The seconds passing like minutes as we waited for a response, until finally... "Lock," Spoke a voice to my right.

A countersign, This particular countersign however is old, and carries with it a strong history back to my grunt days, only one other person besides myself knows it. The only other surviving member of my first squad assignment. I couldn't help but smile as I turned to the source of the voice to give my response.

"Gold...its good to hear your voice Sergeant" I replied.

All around us the movement resumed, but less cautious as figures started to emerge from the trees, Human figures. One of the group stepped into the small amount of light filtering in through the trees just in front of me. His dark green medium weight armor glistening slightly, and a very familiar UEE insignia on his shoulders.

"Captain...Is that really you?" he asked. The grip on his rifle never faltering, nor would I expect it to.

"Yes, its really me. Authentication code: one, seven, kilo, charlie, one, one, three," 

Matthew for his part, didn't react at first. We stood there silently for a long moment, the rest of my group looking on in complete confusion. Save for Luna, who had some idea of what was happening at the very least. At last Matthew slung his rifle to his back and pushed a button on his wrist panel, his visor retracting.

Mathew Strong, one of my oldest friends, was tall even by human standards at around 6,8". He had a square jaw with a 5 o'clock shave and piercing green eyes. His face was marred with scars from battle injuries, including a particularly prominent one on his left cheek. 

"We thought you were dead...I should have expected that this had happened when we found your escape pod empty...with no body to recover" He said solemnly.

"Wait...you expected this?..." I asked in surprise.

Matthew made as if to respond before a very confused and agitated looking Alicorn burst forth from our little circle.

"WILL SOMEPONY PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE BUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!"

Sighing, I looked towards our group. Smiling apologetically at Twilight.

"This is going to take a while to explain."





Some minutes later myself, Mathew and the others, plus 12 UEE soldiers, were situated in a loose circle in the clearing where the pod had crashed. The pod was sitting nearby, still half buried in the dirt. The charred remains of fallen trees and scorch marks still visible from the impact. Some royal guards had been stationed nearby keeping watch, however Luna had ran ahead and told them to return to Canterlot before the squad of heavily armed human soldiers showed up. 

The pod was hardly the center of attention however.

The actual center of attention was Twilight, who had one unfortunate soldier practically under a microscope as the princess inspected every corner of his body. The soldier to his credit, was doing a remarkable job at not looking too annoyed with his current situation. Not that I could have blamed him.

"What is this armor? It's not made out of any material I have ever seen, and the figure! Why do you all walk on two legs? Are you only capable of bipedal movement? Oh! What about this strange staff you carry? Is it some sort of magical apparatus? A weapon of some sort? How ab-"

"Twilight please, enough. Your going to scare him, along with giving me a migraine at the rate your going at..." Interrupted Luna, who had a hoof to her temple in agitation.

"Honestly Luna, if someone like Twilight scared him then I would doubt hes actually UEE." I said, snickering behind a hoof.

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?" Twilight replied indignantly.

"What I'm saying Twilight is that we've seen much MUCH worse..." I replied solemnly.

"We?...." asked Twilight, a suspicious look in her eye.

I looked quickly to Luna, hoping for an out of this situation. This was supposed to be kept secret after all.

"its fairly obvious at this point Clare," said Luna, she wore an unreadable expression on her face, and her tone was so neutral it was almost jarring. Which was completely unlike the Luna I had come to know recently. What could possibly be going through her head to put her in this kind of mood? The train of thought was disrupted with Twilight's next reasonably obvious question. 

"Wait i'm sorry, Clare?" Asked Twilight.

And so it begins...

The next half hour was spent explaining everything that had happened to me up until this point. The crash, my transformation, along with a majority of the questions Twilight asked. Most of them were simple things, such as where I was from, what the name of my race was, etc. 

Mathew also filled me in on as much as he could on the condition of the ship, which, could be in better shape. After the incident with the anomaly occurred the crew found them selves stuck in decaying low orbit above the planet. With no engines to correct them they had helplessly free fell through the atmosphere. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of the helmsman and some crazy sketchy repairs from engineering the ship would have more thank likely been torn apart on re-entry.

The most difficult question asked though, wasn't from Twilight.

"Are you our enemy?" Asked Artemis from her spot against a mostly intact tree. Her expression wasn't necessarily hostile, but certainly suspicious. The whole group turned their undivided attention to me at the question, no doubt curious of the answer.

It was a surprisingly hard question to answer. Thus far, as much as I hated to admit it, the UEE, the human race as a whole, was a mixed bag. While their first contact, the Banu, had been peaceful and had forged their first alliance. It had only led to what could only be described as disaster afterwards. Cold war with the Xi'an, the forced annexation and "Civilization" of the Tevarins, the Rise of a dictator, the Red System War. Not exactly a great track record, even if the last one was out of defense of our people, it still ended in mass death and destruction.

But after the war, the only way left to go was up. The UEE had gotten better, peaceful negotiations with the Xi'an, a memorial to the Tevarins who had been killed in the annexation. We had a long way to go, but I had to hope that we could make up for all the wrongs of humanity. We had a long way to go for sure, but perhaps...This is where we started. it was going to be easier said than done, but I had to try right?

I looked at Artemis with the most honest expression I could manage, "I hope not." Artemis raised an eyebrow at this, Luna looked up at me with a distraught look. I quickly tried to explain, "Its not that I think of any of you as enemies, in fact, I'm happy to be able to call some of you my friends." I said looking to Luna, who's expression morphed into an almost teary smile.

"I sense a "but" coming here," chimed in Night Scepter.

Nodding I continued, "I may not consider you the enemy...but i'm only one per-err pony, and as...popular, as I am as a war hero publicly. I don't represent the UEE, I'm not the imperious, or the Prime citizen. I can't make that call. However I can say that considering you guys have been nothing but helpful and completely supportive of me, despite the fact you didn't know me or what my motives were. The chances of the Imperious declaring you as an enemy or the Prime citizen calling for hostile action are exceedingly low..." I paused and looked to Mathew who up until this point had been cleaning his rifle.

"Sergeant, take your squad and do a quick sweep of the perimeter" I commanded.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow before nodding, "alright boys ya heard the captain, lets move." Within half a minute they were disappearing into the tree line.

Turning back to the group I continued, "I don't want them hearing the next part, morale is probably low enough as it is..." Artemis nodded in understanding, the rest of the group looking on edge for my next words.

"Everything I just said, is all under the assumption that we will even be able to go back to the Empire. Even if the Endurance can be made flight worthy again, there is no telling where we are in the galaxy, in the universe for all we know...Mathew told me on our way over here that they got our long range sensors repaired, but that they were coming up completely blank. No known planets, relays, jump points. Not even so much as a damn quantum signal. What does that mean? It means we are so far out into uncharted space that not a single ship has ever come even close to here. so at the end of the day...I don't think it will matter what the UEE will think of Equestria...Not if we can't get back home..."

At that I slowly laid all the way down and rested my head on the ground. I hadn't noticed, but a single tear rolled down my cheek. It wasn't for me however, but for my crew. I didn't really have much to go back too, no family, no friends, the Endurance is the only home i've known for years. The crew though? they are my responsibility, and I quite possibly got them trapped so far from home that none of them would ever be able to see their loved ones again. How could they ever forgive me? I couldn't have just sent in a probe could I? No, my reckless ass had to go off and look for myself, and take the entire damn crew down with me.

those thoughts were banished though as a warm something wrapped around me. You would have sworn it was a quilt blanket with how much it completely covered me. Looking up however I was surprised to see a regretful looking Luna laying down next to me, her large dark blue wing wrapped around me. She put on a small comforting smile before leaning in and nuzzling me behind the ear softly.

A strangely comforting sensation came over me as she nuzzled me, like nothing would ever bother me again.

Looking at the rest of the group, they all wore similar expressions of pity, with the exception of Artemis, who seemed to have a look of complete understanding on her face.

"Well, I may still not totally understand what's going on here," started Twilight. "But so far you've been nothing but cooperative, I'd bet if AJ were here right now she wouldn't sense a shred of dishonesty." Getting up, she started to make her way over to me continuing. "Maybe withholding some bits and pieces, but I can respect that. So I think, the least we can do is hear you out, and maybe we can find away to help the both of us" Twilight reached her hoof out, and I gladly took it with a firm shake. 

At that moment a very loud deep roar reached our ears, the sound causing every pony around me to jump up at the ready.

"What in Tartarus is that?" Exclaimed Luna, her wings flaring out and robbing me of my feathery blanket. The unexpected roar was only getting louder with each passing second, and it was extremely familiar to me.

I slowly got up with a small smile on my face, "that my equine friends, is more than likely my doing."

Twilight looked incredulously, "your very clearly not making that sound Lightning-I mean Clare." she corrected.

"Honestly Twilight if its easier you can call me lightning, I kinda like it. As for that noise, you'll understand better here in about 2 seconds." Around 4 seconds later one of the most relieving things I'd seen sense being here flew a few hundred feet over our heads. Its shining, albeit damaged hull reflecting off the light from its massive dual engines in the back.

It wasn't the Endurance, but it would do just fine for now.

The group of assembled ponies looked at it in complete shock, Twilight and Luna both looked on the verge of exploding, for two similar, yet completely different reasons.

"I...." Twilight tried, but was clearly struggling to get any words out, "what....IS that?" she finally managed, her eyes wide with wonder. Something that amused me greatly, for us this was fairly normal, but for them this was something completely out of science fiction.

Luna's reaction was similar, looking up in shock and awe as the 124 meter long cruiser came fully back around in search of a landing spot. Mathew and his squad started coming out of the treeline around the same time, speaking into his wrist communicator, presumably to help the Carrack find an appropriate landing zone.

I took one last look at my pony friends, who were still mostly speechless, before running up to Mathew.

"That Carrack is never going to be able to find an LZ here, we need more open ground. Let me talk to the Princess's about a potential landing spot." Mathew nodded in agreement before speaking into his communicator again, updating the cruiser on our plans and to wave off for now.

As I walked back over to the group the cruiser fired is main engines again, picking up incredible speed and disappearing out of sight. Everypony was still looking at where the cruiser had been with open mouths and wide eyes. Still trying to process what exactly had just happened.

I put my hoof around Luna, giving her a gentle shake, "Soooooooooo, where do you think I can land a 4800 ton ship?"